Ken

39 years ago tonight, at 7:10PM. Stop and pause, perhaps offer up a silent prayer for those lost on the sea, and all those lost while doing their jobs.

Jimmy Buffett w/ special guest John Fogerty this Saturday night at Detroit's Comerica Park. Should be a blast!

Tom Petty bought my sister and I Cokes in Florida back in 1976. I was 12 and more interested in the Coke than I was in Tom.

Saw him on his "Dear Epson" tour at the Casino Windsor a week ago last Saturday night. "I put the anti-gravity cream on my feet, all I would up with is a rash!". He was hysterical.

Nah, that's not it either. Song is driving me nuts. I downloaded an app called Soundhound, sang the dumb thing into my phone, my wife walked in with a "wtf are you doing?" face. Soundhound suggested Miley Cyrus. The song is in the....... Blood Sweat and Tears genre and timeframe. Harmonized voices and sweet acoustic guitars. Kind of a bouncy happy song.

The love affair continues. They completely blew the roof off the dump last night... Opening act, "Ladies Of The Canyon" were pretty awesome too!

I know that song, but it's not the one I am looking for.... It's an acoustically driven song....

One of those '70's sunshine pop songs, driving me nuts. The lyric(s) we like, "Day and night, night and day. We love each other in our (two? own?) way. Now I love you, you, love me".... HELP!!

Those of you raised Catholic will understand. It was like Good Friday High Latin Mass X 12, a math exam, going to the dentist for a cleaning and scraping, and an evening with a spinster aunt all rolled up into one. When Russell Crowe committed suicide, I'da traded places with him.

Congrats Tim. I bet you're excited, as you should be!

The Place: The Coliseum, Caesar's Casino, Windsor Ontario. The Happy Together 2013 Tour With: Gary Lewis and the Playboys (Without the Playboys) Mark Lindsay (From Paul Revere and the Raiders) Gary Puckett and The Union Gap (Without the Union Gap Three Dog Night (Actually just Chuck Negron) And the Headliners, The Turtles! (Actually, just Flo and Eddie) 8:50 PM, there is an announcement that there is a zero tolerance rule concerning the recording of the show. I don't think they needed to worry from the predominately blue-rinse crowd. At 9:00PM the house lights went down and a huge roar erupted from a crowd at a different show at a different venue, probably. This crowd gave a barely audible smattering of applause and I heard someone ask if the buffet would be open after the show was done. Gary Lewis came out, and played his hit(s) and made jokes that the tour should have been called the "We're trying to buy PlayStations for our Grandchildren Tour." The backup band was the same for all acts, the drummer looking like he'd have been more comfortable with Metallica in front of him. He looked bored. Gary Lewis was followed by Mark Lindsay looking all of his 71 years. As he was singing the Raider's "Kicks", he'd do a straight leg kick and I was terrified he's wind up on his a** breaking a hip. Mark Lindsay gave way to Gary Puckett. Gary opened the show by reminding us that in 1967/8 he sold more singles than the Beatles. I thought yeah, but Paul McCartney is a billionaire and you're playing Casino Windsor. It was a bit creepy listening to a 71 year old sing "Young girl, get out of my mind. My love for you is way out of line, better run, Girl, you're much too young girl." I was thinking "Gar, you should prolly drop that one from the repertoire. You sound like that Castro guy.." Chuck Negron came out after Puckett, and to me, was the star of the show. Big shades on and a bigger Cheshire cat grin. He informed the audience that unlike the performers before him who knew all of the facts and figures of their hits, he didn't because he was ****ing wasted most of the time back then. Audible gasps from the blue-rinsers, a loud belly laugh from me. And a disdainful look from the over-perfumed cat-glass wearing ginormous hairdo lady in front of me. Meh, what can you do? Chuck did his best to rouse a dead audience with a medley (God, I was a t a show where a medley was performed. What's next, hanging out at the Zellers raving about the Salsbury steak and the great deal I got on the $4.99 running shoes? I digress...) The headliners of the evening Flo & Eddie (formerly of the Turtles) was like watching a couple of aging drunk uncles performing for each other. The cap of the evening was seeing Gary Lewis leaving a Mac's Milk not far from the venue wafter purchasing a deck of smokes, getting in his tan PT Cruiser and leaving. Damn. A PT Cruiser.... And the buffet was closed...

Very cool Mike. Meeting the old man is something I've wanted to do for a while. I've had friends go into the shop and say most of the stuff was jaw-dropping expensive or flat out not for sale.

Jackson Browne was in *awesome* form, and Jimmy rocked the house. A veritable sea of parrotheads left happier for the experience.

I guess everyone has an opinion. Me too. I don't much care about what warped this kid, I've had things in life I didn't like happening to me, but when things happen to most people they don't respond by setting off bombs. Were it my son that was killed, I'd be angry if his face was on a magazine. Empathy, Brother Tim.

Isn't that the muzlim fellow that emigrated to the US, was embraced by it's citizens, lived a better life than he did prior, and to show his appreciation set off a couple of bombs while people were committing the crime of running a race and killed a kid in the process? Good cover subject. RS has been in decline for years, that one sticks the last nail in the coffin for me. I don't really care what his story is or was. Reading it would be about as interesting as inspecting used toilet paper.

Beale Street, as Carl imagined. That's B.B. King's Company Store on the right under the dark sign....

I thought the same thing sitting in the parking lot of a Denny's after breakfast just outside Abilene when, in the grip of a bad idea, I sang out "The stars at NIGHT, are big and BRIGHT!" (pause) (then from the lot in the back around the corner) clapclapclapclap "Deep in the heeeeart, of Texaaaaas". I laughed almost all the way to the Arkansas border.

Only some of the roads were evocative. Death Valley was...... Hot, eerie, at times terrifying, at times stunning. I had a big truck 15 to 7 feet behind me for 60 miles or better. At first I was amused, thinking of Spielberg's "Duel". 20 minutes of that and it becomes somewhat less amusing. *Zero* traffic out there. 2 lanes, the guy could have passed whenever he liked. 75MPH, and a truck grille in your sideview mirror. I was glad after 45 minutes or so when he went past. Death Valley, front of the bike looking back.. Back looking front And one from the side Shut the bike off to have a bottle of water (it was 125+ out there.) Halfway through the bottle and the creepy thought, "What if the damn thing doesn't start again?" creeps in. Fun. But it did. I was surprised in Texas to see that this was all there was to the border between Mexico and the U.S. Texas was total culture shock. Going into a McDonalds for breakfast and they are walking around with white Stetsons, cowboy boots, and a cannon strapped to their hips. They're walking past me with ginormous Colts, Glocks, Smith and Wessons, and there is the children's ball-crawl pit right there. 3 feet from my Egg McMuffin is something that could put a hole in me the size of a shoebox. And I found Jesus in Texas. He's even got a phone number.... As much as I kid about the Yosemite Sams with the guns, they were truly pleasant people...

9 Days on the road, 8700kms, at times, 140 degree heat. Absolutely wonderful. I've been bad I've been good Dallas, Texas Hollywood Spent some time Standin' on a corner, in Winslow, Arizona I'm told a band called the Doors used to be the house band here Found myself out in the West, Texas town of El Paso Where I fell in love with a Mexican girl. Night time would find me in Marty Robbins' song mentions the back door of Rosa's Cantina. There isn't one. It also mentions that the gunfighter that he is on the hill overlooking El Paso, he can see Rosa's Cantina below. There is one. I found myself on this ride. Found myself just about a mile from Texarkana, but my GPS told me the Louisiana border was almost 30 miles away. Went to see some friends on Beale Street And paid my respects to a couple of Kings. I found a place where there was a church house gin house, a little school house out house. On the U.S. 19 Hey, the people keep the city clean. They call it Nutbush Ah, Nutbush. Nutbush City. Nutbush City limits. 25 is the speed limit, motorcycles not allowed in it. (Speed limit has been raised to 30 and the cops never hassled me about my Harley.) I've been on Highway 66, the Blues Highway, the highway to Hell, but up until then, I'd never been on this one They tell me this is the Church Miss Tina used to sing at I wound up travelling some of the back field roads I'm sure Tina would have walked Went over a bump on the uneven road, and it was the first time during the entire trip I heard the little bell my family had given me to keep me safe, tinkle. I took that as a sign that it was time to leave. Told the GPS to take me home 9 days, some sketchy motels, a newfound dislike for Tom Bodett (Wake up call: This is Tom Bodett. The moon is down, the sun is up, and you should be too. This is your wake up call. Hey Tommy? It's 4:30AM. The G.D. moon is still full.) Until next time....

4:30AM, and I'll be in the wind from my hometown out to San Diego and back. 8 days, 8700kms. Stops in Carthage Missouri, Santa Fe New Mexico, Boulder City Nevada, San Diego, El Paso, Hewitt Texas, Dallas, Texarkana, Memphis, Nutbush City, and finally back home. Anyone along the way wants a free lunch, drop me a note. Peace, Ken.

A piece of junk mail squirted out of the fax machine today at work. I don't remember what it was for, but in bold letters it said "Money For Nothing!!". I scrawled "And Chicks For Free?" and faxed it back to where it came from. My boss spent the rest of the day laughing.....

"Never Been To Spain" - Three Dog Night.

Paul Stanley. Ow. Very, very ow.

We crossed the border into Michigan last night to do some grocery shopping. Stopped at a Speedway gas station to get some gas before heading home. My son was filling the tank, and I had just come back from paying for the gas. A man approached my son from his beat-to-snot van with a grin. Said to my son, "Hey, I notice your from Canada (license plate). Over here, we have what they call, (looking both ways) African Americans, what do you call them in Canada?". My son, dry as anything looked at him and said, "Canadians". Never been so proud in all my life. Ever.