Paul Newman. What can I say about him that hasn't been said before.
He passed away from cancer at age 83. It's funny that we grow up
watching movie stars from the past and never quite get over the fact
that they are older than they were when they made the classics. Butch
Cassidy And The Sundance Kid but also Hud, or lesser known stuff like
Never Give An Itch (aka Sometimes A Great Notion) or the voice over as a
cranky sheriff car in Cars. Paul can do just about everything and make
it great, even making salad dressing or spegetti sauce. Been a long
year for losing icons of the screen and music stage.
It's the last week of September and I'm still running the AC today.
It just seems that this year we never could find a happy medium in terms
of weather. It snowed and snowed all winter and then got it all melted
away by forty days and nights of rain and flooded everything. But
after the fourth of July, we finally got some nice dry time to which
continues to this day and to which the dreaded weathermen here starting
talking bout droughts even though the water table in the ground still
remain fairly wet. Once in a while we would get a soaking but not like
the gullywashers of the rainy season this year. Actually, the weather
we got the last couple months have been perfect sunshine although the
dryness made my allergies a living hell. But you will never hear me
crying for rain, not after this spring.
I do think the new Metallica album is pretty damn good but once again
the major labels gave us a very painful and very compressed sound that
absolutely robs the album of its personality and this has been the
biggest complaint in the past five years of the major labels and their
goddam recording practices of recording it for IPODs and not the
stereo. You wish that somebody would fucking listen to the finished
product before sending it out. If you wanted to hear a decent sound of
the new Mudcrutch album (tom petty's original band) you had to buy the
vinyl album to get a bonus CD without such compressed sound. Half the
time on new cds, i have to turn the damn volume on the stereo down.
Makes you wonder if getting the import cd would be a better solution, it
might cost more but at least you have to spare your ears of such shrill
and highness. There is a reason why cd sales are tanking and I'm
guessing the reason is of crappy music and crappy recorded albums
likewise. Even reissues are getting too compressed. Keep pissing off
the comsumer RIAA and the majors and we won't be back ever again. But
then again the RIAA and the majors never listen to the consumer, they
only sue them and give out compressed crap.
The self portrait that you see as my welcoming pic this month is me
taken at the famous Oatie room at the Oatman Hotel in downtown Oatman.
Oatie is the spirit that seems to hang around in this area and at night
you can hear the footsteps walking that hotel. If you flash bulbs
sometimes you can get an image of something in the background. Oatie
has been seen in pics of the Honeymoon Suite of Carole Lombard and Clark
Gable which is across the stairs on the other side of the building but
so far looks like I haven't gotten the pleasure of seeing Oatie in any
of my pics. I guarantee you this, you haven't seen as much teeth in any
of my pics than of this latest. I don't take good pictures but this is
probaly as good as it gets. On a side note, I don't think you can
spend the night at the Oatman anymore and even if you do, it's too damn
stuffy and too hot in the summer to do so. I wonder how Clark and
Carole survived being there so long ago without AC and a good milkshake.
Looks like the 61 Drive In will still be going strong till October
and I may take a night off to go see Lakeview Terrance. It may be the
only time I'll be in that part of the state for I might venture into
Davenport just to be disappointed in trying to find some decent music
and hope that if I buy anything from freaking Co Op Records that the cd
isn't scratched up. If Big Lots is still around Davenport then we'll
have to stock up. Otherwise.........
