IT DOES A HOBBIT GOOD

I spent the day knocking down an enormous brick wall for Aunt Sally. Armed with hammers, chisels, and crowbars (but nothing automatic), I fought a destructive and costly war with a mighty foe of rock and mortar. I had to battle vicious scorpions and spiders, too, and a billion swarming ants. Sally paid me back with food and money. Saturday is her birthday, so I gave her a book called Fairyopolis. It's cut from the same cloth as Dragonology, Wizardology, and Egyptology. It's strictly for children and the young at heart, and not for any of those sophisticated in-betweeners (meaning "adults") who are too cool to use their imaginations.

Sally is keen to get me the Gary Myrick CD, mentioned in a previous entry, for my upcoming birthday. But it's very hard to find.

For lunch, Sally made an aparagus patty-melt. I'd never eaten one before. She'd never cooked one before. It was delish!! I'll get the recipe and post it here, so you can all try it.

And then tonight Chris, Joel, Sally and I all had some kind of super spicy enchiliadas (loaded with Rotell). We watched a BBC mystery, and I passed out on the couch and had delicious dreams about asparagus patty-melts. We had eclairs for dessert. And I drank a tall glass of milk.

P.S. I recently got a myspace account, but the whole set-up seems sort of silly and vain: how many friends have you got in your network? Well I've got more than that! Etc, etc. Repeat ad nauseum. There are lots of young jetstters blathering about whatever it is they talk about. However, it's amazing how you can network. I've already met up with most of my dear blog buddies (although Mara, Marie, and Bevy have yet to reply). One person, however, has refused my offer of online frienship outright, but that's OK. This is someone so boring, ordinary, and average that they don't really belong among my exceptional friends.

On the brighter side, so far I've located Gina (my friend/sometimes sweetheart from long ago - circa 1985), Dana (a marvelous young lady) who used to work at B&N, and a little girl named Tandy who used to shop there. Actually she found me. Don't ask me how, because I signed in with an alias and, as far as I can tell, we don't have any mutual people in our friends network. She used to keep my lonely soul company, back in the music department, while her dad shopped or read. Sometimes she would pony express notes back and forth between Lisa, who was stuck in the kids department, and myself in music. That was fun, and writing about it makes me realize that I miss Lisa.

Anyway, myspace is no match for blogger as a place to blog. But, at least, it is kind of funny to see mugshots of all of one's friends displayed like a case file for a bank robbery. Pretty Boy Jordan, Guapo-face Gus, Insanius the mastermind, Fingers Firechild the safe picker, Amanda the Dragon Lady, Trigger-happy Tracy. What a rogue's gallery! Print 'em and book 'em!

ONCE UPON STILETTOS

As of Saturday, May 29th, 2006 @ 2PM --- renowned author, Shanna Swendson, will be signing copies of her new book, Once Upon Stilettos, at the Borders Books in Plano (halfway between Park and the Plano Parkway on Preston Road - on the west side - directly across Preston from Chucky Cheese -- is that precise enough for ya?).



Her previous novel, Enchanted, Inc., has been described as Bridgett Jones meets Harry Potter.


Visit Shanna's blog:

http://shannaswendson.blogspot.com/

Or her website:

http://www.shannaswendson.com/

Some of my co-workers have already read Enchanted, Inc. and loved it. They're itching to meet the author and devour her new book.

And guys, if you want to see a really hot babe in a pair of sexy red stilettos, here's your chance.

P.S. Gilderoy Lockhart will be there in mild mannered bookseller guise. Who would want to miss that?!

THE MESSAGE IS YOU

The most remarkable thing about today was that I solved a mystery that has plagued me for over twenty years!

On a misty day in 1983, I was driving around in my old Camaro on a street called Tulane. It was near the house where I grew up. There was a song playing on the radio (on Q102 "Texas' Best Rock", or KZEW "The Zoo", or KEGL "The Eagle" - I don't remember which, but that's all I ever listened to in those days, so it had to be one of the three).

It was sort of new-wave, sort of straight rock, but melodic and slow -- almost ethereal (if not for the drums) and spooky. Guitar and synthesizers. Very eighties. Good gloomy day music. The lyrics were a bit obscure, but I think the singer is looking for hookers out on the waterfront. I thought he sounded like the classic punk kid having issues with women, because he sees them as a foreign and enticing mystery, but not as anyone he can get to know as a person.

As a teenager, I ate this stuff up.

The melody and a few of the lyrics have stuck in my head ever since, but I could never figure out who recorded it. I seriously believed that this would be a mystery I would carry to my grave. -- which was alright with me, actually. Life needs mysteries.

But, of course, that didn't stop me from trying to solve it.

I asked every expert I knew; from my knowledgable friends (like Chris, Suzi, and Enormous J.J.) and Matt the music department manager at B&N, to the folks in various and sundry music stores. I often annoyed people by humming or singing a few of the lines or the chorus. People roll their eyes when you do this (especially in music stores). I don't blame them, but - dammit - I was desperate.

They had all kinds of suggestions. I suspected somebody like Tommy Tutone, the Tubes, or even Golden Earring. Blasts from the past. One hit wonder types -- and maybe this was the lesser known follow-up single. Every OHW has one.

Over the years, it became a Holy Grail of sorts. I checked the track listings of every possible suspect in every music store in town. I'd get an inspiration - Glass Tiger, Steel Breeze - and run down to the mall to see if maybe it was them. But it never was. The search, it seemed, would never end.

Then, with the advent of the internet, it became easier to access song lyrics with just a few words on Google. I tried for years, with different combinations of the words as I remembered them, but could never locate the lost song.

I was beginning to wonder if I just imagined it.

And then today, the misty weather brought to mind that long sought tune. I remembered the fateful day in my Camaro and the DJ saying the name of the song and artist ... and me not writing it down or remembering it.

So, for old time's sake, I got online, went to Google and typed the following:

"JUST LIKE A SECRET CODE THAT NOBODY KNOWS" LYRICS

And there it was.

"The Message is You".

From 1983.

By Gary Myrick.

Who?

I bolted over to the guy's website to find out more. It turns out he's from Dallas. A local boy. Apparently, he had some national success with a song called "She Talks in Stereo" from the same basic period. I sorta seem to remember such a song. But then again ...

Anyway, according to the site, Myrick experienced a muscial rebirth in the late 1990's and is still making music.

So there it is.

Being that I haven't heard the song in like 23 years, it's hard to say if I'd still enjoy it. It could be horribly dated, and I'm sure that my (and probably Gary Myrick's) sexual politics have changed quite a bit since then. There was, however, a great download on the site, of Myrick doing a cover of the Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By". I was suitably impressed by his talent. But I think I'll probably remember the long and laborious search for the mystery song long after I've forgotten (again) the tune or the words.

I don't know if I want to blow any dough on a 20 year old album-become-CD just for one song.

Still .. I mean, come on. To hear it again would, at least, be an interesting experience. And I've searched for so long. Even if the song itself is anti-climactic, it might just be worth a listen, to reward a lifetime's search.

Maybe I'll laugh.

The eighties.

Anyway ... I found the Grail.

I'M A PHILISTINE!

MADAM HOOCH WOULD BE APPALLED!

Directions:

Follow the link below.
Choose the "download goodies" link in the upper left corner.
Choose "TV commercial".
Enjoy.


http://www.bajajauto.com/discover/index1.htm

A WEDDING, A SWORD FIGHT, AND "UNCOOL" KARMA

Since my last post ...

• My brakes hit the noisy warning portion of their pads, and will have to be fixed pronto.
• I put all my bulk trash out by the curb, and it was picked up. This included a hard top from my old roommate's jeep, a couch, some large chunks of incidental wood, and several six to seven foot metal spikes used to prop up a newly planted tree until it could stand on its own. Now I have all kinds of space. The woman at the city uitlities department told me that they would pick up everything but old refrigerators.
• My refrigerator died the very next day. It just gave up. And this was also the day after I had filled it with a large supply of groceries. Many of these had to be thrown out. I was most displeased! I sense some kind of karmic payback. For what I'm not sure.
• Jerry and Tabitha got married at Scarborough Faire. It was a very nice ceremony. I'm thinking of asking out their friend, Bevy. There are others girls I'd love to go out with, too, but she's the only one who is readily available and (I sense) willing. Besides, she wore a sexy cat costume to my Halloween party that got my motor running. And she looked really hot in her Renaissance corset and dress. She teaches guitar lessons and breeds & trains dogs. Pretty cool.
• Latte Thunder and I enganged in a sword fighting competition at the Faire.
• I won.
• He's been obsessing about it ever since, and is demanding a rematch.
• I've been bragging about it to everyone!
• A co-worker named Glen says he'll give me his mini-fridge. He moved back home and doesn't need it anymore. He says it's about half the size of a real fridge, but it works just fine. Truth be told, there's more space in the full-sized refrigerator than I ever use. The mini version (free!) might just do the trick - at least temporarily.
• Aunt Sally wants to hire me to knock down some brick walls and do some digging in her yard. I'll gladly do it as soon as I get my car (etc.) fixed.
• I'm gettting a healthy tax refund!
• I bought a new bowl and a dish for Rerun. She could care less as long as there's food and drink in them.
• Tentative date for the next Harry Potter book is Summer 2007... according to Mugglenet.
• I've fallen in love with The Pacific Rim chinese restaurant near my work. $5 and change for chicken & broccoli and a glass of water.
• Running and working out.
• Not reading and writing enough --- witness my hackneyed blog entries of late; they're all quizzes and lists.
• This, too, is a list, but I like it.

AS YOU WISH

Go to wikipedia
type in the month and day of your birthday
post:
3 events
2 births
1 death
that happened on that day

MAY 6th

3 Events
1527- Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance.

1889 - The Eiffel Tower is officially opened to the public at the Universal Exposition in Paris.

1937- Hindenburg disaster: The German zeppelin Hindenburg catches fire and is destroyed within a minute while attempting to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Thirty-six people are killed.

2 Births
1895 - Rudolph Valentino, Italian actor (d. 1926)
1915 - Orson Welles, American director (d. 1985)

1 Death
1862 - Henry David Thoreau, American author and philosopher (b. 1817)

WHEN THE RAIN COMES, THEY RUN AND HIDE THEIR HEADS

You Are Rain

You can be warm and sexy. Or cold and unwelcoming.Either way, you slowly bring out the beauty around you. You are best known for: your touch Your dominant state: changing

What Type of Weather Are You?

EARTHLINK'S WORD OF THE DAY

Today, I discovered the most amazing and useful word.

defenestrate /dee-FEN-uh-strayt/transitive verb - to throw out of a window.

I intend to put it to good use in future blogs.

Thanks Earthlink.