Facebook
Belleville Ringer
On the way to pick up our son from college, my wife and I listened to a recording of Frank Jr. at age 3, reciting “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” It is amazing to us that the same little boy is already a college senior.
We made some time in our schedule to do a little sightseeing before returning home. On Wednesday night, we went to the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, Illinois. From mid-November to New Year’s Day, the outdoor shrine is decorated with a drive-through display known as the Way of Lights. They also had areas offering camel rides, refreshments, a laser show and much more.
My family and I were most impressed by a mosaic made of Lego blocks on display in the visitors center. The mosaic was created in 2003 by Eric Harshbarger. From a distance, it looked like an accurate reproduction of William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s painting “Song of the Angels.” The original painting is at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale. My wife has had a small print of it hanging in our entrance hall for several years. She purchased the print on a field trip to Forest Lawn with Frank Jr.’s sixth-grade class.
Frosting the Snowman
In a very thoughtful gesture, my wife used her phone to take pictures of the cupcakes that were delivered to her office on Monday. The lady who delivered them said they were from Lulu’s, which doesn’t appear to have a website, just an email address. My wife knew I would be interested in seeing the cupcakes before she and her coworkers enjoyed their Christmas treats. The various designs were Santa hats, Christmas trees, snowmen and snowflakes.
If you’re in Knoxville and you enjoy a good cupcake and a good conversation, feel free to drop by a cupcake tweet-up later today. It starts at 1:30 p.m. at the Cup in Bearden. You buy your own cupcake but they promised us free coffee!
Playing Kitsch-up
The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile visited some of my old haunts in Burbank and North Hollywood this week. My friend Susan Olsen was an honored guest along with songwriter Allee Willis and Americana archivist Charles Phoenix. For starters, the three friends rode the giant hot dog to the Brady Bunch house on Dilling Street. I always loved taking out-of-town guests to see it, even though the subsequent owners took pains to change its appearance and discourage looky-loos.
Allee posted great pictures of the journey on her blog. They went to two Burbank restaurants that I used to frequent: Bob’s Big Boy and Chili John’s. Perhaps the most clever picture was taken at Circus Liquor, which was also used as a location in the movie “Clueless.” They positioned the Wienermobile so that it looks like the giant neon alcoholic clown is standing atop the vehicle.
I had my first experience with the Wienermobile when I was working at WAVA. One morning I had privilege of riding in the vehicle while broadcasting via cellphone. I had my upper body through the sun roof as we drove around Washington D.C. and Arlington. I tossed wiener-whistles to people and shouted “I’m in the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile! Don’t you wish you were me?”
Bread and Butter
One of my wife’s co-workers gave loaves of homemade bread to the rest of the staff for Christmas. Instead of being wrapped in cellophane or a Ziploc bag, the bread was in a cardboard box that fit it perfectly. The front of the box said, “Let’s eat y’all.”
Fans of Paula Deen will immediately recognize the saying as one of her catchphrases. I didn’t realize that Paula had expanded her product line into so many different items. The perfect fit of the bread in the box made me think that Paula must also sell the pan that baked the loaf.
According to Paula’s website, the loaf boxes are a discontinued item, which is just as well. At $12.95 for a set of four, they were horribly overpriced.
Deb, You See
“Dexter” continues to be one of my all-time favorite TV shows. The Season 6 finale aired on Sunday night. If you haven’t seen it, stop reading now.
The season ends with a revelation that has been a long time coming. In the books by Jeff Lindsay, Dexter’s sister finds out that he is a serial killer and she has a hard time dealing with it. We now know that the final two seasons of the TV series will explore that conflict.
The hints were there all season. Debra Morgan struggled with the decision to overlook Deputy Chief Matthews’ indiscretion with a call girl. She told her therapist that she was in love with Dexter, who is her adopted brother and not a blood relative. Now that she has caught Dexter in the act, she will have to find a way to understand the “Code of Harry,” the instructions her late father gave to Dexter.
Perhaps the best part of season 6 was the plot twist in episode 9. That’s when we discover that we’ve been “Sixth-Sensed” by the producers and that Professor Geller, played by Edward James Olmos, has been dead all along. Only Travis Marshall (Colin Hanks) can see him. They kept the secret from most of the cast and crew, as explained in the following video:
According to Tim
I’ve known Tim since before he had an album, before he performed in Branson and before had any TV appearances. His dad called in to KLOS one morning and said, “you should hear my son Tim play accordion.” Mark & Brian said, “sure, put little Timmy on the phone.” The teenager’s relatively deep voice surprised all of us and the nickname Little Timmy was born.
When Slash was booked as an in-studio guest, I had two ideas to make the appearance unusual. First, we had Slash play a Guns N’ Roses song in studio while Little Timmy accompanied him on accordion. Then, Slash walked out to the parking lot where we had stacks of amplifiers and a high school marching band waiting to play “Louie Louie” with him.
In subsequent years, we had Little Timmy accompany Tony Bennett in the radio studio. We also had him play on stage twice during the 1998 Mark & Brian Christmas show; once during a comedy sketch and once with Chicago.
Take a Bow
Nancy Middlemas presented Christopher Sanders with a toy bow during the dinner break between two of the Clayton Holiday Concerts on Saturday. My wife had to explain the joke to me.
Each year, the members of the Knoxville Choral Society have the option of buying a ticket for a catered dinner in Knoxville Civic Coliseum ballroom. This year, my wife bought two tickets and invited me to tag along. A few of the Knoxville Symphony players also showed up, as did this year’s guest performers: Logan Murrell, Jim Clayton and Hallerin Hilton Hill.
Maestro Lucas Richman has used his good friend Christopher Sanders as a featured performer at the holiday concerts for several consecutive years. He has an amazing voice and a great sense of humor. My wife told me that Sanders was singing and dancing at one of the rehearsals last week. As he extended his hands, his fingers accidentally crashed into a violinist’s bow, breaking it. A high-quality bow can cost anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000.
After the dinner, I walked with my wife to the backstage area of the Knoxville Civic Auditorium. I took advantage of the opportunity to look at some of the memorabilia on the walls and to peek at the instruments on stage. As showtime approached, I became a fly on the wall and watched the first number, “Christmas Festival Overture” from the wings.
-
Site Search
-
A Word from Our Sponsors
-
With Humble Appreciation:
-
Connections:
-
Welcome Visitors
-
Olden Days Archives
2005
- August 2005
- September 2005
- October 2005
- November 2005
- December 2005
- January 2006
- February 2006
- March 2006
- April 2006
- May 2006
- June 2006
- July 2006
- August 2006
- September 2006
- October 2006
- November 2006
- December 2006
- January 2007
- February 2007
- March 2007
- April 2007
- May 2007
- June 2007
- July 2007
- August 2007
- September 2007
- October 2007
- November 2007
- December 2007
- January 2008
- February 2008
- March 2008
- April 2008
- May 2008
- June 2008
- July 2008
- August 2008
- September 2008
- October 2008
- November 2008
- December 2008
- January 2009
- February 2009
- March 2009
- April 2009
- May 2009
- June 2009
- July 2009
- August 2009
- September 2009
- October 2009
- November 2009
- December 2009
- January 2010
- February 2010
- March 2010
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010