Spring Arrives Today!

The Roof and The Phantom

The Roof of the Fox Theater on Peachtree Street in Atlanta.  On a tour of the Fox the docent led us out to the roof and I took a picture.  It was pivotal to the Gypsy Ball Room, the balcony of the theater, and the apartment of the Phantom of Fox.

I suppose people came out here on warm nights to get a break from the ball room, or during intermission for a quick smoke and maybe there was a bartender.  Those round things look like table tops.

And maybe Joe Patten was mingling with the people.  Joe was known as The Phantom of the Fox because he lived there and the owner (Atlanta Historical Society) could not evict him.  One time he got the Mighty Moe Organ back up and running.  And another time he saved the Fox from going up in flames and saved much of the values and furniture.   For that he was promised by whomever owned it at the time he   that he could live there for life, which ended almost one year ago,  April 7, 2016.

Go Go Chuck-B.-Goode, R.I.P.

Chuck Berry, the rock and roll pioneer, died yesterday.  He had his own beat and it seemed to be surrounded by happiness.

We saw him in concert years ago (before kids) at Six Flags Over Georgia's outside pavilion.    We arrived a little ahead of the scheduled performance and as usual were the first ones there.  We watched the laborers set up the stage, moving speakers, a piano, and other items on the stage.  Wait!  One of those helping lift the piano and move it was the one and only Chuck Berry.

His daughter, a beautiful young lady, co-sung with him many songs that night, and I was somewhat amused some of the lyrics were sexual suggestive.    Digest that one.  Wow!

Chuck died at age 90.

SUNDAY FUNNIES!! Skip Williamson Rides Again!

As you know,  Skip Williamson, pioneer underground Comix cartoonist,  died last Thursday,  March 16th.  Just eleven days earlier, March 5th, another underground pioneer Comix cartoonist, Jay Lynch (1945-2017) died.  It makes you wonder if the "Rule of 3s" will happen doesn't it?  If so, who will be it be?  Nobody I hope.

Cartoonists may die but their cartoons don't.  Here proof that the late Skip Williamson is providing.

click on image to be able to read the balloons to help make sense of it all.

Skip Williamson (1944-2017), R.I.P.

Pictures taken November 2001

Skip visiting Jon Benet Ramsey's grave

A friend died Thursday, March 16, 2017.  He was full of  life.  I hated to hear of his death.

from Wikipedia:

According to The Comics Journal, "He died at Albany Medical Center at 12:30 pm on Thursday, March 16th. “We were both romantics,” she [his widow] said in a phone call during her ride home to Vermont. “We are fucking ying and yan. We are those things that nobody knows. He was the bright light in my life.” The official cause of death was renal failure and complications from heart disease and diabetes, but it was an antibiotic that killed him, according to Adrienne, who declared, “He was in perfect health before he went into the hospital.” She described how Skip recently cut a toe while trimming his nails with his antique Confederate-era jackknife. It became infected and swollen and a local doctor prescribed Bactrin, which damaged his liver and kidneys. The doctors in Albany were trying to counter the effects of the medication when he died."^[4]

I wonder if he bought this antique Confederate-era jacknife from Wildman Dent Myers (above left), who is famous for selling such  things?

Poster of Skip Williamson's creation Sammy Smoot

SATURDAY FUNNIES!! The Eyes of March

WHOA!  Today is Saturday.  In error I was thinking it was Sunday when I released this.  When I told my wife Anna of my error, she said, "Instead of leaping ahead one hour you leaped ahead a whole day!"

click on image to read (and help for it to make sense)

The Idles of March was last Wednesday, or there abouts. To keep up with current affairs we are presenting HUMBUG's version of the news program in the 1950s YOU ARE THERE as they might have done Caesar's assignation over 2000 years ago.

This story was originally published in HUMBUG Magazine #3, October 1957.  The story was written by editor Harvey Kurtzman and illustrated by Will Elder.

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, we had lunch at Semper Fi Bar and Grill, who are known for their hamburgers. 

Semper Fi has a U.S. Marine and U.S. Military theme.  It attracts military-mind-set people.

In the spirit of the day we wore green.

I did not see anyone else wearing green.  Were they wanting to be pinched?

Just joking, just joking!

Tribute to Joe Stewart from Tuba Skinny

I told you my late friend Joe Stewart, who died last week, was into big New Orleans jazz, namely the focusing on Tuba Skinny ragtime band.

Joe and I spent many emails talking about the band and in particularly the two female members Shaye and Erika.  We were amazed at their musical abilities.

Here is an email from Brad Verter, who is organizing the memorial,  I received today.

Brad Verter 

To

@

 Today at 3:11 PM

Joe B. Stewart was deeply devoted to a New Orleans band called Tuba Skinny, and wrote about them frequently on his blog:

http://joeb-tallyho.blogspot.c om/search?q=%22tuba+skinny%22

When he passed, I wrote to the band's leader, Shaye Cohn (if you're a jazznik, you'll have heard of her grandfather, Al Cohn) and requested that she dedicate a song in Joe's memory at their next set.  She went above and beyond, assembling the band to records a spiritual to play at his wake.  It's online at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6gEOOUxPI2o

Even if you never met Joe, you'll be touched by the song.  I was moved to tears.

An old softie,

B.

Colonial Park Cemetery, Savannah

Pirate or Masonic?

This historical plaque is not about Buttons Gwinnett, who also was killed in a duel.  Buttons was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  

This is James Habersham's crypt.  I mistakenly thought that he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.  Wrong, he was a Loyalist.  However his sons did fight for Independence

.

Markers lost from their graves.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!

Throwback Thursday: Adeline St John and Isaac Wright

Loveula Adeline St. John Wright

(c1835-1895)

Isaac Wright 

(1834-1920)

Anna's great great grandparents on her father's mother's side.

Adeline was the daughter of James St. John (1756-1850) and Elizabeth Boomer (1757- 1850s).

Isaac was the son of Isaac S. Wright and Charity Catherine Fox.

Adaline and Isaac were married 19 Apr 1855, West Virginia.  But I think at the time it was Virginia.  West Virginia did not form itself until 1861.

They has 12 children, 5 daughters and 7 sons.

Isaac served in the Confederate Army.  They are buried in Enon Cemetery, just north of Woodstock, Georgia.

People Watching

At the doctors' office waiting room today we immediately recognized one of Cobb County's long time leaders.  He is still a lawyer, he has been city and county attorneys, and a state representative 

Watching him I remembered reading he used to love to dance and one time almost got into a fight with a Cobb co-legislator Harold Willingham.  But he looks too stiff to dance or fight now.

For his age he looked remarkably good.  Good posture and all.  Although, he could not turn to look at someone without turning his whole body, he might be having spine problems.  His heavy dark coat was buttoned up all the way to the neck, if he had on a bow-tie I did not see it.

With him was his care keeper, a lady much shorter than he is.  The care keeper, being a care keeper, knew about health matters.  One of those health matters was that a medical waiting rooms is probably pretty much infested with germs.  She had a medical mask on.

She also knew if you touch anything sterilize your hands.  She pressed the elevator button and squirted some cleanser from a dispenser onto her hands and rubbed her hands together to get the cream worked in.  She told him to do the same.  She showed him how to use the dispenser and he squirted the antiseptic  cream onto his hands.  He looked horrified.  She told him to rub it in by rubbing his hands.  He looked around to wipe his hands on something, still looking horrified. 

She looked at him and told him something and he calmed down and rubbed his hands together.

The elevator came and they entered it and away they went.

He had trust in his care taker.

Larry and UnSeriously

Out side of Brandi's Hotodogs when we met for lunch and found it close.  It was 4th of July week.

Larry Bradford looking serious.  Seriously folks!  In high school I don't think Larry had many serious moments.  He was always making up and cracking jokes, seemingly, as often as he took a breath   And with sound effects, such as Popeye's cackling laugh and on and on.  He could pick a new name that just popped up and make it funny by going on and on about it.  Take Zagnuts for instance.

Now, Larry is making up for it.  I have not talked to him lately, but about two years ago he was volunteering at a homeless shelter on Tuesdays. 

Good for him!

Beware!

Beware of the Ides of March!

Buegrass Jams in Front of Australian Bakery - Tuesday Nights

Bluegrass Jamming in Front of Australian Bakery Every Tuesday Night, South Park Square, Marietta, Georgia. 

Bring your banjo, waxed-comb, washboard, whatever.

HAL and I

Did you see the movie 2001:  A SPACE ODYSSEY?  Remember out in space, somewhere in the Universe HAL 960, a computer with an electronic brain, and Dr. David "Dave" Bowman fought tried outwitting each other, trying to survive, as they hurled  through space?   Remember?

Well, I think my computer and all its underlings tried to gang up on me all through last week.  I felt like Dave.

One day my computer game Virtual Pool, rebooted itself for no reason, and knocked all my icon links out of whack and out of order.

Later I tried to scan something and the icon I press to start the scanner would not work.  It recognized the icon being pressed by saying something like "what scanner?".  After googling asking for suggestions we finally figured out we could still use the scanner by going to the HP site, not on the screen, but hidden in "My Computer" section. 

Then my keyboard quit communicating with the computer.  I replaced the batteries and it lasted a short time.  Then it became dead again, so I pulled out another keyboard and it worked fine, so far.  Then, my mouse quit communicating for a while, but I changed batteries and it still didn't, but after hitting a few buttons on the keyboard in frustration it started working.  So far, so good.
Also, after I was forced to take Windows 10 my video editor icon does not work, I can no longer show videos via youtube.  And along those same lines, my load and switch around songs on my iphone crashed, I can no longer the i-phone symbol into itunes.   AAARRggggg!

More mishaps happened with the computer over the week but somehow, they all blended in and details forgot.

Video Clips of the Paulding Co Bluegrass

Since they forced Windows 10 on me about a year ago I have been unable to edit my videos and send them through Youtube.

But anyway, here are the videos of Saturday night.

Tally Ho! Joe Stewart!

Joe and Rachel Stewart

A good friend of mine died last week.  Joe Stewart.  Joe and I have never met face to face.  But we knew each other well by our emails and blogs.  His blog was Talley Ho and mine is Chicken-fat.  Before Joe,  I communicated with his brother Bhob Stewart for years.  Bhob was a critic, sometimes TV Guide reviewer, and sometimes editor and compiler of books about comicbooks.  About 1990 or so Bhob and I locked horns over the facts and stats of MAD comic book.  Over the years Bhob developed a friendship, then somehow his brother Joe Stewart joined.  He and I discovered we both were obsessed  with, the South, Ragtime and blues fans, and both were crazy, if not obsessive,  over the New Orleans street band TUBA SKINNY.

Bhob Stewart

Three years ago Bhob Stewart died.  The next day Joe's wife Rachel died.  It was almost more than Joe could take.  In his blog he loved to show pictures of he and Rachel together on trips.  I think that helped get him through the painful time of accepting her death.  I believe their children helped him get back into life as well.

As you will read below, Joe died three years to the day after Rachel left this earth.  Joe was about 80.

Life is short.

Below is the email I received announcing Joe's  death:

If you knew Bhob Stewart then you've heard stories over the years about his younger, taller, and equally handsome brother Joe. And if you were lucky then you met him at one point or another and heard his fascinating stories about growing up in the deep south in the 1950s, hanging out with Bob Dylan at Mardi Gras in 1964, arranging the Corcoran Gallery exhibition of underground comic art in 1969, and and keeping up with the world of the jazz and blues -- he shared Bhob's rich voice and gifts as a raconteur in the great Southern tradition.  The voice is now gone, but you can still read the stories at his blog, Tally Ho!.

Joe passed away on March 8, 2017, three years to the day after he lost his wife Rachel. He went peacefully, surrounded by family. There will be a jazz funeral this weekend, on March 18, 2017 at 1pm at the Cunningham Turch Funeral Home, 811 Cameron Street, Alexandria, VA. 

Joe

Bluegrass in Paulding County, Ga

click on each one to make it bigger so you can see it better.

Saturday we went to a Bluegrass concert at the Paulding County Seniors' Center.  It was put on by the Austell Masonic Lodge but I think sponsored by all the local Masons.  Of course we were the first ones of the audience there.  That happens a lot with us.

We got to ride around about for a time looking at downtown Dallas, Paulding County's rolling hills, old barns and old  houses. 

Interesting the senior center is next door to the Paulding County Detention Center, a.k.a., County Jail. 

On checking in on Facebook I saw that you have a choice of saying you are at the Paulding County Jail or the Senior Center.  While sitting listening to concert I created a little story.  I checked in the jail and said the jail and the senior center are next to each other, and it is easy to go into the wrong building and how do I get out.

Then a little later I posted with me in the Senior Center, some of the inmates were looking at me saying, "Fresh Fish!"  So, I remember seeing the movie that Bugs Bunny dug a tunnel under a fence and it inspired me to do the same.

The concert was good.   I like bluegrass because the music has a good beat and it carries good meaningful stories.

I like bluegrass performers because they are down to Earth and they have not quit their day job, which makes them humble, and good... they are playing for their love of music, not for the money.

While sitting at a long table waiting for the show to start I overheard a few elder men chuckling about Jim M.  We have seen Jim M. throughout the years at different bluegrass concerts.  They were chuckling over one time Jim M. handed out free CD's of his bluegrass band.  They were chuckling because nobody would buy them.  We remembered exactly that night at the Acworth Opry probably ten or more years ago when he gave them away.  He handed one to us and warned us, "You can't play it in your truck."  Jim didn't know it but he said something that we would quote many times in the years to come.

According to the schedule each group had about 50 minutes to entertain.  It started at 1:00 p.m.  and still had several groups to go when we left  at almost 6:00.  Willow was waiting.

Here are some pictures.

The above group (above 2 pictures) are the East Dixie Boys.  The leader is the guy in the light or white shirt.  His last name is McClung.  His brother is in the band also.  He explained the reason he named it East Dixie Boys was to name it after a street they used to play on as kids, in Marietta.  The corner of East Dixie Avenue and  the corner of the street I lived on, Manget Street, was only one yard width away.  When they left the stage I followed them back to the Band-Holdings room and asked him more about his East Dixie Avenue times.  He said they lived on Adams Circle and we both knew Larry Sparks.  His friend on East Dixie was named Smith and lived close to Powell's Barbershop.  I told him of the Smith Brothers I knew, which lived near Powell's Barbershop, but we were not sure they are the same.  He said it is nice  for someone in the audience to know where he is talking about.

I was glad to be of service.