Roots, Rock ‘n Blues – American Roots Music
May 29, 2009 by · 7 Comments
I fell in love with American roots music while I was in college in the late 1960s. The irony of that is that I was born and grew up in the Washington, DC area and had to move to Minnesota to hear the blues for the first time!
I should say that it was in college that I first heard the blues played by the original artists. I’d been a big fan of the Rolling Stones and numerous other British Invasion groups who were all playing their versions of the blues, or derivatives thereof. I just had no idea at the time that they’d been so heavily influenced by a whole generation of musicians that I’d never heard of.
In the meantime, there were American musicians playing blues and blues-influenced rock to small, but devoted audiences. Three of my favorites (discovered for the most part years later) were Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins and Roy Buchanan. Lonnie Mack is best known for his radio hits, but is a killer blues player as I discovered much to my surprise when Alligator Records put out a video of a concert with Lonnie, Albert and Roy at Carnegie Hall in New York City from the early 1990s. The concert was called “Further On Down The Road” and was a real eye-opener for me when I first saw it. It’s still one of my favorite videos.
With the explosion of videos on the Internet, there is a wealth of blues video footage from the 1950s through today. It’s a blessing that so much still survives from the early days. Watching some of these legends perform helps make it clear just why they are legendary.
You Can Find Your Favorite Cartoon Characters in Southern California
March 30, 2009 by · 9 Comments
Recently I’ve had the chance to visit some of the great theme parks in Southern California. Between them all, you can immerse yourself in the world of a bunch of your favorite TV and movie characters.
We know where to find Mickey Mouse and all his Disney friends—in Anaheim. If you’d like some good information about planning a trip to the Disneyland Resort, check out the SoCal Vacation Guru. Disney has no-doubt done the most effective job of bringing imaginary characters to life, much to the delight of us all.
A few miles down the road at Knott’s Berry Farm you’ll find all the Peanuts gang at Camp Snoopy. Knott’s has done a nice job of absorbing Charlie Brown, his faithful pet and their friends into their culture. Do they still have the Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America in Minnesota?
Hit Universal Studios Hollywood and you can find Spiderman, Betty Boop, the Flintstones, Woody Woodpecker and a squadron of other beloved Universal characters; Universal has been at the heart of many television shows as well as famous movies. You can find some good details about Universal Studios Hollywood at the SoCal Vacation Guru.
Before leaving Universal I have four words for you: Homer Simpson. Yes, The Simpsons have been immortalized in their own attraction at this great theme park. That includes Krusty the clown and many other residents of Springfield.
Lastly, we drive up north a ways and stop at Six Flags Magic Mountain. According to the SoCal Vacation Guru, this park is best known for its roller coasters and other thrill rides. But skulking around the place are the nutty characters of Warner Brothers cartoons, notably the Loony Toons guys.
Porky is there, along with Daffy, Yosemite Sam, Tweety and the others. Beep Beep! There’s a nice area for small children; the park management has figured out that not everyone is a teen-age or twenty-something thrill ride fanatic. The characters are very charming and are pretty easy to find around the mountain. This joint may be my favorite.
The great kayaking adventure
March 16, 2009 by · 11 Comments
As many of you know, I have been involved with the kayak renting Clear Lake group for many years. I absolutely love to kayak and have owned and personally built almost every type and size of kayak including sit-ins to sit-upons and both single person and two person models.
I have never been especially fond of ocean kayaking but prefer the tranquility and calm of floating down a quiet lagoon or exploring the hidden coves of a fresh water lake.
A few months ago, my best friend Tony and I decided to pack our favorite kayaks on top of my Hummer and travel around the country for a couple months exploring different places to splash our boats. The trip actually got extended to almost seven months but that one of the benefits of being semi-retired and not needing to go to a job. The trip also ended up taking us out of the country to Canada which hadn’t been in our original plan.
Needless to say, we had some unbelievable experiences! We kayaked mountain streams in Colorado, some beautiful lakes in Minnesota and many, many other truly fantastic spots.
One of the places we kayaked that was especially nice and rather surprising was in the Boston, MA area. We had heard that the back bays and estuaries around Boston were a particularly interesting area to kayak and we definitely found that to be true. It was amazing to find such primitive areas and wildlife within just a few miles of Harvard Square.
The only problem we had with Boston is that it is almost as expensive as New York and we had to do some serious hunting to find affordable inexpensive Boston hotels. We succeeded but the funny thing is that we then left the country to kayak the St. Clair lakes chain outside of Montreal, Canada and by that time we were ready to indulge ourselves and went shopping for the best hotels Montreal.
We finally made it back to Houston after almost seven months of traveling and kayaking with memories that I hope we will never forget.