UP is a big fan of Sirius/XM radio.  Specifically, 60s on Six, Classic Vinyl, and Classic Rewind. I listen to it all the time in the car, and it brings back memories.

Johnny Carson said while introducing Genya Ravan one night, that the top three female voices in early Rock and Roll were Janis Joplin, Grace Slick, and Genya Ravan. 

Very few people know who Genya Ravan is, and that’s a shame.  And, he left one out.

Ronnie Spector – Born Veronica Yvette Bennett in 1943, she started singing early.  Her family encouraged it.  She was part of the Ronnetts, a multiracial group, which was very rare for the  1960s.  She said in her autobiography, “I never knew if I was black or white.”  Her mother was African-American and Cherokee and her father was Irish.  She married crazy man Phil Spector who is famous for his Wall of Sound music, and his recent murder conviction.  You know, “the gun just went off” and all that.

She’s most famous for “Be MyBaby” which we all danced to at sock hops at Germantown and Valley View.  She’s been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to John Lennon and Linda Ronstadt.  And produced by every one from Phil Spector to Genya Ravan.

Click here to hear Be My Baby.

Speaking of Genya Ravan, she’s one of the greatest voices in rock and roll.  I’m often amazed that so many people have never heard of her.  Born Genyusha Zelkowitz in 1940 in Lodz, Poland, Genya’s family came to the US when she was an early teen.   She was a member of the first successful all-girl band, Goldie and the Gingerbreads.  By that time, her mother had changed her name to Goldie.  Her real career started in the Lollipop Lounge in NY in 1962.  She joined a band called the Escorts, and moved on from there.  She has her own website, an autobiography, several recordings with Ten Wheel Drive, and hosts two Radio Shows on you guessed it, Sirius/XM – the Underground Garage channel. 

Her song, The Whipping Post, a cover of an Allman Brothers hit, is a wonder.  Check it out, here. It was during her “real name” phase, identiy crisis and all that.  And Stay With Me, which was recorded with Ten Wheel Drive has been covered by Bette Midler and just about every one else.

Then there’s Grace Slick.  Born on Beggar’s Night, 1930 to a well-to-do upper middle class family in Illinois.  She is a a direct descendant of passengers of the Mayflower.  Her father was promoted and transferred a lot, and they wound UP in Southern California where Grace attended a private all girls high school.  She went to Finch College and the University of Miami in Florida.  Truly a wild child and 1960’s ICON, she claims she never did drugs, and says her addiction was Dom Perignon Champagne.  She said, and I quote, “talk about a drug problem!”.

Her music and her career are legendary.  First with the Great Society, then Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship, she’s recorded 30 albums, including four solo products. 

White Rabbit is what most of us know her for.  Yes, it’s a drug song, and yes, it’s strange, but it was the 60s.  Sorry about the crappy recording, and please ignore the Smothers Brothers, it was their show. 

And of course, the list would not be complete with out the one, the only, the best, the top of the line, Janis Joplin.

Janis Lyn Joplin, died way too soon.  It was her fault, and she deprived us of a muscial legacy that could have been much deeper than what it was.  I was, and remain, crazy about her.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas in 1943 to an engineer for Texaco and registrar at a business college, Janis was an emotionally needy child.  Her mother said, She was unhappy and unsatisfied without getting a lot of attention. The normal rapport wasn’t adequate.”  I identified with that early.

She was an outcast,  Other kids at high school would routinely taunt her and call her names like “pig,” “freak” or “creep.  She was rebellious, cultivated an outre personality, and wore “crazy clothes” and a bee-hive hair-do.  Didn’t everyone back then?

Her voice was noticed by the acid rock group Big Brother and The Holding Company with whom she recoreded several albums.  The attention Janis got overshadowed the band, resentments grew, and she announced in 1968 that she was leaving.  She started her short-lived solo career by forming Kozmic Blues Band.  Her drug and alcohol abuse escalated and the Kozmic Blues got the blues and quit. 

Janis actually got “clean” for a while in Rio.  She’d met a man, they were in love, and things looked UP.  Once back in the states her drug abuse and addiction to alcohol came back, he couldn’t take it, and they split UP.  She started singing again, formed Full Tilt Boogie Band and recorded her most famous album, though not her best, Pearl. 

Her most famous songs are Me and Bobby McGee, Piece of My Heart, Cry Baby (my favorite), and Mercedes-Benz.

Her drugs of choice were Heroin and Southern Comfort.  She drank it from the bottle while on stage and their sales skyrocketed.  Her addictions finally caught UP with her, she died of an overdose and complications from alcohol sometime the night of Saturday October 3rd or Sunday AM October 4th.  It was a total waste of life.  I miss what she could have been.

Who’s your favorite Rock and Roll Woman?

Rose Bakaysa and Theresa Sokaitis are sisters and were gambling buddies.   At one point they had agreed to share in all gambling winnings.

When Rose won 500 Grand in the Powerball, she decided not to share.

So Theresa was like all. “Give it UP bitch!”

and Rose was, “No way ho!”

And it got ugly!

Really ugly.

Lawyered UP ugly.

The 87 year old sister holding the winning ticket does not have to share her winning with her sister according to the judge.

The younger sister, aged 84 took her sibling to court in 2005.  Yes, it took 5 years for the thing to work its way through the courts and get a judge to make a decision.  Apparently justice isn’t only blind, but a little slow too.

But, at least a decision was made.

“There is something in this tragedy that touches most people,” New Britain Superior Court Judge Cynthia Swienton wrote in her decision. “While the court may be able to resolve the legal dispute, it is powerless to repair the discord and strife that now overshadows the once harmonious sisterly relationship.”

That’s a pretty way to say, this Ya Ya Sisterhood is ….. OVER!

Sokatis claims that back in 2004, the sisters signed a notarized contract splitting their gambling winnings. 

Ok, that should have been the first clue that things were not going to work out in the long run.

But, Big Sister Bakaysa says the deal ended in 2004 during a “family feud” which ended with the younger gal saying “I don’t wanna play this anymore.”

And the judge agreed.

That little tiff was over a few hundred bucks.

After the fight, the sisters never bought lottery tickets together, went to the casinos together, or shared scratch offs.

There are nine siblings in the family.  They all share a “common bond” of buying lottery tickets together and making trips to the Foxwoods in Connecticut.

I reckon they’re all greedy.

Bakaysa testified that the end of their partnership came in a fight over a few hundred dollars, shortly after Bakaysa stayed with Sokaitis for a few weeks while recovering from heart surgery.

Ok, I’ve had heart surgery.  I don’t remember lottery tickets coming to mind during that little episode.

Living, not having pain, not worrying about my chest cracking open, and hoping to walk UP stairs again, yes.

Lottery tickets.  NO!

One judge dismissed the case because it “violated a law which makes gambling contracts illegal.”

But the SUPREME COURT said it wasn’t a violation because the law only applies to illegal gambling.

Not to get the least bit political here, but doesn’t the SUPREME COURT have better things to worry about?

William Sweeney, Bakaysa’s attorney, said he “was grateful for the decision.”

I’m sure he was, it means more for him.

First it was reported that Elizabeth Taylor was engaged to 49 year old businessman, Jason Winters.

My first reaction, “Say it isn’t so!”

And thankfully it’s not.

The cynic in me said, “Here’s some loser going after all Liz’s money!”

Yes, I know, I’m jaded.  I’ve always felt that the sooner  you become jaded and bitter, the better off you’ll be.

But that maxim clouds things a bit.

Needless to say, at 78, and married eight times already, Liz needs the nuptiuals no-more.

It’s just unseemly.  As to Mr. Winters, Dame Elizabeth tweeted (yes, I follow her), “The rumors regarding my engagement simply aren’t true,”Jason is my manager and dearest friend. I love him with all my heart.”

Ok, so the “after her money” ship has sailed.  Mr. Winters manages several other Hollywood types as well, including Quentin Tarantino, Quincy Jones, and one of the Jackson sisters, probably Janet; really, how much money could LaToya have?

But, alas, Liz isn’t engaged, it was rumor.

Then the Dixie Carter story broke.

Dixie Carter died Sunday at the age of 70.

Born in McLemoresville, Tennessee, Dixie spent most of her “growing UP years” in Memphis.  She went to UT Knoxville and graduated from Memphis State (now The University of Memphis) with a degree in English. 

No surprise there, she had diction, grammar, and syntax rivaled only by the Queen.  Only, it was better, since it was graced with a Southern Steel Magnolia charm that made her much more endearing.

She was really good.  A good actress.  Best known for her role as Julia Sugarbaker in TV’s Designing Women, Dixie kicked butt weekly with a liberal bent.  Ironic yes, she was a staunch Republican and a conservative one at that.  She made a deal with Linda Bloodworth-Thomason so that everytime she had to deliver one of Linda’s “liberal messages” Dixie got to get her opposing point of view across one way or another.  Usually very subtly.  She was a pro.

Desiging Women was a terrific show, and some of the best television writing ever in my book.  I’m probably partial because it was set in Atlanta, was Southern, and was topical.   Three things I love.

Dixie, Delta, Annie, and Jean made us laugh, cry, moan, and wonder week after week for seven years.  But Dixie led the pack, and Dixie was the reason we watched.

We’re gonna’ miss her.  And that’s a fact!

But, it’s dangerous.

Matt James, one of the nation’s top high school football players who was headed to Notre Dame this fall, died instantly Friday night after falling from a fifth-floor balcony during a spring break trip in Panama City, Fla.

And he’s not the first, and probably won’t be the last.

“Witnesses and friends indicate he had become drunk and belligerent,” Humphreys said. “He had leaned over the balcony rail, was shaking his finger at the people in the next room over. He fell over.”

He was 17.

There were about 40 students from St. Xavier and a half-dozen parents were on the trip to Florida, police said.

Where were the parents?

Spring Break started by some reports as early as 1935 when the Colgate Univeristy men’s swimming team went to practice in Ft.Lauderdale during the break from classes.  Ft. Lauderdale became the Mecca for college students then, and was the be all and end all for them from the end of WWII until the 1980s.  The film Where The Boys Are, a cult classic filmed in Ft. Lauderdale depicts Spring Break as fun and carefree. 

It’s not.

There’s pressure to party, pressure to out do, and pressure to ‘play’.

When Ft. Lauderdale (some called it Ft. Liquordale) got more angry about the trouble Spring Break brought than happy about the money it brought in, Spring Breakers moved UP the coast to Daytona. 

Daytona Beach, a nortorious party town, the home of NASCAR, Bike Week, and more, got tired of it too.

So, there’s Panama City, Cabo, Cancun, and a thousand other places to go.

Places for underage kids to go and get wasted. 

And year after year, we hear of at least one high school or college kid getting so drunk they don’t realize they are 15 stories UP and jumping from balcony to balcony or hanging over the rail is unwise.

And they die.

Many make life changing moral mistakes.  Some resulting in critical decisions that have serious emotional impact.  And that Joe Francis dude has his crew everywhere just waiting for some drunk girl to lift her shirt and make Mom and Dad “proud”.

I’m all for having fun, and I think Spring Break is a great thing.  BUT…shouldn’t the parents of these kids be with them? 

Assuredly, many are not, and sadly, many parents live their lives vicarously through their children.

It’s just wrong. 

UP is totally opposed to underage drinking, and totally opposed to the use of illegal and recreational drugs.

And totally opposed to unsupervised teens hundreds of miles away from home…no restriction, no guidance, no control.

And too much cash.

There are things out there many parents of today’s high school and college kids didn’t know about or have to worry about. 

Look at Natalie Holloway.

I”m not so naive to think that teenagers aren’t going to try things.

Spring Break should be fun, not dangerous, and should be supervised.

Mom and Dad, where are you?

Essentially, I did.  Have a job for life that is, not screw UP.

I’m sure I screwed UP many times, but not in a big enough way to cost me my job or my career.

I was lucky for 30 years, escaped layoffs, down-sizings, survived divestiture (the break UP of the Real AT&T for those who were born after 1984), several economic downturns, technology advances, and on and on and on…I was lucky.  I had a job for 30 years, or life.

I never understood career hoppers, I was much more interested in ’security’

I escaped in 2001 with a pension intact, a part  little bit trace  smidge of my 401k left, and benefits – for life.

It’s a good thing.

Things just aren’t that way anymore.

Unless you’re in education – and that’s looking iffy,  law-enforcement, or medicine, you will probably have to change careers once or more in your life time.

Some jobs we thought would be around forever just won’t be.

So, we have to say good bye.

Bank tellers come to mind.  With direct deposit, which is required by many employers, ATM cards, Check Cards, and Credit Cards, who needs to go to the bank?

It’s kinda sad, I remember going to the bank with Dad when I was a boy.  Mr. Oblinger, the bank President, treated us both like we were his largest depositors.  We weren’t.  Seriously, we weren’t!  They had candy on the counter for the taking.  The Bank Tellers always offered me some.  It was an adventure.  And it’s going away.

No one has the title ‘file clerk’ any longer.  Imaging and faxes and email have seen to that.  Everything is scanned.  Our copier not only copies, it scans, and sends to corporate.  Pretty amazing really.  Image over light.  (Thank you Alexander Graham Bell, he didn’t invent it, but he talked about it over 100 years ago.)

Very Jetsons and all.

And wouldn’t you just love to hear a voice when you call a company?  “Press 1 for English” instantly makes me want to shop elsewhere. 

Answer the phone, say “thanks for calling” and ask me how I’d like my call directed.  Don’t put me into Voice Mail Hell.

So we are saying goodbye to telephone operators.  Voice mail and call routing are taking jobs away. 

Data entry clerks are no longer necessary.  Every teenager can type, even if they can’t spell.   Back at Ohio Bell, we had a room full of people who were “order entry clerks”.  Or data clerks.  We wrote the order with codes in the business office and sent it to order entry, via the mail boy.  Well, no longer.  5th or 6th generation software has allowed us to nuke that job and enter the order ourselves.

And speaking of the mail boy.  Most mail is electronic now, remember the old days when the mail boy came by, and people said,  ”I got my start in the mail room”.  Well no more, say ta ta to him too.  He’s going away, or already gone.  The guy on “Drop Dead Diva” who drops stuff off to the fancy schmancy lawyers; he doesn’t exist anymore.  Scanners, email, and photo processors make him obsolete.

Ever use a travel agent anymore?  Well, not for long.  Travel agents are being replaced by the internet, Priceline, Expedia, and the like.  These days only large corporations planning huge trips with hundred of employees use them.  And with the economy in the toilet, and it is, that’s not happening much. 

Unless you get bailout money from Washington.

What about a watch repairman, or watch sales man.  My first job was at B&L Jewelers in Germantown, Ohio.  John Brower was a true watchmaker, and a darn good one.

He hated Timex watches because they were “disposable”.  Now watches are fashion.  If you need to know the time, you can look on your I-pod, I-phone, I-computer, and soon, your eye-ball!   Unless it’s a Piaget or Rolex you can buy just about any watch  at Wal-Mart.  Nowadays, watch repair consists of replacing the battery!  Or shopping for a new one.

And video store clerks, well, bye-bye.  Netflix and On Demand have nuked those as well.

What I’m sayin’, things ain’t what they used to be.  That Summer job or part-time job may not be there.

And things are probably always gonna’ be changin!

So, be flexible, go to school, get an education.

You want to have a lot on your horizons.

I know we expect too much of our ‘heroes’, but really…win a bronze medal and simulate sex in public?  No.

Scotty Logo’s street behavior after his Bronze Medal winning half-pipe run was an embarrassment to him, the stuffed shirts at the IOC, and the the American public, to say nothing of the girl, who’s gonna’ have a hard time explaining that picture to the grandchildren in 20 years.

Joe Francis made millions with GGW videos, but BGW – I don’t think we’re ready.  Ok, so it’s a double standard.  But the trampelettes on Joe’s videos aren’t Olympic Medalists.  They’re drunken college coeds with too much money, too much time, and not enough inhibitions.

I don’t mean to be all moral and pontificatious, but we all know what was implied. 

Half-pipe and most snowboarding events are little more than skate ratting on snow.  I love the sport, I’m not impressed with the mentallity and the attitude.

It’s bad enough that Shaun White and his coach can’t say two sentences without the “F” word and can’t remember that every word they say is being recoreded, and it’s bad enough that Shaun White and Scotty acted like fools during the National Anthem while on the medal platform – (just a reminder to anyone else winning a medal for the US:   hand over heart, learn the words, I know it’s hard to sing and musically bad, but it’s OUR national anthem, SING IT!), but really, Scotty and the girl…is that necessary?

And  Scotty, millions of kids are watching you, and you do have a responsibility to behave decently in public.  You may want to Text Tiger for details.

So behave.

Oh, yes, good job on the ABS, BTW!

I actually agree with Jay-z!

Jay-Z doesn’t like the new version of “We Are The World”, and neither do I.

As a matter of fact, Jay-Z said it shouldn’t have been remade.  Again, I concur.

The first version, no matter what anyone thinks of it was an iconic classic filled with great singing by great singers.  It was a novel idea at the time…Farm Aid aside…thank you Willie!

Mr. Beyonce told MTV News Saturday night at the 2 Kings Dinner in Dallas, “I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched.”

Not only did he marry well, he’s very wise indeed. 

The Original, was great, included such greats as Dianna Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Kim Carnes, Huey Lewis, and my all time fave, stuck over in the corner next to LaToya, Bette Midler!

The new one has a rap section, and features a bunch of thugs and criminals including Justin Beiber and Barbra Streisand.

And you know, you can’t spell crap without rap!

The producers decided this time around to remove the only Biblical reference, you know, the one about “turning stones to bread”.

I don’t mean to be insensitive or unkind…wait for it…but how in the name of Lindsay Lohan did Wyclef Jean get a recording contract?  And wasn’t it nice of Lil Wayne to take time out of his dental appointments and court dates to pop in for a solo?

And the nerve of Celine Dion doing the Cindy Lauper part!  Really…take that whiny dog whistle of a voice back to Montreal!

Frankly, if it weren’t for Jennifer Hudson and Pink…it would be worthless.

What did Jay-Z want to do?

He says they should have made a new song.  Says the Jayster, “I think it’s time for us to make a new song.  I tried to do that with ‘Stranded,’ (the song he, Rihanna, Bono, and the Edge premiered at the “hope for Haiti Now” telethon.  He added “I didn’t try to make ‘We Are the World,’ but I tried to make our take on how we felt.”

Jay-Z’s right, the orignial was a classic, it should have been left to stand, and it’s not just because Jay-Z wasn’t there.

You might get one that is worth less in lifetime value, but they are all expensive.

Even “life lessons learned” can cost you.

But, with College Costs out of control, 401ks tanking, Mommy and Daddy telling some students to ”pay their own way”, some folks have had to get creative to pay for college.

There are signs everywhere that say “The US government has over One Hundred Billion Dollars to Pay for Education”.  Really?  How does one get it?  Seems that most government scholarships are tough to get unless one fits a mold, model, or demographic.

It’s frustrating, and I speak from experience.

The Boy is in School in Nash-Vegas, TN.  In the first year, he and his mother have borrowed over $21,000.  He will probably come out of school $35 to $40 Thousand in debt.

There are worse stories.  Go to Med School. The AMA says the average debt for Doctors coming out of school is $156,456.  And 79% leave Med School with at least $100,000. in debt!

Gee, my co-pay isn’t so painful right now.

My daughter, who was able to “Keep Hope Alive” for most of her college years, left school with about $12,000.  Mom and Dad helped with the rest of her college (we averaged $800.00 per month for five years), and the Georgia HOPE Scholarship paid for a great deal of it.  But, she still came out with debt.  She was able to pay it off quickly.

But, I have friends who have been in their careers eight years and are still paying.

So, like I said, some folks are getting creative.  Bake sales and car washes don’t seem to be enough for most, and there’s only so much plasma one can sell.

One Austrailian student who goes by the name UNIGIRL has auctioned off her virginity to help pay her university fees.

Yes, you read that correctly.

She accepted the highest offer of $36,000. US Dollars or $NZ45,000.00 for my reader in Australia.

According to the Australian, Unigirl is quoted as saying, “I have accepted an offer in excess of $NZ45.000, which is way beyond what I dreamed.”

She also wanted to thank the MORE THAN 30,000 PEOPLE who viewed her site.  She was also happy to announce that there were 1,200 offers.

Ok, this is sick.

She descried herself as attractive, fit, and healthy, and said she had never been in a sexual realtionship.   She was not clear on how she would prove her “claims”.

It cost $1.56 BILLION to run the University of Georgia last year. It’s a big school, but things might be out of control.

Seems that college has become about cash. 

And getting in has become about prostitution.

Homeschooling looks better everyday!

But first, as usual, I went to the mall, walked my three miles, headed to the gym, arms and abs, headed to the Waffle House, coffee, crossword, conversation.

Nothing unusual about all that.

But…

…a couple came in and sat at the booth next to the end of the counter where I was sitting.

The waitress came over, took their order and walked a way.

Before and after that, they spoke not one word to one another.

It was odd.

I’d like to think that they are so close that verbal communication isn’t necessary.

But I’m not that naive.

They weren’t deaf, there was no sign language.

Unless you count body language.

It was awkward.

So much so, that I did something I rarely do.

I put a dollar in the juke box and played six songs:  3 Allman Brothers  and 3 Skynyrd.

The silence was deafening.

And saddening.

It made me think.

Was there nothing left to say, had it all been said?

Or, had too much been said.

I can’t imagine being quiet.

And I’m sure most who know me can’t imagine that either.

They were obviously married, it wasn’t like two strangers were sharing a booth, but in reality it was.

Or do they know each other too well?

It was unsettling.

Unnerving.

Distressing.

Sad.

And it made me want to make sure I’m never that way.

If I can sit through a meal with you and not say a word, we don’t need to eat together.

Food and conversation go together.

Even for strangers.

But they weren’t strangers.