Author: carey

July 24, 2018 Music Post a Comment

More Banjo!

You can never have enough banjo as far as I’m concerned. So I’m doing another banjo related post. Probably because mine are stuck behind a bunch of moving boxes where I can’t get to them. I had them accessible, but my wife blocked them in. Hmm, wonder if that was by design? Nahh, you can never get enough banjo!

Anyway, here is the great Doug Dillard and his band with the equally great Vassar Clements on fiddle. If Doug looks vaguely familiar he and his musical family were called the “Darlings” when they stopped by to jam with Andy Griffith at the sheriff’s office.

July 23, 2018 Music Post a Comment

Play it Like Earl…

Just about every aspiring banjo player starts off wanting to sound like Earl Scruggs. While Earl didn’t invent playing the banjo with three fingers, he certainly was the one that perfected it and brought it to popularity.

Earl was right there next to Bill Monroe when Bill was becoming the father of bluegrass. Then Earl was right there next to Lester Flatt when bluegrass invaded our living rooms and movie theaters.

In 1969, after 20 very successful years, Flatt and Scrugs decided to part. Flatt wanted to stick to traditional music, and Earl wanted to keep branching out.

In 1969 he formed the Earl Scrugs Revue with his three sons and continued to branch out and expand “banjo music” until his bad back forced him off the road in 1982.

Here’s a snippet from their appearance on Austin City Limits

So while it’s fun to “play it like Earl”, it’s also fun to remember Earl always liked to find new ways to play it.

July 20, 2018 Uncategorized Post a Comment

My Title a Reign Was Short Lived

The other day I wondered if putting on my shoes and putting my shorts on over them made me the laziest person alive.

Today I relinquish that crown to this Ontario, California person who figured out how to mow their lawn without all that pushing and walking.

All hail the new Laziest Person Alive champion!

July 18, 2018 News Post a Comment

Kevin Bacon Finally Wins the Good Fight

You can now do something in Fort Smith Arkansas that you that been able to do legally since 1953.

You can now dance in public on a Sunday.

It’s kind of amazing to watch hokey movies with a weird premise like, “what if there were a town that still forbids dancing,” and realize there really were places like that. Heck, up until this summer, and 34 years after Kevin Bacon started the war to dance in publicagain, Fort Smith, Arkansas was still one of those weird, hokey places.

July 17, 2018 News Post a Comment

Dog Heart Disease May Be Linked to Potato-Based Pet Food, FDA Says

Just saw this article that warns there may be an increased chance if heart disease to dogs from eating “pet foods with peas, lentils, potatoes and other legume seeds.”

Large dog breeds are susceptible to canine dilated cacdiomypatohy which enlarges the heart, causing it to weaken. This can lead to heart failure. Veterinarians are starting to see an increase in this condition amongst smaller breeds who only rarely contracted it before.

The article is extremely short on the details that lead the FDA to suspect those ingredients in their food were to blame. I know I’ve purchased foods with those ingredients before, but I plan to avoid them in the future until more studies are done.

July 16, 2018 News, Sports Post a Comment

Remembering Evel

In case you missed the History channel show “Evel Live” gets Travis Pastrana recreating one of Evel Knievel’s most iconic stunts, jumping the fountain at Ceasers Palace.

When Evel attempted the jump in 1967 he lost control of the landing, broke just about every bone in his body, and was in a coma for almost a month.

Travis avoided the spectacular crash as he sailed over the fountain with ease. Travis also jumped over more than 50 crushed cars and then jumped over 18 buses prior to the fountain stunt. That’s three death defying Evel tributes in one day!

July 6, 2018 News Post a Comment

Would be Supervillains

Here’s some footage of two supervillain wannabes hopefully discovering that a life of crime isn’t for them.

What illicit goodies were this pair hoping to score by taking a trash can from a doggie daycare center? What cool, unique, totally awesome verbiage was on that sign? How rigid was the timing on this caper that the wheelman couldn’t stop two seconds to find out how badly he ran over his partner? How much alcohol was consumed before they thought this was a good idea?

A whole lot of work for a can full of poop (that he left behind).

July 3, 2018 Uncategorized Post a Comment

Just Joshin’

Behold the Liberty nickel. They’re really not gold colored, but in 1883 a clever deaf/mute named Josh Tatum came up with a novel get rich scheme.

He realized that the coin was similar in size to a five dollar gold piece and the “V” on the back lacked any mention of “cents”. He also guessed correctly that a sales clerk handed a gold plated version of the nickel would assume it was really the five dollar gold piece.

The brilliant part of his plan? When he was finally caught he successfully used the defense that, because he was deaf and dumb, he was unable to correct the clerks mistake in giving him back to much change.

How well did Mr. Tatum’s plan succeed? When someone figures out they’ve been conned with a line of BS, we still use the defense, “It’s ok, I was only joshing you!”