Toby the Pin Cushion! UPDATED! (scroll down)

Over the course of today I will feel like a voodoo doll. I am gonna be poked, prodded, x-rayed and have enough blood drawn to hold a Dracula Family Picnic. I just hope the lady who draws my blood has had a lovely day up to that point. Drawing blood... point...I made a funny. The medical powers that be are going to run eight different tests on me to see what's up with the root causes of my migrating rheumatoid arthritis (hey, it's legal migrating RA, not illegal migrating RA!). I also have fibromyalgia. My understanding is that I may have sort of immune system deficiency that adds to this problem, but I will know more when the test results are in. Besides the pain of the RA and the muscle weakness from the fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue is also a result of all this bullshit.

I am normally a one man ant hill, scurrying through life at a full tilt boogie, but Mother Nature and Middle Age have conspired to slow me down a little. I am by no means complaining. I know that there are millions of people far worse off than I am, and many of them live life with gusto and a smile, so I figure I can at least do the same without bitchin' about a little RA and the other stuff. I have a lot of life left to enjoy with my grown up sons, my two little girls and my grand kids, I just have to do it a little more deliberately. Like Waylon Jennings once sang, "I may be used, but baby I ain't used up."

Instead of a regular post today, I wanted to put up links for some of my favorite websites. They cover various subjects, from politics to sports to technology, and some may use salty language, but they are cool sites to visit.

 The List:

Politics
Ace of Spades HQ - This is the first blog I ever visited a few years ago and is without a doubt my favorite. It's mostly about politics, but Ace covers other stuff as well. Pick out a post and go to the comment section. The "Morons" (Ace's readers) are flat ass funny and damn smart people. I love this blog.
JammieWearingFool - Jammie is a Jersey guy who covers politics and current events with a conservative slant. He's built this blog up to one of the top blogs in the country in just a few years. I visit it daily.
Nuke Gingrich - Fellow Texan no2liberals has a great take on current events and other topics at his blog. He takes no prisoners! Be sure to stop by!

Technology
 Gizmodo   
Lifehacker
These are two blogs about general technology stuff, but both have something for all level of computer user to appreciate. The also have very good comment sections and are quite helpful with new readers who have questions about the subject at hand.

Sports
 Texas Sports - All things Longhorn Sports. Enuff said.
The Smoakhouse Forums - If you want to know anything about sports - pro, college, high school - David Smoak is The Man. I know David and he's the shit when it comes to sports. He hosts a radio show on KTBB AM in Tyler. The station streams its programming online at this link. Just click on the "Listen Live" button. Smoak is on in the afternoon from 3 - 7, I think. It's been a while.


Pay these sites a visit. They are all top-notch in their fields of interest. I'll try to post a summary of the day's events when I get home, but I am not sure what to expect as far as any medication I'll be administered during my hospital visit. Make it a great day, y'all!


Adios,
Toby

UPDATE: I "donated"  twelve(!) vials of blood for tests whose names sounded like alphabet soup. These tests will hopefully give the doctors some information on what is going on. I guess, we'll see. I also had about 10 or 12 x-rays taken in some body positions that I won't discuss in mixed company. Let's just say I'm glad they won't be on the internet. :)

The Maine Country Music Hall of Fame

Big Boots to Fill**

Country music in Maine is very popular, if Arbitron (radio's version of the Nielsens) is to be believed. I couldn't locate the most recent ratings for the the biggest markets in Maine, Bangor and Portland, but I did locate some ratings from the last year. Those charts show that the top rated radio station for Bangor plays Country Music. This ratings chart shows that two of the top three stations in Portland, Maine's largest city, are running a country music format.

Maine is not, however, known as a place that produces a great number of country music stars, like, say Texas or Tennessee. As a matter of fact, I did several online searches for country music stars from Maine and I came across exactly one that had a hit song I could remember - Dick Curless, with 1965's A Tombstone Every Mile. Curless also had ten other songs that charted between 1965 and 1972. This is not to say that Maine singers suck or anything, it simply means that the numbers favor larger states. For instance, Texas has about 25,000,000 people and Maine has about 1.5 million. Hell, Texas has 1.5 million country singers performing at local clubs around the state on any given Friday night. How many of those 1.5 million singers will ever become a major recording star? Two? Three? It's a numbers game. Put another way, what are the top three states in the country that turn out more college football stars than all the rest? Texas, California and Florida. Those three states account for, when added together, over eighty million people.! It's only natural that they would produce a larger number of anything like star players and singers, by the sheer force of mathematics.

The numbers mentioned above do not, however, dampen the enthusiasm Mainers have for Country Music. I just happened across this story in the Portland Press Herald. The Maine Country Music Hall of Fame has finally found a home, if only temporary, after all the items donated to it had been in storage for 31 years! the MCMHOF will be housed in the Silver Spur Club in Mechanic Falls until a permanent facility can be found. In the meantime, performers' clothes, sheet music, photos and other memorabilia from Maine's Country Music past will be on display at the Silver Spur for the public to see. I feel sure that if any of the old timers are hangin' around the venue when you visit, they'd be happy to share some stories of their time as stars in their own right with you. Although national recognition eluded many of the Hall's members during their singing careers, their dedication to finally finding a home for the artifacts of yesterday's country musicians of Maine, is indeed worthy of all the attention that it can garner, and inspirational to a new generation of country music singers and would-be superstars of today.

**Photo from Portland Press Herald**

Country Music Month: The Texas Connection - Bob Wills UPDATED (scroll down)

If you look back through the history of Country Music you'll find times when an artist came along that has such an impact on the genre that he/she takes the music to an entirely new level in the eyes, the ears actually, of the listening public. One such time was in 1929 when a young man named James Robert Wills brought forth a new type of Country Music called Western Swing. This was as big a happening to Country Music as when Elvis later got the world of Rock N Roll all shook up (insert Jordanaires backing vocals...uh huh huh). More on that in a minute.

On March 5, 1905, a baby boy was born in Old Union, Texas (near Groesbeck, in Limestone County) who was destined to play the fiddle and change the face of Country Music. James Robert Wills came into this world  a bit of a premonition, the son of a statewide fiddle champion. Each member of the Wills family played an instrument, so holding  dances in their four room house was a regular thing for Jim Bob (as young Wills was called) and family. Bob learned traditional music from his family and what were called "Negro songs" from the black people who picked cotton on the Wills cotton farm. Later in life, Wills noted that until he was seven or eight, he hardly ever played with white kids other than his siblings, but was in the cotton fields singing and playing with the black children. At age sixteen, Bob hopped on a train and traveled around from place to place before moving back home and attending barber school. Bob continued to play the fiddle and travel extensively in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, meeting future Texas Playboys band members like Tommy Duncan along the way. Eventually getting a daily radio gig on 50,000 watt KVOO in Tulsa, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys were heard by a large audience every day and soon major success would come their way.( detailed bio of Bob Wills). Churning out hit after hit, the American public went crazy over Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Bob Also starred in movies, did rodeo shows, almost anything to to share Western Swing with the world. There are so many songs to list, I am gonna make it easy on you and me by posting this link to YouTube with many of Wills' classic songs.

Bob Wills musical influence extended to some of the greatest country artists of all time - Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson among them. Haggard did a tribute album to Wills in 1970 called "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World"  with Wills and The Texas Playboys as guests. If you like Western Swing, find this album! It's a work of art. Willie did an album of Bob Wills songs with Ray Price and it, too, is a great piece of music (sorry, I can't recall the name of it). More Bob Wills information and music can be found on the Official Bob Wills Website.

 UPDATE: My Blog Buddy no2liberals provides this this link to his site with some great info on boogie woogie/swing music!

Country Music Month - The Colorado Connection: Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.

I might, and rightfully so, get an argument as to whether Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. was a Country singer or a Pop singer. Since I am the final, and only, arbiter of the content of this blog, I say Country. And Country it is. HJD, Jr. was born in Roswell, New Mexico on New Year's Eve, 1943. It wasn't until he pursued a musical career that he changed his name (Deutschendorf was a little long to put on a marquee) to John Denver. He chose Denver because it was the capital of his favorite state, Colorado. Country or Pop, John Denver wrote and sang songs that Mid America could relate to. (Take Me Home) Country Roads, Rocky Mountain High and Annie's Song. A great song that Denver wrote was one that was a huge hit for Peter, Paul and Mary, many of you will recognize and say "I didn't know that!", Leavin' On a Jet Plane. One line I have memorized for well over 30 years is the opening line to Rocky Mountain High, "he was born in the summer of his 27th year coming home to a place he'd never been before". That's some serious songwriting right there. That line says in 19 words what I feel every time I find a special fishin' hole. I may have never before been there physically, but I have seen that place in my mind and felt it in my soul at least a hundred times. I'm home at place I've never been before. Good stuff. Besides being a singing star, John Denver was a good man, with his own set of flaws, but the good works he did for the less fortunate, including starving people in Africa and conservation projects.

Denver hosted the Grammys in 1983 & 1984, did a ton of TV shows and starred in a few movies, including the popular hit Oh, God with George Burns. Oh, I almost forgot he did some great Christmas songs with the Muppets. Sadly, he died doing one of the other things in life that brought him solace and joy - flying. John Denver was a very experienced pilot with over 2700 hours and several certifications. An experimental aircraft he was piloting crashed into the Pacific Ocean on October 12, 1997. As much as I like my music with an edge to it (Hank, Jr., Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.), there's something about the imagery in a John Denver song that "takes me home to a place I've never been before".

Country Music Month - The Texas Connection: Shotgun Willie

Here's a question for you: Can you remember a time when Willie Nelson was not a part of Country Music? I can't either. The man became a part of the Country Music scene in 1956! I was born in 1956!

The Favorite Son of Abbott, Texas was born April 30, 1933, where at age six, Willie's Dad bought some mail-order music lessons that young Willie delved into head first. Willie wrote his first song at seven years old and was in a band by the time he was nine. His father was a pool hall owner, so honky tonks were like a second home to Willie. As a young man, Willie sang in the local watering holes, while being a DJ at various radio stations. He moved to Vancouver, Washington and then to Nashville, but still had little success as a singer. However, Willie was a prolific songwriter having penned such hits as Funny How Time Slips Away for Billy Walker, Night Life for Ray Price, Crazy for Patsy Cline and Hello Walls for Faron Young. Still, a singing career was not in the cards for Willie at this time. In 1973, the critically acclaimed (which means nobody bought it) Shotgun Willie  was released followed by Phases and Stages with the hit single Bloody Mary Morning.. In 1975 after changing record labels where he got full control over his music, and moving to Austin and becoming a part of the Outlaw Music scene, Willie captured lightning in a bottle with the release of  The Red Headed Stranger. Willie Nelson was now a bona fide star. For the last thirty-five years, Willie has written and produced some of the most memorable music of any genre. From his classic duets with Waylon Jennings , Ray Price, Ray Charles and an offer to do a duet with me(!) and a host of others to that magical album of standards, Stardust, Willie has gone places with music that few, if any, others would even consider. There is so much to write about when Willie is the subject, that I'd have to write a book to cover it all. Instead, I'll leave you with  this link to Wikipedia to dive in a little deeper into the man that is Willie Nelson.

Apple Pickin' and Pumpkin Choosin' With the Family Updated With Photos (Scroll down)

By the time many of you read this, I'll be enjoying the 39 degree Maine morning out in an apple orchard like this one. Neat, huh? I am taking Heather, Issy and Bailey to not only pick apples, but to pick a couple of pumpkins for Halloween also. It's our first time to do this kind of stuff so it should be a lot of fun, especially watching the kids be kids. This orchard charges no admission and apples straight off the trees are just a dollar a pound. Another cool thing is that when you park upon arrival, the orchard staff pick you up in a hayride-type wagon and off you go into the orchard for apple pickin'! You are allotted a certain amount of time to pick apples, 15 minutes, I think, and here comes the hay ride guy again and it's away to the pumpkin patch! Heather is taking her Blackberry and will snap and post some pictures right from the orchard, so look for them on Facebook. A good time is to be had by all.

UPDATE: We ended up with 22 pounds of McIntosh apples and 2 pumpkins for the kids to eventually destroy. Heather and I had a great time and the kids had even more fun than we did.


UPDATE WITH PHOTOS!

A Quarter Mile of Apples on One Row!

Issy : I see one!

Bailey: To eat or not to eat, that is the question

Country Music Month - The Texas Connection - Waylon Jennings (For My Brother Mark)

Texas and Country Music go together like a hand and glove. A short list of country superstars from Texas reads like a Who's Who of the industry - Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, George Strait, George Jones, Waylon Jennings... I'll never forget the day that I heard Waylon had died, February 13, 2002. My Brother Mark and I were roommates in a little house in Tyler, Texas. We were/are early risers and one of the first things we did each morning was crank up some music, followed by beer for breakfast and a manually assembled relaxation device. Mark is a Waylon guy, I am a Hank, Jr guy. On this day, we were both Waylon guys. It was like a swift kick in the gazebos. Painful and you can't believe it just happened. Mark and I liked Waylon's music because of the stories that Waylon wrote about. We had lived those songs. Waylon put them to music, singing about our Rough and Rowdy Days. But now the music had stopped, no more of that familiar thumping bass, no more stories about a Good Hearted Woman or Luckenbach, Texas.

Looking back, it's hard to believe that Waylon Arnold Jennings started his singing career in 1949! He was twelve years old. Ten years later he would be the bassist for Buddy Holly's new band and would be the man that gave up his plane seat to a fellow Texan, The Big Bopper, on The Day the Music Died, February 3, 1959. From there, the man from Littlefield, Texas would record over sixty albums and gain worldwide fame as one of the original Outlaws of Country Music. But Waylon knew that Ladies Love Outlaws, just ask Jessie Colter. Waylon was a Ramblin' Man  and his hometown of Littlefield knew it too and saw fit to name an RV Park after him. That's when you know you are a superstar in Texas! Hank Williams, Jr recorded several songs with Waylon and in one of them said about Waylon, "he's got a string of hits about two miles long". True that, and thanks to websites like You Tube, Waylon and his two miles of hit music live on.