I need more cards!

Lately I've been handing these out so much that I've run out! Yesterday I put one on the windshield of a black Sentra that was parked facing the wrong way on 4th Street. Yup, pointed South on a North-bound one way!

Wednesday Forgotten Oldie...

Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas had a series of hits in England and the U.S.A. during the same time Beatlemania was raging. Another Liverpool band, Billy's group was managed by Brian Epstein, recorded and produced by George Martin, and actually given a number of songs by Lennon-McCartney. After several Beatle compositions became hits for Billy, he decided to move out of the shadow of John and Paul and released a song written by two Americans, "Little Children" in late 1964.  The song became his biggest hit, going to number one in the UK and number seven in the USA.  Amazingly, the flip side "Bad To Me", later rose to number nine on the charts, the only time both sides of a single reached the top ten independent of each other.

Little Children remains my favorite song from Billy J. Kramer & the Dakotas. It was a big part of the wave of good music that established the British Invasion of the 60's.

Ever come face to face...

with a ferocious guard dog?  You walk into a business after hours and WHOOM, you're attacked!  Don't panic, first you need to check to see if it's a level one guard dog... it's the level three's you need to run away from!

Wednesday's Forgotten Oldie...

"Smith" was an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1969. They were discovered by Del Shannon while performing in a nightclub in L.A. They had a blues-based sound and scored a Top 5 hit in 1969 with a cover of the Burt Bacharach song "Baby It's You", featuring Gayle McCormick on lead vocals. This disc sold over one million copies between July and October 1969, out-charted popular versions by the Beatles and the Shirelles, and received a gold record awarded by the R.I.A.A.  "Baby It's You" was also featured in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse film, Death Proof.
Somehow the Smith version is overshadowed by the Shirelles' and Beatles' version and has practically disappeared from the airwaves.  I don't get it, to me the Smith version is the best by far and Gayle McCormick's vocal is perfect!  Watch it on youtube, she's easy on the eyes as well!

A healthy summer snack!

Pick up some "long yellow things" at your local food store, great for warm weather and good for you!

Keith's unofficial rules of camping

My list is a work in progress, I may add to it from time to time. As summer goes on I'll try to post photos to illustrate the rules... like the one below. This is Jeff, showing us rule #10 in embarrassing fashion. KEITH'S RULES OF CAMPING - 1st Edition
1. There will be many sunny days that the weatherman said would rain.
 2. Meals will never be what was planned, or when.
 3. There is always one more beer in the bottom of the cooler.
 4. You will always have unexpected guests.
 5. Nobody goes inside when it rains, so take care of your awning.
 6. Always walk carefully. You fall down just once but you hear about it forever.
 7. Building a fire is easy if you know how.
 8. A mosquito bite is better than a frisbee in the shin.
 9. Tents are a ridiculous idea invented by sadists.
  10. Lawn chairs will collapse, it's a matter of time.
 11. Everything tastes good reheated over a fire at 1:00 AM.

Summer storm!

What a great photo from last night's storm! Thanks to Dennis Smiley for the great shot!

Wednesday's Forgotten Oldie...

Today's tune is "Fever" by the McCoys. The McCoys were a sometimes four, sometimes five-man rock band from Indiana that had two top-ten hits in 1965, "Hang on Sloopy" which went to number one, and the follow-up "Fever" which went to number seven. The song "Fever" was published in 1956 and originally recorded by Little Willie John, whose version of "Fever" was a number one hit for three weeks on the R&B chart, and also as an early Rock'n'Roll song peaking at number twenty-four. In 1958, Peggy Lee's cover version was even more popular, peaking at number eight on the US pop charts. It's interesting that Peggy Lee's signature song was actually beat by the McCoys' version in chart position as well as sales. Despite similarities to "Sloopy", "Fever" is an excellent song. It's sung by a young Rick Derringer, who went on to sing and play lead guitar for both Johnny and Edgar Winter as well as Steely Dan.

Much cooler today!

Sunny and 71 today... wow. After four days that gave our sweat glands their best exercise in many months, what a relief! But hot weather is due back this weekend, so here's my hint for the day... get plenty of "Ice-Cold-Ice". Not the warm stuff, the ice-cold stuff. Not melty ice, the ice-cold stuff! Hilarious.

And the GPS says...

Turn Left (of course).

Did you know...

That each line on a red solo cup is a measurement? I never knew that, so let's have a party! Happy Friday!

Wednesday Forgotten Oldie...

The Leaves were an American garage band formed in California in 1963. Their biggest hit was the song "Hey Joe", which was a hit in 1966. Theirs is the earliest release of this song. "Hey Joe" became a rock standard, covered by the Byrds, the Cryan Shames, Jimi Hendrix and many other bands in the late 60's. The Leaves released a few singles as well as three albums, but never achieved great success and broke up in 1967. Jim Pons, a Leaves founder, joined another group which did make it big... the Turtles. But "Hey Joe" made a huge mark on the 60's, it seemed like every band from coast to coast did the song on stage, and it's influence was strong enough that the song was included in a garage rock compilation called "Nuggets" in the 70's. The song is truly a great example of American rock of the British invasion era.

Ghost at Goose?

We camp a lot! We even have a full time camp-site at Goose Island and spend as much time as possible there. And we have a lot of campfires usually shared with groups of friends. And I take lots of pictures. My Sony Cybershot takes great shots at night, especially around the fire. On Sunday the 27th I took the picture below. Out of hundreds of night photos, I've never had one like this before. There was no smoke from the fire and nobody near me was smoking, and yet this photo appears to have a smokey face... plus the very next photo of this group taken seconds later, was clear. What do you think it is?