Thursday, January 25, 2007

Charlie Missed The Party.

A while back I was talking about when I was with CBS Television News covering the Charlie Manson murder case in Los Angeles and a Halloween Party the press corps held during the trial.

It was mentioned there was a photo of me "drunk with a lady reporter on my lap." I believe the attached photo shows just how much truth there was to THAT rumor.

If you look closely, you can see the handcuffs on my right wrist and, yes, those are 70s hippie striped bell bottom pants. I had blocked that from my memory completely.


One of the reporters sent me a CD with clippings from the trial and some pictures from the party so it was a memory jogger for sure.

The surprising thing about the overall group shot was that the prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi (far left) came to the party and posed along with one of Manson's lawyers, a bearded Ron Hughes who later died before the trial ended.

The 3 lady reporters all came as members of "the family" and wore black t-shirts and had crosses painted on their forehead. The actual ladies who picketed outside the L.A. Hall of Justice each day had carved the image on themselves.

I am glad to put to rest that old, old rumor about my alleged behavior at the party.

Labels: , ,

Monday, January 22, 2007

A Preview Beats Hindsight....

Yeah, I don't have to show up at a job each day so I do go to a LOT of live music concerts.

Here was a Savannah Surprise... John Mellencamp chose to kick off his national tour last year here in the Civic Center and it was quite a production.

He has lots of friends in town - and maybe even owns a house - so I guess that's why he picked to start his tour down in Charleston Light.

But that's talking about a show that left here and went on the road. I prefer to see a review of somebody that I STILL can go and see. Don't just tell me "too bad, you missed a great evening."

Catch Drink Small, a SC blues legend I enjoyed one night at Cumberland's a few months ago. He'll be playing locally during February's Blues Bash so check out which venue and when.

Here's another star coming back to Charleston after being away a while....Keb' Mo' will be onstage at the Charleston Music Hall March 6.

He played outdoors in Columbia at the 3 Rivers Music Festival a few years ago.

Tickets are on sale right now through ETix so join me up front, close to the stage, for some fine entertainment.

Hope you got your tickets long ago for the Lyle Lovett Show this coming Friday and you'd better scramble if you want to see Delbert McClinton at The Plex Saturday February 3. He hasn't been here in a while.

It's an easy drive to Columbia on Valentine's Day for Billy Joel and that city already has banned indoor smoking so that adds to my enjoyment.

Man! This sure beats working.

Labels: , , , , ,

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Hi technology..howyah doin'?

Tonight was tedious. Really, really a throw back to about ....12-14 years ago.

I had to send some information (about 8 pages) to a company and they asked me to "Fax it." I said "You're kidding right? Can't I just e-mail it?" They laughed and said "Don't I wish."

I did find the way to make my computer fax something but could not seem to gather all the pages and send them as a batch. So I did a cover sheet for each page and listened as my high speed computer shifted down, almost grinding and groaning into a low, low rumbling gear and s-l-o-w-l-y, s-l-o-w-l-y cranked out the cover sheet and page 1 of 8, then cover sheet and page 2 of 8, etc. It took forever.

Finally I got back to making a rapid copy of a friend's CD to add to my blues collection and scanned the cover and back sheet and my speedy printer spit out perfect color copies on shiny photo paper which I trimmed and inserted in the jewel box. Good as the original!


This picture shows me discovering High Tech back in the 50s when a Bishop England high school buddy and I dropped in to the old WCSC TV5 on East Bay Street and we wandered over to the weather map. Wow. Look at all the weatherman's secrets.

I picked up Charlie Hall's spiffy hands-free microphone, slipped my head through the loop and picked up the wax chalk to mark what the highs and lows were going to be in Wyoming, way up there, up close to the Montana border. It just felt natural.

They've lost that personal touch..the weather person was writing backwards! Mr. Hall was more talented than I ever imagined. No wonder he lasted so long on the air in Charleston.(Actually, since this was black and white broadcasting, the "secret" was writing all the numbers and information on the weather map in advance in a color that did not show. Then he merely traced the letters on the back of the plexiglass map as he spoke into the camera. Shhh...keep that to yourself.

About that time a WCSC employee stopped and asked what we were doing and we mumbled "nothing" and quickly headed for the studio's exit.

Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, January 14, 2007

When Irish Blogs Are Smiling ....

Actually Jared was still smiling because his San Diego Chargers had not yet lost in the final seconds.

The rest of the happy crowd of bloggers gathered at Madra Rua in North Charleston was conversing, drinking pints of Guiness and Boddingtons and even some American brews while sampling crunchy Fish & Chips, Shepherd's Pie and Irish Stew at the 4th "official" Lowcountry Blogroll party - the Pub Blog.

The game was on the telly, a young lass was fiddling Irish tunes on a violin as you entered and the NO SMOKING edict was in effect on this side of the bar..at least until the kitchen closed in several hours. Smiling and connecting faces with blog names was in full force.


Notorious Nice Mike (left foreground) chatted with Vera of Vera's Crafty Blog (right foreground) as English Geoff talks about his recent jet lag to British bike builder Dave Moulton. Neither has a very pronounced Lowcountry accent. Yet.






It was a good turnout and the staff worked extra hard to please as the bloggers filled The Soccer Room. As usual camera appeared often and there will be other photos posted to show that a good time was had by all.

Well, Jared was not too happy with the Chargers.

Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, January 04, 2007

WOW! A view seen by very few....

A buddy of mine who knows I am a certified "Space Nut" was kind enough to knock my socks off this morning by sending the attached.

These are views from one of the security jet aircraft flying around the launch site to keep curious people from wandering in too close.

A Great seat! At first I thought it was from the Space Station circling above our globe but THAT is much higher.

I am sure this was not just a coincidence ...the scientists calculated how to make this photo op convergence happen. I also know the last launch was at night so obviously this is an earlier one. (Duh. There's also a date stamp on the photo which helped me figure out which launch this was.)



He also sent the next shot as the launched shuttle rose higher and the security perimeter jets came even closer.

Sometimes it's good that your friends know some of your quirks, likes and dislikes.

Now I will put my socks back on.

Labels: , , ,