Big Leather Couch

The blogosphere is changing once again and NOT for the better.

JAY of "Everyday Jay", which used to be called "Cynical Ba**ard", has decided to leave his place here in the blogosphere.

Of course he will still be Tweeting (@Jayman3768) and co-hosting "I'm With Stupid" with Matt, now on Saturday's at noon, and he kind of has a Facebook page. I think he does some other social media platforms that I probably should know about, but I don't so...ask him!

But personally, I am going to miss his long form that the blog afforded.

On the other hand, coincidentally, yesterday the thought of closing down The Couch went through my brain. I think if that happened, I would spend more time on Music On The Couch and Tuneage Tutelage and maybe even Mangia Y'all.

But I do like it here...so you are stuck with me a while longer

Now, I really know why Jay made this decision...you see, just last week he announced that he had learned how to code his template to allow links to open in a new window. He had learned everything he needed to make his blog more efficient.

Women around the blogosphere are in tears tonight as the word spread like wildfire...




He may be gone from blogging but not gone from our lives...


If you have never read Jay, I would suggest you go over and check out the archives and see what you missed. Except if you read it, you really will not have missed it now, would you?

Off to NOLA tonight. Meeting best friend and his wife there. Should be a great 4 days. Will recount to y'all next week.

I will have a set for Travis' Five on Friday...hummmm wonder what the theme will be?

Late posting brought to you by the letter B
BLOGGER B**TARD

Which brings us to the former Cynical B**tard...
the now, EVERY DAY JAY, our good friend JAY!
and one of the bloggers we have actually met...

YESTERDAY JAY turned 43! The young whippersnapper!



HAPPY BIRTHDAY YA HORN WEARING-JACK DRINKIN-
RESTRAINING ORDER COLLECTING ARKANSAWYER!

Nelson Emokpae was born in Nigeria Africa and he uses his culture to combine soul, reggae and blues with his incredible vocals as he mixes a little calypso, a little Afro-beat and a lot of soul into his music.

I get to sit with Nelly and discuss the roads he has traveled, his new release "Secrets To A Happy Life" and the incredible reception he and his band are receiving on college campuses across the land.

Then Ms. Margaret Bernstein will take a seat on The Couch. Ms. Bernstein is an accomplished flutist, as well as a composer. Her musical compositions, which include elements from a diverse spectrum of styles and genres, have been inspired in part by her personal experiences and travels, which include four pilgrimages to India.

Her journey is interesting and we will get to hear music from her upcoming release "Distant Thunder" as well as her last release "Bricks In The Wall".

Join me as I sit with Nelly and Margaret and introduce y'all to musicians you should know.

We will take your calls and questions for both guests at 1.347.633.9400.

The live interactive chat room opens 20 minutes before show time. Follow this link HERE and click on the Chat Now icon. Come hang with the fans and musicians who visit each week.

Remember, unless you take the two minutes to register, you will not be able to participate in the chat room or send me questions to ask our guests, but you will still hear the show.

So tune in on Monday evening or remember, you can always listen anytime after the show ends from the player HERE or check out Music On The Couch for additional artist information, and show recaps.

You can download to your iTunes and even subscribe to the show for weekly automatic downloads, from my iTunes page

Baseball playoffs begin tomorrow. Good luck to my Yankees..

Getting excited for the festival this Thursday-Saturday. Bonus will be, I will actually Tweet during the entire time. WOAH! Bet you are all salivating now, ain't ya?

Did you know that JAY from "Cynical Bas**rd" is now doing a show on BlogTalk Radio? Yup he is. It airs at 11:00am on Sundays.

I have been a bad friend and not been able to listen live but have caught them in archives and Jay and his co-host are beginning to hit their stride.

Check them out over at their I'm With Stupid" BlogTalk Radio page.

Running a tad behind on getting ready for the show tonight, so this is short and sweet...

Sunday night we did make the Keith Sykes show. Guy was awesome and the gang backing him were solid. I posted these on FaceBook, but for those who do not go there, or if you missed them..a couple of shots:

 Susanne Jerome Taylor and Reba Russell

 Josh Roberts, Leo Goff, Keith Sykes

 Susanne and Reba

My Man Leo


Keith Sykes

I have been remiss in reminding you that if you love dancing...then you need to check out the reviews for SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE over at the home of my friend TRAVIS of Trav's Thoughts"

The man knows dancing and gives you a fans-eye report on what the dancers did and why the judges said what they did.

So, in full disclosure mode..the show Monday was a semi-train wreck. To begin, my first guest never showed..as and JAY of "Cynical B**tard" pointed out, why is it always the first guest?

Then my second guest were right on time, except I had technical difficulties and all I did was echo..echo..echo..echo..echo

Now, I did talk with some other BTR hosts and I now have a fix if and when it happens again. really sucks because Aaron from Hot Buttered Rum put up with it and was a really good guest.

Good news is we spoke on the phone when the show ended and he will be coming back to discuss the production and recording of his solo album...

i did get a note from guest #1 and she ended up at a funeral that day and well, I was not on her mind...Will see if I will rebook in a few months.

So, now that we are not going to NYC next month I have to decide if I am still taking those 4 days off. I have taken, I think 2 vacation days this year and will be taking 4 in November...so that leaves some 8 days left to take...do I take a few days off in the summer and relax and enjoy? Do I wait until December and take some time then?

We are thinking of going to San Antonio for Christmas...so I could take 5 days off there and leave Thursday the 23rd. Friday is a holiday for me..then Mon-Thurs off and Friday new Year's Eve is a holiday...hummm still leaves me with 2 days..maybe a 4-day weekend?

So much to consider...

Did you see the HUGE oil spill in China? What a mess..and this is one scary picture. This firefighter was thrown off a vessel by a wave and became coated in the thick oil and drowned...yes that is the poor man being carried on the back of a co-worker...

This is truly scary...

Dad's book has been met with enthusiasm by those who know him. I have been shown some emails he has received from people who have read the book. This one is from someone who Dad knows via the community he lives in and the board.

Others may sing or do videos and stuff,
but I know what JAY of "Cynical B**tard"
REALLY wants on his Birthday.

Go over and wish the big guy a BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY as his is on Sunday!

This iconic photo was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967.

Of all the concerts I have seen over my lifetime, there has always been one hole. One artist I have not had that chance to see live. That is all being fixed this evening at 7:30pm central time.

FedEx Forum - OK, not my first choice of a venue - seats overlooking stage right, Nancy and I will be honored to witness Mr. Eric Clapton perform!

I was online the morning tickets went on sale and selected these seats for their proximity to the stage. We have row A seats, so there will be no obstruction to our view.

Appearing with Mr. Clapton is Mr. Roger Daltrey, he of that small little band called The Who.

Should be an incredible show and I can not wait.

Will give you an update on it on Monday and might even throw a Tweet or two out during the show.

Y'all have a grand weekend...I think most of mine will be spent working as my company has taken two days away from us to get our billing done. I love my job....

My Nancy was traveling all last week and she was so very sick with chest congestion and sour stomach and for a time she could hardly even speak from laryngitis.

Well on Sunday she showed how much she loves me by letting me have some of her illness. She is so good like that, sharing and all. I was out of the office yesterday and slept a good portion of the day.

Made me wonder if I was going to make the show last night, but I am a trooper and I will be there (writing this at 5:00pm...show at 9:00pm).

I have to echo a statement by JAY of "Cynical B**tard" who spoke yesterday about Twitter enhancing the Olympic viewing pleasure. He and I going back and forth during the hockey game on Sunday and also demanding begging for one of those moose hats with the flashing lights from the closing ceremony was fun.

OK, NBC is getting a ton of well deserved crap for leaving the closing ceremony to air that horrible Marriage Ref...but honestly, the ceremony was decending into a parody of itself.

I could not tell if I was watching the Olympics, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, or a really lame episode of Second City. The bit with Shatner, O'Hara and Fox was pitiful. The writers should be taken out to one of those frozen lakes and dropped into the water.

But even more pitiful was Jerry Seinfeld's return to TV. Dude...that show is the crap. The people who appear on there and fight over whether the family pet should be stuffed and displayed or whether a stripper pole (well, it IS exercize!) in the bedroom are really at the lowest level of the totem pole...well except they are getting vacation cruises for making themselves look like fools...HEY NANCY, can we get on there???

Thank you to those who are listening to Music On The Couch. Remember, even if you are not available on Monday evenings, you can download the show from the player at the top of the left sidebar.

You can not watch the Food Network (one of my favorite things to do) when your stomach is rolling around like the ocean after an earthquake.

NO, I do not believe the 2012 end of the world crapola (Man, I am saying that word a lot today!)...but you have to wonder what the heck-a-doodle is going on these days.

See you tonight on the Radio Happy Hour when we will welcome the cast of The Buried Life - an MTV reality show focusing on four friends; Duncan Penn, Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, and Jonnie Penn as they travel across America to complete a list of “100 things to do before you die.”

For every item they complete on their list, they help a stranger achieve one of their dreams and encourage others to go after their own lists.

Everywhere they go they ask the question: What do you want to do before you die?

AND...Chris Illuminati,the coauthor of Assholeology: The Science Behind Getting Your Way and Getting Away with it.

OK, man could I get snarky about that and someone I used to know...

See y'all tomorrow...

Going to give you a taste of Mississippi Heat. They are out of Chicago, though, like their name, the music they play is all Delta...well with a little 'latin-blues' thrown in. The band leader, Pierre Lacocque will be joining me on Music On The Couch on May 17th or sooner. (Going to have to find out how to pronounce his name before the show!)

This is entitled Soft-Hearted Woman



If you want to show some blog(talk radio) love, you can grab the following code...or you can always grab the player from MOTC Website

This code will give you this button:
Listen to "Music On The Couch" with Vinny Bond on Blog Talk R
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Where you see the 3 RED ( make them < - one is inside the code itself, look careful. Where you see the 3 RED ) - all at the end -, make it a > and add the/span and /a inside those to the code.

Now how is that KABLOOEY???? I am sure JAY of "Cynical B**tard" will be able to tell us all, since he is a expert on cheerleaders, and sexy young Asians, and well..unfortunately he is becoming an expert on Luke Wilson too...but we will not hold that against him.

SO, anyway...it all ended up being caused by a stat counter I had installed about a year or so ago...It was the second one on the site, but I was trying to verify the other counter...any whoodle, I kept seeing that "waiting for 088 dot free-counter dot co dot uk" message on the lower left of my Firefox window, so typed it into my address box and was told that it was leading me to the server for this stat service but it never connected.

So...over to my html and delete the code and open a new tab and HECK-A-DOODLE The Couch loaded right up.

As a matter of fact LU' of "PA Greenery" told me The Couch has not loaded that fast in like forever. (or maybe since I added that second counter?)

So, does it load faster for you?

I sent an email to a couple of people who have told me they can not come to comment because the page never loads for them...I am hopeful this fixes that issue...

So...I am feeling better...now if I can just solve the wireless printer issue at the house...but that is a whole other issue!

Have a grand weekend all....

GOOD NEWS in the bloggosphere today. STARR'S daughter Kidlet is home from the hospital!

ANNDI'S chicklet is also on the mend! We hear that MATT-MAN" is being drained of the germies...

I have 5 Globes to finish tonight and tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow, we will probably be at the Liberty Bowl as Nancy's son Ernie's HS Band competes. The Lewisburg High School marching band is the 4A Mississippi State Marching Band Champions this year. The school has been open for 4-years and they have 2 second place finishes and now a Championship!

This Saturday they compete with schools from other states...so it is a big deal.

I think it will also be an awesome photo opportunity.

This last month with being involved heavily with Peace Globes has been a soothing adventure for me. Within the whirlwind of things going on in my life and in the lives of some people who are very close to me (5 of whom I have never met!), having the Peace globes and trying to evangelicize about them has truly made it all so much easier.

And isn't that the point of participating in Peace Globes and BlogBlast for Peace. To find that calmness within each of us.

If we all did so...if every man, woman and child created a Peace Globe and put their thoughts on it, would that not make us all stop...and look at our neighbor differently?

I believe it would...

OK...last of our trip - there are some in this group I really like

Bull Shoals Dam Area


The J-Man...sans Viking Helmet!





Buffalo River Park
Heading down to the river
a 0.6 mile hike
Down was fun ...


Going up...not so much
About a third of the trail was this
incline - down was easy...

Up - NOT SO MUCH!

But when we were not climbing Everest...
it really was beautiful


Can you see the name of the town?

How about now?!?!

We took a side trip and spent
about two hours roaming this place
It was pretty nice...







This baby earned it's keep.
Instead of going south to hit
the interstate -we took back roads
all the way home and got to see
some pretty county -
all in all a GRAND WEEKEND

Y'ALL HAVE A HAPPY HALLOWEEN