Big Leather Couch

Man, has it been hot here. Do not get me wrong, I prefer the heat to the cold, but the first two weeks of June have brought us 90 degree days continually. What is going to happen in July/August when it really gets hot?

I know Songbird from "The Ice Box" lives in the desert and they get higher temperatures and it is hot with or without humidity...but it sux getting in a car that has been sitting in the sun for 5 hours. 

To set the record straight, I am on Facebook (and have found it very useful in keeping up with family and friends and renewing old friendships) and I am on Twitter, but that is more a marketing tool for Music On The Couch.

Speaking of that, Monday's show featured interviews with Jeremy Bustillos, who talked about his life as a member of the US Navy Band, and Bryan Lee, who was fantastic. The man should be known by everyone. He mentored Kenny Wayne Shepard. Buddy Guy has him play on his albums - and plays on Bryan's newest - and is also a real person.

He does not pull punches at times and then at others showed his love of entertaining.

Hope you check it out...go on, just download it anyway!


And now...for Mimi of "Mimi Writes", because...well, because I want to give her a reason to smile...

"Ring Ring! Viiiibbbbbbbrrrrraaattte. Buzzzzzz Buzzzzz
It's Mimi on the line. Electronic gadgets have taken over our lives it seems. I can't go anywhere without seeing someone talking on a cellular phone or fixated on one of the newest toys. Doesn't it annoy you? On the other hand, how did we ever get along without them?
Call or text 1-800-Bloggingham. We'll chat!

1. How important is a cell phone in UR life?
Well, first I would never use UR...I do not use text-bonics. I spell it out.  But to answer the question, I use it for personal, for work, it helps me check emails and facebook and twitter, so I guess it is important - OH and let us not forget "Angry Birds!"

2. R U addicted to UR cell phone?
Addicted to it? No.  When I was on the cruise I did not miss the lack of phone. Are you like 12? See ARE YOU...YOUR, like that! = ]

3. R U a texter, an emailer, or a photo sender?
IR, IR, IR  (see how silly that looks! bwahahahahahahaaaaa)

4. In the normal course of a day, about how many times do U touch UR cell phone?
When I look at it in the morning when I wake, when I put it in my bag to leave, when i take it out at work, every time i leave my desk...umm alot

5. R U guilty of distracted driving?
Not any longer I am not.  


6. What is the 1 app never invented that needs to be made for UR cell phone?
One that would not allow people to use text-bonics and force them to spell the real words.

No, I guess -

One that would allow me to connect to my library of tuneage at home

7. What annoys U the most about cell phones these days?
That people use R U and U and all those other non-words

Sad news that the great Harmon Clayton Killebrew passed away on Tuesday.

He played for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins (1954–1974) and the Kansas City Royals (1975)

A true star of baseball, Killebrew had some great stats including being #4 on the all-time home run list.

He has since been passed by Bonds (juicer), Sosa (juicer), McGwire (juicer), Rodriguez (juicer), Thome and Griffey, Jr.

He also rang up these impressive stats:
13 All-Star selection (1959, 1959, 1961, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971)
1969 AL MVP
1971 Lou Gehrig Memorial Award
Minnesota Twins #3 retired
Career batting average: .256
Home Runs: 573
RBIs: 1,584

He lost his battle with cancer after announcing on Monday he was entering a hospice for his final days.

Harmon Clayton Killebrew
"Killer" "Hammerin' Harmon"
June 29, 1936 – May 17, 2011

I used to commute by train every day. 90 minutes each way from my home to New York City. Usually on NJ Transit, but I also got to ride the Amtrak train that connects Washington and New York, as Amtrak and NJT had a working agreement.

On the Amtrak train there was always one, if not two cars designated non-cell phone cars. The rules were simple...no cell phones. OK, if yours rang, you could say "call you back" and wait until the train arrived, or change cars.


Well, I found this story both funny and sad...Lakeysha Beard boarded the Coast Starlight, which runs between Los Angeles and Seattle in Oakland on Saturday evening at 10:00pm.

After SIXTEEN - you heard me correct SIXTEEN - hours of non-stop talking on her cellphone, while sitting in one of the no cellphone cars, Beard was confronted by a passenger and got belligerent. Yup...SHE got belligerent...typical of someone who cares little for their fellow human beings.  The Amtrak personnel stopped the train and had the police remove her just outside Salem, Oregon.

First off, the cars have signs like every five feet saying NO CELL PHONES, so unless Ms. Beard can not read the language, she knew she was breaking the rule and disturbing her fellow passengers.

The train crew made repeated announcements that Ms. Beard ignored.

Finally, who in the bright blue world talks on a cell phone for 16 hours????

Anderson Cooper blasted the woman on his "ridiculist" last night, asking "What could someone possibly talk about for 16 hours?" He even compared being stuck on the train with a person who would do such a thing to the "fifth circle of hell."

Ms. Beard, do everyone a favor and get a life and put down the dang phone!

In the ...does anyone really care department:

57-year-old Don Gorske has special plans for Tuesday, May 17: He's going to be eating his 25,000th Big Mac at McDonald's! The Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin resident usually eats two a day and had his first Big Mac on -- wait for it -- May 17, 1972. 39 years later, he's on his 25,000th.

Gorske says his 25,000th is a milestone because people believed he wouldn't live this long.



Well, I guess McDonald's cares...

Tonight at 9pm Central on Music On The Couch I sit with Chris Hudgins who was on back in March as a last second replacement when Chris Huff went down...Well since that time, Mr. Hudgins has released his first full-length album "I'll Survive", did some touring, then recently he has gotten together with Hannah and Mike Jackson to form the band SCRAPYARD LULLABY.

They have not recorded any music yet, but Chris has said he is going to try and get Hannah and Mike to join us.

We also get to meet Robinson Treacher, who comes to us through a Couch Favorite, Scott Krokoff. Robinson's debut album "Chrome" is impressive. Robinson was front man to the soul-rock infused DELwRE HUDSON and was also co-collaborator to the Alt-Country based TENSLEEP. Now he is out there solo and catching the ear of those who are lucky to hear him.

Both of these gentleman were originally scheduled back in July when I had to cancel the show after throwing out my back, so I am thrilled to present them together as intended.

OK, now I am not sure I am supposed to say this...Nancy said I could, but was she testing me?

Is she video taping this? Well, she really would not need to do that since she can just read it and it is here forever.

Here meaning the interwebz (I never used that phrase before...not sure I like it...I don't, gonna slash it out)...OK, now that that is done, let me begin again...

Here meaning the internet...world wide web...al gore freeway...net...bloggerdom...

Where the heck was I? OH yeah..anyway, with that buildup you would expect I was going to tell you that this weekend, we bought this:

Well, no, we did not buy that...In fact, we did not even buy this...


Though the offer was really really tempting...

But we did make a final decision on our cell phone plan and phones. You see, Nancy has been on AT&T with one of her sons and her mom. On the other hand, I have been a Verizon customer, with Matt.

Well after what seemed like 20 days of talking to representatives of both companies - but in actuality it was only 15 hours...FIFTEEN HOURS!!!...ONLY????...we decided upon moving Nancy, Peter and mom over to Verizon.

The kicker really was that we had gone through the process of buying phones and switching Matt and I over to AT&T..and then..with Nancy, well..."OH, you need this program to do that" (even though we were originally told it was standard) then when we heard only $10, we agreed...

I leave to get dinner for the three of us and get a call from Nancy saying she had stopped it all. Why? because to use the program (tethering her computer to her iPhone), she would lose her grandfathered unlimited data plan and have to get a limited 2G plan.

Part of the reason for tethering was to send business information - a ton of data!

So, as of Saturday, yours truly has a new Droid2...and it has been fun to use so far, allowing me to track my fantasy teams much better than on my Crackberry and I can still use my iTunes library by spending $2.00 on an app that does that sort of thing...

Now...what do I do with my iTouch????

How was your weekend? What did y'all do?

So, what is happening in this wacky world of ours...

Dateline San Francisco...Cell phone retailers would have to post the amount of radiation emitted from their phones under a proposed city ordinance poised for final approval Tuesday.

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors was set to vote on the first-of-its-kind ordinance, which would require stores to disclose the specific absorption rate, or SAR, of each phone they sell.

Those wacky guys are smoking some superb weed out there. I am not sure I see the reasons for this, but now we will be bombarded with commercials from AT&T and Verizon telling us how the other guy's phone will make your brain explode like an egg in a microwave!

“Some people use a diary to document the highs and lows in their life but not Patti Gaal-Holmes – she prefers to use teabags. So, while others have drawers full of written reminiscences, this 44-year-old has old suitcases stuffed with more than 32,000 used bags. ‘I love drinking tea and I save the teabags because it’s a way of marking the days – it’s better than a diary,’ she said. The mother of three has perfected her tea-related logging technique over the past 11 years. First, she has her cuppa then dabs the used bag on some paper. She then numbers the bag and sometimes notes down who she drank the tea with and anything interesting they discussed. She then dries the tea bag in the sunshine or on a radiator before storing it in one of her three large suitcases.

Maybe her husband should just teabag her...sorry, I could not resist.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal forgot that, no matter your political leaning, when you are in uniform the man who the American people ELECTED is your Commander-In-Chief and you should not publicly diss him, no matter what!

McChrystal has some derogatory quotes about President Obama , Vice-President Biden and Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, Ambassador to Afghanistan in the coming issue of Rolling Stone Magazine.

Sorry, but the man has got to resign and get his honorable discharge and go into the private sector now. You never ever criticize your boss in public, whether you are a general, an accountant or the cashier at the local 7-11.

Chinese toddler Ya Wen started downing pints and smoking up to a pack a day after being struck by a speeding van and spending five days in a coma, her parents told the Yangcheng Evening Post. “She likes drinking,” her mother, Gao Wen, said. “Three glasses of beer is no problem to her.” Gao Wen said her daughter’s personality changed dramatically and she started acting like an adult shortly after leaving the hospital. First, she was busted hiding in the toilet smoking her dad’s cigs. Then she began stealing them from a store – until the owner let her have them on credit.

So, maybe she is just channeling Dennis Hopper!

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies, has thrown out the 6-month moratorium on deep-water drilling imposed by the government after the debacle in the Gulf.

The suit was brought by companies that ferry workers and supplies to the rigs in the Gulf.

That wild guy, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal applauded the ruling.

This moratorium covered 33 rigs out of the over 3,600 platforms operating in the Gulf today. 33!! And the wild thing is that Jindal and others were complaining that the ruling would cause damages to the workers who earn over $50,000.00 per year. Let's not talk about all those people who make far less working in the tourist industry and how their lives have been effected, or the traumatic effects a second accident would have on the region.

33 rigs out of 3,600 closed down...this really confuses me.

Steve Wilson works for DoodyCalls Pet Waste Removal. On a recent call, he noticed money sticking out from doggie doo. Wilson wasn’t sure what to do, but eventually pulled out the bills, sanitized them, placed them in a plastic zip-locked bag and returned them to the customer. It turned out to be $58. The company said the money was torn, but the serial numbers were identifiable, which means the bills could be returned to a bank and replaced with new money.

I knew I needed a new career!

Nashville Rising, a benefit concert for the victims of the Nashville flood was held last evening. The all-star line up for the concert was to include Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, LeAnn Rimes, Toby Keith, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, Lynyrd Skynrd, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith and ZZ Top.

Glad to see this finally happened. I hope they raised the hoped for $2-million for the victims.



See, there is absolutely no reason to go anywhere but here for all of the important news in the world.