February 4, 2008
Robert Ray's car was in the shop so I drove him home on Friday. Yes, all the way into the Beast (he lives near 20th Street and Thomas), then fought my way home. Took two hours, but Robert has often taken Kathy and meI to the airport and allowed us to park at his house on our trips, so it seemed the right thing to do.

Saturday was crazed. Got up early, started the '49 Ford and pulled it out into the driveway and dug out my Ludwigs (1973 classic chrome casings), loaded up the Ranger and took off for Mike Torres' abode for the first Exits Exit rehearsal.

Mike had his garage cleared out and we played in there with the door open, blasting out into the neighborhood. I told him, "You must have very tolerant neighbors." Steve Peroni on bass, Mike on guitar and Roger Enrico on everything else. We started with "The Lonely Bull" which I have always wanted to play, but we never had a trumpet in the band. Now we do. Roger played it well. Then we jumped right into "Pipeline," "Walk Don't Run," "Surfbeat" and "Miserlou," I kept waiting for the cop cars to roll up, but they never did. Not even when we rippped out "Route 66" and "Honkytonk Women" by the Stones. It was a ton of fun and I felt like I was 14 all over again. It's amazing what music can do. Meanwhile, 350 miles to the northwest:

Bugs Bears Down
"While some of the musicians for the Exits Exit gathered in Phoenix on Saturday to shake off some rust, I spent a few hours in Henderson doing the same. The more I sing, the less confident I get though I am able to make some of the songs decent. Linda says I sound pretty good, but Linda loves me.

"Worked on some of the instrumentals for the opening set. Feel pretty good about my parts on Apache, Misserlou, Surf Beat (in my sleep, thank you), Tequila and Walk Don't Run. Lonely Bull is iffy but I think I can get there with more work. Telstar is absolutely out for me and if I can't get Pipeline down today after three days total of fighting that song, I will have to bow out on that one, too. Vern definitely is going to have to play some that first set to cover my inability as a guitarist.

"Got the first two RSVPs by e-mail---Wayne Rutschman's daughter Kameron and my niece Stephanie---but my invitation still hasn't shown up. Still, I worry that we may have created a nightmare. Got an e-mail from another longtime family friend, Janet Leichsenring (not in our class, but her sister Lynn was and our families go back 60 years). She heard about it from Ray Bonham, and wants to come. I told her that I'd send her an invite if she e-mails me her address.

" We still have seven weeks to go---or is it six?---and no one can ever guess what kind of turnout something like this will get. But I am starting to fear that we may have created a nightmare. Oh well, we'll deal with that if it happens. It's only money, right? And our family's chief financial officer assures me that we got it covered.

"Anyway, I hope that your practice went well and that you have some degree of confidence that we can pull this off musically. (My greatest fear right now is that Steve and Roger will, after the first two songs we practice on Feb. 16, wonder: Where did they dig up this guy? And Mike will say to you: Funny, I remember him being better than he is now.)"
—Charlie Waters

From the band practice, Kathy and I drove out to Mesa and the closing Levitz store to pick up a couch for her office (a $1,000 job for $150), hauled it out and got her old couch out and the new one in (not fun, really a bear getting both through the narrow door).

Watched the Super Bowl yesterday, which took place right down the road, and it was interesting to see the aerial shots of the sunset, then look out our own window and see the same thing. Game was great (only NFL game I watched this entire season). Here's another local take on it:

Minnesota Mike's Super Superlatives
"BBB After all the coverage, media-hype, predictions, parties and NFL logos and players photos on downtown buildings, the game DID live up to the hype. Gotta be the second biggest upset in Super Bowl history (first one-Joe Namaths NY Jets win over Baltimore Colts in '69). Heck, probably one of the top 5 Super Bowls of all time. Great game. Congratulations to the New York Giant football team. Hey BBB- if you had to vote by the end of the day for the next President of the U.S., who would you vote for? Me too, I have no idea. Our options; 1) Billary......please 2) Barack Obama...do we need a President named Obama? 3) John McCain..wasn't he too old....., last time he ran? 4) Mitt Romney...he looks like the guy who goes to a party and hands out his card. I'll end up writing in...Ralph Nader. Tom Petty-out!"
—Minnesota Mike

Regarding the lyrics I ran last Friday for "Wooly Bully." Margaret9753 emailed me and wondered "What does 'let's not be L-seven' refer to?" I believe it refers to being a square, as in "Let's not be squares." Write down the letter L and then the number 7 and it makes an oblique square. Get it?

Kingman drummer Ken Kingman sent me this link (below) to see Sam the Sham actually performing Wooly Bully in 1965. Check out the blond (early Charo?) Go Go girl in the right hand corner at the end of the sax solo and imagine what that bitchin' grandmother looks like today. Ha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJOvCHD1uHY

"Goes Thru Saint Lew-ee, Joplin, Misourri, Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty, and see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona, K-I-N-G-M-A-N. . .Barstow, San Bernadino."
—Bobby Troup, author of "Get Your Kicks On Route 66"