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News
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Summer Olympics |
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August 16th,
2008 |
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 I haven't been getting much sleep this week because of the Olympics. I've been staying up watching the live coverage, only getting four hours sleep before going into work. But it's been worth it. Seeing Michael Phelps tie the record for most gold medals in one Olympics, a record that was set when I was in the 8th grade!. Seeing Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson get the women's all around gold and silver, respectively, in gymnastics.
One of the strangest, and most unexpected, things of these Olympics is the respect I have now for Kobe Bryant. I've never been a fan of his, well I liked his talent on the basketball court, but never liked him as a human being. But there he is at different venues, rooting on fellow Americans in their events. There he is on Spanish television answering questions in fluent Spanish, then walking over to the Italian news group, and answering questions in fluent Italian!
And I was kind of embarrassed by the flap over the little girl lip syncing. I was embarrassed because The Drovers Old Time Medicine Show has been doing that for years. I must now admit that there is always another banjo player just off stage playing Uncle Carl's parts. We do this because we believe Uncle Carl our look and that our banjo player "should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression."
 Grandpa
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TONIGHT'S ALL-STAR GAME |
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July 15th,
2008 |
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 Well, it's time for the Midsummer Classic, better known as the 79th Major League All-Star Game. Only one Oriole, pitcher George Sherrill, made the roster, so that's a real bummer.
A lot of fans say the All-Star Game has lost it's magic. I guess it has a little, but if you don't get a big lump in your throat during the pregame ceremonies please get off our website!! We don't want your kind.
I'll never forget the ceremonies at Fenway Park, in 1999, when the greatest living Hall of Famers at each position participated in what was the greatest pregame cermonies ever. I was sitting here on the couch with my Martin guitar that I had just bought that afternoon. I had finally gotten a Martin D-28 and sat here playing it seeing the greats such as Brooks Robinson and Willie Mays. And there was Ted Williams, excited as a little kid, wanting to talk hitting with Ken Griffey Jr., who was playing that night's game. It's one of the greatest moments of my life.
Back when I was kid, in those pre-cable days when you were lucky if you got three channels. the MLB All-Star Game was HUGE!!! I'll never forget Pete Rose bowling over catcher Ray Fosse. I'll never forget Reggie Jackson almost hitting one out of Tiger Stadium in 1971.
Tonight's game will be the last All-Star Game at historic Yankee Stadium. The stadium, which is one of the most important pieces of American history, heck, world history(never forget that, in some WWII battles, Japanese soldiers were known to yell "To hell with Babe Ruth!"), not just sports history, will be torn down after this season as the Bronx Bombers will be moving into their new stadium. I never got to go to a game there, but once when the band was on tour, we went by to see it. My dad went to many games there when he'd be stateside during WWII, and in port in New Jersey. And he and his buddies went back up there many times after the war. I have sitting beside me an old menu from The Sportsman's Inn which used to be located across the street from Yankee Stadium. My dad gave it to me when I was a kid. All of the sandwiches and dinners are named after Yankee greats such as the "Yankee Clipper". And nickel beer!!
As I watch tonight's game, I'll be happy in knowing that my father is sitting up in that big dugout in the sky, watching the game with his boyhood heroes, excited as a little kid, talking hitting with Ted Williams and Joe Dimaggio.
Grandpa
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GEORGE CARLIN ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BASEBALL AND FOOTBALL |
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June 24th,
2008 |
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 Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.
Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.
Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.
In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.
Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?
In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.
In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.
Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.
Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.
Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.
Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.
In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.
And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:
In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!
Grandpa
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GRANDPA DROPS A BLOG |
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May 27th,
2008 |
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 Nothing important going on, just sitting on the front porch, enjoying a cold one and waiting for the Orioles game to start. Hopefully, it will be on TV and not blacked out. I'm waiting until the All-Star break to see how the O's are doing before I break down and get the MLB package.
If the game is blacked out, I'll just listen to the radio broadcast. Dang, technology is great.
We had a fun gig last Saturday morning, playing the Greenville Stump Rally for the GOP. We played a half hour and then grabbed a plate of BBQ. While eating, we heard a parade of candidates talk about immigration and how the "tree huggers" were largely to blame for the high price of gas.
Then, we got up to play two more songs. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, we played "Keep On The Firing Line", one of my favorite gospel numbers, which I first heard on an old Carl Story record, and which we recorded for our "One More River" CD.
Oh you must fight, be brave, against all evil
Never run, nor even lag behind
If you would win for God and the right
Just keep on the firing line!
Let's hope the O's kill the Yankees tonight!
If you're in the battle for the
Grandpa
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DANNY FEDERICI |
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April 19th,
2008 |
Danny Federici's last performance |
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 Danny Federici, the man who played keyboards for Bruce Springsteen for over 40 years, passed away yesterday at the age of 58. Federici had been battling melanoma for two years now.
He played on all, but the first, albums that Bruce recorded with The E Street Band, arguably the greatest American rock band ever.
His Hammond B-3 organ playing was never featured so prominently as it was on the album "The River" on songs such as "Sherry Darling" and the hit single "Hungry Heart".
The coolest thing about Federici to me was his accordion playing on "Sandy (Fourth of July" off of Bruce's second album, "The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle"
If you are a Springsteen fan, go to the link and see Danny's last performance with Bruce and the band last month, a clip of "Sandy" performed.
Grandpa
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FURTHER PROOF THAT WINONA RYDER IS COOLEST WOMAN EVER |
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April 6th,
2008 |
read about Winona in Gazette! |
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 Here is Winona Ryder at a recent concert by the punk band X. The bass player/singer of that band, John Doe, played Winona's father in the movie "Great Balls of Fire"
Grandpa
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VOTE FOR UNCLE CARL! |
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January 19th,
2008 |
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Remember to vote for Uncle Carl in your state's primary! It doesn't matter if your'e a Democrat, Republican, or a third party. He's running on the slogan "A pig in every poke, two chickens in every pot, and three fingers on every banjo"!!
Grandpa
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY WINONA!! |
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October 29th,
2007 |
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 We want to wish a Happy Birthday today to the most beautiful woman who ever lived, Winona Ryder!!
I'm a gunning down the road in a '69 Plymouth Roadrunner
I got my baby Winona riding shotgun, she looks so good
Winona Ryder riding shotgun, man, she looks so good!!
Grandpa
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