I Can Die Happy

My life is now complete. Barb & I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live last night at Bobcats Arena in Charlotte.

I've seen a number of concerts in my life (beginning with the Beatles in 1965) but never one as great as this one. He started at 7:30 and went through to about 11 or later (I don't wear a watch) without a break! Not only was there no intermission, but most of his songs went straight into the next one with only a "1-2-3-4" screamed by Springsteen.

He sang shit from his first album all the way through his latest.

And the Band - oh my God - the E Street Band. Clarence wailed on sax; Little Steven and Nils rocked on guitars; the female he has touring in place of his wife Patty played a magnificent electric violin; the keyboard player and the pianist who sat in because Danny Federici died last week were phenomenal and Max Weinberg must have lost 15 pounds pounding those damned drums.

Federici had been with the band since the beginning. He just passed away about 7 days before the concert and they started the show with a song Springsteen had written about him. The stage was completely dark and photos of Federici ranging from the earliest days through his final ones with the band flashed on the big screens.

I knew this would be a great show, but it surpassed anything I could have imagined.

WOW!

Later,

obi

Words to Live By

Too often we lose sight of life’s simple pleasures.
Remember, when someone annoys you –
It takes 42 muscles in your face to frown.

But it only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and
bitch-slap the motherfucker upside the head.


from "Mr. Paradise" by Elmore Leonard

Later,

obi

Lickalotta Update

OK guys - you ready for this?

The lesbian couple that planned to open the gay friendly campground named “Camp Lickalotta” was also in the planning stages for an annual music festival to be held at the site.

They had originally explained away the nasty name for their campground as referring to “lickalotta prejudice’ and “lickalotta misconceptions.”

So how will they rationalize the music fest named -

“Bushstock?”


Later,

obi

T-shirt of the Year

Without a doubt, the T-shirt of the year so far was shown on CNN Headline News this afternoon. I was laughing so hard I thought I’d pee my drawers.

I can’t reproduce the picture here, but the shirt read:

Spitzer spent $80,000
On hookers
And all I got was
This lousy T-shirt

I can’t add anything to that.

Later,

obi

Camp WHAT?

As most of you regular readers probably know, I live in western North Carolina just south of Asheville. If you’re not familiar with the area you can think what you will, but Asheville - and Buncombe County in which it lies - for the most part, is a relatively progressive area.

Southeast of Buncombe County is Rutherford County, which makes Asheville look like New York City or San Francisco by comparison. Rutherford is mainly rural.

Our local TV station – WLOS – ran a story last night concerning a new campground tentatively planned for Rutherford County. No biggie – right? WRONG!

The camp will be operated by an openly lesbian couple and will be “gay friendly.” The people of Rutherford County are flabbergasted! “Gays – in our county?”

But I’ve not yet related the biggest part of the story. The topper of all toppers is the camp’s proposed name.

Ready?

You sure?
Are you really, really sure?

OK.

Here it is –

The camp will be named………………………………..

Camp Lickalotta

Honest to God! One woman interviewed last night said, “My son’s only 12 and even he knows what that means. That’s all their talkin’ about at his school.

For those of you who think I'm fulla shit - here's the link to Channel 13 news -

http://www.wlos.com/newsroom/nc/topstory/topstory3.shtml

My job is merely to inform.

My work here is done.

Later,

obi

Mistaken Identity

Why do so many people email me thinking I’m Reinaldo Victorio, that I live at 998 Sueirro Street, and I want to sell my home?

Later,

obi

Malcolm Holcombe - Malcolm Holcombe

I was reading one of our local Asheville blogs today and ran across a video featuring Malcolm Holcombe, a singer-songwriter from this area. I checked out YouTube and discovered quite a few more by this local legend. It brought back memories.

Back in the mid-80’s, a partner and I opened a small restaurant called the Jersey Shore Deli just north of Asheville. When I say small, I mean small! We had a seating capacity of 40 people.

Our lunch business was great, but our dinner traffic left a lot to be desired – even with our beer and wine licenses. We needed something to draw people in on weekends so they’d see the place, taste our food, and come back during the week. The answer was live music and our first performer was Malcolm Holcombe, probably the most well-known and well liked singer in the area. He had a huge following, and our weekend business exploded. Eventually, we had a rotating stable of about 5 or 6 performers, but our biggest draw was always Malcolm. Check out the link below to see why.

(could not get link to embed – sorry. Just go to You Tube and search for Malcolm Holcomb – you’ll get the idea)

Malcolm was still pretty much a local phenom back then, even though he had performed in Nashville and gotten good reviews there. Somehow we managed to book him for New Year’s Eve, 1985 and we threw a huge, sold-out private party.

Back then, Malcolm loved his beer and we made sure that all our performers had as much of that free lubricant as they wanted. New Year’s eve, being what it is, Malcolm imbibed far more than was his norm and by midnight he was RIGHT – hammering that guitar and belting out some great music.

Our stage was small and on it we had a stool for the singer and a large potted plant (a ficus tree if I remember correctly.) Malcolm was sitting on the stool belting out his rendition of James Taylor’s “Steamroller” and just rockin’ back and forth. Next thing we knew, Malcolm went ass over tin cups backward into the plant – but he never missed a lick. When he finished the song a couple of people went up on the stage and picked him up out of the plant, sat him back on the stool, and he went right into his next song. What a fucking show!

Here’s another link to Malcolm. I don’t know how much he’d been drinking the night this was recorded, but you’ll get the idea. He’s rockin’ the shit out of that chair.

(Again – would not embed. Check out the song where he starts off talking about how good the potato salad is)

Enough of this memory lane crap. Malcolm – if you’re out there – cheers. I’ll have a beer or 6 for you tonight.

Later,

obi