Name Dropper and Crack Whore Barbie Dolls

When I was adding the Music column to the sidebar, I had to stop, because I like some of every type of music. Though it's not my first choice, I even like the Eminem, Pink, Alicia Keys... radio station. Grunge, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day,...Radio station. National Public Radio's Classical Music and their talk features. If I feel like crying or laughing it's a Country station. Sometimes I can find music from other cultures - I like it all. A Gregorian Chant, Celtic music, Chris Isaak, Jazz, Blues, Tribal music, Chinese singing: You name it I like some of it.

I was thinking about the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb" when I was doing yard work yesterday. I love that song. There is a part where they sing:

When I was a child I had a fever
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain you would not understand...

Did anyone else have this happen to them? It used to happen to me when I was a child and had a fever. I was surprised that someone had felt the same thing and written it into a song. And, that the guy that wrote it shares a name with me. My maiden name is Waters. Odds are we're not related, though, in my head I refer to him as cousin Roger sometimes. Pink Floyd can put on a concert! If they ever tour again, take your deaf grandmother, she'll like the light show.

Then I decided to do an entry devoted to brief brushes I've had with people who have names you might recognize. Not that I expect you to be impressed; it's just so I could tell some stories, because that's what I'm here for.

Garth Brooks' cousin (see, I told you not to be impressed): We were living in some apartments in Hermitage while we were building our first house on the land we bought in Franklin. The two kids left at home were approx. Middle School age. My daughter was pals with the young lady who wrote Faith Hill's first hit single (I think the word "Roses" was in the title), or should I say she seemed to like the company of the kids, and the other brother/sister pair (Blake and Andrea), that they spent most of their time with. She gave Blake a white dove someone had given her.

Let's get even more off topic. One day I came home and the 4 kids had transformed A. Beautie's Barbie Dolls into "Crack Whore Barbies". It was great! The dolls come with some pretty slutty outfits anyway, but they had given them the "been out trolling all night and catching a few winks under a park bench" skanky sluttyness. I laughed my ass off. God, I was proud of them! I think I have them packed away with their other toys. I think they learned about Crack Whores at school in their drug awareness class, that and how to set up a meth lab just about anywhere. (Wasn't the Scopes Trial near here?)

OK, I'm getting to the Garth Brooks' cousin part.(Idiot Like a Savant had not dubbed himself that name yet; the psychosis did not hit until he was about 18.) Anyway, he was either riding his bike or skate board on the tennis courts, and some boys who were about his age showed up with tennis rackets to play tennis. A dispute broke out and Savant came back to the apartment pissed off. He had bloody knuckles where one of the kids had hit him with the tennis racket. He said he took the racket away from the kid after that and hurled it into the woods next to the tennis court. He headed to his room to fume and calm down. Shortly after that there was a knock at the door. I opened the door and there stood what looked like a slim Garth Brooks with hair. The kids had told me Garth Brooks' cousin had moved into the apartments, but for some reason I had pictured someone in their early 20's, who might just be full of bull.
Whatta ya know, it's true. He wants his tennis racket. His kids told him my son had thrown it into the woods. He was not happy. I tell him about the bloody knuckles and get Savant to find the racket for him. He sees Savant's hand and apologizes. They go find the racket. The End

Saw Nanci Griffith at the veterinarian's office. Her dog was sick, my cat was sick. The End

Saw Donna Summer "the Queen of Disco" in the grocery store.

Saw Naomi and Wynona Judd on the highway near the airport. They were in a vintage American convertible, with the top down. It had the license plate "Red Heads". They had on scarves and sunglasses.

During the 1960's at my elementary school, Wooldridge, located a couple of blocks from the University of Texas in Austin, there was a teacher named Miss Curie. I was not in her class and never knew her first name, but we were told that she was the daughter of Madame Curie and her mother had won the Nobel Prize. Cool!(By the way, Madame Curie's mother and father also both won the Nobel Prize, the hard way.) I've always wondered if her mother was Irène Curie? Or if my kid memory and my old lady memorie have scrambled the story.

Saw a bunch of TV and Movie actors at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, one January. My husband and kids ski; I gave up skiing because I spend more time tempting serious spinal injury than enjoying it. So this was the perfect vacation combination for all of us.

Stevie Ray Vaughn: Late 1970's or early 1980's he was a regular fixture in the Austin music scene. Though I float back to those times in Texas, when I listen to his music, I never got to see him play, because I was a dutiful single mother and student who didn't allow myself much fun. But he and a couple of his pals (Double Trouble?) came into the restaurant where I was waiting tables. The place was packed and the hostess, who didn't know who they were, seated them next to the bathroom, which was near the door to the kitchen; in other words, the crappiest table in the place. I passed that table on the way to my section which was up a few stairs and much nicer. I saw them and thought "What Idiot put them there?" I didn't have any empty tables or I'd have moved them. They didn't stay long. The End

One of the waitresses at the restaurant inherited 6 figures from her father, when the airplane he was piloting crashed. She married the drummer in the band Pretenders, but soon became an O.D. widow. The End

My husband and I went to the U.S. Open (Golf) at Pinehurst the year Payne Stewart won, about six years ago. When we were sitting in some bleachers for a while, and my husband pointed out that the man sitting in front of me was Donald Trump: creepy hair, cute date. My husband is the golfer, but I was excited to see all the Greats of Golf: Tiger Woods, Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson, VJ Singh, etc...
The End

Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash: Johnny Cash had a T.V. show that was filmed in Nashville. My friends and I went to this taping. Everyone knew which motel the guests stayed in, so after the show, everyone but about 3 of us, drove to the motel. I decided to be in the group that trotted there behind Bob Dylan's limo. I was surprised when the limo pulled over and Bob shouted out to some guy walking up the street. They talked a bit and then the limo moved on. When we got to the motel, we, and our friends who drove, were the only kids there. Joni and Bob were being picked up by Johnny and June to go to their house. I have all four of their autographs on a scrap of paper somewhere. The End

Are you impressed yet?

I missed Woodstock! Some of my friends went, and I was stuck in Indiana looking at it on the news, saying "I should be there! Crud!" I did go to the Atlanta Pop Festival. My daughter thought it was funny that I used the word "pop", but that is what we called them back then. We called one of my friends "Kathy California" because she used to live there. She had seen the famed "Monterey Pop" festival.
Back to Atlanta, a couple of car loads of us went. But, I for one, had given no thought to bringing much money or food or anything for that matter. Only one intrepid traveler had brought crackers and spam with him. It was 103+ degrees and our only shelter was a tarp pulled between two cars in the parking lot. We didn't qualify as hippies; they had built a fantastic community of huts, tents, lean-to's... in the woods, where you could get cool beads, pipes, hippie stuff, and any kind of mind bender you were looking for. I can't remember if it was a two or three day event, but I was really excited about seeing Jimi Hendrix play. He was a headliner, which meant it would be very late at night when he took the stage.

Everyone was so hot that a fence was pulled down on some land nearby, that had a pond. Pond, beautiful pond, pond good. I think the only thing I had to eat the whole time was a tiny bit of Jack's crackers and spam. I just remember being hungry most of the time. They didn't have much in the way of food & drink vendors back then, and I probably ran out of money before the first day was over.
Anyone who suffers from migraine headaches knows that: no food, dehydration, loud music, extreme heat and cheap marijuana are a sure fire combination to trigger a really bad one. I never saw Hendrix, but I got to hear him while lying in the parking lot under the tarp between the cars, while my head exploded with pain. Aspirin, had anyone brought any, has no power to calm a migraine, and they hadn't invented Imitrex yet.
Did I ever tell you I used to be an Idiot? The End

Saw Janice Joplin once. She hated everyone in the audience and cussed us out. Good concert. The End