Oscar who?

Once again all the "news people" are reporting on the "Oscars" as if it was some kind of hard news event rather than the same old cast of Hollywood characters congratulating themselves and prancing around like they were royalty. What a disgusting display of mutual admiration by a bunch of overpaid, under-educated will-o-the-wisps.

It used to be that only preteen girls swooned over movie stars. Now, it seems that the whole country has lost any semblance of sanity. Airhead actors are treated as if they held all the answers for the problems of the world in their manicured little hands. Their views on world events, foreign policy and the upcoming election are not only sought out, but actually listened to as if these clowns had discovered some great fountain of knowledge into which they dip their tootsies on a regular basis.

Speaking of politics, have you noticed how the "media" have abandoned "poor Hillary" to jump on the "Obama Bandwagon?" The media has, now, written Hillary off after telling us for the past six years that she "deserved to be president", and that her left-wing policies held all the answers to fix a broken world. What happened? Did Mrs. Clinton suddenly contract leporsy? Did she spit on Martin Luther King's grave? Did the media find out she is, GASP, a lesbian?

As for Obama if there was ever a less experienced or more ill prepared presidential candidate than Obama I cannot name him. So far Obama has said absolutely nothing of any substance or worth. His feel good campaign offers no feasible solutions to America's problems. To make matters worse his wife goes on national television and states that she is, "proud of her country for the first time in her life." Give me a break. And don't get me started on that RHINO John McCain.

Fasten your seatbelts, boys. Its going to be a bumpy ride!

Look for new posts this month. I have been taking a vacation from my writing, storing up new ideas and material. Thanks for your patience and interest.

I ride the "Tail of the Dragon."
This is me on my 1982 Honda CB900C riding the "Tail of the Dragon" at Deal's Gap, NC. 318 curves in 11 miles. It is an exciting ride!










Guess which one is me. Hint: am the good looking one. No, I am not the cute blond girl.












Ride the Dragon see http://www.dealsgap.com/ for info.

I heard this from a young lady I was having lunch with the other day.

I met a young friend of mine at a local resturant this past week. She is a nice girl, but she is a Hillary lover and she believes anything she hears on the Entertainment Channel. When the waiter came around she ordered salad and I ordered the fried chicken plate. She was horrified at my choice of food and the following words came out of her mouth. Scout's honor. "Are you going to eat that?" she asked.

"No, I thought to myself, "I am going to dress it up in a tux and take it to the opera." I said, "Yes, I plan to."

"You know," said she, "that chickens have the same right to live the full extent of their lives as we do. Furthermore, that chicken most likely had a family." I thought I was having trouble hearing her. I stared at her intently.

"Huh ?" I said.

"Yes, chickens, cows, goats, fish, all animals have a right to life, liberty and happiness," she continued. I think its in the Bill of Rights or something, anyway when Hillary gets elected president we are going to put a stop to all this cannibalism. People should eat vegetables, milk, fruit and eggs and things like that. That way no animal is hurt."

"Don't vegetables have feelings?" I innocently asked. "And what about those poor chickens who lose their little babies so that we can have scrambled eggs in the morning? Don't they suffer separation anxiety? I am sure that they have already named those eggs before they are taken away."

She pondered that for a moment while staring at her salad, and then said, " Well, I don't know if vegetables have feelings or not. But, I am sure that the chickens miss their babies. I suppose I will have to quit having eggs for breakfast." She looked morosely at the table top. "I like eggs, too, " she said.

"What about milk? Maybe the cows don't like having their udders squeezed so that you can have milk on your cereal," I said as I took a big bite out of my chicken leg. "And orange juice, maybe the oranges object to having their pulp squeezed out."

"Well, I don't know," she replied, " I'll have to check with PETA about that."

I looked at her using my most serious expression and said, "You know what PETA stands for, don't you?"

"Well, yes, its People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, or something like that," she answered.

"No," I replied, "Its People Eating Tasty Animals. P E T A."

"It is not! Is it? Really? No its not ... is it?"

With a satisfied sigh I took another big bite of my fried chicken. I could almost hear it scream.

If you haven't heard Paul Shanklin's version of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" on Rush Limbaugh's show you really need to hear it.

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been very busy with some family issues. I will return soon with more insightful comments and razor sharp wit. Until then...hang in there and support your local conservatives.

The Global Warming Blues

This is a song about an imaginary threat
That’s got the liberal party all upset.
They think the Earth is getting too hot, you see.
They say the fault lies with the acts of men
Who have polluted the sea, the air and land
Just for the sake of the deadly sin of greed.

There’s this ex-VP named Mr. Al Gore
Who presents himself as knowing the score
About the way we’re destroying the planet, he believes.
Now, I don't know what Al Gore's done,
He just might be the Prodigal Son, but
I don't think his degree's in Climatology.

Well, man made Global Warming might a fact
But, we can’t reliably trace the temperatures back
More than a couple of generations, or maybe three.
And, these people who are spreading this global fear
Telling us that the end of the world is quite near
Should just crawl back in their air-conditioned limousines.

If the truth of the matter is ever told
The Earth goes through periods of hot and cold
Sometimes the icebergs melt and sometimes they freeze.
Global Warming’s just an unfounded fear
The science of the matter still ain’t clear.
Plus, I heard we are only up about one degree.

Yep, in the Summer it always gets real hot
and, the Winter months are comparitively not.
It's Mother Nature who gets to choose how it’s gonna be.
There’s a whole lot of things wrong in this day and time
From legislative corruption to rampant crime
to the woeful lack of gasoline refineries.

So, for all you worried environmentalists out there,
I’m telling you its not the time for dispair,
let’s just calm ourselves down and get a good night's sleep.
The earth is serveral billion years old
And, she will be around for serveal billion more
This ain't the end of the world, you just wait and see.


Copyright Bmann Music, 8/9/2007

Blind Apple Strudel

I recently purchased an old accoustic archtop guitar that was owned by the famous Delta Bluesman, Blind Apple Strudel. Strudel, born Wilson Shartrell Strudel, was well known around the South. He played in juke joints and bars from Texas to Georgia and everywhere in between. Strudel was born to unwed sharecroppers, Willie Strudel and Monippe Calhoun in Egypt, Georgia in around 1902. Strudel also performed under the aliases Blind Lemon Meringue, Blind Rum Tonic, and James Johansonervickski.

Strudel was born blind, deaf and mute. He picked up the guitar at an early age and taught himself to play by senses of touch, taste and smell. By the age of six Strudel was making a little money playing gin joints around his home town. In 1910 Strudel hooked up with the "Traveling Skunk Band" and began to play all around the lower South. While on a gig in Huntsville, Alabama Strudel met and fell in love with Shi-Thead Membrain, a male stripper and jazz singer who billed him/herself as "Delores El Cajonies". Strudel and Cajonies started touring together billed as "Strudel and Cajonies." In 1923 the pair cut a record for Down and Out Records titled "The Cajonies Blues". It went straight to the top of the blues charts and stayed there for eighteen weeks. After that Strudel and Cajonies made record after record. They all sold well and Strudel and Cajonies became quite well off for the times.

Strudel and Cajonies continued to tour and play venues across the South until Cajonies death in 1933. While in a bar in Waco, Texas Cajonies died in a violent toilet paper accident. He/She was buried in an unmarked grave in Waco, Texas. After Cajonies tragic death Blind Apple Strudel was never quite the same. He continued to tour, but stopped recording. Strudel began to depend upon alcohol and drugs to get him through the day. He became addicted to Tylenol and Afrin Nasal Spray and was never able to kick the habit.

As his fortunes declined through the 1940's and 1950's Strudel became more and more reclusive. He toured only sporatically in the late fifties and began drifting around the South hopping freight trains and bumming rides from truckers in exchange for "special services". For a while in the early 1960's Strudel worked as a fudge packer for Asinine Industries in Nashville. He left that job after only a few months because of "artistic differences".

Strudel was found dead in a motel room in Cairo, Georgia in 1963. The only possessions that he had with him at the time were the above mentioned guitar, a picture of El Cajonies, seventeen empty bottles of nasal spray, a few empty bottles of Tylenol, an empty quart bottle of Schlitz Malt Liquor and thirteen cents.

The guitar changed hands from time to time and finally ended up in an auction in Augusta, Georgia in 2007 where I purchased it along with documentation and several pictures of Strudel and Cajonies. The guitar is a bit banged up. Due to Strudel's condition he often walked into objects and fell off stages. Inside the guitar is an inscription that reads, "Happy birthday to my blind, deaf and mute lover, all my love, huggs and kisses, Shi-Thead."

I plan to make a gift of this guitar to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, Georgia for their Blind Apple Strudel display.