The Finer Points of Titty Bingo

Today, I received a phone call reminding me about Willie Nelson's 75th birthday.

You might be wondering what the headline and Willie Nelson have to do with me.

In the past few weeks, during a tequila hazed late night call, I spoke with my old Ball State roomie and good friend, Bowman. As we laughed about old times, he mentioned a client, Dahr Jamail, who plays guitar in a band named Titty Bingo. Interesting and ballsy name I thought.

Royce directed me to the Titty Bingo website and told me to look at everyone onstage. Sure enough, there stood Willie Nelson. Plus, behind the piano sat Willie's sister, Bobbie Nelson.

A self proclaimed "garage band", Titty Bingo has quite a pedigree. This band isn't three chord "Louie Louie" playing hacks. Take a gander at their myspace site and you'll see they've been around the track.

Their website streams the band backing sometime member Willie on "House of the Rising Sun". Plus, you can hear a deliciously savage re-make of "Hey Joe" re-titled "Hey OJ". Certainly, kicks top 40 synth pop square in the teeth.

Happy birthday Willie!

Mary Ann Pulls A Gilligan

This past weekend, during the greater Cincinnati Snow Blow 2008, my wife relayed an amusing anecdote from her long ago past.

While on lunch break, as she and a friend walked through the Westin hotel, they encountered Gilligan's Island characters, the Professor (Russell Johnson) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells), sitting at a table. According to my wife, the pair were offering autographs, but there were no takers. People hurried by; oblivious to sitcom dynamic duo.

Which brings me this odd Mary Ann moment. Recently, 69 year old Mary Ann, err Dawn Wells, was busted for driving under the influence of wacky tobacky. According to an article by KTVB, the arresting officer smelled a strong odor of burning marijuana. Wells claimed the odor came from three pothead hitchhikers she had picked up. Okay, then.

Did other clues include a three quarter eaten bag of Island Girl organic tortilla chips, two empty tubs of Cheech Marin's Refried Dude Dip and Wrinkle Remover, three empty bottles of diet Mountain Dew, and a spilled bong?

Who were the three hitchhikers? Was she covering for the Professor, Ginger, and Tommy Chong?

Here's another clue: watch Dawn peel a spud.

Cincinnati Snow Blow 2008

Wow, what an interesting weekend.

Friday began what will become known, at least around here, as the "Greater Cincinnati Slip-n-Slide Pre-Spring Snow Blast and Opossum Invasion".

A foot of snow made our weekend inconvenient. Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon found us unable to leave our condo complex. We tried, but a slippery hill refused to yield to our Tradicional tequila desires.

Hunkered down, I read the excellent oral punk history, Please Kill Me, by Legs McNeil. In my opinion, Legs has written one of the great rock and roll books. Raw, bare knuckled, and in your face, the book illuminates real rock-n-roll via the gutters. If you give a shit about rock and roll or punk, read this book. If not, resume listening to REO Turdwagon or any other flavor-of-the-week MOR craptacular band.

Early Sunday morning, we conquered the hill and headed for Jungle Jim's. Shopping in a nearly empty 1.3 million sq. ft. grocery store felt sublime. With chocolate insects, Mojo Risin' Douple IPA, and chicken enchilada fixins in tow, we felt complete.

We settled in for a day of excellent brew, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Paris Je'taime, and enchiladas. Everything was perfect. Until the killer opossum arrived. More later.