I don't feel tardy, as the man said.
I've been lost in the wilderness, mum being the word, with a dead duck of a computer, victim of some kinda April Swine hocus pocus for laptops & fools. It's hard to find time to rectify such situations when one is about the business of getting married. So let's forget about the months of April and May. I'll return to my regularly scheduled programming later, tater. With a hunk of meat in my hand. Or duct taped to my leg. Or maybe just a new computer.
Speaking of meat, I have yet to mention my own eating habits of late, perhaps, I'll just have to admit, that may be that I'm a bit on the embarrassed side, so I'll have to suck it up and make my confession (Father, pass the wine). After a life of burgers and steaks and bacon and them eggs, I have, since October made a switch to a vegan diet. Yup, you heard me right. I've kept it about 90-95 percent legit, zero animal products. Except for that 10 to 5 percent margin for error.
Just to clarify, I embarked on this style by way of a suggestion by a progressive doctor who thought it a good idea for my arthritic condition. That said, now that I've dropped some weight and gotten more or less adjusted, I will say the old Doc engine burns clean. I don't mind it. I eat vegan, but I'm not a vegan. There's a subtle difference there, folks. My leather boots give me away.
Watching vegan boxer Timothy Bradley beat the snot out of Kendall Holt makes me feel less like any sort of ponce in the bigger scheme. To quote Bradley on the subject...
“I see myself having a lot more energy, clean. I feel cleansed all the time. I can pretty much drink my sweat if I wanted to. I'm pretty much clean. I'm serious. You know how you eat a lot of meat or a lot of sodium and then it burns when you get sweat in your eyes? I never have that. I just feel lighter, healthier, my skin looks better, cleaner. Vegan, I think, is the best way to go. It only makes sense. You got a silverback Gorilla who eats fruits and vegetable and you see how big and strong they are.”
Photo of Ben Durham by Joe Turner.
But enough about drinking sweat, or eating healthy, and instead just focus on drinking to our health. I have to recommend my newest bourbon discovery. Ben Durham, artist, and pal o' mine (did the letter press cover text for my In Tongues book, as well as letter press on my wedding invites), had folks out at his place in Midway to celebrate the fact that the motherhumpin' Whitney museum bought one of his pieces. Ben had picked up a bottle of Corner Creek, which I had never heard of previously, and it was some smooth stuff, would gladly buy it for myself. Something nice about the fact that it comes in a wine bottle, as if that's just what they had around to use. Fancy stuff, worth the price of admission. Corner Creek on the rocks with an Arturo Fuente cigar in Ben's backyard in Midway, with a fire going in the pit...life is good. Even without a computer.
On a final note, Kathleen Hensley at WRFL 88.1 FM in Lexington, Kentucky has resurrected yet again the Late, Late Show format founded by our dear professor J.S. Holland back in 1994. Initially envisioned by Holland as an alternative to the then jazz shows on the station, representing the crispier, syncopated side of things, the show evolved into, in essence, the equivalent of WRFL's "oldies" program. Genre was all over the map, with the guiding principle of anything from 1869 to 1969 fitting, focusing on the primitive and the ridiculous. As time went on, Holland passed the reigns to Brian Manley and myself. We did it up with a co-host approach, trading half hours of the three hour schedule. We quit and then came back to the show several times, with our final run settling in the midnight to 3AM slot on Sunday. I departed at the very end of 2004. Brian kept on for a bit longer, then the Late, Late Show closed its doors. Now some four or five years later, Kate Hensley, once a listener (going all the way back to her own high school days, tuning in to the Doc & Manley version), has animated the corpse once again. I suggest you listen Sunday nights. As a matter of fact, I'm headed out the door right now in a bit to join Kate as guest DJ for the last part of her show. Expect me to make a habit of doing so this summer season. Circles & cycles & (Edison) cylinders. Gimme a drink. Put the needle on the record. Hang on to our coattails.
--JTD
6 comments:
Back in the 80s I ate vitamins and herbal supplements till I permanently smelled like Goldenseal. Even went macrobiotic for awhile, eating nothing but brown rice with brown rice on the side, and a brown rice chaser.
I barely drank at all, because paradoxically, being super-healthy made me too sensitive to alcohol and the sulfites and preservatives in wine and beer.
When I met J.T. Dockery, he could drink till he dropped, then keep drinking even while he was passed out. It's a gift. Me, I could barely keep up, because of the cellular programming of all my years of healthiness. Women were my only vice of excess.
Now, in this Buck Rogers 21st century, up is down, black is white. After a lifetime of being a nonsmoker, I now smoke cigars as well as huffing the snuff. After being a moderate drinker since high school, I now live up to the Louisville creed of "thou shalt drink" and have more than made up for lost time.
So, it makes a certain symmetrical sort of sense that the Yin to my Yang, the Paul to my Gene, Senor Dockery would suddenly get healthy after a lifetime of liver and lung abuse.
And he'll most likely outlive me, God bless him. But I'll be the happiest cat in the graveyard, like St. Louis of Jordan once spake thusly.
I approve of the JSH 21st drinking version. The difference in my drinking habits is that I'm more prone to spend more on better stuff and drink a bit less of it, yet still enjoy the whirlwind of being intoxicated. It's the slow burn, whereas I used to simply burn the candle at both ends. I figure things such as embracing eating a vegan diet just balances out all the crappy, preservative-laden food stuff I've ingested over the years. Hell, we've always enjoyed the good life.
Well, congratulations on your marriage, Todd.
btw, I'm very much enjoying listening to the revamped Late Late Show tonight thanks to WRFL's internet feed.
Ed,
That's great that you got to listen. Kate's the captain of the ship, but expect me to show up with some records and join in for part of it most Sundays during the summer.
Oh, and thank ya, sir, on the congrats tip.
You're welcome.
I liked when "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" from the Fallout 3 video game was played on The Late, Late Show last week
(Another game called Bioshock has some Late, Late Show type music in it especially in the Bioshock bars).
Sitting here selling certain things on ebay listening to the Late Late Show it strikes me that I would like to hear Blue Moon of Kentucky as there seems to be a Moon theme going on tonight.
Also, listening to this show, it seems as if it would be a very romantic thing to be able to be in a radiostation late at night, playing songs about the moon with a full moon outside, in the company of a cute twenty something young lady.
However, as out of shape as I've become in recent years since being blacklisted from planet earth and as reclusive as I've become as a result even more so than previously, the mere opportuniy to do so would most likely give me a heartattack.
Post a Comment