Marshall Tucker Band

Posted on Apr 28, 2012 | 0 comments

Marshall Tucker Band

The Marshall Tucker Band developed its Southern rock roots in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Blending rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, country, and gospel, the Southern rock genre in the early 70s was a daily staple around the Mills household.

MTB enjoyed moderate success early in their career but in the face of personal tragedy the band slipped into obscurity and in 1983 went their separate ways.

Five years later MTB reunited and have performed in various lineups every since.

The original 1972 founding lineup included:

 Toy Caldwell - guitarist, vocalist, and primary songwriter (1947–1993)

 Doug Gray - keyboard player and vocalist

Jerry Eubanks – Flutist

George McCorkle - rhythm guitarist (1946–2007)

Paul Riddle –  drummer

Tommy Caldwell - bassiest (1949–1980)

Marshall Tucker Band signed with Capricorn Records and in 1973 released their first LP, The Marshall Tucker Band.

The “Marshall Tucker” in the band’s name refers a Spartanburg-area piano tuner. One evening while the band was practicing in an old warehouse and discussing possible band names, someone noticed that the warehouse’s door key had the name “Marshall Tucker” inscribed on it. That’s all it took. They didn’t know at the time it referred to a real person.  It later came to light that Marshall Tucker, the blind piano tuner, was the previous warehouse tenant.

Their 1973 self-titled album, The Marshall Tucker Band, included one of my favorites, Can’t You See.

Between 1973 and 1978 MTB would release seven albums on the Capricorn label which contained enduring songs such as, Take The Highway, Fire on the Mountain, and Heard it in a Love Song.

The best charting album was 1975′s Searchin’ for a Rainbow which managed to climb to #15.

On April 28, 1980, Tommy Caldwell died from injuries sustained in a car crash on April 22. It was a devastating loss for the band, the people of South Carolina, and the Southern rock genre. The Charlie Daniels Band‘s 1980 album Full Moon is dedicated to Caldwell.

In 1979 MTB moved over to Warner Brothers and released Running Like the Wind. Over the next four years the band released five more albums under the WB banner. The 1983 album Greetings from South Carolina could only manage a 202 spot on the album charts and within weeks of its release the band hung up their guitar picks and went their separate ways.

In 1988, Gray and Eubanks reorganized MTB to record the album Still Holdin’ On, their one and only release on the Mercury label. Although Gray and Eubanks added new members Rusty Milner, Stuart Swanlund, and Tim Lawter, Still Holdin’ On was primarily recorded with studio musicians. The newer members had a much greater role, however, on the band’s 1990 album, Southern Spirit, released on the Sisaspa label. The album marked a return to the band’s country and blues roots.

Founding member Toy Caldwell died in his South Carolina home on February 25, 1993. The cause of death was listed as respiratory failure.

The band continues to tour and make music for fans around the country.

This post is dedicated to the memories of brothers Toy and Tommy Caldwell.

The band at Tom Bass Park Amphitheater in Houston - May 15, 2011. Photo by Barry Sigman (barrysigman@msn.com)

Note: In an odd coincidence, one year later on April 28, 1981, Steve Currie, bass player for the British rock band T-Rex, also died in a car crash.

Summer Action Movies

Posted on Apr 27, 2012 | 0 comments

Action Movies to Look Forward to This Summer

This summer should bring an exciting mix of action movies, from sequels and superhero flicks to fairytale and classic rewrites, there should be something for every film fan. So take a break from your college, job or fun online school classes to check out some of these much-anticipated summer action movies.

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Movies goers especially interested in the directing and producing process of films might want to develop their skills by completing an MFA Degree in Performing Arts, Studio Arts, or even Film Criticism. Also, check out the sources listed below for more news about upcoming hits.

Sources

IMDb (2012)

Flixter (2012)

Dull & Boring

Posted on Apr 26, 2012 | 1 comment

Dull & Boring

In the whole “Sister City” world there may not be a better match on the planet.

There’s the sleepy little town southeast of Portland called Boring, a quaint town as many in Oregon are. And then there’s the newly adopted sister city of Dull, Scotland, a good bit north of Edinburgh and 7,000 residents short of its new sister Boring.

Yep, it sound like a match made in bad weather heaven, where gloomy skies are a way of life and the loudest thing in both villages is the quiet.

With Oregon timber business in full decline over the last decade there’s not much left in the way of industry. Boring today is mostly a bedroom community for commuters making the Sunset Highway run into Portland each day.

Dull (pronounced in the Scottish Gaelic dialect – dool) is mostly a farming community located in the county of Perth & Kinross. The village is a single street of houses on the north side of the valley of the River Tay. In the Gaelic language it means ‘meadow’.

Dull Church

As heard today on NPR.

Medical Collections

Posted on Apr 25, 2012 | 1 comment

Medical Collections is going to be the next big battlefield between Health Care Corporations and Patient Privacy.

I read a NY Times article today about this topic. It really burned my biscuits.

Picture this…

You show up in the emergency room with a serious injury. You’ve had dealings with this hospital before and have a big outstanding bill you can’t pay.

A so-called “Nurse” or “Hospital Administrator” shows up and starts using strong arm collection tactics to get you to pay your balance, throwing around your medical file like confetti and tossing out past medical procedures like it was anyone’s business.

You are threatened with non-treatment if you don’t get the past bill paid.

The heat is on and you don’t know what to do.

You’ve just been had. The person you were just dealing with is likely not even an employee of the hospital. You have just dealt with a professional bill collector under contract with one of several “Medical Collections” firms around the country.

Forget for a moment that mis-representing yourself as anything other than a bill collector is a crime. Medical collections is not a valid reason to turn anyone away.

Also, forget for a moment that violating HIPAA patient privacy laws are illegal and subject to a $500,000 fine for every occurrance. (Not to mention the individual and corporate liability exposure.)

Also remember it’s a crime for a hospital to turn away anybody in need of emergency treatment for any reason including past debt. They have to treat you.

Apparently this is becoming a wide-spread practice.

Next time you go to the emergency room make sure you have a family member with you to verify topics of conversation with anyone that enters the room. Better yet. I think it’s a good practice to record the whole emergency room experience so you will have a record for future court cases.

Of course it may not be so bad when the new health care laws go into effect and the IRS is tasked with collections. Smoke that for a bit and see how it tastes.

Paul Is Dead???

Posted on Apr 24, 2012 | 2 comments

Paul is dead

Remember that one?

This is like the Mother-of-all-urban-legends.

The legend suggested that McCartney died in a traffic accident in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike double. (It was quite provident that the double was a bass player.)

Late in 1969, college students were claiming that evidence of McCartney’s death was found in Beatles song lyrics and artwork.

On September 17, 1969, the Drake University student newspaper published an article titled “Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?” The article described a rumour circulating on campus that Paul was dead.   The rumour included numerous clues from recent Beatles albums, including the “turn me on, dead man” message heard when “Revolution 9” from the White Album is played backwards. (How much pot do you have to smoke before you start playing records backwards looking for hidden messages?)

The So-Called clues:

Visual Clues

Audible Clues

The couple of clues that I particularly like are:

Suggestion that the words spoken by McCartney’s band-mate John Lennon in the final section of the song “Strawberry Fields Forever” are “I buried Paul”. McCartney later revealed the words were actually “cranberry sauce.”

Oh, and the famous Abbey Road cover (shown above):

Symbolising a funeral procession, with “John, dressed in pure white, symbolises the preacher or heavenly body. Ringo, dressed in full black, symbolises the mourner. George, in scruffy denim jeans and shirt, symbolises the gravedigger and Paul, barefoot and out of step with other members of the band, symbolises the corpse.”

Maybe  McCartney really is dead and the hoax/jokes has been on all of us.

I’m not laughing.

Denny Hamlin Wins Kansas

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 | 0 comments

Changing track conditions at Kansas pushed Denny Hamlin to the lead for his first victory at Kansas Speedway.

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Denny Hamlin drove to victory in Sunday’s STP 400 holding off Martin Truex Jr. the final 30 laps. The win is Hamlin’s second of the season, his first at the 1.5-mile Kansas track, and the 19th of his career.

Jimmie Johnson took third, followed closely by Roush Fenway Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. Truex moved into second place in the Sprint Cup Series standings behind Biffle, who leads by 15 points.

A late cycle of green-flag pit stops put all the contenders on the same sequence. Then, for the first time all day, the sun broke through, changing the track dynamics and the whole complexion of the race.

Before the sun came out, Truex had dominated the race, leading 173 laps. The shifting track conditions altered the handling on Truex’s Toyota to “wrecking loose.” Hamlin got past Truex for the lead on Lap 237 and began to drive away with Jimmie Johnson pursuing from the third position.

To Hamlin, the sunlight was a welcome game-changer.

“We just needed some kind of change — weather or adjustments or something to get where he was at — and we kind of got both of them. In overcast conditions, the cars run a little bit tighter, the grip level’s higher in the race car, and it’s more of a track-position type race. When the sun’s out, the drivers, in my opinion, are more prominent,” Hamlin said.

“You move around, find the grip, do things in the car to make up for what you don’t have. The slicker the conditions are, the better it tends to be for our race team. Luckily, we had that run in sunshine.”

When clouds returned to cover the track again, Truex found handling and began to close on Hamlin. Truex tried racing beneath Hamlin in Turn 3 twice in the final three laps but couldn’t get the job done.

“Desperation,” Truex exclaimed. “I was a little bit faster than Denny at the end, but he was running against the wall right where I needed to be, and I was just trying to gain a little bit of ground.

“It was desperation — last-ditch effort — just trying something. There was no chance to make it work.”

In spite of the varying track conditions, Truex pointed to a bad set of tires for the final run as root cause.

“I’m just not really sure what to think of that last set of tires,” Truex said. “The car had been really good all day, we put the last set on, and I was just wrecking loose for the first 20 laps of that last run.

“Denny was able to get by me, and once he did, the race was over. The car got better longer in the run, and I was able to get back to him, but I’d get three or four car-lengths from him and pick up the aero push …

“I guess if we can be this disappointed with second, it kind of shows how far we’ve come as a race team.”

Next race:
Richmond 3/4 Mile Speedway

Saturday, April 28
7:00 p.m. EST on Fox

I Don’t Know Jack

Posted on Apr 22, 2012 | 0 comments

But I do know it’s his birthday.

Happy 75, Jack Nicholson!

Dig your movies and your court side seats.

I’ve like seen almost every movie Jack has made, including all the bad ones and frankly — he’s made some real stinkers along the way.

We’re not going to talk about those.

Here’s my top ten favorite Jack movies:

Easy Rider

The Last Detail

Chinatown

Five Easy Pieces

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The Shining

Batman

A Few Good Men

About Schmidt

The Departed

It’s hard to pick a favorite. At least four of these on any given day could be a favorite for different reasons. Jack has a knack for playing the flawed and complicated character — Batman’s Joker, Fonda’s sidekick George Hansen in Easy rider, R.P. McMurphy in the Cuckoo’s nest, or the L.A. PI, Jake Gittes, in Chinatown.

Love him or hate him, you have to admit, Jack is a Hollywood icon.

What about your top-ten Jack list? Let me know below.