Fun Drinks For Not So Fun Times

Below are a few new drink recipes to keep handy if you rode out Hurricane Ike

CONE OF UNCERTAINTY
1 oz. cinnamon schnapps
1 sugar cone
Pour the schnapps into the sugar cone. Every time you hear a TV weatherman say, "cone of uncertainty ," bite off the end of the cone and down the shot. If you hear Jim Cantore say it, drink two shots consecutively. (they should change this to the "Cantore Zone"... dang him. Have you ever noticed that, despite all the cone of probability talk, if Cantore is parked in front of your house you are toast?) ============================================================
FEEDER BAND
2 oz. Midori
2 oz. rum
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
After your home loses power, combine Midori and rum in a cocktail glass. Add a scoop of the vanilla ice cream that is melting in your freezer. Stir, and drink through a straw. ============================================================ MANDATORY EVACUATION
1 1/2 oz. Absolute Ruby Red vodka
1/2 oz. vermouth
Clamato Prune juice
Combine vodka and vermouth in cocktail glass. Fill remainder of glass with equal parts Clamato and prune juice. Stir. Drink. Ask next-door neighbor whose ficus tree blew over and crashed onto your roof -- even though you'd warned him for months to uproot it -- if you can use his bathroom. Repeat. ============================================================ CATEGORY 5
1/2 oz. vodka
1/2 oz. tequila
1/2 oz. rum
1/2 oz. bourbon
1/2 oz. gin
Sweet-and-sour mix
Splash of fruit juice
Combine vodka, tequila, rum, bourbon and gin in a tall glass. Fill remainder of glass with sweet-and-sour mix and splash of juice. Stir, then garnish with an inverted drink umbrella. Drink during peak storm hours, and vow not to believe anyone who tries to tell you the hurricane that flooded your garage and destroyed your shed was just a Category 1. ============================================================
BEACH EROSION
1 1/2 oz. Goldschlager
1 1/2 oz. apple brandy
1 pack Sugar in the Raw
Combine Goldschlager, apple brandy and sugar in cocktail glass. As you drink, seriously contemplate moving your Yankee backside back to New Jersey where it belongs. ============================================================
DOWNED POWER LINE
1 1/2 oz. rum
5 oz. Jolt Cola
Combine ingredients in a cocktail glass. Drink while trying to figure out how the heck you're supposed to go two freakin' weeks without TV and AC. ============================================================
FLOOD ZONE
2 oz. Kahlua
2 oz. Baileys Irish cream
4 oz. rum
Serve in a 6-ounce glass and laugh-cry deliriously as the mess spills all over the counter top. ============================================================
COLD SHOWER
2 oz. Blue Aftershock
4 oz. Sprite
Combine in a cocktail glass with crushed ice you received after waiting in line for three hours at a mall parking lot. Take a deep breath, sip and scream like a little girl when the cold beverage hits your tongue. Repeat. ============================================================
LOOTERS WILL BE SHOT
1 oz. Jack Daniel's
Splash of sarsaparilla
Rock salt
Load both barrels of a shotgun with rock salt. Climb to the roof of your house with gun, bottle of Jack Daniel's and can of sarsaparilla. Fill shot glass with Jack and splash of sarsaparilla. Watch for looters. When you spot one, blast his backside with rock salt. Drink shot. Repeat. ============================================================
THE CHAIN SAW
1 oz. Goldschlager
1 oz. Rumplemintz
3 oz. Jim Beam
Splash of vermouth
Combine Goldschlager, Rumplemintz and Jim Beam in an empty soup can. Add splash of vermouth. Drink. Remove chain saw from garage and attempt to cut up fallen tree limbs in yard. Ask neighbor to drive you to hospital when it all goes horribly wrong. ============================================================
FOUR-WAY STOP
1 1/2 oz. vodka
1 1/2 oz. vodka and Midori
1 1/2 oz. vodka and Galliano
1 1/2 oz. vodka and grenadine
Pour each ingredient into a separate shot glass. Serve one to yourself and three other people. The person with the clear shot of vodka drinks first. The person to his right drinks the Midori shot, and so on. If somebody drinks out of order, develop a quick case of road rage and slap him silly.
============================================================
BLUE TARP
1 1/2 oz. Curacao
2 oz. pineapple juice
Splash of lime
Combine ingredients in a leaky paper cup and serve. Wait six to eight months for someone to repair the cup. If you're impatient, hire an unlicensed, out-of-state contractor to do the job for an exorbitant sum and pray he doesn't hurt himself in the process. ============================================================
FEMA FIZZLE
1 oz. Southern Comfort
2 oz. sloe gin
Tonic water
One week after the storm has passed and your neighborhood is still in ruins with no sign of help on the way, combine Southern Comfort and gin in a cocktail glass. Fill remainder with tonic and add a dash of Angostura bitters. Serve with a nut brownie. Before drinking, raise the glass and say the toast, "Doing a helluva job, Brownie

Natalie Cole

I heard that Natalie Cole has been hospitalized in New York for side effects of her Hepatitis C medication. As someone who knows, that is some nasty, nasty shit. It plays with your head and turns your body into something unrecognizable. For six months, I danced with the devil and sometimes, he won. One Sunday afternoon while I was home alone, the thoughts of killing myself were so strong I drove to the grocery store just so I could be around people. The medication turn syou into someone who has an extreme case of ADD. Your synapses don't synap. Parts of your brain won't connect with other parts. George Harrison died while I was on mine. I cried for three days straight. I literally lost my mind, let alone what it did to my body. My hair fell out and I had a rash from the top of my feet to just below my chest.The two drugs involved are interferon and ribovirin (sp?), and while it cured me, it almost killed me.

Natalie is in my prayers for the passage of time. She is one of the world's most beautiful women.

I am A Weird Guy, No Question

Don't ask me why, because I don't know but I have developed this weird crush on the Progressive Insurance chick named Flo. She reminds me so much of a waitress I used to work with at Harvey's, a greasy spoon restaurant with character in downtown Moline that I slaved at in high school. She wasn't much to look at but had this "something". That's it in a nutshell here, but I think she's hot. Therapist anyone?

I couldn't find a picture of "Flo", but this is the gal who plays her on TV.

Here's her bio: Stephanie Courtney, born February 08, 1970 in Stony Point, New York, is an American actress who is noted for her recurring roles on several television shows including the characters: Renee the Receptionist on Adult Swim comedy Tom Goes to the Mayor (2004-2006); Marge on the AMC drama Mad Men (2007); and Diane on the ABC comedy Cavemen (2008). Courtney is a member of the Groundlings improvisational theater in Los Angeles, California. In 2003, she won the Copper Wing award at the Phoenix Film Festival with the ensemble cast for the comedy Melvin Goes to Dinner. She has also been noticed in television commercials, such as Skittles (2008), Wienerschnitzel (2005), and as the cashier Flo for Progressive Corporation Auto Insurance (2008).

Well, she has some nice chops and a good resume, for sure. I'll have to watch those other shows. I just picked her out in "Mad Men"

One House Defiant

First Day Of The Book

This is the first day of what we call in the business "the fall book". What that means is that this is the first day of the fall ratings period. For the next three months, Arbitron will send out a number of "books" that will determine the ratings for the next sixth months. They will be sent to "random households" through out the area. It all depends on who fill out these "books". Let's face it, it's a crap shoot and where those "books" will land in the B/N area. It's the placement that decides who gets the best ratings. My stations are cocked, locked and loaded. I have three great PDs who love the business and what they do. I constantly have to reel them in, they are so full of ideas. Well, this is the time that I have waited for and I am so jazzed. We add another great young person to the staff today and she will be so valuable to us. I have taught this business from The Academy of Radio and Televison in Bettendorf during the seventies, to Park College in KC in the eighties to Broadcast Center in St. Louis from 1986 to 1998. Time to reap the harvest. We'll see if I am as smart as I think I am. "...onward, through the fog."

"Mad? Why I've always been mad..." Richard Wright

On the Ipod....from

"Like A Hurricane" by Neil Young to

"Daddy Sang Bass" by Johnny Cash to

"Mr. Blue Sky" by ELO

Is life good or what?

Bears

THE BEARS AND I
Black bears typically have two cubs, rarely one or three.
In 2007, in northern New Hampshire , a black bear sow gave birth to FIVE healthy young Grizzly Bear Cubs. There were two or three reports of sows with as many as four cubs but five was, and is, extraordinary. I learned of them shortly after they emerged from their den and set myself a goal of photographing all five cubs with their mom, no matter how much time and effort was involved. I knew the trail they followed on a fairly regular basis, usually shortly before dark. After spending nearly four hours a day, seven days a week, for six weeks I had that once in a lifetime opportunity and photographed them in the shadows and dull lighting of the evening.
Due to these conditions the photograph is a bit noisy as I had to use the equivalent of a very fast film speed on my digital camera. The print is properly focused and well exposed with all six bears posing as if they were in a studio for a family portrait.

I stayed in touch with other people who saw the bears during the summer and into the fall hunting season. All six bears continued to thrive.
As time for hibernation approached, I found still more folks who had seen them and everything remained OK. I stayed away from the bears as I was concerned that they might become habituated to me, or to people in general, as approachable friends.
This could be dangerous for both man and animal. After Halloween I received no further reports and could only hope the bears survived until they hibernated.
This spring, before the snow disappeared, all six bears came out of their den and wandered the same familiar territory they trekked in the spring of 2007 I saw them before mid April and dreamed nightly of taking another family portrait, an improbable second once in a lifetime photograph. On April 25, 2008 I achieved my dream.

When something as magical as this happens between man and animal, native Americans say we have walked together in the shadow of a rainbow.
And so it is with humility and great pleasure that I share these photos with you..

Tom Sears 2008

(very cool, kewl karl)

But Then, I've Always Been Mad...

Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died Monday. He was 65.
Pink Floyd's spokesman, Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member's family did not want to give more details about his death.
Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.
The group's jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia "happenings" made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn," was a hit.
In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group's dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and played the keyboard.
"Rick's keyboards were an integral park of the Pink Floyd sound," said Joe Boyd, a prominent record producer who worked with Pink Floyd early in its career.
The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973's "Dark Side of the Moon," which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" for that album, and later worked on the group's epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother," "Echoes" and "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."
But tensions grew among Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of "The Wall" when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of "The Wall," and did not perform on Pink Floyd's 1983 album, "The Final Cut."
Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, "Identity," with Atlantic Records.
Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums "The Division Bell" and "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums "Wet Dream" (1978) and "Broken China" (1996).
In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the "Live 8" charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.
Wright also worked on Gilmour's solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album "On an Island" and the accompanying world tour.
Gilmour paid tribute to Wright on Monday, saying his input was often forgotten.
"He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognized Pink Floyd sound," he said. "I have never played with anyone quite like him."

Football in the Show Me State

I used to be a Chiefs ticket holder when I first moved to KC. Having won $3 on a bet with my grandfather in the 1970 superbowl cemented the lifelong affection I hold for this franchise. I couldn't believe that I was living in the city of my Chiefs. That was 1979. The Chiefs pretty much stunk up the place at the time. The city's attention was turned to the young, exciting Royals. I went to every game and for fun used to count the number of people in the stands. In the early nineties, things turned around for the franchise and that led to the hiring of Marty Schottenhiemer, who was summarily disposed in Cleveland because he couldn't win the big one. In fact, when it was announced that the Chiefs had hired Marty, a letter to the Kansas City Star arrived from someone in Cleveland who said not to ever get our hopes up because Marty will eventually break our hearts. After the AFC Championship game against the Bills (which we lost) and the Championship game against the Colts (which we lost), I was convinced that was the case. My struggles with the Chiefs go far back but I have seen Joe Montana play and actually interview him becasue of my association with that team. I have had Dick Vermeil put his arm around me at a party and tell me "how glad Carole and he was that I was there." I love Dick Vermeil and even he contibuted to the can't win the big one mentality. This year, I want the Chiefs to win one. That would be great. It's going to be another long year as the dreaded and hated Raiders pasted my boys today. Took down their pants and spanked them. In front of an opening day crowd. Can't be pretty in KC. It's even worse here. The Rams are the laughing stock of the NFL. The ONLY time I have ever had even a fondness in my heart for this team was when Dick Vermeil had them. I feel they have been carpet baggers from day one. I only watched to make fun of them. Steven Jackson sits out training camp becasue he's not paid enough and promptly stinks. Bulger can't throw and the line couldn't stop me. The Chiefs may go 5-11, the Rams most surely will go no better than 4-12, they've quit already. They're done. Go Titans!

Happy Birthday Amy

How beautiful you are at 25. You'll be dead by 30.

THE STORM!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, the roof on the old hacienda started leaking. Funny, since it was just over two years ago when it was replaced. I called our local parish guy and he came right out, talked about the shoddy workmanship and then proceded to move around some shingles and "flashes". After all that, I asked him what the charge was and he said ..."nothing, you've paid me in full with all of your years at KSHE, you were, by far, the best." How cool is that? With THE STORM coming, I was hoping the roof would hold out. For days in the midwest the approachment of THE STORM was all anyone could talk about..could be ten inches of rain in THE STORM, Gas will skyrocket, food will be rationed, all because of THE STORM. The weather predictions were dire... THE STORM came through here at 3:38am (I know because I was up), blew some stuff around, dropped about two inches of rain...then left. Jeez, I know we have to be prepared but this was to hystrionic proportions. I got the camera out today, took notice of the neighbor's tree and the damage to my tomato plants. As you can see, all is pretty well. And the roof held out, too.

My Week In Country Music

I pulled my first week long airshift in over a year this past week. I did the 9am-2pm shift at my country station www.1077thebull.com. What a blast! I wanted to do as much of it live as possible and I previously rescheduled some things to make that happen. I think it's important for the boss to step in and find out what the jocks have to deal with and how the whole thing works. My PD does an excellent job. It was pretty easy to step in and broadcast again. The music moves and flows and there's just enough of a chance to have a personality at certain moments. The station sounds great and while I was playing the hits, I discovered some new faves and said hello to some old ones. I just dig the hell out of George Strait, always have and probably always will. His new song "Troubador" is great and after all this time, he sounds wonderful. I played one of my all time favorites "Forever and Ever Amen" by Randy Travis and discovered some new tunes that I like. Carrie Underwood sings her ass off. Her new song "Just A Dream" is a female vantage point killer diller. "Chicken Fried" by The Zac Brown Band is fun and I like the new song by the Lost Trailers called "Holler Back". The one that got me right between the eyes was a song by a cat named Jimmy Wayne. Here's his story...Jimmy Wayne was born Oct. 23, 1972, in Cleveland County, N.C. He endured a tumultuous childhood, as his father abandoned the family when Wayne was a toddler, and his mother was in and out of prison twice. Growing up in foster homes, Wayne became an avid journal-keeper, using writing as a way of therapy. Living on the streets at 16 and a high school dropout, he was hired by an elderly couple to cut their grass, and eventually, they invited him to move into their home. With a stable home life, Wayne went back to high school and worked his way through community college, earning an associate's degree in criminal justice. After working in the North Carolina prison system, Wayne moved to Nashville to pursue a music career..." I also found out he was accompanied by his sister through all of the homeless shelters and foster homes and whe she got involved in an abusive marriage, he went and got her. By the grace of God go I.. Here's the song I like, thought I'd jump on this guy's bandwagon for awhile, I think he deserves it.

Acoustic version (the record company is disallowed embedding his big song)..



Here's the link to the full song...
Jimmy Wayne

It seems that the great, well crafted pop songs are all coming out of Nashville. They used to be rock songs, but now they're rock songs done country.

Brush With Greatness..whatever one this is

It's too bad I can't enlarge this anymore. I post this not just because these are the two guys that were in The Hooters (Hootie Hoot!), but that this was the old KSHE studio in Crestwood circa late 1985. Considering what I am wearing, I think it's mid fall or so. The back wall was filled with "carts" (kids, ask your folks) that contained commercials, songs and stuff JC and the rest of us used for our shows that weren't available anywhere else. Those are home CD players you see the back of. We had one "pro model" Sony and the rest were store bought home decks. To my left is the microphone and some house plant that was kept in the studio. The clipboard was for listener requests if I remember right. If you'll look over the dark haired guys head, you'll see the wall of albums. There was a very strange filing system at KSHE that took me months to master. You really had to be on the ball, because when you went to find Glenn Frey, it could be under "F" or "E" for The Eagles. Same with Robert Plant...it was very weird and one of the quirks that made working at that building one of the best times of my life. Little run down cinder block building that was cold in teh winter and hot in the summer. It sat next to the Route 66 Drive In Theatre and on any night there was a movie, there were usually a handful of people that would come by. I must admit to scoring a couple of dates that way. Hey, I was young and foolish.