Author: elvisgumby

Writing Hulk Hogan Goes To Court

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date August 4, 2016
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It was early March of this year and I had decided to release a set of songs. This group of songs would be called Elvis Week and I planned to release it in July. I still needed to record a few of them but I had a good idea of what I wanted to do with all of them except one. I was in our bedroom getting dressed before going to work. The television was on and we were watching “Good Morning America”. The show was about to go to a commercial break and they had a brief promotion about a story they were going to cover when they came back. That story was about a court case involving professional wrestler Hulk Hogan. Hogan had sued a website called Gawker for posting a sex video of him and his best friend’s wife. I really wasn’t that interested the details about the lawsuit. On the screen, GMA was showing footage of Hogan on the stand in the courtroom. They also had a graphic that said, “Hulk Hogan Goes To Court”. As I went back into our master bathroom to continue getting ready for work, I sang the phrase, “Hulk Hogan Goes to Court”. My wife was in the bathroom and laughed. I continued to repeat the phrase. Soon my wife became annoyed. Then I sang the phrase “Swearin’ to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothin’ but the truth!”

Elvis Week Album Elvis Week Song Song Writing

Writing Elvis Week

You probably already know that I go to the candlelight vigil at Graceland on August 15 every year. I started going back in 2002 and have gone every year since then. People-watching is the primary reason for my trips. While I am an Elvis fan, I don’t think I am the typical fan that you run into yearly at Elvis Week. Over the years, I have become more of a fan of the candlelight vigil and Elvis Week than I am an actual Elvis fan. I enjoy meeting people from around the world, talking to them and hearing their Elvis stories, and seeing how the event has changed over the years. Living an hour away makes it possible for me to easily do this each year. When I was getting ready to go on the trip last year, my wife challenged me to write a song about my trips. She has never gone with me, but seems to enjoy the stories that I bring home. She felt that they were interesting enough to write a song that would generate wide interest.

Movies

The Best Order for Watching Star Wars Movies

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date May 4, 2016
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As I write this post, I am wrapping up watching all of the Star Wars movies. I watched the movies in episode order because it was part of a study and the book we were following guided you through the films this way. As we were beginning this study, I saw some articles that claimed to have the ideal order for watching these movies and I did a little research comparing arguments for different orders of watching these films. I am by no means a hardcore Star Wars fan. But I consider myself a movie buff and I have decided what I think is the best order for watching the films. I will briefly discuss the various orders and why I think my suggestion is the best.

Travel

Public Restrooms Are Experiments In Technology And Organization

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date April 28, 2016
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Several years ago, I was travelling for business and I didn’t feel very good. I was driving back home and was in the car by myself. I think I had eaten something during the trip that did not sit well with my stomach. I didn’t really feel sick. I wasn’t having to make any emergency stops on the road either. But there was a point where I needed to pull over for a restroom break. I pulled over at an exit that had one convenience store. The store looked like it had been there for some time. The store was old enough that the doors to the restrooms where on the outside of the store. I was thankful that I didn’t have to go inside the store to get a key for the men’s room.

Movies

Watching Purple Rain

On Friday July 27, 1984, my girlfriend (now wife) and I made our way to the Malco Theater in downtown Jackson, Tennessee to see the first Prince film, Purple Rain. This was the opening weekend for the movie. While I liked Prince, I wasn’t a huge fan. I didn’t have any of his albums in my music collection. I really liked the music videos for his songs from the album 1999. I think our main reason for going to see it on the opening weekend was that it would be fun to see with a group of hardcore, Prince fans. Our best opportunity to do that would be on opening night.

True Stories

Corn on the Cob

My wife’s grandmother was at one time a good cook. I know this because my wife has told me this. I do not have firsthand knowledge of this fact because by the time my wife and I started dating, Granny was not a good cook. The first time I ever remember eating at Granny’s house was either around Christmas or Thanksgiving. Several people were there and the counter was packed with food. I was following my wife in the line. She leaned over and whispered to me “Don’t eat anything that I don’t eat!” I followed this warning very carefully. Eating at Granny’s house could be dangerous.

Uncategorized

Watching American Idol

As American Idol comes to the end of its final season, I decided to consider who are the top ten stars that the show created. These are the artists who had fame beyond the show. I am ranking them in the order from most to least fame. Strictly my opinion, share your thoughts in the comments.

Arkansas Song Don't Cry For Me When I'm Gone Song Writing The Prodigal Son The Tree of Life

Songwriting and Technology

Post author By elvisgumby
Post date March 19, 2016
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Several years ago, I had an opportunity to visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of the things that I enjoyed seeing is the notebooks that the songwriters used when they were working on their songs. It made me think about the different methods that I use when I’m writing songs. I wish I would have written all of my songs in a journal but that’s not the way that I’ve worked. I do have some journals that I have used to write a few songs. I also use the journals to write a few of the ideas that I have for songs and the earliest threads of ideas for songs. Most of the time, these ideas are transferred to Word files. I keep those files on a jump drive that I have with me most of the time. I carry the drive to work just in case I get an idea and I want to get a record of it before I forget it. The unfortunate thing about the files is that they are edited. I move words and phrases around with little to no traceability of the evolution of the song from one form to another. It’s really convenient for creating but bad for documenting the creative process.

Birthday Instruments

The Jawbone of an Ass

Every year, I celebrate my birthday every day of the month during March. My actual birthday is March 23rd. Most years the real celebration is sometime around my actual birthday and the rest of the month I accept all gifts, well wishes, cakes, balloons, pats on the back, hugs and kisses that I can get. This year my family took the celebration to the next level. I was travelling on business on February 29th. I got back home late that evening and was greeted with a “Happy Birthday” banner in the garage on the wall in the bay where I park. When I went into the house, there was a gift bag on the counter and I was told I could open it. There was a nice gift inside. I was also told not to throw away the bag because it would have a new gift in it each day. I was told that some would be better than others. As of this writing I will say that each day’s gift has been great in it’s own way. So far the most unique gift has been the jawbone of an ass.

Kids

Another Shopping Story

My two oldest children are 17 months apart in age. When they were small, we owned a double-wide stroller that we used for them whenever we went shopping. We made one of these trips specifically to buy a new coat for my oldest daughter, May, who was the only daughter at the time. We made a trip to Memphis for this shopping trip. From where we lived at the time, we planned on a two hour trip just to get to the store where we wanted to shop. This meant we had to do planning to make sure that we avoid crying kids. We successfully avoiding the screaming road trip but we had sleepy kids when we arrived at the store.