On September 1, I saw a few reports that said Graceland had been “vandalized” with graffiti. In addition, I saw several social media posts where people were outraged by messages of “BLM” and “Eat the Rich” were painted on the walls outside of Graceland. As someone who has regularly attend the Candlelight Vigil, I guess I was supposed to be outraged too. I felt at least obliged to chime in.
Last weekend, my oldest daughter was visiting us. My wife was telling her about the things she had coming up this week. My wife mentioned that she would be taking her father to see a Dr Bada on Tuesday. My daughter said she wondered if that was Donald’s father. My daughter had gone to high school with a kid named Donald Bada and Donald’s father was a doctor. My wife replied “how many Dr. Badas can there be?”
I replied “99. On the wall.”
99 Badas of…
The use of services like Zoom and Teams has greatly increased with the pandemic. I had never heard of Zoom before the pandemic and Teams was a tool that we had only started playing around with at work. These programs allow you to do group video calls. You can also share what you are working on from your computer desktop. This week, I discovered some new rules for myself regarding meetings that I attend on-line.
I would like to start by apologizing for personally causing the COVID-19 virus. Let me explain. I have been looking for a sign to tell me when I need to stop going to Elvis Week. I still get to meet new, interesting people each year. I enjoy seeing the changes to Graceland and the celebration. I enjoy documenting my feelings about the Elvis phenomenon and where it is heading. I am also a creature of habit. It’s easier to continue going that breaking with tradition. So, what might happen to make me consider staying at home? Maybe an international pandemic is a sign from God that I should stay home this year. If this is his way of sending this message, I apologize for my stubborn ways. I will happily remain in my house to avoid getting the virus. I hope I didn’t miss any lesser signs from God where this could be avoided.
My wife was the news editor of the weekly county newspaper in the town where we lived shortly after we were married. This is also the county where we grew up. As news editor of a county paper, she was the primary reporter for almost all newsworthy items. She covered city and county government meetings, high school sports events, fires, emergencies, and other various happenings. She was also the face of the paper for many people. Whenever a group wanted to recognize the paper in appreciation for its coverage of their activities, my wife was invited. I tagged along with her to many of these events.
My friend Joe and I left the dormitory at college to go to the part of town that had the good record stores. I was in search of a song but didn’t know what it was called. There were two main record stores in town. Camelot Music was in the mall. Sounza Musik was a local store in the shopping center across from the mall. Sounza Musik was the place I usually shopped for music. The staff there knew music and were very helpful. But for some reason, I thought the store with more records would be more likely to have what I was looking for. So we started at the mall.
In my previous blog post, I shared the story of the writing of Stick Out Your Tongue. From that story you should be able to tell that a music video was always part of the idea for the song. I went back and forth on exactly what the video should look like, but I finally decided on videos of people dancing both with and without them sticking out their tongues. I sent a notification to my followers on social media along with my email subscribers. There were a handful of people that I reached out to that I thought would contribute creative ideas. They did not disappoint.
Several people have asked me, “Why Stick Out Your Tongue? What does it mean?” Even my wife has asked me where it came from. I think the assumption is that it has naughty implications. I’m sure you can make anything suggestive, but it was never intended that way. The origins of using this phrase in a song and the inspiration for the song itself are not complicated.
Hot Wheels cars were introduced in 1968. They were the coolest die cast cars that kids could play with. They were similar to Matchbox cars, but they had cooler designs. They also had a better axle design so they rolled smoother and faster than any other die cast car on the market. I was 6 years old with these cars were introduced so I was the prime target for them. In addition to collecting the cars, I had a variety of tracks, cases and other Hot Wheels related items including a board game. Most of the cars ended up in an official Hot Wheels wheel-shaped case. This case is still at my father’s house today.
Toymaker Mattel created a toy in the 1960’s call Creepy Crawlers. It consisted of molds that you would fill with colored liquids called Plastigoop. Then you would put the mold in a special hot plate call the Thingmaker. The Thingmaker heated up to about 400° F and cured the liquid into a soft rubbery, plastic toy. You would remove the mold and place it in a tray of water until it cooled. Then you would use a metal pick to remove these toys from the mold. The Creepy Crawlers looked like various bugs. Mattel made other sets that used the Thingmaker. I had the Creepy Crawler and Creepy People sets. With the Creepy People set, you could make heads, arms and feet that could be placed on a pencil to create the people.