Random Thoughts

The Christmas season starts earlier every year. This year I saw holiday stuff in September, and the decorations usually stay up on houses into April. Some stores are talking about opening at midnight from Thursday to Friday morning, and some parts of the country will see shopping start at 10 p.m. on Thanksgiving night! Look for traffic jams at a shopping center near you. I get a lot of my shopping done that same weekend at the Mid-Ohio Con in Columbus (and my bride Janice can pick up lot of stuff on my list there, too.) It’s a baby boom convention that has grown over the year to host huge crowds. Roger and Jane Price bring in folks like David Carradine, TV and movie stars, and all kinds of pop culture icons. There’s a huge dealers room, too….which is where Jan usually asks why I would need a fake piece of kryptonite, issues of Playboy from the 1950s, or DVDs of Astro Boy and Clutch Cargo. She thinks its just a guy thing, and on many ways it is. It’s the perfect place to relive your childhood! I have someone to house sit for us that weekend, so I’ll see you at the convention center

Recently we marked the 30th anniversary of Marc Bolan’s death in a car crash. Bolan’s T. Rex was never really appreciated in the US the way it was across the globe. He hit with “Bang a Gong”, and had minor success with “Jeepster”, but that was about it for his US success. Bolan played small venues in Parma and Cleveland, including the old Agora, but the movie “Born to Boogie” shows him playing to stadiums in that same era.
Bolan’s greatest success may have come with the same trend that has revived a lot of classic rockers, and that’s TV commercials. If you saw the Browns victory over the Bengals on Sunday you saw a load of classic rock themed spots, including Bob Seger, and even a Beatles tune. When Bolan’s “20th Century Boy” was used in a car commercial, a lot of people didn’t realize it was him because he’d been dead for such a long time and the song hadn’t been released as a single. All of a sudden, “Bang a Gong” and “Jeepster” were being used in spots, and Bolan’s post-mortem career was making money again.
The point is that a new generation is being introduced to classic rock via television, proving the longevity of that genre. Hopefully, that trend will continue.

Jerry “The King” Lawler stopped by the morning show not too long ago. Great guy and a far cry from his personae in the wrestling ring. Lawler used to live in the Cleveland area, in Lorain and Vermilion, and remained a Cleveland sports fan even after he returned to Memphis. While he was at the station, Lawler made a point to sign an autograph for a young wrestling fan whose grandfather works here at the Halle Building. The kid’s name is JaJuan, and we try to get him an autograph or a mention whenever we can. His grandfather told us he gave the stuff to JaJuan, who seemed puzzled that Lawler would sign the photo “to his good friend”…but added, “Oh yeah. Rey Mysterio was on a few weeks ago. He probably mentioned me to Jerry.”

Downtown Cleveland, like a lot of big cities, is a whole different world at night. I come in at about 3:45 – 4 am, and you see a lot of the same faces, some friendly and some you never want to see again. It makes you wonder what kind of lifestyles these folks pursue. What do they do for money, where do they live and how? And why would they choose to live that way, if they had a choice? Then again, they look at me and wonder “what kind of idiot gets up at this hour to go to work?”