Almost Famous

Good morning, y’all. I’m as excited as a flea on a St. Bernard. My Bulldogs absolutely crushed the NFL draft. Five defensive players taken in the first round which included the number one pick, Travon Walker. It was an NFL record with 15 players taken in the draft. Outstanding! While we can be mystified that the Atlanta Falcons once again passed on an All American Bulldog, Nakobe Dean, to pick an unknown from Western Kentucky, I still retain bragging rights with my other mountaineer neighbors. The Volunteers of Tennessee didn’t have anyone picked until late in the second round. I’m not going to rag on the Volunteers too much. It took generations of inbreeding to attain the physical, and mental, attributes of a Tennessee Volunteer. But first, let me make Lite of the situation:

How do you know that the toothbrush was invented by a Volunteer?

If it was invented by anyone else they would have called it a “teethbrush”.

Anyway, I don’t want to pick on the Volunteers too much. We’ve got as fine an example of Tennessee genetics that you could ever find right here at TackyToo, Axel Rhodes. Axel lives over in Number 24, and is as good ole boy as you would ever hope to meet. He is also a mighty fine keyboard player and provides a certain “Ray Charles” vibe to our band, “The Tacky Ones”. Axel is not blind, nor is he black, but he is confined to a wheelchair. Axel had a water skiing accident a few years back over at Lake Lanier, when the lake level was not nearly as high as it is today.

As the story goes, Axel was skiing and his brother was driving the boat. Axel’s brother was curious about the tree branches breaking the surface of the water and drove the boat closer to investigate. Too close, as it turns out, and Axel hit the tree at full speed. The tree didn’t give way, but Axel’s back did, and now he is immobilized from the waist down. I never ask how immobile, and he has never shared, but Axel doesn’t stray far from his trailer. Axel’s immobility is one of the reasons we hold band practice at his place under the carport. The other reason is that Axel’s trailer faces the woods at the edge of the park. We can turn our amplifiers all the way to “11” if we want to.

We’ve not had band practice since my incarcereation, and last night was our first time back in the saddle in about ten months. Considering the layoff, we didn’t sound too bad. I mean, it took a while for the dogs to calm down, but eventually they picked up our groove. Playing music with a group of folks always makes me nostalgic and reflectful. If my life had been different, if I had practiced more, if I had had more talent, might I have been a rock star? We’ll never know now, but it did make picking out the date night movie easier. I chose, “Almost Famous”.

“Almost Famous” is the almost true story of director Cameron Crowe. Crowe actually starting writing for “Rolling Stone Magazine” when he was fifteen. Sixteen year old Crowe was touring with the Allman Brothers band, and wrote a cover story article on the experience. I feel like Crowe must have had mountains of material to work with from touring with the Allmans. My guess is he probably had to censor a lot of his experiences to protect the reputations of whatever innocents might have been in the tour. The movie was a good time romp, filled with fantastic music and great acting. Two of my favorite break through artists of the film are Kate Hudson and Jason Lee. Kate Hudson because she reminds me so much of her mom, Goldie Hahn. Jason Lee because of his affinity to trailer parks. Just kidding, I thought he turned in a great performance. For a full cast of characters, go here. Jimmy Fallon’s name might jump out at you.

It was a great date night movie. Enough mushy stuff to make Mulva happy, and plenty of rock and roll for me. Check it out. In the mean time, GO DAWGS!


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