It Was a DREAM COME TRUE...
...especially if you were a pop music fan...

Blogger's note: I, not having posted in several days, have basically laid it on pretty thick below. This is a long post. And not for the faint of heart, either. There. Doesn't that put you in a good mood now?

In the late '80s, the musical rumor mill began churning in full-tilt fashion about a band that no one could ever believe was about to "come together"...basically, the band consisted of big names from various points in the '50s, '60s and '70s. And, when I lived in North Idaho, I believe (although I can't be sure) that I was the first person in my town to get my hands on the album that resulted from this collaboration of big names...and, for once, an album lived up to its massive billing. It rocked, but there were ballads. It was serious, but it was fun. And, it was one of those rare albums that instantly brought a smile to my face when I heard it...and, unlike a lot of records, the tunes on this one were all (save for one tune) so infectuous, they were instantly committed to my memory...and with my memory, that's saying something. Here's a picture of the group:


Here they are, The TRAVELING WILBURYS...from l to r: George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.

'Tis truly a musical rogue's gallery here: George Harrison (former Beatle), Tom Petty ("Heartbreakers" front man), Bob Dylan (who I thot would never be co-billed with anyone!), Jeff Lynne (founding member of the Electric Light Orchestra) and the legendary Roy Orbison, who passed away in 1989, a couple months after this album was released. For him, it was truly the "End Of The Line" (the title from the last song on the album, and the last recording he ever sang on). Everybody's really well-known here, except, perhaps, for Jeff Lynne, but it's his voice you hear on all of those ELO hits such as "Can't Get It Out Of My Head", "Strange Magic", "Mr. Blue Sky", "Turn To Stone" and many others. I had read in the newspaper about the impending release of this album, and immediately after reading that, I went right to the record store and put in a 'special order', and I was able to get the album on the day of its release, so I do believe I was the first person in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, to get the album. (Well, Idaho itself ain't very hip, but I'd like to think I was!)

Sadly, Roy Orbison passed away due to a massive heart attack; his heart hadn't been in the best condition and he'd had multiple-bypass surgery back in either the late '70s or early '80s. But one of the songs on the "Traveling Wilburys" album shows that he was just as good as ever; it's called "Not Alone Anymore", and I get chills just thinking about that song. Here's the same guy who sang "Pretty Woman", "Blue Bayou" and others, on an EIGHTIES record, and he sounds grrreat! Of course, George Harrison's vocals and slide guitar are all over the place, Tom Petty puts his characteristic voice to good use, and Bob Dylan wrote and sang a hilarious yet somehow epic tune, "Tweeter And The Monkey Man". There's only one song on that album that confounds me, "Margarita", which I just don't get, but maybe that's just me. A couple of years later, The Traveling Wilburys came out with their second album, called "Volume Three" (a little bit of George Harrison humor there), and even though that record didn't have Roy Orbison on it, it was pretty good, too. And, it's kinda rare; it wasn't the big hit that the first album was, and, since it came out in 1991, not that many vinyl copies were made. I've got one of those, too. I guess there's a Wilburys DVD coming out soon. I might just have to get it.
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Well, here's some other tidbits from my life that no one probably cares about very much...

TWO-INCH-FINCH: I've found that laying eggs and converting them into hardy little bird-survivors is a quite chancy proposition. Not that I've personally laid any eggs, you understand. (Although I probably lay a literary "egg" every time I post.) Some eggs don't hatch, and some that do yield weak baby birds that don't survive. So, one of my pair of finch lost two of their little babies that way. And a third baby ESCAPED when I opened the cage door for cleaning, and it flew around the house, banged into a wall, injured itself and died the next day. But, some good news, too. In the big cage, there's two parent finch plus three little ones, and they all fly, hop and leap around the cage in every possible direction. In the other (smaller) cage, two parent finch had laid 8 eggs, but the other day, two of the eggs were on the floor of the cage, and one had been broken. Egg Rejects, I presume. So, they're sitting on 6 eggs right now, and I'll be happy if two of those hatch. And if that happens, I'll have to get another big cage. And, then NO MORE BREEDING! Finch are such fast breeders, that they actually use the "Polaroid method" of breeding..."Have you heard about the 60-second sex?" "Nope." "Got a Minute?" ha ha haaaaaaaaaa.......................

THE FORMER-IMUS-MSNBC-EARLY-MORNING-WATCH ad nauseum: For those of you who really need to know such things, Joe Scarborough and his pack of cohorts anchored the 3am-6am (PST) slot on MSNBC all last week. And, a black guy is one of the regulars on the show. Is he nappy-headed? Nope, he sports a shaved head. And it seems that about 78.325% of the time, Scarborough, The Black Guy, The Other White Guy, and the Attractive Female Newsreader are all talking about what people can and can't say on TV anymore as a result of the Don-Imus-Politically-Incorrect-Incident which forever instilled a yuppie-type-of-blandness to early-morning TV. (Have I set the record for hyphen-utilization in a paragraph yet?) And, rumors are circulating that perhaps MSNBC will settle upon Mr. Scarborough as permanent host of that much-beleaguered timeslot. Now, GET THIS: I've read that there's a chance that FOX NEWS wants DON IMUS to team up with ROSIE O'DONNELL on some sort of issue-oriented program. Should be fun to watch. Especially when Imus puts the choke hold on Rosie...as we've all been tempted to do, what with her outspoken bully tactics on "The View".

ZZZzzz(Snort!)zzzZZZ(Snort!)ZzZzZz(Snort!): Well, dear reader, those would be the sounds of SLEEP APNEA. How do I know? Because I'd been doing a LOT of that lately. And getting tired out of my mind in the process. It's amazing what a lack of sleep can do. Basically, you get so tired you either can't get depressed or you get more depressed. (Take yer pick.) I am now wearing a mask when I sleep. That mask is attached to a plastic hose, which is attached to a Frankensteinian device called a C-PAP machine, which blows air thru the hose, into the mask, into yer face. The theory is that as people age, their throat tissues begin to collapse during sleep, causing obstruction of ye olde airway, so the constant air pressure generated by said C-PAP machine keep that there airway open. Sounds logical. A novel concept. And, a person can comfortably exhale against the C-PAP's gentle air pressure. Which is a good thing. If you couldn't exhale, you'd pop like a balloon. Scary thought! So far, it's been working. I'm sleeping about 7 hours, and I seem to have more energy and a better attitude during the day. I'm just glad I don't sleepwalk. I'd probably break my neck, what with all that stuff hanging from my face! Either that or I'd kill myself tripping over a clanging, banging C-PAP machine hanging from a swinging air hose attached to my face by a mask.
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I'm hoping that, as I blunder my way thru these long posts, that there's something of some sort of intrinsic value contained amongst all the verbage. So, it's a "quantity-vs.-quality" thing: The more I write, the greater chance something here will make sense. Or not.