John Hiatt wrote and recorded two of my favorite songs of all time.  1987’s “Have a Little Faith in Me” which has been covered by the biggest and has been incorporated into movies & tv shows as a theme over the years.  Hiatt also provides the words and sings so perfectly on 1995’s “Cry Love”.   A great song by a performer that has never made it on the Hot 100, however his transcendent writing skills earned him the 2008 American Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting.  Hiatt is a staple of American music! 

You can see Hiatt perform this weekend at the 2010 Beale Street Music Festival at Memphis in May!  I can’t wait to introduce him on-stage.  Also, look for Conley and Karen to introduce the B-52s at 7:45pm on the Budweiser Stage on Friday night!

My son Grant always seeks out new movies – the worse the better. Found the trailors for this summer’s crop, and minus any naughty words (it won’t be easy…:-), here we go;

SEX AND THE CITY 2 – The first of a thousand sequels this summer. This time Manhattan’s adorable sluts head off for ribald adventures in the party capital of the world – the Middle East. SEX AND THE SUNI.

ROBIN HOOD – Russell Crowe adding extra dimension to the legendary character. For the first time ever Robin Hood sleeps with all of Maid Marion’s friends and is hostile to hotel employees.

SHREK FOREVER AFTER – What difference does it make? It’s all about the opening weekend and selling DVD’s.

IRON MAN 2 – Not that they’re stretching things just to pop out a sequel but Iron Man faces his biggest challenge – an evil genius with a can opener.

MOTHER AND CHILD – Drama exploring mother/daughter dynamics, zzzzzzzzz. Hot sex scene between Naomi Watts and Samuel L. Jackson! I don’t know if he plays the “evil” man in this or the “righteous” man but he sure plays the “lucky” man.

For my money. give me the oldies but GOODIES! My two favorites of all time; AMERICAN GRAFFITI and HARVEY…invisible rabbits and cruising the strip in 1962…they don’t make’em like that anymore – and why not?!?

One of the cool things about Memphis roadways are the sites you see here, since it’s the “crossroads of America.”  True to it’s name, it’s also a place where many drug busts happen roadside.  And the guys in the black suburbans with tinted windows are ready to poach every morning on I-40.  They live here and look for random plates, generally from Texas, generally have tinted windows, generally have potential illegal immigrant folks driving, and could possibly be carrying 100’s of pounds of marijuana someplace in the undercarriage.  Some mornings, the traffic driving from the Arlington or Lakeland area on I-40 is slowed to view a large dog destroying the inside of such a car.

But our location is also why FedEx is headquartered here.  It’s very central.  For that reason, I also am facinated by the number of “cool” semis, tour buses, and 18-wheelers on the roadways around here.  They may be just passing through on their way to Talladega or to a concert in Memphis, Nashville, or Little Rock, but they are still fun to see.

Just this week I saw Greg Biffle’s car hauler on the way to Talladega for the race.  Here’s the pics (Don’t worry, no cars around me while I took these quick snap shot.  I was focused on the road…just FYI!)

Better view…

They build these car haulers to just barely fit their stuff in it because they pack about 50 of these babies in the in-field at smaller tracks like Bristol.

Just this morning, I saw Darius Rucker’s Tour “Gear” truck.  It’s a little more exciting when you see the actual tour buses.  However, the smart artists who don’t want to be bothered use unmarked BUT VERY EXPENSIVE buses nicer than my house.

I just looked on-line and it appears this is probably not part of Darius’ tour, because this truck isn’t going to make it California by tonight!

Better look…

It does say “learn to live tour” on the side, so maybe this 18-wheeler is just part of a different show?   Speed it up!

Like you, I many times use our local public television station for programming.  Whether it’s the occasional childrens show, the recent biography special on Bobbie Hurley in New Jersey, or the concerts you can only find on WKNO.  WKNO supports local learning, kids, and like most public TV stations, it’s an integral part of the fabric of the broacast community.

This weekend, I’ll be on to support WKNO’s Action Auction for the 3rd year in a row!  Watch and bid this Sunday, April 25th, from 5-8 p.m. if you would!  Here’s where you can bid on-line: 

http://auction.wkno.org/

Dishes for Wishes  is this Sunday, April 25, 2010

at Felicia Suzanne’s

Downtown Memphis

 5 – 8 p.m.

This spring will mark the 5th annual Dishes for Wishes downtown food event at Felicia Suzanne’s restaurant to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Mid-South. The event celebrates downtown Memphis’ finest chefs’ latest culinary creations, along with a one-of-a kind live auction and much more!

The wonderful restaurants taking part

Automatic Slims
Bangkok Alley
Blue Monkey
Felicia Suzanne’s
Itta Bena
Majestic Grille
McEwen’s on Monroe
Mesquite Chop House
Rendezvous
Sole

For more information on tickets, call 680-WISH.

From 1997-2000, I was a graduate assistant at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  During that time I taught at UNLV and was the Assistant Editor for Journalism History.  Dr. Barbara Cloud was the editor I worked for.  She was a very serious women, but someone who knew that I was just the kind of guy who could make her crack a smile!  She was also very influential in my passion for media studies and journalism. 

For a time, she was actually the Interim Provost of UNLV.  More importantly, she served as the Dean of the Greenspun School of Communication and was an important figure to me.  As I told my wife this morning, I was saddened to learn of her passing just this week through the college’s paper (she died December 24, 2009).  Dr. Cloud motivated me to press harder on the pedal when it came to media and journalism.  I spent endless hours in the library writing my graduate thesis thanks to her support.

This is from UNLV’s site:

The School of Journalism and Media Studies is saddened by the loss of Emerita Professor Barbara Cloud who passed away on December 24, 2009.

A distinguished educator, researcher, and writer, Dr, Cloud specialized in the history of journalism in the American West and media law and contributed many book reviews and general interest articles for a variety of publications. She served as president of the American Journalism History Association in the mid 1980s, and edited and published Journalism History from 1992 to 2001.

She was awarded the Nevada Humanities Commission’s and University of Nevada Press’s Wilbur S. Shepperson Award for Scholarship in the Humanities and was teaching a class on women and the media and researching a biography of “Pop” Squires, a Las Vegas newspaper pioneer, when she died.

She served as department chairperson in the late 1980s and was instrumental in the transformation of the UNLV Department of Communication Studies into the Hank Greenspun School of Communication, which she directed for a year before becoming Associate Provost in 1998, a post she held for five years.

Prior to coming to UNLV in 1979, she worked as a reporter for the Idaho Falls Post-Register and Bend, Oregon, Bulletin during summer vacations, as News Editor of the Springfield, Oregon, News, as Executive Secretary of the Florey Memorial Fundraising Campaign in the Australian National University, and as a Public Relations Consultant in Perth, Australia. In the early 1960s she interviewed movie stars and other celebrities for a Los Angeles free-lance writer.

She was a graduate of Stanford University, where she met her husband, Stan Cloud. (They were married for 49 years.)  She also earned degrees at the University of Oregon and the University of Washington. Faculty, friends and students lost a wonderful colleague and valued friend. She is missed very much.

From UNLV Prof. Mary Hausch:  Cloud was a dedicated educator but occasionally could show a little flash. She bought a Corvette when she was in her 60s. “People considered her a conservative sort of person; she was very quiet and reserved,” Hausch said. “But the Corvette showed another side of her personality.”

Sorry about the title; to the Beatles as to the world at large, my mantra; Apologies Where Needed…:-)

How many days left at my age (53)? NO MR. BILL – DON’T SAY IT!

Ever look back and think “how ridiculous I was back when I was only 18 / 30 / 40″, etc, et al? My question is: Does this go on FOREVER? Will I one day at age 90 think ‘thank goodness I grew out of all that crap I use to pull at age 85…what an idiot back then”?!?

Decided, I’m gonna make this ‘being 53 year old geezer thing work for me’…sure…:-)

So; woke up, got out of bed – but no combs across my head. Do they even still make those cheapie plastic 15 cent combs you could only find at ‘package stores’? At any rate, a day in my life has consisted of exercising…as if!

Charles Atlas I’m not…more a Woody Allen body type ( try to control yourselves ladies)…figure I’m never going to get any healthier, only less so at age 53. Thus, around 6 months back I became one with the Village People anthem, ‘Macho Man’. Well, if there was a song called ‘Not So Macho Man’ that would be the obvious choice. 

And here I sit, achy / beaky and in need of a ‘lil lie down’… Never mind health and vitality – when do I feel at least like a 52 year old? (Or at least stop quoting Billy Ray Cyrus song titles?)

I guess the answer is being born all over again, and living another 52 years…oh that’s right! I want to ‘come back’ in a position of perpetual ease and luxury with my every desire instantly met: I wanna come back – AS ONE OF MY CATS!

It’s that special time of the season, Spring!  In Memphis, it basically goes from about as cold as it gets here, to 80+ with pollen invading all of our spaces.  Still, we get our share of great days.  Sunday was one of those days as the azaleas starting popping and the weather was just a steady 70 degrees for the 2010 Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival Downtown.  This year, I was down there for it (our sister station 92.9 FM ESPN was a sponsor).

It was especially great on Sunday because I had family all around.  My wife Stacy and son Jake accompanied me in the afternoon.  We decided to make it sunglasses for everyone!

My brother in-law, Mike Stewart, was cool enough to make the trip from Mississippi to judge the gumbo contest… 

Beware, professional gumbo judges at work here.  Ironically, they strategically placed the port o’ johns behind the judges. 

Meanwhile my dad, who officially in the age range where you can where whatever kind of hat you want, was signing autographs at the radio tent.

Obviously, that’s my dad, Lenny, in the center of the above picture.  That’s my friend Dennis on the right.  A great weekend had by all, and my son enjoyed spending time with his grandparents outside in the nice weather.

The good news is this weekend in the Mid-South continues more fun and festivals!  It’s the Southaven Springfest all weekend, and the Wine Races downtown on Sunday…. Memphis in May just around the corner!

This year Debbi Fields Rose is the chairperson of the 7th annual Go Red For Women campaign. Go Red is a national movement to motivate and inspire women to prevent heart disease. There are two special events are scheduled for this week.

This morning Debbi Fields Rose visited Classic Hits 94.1 KQK to talk about an event that our very own Karen Perrin is involved in…”Go Red For Women” ‘Girls Night Out’ to benefit the American Heart Association…

Go Red For Women Girls Night