The Kingston Trio...

The Kingston Trio was a hit group a little before my musical day, but they are considered one of the most influential sounds that shaped the coming rock n' roll years. Their sound evolved into "folk pop" which guided such stars as Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Byrds and The Mama's and Papa's. It was a pleaure to see and hear them up close and personal. Above, "Scotch and Soda" which is the most played Juke Box song of all times.

Good bye, city life.......

If you have ever heard the theme songs to Green Acres or The Addams Family...and not been able to get them out of your head, you have Vic Mizzy to thank.

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide

Sad to note that Vic passed away this week.

Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.

Jim Hall | Chaparrals honored...

In 1995 Jim Hall took a chance on a young Brazilian driver named Gil de Ferran, offering him a drivers spot with Chaparral Racing's Indy Car team. The rest as they say is history with Gil later winning the Indy 500 and the Indy Car Series championship twice, albeit with other teams. Gil has never forgotten Jim's confidence in him and so this past weekend when Gil finally retired from active racing he asked Jim to be at Laguna Seca for his final American Lemans Series race. We sent two Chaparrals along with Jim and he tells me they were the hit of the weekend. By the way.....Gil won the race! The video above is Gil and Jim Hall driving a parade lap around Laguna Seca. Gil is driving the Chaparral 2, while Jim is driving the Chaparral 2E.

Running into old friends...

Random meetings of old acquaintances is one of life's little joys. For the last 5 years at the annual Racquet Club NCAA Invitational Tournament, I've been a supporter of my old grad school, Pepperdine University and their women's tennis team. In between our matches I happened to be at the main stadium court watching a match involving Texas A&M and I noticed their coach, who looked fairly familiar, but at first I couldn't be sure.

Then it dawned on me that the coach was Bobby McKinley, who I had known at Trinity University. I hadn't seen Bob since an alunmi weekend long ago. Bob is now the Asst. Coach of Tennis for A&M, but is a tennis legend in his own right.

Bobby was a four-time All-American and was a team captain for our Trinity team which won the 1972 NCAA Championships. He was later the Coach at Trinity and the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1977. He was the No. 1-ranked Junior Tennis Player in the United States at one time. He reached the Round of 16 at Wimbledon in 1973, reached the doubles semifinals at the U.S. Open in 1972 and was part of the No. 2-ranked men's doubles team in the USA in 1972. At the time of his retirement, McKinley was ranked No. 50 in singles on the ATP Tour. His brother, Chuck McKinley, won the Wimbledon Men's Championship in 1963.

Glalmour Shots...

Always nice to see your photo on the cover of a website with worldwide importance.....with credit! Miss Texas Webshots

Thoughts on dogs | Revisited

I was at my "other" house last night watering and I always make sure I water the spot where two of my Golden Retrievers are buried. This gets my thinking about those wonderful dogs and friends. And reminded me of an article I wrote in 2004 while the Big Gold Dog was still very much alive, which I like...here it is again.

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"Researchers have recently proven that people who talk to their dogs are cutting-edge communicators, not just a bunch of eccentrics."

Thanks for that, I'm glad to know I'm not just a kook, a complete kook that is. A new German study cited here says that most dogs understand language at a rate the scientists said was equivalent to that of a 3-year-old child...or an ape or dolphin. I'd prefer to communicate with an ape or dolphin more than with most 3 year olds, but that's another story.

I've always known that dogs have an innate ability to understand, and I've always talked to them. I guess that's why I love dogs so much and we've always gotten along. I've only been bitten by one dog in my life....my brother's French poodle. The reason for the bite is quite obvious; he didn't understand what I was saying.

My Golden Retreivers have been amazing in their grasp of the English language however. Ranger, my dear comrade of the late 80's and 90's had quite a range of vocabulary. When I would say "Duck" [as in a waterfowl] he would immediately look up and start searching the sky for a stray gaggle of mallards. He was a retreiver yes, but I had never ever taken him duck hunting nor been around lakes with ducks. Where he got that trait I don't know, genetics maybe. And we had to spell out C-A-T, for if we uttered "CAT" he was at the front door barking furiously for 20 minutes. The same with "SQUIRREL", only this would send him out the back door trying to climb the mulberry tree. If we were, by chance, to utter the word "BATH" in his presence he would slowly start to slink away and if we made a move in his direction he would shift from "slink" to "haul ass" in a nanosecond.

Ranger was also adept in automotive language. Like most Golden Retreivers he relished being in the family bed. My mean and evil Ex Wife did not relish nor allow a 95 lb. dog in the bed. So whenever she would leave in the morning, into bed he would hop. If I came home first drving my Blazer, he would still be in full repose. However if the mean evil EX came home in her Volvo he was out of the linen in a flash. He knew the sound of a Swedish engine better than most humans I know.

The present Big Gold Dog, Tres, is less communicative than Ranger but in a way, smarter about his understanding of language. Tres knows all the words, but he also has me figured out. His dog notes on me read something like:

-Owner: soft touch, easy, pushover; don't have to do a thing he says.
-Important words to respond to: "Chow", "Ride", "Walk", "Treat". Ingore all else.

Actually Tres is more of a talker than a good listener. Thankfully for us, he's the only dog I've ever had that will tell you precisely when he needs to go out and do his duty so we never worry about him. He will go to the back door and utter one single muffled "woof". That's it..."woof", I need to go. If by chance we don't resond quickly enough, there is a second and very loud "Bark". We know then he really has to go. The same procedure applies when he wants to come back in.

Daphne is another matter entirely. Daphne is an Abyssinian Squirrelhound....aka "Mutt". Mutt's are genetically smarter than most other dogs since they most typically are the strays of the world and have had to fend for themselves over the eons. Daphne is as smart as they come, and like a precocious child is generally a wise ass when it comes to language. She understands everything we say, but does not comply with anything we wish, unless she wants to do it. She learned "sit", "lie down" and "roll over", I'm told, after only one or two training sessions. She knows not to dig, bark at squirrels and to stay out of the flower beds. Her reaction to a command to do, or not do, any of these is to run out of leash range and smirk. A very perturbing and frustrating trait in a dog. And when it comes time to scold her with the old favorite "Bad Dog!"....well she just looks the other way like we are talking to some imaginary other dog.

Ranger: good listener.
Tres: good talker.
Daphne: poor communication skills all around.

LeMans winner in Midland

I've been keeping it rather low profile, as some details are still being worked out, but my new job is as Managing Director of Chaparral Partners. Chaparral Partners is a new entity we are forming to market and develop the cars and history of Chaparral Racing in addition to some exciting things we're working on that for now need to be unnamed. A dream job for me, whose idol as a kid was Jim Hall.

We will be working directly with the Petroleum Museum and it's Chaparral Gallery on most projects. And one of the first is just too cool. Starting around the 1st of next April we will have on loan from the Henry Ford Museum, the Ford GT40 Mark IV, above, which won LeMans in 1967*. Cool enough, but the car was owned by Carroll Shelby and driven to victory by two of racing's biggest legends, Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt. Having a good contact in Dan Gurney's personal assistant, I've asked her to put this event on his calendar...and through other contacts we hope to have both Shelby and Foyt attend also. Nothing guaranteed, but we're hopeful. If it works out....a world class racing event on March 26th, the target for our exhibit kickoff gala.

*It was on the winners podium at this race, that Dan Gurney became the first driver, ever, to spray the crowd with the winners champagne instead of drinking it. A tradition continued in every motor sport today.

Woodstock: Peace, Love and Music.

Woodstock was in full swing on this date. One of the best and most memorable performances was by Joe Cocker. I have to say I'm glad to know that Joe is alive and well today, living in Colorado. As he appears in this video, he looks like he was one of those guys who was not going to survive the excesses of the 60's.

Birthday Remembered...

Today is my Dad's birthday. He would have been 86 years old. For most of his life he was active, interesting and loved sports. I like to remember him that way....especially with golf clubs.

Woodstock | Jimi Hendrix

To Me, probably no performer says Woodstock more than Jimi Hendrix, a guitar genius. Today, people think of Jimi as typifying the Hippie drug culture. Drugs yes, they killed him, but few people know that Hendix had served in the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division and was a fairly partiotic guy.

Wind Power....

As I have watched whole areas of West Texas become overwhelmed with wind farms, I've wondered, in point of fact, just how well these are working as a potential solution to future energy problems. Wind turbines are widely "touted" by those putting them up as the basic building block in our Green future. But those putting these monsters up atop scenic mesas are also hoping to cash in on our green future. So, has anyone done factual studies on their viability?

In Australia they have and have come up with some interesting findings about the true value of wind farms.... Wind farms downunder

Woodstock | Plus 40

In two weeks, it will be the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Hard to believe. The Summer of Peace and Love not withstanding, it was a seminal event with some of the world's best rock musicians. Fitting that it occured in 1969, because to me, this was the year that the original and classic rock n' roll ended. In the 70's and afterward it was different, losing it's free spirited, hard driving enthusiasm to commercialism which ended up, temporarily, ending music as we know it with.....Disco. I'll be playing clips of some other classic performances in coming days. But above, probably my favorite....Santana. Rock on...!

The Eagle has landed.....

It's hard to believe that it's been 40 years since Neil Armstrong became the first human to set foot on another cosmic body.....the Moon. Hard to believe that from Alan Shepard's first 15 minute ride into space in 1961, we developed the technology to send men to land on the moon just 8 years later.

If you weren't old enough to have been around in the 1960's to witness the "space race" culminating in the "moon shot", it was an amazing time. The venture into space was the cutting edge of technology, at a time when new technology wasn't a daily part of life. We are technology jaded today. Then, with only three broadcast TV channels, most of the population was glued to the family TV watching this all unfold. The astronauts were tops on the hero list.

As has been noted in recent times, the computers that guided the Apollo 11 spacecraft had less computing power than today's small personal cellphones. Watching and listening as Neil Armstrong overrode the computer to land the Eagle moon lander by his own piloting skills has to be one of the most thrilling moments of TV history. In total, twenty-four American astronauts have traveled to the Moon, with twelve walking on its surface. The lunar landings occurred over a short 3 year period, the last coming in December of 1972. Quite frankly the technological task of getting us to the moon in 2009 would be a daunting prospect. To do it in 1969 was nothing short of phenomenal.

The photo above is a shot I took with an old camera of the TV screen on July 20th 1969, with Neil Armstrong already on the lunar surface [right] and Buzz Aldrin climbing down the Eagle's ladder to join Armstrong. One of my prize possessions, courtesy of my brother at NASA is a personally autographed copy of Gene Cernans' great book, "Last Man on the Moon". Gene was the last man to have trod on the lunar surface.

Chaparral 2J | The Sucker Car

Yesterday, we ran the historic Chaparral 2J, "the sucker car" for it's semi-annual mainentance laps. One of the most historic and innovative racing cars ever built, the 2J always draws a big crowd, even some folks driving from Austin for the event. We run all the Chaparrals during a years time. If you want to be put on our mailing list to be notified when we are running the Chaparrals at The Petroleum Museum, let me know! The video above was shot in 2005 at Laguna Seca Raceway in California, when the Chaparrals were the featured cars at the Rolex Vintage Car event, the largest in the USA.

McNamara....

Probably you saw or read that Robert Strange McNamara died today...and yes his middle name was Strange. His passing is sad in a historical way, and for his family, but most of us of the Vietnam era who served in the military have fairly strong feelings about the man who directed and shaped the war.

Despite President Kennedy's and Johnson's philosophical leadership, McNamara, as Secretary of Defense, was the chief architect of how the war was fought. And for a good deal of the war it was poorly served by his leadership. It was the accountant and statistician McNamara who after the battles in the Ia Drang Valley where my friends fought, came up with the concept of the "body count" as a measure of how we were doing. After the battle at LZ Xray McNamara decided that if we could keep on killing the enemy in much greater numbers than they were killing our soldiers, the North Vietnamese could not sustain the war. In the end the North Vietnamese lost numbers some put close to three million soldiers and civilians, the U.S. lost close to 59,000 troops....and still we were defeated. While being interviewing for the book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, General Giap, the military commander of North Vietnamese forces, told General Hal Moore that North Vietnam would have been willing to endure three times the casualties that they did and would have fought for 20 years more if it meant winning the war.

Perhaps our disdain for McNamara stems from his lofty Ivy League "I'm obviously right, so let's stick to the business plan" attitude, which reduced our brother soldiers to statistical highlights making it seem OK to lose 100 Americans if only they killed 500 Viet Cong as they were dying. It was obvious to the troops dying in the mud that he certainly wasn't right about much nor had the willingness to change strategies or listen to the commanders in the field. And certainly his mea culpa book in 1995, admitting that early in the war he knew he was wrong but did nothing to change the outcome, has left his place in history with Vietnam Vets on the dung heap.

Added as it appeared, my friend Joe Galloway's comments on McNamara

4th of July | Midland

Happy Independence Day!
Photo slideshow of the 4th in Midland

The naked lamp is lit..

Perhaps you read the bizarre story about the airline passenger who suddenly felt the need to strip naked and lay in his seat thusly, causing the flight to land in Albuquerque. Obviously this poor fellow had some break with reality, but on some plane trips in the past I can almost identify with him. One such trip in 1988 comes to mind.

The wife, at the time, and I had been at my family's home on Torch Lake, Michigan an hour north of Traverse City. To return home we had to catch a commuter flight from Traverse City to either Detroit or Chicago. On this trip we changed planes in Detroit which required about a 2 hour wait in the airport. We boarded the American Airlines flight to Dallas, taxied out to wait our turn in line to take off at which point all hell broke loose in the unfriendly skies as a huge group of thunderstorms started letting loose over the airport. They went on.....and on, until the captain informed us that this might go on for awhile and so to save fuel he needed to shut the engines down and with all the gates full we were going to stay put on the taxiway.

So there we sat for the next 3 hours in the darkness, with only some emergency lighting on in the cabin. And with no engines powering the ventilation systems we sat in the stifling humid still air. The crew strongly suggested that we not leave our seats and being in the window seat I could not stretch my 6'2" frame out at all. To make matters worse, I had on my favorite lizard skin cowboy boots, which were only good for about 6 hours of comfort before they started feeling like beaver traps on my feet. Being the sort who likes to move around often, my only option was to squirm around which irritated the wife to no end.

Which brings me back to the naked guy in the paper today. I think that probably I was only minutes away from a claustrophobia attack, which is what could have happened to this guy. If I could have gotten out of my window seat I would have surely stripped off those lizard skin boots and may not have stopped there.

Kim Miller | Midland talent

Kim Miller was a classmate of my sister's at Midland High. Their class is having a reunion this week and I ran across Kim's entry on their website. Kim lives in Wimberely, as does my friend Connie Nelson who is still involved in the music business. I hope to put them together....

Preview more of Kim's music at Kim Miller.Com

Father's Day: Gone but never forgotten..

My Dad.....and Mom with me

Photographic legacy...

I'm daily being reminded of where my photographic interest, and whatever talent I have, came from. My Dad. After my Dad passed away I took possession of his photo archive; thousands of color slides, which he took from the late 1940's until the early 1990's. My goal is to put as many of them as I can into digital format to not only preserve them but also to give copies to my brother and sister.

I have about 20 slide carousals full, as well as a photo file box with many 100's of loose slides. I was helped along by my Mom, who some years ago made a good effort at organizing the carousals into topics roughly by the years in which they were taken and/or by subject. So I have many from the 40's and 50's of Mom and Dad's families, me and my siblings as small kids, trips taken over the decades [including to the original Disneyland not long after it opened], scout photos and memorable events. I have to admit that reviewing all these photos is a very poignant experience. Seeing family members [including dogs] long gone, remembering trips taken and reliving good times is a joyful yet very melancholy experience.

I really need to acquire a good slide scanner, but as I was reviewing the slide carousals shown on our original family slide screen, the thought occured to me that I might be able to photograph the slides with my digital camera. The old fashion slide screen provides excellent luminosity and the results have been mostly good.

The photo above is one. The shot taken by my Dad is of his mother, out rowing at our house in Michigan. She's probably close to 80 years old when the photo was taken in the late 70's. She was quite a woman. My Dad was in our vintage Old Town canoe, a beautiful creation of wood and canvas.