Monday, October 31, 2011

Pierre Pascual - Sous Les Sycomores

Pierre Pascual - Sous Les Sycomores (Integral Music Video)
 
Pierre Pascual - Sous Les Sycomores (Integral Music Video)
(almost twenty minutes)
Released on Sept. 30 2010
Directed by Mick Bulle
Artistic Direction : Pierre Pascual
With : Pierre Pascual, Aurore Tome', Thierry Chollet-Berger, Henriette Coulouvrat, Angela Transbury, Rebecca Johnson James, Servane Varnese, Stanislas Briche, Anne Laure Séguette, Elsa Bontempelli & Nathanael Agasvari.

http://www.pierrepascual.fr/  Pierre Pascual own web site.
https://www.facebook.com/pierrepascualmusic?sk=info  Facebook Page
High quality on Vimeo : http://www.vimeo.com/15419166

VROUK REVIEW:
Strong artistic statement.
HyperReality slicing visceral spiritual vignettes
and morsels of 'elan and ennui.
Psychic manifestations of the subconcious,
In the style of Fellini/Jung post Neorealism.
Beautifully conceived and executed.
Music whispers Depeche Mode, The Cure,
Kraftwerk, Devo, Bauhaus, but is unique & ethereal.     VROUK Approved.

(Viewing tip: if you're having trouble with the looong run time, try viewing it first time through with no sound, then second time add the sound.  This forces you to absorb the rich visual train first - uncomplicated by the emotive evocation of the soundtrack.)

Thursday, October 20, 2011

PINK FLOYD - POW R. TOC H.

 
Pink Floyd - Pow R Toc H
Instrumental
From the first album
Piper at the Gates of Dawn 1967

I was ten years old, thought I was pretty cool.  Was really into hippie stuff.  Saved my money and bought this weird weird record with psychodelic colors all over it and a totally weird title, by a group I had heard the name of from "hip" visitors we'd had from California.  They were 12 and smoked and cussed a blue streak and could sing all the Beatle songs.  So of course when I saw this "Pink Floyd"  *giggle*
album in Woolworths, I surreptiously bought it, hid it on the top shelf of my closet because I knew if my mom saw it I'd get a huge lecture about that "hippie crap".  So I'd sneak it out and listen when no one else was at home.  I thought this song was So Weird! and thought the band must not be very good, except the other instrumental, Interstellar Overdrive had a cool name because I devoured Science Fiction books.   Well, I kept it for five or six years.  In the meantime I got into increasingly harder rock, heavy rock etc.  I started buying all the Black Sabbath albums from the first one.  Mountain. Moody Blues. Deep Purple. I sold the Piper album at a garage sale for a nickel.  

I didn't get back into Pink Floyd until Animals.  
See what you think of this early unusual Pink Floyd.  
I still laugh to myself when I think of the title of the album.
So sixties.  So hippie.  So deep.
Or was it just marketing?

Copyright 2011 Lyle Van Sciver

KAUFFMAN CENTER - QUIXOTIC FUSION - AMAZING!

 
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Quixotic Arts
Opening Night Gala Performance
Projections, Spatial Dancers and Fireworks
on the OUTSIDE of the Kauffman Center!!!
This just over four minute video captures the truly amazing Opening Night Projections performance by Quixotic Arts
that transformed the outside of the new 
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
into the most modern spectacular projection, dance, light show that you will have EVER seen up to now!  Truly Amazing!  If you have not seen it, do it full screen and pay attention, be ready to not move the whole time.  And remember, inside the Center there are fantastic Opening Gala performances going on with such stars as Placido Domingo, Itzhak Perlman, Diana Krall, Tommy Tune, Patti Lupone and more!  Those tickets were extremely expensive and limited, but we can all enjoy this video.

GALAXINA


 Galaxina the Android, desperately loved the First Officer of her spaceship, and kept upgrading herself to be better than a human female. Ultimately she ordered the final upgrade to please him, a real vagina from Earth!

Canadian centerfold, actress and cult celebrity Dorothy Stratten was Galaxina. She was born in 1960, and murdered by her husband in 1980.
Her new first film Galaxina had just premiered in Kansas City, Missouri.


Bad Movies is a web site with a GREAT Summary and Review of Galaxina,
Please check them out.  No need for me to write it up when they did such a good job.
Once you read their review, you'll know the names of all the characters and the plot, then
I recommend you view the photo gallery above so it will make more sense to you.

BAD MOVIES LINK TO SUMMARY AND REVIEW
http://www.badmovies.org/movies/galaxina/
You'll have to hit your back button to return here.

If you want to read about a movie made about the tragic short life of Dorothy Stratten,
check out the movie Star 80.  Here's a summary at IMDB:
IMDB SUMMARY OF STAR 80
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086355/plotsummary
You'll have to hit your back button to return here.

At the end of the photo gallery above are some newspaper clippings that also give some info about Dorothy Stratten.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Eeeewww! YOU HAVE COOTIES!

COOTIES!!!  EEEWWW!!!
Most Kids Know About Cooties.
GIRLS HAVE COOTIES!
BOYS HAVE COOTIES (and they are stoopid!)
You can GET COOTIES by TOUCHING a Boy or Girl Who Has Them
COOTIES are INVISIBLE
Cooties are GROSS!!!
Kids will RUN SCREAMING to avoid getting Cooties.
Crossing Your Fingers can keep you from getting Cooties.
Crossing Your Fingers Double is Absolute Protection.
If you "give" someone Cooties by "tagging them", if you shout "Cooties Cooties NO TAG BACK!" then they cannot transmit them back to you.  They must find a new victim.  
You can Get Rid  Of The Cooties by touching another person and yelling COOTIES!
People can leave their "Cooties" all over things.
That is why people will say "your Cooties are all over this whatever"
Also, people will avoid areas or people saying "they have Cooties"
When Kids grow up, they transfer their beliefs about Cooties to Germs, Parasites, Fungus, Virus and other unseen icky things.
A "Girl" who is ESPECIALLY rampant with Cooties is a "COOTIE QUEEN"

There is an informative web site made by a Lady who cans food.
She is an artist and has used her art to show Cooties that can make you sick.
Canning Cootie Web Site, Click Link Above, This is her Artwork!

Copyright 2011 VROUK

OZARK HILLBILLY SLANG

 OZARK HILLBILLY SLANG FROM MISSOURI
At least half of these I have heard out of the mouths of my relatives, and the rest from other citizens of the down in the country persuasion.  I love the homespun sayings from "down in the hills" and am pleased to share it with you.  Enjoy! 

I've got a catch in my getalong
well I'll be dipped in gook   
I'll snatch you bald headed! 
discombobulated 
thingamajig
cattycorner   on diagonally opposite corners
cattywompus   something out of kilter, twisted, gone wrong, bent out of shape  
out of kilter  not quite right 
Jesus H. Christ  
your mouth looks like a chickens ass in pokeberry time  
afeared
fixin or afixin to go
i aim to go to town
crick for creek
shore for sure
oral for oil  
worsh for wash
be there directly
fetch this or that
take a gander at  
that there bird
gully washer  
hankerin for
lives in the holler
go down in the hills and yell (name) and they come runnin
what parts do you'all come from?
you'all
looking peaked
plumb worn out
pritnear
for a spell
that smarts   
winduh
younguns
Miz-zur-ree  (at least in our family)
pilluh
crack the door open
just a smidge or smidgen
lower than a snakes belly in a wagon wheel rut
dag nabbit!
dang near killed me   
liked to kill me   
reckon something will happen
had a falling out
ruckus    
all you'all
its a grocery sack not a bag
sodapop   
colder than a witches tit in a brass brassiere
wet your whistle   
tickled me (made me happy) 
mess of potatoes
bless your heart   
sit a spell
hush!     
come and give me some sugar 
....I'm just sayin
book larnin   
edumacated
i need to get with john about that
how ya doin? fair ta middlin. 
be there in two shakes   
God willing and the creekdont rise   
cut me a switch from the tree   
you'll be in a heap of trouble
dad gum it
bless his little pea pickin heart
raining cats and dogs    
i nearly fell over
cuttin up in class
as old as the hills and twice as dusty
old as dirt   
you-uns
dont mind if I do
oh pshaw! (like I dont believe it, get outta here)
cuttin a kido (driving like a maniac)  
I'll fix your wagon!  
lolly gaggin   
hide nor hair of you  
in a coon's age
well, what's your hurry?
come back when you can stay longer
glad you got to see me
borry instead of borrow
hanker'n
watch your mouth
don't be tellin tales
fixins for a recipe
I might can do that
these here parts
round these parts
don't go off half cocked 
close the door, you think we live in a barn?
were you raised in a barn?
closing the barn door after the horses got out 
I gathered as much, I figured as much  
yessirree bob
a right fur piece
a right good bit ago
he took out a runnin
come back thisaway, go back over thataway
rootin thru this mess  
sop it up with a biscuit  
it's lerrrpin! (extra special good)
well don't that beat all
bright eyed & bushy tailed  
feeling feisty  
feeling puny  
stick to your ribs  
that'll put hair on your chest 
i could eat a horse 
rode hard and put away wet
sweatin like a pig  
i'm passin out  
makin a mountain out of a mole hill
not worth a hill a beans 
you are even stupider than you look
happier than a pig in shit
cow pissin on a flat rock 
talkin out of your hat
madder than an old wet hen
fart in a whirlwind
as busy as a one armed paper hanger
like a one legged man in an ass kickin contest
alrightythen  
shoot fire and save matches
I'll wup the tar out of you
dont trust him any farther than I can throw him
dont you never mind aabout that or them
talkin up a storm  
nekkid as a jaybird
short as the day is long
mind your p's and q's  
plum tuckered out  
for cryin out loud 
what in tarnation?
filling station  
slick as snot  
like shit thru a goose
as useless as tits on a boar hog
eatin high on the hog  
get off your high horse
too big for your britches  
chester drawers  
not worth the powder it would take to blow them to hell
somethin awful
gettin on my last nerve
tickled my funny bone
you get my drift
like a bull in a china shop 
you ain't got no gumption  
gol durn it
give em an inch and they take a mile
as the crow flies  
vittles  
hollers  
i'll be there directly
like nobodies business 
I'm stuffed  
I'm all blowed up (like a hop toad)
I'm all stove up
I aim to do that tomorrow
all torn up
you'd best not 
I'm bound and determined 
i got burnt out on trying to please him
on the contrary
get your cotton picken self over here
drove a country mile
didnt trust him worth a darn
up at the crack of dawn  
zero dark thirty
up before the chickens  
went ahead and did it  
you just egged him on and on 
everywhichaway
the daughter sure favors her mother
no more of your foolishness
tom foolery
don't fret now
she can't hardly get about anymore 
I am plumb wore out
I am give out
my tired is tired  
I hear tell she's gettin married
three sheets to the wind 
gonna have a hissy fit  
hold your horses  
we're hurtin for money
he cant hold a job, let alone support his family
let it rolloff like water off a ducks back
like greased lightning
he lit out of here
he made out like he didnt see us  
pretty please with sugar and honey on it? 
you mind what I said
I'd be much obliged
I got nary a one
no count good for nothin  
wait on you hand and foot 
no way, no how  
it shouldnt hurt you none
I'm not about to go over there 
ornery  
I ought to 
pay him no mind 
peeled out
petered out  
all you do is pick at me  
you're piddling around when you should be studying 
look at that piddlin little thing  
lets play like we won the lottery
playin possum  
we'll be there plenty early  
I plumb forgot about it
we're going to put out some flower bulbs 
I'll make you rue the day you were born  
don't rightly know about that
run this over to grannies house
he ran his mouth
dont back talk me!
dont sass me
shindig
smack dab in the middle
she's around here somewheres
sorry excuse for
put a stob in it to mark it
little whipstitch
took leave of her senses
shes always taking up for him
I Thanky
i'll have some of them there apples
they give me the heebie jeebies!
he came down with a cold
took sick
turn it loose before it bites you
he used to could dance up a storm
baby's cryin, I reckon she wants up
newfangled
tan your hide
gonna wear out your hide
it's a long ways from here
they wore me out
she's a worry wart
swaller
i done did that
look up under the bed
mickey mouse contraption
where is my wallet? it's right cheer!
it's in my pocket book
hike up your drawers
bloomers is showin
lands sakes
sakes alive
heavens to betsy
glom onto something
I dont recollect
hot damn
give a good god damn
holy shit, holy crap
well doggies
yee haw
con sarn it
cough it up!
get a roundtuit
doin the cypherin
let me tote it up
well I be

donnybrook
all hell broke loose
it was assholes and elbows
yer darn tootin
ass backwards
toot your own horn
shut your mouth, shut my mouth
laid up
not gonna take it layin down
my toofies or teefies hurt
my legs are killin me
I liked to died
thingamabob
this here
all riled up
piss ants
smells bad enough to knocka buzzard off a shit wagon
dumber than a box of rocks
dumber than dirt
not a happy camper
ugly enough to scare the children
don't bad mouth him
his chickens came home to roost
anyhoo
everthang
your mighty fetchin in that dress
are you wearin stink pretty?
foolin around
ah got a good notion to
ain't got a grain of sense, speck of sense
dead as a doornail
he cant hold a job, let alone support his family
those pants need to be let out
we dont have time to clean so give it a lick and a promise
nekkid as a jaybird
dont make no nevermind to me
ain't she the purtiest thing you ever seen?
preachin to the choir
come in the house, raht now! this instant!
dont carry on like that
oh my gosh you'd think I killed your dog!
y'heah?
give me a hollar
pitch dark
the wee hours
lemme see
I suppose
mindin my own business
knee high to a grasshopper
built like a brick shithouse
well slap me silly and call me lucille!

than all get out
bust out laughing
good gravy!  or just  Gravy!
good grief!
what the hell is the matter with you?
are you sick in the head?
thats just crazy talk
miss goody two shoes
and how!
white man speak with forked tongue
indian giver!
look at that yahoo!
are you puttinme on?  is this a put on?
pull the wool over my eyes
i may be old but im not dead yet
cant cut the mustard, but can still lick the jar
hell yeah!
hell no!
give me a break
do I look stupid?
yella belly
yep, yeppers, yepindeedy
your skatin on thin ice!
your neck of the woods
give you a shout
you'll figger it out
they think they are so high and mighty!
take you down a peg or two
johnny come lately
smooth talker


Copyright 2011 VROUK

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

BEVERLY HILLBILLIES Mr. Drysdale and Miss Hathaway

Mr. Milburn Drysdale and Miss Jane Hathaway
My mom and I stood in line outside the Grand Opening of a long gone Savings and Loan in Gaslight Square in Independence Missouri back around 1970, so that we could file inside and take our turn meeting Mr. Drysdale and Miss Hathaway. They shook our hands and gave us a fake dollar bill with Mr. Drysdale's picture instead of a President. They were so nice, especially Miss Hathaway, she was warm and friendly and geniunely "there". I understand Ellie still appears at mall openings and such. Would love to meet her.

I Was The Voice in the JACK in the BOX CLOWN

I worked graveyard shift senior year of high school, ten pm to 6 am, then to school. Always tired, did I do homework? Hah! Fell asleep during graduation practice.

I was locked in at the first Jack in the Box in Independence, on Noland Road, by myself. Only the drive thru was open while I cleaned the whole store, and served the after bar crowd.  Drunk people are really hungry, but they all think they are hilarous to give the Clown some grief, and getting their order could be quite a challenge, especially if they fell asleep at the Clown.

Breakfast Jacks, Jumbo Jacks, Super Taco's, I had to make the full menu while trying to clean the deep fryers and grill and floors etc., restock, windows, all of it.   If the bar rush was heavy, and the early early risers were heavy, and the morning shift were late and didn't get there at six, sometimes I'd be worked to a frazzle and was late for school.  That was the first drive through window on Noland Road. 

Yes... I was the voice of the Clown head in the drive thru at 3am being cursed out by drunks. *sigh* The thing I disliked most was the in-store satellite musak repeated every hour, all night long, the same one hour of songs. 8 replays of elevator instrumental of Bohemian Rhapsody, and then, here comes that dam Muskrat Love again. Argh!!!

Copyright 2011 VROUK

SYBIL DANNING - Saint Xman of the Valkyrie

Sybil Danning as St. Xman of the Valkyrie
in the 1980 super CAMP Classic

"Battle Beyond the Stars" 
that made fun of all space movies and was ultra campy with 
John Boy Walton as the star.

Sybil was a space warrior queen who sacrificed herself to save the planet.
Her motto "Live Fast, Die Well, And Have A Beautiful Ending!"
She said "if you don't know what I mean by a beautiful ending,
then you've never seen a Valkyrie go down".

Her ship exploded in galactic fireworks display, taking out three evil ships.
AWESOME MOVIE Sooooo Funny.
Battle Beyond The Stars is a Space Satire that makes fun of every other space movie
in a Magnificent Seven from outer space framework.
The Trailers on youtube suck, they all paint it as serious when its a joke movie.
Sybil was in many other movies, but this was my favorite.

SASSY - My Little Baby Girl Dog Died

 
Montage of Sassy Type Photos from the Net

37 yrs ago. My little baby girl, Sassy, passed away.  She was a black and tan mix of coonhound and dachsund, tiny runt of her litter, born last.  Her mom, a red dachsund struggled for an hour pushing up against the box springs, under my bed, trying to force the last one out.  Finally, exhausted, she did it, and crawled out and up onto the mattress of the bed where we had put all her other puppies after she had cleaned them off one by one.  She laid down next to them and didn't move.  I reached under and pulled out the tiny fluid sac with puppy still in it, and laid it by her mouth, and kept encouraging the mother, Hot Dog, to help.  She finally licked off the sack and the puppy started wailing a tiny little wail.  Hot Dog licked the fluids out of it's nose and mouth, it was half the size of the other others, and it wailed back at her the whole time.  My mother said "it sure is Sassy!" and the name stuck.  It was a little girl. Hot Dog fell back in a swoon, and the puppies latched on to her teats.  Sassy did not seem to have the right instincts.  My mom knew the formula for feeding baby cats and dogs, made with milk and egg yolks and honey, and we scrounged up an old small baby bottle, and I hand fed "Sassy" who was a little female.  She'd suck and wail, suck and wail.  We weren't sure she'd make it.

 To make a long story short, the next day, Hot Dog developed calcium deficiency epilepsy, seized on the front porch, and all her teats became rock hard.  To save her life, I had to massage her teats three times a day with camphor oil and attempt to squeeze curdled milk out of them, or break it up.  Her body had robbed itself of all calcium to make the milk, triggered the epilepsy and everything broke down.  She could not feed the puppies and she almost died.  So I hand fed all the puppies.  All the others were quickly given away and my brother took Hot Dog with him, but I kept Sassy.  I had her for six years.  Those pics at the top are not her, I lost her pics in a computer crash, but they are very close.

Sassy was my baby girl.  We were extremely close.  She slept with me, often head on my pillow, her back snuggled to my front.  If I was not home, she knew when the door was me or someone else.  My mom says she'd come home, open the door, calling for Sassy, and find her lying on my bed, head on my pillow. She'd raise her head slightly, look at my mom as if to say "you're not Lyle" and lay back down with a big sigh.  Then, when I'd come home, she leap out of bed, run to the door barking and scratching until I could get the door open then about knock me down.

Eventually when she had been through being in "heat" or estrus, and the huge strain that put upon the family, and the neighbors.  She howled all night.  Packs of dogs gathered outside.  She constantly tried to get away to run with the dogs.  The vet convinced me she should be spayed.

After she was spayed, she started having little "seizures" where she'd stop, tremble, bite her tongue, foam would come out of her mouth, and she'd pee herself.  During these, I could not get her jaw pried open to stop her from biting her own tongue.  She'd growl, and seem hostile during them.  I suspected something had gone wrong durng the spaying, maybe a nerve had been damaged, I didn't know what?  The vet gave medicine to control seizures, and for a year I forced the pill down her throat.  She was adept at seperating it from dry dog food and spitting it out, and if I crushed it she'd avoid it altogether, for days if she had to.  So it was coat it with butter, and force it down her throat followed by food to make her swallow it.

It turned out she had inherited some kind of epileptic strain from her mother, and the fits got worse and worse, longer and longer.  In between she knew me less and less.  During them she would bite if you got near her.  I was the only one that could get near her during a fit and even then I had to really watch it.  I'd hold her down until it subsided and clean her up, but she no longer knew me.  She'd started leaping off the bed when the fit hit and hit her head on the floor and got big bumps.  She'd soil the bed and floor, no control. When she started trying to bite my mother when I was not home, I knew I had to let her go as the Vet had been suggesting.  He'd told me I was being cruel to Sassy to keep her suffering just because I could not bear to think of being without her.  That if I really loved her, I'd allow her to peacefully go to sleep and stop suffering.


So one fine summer day, I bundled her into a blanket to minimize her struggling in the car, by then she was so sick she didn't fight much.  She tried not to vomit during the car ride, she was such a good girl.  I carried her in, and the Vet took me right back and had me lay her on her side on the cold shiny metal table waist high.  She struggled, her claws scrabbling trying to stand up, but I hugged her chest and hind and held her head down with my head.  She looked up into my eyes, trusting me completely, with the love she had always given me unconditionally - she knew me in that last mnute.  I cooed to her kept telling her what a good girl she was and how much I loved my little baby and she barely jerked when the vet put the needle in her leg.  I kept staring into her eyes and he said it won't be long... and I saw the light just go out in her eyes.  She didn't close them, or move, but I knew she was gone.  I looked at him and he closed her eyes and I broke down bawling and sobbing so hard I couldn't breathe.  He asked "do you want us to take care of her?" and all I could do was nod yes and I started race walking thru the halls to the lobby and burst out the doors running.  When I got outside the sobbing rasps trying to draw breath were so loud, I got in my car and just started driving, I don't even know where I went, I couldn't see very good for the crying and sobbing.  Every time I started thinking of heading home the body wracking grief would keep me driving.

It's been 37 years, and still I feel my chest shut down, I can't breathe, I get totally upset with an anxiety attack and jumpy and anything sets me off and I bawl like a baby.  I can't go through the memories, my heart is still broken.  If you ever had a tiny dog who was your baby, and quite possibly the only other creature in the world that ever loved you besides your own mother, then you can understand.  I have been unable to have a pet since then.  It's too painful.


Copyright 2011 VROUK

WEDDING RECEPTION ADVICE

 WEDDING RECEPTION ADVICE

I was a pro wedding and party and club DJ for a year in 86, I was a DJ working for a Mobile Company in K.C.  I did receptions from 50 to 500, parties, clubs, reunions, etc. But specialized in wedding receptions where brides always wound up writing thank you letters and recommending me to all their friends.

Of course most of that was due to the extensive training I received from "the Master" DJ at the service. No one was better at weddings.  He made sure I worked hard learning the grunt work, then accompanying him on countless gigs as an observer and assistant. It was almost six months before he let me do a reception on my own, and even then he snuck in the back and observed me, checking with the family unbeknownst to me.  He is a fantastic teacher and business man and talent.  He did not unleash new DJ's on customers unless he was sure they were totally ready.  After every gig, he reviews with his DJ's.

My goal was to be sure the bride floated out of the room on Cloud Nine when she left the reception, having had a wonderful time.  I also wanted the groom and the families happy and all the guests to have a truly good time.  Something for everyone.

So... I'm sharing some quickly typed up information in case you are getting married and/or planning a wedding reception where you would like to have a professional Mobile DJ Service provide their services.  I suggest you might give this a read, it might give you some ideas or questions you can go over with your own DJ provider, to make sure you have a great time.  I wish you joy.

DJ ENTERTAINMENT and/or EMCEE of the RECEPTION ACTIVITIES:
Is someone going to "coordinate" the whole reception for you as a "live" leader from the time the help sets up to guests leave? Will these duties be shared amongst some family member/s, caterer, and the DJ? or an emcee?  Just wonderin.

A fact that always amazed me was that no matter how many wedding receptions people had been to, even the parents, when the real thing began, they all got amnesia and did not know what to do, when to do it, or how to make the reception go smoothly, this is where I would step in and "run" the reception for them coordinating with the caterer and photog and family and friends. They were always extremely grateful to have someone who was not in shock and knew what to do take charge at the event.  A quick rundown of things that usually happen at a reception is:

Bride and groom are spotted approaching the door, a look out tells the DJ who plays the wedding march as they enter the reception, and announces them over speakers as married couple name.

DJ then makes announcements or gives mike to family rep who tells attendees when food line will be open, when toast will be, there will be pauses for photo ops, and announcements soo everyone will know when cutting cake, feeding each other pieces, opening of food buffet or food is served, make sure everyone gets a drink ready for the toast, toasts (usually after people have their food ready to eat) then everyone eats including couple, then photo ops with couple.

Dj or one running schedule makes sure to check with photog and caterer all the time to be sure they are getting enough time for each step.

When people are mostly done eating, should do removing of the garter, tossing of bouquet, announce that there will be first dance, dad/daughter dance and mom/son dance if doing that, money dance if doing that, then ask all guests to stay and enjoy dancing and food until hall has to be vacated, couple may sneak out at any time then or after they have done some fun dances with friends and family such as hokey pokey, shout, maybe a stroll line, polka, in the mood.

Music for older guests should be played early on cuz they want to go home. :) oh yeah, older folks like the lights on full to dance, younger ones like it real dark.  If you want the scene where friends \fam see you off in car, then announce when leaving so they can go outside (take pics inside if already dark) if not leaving early, then can circulate to all tables.

Some people open presents, some don't.  Just be sure someone is watching them, strangers will walk in to reception or church and just pick up envelopes or gifts and walk off with them.
If you are not going to open them at reception, then have a trusted person pack them up and take them home and lock them up.  IF there are any family sensitive issues, be sure they are discussed with DJ, caterer, photog, in advance of reception start, so they do what bride and groom want.

Usually DJ takes cues from whomever is paying them, unless bride overrides it.  It is critically important to get this settled and clear up front with everyone.  You don't want the paid people trying to follow conflicting orders. Be sure each paid person knows who is going to pay them and when, and you be sure its provided for, if you are leaving early.

And an outline should be made on paper for the emcee/dj/reception leader whoever it is, to go by.  Dont be afraid to put times on it, what time to start each thing, how long to allow etc.  This will help emcee.  Even how you want the Bride and Groom announced in terms of married names.

The special family gotchas include: Such as only announce certain peoples names, don't do certain family dances, don't let certain guests on the microphone, etc. to keep the peace or whatever. The Bride & Or the person paying gets to decide.

Just remember that a great reception is kept moving along promptly with a good emcee or dj or family member running things and doing announcing of how things will go, what is coming up so can get cameras ready, get your drink, get in place, go to bathroom, etc. a well informed crowd is a happy crowd, and couple gets all their photos and everything runs smoothly and they either dance their buns off with their friends and family till the wee hours, or get the main things done dance a little then do your escape.

Be sure someone is in charge of cleanup and being sure place is vacated on time, dont you do that. lean on your friends, they want to help.  Remember the DJ and caterer need "load out" time with the lights on, before doors are locked.

Turning lights low can get people to dance.  Happy couple going to tables and taking people by hands can start dance floor filling.  I would usually play softer slower love mood music before and after couple arrived while people eating and rituals observed, and make sure I had gone over the couples music list for first song etc. and faves they wanted to be sure got played.

I always took requests pleasantly and said I'd see what I could do to work them in to the choices the couple really loved. If people requested songs the couple wanted anyway, I'd announce them as requests by so and so, or by the couple. :) People are happy if the DJ takes their request and smiles and sincerely says they'll try.  If it does not get played, it's not that bad, especially if the DJ shows the requestor the list of music the married couple has requested.

If you are not having a pro DJ service, but a friend do music, then have an outgoing, bossy but nice family member or friend do the emceeing to keep the reception clicking along.  Everyone leaves happy, especially the bride and groom floating on air happy, knowing their reception went well and was fun.

So it's important to have someone "run" it live at the time, not too bossy, but keeping things moving and reminding everyone what happens next, giving time for photos both by photog and family snaps.  These are the receptions everyone remembers as being a blast, whether they end with small groups of family and friends sitting drinking and yakking in the dim light or younger friends dancing their asses off until they are kicked out of the place.

Whether the couple leaves early to go on trip, or go home and change, whether they come back or not, having someone "run" it gives the bride and groom peace of mind that all will get done and they dont have to worry.  If you are paying for catering, dj, photog etc. it can't hurt to remind them before reception that their most important goal is to have the bride and groom float out the door on cloud nine, it is your special day! Everything else should be geared to that.

Second is to have all your guests be happy and have fun in their own ways.  And to let your friends participate and feel needed and that they helped if they want to.  I hope you'll have a wonderful day full of love.  Any bad weather will miss you completely or just serve to make the air smell fresh and clean.

Don't forget, if you and your family had a good time thanks to the DJ service, write them an actual letter they can use as a reference, and recommend them to your friends. They get most of their business that way.

Some wedding reception songs that used to be good in the eighties (most of them).  Sorry I'm not "up" on the nineties and later.  Most Pro DJ Services have song lists to give you organized by theme and time period etc. and you just check off songs you like.

if you leave, OMD, love mood
take my breath away, Berlin, love mood
celebrate, kool and the gang, dance floor filler
old time rock and roll, bruce springsteen, dance floor filler
in the mood, glenn miller orchestra, big band swing for older peeps, fills the floor
the stripper, David Rose, good for mood for removing the garter
beer barrel polka, frankie yankovic, polka for older
who stole the keishka?, frankie yankovic, polka (who stold the big old sausage)
jump (for my love), pointer sisters, dance floor filler
dancing on the ceiling, lionel richie, great following jump especially mixed in
Daddy's Little Girl, great for father daughter dance
Mother, Pal and Sweetheart, great for mother son dance
you can't touch this, fun time dance
hokey pokey, fun group dance all ages
cotton eyed joe, rednex, fast dance
brick house, commodores, floor filler
you dropped a bomb on me, floor filler
west end girls, pet shop boys, old fave
don't go, yaz, old new age dance fave
Bela Lugosi's Dead, Bauhaus, for the goths and vampires in the house
How soon is now, the Smiths, another for the odd bunch
Relax, frankie goes to hollywood, floor filler dance
you spin me right round, dead or alive, dance club floor filler, not that flo rid a crud
takin care of business, bachman turner overdrive, floor filler
what you need, inxs, popular dance
the men all pause, klymaxx, popular dance
nasty, janet jackson, pop dance
hound dog, elvis
one thing leads to another, the fixx, good dance
don't stop believin, journey, very popular again
r.o.c.k. in the u.s.a. mellencamp, popular
addicted to love, robert palmer, popular dance
we got the beat, the gogo's, floor filler
beat it, michael jackson, popular dance
rock lobster, the b52-s, classic
love shack, b52's, classic
word up! cameo, great dance
Get down tonight, KC and the sunshine band, floor filler
footloose, kenny loggins, everybody knows,
wonderful tonight, clapton, slow dance
unchained melody, righteous brothers, slow dance everyone knows
get this party started, pink, floor filler  (okay this one is modern)
shout, isley brothers, from animal house soundtrack is best, group dance favorite
your song, elton john, slow dance
love train, the ojays, old favorite
respect, arethra franklin, old favorite
the twist, chubby checker, older people may dance
shake your body down to the ground, jackson five, good dance
how will I know?, whitney houston, old fave
my heart will go on, celine dion, slow love song, or can use dance mix
Holiday, Madonna, floor filler
Into the groove, Madonna, floor filler

 Copyright 2011 VROUK

Monday, October 17, 2011

YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS are GONE!

YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS
and those of your FAMILY
KIDS, LOVED ONES
and FRIENDS are
GONE!!!
Sorry to be so dramatic, but I had to get your attention.  I have been worrying about this issue for years, and I yet have to see anyone in places of importance warn the average person of this terrible, terrible preventable problem!  So I am taking it upon myself to be the first as far as I know to sound the warning.

Here is the deal: 
When you visit a doctor's office, a hospital or any other interaction with the medical world, what is the first thing they have you do?  Take these forms and go sit over there and fill them out.  Right?  So you dutifully fill out a medical history that covers yourself or your kids etc. in great detail, including info on your parents etc. 

OK, now the medical provider has a "baseline" profile of information they could refer to if they wanted.  Of course if you suspect that they almost never read or look at your "history" you provided, you'd be right, but the point is, it's there and available to them.  They then start a "file" on you.  From then on, every time you interact with them, some kind of record is put in your "file".  When did you visit them and why.  What did they do in response.  How much you were billed.  Did you pay.  What meds you were prescribed.  

Did you have any procedures or tests and what were the results.  Diagnosis (what they think is wrong with you), Prognosis (how they think it might turn out in the long run) the actual results after everything was tried.  It might contain your allergies, medicines you need to avoid that could be fatal to you, if might be the only record of specialized surgery or tests or conditions.  It might contain files from other doctors or facilities, etc.  You may not be aware of it, but you have the right to see your file, and ask for a copy.  They have the right to charge you for it, and nothing forces them to make sure you see all of it.

NOW - HERE IS THE EMERGENCY ISSUE!!!
Do you know how long your Doctor keeps those records?  How about the hospitals you've used?  Paramedics?  Ambulance services?  Specialists?  Clinics? Medical supply providers?  Pharmacies?  The place you were born?   What?  You don't know how long?  Do you mean to tell me you have NEVER ASKED THEM?

If you HAD asked them, you would have found out that the general accepted practice among all health providers is to keep patient records no longer than SEVEN YEARS.  Some keep them less, a very rare few perhaps a little longer, but for the most part, if it's been seven years since your file was started, anything in it older than that IS GONE.  Destroyed.  Discarded.  Dumped.  Gotten Rid Of.  Cleaned Out.
And that is at places you STILL HAVE AN ACTIVE RECORD WITH.

If the medical provider  has not seen you for over a year, you have not called, etc.  They may toss your file altogether if you don't owe them any money.  Old account, Inactive account, they clean it out, gone. 

Even if an old health provider such as the bone doctor who treated your crippled child twenty years ago and helped them to walk again... and now your kid is 21 and wants to join the military or needs the medical records of what was wrong with them, what was done, etc.  

You find out the doctor is either dead, or retired, and even though there might still be a clinic with same name, your original doctor left, and all records of his or her patients were purged.  Gone.  Seven years and tossed.  No requirement to warn you in any way.  They even transferred the boxes and boxes of records to the new doctor who bought the clinic name fifteen years ago, so you had two years after the old doctor retired you could have gone and asked for a full copy of your records.  But you didn't.  You never thought about it.  You thought they'd always be there, didn't you?  NO NO Dear Heart. WRONG!

OK, so now you know the dirty little secret that NOBODY has talked about, EVER!  All the records, of everything that ever had to do with YOUR health, your KIDS health, etc., things that could SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW, or things that could make the difference between you getting to collect Disability from Social Security or NOT, those records are ALL GONE NOW.  All because YOU DIDN'T MAKE THE EFFORT to ASK FOR COPIES from your health care providers, within the deadlines that provider had for purging the files.

YOU COULD HAVE ASKED.  YOU COULD HAVE GOT THEM.  YOU COULD HAVE THEM RIGHT NOW.  YOU ARE IGNORANT.
You are Not DUMB.  If you had KNOWN about this, you WOULD have asked for full copies of the medical records for you, your spouse, your kids.  For instance, you would have made a rule to ask for full copies once a year, or once every three years, or whatever, or whenever provider quit, died, retired, closed etc.  So that you NEVER would have lost this super valuable lifesaving information.  Yes you might have had to pay to have them duplicated.  Small price to pay.

OK, now that you KNOW that all your precious medical past is GONE, what should you do?  FIRST, contact every medical provider you have dealt with EVER and ask them how long they retained records?  Ask how to request a full copy of your records.  Medical Information, not just accounting/billing records. Where do you go, who do you see, is there a form to fill out, is there a cost, etc.  

THEN ASK FOR COPIES from EVERY PROVIDER
Who still has any records on you.  Go back as far as they have kept them.
At least you can stop any further loss of the past data.  Do this for each of your kids too.  The hospital where they were born may no longer have those records.  But get what you can.  Some older hospitals that have been around a long time and still exist, transferred old records onto microfilm back in the day.  If they did, there is a small chance you could put in a records search request for that hospitals Records Office to search the old microfilm.  Worth a try if something important is on the line.

Some types of files, such as XRay film, the films from MRI's and CAT Scans etc., hospitals and clinics will say they cannot give you copies or even release them to you.  There is an easy way to deal with that.  Have your current MD "request" copies from them to be sent to him or her.  That they will do.  Then either ask your MD for copies, or be sure he or she transfers the copies they have to any new doctor you get.

Your KIDS are DEPENDING on YOU.
Some day, they will desperately need the medical information and records from the time they were born and all through growing up, and unless you requested full copies from each doctor and hospital etc. every few years, you have NOTHING to show them.  PLUS, all those times you had to fill out medical histories?  You racked your brain to think of when did Aunt Gertrude  die and was it diabetes? Stroke?  Heart disease?  And what year was that you had surgery for xyz?  And when did what kids have what ailment?

You might have had to call people to gather it all, ask relatives, etc.  And when you were done you "whewed" a sigh of relief thinking "thank God! I'll never have to assemble that again!"  Only now you find out that doctor office disposed of those old records years ago and now the people to ask are all dead or gone and you can't remember things like you used to so you end up guessing on things that have a major impact on your kids lives.  Good going!

It's very sad that none of the Medical Providers warn you about this.  None of the Talk Show hosts, the Oprahs, the Dr. Oz, etc. have ever warned you.  But your WHOLE LIFE, you AND your parents should have been collecting your medical records right along, every couple years.  By now you should have a huge file of them with records about everything that ever happened to you, at least the important stuff.

Some people believe that BIG BROTHER has been "watching" them their whole lives, and that somewhere there is a database chock full of every medical tidbit about you, that Insurance companies can access to "catch you" cheating when applying for insurance.  Lying about your medical past.  

Well the bad news is there is no ACCURATE and COMPLETE centralized database of medical records about all Americans.  Obama wants that, but half the country says NO! That's Communism!  But the point is, no such thing is going to save you.
More bad news is that there IS a central database that Insurance companies maintain jointly, used to deny you coverage or payment.  They DO purchase records from doctors offices all over the country, and they do compile information on their insureds, and they share it with each other.

  That's what the fine print meant when it said that if you want your insurance company to pay for this medical thing, you agree for them to store your information... AND make it AVAILABLE to "other providers" as deemed necessary.  This means ratting you out to other insurance companies you may want to switch to.  The problem is this data is very limited and is not organized in a way to be helpful to you if you are having a family or personal health emergency and you need information fast.

Well... it's SPILT MILK.  No use crying over it now.
If you desperately needed that information, and now you find out it's gone,
I am truly sorry.  Nobody told me, I found out the hard way when I could not prove I was born with birth defects (no hip sockets).  The hospital where I was born, torn down, records looong gone.  The doctors who operated on me, all dead and long gone.  The clinics that helped me to get to the point where I could finally walk at five years old, all closed, gone, records LONG gone, nobody left, no way to get any proof at all.  I endured a year of full body cast as a toddler, three years of full leg braces totally immobilizing me.

Countless XRays, Exams, Procedures, Surgeries, teams of Osteopaths, I even was provided special shoes each year until I was sixteen by the Missouri Crippled Children's Asssociation.  LONG GONE.  Nobody even remembers them,  No records.  I then tried to find any of the MD's I've had growing up and through most of my adulthood.  Dead.  Gone.  Retired.  Quit.  Records dumped long ago.  Should have requested a copy.  The few I found still practicing, sold their practice, left the records, which were then dumped.  Switched companies, new company didn't keep old ones records.  Etc. Etc.

I even tried to see if I could get records from that insurance company repository.  John Q. Public has no access to it and they really don't want you even knowing it exists.
  So.... I cannot prove anything that ever happened to me medically except for the last five years, since I discovered all this.  I missed out on receiving full disability because I could not prove I was born crippled and it was the doctors prognosis back then that I'd only be able to walk for X number of years then my hips and knees would be shot and I'd wind up crippled again.  The government doctor says he disagrees, and without their records and xrays etc.  all the government could do was listen to their Doc whose job it is to keep people from getting disability.

Don't let something like this happen to you, or your kids.  Start a Family Tradition right now, and teach your kids too, drum it into them.  Once a year, they must submit a request in writing to each and every medical provider who they have interacted with.  Asking for a full copy of all associated medical records, as is their right by law.  Make sure you follow thru and get the records, and store them in a safe place, and pass them on to your children.  Make sure they get copies of your records and family history, they will need it some day.  You owe it to them and yourself.  And if you REALLY want to be helpful, write down every health thing you can remember about all their family tree, too.  When did relatives die, of what?  How old were they? Etc.  Can help with genetic disorders.

Good Luck, at least Better Luck than I had.

Copyright 2011 VROUK

Sunday, October 16, 2011

MLK MEMORIAL and OCCUPY MOVEMENT

MLK Memorial Monument
Excerpts from Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech:
....
"But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
....
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
....
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
....
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."
....
And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I wept today remembering 1963, hearing this speech, and from another of his speeches where he said "I may not make it to the promised land with you..", and then the shock of his death. Please people of the Occupy Movement, stay peaceful.

BOOK OF LOVE - Shona Jackson Memory

 
Modigliani - I'm Lost in your Eyes
                
            Boy
 
I Touch Roses
                         
Book of Love
 
 You Make Me Feel So Good

Book of Love was a popular Dance music group of the eighties.  I played several of their 12 inch dance records at parties and clubs, my favorites were BOY, I Touch Roses, Lost In Your Eyes (Modigliani), Book of Love, You Make Me Feel So Good.  The story behind the song about Modigliani (moh-dill-yawn-ee) is so tragic and beautiful, that song holds very special meaning for me.  Modigliani was a painter, who dies young and tragically before anyone recognized the value of his impressionist paintings.  His lover, pregnant with their child, flung herself to her death off the roof of the garret where they lived, unable to go on without him.  The song is about how the lovers were Lost in each others Eyes.
The song spawned several versions, including an instrumental used in the movie Planes Trains and Automobiles, a long Dub version that I cant seem to find, and a Requiem Mass version, very spiritual.

Back in the seventies, a fierce young woman joined a Star Trek club I ran via the mail.  Her name was Shona Jackson.  She was fierce.  Fierce in her interests, her pursuit of them, her beliefs, her passion for life.  In the eighties, Shona died, way too early.  Upon hearing, I put together a cassette tape of elegaic music in her memory and sent it to Sue Frank who was consolidating items for her family.  On this tape, I used evocative snippets spliced together on a dual cassette deck.  Lonely steam train starting up and leaving the station at night, lonely whistle.  The sound of a steady rain shower with some thunder, sound of crickets, a heartfelt rendition of Ave Maria, and the Requiem Mass version of Modigliani by Book of Love.  It's ethereal quality and the poignancy seemed to match Shona's story.
So below I include a link to that version, and want Shona to know she is not forgotten.
Modigliani - Lost in Your Eyes Requiem Mass

GIANT ROBOT and Johnny Sokko - Count Gore De Vol

 
Count Gore De Vol Show - Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot
GIANT ROBOT! ATTACK! 
(shouted into wristwatch by Johnny)
VROUK APPROVED!
Count Gore Ve Dol is yet another of the last generation of Horror Movie Hosts, he and his friend mess around before showing the Giant Robot.  Ghoulio!

BLOODHOUND GANG - The Bad Touch

 
The Bad Touch - Bloodhound Gang

OhMiGosh!  This video is both Wack AND Groovy AND Furry!

I Love this video, one of my new favorites.  The song sticks in your head and you gotta love the message, "you and me baby are mammals so lets do it like the Discovery Channel"
Recommend watching full screen, 360 or above, and loud. Get ready to dance or bounce.
Need I say.... VROUK APPROVED
Here are two more videos from Bloodhound Gang, NSFW:
 
Kiss Me Where It Smells Funny
 
Mope
Of course there are tons more on the tube, such as Dick With No Balls, The Vagina Song, Unh Tiss Unh Tiss Unh Tiss,  Foxtrtot Uniform Charlie Kilo, Pretty When I'm Drunk, I Wish I Was Queer So I Could Get Chicks, The Ballad of Chasey Lane, Altogether Ookey.

OBJECT Of My DESIRE

 
StarPoint - Object of My Desire
I Love This Song, one of my favorite Old School house dance ballads.  This video is fantastic version capturing the spirit of StarPoint.  I used to beg other DJ's to play this song in the eighties, especially if there was someone I wanted to dance with.  Of course looking back the song is not a technical wonder or anything, but it IS extremely evocative of yearning to have a relationship.  Contemporary hits that went with this song were Sidewalk Talk by Jellybean Benitez and Madonna, Nasty Boys by Janet Jackson, Tarzan Boy by Baltimora, We Don't Have To Take Our Clothes Off by Jermaine Jackson, and many more.  So now, turn the lights down low, candles lit, imagine the smoky night club and enjoy this video loud.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

A FLY GIRL - KUNG FU STYLE

 
A Tribute to the Shaw Brothers film My Young Auntie,
using the Boogie Boys hit song A Fly Girl.
Pretty WACK. 

LEILA's HAIR MUSEUM - FREAK FLAGS FLY

Leila's Hair Museum - The Only Hair Museum in the United States and possibly the World.  Come to Independence Missouri USA and see hundreds of old examples of Hair Art such as Hair Wreaths and jewelry containing hair or made from hair, many from before 1900.  Leila even gives hair wreath classes, Phyllis Diller sent a wreath of her hair, and the Victorian Hair Society meets there and has videos available of hair/flower designs.  It's extremely unique and a top tourist destination for those who love Weirdness.  VROUK Approved WACK! 

This brings me to a favorite subject of mine, long Hippie Hair from the late sixties early seventies, also referred to as a Freak Flag.  Letting your "Freak Flag Fly" meant letting your long defiant hippie hair fly in the wind, upsetting the man.  I'm sharing two videos on the suject, the Cowsills Hair which was extremely popular - with some modern kids hilarious uptake on what hippies must have been like,  it's so bad it's good!   And the other is my favorite rock song about hair by Crosby Stills Nash and Young fresh from Woodstock.  In Almost Cut My Hair they talk about considering cutting it, but deciding not to, because it just might annoy someone somewhere!  Cool, hunh?  If you turn the volume up loud before you start the video, you can hear Crosby getting ready to cut loose on his fancy guitar work saying "I will Now Entangle... the entire... area!"  Meaning letting his freak flag fly through his guitar and his hair until all around him are ensnared in it.   Dig It.

Copyright 2011 VROUK

DIRTY PAIR

 
Dirty Pair - Japanese Anime' Series
The opening song of the show is called Russian Roulette and is a very catchy stick in your mind theme song.  I like the animated opening, which changed over time, but also the long version of the song.  I first got into Dirty Pair when a penpal of mine in Osaka Japan traded me a video of the first Dirty Pair movie for a copy of what was then third season of ST:TNG which they got a year delayed.  She also sent me Gundam and other Anime, and of course her fanzine which was all in Japanese.  She also turned me on to Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, a beautiful evocative anime' movie.
I recommend if you've never watched anime, start with the Dirty Pair, they are two James Bondish playgirls who take on assignements for the Three W - A, WWWA, (which I think is a play on sounding like TWA), they love to shoot and destroy things.

You can get a good idea of Japanese sense of humor from these, which is quite different than ours, and if you watch enough anime' with and without English, you really do start to understand Japanese culture.  Research them yourself, there are tons of things now on the Internet.

Friday, October 14, 2011

BETTY LOU's SLUMGULLION

Betty Lou's SLUMGULLION
1 lb. ground meat
1 med. sweet yellow onion, diced
1/2 fresh clove garlic peeled minced
1 lb. can tomatoes
1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 c. rigatoni (ribbed tubes slant cut), 2 c. if like more pasta
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper (optional, white or black)

In a large skillet, cook ground meat and onions, garlic. When meat is done, drain excess grease. Granulate meat to preference.

In another pan, cook pasta. Crush tomatoes add along with sauce, pasta, salt and pepper to meat and onions in skillet. Let whole mixture simmer until reduces juice - not watery. Feeds 3-4 people. Mom's recipe growing up. Also great cold.
Inexpensive recipe when you need to eat good on a shoestring.  I'll be sharing more of my mom's low cost food's.

Copyright 2011 VROUK

POTTED MEAT & CUCUMBER Sandwich

Betty Lou's POTTED MEAT & CUCUMBER SANDWICH
Mom's recipe for a delicious, light summer sandwich and very inexpensive. When she'd tackle the long drives down to the country to see her folks, she'd have some potted meat and shasta sodas in the trunk, stop at a farmers stand and buy some cukes, maters and onions. Then she'd stop at one of those wide spots with a green picnic table and trash can, and fix us these sandwiches and we'd share a can of soda. LOVED IT!
Personally I prefer the Libby's brand of "Potted Meat Food Product", I just think it tastes best. The Armour is too salty, and other brands too fatty. It's mostly beef tripe, which is cow stomach lining and intestines, and mechanically seperated chicken. Spread a very thin amount on cheap white sandwich bread or your favorite bread, cover in cucumber slices. The two tastes are great counterpoints, the sweetness and crunch of cucumbers, the salt and vinegar tang of the potted meat.  It comes in tiny cans because the flavor goes a long way.  If you've never heard of "mechanically seperated chicken", basically the chicken factories waste nothing.  After they have cut all usable pieces of meat off chicken bones, they pass all the bones into a huge machine.  It's full of whirling twirling metal blades with thousands of teeny razor sharp teeth.  As the bones pass through, the teeny razor teeth "scrape" or "mechanically seperate" the last bit of chicken goo, slime, gristle, sinew, microscopic traces of meat etc off the bones and leave them dry.   The bones go to another factory to be made into lots of things you eat, and the scraped off chicken goo slime and micro bits is used to make things like potted meat, and baloney and hot dogs and vienna sausage and chicken mcnuggets. (it's forced into molds then flash frozen).  OK?  So it's technically a chicken product, and don't turn up your nose, cause if you've ever boiled chicken, made chicken stock, sucked on chicken bones, you've eaten this stuff anyway.


Copyright 2011 VROUK

TOMATO & SWEET ONION Sandwich

Betty Lou's TOMATO & SWEET ONION SANDWICH
My mom would drive us down in the country to visit our hillbilly kin (Ozarks, yes Beverly Hillbillies territory) and she was expert at cheap delicious picnics. She'd put an assortment of shasta sodas and a loaf of bread in the trunk, then stop at some farmers stand and buy huge tomatoes and big sweet yellow or white onions. We'd stop anywhere there was shade, sometimes we just stood around the open trunk. She'd slice huge thick slices of sun warm tomato and onion and layer them thick on the sandwich, it would drip as you tried to eat it. The squish and crunch, tart and sweet, great contrasts. Sometimes if you arrived unannounced, our kin would go in their root cellar or pantry, get tomatoes and onions, slice them up on plates and fan some bread out on the table and everyone sat down to eat. Some people salt and pepper, but we didn't. This does not work with hothouse tomatoes that are not ripe and soft and juicy or have no flavor, and red onions just don't cut it. Sweet yellow onions the huge ones coming from South America seem to be ok.

Copyright 2011 VROUK

BEAN With BACON Sandwich

 
Betty Lou's BEAN With BACON SANDWICH
Once again, one of my mom's delicious lunch on a shoestring sandwiches! She'd take Campbell's Bean with Bacon condensed soup in a can, NOT an off brand they don't taste the same, and using a knife - spread it about a half inch or inch thick on white bread. That's it! You just use it like sandwich spread. It is DELICIOUS this way. Doesn't really need any other ingredients. It's cheap, easy, transports well, super quick to make. I've eaten these my whole life. Don't let the unused bean w/bacon sit out in open for long, it will dry and get crusty. If you don't use a whole can, scoop the rest out into a ziploc to keep moist and fresh and refrigerate. Great cold too. I like it with squishy white sandwich bread, but not if the bread is dry. Always keep the smaller cans on hand in your pantry, so if you have saltines or white bread, you've got a meal.  If you must put something else on it, try cucumber slices.

Copyright 2011 VROUK

DIVA AVARI

Diva Avari and Samy K  F'n Bitch!
Don't Go by Yaz - Starting Rock feat. Diva Avari
Yazoo - Don't Go 12" Club Mix
(original song I used to play in clubs in 80's)

Diva Avari (also known as Avari Firiel) is a House Diva vocalist originally from Boston but now residing in Paris France.  Her main two video hits were several years ago with a cover of Yaz Don't Go with an AWESOME video and Fuckin Bitch!, again with an AWESOME video!  I wish she would produce more because she is one unique fierce Diva with a wonderful voice when she trains it.  Sadly, health problems seem to be derailing her performances.  Get Well Soon, Diva!

Mark CHOPPER Read - Heath Franklin - Ronnie Johns TV

"Chopper" plays at being an air stewardess    WACK!! NSFW  VROUK Approved! 
 From Wikipedia: "
A fictionalised version of Read was featured in several sketches on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour. Some of these sketches, such as "Harden The Fuck Up!". Read was portrayed by Heath Franklin. Read has said although the parody isn't totally accurate, he finds it funny" Australian famous criminal and author Mark Read "Chopper" played by Heath Franklin in a series of skits for The Ronnie Johns Half Hour TV Show in Australia.

Harden the Fuck Up!
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OK, These are not fuckin ALL the fuckin Chopper/fuckin/Ronnie Johns fuckin clips on you fuckin tube, but fuckin alot of the funniest fuckin ones, right?