The most beautiful woman I know. The one who has stuck with me through thick and thin. The one who knows that I am her's. Her strength and humour and sexy sass has left me blinded at times - blinded with the most intense of vision. She has walked with me and let me think that I was leading and all the while she has been guiding me. My obsession and fascination with her is un-ending. 'Amazing' is a word that is not good enough; 'breath-taking' can not even begin to explain. She is my woman, my Lady.

I hope she looks at these …

 

 

 

 

 

We waited this long and we both know that it will never fade. I do not care what words I speak last on this earth as long as they are to you.

From twelve to now, my Lady ...

 

                                        

                                        

Childhood is truly an impressionable time for us all and almost all that bounces off of our cerebral cortex in those precious years really does have a lasting impact on who we are as adults and, most of all, how we act. Every little flash of stimulation impacts our reason, motivation and rationale. Funny how I see a lot of parents these days taking all of that for granted and offering up the excuse of resiliency as the promotion of safe early child development.

I found that a lot of children’s programming is still carried in my mental ark of twos as melodies and small details that were probably overlooked as the bigger lesson or moral was being presented. I was part of the second generation that was really raised on television and my generation found the birth of straight children line ups to be welcoming to us and our parents as burden lifters and surrogate educators. The programming that found my mind’s eye was not of the Howdy Doody or Bullwinkle variety that the aforementioned first generation found as entertainment but it was rather meant to be education and entertainment intertwined into one big yarn ball of societal enlightenment.

The clip that I found to be the hardest to find was the first one. I had been on the hunt for anything resembling these characters in order to reassure myself that my young mind had not simply made them up in order to compensate for something that may have been missing. When I was a standing, walking, grooving tot of about five I had my tonsils taken out. Along with their removal my adenoids left and I had tubes put in my ears. My mother was very nervous and my father had made his way to the hospital to offer any support he could as well as get in a very fundamental visit. On this occasion he gave me a gift that I will never, ever forget. It was about 15” tall and it was pink and bulbous. It was a Barbapapa; specifically it was Papa Barbapapa. The toy had not been for sale but it was actually a window display for a series of books and cartoon movies from the Netherlands. My father convinced the shop keeper to part with it and it kept me company through the post anesthetic sherbert days to follow my surgery. I lost track of this toy while moving around so much growing up and as a young adult would ask everyone I knew if they knew what the hell I was remembering. Everyone looked at me as if I had finally eaten far too much mescaline and wasn’t coming back. These past few years I had googled and YouTubed and found nothing. I was unsure of the spelling and my descriptions were vague at best. I knew that Papa Barbapapa was pink and Mama Barbapapa was black and that they had lots and lots of little Barbapapas. Today I have found redemption after twenty five years of searching. The clip is in Dutch but you will get the gist of it. The vocal rattling at the end is a double take call out of the family member’s names:

This got me thinking of how deranged some of the shows that I watched growing up actually were. Twisted, psychedelic, surreal. All the way up until I was about nine or ten, I enjoyed a lot of what would be considered children’s shows. Some of the earlier shows would normally have horrible animation and garbled audio with ridiculous plot lines that seemed odd at best. One of these shows was The Mighty Heroes which were a group of bumbling and almost ineffective superheroes with the names Strong Man, Cuckoo Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man, and Diaper Man. Yep, I know, Diaper Man. They appeared in episodes with great fifties style names like ‘The Monsterizer’ and ‘The Plastic Blaster’. Here is their opening credits, it is like a discotech of insanity:

Of course the bad animation led me thinking about everyone’s favourite little tripping myopic Brit, Simon. Yes, the lad with the chalk drawing world. The land made entirely out of chalk. The chalk, I am very convinced now that I am an adult, that he must have been snorting. I found this episode called ‘Morning Time’ and it has a teacher from the Land of Chalk Drawings begging Simon to come figure out why the chalk kids were still sleeping and not in school. When, in any world or society that we know of, does the teacher come find the child to solve the serious adult issues of truancy of peers? This must be why I had a conception of adult ineptitude and my superiority at an early age. Here is the chalk line boy:

The shows that came out of the seventies seemed to have far too many real people and puppets in them. I guess it became blasé for the teeming throngs of wee one masses to watch cartoons as education and we needed glorified socks and men who smoked too much pot in the sixties with their hands up the character’s asses in order to learn. However, there were shows that didn’t really have any puppets in them either such as the brief education drawing shorts called Picture Pages with Bill Cosby. I know that you all know this one, but did you know that the original version of the song is much slower than this more familair one?:

Or how about this fruit cake that stole Richard Simmons hair and donned a spandex organ suit in order to explain to kids that making healthy choices led to healthy lifestyles and happiness. Do you remember Slim Goodbody? I don’t have to elaborate on this one beyond the clip as it is evidence enough of why I did not lead a healthy lifestyle as a young adult. Who the hell wants to be punished for eating right by turning into this tart? Just so you know, Slim is still doing shows at schools and if you go to his website you can book him for you school go-er today! Here it is:

Of course there was the Electric Company which took up and coming actors and placed them in characters that were just not fathomable. I won’t crack that nut any harder but any of you who know the show are aware of what I am talking about. Watch how Morgan Freeman gets to spin and look at the camera while his character behind him does a nice brother jive jog through the park that is funky. This theme song version is from season six and is a bit different than the other couple of versions that most people are familiar with. Watch the whole thing as it leads into the episode where a woman asks the almighty question that almost every woman in my life has pondered time and time again:

As we got closer to the eighties and then into them we found a couple of things that changed. Some of the shows began to mix it up and add something for older kids so that way larger families could be baby-sat together while learning from the boob tube. This paved the way for all of these current Disney type productions that are littered and riddled with adult humour that is supposed to fly over the heads of the kiddos. It normally doesn’t - don’t fool yourselves - they hold onto everything. This show was just as groovy as the rest and had puppets, plus a clown thus making it wildly popular. "No Gnus is good Gnus, says Gary Gnus!" This is The Great Space Coaster:

That flips me around to a science show that I watched often. They would explain how the world works in fun and exciting ways. Teaching you planet rotation by showing you ice skaters was a pretty good example of how far they could stretch the parallels in order to get everyone involved. Boys, girls, young and old all loved 3-2-1 Contact and this is the ultra-hip theme song. I think I learned more from these words than from any other song, book, or teacher until I was well past 16. Listen to the words and take them to heart:

Over the river and through the woods and cable t.v. laid it’s cables everywhere in the early 80’s and became very common place by the mid 80’s. We all witnessed the birth of the Home Box Office and a very counter culture group of Muppets that were fed on nothing but little glass sticks of meth. These were Jim Henson’s last really great creation before he moved on down the road. The first version I found was in German and for some reason that seemed oddly appropriate but the English version will be the 'must' for you, my readers. "Dance you cares away, worries for another day" - also note that this is the only other place beyond BlogStream that I have heard 'Mokie' be incorporated into a name. Ladies and gentlemen, the Fraggles:

It all became clear after surfing around through all of these fragments of my psyche. I now knew why I am the way I am. It was clear. I took these bits and pieces of input and welded them all together in my mind and they formed the blocks of foundation that helped me make decisions and weed out bad ideas for better aspirations. All of this together could be why this square peg has trouble finding square holes. Round holes just look better. Think of a hole. The word even sounds round. Say it … hooooollllllllle! Oh god, I just became one of the shows!

This is where you all come in. I have not been able to find some very specific clips from my salad days of boyhood. I searched the internet everywhere and only found leads (unlike my quest for the truth of the Barbapapas). So, I know that these clips can be found somewhere but I could not figure out where.

Here is a list of the half dozen or so clips that complete this collection of answers and explanations of my madness:

An opening theme song clip for the show Romper Room and Friends which experienced the new name with the addition of ‘and friends’ and a new theme song in 1981. Any prior version, since the show started in the fifties, just won’t do. It must be from the 1981 season or later.

Any clip of Boston local channel 38 clown Willie Whistle. This was a very weird man who looked like the offspring of Wendy the freckled burger babe and Ronald McDonald. Willie’s only form of communication was his whistle. To this day I whistle with the fervor of insanity and I can thank that mostly to this uncanny clown.

Any clip of the actual show called 'Captain Bob’s Drawings' starring Capt’n Bob Cottle who was also on the programme called 'Rough and Ready'. I am only looking for his sea shack shanty singing art show and would preferably like to get a clip that starts with the opening music. As a footnote; Bob Cottle passed away not to long ago (within the last couple of years) and we should all remember his contributions, across four decades, to education and children in the Boston area.

I could not find a legitimate clip of the Davey and Goliath show. All of the ones I found were piss poor parodies about cocaine or guns or the mark of Satan and frankly, I want to see the good wholesome claymation mega-show that I grew up loving. Every episode a new lesson, a new passage; not to mention Goliath’s awesome voice that impersonations of are heard everyday somewhere on earth.

I am also hunting down the theme song to the inter-show timeout of 3-2-1 Contact called ‘The Bloodhound Gang’. The lyrics are true classics that have enduring lines like ‘Wherever there’s trouble, we’re there on the double’ and ‘If you got the crime, we’ve got the time’. This will be a hard gem to unearth.

The ultra coveted clip that wins you a big wet kiss is the PSA (Public Service Announcement) featuring the alien from Mars who only eats candy bars and proceeds to come to Earth and get turned on by fruit (apples specifically). The famous line at the end of the commercial that is supposed to get kids on the Fruits and Vegatables Shuttle is "By only eating candy bars we don't know what we've missed!" One wet kiss is waiting!

So this is it a video collage post with a game attached. A scavenger hunt for the explanations of my life. A bit of therapy assistance for me, if you will. Six clips plus one bonus commercial to find, endless hours to find them. Your prize is the pious and pithy ‘good-will’ feeling you will get from helping out your fellow man. Oh, and don;t froget the big, wet kiss!

The rewards for me are going to be priceless.

Jump back over the chalk wall and get looking. I heard the Barbapapas might have already found one.

Until the next post of undeniably unpredictable nonsense, thank you …

From political to parody there is no middle ground found in the world of Punk; that which is in-between can not even pass as mediocre, never mind acceptable. So here I am with one more punk offering before I mosey on down the road to other topics here in my new light hearted world.

In the same year that Stiff Little Fingers began to be a vocal force in Britain (1977), there was a group forming here in Southern California. They had fumbled around a bit with music but it was mostly goofing off and listening to bands like Fleetwood Mac. When their lead guitar playing friend came back from a trip to London with tapes of The Sex Pistols and the Damned they knew what their new music shtick would be. Punk Rock!

The group that formed from this idea was baptized The Dickies. They wrote songs about comic book characters and characters from Japanese horror films. They wrote simple songs with lyrics that consisted only of “She loves me, She loves me not” repeated again and again. Choruses with clever lines like “You drive me ape, You big gorilla” and "Where'd you get it, I got it at the store. Where'd you get it, You can't get anymore!". This was witty music with a sprinkling of punny fun. Not only had punk not really grabbed the U.S. by the balls yet but no one in Britain or Europe would have ever thought to pull the politics for humour. That would have been sacrilege.

I started throwing them deep into my rotation of walkman play my Junior year of high school and I could be heard singing their lyrics as I strolled the outdoor halls to class under the California sun. Simple sunny days, energy driven music, lots of laughs and antics. Thinking back on those days I found myself heading back to YouTube to put together a collection for you all to taste. Unfortunately there is not a lot on there by them, but what I did find is precious.

The Dickies became known in the mainstream after recording the soundtrack for the film “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” and if you have seen that film than you are well aware of the absurdity that the Dickies have grown to enjoy associating themselves with. The Dickies also did a lot of phenomenal cover songs that became staples for their live shows. As a matter of fact, most people will recognize them for their covers before acknowledging them for original material.

Let’s start off with an amazingly tripled timed version of Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’. If you search around for this clip you will find most of the comments by those who are not in the know lead you to believe that this is just some washed up wanna-be band that never made it. Oh contrair mon frair! Listen up:

Is that not pretty yummy-yum-yum-yum? I think so. OK. You’re thinking to yourself, “All right already! Do we really need more punk clips of songs that we don’t like anyhow? I thought this blog was going to be fun!” Well this is where it becomes interesting and truly unpredictable in true Dickies fashion. Here is their early career cover of the Moody Blues prom date classic ‘Knights in White Satin’. You all know the song. At some point you held someone with far too much hairspray or cheap cologne while swaying underneath silver sprayed cardboard stars hanging from fishing line in a big gymnasium that still retained some of it’s P.E. stink. Here is the Dickies take on it:

Am I right? Or am I right, or am I right or am I right? Come on. Sweet spot serenade. Imagine how different prom would have been if this was the original popular version. I sense insanity ensuing. They do many other classic song covers as well. They do a version of ‘Sounds of Silence’ which leaves you wishing that they will never be silent and keep on rocking until the sun dwarfs out and dies. They cover ‘Eve of Destruction’ which they do superbly and with such grace and class that you will never listen to the original the same way again. I, unfortunately, could not find clips of those, but I could find a brief snippet of their rendition of ‘Silent Night’ as used by the fellas at Tales From The Crypt. Here they are being used as soundtrack noise for an ad for ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’; even though they don’t get into the second verse or the great ending that they tack on, this gives you the gist of it:

Maybe that would get more folks into the Christmas spirit, huh? I also think that this is used in the 1986 film ‘Tough Guys’ starring Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster along with Dana Carvey. I could be wrong on that one but something tells me I am not. So, ready for an original of theirs? Sick of the cover songs? Are you thinking that the band sucks because all they do is covers and where is their own material? Here is there concert favourite ‘Gigantor’ based on the super hero of said name. No wonder their fan base in England had an average age of 12! Sorry for the bad quality visual but the audio is pretty good:

Dear, dear friends - I have saved the absolute very best for last. This should be a song that we all know. If you don’t know this than you are too young and you need to find this show somewhere. This is the show that gave young Jan Michael Vincent (of later movie fame and the starring role in ‘Air Wolf’ along with Ernest Borgnine). Parts of this amusement park programme were pretty psychedelic or surreal depending on which way you want to look at it. Either way it was a fundamental building block programme for anyone growing up in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s. Here is the Dickies cover of ‘The Banana Splits Theme’. Go, man, go:

If you are not shaking your head and singing, 'La la la la la la la' then you are deaf. Please call Miracle Ear now and all will be resolved. Thank you.

If you would like to learn more about the Dickies or see when they are playing in a town near you, please consult there website at the following link:

http://www.thedickies.com/

Had enough? Sick of it yet? Why is he still typing? Why is posting so quick back to back? Well, it is a refreshing format for me to share some things that I would not have felt appropriate on the other blog. So, I am sharing and rounding out the guy you all call R.E.

It will spice up; it will change. It is not going to be all videos and by no means will it be all punk. No way, no how. There will be some prose. Some quotes. Comedy clips. Maybe even some poems; who knows! I am just going to go with the flow on here and see where it takes me. This is my not serious place.

I am still waiting to hear back about the photo game which involves trading pictures back and forth and creatively altering them as you go. Judges say who wins at the end of so many rounds and the winner gets to pick the next opponent and the next ‘start photo’. Lots of fun - not a lot of takers. We’ll see.

It is still early here at ‘y b r’. The afterbirth is still screaming for a towel.

I better oblige it …

When I was fifteen years old I was introduced to the music of four boys from Belfast and I quickly fell in love with politics and true blue punk music. I didn’t need the inconsistent rubbish of the Clash that I never quite could connect with. I didn’t have to pile-drive my mind into the ferocious wall of noise that bands like Crass were putting out. I no longer had to get mad at the Sex Pistols for giving us only one amazing album and then leaving us desperate and lonely like a dog in the park looking for ass to sniff at midnight. I was baptized into the realm of Stiff Little Fingers.

Many people do not really even recognize the name when you mention them. The over forty crowd that was there either forgot or were to loaded or they were into the other rubbish floating around at the time. People younger than 40 that claim to be ‘really into that scene of nostalgia’ don’t recognize the name right off the bat. They tend to skirt around the subject of opinion offering until they jog their brains hard enough to remember seeing a clip or two in some punk compilation video that they watched while they were drunk dreaming of wanting to be older so they could have really smelled the blood of the era. In Great Britain they are more than remembered, you can bet your bippy on that!

With their riveting political lyrics and the amazing energy that all the members of the band had, they rocked stages like sentinels crashing the gates of long forgotten civilizations left asleep by the complacency found in a redundant existence. There was no incoherent rubbish over art attempts and overbearing noise like Crass. There weren’t a plethora of slow tunes or massive style change ups like the Clash. The bass player actually played and could account for where he was almost every night unlike Sid. They played. They were musicians making music that made sense.

They were formed in 1977 and rose quickly over the next two years. As politics in Ireland flailed and inflamed, Stiff Little Fingers tried to tell the world what it was like to be four boys from Belfast. Twelve years after they began to speak and rock the world, this young man became infatuated. They were singing anthems for me. They were inspiring me to make change. The staff flags of each and every note marched into my brain and slam danced their way into a pit of suspicion of government and those that adamantly spoke out against it. They screamed for me to think; they told me not to be a soldier for anyone without knowing what was going on. Not until the early to mid eighties with the arrival of Southern California’s Circle Jerks would we hear anything else like it.

Of course this leads me to a series of videos that I hope you will peruse in order to broaden your horizons and open your minds. These are classic songs by SLF and I will offer up some of my own little commentary morsels before each clip. Here may be your very first taste of what punk rock was supposed to be.

This first clip is of a live show where they are performing ’Suspect Device’. The video is not the best on earth but what do you want for a live show; at least the audio is good and that is by far the more important aspect of it. Listen to the words and rock out. I dare you to defy the urge to rock out and think at the same time:

This next clip is a request number that they put together for a punk ’zine (yes, punk spawned the very first ’zines - 70’s punk did, not that faux rubbish ’zine movement that gained bloated momentum in the early 90’s). The ’zine was called Alternative Ulster and they were giving away a single with an edition of their rag. So in exchange for some curiosity about the weekend shows you received this beautiful anthem:

Does that not sum it up? Huh? Huh? Huh? Come on! This is classic. Lyrics about eating bangers and revolting against the money grubbing scumbags. The chord progression is vein pumping and the melody is righteous. “Is this the kind of place you wanna live? Is this where you wanna be?” Makes you want to revolt! I figure Big Chris will have a comment or two about this great video. All hearts weigh heavy with the mother land big man! (Yes, I will be breaking the wall and addressing fellow bloggers on this blog as opposed to my aversion to it over on ‘young broke and republican'.)

This next number may be a little lighter and little more 70’s rock but listen to that militant beat, watch them jump and flail; feel them. Listen to the vocal break in the bridge: da da da da da - it is high caliber vocals being shot loud and proud. Look behind them on the stage and look at the actual stiff little fingers; both pointed up hard to proclaim victory - not peace you silly hippy! This ain’t no Jerry Garcia, these are Belfast boys. Drink up 'Gotta Getaway':

Onto our second to last clip which is a half-performance on one of those lame ass hit parade shows from London. God, the set makes me want to puke along with their lip-syncing motion movements, but listen to the number. Dig the gravel voice, right? Give you any idea where Social Distortion ripped of their whole damn sound? This is 'Nobody's Hero'. Once again and with fury watch the energy - hear it, be it:

I know while reading this someone will inevitably get pissed off because I slight the damn Clash. Well, sorry! There are only two Clash songs that I even remotely like and the rest of the time I wonder why the hell I am listening to any rock musician named Joe Strummer. That is like listening to a rap star named Mr. Microphone! But for all of you reggae-punk hybrid loving bastards I have to admit that SLF was guilty of one reggae pleasure and that was this amazing cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Johnny Was’. The sound quality is kind of rough in the beginning but it evens out after the brief intro:

God! They just rock that groove and the drums are impeccable yet again. This is what it all should have been, man. If the Clash could pull any of it off like these guys then I would get Mick Jones’ ugly mug tattooed across my ass along with another tattoo across my forehead that would read, “Mick Jones Is Tattooed On My Ass”. That will never happen because the Clash can not hold a candle to these guys, not then, not now, not ever.

If you watched all of these clips and listened and really took it all in with an open mind then there is no way on God’s green earth that you can honestly tell me with a straight friggin’ face that Stiff Little Fingers was not the be all, end all, quintessential punk band of the late seventies. You simply can’t. If you try to, the gods of punk will melt your tongue with fiery rage and leave you like Eddie Van Halen.

I would like to offer up the bands official website link in case you would like full bios on the members and the group as well as merchandise or show information. It can all be found at this address:

http://www.slf.com/

First real post over here and I know this particular one will not appeal to all but the point of the posts over here will be diversity and trying new things. Many pictures and videos and music clips and fun games lay ahead. Broadened horizons; expanding parameters. Open your mind and step inside, for sure it will be quite a ride. At the very least it will be magically delicious!

Try to get through each one and you may learn something about yourself but I guarantee you will learn something new about your fellow man and wo-man. Boomshanka!

I am still taking names for Photoshop Tennis and preparing to post lots of tasty tiny tidbits for you all to gorge on like fat leeches killing the Tsar’s son.

I hope that this will be a fun blog for all to read and comment on so please feel free to leave comments and check in frequently as I will be posting here often.

I suppose Gil Scott Heron was wrong. The revolution will be televised …

I am not too sure why this place had been deactivated and listed as non-existant, but I can only assume it was due to me not having posted anything on it at all. So , I restarted it and here I am now hoping that it will be entertaining for me as well as anyone who opts to read and participate in it's existance.

I came up with the idea of having this be the non-political 'young broke and republican' - thus the cutsie abbreviated 'y b r'. I just never got around to switching it all over and posting. I have found the 'bonus' post method and system to work rather well and most people have come to expect my prose and essays there as opposed to the politics that I started out with. I will still leave 'young broke and republican' listed as political as alot of the social commentary that is entwined in my work is of that sort of nature. Please don't think this means the end of 'young broke and republican' as I will be posting with lots of strong writing in the future but segregation from my goofy side and serious side is necessary. This blog is for the frosted side lover in me!

I hope I can keep this  blog up and running this time as it might end up being a great place to do some of the 'blogging' and video postings and such that I do not care for doing so much over at 'young broke and republican' as I have always wanted that for my 'serious' writing. I have also thought about starting rounds of Photoshop Tennis and if anyone is interested in playing we will need about six to twelve people or more that like playing with pictures and have a blog opening on their account to designate to the antics that ensue with such a fun game. If I get any responses to this and interest in the game I will update you all and we can have some fun. I even think that Lady is going to play!

If no one wants to play then I will still be posting here as well as on my other blogs so I hope you all continue to come by, read, watch or listen and enjoy!

To anyone looking for my current writings you can click the following links:

Poetry can be found at: http://reknowltoniii.blogstream.com/

or

Prose and essays at: http://richardknowlton.blogstream.com/

Again, let me know about the Photoshop Tennis idea and I will explain what it is and how it is played.

Thank you all for reading and commenting on each of my blogs as it is greatly appreciated.

Be well and smile.

Godspeed.

R.E. Knowlton III

~ Amendum ~ 

The Photoshop Tennis explanation can be found in the comment section in the comment responding to Grandma Baba's curiosity. I really hope we can get some players together!

Also let me know if the look on here is good or not and if it is enough of a contrast to my other blog  - I have been tinkering with it all morning as to make them both identifyable yet distinct. Thank you.