Getting a HEAD Start

Denro and I will be at the City Winery in Boston today to see the last Monkee standing, Micky Dolenz. Recently, in an online chat for Andrew Sandoval’s “Come to the Sunshine” show on WFMU, I mentioned the diner scene from the outstanding Monkees movie, HEAD.

The video will start at the right spot. The scene is only a bit over a minute long.

I suggested to Andrew that it was undoubtedly inspired by a scene in the bizarre and wonderful W.C. Fields movie, Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. Andrew, who has done more to promote the Monkees music legacy than anyone, said he had never seen the Fields movie. I don’t know if he’s had a chance to do that.

December 7, 1941, 1979, 1999

Three anniversaries today. 1941 you know about. 1979 one of you remembers. 1999 was the day when the retina in my left eye spontaneously detached, beginning one of the most difficult periods of my life.

Twenty-five years! Just like Pa Kent, it don’t hardly seem that long. Uh, oh. Looks like Pa had the afib real bad!

Wait. What 25th anniversary did the neighbors think the Kents were celebrating? Pulling baby Clark out of a burning rocket from outer space?

Valve Jobs

Two household water emergencies in the same week. A new record!

On Sunday it was the shower shutoff valve. Now it’s the pressure release valve on the furnace, doing what it’s supposed to do.

That plastic pan had just started to overflow when I caught it. A technician from the oil company should be here sometime this evening. The pan dates back to when I did my own oil and filter changes, starting with my first car, a 1965 Chevelle.