A Question For The Blog...

Does anyone remember Mr. Ralph Saylor? My niece and I were doing a bit of reminiscing, and she brought up his name. Can anybody help me with this one?

good mornin, Captain
thanks for everything

From the desk of the Plez

Just a few things:

Bobby: Thanks for your review of the New Year's Eve thing with Rob Russell and his band.

When we were doing "Whole Lotta Rosie," I of course had to do the Angus/Chuck Berry thing and run around. As soon as I jumped off the stage, I ran into a chair a woman was using for her black velvetty coat. I knocked it over into the wetness and mucky muck on the floor. Hey, I was rocking. I couldn't stop and pick it up, though I did try to prevent it from falling over. Anyway, after the second song, the show was over, and I walked by her table and noticed that she had just left the coat lying there in disgust. I turned the chair back upright and said I was sorry, but you could tell she wasn't too impressed by that.

The moral is: rock is like war. You have to expect some casualties.

Julie: Please don't worry about that job. Are you thinking that I'm mad about that? Not at all. That was just one of 30 or 40 jobs I applied to last year and didn't get. I knew it wasn't 'cause you had told 'em never to hire me.

Ok, that's it from here. And yes, Black Sabbath was a great band.

--Plez

Black Sabbath, Cemeteries, and Shoe Buffers

I spent Sunday driving around listening to Black Sabbath's first album, which always reminds me of my brother and the blue shag carpet in his bedroom--fish net hanging in the corners of the ceiling. I remember thinking when I was a kid how "evil" it sounded to my mom, so of course all us kids loved it. And now, I think I love it even more. It has got to be one of the best rock-n-roll albums out there, to this day. And I'm gaining a new appreciation for Ozzy too. I hear there's talk about making a movie about his life.

Here's a Johnson City reflection that perhaps fed the music scene in some, albeit small, way:
Donnie Poole and Carmen Botkin and I were inseparable from third through sixth grade. I'd go spend the night with Carmen, who lived just up the road on Hiwassee Hill from Donnie. Seemed like the three of us were always hanging out in an old cemetery near where they lived that's now I-26. I don't know what's happened to it and haven't driven around there to see. It was just above a rock quarry dug out by workers at Magnavox that used to have a plant off the old Milligan Hwy. We'd hang out at the rock quarry too--pack backpacks with grape Nehi and food and hike down there. I remember at that cemetery most of the tombstones were old and broken, and there were big holes near graves--it was just a shambles, weeds and everything. There was one grave for a child who was stillborn, which happened to be Donnie's birthday, October 10th--can't remember the year. We'd stand there and creep ourselves out about it, then run like hell.

I also remember us playing with a Ouija board quite a bit. We'd usually go in a bedroom closet where it was dark and seemed scary. One day, we decided to hang out in Carmen's parent's bedroom closet because it was bigger and had carpet in it. I can't remember what questions we asked now at all, but at some point when things got really mysterious--the needle wasn't moving and we were waiting---Donnie reached over and turned on this electric shoe buffer that was in the closet. Me and Carmen nearly hit the ceiling, then laughed until I thought I was gonna die.

Some really great memories from growing up in JC.

ED ANGER: MOLESTERS SHOULD BE BUTCHERED LIKE HOGS!
Ol' Sparky is too good for them!


I'M MADDER than La Toya Jackson in a talent contest at how these filthy, child-molesting vermin are being treated with kid gloves by our bleeding-heart criminal justice system.

Not only do pedophile priests get a free ride, courtesy of "understanding" bishops, but celebrities who violate our children are allowed to walk the streets free for years -- even after the whole world knows their dirty little secret.

Well, I say it stops right now.

We ought to butcher these scum like hogs. The electric chair is too good for them, if you ask me. Why should some self-respecting Mafia hit man who'd cut off his right arm before he'd hurt a kid have to sit in Ol' Sparky after it's been soiled by a cowardly piece-of-garbage child molester?

I know the liberals say that's too harsh, that these guys can be "reformed" with psychotherapy behind bars and maybe given chemical castration so when they get out, they keep their warped desires under control.

Chemical castration? Heck, you give me five minutes alone with one of these degenerate SOBs, with my 14-inch "Tennessee toothpick" hunting knife in one hand and my trusty old Bowie knife in the other -- and let me treat him to my impression of a Japanese chef. Trust me, when I'm done, he won't have to worry about his wee-wee ever again, by jiminy.

strange days part II

from the Weekly World News....

A leading physicist claims to have figured out why the U.S. Postal Service loses a lot of mail and delivers most of the rest late -- post offices are "architectural anomalies" that cause time warps, wreaking havoc with letters, packages, sorting machines . . . and sometimes even mail carriers themselves.

"Blueprints don't lie, and the science is solid," Dr. Elizabeth Palterman told reporters at the conclusion of the 22nd annual Conference for Physics in Arlington, Va.

"Post offices in every state are built on scale with the base of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, an architectural 'inside joke' that began with the design and construction of a branch office in Philadelphia in 1911 and has continued unquestioned -- and with cataclysmic results -- ever since.

"What nobody realized is that the Great Pyramid is no ordinary building, even if you square off the top.

"As long as you maintain its precise foundational dimensions, even in scale, the structure you erect will create an 'energy vortex' that is capable of bending, stretching and even slowing or speeding up the flow of time.

"In layman's terms, you create the potential for a time warp, which is why so much of the mail that moves through our post offices is lost or delayed. To the casual observer, and to the naked eye, a letter or package might appear to be moving through the system at a normal pace when, in fact, it is languishing in a distortion of the space-time continuum.

"Simply put, a letter that appears to be zipping down a conveyor belt at 20 feet per second might, in fact, be taking weeks to travel that distance -- or it might just flow into another time and place altogether.

"That's why the problem of lost and late mail has been so nagging and so mysterious. You need a wall-sized blackboard and a couple of boxes of chalk just to do the math to prove what is happening."

Dr. Palterman's theory both shocked and pleased Postal Service officials who have taken so much heat over lost and slow mail over the years that they simply started blaming any problem that cropped up on the union that protects the right of postal workers to move like snails and left it at that.

"This is good news no matter how you slice it," says one postmaster in a heavily populated northeastern state.

"It proves to people that our guys, slow and lazy as they might be, aren't to blame for all these mail problems we keep having. This seems to be a solid and thoroughly scientific explanation that takes us off the hook and shows that we aren't responsible after all."

Postmaster General John Potter is said to be "keenly interested" in Dr. Palterman's assessment but he won't address it in public until the Postal Service's time-and-motion experts check the math and make sure the theory will stand up to scrutiny.

"That could take years or even decades," says a postal insider with close ties to Potter. "Energy vortex or no energy vortex, we've still got that little problem called 'the union.' We can tell our guys what to do and then they're on their own.

"If they want to drag their feet, this could take some time."

In the meantime, Dr. Palterman has suggested what she calls "a simple solution" that will end the problem of lost and delayed mail once and for all.

"All you have to do is shorten or extend one corner of every post office by one inch," says the physicist. "By taking them off the scale of the Great Pyramid, the vortices will vanish -- and the mail will move as quickly and efficiently as it does through UPS and Federal Express."

Strange Days....

The A.C.L.U. has filed a motion in support of Rush Limbaugh's desire to protect his medical records in the ongoing Oxycontin investigation. In order for Limbaugh to not be a hypocrite and accept the assistance of this well know liberal organization, he should immediately release his medical records..... or recant everything he has ever said about the A.C.L.U...... this must surely be one of the signs of the apocalypse. And to think a few years ago we were told that irony is dead.

Kings of Leon and Bonnie Prince Billy

Hey,

Does anyone out there have anything to say about the band Kings of Leon (debut album Youth and Young Manhood), or Bonnie Prince Billy?---who is also recorded under Palace and Palace Music since the early 90's? I only just heard about Kings of Leon (review below), but love BPB. Interested to hear what others have to say.

Also---I want to say something to Scott Pleasant right here about his application for a job where I work. Scott, you didn't get the job because the powers-that-be here don't know the difference between there and their, here and hear, ass and hole-in-ground. Were it up to me, you'd be here. Hear?

Here's that review:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Kings of Leon are four members of the Followill family, three brothers and a cousin. The title Youth & Young Manhood is an accurate summary of their places in life--the oldest member, drummer Nathan Followill, is 23, while the youngest, bass player Jared Followill, is just 16. The brothers had a childhood that was both eccentric and peripatetic, living out of a car while their preacher father toured the southern United States, and have most recently been living in Nashville; they don't appear, judging by this startlingly assured debut, to have been unduly traumatised by either experience.

Kings of Leon, up to and including their haircuts and moustaches, are steeped in the rock & roll of the American south: Youth & Young Manhood is largely four-square boogie whose ideal setting would be a bar with sawdust on the floor and chicken wire protecting the stage. The Kings of Leon do not have a single formative influence drawn from within their own lifetimes--they clearly whiled away their father's long road trips listening to radio stations that broadcast an unleavened diet of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Allman Brothers and a pre-sequencers ZZ Top (although vocalist Caleb Followill sounds more than anything else like AC/DC's Bon Scott). Perhaps Youth & Young Manhood manages to be significantly more than an exercise in pastiche because the Followills are still too young to be jaded by these old noises. Whatever the reason, this is a fine start. --Andrew Mueller

This just in from the Associated Press...

"WASHINGTON (AP) - Space-exploration proposals that President Bush is preparing to put into his next budget will not undermine his administration's goal of cutting the federal deficit in half within five years, Treasury Secretary John Snow said Sunday.

Snow said the new space proposals, which include a permanent settlement on the moon and setting a goal of sending Americans to Mars, will be undertaken ``within a framework of fiscal responsibility.''

Snow said the administration's budget, which will be sent to Congress on Feb. 2, will outline the new space proposals plus a plan that will accomplish the goal of cutting record budget deficits in half through a combination of stronger economic growth and spending restraint."

This comes from the adminstration that took your from a $300 billion surplus to a $500 billion deficit in just three years.... this must be some new meaning of "restraint" that us regular folk are not familier with....

Isn't it nice to know that Bush has the same vision as a Democrat that has been dead for 40 years?

Bush to Announce Missions to Mars, Moon

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) - President Bush will announce

plans next week to send Americans to Mars and back to the moon and

to establish a long-term human presence on the moon, senior

administration officials said Thursday night.


House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, among others, has

called for an expansion of the U.S. space program, including a

return to the moon. The United States put 12 men on the moon

between 1969 through 1972.

An interagency task force led by Vice President Dick Cheney* has

been considering options for a space mission since summer.

*HISTORICAL NOTE: Cheney led the task force to help find a running mate for Gov. Bush in 1999, and chose himself.


rick, since you came above halo, en garde: gacy and gein were mostly into killing white gay guys or lonely white women, and never real indulged multiple choice query nor hyberbolic fantasy family units , as republicans prefer to just scare the shit out of for fun and profit. i don't remember ed coming outta a corner wielding a large knife and attacking law abiding liberal nuclear unit and their guilt-ridden post modern fruedian middlings.but i've never watched much tv since opie started shaving and went bald.
you gotta know anyhow, most southern folks shoot first and ask questions later, no matter what their voter reg. card compels them to do.

p.s. have you tried breathe rite strips or the bose wave radio? snapple? oxycontin? latinos clean your apartment regularly? my pharmacist is a woman and she is really smart. but she won't sell syringes without prescription and there is a 25 dollar fee for bad checks- it says so right on the sign over the register. by moses! i am going to win that musket charlton heston said would have to be pried from his cold dead fingers, by god! i have joined the nra 77 times this week alone. under assumed names of course. because once asscroft figures out... the ad(t)kins (tm) wraps at subway are delicious, by the way, if you like chewey shit in a dough-napkin anyway... you can figure out where all the guns are in america if you have the nra roles...haterizing is all i know. and free-range eggs and poultry, that is.

bill, pax. i think if you put the southern rock hall of fame in your garage or back yard, ms spears would be oops-ing and doing it again all over you like sput- on the -nik!

turn it up...

News From NASA

It seems that the Mars Rover is stuck and NASA is baffled as to why. They beleive that the airbags deployed to cushion it's landing have snagged it and are trying to further deflate the bags by raising and lowering the exit ramp of the Rover.... what they don't want you to know is that this thing landed in what the Martians refer to as the East Tennessee section of Mars, and some bug-eyed space alien has already sold the wheels for drinking money and put the Rover up on blocks in his/her/it's front yard.

random thoughts from the north

Arwood keep the winnie out of ur bed. Foot warmer...... I think not. Macs ain't the only thing that'll make you go blind
Tony dont start haterizing. John Wayne Gacy was white. So was Ed Gein...
Bill, go ahead and take Britney on the dining room table.... fulfill ur destiny

untitled.bmp

Will it never end???

So yesterday Ric and I have a discussion in the Blog about guns and today MSN has the following story:

"What do Britney Spears, the United Methodist Church, the St. Louis Rams and Hallmark Cards have in common? They're among the hundreds of celebrities, organizations and companies on the National Rifle Association's roster of entities that it considers hostile to gun-ownership rights.

The Fairfax-based NRA has compiled a 15-page list of supporters of the Brady law — which requires federally licensed gun dealers to do background checks on gun buyers — and other gun-control measures.

NRA spokesman Ted Novin said the list was solely for "informational purposes and that it's nothing new."

I ask you gentle readers, will Britney stop at nothing to get my attention?

Please Britney, it's not going to happen! How can I make it any plainer? It would never work out between us! We are from different worlds you and I, and while I am sure you are a truly wonderful person, between kissing Madonna, marrying and annulling your marriage to your friend from your home town and now this,,, well it is just all too much! So please! Let it go! I beg you!!!

And as far as the NRA saying this is nothing new.... well isn't that what you would expect them to say???

in a week or two, when J. Q. Public does a google search for
"pussyfuck cowardice"

this blog will be hit number one!

NASDAQ - JCBS - IPO anyone?

it's only BAND WIDTH - Phil, didn't you see the MATRIX?

Subject: How do you tell the difference between
Democrats, Republicans and Southerners? karate simulation; module 2.

You're walking down by 300 W Main street with your life partner
and two small adopted bi-racial poly-cultural children.
Suddenly, a previous-partner of the Down Home (tm)
comes around the corner...
and apologizes at you!

You are carrying hot chai, a bag of dirty clothing and a roll of quarters
for the laundro-mat. You have mere
seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?

Bill if you would quit fooling around with them damn Macs and get a wintel machine......

Subject: How do you tell the difference between
Democrats, Republicans and Southerners?

You're walking down a deserted street with your wife
and two small children.
Suddenly, a dangerous looking man with a huge knife
comes around the corner,
raises the knife, and charges at you.
You are carrying a Glock .40, and you are an expert
shot. You have mere
seconds before he reaches you and your family.
What do you do?

Democrat's Answer:
Well, that's not enough information to answer the
question!
Does the man look poor or oppressed? Have I ever
done anything to him that
would inspire him to attack? Could we run away?
What does my wife think? What about the kids?
Could I possibly swing the gun like a club and knock
the knife out of his
hand?
What does the law say about this situation?
Does the Glock have an appropriate safety built into
it?
Why am I carrying a loaded gun anyway, and what kind
of message does this
send to society and to my children?
Is it possible he'd be happy with just killing me?
Does he definitely want to kill me, or would he be
content just to wound me?
If I were to grab his knees and hold on, could my
family get away while he
was stabbing me?
Should I call 9-1-1?
Why is this street so deserted? We need to raise
taxes, have a paint and
weed day and make this a happier, healthier street
that would discourage
such behavior.
This is all so confusing! I need to debate this with
some friends for a few
days and try to come to a consensus.

Republican's Answer:
BANG!

Southerner's Answer:
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
click...
(Sounds of reloading.)
Wife: "Sweetheart, he looks like he's still moving,
what do you kids think?"
Son: "Mom's right Dad, I saw it, too."
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
click.
Daughter: "Nice group, Daddy! Were those the
Winchester Silver Tips?"

Thanks Phil

My Dearest Phil,

A very eloquent, and apparently heartfelt, apology.

In all good faith, however, I feel that I cannot accept your apology. There is no reason to accept an apology for something that wasn't really an infraction. The simple facts of the matter were that you were asked a question or two by a reporter and you responded as honestly as you could. I applaud you for doing so. If everyone were to do the same, we would live in a much better place. So instead of beating yourself up about that, give yourself a pat on the back. The term "bad press" contains two words, and we were actually pleased as punch to get the "press". Hell, everyone from Al Jarreau to Whitless Spears has benefitted from bad press. My thanks to you for this.

If you really feel the need to make amends for past malfeasances, please allow me to direct your attention to the latter part of that very same article. I (and I believe I speak for most of the members of FC) took deep offense from the way that you elected to tell us that we were no longer welcome to perform at the Down Home. If, as you aver, there was no altercation between you, myself and Bruce, then there was no reason for us to suspectthat we were banned. The fact that you chose a public forum that was intended to promote the local music scene to inform Final Curtain of it's status with your club was nothing short of chickenshit. Plain old chickenshit, pussyfuck cowardice. We knew you, trusted you and, hell, a couple of us almost kinda liked you (maybe).

One thing more I will give you. At that point in time, the Down Home was the only venue we had. Thanks to your decision, we began soliciting other places to allow locals to play. I in no way shape or form want to take credit for all of this. Many voices went into the building of the JC "scene".Bruce, Johnny and Chris, The boys from Plain Jane (et.al) but I believe that is what opened the doors of QB's, Club Venus, Richard A's, and even allowed the realization of the Highlander.

So in essence, Thanks for kicking us out. Fuck you for doing it the way you did, but Thank You anyway. Many good years with many good people were had.

If whatever god you subscribe to requires you to make these apologies, at least find the right things to apologize for.

interesting - from MoveOn

Many JC bloggers may already be aware of this, but for those of you who aren't ( the biggest thing is a request to watch media for erroneous reporting about this - and report it):

Dear MoveOn member,

As the New Year begins, we'd rather be talking about positive things, and there are plenty of good things happening. But MoveOn.org has come under attack from the Republican National Committee (RNC), which has launched a campaign of malicious misinformation to divert attention from the creativity and power of the Bush in 30 Seconds contest. We need your help to make sure the media don't fall for it.

RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie launched the attack on "Fox News Sunday," and the RNC followed it with press releases and calls to reporters. The charges centered on two ads posted on the Bush in 30 Seconds website which compared President Bush's tactis with those of Adolf Hitler. Mr. Gillespie repeatedly referred to the ads as 'the MoveOn ad' or 'MoveOn's ad,' implying that we had sponsored or perhaps even commissioned the ad. And he also claimed that we might spend $7 million to run it on TV.

This is a lie. MoveOn.org hasn't sponsored such an ad, and we never would -- we regret the appearance of these ads on the Bush In 30 Seconds site. The two ads in question are from more than a thousand posted by members of the public, and they were voted on by MoveOn members through December 31st. Obviously the few hundred of you who viewed these ads agreed that they were not worthy of further broadcast or recognition, because they got low ratings. Yesterday we announced the 15 finalists -- all good, hard-hitting and fair appraisals of the Bush record, in the judgment of the members and others who rated them. The two offending ads can only be found one place now -- on the RNC website!

When we've explained this to journalists, most have understood that this is a game of gotcha politics, not news. But even our statement for the press below, which goes through the entire process in detail, hasn't stopped the right wing from working this angle as hard as they can.

That's why we're asking you to please watch for stories on this as they appear, and let us know. Call the news outlet yourself and give them hell for falling victim to such political baloney. I've attached our statement, which fully explains the situation, below. Then please let us know so we can contact the outlets directly.

You can help us track inaccurate reporting on this story at:
http://moveon.org/smear/?id=2233-3138652-KefomeW4mN9Ec4nvuKUCuQ

Second, we need you to get the press back on the right track. After you've corrected the negative accounts, write an upbeat letter to your local paper about the exciting and positive aspects of the contest and the finalists. These ads reflect the courage, hope, and deep patriotism of our membership. They're creative, passionate, and totally unlike most of the political ads that are out there. And perhaps most importantly, they were picked in a democratic way. Now that's a story.

The finalists are online at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/

By sharing that URL with your friends, family, and colleagues, you can help to make sure that the RNC isn't successful in stealing our finalists' glory.

Not only is the RNC campaign deceptive, it's also totally disingenuous. Yesterday, the New York Post ran a long opinion column focusing exclusively on how much Presidential Candidate Howard Dean resembles Hitler, even calling him "Herr Howie." Of course, the RNC hasn't issued a condemnation of that. When close RNC ally Grover Norquist repeatedly compared taxing the wealthy with the Holocaust in an interview on NPR, the RNC was muted. And in 2002, the RNC and its allies were silent when supporters of President Bush actually aired TV ads morphing the face of Senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee as a result of wounds sustained in Vietnam, into Osama bin Laden. Given such a transparently partisan track record, the RNC's moral outrage doesn't mean a whole lot.

Obviously, MoveOn.org and its 1.7 million members are now on the right-wing radar. They are going to do everything they can do to silence us, and we simply won't let it happen. Smear tactics and campaigns of misinformation have no place in American democracy.

Sincerely,
--Adam, Carrie, Eli, James, Joan, Noah, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn.org Team
January 6th, 2003

P.S. Here's the statement we released to the press yesterday, which explains the whole situation.

ADS ATTACKED BY RNC CHAIRMAN
ARE NOT MOVEON.ORG VOTER FUND ADS
MoveOn.org Voter Fund Regrets
Screening Process Allowed Ads to Slip Through

Statement by Wes Boyd, Founder of MoveOn.org Voter Fund:

The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading.

During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.

None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries.

We agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process. In the future, if we publish or broadcast raw material, we will create a more effective filtering system.

Contrast this with the behavior of the RNC and its allies when supporters of President Bush used TV ads morphing the face of Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) into that of Osama Bin Laden during the 2002 Senate race.

MoveOn.org and the MoveOn.org Voter Fund exist to bring the public into the political process and produce a more fact-based election process. We regret that the RNC doesn't seem to embrace the same goals.

guitmo-a-go-go happy new ear

BY GOD!

phil,

we need some context for your confession. is this a deathbed deal? are you contemplating an ed harris "the hours" move? save yourself a little splatter.

is this AA talking? leave your sponsor. you are being played.

are you making a comeback teaching a appalachia-sound-board-not-bored course at etsu? don't be a man o constant sorrow.
do you have friends who go by t-bone? johnny cash needs rest, not another great idea from rickrubinupsidedownamericanflag.

if you're gonna slit your wrists- you oughta bleeeeeeeeeeed!

the last time i found decent culture in JC i was reading "best used by" dates off cottage cheese tubs(32-oz's) in kroger.

out with it.

obtuse/sincere- i saw a movie called "box of moonlight" last millennium. ed wolfe was great, but i wouldn't let him work on my truck in real life.

sincere/obtuse- i heard some folks made a movie outta a book called "Cold Mountain", but they did it all in check-o-slow-vadkia or some place.

i guess what i am trying to ask is:

well


did you kill wade janey?

Dispatch from Phil Leonard

(every now and then, someone emails me a dispatch to post for them. this one is from Phil Leonard, former co-owner of the Down Home and general swell guy. so good to hear from him! -- brook)

How does one go about making a proper and public apology for an infraction
that is now probably 15 years old? The specific date is not important. I,
Phil Leonard, made a big error when I shared my personal opinion in a public
forum. I was quoted that I did not consider Final Curtain to be a band that
played music. That quote of "my opinion" was correct. It was not complete. I
continued to tell the "reporter" that I considered them to be practicing
"performance art". That didn't show up in the article. That does not
diminish how improper was my not keeping my mouth shut. And it will do no
good to state whether I personally liked or disliked their shows. To this
day I owe everyone that was a member of Final Curtain at the time this took
place both a personal and a public apology. With Brook's permission I am
using this forum as a starting place from which to issue my apology. If
there is a more public place where this apology should be issued just
suggest the place and I will also place an apology there. Bottom line in
this thing is that I was out of line and I was responsible for statements
that were not fair and had no business being shared in a local newspaper in
the form it was issued. The reporter gave me a position of being something
of a spokesperson on that occasion. I am ashamed that I abused that position
and I regret any embarrassment and/or hurt that it caused others. In the
long run I would say I embarrassed myself more that those spoken of. I was
wrong. And I am sorry.

I was on the fringe of the community represented by this site. Only a person
that helped in providing one of the venues for some of your adventures and
undertakings. I have not been associated with the Down Home for four years
now. But for nearly twenty years I did help the place to be a "variety
playhouse" of sorts. A place that opened its doors to many different types
of artistic expression. While the Home was offered up to the communities at
large it was not owned by everyone and was not required to be everything to
everybody. I feel I did help to expand the venue's choice of offerings way
beyond bluegrass and old time music. Some folks in those communities thought
they were betrayed when their share of booking dates became a smaller part
of the calendar? The place did not want to be a bluegrass club nor a rock
club. But rather to offer some of the best of both. Along with poetry,
literature, film, theatre. And lots of benefits for lots of organizations. I
got a real kick out of one post that offered up how the author's group made
"a huge pile of money for Phil Leonard". This person should be informed that
the majority of any profit seen from the door for their event went to
subsidize the next three or four offerings where the door lost money. Hey,
you were contributing to the larger cultural scene when your show brought in
profit...not to Phil Leonard. And "thank you" for that.

While I am sincere about the apology issued above I must also offer a
differing memory of yamo's recollection of being asked, along with Bruce, to
leave the Down Home. I have no memory of Bruce being bloodied but I do
remember making a decision that "rednecks" in attendance might not react
well to slam dancers bumping into their person/table, etc. From my position
at the sound booth I would venture to say I could better observe what was
going on than yamo who may have even been right next to Bruce. While yamo
fondly notes how many different mind altering things were a precursor to
their roamings about town, it was my usual discipline to refrain from such
things until after the club's doors were locked at the end of the night. In
my many roles as a caretaker and host at the Down Home I had
responsibilities that extended beyond the obvious. Some of the younger free
spirits probably saw me as Grinch, spoil sport, evil vice-principal figure,
self-righteous hall monitor...and the ugly list goes on. I remember some
underage band members playing at the club were asked to meet me half way.

One was disappointed he couldn't drink his beer out in the room where all
his underage contemporaries could witness his cool defiance of the law.
Since I'm no longer one of the owners of the club I will issue a short
disclaimer that I was the only owner responsible for allowing these underage
band members to drink the beer I gave them...in the dressing room. No one
could hold current owners responsible though I'm sure any statute of
limitations has long expired. Anyway, this is a blog for JC Stories. And the
desire by some folks to bring slam dancing to the ole Down Home, and my
admitted efforts at prohibiting it from that venue was a stimulating time. I
did lock horns with Bruce and I should have handled some of those situations
better. But I swear I don't remember ever having a physical confrontation
with anyone in all the years I spent at the club. I don't remember putting
hands on anyone and don't remember ever having anyone physically assault me.
But, yamo, if your memory brings you any satisfaction go with it. I suspect
I gave you some reasons for your personal dislike of me. My loss there.

On a personal note to Bruce. If it matters. I always saw you as a brilliant
intellect and an artist but didn't always agree that some of your directions
fit in with the Down Home. I always suspected you lived with aggravations
from finding yourself in a sea of bubbas who had no awareness of much beyond
a triple burger and a giant slushy. I remember my image of you changing from
just another young whiner complaining "there's nuthin to do in this town",
to a publisher actively making shit happen! That said, neither I nor the
Down Home owed anyone very much more than we gave to individuals and the
communities at large. And that said, some may feel I owe them more apologies
than the one expressed above. And, indeed I'm sure I'm ignorant of many of
these infractions. After all. I was busy putting a full work week into a
hobby of helping to run the one thing closest to a cultural arts center in
JC, in addition to my day job. And I'll bet I fell victim to being pretty
full of myself many times.

If this blog lasts long enough to become a chronicle of sorts some
contributors might look back after more passing of time to see that: 1) Yes
over indulgence and substance abuse are common traits during adolescence. 2)
Giving praise to this behavior and recounting it fondly is a common trait
for folks having recently moved to more restrictive adulthood situations in
life (the Glory Days?). 3) A lot of the over indulgence might have actually
been stupid and got in the way of seeing some of your early dreams become
better expressed without quite so much and such a variety used so
frequently. We pretty much ALL go through that cycle.

Hopefully we all get the chance to have our own glory days and a great group
of people to share them with. The fact is your group is not the first nor
the last to have such times. But that also does not diminish those days that
were yours and yours alone. I suspect we would be hard pressed to find a
brighter gathering of energetic and just plain good people on this planet
that found themselves in one more "nowhere place" but used their own
creativity to make their own scenes. I appreciate the joy I was given when I
held witness to all of your "carrying on"!

So Bruce, yamo and all others offended by my statements in that certain
issue of the JC Press I acknowledge my violation. I am ashamed and
regretful. You have every right to not accept this apology. But I issue it
here in all sincerity.

Phil Leonard

New Year's report

A Johnson City Story,

So I went to see Rob Russell & the Sore Losers at Down Home this New Year’s Eve. And they were real good and everything. Some girls smoking outside claimed the band is moving to Nashville to make their fortunes this year. Surely there are a lot of JC musicians residing in Nashville with something to say about that…

Anyway, the show was good, but who brought the house down? The fuckin’ Plez by God! Plez came out late in the show with full Angus gear on, and rocked the place with “Whole Lot of Rosie.” This was the most thunderous song of the night, which brought the most thunderous applause in turn. Go Plez!

Britney in the News!

It is reported that Britney Spears got married to a childhood friend over the weekend in Las Vegas, and further that she is already seeking annulment.... While some of the more jaded may think this is a move to create publicity to promote her album, a few of us understand the real meaning.... Oh Britney, when will you learn that you can't make me jealous? These efforts of yours to get my attention are just not working!!! It's time to move on.