Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.20 - On my way down to New Orleans

Beta Pi:

ON MY WAY DOWN TO NEW ORLEANS: Yeah, we used to sing that - and we loved it! Well, I was actually on my way down to . . . The Delta . . . fussing around with my new Blackberry Wireless . . .

I was on the road, heading down to the Delta - I called George Ford georgef@leedscustomdesign.com and had a really pleasant chat. George's daughter just graduated Vanderbilt with honors! I said LINK - she must have gotten her brainy genes from the wife, eh? George, you are one of the all-time-greats! LINK is on board for Reunion 07, 30th reunion - this October.

And yes, I talked to Bob Smoot rsmoot358@aol.com who is in Virginia near D.C.. Bob is indeed interested in BYOG - he and I both have old Gibson ES-175 guitars, mine a sunburst - his a blonde! Bob said "sheeet - you don't want to hear me play." Oh yeah, we do! Smoot is on board for Reunion '09.

Clyde Noel mailto:cnoel@optonline.netand I reconnected. Turns out Clyde’s son is into ice hockey, like my step-son. DONUTS lives only 5 miles away from Immortal MARTY a.k.a. Frank Collins collinzes@yahoo.com . NUTS has also kept up with Buck Biller fbiller1@msn.com , whom he links up with in Chicago on a semi-regular basis.

Of course, Mark McGann markmcgann@prodigy.net is well - and I know that because I spent an hour on the phone with Marlon - because Marlon is pissed - about just about everything under the sun - just like the old days (does my heart good). Marlon is in talks with Earl Stover ebstoveriii@aol.com - wanting to turn Texas upside sideways. Marlon - you are a walking miracle - I'm thankful you are above ground old friend.

Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless.

MOVIE REVIEWS FROM THE UIS NETHERWORLD: 300 the movie. B B B The critics panned this art movie - but my 18 year-old step son William thought it is awesome, and he's right. I call it an "art" movie because this movie is all made with art graphic computer scenery - with human actors interposed. Same technique as was used in Bruce Willis' SIN CITY - bigger than life. It is the tale of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae - how King Leonidas and his army of 300 Spartan soldiers stood up to the onslaught of Xerxes and his 1,000,000 strong Persian invasion force - yes, I did not screw up the numbers, it was 300 against 1,000,000! Absolutely the coolest medieval war movie ever made - mayhem galore. Cool nubile teenage oracle, too. Worth seeing for the Oracle scene alone. I give this film a Netherworld rating - three B B B’s. 3

Check out Beta Pi Blog on the web! The blog address is:
http://journals.aol.com/lasimons4law/beta-pi-blog/

VTL,

Larry Simons

Beta Pi, ‘72

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.17C - NEWS FLASH: XBG-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.17 - BONUS EDITION: X-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE : 

Today I received this cryptic communication from X-Neal:

"Kook

30 yrs

Torch singer in a Thai Show Club/Restaurant.

Good gal.

Tel 66 81 311 5614

e-mail: Kook_kiko02@hotmail.com "

Let me understand, X"BronzeGod"-Neal has a recording studio .  .  . and he has discovered a singer .  .  . uh-huh, right!  I'm posting the photo of her he sent.

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.19 - Blues Update, featuring Marty

Beta Pi:

BLUES UPDATE: Many esteemed and venerable Tik-a-lor Potentates have expressed interest in blues festivals in Clarksdale, Mississippi, among them Frank Biller fbiller1@msn.com , Chet Brewer wcblaw@aol.com , Frank Collins collinzes@yahoo.com , Lee Hall aldannah@aol.com , Pierce Hodnette phodnette@eufaula.rr.com , Tison Keel tkeel@daikin_america.com , Art Landry awl@awlandry.net , Mark McGann markmcgann@prodigy.net , Jack Muench jack@willcoxlaw.com , Travis Parr parrfamco@aol.com , Van Sayler van.sayler@raymondjames.com , Don Scott Dbs1956@aol.com , Bob Smoot rsmoot358@aol.com , The Heme george@concklin.com , and Rod Yanker rodney@aamglobal.com . What a lineup of immortals, if only all could converge.

Nevertheless, JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL is a go for April 14th, and counting. I received this note from the Immortal Marty a/k/a Frank Collins, March 19, 2007:

"Larry:

We won't be able to get to Mississippi for the blues weekend this year. Not for lack of trying. We hoped to fly into Memphis and then drive to New Orleans and fly home from there. I was never a geographic whiz and grossly underestimated the drive time between the two cities. Also, the kids week off that week. I couldn't get straight in my mind how the trip to Clarksdale would work with them. So, Florida here we come. I am disappointed. I plan to write to the Board of Ed here and tell them to keep the Spring break at Easter week next year so we can do it then.

have a great time. I hope it works out for next year instead.

Frank"

My Response to Frank:

Martino:

No worries! There are 2 major blues festivals each year, the next one is in the fall (August, I think) "SUNFLOWER BLUES FESTIVAL" - it’s the biggest, and best. As it stands, Chet Brewer & Elizabeth and me & Ann will be at Juke Joint having a ball. I plan to put out the word on Sunflower, and hope you & Mary will be there. Also, there is a sub-plot forming - I’m in talks with Pierce Hodnette and Jack Muench - to do a special Clarksdale Tik weekend BYOG (bring your own guitar) not during a festival - and book all available accommodations exclusively for Tiks: the Big Pink Guesthouse, Little Pink & Honey Hill, all for the Tik-a-lor Nation. Who knows!

Bozino"

Check out Beta Pi Blog on the web! The blog address is:http://journals.aol.com/lasimons4law/beta-pi-blog/

VTL,

Larry Simons

Beta Pi, ‘72

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.18 - Search for D.W. Wilson

Beta Pi:SEARCH FOR D.W. WILSON PHOTO CONTEST: I need a mug-shot of D.W.. The earliest yearbook I have is 1972, and D.W. Wilson is not in it (that I could find). So, to my "older" brothers, if you could dig through your year books for 1971, 1970, 1969 and find a mug-shot of D.W., scan it, then e-mail it to me . . . first brother to get it to me wins the contest. The prize? Dinner or lunch for the winner + significant other at Rotiers (limit 6 brewski’s per person), at your next VU Reunion (must be present to collect prize). This prize underwritten by Bozino, and Bucko and Vinny (if they want). Now, the big fun will be in actually finding D.W. ( if he is still above ground, God bless him). Is there a brother in the house who knows? Let me know his e-mail.

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX: As you probably figured out, it is one of my all-time-fav movies. I am obsessed with it! The novel was great, too (Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness). It really gets down into what war must be all about (I have not had the honor of going into combat, although I’m a veteran - posting my Basic Training photo as proof). It is the scene where Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) talks about "the horror" that I love best:

"It's impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror. Horror has a face, and you must make . . . a friend . . . of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies. . .

"We'd left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn't say. We went back there, and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile, . . . a pile of little arms, and I remember, I. . . I . . . I cried, I wept like some . . . grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized like I was shot, like I was shot with a diamond, a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought, 'My God, the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure! And then I realized they were stronger than me because they could stand it. These were not monsters. These were men -- trained cadres. These men who fought with their hearts who have families, who have children, who are filled with love - that they had the strength, the strength to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill - without feeling, without passion, without judgment - without judgment. Because it's judgment that defeats us."

In the very last few seconds of film, you hear Brando whispering "the horror . . . the horror" - it is awesome! This film cannot be rated - its that good.

BETA PI BLOG IS GROWING: Slowly, but surely. The blog now counts 64 bona fide Tik-a-loooo’s, as Ratman used to intone. Feed the blog, it is hungry for more "tik-a-lo-bro" e-mail addresses. Send them "po-liiice" (translation: please) as Itchie used to intone.

Check out Beta Pi Blog on the web! The blog address is:http://journals.aol.com/lasimons4law/beta-pi-blog/

VTL,

Larry Simons

Beta Pi, ‘72

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.13 - NEWSFLASH UPDATE! LANDRY FINDS HILL TURNER

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.13 - SEARCH FOR HILL TURNER :

NEWS FLASH JUST IN! ART LANDRY FINDS HILL TURNER: "here you go, Larry. Add him on: rhturner@gmail.com "

BETA PI BLOG WELCOMES HILL TURNER

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.17B - BONUS EDITION: X-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.17 - X-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE :

Additional comment, March 6, 2007:

Sometimes, things stick in my mind, like a song that keeps playing, I can’t quit thinking about it. What’s stuck in my mind now is Neal’s new nick-name "Bronze God" - and it dawned on me - Neal is living the life of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. The Thai natives must really "worship the man . . . like a God" as Harrison Ford said in that great movie, which is one of my all-time-favorites. Here is how that scene went:

. . . special intelligence agent Willard (Martin Sheen) is escorted by chopper to an intelligence compound/airfield at Nha Trang in Vietnam for a luncheon meeting, in an air-conditioned trailer:

"I was going to the worst place in the world, and I didn't even know it yet. Weeks away and hundreds of miles up a river that snaked through the war like a main circuit cable plugged straight into Kurtz. It was no accident that I got to be the caretaker of Colonel Walter E. Kurtz's memory, any more than being back in Saigon was an accident. There is no way to tell his story without telling my own. And if his story is really a confession, then so is mine."

Willard is questioned by two military superiors: General R. Corman (G. D. Spradlin), and Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford). A third unidentified civilian individual named Jerry (Jerry Ziesner) is presumably a CIA operative. Their working lunch is imported Texas roast beef, shrimp and Budweiser beer. Willard is shown a picture and told about Col. Kurtz, (Marlon Brando) a highly-decorated Green Beret officer - and told that Kurtz is now insane. A reel-to-reel tape recording of Kurtz's voice is played:

"I watched a snail crawl along the edge . . . of a straight . . . razor. That's my dream . . . it's my nightmare. Crawling, slipping along the edge of a straight . . . razor . . . and surviving.... But we must kill them, we must incinerate them, pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, army after army, . . . and they call me an assassin. What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassin? They lie, . . . They lie and we have to be merciful for those who lie, . . . for those nabobs. I hate them. I do hate them."

The General says Col. Kurtz’s "methods" have become "unsound." He tells Willard that the Army accused Kurtz of murdering three Vietnamese intelligence agents (men he believed were double agents). General Corman explains the confused insanity of the war, the temptation to play God:

"Because there's a conflict in every human heart between the rational and the irrational, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes the Dark Side overcomes what Lincoln called 'the better angels of our nature.' Therein, every man has got a breaking point. You and I have. Walter Kurtz has reached his. And very obviously, he has gone insane."

General Corman says "he's out there operating without any decent restraint, totally beyond the pale of any acceptable human conduct - and he is still in the field commanding troops." Willard is given a mission: infiltrate and "terminate the Colonel's command." The command is repeated by the CIA operative (his only line): "Terminate with extreme prejudice."

Willard is told that "this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist."

TV News- Geico's Cavemen May Get Own TV Series - AOL News

TV News- Geico's Cavemen May Get Own TV Series - AOL News :   M-LINK, heads up, your people are getting a sit-com!

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.17A - X-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE

Beta Pi:

X-NEAL CRENSHAW UPDATE: For you Brothers who have not ventured into "The Archives" - just click on Archives, and work your way back in time, to the very first "Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2006, No.01 - Honoring Tison Keel and Neal Crenshaw."

 

J. Neal, a.k.a. X-Neal Crenshaw, sent me a blurb - in his usual extremely concise fashion, with attached photo. The photo is a classic, which belongs in the annals. I must say, J. Neal, it looks to me like you are indeed in the Promised Land my old friend! Here is J. Neal’s blurb:

" from the commissioning of my new digital recording studio...."

You may not know this, but it is J. Neal’s residence in Thailand that makes Beta Pi Blog truly a "global" rag, which is extremely cool. A twisted version of "The King and I" is creeping into my imagination, with a cameo by X-Neal, so I’m featuring a photo of all-time-great actor Yul Brenner. Notice any resemblance between Yul and X-Neal?

 

Check out Beta Pi Blog on the web! The blog address is:

http://journals.aol.com/lasimons4law/beta-pi-blog/

VTL,

Larry Simons

Beta Pi, ‘72