Friday, June 29, 2007

Beta Pi Blog, Vol.2007, No.37 - Guest Blogmiester Tison Keel

Beta Pi:

Tison sent this piece and photo . . .

GUEST BLOGMIESTER TISON KEEL:

Inspired by the steady stream of Tic memories, fuzzy though they may have been, and impelled (by a recent unfortunate failure of a sump pump) to rummage through boxes of personal memorabilia, I have surfaced the attached photo prize. An "out take" from the photo session for the 1975 Commodore - the original Pirates of the Caribbean!

The theme was developed late one night after return from the first Eleuthra trip, perhaps subjected to creativity enhancement, listening to "A Pirate Looks at Forty" by J. Buffett. Schmeat, JD and I somehow embarked on a verbal fantasy of abandoning school, capturing a yacht, making the lubbers walk the plank, and embarking on a career of smuggling contraband between Columbia and Miami. We decided Schmeat, with long hair and a moustache at the time, looked very much the part of a debauched French pirate captain.

The idea took roots the next day and began to gather crowd appeal. We obviously referred back to the legendary 1971 (?) Biker Gang photo, which was the ultimate yearbook photo, and hoped to come somewhere close to that standard. We selected Tic initiate, inactive J. Clark Thomas as the photographer, since he had done the Biker job. The photo location was a former hilltop Civil War fortification near Music Row.

I recall encouraging friendly competition on costumes by suggesting that Engineering students, lacking creativity, should consult their A&S brothers for ideas of finery to wear. An appropriate number of young lovelies was recruited, mostly Tic girlfriends, but a few surprises showed up like the tall tool Miriam Staples. When I went to review the proofs, Clark had one he liked due to the effect and expression of Captain Schmeat, but the unruly and inattentive group obscured too many faces, and made it unsuitable for the yearbook. Clark cropped and printed a special version for me, and it held a proud position in my home during most of my single life after college, before disappearing into a box during one relocation. (I can name the partial face seen between the shoulders of Schmeat and Leapin' - can you? I don't think he has been found by the inimitable Blogmaster Bozo.) Unearthed - a seldom seen new version of an old favorite. Tison Keel"

EDITORIAL RESPONSE: The location is Fort Negley, which was the Union Fortress on high ground to the south of Nashville (famous for defending the Battle of Nashville, the last major battle of the Civil War).

BETA PI BLOG CONTINUES TO GROW: The Tick-a-lor roster now totals 80 Beta Pi brothers, 69 of whom have e-mail addresses, and are on this Blog. If you can help, get me the e-mail address of a Tic!

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

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

FROM MATT BLANKENSHIP, June 28, 2007:
"Tison,

Great pic.  I've looked at the yearbook pic and see myself in it and
like you not only do I not know me, (quien sabe) but I don't ever
remember when or where we had the picture taken.  My eyes are open, so I
must have been awake.  A complete mystery.....

Matt Blankenship
aka Quien Sabe, thank you AT Keel"

Anonymous said...

FROM MARK McGANN, June 29, 2007:

""Staples, Miriam Elizabeth. "Post Modernism in Landscape Architecture and Naive Visionary Environments: An Inquiry into Art in the Landscape." Unpublished Master's dissertation, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Georgia at Athens, 1982."

She went water skiing with us once.  Why did you include her picture and not the pirate picture Tison sent?"

TO MARLON:  Thanks for the additional Miriam-info (boring).  The picture Tison sent is displayed (prominently, are you blind) in the Blog.  The Blog (new technology, you obviously missed) can now display an image(s), and in addition an "album" (a series of pictures up to 10, I think).  
What type of computer do you run (you @#$%^&*)?
VTL,
LORENZO SUBLIMINAL

Anonymous said...

MORE INFO FROM MARK McGANN, June 29, 2007:

"By the way, I already identified to Tison the partially obscured face mentioned as none other than Rick "Booboo" Ziska notorious schwimbag and painter of Es and their dates, although I believe Buck's directions were pretty explicit about painting just the lions."

MY RESPONSE TO MARLON:  Yes, I remember Booboo.  Ziska was one of my "homies" from Columbus, Ohio.

Anonymous said...

FROM FRANK J. BILLER, July 2, 2007:

"Ahhh- Miriam Staples.  I wish my face was her bicycle seat.  (My compliments
to Brother Chet Brewer for the loan of his immortal porch crew line).

The other immortal line forever to live in the anals (sic)-  Brother Travis
Parr-  proclaimed as Karen Degerberger walked past the Tic Mansion on
parents weekend with her Mom and Dad- "Hey Karen Degerberger, you sure gotta nice pair of...(Long pause)...Parents!"  

For those of us who witnessed the scene, poor Karen's Mother was horrified, but her Dad had to pull out all the stops to keep from breaking into a full belly laugh.  Karen was a fine young woman and as I recall, her "Pair of Parents" were quite lovely that day.

Buck

Anonymous said...

FROM T.PARR, July 12, 2007:

"Bozo-- Pass this one along. I received this today from a friend.
   T.Parr
________________________________________________________________

"Talk Like a Pirate Day" is coming up soon... & for those Ticlor's who want a head start, you probably can study this...

( or you most certainly will remember this volume from your studies at Vanderbilt as we all seem to be well-trained in our pirate expressions.)

RESPONSE TO T. PARR-rate:  Travis, this Pirate Dictionary is awesome, I'm posting it at ASrchive Issue #37.  Argggggh!

Anonymous said...

FROM T.PARR-rate, July 12, 2007:

"ARRRRRR"  in huge bold letters