The Waste I Made Of My Life.

As you all know, I toured for over a year with a "package tour" of BB King, Albert King, Bobby Bland and(from PGH,)Phylis Hyman(Hymen?). I had to be available on call to play rhythm and lead guitar for all, though I was primarily in Albert King's band. If the guitarists for the others was sick, too high or drunk, had a family emergency or whatever, I had to practice, know the material and be prepared to be guitarist for whichever performer needed me.
Between revenues from their respective recording labels, tour intake fiduciaries, royalties, memorabilia and merch etc. monies, I was paid $7000 per week(AFTER taxes) whether we performed every day or not. Just to be there I got paid. I was young, dumb and wasteful of this income and have nothing to show for it now other than my PEAVY 212 DEUCE amplifier, some records I bought, some paintings I bought and memories.
Let's say I played 365 days. Added up it comes to about $2 million 5 hundred 55 thousand dollars!
Money wasted, squandered and mis-spent.
What a terrible, sad and unforgivable waste!!!!
That is why people more famous in their own right continue to tour beyond there prime and present day abilities.

February 5th snowstorm.

You should be in Pittsburgh! We are under several feet of snow! Drifts up to 12 feet! People are dieing. Electricity and heat are off for thousands. Streets are impassible, stores, and businesses are closed. Snowed in for 7 days now since Friday February 5th. We have been declared a state of emergency. You only hear about Washington, DC!
Schools, public buildings, corporations all are closed. Snow removal teams are having a tough fight. We are having cabin fever cozz we been in our homes since Friday last. Friday and Saturday we were pummelled with snow. The temperature, meanwhile, went up and then down. Freezing the previous deep snow. Then Tuesday a second storm with over 2 feet more snow. That killed us. We are in our homes and apartments. The homeless are where? Grocery stores that have managed to be open are being emptied of basic products. State likker stores that manage to open manage to be besieged with people who otherwise" can't get out!" :)
Carbon monoxide deaths mount as people without power make contrived heat and light, causing fires. It's a mess. Yet I, so far am warm safe and secure in this "gated community" that I am staying in.
The positive things. People are snowshoeing, skiing, and roughing it through the deep snow. Children and teens are out sledding, building playful snow structures, or helping with serious shoveling. People that would never speak are helping one another. There are teams of youths going around checking houses and apartments to ascertain the well-being of the elderly and infirm. I, on the other hand have been sitting here all these days inside mostly, doing nothing. Snowed in yet my electricity or gas or water have not ceased and I am warm and have plenty enough food. A trapped yet comfortable and thankful soul; suffering privation.

Red Leather Motorcycle Jacket

So one day last spring(2009) I was riding my bike towards home down Larimer Avenue. I got to the corner of Larimer and ***** and these two people were walking. One had on a beautiful red leather motorcycle jacket with Japanese script on it. Across the back between the shoulders it said "ATLANTA" in Japanese katakana.

"Sick-assed Jacket", I said to dude, "That says ATLANTA in Japanese."
"Yea", he said, "Howdja know?"
"I can read that shit!"
"Yea, you wit' it! I'm from Atlanta; I alway had to TELL niggahz what that say! You the 1st that tol' ME!!!"
And that was it. We went our ways. Damn!!! I WANTED that fuckin' jacket!!!

Jimi Hendrix's and a few others' Guitar Techniques.

trotskyismyniece posted this on Jan 19th, 2010 at 03:01:08 pm:
"The thing that always sort of blows my mind is how much guitars just look like toys in his(Jimi Hendix's[Albert King's/Stevie Ray Vaughan's]) hands. He's always holding the neck at such a weird angle almost up near his shoulder, and his hands are just too huge." Trotskyisnyniece is speaking about Jimi Hendrix but the same is true for Vaughan and Albert King, though they all held their guitars in different playing positions.
I agree with the Hendrix hands/playing technique mystery thing. When you see footage of him playing, it's not like you see him playing the notes. His hands just make a big swathe of movement about the guitar neck. Jimi, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King all seem the same in this respect. You watch a video of them playing and no matter how closely you watch, they seem to play the most amazingly exact riffs while employing this un-definite, unclear, "broad swathe" fingering technique(like an actor "playing" guitar in a movie with fake guitar playing movement). You watch other players and you can see what they are doing visually in relation to what you are hearing. Not so with guys like Vaughan, King and Hendrix. I played with both BB and Albert King; I have sat there and WATCHED Albert CAREFULLY at rehearsals and jams. I could hear and mimic what he did, but to WATCH him, I couldn't tell what the fuck he was doing on the guitar neck!
Albert King tuned his guitar to a 6th or 11th chord(depending on mood and material), like a steel or "Hawaian" guitar.
Stevie tuned normally, albeit a half step down from "CONCERT" tuning.
Neither of those facts have any bearing on being able or NOT being able to determine by observation what they were doing as far as fingering technique.

The Button Ladies of Liberty Avenue(Pgh, PA)

I found myself in a fix today and it caused me to remember the little long, skinny shop on the north side of Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. It was either between what is now the tobacco store and Howlers or just past Howlers or ,maybe, up past Pearl St. in that block near the sweeper and hardware stores.
It was 2 older women with their shop full of spools of thread in every color and texture/source material imaginable. And BUTTONS! Jars, drawers, boxes and walls full of buttons of all types. Lost a button? They had the replacement or could order it.
What companies does one order buttons from?
I used to work on Liberty Avenue at a place called HH Sales. It is the little stand alone structure off Pearl St.. There is maybe a drive in parking space to the left(west) and a little fence to the right that leads to the back of the building. Anyway, when I worked there it was HH Sales, a fairly empty place with a few items here and there. All variety of items. Clothes, cassette decks, calenders, knick-knacks, kitch shit. The place was a front. For what, I never asked and never was told, I only worked there. There was a police sting operation one day with the attending newspaper reporters and television news crews- the next day, back to normal.
HH had another store, a little grocery, down near Baum Blvd on the corner of x and x streets(I'll remember and place the street names).
He was also into real estate. He had properties in Bloomfield. Commercial and habitable.
One time he invited us workers at his various "businesses" and other friends to a "House Burning" party and cook-out in the North Hills. He indeed burnt a furnitured property of the old late 40s to early 50s suburban style. A sturdy brown bricked, angular place with 2 chimneys. The local volunteer Fire Dept. was on hand to make sure the fire didn't spread to the neighbors' homes, telephone and electric wires or the suburban flora. Beer, soda, grilled hot dogs, bbq, macaroni and potato salads flowed Every now and then the firemen would handle the occasional troubling hot spot with a dousing. Far be it from me to say whether he got insurance money or not but HH built a nice new home there and perhaps is still suffering privation there in his dotage.
At that time I was seeing a woman that lived in Garnet Way. We used to call it Garnet Mimms' way after the soul singer. I was playing in blues bands. On good afternoons I used to sit on the steps of the church at Pearl and Liberty drinking a quart(there were no 40s yet) of Iron and smoking weed; sometimes playing my guitar. I didn't smoke cigarettes yet.
Stevie Ray Vaughan spent a night in that little place in "Garnet Mimms'" Way. That was when I 1st met him.

Black, Mods and Rockers; Pittsburgh Style 1960s

In this photo: Rockers.
In Pittsburgh there were "mods", "slicks" and "young blacks" that were different than our Negro parents. No true British style mods, nor true British style Rockers. I was a young black mod/rocker. Slicks were "norms". Mods were the 1st mass gtr generation. We began learning to play British invasion, folk, blues, top forty, country, bluegrass and r&b/burgeoning soul on our guitars. Not pop. We hung out at Lomakin's Music on Liberty Avenue downtown, Tarshis' Music on Baum blvd. in East Liberty off Highland Ave., the "listening rooms" of the various National Record Mart stores, Point State Park, and the Village Pizza on Ivy Street off Walnut in Shadyside. We began to wear leather jackets over "Carnaby" fashioned shirts. We accessorized with iron crosses, swastikas(I know),leather boots and garrison belts, wristbands of leather and steal link chain, etc. Some of us began smoking weed by late fall of 64. After I moved to Boston circa 1966, I found acid which had been slowly leaking out of Cambridge to the general mod/hipster public.

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/swastika.jpg

SWASTIKA 1: Ancient occult symbol of the sun and the four directions. Revived by Hitler, it represents racism and the "white supremacy" of neo-nazis. Like other occult symbols, it is often placed inside a "circle".


http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/swastika2.gif

SWASTIKA 2 (Crux Dissimulata): An ancient swastika which symbolized the four winds or directions and their corresponding spirits. It was also a "fire and sun symbol occurring initially in Asia and later among the Germanic tribes," according to The Herder Symbol Dictionary.[4] "The cross inscribed in a circle mediates between the square and the circle," emphasizing the "joining of heaven and earth.... and "the perfected human being."

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/symbol22.gif

SWASTIKA 3: A contemporary variation of the many swastikas with labyrinth patterns. Like the two swastikas above, its arms point counterclockwise indicating a mystical, lunar and female orientation. Compare its two intersecting lines with "Sun Sign 2, its curved arms (following the shape of the circle) with Swastika 2, and its dark areas with the "Iron Cross."

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/cros-iron.gif

CROSS (IRON or EISERNAS KREUZ): Also called Mantuan or Maltese cross. First linked to an ancient goddess temple on Malta, it was adopted as the Iron Cross in Prussia. During the First World War, it appeared on German fighter planes and tanks. Later, it became a fascist symbol in France, Portugal and other nations.

I post these in refute of the Nazi meanings of these symbols and would refer you to their TRADITIONAL meanings BEFORE they were appropriated by Nazi Germans.
In the Mods/Rockers(Early Beatles) era of the 1960s, we wore these Swastikas and Iron Crosses with leather/Carnaby Street fashions with their ORIGINAL meanings' intent; we wore them in defiance and repute of the 1930s-45 Nazi significations.

Copy and paste image URLs to see art/objects referred to.

Also reference blog entry: http://duaneridesagainblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/07/pagans-mc.html

The Time I Got Drunk In Az(circa mid-1970s)

(From a chat session)
dujones: i miss az
i used to live there in holy shit what the fuck town asu ist TEMPE
TEMPE AZ
Meriel: hahaha

i want to go there.
dujones: I was forced to b drunk and the police came and arrested this guy that was forcing me to drink. weird story....
Meriel: wtf??
dujones: I should call and see if I can get that police report
I was in this bar having a sammich and this neighbor guy came in and offeredd a drink so i said yea and he bought me a shot
then I said I gotta go to a job innervew and he said have one more
then after that he bought me another but nothing for himself then he just kept buying them and getting meaner and was I AM PAYING U BETERR FUCKIN KEEP DRINKIN OR I WILL FUCK U UP FOR WASTING MY CASH
then he started forcing them down my throat i asked the bartender to please stop and the bartender laffed at me and i was startiing to get really drunk and sick
finally i said i gotta piss and they said go ahead there is no way out back there BUT
there was a phone booth by the mens room and i dialed 911 and told them.
when the cops came he had me on the floor pouring a drink down my throat he was sitting on my stomache
The cops arrested him called more cops and they arrested the bartender and made the owner come and lock the bar till further notice
the owner was pissed cozza his loss of money so immediately fired the bartender in cuffs
they were closed for a week
meanwhile I had my bike so the police took me home instead of jail only becauese i was forced to drink.
Him and the bartender had a hearing and me and the bar OWNER were testifying against them
ever since then though I got free drinks (to a point) at the bar


Sent at 12:26 AM on Saturday
dujones: but there is more, I stupidly got on my bike and tried to make it to the job innerview and passed out in the street while trying to ride my bike someone called 911 and the original arresting officers came and got me. THIS time they put me in an unlocked cell till i slept and so.bered up then they took me home WILD Story huh?
whew!!!!!!
Meriel: sorry stepped away let me read
Sent at 12:29 AM on Saturday
Meriel: whoa duane!
what the hell was up witht aht guy?? That's insane!
dujones: It was weird I think i had alcohol poisoning a little I finally puked into dry heaves and could not eat the next day, i just lay around headachy and puking
I think he was trying to kill me with alcohol and I KNOW WHY cause it came out in court
and THAT is another amazing story to hear the REASON he did it.
1/15/10 the guy that forced me to drink's 1st name was Maurice, David new remembers now. Still working on a last name.

New Year Eve and Emily Love's Birthday Party

Photo: Erin, Erin, Emily.

I really loved meeting the Erins and others. It was such a comfortable party. Like at Joel's comfortable parties in Wilkinsburg; out back in the neighbor's yard there was even the little pond with running water making the sound of Joel's neighbor's outside space. I will always remember going out in the night to find the lost woman who had been wandering around looking for the place in high heels over the icy causeway, starting from around the SHARP EDGE(over a mile away!). But the party was waaaay down Penn Ave past 40th Street!!!! Wandering alone after 1am she was trying to find the party that was such a long, lonely, cold, uncomfortable, scary(she lives outside of PGH)walk for her. She called for help and I just happened to hear that guy trying to figure where she was calling from, but by him repeating what she said, I knew where she was and lit out and found her walking, and got her to the party! What the hell was HER name, BTW? And then I met the amazing Hilary. Oh, and that women that was standing talking on the basement stairs, who suddenly lost her angle of repose and toppled, knocking EVERYONE ELSE domino style down the stairs into the basement with a long, loud, rolling, thunderous noise that caused the whole house to go quiet! PRICELESSSSSSS!!!!!!
I hope the whole next year rolls along so riotously nicely as this party did. Cannot wait to see the pics from Erin's cam. I took the library of grabbing her cam and shooting away. She is gonna wonder who the f... took those pics, HAPPYNEWDAYOFBIRTHYEAREMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Photo pending....

Psychedelic Music and TV. 1960s

Velvet Undergrunge was anti-pschedelic, like anti-folk of the current day. They were of the time and locale of psychedelic music and were lumped in the list as such, but they were, in fact(like Thelonious Monk, of the era and locale of Be Bop but himself something unique, other, and , outside of Be Bop, a sort of anti-Be Bop)) anti-psychedelic. Their own upper, downer ridden, s&m dirty speed madness of Chelsea, the Village/Harlem, New York and the East below Boston, which was, somehow, much more San Francisco-like it seems to me.

MUSIC:

Electric Music For The Mind And Body by Country Joe & the Fish
East-West by Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Two Virgins by John Lennon & Yoko Ono
The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter by The Incredible String Band
Jeremy & The Satyrs
Sailor by Steve Miller Band
On The Goodfoot by James Brown

Beatles listened to Pet Sounds and were like, "WTF? We gotta do something!"

Post Dylan BAND heard the 1st 2 Procol Harum albums and were like, "WTF, we gotta do something"

Parliament and Funkedelic heard On The Goodfoot and were like, "WTF, we gotta do something."

Miles Davis heard Are You Experienced and On The Goodfoot and was like, "WTF, I gotta do something!"

Chuck Berry heard Muddy Waters....

Oh, yea! Sid Barret mad cap laughs is sidekedellic..

The Fugs' 2nd album, not the boobs a lot album. The 1st was still too post beat, pre psyche. The 2nd album was/is pure psychedelic.

DYLAN
Following the acoustic neo-folk pre electric proto-psychedelic in lyric and atmosphere(pot smoking-like) ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN, Bob went full tilt electric, folk-rock, rock blues electric with not one but THREE psychedelic standards! Each more heavily psyche than the last.
Bringing It All Back Home
Highway 61 Revisited and
Blonde On Blonde

(Think of these Dylan albums as kin and precedeing to Beatles' and Stones developements after the fact of the Dylan albums: Rubber Soul[pot smoking, pre-psychedelic], Revolver[early psychedelic] Sgt. Pepper[full blown psychedelic] and on behalf of the Rolling Stones, Metamorphises, Flowers[even though a makeshift album, it is of the period] and Their Satanic Majesty's Request.)

If you doubt me, forget the music on these 3 Dylan discs and just go along with the poetry/lyrics/feeling&dealingsand such. They are the shit! Dylan went electric in 1966, jumping full blown into the psychedelic sheee bang!
By the time the Beatles went "full blown" with Sgt Pepper, Dylan went anti-psyche with New Morning. A new realism streak in Dylan narative style.

Dylan's NEW MORNING, followed by NASHVILLE SKYLINE
led the Grateful Dead to WORKINGMAN'S DEAD, instead of beyond Aoxomoxia as intended. Then, AMERICAN BEAUTY.

I will be surprised that no one questions my inclusion of James Brown's "Get on The Goodfoot" album.

(Black Psychedelic)
Also see: http://hem.bredband.net/funkyflyy/barkays/b_rock.html

Black Merda(rare album)

The sophisticated psychedelia of the Motown JUST MY IMAGINATION album, fuck! The Temps?

Stevie Wonder, TALKING BOOK and the following album.

That one Marvin Gaye album.

Early Sly.

Late period Chambers Brothers.

Mid-period Bobby Womack

RICKY NELSON, after becoming RICK NELSON had a psychedelic album. It was, alas, too much for his hardcore base of 1950s fans to bear(?)and too much off the radar of fans now turned on to Motown, raw soul, top 40 pop, British Invasion, post folk, folk rock, jazz psych blues rock mix, of the day, that had turned away from the squeeky clean "Ricky Nelson" style of pop, to care that Ricky Nelson, too had "tuned in, turned on and dropped out"! You MUST check him out from the early 1950s THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE & HARRIET tv episodes to his lone psychedelic outings of the late 1960s.
I can only picture you loving it!

Though a psychedelic album, I consider the Moody Blues' "Days of Future Past" a mostly worst of the 60s album.


Psychedelic lifestyle and music began earlier than most are led to believe. The Hullabaloos had way longer hair than the Beatles or Stones or ANYONE at the time on the TV rock show HULLABALOO. (Tiny Tim had long hair in the late 1950s.)
Before Pet Sounds, Rubber Soul, etc., there were ever more psychedelic singles percolating up from the pop of the mid sixties. THE SEEDS, SAM THE SHAM, BLUES MAGOOS, SKY SAXON, the PSYCHOTIC REACTION dudes and countless other garage/early psyche bands.
We knew things and music were changing and getting weird and there were these early garage/psych bands getting weird with pop music and DYLAN at a sorta forefront and you wondred if the Stones and the Beatles were gonna fall behind.
But NOOOO. Along came the blurryeyed outta focus stoned Dylan BLONDE ON BLONDE cover pic haircurlsflowing and the Beatles WERE getting weird, too! Just look at their now longer hair and lack of suits in the cover pics of RUBBER SOUL and the songs' content and chordal structures are changing and yes the Beatles, followed by the Stones, were getting weird as well!!!
You cannot imagine how exciting this all felt at the time!
BETWEEN THE BUTTONS pretty much follows the album right before and into RUBBER SOUL. The Stones pretty much, as long as the Beatles were active, followed whatever the Beatles did.
How about the fact that the Beatles made a pretty much acoustic rock album years before(Dylan's) NEW MORNING and others, when George and John ditched there electrics for those fat-assed acoustic guitars just as Dylan went electric? What the fuck Beatle album was that? Beatles '65 or some shit? I'm gettin' old.

Can't be Beatles '65 coz Dylan went 'lectric in '66. Or maybe they {Beatles}went acoustic as/so Dylan went 'lectric.
Actually Dylan hinted at an electric persona with CORINA, CORINA on one of his last acoustic albums.

The established bands (US & Europe[Stones/Beatles]) in the case of psychedelia were followers media wise. Like I stated, tons of bands were making burgeoning to full blown psychedelia singles and a few albums. The Beach Boys, being from California got a slight edge on the Beatles, concerning the psychedelia thing. The San Francisco and surrounding area bands were digging the long jazz/rock solos by Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield , Mark Naftolin and Elvin Bishop on the EAST-WEST album. When the Paul Butterfield Blues Band played San Francisco, the Dead, Moby Grape, the Airplane and others dug their(Butterfield's) long solos building to a crescendo and breaking back down and soon began to follow suit!

That is to say a portion of the San Francisco Sound came from Chicago and, through the BLUES PROJECT, NAZZ, BARY & THE REMAINS, LOTHAR & THE HAND PEOPLE, THE FUGS, THE GODZ, JIM KWESKIN JUG BAND, THE HOLY MODAL ROUNDERS, a small degree from NY and New England.

Buffalo Springfield
Jazzy/folk/electric Donovan (the classic trio: SUNSHINE SUPERMAN/MELLOW YELLOW/FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN)
Incredible String Band: Wee Tam and The Big Huge
Eric Anderson
Sun Ra
Tim Hardon
Tom Rush
Leonda
Sandy Denny
The Charlatans
Jimmie James & The Flames
The Left Bank
The single, CLOUD NINE
The single WHY CAN'T WE LIVE TOGETHER? by Timmy Thomas
ALONG CAME MARY
That Bob Lind song
(The Meters
The Bar Kays
Booker G
The Magnificent Men
The Kingsmen...think about it! Helped lead to psychedelia)
Paperback Writer/Rain
Escape-Ism(song) by James Brown
Funky Side Of Town(Goodfoot album) by James Brown
Ants in My Pants by James Brown( early use of synth)
Julian Bream, I almost forgot!
United States of America album
Silver Apples
1st 4 Firesign Theatre albums
13th Floor Elevators
Freak Out
Absolutely Free
Captain beefheart
The West Cost Pop Art Experimental Band
The Electric Exploding Plastic Inevitable(kinetic happening)
War
Loading Zone
Jules Driscole W/ Brian Auger
Brian Auger Express
Lee Micheals
Mothers of Invention(anti-psychedelic)

Mother Earth W/ that wonderful female vocalist, a rival to both Janis and Grace Slick


WEST COAST POP ART EXPERIMENTAL BAND a second rate, SF style(WEST COAST), psyche band with one good album(pictured above in a thread).
ANDY WARHOL'S POP ART EXPLODING PLASTIC INEVITABLE, a multimedia(EAST COAST) "happening" w/ film, actors in audience infiltraters, projected light show, s&m acts and looped film projections, live band: VELVET UNDERGROUND, Nico gallavanting about "vamping" the crowd and singing with the VELVET UNDERGROUND. This all in Boston at the Institute For Contempary Art, 1966? It was summer and as a part of the "happening" they heated the room! Warhol produced a TV show that Nico hosted on PBS called POP ART THEATER. The VelVeTs would sometimes play a tune.
It was on every Saturday afternoon in Boston. Pittsburgh(Channel 13 WPGH) chose not to carry it.

Andy Warhol's POP ART THEATER on PBS was a mix of post war 1940s through early 1960s SATURDAY AFTERNOON THEATER MATINEE type entertainment mixed with a Friday/Saturday night(11/11:30/12pm, maybe 1am depending on what part of the U.S..) horror picture style host. Nico would present a few cartoons, a news reel and a nature, public interest, or geographic short or all of the above, followed by a grade B or C Hollywood release from the silent years up till, like, 1960. Nico presented and spoke about the films and sometimes, at the end, would do a song with the VeLveT Underground or John Cale or Reed.

About POP ART THEATER. This was the mid-1960s. There was no retro TV programing, yet. No "oldies"nostalgia shows. Warhol was on the cutting edge on PBS, which, at the time, only reluctantly carried the program in select markets/cities due to Warhol's imminence at the time!!!!

A Wild Behaviored Woman That I Recently Met

The following is an account of a scamming woman I met through my nephew, and youngest brother. It text is from an internet online discussion board. She has since burned her kitchen out, the stove falling through the floor to the basement, she had her oldest children assist her in putting out the fire using long garden hoses, "why didn't you call the fire Dept or 911?", I asked her, later. " I didn't want them simple bitches sennnin' no fuckin' whities to my house!", she replied. Anyway, my adventure with Dark Princess with comments by others on the messsage/discussion board:

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:56:03 pm

I typed this really fast in a chat with someone so it is a bit jumpy bit here's the deal: Crazy time yesterday. A crazy woman I met recently story: I met an interesting young woman in Larimer(a Pittsburgh neighborhood) a week or so ago. I already saw her beat the fuck outta some big dude, then yesterday was with her and the dude she beat up; she ran scams on McD's and Home Depot, ran red lights, nearly killing us, etc. I would not help but she goes in the Home Depot and came out with a few hundred $ worth of goods she somehow got from them, waits 20 minutes then has someone else return the goods and they split the cash they were given back, but how did she get the goods and a sales slip in the 1st place? She wouldn't explain coz I would not help. She grabbed 3 or 4 things around 60- 80 bucks each. She just called (which prompted me to make this thread)and she's trying to guilt me into going to Home depot with her today, saying she needs food money for her kids(7 and she's YOUNG!). She hung up coz I said i wd rather get her some food with food stamps. If her kidz are truly hungry, i just know she spent that money on drugs. Her one kid walks around the house on downers with a machete in his hand. She's intriguing in a way She keeps sayin her scam ain't illegal. anyway we went through McD drive thru and she has these receipts and complains about they fucked up this order and somehow got them to give her 13 burgers and fries which she fed her kids with, amazing! How can she get away doing this shit daily? Anyway, I think she is lying about her kids need food, and just wants me to run the Home De scam with her for drug money, I refused. She got mad and hung up. I've only seen her smoke weed but she is pretty hopped up before that even on something or other and drives dangerously. She HATES white people. I was in the Trader Joes parking lot holding her pitt bull and some lady pet it; she came over and screamed at me to NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo. Then, when she was doing the McDonalds thing she asked thru the intercom if the girl was white coz, "I don't wanna white bitch taking my order." She's one of those peops that if u try to b real friends with u will only ever b her hostage and victim. I always feel sorry for and fall for people like her, not romantically, but sympathy wise. I bet if u followed her around for a month u cd write a book.

Eve of Destruction posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:57:11 pm

aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

alecisalec posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:57:31 pm

duane

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:57:47 pm

She calls herself Dark Princess.

NIMH posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:59:13 pm

duannydaddy

carrier posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:59:25 pm

sounds like she sucks

Eve of Destruction posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 02:59:37 pm

NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo. if i had a nickel for every time i said this!

carrier posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:00:15 pm

jus goin by the ol' "IF U HATE WHITES THEN I HATE U" rule

phantasm posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:00:17 pm

She sounds like a very nice person- a real keeper.

rachel c posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:01:23 pm

the home depot scan might be the old reliable find a receipt someone dropped in the parking lot, go get the stuff on the receipt and return it scam. but you would return it right away (not leave the store with the stuff) so maybe not.

Jethro posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:01:28 pm

Her one kid walks around the house on downers with a machete in his hand. She's intriguing in a way Duane rides again.

españa posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:01:52 pm

if only someone would make a thread like this about me someday

levitate posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:02:31 pm

She's able to pull off the McDonald's scam because nobody feels like dealing with her for minimum wage. "What can I give you to make you go away?"

españa posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:02:54 pm

duane, don't make a thread about me

levitate posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:03:55 pm

If she really does have kids, someone should probably get them to a safe location.

Jethro posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:04:06 pm

i was thinking that there must be a cashier in on the Home Depot scam

esus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:05:25 pm

levitate posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:02:31 pm She's able to pull off the McDonald's scam because nobody feels like dealing with her for minimum wage. "What can I give you to make you go away?" Actually, you could probably do this at just about any restaurant and get away with it (even a fancy one) for the same reasons. However, waking up every morning and looking at yourself in the eye might become difficult.

123faw posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:05:56 pm

do you think she would be my friend on facebook?

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:06:29 pm

Meeting her plus what I am about to paste here from another thread and I've had a bang up few days: This Patrick dude that played bass for us tonight is a good player but he is always hyped on some shit or other, so it makes me nervous. I have had only 3 meetings with him and he's a nice guy, a good player but fuckin' rockin' on some shit and talking all in your face constantly with bugged out eyes, and sweaty PLUS, sadly, I learned he has ADD, which isn't helped by his getting so hyped, but, I'm glad to have a bass player that plays nice. What to do?

gethexadecimal posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:06:37 pm

Duane "rides" again

rachel c posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:07:11 pm

my brother worked at mcdonalds and if someone walked in and said they just ordered from the drive thru and something was left out of their order they were told to just give it to them, no questions asked. so that would be an easy scam. i can't see in duane's post what the mcdonalds scam was though.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:12:04 pm

Maybe, I'll drag her to my gig at Morning Glory on Monday... that way I'll never be invited back if I don't like it there! Sounds like a plan, huh? I'll go in with my gtr and tell her to wait in the car, if the scene don't look good I'll invite her in, she'll see the whities and go ballistic, gig will not ensue!

Malificent posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:20:29 pm

I want to follow her on Twitter.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:22:26 pm

She goes through the drive thru with a receipt and says they fucked her order up and her kids are hungry and beligeratly makes demands for food and they give it to her. I'd call that a scam.

EASTRIDGE posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:23:01 pm

whites v. blacks

rachel c posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:23:11 pm

ah yeah. that is a scam, and one that will invariably work. i don't think she even needs a receipt.

rachel c posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:23:40 pm

or belligerence.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:26:47 pm

sorry, i just tried to post whatever is at the link j&t provided and, yes, J&T, i am gonna blog this story as soon as I get a pic of this woman, actually she is quite fetching. Too bad.

lynn posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:28:28 pm

so, if i can just step into my debbie downer shoes... is it now cool to scam people and businesses? and if so, where do you draw the line?

NIMH posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:28:50 pm

dueane, i have to ask: DID YOU TAG THAT SHIT OR WHAT?

Rob Henry posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:29:01 pm

not cool.just pathetic...

joel posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:29:30 pm

you missed the CrimeThinc boat, lynn LEFT HAND THAT SHIT

jesus&tequila posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:29:57 pm

here duane:

Rob Henry posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:30:17 pm

i wasnt speakin to nimh....

123faw posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:31:14 pm

holy shit. great photo.

phantasm posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:33:25 pm

Nice photo- There's the awning for a place where i worked for 10+ years.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:37:04 pm

Oh, that one! Thanks. I used to be kinda cute!

joe-melba posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:38:54 pm

She HATES white people. I was in the Trader Joes parking lot holding her pitt bull and some lady pet it; she came over and screamed at me to NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo. this is my favorite part

NIMH posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:39:58 pm

answer me

esus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:40:31 pm

she came over and screamed at me to NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo. She's got her mojo workin', but it just won't work on white people.

123faw posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:41:02 pm

Duaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduaneduane

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:45:47 pm

NIMH, she's asked to come over but I am afraid to let her see where I live and my pc, and gtrs and shit coz i am SURE she wd get some of her buddies to burgle my house. I'd go to her house but her 17 yr old is on drugs and walks around the house with a machete constantly in his hand. I saw that annd will never go inside again! Maybe sometime in her car? She is good looking and has made it clear I could have at it, if u know what I mean. Afraid I'd have to wear three layers of "hoodies"; can u say STD?

matt posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:45:55 pm

marry this woman, Duane.

beavis77 posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:46:28 pm

invite her over your house and pop some black on blonde porn. she we have cerebral damage and never bother you again

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:47:37 pm

esus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:40:31 pm she came over and screamed at me to NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo. She's got her mojo workin', but it just won't work on white people.

matt posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:48:47 pm

Her one kid walks around the house on downers with a machete in his hand. She's intriguing in a way

123faw posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:49:44 pm

post her credit card numbers

gethexadecimal posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:50:40 pm

It would get hot trying to get jiggy with it wearing three hoodies at once!

Financial Panther posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:13:13 pm

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:45:47 pm i am SURE she wd get some of her buddies to burgle my house BURGLE- HI-larious!

well out of order posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:16:57 pm

The Duane version of the hipster-grifter story is sad and depressing.

bread and circus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:19:09 pm

and why would anybody doubt the veracity of anything duane says? it's too good to be BS.

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:30:11 pm

I have to let my cat in BRB

NIMH posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:37:43 pm

come hang out at my new bar, SITUATION'S

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:38:40 pm

this is the deal. Duane, if you hang out with this lady I can see you helping her get to rehab and getting her shit together. you'll end up getting hurt because as soon as she sobers up she will associate you with her past life and dump you. I dunno duane, you've had women like this in your past. write a story that's a composite of all their most interesting traits and sell it.

NIMH posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:44:25 pm

let me borrow all your expensive stuff if you wish to entertain her in your home

123faw posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:46:22 pm

Duane, if you have her over, Mark will shit himself.

gethexadecimal posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:50:29 pm

So why are you spending/wasting your time with this person again?

Eve of Destruction posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 06:00:38 pm

66,6 people active.

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 06:43:19 pm

gethexadecimal posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:50:29 pm So why are you spending/wasting your time with this person again? if you are asking this question you do not know duane!

Odette posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:23:17 pm

Duane, take her to Marshall's house. She'll fit right in!

Odette posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:29:07 pm

"...saw her beat the fuck outta some big dude, then yesterday was with her and the dude she beat up; she ran scams on McD's and Home Depot, ran red lights, nearly killing us, etc." "She HATES white people. I was in the Trader Joes parking lot holding her pitt bull and some lady pet it; she came over and screamed at me to NEVER let some dumb white fuckers touch her belongings because it will give them bad mojo." Also: "She is good looking and has made it clear I could have at it, if u know what I mean." Well. Wow, that's SOME priorities.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:37:38 pm

bread and circus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:19:09 pm and why would anybody doubt the veracity of anything duane says? it's too good to be BS. breads and circus, this is not bS, stuff like this happens to me all the time(see happyneck 's posts in this thread). I know my stories seem incredible but they happened, some I have photo proof of, others u gotta pump people that have known me for a long time, but I have very little need of lieing coz my life is adventure upon adventure, sometimes I get dates, names and places wrong due to memory drops, but the stories are true. As happyneck says above I have gotten women like this to go to rehab.

well out of order posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:42:35 pm

I think what Chris b&c is saying is that you can't make this up, it's just too crazy to be fiction

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:43:38 pm

OK, I recall a lady who throw up on the griddle or what's it called at some restaurant and her vomit sizzled just like an omelet,is that one of your stories duane?

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:54:06 pm

That sounds like that Debbie woman I took to rehab for xmas one year, I do not recall that particular incident but she was full of things like that, if it was her it was at Nicos Gyros that was near Larry & Carol's Pizza. She was REALLY drunk and would only whisper in my ear. They asked me to take her outta the place and she went behind the counter and turned all the soda fountain shit on, threw raw eggs all over the place, poured out their syrup on the floor counter and seats, etc. And yes she came outta rehab, got her child back, got a good job and never spoke to me again, 'cept I hear how she is doing through a mutual friend. We were making love one night, she was on top and she went to kiss me and threw up into my mouth. THAT was a fun night! I think that may have been her. Her parents owned classic Chevrolet and the old Classic Lounge in Bloomfield(now, the Asian restaurant near Shure Save).

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 08:11:27 pm

vomit is just another bodily fluid

bread and circus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 08:13:49 pm

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 07:37:38 pm bread and circus posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 05:19:09 pm and why would anybody doubt the veracity of anything duane says? it's too good to be BS. breads and circus, this is not bS, stuff like this happens to me all the time(see happyneck 's posts in this thread). I know my stories seem incredible but they happened, some I have photo proof of, others u gotta pump people that have known me for a long time, but I have very little need of lieing coz my life is adventure upon adventure, sometimes I get dates, names and places wrong due to memory drops, but the stories are true. As happyneck says above I have gotten women like this to go to rehab. i'm not the one out there who's doubting you, mr. jones. there are others o u t t h e r e.

iratejones posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:28:05 pm

not my problem.

happyneck posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:48:53 pm

he is 2 years younger than he sez he is

Eve of Destruction posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:52:13 pm

and her vomit sizzled just like an omelet,

.. posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 09:58:42 pm

"wild scamming woman" I'm sure there are men out there that refer to all or most women like this.

drazil posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 11:54:25 pm

Whoa, for a minute I thought you meant the Classic Chevrolet in Bellvue. I know the owners there.

samm posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 12:04:39 am

lynn posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:28:28 pm so, if i can just step into my debbie downer shoes... is it now cool to scam people and businesses? and if so, where do you draw the line? --------

iratejones posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 12:37:35 am

drazil posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 11:54:25 pm Whoa, for a minute I thought you meant the Classic Chevrolet in Bellvue. I know the owners there. drazil: likely the same family.

iratejones posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:33:33 pm

Jethro posted this on Sep 29th, 2009 at 03:04:06 pm i was thinking that there must be a cashier in on the Home Depot scam Yea, Jethro, I keep trying to figger this out. She has to know some cashier that gives her the shit at a huge discount, but somehow the receipt is the full price. Otherwise it wouldn't be worth it. Now me, I wouldn"t mind stealing this belt she wears with a cool assed huge, blingey, gold, zircon or cut glass encrusted skull.

well out of order posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:36:29 pm

I wouldn't touch that belt. Like Pootie Tang that belt is where Wild Scamming Woman keeps her mojo

bacon bra posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:44:28 pm

heheheheheheh. oh my.

gleaner posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:49:21 pm

what will this wild, scamming woman do next?

iratejones posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 04:49:48 pm

Aaahaha!

trotskyismyniece posted this on Sep 30th, 2009 at 07:26:14 pm

get her to post on the board

username:
password:
message:

U ever try to call Google?

yea whaddup wit dat shit, u ever try to call Google? I did to find out why I ain't got my Wave, yo. The operator gimme dis #: 1 866 246 6453, so i call the #, and it is their advertising wing, like if u wanna place adds through/on Google.

so i call back to directory assistance and I say, I just asked for Googles # and the # I was provided with just hooks u up with their advert thing; I need their main # or Customer service, please. So the woman asks me where are they located? I asked can't you just look it up by name? It's GOOGLE for heaven's sake.

She says that I have to tell her an address, city, or state. So I say , I dunno, Silicon alley? She snaps, "THERE IS NO SUCH PLACE AS SILICON VALLEY, SIR!" i says, to her, I says, "isn't it in California? Or Washington State somewhere?" She repeats it don't exist so i sez to 'er, "You know the place where they develope software and stuff isn't it called Silicon Valley!" "I understand silicon Valley, sir but it is like Hollywood there is really no such physical place."

What's with this where are they located shit? Some things you ask for the # of and they just tell you coz it is such a big name. "Main # for AT&T, Please?" "Yes, sir! That's 1 800 whatever."

So I was all like maybe it's in Redwood, ain't that where Microsoft is?" And she was, like, there's no Google listed in Redwood." An' I got all frustrated and said, "Fuck You!", and hung up and turned to the PC and was all, like, lookin' at the main Google search page but there was no thing to contact em so I went and typed in the take you there space at the top of the browser page and typed, www.google.com/support so it goes there and I look and look and there're links for help with all these problems but not mine(Trouble receiving invite for Google Wave) so I scrolls to the bottom of the page and look for "Contact us", so I click on that and it takes me to a thing that says go to www.google.com/support so I was all like fuck you, again! Damn, U ever try to call Google? Don't; they'll jam you up, folks! You don't wanna get jammed up do you?

The current state of the season.

I was just outside. 6:22am. The wind is SSSSHHHHIIIINg the leaves of the trees. The thinner trunk'd trees and young trees bend slightly; the more substantial sway. Others, close together, limb agaisnt limb, bark to bark, squeal and squeak! It's chilly, and HAS been, lately(though yesterday, 10/06/2009, was a windy, balmy warmth of a day). This past summer was, in Pittsburgh, a for the most part, temperate, at times moist, comfortable season; it followed a winter of intermittent moist, dry, then moist again, slightly warm days, considering it WAS winter; days with few truly harsh temperatures. Again, the past summer was mild following a mild winter. Now, this forward fall weather! I fear we are in for an early and ultimately fierce winter, my city; fierce and long lasting into what should be spring! Pray that I be wrong!

Yellow Cab

For a long time I primarily drove cab while performing when time was available. I will add cab stories here as I remember one or more from time to time. It was through driving a taxi that I began my unlikely alliance with the Sugartop faction of Pittsburgh's Bloods gang.

Jumped Into The Bloods

When I began my year long stint of hanging with Pittsburgh's "Sugartop" faction of the Bloods, back in the day, Too Low emptied his gun and put it to my head and clicked, spun, clicked, spun, clicked. I got really mad and told him I didn't think it was funny. He opened the magazine(?); and showed me. He didn't empty it... there were 2 bullets in there spaced apart!!!!!! True story. I coulda beat the FUCK outta that kid!! He's in jail now for armed robbery of a firearms store. I told the dudes I didn't want them to beat the fuck outta me to "jump me into the gang" so that was the alternative they came up with.

Yamaha Guitar Amp

I used to tour with, primarily, Albert King( a tour which often included quadruple bills of BB King, Bobby Bland, Albert King, and Phylis Hymen). Before I got my Peavy 212, I played through a Yamaha 212. One day it burned out. We were in someplace or other in a hotel on a highway. I made calls to the Yamaha 1 800 number and gave them the seriel # of my amp. They gave me an address and told me to take it there to be serviced. We got to the road and found the joint. It was a Yamaha motorcycle and snowmobile dealership!

Bartok's VIOLIN CONCERTO #1. Yehudi Menuhin: violin

In this photo: Jerome Schuerger.

Way back in 1963, I pretty much hated classical music. The Schuergers(people I
babysat for) played a lotta classical albums that I pretty much closed my ears to.
One eventful day their friends Bill Cole and John Cage(yes,THE John Cage) came over to their apt to visit
as they often did. "Play Yehudi for me!", Cage, slightly drunk, said on this occasion. Jerry Schuerger sought out
the album and, seeing the cover; a guy with a violin, orchestra behind, I sighed, "Please noooo!" to myself.
The disc was put on the turntable, the needle dropped and SURPRISE! I LOVED what I heard. I
disbelieved my own prejudice! I snatched up the cover and read, "Bartok Violin Concerto no.1/
Yehudi Menuhin: violin/ Antol Durati: conductor"!!!! I sat and listened!
It ended and Mr. Cage went over and began to flip the album to play side 2, "No, no, Jerry, please
play that again! The same side. Tell John to play it again!", I demanded. Well, knowing me , they were both at a
loss for words. They repeated the recording, and I was given much teasing for being a softy and all.
Jerry celebrated this awakening in me by (after calling my mom!) letting me have a small glass of wine.
It was summer. Christmas and New Year came and went and my bday rolled around. Jerry and Judy Schuerger
and Mr. Cage jointly gave me the Bartok I so loved; plus an album of the modernist Schoenberg,
and Stravinsky's RITES OF SPRING, both of which I had also come to appreciate.

Mad Men

Saw this last night(Monday, August 25th) for the 1st time and spotted an anachronism. The married guy who just took in his friend's? Brother in law's? father was, earlier in the episode, in some older? guy's office. behind the seated guy on the bookshelf is a box set of The Oxford English Dictionary and a supplement which condenses all 20 something volumes into 2 and adds a later supplement for the total of 3 volumes. This was achieved by putting each page on microfilm then printing the entire 20 volumes in 2 volumes; 4 pages to each page. It must be read with a magnifying glass. I bought the very same edition of the OED they had on that shelf, it was published in the late 70s or early 80s.
I enjoyed the show but do not know the characters or what's going on, yet.

My Neighborhood

There I am on the front stairs of my maternal grandparents' house at 5897 Ellsworth Avenue with a bowl in my mouth; some things never change!

The part of Pittsburgh that I grew up in is called Shadyside. My family had four houses near the top of Ellsworth Ave., near the junction of Ravenna St., Spahr Street and Ellsworth. I lived at 5893 Ellsworth Ave.. To the east stretched the body of the city, to the west was the area of the city that tapers off to the downtown business area, the "Golden Triangle", and the confluence of the Monongahela, and the Allegheny rivers into the beginning of the Ohio river; the "gateway to the west".
Our block of Ellsworth Ave. began at Spahr St. to the east was the Ellsworth Ave. bridge into East Liberty and the central interior of the city; to the west our block ended in College Ave. heading towards "downtown". One block north of Ellsworth ave. off College Ave. was Pierce street which ended there and began two blocks west at Sumerlea Street. The eastern block of Pierce was white and the western block black in the 1950s. In the 60s it was more mixed with the east block becoming more black and the west block became mostly dismantled and after 2000, slightly gentrified.
One can probably visit some website and access a street map of the Shadyside district of Pittsburgh, PA and follow along with the reminences that i will be blogging here concerning my youth spent mostly between the Shadyside and Homewood neighborhoods.
This part of Ellsworth Ave. was best to grow up on; East Liberty was one block across the Ellsworth Ave Bridge. A four lane railroad track ran directly behind my house. Bell Telephone had a facility on the southeast corner of Ellsworth and Spahr street. Their yard had larger than life cable spools we could climb over and through. We had the smell of the Sunshine Bakery(factory size) a block away east across the Ellsworth Ave. bridge and 1/2 block off Highland Ave.; half of a mile beyond that, the huge Nabisco Baking Company bakery socking out Saltines & Fig Newtons!
At the east end of our side of Ellsworth Ave.(the north side of the street)sat the last building before the footbridge to Centre Ave., and the Ellsworth Ave. Bridge to East Liberty, which was Kate Grecco's tiny grocery. Across from her on the southwest corner of Ellsworth and Spahr was Henry's Pie Shoppe. A short block south down Spahr on the corner was a tiny Mr. Softie(a fleet of neighborhood touring ice cream trucks) garage.
On the southwest corner of Ellsworth and College Aves. was a 7UP plant, and just across the railroad tracks to the north of Ellsworth Ave. was a large Coca-Cola bottleing plant. We kids took full advantage of these places into our 'tweens.
In the 1950s as now, Shadyside was a mix of families and college and university students due to it's proximity to the Oakland section to the west towards town, and Chatham Women's College was at across the street from where College Ave. intersected with 5th Ave.; this meant that when I was a child Ellsworth Ave. to the west between Spahr and Sumerlea Ave. were families, and hipster beatnic students, coffeehouses and art galleries, drugstores, bars, small mom & pop groceries, a Krogers and such.
So we had this, to me, wonderful mix of white, black, jewish, working, middle, and lower class, and hipster artists poets and musicians in our immediate vicinity.
I can remember that between 1955 and 59 my older cousins and their peers, white and black, used to stand on the footbridge to Centre Ave, or sometimes right in front of Kate's Grocery and harmonize early doo wop and r&b, I remember wishing I was older so I could sing with them.
There were these two black hipsters that would sometimes play bass & conga on the corner of College and Ellsworth Aves. outside the coffeehouse. I think the bass players name was Bat. He was an artist as well, a painter and sculptor, I think.

Things I miss: The mailman used to come twice a day; morning then late afternoon deliveries. The coffee men in there trucks with fresh hot coffee, cold and hot chocolate, and bags of fresh beans for purchase. The milkmen in their trucks. On horsedrawn carts, the junkmen. These guys would comb the alleys and pick through the shit you threw outback. They had notebooks and would jot down the larger items, then come back later with a helper or 2 to pick up the big shit. They would let you ride on the carts and sometimes on the horse's back. The vegetable man, also with a horsedrawn cart. Ours was this old Italian guy. He had a beautiful white stallion. He would come down Ellsworth Avenue crying his wares and bargains. Once a week he would yell/sing, "Everything today!" "Can I get a bunch of Scallions?" "No! Scallions tomorrow. EVERYTHING TODAY!" Mr. Softie had a garage on Spahr St.. In late afternoon they would return in there trucks and give us kids leftover ice cream treats. Coca Cola bottleing was on Centre Ave near Negley, 7up was on College and Ell sworth. At both, on Saturday afternoons in the summer would have a case of cold sodas sitting near the loading dock and would let each kid "steal" a bottle and then a guy would "chase" us somehow never being able to catch us. Fishing in Panther Hollow. The old Shadyside Boys Club in that house on Ellsworth Avenue across from Liberty School. This old cab driver named Bert who on Saturdays would gather a bunch of us kids and take us ALL to a Saturday Matineeat one of the theatres in East Liberty. The Theatres were the Roosevelt, Sheraden Square, Regent, Liberty, and the Cameraphone. Sawdust on the floors of the grocery stores, meat markets and bars. You could spit on the sawdust if you felt the need. If you went in a bar with your folks you had to generally sit in the women's section because there was a latrine at the foot of the bar where a rail is now and guys would stand up next to their stool, whip out their dick and piss, never leaving the bar. Some bars even had a separate LADIES entrance. If anyone puked it would hit the sawdust and that bit of sawdust would be swept up and tossed out. By sawdust I mean a mixture of sawdust and hay. All food markets and bars had a thick layer of this on the floor. I miss the old trolly to Kennywood Amusement Park from East Liberty through Squirrel Hill. I miss being able to keep your seat on a ride at Kenneywood and riding more than once if you had the right ticket.(50 cents) Pony rides on Walnut St.. O, yea. The egg man and HIS horse drawn cart. Being able to keep chickens, ducks, geese pigs, and goats in your back yard. All of the guys with horses would let you ride. At the bars you could buy a whole bottle of whiskey or wine and not have to buy it shot by shot! The diaper men and laundry trucks! In the 1950s there were several beatnik coffeehouses and a couple art galleries on Ellsworth Avenue. On the NE corner of Ellsworth and College was the FAT BLACK PUSSYCAT coffee house. They screened silent flix, had poetry readings and such. In the summer there were these 3 guys, a bass, bongos and sax who would stand out front and play jazz. At the top of Ellsworth by Spahr St. there was a bridge to East Liberty( it's gone now) teenagers would hang out there and sing early rock and doo wop. On the NW corner of Spahr and Ellsworth was HENRY'S PIE SHOPPE. Man they would make the street smell sweet, their pie baking smells would mix with the smells of the old Nabisco Bakery and Sunshine Bakery on Stevenson street behind where Kelly's is. Up on Shady Ave where the entrance to the GIANT EAGLE lot is was a place called the Penn-Shady Ballroom. They had great R&B, early rock and jazz shows. James Brown before his funk days! Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, etc. A lot of these shows were put on by PORKY CHEDWICK. Or KQV and KDKA. The kids would DANCE at these shows. No seats. There were also rock shows and circus events at the HUNT ARMORY on Emerson off of Walnut St. They would put the tanks and trucks outside on the street to acomodate the audiences.Back to the 1950s. Up on Shady Ave. where the entrance to the GIANT EAGLE lot is was a place called the Penn-Shady Ballroom. They had great R&B, early rock and jazz shows. James Brown before his funk days! Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, etc. A lot of these shows were put on by PORKY CHEDWICK. Or KQV and KDKA. The kids would DANCE at these shows. No seats. There were also rock shows and circus events at the HUNT ARMORY on Emerson off of Walnut St. They would put the tanks and trucks outside on the street to accomodate the audiences. Coal trucks, delivering coal to the basement coal bin through a special little door. Most Pgh homes had coal burning furnaces.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

tommy amoeba posted this on Jun 07th, 2009 at 11:40:05 am
I just realized that:
Stevie Ray Vaughn = Stevie Rave On

I'm surprised that I didn't see this until now.
I'm sure it's a coincidence but seeing how both
Stevie and Buddy Holly are quintessential
Texas icons, it's quite some coincidence...

Fat Ritsi posted this on Jun 07th, 2009 at 11:40:59 am
neither held altitude very well, either.

but their posthumous careers have soared.

iratejones posted this on Jun 07th, 2009 at 11:53:31 am
Took u long enough. Before he was famous and was playing the club circuit he did a lotta VERY heavy drinking and LOTTSA coke, caring little for his health or hygiene. As you probably already know he and his brother Jimmy were close friends of mine. Anyway in the period I speak of, because of his condition, we called him Stinky Ray Vaughan. In moments when he played a particularly shred-full gtr solo we would urge him with, "Rave on Stinky"!
He was in on the joke.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's laminated news article

Stevie Ray Vaughan used to have this laminated article from a Texas newspaper reporting that a black man had been shot while walking through a white neighborhood, one day he pulled it out and said, "Hey Irate, read this!" I read it then asked if he knew the victim, "No." The shooter? "No." Then why do u save this artiicle? "Read it again!" I did but was still baffled, what's the point, "It says the POlice is investigating!"