NaderChaser's Blog

Well, I just had to tell you all about Howard Johnson's Hotel up off Tiffany Springs rd & I-29.  Used to be Ramada Inn a while back ago.  See on Friday and Sunday nights, Dee comes to do karaoke.  There is a small handfull of regulars, some quite funny to hear, but everyone has a real grand time.  Fridays they start bout 7ish, but on Sundays they start at 6pm.  There is never alot of people there, so you can sing till yourhearts content!  I usually like to try out new songs that I have been intimidated to try, cuz if you know karaoke, there is always someone worse than you!  Anyways, there is a small bar, pool table, lots of seating and a great supportive crowd!  I go on Sundays, so come this weekend and lets sing! And no, I am not good, but who cares????

So, while I have been moving all my crap out of my old house, I come across my box full of all my records.  Havent seen this box in over 27 years!  Probably longer, well since like 1980!  I remember albums and how the covers were all the big deal.  Cool covers that you cannot even get close to with DVDs in plastic cases.  So one day at a garage sale, I bought all this guys albums, 45's and a turntable.  I went home so anxious to plug it into my surround sound system and kick back and listen to some old classic rock.  No go.  My receiver is digital and the turntable was analog. Bummer.  So anyways, I open up my original Peter Frampton double album cover and there are little seeds still in the crack.. Anyone remember why there would be little seeds in this crack of this particular double album cover?  I was laughing my butt off.  Then had to quickly clean it cuz daughter wanted to see all my albums.  She went thru them all asking all these questions like, are these originals? Ummm, yes, I am that old daughter. She is like, Cool, this one is so cool, so is this one.  So being now that she lives in an apartment and has boring white apartment walls in her bedroom that we cant paint, I suggested that she go thru the album covers and pick out the cool ones and we can go around to top of her walls like a border and sticky putty them up.  I will post a pic when we are all done. Oh btw, anyone ever heard of "Matt The Hoople".  I have three albums and dont know who these people are but look like early 70's.  Also, does anyone have a stereo rack system with speakers and a turntable that they dont want anymore?  I want to put it in her room for her to play these on.  Will bring back alot of memories and I know that I can prob download them jsut the same, but it isnt the same at all.  The scratches, the sound, remember when you put a penny on the needle so it would play better?  wow, how much fun did we have?  I also saw all my albums with my name writeen on the cover, cuz whenever we went to Mark Stevens house to party on the weekends, everyone would bring their favs to share. So if you live near the northland, or even if you dont, and you want to get rid of a system or sell for very very cheap (cuz I am a poor white single mom to a 16- year old, I want everything and I want you to buy it now, daughter).

So, last weekend I took my daughter and 2 of her friends to see some bands play out in Lawrence at the Granada theater.  I had been there before to see bands with her. I only knew 1 of the bands playing and I actually was wanting to see them.  So we go in, they ditch mom and I end up sitting up in the balcony with all the other parents my age, looking down at the floor.  The 1st band was Meriweather, actually a great little band.  The 2nd one was I think called, Free from the march of flame.  Ok, whatever.  They come out and me and this other parent are like, "oh look this one has a female singer".  Cool.  I am like, "wow, look at her legs.  They look like they are on backwards".  Ok, it was not a girl, it was a guy wearing a girls flowered dress and he began to jump and scream.  Not yelling, screaming and jumping on this little, tiny platform.  I thought he was gonna fall off it, but he actually stayed on the whole time.  I was only hoping that he had shorts on under that dress, because my daughter was right up at the stage.  Then I was hoping that if he didnt, she would get some good pics for her mom. hehe Anyways, two more bands played, and I bought a t-shirt, and took pics with the lead singer of the last band called Saosin.  They were ok, the singer was real cute and nice to take pics with us.  Check out my pics in my profile.  Well gone are the days where you can understand the bands, and the graphics were so way cool.  But at least these bands hung around afterwards to talk to their fans, and sell their merch. and sign autographs and pake pics with 46 yr old moms who like to embarrass her daughter-hehe I so embarrassed her when I asked to take a pic with the singer who had the dress on-hahaha Hi name was David.  He looked so different with guy clothes on and I commented on how proud his mom must be that he sings in a dress-hahahaha And I must say that in my day, I went to concerts and we all got stones, drunk or whatever, but the kids here were just happy to be there to hear their groups and have a good time moshing and crowd surfing, which yes my daughter crowd surfed twice, unbenounced to me at the time! But good for her! I would if she let me-hehehehe

So, here is a very funny story.  On Tuesday night, I met a couple of old friends for some drinks.  I realllllly wanted to karaoke, so I am looking in the phone book for any place that has it this night,  Only one bar, and the bartender, says, well you can sing, we have a unit, but no dj,but you can program whatever song you want and sing.  So I am like, cool.  So we go, it is this little bitty place called Arthurs.  A dive bar, only about 12 people there all sitting at the bar.  So we walk in, sit down, order some drinks-not that we at this time really needed anymore-but we do anyhow.  So I program a song in, announce myself(that was a hoot) and I say, Ok people, y'all dont know me, and I suck at singing, but I dont care cuz I will never see anyone here tonight ever again so who cares.  So I sing, we all sing, we have fun, and we leave.  Friday night, at my mini reunion, in walks a guy, I dont even know him.  He is part of our alumi from our highschool to celebrate with us.  He sits down and looks at me.  Then he says, hey you were at Arthurs Tuesday night.  No really, it was that funny.  I will never again say those words again.  OMG I was laughing all night over that one!