If I read anything over the next week, I plan for it to be a reread of Mary O’Hara’s wonderful series. I first read a condensed version of My Friend Flicka as a kid, and my mother owned a copy of the third in the series, Green Grass of Wyoming. I think I was able to check out and read Thunderhead from the University of Alabama library when I was a student. I treasure this collection of library bound hard copies. If my memory is right, I had help getting them from my friend Steve V, who worked at a Houston independent bookstore (Detering Book Gallery) that helped customers find and acquire rare or long out-of-print books.
I’m putting the most recent musical homage photos from my Instagram feed behind the cut. There are some fun recollections, or if nothing else, the photos offer an interesting look at some of the T-shirts at Houndstooth Hall belonging to Tom, Timothy, and me. =)
On October 8, I featured the band Def Leppard. Tom and I were able to see them in concert back in the 1990s, and they were terrific. Lord Cuttlebone is wearing a T-shirt I own, and Ambrose decorated a T-shirt with a paper heart and a Def Leppard button. Def Leppard is one of my favorite of the “big hair bands” featured on MTV and VH-1 during the Eighties, a great decade for Metal. (Song used: “Love Bites.”)
Since October 9 is John Lennon’s birthday, for Lord Cuttlebone, I borrowed Timothy’s T-Shirt featuring the Beatles in the crosswalk outside Abbey Road Studios in London that became the cover of the album Abbey Road. I own Little Ambrose’s shirt, a more colorful version of the Abbey Road photo, with John Lennon buttons added. (Song used: “Come Together.”)
On October 10, I shone a spotlight on Dan Fogelberg, who I’ve mentioned on here before as one of my favorite singer/songwriters. Lord Cuttlebone is wearing a T-shirt drawn/designed by an artist I found on Etsy last year. I used the song I call my theme song, and if there’s ever a memorial service for me, I want that played (among others). Ambrose is holding a collection of Dan Fogelberg music. (Song used: “Scarecrow’s Dream.”)
All three of the T-shirts used on my October 11 post are owned by Timothy and feature the band Garbage. I thought it was genius to ask him to wear the one with the lyric “The trick is to keep breathing” over a rendition of skeletal ribs because 1. He’s sitting between two skeletons but very much alive so can’t show off his own ribs, and 2. If you’re a friend or you’ve been around since the LiveJournal days, you may remember the TWO times Tim was hospitalized for a collapsed lung, which led to both of us quitting smoking, as well as “fun” photos, including one in which his dog Rex and I busted him out of the hospital for a while so we could take a short drive and let them see each other. (Song used: “The Trick Is To Keep Breathing.”)
October 12 is the anniversary of the release of Fleetwood Mac’s album Tusk, and coincidentally, Stevie Nicks was on “Saturday Night Live.” So I borrowed another couple of Timothy’s concert Ts, Lord Cuttlebone wearing the band’s name/penguin logo, and Ambrose wearing a Stevie Nicks shirt. (She was pretty fabulous on SNL, by the way). Also as part of the photo shoot are the album, a program from the Tusk tour, which I saw (I’ve seen the band several times, and Stevie Nicks solo once), and a book with the Tusk lyrics and sheet music. (Song used: “Tusk.”)
For today’s October 13 post, Ambrose is dressed all in black and petting a raven, while Lord Cuttlebone is dressed in Tom’s Johnny Cash T-shirt. Both are wearing black jeans. There were so many songs I could have used from this legend, but I chose the one that seemed very true to Johnny Cash’s empathy for others and matched the T-shirt. (Song used: “Man In Black.”)
Def Leppard and Bon Jovi were married together onto a TDK D 90 that eventually died in the dishwasher room in a restaurant, but they lived scandalously in my vinyl collection for decades with Depeche Mode Violator and UK’s NOW 5 on the record changer machine for those get away
momentshours.I too saw Def Leppard, twice. The first off Electric Avenue with Joan Jett and the [hot and shirtless] Blackhearts. I love that whatever spared the skeleton’s demise caused the Animal t-shirt.
I also remember at least one of the collapsed lung periods of ye ol’ El Jay.
Adventures in Tim’s health! Such memories.
I’m glad to know a fellow Def Leppard fan. I’d have loved to see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts–or imagine seeing The Runaways! I love my Joan Jett doll.
Oh! And another memory I don’t know if I ever shared. In spring 1992, when our friend Steve was in the hospital (he would die in June), I went to a record store wanting something different from anything I was listening to, different from anything he was listening to in his hospital room. Just DIFFERENT so I would have no associations with it. And Def Leppard’s Adrenalize was just out, and thinking of the band made me nostalgic for my years before I knew anything about AIDS. Bought it on cassette so I could listen to it in the car on my long trips to and from the medical center from the suburbs. That tape was EVERYTHING. Def Leppard will always hold a good place in my heart.
Around that time, I called the radio station for something request song, and I found myself introducing live Let’s Get Rocked on Q-96 The Heat, Fredricksburg, over the phone with the DJ, apparently that day’s #1 request. Naturally, that album required a purchase.
A worthy introduction!