Tag: idol challenge

Mood: Monday

I’m in an extremely pensive mood currently; let’s just skip to the post.

Pictures from Pacific Ocean Blue, later used also for the release that included remastered and completed tracks from the unfinished Bambu album, are variously attributed to Dean Torrance and Ed Roach. I believe both men were at those sessions; I’m not sure who took what. This is the photo shoot that comes to mind as having some of my favorite photos of Dennis.


September 27 — Favorite photo shoot

Much of Dennis’s work was recorded and produced at/by Caribou Ranch, and that’s his Caribou Ranch sweater he’s wearing in the photos.

Button Sunday

It actually does not. With The Arthritis in the ring and pinky fingers of both hands, I can’t shoot a good bird anymore. Broken wings. In Texas, maybe in other places, it’s for the best. Keep flipping people off, and sooner or later, you’ll get a return salute from their gun.

Haven’t we all been one of the people in this photo? Brian: Shocked. Dennis: Over Mike. Mike: Smugly oblivious.


September 26 — Showing middle finger. ©still looking for copyright attribution

I see your face (pretty face)

Another from the classic Pet Sounds album photo shoot.


September 25 — Cute face ©Capitol Archives

It’s not too late
I’ve always known we’d meet again
And then I’ll know
You’ve come to stay
It won’t be long
Please don’t be long
The time has come
When we could wake up and live again
I felt my heart close to you
Waited so long
Please don’t be long
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long
Sometimes I stare into space
I see your face (pretty face)
And you say words of love
Deep words inside of me
I cry for more
I cry for more
No, no, no, no, no, no, it won’t be long
No, it won’t be long
Oh baby, it won’t be long…

Lyrics by Carli Muñoz

Reading has always been hot

Remember way back when several of us who blogged or journaled started the “reading is hot” campaign, and many of our readers sent photos of themselves reading our books. That was fun. Reading was hot long before us; it will remain hot for infinity.


Cut me some slack here; this is a challenging request. Let’s begin with Dennis reading a comic book. Looking very smart and sexy in those glasses regardless of the material.


September 24 — Reading a book ©still looking for copyright attribution

Reading about one of his favorite pastimes.


©still looking for copyright attribution

Reading a weekly trade paper after landing in England for a tour. To the right, that’s Paul from Paul Revere and the Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsay, who were on the bill with the Beach Boys.

©Disc Weekly

I’ll tell you a secret. Several of the novels comprising the Neverending Saga contain characters with certain physical features based on Dennis Wilson and Mark Lindsay, among others, because as you may recall, Lynne and I were musician/band-loving teenyboppers on the edge of groupie-dom eons ago when we began inventing our guys. Saga characters have developed way beyond those early versions, but it’s still fun to remember where they got their start.

The biggest heart

My least favorite of these challenges and not because I’m envious. There are just so many stories a few photos can’t tell: of passion, adventure, and grief; of children and grandchildren who should still be enjoying this man who loved everyone in every way that a broken man with a big heart could love.


September 23 — With ex lovers
Dennis and first wife Carole, ©Michael Ochs


Dennis and second wife Barbara, ©Michael Ochs


Dennis and third wife Karen (they married twice), ©Frank Edwards


Dennis and girlfriend/fiancee Christine, ©BBC


Dennis and fourth wife Shawn, estranged at the time of his death, ©Ed Roach

Tiny Tuesday!


Tiny selfie sisters.

Ah, the selfie. Will this be a notable or regrettable advance that twenty-first century technology brought us? Once everyone from kindergarten-age up had the ability to use a phone camera and reverse it, selfies became ubiquitous. The WORST development was possibly brought about by Miley Cyrus, who could not keep her tongue in her mouth when a camera was pointed her way. I’ve seen enough protruding tongues from ‘tween and teen and twenty-somethings (who should know better) that I felt like I needed a glass jar of tongue depressors next to me and a compulsion to bark, “Say aaaaahhh.”

Camera self-portraits were a lot harder in previous decades, unless you had a good camera with a timer, and back then, you had to focus the damn thing on something approximately where you’d be before you ran to the spot and sat for 15 seconds feeling like an idiot while you tried and retried different facial expressions and smiles or poses.

I don’t know that this 1983 shot was a self-portrait, but judging by my memory of the room I was in, the photographer would have had to be standing where my dresser was. So I think I stuck the camera on said dresser, set the timer, and darted to my bed to sit down. Then waited until I could afford to have the film developed before I sent the photo to whoever wrote and asked for a photo. I can’t believe there was ever anyone in my life who wanted photos of me, but it happened, and I can think of two of them immediately. One has since died and one disappeared long ago. My photos may have sinister powers. There’s a book in that.

These days, you just open your text messages or social media accounts and say, “Oh, good, another photo of Aunt Edie and her (fill in pet species of choice).”

When I saw today’s idol challenge, I was relatively sure I’d never seen a photo of Dennis taking his own photograph, though I saw plenty of photos of him holding a camera. I think he liked shooting pictures.

I certainly would have liked shooting pictures of him.


(still looking for copyright attribution)


(still looking for copyright attribution)


© Michael Ochs before Hollywood Bowl concert, 1965

The photo below is among my favorites and is at least Dennis looking at himself while he plays (privately, not publicly) and is aware he’s being photographed by a friend. It’ll do.


September 21 — Selfie ©Ed Roach

Mood: Monday


This is a photo from 2007 when people still smoked at The Compound, but damn if I know who smoked Marlboro Lights (ETA: Steve C). I’m using it to show that I’m in a creative mood.

I have a friend Sharon (I know her in real life, not only online) who in addition to being a dog rescuer/foster/adopter and an all-round great human, also collects tiny Blythe dolls. She stages them in engaging photo shoots with clothes and accessories she’s made herself, in dioramas she decorates with all matter of things she makes or buys. She’s one of my most fun Instagram follows at this account, if you’d like to see her creative dolls and animals and objects on such a tiny scale that I’m in awe.

I’ve sewn for dolls at 1:6 scale for years, and right now, I want to sew clothes for the child dolls who are part of my Neverending Saga families. They’re so small that I’m not sure I’m up to the challenge or the amount of time it may take when I have so much writing to do. However, I also do creative things like coloring or painting when I want to think about what I’m writing, so maybe sewing clothes for these little ones will help inspire me to write the lives of their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles.

I’ve never believed there are people who have no creative urge. Even busy people or people whose circumstances don’t lend themselves to creating have that spark. But they are afraid or think they have no talent or have been conditioned to believe that art is only as worthy as its utility (e.g., do other people like it? does anyone want to read/see/hear/taste/enjoy it? does it make money?).

What if creating is for YOU ONLY? What if it makes you feel happy for a while? What if it nourishes you in any way at all? Is that not enough? Seriously, are you not enough?

I think you are.

This is a conversation I have with myself often, because I can access a lifetime of negative and hurtful comments about my creative endeavors. It’s just something I have to shut down. One way I know I was fortunate is that I was ALWAYS encouraged to be creative, by my parents, a few teachers, some friends, and my wonderful Uncle Gerald. If you were never encouraged that way, IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO CREATE. What is that thing you wish for? That secret yearning to learn an instrument, sketch something you love in nature, write a poem, learn to needlepoint, carve a piece of wood, master a culinary creation… It’s time to start and it’s MORE than okay to do it only for you, only for your own enjoyment, and if anyone else likes/loves/appreciates/praises it, that’s a bonus.

The Beach Boys began because two young brothers liked to sing together and they made their more boisterous brother join in because they wanted his voice for their harmonies. They had a father who was a frustrated songwriter and a mother who came from a musical family. When they formed a band and came up with a sound, success came early. Maybe too early for their own good, considering their losses, challenges, and tragedies. But those three brothers, including the one who had to be dragged along, had creativity that couldn’t be denied. What began so simply became a gift to the world. Even if they aren’t a band to your taste, millions of people still love their music, still follow their careers, still marvel at them, still consider their story with joy and heartache.

It all began with a working class family of five who loved music.


September 20 — With family © unknown
Back row: Brian with parents Audree and Murry
Front row: Carl and Dennis

Button Sunday

There’s a chapter in the first book of the Neverending Saga that I had fun writing because the character doesn’t know how to tie a necktie and later, he has to get help from an unexpected source with a bowtie. Whether or not they like wearing it, I think all my characters look sexy in formalwear.


September 19 — In black ©Chris Walter

I believe this is from the American Music Awards in 1976.