RobZerrvations
Musings from a Meandering, Mischievous Mind
Everyone Needs A Theme Song.
I had another great time performing with my band this past weekend. As usual, we all ended up sitting back after the work was done and jammed a bit. Animal and I were doing our usual let's sing everything we know and don't know, accompanied by a spoons player, a banjo playing professor, Angelina on fiddle, another fiddle player and Reuben "Lounge Lizard" Morgan on guitar. I asked Reuben to play his favorite song - the one that all musicians have - the first song they would ever sing if they...
I Think I Prefer Cave Drawings, Frankly.
What goes around, comes around. I saw recently that bell bottoms were making a comeback. Jumpsuits and overalls are already back. I'm sure it will soon be halter tops, tube tops and mood rings. Wait, the rings are back, too. This doesn't bother me. It seems to be the way our society works. We make progress, we move forward three steps, then we take two steps back. Our own government is a good example, with the Tea Partiers anxious to take us back to the good old days when women were barefoot...
Who Am I?
I don't know if you've ever watched "Who Do You Think You Are?" on NBC on Friday nights, but it's pretty interesting. Celebrities retrace their roots and discover all sorts of interesting stories about where they came from and who they are. I always knew. I was half German from Russia and the other half was Welsh, Irish and Scotch. Even so I decided on a whim the other day to try out ancestry.com. On the show they made it look so easy to research your family tree. And since it's on a 14 day...
National Dump On Robb Day
I have decided that it's time to once again put forth my idea for a holiday. With time, I expect it will become the most popular holiday on the planet, even outstripping Christmas, mostly because the gifts are given to you and you don't have to offer any in return. Intrigued, aren't you? National Dump On Robb Day was actually conceived many years ago. It was at a time in my life when my ex-whatevers, ex-brothers and ex-coworkers were trying to blame me for everything in their lives. I think at...
The Past Is The Present, And We Appear To Be The Enemy.
I was watching the movie Good Night and Good Luck last night. And I couldn't help but see how little things have changed over the years. If you don't know the story, it was about the good old days of television when the medium was used to inform as well as entertain. Edward R. Murrow, arguably one of the greatest journalists in history, took on then Senator Joseph McCarthy, a junior Senator from Wisconsin on his program, See It Now. Anyway, this was back in the days of the "Everyone's a...
Let The Bridges Burn, Baby!
I'm sure everyone knows the saying, "Don't Burn Any Bridges." Well, I will say it proudly right now: I am a card carrying Bridge Burner. I have burned bridges throughout most of my life. I walk away from the inferno, never once feeling bad about setting that bridge ablaze. I can take the heat because I know that you can indeed burn bridges. Now, I know there are many of you out there who will never burn a bridge. Even if you happened upon one that was smoldering, you'll risk life and limb to...
Boys Will Be Boys.
As I began to delve into my childhood with my last post about being homeless in my own home as the last born and living on the couch, it dawned on me that life with three older brothers was rarely ever a picnic. Being the youngest offers no advantages save one: If everything else is equal, I will eventually have the last laugh, being the last one alive. I live for that day. It's my payback for all the times they would make my life miserable. I remember back to when I was perhaps 7 years old. I...
The Accomplished Life.
Several years ago I was having a crisis of faith. Not in the Big Guy upstairs, but in me. It always seems to come around the years that end in zero. This time, it was the big 5-0. I was looking back at my life and wondering what had I done with it. What had I accomplished? So, being a writer, I wrote it all down. From the extremely basic - learned to walk and talk - to some very unique experiences, ones that defined who I am. After 122 lines, I was through. Not bad, 122 accomplishments large...
Not the Couch Again!
Growing up we were like most Baby Boom families. We didn't live in a large house. Though it had four bedrooms, they were very small by today's standards. And with mom and dad in one bedroom, that left three bedrooms for four boys. Well, you know who the odd man out is - the last one born. So I had to share my room with my brother Brian. We had bunk beds and he got the top bunk and I got the bottom one. I always wanted the top bunk, but last in, last to choose was the rule. That was always the...
But It Looks Right To Me!
When I was in first grade, I really liked Mrs. Hanks. I was attending Kennydale Elementary School and she was my first real school teacher. Of course, I had attended kindergarten, but it wasn't like real school because all we seemed to do all day was finger paint and play with toys all day. But 1st grade was different. I was in big boy school. I was even scheduled to be the door monitor at recess the next day. I was supposed to hold the door open while my classmates went to recess and...
Man, Those Are Some Shapely L’eggs!
As a young man, I used to build models. They could be cars, trucks, military vehicles or planes, no matter. I was really good at it, too. By the time I was 14 I could finish the most complex model sold in a day. I think that was a little distressing to my mother who was bankrolling my hobby. Between the models, glue and paint it was beginning to add up. So one day she came back from the store with an unusual gift: A L'egg container. If you don't remember what these are, they were the...
I’m No Better Than A Monkey?
I was watching a video on one of my favorite websites, TED. In case you don't know what the site is about, really smart people are invited to share a topic of interest and it has to be under 20 minutes. The speaker was Laurie Santos and her topic was Monkeynomics. Through her research she discovered that we share many of our traits with monkeys, capuchin monkeys to be exact. It seems that we make the same mistakes over and over again as consumers. What's worse, these errors are predictable and...