SAN ANTONIO, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — DeLorean Motor Company has announced a new reveal date and released its first sneak peak of their electric vehicle. The concept car is now slated to premiere Thursday, August 18 at the prestigious Awards Ramp at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Click here to the read the announcement.
Posted in Events, News, Planes Trains and Automobiles
C.W. McCall, the Omaha, Nebraska adman who jumped to country music stardom with 1976’s “Convoy“, died yesterday at the age of 93 after battling cancer.
“Breaker one-nine, this here’s the Rubber Duck” introduced America to CB Jargon in the mainstream. Selling more than 2 million copies, and inspiring a 1978 movie of the same name starring Kris Kristofferson, would bring “10-4, good buddy” and many more into America’s lexicon.
Born Nov. 15, 1928, in Audubon, Iowa, as William Dale Fries Jr., Fries created the character of C.W. McCall in 1974 while working at an Omaha ad agency. The goal then wasn’t to record radio hits but to sell loaves of bread with country-sounding jingles.
“I wanted to name the truck driver something that would be easily remembered. A lot of the truckers wore initials on their shirts,” he told Milwaukee deejay Bob Barry. “We thought it was sort of a country-western sounding track, so that’s where the C.W. came from.”
The first commercial, “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Café,” proved so popular (it won a Clio Award) that Fries began to write a series of truck-driving songs with Chip Davis, who’d go on to form the neo-classical group Mannheim Steamroller. “Old Home Filler-Up an’ Keep on a-Truckin’ Café” appeared on McCall’s debut album, 1975’s Wolf Creek Pass. The title track hit Number 12 on the country charts and Fries — by now fully transformed into the character of C.W. McCall — set about recording the follow-up.
Black Bear Road arrived in September 1975 and its title track stalled at Number 24. But McCall released another song off the album: “Convoy.” The tale of a caravan of big-rig drivers led by “The Rubber Duck” caught the national consciousness with its vivid cross-country imagery and playful lingo — “Smokies” for the cops, “bear in the air” for a police chopper, “What’s your twenty?” for location, and, of course, “10-4” for “affirmative.” The track spent six weeks atop the country charts and hit No. 1 on the pop survey.
“This here’s the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone, ‘bye, ‘bye”
Posted in Because I Can, Events, Music, News, Planes Trains and Automobiles
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, Planes Trains and Automobiles
His announcement on Instagram says it all:
ESPN has a great write up on this momentous event. Read it here.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, Sports
He played DJ Dr. Johnny Fever on WKRP in Cincinnati, Captain Pete Lassard in Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment, Sam Royer on One Day at a Time, and schoolteacher Charlie Moore on Head of the Class. Hesseman made his television debut with two small guest roles on the final season of The Andy Griffith Show in 1968. That same year he appeared in five episodes of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Over the course of his career, Hesseman had small guest appearances in several beloved shows, including That 70s Show, ER and Boston Legal, among several others. His last credited TV role came in 2017, where he appeared in two episodes of the ABC comedy Fresh Off The Boat. Hesseman received Emmy nominations in 1980 and ’81 for his work on CBS’ WKRP in Cincinnati, which ran for four seasons (1978-82). With his shades, moustache and slouch, he became a countercultural icon. Hesseman also reprised his role as “Dr. Johnny Fever” in 10 episodes of the two-season reboot The New WKRP in Cincinnati (from 1991 to 1993). Hessman died from complications of colon surgery in Los Angeles, California, on January 29, 2022, at the age of 81.
Posted in Because I Can, News, The Little Screen (Television)
Betty Marion White Ludden (January 17, 1922 – December 31, 2021) was a beloved American actress and comedian. With over 8 decades in “the business” she has done it all.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, The Little Screen (Television)
“The Raiders Family is deeply saddened by the passing of the legendary John Madden,” the Raiders said in a statement. “Few individuals meant as much to the growth and popularity of professional football as Coach Madden, whose impact on the game both on and off the field was immeasurable.” Jan 2, 2022
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, Sports
Gibbons, Beard and Hill – 1986
The band’s Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard issued a statement:
“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX. We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top’. We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.’
“You will be missed greatly, amigo.”
Earlier this month, Gibbons and Beard played their first performances without Hill in more than 50 years, stating that the bassist had been forced to seek medical attention “to address a hip issue,” according to a statement, although his ailment was apparently more serious than they let on. “Per Dusty’s request the show must go on!,” the statement continued, and the band’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, filled in.
Hill would join Gibbons and Beard for a gig in Beaumont, TX, on Feb. 10, 1970. The lineup remained the same for more than five decades: They celebrated their 50th anniversary at a San Antonio concert in February 2020.
Dusty hill has zoomed on out…
Thank you for 50 years of fantastic rock and roll!
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
On July 16, 1969 three men, Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins launched into the sky aboard Saturn V AS-506 to start the Apollo 11 mission.
Four days later, on July 20, 1969, Buzz and Neil entered the Eagle to begin preparations for lunar landing. Later, Eagle separated from Columbia to begin descent to the lunar surface.
Armstrong stepped off Eagle’s footpad and declared: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” The first human had stepped foot on the Moon.
Buzz joined Armstrong a few minutes later with the simple phrase: “Magnificent desolation.”
But, during the entire process, Michael Collins orbited the Moon. Alone. Forty eight minutes of each orbit he was out of radio contact with the Earth as Columbia passed the far side of the Moon. “Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins,” the mission log said.
Michael Collins passed away today at age 90.
And then there was one…
Posted in Because I Can, News, Patriotic
Dawn Wells, Mary Ann of Gilligan’s Island to most of us, has died from COVID-19. She was 82.
Posted in News, The Little Screen (Television)
The Arecibo Observatory, also known as the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), is an observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico owned by the US National Science Foundation (NSF).
The observatory’s main instrument was the Arecibo Telescope, a 305 m (1,000 ft) spherical reflector dish built into a natural sinkhole, with a cable-mount steerable receiver and several radar transmitters for emitting signals mounted 150 m (492 ft) above the dish. Completed in 1963, it was the world’s largest single-aperture telescope for 53 years, surpassed in July 2016 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. Following two cable breaks supporting the receiver platform in the prior months, the NSF stated on November 19, 2020 it was decommissioning the telescope for safety concerns, but before controlled demolition could be conducted, the remaining cables failed on December 1, 2020, causing catastrophic structural failure to the telescope.
What is, “That’s all folks.”
Best know as the host of Jeopardy! since its comeback in 1984, Alex Trebek passed away today at age 80.
I would have loved to have a role in the HBO series ‘Deadwood.’ It was Shakespeare in the Old West. – Alex Trebek
Posted in Because I Can, Events, News, The Little Screen (Television)
Goldfinger finally got what he wanted. Mr. Bond, Sean Connery, has passed at age 90.
Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor and producer. He was best known as the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films (every film from Dr. No to You Only Live Twice, plus Diamonds Are Forever and Never Say Never Again) between 1962 and 1983.
Posted in Because I Can, Events, Literary, News, The Big Screen, The Little Screen (Television)
BLAINE – After weeks of trapping and searching, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) entomologists have located an Asian giant hornet nest on a property in Blaine – the first ever such nest found in the U.S.
The agency plans to attempt an eradication of the nest on Saturday, Oct. 24. Initial plans to eliminate the nest today have been tabled due to the inclement weather.
The successful detection of a nest comes after a WSDA trapper collected two live Asian giant hornets on Oct. 21, caught in a new type of trap the agency had placed in the area. Two more hornets, also living, were found in another trap the morning of Oct. 22 when WSDA staff arrived in the area to tag the previously trapped hornets with radio trackers and follow one back to its nest.
Read the rest at the source.
Rock legend Eddie Van Halen didn’t set out to change the way the guitar was played. But, as he explained to a standing-room-only crowd at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, music shaped his life—and his life shaped his music—in unexpected ways from his very first performances. – link
Thank you, Eddie for your music. The great big band in the sky just added a kick-ass guitarist. What a jam session there will be tonight.
Eddie Van Halen, founding member of Van Halen, and guitar virtuoso extraordinaire, died today at age 65.
Article about Eddie at the Oral Cancer Foundation here
We came here with approximately $50 and a piano, and we didn’t speak the language, he said. Now look where we are. “If that’s not the American dream, what is?” he said.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
Mac Davis has died at age 78 from complications from heart surgery. Davis was an American country music singer and songwriter originally from Lubbock, Texas.
He is credited as writing “Memories”, “In the Ghetto”, “Don’t Cry Daddy”, and “A Little Less Converstation” for Elvis Presley, and a career in the 70s produced hits such as “Baby, Don’t Get Hooked on Me” and “Hard to Be Humble.”
He starred in his own variety TV show, a Broadway musical, and did TV and film as well.
Posted in Because I Can, Music, News
