Greg’s Happenings by Greg Kristapovich
I consider myself rather “hip”. However, recently, I overheard someone on the street opine, “That Greg doesn’t seem to be very cultured”. This really got to me and I didn’t sleep well for a few nights. I’m very sensitive. But I finally called my personal guru/culture & entertainment advisor, Mahat for advice. “Yes, it is very true, Greg, sometimes you do not seem very cultured. My advice to you, my rather unsophisticated one, is: make an attempt to appreciate the arts. Attend an opera, a ballet – even a live play,” Mahat urged.
Well, I took my guru’s advice, and went to see a play at the Black Bart Playhouse in Murphys. It’s called “A Skull in Connemara”, presented by the Murphys Creek Theatre and is a real sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, suspense-filled dark comedy. O.K., so I haven’t seen a whole lot of plays in my life, but I have watched and studied actors/actresses for about 54 years now, including (but not limited to) TV shows and movies. Soaps operas like Days of Our Lives have good acting; Saturday Night Live has bad acting. (Although SNL’s bad acting is really what makes it so funny.) Anyway, I know good, bad and great acting when I see it. The play “A Skull in Connemara” has great acting! The plot of “A Skull” is thus: For one week each autumn, Mick Dowd is hired to disinter the bones in certain sections of his local cemetery to make room for new arrivals. As the time approaches for him to dig up the bones of his own late wife, strange rumors start to circulate in the small community regarding Mick’s involvement in her sudden death seven years ago. Filled with strange twists and a macabre mixture of comedy and drama, this play is top-notch entertainment! Veteran actor Tom Vannucci (who plays Mick Dowd) is supported by an excellent cast including Sheila Doyle (who plays the liquor-mooching neighbor – who does give widower Mick a certain degree of companionship), Robert Zellers (playing Mick’s gravedigging assistant) and Sean M Lewis (the scheming local cop). I’d give this play 4 ½ stars out of 5! Go see it; you’ll dig it!!!
The brothers (and sisters) are still celebrating Woodstock’s 40th anniversary! I am going to email President Obama suggesting that he issue an EXECUTIVE ORDER proclaiming August “National Woodstock Month”! Woodstock was a phenomenon that will be remembered for centuries to come! But nobody envisioned it would be as big as it was. The promoters started to realize the enormity of this event when 50,000 hippies showed up Tuesday – three days BEFORE the festival was to start! By Saturday, the crowd would increase ten-fold, to 500,000!!! One of those at Woodstock was John Hand, owner of the St. Charles Saloon in Columbia! (See John in photo, holding framed Woodstock Festival tickets – still intact!!!) He and I talked about the tickets and John started to reminisce. “My friend and I both worked in a factory in Torrington, Connecticut. He had tickets. Actually my friend got the tickets from somebody else ‘cause they couldn’t go; and I said, Yeah! We’ll go! So, we left at noon, Friday. We picked up a cooler at his brother-in-law’s house, went to New York and filled the cooler with beer. When we got ‘there’, we asked people where we were. They told us we were about a mile from the entrance (to the Festival). Well, it was about five miles! It took us about three hours! They said, ‘It’s just over that little hill’. We went over that little hill – and another little hill – and another little hill! When we got to the ‘entrance’, the line was about a half-mile long!! But we looked around and saw two more entrances in the back. So we walked around to the back. They wouldn’t let us in with the beer, so we sat there awhile and gave free beer to the ‘security’ at the gate. After they had a couple of beers, they said, ‘Go ahead. Go in’! Inside, we found a bunch of people from my hometown, Torrington! There was one girl I went to school with! Ah, nothing but fond memories! But the last thing I remember was waking up on late Tuesday morning in my bed, at home! I don’t know how I got back home!” (CAUTION: the following is rated PG-13) “I asked a friend what happened. He said ‘You and Lisa were in the sleeping bag for the entire weekend!’ We both came out of the sleeping bag one time, when it was raining, to go to the bathroom; and I saw people running naked in the mud; you know jumping and sliding in the mud! They said I did it too, but I don’t remember. I remember getting there, drinking and having a good time and meeting up with my friends! We were like just one big happy family! The last thing I remember was it was about ten at night. We were sitting on a hill. A band was playing. After the festival, a friend evidently gave me a ride home. My mother later told me, ‘When you came home, you were in a different world!’ She looked at me very strangely for the next week or so, and asked me ‘Were you on something?’ And I told her ‘No.’ TO BE CONTINUED……….
GROOVY HAPPENINGS: First off, remember: Chains Required on Friday, August 21st, at Courthouse Park (N. Washington Street, downtown Sonora) 6 p.m., FREE concert!! Don’t forget: Touch the Stove Productions provides Karaoke fun at Diamond Jim’s in Mi-Wuk Village (Hwy 108, just east of Twain Harte!), Fridays at 8:30 p.m.! At nearby Big Daddy’s Smokin’ BBQ, there will be a hip-hop dance party Friday! D.J. Liquid will preside over their “All White Party”! Now, don’t jump to conclusions. They’re calling it that because the promoters are requesting everyone show up in all white attire! Interesting! Then, Saturday at Big Daddy’s, the Blue Cheese Blues Band, direct from Manteca/Turlock, will kick out the jams! “They’re unbelievably good!” swears Big Daddy; and back at Diamond Jim’s, The Jukes will crank out some serious blues-rock, beginning at 8:30 p.m.! Micki and Larrry’s Sports Pub in Copperopolis will have their Karoke on Saturday night, August 29th! And lastly, the Old Corner Saloon in Copperopolis will host a bartenders’ pool tournament on Sunday, August 30th at 4 p.m.! All the above venues – except for Courthouse Park are 21+. I.D. required.
Speaking of bartenders, I found James Taylor’s 1977 album, “JT“ (at Good Stuff Thrift Shop in Angels Camp) and it contains a song titled ”Bartender’s Blues”! Here’s part of the lyrics: “I can light up your smokes, I can laugh at your jokes. I can watch you fall down on your knees…Now the smoke fills the air in this honky-tonk bar, and I’m thinking ‘bout where I’d rather be…….” Now, if any of you bartenders out there want to know the complete lyrics, I’ll reveal them to you, but it’s gonna cost you! I’ll let you see the complete lyrics – in exchange for a “redneck martini” (a pint of Pabst with a green olive), or a Mai Tai. Deal? (It’s really weird, but ever since Thomas, our editor returned from his 5-week vacation on Kauai, all I can think about are macadamia nuts and Mai Tai’s!) Now, please excuse me while I go sit in my easy chair and watch reruns of Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum P.I. That’s about the extent of MY 2009 Hawaiian vacation. And you might say I’ve got the “column writer/distribution driver’s blues”. Aloha!
