WINO PARK - HUH?

Well since I recently blogged about Jim the Wino it also got me to thinking about the park known as Wino Park. Located in Pasadena, CA the official name of this park is Central Park but to me and my friends, it will always be known as Wino Park to us. Now I'm not sure how it originally got it's name but that's just what everyone called this park. I didn't even know until many years later that this park had an official name. You mean it's not called Wino Park I wondered? I remember many late nights as my friends and I would cruise by this park late at night on our way somewhere you could always see guys lying under the trees passed out. Now I guess as a kid I didn't realize that maybe the people there were homeless. My assumption was that they were all winos and were just passed out from too much Thunderbird, Red Mountain or Mad Dog wine. I dunno….Now one thing I notice as I sometimes cruise past this park for an early Saturday run is that there are still people sleeping under the trees. Oh well, Wino Park lives on!

LUBRICATING JELLY - UH OH……..

Now the other day I had a doctors appointment. As I was patiently waiting in the room I noticed a tube of lubricating jelly. Oh oh…..I thought. Being the clever guy that I am I immediately took a photo of this tube. I mean how could I not right? Now I knew (hoped?) that this tube of jelly wasn't for me cuz that could only mean big trouble. No, I am happy to say that this tube was probably for the person before me. Oh well……better him than me. HAHA!

REGGAE CD PICK OF THE WEEK - DENNIS BROWN

This weeks long overdue Reggae CD Pick of the Week is my man Dennis Brown with the cd titled Visions. Recorded way back in 1976 this shows a young Dennis as he start to come into his own as one of the premiere reggae singers. Known as the Crown Prince of Reggae, Dennis is one of my favorite reggae singers and I have not gone wrong with any of the Dennis cd's that I have purchased. This was a recent addition to the SAXOMAN library and has gotten plenty of play in my car during my daily commute. Not hip to Dennis? Here's a song from this cd titled Stay at Home. Check it out and hip up!

DVD PICK OF THE WEEK - YOUNG DETECTIVE DEE

It's been a pretty slow period for some decent Asian cinema lately. I've seen some really dopey movies such as Andy Lau as a secret agent and a Japanese dog movie that didn't have English sub-titles. Oh well…..Anyway, with that being said my coveted DVD Pick of the Week is Young Detective Dee - Rise of the Sea Dragon. Now this is by no means a great movie and it was a little ridiculous in some parts. This was still a movie that I was thoroughly entertained by. This movie was even in 3D (hmmm….that's why it was a little blurry) and featured extensive CG effects. Hey, I even made the wife watch this with me. HAHA! Here's the trailer for this fine piece of cinema. Check it out!

TRICK OR TREAT - CLUNK!

Sometimes as I'm sitting in traffic my mind will start to wander and think about all kinds of things. Now as Halloween approaches I remembered what it was like to go Trick or Treating as a kid. We would knock on the door anxiously awaiting candy and yell out Trick or Treat! One thing I remember was as we stood there with our pillowcases open waiting for our candy you would then hear CLUNK! What the? What the hell was that? What type of candy goes CLUNK? As we peered into our pillowcases there it was. A big apple! What? Yep, I kid you not. An apple? Now I'm not sure why anyone would give you an apple but I guess they were just trying to give us a healthy alternative. I dunno…..all I know is we just wanted some candy. An apple? Jeez…..gimme a break!

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…..US3?

So whatever happened to US3? Now I remember about 20 years ago they hit the scene by sampling some good old Bluenote jazz while blending hip-hop and rap. I personally thought it was a good combination that really worked but their first album was really the only album the stuck to this format. For some reason they tried to change their identity after the success of their debut album. Anyway, not hip to US3? Here's one of their first hits titled Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia). Check it out!

JIM THE WINO

After high school I spent some time doing a whole lot of nothing. I would hang out in the park with my buddies doing nothing but hanging out and drinking beer. Now one guy that used to frequent the park was a guy known as Jim the Wino. Now we didn't really know too much about Jim but usually he would show up in the afternoon with his bottle of Thunderbird wine in a paper bag. Now I don't know if any of you have ever tried Thunderbird but it is one of the cheapest wines out there and also one of the most horrible tasting wines you have ever tasted. Gross! Sometimes Jim would gross us all out by removing his dentures (Ugh!) but usually he would just sit there amused by our stories and nonsense. I'm not sure what made me think of Jim the Wino because it had been many, many years since I had thought about him. Anyway, I'm sure by now Jim has probably passed on but he was a harmless guy that just enjoyed his wine. Oh well…..

SAXOMAN - THE TRAVELING MAN (PART 1)

Yep SAXOMAN has once again been the traveling man. Recently SAXO and the wife headed off to Cancun (actually Playa del Carmen) for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Now I can honestly say that I spent a good amount of my time swimming, eating, drinking and just plain relaxing. Although there were many activities at the resort we were staying at, I decided to skip them and just work on my tan HAHA! Now I can say the wife was very active doing water aerobics, zumba classes and learning how to fold towels so they looked like swans (what?) Now why we were there we decided to see some of the local sites. I guess I couldn't lay around for a whole week although the thought did cross my mind. Here's a photo of one of the very popular ruins Chichen Nitza that we checked out one day. I'm told at one time you could climb to the top of these ruins but I guess too many knuckled tourists would hurt themselves or have problems getting down, Oh well, now you can only look. Now why is this only Part 1 of the traveling man post? Well SAXOMAN has two more upcoming trips so stay tuned!

A TRIPLE HEADER - HUH?

Now I don't think I've blogged about this before but sometimes I lose track with over 620 blog posts to date. Anyway, one day when I was about 11 or 12 years old, two friends of mine and myself needed to go somewhere. What was the problem? Well we only had one bike (my beloved purple Stingray). Anyway, we decided to ride three on a bike. What? No problem, as we had done this before. Basically the bigger, stronger kid did the pedaling while one kid sat on the back seat with the other kid on the handlebars. Now this particular day I was sitting on the handlebars and we were all loaded up and ready to take off. We started from my front yard and went down the small hill in my yard. Then all of a sudden BAM, FLIP, CRASH, OUCH! What happened? We all went sprawling to the sidewalk after suffering a terrible tumble. It appears when we went down the small hill we went straight into the sprinkler hole and the bike and all of us flipped right over and landed on the hard cement. A real triple header HAHA! Man, that hurt! We all laid there for a good while before we finally got up and dusted ourselves off. Now I don't remember if we ended up trying to all get back on the bike or just decided to walk. I'm not really sure but what a disaster.

FAREWELL......BREAKING BAD

Yes, it's true. My favorite TV show Breaking Bad has come to an end after only five seasons. No, the show wasn't cancelled or anything crazy like that. It was just the way to go out on top. For those that don't know, Breaking Bad is tops on my list for recommended viewing and is SAXOMAN recommended to all my many readers. A few weeks ago the final episode aired and I must say it was very we'll done with Walter White tying up all loose ends. The finale was viewed by over 10 million people and Breaking Bad recently won the Emmy for Best Drama. A well written, well acted drama about High School chemistry teacher Walter White who finds he has terminal cancer. In order to provide for his family in the future he turns to cooking crystal meth. The series unfolds as Walt slowly evolves into a ruthless drug lord. All I can say for this show and the finale is Bravo! A superb way to end the series with no open ended questions. I will sure miss the fact that there will never be another episode to watch although I recently heard someone offered 75 million dollars if they would write three more episodes. I really don't see this happening as the ending was truly the ending. What's next? Well there is the Blu-Ray box set coming out soon. HAHA! Farewell Breaking Bad, you will be missed!