The Gary Files # 25: Gary Grimes

(I found this image here.)

An explanation: Since the name Gary is going extinct, I thought it incumbent upon me to celebrate more notable Garys than myself.  This is the twenty-fifh of a series!

Gary Grimes is, according to the Wikipedia, "a former American actor."

What does that mean, "former"?  It means he acted for a time, & left the business.

Would I know him from anything? He appeared in a handful of television shows, & only six motion pictures.  They were: Summer Of '42 (1972), The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972), Class Of '44 (1973), Cahill U.S. Marshal (1973), The Spikes Gang (1974), & Gus (1976).

Then he just quit?  Apparently so.

Was it because of drugs or something like that?  Did he go insane?  Not at all.  According to an interview he did in 2011, he said, "I got to the point where the work wasn't up to the quality that I wanted."

Were you familiar with his work?  Not a lot.  I mainly know about him as the guy who walked away.  Not a lot of folks leave a life of stardom behind.

Even if he might not have been a big star?  It seems to me that there are people in the industry that hold on to the smallest amount of fame & milk it for whatever they can get.  I kind of feel like most television I watched in the 1970s was filled with "stars" desperate to extend their fifteen minutes.

Did you know there was another Gary Grimes who was somewhat famous?  There was?  Who?

This guy.  Freaky.  That's a crazy thing to me, to build a career essentially performing as another musician, & one that's still alive.  The really Paul McCartney outlived his fake twin.

Apparently both of them were really named Gary.  The living Gary Grimes is probably sad to see the name go.  Plus!

What?  His name is alliterative!  That's too cool.

Self Help Radio 031516: Connections

(I have no idea what this image is supposed to mean except it's called "connections" & the original version of it is here.)

During Spring Break, when students go home or go to Austin for SXSW or go to the beach or just plain go, campus is pretty deserted, as is the radio station, & I assume, with forty thousand or so people no longer in the city, so is the listenership of WRFL.  It's of course at that point that Self Help Radio decides to make a radio show about connections.  Connecting with people, connecting things, managing things that connect us (like telephones).  All when there's less of a chance for people to be listening than usual.  Timing!  One day the show will master it!

Luckily you can now connect with the show anytime at the Self Help Radio website, which itself is someplace where connections are made.  The show is in two parts, & what songs I play in the two parts are below.  What's not below is that I talked to a person who makes connections, to the inventor of the "loose connections" section of the classifieds, & to my spiritual mentor the Rev. Dr. Howard Gently.  But that happened too!

Thanks for trying to connect.  I find I try less & less as I get older & older.

(part one)

"Connection" The Rolling Stones _Between The Buttons_
"Connection" Can _Unlimited Edition_
"Connection" The Brunettes _Paper Dolls_

"Connection" Elastica _Elastica_
"Connection" King Tuff _Was Dead_
"Connection" Call & Response _Tiger Teeth_
"Connections" Smog _Julius Caesar_

"Super-Connected" Belly _King_
"Get Connected" The Jessica Fletchers _Less Sophistication_
"The Connector" The Futureheads _The Chaos_
"The Connection Man" Ty Segall _Manipulator_

"Loose Connections" Channel Light Vessel _Excellent Spirits_
"Bad Connection" Tullycraft _Lost In Light Rotation 7"_

(part two)

"Bad Connection" The Square Peg _Kilt By Death: The Sound Of Old Scotland_
"Making Connections" The Saps _C'mon Already, Start A Fire_
"The Farm Yard Connection" Fun Boy Three _Waiting_

"The Rainbow Connection" Majestic _Just For A Day_
"Love Connection" Annette Snell _Southern Grooves_
"Tight Connection To My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love?)" Bob Dylan _Empire Burlesque_

"Me! I Disconnect From You" Tubeway Army _Replicas_
"Disconnected" The Creatures _Anima Animus_
"Disconnect" Plastikman _Closer_
"Disconnected" Beat Union _Disconnected_

"Mothership Connection (Star Child)" Parliament _Mothership Connection_
"Only Connect" Harper Lee _Go Back To Bed_

Whither Connections?

(I found this image here.)

As someone who's spent an entire life having difficulty making connections with people, I am the last person on earth to pretend to be an expert about connections.  I'm not even an expert about the television series Connections, which I've never watched, or I should say, I watched a couple of episodes, & found the connections the host made a little strained.

Indeed, I know so little about connecting with other human beings that I doubt it's even some kind of therapy to do a show about connections - a chance for me to learn more about connecting with others.  Because, seriously, if I haven't learned basic human interaction at this point in my life - way past its halfway mark, almost certainly - then what are a few songs going to teach me?

But you might find something helpful!  So have a listen today from 4-6pm on 88.1 fm in Lexington, &/or online at wrfl dot fm.  Who knows?  Maybe we'll make a connection ourselves!

Okay, probably not.

Preface To Connections: Missed Connections

Spoiler alert: one of the fake interviews I'll be doing tomorrow involves that section of the old classifieds (which one can now find on Craigslist) called "Missed Connections."

Did you ever peruse this section of the paper?  I never did - like Morrissey, "having learned my lesson, I never left an impression on anyone"* - but I remember working for a time in a hip video store in Austin, & the hip boys who worked there often read that section every week to see if they got any shout outs.  (If that's what you call a mention in a "missed connections" column.)  They struck pay dirt once (maybe more than once, but only once when I was there), & the "missed connection" co-worker went through a bunch of customers' accounts to see if he could figure out who had placed the ad.  As far as I know, nothing came of it - the people there made very little money, & certainly not enough to respond to an ad in the classifieds!

(Is it me or has that section always leaned heavily on men looking for whatever?  Even in the Craigslist link it skews heavily toward dudes.  I guess men are still more aggressive in our society.)

My favorite section of those kind of classifieds was the "Variations" section.  Not because I was ever into that sort of thing, but because when I used to do long, long fills on KVRX back in the 1990s - I'd be on the radio from midnight to 9am sometimes - I would often run out of things to say during airbreaks, & would also be delirious from lack of sleep, & one thing that would focus me was reading the Variations column from The Austin Chronicle  to weirdos who might be listening late at night or very early in the morning.

Luckily no one ever got mad at me for reading their ads!

& probably no one ever had a Missed Connection that began: "You: very tired, on the radio, trying to figure out what BDSM means..."

* After I wrote this, someone on Facebook noted that today was the 28th anniversary of Viva Hate, the record from which the song I'm quoting comes.  I'd like to believe Morrissey was working his magic through me on this special anniversary.

Cradle To Grave, Episode Fifteen

Fifteen episodes!  That's almost four months!  & I want to confess something: I thought doing this show might get more difficult as it went on.

Which is a dumb thing to dread, because one works out a system & over time streamlines it.  But here's my greatest fear: a day when nothing has happened.  It's probably not a reasonable fear, given probability, but I do worry there'll be a day, just one day out of 365, when very few musicians of note were born or died.  What do I do then?  Do I just play more than one song by an especially important (in my opinion) performer?  Do I attempt to find songs that are about a particular performer, or, in the case of a non-musician, some famous person from history?  The truth is, I don't know.  I don't know what I would do in that case.

Does that day exist?  So far - fifteen shows in - that has not proven to be the case.  There are musicians I've had to leave out of both hours.  But does that day exist?  In my heart, I think it does.  & I always assume it's going to be next week's show.

However!  This week's show is filled to the brim, & you can listen to it now (despite it being about people born or died yesterday) at the Self Help Radio website. It's in two parts - delineated below - & you can move easily from birthday party to funeral should you choose.  Like going backwards through time!  I hope it's good to listen to.

(birthdays)

"Man In The Street" Don Drummond & The Skatalites _Trojan Explosion! Intensified Club Reggae Classics_
"Little Chick-A-Dee" Kell Osborne & The Chicks _Little Chick-A-Dee_
"Baby I Need Your Lovin'" The Fourmost _The Best Of The Sixties_
"Mother Dear" Barclay James Harvest _Barclay James Harvest_
"Just A Chance" Badfinger _Wish You Were Here_

"Browns Ferry Blues # 2" Callahan Brothers _Roots N' Blues: The Retrospective_
"Head Rag Hop" Romeo Nelson _The Many Faces Of Boogie Woogie_
"Louisiana Boogie" L.C. Williams _Houston Jump 1946-1951_
"San Francisco Bay Blues" Jesse Fuller _The Good Time Jazz Story: Ragtime, Blues, Banjos_
"Walkin' All Night" Little Feat _Dixie Chicken_

"You're The Cream In My Coffee" Gordon MacRae _The Best Things In Life Are Free_
"New York, New York" Liza Minnelli _New York, New York_
"The Awakening" Pizzicato Five _Romantique 96_
"City Hall" Graham Coxon _A+E_
"Up The Bracket" The Libertines _Up The Bracket_

(death anniversaries)

"Stay A Little Longer" Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys _San Antonio Rose_
"Heaven" The Bailey Brothers _Take Me Back To Happy Valley_
"Down Yonder" Champ Butler _Down Yonder_
"Hey Jack" The Dozier Boys _Jive R&B: Vocal Group Classics, Vol. 2_
"Put On My Shoes" Mary Ann Fisher _Put On My Shoes_

"Ornithology" Charlie Parker _Complete Savoy Live Performances: Sept. 29, 1947-Oct. 25, 1950_
"Take Five" Dave Brubeck Quartet _Time Out_

"Baby Don't Look Down" The Blues Council _That Driving Beat_
"Apple Green" June Valli _Oh Why_
"Look For Me Baby" Goldie & The Gingerbreads _Rare Mod 3_
"Love Song" Lesley Duncan _Gather In The Mushrooms: The British Acid Folk Underground (1968-1974)_
"Hop Dedik" Erol Buyukburc _Love, Peace & Poetry: Turkish Psychedelic Music_

"Don't Let Me Go" Rockie Charlies _Born For You_
"From A Buick Six" Alex Taylor _Dinnertime_