John Prine - "Live on Tour" - Drink Hole Saturday Night Concerts

"Picture Show"

"Quit Hollerin' at Me"



"You Got Gold"

"Unwed Fathers"

"Space Monkey"

"The Late John Garfield Blues"



"Storm Windows"



"Jesus: The Missing Years"

"Humidity Built the Snowman"

"Illegal Smile"

"Daddy's Little Pumpkin"

"Lake Marie"

Remember, I don't put these files up for share. John Prine is a working artist...if you like what you've heard, check him out at his website here.



Talk to you soon.

Graced With Too Much Style - A Jeffy Original Song

Talk to you soon.

Classic Grand Ole Opry - Drink Hole Saturday Night Concerts

Talk to you soon.

New "The Telepone Song" Video - Now With Production (If Not Values)

Ah memories of Labor Day. The last paid day off between here and Thanksgiving. Harrumph!

Last week I reported that the Saturday of the holiday weekend was hosted by myself and roommate Mike here at "The Steamy Grotto" and a motly crew assembled for a day of beer, music and Italian Beef sammiches. Pictured below in a hackneyed panoramic shot are most of the players. Left to right Mark Crowley, me, Scott Michael Campbell (my sister's number 2 son), Frank Terando Jr. (my panoramic gave him 3 arms...betcha he brags about it) and Mike Crowley.


Taking the picture was Kelli King, taken here from a surveylance video at the mall I presume.

As the afternoon got greasier and drunker and clear thoughts seems few and far between...someone remembered us making a big to-do out of my "I Love Rachael Ray" song in video form and inspiration struck.

The audio is punchy in places, apparently the sound guy was as drunk as the rest of us, but here's the end result. A full cast version of "A Phone Call We've All Made (The Telephone Song)" an Uncle Jeffy composition...

Thanks guys. I dig the hell out of this stuff.

Here's hoping next Labor Day is as good.

Talk to you soon.

Happy Labor Day 2010

Happy Labor Day everyone! I'll get back to regular blogging by next weekend...this was a weekend of rest and spending time with family.

Enjoy the music, food and beer...we did!



Talk to you soon!

Show Bid'ness and The Economy: A Goofy Tale of Woes!

"Show me da money!" I guess I'd say if I felt like beating a dead horse. Here's a tale of life outside of show bid'ness.

Regular readers here know I like to make noise on my guitar and like to every so often make up songs on my own. This is called "writing songs" to most...I humbly just make up stuff that rhymes.

Wayyyy back in 2001 the company I work for had a talent contest at their Christmas party. A "Gong Show" type of thing actually. I wasn't going to enter the contest because I'm a sensitive artistic type of guy and was sure there weren't enough folks at my company to appreciate the high-brow humor and subtle nuance of my craft.

Then they announced there would be cash prizes and I decided it was not beneath me at all to pander.

And so I did.

I made up a song called "Christmas Time at OCB" (OCB is the company I work for, but for the sake of relativity in my story, insert your company name) and is was about as filled with inside jokes about our industry and our company's president and CEO as you can get.

The crowd and the judges loved it and I was honored with 1st prize. Like Loudon Wainwright III said "Shakin' hands with the devil ain't as bad as it seems." and I forsook my lofty artistic knuckleheadedness for good old commerciality...

...and was awarded a $1,000 cash prize. Other than the fact that those big foam-core backed checks don't fit well into ATM machines it was great! My brush wit' Show Bid'ness!

I then opted to go back to my bohemian roots and have fun with banging on the guitar and caterwauling for friends and family and neighbors...whether they liked it or not.

Somewhere along the line my nephew, Scott Campbell got into real show bid'ness. That's him below during one of our shared birthday parties. His birthday is the 14th of August and mine is the 8th and damned if some one's gonna spoil 2 weekends celebrating with us!

He appeared in a small independent movie a couple years back and did a scene where he was to play the guitar and sing a song. The only part I'll really take credit for in any of this story is that Scottie was inspired to learn to bang on a guitar after hearing me make noise on one...I'm proud to say that I helped pay forward the fun that can be had doing this.

During the filming, he decided to play a different song with every take. On one take he did a song made up by his old Uncle Jeffy called "A Phone Call We've All Made" alternately titled "The Telephone Song". For anyone who may have missed this universal broken hearted love song, here's my version.



Bring a tear to your eye? I thought it would.

Anyway, to make a short story long, in the editing bay the director decided to use the take with this song in it for the final cut of the movie.

I spent 9 months or so receiving e-mails and phone calls from lawyers on both coasts trying to convince them that they could have the right to use this made-up song in the movie at no charge. The movie was a little $300,000 indy film and I'd be proud to see my nephew up on screen singing something that I was gonna write even if they didn't pay me.

Besides the real fun would be to one day be walking down the street and hearing some stranger humming the dang thing. THAT would be cool.

I did work out that they only had the rights to use it in conjunction with this film at no cost and that I was the sole publisher and would receive credit as such.

Well the movie, after a long delay was finally released straight to DVD this week. Here it is.

After months of e-mails and stacks of pages signed, I got a call from the production company last month. It was time to reimburse me for my efforts.

Giving up on telling me for the unpteenth time that I wasn't seeking pay, I just folded and confirmed my address and waited to see what would happen.

This happened.

Don't get all jealous now...shooooooooot...anyone could negotiate like me!

The Brothers Crowley and Co., Nay Nay, Kelli and Frank all ran out this last weekend to celebrate my windfall!

I of course threw down the base of the cost from my $1 payday, everyone else filled in the rest!

I don't understand the why's a wherefor's of all this, I can just assume that there's some legality that says that even if I sign 27 contracts saying it's for free, they have to pay at least a dollar to prove acknowledgment.

And I got a copy of the contract stating this.

That's right...Uncle Jeffy's in the movies.

I gotta say though, over the course of 10 years the value of a song can drop 1,000%, from $1,000 to $1...times are tough all over.

Next time though I'm gonna take the advice of this anonymous "Jeffy's Angel"...

"SHOW ME DA MONEY!"

Autobiographics and You

I realized the other day, that when I do my autobiographical comics as opposed to the ones with fictional characters, there are two different audiences of appreciation. There's the ones reading who are accepting the story, and those who actually know the people who I am including in my day to day life.

Here's a little inside shot for the folks on the outside...I hate to exclude anyone.

See below comparisons of some of the people who appear (willingly or not) in my blog from time to time, their caricatures and photos.

In the upper left is Mike Crowley, he plays the semi-detached/unflappable roommate in real life and sometimes in my cartoons too. Frank Terando Jr. in the upper right plays the part of "the Douche" in my strips and perfects it in real life. Mark Crowley in the bottom tier doing what he does best, telling me whatever I say is a "good idea" and then we go have a beer together.

Keep in mind that the photo studies were taken after the cartoons were drawn...life imitates cartoons and vice versa.

OH! And here's what we look like in our undercover guises when we battle evil Unobtanium Industrialists on Pandora...and then do a Beatles parody!

The album will be called "Meet the Ava-tards".

See y'all tomorrow!

Stuff You May Have Missed...That I Hope You Didn't - Part Five

While the "real" world continues to take up my valuable blogging time, here's some more of what you may have missed...

"UNCLE JEFFY'S TRAVELIN' FOLK AND COUNTRY MUSIC REVIEW!"


From the time I was a teenager, like so many teen-age boys, I wanted to play the guitar. Well with characteristic procrastination, I bought myself one when I was 23 and another when I was 28 and sat right down and learned to play it when I was 31.

I locked the door one day and took the phone off the hook (phones used to have hooks and a place to hang them, remember?) and taught myself 3 chords.

When I'm 51 I may give myself a second lesson. But for now those 3 chords are plenty of fun for me.

Here's a few songs that I made up all by myself with just my guitbox to sing along.

"MISSY"

An unrequited love song.



"A PHONE CALL WE'VE ALL MADE (THE TELEPHONE SONG)"

A universal love song...we've ALL done this.



"THE SMILE"

A love song for human beings when they act right. It makes me happy when they do.



"I LOVE RACHAEL RAY"

Another love song...aren't they all?... Come on Rachael, give old Jeffy a call.



Thanks for listening. I hope at least one of them speaks to you.

At any rate, I had fun makin' them up and singin' them.

See y'all tomorrow!

Musical Epilogue to "Jeffy and the Illuminati"

As happy an ending as ANY Quinn Martin Production...



This song is a happy sing-along ditty about paranoia I guess...remember, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean somebody really isn't out there to get you.



It's been interpreted as being about "The Chronic" as well, which makes it fitting for a post-Willie and post-420 post. John Prine always said though that what it was really about was that he really likes to smile a lot, and when you're smiling people often think that you're up to something...hence making it an "illegal" smile.

What ever it's about, it makes me smile to hear it. Hope you like my version. Apologies to Mr. Prine, I had to change one line...the one about Abbie Hoffman seems too dated.

There's still ears inside my walls though. :/

See y'all tomorrow.

Ode to My Blog

Mike and Mark were on the bunk couch
Playing some video games,
So I adjourned to somewhere else
I didn't find quite so lame.

I walked along through grey, ugly streets
Full of "real life", drab and drear
And decided to go to where I belong
Where dwell all that I hold dear.

I stopped down under a pink neon sign
And I knew I was once again home.
The Drink Hole, bastion from societies ills
And good setting for this Poem.

Jeffy's Angels met me at the door,
Filled my heart and pants with glee.
The Juke box was playing a John Prine song ,
Humphrey Bogart was on TV.

Another TV had Fleischer Popeye cartoons,
The Three Stooges were on the next,
There were no mindless sports and no mooks
No...all the customers had necks.

The bar was split up into factions,
Different but not really apposed.
Jesus at one end, FSM at the other
While Rusty checked the run in her hose.

Frank "The Douche" was at the bar
Saving for me a stool,
So I stepped in where the company was warm
But the air still fresh and cool.

The juke kept on playing all my favorite stuff,
Clark, Snider and Shaver all sang.
And all round the bar, for our reading enjoyment
Comic books and old strips, they did hang.

Rev. Will and Scotty finally got there
And then the beer did flow.
Mike and Mark left their games and drifted in
With Kelli and Nay Nay in tow.

The cold, dark real world is locked outside
I have no time for that.
All the things that you've seen inside this blog
Are what keep me happy and fat.

I'd give up all my earthly goods
Every physical thing, leave dead.
If I could but live with only all the things
That are Inside Jeff Overturf's Head

-fin-

Recently I've been fortunate enough to gain a few new readers and followers of this blog. I thought I would get them caught up to speed on some of the characters and settings, factual and fictional (though the line is often blurred) that pop up here during my ramblings.

I'm not conceited enough to believe that you new readers would go back and re-read all my rambling posts...just conceited enough to write myself a poem. =D

See y'all tomorrow.