I Don't Wanna Be A Unicorn

The rains keep coming!

Thanks for all your well wishes during "STORMWATCH 2010" and concerns for my safety during this great national crisis of Southern California's annual "week of actually having weather"...oh wait...none were SENT!

Ah well. I suppose I am being overly affected by a little rain. I DID grow up in Montana, after all, where weather conditions change on an hourly basis.

But THAT was 25 years past. I'm not used to it being anything but a moderate, min-70's F range. So when we get more than an inch of rain it's news. And THIS TIME WE GOT TORNADOS!!

Here's a video of Tuesday's storm taken about 2 miles from my home. Ironically, this was posted by a Mr. Dick Deluxe, who I coincidentally was going to write about in tomorrows post...stay tuned for that.



It pales to folks in the Gulf Region who regularly put up with hurricane conditions, and certainly doesn't compare with natural disasters like we have in Haiti presently, but if there's a God up there, he's obviously MAD.

This past few days of sogginess reminding me of this little ditty written by Shel Silverstein:



It's a cute story of course, but we all know that the real cause of the unicorn's extinction was simply that they're DELICIOUS! If you've never had a good unicorn butt steak, you haven't lived!

Their ground up horns were a sought after aphrodesiac too.

See ya tomorrow!

Shel Silverstein - A bald, cartoonist, songwriter who liked to go barefoot. My hero!

Born in 1930, Shel Silverstein would have been just 79 years old today, but he left us too soon in 1999. 69 years that he really filled up with adventure, wonder, bawdiness, and love of wine, women and song. Then he passed it on to us.

Shel was a cartoonist for Playboy magazine, Stars and Stripes magazine, folksinger, songwriter, children's book author and poet.

Here's Johnny Cash to tell you a little about Shel and introduce him:

Some of the books he's written are:

Wonderful stories and poems all illustrated with his deceptively simplistic, but never simple cartoons. All works of art in my book.

He was also a prolific songwriter. A lot of folks sold a lot of records thanks to Uncle Shelby. Before I show you a few of them, I want to get my 2 cents in.

Here's my version of "Put Another Log on the Fire". A Shel song first made popular by Tompall Glazer on "Wanted: The Outlaws" the first big outlaw country album in the early 70's. Featuring Tompall, Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter and Willie Nelson it was the first country album to ever go Platinum.

The Irish Rovers with "The Unicorn":

Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. Their first 3 albums were written entirely by Shel. Then they sunk into 70's MOR crap. Here's two from their heyday.

"Cover of the Rolling Stone":

"Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball":

Bobby Bare doing "The Mermaid":



And Johnny Cash backed by Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Two, "A Boy Named Sue":



Back to his children's work..."The Giving Tree"

A parade of Shel's characters:

Shel is one of my heroes whom I've never really researched his personal life. I'm kind of afraid to.

After all the wonderful worlds and characters he's created, I think I'd be afraid to find an ordinary guy back there. And maybe a little comforted too.

Thanks Uncle Shelby for all the songs and cartoons. You are really missed.

Un Interlude Musical de Jeff Overturf, Troisieme Mouvement de Sept

Thanks for dropping by for the third movement in my seven day musical interlude and second part of my "Rusty" love song trilogy. For more on "Rusty" click here, and for part one click here.

"The Silver Dollar..." bar, saloon, tavern, what-have-you. There must be one in every part of the western U.S., and I'll bet every one has a "Rusty". This is a Shel Silverstein song about such a not-so-imaginary-place and a not-so-imaginary-woman and the other denizens there. Originally performed by "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show" brought to you now with my stink on it.

We've all been having fun pointing at "Rusty", but it's important to remember, "Rusty"'s aren't born...they're made. So who's to bless and who's to blame?