To Boldly Go... To Vega$, with George Takei!

R.I.P., The Desert Inn, 1950 - 2000

VSDA-'93:

Vega$, baby: staying at the Desert Inn.  The classiest and most understated of the casino hotels.  Where Russ Meyer had shot those magnificent stills of Uschi Digart in the roaring '60's.  One morning, running late and headed to the Hilton for a long day in the Video Software Dealers Association (home video biz) exhibit hall, I blast out of my room into the hall and nearly flatten the fellow from across the hall who's doing the same.  Sulu: George Takei!

Desert Rat George Takei

"Headed to the show?" I ventured, thinking fast.  "Yes, as a matter of fact!" His voice was smooth and soothing, and his wide smile practically beamed.  I thought his face looked buffed and polished, like he'd just come from a spa treatment.  "Share a cab?" I suggested.  "I'd love to," said Lieutenant Sulu. "But I'm meeting my agent here for breakfast first. Come by the Paramount booth!"  I promised I would, but never made it to the autograph-signing.  No matter.

I had dinner with Russ Meyer that evening, and told him about my brush with Hikaru Sulu.  "That cat?? He's light in the loafers!" exclaimed Meyer.  "Isn't he President of the California State Sunbathing Association?!?!" 


See also:  Hob-Nobbing with Nimoy

Russell Smith & Co. - In Studio with the Amazing Rhythm Aces

All The Aces: Russell & ARA

Christmas week, 1977 I was in Nashville with my girlfriend's family, visiting her songwriter brother.  One night that week we went by, late, to the Jack Clement Recording Studios where Casey had lately been doing session work.

Tennessee band Amazing Rhythm Aces was in town and in tight, and laying down vocal tracks that evening for the album "Burning the Ballroom Down."  A bottle of Jack Daniel's sour-mash whiskey helped Russell Smith get exactly the right pitch and growl.  I was thrilled to watch Russell's painstaking process of one take after another singing the lead to two songs: the greazy, Skynyrd-esque "A Jackass Gets His Oats," and the one that ended up to be the album-closer, "Spirit Walk."

I've made the Nashville scene again, been in the studio on other occasions, and seen bigger stars, but this seminal evening, for me, was the fascinating topper.  Hard work and good fun, - with a great result!

"Still and all, her legs were long..."

Russell Smith & James H. Brown, Jr.

Coffee with Mariel - My Personal Best

Let Me Hear Your Body Talk, Mariel Hemingway

A perk of my service at Discovery Channel: to represent Discovery's interests on the planning committee setting up the first annual Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival in the early '90's.


As you can imagine, this involved very hard work visiting Jackson Hole, scouting party locations, and rubbing elbows with the beautiful people.


None more beautiful than Mariel Hemingway.  As the first Festival unfolded, with all the action centered in and around the spectacular Jackson Hole Lodge, the coffeeshop became the place to go for meetings and schmoozing.  So there we were on the second morning, tucking into pastries and coffee ourselves, when in walked Mariel, husband, and trailing producer.

Coffee Was Enough - DAYENU !!

She was pitching a crusading wildlife film on - who knows what - and sat down right across the counter from us.

At a not quite intimate distance, Mariel and I faced each other for about ten minutes.

I caught her eye and smiled. She ordered her coffee black.  She smiled. And that's it.

It was enough!

"... and she drank the good coffee, and it was good."

In Orbit with John Glenn

Fleeting or harrowing? Take your pick:

In 1966, my father arrived home breathless one evening for dinner, to share the story that he'd just met a spaceman!  Evidently, on entering the stately front door of the Lord Jeffery Amherst Inn (then "A Treadway Resort") on the town common in Amherst that day, whom did he meet exiting the lobby with suitcase in hand?  American hero John Glenn.  The meet-up at the Lord Jeff was a fleeting moment, made smooth by my father speaking up "Hello, Mr. Glenn! May I get that door for you?" as he welcomed the spaceman.  "Thank you," said our visiting astronaut.

Flash forward to 2004:

Back to the Beach: In Orbit Again

Semper Fi Spaceman

In intervening years, this Marine had served the state of Ohio as an able Senator (1974-1999), considered running for President (1980, 1984; his slogan was "Soar to New Heights"), been punched in the face by a lunatic (1989), and returned to orbit (1998).

Now, in the summer of 2004, I was handling a music project for Discovery Channel in the new Silver Spring, MD Global HQ, and Senator Glenn made a VIP appearance for an after-hours event connected with a Discovery programming stunt on Astronomy ("Quark Week"?).  From 5:30 to 7:00 one weekday evening, we milled around the ground floor lobby with drinks before filing into the auditorium to hear Founder and Chairman John Hendricks, son of a Huntsville, AL space program engineer himself, introduce John and promote the new extravaganza.

I'd met Buzz Aldrin (he narrated my "Beyond Planet Earth" CD-ROM project and did a number of other TV projects for Discovery), and found him to be a bit of a self-promoter; I always thought he'd carried a chip on his shoulder about letting Neil get his boot down first.  Since Glenn seemed to have more of the Right Stuff, I took the opportunity to shake his hand.  I mentioned my father's 1966 adventure and made an ersatz "orbital/rotational gesture" with my arm as I said something about "coming full circle," and added something about it being a "small world."  Glenn politely picked up on these (through gritted teeth, I suspect) - he  didn't recall the kindness at the Lord Jeff, but smiled genuinely and said "I'm sure I appreciated that!" and he laughed when I told him that my mother had always admonished my brothers and me when bathing, to "Be careful - you know John Glenn slipped and hurt his head in the bathtub!"

Two mornings later before dawn - less than 48 hours after the soiree - with nobody present - a large pane of window glass fell ten stories down through the atrium into the Discovery Channel lobby, exploding like a galaxy of stars as it shattered in a zillion pieces.  Had this happened two evenings before, it could have been a disaster.

Living dangerously in orbit, in the bathtub, in Discovery Channel HQ:
God Speed, John Glenn!

Glenn/Porter '84

"Good Luck, Mr. Aldrin"

Neil Armstrong

I'm Just Wild About Larry Lucchino

I will begin with a soda...  then move on - and if last season's $6.50/can Bud Light is now $7 or $7.50 at Fenway - we'll call it a sign of economic recovery.

Manna from heaven...

Great surprise birthday gift was pair of tickets to today's Boston Red Sox home ope-nah v NYY.  That's my invitation to tell you about meeting and working with club owner Larry Lucchino to set up a pay TV deal for his baseball team - only it was the Baltimore Orioles, and the time was 1982.

Larry was the up-and-comer in Williams & Connolly, Washington DC "power law firm" helmed by formidable litigator and then Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams.  As Edward's young, can-do right hand guy, Larry oversaw all the business dealings - with the TV rights, the stadium, the licensing, the players' association, and the MLB.

I was the junior kid on a four person consulting project that helped structure the business partnership resulting in Home Team Sports - a collaborative venture among the Orioles, Bullets (now Wizards), Capitols, and Westinghouse's cable TV unit.

Pop-eyed! Good ol' Hazel Mae & Larry on NESN

We had Larry in our McLean, VA offices all the time, and as the short-straw newcomer I was often dispatched to tear downtown in my '74 Nova to deliver our work to the grand W&C offices astride Farragut Square on Connecticut Avenue.

The project was a fruitful one, and Larry's career even moreso, ultimately landing him in Boston with the greatest ball team of all.  When I learned my paesano Larry Lucchino had joined the Sox ownership team, I knew we were headed for good times - and the Series rings of 2004, 2007 and - shortly - 2011 all attest in part to Larry's sharp business instincts as well as to his love of the game.

According to Wikipedia, Larry has World Series rings (Orioles '83, Sox '04/'07), a Super Bowl ring ('83, as Williams owned the Redskins), and a Final Four watch ('65 - he was a teammate of Bill Bradley on the Princeton Tigers squad).  The only person in history to obtain all three.

The Boston Globe believes that the team and the ownership are all on the same page, at the moment. And as President, Larry is seeing to it that Boston does not get overbid by the Yankees:

Said Lucchino, “John, Tom, all of us. We emphasize the commitment to winning to our players. We understand that’s the central purpose of this game.’’ That commitment has come at a high price. The Sox, Lucchino revealed, paid approximately $85.5 million to Major League Baseball’s revenue-sharing fund last year and an additional $1.3 million in competitive balance tax.

Only the Yankees, Lucchino said, paid more.

“We do know that we have an intense rivalry with those guys,’’ Lucchino said. “We’ve got to be aggressive with our finances and we’re willing to do that.’’

If that's where my extra dollar for canned beer goes - to fend off the Yankees - then join me and we'll have another round!

Tony C. : paesano

Opening Day Reminiscence:
The '67 Impossible Dream season saw the Sox win the AL Championship and go to the 7-game limit with Bob Gibson and the Card's, but lose Tony Conigliaro to a terrible late season bean-ball injury.  In years following, MA public school teachers used to let us brats tune in the opening game on TV during grade school and junior high.

After missing the 1968 season, Tony C returned 42 years ago on this day, April 8, 1969 to pop a tenth inning 2-run HOMAH and beat the Baltimore Orioles 5-4.  I saw the Principal of my elementary school, Justin O'Connor, cry that day.

Home Opening Day:
I am as excited today as I was in 1969!


Post script:
Sox beat Yankees 9-6 for first win of the season - a glorious game.
YAZ threw out first pitch, PA system played Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day" at flag drop, Air Force flyover before, and Navy soloist delivered BOLD 5th inning "God Bless America"

 Plastic cup: $8.50 Sam Adams Summer Ale, $8.00 Bud Light!

Alan Cranston and the First "Pulled Punch"

"President Cranston"

Two tables away, while I enjoyed a planter's punch before a lovely dinner on the tiny porch of the Sea Catch Grill, overlooking the Georgetown Canal: Alan Cranston (D., CA).  At the time - a spectacular sunny May evening in 1988 -  he was Democratic whip in the Senate.

Sea Catch: Where I Dined with Golden State Longshot

I had a generally favorable view of Cranston then, although this was during a period when I was actively not following politics.  Nevertheless, the thought occurred to me then and there - for the first time - that a benefit of living in Washington DC is that one might, at any moment, find oneself in good position to throw a drink in the face of a public figure.  The enviable position.

Instead, upon paying the bill, we squeezed by his table and my dinner partner, a CA constituent, introduced herself to Senator Cranston and wished him well.

All smiles, we left the restaurant, but the impulse lingered

... and it lingers still.