All Over the Place

No rhyme or reason.

Northampton's Jim Neill is shown here with former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. Sheesh, Byrne is almost unrecognizable. Good thing I haven't gotten any older.

 




Can you imagine what kinds of pressure you must be under if you're a son of Hugh Hefner? Then again, can you imagine what advantages there must be to being a son of Hugh Hefner. The Playboy mogul's son's gave a rare interview recently as reported in FoxNews. 

Despite having grown-up with a father who has always had bundles of busty blonde babes floating around, Hugh Hefner’s son Marston has no desire to follow in his footsteps.

"I’m not going to have multiple girlfriends— not at the same time. I can’t imagine doing that," the 18-year-old told the 55th Anniversary edition of Playboy Magazine.

But while flocks of females isn’t Marston's fantasy, becoming men’s magazine moguls is definitely in the dreams of both he and brother Cooper.

"I definitely want to be involved with the company— if I were to take over the company or have a say in what’s going on, I’d want the girls to be presented more as they were in the pictorials back in the 1950s and 1960s—kind of artsy, classy. I would like to bring back that retro-class feel," 17-year-old Cooper said, adding that having the Hefner name has been both a blessing and a burden in life.

"It’s not that I’m not a social person, because I enjoy spending time with people. But when I walk into a room, I feel that if they know who I am or they hear the last name, I’m going to be judged negatively as well as positively," he explained.

I imagine the worst pressure would be to be some kind of superstud like your old man. Can you imagine if you were Hef's son and realized you were gay? Personally I never told my Dad I was queer and he never asked. It was the only way we could have a relationship.

Van Dog shows that apathy is enthusiastically practiced at Holyoke public meetings.

Mike Henry won a t-shirt recently, one I could wear everyday.

In Springfield in the 1990's there used to be a great coffee shop/art gallery called SEE. Here is an old card from the joint I came upon recently.

I had some fun there, and its closing was a great cultural loss. 

Here's an update on my National Public Radio interview with Hwei-Ling Greeney (above) and when you might be able to hear some of it, as reported in the WFCR Winter Newsletter:

Starting January 14, 2009, WFCR and WNNZ will be broadcasting edited versions of StoryCorps interviews conducted in Springfield, Greenfield, Lenox, Northampton and Amherst.

"We are thrilled that these stories will be on the air," said Program Director Helen Barrington, "the interviews people did with those they care about are so moving and now they will become a more permanent part of the history of our region."

Storycorps is a national oral history project that has conducted over 21,000 interviews in more than 100 locations in 48 states. StoryCorps stories are archived at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

The stories will be heard on 88.5 FM WFCR and 640 AM WNNZ Wednesdays during Morning Edition at 6:33 amd 8:33 AM.

 

They got a lot of ice last week upstate, but most of our Valley was spared. However, things got pretty icy way up on Mt. Tom, as Jim Ingram reports via video. Dig the sound of the wind through the icy trees. 

 

Out in Oregon Captain Skypilot Ken Babbs the Intrepid Traveler reports hail stones as big as eggs.

On the bike path near my house a Led Zeppelin fan has let his presence be known.