Friday, June 25, 2010

The "Big Hair and Plastic Grass" Friday Five

After dinner tonight, my son and I walked over to a book-signing at the wonderful neighborhood bookstore/cafe/bar The Book Cellar. The book is an account of the weird and wacky seventies era of baseball.




We thoroughly enjoyed it. The author, Dan Epstein, did a reading, mostly from the chapter on the hideous uniforms of the era. As you can see, Mr. Epstein dressed the part (they were also playing '70's funk hits before the reading). He was funny and charming, and we had a ball. I bought Adam a copy and bought a copy for my old friend Jamie, who just had another, unexpected, surgery on his leg (he had a knee replacement a few weeks ago). He once met Cubs player Jose Cardenal, who had some of the biggest hair in the majors, when he was a kid. Afterward, we went up to get Mr. Epstein to sign the books. I told him that I was supposed to go to the biggest seventies baseball event ever, the Disco Demolition at Comiskey Park. Epstein signed Jamie's book "May the power and glory of Jose Cardenal's 'Fro be with you always...Dan Epstein."

We came home and my stepdaughter returned from a trip with a friend of hers with a Scattegories game she'd picked up for a buck at a garage sale. We played several games of this. Now my daughter's watching outtakes from "Rent" and Adam and I are watching "The Great Escape." All in all, a delightful evening.


1. Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys- Willie Nelson
2. Rock and Roll All Night- KISS
3. Happy Xmas (The War Is Over)- John Lennon
4. Shot By Both Sides- Magazine
5. Arc Of A Diver- Steve Winwood


Notes:
1. I love to karaoke this one.
2. I'm not a huge KISS fan, but love this one.
3. One of my favorite Christmas songs from one of my favorite athiests
4. A seventies punk classic
5. A big comeback song for Winwood, in 1981.

4 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

That has got to be the best ever autograph message to put in a book!

You are so lucky to be able to walk to places like your neighbourhood cafe/bookstore. The suburbs do not lend themselves to such activities, sadly.

SkylersDad said...

What a fantastic thing to put into your book!

Churlita said...

That reading sounds really cool.

Arc of a Diver is such a huge nostalgia song for me. It reminds me so much of high school.

Erik Donald France said...

Sounds like tons of 70s fun!

We need a new song: Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Bankers or CEOs . . . Now Cowboys Would Be Just Fine . . .