So much stuff happening in November! Put on your seat belts and be sure to obey the speed limit cuz this is going to be a long sweet-ass ride!

Monday morning at 8am, we’ll be calling our very first Workforce Payroll name! Keep listening because we call a new name at the top of every hour until 4pm each weekday. No better time to be a Workforce Member and win $100 bucks an hour on the KGON Workforce Payroll baby!

 

 

 

Plus, this Monday ONLY, from 10am until 10pm, Workforce Members can purchase KISS tickets for $9.23 each! And these are not 300 hundred level nose bleeds, these are 100 LEVEL! There are only 1000 available at that price so check your email at 9am Monday morning for the link and password, exclusive to KGON Workforce Members! We’ll be having a KISS pre-concert party on November 17th with KISS hair and makeup and some good old fashioned KISS Karaoke! Stay tuned for more details.

And last but not least- we are kicking off our 10th Annual KidsGiving campaign, helping kids in need in our own backyard. Our 2nd Annual Food Drive is scheduled for Thursday, November 19th. We’ll be broadcasting live from 7am until 7pm at the Johnson Creek Fred Meyer, collecting for for the Oregon Food Bank and the Community Transitional School and giving away amazing prizes all day long. Mark your calendars and stop by to hang out with the KGON crew. It’s our favorite day of the year.

It’s even more exciting this year because we are helping the Community Transitional School give away a 2010 Chevy Camaro. Raffle tickets are only $25 a piece and they are only selling 3000. I’m not very good at math but I think those are pretty good odds. Details about the Camaro and how to purchas your tickets will be available right here on Monday, 11/2. Right as we kick off Workforce Payroll. And as we sell those KISS tickets for $9.23. Told ya- it’s going to be a great November. Happy Friday!

Buffalo Springfield, Poco, and Loggins and Messina had a common thread, and that was Jimmy Messina.  When I started loving these bands, I had no idea that was the case, and then I got into radio (as a child) and started reading the liner notes carefully.  Let me back up a bit.  I bought “Sittin’ In” when I first heard “House at Pooh Corner” on the radio.  I know, not very hip, but I was a huge fan of children’s literature (still am), and the fact that someone actually did a song about “that little bitty bear” just drew me in.  I loved it.  Still do.  Sing it to a child sometime and see how cool it really is.  The fun surprise was that the whole album was and is fantastic.  “Trilogy: Lovin’ Me/To Make a Woman Feel Wanted/Peace of Mind” is incredible.  “Back to Georgia,” “Listen to a Country Song,” “Nobody But You,” “Vahevala,” & “Danny’s Song” were all rolled out last night at the Schnitzer.  I’m not perfect on the set list because I didn’t write them down at the time, but here’s the rest of the songs that they did:  “Travelin’ Blues,” “Long Tail Cat,” “Angry Eyes, “Be Free,” “You Need a Man,” and “Your Mama Don’t Dance.”  I think that’s all.  I was spent. 

The band was incredible.  There was a saxophone duel between Steve Nieves and Big Jim Wheeler that just blew me away.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  Gabe Dixon, who opened the show, on keyboards was fantastic.  Steve Distanislao on drums and George Hawkins on bass provided the rhythm and depth to the sound.  Gary Oleyar played violin and a lot of other instruments as well.  What a talented gathering of musicians.

Kenny Loggins is just so much better with Jimmy Messina!  I’ve seen Kenny solo, and it just wasn’t anything close to what last night was.  The harmonies were amazing.  The banter between old friends was so much fun.  I could have stayed there for another couple of hours.

The audience was totally into it too…except for the couple right in front of me who were much more into their date night than the EVENT on stage.  From the moment they sat down during Gabe Dixon’s set, which was just Gabe on keyboards and vocals, and a guy doing percussion, this couple would not shut the hell up.  Seriously!  I have no idea why they even bothered coming into the show.  They just should have gone to dinner, or gotten a room, and chatted their fool heads off.  Plus, he was one of these guys with an exceptionally huge melon, so every time he moved in to chat with his date, it was like the eclipse of the moon.  They may have thought they were whispering, but after several wines, volume levels are off for the person who is at the receiving end of the grape.  I tried to ignore them, but we were sitting on the right side of the stage and to look at the performance, there they were.  I was very reserved considering my first thought was to tap them on the shoulder and say “Why not have a big glass of SHUTTY?”  But no.  I endured. 

After waiting for years to see this duo back together again, I should have no memory of the couple in front of me, but some people have absolutely no concert etiquitte.  They have no awareness of the world around them.  Like the guy who blew chips at the last Skynyrd show at Edgefield right in front of me.  I should remember the incredible keyboard beginning of Freebird which the late Billy Powell played and we will never see again, but no…there’s “that guy” that will always be part of the memory.

I’ve seen incredible shows, and many of them.  Mostly the ones that are crowd incident free are when I’m really close to the front, or in the front row of the balcony, and that’s my very favorite place to be. 

I’ve had several weird things happen like this at shows.  Last night was a light- weight situation really, it’s just that I’ve wanted to see Loggins and Messina for a really long time, and big head and girlfriend were just in the way.  That’s nothing compared to the Thorogood/ZZ Top show at the Rose Garden Arena where there was a couple that were actually having sex in front of our row.  Or the projectile vomit emitted at a Ted Nugent show at the coliseum from a fan.  Or the racist comments hurled at a young harmless couple who just wanted to dance at the McCartney show last time he was in Portland.  The guy who was drunk and yelling at the kids was “moved” to another area, but I swear I missed a quarter of the show while all this drama went on two seats away.  I bought those tickets.  I wanted a refund from the offending party, not to have him “moved” to avoid further conflict.  Or the drunk ya hoo who constantly was yelling “ROCK AND ROLL” during Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.”  I kid you not, it happened.  Here’s EC singing the song to his sweet little boy who died, and Mr. Dude is going to yell during the song. 

I don’t know what the answer to all this is other than not going to concerts, but that’s not an option for me.  I love the live show.  Give me that band on stage and a spot to stand or sit so I can listen and adore them and I’m a happy girl.  So, I guess I’m just asking for common courtesy here.  If you are with someone who insists on being an ass during a show, help take them out of the venue and put them in a cab heading for their home and out of our sight.  If you are  the ass in question, remove yourself.  Then try again some other day, and maybe less alcohol would be a nice idea. 

See you at the show…or maybe not.

I’m sure it’s because I was driving a shiny new bitchin’ Camaro, or possibly my short blond hair. It couldn’t have been my shiny black boots because you can’t see those while I’m driving.  Alas, I’ve had the Camaro for three days and already managed to get pulled over for speeding.

In my defense, I was only going 72 and traffic was heavy in the Terwilliger curves, I-5 Northbound at 1130am on a Tuesday. And I would have slowed down had the Portland Motorcycle cop not been hiding between two semi’s. I wasn’t even going all that fast! 72 in a 50?

Here’s the best part: I got out of the ticket! Here’s how it went down:
Officer: “Do you know why I pulled you over ma’am?”

Me: “No Sir, I have no idea!” (feigned surprise)

Officer: Well, the posted speed limit is 55 and it drops to 50 right here in the curves. I clocked you at 72, Ma’am. You were scootin’.”

Me: “Wow, I had no idea.” (Letting a worried look creep across my face, working on filling my eyes up with tears if need be, maybe a lip quiver.)

Officer: “Is this your car?”

Me: “No sir, it’s a station vehicle, a giveaway.” (more worried look)

Officer: “Do you have a driver’s license, can I see it?”

Me: “Of course, Sir.” (Always say sir or ma’am, totally shows respect. Always good to have a valid driver’s license, which I do. What I didn’t have yet was proof of insutrance. It was sitting on my desk back at work. Yeah, whoops. Thank God he didn’t even ask for it.)

So he goes back to his bike, cars whizzing by, and gets out his little thingy, runs my license and comes back with my ticket in his hand. My hands are shaking and I think it will be quite easy to produce a few tears should it come to it.

Officer: “I am going to give you a warning this time. Just slow it down for me.”

Me: “Thank you, Sir. I swear I will. I mean, I just got this car, I never drive it at all.”

And here’s the best part:

Officer: “I understand that ma’am, but all cars are the same, they all have a speedometer that tells you how fast you’re going. There’s nothing at all different about this car. Have a nice day”

Touche, Sir, touche.

I’d like to thank that cop for being so nice. I bet my own father would not have let me slide. I’d also like to thank Salon Nyla for giving me blond hair.

If you would like to speed in this totally hot, shiny new Camaro, please pay close attention in the upcoming weeks because you have a 1 in 3000 chance of winning it! Details to come shortly!

Seriously, how sexy is this car!!!?!!

That’s right! The KGON Workforce Payroll is back starting at 8am on Monday! Listen weekdays Monday through Friday 8am through 4pm as we call a Workforce Member name at the top of each hour. If you hear your name, you have 10 minutes to call in and start earning $100 bucks an hour. Click here for more details!

From RealSimple.com

There’s a reason for each and every sniffle, sneeze, ache, and pain. Learn why your body behaves the way it does, and discover the quickest ways to feel better.

The symptom: Sneezing

What it means: Your body is expelling bacteria and other particles with a sudden, involuntary burst of air. Don’t suppress a sneeze, as your body is trying to evict the irritants.

When to worry: Almost never, but if sneezing interferes with your life or persists after other symptoms are gone, talk to your doctor to find out if an allergy might be the cause.

Home remedies: Using Kleenex Anti-Viral tissues helps prevent the spread of viruses. No tissue? Sneeze into your upper sleeve, not your hands. You’ll be less likely to pass germs along.

Over-the-counter remedies: Some antihistamines (the sedating varieties) can help cut down on the sneeze reflex. But most experts advise you to leave this fairly innocuous symptom untreated.

RealSimple.com: The best drugstore cold and flu remedies

The symptom: Chills and fever

What it means: Chills are the way the body generates heat when it feels cold. They usually precede a fever, the body’s method for defending itself by raising its temperature to fight a virus.

RealSimple.com: What causes the cold or flu?

When to worry: Call your doctor if your temperature rises above 102 degrees, if a fever persists for 72 hours without breaking, or if you also have shortness of breath or dizziness.

Home remedies: To stay hydrated, sip your favorite liquids. Sponging off with warm water may also give you relief.

Over-the-counter remedies: Acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), or naproxen (Aleve) can lower a fever that’s making you uncomfortable.

The symptom: Sore throat

What it means: Mucus is dripping into the back of your throat, causing irritation and inflammation.

RealSimple.com: 8 sore-throat soothers

When to worry: If you have severe difficulty swallowing or breathing, call your doctor to rule out a more serious illness, such as a bacterial infection.

Home remedies: Gargle with warm salt water. Soothe a scratchy throat with liquids, such as caffeine-free tea and broth, or cool down a fiery one with an ice pop.

Over-the-counter remedies: Acetaminophen or ibuprofen will help decrease inflammation.

The symptom: Runny nose

What it means: Your body has stepped up mucus production to remove the cold or flu viruses from your nasal passages.

When to worry: If your health doesn’t improve after one week, you could have a bacterial sinus infection, which may require treatment with an antibiotic.

Home remedies: Drink fluids to thin mucus. Chicken soup may help reduce inflammation. Sniff gently into a tissue, as blowing hard can lead to sinus problems.

Over-the-counter remedies: Use a saline spray to help irrigate your nasal passages, or use an oral decongestant or an antihistamine Drixoral or Benadryl for example).

RealSimple.com: A glossary of medicine-cabinet must-haves

The symptom: Sinus pressure

What it means: Mucus has congested the nasal passages and may be trapped in the sinuses because they are not draining properly.

When to worry: If you have a fever of more than 102 degrees, you may have a bacterial infection, which can be treated with antibiotics.

Home remedies: Keep your sinuses moist by using a humidifier, or stand over a sink filled with hot water.

Over-the-counter remedies: A decongestant spray (such as Dristan or Afrin) can help ease congestion and swelling.

The symptom: Cough

What it means: A reflex that keeps the throat clear, a cough is triggered when excessive mucus (or some other irritant) has irritated the nerve endings in the respiratory tract.

When to worry: If you’re short of breath and coughing up blood or discolored mucus, you may have bronchitis, sinusitis, or pneumonia.

Home remedies: Skip the medicated cough drops; they have been proven ineffective. Instead, soothe an irritated throat with your favorite hard candy, or drink warm fluids.

Over-the-counter remedies: Products with pseudoephedrine work but can make you sleepy. Nondrowsy versions with phenylephrine aren’t as effective. Naproxen may reduce throat inflammation.

RealSimple.com: 12 health mysteries explained

The symptom: Swollen glands

What it means: Your lymph nodes are producing an army of infection-fighting cells to battle the invading virus.

When to worry: If your glands remain enlarged for several weeks after a cold or the flu is gone, that could be, in rare cases, a sign of a more serious illness, such as lymphoma.

Home remedies: There’s not much you can do to reduce swollen glands. They should return to normal within a few weeks.

Over-the-counter remedies: Other cold or flu symptoms will probably bother you more, but acetaminophen or ibuprofen can ease any discomfort caused by the engorged glands.

RealSimple.com: 10 things you should be doing to boost your immunity

The symptom: Body aches

What it means: More common with the flu, allover aches are a sign your body is releasing chemicals that help your white blood cells fight off infection.

When to worry: Only if the aches are incapacitating, which is rarely the case with a cold or the flu.

Home remedies: Get plenty of rest, and take warm baths to soothe your muscles –or try using a heating pad or a heated water bottle.

Over-the-counter remedies: Acetaminophen or ibuprofen will relieve the pain.

We have a bunch of very cool things coming up next month but the announcement coming tomorrow morning is going to knock your socks off! Get ready and be listening tomorrow morning! Nope- no hints. Just listen!

95,000 people at the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles last night for the U2 concert! 95,000 people? Holy crap! Mark & Brian were talking about it all morning. Apparently it took more than 3 hours to get out of the parking lot after the show! I hope there were porta potties in the lot for the ladies. That’s way worse than anything Clark County Amphitheater can throw at you.

U2’s stage set is too large for any venue here in Portland so unless they come to Seattle, we’re screwed. Speaking of U2, they were on the cover of Rolling Stone a couple of issues ago. Most boring article ever. I fell asleep twice while reading it.

 

But Madonna on the most current issue? Great article. She talks about her friendship with Sting, actually Sting’s wife Trudie, and how she feels he looks down on her as just a “pop star.” She says everytime she goes over to their house, he’s always sitting in the corner playing chess or some twleve string instrument she doesn’t even know the name of. Funny!

Comedian Soupy Sales, whose Soupy Sales Show made him one of the most popular comedians in the country during the 1960s, has died. He was 83, and was suffering from a variety of health problems.

Sales, born Milton Supman, was an honest-to-goodness, pie-in-the-face comedian — frequently punctuating bits with a cream pie in his face. Although his show had appeal to kids, the biting humor and dirty nature of many of his jokes made him immensely popular with adults. Perhaps his most controversial moment came on New Year’s Day in 1965. Aggravated that he had to work on the holiday, Sales instructed youngsters to go into their parents wallets, take out the “funny green pieces of paper with pictures of the U-S presidents, put them in an envelope and mail them to me. And I’ll send you a postcard from Puerto Rico!” Sales was then hit by a pie, but ended up with a lot of egg on his face when money turned up at the T-V studio. Sales apologized on the air, donated any money that couldn’t be returned to charity, and was suspended for two weeks.

Among those surviving sales are his sons Hunt and Tony Sales, who were in the band Tin Machine with David Bowie, and have played with such notables as Todd Rundgren and Iggy Pop.

This Sunday night at the Crystal Ballroom is the big fancy CD release party for N.E.D. the Band!  That stands for No Evidence of Disease.  You see, these are gynecological oncologists from across the country, who got together to form a band for a cause.  To inform and to raise money for research and prevention for women’s cancer.   I’m blessed to be one of the people who has danced with the cancer devil and is still here to tell the story.  I’ve blogged about it before, so keep scrolling down if you want the whole story.

This is just a little update.  One reason is that I’m going to be part of the event, doing what DJ’s do…announcing the bands and such.  The other is to let you know that there is a really wonderful interview that was done for the Metroscope show with MY doctor…Will Winter on the Audio Vault site.  I also play music from the CD on the interview.  Here, I’ll even give you a link to it so you won’t have to search.  Click here! 

I also wanted to put a link to their website because it’s really well done, and you can order the CD from Amazon.  You’ll love it.  It rocks.  I played “False Pretenses” for Concert Dave and told him that’s my doctor, and he thought it was really cool.  Yeah, me too.  I have to say again how beautiful and informative the liner notes are.  All the women in your world should know the things that the doctors have laid out in these notes.  It’s important.  I’m thankful that I knew what to be aware of and to be my own advocate…because it’s absolutely what saved my life.

Yes, I’m blessed.  Plus my Doc, ROCKS!

Just thinking about it, I’m as mad right now as I was in 1976.  That’s the year Tommy Bolin died, two days before my birthday.  That’s the year he was supposed to be the “NEXT BIG THING” with all kinds of promotion from his record company for the “Private Eyes” album.  But he died.  What a pisser. 

The reason this even came to mind was that a friend told me to take a look at something his garage band had posted on YouTube, and while looking at his video, I noticed the name Tommy Bolin on the little list to the right hand side.  Apparently the person who posted this video, also posted some Tommy stuff.  Sweet!  But I was instantly disappointed when I went there and found it was one of those “tribute” things with a song playing and a bunch of pictures scrolling during the song.  I wanted LIVE FOOTAGE.  So I kept looking and found this little gem.  Click here to check out the stuff from his days with Zephyr.  The quality sucks, but it’s Tommy, just ripping on guitar. 

Tommy Bolin was only 25 when he died of a drug overdose, and there are different stories about what and how many drugs he was using at the time.  I had a phone interview with him when I was a Monomaniac, and the thing I remember most about that interview was what his manager said to me prior to handing the phone to Tommy.  He said “when you get him on the phone, get right on the air, and keep it short because there’s a coherency issue here.”  Oh boy.  Here’s this sexy beautiful guitar hero who I have decided is my favorite rocker of all time, and this is going to be a mess.  I was already as anxious as I had ever been on the air up to that point except for my very first day on the radio in Eugene, and now I have to worry if he’s going to pass out during the interview.  So I followed directions, put him right on the air, and kept it short.  Of course there’s no tape of that interview.  I was horrible at keeping things like that in the start of my career.  I was, as they say way too often now, “living in the moment” most of the time.  I do remember asking him about my favorite song on the album “Post Toastee” and he told me that the fade at the end was because the record company thought that no radio station would ever play that long of a song.  So they faded it out.  He said it was originally over 15 minutes long.  Hey, we played, and still play, Peter Frampton’s “Do You Feel Like We Do!”  No problem with a good song.  We still play “Post Toastee” (and yes, that’s how it’s spelled on the album) every now and then, and every time it hits the air, someone calls and asks what that tune is with the incredible guitar.   “Bustin’ Out for Rosie” is pretty great too, as well as “Shake the Devil.” 

So back to the interview.  He was nice, soft spoken, didn’t slur his words, and said he would see me at the show.  Then the manager came back on the line and said I could come backstage and meet him before the show, which I did.  Again, he was nice, said thank you for playing the record, enjoy the show, all the stuff that artists say to geeky DJ’s, but he seemed…fragile.  Beautiful and breakable.  I left to go and hang out on the side of the stage for the show. 

The band stumbled on stage.  But when they started playing, it was amazing.  Tommy was a monster on guitar.  Norma Jean Bell kicked ass on the sax.  The two of them had this incredible interplay on “Post Toastee” live that I’ll never forget.  He may have been messed up at the time, but he sure did play the crap out of the guitar that night. 

While hanging around side stage, I mentioned to Bob Ancheta, who was still stage manager for the Paramount as well as PD and DJ for KVAN at the time, that it was a shame Tommy wouldn’t be with us for long.  It was one of those weird things to say, but I just had a feeling that it wouldn’t be long.  This was one time I really hated to be right. 

I had quit KVAN in November 1976 and went to stay with family in the L.A. area to “get my head together” about my next step.  Let me just say that coming from Portland to L.A. was not “grounding.”  Not in the least.  So on the day before my birthday I was so happy to hear B.A.’s voice on the phone with a birthday greeting.  Then he told me Tommy died. 

Fans of Tommy Bolin are a bit rabid.  I know that Janis, Jimi, and Jim all “went to heaven at 27″ but there was a LOT of film on all of them.  Not so much for Tommy.  There’s some here and there, and usually it’s horrible quality.  Or there’s stuff he did with the James Gang, and there’s some of him with Deep Purple too, but it’s also bad quality.  The stuff we fans want is when he had his own band.  The band I saw play in the Paramount in 1976.  Not only did Tommy die way too early in terms of his age and what he could have done, but because he wasn’t a huge star yet, there just isn’t the film that I’d love to see of him.  If technology in 1976 was like it is now we’d have a huge amount of film from phones or tiny little cameras in the audience.

He was an amazing artist, and died way too early. 

Pick up his solo CD’s if you can find them. ” Teaser” and “Private Eyes.”    I sometimes imagine what a 3rd solo album would have sounded like. 

Just a damn shame we never got one.