| In 1967…
|
| Jose Martin “Joey / Accordion Guy” deVilla is born in Manila, Philippines.
Also born this year: Dave Matthews, Kurt Cobain, Liz Phair, Vin Diesel, Julia Roberts, and Anna Nicole Smith.
Ferdinand Marcos is president of the Philippines. Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the US, the next country in which I live. Lester B. Pearson is prime minister of Canada. my current home. Love is a Many Splendored Thing debuts on US daytime television and is the first soap opera to deal with an interracial relationship. CBS censors find it too controversial and ask for it to be stopped, causing show creator Irna Phillips to quit. President Johnson and Soviet premiere Aleksei Kosygin agree not to let any crisis push them into war. The X-15 research aircraft with Chuck Yeager establishes a speed record of Mach 6.7. Thurgood Marshall is sworn in as the first black Supreme Court justice. The first home microwave is released by Amana. St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series. Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl I. The Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. They have not won it since. Disney’s The Jungle Book and The Graduate are the top grossing films The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is founded. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is published. Paul McCartney announces that all four members of the Beatles have “dropped acid”. For the first time, Jimi Hendrix sets his guitar on fire during a concert in London. Canada celebrates its first one hundred years of Confederation. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released. The first issue of Rolling Stone magazine is published. US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Sesame Street ensues. The FCC orders that cigarette ads on television, radio and in print must include a warning about the health risks of smoking. And finally: The United States Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declares all U.S. state law which prohibit interracial marriage to be unconstitutional. That’s gonna come in pretty handy next year,
|
Category: It Happened to Me
Categories
Big Weekend Coming Up
This is a big weekend for Yours Truly for a couple reasons. There’s the
party (email me at accordionguy you-know-what-symbol gmail
you-know-what-punctuation-mark com if you’re in Accordion City and would like to attend), but even more importantly, this is the weekend when Wendy
and her parents fly in for the Meeting of the Parents. This is not new
territory for me, as our family did this back in 1999 when we first met
my brother-in-law’s folks (this meeting gets some mention in the final installment of my Worst Date Ever story).
This is also the weekend that I give Wendy her ring. It’s a little bit
unusual and a little bit flash. Perfect for the special lady who wants
to spend the rest of her life with me.
Robertson and I did some party shopping yesterday evening. First Costco
for food and mix, followed by a trip to the beer store. I’m supplying
microbrew this year, all from the Wellington Brewery: Beehive Honey Lager, Wellington Special Pale Ale and Wellington County Dark Ale. In honour of the engagement, I’m also serving Ring Pops.
an old friend of Wendy whom I met in July, arrives in Toronto Friday
night. Dave, I’m hoping to show you a little bit of the ol’ stomping
ground — perhaps Smokeless Joe for some fine ales or the Bovine Sex Club for some disreputable drinkin’!
I can guarantee that an ambulance guy will show up sometime at the party, but I assure you it’ll be good news. Tom “Random Acts of Reality” Reynolds
is flying from London to Accordion City to attend the bash. Tom, you
have earned the party’s Phineas Fogg award for being the guest who
travelled the greatest distance to attend the party.
(Tom’s blog, which details stories about his life in the London
Ambulance Service, is a gripping read — it earned him an interview in The Guardian.)
I have a Shaun of the Dead trucker cap that I keep forgetting to send to Suw “Chocolate and Vodka” Charman, who is possibly the world’s biggest fan of that movie. I’m going to give it to Tom to bring back to her.
Here are two more videos from Friday’s event, Mysterion the Mind
Reader’s Haunted Hotel Halloween Hoopla. Both are of the “psychobilly”
local band The Matadors. The first is of their audio-animatronic
skeleton introducing them; the second is a snippet of their rip-roarin’
performance.
These files are included as attachments, so if you’re reading this on a web page, click here to get them.
Those of you reading with aggregators that can “see” RSS 2,0 enclosures
should be able to grab them — I think. Let me know what you see!
The setting for the previous entry reminds me of a joke I used to love telling:
I just got an email from my friend Karen B., who wrote in response to the invitation to my party this Saturday:
Also, I met an old friend of yours… as we’re hoity-toitying around the National Club, the subject of accordions comes up, and the woman I’m speaking with says, “you don’t mean Joey Devilla, do you?”
The woman who asked turned out to be an old friend of mine from high school.
My question is: How does the subject of accordions come up in a “normal” conversation, especially at a snooty private club?
For your entertainment, I present to you a number of movies that I shot
at Friday’s event, Mysterion the Mind Reader’s Haunted Hotel Halloween
Hoopla. The movies included with this entry are attachments; click here
to download them.
They are:
- Two videos showing Mysterion bending a spoon using naught but his mind powers
- Meryle, in her stage persona Penny Whistleton, performing a burleque number loosely based on Madame Butterfly (safe for work)
- A “Poison Ivy” burlesque number (safe for work)
- A “Clockwork Orange” burlesque number (may not be safe for work)
Meryle performing her number.
The scene: My coworker Kim’s Halloween party. My housemate Paul (who is American and whose parents live in Florida) is having a conversation about the election.
Paul: I voted with an absentee ballot, and I’m registered to vote in Florida.
Jen: Florida? Aren’t you worried that your vote will get lost or miscounted?
Paul: No, I told them I was white.