State of Green Indiegogo Campaign Almost Over. Check it Out!

As a rule, we tend to shy away from crowdfunding campaigns as there are a zillion currently in progress and we don't have any money anyway. Once we mocked one, "Sammy Hagar's Kid and the Dark Side of Crowd Funding" and we once endorsed the "Who Is Lydia Loveless?" campaign.

So here comes #3. Why, you ask? Adam Rich has been a friend of Watershed for over two decades and his campaign seemed so heartfelt and reasonable it was worth a mention. Please give it a look and help him reach his $600 goal.

Click here to check out "It's All About the Smiles: State of Green DVD Indiegogo campaign. It ends in two days so the clock is ticking.

"50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Stones" on the Rock and Roll Book Club Podcast

It's about 24 hours until The Rolling Stones take the stage in Columbus, OH. So if you haven't read 'Rocks Off: 50 Tracks That Tell the Story of the Stones' by now, it probably ain't happening. No worries, our pals at the Rock and Roll Book Club have you covered as they review and discuss this excellent Stones book written by Bill Janovitz. Click the link below and get your head crammed full of good Stones knowledge to get you primed for the show. 

Do yourself a favor and click here to give it a listen. on the excellent Rock and Roll Book Club Podcast.     

And click here for the best Rolling Stones story ever. Promise.

I Really Don't Care About the NBA, But Go Cavs! by Greg May

Honestly, I don't give a shit about the NBA. I like college basketball, mostly because of the NCAA tournament. which I believe to be one of the more compelling and pure sporting events each year. But the NBA bores me to tears. With that being said ... Go Cavs!  Call me a frontrunner, a bandwagoner or whatever you want. Just don't call me an NBA fan.

My reason for rooting for the Cavs is pretty simple. I have been a Browns fan all my life. I'm convinced that there is some kind of negative force field, hex, curse ... whatever you want to call it .. that is keeping the city down. And for some desperate reason I believe that if the Cavs win the NBA Championship the city karma will be equalized and all will be right again on the North Coast, allowing the Browns to stop sucking and Johnny Eightball to lead them to the playoffs this year. (What, no Super Bowl title, you ask? Even in a state of equalized karma the Browns just barely make the playoffs this year. Baby steps.)

So, go Cavs! And to be honest, I have actually enjoyed watching these games a lot more than I thought I would. LeBron has been clanking iron like a blacksmith, Kyrie's sitting on the bench, and yet the Cavs just keep rolling thanks to guys like Tristan Thompson, Matthew Dellavedova and of course J.R. Smith, who made a team record eight 3-pointers in game 1 of the Easter Conference finals, then explained after the game how difficult it is for him to pass the ball. You have to admit, his honesty is refreshing.

Speaking of J.R., here's a video I found that made me laugh so hard I tinkled in my pants a little bit. Go Cavs! #BallinWithLeBron

Attempted Suicide Stopped by the Rolling Stones. Listen to Ricki C. Tell the True Story on 614Cast

Hey gang, Colin here. As I've said many times, Ricki C. is my favorite rock n roll storyteller. In my humble opinion, everything he posts on Pencilstorm is pure gold, as good as any rock story you will read in ANY publication. But of all his great writings, I think his essay, "The Bathtub" could be on the short list of greatest rock stories ever told. It originally appeared on his old MySpace page, and in his former blog "Growing Old with Rock n Roll" and then Joe Oestreich made sure it was published in the footnotes/index to his acclaimed Watershed memoir, "Hitless Wonder - A Life in Minor League Rock n Roll". (In fact, just the footnotes to Joe's book are better than Butch Walker's actual books. Seriously, thumb through a copy and prove me wrong.)

Anyway, with the Rolling Stones coming to town, we decided to team up with the very cool and new Six One Four Podcast so Ricki C. could tell the story of "The Bathtub" himself. Please do yourself a favor and give it a listen. I promise you'll be glad you did.

Click Here to listen to Colin and Ricki C. telling the story of "The Bathtub" on the 614Cast. They start at the 27 minute mark after the excellent Eric Davidson interview. 

The Bathtub by Ricki C.

I was 13 years old in October 1965.  Eighth grade just was not working out.  I had been a shy, book-reading child, now hormones were kicking in.  I loved rock & roll but I just knew I was NEVER going to know how to talk to girls.  (This was years before I got a hold of a guitar.)  One really bad Saturday night I decided to kill myself.  I had it all worked out.  I’d seen a movie just that week about a guy getting electrocuted when a radio fell into the bathtub he was in.  (I was a very impressionable child.)

After everybody had left for the evening (my mom and dad were working their second jobs, my sister was on a date, my brother was at the bar) I went around the house and found a radio with a cord long enough to reach the bathtub.  I ran the bath, plugged in the radio, settled into the warm water, said a little prayer for forgiveness, and let the radio drop.  What I hadn't factored in was that although the cord was long enough to reach the tub, I hadn't filled it full enough.  Right when the radio hit the water the plug pulled out.  I got a nasty shock, I was seeing big purple and black blobs in my field of vision, but it didn't kill me.

I lifted the radio out and laid there in the water a few minutes to let my head clear.  I got out and ran some more water in the tub until I was certain I had the right water level for the job at hand.  I plugged the radio back in and what was playing?  "Get Off My Cloud" by The Rolling Stones.  I stood there naked – dripping & chilly, eighth-grade skinny – and listened to the entire song.  Right at that moment I quite literally loved that song more than I loved life itself.  And then a thought came very clearly into my head: "What if the next Rolling Stones single is even BETTER than this one, and I never get to hear it?"

I set the radio down on the sink, got back in the tub, took a bath and went to bed.  If "Danke Schoen" by Wayne Newton or "Roses Are Red" by Bobby Vinton had been playing at the moment I plugged that radio back in I'd be dead now.  Long live The Rolling Stones.  So began a life of rock & roll.  Thanks Mick, Keith, Brian, Bill & Charlie.

© 2005 Ricki C.

Thank You For Your Service and Sacrifice

Just this past week, my son went on his eight grade Washington D.C. trip.  He won an essay contest about patriotism & sacrifice and was chosen with three other students to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery.  It was a once in a lifetime honor and I’m an extremely proud father.  Not just because he did this, but more so because he understands the significance.

As I watched video of my son laying the wreath on the Tomb, I thought about the soldier in that Tomb.  No one knows his name or where he’s from.  But also - somewhere there’s a father, mother, son, or daughter who is wondering if that is the remains of their Loved One in that Tomb.

The servicemen & women who have died for our country have given us a tremendous gift, but the loved ones that they’ve left behind have also sacrificed for the Red, White, and Blue.  They are wives who’ve struggled to raise a family as a single parent. They are sons and daughters who don’t have a father to cheer for them on the sidelines of a soccer game or a mother to nurture them and hold them when they cry.  They are dads who don’t get to walk their daughters down the aisle and moms that don’t get flowers from their sons on Mother’s Day.

There are families that have been able to bring their Loved One home and honor them in a military burial.  But there are those who have lost that have never recovered any remains.  All they have is a memory and the hope that one day, they’ll be found.

So this Memorial Day, before you baste that first chicken-wing with BBQ sauce on the grill, before the friends and family come over, and even before you ice the beer in the cooler - drop your head for a moment and remember our fallen soldiers.  Say a little thank you for their sacrifice.  And remember those that they’ve left behind.

Wal Ozello is the author of the science fiction time travel books, Assignment 1989 and Revolution 1990 and a frequent customer at Colin's Coffee.  He’s never served in the military, but is extremely grateful for the men and women who have served.