Monthly Archives: June 2008

Doug — always a star in my eyes

People, Television, , , , , , ,

Remember Doug? My friend and hairstylist? Did I mention in that earlier post that Doug is also a singer-songwriter? Nope? Well, my mistake. Doug’s a darn good singer-songwriter.

Country Doug

He’s also a great sport and recently began to enter contests. Not counting hair-related contests, he has entered at least three contests in the past couple of years, all involving music. The first was a challenge to write a new tune for the Choc Full o’ Nuts jingle. He wrote a few and made it to the finals with at least one of them. (I’ll check other computers to see if I have a copy).

Not long after that, Doug entered an American Idol contest to come up with an original song for that show. He wrote and sang Dream Come True for that contest.

Most recently Doug entered to become a contestant on Nashville Star — country & western’s answer to American Idol. His email about his experience had the whole family in stitches. Doug seemed to have had a lot of fun at the audition:

“Friday March 14, Westin Grand Hotel in DC, near GWU. Open call. I arrive at 11:30 am and enter a line 2 blocks long. I have long, straightened hair, and a redneck bandanna. In a sea of cowboy hats and boots, I am the only bandanna-guy…

…I decided that if I was fortunate enough to make the call-back,I would slip quietly through the door, not calling attention to myself. Or so I thought. When you were in the next group of five waiting to audition, they had you sit down in a little row of seats, with bright lights and cameras on you (all day extensive footage was being filmed). I had a metal tuning fork, and would tap my head with it, then hold it to my ear to get my note….

…I was the last of the three, and heard the cheers as the other two made their entrances. Now it was my turn, and the staff wanted a BIG entrance. “Ready? OK, IT’S YOUR TIME! GO! GO!!!” So I leapt through the door, and with no idea what to do, found myself pumping my arms in the air, and shouting “SHAZAAM!!” at the top of my lungs…. and you could have heard a pin drop. No one other than the camera man was expecting a third person through the door!!! So my entrance caused people to turn my way, and the camera was put in my face with me laughing like crazy and feeling like a huge idiot. The interviewer said, “Tell us about that tuning fork. You must really want to sing on key”. And with no hesitation, I blurted out, “No, that’s not for singing, I just like to smack myself in the head sometimes. It keeps me in line”.”

Well, Doug didn’t make the cut, but he did make the Nashville Star TV commercial and part of his audition is on YouTube (see below). He’s also in the sideshow on the Nashville Star website. He’s the one in the black bandanna, just to the right of the Nashville Star logo. Click the image to enlarge it. Or click here to see the image with Doug highlighted.

Q: How is a bonsai tree like a pet turtle?

Death, , , ,

A: It is sometimes hard to tell if they are dead or alive.

When I was a kid my brother and I had a pet turtle like the one to the left. It lived in a tank on my dresser in a shallow bowl in the bedroom we shared. We took turns feeding it. I don’t remember what it ate. Probably turtle chow.

Anyway, at one point I noticed that it liked to hang out on a particular rock. It always seemed to be there, no matter what time of day. I feared the worst, but when I brought up the turtle’s rock favoritism with my mom she said it was probably hibernating or at least slowing down since it was winter. After a few weeks the turtle bowl began to stink, my mom and brother agreed that the turtle was dead, especially after they noticed it’s eyes were missing. We may have had a funeral for it or maybe we just flushed it down the toilet. All I remember is thinking that a dead thing had been in my room for a month.

Ok, flash forward about 40 years. My daughter has been asking us for a bonsai tree for a few years and we happened to be at the National Arboretum during their annual bonsai festival and sale. We bought her a Fukien Tea Tree that was just about to bloom. The woman that sold it to us said it needed to be constantly moist and in full sun.

Well, we’re not so good with easy plants — after all we killed a perfectly healthy and huge jade tree and a 6 foot tall cactus simply by letting them be outside for a while.

So, remembering that, Clare tried to remember to keep the soil moist. I tried to remember to put the tree in full sun. But we have cats that think that all plants in the house are a tasty new snack, so we also had to remember to put the tree somewhere the cats couldn’t reach.

Then there was the day that we left it in the south facing window for 8 hours. It gets really hot in the south facing window. Especially when someone lowers the shade on the other side of the plant.

So you decide. Is the Fukien Tea Tree on the right, above dead or is there still hope?

Aren’t you proud I didn’t comment on the name of the tree?