Elvis, Memphis, and the Queens of Comedy

Just a quick reference to this blog for when I read it later.  I am on my second week being house bound trying to avoid the corona virus.   Many people have posted online about all of the projects they have completed around their home.  They have posted all of the wonderful meals they have cooked.   Some talk about time bonding with family.  Me?   I have been sitting in my family room daily with the TV playing in the back ground.  I have not bothered to change out of my sweat suits.  My dog is gaining weight from sharing all of my snacks I have been eating while watching the TV.   And I am finding that I am not really hating it.  It's becoming my new norm.  I have travel plans that we cancelled which is minor in the grand scheme of things.   I collect coffee mugs when I travel.  So to entertain  myself I have been having my morning coffee in a different cup each day, and have posted a imaginary travel moment with the cup on Facebook each day.  This morning I used my Memphis Music Hall of Fame coffee cup and traveled to Memphis.   This immediately sparked some memories, both good and bad, from my visit to Memphis.  My movie on  TV is a little boring this afternoon so I decided to write a blog about my memories of the visit to Memphis.

Larry with quarantined beard and Memphis coffee mug

We traveled to Memphis in April of 2018.  This was part of our Music Legends car trip with our friend Gillian from England.   We drove from our home in Baltimore south through the Smokey Mountains and had many fun music related experiences.    To me personally Memphis was the least exciting part of our trip.  To be fair to Memphis though we had spent three days previously in Nashville.  Nashville is a city that is alive all day.  The streets are busy.  The honky tonks have life music playing non stop.  And the streets stay full of tourists.    We were expecting a similar experience in Memphis.   But we arrived to find empty streets and empty honky tonks.  Beale Street, which is Memphis's main entertainment street could not compare to Broadway in Nashville.  In Memphis defence we did not get to spend any evenings in  Memphis as our hotel was about fifty miles south in Tunica, Mississippi.   But our days in Memphis found Beale Street to be almost vacant.

An empty Beale Street in Memphis

Away from Beale Street there was still much to see and do. We spent some time along the water front.   We visited the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid.  That does not sound exciting but it was quite fascinating and well worth visiting.   It sits on the bank of the Mississippi River.  It is huge.   At one time it was a basketball arena.   And it is very impressive.   It contains a hotel, a tropical forest with live alligators, and  a beautiful bar at it peak with a deck over looking the river.

  We spent quite a bit of time exploring the pyramid.   Much of this was spent enjoying the bar and some cool drinks of course.  We had to take the worlds tallest free standing  elevator to reach the bar.  So that gave us one fun fact to add to our list of accomplishments.

World's tallest free standing elevator

Mark and Gillian surrounded by an aquarium at the bar

The bar is located at the top of the elevator.  It has an over sized aquarium filling the area behind the bar.  It was a beautiful place for a drink.

Mark, Gillian and  I on the deck of the Pro Bass Shop Pyramid

Of course if you are in Memphis one of the must see attractions is Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.   I am a huge fan of Elvis.   I believe Gillian also likes Elvis.   But Mark on the other hand really has not opinion one way or the other on Elvis.   So Graceland was kind of a non event for him. 

Two very excited Elvis fans on the bus to Graceland....and Mark

In the end Mark did enjoy the tour.  But just not on the level that I enjoyed it.  The house was a big tacky, dated and bizarre.   But if you love the legend of Elvis you expect and appreciate this.

Graceland

Elvis Living Room

The TV Room

The Famous Jungle Room 

Elvis's Grave

Memorial to Elvis at Graceland

Of course knowing me I had to take at least one funny selfie in Graceland.   I found the perfect location going down the mirrored stair case into the Jungle Room.

All in all the three of us did have fun touring Graceland. 

On a more somber note there are other historical sites to visit in Memphis that are not laughs and fun.    We  visited the Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr Memorial at the Lorraine Hotel.   This was not a place for fun selfies or laughs.   It is just one of those places you feel you must visit.   It was very moving and heartbreaking to see the location of the murder of Dr. King.  I am a child of the 60's and have emotional memories that will never leave me from the day of his murder.   Seeing the location and the memorial brought all of those back to mind.   It's a place to think.  A place to show respect.  And a space to feel no shame in shedding a tear.

You can actually walk through the hotel where he stayed.  However the museum was closed the day we were there and I was actually kind of glad about that.  I can not imagine the emotion of walking through that room.   I don't think I could have walked into the room.

Adele Givens , Laura Hayes, Mo'Nique and Sommore - The Queens of Comedy

One of the biggest highlights for Mark and I in Memphis was the chance to see the theater where the video The Queens of Comedy was filmed.   For the uninitiated The Queens of Comedy is a wild irreverent hysterical comedy concert filmed in Memphis.  The comedians on the show were Laura Hayes, Adele Givens, Sommore, and our fellow Baltimore favorite Mo'Nique.   Mark and I own the DVD of the concert.  We have watched it many many times and each time are in tears with laughter.   Gillian had not really heard of The Queens of Comedy so we had to teach her all about it.   When the ladies arrive in Memphis they drive across the Mississippi River on the Hernando de Soto Bridge aka The Big M. As the cross the bridge in their car the raise their hand and shout MemPHIS with the accent on the PHIS.   So when we crossed the bridge Mark and I both yelled MemPHIS.   This was not the only time we yelled MemPhis while in the city.  We yelled at at any given opportunity in the city.   Even from the top of the Pro Bass Shop pyramid.   Just ask Gillian

You must yell MemPHIS when crossing this bridge if you visit, just for Mark and I

We talked with a lady at the Memphis visitors center.  We mentioned our love of The Queens of  Comedy and she laughed.  She asked us "Do you guys really remember that show?  That was a long time ago."   And then Mark quoted some jokes to her and she cracked  up.  She said to us you guys are real fans and then shared a joke she remember from the show also.  Poor Gillian was lost to all of this but she is used to that.  We lose her at least once on every trip and have to explain to her our enthusiasm. 

Finally we found the theater where they filmed the show.  The Orpheum Theater in Memphis.  And once more we yelled out loud MemPHIS.

Mo'Nique we did you proud in Memphis.  We shared your jokes.   We yelled MemPHIS.  We educated Gillian about your show.   You are our home town Baltimore Academy Award Winning Actress.   We are you fans.

Mo'Nique

If you travel to Memphis and you see the Orpheum give a big MemPHIS shout for Mark and I and our girl Mo'Nique.   And if you come to visit us at our house we will play the DVD for you.

One last fun note about Memphis.   If you visit the Hard Rock Cafe you can see Shakira's bra.   If you are a fan it's worth the journey.

Corona Virus, Pandemics and Remembering My Grandmother

Edward and Bertha Roth's wedding photo 1918

I have been reading about the Corona Virus for over two months now.  From the first outbreak in China up until counting the daily death toll here at home there has been little of anything else to think about.   It is on the TV news non stop.  And Facebook is no escape from it either.  There is the doom and gloom daily updates and the humorous daily memes to capture our attention online.   We are not supposed to gather in large groups right now.  Weddings are being cancelled and conducted with no guests.   There are questions about how to hold memorial services for our deceased when we are not supposed to gather in groups of more than ten.   Our schools are closed.  Many are without jobs.  We will never forget these days.   Much like watching the daily body counts from the Viet Nam war on TV we now are counting bodies by country and ranking which ones have the most deaths.  It's truly frightening and exhausting.

I was joking with some friends on Facebook today and we were comparing our efforts scrubbing our floors and house holds today.   As I scrubbed my own kitchen and dining area today with Pine Sol I took a deep breath and smelled the fresh scent of the Pine Sol.  I was immediately back in my Grandmothers tiny three room apartment.  She scrubbed and cleaned her apartment on a daily basis.  The minute I would walk into her home I was surrounded with the scent of Pine Sol.   I could not help but feel her presence with me today while I cleaned.

As I reminisced about her today it dawned on me that she was alive for the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic to which  out current situation is so often compared.   And yet I never remember her ever talking about surviving a pandemic.  Her name was Bertha Wilson but was known as Bertie to most of her friends.   She was born in 1897.   I stopped to think about what she might have been doing in 1918.   She was not bombarded with non stop daily updates about the pandemic.  Radio's were not common in most homes until the late 1920's.  There was no TV with twenty four news and daily Presidential updates.   There was no internet to surround her with doom and gloom.  So I have to wonder if she even  realized there was a terrible flu spreading across the world.

I did some quick research on the Spanish Flu today.  It started spreading across the globe in 1918.   One article stated that many believed the virus came to the United States through the military.  In 1918 my grandmother met and married her husband Edward Roth.

Edward Roth 1916

The second waveof  the Spanish flu arrived in the United State late summer 1918.  It is believed it was carried by the returning dough boys from World War I.  My grandfather was one of those dough boys returning home and was stationed at the newly opened Aberdeen Proving Ground.  The virus spread from Boston and to New York and Philadelphia before spreading west to St. Louis and San Francisco.

Dough Boys Returning Home - My grandfather Edward Roth upper left

Edward Roth 1918

Here in Maryland the first notice of the flu came in late September 1918 in a handful of soldiers at Camp Meade.  Each soldier was quarantined.  But visitors and other solders were allowed to come and go at will.  Then within a few days there were almost 2,000 cases reported at the camp.   In Baltimore theaters and railway and street car operators were asked to keep their spaces well ventilated.  They were asked to post signs suggesting travelers sneeze and cough into kerchiefs.

My grandmother Bertha Wilson and her mother Katherine Wilson

I do know my grandmother had a very active and busy year in 1918 during the epidemic. She met and married my grandfather. They moved from Maryland to Indiana, his home, after they were married that year. While in Indiana my grandmother had one child who was still born. She was very depressed and missed her home and family very much. So they moved back to Maryland in early 1919 while the flu was still active in the country. But she survived. I never knew my grandfather. He died when my mother was still a teenager during the Great Depression. My grandmother lived until 1976. She raised four children during the Depression. She survived the death of her husband. Every year she would watch our local 4th of July parade. When the military from Aberdeen Proving Ground would march past she would put her hand over her heart and say there go my boys. And she would always have a tear. Sad but sweet memories for her I am sure.




My grandmother often spoke of World War II. She would mention the black out drills, the rationing and the the Great Depression. She loved telling stories. But she never once mentioned the great pandemic of the Spanish Flu. She survived all of this. And we too will survive this pandemic. And maybe like her I will never mention it again.

My grandmother Bertha Wilson with me 1953

Plagues, Epidemics and Memorials - History Repeating Itself

Pestsäule - Plague Column - Vienna Austria

Travel is my passion,  and taking photos of my travels is my favorite hobby.   So when faced with social distancing and the threat of quarantine due to the COVID-19 virus, I find going through my travel photos and thinking of the beautiful places I have visited brings some sort of calmness to the madness all around me right now.  With all of the attention focused on Corona Virus today, I found myself being led to photos I have taken of Plague Memorials in Central Europe.  

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice Italy

Santa Maria della Salute on the Grand Canal in Venice

 In the summer of 1630 and up until 1631 a wave of the plague assaulted Venice killing nearly a third of its population.   As an offering for the city's deliverance from the plague the city vowed to build a church dedicated to Our Lady of Health, Santa Maria della Salute.  The city decided not to dedicate the church just to the plague or a patron saint.  They decided to dedicate it to the Virgin Mary who they believed was the protector of their Republic.  I visited Venice in the spring of 2002.   When I arrived in Piazza San Marco and walked to the water front of the Grand Canal this beautiful basilica dominated the horizon.   

Images of Santa Maria Della Salute

Church of All Saints - Sedlac, Czech Republic

Two years after my visit to Venice, I traveled to Prague in the Czech Republic in 2004.  I returned  again in 2015.  Both times I visited the Kostnice located in the village of Sedlac.   The Kostnice is an Ossuary or Bone Church.   It is named the Church of All Saints.   In all of my travels this is truly one of the most fascinating places I have seen. 

The cemetery and Church of All Saints - Sedlac, Czech Republic

  In the thirteenth century the Abbott of the Monastery in Sedlac was sent to the Holy Land in Jerusalem.  He returned with a mound of dirt believed to have come from Golgotha.  He spread the dirt over the Abbey cemetery.  Because of this dirt this became a very important burial location.  During the fourteenth century the cemetery was filled with bodies from the Black Plague.  A new chapel was built in the fifteen hundreds. Many graves were exhumed for the new chapel and the bones were stored in the basement of the new church.   In 1870 the history of these bodies from the Black Plague takes on a macabre and fascinating turn.   Frantisek Rint was a local woodcarver.  He was employed to organize the old bones that had been laying the basement for all of these years.  The bones were used to decorate the church.  Chandeliers, a chalice and altars were all transformed into bones.  Rint even signed his work by writing his name on the wall with bones.  

Signature of the artist

The plague Column of the Virgin Mary Immaculate in Kutná Hora, Czech Republic

Just a short walk from Sedlac is the village of Kutna Hora.  Located here is a Plague Column.  I have seen  several of these through out Europe.  This one was built as a reminder of the death from the plague of the early 1700's.  There is a statue of Mary on top of the column as on many Plague columns.  Many of these columns were built to honor Mary in hopes for protection from other plagues.  

Trinity Monument - Prague, Czech Republic

The Trinity Monument is another Plague Column in the Czech Republic.  This one is located in Prague's Lesser Town Square.   At one time there was a pillory and gallows here.  So this square is historically associated with death.  But now there is a monument here that memorialized the end of a disease that plagued the city of Prague.  After the outbreak of the early 1700's was finally under control, the city erected this Plague Column.

Pestsäule - Plague Column - Vienna Austria

The Trinity Column in Vienna is located on Graben, one of the main streets in the inner city.  It is one of the better know Plague Columns in Europe.  It was built after the great epidemic of 1679 and is one of the cities great pieces of art often compared to the work of Bernini in Rome.  While I was in Vienna I was not worried about the plague.  My luggage was lost and never arrived.  So I was concerned with buying underwear in a city where I did not speak the language.   I took photos of the monument without really knowing what it represented until I returned home and was doing research on my photos.   At the time of the plague the Habsburg emperor Leopold I fled the city but vowed to erect a mercy column if the epidemic would end. 

I 

.These churches and monuments were erected to memorialize the loss from the great plagues that challenged the western world in their time. They were also created to ask forgiveness for the sins they felt lead to these plagues and in hopes to protect their people from future epidemics. After the horrors of 9/11 we have build great monuments and displayed pieces of the World Trade Center in our major cities across the country. We have one here in Baltimore. In New York we have build a towering sky scraper complex to replace and memorialize the original World Trade Center. I am wondering tonight what will happen at the end of the current world wide pandemic. Will we be inspired to create art and memorial fountains to remember it? Will we learn from our greed and hoarding that is harming us now? Will our current leaders promise to build memorials to our sacrificies. Or will they build great monuments to themselves to brag about their self imagined great accomplishments in fighting this enemy? We will survive. We will recover. But will we learn from our mistakes?

Movies, Mom and Me. Entertainment in the early '60s

I have not written a blog for a while.  I enjoy writing my blogs.  I mostly write about travel.   And my second favorite topic is my family.   Today I read on Facebook that it is Kim Novak's birthday. February 13. 1933.  And this little piece of nostalgia inspired me to sit down and do some blogging.  I grew up loving movies.   My mother loved movies.   I know my fascination with them stems from her influence.  My father would watch a John Wayne movie or a World War II movie, but he did not like anything "dirty".   My mother was quite a conservative lady also.  But she did like the early 1960's bedroom farce movies.    She and her sister, my Aunt Louise, did not go to the movies often.  But if a Doris Day movie came to the local theater they would go see them.   Of course in those old movies Doris was usually the worlds oldest living virgin being seduced by Rock Hudson and or James Garner,  Cary Grant or even Rod Taylor at times.   These movies were naughty enough to make my Mom and my Aunt giggle, but never "dirty" enough to offend them. 

Growing up I listened to everything my mother said.  If she was on the phone I would be someplace nearby to listen to her conversation.   I learned a lot from eavesdropping on my mother. She would have been shocked at the thing I learned that she thought were just between her and her friends on the phone.  It was the early 1960's.  I was eight, nine, ten years old.  I also listened to every conversation she and my aunt had at the house.  They never knew how much I listened to them.  And they did love to talk.  They would come home from the movies and talk about Doris Day or Kim Novak.  They were always shocked at the things "those writers" got away with in the movies.  If there was a paperback novel from the movie they had seen Mom would buy it.    She would pass it on to my Aunt and tell her the novel was a little spicier.   My Mom had a copy of Boy's Night Out and that is cover I have posted at the top of this blog. 

After listening  to them talk about the movie I then would always want to go see it also.  I went to the Saturday matinee every weekend growing up.  It cost a quarter for the admission.  I would always ask to go see the movie on Saturday that they had just seen on Friday night.    My aunt would always scold my mother and say you shouldn't let that boy go see those movies.  They are too adult for his young mind.   My mother always laughed and told her I would not understand the adult humor but I loved the music and the colors.    I have no idea what that meant.  She admitted she was shocked when I came out to her many years later.  But that loved the music and colors remark tells me different. She had a baby's diary she wrote notes in when I was growing up.  One phrase I still chuckle at is "Larry is very musical and loves to dance."  Mom understood me coming out much  more than she would admit!   But she was partially correct about the movies though.   You can see from the cover of the novel above it was very colorful.  And to this day when I see Boys Night Out my first thought is the red rose on the back of Kim Novak's black dress.  And then gifts the men were bringing to Kim,  the yellow wrapping paper on Tony Radall's champagne bottle and the red roses Howard Duff had in his hands.  And yes even the theme song is still a favorite of mine  Patti Page singing Boys Night Out.  "What the boys are out after, the girls are after too!"  Oh those racy lyrics! 

But these movies all touched something in this little gay boys sensibilities even at those young ages.  I have a lot of gay men friends on Facebook who are movie lovers also.  And we all know, love and talk about these same movies.   To this day I still watch these movies.  I have them all on DVD.  All of the Doris Day movies, Kim in Boys Night Out, even Billy Wilder's One, Two, Three.

  One, Two, Three.  Now that one really intrigued me as a kid.  My Mom and my aunt came home from watching One, Two, Three and were still in hysterics over the scene with balloons.  One of the men in the movie dressed in drag to lure German spies and had a red balloon and a blue balloon in the top of the his dress.  One of the spies has a line where is upset because "one is red and one is blue"  I thought that was the funniest line ever. 

Once again I was allowed to go see it at the Saturday matinee.   This time Mom was correct though.  The humor went way over my head.   But I still liked it.  And there was the colorful balloons and the great music.   I still carry an appreciation for classical music writer Aram Khachaturian and his bouncy dramatic Saber Dance to this day.  And when I hear it I immediately think of the blonde actress in the tight dress dancing on the table top while the music plays.  Not surprisingly I have both Saber Dance and also Patti Page's Boys Night Theme still in my personal collection of music.   And if you ever drive in my car for any distance there is a good chance they might turn up in my music rotation.

So thank you Kim Novak.  Happy 87th birthday.   I am glad you are still with us.  My Mom and my Aunt have long passed on.   But your birthday today brought them back to me for a few minutes.   And not surprisingly Boy's Night Out is on the play list on Turner Classic Movies today.  I won't even have to dig out my DVD today.

He's very musical and loves to dance

2019 - The good , the bad, and the ugly. Travel, breweries, and family issues

Each year on New Years Day I take time to reflect on the past year.   Some years are wonderful.  Some are uneventful.  And some I am just glad to see be over.   2019 was one of those years.   There were good moments.   And then there were some bad ones.   Nothing unusual about that.  But the bad ones seemed to be overwhelming this year.

Mark changed jobs twice this year.   The bank where he was employed was sold and he had to find a new job.  This was a bad situation that worked for the best.   He found a new job well before the bank finally closed so he was never really unemployed.   He phoned me from work one morning and said to me I start the new job in two weeks.   So lets plan a last minute trip before I start the new job.  I am never one to turn down a chance to travel.  Out of nowhere we decided to go to Milan.

I love Milan.  I had been to Milan once before in 2002.   But many people are unimpressed with Milan.  On my first trip even the woman at the ticket counter in the airport asked me "Why Milan?"  So I was bit concerned Mark might be unimpressed also.  But I had nothing to worry about.   Mark loved Milan as much or even more than I do. 

Mark chilling at a ristorante in the Galleria in Milan

We also had the chance to take a train to Bergamo while in Milan.

Beautiful Bergamo

Also on this trip I had the chance to return to my beloved Switzerland.  And any year I can visit Switzerland is a good year.  While in Milan we took a side trip to Lugano.  It was definitely Switzerland but it also had a very Italian feel to it.  It's right on the border of Switzerland and Italy.  There is just something about Switzerland that captures my spirit even if they are speaking Italian.

The beautiful Lugano Switzerland

Mark started his new job after we returned and it worked well for him.  But then out of nowhere he received another job offer.   The job had a good increase in salary and also was a much better commute for him.  So after just a few months he bid farewell to the new job and started his adventure to a job in our neighboring county.     And he really likes the job and everyone who is working there.  Even though I have said this was not a great year for us, work wise it's been a great year for Mark.

Because Mark was in a new job we were not able to travel this summer.  But don't feel bad for us.  We spent every weekend this summer visiting local breweries in the Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia area.   It was great fun.   We were entertained every weekend.  And we got to try both very good and some mediocre beers.  But even mediocre beer isn't all bad. 

RAR Brewery - Cambridge Maryland

The year was going well.   Mark was enjoying his second new job of the year.  My daughter Katie was hired for a new position with a large increase in salary.   And then the ball dropped.  My daughter Danielle was made redundant at her job.  She was completely unprepared.  She was given a small severance package.  And she remained unemployed the rest of the year.   Then to add fuel to fire her wife was let go from her job also at the end of year.  We are all hoping after the holidays are over they will be be able to find new jobs the first of 2020,

In November we were able to travel once more.   Our friend Gillian from Manchester, England joined us for a week in Hawaii.  It was Mark and my fourth trip to Hawaii.  And once more we were overwhelmed. 

December found us with two more problems.   My daughter had to have cervical surgery.  She had to have a disc replaced in her neck.   Then her boyfriend had emergency surgery two weeks before Christmas.    To top all of this, Danielle and her wife were unable to join us for Christmas due to their job situation.   We had a very uneventful Christmas missing Danielle and Andrea.  We spent the morning on our Iphones with face time opening presents together.

We lost some dear friends this year.   A beloved extended family member passed away on Christmas Day.   We lost family members in Mark's family. And we lost a beloved little dog named Kobi who has been a part of our family for fifteen years.  We have continued to watch Mark's Mom slowly fade away to the monster of Alzheimers.   But we still have so much to grateful for. And we have a lot to look forward to in 2020.  We are already planning some travel for February.  I am assured Danielle will find new employment.  I have a 50th high school reunion in mid 2020.   2020 you are the beginning of  a new decade.  We are counting on you to start of this decade better than the last one ended.