In my previous blog post, 70’s Music! & GPS #25!, I spoke about 2 versions of 70’s songs:
1. the one intended by the artist
2. the one that we think we hear
3. and, then, I added a 3rd version, one’s own interpretation, or lack thereof, of a song
On a long ride the other day (Strava Link), I thought about another gift that I might possess. In La Bicicletta – Part 1 was about my love for cycling, a gift given to me. This next gift is my “songwriting “‘skill'” to create a “4th Version of Almost Every 70’s Song.”
This V4 gift must be in my DNA. But, unfortunately, it seems to have missed every other generation except maybe me….luckily! 🙂
The songsmithing gift is most apparent in my collaborations with friends! Think: Hall and Oates or Elton and Bernie!
Neapolitan Word of the Day – Moodons
Moodons (pronounced moo-dons) – long underwear…and BahFungoo, not the fancy Under Armour crap…they’re baggy, cotton ones that force you to wear jeans an extra size larger to fit underneath. And, even better, when they get wet, you get colder!
Kids, if you think I made this word up, please see the American-Italian dictionary (click here)!
Actual Italian word – mutande.
How does the V4 Gift Work?
The 4th Version gift changes much of the chorus of the “real” version of a 70’s song. My collaborators and I then insert the BETTER words to far exceed what was originally intended!
So, what about “Carm’s Driving – Part 3”?
On the day we graduated HS, as a group, we decided to go to Castaways. Castaways was a club/bar in Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH. Castaways started as a fancy supper club in the 1950’s (see link), but by the late 70’s it had degraded into a dive bar about a decade after the Hell’s Angels burned their way through Geneva-on-the-Lake.
Although, The Castaways had three tremendous features:
1. they had a very lax age admission policy
2. a live band
3. NICKLE BEER NIGHT
WHAT POSSIBLY COULD GO WRONG?
I can’t remember how many of us graduates showed up that night. I’d guess 30+; even several who’d not usually go out. As a 17-year-old in an “18 State”, I’d been using a copy of Chuck D’s temporary driver’s license for nearly a year by that time!
ASIDE – I wasn’t the only one who had a copy of Chuck D’s license! One night, Bobby G. and I went to the beverage store on Rt. 45 just south of Rt. 20. I produced Chuck D’s temporary license. The attendant looked at me and said, “you’re not Chuck D! I know him!” OOPS…it happened to be the mother of a fellow classmate! END ASIDE
Carm and I drove out to Castaways together in my father’s Toyota Corolla (this car is also the subject of a story with Bobby G for a later blog post!).
All that I can remember is that we had a stack of 5 cent, 8 ounce, clear plastic Solo Cups (long before Red Solo Cup…) that reached from the floor, nearly to the ceiling!
Well after mid-night, I had the sense that I shouldn’t drive home and asked Carm. He eagerly obliged; everyone wanted to drive the old Corolla because it had a 5-speed stick. And, although it had a pop-gun engine, it was fun to think that we were driving a sports car.
If you remember, The Castaways was “off the strip.” You had to take a right onto the strip from the road from Castaways. If you didn’t take the right, you could drive directly into a very large white house (I believe it’s the Geneva-on-the-Lake Historical (hysterical) Society?). BUT, IMMEDIATELY TO THE LEFT OF THIS LARGE WHITE HOUSE WAS A BOAT RAMP DIRECTLY INTO LAKE ERIE.
Well, ‘ole Carm, had just enough beer, inexperience with a stick shift, and lack of remembrance of that RIGHT TURN! All that I can remember was yelling, “Carm, why does it sound like waves?” Luckily, he’d stopped before the front wheels fully submerged into Lake Erie, and the front wheels remained on the concrete ramp!
So, What about “Wearing Moodons ‘Cause It’s Cold”!?
Though I’ve been giving Carm heck about driving, my all time favorite V4 70s collaboration is with Carm. In the last blog post, I mentioned that Carm and I had a couple of college summer jobs together.
Once we painted Randy’s house together (I don’t remember his last name). Randy was a golf buddy of Carm’s. One nondescript day on the ladder, soon became UNFORGETTABLE! One Top-40 song then was John Stewart’s (Turning Music Into) Gold.
As always, we had a transistor radio blaring as we belted out (read: belched out) song after song. Then John Stewart came on…when the chorus started Carm yells over the verse “turning music into gold” with “WEARING MOODONS ‘CAUSE IT’S COLD!” I nearly fell off the extension ladder up at the 2nd story of the house!
That verse repeats in my head, and belts out my lungs while riding today!
Great Pasta Search (GPa) #4
It’s been a while since I’ve posted about making homemade past. In previous posts about Past e’ Fazoo, I tried and failed to make homemade Ditalini.
Eventually, in “Home Improvement” Tim Taylor’s style, I then went with more power, and purchased an attachment for our KitchenAid and made homemade fettuccine in GPa #3!
Continuing in that style of “needing MORE POWER”, I found a KitchenAid Professional with a Past Extruder Attachment on eBay! This baby is almost double the size of our home version KitchenAid, AND HAS TWICE THE POWER MOTOR! UH, UH, UH!
So, this past Sunday, in celebration of 6 months since surgery and il mio compleanno, I put the Past Extruder to work making my favorite dish, Baked Zeet (aka Ziti…and Bah Fungoo…I’d never heard ZITI until I moved here…) for the kids….funny how that works…it’s il mio compleanno and I need to cook!
After a few misses, we figured out how to use the extruder. But, most of the zeet “pipes” collapsed in handling or while drying. It’s likely because the dough was a little wet.
I made sauce directly from a bushel of fresh tomatoes from the Co-op. It’s amazing how a bushel of tomatoes collapses down to a large sauce pan when cooked. But the sauce was outstanding!
We combined the zeet, sauce, and ample amounts of ricott and mozzedell into two large Pyrex bakers.
The result was pretty good…not great because the “collaspsed” zeet was not what I wanted. But, the taste was great!
Given this, I’m nervous if I’ll be able to made Ditalini with my “more power” extruder, but I will soon try….might make a mess, but that’s why there are dish rags!
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