#both shows in my city are sold out but i’ve been looking on resale sites

[bitfruity]

ugh i didn’t get tickets to see billie when they dropped because they were SO expensive but now that the tours started i feel like i need to see her! should i try to find $300, buy a shit seat and go by myself?

my birthdays coming up and i always get really depressed around that time on top of the seasonal depression so i need something to look forward to or i feel like i’ll die

[the-record-columns]

Aug. 7, 2019: Columns

The irony of stamp values and

 the visit from an old friend

While this doesn’t really relate to the column on this page, my visit from Carl Anderson, 88, clearly was the highlight of last week. I met Carl while working on the Mayflower apartment above The Record. He did an amazing amount of work, stripping old doors and furniture of multiple coats of paint, and then later, salvaging and restoring things from the horrible fire on E Street that destroyed our former offices in 2004. Carl has become a dear friend, whose visits are an absolute delight as we reminisce about folks we remember. This past Friday, his daughter, Carla, brought him by to see me, and I have no memory of an hour and a half passing that quickly. I am thankful to know and love this man, who truly has a heart of gold. Record photo by Ken Welborn

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

I am an amateur philatelist.

Now, before anyone thinks I need to begin a hearty round of penicillin to get over that malady, I hasten to point out that a philatelist is stamp collector; the word literally means “lover of stamps.”

Many years ago, as a young adult working for Paul Cashion at the then Top 40 radio station WWWC in Wilkesboro, he introduced me to the stamp collecting hobby. I also feel I should point out that, for 99.9 percent of us, stamp collecting is just that, a hobby, not an investment. 

According to many sources, it has been the biggest hobby in the world since 1940, and, if for no other reason than that one, it is why I always emphasize that statement again; that it is a hobby, not an investment. Frankly put, anybody that wants a stamp probably has already got it, making the resale market thinner than a cheap suit. The folks who do invest in stamps, almost exclusively do so in stamps issued before 1940, and very carefully at that.

As an educational tool stamps are priceless.  Just about anyone or anything that is significant in any way has been commemorated in a United States postage stamp, and, if not by the good ole U.S. of A., there are countless other countries that issue stamps as well. 

One of my favorite examples of the learning value of stamps is the 13-cent stamp which commemorated the development of the “Pap Smear” or “Pap Test.”  Of course I knew of the test which had saved countless lives by detecting cervical cancer, but I had no idea what a pap was and was afraid to ask.  Turns out that the doctor who developed the test in the early 1940’s was named George Papanicolaou, hence the nickname “Pap Test.”

Another fun thing about the hobby is putting the right stamp on an envelope to fit the recipient. I always worked in an 8-cent Pharmacy stamp when writing to my friend Rick Brame at the Red Cross Pharmacy.  Of course everything can backfire, and, after a friend of the second lovely Mrs. Welborn showed up pregnant with her second child before we had even sent a gift to the first one, I wallpapered the box the gift was shipped in with 4-cent Family Planning stamps.

Her friend did not think that was funny at all.  Lesson learned.

Or was it?

In 1981, the Postal Service got a dose of what I got from the lady who had managed to get pregnant about an hour after she came home from the hospital with her new baby. 

On Aug. 19, 1981, an 18-cent stamp was introduced which read: “Alcoholism  You can beat it!”  The idea was to promote the fact that alcoholism was indeed a disease and that there were many avenues available for treatment.  It was a public education stamp, if you will.  However, many of the folks who received letters with this particular stamp affixed took great offense, as if they were being singled out by the letter writer as an alcohol abuser.  That word spread quickly and the stamp became an abysmal seller for the Post Office, and, after a time, thousands upon thousands were returned to headquarters, so to speak, and destroyed.

If I am not mistaken, the only stamp in the modern era that sold any more poorly than the “Alcoholism. You can beat it!”  version was the 1995, 32-cent Richard Nixon stamp.  The memories of Watergate and his resignation 20 years earlier were just too strong and, while I personally feel sorry for the man, not too many others did.

The absolute irony of these two stamps is the fact that because so many were returned and destroyed because of poor sales, this actually makes them a bit more valuable than most—simply because of this artificial scarcity.  To put it in perspective, in 1981 the alcoholism stamp had a production run of 97,535,000 stamps; the Nixon one in 1995 was 80,000,000; but the Ronald Reagan stamp of 2005 had a run of 170,000,000.  The Reagan stamp was unbelievably more popular than either of the other two, but today can actually be purchased cheaper by a new collector.

Now and then someone will stop in my office with an envelope or even a box full of full sheets of mint stamps that an uncle or parent had been buying up for 10 or 20 years.  They always look at me like a man from Mars when I tell them that a generous offer is face value.  At that point I get out my book of common stamps which features definitives and commemoratives back as far as 100 years. 

After they ooh and aah over them for a while, I explain, usually to their great disbelief, that I use these to mail letters—because that is after all, actually what they were made for.

Millions upon millions at a time.

UNESCO - condemning Israel and rewriting history

By EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Special to The Record

As Israel continues to come under physical attack from Palestinians in Gaza, a desperate situation for those living in southern Israel which is not being reported here in the United States, Israel is also at war on another front in an effort to keep history accurate. 

A favorite tactic of the Palestinian PR machine in their ongoing efforts to demonize and delegitimize Israel is the replacing of factual history with fake history. Working in conjunction with the greater Islamic world, the Palestinians are plotting a course to disconnect Jews, and by extension Christians, from the ancient city of Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel. 

For more than fifteen years the United Nations has been assaulting Israel’s connection to Jerusalem by attempting to rewrite history replacing historical truths with outright lies despite tangible archaeological evidence supporting Israel’s position.

The fight for the truth should not be Israel’s fight alone.  All who value freedom and democracy have an obligation to stand up against the diplomatic and public relations assaults being hurled at Israel and Jerusalem on an almost daily basis.  Fake news and fake history must be challenged and corrected.  The only force that will protect Jerusalem for all the world’s faiths is the modern State of Israel whose enemies throughout the ages have sought to forcibly erase all Jewish connection with the Holy City.  

Three years ago the Palestinian Authority, backed by Arab states, succeeded in passing UNESCO  (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) resolutions that essentially denied any Jewish claims to the Temple Mount and Western Wall - two of the holiest sites in the Jewish faith.  Throughout these and subsequent resolutions, Israel's Jewish holy sites were referred to by their Muslim names. 

The UN’s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small.

It’s obvious that the UN is corrupted and manipulated by Israel’s enemies as it continually singles out the only Jewish state for condemnation continually bringing forth unbalanced or redundant resolutions against Israel. It is telling that not a single UN General Assembly resolution is planned for victims of gross human rights abusers such as Saudi Arabia, Burundi, Turkey, Venezuela, China, or Cuba.  At a time when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his state-controlled media continue to incite their people to stab and shoot Israeli Jews and riot on Israel’s southern border burning fields and crops, the UN’s inexplicable response is to reflexively condemn Israel while remaining mute on Palestinian abuses.

At the beginning of this year, both Israel and the United States pulled out of UNESCO. Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “We are not going to be a member of an organization that deliberately acts against us.”

Previously, the United States pulled out of UNESCO during the Reagan administration because it viewed the agency as mismanaged, corrupt and used to advance Soviet interests.

History does repeat itself.  With the largest voting bloc in the UN comprised of Islamic countries, the deck is stacked against the only Jewish state in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East.  UNESCO is again being used to advance an agenda and further Islamic interests.

 Blackbeard and Goose Feathers

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

When traveling I find adventures far more exciting if you are open to new experiences. I have some friends who are satisfied with going to the same place all the time. The same hotels, the restaurants and the same shows. Year after year the same. No need for change. I have come to understand the comfort of the why however is still is not enough for me.  

There are many places I enjoy return visits however I seem to be driven for the discovery of something new. I have the good fortune of necessity on my side as the telling of new stories dedicates that I visit new places and meet new people so that we can create new content to share.

I enjoy revisits to areas and adding new stories or updates to past stories. It’s a way for me to visit with friends I’ve made along the way and catch up on the progression of life. Often, we share those developments with our audience but not always. In this way we all get to know each other a bit better.  

This week was coastal.

We visited Bath NC for the 300th Anniversary Festival of Blackbeard’s demise. It was a two-day affair starting on Friday in nearby Washington NC with trial. The focus was on the question of, did Virginias armed incursion and the Royal Navy have the right chase Blackbeard into Ocracoke capturing him and executing him. According to noted historian and author Kevin Duffus the answer is NO.  According the jury the answer was NO, however the judge did not agree and the previous rulings of the crown was unchanged. To which “Long Live the King” echoed throughout the chamber.

Saturday was the big day in Historic Bath which was formed in 1705 and has the prestige of being the oldest town and oldest port in North Carolina. The streets were lined with vendors, many in period style, the enthused attendees were exited with all things Blackbeard. Our go to Blackbeard historian Kevin Duffus was the events primary organizer. There was a Blackbeard parade which boasts of having among other things the largest gathering of Blackbeard on Earth.  The display and earth-shaking boom of the six-pounder cannon being fired along the banks of Bath Creek was an experience unlike any other in almost 300 years.  

For the true Blackbeard traveling enthusiast the following week marked the annual gather of the Blackbeard Jamboree on Ocracoke  Island. Another event that attracts attendees from near and far. So, if you are like me and you have interest in the history of Blackbeard and the quest for historic accuracy or something that resembles it anyway there is a place for us in the Carolinas.  

It the midst of these Blackbeard adventures I had the opportunity to spend the night in Belhaven at the Bellport Inn B&B. Yvonne DeRuiz, the Inn Keeper, an abundance of stories of world travel and adventure. My night was spent in the Asia Room offers up wonderful collection of items acquired during Yvonne’s travels. The pillows on my bed were hand made by an 83 year on man in Budapest.

Yvonne told the story of the visit she had with her friend. They took the narrow steps leading down to his shop. When she told the master pillow-maker what she wanted he went to work. He grabbed a bolt of cloth, measured off the correct amount, cut and sewed. He then selected the feathers which he had previously hand sorted and in a short period of time the pillows were made. She witnessed the whole process and I had the honor of sleeping on those pillows. When I close my eyes and think about this story I see the man dressed in a suite with fine goose down feathers all about and with great pride he presents his handy craft to Yvonne and she now shares that feeling with guest from around the world who come to visit here in the little town of Belhaven.

 On to the next adventure we go.

[thegnasticious]

The Shack

Few bands of any era have ever come close to the epitome of success “The Shack”, hit. The Shack was a little group formed in the outskirts of Liverpool. At the time they started writing music, much of England and Europe for that matter was at debate with itself from turmoil descended from the monarchy. The Shack exploited much of this with their rebellious sound and approach, playing throughout most of the stringent and more conservative communities with a message of peace, and prosperity. The audience didn’t generally get it. but they liked the message. The rebellious approach brought the younger generations into their shows in droves. Soon enough they would be an international name.

Stepping back to the humble streets of Liverpool, we see the development of Lead Singer, Al Parson. He grew up in the gutters, whilst his mother, Eartha, tried to fend her way working in inns and even brothels. She was known to be a drunk, and never quite repaired from his Father’s death that had just occurred. His mother had given Al some valuables his father left for him, including a small sum of money. Al used this money to buy his first guitar from a local resale shop. It wasn’t the fanciest or prettiest of guitars, but it resonated with him. It wasn’t long before Al found himself learning all the scales and chords, once he got to a minor understanding of theory, he decided to take his talents to the streets. One afternoon, he was playing in the chilly London sunset, a boy about his age approached him and complemented him on his playing. He then asked if Al would like to jam with him sometime, as he was just beginning to learn with an acoustic guitar as well. This boy would turn out to be the band’s main heartthrob and 2nd guitarist, Paul Shiling. 

Throughout many dark long nights, and cold London days, they began the foundation of music which would launch The Shack to an inevitable stardom. The act started with simple shows, just the two of them, covering english pop songs and folk music. For the first shows, they started carpooling with a band called Kettle Black. It wasn’t too long that the lead composer Jon Bottom, of Kettle Black joined in on The Shack’s Jam sessions. It was said in this time the hit “She’s Just Sheila”, was wrote by Kettle Black’s writer, but the copyright says Al Parson. If you listen to the two bands side by side you can clearly hear Jon’s influence but he is seldom mentioned in any official accounting of the band’s history, yet he was vital to formation of their sound. Early pictures of The Shack show a much inebriated Jon Bottom at many of the band’s recording and practice sessions. It was said he would get so trashed sometimes that he would just straight pass out at the mixing board (as he was a their go-to engineer as well). The Band would salvage whatever was left of Jon’s mess after carrying him to a couch. Many thought it was the drugs he was doing, and some even pointed the finger at Al saying that he supplied Jon with the drugs he got in lieu of a foreseen royalty dispute. Al avidly denied any of these claims, but there was still something in the air. It wasn’t more than 3 weeks after “She’s Just Sheila”, was released that Jon Bottom was found puffed up, alone and dead in his city apartment. After Jon passed, the drummer and bassist from Kettle Black joined The Shack, as they were already all well acquainted. Unlike much of John’s family and friends who were now looking in Al Parson in a different light, Patrick and Tom(Drummer, Bassist) did not seem to be phased by what had happened to their friend. It was said they knew the Parson families��� wealth, and despite the possible danger they would continue to share a stage with the members of The Shack.

Now the next point is where information gets a little foggy. Many agree that The Shack’s first major unified show took place at Bavarian club that hosted weekly acts. This club was called “The Pheasant”. Many people report seeing and hearing The Shack, but oddly enough, some official pictures have come through recently from that time, and the members of The Shack shown, playing the music but they aren’t the same people everyone knows as The Shack. I know, you’re asking how can this be? There isn’t one answer that can entirely sum the whole thing up, but I have a slim explanation. Physics says that one “thing” cannot be in two places at the same time. I think The Shack is alike to a transparent mirror, and whatever you see in that, will reflect in yourself. Jumping back to Jon Bottom. He had no official funeral, his wake was a closed casket. Many of the future Shack albums sounded eerily like Jon’s music, and people even began to speculate that he might still be alive. Without looking through someone else’s eyes, I can’t know if that Jon Bottom looks like the same person, or if he’s not really here at all. What I speculate is that Jon Bottom did in fact die, but there was no corpse. Why you might ask? I suspect that Jon Bottom no longer looks anything like Jon Bottom, and maybe he never did have a true personality anyways. It was rumored that he took too much LSD, and literally shifted into another person. His friends and family thought it was just consumption, but it seems it was something much deeper and he had to disappear. The weight of a mistake like that was too much on himself and his loved ones. To have to show up to their yearly parties with a bigger body and a different face, as opposed to monster they’d grown accustomed to, felt like going backwards. I theorize that after an unannounced federal intervention that John was put on a witness protection program, possibly in lieu of The Shack. This was only the beginning of a big federal file on The Shack as well, as both UN investigators, and American CIA agents collaborated to try to bar The Shack from ever entering the US, and leaving Europe. Jon was given enough requisitions to clear The Shack and invent a new life, as long as this secrecy was upheld. We believe if this conspiracy is true much of the correspondence between Al and a man who penned himself Cold Bones was actually how John sent his new ideas to Al, much of these notes were found to contain specific melodies and time signatures as well as detailed notes on some of the more complicated/lengthy songs.

The Shack didn’t budge under the pressure. They played all the scheduled shows, and watched the slow slew of Police officers filling the back rows. It wasn’t long before they got the attention of a major record label with their song “Loves To Be Loved”. It was a catchy 4 phrase wonder that couldn’t seem to get out of people’s heads, and it only further pissed the authorities off, as all this noise didn’t have some vagrant counter message to them. The people against The Shack were pushing Al to become the activist he would be come after leaving Europe. The state of things in politics completely circumvented any attempt Al could of made, many people speculate that the beginning was so contrasted from what The Shack because of this. In English culture they felt mapped out, repressed, they wanted to be the new act in town. It wasn’t long before they hooked up with The Rolling Stones, and found a popular American act to jump ship with. 

The music that began to develop as they left Europe was different. It was more colorful, poignant, and even lengthy. From being 45 rpm artists, this was a drastic change. Songs were extending to 4 minutes or longer with intricate transitions and developments. Many don’t see how Al could of done this at that time, because he was seeping into his own cycle of Alcoholism and depression, but somehow he kept producing these complete wonders of music. At this time I’ve also noted that his classified correspondence with Cold Bones seems to increase substantially. Many of these correspondences were heavily encrypted from a method that was alike to an Enigma box on steroids. Both Jon and Al were known to also be avid Germans, sometimes scaring people with their endless ethic in the studio. As The Shack tried to emancipate into American culture, they found themselves further displaced, and under the eye of the American government things were substantially stricter and more processed then the raw streets and inns of Liverpool. Also I did the check the address used for return mail on Cold Bones and it was a US government outpost in Alaska. I tried to inquire information on site, but they claimed to have never known or witnessed a Jon Bottom, and sent me off empty handed. Had he been there, or if he was, I don’t think they would of let me know. I got the vibe I was very much not welcome there, and it was a short trip.

At this point, I feel it necessary to explain who I am. For years I frequented the band’s space as an avid fan. I started off as an errand boy and roadie, doing whatever I could to help them. They left me in Liverpool when they took off for the American tour and I started using my minor obsession with them to try to understand just what exactly they are. Why I say this now is it’s years after the fact, I never went to America. I watched their rise to fame from afar, and in all honesty, I don’t know if it ever happened, even now. There is stories of sold out shows, stadiums chalk full of people, but as the years have went on, and technology has caught up people are seeing a very much different idea of what The Shack is. I never thought much about the whole thing until overhearing a particular conversation of The Shack’s managers regarding the US tour,

“So like Led, Pink, Phish, Grateful Dead you name it. Sometimes and alot of the times those boys were contracted out to sit at a hotel, yea you heard me, on nights major shows were supposed to have happened. Sometime in the night a fake audience would be paid off, and they made it look there was a backdrop of some club or dimly recognizable place, and they’d firestart the bands fame by making them look famous.”

I never realized the weight of this until I could see their career in hindsight, and I saw the whole thing was a play. As more information was leaked to the public, Jon Bottom’s death became a murder, and yes Al Parson was a prime suspect. Now on American soil things became drastically different, as the band was watched even in minor things like getting groceries and gas. There was always someone over their shoulders waiting to get a new piece of slander. It wasn’t long before the band isolated from playing public shows, and stuck to the studio with a label-hired American engineer taking over operations. 

This in many ways was the beginning of the end for The Shack. Jon Bottom seemed to stain their presence, and they were followed with a stigma of drugs and death. They couldn’t appear like the fresh young boys they were marketed as, and they began to wonder if the product overtook the image, and now they were not a development but only a by-product. This set the tone for the band’s final Album, “Emery Lane”. Al said this album was the most true to himself, as it was mostly about his Father whom he barely had the chance to know. 

The album was more downtempo and varied than any of their other work. It could very well be their best work, and maybe that’s because they themselves knew it was their last work. Realistically, every single person has seen something different in The Shack, and even today you see songs of their’s being modified and rereleased. The funny thing is, every single person in the group has said to cease to working on it, and aside from personal friends and business acquaintances most people don’t know that The Shack that plays today, is surely a band of ghosts. They still play every night, always in walking distance and right when you need them