Pribek

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Sgt. Pepper is one of the things in this world that lives up to the hype. It really did change the game.

One of my favorite moments has always been, “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!” I have heard that John came up with the lyrics after seeing this circus poster.

It’s kind of hard to read here’s the text.

PABLO FANQUE’S CIRCUS ROYAL
TOWN-MEADOWS, ROCHDALE
Grandest Night of the Season!
AND POSITIVELY THE
LAST NIGHT BUT THREE!
BEING FOR THE
BENEFIT OF MR. KITE,
(LATE OF WELLS’S CIRCUS) AND
MR. J. HENDERSON,
THE CELEBRATED SOMERSET THROWER!
WIRE DANCER, VAULTER, RIDER, etc.
On TUESDAY Evening, February 14, 1843.

Mssrs. KITE and HENDERSON, in announcing the following Entertainments ensure the Public that this Night’s Production will be one of the most splendid ever produced in this Town, having been some days in preparation.
Mr. Kite will, for this night only,
introduce the
CELEBRATED
HORSE, ZANTHUS!
Well known to be one of the
best Broke Horses
IN THE WORLD!!!

Mr. HENDERSON will undertake the arduous Task of
THROWING TWENTY-ONE SOMERSETS,
ON THE SOLID GROUND.
Mr. KITE will appear, for the
first time this season,
On The Tight Rope,
When Two Gentlemen Amateurs
of this Town will
perform with him. Mr. HENDERSON will, for the first time
in Rochdale,
introduce his extraordinary
TRAMPOLINE LEAPS
AND
SOMERSETS!
Over Men & Horses, through Hoops,
over Garters and lastly through a
Hogshead of REAL FIRE!
In this branch of the profession Mr. H challenges THE WORLD!
For particulars see Bills of the day.

I think that’s just so cool. Actually, it was pretty cool even before John got ahold of it.

Now, there has been infinite speculation about the pig story. This is from a transcript of a Fox News interview with the hunter Jamison Stone.

JOHN GIBSON, HOST: A “Big Story” exclusive: Did Jamison Stone really kill one of the biggest pigs on the planet? A lot of people writing on the Internet say no. But the 11-year-old boy from Alabama is determined to prove that he did in fact kill this humongous hog earlier this month in Georgia. He says the picture is not a fake and I, for one, believe him.

So, John Gibson is on the record saying the pig is legit. He is the first media type that has not hedged his bets on this story. Does he know something we don’t or, is he following his reporter’s instinct? It’s not the most ringing endorsement because, Gibson has a habit of saying anything that pops into his brain, but it’s a start. I’m rooting for you Jamison.

It was kind of a bleak day in the Ozarks. Overcast and cool, now as the sun is receding there is still cloud cover with a bit of that strange yellowish tint I talked about a while ago in a discussion about tornadoes. I’m listening to the “Complete Early Recordings of Skip James” as I write. Nobody else sounds like Skip James. It’s stark music and fits the day somehow.

I’ve known Robert (drummer in the three piece band) for about fifteen years I guess. I met Robert when we were both hired to play in a road band. One we thing we had in common right off was, we were both carrying a sack of books across America. Robert has always liked to read autobiographies especially ones written by musicians. I used to read those kinds of books a lot more often but for some reason, I find it hard to get interested anymore. A few months ago, before I moved, Robert handed me a book to read and I must have had a negative look on my face because he said; “No, I think you’ll like this one”.

The book is, “Roadshow: Landscape With Drums: A Concert Tour By Motorcycle” by Neil Peart the drummer/lyricist for the band Rush. I started reading it and I moved in between so, I just finished it last night. Robert was right; I did enjoy reading it. It isn’t your typical rock star book. It was conceived as a sort of a travel book but there is much more to it than that. Peart suffered a double tragedy several years ago with the deaths of his daughter and wife coming in quick succession. He never discusses this in detail but, I think, that this book really about how he has been dealing with those events. I don’t think he meant to do this on a conscious level and because of that it has more impact. Peart is not always likeable but he is very honest.
Spiritually, he seems to be possibly an Atheist but he never comes right out and states that. Politically, he says that he is a Libertarian, which seems to fit. I have noticed over the years that his lyrics often seem to comment on the tragic aspects of the wake of communism rather than the “evils” of it.

He is an introvert which, ironically, is a trait shared by a lot of musicians and creative people in general. A lot of people who make their living on stages aren’t what you would call people persons. For many performers, how to deal with fans on a personal level is a source of great stress. Peart, after all he has been through, has almost no personal contact with fans or, the press, for that matter. Anyway, the book is a look inside the mind and soul of the man and also entertaining on the “travel book” level as well.

On an entirely different subject, we have a large population of wild pigs in the Ozarks. I have never been a hunter but a lot of people I have known throughout my life are. Over the years, I have been entertained by stories about the sometimes dangerous sport of pig hunting.

A domestic pig that escapes can become feral, return to a wild state, in a matter of weeks. One problem that has developed in areas that have a wild pig population and hog farms nearby is that the larger domestic pigs will escape, become feral, and breed with the wild pigs resulting in, over generations, bigger wild pigs. We don’t have a lot of hog farms around here so I haven’t heard much about it but further south it has developed into a problem.

A while back, I saw a documentary that took place in Georgia, I believe, about a guy that shot a wild pig that was so large they called it Hogzilla. In the show, a group of scientists dug up the buried pig and determined that, although it was a big pig, it was not as large as the hunter had claimed. Now, they are making a horror film loosely based on the story called “Hogzilla”.

Here is a story about an 11 year old, Alabama boy, Jamison Stone, who was out hunting and killed a very big pig…

An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog his father says weighed a staggering 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.
If the claims are accurate, Jamison Stone’s trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.

Hogzilla originally was thought to weigh 1,000 pounds and measure 12 feet in length. National Geographic experts who unearthed its remains believe the animal actually weighed about 800 pounds and was 8 feet long.

That is a pretty brave 6th grader. These wild pigs are known to charge a hunter once they have been shot. A lot of pig hunters go in groups or, at least, pairs in case that does happen.

Also, a lot of people have been dismissing the idea that wild hogs would ever be able to grow that big and use the Hogzilla story to demonstrate how these things get exaggerrated. Guess they were wrong.