Cuz-N-Clayton 'Carolina Red Mud'

Sunday evening, I came very close to a full-on freak out!

Allow me to explain…

I was sitting around in the Lab putting together a hard rock guitar jam compilation CD for Hinzy. I had the volume up high so I could really get into it and lost in the music. My brain was getting wrapped around Badlands “Heaven’s Train” and I heard a voice in my left ear. It sounded as if the voice was next to my ear. I woke from my Badlands trance and turned my head quickly to the left and there was no one there. I closed my eyes to find my place in the music once again and the voice spoke again. After turning my head to the left again, I discounted anything supernatural and figured that it was something buried in the mix of “Heaven’s Train”. I turned down the volume and realized the voice was coming from my phone that was in my left pocket.

Somehow, my phone had been switched over to driving mode. In that mode, it will tell you who’s calling so you don’t have to take your eyes off the road when the phone rings. It was telling me that Deidre was calling except the phone didn’t know how to pronounce Deidre’s name. It sounded kind of funny and when I answered the call, I told Deidre about my little freak out and she asked, “Eugene? Are you smoking something?”

For seconds, I was turning into the “Ghost Whisperer” and I’m not going to lie here… The voice on my phone freaked me out so much, my heart rate spiked a little. My blood was pumping so fast that I’m sure that a few artery blockages were whisked away.

Oh thank God that the dead were not talking to me.

Saturday night, I went over to Burlington to see the original KISS Army Band at a new club called The Raven. I went with Kim Thore and our friend and clothing designer Cheryl Wiegert. I knew, like me, Kim was a KISS fan so we knew that we’d have fun watching the spectacle and enjoying the tunes. I was kind of worried how Cheryl would react to them. But my fears were immediately gone as I saw her smiling and bopping along to the music. All through the performance, she never left her spot.

Now I have seen both of the KISS Army Bands and I have found that the Original KISS Army Band is by far, the better of the two. The Original guys had better costumes and were tighter players. They put to a lot of time and effort into the outfits ala’ KISS ‘Alive’.

In case you didn’t realize it, there’s a slight feud going on with these 8 guys. There’s a former member of the Original who left or was kicked out that formed The KISS Army Band (the second one). The Original KISS Army Band with Jim, Mike, Gary, and Val were in fact the best of the these KISS Tribute bands. Hell, I’ll go out on a limb and say that these guys are in fact better than the others like Hotter Than Hell and Strutter.

I got to hang out with the guys up in the VIP Room at The Raven after the show. I ran into Lisa Kyle who I haven’t seen in a while but, for me, the weirdest moment involved a pinball machine.

Kyle and her ex-husband once ran a used record store in Burlington where they had a KISS Bally pinball machine on display. Now it’s residing in the VIP Room in The Raven. The weird moment came when the faux Ace started to play a game on the KISS pinball machine. I don’t know why, but it just seemed a little crazy and surreal.

The Raven is a cool club right off of Huffman Mill Road in Burlington. I had the pleasure of meeting club manager Kat and the owner Julian Doby. The club looks fantastic and I particularly liked the couches found upstairs. I’m looking forward to seeing Blackfoot there very soon.

Over the weekend, I watched some DVD’s from Netflix… Disc 3 of The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection, disc one of season one of Scrubs, Futurama (forgot the season and disc), and When A Stranger Calls.

The Ric Flair collection kind of left me feeling like there was so much more left out and I can’t really give it more than 3 stars overall. My main argument: There wasn’t anything about the run of the 4 Horsemen or his connection with The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Gene and Ole Anderson or Arn Anderson. I found the collection to be a big let down.

Scrubs was one of those shows that I didn’t catch from the beginning, but I managed to catch from time to time. They kept moving it around and it became as elusive as seeing Bigfoot.

I love this show! It could very well make my top ten list of all-time favorites. I’m putting all the other seasons onto my queue today.

Now… Avoid When A Stranger Calls with all your might. It’s a remake of a not so good horror classic and it failed to improve on the original. The film moved like a 103 year-old blind lady with bad hips and a walker. Since the film is rated PG-13, the hot chick in the lead role doesn’t get anywhere close to naked and therefore makes the film not worth any of your time. I’m giving it 2 out of 5 stars on the Netflix grading scale, which means that I hated it.

Well that gets us all caught up. And here’s an open call to anyone who enjoys leaving weird and funny voicemails. Leave me one after 5:30 P.M. EST at 336-274-8042 ext. 173. Be as creative as you want and maybe I’ll put it on the air.