Thursday, June 1, 2023

Most Excellent !














Did you know the Bangles' bassist Mickie Steele was a founding member of 'The Runaways' with Lita Ford and Joan Jett ?




Commenting on a WCFM post, where Andy was a DJ when we were in highschool, a theory developed and took form.



It moved slowly, swirling around my brain, like it was waiting to be deflated and returned to the pool cabana.



Did 'The White Shadow' TV program start the amazing careers of Tim Van Patten, Sean Penn, Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves ?



We tried it out on a Sports Illustrated Facebook story post.









Salami calling a record producer.





Here is a Giphy of Skeeter from 1981 who along with Julian, passed away at the beginning of Covid.





Skeeter and Chet were both amazing athletes and looked rather similar to Sinclair Lewis.











Sinclair Lewis lived in Thorvale Farm in town, on Oblong Road below where Christopher Reeve's house is, overlooking Kidder Hollow.













The referee Eric Lewis, who faces suspension from the NBA for defending himself on Twitter with burner accounts, just did what all of us do in the daily online battle for righteousness and truth:



Make up a name like Rauol Duke or Sir Bangles Spermspangler.



If the NBA doesn't want someone telling the league what they can and can't say they better let it go.



Now on to something important:



Bette Davis grew up in Lanesborough, Mass between Pittsfield, Mass where Elizabeth Banks grew up and Williamstown, where Gwyneth Paltrow grew up.








- charles tranberg, fb



Bette Davis grew up in Lanesborough, Mass 7 miles from Williamstown where Gwyneth Paltrow learned to act as a child, and next to Pittsfield, Mass where Elizabeth Banks grew up.



Gwyneth's cover version of 'Bette Davis Eyes' made it to #5 on the Australian pop charts.








- Suburban Life Magazine



Huh



Gwyneth Paltrow played Little League Baseball in Williamstown at the same time Elizabeth Banks played Little League Baseball in Pittsfield.





- Hartford Courant







- Fandango



Gwyneth was born on September 27th, 1972 while Elizabeth was born on February 10th, 1974 1 year and 5 months apart...So they might have played during the same seasons !



Elizabeth broke her leg sliding into third and took up acting.



Elizabeth Banks portrays Peter Parker's bfwb 'Betty Brant' while Gwyneth Paltrow potrays Tony Stark's bfwb 'Pepper Potts'.



The Molly Stark Byway 



The way we heard it told when we were kids, was General Stark was in dire straits with supplies running low at the Battle of Bennington and his wife, Molly, brought a wagon train over the rugged terrain from New Hampshire to refortify Stark's Troops, which included 'The First Berkshire Contigent'



We used to play our PeeWee football games against Bennington's team on a field next to the Bennington Monument.



Now we love our former enemies:



Gwyneth was married to Cold Play's Chris Martin.







- Billboard June 2nd, 2023




Aunt Sally ?:













-  Uncle Howie's obit







This was Uncle Howie's and Howie Jr's house where Billy Evans' grew up, the third part of the house on the left was owned by another family with Howie Jr's family in the middle.



I had found it online around 2015 and it had at that time been designated as an historic site, because it had been biult by one of the owners of the Berkshire Cotton Mill.







Aunt Sally and Uncle Howie's house is about 4000' feet from Sarah's house on Tyler Street.






'last month, specifically june 23rd, 2022 was the 50th anniversary of the enactment of title 9'



- hadji



Gwyneth Paltrow's dad created 'The White Shadow' which ran from 1978-1981 while the Paltrows lived in Williamstown during the summers doing the Williamstown Theater Festival.



Did Tim Van Patten's 'Mario 'Salami' Pettrino from 'The White Shadow' TV show  inspire 'Jeff Spicoli', Sean Penn's breakthrough role in 1982's 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' and hence also 1989's 'Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure' which were Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves' breakthrough roles ?







The Hanson Brothers



Tim Van Patten



Sean Penn



Judd Nelson



Keanu Reeves



Alex Winter



Slap Shot (1977)



The White Shadow (1978-1981)



Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)



The Breakfast Club (1985)



Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)



'In 1904, the United States decided to throw a little weight around and...' - Mr Hand.



William Howard Taft weighed 314 lbs.



WHT & Cuba






'But that's also the beauty of the character Sean Penn created three decades ago: the guy is so over the top that he just couldn't be real, right? Penn himself has long admitted that Jeff Spicoli was based on an actual living, breathing human he knew as a teenager in Malibu.'























Wonder if Bruce Paltrow created the character 'Salami' while writing 'The White Shadow' treatment / storyline as his family acted in Williamstown in the 1970s ?





There was a townie where I lived in Massachusetts who was just like 'Spicoli', 'Salami' and 'Bill & Ted' he was Dougie Blair - used to peel potatos with him when we were dishwashers at the River House Restaurant in the summer of 1983. 










Nikos used bring legit stars with him to eat at the restaurant almost every weekend during the summer.


 


Ken Howard, Christopher Reeve, Jennifer Harmon, Marissa Berenson and Blythe Danner in 1983's Williamstown Theater Festival production of 'Holiday':












Dougie cut himself once and said with that same humorous surfer / stoner accent: 'Whoops, cut myself' and just kept peeling the potatos - very funny !











Ah 




Dougie's a chef himself now !










The Trail House Restaurant and Kitchen is...





Just over the Williamstown town line in North Adams, near the airport Christopher Reeve used to fly gliders out of.





'Trail House Kitchen & Bar
896 State Rd, North Adams, MA 01247'





(413) 412-1090




























Dougie and Mutt were close friends and Mutt's step-dad Dick owned, was head chef at, and ran The River House, until he sold it to who I believe were the Kaufman's at the end of the summer I worked there.










^ This was one of the most popular songs at the time so I believe it was in the summer of '83 (when Bryan Adams' Summer of '69' was also very popular)









Mutt was the prep cook if I recall, and was our linebacker my senior year his junior year at Mt Greylock where he dislocated his shoulder on a play I believe, occurred against Hoosac Valley at their field, then had Dean Satrape pop it back in for him and Mutt returned to the field for the next play.





Scott, sitting down in the middle of the photo was their close friend as well (they were all what we used call 'hoods' you probably used to call them 'stoners' - we used to call them 'the hoods' because they all used to wear hooded sweatshirts with Levi's jackets or plaid lumberjack coat shirts)





Mutt is standing at the left.





Anyway, Scott broke two vertebrae in a game at the beginning of I guess it was that same season, and only missed two games.




Tough kids !

















- Judd Nelson portrayed the stoner in 1985's 'The Breakfast Club'





I am not sure if the Kaufmans were the same people who created the once world famous KB Toys, in Pittsfield.





Joseph Kaufman and his brother Harry founded KB (Kaufman Brothers) Toys.





This Howard Kaufman died in Lenox. The obit says He was Joseph Kaufman, the founder of KB Toys, son:










Marshall's apparently is not Marshall Field's.





The founder of Marshall Fields was from Conway, mass near Pittsfield, and moved to Pittsfield before founding the famous store in Chicago.





Marshall's was founded in 1956 in Beverly, Massachusetts.





I wonder if it is where the River House, which used to be on Water Street in Williamstown, moved to ?





Here's the menu:









Looks just like The River House







- the trail house kitchen and bar 










- iberkshires







- Colleen Taylor operates 3 restaurants in North Adams including The Trail House, which has seen business drop off this year as The Williamstown Theater Festival, where a big restructuring of the theater's business model - has led to a drastically shortened season !:












- iberkshires







.- the williams record







- my purple crayon consulting