Gorilla Mars

Wow...

Kidd Kraddick | 1959-2013

I am a creature of habit and do the same things in the same order most every day. I have a 15 minute bedtime ritual that consists of face washing and teeth brushing and my weekday mornings are no different. Every weekday afternoon around 1pm just as I am finishing lunch, I turn on the podcast of the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning Show on my iPhone.

Their morning show used to be syndicated on a radio station here in Charleston, and I got into the habit of listening to them on my morning commute in 2005. After a few years, the day I turned on my radio and they weren’t there, I immediately turned to their website to see where the heck they went! Turns out that whole station changed hands locally.

Good news though! They have an app and I have an iPhone and so we were reunited once again. I maybe became even closer to the show because I could listen to the entire thing beginning to end without commercials since it would play after the show had previously aired and thus, my favorite afternoon ritual was born. It got me through the hump of the day and made me laugh and made me cry, it is the best radio show I have ever listened to.

I was awakened this past Saturday morning by my husband with a cup of coffee and the news that Kidd Kraddick had passed away the previous day. My husband told me knowing that it would be hard for me to take (he knew how much I loved the show by the amount that I talked about it although he is more of a Howard Stern fan), but I don’t think he expected me to start crying. I didn’t even expect to have that reaction!

When you listen to a show that affects your life every day, when someone shares their life with you for 90 minutes every single day, even if it is one sided, it is going to have an impact. I felt like I knew Kidd and the whole crew. I identified with each of them on different aspects. I would think that I was exactly like Kellie and Jenna’s personalities combined. That Big Al could have been a great friend, I could have been married to J-Si, and that Kidd could have been my dad.

I know it sounds so weird, but I love that cast. When I heard the heartbreaking news, I felt compelled to call them up as if I was their best friend because that is how they made people feel. I felt sad for his family, sadder for the crew, and saddest that this world will be missing out on a very kind and generous man. He didn’t fill the airwaves with sexy time talk, he talked about his charity Kidd’s Kids, about how to be a good person, and he was funny. So damn funny.

I feel a sensation of emptiness this morning. I was able to listen to the show’s brief last memories of him and some clips of his past shows live while it streamed on the internet, and they were all so sad. His crew, no matter their age, had spent most of their adult life working with Kidd. Some for 20 years and some for 5 years, but they were all beside themselves. I can only imagine how they feel if what I am feeling is even a 100^th of what their pain is like.

I personally have never felt this type of grief before, for someone I have never met. I imagine it being similar to those who cried for Kennedy? Or Elvis? Or maybe even Cory Monteith from Glee most recently? All I do know is that afternoons will never be the same for me. I don’t know what to listen to now?!? I am hoping I will be able to hear some of the crew together, at new jobs, or otherwise in the future. They are all so talented. Rest in peace Kidd Kraddick, you will be missed! "Keep looking up, cause that's where it all is!"

Blurred British Lines

Everytime I see an actor that I think is cool, they always end up being British or Australian or from some other exotic place with an attractive accent while they pose as an American on televisions across the country. My latest surprise was Joshua Bowman who plays Daniel from Revenge.

I am pretty good and spotting a fake accent, but he is dead on! It would probably be harder for him as well considering two other main characters are from Britain and actually use their British accent in the show.

The difficulty hits home whenever I am talking to any of my Chicago native friends or have had a few beers, my husband immediately knows that I am on the phone with some of my friends or family from home as my As change dramatically.

Coming back to the whole British American fake out... the opposite actually happened to me for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I had been convinced since one of Robin Thicke's first big hits "Lost Without U" that he was British. I didn't even question it in fact. He had funny hair and a high voice and seemed very European to me.

Imagine my surprise when I find out that he is the son of none other than 80s dad icon Jason Seaver from Growing Pains, Alan Thicke!

This sort of rocked my world. He is as American as they come and his 2013 summer hit "Blurred Lines" has been blaring out of my radio for the past month. The unrated video, on the other hand, is a little risque and demeaning for my taste...

'Juicy J' - the 'J' is not for Joellen...

I never felt older than I did last night... I was walking past the Music Farm in downtown Charleston around 8 o'clock pm and there was quite a line coming from the door. They were mostly hipsters, both white and black, and all very young (20-23 years old)...

I said in my coolest, youngest voice, "So, like, who's playing tonight?"

The young girl with a mini-skirt on and long straight brown hair under her beret replied, "Juicy J."

I said back, "Oh, awesome, he's great, have fun!" while thinking to myself that I have no clue who 'Juicy J' is, that I hope that he is actually a man since I said the word 'he's', and as I briskly kept walking to my car to go home because I was tired from working all day and I am old and kind of sore from playing kickball the previous night.

I feel so out of it. There was a time in my life that I was really into new music and going out on Tuesday, but at 31 I more prefer happy hour (which is where I was), getting home by 8, walking the dog, changing into sweat pants, and watching Revenge.

I don't think there is anything wrong with that, since it is what I WANT to do, but there is just something about growing older that young people don't understand; people don't actually change. We still want to feel cool and fit in, wear the right things, be at the right places, and have true friends and meaningful relationships. We can still feel hurt because we're left out, frustrated that there is not enough time in the day, and excited when something amazing happens. It is just about different things now.

I heard about a contest Disney was doing... "Your mom can win a trip to go see 98 degrees!" and then there are women screaming in the background... 98 degrees, huh? Your 'mom?'... I am old enough to have children? I would assume they are targeting my demographic since I was in high school when they were popular... but wow, seriously, some things never change.

Or maybe they do change a little bit and look waaay hotter as as adult than an adolescent! [referring to 98 degrees of course.] :)

Back to my post...

For those that may also have to look up who 'Juicy J' is, he is, in fact, a man! and quite gangsta at that... what were all those hipsters doing there? Or is that just a buzz word for what old people call young people? haha