I officially retired on July 28th, after 31+ years. I have been a long time listener to 93.7 KLBJ-FM and had many calls on air and prizes won. So in honor of my retirement, I treated myself to the Dudley and Bob 25th Anniversary Gala Saturday at the Paramount. I, of course, made a poster of some of the old memorabilia I have and wore the "oldest logo" tshirt (and got my picture taken by the station pr guys and others in the crowd). I wormed my way into the pre-party upstairs and when Bob Fonseca saw my poster he called it history. Dale Dudley then had me come up and I got my picture taken with him. I got to visit with Louis Black (the owner of the alternate newspaper here called The Chronicle, who told me he was retiring the week of 9/4), Turk Pipkin (humanitarian - The Nobelity Project - and actor - Sopranos), the former Chief of Police, Art Acevedo, who took over as Chief of Houston, Ed Mayberry!, Peggy Simmons and Loris Lowe (last 3 all DJ's at one point, but Ed was the BIGGEST Beatles fan ever) and enjoyed an evening of comedy and music. While in the lobby I asked if Jim Ritts was around and the house manager who showed me to my seat remembered my seat and had Jim and his wife come by to visit. I got a free parking voucher out of it as some of you will remember the fiasco several years back when a client had gotten me on the list to attend Neal Degrasse Tyson and when Mike and I got to the theater there were no tickets. Jim didn't fair too well with this longtime client and big shot in development and how upset he and his wife were, so Jim sent me a basket of goodies and a promise that when ND Tyson returned to Texas he would send me wherever it was, even if were to Houston or Dallas. Less than a year went by and lo and behold Jim being the stand up guy he is called and offered Mike and I tickets to see ND Tyson at The Long Center and I accepted. Music sounded great inside an historic theater (Paramount) - Scrappy Jud Newcomb led the orchestra of Johnny Goudie and Sean Crooks (son of Danny Crooks who ran the Steamboat back in the 80-90s) with appearances by Kacie Crowley, Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison, Benjamin Hotchkiss (who did an incredible Mick Jagger impression), CHARLIE SEXTON (who we represented back when he was 15 years old and got his first recording contract with Island Records), and Bob Schneider (oo la la). At the end all sang Born to Run for Bob (who is a huge BRUUUUUUUUUUUUCE fan). Felt good to laugh for a change. While leaving, I ran into Elizabeth Avellan (ex-wife of Robert Rodriguez/star of screen) and a filmmaker friend of hers and they dragged me to Speakeasy where the after party was and EA snuck me in as I didn't have a wristband. First time for me to be in there and we hung out on the roof. Austin sure is a different place at night. Got home at 1:00 AM. So glad I went though.
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The girls and I are headed to Kansas this Friday to see Mike's mom. Have a rental Jeep SUV and going to split the drive so that we spend the night in OK somewhere, close to a casino 😁 and get up Sat. and drive the rest of the way. Best part of it all is we will be right in the path of the Eclipse next Monday and looking forward to experiencing it. Of course I am going to drive into Lawrence and visit the Booth Athletic Facility and see the Rules of Basketball. Found a $25 off ticket from one of my many orders so will add to my KU swag. I am going to spend a day/night with our oldest friends who live out in the country and then we will leave on Thursday. Much cheaper to drive than fly and use someone else's car.
@Crimsonorblue22 Are you near the turnpike? PM me if you are. Would love to stop and see you.