8 Mar 2012

I posted a recollection of Burbank's 1976 not so Quiet Riot at the Union Hall here. I have fond memories of that building... It bugs me that I do not have a photo of it for Burbankia. It was torn down years ago.

Seen on I-395 this morning.

Good news! Today I got an automated email notifying me about a recent twelve marker YDNA Clark surname match from a fellow named Harry Richard Clark. (This signifies that we share a common ancestor, presumably named Clark or Clarke.) The "Harry" is significant as it runs through my own documented family tree. He didn't post any genealogical data so I don't know anything about his lineage, but I have an e-mail out to him. We shall see.

Adventures in Middle-Age: A few weeks ago I was chewing gum at church when a gold crown popped off - I replaced it with a tooth-colored crown. It was in place since 1995. This also happened some years ago, so I had a gold crown left over from that as well. So what does one do with a couple of unneeded gold crowns?

On the way to the dentist I saw a sign for a guy in Fairfax who buys gold of all kinds, including what I have, "dental scrap." I made some inquiries and did some online research... as it turns out, gold crowns are partially gold and partially other material (such as palladium), an alloy designed to hold up under the rigors of chewing. (I had a small hole in my last gold crown.) I finally decided to try cashfordentalscrap.com. The deal there is you contact them via their website and they sent you a "scrap pak." You send in your gold and they send you a check, "within 24 hours" (which suggests that their usual customers are in the position of having to quickly pay back that gambling debt to Big Louie). Figuring what the heck?, I mailed in my two rather large crowns. (I'm a big guy with big teeth.) I got a check yesterday. How much do you think I got? My wife and I figured perhaps $20 to $40, tops.

I got a check for the lordly sum of four dollars and eighty-four cents.

I am displeased - this will barely buy a McDonald's meal. And I have never become used to the idea of being gypped. I think I'd rather fit the crowns onto a plastic skull for Halloween than sell them for $5. Another part of the deal is that I can request my dental scrap back if I contact them within ten days. I have done so, returning the check by mail. Stay tuned. I think I'm going to try the guy in Fairfax, just for fun. If he offers me five dollars or so, I think I'm going to take up some amateur metallurgy and see how I can repurpose the gold!

At the advisement of a friend, last night Cari and I watched Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Werner Hertzog's 1997 documentary about the jaw-droppingly amazing escape from a Vietcong prison of Navy flyer Dieter Dengler. There is also background on Dengler's childhood in a war-ravaged Germany. Normally Hertzog inserts a lot of himself into his documentaries - which is what makes them so amusing - but in this one he more or less just lets Dengler talk, which is fascinating. It got two thumbs up from the Clarks.

I saw a cool, more or less unknown vampire flick last night, The Vampire's Ghost (1945). The date puts in firmly in the classic Universal monsters or RKO Val Lewton era, but it's a film of less than an hour produced on a scant budget by Republic, who specialized in Westerns. Get this: it's set in the interior of Africa, and the vampire in question is an urbane, well-spoken English fellow who lived in 1588 who runs a tavern, like Rick's in Casablanca. So it has uniqueness going for it. It also has actor John Abbott, who has just the right presence for the part of the world-weary, regretful vampire. He's sort of the proto-Barnabas Collins in that respect. Anyway, nice film!

I don't use this phrase easily because I think it's kind of silly, but I do believe Weird Al Yankovic is a national treasure. He's celebrating thirty years in show biz (was it really 1982 that "Another One Rides the Bus" came out?) and to celebrate, an L.A. art gallery had some posters made - click here. My favorite is the "Like a Surgeon" one - clever! I've also been listening to his two CD "Essential" set recently. This morning I rolled into work to The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota - HA!

I think I mentioned this before, but I really think he ought to be the one doing the next Superbowl Halftime Show.

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