Another Lynn-ism

"He was about to hear a piece of my mind!"

After Almost 10 Years......

I finally found it!!!!!! Click on the link: www.shibumi.org/EotI

Thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope

Not to be outdone...Randi's new job

Randi started a new job with WTAT-TV24 in the accounting department. If you want to take her to lunch, she loves Panera Bread near Tanger Outlet Mall. I'm very proud of both Susan and Randi.

She even got a raise!

SUSAN EATON JOINS MORRIS-BERG ARCHITECTS DESIGN TEAM
October 2, 2007

CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, October 2, 2007
Susan Eaton has recently joined the Morris-Berg Architects interior design team. Susan is originally from Summerville, SC and graduated from Winthrop University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design.

For the past three years, she has worked with other design firms and furniture dealers gaining experience in space planning, furniture systems design, and color and finish selections. Susan has had an active role on a variety of projects, including corporate and educational facilities. Susan is currently working towards NCIDQ and LEED accreditation.

Susan is currently working on the design of the new $37 million Cox Mill High School in Cabarrus County.

Baer

We have been "owners" of a 2 year old Pomeranian named Baer since July 2007. Eight pounds of hyper describes him perfectly. He likes to sit in my lap when I drive.

Lynn-isms

What is a Lynn-ism? Well......Lynn's brain works a whole lot faster than her mouth, so when she thinks and then speaks, the two don't always synchronize properly, thus what she says sometimes are a blending of words or a brand new phrase altogether. Some examples follow:

1: OK, let's get this day on the road.

2: Your coffee cup is as round as mine is high.

3: OK, I hear the lights.

4: That's a fighty mine mess.

5: Let's get going, times a clockin'

6: The neighbors were up and early this morning.

7: That's a bunch of bull-larky (malarkey).

8: Even Baer was better-haven than you today (behaving better).

9: If worse comes to shove.

10: You sweat more than me because you're higher to the sun.

11: Angela and her dad are the splitting image of each other.

Doug's last Flint Journal blog post

-30-

That's not a typo. That's an editing symbol journalists used long ago to indicate the end of a story.

This is the end of my story at The Flint Journal.

Today's my last day here, after 17 years. I was one of many people who accepted the paper's buyout. I don't think of it as retiring -- though at 50, it's weird to think I can collect a pension in five years -- and it's not a career move.

It's all about family.

My family and I have suffered a lot of loss over the past five years. My oldest brother died in 2002. I got divorced in 2004. My dad died in 2006. Heck, even my dog died this year. That's when my life officially became a country song.

There's more, but I'll spare you.

Suffice it to say that real life has beaten me down, and music, that most transcendent of escapes, hasn't been able to compete with it. Though I have some very dear friends here who helped (and they know who they are), it's hard to go through this without family around.

Most of mine is almost 2,000 miles away. So next week I'm moving home to El Paso, Texas, where my mom, one of my brothers, my sister and her husband need me. Not as much as I need them. And the warm weather won't hurt.

The Sun City isn't known for its musical legacy, though Marty Robbins did write a great song about it. But it's where this Air Force brat grew up, saw my first concert (Grand Funk Railroad, no less, in 1970) and developed a love for music and the desire to write about it.

I left the border city 24 years ago for several reasons, one of which was a dissatisfaction with its lack of cultural offerings, especially for a city of its size. I came to Michigan in part because my former wife and my late dad are from here, and in part because I'm a huge Detroit Tigers fan.

One of the highlights of my life was sitting in the upper deck for the final game of the '84 World Series as the Tigers whipped the San Diego Padres for the championship.
I took a job with the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1983 and served what I consider to be a seven-year internship. It was there I got to know an emerging comic named Tim Allen (I still send him a Christmas card every year), and where I covered the Monsters of Rock tour for Rolling Stone.

It's also where I got married and where the true love of my life, my son, Keith, was born 19 years ago.

Kazoo and the newspaper were too small for me, so I jumped at the chance to transfer within the company to The Flint Journal, where I became the music writer in October 1990. I've been here ever since, though I never thought I'd stay this long.

The original attraction was the chance to cover shows in the Detroit area, certainly bigger than any city in which I had worked. But it didn't take long for me to realize the caliber of the talent here in Flint. Since I was always big on local music coverage -- going back to my college days at Texas Tech and the fertile music scene that fostered the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Delbert McClinton, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Terry Allen and many others -- it was important to me that The Journal include that on its pages, too.

I've covered and interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry - Madonna, Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Prince, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, U2, James Brown, Radiohead, the Who, Notorious B.I.G., Tim McGraw, Bill Cosby, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant, Alan Jackson and Motor City heroes from Bob Seger and Kid Rock to Eminem and Motown greats such as Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson, who once gave me a big bear hug after a show in Clio.

I covered tour openers for the Rolling Stones, U2, Metallica and, of course, Bob Seger in far away places like Las Vegas and Boston. I was also on the field when the Stones performed at Super Bowl XL at Ford Field, and was in the stands at the Palace when the Pistons won the NBA championship in 2004.

But as satisfying as all of those things have been, nothing has given me greater pleasure than the interaction with the musicians, bar owners, station managers, DJs, publicists and, of course, the readers that have been around these past 17 years.
I got to cover some pretty big local music stories, including LaKisha Jones' rise from this year from "American Idol" to Broadway's "The Color Purple," Davison band Chiodos' ascension up the indie rock ranks, Johnny Cash's last full concert (at Whiting Auditorium), the rise and tragic fall of the dear departed Clio Area Amphitheater, the emergence of the Machine Shop as a local music force, Grand Funk Railroad's late '90s reunion and bitter breakup (Journal photographer and all-around nice guy Bruce Edwards and I once drove Mark Farner's guitar to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for the band) and the murder of their former manager, Terry Knight.

I wrote about Flint's early '90s rap explosion that saw M.C. Breed, The Dayton Family and Top Authority climb the national charts, and experienced the exhilaration of a Run-DMC show at the Copa.

And I was there when Flint Township resident and bluegrass pioneer Wade Mainer -- who played for FDR and shared a stage with Woody Guthrie -- celebrated his 100th birthday with his 88-year-old wife of 70 years, Julia, and a 50-minute set last April before an SRO crowd at the Fenton Community Center.

Local music coverage always has been a mission, and it was vital that all of the music coverage be fair, honest and not self-indulgent (except, of course, my occasional Stones columns!).

I leave knowing that at least we increased its presence in the paper in a big way, with cover stories, reviews, my columns and our club listings, which grew from a handful 17 years ago to two pages every week in The Entertainer.

I also started the paper's first blog (Pullenmyblog) in part to update readers on what's going on around here, though I never fulfilled its promise. There was never enough time.

It's humbling, a little embarrassing and very cool that some of the musicians I've written about over the years are throwing me a farewell concert at 5 p.m. Sunday at Jester's, 3112 N. Center Road.

Rusty Wright Blues, which instigated this, is playing, as are the Blue Hawaiians, Jim Coviak's Steelheads, folk singer Kevin Tyler and some names I can't tell you. George Zaravelis is donating his club and the food. Keith Jennings of Whaley Children's Jam fame is donating sound and lights.

Come out, say goodbye, talk music and, most importantly, listen to the wonderful sounds these hometowners make.

The Journal isn't replacing me. If you have events, news items or club listings to submit, send them to Misty Gower, the new features/entertainment/opinion editor, at entertainer@flintjournal.com. She's good people.

If you'd like to stay in touch, you can write to me at pullen.doug@gmail.com.

I plan to freelance and start my own blog. But I'll never forget the 17 years here.

I'll miss friends, my co-workers and my softball and volleyball teams.

I'll miss them all. And I'll miss you. Adios!

-30-

Doug Pullen gets "Closer To Home"

That's Doug in the middle, Mark Farner on the left

I met Doug back in 1996 when GFR played their 10 city mini-tour. We've kept in touch over the years and I talked with him back in November when he told me he was leaving the Flint Journal to go back home. He always kept me up to date about Mark and the other two guys, and sent me an e-mail high 5 when he read my review of Don and Mel's show last November. I will miss reading his stuff, he and I felt very much the same way about the Flint 2 version of Grand Funk. Back in 2001, he was verbally abused by the fans of Don & Mel's new band because he gave a not so glorious review of their show in Detroit. One of the Cyberfunkers even wanted to "hunt him down". He pissed off our favorite drummer at least once or twice. Doug's voice sounds nothing like the way he looked. I pictured someone similar to Jackson Browne but was surprised to find out he looked more like Randy Bachman with a goatee. I never realized until November 2007 that we've experienced the same loss of family members. Both my parents are gone, my younger brother died in 2006 and Tito (our dog) passed on in December of 2006 after 17 years. I got divorced in 2003. But, neither of us shared those stories with each other. We just traded little tidbits about Mark and GFR. Doug sent me a newspaper spread the Flint Journal did back in 1996 when the Funk were just starting to tour again. I called him when Mark wanted to use one of my photos, and he was one of the first people I called after I got the phone call from Mark in July of 2006. We could have been best friends I think, if we lived closer to each other, but I was content to just have someone to call when I wanted to chat about GFR. I'll miss him at the Journal but I'm sure we'll talk soon. Best of luck Doug, you deserve it.

G

Where did I get the name for this blog??

It may not be obvious, but I'll explain. While reading Doug Pullen's last blog, I thought I might want to start a new blog for just my personal side of life. You know, my daughters, my family, my friends....and Lynn. I had to come up with a name. let's see.....Pullenmyblog......Eatonmyblog. Since I grew up with people making fun of my last name, heck little kids still walk by my studio and giggle..."Gary Eaton, eating, eat a ton, ha, ha, ha!!" It only seemed fitting I'd put my last name in the title. Thank you Doug for allowing me to "borrow" your idea.

G