On the Shoulders of Giants

There are people who tell stories of unusual events they either witnessed or played a part in. I'd like to visit with the guy who tells this story ... It's the late 1960's: Daily Breeze, Torrance Blvd. In the early morning hours of So California life working as a gas station attendant on Torrance Blvd  is boring at best . The only sign of life along the four lane boulevard are the lights coming off the Daily Breeze newspaper building. A still quiet lingers there at that hour of the day and there's a smell of ocean air blowing in from the beach a couple of miles away. A low roar begins to penetrate the morning silence. It gains in volume and intensity as it approaches. Hearing hot rods running up and down Torrance Blvd is not unusual, it's a welcome distraction during the long, dark, morning hours. This is different ...it doesn't sound like a hot rod. It sounds ...meaner, faster. PJ @ Riverside, CA Suddenly the sound becomes a blurred vision of a n...

Hey Man! He's not an Indian man! Richard Marin and Tommy Chong arrived in a RV/Production studio/Day lounge at the CSS Recording Studios parking lot, Las Vegas NV, in the early 1980's. Their concert master, Gay Delorme, had come to town to cut tracks for their up coming movie. In through the commercial steel door leading to the parking lot came Richard and Tommy. Richard was quiet, attentive and listening to everything. Tommy was a production dynamo. He was directing and on top of every aspect of our session. As they traversed the airlock doors between the control room and studio, you could see Richard and Tommy transform into Cheech and Chong.  Jimmy Root was our connection to "the boys". Jim was also Wayne Newton's sound engineer at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas ...where Wayne was playing. "The Boys" said ..."hey, that sounds like fun ...let's go see Jimmy's show." After the session the entire production crew went t...

Mickey Thompson One weekend, in the mid 1960's, Mickey Thompson and Parnelli Jones met at Lake Elsinore CA. It's a small lake South East of Los Angeles. Lake Elsinore CA Imagine if you will; the "adults" are sitting on the dock, the "kids", Curt and I, come out on to the dock. Curtis says to Mickey, "Hey Mickey, can we take your boat out?" We never expected him to say yes. Neither did any of the other adults gathered there. You could tell by their facial expressions of surprise. We were not going to wait around for a better idea to come to Mickey. We jumped in the boat, fired her up and went cruising the beach line for girls. We were in our mid teens. Maybe this is where the boat's story comes into play. Mickey and his son Danny used this boat in a race to Catalina Island. At that time Mickey was active in developing the Salton Sea 500 marathon boat race. This was a race boat by every sense of the term. A 100 MPH+ boat power...

Our girls grew up hearing ..."I don't want you looking up to me, that would mean I'd be looking down on you. I want us to be eye to eye ..."  When you choose your friends well they become "family".   Two of my families were at different ends of the entertainment business. Curt's father Marvin was the CFO of Parnelli Jones Enterprises. Tony's Uncle Donny owned Quantum Recording Studios. Both of my families serviced giants, names well known by many of the day. Both Curtis and Tony have passed. Before Curt passed he said, "...the biggest problem you're going to have once I'm gone is relevance. We bring it to each other. You know, people have a hard time believing the life we lead was real." He added, "We grew up on the shoulders of giants pal. Most haven't. PJ and the STP turbine car at Indy At "PJ's" we built race cars that broke records: Oh boy, do I have a story about this ...