Don't forget to visit Jack And Misty's Important Links!
(Go on... you know you want to...)
Our CD catalog:www.elvinsystems.com/jm/catalog.htm
YOUTUBE:www.youtube.com/jackandmisty
FACEBOOK:Jack's NEW Facebook page!
Misty welcoming friends to our motorhome.
NEW JACK AND MISTY LOGO UPDATE!
Thanks to Ann Collins for smoothing the edges! :)
--Jack and Misty.
(P.S.: Click on logo to see it at full size! -- Jerry.)
September 26th, 2024...
Jack's official FB was stolen over a year ago. If you received a post promoting Jack Blanchard teeshirts,
it came from the imposter. Jack does not promote or sell any products.
Here is the imposter's cover page...
May 8th, 2024...
It's that time again...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JACK!!
(and many more!)
April 28th, 2024...
A little something from Jack...
Click HERE for the video.
April 15th, 2024...
I'd say "Happy Tax Day," but that would be pushing it.... and here's Jack...
THE COMPULSIVE WRITER...
Writing is an obsession with me. I think it started seven or eight years ago.
I always had to dig for ideas like everybody else. but now,
as soon as I finish one thing an idea shows up for the next.
Once it's in my mind it sticks like a song you can't get out of your head
and I can't let go until it's done.
The neighbors see my light still on as they go to work many mornings.
I've never been good at moderation in anything...
music, sports, reading, love, alcohol, and on and on.
Sports and alcohol seem to have run their course,
and after reading a lot, I now write more than I read.
After listening to a lot of music I like,
I now compose more than I listen to.
A shrink would ask about my childhood.
As a kid I knew all the sports names and statistics
but I had other heroes like writers and musicians.
I hope this might be a little help to another writer
but I wouldn't try to teach anybody how to do it.
I can just tell what works for me.
Roger Miller said a lot of his song ideas
came from misunderstanding what other people say.
Thomas Edison said that Ideas come from space.
Woody Allen says he gets his ideas
from a post office box in Schenectady.
I think my ideas come from being pleasantly nuts
but it's not a bad kind of mental illness.
I should have come down with it sooner.
I think a computer is better than a legal pad for stories.
and a piano or guitar is better for writing songs.
A lamp is good.
To me, a piano, a desk, or a guitar in soft lamplight
is hard to resist.
I've been asked if I write words or music first.
It varies, and sometimes it's both at once.
Writing every day becomes a helpful habit.
It's a nice feeling to have a finished story or song.
Hey! I did this! How the hell did that happen?
At first the hardest part is starting and once I get started
the hardest part is stopping.
Compulsive writing could be a side effect of getting older.
Age can bring this realization...
Time doesn't grow on trees.
Get it all down now if you want to leave your mark.
Copyright © April 15, 2024 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
February 29th, 2024...
Happy Leap Day, all you leaplings out there! It's been a long time since I've said this,
but: we have a new Jack Blanchard column! And here it is...
OUR DOG CHILDREN.
Our first dog was Brubeck, when we lived in Miami, before we had any popular recordings.
We named him for our favorite jazz pianist Dave Brubeck. He was a wonderful, intelligent, and faithful friend.
Brubeck was killed by a car while we were doing a live radio broadcast.
We got home and received the news and were devastated.
A few months later we got a basset hound puppy, Cecil.
Cecil was impossible to train and bit everybody in the family. We took him when we moved to Key West.
He was destructive, so when we went to work we had to close him in the bathroom,
which he completely destroyed. Cecil got something serious wrong with his throat and we took him to a vet,
which we couldn't really afford. The doctor said it was from howling all night every night when we were at work.
We asked around for someone to take him, and the Mayor of Key West was interested.
A woman, maybe the Mayor's wife or assistant, picked him up and he went happily away without a look back at us.
I don't think Cecil ever knew who we were or cared. And I don't think the mayor got much sleep that night.
Then Misty came home with a whippet, a miniature greyhound named Prince.
He was so little and skinny and shaky, he was pathetic. I think he had been abused.
He was a sweetheart, and slept tightly between us. But he was so insecure that he marked his new territorial
over our home and furnishings. We had to go somewhere for a week or so and entrusted Prince with neighbors.
A bad mistake. When we came back, he was hiding under their trailer, with burns from hot liquid all over him.
Misty jumped out of the car, strode up to the place past dirty kids, garbage, and yard dogs,
grabbed up Prince and we took off.
We loved him, but we knew a very nice young woman who was thrilled to take him from us
and would give him a good home. Sadly, he got killed by a car while she was walking him across Duval Street on a leash.
Poor little Prince's story is like something out of Dickens.
The ABC Talent Agency then booked our trio throughout the Eastern US.
In Montgomery, Alabama we got Wolf 1, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Blanchard.
If a dog can be a genius, that would describe Wolf. He was a comedian, knew lots of tricks,
and how to manipulate people...a puffy silver beauty, and everybody loved him.
He would carry his leash to us when he wanted to go out. My socks began to disappear.
We found out Wolf was hoarding them under our bed.
We tiptoed in and saw a sock being slowly drawn back under the bed. Very sneaky.
Sometimes Wolf would get in a mood, and wouldn't come when called, so we found a strategy....
We would ring the doorbell and shout "Who is it?“
He would come running and barking, to see who dared to come to his door.
As smart as he was, it worked every time.
Wolf had some seizures which were frightening to see. He seemed exceptionally healthy,
and we didn't know he was also diabetic. We had to go on a brief tour
and boarded him at the highest rated kennel in Orlando.
We called from a rest area on the road to see how he was doing.
The jerk on the phone simply said. "Oh, that dog? It died.“
We were angry and in tears for days.
Later we got another toy poodle at a Winter Park pet store. He was let out of the cage,
made a beeline for Misty, and seemed to run right up her legs and into her arms.
Love at first sight.
Wolf 2 was the opposite of Wolf 1 in personality. He was quite serious and tried to be
the best person he could be at all times. He took care of Camille, our little Lhasa Apso. throughout her life.
And especially when she got old and blind.
In Nashville, Wolf's hind legs suddenly became crippled and he couldn't walk.
Half his body was numb from a spinal injury. Misty and I carried him around on a pillow
even when people were telling us to have him put down.
We were pretty low on money at the time, but out of desperation I called Information from a telephone booth
to try to find a doctor. I happened to get a very friendly operator on the line who loved animals,
and she was sympathetic. She put me in touch with a surgeon who operated on Wolf and did not charge us a cent.
A miracle. Wolf 2 had to be catheterized regularly after surgery and Misty did it for several months...
even between shows.
He was struggling to walk, and one day Misty came in laughing and happy shouting. "He just peed on his own!"
It was a big event to us. After that he always walked with a slight hind leg stiffness, but he could run perfectly.
The hardest thing I have ever had to do was hold Wolf on the table while the doctor put him to sleep.
He was looking into my eyes and trusting me. All these years later I still choke up when I think of it.
Wolf 2 and his little partner Camille were like brother and sister and lived with us for about sixteen years.
They were our family. We love and miss all of our canine kids, even Cecil.
Jack Blanchard
© February 29, 2024 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
February 9th, 2024...
Hi, gang, your less-than-cheery webmeister Jerry here, with some bad news.
I don't enjoy writing about it, but nonetheless, it happened, and I have to report it:
As I was telling Jacquie Connolly Coyle (a good friend of Jack's), this is the sort of thing
that turns this webmeister's hair greyer than it already is. Apparently, some sleazeball outfit
calling itself "Cheap Useful Items" has hijacked our FB page, and **I DO NOT APPRECIATE IT!!**
Short of discontinuing it (which I hope doesn't happen), I've got no idea what to do,
other than removing the FB link from the website (which right now seems to be the only alternative,
unfortunately).
Any ideas would be welcome.
Otherwise, **GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!** 😠 😠 😠 😠 😠
Our peerless leader, Jack, summed it up best some time ago:
"It was the best of times, and then some crap happened."
Jerry.
November 21, 2023...
Hey, gang. Webmeister Jerry here with some exciting news.
You probably remember Jack's reminiscing about the time he and Misty were on The
Mike Douglas Show in the 70s from Miami Beach, and how they had a conversation with
Jackie Gleason about spiritualism and other things?
Well, the video of that segment has FINALLY surfaced on YouTube! (Of course, there's music,
too!) Click the link below to see for yourselves:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpf3lDbZ5Do.
Enjoy! Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
September 6, 2023...
Well, hi again, folks. It's been too long since we've had a new column from our peerless leader,
so let's remedy that situation right now. Here's Jack...
IMAGE...
The public attention span is short and you have to get attention with an interesting image.
People correspond in Tweets of 150 characters or less. People channel surf hundreds of stations,
and if they don't like the first minute or so, they flip to the next one.
Only a small number of listeners will take in a one hour concerto.
Three minute songs with hooks to grab their attention get the play.
This is not new in show business.
God may look underneath but busy people don't take the time,
unless you catch their attention with something catchy on the surface.
If they don't like the first impression, they're on to the next act.
I've been in this line of endeavor for many years.
I have studied it carefully, and have learned from the best.
The facade is a real part of the entertainer's self.
It's show biz know-how. Stage Craft.
It is NOT a weakness, or something that needs to be overcome.
For a professional entertainer or actor to present their best face to the audience
is not a bad thing in any way.
It's just a more entertaining side of our self. That's why God gave us sequins.
Somebody told a famous entertainer to just be himself.
He asked "Which self?"
Some times, with good entertainers,
the on-stage persona becomes the dominant side of the personality.
Actors and entertainers work on and present facets of themselves
that will catch the public eye and ear.
That's a good thing.
And there's the age discrimination...
The older stars out there now made it when they were younger.
There are few if any old faces on the Opry or on the CMA Awards anymore.
Some stars keep getting face lifts.
It's an attempt to stay in the game.
You have to give them credit for trying.
If Misty and I hadn't done things to make ourselves interesting on the surface,
the public would have never noticed us, or gotten to know our more serious side.
You don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle.
I'm sure God understands.
Copyright © September 5, 2023 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
July 23, 2023...
Hi, folks, Jerry again.
It's been too long since I've had anything musical to post from our peerless leader,
so, howzabout this. I found it while searching through YouTube for an old country
single that I'd heard in the 60s, and instead, I found this! It's an oldie from 1969 on
the Stop label out of Nashville, by a singer who called himself "(Prof.) Terrell Jones",
and it was written and produced by Jack! It's called "Old Orange County Jail" (Stop ST 361),
and here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LsSUssc5-Y.
Enjoy!
Oh, and special thanks to YT'er Trick Knee for posting it in the first place!
Ain't technology grand?
January 18, 2023...
Been a while since I posted anything from our peerless leader, so it's just about
time to remedy that. And with that... here's Jack...
THINGS I RARELY SAY...
"Let me show you to the door."
(I've never had a house big enough to lose the door.)
"I'd like to purchase a chain saw and a ski mask."
"Why, yes. I WOULD like the extended warranty!"
"Would you like to see my portfolio?"
"Can anyone here play the spoons?"
"I'll be at the gym."
"Yes, please. I WOULD like a knuckle sandwich."
"I'm sure these motel sheets are clean."
"I'd like to put on a few pounds."
"I'd like to see something in an ascot."
"Can you sell me a Pinto?"
"Let's do lunch sometime."
(I don't get up in time for lunch.)
"Allow me to introduce myself."
"The bridge is out. You'll have to stay the night. Bleah."
"I don't like it. It's too quiet out there."
"I'd like to purchase a smoking jacket."
"I really miss Spiro Agnew."
"This wine has a good nose."
"Can you play a merengue?"
"I'd like to buy a skateboard and a rap CD."
And I hardly ever say: "You look lovely tonight." to a parking attendant.
Jack Blanchard
Copyright © January 18, 2023 by Jack Blanchard. All rights reserved.
Reprinted by kind permission of the author.
January 1st, 2023...
Hi, friends. Your friendly neighborhood webmeister Jerry here.
Just some thoughts before starting:
As I do every year at this time, I've moved all the news from 2022 to its new spot on the
Old News page here, so that's where that went.
In the meantime, on behalf of assistant webmeister Lee, and Jack, I wish you
a safe and Happy New Year.
More to come...
Jerry.
HAPPY NEW FRIGGIN' YEAR,
FRIENDS AND FIENDS!!! ♥ -- Jack.
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