Thursday, March 5, 2009

Best Little Whore House In Graceland...



So. I feel fucking great today. Just sayin. I was ill for several days (Fri-Monday) and I finally feel normal again. Well, close as I'm gonna get anyway..


I didn't eat, drink anything other than water, or smoke cigs from Friday to Tues. So to celebrate, I had some beers and smoked like my plane was going down at Burton's last night. This morning I smelled like I finger banged Phillip Morris himself, tongue-kissed a homeless person, and somehow woke up in the middle of a Taco Bell crime scene. Good times!


I watched a biography on Dolly Parton the other day. Even if you don't give a shit about her music (which I do), you gotta respect her. Here are a few points:





Integrity - She was approached in 1972 (I think) by Col. Tom Parker (Elvis' handler) and they wanted to record her moderate hit "I will always love you". As usual, Elvis wanted 50% of the rights to the song. As a songwriter and musician, Dolly idolized Elvis! Unfortunately, she had made a commitment to herself that she would not give up ownership of her art. So, she declined Elvis's offer. She was torn up over it, as she would've loved to hear him record the song. Of course, her redemption came in 1994 with Whitney Houston knocking the song out of the park. She made millions of of that recording....and kept her integrity.





Inspiration - (copy/pasted from Dolly's Imagination Library website) Sorry its so long..


In 1996, Dolly Parton launched an exciting new effort to benefit the children of her home county in east Tennessee. Dolly wanted to foster a love of reading among her county’s preschool children and their families. She wanted children to be excited about books and to feel the magic that books can create. Moreover, she could insure that every child would have books, regardless of their family’s income.So she decided to mail a brand new, age appropriate book each month to every child under 5 in Sevier County. With the arrival of every child’s first book, the classic The Little Engine That Could ™, every child could now experience the joy of finding their very own book in their mail box. These moments continue each month until the child turns 5—and in their very last month in the program they receive Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come.Needless to say the experience has been a smashing success. So much so that many other communities clamored to provide the Imagination Library to their children. Dolly thought long and hard about it and decided her Foundation should develop a way for other communities to participate. The Foundation asked a blue ribbon panel of experts to select just the right books and secured Penguin Group USA to be the exclusive publisher for the Imagination Library. Moreover a database was built to keep track of the information.Consequently, in March of 2000 she stood at the podium of The National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and revealed the plan for other communities to provide the Imagination Library to their children. And as only Dolly can say it, she wanted to “put her money where her mouth is – and with such a big mouth that’s a pretty large sum of money” and provide the books herself to the children of Branson, Missouri and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina – communities where her businesses now operate. If other leaders in their communities were willing to do the same, well something big might just happen.You know what? It did!!
David Dotson, Executive Director of The Dollywood Foundation, Dolly Parton, Lady Jackson, President of the Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation, and Phil Bredesen, Governor, State of Tennessee.
Here’s how it works:A community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area. The community pays for the books and mailing, promotes the program, registers the children, and enters the information into the database.
From there The Dollywood Foundation takes over and manages the system to deliver the books to the home. You can find out more of the operational details on other pages in this website – so what are you waiting for! Hundreds of communities are providing books to hundreds of thousands of children.



By the way, note this is not just for "underprivileged" children, its for ALL children...

I still get inspired by inspiring people.


Smooches,


CB

7 comments:

  1. now i know everything i ever wanted to know about "ol islands in the stream". that song still reminds me of when i was a wee lad. i was singing it at work the other day for some strange reason. Good post, ill pass it along.

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  2. David passed you along via twitter.

    I adore Dolly. She's my hero. She truly is one of the greatest women.

    Oh, and Dave? I have that song on my iPod *blushes*

    I'll pass this along, too.

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  3. Thanks, guys. Mama Dawg, Im new to this, so I will make sure Im followin' your stuff too..

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  4. Oh, sweetie. I'm totally talking you up in my post tomorrow.

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  5. HI! I found you via Mama Dawg. Very excited to find some new reads! Welcome to the blogging world. When I started (not even a year ago), I just wrote to my self for 6 months. I had no idea how to find readers. I enjoyed reading you and I'll be back again. You can find me in Orange County sunning myself on the beach ........

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  6. Just FYI. I blogged about you today. So, now you gotta live up to the hype! (just kidding).

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  7. I read your blog. Thanks! I just couldnt figure out how to comment on there. Pfftt...rookies..

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