Rocky – PowerPop… An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture

Rocky and Rudy

While I was in Atlanta I was having lunch with one of our corporate lawyers named Bill. He suddenly blurted out if anyone at the table wanted a Bearded Dragon as a pet. I thought I had some friends who might want one so I texted a few and all I got was a maybe. His son was getting tired of it so Bill wanted to find a home where he would get more attention.

Sorry for the red light but he was under his red light when I took this.

Later on, we met him at an exit and he gave me the dragon named Rocky with the aquarium, lights, heat lamp, and everything else you would need. We were in a cargo van so Rocky had a long bumpy ride the next day to his new home. I told the wife when we pulled up to unload…”I have a guy without a home…he needs to have somewhere to stay so I told him he could stay with us. ” She said…”you mean he is in the van????” I opened the door…a complete shock is the best way to describe it. Now Rocky has a permanent home with us. Forget the friends I thought would want him…he is the least needy soul of the entire household. Now we are starting to interact with Rocky more. He will climb on you and sit there on your shirt and chill out.

A lady I work with lets me babysit her prairie dog (Thea) every few weeks and we have grown quite fond of her. Lori came into my office on July 9, saying she had the prairie dog (Thea) with her. I picked her up and I stopped…she was much heavier and I remarked on how much she was feeding him. She smiled and said no…that is not Thea…it’s his brother. She wanted company for Thea but all they did was fight so she asked if I wanted him. Well yes, I did! She didn’t have a name but Rudy sounded good so we went with that.

One thing I’ll say about prairie dogs is that they’re incredibly unique pets. Rudy, for example, feels almost like having a small human in the house. They’re the most curious animals I’ve ever been around. Rudy is still a work in progress. He’s come a long way, though! At first, he was quite moody, though he still loved attention. Over time, he’s been improving, but I’d say to anyone considering a prairie dog—they require a lot of attention. Rudy craves interaction, so we plan to get him another prairie dog for company in the future.

They’re pretty easy to feed, too. You can find most of their food at the grocery store: oats, Cheerios, sweet potatoes, sunflower seeds, and other things they love. The main staple we get for Rudy is Timothy Hay, which we buy from the Tractor Supply store.

I take Rocky to an upstairs bathroom we don’t use and he runs amuck and there is nothing in there to chew that would be dangerous. He lives in a 4-story enclosed cage around 5 feet tall. I plan to make a 10×10 wooden box and fill it full of dirt so he can have a place to dig in the spring and he can be outside some.

I usually get a “yahoo” from him when I come home. He seems comfortable now, and even our dog Martha tolerates him but will tell on him if he gets loose. It’s funny: When a neighbor’s dog came into our house when we opened the door, Martha went to Rudy’s enclosure to guard him.

I will get Thea from Lori sometimes to take home. It’s like having two monkeys running amuck. Thea and Rudy will fight at times but it’s over in 2-3 seconds. They will whip their claws out like they are Ninjas. Prairie Dogs in the wild have a life expectancy of 4-5 years…captive they live 8-10 years. I can see why…they are afraid of nothing. He will stand on his feet and grab Martha’s nose when she bends down to look at him.

This will end our private zoo, which includes two turtles, a Bearded Dragon, a Prairie Dog, and a Saint Bernard. That is enough; the doors are shut tight now. Rocky gives us the least trouble of them all.

Max’s Drive-In Movie – Rocky

I love boxing movies like Raging Bull, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and even Chaplin’s City Lights that feature a match. This movie also included that musical theme that is probably played more at gyms than anything else.

At the time it was released, the movies coming out had unhappy endings. It was the trend at the time. I like movies like that as well but this one split the difference. Rocky didn’t end up winning the belt in the movie but he held his own against Apollo Creed the current champion. The movie is the ultimate underdog movie.

In the mid-1970s, Stallone was an unknown actor struggling to make it in Hollywood. He had only a few minor roles and was living in poverty, even selling his dog at one point because he couldn’t afford to feed it. He wrote the script for Rocky in less than four days. The character of Rocky the Underdog mirrored himself because of the struggles he was going through.

Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff offered him $360,000 for the story but Stallone had one condition…he insisted on playing Rocky. Despite his financial struggles, he refused to sell the script unless he was cast as the lead. The producers were hesitant, preferring a big star like Robert Redford or Burt Reynolds, but Stallone convinced them.

The budget was low so they had to film sometimes guerrilla-style without permits and permission. Stallone’s friends and family were cast in roles to save money. For example, Stallone’s wife, Sasha, played a minor role, and his dog, Butkus (he bought him back), his two pet turtles Cuff and Link, appeared in the film.

Why was this movie so successful? Other than rooting for the underdog, it was the characters. They all had faults, likes, and dislikes but we could relate to these people because we knew them. You had Talia Shire playing Rocky’s shy love interest, Burt Young who played He played Rocky’s brother-in-law and best friend Paulie Pennino, Burgess Meredith who played his trainer Mickey, Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed the character influenced by the boxer Jack Johnson.

The main story is about one man’s struggles to overcome the odds but it is also a love story. There are real touches of greatness… such as Burgess Meredith as Mickey a veteran boxer who does not want to train Rocky as he sees him as a washed-out bum until he is offered a shot at the big time. Then seeing his relationship with Rocky grow. The acting is superb and the music still pumps me up to this day. This may have been the movie to invent the training montage which is now a must in any movie about sports or fighting. Stallone’s performance is great in this role.

All Rocky wants to do, as he confesses to Adrian (Talia Shire) in that touching apartment scene, is go the distance with the champ. He doesn’t have to knock him out, doesn’t even have to win, just go the distance. You know, I still have to remind myself at times as I reflect on the picture that Rocky really didn’t win the match but the film won because of it.

Rocky has become part of pop culture for so many years it’s hard to look at the first film as a standalone low-budget entry in the boxing genre. This is a great film and put the writer and main lead Sylvester Stallone into the stratosphere of Hollywood. The film is not flawless but it is classic.

A fun note about this film. In the movie, Rocky has two pet turtles, Cuff and Link, and he still has them at his home today. They are around 50 years old. He bought his dog Butkus back and the guy that he sold him to knew he had Stallone over a barrel so Stallone had to pay him $15,000 but he said it was worth every penny.

PLOT IMDB

Rocky Balboa is a struggling boxer trying to make the big time, working as a debt collector for a pittance. When heavyweight champion Apollo Creed visits Philadelphia, his managers want to set up an exhibition match between Creed and a struggling boxer, touting the fight as a chance for a “nobody” to become a “somebody”. The match is supposed to be easily won by Creed, but someone forgot to tell Rocky, who sees this as his only shot at the big time.

Quotes

Adrian: Why do you wanna fight?
Rocky: Because I can’t sing or dance.

____________________________________________

Adrian: Einstein flunked out of school, twice.
Paulie: Is that so?
Adrian: Yeah. Beethoven was deaf. Helen Keller was blind. I think Rocky’s got a good chance.

____________________________________________

Bodyguard: Did ya get the license number?
Rocky: Of what?
Bodyguard: The truck that run over your face.

THEME of Rocky

…

Famous Rock Guitars Part 2

Lets continue browsing through famous guitars. In Part 1 we had a guitars owned by Brian May and Willie Nelson.

George Harrison and Eddie Van Halen’s guitars

Today we will visit two more….George Harrison‘s Strat “Rocky” and Eddie Van Halen‘s “Frankenstrat”

Today we will start off with one of my favorite guitars for obvious reasons…and then Frankenstrat below Rocky.

“Rocky”

When The Beatles were in the studio recording “Help!“, John Lennon and George Harrison sent roadie Mal Evans out to go get a couple of Fender Stratocasters. Evans came back with matching 1962 Sonic Blue Strats. You can hear both of these guitars on Rubber Soul…especially both playing the solo on Nowhere Man in unison.

George Harrison: “During ’67, everybody started painting everything,” “and I decided to paint it. I got some Day-Glo paint, which was quite a new invention in them days, and just sat up late one night and did it.”

Harrison used some of his ex-wife Patti Boyd’s nail polish to paint the headstock. George played the guitar that year in the Beatles’ live performance of “All You Need Is Love” on the around the world satellite feed called Our World, the first global satellite TV program, and in the film Magical Mystery Tour, in the segment where the Beatles mime to “I Am the Walrus”

In 1969-1970 on the advice of the great slide guitar player Ry Cooder George set Rocky up for slide only.

The Harrison Estate still owns this guitar.

Following its announcement at NAMM 2020, Fender has now officially released its faithful recreation of George Harrison’s ‘Rocky’ Stratocaster…hmm I know exactly what I want for Christmas!

“Frankenstrat”

Eddie wanted to make a guitar that was a cross of a Gibson and Fender. To have the clean tone of a Fender and the ability to have the crunch of a Gibson.

In 1974 he visited Boogie Bodies guitars, whose parts were used on early Charvels, and bought himself a factory second unfinished body and neck, paying total of $130. The body he bought was the first one he saw laying around in the store, but he paid close attention to choosing the right neck – he looked for a wide neck with a really thin profile and big Gibson-style frets.

He painted the body black and wrapped masking tape around it and repainted the body white. He installed a Fender tremolo from a 1958 Stratocaster, Schaller tuners, and a Gibson PAF pickup from an old ES-335 which he dipped into paraffin wax in order to get rid of the feedback.

He played the guitar on Van Halen’s first album, and during the band’s first tour. Towards the end of the tour, the guitar was changed to feature a white pickguard and a rosewood neck.

He later changed out necks and hardware and painted it red with bicycle paint.

Frankenstrat was donated to the Hard Rock Cafe in 2004. In 2017 Frankenstrat had been stolen from the walls of the city’s Hard Rock Cafe but returned later.

NAMM 2020 Video: First look at the Fender George Harrison Rocky Stratocaster

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/frankenstrat-stolen-returned-to-hard-rock-cafe

…