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| View of Santa Monica from Lifeguard Station #26. |
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For me, this BATTLE OF THE BANDS' Battle Of The Booze installment is a kind of bittersweet stroll down Nostalgia Lane in my homemegalopolis. I'm going to explain that, but if you'd prefer to skip my yakking and cut straight to the action, feel free to scroll on down the blog bit.
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I thank God that none of my friends and family members lost their homes during the recent outrageous fires in the Los Angeles area.
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I've been known to frequently say:
"I grew up at Dodger Stadium".
It's true. When I was a tot, my Ma worked for the Dodger organization, and my Grandpa had season tickets at Dodger Stadium from Opening Day in 1962 into the 1990s.
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| Stephen (left) and brother Judge Al Bondigas (right) with some unknown Dodger player in 1962. |
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| Judge Al Bondigas on the cover of a 1962 Dodgers score book, painted by famous artist Nicholas Volpe. |
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| Stephen modeling the latest Dodger fashion for five-year-old future Hall Of Famers. |
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I've also been known to frequently say:
"I grew up in the shadow of Lifeguard Station #26" (on Santa Monica Beach).
It's true. While in school, all of my Summers were spent right next to Station 26 on "Dogtown" Beach. I still have my very old beach towel but, sadly, I now use it as a mat on my bathroom floor. However, truth be told, I didn't really spend a lot of time on that towel at the beach; I was usually in the water, riding the waves.
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| Lifeguard Station #26 in the distance, Santa Monica Beach. |
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| Station 26, where the cool kids spent their Endless Summers acquiring future skin cancers. |
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No doubt, I spent at least as much time at Disneyland & the Disneyland Hotel as I did in Dodger Stadium. But I never say that "I grew up in Disneyland" because I didn't. I went to Disneyland and its formerly great Hotel in order to forestall growing up; in an effort to nourish & protect the life of the Neverland "Lost Boy" in me (a.k.a. "my inner Tom Sawyer").
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When I have trouble falling asleep at night, I imagine myself back in certain areas of the (fantastic but long gone) Disneyland Hotel and that usually does the trick.
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| Alice... call me! I'm taller than the Mad Hatter, and I don't talk as funny as he does. |
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| STMcC, circa 1990, in front of his favorite Disneyland ride. |
Some time after learning of the massive fires in the helL.A. metropolitan area -- my homemegalopolis -- I wondered about 'Moonshadows'. Moonshadows was a unique restaurant right on the coast in Malibu, and it always made me think of a cute gal whom I nicknamed Chantilly Lace (after the Big Bopper's big hit song).
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When I did an iNet search for Moonshadows, I was saddened to learn that it had burned down to the sand:
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Then I thought about another really cool place on the Pacific Coast Highway that I used to frequent called 'The Sunspot '. It was a dance club, and I have a couple of early 1980s stories from The Sunspot -- goot juans! But when I did an iNet search on it, I was shocked to learn that, what remained of The Sunspot after a mudslide, was razed in 1995! (The same year I moved away from Los Angeles for the second and last time.)
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| The Sunspot, as it appeared in the 1945 Joan Crawford film 'Mildred Pierce'. |
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The Los Angeles that I once knew and loved is mostly gone now, and all of this bittersweet nostalgia (eliciting E-Ticket goldenshadow feelings in me) inspired the following BOTB match-up:
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What we have is Linda Ronstadt singing 'Adios' -- a "goodbye" song that was musically arranged by Beach Boy #1, Brian Wilson, and which also includes his background vocals. Booze: Margaritas.
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The competitor is 'Disney Girls (1957)' written by and featuring the lead vocals of long-time Beach Boy Bruce Johnston. The song appeared on the 1971 Beach Boys album 'Surf's Up'. Johnston said that he wrote the song "because I saw so many kids in our audiences being wiped out on drugs" and he had wanted to capture the feeling of an era in which people were "a little naive but a little healthier".
Booze: Wine.
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Alright, let's get on it. Let's get ON this thing!
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ADIOS by Linda Ronstadt
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DISNEY GIRLS (1957)
by THE BEACH BOYS
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After voting in the comment section, please visit the other BOTBers and drop your two-cents worth in their Battles. I plan to return here on Feb. 22nd with my own vote and the Final Tally.
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Bless & Be Blessed!!
~ STMcC
