O.K.
Gotta report numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YpVtW4cKvo
Rite now Wilbur's got 1352 views on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCAq3D-AAbU
Buddy Buie & J.R. Cobb's video from Tommy Wilcox Outdoors using song called THE DAY BEAR BRYANT DIED has 1060 views
I gotta tell this...
This buddy of mine was disappointed this afternoon because one of our friends was not going to show up tomorrow.
I decided to stir the mud~
I said,"Well, he's shunning you. He ain't got a friend
RIGHT NOW in Tuscaloosa
& he damn sho' ain't got one in his
OWN
hometown."
My buddy said,
"Yeah, you right.
He was born
WITH A SILVER SPOON STUCK UP HIS ASS!!!!"
NOW GIT DIS!!!!
This playwright named Mike Vigilant has done a play on Coach Bryant.
He explained it on YouTube & right now he has 7 views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl6KudQVAbw
courtesy of http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080511/LIFESTYLE/805110304
PLAYWRIGHT RAISES CRIMSON CURTAIN ON FOOTBALL LEGEND
It's among (ed. note: SAY WHAT?!!!!)
~the most daunting- and inspiring tasks Michael Vigilant has ever attempted~
His new play, "Bear Country," spotlights an Alabama legend, Paul "Bear" Bryant, a wise and witty man who rose from his dirt-poor beginnings to becoming the standard by which college football coaches are judged.
"It's a daunting project because of the feelings (University of) Alabama fans and players have toward Coach Bryant," said Vigilant, a playwright who is also chief operating officer at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. "He changed his players' lives. They were different people when they left the program. They were champions on the field and winners in life."
And nobody has to tell Vigilant just how important it is to get Bryant's story right. While researching his subject, he has come to know many of Bryant's former players and others with close connections. Early on, when one of the former players heard about Vigilant's plans, he said, "That's great, but you better do it right!"
What impressed Vigilant most was the fact that even now, 40 years after playing for Bryant, these men still think of their coach, think of him every day.
"I can see feelings well up in their chests and their tears," the playwright said.
On Friday, "Bear Country" will have its first public reading as part of ASF's Southern Writers' Project Festival of New Plays, giving audience members an opportunity to attend and offer feedback.
According to the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa, Bryant was national coach of the year three times, Southeastern Conference coach of the year eight times, coached six national championship teams, became the "winningest" coach in the history of college football in November 1981 and retired from coaching with 323 victories.
As impressive as he was on the field, Bryant's greatest accomplishment may have been the impact he made on his players and devoted fans.
With "Bear Country," Vigilant hopes to capture the spirit of this remarkable man.
Vigilant, who is originally from the West Coast, has spent the past couple of decades writing and producing plays and musicals, and he has published more than a dozen of his works, including "Cindy Cinderella" and "The Wedding Ring."
Before joining the ASF family, he was a playwright resident and public relations manager at Michigan's Meadow Brook Theatre.
He also was chief operating officer and marketing director for Detroit's historic Music Hall, where he worked with such performers as Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach and Smokey Robinson. While on the Music Hall staff, Vigilant also served as chief operating officer and marketing director for the Detroit International Jazz Festival, North America's largest free jazz event.
A big sports fan, Vigilant loves football and was fully aware of Bryant and his accomplishments. And like Bryant, Vigilant has wrestled a bear. A real bear. Bryant was about 14-years-old when he agreed to wrestle a bear for $1. He earned the dollar, but the bear and its owner left town before paying up. Vigilant was a junior in college when he wrestled Victor the 640-pound bear to raise money for charity.
This experience is one of the reasons Nancy Rominger, ASF's associate director, thought Vigilant would do a great job on the play about Bryant.
"When you look at an idea for a commission, you want a playwright who can do it with honesty and treat the subject with respect," she said.
Several months ago, during a table reading of "Bear Country," Rominger said it received positive reactions. On Friday, she will have an opportunity to see what Vigilant has done since then, and she's really looking forward to that.
But few people are as eager to see "Bear Country" than Young J. Boozer III, ASF's board chairman. Bryant was his honorary godfather and his daughter's godfather. Bryant and Boozer's father, the late Young Boozer Jr., formed a close and lasting friendship when they were roommates and teammates at the University of Alabama.
Boozer admits he was taken aback when he first heard of the commission and said, "You're taking on quite a task."
Being so close to Bryant and his family, Boozer was more than willing to help Vigilant gather information, provide some perspective and connect him with players and other people who would have intimate knowledge of Bryant.
"He (Vigilant) can't afford to get it wrong. There are too many people who knew him and about his life," Boozer said. "But Mike is a great writer and has just the right feel. I have no doubt that when he finishes, it will be right."
Memories of Maine~
To get to Boothbay Harbor, you'll go through Freeport. You'll probably check out L.L. Bean but the Delorme Map Company between Yarmouth & Freeport is the best & you can buy a Maine Gazateer.
Next on the road is beautiful Brunswick with it's old factories on the river & Bowdoin College. I attended the '87 Bowdoin Polar Bear- Tufts Jumbos football game. Ivy League games are different. Bowdoin also has Admiral Byrd's North Pole Expedition museum.
Bath is a big shipbuilding town in competition with Pascagoula. Lots of working men's barrooms.
Wiscasset is old and falling down. In Maine they call it "quaint". They used to have some old wooden schooners wrecked up on the beach. They've probably rotted now.
I remember the great bars out on the docks at Boothbay Harbor. They also have these little short bowling alleys where you use a small ball instead of a regular bowling ball.
The next day you'll pass through beautiful Damariscotta. Take time to ride the streets here.
They tore the Maine State Prison in Thomaston down in 2002 so you'll miss it but it was one monster of a prison. They still have a prison gift shop in downtown Thomaston.
There's not much to Rockland and Rockport but Camden is a gem. Go to the top of the mountain there & you'll see the entire harbor. Heavenly! The movie Peyton Place was filmed there.
The detour that's worth it is between Camden & Bar Harbor. Just past Bucksport you turn south toward Castine then head east from Castine to Blue Hill then take the Ellsworth road out of Blue Hill to get back on the Atlantic Highway to get to Ellsworth & Bar Harbor.
Drive all over Mt. Desert Island. After you find your room, drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. (named after the same Cadillac who served as Governor of Louisiana when Dauphin Island, Alabama was the capitol of the colony!)
You can take a ferry out to the Cranberry Islands in Northeast Harbor, then drive around Somes Sound ( one of America's only fjords) to Southwest Harbor. Big yacht factory in Manset then lots of rocks and the Atlantic. Eat lobster at Beal's in Southwest Harbor!!!! http://www.bealslobster.com/
