Juan Bodley's Hell

My Last Post

2009-08-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

I've been at this a while...
Now that I've moved I will lose close access to the Internet, and I've found most people who are on are on Facebook or elsewhere.
So I am going to call this my last post here, and then I'll be deleting this blog. (probably Sunday night)
WHY?
Nobody reads it.

Thanks for the fun while it lasted.
Juan Bodley out.

Reflection...

2009-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (July 25) the class of 1989 from Columbia City Joint High School had their reunion. In Columbia City, actually at a nearby bar/pizza place, where many members of the class still reside. Myself I just moved back the weekend before, and it's a move I really didn't want to make, simply because I always thought since the end of high school that I would not come back.

From about 2 AM on this morning, about 45 minutes before I left the soiree, which was damn fun actually, I began (as a lot of people do at these life moments) taking stock of what I did wrong to end up here.

20 years ago I was focused on the idea of an electronics education that would make me a fine broadcast engineer. That hit the floor. The idea of a wife was in my head somewhere, but that has not been fulfilled either. Now I have a house, but not where I thought it would be located. Basically everything I had banked on bounced.

Now what do I do. That's the great question that I can't answer.

Some 20 years.

...And The Walls Come Down...

2009-07-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

It happens this weekend...July 18th and 19th, 2009.

Juan Bodley returns to his hometown and wrecks the joint.

No more truck stop, no more raiding the radio station on a whim, just lots and lots of well work and a house to wreck and sleeping in what the heck??

Who's my landlord, who's my landlord...

My dad's my landlord. The end.

This may be the last post for a while. Enjoy yourselves this summer.

Pick a designated drunk and watch him/her/it and laugh yourself pissless.

Juan Bodley. Proprietor since 1987.

Remodeling The Juan Bodley Way...

2009-06-15T22:15:00.000-07:00

Whoever let me have the saw was nuts. Thanks Dad!!

We cut more lumber out of that place than Weyerhouser, Georgia Pacific and Holmes Lumber Co. had all together.

And let me praise the Stihl Company for their fine instruments of timber destruction. Go get one today and show your loved ones your inner lumberjack.

By the way I cut down A LARCH...

The Time Is Closing In FAST...

2009-06-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

When you know you're going to do something BIG you usually really WANT to do it or you dread the thought...

For me it's moving BACK TO WHERE I DON'T WANT TO GO...

And remodeling a house. It's a pain. It's a piece of shit house, built by someone who had NO BUSINESS building it but (of course) he did anyway. (It's Backhoe Bill's old house if you really care.)

So the time is coming faster. More space, farther away from Fort Wayne, no Internet, no cable, no women (not yet,) so I'm not looking forward to it.

Updates to come.

Adieu Bob Chase

2009-06-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

This morning there was a grand gathering of legends, friends, admirers and co-workers of Bob Chase at 2915 Maples Road, home of the studios of WOWO radio. This morning, after 50 plus years in the studio, in different locations, Bob put the cans to rest, pushed the microphone away at 9 AM, and I hate to say it, the old era of radio has been ushered to the ether of past memories.

Bob was a member of a fraternity that has its hallmarks in the beginning of broadcasting, when WOWO and WGL were just starting. He came to Fort Wayne in the 50s and stayed, and will still be here when tomorrow comes, just not on the air. (Yes he'll still do Komet games. I want to do Komet games, but I don't think they want me.) Now it's more "how many gigabytes can we get of music storage in the main song computer?" than "hey turntable number 2 has a broken stylus." Transmitters run themselves for days, sometimes months before they see an engineer; when Bob started out there were not only full time engineers, some never LEFT THE TRANSMITTER. Now you'd be lucky to find some engineers who ACUTALLY KNOW WHERE THEIR TOWER IS LOCATED. Radio and television are different horses now. TV at one time had more local programming than network and radio was more dependent on their networks for music than they played locally; in a lot of cases they didn't have the equipment to play music from their studio. Now some stations are a "jukebox;" that is, there's a computer for song, commercial, and promo playback, MAYBE a console SOMEWHERE in a studio big enough to be a closet in another setting, and a few sales staff or a receptionist floating around. (The station I used to work at here in Fort Wayne is a studio somewhat similar to the one I just mentioned; it happens to be down the hall from the studios of 1190 AM, WOWO, at the same 2915 Maples Rd. - now automated with ESPN.)

Bob, enjoy retirement.

If I could share a Pepsi with you sometime and hear the tales of radio past, it would be an honor, sir. Can't wait for the puck to drop next season. "And on WOWO, KOMET HOCKEY!!"

Going Because She Showed Up...

2009-06-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

After the first neighbor lady and I had a "falling out" over something I won't discuss here, I became very distrustful of the neighborhood I live in and the people living there. Too many punk youth and (could be) gangbangers, the hip-hop youth, and just too much bullshit for me to deal with.

So here's a question...

What do you do when your new next-door neighbor is a 20-something lush?? And 3 years before your neighbor (in the same apartment) was a 40-something lush who almost ruined your life?? How do you learn to trust ANYONE again? How do you learn to interact with her 5 beers an hour BFFs and attached boy-toy manfriends AND STILL GET SOME SLEEP AT NIGHT???

(Friday afternoon I came homw to a new neighbor and within the first 5 minutes she confesses she just got an OWI and her brother kicked her out the same week...and then THAT NIGHT she has a physical "play-fight" with one of her guy friends that was knocking shit off MY apartment walls...)

ALL I CAN SAY IS "WHAT THE FUCK, MAN?????!!!!!!???????"

Who Went And Decided Things Could Go FUBAR??

2009-05-27T01:37:00.000-07:00

There's been some things going on that have me questioning just what the hell is normal anymore. When the benchmarks that you use to keep your mind centered get skewed by the magnetic storm around you then you really need to stop and burrow yourself into a safe place and take stock of hearsay and rumors and truth and all the other fodder being shot at you.

Then and only then can you say "man I am still fucked up by all of this."

Then and only then can you say "man I want a beer. It better be a cold beer."

There's one factor that makes me think a lot differently than a lot of people: the way I see the world. And I don't mean vision. I've been burnt enough by asshole pricks and other fucking morons that I tend to be ultra-pessimistic before I engage in debate on a subject, and other times I've heard it so much I just don't give a damn anymore. Right now I'd rather just fester in anger in a remote corner and fear the worst but I guess nobody wants to let me do that. So I'll just drink a beer or 2 or 3 cases and wait for the next disaster to come calling (Rush Limbaugh declares himself a god and half the country says OK...)

Wake me up when the Schlitz blitz or Blatz blast or PBR please be repulsed hour has passed...

Indy Cincy Chi-town... How The Hell Do I Pay Attention??

2009-05-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

OK it's baseball season and the Redlegs are doing good. Pitching is holding on the starts, but the Reds offense can't seem to close games. (Game of note: last night in interleague against in-state competitors (but American League) Cleveland Indians.)

[ NOTE: right now I'm distracted by the Danica Patrick video on godaddy.com ]

The Indy 500 is underway...strange I'm blogging while the race is on but that's what yellow flags are for, even when it's LAP ONE!!! Marco Marco Marco you seem to have inherited Mario's bad luck. I have hope for Danica and also a warm bed :-) and also I'm holding out hope for a GREAT race for the John Andretti team, with car ownership courtesy of John's longtime NASCAR car owner King Richard Petty. Yep the number 43 in Petty blue runs at the 2009 Indianapolis 500.

And ABOVE ALL the Chicago Blackhawks are STILL PLAYING HOCKEY!!! They're holding their own against the mega-juggernaut that is the Detroit Red Wings. (I've been paying attention and been a fan since I was in high school; the Hawk games were always on the Chicago channels and we had cable TV at the radio station.) Toews, Cam Barker, Ben Eager, the boys are hitting hard and crashing the net. Put the biscuit in the basket, put on the foil, win a few more games and you'll be playing Stanley Cup finals hockey!!! GO HAWKS!!!!

Bob Chase

2009-05-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

It was announced this past week that legendary WOWO sports director Bob Chase, also the longtime voice of the Fort Wayne Komets, will retire June 5th.

I have said it before that there are only 2 men whose voices I've listened to consistently since I was a young boy: WLW and Cincinnati Reds play by play man Marty Brenneman and WOWO's Bob Chase. They don't fall into the traps of the "cute" calls and "make it up as you go" catch phrases (like Dick Vitale ect.) but instead they understand the game and you become a part of it. Fortunately for Komet fans Bob is NOT quitting the game broadcasts. (Hey Bob can I be your understudy?? I need a job...)

Bob Chase. A man's man, a family man, a real man.

Enjoy the fine life of retirement Bob. We'll miss you on the air, but we'll see you around town. Toast to Bob.