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1/10/11

Wild At Heart

Wild Bill Ketelhut provides the "blog" to this anti-blog
He has a radio program on WXOU out of Oakland University

Wild At Heart


Getting some chilly weather here in upstate NY but doing fine otherwise. Wish I was in Detroit to attend the upcoming screening of the new Green Hornet movie. I am somewhat known as a collector of things sci-fi/comics related and I have been a big fan of the character for year. Green Hornet is one of the bigger part of my collection have the original Corgi car (without box unfortunately), the three issue Gold Key series, a bunch of radio dramas, some Golden Age issues, a lunch box, collector cars, reflective promos, collector rings and spoons, etc so I do tend to know a lot about the character. I even have a picture of myself in the original Black Beauty, one of my favorite TV cars. The 1960’s TV series is also a favorite program of mine which feature Van Williams and Bruce Lee. I always enjoyed the fight scenes where the Hornet would fight one guy and Kato would take on three. They would reassure the damsel or victim and walk out. Almost every episode would have that and one bad guy would always try to get up and be sent to dream land by Kato as he walked out behind the Hornet. It was always a very casual, but cool, movement. The new movie is almost here after about 10 years of promises and at one point had that George Clooney and Jason Scott Lee cast in the roles (a version I would have loved to see).

Car lovers and Green Hornet fans will enjoy the fact the the BLACK BEAUTY will be coming to the Detroit Auto show at the Cobo Center. Attendees will be able to take an up-close and personal look at this indestructible 1964-1966 Chrysler Imperial outfitted with every weapon, including the 8 FIM-92A Stinger Missiles, retractible front wheel anti-riot spikes and the M2 Grill mounted Flamethrower among other things. The car will outside the show in the concourse so admission is not acquired to see the car and either sit in the car or take photos of it. The auto show takes place from Saturday, January 15th-Sunday, January 23rd.



Cool Green Hornet fact: One relatively minor aspect of the character is that the Green Hornet’s blood relationship to the Lone Ranger, another character created by Striker. The Lone Ranger's nephew was Dan Reid. In the Green Hornet radio shows, the Hornet's father was likewise named Dan Reid, making Britt Reid the Lone Ranger's great-nephew. The silver used to make the bullets for the Lone Ranger is still an active mine which helped create the foundation for the Reid fortune.

I am not a big fan of Justin Bieber (I would pay $5 to see him) but I know that a lot of people are fans or have kids that are fans, so I want you to be aware of this event where one Detroit fan has a chance to meet Justin Bieber and win a trip to the LA premiere of “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never”. OK, I’m not excited but some of you are. To sign up for this event, you need to go pre-register at www.987AMPradio.com by 11:59PM on Thursday, January 13th. The Detroit singing competition is open to any persons 13-17 years of age. 50 singers will be randomly selected from all the eligible pre-registrants and entered into the contest where the contestants will get to sing before judges. Contestants must choose one of the following songs to perform: ‘Never Say Never”, “Baby” or “U Smile” (Lyrics and music will be provided). The event will be held at the Oakland Mall in Troy on Saturday, January 15 from 10:30AM-2PM and it is open to the public to come out and support. Their will be random prizes given away. Good luck!

Here are some upcoming shows to check out this week.

Wednesday (1/12) – Lettercamp and Javelins open for Brahms @ Pike Room

Friday (1/14) – Ann Arbor folk singers the Yellow Room Gang @ the Ark

Saturday (1/15) - Kid Rock w/ Jamey Johnson @ Ford Field (I was born the same day as Kid Rock so how come I wasn’t invited)

Sunday (1/16) – Concretes @ Magic Stick

Monday (1/17) – the rocking Alex Winston w/Lightning Love @ Magic Stick

To wind up, this year has started with a number of music and actor deaths that I wish to acknowledge. January 1st saw the passing of composer/make-up artist Verne Langdon, best known for creating the Castle Dracula horror show in 1980 for the Universal Studios Tour, the most sought-after collector's mask, "The Zombie", and was creator-producer of the cult classic Decca LP “An Evening With Boris Karloff And His Friends”. January 2nd saw 2 great actors pass including Pete (In The Name Of The Father, The Usual Suspects, Inception) Postlethwaite and the lovely Anne (Forbiddien Planet) Francis. I just interlibrary loaned her spy TV series Honey West which I am looking forward to checking out. January 4th saw the passing of Mick Karn, the English multi-instrumentalist musician and songwriter for the art rock band Japan. On January 6th, we ssaid goodbye to voice actor Aron Kincaid who was best known for playing Killer Croc on “Batman: The Animated Series” and Sky Lynx on “Transformers”. January 7th saw the passing of Y&T bassist Phil Kennemore.



Also, since I talked about the Green Hornet earlier, in related news, Detroit’s own radio announcer Fred Foy passed away just before Christmas and was known as the announcer for the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet radio programs. Side note: the first of 2,956 radio episodes of “The Lone Ranger” premiered on January 30, 1933, on WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan. Also, another Detroit passing includes emcee 'Stanley the Mad Hatter' who a fixture of Detroit's '60s music scene. I never knew him personally but would see him around various music festivals in Detroit always wearing his trademark black top hat. For music fans, his voice can be heard on the J Geils Band live album "Full House" as he introduced the group onstage at their infamous, riotous Cinderella Ballroom show. Hate to bring in a New Year like this but I do like to recognize when I can.