Coopernundrums » tennessee

Magnetic Personalities

JayCooper — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:49:27 +0000

Throughout the course of my life I have met some extremely colorful characters. I have a large circle of people who I am happy to call friends. I have a lot of clients that I work for that I don’t really consider friends. I want to tell you about a couple that fall into the former group.

These folks originally joined my group of acquaintances by becoming customers of mine. I was approached to update their existing business website, MagnetQueen. It was a long process as their website was a bit larger than I anticipated. Long jobs, as any developer or graphic designer will tell you, tend to stick with you. This one introduced me to Brian and Liza, Native New Yorker’s that migrated their business here to Tennessee. They make Save the Date Magnets for weddings, birthdays, graduations, you name it.

Brian is a Fordham University graduate and Liza is a graduate of the Parsons School of Design. Together they have owned and run their own successful business for many, many years. They would tell you that they wish they could be a lot more successful but, what other person wouldn’t tell you the same? They are a fun couple that likes the arts and are superb conversationalist and over the years I have grown very fond of them. Most importantly they make some of the coolest magnets you can imagine. My refrigerator is covered with picture magnets and fun magnets they have made for me over the years.

If you are in the market for some unique invites to give for your next event. I hope you will consider my friend’s work. I think you will be very pleased.

Here’s to you Brian and Liza.

http://www.magnetqueen.com

WTVF Holiday Promo Circa 1974

JayCooper — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 06:11:00 +0000

Part of TV that we usually gloss over or ignore is the proverbial network promo spot that usually takes a small bit of commercial air time in between regularly scheduled programs. Here in TN I ignore most of these also, save for one. As a child growing up in the south, it was never a sure thing that snow would appear during the holidays. Likewise not living in a large urban cityscape wih huge buildings chock full of animatronic holiday wonderment the TV was as close as many of us would get to the kind of window dressing folks in New York might take for granted.

Each year the TV station WTVF News Channel 5 a CBS affilliate would play an animated promo that touched me. It has a sweet catchy jingly tune seemingly meant for the holidays and a comforting beauty that captured the holiday spirit perfectly, snow, toys in shop windows and all. This year I happened to see the promo again and it flooded my heart with such memories and good thoughts of Christmas gone by that I wanted to know more about it.

This commercial was hand drawn cell by painstaking cell by a former NEWSCHANNEL 5 employee named Charles DePriest in 1974. The music used was from a music box and is titled “Gott ist die Liebe” (“God Is Love”) written by German composer August Rische (1819-1906) and can be found in many German hymnbooks. Charles DePriest is now retired and lives in Smyrna,TN.

All this may not mean much to most that read this, but those that have lived here in Tennessee their entire lives you will appreciate this extra info like I did.

No Mischief Night Here

JayCooper — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 05:29:25 +0000

I recently found out that in many areas of the United States, Europe and Canada, October the 30th is observed as an evening to take a degree of license to play pranks and do mischief to their neighbors. It is known by many names. Mischief night or Gate night are the most common titles but it is also known as Devil’s Night, Goosey Night, Cabbage Night and Mizzy Night in some areas.

Most of these pranks are harmless and only a minor annoyance. Examples of these pranks include toilet papering yards and buildings, egging cars, people and homes, using soap to write on windows, “forking” yards, smashing pumpkins and jack-o’-lanterns, and the ever-popular “Ding-Dong Ditch” where people ring doorbells or knock on doors, and then run and hide somewhere nearby.

More destructive and clearly unwanted examples have been known to include powder-bombing and setting off consumer fireworks, spray-painting of buildings and homes and outright arson of abandoned or vacant buildings and homes. Detroit, Michigan was particularly hard-hit by Devil’s Night arson and vandalism throughout the 1980s.

Here in Tennessee we don’t have such a tradition and quite frankly, I am just glad. Don’t get me wrong we have our share of pranks such as those mentioned above in the annoying category, but luckily we have practically none of those mentioned in the destructive set.

Just a little tidbit I ran across and thought I would share. Happy Haunting!

Sunday Halloween

JayCooper — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:46:13 +0000

Religious zealots complain about the increasing tendency of the popular mind to make the association between Halloween and secular or pagan imagery. What is really amusing is the utter seriousness with which they disregard the fact that Halloween predates Christianity by thousands of years. The Halloween we celebrate today is drawn mostly from the pagan parts, the Jack-o’-lanterns, the dressing up as ghosts, witches, etc. These days it’s pretty secular.

Of course, the reason ostensibly given for Saturday night Halloweening is that it will keep the holiday from interfering with Sunday night church activities. If we follow this strange logic when Christmas or some other holiday falls on a Sunday, shouldn’t we also designate it for another day for the same reason, to eliminate any possible distraction for church-goers? That would be crazy, right?

I cannot resist thinking that every day must feel like Halloween for Christians. After all, they imagine angels and demons at war for their “souls,” and worship assorted spirits with which they claim to be able to communicate.

Typically, when Halloween falls on a Sunday it simply means double the fun, and people can usually expect trick-or-treaters two nights in a row. When TN residents were asked how they felt about the age-old debate on the News Channel 5 website, answers were mixed but the majority who commented preferred keeping the Halloween hoopla on Halloween.

The city of Mt. Juliet Tennessee where I live has officially decided to keep the holiday on its proper day and observe the fun on October the 31^st 2010. This is a rather progressive move considering I live where the majority of the folks are religious by diffusion.

Happy haunting all!

Things I Like about Fall

JayCooper — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 19:58:02 +0000

I find that I post a lot during the Fall months. Its really because I LOVE this time of year. I wont make this post too complicated. I just wanted to write a bit about my favorite fall things.

Things I like about Fall -

Titans FOOTBALL!! Well hell ALL FOOTBALL, but the Tennessee Titans the most.

New TV Season starts.

The Kids go Back to School

Halloween

Cooler Weather / Backyard Fire Pits

Chili / Homemade Soup

Fall Leaves

Pumpkins

Oktoberfest, mostly for the BEER!

Less Mowing the Yard

I bet some of these are your favorites too. Happy fall!

Gateway Getaway in St. Louis

JayCooper — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:01:48 +0000

Went on a one day one night tour of St. Louis this past weekend. It was a long drive but a friend of mine actually did the driving. It’s an interesting story so I’ll share it with you. I feel like sharing.

Jamie Palsgrove used to be a coworker friend of mine at TeamDesign. He moved on to another job but we have kept in touch and still hang out. We were tossing the idea around before he left of doing a quick weekend trip to someplace close by with out kids since neither one of us could really afford a full blown vacation this year. He and his lovely wife, Jennifer, really ended up doing all the work organizing the thing. Enough so that I felt terribly guilty by the time it was all over. The destination we decided on ended up being St. Louis, to visit the free zoo and the arch monument.

He offered to drive and use his Ford Explorer to take us there. We originally planned on making the 5.5 hour drive visiting the zoo and possibly the arch then driving home, knowing full well it would be a long long day for all. I really just can’t afford a hotel room this year. Now, you have to know Jamie and Jennifer.

They will give ya the shirts off their backs even if that means they will be without a shirt, that’s just how they are. Jamie and Jennifer both travel a lot for their jobs and they offered to use their travel points to get a couple of hotel rooms for us so we could stay the night.

We got up super early on Saturday and met the Palsgroves at their house and off we went. It was a long drive but the company and conversation were always lively. We visited the zoo in the 100 degree heat. It was an enormous zoo. We got our hotel rooms which were SUPER nice and we went swimming in the hotels pool. It was really the perfect end to a really nice day. We topped that off with a great Italian restaurant that had magnificent pasta called Portabella and then a great nights sleep.

Now, if the mini-vacation had ended there it would have been a super nice vacation, but here once again you have to know these guys and how sweet they are.

We got up the next morning and enjoyed breakfast then shuttled off to the Arch Monument. We had a great walk through the city to the Arch Park by the river and spent a long time snapping photos and enjoying the very cool monument. When we tried to visit the museum under the arch i figured out that being a federally run institution with metal detectors and x-ray machines that you can’t bring a spring assisted knife into the place. It’s kinda funny. The boys went in and I just stayed outside snapping more pictures while they enjoyed.

On the drive home we made a stop in Woodlawn Illinois for gas where I had to explain to the boys that rednecks live everywhere not just Tennessee.

It was a tremendous chance to see sights I don’t think I would have otherwise seen. It was great company and time well spent with my great friends and their family. I want this post to be a personal thank you to both Jamie and Jenn because without their generosity the boys and I would not have had a vacation at all this summer.

Get to the Arch it is a fantastic building that you have to see.