The Amazing, Incredible Power Of The Soybean, "Silk Milk"

I discovered something that I really like to drink in the last several months. It's soy milk. Yes, it's true! It is made from soybeans which is a stable emulsion of oil, water and protein and it is produced by soaking dry soybeans and grinding them with water. I like this stuff and there's one particular brand that I really like and it's called, "Silk." You can find it at Kroger usually on sale for two for five dollars with your Kroger card. (No, Kroger and Silk Milk are not paying me to write this).

The following information comes from the web-site, "Wikipedia.org" regarding "Silk" and soy milk.

""Silk" is a brand of soy milk and other dairy-substitute products, including soy yogurt and almond milk. The company was founded by Steve Demos in 1996 and it's distributed by Demos' company "White Wave Foods," a subsidiary of Dean Foods. The name "Silk" is a portmanteau of "soy" and "milk." Apparently, Silk soy milk sales comprise roughly three-fourths of the refrigerated soy milk sales in America."

"Some of the health benefits of drinking soy milk is that it has about the same amount of protein (though not the same amino acid profile) as the milk of a cow. Natural soy milk contains digestible calcium as it is bound in the bean's pulp, which is insoluble in humans. To counter this, many manufacturers enrich their produce with calcium carbonate available to human digestion. Unlike cow's milk, it has little saturated fat and no cholesterol. (I really like this!) Soy products contain sucrose as the basic diaccharide, which breaks into glucose and fructose. Since soy doesn't contain galactose, a product of lactose breakdown, soy-based infant formulas can replace breast milk in children with galactosemia. Soy milk is also a source of lecithin and vitamin E, lack casein, it is safe for people with lactose intolerance or milk allergy, contains far less saturated fat than cow's milk and contains isoflavones, organic chemicals that may be beneficial to health."

Believe it or not, when I drink a cold glass of "Vanilla Silk," the Mississippi Delta on sunny day comes to my mind. I can remember seeing miles and miles of soybeans being grow from the edge of the Mississippi bluff where I lived back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The Mississippi Delta farmers probably still do grow the soy beans down there. Soybeans were literally everywhere like "Mississippi Kudzu." I'm sure the soybean was not as big of a "cash crop" back then as it probably is now for those farmers. Thank God for the Mississippi Delta and for the Chinese who discovered the soy milk around A.D. 25-220!

The legend of "The Legend of Boggy Creek" movie

One of the scariest movies that has lingered in my psychic for the last 38 years is the, "The Legend of Boggy Creek," which is supposedly based on a true story. I was 10 years-old in the Summer of 1972 when I saw this movie with some of my best friends at the Malco Theater on Popular and Highland avenues growing up in East Memphis. That movie literally scared the holy, crap out of me and for a couple of years, I was scared to death to walk home at night from my friend's house located at the bottom of the hill where I lived. The worst part of the walk home was when I would get to a long row of mulberry bushes in my yard at the top of the hill and I hated walking past them. I was always afraid that the "Boggy Creek Monster" was going to jump out and grab me. But it never did because my heart would start racing and I was run as fast as I could. Then I would jump onto the front porch and in through the front door. My dad would always ask me, "What's wrong?" And I would say, "Aw, nothin'."

About a year ago, I had been thinking about this movie a lot and how it had horrified me as child. So I decided to order a copy of it on eBay or Amazon.com. I don't remember which one I ordered it from to be quite exact. But anyway, when I received it in the mail a few days later, my wife and I watched it and I thought, "Heck, this ain't that scary! This is so stupid!" I wondered what made me so scared as a kid when I watched it. However, a little bit of the sensation of horror did come back to me as I watched it though. It cause me to be able to relive the movie a little bit in my mind and remember how I felt when I was a youngster. But too me these days, the most interesting aspect of the movie is the movie itself-the success of the movie and how it was made on such a low budget turning a gigantic profit for its creator, Charles B. Pierce, an advertising salesman. Mr. Pierce who was from Texarkana (Texas-Arkansas border town) borrowed $100,000 from a local trucking company and used an old movie camera and hired locals (mainly high school students) to make the 90 minute film. He actually filmed the movie in the Fouke, Ark., area swap lands. In the last 38 years, the movie has generated approximately $20 million dollars and still can be found on DVD. Another modern-day, horror flick along the sames lines with a low production budget and incredible success is "The Blair Witch Project" from the 1990's. These type of movies usually find a way to tap in the psychic of Americans. Movies like this always seem take place out in the woods or out in the water somewhere with natural surroundings. It's one of those things that makes you ask each other, "Is there something out there?" which can run chills up and down your spine every time for sure.

Here's what the back cover of DVD says, "Is the monster still on the prowl? A 1970's documentary-style drama questions the existence of a hair 7ft tall Sasquatch-type monster that lives in a swap outside of Fouke, Ark. According to the locals the monster walks on two feet, has a characteristic smelly odor and kills chickens, cattle, dogs and livestock but so far it hasn't killed any people. The monster supposedly harassed two families in the late 1960's, but since then few have seen the monster yet it can be heard in the swap at night. Actual interviews with the area residents tell the tale. Could be real or a conspiracy of a backwoods community looking for attention."

If you want to see an old, somewhat, scary flick, this movie could be for you. You may laugh at the silly acting and how country the actors look, talk and etc. However, you have to keep an open mind and realize how amazingly, this low budget movie caused such a stir at the time in America's psychic in the early 1970's. It is similar to the scare tactic that the movie, "Jaws" used to horrify the holy, you know what out of Americans and kept them away about America's beaches in the middle 1970's for a while. You probably won't be able to find "The Legend of Boggy Creek" at your local video rental store either. You will probably have to buy it on eBay or Amazon.com like I did, if you want watch it.

The Gift To All Rush Fans...The Movie....Rush:Beyond The Lighted Stage

The documentary movie, "Rush:Beyond The Lighted Stage" is a gift that keeps on giving. (sorry for the cliche). This movie is really a gift from the Rock group "Rush" to all its fans-from the past, present and future. The band that has been around for more than 40 years and has more than its shares of ups and downs in the world of rock and roll and in their own personal lives.

The reason that the movie is a gift from Rush is because they did not have to allow the filmmakers into their private lives to make a documentary about the rock band's history and their unconventional rise to fame and glory. But they did it for their fans. It's for all those middle-age men with greying hair who are located around the world. But they did allow it to be made. That's the most important thing. Rush fans have been peg by critics as white, middle-aged men in their 40's and 50's with greying hair who hold down steady jobs probably with families. I would even dare to say that some of these fans are grandfathers. And believe it or not there are women Rush fans out there too.

I can attest to this because my son and I made our way down to Nashville, Tenn., for the first showing of the movie at The Belcourt Theater near Vanderbilt University on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. June 15th. Naturally, we got lost in Nashville and turned around but finally we found our way to the theater. When we arrived there was a long line that outside the building and it curve around the corner onto another street. I thought, "Oh crap, we'll never get a seat." However, when we got inside, there was plenty of seating. There were some other men with their sons and maybe even their grandsons too. We found the perfects seats while my son went to the concessions stand to grab us a couple of cold drinks. While we were waiting in line outside, I observed the typical Rush fan and what he looked like. Like I said, most of us were white and looked about my age 48 years-old with greying hair and wearing glasses. Some of us had big bellies or smaller bellies (If you're lucky). I saw very few Rush fans with long hair these days. Most of us were dressed in casual clothes. I would say most of us had jobs or careers and probably had some sort of higher education. (I just assuming now from my journalistic observations). Also, a Rush fan walked toward the back of the line where we were standing and offered a free ticket to another Rush fan. I would say most Rush fans are kind and polite towards one of another and have a generous free spirit of giving like Rush musicians themselves, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart. After the movie, I observe the Rush fan who received the free ticket thank the other Rush fan who gave him the ticket in the men's restroom. Now, isn't that in the giving spirit of Rush shining through here?

Too me, I was just totally enthralled and entertained throughout the movie. It starts from the beginning days of Rush in Toronto, Canada, where the trio....Geddy Lee, Bass, Alex Lifeson, Lead Guitar and Neil Peart, Drums, all grew up. Geddy and Alex were raised in the suburbs of Toronto and Neil grew up on a farm outside of Toronto. The film shows footage of Alex and Geddy while they were in high school and Alex quit high school to play music. I'm not sure about Geddy quiting school. I didn't catch that if he did. The movie also shows interviews with all three band member's parents which I thought was very touching. Geddy parents were Jewish prisoner death camp survivors from World War II and Alex parents where Yugoslavian immigrants. Neal parents owned a parts store where he worked as a teenager. The original drummer John Rutsey had to be replaced because of health reasons and that's when they brought Neil into the picture.

Probably, the one thing that intrigued me the most about the film was how Rush decided to be just themselves and independent of everyone else on the rock scene at the time during the early and later years of the 1970's. They produced these abstract, conceptual albums like "Caress Of Steel," "2112" and "Hemispheres" against all the odds of their record label but they were able to survive and remain themselves. They didn't change. I think that's the one thing that appealed to me when I first heard the band in the Fall of 1976 when my friend Donald Dillingham brought the "2112" album over to my dad's lake house in North Mississippi, was the band's really cool and freaky sound. When he put it on and we were just blow away by it. I had never heard anything like it before in my young life. Rush's music appealled to the psychics of our little minds. At the time, we were feeling like outcasts living in our own little worlds by our own choosing. Rush took us took us to a different world like the other rock groups did, but in a different way than Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. It was a mental escapism with the combination of their music and some of mind altering substance which I quit using years ago. I won't say which one. I'm sure a lot of middle-age men had the same experiences with Rush as I have had when they were first introduced to the band.

And movie goes on to show concert footage when they toured with bands like Kiss and Thin Lizzy just to name a few. The movie shows how Rush evolved to eventually to become the main headliner band on the scene at the time. And then they hit the big time with the album, "Moving Pictures" in 1981 where had such mega hits as "Tom Sawyer" and "Limelight" which was being played on rock stations all over the world, over and over again. This was the heyday of Rush when they filling concert halls and arena all over the world. But they still do filled these halls and arenas to this day! As a side note, I saw Rush in concert four times. It was the one band that I saw more times in concert than anyone else.

Probably, the saddest part of the movie, is when it explains the tragedy that about Neil's daughter getting killed in a car accident and then shortly loosing his wife due to an illness. Neil is a painfully private person and you could tell it was hard for him to be interviewed for the movie. I thought he was pretty uncomfortable with the interview. That's just my opinion. I may be wrong. But regardless, he did manage to do the interview because he did it for us Rush fans. Thank you Neil! The movie goes on to show some stuff on how the group regrouped after being away from it for four years because of Neil's tragedies and how he managed to cope with it by riding a BMW motorcycle 55,000 miles all over North America. He even wrote a song and book about his experiences of that road trip called, "Ghost Rider," which is on the "Vapor Trails" album.

Regardless, if your a big Rush fan or not, this documentary movie will have you cheering, laughing, crying and cheering again. It is a must see for all Rush fans! Like I said, it's the gift that keeps on giving....from one Rush fan to another.

Memphis Magazine: A Blast From The Past

I always look forward to receiving my "Memphis" magazine in the mail every month. I started getting this particular magazine in the mail several years ago. My brother-in-law, Bill, who lives in Bartlett, Tenn., a suburb of Memphis, sends me a subscription to the publication every year for Christmas. It's one of my favorite Christmas gifts that I look forward to receiving. Also, Bill has been sending me "Guidepost" magazine probably for the last 30 years and still is. But to me, there's no other publication like "Memphis" magazine. It's a very special magazine to me.

Since I am a native of Memphis (born in 1962) there's a lot of things in the magazine that always appeal to me. Of course, I moved away from Memphis in 1976 and moved just South of the state-line down to Hernando, Miss. I lived in North Mississippi for 11 years before I moved to Kentucky in 1987. North Mississippi is basically a suburb of Memphis. I know when I lived in Mississippi, we went to Memphis quite often for a lot of activities like shopping, dinning, entertainment and for medical purposes. But since I have lived in Kentucky all these years, I really don't know how much things have changed down there. Of course, I have visited a lot through the years. But I really know exactly how things have changed. I have heard a lot of negatives since I have been up here in Kentucky. But then again, I have heard about a few positives things also. Mainly, the magazine keeps me updated in printed form of what's going on in Memphis and the Mid-South rather than just looking on the Internet at the "The Commercial Appeal," the Memphis newspaper web-site.

One particular section of the magazine that I really like is a column call "Ask Vance." Vance Lauderdale (I still wonder if Vance is a real person or not) will take a question about something in Memphis' history and will do research and find out what happened to the person, place or thing. Here's a link to Vance's blog regarding "Lakeland" an amusement park that used to be Northeast Shelby County, Tenn., the county where Memphis is located. My parents used to take us there a lot as kids when we were growing up there in Memphis. Here's a link where Vance blogs about "Lakeland." http://www.memphisflyer.com/AskVanceBlog/archives/2010/05/04/visit-lakeland-on-the-next-southern-routes

In the latest issue (June 2010) of "Memphis" magazine, Vance wrote a long piece in his column where someone wrote in and ask about the time some people got stuck in a ride called the "Skyride" during a storm at Lakeland. They were stuck for over nine hours hanging 90 feet above a man-made lake. It happened in 1968 and I remember when they happened! Wow, my memory is good! I was only 6 years-old. I thought it was a great piece because it brought back a lot of memories for me. "Memphis" magazine always takes me back as well as keeping me up to date what is going these days in the city. Again, it's great magazine and means a lot to me. Thanks to the staff of "Memphis" magazine and to Vance (If you really are a real person :) ) for entertaining us subscribers and readers as well as informing us.

Below is a video from YouTube where the public television station in Memphis (WKNO television) does a really nice segment on "Ask Vance" for it's viewers. It's called "Southern Routes-Lakeland"

Remembering My Father, A Deceased War Hero

My father, the late Ret. Army Major Vester Brooks Smith, was a decent human being. He was not perfect. He had his character defects and flaws like most people do. In 1993, he died at the age of 73 in Memphis, Tenn. He lived his whole life practically down south except for time when he lived out west as a child. I will always honor him and his memory as a father and as a war veteran.  Most importantly, he was a war hero. He enlisted in the United States Army National Guard at the age of 17 in 1937. He lied about his age because in those days they didn't have computer system to keep up with people's Social Security numbers and etc. Apparently, during the depression years in America, a lot of young men lied about their age in order to join the military forces. It was way out of poverty for these boys and their families.
After his graduation from high school in 1939, he was called up to go fight in War War II in the European theaters as well in Burma. After the war was over, he came back to Memphis and met my mother in 1946 when they married. In 1950, after he had finished Officers Training School (OTS) and his college degree at Memphis State University, he was called into to the Korean War where he served for a year in combat in artillery with his National Guard Unit from Memphis and earned the "Bronze Star Medal" for bravery.
After the Korean War, he lived his life out in Memphis and North Mississippi working as a professional accountant and bookkeeper. He continued to serve in the Memphis National Guard where he retired after 27 years of duty. Prior to his retirement in the guard, in 1968, two U.S. Marshals, showed up at our house on Rolling Oaks Drive in East Memphis, to notify him that his guard unit was being activated to protect the City of Memphis during the Martin Lutheran King riots. My mother took my brother and me to Arkansas to escape the violence. She was afraid the rioting would reach East Memphis. But it never did. It was contained to Downtown Memphis, thanks to my father and his unit and the Memphis police.
In 1974, after 27 years of marriage and five children with my mother, my parents divorced. Being the youngest, I was devastated. However, I survived it like most children of divorce do. My father suffered from "Battle Fatigue." Nowadays, they call it "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." (PTSD). But health professionals back then did not recognize it, the way they do these days. The medical community knows how to treat the condition now. However, my father's philosophy and in dealing with his problems was "You work hard and you play hard." He never did quit working hard or playing hard. Thank you, dad, for serving our country and being a decent human being.

Does Anyone Know How To Stop A Leak?

My wife and I cancelled our vacation plans for a trip to the Gulf of Mexico this past week. We were planning to stay at the Holiday Inn Express at Orange Beach, Ala., for a couple of nights. However, after the BP off-shore oil drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 37 days ago, we decided not to go down there out of the fear of oil washing ashore of the beautiful white sand beaches of Alabama. Also, we had a lot of questions that really couldn't be answered by anyone via phone at the hotel or from even a friend who lives in Mobile, Ala. Even recent news reports were apparently of no help in trying to determine which direction that the oil was heading. There were no guarantees that there would be no problems to affect our visit there regarding the thousands and thousands of barrels of oil that are leaking into the ocean.

It is really ashamed that this has happened not only for our vacation but for the Gulf Coast tourism and economy but more important, the environment and the planet. And more disappointing, there has not been nothing done yet stop the leak. I'm sure BP executives and engineers have been pulling there hair out trying to figure a way to stop it. They're latest attempt by pumping cement and mud to seal off the leak might work. But who knows? BP now even has a link to a web-site where you can watch a live camera of the leak in action at the bottom of the ocean. http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.htmlThe other night, I was looking around on Youtube and I came across an interesting video that really makes a lot sense to me. Believe me, I not a big environmentalist or "Going-Green" person. However, I do recycle and I do not believe in littering. I am extremely against littering. I believe trash has it proper place along with recyclables and etc. But this video clip "Pale Blue Dot" on Youtube by Carl Sagan, the late famous astronomer, who wrote and narrated the highly acclaimed PBS television series called, "Cosmos," is about our planet, "Earth." In this short video clip, Sagan tells us that our planet is the only planet like it in the universe that sustains life as we know it. Our planet is very unique and it's the only home that we know in the universe. The other night on my Faceback, I posted the "Pale Blue Dot" video and commented, "This is the only home we have in the universe. Perhaps, we should find better ways to drill for oil in our oceans in the future."

HBO's Heidi Fleiss: The Would-Be Madam Of Crystal

I really didn't know much the infamous Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss until recently. The other night I watched the HBO documentary "Heidi Fliess: The Would-Be Madam Of Crystal." The documentary shows Fleiss during her efforts in 2006 to create a brothel for women in Nevada where prostitution is legal. The name of the brother was going to be called the "Stud Farm." She buys land and a house in a small town called "Crystal" located in Death Valley after moving there from Los Angeles. During the first segment of the documentary she has a homeless guy who works for her but she fires him after they go out to the desert one night to collect rocks. He forgot to bring the flashlight and they get into an argument. He goes back to Los Angeles to live. She runs into several roadblocks when she applies for a license from the city and county where she was trying to establish the brothel. Even a local saloon owner is against her and states that Fleiss is going about everything the wrong way. Also, the president of the Nevada Brothel Association speaks out against her and says that she is bringing negative attention to the brother industry in the state with her notoriety. She evens became a witness in an FBI investigation after being brief business partners with another brother owner who was being watched by the Feds.

The documentary also shows portions of interviews with Fleiss where she talks about her past as a Hollywood Madam and her time served in prison for federal charges when she was convicted in 1996. Lately, she can be seen on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. She admits on the documentary that she addiction problem to crystal meth but was currently sober from the drug. Probably one of the more interesting parts of the documentary is where Fleiss befriends an elderly neighbor who loves and collects exotic birds. The sickly woman who is on oxygen lives in a trailer next door to her property and has about 20 or 30 birds in cages surrounded by her in the bedroom and the living room. Fleiss falls in love with one particular bird and eventually learns to love all the birds. When the elderly neighbors dies, the woman leaves all the birds to Fleiss. At times, it seems that she is overwhelm with her new duties with keeping all the birds. Even her brother-in-law comes over from Los Angeles to build an extra room on her house for the birds. She finally gives up the idea of building the brothel after hitting the roadblocks and buys a laundry mat in the small town and calls it "Dirty Laundry."

I found Fleiss to be a highly intelligent woman from a well to do family who learned to hustle at young age. Besides making millions as a former madam, Fleiss has also made a lot of money from her notoriety by writing books, being portrayed in movies and documentaries and appearing on reality shows. I really liked this particular HBO documentary and I highly recommend it if you want to be introduced her and perhaps seen a kinder, softer gentle side of Fleiss instead of the Heidi Fleiss most of us have heard about, read about or seen on the national news.