Kermit's Blog

Change yourself . . . and you change the World!

Category Archives: My Music

Jet Time on the way to Quail Hunt 2012!

After the Living Legends event in Beverly Hills, I was able to hitch a ride out to Salt Lake City with aviation supporter Tracy Forrest. He let me fly his Citation Mustang out of Santa Monica to Salt Lake City where I was going to kill some time before the Quail Hunt the following weekend at my family’s ski condo.

The Mustang is a great entry level jet, very economical to fly, and has the same Garmin 1000 radios I used in the Cessna 172 I got my Instrument Rating in. The weather was great until we got close to SLC and we then went on instruments, picked up some light ice, and shot the approach. Having just got my Instrument Rating, this was a great experience for me!

Citation Mustang in the rain at SLC

I used the quiet in the mountains to catch up on my blog and never made it out to the slopes! I’ll talk about that in a later blog post. I was happy to be invited back to the Quail Hunt and headed off to Dallas/Ft. Worth five days later by airline to hook up with my ride out to the Ranch.

Last year I got to fly a Cessna Citation Jet out and back and this year was no different. Since I now had my Instrument Rating, I had all sorts of questions. And lo and behold . . . guess what supplies they picked up for me for the weekend? My current favorite rum!

Looks like the beginning of a great trip!

After the Living Legends event, I was beginning to notice a subtle pattern forming! People were going out of their way to supply me with some great tasting rum. At least . . . until my Naked in Jamaica rum comes out! (I feel the need to insert a disclaimer here – I love to drink socially with friends and don’t do this on any kind of regular basis. The only problem I have with drinking is when all they’ve got is that nasty white rum available! I won’t name the label.)

Everyone was kind enough to let me fly up front in the right seat so we headed off to pick up Dick Cole about halfway. Dick was Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot on the “Thirty seconds over Tokyo” raid and the beginning of WWII in one of sixteen B-25 Bombers that launched off the deck of the aircraft carrier Hornet!

With Famous Doolittle Raider!

Two people are really responsible for Quail Hunt. John Agather organizes it and is the son of Vic Agather. Vic ran the Boeing B-29 program in WWII for America and was responsible for getting the B-29 Fifi for the CAF. Herb Kelleher is the other and is part-owner in the 200,000 acre ranch we explore in west Texas. Herb is one of the principals behind the success of Southwest Airlines. John and Herb together have created a great event to bring together aviation notables together for a weekend of fun and camaraderie.

With famous round-the-world Voyager Pilot Dick Rutan!

If you remember, last year, country music star Aaron Tippin was my roommate. He showed up late this year so I bunked in with a new fun guy named Perry out of Reno. He brought a load of guns for everyone to play with and we literally had a blast! The next picture pretty much sums up the whole trip!

Bullets - 2000 / Quail - Zero / Fun - Priceless!

Can’t wait ’till next year!

Kermit

Living Legends of Aviation 2012!

I recently got back from the Living Legends of Aviation event in Beverly Hills.  As usual, it was a great event and it’s always fun to see old friends and meet new ones.  While I’m not big suit and tie guy, I love to get dressed up in my tux!

One of the fun things about being a Living Legend (other than the alternative), is being able to bypass the “normal” entrance and walk the red carpet for the Paparazzi!

Posing for the Paparazzi!

When I walked up to begin, I couldn’t help but notice I was following Morgan Freeman and his entourage!

Walking the Red Carpet!

For some reason, I didn’t notice as many flashes going off when I went through!  Hmmm?  Oh, well . . . so much for being famous!  :-)

With LLoA Founder Jerry Lips and Morgan

On the flip-side, you know you’ve arrived when they have your favorite drink sitting next to your table and won’t let you get to the bottom of your glass!  In the past I’ve had to walk to the bar in the back to get a drink and have to live with the white rum (I won’t name the label) they stock, which I can’t stand!  One day, my Naked in Jamaica rum with orange juice will be my drink of choice!

You know you've arrived when . . .

This year though I got put to work so, maybe that’s why they had a stash for me close-by!  Actually, I was honored to be part of the program in several ways.  First of all, as a Living Legend myself, I got to hang a medal around one of the new Legends, Jeff Plunkett.  Next, I was was included in a tribute to Cliff Robertson, who recently passed away.

Go back and look at last years LLoA blog post where I included several pics of Cliff and myself.  The tribute we all did can be seen at http://youtu.be/2k7CT6mrspE .  I’m right at the beginning, but feel free to watch the rest of the tribute by others to Cliff as well.

The coolest thing I got to do, was to present the Award to Boeing for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.  It was a great opportunity to touch everyone with a bit of Fantasy of Flight philosophy and I got several great comments later.

I thought it somewhat interesting that, while I was waiting backstage before presenting the Award, I found myself following Morgan Freeman again!  There seemed to be a pattern forming!

Backstage and up next!

Friend and Film Director, Tony Bill (Movies - Flyboys and The Sting), was introducing Morgan for the Aviation Inspiration and Patriotism Award. I soon followed to introduce the Aircraft of Legend Award and present it to Michael Sinnett, who accepted in on behalf of the Boeing Dreamteam.

Presenting Award to Michael Sinnett!

The following clip of the presentation will be seen by tens of thousands of people that brought the Dreamliner into reality!  Pretty Cool!  Check it out at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9qTxAWq6mk

All in all, it was a great event for me and everyone else.  I can’t wait until next year!

Kermit

Naked in Jamaica update!

I continue to work, albeit slowly, on developing my private label rum brand called Naked in Jamaica based on the song I wrote and recorded of the same name and have blogged about before.

Aging in an Oak Barrel

In pursuing the blend we tried aging some in an oak barrel for six months, tasting samples every month for six months.  In the end, it wasn’t conducive for a flavored rum such as Naked in Jamaica, which is actually great as it shortens the time in bringing the product to market. I continue to play with the blending but it takes time, for once you blend something it takes about a month to “marry,” allowing all the ingredients to blend together into a smooth taste.  I’ve learned that blending is an art, not a science, for you don’t know how the different ingredients will react and affect the flavor when you put them together.  We’ve received approval for the basic blend and the next step is to get approval for the labeling on the bottle, which has to meet certain requirements.

Chef Kermit doing some sampling of his own!

One fun thing I got to do was participate in an event called Cooking Men.  I got to be Chef Kermit at a charitable fund-raiser where about 60 different members of the community supplied some kind of dish for the attendees paying to sample the different food stations.  Fantasy of Flight chef, Cory Reynolds, came up with a Naked in Jamaica infused desert topped with a to-die-for rum sauce.  We made way more than they required and ran out early!  Hopefully, that’s a premonition of things to come!

Kermit

Naked in Jamaica Rum!

Rough Concept for a Bottle Label

Believe it or not I’ve actually been blending my own private label rum lately.  I’ve always enjoyed drinking Dark Rum and Orange Juice and, many years ago, while Teresa and I were dating, I wrote a song on the beach in Negril, Jamaica called “Naked in Jamaica!”

I recorded a long, as well as a short version but have released neither.  The long version is twelve-minutes long but has a parody at the end using the song “Rawhide” which I have yet to get approval for.  I see the long version as an audio track for a film short one day but could release the short version as it’s all my material.  It may have Spring Break cult potential!

Here’s half of one of the chorus’s -

I’m Naked in Jamaica while I work upon my tan . . .

Refresh my drink, got time to think, and could while I still can.

The sun, the breeze, my drink, the view, I soak them all within . . .

It’s time to turn, so I won’t burn, and tan my tender skin!

Anyway, I decided I needed to come up with my own private label rum brand and just started learning about the whole process at a local distillery.  The first thing I learned is that it’s not a science . . . it’s an art!  Can life get any better!

Kermit

“Puff” the Magic Gee Bee!

Last week another Gee Bee book character arrived at Fantasy of Flight and it’s Puff! She’s Zee’s cute little girlfriend in the story but a Gee Bee Y Sportster in real life. There were only two built but the orginals don’t exist anymore. I found this reproduction on the market and made a trade for it. The intention will be to put it together for display. While it had been flown a number of times by the builder, we want to take a good look at it and make a few changes. When I first got in the cockpit, the rudder pedals were too far back for my long legs and the ones in the front were even closer. For the time being it will make a great display.

Early next year we plan on doing some live action filming with the three Gee Bee airplanes for a DVD we are making and hope to place on PBS. We have already taken the “All of Life is a School” book and used the original illustrations with me narrating it to create a short video. We even included the song I wrote. I plan to add some live action footage with kids at Fantasy of Flight around the real characters and include some of the original historical footage that is currently on the www.geebeefun.com website.

So far on display at Fantasy of Flight from the book we have Gee Bee Zee, Jimmy G. Gee Bee, Puff, Matty and Stout. I acquired Missy a few months ago but she won’t arrive until around March of next year.

Plans are to make this new addition just like Puff in the book one day; including the bump cowl, the little wheel pant for the tail wheel and a covered front cockpit. Will she ever be pink? Well, I guess that depends on how much she powders her nose!

Kermit

Daddy’s Little Girl!

We are slowly recouperating from last weekends events. Roar ‘n Soar was a big success and I will write a post about it when I get some final numbers and round up some great photos.  After I finished flying on Saturday, I headed off to a music festival called Riverhawk to do a photo shoot for a music video I am working on.

A friend of mine named Mark Johnson is a renowned banjo player and two years ago at this same festival he played a tune on stage he wrote and later recorded named “Katie Weeks”  after my daughter.  It was on his second CD Album called “Acoustic Rising”, which later went on to be nominated by the International Blugrass Music Association’s Instrumental for Album of the Year!  It also became one of the top requested songs off the Album on Bluegrass XM Radio.

Anyway, at the festival two years ago Mark told us to catch his act.  Katie was 2 1/2 at the time and dressed in a cute little cowgirl outfit.  We were all sitting in the front row and it was the first time Teresa and I had ever heard the song.  When Mark began to play it, Katie spontaneously got up, went out in front of the stage with everyone watching, and began twirling around the dance floor!

As you can imagine, everyone was very touched by what was going on.  About eight months later the CD came out and I began listening to it in my car.  It was a great tune and, as my thoughts flashed back to the scene of Katie dancing, words began to come to me.  I soon realized I was to write a song for it.  After a couple of months I had the lyrics done, went down to a recording studio, and laid some rough vocal tracks over the original instrumental.  Everyone I played it to was tearing up by the end of the song!

The vocal version has become “Daddy’s Little Girl” with the intent of recording the tune properly and creating a music video to go along with it.  I don’t want to spoil the final product but I hope to create an Internet Site where daughters can download the song attached to a Father’s Day card!  At some point, Father’s will be able to send it along with a card to their daughters.

As if I don’t have enough projects going on, I hope to have this done and launched by next Father’s Day in June!  I am attaching a picture of Katie dancing with Mark and I in the background from last weekend.  Just to give you a taste of the song the first verse and chorus of “Daddy’s Little Girl” goes like this -

You see that little girl . . . the one just over there . . .

Full of innocence and wonder . . . big blue eyes and curly hair . . .

Well, I just thought you’d like to know . . . that smile with skinned up knees . . .

Well, that’s my little girl . . . so watch her . . . if you please . . .

Chorus -

Watch her dance . . . watch her smile . . . watch her spin . . . laughing all the while . . .

And if you see that little girl come dancin’ ‘cross the floor . . .

You’d better grab your heart . . . ’cause it’s gonna melt some more . . .

Watch her dance . . . watch here twirl . . . watch her spin . . . she’s Daddy’s Little Girl!

Kermit

Internet Marketing efforts go Platinum!

Last year I joined an Internet Marketing Group called AM 2.0 headed my Armand Morin.  Realizing the potential of the Internet, I have been trying to learn all I can to utilize it in the promotion of Fantasy of Flight and the products I am creating. 

 With the help of my IT department I have been working diligently to check off a 114-point list of items relating to our first promotional effort – my new illustrated children’s book “All of Life is a School”.  Once accomplished, we will be eligible to join a Platinum Group of Internet Marketers that are on the cutting edge of the business.

Well, while our athletes have been winning Gold at the Olympics in China this summer, we just got the annoucement this morning that we have completed our requirements and have now gone Platinum!  We have been invited to our first meeting in in Raleigh, NC early September.  As part of the two-day meetings, we will be given the opportunity to bring to the best minds in the business our ideas about what we would like to get input about.  And since we have a plan in place for the Gee Bee Book, I hope to bring to the group the concept we have for the song I wrote called “Daddy’s Little Girl!”

The instrumental tune was written by a friend of mine, Mark Johnson about three years ago and it’s on his second album called Acoustic Rising.  He is a renowned banjo player with a unique style and named the tune “Katie Weeks” after my little girl.  The album went up for the International Bluegrass Music Awards “Instrumental Album of the Year”.  And while it didn’t win, it is one of the most requested songs off that album on Bluegrass XM Radio.

 After we heard him play it at a music festival several years ago and got the CD, words and visuals began to come to me.  I realized I was supposed to write words to his music!  I have completed a rough recording but will be back in the studio for the final version.  Every father with a daughter I have played it to has been teary eyed by the end of the song.  It has great potential to be put to a short music video and we hope to find a way to bypass the “difficult to deal with music industry” and promote in via the Internet.

Stay tuned as we head towards a June of 2009 release!

Kermit