The Ever-Loving Virgin Prince

Being the adventures of a hard-drinking, chain-smoking, dashing man about town, aspiring gonzo-journalist and mystery-man.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Today I Think I'll Walk

Wheelchair Buddies


Can You Read My Mind?


Faithful fretters,

     Wow, both these guys are dead.

     I guess I wanted to write a little bit on the passing of Richard Pryor. As most of you know, he died recently from a heart attack. Now, Richard Prior meant a great amount of things to a great amount of people. The impact of his influence is still widely felt today. Much has been said about his impact on modern comedy. I’ll not delve much into that; I’m no stand-up comedian. Let me tell you what he meant to me.

     When I was young, life was simple. Stretching all the way back to my memories of my time in preschool, I remember that I didn’t know much about the world in general. I had no concept of rich and poor, no idea of the difference between Chinese and Japanese, a very far-off interpretation of Africa, and a television-inspired belief that Indians were bad guys and cowboys were heroes. Needless to say, I really had no knowledge of Hollywood or popular culture, and I had no idea who all the celebrities were. I knew about The A-Team, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, James Bond, and that was about it. My knowledge of celebrities was equally limited. I knew Weird Al Yankovic, the cast of Sesame Street, and Richard Pryor.

     Richard Prior was one of my favorites by far; as a kid I absolutely adored him. I was too young to have any real understanding of racial issues, and his jokes regarding drug-use went completely over my head. All I knew was that the guy was funny.

     Back in the 80’s, how could anyone possibly NOT like Richard Prior? He was great! He had all those films in which he was put in a wonderful pairing with Gene Wilder, and he had that delightful Saturday morning kids show that I watched faithfully every week, right after Land of the Lost. For crying out loud, the guy was in Superman 3, and he was the best darn thing about it! Think about how cool a guy has to be in order to be getting equal screen-time with Superman himself.

     Anyway, as the years passed and MS set in, Richard Pryor stepped out of the limelight. He was seen less, spoken of less, but he was never quite forgotten. He was honored many times over; so many times in fact that it was getting pretty obvious everyone was just waiting for him to kick the bucket.

     Well now the guy’s gone, but you know what? He’s still funny. Rest well Richard Pryor. I hope wherever you are you’re lighting the devil on fire and shooting God’s car full of holes.

     On another note, it’s that time of year once more. That time of year where the air has a biting cold to it and everyone gets used to the sound of men in red suits ringing bells. It’s time to start getting ready for Festivus.

     It’s time to start contacting my friends and compiling my list of pirate songs so that my friends and I might go Festivus caroling. Time to gather up our aluminum poles and start preparing ourselves for feats of strength. Time to collect all my gripes together for the airing of grievances. Break out your sake, rum, plum wine, whiskey, and just a sarsaparilla for me thanks. Hang the groper-toes overhead, alongside your pictures of Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Pour, oh pour the pirate sherry, sing, oh sing the pirate song! Be one with the ninja, tighten up your tool-belts and ready your gun-belts. Polish up your six-shooters and tidy up your 10 gallon hats. Banish all tinsel from the kingdom! It’ll be a good one this time around.

     And as the goodwill of the season sinks in, I realize in retrospect that in regards to my last post, I probably just should have said that if anyone at all has any sort of problem with me, they should address it directly with me, as opposed to through third parties and indirect means. That probably would have sufficed. Oh well, live and learn.

Be seeing you,
The Virgin Prince
The Virgin Prince, 4:15 PM More Here
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