BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — Passions. Everybody has got at least one…or maybe four or five. The fact of the matter is that there is a natural limit to how many things for which one individual can truly feel “passionately.” By definition, a ‘passion’ requires a major investment of time and energy that just won’t allow you to have two dozen of ‘em all at once.

So, what am I crazy about, that is, besides my family and the Flyers?

1) The Boston Red Sox
2) Hudson automobiles
3) The Alan Parsons Project

In a rare alignment of the planets and the stars, I got to indulge all three of these passions in a major way within a two week period.

No, I didn’t go home to Fenway Park or on the road to see the Sox in person, but I did the next best thing –- watching the Carmines play on TV with my father at his place in Vermont. My dad raised me a Red Sox fan. He was born in West Virginia but attended Harvard Medical and actually worked at Fenway as a vendor to help put himself thru school. One day he was selling peanuts when a woman in the crowd took one look at him and exclaimed “Oh my, that vendor is my doctor!” Right before he went away on active duty in World War II, my dad (in his Navy uniform) and mom attended a game at the Fens. A foul ball was hit in their direction and my father nonchalantly said “Excuse me, dear” reached up and caught it barehanded. The next day, a cartoonist in one of the Boston papers captured the moment for posterity.

The Sox were pretty dreadful during my youth with the exception of Ted Williams, but that didn’t stop me from asking to go see them play for my birthday every year. Then 1967 and “The Impossible Dream” happened. My friends Kevin and Gus and I were among a throng of 10,000 or so out on Lansdowne Street who thought they might be able to climb up on the billboards and catch a peek at Game Seven. No chance –- they had mounted police all over the place. We did get to see some of the action thru telescopes from the top floor of the Prudential Building, however.

As an aside, there is an excellent “warts and all” biography of Ted Williams that just premiered on HBO. He was a unique persona and is one of the few people who can say that he was the best at 3 different things in his lifetime: hitting a baseball, fly fishing and being a fighter pilot.

In 1975, I witnessed the “Greatest Baseball Game Ever Played” while trapped in the middle of Reds country in Ohio. In 1978, I was living in Pittsburgh when Bucky “F-ing” Dent beat the Sox in a one game playoff. By 1986 we had settled into Michigan and I had a bottle of champagne in my hands, ready to open it, when the ball went thru Buckner’s legs. I threw it away several years later in disgust. In 2003, I managed to hit the OFF switch on the remote before the Yankees Aaron “F-ing” Boone’s home run even landed in the stands.

And then there was 2004. What a year! I summarized what it all meant to me and my Dad a few days after Keith Foulke underhanded the ball to 1st base for the final out in this edition of “From the Swamp” simply entitled “RSN”:

http://www.flyersports.com/cgi/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EEFyyAAVEuEDMZvtbs

So, for 4 nights last week, my old man and I got to sit in his living room as he reminisced about Sox players and teams of the past and I told him about future stars like Lars Anderson or 19 year old Cuban shortstop Jose Iglesias while watching the current version beat the crap out of the Oakland As and the KC Royals.

Nothin’ like it!

***

2009 is the 100th anniversary of the Hudson automobile and so it was only natural that the Hudson-Essex-Terraplane Club should hold its annual national meet here in the Motor City. The Hudson brand ceased production in 1957 after a short-lived merger with Nash in 1954. Cars built in that 3 year period are referred to as “Hashes” and are nothing more than badge-engineered Nashes. Hudson hit its zenith with the post-war “Step-Down” models that featured aerodynamic styling, powerful 6 cylinder engines and unibody construction, epitomized in the top-of-the-line Hudson Hornet, introduced in 1951. Hudson literally owned the NASCAR stock car circuit in that time frame.

I’ve owned two Hudsons, a 1937 Terraplane during my senior year at UD and a 1946 Super Six the year after I graduated. Unfortunately, I haven’t had another one since…yet.

There were over 400 cars at the national meet in Auburn Hills, including a couple from the inaugural year of 1909. Three of them stood out to me:

1953 Hudson Italia

One of only 25 built, the Italia was an aluminum bodied, limited production sports car introduced as Hudson was about to be acquired by Nash. Hudson shipped compact Hudson Jet chasses to Italy where they were hand-fitted with bodies crafted by Carrozzeria Touring and then shipped back. The price tag of $4,800 (more than a Cadillac Eldorado at the time) might explain why the Italia didn’t sell.

Here’s a picture of the Italia:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fun_flying/3734034962/in/photostream/

Certainly not the most beautiful car ever built, but it was way ahead of its time in many regards.

1953 Hudson Hornet Italia prototype

Where the Italia was built on a Jet chassis, this one-off was produced on a full-sized Hudson Hornet 4 door sedan. It was intended to be a styling exercise by Frank Spring, Hudson’s Styling Director as to what the Hudson of the future (1957, to be specific) would look like.

Here’s a pic:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fun_flying/3733652239/in/set-72157621658690504/

1954 Hudson Jet Convertible prototype

Again, only one of these puppies was made by the factory and it ended up a rusted pile of iron that has been lovingly restored to better-than-new condition:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fun_flying/3733653971/

What is totally amazing about these three rare Hudson vehicles is that they are all owned by the same guy -– Ed Souers of Warren, Indiana.

For a couple of days it was nice to be in ‘Hudson Heaven.’

***

The Alan Parsons Project has been around in various forms for 35 years. The current version, dubbed “The Alan Parsons Live Project” features none of the musicians who made APP sound so unique back in the early ‘80s. Vocalist and songwriter Eric Woolfson is producing musicals; guitarist extraordinaire Ian Bairnson is an axe for hire and orchestrator Andrew Powell is out there somewhere conducting. But the man himself is still headlining the act, sound engineering legend Alan Parsons. And that’s good enough for me.

I’ve got all of their CDs on my I-pod and two playlists of APP tunes on YouTube as well. Their music represents the perfect blend of orchestra and rock and the thematic nature of their albums has always appealed to me.

You might not recognize the group or any of their tunes if I listed them, but if I told you that APP performed the song “Sirius” which was used to introduce the Chicago Bulls back in the MJ era, I bet you would know what song I was talking about.

For the first 15 years of the band’s existence the Alan Parsons Project never toured. That’s what made the first live APP appearance in Detroit in the early ‘90s at the State Theater so special for me. I later saw them in Cleveland, as well as in Pittsburgh, opening for Yes. The last visit by Parsons and company in Detroit they appeared at the Detroit Opera House with a full orchestra –- the way God intended them to be heard.

This time (which is probably the swan song for APP shows in the States, unfortunately) the band headlined at DTE Energy Music Theater with The Orchestra, made up of former members of ELO and ELO II serving as the opening act.

It was a surprisingly cool night for the middle of July. As I drove out to DTE with the top down, the dark clouds on the northern horizon meant that it was only a matter of time until it rained. I bought a $10 lawn ticket and was sitting on the hillside when it started to pour. I had a golf umbrella, beach chair and my Dayton Flyers insulated blanket to protect me from the elements and I was ready to ride out the storm. That was until a guy walked up to me on the hill and mentioned he had an extra ticket in the 10th row under cover in the pavilion. Did I want it…for free? Nahhh, I think I‘ll sit here in the rain a couple hundred yards from the stage. I keed. Of course I took him up on the offer. Thanks, dude!

The Orchestra only has 2 holdovers from the original ELO but they banged out all of Jeff Lynne’s hits in respectable fashion. Fortunately, one of the founding members still on board is electric violinist Mic Kaminski, whose signature playing distinguishes ELO from all other rock bands. In the middle of “Livin’ Thing” the band lost power, so all you could hear was the drummer and the singer. Didn’t matter –- the crowd sang along and helped them finish the tune.

In between acts, the DTE played a reggae version of “Dark Side of the Moon” which is rather ironic, since it was for that Pink Floyd classic that Alan Parsons made his bones as a sound engineer.

APP was in fine form and the crowd got into every tune big-time. Alan has integrated the new players into the proceedings, as every member took a turn singing lead vocals and he introduced each of them individually, rather than all at once. They played all of my favorites and a few unexpected surprises, like the intricate “La Sagrada Familia” a tune about the cathedral in Barcelona designed by noted Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi that has been under construction since 1882.

It was perfect.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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