What's in a Name?

For close to five years I had a small firm called Greg Womble Communications. The name itself took months to say. The website was (and is, since it's a showcase of my scriptwriting and film/video work) www.womcom.net. Every time I mentioned the website name to someone--after taking a second to put the Wom and the Com together, I suppose--there was a smile. Then they would say it. Almost every time. There's just something slightly goofy about the sound of it. But I got over it and eventually decided those two syllables were better than seven. So WOMCOM was born. Or at least reincarnated.

When you get a smile, or people enjoy saying your business name, it's good. Try that with "Ogletree Stump Removal and Christmas Light Repair." People will call you "Ogletree" if anything at all. Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to simply KFC and started marketing fried chicken to twenty-somethings whose attention was distracted before they could say the full name.

Do you remember The Wombles? They were a furry bunch of tree-hugging park dwellers across the Pond who had a popular children's TV show and an unjust number of top pop hits in England in the 70s, 80's, 90's and beyond. I was a young college radio programmer when I opened a new promotional 45 rpm and saw "The Wombles" across the cover for the first time. And their big hit? "Remember Your a Womble."

With WOMCOM, I kinda did that.

Speaking of shades, and in no way related, I play in a folk/bluegrass band called Shades Mountain Air. We've been at it for about 12 years now. I play banjo, big surprise. Not a blue one, though.

The five of us (now four due to a law enforcement career that has taken off) lived on, or in shadow of, Shades Mountain. The suburban Birmingham, AL hillside was once called "Shades of Hell" and I just don't know what that means, unless some trader or early hillbilly had a really strange sense of humor. Or maybe it's biblical. Like I said, I just don't know.

We played a May 14 gig down in Elba, AL. It was a very fine time. Go by the Just Folk Coffeehouse sometime when you're down there (it's near Dothan).

This is post number one. It ain't much. I would imagine someone asking me, "Greg, why 'Attack of the Blue Banjo?'"

Then I would imagine answering something like this. It has to do with a lake, too much to think, my kids, some paint, and a banjo. There will be no attacks. It's a motivation thing, for me, to write. A symbol of things past and things possible.

The actual blue banjo is in my office and has a long neck (like Pete Seeger played), rusty strings, too many frets and lots of blue paint. Six shades of blue. One-fifth the number of shades I saw on a lake that day.

I'll piece other pieces together later.