Gummo, the Balloon Boy, called yesterday and attempted to make some sort of shakedown on me. He had noted that we were receiving threatening letters concerning tomorrow's Jukebox selection and implied that he had some type of connection with the music Nazi's better known as ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors,and Publishers). Years ago, Gummo had wandered into one of their yearly conventions, eventually gotten drunk with a couple of their members, and woke up in an alley shoeless, his facepaint smeared, and trademark 80's disco 'fro half shaven off his head. He truly looked like a bad imitation of Larry from The 3 Stooges. Anyway, this group has caused many a restaurant and bar owner a large amount of grief by demanding licensing payments if you have a band or playing music on a radio in your establishment because you are playing someone else's copyrighted music. And this is all legal. (I am not making this up!) As our Friday jukebox feature also plays music, Gummo was hinting that he might place a couple of calls and make some trouble if he chose to.
I pointed out to Gummo that such an act would jeopardize his position here at the Institute, I didn't think he had the power to commit such an act, we would not succumb to his veiled threats, and that he could go pound sand. 2 hours later, the Institute was visited by 2 ASCAP goons whom eventually left with Gummo as well. Apparently, he had been previously observed performing a bad karaoke version of the falsetto portion in "Summer Nights" from the movie "Grease". And that act is a punishable crime.
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