Information
Jersey Devil the Thirteenth Child
Al Cody
Legacy Name: Al Cody
The
Harvest FesterOwner:
BalloonAge: 7 years, 5 months, 3 weeks
Born: October 22nd, 2016
Adopted: 7 years, 5 months, 3 weeks ago
Adopted: October 22nd, 2016
Pet Spotlight Winner
January 2nd, 2019
Statistics
- Level: 185
- Strength: 266
- Defense: 100
- Speed: 100
- Health: 100
- HP: 100/100
- Intelligence: 237
- Books Read: 225
- Food Eaten: 0
- Job: Master Key Turner
profile and story by Balloon • background photos from 'Inside Llewyn Davis'
Master Key Turner at Yun Enterprises
I always wanted to be a cowboy.
Everyone thought it was cute when I was a little kid. I mean, every boy wants to be a cowboy at some point, right? They didn't think it was so cute, though, when I never grew out of it. My dad said wanting to be a cowboy was fine for boys who grew up out in Texas or Arizona or something, but not for guys who'd never lived beyond the mid Atlantic. Particularly not for guys named Arthur Milgrum from Short Hills, New Jersey, who'd finished college and had a family business to take over. My mom wasn't so politic about it, especially when I got an apartment over in New York City and started calling myself Al Cody and tried to make a career of playing western folk music instead of taking over that family business.
It all started because I saw so many westerns when I was a kid, growing up in the thirties. I guess we had it better during the Depression than a lot of families did, but we didn't have it great, either. I don't remember a whole lot about it—I was really young after all—but I know we went to the movies pretty often. Lots of people did when they could afford it, kinda to escape their real lives, maybe. Anyway, my dad's always liked westerns, 'cos before he got married he was sort of a rogue. I think he enjoyed watching the westerns and pretending he was free again, out there like the cowboys played by John Wayne or Robert Livingston or Johnny Mack Brown (except my dad never was good at sports). His favorite westerns were the traditional ones, the dramas with maybe a little romance if the girl was a feisty type like Maureen O'Hara. (Mom's feisty. She's got feist to spare, in fact.)
But me, I liked the singing cowboy movies. I still like the singing cowboy movies. I know they're hokey and silly and everything else—my dad never got tired of telling me that, and neither does Llewyn. . . but I’ll get to Llewyn in a minute. And maybe those movies are silly, but they’re also happy, and we needed happy back then. I think we still need happy now, thirty years later. Of course I like the traditional westerns and I admire John Wayne, who doesn't, but I love Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and Tex Ritter the most. When I was a kid, I'd watch those guys and pretend I was them, out there and free just like my dad did, but I pretended I was singing and playing the guitar too, making people happy. I didn't care much about the romance part of the story, just the singing part. The singing, and the saving the day, and the making people happy.
Then in the forties, the war came, and the Depression ended, and things got better or worse depending on who you were and who you asked. We still went to the movies as a family the first couple years, until about the time the war ended, but after that, I went by myself. Sometimes with my friends, every now and then with a date, but mostly by myself. Part of the reason I quit going with my family was because Dad started spending less and less time at home, but of course, I was growing up, too. Teenagers don't like going to the movies with their parents much. I kept seeing the cowboy movies, though, and I still loved the singing ones the best.
Those were my favorites all the way into the mid-fifties while I finished growing up, and finished college, and they finished making movies with singing cowboys. There were still lots of westerns coming out, but more and more, they were B movies. I still liked ‘em, but they weren’t quite the same. Nobody would see them with me either. Everybody was real tired of my cowboy thing by then, but I don’t like giving up, especially not on a dream. So near the end of 1959, I moved into a dumpy apartment on Downing Street in New York City, started going by Al Cody, and tried to make it as a western folk musician. That was the closest I could get to becoming a singing cowboy, since I'm really a Jewish guy on the East coast in the second half of the twentieth century.
My parents hated it, especially my mom. She hated that I changed my name, even when I tried to explain I didn’t change it because I was ashamed of people knowing I was Jewish. I changed it because “Arthur Milgrum” just sounds like an accountant or something while “Al Cody” sounds like a cowboy, but she wouldn’t listen. She hated the way I started talking and told me people were going to think I was ignorant because I used words like “ain’t.” She hated that I lived in a tiny apartment and that I started smoking, and most of all, she hated the music.
I actually recorded a solo album (it didn’t sell), and I gave my parents a copy. They didn’t say it was bad or anything, and I think Dad even kinda liked it, but Mom made sure I knew exactly how much time and money I had wasted so far on my silly dream of being a cowboy musician, and how much more time and money I was gonna waste if I kept on with it. I didn’t argue with her. I’ve never won an argument with Mom in my life, and anyway, I knew she was probably right. But like I said, I don’t like giving up, so I stayed in the apartment and kept playing gigs when I could get them, and that’s how I met Llewyn Davis.
That day in ‘61, I was in a recording studio again, but this time, I was doing backup vocals for a buddy of mine on a novelty song he wrote. It’s a silly song, but I guess you’ve figured out by now, I like silly. While we were warming up, another friend of my buddy’s came in to help out too. That friend was Llewyn. He was short and kind of rumpled and grouchy and really cute, and when he asked if he could spend a couple nights at my apartment on my couch, I couldn’t tell him no. I always tried to be helpful and nice to everybody, and like I said, he was really cute.
Llewyn was a jerk—not just to me, to everybody. He thought our mutual friend’s song was ridiculous, and he mooched off all his other friends until no one would take him in anymore, and eventually he ran his mouth so much he ended up getting pummeled in a fist fight. As for me, Llewyn said I was so tall and thin, I’d disappear if I turned sideways. He said he hated my cowboy hat and the only good thing about it was that it covered up how big my ears are. He said the first time he heard me sing, I sounded like a cow.
But there was something about Llewyn that made me feel like the cowboy I’d always wanted to be. When we sang, we sounded good together. I only sounded like a cow on that one song, and it turned out that Llewyn liked my voice otherwise. I didn’t really mind giving him a place to stay as long as he helped out some, and he started doing that the second time he came around, after he got in that fight and I patched him up. And I found out that he kind of liked me being tall and thin, and he even kind of liked my ears. (He really didn’t like the cowboy hat, and he still doesn’t, but that’s just too bad.) All in all, Llewyn liked being with me because I cheered him up, and not many people could do that anymore.
So being with Llewyn made me feel like singing, and saving the day, and making him happy. And even though I never cared much about romance in the movies, I fell in love with him. I fell hard. If I had been John Wayne, Llewyn would have been my Maureen O’Hara, as feisty as they come. But I wasn’t really a cowboy, no matter how much I wanted to be, and I wasn’t a movie star either. I don’t like giving up on my dreams, but a “happily ever after” with another guy, and a guy like Llewyn at that? How could that dream ever come true?
Well, what the movies don’t tell you is that sometimes, you compromise. . . you learn how to balance your dreams. I figured that out once the impossible happened: once Llewyn fell in love with me too, I decided I’d do whatever it took to make it work. So I compromised. I gave up part of the cowboy thing, in the end. Like, I got a regular job—I’m not an accountant, but I do work in an office where they call me Arthur, not Al. But when I go out and perform with Llewyn, I go by Al Cody, and I wear my cowboy hat, no matter how much he complains. Besides, our daughter Maria loves my hat so much, I bought her a cowgirl hat all her own, and now she wants to be a singing cowgirl when she grows up (and an artist, and maybe a princess to boot). I think I can safely say I’ve won the hat argument now that I’ve gotten our kid to take my side.
Sometimes they show the old singing cowboy westerns on TV, and Llewyn never fails to tell me how silly they are, but he sits and watches them with me anyway. I sing for him; and when he’s had a bad day, I save it for him; and I do my best to make him happy. He does all those things for me too, and we both do everything we can to give our little girl the best life possible. So I guess you could say I ended up becoming a part-time cowboy—it’s not quite what I imagined while I was sitting in the dark theater all those years ago, but being my family’s hero is a better “happily ever after” than I ever saw in any movie.
Pet Treasure
Cowboy
Fabulous Cowboy Sticker
Snakeskin Hat Band
Knotted Red Handkerchief
Plain Brown Cowboy Vest
Cowboys Raincoat
Cowboys Plain Shirt
Cowboys Dark Gunbelt
Cowboys Jeans
Sturdy Chaps
Nice Cowboy Boot
Functional Spurs
Mustache Trimming Scissors
Cowboys Lariet
Photograph of Them Thar Plains
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Hat
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Broken Comb
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Dust-Guard Eye Drops
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Dirty Bandage Tin
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Kerchief
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Leather Armbands
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Scrap of Flannel
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Leather Belts
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Rugged Leather Pants
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Sturdy Leather Boots
Sougara Wasteland Cowboy Old Photograph Print
Romero Badlands Saddle Wax
Bow-E Peyote Saddle Suspenders
Boot Collar
Brown Cowboy Boots
Dark Brown Cowboy Boots
Light Brown Cowboy Boots
Olive Cowboy Boots
Dark Ochre Cowboy Boots
Black Cowboy Boots
Red Cowboy Boots
Tan Cowboy Boots
Turquoise Cowboy Boots
Purple Cowboy Boots
Pink Cowboy Boots
Monochrome Cowboy Boots
Brown Buttless Chaps
Dark Brown Buttless Chaps
Tan Buttless Chaps
Olive Buttless Chaps
Dark Ochre Buttless Chaps
Black Buttless Chaps
Folksy Security Robot
Bow-Legged Book of the West
What in Carnation Sticker
Howdy! Kumos Sticker
Hay There Sticker
Pilgrim Matter
Country CD
Jersey Devil Plushie
Long Lasting Music CD
Golden Holiday Star Necklace Charm
Music and Emotions
Folk Music Flyer
Broken Record Player
Music Sheet
Unorganized Sheets of Music
Strange Music
Blank Composers Book
Boy Band Microphone
Microphone of The Voice
Microphone
Red Microphone
Bloodred Microphone
Reborn Microphone
Blue Microphone
Darkmatter Microphone
Just Some Boy Headphones
Amplifier
Guitar Strap
Guitar Plushie
Kumos Forest Guitar
Acoustic Guitar
Burnished Acoustic Guitar
Sunburst Acoustic Guitar
Spring Acoustic Guitar
Pink Acoustic Guitar
Mandolin
Basic Ukulele
Sunset Tie-Dye Ukulele
Sunburst Ukulele
Flowery Ukulele
Galaxy Ukulele
Banjo
Gold Guitar Pick
Berry Guitar Pick
Spotted Guitar Pick
Turquoise Guitar Pick
Striped Guitar Pick
Guitar Picks
Tambourine
Harmonica
Lifetime Achievement Award
Book of World Records
Musical Matter
Musical Note
Musical Fruit
Music Note Axe
Banshee Screeching Wail
Music 101
Music Theory Grade 1
Music Theory Grade 2
Music Theory Grade 3
Music Theory Grade 4
Music Theory Grade 5
Music Theory Grade 6
Music Theory Grade 7
Music Theory Grade 8
Beginning Rhyming
Intermediate Rhyming
Advanced Rhyming
How to Sing Off-Tune
Romantic Arrangements
MusiNews Issue 1
MusiNews Issue 2
MusiNews Issue 3
Melodys Songs for Beginners
Carolers Songbook and Gloves
Book of Ticket Stubs
Muddy Flyer
The Big Book of Questions
The Questioney Book of Questions
The Mysteries of Subeta
What is Out There?
Random Drinking Game Rules
Why Emus Cannot Fly
What is Love?
Random Balloon
Random Candies
Random Mystery Ball
Random Scimitar
Questionable Scarf
Random Plushie
Random Beanbag
Oddtu Sticker
Random Sticker
Question Mark Sticker
Mystery Subreze
Mysterious Muffin
Question Mark Carved Pumpkin
Space Oddity Sticker
City Helper Pin
Getting Rid of Pests
Blank Hello My Name Is Sticker
Pining Hard Sticker
True Love
Be My Love Rocket Candy Heart
It Is Canon Sticker
Perfect Match Sticker
How to Keep a New Years Resolution
No More Smoking Resolution Sticker
Cold Water
Trampled Resolutions
Secret Love Letter
I do Sticker
Tied the Knot Sticker
Happily Ever After Sticker
Secrets to a Happy Marriage
Dad Jokes
Roaming Gelatin
Retro Green Gelatin Dish
Applesauce-Berry Gelatin
Winter Ice Jelly Cakes
Jelly Float
Strawberry Jelly Shot
Orange Jelly Shot
Lemon Jelly Shot
Lime Jelly Shot
Blue Raspberry Jelly Shot
Grape Jelly Shot
Priberry Jelly Shots
Raymondo Jelly
Rabid Jelly Cup
Gelatin Caviar
Bloodred Gelatin
Cherry Gelatin
Poison Gelatin
Lime Gelatin
Grape Gelatin
Emo Gelatin
Red Banana Jelly
Pimbi Jelly
Oofa Jelly
Flubkin Jelly
Darkmatter Fruit Jelly
Spiny Gelatin Fruit
Pet Friends
Llewyn
the love of my life