One thing I can think of today coming home from church:
I am glad I can see the colors and hear the sounds; not just the music, but the sounds like cars SHHHH-ing arong on wet pavement [see below]. Just looking around and seeing all the various greens in the grass by the freeway. I was coming off 183 to 360 north and some white birds were over in the grass, pretty close to the road since not much traffic goes that way and a few just hopped into the air for a few seconds... what a life where we can see all the colors.
I am reminded of another Ed I knew who was "colorblind" because he did not see colors the same way 'normal' people do [don't go there Deborah S Maness]; I wondered if he saw what I call 'green' as, oh, say a 'purple' what everything would look like if you rainbow was one or two colors off. He was a really talented artist, though,; he was really good at mosaics, taking a bunch of little cut up pieces of one or several pictures and making a NEW picture out of it. And a good writer. Last I heard he wrote for a travel magazine, but that was several years ago, when he lived next door to Tracey and that wild woman he lived with whose name escapes me...
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Standing on the back porch of the ADT building, sipping coffee on this muggy, cloudy Saturday, watching traffic and realizing I'm six weeks out from being out on the streets. Oddly, that still does not bother me too much outwardly. I am a little more scatterbrained than usual, which Lizzie is ascribing to stress, though I am sure there are those who know my family that will attribute it to genetics...
Actually, I was watching and listening to traffic flow out on 183. I know I have often said that one of my favorite things to do when at my grandparents in Pennsylvania is to just laze about and listen to traffic going around the curves on the main road. Listening to trucks downshifting and the throaty roar as they apply the throttle and the whine of all kinds of tires on the road. It's strangely relaxing when sleeping on the exceptionally comfortable 7' couch or taking an afternoon nap in the hammock. Of course it's also comforting to be on vacation and be near such wonderful people as my grandparents, so I guess it's a combination of things.
So I am watching traffic and I get to thinking: What would people have said 100 years ago if you had told them that in the field they were standing would be all the buildings and a strip of road where people would be whizzing along in metal buggies going 20 or 30 times faster than they could walk [or five times faster than their fastest horse]. Then I wondered about the trees. There are a few BIG big ones still around here that have probably been here for 50 or 60 years; what changes have they seen and endured? Which leads to more questions, like 'What's the most awesome thing you've ever experienced or seen? What's the most tragic thing that's ever happened to you? What is society's greatest accomplishment in your lifetime? What's our greatest failure?'
No these are not easy questions. Maybe that's the problem sometimes; I don't ask the easy questions, I just jump right on the big hard ones. Too late to change? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I am just interested in my own answers and curious about the variety of responses I will get from others. I myself am not thinking milestones like babies or weddings, but that's just me...
Hmmm, Ryan Adams on the CD [don't go there those who will criticize; I remain the music snob, so fuck off] 'Starting to Hurt.' Hurt, I know something about. Hurt of not being understood, hurt of losing your dream job, hurt of rejected romantic, hurt of fear, hurt of knowing the truth, hurt of discovering deception... most of the hurt in my life is my own fault caused by my own fears. I know I stay in a groove because it is comfortable, because I hate change. I know most of my regrets are things I didn't do, things I never said, letters never sent. I guess I have learned to live with that.
Raining now at lunch time... I like driving around town in summer showers, love the smell of rain hitting the hot pavement, the sound of cars ssshhhh-ing along rainy streets. I do NOT like driving on the rainy freeway. I still remember when I was 17 and driving to Pennsylvania... I took over in Texarkana in the middle of the night and about 5 seconds into the drive it started pouring rain and then we his the construction zone: 200 miles of one lane freeway, trying to keep up to speed in a driving rain with 18 wheelers up my arse... I don't think I even made Little Rock before Dad suggested he take over. Then one time I was driving up to Wichita at night and me and this truck were going up 35 in and out of squalls, but the road was soaked and every time I'd go to pass I'd get right up behind the cab and I'd be just blinded by spray and I'd fall back [no stones]... this went on for about half an hour before I was able to get by. I loved going down on Lemmon Ave when Oliver lived over in Dallas on rainy Saturdays, down to one of the sub shops and over to the late great Stage and Screen. I have spent quite a few rainy days scrounging through used book and record stores [not necessarily buying anything, you understand, just scrounging]; the old Half Price that was off Camp Bowie was great for spending rainy days, long and narrow and smelling like old newsprint and old wood floors, like some place in the French Quarter in New Orleans, without the humidity. That's something else lost with the cookie cutter modern strip mall; individuality of the space; now every chain store is laid out VERY SIMILAR to every other one. BLECH!
You know, I just spoke to one of those 'my alarm isn't working and I can't function, what if someone comes and takes my stuff, what if something happens' types. People, it's a TOOL, and not a good one. Wonder what she will say if they cut her phone line and come take all her stuff. I know it's inconvenient when your stuff gets taken, but it's just stuff. You can always get more stuff. Probably BETTER stuff, too. Madness, this business of protecting your stuff and the place you keep your stuff so you can make more money and go out and get even more stuff. I don't know, maybe it's me, but if someone wants my stuff that bad... I have VERY LITTLE that's totally irreplaceable; A lot of stuff with SENTIMENTAL VALUE, which would be a major pain to replace, but not much that's irreplaceable. Anyway, if you think that alarm is a force field like they show on the commercials, boy are you mistaken. I love the alarm commercials where the alarm center looks like the starship Enterprise; great special effects and graphics. No, it's not really like that; it's just like your office with a bunch of people staring at computers in little half wall cubicle groups.
All right, back to the serious stuff. The new Wilco... has its odd moments, different, but not that different from Summerteeth [though no mellotrons, ED] and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. More rock roll and straightforward [I'm A Wheel, the John Lennon-esque Hummingbird, even the long Spiders (Kidsmoke) has some great rock and roll sections], but the long droning Less Than You Think is... I don't know. I have no problem with long drone/ambient, but I know some people will. But Tweedy's made a descent living [minus what he just shelled out to Betty Ford] being praised for being 'interesting, fresh, new and groundbreaking' yet being damned for not making 'commercially exploitable [i.e. weird]' records. Basically, it continues exploring sounds like Tweedy has done since Summerteeth. Maybe it has a lot to do with the ongoing connection with producer Jim O'Rourke, with whom he also made the offbeat but very good Loose Fur album. Maybe Jeff has just enough Neil Young FU left in him to keep dodging our expectations. Or as he said in Shot in the Arm: "What you once were isn't what you want to be anymore."
Actually, I was watching and listening to traffic flow out on 183. I know I have often said that one of my favorite things to do when at my grandparents in Pennsylvania is to just laze about and listen to traffic going around the curves on the main road. Listening to trucks downshifting and the throaty roar as they apply the throttle and the whine of all kinds of tires on the road. It's strangely relaxing when sleeping on the exceptionally comfortable 7' couch or taking an afternoon nap in the hammock. Of course it's also comforting to be on vacation and be near such wonderful people as my grandparents, so I guess it's a combination of things.
So I am watching traffic and I get to thinking: What would people have said 100 years ago if you had told them that in the field they were standing would be all the buildings and a strip of road where people would be whizzing along in metal buggies going 20 or 30 times faster than they could walk [or five times faster than their fastest horse]. Then I wondered about the trees. There are a few BIG big ones still around here that have probably been here for 50 or 60 years; what changes have they seen and endured? Which leads to more questions, like 'What's the most awesome thing you've ever experienced or seen? What's the most tragic thing that's ever happened to you? What is society's greatest accomplishment in your lifetime? What's our greatest failure?'
No these are not easy questions. Maybe that's the problem sometimes; I don't ask the easy questions, I just jump right on the big hard ones. Too late to change? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I am just interested in my own answers and curious about the variety of responses I will get from others. I myself am not thinking milestones like babies or weddings, but that's just me...
Hmmm, Ryan Adams on the CD [don't go there those who will criticize; I remain the music snob, so fuck off] 'Starting to Hurt.' Hurt, I know something about. Hurt of not being understood, hurt of losing your dream job, hurt of rejected romantic, hurt of fear, hurt of knowing the truth, hurt of discovering deception... most of the hurt in my life is my own fault caused by my own fears. I know I stay in a groove because it is comfortable, because I hate change. I know most of my regrets are things I didn't do, things I never said, letters never sent. I guess I have learned to live with that.
Raining now at lunch time... I like driving around town in summer showers, love the smell of rain hitting the hot pavement, the sound of cars ssshhhh-ing along rainy streets. I do NOT like driving on the rainy freeway. I still remember when I was 17 and driving to Pennsylvania... I took over in Texarkana in the middle of the night and about 5 seconds into the drive it started pouring rain and then we his the construction zone: 200 miles of one lane freeway, trying to keep up to speed in a driving rain with 18 wheelers up my arse... I don't think I even made Little Rock before Dad suggested he take over. Then one time I was driving up to Wichita at night and me and this truck were going up 35 in and out of squalls, but the road was soaked and every time I'd go to pass I'd get right up behind the cab and I'd be just blinded by spray and I'd fall back [no stones]... this went on for about half an hour before I was able to get by. I loved going down on Lemmon Ave when Oliver lived over in Dallas on rainy Saturdays, down to one of the sub shops and over to the late great Stage and Screen. I have spent quite a few rainy days scrounging through used book and record stores [not necessarily buying anything, you understand, just scrounging]; the old Half Price that was off Camp Bowie was great for spending rainy days, long and narrow and smelling like old newsprint and old wood floors, like some place in the French Quarter in New Orleans, without the humidity. That's something else lost with the cookie cutter modern strip mall; individuality of the space; now every chain store is laid out VERY SIMILAR to every other one. BLECH!
You know, I just spoke to one of those 'my alarm isn't working and I can't function, what if someone comes and takes my stuff, what if something happens' types. People, it's a TOOL, and not a good one. Wonder what she will say if they cut her phone line and come take all her stuff. I know it's inconvenient when your stuff gets taken, but it's just stuff. You can always get more stuff. Probably BETTER stuff, too. Madness, this business of protecting your stuff and the place you keep your stuff so you can make more money and go out and get even more stuff. I don't know, maybe it's me, but if someone wants my stuff that bad... I have VERY LITTLE that's totally irreplaceable; A lot of stuff with SENTIMENTAL VALUE, which would be a major pain to replace, but not much that's irreplaceable. Anyway, if you think that alarm is a force field like they show on the commercials, boy are you mistaken. I love the alarm commercials where the alarm center looks like the starship Enterprise; great special effects and graphics. No, it's not really like that; it's just like your office with a bunch of people staring at computers in little half wall cubicle groups.
All right, back to the serious stuff. The new Wilco... has its odd moments, different, but not that different from Summerteeth [though no mellotrons, ED] and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. More rock roll and straightforward [I'm A Wheel, the John Lennon-esque Hummingbird, even the long Spiders (Kidsmoke) has some great rock and roll sections], but the long droning Less Than You Think is... I don't know. I have no problem with long drone/ambient, but I know some people will. But Tweedy's made a descent living [minus what he just shelled out to Betty Ford] being praised for being 'interesting, fresh, new and groundbreaking' yet being damned for not making 'commercially exploitable [i.e. weird]' records. Basically, it continues exploring sounds like Tweedy has done since Summerteeth. Maybe it has a lot to do with the ongoing connection with producer Jim O'Rourke, with whom he also made the offbeat but very good Loose Fur album. Maybe Jeff has just enough Neil Young FU left in him to keep dodging our expectations. Or as he said in Shot in the Arm: "What you once were isn't what you want to be anymore."
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Review: Rancho Texicano : ZZ Top
Disc ONE of Rancho Texicano is the ZZ Top collection I have been waiting to materialize for years.FINALLY, a truly definitive gathering of the essential ZZ Top from the Warner Brothers years when Billy Gibbons played good raunchy blues guitar straight up: no synths, no drum machines, no distortion pedals. And while there remain arguments over content [Manic Mechanic over Thunderbird for one], it touches on ZZ Top as they were: a dirty, gritty blues band with a great sense of humor, long before they became cartoon characters with long beards passing out the keys that magically turned boys into chick magnets.
From the chug of Brown Sugar [not in any way, shape or form the Stones song], to the hanging blues of Just Got Back from Baby's, [blues guitar extraordinare that one Eric Clapton could only dream of these days] to the great riffing on Just Got Paid , with its Johhny Winter inspired slide work [and its sped up cousin Heard It on the X] to the Stones meets Johhny Winter of Francene to the twin kill of Waitin' for the Bus/ Jesus Just Left Chicago to the slow Peter Green/ Fleetwood Mac inspired minor key blues [think Love That Burns and Looking for Somebody] Blue Jean Blues to the back beat driven, tongue in cheek of I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide and A Fool for Your Stockings and the funky cool of Isaac Hayes and David Porter's I Thank You to the crowning song of the great Deguello, Cheap Sunglasses, it's 75 minutes of almost totally essential ZZ Top.
Disc two however is a collection of 'after the fall' ZZ Top. The over the Top innuendo of Tube Snake Boogie and Pearl Necklace leading into the mega-platinum MTV success years of Eliminator and Afterburner. Taken on its own, Eliminator remains an album of great songs, though every song here [and from Afterburner, except the ballad Rough Boy] is driven by a four-on-the-floor dance beat: thump-thump-thump-thump and guitars with enough distortion to make one think he is listening to a Ratt record. Not the natural distortion of a guitar and a Marshall stack turned up to ten, but the unnatural big fuzz of 80s hair bandsÂ? which in effect ZZ Top was except their hair was hanging down from their chins. The two tracks from Recycler, Double Back [which did 'double' duty in one of the 'Back' to the Future films too, I think] and My Heads in Mississippi are better, leaning back but not returning to their roots, but the inclusion of the terrible Viva Las Vegas and a 12" mix of Velcro Fly leave me scratching my head. NOTHING else deserved to be on this collection, like Dirty Dog, TV Dinners or Bad Girl from Eliminator? We're not talking about a criminal offense here for NOT including these; not like X leaving the 12" mix of Wild Thing off their Beyond and Back collection. The inclusion of a 12" mix of Legs is sort of interesting [I remember Marty telling me at the time that there were different mixes of Legs on the CD and vinyl version anyway, which I think is true; I know the CD mix of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms album is longer, too, notably on Why Worry], but the inclusion of the promo only live take of Cheap Sunglasses takes me further back to the days of real radio; Q102 in Dallas played it a lot, back when there was real Album Oriented Radio [AOR]. [Ask your parents if you don't remember.]
Overall? Four and a half for Disc One, a GENEROUS Three and a Half for Disc Two, FOUR Les Pauls!
Disc ONE of Rancho Texicano is the ZZ Top collection I have been waiting to materialize for years.FINALLY, a truly definitive gathering of the essential ZZ Top from the Warner Brothers years when Billy Gibbons played good raunchy blues guitar straight up: no synths, no drum machines, no distortion pedals. And while there remain arguments over content [Manic Mechanic over Thunderbird for one], it touches on ZZ Top as they were: a dirty, gritty blues band with a great sense of humor, long before they became cartoon characters with long beards passing out the keys that magically turned boys into chick magnets.
From the chug of Brown Sugar [not in any way, shape or form the Stones song], to the hanging blues of Just Got Back from Baby's, [blues guitar extraordinare that one Eric Clapton could only dream of these days] to the great riffing on Just Got Paid , with its Johhny Winter inspired slide work [and its sped up cousin Heard It on the X] to the Stones meets Johhny Winter of Francene to the twin kill of Waitin' for the Bus/ Jesus Just Left Chicago to the slow Peter Green/ Fleetwood Mac inspired minor key blues [think Love That Burns and Looking for Somebody] Blue Jean Blues to the back beat driven, tongue in cheek of I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide and A Fool for Your Stockings and the funky cool of Isaac Hayes and David Porter's I Thank You to the crowning song of the great Deguello, Cheap Sunglasses, it's 75 minutes of almost totally essential ZZ Top.
Disc two however is a collection of 'after the fall' ZZ Top. The over the Top innuendo of Tube Snake Boogie and Pearl Necklace leading into the mega-platinum MTV success years of Eliminator and Afterburner. Taken on its own, Eliminator remains an album of great songs, though every song here [and from Afterburner, except the ballad Rough Boy] is driven by a four-on-the-floor dance beat: thump-thump-thump-thump and guitars with enough distortion to make one think he is listening to a Ratt record. Not the natural distortion of a guitar and a Marshall stack turned up to ten, but the unnatural big fuzz of 80s hair bandsÂ? which in effect ZZ Top was except their hair was hanging down from their chins. The two tracks from Recycler, Double Back [which did 'double' duty in one of the 'Back' to the Future films too, I think] and My Heads in Mississippi are better, leaning back but not returning to their roots, but the inclusion of the terrible Viva Las Vegas and a 12" mix of Velcro Fly leave me scratching my head. NOTHING else deserved to be on this collection, like Dirty Dog, TV Dinners or Bad Girl from Eliminator? We're not talking about a criminal offense here for NOT including these; not like X leaving the 12" mix of Wild Thing off their Beyond and Back collection. The inclusion of a 12" mix of Legs is sort of interesting [I remember Marty telling me at the time that there were different mixes of Legs on the CD and vinyl version anyway, which I think is true; I know the CD mix of Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms album is longer, too, notably on Why Worry], but the inclusion of the promo only live take of Cheap Sunglasses takes me further back to the days of real radio; Q102 in Dallas played it a lot, back when there was real Album Oriented Radio [AOR]. [Ask your parents if you don't remember.]
Overall? Four and a half for Disc One, a GENEROUS Three and a Half for Disc Two, FOUR Les Pauls!