Moving Blues
I started packing up things for the move. I hate moving. I moved Oliver half a dozen times over the years, not under the best conditions physically or mentally sometimes. I've moved me a few times now and I am just amazed how much junk [call them knick knacks and decorations and whatever, but they're junk] one acquires just by NOT MOVING. O course Zottolas have moved a half a million times and they have a lot of junk, too [some of it very ice, though] so there goes that theory.
I spent part of last Sunday packing boxes and cleaning out my closet for the Big Move 2006. I finally went through all the posters I have been storing all these years, kept about 50-60 and junked the rest in the recycle bin. I junked promo posters for lots of late 80s stuff - Def Leppard Hysteria, Guns 'N Roses Appetite, Rush Hold Your Fire, Kiss Crazy Nights, McCauley Schenker, Eric Clapton August [one I have never seen again] and Crossroads, tons of old Aerosmith, Stevie Ray Vaughn Live Alive... old Star Trek, Star Wars and Kiss posters from the 70s. I thought briefly about Ebay, but they all have damage, even if only from pinholes, but lots of tears taking them off displays, some from being torn down. If anybody wants to go digging thru the paper recycling bin at the complex, you're welcome to them.
Most of my pictures are down except above my computer desk here. Bare white walls make me sad. I know a few will not be going up again - the signed numbered Grateful Dead Spring and Fall 95 [or 96? whatever year it was, the year they never had the fall tour due to Jerry Garcia's death], probably the Nagel, some of the Kimball museum posters I have framed... we'll see.
I have so many books it's not even funny. A box of kitchen glass and knick knoack, nothing I need for everyday use. In theory, I could start packing my Lp records, seeing as they're rarely played [though I did whip out Dylan's Blood on the Tracks this week; I also realized Alice Cooper needs to go under 'A' since it was the name of the BAND].
It just leads one to thinking: How many coffee mugs and cups does one need? How come I never have enough spoons? Do I really want to haul around all these things? Good God, I am going to have to tear down and rewire the damn stereo and TVs and Tivo and DVD and shit! I know I am smart enough to hire someone to lift the big [large, bulky and/or and heavy] things but how many trips for little shit?
And then there's moving notices to Visa and my other cards and magazines and cancelling and changing the cable and the phone... lovely!
But I'll be somewhere new, learning the shopping, off the main drag, not by the gate listening to every car fly down the road or every damn 25 year old blasting his sub woofers by the gates... and less than 5 blocks from the fire station so I have to hear everytime they leave the damn place! I will not miss the sirens. decorating, arranging furniture and pictures and books and albums... there's some challenges to take the edges off, I guess.
I just watched Galaxy Quest [at my sister's insistance]. It's cute. I was a Star Trek geek back in the 70s. We watched Star Trek and Space: 1999. We'd make phasers and communicators out of milk cartons and save the playground from the Klingons and the Romulans. Space:1999 - the moon was suppposed to have blasted out of orbit and be hurtling through the glaxy with an Earth base on it. Cheesy, made to cash in on the Star Trek revival.
What was it with 1999? Price was going to party like it was 1999, Space: 1999... my friend Dee Dee at work popped a priceless one a few months ago and I am going to use it for an album cover one day: Picture Elroy Jetson with his little jet pack on his back, maybe Astro with him and the title: Isn't It the Future Yet?!?
Friday, July 21, 2006
"Soaking Heat Up Thru Their Feet"
- Summer In the City / Dallas Texas 7/15/06
Good God it's hot. Even for Texas. You'd think after 30 years in this state you'd get used to the heat - well you don't. You just learn to tolerate it. And you sweat a lot. But you never get used to it.
It's a good 90 degrees even at 1100 at night when I step out of my nice air conditioned building, working hard and keeping the country free. I know Nate [Nate Fowler's Elixer] is playing tonight at the Bar of Soap, but it's a whip getting down there and I'll bet they're off when I do get down there - what is it 45 minutes from here [DFW Airport North] to there?
But what else are you going to do, go get a six pack and stare at your own four walls again? You know the TV is on the fritz, too. And if nothing else, I can get a DRINK and a vodka and tonic or three sounds mighty refreshing.
The drive from Irving to downtown Dallas is hot, but I have my window rolled down getting some fresh air and blasting the Kinks, trying to get pumped up for the Ray Davies show [tonight 7/21]. Between the airport and the Trinity is not too bad with the car moving - it's even slightly cool as one crosses the Trinity by Texas Stadium. But not five minutes down the road, one rolls into the heart of downtown and the ride from the I-35 / 114 merge down to the I-35E / I-30 mixmaster is the nastiest, hottest stretch of concrete this side of Houston. The cars never stop rolling on this stretch and the exhaust and constant rolling rubber never lets it cool off. I can honestly feel the heat coming up through the floorboards.
[How come no one talks about the miles and miles of concrete poured every day all over the world when they talk of global warming? Covering so much of the Earth with an insulating, heat absorbing material like this cannot be good for the Earth's cooling, though I still say it runs in cycles. But no, all you ever hear about is Greenhouse Gases. Hey, I got a Greenhouse Gas Emission for you - pull my finger!
And one more thing- you want to complain about the deteriorating roads? Look no further than all that green grass everyone wants. We're overwatering and all that runoff is going right into the streets and right under the streets. When I go home at night there's a river - okay a small stream running across Freeport Parkway where it's being over watered. And the chuckholes get a few inches of asphalt every few months, but it's buckled again and deeper this time. And every time that excess water runs into the street it gets a little worse...]
As a matter of fact, it only takes me 35 minutes to get from work to Exposition/ Fair Park where the Bar of Soap is. Exposition is at the far end of Deep Ellum, really just an afterthought as it relates to the 'Dallas Music Scene" way down at the end of Commerce, but it's a little area of lofts and bars that used to be a little sub culture back in the Deep Ellum heydays of the late 80's and the 90's. As the scene shrunk though, Exposition kind of fell off the map and died, though the Bar of Soap, a combination Laundromat and bar, kept having live music the whole time. Nate says they lost the little courtyard a while back, but they keep on keeping on. I can't count the nights Fowler and his various bands [Sixty Six, Atomic Rodeo, American Fuse, the Elixer] have played and we'd come down for drinks and pinball in the laundry room. A while back there was discussion when Tree's closed down of the Grungiest Club Bathrooms In Dallas - Bar of Soap ranks high. But it's a cool little place.
I wound up parking a few blocks away - the free lot behind was pretty full and I am not paying to park my dingy and dinged up little black pick up. There's a lot of cars lining Exposition and down Commerce. The little club that used to be the punk Club No [where we saw NOFX on the White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean tour] is now some sort of dance club called MINC. The unmistakable thump and thud of four on the floor pooey Industrial music rattles through the walls. Pretty people head here. I keep walking. There's a few bars, small old fashioned watering holes open. I walk past a couple of art galleries which makes me smile. This is a sign that things may be coming around again. The corner is now some sort of restaurant with a big patio area that will be nice in the fall for sitting on and having drinks, but not this time of year.
I thought Nate told me that they had moved the bands to the back by the laundry machines, but as I walk in, the band is right there by the door in the right window [as you face out at the street] where they've always been. I whack him on the arm as I walk by and he gives me a "What's Up?" look as I go by. I immediately go to the bar. Hot as it is, there's only ONE bartender working. He serves about three people around me, goes down the other end of the bar serves about three people, comes back down, serves two more people around me hen back to the other end of the bar - 4 songs, 12-15 minutes and can't get a drink. I put my $20 back in my pocket at that point.
The band is LOUD as always [people literally had to get up on the bar rail and shout their orders into the bartender's ear] Fowler plays loud to begin with and Mike's drums crack light lightning and Kinley's bass rumbles around under them like thunder. I just settle back to watch the band and people watch. The band plows thru a familiar set list, then throws a few surprises out - Cheap Trick's He's A Whore, AC/DC's Shot Down in Flames... one guy is begging Nate and bassist Kinley Wolfe to do the Fuse's Don't Chingale My Chevrolet - Nate keeps deferring to Kinley since he will have to sing it and Kinley just keeps telling the guy "No time, man." Then they wind up the set with a loud version of the Stooges' Loose. Has anybody else noticed that Nate turns his back when he solos?
It's a sweaty show and the crowd is an old school cut across the Deep Ellum scene - some old scenesters hanging out, some long hairs, some younger kids just checking out a band on Saturday night the way me and my friends used to do, a wild girl in a plaid mini and some sort of high heeled Doc Martins and showing off her tattoos. A pretty Hispanic girl with very long hair down to her waist making out with a platinum blonde dude with Statue of Liberty spiked hair in one of the booths. I smile to myself feeling like I am only 30 again hanging out in a bar listening to a real rock and roll band. Only without the white crosses, driving to Dallas in Jim's car with no radio, singing Kiss and Alice Cooper songs and drinking 12 packs on the way to get a buzz started. No drunken driving home. No drama. Just a quick hour's worth of no bullshit rock and roll, one beer Nate managed to get while I help Mike load his drums up and then home, back across a slightly less oppressive heat...
- Summer In the City / Dallas Texas 7/15/06
Good God it's hot. Even for Texas. You'd think after 30 years in this state you'd get used to the heat - well you don't. You just learn to tolerate it. And you sweat a lot. But you never get used to it.
It's a good 90 degrees even at 1100 at night when I step out of my nice air conditioned building, working hard and keeping the country free. I know Nate [Nate Fowler's Elixer] is playing tonight at the Bar of Soap, but it's a whip getting down there and I'll bet they're off when I do get down there - what is it 45 minutes from here [DFW Airport North] to there?
But what else are you going to do, go get a six pack and stare at your own four walls again? You know the TV is on the fritz, too. And if nothing else, I can get a DRINK and a vodka and tonic or three sounds mighty refreshing.
The drive from Irving to downtown Dallas is hot, but I have my window rolled down getting some fresh air and blasting the Kinks, trying to get pumped up for the Ray Davies show [tonight 7/21]. Between the airport and the Trinity is not too bad with the car moving - it's even slightly cool as one crosses the Trinity by Texas Stadium. But not five minutes down the road, one rolls into the heart of downtown and the ride from the I-35 / 114 merge down to the I-35E / I-30 mixmaster is the nastiest, hottest stretch of concrete this side of Houston. The cars never stop rolling on this stretch and the exhaust and constant rolling rubber never lets it cool off. I can honestly feel the heat coming up through the floorboards.
[How come no one talks about the miles and miles of concrete poured every day all over the world when they talk of global warming? Covering so much of the Earth with an insulating, heat absorbing material like this cannot be good for the Earth's cooling, though I still say it runs in cycles. But no, all you ever hear about is Greenhouse Gases. Hey, I got a Greenhouse Gas Emission for you - pull my finger!
And one more thing- you want to complain about the deteriorating roads? Look no further than all that green grass everyone wants. We're overwatering and all that runoff is going right into the streets and right under the streets. When I go home at night there's a river - okay a small stream running across Freeport Parkway where it's being over watered. And the chuckholes get a few inches of asphalt every few months, but it's buckled again and deeper this time. And every time that excess water runs into the street it gets a little worse...]
As a matter of fact, it only takes me 35 minutes to get from work to Exposition/ Fair Park where the Bar of Soap is. Exposition is at the far end of Deep Ellum, really just an afterthought as it relates to the 'Dallas Music Scene" way down at the end of Commerce, but it's a little area of lofts and bars that used to be a little sub culture back in the Deep Ellum heydays of the late 80's and the 90's. As the scene shrunk though, Exposition kind of fell off the map and died, though the Bar of Soap, a combination Laundromat and bar, kept having live music the whole time. Nate says they lost the little courtyard a while back, but they keep on keeping on. I can't count the nights Fowler and his various bands [Sixty Six, Atomic Rodeo, American Fuse, the Elixer] have played and we'd come down for drinks and pinball in the laundry room. A while back there was discussion when Tree's closed down of the Grungiest Club Bathrooms In Dallas - Bar of Soap ranks high. But it's a cool little place.
I wound up parking a few blocks away - the free lot behind was pretty full and I am not paying to park my dingy and dinged up little black pick up. There's a lot of cars lining Exposition and down Commerce. The little club that used to be the punk Club No [where we saw NOFX on the White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean tour] is now some sort of dance club called MINC. The unmistakable thump and thud of four on the floor pooey Industrial music rattles through the walls. Pretty people head here. I keep walking. There's a few bars, small old fashioned watering holes open. I walk past a couple of art galleries which makes me smile. This is a sign that things may be coming around again. The corner is now some sort of restaurant with a big patio area that will be nice in the fall for sitting on and having drinks, but not this time of year.
I thought Nate told me that they had moved the bands to the back by the laundry machines, but as I walk in, the band is right there by the door in the right window [as you face out at the street] where they've always been. I whack him on the arm as I walk by and he gives me a "What's Up?" look as I go by. I immediately go to the bar. Hot as it is, there's only ONE bartender working. He serves about three people around me, goes down the other end of the bar serves about three people, comes back down, serves two more people around me hen back to the other end of the bar - 4 songs, 12-15 minutes and can't get a drink. I put my $20 back in my pocket at that point.
The band is LOUD as always [people literally had to get up on the bar rail and shout their orders into the bartender's ear] Fowler plays loud to begin with and Mike's drums crack light lightning and Kinley's bass rumbles around under them like thunder. I just settle back to watch the band and people watch. The band plows thru a familiar set list, then throws a few surprises out - Cheap Trick's He's A Whore, AC/DC's Shot Down in Flames... one guy is begging Nate and bassist Kinley Wolfe to do the Fuse's Don't Chingale My Chevrolet - Nate keeps deferring to Kinley since he will have to sing it and Kinley just keeps telling the guy "No time, man." Then they wind up the set with a loud version of the Stooges' Loose. Has anybody else noticed that Nate turns his back when he solos?
It's a sweaty show and the crowd is an old school cut across the Deep Ellum scene - some old scenesters hanging out, some long hairs, some younger kids just checking out a band on Saturday night the way me and my friends used to do, a wild girl in a plaid mini and some sort of high heeled Doc Martins and showing off her tattoos. A pretty Hispanic girl with very long hair down to her waist making out with a platinum blonde dude with Statue of Liberty spiked hair in one of the booths. I smile to myself feeling like I am only 30 again hanging out in a bar listening to a real rock and roll band. Only without the white crosses, driving to Dallas in Jim's car with no radio, singing Kiss and Alice Cooper songs and drinking 12 packs on the way to get a buzz started. No drunken driving home. No drama. Just a quick hour's worth of no bullshit rock and roll, one beer Nate managed to get while I help Mike load his drums up and then home, back across a slightly less oppressive heat...
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Add 'Hockey Snob' To My Titles
What are you doing, Dallas Stars? You coulda had Jason Arnott, Matt Cullen, Marc Savard, Marty reason, Mike LeClerc, Jim Dowd, Rem Murray, Jeremy Roenick, Greg Johnson, Yanni Perrault [best faceoff guy in the league], Mike Sillinger, Jamie Langenbrunner [again], Steve Rucchin, Martin Straka, Jason Allison, or EVEN THE OVER-RATED Doug Weight, but you had to bring Eric "I'm-Not-Playing-For-Quebec, Big Baby, the Whiners" Lindros to Dallas.
Thanks, but NO THANKS. I don't hate many players in the NHL, but I HATE Eric Lindros. I COULD wish him another happy concussion, but I am not going to do that. But it MAY effect my Dallas Stars watching and interest level a whole lot.
Now I am just ONE PERSON and the Stars are still going to sell tickets and get their 1.whatever TV rating, but they're going to do it without me.
BOOOOO, Doug Armstrong. Boooooo.
On the Road Again
What are you doing, Dallas Stars? You coulda had Jason Arnott, Matt Cullen, Marc Savard, Marty reason, Mike LeClerc, Jim Dowd, Rem Murray, Jeremy Roenick, Greg Johnson, Yanni Perrault [best faceoff guy in the league], Mike Sillinger, Jamie Langenbrunner [again], Steve Rucchin, Martin Straka, Jason Allison, or EVEN THE OVER-RATED Doug Weight, but you had to bring Eric "I'm-Not-Playing-For-Quebec, Big Baby, the Whiners" Lindros to Dallas.
Thanks, but NO THANKS. I don't hate many players in the NHL, but I HATE Eric Lindros. I COULD wish him another happy concussion, but I am not going to do that. But it MAY effect my Dallas Stars watching and interest level a whole lot.
Now I am just ONE PERSON and the Stars are still going to sell tickets and get their 1.whatever TV rating, but they're going to do it without me.
BOOOOO, Doug Armstrong. Boooooo.
On the Road Again
As I have complained to numbers of you over the last couple of years, I have been fed up with living in my apartment for some time. The street and gate noise get rediculous sometimes, but moving sucks. I've been in this unit for going on three years now. [My cousin Sherri laughs at this; she will say "We moved 4 times in 3 years between 1982 - 1985!"]
Well I got me new lease notice about two weeks back. And the rent is going up [as it probably should]. But it's going up $ 50.00 AND I am still going to be individually billed for water/sewer/gas for the complex [formulated to the size and occupacy of my apartment and among the current renter base]. This is how apartments in Texas keep saying 'low rent;' by tacking this utility fee on every month. Mine generally runs $35 - 45. If it were up to me I'd rather pay another $ 30- 35 bucks a month to cover this instead of writing a separate check. And no offer of a deal for re-upping; no 'one month free, no $ X 'Loyalty Discount.' [I re-read my lease before turning in my notice - I was set at $ 635 and paying $ 560/month ] I think this is going to cause a lot of defections; I am keeping an eye out for my former downstairs neighbor to ask if he got a new deal notice, but I haven't seen his car for a week. He'd been here about a year longer than ME!
Anyway, $ 50.00 is a lot of money - it eats up the resst of my nice raise that gas and my newfound devotion to my 401k [matched at $1.25/1.00] have not. So I have decided to move. I turned in my notice Saturday.
TODAY [Monday] I got a notice on my door about 'repeated warnings" and being in "violation of the community policies regarding satelites, patios and/or grills." Did I have a satelite dish threatening to fall onto my neighbor? Was I recklessly grilling and endangering the community by almost setting the building on fire with my Hibachi? No, I don't have those things.
I had left my floor washing pail [blue] out on the patio. For this they are threatening a $ 25 fine, plus $ 10/day.
I am now PISSED OFF. I am glad to be leaving this community and the new uptight managers. To Hell with The Enclave at Bear Creek. Never mind that the "Security Gate" hasn't worked right in six months. Never mind that in 8 years I paid rent late ONCE [on the 4th and I forked over my fee without hesitation]. PFFFT.
So now it begins. The art is coming down, and I am all ready starting to pack now. Books, tools, knickknacks, non essentials all going into boxes. I will be out by/on Aug 31st. More details to follow.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Shine On You Crazy Diamond
Yeah, probably about the fiftieth time you'll see that headline, but Syd is supposed to have inspired the words...
Syd is Syd Barrett, founder of THE Pink Floyd [not just PF], who passed away some time last week it was announced Monday.
I have to agree with my friend Casey on this. People are acting like this was David Gilmour or Roger Waters or Rick Wright or Nick Mason of the Dark Side of the Moon/ Shine On You Crazy Diamond / The Wall Pink Floyd passing and it ISN'T.
People throw around phrases like 'acid damaged genius' and I have to take exception. Barrett made 1 and 1/2 albums with The Floyd [The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and I believe he played on and/ or wrote about half of Saucerful of Secrets, plus a handful of singles which appear on The Floyd's Relics] and two solo albums. Now Piper is a very very intersting album, even more so with a head full of what have you. But LOTS of bands make one grand album and go into the dumper... we don't know what history would have charted for a Barrett lead band. Maybe they'd have burned out like the Jefferson Airplane did, maybe they'd have become some cult thing like the Grateful Dead... we just don't know.
If Syd hadn't been dosed and re-dosed and lost control of himself and his band, Roger Waters never would have taken control and lead the others to the DSotM period. Probably. And remember there were a lot of missed steps on that road. Some people love Atom Heart Mother, but I can't stand it or anything on it; Saucerful is muddling and bad in places, Ummagumma just excessive and ego fulfilling to members and their 'suites;' the sountrack to More has its moments like Cybaline, The Crying Song and Green Is the Colour, but it's merely okay.... Meddle is a step forward and the of course, DSotM.
But anyway, Syd Barrett is a mere footnote in the history of music, a one of the first casualties of the era of excess, only Syd didn't lose his life, he lost his MIND. But don't pretend like the one great album made with Barrett in the band is an excuse to celebrate The Pink Floyd [whom Gilmour has now declared dead after releasing his latest solo album] like you when when Roger Waters or Gilmour starts pushing up the daisies. This isn't Jerry Garcia, this is Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan!
What pisses me off the most is the insinuation and arrogance of the Baby Boomers. "It came from the 60's, it was cool. We were the coolest generation ever and the rest of you can wish you were us. We had Woodstock and JFK and RFK and MLK and it's been all downhill since then." Awww, screw off you old geezer. You're bumming me out with your nostalgia trip. Enjoy it while you can before you're pushing up the daisies, too.
Yeah, probably about the fiftieth time you'll see that headline, but Syd is supposed to have inspired the words...
Syd is Syd Barrett, founder of THE Pink Floyd [not just PF], who passed away some time last week it was announced Monday.
I have to agree with my friend Casey on this. People are acting like this was David Gilmour or Roger Waters or Rick Wright or Nick Mason of the Dark Side of the Moon/ Shine On You Crazy Diamond / The Wall Pink Floyd passing and it ISN'T.
People throw around phrases like 'acid damaged genius' and I have to take exception. Barrett made 1 and 1/2 albums with The Floyd [The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and I believe he played on and/ or wrote about half of Saucerful of Secrets, plus a handful of singles which appear on The Floyd's Relics] and two solo albums. Now Piper is a very very intersting album, even more so with a head full of what have you. But LOTS of bands make one grand album and go into the dumper... we don't know what history would have charted for a Barrett lead band. Maybe they'd have burned out like the Jefferson Airplane did, maybe they'd have become some cult thing like the Grateful Dead... we just don't know.
If Syd hadn't been dosed and re-dosed and lost control of himself and his band, Roger Waters never would have taken control and lead the others to the DSotM period. Probably. And remember there were a lot of missed steps on that road. Some people love Atom Heart Mother, but I can't stand it or anything on it; Saucerful is muddling and bad in places, Ummagumma just excessive and ego fulfilling to members and their 'suites;' the sountrack to More has its moments like Cybaline, The Crying Song and Green Is the Colour, but it's merely okay.... Meddle is a step forward and the of course, DSotM.
But anyway, Syd Barrett is a mere footnote in the history of music, a one of the first casualties of the era of excess, only Syd didn't lose his life, he lost his MIND. But don't pretend like the one great album made with Barrett in the band is an excuse to celebrate The Pink Floyd [whom Gilmour has now declared dead after releasing his latest solo album] like you when when Roger Waters or Gilmour starts pushing up the daisies. This isn't Jerry Garcia, this is Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan!
What pisses me off the most is the insinuation and arrogance of the Baby Boomers. "It came from the 60's, it was cool. We were the coolest generation ever and the rest of you can wish you were us. We had Woodstock and JFK and RFK and MLK and it's been all downhill since then." Awww, screw off you old geezer. You're bumming me out with your nostalgia trip. Enjoy it while you can before you're pushing up the daisies, too.
Monday, July 10, 2006
If You Love Something Set It Free?
Sounds like a contradiction doesn't it? A Friend of mine unfortunately got the "I love you but I can't give you what you need and I don't want to see you unhappy" speech [a/k/a "Break Up Speech Number 7" - Now THAT'S a title for a song if I've ever uttered one! And it's MINE MINE MINE!].
Is it better to let someone hang onto a dream or tell them the awful dirty truth that you're not happy or you can't meet their needs and you think they should look for someone who can? This was not the infamous "I love you but I'm not IN LOVE with you," but this was someone saying "I can't give what you need from me" after months of trying to make something come together.
No, it's no fun getting that and she's going to smart for a while. I personally am of the opinion that you should cut your loss as soon as possible so the other person can get on with the grief and the healing - but from experience, I can also say it needs to be stated in PLAIN ENGLISH, not cryptic letters from snow covered distant lands -- but I digress.
And if you're the one doing the cutting off, you have to stand by it, not be wishy washy about it. Yes, you also invested of yourself and you need to heal and yes there will be lonely nights you're tempted - DON'T DO IT. Neither of you will heal if you keep re-opening the old wounds.
Don't worry my friend they said
It will all work out in the end
But the pain in your heart feels like death...
Don't worry about it tonight
Everything will turn out all right
But it's so dark when you put out the light....
HANG IN THERE KID!
What Are They Booing For?
I caught part of the No Direction Home/Bob Dylan thing on PBS again this weekend LATE LATE at night [or EARLY EARLY in the morining if you prefer] and they were showing him being booed at the Newport Folk Festival and booed opn the '65 English tor...
Seems silly to me to pay your money and go see someone and BOO what they're doing [unless it's like the Dallas Stars 5 on 3 in the third period of the playoffs and they're out there passing instead of shooting]. What was the crime? Oh, he's playing an ELECTRIC GUITAR and 'Rock and Roll.' PFHEWW.
Now I understand I am looking back at it [irony: What was the title of the film of the '65 tour? Don't Look Back] 40 years [forty? 4-0?] years after the fact, but the transistion was made on the Bringing It All Back Home album and continued on Highway 61 Revisited - there was just no going back to one guy and his guitar [for a while anyway]. There has to be some growth. He DID the Woody Guthrie thing, now it was time to move on.
Think about this: If the Beatles kept churning out She Loves You yeah yeah yeah for five years instead of seeking out new sounds like they did on Rubber Soul and Revolver, they would just be a footnote in history, not the Greatest Rock and Roll Band Ever.
Dylan heard the sound in his head and he said - I've never heard a record like that, so he made Like A Rolling Stone. And don't kid yourself, there is NO record like Like A Rolling Stone. It's still a unique record and still one of the top 25 songs in the world. Of course the musicians, especially Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ added so much and the producer Tom Wilson had the sense to just let it roll...
There is also the footage some press conferences at the end of that that is just a riot. People asking Dylan about hidden meanings and messages in his songs, asking him questions like he knows some answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The guy is a musician, a songwriter! We ask questions of our artitst like they have answers, when their job is really to reflect what they see or to open some door to a possibility and make you think for yourself. But we,as an audience, want to skip the thinking part and have the artist TELL us what he wants us to see or hear or feel. Man I used to absorb those Rolling Stone Interviews like the Gospel Truth, but after a while I realized I was short changing myself. What if the artist said something I didn't like or popped my idealistic balloon about his art?
Can you imagine if we had the Pop Culture fascination two hundred years ago? Can you imagine Lewis Carrol being asked about Alice in Wonderland and "Who's is the Cheshire Cat Supposed to be?" Can you imagine asking Van Gogh about the Starry Night painting, what does it represent? Is it a statement about pollution? "Hey Picasso, what's up with these cubes, man?"
In the words of the man himself: Don't follow leaders /Watch the parkin' meters!
Get born, keep warm, short pants, romance, learn to dance, get dress3ed, get blessed and try to be a success, please her please him, buy gifts, don't steal don't lift, 20 year of schooling and they put you on the day shift - Look out kid, they keep it all hid, better jump don the manhole, light yourself a candle, don't wear sandals and try to avoid the scandals - don't wanna be a bum, you better chew gum, the pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!
For Betty Lou-
What did she do
All alone in a room
Watching TV,
Listen to the radio
Holding on
Waiting around to die
Walk down to the shops
Not shopping or browsing
Just stretching her legs
Keeping the body working
Blood pumping
Hanging on
Waiting around to die
Once in a while the phone rings,
See the kids or the grandkids
Go out for lunch
Then back to her four walls
The TV, the radio and her memories
The same old same old again
Hanging on, holding out
Waiting around to die
Sounds like a contradiction doesn't it? A Friend of mine unfortunately got the "I love you but I can't give you what you need and I don't want to see you unhappy" speech [a/k/a "Break Up Speech Number 7" - Now THAT'S a title for a song if I've ever uttered one! And it's MINE MINE MINE!].
Is it better to let someone hang onto a dream or tell them the awful dirty truth that you're not happy or you can't meet their needs and you think they should look for someone who can? This was not the infamous "I love you but I'm not IN LOVE with you," but this was someone saying "I can't give what you need from me" after months of trying to make something come together.
No, it's no fun getting that and she's going to smart for a while. I personally am of the opinion that you should cut your loss as soon as possible so the other person can get on with the grief and the healing - but from experience, I can also say it needs to be stated in PLAIN ENGLISH, not cryptic letters from snow covered distant lands -- but I digress.
And if you're the one doing the cutting off, you have to stand by it, not be wishy washy about it. Yes, you also invested of yourself and you need to heal and yes there will be lonely nights you're tempted - DON'T DO IT. Neither of you will heal if you keep re-opening the old wounds.
Don't worry my friend they said
It will all work out in the end
But the pain in your heart feels like death...
Don't worry about it tonight
Everything will turn out all right
But it's so dark when you put out the light....
HANG IN THERE KID!
What Are They Booing For?
I caught part of the No Direction Home/Bob Dylan thing on PBS again this weekend LATE LATE at night [or EARLY EARLY in the morining if you prefer] and they were showing him being booed at the Newport Folk Festival and booed opn the '65 English tor...
Seems silly to me to pay your money and go see someone and BOO what they're doing [unless it's like the Dallas Stars 5 on 3 in the third period of the playoffs and they're out there passing instead of shooting]. What was the crime? Oh, he's playing an ELECTRIC GUITAR and 'Rock and Roll.' PFHEWW.
Now I understand I am looking back at it [irony: What was the title of the film of the '65 tour? Don't Look Back] 40 years [forty? 4-0?] years after the fact, but the transistion was made on the Bringing It All Back Home album and continued on Highway 61 Revisited - there was just no going back to one guy and his guitar [for a while anyway]. There has to be some growth. He DID the Woody Guthrie thing, now it was time to move on.
Think about this: If the Beatles kept churning out She Loves You yeah yeah yeah for five years instead of seeking out new sounds like they did on Rubber Soul and Revolver, they would just be a footnote in history, not the Greatest Rock and Roll Band Ever.
Dylan heard the sound in his head and he said - I've never heard a record like that, so he made Like A Rolling Stone. And don't kid yourself, there is NO record like Like A Rolling Stone. It's still a unique record and still one of the top 25 songs in the world. Of course the musicians, especially Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ added so much and the producer Tom Wilson had the sense to just let it roll...
There is also the footage some press conferences at the end of that that is just a riot. People asking Dylan about hidden meanings and messages in his songs, asking him questions like he knows some answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. The guy is a musician, a songwriter! We ask questions of our artitst like they have answers, when their job is really to reflect what they see or to open some door to a possibility and make you think for yourself. But we,as an audience, want to skip the thinking part and have the artist TELL us what he wants us to see or hear or feel. Man I used to absorb those Rolling Stone Interviews like the Gospel Truth, but after a while I realized I was short changing myself. What if the artist said something I didn't like or popped my idealistic balloon about his art?
Can you imagine if we had the Pop Culture fascination two hundred years ago? Can you imagine Lewis Carrol being asked about Alice in Wonderland and "Who's is the Cheshire Cat Supposed to be?" Can you imagine asking Van Gogh about the Starry Night painting, what does it represent? Is it a statement about pollution? "Hey Picasso, what's up with these cubes, man?"
In the words of the man himself: Don't follow leaders /Watch the parkin' meters!
Get born, keep warm, short pants, romance, learn to dance, get dress3ed, get blessed and try to be a success, please her please him, buy gifts, don't steal don't lift, 20 year of schooling and they put you on the day shift - Look out kid, they keep it all hid, better jump don the manhole, light yourself a candle, don't wear sandals and try to avoid the scandals - don't wanna be a bum, you better chew gum, the pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!
For Betty Lou-
What did she do
All alone in a room
Watching TV,
Listen to the radio
Holding on
Waiting around to die
Walk down to the shops
Not shopping or browsing
Just stretching her legs
Keeping the body working
Blood pumping
Hanging on
Waiting around to die
Once in a while the phone rings,
See the kids or the grandkids
Go out for lunch
Then back to her four walls
The TV, the radio and her memories
The same old same old again
Hanging on, holding out
Waiting around to die
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Free Agents Don't Realy Play for Free....
Well, let's see, almost a week into the NHL free agent period - though you'd never know it by Sportscenter or anything- and this is the year of the shuffling defensemen - Pronger traded [per his request] to Anahiem for great young winger and Av killer Joeffrey Lupol, Dallas losing Willie Mitchell to Vancouer who lost Ed Jovonovski to Phoenix [who need someone big and respectable to anchor that D], then Dallas picks up Daryl Sydor from Tampa Bay, who also lost Pavel Kubina but picked up the youger Sydor started kit in Andy Delmore and Phillip Kuba from Minnesota, for a draft pick giving them 8 NHL level defensemen, but no second line center with Jason Arnott off to Nashville... sorry, Jeff Halpern from the Caps DOESN'T impress me, but they still have someone to trade - bye bye Janne Niinimaa!
Buffalo loses Jay KcKee as expected and brings in Jaroslav Spacek from the Oilers, who suddenly need someone with Pronger and Spacek gone [forget it - Dallas doesn't trade with Edmonton], Carolina loses Aaron Ward to the NY Hockey Rangers... Joe Corvo out in LA, Rob Blake back in in La-La land; Ottawa chooses Wade Redden and lets BIG [6'9" without skates] Zedno Chara go to Boston [good luck!], Minnesota picks up Keith Carney from Vancouver, Kim Johnsson from Philly [and resigns Matin Gaborik and trades for oft injured but dynamic Pavol Demitra] making a run at respectability; Tampa adresses their goal tending issues with Marc Dennis from Columbus and lets John Grahame become the backup in Carolina, where Martin Gerber is out [to Ottawa]...
Surprises? Look for Washington picking up Brian Pothier from Ottawa to help that defense a lot. Dallas bought out BillGuerin as expected, but they didn't want to see him sign in St Louis, who picking up veteran Jay McKeeand returning Doug Wieght [I STILL say he's OVER-RATED] are showing signs of wanting to be a real team this year; it helps to have owners and a good hockey guy like John Davidson in the front office - I WILL miss JD on TV, but it's a great opporitunity for him. Matt Cullen jumping ship from Cup champs Carolina to the NY Rangers. Boston has made a splash signing Chara, former Atlanta Thrasher Mac Savard and fast but streaky scoring Shean Donovan from Calgary; it's still going to come down to team chemistry and I don't knowif this group has it.
Pittsburgh? Uh, we signed steady defenseman Mark Eaton from Nashville - not much impact in their last season in Big P.
More to come ...
The Old Man Is Down the Road
Wish my Dad a happy 60th when ya run across him out there! And don't believe his wife when she says the girls won the Water Baloon fight: Cory and I hit hard, hit first and hit with water balloons that had been iced down for maximum cold, along with our super shooters loaded with ice cold water - AND we stole their balloons before they could even fill them up! Barbara's smart though, she will not make the same mistake next year.
Well, let's see, almost a week into the NHL free agent period - though you'd never know it by Sportscenter or anything- and this is the year of the shuffling defensemen - Pronger traded [per his request] to Anahiem for great young winger and Av killer Joeffrey Lupol, Dallas losing Willie Mitchell to Vancouer who lost Ed Jovonovski to Phoenix [who need someone big and respectable to anchor that D], then Dallas picks up Daryl Sydor from Tampa Bay, who also lost Pavel Kubina but picked up the youger Sydor started kit in Andy Delmore and Phillip Kuba from Minnesota, for a draft pick giving them 8 NHL level defensemen, but no second line center with Jason Arnott off to Nashville... sorry, Jeff Halpern from the Caps DOESN'T impress me, but they still have someone to trade - bye bye Janne Niinimaa!
Buffalo loses Jay KcKee as expected and brings in Jaroslav Spacek from the Oilers, who suddenly need someone with Pronger and Spacek gone [forget it - Dallas doesn't trade with Edmonton], Carolina loses Aaron Ward to the NY Hockey Rangers... Joe Corvo out in LA, Rob Blake back in in La-La land; Ottawa chooses Wade Redden and lets BIG [6'9" without skates] Zedno Chara go to Boston [good luck!], Minnesota picks up Keith Carney from Vancouver, Kim Johnsson from Philly [and resigns Matin Gaborik and trades for oft injured but dynamic Pavol Demitra] making a run at respectability; Tampa adresses their goal tending issues with Marc Dennis from Columbus and lets John Grahame become the backup in Carolina, where Martin Gerber is out [to Ottawa]...
Surprises? Look for Washington picking up Brian Pothier from Ottawa to help that defense a lot. Dallas bought out BillGuerin as expected, but they didn't want to see him sign in St Louis, who picking up veteran Jay McKeeand returning Doug Wieght [I STILL say he's OVER-RATED] are showing signs of wanting to be a real team this year; it helps to have owners and a good hockey guy like John Davidson in the front office - I WILL miss JD on TV, but it's a great opporitunity for him. Matt Cullen jumping ship from Cup champs Carolina to the NY Rangers. Boston has made a splash signing Chara, former Atlanta Thrasher Mac Savard and fast but streaky scoring Shean Donovan from Calgary; it's still going to come down to team chemistry and I don't knowif this group has it.
Pittsburgh? Uh, we signed steady defenseman Mark Eaton from Nashville - not much impact in their last season in Big P.
More to come ...
The Old Man Is Down the Road
Wish my Dad a happy 60th when ya run across him out there! And don't believe his wife when she says the girls won the Water Baloon fight: Cory and I hit hard, hit first and hit with water balloons that had been iced down for maximum cold, along with our super shooters loaded with ice cold water - AND we stole their balloons before they could even fill them up! Barbara's smart though, she will not make the same mistake next year.