Tiny Bubbles

It’s one of those days where I have got nothing.

Traveling and work sometimes just leave me tapped out.  I wish I could put myself out there like other guys (yeah RJ, I’m talkin’ to you).

If you read with any regularity, you know that at one point the sub-title of this blog was and is ‘stuff and nonsense‘ (taken from the old Split Enz song – yes that is how old I am!), so this entry should really come as no shock to anyone.

However, I do need to point out that I’m just co-opting it.  I am lifting it from an email that was forwarded to me from Morty who looks like he got it from his running peeps (not the marshmallow kind).

Sophomoric, yes.  But I’m sorry – have you guys even been paying attention to me?

Song by:  Don Ho

Blowin’ in the Wind

 Last night, I didn’t get to sleep at all. No. Noooooo.

I got back into Cleveburgh just in time though. The approach of the jet was kind of rough, but the landing was ok. …but a storm was a-movin’ in.

We ended up with ‘high wind warnings’, but I didn’t really know that until the middle of the night. Or the beginning of the night, I guess.

Howling would be more appropriate. If we didn’t have a ceeee-ment house (or whatever it’s made out of), I would assume shingles and aluminum siding would be strewn across our yard at this very moment.

I was more surprised that we had power this morning. But I knew we did, as I continually looked over at the clock to see what time it was and how much time elapsed since I had looked at it before – calculating how long I had not been asleep.

We did not have cable this morning. Or internet. Nor were half the traffic signals in service as I drove to work. It’s hard to navigate the four-way stop thingy when the roads at the intersections are 2-3 lanes wide. It was anarchy I tellz ya!

So my days in the DC area (again. or is it still?) with temps of 45-50 degrees are back in the low teens here and in sub-zero digits when it comes to windchill.

Yes. These times they are a-changin’.

Song by: Bob Dylan

Site of the Month

Now that it looks like Ohio’s late primary might not only actually matter in the selection process for the Democratic nominee, but determine it (yay! Just like we got to determine the 2004 presidential winner?), I thought my SotM should be a semi-political one.

In various posts over the last few months, I have mentioned being stumped on who to even consider. Maybe I’m not stumped, but no one is stumping for me. There is just not one candidate that has drawn me in. Clinton and Obama’s playground smackdown the other night did less and less to reassure me that either were ready for the job. But I don’t think it’s Edwards either – and apparently, neither do most of the other voters.

Glassbooth has a little tool (hehehe, I said ‘little tool’) that tries to align my issues (and I have soooo many – most not covered by the electoral process, but I digress) with where a candidate stands. You weight your issues with the ones listed and then answer a series of questions (not a lot of them, for you ADHDers) and poof – you get a candidate rating (you can click image to make larger)

Apparently Oprah Obama is my choice. Glassbooth tells me so.

Barak and Clinton both support the extension of the Patriot Act, which I strongly oppose. Yeah, I’m a bleeding heart liberal on some things – and this would be one of them.

Like Barak, Hilary lands an 81% on where I stand on the issues, but a thing like health care and gay rights are swapped out in different positions.

So it seems like I could flip a coin with either of these two and not go wrong. So I why don’t I feel better about either one of them – or myself?

…..and is Mike Gravel even still in the race?

A Wonderful Guy

I thought this sculpture had been down near Columbus for as long as I can remember – but it turns out it has just been there a little before we moved out of town – but I’ve never ever bothered to take a picture of it until a week or so ago.

Granted, I have not lived in Columbus for well over a decade, but I happened to be near the site on business and purposefully went, armed with my camera and planned the 10 minute out of the way side trip.

It was never that impressive, but it seemed less so this time around. Maybe because before, over a decade ago, the Dublin area wasn’t so built up. The cement corn could have resided where a normal corn field might. And it might have. Now it sits on a busy street and a busy intersection, adjacent to some corporate office building.

But it evokes the image that Columbus was and probably always will be a Cowtown…..even though there are no cow sculptures. Yet.

Song by: Rodgers & Hammerstein

Girls with Guitars

Girls with Guitars

Thursday evening we went to go see basically what is known as a guitar pull – or where a few artists sit around with their guitars and alternate turns singing their songs, or other people’s songs.

But these weren’t just any artists I guess. No, here we had Emmylou Harris, Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin. They were joined by Buddy Miller.

This isn’t the first time we’d seen something like this. Three years ago we saw a similar set, but replace Harris for Mary Chapin Carpenter and Miller for Dar Williams.

The other night wasn’t too much different than a few years back. Four chairs, eight guitars, four mics and that’s about it. No screens and no lighting scheme. Basics with only the talent to make or break the show. Needless to say they made it – but not without some

It’s not shock that I knew all the women’s songs and only some of Buddy’s. I had never seen Emmylou live before and she was the reason I wanted to go so badly. She did not disappoint. The woman is a legend and a voice like none other. The voice and woman were absolutely stunning. And she’s funny. She lamented about the sad state of movies – and how she could not stand No Man for Country and There Will Be Blood. She demands a movie with a happy ending – she thinks she’s earned it.

Harris performed songs from all over her career – “Poncho & Lefty” all the way up to “Michelangelo” from Red Dirt Girl.

Colvin, in my mind, was the strongest – but she usually is. Her song choices, her guitar skills and extremely strong and clear voice. She mixed the older (“Tennessee”) with the new in songs (the excellent “Cinnamon Road”) – and even throwing in a cover of “Rugged Road”, which she claims to have never played live – telling the other women ‘don’t fuck up’, which went over well with the group and audience.  Colvin’s banter in most concerts is as good as the music. I could hang out with her easily, I think.

Griffin was the only iffy one – and I know I’m being hypercritical. No offense to her – she was in great voice, but performed almost exactly the same songs she did three years back. What gives? I’ve heard “Flaming Red”, “Mary”, “Long Ride Home” and “Tomorrow Night” before. Gimme something different!  She’s got enough to choose from – and I thought a logical one would have been “Beyond the Blue”, which she wrote but was recorded by Emmylou .   That being said, she did do a newer song, which is about teen gay suicide that uses the word ‘fag’ a few too many times for my liking.

We had ok seats. Nothing outstanding. I sat behind a guy with the head the size of huge melon and Denton was behind a guy 8″ taller than he. Better doors than windows.  But there was a good crowd, which always bodes well for a return of something like this.

Song by: Mary Chapin Carpenter

Record of the Month

I figured I’d do a monthly ‘what I’m listening to’ kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it’s my blog! So there!

These may or may not be newly released disks. They might not even be a good disk – just what is been in heavy rotation in my car (as usually theiPod is playing anywhere else).

I don’t have anything ‘new’ this month. So, I’ve pulled one back from the vaults. Or a song or two will pull up from my iTunes which reminds me how much I like this disk.

That I like Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty might kind of surprise you. Perhaps not. The disk is 30 years old. And it’s a semi-brilliant concept – one I don’t know I have seen before or since: a semi/pseudo live album of new or unreleased material.

And by ‘live’ I mean, concerts, hotel rooms, tour buses and the likes.  Even “The Road” was done fairly seamlessly, as the first half was done in a hotel room and the second part in front of a live audience.

But most, if not all of the songs, have to do with ‘the road’, which were recorded on his tour to support The Pretender (his best disk?).  The vices of the touring, I guess, are on there: the need for adoration (“Stay”), drugs (“Cocaine”),  boredom (“Nothing But Time”) and acts of self-love (“Rosie”) are all here.   I’m fondest of “The Road” and “You Love the Thunder” though.

Except for The Pretender and Late for the Sky, Browne has never had this consistent of a disk.  He’s shown some glimpses of grandness (“Lives in the Balance”, “Call it a Loan”) and whimsy (“Disco Apocalypse”) – but then a lot of schlock (“Lawyers in Love” or “Somebody’s Baby”…..anyone……anyone???).

If all you know of from Running on Empty is the title track or “Stay” – I say check it out – you might be surprised.  Or perhaps not.

Full Moon

It’s been one of those days. Or two.

And damn if I didn’t know it was a full moon – without ever having to look in the sky or at a calendar.  I acquired that skill by working for years in a hospital.  I was told when I started in that line of work that this would happen – and I poo-poo’d it.  But it’s true.  You always just know.

I’m not sure things have gone any more sucky at work the last two days.  Clients who have laid off 4000 folks.  Staff who are testing my patience at every level – to the point if half of them just walked out, I wouldn’t even shrug, let alone care.

I’d like to say I’ll be happy when the week is over, but I’m thinking it’s more like a month.

Then I really think I’ll need to take vacation.

Song by: the Kinks

Midnight Wind

With all the news of Heath Ledger, the Democratic debates and the complete decimation of my 401k (thanks Nikkei index!) it was probably easy to overlook another death:  John Stewart.

Yes, you might know him as the guy who had a 1978 hit with Stevie Nicks singing harmony on “Gold”, but he was a lot more than that.

A former member of the folk group, the Kingston Trio, he found other success as the songwriter of the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”.   But yes, in 1978, some of the Fleetwood Mac members rekindled Stewart’s career by producing a minor hit disk Bombs Away Dream Babies.

Actually, it’s a pretty decent disk at that.  Though “Gold” was most likely a radio hit due only to Nicks’ popularity at the time, there were far better songs.  The title of this post is one, but actually all of side one (for you CD-only set, vinyl used to have two sides) – but I am a huge fan of “Runaway Fool of Love”.

I’m also a huge fan of his song, “Runaway Train”, which was a #1 hit for Rosanne Cash back in 1987.  It is one of Cash’s best recorded songs, if I say so myself (though she hilariously screwed it up when I saw her in concert a few years back).

Anyway.  He’s dead.  Of an aneurysm.  It’s tougher to check out his work, as it is not as readily available – but if you can, I would suggest you at least try.

Song by: John Stewart

A Thousand Beautiful Things

Get this: THIS is my 1000th post!!!

Who’d a thunk?

I had a rough start with this thing – and really put a lower level on it, as I just go on and on and on about ’stuff & nonsense’. Hopefully the quality is a smidge higher than updating you on Morty’s mile markers at the Boston Marathon (though I am still proud of those – and him…..wellllll….at least him).

I’m more consistent, though I doubt any more relevant. I do not have the bestest writing style. There are others out there I admire in that field. But at least I’m honest about what and how I blog. I don’t think everyone out there is.

Have you ever noticed the everyday joes who say they just blog or fun but have a half a dozen posts per day? Granted, they are well crafted and somewhat researched and have good followings, but ‘everyday joes’? Je don’t think so. They are professional bloggers masquerading as just one of the masses.

I’m coming up on starting my fifth year of blogging – well, in mid-March. Geeze o’man. I started this on the eve of the Iraq War. Yes folks, we are coming up on the fifth year of THAT!

Anyway, to celebrate (?) the event, I thought it might be time for a new pitcher (yes! I know it is misspelled) up in my profile. Should it be:

Blobby, the Were-Rabbit?
Ok…..seriously, it was like 8 degrees this morning. And it is a very warm hat. Denton is embarrassed to be seen with me in it, but T.S..

…..or Blobby who desperately needs an eye lift?

Trust me – these are the lesser of all the evils. You don’t even want to see the other ones I took. Actually, you people probably do, but that ain’t never gonna happen. Ever.

So now you have 998 beautiful things to worry about look forward to.

Song by: Annie Lennox

Amadeus

Last night we attended a performance at the Cleveland Orchestra.  For those who do not know, they are indeed world renowned and arguably the best of the best.      …….if you’re into that kind of thing.

I’m on the fence myself. Severance Hall is beautiful – there is no doubt. The acoustics are incredible.  But why must it always be classical music ?????

I kid.  Kind of.

There are some pieces I like, but could never recall by name or composer.  The program said, Stravinsky and Mozart, but honestly, it could have been anyone and I wouldn’t have known the difference.

There was also a more contemporary piece.  How contemporary you ask?  Very, I say.   The composer was born in 1971 !    It sounded like a psychotic Broadway overture to me.  …and I said so.   Apparently, I wasn’t too far off.  According to my significant other and the two gents we went with, the program said as much.  I guess they knew, as they seemingly read for content.   Me?  I look to see who has given what donations and how much to the Orchestra.

Something about sitting in a place like that, for an event like that, triggers the exact opposite response of ‘don’t cough’.  The tickle starts and I begin to to suppress, which only makes things worse.  I guess it didn’t help that I was still hanging onto this cold.

I had to exit our box seats (oh yes – we had box seat…..very rah sha sha) to go out to the upper lobby to hack away.  The nice lady/usher provided me with a handful of cough drops (I noted that they were wrapped in paper – no foil or cellophane) and I was able to reenter.   But while I was away, I missed the guy in the next box who had his cell phone go off…..and off……and off.

Apparently, I also missed Denton’s frantic search for his phone, as he thought it might be the one going off.

Song by: Falco