Once in a While

Let’s just start this post off saying that I’m a big Marti Jones fan. Always have been since her first solo disk back in 1985 and I even made her second disk my Record of the Month a year ago.

Last night I thought we were going to see Marti Jones & Don Dixon. They were playing in Canton – and the following night (tonite) in Cleveland. But in Cleveland, it was billed as Don Dixon & the Jump Rabbits with special guest, Marti Jones. I like Dixon, but I was in it for Marti, truth be told.

So we I opted to drive the 62 miles to Canton. But I was duped. It turned out to be the same bill as the Cleveland show. That was kind of waste of $15 of gas….and an additional $10 in the price of the ticket. Oh well.

How to describe the venue? Let’s say, it would be like playing in someone’s basement, mostly because that’s what it was. The lower lever of an art gallery. A basement that holds 150 folks or so, but a basement nonetheless.. I swear we were the only ones there that were not friends or family of Dixon or Jones. I guess that is another price when you go to their hometown for a performance.

Marti only plays 1-2 shows per year and it has been a good 10 years since I’ve been able to catch one…..if you don’t count her coming on stage to play a song or two when Mary Chapin Carpenter was in town.

It is a shame she has scaled back on her music, as not only does she still have a great alto, but she has a wonderful and easy stage presence – which I would have to imagine would be difficult when you only play live once or twice per year and haven’t had a full album out since 2002. But maybe it is different if you’re playing in someone’s basement.

As it turns out, Marti was basically the opening act for her husband and his band. And even they played during most of her set – but they’ve all been playing with her for 20 odd years, so, maybe it’s really her band.

Marti played at least one selection off of each of her five solo albums – some had representation of two songs. But the set was way too short in my opinion (10 songs). She did come back at the end of Dixon’s set to play one or two more of hers, plus a nice cover of “Your Cheatin’ Heart”.

(none of my photographs really came out at all. sorry.)

I could run down the set-list, but I don’t think most here would know the tunes – which is a shame. But she was in great voice and did a great job. I can live without her touring, but I hope she continues to make more records.

Dixon and Jones have a new download-able (only) disk via all the major .mp3 players (iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, amazon, etc). The title track (which she performed) has been available in digital format for a few years, but the majority of the disk is instrumental.

As for the Jump Rabbits – what can I say? It pains me to say I didn’t care for most of the set – since I do like Dixon so much (and I know he reads this blog every once in awhile). James Brock is an accomplished drummer and percussionist. Truly talented. Jamie Hoover, is a great guitarist – but I’m not sold on his vocal abilities at all. Hoover can harmonize well enough, but when he adds his background vocals – he begins to channel the Budweiser Real Men of Genius vocalist.

I don’t have their disk, but afterward, it shouldn’t have surprised me that Dixon wrote only one song. So many of the songs had such trite and repetitive lyrics (“Sputnick”, “Skinny”, “Perfect Girl”, “Amplifier”). Dixon did a great job on his own “Giving Up the Ghost”.

Due to my mood, the weather and the lack of the second half of the show, I have opted not to go tonite to the Cleveland performance. I’d love to see Marti again, but I’ll just skip it I guess. I’ll catch her next time.

Song by: Marti Jones

My Music @ Work

Yeah, I probably shouldn’t blog about work – you know, just in case.   Well, I guess I won’t.  Not entirely.

Things at the office are still in flux – I’m sure this couldn’t be the cause of my still visible cold sore.  Nope.  Not at all.

All signs point to me doing very similar things to what I have been doing and most likely with the same clients.  What is less certain is the person I’ll be reporting to – the third one on 18 months.   I don’t know here, I don’t know how we’ll get along.   I also don’t know if my clients will be the same.

The biggest thing is I don’t know if there is or will be any growth for me here.   The Magic 8 Ball would say ‘all signs point to no’.

A guy I work with has lamented that there are no good pubs in town.  He’s right.   Not that I go out drinking anymore, but I don’t know of one place I’d want to go to – let alone in, or for multiple visits.   He keeps bringing up the thought that we should open one.

g-d help me, it is an intriguing idea.  Not that I want to work every night or mop up someone’s vomit the next morning.   But that’s what you hire ‘help’ for – right?   I can be in charge of the books and the jukebox.  I can deal with what anyone picks on the box, since I’ve selected everything in it.  In my head, I’ve immediately picked “Is That All There Is?” by Miss Peggy Lee as the first song selection.  I loved it in the movie After Hours, but I always remember it on the jukebox at the oldest bar in Houston, that Becky took us to.

Owning a pub might be a job instead of a career, but right now, my career just looking like just a job.

Song by:  the Tragically Hip

Came So Far for Beauty

Because a wart on the thumb and another one on the bottom of my foot isn’t enough – I now have a cold sore.

Denton says you can’t see it or notice it at all.  I think it is the size of Rhode Island….and that he’s lying.   And naturally, I think everyone is staring at it and mocking me the second I’m out of earshot.

That is probably not different than before, but now they have a new point of mockery and it sits on and above my lip.

You’re probably asking why this picture of Nigel Tufnel.  Go ahead – you know you are.  Well, I couldn’t find a picture of him or David St. Hubbins, who both sported gargantuan cold sores in one scene of This is Spinal Tap.

I’m assuming they are called ‘cold sores’ due to the fact you can get them from colds?  But I haven’t had one of those for months.  But it ’tis sore.  Most on-lines sites reference stress as a factor.   g-d knows I have enough of that these days.

I have no idea how long these last.  I can only remember one before this – and it was when Morty and I were out in Palm Springs visiting David.   No stress there – just lots of liquor and/or drugs.

Do those cause herpes simplex 1 or 2?   Because that would make a lot of sense.

Song by: Jennifer Warnes

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 the iPod is playing anywhere else). Yeah, I’m a big fan of Aimee Mann – but not a huge fan of @#%&*! Smilers……and you just know I want to be.

Something about it isn’t pulling me in. Yes, there are certain songs I really like and play over and over, but then it hits a certain track or tracks an my interest wanes. That can’t be good – right?

I keep reading reviews (not the amazon ones, but trade publications) that say it is her best album yet – and I keep wondering ‘what am I missing here?‘.

Sure she switched it up a bit – gone are the electric guitars and more moogs, wurlitzers and strings, but that’s not making it a better album. To be fair, those items are not making it a worse one either. Actually, the synths make the disk have some Lost in Space tendencies – not such a bad thing since I like that disk a lot.

While there are really good songs on the disk, there is something on here I never expected: throw away songs. I can’t think of a disk she’s done (ok, maybe her debut one, Whatever) that had a song I would go out of my way to skip over. Smilers has a few of them (“Phoenix” or “Medicine Man” anyone? – and how does the latter song intro not sound like 1976 Elton John?). Not good.

I concede that some of this might grow on me over time, but I’ve had the disk in continual rotation for three weeks and not much is growing on me – past the keepers like “Little Tornado”, “Freeway”, “Thirty One Today”, “The Great Beyond” and “Borrowing Time”.

I still like Mann and think that she is a more than competent singer/songwriter/musician – but this disk isn’t displaying it.

Birth-Day (Love Made Real)

Last night we attended a party for Cletus (we call him Clete), my uncle, who turned 90.

90!!!

He has outlived two of his five children. He has 18 grandkids and almost as many great grandkids. He is still married to his wife, Marge, of what I am guessing is up to 65 years? Yeah, it has to be about 15 years since I attended their 50th anniversary.

Though I do not relish getting old(er), and really thought I would be dead by this point in my life, the odds of dying “young” are slimmer and slimmer for me. Genetics being the big thing, I suppose.

Clete, obviously, is 90. His brother and my father both turn 88 this year (Clete and his brother are on my mother’s side). My paternal grandmother kicked it at 94. My mother turns 80 in a few months. I’m kind of screwed on the leaving a beautiful corpse kind of thing, aren’t I?

As we were driving out there I was thinking – was it just genetics or medical involvement too? In a 14 month period, I lost three of my four grandparents. I was in 5th & 6th grade. I am currently the same age my mother was when she lost her parents (technically, my grandfather wasn’t her father – but that’s another story). She has now almost been without her mother as long as she had her at this point.

I have friends who are my age who still have some of their grandparents, a few with both sets. Was I the anomaly in the fact that my grandparents died when I was younger? I didn’t think so, but now I wonder. Is it all just luck of the draw or roll of the dice?

I would venture to say “yes”. And as it turns out, regardless of what age – it was doubtful I could have gotten in on the Beautiful Corpse Club.

Song by: Suzanne Vega

War of Man

Not that the political ’season’ didn’t kick off over a year ago, but there will be no slowing down on it until after the courts decide a winner.   ….well, you don’t think the popular vote or the electoral college will have anything to say about it anymore – do you?

I assume I will vote for Obama in November, but in no circumstance could I ever conjure up where I would vote for McCain.  I wasn’t a big fan of his in 2000 when he ran, but as I saw clip of some pundit the other day saying the McCain of 2000 would never endorse the McCain of 2008.

It is quite amazing how much of one’s self and soul would be sold for a chance to inhabit the White House.  I am sure I’ve said it before – but imagine the ego.  I really don’t think it is about ‘change’ or making a difference in the world.  It’s 100% ego.

I haven’t seen any Obama ads running yet in Ohio.  Or if I have, they aren’t memorable.  And I have only seen on McCain ad.  One that I don’t truly get at all.

Is there a message here?  War, Bad?   I don’t think so.   ….though with the first line of the ad, I think he just called W a ‘fool or a fraud’.  Or both.    ……and you can’t argue with that one.

Yeah, his grandfather, father and himself went to war.  He doesn’t like it.  We get it.   I also get that he neglects to mention that he wants to keep troops in Iraq until at least 2013.  He can’t hate it that much.

But this is what I’m expecting of the 2008 election – lots of 32 second ads that say absolutely nothing.

Song by:  Neil Young

Devil with the Green Eyes

I kind of know better than to even post this – but apparently, if I can write about my lack of deodorant habits, I can talk about my singing habits.

It would be no shock to anyone here that I enjoy music.  You read about the monthly records I select to feature here.  You sometimes hear about the concerts I have attended.  And you get someiPod updates now and again.

And I use said iPod a lot – especially when I travel.  It makes the airport stays, the plane rides and the hotel room (unless they have an iPod dock – which many now do) much more palatable.

….the Metro too.  Which is really where I was going with this post in the first place.

I like to sing – though I have no idea if I’m any good at it.  Apparently, for the most part, I don’t care.  I do it around the house.  I do it in the car too – usually when alone.   And I’m not completely ashamed to kind of, sort of, sing when walking down the street with the iPod on.  I mean – not in all out, full voice….and not with anyone really really around.  Hell, half the people on the street have headphones on anyway.

But yesterday on the Metro, I was the only person in my car.  That has never happened.  And I mean for like 15 minutes.  No one.

Naturally, I already had my earbuds in before I ever got to the Metro stop.  So, I had a nice performing hall all to myself.  No need to hold back – if I didn’t want to.  I thought about it – and then thought, ‘what the hell’.

Not until now (while writing this) did I think of “sing out, Louise!” – I’m clever for sure, but not that clever – or queeny (shut up, each and every one of you!).   Honestly, I don’t know which songs came up in the shuffle rotation, except for the title of this post.

But sing out I did.  There was no one around, and the rumble of the train on the tracks at 40 miles per hour made my voice sound better than I’m sure it is.

Then someone at Friendship Heights got on the train.  I guess I could have kept up with my performance, but I am not quite that psychotic mass transportation rider…………..yet.

Song by: Matthew Sweet

Communication

I got my first text message on my work BlackBerry over the weekend. That makes me sound like an old-fogey, which I’m not.  I’ve texted.

It sounds odd in a way, but for my employment, texting has not been a standard form of communication. So, it wasn’t anything I was expecting – let alone on a Saturday.

Here is the message – in its entirety, and without any edits from me:

Hey ill be there @ 430 stevens in jail so im prolly move back to the house i dunno.

Ok – clearly this isn’t a work related message. Or, maybe it is not clear to any of you – why should it be? I’m assuming it is a wrong number, as the sender had a Columbus, OH area code and I cannot think of anyone I know of named ’steven’ – nor was I expecting anyone in the late afternoon.

I also don’t know if it was truly two separate messages: “I’ll arrive at 4:30 because Steven’s in jail”. Or “I’ll arrive at 4:30 – oh and by the way, Steven’s in jail”.

And is it because Steven is now incarcerated that the sender will be moving back into the house? Is it safe now to go home?

I considered replying back that the sender prolly sent this to the wrong person, but I then opted not to get involved into their drama, or to delay a 4:30 arrival time.

Song by: the Cardigans

Jeremy

Is it just me or does the “guy” in the new print-ad for something McDonalds is trying to shove down our throats……

look eerily like straight porn star Ron Jeremy?

Song by: Pearl Jam

Road to Dead

It is not Arlington, but Cleveland has a pretty impressive cemetery all its own.

Right down the street from us is Lakeview Cemetery – and I suppose like most, it’s rich in history. You can say that of all, since where there are dead, there is bound to be some history – whether it is boring or not.

Except for riding my bike through Lakeview (which is actually prohibited), I have never really been there. Supposedly, it is quite a tourist attraction. I will say, the grounds are beautiful. Not only are they fairly expansive but they have a few prominent folk taking the big dirt nap, including Eliot Ness, Jeptha Wade (founder of Western Union), John D. Rockefeller (founder of Standard Oil) and one president, James Garfield.

Garfield was only in office six months before he was assassinated. Actually, he was shot two months prior to his death – so I don’t know how history views those last 60 days or so of his ’serving’. Anyhoo – he has this gianormous monument at the cemetery:

Not too shabby of a final resting place for someone who wasn’t president all that long

I love the ornate tile work and the $8.79 Home Depot ‘welcome’ mat. I love the fact that they are welcoming you to someone’s tomb. JFK could learn a thing about hospitality from JAG.

……at least the crypt got top billing!

I wasn’t expecting the caskets to be above ground, or not encased in marble. Ruckiry, (not Jon’s boss) the stench has mostly dissipated over the last 120 years. The two urns (if you can see them) are his daughter and son-in-law.

And from the observatory deck (yes, they have one) you see downtown Cleveburgh

The woman at the information center in the monument was quite unhelpful. Yes, Garfield had other children. No, she didn’t know where they were entombed. She made it quite clear she really didn’t know about anything she was supposed to know about. Nor did she seem to care.

Song by: Paula Cole