Archive for the ‘Music’ Category
Well we’ve all survived another year. I guess we should be congratulated but maybe not. Over the New Years holiday I made the mistake of catching up on some TV watching. I should have known better but as always I thought there might be something interesting on. How stupid am I?
I was working on a project and had the TV playing in the background. I was excited about the project since I’ve been working on it for more years than I care to think about. I was working intently but my subconscious was inundated with three hours of religious doom and gloom. The "End of Days" and "Armageddon" we’re just some of the topics I was hearing and it depressed me enough that I turned the channel. I then found myself in the midst of a mini-marathon of the Walking Dead program which for me was even worse than the religious nonsense.
The bottom line was that I disconnected the damn TV and fell back on the good old reliable music that I love. I recently created a new playlist which is killer. It’s a collection of three of my all time favorite female blues singers, Anita Baker, Billie Holiday, and Amy Winehouse. It was absolutely wonderful with Billie singing Loverman, followed closely by Amy singing Back to Black, and then Anita bringing it home with Sweet Love. It just doesn’t get much better than that.
Back to this crazy project of mine. Over a ten year period back in the nineties I created a collection of collages containing articles and things from my life. Some were four feet square with an variety of other sizes as well. I called them my life panels. I always intended to have them framed and then put together to create a wall. Here I am twenty-five years later and even though they’ve been in storage for all of that time they still look pretty good. They’ve never been displayed at all but have moved from place to place with with me awaiting enough wall space to put them up.
This current man-cave of mine has slowly turned into someplace special but I still don’t have enough wall space. I solved that problem this week by turning my life panels into the ceiling above my computer desk. The picture that follows was taken as I was lying on my back on the floor looking up.
What better way to start 2015 than to resurrect my life panels and to display them proudly. I can now lean back in my chair and see more than twenty years of my life displayed for my enjoyment. Happy New Year to me. . . .
AND TO YOU!
My last vacation of the summer has ended with the return of my better-half from her recent trip. She arrived late last night and fell into bed exhausted from all of the driving. She was wound pretty tight but dropped into a dead sleep within minutes of her head hitting the pillow. I knew I was in for a blow-by-blow description of the entire trip as soon as I woke up in the morning. Boy was I ever right.
She was moving kind of slow in the morning but after a couple cups of good strong coffee she finally appeared almost human. I rolled out early myself to get my forty minutes on the treadmill out of the way. As I came upstairs from the workout she surprised me with a belated birthday gift and a promise of a steak dinner with all the trimmings later on. I honestly never expected that because I’m not a someone who’s a big birthday celebrator.
We started the day with a food shopping trip to refill the larders. It was a nice day with sunny skies and warm weather and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together. We made a visit to the local Walmart, purchased a little of everything, and then just wandered around for a while to people watch. It was then that I began thinking of the dinner she was planning and what I could contribute.
As you’re aware if you read this blog often enough you know I’m a amateur winemaker. When we arrived home I went directly to my wine cellar to find a wine to compliment that beautiful steak she was going to prepare. I’ve been told by many people that homemade fruit wines usually loose their flavor after being bottled for more than two years. I found a few bottles of a strawberry wine that I made in 2003. At the time that wine was excellent and laughingly became known as the dancing wine. If you drank more than two glasses you’d be overwhelmed with the desire to dance your ass off. After eleven years I wasn’t exactly sure what we’d find.
‘It Was a Very Good Year’
Upon returning home we moved to the deck for an hour of total relaxation slowly sipping on a glass of wine that smelled wonderful and tasted even better. Two glasses each and we were aglow. I was shocked at how good the wine still was after all of those years in the bottle. We decided to take a short break, fire up the grill, and prepare the food for dinner. The steak was cooked medium rare and melt-your-mouth tender. Aluminum foil wrapped vegetables from the garden finished the meal off rather nicely. It was then time for a second bottle which went down even easier than the first.
It was great birthday celebration that was totally unexpected and I can report officially that we both were pleased with the end result. I just love happy endings.
* * *
It’s now the morning after and I have another tidbit of information to pass along. That freaking wine while having excellent taste also brings along with it a mind-numbing hangover. I truthfully think I’m gonna die. Even the good coffee that usually saves the day isn’t working worth a damn. I’ll end this posting now because I need a power nap and a few dozen extra strength Tylenols.
Don’t come to my impending funeral, you’ll be disappointed. Happy Birthday to me.
I’ve been mentioning the Fryeburg Fair for a month now and today was the day. We were up at dawn and enroute to pickup the better-half’s daughter and one year old grandson. I’d pounded down two quick cups of coffee to get my heart started and to keep me alert during the fifty minute drive to Fryeburg, Maine. It was early, I hadn’t slept all that well, and I knew it was going to be a very long day.
I was looking forward to taking the grandson to his first Fair but everything else was up for grabs. As we entered the town of Fryeburg traffic was exactly as expected, grid lock. We moved very slowly through town to the area where the fairgrounds are located and parked in the front yard of a local resident for $5.00 bucks. Every house on the street approaching the fairgrounds has a sign up and a person waving a flag trying to entice idiots like us to park with them. Depending on the size of their yard they can turn a nice profit during Fair week. We unloaded the two hundred pounds of baby stuff, threw the little guy into his high-tech stroller and began walking the short distance to the main entrance of the fairgrounds.
When I say there were thousands of people swarming the area I’m not kidding. I have a minor phobia about large crowds and close quarters and I knew today was going to test me in a big way.
The better-half has a few things during every Fair visit that have become a tradition for her such as immediately buying a stack of postcards, a giant plastic coffee mug, and chowing down on a box of french fries. It took just a few minutes for those three items to be scratched from her to-do list and the rest of us were finally permitted to find a freaking rest room.
The crowds continued to grow, the sun came out, and it turned into a beautiful yet sweltering day. During the drive to the Fair the temperature was in the low fifties but within an hour of our arrival it started climbing into the mid seventies. An absolute scorcher as it turned out.
We visited exhibits, nibbled at various food items and delivered the grandson to the petting zoo for an introduction to a few of Mother Natures favorite animals. He was curious for a moment as he and his mother were mobbed by a herd of small goats looking for the food they were carrying. His interests in the goats waned a bit but then he discovered the straw covering the floor. It held his interest almost as long as the goats. Maybe next year he’ll be more interested in the animals.
We sat for a time in the shade of a tree and listened to a local performer singing a selection of songs and making nice with the crowd. We were able to catch our breath, cool off a little, and change our damp little boy. He had some fun clapping with the music and trying to dance and smiling and giggling at everyone. It was pretty cool.
It was as expected a very long day. We visited more animals, barns, horses, oxen, cattle, chickens, and llamas than I ever want to see again. We ate more food, drank more water and made many more trips to the restrooms. That for me is the biggest racket of all at this Fair. They have an assigned attendant in each restroom who I was expected to tip after relieving myself. Of course I left no tip because I refuse to pay someone to stand there and direct me to a urinal and then watch me take a leak. Something is just wrong and a little creepy about that and I refused to participate. I’d love to see just how those folks would list that job on their resume. I won’t even try to guess.
It was finally four o’clock and we’d been roaming around for almost eight hours. My back hurt, my feet hurt, I was hot and sweaty, and the baby was getting a little cranky. The better-half and her daughter were exhausted as well and I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there. So we did.
The soft seats of that car were the best part of the day. The baby instantly fell asleep and we made our way home. I was happy to be involved with his first official Fair visit and we were able to document it with hundreds of photographs. Next year he’ll be walking, talking, and be a little more aware of what’s going on around him. I’m already looking forward to that.
I’d really like to write more but I’m heading for the shower and then our nice soft bed. I am pooped.
I’ve stated thousands of times in the past that I’m NOT a fan of Country music. My constant exposure to it as forced on me by my better-half has really and truly dulled my senses. I’ve made my peace with that because I had no effing choice but just between you and I, I still hate C & W music.
I could give you any number of reasons why I hate it from the nerve shattering nasal twine of many of the singers to their choices of really stupid song titles and lyrics. The following song titles have been discovered and passed on to you just to prove my point. I’m not saying any of these titles made the Billboard charts but they are just as stupid as I predicted.
-
I’ll Marry You Tomorrow But Let’s Honeymoon Tonight
-
I Liked You Better Before I Knew You So Well
-
She’s Looking Better After Every Beer
-
I Ain’t Gone To Bed With No Ugly Women, But I Shore Woke Up With A Few
-
I’m So Miserable Without You, It’s Like Having You Here
-
I’ve Got Tears In My Ears From Lyin’ On My Back and Cryin’ Over You
-
She’s Actin’ Single and I’m Drinkin’ Doubles
-
I Still Miss You, Baby, But My Aim’s Gettin’ Better
-
Her Teeth Were Stained, But Her Heart Was Pure
-
How Can I Miss You If You Won’t Go Away?
-
I Fell In A Pile Of You And Got Love All Over Me
-
I Keep Forgettin’ I Forgot About You
-
I’m Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life
-
If The Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me
-
My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, And I Don’t Love Jesus
-
My Wife Ran Off With My Best Friend, And I Sure Do Miss Him
-
She Got The Ring And I Got The Finger
-
Thank God And Greyhound She’s Gone
-
You Can’t Have Your Kate And Edith Too
So to those of you shit-kicking country folk out there you’d better get on-line as soon as possible and order this list of songs. I’d hurry if I were you because rumor has it that the demand is huge and you might be placed on a waiting list. They also may require that you take a short IQ test to insure you’re stupid enough to own them.
I’m writing this while my better-half is at work and I’ll do whatever I can to keep her from reading this posting tonight. She’s sure to throw a hissy fit and make me listen to even more of this alleged music than before. I’m not sure I could survive that. Hep me Jesus and Yee Haw, Y’all.
everyuselessthing.com 