The Martin, Part 2

When days go by and I don't do anything, I guess one of the things I don't do is make my daily journal entry. This is usually just a few basic lines about my mundane retired life. Oh it was really disco when I was a jet pilot! So when I have to bring the journal up to date because it's a week behind, well it's embarrassing for two reasons: one, I can't remember what I did yesterday, let alone 5 or 6 days ago! two, I realize I really haven't done anything...much...at...all.

Once a month or so I get the "muse" instead of the "blues". Or maybe more accurately, I get the muse because of the blues. And what happens is I start out receding into a shell. Hiding in my room...safe within my womb...I touch no one and no one touches me....well actually, I do touch myself. I was in that afterglow of that house concert I told you about and I was trying to suggest a song to Victoria Vox for a cover via a fan letter. It was an old Niel Young song "Lotta Love"....you remember. It was a "one hit wonder" for Nicolette Larson and the album was simply called Nicolette. So I surfed around YouTube and I wrote the fan letter. But in the process I rediscovered a new favorite song that just hit me like a "bolt out of the blues". It wasn't "Lotta Love". It was a Nicolette song called "Last in Love". I went nuts liking the song. When I found her live version of it, recorded at the "Roxy" with this super star keyboard guy, Bill Payne, it was like a religious experience. It was from 1979 and the memories came flooding back. I had two romances going, one in DC which was big. A true love I guess. The other in Detroit which was small. A fling I guess. Both these girls constantly played this Nicolette album, and everybody was playing it. This was exactly the time that I bought the Martin guitar in Ypsilanti. I was beginning my airline career and I was thirty years old. So I'm listening to this Billy Payne version and I'm remembering that Nicolette fell into depression and addiction, as so many did back then and she sang so pretty and I had forgotten all about it and I just started tearing up and I can't explain it.

My brother has a friend who has written a book about Wagner, the Opera guy. The Gist of his book promotes the idea that emotions brought forth in the arts are exactly the same as in religion. The same brain chemicals, hormones, etc. He claims in the book that Wagner is saying this as a main theme through all his works.

So. Okay. I have a new favorite song. "Last in Love". It will be perfect for YouTube. It's unknown and forgotten, yet it's an oldie that some will remember fondly. Perfect right? Wrong. So wrong. After a little research I find out that George Strait, the King of Country, is so all over this song that everybody on YouTube thinks he wrote it. He put it in a movie in 1992. A smarmy redneck superficial sentimental thing called "Pure Country". He had the song on the charts too. So now I sort of don't want to put the song on YouTube. And I did all that work falling in love with the song. If you change the way you think about something....the thing you are thinking about changes. :::::+:::::

That's a cool way to just end this post. But allow me a tiny epilogue. When I listened to the George Strait version on YouTube, I must admit it was very well done. He didn't sell out the song into hee- haw land. It was very nicely sung and the lyrics were exactly like the author wrote them. The author by the way is JD Souther. Remember "You're Only Lonely"?. So at least I have a new favorite song writer. I havn't been writing in the journal every day, but I have been picking up the Martin every day. But it will only play one song. LLITTY :::::+:::::

the Martin Part 1

I think we all need an emotional outlet. A vent. I envy the artist who can paint out his heart on canvas. Or the pianist who can sit and play all night till her blues are used up. I really envy the physically fit people who look forward to their workout. Rowing, a bike ride. They get the physical and the mental release. It's just not simple for me. I don't know what is going to give me the release. Sometimes I just luck out and there it is. But I don't have a "go to" thing. If my "go to" thing was something like golf, or flying a single-seat sailplane, I don't think it would work forever because those things might not be a true release. They are maybe just playing at something I like. If I had a little motor boat and took it out every single day, of course I'd get sick of it. I have a little airplane, and I almost never take it out to just fly around. And I surely wouldn't want to fly it every day. The closest that I can maybe come to a "go to" mental release is my guitar. I used to keep it in the man-cave which is an air conditioned little room in our pole shed. But lately it's been sitting in my bedroom so I can just pick it up anytime. My playing doesn't have to be "good". Nobody can hear it, and my wife says it doesn't disturb her. That's all great. But here's the problem. If I am mentally energized enough to pick up the guitar in the first place, I'm probably okay and not desperate for the release it could give. Once you are depressed, well, you don't feel like doing anything. I'm hoping that when I'm down I can just pick up the guitar, or take a walk, even though I don't feel one bit like doing it. Then let the activity take it's course. If you change the way you think about something; the thing that you are thinking about changes.

My old guitar has been pronounced dead a long time ago. And I have ordered a new guitar. It will be built in July. In the mean time, I lowered the tuning on my old one, put on new strings, capoed up to concert and it actually works well enough for me to fool around with. Oddly, when I went to the house concert mentioned in my last post, I at the last minute decided to case up and bring the old guitar along just for the heck of it. And minutes before the guests arrived I set the old Martin out on a stand in the front room just for decoration along side of the baby grand. Well, it turned out that through the evening after the concert, several guests picked up the old thing and played it. These guests were accomplished players. I could have tried to explain about the de-tuning, and the bad "intonation" and the rough "action" that makes it hard to play. But I didn't and the old pros just played it. It was the only guitar there. Even the featured performer played a song with it! This is just such a sweet swan- song for my old Martin D-18. I had bought it used on consignment in a famous little shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan over thirty years ago. When I get my new guitar, the Martin will be retired as a campfire guitar I suppose. But for now and the next three months it's still my "go to". .. LLITTY :::::+:::::

Victoria Vox ! Victoria Vox !

I'm not a tweeter, or a tweetee. So I don't know much about it. I think I might like it though, because my blog is a kind of diary. And I thank any readers who have looked in to see if I've posted anything. Of course I havn't! I can only write when I'm in a good mood. When I'm in a good mood well, then I'm too busy living and playing my part in the theater of life. Fortunately, when I'm not in a good mood, I'm not that bad. Maybe a bit apathetic. Non energetic. If I'm bi- polar, I've got plenty of company. Some people just have to get around other people to recharge themselves socially. At a place where everybody knows their name. I, however, need to be alone.

I'd like to throw a party here at my house maybe three times a year. This August will be my eighth annual "fly-in". But I'd like to have a music party. A "Jam Session" maybe once or twice a year. I'll call it a "Coffee House" and have an "Open Mike". In the last few years I've been to a few "house concerts". This is where you have a single, professional, musical act at your party and you pay them. I'd like to do one of those, but I'm pretty far out of town. Normally those are thrown in the suburbs. I know of several Jam Sessions in the suburbs where the event takes place as a music meeting once a week. These can be private, or in the case of a Folklore Society, or something, it could be open to the public and you just show up with your fiddle, banjo, boyfriend, etc. Every week. My hat goes off to the folks who throw these parties once a week. It says a lot about their personality as far as patience, good nature, dependability.

I had the privilege of working as a volunteer at a very successful house concert last week. Myself and my pickup truck were put to good use for a day and a half. At twilight the concert began. And I stopped working and became a "guest" and turned into an immediate, automatic, huge, fan of the featured entertainer. She was enchanting. Both as an entertainer and as a musician. She could do so much. I'm not going to try to describe how incredibly talented she is. I will say this. There was total silence while she was on stage. Most acts get smothered in crowd mumble noise. Especially outside, as this was. Okay, I'll say two more things. She plays ukulele and she makes you smile. The rest you'll have to find out on your own.

Our host was gracious. His home was beautiful. The weather cooperated for a time window during the concert, and went back to rain. I got the autograph I was promised. And I was oh so tired. That really good tired. . . . . :::::+::::: LLITTY

A Song For Japan

I have a new part time hobby. My father in law has a "time share" that he is stuck with. "Time shares" are a nasty, toxic, unfortunate "investment". There are literally tens of thousands of them for sale for $1. One Dollar. The owner is stuck with fees for the rest of his life, and he can't get out of it. So they say. I've only been learning about time shares for three days, and I'm blown away by what I've learned. I was really mad and frustrated about it on the first day. But now I've just settled in to doing my homework on it. Hey, I'm retired.

Today I tried to start my backhoe. It's an old MF..........Massey Furguson, what did you think I meant? I put in the big battery which was charged. I added power steering fluid. Added oil. Pumped up a tire. Cleaned battery cables and terminals.Then hooked up jumpers from my truck. But I could not get it going. I can not afford a mechanic, so I may have to wait and hope for a friend to come help me.

Tonight I forgot all about the GD backhoe. Wife and I went to the Avalon, as we often do. My wife is always on top of the schedule at the Avalon. We usually get good seats. Tonight was no exception. There are four opera boxes in the 400 seat theater. We were in one of them. I knew so little about Rosanne Cash. I was running late getting ready after wrenching and getting greasy. So I googled up Rosanne's bio. Hit the print button. And jumped in the shower. On the way to Easton I read the bio aloud and we learned a bit about Johnny Cash's daughter. It was a beautiful evening outside. Sunset. Cobblestone streets. Quaint Town. The town still remembers what it was like before The Bridge went in in 1953 and connected Delmarva to the world. You can't not love Easton. And it was finally Spring. Rosanne was accompanied by her husband on stage. John Leventhal. This guy was outrageously awesome. I'm not going to try to describe how great he was. She was singing ballads. He was filling in with licks that sounded like an orchestra. He played the piano very well too. The Avalon's grand. She sang fourteen songs and a two song encore. I just smiled the whole time. We weren't listening to a band. We were watching this husband and wife duo with their acoustic guitars. She sang the Dylan song "Girl from the North Country". She explained that when her father appeared on Dylan's surreal album "Nashville Skyline" in 1969, she was officially the coolest fourteen year old girl in the world. To arrange her own version of the song "North Country" she had to go back to Dylan's 1963 recording and find her own way. There is this Jesse Winchester song, "Blow on Chilly Wind" that I love. I somehow relate it to Rosanne, I believe it was on an album she had. I was waiting for the song, but no go. But there is a song of hers that she had on the charts, that she wrote, that we all know. "Seven Year Ache" Such a fine song. Such a big applause. Such a wonderful night for wife and I. The last two songs were filmed for "Artists for Japan". A movie which will donate all it's income to relief efforts for Japan. Thank you Rosanne and John. Thank you Avalon theater. Thank you Easton. :::::+::::: LLITTY

Frustration; A "chip" on my shoulder

I feel a disjointed geezer rant coming on. Do you have cable TV? Remember sometime back all the old TV's that weren't "cable ready" had to have a set top box to make the cable work. Then not too long ago the cable went digital and was still partially analog. Now the cable company is telling us they are going "all digital". We now have to go back to a "set top box" on our "cable ready" TV. Kind of like the old boxes we had when cable first came out. We got via UPS: one set top box, and two adapter boxes, so we can have three TV's set up. The hardware is free and the monthly bill will not change. And we will get more channels and better picture. Here's the problem. I'm a 61 yr. old cynic. Nothing is free. I don't want anything that is free. I don't want to change my GD TV set up. I don't want it to be better. I pay a lot every month now. Leave my service alone. I'm very wary of these "improvements". But I have no choice. I'm betting after a few months they will start raising rates to pay for these "free" upgrades. Then their customers will be embedded in the new system and just keep paying the newer, bigger bill. The cable company, like City Hall, will always win. If I want a "fourth" TV adapter, it is $1.99 per month. I have a little 13 in. TV in the kitchen. I have it on while I do the dishes. Or watch the weather channel while I have breakfast. I love the little TV. But I don't know if I want to pay two bucks a month for it. And I have a fifth TV in my son's room which will be a guest room. So it will die too when the new "better" service starts, unless I pay another $2/ month. We have installed the set top and the adapters and the remotes. My wife has spent most of the day on the web and on the phone with Comcast trying to get our new digital service initiated/activated. Now we have been told that we must take it all down and pack it up and take it to their service center as it it not initializing. We will be issued another set of equipment. And they are going to do this with millions of households! And we lose two TV's! I'd like to share my secret scenario now: In a few months, the cable bill will go up quite a bit. When it does, I will take reactionary irrational action. I will calmly disconnect the new set top box, and the two adapter boxes, along with the three Comcast remotes and take them out to the back yard. I will set them on a cinder block or two and smash them with a sledge hammer until they are in small pieces. I will put the pieces in the original box and ship them back to Comcast. And I will of course, terminate my relationship with comcast. Including my computer cable contract. I will then go 60 days with no TV at all, just for principle. Then go satellite. This is just a fantasy. So I'm just kidding, I guess. But I suppose it could happen. A clearer head will prevail. My wife will get the new equipment and I'm sure the new "sort of free", or "free with a lot of strings and catches" digital cable service will be fine. There will likely be an after market gadget that I will be able to buy to hook up to the little kitchen TV to make it work too. And if we ever go HD with our sets, we'll be all ready. But somehow, someday, there is a sledgehammer/electronic device episode in my future. It will probably involve a computer and/or a cell phone. :::::+::::: LLITTY

Journey On

My wife and I went out tonight to the Avalon Theater to see Arlo Guthrie live on his "Journey On" tour. This was good for me because I have been slowly crawling out of a very deep mental abyss which started maybe a score of days ago. My wife has been very kind to me indeed. So I'm glad I could atone a bit and join her in "going to town". She really had a good time. And she's not into folk singers. She likes blues. But Arlo did some stuff that suited her. A Leadbelly tune. And an excellent rendition of St. James Infirmary. Damn Arlo was good. He had an ensemble of seven behind him. It was interesting how his band backed him up. They kept the theme of Arlo being a solo act. Often they were quietly sitting out because Arlo was being Arlo. He had three ladies, a sister group, who were his back up chorus. A drummer and bass player. His son Abe on keyboards, and an incredible lead guitar player on fender tele who played violin nicely on slow songs. Arlo also played piano on maybe six songs, instead of guitar. He used 4 different guitars, all acoustic. I hadn't listened to Arlo in thirty years. He sounded just like he did way back when. He talked before every song in warm, comic, introductions, and we found ourselves laughing out loud. He did a long funny story leading up to "Coming into Los Angeleez". Which I loved. He talked about his wife of 42 years. He played tribute to Hoyt Axton who was his dear friend. To Leadbelly. To Janus Ian. But most of all, he played tribute to his father, Woody. Near the end of the concert, he sang "This Land is Your Land". He would sing a verse, then stop and talk and explain something about Woody. Then do another verse and stop and talk again, on and off for five verses. He said he "learned" the song in fifth grade like many of us did. He went home and got out his 3/4 scale Gibson guitar which his father had given him on his fifth birthday and tried to play the song. His father saw this and went and got out some old papers. He showed Arlo some verses that would not have been "allowed" in the grade school songbook. I didn't buy tickets to Arlo so that I could hear "City of New Orleans" live. Which he did at the piano, by the way. I wanted to touch a legacy. I wanted to be near an icon. I got exactly what I wanted and more. This guy is a real live genuine legend. And thanks to my wife we were in the second row center and the first row seats in front of us were empty! And the 400 seat room was sold out. So just call me star struck if you like. I was ten feet away from Woody Guthrie's son and grandson for a nice two hour concert. Two nights from now wife and I are going out again to live music. This time a local geezer country rock band. Of great players and great guys (and girl). There will be friends and relatives there. And people that like me. And people that I want to like me. Somehow I care again. Thank goodness for my wife. Thank goodness for music. Thank goodness for Spring. Thank goodness I can Journey On.

What a Waste of Time

I've been wasting time. Day after geezer day I've done nothing. As it turns out, the rest of the world has hurried along without me. Important things have gone on. And important people have reacted to those things. The "revolution" in the Middle East is at a beginning. Egypt, Iran, Libya. Oil prices are going up, economies are crashing. While all this is going on, I look outside and notice that the wind is blowing. And I wonder what the date is. Is February finally over? Is it even possible to "waste" time? As I use up time, I am using up my life. Is having time in my past better than having time in my future? If I could be twenty years old again would I want that, so that I could have more time?. If I waste time playing solitaire, is there something immoral about that? I could be doing something productive somewhere. Maybe helping someone? Is watching a football game on TV a better use of time than playing solitaire? Is watching a football game live in the stadium a better use of time than watching it on TV? Is one man's time more valuable than another's? If the president plays a game of solitaire surely he wastes more time than if I do. But if the president plays solitaire, the essence of the game of solitaire changes. It might become popular. Someone might report the results of the solitaire game in the media. Then when I play solitaire it might not be viewed by my peers in the same waste- of- time way. When we fault Nero for fiddling while Rome burned, we're not saying fiddling is a waste of time. Only in some situations. Yet we have the expression "fiddling around", which obviously came from that legend. There's a Chinese proverb about the humble man frying a fish. It asks the question whether his activity is any less important than any other. So it seems that the value of time is relative. It depends on who's spending the time. And what the activity is. And what activity is being neglected. All I want to do is play solitaire. Without feeling guilty. So I'll quote Bertrand Russell: "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." And finally, Ralph Waldo Emerson. "To fill the hour, that is happiness, and leave no crevice for repentance or approval".