Enriched Geranium

Fun with winter

2010-01-31T20:14:00.013-06:00

One of the great things about winter is that it enables one to do things that would be impossible to do in "normal" conditions. Today, I had the opportunity to take advantage of what was, at least for me, a new winter "activity." (Generally, I'm uncomfortable with anything that can be described as an "Activity" particularly if you can hear a capital A or a ™ in it. This probably has something to do with the fact that I'm married to a teacher. I hear entirely too much about "Activities", and the mere mention of the A-word makes me want to run, screaming, in the other direction.)

Back to the point. Yesterday we went to a friend's house to celebrate her birthday. As we were getting ready to leave, her husband, Carl, told us he wanted to show us something before we left. Carl had made a skateboard with blades on it instead of wheels, upon which he attached a sail (Carl has also made, among numerous other things, his own telescope, so this was not a particularly surprising feat coming from him.) It was sort of a poor-person's iceboat. He was going to go out on the lake today if the wind was strong enough, and invited us to join him.

The wind was, indeed, strong enough, so we met Carl and his daughter on Lake Monona. We brought our ice-skates along so anyone who didn't want to try the ice-board, or whatever it's called, would be able to skate instead. It was a beautiful day: clear and not too cold, but cold enough that the ice wasn't soft.

I'm not a skateboarder and I have limited experience with sailing, so I have to admit I was a little bit skeptical about my ability to successfully ride a skateboard with a sail on it. Carl was already zooming around on the lake when we got there. It was pretty impressive to see how much ground, or, rather, ice, he was able to cover in a short period of time. Soon after, he returned, loaned me a helmet and gave me a brief description of how it worked. Next thing I knew I was gliding over the lake. It was a little bit tricky getting used to how to steer (leaning one direction or another, as on a skateboard) and managing the sail at the same time, but it didn't take long to get the basic idea. The thing could go pretty darned fast if you wanted it to, which, of course, I did. A little scary, particularly at first, but I can see that with a little more practice, this could be a ton of fun. I took a few spills, but nothing painful. I think I may have to make one for myself. The materials are pretty basic and it probably won't cost very much. Hmmm....

Here's the board with the sail lying behind it.

Carl, in a rare moment when he was close enough to photograph.

Carl explains how it all works.
Photo: Luminiferous Ether

This is me on the return leg of a run across the ice.
Photo: Luminiferous Ether

There was also a small flotilla of iceboats out on the lake. Here's one of them.

Downtown Madison as seen from Lake Monona.

Carl and daughter Melinda out on the ice.
Photo: Luminiferous Ether

Ms. Geranium (a.k.a. Luminiferous Ether) and Melinda preferred their ice-skates.

Video of the beginning of a run across the ice, courtesy of Luminiferous Ether.

Happy Hogswatch!

2009-12-25T12:16:00.003-06:00

I'm in the middle of Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett. I like to read this book every year at Hogswatch. The Hogfather has gone missing and Death is filling in while Susan, Death's granddaughter, tries to figure out what, exactly, is going on. Excellent book.

Some quotes from Hogfather for your reading enjoyment:

"Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on."

"Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words."

"Real children don't go hoppity-skip unless they are on drugs."

"She'd become a governess. It was one of the few jobs a known lady could do. And she'd taken to it well. She'd sworn that if she did indeed ever find herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she'd beat herself to death with her own umbrella."

"The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head."

"+++ Divide By Cucumber Error. Please Reinstall Universe And Reboot +++"

"Millennium hand and shrimp."

Happy Hogswatch, everyone! I hope the Hogfather was good to you.

Enter The Haggis: The Brink Lounge, Madison, WI, 11/11/09

2009-11-15T00:23:00.004-06:00

Readers of this blog and others who know me are probably aware that I have been a big supporter of the Toronto based group Enter The Haggis (some of you may be tired of hearing about them, but you really need to check them out!). Last Wednesday they made their third appearance here in Madison, WI. They've been here about once a year since their first show in the area and, although Madison hasn't been a particularly lucrative stop for them on their tours (it hasn't helped that every time they've played Madison it has been a Wednesday night), each time they have had a better turnout than the time before. This year, I volunteered to work on their "Street Team", which means that I did what I could to help promote the show. I was pleased that there was standing room only last Wednesday. I'd like to think that my efforts were partly responsible for the large crowd in attendance, but who knows?

Why, you may ask, did I work to promote someone else when I really ought to be spending more time and energy promoting my own musical endeavors? The answer isn't entirely clear, even to me. I can only say that listening to their music and seeing them perform has brought me an awful lot of joy since I first heard them about three years ago and I'd like to share that with other people. Besides, a group this good deserves to be able to make a living playing music. They'll either burn out after a few years or they will have enough success that they'll find it worthwhile to continue. Personally, I hope it will be the latter.

ETH is unique, in my opinion. Great song-writing, five stellar musicians, brilliant arrangements (every note they play serves the greater good of the song rather than trying to impress people with their virtuosity), their songs span a wide array of styles and they appear to have a great time playing together. It's a rare combination, and it doesn't hurt that they're also very nice people off the stage. After Wednesday's show I chatted with (pestered?) individual members of the band and found it rather refreshing that, after all the touring and gigs they have played, they still seem surprised that people find them to be exceptional.

As I've come to expect after seeing them five times, it was a great show. I urge everyone to see these guys if they come anywhere near you.

Here's a clip from their recent appearance at Shank Hall, Milwaukee, WI on June 17, 2009. They're playing "DNA" from their latest album, "Gutter Anthems". This song falls into what I think of as their "pop song" style. It's representative of some of their music, but one song doesn't begin to illustrate the range of material they perform on any given night. To any guitar players watching this, take note of what guitarist Trevor Lewington's right hand is doing at about 2:15 and again at 3:55, and compare it to what you're hearing. It looks as if he's pounding out chords, but he's also playing a lead line at the same time. Kind of cool, don't you think?

Some more photos from The Brink (I should have taken more photos so I could have better shots, but I kept forgetting about the camera because I was engrossed in the music):

Craig Downie: bagpipes, penny whistle, harmonica, guitar and vocals.

James Campbell: drums.

Mark Abraham: bass, vocals.

Brian Buchanan: fiddle, keyboards, guitar, vocals.

Trevor Lewington: guitar, vocals.

Check out this live video of ETH and opener Zachary Scot Johnson at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis, MN on November 10, 2009. ETH starts about 51 minutes into the clip.

More shameless self-promotion!

2009-10-21T19:25:00.006-05:00

Mock flyer by Jeff Muendel. Sorry, Evel Knievel will not actually be appearing. The flyer was Jeff's idea of a joke. I thought it was pretty funny.

Greetings, once again, to all life forms who happen to have the misfortune of being visitors to this blog!

"What is it this time?" you may well ask. And well may you ask. Well, since you may ask, it's an opportunity to hear and see The Motor Primitives and still get home by bedtime! Is that awesome, or what? Wait! Please don't all talk at once! I can't hear myself type!

If you haven't gotten a chance to see us with our new drummer, Kenn Busch, now is a chance to see us with our new drummer Kennn Busch! Hopefully, you will have other opportunities to see us with our new drummer, Kennnn Busch, but life holds no guarantees, so why not come and see us with our new drummer, Kennnnnnnnnnnn Busch, at this time? And, to top it off, you will also get to see the legendary Hum Machine in a rare appearance.

Who? The Motor Primitives and Hum Machine.

What? Ummm..., The Motor Primitives and Hum Machine.

Where? The High Noon Saloon, 701 E. Washington Ave, Madison, WI, 53703.

When? Friday, October 23, 2009. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., music starts at 6:00 p.m.

Why? Because we like you! And, if you don't show up, I might cry (but in a sincere, sensitive and manly way, not in a manipulative, stupid, lame and weasely way like Glenn Beck).

How much? $4. Seriously. It's ridiculously cheap..., errrrr..., wait..., ... our marketing department is now informing me it prefers the word "affordable" over the word "cheap." They also like it when you use the word "value." Okay, whatever, it's ridiculously affordable (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) A great value. (I refuse to use the phrase "bang for your buck", though. I'm just not going to do it, regardless of the hand-wringing it may cause our marketing department.) 2 for 1 drinks on top of it, or so I'm told. Bring the whole family. If your kids are under 21, they must be accompanied by one or more parents.

One question...

2009-10-06T23:15:00.002-05:00

Where am I supposed to sleep?

On the radio...

2009-10-04T19:40:00.005-05:00

Hi, everyone. First of all, please accept my most sincere apologies for my absence over the last few months. Getting used to my new job has taken more energy than I would have anticipated, leaving both less time and less energy for blogging and blog reading. Funny.

Anyway, I thought all my loyal readers (how can someone be a loyal reader when there is nothing to read? That must be one of those "If a tree falls..." kind of questions. Maybe I should have written "loyal would-be readers.") might be interested to know that I was recently interviewed on Northern Spirit Radio's weekly show called "Song of the Soul". If you're interested, you can listen to it here.

I enjoyed talking with host Mark Helpsmeet and having the opportunity to share some music that was meaningful to me in a spiritual sense. First, I had to make sure that the fact that I'm not affiliated with any religious or spiritual organization or philosophy wouldn't be a problem for the show. It was also a challenge to pick music that fit the theme of the show rather than choosing music just because I like it. Of course, everything I chose was something I like, but the theme guided my selections. I found the most difficult aspect was weeding it down to 25 minutes worth of music. Mark was able to edit the music to fit the time slot, so not all songs are presented in their entirety. If you wish, you can seek them out in full.

Warning: you might think from the presentation that I'm a real musician. Don't be fooled. I'm just another hack who likes to play and has enough skill to get by.

Gainfully employed!

2009-06-25T14:10:00.002-05:00

I had a second interview today, after which I was offered a job. I start next week. I'll be working at Spruce Tree Music, a local independently owned store which sells and repairs stringed instruments. Guitars, violins, harps, ukuleles, etc. It sounds like my duties will be varied, from cleaning, tuning and setting up instruments to answering phones, helping customers, and learning repair. I'm pretty excited about it. The salary is a little lower than what I was earning at my previous job, but I'm okay with that. It's going to be a relief to have a more regular source of income, and working for a local independent business, not to mention working with musical instruments, appeals to me as well.

Woo hoo!

2009-06-23T23:53:00.001-05:00

I had a job interview today. The first interview, actually, the first call, I've gotten since being laid off about a year and a half ago. That must mean the Economic Crisis™ is over, right? But, seriously, I think the interview went pretty well and I'm pretty certain I would like working there. I hesitate to mention where or what kind of job it would be at this point in time, in case I don't get it. I'll write more about it should the position be offered to me.

When I was younger, I tended to be pretty confident when I interviewed. After all, I was offered a job every time I got an interview. I've even turned down job offers in the past. Things are different now, though. For one thing, the only time I ever lost a job before was when the company I was working for went out of business, and the new owner hired me almost instantly. Aside from that, I had never lost a job for any reason. In addition, a year and a half of no calls when applying for jobs has shattered my confidence. Whereas I used to feel that it would be a mistake on the part of a prospective employer not to hire me, now I find myself wondering why anyone would want to hire me. I'm old, unemployed, no college degree, etc, etc, blah, blah, woof, woof, woof. We'll see what happens. At this point in time, there's nothing I can do but wait. Wish me luck.

Anniversary, continued

2009-06-14T23:34:00.005-05:00

We had rather grandiose plans for our anniversary and, although some of our plans didn't come to fruition, we went out to dinner at Peppino's, one of Madison's oldest restaurants. Neither of us had ever been there before and we thought it would be nice to eat there at least once while they still exist. The service, food and atmosphere were all excellent. It was a very nice dinner.

Afterward, we took a walk in Tenney Park, which is very close to our house, but, aside from skating in the winter, we don't visit it very often.

A beautiful evening spent with a beautiful woman. What could be better?

Anniversary #22!

2009-06-13T06:00:00.001-05:00

Today is the twenty-second anniversary of the day Ms. Geranium (a.k.a. Luminiferous Ether) and I got married. Hard to believe it has been that long. Equally hard to believe is that she has put up with me for that long. Happy anniversary, Suzy, the love of my life and my best friend. I love you!

Appliances-SFB: More Than Enough

2009-06-11T18:55:00.004-05:00

I'm trying to finish getting all those Appliances-SFB clips up on the YouTubes. I think, after this one, I have four more to go, and then I'll be done. Yay! Three out of the four that are left are covers of other people's songs, and I'm trying to get permission from the writers, although I don't know if it's necessary. There are an awful lot of videos on the YouTubes of people playing songs written by other people, and I seriously doubt that they all got permission from the authors.

Well, then. Here is "More Than Enough", written and sung by guitarist William Siebecker while Tom Laskin takes over on guitar. If you can understand the words, you'll find that, even though he wrote the song during the reign of The Greatest President In Our Nation's History™, Ronald Reagan (believe it or not, I succeeded in writing that without barfing - anyone who knows me is aware that I consider Ronald Wilson Reagan, a.k.a. Insane Anglo Warlord, to be among the worst presidents we've ever had and it is his policies which have culminated in the mess we're in right now), or possibly during the reign of King George I, the song is still relevant. That's kind of a sad statement, but it's true. Enjoy!

Ed Goes Paragliding: The Movie

2009-06-04T00:43:00.007-05:00

Coming soon to a theater near you! Look for it on DVD, VHS, Beta, Laserdisc and Those Little Movies You Make By Drawing Pictures On The Pages Of A Book And Flipping The Pages Really Fast™!

In my last post I promised I would get this up "soon". So, here it is. I'll post the video first, then I'll write some stuff that, hopefully, will be at least somewhat relevant and interesting. I figure the video is the exciting bit, at least for me, so you can watch that and then, if you feel like it, you can read the stuff I wrote. My apologies to those of my regular readers (yes, it's hard to believe, but, for reasons that are beyond me, I seem to have a few regular readers) who have already seen the following video elsewhere.

Here's the video!!!!!!!! (Some of you may know about the significance of the excessive use of exclamation points. Some of you may not. If you don't, I'm sorry, but I really am not at liberty to explain. The best I can do is say "read Terry Pratchett!!!!!!!!!!")

My last post was about the trip itself. In this post I am writing about the flying that occurred during the trip. Many people have asked me if I was scared to do this. It's a simple question, but the answer is not so simple. I will try...

Before I left home I was excited, but not scared, to go paragliding. Once we arrived at the site, as I looked down from the top of the hill, yes, I was scared. It was difficult for me to imagine running off the top of that hill. However, Bill, my friend and instructor, was very adept at preparing me for what I needed to do. After two days of training on the ground, which included a couple of small "flights" of a few seconds or so, what scared me the most was the possibility that the weather (wind speed and direction, mostly) would not allow me to fly. Once it was time to attempt a real takeoff, I had enough of a feel for what it would be like that it didn't feel dangerous anymore. Don't get me wrong, I was not under the illusion that I had become an expert. Far from it. Further, I was fully aware that there was potential (mostly due to pilot stupidity) for bodily injury and/or death, but I was confident in the fact that Bill was a meticulous, experienced and knowledgeable instructor who also has a superb safety record, that he had prepared me very well for the site and conditions that we would be dealing with, and that he would not put me in a situation where I would be taking any undue risks. He has, in the past, turned down his fee and refused to let students fly because he felt it wasn't the right thing to do (they were not ready or they didn't have the proper attitude to fly safely) so I felt pretty certain that if Bill thought it was time to fly and I felt it was time to fly (and I tend to be pretty cautious about such things in my old age, unlike my wild and reckless youth when I was, like many young people, nigh invulnerable), then it must be time to fly.

Prior to beginning training, looking at the hill, I tried to imagine what it would be like to run off the hill. In reality, or, at least, in my reality, after the hours of practicing technique, it no longer felt like running off the hill. The best description I can give would be something along these lines: One's normal frame of reference is one of connection to the ground, or being part of the ground. If you jump into the air, you feel disconnected until you are in contact with the ground again. During takeoff, what I experienced was a smooth but rapid shift of my frame of reference from being part of the ground to being part of the glider. Rather than running off the hill and jumping into the air, letting go of the ground, from the moment I began my run the glider began to support me, and the glider lives in the air. The ground simply, very gently, went somewhere else. Or, to put it another way, the ground was like a train that I had been riding for a long time. I had gotten off the train and the train was leaving the station. It was really quite easy and not scary at all.

[Of course, I said "very gently", which was what it felt like at the time, but I had a number of rather dramatic-looking bruises afterward. I don't even know for sure when I got them, as I was only aware of the task at hand during training and takeoff, but they were all located where the harness straps were in contact with my body (upper thighs were the worst - all purple, puffy and ugly, but there were also bruises where the chest-strap crossed my torso and where the "risers" made contact with my upper arms.) I suspect they were mostly inflicted during takeoff practice and, to a lesser extent, takeoff itself. How? Well, this is what takeoff is like: When you begin your run, the glider is just a limp assembly of fabric and lines lying on the ground and attached to your harness. You run as fast as you can, with the risers crossing over your upper arms, holding the "A" risers in your hands to bring up the leading edge of the wing first. Once the leading edge begins to come up, the cells of the glider fill with air and it becomes quite solid. At this point, the glider is perpendicular to the ground and feels like a solid, immovable mass. Imagine trying to pull a tree out of the ground by tying some lines to it, attaching them to a harness and running as fast as you can away from the tree. When you reach the end of the lines, imagine the jolt you feel. Unfortunately, that tree isn't going to come out if you stop there, so don't stop. Keep running. Now pull up another tree using the same technique. Repeat for a few hours a day for two days. I think that's where the bruises came from. Once the wing comes up overhead, there is much less resistance to your forward momentum, but those first few seconds are fairly, umm, let's just say forceful.]

While ground handling, Bill remarked several times that I was catching on quickly. The problem was, I didn't know why, or what, exactly, I was doing right. After a while, I made a few mistakes, which, believe it or not, gave me more confidence. For one thing, the mistakes helped me to understand what I had been doing right. It also seemed like something that had to happen sooner or later, so I was pleased to find out, while still on the ground, what happens when things go wrong. I suspect that my many years as a folkdancer were a big help in this regard. Bill continually reminds you that the glider's job is to fly and your job is to run and do what the glider wants you to do. You can't win if you try to fight the glider. All the feedback you get from the glider about what you need to do is tactile. You can't see it very well when it's directly overhead, so it's important to be able to feel what is happening with the wing. Much of this is also true of folkdancing. When doing line dances from Eastern Europe, couple's dances from Scandinavia, etc, you learn to function either in a line or as a couple, and you have to rely on feel and balance and move accordingly. Ground handling with the paraglider felt an awful lot like dancing. The glider pulls you in a certain way, so you need to respond accordingly, sort of thing.

When you're taking off, as you run you feel less and less weight on your feet. Next thing you know, you take a step and your foot doesn't touch the ground. You see the ground falling away from you. Then, at some point, you look down. All you can see between you and the ground is your legs dangling beneath you, useless for the time being. Wow.

That's my convoluted and rambling answer to a brief and simple question. Maybe there's a future for me in politics. Vote for Enriched Geranium! He can say nothing for a long time! (Paid for by the Committee to Elect Enriched Geranium.)

To anyone reading this who has an interest in learning to paraglide, I heartily recommend contacting Bill at Flyaway Paragliding. You may need to travel to Colorado or California, but plane tickets can be pretty cheap. You'll have a wonderful time and, if the weather gods smile upon you, you'll get a chance to do some flying. You'll be in the hands of one of the best in the business.

Once again, I'd like to say thank you to Ms. Geranium, my mother, siblings, daughter, and, of course, Bill for the trip and the flying instruction. Now I just need to find a way to do some more of this.

The Birthday Present

2009-06-02T02:11:00.007-05:00

I know, I know, I'm a little overdue for a new post. Yes, my birthday was in April. Whatever. Sorry. Anyway, on my birthday (well, actually, it was the day after my birthday, but there were scheduling complications) the lovely and talented Ms. Geranium presented me with a round trip ticket to Denver. I looked at it and thought, why would she be giving me a ticket to Denver? The only reason I could think of was to visit our old friend, Bill. It just so happens that Bill is also one of the most respected paragliding instructors in the region. I've always wanted to learn how to paraglide, and the birthday present included paragliding lessons! Ms. Geranium had planned the whole thing, got my mother, siblings, and even our oldest daughter to chip in to help pay for the trip, and, on top of that, what with all the people involved, she still managed to keep it a secret until my birthday (well, actually, as I mentioned before, the day after my birthday.)

Wednesday, the day I left, the weather was pretty nasty. Even at 36,000 feet I could see clouds that were higher than we were, and the plane was bouncing around like, well, like something that is bouncing around quite a bit. We eventually got beyond the nasty weather (somewhere over Nebraska, I think), the sky cleared up and, aside from seeing another plane scream past us in the other direction at a distance from our plane that seemed to me to be closer than was intended, the flight was pretty uneventful.

Bill picked me up at the airport, we stopped at a park in Boulder and ate our Fraboni sandwiches. (Fraboni's is an Italian Delicatessen in Madison that makes the best sandwiches. Bill, as a former Madisonian, stipulated that the price of my paragliding lessons would include, among other things, such as signed CDs from the various bands in which I play, sandwiches from Fraboni's, so I picked some up before going to the Madison airport. I was feeling nice, so I also bought him a bottle of Fraboni's secret sub sauce.)

Me with a partially eaten Fraboni's #1 in hand.
Photo by Bill

We did a quick paraglider transplant from his car to the car of his other student (unbeknownst to me at the time, the reason for the transplant was that he needed to make room for all the gear with which we were going to fill his car) and headed to Bill's cabin in Coal Creek Canyon. Bill checked the weather forecast on his computer, which, apparently, he had been watching throughout the preceding few days, and decided that it was not looking good for paragliding on the Front Range, which meant... Road Trip! We were leaving in the morning for the Western Slope on the other side of the mountains, 275 miles from his house. Whilst getting some of my stuff out of his car, I saw some sort of creature running around in the dark. I tried to get a photo of it and went back inside.

"Hey, Bill! There's some kind of critter running around outside. It looked like kind of like a fox, but I can't imagine a fox hanging around your house."

Bill informed me that there were two or three foxes in the area that frequently came around looking for raw chicken. You might wonder why they would expect to find raw chicken at Bill's house? Hmm...

While Bill was feeding raw chicken to the foxes, I had the opportunity to get a few more pictures.

The next day, we packed Bill's car full of camping and paragliding gear and headed to the other side of the mountains. We took our time getting there, making a few stops along the way.

Bill in front of his house.

We drove past this house, made famous in the movie Sleeper.

Stopped at Loveland Pass. (Click on the photo to embiggen it so you can read the orange sign.) Climbed up those stairs in the background so we could get above 12,000 feet.

At 12,000 feet, even those few steps took the wind out of me.

Heading down the other side of the Continental Divide, the rocks changed color. Something to do with cutting through different layers. You might even think it made a case for tectonic shift. Nah! God just made it all that way 6,000 years ago to confuse the scientists.

Stopped to take a bike ride in Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River, sometimes under and sometimes next to I-70.

The water looked a little rough, but Bill decided to take a dip anyway.

Nice t-shirt.

The Book Cliffs. I guess these guys extend all the way into eastern Utah.

Checking out a potential flying site, Bill decides it's too rocky.
Ankle and toe breaking territory.

Here's a big pile of rocks.

Another hazard for the would-be paraglider: cacti! They were all over the place. Pretty, though.

By the time we got to our campsite it was getting dark.

This is what I saw when I woke up the next morning.

Our campsite.

Bill and I spent the next morning scoping out the various flying sites he has used in the area. Actually, Bill did the scoping. I mostly followed him around and took lots of pictures. We met Bill's other student, Amanda, and spent most of that day and the next training on the ground. It was Amanda's birthday, too! Happy birthday, Amanda.

This is Amanda. Hi, Amanda!

Amanda was an excellent camping and flying companion. She was further along then I was in the paragliding certification program, so I was able to watch and learn from her. She seemed to have no fear. She's a very fun and nice young woman. Bill told me he thinks she is going to be an excellent pilot.

This is Amanda's colorful food.

This is Bill sampling some of Amanda's colorful food.

Bill and Amanda climbing in the Big Ol' Cottonwood tree in our campsite. They found some ticks in the tree. They got out of the tree rather quickly. Smart tree.

The Colorado Beer Bottle Bush. Its flowers look enough like beer bottles that yahoos will pollinate it running from bush to bush looking for beer. Or, maybe, beer actually grows on trees.... er.... bushes in Colorado.

The Car Commercial™.
"The 1988 Suzuki Sidekick. It takes you where you need to go. (Standard Equipment: two out of four electric windows actually functional.)"

The horny toad.

The wind sock. Sometimes it was nice to us.

This town ain't big enough for the two of us.

Amanda training on the ground.

Amanda demonstrating takeoff position.

There she goes!

Bill actually got one photo of me all decked out in paragliding gear, waiting for the wind to cooperate.

On the way back to Bill's house we made a stop and hiked up to Hanging Lake, elevation 7,200 feet.

So, I did get to fly, despite the brevity of my trip. It was more fun than a barrel of monkeys. (Why do people say that? Would a barrel of monkeys actually be fun? I sort of doubt it.) Okay, whatever, it was lots of fun. I want to do it again. I still can't believe Ms. Geranium did all that for me. It was a truly inspired birthday gift. Thanks to Ms. Geranium, the rest of my family and Bill! You're the best!

Coming soon: Ed Goes Paragliding, the movie.

Coolest field trip, ever!

2009-04-27T01:16:00.007-05:00

Late in February, I had the pleasure of chaperoning a field trip to Pop's Cave near Richland Center, WI, with Sparkly Seacow's 7th grade class. I've been meaning to get to putting these pictures up for some time, but, for some reason, I haven't had energy for blogging, or much else, in recent months.

First we had a 90 minute bus ride. Then it was over the "river"...

... and through the woods.
I got the sense that some of the kids on the trip had never been out of the city before. Several of them seemed a bit scared. Our family has done a lot of camping, hiking and things of that sort, so it was odd to witness the reactions of people that don't have that opportunity.

Down a hole into the cave.

This is a view of the hole as seen from the inside. Since I had to use a flash, most of the pictures won't actually show what it looked like while we were inside. Once we got away from the entrance, it was much darker with the only light coming from our flashlights and headlamps.

One of the walls in the first chamber.

More of the first chamber. Most of the parts of the cave had names, but I don't remember all of them.

A wee bat. We tried not to disturb them, but just imagine a bus-load of middle school kids coming into your bedroom while you're trying to sleep. Poor bats.

Some of the kids taking a rest. That's Sparkly Seacow in the green jacket.

One of the teachers waiting for the mob to pass through a part of the cave called "The Birth Canal." We had a couple of adults go first, then some kids, more adults, more kids, ending with adults.

That's me waiting for the mob to pass through the birth canal. I got to be last. Those helmets sure look dorky, but I would bet that there wasn't a single person who didn't clonk their head in that cave at least a few times.

The tail end of the mob heading for "The Birth Canal."

This is probably my favorite picture of the bunch. I think you know the name of this passage.

Some of the rocks were translucent and would glow if you put a light on them.

Sparkly Seacow crawling through "The Mole Hole." It leads into a small chamber big enough to seat about five people.

One of the other adult volunteers squeezing through a tight space.

What a great trip! It's not often one has the opportunity to see a cave like this. The cave is on private property and it's pretty amazing that the owners of the property allow schools to visit. I hope the kids appreciated it as much as I did.

Wisconsin Film Festival

2009-04-05T16:39:00.004-05:00

Ms. Geranium, Sparkly Seacow and I went to see a collection of short films as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival. The films were of varying lengths, but most were under ten minutes. I thought some were very good, some not so good, and some were just weird. We ended up sitting next to Hannah Dallman, the director, writer and producer of one of the films, "Small Comforts." She was there with her young daughter and other family members. I enjoyed her film.

Here's another good one that we saw called "This is Umberto" by Anna Krutzik.

A few more from SXSW

2009-04-04T01:42:00.010-05:00

The "Artist Pass" that allowed me to, umm..., wear an "Artist Pass", I guess. I'm not entirely sure that it gave me any special privileges beyond the ability to say I have a pass and you don't.

The only live shot I've seen of us playing at the festival. Photo courtesy of Wendy Lynn Staats of the band Sunspot. Note the Artist Pass on my left leg. Really glad I had that pass.

Here's Jeff and me doing the stupid rock pose with the hired young women, just like you see in Billboard Magazine! They were good sports about posing with us middle-aged rockers.
I would guess they weren't much older than my oldest daughter. Note that the woman in the middle is holding a picture of.... The Motor Primitives! In case you're wondering why everyone is wearing a Broadjam shirt but me, Broadjam is the company that sponsored the stage we played on and they gave us all shirts, but I had worn mine the day before. Besides, I generally don't like being an advertisement while on stage. I guess I'm just funny that way.

Photo by Robin Davies.

Still more...

2009-03-28T17:32:00.024-05:00

This is Sarah, at whose house Pam, Mike and I stayed. She was a wonderful hostess and her house is only a mile and a half from where all the action was, and on a bus line, to boot. Sure beat staying in a motel 7 miles from downtown, like poor Jeff and Robin had to do.

Here's another band we saw whilst out and about.
Economy Team from Minneapolis.
They were a hoot.

One day, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the craziness, so I took a few hours to go to McKinney Falls State Park. Following are some photos from that excursion.

Of course, there was no way I was going to drive all the way to Austin and not make the pilgrimage to the Bat Bridge. Since the bats come out at dusk, it was difficult to get any good photos, but here is the best of what I took. Every night at dusk, people gather at the Congress Street Bridge to watch. It takes about 45 minutes for the bats to finish leaving the bridge in a constant stream. Apparently, when the city of Austin renovated the bridge in 1980, they had no idea that the design would appeal to Mexican Free-Tailed bats. It took the bats a few years to discover it, but when they did, it became a popular roosting site. Initially, many Austin residents clamored to have them exterminated, but thanks to the efforts of Merlin Tuttle of Bat Conservation International, the bats were spared and the bridge is now a popular tourist destination.

This sign seems to me to be a sad commentary on the state of public education in Texas. Thank you George W. "Quite-a-few-children-left-behind" Bush. In case you can't read it, it says
"Want to teach? When can you start?"

On the way home, somewhere in Oklahoma.

Oil wells.

Jesus Christ delivers.... bread!
Funny, I never really pegged Jesus as a mini-van kind of guy.

Another one that's hard to read. The water tower reads "Moore, Home of Toby Keith."
Hell, yeah!

Hmm...

The "Low Water Bridge" in Joplin, MO.

Driving past the majestic Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

That's all I've got. I hope you enjoyed them. The life of a rock star. Pretty exciting, eh?

More from Austin

2009-03-21T12:20:00.010-05:00

Today is our daughter Sophie's birthday. Anyone who reads this blog or Ms. Geranium's blog probably knows that Sophie died as an infant. She would be 15 years old today. It doesn't feel right not to be home with my family today. Oh, well. Here are some more photos of the Austin Adventure™.

At a coffee shop, Venice is Sinking from Athens, GA. They were pretty interesting.

Pam is encouraging people to come hear us.

This dude had trouble spreading sunscreen on his back. Looked pretty painful to me.

That's where we played, on the roof of the Blind Pig Pub.

Robin getting set up.

Pam getting set up.

I don't have any photos of us while we were playing, but if I get some I'll post them.

Road trip!

2009-03-20T12:30:00.012-05:00

Here are some photos from our trip so far.

Crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa.

St. Patrick's Day in Des Moines.

In the Arbuckle Mountains, Oklahoma.

The place we are staying in Austin. Sarah's place. That's Pam and her husband, Mr. Pam, sitting out front. It's a good half-hour walk from the center of the action, but it's nice to be able to get away from the noise. Sarah is very nice. I'll try to get a picture of her before we leave. There are these really noisy birds all over the place. I think they might be mockingbirds. They have this call (one of many that they seem to have) that sounds kind of like a car alarm. I think they're mocking me.

The capitol building and a church reflected in the glass.

There is music happening everywhere. Everywhere. Did I mention everywhere? Here's some band playing in a hair salon.

I kept seeing these people on their Segways. I assume they're members of some religious cult.

Last night, Jeff, our keyboardist, sat in with The Silos. You can see just a little bit of him behind the bassist. They were very good. The best band I've seen so far in the festival.

This is the area where we will be playing later today, as it looked last night. Hope to see some familiar faces!

Well, that's it for now. I hope to post some more before we leave, but I've had some difficulty finding access to the intertubes, so we'll see.

Correction

2009-03-20T12:28:00.001-05:00

The time for our show today has been changed. We will actually be playing at 5:00 pm. All other information on the previous post is accurate. Tell all your friends!

Motor Primitives in Austin, TX

2009-02-21T14:10:00.004-06:00

>>> It's official! <<<

The Motor Primitives will be playing Austin, TX during the SXSW 2009 Music Convention at a Red Gorilla event sponsored by Broadjam.com on Friday, March 20, 2009 at 6:00 P.M. at the Blind Pig.

Uff da, that was a mouthful. I hope it made sense. Anyway, if you or anyone you know is going to be at SXSW '09 (South by Southwest), plan on being at The Blind Pig on Friday, 3/20/09 from 6:00 - 7:00. All Red Gorilla events, including this one, are free to the public.

We'll probably play this song:

A sign of the times.

2009-02-15T13:24:00.007-06:00

Recently seen in our yard.

An anonymous art critic wrote "... clearly represents the elusive and fleeting nature of peace in a violent world..."

Another claimed "... signifies the artist's internal conflict over his/her latent Homosexual and Oedipal tendencies, while also drawing attention to the artist's fear of fluffy bunnies..."

A third said "... Dang! It's freaking cold out! Gods, I hate snow! When is spring going to come? I hope those stupid groundhogs were wrong! Hurry up and take the stupid picture! ..."

I just thought it was a cool picture. What do you think?

A tip o' the hat to Pagan Sphinx for her "Shadow Shot Sunday" blog posts, which have inspired me to pay more attention to shadows.

Stimulus, anyone?

2009-02-01T03:04:00.005-06:00

Okay, all you Republicans, tell me why you oppose President Obama's stimulus plan. He's already compromised more than I think he should, given the fact that he won the election (had it gone the other way, the Republicans would have called that a mandate) and the Democrats have a majority in both the house and the senate. You say you want more tax cuts. Who will benefit from your tax cuts? Certainly not the unemployed. What is wrong with spending on programs that will not only create jobs, but will also result in services that benefit the country? I just don't understand what the problem is. Spending on infrastructure will have the dual benefit of creating jobs, which will then result in taxable income, and providing the country with much needed services. Tax cuts will not help the unemployed. The nation needs increased spending on infrastructure, which will create jobs and provide needed services, and all you Republicans are voting against it because the plan doesn't include enough tax cuts. Are you people morons, or what?

President Obama has said that we all need to work hard and sacrifice to get through this crisis. I say that the middle class and the working class have been sacrificing for decades, and the people who have benefitted from their sacrifice have been the wealthy. It's time for the wealthy to sacrifice a little. Or maybe a lot. Or maybe a whole lot. I'm so sick of the way it has been working. "Bail me out and screw the middle and working classes!" It's the American Way. I, for one, would find it very refreshing if President Obama told the Republicans to go to hell, that he is going to do what is right for the people, not what will benefit the wealthy. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice.

Appliances-SFB: Washed Up

2009-01-31T13:37:00.004-06:00

Next up from the Appliances-SFB video archives is "Washed Up". For any music geeks reading this, in this song we get a little fancy-shmancy with a meter of 5/4 for most of the song and switch to a sort of swung 4/4 during the choruses. I always found this song to be a lot of fun to play.

Some of you readers have commented that I don't need to make excuses for the audio quality. Okay, I hear you. I guess I just wanted to make it clear that this is an old recording and I did the best that I could with the source material. In my opinion, the bass is mixed a bit too loud relative to the other instruments and the keyboard and guitar not loud enough, and this is not my doing. This is just the way the show was mixed when it was taped how ever many years ago it was. I wouldn't want anyone to think that because I was the bass player I made it louder than everything else. So. Enough of that. I won't mention it ever again. Happy?

Washed Up...

Tales of the Coffee Man

2009-01-30T23:13:00.001-06:00

The school where Ms. Geranium teaches, which also happens to be our neighborhood school (both of our kids went there), does a monthly coffee fundraiser. Basically, parents, teachers and anyone else who wants to can order coffee from Just Coffee™, a local organic, fairtrade coffee wholesaler. The school gets to keep a percentage of the sales and people get to help the school by buying something they would probably be buying anyway. It's more or less a win-win situation. The only catch is that a) someone has to organize the whole thing (that would be Ms. Geranium) and, b) someone has to pick up the order, divide it up and deliver it to the appropriate places, mostly classrooms. That job usually falls on me, in large part because if I don't do it, Ms. Geranium will have to and she actually has a job. Even before I joined the ranks of the unemployed, I would usually take an extended lunch break to make the delivery, but now that I'm not working, it's that much easier.

Today was delivery day. I enter the school, sign in and start my rounds. Of course, first stop is Ms. Geranium's room, partly because it pleases me to begin and end at her room and use it as a base station for my operation, but also because many people don't fill in the "Your Child's Room Number" part of the form, and I can ask her "what room is Bizktrygdslynka Qlakwiczpgglfggl in?" (Many parents don't seem to have the knowin' of the writin' good these days.) I also enjoy saying hello to the kids in the school, some of whom were once in Ms. Geranium's kindergarten or first grade class and are now fifth graders. It's also nice to see the members of the staff who I may know as former teachers of my kids, or, in the case of one teacher, is a former band-mate of mine. The kids always greet me enthusiastically -- "Hi, Mr. Ed" or "Hi, Coffee Man." Sometimes they all crowd around saying "I like coffee! Can I have some coffee?" or "Are you Ms. G.'s husband?" Once (and I'm sure this made Ms. Geranium feel quite good) a kid asked "Is she your mom?"

As I was arriving with the coffee, one of Ms. G.'s kids ran up and said "I made a picture for you!" On the right, there is a tree with a monkey in it. To the left, there is a crocodile with a fox riding on its back. The fox is carrying bananas on its back and a book in its mouth. It all has something to do with a story about how the fox and the monkey somehow tricked the crocodile into carrying the fox somewhere to get bananas for the monkey. I suspect the crocodile probably intended to eat the fox and/or monkey, but that's pure speculation on my part. Anyway, I was quite touched.

One of the positive aspects of being un- or under-employed has been the opportunity to be a part of the school community, if only in a very small way. I always get a kick out of it.

Appliances-SFB: Mr. Ugly

2009-01-24T01:03:00.002-06:00

This one was probably one of our most popular songs. What more is there to say? Call me Mr. Ugly...

End of an era?

2009-01-21T18:53:00.014-06:00

Hard to believe, but he's finally gone. Hopefully the next time I post about the little criminal, he'll be on trial for war crimes, treason, etc., etc., but right now I just need to say one last thing about Li'l Criminal Bush.

For quite a while, as Bush approached the end of his term, people were continuously writing and talking about his "failed" administration. Those people who think he was a failure are fooling themselves, or just not paying attention. The problem is with the basic premise that Bush actually wanted the wars to end, or that at he wanted what was best for the country. The truth is, he never gave a rat's posterior for anything or anyone besides himself and his cronies. Failure? Anything but. The only thing I can think of that he failed at was privatizing Social Security. He succeeded at everything else he put his hand to, thanks, in part, to the complicity and cowardice of the Democratic Party. Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan? Endless war equals endless profits for Halliburton, Blackwater, KBR, the Carlyle Group and more. What incentive is there to end the wars when he, his daddy, Dick Cheney and their pals will continue to rake in the cash as long as we're pouring tax dollars into war. He succeeded in raping the Constitution and giving more power to Corporate America. He succeeded in diverting the wealth of the nation to the ultra-rich at the expense of the middle and working classes. Bailout of the banking system? The largest theft in U.S. history. A shrinking middle class and broken economy is yet another opportunity to consolidate power and wealth. The list goes on and on, and I haven't even mentioned the thousands upon thousands of innocent people he has killed or the lives he has destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everything he has done in his time as president has given huge sums of money and more power to the wealthiest at the expense of the nation as a whole. Failure? I really don't think so. I bet he's feeling pretty good about his accomplishments right now.

Many people are puzzled by the lack of pardons at the end of his administration. I figure it could be due to one or both of the following:

a) He doesn't feel he owes anyone anything and they can all go to hell for all he cares. Feed 'em to the sharks!

b) Remember those signing statements of which he was so fond? Maybe he doesn't need to pardon anyone; they're all going to be protected by some some act or other that he snuck in while everyone was paying attention to the search for WMD, trying to buy duct tape for their windows, or something.

I have a feeling that we won't know the full extent of the damage he's done for years to come, if ever.

I am now removing this photo from my sidebar. I don't ever want to see the fucker's face again unless it's at his trial.

Appliances-SFB: The Little Fella

2009-01-19T23:44:00.004-06:00

One of our more "pop" numbers, The Little Fella. Enjoy. Or ignore. Your choice.
I would apologize for the weird audio quality, but it's beyond my control. That's public access television for you, I guess. I tweaked the audio as best as I could without spending oodles of time on it. If I had more time, I may have been able to fix some of the dropouts 'n' stuff, but that opens a whole 'nother can of wax. Er..., ball of worms. Or something. In all fairness, I'm sure the engineers had their hands full trying to get decent sound in a live situation, particularly with a group that liked to play as loud as we did. It's not as if there was a large production budget. It was basically set up, play, and hope it looks and sounds okay. So, there you have it.

Folk Ball, 2009

2009-01-16T19:24:00.002-06:00

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program of shameless self-promotion to bring you..., ummm..., more shameless self-promotion, I guess.

Folk Ball 2009 is rapidly approaching and, if you live anywhere near Madison, WI, or need an excuse to visit, the weekend of 1/23 - 1/25 would be a very good time.

Folk Ball runs from Friday, 1/23 through Sunday, 1/25, but, if all you care about is "when will Ed be playing?", then Saturday, 1/24 is the date to put on your calendar. Early in the evening (second on the list of bands), I will be playing with Veseliyka, who play traditional Bulgarian music. Finishing off the evening, I'll be playing with The Reptile Palace Orchestra, who play, ummm, traditional music in a non-traditional manner. Also on the schedule for Saturday night are Orkestar Bez Ime and Sloboda, both of which are worth the price of admission all on their own.

Just because I'm plugging Saturday night for my own personal reasons, don't think that it won't be worth your while to attend Friday night's dance concert, too. On Friday you can groove to the sounds of Tri Brodovchedki, Cajun Strangers, Yid Vicious and Izvor Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. All of them rock. Seriously. Or, if your tastes take you elsewhere, there will be contra dancing to the music of Duck For The Oyster in Tripp Commons. But that's not all! There will also be a Hungarian Tanchaz (village-style "dance-house") with music by Százska in the Beefeaters room of the Memorial Union.

But, wait! That's not all. In addition to the Friday and Saturday night dance parties, there will be workshops on Bulgarian/Balkan dance by Yves Moreau, Cross-step waltz by Jeannette Watts, Métis Traditional Dance by Dennis Grove, Serbian Folkdance by Michael Malich, Family dance with Duck For The Oyster, African Drumming with Eku Emmanuel & Atimevu Drum &
Dance, West African Dance with Abu Muhammed with Atimevu Drum & Dance, and A Capella Singing with Tri Bratovchedki & Friends.

Admission is free, although it is through generous donations that this event is made possible. Come on down and dance your brains out.

Here is a clip of The Reptile Palace Orchestra playing at last year's Folk Ball:

Vlad the Sea Kitten

2009-01-16T12:45:00.003-06:00

I made a Sea Kitten! Those wacky PETA People!

2009-01-16T01:34:00.001-06:00

Appliances-SFB: The Pest

2009-01-13T01:55:00.005-06:00

Hello, everybody. I haven't been posting much in recent weeks. I'm still alive, although sometimes I wonder about the definition of "alive". Recently, much of the energy I would normally have for blogging has been devoted to getting all the darned Appliances-SFB footage that recently came into my possession formatted and edited for posting on the YouTubes. I tried to do it myself for awhile and got very frustrated with the lack of information available on how to make it work, so my brother enlisted the aid of someone who knows more about this sort of thing than I. Nothing came of that, for reasons I don't fully understand, but it sounds as if real life got in the way, so I'm back to doing it myself. One reason I'm putting them on the YouTubes is that they allow larger files than Blogger, so the quality can also be higher. In addition, posting them only here on Enriched Geranium seems to be frustrating those few people who are looking for A-SFB videos on the internets and they are having trouble finding them. Due to my lack of knowledge on the subject, and possibly due to the shortcomings of the software I have found that doesn't require laying out any cash, it's a very slow process (truly slow, I have to let the computer run over night just to load one song before I can edit it and add titles and all that), but it's coming along. I have succeeded in getting almost all the clips that I have posted here up on the YouTubes (just search for "Appliances-SFB" if you're so inclined) and now I have a new one, too, just uploaded tonight. Hopefully, someday soon, I will be done with this project and get on to something else. I think I have eight more to go. It will be good to have them all up there for posterity, but it's a tedious undertaking.

So, here for your enjoyment is Appliances-SFB performing "The Pest".

Appliances-SFB: The Squire

2009-01-08T00:09:00.003-06:00

Time for another installment from Appliances-SFB.
I bring to you "The Squire".

While the cat's away...

2009-01-01T20:17:00.003-06:00

... the mice will... uhmm... take care of the dog, two cats and a guinea pig?

Huh? !Boring post alert!

Ms. Geranium and Sparkly Seacow have been out of town since Saturday, visiting Ms. Geranium's sister near Springwater, NY. So what did I do with my time since I had the house to myself? Wild parties? Let all the dirty dishes pile up? Leave all the kitchen cabinet doors open? Finish off the dreaded bathroom?

Sorry to disappoint, but none of the above. This is how my week went.

Saturday: Take the two travelers to the bus that goes from Madison to the train station in Chicago. Take Molly, the Official Spokesdog of the Impeachment Movement™ to the Bark Park. Since we had so much snow in the previous week or two and it had been raining all day, the bark park was like a giant dog poop flavored slushy (thank the gods for rubber boots!) Then, off to Ms. Geranium's family's holiday get-together, after which I went to my mother's house to see my brother and sister while they were still in town. No sooner did I get there than my other brother calls to tell me that our friend Carlos, who hasn't lived in Madison since 1978, was at his house for an hour and did I want to stop by? Off to Bill's house to see Carlos, hang out for a short time, drive Carlos to the place he was staying, back to my mom's house to pick up Cinderbelle's things and drive her home. I got back home sometime after midnight.

So you really want to read more? It doesn't get any better than this. (That was meant as a warning, by the way.)

Sunday: Of course I had to watch the last Packer game of the season, particularly since, win or lose, they would make NFL history. If they lost, they would have had the questionable honor of being the only team in NFL history to lose to a 0-15 team. If they won, they got to be part of helping the Detroit Lions achieve(?) the first winless record since the NFL went to a 16-game season. Fortunately for Packer fans, The Mighty Pack came through, although they made a valiant effort at losing the game. Bark Park (totally frozen over, footing is treacherous). Get home feeling like I'm getting sick, decide to bail on Veseliyka rehearsal that night. Watch a movie with Cinderbelle and go to bed early.

Monday: Lunch date with an old high school friend who comes back to Madison about once a year. Bark Park. Motor Primitives rehearsal.

Tuesday: Two appointments. Bark Park (still icy). Happy hour gig with the Motor Primitives at the High Noon Saloon. Dinner after the gig.

Wednesday: Get up and practice some material for the evening's gig with The Reptile Palace Orchestra in Decorah, IA. Bark Park. Deliver dog and dog accessories to my mother's house since no one would be home while away. Get home, pack, drive to Decorah, set up, play for three or four hours, pack up, arrive at hotel around 3:00 a.m. People often seem to have negative impressions of Iowa, but I found the drive to be quite scenic and Decorah to be a picturesque and pleasant town. We played at the Elk's club and had a good turnout. People were extremely nice and seemed to really appreciate having us there. They put us up in what we were told was the best hotel in Decorah, too. Certainly a step up from most I've experienced.

Thursday (today): Get up after about four hours of sleep, drive back to Madison. Unload car. Pick up dog, have a small dinner with my mom. Home.

Sometime tomorrow I pick up the intrepid travelers.

I've probably forgotten to include a few things, but that's about it. I really know how to have a good time, don't you think? I'm tired.

Happy New Year, everyone!

On the second day of Christmas...

2008-12-26T19:50:00.007-06:00

It's probably apparent that I have chosen to observe Hogswatch rather than Christmas this year, but I simply must share my favorite Christmas song of all time. Today, on the second day of Christmas, I invite you to enjoy The Twelve Days of Christmas by Bob and Doug McKenzie.

Happy Hogswatch!

2008-12-25T13:23:00.002-06:00

Happy Hogswatch, everybody!

Bailouts

2008-12-24T00:30:00.009-06:00

*Note*

For this entire post, when I write "compensation", "income", "payment" or anything similar, I mean salary, bonuses, severance pay, incentives, dividends, stock options, or any other convoluted manner those rich bastards can come up with which ultimately refers to how much money they are making.

The economy is in the crapper. The federal government is throwing huge sums of our cash at rich bastards, but what's in it for us? Where is my bailout? Where is your bailout? Where is all that money going? "We choose not to disclose that information." Someone help me, please.

It appears that our government is going to throw money at all sorts of rich bastards in order to save our "cratering" economy. Most of us have no say in the matter, but, given the fact that these bailouts seem to be a foregone conclusion, here is what I would like to see happen:

1) Any corporation on the receiving end of federal bailout funds shall not pay any CEO, or any other employee, more than $100,000 between now and 12/31/09. Should anyone on the payroll of the aforementioned bailed-out corporation receive income from any other source, their compensation from the bailed-out corporation shall be reduced by the amount received from those other sources.

2) No CEO or other employee shall be paid more than five times the amount earned by any other employee. (Let's just say the lowest paid employee earns $30,000 in 2009. No one, including the CEO [reduced for income/dividends/etc from any other source] could receive more than $150,000. "But wait!" cry the CEOs. "I could never live on $150,000/year!" Deal with it. Ask the employee who is earning $30,000/year how he/she manages. Maybe you'll learn something.)

3) All existing unions must be recognized, and employees shall form a union should a union not already exist.

4) Layoffs and/or decreases in the number of unionized employees shall result in reduced CEO compensation down to and/or below the wage paid the lowest paid employee, according to a formula as yet to be devised. (In other words, a CEO can end up earning less than the lowest paid employee if he or she totally screws things up. Waah, waah, waah.)

Okay, all you free-market trolls, have at it. I'm sure that my ideas reek of socialism and the end of the universe. As if we're not all being flushed down the toilet already.

Time for some yoga.

2008-12-22T23:35:00.002-06:00

I saw this at Sorghum Crow's General Store. I thought it was too good not to post here as well. I've seen Ms. Stiles' yoga video for Sarah Palin, but this one was new to me. Enjoy the video, and when you're finished, skip on over to Sorghum Crow's blog.

Introducing...

2008-12-22T06:00:00.001-06:00

I'd like to introduce all my readers (all four of you, but it's about quantity not quality, right? Wait a minute, let me think about that... oh, the heck with it.)

Start again...

Introducing (drum roll, please...) The Hum of the Smoke Machine! So far, this new blog by Singing Bear appears to be mostly about music. There is a lot of interesting stuff for your perusal, and I expect there is more to come. So, please take some time to check out The Hum of the Smoke Machine. You'll be glad you did.

Happy Solstice!

2008-12-21T14:26:00.011-06:00

Happy Solstice! Here are some wintry photos from last Friday after we got about a foot of snow.

In this photo, I'm looking for a place to put the snow that has my car immobilized. The darned plow could have plowed the snow toward the other side of the street where there is no parking, making it easier for people to shovel out, but no, they have to bury all the cars. I'm pretty sure they do it on purpose. It's two days later, residents have moved their cars to other streets that have been plowed clear, and they still haven't plowed away all the mountains of snow on our little street that are the result of having to dig the cars out. I think they're going to wait until people start parking on this street again so they can bury us all once more.
(Photo: Ms. Geranium)

Ms. Geranium using a shovel that isn't her not-so-trusty snow shovel (the stupid piece-of-crap plastic handle broke off of her shovel of choice.)

Sparkly Seacow questioning the legality of child labor, the valiant Molly at her side.
(Photo: Ms. Geranium)

Jen, our neighbor. Why aren't her kids shoveling?

Who can resist drawing in the snow? Certainly not Ms. Geranium.

Nor I.

Happy Solstice!

Excuse me, I think I'm going to be sick...

2008-12-17T02:07:00.003-06:00

Seriously, this made me come awfully close to blowing chow all over my keyboard. Watch it if you dare... and if Blogger is keeping you from experiencing the horror in widescreen, or it loads super slowly, double click on it for extra barfaliciousness!

Oopsies!

2008-12-10T17:05:00.006-06:00

This just in... astronomers determine Christmas should really be on June 17. Using software to reconstruct the positions of heavenly bodies, they found that on June 17, 2 B.C., Venus and Jupiter lined up in such a way that from Earth, they would have appeared as a single, very bright star. In other words, Jesus was born two years Before Christ. Now, I call that a miracle. Of course, if you're one of those wacky Christians that believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the earth is only 6,000 years old, you probably won't believe those god-hatin' astronomers, either. Read about it here.

Kind of makes you wonder if Wal-Mart and their ilk will try to find a way to make June 17 an excuse to get people to buy lots of useless crap, I mean consumer goods.

Johnny Clegg

2008-12-09T23:44:00.002-06:00

My lovely and talented wife, Ms. Geranium (a.k.a. Luminiferous Ether, a.k.a. Suzy) sort of went on a Johnny Clegg jag a few days ago, which brought back a lot of memories. One of the most amazing concerts I've ever experienced was Johnny Clegg and Savuka on Halloween Night, 1990, at The Barrymore Theater in Madison, WI. The combination of incredible musicians performing great songs at a high energy level, and great sound in the house (which, unfortunately, from my experience at that particular venue, turns out to be a rare occurrence) was incredible in and of itself. Add to it the fact that much of the audience was in costume and dancing, and you have an extra element of atmosphere on top of the performance. It was an other-worldly experience.

For anyone who is not familiar with Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka and Savuka, I feel it's important to be aware that, while Clegg was born in England, he grew up mostly in South Africa. As the child of a single mother, he was often left to his own devices and spent much of his time with local Zulu musicians and dancers. People frequently mistakenly assume that, like Paul Simon, he borrowed from South African music. The truth of the matter is that he is South African and incorporated other styles, such as Celtic folk and western pop, into the traditional music he grew up playing. Clegg ended up in prison for playing in a mixed-race group. Juluka was banned from South African radio stations for being too political and for being multiracial. Ironically (and stupidly), they also found themselves blacklisted in Europe for playing in South Africa, their home country, at a time when musicians around the world were boycotting South Africa.

The first recording I ever heard by Johnny Clegg was Scatterlings, the first Juluka album to be released in the U.S. I was working in a record store and it was a time when "World Music" wasn't even a category. Apparently, Juluka was all the rage in Europe and Warner Brothers Records in the U.S. had acquired the rights to the group. Scatterlings was a minor hit with the more adventurous record buyers and was followed by a second album, Stand Your Ground, the sales of which were disappointing to the good people at Warner Brothers. I never even had the opportunity to hear that one at the time. Nothing was heard from Juluka on the U.S. scene after that. I assumed they were gone, done for, and they disappeared from my radar. When Johnny Clegg formed Savuka, I didn't immediately make the connection between Juluka and Savuka. Shadow Man was the first Savuka album I heard, and it didn't occur to me that it was the same vocalist, guitarist and bandleader as Juluka until I went back and listened to Third World Child, and thought, "hey, they're doing a Juluka song!" Doh! I loved both albums and when they went on tour in 1989, I was quite pleased to have the chance to see them. They played at a place called Alpine Valley (the same place where Stevie Ray Vaughan died in a helicopter crash), opening for Tracy Chapman and Bob Dylan. Ms. Geranium and I left during Tracy Chapman's set (missing Dylan completely - how many people can say, or admit, that they went to a Bob Dylan concert and left before he even went on stage?) so we could beat the rush getting out of the parking lot and get home to relieve our babysitter.

While the music, itself, is worth the cost of an album, his lyrics also bear listening to. Songs about injustice, history, loss, death, suffering, love and, yes, even soccer. I sometimes reflect on how inaccurate the media's depiction of real life actually is and how it creates unreasonable expectations in so many people's minds. Thus, I found the chorus in Don't Walk Away to be rather meaningful:

This is not a movie
Not a dream
What you see is what you get
This is not a movie
It's for real
You have to face it in the end -
The hard side of love

(Just ask Ms. Geranium about the hard side of love. Uff da! The woman is a saint.)

Speaking as a bass player, I've seen a lot of the famous hotshots. I've seen Jaco, I've seen Chris Squire, Flea and Billy Sheehan. Great players, from a technical point of view, but I have only seen a few bassists that have really grabbed me. Richard Davis is one. Percy Jones (of Brand X and Brian Eno, among others) John Wetton (King Crimson, 1973 - 1975) and Mark Abraham (Enter The Haggis) are three others that come to mind. Savuka's Solly Letwaba would be in that group, and not the least of them. Letwaba died in 2000 at the age of 36 of complications resulting from tuberculosis. He was one of the most exciting bassists I've seen. His death is a great loss to his family and the music world. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to see him play not just once, but three times.

Unfortunately, Solly Letwaba is not the only member of Savuka to die an untimely death. Percussionist and dancer Dudu Mntowaziwayo Ndlovu (Dudu Zulu) "...was assassinated in a very convoluted conspiracy relating to a taxi war that unfolded in his area in 1993. The killers were never brought to book and of the five people who were present when the shots were fired at night outside his homestead, four have subsequently been killed in tribal feuds and taxi wars." [Quote from an interview with Johnny Clegg posted on his website.]

Clegg, too, has been a target of violence in his home country. He still lives in South Africa and has invested much of his money in working to provide clean water for all in addition to an organization which recycles computer components. He doesn't seem to tour the U.S. very much any more, but plays to packed arenas in South Africa and Europe.

Despite the fact that Clegg, his band mates and their country have seen and experienced loss and suffering beyond the imagining of most people, their music is still full of life and joy. Here is a clip from the tour on which I first saw them. I remember them playing this song (Don't Walk Away) and being blown away by the fact that, among other things, the dude could sing while executing some rather physically demanding dance moves. Enjoy.

The Memingless Mean

2008-11-30T22:29:00.007-06:00

Taggged by Luminiferous Ether with the Meminingless, err, Mannigles, ummm, Meaningless Meme. Hah! I managed to get it right on only the third try! Here we go... The Meaningless Meme!

1. Five names you go by:
a) Ed
b) Daddy
c) Papi (or maybe it's spelled poppi, I'll have to ask Cinderbelle.)
d) Dog Park Guy (most often spoken in dog).
e) Sir (a sure sign you're getting old.)

2. Three things you are wearing right now:
a) My moose hat (okay, I admit I put it on just now so I could say I'm wearing it.)
b) Flannel lined jeans (hey, it's Wisconsin!)
c) Sea horse print boxers.

3. Two things you want very badly at the moment:
a) Somebody else's bank account.
b) To think of one other thing.

4. Three people who will probably fill this out:
a) Jess Wundrun
b) Gomonkeygo
c) Pagan Sphinx

5. Two things you did last night:
a) Played a gig with The Reptile Palace Orchestra at the Mabel Tainter Center For the Arts in Menomonie, Wisconsin.
b) Had a post-gig soak in the hot tub in the Menomonie Country Inn & Suites.

6. Two things you ate today:
a) An omelet at the Norske Nook in Osseo, WI.
b) Roasted, salted cashews from the Menomonie Food Co-op.

7. Two people you last talked to on the phone:
a) Sparkly Seacow's friend Violet's mom Felina.
b) Some guy named Todd who called to talk to my lovely and talented wife.

8. Two things you are going to do tomorrow:
a) Work on the damned bathroom, unless something else comes up.
b) Take the dog to the bark park.

9. Two longest car rides:
a) Madison, WI to Key West, FL with a 12-year old and a five-year old.
b) The five-minute drive to the bark park with an excited dog moaning and barking in my ear.

10. Two of your favorite beverages:
a) Beer. Particularly a nice, bitter IPA.
b) Fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice.

And finally, a clip from a favorite movie.
Since vampire films seem to be all the rage right now, here's a clip from my all-time favorite in the genre: Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre.

Appliances-SFB: Rockin' in the Free World

2008-11-28T17:15:00.005-06:00

We didn't do very much material by other people, but here's our interpretation of Neil Young's Rockin' in the Free World. If you weren't aware of the fact that Young wrote this song during George H. W. Bush's term in office, you might think it applied to George W. Bush's reign of terror. Not much difference between the two. Only such catch phrases as

"a thousand points of light" and "a kinder, gentler..." differentiate one Bush from the other. I suppose one might also argue that HW was mean and smart while W is mean and stupid.

Since it's the day after Thanksgiving as I post this, and people are prone to talk about those things for which they are thankful at this time of year, I'll just say that I'm thankful that soon (but not soon enough) we'll be seeing the backside of the worst and most criminal president this country has ever had. Here's to hoping he ends up doing prison time for his crimes.

On this song, William Siebecker takes over on vocals while Tom Laskin joins in on guitar. I particularly enjoy Siebecker's vocal improvisations on the last verse and chorus. I also find it a bit frustrating that, in all these videos, Siebecker's guitar is too low in the mix and it's hard to hear what he's doing much of the time. I always felt he was (and still is) a brilliant guitarist and ought to be mixed up front. Oh, well. It was a low budget undertaking (like, free) and I'm glad that this document of the group exists, so I shouldn't complain.

A great song by a great songwriter. I don't know if we did it justice, but here it is.

Appliances-SFB: Stop F#ckin' Around

2008-11-22T18:38:00.004-06:00

Warning! Although most of our songs were obscenity free, this one is not. NSFW! At least, not if the F-word is a problem. No nudity or other potentially offensive images, though. (Sorry)

This song seemed to be a real hit with most of our audience. Maybe it was due to the fact that it was so sensitive. I don't know.

Appliances-SFB: #2

2008-11-14T01:34:00.009-06:00

Here's the second installment of the Appliances-SFB which is called, coincidentally, "#2".

One thing that might not be readily apparent to people who are new to A-SFB is that, in my opinion, our music was full of humor. That's not to say that we considered ourselves to be a joke, but we also didn't take ourselves, or the genre, very seriously. At the time, there were an awful lot of bands out there who appeared to be quite serious about the whole "rock" or "punk rock" image. White pancake makeup with black eye-liner, or whatever. Occasionally we would "dress up" (I believe there are some photos of me in leopard spotted stretch pants floating around somewhere- $5 on the clearance rack in the women's department at some store or other - how could I resist?), but it was in the spirit of having a good time rather than trying to be particularly cool. Don't get me wrong, we liked to "Rock", but we were also aware of, and enjoyed, the silliness of it all. I, for one, never felt particularly cool; I always felt like an outsider even among the people for whom we played, but I enjoyed playing and the people who came to hear us were almost always nice people.

I tried to use iMovie's built-in graphic EQ to bring the bass down and accentuate the guitar and keyboards. I think it helped some, but there's only so much you can do to fix a stereo mix, particularly when you're just throwing a file into some software and clicking on stuff, hoping for the best. It seems to me that some video quality was lost in the process, and I don't know what the explanation is, aside from the fact that I've read that iMovie is a "lossy" video format, whatever that means. I'll have to look into that.

So, here's A-SFB playing #2. Once again, the performance is not perfect, and I only have myself to blame for that, but I always tried to play spontaneously. If I had written parts that I played the same way every time, or if I was a better musician, maybe I wouldn't have made so many mistakes, but at the time I felt that it was better if I didn't know exactly what I would do on any given song on any given day. There was a basic structure to a song and I tended to try to play around with that structure without ever having my part set in stone. That's still pretty much my approach to playing music, for better or worse.

What's wrong with this picture?

2008-11-10T18:15:00.004-06:00

Luminiferous Ether posted this already, but it bears reposting here. Huffington Post had an advertisement for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.a. The Mormon Church). Since the Mormons were instrumental in the passing of California's Proposition 8 and most, if not all, of the writers for Huffington Post opposed Proposition 8, it seems rather odd that they would post ads for the LDS. If this bothers you, you can let them know here:

james@huffingtonpost.com

I'd like to see them get buried with complaints.

Help! I'm in the wrong Trouser Leg!

2008-11-03T23:51:00.018-06:00

I suppose I should explain myself. It makes my head hurt, and I will undoubtedly fail most heinously, but here goes.

Some scientists believe that everything that can happen actually does happen*. Terry Pratchett refers to this as the Trouser Legs of Time. There is a moment when reality splits and one reality heads down one leg while the other heads down the other leg. For instance, let's say you are the Vice President of the United States and you go on a hunting outing with a buddy or two. Whoosh! A bird flies up out of the brush, you aim your gun and... one of your hunting buddies has gone and put his face between your gun and the bird. Two things can happen here; you empty both barrels into your buddy's face, or you hold your fire and don't shoot your buddy in the face. These scientists I was talking about earlier claim that both things actually happen, but the universe splits at this point and becomes two universes. In universe A you have just made hamburger out of your hunting partner's face and created numerous jobs in the stand-up comedy industry. In universe B, you held your fire, didn't shoot your pal in the face, and now all those would-be stand-up comedians are standing in line at soup kitchens. These Trouser Legs of Time occur an infinite number of times, creating an infinite number of universes:

The Birth of a Universe.

Trouser Leg A) I think another drink would be a very good idea, and I bet wearing my underpants on my head would make a daring fashion statement.

**OR**

Trouser Leg B) Thanks, but I'll pass on that drink and go home.

Shazam! Instant universe.

Somehow, I seem to have found myself in the wrong Trouser Leg. One day, I was living in a universe where all Republicans and quite a few Democrats seemed to be enamoured of that Trouser Leg's version of the President of the United States, whose name is George W. Bush. (In my home Trouser Leg, Bush came to power by stealing not one, but two elections. Hard to believe, but that's what really happened.) Bush could do anything he wanted and Republicans and Democrats did what he said. Yes, it's true. "President" Bush would tell the country we had to go to war, and Republicans and Democrats alike would reply "When can we start?" Rape the Constitution using something cynically called The Patriot Act? Yes, Mr. President! Require public schools to spend money on federally mandated testing while withholding funding to pay for the tests and cynically calling it No Child Left Behind? Yes, Mr. President! There are even more examples, but you probably wouldn't believe me.

Then, one day, I realized that the universe had changed, but I can't say exactly when it happened. I started to notice that both Democrats and Republicans were in agreement that this Trouser Leg's President Bush was The Worst President Ever, and they've always believed that. None of them ever supported Bush. They blame him for getting the country into an illegal war through lies and misinformation. They hold him responsible for policies that created our current economic crisis. The Republican candidate for president goes to great lengths to point out that he is a maverick who has opposed, not only his own party, but, by golly, also, too, President Bush, at every turn. 'Cuz he's a maverick and he's surrounded himself with a team of mavericks. (In my own Trouser Leg, this same candidate, in his own words, agreed with Bush over 90% of the time! It's true!) I hope that things turn out better in this Trouser Leg than they do in my own. When I was still there, the future was looking pretty grim.

So, you see, I can only conclude that, somehow, I jumped from one Trouser Leg to another. If I ever figure out how I did it, there may be a Nobel Prize in my future. It probably has something to do with Quantum.

The Turtle Moves.
(Apologies to Terry Pratchett.)

* Would that be an awesome job, or what?

Scientist A: Hey, man, what if, like, everything that can happen, actually, like, you know, does happen? Like, we could take your cat and put it in this box, and, like, until you open the box, it would be, like, alive and dead at, like, the same time?

Scientist B: Whoa!! Dude!!! And, like, reality would, like, split into two different universes that exist, like, simultaneously, you know? Only, it wouldn't happen until we, like, opened the box? 'Cause of Quantum, you know? That's crazy!!!!! Pass me that joint!

Scientist C: Dude, you look, like, totally awesome with those underpants on your head!!!!! Pass me that joint!!!!!

Cat D: MMROWWWRRR! (Translation: How's this for a new universe; you morons quit trying to put me in that box and feed me before I shred you to ribbons?)

Appliances-SFB: For Kids' Sake

2008-10-31T00:01:00.007-05:00

As any regular readers of this blog are undoubtedly aware, I once played in a group called Appliances-SFB. For me, playing with A-SFB was an experience unlike any I've had before or since. Once drummer Meredith Young joined the group, we played with the same personnel for, I think, 16 years or so. When a group plays together for that long, it develops a level of familiarity which can resemble musical telepathy. Every show we played was an experiment in chaos. Sometimes we were able to control the chaos, sometimes the chaos controlled us, and in those cases we would follow it and see where it led. The end result was sometimes brilliant, sometimes not, but it was always an adventure and an awful lot of fun. Well, whatever, it's all ancient history now.

I recently acquired a copy, on DVD, of a video made in, I think, 1991 for the show Alternative Playground on Madison's public access station, WYOU. I thought it would be easy to edit it into individual songs and post it on the intertubes. Hah! I assumed it would be easy to find people who knew how to perform such feats of digital wizardry. Hah! I had no idea how difficult it would be to figure out how to transfer from DVD to any other video format. At first, I didn't even know it was necessary. In the absence of actual instruction, advice or information, through trial and error I have finally, I hope, succeeded in getting one song edited and encoded in a format where the audio and video will actually play in sync once uploaded. (From the previous sentence, you might surmise that other attempts were made which were less than successful. If so, you are correct.)

It's not the best performance, and I'm not entirely sure what the videographers were attempting to achieve, but here it is in all its imperfect glory. I hope to post other songs from this session as I get around to editing and encoding them for the intertubes. For the time being, this is, as far as I know, an Enriched Geranium exclusive. I hope you enjoy Appliances-SFB playing For Kids' Sake.

[Note: Appliances-SFB was a LOUD rock band. As such, it simply isn't possible to achieve anything remotely resembling the live experience unless you play this loud. Very loud. Ear-splittingly, chest-thumpingly, wall-rattlingly loud. I know, we're all older than we used to be (funny how that works) so don't hurt yourselves. Since this recording was mixed for television back in the days before home entertainment centers with surround sound and stuff were very common, if you listen to it through a good sound system, the bass will be louder than it was intended to be relative to the other instruments. Using the vocals as a reference point, I think the bass is too loud, the drums just about right and the guitar and keyboards too quiet, but, unfortunately, that can't be helped.]

Appliances-SFB are/were:
Tom Laskin: vocals
William Siebecker: guitar
Meredith Young: drums
Bill Feeny: keyboards
Ed Feeny: bass

Unfortunately, I don't know the names of all the people responsible for the making of this video. To the best of my recollection, Frank Miale was one of the producers/mixers/somethingers. There were others. My apologies to all those who are uncredited. If I find out more names, I will add them.

It's baa-aaack!

2008-10-26T13:23:00.001-05:00

It was up. It was down. Now it's up again. Enjoy it while you can.

Oops.

2008-10-24T19:34:00.004-05:00

Dang. I posted a video in an attempt to lighten things up a little bit, and the video has been removed from the YouTubes. It showed Adolf Hitler and his staff planning a party. The band they had hired had to cancel. Someone on Hitler's staff hired a jazz band instead, and Hitler hates jazz. Humorous dialogue, in subtitle form, ensued. I thought it was pretty funny. At least Jess Wundrun got a chance to see it. Sorry about that.

Adolf's Party

2008-10-24T13:57:00.006-05:00

Sorry if that last post was too much of a downer. I'm very concerned about the upcoming election and hope that if enough other people are concerned, it won't be stolen.

Now it's time for a little levity! Apparently, the following video has been making the rounds amongst jazz musicians. Thanks to my bandmate Greg for passing it on to me. Warning! Contains adult language.

McCain will "win" the election.

2008-10-23T16:21:00.007-05:00

I hate to say it, but McCain is going to "win" the election. At least, if you can call stealing the election winning. I hope I'm wrong, but I fear I am not. The following video gives details of how the election in 2004 was stolen as well as evidence that it is happening again. For example, early voters in West Virginia are reporting that their votes cast for Obama showed up on the computer screens as votes cast for McCain. Also included is a report of photographic evidence that in 2004, in 18 precincts in Ohio, approximately 200,000 ballots for Kerry were doctored to show votes for Bush. These ballots, despite a court order to the contrary, were later destroyed. Sarah Palin and others belittle such findings as "backward finger-pointing." Many people, particularly those who were happy with the end result (republicans) as well as those who don't want to believe such things are possible, are quick to say we should get over it and move on. As I see it, if there is definite proof, and it sounds like there is, that illegal activity took place, the responsible parties should be in prison and steps should be taken to guarantee this never happens again. Here is Mark Crispin Miller on Democracy Now! detailing some of the techniques the Republican Party is using to ensure a McCain "victory." Transcript here.

What can we do? I don't know, but maybe if you're going to be voting somewhere where they will be using computerized voting machines, you could bring a video camera with you and take some footage of the screen while you vote. Any other ideas?

Mail!

2008-10-21T23:31:00.006-05:00

Whiskeymarie had a post where she said, if people sent her their addresses, she would send them some mail. Oh, yeah, and she would sell their addresses to the CIA. I figured the CIA already knows where I live, so what the heck? I sent her my address and a few days ago this arrived in the mail.

It's one of those postcards where, when you move it around, you see two different pictures. It didn't scan all that well (I tried moving the scanner around while it was scanning, but it didn't seem to work, nor does moving your computer screen from side to side, so don't bother,) but one view says "ROCK 'N" at the top and shows a picture of Elvis standing up while singing soulfully into the mic, and the other says "ROLL" at the top and shows Elvis kneeling in a very rock 'n' roll pose, while still singing into the mic. Whiskymarie clearly put some thought into her choice of cards, seeing as I'm a musician-type, and all. Getting a piece of mail that isn't a bill or solicitation brightened up my day. Thanks, Whisky!

Nick Lowe @ The Barrymore, Madison, WI, 10/12/08

2008-10-13T10:26:00.001-05:00

Ms. Geranium and I went to see Nick Lowe last night. Third-row seats, to boot (thanks, Pam & Mike!) I enjoyed it quite a bit. I must admit, when I was younger, I didn't really appreciate Lowe's music. Tastes change, however, and I have come to believe that Nick Lowe is one of the world's greatest living song writers in addition to being a good performer. It was a real treat to see him in person. He has a gift for writing catchy, memorable songs and is a very clever lyricist. His songs about lost love, loneliness, etc, often have a humorous twist and he isn't afraid to write songs that might seem a bit creepy and twisted to some listeners (I Trained Her To Love Me, for example.) He played a number of songs I hadn't heard before and many of them caused me to chuckle. There were moments when, half a phrase away, the realization of the rhyme he was leading up to made me laugh.

Ms. Geranium pointed out that it was a little odd to watch a performer who, aside from his sneakers, was dressed like an elementary school principal (I think the effect would have been complete if he had been wearing a bow-tie.) Then he would strike a tongue-in-cheek rock 'n' roll pose.

These days, I find I particularly enjoy seeing, let's call them "mature" artists. In the case of Nick Lowe, he's been playing for a long time, doesn't have anything to prove and appears to be very comfortable with who he is. He was clearly having a good time and appeared quite relaxed. He doesn't get to these parts very often (he said the last time he was in Madison was when he was palling around with Cheap Trick, probably in the mid to late seventies) so I'm glad we had this opportunity.

A word of advice to concert goers: Try to control the impulse to clap along with your favorite songs. Unless you have a really good sense of rhythm, it usually ends up sounding pretty lame, particularly when you get off the beat.

Here are a couple of my favorite Nick Lowe songs. (I have lots of other favorites, but one can only spend so much time scanning YouTube.) First, Without Love, performed in 2007.

Now, just to contrast the new and the, umm.... not so new, here is I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass, probably from the mid to late seventies.

Top 5 Myths about John McCain

2008-10-11T15:21:00.006-05:00

I saw this on FranIAm's blog and thought it was worth trying to spread it around. It's a short little video by Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone magazine that describes what Dickinson considers to be the top 5 myths about John McCain.

A chip off the old block.

2008-10-09T14:42:00.004-05:00

Like father, like daughter. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. A chip off the old block. Etc.

Me.

My daughter.

The Mavericky Reformer?

2008-10-07T00:10:00.008-05:00

Learn to be a mavericky reformer in 13 minutes and 26 seconds. Just watch this video. Many of you may have already seen this at Luminiferous Ether, where I first saw it, but I figgered I'd put it up here. The more people who know about this, the better. Will the corporate "news" outlets pick up on this? I doubt it. Can you believe that anyone is actually going to vote for this guy? You betcha, 'cuz he's a maverick outsider who's gonna, also, too, reform Washington!

I tolerate you.

2008-10-04T11:29:00.002-05:00

It's comforting to know that Sarah Palin tolerates gay people. Now people all across the country should be hugging their gay friends and acquaintances and telling them "I tolerate you!" I think I need to make a bumpersticker out of this.

Name your baby!

2008-10-04T10:53:00.003-05:00

Try out the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. It's good for a chuckle or two. I'm Spackle Camshaft Palin. Thanks to my lovely and talented wife, Hump Gizzards Palin, for finding this in an essay by Anne Lamott on salon.com.

VP debates.

2008-10-02T22:47:00.007-05:00

Everyone in the blog world is probably tippety-tapping away right now, or has already posted something about the debates, but I just have to put in my two cents about two things, too.

One: Aside from the question about gay marriage, which she answered directly and clearly (I didn't like her answer, nor did I like Biden's, but I give her credit for being direct) Palin never answered a single question.

Ifill (moderator): How do you intend to handle the current financial crisis?

Palin: Obama's gonna... ya know, the tax increases. John McCain's a maverick and I'm a maverick, ya know. We're both mavericks. We're talkin' about energy independence here, cuz I'm from Alaska. And the nukyular.... ya know, bipartisans on.... yer lookin' backwards again.... it's about Main Street. Ronald Reagan. We gotta, ya know, keep growin' our tax cuts. I'm a maverick and a hockey mom. And so is John McCain. Like me.

Two: When, oh when, is someone going to point out that McCain, Palin, Obama and Biden are all the recipients of ..... SOCIALIZED HEALTH CARE!!! Paid for and administered by the government, to boot! Do you think any of them would give it up in exchange for a $5,000 tax credit toward the health plan of their choice? "Gee whiz, people don't want government handlin' their health care, that would be disastrous, ya know, cuz families make the best choices." Okay, Sarah, give it up now, since we all know you don't want government intruding on your health care choices. And if I really get to choose, then I choose your health plan. You know, the socialized one you get that is administered by the government. (Actually, I'm not certain that Palin is currently benefitting from socialized health care, as I don't know how that works for the governor of Alaska. I'd be willing to bet she is, and McCain, Obama and Biden definitely are on the government plan.)

Okay. I'm done. I think I need to stop thinking about that mean, stupid Palin for a while.

Follow the money, pt 2

2008-10-02T16:00:00.003-05:00

Posted below is an interview with Dennis Kucinich on Democracy Now! about the Wall Street bailout. He's talking about the version that failed to pass in the House on Monday. From everything I've read so far, the new version that passed in the Senate yesterday isn't any better, although it is 400-some pages long and includes somewhere around $150,000,000,000 ($150 billion) in tax cuts (but not for you or me) in addition to the $700,000,000,000 ($700 billion) in cash that they expect us to pay with our un-cut tax dollars. Grrrrrr....

Among other things, Kucinich says:

"It seems to me there's a possibility that this crisis has a little bit of manufacture to it."

Anyone surprised? Here are some other excerpts:

"It has provisions in it where it talks about helping homeowners, but when you read the fine print, you see it has language like 'may' instead of 'shall' and 'encouraging' instead of 'mandating' help for the millions of homeowners who are worried right now about whether they're going to lose their home. There's no help for them in this."

"I reject the underlying premise that we needed this bill... We haven't looked at any alternatives..."

"Well, what we have is a transfer of wealth, actually. It's a continuation of a transfer of wealth. This whole government has become nothing more than a big machine that transfers the wealth upwards with our tax policies, our energy policies, with this fiscal policies, with the war. All the wealth of the country goes from the pockets of the people into the hands of a few. This is a very dangerous moment. You know, it's the biggest amount of injection of capital by the government in a single time since the New Deal. And frankly, there is no trickle down here. There's just rewarding bad behavior."

"There's 400 economists and three Nobel Prize-winning economists who have said, 'Whoa, wait a minute! What are you doing? Why are you rushing this?' You know, this thing doesn't smell right, frankly."

"Goldman Sachs is struggling to survive. And, you know, their former chief is now the head of the US Treasury. He's in a position to be able to direct assets in a way that would help enhance his own financial standing. I mean, that's a clear conflict of interest. And, you know, that's something that needs to be said."

The biggest theft in the history of our country, that's what I say, and both Obama and McCain support it. We need to look at the basic premise of bailing out Wall Street before we decide how we're going to do it. As I understand it, in Britain, the government is nationalizing failing banks and, in the process, is acquiring both the good and the bad debt, unlike the proposal here, where the government will only be purchasing bad debt. Hmmm....

Read the full transcript here or watch video:

Follow the money!!!

2008-09-30T23:01:00.013-05:00

Once again, Bush/Cheney and their cronies are using fear to take the country for, literally, all it is worth. This entire Wall Street bailout plan is nothing more than yet another ploy to divert as much money as possible from the middle and working classes to the rich friends of the Bush administration. Bush and Cheney will be leaving office soon (if we're lucky) and they want to clean out the treasury on their way out. Look at absolutely everything that Bush has done during his reign. In every single instance, every single instance, the end result has been to take tax payers' money and put it into the pockets of a) a Bush or Cheney family member, b) a Bush or Cheney family friend, c) a Bush or Cheney business associate or d) a contributor to the Bush/Cheney campaigns. Now they want to take everything that's left. If it destroys the middle and working classes in the process, that only leaves them with more power. What could be the harm in that?

Before you call me a conspiracy theorist, take a look at the facts, (yes, facts - those liberal-leaning pieces of information that cannot be disputed) and remember, any time two or more people meet in secret in order to further their own aims at the expense of others while ignoring laws, rules or plain old right and wrong, it is a conspiracy, plain and simple. It happens all the time in the workplace, business, politics, families, you name it. The right has tried, quite successfully, to equate the phrase "conspiracy theorist" with "wacko," just as they are now trying to equate "community organizer" with, I don't know - terrorist or communist or something along those lines. Even so-called progressives have bought into it; they are scared to suggest that anything could be a conspiracy for fear of being labeled "wackos."

Let's play Follow the Money™!

Fact: Look at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush/Cheney regime lied about the reasons for going to war. Haliburton (Cheney's former employer) and the Carlyle Group (Papa Bush is a bigwig in this one) have made billions on the wars. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: The "No Child Left Behind" Act. Millions of dollars spent in school districts across the country on mandatory testing, yet little or no federal support to finance it. Who pays? Taxpayers. Who profits? The McGraw family of McGraw Hill fame, who sell the tests, which are required by law, to the schools for multiple millions of dollars each year, and just happen to be close friends with the Bush family. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: Remember the whole terrorist scare with the duct tape? At the time, I joked to friends and family "Who makes duct tape and is friends with the Bushes?" It turns out that what I said as a joke ended up not being funny at all. The largest seller of duct tape in the country turned out to be a mega-contributor to the Bush/Cheney campaign coffers. Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the money!

Fact: The recent crackdown on illegal immigrants is putting more and more people in prisons built with the specific purpose of incarcerating "illegals." Millions of dollars are paid by the, you guessed it, taxpayers. Who's on the receiving end? Dick Cheney's son-in-law just happens to be a mover and shaker in the business of imprisoning "illegals." Coincidence? No, I don't think so.

Follow the Money!

With the proposed bailout, CEOs of "failed" banks and corporations will continue to draw huge salaries while the US Treasury pays for their greed and their criminal behavior. Mel, Floyd and Mr. Smartypants called it "privatized profit with socialized risk." Where will all the money come from? Ultimately, you and me. Who will benefit? Rich friends of the Bush/Cheney administration. These are people who, in a just society, would be tried and imprisoned (and, as Ralph Nader said in a recent speech, if you put all these rich people in prison, an added bonus would be an improvement in prison conditions), not rewarded with more of our money. Bush wants us to throw money at them. Why? Because if we don't "bad things will happen. Be scared and do what I say!" Is it any surprise that this financial crisis should occur so close to when they leave office? Coincidence? No I don't think so.

Follow the Money! Unfortunately, this could go on and on.

Read what Michael Moore has to say on the matter. He sums it up pretty well. "Oh, no! He's a conspiracy theorist!" But, remember, just because it's a conspiracy doesn't mean it can't be true. When that kind of money is involved, it would be naïve to assume that people with that kind of power and influence aren't conspiring. If you were George Bush or Dick "Dick" Cheney and thought you could get away with legally making off with $700,000,000,000 for you and your buddies, what would you do? Give me .0001% (one ten thousandth of one percent) of that and I'd feel rich beyond my wildest dreams. Not rich enough to forget how many houses I owned, but I could easily pay off my house and buy two or three more. Remember, you have to be a power-hungry, greedy bastard with no shame to think like Bush or Cheney. They don't think like normal people. In fact, they aren't normal people and they don't care at all about normal people. They think of themselves as royalty. They believe they are who and where they are because they deserve it and the purpose of the middle and working classes is to make money for them, god's chosen. As they see it, if the masses suffer as a result, even if they die as a result, that's only what the masses deserve and just as god wills it.

How McCain is stealing the election.

2008-09-30T18:37:00.009-05:00

It doesn't matter how stupid Sarah Palin is. It doesn't matter how well Obama does in the debates. It doesn't even seem like it's going to matter if Obama gets more votes than McCain. Thanks to Carl Rove and his "Rovebots," as Greg Palast calls them, McCain is almost certainly going to "win" the upcoming election. Why is the national media not reporting on this? Why isn't it on the front page of every newspaper in the country? Why is it not the top story on television and radio news? People need to know about this. Maybe it isn't too late, but if people don't start screaming about it, I fear nothing will stop McCain from being "our" next president.

Here's just one example: In Middleton, Wisconsin, a town just outside of Madison, the McCain campaign is mailing absentee ballot request forms to registered Democrats. Golly, that's awfully civic-minded of them. Or is it? The only problem is, the envelopes that they are including for use in requesting the aforementioned absentee ballots are addressed to the city clerk in Madison, not Middleton, and Middleton voters are not eligible to vote in Madison. I've heard this from more than one source, and it doesn't stop there. These sorts of shenanigans are taking place all across the country and no one is talking about it! Read more about it here, watch the following video of Greg Palast (sorry, it's kind of long, and the thread wanders a bit, but it's important), then call your representative, senator, and local papers. I find it to be pretty frightening.

Brain to Nowhere

2008-09-29T13:16:00.003-05:00

Luminiferous Ether posted about the Grand Opening ceremony for our new community center. It was a really fun event with music from numerous local musicians. It's not easy to get six different groups on and off the stage quickly, but thanks, to the organizational efforts of the fabulous Lynette, who also played in one of the groups, it went incredibly smoothly. Ken Lonnquist and his group, Kenland, played a little number that I'd like to share here. In this video, Ken sings and plays guitar and the amazing Dave Adler is on piano. I've had the pleasure of playing with both of them at one time or another. Great guys. I'm afraid I can't identify the other guests in the video. Enjoy Brain to Nowhere.

The Return of the Son of Shameless Self-Promotion

2008-09-22T00:32:00.003-05:00

Just in case any one out there is interested and able, The Motor Primitives will be playing a happy-hour show at The High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI, this Tuesday, 9/23/08. We'll be hitting the stage at about 6:00 pm. We'll be followed by The Apologists. It should be a good time, so come on down! Cover charge is only $4!

Sorry, stupid, stupid, stupid...

2008-09-21T23:55:00.009-05:00

I'd like to apologize for all the politically oriented posts recently. I guess I've been getting a little carried away. Now, all of a sudden, I realized that I never got around to posting about the recent CD released by The Motor Primitives, the rock band with whom I play! What is wrong with me?

So....

The Motor Primitives have a (sort of) new CD out! It's called Classified. You should but it! Really! It rocks! If you don't believe me, ask Dr. Monkey von Monkerstein, creator of the blog Monkey Muck. Read Dr. Monkey's review here. Buy it here..., wait a minute..., I just realized I never set up Blogger to give people a way to contact me. I guess I have to figure out how to fix that. In the mean time, if you want to buy the newish CD by The Motor Primitives, you'll have to contact someone by getting the email address off of this link or leaving me a comment. Be forewarned that Classified is not available through CD Baby, as the first two CDs are. It's necessary to purchase it directly through the band or a band member. $10 (includes shipping) should cover it in the US. Maybe more overseas, but this isn't really a money making operation at this point in time. Make us an offer. Unless it seems like you're being a jerk (recommendation: don't ask for a CD with a message like this: "I think John McCain is god and I want to buy your CD for ¢30 even though I could afford to pay a lot more, but I'm a Rich Bastard who wants to take advantage of you"), we'll probably send you a CD even if we lose money on it. Thanks, and rock on!

Very interesting...

2008-09-21T23:33:00.002-05:00

As Ms. Geranium (a.k.a. Luminiferous Ether) mentioned in her latest post, we spent the weekend at a camp outside of scenic Richland Center, WI. It was nothing short of glorious, but you can read about that aspect of the trip here. What I would like to mention is the drive to and from Richland Center. I believe we saw upwards of ten Obama/Biden signs on the drive. We saw only one (that is correct, one, (1), uno, a single, solitary) McCain sign. Now, I have to point out that the road from Madison to Richland Center doesn't go through the absolute heart of rural Wisconsin. It passes through a few towns that might be considered "ex-hippy" or bedroom communities. Nonetheless, this is still rural Wisconsin: mostly white, agricultural communities. This turn of events represents a striking difference from other election years. Keep in mind that this area was hit quite hard by floods earlier in the year and they have gotten very little help from FEMA. I hope that what we saw indicates that "America's Heartland" has had enough of the Bush/McCain philosophy of government. I suppose only time will tell.

Divisive vs. Verbage

2008-09-21T13:39:00.005-05:00

McCain's supporters are saying Obama is an elitist because he's smart. They use as an example the way he pronounces the word "divisive." Look in the dictionary. Although the way Obama pronounces "divisive" is not the first pronunciation listed in my copy of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition), it is accepted as correct. When Sarah Palin said "verbage," she was, according to my copy of Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition), either mispronouncing the word "verbiage" or she was using a word that does not exist. I think that makes her stupid. An idiot. Otnay ootay ightbray.

Imagine this scene: You're standing in the voting booth. There's a candidate (A) who is accused of being an elitist because he's smart. There is another candidate (B) who doesn't know how many houses he owns and, due to his medical history, has a 30% chance of dying before he completes his first term. (B)'s running mate, who has a 30% chance of becoming president if (B) wins, probably wouldn't get the same answer twice if you asked her to add two and two. She thinks Jesus rode a dinosaur! Let's see... eenie meenie minie moe...

Kabile

2008-09-19T00:50:00.011-05:00

On Wednesday and Thursday nights I had the pleasure of hearing and dancing to the group Kabile (from the village of Kabile in Thrace, Bulgaria) who are in town as part of Madison's World Music Festival. There is nothing quite like the experience of having musicians of this caliber playing for a large audience of dancers. The fine people who put on the festival do a fantastic job and bring some incredible groups to town every year. I know, we're talking (shudder) both folk music and folk dance, but don't knock it until you've tried it, I say. It was a transcendent experience. Kabile's tour schedule can be found here. I highly recommend going to hear them if they come anywhere near you. Tell them Ed, the lame tambura (pronounced "tom boo RAH", and roll that "R" sort of like you would en español) player in Madison, WI, sent you. If you're lucky, there will be some people knowledgeable in Bulgarian dance to lead you through the basics. Dance if you are able, but don't forget to listen. You will have fun whether you dance or not, I guarantee it. Here's the best thing I was able to find on the YouTubes. No video, just music.

Let's talk about "verbage"

2008-09-19T00:50:00.010-05:00

In printed transcripts of an interview with Sarah Palin by Sean Hannity, who was basically feeding her lines, Palin is quoted as saying "It was an unfair attack on the verbiage that Senator McCain chose to use." All the news stories are printing it that way, but if you listen to the interview, she clearly said "verbage," not "verbiage." And she said "verbage" not once, but twice. Let's think about that for a moment.

Here's what the dictionary has to say:

verbiage |ˈvərbē-ij|
noun
speech or writing that uses too many words or excessively technical expressions.

There is no such word as "verbage," though.

In essence, Palin said that Obama had unfairly attacked the (speech or writing that uses too many words or excessively technical expressions) of John McCain. So Ms. Palin obviously doesn't even know the meaning of the word, much less how to pronounce it correctly, but that isn't going to stop her from using it anyway. While she thought she was criticizing Obama, she was actually unwittingly insulting her boss, John McCain. And we're supposed to believe that this... this... this mean-spirited MORON is qualified to be vice-president?

If any Republicans or McCain supporters are reading this, please, don't attack my verbage.

Watch this, if you don't believe me.

Doh!

2008-09-17T23:55:00.006-05:00

When writing that last post, for some reason I had Fannie Mac in my head when I knew perfectly well that the correct name is Fannie Mae. With that in mind, aside from the fact that using the correct names renders the title of the post, well..., umm..., let's just say at least a little nonsensical, I stand by the rest of the post even though my momentary (?) loss of brain function compromises it just a tiny bit. It's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Really, the only difference between the correct name and the one I used is a wee little line on one wee little letter. It could happen to anybody, right? Am I a moron, or what? (You really don't need to answer that last question. It's better if I don't know. I've always wondered, though [Warning! Tangent Alert!] - how does a person know if he or she is a moron? Presumably, a moron isn't smart enough to tell the difference between stupid and smart. John McCain seems to believe he's not only smart, but entitled to his wealth* while people who work way harder than he has in at least a couple of decades deserve to be poor. It seems clear to me he's both not very intelligent and not entitled to his wealth, but he's too stupid to believe otherwise. [I'm not even going to begin to go into the sanity thing. At least, not right now.] That concept has bothered me for quite some time.)

* Okay, I know he was a prisoner of war. I heard that somewhere. Once. Or maybe twice. As such, I think he ought to have received combat pay for the entire time he was imprisoned as well as all the medical care and benefits any other veteran is entitled to. Dang! He and his party have been eliminating those benefits! Sorry, John, but you get no sympathy from me. Being a prisoner of war should give you some privileges, but it doesn't give you a free pass to be a total dick.

Bailing out the Macs

2008-09-16T08:43:00.007-05:00

Note (added 9/17/08): See post entitled "Doh!" above.

Since the announcement of the federal bailout of Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac, I'm a little surprised that the Republicans aren't screaming about how it's not in keeping with a "Free Market." I guess federal bailouts are okay when rich people make mistakes, but when the working classes are seeing record numbers of foreclosures, we can't bail them out. Ask John "I Don't Know How Many Houses I Own" McCain. Yes, I've heard all the arguments about how, if the Macs go under, it will be devastating to the economy, etc, etc, blah, blah, woof, woof. Still seems to me that it's yet another case of redistributing the wealth from the poor to the rich via our tax system. When it comes right down to it, you know that no matter how bad the economy gets, the Rich Bastards will be just fine. The middle and working classes will bear the brunt of it. After all, isn't that their raison d'être, to keep our rich people rich, no matter what the cost?

Last Friday I was listening to one of my favorite local radio programs, Mel and Floyd (I prefer to call them The Giggle Guys, because of the nice alliteration as well as the fact that pretty much what they do is read the news and giggle while they point out the absurdities in the week's stories while James Brown plays in the background), and they summed up the whole situation pretty well. They called it "privatized profit with socialized risk." Yep. Can't allow those Rich Bastards to lose money. That would be downright un-American. If we don't give them even more of our money, the Community Organizers have already won.

New blog friend

2008-09-15T08:25:00.000-05:00

I mentioned one of Singing Bear's blogs in this post, but I would like to take a moment to formally introduce any readers of this blog who are not already familiar with it to Singing Bear's blog, Action-Time-Vision, a must for any music lovers. Pop on over and enjoy.

Dad

2008-09-14T14:55:00.004-05:00

Today is the first anniversary of my father's death. I miss him.

Time for some music

2008-09-13T23:05:00.009-05:00

I just discovered Singing Bear's blog, Action-Time-Vision, and all you music lovers out there might want to take a peek. While perusing the aforementioned blog, I was reminded of old Genesis (you know, back when Peter Gabriel was still in the group) for about the third time in the last month (one time at The Pagan Sphinx, once at Action-Time-Vision, and ... I can't remember where else). In my teens and early twenties they were one of my favorites. Here's the first song I ever heard by them, The Musical Box from the album Nursery Cryme. I remember first hearing it and being blown away. Superb musicianship along with a large helping of creativity and sonic coolness, plus bizarre and sometimes disturbing lyrics. Note that guitarist Steve Hackett occasionally uses both hands to fret the notes (actually, he fretted with the pick in his right hand and the fingers of his left hand). This video was made years before Eddie Van Halen allegedly invented the technique. Enjoy.

Pet Peeve Alert!!! One thing I can't stand about most music videos. Let's say the guitar player is playing something cool. So what does the camera do? Zooms in on the singer banging on a tambourine, of course. Or they show the guitarist's right hand when it's the left hand that's doing the interesting bit. Drives me crazy.

Additional thought added on 9/14/08: Many of the "Prog Rock" groups of that era have been criticized for being overly pretentious, among other things. While I think that is true in varying degrees for different bands, I always thought of Gabriel-era Genesis as being sort of Punk/Prog. There is an edge to much of their material that sets them apart from many of the others. Their playing was also very musical, rather than an attempt to show off how complicated and technically skilled they were. As an example, Steve Hackett's guitar solos were usually actual melodies rather than "diddley diddley diddley WHEEE". Hackett, keyboardist/guitarist Tony Banks and bassist/guitarist Michael Rutherford worked very well together in an orchestral sense. It was sometimes difficult to figure out who was doing what; often, some combination of Hackett, Banks and Rutherford would play in unison or harmony creating a massive sound; sometimes a melodic passage would begin with one person and shift to another in the middle. Banks liked to use guitar effects (distortion, phase shifting, delay, etc.) on his keyboards while playing a part that complimented the guitar, while Hackett would use effects on his guitar (volume pedal with distortion, phasing shifting and delay) that made it sound somewhat keyboard-like. A very unusual way of playing together, particularly for the time.

Jackass!

2008-09-10T19:50:00.009-05:00

I got home today to find this truck parked on the strip of flowers Ms. Geranium plants next to the sidewalk every year. (I'm such a nice guy, I even blacked out his license plate to protect his privacy.)

When the dude returned to his truck, I approached him and pointed out that he had parked on our flowers. He wasn't very pleasant about it. In fact, he was downright nasty. If he had parked on them accidentally and apologized, I could have accepted that. People make mistakes. It turns out he saw them and just didn't care. So I called Charter and complained. It took about twenty minutes to navigate through their SVMS (Stupid Voice Mail System™) and speak to a human being. I had to pretend I was interested in switching to Charter before I could get anywhere. Somehow, I got the feeling they would rather not speak to their customers. Oh, I guess I'm not one of their customers. Whatever. I suspect those SVMSs are intended to make you give up, but I persisted and I'm sure that guy will never park on someone's flowers ever again. Yeah, right. I fully expect to get a brick through my window now.

The Second Biggest Scandal in Green Bay™

2008-09-09T23:55:00.022-05:00

I suppose everyone, whether they like it or not, is aware of the scandal in Green Bay over the Brett Favre trade. Not to take anything away from Aaron Rodgers, Favre's replacement, but it was a bad move on the part of the Packers, in my opinion. At best, they handled the situation poorly. At worst, they were sleezy and disingenuous. The fact that the Packers hired former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer before negotiations began, in fact, before it was announced that Favre wanted to come back, to be their spokesperson for the duration, is a clear indication that they knew they were behaving badly and dishonestly and needed help spinning it. But that's the Biggest Scandal in Green Bay™ and not what I want to write about at this time.

The Second Biggest Scandal in Green Bay™ is . . . (drum roll, please) . . . PartyHouses™! Yes, you read that correctly, PartyHouses™. It seems that Rich Bastards have figured out that there is a residential neighborhood right across Lombardi Avenue from Lambeau Field, and they could buy those houses, renovate them and rent them out for Big Bucks on game days. The Rich Bastards, or the highest bidders, can have their own private "Tailgate Parties" without being forced to mingle with the riffraff, zip over to the stadium for the game (or stay at the PartyHouse™ and watch it on the new big-screen TVs that are being installed) and zip back for more bacchanalian excess. Now, that may not sound like too big a deal, but let's examine the situation a little more closely.

First, the neighborhood is zoned residential, not commercial. The houses in question are supposed to be occupied by the primary resident, whether it be an owner or a renter. Renting them by the day, weekend, week or month is in strict violation of the zoning, but Money always seems to get its way, particularly when any opposition is, well, Not Money.

Second, it's a pretty quiet neighborhood, and these PartyHouses™ are expected to be jam-packed with people who want to PARTY! The new owners are almost all from out-of-town or out-of-state, and you can be sure they don't give a rat's left butt-cheek about the residents of the neighborhood. They just see it as an opportunity to make a bundle of easy cash. Who's going to be responsible for the behavior of the Partyers? Who will pay for the damage the Drunken Cretins inflict on the neighborhood?

Third, all the houses in the neighborhood are one-story ranches. All of them. Up until now, that is. The houses that are being turned into PartyHouses™ are often having a second story added on to them. Is there any value to the view (of Lambeau Field) that people used to have before it was blocked by the PartyHouses™? Did anyone consult with the people who actually live in the neighborhood before adding the extra stories to these houses? Does anyone care that they are now completely out-of-scale with the rest of the neighborhood?

During our recent visit to my sister in Green Bay, we walked the three blocks (it was a difficult trek, but no amount of hardship is too great to bring this important information to you, dear reader) to get a look and a few photos.

This is a typical house on Shadow Lane. Note the glorious view.

Here's one of the PartyHouses™ as seen from Shadow Lane. You used to be able to see Lambeau Field from this vantage point. Note the out-of-state plates on the big honkin' SUVs parked in front and in the driveway (click on the photo if'n you want to enbiggen it).

Here's the same PartyHouse™ as seen from the other side (across Lombardi Avenue in the Lambeau Field parking lot). Note the size of the house immediately to the left.

Here's another. This one doesn't have the second story (yet), but look at that cute deck they put on top of the garage for your partying pleasure.

Yet another, as seen from Lombardi Avenue, with the second story again.

Here's one of those drunken fans I was telling you about, doing what drunken fans love to do most. Right on your lawn. Eeewwww!

As long as I'm at it, let's enjoy some more sights from
the Holy Land, Lambeau Field.

Inside.

The Fan Code of Conduct.
Nice, isn't it?

Vince Lombardi, facing the PartyHouses™.
"This is definitely not my father's NFL!"

Curly Lambeau, pointing at the PartyHouses™.
"Get those things out of my sight! Now! I mean it! That will be 20 laps!"

So, that's it. The Second Biggest Scandal in Green Bay™. Aren't you glad you read this blog?

We need a hockey mom for president!

2008-09-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

Cute puppy photos

2008-09-07T22:34:00.002-05:00

I don't know why, but I just haven't had the energy to post anything lately. I haven't had the energy for much, actually. As a result, the pictures I'm putting up here are a couple of weeks old. Sorry about that.

I think it was the second weekend of August that Ms. Geranium, Sparkly Seacow and I went up to Green Bay, WI to visit my sister. They have a new puppy (not the Shithz Poo I posted about recently) and we wanted to see it while it was still small and cute. The dog's name is Roxy and she's a black lab. Ms. Geranium took some of these photos, but I'm not sure which.

Amy Goodman Arrested at RNC

2008-09-02T11:49:00.006-05:00

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! was arrested and charged with "obstruction" yesterday in Saint Paul. Two other Democracy Now! journalists, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, were also arrested and charged with "suspicion of felony riot." Kouddous and Salazar were both injured during the arrest. All three have since been released but still face charges. Can you say police intimidation? Read more about it here.

Obama's speech

2008-08-28T23:20:00.015-05:00

Right off the bat, let me just say that I'm not all that crazy about Barack Obama. I don't believe he is the progressive candidate that progressives think he is. Ever since it became clear that he would win the Democratic nomination, he's been moving to the center (read: right) so fast it's making liberal heads spin. He may be doing this because he's "politically savvy." It's hard to get a handle on what he really believes. If I had my druthers, Dennis Kucinich would be the Democratic nominee. Even had Kucinich gotten the nomination, it is my belief that Ralph Nader is the best candidate in this election, based solely on his stand on the issues as well as his past history in comparison with McCain, Obama or even Kucinich. But... the reality is, our next president will be either John McCain or Barack Obama. That said, well, you all know the outcome of that argument. I just wanted to clear the air before getting into the next bit.

So, Obama gives "THE MOST IMPORTANT SPEECH OF HIS LIFE", as all the talking heads have been calling it, tonight at the Democratic National Convention. I decided to watch it, despite the fact that, as I've said before and will undoubtedly say again, I'm not very excited about the prospect of an Obama presidency. I'm sure that his speech will be dissected and interpreted by "experts" and their ilk to the point where it won't even be recognizable to people who actually heard it. The rethuglicans will attack individual phrases or words in an attempt to tear him down. Truly, the only platform McCain has to run on is fear. Fear of a black man in the oval office. Fear of terrorists. Fear of increased taxes. Fear of a smart and educated man (elitist). I'm sure that, in one way or another, the rethuglicans will play on all those fears, maybe more, and they will do it very skillfully. Let's give credit where credit is due: it's the only thing that they're good at.

Enough of that. My response to Obama's speech was that he did a very good job of presenting himself as someone who is "outside of Washington." He took the bull by the horns and addressed some of those points that everyone expects the rethuglicans will attempt to use against him, and I think he did it very well. I disagreed with many, many things he said. I think he pandered too much to what he believes to be middle america. For instance, he brought up abortion and same-sex marriage without ever stating his views on those issues. I would have liked for him to have said flat out "I believe in a woman's right to choose" or "I believe in the right of one person to marry the person of their choice, regardless of gender" or something along those lines. While he had the guts to say the war in Iraq was wrong, he also said something about withdrawing troops from Iraq "responsibly" or something like that. What the hell does that mean? It sounded a little too much like Nixon's "peace with honor" bullshit during the '72 election. He never mentioned a plan for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, where we are still at war, a fact which seems to have been forgotten. Further, he talked about protecting Israel without mentioning the horror that is being perpetrated against Palestinians by the Israeli government. He didn't even say the words Palestine or Palestinian. Shameful. He talked about Iran in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable, and Russia, and ... sigh. Nonetheless, I felt he was very adept at speaking about the failures of the Bush administration, and he did it without EVER smirking the way Bush does when he knows he has the attention of the whole country, and never apologized for being ... gasp! ... a liberal. He manages to address racial issues bluntly while acknowledging and legitimizing the concerns of those who feel threatened by racial issues, which is not an easy thing to accomplish. He didn't hold back in addressing the stranglehold corporations have on government policy, or the influence that insurance companies now have on what health care you are entitled to. There were definitely moments that were inspirational, but I keep coming back to the old adage that actions speak louder than words. Then I think not about what he's saying, but how he voted and I'm not so inspired anymore. In summary, he's mostly too middle-of-the-road for my tastes, but I think he has the ability to make people believe that he sincerely cares about them and their difficulties, whereas McCain is just, just, just.... he's crazy, rich, out of touch and wrong, wrong, wrong. I think Obama may actually be able to win this election and I suppose middle-of-the-road is marginally better than ultra-right and insane. (What's the saying? If you vote for someone you don't agree with, don't be surprised when you end up with someone you don't agree with? I used nicer language than the way I have heard it.) Anyway, I don't expect great things from an Obama presidency, but I expect absolutely horrible things from a McCain presidency and Obama was very clear about what some of those horrible things would be.

Now you know ... I'm not an Obama convert. Please don't hurt me. But, I must say this: I watched African-Americans in the audience who were in tears while listening to Obama speak and I thought about how it must feel to see, after all these years ... no, centuries ... an African-American candidate for president with a legitimate chance of winning while, at the same time, there were white people cheering and applauding next to them. Quite an amazing sight. I must admit that when I was younger I naïvely believed that I would live to see an African-American president, a Female president, a Jewish president, a Gay president, an Atheist president, etc, etc. Or, at least one of those: stars in my eyes and all that. Gradually, I came to the conclusion that if this were ever to occur in my lifetime, an African-American president would look like Clarence Thomas, Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice; a female president would be someone like Phyllis Schlafly, Condoleeza Rice or Hillary Clinton (yes, even though she's a dimmocrat, I put Hillary Clinton in the same category as the other two; she votes like a rethuglican, what can I say?). You get the drift. The fact that there is an African-American candidate for president who is not just a black mouthpiece for the ultra-right (I'm sorry, but I must reiterate that, based on his record and his past statements, he's not the progressive candidate that progressives would like you to think he is, or that the right would like you to fear that he is) and seems to have a real chance of winning the election kind of blows my mind. I honestly didn't think that it would happen in my lifetime. That alone is reason to be inspired. If you were to ask me. And I know you didn't, but there it is.

A couple of years ago I hazarded the prediction that the next president of the United States would be either Jeb Bush, John McCain or Condoleeza Rice. Not because I wanted it to be so, but because I seem to become more cynical as I get older and they seemed to be the obvious choices for the rethuglicans while at the same time the dimmocrats have an uncanny ability for snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory. If it had been Rice on the rethuglican ticket, and if she were to win, imagine the bragging rights the rethuglicans would be claiming for electing both the first African-American president and the first woman president all in one go. Ugh. I still think it would have been a brilliant strategic move on their part, aside from her unfortunate (for her) association with the ever-increasingly-unpopular Bush regime. Boy, am I glad I was wrong about Bush and Rice. I hope I was wrong about McCain.

What he said...

2008-08-28T00:03:00.004-05:00

I was listening to Wisconsin Public Radio today and aside from a little bit about the Olympics, all they talked about was the Democratic convention, which was no surprise. Oddly, they didn't say anything . "Hillary did what she had to do..." or "Mark Warner's speech was boring," and "all the speeches were boring..." "Hillary said this..." "what will Bill Clinton say tonight..." "did Hillary do enough..." "Joe Biden will probably liven things up...". They went on and on about how uninspiring all the speeches were. Not once did they even mention Dennis Kucinich, who I though made a great speech. Not once. Par for the course for the stupid media, I guess. They decide who we get to listen to. They decide for us that the convention was uninspiring without letting us hear the most inspiring speech so far. They decide for us who is a valid candidate and who is an also-ran. Uff da.

You've probably already seen this or posted it on your own blog, but if you were a person who got all your news from television, radio or the newspaper, (which clearly is not the case) you might not even be aware that Kucinich exists. He says it all in this speech, and I enjoyed watching him hop around. Too bad he's not the nominee, but I guess the media decided for us that he wasn't an option before the primaries even started.

Not quite robbing banks... (pt. 2)

2008-08-25T21:19:00.018-05:00

I mentioned in the previous post that we stopped at the Dickeyville Grotto. What a strange place. It was all built over a 5 year span by Father Mathius Wernerus. The date on the grotto itself is 1929, but I don't know if that's when he started or when he finished. I can't even imagine the amount of labor that went in to building this thing. I took a bunch of pictures, but they don't really show the magnitude of the undertaking.

Here's the main structure. I couldn't get far enough away to get all of it in the photo. Everything is encrusted with colored stones, broken glass and who knows what else. Inside is a shrine that is pretty impressive, but it's all behind glass and hard to get any good pictures as a result. The theme of the Grotto is religion and patriotism. I wasn't aware that they were related, but what the heck.

Each one of the little niches has its own display depicting something or other.

Here's one of my favorites, although I'm not sure what bunnies and squirrels have to do with either religion or patriotism.

Nor do I understand how a kid wearing a dorky hat and oversized boots while smoking a pipe is relevant.

And what's the deal with the antlers?

Christopher Columbus just screams religion and patriotism, don't you think?

I've got lots more, but you probably don't need to see them all. To really experience the, umm, amazing bizarreness that is the Dickeyville Grotto, you have to see it in person. So, next time you're in the vicinity of Dickeyville, be sure to stop for a look. Don't worry, though, because...

There's no Norwegians in Dickeyville.
There's none in the valley, there's none on the hill.
There never was and there never will
be no Norwegians in Dickeyville.

(Lyrics from "There's No Norwegians In Dickeyville" by The Goose Island Ramblers, who happen to be one of my all-time favorite bands.)

Not quite robbing banks...

2008-08-24T23:55:00.003-05:00

It's been a busy few days, so I haven't had a chance to put any of these photos up until now, but Ms. Geranium decided against robbing banks on her birthday. Instead, we took a drive to southwestern Wisconsin to follow the Great River Road along the upper Mississippi River. The weather was a bit on the wet side. If you would like, you can enbiggen the photos by clicking on them. They look a little better that way.

As you head southwest out of Madison, the terrain looks a lot like this.

And this.

It starts to get hillier as you get closer to the Mississippi.

The road takes you through valleys and up on the tops of ridges.

A barn in the process of, well, something...

I had to get a picture of this road sign. There were an awful lot of (Something) Hollow Roads.

Right across the street was this cemetery.

This guy lived in three different centuries!

We took a ferry from Cassville, Wisconsin across the Mississippi to Iowa. Cassville is known as a good place for eagle spotting. We saw a couple of juvenile eagles, but I would have needed a longer lense to get any good pictures of them. Ms. Geranium may have some good shots, but her camera uses something called film, which doesn't provide the instant gratification of digital.
Here's the birthday girl and our two daughters on the ferry.
(Smile! Come on, it's your mother's birthday. Pretend you love each other.)

The mighty Mississippi. It's a pretty impressive body of water even this far north.

The Mississippi River valley from the Iowa side.

And another.

Heading back into Wisconsin, we made a stop in Dickeyville, WI, to take a look at the Dickeyville Grotto, but that's a whole nuther post. It ended up being a pretty long day, about 9 hours of driving, including stops here and there, but it was a nice trip. Someday I'd like to follow the Mississippi from it's source in Minnesota all the way to it's end.

New dog in the (extended) family

2008-08-21T11:02:00.002-05:00

My sister-in-law just called to wish her sister a happy birthday. Ms. Geranium wasn't home, (no, we haven't hit the banks yet), so I took the message. She was calling from Minneapolis, where her son is living. The news from our nephew and his new wife is... they have a new dog. What kind, I asked. I'm not kidding about this next bit. A shihtz-poo (shih tzu poodle mix). I just looked it up on the internets, and the dog breeders call it a shih-poo, but I swear my sister-in-law called it a shihtz-poo. I like it.

Happy Birthday!

2008-08-21T04:00:00.003-05:00

Today is Ms. Geranium's birthday. Stop by at Luminiferiferiferous Ether to wish her a happy one. We'll be out robbing banks (hey, it was her idea) for most of the day, but it would be, like, totally awesome if she were swamped with birthday greetings when she gets home (with good behavior, probably in 3-5 years.)

Happy birthday, Suzy!

Love, Ed

Coming soon: Cooking With Enriched Geranium

2008-08-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

I'm going to give this a try. A number of you bloggeristas have posted some of your cooking tips, and I've found them to be interesting and have used bits and pieces of your recipes in my own keittiö. I have a recipe in mind, but I'm going to have to swipe my daughter's digital camera and have all the ingredients on hand before I can post anything. Oh yeah, I'll also have to make it. I'm sure you'll all love it, though: healthy and überyümmy. Try not to be overwhelmed by the suspense. By the way, that's not really me in the picture. Seriously. I googled images of "Chef's outfit" and that's what came up. Really. NOT. Me.

Watch this and pass it on.

2008-08-18T21:22:00.004-05:00

You're probably seeing this all over the internets, but everyone needs to see it, republicans in particular. Anyone who pays any attention at all won't be surprised, but it's still nothing short of appalling. What a f#@%ing a**hole.

A book review of sorts.

2008-08-15T23:21:00.005-05:00

This book was written by a child of parents who immigrated to this country from the Middle East. It's about how growing up in this family in a small New England town shaped the beliefs that are the foundation of the author's life. He looks at various traditions that were important to him and his family. The book is not an instruction manual or self-help guide. He states in the beginning that he is often asked "...what forces shaped" him, and that there is an easy short answer to that question ("I had a lucky choice of parents"), but an in depth answer couldn't really be given in a few minutes, so he wrote this book.

There is a fair amount of the "we didn't have TV when I was a kid, we had to make our own fun with a stick and a handful of rocks" kind of thing (he didn't really say that, I made it up to illustrate a point), some rather obvious common sense, parts that I disagreed with and some interesting biographical details.

Some quotes:

From his mother: "Listen more than you speak, and think before you speak."

From his father: "Either we spread the wealth in a country where millions of humans go without, or we spread the misery."

A conversation between his father and a doctor who was drinking coffee in the father's restaurant:

DOCTOR: Why are the auto workers' wages so high?

FATHER: So they can afford to pay your bills! Why do you charge so much?

DOCTOR: Because we often treat poor people for free.

FATHER: In that case, since we give free coffee to poor people, your coffee [then 10 cents] today is $1.00.

The author is someone for whom I have a great deal of respect, so I wish I could say this was a great book and you should go out and get it. Alas, that is not the case. It's not a bad book and it's an easy read, but nothing earth-shattering.

Oh, yes. The title is The Seventeen Traditions and the author's name is Ralph Nader. Sorry, I guess that was kind of sneaky, but I didn't want to mention the author's name at the beginning. Mere mention of the "N" word (Nader) is enough to get some people riled up or decide what they think before they hear anything.

My baby's back!

2008-08-13T23:24:00.015-05:00

My first bass, a 1971 Fender Precision which I bought used in...., let's just say it was a few years ago (it wasn't old enough to be considered "collectable" when I bought it), is now back in playing condition after a long period of lying dormant and unplayable. A couple of years after I bought it, I removed the fretted neck and replaced it with a fretless neck. After a number of years of playing and several fingerboard dresses the fingerboard got so thin it started to split. (The problem with playing fretless is that the act of playing actually wears grooves into the fingerboard, necessitating the removal of material from the fingerboard to level it out, which is called "dressing" or "re-dressing." Eventually, you run out of fingerboard.) By that time, I had acquired a second bass to serve as a back-up instrument, but it became my only functioning bass when the Fender became unplayable. The Fender went into storage until the day when I would figure out what to do about it. A few years passed, I ended up making yet another fretless bass and eventually decided I didn't need three fretless basses, so why not put the original neck back on the Fender so I could have a fretted bass in addition to the two other fretless instruments? It took over a year to accomplish this, as it turned out that there were other problems that needed addressing to make the instrument playable again. The luthier to whom I had entrusted it for these repairs was very busy and I made the mistake of telling him it wasn't a rush job. Now it's done and I played it for the first time tonight. It's kind of beat up, but it feels good and it sounds great. It was nice getting reacquainted.

Here we are when we were first getting to know each other.

Photo: Elizabeth Miller

The Now Look For Now People

2008-08-12T22:45:00.005-05:00

I've been muddling about changing the layout of this blog for some time. I found the white text on black background, among other things, to be kind of hard on the eyes, but since no one ever complained about it, I assumed it was just me. I was also leery of changing it after witnessing the chaos that ensued when Luminiferous Ether changed her blog. She lost a bunch of stuff and it took her days to get it to the point where she was happy with it again. Then Quakerdave mentioned in a comment that he couldn't even read it due to the unfortunate color scheme I had chosen back when I first started the thing. That was enough to convince me that the time had come, and here it is. I may play around with it some more, as I'm not totally happy with how it looks, but it's a start. I hope you all find it easier to view, and please let me know if anything about it bugs you.

Thanks,
Ed

P.S. A special thank you to QD. Without your comment I may not have gotten around to changing it for months.

By popular demand...

2008-08-12T06:02:00.003-05:00

Okay, I may be exaggerating a wee bit. One person suggesting that I write about an event doesn't really qualify as popular, nor as a demand, but she has requested it several times, so does that count? I thought of writing about it in the meme I posted prior to this, but it seemed like to long of a story for a meme. Besides, I already had made reference to it in a previous meme and I promised to write about it some day.

Here's the story...

It was a dark and stormy...

Oops. Wrong one. Try again.

As has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog, I once worked for an electric guitar manufacturer. It's not a particularly well known company, but, at least at the time when I worked there, they also made guitars for other brands, one of which was Dean Guitars. While nowhere near as well known as Fender or Gibson, Dean is a pretty well known brand in the world of electric guitars. At one point in time, we were in the process of building a prototype guitar for Dean. I don't remember the exact details, but as I recall it was co-designed by Dean and former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell and would be the first in the Dimebag series of Dean guitars. They were calling it The Razorback. While working on it, I enjoyed playing around with the concept of being named Dimebag Darrell. "Hi! I'm Dimebag Darrell. This is my little brother, Nickelbag Darrell, my sister Douchebag Darrell, my cousins Sleazebag and Scumbag Darrell and my grandfather Colostomybag Darrell." Etc., etc..

Since the manufacture of most electric guitars these days involves at least some automation, some programming needed to occur before the first cuts could begin, and as always seemed to be the case, there were some bugs that needed to be worked out causing the entire project to be, ummm, let's just say it was behind schedule before we even started building. As I understood it at the time, there was an impending photo shoot scheduled for Dimebag and the prototype Razorback and it was looking like we weren't going to have the guitar ready. Some long days followed, mostly for the owners of the company, as I was obligated to pick up my daughter after school and, most days, couldn't stay late. It gets to be the day before the scheduled photo shoot and the guitar is close to being finished, but not quite. I made arrangements to work late, but when I went home it still wasn't quite done. I got to work the next day to find the guitar was still in the shop. Not good. When I asked about it, my employers told me that, yes, it was done. They had finished it at around 9:45 the previous evening. "Then why is it still here?" I thought to myself. Better not to ask, I thought. Hadn't I heard? Dimebag Darrell was shot and killed on stage the night before. Later we found out that he was shot at around 10:45 Eastern Time. The guitar was finished at around 9:45 Central Time. Think about it. As Dimebag's guitar was getting ready to be packed up, Dimebag was dying. (I might not be remembering the exact times accurately, but relative to each other, they are correct.) It felt pretty creepy, even though I had never met the guy.

So that's it. The story you've all been waiting for, whether or not you knew you were waiting for it. Here's a picture of the Dime Razorback, although it's not the prototype.

Tag, I'm it.

2008-08-11T09:37:00.003-05:00

I've been tagged with the "Seven Things" meme. First, The Quaker Agitator got me, then, probably because I was slow in getting to it, Luminiferous Ether got me. I guess, technically, it ought to be Fourteen Things, but I'm just not that interesting. I had a difficult enough time coming up with seven things, and I'm not even going to claim that they are seven interesting things.

Here are the rules:

1. List these rules on your blog.

2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

And away we go...

1. I once played softball with Jonathan Richman. You know, the singer/musician. It was back in the eighties sometime. A lot of the local “punk rockers” used to get together at the local elementary school playground on Sundays for some informal softball, beer drinking and fun. Richman and his band were playing in town and joined in the punk rock softball game. They were nice guys, not bad softball players either, but it’s a good thing they stuck with their night jobs (musician joke.) If you’re not familiar with Richman as a musician, you may remember him from the film There’s Something About Mary.

2. I don’t like the Beach Boys.

3. While a member of Appliances-SFB, some of the musicians and/or groups we opened for included: John Cale (he wasn’t particularly friendly), Bauhaus (kept to themselves, didn’t meet them), The Mekons (nice people), Sonic Youth (pretty rude and full of themselves, they seemed to believe that no good music could possibly happen outside of New York), Hüsker Dü (pretty nice guys), The Replacements (they were pretty drunk), Siouxsie and The Banshees (kept to themselves, didn’t meet them), Snakefinger (didn’t meet him, either), Soul Asylum (nice guys), Big Black (nice guys), The Butthole Surfers (didn’t meet them), The Violent Femmes (seemed pretty full of themselves), The Meat Puppets (nice guys) and more. We were scheduled to open for Joy Division, but Ian Curtis committed suicide the day before their tour was to begin.

4. I have a piece of marble that was once part of the Taj Mahal. When I was in elementary school, a friend of mine went to India. The Taj Mahal was under construction while he was there and he nabbed a piece of it and gave it to me when he got back.

5. I went to El Salvador in 1995. The war had been over for less than two years when I was there. It was an eye opening experience. I’ll never forget visiting the town of Cinquera. The town had been used for target practice by the air force and was still pretty devastated. Bullet holes everywhere, bombed buildings, traumatized people, a downed helicopter lying in the town square. When my group arrived, someone started ringing the bells in the town square to greet us. Upon closer examination, I discovered that the bells were unexploded bombs whose innards had been removed. Right on the cases it said “Made In The USA”. Our tax dollars at work.

6. During my career working in a record store (remember records?), I had the opportunity to meet such personalities as Natalie Merchant (she wasn’t very nice to us lowly store employees due to the fact that we failed to provide her with the proper brand of bottled water), Karla Bonoff (she was nice), Celine Dion (she was also nice) and Tony Bennett (he sang a few songs, signed a boatload of autographs, then his management whisked him away. His people kept the masses away from him - get your CD signed and move on, sort of thing - but he was courteous.)

7. I have been face-to-face with a wild wolf. I was 18 years old and on a backpacking trip on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. I was walking with a couple other people and we had gotten pretty far ahead of the rest of our group. Carrying a 40 lb. pack sort of discourages conversation, so we were pretty quiet. We went around a bend in the path and right in front of us was a wolf heading toward us on the path. At the time, the rangers said that something like one in 10,000 visitors sees a wolf and that most reports of wolf sightings are actually coyotes and foxes. I’ve seen coyotes and foxes, and that was no coyote, nor was it a fox. It was very big. Anyway, we almost walk right into this wolf. We stop, the wolf stops. We look at each other for what was probably less than 5 seconds, and the wolf just sort of melted away into the woods. On that same trip we saw lots of foxes. They weren’t very shy. Also a fair number of moose. One night a (Gaggle? Herd? Murder? School? Passel?) of them ran through our campsite. It sounded kind of like a stampede of elephants. In the morning there were moose tracks everywhere. Since then, I have discovered that meese can be downright nasty. We were lucky they didn’t stomp on our tents.

It's going to be difficult to find seven people to tag who haven't already done this, or who don't object to memes. So, if you're tagged and don't want to do it, don't feel like you have to.

Tagging:

1. Cinderbelle

2. Gomonkeygo

3. FranIAm
4. Pagan Sphinx

5. Jess Wundrun

6. Dr. Monkey von Monkerstein

7. Matty Boy

WTF?

2008-08-07T01:00:00.003-05:00

It's friggin' 63˚ outside and my neighbors have their air conditioner running! It's drowning out the frogs, crickets and other more pleasant night sounds of late summer. I didn't have to listen to air-conditioning the entire time we were on Rock Island, so it bugs me even more. Aaarrrghghgh!

Debriefing

2008-08-05T22:53:00.022-05:00

Well, we got back from our vacation a couple of days ago, but I haven't been able to muster up the energy to write anything until now. I know, "bummer" say you, dear reader.

So, as I mentioned in the last post before we left, I had to play a gig in the late afternoon before we could head up nort'. It was hot and sunny. As a bassist, that means my strings get all loose and floppy, which makes it difficult to play, particularly if I need to play anything fast; the strings just don't snap back as quickly when they're hot. Still, everything was going pretty well until the middle of the second-to-last song, when Pam's guitar amp abruptly stopped amping. We played the rest of that song and the entirety of the last song without guitar. It sounded just plain weird, if you ask me (but who asked me? I'm just a lowly bass player, after all.) Here we are in all our middle-aged rock 'n' roll glory. Not the best photo in the world, but at least you can see all four of us; it's a rare photo that includes the whole band.

After the gig, we headed north pretty quickly, thanks in large part to the efforts of Ms. Geranium. We managed to catch the second-to-last ferry to Rock Island on Sunday, carried all our stuff to our campsite and, Bob's-your-uncle, it was time to get down to the work of relaxing. And hard work it was, as you can see from the following photos.

Ms. Geranium (Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters in her lap) and Molly hard at work.

Sparkly Seacow and Violet hard at work.
Is it just me, or does something happen when kids get to a certain age that causes them to forget how chairs work?

Rock Island was, of course, originally settled by Native Americans. More recently (1800s) it was settled by European-americans who built a fishing village on the island. It was the first european settlement on the Door peninsula. The village was deserted in the latter part of the 1800s when the villagers resettled on neighboring Washington Island. The entire island was purchased in 1910 by an Icelandic immigrant and Chicago resident named Chester Thordarson, who had made a fortune in the U.S. as an inventor. (Incidentally, Thordarson spent some of his childhood in Windsor, WI, which is only a few miles from where I live.) Thordarson used the island as a private summer resort until his death in 1945. In 1965 the State of Wisconsin purchased the island from Thordarson's heirs and it is now a state park. Wake up! (I think all that history stuff is interesting. Sorry)

Anyway, Thordarson must have eaten a few too many of these.

Why else would he have thought that building this was a good idea for keeping deer out of his garden?

It didn't work, and the deer on the island ate every single one of the 6,000 apple trees he planted. He planted 1,000 in one year and none of them survived until the next year. (Okay, he also built a 10-foot high barbed-wire fence, but the deer jumped over it.)

Speaking of his garden, Thordarson was an afficionado of Japanese gardens and planted many Japanese plants, but, after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he bulldozed them all. I'll bet you didn't know we have Chester Thordarson to thank for the U.S. victory in the Pacific arena of WWII. If he hadn't bulldozed that garden, we'd all be speaking Japanese right now.

He also planted some native Icelandic plants. Here is a patch of the Icelandic thyme that is still plentiful on Rock Island.

Looking to the southwest, you see Washington Island about two miles away and it doesn't feel all that exposed to the elements.

But, look in any other direction and you realize that you are way out there in the middle of one of the Great Lakes (kind of like the ocean, but without the salt.) It makes you feel, well, small.

When you're on "The Rock", as many people refer to it, the weather can get kind of intense. We were pretty lucky last week, but we did have some stormy weather. One day, after an afternoon of overcast skies and high winds, at the end of the day the sky was clearing in the west and the sun managed to illuminate the island as it set, shining underneath the cloud cover. I love the way it looks when the landscape is lit up against a dark sky.

Returning home is an odd experience. From the primitive conditions on Rock Island, (pit toilets, hauling water from the only pump, no cell-phone reception, even the single telephone on the island wasn't working while we were there) you head across on the ferry and Washington Island sort of eases you back into civilization.
Washington Island is only accessible from the mainland by ferry or light plane, but there are roads, cars and, of course, tourists. But, thanks in part to that ferry across what they call "Death's Door", it's a slightly different class of tourists. Take the ferry from Washington Island to the mainland and, WHAM!, instant tourist hell. You know the type. Polo shirts and deck shoes. Loud. Big honkin' boats. Entirely too many Illinois license plates (up here in Wisconsin we have a name for people from Illinois with their big honkin' boats who think of Wisconsin as their playground, but it's not very nice, so I don't think I'll say any more.) The rest of the trip home is a little less of a shock after that.

There are cool and awesome places all around the country and the world, but I'm partial to the combination of the North Woods and Maritime feel you get at places like Rock Island. The light is different. The air smells different. The air feels different. I had a similar reaction when we took a trip to New Brunswick and the Bay of Fundy. It's about as good as it gets for me.

First we rock, then we go to the Rock

2008-07-25T23:25:00.001-05:00

Ms. Geranium, Sparkly Seacow, SS's friend Violet, Molly (the Official Spokesdog of the Impeachment Movement™) and I will be heading up nort' to Rock Island State Park for a week of no cars, no television (oh, wait, we don't watch television, so that won't be any different) no telephones, internets or electricity. There will be plenty of other good stuff though - hiking, lying on the beach, swimming, fighting over the one hammock, napping, reading, playing guitar, that sort of thing.

But first, tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon at 4:15 pm The Motor Primitives will be playing at the Atwood Summerfest. A fun outdoor festival about 4 blocks from our house. I will be using someone else's bass speakers for this gig, thanks to the bass player from The Deadstring Brothers, who will be playing after us, so I won't need to load my rig into the car. All I'll need to bring will be my bass, amplifier and a bag of cables and stuff. This will make it possible for me to pack for our trip beforehand, walk or bike to the gig, and I'll have an easy load-out when we're done. I must be crazy, because....

...play the gig, hurry home and zoom up to Green Bay, where we will stay overnight at my sister's house. Sunday morning we need to get going early enough to make the last ferry to Rock Island. It doesn't look very far on the map, but it's slow driving through Door County and it's necessary to take a car ferry from the tip of Door Co. to Washington Island, drive to the other end of Washington Island, then leave your car and get all your stuff onto the next ferry. Once on the Rock, you have to lug all your gear to your campsite on foot. It's a lot of work getting up there. That's why we stay for a week.

I won't be blogging or reading any blogs for about a week or so. I know you'll all really miss me. All seven of you. But I will miss you.

Music, food, folks & fun.

2008-07-23T23:24:00.012-05:00

Yesterday (Tuesday) Veseliyka played at our neighborhood farmer's market. We didn't make any money to speak of, but it was a good time. I like the sense of community our little market has. After all, what can be better than knowing the people who grow your food, seeing neighbors and friends and having the chance to either play some music or listen to music (and dance!) while you shop for locally grown organic food? And, due to the fact that in this group I play a relatively portable instrument and the market is so close to home, I can bike there!

Here are some pictures taken by our friend Paula White. The background is unimpressive since we are facing the market from its perimeter, so just imagine a bunch of stalls with people milling about, kids underfoot (literally - I almost stepped on a couple) and a beautiful, sunny, although rather windy, day. Sorry, no pictures of Dave playing his inflatable goat.

Veseliyka

Dave.
Playing a wind instrument can be a challenge on a windy day.

Flora

Yuliyan

Me (again...). Recognize the hat?

This is the kind of thing that happens when you play on a windy day. Music on the ground.

New(?) friends.

2008-07-22T14:51:00.005-05:00

I'd like to take a moment to introduce y'all to two additions to my blog roll.

First, there's Quaker Dave whose blog is called The Quaker Agitator. I've never actually met QD, aside from virtually, but I enjoy reading his blog. Many of you probably already read The QA, but I have been remiss in adding him. His blog is always worth a visit.

Second, we have Gomonkeygo with the blog The New Disease. Gomomnkeygo is an old friend who moved from Madison a number of years back and just recently stopped by here to say "hi." I knew him through both the local music scene and his younger sister, who was once a coworker of mine (cow-ork-er: |'kau ork er|; noun; a person who orks cow. [Sorry, I can't resist playing with words and pronunciation. I know, it's a bad habit, but I just can't help myself.])

So, if you're not already reading these two fine blogs, take a moment to visit them in your copious spare time.

And, to those of you whom I never introduced when I added you to my blog roll, please accept my most sincere apologies. I never even thought of it until seeing it done on other blogs.