Once again, it’s another two-for-one Wall special! Yep, two new entries on the same day, this one and last one, all because I almost fell asleep while desperately trying to finish and post yesterday’s Wall entry. Sorry, I told y’all I thought I was becoming narcoleptic.
So anyway, where was I? As some know, we wound up having to cancel out Saturday because JJ, of all things to have when you’re pushing thirty, has the chicken pox.. and I also don’t want him anywhere near me because I’ve never had any of the usual icky childhood diseases. So that pretty much hosed that, and I didn’t get to go to the Alex Chilton show at the Hi-Tone either, and then Tennessee loses the most important ballgame of the year, and the whole weekend pretty much sucked overall. We are maybe going to try it again next weekend – except I can’t remember how long chicken pox stays contagious? – or the weekend after that, I’ll mass-email as soon as I know something for sure. I am trying to figure out how to password-protect a possible new part of the site that would contain all such folly… actually I wish you could do a password-questionnaire, that would be amusing… only those well-versed in Zone trivia (or me) would ever be able to enter, hehehe.
Anyway, so, the only good thing about the weekend really was that my new neighbors have obviously finally gotten the hint and quieted down a bit (or someone in the neighborhood’s complained, dunno). Actually that whole scene is beginning to be a little more interesting, somewhat along Melrose Place lines, once over the weekend I chanced to hear one noisy loud female questioning someone about when so-and-so had sex with so-and-so and that she was going to kick the last so-and-so’s butt, and then the next night late in the evening there was an unhappy young lady running up and down the street after some guy literally wailing “(insert guy name here), why are you doing this to me??” Much more of this and I won’t miss so much the fact that Melrose won’t be coming back on TV, heh.
Anyhow… the weather just turned cold! Not cold enough that I’m not still in shorts, but definitely cooler. The wind picked up a lot in the night and my neurotic dogs totally freaked, the goofy yellow dog who wasn’t scared of thunderstorms until he was about two years old now gets under the covers so he won’t see lightning – which is fine because if he’s under the covers he stays still, unlike when he doesn’t and fidgets and moves around every 10 seconds, usually in the vicinity of my head – but there was no lightning last night, not even hardly any rain, and still he got his head under the covers. The two mutts used to only be scared of thunderstorms, now they get upset when it’s simply raining. Baby’s fear is a little more understandable seeing as how she once was a stray street dog – Dobie, of course, has never been left outside or anything even remotely such in his entire spoiled rotten life, and I can vouch for that entirely seeing as how he was born on my living room floor lo all these almost five years ago (I cannot believe he’s about to turn five) and has barely been outside of the house nor far from a comfy couch or bed since, sheesh.
Speaking of Dobie, next time you’re in the dishwashing, scouring pad section of your local grocery store or whatnot, be sure and look for The Original Dobie. I am not kidding. You’ll see…
Well, what else, this probably belongs on the Music & Movies page but getting one page a week or so updated is about my limit right now, I recently picked up and Greggie and I have been enjoying (gotta love that speakerphone and the Breits’ WATS line!) and getting inspired immensely by an awesome CD, and you’ll never believe by whom… Paul Revere & The Raiders’ The Essential Ride, ’63-’67. This is the one of all to get and those of you music snobs who are raising an eyebrow right now will likely change your tune if you give it a whirl yourselves. Now, I have always dug the Raiders, definitely one of American rock’s most overlooked bands ever, since I was a little bitty kid and had a crush on Phil “Fang” Volk (a rare time I ever had a crush on a bass player) second only to my Davy Jones crush in early childhood. Tho I had all the “teenybopper-fare” albums too, my dad had actually purchased a copy of their first album in the ’60s which seriously kicked some early Rolling Stones butt by far, and I literally cut my baby musical teeth on that album… probably the only two year old in the country who knew all the words to that one and the Broadway cast recording album of Hair. (giggle) So anyway, since I haven’t had a working turntable (well, that’s not true, I have one, there’s just no place to put it and it’s not been plugged in in years), I probably haven’t listened to any old Raiders stuff save for what came on the radio now and again in years. But now, listening to it with a much-jaded and broadened musical ear after all these years have passed – whoa. In the words of Greggiepoo, their guitarist Drake Levin was/is a guitar genius – if you listen beyond the pop, so to speak, you get to listen to some absolute genius guitar riffage. Not to mention the various nuances of the rest of the band – I was just amazed, such things had never really occurred to me when it came to PR&TR. I was also super-digging the earliest, bluesy kinda stuff… I’ll be here all night if I go on about specifics as to why this album has just knocked me over so, but take it from me, it’s just fascinating and really cool. (This is a great example of why I love music so – even the oldest stuff you’ve had for years can turn around and surprise you one day, almost like something totally new!) It’s also just a really cool CD, I picked it specifically over others that were available because it had several of what-were-then filler cuts on my favorite album of all, Spirit of ’67, and that was just really neat to have along with the big hits, and some other stuff that I’d never heard before. It also has a booklet full of anecdotes and tales from most everyone in the band that is just a really cool read, and here’s some trivia – the Raiders’ first album was not only the first rock & roll album Columbia put out that sold tons of copies, it also was probably the first major-label album to come out that had the “F” word within the grooves! That was one of the anecdotes, how somehow that managed to slip by the label in the background of the Raiders’ version of The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” (and was on the same album that I cut my aforementioned baby music teeth on), and yup, it’s there all right – you can barely make it out, but it’s there, heh. Another little anecdote I enjoyed was when Phil Volk mentioned running into David Letterman bass player Will Lee and he was like talking to Will Lee like he was God, saying he couldn’t even begin to touch what Lee does, and Lee told him that was nuts because he (Lee) had learned how to play bass by watching Phil Volk on the Raiders’ show, Where the Action Is, every afternoon when he was a kid and that Phil was like the master when it came to bass.
Anyway, lots of cool things like that and the CD is just a total treat for any crazed musician, it may take a listen or two but you’ll get what has us so fascinated eventually, it’s just supercool and definitely, to me anyway, is the essential and definitive compilation of Raiders swag. I dunno if the fascination is as much because it’s so great, or just the fact that we sort of missed the point until now about how good they really were! I also have managed to land something I thought I never would, which will be on its way here soon, which is a copy of the aforementioned first album, as it would seem Mark Lindsay himself is selling it via his website – way cool, can’t wait to have that one right here in my hot little hands.
Anyway… now that I’ve bored virtually everyone but the rest of the musically insane (giggle)… not much else news-wise, other than the fact I think I’m headed for a date with an esophagoscope, which is, tho not a good thing, not the worst since that just happens to be what my boss does… I think I’ve finally managed to tear up my insides irreparably, so to speak! As a smart-aleck friend sassed the other day, yes, maybe if I’d drink more of the wild cherry Capri Sun that’s always in my fridge and not so much whatever-flavor-of-the-week coffee and Coke and whatnot, maybe I could actually put away the, what an ex used to call, industrial-strength bottle of antacid I always have with me, heh. But, you know, then again it could just be stress, since I’ve had plenty of that now the last several months, so who knows. I’m sure if I actually have to go under the scope, I’ll be here complaining about it and relating the whole story in exceptional detail. (snicker)
Anyway, I really gotta go – all this work still has me snowed under for hours every night after work and I’m just pooped, plus I – much to my irritation – have to spend all day tomorrow in two dumb classes for work that I don’t really need and shouldn’t have to be wasting an entire day on, plus three other entire afternoons this month besides that, in, so I’m not only in a mood but I need to get some sleep so I won’t fall asleep during class, especially since one of tomorrow’s instructors, tho I haven’t yet met her in person, would appear from a phone conversation to be about the most humorless human being on the planet. So I’m just really looking forward to this. Talk to all awaiting parties soon, everyone have a good rest of the week on my behalf since I won’t…
