Here' to All the Poetry & the Pickin' Down the Line

I just came across this poem today, & as it deals with one of my favorite pasttimes, walking through the city, I love it.









Broadway Stroll
Late October. But the night is fragrant
as in summertime. At each corner
an imperious king stands, pleading
with his harmonica, or shaking his bare hand.
My face must be shuttered tight. No one
asks me for anything. The neighborhoods tonight
are like excited children from the countryside.
Everyone's clumped in twos & threes,
while my feet pound each jittery block
through wind that's sweet from recent rain.
Perhaps I'll never reach the island-tip
of my decisions. Tomorrow should remain
skinny & silent, like the meager trees
in this sidewalk-town. If I stop my search
I'll never start again.

Kirsten Painter

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

To Live is to Fly-Townes Van Zandt, Rear View
No Place to Fall-Townes Van Zandt, Rear View
Colorado Girl-Townes Van Zandt, Rear View
Don't You Take it Too Bad-Townes Van Zandt, Rear View
Two Hands-Kevin Davis (song by Townes Van Zandt)

What a genius songwriter Townes (pictured above) was, he was simple, direct, heartfelt & bittersweet. Oh to be in one of those clubs when he played solo.

Happy Sunday evening, friends...

andrew

(I lifted this picture from Heidi's blog. It's okay as long as it's all in the family, right?)

Strap Yourself to the Tree with Roots

You often hear people when they get to their forties & fifties talk about how wild & different they were when they were younger. I even hear people my own age talk this way. Somehow, though, I can't imagine my mom & dad being much different then they are now. I've heard some stories that attempt to suggest that they were wild & crazy (like mom with that one bottle of wine that she had in college), but other stories prove me right. Maybe someday we could prove this in court, or maybe in the cow palace.

Let's just look at that picture, shall we? I think you can look at any picture of my old man from the last thirty years when he is smiling for the camera, & I think you will find the exact same smile that you see in that picture. Quite comforting, isn't it? It's the same smile & wave he gives when your leaving his house, when no matter how cold it is, he'll keep standing there until you are gone. How about my mother? Everytime I hear that story about how she woke up the day of her wedding & her & her bridesmaids started singing "Going to the chapel & were gonna get married" part of me gets sick to the stomach, but the other part of me remembers how she'd be singing during any old day in the morning when I was a kid. It's the same way when she gets together with her sisters & they start singing those old songs.

I've got to admit that until I saw Heidi's blog, I forgot that it was their wedding anniversary. It's just like my parents not to remind me, & it's just like their son to forget. Anyway, I don't need a day to remind me of how much my parents mean to me. I'm reminded everytime my dad tells me a bad joke, or whenever my mom bugs me for information about a girl I'm dating. So maybe things never change that much, I wouldn't have it any other way. There's nobody in the world like them. Is it okay to say you are proud of your parents? I don't care, I'm saying it anyway. I'm proud of you two & love you very much.

I wish we had some sort of recording of my parents singing during their wedding. What was the song called? Maybe I'll get to hear it someday.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Shelter from the Storm-Bob Dylan, 1994
Shouldn't Be Ashamed-Wilco, Summerteeth
Born in Time-Bob Dylan, 1994
As I Rise-Decemberists, Her Majesty the Decemberists
South Central Rain (I'm Sorry)-REM

andrew

(here's a picture of the coolest band ever assembled to distract you from the subject matter to follow)

Why I'm a Dork: Part 1.5

I bought the Anti-Burst Body Ball, for crunches mostly. While I'm using it, I have this recurring fear that any time Mike or Ryan or somebody is going to walk up the stairs while I'm working out with this thing & laugh hysterically. I know I would if I caught one of them using it.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Oh! Sweet Nuthin!-the Velvet Underground, Loaded
The Well-Smog, A River Ain't Too Much to Love
Dear Landlord-Bob Dylan, Shepherd's Bush, 2003
Pass Me Not, Oh Gentle Savior-Bob Dylan, Live 2000
Let Me See the Colts-Smog, A River Ain't Too Much to Love

Happy Thursday, friends!

andrew

I Don't Care How Rough the Road is, Show Me Where it Starts!

For your viewing pleasure this evening, I present for you one of my favorite Bob Dylan performances. I've heard this version of "What Can I Do for You?" a million times, from Toronto 1980, but I've never seen it before, until this evening. Recorded shortly after Bob Dylan's conversion to Christianity, it shows how passionately he performed his Gospel songs. They don't get much better than this, there's none of that rebel stance that most of his songs portray, there's nothing but pure unencumbered joy that can only be found from being saved by the one who gave his life for me, & you.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

What Can I Do For You?-Bob Dylan, Toronto, Massey Hall 1980

Notes on Air-Alejandro Escovedo, the Boxing Mirror

I Need All the Friends I Can Get-Camera Obscura, Let's Get Out of this Country

Use It-the New Pornographers, Twin Cinema

Life Worth Livin'-Uncle Tupelo, No Depression

Happy Tuesday, friends, I hope you realize all He's done for you!

andrew

If Your Traveling to the North Country Fair...

I am officially in the planning stages of my first real vacation of my adult life. I think I'll go up north to the only American Wilderness left & ride the rails in Alaska. I'm sure I won't take this vacation this year, maybe not even next year, but it'll happen soon. You heard it hear first. It's like that Los Lobos song, everybody loves a train. I know I do.

In other news, everyone who works at my store seems to be on some sort of diet, including yours truly. It really isn't a conscious decision for all of us to watch what we eat, but it helps that we have three other people to watch our eating habits, at least at lunch time anyway. I've always been a relatively thin (or maybe scrawny more aptly describes it) but over the last couple of years, I seemed to have packed on the pounds in all the wrong places. It's time to rid myself of the "two inch pinch", as Dan calls it. Beer's out (except for JW's night of course). Potato chips out. Pizza for lunch out. Gatorade is out, who knew it had so many calories! Dinner tonight consists of a salad & a bowl of bear naked granola after a bike ride along the beach. 'Twas a gorgeous night for a ride along Lake Michigan. I didn't have the patience to stay for the sunset. I'm sure it'll be there tomorrow.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Four Fingered Fisherman-Sun Kil Moon, Tiny Cities

This would make a great song to listen to on the train overlooking the mountains.

If We Run-Kevin Davis & Jason Lamb, Symphony Valley Visitor's Bureau

This made a great song for a ride along the beach. if you find that your closet is a mess, dig through the bins, try to find a nice dress among the skeletons...

From a Buick Six-Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited

Sinners in the Mansion of the Lord-Kevin Davis & Jason Lamb, Symphony Valley Visitor's Bureau

Girl in the War-Josh Ritter, Animal Years

Happy Monday, friends, I hope you make it to all of your dream destinations!

(my copy has superman flying across the sky, it was taken out of distribution for copyright infringement)

What You Left Behind

They say scent is the sense most closely linked to memory, & I suppose its true. I can still catch a whiff of a gallon of paint that I've used & instantly remembered where & when I used that particular brand of paint. I've got to quit talking about paint. And as much as I hate McDonalds, it's food, & every corner of the earth it inhabits, I can smell the scent (or stench?) of greasy food & coffee & still catch a memory of those special trips to the McDonalds in Flat Rock with the whole family. Other examples include the smell of a school in late summer, early fall, cut grass in early spring & the smell of hot dogs at Tiger Stadium.

The next sense closest to memory, at least for me, is songs. Certain songs bring you back to certain places, sometimes you realize why a song reminds you of certain things, but most of the time it's just coincidence, or God's will, who knows? Maybe it has to do with hearing a new song at the same time of a new event. I don't know. Here's some songs that remind me of certain events:

Lonely Heart-Boyz II Men

There's just something about those cheesy harmonies that brings out the sap in anyone, especially an eighth grader who's just been told he's moving out of the only house he's ever known. These lyrics were so deep, they cut right to the bone.

Girl: Mike,
Mike: Yeah, Baby
Girl: It's Over,
Mike: How can you say that?
Girl: the love is gone
Mike: No, please don't leave me
Girl: Don't feel bad
Mike: how can I not feel bad? I love you.
Girl: But it's better this way.
Mike: No, I don't believe this.
Girl: No, baby.

I'm tearing up now, just thinking about it. The preppy outfits they wore made it that much more believable. I think we have Boyz II Men to blame for the cardigan epidemic of the early '90's, of which I was the biggest victim.

Sweetness Follows-REM, Automatic for the People

Everytime I hear this song, or this album for that matter, I can still see the New York skyline in the dark from a bus. I think I borrowed the cassette from my friend Mike, & I listened to it on a yellow Sony Walkman that belonged to my old man that he never got to use because his children (mostly his son) were bogarting it.

E-Bow the Letter-REM, New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Playing pool at pinball pete's in downtown Ann Arbor the night before I moved away to college.

I'm Beginning to See the Light-the Velvet Underground

We used to play euchre out on the deck in the summers, with the door open letting the stereo blare out, drinking cheap wine & listening to all sorts of wierd music. Good times.

Abide With Me-hymn

This is probably my favorite song, bar none. It was always played at any night service during the warmer months when I was a kid. This song makes me wish that the walk across the parking lot after church would've lasted a little longer.

Box of Rain-the Grateful Dead, American Beauty

I think I put this song on after I got off the phone with my mother when she told me Oma died. I'm not quite sure why. It's a great song, but it has little to do with Oma, or what she meant to me, except maybe this line:

look into any eyes, you find by you, you can see clear through to another day, I know it's been seen before through other eyes on other days while going home...

If We Run-Kevin Davis, Symphony Valley Visitor's Bureau

I listened to this cd the day after Jenni & I broke up while I painted. I had the day off. The Tigers opened the season that day. They won, didn't they?

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue

The perfect album to listen to sitting in the driveway on a summer evening after mowing the lawn, while reading a book, sprinkler running.

Keeping Me Awake-Tarkio, Omnibus

I'm kind of glad that I don't listen to this song too often, it's so great I don't want to wear it out. I was listening to this song alot when I first moved into my current residence, it may have been the first song I listened to after I got the keys & walked in for the first time, although I have a hard time believing it wasn't a Dylan song. I think this album is responsible for the cd player in the bathroom upstairs. As if my showers weren't long enough already.

In other news, I put about ten miles on my Adidas SS2G's over the weekend. Two hikes, two days. Who knows which songs I'll remember from them. More Miles than Money? Five Hearts Breaking? She Belongs to Me? Subterranean Homesick Blues? Muzzle of Bees?

Maybe someday I'll blog about something other than music, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

Keeping me Awake-Tarkio, Omnibus

Casimir Pulaski Day-Sufjan Stevens, Come on, Feel the Illinoise!

Two Bass Hit-Miles Davis, Milestones

Sandusky-Uncle Tupelo, March 16-20 1992

City of Gold-the Dixie Hummingbirds, Masked & Anonymous Soundtrack

Happy Monday, friends, I hope your memory is filled with many happy songs!

andrew

I'm Afraid of Guns

I read a bumper sticker today that read "An Armed Society is a Polite Society". I thought it was just about the stupidest thing I've ever read.

Let's assume for a second that it's true. Is politeness a fair price to pay for being constantly in fear of being capped in the ass by your neighbor?

Look at me, I must be some sort of genius, winning a debate with a bumper sticker. Tomorrow, I'll discuss which motor company logo Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) should be relieving himself on.

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

The Spark-the Roots, Things Fall Apart
Dynamite!-the Roots, Things Fall Apart
Ain't Sayin' Nothin' New-the Roots, Things Fall Apart
Tangled Up in Blue-Bob Dylan, Barcelona 1984
Grace Cathedral Hill-Kevin Davis & Jason Lamb (Decemberists cover)

Happy Thursday, friends, keep your eyes on the road & off the bumper stickers...

andrew