Life's little time capsules

Saturday night at the gay cafe we stayed at it way later than we we're supposed to. No one wanted to go home.

I'm in charge of music at the cafe. I'd run through my play list, so I asked people what they wanted to hear. The requests were all pretty predictable, and some were funny.

And then one young man asked if I had Bronski Beat.

OMFG. Bronski Beat. Love and Money. Hearing it after all these years was like cracking open a time capsule from a very brief but very intense time in my life.

It was 1985. I was a struggling grad student on a six-month stint in Columbus Ohio, at the Ohio Data User's Center, doing population projections. I was befriended by the Center's librarian, Jean, a thirty-something divorcee (I was a very tender 24). Let's just say she expanded my world.

She loved Bronski Beat and that song. And I don't think I've heard it since then. In fact, I haven't thought about Columbus or Jean the librarian in all this time. When my time at the Center was up I returned to grad school and that was that.

Sheesh! I'm so fucking old because that was 25 years ago. And Saturday night at the gay cafe Love & Money brought it all back like a life-flashes-before-your-eyes movie trailer.

On my playlist

This has been around for a while. How did I miss it?

Music can be like a time capsule

I listened to Holly Cole yesterday. I hadn't listened to her in years. Hearing her again was like cracking open a time capsule.

There have been periods in my past where the one thing driving me forward was music. This is particularly true of my Pittsburgh years (1995-98). Among my constant companions at that time was Holly Cole's Dark Dear Heart. Onion Girl was getting a lot of play on alternative radio at the time.

I was at Carnegie Mellon, where my mission was to figure out a smart way to spend $10 million dollars. The fulfillment of that mission eventually became my dissertation and provided me with a bankable skill that supports my semi-retired life. I did the best work of my career at Carnegie Mellon. But it left me completely burned out.

I've never fully recovered.

Pittsburgh will go down as the most intense time of my life.

Amanda was still a preschooler. And though she was a delightfully easy child, she was still a preschooler. A preschooler with food allergies.

Though Raj could still command more salary at that time than I could, he couldn't keep a job and had three during those 31 months. It didn't help that he was very ill much of that time. The drugs he trialed were sometimes worse than his psychoses. At one point his weight dropped below 120 pounds. That was scary.

But, there were no 911 calls or overnight stays at the county psych hospital, so relatively speaking, Pittsburgh was a period of calm.

So there I was, working a really intense high-stakes job, raising a preschooler, and nursing a psychotic husband who couldn't hold a job.

That's a perfect time to write a dissertation.

For a year my schedule, aside from my roles as wife, mother and planning analyst, consisted of two or three hours most nights either reading, writing, researching, or crunching data. Nearly every Friday and Saturday became all-nighters, reserving sleep for 5:00am until Amanda would wake up. I'd tune out all of life's distractions with music and work. Holly Cole was there for much of it.

Cole's version of River will always be my favorite. I finished my dissertation in the fall and graduated just five days before Christmas. River so captured my emotional state at that time. Brings me to tears...

And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I'm so hard to handle
I'm selfish and I'm sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly

These signs made me giggle like a 12-year old

I saw these signs while driving around Washington DC. They made me giggle.

We had a very good time. Ann and Brook are great hosts. They took us to lunch at Amanda's favorite Lebanese restaurant up past DuPont Circle in the swanky part of town.

Ann and Brook live downtown, near L' Enfant Plaza, so we walked the few blocks to the Smithsonian and spent the afternoon there. Saturday night I drove us across town to the U Street area for our first taste of Ethiopian cooking. Yum!

I love Ann & Brook's cats.

We had a really great time. The music Friday night was fantastic. Coming back Sunday we made a pit stop in Culpeper. It's a beautiful, quaint town and we will definitely take in a wine or farm tour there in the fall.

This morning I was up bright and early to see my girls off to their respective schools. I made French toast for Amanda and packed her lunch. I drove Courtney to work so she wouldn't have to deal with first-day-of-class traffic at the college.

As for my day, I uploaded a report and began work on another one. And I was given another report to do, due Friday.

I danced all through the house today, just because I could.

Life is good. Really good.

Hangin' with the blue bloods

We had a great time at the Mountain Music Fest at Wintergreen yesterday. We got there early and at first were the youngest people there. Court's used to that, but it's been a long, long time since I could make that claim.

The place gradually filled with blue blood couples, all retired, with their perfectly matched, designer-label outfits. It's been a long time since I've been surrounded by so much conspicuous consumption. We were amongst perfectly pedigreed couples with their perfectly pedigreed dogs.

What is it with old people and nautical-themed outfits? I thought leather boat shoes sans socks went out with the 1980s. I guess I was wrong. It's like these people never outgrew their fraternity days. I haven't seen so many turned up Izod collars since Ronald Reagan was president.

Eventually some rednecks did show up, so Court and I didn't stand out like dykes at a GOP fundraiser.

The music was great. Best performance was Robin & Linda Williams singing of Feed My Sheep. We also enjoyed the jamming breakouts. Maybe next year I'll feel confident enough in my own guitar picking to join in.

The local talent was very good. Especially these guys. They are getting airtime on our bluegrass station. This couple played at our church picnic earlier this summer. Our favorite song of theirs is this.

I love the mountains. The views from the resort were spectacular. Driving up from East Jesus, we saw a lot of property for sale. No doubt it's all way beyond our means--- it's Nelson County Virginia after all. But it's fun to dream.

More pictures of our day are here.

[snicker]

How can I pass this up?

Take THAT ClearChannel

East Jesus has a new radio station. And I love it.

Great music, and the station runs on a business model that offers commercial-free public radio without government support. The antithesis of ClearChannel [...and NPR].

MP3 Meme

I saw this meme at Maria's.

Here is how it works. Put your MP3 player on shuffle and press next for each question. Write down the song that's playing as an answer.

This should be interesting.

1) How would you describe yourself?
Kneeling Drunkard's Plea (June Carter Cash). That would be me after more than two drinks.

2) What do you like in a guy/girl?
The Simple Story (Feist). How perfect is that title? Yes, do spare me details and drama. No victims or fucking sob stories for me please. I loathe manipulating people who prey on others' generosity to gain sympathy (which they confuse for the love they so desperately wish to receive), especially when they are mostly the "victim" of their own boneheaded choices.

3) What is your motto?
Somebody's Everything (Dolly Parton). I feel more like everybody's something.

4) What do your friends think of you?
What's Going On? (Detroit Cobras). I haven't a clue what my friends think of me. I don't think about it. Should I?

5) What do you think about often?
How We Operate (Gomez). Oh yes, I'm fascinated by how things work.

6) What do your parents think of you?
You Need a Rest (Girl Interrupted Original Score). Hahahaha... Right.

7) What do you think of your best friend?
Everybody Thinks You're a Smash (Etienne De Rocher). She *is* a smash.

8) What do you think of the person you like?
Fighting in a Sack (The Shins). It probably LOOKS like that's what she and I are doing, hubba hubba.

9) What do you want to be when you grow up?
Time Bomb (Old 97s). Tick... tick... tick... No, that's the last thing I want to be. That's more like people I loathe (see #2). When I grow up, I plan on being a happy, living-off-the-earth, hippie.

10) What do you think when you see the person you like?
Mild Child (The Shins). She's no child (tell my parents), nor is she mild (don't tell my parents).

11) What song will they play at your wedding?
Underneath the Bunker (R.E.M.). That would have been appropriate for my first wedding.

12) What will they play at your funeral?
Nefarious (Spoon). Forgoodnesssakes, I hope not.

13) What is your hobby/interest?
Needle and the Damage Done (Neil Young). This is true only in the sense that I used to play and sing this song, a lot, back in the day.

14) What is your biggest fear?
Moon on my Shoulder (Lyle Lovett). Those harmful rays, ya know...

15) What is your biggest secret?
Ozone (Angels in America Original Score). In other words, flatulence. There, I admitted it. I am known to have occasional bouts of flatulence.

16) What do you think of your friends?
All I Want Is You (Barry Lewis Polisar). I love this song; it's currently the favorite track on my player. I feel this way only about Courtney though.

17) What is your theme song?
I Turn My Camera On (Spoon). Whenever I remember to bring it along.

18) What do you think of your family?
I Am A Child (Neil Young). As the oldest, by far, in this family, hardly (though I act it sometimes). With regard to my extended family, and my parents in particular, I am a child.

19) What is your best friend's theme song?
Down to the River to Pray (Alison Krauss). I don't know that she prays much...

20) What is your mood right now?
The Fat Girl (Lyle Lovett). Hahaha... great song! I'm certainly that.

21) If your heart could talk what would it say?
Atonement (Lucinda Williams). I have plenty of atoning to do, this is true.

22) What do your co-workers think of you?
Missing You (Alison Krauss). I can't believe this title popped up. Soon they will. Then again, maybe they won't.

23) What does your future look like?
Free at Last (The Five Blind Boys of Alabama). Again, what are the odds? I could not have picked a better song for this one. Eight more weeks and I will be free at last.

How much do I love my wife?

New Kids on the Block is threatening a reunion tour. Guess who wants me to take her to see them?

What happens when someone borrows your MP3 player

A few months ago, Amanda's Zen broke (she dropped it on our hard wood floors too many times) so she borrowed mine. Now that she has a new Zen, I have mine back. I should let her borrow mine more often, because she loaded some really good music on it. For example:



Janey Todd: Rusty Water











David Poe: Love is Red









She also loaded Megadeth, Obituary, and Sodom on it, but I'll forgive her for that.

Great Performances

Growing up, I was exposed to a lot of classical music. Though mine was a very frugal, working- class family, we were the only household among our friends, neighbors, and relatives to have a hi-fidelity stereo system. As kids, my siblings and I were outliers because we loved classical music.

In the early 1980s CBS (now Sony) came out with their Great Performances series. Our family owned quite a few records from this series. Our favorite, by far, was Pictures At An Exhibition. We played the hell out of that record. At the time, my younger sister was in the high school color guard, and along with the entire marching band traveled the eastern seaboard winning band competitions performing excerpts from Pictures.

Readers who grew up watching The Smurfs will recognize two pieces (Gnomus, Tuileries) from Pictures.

Older readers may recall that Emerson, Lake & Palmer covered Pictures (I don't recommend their version).

Imagine my delight when I discovered the Great Performances version of Pictures available on Rhapsody. It's on the Zen play list now.