March

I'm going to combine food and music in this post. First, the music:

24. Oxford American Music Sampler - 1999

I told y'all there would be several of these. This one is probably my favorite. It was the one that really hooked me on the OA and the music issue itself. Here are some of the artists that make it so great: Alex Chilton, Bob Dylan's "Oxford Town," The Flying Burrito Brothers covering "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man," Jelly Roll Morton and John Prine...

Probably the most amazing part of the album is this sequence: A lovely, lazy Southern song by Terri Binion called "Locomotive"> Nina Simone's "I Want a Little Sugar in my Bowl"> Isaac Hayes' "Do Your Own Thing"> June Carter Cash singing "The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore." The first time I heard those songs back-to-back, I was blown away and impressed by the variety of genres represented in the OA - which of course was indicative of just how many different types of great music come from right here in the South. It made me proud.

25. Oxford American Music Sampler - 2001

Another great OA offering. This one begins with "Jesus is on the Mainline" by Mississippi Fred McDowell, a footstomping testimony of a song. Other highlights include "You Are Loved" by Victoria Williams, "The Lonesome River," a duet by Ralph Stanley and Bob Dylan, The Gants' "Little Boy Sad," Dolly Parton's upgrade to the Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road," and Emmylou Harris' stunning "Orphan Girl." The great thing about the albums is that the magazine features stories behind or about each of the songs. I have tried to save all my OA music issues because the stories are so good and it's a great education about our Southern music history.

26. The Hold Steady - Heaven is Whenever
I gave the Hold Steady a try not long ago, along with some other "new" groups, because I felt like my taste in music was kind of growing stale. I wasn't listening to any new music at the time, and I didn't want to become one of those people who say things like, "They just don't make music like they used to anymore." Granted, there's a LOT of crappy music out there these days, but this album and a few others like it let me know that it's not all that way. I wasn't totally blown out of the water by this album, but I do really like the songs and the fact that it isn't overproduced, auto-tuned-to-death music. It's just real rock.

27. Beck - Guero
I love Beck. He's probably near the top of my list of top 5 solo performers pretty much ever. I was excited when this album came out in 2006 because Beck went back to his roots for this one, both musically and in the subject matter (many of the songs are a nod to his days growing up in southern California amongst the Latinos there - "Guero" is a slang term for a white guy.) I don't think I've bought a Beck album since this one, so I probably have some catching up to do, actually. (Now you're saying, "What kind of fan are you?" But I rarely buy albums anymore at all. I need to fix this problem.)

28. Parliament Funkadelic - Greatest Hits, disc 1
Uncut Funk, the Bomb! I love P-Funk. I put this on this past week in preparation for the St. Paddy's festivities. Nothing gets you relaxed and in the mood to party like P-Funk. I wish they'd come back to Jackson. I saw them at Jubilee JAM years ago and even though George and the others are getting a little long in the tooth, they still put on an awesome show. Who else puts 30+people onstage at one time? I can't even imagine what their tour bus situation must be like.



29. Depeche Mode - Greatest Hits, disc 2

This is not my favorite of the 2-disc set. But it does have a good live version of "Everything Counts," so that is a redeeming quality. The rest of the songs are newer, I guess, and just don't have the same "oomph" of the earlier DM stuff.





30. The Clash - The Story of the Clash

There's too much I can say about the Clash. We'd be here all night. This album is kinda cool because it has some excerpts of interviews with the band, but I can't understand half of what they're saying.





Food:

We've had a busy couple of weeks, so our gastronomic trip around the world has slowed down a bit. We did draw Rome last weekend, so the BF whipped up Spaghetti all'Amatriciana for a Sunday lunch. Here's a recipe . He didn't follow this exactly (he uses Mario Batali's tomato sauce recipe), and he used regular bacon instead of pancetta, but it was still very delicious!

I drew Brazil for this coming weekend, so I'm looking forward to some meat dishes and general yumminess all around.

Mid-February

This week's selections, while few, are a hilarious sampling of what I was into about 10 years ago. I promise, I was not a pothead. My musical taste was, though.

22. Rusted Root - When I Woke

Here is my Rusted Root story:

"You wanna go with me to Memphis in May and see Rusted Root tonight?" "Heck yeah!" - this is a conversation I had about 12 or 13 years ago. I wish I still had convos like that now, and the fun that usually comes soon after.

I think it was just before summer break in 1999, the end of my first year at Mississippi College (not exactly a party school, but we still found ways to have fun - usually involving getting as far away from campus as possible). I had become pretty good friends with this cool girl named Sally. She was very free-spirited and a lot of fun. She had an extra ticket to Memphis in May*. Seeing as school was out and my birthday was just around the corner, I needed a fun trip to celebrate.

The plan was to drive up, meet up with some friends of hers at the show, and drive back that same night. Memphis is "only" 3 hours away, so it was doable. We got there in the early afternoon and stopped off at the home of a friend of Sally's before heading downtown. After visiting with them for a while, we drove down near Beale and somehow found a place to park. I remember we managed to get something to eat at Blues City cafe, and then made our way down to Tom Lee park. This was my first visit to the festival and it was an awesome people-watching spectacle. LOADS of hippies, baby hipsters and frat boys all around. There were lots of vendors set up selling jewelry, "water pipes," you name it. I guess we eventually found her friends and settled in for some Rusted Root. We probably saw some other acts before they came on, but I don't remember now. I had not been super familiar with RR's music before this show, but it was still fun.

We headed back to Jackson pretty late, probably around 11:00 or midnight. Sally drove a blue Pontiac 6000, which, coincidentally, was exactly the same kind of car I had in high school. It was 1999, so I am not sure I even had a cell phone, and if I did, it wasn't with me. Sally had a bag phone, I think. The Pontiac 6000, while it was a nice car for a young student to drive, was lacking in one particular feature: it had no warning light for the gas gauge.

Sally and I are talking and laughing, listening to Edie Brickell and trying not to fall asleep, and we're getting closer to Clinton. Suddenly, the 6000 starts sputtering, and slowing down. We are now wide awake. She looks down at the dashboard and realizes that we have run out of gas. No big deal, it's only 2:00 in the morning and we're on I-220 near the Medgar Evers exit. Just two 21-year old gals! Totally safe.

We think for a minute about walking to the gas station that's just off the exit ramp on Medgar Evers, but knowing the area and the time of night, we decide against it. She pulls out the bag phone and we try to think about who to call. Remember, this is the end of the school year. School was out, actually. Sally was from the coast, and the only reason she was still in town was because she was an RA, and they had to stay an extra day or two for some reason. I don't know why I was still around. Probably just for this trip. Anyway, the point is, there was nobody left in the dorms to call. Except for our friend Carol, who also happened to be the Resident Director of our dorm. Carol was and is a very sweet person; so sweet in fact that we really hated to call and wake her up like that. But this was a pretty desperate situation, so we called her. About 20 minutes later, she and another friend and her boyfriend come to help us. I'm sure they all thought we had lost our minds, but they were nice enough not to make us feel worse about it. We got some gas, made it back to the dorm, and crashed out for probably 12 hours or so.

Was it worth it? Totally. Would I do that again? Probably not.

Rusted Root put on a good show if I remember correctly, but I never became a superfan. Maybe if I had been a pothead? Their music is just a little too earthy/bongo-y for me now. But I always smile when I think about that trip.

*Later, when I lived in Memphis, I learned that it is actually called "Beale Street Music Festival," but nobody down here really calls it that. (Memphis in May actually encompasses the entire month of May, because there are different festivals going on every weekend, but I'm showing my snobbery as a former Memphian and digressing. Sorry!)


23. Mix CD from 2001 or Thereabouts

So there will be several of these throughout this project. Like a lot of music nerds, I used to make tons of mixtapes. When tapes finally went out, and I got a CD burner**, it became mix CDs. Most of them I only made for myself to listen to in the car, but of course some of them I made for friends or cute boys. I always made copies of the ones I made for cute boys.

I am pretty sure this is a copy of one I made for a guy I was seeing off and on in Memphis. It was a very silly relationship that I wasted a lot of time on. But of course at the time I just knew we were meant to be, and this mixtape was going to propel us forward into the throes of mutual "like."

The disc begins with Phish's "Theme from the Bottom," a deliciously pathetic tune. I don't think I could've been more obvious. There's some obscure Dave Matthews, some Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco, Jeff Buckley, and even (cringe) some Jack Johnson. In my defense, he was just becoming popular at the time. I had no idea all his songs would wind up sounding exactly the same.

I don't know what I was thinking giving this guy a CD like this. Overall it has a very dark and dreary feel. I guess I wanted him to think I was deep? But really, I think I just looked extremely desperate/borderline psycho. Jeff Buckley singing "I know we could be so happy baby/if we wanted to be"? Poor Jeff, who had just died a few years earlier in Memphis, had to have been rolling in his grave, telling me to stop.

I will say that one line from Ben Harper's "Show Me a Little Shame" still sticks out and sums up the way my relationship was with this guy to a T. "You change your mind so many times/I wonder if you have a mind at all/And I'd rather be by myself/than to have your lonesome company come to call." I do think I put that one on there on purpose.

**I still recall going to Best Buy to purchase a CD burner and installing it myself in my tower hard drive. Still proud that I could do something like that, but WTF, really? I bet I paid nearly $100 for that thing.

When I think about my college/grad school years in the late '90s/early '00s, it often seems like it was really just a year or two ago. But then... bag phones? Pontiacs with no gas warning lights? installing a CD burner into a desktop computer that takes up half your living room? 3-day passes to Memphis in May were $36 in 1999. They are $65 today. Pontiacs don't exist anymore. My work computer doesn't even have a CD drive in it at all. So... ok, I'll concede. It's been a long time! But how fun it is to look back and see how far we have come.

Week 3

Somewhat random mix this past week:

9. Sufjan Stevens - Come on Feel the Illinoise

I'd still like to know when Sufjan is going to get on the next state in his "50 States" series. I don't think it's actually going to happen, but it should. I think he realized he didn't know enough about all 50 states to make this happen. But what a great reason to learn! Come on Sufjan, man up and stick to your promises!

Anyway, this album is really really good, even 7 years later. I forgot what a beautifully creepy song "John Wayne Gacy" is. This album isn't exactly a feel-good experience from beginning to end, but it does have its moments.

10. The Best of Badfinger

Badfinger reminds me of the early days in my relationship with the BF. We both really dig this band and the first several songs were in heavy rotation for a while at our house. Badfinger was formed as somewhat of a Beatles spinoff, but I think that they really did hold their own. At times their sound reminds me of Big Star too, which is always a good thing.


11. Best of Crowded House

I don't think that the album cover to the left is actually the one that goes with this CD, but I have long since lost the cover so I really have no clue what it looks like. At any rate, this is a great album. The Finn brothers write some of the best songs around, and after listening to a few "sad bastard" albums lately, it's nice to have some feel-good music to drive to. I let this one start over a few times before I went on to the next CD.




12. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

I discovered this band one night when flipping channels. They were the musical guest on Craig Ferguson's show, and I think this album had just come out. I rarely enjoy bands on late-night talk shows anymore, but these guys had my attention. I immediately went to Itunes to download the song that they performed on the show. When I sampled the other songs on the album, I realized that there wasn't a bad song in the bunch, so I downloaded the whole thing. That just doesn't happen much these days. Some might say that the harmonies are too cliche' and easy, but I think they feel right and sound awesome. Sometimes music doesn't have to be complicated.


13. Dave Matthews Band - Crash

Ok, I'll admit it. I was a HUGE Dave-head in college. Up until a few years ago when I got my new car, I still had a Firedancer sticker on my back window. Yeah, I know.

I had not listened to any DMB in a long time. I lost interest in the mid-late 2000s because I felt like the latter albums that the band released were just... meh. Not the same music I fell in love with as a 20-something. Going back to the music now, I have to say that a lot of it doesn't have the staying power that I once thought it would. Maybe I'm stuffier and older now, but some of the lyrics are just bad. "I have no lid upon my head/but if I did/you could look inside and see what's on my mind..." Ugh. Really?

I'll always have a soft spot for Dave in my heart, but now I look at him and the band almost like old college boyfriends. They were cute at the time, but it was never going to last beyond a couple of road trips to music festivals together.

I still really like the first song on the album, "So Much to Say." And I still say that Carter Beauford is in my All Time Top 5 Drummers, along with Stewart Copeland and Keith Moon. I guess I'm just glad we've all grown up and kinda gone our separate ways now.

Week 2

This week I've been listening to some more music that I haven't listened to in a long time. That's what's so great about this project - rediscovering songs and artists that have been on the shelf too long.

5. Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint - The River in Reverse

I think I got this album by mistake, actually. Remember Columbia House and BMG? I still belonged to one of those clubs back in 2006 or so. This album came out after Katrina - a somewhat strange collaboration between one of New Orleans' renowned R&B musicians and, well, Elvis Costello. I think this one was the "selection of the month" and I forgot to respond to the email or whatever. I probably wouldn't have gotten this album otherwise. Nothing against either artist - I just didn't really know anything about it beforehand. I had to give this one a couple of listens, and it's not bad, but it's not amazing, either. The album gets off to a slow start, but toward the end there are some really nice songs. I'm glad I gave this one a listen again. It did at least remind me to put the WWOZ app on my phone so I can listen to New Orleans jazz at work or whenever I want. It puts me in a good mood every time.

6. Peer Music: Your Soul Destination Vol. 2

This is the 2nd part of a 2-CD set that was given to me by a good friend that used to work for Malaco Records. To be honest, the 2nd CD isn't as good as the first. The first album has a lot of really classic soul and R&B hits that were recorded on the Malaco label back in the day. The 2nd CD has mostly modern-day songs that either sample the classics, or are just modern songs that were also recorded at Malaco, or that Malaco had the rights to. It was enjoyable enough.

7. Uncle Tupelo - 89/93 Anthology
I was a Wilco fan before I delved into Uncle Tupelo. I like some of Son Volt's stuff, too, but to be honest Jay Farrar's voice grates on my nerves after a while. I remembered most of Uncle Tupelo's music as being of the "sad bastard" variety, and listening to it this week I think I can still kind of classify it as such. There are a few rockin' tunes, and overall it's pretty good driving music, but I did feel kinda bummed out by the end of it.


8. Keane - Hopes and Fears

I just popped this one in today. This album is several years old now, but it still sounds pretty fresh to me. It's just a good pop album. I never noticed before how much the lead singer sounds like Freddie Mercury. Queen is listed as one of the band's influences, so that makes sense I suppose. Queen should've gotten Tom Chaplin to be their new frontman instead of that guy from Bad Company (although he has a great rock voice; it's just not anything like Freddie's operatic tenor).

The Great CD Project of 2012

I'm about to leave for work so this is a really quick post that I will expand on later. I've decided for 2012 to listen to each and every CD I own before the end of the year. Most of this will take place in my car, because that's really the only CD player I still use often. And I'm always getting bored with the radio in the car.

I will blog about the music, to help me remember why I got the album in the first place, or just to review an artist that we have maybe forgotten about over the years.

This first week of the New Year I started out with the following:

Otis Redding - Greatest Hits
VHS or Beta - Bring on the Comets
Bishop Allen - February
The Shins - Oh Inverted World

Will come back later and write more details about these albums. Yippee for new projects and a new year!

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Ok, very quickly, because now it's past my bedtime, a few notes about this week's music:

1. Otis Redding - Greatest Hits
What's not to love about Otis? He's a classic. There isn't a lovelier, more bittersweet tune than "These Arms of Mine," and "Try a Little Tenderness" is one of my all-time favorite feel-good songs.








2. VHS or Beta - Bring on the Comets
This album reminds me of when I first began writing music articles for the Jackson Free Press . BOTC was one of the first albums I was given to review. I had not heard of the group before, but I was pleasantly surprised. The music still holds up pretty well and is fun for driving.







3. Bishop Allen - February
I can actually say that I got into Bishop Allen before anybody else really knew about them. In the very early 2000s, when I still lived in Memphis, I somehow began corresponding with Christian Rudder, who is one of the founding members of the band. I think it had something to do with his website (now defunct) thespark.com and the fact that he was originally from Arkansas. Anyway, he used to let me know when the group was traveling south, and then they got all fancypants and had their music featured in films like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and that "Chuck" show on NBC, and that was the end of that. I still really love their music and I don't think they are capable of writing a song that isn't catchy. "February" is an EP from 2006, when they made an EP for each month of the year. I meant to get all of them, but only have January - March, I think.

Also, Bishop Allen got their name from a street in Cambridge. Christian and Justin Rice, the other founding member of the band, met at Harvard and lived on this street. Furthering the coincidence between myself and the band, my cousin who has lived in Boston for the last several years used to live around the corner from Bishop Allen drive. Here's a picture from my visit there for her wedding back in 2007:













4. The Shins - Oh Inverted World
I didn't realize this album came out in 2001. I don't think I got into the Shins until 2004 or 2005, which makes sense because that's about the time when Garden State came out and introduced the masses to The Shins and a whole lot of other "indie" music. I had not given this album a spin in a long time because I got kind of burnt out on that whole scene, but I have left it in the CD player for a couple of days now because it really does hold up remarkably well. Even if it is (gulp) eleven years later.

Looking forward to what this week will bring!

Don't Expect Much

I'm the worst blogger in the world. My suggestion to you, dear reader, is to drastically lower your expectations of me, and whenever I feel like posting a blog you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Really, there are two things I wanted to post today:

1. My niece is the most awesome kid in the world, and this is coming from a non-kid person. She has the most fun personality and is so outgoing, and I have no idea where this comes from. My sister (her mom) was the shyest kid on earth, and I was a close second. My sister used to cry at the drop of a hat when she was my niece's age, and was scared of everything. Her husband was never a super-outgoing kid, either. So who knows? But I feel like I should document here some of the quirky things that she says and/or gets into. Not to be yet another grownup letting the internets know how cute their kid is, but because I don't want to forget these things. And she might get a kick out of reading them in 20 years, if we haven't moved on to posting on holographic spheres attached to our bellies or something.

So Scottlyn, my niece, like most kids, goes through phases of obsession. The earliest one I can remember her having was either Dora the Explorer or The Wizard of Oz. Dora was pretty fleeting; The Wizard of Oz lasted much, much longer. She watched the movie every day for several months, it seemed. She knew all the songs, all the words to the movie, practically. She got some ruby slippers, she had to have her hair in braids like Dorothy, and she got all the Wizard of Oz Barbie dolls (!) (didn't know that existed before then). We took her to see the live performance at Thalia Mara Hall, and even though we were in the nosebleed section, she still loved it.

From the Wiz she moved on to Batman and Robin. The Wizard of Oz, even though it was filmed in 1939, is kind of a quintessential kids' film. But when she developed her obsession with Batman and Robin, it wasn't 21st century Batman (who would that be, Christian Bale? Please). She went for 1960s Adam West/Burt Ward Batman and Robin. She watched the old shows over and over, and I think developed a crush on Robin. And why not? There's nothing like a trusty sidekick. The Batman thing lasted a while, even though it's not a typical "girl" thing to like. She is also very much into the whole "princess" thing too though.

Lately her affections have turned toward David Bowie. I think it started with my sister playing his music and then showing her some music videos. My sister has good taste in music so she has started early in educating Scottlyn on the classics. Scottlyn loves Queen, too. When she saw/heard "Under Pressure," all bets were off. Two of her favorite things together?!

Scottlyn also loves the movie "The Labyrinth," now, which kinda freaked me out at 9 when it came out, so now I really know that she isn't scared of anything. So she's totally head-over-heels for the Bowie. When her blanket went missing recently? #1 suspect: David Bowie. She really hopes Iman will croak (sorry Iman) so she can marry David Bowie. We don't have the heart to tell her that DB could be her grandfather. Hell, we're kinda hoping it happens (once she is of legal age, of course) so she can get all the loot when he keels over!

And for "Rock Star Day" at school, of course she had to be DB as Ziggy Stardust. I hope to be able to post some pictures soon, but trust me, it was the cutest thing, EVAR. She wants to be his "Labyrinth" character for Halloween. I have already told my sister I'd pay her good $ if part of the costume is a sock down the pants.

For Christmas, I'd really like to get her this Space Oddity book. But it's caught all up in some legal troubles right now, so for the moment it is called "Picture Book Set in Space." Doesn't quite have the same ring to it. In the meantime, I've fallen in love with Kolb's artwork. Isn't it so adorable and retro?

2. The second thing is a totally '80s kid nerd thing. Way back in 1989, yours truly was 12 and therefore not really ready or allowed to hit the wild parties at New Year's. I stayed home with my family, watching Dick Clark's "New Year's Rockin' Eve" and terrorizing my sister with the help of my cousin, who is just a year younger than me.

It was the end of the 1980s, and looking back, I swear we knew that it was the end of an era. There was no way the '90s (or the future in general) would be anything like the '80s, ever. For New Year's Eve, the local radio station was playing a "Mix of the Decade," basically nonstop "remixes" of every '80s song, ever.

Remixes were a big thing in the late '80s. Every pop song that came out on cassette single or 45 usually had a remixed version on the B side. Friday and Saturday nights on the radio were dedicated to dance-remix parties. I can recall recording a song off the radio, only to be disappointed later, "Aw, I didn't want the remixed version." Because, let's face it, as with any trend, sometimes people are doing things just to do them, because it's cool. And a lot of the remixes were really shitty. But! For an event such as New Year's Eve, 1989, it was totally cool to hear all these songs mashed up together for the last time that they'd be played as "music." Beginning January 1, 1990, it was forever to be known as "80s music." And you know that there's a difference. Nobody says "90s music" or "70s music," not really. But when people say "80s music," you know exactly what they are talking about.

So since I was at home being a nerdy 12 year old, I popped in a cassette and recorded at least an hour's worth of these mixes. The show actually went on from some time that afternoon until midnight. In the years to follow, I wore that tape out. As anyone who ever made mixtapes will tell you, the order of songs are burned in your memory if you listened to the tape enough. I don't know what happened to my tape from that evening, but I still expect to hear MJ's "Wanna Be Startin Somethin'" followed by Gloria Estefan's "Conga" followed by The Commodores. I just do.

Fast forward 22 years. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, that was a long time ago! I'm running, training again for a half marathon, and bored to tears with my Ipod playlists. For some inexplicable reason, I start thinking about that tape from NYE '89, and "how cool would that be to have that mix to run to?"

The internet is magic, y'all. A flit of the fingers on the keyboard, and voila': WPLJ Mix of the Decade . And it took me a few listens to find out for sure, but this is the same mix that I recorded way back in the day. Around the 8:30-9:00 timeframe, which I got around to on my 6 mile run this morning, I heard the familiar order of songs from long ago. Hooray!

From the website:

Taped on TDK D90 (Type I) cassettes with Dolby C NR from 95.5 WPLJ-FM/New York by Ron Gerber. The "Mix Of The Decade" aired from 4 PM until midnight on New Years Eve, December 31, 1989. I managed to catch the last 6 hours and 45 minutes of the full 8 hours; I was taping Hot 97's Top Dance Songs Of The '80s countdown, and I switched from Hot 97 to WPLJ as soon as it ended at 5:15 PM. There are several breaks where I had to flip the tapes.

The Mix Of The Decade was put together by Hot Mix; from the Hot Mix website: "Before the start of the first weekly show of 1990, HOT MIX created an 8-hour program called "Mix Of The Decade 1980-89", which ABC agreed to distribute to kick off the new partnership on January 1, 1990. "Mix Of The Decade 1990-89" was distributed on Vinyl disc to over 100 radio stations."

I have never run across another copy of the Mix Of The Decade, and I would be very interested in a more pristine or complete copy; if you or someone you know has one please contact me through the contact link at www.crapfromthepast.com.

This is monstrously huge, and is utterly fantastic. Hope you dig it. -Ron
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A few things I noticed in this blast from the past, and then I swear I'll shut up and you won't hear from me for another 3 months:

1. All the shout-outs and well wishes for a Happy New Year to the NKOTB. People were seriously calling in to the radio station to wish Danny, Donnie, Jordan, Jon and Joey a Happy New Year. I forgot that this was when they were super HUGE. Of course, being a tween at the time, I was a huge fan. NKOTB was my first concert a year or so later.

2. Any runners out there who also like '80s music should really download this (you can DL it from the site above). It's a steady 120 bpm or so, shifts from song to song pretty quickly so your brain doesn't get bored. And it's from friggin' 1989.

3. I've only run across one set of commercials so far, but the ones I did were for the Navy, Doublemint gum, and Sears. Commercial jingles were very melodramatic in the late 1980s, apparently. I was nearly moved to tears with the thought of doubling my pleasure, doubling my fun with a stick of Doublemint gum. Ok not really.

4. There are several songs that I totally forgot about, or don't remember. Artists that were super popular at the time, I suppose, that didn't make it over the hump into the '90s and beyond. And there's a lot of pre-American Idol, pre-drugs-and-falling-over Paula Abdul.

One last thing

Ween proposed a jingle to Pizza Hut about 10 years ago, called "Where'd the Cheese Go?" - it was rejected. So they re-recorded the jingle. Here's both of them. (The second version is NSFW, by the way)



I friggin' love Ween.

Update Continued...

Before I go on to #3, I didn't mention this previously so I just want to let it be known: while I am still overweight, I would like everyone to know that my clothes ARE fitting better. That is all.


3. Chick Ball

I have helped with this event for the last three years now, and this year was probably the biggest ever. I think all told by the end we raised about $18K for the Center for Violence Prevention, which is great. They will use the funds to start a batterer's intervention program, which is a novel idea and a great idea if you ask me. This year, I played with a couple of my friends, Tara Blumenthal and Laurel Isbister, as The Paper Dolls. We played two years ago as The Mary Anns, but this year decided to change our names. I played guitar and sang, which was an accomplishment for me because I couldn't do both last time! Laurel played bass and sang, and Tara played drums and provided vocals on a couple of songs too. We just did covers this year, some Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Go-Gos, Cat Power, etc. and it was a lot of fun, but let me tell you, being a "rock star" is a lot of work! Sadly, the Paper Dolls have not been able to get together since the event, because we all have insane schedules. But I truly enjoyed playing live and would like to do it again if I get the chance.






4. A Day or Two at the Beach


So I have been needing some beach time for a while now, and so had my sister. Plus, my niece had never been to the beach before. We decided to take a trip, albeit a short one, this summer. My sister's husband is in Iraq and unfortunately had to miss the trip, but we tried to document it with both pictures and video so he could see it later. I tried to imagine what seeing the beach and the ocean for the first time must be like. My parents took me to the beach for the first time when I was about Scottlyn's age, so I don't really remember what I felt when I saw it. But seeing Scottlyn's reaction to it was enough. She was overjoyed! Of course we had built it up big time before we got there, but still, when we crested the dunes and saw the rolling waves for the first time, well, who needs Disney World is all I'm saying?





As you can see, my niece is tiny. Most two year olds are tiny, but she is really petite. Problem is, she doesn't know it. So we had to hold her the entire time we had her in the water, although she really wanted to explore it on her own.
We had a grand time, collecting seashells, studying a dead sea turtle that washed up on the shore ("I want to give it a hug," she said when I told her the sea turtle had died.), eating junk food to our hearts' content, and buying prettier seashells at the souvenir shop. It was a good time, but do not be fooled: a beach trip with a 2-year-old is unlike any beach trip I have ever been on since, well, at least my sister was 2. I packed David Sedaris book, knowing how quickly I breeze through his stuff I thought it would be perfect light beach reading. I only got through Chapter 1. Scottlyn is a wonderful, well-behaved and fun little girl, but at least at this age, she demands your attention 24-7. And that is ok, really, it was just a bit of an eye-opener for me. My last beach trip was with several college friends (post-college) and involved copious amounts of alcohol and cute outfits.

5. Everything else...


Besides all these things, we have gone through some major changes at work. To spare you the boring details, the main idea is that our chapter, which was once made up of 15 offices spread out around the country, has been split up and we are each joining up with our nearest geographical office that will eventually be included in a region. So some of our job titles are changing, and our structure has definitely changed. I love my job, something I haven't been able to say pretty much ever so far in my life, and one of the reasons was the great people I have had the privilege to work with over the last year or so.

One of the most influential people was my supervisor, Becky. When she called to offer me the job last April, I think she really was just as excited as I was. In talking to her through the interview process, she made me feel like I was definitely making the right decision joining this particular non-profit, and her enthusiasm and excitement about her work was contagious. I thought, "If she has been here for nearly 8 years and loves it, that can't be a bad thing." Becky turned out to be one of the best supervisors I have ever had. She was genuine from day one and so encouraging and respectful of me. She was someone that you did not want to disappoint, so I tried to do the best job I can for her.


This past Thursday, October 1, Becky passed away. She had been in a coma since Labor Day because of heart failure which was caused by malnourishment, which was caused somehow because she had gastric bypass surgery in August. I don't really want to go into the details here out of respect and the fact that I don't want to get upset again. But suffice to say it was a tragic loss for her family, her three little kids who I hope will always know what a wonderful woman their mother was, and of course to us who worked with her. I believe in God, and I do think everything happens for a reason, but sometimes I think things happen that even God wished didn't. I just don't think it was her time, but maybe He will prove me wrong. She was only 37, and her kids are 9, 5 and 3. It still doesn't seem real. I can't believe that I can't just call her up and talk to her anymore. It has truly been a sad month.


My office left our chapter the same day, October 1, and in some ways I am glad. It would not be the same anymore without her there, anyway. I know she would want me to just keep on doing the best job I can no matter what chapter we belong to, and in her memory I plan to do just that. We have a huge event coming up next weekend and I fully expect to be exhausted by the time it's over, but it will be worth it.

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The only other thing I'd like to mention right now which is actually a bit of GOOD news for a change, is that the BF FINALLY has a job!!! After lots of resume-sending, applications and interviews, he accepted a job with a local firm and starts officially this week. I am so proud of him, and I think he will do a great job. We plan on going out (after the first paycheck of course) to a nice dinner to celebrate really soon. It is high time!! I hope this is just the first of many good things to come for him and me.


And that's it. There's more, for sure, but I think you are up to speed now. I hope, seriously, to update this at least once a week. I'm cutting back a little on the writing-for-money this month because my day job is so busy, so hopefully that will help me find time for the blog. So... see you next Sunday?