Sorry for the lighter-than-normal load here the last few days. It’s seemed … busy … somehow. Well, busier than normal, I guess. Not every widget we make is a producible unit of measure, not every exercise is something you can point to: I made this, this was made, because I helped make this. And those are the best days. Videos or copy or online metrics come and go, the time you spend working with people is where the real value is. You hope they feel the same way about you.
Worked with some of those people today. Had the opportunity to thank someone who did something for me. Thanked him twice. Gave a tour, because someone has to do that and you’re reading words typed by the guy that draws short straws. Today was also career day, which featured a lot of alumni who had returned to talk about what they do. The smart students took time to visit the many sessions. This ran all day and occupied a great deal of attention and energy.
At quitting time I walked out into the sunshine and walked a block to the car and drove the 4.5 miles to the house. Narrowly avoided a red light in one of the larger intersections. At home I checked the mail, just political stuff. The two people running for the local state legislative seat have spent a fair amount of money on direct mail. Now we’re getting stuff that is designed to look like it’s for one candidate, but it is, in fact, from the opponent.
I wrote my master’s thesis on this stuff. Some of them are more sophisticated than others. And among my metrics are language, Photoshop skills and clip art acquisition. These guys? Amateurs.
Washed the dishes, straightened up the kitchen, started the weekend’s laundry.
Normally I try to do laundry on a Thursday or, in peak form, on Wednesday. Then it is all done and not a moment of weekend time gets spent on it. But, last night, I was gripped by a wear sense of thinking ahead. If I waited a day, more things could go in the basket, into the machine, and so on.
It’s foolhardy to think ahead in something that you know is a perpetual cycle. But at least everything was washed and dried this evening.
I try to do this on Thursday so it isn’t a weekend chore, but, mostly, so it isn’t a weekend celebration. That’d be too much to handle after a peak day like today.
Time to check in with the Re-Listening Project. I’m working through all of my old CDs in chronological order, and padding the blog by writing about it. None of these are reviews, but sometimes there’s something fun. And, today, there’s a lot of good music. First, let’s stop in the mid-1990s.
Chris Isaak found his way into the player. No, not that record. I don’t actually have that one. This is “Forever Blue” which is two albums after that one. And I’m not sure why I bought this, or several of the ones that are to follow. Maybe there was a Columbia House deal. That hustle got a bad rap. If you knew what you were doing, and could maintain some discipline within the system, you could do well. We’re still in my first book of CDs at this point and so, I’m sure, this was all an effort just to add some bulk and heft. And one of the singles, probably “Somebody’s Crying” or “Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing,” probably got my attention.
“Forever Blue” is a good record, just steady and consistent Isaak. It went platinum in the U.S., certified platinum three times in Australia and gold in Canada. Clean instrumentation that compliments the lyrics of a powerful, yet unpretentious singer-songwriter.
Here’s the rockabilly that you grow to expect from Isaak.
Sometimes you hear the Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson in him.
This time through I wondered how I had managed to never hear Roy Orbison in his singing. It’s obvious and beautiful.
Between the twang and the slide there’s a lot of Dick Dale, too.
I just googled this, and Chris Isaak and Dick Dale have collaborated on some music. I had no idea about that before I was listening this time and thought of the The King of the Surf Guitar.
When you put all of that together, Dick Dale and rockabilly and Roy Orbison and the others, you get sleepy, powerful masterpieces like this.
When I drive, in this town, I somehow manage to spend a disproportionate amount of time at one particular red light. (It is always red, is what I’m saying.) Spend enough time at one spot you’re liable to cultivate a few memories there, and sure, I have one or two at that intersection now. But hearing that song, this time, at that intersection, is the one to hang on to. This record works for me in a new way now, the appreciation deepened when I thought “This is what it would sound like if you put Roy Orbison and Dick Dale and rockabilly and Ricky Nelson together.” And, looking them up, what do you know, I was right.
Only took 26 years.
The next album up: “Greatest Hits,” by Styx. This is how I am sure we are working through a bulk purchase part of my CD collection. I don’t like it. Maybe I bought it for one or two songs, probably “Renegade,” and “Come Sail Away,” or perhaps some sense of suburban obligation. Perhaps I had spent a week without hearing some classic rock station, I don’t know. The tenor is good, but the music just isn’t for me, and this is a compilation of the pop and rock singles, not their prog rock catalog. Most of these songs, though, were recorded between 1975 and 1983 and I have a complicated relationship with that mini-period of music.
Which makes the next couple of albums curious choices.
