Friday
5
May 23
500 site words, 400 music words, and then the weekend
It occurs to me, and matters to no one else, that I need to spruce up some of the site’s images. Some of the headers and footers on the blog should be updated removed, and the images on the front need a big refresh. I think I might get into some or all of that next week. I have, of late, updated a few of the mini-banners you see breaking up sections of each post. Some of those have already been implemented. Others will make their debut later this summer.
You could say that the blog’s aesthetic itself is due a refresh — I’ve run this WordPress theme for seven years, it seems — but I don’t know of a better look for what I’m (barely) doing here. Those rotating headers and footers, a bit of PHP echo code, are the key. Go ahead, click refresh a few times. You’ll always have a different look. There are, as of this writing, 107 different headers and 107 footers that surround these brilliant words. But you’re right, 107 is too many. That should get pared back.
The problem, he sighed, is that I use a basic numerical system for the numbering, which makes the PHP randomizer work better. So if I decided to remove, say, the 36th header, 37 must become 36, 38 must become 37 and so on, all the way up to 107. Errr, 106. This isn’t hard, but it can be tedious and leads to errors, which leads to restoring backups, which always feels more perilous than it should, even though my host is incredible. And all of that comes after the editorial angst. Sure, that trip to Washington was terrific, but is that cloud shot important enough, really, to keep in play? And I have to ask myself that 214 times?
Take this one, for example.
That’s from my former job, it has no meaning to me, but it’s supremely ridiculous, and so it survived the last cleaning. What was the point here? That they’d mastered the art of putting eyelets in cardboard stock? Showing they had a second font? Did someone have it out for sans serif and inconsistent stroke? They could now do full color? Were people missing the older 1960s-ish sign an inch above it?
That one, I’m sure, I shot for the specific purpose of making as header art. But what of other photographs? Easy enough to edit, I only look at them and wonder about the decisions I made when I hurriedly cropped them to fit the template. If editing them is easy, taking them out of rotation is harder.
I’d rather edit something I’d written — kill my babies, as writers say — than take photos out of the mix.
Of course, I have an entire folder of retired banner images, why do you ask? Why do I have an entire folder of retired banner images? Because, well, you never know.
We could get into the philosophical here, too, reducing the volume increases the penetration, but I’ve already written 500 words about … well … nothing.
I have a reorganization idea though, maybe I’ll implement that this summer.
In today’s installment of the Re-Listening project, 1998/1999-me picked up my copy of “March,” the 1989 debut album of singer-songwriter Michael Penn. I love this record.
The song you might remember is “No Myth,” which went to 22 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart, number five on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, peaked at four on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, and hit number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
There are a lot of musicians’ musicians on this record, and most of Prince’s backing band are listed in the credits, too. Kenny Aronoff, who played with John Mellencamp and John Fogerty, and graduated from right here at IU, plays some of the drums.
I’m not sure if it was this record, or his next one, where I thought it would be neat to sit down for a few days and try to write things with him. I don’t normally think that about musicians. I enjoy the work, I might see the shows if it works out, but I never think, “What would happen if I, a person who has never written a song in his life, sat down with this person and a few notepads?” Except, fpr some reason, when I listen to a Michael Penn record. No idea why. Could be the clever lyrics.
The other reason, I think, was that I didn’t have that much going on whenever that idea came to mind.
As debuts go, this record shows so much promise and potential. Penn wasn’t exactly a new to all of this. He was in Doll Congress, which earned a nice following in Los Angeles. Half of the songs on this record he wrote during his time in that alternative band, which might explain the incredible varied, and engaging things he’s doing throughout this record. This is the last track.
A few other Michael Penn CDs will appear in the Re-Listening project sooner or later. These days, he seems to be spending his time producing others, and composing and scoring for TV shows and movies. In October of 2020, with no other work on his plate, he released a non-soundtrack song for the first time in years. Presumably he’s back at it again these days.
I was hoping I would discover he’s doing small venue gigs and that he was going to be in the neighborhood this fall, but alas.
Have a great weekend! I’m sure I’ll be here, muttering about banner images.
28
Apr 23
Semester, wrapped
Today we wrapped up a production project that started, improbably, in the summer of 2021. The last day of the shoot was in one of our new studios, Studio 9. (The last shoot of the year for IUSTV was simultaneously taking place one floor down, in Studio 7.) In 9 we had faculty from the School of Public Health talking about their work.
Each person that came through was even better than the last, with their titles and dual appointments and achievement. Almost all of them would much rather be doing their work than talking into a camera about it. So, today and these last few weeks, we’ve been coaxing performances from these seriously impressive people.
A few of them have done some on-camera work. Some were able to accept the contrived nature of a video production with ease. But a few, a few of them were extremely trepidatious about the prospect. These are the ones that are actually a lot of fun. If they can just get through 10 minutes of this, they can stop dreading this thing they’ve been ducking for a while, and get on to their weekend and finals, to summer and research. They’re also the ones that take the best coaching.
One woman just raced through her mic check, like she was an air traffic controller who just finished her auctioneering course. I said straightaway, I can already tell, you’re going to want to slow down. She raced through her first take. I pointed it out. She slowed down for the casual parts of her second take, but again raced through the names and titles and terminologies. She tried once more and I stood next to the camera, just nodded my head along to her script, and she slipped into that rhythm. It was good fun.
One woman was so complimentary of our work with her, because of the coaching that we offered, the encouragement from our ace production students who were crewing the project, and how painless they made it. After one of her takes, I said to her, “I don’t know if you noticed it, but there was a place in there, an exact syllable, where you relaxed and everything slipped into place.”
One of the guys was very expressive. Someone said he was using his face well, and we decided he should keep using his face. Somehow, I have to work that into regular usage.
Anyway, next week I can take this project of the tote board. I figured, we’ve been slowly marching to this moment since June of 2021, I can stretch out the feeling of achievement for one more day.
21
Apr 23
The officially recognized beginning of spring
It has been cold and damp all day. Mid-fifties and wet socks are no way to live, but that’s how we’ll approach the last week of April. The rest of the weekend’s forecast doesn’t look much better. At least next week the sun returns which, hey, April.
It might have hit 55 degrees this morning, in the pre-dawn hours. So, this year, my seven-year-long hypothesis, the Little-500-marks-the-beginning-of-spring hypothesis, has not held.
The long-range forecast suggests we’ll maybe hit 70 degrees … sometime before the first week of May is over. Maybe.
This is our chance to catch up with the Re-Listening project. Catch up, that is, until the next CD is over. Which means we might be behind again by Tuesday. Such is the pace of things, when you’re listening to old CDs in the car. I’m not sure how I run through whole albums so quickly, I will probably run out of music before I figure that out, but 40-or-so minutes goes fast, considering the small amount of road I cover.
Anyway. We’re cruising down memory lane. It is the summer of 1998, the summer of Natalie Merchant. “Ophelia” was her second studio album, her only one to crack the top 10 on the Billboard 200, where it settled in at number eight. It went platinum in the U.S., largely on the strength of “Kind & Generous” which broke into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay Chart.
That’s the one you remember. The first track, the title track, is a total mood setter.
For some reason it is easy to remember the talent that Natalie Merchant put into all of her work. She left the regular artist route to do other things, but this record is full of examples of a quality of work that her fans appreciate.
And, in the interests of time, I’m skipping over the great wah wah guitars of “Frozen Charlotte” and the piano ballads like “My Skin.” Mostly just to get to the last song, a cover of “When They Ring Those Golden Bells.” It’s a popular and important gospel and bluegrass song from 1887, written by a French immigrant, a man who fought in the Civil War, the American-Mexican War and, for something even more intense, was a clown and a circus leader.
Dolly Parton has covered it. Jerry Lee Lewis has covered it. But this duet between Natalie Merchant and Karen Peris is something to behold.
Like so many things that take place when you’re the age I was when this CD came out, I didn’t have the ability or insight or patience to fully appreciate this album. But what I missed out for in 1998 I enjoy more today. Ophelia is always a fine listen.
(Natalie Merchant has released a new album this year, her first in six long years. (Update: I had no idea she’d gone through this terrifying surgery that almost robbed her of her voice.) And she’s touring this summer in support of that album — 37 dates in the U.S. and Europe between now and November.)
Back then, though, I wanted something more like what came out that fall, when Pearl Jam released “Live on Two Legs.” It’s a series of live recordings from their summer tour. It debuted at number 15, and went platinum. It’s a quality of recordings far superior to most any bootleg you might capture. But the band was a bit more restrained by this point — Eddie Vedder was 34, after all, and the rest of the band was right there, too. One review called it a “thank you” to fans. To me, today, it feels more like a valentine to Pearl Jam’s part of grunge. But in 1998, no one thought in that way just yet.
There’s more to the timing in retrospect. This was three years after the band revolted, almost alone, against the Ticketmaster monopoly. That stand effectively clipped their wings in the United States from 1995 to 1998. It’s also two years before the tragedy at the Roskilde Festival. Less important than all of that, the musical landscape changed underfoot.
It is technically proficient for the genre, and a good ride for fans. And, clearly, they don’t want this embedded.
If you play that on YouTube, though, you can hear the full album. It’s worth hearing, even if you’re familiar with the catalog, though there’s not a lot new there. The last time I saw them was a few months after Roskilde. Grown men were crying; it was a bit much. It was in that period of the official bootlegs, and I have a copy of that 2000 show somewhere in this collection.
Pearl Jam, as a band, are still on tour. They have a mini schedule for late this summer. Eddie Vedder is doing a few solo shows, too.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go shiver some more.
14
Apr 23
Quick peektures
The lawn was just mown. The dandelions were waiting for their moment. Their moment is now.
This weekend, the shrubs are getting their ears lowered. I wonder what’s lurking in there, waiting for their moment.
Let’s check in on the apple tree once again. The blooms won’t be there long, he told himself again. Enjoy them while you can, he reminded himself, thinking of times past when he didn’t.
I’ll do it more tomorrow, he said forgetfully, half distracted by whatever else.
I did look out the kitchen sick window as I did the dishes this evening. It faces the west, and it was the right time for that glance. I finished up the washing quickly — there’s surely something that I’ll have to wash again tomorrow — so I could go out and see this for 15 seconds.
There are duplexes across the street, designed solely to obscure my view — and, I guess, for people to live in — but when you get the really vibrant one, you can enjoy some incredible colors above the silhouetted faux-dormers.
Nice way to start the weekend.
