We went out for a date on Saturday night. This, and our ghost walk last night, are our first date nights since early August, when we went to the USA National Championships in Milwaukee where my lovely bride competed in two races. So those weren’t really dates, but adventures.
So these were our first dates since … June. Switzerland.
That’s not true. We did go to the lake one day last month.
We’re very exciting people.
So it was a date night to Indy on Saturday night. We had dinner at a little Irish pub we like.
Perfect weather. We were the only people sitting outdoors. Very odd.
We also went to the joint where the Pacers play, because this guy was giving a performance of a different sort.
I laughed so hard — at stupid stuff of the sort that isn’t even my style of humor — that I was in pain. Bert is simply telling (embellished) family stories and is just now hitting his stride.
It rained yesterday, so it was a good day to stay inside, except for when we went to the grocery store, in the rain. Today, it rained and looked even more grim.
My contribution to the cause today was this. I finally finished this video project we’ve been working on. Helped one of our students lay out his graduate capstone project and saw another event canceled due to … apathy, I guess it was.
A student knocked on my door today and told me this.
This evening I wrote a little essay about that, which likely won’t get picked up anywhere. I also stopped by the sporting goods store to get some new weights. The Yankee is now able to upgrade part of her PT, and she needed some 2.5-pound plates.
Someone shoplifted in the store while I was waiting to check out. The guy working the door thought it, I thought it. Nothing was done — injury liability and insurance I am sure — even as the woman all but telegraphed her guilt. She then wandered around outside for a while, going to the farthest part of the parking lot before coming to a blue Taurus parked right by the door. She drove away.
And so did I. At the house I replaced our license plates, and did the monthly cleaning of my computer desktop.
Just about the time you get inside, get the shoes off, get the stuff out of your pockets and all that stuff, take your coat and tie off and put some lazy clothes on it is time to sit down. Then you can sit down. And a moment or two after that it is time for a walk.
You’d almost think it’s deliberate, but it’s not. The sun is on the clock, and dusk brings a chill, so if you’re gonna go outside, doing it six minutes after you get to the house and 45 seconds after you sit on the sofa is the right time to do it.
Gives you good views, at least. My apologies for walking into someone’s yard for this on.
This sycamore was ready for its closeup.
Just two minutes later, and 180 degrees the other direction.
Direct light this time of the year is fairly dynamic. One last hurrah before everything is diffused in clouds, I guess.
That’s one big leaf!
Yeah, this one is a little blurry, I guess, but that’s how you remember the leaf turn anyway. It’s a mass of color, more than the separate leaves. They only count up there in the altogether.
Down here, you might look at them a bit differently.
But you can’t do that unless you go on the walk.
Let’s briefly return to the Re-Listening Project. Of course, we just spent a whole post on this yesterday, but if we get in one more right here I’ll be caught up for the moment. Today’s installment was at least a contemporary record when I bought it, though it was probably still part of this batch purchase. But I listened to it a lot more because it was the music of the moment, and, in 1996, the harmonica had a moment.
This was Blues Traveler’s fourth album, and it’s the one that has the songs you know. They’re still doing it, by the way. Their 15th studio album came out just last year, did you know that?
Did you also know that John Popper, the guy doing the singing and harmonica playing, was originally in another band with the core guys from Spin Doctors? That group was called The Trucking Company. One day I’m going to look for some of their music, just to see what it sounds like.
Anyway, Blues Traveler sounds like Blues Traveler. And a lot of people liked that sound! This record peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. The band saw this record land in the top 40 of the year-end charts for both 1995 and 1996. And, of course, there are the two top 10 hits to consider, too. “Hook” hit number eight on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. “Run-Around” peaked at number two on the Adult Top 40 chart, and only Seal could keep them from the top spot, but “Run-Around” stayed on that chart for an impressive 66 weeks.
No wonder, then, that “four” was certified as a platinum record six times. Also, there’s a Grammy tied to this record. Not a bad moment in the sun.
It was a big hit at parties, at a time. I’m sure it got played around our place a lot in college. And it was a good soundtrack for sunny days in the car with the windows down. Popper’s voice needs room to breathe. And let us acknowledge that he can make a harmonica sound like most anything.
I’m going to let “Uncle John,” the last track on the album, and a joyous jam song, play us out. I admittedly don’t listen to the record a lot because a little goes a long way, but this time through, this song caught my attention the most. It has almost all the key ingredients.
I’m going to offer one small quibble, and it isn’t even with the band. If you look on Wikipedia, the post covering Blues Traveler lists their genres: jam band, blues rock, folk rock, alternative rock, all of this is fair in that this group has enough diversity to fill in all the blurry areas where those genres coexist. But to call Blues Traveler southern rock … this band is from New Jersey. The parts that aren’t from Canada.
Anyway, the best Blues Traveler song is a cover, but we should be getting to that soon enough. I say should because while I’m playing these in order, I’m not looking at the discs ahead of time. It’s almost a little surprise with each one.
And that’s enough for now. I hope your Wednesday evening, or perhaps your Thursday, has some little surprise as well. The pleasant kind, if I have any say in it.
It’s a cold and rainy and busy day, signifying … something. So instead of the usual filler, or four grim paragraphs about all of the leaves that have quite quit today, let’s just get back to the Re-Listening Project.
I’ve started working my way through all of my old CDs, but in chronological order of purchase. It’s a good way to pad the blog, which is what we’re shamelessly doing today. (But with some delightful music.) These aren’t reviews, there’s nothing new to say about today’s discs anyway, but they are fun, particularly if you like what is, today, classic rock.
This isn’t my genre, but the genre reaper comes for all of us, eventually. In fact, I’ve probably always thought of this first band as classic rock. They were on the AC stations of my youth, which meant the music of the adults in my world, which meant, and means, classic rock. Listening to it today, in a bit more isolation and years removed from hearing it on regular airplay, I am appreciating what I’m hearing.
Which is to say this is the Steve Miller Greatest Hits compilation. Given the above, this is surely this was a bulk purchase I made in my early days of CD collecting. Given the rest of the above, I’m glad for it today.
“Greatest Hits 1974-1978” made it to #18 on the Billboard chart, and #11 on the Top Rock Albums chart. Not bad for a record of contemporary hits that was released in 1978, essentially immediately as these songs fell out of heavy rotation. All but one song came from their previous two albums — it was a different time, musically speaking — and I’ll bet you can guess which one was the outlier there. Anyway, let’s listen in …
The first four tracks work about as well as you would expect for three top 20s and a number single. But the fifth track grabs your attention. “True Fine Love” manages to be a rock ‘n’ roll history lesson in just two minutes and 40 seconds.
I believe that if you just pulled out the guitar track here you could identify this as a Steve Miller song.
This sounds like a cover, but Steve Miller wrote this, with a Joseph and Brenda Cooper. They seemed to have just the one song. And if you’re wondering if I won’t spend a lot of time trying to find their collective story … well, then … you must be new here.
As an aside … there are a few interesting covers of “Dance, Dance, Dance.”
A capella intro!
There’s a lullaby version … which opens up a whole new world of options, really.
Is there a video of some dudes singing this in the bed of a pickup?
You really are new here.
(Those guys are from New Jersey.)
Play this song and see how many snippets and bits of other songs it reminds you of. That happens a lot to me in Steve Miller Band songs, for some reason.
My favorite song, this time through, was “Wild Mountain Honey.” I listened to it a few times. It was worth it. It’s trippy, which meets the mode of the moment, but it has some heart.
As I have said, probably over and over, in this section of the Re-Listening Project, I think we’re in a batch of CDs I bought all at once. It makes sense, given my tastes at the time, and the records in question. I don’t have a lot of memories or stories affiliated with this Steve Miller compilation. The problem might be my listening habits. Maybe bulk purchases become a sort of obligation. “OK, here it is. I have played it. Now I must listen to these other four.” It becomes, perhaps, more mechanical and obligatory, and there aren’t dozens or hundreds of plays like the regular CD purchased in isolation. So there aren’t strong anecdotes or even flashes of stretches of road, that come to mind as I re-listen to this CD, but I can say this, unequivocally: I bought this for one song.
Yeah.
I have, from time to time, thought of changing my name to Maurice, just so I could tell people “It means ‘Gangster of Love.'”
Now, I don’t have this record, but there’s a general consensus that the made up words of epismetology and pompatus can be traced back to “The Letter.”
My collection really needs some doo wop filled with nonce words.
That’s almost 750 words, and 11 videos, of filler masquerading as content. Let’s wrap this up. The next CD in the list is another greatest hits. Which one? Good question. I can hardly tell myself. It’s a version of The Police’s greatest hits. I say “a version” because they, and their label A&M, only released SEVEN versions of this thing over 23 years. That earned 23 platinum certifications in five countries and 10 golds in seven more, so clearly it worked. But, if Steve Miller is before me The Police are beyond me.
So, here, have “King of Pain.”
Try not to think about how much that reminds you of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.”
Maybe “Wrapped Around Your Finger” is a better way to close this out.
Seven greatest hits compilations. They released five albums before they broke up.
Know what was the straw that broke the camel’s back?
Because drummer Stewart Copeland had broken his collarbone and was unable to drum, he opted to use his Fairlight CMI to program the drum track for the single, while singer/bassist Sting pushed to use the drums on his Synclavier instead. The group’s engineer found the Synclavier’s programming interface difficult; it ended up taking him two days to complete the task. Copeland ultimately finished the drum programming and claimed that the Fairlight’s then-legendary “Page R” (the device’s sequencing page) saved his life and put him on the map as a composer. In a Qantas inflight radio program named “Reeling in the Years”, Copeland was quoted as saying that the argument over Synclavier versus Fairlight drums was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” and that this led to the group’s unravelling.[citation needed]
There’s another video, a better one, at the end of this post. This photo, taken earlier this evening, offers a visual cue about what you’ll see in just a few hundred casual words, and after a few weekend photos.
Keep scrolling down to see that video.
We had an incredible weekend of weather. I didn’t even know what to do with it. Just warm and bright enough to feel like it could and would go on forever. Not so warm that you’d believe it to be true. And somewhere in there, amid the sun and the shade and the breeze, you can be held in a powerful grip of indecision.
We took a nice little walk on Sunday. Saw this wooly bear caterpillar, which was very much in a hurry to get to wherever it is that caterpillars go.
On the nearby goat farm they’re putting in another asphalt path. I look forward to exploring that when they remove the construction tape. One must respect construction tape, but this looks all but done.
How many colors can one tree sport, anyway?
This is on another path, and with more colors.
I got photobombed …
It doesn’t pop in the photo as well as it did in the daylight, but this tree is both yellow and red. It was fantastic, and that’s another problem of autumn. It’s too temporary — despite what I said above.
We stood under the trees and felt the breeze and caught the leaves.
If you don’t know what to do with a fine autumn day, catch the leaves.
Another work week has begun. My contribution to the cause today was this. Three-quarters of a running project are completed, and the rest will wrap up later this week. And then I’ll talk about them, perhaps, unless something more interesting takes place that day.
(Cheer for something more interesting.)
We set up a new system to show off student media work on the big screen. Wednesday we’ll roll that out. I also met two scholars visiting from France.
I got to the house just in time to take a quick bike ride. Got back in before dark, could have gotten a bit more out of the ride if I’d put a little thought into the route, but, no matter, it was 20 miles.
Went slow on this road, just for these views. Hopefully the video is worth it.
And now it’s time to get ready for tomorrow. The faster we get to it the faster I can get through it. Also, the quicker I can get to bed the quicker I can … fill my weary head with useless ideas like that Bryce Harper video. Pretty good one though, wasn’t it?
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.
