Travel light

Sometimes, all a guy really needs is a guitar, an extra pair of socks, and a change of underwear. That's exactly how I traveled this weekend, with the clothes shoved in my gig bag.

Actually, I think I could have done without the socks.

Guitar crazy

Sue bought her first guitar this weekend. A Jasmine made by Takamine. She said it felt good holding it over another one she was looking at. Almost the same guitar, price-wise at least, but yeah, even I could feel the difference in weight.

This morning the grass in the orchard seemed to be lit from a light coming from underneath, from within the earth.

And I thought about Sue learning the guitar. She knows A and D. The next is E. Three chord progressions...every rock 'n' roll song in the world is built on three-chord progressions. But D...three fingers in a little triangle on three strings. A easy chord to learn. And the look on her face was sheer delight, to coax that sound out of some strings. You can play the same pattern all the way up the neck. It's almost the same sound the grass was making this morning, in that light.

Sue and I don't have much money, which can be a good thing. It forces us to really choose what's important to us. We'll scrimp on food to buy books or music. She wondered if we were crazy, pondering the purchase of a guitar...? A little bit, maybe. But a little crazy is good.

Don Imus, Sheryl Crow, and Curt Shilling's bloody sock

One was replaced by the other then the other.

What happened to Imus? Given the furor I would have thought he would have been hung upside down like Mussolini. But we haven't heard a peep about him. He's off our radar screens.

BTW, we went after the wrong guy when we went after Imus. Can you say scapegoat? His shtick for 30 years was to say whatever it was, no matter how outrageous, to attract people for advertisers. CBS, MSNBC, and all them getting up on their moral high horses was so much bollocks. The powers that be--and we know they're mostly all fat white guys in suits--were no more morally outraged by Imus's remark than they were outraged by any other thing he said. What they were outraged about was that he threatened their cash flow. That's why he was fired. As soon as you understand that television, radio, film, and probably a helluva lot of theater is simply an advertising vehicle...as soon as you understand that it's not an entertainment vehicle...you'll be in the clear. You'll suddenly be able to sleep nights. The content is there solely to attract you and me to advertisers...as moths to the flame. And the network's moral outrage was so much posturing to mollify the public. If 12 naked belly dancers rapping about nappy-headed hos sold toothpaste, trust me, that's what we'd be seeing.

Then suddenly Sheryl Crow elbowed Imus off the cover of the Herald for suggesting we should use only one square of toilet paper per visit to the toilet. Did she? Really? I'm too tired and apathetic to really care enough to investigate. But Crow's someone who should just stay on stage. I actually like her music, but she's a home wrecker, having weaseled her way into Lance Armstrong's life and prying him away from his family. (What the eff is it with us guys who give it all up for some ditz?) Her idiotic face and comments during the Tour in 2005 when Lance won the Tour for the 7th straight time were a joke. She's just someone who thinks more of herself than the rest of us do.

Today the big news is Shilling's sock. Was it blood or paint?

Tomorrow I'm hoping for a sock puppet of a rock star who spouts profanity.

The magnolia tree

A couple of days ago I mentioned to Sue that the magnolia tree in the courtyard outside my window will soon be in full bloom, and the air will be intoxicating.

Today, on such a crummy day (45 degrees and dumping rain and my feet will be soaking wet and my pants damp for the duration of the day) the stunning purples and whites were screaming against the gloom. A peacock among pigeons.

In past years I would sit at my desk at home and see that tree outside my window, and no matter how bad the day was going, I would suddenly have hope. I've learned to enjoy the free things in life. I don't have a lot of money, and I have expensive tastes. Funny how that happens in life, because I know so many people with money who are so damned cheap. But I've learned to enjoy and appreciate the things that are just there for the taking.

After the bomb scare

Al said they caught the person responsible for the bomb scare. Nicest kid in the world, she said. Always friendly. Always smiling. Surprised everyone that it was him. She said he was upset because of a test. Who knows...?

Don't say it: It's always the quiet ones.

There's so much more to it than some stupid, cliche response. A lot of times my heart goes out to the troubled...to people who seem to have been pushed to the edge...farther than most people are pushed so they have no idea what it's like to inhabit the fringes of sanity. Been there, I'm either sorry or proud to say. Or really neither. It just is...hopefully somebody, some angel, with a little compassion and skill will coax the poor soul back where it's a little safer.

Bomb scare

Yesterday I got an IM from Al telling me there was a bomb scare at her school. Classes were cancelled, and buildings were closed.

Most people I told just shrugged it off; it's probably a hoax, most said or thought. The thought crossed my mind, but when you're a parent you don't think like that. Well, maybe some parents do; I don't.

But it is our world, isn't it? More crazies are out there, and the chance that someone we love more than life itself could die from some nutcase...am I overreacting? I think ten years ago I might have been, but the world is continually changing, and I don't think people get it...I don't think most Americans get it, and certainly not the somnolent ones in the suburbs.

Bomb-sniffing dogs didn't find anything, and classes resumed.

I'm hating the world more and more. I just don't like what I see.

Travelin' blues

About five minutes before my train for Boston comes in the morning a freight train slides through going west. And more than once I've thought about breaking free from the crowd standing on the platform, grabbing a rung on one of the ladders bolted to a boxcar, and not looking back.

Can you imagine the looks on the faces of my fellow commuters?

Sue said this morning that she's planning either three weeks in China or Europe this fall. Not sure where I fit in those plans, so I guess I better start thinking about hoisting my pack on my own again. I've done it before...it's nothing new.

Willie Nelson let go

Willie Nelson was fined $1,024 and placed on probation for six months for marijuana possession in Louisiana.

Leaving the courthouse he signed autographs and said, "Thank y'all" to his well-wishers. Just keep your nose clean for six months and you're scott free. It's not hard.

That's really his guitar. He was playing it last year when I saw him. It has a big hole knocked in the top.

Mamma's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys...hell, why not??

Deja Vu (All Over Again)

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you try to read the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

Day by day I hear the voices rising
Started with a whisper like it did before
Day by day we count the dead and dying
Ship the bodies home while the networks all keep score

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Could your eyes believe the writing on the wall
Did that voice inside you say I've heard it all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again

One by one I see the old ghosts rising
Stumblin' 'cross Big Muddy
Where the light gets dim
Day after day another Momma's crying
She's lost her precious child
To a war that has no end

Did you hear 'em talkin' 'bout it on the radio
Did you stop to read the writing at The Wall
Did that voice inside you say
I've seen this all before
It's like Deja Vu all over again
It's like Deja Vu all over again
-John Fogerty

Rambunctious Boy

My oh my I'm a restless guy
Got a home everywhere I go

Well I ain't good lookin'
And I ain't so smart
But baby I'm a sensitive guy
I ain't done everything there is to do
But I'll damn sure give it a try

I'm a lookin'
I'm a lookin'
For a big time bookin' with you
So come on baby
Let's go howlin' at the honky-tonk moon

I'm a rambunctious boy
Rambunctious boy
Oh my I'm a restless guy
Got a home everywhere I go
I'm-a trouble on the run
Heartbreakin' son of a gun
Oh yeah I'm a rambunctious boy

I'll be workin' all week in the big boss yard
I 'bout had it up to here
I ain't got time for a caribean cruise
Just give me a song and a beer

I feel like rompin'
Stompin'
And bronkin' it up real loud
So come on baby
Tell your girlfriend
There's a crowd

I'm a rambunctious boy
Rambunctious boy
Oh my I'm a restless guy
Got a home everywhere I go
I'm-a trouble on the run
Heartbreakin' son of a gun
Oh yeah I'm a rambunctious boy

I'm a rambunctious boy
Rambunctious boy
Oh my I'm a restless guy
Got a home everywhere I go
I'm-a trouble on the run
Heartbreakin' son of a gun
Oh yeah I'm a rambunctious boy
-John Fogerty

Baseball Japanese style

From the Associated Press:

Boston Red Sox pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka, left, and Hideki Okajima pose in their dugout at Fenway Park in Boston Tuesday, April 24, 2007 with students from Showa Boston, from left, Ayano Muroi, Erika Gomi and Michiko Sogawa, after they presented the players sets of Senbazuru, which consist of 1,000 paper cranes tied together. In Japan, Senbazuru are sometimes used to wish a sports team well and may be hung in the dugouts of baseball teams.

Baseball in Boston, or anywhere in the U.S. ain't never going to be the same. And I kind of like the international flavor. I like the Latin players, and now the surge of Japanese. Remember when baseball went to Canada, years ago? To Toronto and Montreal? It's ain't American, some people said.

I like knowing Senbazuru will be in the dugouts. How about a shrine to Buddha in the corner, with some incense burning, right next to the box of sunflower seeds and Skoal?

Baseball 30 years ago

"The pitchers were meaner, and if you hit some home runs, you were going to get drilled." --Yanks coach Larry Bowa

The game played the way it was meant to be played.

Inhabitable planet discovered

Astronomers have discovered a planet outside the solar system -- it's only 120 trillion miles away -- that is potentially habitable with Earth-like temps.

Just in the nick of time, too.

Border's Books and Harry Potter

I wanted to reserve a copy of the upcoming Harry Potter book for my fifteen-year-old daughter. Borders wanted name and address and email address. Maybe phone, too, but I don't remember.

"Why do you want an address?" I asked. "Are you sending out postcards when they come in?"

"No, there will be too many reservations to send anything out" the young female sales clerk said. "We need it to reserve the book?"

"Why do you need an address to reserve a book if you're not sending anything out?"

"That's the process," she insisted.

That's not the process I, or any parent who's thinking, will follow. What the heck is Border's thinking? I guess I could give my name, but that lessens the excitement for my daughter.

Just one more case of a company not really thinking about its customer base.

Catholic Church: Show me the door

The pope has decreed that Eucharistic consistency requires respect of human life from conception to natural death and family values built upon marriage between a man and a woman.

Abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, and embryonic "tampering" are verboten.

Dang, I struck out swinging, didn't I?

John Fogerty

I knew Sue was a keeper when she agreed to go to a Willie Nelson/John Fogerty concert with me.

Really!?

That was me. Surprised. Not too many people I know like John Fogerty. A lot of the people I hang out with like me despite my hillbilly tendencies. But that's Sue. And don't you know she knew all the words to his songs?

Hot Rod Heart

Ooh, let's go ridin'
Cruisin' down the open road
We can put the top down
Listen to the radio
Big ol' Buick
And a big ol' sky
Wheels on fire
And I'll tell you why
I got a hot rod heart

Ooh, let's go prowlin'
Sneakin' like we used to do
Way back in the country
Cut across the cornfields too
Big ol' Harley
And a big ol' moon
Big ol' 'gator
Puttin' on the zoom
I got a hot rod heart

Got a one-way ticket to the open road
Come on
Got a red line engine
And I'm rarin' to go
Put the pedal to the metal
If you want to ride
If you want to ride
Let's go

Ooh, let's go ridin'
Rollin' down the open road
We can put the top down
Listen to the radio
Big ol' Buick
And a big ol' sky
Wheels on fire
And I'll tell you why
I got a hot rod heart

Got a one-way ticket to the open road
Come on
Got a red line engine
And I'm rarin' to go
Put the pedal to the metal
If you want to ride
If you want to ride
Let's go

Ooh, let's go ridin'
-John Fogerty

Libra 4.23.07

Travel to a destination that offers insight, development, and entertainment. The people you hang out with and the groups you get involved with will inspire you to take on new challenges. Don't let laziness be your downfall when you have so much potential.

You know, a destination doesn't necessarily have to be a physical spot on the planet.

Once again, the lyrics to Neil Young's song, Thrasher, come to mind. I feel like I'm making hard, tough decisions in my life, leaving behind people, dropping people, cutting off people who just aren't good for me, who aren't good to me, who I've outgrown...

Woh-woh-woh, you keep hangin' round me
and I'm not so glad you found me
You're still doing things that I gave up years ago
--Lou Reed, Hanging 'Round

...and I'm searching...because that's what I do...it seems that's what I was meant to do in this life.

It was then I knew I'd had enough,
Burned my credit card for fuel
Headed out to where the pavement turns to sand
With a one-way ticket to the land of truth
And my suitcase in my hand
How I lost my friends I still don't understand.

They had the best selection,
They were poisoned with protection
There was nothing that they needed,
Nothing left to find
They were lost in rock formations
Or became park bench mutations
On the sidewalks and in the stations
They were waiting, waiting.

So I got bored and left them there,
They were just deadweight to me
Better down the road without that load
Brings back the time when I was eight or nine
I was watchin' my mama's T.V.,
It was that great Grand Canyon rescue episode.

Where the vulture glides descending
On an asphalt highway bending
Thru libraries and museums, galaxies and stars
Down the windy halls of friendship
To the rose clipped by the bullwhip
The motel of lost companions
Waits with heated pool and bar.

But me I'm not stopping there,
Got my own row left to hoe
Just another line in the field of time
When the thrashers comes, I'll be stuck in the sun
Like the dinosaurs in shrines
But I'll know the time has come
To give what's mine.

The Low Anthem at Tommy Doyle's Friday night

Never saw them.

Well,that's not quite it...we saw them, we just never heard them.

They were supposed to play at 9:30 after another band and Michelle Lewis. At 9:30, equipment was still getting put up on the stage, the Red Sox/Yankees were still on television, and I had a train to catch in an hour.

The place was loud and the crowd was made up primarily of young tweakers. I don't even know why places like that even have music.

If I only had a dollar
For every song I've sung
And every time I've had to play
While people sat there drunk
You know I'd catch the next train
Back to where I live
Oh, Lord, stuck in Lodi again

Took the Red Line to South Station, and down in the Harvard T station suddenly the real world opened up...there was a singer busking, a guy selling jewelry on a blanket, and people of all shades and colors who didn't look like they were raised on Wonder Bread.

Lucero

This guy I work with IMed me saying, if you like that country stuff, check out Lucero. He said it was like Kurt Colbain singing country.

Yeah, it kinda is.

Love Just That Kind Of Girl.