Happy New Year

Losing Track

New Year, new slate, open book. Blah, Blah Blah. 2011.

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Really? Ten years of the 21st century gone?

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My mother "lost track" of the years after the "19's" she said. I was sad when she said that. (She's 80.)

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But now I'm not doing so well at keeping "track" myself. I used to keep track of decades by music. I worked in radio all those years and could win a lot of bar bets with music trivia. Now I'm pretty much defeated in the mid 90's. I gave up on music then. No longer listen to anything new, unless it is old artists doing something new, or an indie group I hear on public radio. But nothing earthshattering. Nothing that defines a decade.

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I digress.

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So tomorrow night I'll go to bed early. Wake up to a new year that I hope in some way will be better for us all. A few more happy times, a few more friends, and maybe even some new music.

Even if I have to make up the songs myself.

Day of the Zombie

I saw a zombie today in the parking lot of the grocery store and I almost ran him over. The zombie was moving very slowly and was completely oblivious to traffic, people and crosswalks.

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As I approached, the zombie never deviated from his path, looking neither right nor left, head hunched down, fingers on his cell phone.

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I hope it was an important "text."

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He didn't even know it could have been his very last one.

Reflecting on Things

With Christmas here and all, plus the moving thing, plus the sickness thing, it seems a good time to sit a spell and reflect a bit.

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One thing all of the above have in common is "things." You see, Christmas is about giving and getting things, MOVING is about getting rid of things or moving your things, and being SICK,

is about realizing that "things" in and of themselves are not all that important.

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I laid on the couch sick with a bug of some sort on Christmas and watched an episode of Hoarders. Hmm.. I guess you could say I was a sick person who is sick of dealing with "things" (moving them, selling things, giving away things, just tired of dealing with things... ) watching a TV show about a "sickness" about collecting too many things.

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Maybe I'm still sick. I'm not really following all this. I forgot my own point.

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I'm going to go eat more Pizzelles.

When You Drink to Health And Happiness

.....really mean it. Because Health and Happiness are everything. Christmas is cancelled at my home this year. It seems I've contracted a bug of some sort, and my friend who helped me is now sick with it, my mom is in the hospital with it, and the doc himself wasn't looking so good.

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Here's hoping things look up.

Solstice Moon Early Today

What glad tidings and unexpected suprizes today with the Solstice Moon! I hope it is a good omen

for the new season.

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I believed all the media people who said we had no chance of seeing it "live" here because of the clouds. I missed it. Turns out some folks around here did see it.

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I snagged this picture off the net somewhere. Love the red hue that was visible.

Season of the Witch

The video from an old 1920's movie added to this Donovan Classic is just surreal.
I love it.

Bob and Doug Sing 12 Days of Christmas - Animax Entertainment

Winter

This is simply great. Very beautiful imagery and music. The "masks" are the focus of the first three minutes....but then the images change to something else. So if you stick it out longer than that you will understand. People around here don't really listen much to classical music. But if you have a few minutes and need to find a bit of solace before the Solstice, this is a nice way to do it.

The Christians and the Pagans - Dar Williams

Ghosts in the Machine

Tony Norman's column today was about Facebook, and made a fine reference to us all being ghosts in the machine. Love that. He doesn't post much, and only has a few pictures up. He said he gets a "stream" of "friend requests." (A bit of disclosure here, I'm one of them. No, I don't even know the man personally, but I am a fan of his column, and maybe thought being his "friend" would give me more insight into his work.)

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Like Tony, I remain suspicious of Facebook. I don't know what is going to happen to all that personal information. I adjust settings and hope that it means something, but I really don't understand what happens. I quit playing little games or apps on there completely when I read about how they get access to things, but I still stay on Facebook to keep in contact with a few people. I jumped into the fray awhile back and kept adding up more friends, and one day "pulled the plug" for a while. Unfriended just about everyone and just kept a few real friends and a cat. (Nene's cat) It was just too much. And I didn't care about all those people. Or their kids or what they liked or didn't.

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I look at Facebook as a social network, yes, but also a sort of equivalent to a cyber bar. Not unlike the science fiction Spider Robinson bar... Callahan's Cross-time Saloon. You show up, spot the regulars, and occasionally a time-traveller from the past will saunter in and take a seat in the corner. Some folks feel comfortable walking in and shouting to the rooftops at the whole crowd. HERE'S MY NEW PICTURE... or I LOVE CATs... or whatever. Others offer a link here or there, or a funny comment. I don't know where I fit in yet. I just show up. And I can always be found there. Like that ghost in the machine.

Xmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis

Pre- Earthquake San Francisco from Trolley

This made the rounds this year, but it is worth looking at again. Surreal. 1905? Turn up the volume of your speaker and listen to the music while you watch.

Things Found Looking Up Other Things

This touches a gentle memory of childhood for some reason. Perhaps it was read to me.

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(last few lines of the poem, Owl and the Pussycat)

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And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

They danced by the light of the moon,

The moon,

The moon,

They danced by the light of the moon.

Today in History

from Those were the Days

1787 - Pennsylvania was ratifed on this day as the second of the United States of America. Also one of the original 13 colonies, Pennsylvania is geographically located in the keystone position in relation to the other 12 colonies, earning the nickname, the Keystone State. The state capital is Harrisburg, a city almost midway between Pennsylvania’s two most well-known cites, Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania and Philadelphia in the east. Philadelphia is also where the first Continental Congress met and where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Not so famous is the state bird, the ruffed grouse and the state flower, the mountain laurel

The Sunday Morning Muse, December 12, 2010

My life in boxes.

Anyone who has ever packed up everything they own understands how it goes. You start out hopefully. After weeks of sorting and pitching and donating and giving away, that feeling of being owned by your stuff hits you.

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You can't throw anything else away. All the loose ends get stashed in whatever box/bag/tote that is available and you shove it out the door.

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I know I can live on less. I just can't, yet. I have this obligation to some of my stuff to find it a proper home, even if it is not with me.

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30 Years Ago Today

Give Peace a chance. Lennon said he thought of himself as someone passing a torch to the next generation. His peaceful message was nothing new.

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Sad that he was taken from us in such a violent way. I'd like to say things have gotten better, but they really haven't. Society is as violent as ever. And it seems more so because of the echo chamber of the internet, TV, radio, newspapers, etc. and the way that local tragedies become instantly part of the nation's news cycle.

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The Sunday Morning Muse, December 5, 2010

Okay here it is. The first significant snow of the season. TV weather people live for this. A million watts of power...one station boasts about their radar. Gee, how many watts does it take? What if my TV station has 500 thousand watts... do we live without knowing the weather in Cleveland?

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A severe weather "team" covers the snowfall with obligatory skidding car footage and long lines to buy milk and bread. You never see the reporter at the beer store for some reason.

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Snowmegeddon. The Blizzard of '93. The BIG SNOW of 1950. All legendary around here. The TV people already dragged out some footage from the BIG SNOW someone must have shot on Super 8 film back then. It looked strange to see our town like it was in the 1950's with people trudging through the snow drifts, the old cars rolling through town--- in grainy black and white.

It looks like a scene out of It's a Wonderful Life.

Not Getting Rich on Bruce Springsteen

A big step today in clearing out the former apartment. My friend the junkman came to see what he could take and "scrap."

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He noticed a precariously stacked bunch of 45 rpm records on a desk and told me in not to just get rid of them. "They could be worth something. Especially in good condition."

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Most of my records aren't worth the space they take up in the closet honestly. Many are scratched from years of wear and tear, not to mention bad needles with pennies on them.

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But the one that fell out of the stack today and got my hopes up was Bruce Springsteen's My Hometown with Santa Claus is Coming to Town on the flip side. The Santa version was from 1975. And the record itself looked like it had never been played. The record was "made" in 1981. And I had the sleeve pictured above and all.

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Hmmm.. Ebay here I come.

Travelling hopefully is always better than arriving. The end of my "search" revealed several of these records. Damn. Worth maybe 5 bucks. Ain't worth it even to ship it. And I can't give it away.

America's Next Top Model

ANN won ANTM! How exciting for her!She was just so gawky and awkward in person, who could believe the beautiful pictures that girl could deliver.

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People who know me may be suprised that I even watch that show. But there's something about it-- the creativity involved with the photo shoots for one thing--which makes for some great pictures. Even some of the pretty homely looking girls that start out end up with a decent portfolio. I love the photography.

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Sometimes it looks easy. Like hell...just give me hair and make up and designer clothes...I could do THAT. But then you start to appreciate the pressure they are under and the work that goes into it.

When someone dies a house gets cleaned out and everything in it scatters to the winds like leaves off of an old tree. Of course the furniture gets snatched up or auctioned off. But the little things, the bits of paper inside drawers, or momentos put in little cupboards, etc. Now that is where the true remainders of a person's life are to be found.
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Or in this case, remainders of deaths.
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I have a box of prayer cards of Aunt Millie's. The funeral home cards you get at the door before you sign in and go view the body. She kept dozens and dozens of them in an old transitor radio box. Why it didn't get thrown away all those years ago, I'll never know. But I have cards that go back a good 60 or more years. Each a remembrance of a relative or neighbor of Millie's and mine... since I never really left the neighborhood.
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By now you are wondering how Kennedy got in there. I sure did. So I called up Bo, my friend in the funeral business and he said that when Kennedy died, local funeral directors put out these prayer cards. 1963. I wasn't even born yet.
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Of course I checked EBAY and laughed when I saw some imbecile who wanted $89.99 plus $14.50 shipping for one. Then I searched again and saw normal auctions where the card went for under 5 bucks.
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I wonder who will get the prayer box when I die. Maybe the Kennedy card will be worth more by then. Hopefully a long time from now.

Back in the Saddle Again

In celebration of my return to the blogosphere, I am reposting some things that I put up before that I really liked. One of my faves of all time....The One Semester of Spanish, Spanish Love Song.

Still an Imbecile....

North Korea, South Korea....I am willing to bet Palin didn't know they were even two separate countries until someone fed her talking points. And she really screwed that up.

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The real point is not mixing them up, but not having any knowledge on the subject in the first place.

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Perhaps a rhyme will help....North is bad, South is good, let me learn this like I should. AMEN.

The Band

On this day in 1969 The Band received a gold record for the album THE BAND. I have it around here somewhere. Bought it at the flea market years and years ago. Great music!

Lisa from House.... with George Costanza

Wow. I saw the face.... thought of Lisa from House, but much younger. Saw the credits. Yup. That's her.

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The Seinfeld episode was the one with Jerry not getting a massage from his massage therapist girlfriend. Lisa played George's love interest. That was 1993.

The Happy Place

It's Black Friday. No I'm not out buying TVs or IPads or any other electronic thing. Instead, I am continuing down this unexpected path I found myself on, trying to get rid of things rather than buy more stuff. On my way home from dropping off two (out of nine) Christmas Cactuses (Cacti?) that I now share a home with (don't ask why) at a friend's house, I spotted The Happy Place. It's a consignment shop. The Happy Place? (conjure up sing along from the 70's...hap hap hap happy place...)

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Hmmm. A potential good place to sell some coats and scarves and maybe a few trinkets. An oil lamp or two.... or four. A trip home and a car load later and the slow trickle of stuff leaving my life continues.

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