Record Theatre

Posted on July 8, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

I went to a record store yesterday. It was a real record store just like the old days. It wasn’t Best Buy or Walmart or anything like that where most people who still actually buy music go. No this was a vintage record store called Record Theatre where you browse vinyl and CD alike and with a selectionso large, you can browse for hours.

Record stores like this are becoming extinct and should probably be on some kind of national endangered species list. As far as I know, Record Theatre is the last independent record store in this area and that is a shame. I spent close to an hour there looking at mostly the vinyl section and could have spent much more time but it looked like my wife was getting antsy. I did not purchase anything and am somewhat embarrassed by that. But the truth is I could not decide what to purchase so I did nothing.

I am taking this opportunity to vow that I will spend more time and money in this store. I am a big fan of the internet and places like amazon.com where everything is in stock and ready for delivery to your door in a day or two with free shipping. And I am no stranger to those transactions. But there is nothing like perusing the racksof records in a real store, handling them, smelling them. I found a copy of a Jefferson Airplane LP from about 1969 called “Crown of Creation.” That is probably not their best work but seeing it reminded me of a surprise 16th birthday party some friends threw for me back then when that record was new. They gave me that as a gift and I probably should have bought “Crown of Creation” yesterday just because of that.

Too few people understand music these days. It’s so easy to download or stream or buy from any number of e-sources. I know because I have done it myself. But the days when music was love, an event, an occasion when people lined up at the record stores on the release date are long gone. Now it’s streamed before it’s released or available to pirate from any number of internet sourced. No wonder they say the music industry is dead.

Real music is going to the store. It’s leafing through the alphabetical bins of albums (or CD’s if you must). It’s handling them, turning them over to read the back cover. It’s feeling the weight of the LP in your hands and anticipating how good it would sound on your stereo. And then making the buy and rushing home to slice off the plastic and play side one and reading the liner notes. Then flipping to side two and listening to the recording as a complete work instead of individual itune downloads.

I used to do it that way although that was a long time ago. But these days seem more about change to me than anything else. The Record Theatre isn’t all that close to me. It’s also not that far away.

Tagged with: music, record stores, records
Posted in Music

Keys Please

Posted on May 18, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

So how is it possible to get out of bed at 5:30 in the morning and be late for a 9:00 meeting that is only 30minutes away? I still can’t believe it happened but here is the timeline:

5:30 – wake up, brush teeth, get dressed, leave for gym

5:50 – arrive at gym, workout on elliptical and various weight machines for about 45 minutes

7:00 – back home, make coffee, take shower. Still have 75 minutes before I have to leave which will get me there 15 minutes early

8:00 – dressed and ready to go, still ahead of schedule. Say goodbye to Coleen as she leaves for work

8:15 – time to go. Have wallet, iphone, keys …? I just had them, didn’t I put them on the kitchen counter when I came home from the gym? Not there … not in bedroom or pockets or garage or truck. Hmmm. I wonder … no that couldn’t be, could it? I called her. “You didn’t by any chance pick up my keys when you left, did you?” Of course the answer was yes, for some reason that only my wife will ever know, she decided that one set of keys was not going to be enough that morning so mine went with her as a back-up.

8:39 – she pulls in the driveway after hitting every red light and school bus on the way home and hands off the keys. I leave and hit every red light and school bus on the way to my meeting.

9:12 – I arrive for the meeting and apologize for being late without trying to describe the details. I hate being late for anything including church and I don’t even like going to church so much.

This whole thing with keys started about a month ago when Coleen went for a walk and came home with her keys but couldn’t find them the next day. So I gave her my keys to her car and kept a valet key. One day I was driving her car and we had locked it in a parking lot. Time to leave, my valet key won’t unlock the door. That’s OK, I thought, we’ll use her keys. Good idea if she had brought them but they were at home. Two weeks later we are parking outside church and I locked the car. Time to leave, “Honey you have to open the car because I don’t have a key.” She left her purse in the car before church and guess what was inside her purse? Yep. 1-800-AAA and 45 minutes later we were on our way. So we were locked out twice and then the episode of her abducting my keys on the way to work. I’m not sure if I should change the locks or buy another car but I do have a new hiding place for my keys.

It’s a good thing I love that girl.

Posted in Uncategorized

Wine Tasting

Posted on May 12, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

During our trip to California in the fall of 2011, we spent a lot of time in Napa Valley and it’s hundreds of wineries. I don’t mean that we went to hundreds of wineries, but we didn’t get cheated out of our share either. My estimate is that on the average day we visited 5 wineries and tasted at most of them. So our total was more like 25 different places. At a seminar we attended our first day, a local explained why Napa had so little in the way of night life. “The wineries are open from 10 AM to 5 PM so you start drinking wine at 10 in the morning and by the time it’s 5 PM, you have consumed a couple bottles of wine so you’re ready for bed.” I don’t think I ever drank “a couple bottles” during any of our Napa days, but his point was well taken.

Every winery has a tasting room where for a nominal fee, people taste 4 or 5 different wines. The fees range from $5 to $20 per person and in the interest of some degree of sobriety, most wineries allow couples to share a tasting. The act of “tasting” has become quite scientific to some and intimidating to others. I’m no connoisseur or expert,but I have certainly “tasted” or at least consumed my share of wine and here’s what I know:

The Pour – use a big glass if possible and pour a small amount, maybe an ounce. Let it sit for a minute and examine the color.
The Swirl – grab the base or stem of your glass and swirl it in a circular motion, somewhat aggressively but not hard enough that you lose any of that precious liquid. This adds air to the wine and opens the flavor.
The Sniff – smell it. Get your nose inside the glass if possible and really take in the aromas. My sense of smell is not great and I am envious when others get hints of berry, licorice, chocolate and more especially from red wines.
The Sip – just a little taste at first. And you kind of want to breathe it into your mouth if you can picture that. Let it settle in your mouth, on your tongue and swish it around a little before you swallow.
The Finish – I love that word. It can mean anything from completing a project to scoring a goal in soccer to the top layer of wood or metal. In this case “finish” is the afterglow in your throat and mouth that the wine leaves behind. There can be a lot of flavor and taste after you have already swallowed. Hopefully, it will be pleasant.

That’s what I know about tasting wine. Not enough for expert level but usually enough not to embarrass myself. And somewhat more advanced than my brother, Jim who was visiting recently. Somewhere toward the end of about eight beers, he asked for a “shot” of some cab that we were drinking. I guess I should have poured it in a shot glass because that’s how he drank it before asking “How can you guys drink that shit?” Eyes (or mouth) of the beholder, Brother.

[Show as slideshow]

While in Napa, I managed to capture a series of candid photos of Coleen in the act of wine tasting. The aroma, the taste, the finish. She has gotten quite good at it and she also looks pretty good doing it,too. She’s much better at wine tasting than I am although I was the one who pulled the trigger when we bought that $79 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Jessup Cellars. It was so good. I would do it again and again.

For more photos from this trip, go to the Napa Gallery.

Tagged with: These Days, travel, wine
Posted in These Days

New Grandma

Posted on May 10, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

My granddaughter Samantha is approaching her 3rd birthday in a couple of weeks and it is very cool to watch her develop and figure things out on her terms. She was thrown a curveball about three weeks ago when my mother moved back to Buffalo from Florida where she had spent the past 20 years or so. At least for all of Samantha’s life and awareness.

To be fair, Sam had been in my mom’s company on two occasions. Once when she was 3 months old and once when she was 1 year and three months old. So as far as she was concerned, my mom, aka Grandma Jean, never existed.

My mom showed up sometime around April 15th and we moved her in two days later. My daughter Lindsay brought Sam and her adorable little sister, Claire to the hotel that their grandma was at for a visit and things went pretty well for a first encounter. Then they saw each other again a time or two in my mom’s new apartment and things got a little more comfortable.

So this is where the story has kind of a punch line. Some of us are old enough to remember a guy on television in the 1960′s named Art Linkletter and he had a show that featured little kids saying cute things. Samantha would have been a perfect fit on that show. A couple of days ago she was outside with her Mom talking to a neighbor and she said to her, ”I got a new Grandma.”

Funny. And interesting how kids perceive things. Of course Samantha was right, my mom was new to her. When I told the story to Patrick he said “That’s awesome,” and he doesn’t usually speak in glowing terms. And when my mom heard about it, she was especially amused and I think happy to be recognized by her great-granddaughter. That alone probably made her relocation worth it.

Tagged with: The Girls, These Days
Posted in These Days

11/22/63

Posted on May 5, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

Stephen King is a genius. Just after Christmas I read one of his most recent books, “11/22/63.” It was almost like King wrote this specifically with me as his target demographic. For those unaware of this novel, and without giving away too much of the plot, here’s what I can tell you. It has something to do with time travel and the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy. And there is also a love story thrown in just to keep everything interesting.

I have been fascinated with the life and especially death of JFK since I watched live the special bulletin from CBS news that day from Dallas. And since I grew up in the 60′s and was marveled by space and scientific developments of the day along with science fiction books and movies, I thought the concept of traveling through time was intriguing. As far as the third charm to King’s “11/22/63,” the love story, well who isn’t a sucker for a good one of those.

This book hooked me from the opening sentence and I rarely put it down until I had devoured the entire 842 pages. It reminded me of another King book I read around 1978, “The Shining.” I actually called in sick at work one day so I could stay home and finish that book. I have read a few other books by Stephen King and mostly enjoyed them although I not a guy who reads everything King has written. This book is probably atypical of him in that there is no horror or really frightening pages that make you want to shit your pants in the middle of the night.

The photos shown here are of the front and back cover of “11/22/63″ and kind of give away a hint of the plot developments. The front cover reports the history “JFK Slain in Dallas” while the back offers us the headline we would have preferred “JFK Escapes Assassination.” I have often wondered about what life would have been like and how the world would have been different had JFK survived his trip to Dallas. I always thought things would have been better, that he would have figured out Vietnam and civil rights and the Soviets. Maybe so, maybe not.

And if anybody is as interested in the JFK assassination as I am, there are resources, video, blogs and opinions all over this internet. Enough to keep you busy for a long time. You can start on YouTube and just keep going. Personally, I believe it’s folly to believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin. There are just too many coincidences and characters for that to be true. Although “11/22/63″ does not solve any mysteries, it is successful in once again bringing up the subject.

I have this book sitting on a table now, between my resurrected stereo and an old wooden stash box I used to use. For some reason that seems like a very appropriate home for it instead of just sticking it on a bookshelf somewhere. It kind of speaks of my history there. Oh yeah, just one more thing about this book: I can’t wait to see the movie.

Tagged with: These Days
Posted in Going Back, These Days

Morning Blog 5/3/12

Posted on May 4, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that Michael McDonald’s best work was as a back-up singer for Steely Dan. His vocals in ”Peg” and “Time Out of Mind” really make a difference in those songs that I don’t think anybody else could have made. His work with the Doobie Brothers was sometimes good but doesn’t really hold up well over time. And he never really fit that band anyway. Those guys totally reinvented themselves to make way for McDonald and his soulful crooning style. Then when Tom Johnston came back, there was little room for MM in the classic Doobie Brothers repertoire.

To call McDonald’s solo work average would be a huge compliment. Coasting through on rehashed Motown hits and Christmas classics is less than inspirational and smells a lot like a guy trying to make a fast buck on reputation. He was good with Steely Dan, though.

——————————————————————

And speaking of McDonald’s, why is it that the people in the drive-thru lane get more attention than the people who actually get out of their cars and walk the twenty steps or so to order at the counter? I have been stopping at a McDonald’s for coffee and oatmeal on my way to work and the employees are always surprised to see someone inside ordering. It’s almost like they don’t know what to do and need to consult a procedures manual to take an order that’s not coming through a headset. And of course I add to the confusion with the oatmeal. I guess they sell more McMuffins and biscuits because nobody seems to know how to make oatmeal without consulting the manager. Ah, fast food in America is a wonderful experience.

Posted in Uncategorized

Building a Blog

Posted on April 26, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

Maybe I should be blogging about building a blog. After all, it is a challenge that most folks will never take on. It’s certainly not easy to learn a new language and master the nuances of the WordPress Blog template that I am working on. Although when compared to the monster challenge and secret code of something called “Joomla,” the format of my previous blog, this seems incredibly kindergardenish.

I like working in this blog context because of the challenge and ultimate satisfaction. There is no instruction sheet for this, no owners manual or CliffNotes. Everything is done on a trial and error basis where you want something to look a certain way so you fuck with it, struggle, google your quandry and eventually figure it out. Then when you do it and it works, you kind of lean back and chew on a big, fat slice of gratification and think, “Yea, I can do this.” And then you move on to the next level and then the next and you keep on going. And you hope you don’t forget how you did what you did that got you this far. Kind of like the progressive levels of the old Mario Brothers Nintendo game I used to play with the kids.

There really is no finish line here. I mean, yeah, we get to a point where it’s published and visible on the internet and that in itself is a remarkable and rewarding thing to see. But there is always more to do , more to learn, ways to embellish and improve and to make everything look better. I don’t know how to do a lot of that yet but I do know that I would like to learn. And I know that I am up to the challenge of acquiring that knowledge and putting it into play on these pages.

So that’s all the appearance and structure, design and layout of things. Maybe just one small issue after that. CONTENT. I’m going to need things to write about, to comment on, and to feel passionate about. I don’t think I’ll have a hard time with that, though. There are places I’ve been and things I’ve yet to see, people I’ve known and others I have not yet met, things I’ve already said and words I’ve been saving for a place like this.

Seems like maybe a perfect time, a perfect place, to build a blog.

Posted in These Days

NY on SNL

Posted on April 23, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

Neil Young – Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World by Killer_Tomato

I’ve always been a fan of Neil Young (just ask my wife and kids) so I admit to a little bias. But his performance on Saturday Night Live in September of 1989 remains one of the most surprising and intense 5-1/2 minutes of live music seen on television. We were on a date that night and our babysitter taped SNL on our old VHS player. I remember turning it on after we came home and being stunned by the song I heard and the raw energy those guys had. Neil, Pancho and two black guys playing “Rockin in the Free World” like it was meant to be played.

There is a lot of back story to this performance and you can read about it on Thrashers Wheat. Most interesting is how Neil worked with a trainer prior to taking the stage to work his body up to the encore intensity level he felt necessary for that song.

I was lucky to find this clip because NBC has removed it from YouTube and most of the internet. Something about royalties or copyrights or something. Hell, if they made it available I’d probably pay to see it.

Posted in In My Life

Dr. Sardonicus & the Third Floor

Posted on April 22, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus is an album by Spirit released on the Epic label in 1970. Some say that many of these songs have strong drug overtures but I disagree. I think they all have strong drug overtures.

My third floor is a converted attic that has served us as a bedroom, computer room, family room and hangout for various teenagers. Most recently it served as an office and workout room for our son. But since he transferred his interests to an urban setting, I have finally claimed the room as my own.

I recently inherited a fairly pristine copy of Dr. Sardonicus and took it for a test drive a few weeks ago upstairs on my resurrected stereo. It sounded great in person but when i tried to capture the whole vibe and setting with my iPhone, I lost the audio quality. But since the picture quality wasn’t that great either, I guess it pretty much balances out.

Posted in These Days

Another Blog? Why?

Posted on April 21, 2012 by rj — No Comments ↓

My son thinks I should have a purpose for my blog. He thinks I should hone in on a single theme or concept to blog about. That way, he argues, I would be appealing to a more specific target audience and those people would be more likely to find me.

I’m sure he’s right from a technical and search engine driven perspective. He has a vast amount of knowledge of these things from growing up in the internet age, several years of education and several more years of web design experimentation. The part he’s not right about is me caring about how many people read my blog. Don’t get me wrong, I think it would be a wonderful thing if I became the next big blogger and could quit my job and take my wife on perpetual vacation. But I have no intentions or aspirations of that. I really want to do this for a simple reason: because I can.

And by the way, I do have a purpose for this blog and I think it’s a damn good one. There were 78.3 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, otherwise known as baby boomers. I am one of them. As children we witnessed incredible events. As teens we discovered alternatives in music, love, drugs and war. We settled in as adults and parents while trying to remain true to our younger ideals and balanced life the best we could. We had children and tried our hand at parenthood and then became proud grandparents. And now we are approaching retirements and shorter days.

My purpose? My life, my times … then and now. Call it part memoir, part forecast, and a fair amount of observation and commentary. I believe I have things to say about certain things, memories to share and puzzles to solve. And a whole lot more to learn. I am a baby-boomer all grown up and my purpose is to enjoy it.

Posted in These Days, Uncategorized

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