The Big Green House

Tuesday, December 31, 2002

 

New Year�s Resolutions (cheater�s edition)

Another new year, and me at work again. *sigh* Might as well look forward, eh?

In 2003, I resolve to:
Sleep
Continue my research on the effects of strong drink on middle-aged men
Boycott organ meats and lutefisk
Accidentally drop something hot on my foot
Spend more on music than is strictly good for me
Not die in a tragic hydrogen balloon accident
Stare vacantly into space
Mock the foolish and ignorant, unless they are in a position to help me financially
Dress comfortably whenever possible
Get angry while reading the newspaper
Avoid pointless list making
Eat waffles
Err on the side of caution; failing that, err across the board
Chase the dog around the house
Do laundry
Enjoy a nice cup of tea
Praise and thank those who�ve read this far down the list
Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain
Ignore the radio
Wonder why People Magazine refuses to acknowledge that I am actually �The Sexiest Man Alive�
Watch my �Seven Samurai� DVD, repeatedly
Wish everybody a Happy New Year











bmarkey 12/31/2002 07:20:00 PM

Monday, December 30, 2002

 

Avast, RIAA

Today I am a happy boy. �Why is that�, you ask, �and why do you insist on putting words in my mouth?�

Well, I'll tell you anyway.

After months of struggle, turmoil, gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, Science Girl was finally able to install some functional software in our computer at home, SO OUR (fill in your favorite hair-curling expletive here) CD BURNER IS NOW IN FULL EFFECT!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Ah. That felt good.

So. If I owe you a CD, look for it soon, �cause I�m gonna be a burning SOB, you betcha.

PS- Thanks also go to Eyeballkid for sending some suggestions, even if we ended up not needing them.
bmarkey 12/30/2002 04:51:00 PM

Friday, December 27, 2002

 

Auntie Em! Auntie Em!

The brainiac who built the fence in our front yard decided, for some unfathomable reason, to saw off two of the posts about three inches from ground level and install hinges. Yes, that�s right: hinges. I am absolutely aflame with curiosity as to what the thought process behind that decision was. I just can�t get it to make sense, no matter how hard I try.

Be that as it may. As you might have heard, we�ve had a bit of wind here today.

I bet you can see where this is going.

Yep. The fence on the northwestern side of the yard has blown over. The hinges gave way, so that entire section went right over. We�d had it propped up since we first discovered this novel construction �feature�, but the 60 MPH wind gusts were just too much. Our landlord said he�ll fix it �as soon as the wind stops�, which only makes sense. In the meantime, though, The Big Green House stands oddly exposed on one side, open to the prying eyes of all & sundry. We don�t like that, but at least the power is still on� or it was when I left for work this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed.

bmarkey 12/27/2002 06:12:00 PM

Thursday, December 26, 2002

 

Old & In The Way

I never wrote about my birthday, did I?

Well, it was pretty low-key, which is exactly what I wanted. We went out for dinner Saturday night to Mojito Caf�. We were served huge plates of yummy Latin American food (fried plantains are good - why was I not informed of this earlier?) and, of course, mojitos.

Sunday morning meant opening presents. Yay! Both were cleverly packaged together by the loving hands of Science Girl. Both went immediately into the CD player. I wore out my cassette of Let It Be years ago (and I seem to have lost my vinyl copy � I suspect an Evil Ex- Girlfriend). It�s good to know that Mr. Westerberg can still get the job done.

Science Girl�s best friend from high school was in town from Boston, so we entertained for awhile in the afternoon - tea & cookies, conversation, etc. That evening, SG & I went to see The Two Towers. As a movie, I�d give it a B+; as an adaptation of the book, C- at best. I realize that it�s next to impossible to bring a book to the screen intact, but I felt that they did a much better job of it with the first film. This time out they played awfully fast & loose with the characters & motivations, in my opinion. Don�t mind me, though � I�m just flying my geek flag. It�s still a good (long) movie.

bmarkey 12/26/2002 08:02:00 PM

Wednesday, December 25, 2002

 

Happy happy joy joy

It�s cold, windy & wet. Not a white Xmas, but most assuredly a Seattle Xmas.

And here I am at work again. Feh. Then again, it�s time & a half OR a free paid holiday later � my choice. I�m thinking of taking the floating holiday this year. I feel the need for time off.

Anyway, here�s the big Holiday Extravaganza Edition of The Big Green House. Irish whiskey is optional, but does add to the ambience.

Things I miss: Mom�s turkey & stuffing; having tamales, made by the ladies at the Catholic church, for Xmas Eve dinner; getting a stocking filled with snacks and hygiene equipment (deodorant, shaving cream, shampoo, etc.); waking up at 6 AM & debating with myself whether to go out to the living room to check out what Santa brought or to roll over & snooze some more, and then realizing that there was no way in hell I was going to be able to get back to sleep.

Things I like: watching Lucy spend most of the day wandering around The Big Green House looking for the perfect spot in which to hide her new bone; hearing Science Girl say, �You smart man� when she opened her gift; all the cool goodies with which folks have seen fit to shower me - I will not list them here for fear of forgetting something & unintentionally slighting someone, but I do appreciate them; friends and family, here there and everywhere.

Merry Xmas to all, and to all a good night.

bmarkey 12/25/2002 04:02:00 PM

Tuesday, December 24, 2002

 
On behalf of those of us working tonight and tomorrow so that the rest of you can play with your new toys and gorge yourselves on tofurkey and roast beast: you're welcome.

Happy Hollandaise!
bmarkey 12/24/2002 04:59:00 PM

Monday, December 23, 2002

 

The Right Profile

Rock and roll obituaries. They�re kinda like prostate exams � nobody likes them or looks forward to them but they do serve a purpose, and after a certain age you know you�re gonna see �em a lot more often.

I�m not trying to make light of a bad situation. Not really. Just a coping mechanism.

So. Joe Strummer died yesterday, of a heart attack, at age fifty. Not a particularly �rock & roll� death, one might say. There are those who would have you think that it�s all about wretched excess, or being larger than life. You�re supposed to go out with a spike in your vein or face down in a pool of (hopefully) your own vomit, or, failing that, wrapped around some immovable object (tree, light post, etc.). You know, the traditional R&R exits?

Punk rock, however, was meant to do away with all that �hammer of the gods� crap. The idea was to humanize the music again, to bring it down to an everyday scale. Mere mortals played those guitars, which meant that you could, too, if you felt so inclined. So, if you follow that line of logic out to its utmost extreme, Strummer�s was actually a very punk passing. He died like a regular guy, at home on a Sunday. Not at all like a Rock Star.

The thing is, though, it still doesn�t seem right. He was larger than life, and as such should have been immune to things like heart disease. If you�re going to take the stage and keep it you have to be larger than life, in one way or another. The Clash weren�t just ordinary guys up there, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary. They were four talented guys, and that made a very big difference. They knew what they were doing and they were very good at it (as were The Mescaleros, Joe�s latest band).

Were they �the only band that mattered�? Of course not; they were a band that mattered, which was rare enough.

Did they change my life? Not really. They did make it better, though, and you can�t ask much more of ordinary guys.

Thanks, Joe.



bmarkey 12/23/2002 05:54:00 PM

Sunday, December 22, 2002

 

Reward

Has anyone seen my Youth? I had it here just a minute ago, and now I seem to have lost it.

Well, at least I still have my Devilish Good Looks...

Uh-oh.
bmarkey 12/22/2002 10:43:00 AM

Friday, December 20, 2002

 

Show and tell

Karen, an acquaintance from work, brought by a treasure trove for me to look at and drool over: her vinyl copy of For The Last Time, the final Bob Wills album, which she had gotten signed by some of the Texas Playboys themselves: Leon McAuliffe, Al Stricklin, Eldon Shamblin, and Leon Rausch. She also showed me her scrapbook from when they played here at Bumbershoot in 1982. Karen was their driver/host while they were here, and actually got to play with them. How cool is that? (She currently plays fiddle with How�s Bayou.)

She says they were all really nice guys, which is always good to hear about musicians one admires; sometimes they�re not always so pleasant, I hear. Al Stewart once reduced a friend of mine to tears, and not by singing, either. She spent a lot of time, during finals week, making a poster for a show he was to put on at her school. When she showed it to him, all he said was, �Oh, goody�, in the most snooty, sarcastic British manner possible. I guess the last laugh is on Al, though; when was the last time you heard anything from him, outside the �adult contemporary�/bankteller radio station?



bmarkey 12/20/2002 09:39:00 PM

Thursday, December 19, 2002

 

Back Door Santa*

I believe I have mentioned my enforced dislike of Xmas music before. Well, about ten years ago a friend gave me a copy of a truly amazing tape that a friend of hers had made: all sorts of blues, R&B, soul, and rock & roll holiday tunes. Really good stuff. I used to play the hell out of it every year, if for no other reason than to wash the treacle that passes for Xmas music out of my poor head.

Then one year, about five years ago, I loaned the tape to a couple for a holiday party they were throwing. It took about six months of constant hassling, but eventually I got the tape back. When I went to play it, I found out why it had taken so long to get the tape back - they�d recorded over the second side! Not only that, but they didn�t tell me about it when they�d returned the tape, and tried to brush it off as no big deal when I asked them about it. (We�re no longer friends � not solely due to this incident, but it didn�t help.)

I bring all this up because apparently I�m trying to reconstruct the tape, and perhaps even to better it. I stopped into Tower today on my way to work, to see if I could find a copy of the December issue of Mojo. No luck there. (I wasn�t expecting any, really. It sold out as soon as it hit the stand. I was hoping they might find a few more in the back room.) As I was on my way out, though, I saw the endcap full of Xmas CDs. This one caught my eye. Science Girl was talking about making a tape to bring to work Xmas eve, and I knew she would need to have �Blue Xmas� on it � you can�t make an Xmas tape without �Blue Xmas�, according to local statute. Then I saw this one, and knew it was gonna be coming home with me as well. So, in addition to the CDs I mentioned last week, I�m well on my way to having an entire shelf dedicated to holiday music.

It�s a sickness. I am powerless over recorded music. Please help me.

*Bring on the creepy Google hits. It�s a song, you pervs!

bmarkey 12/19/2002 07:38:00 PM

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

 
Wet and cold, but still no snow. Why must you torment me so, o gods of weather?

Sorry, I�m really unfocused right now. Lack of sleep has made me dull. (Insert your own joke at my expense here; I�m too tired.) A small dog that insisted on sleeping in the big folks bed & bad dreams about horrible things kept me up most of the night. So it goes�

At least I�ve just about completed Xmas shopping for the year: I just need to find something for Science Mom (Note to spammers: Mini RC cars are not the answer) and then I�m as done as Trent Lott�s career. Why I imagine you�d be even remotely interested in this is something of a mystery, but there it is.

You may have noticed a drop-off in music coverage. This is not accidental. Oh no. Strategy, my friend, strategy. Friends and family will read the blog, notice the lack of reviews and think, �By Golly, that boy needs some new music for the holidays! I will provide some grist for his mill, that�s what I�ll do.�

It could work.

bmarkey 12/18/2002 09:33:00 PM

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

 
This is nice, if somewhat mistaken. I, for one, am surprised to find out that �the blues has never achieved widespread popularity�, as I seem to recall everybody and his dog at least paying lip service to the blues during the sixties and early seventies.

The fact that Rock & Roll doesn�t belong in a museum, the sheer ugliness of the building itself (it looks like the Space Needle coughed up an especially colorful hairball in the parking lot), and the huge admission price have all kept me far away from EMP. The proposed exhibit might get me through the doors, maybe, but I�m reserving judgment. Same with the Scorsese-led PBS series; the potential for greatness is there, but let�s see the follow-through before we start goin� nuts.

bmarkey 12/17/2002 10:32:00 PM

 

When I�m 64

A possible cause for the writing lock-up: my impending 42nd birthday. It occurred to me today that, as of Sunday, it will have been 21 years since I turned 21 years old.

Read that sentence again.

Yes. I�ve been drinking legally now for as long as it took for me to begin drinking legally in the first place. Or, in other words, I AM REALLY F***ING OLD! (And apparently becoming somewhat delicate in my language; I used to spell out �fucking�, rather than resorting to those coy little asterisks. Next up: such colorful phrases as �dag nabbit�, �Jiminy Cricket�, and �for the love of cake�.) (Wait, I already use that last one. It�s progressing faster than I�d anticipated.)

I don�t feel particularly old. Even though I�m pressing onward into middle age, I�m every bit as immature as I was 21 years ago � I just hide it better now. True, I have a little trouble with my knees every now and again (especially in cold weather), but that runs in the family. Well, it hobbles in the family, anyway. My hairline starts a little further north than it used to, and I�m told that there�s the beginning of a bald spot in back. (Science Girl denies this, but then she would.) No big deal. Really. OK, I�ve priced Rogaine at the drug store, but screw it. It�s gonna do what it�s gonna do. And doubly so with the gray hairs; no Grecian Formula for me, thank you very much.

Birthdays used to be barely a blip on my radar. I paid them very little mind at all during my twenties, aside from the famous 21st. I spent the night drinking in the bar I�d been going to for the previous six months. The bartender who�d been serving me all that time turned several shades of green when he found out which birthday I was celebrating that night.

Turning 30 was really difficult for me, however, as there were a lot of deeply unpleasant things going on in my life at that particular time in addition to the �milestone�. The less said about that particular birthday the better. 40, on the other hand, was a snap. Could have done it standing on my head, provided I�d gotten a little help & a wall to lean against. Science Girl & I went to see Big Star, Death Cab for Cutie, and The Posies at the Showbox, which was a lot of fun even though Alex Chilton seemed to be phoning in his performance at times.

And now? We�ll probably go out for dinner or something, I suppose. My life is going very well at the moment - wonderful fianc�, good dog (most of the time), nice place to live - so why the wig-out all of a sudden? Why is forty-two looming and squatting on the horizon like a big hairy spider*?

*To get the full effect of that image, you need to know that I am deathly afraid of spiders.

bmarkey 12/17/2002 08:03:00 PM

 
Hey kids, I haven�t forgotten about you all. I�m experiencing some industrial-strength writer�s block right now. I�m working on it, as much as I can, but it�s very weird for me. I have several perfectly good topics I�ve tried to write about; I�ve gotten two or three lines in & realized that not only was it not going anywhere, but I didn�t know how to get it on track. Ordinarily that wouldn�t stop me � I�d just bullshit my way through until it started gelling, then go back & fix whatever didn�t quite work. For the past couple of nights, though, I haven�t been able to get it to gel, at all. I think I�m having performance anxiety.

You still love me though, right? You won�t leave me for some young stud blogger, will you? I mean, this happens to everybody from time to time, doesn�t it? Right?

*sigh*


bmarkey 12/17/2002 05:11:00 PM

Thursday, December 12, 2002

 

Do they make tofu Roast Beast?

It�s cold, wet and gray in Seattle today � everything that attracted me here in the first place. Winter is my time of year, as I think I�ve mentioned before. If it were colder I�d be happier, but I�ll settle for 45 degrees & overcast.

I�m actually feeling somewhat festive this year. Usually, my take on the holidays is �I�m not going to let Xmas ruin an otherwise perfectly good December�. Residual retail angst and having a birthday three days before the arrival of the dreaded Claus will do that.

This year, things are different. I�ve actually sprung for holiday music, which is especially amazing given that most of my time in retail was spent foisting recorded music on an impossibly dim public. I swore I�d never voluntarily listen to Xmas tunes again. I�ve finished most of my Xmas shopping and sent my packages to the Ancestral Markey Homestead; I�ve never even started this early before. There are cheerful holiday lights all over The Big Green House, and we are even going to get a tree this weekend, something I haven�t done in about 15 years or so.

What�s behind all this? The presence of the always-charming Science Girl, of course, without whom I would be Grinching my way through another holiday season. I�m not saying I�m totally into the whole thing, mind you, but much more so than in years past.

bmarkey 12/12/2002 05:38:00 PM

Wednesday, December 11, 2002

 
OK, my hit counter is hovering at 999. Will someone please push it over 1,000? (Wait a minute - if you're reading this, it's already ticked over.)
Edit: Thank you, kind stranger who visited at 11:00 Pacific Time. I hope you got something of value from the Rich Dangel piece.
bmarkey 12/11/2002 07:40:00 PM

 

He�s a whore

As I was walking the dog today, it occurred to me that most of the music I�ve been writing about & listening to of late was made before I was born. There�s nothing wrong with that, of course; as Jello Biafra says, if you haven�t heard it before then it�s new. That said, I do feel a little bit out of the loop. So, do you have anything new to recommend? And �new�, for my purposes here, means �released within the last year�. Re-issues don�t count. Unless, y�know, they do. Don�t be shy, now - tell me what I should be listening to. (I reserve the right to ignore you, of course.)

And hey, while I�m at it � if you work for/own a label, send me some product! I promise I will play it & maybe even write about it, unless I can�t find anything good (or at least entertaining) to say about it. Just think, YOU could tap into the vast Big Green House readership; on an average day I get anywhere from 6 to 10 hits. That may not sound like much, but they�re quality hits from important and influential people, I assure you. No, really, they are. You found your way here, didn�t you? Alright then, send me some swag!

Hey, it�s worth a shot.

bmarkey 12/11/2002 05:43:00 PM

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

 

The Devil�s Music

So, I picked up the December issue of Uncut magazine yesterday. The mag itself is OK; I�ve certainly read worse recently (hello, Spin and Rolling Stone!), but there�s not really much here to get all hot & bothered about. Except for the free CD included with every copy, that is � 26 blues, R&B, soul and country tracks, as chosen by Keef Richards himself! Holy Moly! It was too irresistible to pass up. Kinda like getting a mix tape from god, in a way. Keef acquits himself nicely, I must say, although I could probably live the rest of my life without hearing Aaron Neville again & still die happy. That�s just my personal taste, though, and a few moments of squirming are more than compensated for by the presence of Clifton Chenier, Robert Johnson, Billie Holiday, Booker T & The MGs, T-Bone Walker� well, everything else on the disc, really. One bum track out of twenty-six is a pretty good batting average, where I�m from. I�d expect no less from Mr. Richards. Now if only I could say the same about his band, lately.


bmarkey 12/10/2002 05:28:00 PM

Monday, December 09, 2002

 

Back on topic

I know that many people the world over find great joy in the Xmas albums of Mannheim Steamroller and Kenny G., both of whom are on heavy rotation at my place of employment, but I think I�d prefer having angry wolverines stuffed down my boxer shorts to ever hearing either of them again.

(From Mr. G�s site: �With over 70 million albums sold to date, Kenny G has proven himself to be one of the most gifted musicians in the world.� I realize this is kinda like shooting fish in a barrel, but sales do not equal �gifted musician�. Somebody has some self-esteem issues, doesn�t he?)

bmarkey 12/09/2002 10:19:00 PM

 

Gazing into the navel, the navel gazes back

My life is effectively of no interest to anyone but myself, and then only marginally so. This is one of the reasons I rarely write about personal things. Then again, there aren�t many things in life more personal than one�s taste in music, and I seem to have no problem blathering on, at great length (some might say �at excruciating length�, and I wouldn�t argue), about that. I may not say much about myself explicitly, but I�m (possibly) giving away more than I think I am when I write about music.

OK, you caught me. I�m shamelessly vamping. Tonight is one of those nights where I either don�t feel much like writing, don�t have much to write about, or some combination of the two. I have a few topics in mind for later dates, but none of them really strike my fancy right now. On the other hand, I feel a certain obligation to post. I�m not deluded enough to imagine anyone out there jonesing for my next update, but I set out to post five times a week & have been very far off that mark, of late. There have been some extenuating circumstances, it�s true, but I feel like a slug when I don�t write anything here for a while. I�m the one jonesing, I think. Am I becoming a junkie? How sick is that?

At least as a music junkie I end up with a room full of records, tapes and CDs; what do I have to show for this addiction - a bunch of electrons strung together on somebody else�s server somewhere, some overlong rants about things of interest mostly to myself, and the questionable ego boost of knowing that those same rants can be read by people around the world. (That they are not, generally speaking, read by anyone troubles me not in the least. I�m happy with just the possibility.) Not much difference between that and being an online pornographer, is there?

Wow. I hope Mom & Dad read today�s entry so I can spend the rest of the month explaining that I�m neither �on the drugs� NOR a smut-peddler. Then I�ll have something to write about.

bmarkey 12/09/2002 09:28:00 PM

Friday, December 06, 2002

 

Who am us, anyway?

Over the weekend we rented the new Firesign Theater DVD, Weirdly Cool; it�s a collection of live performances put together for PBS last year, plus a few goodies from days gone by. Well, actually, I was the one that rented it. I watched the whole thing & enjoyed it immensely; I think Science Girl watched about five minutes of it. She was busy doing other stuff, and her taste doesn�t run to the silly as much as mine does, I think. She did laugh when I sang her the �folk song� from How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You�re Not Anywhere At All? :

This land is made of mountains
This land is made of mud
This land has lots of everything
For me and Elmer Fudd

This land has lots of trousers
This land has lots of mousers
And pussy cats to eat them when the sun... goes... down.

Discovering these guys when I was 19 was a revelation. Listening to an album was like peeling an onion � there are layers on layers of surreal, subversive comedy. Very densely packed, weirdly cool verbal origami. Check out the aforementioned How Can You Be In Two Places At Once..., or the equally amazing Don�t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me The Pliers(Headphones and, um, herbal refreshment add to the experience, but are not essential.) You�ll find yourself saying things like �He�s no fun � he fell right over� with little or no provocation.

Anywho, I did a little poking around on Google today. They have a website, as one might expect. What kinda surprised me at first was the fact that they also have a blog, although it made perfect sense once I thought about it � Firesign is all about words. And, as if that weren�t enough, Phil Austin (you may know him as Nick Danger, Third Eye) has a blog of his own. And there�s a multitude of DVDs and CDs which I have never seen/heard, having been out of the Firesign loop for awhile. I have some catching up to do.

(Today�s post has been brought to you by Loostner�s Castor Oil Flakes � the all-weather breakfast. Remember, kids: �It ain�t no use if you ain�t got the boost / the boost you get from Loostner�s�.)


bmarkey 12/06/2002 09:04:00 PM

Thursday, December 05, 2002

 

Doot-doot-doot, doot-doot, doot-doot-doot, doot-doot

We doff the Big Green House cap today to honor the memory of Rich Dangel, guitarist for the Wailers, who passed away this Tuesday. (No, not these Wailers �The Fabulous Wailers.) Mr. Dangel nailed together the three glorious chords that spawned The Song That Would Not Die, �Louie Louie�. (Yeah yeah. I know Richard Berry wrote it. Rich Dangel arranged it for the rock & roll combo & originated the iconic guitar solo.)(Yes, I buy my parentheses wholesale. Why do you ask?)

Since we live in a time of cheap irony, allow me to point out a couple of things:
1) Although he created one of the defining riffs of a generation, changing the face of rock & roll in ways we�re still feeling to this very day, he preferred to be thought of as a jazz guitarist. What must that be like, to be world renowned for something you did as a teenager & would just as soon put behind you as an adult?
2) I�ve heard The Wailers version I don�t know how many times, but whenever I think of �Louie Louie�, I hear The Kingsmen�s version. What can ya do?

And I�ll throw in a little local history, just because I can. There used to be a number of roadhouses around the area; in fact, The Jolly Roger used to stand not far from the Big Green House itself. Anyway, one of the bigger & more popular roadhouses was The Spanish Castle, down around Des Moines. The Wailers & The Sonics used to play there fairly often, drawing large crowds of teenage music fans, including young Jimmy Hendrix (who later inexplicably changed the spelling of his name to �Jimi�, so nip that nit-pick in the bud, pally!), who would bring along his guitar and amp in hopes of playing with the band. Hendrix drew on that time as the basis for the song �Spanish Castle Magic�. Just in case you were wondering.

bmarkey 12/05/2002 07:01:00 PM

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

 

Steel Guitar Rag

I guess I�ve put off this Western Swing thing long enough, huh? See, the deal is that when I first got this CD, I was all excited. Up until now, I�d only ever heard Bob Wills, so this was my chance to broaden my horizons a bit. I was as giddy as a schoolgirl when I stuck the discs in my CD player. (OK, it�s an odd choice of words, I�ll grant you that. But you know what I mean, right?)

Let me say right now that most of this collection does not disappoint. There�s a lot of really good swing music here. Milton Brown and Spade Cooley are the standouts in my mind, but there�s a plenty of swingin' music to be found. The problem is, there�s also a lot of stuff which does not swing, to put it bluntly. Someone decided to include a goodly number of cowboy songs.

Now, I know for a fact that Gene Autry actually did record some happening music, early on in his career, and this would have been a great spot to showcase it. But for the love of cake, why would anyone include his syrupy, string-laden version of �Home On The Range� on a Western Swing compilation? What�s Roy Rogers doing on here? Who the hell invited the frickin� Sons Of The Pioneers? And while I�m at it, why is there only one song by Adolf Hofner? They had room for two crappy Tex Ritter numbers, for god�s sake, but they couldn�t squeeze in some more Texas Wanderers? There�s a place for cowboy songs (preferably one far, far away from me), but a Western Swing collection ain�t it.

Perhaps it�s because this is a Dutch import. No slam on the Dutch is intended, but I�m guessing that the compilers figured, �Western Swing is from the west; cowboys are from the west; therefore, cowboy songs are Western Swing songs�, which is poor logic and bad musicology all at once. To help clear things up a bit, here is a fantastic overview of Western Swing. If you want to know about cowboy music, click on that Sons Of The Pioneers link.

Where does this leave me? Listening to some wonderful swing with my finger hovering over the �skip� button on my CD player every time I play these discs. If you dig cowboy music, more power to you � it makes me want to pull out my hair, for the most part. In the meantime, I�m hoping that someone will be kind enough to give me something like this for my birthday (which is fast approaching, so buy now!) or Xmas (also fast approaching, but three days later). Four discs, low price, all Western Swing, and no goddam cowboy songs! Yee Haw!

bmarkey 12/04/2002 08:42:00 PM

Tuesday, December 03, 2002

 
Take a deep breath.

Hold it� OK, exhale.

We�re back.

Science Girl and I live on what is supposed to be the highest hill in the city. (I have no reason to doubt this, but am too lazy to actually measure it for myself so I can�t be sure. I�m just going to take their word for it, and I think you should too.) What that means is that if Seattle gets any snow at all this year, at least some of it will be falling on The Big Green House.

Those of you living Back East may be wondering why I even bother mentioning this. �Snow is a pain in the ass. When�s it gonna melt?� Right? Well, not for this buckaroo. When I was a kid, if we wanted to see snow we had to go up to Lake Tahoe. Otherwise, we�d have to wait for one of those freak storms that blows through the Bay Area once every ten years or so & dumps half an inch of slush. So snow was a Very Big Deal for us, along the lines of a UFO sighting or the Giants making the World Series. School was let out, snowballs were thrown, half-assed snow beings were constructed in every yard � you know the drill.

Since I�ve moved up here to the Great Pacific Northwest, we�ve had at least one day of snow per year, with maybe one exception. (Again, too lazy to look up the records. You�ve got fingers & a keyboard - you do the work this time.) Every time, it makes me stupidly happy. Pure idiot bliss. It�s still a Big Deal for me & probably always will be, although I reserve the right to change my mind if I ever have to move somewhere that gets fifteen feet over the course of the winter.

So the fact that it's been a cold, foggy and dry fall/winter thus far is not encouraging. Not only is it dry here in the city; there is virtually no snow in either the Cascades or the Olympics, which is bad news for those of us who use water on a more-or-less daily basis. We may be rationing the stuff come springtime. (I certainly hope that that is not the case; having grown up in California, I can tell you that drought is no fun. Three minute showers get to be a drag after awhile, no matter who you�re sharing them with.) Of more immediate concern, at least to selfish people such as myself, is the prospect of a winter with no snow in town. If you have any pull at all with the Weather Bureau, please do what you can to get us some snow. If you can swing it so that it falls on my birthday, so much the better.



bmarkey 12/03/2002 08:37:00 PM