Monthly Archives: November 2005

Girls and guitars II

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Early this evening I’m going to the Iron Post here in Urbana to see my friend Eva Hunter and some other ladies.  I’ve been missing Eva in the surrounding climes lately as the shows have been too late or I was sick or some such.  Not tonight.  Sick or not, I’m going.  It’s free and about 3 minutes away by car.  And I’ll get a hug.

This is how the show is billed: 

Fri., Nov. 25- 5-7 Painkillers

Lynn O’Brien, Eva Hunter and Staci

I’m not sure if the Painkillers is comprised of these 3 or if it is an additional act.  I’ll find out.

Some of my favorite girls and guitars:

Eva Hunter
Kate Hathaway
Haley Bonar
Ani DiFranco
Tres Femmes

Dar Williams
Jolie Holland

This is only a partial list, of course, but this is some you may not have heard of.  And they all are on independent labels.  I have bought CDs from these ladies personally (many are autographed) at coffeehouses and bars, ordered them directly from their own record labels, and a few from the big stores, although I do try to avoid that.  I have seen every one of them, except Dar, in concert, and most several times.

I have frequently had people, guys usually, complain about ‘coffehouse chicks and guitars,’ like it is the lowest form of music or some crap.  What.  Ever.  In fact, it does me a favor by their staying away.  I usually get to talk to these amazing women singer-songwriters before and/or after the show.  I get a postcard or an email saying they are coming to town.  They actually care about having me as a member of the audience. 

So tonight I’m going to a local bar to see an amazing woman singer-songwriter and friend, and to be exposed to a few new ones.  Maybe pick up some good music for cheap, directly from the source.  And to get a hug.

Just try that with your overly-testosteroned band at a big venue.  Suckers.

If you are unfamiliar with any of the above ladies you ought to check out their music.

Update:  26 Nov 2005

Turns out The Irom Post needs a more informative website.  The Painkillers is a completely different band and the ladies didn’t play until 9 PM.  So I went home and ate my own food, watched Alice’s Restaurant which I picked up when I returned Lone Star.  Then I headed back at about 9 PM.

Kayla Brown was added to the bill to open the show.  I saw her this summer at the benefit for The Station Theatre that I attended.  I could’ve swore I blogged about it because it is where I won the Kate Hathaway CD in a raffle, but I can’t find it.  Unfortunately, she does not have a CD out yet.  She said hopefully it’ll be out in March.  I told her it isn’t natural for me to see someone twice and not have a CD.

Staci was the next act.  She seemmed like she was about 16 years old.  Had a friend or two helping her on a few songs.  She wasn’t too bad actually.  Might turn out to be a decent songwriter.  I won’t judge her voice until I can actually hear her.  I told Eva, though, that it was seemed pretty odd to be seeing a child perform in a bar.

Next was Lynn O’Brien.  This was a very weird move by whoever set up the show.  She is a jazz/lounge singer with a guy on piano accompanying her.  She sang songs like "Over the Rainbow," I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good," "Satin Doll,"Summertime," and so on.  She is actually pretty good, but this was a weird vibe between the others.  She is a college undergrad and should improve with a few years under her belt.

I actually got a decent chance to talk with Eva before and after the show.  She needs a bit of HTML help with her band emails so I may be trying to help her with that.  Of course, the last lady I offered to help with her webpages never contacted me.  So, we’ll see.

Eva’s doing a New Years Eve gig at a hotel in Decatur and I’m hoping to go.  The big issue is that the hotel is selling a package deal for a room, 2 tickets to the show and 2 tickets to the brunch the next day.  This is the main reason I don’t do New Years Eve.  It is always set up for couples.  Wanting to be a couple is not enough.

Anyway, it was a pretty good show, especially Kayla and Eva. 

Self-pity purchases

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As a reward for having to spend Turkey Day by myself yesterday, I just ordered myself some music from amazon.

Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man
Johnny Cash – American Recordings
Dar Williams – My Better Self
Cowboy Junkies – Early 21st Century Blues
The Wailin’ Jennys – 40 Days

I’m not exactly sure what it means, but with the Dar CD I also got a free "audio stream of the entire album, commentary, plus a bonus track from the upcoming album This Bird Has Flown: A Tribute to Rubber Soul" in my Digital Locker until 20 December.  It says it is a Windows Media Audio Stream.  I guess I’ll have to turn on the PC. 

This really was no incentive to me to buy this album.  The Dar CD was the main thing I went after today after finding a post-it note about Dar & Ani doing "Comfortably Numb" together on this new CD.  I hate music from the computer.  I love my PowerBook but its speaker sounds like crap and the PC’s $20 speakers sound like crap.  I used to have decent speakers and an Alpine car amp driving my PC sound but that only sounded so-so, and more importantly, the computer was in a different room from the stereo.  Now they are both in the same room.

And Amazon, if you wanted to even begin to make this an incentive to me, make it so that I can easily put it on my iPod since that is where I’d most likely actually listen to it.  Rights management.  Bah!  You can either have a right or not; they can’t be managed.  Just another 21st century oxymoron.

I’ve never really listened much to the Cowboy Junkies, I am looking forward to getting this CD because this kid certainly has him some early 21st century blues.  It could even be a great name for this blog.  Maybe I need a sub-title?

Wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without Alice

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It would not be Turkey Day for me without listening to "Alice’s Restaurant Massacree."

("KID, HAVE YOU REHABILITATED YOURSELF?")

I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I’ve rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I’m sittin’ here on the bench, I mean I’m sittin here on the Group W bench ’cause you want to know if I’m moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein’ a litterbug."  He looked at me and said, "Kid, we don’t like your kind, and we’re gonna send you fingerprints off to Washington."

And friends, somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints.  And the only reason I’m singing you this song now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if your in a situation like that there’s only one thing you can do and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are ,just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice’s restaurant.".  And walk out.  You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him.  And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization.  And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out.  And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

And that’s what it is , the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the guitar.

With feeling.  So we’ll wait for it to come around on the guitar, here and sing it when it does.  Here it comes.

You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant

That was horrible.  If you want to end war and stuff you got to sing loud. I’ve been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty five minutes.  I’m not proud… or tired.

©1966,1967 (Renewed) by Appleseed Music Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Complete lyrics here.

By the way, did you know it is a true story?

Things I’m Thankful For

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Some of the things I am thankful for this year, in no particular order:

Creative Commons licensing, so that the world might see a better alternative to current copyright law.  And yes, this blog uses a Creative Commons license.  You’ll find it at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Fresh Guinnness.

Crane Alley‘s alley in nice weather. [Ooh, $2 pints on Mondays.  I didn't know that.]

Boyd Rayward.  Being able to work with and for this wonderful gentleman has immensely enriched the past year for me.

Being able to attend Library History Seminar XI.

Being treated as an interesting person in my own right by everyone who attended LHS XI.

The amazing musicians who have helped me process and deal with the world I find myself in:  Eva Hunter, Kate Hathaway, Haley Bonar, Ani DiFranco, Lambchop, Jolie Holland, Noe Venable, and so many others.

This blog and all the wonderful folks I’ve met thanks to blogging. 

Alane, Alice, and George for hosting a wonderful party at ALA in June where I got to meet many of these folks and so many others.

Those who read me for whatever reason, and especially those who participate.

Greg Schwartz for starting and overseeing the Carnival of the Infosciences.

Rikhei for hosting the Virtual Journal Club.

Being able to afford an education.

Many of my fellow students, both on campus and distance, who have made such a difference in my life by actually accepting me for who I am and caring about me.  I won’t say the list is too numerous but I don’t want to risk leaving someone out.

My Storytelling classmates for being supportive when I really needed it.

Professors who are enthused about writing me letters of recommendation so I can continue my education.

Team Awesome, which is, of course, awesome.  Jill, Matt, Elizabeth, Kristin, Karin, Perry and yours truly.  [All of us minus Jill, and a few extras.]

My family.

And last, but certainly about as far from least as you could get, my few close friends:  Emily, Mo, Chris and Lily, Katie.

What are you thankful for?

Thanksgiving canceled. Only mine. You are free to go back to gorging yourself.

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Well.  Do the right thing and it bites you in the ass anyway.  Often seems to be the story of my life.

Went to the doctor to get medicine for the sinus infection I knew I had.  Check.  Sleep like crap again and get up even more sick and in far more pain.  Check.  Cancel my joining others for Turkey Day festivities.  Check.

I really shouldn’t expose others, including a baby, to my germs.  And even if it isn’t infectious, my piss poor attitude lately is.  And others shouldn’t be exposed to that on a holiday of thanks.  Also, the hostess has a parrot and at least one cat.  I could tolerate them on the allergy scale on a normally healthy day, but not a good idea when my head and sinuses are already exploding.

So yes, lest you must ask, my mood is dramatically improved.  </sarcasm>  Especially since I was going to get to spend some time with the one woman I’m actually interested in, but have been too (lazy, scared, stupid, insert adjective of choice) to actually ask out even though I ‘decided’ to almost a year ago.

Of course, being sick just so much puts me in the mood to do the homework or housework or anything else I need to do. 

I sincerely hope that everyone has a wonderful day among family and/or friends tomorrow.  It is a special holiday for most Americans, even if we have the origin story a bit wrong.  My mom’s birthday was Monday and my Grandpa’s (her Dad) would’ve have been Friday, so we always celebrated Thanksgiving there when I was a kid.  My mom had 7 brothers and sisters so it was always a big gathering in contrast to our little nuclear family of 4.  When I got married my wife had 14 brothers and sisters and I spent a lot of Thanksgivings in Wisconsin with a large group of in-laws.  If we couldn’t be home then we hosted other soldiers and their families, but especially the single soldiers, and created our very own ‘large family gathering’ for a day of feasting, drinking, and simple brotherhood (in the larger inclusive sense; humanhood just doesn’t work).  Last year I joined some wonderful folks from school who had a disparate bunch of us over for a wonderful meal and day/evening of feasting, drinking, intellectual stimulation, and fellowship.  It doesn’t get much better than that in life.  My best to all.

I will make a post of thanksgiving at some point today or tomorrow.  I think I really need to spend some time considering the things I am thankful for.  There certainly are some.

Can someone make a computer that just works?

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So I wake up at 4:30 AM this morning and can’t get back to sleep after sleeping like crap the last 3 nights.  I get up and use the internet to make an appointment with the doctor.  Quite easy seeing as most of the students are gone this week.  So yes, I really do have a sinus infection.  Yay me!  But the doc had done some research and gave me the lowdown on my hip problem.  That was cool of her.  Seems I have a life of pain and osteoarthritis ahead of me.  No more running.  Guess I better learn to actually swim vs. what I do and call ‘swimming.’  And maybe I ought to finally learn how to use my Rollerblades.  That can wait till spring though.

So I go to work and fight with some web pages that need massaged.  Can’t get the stupid VPN to load at school yesterday or today.  It does load later at the library though.  Hmmm?  Had printer issues at school/work yesterday but not today.  Oh, and the trackpad on my PowerBook has been acting asinine for a while now.  Found the fix yesterday but it isn’t much of a fix.

Went out for hot chocalatey drinks with my friend and talked for a while before coming home.  I intended to head to the store and get something to make to take to Turkey Day dinner and then relax this evening.

Fire up the laptop, no network and ‘some strange some program has changed your settings’ message.  Hmmm?  Fire up the wired PC to see if it has network issues.  Nope, although it’s acting stupid as it’s wont to do so reboot.  ZoneAlarm Pro has an update so go ahead and start that.

Reboot the Mac.  No luck.  Start trying to troubleshoot.  Not the normal looking at another network issue.  Has my WEP password been changed?  Yep.  Several reboots.  Restart the cable modem.  Restart the wireless router.  Keep an eye on the ZA upgrade on the PC.  Reboot the Mac a few times.  Getting very stressed and more and more clueless.  Then it just decides to work.  Who knows what either one of us did.   Hmmm?

Realize that my Hope, Belief, Desire compilation on my iPod is missing some songs.  Hmmm?  It hasn’t been updated in months.  Fire up iTunes on the PC and it has an update.  No kidding; it doesn’t get used often.  That can wait.  Heh!  All my music is gone!  Nope, it really is where it belongs.  iTunes just no longer sees it.  </sigh>  Go ahead and upgrade.  Fight with ZA and MS antivirus to let iTunes update.  Still no music.  </grrr>

So, yeah.  I have not made it to the store.  I am not going to the store.  I am not relaxed.  I am, in fact, the exact opposite of relaxed.

I agree with a lot of the discussions I’ve seen lately about how libraries and librarians need to change and get with the times.  That’s all well and good.  But until some brilliant f**k can make a computer and interweb that just works you can count me out of the proselytizing.  Don’t worry.  I’m on board with the movement, the behavioral part, the change part.  Just not the sermonizing.  Oh, and you better figure out a way to deal with all the social malfeasants who want to screw things up for everyone else.  They are a big part of the problem as to why this is still so freakin’ complicated.

And keep in mind, while I’m no chip designer or programmer, I am a tech person.  I have a degree in applied computer science.  I have and still do work the help desk.  I broadcast distance ed classes.  I use both major computer platforms.  I code HTML & CSS.  I’m learning XML.  I use the S5 presentation method.  I use metadata in my web pages.  And so on ad nauseum.  But that does not make the computerwebs work when you need or want them to.

Sorry for the rant.  I am tired.  I am sore.  And I am pissed.  About a lot of things.  And none of this crap tonight has helped.  There’s a lot more that could be said but it’d be hard to get out intelligently even in the best of times.  Tonight is not the best of times.

I swore I’d cut down on these…

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…and I have.  There are a few I didn’t post after doing them, and a few I just didn’t do.  Found at The Itinerant Librarian.

 

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi
You scored 80% wisdom, 45% aggression, 59% power,  and 77% morality!
You are one of the wisest Jedi of them all, and have had a very
eventful career full of failures and successes. You are a skilled
fighter, having defeated many powerful opponents in your time. You are
not overly aggressive, though. You are more reserved and collected.
Your sense of morality is without question, and you are a model Jedi.


My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 84% on wisdom
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 36% on aggression
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 18% on power
free online dating free online dating
You scored higher than 81% on morality
Link: The Famous Jedi or Sith Test written by SarumantheMad on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I’ve got to say that I much prefer ‘classic’ Star Wars also, but then I’ve only seen #4 (or #1 if you prefer) and don’t plan on watching the last two.  Which means I’d also prefer to have Alec Guinness over this upstart Ewan McGregor.  But the description isn’t too bad.

go away angels

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Not exactly sure why but this song, like most of this CD, really speaks to me.

poor and i’m tired
falling asleep
and everyone’s praying
i’ll get back on my feet
so i guess there’s an angel
hovering somewhere
but she’s wasting her time
she’s not needed here

and i can’t pay the phone bill
i can’t pay the rent
so i’m off to the highway
and i’m packing my tent
so if i run out of money
i can play my guitar
if i still need more money
guess i could sell my car

go away angels
your prayers aren’t needed here
i’m too broke to afford
to stay around here one more

besides you make me nervous
like i can’t hold my own

but i’m happy in my tent
no lights and no phone

so i’m poor but i’m happy
cause i got my two feet
i can walk without angels
and sleep on the street
cause sleeping’s still free
i like to dream
you can all quit your praying
i might sleep peacefully

go away angels
your prayers aren’t needed here
i’m too broke to afford
to stay around here one more

besides you make me nervous
like i can’t hold my own
but i’m happy in my tent
no lights and no phone
but no closin’ doors

so i’m poor and i’m tired
falling asleep
and everyone’s praying
i’ll get back on my feet
so i guess there’s an angel
hovering somewhere
but she’s wasting her time
she’s not needed here

haley bonar.  "go away angels."  …the size of planets.  [transcribed by me.]

So what’s the difference between this and Etheridge’s "Talking To My Angel" from Yes I Am?  That is song #4 on my Hope, Belief, Desire: how do you want to be? compilation of Late Feb – Mar 2001.  Here’s what I said about this song a day or two after my birthday:

My angel is that "me" that really cares for me in the best sense. The one that tells me only good or at worst, realistic things about myself. The one that wants all of me to flourish. I am on the generally correct path.

I don’t know what the difference is.  Maybe it is the personal ‘angel’ versus those generated by others beliefs and actions on my behalf.  Maybe it is just four and a half years.  I still need the message and viewpoints I inscribed for myself in Hope, Belief, Desire, just not as explicitly.  Then I was struggling to figure out how to care for myself—how to still the destructive voices.  I still need an occasional reminder but seeing as I’m here writing this today, I must have succeeded in some manner.  Today I do have a good idea how I want to be.  Now the struggle is how to get there; especially in a society that is neither supportive nor conducive.

Original sin causes dinosaurs to become carnivores

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Hehehe.  Now I’m really cracking up!  I’m about to write a post about how "The Fall of Man" led to dinosaurs becoming carnivores but first I check my stats and what do I find?  Someone found a post of mine with a misspelling of ‘apple’ so I go to fix it and what is it called?  Eating apples? 

Mmm…apples…Fall of Man.  My life doesn’t get any tastier or funnier than some of the strange synchronicities that crop up.

As a budding cataloger I follow AUTOCAT.  It is frequently enlightening, often educational, sometimes boring, and more often than you might think it is downright entertaining.

Lately there has been a thread about how to classify the book, Dinosaurs by Design by Duane T. Gish, et al. [Or for those who prefer the Amazon version so they can see the cover and read the crazy reviews.]  Actually, I’m not really sure why it’s coming up now as it was published in 1992.  Maybe it’s been reissued with all the new ‘interest’ in intelligent design?

Anyway….  The thread has been all of the above, except boring.  But today it got downright hysterical.  And I am not picking on what the poster said here, but on the book’s ideas.  A lot of comments got tossed around although most people had never seen the book, but today we finally got a description of the content:

The book explained such things as:  1) How the biblical "Fall of Man" (i.e., the first sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden) caused most dinosaurs to become carnivorous (according to this book, all dinosaurs were herbivorous prior to the Fall).

This shit even made my Mom laugh on her birthday!  Happy Birthday Mom!  There is far more by the way, but seeing as I shouldn’t cite without permission I’ll leave it at that.  Suffice it to say—fire-breathing dragons, dinosaurs on Noah’s ark, and man’s sin caused those poor innocent herbivorous dinosaurs to become nasty evil meat-eaters—I have got to get my hands on this book.  Matter-of-fact, I’m predicting the circulation of this little gem is going to go way up as catalogers all over the nation have to take a look at it now.  I hear it has great pictures too!

OK, if you are religious then I apologize if I offend you hereafter.  But, personally, I find the concepts of "The Fall of Man" and of "Original Sin" to be utterly absurd.  And yes, I’ve read just enough Kierkegaard to know that the absurd bit might ought to be enough to make me sit up and take notice.  But, nah.

And yes, I was born and bred a dutiful little Christian and have even been born again, as they say.  But that was a long time ago and I’m still no younger.  But you see, since then I’ve seen some of the world, done a little reading and learning on my own, learned some of the history of the church and of the Bible, learned a little history period.  And I am sorry, but I see little of the Christian God in the Old Testament and certainly not in that ridiculous concept of orginal sin.  In fact, I see little of the Christian God anywhere in the world, but that could simply be humankind’s fault and not God’s.  But no matter, it still doesn’t square.  In so many ways it doesn’t square.

Now I have no problems with Christians.  Some of my best friends and family are Christians.  But I have a massive problem with most people who go about their life like everything’s fine in the world and know that they are saved because their aesthetic appreciation of Christianity tells them they are fine.  In the meantime they support some of the most evil people doing some of the most evil things ever done in the name of God and capitalism. And that, my friends, is a pretty big list to top.

Me.  I’ll just keep eating apples.  Pray for my soul if you like.  But I’d prefer it if we all actually act as if our souls mattered.  All souls.

i did not design this game
i did not name the stakes
i just happen to like apples
and i am not afraid of snakes

Ani DiFranco.  "ADAM AND EVE."  DILATE.

Hehehe.  Fall of Man causes dinosaurs to become evil meat-eaters.  Can it get any funnier?

Had to turn on comment approval

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I have just taken what I hope is the least disruptive step for my commenters.  I have turned on comment approval.  The worst it means for a commenter is that they’ll have to wait on me to approve a comment before it will appear. 

I do not like that at all, but it is better than turning on comment authentication.  Because Typepad’s only option for authentification seems to be their own TypeKey standard.  And I do not want to make people register with TypePad just to be able to comment here.

This is exactly the sort of situation I think of when the technophile’s start telling us how great all of this stuff is.  Yes, it can be great.  And almost everything that is great is twisted by some sick bastard that makes it difficult for all.  So just give up on the "isn’t it great how we can have a conversation with others thanks to all this new technology?"  Because loking over your shoulder and trying to see who is trying to butt into the conversation isn’t the slightest bit fun.  When all you brilliant technophiles can figure out how to make this stuff actually work the way it should, then you can start preaching again.  In the meantime, do us all a favor and temper your enthusiasm a bit.

Because in my ontology of hell, those of you who are misrepresenting the benefits of technology belong only a few levels higher than the truly "evil" ones.  [See the comments at 1st Spam.]