I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

May 13, 2013 - 9:31 a.m.

Kat on a Hot Tin Roof

It's before 9 AM and I'm writing, yay me. I wrote late yesterday and now it�s early the next day, Its' the blogging equivalent of a day game following a night game. I better take it easy or I might pull a writing muscle.

After writing yesterday I left myself about an hour to get to Rockwood to see the captivating Kat Buckell. Rockwood is tricky, there is not a lot of seating though Rockwood 2 where she is playing is busy, but 6 or 7 o'clock show can be overlooked. Sometimes you have to get there early and other times you don't. I just assume you do. The timing worked out that the bus came at a good time and I could take that to the . The next bus wasn't for 40 minutes so it's an all or nothing thing. Too bad when it got me to. Too bad when I got to the subway I found that the train was running express and skipping the station I was at. I had to take a train in the opposite direction back to Church Ave. I'd ave been better off just walking to Church. So now I was pressed for time. I didn't get there till exactly 6. The place was empty. Kat was in the bath room and told me that the show was pushed back 20 minutes or so. She asked me if I wanted to video the show. I of course said "yes." So here's the thing nobody else showed up. Yes it was a beautiful day, the show was announced just recently, and it was Mother's Day but that's ridiculous. Kat is not just on my short list of favorite musicians she's one that has broad appeal, She has breakout potential. You can listen to her beautifully written songs that actually say something and musically enfold or you can just enjoy listening to a beautiful voice singing lyrical ballads then rocking out with her band. She's a early 70s British Folk Rocker that just happens to be from present day Australia but that's an accident of space and time. You put her on a bill with Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span and nobody would think twice of it. It can't hurt that she's gorgeous.

But the rest of the world missed out on a great show, it was just me, and I couldn't applaud because I had a camera in my hand. I treated it as studio video shoot. I took advantage of having the place to myself to walk around and get different viewpoints. The bass player, I asked his name and now I'm not sure if I remember it, Carlos? Usually does her videos. He does a great job. I look at a lot of videos to promoteJohn Platt's On Your Radar and First Acoustics. Some acts I have to scrounge to find one good video. Often it was taken by me with my still camera. Kath has a slew of great ones.

She had a lot of new material last night. I loved it,. Much of her last album was songs based on classic Australian poems. These were original lyrics too. It didn't feel as Australian. She's absorbing America.

The crowd was small but how many musicians can truthfully say that everyone who listened wrote a rave review? It was a high quality audience. And people say that I have self esteem issues.

I finished grading the test on the subway rides there and back again. I still have to count up the points, enter it in my spreadsheet, and calculate the actual scores. The spreadsheet does that for me. It took me twice as long to grade as it should have because students didn't listen to me and write the test in an easy to read format. So many of them looked like they rushed through it. I'm sure some just rushed through copying it off other students, it was a take home tests. Some obviously did that. They missed copying parts of questions. They'll fail he final and the course.

Today I�m going in to give the finite math final to the seven students that didn't bother to check if they had a conflict when I rescheduled the final and asked if the new time was good for them. No I'm not bitter. One student in my precalculus class bought her plane tickets home two days before the last day of finals. Why would anyone do that? Finals are 5 days and she was only around to take them 2 of them.

After that I'm going to therapy. I have things to talk about that I can't discuss here. That make me feel like I'm getting my money's worth.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile May 13, 2013
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