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

March 30, 2015 - 11:36 a.m.

Alfa Bits

Yay I remembered to skip a line before starting today. Give me a cookie. No give me breakfast.

OK so yesterday's adventure was going to see Alfa at Rockwood Music Hall. It was an afternoon show. It was at 4:00 but I thought it was at 5:00 good thing I double checked. I made the show with a few minutes to spare. It is very easy to get to Rockwood even though I have to walk outside for a few blocks to make the transfer to the . I could get there without that but it would involve a third train. Fred does it that way, maybe I should try it; the to the .

So Alfa is almost totally out of my usual musical world. I met her at a house concert Maura Kennedy played. Alfa's day job is journalist and she had written about Maura. Was it a review of Parade of Echoes or an interview? Whatever it was Maura invited her. Talking to her we discovered that she was a musician too and we went to see her. She impressed me enough that I keep going back. Unfortunately four years ago she moved to the land with the uncouth name of California. Anyone get the reference? So now I see her maybe once or twice a year. When I first started seeing Kat Quinn I compared her to Alfa. If you are not paying attention you might think they are playing mindless pop. Looking at them you might say, "Another pretty girl with a ukulele." Yes that's a genre. But they both have substance and talent. Which is not to say that their music is similar.

It's always nice to walk into a venue and have the musician say "hi" to me like she's actually glad to see me. She was backed yesterday by a bass player. What she did not do was play the piano or keyboard. I don't think I ever saw her do an entire show on guitar and ukulele. I always think of her first as a keyboard player.

She got a double mazel tov. She first announced that she's engaged. Mazel Tov! Then that she just signed with a record label. Mazel Tov! Now I have to get my musical circles to know her.

I'm trying to get her to apply for the Falcon Ridge Emerging Artist Showcase and NERFA. As she lives in California my people won't get too many chances to see her.

I took a video but Alfa hasn't approved it yet. I no longer just post videos. I always get the artists approval. See I learn Instead I'll show you her official video of Blue. Make sure to actually watch the video, the whole thing. Don't just listen

After the show I got my hug. Yes I demand hugs from friend. Though for Scott's birthday I told him that I won't hug him. Then I finally did my much neglected shopping. I went to the Brooklyn Heights Barnes & Noble and got my 2015 Baseball Prospectus. I walked in, asked where the sports section was and found it immediately. I knew I wouldn't have to go through the shelves, it would be prominently displayed on a table or the end caps. It was the latter. I got in an out of there in few minutes. Then I walked the few blocks to Trader Joe's. They should pay me for the publicity I give them.

Oh I almost forgot. I had to walk on the Fulton Mall extension going to and from the Jay Street Station. That's where I had my anxiety attack the other day. I had attacks both times yesterday. I was doing perfectly fine but I felt that familiar feeling in my chest for no reason whatsoever. It's an accursed spot. There are demons there? Or I somehow Pavlovian conditioned myself. I will go with the last theory. These were very easy to get rid of. I did the breathing into Tensor said the Tensor into Jerusalem That's all I needed but I followed that with Blowin' in the Wind because singing is good even if I sing badly.

OK last night for dinner I experimented. I had defrosted some chicken tenders and needed a new way of cooking them. I had just bought honey so I thought of using that. But how? My mother used to marinate steak in honey and soy sauce mixing the sweet with the salty but I don’t have any soy sauce. Maybe I should buy some. So I thought about what I had and remembered hot sauce! I haven't had Buffalo wings in ages. There's no reason that Buffalo chicken tenders shouldn’t work. Then I had the stroke of genius. What if I added the honey to the Buffalo sauce, hot and sweet combined! So that's what I did, Red Hot sauce, olive oil, and honey combined. I cut up the chicken which I had pan grilled and mixed it in. It was great! But here's the thing. Paul is my cooking guru. He's also my all things Buffalo guru. So that makes him my Buffalo chicken god. I have to find out if he approves. Am I going to be permanently banned form Buffalo for making this? That would be nice of course, sort of like being banned from being water-boarded, but I still want the approval.

I can't give you an exact recipe for the sauce. I once asked Paul what the proper mixture of hot sauce to olive oil was and he told me to wing it. Pun totally intentional. I just winged the honey too. It felt like the right amount and it was. The thing is it would have been fine a little hotter or a little sweeter too. I can't wait for wings to go on sale. The tenders were fine but wings are better.

I had planned on writing about online atheists today but I've already written enough. Remind me tomorrow when I'll have less to write about.

I procrastinated long enough that Alfa wrote back to me and I can post the video I took. Here it is. My first multi-media blog in a while.


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 March 30, 2015
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