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 11, 2016 - 1:32 p.m.

The Kennedys and the dead but not the Dead Kennedys

Wow I'm starting this at noon, almost exactly. That is not getting an early start. It's gotten warm enough that instead of sleeping in sweats and a hoodie I'm slept in shorts last night. I guess it's cooler now. I better put on the sweats. That's better. Now I'm all cozy

Last night I went to see The Kennedys at the Christopher Street Coffee House. They were the first performers there when Meg and Lyndon started the coffeehouse and have returned a number of times. The Coffee House has evolved into an open mic with a featured performer. The open mic started at 7:00 but I didn't get there till 7:20 or so. I looked for Pete and Maura and didn't see them. I figured they weren't there yet. Then I realized I was looking at the back of Maura's head so I moved up a row and joined them. A little while later Kathryn sat next to me. Then Brian came in and walked right past me because Brian hates me. Wait no that's Lori not LORi. Brian is just oblivious. Oh and he is one of the official photographers, a job I gave him when I ran the thing, and he had to sit down front. When Pete and Maura took the stage I joined him. I took pictures but they haven't been edited, Brian posted two.

Maura let me look at the set list before they went on and asked if I had a request. I can never remember what I want to hear. They have eight trillion albums. And eight two trillion songs. What I always want is a song that they don't perform if I don’t ask for it. I'm going to have to go through m Kennedys albums before the next time I see them and see what I need to hear.

As so often happens after a few songs I remembered I can take videos. I wanted one of Williamsburg Bridge. That was the next song. Then I started thinking about how I have always meant to make a video of a photo montage of the bridge with the song as a score. I was working on the logistics of taking the pictures and the song started and I was picturing the video. What I was not doing was taking a video of the performance. Know why? I'm an idiot. I decided to take pictures of the next song, "Sisters of the Open Road." I had my camera out and framed it beautifully. I zoomed in an out with precision. Know what I didn't do? Switch the camera to video mode. Hey I told you I was an idiot. When I finally got around to taking a video it was of an old song, Midnight Ghost. No it is not edited or posted yet. I have no idea if it came out good enough to post. I'll let you know if I post it.

If I had to bet on the musicians I've seen the most often my money would be on the Kennedys. It's been over twenty years. There were probably a few years when gas prices were high and they did a lot of local shows that they were the band I saw the most but they might not have lead any year. But I have seen them every year multiple times. I must have seen them over 100 times without even counting seeing them each solo. I never go that long without seeing them but last year when they came out with three new albums, one as a duo and each with a solo, I gushed to them how great they were. For me gushing is the sincerest form of flattery. There are times I just can't hold it in and I'm willing to make a fool of myself with an outpouring over emotion. It's always emotion mixed with reason, I'll analyze why I love the album or the performance. It's not something I do often, if it were it wouldn't have value. It would just mean I'm one of those people that gets over-excited at everything.

Brian and I stayed for a few more open mic performers then went out for pizza and talk. There was more talk than pizza. We always have a lot to talk about; music, radio, and women will always find their place in our conversations.

Then we parted ways. I think I made the wrong decision on how to get home. I got on the intending to switch to the . The came first so I took that to the . Everything ran local so I would have been better walking five minutes to the and transferred to the or . But this was easier and I wasn't in a rush. I got home around midnight.

There have been a spate of Rock and Roll deaths this year. Some were huge like David Bowie. He was a big part of music history and made great and influential music. Some not so. For a while there, people were getting all weepy over the deaths of everyone who died even though they were people hardly anyone had thought of for years. Then a couple of days ago George Martin died and the reaction was so different. It wasn't "Oh no! George Martin died." It was people posting things about why George Martin was important, the great things he did. It was a great reaction. Through his work with the Beatles he has pretty much influenced the way all pop music sounds. The influence was not always direct but there was no way it left anyone's taste unaltered. He changed our expectations of how a recording should sound. And my point is not to praise Mr. Martin but to praise those praising him. I

Speaking of the death of musical icons it's the fifth anniversary of either Jack Hardy's death or the announcement of his death. He didn't change all music but he hugely influenced the music I listen to most often. I still find it strange that he was a friend and he played the The Budgiedome. I would not know many of you if it weren't for Jack. He was networking even in death. His memorial service at the Christopher Street Coffeehouse was where I met so many people that are now close friends.

OK now I have to eat. It's too late to make pancakes like I wanted. I interrupt this food talk to chastise the announcer on Folk Alley. She's playing great music but she introduced the song by saying that the artist was playing "a kind of African wooden xylophone." That is like saying "a paper paper airplane." By definition a xylophone is made of wood. It's from 1866, coined from Greek xylon "wood" + phone "a sound. I know most people don't know that but if music, botany, or language is your business you should. Oh and I think I'm having sausageeggandcheese on a bagel, it's fast.


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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 11, 2016
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