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
January 24, 2015 - 5:14 p.m. I'm still alive. There's a WfUV pledge drive and that takes a lot of my time. Then there are things I want to do when I'm not there and that takes the rest of my time. Now if I could only find time to sleep. So last you heard from me it was Thursday. What have I done since then? I planned on going into WfUV late on Friday, 9 AM which meant getting up at 6 or so. When I got up at 4 on my own I decided to go in earlier. I had gone to bed at midnight so you might think I got 4 hours of sleep. But I got up at one point and realized that I hadn't left time to shower so I took one. So I got closer to three and a half hours of sleep. The morning commute took forever. I just missed the . Then the train ran slow. then the bus in the Bronx ran slow. It took me almost two and a half hours to get there. That was not fun. I did take a break for a hour and took a nap. that helped. but for the most part I wasn;t that tired and did fine. Hey we had pizza for lunch so that makes it a good day. I eat so much when I'm there; cinnamon French toast and sausages for breakfast. I ate enough to last me a week. I left early, for me, 4:30 as I had mail in my PO Box. That is half a block from the Fordham Lincoln Center Campus so I took the Ram Van there from the Bronx. that was very convenient. I had to go to the bathroom then and so went back to my school to use one there. I might not have any classes, or class, but I'm still technically faculty and allowed to use the facilities. It's my first time back there since I found out I had no classes. It felt weird. Then instead of heading home like an intelligent person I went to the Dark Side, aka Jersey City. Why? Oh come on, you know the only thing that could draw me into the hellmouth, music. Jean Rohe was playing at Spiral Sounds house concerts aka Gidge and Loyse's place. I get some credit here as shorting after meeting them I told them that they have to see Jean. They did and were won over. Jean will win most of those battles. It's actually pretty easy to get there, subway to the PATH then walk half a mile. I have a choice of two PATH trains but I get off at Exchange place as that gives me a spectacular view of the greatest city in the world. No NOT Jersey City. I got there a few minutes before doors but they of course let me in anyway. I was early enough and Jean was late enough that they were about to eat dinner and was invited to join them. Score! The dinner party was Gidge & Loyse, Jean & Liam, and the rhythm section of the band Chris and Chris who I don’t know. I decided that multiple people named Chris should be referred to as the Chrisia. Gidge and Loyse have very similar tastes in music to me. The two shows I saw before then were Bobtown, who I write about all the time, and Jonathan Byrd who I see less often but love no less. Coming up there's Harpeth Rising, Scott Wolfson and Other Heroes, and Spuyten Duyvil, all super favorites of mien. There were problems with the sound system but a friend showed up with a backup and they actually managed to get things done on time while the arriving guests munched on the spread in the kitchen. Yes even though I had dinner I ate more. Hey there was really good salami. I had three friends in the audience, Laura, Angel and Scott who all live in the JC That is the aforementioned Scott Wolfson. By total coincidence Scott and his friend Trish put there stuff on the seats next to mine down front. Unfortunately that meant Angel had to sit elsewhere in the first row. The first set was the duo of Jean and Liam aka Robinson and Rohe. I have written about Jean so many times I really am out of material. I have used the "how many people does she have inside her?" line. The Duo songs sound nothing like her solo songs which sound nothing like the End of the World Show songs which sound nothing like the Jean Rohe Trio songs. At least in the duo part of that is that Liam cowrites them. He has people inside him too, One of them is clearly related to Paul Simon. That's a very good thing. Everyone, in my world, knows how great Jean is. I'm not sure if they are aware of how great Liam is. The man can make music. In the second set they were joined by the Chrisia to form a rump End of the World Show. The full band is more than twice as large. No matter, they can still do a rocking version of the songs they played. I hope I wasn't audible singing along to the songs that aren't sing-alongs. I now get pretty loud singing when it's encouraged. Hey I love Arise Arise and as a patriot I sing the national anthem. Don’t' give me that look. It WILL be the anthem in 2040. Oh and OK I sing along to songs that are often sing-alongs even if she didn't ask people to sing along last night. It's a Pavlov's dogs thing. Jean was the act I saw the second most last year and I suspect the one I spent the most time seeing in multiple configurations, everything but the trio. And I don't get tired of any of them. I have come nowhere near my saturation point. If there were a Robinson & Rohe show next week I'd be there. I had to be up at 6 AM this morning so of course I made a quick getaway after the show. Oh come on you didn't fall for that did you? You know I'm an idiot. Actually it's all Scott and Trish's fault. We started talking. Scott is always one of the most fun people to talk to. His friends are pretty much all fun to talk to. I can easily spend an hour talking to anyone in his band, and have. So that's what we did, talk for a hour till everyone else had left. I was worried about how late I'd get home but then realized that the Chrisia and the drum kit had left. They hadn't come with Jean. Jean has a car. Jean lives in Brooklyn. I'm totally shameless so I asked her for a lift and got it. That of course added more fun to the evening as in addition to being great musicians I love talking to them too. I had a lot of interesting conversations last night. They dropped me off at Atlantic Terminal and I lucked out and waited all of two minutes for a train so I was home by midnight. I got to sleep around one. I woke up this morning at six. For reasons unknown the just sat between stations for 10 minutes which made me miss my MetroNorth train up to Fordham. I only missed the train by 20 seconds or so. I saw it pulling out. So I was late! I hate being late. Today was the fund raiser for the Irish shows, Mile Failte and A Thousand Welcomes. I did NOT supervise. Kathy did! She was a student then a grad student who worked at the station. Now she's a adult and out in the world but came back to help out and volunteer. I had a ball, I always do volunteering, especially for the Irish shows. I then had too much fun talking to Fred, ot the usual Fred but other WFUV volunteer Fred, and Megan the host of another FUV Irish show Ceol na n'Gael. I almost missed my train home. But I made it with a few minutes to spare. Tonight I'm off to see Mucca Pazza, the Circus Punk marching band. Yes you read that right. I'm going to try and take a nap now. I'm back up at WFUV tomorrow. I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge: please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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