I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
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.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
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 ...
October 17, 2015 - 3:26 p.m.
Remember the evil days of the bandwidth hog? He's back. I can't really use the internet now. I am hoping it clears up or at least gives me a temporary window where I can post this.
I'll be good and give you a health update though at this point it's not that interesting. I woke up at 8 this morning and went to the bathroom and my knee hurt quite a bit. I went back to bed and slept till 11. When I woke up my leg was much better. I think it's all the position I sleep in. I guess I should be icing it now. OK stop bugging me. I'm going to get up and get ice. Geez, I couldn’t keep ice on when I was making and eating breakfast. I'm nice and comfy now in bed but I'm going to get up and get the ice pack and fill it. Happy? You are such a noodge.
I'm back, the knee is elevated and iced. I'm a little disturbed by the blisters that formed on it, two are filled with blood and two are clear. I have gauze but I can't find my tape. I'll buy some today and some bacitracin and start keeping it covered. I did give extra care cleaning it with soap and water.
I'm having a running argument/discussion/fistfight with Scott over X-Files, Firefly, Blake's 7, and Farscape. Scott said he lost respect for me when I said I didn’t like X-Files and didn't love, only liked, Firefly. While I cannot see how he doesn't love the second season of Blake's 7 and thinks that Farscape is superior. But I actually gain respect for him for having such strong opinions on these things. That's what actually matters. And it isn't like he prefers the later seasons of Buffy to the High School years. Now that's unforgivable. Joss leaves a show and it goes downhill.
I did manage to go out last night but not to see Rod Picott like I planned. I went to the Hill Country Barbecue site to find the time. The show wasn't listed. I went to his webpage to see if I had the venue wrong, it wasn't listed. I have no idea what happened. This happened about 4 PM. That gave me time to call and audible and go see Spuyten Duyvil. They were out at the Our Times Coffeehouse in Garden City. I have to take the LIRR there which is not cheap so I can't afford it if I have to pay for the show. Also it's Spuyten Duyvil and I always do the merch if I'm there. So I called Beth, no time for email, and asked if I could merch and she said yes. Then I called Gene to see if he could give me a ride from the train station, he said yes, so everything was good. Normally I walk from the station, it's less than a mile, but with my knee hurt I was worried about that. I would have brought my cane just in case it acted up. I would not let it stop me from going, it wasn't that bad.
Now comes the idiot story part of the blog. There are two coffeehouses in Garden City, the Our Times and the Garden Stage. I went to the right one but I kept visualizing the wrong one. That meant I was thinking there was an open mic before the show and that if I wanted to get there for doors I had to be there by 7. I was even thinking about where I wanted to sit and that I'd have to ask Gene's help moving the merch table after the break. But no this is the place without the open mic where the doors open around 7:30 maybe 7:15. They were locked when we got there and we waited for them to open to go in. Now this is the place where you have to get there early to get a parking spot in the lot. So being early was fine. I just hung out with Gene. The merch had already been set up and I just took the bank for safe keeping. Damn, the bank owes me a dollar. There was $14 in it and the usual amount of change to give is $5 so I added a dollar of my own. It's not like it will be that long before I see them again.
When I wasn’t going I felt bad that I would miss not only the show but all my friends there. I figured I'd know at least ten people there not counting the band and Martin who runs the coffeehouse. I was disappointed that I only counted seven. But during the break I saw three more so I nailed it. Can I name them all now? I'll try.
- Gene
- Dan
- Phyllis
- Joanne
- Stuart
- Lynn
- Marty, not Martin
- Daria
Now comes the hard part, writing about the show. You know I look back at old blogs and I didn't do that. I would write about everything but the music. I can do that again, right? I mean I have written so much about Spuyten Duyvil, everyone knows that I love them and why. But I have created expectations, not in you but in me. So I will tell you one line of thought I had.
Some time in the 24 hours preceding the show I decided that my favorite kind of music is art songs. The first band I stalked was Renaissance. What made me think of it now was when someone asked for suggestions of new music, "I'm wishing for something new, something better, something that opens my ears... I want desire. I need to hear something that touches me in an all too emotionally real way." I suggested Harpeth Rising and Jean Rohe. They both do art songs. But then last night I found myself totally involved in Spuyten Duyvil who were performing a song from The Social Music Hour Volume 1 which is pretty much the antithesis of art songs. It's popular music, much of which is traditional, from the early 20th century and before. Some of their songs like Shady Grove and Lord Donald are far older. They are true folk songs with no composer, the evolved. Harpeth Rising might perform the same songs in the style of an art song, but not Spuyten Duyvil, they are performing them with rawness and high energy, as far from chamber music as you can get. And I love that too. I also love the lone folk singer on the guitar singing lyric poetry where the music just backs the words. Nope, all those threads go back at least to college when I had my musical awakening. What I like is good music and parsing it past that has its uses but I can't be bound by the distinctions.
The merch sales were better than I expected, most of the people had already seen Spuyten Duyvil but not since they played there last year so they didn't have the new CD. I even sold some t-shirts..
Gene was then nice enough to drive me back to the train station. I am always afraid I'll miss the train but it's literally five minutes away so I had plenty of time, too much. I had great luck coming home, the 
arrived at the platform the same time I did. The one thing I did not have time for was dinner. So I just had a peanut butter sandwich when I got home. I should have taken out chicken wings for dinner tonight but I didn't and now it's too late. I guess I'll be having Bratwurst again. That's all that I have defrosted.
Will somebody please kick off the bandwidth hog? I want to be able to use the internet today and watch TV on my computer. Right now I'm having trouble listening to the radio and that uses a lot less bandwidth. Before I try and post this I'm going to reboot the router. If the problem is someone in the house he'll lose his connection to the internet. Maybe that will get him to give up doing whatever it is that's taking all the bandwidth; it has to be gaming or downloading big files.
OK I'm going downstairs to reboot the router, wish me luck. It worked! Now I have to race to get this posted before he starts up again.
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 October 17, 2015
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