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 ...
April 08, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
I am not at all rushed today. I had a good night's sleep. You will have to come up with your own excuse for why this entry sucks.
Last night after resting up after my baseball draft I headed up to Bridgeport Connecticut to see The Strangelings. For those of you not paying attention that is the supergroup consisting of The Kennedys and Chris and Meredith Thompson. They were playing at The Acoustic Cafe. I've been there before but not for years. My GPS guided me right to it. I didn't remember the parking situation till I got there. Then I remembered the dark scary parking lot in the back. There is no sign indicating that it is the lot for the cafe. It looks like you are driving into a back alley.
You can never tell how long it will take to get anyplace on 95 in Connecticut. It took the minimum time so I got there just as the doors opened. I didn't know I was going to the show till Wednesday so I hadn't written Pete and Maura and asked to do merch till then so I actually bought a ticket. When I got there Maura asked me to do merch so I'm getting a credit. I also ended up getting a better seat. They assign the seats when you make your reservation. I was going to video the show but they only had one tape and decided to go with the fixed camera not the hand held. I thought I'd have bad seats so I didn't take my camera. That was unfortunate. They do these shows in costume.
They weren't selling their CDs only the Strangelings DVDs. This was the first day they were on sale. Bruce, the biggest Nields Fan, and a huge fan of the Kennedys, drove down from Boston so he could be the first one to buy one. He bought it before the show.
The show was great, a must see. Pete and Maura play electric sitars. Maura's even has the sympathetic strings. Chris plays the guitar and Meredith the congas and flute. The focus though is really on the harmonies. Maura's voice fits right in with the Thompson twins'. She is their long lost triplet. They also excel technically. They don't just have great voices they know what to do with them. Their harmonies are a thing of beauty. I particularly like their use of counterpoint.
The show is done in two sets, each a suite. There is no break between the songs and they don't say a word. In the first set they do a number of Kennedys and C&M songs in addition to some covers and traditional songs. The second set is all covers and trads. The Kennedys song that really changed in the Strangelings arrangement is Sirens. Maura sings the lyrics while Chris and Meredith provide the voices of the Sirens. Good thing I wasn't sailing a ship or they'd lure me onto the rocks.
They did The Cuckoo as an all out rock number. It traveled a long way from the Anthology of American Folk Music. They did Donovan's Season of the Witch as a Motown song. Are you picking up that this is a special show? Meredith is pregnant so they aren't touring far from Boston but if you are in the area they are touring don't miss them.
I don't know if I should say this but I can't resist. Anne Saunders was at the show and she said she is going to book the Strangelings. It might be sans Meredith. If it is then Chris's future sister-in-law will probably step in. Look for them to be joined by other musicians playing FRFF. I'll leave who has a surprise.
After the show I sold the DVDs and of course schmooze with the other fans. This was a different crowd than I'm used to as it is a bit far a field for me. Bruce was the only one that I knew. After the crowd thinned out I hung around with Pete, Maura, and Chris. Meredith had to leave to prepare the Easter Basket for her son. I tried to buy a DVD but P&M gave me one and Chris gave me a couple of Thompson CDs. Maura told her to ask me to do merch for her if she plays in the New York area.
I didn't get out of there till after midnight. It might be because of the cold, it was below freezing, but my GPS acted up. I had to reset it to get it working. It lead me home with a little problem getting on 95. The signs and road were really confusing and I ended up going in circles. The sign had an arrow pointing to a bear left but there were two roads bearing left. I went for the one closer to the highway. That was the wrong one. It led to a road that crossed under it.
I got home a bit after 1 AM; tired but happy. I spent the morning with Chris and Larry and Marc and the other guys in my fantasy baseball league and the evening with music and friends. It was really a good day.
I've only been to the Acoustic Caf� a few times but it seems that each time is magic. I kept thinking about the time Carey and I went there to see Deirdre Flint and Eric Schwartz there after seeing The Kennedys at a library. The best part was trying to stalk Eric to only discover that Deirdre was stalking us.
I have no plans for today. I'll do laundry and clean up around the house. Actually Aubrey called me yesterday so maybe I'll run over there for a little while.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile April 08, 2007
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