Comics Wrap-Up 2004 (Sorta...)
Comics
I’m so late getting into the “year-in-review” for comics that there’s no point in even trying. Heidi McDonald said it best, and, after that, what’s to say? I started a reaction to her piece but scrapped that too, since others are doing a much better job of it. I also started a “best of” list for 2004 comics, then ditched it too. Looking back over the year, there just wasn’t enough that stuck out in my mind to make it worth putting a list together.
In an effort to make this post meet “year-end post” guidelines, here are some of the comics I did enjoy reading in 2004:
We3
Tezuka’s Buddha
Wedding Peach
Boy Trouble #5
Don’t Be a Crotte
Street Angel
Seaguy
Fake
I guess I’ll just let that stand in lieu of a “best of” list. It’s the best I can do.
In terms of specific comics, the one thing that strikes me about 2004 is the number of series I liked that ended.
Bone ended its story, and Roberta Gregory finally let Fantagraphics pull the plug on Naughty Bits. Of the three books that got me into non-mainstream comics all those years ago, only Stray Bullets is left. It feels almost like the end of an era or something equally pretentious.
At least Bone got to end on its own terms. Now I need to complete my set of the hardcover collections before they fall out of print. I still need about half of them. I’m enough of a compulsive completist to want my whole set to match (all hb, all b&w); enough of a snob to want the black and white editions over the color; and enough of a couch potato to not want to deal with lugging the monstrous all-in-one edition around.
Naughty Bits, on the other hand, slid into such a long, slow decline that ending the series seems more like a mercy killing. A couple of years ago, Gregory printed a letter from Fantagraphics publisher Kim Thompson with some suggestions for improving the book’s sales. I think that was the beginning of the end, since it resulted in less and less Bitchy Bitch in each issue and page after page of poorly done autobio comics from Gregory. Some of the stories, about losing her cat and her father’s illness, were touching, but their emotional impact was blunted by the style Gregory used. The tiny panels of cramped artwork which exactly mirrored the heavy blocks of text above them made these stories hard to read and a chore to slog through.
Better were her stories about unconventional women from history, but these still sucked page space away from the characters I bought the book to read. It was frustrating to get snippets of Midge and her life instead of stories.
The hardest part about the last few issues of Naughty Bits was reading the inevitable apology from Gregory about the book’s lateness and the way she had to throw it together and rush it out to get it printed. I wanted to appreciate her honesty about the low-paying nature of her work and the other jobs that took precedence because they paid more, but after a while it began to seem like doing the book was an afterthought or an inconvenience to her. I don’t think that’s the message she intended to send, but it’s certainly the feeling I was getting.
Nevertheless, Gregory should be commended for keeping the book going as long as she did. Forty issues is nothing to sneeze at for an alternative comic. I hope she won’t be absent from comic books for too long. Most of the better part of the NB run has been collected by Fantagraphics, which means that my favorite stories are still in print.
Other comic losses for me in 2004:
X-Statix—the last Marvel book worth reading
Promethea—technically it hasn’t ended yet, but the last issue has already been solicited.
By the time all the dust settles, I’m down to two regular monthly titles, and a bunch of stuff that rarely comes out. If it weren’t for graphic novels, I wouldn’t be a comics reader at all.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
BEST CD’s of 2004
Music
I bought a TON of music in 2004—lots of new and lots of used stuff. And there are some things that really stuck with me. Some of them didn’t leave the CD player for weeks at a time. This is a neat, little summary.
BEST CD's of 2004
10. American Us—Los Mocosos: A fabulous, tasty, danceable blend of latin funk, jazz, pop, hip hop, with elements from several Latin American musical traditions mixed in, plus some pointed political and social commentary. Simply excellent.
9. The Impossible Dream—Patty Griffin: This would make the list simply because of the long awaited “official” recording of “Mother of God.” However, the rest of the CD is just as good.
8. Lifeline—Iris DeMent: You don’t have to be a religious person to appreciate old time gospel hymns. In her liner notes, DeMent notes that she finds comfort in merely playing and singing these songs. This CD was released right after the election. I ended up playing it over and over and over. Then I realized I understood exactly what she was talking about.
7. Wishbones—Slaid Cleaves: Every review I’ve read has remarked on the beefed up, muscular sound of this CD, and they were all right. This is a powerful, moving collection of songs.
6. No Depression: What It Sounds Like/This is Americana: Both of these compilations pull together eclectic collections of music and artists in an attempt to define two genres that seem to defy definition. Maybe the labels and definitions don’t matter and we should just start calling it all “good music.” If you're curious about alt-country or americana music, these are bot good places to start. If you're a fan of either genre, these are compilations of some of your favorites.
5. Van Lear Rose—Loretta Lynn: This completely blew my socks off. It’s got a couple of weak moments, but the rest of the CD more than makes up for them. It’s about time the world realized that Lynn still has power in her pen and her voice. It’ll be interesting to see what she does next.
4. A Boot and A Shoe—Sam Phillips: Kind of like an intimate, personal cabaret, these short, compact songs offer tantalizing glimpses into Phillips and her life and then they haunt you.
3. The Revolution Starts Now—Steve Earle: The political posturing is exactly what it needed to be: strong, strident, and urgent, but beyond that there’s also the best duet ever with Earle and Emmylou Harris. And they’ve done some great songs together.
2. Land of Milk and Honey—Eliza Gilkyson: Of course the highlight of this CD is the recording of Woody Guthrie’s Peace Call with Iris Dement, Patty Griffin and Mary Chapin Carpenter, but the whole CD overflows with the personal, the political, and some of the best music you’ve ever heard.
1. East Nashville Skyline—Todd Snider: Simply the best album of his career, from start to finish.
STUFF THAT PROBABLY WOULD HAVE MADE THE LIST IF I HAD BOUGHT IT
Universal United House of Prayer—Buddy Miller: He did a lot of these songs when he opened for Emmylou Harris in Indianapolis. They are incredible and he is a musician’s musician.
Underdog Victorious—Jill Sobule: One of my favorite singer-songwriters. I like her quirky, yet moving songs a lot.
BEST USED CD’s I BOUGHT
Monuments—Kate Campbell
Rosaryville—Kate Campbell
Campbell explores the spiritual side of life with her beautiful stories about people doing the best they can.
Drag Queens in Limousines—Mary Gauthier
This was the object of a grand quest for me when I finally found it in an LGBT bookstore in Indianapolis. It was worth the effort. Gauthier tends to dwell on the darker side of life, but she does it with the most amazing songs.
STUFF I REALLY WANTED TO PUT ON THE BEST OF LIST BUT COULDN’T
All That We Let In—Indigo Girls
Lucky—Melissa Etheridge
Wayward Angel—Kasey Chambers
They’re all good albums, but they all sound like exactly what you would expect after listening to other works from these artists. In other words, there’s little to no growth on any of them and the songs feel pretty generic. Thankfully, generic for these three artists translates to “pretty good.” I listen to all of these CD’s quite a bit, but there’s not a lot on them that grabs me, shakes me, and makes my toes curl the way that most of the songs on any of the CD’s on the “Eddie’s Best” list do.
LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2005
This should end up being a good year too, since there are new CD’s coming from a ton of great artists:
Mary Gauthier
Nanci Griffith
Kathleen Edwards
John Prine
Hopefully, that will also mean touring!
MUSICAL DISCOVERIES OF 2004
Some new artists who came into my musical collection after seeing them open for others in concert:
Girlyman: Tight harmonies, dreamy vocals, quirky instruments, and songs about love, life, and gender identity. What more do you need?
Greencards: A smoking hot bluegrass/newgrass trio from New Zealand. They play tight and intense and sign with gusto. They closed their set with a version of Bill Monroe’s Walls of Time that made my brain melt.
For another take on the music of 2004, check out what our local public radio station thought.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
Tsunami Reactions
Real World
I’m as stunned as everyone else by the devastation from the tsunami. It’s hard to get my head around the damage reports and the numbers. When you also consider that these are some of the poorest countries in the world, the horror and injustice seem almost cosmic.
And yet, the United States had to be almost shamed into taking decisive action. We can spare untold billions to bring chaos and death to the Middle East, but have to wait for worldwide criticism before we can bring the full weight of our resources to bear to help people who need it.
A commentator on ABC News last night pointed out that this is a chance for the US to turn its image around in a part of the world where it is much needed. Indonesia has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, after all. I think it’s a good start, but as long as we are occupying Iraq, we undo the good we do on a daily basis.
I remember going to the Mount St Helens area when I was in college. It must have been close to ten years after the eruption. They were just starting to let people visit the area, but there were strict regulations about what you could do and where you could go. The ecosystem had just started repairing itself and they didn’t want to jeopardize anything. I remember everything being gray and brown and very quiet. Nothing but twisted, mangled trees for miles. It was eerie and, yet kind of awe-inspiring. You can’t walk through a demonstration of that level of power and not be moved.
I was active in anti-nuclear causes when in those days. This was the 80’s, after all, and it seemed Reagan was hell-bent on destroying the world. As I looked over the scene at Mount St Helens, I kept thinking to myself: “Human beings should not have this kind of power. We cannot handle it.”
Nearly twenty years on, we have another colossal natural disaster and another Republican President hell-bent on destruction. Looking the news reports, I hear that same refrain playing in my head.
Real World
I’m as stunned as everyone else by the devastation from the tsunami. It’s hard to get my head around the damage reports and the numbers. When you also consider that these are some of the poorest countries in the world, the horror and injustice seem almost cosmic.
And yet, the United States had to be almost shamed into taking decisive action. We can spare untold billions to bring chaos and death to the Middle East, but have to wait for worldwide criticism before we can bring the full weight of our resources to bear to help people who need it.
A commentator on ABC News last night pointed out that this is a chance for the US to turn its image around in a part of the world where it is much needed. Indonesia has one of the largest Muslim populations in the world, after all. I think it’s a good start, but as long as we are occupying Iraq, we undo the good we do on a daily basis.
I remember going to the Mount St Helens area when I was in college. It must have been close to ten years after the eruption. They were just starting to let people visit the area, but there were strict regulations about what you could do and where you could go. The ecosystem had just started repairing itself and they didn’t want to jeopardize anything. I remember everything being gray and brown and very quiet. Nothing but twisted, mangled trees for miles. It was eerie and, yet kind of awe-inspiring. You can’t walk through a demonstration of that level of power and not be moved.
I was active in anti-nuclear causes when in those days. This was the 80’s, after all, and it seemed Reagan was hell-bent on destroying the world. As I looked over the scene at Mount St Helens, I kept thinking to myself: “Human beings should not have this kind of power. We cannot handle it.”
Nearly twenty years on, we have another colossal natural disaster and another Republican President hell-bent on destruction. Looking the news reports, I hear that same refrain playing in my head.
Tsunami Comics
Comics
Newsarama has a good piece about making donations for aid and relief, including word about some of the things other sites are doing. It’s good to see comics geeks getting outside themselves and thinking about the larger world. In the comments section, one poster shared this link to a good story about making sure the donations are appropriate to the need, while another shares this one for checking out the charity you donate to. There was a story on the news last night about online donation scams. Some people have no morals whatsoever. In case you haven’t heard, Amazon has an easy donation link set up.
Comics
Newsarama has a good piece about making donations for aid and relief, including word about some of the things other sites are doing. It’s good to see comics geeks getting outside themselves and thinking about the larger world. In the comments section, one poster shared this link to a good story about making sure the donations are appropriate to the need, while another shares this one for checking out the charity you donate to. There was a story on the news last night about online donation scams. Some people have no morals whatsoever. In case you haven’t heard, Amazon has an easy donation link set up.
RIP Will Eisner
Comics
Like many other comics fans around the world, I am still in shock over the death of Will Eisner. One more link to the history of comics is gone. Hell, he was more than a link; he was comics history. He was there at the beginning and has been creating, writing, and drawing ever since. I can’t think of anyone else who was as active through all phases if comics history.
Eisner was a link to the past, but also to the future for comics. He didn’t invent the graphic novel, but he was one of the first to tap into its potential. He was an early visionary who saw that this artform had the potential to do much, much more than tell stories about men in tights slugging each other. He believed in comics as literature and art. He made comics that were literature and art.
There was a period of time when he drew instruction manuals for the military. Of course, they were in comic form. When my dad was in the Army, he would bring some of them home to me to read. It was my first exposure to comics as an educational medium and is probably what sparked my interest in this particular style of comics story.
Thankfully, there are more and more people all the time who take up Eisner’s torch for comics. His inspiration and influence will live on.
Comics
Like many other comics fans around the world, I am still in shock over the death of Will Eisner. One more link to the history of comics is gone. Hell, he was more than a link; he was comics history. He was there at the beginning and has been creating, writing, and drawing ever since. I can’t think of anyone else who was as active through all phases if comics history.
Eisner was a link to the past, but also to the future for comics. He didn’t invent the graphic novel, but he was one of the first to tap into its potential. He was an early visionary who saw that this artform had the potential to do much, much more than tell stories about men in tights slugging each other. He believed in comics as literature and art. He made comics that were literature and art.
There was a period of time when he drew instruction manuals for the military. Of course, they were in comic form. When my dad was in the Army, he would bring some of them home to me to read. It was my first exposure to comics as an educational medium and is probably what sparked my interest in this particular style of comics story.
Thankfully, there are more and more people all the time who take up Eisner’s torch for comics. His inspiration and influence will live on.
Concert Countdown
Music
We saw a lot of shows over the course of the year—a bunch in town and a lot on the road. We put some miles on the Oldsmobile in search of good live music. Here are some of my thoughts about what we saw in 2004.
BEST SHOWS
Listed in reverse-order, countdown style.
15. Darrell Scott at the Kentucky Theatre
The man who wrote “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” in an intimate setting with a cozy crowd. He sat on a rocking chair onstage and just wowed us over and over.
14. The Zarb Brothers and Troubadours of Divine Bliss at Homefront
Homefront is a local radio show that features local and regional grassroots artists. They tape once a month and we are regulars. They tape two shows at time, so your admission gets you four great acts. The Troubs and the Zarbs were one show and a better matched pair of acts I could not imagine. The Zarbs are from Australia by way of Bardstown, Ky and the play some of the best roots-rock you’ll ever hear. The Troubs are a quirky eclectic duo who just play intoxicating music. It was a heavenly night and one of the best Homefronts ever.
13. Listening Room at the Rud with Alan Rhody, Tim Krekel, Carter Wood, and Danny Flanigan
Four fantastic talents with ties to Louisville in a no smoking, no talking venue. I could get into this Listening Room thing.
12. Old Crow in store at Ear X-Tacy
I kept thinking that the guy on the banjo looked familiar until it dawned on me: He looks like Dave Rawlings. Then he did a guitar solo and it dawned on me again: He is Dave Rawlings!
11. Carrie Newcomer at Homefront
Homefront tried a couple of special midweek shows in the spring with slightly “bigger” name artists than they usually get. The attendance was unfortunately sparse, but the shows were grand. Carrie Newcomer has a rich smooth alto that suits her meditations on the nature of love, life, and humanity. It was a great midweek date for me and Keith. I think we left a little bit more in love than when we came, if that doesn’t sound too cheesy. You can’t see Newcomer live and not be touched.
10. Kate Campbell at Homefront
Another one of their special shows. This is the show that made me a Kate Campbell fan for life.
9. The Indigo Girls at the Kentucky Center
It was just like the old days--just Amy and Emily with their guitars...and an audience singing right along. I was amazed at how good songs that I had only heard them do with their band sounded! Plus, we met the incredible Girlyman!
8. Todd Snider at Headliners in February
He was fresh out of rehab, but in good form for this set with Will Kimbrough. He did all of the Todd standards, which of course made the crowd loud and annoying, but it was a fun show.
7. WFPK Listener Appreciation Concert
Ben Folds. Patty Griffin. The Holmes Brothers. Wow! Thank god for good public radio stations. Best moment: Ben Folds standing on his piano conducting the audience like a choir to record some backing vocals for an album he was producing.
6. Kris Kristofferson at the Ryman
This show happened the week that he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and he was in fine form and great spirits. He did all his standards, plus a bunch of stuff that only Kristofferson diehards know. It was one of those shows where Keith and I would list the stuff we wanted to hear him play, only to hear him do it a few minutes later. And he pulled no political punches.
5. Todd Snider at Headliners in December
The best show I’ve ever seen him do. It proved that he can hold an audience with him, do a bunch of great songs, and not do "Beer Run."
4. Riverbend at Chattanooga
We went down to Chattanooga for this week long music event to see Todd Snider and Guy Clark, both of whom were incredible. We also got to visit with my brother, do some shopping, and have a good time.
3. Iris DeMent at the Dame
I love everything about Iris DeMent! She held a barful of people spellbound throughout this show. You could hear a pin drop the whole night. It was awesome. And she has the most wonderful dry sense of humor.
2. Emmylou Harris at Indianapolis
This was my birthday gift and I got an autographed set list after the show. It was an amazing retrospective of her entire career, where she sang almost all my favorite songs. And she closed with Leavin’ Louisiana in the Broad Daylight, which is my all time favorite song of hers!
1. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco
Only one thing tops Emmylou in my book, and that’s a two day free festival featuring Steve Earle, John Prine, Guy Clark, and ton of other folks, with Emmylou closing! Everything about the weekend was perfect and there were so many highlights that it’s almost impossible to name them all. Unforgettable.
SHOWS I WISHED I HAD LIKED BETTER
Sometimes things just don’t click. In most of these cases, it was the audience that spoiled things for me. I don’t get why people have to act like jerks at concerts and then have the nerve to say that you’re the one messing up a good time when you complain.
Steve Earle in Ashland: It was Steve solo and acoustic. It could have been marvelous, but it wasn’t. It’s never a good sign when a performer tells someone in the audience that they are “pissing me off.”
Robert Earl Keen at Headliners: The audience was annoying, but not as bad as it could have been. But Keen seemed to be in a foul mood that night. He did a real perfunctory set of the expected songs and frowned the whole night. I was less than impressed.
Kris Kristofferson in Chicago: Don’t get me wrong. Kristofferson was EXCELLENT to the point of being AMAZING. Having to sit through Jimmy Wayne and Trace Adkins wasn’t. Neither was sitting in a houseful of Republicans on 9/11 who weren’t amused with his politics.
Robert Earl Keen and Todd Snider at the Ryman: My god it was the Ryman! Full of the kind of drunken rednecks and frat boys that Keen and Snider attract. In other words, it was HELL. Both of them are so much better than their typical audience member would demonstrate. But Snider didn’t do "Beer Run!" On the plus side, this show did introduce us to the Greencards!
OTHER CONCERT REGRETS
We were on the road to so many shows that we missed most of the fall season of Homefront.
Waterfront Wednesday started a “no cans, bottles, or coolers” rule that turned a great night to pack a picnic and see some great free music into something to miss.
SHOWS I WISH WE COULD HAVE SEEN
Kasey Chambers in Chicago: She’s got to come closer than that!
The Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue didn’t come close enough to catch either.
Old Crow Medicine Show at Headliners: We love the Old Crows, but after missing so many Homefronts, we couldn’t justify missing the last one of the season to see them.
Buddy Miller did two free shows in Louisville in one day and we missed them both! It was our last day before going to San Francisco and we had a ton of stuff to do. Sigh!
Buddy and Julie Miller did a small club in SF during Hardly Strictly. Emmylou and Steve Earle joined them at different points. We were in SF and didn’t go. Ack!
Oh well, I guess you can’t do everything. But you can sure try.
LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2005
Buddy Miller at Headliners in February: Looks like that might be our first show for the year!
I’ve got my fingers crossed that a new Mary Gauthier CD means a tour with a stop at Headliners. (Of course I thought the same thing when Eliza Gilkyson’s CD came out last year.) If she’s anywhere close, I’ve already told Keith we’ll be gassing up the car.
Music
We saw a lot of shows over the course of the year—a bunch in town and a lot on the road. We put some miles on the Oldsmobile in search of good live music. Here are some of my thoughts about what we saw in 2004.
BEST SHOWS
Listed in reverse-order, countdown style.
15. Darrell Scott at the Kentucky Theatre
The man who wrote “You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive” in an intimate setting with a cozy crowd. He sat on a rocking chair onstage and just wowed us over and over.
14. The Zarb Brothers and Troubadours of Divine Bliss at Homefront
Homefront is a local radio show that features local and regional grassroots artists. They tape once a month and we are regulars. They tape two shows at time, so your admission gets you four great acts. The Troubs and the Zarbs were one show and a better matched pair of acts I could not imagine. The Zarbs are from Australia by way of Bardstown, Ky and the play some of the best roots-rock you’ll ever hear. The Troubs are a quirky eclectic duo who just play intoxicating music. It was a heavenly night and one of the best Homefronts ever.
13. Listening Room at the Rud with Alan Rhody, Tim Krekel, Carter Wood, and Danny Flanigan
Four fantastic talents with ties to Louisville in a no smoking, no talking venue. I could get into this Listening Room thing.
12. Old Crow in store at Ear X-Tacy
I kept thinking that the guy on the banjo looked familiar until it dawned on me: He looks like Dave Rawlings. Then he did a guitar solo and it dawned on me again: He is Dave Rawlings!
11. Carrie Newcomer at Homefront
Homefront tried a couple of special midweek shows in the spring with slightly “bigger” name artists than they usually get. The attendance was unfortunately sparse, but the shows were grand. Carrie Newcomer has a rich smooth alto that suits her meditations on the nature of love, life, and humanity. It was a great midweek date for me and Keith. I think we left a little bit more in love than when we came, if that doesn’t sound too cheesy. You can’t see Newcomer live and not be touched.
10. Kate Campbell at Homefront
Another one of their special shows. This is the show that made me a Kate Campbell fan for life.
9. The Indigo Girls at the Kentucky Center
It was just like the old days--just Amy and Emily with their guitars...and an audience singing right along. I was amazed at how good songs that I had only heard them do with their band sounded! Plus, we met the incredible Girlyman!
8. Todd Snider at Headliners in February
He was fresh out of rehab, but in good form for this set with Will Kimbrough. He did all of the Todd standards, which of course made the crowd loud and annoying, but it was a fun show.
7. WFPK Listener Appreciation Concert
Ben Folds. Patty Griffin. The Holmes Brothers. Wow! Thank god for good public radio stations. Best moment: Ben Folds standing on his piano conducting the audience like a choir to record some backing vocals for an album he was producing.
6. Kris Kristofferson at the Ryman
This show happened the week that he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and he was in fine form and great spirits. He did all his standards, plus a bunch of stuff that only Kristofferson diehards know. It was one of those shows where Keith and I would list the stuff we wanted to hear him play, only to hear him do it a few minutes later. And he pulled no political punches.
5. Todd Snider at Headliners in December
The best show I’ve ever seen him do. It proved that he can hold an audience with him, do a bunch of great songs, and not do "Beer Run."
4. Riverbend at Chattanooga
We went down to Chattanooga for this week long music event to see Todd Snider and Guy Clark, both of whom were incredible. We also got to visit with my brother, do some shopping, and have a good time.
3. Iris DeMent at the Dame
I love everything about Iris DeMent! She held a barful of people spellbound throughout this show. You could hear a pin drop the whole night. It was awesome. And she has the most wonderful dry sense of humor.
2. Emmylou Harris at Indianapolis
This was my birthday gift and I got an autographed set list after the show. It was an amazing retrospective of her entire career, where she sang almost all my favorite songs. And she closed with Leavin’ Louisiana in the Broad Daylight, which is my all time favorite song of hers!
1. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco
Only one thing tops Emmylou in my book, and that’s a two day free festival featuring Steve Earle, John Prine, Guy Clark, and ton of other folks, with Emmylou closing! Everything about the weekend was perfect and there were so many highlights that it’s almost impossible to name them all. Unforgettable.
SHOWS I WISHED I HAD LIKED BETTER
Sometimes things just don’t click. In most of these cases, it was the audience that spoiled things for me. I don’t get why people have to act like jerks at concerts and then have the nerve to say that you’re the one messing up a good time when you complain.
Steve Earle in Ashland: It was Steve solo and acoustic. It could have been marvelous, but it wasn’t. It’s never a good sign when a performer tells someone in the audience that they are “pissing me off.”
Robert Earl Keen at Headliners: The audience was annoying, but not as bad as it could have been. But Keen seemed to be in a foul mood that night. He did a real perfunctory set of the expected songs and frowned the whole night. I was less than impressed.
Kris Kristofferson in Chicago: Don’t get me wrong. Kristofferson was EXCELLENT to the point of being AMAZING. Having to sit through Jimmy Wayne and Trace Adkins wasn’t. Neither was sitting in a houseful of Republicans on 9/11 who weren’t amused with his politics.
Robert Earl Keen and Todd Snider at the Ryman: My god it was the Ryman! Full of the kind of drunken rednecks and frat boys that Keen and Snider attract. In other words, it was HELL. Both of them are so much better than their typical audience member would demonstrate. But Snider didn’t do "Beer Run!" On the plus side, this show did introduce us to the Greencards!
OTHER CONCERT REGRETS
We were on the road to so many shows that we missed most of the fall season of Homefront.
Waterfront Wednesday started a “no cans, bottles, or coolers” rule that turned a great night to pack a picnic and see some great free music into something to miss.
SHOWS I WISH WE COULD HAVE SEEN
Kasey Chambers in Chicago: She’s got to come closer than that!
The Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue didn’t come close enough to catch either.
Old Crow Medicine Show at Headliners: We love the Old Crows, but after missing so many Homefronts, we couldn’t justify missing the last one of the season to see them.
Buddy Miller did two free shows in Louisville in one day and we missed them both! It was our last day before going to San Francisco and we had a ton of stuff to do. Sigh!
Buddy and Julie Miller did a small club in SF during Hardly Strictly. Emmylou and Steve Earle joined them at different points. We were in SF and didn’t go. Ack!
Oh well, I guess you can’t do everything. But you can sure try.
LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2005
Buddy Miller at Headliners in February: Looks like that might be our first show for the year!
I’ve got my fingers crossed that a new Mary Gauthier CD means a tour with a stop at Headliners. (Of course I thought the same thing when Eliza Gilkyson’s CD came out last year.) If she’s anywhere close, I’ve already told Keith we’ll be gassing up the car.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Tidying Up
Blogging
I edited all my recent posts to take out the old mailto: link for comments. I turned on the comments feature for the blog last night, so people can just leave comments here.
Now the wait begins for someone to do so...
Maybe that should be the wait for me to say something worthy of commentary.
Could be a long wait....
I could swear that adding a comments section seemed awfully complicated when I looked it up a few months ago. I guess Blogger did some updating while I was on hiatus.
Blogging
I edited all my recent posts to take out the old mailto: link for comments. I turned on the comments feature for the blog last night, so people can just leave comments here.
Now the wait begins for someone to do so...
Maybe that should be the wait for me to say something worthy of commentary.
Could be a long wait....
I could swear that adding a comments section seemed awfully complicated when I looked it up a few months ago. I guess Blogger did some updating while I was on hiatus.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Take the Ribbon from Your Hair...
Life as I Live It
I'm growing my hair out after years of wearing it fairly short. It's finally getting long enough that a lot of the wave and curl is falling out. I kind of like it.
Today, I needed to take something to a co-worker's office. She was meeting with someone, who looked at me and said, "Is that Eddie Mitchell?" I said it was, but had no idea who she was.
It turns out that she was someone I had known for years. She was on the board of an agency I used to work for and our paths had crossed several times since. I hadn't recognized her because of her hair. She used to keep it fairly closely cropped, and now she's let it grow into a cute little poufy afro. It looks really good on her, but it completely changed her look.
I told her that I hadn't recognized her because she let her hair grow. She looked at me and said, "You know what? You have too."
Life as I Live It
I'm growing my hair out after years of wearing it fairly short. It's finally getting long enough that a lot of the wave and curl is falling out. I kind of like it.
Today, I needed to take something to a co-worker's office. She was meeting with someone, who looked at me and said, "Is that Eddie Mitchell?" I said it was, but had no idea who she was.
It turns out that she was someone I had known for years. She was on the board of an agency I used to work for and our paths had crossed several times since. I hadn't recognized her because of her hair. She used to keep it fairly closely cropped, and now she's let it grow into a cute little poufy afro. It looks really good on her, but it completely changed her look.
I told her that I hadn't recognized her because she let her hair grow. She looked at me and said, "You know what? You have too."
Black Friday Reflections
Belated Shopblogging
We actually did the holiday madness thing on the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to go with Keith. Actually, it really wasn’t too bad. We avoided Wal-Mart entirely and, other than some car trouble, didn’t really have any problems. It helped that we’ve been working on Christmas gifts since late summer. After dinner on Thursday, we got everything out of the closet and sorted it out and realized we only had a few things left to buy. From that we were able to narrow the list of places we needed to hit and that made things a lot less stressful.
This also meant that we both had more money to spend on non-holiday stuff, so we headed to Half-Price Books. I don’t totally know what to think about the idea of a national chain of used book stores. On the one hand, they’re essentially a second-hand Barnes and Noble, with all the pluses and minuses thereof. On the other hand, Louisville has so few used bookstores that aren’t totally devoted to Danielle Steele and Harlequin Romances. I think despite my anti-chain inclinations, I’m really coming to like this store a lot.
Since they constantly buy stuff, each store can kind of take on a local flavor, which I like. Stock also changes quite a bit due to the constant buying. The one here in Louisville has a lot of interesting stuff and the prices are quite nice. I can walk out with a stack of stuff for 20 bucks.
This visit, I got volumes 2 and 3 of the Mai the Psychic Girl Perfect Collections. Mai was one of the earliest translated manga to hit the US and it’s still a favorite of mine. I also got a couple of older collections of Gahan Wilson cartoons for about 3 bucks each. The store here has a pretty varied selection of graphic novels, a good cross section of titles and publishers from across the spectrum. They also have individual back issues, but I’ve never felt led to paw through those bins.
Music-wise, their main selection sucks. Heavy on Nash Vegas country and Top 40 pop, and little else. No folk section at all. On the other hand, the clearance CD shelves are like a treasure trove. Lots of stuff from small labels, local and regional artists, and others who tend to fly below the radar. I’ve gotten several Carrie Newcomer CD’s from this section. Most clearance CD’s only cost a buck or two. This visit, I found some Celia Cruz and Eliades Ochoa.
All together, we ended up spending enough to get a free 2005 Half-Price Books calendar, which has a bunch of coupons in it for next year. So, we actually got ourselves a Christmas present.
One word on selling stuff to Half-Price Books: they pay crap. If your goal is to make some cash, try another avenue. But if you need to clear off some space and just want the stuff out of your life, they’re a heck of a lot easier than a yard sale or eBay.
Another shopping note: Big Lots has the same super-hero ornaments that Walgreen’s does right now. There are Superman, Batman, and Spider-man ornaments and they look pretty cool. The ones at Big Lots don’t come in boxes, but otherwise they’re the same. Locally, the ones at Walgreens are 2 for 10 bucks, while the ones at Big Lots are $2.99 each. This has been your super-hero tchotchke public announcement.
Belated Shopblogging
We actually did the holiday madness thing on the day after Thanksgiving. I’m not sure what I was thinking when I agreed to go with Keith. Actually, it really wasn’t too bad. We avoided Wal-Mart entirely and, other than some car trouble, didn’t really have any problems. It helped that we’ve been working on Christmas gifts since late summer. After dinner on Thursday, we got everything out of the closet and sorted it out and realized we only had a few things left to buy. From that we were able to narrow the list of places we needed to hit and that made things a lot less stressful.
This also meant that we both had more money to spend on non-holiday stuff, so we headed to Half-Price Books. I don’t totally know what to think about the idea of a national chain of used book stores. On the one hand, they’re essentially a second-hand Barnes and Noble, with all the pluses and minuses thereof. On the other hand, Louisville has so few used bookstores that aren’t totally devoted to Danielle Steele and Harlequin Romances. I think despite my anti-chain inclinations, I’m really coming to like this store a lot.
Since they constantly buy stuff, each store can kind of take on a local flavor, which I like. Stock also changes quite a bit due to the constant buying. The one here in Louisville has a lot of interesting stuff and the prices are quite nice. I can walk out with a stack of stuff for 20 bucks.
This visit, I got volumes 2 and 3 of the Mai the Psychic Girl Perfect Collections. Mai was one of the earliest translated manga to hit the US and it’s still a favorite of mine. I also got a couple of older collections of Gahan Wilson cartoons for about 3 bucks each. The store here has a pretty varied selection of graphic novels, a good cross section of titles and publishers from across the spectrum. They also have individual back issues, but I’ve never felt led to paw through those bins.
Music-wise, their main selection sucks. Heavy on Nash Vegas country and Top 40 pop, and little else. No folk section at all. On the other hand, the clearance CD shelves are like a treasure trove. Lots of stuff from small labels, local and regional artists, and others who tend to fly below the radar. I’ve gotten several Carrie Newcomer CD’s from this section. Most clearance CD’s only cost a buck or two. This visit, I found some Celia Cruz and Eliades Ochoa.
All together, we ended up spending enough to get a free 2005 Half-Price Books calendar, which has a bunch of coupons in it for next year. So, we actually got ourselves a Christmas present.
One word on selling stuff to Half-Price Books: they pay crap. If your goal is to make some cash, try another avenue. But if you need to clear off some space and just want the stuff out of your life, they’re a heck of a lot easier than a yard sale or eBay.
Another shopping note: Big Lots has the same super-hero ornaments that Walgreen’s does right now. There are Superman, Batman, and Spider-man ornaments and they look pretty cool. The ones at Big Lots don’t come in boxes, but otherwise they’re the same. Locally, the ones at Walgreens are 2 for 10 bucks, while the ones at Big Lots are $2.99 each. This has been your super-hero tchotchke public announcement.
Loss of Story
Comics
Last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly has an opinion piece by Owen Gleiberman about the sad fate of storytelling in movies. We live, he postulates, in an era where character-driven films are basically being neglected in favor of franchise-driven action and fantasy films. This has reduced storytelling to repetitive story arcs, where we know almost from the start of the film where (and who) the characters are going to be at the end. The purpose of these films is wish fulfillment, according to Gleiberman. We see ourselves in these characters and want to see them succeed as a form of wish fulfillment. It’s the same desire that fuels the success of reality TV, which he argues, is having the same sort of effect on storytelling on TV. To illustrate this comparison, he refers to reality TV contestants as “ready made arcs.”
This isn’t to say that blockbusters are bad, per se, but their dominance at the box office does have a downside:
“The issue is that great movies and television shows—especially great movies—invite us to enter the souls of characters who are more than just our mirrors, our walking, talking, fantasy doppelgangers. As an unending diet of blockbusters has helped spawn an audience of nerve-jangled sensation junkies, however, it gets harder and harder for subtlety to cut through the clutter, even the Godfather might now be released as an art film….If pop culture ever does lose the heartbeat of rich, deep, organic storytelling, perhaps what we’ll have really lost is the recognition that there’s something out there greater than ourselves.”
I couldn’t help but think about the American comics market the whole time I was reading it.
Comics
Last week's issue of Entertainment Weekly has an opinion piece by Owen Gleiberman about the sad fate of storytelling in movies. We live, he postulates, in an era where character-driven films are basically being neglected in favor of franchise-driven action and fantasy films. This has reduced storytelling to repetitive story arcs, where we know almost from the start of the film where (and who) the characters are going to be at the end. The purpose of these films is wish fulfillment, according to Gleiberman. We see ourselves in these characters and want to see them succeed as a form of wish fulfillment. It’s the same desire that fuels the success of reality TV, which he argues, is having the same sort of effect on storytelling on TV. To illustrate this comparison, he refers to reality TV contestants as “ready made arcs.”
This isn’t to say that blockbusters are bad, per se, but their dominance at the box office does have a downside:
“The issue is that great movies and television shows—especially great movies—invite us to enter the souls of characters who are more than just our mirrors, our walking, talking, fantasy doppelgangers. As an unending diet of blockbusters has helped spawn an audience of nerve-jangled sensation junkies, however, it gets harder and harder for subtlety to cut through the clutter, even the Godfather might now be released as an art film….If pop culture ever does lose the heartbeat of rich, deep, organic storytelling, perhaps what we’ll have really lost is the recognition that there’s something out there greater than ourselves.”
I couldn’t help but think about the American comics market the whole time I was reading it.
DAYS-Watch
Soap Operas
Yes, I do tape Days of Our Lives every day. Thanks for asking.
Just some thoughts on the way things have been going lately on the show:
Okay, I know I'm slow on the uptake at times, but it just dawned on me that this castle where Tony has his captives is the same one that Bo and Billie are headed to. The constant references to Jack being home for the holidays in today's show pretty much confirms that.
Okay let me get this straight: Kate honors the memory of her "dead" husband by trying to ruin his daughter's relationship with her son, trying to break up his brother's marriage, and trying to keep his nephew apart from his one true love. (Yes I know that last bit is more Jan's doing than anything else, but Kate certainly encourages it. Ironic given that it puts her on the same side as the little vixen who could destroy her other son's relationship.)
I like the character of Kate, but she's become so unsympathetic and one-note. Her children are all adults, for god's sake! They don't need her to arrange their lives for them. It wouldn't be so annoying if we could get some reminder of her motivation from time to time. It's obvious that she's still carries a lot of guilt for the mistakes she made when her kids were young. Would it hurt to mention that?
Would any international intelligence/spy agency like the ISA have ever hired someone as unstable as Billie Reed? She'd never pass the psych exams! I know that losing a child is a horrible thing for any parent to endure, but she shows no sign of any healing whatsoever. Apparently, she's wallowed in raw, open grief for years, and that's just not healthy. In actual time, her miscarriage was about five or six years ago. On the show, they've aged the child to teen-ager status, so that puts the death at 13-16 years ago. Yes, Billie should be missing her child, but for her to still be acting like her life is completely over and saying things like "I can't stand the thought of my baby in the ground all cold and alone" is just not healthy. She needs therapy and medications!
It's a good thing that Patrick, Brandon, Lucas, and Phillip are around. Bo, Roman, and John have become so abrasive and obnoxious that the show needs all the sensitive men it can get, especially with Jack MIA again. A little while ago, Bo had no idea where to find Billie when she was at their dead daughter's grave! Of course, Patrick found her.
I just love it when Sami totally melts down and starts throwing out her wild conspiracy theories again. It's no wonder that no one in Salem other than her family likes her. If she keeps pushing it, she very well could lose the family support, too. If I were Belle, I would have told Sami in no uncertain terms to stop the trash talking about my dad ages ago. I'm finally starting to worm to Sami and Lucas as a couple too. The pre-Thanksgiving scenes were warm and funny. I can't buy Brandon as any kind of threat to their relationship, though. He's come back as someone who is too smart and mature to still be in love with an emotional wreck like Sami.
John's in a hospital bed hopped up on pain meds and hallucinogenics and he can see that Belle doesn't really love Phillip, but Phillip himself can't? He's really become somewhat pathetic and needy as a character.
Keith asked me the other day how much longer we had to put up with asshole Shawn. Here's how I think that will play out: Shawn's drinking, which is tied to the pain from his accident and surgery, will cause another accident, which restores his memory and will most likely kill Jan. As he recovers, he and Belle grow closer and she, Hope and Maggie nurse him through his alcoholism. Just when it looks like there's hope for him and Belle again, Phillip comes back from Iraq in a coma. When Phil wakes up, Belle has to stay in their relationship out of concern for his health, which will of course eventually lead to Phil faking his condition to keep her. Kate encourages him. Brady figures it out and blows the whistle. Belle and Shawn finally make it to the altar and Jan shows up, as the latest back from the dead DiMera operative.
Everyone has been back in Salem for days now and we've only seen Alice once? Wouldn't the whole Horton clan have gathered around her for Thanksgiving? With Shawn and Jan together, Mickey and Bonnie married, and Abby not speaking to her mother, hanging the ornaments on the Horton tree ought to be interesting this year.
Seriously, wouldn't this have been a much better Thanksgiving episode for Days?
The Horton clan gathers at Alice's for a grand potluck. In the course of the day, Alice yanks a knot in Mickey's tail about Bonnie, while she consoles and encourages Maggie. She also has a heart to heart with Bonnie, telling her that she appreciates the sweet tribute that Alice's is intended to be and that she is thankful that Mickey had someone to comfort him while Maggie was gone, but that it's time for Bonnie to gracefully step out of the picture.
Next she turns to the next generations, telling Lucas and Sami to be honest and true to each other as she gives them her blessing. She calls Abby on her behavior towards Jennifer and Shawn for his general crummy attitude. She also tells him in no uncertain terms what a jerk he was to blame Belle for her "death." Doug tells him basically the same thing. Alice tells Julie that her intentions are good but her methods regarding Mickey and Bonnie aren't helping. She reminds Bo that his family needs him. Finally, she tells Jennifer to give that damn baby a name! Alice welcomes Patrick and thanks him for caring for Jennifer.
Of course there's plenty of drama from the other attendees as well. Sami reads Shawn the riot act for hurting Belle and has one of her blow ups at Bo and Hope. (Which prompts Alice to give her another talking-to.) Maggie notices Shawn's drinking, and tries to talk to him about it. When that fails, she talks to Bo and Hope. Hope asks Lucas to talk to him, prompting another one of Sami's fits. Lucas and Abby bond, and he tells her that he knows what it's like to have a lot of anger and resentment towards family members. He says he hopes she won't make the same mistakes he did when he was her age. The day ends with Julie, Maggie, and Bonnie getting into a food fight with the leftovers in the kitchen.
Soap Operas
Yes, I do tape Days of Our Lives every day. Thanks for asking.
Just some thoughts on the way things have been going lately on the show:
Okay, I know I'm slow on the uptake at times, but it just dawned on me that this castle where Tony has his captives is the same one that Bo and Billie are headed to. The constant references to Jack being home for the holidays in today's show pretty much confirms that.
Okay let me get this straight: Kate honors the memory of her "dead" husband by trying to ruin his daughter's relationship with her son, trying to break up his brother's marriage, and trying to keep his nephew apart from his one true love. (Yes I know that last bit is more Jan's doing than anything else, but Kate certainly encourages it. Ironic given that it puts her on the same side as the little vixen who could destroy her other son's relationship.)
I like the character of Kate, but she's become so unsympathetic and one-note. Her children are all adults, for god's sake! They don't need her to arrange their lives for them. It wouldn't be so annoying if we could get some reminder of her motivation from time to time. It's obvious that she's still carries a lot of guilt for the mistakes she made when her kids were young. Would it hurt to mention that?
Would any international intelligence/spy agency like the ISA have ever hired someone as unstable as Billie Reed? She'd never pass the psych exams! I know that losing a child is a horrible thing for any parent to endure, but she shows no sign of any healing whatsoever. Apparently, she's wallowed in raw, open grief for years, and that's just not healthy. In actual time, her miscarriage was about five or six years ago. On the show, they've aged the child to teen-ager status, so that puts the death at 13-16 years ago. Yes, Billie should be missing her child, but for her to still be acting like her life is completely over and saying things like "I can't stand the thought of my baby in the ground all cold and alone" is just not healthy. She needs therapy and medications!
It's a good thing that Patrick, Brandon, Lucas, and Phillip are around. Bo, Roman, and John have become so abrasive and obnoxious that the show needs all the sensitive men it can get, especially with Jack MIA again. A little while ago, Bo had no idea where to find Billie when she was at their dead daughter's grave! Of course, Patrick found her.
I just love it when Sami totally melts down and starts throwing out her wild conspiracy theories again. It's no wonder that no one in Salem other than her family likes her. If she keeps pushing it, she very well could lose the family support, too. If I were Belle, I would have told Sami in no uncertain terms to stop the trash talking about my dad ages ago. I'm finally starting to worm to Sami and Lucas as a couple too. The pre-Thanksgiving scenes were warm and funny. I can't buy Brandon as any kind of threat to their relationship, though. He's come back as someone who is too smart and mature to still be in love with an emotional wreck like Sami.
John's in a hospital bed hopped up on pain meds and hallucinogenics and he can see that Belle doesn't really love Phillip, but Phillip himself can't? He's really become somewhat pathetic and needy as a character.
Keith asked me the other day how much longer we had to put up with asshole Shawn. Here's how I think that will play out: Shawn's drinking, which is tied to the pain from his accident and surgery, will cause another accident, which restores his memory and will most likely kill Jan. As he recovers, he and Belle grow closer and she, Hope and Maggie nurse him through his alcoholism. Just when it looks like there's hope for him and Belle again, Phillip comes back from Iraq in a coma. When Phil wakes up, Belle has to stay in their relationship out of concern for his health, which will of course eventually lead to Phil faking his condition to keep her. Kate encourages him. Brady figures it out and blows the whistle. Belle and Shawn finally make it to the altar and Jan shows up, as the latest back from the dead DiMera operative.
Of course, I may have to alter that a bit based on today's show! Mimi's found the cage! Of course, she's going to end up locked in there. Everyone will think she left town. Bonnie will think it's because of her shame over the abortion and blab that to Rex. In the meantime, Patrick will find her and rescue her from the inevitable fire that will happen because young heroines about to be burned alive is so dramatic. She gets back to town and has to deal with the aftermath of Bonnie's blabbing. At least, that's my best guess about what's going to happen.
As annoying as this new personality is, it has been nice to see Shawn rave about his dad and Billie.Everyone has been back in Salem for days now and we've only seen Alice once? Wouldn't the whole Horton clan have gathered around her for Thanksgiving? With Shawn and Jan together, Mickey and Bonnie married, and Abby not speaking to her mother, hanging the ornaments on the Horton tree ought to be interesting this year.
Seriously, wouldn't this have been a much better Thanksgiving episode for Days?
The Horton clan gathers at Alice's for a grand potluck. In the course of the day, Alice yanks a knot in Mickey's tail about Bonnie, while she consoles and encourages Maggie. She also has a heart to heart with Bonnie, telling her that she appreciates the sweet tribute that Alice's is intended to be and that she is thankful that Mickey had someone to comfort him while Maggie was gone, but that it's time for Bonnie to gracefully step out of the picture.
Next she turns to the next generations, telling Lucas and Sami to be honest and true to each other as she gives them her blessing. She calls Abby on her behavior towards Jennifer and Shawn for his general crummy attitude. She also tells him in no uncertain terms what a jerk he was to blame Belle for her "death." Doug tells him basically the same thing. Alice tells Julie that her intentions are good but her methods regarding Mickey and Bonnie aren't helping. She reminds Bo that his family needs him. Finally, she tells Jennifer to give that damn baby a name! Alice welcomes Patrick and thanks him for caring for Jennifer.
Of course there's plenty of drama from the other attendees as well. Sami reads Shawn the riot act for hurting Belle and has one of her blow ups at Bo and Hope. (Which prompts Alice to give her another talking-to.) Maggie notices Shawn's drinking, and tries to talk to him about it. When that fails, she talks to Bo and Hope. Hope asks Lucas to talk to him, prompting another one of Sami's fits. Lucas and Abby bond, and he tells her that he knows what it's like to have a lot of anger and resentment towards family members. He says he hopes she won't make the same mistakes he did when he was her age. The day ends with Julie, Maggie, and Bonnie getting into a food fight with the leftovers in the kitchen.
If I only wrote the soaps, huh?
I'm wondering if Jack will come wandering in while they're hanging his ornament on the tree....
Okay, I've tried really hard, but I just don't buy Brady and Nicole as a couple. I know they're married in real life, and I'm sure that they have a powerful attraction and great personal chemistry, but none of that comes across on TV. None. Not one bit.
Together they are boring and unbelievable. Nicole talks about how much she loves Brady and it comes off as fake. They've always tried to paint Nicole as one of those tragically flawed characters--not quite a heroine, not quite a villain--and it just doesn't work. It's the same vein of great grey characters that Sami and Kate spring from, but Nicole comes across as scheming and pathetic. She doesn't have the history and connections that Kate and Sami do, and all those attempts to give her a tragic, horrid past seem contrived. There's nothing to root for with her, which means there's nothing to root for in a Brady/Nicole coupling.
In the meantime, she's responsible for two murders (Marlena and Victor). Even if they both are still alive, she still attempted to have them killed. Besides that, she is an accomplice to Shawn's kidnapping. That's just the kind of woman I want to see paired with Brady.
LINKSLINGING
Comics
I cannot count how many times in the past month or so that I sat down to do this, started it, didn't get done, and then got discouraged because stuff got to be to outdated to link to or comment about.
Well not this time. Here's a batch of stuff that's popped up in the past few weeks. If you don't like your commentary slightly aged, just pass right by. I've tried to cluster newer stuff toward the top.
This is also your "long and rambly" warning.
Happy Anniversary Progressive Ruin!
If I were the editor of an online newsmagazine and a columnist included a line like this in a submission, I'd bounce them off the staff in a heartbeat:
"Once again if you possess a short attention span, a poor sense of humor and/or if you’re easily irked by rampant spelling errors and really bad grammar, then feel free to skip to 'The Verdict' in all the reviews." (Emphasis mine.)
As a wanna-be writer, I just don't get the need to flaunt one's ignorance like it's some kind of virtue. It's sloppy and lazy. It's also counter-productive. If you don't care enough about what you're writing to make it the best it can be, then why should anyone want to read it?
As an editor, I cannot comprehend such a lack of oversight and quality control. You can have your "geek in the shop" reviews without a total disregard for standards. It reflects poorly on the site, on the product they offer, and insults the readers.
It just plain looks bad. Standards for most online comics news sites are low enough as it is. Dalton Wemble at Comixpedia addresses the need for editors from a web comics point of view. I would argue that the same thing applies to comics news sites as well. (Thanks to Cognitive Dissonance for the Comixpedia link.)
Top Shelf has a holiday special running right now: 10 bucks off an order of $29.95 or more. Johanna Draper Carlson has more info, plus a list of recommendations. Top Shelf also has some stuff marked down, which can stretch the savings further. I'm thinking it may be time to finally order a copy of Mirror of Love.
Augie de Blieck has his Preview Review up. Surprisingly, several of the same books caught both our eyes. I could have done without the inane blathering about The Comics Journal though. I just saw that Johanna Draper Carlson has hers up too. I don't have time to read it right now, but it's always worth checking out.
Last week on his Bad Signal list, Warren Ellis shared this link. It's a promo for an web-animated Transmet series that never went anywhere.
Speaking of Carlson, she's been reviewing more manga. Readers looking for good places to start reading manga can find a lot of pointers in her reviews. One of the series she recently named a "comic worth reading" is Marmalade Boy, which is one of my favorite anime. I don't know why I’ve never read any of the manga, but I'll obviously have to do something about that.
But she really misses the boat with her Jane's World review. "Cathy with better art." Like Cathy ever had space aliens turn a character into a monkey or floated down a river on a mobile home or dated a woman who turned out to be a secret agent or... Okay, I'm getting carried away.
Suffice it to say, Paige Braddock is prone to some wild flights of fancy in Jane's World, and she makes it work well. This collision of the fantastic and the mundane in a gag-a-day strip is hard to pull off. Jane puts a whole different spin on the search for life, love, and happiness in today's modern world.
To be fair to Carlson, I know she has to review the issue at hand and make her judgment about the series based on what she sees there. I cannot specifically recall the contents to JW #14 off the top of my head, so I don't remember how much the side of Jane I like so well is on display. It's just a shame that this issue wasn't enough to grab Carlson, since Jane really is a great book.
My personal preference would be for Braddock to actually tell stories intended to be printed and read as a comic book, rather than just reprint her strip. I'd love to see what she could do with the rhythm and pace of a comics book, which is quite different from a strip. At least she largely seems to have gotten her impulse to try to mimic comic book pages by enlarging panels from the strip.
In other reviews, David Welsh has a nice review of Alice 19th that reminds me how much I love Yu Watase's work.
Dorian at Postmodern Barney (my current favorite comics blog) posted a link to an anti-communist story from Treasure Chest. This stuff is one of my comics fascinations of the moment. There were a handful of red scare comics like this put out during the early Cold War years, mainly by Catholic publishers. They're super hard to find and tend to fetch prices that I'm not willing to pay, so I'm ecstatic to get to read this story, which was scanned from several issues of Treasure Chest. My dream comic project would be a nice hardback collection reprinting these stories. Dorian hints that he was going to be discussing this material in the future, so I hope this doesn't make him change his mind.
A couple of weeks ago, Augie de Blieck asked an interesting question, kind of a "before they were famous" type thing. He calls it the "Others," as in the "other" books that mainstream comics "names" worked on that never got huge levels of attention. Last week, he published some of the answers he got. I'm only dimly aware of who is supposed to be "hot" in mainstream comics right now, but I can tell you that my favorite Kurt Busiek series was called Jonny Demon, which came out from Dark Horse about a gazillion years ago, well before Busiek became a "comics name." In fact, it can go on the record as the only KB comic I've ever liked! Apparently, I'm the only one who remembers this one, because no one else mentioned it.
Someone does mention Valentino's A Touch of Silver, prompting Augie to wish for other stuff in this vein. Valentino did a couple of autobio comics for Renegade back in the 80's which have been collected by Image, if anyone is really interested in more of this kind of material. It's much better material than ATOS, which veered too much toward the maudlin in my opinion. My vote for "Other" material from Valentino would be the Myth Adventures-style stuff he did for Warp and Apple.
As annoying as it is to find books I bought for full price a couple of years ago on sale for just a buck, dollarmanga.com is a good way to try out some manga titles. (Thanks to Shawn Fumo, and a ton of other people for pointing this one out.) If you haven't read Joan, I highly recommend it. The art is beautiful, with lovely color throughout. It's a historical novel about a young girl (raised as a boy) who finds herself following in the footsteps of Joan of Arc, who died several years earlier. The book's protagonist finds herself interacting with the same people that Joan did and following the same path as the warrior saint. It's a good read that explores the intersections of faith, politics, gender and identity.
Finally, comics newsmagazines tend to be so mainstream and super-hero oriented that it's good to see interviews like this recent one with Charles Burns, even if the questions do seem a little weak. And again, pointing to the need for an editor: What is the purpose of repeating a quote from the second paragraph of the interview in the opener? There's no reason for it, nor is there any other text that might support its use and actually turn it into a proper introduction.
Well, that clears off my plate. Hopefully that wasn't too intolerable for a bit of slightly aged, but hopefully still tasty morsels. I hope that tonight I can put some more current stuff up. Maybe I won't reference Johanna Draper Carlson so much!
Comics
I cannot count how many times in the past month or so that I sat down to do this, started it, didn't get done, and then got discouraged because stuff got to be to outdated to link to or comment about.
Well not this time. Here's a batch of stuff that's popped up in the past few weeks. If you don't like your commentary slightly aged, just pass right by. I've tried to cluster newer stuff toward the top.
This is also your "long and rambly" warning.
Happy Anniversary Progressive Ruin!
If I were the editor of an online newsmagazine and a columnist included a line like this in a submission, I'd bounce them off the staff in a heartbeat:
"Once again if you possess a short attention span, a poor sense of humor and/or if you’re easily irked by rampant spelling errors and really bad grammar, then feel free to skip to 'The Verdict' in all the reviews." (Emphasis mine.)
As a wanna-be writer, I just don't get the need to flaunt one's ignorance like it's some kind of virtue. It's sloppy and lazy. It's also counter-productive. If you don't care enough about what you're writing to make it the best it can be, then why should anyone want to read it?
As an editor, I cannot comprehend such a lack of oversight and quality control. You can have your "geek in the shop" reviews without a total disregard for standards. It reflects poorly on the site, on the product they offer, and insults the readers.
It just plain looks bad. Standards for most online comics news sites are low enough as it is. Dalton Wemble at Comixpedia addresses the need for editors from a web comics point of view. I would argue that the same thing applies to comics news sites as well. (Thanks to Cognitive Dissonance for the Comixpedia link.)
Top Shelf has a holiday special running right now: 10 bucks off an order of $29.95 or more. Johanna Draper Carlson has more info, plus a list of recommendations. Top Shelf also has some stuff marked down, which can stretch the savings further. I'm thinking it may be time to finally order a copy of Mirror of Love.
Augie de Blieck has his Preview Review up. Surprisingly, several of the same books caught both our eyes. I could have done without the inane blathering about The Comics Journal though. I just saw that Johanna Draper Carlson has hers up too. I don't have time to read it right now, but it's always worth checking out.
Last week on his Bad Signal list, Warren Ellis shared this link. It's a promo for an web-animated Transmet series that never went anywhere.
Speaking of Carlson, she's been reviewing more manga. Readers looking for good places to start reading manga can find a lot of pointers in her reviews. One of the series she recently named a "comic worth reading" is Marmalade Boy, which is one of my favorite anime. I don't know why I’ve never read any of the manga, but I'll obviously have to do something about that.
But she really misses the boat with her Jane's World review. "Cathy with better art." Like Cathy ever had space aliens turn a character into a monkey or floated down a river on a mobile home or dated a woman who turned out to be a secret agent or... Okay, I'm getting carried away.
Suffice it to say, Paige Braddock is prone to some wild flights of fancy in Jane's World, and she makes it work well. This collision of the fantastic and the mundane in a gag-a-day strip is hard to pull off. Jane puts a whole different spin on the search for life, love, and happiness in today's modern world.
To be fair to Carlson, I know she has to review the issue at hand and make her judgment about the series based on what she sees there. I cannot specifically recall the contents to JW #14 off the top of my head, so I don't remember how much the side of Jane I like so well is on display. It's just a shame that this issue wasn't enough to grab Carlson, since Jane really is a great book.
My personal preference would be for Braddock to actually tell stories intended to be printed and read as a comic book, rather than just reprint her strip. I'd love to see what she could do with the rhythm and pace of a comics book, which is quite different from a strip. At least she largely seems to have gotten her impulse to try to mimic comic book pages by enlarging panels from the strip.
In other reviews, David Welsh has a nice review of Alice 19th that reminds me how much I love Yu Watase's work.
Dorian at Postmodern Barney (my current favorite comics blog) posted a link to an anti-communist story from Treasure Chest. This stuff is one of my comics fascinations of the moment. There were a handful of red scare comics like this put out during the early Cold War years, mainly by Catholic publishers. They're super hard to find and tend to fetch prices that I'm not willing to pay, so I'm ecstatic to get to read this story, which was scanned from several issues of Treasure Chest. My dream comic project would be a nice hardback collection reprinting these stories. Dorian hints that he was going to be discussing this material in the future, so I hope this doesn't make him change his mind.
A couple of weeks ago, Augie de Blieck asked an interesting question, kind of a "before they were famous" type thing. He calls it the "Others," as in the "other" books that mainstream comics "names" worked on that never got huge levels of attention. Last week, he published some of the answers he got. I'm only dimly aware of who is supposed to be "hot" in mainstream comics right now, but I can tell you that my favorite Kurt Busiek series was called Jonny Demon, which came out from Dark Horse about a gazillion years ago, well before Busiek became a "comics name." In fact, it can go on the record as the only KB comic I've ever liked! Apparently, I'm the only one who remembers this one, because no one else mentioned it.
Someone does mention Valentino's A Touch of Silver, prompting Augie to wish for other stuff in this vein. Valentino did a couple of autobio comics for Renegade back in the 80's which have been collected by Image, if anyone is really interested in more of this kind of material. It's much better material than ATOS, which veered too much toward the maudlin in my opinion. My vote for "Other" material from Valentino would be the Myth Adventures-style stuff he did for Warp and Apple.
As annoying as it is to find books I bought for full price a couple of years ago on sale for just a buck, dollarmanga.com is a good way to try out some manga titles. (Thanks to Shawn Fumo, and a ton of other people for pointing this one out.) If you haven't read Joan, I highly recommend it. The art is beautiful, with lovely color throughout. It's a historical novel about a young girl (raised as a boy) who finds herself following in the footsteps of Joan of Arc, who died several years earlier. The book's protagonist finds herself interacting with the same people that Joan did and following the same path as the warrior saint. It's a good read that explores the intersections of faith, politics, gender and identity.
Finally, comics newsmagazines tend to be so mainstream and super-hero oriented that it's good to see interviews like this recent one with Charles Burns, even if the questions do seem a little weak. And again, pointing to the need for an editor: What is the purpose of repeating a quote from the second paragraph of the interview in the opener? There's no reason for it, nor is there any other text that might support its use and actually turn it into a proper introduction.
Well, that clears off my plate. Hopefully that wasn't too intolerable for a bit of slightly aged, but hopefully still tasty morsels. I hope that tonight I can put some more current stuff up. Maybe I won't reference Johanna Draper Carlson so much!
Monday, December 06, 2004
I think he’s an all right guy.
Music
Todd Snider held forth with his usual mix of wit, wisdom, and all right guy commentary to a packed house at Headliners on Friday night. Snider tends to attract an interesting audience. There’s always a large contingent of partying frat boys screaming for him to play “Beer Run.” And then there are the rest of us, a little older and more settled, who like everything else he plays and realize the “Beer Run” is actually making fun of the guys that keep screaming for it.
The problem I’ve always had with his shows (particularly those held in bars) is that the guys screaming for “Beer Run” are so wrapped up in themselves and their version of a good time that they really spoil things for everyone else. “Beer Run” is a good song. It’s clever and funny, but it’s not the only song he’s written. When we’ve seen him in the past, he’s played to that part of the crowd, which has made for a good show, but one that felt a little unbalanced.
This time around, it was different. It wasn’t that he ignored the Beer-Runners in the crowd, but he balanced the songs that appealed to them with the rest of his tremendous catalog. So we got “All Right Guy” and “Double Wide Blues” mixed in with a huge helping of stuff from his newest CD, Nashville Skyline, and a lot of great older stuff that often gets ignored, like “Horseshoe Lake.”
And he didn’t play “Beer Run.”
Ignoring what is arguably his signature song could seem like a risky move, but it worked. It felt to me like he was saying to the crowd “I know you like that song, but I’ve got a whole lot of other good stuff. Come along and give it a try.” And they did, right through the whole night, plus three encores. And the last one was a real encore. The house music had started back up, but the crowd was still asking for more, so Snider came back and gave a little more.
It was an awesome evening, opener Will Kimbrough played a great set of his best songs and then came back to play with Snider, along with a bass player. All three of them were obviously having fun together and that feeling encompassed the crowd as well.
“Beer Run” or not, I doubt anyone left the show unsatisfied.
Music
Todd Snider held forth with his usual mix of wit, wisdom, and all right guy commentary to a packed house at Headliners on Friday night. Snider tends to attract an interesting audience. There’s always a large contingent of partying frat boys screaming for him to play “Beer Run.” And then there are the rest of us, a little older and more settled, who like everything else he plays and realize the “Beer Run” is actually making fun of the guys that keep screaming for it.
The problem I’ve always had with his shows (particularly those held in bars) is that the guys screaming for “Beer Run” are so wrapped up in themselves and their version of a good time that they really spoil things for everyone else. “Beer Run” is a good song. It’s clever and funny, but it’s not the only song he’s written. When we’ve seen him in the past, he’s played to that part of the crowd, which has made for a good show, but one that felt a little unbalanced.
This time around, it was different. It wasn’t that he ignored the Beer-Runners in the crowd, but he balanced the songs that appealed to them with the rest of his tremendous catalog. So we got “All Right Guy” and “Double Wide Blues” mixed in with a huge helping of stuff from his newest CD, Nashville Skyline, and a lot of great older stuff that often gets ignored, like “Horseshoe Lake.”
And he didn’t play “Beer Run.”
Ignoring what is arguably his signature song could seem like a risky move, but it worked. It felt to me like he was saying to the crowd “I know you like that song, but I’ve got a whole lot of other good stuff. Come along and give it a try.” And they did, right through the whole night, plus three encores. And the last one was a real encore. The house music had started back up, but the crowd was still asking for more, so Snider came back and gave a little more.
It was an awesome evening, opener Will Kimbrough played a great set of his best songs and then came back to play with Snider, along with a bass player. All three of them were obviously having fun together and that feeling encompassed the crowd as well.
“Beer Run” or not, I doubt anyone left the show unsatisfied.
Bardstown Road Aglow
Shopblogging
The Highland Commerce Guild held their annual holiday festival on Saturday. Bardstown Road Aglow attracts people from all over the area to one of the most eclectic shopping corridors in the city, Bardstown Road. Merchants offer specials and serve refreshments, while musicians play and Santa roams the street. It’s always a lot of fun.
This year, we decided to expand our participation. Typically, we stick to the most heavily traveled stretch of the road. This time, we took the free trolley down the road a bit to the shops on Baxter Avenue. We started at Lonesome Town Records, which is a small labor of love this man operates out of the front of his house. He specializes in bluegrass and old-time music. His selection is small, but surprisingly deep. I found a live CD from Old Crow Medicine Show there that I had never heard anything about. I made a note to pick it up after the holidays.
We then headed across the street to this kind of New Age/Pagan shop. The incense smelled really great in there. They let us take some pictures of their altars, including the Voo Doo and Buddhist altars. Unfortunately, they were about to close, since they weren’t participating in Aglow.
Lots of churches open for Aglow too, as it’s a great outreach night. We stopped in several this year, something we really haven’t done in the past. First up was the Episcopal Church of the Advent, which has a beautiful Rood carving. I got the first cup of cider there.
Just up the street, we saw he first caroler, and then ran into the bagpipers for the first time. Part of the fun of Aglow is going in shops that we wouldn’t normally visit. If nothing else, it’s good for the refreshments. Since a lot of the shops are small the crowds can get a little annoying, but it’s fun to pass through anyway.
Art Beat, a small gallery, is one of those kind of places. They had some unique objects, a guitar player, and some great art work by an artist named Cynthia Yeager. Her pieces were all patterned after medieval altarpieces and were just incredible.
We seemed to keep running into the bagpipers. The Louisville Bagpipe Society was wandering the road. Half started at one end and half at the other. They met up in the middle and did a short performance. It was pretty cool.
I ate a quick supper at Baja Fresh, but the place Keith wanted to eat at took their buffet down before we got there, so he got Chinese take out when we were done. We priced trees in a lot, but I thought they were high. We ended up going into three more churches, including the Highland Community Church, which I’ve been curious about. I thought their sanctuary was much smaller than the outside of the building would indicate. They have a lovely old building. After stopping in a Christian Church, I realized how boring Protestant churches are in general. So many of them have such great exteriors and bland, generic interiors. But St. James gave me plenty to photograph, including the Eye of God. Catholic Churches usually don’t fail to be interesting.
There are several antique dealers on Bardstown Road, but David Friedlander is my favorite. He always has the most interesting stuff, including small icons and comic books. (Which is, of course, why he is my favorite.) He’s never open for Aglow, though. But his window this year is pretty neat. I loved this doll-sized church/schoolhouse. Of course, I had to get my picture taken with the penguins!
We always make the point of stopping in All Booked Up during Bardstown Road Aglow. They always have a special sale. Things in my price range (under fifteen dollars) were 50% off this year! I found several old Pogo books, which were already a bargain at 10 bucks. With the sale, they were five bucks each!
I made a quick run in Ear X-Tacy to look at the used CD’s and ended up with the last gift I needed for Keith. He reads this blog, so I can’t mention it, but I know he’s going to love it!
We wrapped up this year’s Aglow with hot cider at Heine Brothers. All in all, it was a great night. The weather was fairly mild and we had a good time. But we never saw Santa!
If you want to see all the pics at once, here are mine and Keith’s. His of course are much better than mine.
Shopblogging
The Highland Commerce Guild held their annual holiday festival on Saturday. Bardstown Road Aglow attracts people from all over the area to one of the most eclectic shopping corridors in the city, Bardstown Road. Merchants offer specials and serve refreshments, while musicians play and Santa roams the street. It’s always a lot of fun.
This year, we decided to expand our participation. Typically, we stick to the most heavily traveled stretch of the road. This time, we took the free trolley down the road a bit to the shops on Baxter Avenue. We started at Lonesome Town Records, which is a small labor of love this man operates out of the front of his house. He specializes in bluegrass and old-time music. His selection is small, but surprisingly deep. I found a live CD from Old Crow Medicine Show there that I had never heard anything about. I made a note to pick it up after the holidays.
We then headed across the street to this kind of New Age/Pagan shop. The incense smelled really great in there. They let us take some pictures of their altars, including the Voo Doo and Buddhist altars. Unfortunately, they were about to close, since they weren’t participating in Aglow.
Lots of churches open for Aglow too, as it’s a great outreach night. We stopped in several this year, something we really haven’t done in the past. First up was the Episcopal Church of the Advent, which has a beautiful Rood carving. I got the first cup of cider there.
Just up the street, we saw he first caroler, and then ran into the bagpipers for the first time. Part of the fun of Aglow is going in shops that we wouldn’t normally visit. If nothing else, it’s good for the refreshments. Since a lot of the shops are small the crowds can get a little annoying, but it’s fun to pass through anyway.
Art Beat, a small gallery, is one of those kind of places. They had some unique objects, a guitar player, and some great art work by an artist named Cynthia Yeager. Her pieces were all patterned after medieval altarpieces and were just incredible.
We seemed to keep running into the bagpipers. The Louisville Bagpipe Society was wandering the road. Half started at one end and half at the other. They met up in the middle and did a short performance. It was pretty cool.
I ate a quick supper at Baja Fresh, but the place Keith wanted to eat at took their buffet down before we got there, so he got Chinese take out when we were done. We priced trees in a lot, but I thought they were high. We ended up going into three more churches, including the Highland Community Church, which I’ve been curious about. I thought their sanctuary was much smaller than the outside of the building would indicate. They have a lovely old building. After stopping in a Christian Church, I realized how boring Protestant churches are in general. So many of them have such great exteriors and bland, generic interiors. But St. James gave me plenty to photograph, including the Eye of God. Catholic Churches usually don’t fail to be interesting.
There are several antique dealers on Bardstown Road, but David Friedlander is my favorite. He always has the most interesting stuff, including small icons and comic books. (Which is, of course, why he is my favorite.) He’s never open for Aglow, though. But his window this year is pretty neat. I loved this doll-sized church/schoolhouse. Of course, I had to get my picture taken with the penguins!
We always make the point of stopping in All Booked Up during Bardstown Road Aglow. They always have a special sale. Things in my price range (under fifteen dollars) were 50% off this year! I found several old Pogo books, which were already a bargain at 10 bucks. With the sale, they were five bucks each!
I made a quick run in Ear X-Tacy to look at the used CD’s and ended up with the last gift I needed for Keith. He reads this blog, so I can’t mention it, but I know he’s going to love it!
We wrapped up this year’s Aglow with hot cider at Heine Brothers. All in all, it was a great night. The weather was fairly mild and we had a good time. But we never saw Santa!
If you want to see all the pics at once, here are mine and Keith’s. His of course are much better than mine.
Human Kindness Is Overflowing
Life As I Know It...
I had one of those experiences today that just has to be shared. As everyone except hermits living in caves knows, lines everywhere increase in length this time of year. The Post Office is one of the worst places to try and get in and out of right now. I made my daily lunchtime walk to the PO to get the mail and had to maneuver around a couple of women addressing their packages to even get to our box. There was a package slip in the box, so that meant I had to get into the line for the main window.
Our PO is split into two small rooms. One has the boxes and the other has the counter (main window). In the main window room, there are two tables where folks can get their stuff together. One is in the back of the room and the line usually extends past it, even when there are people standing there addressing mail or getting packages together. There was one gentleman at the table trying to shove a bunch of stuff into an envelope that was way too small to hold it all. Then there was a gap, and then the end of the line. I stepped past him and got into the line, only to hear a really disgusted “Excuse me,” behind me. Turns out dude is trying to stand in line and get his stuff together, even though the line had moved at least three feet from where he was standing. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I let him in front of me, thinking evil thoughts the whole time. I mean, who gets in line when they haven’t even gotten their crap together?
Well it turns out his stuff won’t fit in his tiny envelope. So he turns to me and says “You can have this space after all.” (You have to imagine a real pissy tone, like he was still miffed because he thought I tried to cut. But, hey, I get my shit ready before I go to the PO, you know.) He got out of line to look for another envelope.
There are still five or six people in front of me and one guy behind me now. We have this great postal clerk at our PO. Keith and I get a lot of packages because we do a lot of mail order. Whenever we pop up in line, it’s usually to pick something up. So, whenever she sees us, she’ll go to the back and get our stuff, if she can. Well, someone stepped up to her counter still filling out address labels. (What is it with people these days? Some day, I’m going to end up in line behind someone still trying to wrap their presents.) So, she left them there for a second went to the back and came out with two packages. She called out our box number and another one.
The guy behind me and I stepped over, grabbed our boxes, thanked her, and left. We went from the end of the line to out the door in just a few seconds! I consider it karma for being polite to the clerks and always being prepared before I get in the line at the PO.
As we were leaving, the other guy said “Nothing like personal service.” I told him I was just glad there was someone else at that branch who got so much mail the she knows him on sight. I was also glad there were two of us, just in case the envelope-stuffers and label-addressers started to riot.
Life As I Know It...
I had one of those experiences today that just has to be shared. As everyone except hermits living in caves knows, lines everywhere increase in length this time of year. The Post Office is one of the worst places to try and get in and out of right now. I made my daily lunchtime walk to the PO to get the mail and had to maneuver around a couple of women addressing their packages to even get to our box. There was a package slip in the box, so that meant I had to get into the line for the main window.
Our PO is split into two small rooms. One has the boxes and the other has the counter (main window). In the main window room, there are two tables where folks can get their stuff together. One is in the back of the room and the line usually extends past it, even when there are people standing there addressing mail or getting packages together. There was one gentleman at the table trying to shove a bunch of stuff into an envelope that was way too small to hold it all. Then there was a gap, and then the end of the line. I stepped past him and got into the line, only to hear a really disgusted “Excuse me,” behind me. Turns out dude is trying to stand in line and get his stuff together, even though the line had moved at least three feet from where he was standing. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I let him in front of me, thinking evil thoughts the whole time. I mean, who gets in line when they haven’t even gotten their crap together?
Well it turns out his stuff won’t fit in his tiny envelope. So he turns to me and says “You can have this space after all.” (You have to imagine a real pissy tone, like he was still miffed because he thought I tried to cut. But, hey, I get my shit ready before I go to the PO, you know.) He got out of line to look for another envelope.
There are still five or six people in front of me and one guy behind me now. We have this great postal clerk at our PO. Keith and I get a lot of packages because we do a lot of mail order. Whenever we pop up in line, it’s usually to pick something up. So, whenever she sees us, she’ll go to the back and get our stuff, if she can. Well, someone stepped up to her counter still filling out address labels. (What is it with people these days? Some day, I’m going to end up in line behind someone still trying to wrap their presents.) So, she left them there for a second went to the back and came out with two packages. She called out our box number and another one.
The guy behind me and I stepped over, grabbed our boxes, thanked her, and left. We went from the end of the line to out the door in just a few seconds! I consider it karma for being polite to the clerks and always being prepared before I get in the line at the PO.
As we were leaving, the other guy said “Nothing like personal service.” I told him I was just glad there was someone else at that branch who got so much mail the she knows him on sight. I was also glad there were two of us, just in case the envelope-stuffers and label-addressers started to riot.
Where Have You Been Anyway?
Personal (some music)
Someone may be wondering exactly what I’ve been up to that’s kept me from blogging for most of this year. (Okay, so I realize that no one really cares, but humor me.)
Part of it is of course the combination of being lazy, procrastinating, and dealing with depression. (Mostly the first two, but I know that my on again off again depression plays into things somewhere. My real struggle is to keep from blaming all my faults on depression and never doing anything to improve.)
But, there have been other things going on. For an idea go here, and click on Projects to see some of the things we’ve been doing around the house. Shirtless fat gay guy warnings should apply, though. The garden was a source of peppers, tomatoes and beans throughout the summer, and was lovely to look at to boot. The flowers were just amazing to watch, even as I learned exactly how much I don’t know about gardening. The Mary statue, alas, has joined the list of Eddie’s great unfinished projects. (See paragraph 2 above.)
We’ve also spent quite a bit of time traveling and going to concerts. Some photo overviews:
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco
Eddie’s Shots of Churches and Other Stuff in SF
Keith’s Shots of Other Stuff in SF
Kris Kristofferson in Nashville
Eddie’s Shots of Nashville
Emmylou Harris in Indianapolis
Kris Kristofferson in Chicago
Indigo Girls in Louisville
Darrell Scott in Louisville
Patty Griffin in Louisville
Guy Clark in Chattanooga
All the good photos are by Keith.
Comments?
Personal (some music)
Someone may be wondering exactly what I’ve been up to that’s kept me from blogging for most of this year. (Okay, so I realize that no one really cares, but humor me.)
Part of it is of course the combination of being lazy, procrastinating, and dealing with depression. (Mostly the first two, but I know that my on again off again depression plays into things somewhere. My real struggle is to keep from blaming all my faults on depression and never doing anything to improve.)
But, there have been other things going on. For an idea go here, and click on Projects to see some of the things we’ve been doing around the house. Shirtless fat gay guy warnings should apply, though. The garden was a source of peppers, tomatoes and beans throughout the summer, and was lovely to look at to boot. The flowers were just amazing to watch, even as I learned exactly how much I don’t know about gardening. The Mary statue, alas, has joined the list of Eddie’s great unfinished projects. (See paragraph 2 above.)
We’ve also spent quite a bit of time traveling and going to concerts. Some photo overviews:
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco
Eddie’s Shots of Churches and Other Stuff in SF
Keith’s Shots of Other Stuff in SF
Kris Kristofferson in Nashville
Eddie’s Shots of Nashville
Emmylou Harris in Indianapolis
Kris Kristofferson in Chicago
Indigo Girls in Louisville
Darrell Scott in Louisville
Patty Griffin in Louisville
Guy Clark in Chattanooga
All the good photos are by Keith.
Comments?
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