Album of the Week: Ditty Bops!

I missed this one when it came out last year, so I'm making up for lost time. This is one of those that I have to listen to at work, because the Ditties get on Keith's nerves. I love their mixture of vaudeville stage show and modern "take no shit" attitude. So enjoy "Angel with an Attitude" from the Moon Over the Freeway CD.



And here's my favorite song from their first CD:

Happy Tues-Monday!

The only thing I don't like about the three day weekend is the Tuesday that feels like Monday all day. It's like having a weird jetlag or something.

I'm trying to go into work early, so I'm going to just babble about some stuff and then go in, I guess. None of this is going to make a lot of sense or even be that relevant.

Went to the state flea market on Sunday. Was really surprised not to see any comics dealers. Well, there was one, but he wasn't there. It was just his empty booth. I didn't think he'd be there because he's also a pastor, which means other obligations on Sunday. I always like to shop at his booth because he's got great selection and great prices. Oh well.

I did get some cool old religious statues though, including two St Christophers!

You know, I've been going to that flea market for over twenty years.

We've been doing a lot of cleaning and rearranging around here of late. Still have a lot to go unfortunately. Our junk room overfloweth! I'm in the midst of the great graphic novel purge of 2008. We got some cast-off bookshelves to put in our living room, only to find they're like two inches too large. So now they've become an item on the to do list. Sigh!

We kind of let the flowers and veggies get away from us this summer, which makes me a little sad. Oh well, there's always next year.

I'm determined to get back in shape. I cannot believe how heavy I am given how much I ride my bike. I'm trying to think of a way to work walking back into my routine again. I'm also heading back to my exercise class for the first time in ages. I am heavier than I've been since the year before my dad died.

I found an old textbook from my undergrad days at a yard sale recently and I'm now re-reading it. Is that strange? How about if I tell you that I never took a class that required that book? I just bought it at the bookstore one year and read it because I thought it was interesting. Now I'm doing it again!

And that's all there is from the sad, strange life of Eddie Mitchell!

Sometimes, I just need a little Hedwig....

Because going back to work after a three day weekind is difficult, and my boss doesn't like it when I hit my co-workers...



Happy day after everyone!

Chromeo Double Shot!

Happy Labor Day!



"Bonafide Lovin'"



"Momma's Boy"

Weekend Agenda

Hmmm....

Three day weekend coming up! What to do?

How about this? I'm sure I'd have enough time to get them all in over the course of three days...



Maybe not. I'd most likely get stuck at sloth and never get out of bed.

Then again, what's wrong with that?

Album of the Week: Amy Ray

By the way, the album of the week is the one I've been listening to the most during the week, not necessarily what I consider the best of the week. I actually had a harder time getting my head around this one than her other two releases. Her last CD, Prom, was so personal and hit me so deeply right from the start that I was geared up for more of the same, when I should have come to this one without any expectations.

Interestingly, once I stepped back and just listened to this one, I found it does have the same kind of impact on me as its predecessor. It just makes its mark differently. It's not that it's more subtle--Ray always pretty much wears her heart on her sleeve--but it comes from a different place.

Peter Parkour?

Being as perennially out of touch as I am, this stuff has probably been floating around the blogosphere for years already. However, I just found it and thought it was pretty cool. It's kind of hard to watch and not think about all those super-hero comics in your closet. And then you wonder if one of them would put on a costume and come over to your house and...

...um never mind.



Here's the same crew doing another one.



Some folks will go to any lengths to get a boyfriend!

Album of the Week!

Or should that be CD of the Week? Whatever!

From A Larum by Johnny Flynn



"The Box"



"Tickle Me Pink"

This kind of post requires disclaimers

Which would be as follows:

1. I am not depressed or melancholy or moody or any of that stuff. (For right now at least.) I'm not sure what brought this string of vids to mind. Sometimes, I start out mindlessly surfing and end up on YouTube. A song will pop into my head and the video will lead to another and another and another. This time they all seemed to center around break up songs. You gotta go with the flow, man.

2. NOTHING in my personal life inspired this I swear! It's just that after looking at four or five of these things, I just had to post them for some odd reasons.

3. I know I owe some posts on other matters. They're coming, honest. It's just that there's another major one that's blocking them and, while I really should not post it due to potential repercussions, I'm convinced I can find a way to do it. The idea has gotten hold of me and won't let anything else in or out until I either vanquish it or figure out a way to post it. (I've posted some links recently that hint at the contents.)

4. Yes, I know my taste in music has its cheesy dimensions. Oh lord, how I know, especially when the 80's are involved.

So, anyway, it started with OMD:



For some reason this song was very significant for a group that I hung with in college for a while.

That led to Green Day and a song that actually did help me through a major depression about ten years ago. (one of these days I need to do a post of my personal depression-buster songs.)



Which somehow led to my favorite Pat Benatar tune. I'm telling you, the eighties, man. I can't shake 'em loose sometimes. I love the children's choir in this one. It's the perfect cheesy touch.



And if you're going to do cheese, you have to have some hair metal, in this case Poison:



And then this led me to my trifecta of high school break up songs. First ABBA:



Then Barry Manilow (My secret shame: I am a closet Manilow fan):



And finally, The Commodores, and a song I used to sit with two or three female friends and cry over. (And there were people I went to high scholl with who were surprised when I came out of the closet. Go fig.):



And that's the bunch this time. You survived. I survived. And somehow, maybe, your opinion of me survived too. If you thought this batch was maudlin, you should have seen what didn't make the cut!

Monday Morning Yummy Yummy

The Queers: "Punk Rock Girls"

Sunday morning is a good time for...

New Age Pseudo-Babble Rap!



Kan'nal "Woman Who Sees"

Oh dear!

When it rains....it pours!

Changed gears today

And CD's:

Uncharacteristic? Maybe!

But this* is what I've been listening to for the past week or so.



*Actually, I mean the whole CD.

I can't explain why some things get stuck in my head, they just do!

In other words, Keith and I are just fine, so don't worry, just enjoy some heartbreaking honky tonky bluegrass!



"I'm Not Over You" by Rhonda Vincent

I Believe in Miracles!

And in timely karma!

This is possibly the oddest thing I've ever seen...

And certainly one of the creepiest...



Nun babies?

I'm Having Trouble Sticking to My Diet

Think I can get them to install vending machines like this at the office?



I need all the negative reinforcement I can get!

Recovery in Progress!

Brief Updates:

Old hard drive has been extracted from dead laptop. Now hooked up externally to new laptop.

Rescuing files.

Next step: making back up. (Finally!)

Still can't figure out how to rescue old emails and bookmarks. Sigh!

Regular posting resumes tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy Kentucky Sassafras, third place finisher for Kentucky Bluegrass Band of the Year. (And in my opinion got ripped off...)

Roaring Back!

Just got back from a weekend camping trip and attending the state fiddling championship. On the way out of town, I bought a new laptop, which I am now using to post this. It's quite nice. I just need to see if there is any way to recover all my old files (and post drafts) from the old one and I'll be back in business!

Technical Difficulties!

My laptop seems to have up and died, leaving me with two options, neither one of which is conducive to lengthy posting posting at this moment. I'll be back as soon as I can.

Thoughts I Ewlly Shouldn't Have in My Head When I'm Going to Work

Drive-By Truckers: "Nine Bullets"



I was at this performance, which took place at the world's greatest music store!

Calling Roger Green!

I spent some time on my vacation planning and writing up several posts for the blog, but decided to hold off on posting any until I was back at work. I figure that it’s better to have a little bit of a stockpile built up. I’m not likely to ever become a daily blogger at this late in the game. Hell, it’s not even a goal of mine at this point. Still, having several things I can put up with a little tweaking here and there can’t hurt anything.

Every solstice, Roger Green, much beloved blogging figure and presidential candidate, opens his blog up for questions from his readers. I actually had several things I wanted to ask him this time, but the timing didn’t work for me. However, I know that by the time the next solstice rolls around, I’ll have forgotten what it was I wanted to ask. So, I’m going to try and call him out with a post.

It’s all for you and it’s all about you, Roger! You can answer in the comments or on your own blog.

You’ve done some writing about biking, including a really good post a while back with tips and such. As someone very new to biking, I had some additional queries I wanted to bounce off you. I started riding again last year, and currently ride just about every day, usually to work and back, if nothing else. I’ve started doing lots of my errands and running around on the bike as well. Anyway, I’ve had some questions related to things that come up when I ride. So, here goes:

1. Distance-wise, how much do you ride on an average day? What is the most you’ve ever ridden in one day? (Either all in one stretch or in smaller increments with stops in between?) When you ride a lot in one day, how tired are you the next day?

2. Speed-wise, how fast do you go, on average? Do you feel pressured to try and go faster than you are able to or than you feel is safe when you are riding in traffic?

3. How do you deal with nerves when you’re riding in traffic? Do you ride on streets that are typically very busy? Do you try to plan routes around heavy traffic areas?

4. Do you look at weenies like me, who will ride on some streets but not the ones that are really busy, with contempt?

5. I have a hard time keeping a steady course when I have to look over my shoulder to check traffic and sometimes when I signal turns. It’s gotten better the more I ride, but do you have any advice? I’m afraid of drifting into a parked car or into the other lane on narrow streets due to this.

6. Does Carol ride too? Keith and I have a lot of fun riding together.

7. Why is it on windy days, that no matter which way I turn, I'm always riding directly into the wind?

And, in the spirit of your post a few days ago, a list. You just did the EW "modern classics list" this morning, forcing me to re-write this part of this post at the last minute, but there's another recent EW list I'd love to hear your opinions on. If you’ll do me the pleasure of looking it over and devoting a post to them, with notes indicating which ones you own and what you think of them, I’ll do the same in return, for both lists. Deal?

EW’s top 25 country albums you have to hear, even if you don't like country music


I will say in advance that there are some choices that I find highly dubious, but I’d like to hear your thoughts too.

Just thought this was fun!

All I Ever Wanted...

Last time we met, I had a major work event coming and an Emmylou CD to buy. Well, since then, the event went extremely well--it was well-attended, my boss was happy, and, more importantly, her boss was happy. But it was also extremely stressful and demanding.

The day after it was over, I came down with an awful cold that settled right down in my chest. I'm still coughing stuff up. It left me too wiped to do much besides work, sleep, and eat Cap'n Crunch, the miracle cure-all.

However, today, after working like a madman for a week to get ready for it, at five p.m., my vacation starts! Ahhhh!

And what a vacation it will be! I'm going to read, watch Batman DVD's, visit my favorite thrift stores, drink coffee, take pictures, ride my bike, clean house, work in the yard, go camping, find a theater that's still showing Iron Man, and sleep!

I'm also going to blog, since I have quite a bit to say about the new Emmylou, yard sales, old posts, Roger Green, comic books, Days of Our Lives, and some other stuff.

But for now, there's one more day of work to do, a report to finish, a recommendation to type, data to correct, and a boss to meet with.

And so I must depart....

Today is E-Day!

The "E" of course being Emmylou!

Well, life, they say, is what happens when you are making other plans. I had to drop one countdown post from my plans, because I didn't have time to finish it. I'll try to get to it this weekend.

I'm going to get the CD today, but will not have time to give it a good listen until Thursday because of work. I'm also most likely not going to be able to post again until the weekend.

In the meantime, go here and check out some of the tracks, plus video interviews, etc.

See ya!

Emmylou Count Down #3: Share the Love!

It seems like practically every interview, article, and spotlight about Emmylou Harris makes mention of the many artists she's worked with and the many others she's championed over the years. Her reputation as a musical collaborator and a supporter of other artists is legendary. This countdown post pays tribute to one of the many things that makes me love Emmylou so much.

Enjoy!

Gillian Welch:



Patty Griffin:



Iris Dement:



The Louvin Brothers:



Guy Clark:



This hardly scratches the surface,of course. There's also Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, The Whites, Delia Bell, Buddy Miller, Sam Bush, and so on and so forth....

Next: Take a left!

Been feeling like this a lot lately...

And like this:

I really needed this, more than you could imagine!

Jame Kochalka, "Monkey versus Robot"

When Eddie Met Emmy (Emmylou Countdown Continues!)

Part 2 of a series of posts to prepare the way for the release of the new Emmylou Harris CD in June. See Part 1 here.


(Yes, I know the CD drops in a week. Yes, I know I've gotten behind again. oh well...)

It all started with one song, my love of all things Emmylou Harris. Interestingly, it wasn't one of her songs, which is kind of fitting if you start to think about the long history of collaborations she has.

I'm pretty sure I've written about this in the past, but my mother was a huge Linda Ronstadt fan, which meant that I in turn became a Linda Ronstadt fan. In fact, by a the time I was about 13 or 14, I was listening to those albums more than she was. The stereo was in her bedroom, so I had to have permission to listen to them. Sometime after my parents divorce, she sold most of her albums, but she kept the stereo and gave it to me, along with all of her Ronstadt albums.

My favorite Ronstadt album is Prisoner in Disguise, which has some great songs on it. I used to play it over and over and over. One of the songs, a traditional tune called "The Sweetest Gift," had the most beautiful harmony vocals. I asked my mom if she knew who it was, and she gave me the name, Emmylou Harris, but not much else.

Later on, I noticed the same lovely harmonies on other Ronstadt songs: "I Never Will Marry" (from Simple Dreams), "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" from Heart Like a Wheel. I was hooked. I had to find out more.



The first ELH solo song I heard was "Two More Bottles of Wine", which actually kind of shocked me a little. My sweet little harmony singer was singing hard-rocking, twangy country drinking songs? What was this? It took a while to grow on me, but it did. Obviously, this was an artist of great versatility, much like Linda Rondstadt.



At some point, the public library began to circulate LP's for patrons to check out. One day, I found Blue Kentucky Girl in the "new arrival" bin. And, that, as they say, was all she wrote. I checked that album out dozens of times and played it endlessly. It remains to this day one of my favorite ELH albums.

There probably isn't a better overview of who Harris is musically than BKG, an amalgam of hard-rocking country, traditional music, old time country, lovely harmonies that all work together because you can feel the love she has for the music in every song. Several of my most favorite ELH songs come from this album. (More on that later.)



BKG burned Emmylou into my brain for sure, and I've been a mad crazy fan ever since!



Next: Emmylou loves other artists!

I'm psyched!

Image nicked from Ear X-tacy page.

It's going to be a rough week, so this will be well-deserved rest and relaxation.

Also, there's a comic show this weekend, plus one of the best church yard sales in the city.

If I can just keep from going insane until then.

I think I'm crazy...

I want to do this.

Clearly, I am insane.

RIP Utah Phillips

Sigh!



More

Two musical views of Mesopotamia

The B-52's:




They Might Be Giants:

It's Ride Your Bike to Work Week!

I know it's Wednesday, but there's still time to participate!

Details here.

And if you need to ride the bus part of the way, use the bike rack!

My Political Thought of the Moment....

One week from today could very well be the first Kentucky Democratic primary where my vote actually matters in the decision. Our primary is so late that usually the nominee has all but declared victory. I got kind of excited about that possibility in the early primaries, when it started to look like the contest between Obama and Clinton would not be quickly or easily decided.

Now we're a week away from the primary. Even though he's pulling ahead in all the counts, every state is being watched and analyzed, poked and prodded, polled and sampled, looking for signs not only how the race to the nomination will go, but how things might play out in the fall. And I'm so freaking tired of it all.

I've gone from wanting my primary vote to really matter in the overall scheme of things to wishing that Clinton would see the writing on the wall and bow out gracefully. I'm willing to give up my one chance of a primary vote on something that isn't a done deal for a few extra weeks for the nominee to pull a fractured party together and get ready for the convention and November. I'll gladly trade my moment in the sun to help improve the party's chances at winning in the fall.

I only wonder when/if Clinton will say the same thing. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

Related: Keith went to see Obama last night. (I had to work late.) He came home positively glowing. It's time to start focusing on the general election, people.

The Emmylou Countdown Starts NOW!

The new Emmylou Harris (aka The Goddess of Music) CD goes on sale in about a month, so I'm starting the Eddie-torial countdown. Needless to say, I am so psyched about this and absolutely cannot wait. (I'm debating taking the morning off on release day so that I can be at Ear X-tacy when it opens to get a copy. Seriously.)

All of the reviews I'm reading are glowing and what I've heard so far is fabulous.

So, to pass the time, I'm starting a countdown to release featuring highlights and some of my thoughts about songs and albums and such.

First up, the early years:



I suppose the whole Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris story has become such a part of American music history that there's no need to recap the whole thing. I do wish that more of it had been captured on film. There's simply not enough video record out there of the two of them singing together.

Even though it's his show, you can see and hear so much in her performances that speak to the performer and artist that she will become--especially those warm, achingly beautiful harmonies. I don't care who she sings with, she has such a way of elevating others' performances and adding such richness and depth with her harmonies, but she does it without ever taking over or stealing the show.

I'm not normally one for YouTube photo montages, but this one has such great shots of the two of them, plus some performance clips that I can't resist it. It's one of my favorite songs from the Gram/Emmy era:



Parsons is such a cutie in those old pics, that it almost makes you wonder what he'd look like had he lived. Would he have the rugged, survived-the-hard-life handsomeness of Kris Kristofferson?



Or the perennial hit-by-several-speeding-trains-simultaneously, lucky-to-be-alive-and-upright look of Keith Richards?



Of all the artists who have self-destructed way too early, there are only two that make me ponder the loss and imagine what might have been every single time I hear one of their songs. Parsons is one. Janis Joplin is the other.

I think that knowing what Emmylou's career has been is part of what makes me ponder what would have happened to Parsons. It's probably inevitable that she would have gone solo. She simply has too much talent not to. But would it have been a graceful parting? What would he have done post-Emmylou?

Of course, the flip side to that is what would her solo career have looked like if he were still around? She typically included a Parsons tune or two on her early albums. Would she have felt that need to keep his music alive if he were around to do it? Would she have done more songwriting in her early solo career? Would she have always made such interesting musical choices? Or would she have broken away from his influence and gone in a totally different and unexpected direction? Would we still have such a rich catalog of Emmylou Harris albums? Regardless of how differently things might have played out for her, one thing is for sure: it would have been worth listening to. Parsons may have helped her refine her talent, but her innate musicality was there from the beginning.

As for Parsons, I'd like to think that with the rise of the Americana and alt-country movements of the past ten years or so, he would have enjoyed a career resurgence on his own, which would have led to the inevitable Parsons/Harris reunion album.

One thing we wouldn't have, though, is this song, which she wrote after his passing. It rips my heart out every time I hear it.



Next time: My first Emmylou Harris album!

I am the nightlife!

According the standard geek-scale, I have a real low threshold for quality in my super-hero movies--I loved both the last Clooney Batman and Catwowan, after all.

There's just something about those movies that don't take themselves or their source material too bloody seriously that appeals to me. I can see some elements of that in the Iron Man previews I've seen, so I'm looking forward to seeing it. (Maybe this weekend...)

In the meantime, there's this:

Totally stolen from today's Journalista!

Animation is about the only thing that can make a Chick tract more bizarre and creepy than it already was:

Mood Music

You figure out the mood.



Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah

Sigh!

Apparently, I'm doomed to never again know the consistent feeling of having work that is:

a) plentiful
b) meaningful
c) suited to my temperaments and talents

I was informed yesterday that once my current "assignment" is over, I'll be returning to the status quo, which is none of the above. I almost cried.

The only real bright side is that there is no visible end date to the current assignment.

Have some links while I mope:

RIP Alfredo. (I have to say that The Rack is my favorite web comic and the only one I actively make the time to follow.)

The Boy Toys of the DC Universe.

Stuffed animals playing board games. (About London,yet!)

Donate to David Pirkola, comics retailer seriously wounded during a robbery. (via Journalista)

How about a video to make us all feel better. Maybe Kasey Chambers?



Um...maybe not.

Because Roger demanded it!

Ten things about me you probably never really wanted to know.

1. For the last two or three weeks, I've ridden between 20 and 30 miles on my bike.

2. I've been a vegetarian for just about as long as Keith and I have been together.

3. When I was 26, I quit a job that I hated without any prospects lined up. I kind of miss being able to do that.

4. I collect Catholic religious and devotional items, which amuses some people to no end. I knew I had become rather infamous for it when a friend at work brought me a statue of Our Lady of Grace that her mother (who I had not met) saved for me from the house of a friend who had passed on.

5. When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do after dinner was go back and finish off the gravy after it had gotten cold. My grandmother used to leave the gravy bowl on the table for me.

6. I'm taking this Friday off, which excites me because it's payday! I'm also going to be spending the weekend at a friend's apartment, catsitting. So, it's kind of like having a mini-vacation.

7. I need a haircut.

8. I do a lot of ordering through Amazon, but I typically get used stuff through the marketplace sellers.

9. We've seen more live music so far this year than we did the whole year last year.

10. I've been leading a financial literacy class on Monday evenings.

Happy, Roger?

This one is for Keith!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!



Love,

Me
Bennie
Kosh
Chiquito

Then and Now: Steve Earle Edition

Classic Steve Earle:



Recent Steve Earle:



Mmmmmm.....Steve Earle....

BONUS: Emmylou does Guitar Town!

Emmylou cares about the animals*

And she has a new CD coming out in June! Woo Hoo!




*So do I. Have your pet spayed or neutered, won't you?

Can't find a clip that I like, so this will just have to do

Spring finally sprang here a couple of weeks ago, and Keith and I have been riding our bikes pretty much ever since. I've logged between 20-30 miles a week for the last three weeks or so.

2008 has been a wet year for Kentucky, which is good because 2007 was a drought year. I've tried not too let some sprinkles here and there deter me from riding, but some times you just gotta stay off the bike or get soaked.

The other night, we were riding back from having coffee when I got this song stuck in my head. I told Keith about it and he said I ought to get one and put it on my bike. So, now I have a quest! (Actually given my collection of religious tchotchkes, it won't be too hard to find one.

I'm off this morning until 1:00, because I'm flexing out some time I picked up this week. Can't have the Eddie-tor drawing overtime, now. So I'm about ready to hop on the bike and run some errands, then find a coffee shop, hole up, and read for a bit (my favorite past time). Given that there are scattered storms predicted for today, this is a particularly appropriate theme:

Salvage Week: An Old Yard Sale Haul

Some pics of a yard sale haul last year that I never got around to doing anything with:










Honestly, I'm not even sure why I held on to these for a salvage post, but here they are nonetheless.

Salvage Week: A Deja Vu That Will Never End!

These clips were going to be part of a "holiday gift to you" post this past December, but never made it that far.

One of those uniquely Japanese pop culture phenomena that usually escapes notice over here is the musical careers of anime voice actors. Some of them will capitalize on the fame of the show to boost other aspects of their performing careers.

The women who voiced the parts in Wedding Peach also performed as a group named FURIL. The music is pretty typical Japanese pop of the period, but it's still fun and kind of cute. This vid has the WP characters on the left and the FURIL singers on the right both doing the same song.



I love this one, largely because they all appear in the WP wedding dresses!



More about Wedding Peach.

Salvage Week: No, really, I mean it!

Still had one of these left....



Still kind of apropos too. Just in a different sort of way...

Salvage Week: Oh Frabjous Day!

I bought two of my favorite 2007 CD releases on the same day last year. It had been a really tiring week and I headed to Ear X-Tacy to check out some new music. I was really surprised to find both of them, because I had not heard they were coming out, but it was a nice treat after a busy week. I started putting together this post, but never got around to finishing it. Since I like the songs and the artists and the vids so much, I'm salvaging it now.

Night Falls Over Kortedala by Jens Lekman

This video isn't on the Kortedala CD, but it's my favorite Lekman song and video, so I'm using it instead. I'm just that way, I guess, but the CD is pretty awesome. It's got more of a folkie-confessional song kind of bent to it, but with a kind of skewed, quirky perspective to it that makes it fun to listen to over and over.




We Are the Pipettes by The Pipettes



This one is on their album. What can I say? I just love these girls! (For a bunch of different reasons!) This is another CD I'm still playing over and over again. Plus, the one guy lurking off to the side in the video is kind of cute.

Salvage Week: Why Worry?

I yanked this off YouTube a while back when I was basically grabbing vids that suited my mood, but didn't get around to putting it up because I actually wanted to write something about it first.

Well, my new world of optimism and hope at work ran into a huge stumbling block yesterday, which means I'm not overly happy about going in today, so this seems like a good time. And a fitting song. I'm going to try to keep it in mind.

This is my all time favorite Dire Straits song, one that Keith and I used to play a lot when we were cruising around town in his old Taurus. The addition of Emmylou only makes a great song that much greater.

When I first saw this clip on the Roadrunning DVD, I thought about some stuff I had read about the Knopfler/Harris concerts on an Emmylou list I belong to. Someone was complaining about how Knopfler completely "disrespected" Emmylou by "hogging" the stage with his guitar antics and not "bothering" to sing harmonies on her solo songs. (Sometimes the music fans they can be as annoying and irrational as the comics fans.)

And then I look at this, one of those songs everyone comes to his shows to here him play, and he steps aside and they do the first verse accompanied only be her acoustic guitar. Emmylou is often self-deprecating when she talks about her guitar skills, and it is true that, like a lot of singers, she's primarily a competent rhythm guitarist, but she actually does play quite well. I thought it was pretty damn cool that a man recognized as of the greatest guitarists in music would step aside and let her do it. I think it's a beautiful summary of their collaboration throughout the Roadrunning projects. And a lovely version of a lovely song.

So, anyway, why worry? I'm going to try not to.

Announcing Salvage Week!

I really do put more effort into this blog than it might appear. I have written countless posts that never made it out of draft stage and into Blogger. I've written a bunch more that made it out of Blogger because I never got around to finishing the links or adding the pics. I'm pathetic that way.

A couple of weeks ago, I was cleaning up my stuff in blogger and I found a bunch of unfinished posts that weren't too badly out of date and could be easily cleaned up and repurposed into new posts. And, lo, Salvage Week was born!

This week I'll be trotting out a few of these stillborn posts into the fresh air of morning for the eddie-fication of anyone who happens to stumble across them. Enjoy!

So how did I do?

Not too well, actually. Not my best time, but not my worst either. Still I was shooting for better:



It was cool and very windy yesterday, usually blowing in our faces. By the time I hit the finish, I just wanted it to be over. The wind gave me a terrible headache and I was pretty miserable.

Foto Funnies Comix (Walking Tall Edition)

Tomorrow is the Papa John's Ten Miler! For the third year in a row, I'll be engaging in this madness and pushing my body to get ten miles out. I'll definitely be out of blogging action for tomorrow and probably Sunday too. So here's something to enjoy until I get back:

Athl-Ed-Icism

Okay. That's probably the lamest Eddie-pun I've made since I started this blog. I'm both proud of myself and appalled.

Here's a pic of me walking 6.2 miles in the Rodes City Run this year:



It's actually a pretty good shot. You can't tell how fat I am! Keith waited along the course to take some pics.

And here's me rushing to the finish line. What...um....form! That's it! What form!



I'm going to have to find a way to use that shot in the future.

Something Good Happened Today!

And I can't talk about it in detail. Here's the Reader's Digest version:

I've been really unhappy and unfulfilled at work for the past year, for reasons I shouldn't go into here. However, lots of testing, resumes, and interviews didn't do any good, as far as getting a new one goes.

Today, the situation turned itself around a little. I've got some new job duties, and hopefully a new position assignment is going to follow in a few weeks.

Maybe my mood will finally lighten a little too. Which, in turn, should lead towards a greater inclination to more actively blog.

If you're really observant, you'll realize that this post explains a lot about my blogging frequency and tone over the past six months or so...

Foto Funnies Comix! (Good Friday Edition)

I never really intended to be such a lazy blogger...

You know what I mean: one of the ones who just grabs random stuff from YouTube and calls it a post. But, I got to thinking about it this morning and came to a new conclusion.

If you've found a niche why fight it? Go with the flow!

So here's The Imagined Village:



I mean, what the hell, right?

In a way it's appropriate for Holy Week...

My favorite Patty Griffin song:



I've always had a thing for songs especially those of a folk-ish bent that feature biblical characters or characters named after biblical persons. Jesus, Mary, and Mary Magdalene seem to be the most commonly such used. One of these days, I'm going to sit down and make a mix CD of a bunch of these songs.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Have some musical treats!


Dublin City Working Man's Band:



Dropkick Murphys:



The late great Tommy Makem and friends:



And as a bonus here's a picture of me in a leprechaun hat from last year's Rodes City Run which was held on St Patrick's Day:



You want a close-up of that?



Such Irish verve! Such athletic vigor! Such determination to cross the finish line before passing out! (Photos nicked from the official race photographer Brightroom.)

This year's City Run was this Saturday. Here's my time:



Only a minute off from last year! Yay! I spent most of yesterday recovering but there seems to be no permanent damage. Off to the Ten Miler in 2 weeks!

(Gaaah! This is dangerously close to actual content. What happened?)

Peace Train!

A little Dolly and Ladysmith for a rainy Friday morning!

It's Music and Animation!

What more does one need?

M. Ward, Chinese Translation:

Now this is AWESOME!

Sometimes, you find a real honest-to-god treasure on YouTube. Case in point:



That's Maybelle and Sara Carter of the original Carter Family. Here's another one:



And just cause I'm in a Carter kind of mood, here's Mother Maybelle and her daughters on the Opry. That's June on the autoharp.



Now, THIS is the way to start the day!

Pancho needs your prayers, it's true

But save a few for Lefty too...



And toss one in for me as well!

Emmylou Understands...

She always does...

I Need a Hero!

But who should it be.....

Batman?





Or anime magical girls?





Hmmmm....

Some days are like this

In fact, most days are like this any more.

I need a new job.

It's time to lick our knives and rip our shirts

And get ready to go to work!



Where's the back-flipping, one-armed chick with the swinging towel when I need her?

Arrgh!

Holy Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor!

By the way....

Despite all appearances to the contrary:

I'm

NOT

DEAD!

(yet...)

She Amazes Me!