Turn The Radio Up For That Sweet Sound

Hold me close, never let me go-oh oh.
Keep this feeling alive. Make me lose control. 

It was a song in the 1980's from a guy from Cleveland who had a huge hit in "Hungry Eyes" from the movie Dirty Dancing. It went to #3 on Billboard's top 100 songs.

When I'm on the road, in the Chicagoland area, you know I listen to jazz, WDCB. If I go west, to Iowa, I have to wait until I'm about 30 minutes into the state before I can pick up the Kirkwood College jazz station, KCCK. In the meantime, I'm in a vast area of search button pushing to find something I'll listen to.

I've been in the car a lot in the past month. The most recent trip was to Iowa. All of this has been for business.

If I'd get my act together, I could bring my CD folder and know that I'd have my preferred music wherever I go. But the last time I cleaned out the CD folder was back in November and there's Christmas music in it. I only think about cleaning it out when I'm pulling out of the drive or, like right now, but if I stop blogging and clean out the CD folder, I'm liable to forget about blogging. It's that whole idea we, in the gaming world, call the "ooh shiny" effect.

Anyway, having had to go to Wisconsin every day for a week and then to Iowa, I've spent a lot of time button punching to find something I'll listen to. I find myself gravitating toward "oldies" stations and the "oldies" I listen to are from the 1960's through the 1980's. While I listened to jazz during those years, I also was quite aware of what was going on in pop music.

On a previous work trip last year, I decided to write down the names of the songs I heard more than once because I knew I'd be going into and out of various radio station broadcast areas. It was going to be interesting. There's a huge amount of music in those 20 years. Why, if I'm going from place to place, do I hear the same songs played over and over? I haven't heard the above song in a very, very long time in spite of its standing as hugely popular in 1988.

There is a web site I follow, Upworthy. Politically left, they find some interesting videos that cover a large gamut of social causes. Sometimes, I think they are too far to the left for my tastes, but they have shown me interesting points of view. One of their posts from last month hit close to home.

You don't have to agree with Upworthy's stance on raising the minimum wage, banning fracking or gun control, but this is something you should be concerned about. It's not just how often you hear "Mrs. Robinson", it's how often you hear Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga or Mozart. It's how many sports or talk stations you can find.

It seems like a long time ago, but radio stations were fairly independent entities. Their play lists were dictated by what music the station itself could get its hands on. Now, the feed is created somewhere else and sent to the station. It's mixed up just enough that if you're driving from Chicago to Cedar Rapids, you'll hear similar songs on the oldies stations, but maybe not the same ones. WDCB moved, at the beginning of this year, to larger quarters driven, in part, by their vast collection of jazz. They have music they bought and their DJ's decide what they are going to play, not some corporation somewhere outside of the station. (The Saturday morning DJ routinely brings records to his show, stuff you can't find in CD format.) If I call in and ask for Ella and Louis' "April in Paris", they have that. One of my friends in Ohio posted a complaint on Facebook against a local station. They were doing a "you request it" event and the song he requested hadn't been played in 12 hours, in spite of numbers the station posted on its web site suggesting he wasn't the only person who wanted to hear that song.

It's admittedly hard for a station to have all music from their selected era. If you include things like "one hit wonders", the artists that had one hit, even a minor one, and then dropped out of sight, the songs must be in the millions. I like Billy Joel. I should get a greatest hits album. But I heard "Still Rock and Roll to Me" three times in the Iowa trip. Think about Joel's body of work and this is the song I heard.

It's not an answer to pay for Sirius XM radio. I don't see that as any more broad than having 6 corporate entities decide what I will listen to. The problem is that new artists have a much, much harder time getting any air for their music. This is across the board from country to pop to rap to classical to folk. (When was the last time you heard a folk song on the radio? Be honest. Yeah, I didn't think so. WDCB plays 3 hours of folk music on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. This is more than Peter, Paul and Mary or the Irish Rovers, too.) We are exposed, less and less, to interesting new voices and more and more to prepackaged, over hyped artists with similar sounds.

I hope that the next time you're listening to the radio and "Mrs. Robinson" comes on, you'll remember that Simon and Garfunkle have a great many more hits than this; "The Boxer", "Sounds of Silence" and "Bridge over Troubled Waters", are three of their biggest hits, bigger than a song from the movie, The Graduate. Chances are good, you won't hear these in your travels because someone somewhere far away from where you live decided that "Mrs. Robinson" is the song you get. That should bother you.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

For Sure It's Fall

As you well know, a cold front came through the Midwest last week. I happened to be coming home from a quick job in Madison, Wisconsin. It was one of those phone calls at 2 p.m. begging us to provide someone, anyone, to assist them. As we were really short last week, I got the job.

It turned out that I wasn't needed beyond a couple hours because, as luck would have it, a piece broke and couldn't be fixed until the next day. So, I was cut loose and I headed home. It was 70 degrees when I left Madison. As I headed towards Chicagoland, it started raining and you could feel the temperature start to drop. The cold front was here. Our balmy Indian summer days were coming to a screeching, wet halt.

I drove out of the front line and it didn't reach Chicagoland until around supper so I had a still balmy afternoon to bring in the garbage cans and batten down any hatches, more like turn the empty cans upside down so wind couldn't get inside, swirl around and knock them over. One is sad to see these days leave. Sitting on the deck when it's 78, is quite different than when it's 58, even if it's completely still and sunny and 58.

So, yesterday, I'm wandering about the yard, picking up someone's trash that has blown into my yard and I spot these. This is the final key to knowing that fall is heading towards winter.

Just like blowing dandelion heads in spring, blowing milkweed pod seeds in late fall should be the highlight of a child's life, heck, of anyone's life. Unlike dandelions, however, milkweed seeds need to be dry to really take off. As the pod opens, they are a bit damp and will come out in a clump. When the pod completely splits open and the seeds are caught by the wind, it reminds me of the animation to Tchaikovsky's "Walz of the Flowers" in Walt Disney's Fantasia.

Yes, the dramatic changes in temperature and the explosions of fuzz from milkweed pods remind me that fall is nearly over and the winter is coming. I could bring a stalk inside and keep the potential frozen but I want the milkweeds in the yard. Plus, I think the seeds have to overwinter to sprout in the spring.

Poof!

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Concert Tickets

I stopped by Arby's yesterday. I had to go to the hardware store to get garbage/yard waste stickers and to inquire if I can get a second free quart of paint from the upcoming promotion. I took advantage of a free quart to get a color I want to use in the back bedroom, assuming I ever get that far in household chores. But I was looking around my living room, which is painted in colors I really like and I could use a quart of the custom color on the walls for touch ups. I wasn't sure if it's a one-shot deal. The gal at the counter said it wasn't so the next free coupon that comes my way means I'll hie thee to the store for touch up paint. Arby's is one door down from Ace Hardware.

They are doing this promotion where you sent them a photo of special concert cups turned to the artist you'd like to see. You could win VIP tickets to see that artist in concert. The choices are: Trace Atkins, All-American Rejects and Taio Cruz. I've at least HEARD of Trace Atkins.

See, this semi-irritates me. I realize that Arby's has to go with whomever they can find to be a part of a promotion like this. Plus, they have to look at their demographic; where are they most popular and then, by extension, what kind of music does that demographic listen to? And factor in which age group is most likely to actually photograph their drink container and email it. I'm not inclined to photograph and submit the drink container to an online contest. I'm not their target audience.

But what if they gave away tickets to the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra? What about the Dallas Symphony Orchestra? Or say the Lyric Opera of Chicago? It's hard to imagine, in this day and age of corporate sponsors being pretty much anywhere, that they couldn't find someone other than these three to go along with the whole VIP idea.

A promotion like this doesn't affect, one way or another, the amount of times I go to Arby's. I do think, however, that companies limit themselves when they don't think beyond country, pop and rap. There's a huge audience for other music and just once I'd like to see a company akin to Arby's acknowledge this. Who knows. By offering VIP tickets to something like the Dallas Symphony, they could entice someone who never would consider classical music, exposing them to that vast repertoire and enriching their life.

Yes, I am tempted to send in the above photo, even though it's half-way between Trace Atkins and All-American Rejects. "Well, I couldn't decide," I'd say. But that's not true. I have decided. I decided I'd just drink my soda and chuck the container. I'll take Old Blind Dogs over any of these any day.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

That's a Lot

The next step in the cat Christmas banner is to get the backing material and sorting through the boxes to see if I have quilt batting. I think this would look so cute if it was quilted to festive fabric with bright trim all around it. I probably have, somewhere, the appropriate fabric in one of the boxes.

I decided my task would be to empty the boxes and reorganize all the fabric. There would be a box for the scraps, for that "someday" quilt, as in "someday, I'm going to make a quilt out of all these scraps". Then I could organize the other fabric by kind or color or amount or something. All the interfacing pieces would go in another box and the bags of stuffing in yet a third. All the boxes would be labeled so I could see, at a glance, whether I have blue fabric anywhere and maybe that box of trims could go inside the box with the interfacings. Ooooh, organization! Since I would be using boxes I purloined from the office which originally held paper, they would all be the same size and would, therefore, stack very nicely in the closet. Mija's been enjoying the flat surface of one box I put in there.

Well, step one in this grand master plan is to clear off the table in the living room. So, let's see. Bill. Bill. Bill. Those go in the office to be paid. (I did that on Sunday.) Half-finished magazine. Sit down and read the rest. Chuck happily into the recycling bin. Rebate information for the wasp spray. That needs to be stuck to the fridge so I can find it. A couple of letters that need to be answered. Into my bag with my stationary so I can find them when I sit down to write.

Now, what's left are the CDs and the CD holder. I've been listening to my music as I travel about and it's time to match up the CDs with the cases and see what's left to listen to.

 

I kept two stacks of cases on the desk in the office behind my computer. Occasionally, I would blow the dust off the top one but it was, pretty much, just a storage spot. "You know," I would tell myself about every 6-8 weeks, "you should sort through this and match up what's in the holder with what you have here." Like the angel and the devil on your shoulder, one side would say, "That's a great idea" while the other side would say, "Yeah, yeah, yeah." You can guess which one usually won that conversation. 

But the need to have a large empty work space won out this time and I moved the giant stack of CD cases to the table to match up with my CDs. (Oh the dust! Man. I had to shake out the dust rag twice, after I moved the stacks.) In the photo above left is Old Blind Dogs Play Live, middle is OBD Close to the Bone, upper right is The Best of the Nat King Cole Trio. I can't tell what the bottom left is. The middle left is Benny Goodman, Best of the Yale Archives, 1936-86 Disc 2, middle right is Preservation Hall Jazz Band Volume 2 and far right is Classical Cats, a Selection of Classical Music with Cats in Mind.  

Once I matched everything up and made sure that the CDs left in the case to be listened to had cases in the stack, I put the filled cases in my CD rack. I have two of them. One is one of those little spinner type things. It's got 4 sides and you spin it to get the CD you want. But, that was not going to hold my collection so I bought this many years ago. 

As you can see, it's almost filled. CDs aren't in any particular order other than the bottom left has non-jazz, non-classical items, such as my Beach Boys Greatest Hits  Manhattan Transfer's Christmas Album, Sons of the Pioneers Greatest Hits, etc. The bottom right has a few of my classical CDs. I have another CD holder that sits on top of something. It's two levels and I have most of the rest of my classical CDs and most of the rest of my Christmas CDs in that. It currently sits in a box. There's really no rhyme or reason to the jazz CDs here. I should come up with something like vocal on one side, instrumental on the other and group all the ones I have by the same artist together. Those are projects for another time.

I wound up with four CDs missing their official cases. I found a bunch of empty cases from a batch I bought some time ago so I had cases and didn't have to get more. I also found 3 cases without the matching CD. They have to be somewhere in the house. I just haven't found that pile. Plus, I found that CD I need to replace because it got soda spilled on it. I wiped it off, but it's never been the same since. I hope I can find it. It's rather obscure. And I found a couple CD's I've never taken out of the packaging. How did that happen?

And that causes me to think about replacing the cassettes I have in another spinner. I have some really good music on cassette that I'd love to have on CD. No no. Not in the budget.

What you can't see is the stack on the back edge of the cedar chest. It's about half as tall as this CD holder. I guess I need another tall CD tower for organization. The problem is, I need space to put another CD tower. That means finally sitting down and dealing with all the stuff sitting on top of the table to my right in the office. I can hear those two on my shoulder arguing. "Just do it. You have been meaning to for years." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." 

Avoidance of the task is an option. I think I'll order pizza. 

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Visiting Ohio: What I Listened to

When I went to Iowa on the 11th, I decided that trip and this one to Ohio would be good ways to go through the CD holder, listen to music and change what I have in the holder. I tend to listen to the same stuff over and over because I don't want to go through the hassle of finding the jewel cases for what's in the holder and changing the music. But when I've got all this music surrounding me, it should be something I should do. I bought this music because I liked it. Then I should be listening to it.

The trip to Ohio allowed me to listen to 14 different CDs. Of course, my tastes being what they are, three genres were featured: jazz, Scottish and classical.

On the ride out, I started with A Treasury of Artie Shaw. He was a big band leader during World War II, played clarinet. My favorite song on this CD is "Begin the Beguine".
Next was The Tannahill Weavers Collection: Choice Cuts 1987-1996. This is a greatest hits collection. It's a good choice if you aren't familiar with them.
Then was Old Blind Dogs and Tall Tails. While this CD has some catchy tunes; Wife in Ev'ry Port, Pills of White Mercury and Barnyards of Delgaty; it's not my favorite OBD collection. I skip over at least a couple of the songs.
After that was the seminal Miles Davis recording, Sketches of Spain. If you are looking to include some Miles Davis, I strongly recommend this recording.
From there, I went to Gene Harris/Scott Hamilton Quartet and At Last. Gene Harris was a pianist and Scott Hamilton is a saxophonist. It's a nice addition to my jazz collection even if it's not something I might reach for when wanting to play music.
The black CD is The Best of the Rat Pack. This is a collection of music sung by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Junior. It's what could be termed a 'little ditty' of an album. There are better collections by each of these men, but this is a good way to have something from each. "Me and My Shadow" by Frank and Sammy, is one of my favorites. I play this and remind myself that I need to search out a Sammy Davis, Jr collection. He had a wonderful voice. 
Lastly, on the player as I pulled into the driveway was Legacy by Old Blind Dogs. I like everything on this album but my favorite is "The Snows They Melt the Soonest".

On the way out, I started with the radio but quickly lost the signal as I headed east. Since I don't know any jazz stations close to Youngstown, I simply stayed with CDs all the way home. If I do another road trip, I need to find a listing of radio stations that play jazz in the locations I find myself. Then, carefully copy down the call letters and number and leave that list on the kitchen table as I head out the door.

I started the trip back with Five by Old Blind Dogs. The opening numbers, "Trip to Pakistan" and "Battle of Harlow" are two of my favorites. "Parcel Full o'Rogues" is a lament on the union of Scotland and England. This is the second CD I've owned of this, so that tells you how much I enjoy it.
Next up was Best of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Preservation Hall is located in New Orleans, for those who don't know it. They play New Orleans-style Dixieland jazz. This collection has their anthem, "When the Saints Go Marching In". They tour a lot so if they come near you, go see them.
After that, I played Tchaikovsky. This CD holds his "Pathetique" and "1812 Overture" on it. It's hugely ironic that this should come up as I'm just taking the CDs as they are in the holder. We had talked briefly about Tchaikovsky on Sunday night. I did not know he committed suicide by drinking cholera-laced water. People passing me or being passed by me must have wondered as I was "singing" along with the ending of the Overture. "Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba bup ba bah...boom." This is the very familiar overture which, in some settings, can end with cannon fire. A Tympany plays that roll in normal settings.
From there, it was back to jazz and Lionel Hampton with Flying Home (1942-1945). If you have any knowledge of jazz, "Flying Home" is one of the most recognized tunes. This CD has several variations on that theme including the original. For those who don't know, Lionel Hampton was a vibraphonist. He played what you might call a xylophone only it was a lot more than just that. The CD has a queer little number, "Blow Top Blues" sung by Dinah Washington. It's just, well, weird.
Next was Preservation Hall Jazz Band Volume 2. Why only have one collection of hits when you can have two? I recommend the first one and get this one to supplement.
After that, I listened to one of a series, Benny Goodman, Best of the Yale Archives, 1936-1986. When he died in 1986, Benny Goodman left his music notes and tapes to the Yale University Archives. They compiled a series of CD's documenting Goodman's rise from a small trio to a band leader and then back to small group before concentrating on classical music in his later years. This particular CD contains quite a number of his more popular recordings. It does not have his signature song, "Sing, Sing, Sing". I honestly don't remember where I got this and I wouldn't recommend this if you want a collection of Benny Goodman. There are other greatest hits CD's out there or get your hands on the Carnegie Hall concert CD set.
I ended with Nina Simone and Little Girl Blue. Nina Simone had a husky, gravelly voice that may not appeal to some people. She could wrap that voice around a song and change how you perceived it. "I Put a Spell on You" is one of my favorites and I love what she did to "I Loves You Porgy".

Now to put these back in their jewel cases and select some different music for my travels about town.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Traveling Music

I had the chance to go to Iowa on Sunday to do a couple of small jobs on Monday. WDCB lasts for about 2 hours as you head west. Then, jazz is nowhere to be found until you get to the Mississippi River and can pick up KCCK out of Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This time, I remembered my music. Once I get started with CD's, I generally stick with them to my destination.

Here is Sunday's selection. I started at the front of the CD case and played them one after the other without looking to see what was next.

Classical Cats is a selection of classical music which represents the various manners and moods of the feline. It starts with "Morning" from Pier Gynt by Edvard Grieg which represents waking up and stretching in the morning. I don't remember where I got it.

Concord Jazz: Various Artists Collectors Series is just what the name implies. It's a collection of a variety of artists who recorded on the Concord Jazz label. I'd have to find the box to know who is on the CD.

Good Night and Good Luck is the soundtrack from the movie of the same name. Dianne Reeves is the vocalist. She is featured several times in the movie and, at one point, I thought they had interspersed footage of Ella Fitzgerald singing some of the same songs. The jazz standards on this CD are superb. You don't have to care one whit about the movie to like the soundtrack, but the movie is excellent, too.

New Tricks is the first studio release by my favorite Scottish folk band, Old Blind Dogs. I'm not sure which cut is my favorite on this CD, Bennachie or Bedlam Boys.

Coming home on Monday, KCCK lasts far longer than does WDCB, so there is one fewer CD.

Fit? is the 7th CD released by Old Blind Dogs. The CD opens with my favorite Dogs' tune to date, Is There for Honest Poverty?, one of Robert Burns' songs. This is the second CD of this I have owned. I scratched the first one from playing it so often.

Night Lights is a collection of Nat King Cole songs. The opening track, Night Lights, is one of my favorite Cole songs. Some of the songs on this collection are quite dated. To the Ends of the Earth is downright creepy, if you really listen to the lyrics. But I think this is one of my favorite Nat King Cole CD's and I own quite a few.

The Best of The Proclaimers is a compilation of songs by another Scottish group. I'm not sure where they would fall in the pantheon of classifications. You know them because I'm on My Way was used in the movie "Shrek". There are a few songs on this collection I don't like but I wasn't familiar with them before I got this CD so it's a good way to find out about them.

I have a lot of music. I tend to listen to the same CDs when I'm out driving because they have been in the CD case the longest. I decided I will change these 7 now and put something else in their stead. This way, eventually, my music will get cycled through those long lazy drives there and back again.

Beverage:  African Rooibos tea

Deb

How I Wish

Two weeks ago, the flyer from the Paramount Arts Center in nearby Aurora arrived. These are the musicals they are going to have this year. Oh. Wow.

Unfortunately, the cheapest ticket is for the Wednesday matinee at 1:30 p.m. To go when it was convenient for me, would cost me $79 a ticket. (heavy sigh) I can't afford that, not right now, anyway.

I think about how I don't really do anything with myself during those times when I'm not working. I used to attend productions in the Chicagloand area. That's what I find so great about living here. The wealth of things to do is amazing.

I used to be a subscriber to the Chicago Symphony. They used to have a package where you picked 8 concerts from their wide variety, paid a set fee, and got a wide variety of seats. I usually saw Jazz, but I also saw P.D.Q. Bach and the CSO perform Beethoven's "Eroica". There was a violinist who was incredible playing this very a-tonal music. It was something I wouldn't have seen had I not needed to fill my selection. I saw Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis that year, too.

I also used to be a subscriber at the McAninch Arts Center at nearby College of DuPage. I've seen some great performances over the years from Kurt Elling and Joan Baez to The Flying Karamotzov Brothers and The Reduced Shakespeare Company. When I was a subscriber to the Paramount's season, I saw Wayne Brady, "Porgy and Bess", the Glenn Miller Orchestra and "Cats", among other things.

I like doing this kind of thing, but the problem right now is the money it takes to go. When "Wicked" was in Chicago, so many people told me I needed to go see it. "It's awesome!" I have no doubt about that but I couldn't afford even the nosebleed seats on Thursday nights.

It can be depressing to be on mailing lists, to see what's coming, to then count one's pennies and realize one needs something else more than one needs to see "A Chorus Line". Things are better than they were a year ago and maybe, just maybe, by this time next year, when I get the Paramount's flyer for their offerings, I can actually say, "Oooh, I can afford to see these."

Beverage:  hot cocoa

Deb

One Day of Sewing

One afternoon of sewing resulted in this.

It started with tailor's tacks on the darts on the front. Some people use chalk or erasable pencils. I've not found those other methods work any better than good old reliable tailor's tacks. 

The fabric irons very nicely. The back of it is gorgeous, too, which was a selling point when I bought it.

The only real problem is its propensity to unravel. I had two choices in dealing with this, other than leaving it alone and that really wasn't a choice as eventually, the seams would unravel to the stitching.  I could do what's called a "princess seam". First you stitch the wrong sides together in a 1/4 inch seam. Then you fold the fabric over and stitch again the remainder of the 5/8 inch seam. It's more labor intensive but it completely encases the seam and the ends. The problem with this material is the bulk. Folding over again on the seam makes for a lot of fabric in the seam. I tried a scrap and didn't like how it looked on the outside.

So, my other option was zigzag sewing the ends. I like how that worked. It's still kind of time consuming because any edge that is not a hem needs to be zigzagged. Then I go along and trim the frayed edges. 

I'm very pleased with how well this sews. I had a moment of panic as I started because I couldn't remember how to wind a bobbin and I didn't have a bobbin with cream colored thread in it. Thankfully, the instruction manual is in the sewing chest. "Oh yeah! That's right." 

I also had some problems with the initial zigzag attempts but discovered the top thread was just not working right. I replaced it with a lighter weight thread and have had no problems since. I've used up one small spool of cream colored thread and am working with a very pale pink color now. The edge stitching, shown above is cream as it's coming out of the bobbin. I even found a small spool of the green of the dress. It probably won't be enough to sew the dress with, but it might be enough to get started. 

For the most part, the girls hopped up on the table once, to see what I was doing and then left me alone. Pilchard tried to interrupt things but 4 kitty treats convinced her to move along.

Musical accompaniment to the sewing was Joshua Bell, Voice of the Violin; John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman; Old Blind Dogs, Four on the Floor; and a classical compilation entitled Classical Cats that I've had for years. 

Sleeves and hem are all that are left to do. I think I need to have Pam help me with the hem to make sure it's even. I'm still unsure about the closure at the neck. I think I need to make the dress and see the whole outfit to decide what I should put there. I have it pinned shut for the photo. I have probably 2 more hours of work and it's done. I'm really pleased with how quickly it went together considering I have not sewn in a couple of years. 

Carole had her dress fitting on Thursday and just needs the straps adjusted. I was sent a photo but, no, I'm not posting it. Suffice it to say she looked beautiful. In less than 2 months, this whole event will be a memory. Time has passed so quickly from November when we first walked into that dress shop and she started trying on dresses. 

Beverage:  China Black tea

Deb

Happy Music

Music hath charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

--William Congreve

Such a familiar quotation, but it's true. What you are listening to says a great deal about who you are.

Everyone knows I listen to jazz. My parents listened to singers who have been given the moniker "crooners"; Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Bing Crosby. They grew up in the 1950's, when the solo jazz artist was in his prime. Swing's time had passed with the end of World War II. People listened to music. I remember my father, who couldn't carry a tune in a dump truck, singing all these jazz standards to the cows as he milked them. It doesn't seem at all a stretch to be a jazz lover now. "Lady What-ga"? Rap? Isn't that another term for knocking on something, like a door?

I fire up my iMac, turn on iTunes and let the music flow. I have a little over 5 days worth of music. In true collector form, there a number of tunes for which I have 4 or 5 versions, my favorite jazz standard, "April in Paris", is an example. My iTunes play list probably consists of 70% jazz in some form and the rest in classical, pop, celtic, folk, Christmas, movie music and other eclectic categories.

When I'm contemplative, there is nothing like Copeland, Mussorgsky, Grieg or Joshua Bell. I don't usually have music playing when I read because I find myself pulled towards interaction with the music when I have chosen interaction with the printed word. When I play World of Warcraft, the games sounds and musical snippets get repetitive, so I'll turn on my iTunes, set the sort for some category and let it go. In the summer, if I'm sitting on the deck, I'll some times crank up the volume on the computer, which sits right by the window, and pump Ella and Louis and Frank and Dizzy out into the atmosphere. The Beach Boys can't be beat for driving around Chicago with the top down on a July Sunday.

As I'm cleaning my house in preparation for a visit from my daughter, I've had 'happy' music on. Generally, this consists of peppy jazz, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman with some Glenn Miller thrown in for good measure. But I also include my favorite Scottish band, Old Blind Dogs, in the category of 'happy' music. The skirl of the pipes, the bouzouki, the fiddle make a nice counterpoint to buffing windows, dusting pictures and door frames and sorting and shredding mountains of papers.

I was listening to WDCB, College of DuPage. Last night, I turned on the radio before going to bed, just to unwind. They were running promos of upcoming programs and this music came out of my radio in response to a promo for "Mountain Stage". It was peppy. It was bouncy. It was happy. Who is this? Pine Leaf Boys. Never heard of them.

So, this morning, I did some research. Oh man. I will have to find a way to get one of their CDs. I could play this music a lot. Give them a listen. Go to the "Media" tab and click on the videos. This is infectious music. I see they were at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, the venue where Carole and I saw a lot of Old Blind Dogs. I couldn't afford to attend a concert there right now, but Chicago has a lot of free festivals during the summer. Maybe they will turn up on the venue for one of them. I'm thinking, like OBD, listening to them live is much more of an experience.

Tonight, I work on the living room. Maybe some Nat King Cole?

Beverage: China Black Tea

Deb

AWK! Blog post! Blog post!

On Friday, August 7th, I had to go back to Fort Madison to service one of the machines on this highway job. It quit calling out remotely on the 26th. We were having such problems with the communications on all our remote units that we weren't sure if this was a communication problem or if the machine had a problem. It seems the battery on the machine had been drained. That'll do it. Low battery means it won't call out, no matter how hard it tries. It also means a 5 hour one-way trip to fix this. And with the communication problem, we aren't exactly sure that replacing the battery will make the machine call in.

Oh well. It gives me something to do.

I head west. It's a heavily overcast day with the threat of rain. I drive through some spitting showers, nothing major until I get to 40 minutes from Iowa on I-80.

You know these kinds of rains. God unzips the rain clouds and has his angels overturn buckets of wash water. You can't see. Sky, horizon and ground meld into a gray gauze. Instinctively, you take your foot off the accelerator because if anything happens in front of you, you want to be able to stop. Westbound traffic is relatively light so I peer into the immediate distance trying to get some idea of where I am. I have to get off I-80 and head south to Galesburg, but I can't see road signs for where I am.

Too late, the exit for I-74 to Peoria wanders by and I realize I have missed my turn. I push onward hoping there will be some identifying marker that tells me I can get off and turn around, but there isn't one. 10 minutes more and the rain ends, leaving the pavement covered in water. The Mississippi River bridge looms ahead and I am in Iowa.

I take a quick glance at the map and exit at Route 67 south. I have to go south to Fort Madison. The sky ahead is that deep blackish blue of an impending storm. As I am driving south through Davenport, the sky opens again. I unzip part of the window and smell the familiar odor of a Midwest summer thunderstorm.

It's hard to describe it, particularly along the river. There is the smell of the earth, the smell of mud, the smell of water and the smell of humanity. A series of hard storm like this washes away the urban smell and replaces it with a fresh smell. I love to walk in the rain and smell the earth and the water. Even a driving rainstorm, as long as there is no lightning, is a wonderful feeling. Rain water is good for your hair and skin and sitting on the deck at night with a cup of tea getting drenched in the summer is heaven.

I continued south. By the time I got to Fort Madison, the sun had come out on a few occasions and steam was rising from the small woods or hollows visible from the road. I got some lunch and headed to the non-working instrument. One battery change, a 15 minute job, and the machine called out on its own. A crack gauge I had installed on the south side of the house fell off so I had to install another one. We use hot glue to affix it to the brick. A liberal application of rubbing alcohol will dissolve the glue and pop off the gauge.

It took a few minutes because the gauge wouldn't stick at first. Then I didn't have enough glue and it had started to rain lightly again and I was getting soaked. When the gauge finally stuck, I stood up and bent over to pick up my bag. Attached to my jeans was the largest bug I had ever seen. It looked like a june bug on Miracle Gro AND steroids. It was light green with red tinges. I have no idea what it was, but I brushed it off quickly, grabbed my bag and walked smartly to the Jeep, whose passenger door was standing open in an ever increasing shower. The communications center in Atlanta, Georgia called to tell me my machine had called in and done a full download. I hopped into the Jeep and thought, "Dang! That would have been an incredible blog post!"

So, I got out of the Jeep and went to find the bug, but it was gone. I got back into the Jeep and headed home, stopping in Fort Madison for $2.45 per gallon mid-grade blend gas.

That, dear reader, is a synopsis of what I do. The money I'll get for expenses based on mileage will cover the rest of this month's bills AND pay for more blood tests for Betsy to see how much fluids she should get. I used to put 300 miles on a week but I run the office more these days. Part of me misses the time spent in the car on job sites, but most of me is grateful for not climbing in and out of cars and quarries and construction sites. Life is a series of trade-offs. I enjoyed classical music on my CD player while driving through rain storms. It was okay.

Beverage: Strawberry Crush

Deb