Mom always stood by me no matter what choices I made in life--a beautiful, not so common thing.
10. Have you ever been playing music in the house and when you get to a certain word in what you're reading or what you're doing, it appears in the song that's on? I was en route to the station, listening to "Alabama Chrome," the KAOS all-vinyl country show. Bonnie Owens was singing about taking "the wrong track" just as I approached the railroad tracks not far from home. This one is even better: I had the Skyliners' 1959 ballad, "Since I Don't Have You," on as I was looking for a particular street. When their soulful singer Jimmy Beaumont got to the most heartbreaking part of the song--the nearly agonizing delivery and pauses of "you...you...you...you"--I was looking up at a street sign that read, "Yew."
9. The Mariners continue to play perplexingly incompetent baseball and when having to deal with the broadcasters and press afterward, manager Lloyd McClendon sometimes lives up to his nickname, Annoyed Lloyd. I swear, some of the radio people ask LM questions only because they get paid for it; they can't think of anything of substance. When the skipper says, "I don't understand the question," sounds to me like it's code for, "Why are you asking me something so stupid?"
8. The best album I've heard recently is Buffy Sainte-Marie's Power In the Blood (True North Records)--modern, searing, compassionate, deeply felt. Her Coincidence and Likely Stories (1992) touched on the emerging recording technology at the time and was nicely balanced by gutsy material like "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." The new set is once again informed by an indigenous viewpoint, and the politics of romantic relationships as well. There's even a tough update of "It's My Way" from her remarkable album of the same name from 51 years ago.
7. Just wondering: is that line in the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" about "we'll defy a little bit of gravity" an erection joke?
6. Gina and I weren't expecting St. Vincent (Chernin Entertainment, 2014) to be as fabulous as it was. But it was. In this film, Bill Murray plays a rather bitter war veteran who ends up caring for his neighbor's young son, the remarkable Jaeden Leiberher. For me, Murray--who takes the kid to the racetrack and informs him that the person who visits weekly is "a woman of the night"--is effectively surly and not as goofy as he gets older, while Melissa McCarthy's performance as a single mom is really touching--she's kind of been put in a box with those mad/crazy comedy roles she's become so good at, but this is a welcome, opposite end of the spectrum. Naomi Watts takes a left turn with her character portrayal as well. Highly recommended.
5. I'm really late on seeing Rhino's history of Atlantic Records video, The House That Ahmet Built (2007). Atlantic is clearly the greatest record label of all-time, and Ahmet Ertegun (1923-2006) was lucky and visionary at the same time. While I can understand why the jazz aspect needs its own documentary--this needs to be done, with Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane's records for the label being among the most innovative in jazz--what happened to the Rascals? All the early greats (Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker) are there, as well as Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, the Stones and even Kid Rock. The Rascals are a glaring omission, as they recorded some of the greatest records of the '60s--"Good Lovin'," "Groovin'," "A Girl Like You," "Love Is a Beautiful Thing" (almost totally overlooked) and the still-amazing "People Got to Be Free." There's got to be a story behind this snub. As Little Steven would say, the Rascals were in that rare era where the best music was the most popular music. It wasn't long after that when the rock audience would start to splinter, and popular music has never been the same since.
4. Mystery writer Sue Grafton has done twenty some books using letters of the alphabet, like "V Is for Vengeance." She's up to the letter W, which makes me wonder what the last volume will be titled. My guess: "Z Is for Zip--I Got Nothin'."
3. Surprise Endings, music: Everyone knows "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" from 1969's Abbey Road, where the tape is "cut" at the song's climax and--well, the Beatles' track just goes to dead air. But the Jeff Beck Group used the technique first, in 1968, with the instrumental "Rice Pudding" from Beck-Ola. An even hotter climax was cooking when that track ended abruptly. While my interest in Emerson, Lake & Palmer ended quickly, I still love their "Knife Edge" (1970) and the finale, where the recording machine sounds like it's being turned off while the group is still playing.
2. Surprise Endings, lyrics: Over the years, most songs establish their lyrical theme early and then work it for three minutes. You can email me with your examples, but I'm noting some endings that don't follow a typical path, like Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman" (the "Oh" is only used in the last three words of the tune), where he's ready to call it a night and the woman he's been stealing glances at decides to come back his way. You don't really know what's next, though--maybe she'll keep walking! My vote for the best surprise ending of all-time is Todd Rundgren's "We Gotta Get You a Woman," so lyrical, fun and then loaded with humility and selflessness, as the final words to the song are, "And when we're through with you/we'll get me one, too." A stroke of genius.
1. I really need to get over to E Street in Tumwater and have my photo taken there before it's changed to Lego (sorry, not using upper case) Road or named after a bank. I procrastinated about a place near Olympia's downtown post office and I'll forever regret missing having my pic taken at that business. It was called Stoner Accounting.