Shouting Street

This is going to be another quick one simply because Jen needs to use the computer and sadly has a lot of work to do so I may not get another crack tonight.

I just took some laundry down stairs for the first time. Lately Jen has been very kindly doing my laundry when she does hers, which is usually while I am at work. Either that or I’ve done it at the house when we have made trips. The reason I mention it is because I flashed hard on my days living in the dorm at Boston U. Even the smell was sort of similar. The laundry room here is significantly different than the one at the dorm but the feel of taking laundry down to a sterile basement with no one around remained the same.

I was always a bit freaked out by the dorm laundry room. It was in the basement of the the 15 floor dorm. It had a certain industrial feel and I never once saw anyone down there. Not even once. Maybe everyone else was creeped out by it too. I liked living in a dorm. I really did enjoy it. But I really hated that laundry room. Of course it was cheaper than taking it to Mom’s laundry up the street, which I did do a couple of times. I think those times were the ONLY times my laundry got folded Freshman year. Sophomore year I was in the apartment and took it down the street to a place run by a rather mean Asian lady in the middle of the Portuguese neighborhood that I lived in. I used to show up late and she would yell at me. Never kicked me out but she was fond of yelling at me.

Ahh memories.

Ok, so I know I said I would try to write here every day and the last week I’ve only written a couple of times. Just been a busy week. Today was a nice day though.

I bought an Acoustic guitar. It is an Epinophone dreadnought Steel string with a solid wood top. I’ve been strumming it all night and getting my fingers back into the idea of strings and strumming. I still don’t know a lot about playing it or know many songs (Really I only know partials for the most part) but I do love the feeling of playing it and the sound. This is the second instrument I’ve ever purchased for myself. I once bought a second hand trumpet that wouldn’t play. I ended up bring it back. I’d still love to learn to play though.

Someday I may make someone sit down and teach me how to really read music. I can read guitar music a bit and I can sorta read tabs but thats about it. IT would help the whole learning process if I knew what I was looking at. I think the acoustic will help me learn a bit., I absolutely love my electric but I don’t plug it in much and with the acoustic I will be able to hear and feel everything a little easier. Thats the plan at any rate. Plus I like having both because I love the sound of both.

I still like the feeling and idea of playing music. I love music in so many different forms I suppose it is only natural to want to learn to play. I need to start taking lessons again though. They kind of went by the wayside with the new job.

I got a bit of an infusion of new music today too. Jen got the Coltrane and Monk live at Carnegie Hall disk that came out a bit ago and is supposed to be brilliant. I picked up U2’s boy for myself as I’ve been on this U2 kick and I didn’t have it. I think I am only missing two of their albums now. Not sure. Kind of funny that I finished off getting some other artists that I don’t like quite as much before I finish off getting all of U2’s stuff. I think I just go in phases with them more than I do with some other bands.

Anyways I think that is all for tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I will write the piece on Graceland that I have been meaning to write.

Oh and Ape, when you read this - You have a lot to say. You just need to remember that and not think that what you think is not worth as much as other folks. Heck if nothing else write about the damn weather. Write about comics. Write about why you think Stephan King is still ok to read. Write about the Yankees. You’ve got a lot to say, just gotta say it and not think that its not worth saying.

Not going to write too much tonight. I had a perfectly awful day at work tonight and I am lined up for another perfectly awful day tomorrow. I was going to do another write up of my favorite albums but that is going to have to wait until I am in a better headspace. Today really sucked and I think I need some mindless time.

Random stuff

I’ve gotten back into noodling around on my guitar. I haven’t been doing so for quite a while. Getting the new job really through off a lot of stuff I was doing. I’ve put weight back on, I stopped playing the guitar, I don’t know what new books, movies or CD’s are coming out. But hey at least I make more money. I have less time in general and a lot more stress. I still think it was the right decision but it is rapidly becoming time to look at moving on to bigger and better things.

Its funny how this job feels like a bigger waste than my Borders job or the comic shop gig. There is nothing wrong with web hosting or working in billing I suppose. I just am starting to face the reality that it is not what I am meant to be doing and I need to get moving on figuring out what it is I need to be doing. I spend a good portion of my time trying to figure out what that is and I’m still trying to figure that out. I need to be helping people on a more direct level. I need to be doing something for the good of humanity. Oh well. If my folks end up reading this, just know that I am looking and working on it.

Anyhoo I think that is it for tonight. I need some mindlessness.

Writing about Rattle and Hum made me think about other albums that have been very important to me over the years. So I thought I’d take a couple of nights and write about them.

I don’t have a story about when I first got Scarecrow from John Cougar Mellencamp. It would have been around when it was released or possibly a little while after. It was my first Mellencamp album and the reason I wanted it was for the song ‘Small Town’. The album came out in 1985 so I probably got it sometime in ‘85 of early ‘86. I remember I had it when My brother, my Mom and I went on our first cross country trip in 1986.

At the time I was a fan of Springsteen, Huey Lewis, general 80’s music and just about anything my brother liked. I didn’t like everything he did but I did like a lot of it. I’ve always been a big fan of music but for most of my young life I wasn’t exposed to a lot outside of whatever played on the pop stations and whatever my parents played. My brother’s tastes stretched beyond that. He was into heavy metal a bit, mostly Iron Maiden, but by ‘86 I think he had discovered Metallica. That may have been later. At any rate the point is that Mellencamp was one of the first big breaks I had with my brother musically. At least at first he never really liked it.

I listen to the album now and what I think most strongly about is the fact that my brother hated the song Rumbleseat as much as I loved it. I also remember that it was the first album I ever owned that I loved every song on it. Even ‘Born in the USA’, which was my favorite album prior to Scarecrow, had a couple of songs like ‘Cover Me’ that I just didn’t particularly like. Scarecrow knocked my socks off from top to bottom. I don’t remember the first time I listened to it but I can imagine being enthralled. I’m still enthralled by it.

A lot of music I liked in my youth has gone by the way side. I remember driving my mother nuts on a trip to Vermont because my brother and I kept playing Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ over and over again. I listen to those songs now and they very nearly make my skin crawl. Some of my favorites from back then like ‘Want a New Drug’ or ‘Rock me Amadeus’ sound dated and quite horrible now. Back then it was all I knew though.

Scarecrow is different. When I listen to it now it sounds as fresh to me as it did back then. It also sounds as familiar as an old sock. It is the only album that I’ve retained through my entire music buying life. I wore out two copies of the tape and it was one of the first CD’s I ever owned.

The album opens on a dark note with ‘Rain on the Scarecrow’ which is the title track more or less. It is the beginning of a journey. The song is about families losing farms they have owned for generations. It is a bleak depressing song and the perfect introduction to an album that is about living in the Heartland. It goes into ‘Grandma’s Theme’ which sounds like an old record of a lady singing about a late night train ride. I think it is there to remind listeners that Mellencamp is singing about real people and real places. It is either his mother or grandmother singing I’m not sure which.

The album takes the turn into pop with with the first familiar chords of ‘Small Town’. It is Mellencamp’s ode to middle America and the people that live there. I guess you could call it the bright side of ‘Jack and Diane’. It is a happy and upbeat song. The album isn’t all foreclosed farms and lost dreams. He follows up with ‘Minutes to Memories’ which has settled in as my favorite song on the album. The song is about a young fella talking to an old fella on a bus ride across the states. The old guy tells the young guy that he is young and he is the future, ’so suck it in, tough it out, and do the best you can’. It is a poignant song about how life isn’t easy and and the importance of hope for the future. It encompasses the entire album in those twin themes.

‘Lonely ol’ Night’ is a pure pop love song. Mellencamp may not want to be a pop singer but he scores a pretty perfect pop rock song with this one. It as a straight forward love song. The familiar guitar work lends it that same small town denim jacket and a six string feel. I don’t know much about Mellencamp’s early days but I can almost guarantee he grew up listening to Johnny Cash and Buddy Holly. You can hear it in the heart of each of his songs. Particularly in this one.

‘The Face of the Nation’ and ‘Justice and Independence ‘85′ are the next two and along with ‘You’ve got to Stand for Something’ and ‘The Kind of Fella I am’ make up the quartet of songs that while good, don’t quite transcend the ages. Don’t get me wrong, I love all four of them. I don’t think they have aged quite as well as the other eight songs however. They are all pretty straightforward rock songs. ‘Justice And Independence ‘85′ has a lot of the same pop resonance that ‘Lonely ol’ Night’ does but falls short of its perfection. Despite that it shares the honor of most politically conscious song on the album with ‘Rain on the Scarecrow’. It feels a little less heartfelt however. It doesn’t strike the same chord that Rain does.

‘Between a Laugh and a Tear’ is a perfectly good love song that doesn’t stand out as much simply because of the presence of ‘Lonely Ol Night’ on the same album. While they aren’t real similar in structure (’Between Laugh and a Tear is a duet with Ricki Lee Jones among other things) but they are similarly themed. ‘Between’ doesn’t have the dead end life aspect to it that ‘Lonely Ol Night’ does but in the end is the lesser of the two love songs.

‘Rumbleseat’ isn’t my favorite song on the album anymore but it was for a long time. I think my brother may still hate the song although I couldn’t swear by it. I know he has warmed up to the rest of the album. Rumbleseat is a straightforward rocker about trying to break out of a life that is going nowhere. It is about trying to change, trying to be better, trying to get more out of life and working a crappy job and getting drunk. It still resonates on a personal level for me just as it did back then. It is a fun song and the only song on the album that achieves the ideal of the three minute pop song. ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’ and ‘The Kind of Fella I am’ both come in at 2 minutes 55.

I once put together a sports clip video set to ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and few songs lend themselves to a highlight real like R.O.C.K. It is a love song as surely as ‘Lonely Ol Night’. It is a love song to the people who came before and made rock and roll. I couldn’t swear by it but I think it ended up being the biggest single off the album. In a way I think it is the most memorable moment on the album. You almost can’t help but smile listening to it. With shout outs to most of rocks greats it evokes the spirit of ‘American Hot Wax’ and ‘Happy Days’. Heck it will always make me think of the movie ‘Renaissance Man’ where it bridges the gap between the Black soldiers and the white soldiers in the back of a fan. Its that kind of song. It is a joyful ode to those who went before.

That about wraps up the album. For me it is a mixture of timeless rock and roll, childhood memories, and stories I can relate to now better than ever before. It has been with me for just about all my rock and roll life and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

“This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles, we’re stealing it back”

I remember the very first time I heard Bono say that. It was not long after Rattle and Hum came out. It was in the parking lot of the Stamford Mall in Connecticut. My Dad was driving, my brother was in the passenger seat, and I was in the back. Dad has just bought me the tape and put it on when we got in the car. I was completely hooked. This was either in 1988 or 1989 right around when the album and movie came out or at least not too long after. It’s funny how clearly I remember riding down the spiral exit ramp hypnotized.

I have always looked at it as one of the gems of my collection and one of the top ten albums all time for me. To this day I would still count it as my favorite U2 album. ‘Achtung Baby’ and ‘The Joshua Tree’ are not far behind but if push came to shove it will always be ‘Rattle and hum for Me’.

I can remember listening to ‘Hawkmoon 269′ while sitting in my room at the house I grew up in in Stamford playing Nintendo games and just putting that song on repeat. I still get a little shiver when I hear the organ music follow by the two drum beats and then the dramatic guitar lead in. “Like sweet soul music, like sunlight, I need your love” that my friends is good stuff.

‘Angel of Harlem’ is U2’s hymn to Jazz and to New York in the rain. You can practically hear John Coltrane wailing away in a smoky nightclub. The live ‘Pride’ captures what that song is about and gives you a taste of what it feels like to hear it live. And let me tell you, there are very few things on this earth that are quite like 40,000 people screaming “They could not take your pride’ at the top of their lungs. It is like a electric jolt. It is everything you need to know about U2 and the version on Rattle gives you a taste of that. ‘All I Want Is You’ is still one of most beautiful love songs I have ever heard. It really says it all.

The album is rather epic in scope. Bono and friends take on a lot of different styles of music and try a lot of things out. From blues to roots rock to gospel there is a little of everything here. It sounds to me like a journey across America by four Irish guys who are passionate about music and are learning and searching for different styles and sounds. I’ve read reviews that call the gospel version of ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’ as “misguided”. I’m not sure what about it is misguided. It isn’t as sonicly perfect as the original on Joshua Tree, but it isn’t supposed to be. It is supposed to be the sound of U2 embracing gospel choir and trying to make a hymn out of a rock and roll song. Does it work? Yes and no. It sounds joyful, exuberant, and beautiful. It also sound like a rock and roll song sung by a gospel choir which is not the most appealing thing in the world. But is it misguided? Lord no!

U2 has been accused of ‘musical tourism’ on this album. Trying to associate themselves with something they are not. I doubt anyone is going to hear ‘When Love Comes to Town’ and mistake Bono for Robert Johnson or Son House. Does this mean U2 should stick to just playing rock music and quit trying to be something they are not? No. That kind of attitude is the kind of attitude that kills bands and artists dead.

I have read a lot of reviews that consider this the worst of U2’s albums. You hear things like ‘Misguided’ and ‘Blustery’ and ‘unfocused’. I generally think reviews like that miss the point entirely. Embracing other forms of music leads to change. Change keeps artists happy and keeps the music fresh. I read the same things fairly often about the Clash. Especially about their album ‘Sandinista!’. I think the problem lies more with the reviewers than the albums themselves. People fall in love with artists usually for a single song or a single album. U2 took over the world with the release of ‘The Joshua Tree’. Sonicly it followed a progression from Boy all the way down. ‘Rattle and Hum’ is the album where U2 leapt the rails and began to blaze a new path for themselves. They could have followed up Rattle with another beautiful album of dramatic mournful rock and roll. Instead they decided to try a bunch of new things. They wanted to try gospel and play with B.B. King and Bob Dylan. So yes ‘Rattle and Hum’ is U2’s most unfocused album. But that it where its strength and beauty come from.

And frankly I don’t give a rats ass what anyone says, when Bono plays Edge to play the blues its cool. It isn’t blustery or cheap or anything other than two guys having fun and putting on a show that people will not soon forget. Music is a celebration of life and ‘Rattle and Hum’ is the biggest celebration of music in U2’s catalog.

I know I know, I missed two days in a row. Honestly I simply forgot yesterday. I had some friends over and cooked up a giant batch of Fajitas and that took up most of my day. The rest of the time I was working on this thing I’m writing so I essentially just forgot. I realize I am the only one who cares about keeping the almost daily schedule, but I think its important.

Nothing major to write about this morning so just some random stuff.

It’s my Monday. Tuesday morning always sucks just a little because I know work is going to be lousy. Tuesday tends to be one of our busiest days and considering how awful busy Friday was I’m dreading going in. It doesn’t help that I tend to be in the worst queue all day either.

**

Dragonfly has actually picked up again. I will finish that damn book!

**

I picked up the U2 Vertigo 95 tour DVD. It is a concert from Chicago and man is it amazing. I was lucky enough to see them in Philly in October and it was the best concert I have ever seen. It is hard to say that considering how good all those Mighty Mighty Bosstones shows were but this was on another level entirely.

Its kind of funny how U2 has somehow managed to become uncool while at the same time becoming the greatest band on the planet. Seriously, I know a lot of folks from music message boards that I read who think U2 is crap. It baffles me because a lot of these are Clash and Strummer boards. U2 is not so far different from them. U2 has been far less experimental with their music over their long career than the Clash was over their short one however. Maybe its the straight Rock and roll approach rather than the Reggae, Ska, Punk hybrid. More likely it is because they are the greatest rock band on earth and so popular that people get snarky about them.

All I can say is see them in concert and you won’t have a doubt. And if nothing else they are actively trying to save the world. Bono may be a bit of a wanker sometimes but he is doing what he can to make this a better place for everybody and he gets hero treatment in my book for that.

And besides, The Edge is the coolest human being on the planet. Its not even a close race.

**

Well time to get ready for work. I will do another entry tonight to make up for the lack of one yesterday.

I’m a geek. Or at least so I’m told. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed in the slightest about that. I love comics, Magic the gathering, science fiction movies and fantasy novels. I’m involved in roleplaying games for God sakes!

But on the other hand I’m also reasonably well read in terms of the classics. I am educated on the Arab-Israeli conflict, the history of Iceland, and I know what onomatopoeia means off the top of my head even if I can’t spell it (I haven’t run spell check yet but I am looking forward to what it comes up with for that!*). My collection contains punk rock, saxophone jazz and South African Mbaqanga music. So am I still a geek?

In a previous post I mentioned having an argument about the greatest villains in comics. With one of the participants in that conversation I’ve had an ongoing argument about whether or not Catholicism is idolatry or not. So is he a geek?

Some folks I’ve known who have been particularly dismissive of ‘geeks’ have been heavy video game players. I met a person playing Everquest, an online fantasy game, who thought anyone who did roleplaying games was something less than human. I’ve known people who were very serious fans of the X-Files who considered Science Fiction silly.

I usually do describe myself as a geek. I suppose I think of myself as a geek in one fashion or another. Its a label and labels tend to be bad. In this case I think of it as being a part of a larger community of people who enjoy imagination and the fantastic. I hear people use the word as an insult and as a way of attempting to put people in a lower social caste. I also see it and hear it used as a badge of honor.

In the end I think it is like any other label. It can be a badge of honor or a curse depending on how you wear it. When you get right down to it it is pretty meaningless. How can this simple word describe someone who reads both J.R.R. Tolkien and Henrik Ibsen? Someone who enjoys Beethoven, Coltrane, and The Dance Hall Crashers?

Funny old world isn’t it?

Well tonight I played Magic with a bunch of guys and tomorrow night I’m going to a party. I really don’t know when I will have time to actually write again. Probably not till Sunday. Its funny how quickly the time gets absorbed. Especially when you don’t have all that much to begin with. I really don’t have anything to say tonight.

Paint on the wall
Permanent white coat
Cracks begin to appear
Time slips by
Dust collects in the corners
White turns to gray
Chips begin to fall away
Nothing is permanent

Some days I’m just not very inspired to write about a particular subject. The only thing that really tickled my fancy towards creativity today was plotting out some thing I want to do in a bit of a story I’m writing. I’ve been doing more than blogging as far as writing. I’ve been doing some other creative writing along with the poetry. It has felt nice. Good to flex the brain once in a while. My job is generally unengaging so I need something to keep my gray matter in fighting shape. Flexing my mind a bit with these written word jam sessions has really sparked my creative energy. While I will most likely never be a fan of my own writing it certainly feels nice. I may post some of it up here at some point. We’ll see.

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I’ve had a bit of lyric stuck in my head all day. It is from the Belly song ‘Now they’ll Sleep’. The line is pretty early on in the song:

“I’m not the hero I could be but I’m not the dog I was”

I’ve always gotten stuck on that line. It makes me think of what a little wanker I was when I was younger. And it some respects it makes me think about the wanker I am now. But I have changed a lot and continue to change. Life is a process and I think we never stop growing and being shaped and formed. I really believe that so when I think about not being the hero I could be, well, I think there is still a chance for me. I haven’t given up hope yet!

Yes I know that was a bit more personal than I usually get here. What can I say? It is whats been on my mind all day. If nothing else it is a pretty awesome song.

***

Well it is pretty late and I need to get some sleep. I have an early day tomorrow. Someday I will have a job where I don’t have to work hours that shrink the day down to nothing. Getting home at 9:45, eating a late supper, and then spending maybe an hour of time with Jen or doing whatever just isn’t worth it some days. I’ve been feeling the urge to write all day and I’m afraid it is just going to have to wait. Oh well.

I just read the rosters for the World Baseball Classic coming up and all I can say is that if the Dominican Republic doesn’t win it all then something will have to go very very wrong. Putting Vlad Guerrero, Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz AND Luis Polonia on the same roster just doesn’t seem fair.

And most Americans will not even notice. If it wasn’t for the controversy about Cuba participating I doubt most people in this country would know the thing existed. And that is a shame, because the rest of the world is going nuts about it. And why shouldn’t they? Cynical Sports Illustrated articles can talk about how it will all be a glorified exhibition because it will be taking place before Spring training but the WBC is about much more than that.

We have a habit of ignoring international competition here in the states and generally assuming our athletic superiority. Most of the rest of the world is much more acclimated to international competition. People care about track and field, Soccer, and Hockey outside of America. It is the rest of the world that the WBC is intended for.

Baseball has become an international sport. It may not be on the level of other sports worldwide but it is getting their. This tournament will certainly nudge it along. The international ratings and press should be astronomical. Competing countries like Venezuela are reportedly going nuts about it already. It would be great to see some of that enthusiasm here in the states.

In an era of asterisks and steroid scandals the WBC has the chance to really resurrect the games image. If it goes as hoped it should be a remarkable display of talent and international spirit. These games and there inception as an ongoing tradition could be the ultimate achievement of Bud Selig’s tenure as commissioner. He certainly seems to think so. With a little less cynicism the American audience could see the games as something important and special rather than looking at them as exhibition games. It will be a shame if they don’t, because they will be missing a ‘Classic’.