Forward,.... into the past!
Jan. 24th, 2025 07:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogA few more online orders of entertainment arrived this week, more or less on time despite some fairly brutal predictions of bad weather:
That first one gave new meaning to the old Great Lakes anthem of Gordon Lightfoot-
♫And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her♫
First was the scholarly book- footnotes and bibliography and everything!- about a fairly silly comedic influence of mine all the way back to high school-
Its preface, "liner notes" and first chapter have already referenced numerous other influences on my longtime English major-ity- from Beckett and Ionesco to founding members of Los Lobos to even the Cornell Daily Sun, which reported on four-hour-long Firesign listening parties inside Willard Straight Hall in 1970. I need to get a copy tothanatos_kalos for their own media research studies.
Next to arrive was the latest, and my first, collection of music from a bluegrass performer named Billy Strings. Friends of ours are huge fans of his, following him around on tour all over the country. It took this interview/performance segment on NPR's World Cafe last week to get me on board as they played, and he explained much of, his newest and first major label album release. They teased it by explaining why he, one of the most acclaimed string musicians in the country, decided to take guitar lessons for the first time in his life. It was enough of a sample to order the two-disk CD with the gift card I got for the platelet donation a few weeks back. Two things become clear from listening all the way through:
- he is a damn talented musician and songwriter; and
- damn he likes him his weed.
World Cafe has also featured places as well as people in the music world. Earlier this week, they did a "Sense of Place" feature on Club Passim, a legendary music venue in Cambridge (Our Fair City), Mass. I'd heard of it, and have seen posts from Facebook friends who have played there, but I was this week old when I discovered they pronounce that second word in the club name "Pass-SEEM." (No, the scholarly footnote reference to "all over the thing" is pronounced "PASS-imm" like I thought the club's name was.) It's a stage that hosted Baez and Dylan in their early days, and has survived despite decades of changing tastes and the pressures of the Boston real estate market that has killed off so many old-school venues.
----
I listened to both Billy and the Passim segment on my day in and back from Rochester on Tuesday, postponed a day by that massive threat of snow. Our area of Buffalo was sunny and snow-free Monday, if still brutally cold, so I postponed until the next day, worked a little from home, ignored the coronation at noon, and we then took in an unexpected free performance at the art gallery by Curtis Lovell, an amazing local musician we've seen there and elsewhere a few times before:
It was SRO at the AKG for this, and at least one other musician friend of mine was among the crowd-
It was also MLK Day, and the well-meaning white people in charge of the place made an effort to recognize it:
At least they didn't offer watermelon:P
There was snow on the roof, and it added to the atmosphere inside-
- and unlike the smaller crowd inside this Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Town Square, the other major Buffalo facility tied to Dear Old Ralph held a much bigger but colder assembly the night before. Bills-Ravens was the featured attraction, and it gave me the chance to add a stanza to the epic of Poe-try I'd performed the week before the game and posted here last time:
For at last the foes did go onto that field with cold and snow- the
Ravens got the frigid rock first and marched right down for a score
Without those Pat Mahomes-like flops, the Bills scored back and caused some drops
One right in the closing minutes, showing Ravens to the door
Both MVP QB’s dueled out, but in the end the Birds were ruled out
Quoth the Ravens, You scored more!
Now, though, we must change from poetry to song, because
♫We're goin to, Kansas City, Kansas City here we come,
Goin' to, Kansas City, Kansas City here we come,
They got some crooked refereein' there that we're gonna, overcome♫
Check back next week if I get to add a Super verse or two to that one.
----
Putting off the drive until Tuesday worked great until the final half hour, when more promised lake effect slowed the final 10 miles or so of my drive home. More is expected today, but at least the outdoor temperature exceeds the freezer at the moment, and I've gotten a decent amount done this week. Plus, if I'm stuck in here, there's now plenty to read and listen to.
That first one gave new meaning to the old Great Lakes anthem of Gordon Lightfoot-
♫And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her♫
First was the scholarly book- footnotes and bibliography and everything!- about a fairly silly comedic influence of mine all the way back to high school-
Its preface, "liner notes" and first chapter have already referenced numerous other influences on my longtime English major-ity- from Beckett and Ionesco to founding members of Los Lobos to even the Cornell Daily Sun, which reported on four-hour-long Firesign listening parties inside Willard Straight Hall in 1970. I need to get a copy to
thanatos_kalos for their own media research studies.Next to arrive was the latest, and my first, collection of music from a bluegrass performer named Billy Strings. Friends of ours are huge fans of his, following him around on tour all over the country. It took this interview/performance segment on NPR's World Cafe last week to get me on board as they played, and he explained much of, his newest and first major label album release. They teased it by explaining why he, one of the most acclaimed string musicians in the country, decided to take guitar lessons for the first time in his life. It was enough of a sample to order the two-disk CD with the gift card I got for the platelet donation a few weeks back. Two things become clear from listening all the way through:
- he is a damn talented musician and songwriter; and
- damn he likes him his weed.
World Cafe has also featured places as well as people in the music world. Earlier this week, they did a "Sense of Place" feature on Club Passim, a legendary music venue in Cambridge (Our Fair City), Mass. I'd heard of it, and have seen posts from Facebook friends who have played there, but I was this week old when I discovered they pronounce that second word in the club name "Pass-SEEM." (No, the scholarly footnote reference to "all over the thing" is pronounced "PASS-imm" like I thought the club's name was.) It's a stage that hosted Baez and Dylan in their early days, and has survived despite decades of changing tastes and the pressures of the Boston real estate market that has killed off so many old-school venues.
----
I listened to both Billy and the Passim segment on my day in and back from Rochester on Tuesday, postponed a day by that massive threat of snow. Our area of Buffalo was sunny and snow-free Monday, if still brutally cold, so I postponed until the next day, worked a little from home, ignored the coronation at noon, and we then took in an unexpected free performance at the art gallery by Curtis Lovell, an amazing local musician we've seen there and elsewhere a few times before:
It was SRO at the AKG for this, and at least one other musician friend of mine was among the crowd-
It was also MLK Day, and the well-meaning white people in charge of the place made an effort to recognize it:
At least they didn't offer watermelon:P
There was snow on the roof, and it added to the atmosphere inside-
- and unlike the smaller crowd inside this Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Town Square, the other major Buffalo facility tied to Dear Old Ralph held a much bigger but colder assembly the night before. Bills-Ravens was the featured attraction, and it gave me the chance to add a stanza to the epic of Poe-try I'd performed the week before the game and posted here last time:
For at last the foes did go onto that field with cold and snow- the
Ravens got the frigid rock first and marched right down for a score
Without those Pat Mahomes-like flops, the Bills scored back and caused some drops
One right in the closing minutes, showing Ravens to the door
Both MVP QB’s dueled out, but in the end the Birds were ruled out
Quoth the Ravens, You scored more!
Now, though, we must change from poetry to song, because
♫We're goin to, Kansas City, Kansas City here we come,
Goin' to, Kansas City, Kansas City here we come,
They got some crooked refereein' there that we're gonna, overcome♫
Check back next week if I get to add a Super verse or two to that one.
----
Putting off the drive until Tuesday worked great until the final half hour, when more promised lake effect slowed the final 10 miles or so of my drive home. More is expected today, but at least the outdoor temperature exceeds the freezer at the moment, and I've gotten a decent amount done this week. Plus, if I'm stuck in here, there's now plenty to read and listen to.