Sitting In, Standing Up, Lying Flat

So have the days of the past week gone....

Beginning last week, sitting in a former Quaker meeting house now repurposed as a performance stage, to see four performers, three of them friends and the last two 9,998 short of a full 10,000 Maniacs....



(The rest of the band was there in sound, which is sort of in spirit;)



John Lombardo is a founding member of the Maniacs dating to their Jamestown formation era. He met Mary Ramsey, their future lead singer, at Buffalo's legendary Nietzsche's around 1989 (because of course they did). Mary joined 10KM first on backup vocals and strings, then stepped up to the mic when Natalie Merchant left. Although they've done numerous side projects of their own in recent years, they told us at this show that they hadn't performed many of their own songs from their duo collaborations in years,

Which songs, you ask?



Three of them come from 10,000 Maniacs albums spanning close to 40 years, including their cover of  "More Than This." But most were from their duo CDs, which I now own three of.



This is their first, which I found on eBay modestly priced and it arrived yesterday. They told us at the show that Ryko was the label that was the first to go all-CD in their distribution; Weedkiller's Daughter, which I've owned for years, is also from them.  Not autographed yet, but I have Sharpie and will travel:)

Opening for them was a local duo who go by "Voices," or, when Sonny Mayo starts the set by himself,....



"Voice."

I'd met and become friends with him a few years ago after he opened on this same stage for Jen Chapin, a show I'd helped organize in another cold Buffalo winter.  Sonny told me the other night that Jen brought her dad Harry's guitar to play at that gig and she let him try it out:)   I knew from that previous show here that Sonny had grown up in this village closest to our home- “Academy Street School” is on the one CD of his I previously bought from him (and actually remembered doing so;) - but I did not know his other connection to the place I walk the dog every weekend- a "rail to trail" portion of the former 400-plus mile Lehigh Valley railway.  When he was a kid, the railroad used to still come through here, with a trestle over Union Road that I don’t remember from the 80s, and when hobos would get off the freight train here, his mom would offer them food and drink.  Good people come from good people:)



The second "Voice" then joined for the rest of the set. Julie Mayo is a talented singer and harmonist, with funny tales to tell and an infectious laugh. They added new material to the night and I went home with a filled soul.

The weekend also included hearing of another horrid Sabres home loss Saturday, following of a nerve-biting-at-first eventual Bills win Sunday, and then  two fairly uneventful workdays Monday and Tuesday before the latter ended with me doing something I never had done before:

♫Let's get political, political.....♫

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A friend of ours, who used to work with Eleanor at Wegmans, has taken on a noble cause in the past couple of years, trying to get our local county government to adopt term limits for elected officials.  This proposal has shifted over the years as the party in  power has pendulmed between R and D. A decade ago, Republicans were in the executive suite and controlled the Lej and Democrats tried unsuccessfully to get it on the ballot; now a multi-term Democratic executive with a D majority is resisting a Republican effort to do it. It's not a vote FOR term limits but just to put the question to voters in November, since it would require amending the county charter.

Todd first tried last summer, when a badly promoted public hearing produced very little turnout. This time, it got a little more press in advance of the meeting, with him being quoted about the effort. I had a Rochester day Tuesday ending in a dental appointment, and I told him that if I got out in time and not in oral traction, I'd go.... and did.

Only a handful of the elected legislators were even present, since this was not the vote but just to get public comment on it. The incumbent exec (who has promised to veto putting it to the voters) didn't bother to show up, either, but the News reporter was there, as were a couple of the local tv stations.  We spoke our pieces for about half an hour in all: Todd went first and was quite good in his presentation.  I was next to last and decided to focus on just one trope put forth by incumbents: We already have term limits, they're called elections

Well, will the chair now recognize the Honorable Member from the Mizar/Alcor Riding:


 
I identified the "four p's" of power that incumbents wield over any challengers:

- the power of the purse, to hand out donations to worthy causes, with big checks and smiling grateful Little Leaguers and arts agencies all promoting the candidate to their own supporters;

- the power of the printer, to send out constituent newsletters and get columns in the local papers and airtime on local media about how big and important they are;

- the power of patronage, because those district offices and snowplow depots aren't going to staff themselves without grateful voters or their families being on the government paycheck;

- but especially the power of their parties, who support the incumbents in their candidacies, carrying and filing their petitions and fine-tooth-combing those of challengers to try getting them kicked off the ballot before voters can even consider them.

Since I'd told Eleanor I'd be on my own for dinner that night and got out fairly early, I headed back to the brewery I'd first met a comedy host at last month and, for the first time in months, presented my own mix of poetry and standup.  After repeating most of the same poem/schtick I've now done in front of a mic twice before, I added my newest work. It's based on the upcoming showdown between the Buffalo Bills and the Baltimore team that beat them soundly in the third week of the season. A team named for a bird- and not a scary one like a Falcon or a Seahawk. Basically, a bird most famous for being the inspiration for a poem by a former Baltimore poet.

I call it, "The Ravens."

Once way back in late September came a bad day to remember
When Josh Allen and his teammates hit the road to Baltimore
Their home crowd got in a frenzy when Lamar and Derrick Henry
As a twosome running, passing, sickly running up the score.
          “We’re the  visitors,” Josh muttered, “Week 3 losing makes us flustered
            Only this and nothing more.”

Then a Houston comeback dodged us, but thank gods for Aaron Rodgers
His incompetents in Jersey- made by Josh to sweep their floor
Titans, Seahawks left us wishing—that the Fish we’d next be squishing
One more win, and then those Chiefs he’d lost to Januaries before—
But that game was in November, his superpowers he remembered
            A KC loss for evermore.

After that the Chiefs stayed lucky, though their wins seemed rather sucky
Sleazy refs and one doinked field goal kept them up on every score
Meanwhile Josh just stayed in Winland, ‘cept for Rams and dumb New England
He barely missed the bye and one-seed though the Chiefs’ wins were so poor
 Week 18 laid out the courses, Josh would face a team of Horses
 Denver Broncos? We’re at war!

Josh knew who he’d next be facing- the Steelers barely tried replacing
Their division-winning rival, playing all night oh so poor
After some first quarter tension, Josh traveled to a new dimension
Scoring 31 unanswered- Denver cried “what came we for?” 
 Back to Highmark they’ll return! And- the divisional rounds determined,
 His next guest is Baltimore!

Week 3’s loss is much forgotten, we will not meet them downtrodden,
Our entire team is healthier than in post-seasons before
You Poe fans can suck bat guano when Rousseau and Matt Milano
Catch Lamar and tackle Henry on the frigid Highmark floor
 Shall your low seed overcome us? Will you out pass or outrun us?
 Quoth Josh Allen, Nevermore!

And that's me performing it.

There was also music and comedy-





- and I drove home to discover that my check-engine light, which had blinked back on after the last comedy event, had gone back off and remains off today.  I didn't even drive that car, although maybe the smell of weed on the outside of Eleanor's from the brewery parking lot was enough to give the garaged JARVIS a contact high;)

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The following morning came the part where I got to lay flat on my back and get paid for it.

Shut up.

The clinical trial people finally got back to me after their failed effort to get me in for a bone density scan the previous week because the machine was broken. By all accounts it still is, but they confirmed I could go to yet another of their Amherst locations on Wednesday morning and git'r'done. After working in a workout before it, I headed over and got the full body scan they need for this.  In further proof that the engineers designing machines are far removed from their field of use, I quickly noticed that the scan (which takes 5-10 minutes once you're in position) starts and ends with the scanner at the head end of the table and scans all the way down to your leetle toes.  That's functionally weird for two reasons. One, you have to duck in and out of where the scanner rests at start and finish, and since it's over your head you can't see it. Also, you have to remain completely still for the duration with your feet touching in an unnatural almost pigeon-toed position. It's a lot easier to keep your head still for the entire time, which is the part it scans first. By the time it got to the end of its run, I could barely feel my legs to know if they'd stayed still the whole time. Apparently they did, because I only had to do it once- once he stopped after about 30 seconds because he forgot to ask me to go pee first.  Since I'd handled the four "p's" the night before, I was quite expert at doing this.

I then got home to discover they'd already loaded up my prepaid reloadable debit card with my compensation for the time and trouble for this, not nearly enough since it took three appointments to get it right. I used that bling on three things and part of a fourth:

-  a copy of this book from a current Cornell English professor-

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- another copy of this CD, which also came in the mail yesterday-



- to send to my college roommates who are also fans of Lucy's;

- to renew our membership in the local artist group Eleanor exhibited with a few years ago, since she's now back to making new art to be considered for future exhibition with them; and

- a totally off-diet meal for both of us after Things happened this past week, and especially late yesterday, that will be the subject of a later entry. Nothing bad, just stressful as shit.