Globex Corporation Newsletter

I'm not at work, I won't be for the next two days either.

I didn't take a Betaseron injection last night, so I feel pretty good. I'm still in that period when I'm feeling good and not yet dreading the way I'm going to feel after the next injection.

I get to see [someone] in a couple of hours. I'm getting all of my laundry done so that I could stay a little extra time if possible.

I'll be away from a phone, so Cigna Teldrug and [Nameless Company] Human Resources won't be able to bug me.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I try to put a different spin on things sometimes. Maybe it's because my life sucks. Maybe it's because I'm (believe it or not) generally a positive person. I don't know, but I feel oddly positive about this.

I scrapped the frost off of my windows when I got off work. I had to use the defrost, I had to turn up the heat, in a few minutes, I'll crawl into a warm bed (heated mattress pad - what a great invention!). My nose is cold. My knees ache. Life continues as normal. It's just the way I want things to be.

I live in a land of four seasons, even if summer and winter are too long, even if spring and fall are far too short. Four seasons, all wonderful in there own way. Four or five months of winter follow.

The last 3 bottles of bourbon barrel porter are in a closet, waiting for the first snowfall, and event that, I learned today, has already happened, I missed it, all evidence of snow gone by the time I woke up on Sunday.

Seasons change, life goes on.

I couldn't ask for anything more.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

Today is the best day of my life.

It's not the best day I've ever had, I won't even try to decide which one that was, I've had lots of great days in my life. I'm grateful for each and every one of them up to this point.

But today is the best day I'm going to have for the rest of my life. Tomorrow I will be slightly worse off. The day after, slightly more so. And so it goes until I get so bad that I'm confined to a bed, until I can no longer dress myself or do the littlest things to take care of myself.

But today, today is the best day of my life. Today I can cook and clean (even if I hate to do so), I can bathe myself, I can still drive and get myself to work. Once there, no matter what [Nameless Company] thinks of me, regardless of how they treat me, I can still do my job and do it well.

Because the right side of my body is more affected than the left, I can still play guitar. I wasn't very good to start with, but my abilities haven't fallen off dramatically even though I have a degenerative neurological disease. I can still play harmonica and sing. My brain still works, and I can still come up with songs of my own and I'm still able to figure out how to play songs written by others.

My brain still works, and by all accounts will continue to do so. My brain has always been a lot more about who I am than what my body was ever able to do. The things I'm best known for come from in my brain. I get to keep them all.

Today is the best day of my life. I told someone once, a couple of months ago, that I didn't want to spend any time with her because I didn't want to waste the best day of my life on her. Now I'm with [someone] and I'm so pleased, every time I'm with her, to be spending the best day of my life with her. I want to spend as many of the remaining best days of my life with her as I can. She makes every day special, and when I realize that it's also the best day of my life, well, that's pretty amazing.

So today is the best day of my life. I'm going to enjoy it. Maybe some people will say I'm wasting it, but I don't think so. I'm doing what I want to do. I'm spending the best day of my life on my terms. I'm not at work, I don't have to go for 3 days, I haven't showered yet, maybe I'll order a pizza for supper and watch an episode of The Simpsons. I'll think about [someone] and realize how lucky I am that she puts up with me. It's the best day of my life. I'll decide how to spend it.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I'll admit it, last week's Positive Tuesday post was pretty lame.

I thought it was a good idea, it's something I truly believe, but I'd need to do a whole lot of research to do that particular post right.

I didn't and the post suffered. It doesn't matter, I'm back this week writing again. I'm positive about the idea of Positive Tuesday and that, no matter how bad I botch it, I'll come back the next week with another attempt, even if it's a lame-ass attempt like this one.

Positive Tuesday began a couple of years ago (it was on Monday, then) when I found this blog getting way too negative. I'm not a negative person, though I'm often more inspired to write about things that piss me off than I am to write about things I really like.

Positive Tuesday has been good for The Globex Corporation Newsletter, but more importantly, it's been good for me. At leas once a week I have to actually sit down and think about something good in my life, organize my thoughts and try to let the fine readers of The Globex Corporation Newsletter know why I'm positive. It's a very poignant exercise if you ask me.

Positive Tuesday is probably my most canceled feature because it's the hardest for me to write. Some days I just don't feel like being positive. In my life right now, it's very hard to be positive. Then again, I have a roof over my head, enough to eat, a job (such as it is), a girlfriend who is once again just 45 minutes away, my life is OK.

I need to remember that.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

You know what's cool? Piano players. Particularly piano players as songwriters. My favorite songwriter is Ben Folds. Other piano playing songwriters I like are Randy Newman, Billy Joel, Warren Zevon, Ray Charles and Charles Brown.

I would never say that on piano players are great songwriters. I actually read a very interesting argument about how bass players (Paul McCartney, Sting, Lowell Fulson) are great songwriters, written by a blues pianist. I suppose that can be true, but a piano can actually physically see the relationships between the notes in chord the way a guitarist will never be able to.

There are great songwriters who solo on any instrument you can name. There are great guitar playing songwriters, but Bruce Springsteen or Bob Dylan can't hold a candle, musically, to Ray Charles or Randy Newman.

So, today, I'm positive about the music writeen by piano players.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

One of my favorite Simpsons episodes was waiting for me on my VCR (you are correct in your exasperation, I do not have a DVR) when I got home from work. That's enough for a Positive Tuesday post all on its own.

This episode, like many Simpsons episodes, bites the hand that feeds it. If you look up this episode on fan sites, many hard core Simpsons fans don't care for this episode. They often hate this episode because it makes fun of hard core fans of a cartoon show. That makes me absolutely love it. I should point out that I consider myself a hard core Simpsons fan. I guess I'm able to laugh at myself in a way a lot of hard core fans can't.

The second thing about this episode I like is that it is part of a recurring theme of making fun of the sitcom format. Besides Poochie being added to The Itchy and Scratchy Show, the Simpsons also inexplicably add a character who apparently lives with them, Roy. Roy appears in no other episodes, is never referred to again. Lisa explains it best (though she's actually talking about Poochie):

Adding a new character is often a desperate attempt to boost low ratings.

I see things on TV, in the news, wherever, and I try to figure out ways to work them into this blog in a humorous way. Last year, for example, I declared this blog steroid free and asked readers to submit a urine sample with each comment. Rest assured, I did not receive any vials of urine in my mail during that time. Truthfully, I'm a little disappointed by that.

So I was watching [4F12] last night and thinking how I could add a new character in "a desperate attempt to boost low ratings." I thought about making up someone, a new character who would do things like comment and complain, argue with me even.

Then I thought about La guera. I've known La guera for a while now (I even know her real name). I resisted writing anything about her for a long time, having been scared shitless about doing that by a previous person and a general cautiousness as I entered a new relationship.

La guera was not brought into this blog in "a desperate attempt to boost low ratings." Maybe an attempt to raise low spirits, but I don't care about "ratings" (I can tell you how many people stop by every day, though). Now I'm not talking about why she's in my life. I'm talking about why she makes appearances on this blog.

This blog is about my life. It's about me. It's the good and the bad. I do not write everything that happens to me in this blog, but I could if I wanted to. I'll admit to having written things I shouldn't have. Being denied writing what I felt was necessary on a given day was really tough for me.

So back to La guera, if La guera is a character on The Globex Corporation Newsletter, what kind of character is she? Is La guera Roy or Poochie or even, heaven forbid, Chuck, the other brother from Happy Days who only appears in the first season? Or is she Kahn, Minh and Connie from King of the Hill, characters who were not in the pilot but have become integral to the show?

My life isn't a sitcom. I have no clue what is going to happen with any of the characters in my life. Some have left and that's saddened me. Some have left and I've been quite pleased, if a bit reflective and sorry about the way things worked out. Some come on late and effected me greatly. I have no idea who will come into my life tomorrow or who will leave. I'm fine with that.

I'll enjoy the good people while I have them in my life, for however long that happens to be.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

If there's something I just love (in the same way that I love a good sandwich...) it's being told how to feel about something. Being told that I shouldn't be upset about some perceived travesty of justice. You can explain all you want why shit shouldn't bother me, but don't dare deny me the right to be upset after your bullshit explanation.

And should I decide to use my graphics abilities to express my displeasure and the displeasure of those around me (who are as upset as I am) don't advise me not show my antagonism in a public place, a place where those who could changed the fucked up situation might actually see it.

I'm an asshole, I'll admit it. Don't tell me what I'm right and wrong about. Don't tell me that I can't be upset about something. Don't hinder my attempts to express my displeasure.

The graphic has most likely been taken down by now.

I have a printer and lots of paper.

This is what I'm positive about.

That's as good as it gets today.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

...well, not the continent so much, but the people who are on it today who weren't on it just a couple of days ago.

A 45 minute drive is so much better than an eight hour flight, so I'm positive about that too.

Also, I'm going to see The Simpsons Movie today.

This is a good day!

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I bitch a lot. It's sort of what I do. I'm sure it gets old for you, the fine readers of The Globex Corporation Newsletter which is why I try to limit my bitching to one day a week. OK, I violate that, but if you compare the contemporary blog to "Globex Classic" (I'm always working the marketing angle...), you'll find that I'm not quite so bitchy today as I was, say, two years ago.

That's not what this post is about, though. This post is about family, specifically, mine (no, not the "Juliluses"...). Like any family, mine pisses me off from time to time. I could go into things, relatively recently even, that made me want to break from my family. Try as I might, I keep going back, though. And, more importantly to me, they keep taking me back.

I was the younger of two children, the only boy. I always felt like I was the favorite. Maybe I was, but when I look back on things, maybe my parents just made me feel like I was the favorite. Exceedingly fair people, when I look at the type of people they are, I don't think they could have had a favorite. But I sure felt like I was.

While my dad was gone a lot in the military, he was never distant. Not an overly emotional type, he was always there those times when my heart was breaking, but in his way. He was the one who spent an entire day with me driving to and from Sioux Falls to pick up my stuff when I got separated. When you spend 12 hours in a pickup with someone at a time like that you need comfort. You also need someone with a strong back and first hand knowledge of loading a vehicle. I got both that day, as difficult a day as I've had to endure

I chopped a lot of wood at that time. I'd go to the woodpile and break up aspen and pine logs with a kind of rage I didn't know I was capable of until I couldn't lift the maul over my head anymore, until the blisters on my hands were torn open and bloody. Dad brought me a pair of gloves and showed me how to split wood correctly, how not to waste energy, how to accomplish something with all of that energy, how to do the job right. It was exactly what I needed at the time and somehow he knew.

My mom was always there in a more emotional and intellectual way. She was a stay at home mom in a time when that was actually possible. It causes me a great amount of sorrow when I see an economic situation that forces both parents in a household to work. Kids today (God, I sound old) are really missing out. A parent at home kept me out of trouble, was always there when I needed a hand.

Mom grew up on a farm, and you always had a big breakfast on the farm. We had a big breakfast every morning, more breakfast than we probably needed, but that was mom's thing. Cereal? I didn't know what cereal was until I went to college. Our breakfasts always had meat and lots of grains. Again, I wasn't spending all day in the fields, I was going to sit in a classroom. I probably didn't need all of that food in the morning. It was an advantage though, I was alert and not hungry when I went to school.

I led an advantageous childhood. Not advantages like going to the best schools or having things. My parents were all about advantages. They were always there (and continue to be) when I needed them. Mom was at home, returning to work after we kids could fend for ourselves a little better. They did things for themselves, sometimes on the cheap, to provide more for the family. That provided more money for the family, but it was more importantly a lesson. You want food? I learned that it was possible to cook for yourself, to kill and butcher the food yourself. You want a room in your basement? Build it yourself. You can use the money you saved for something else.

I don't kill my own meat or build much of anything anymore, but I'm well aware of the possibility. And I do a lot of things myself, those lessons translated into thing in me my parents probably didn't expect. I like to read, so I write. I like music so I create it. I like food so I cook. I like beer so I brew. Those things are gifts from my parents.

It is not my intention to leave anyone out, my sister, her kids, her grandkids provide me with a great deal of happiness. And I've learned from the all, they provide their own lessons. It's my parents who have made me what I am. It is not possible to thank them enough.

I love my parents. I respect and admire them. I hope to be like them when I grow up. I mean that in a childish way, but also as the humorous and thoughtful adult that they taught me to be.

BOJ
...serious time has now concluded, back to the pointless crap you've come to expect from The Globex Corporation Newsletter. Have a great day...

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I'm spending the day with La Guera and son. She's flying out for Bolivia later this week and she'll be gone for a week. Thought a little quality time today would be a good thing.

There's a reason for the image to your right. Without going into too much detail or even turning this into an MBW post, I'd just like to restate that I really like intelligent women. The alternative does not work for me, disastrously so.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

For the record, I'm still positive about the stuff I wouldn't blog about last week. Things are still going well, we enjoyed dinner, a movie and some quality time together last week. We're planning to do it again sometime soon. Here's hoping for sooner rather than later.

That's about it for this week. I'm doing laundry and it's starting to look like I'd better get my clothes off of the line before they get all wet again.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

First things first, I've got a Positive Tuesday, I've got a really good one that I'd like to write about for a long time, lots of well chosen words deatailing what I'm so happy, so positive about, but I know better. I've gotten into trouble in the past blogging about my personal life in that way, writing about other people in such a way. It's hurt other people in the past, so I'm just not going to blog about it.

No, I'm going a little different this time. I'm positive about being in bed, that is sleeping in. When I got home last night, the wind was blowing like crazy, it was overcast and though it wasn't raining, I suspected it might. I'm generally in bed by 2am, and generally up about 6 hours later. I don't know why I'm sleeping so little, probably because I don't do anything physical in my life any more.

But today, oh yes, today. It was a little overcast in the morning, a little on the cool side. With my hours at work, I just get up whenever I feel like getting up. If I'm awake at 7am, I get out of bed. If I, like today, wake up at 10am, that's when I get up. Yes! Eight hours of sleep.

I can't remember the last time I slept eight hours in a stretch. This comes from a guy who couldn't go to first sememster Latin every day because class met at the ungodly hour of 11am. I like my sleep. I love it! Getting out of bed after that amount of sleep makes me feel so good. I'm so refreshed. I'm doing laundry, I'll hang it outside and I'll enjoy it.

That's what I'm positive about today.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

As I look back on this blog, I start to realize that a constant theme is how much I like beer. I know this post has been done many times in the past, but it is Positive Tuesday, after all, so it's very fitting.

Drinking was never a big deal in my family. If I wanted a beer from the time I was 15 or so, I could have one. Going outside the home and risking getting caught doing something illegal seemed a bit silly, not that I didn't do that. It was a lot more fun to drink with friends than it was to drink with my parents.

So my first beers were crap, the stuff my dad could get cheap because he liked a beer or two every day after work. Stuff like Old Milwaukee Lite and that generic beer that was brewed by Falstaff always filled dad's fridge. A treat was Coors which was brewed in Colorado but, at the time, didn't have nationwide distribution. They didn't sell it in South Dakota, but a short drive to Wyoming could secure a couple of cases of Coors. It amazes me that we considered that a treat. Don't get me wrong, to this day I like Coors better than any other mass produced pilsner, but it's still a mass produced pilsner. I can do better.

When I was in college, getting something different meant getting an import. I got into some German pilsners like St. Pauli Girl and Beck's, and there was always Guiness, but the choices were pretty limited.

It wasn't until I was in my twenties and thirties that fine American regional breweries started springing up and making fine beers. The first big one that I became aware of was Boston Brewing, the makers of Samuel Adams. I like Samuel Adams, a full bodied lager, hoppy, meaty, a real man's beer. Then I tried some of their other brews. They make a wonderful cream stout, a Golden Pilsner (and if you ever see it, buy it!), a whole variety of beers, some seasonal, some brewed year round.

Other regionals have done good business and made great beer as well. But the reason I'm writing this post is because of a brewery down the road in Ft. Collins, Colorado, New Belgium Brewing. New Belgium has a history with me similar to that of Coors. New Belgium didn't have distribution in South Dakota. When dropping of promotion for a Patient 957 show in Spearfish, TSA suggested driving to Beulah, Wyoming to buy some New Belgium beer at a little convenience store just across the border.

I'd had Fat Tire while living in California, a Belgian style ale that I liked. This store had the whole line of New Belgium beers and I picked up 12 of the Sunshine wheat and 12 of the 1554 Brussels Black Ale. I've never particular been into Belgian styles, preferring the English and German takes on brewing, but my experiences with these beers were excellent. They sort of opened my eyes to the Belgian styles.

BPM, mere feet below me as I type, is a Belgian brewing fan. He enjoys the beers of New Belgium as well as the styles produced by Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. I've enjoyed a few Belgian style beers with him and have learned to appreciate the style.

A grabbed a 6 pack of New Belgium 1554 Brussels Black Ale on the way home from work last night. A few minutes later I was enjoying a beer, a good beer, in my apartment and watching the episode of The Simpsons where Marge becomes a Springfield Police Officer ("Marge, you being the Man makes me the woman... and I have no interest in that... aside from occasionally wearing the underwear which as we've discussed is strictly a comfort thing...").

I live less than an hour away from one of the great American breweries, a couple of hours away from some of the best brewing done in this country. Not drinking their beers would be wasting my proximity to them.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

If I had my way I would know everything. I've been collecting knowledge for my entire life and seem to let very little go. When I was in high school, this was decidedly not cool. If a weird fact came out of my mouth everyone would ask, "how do you know that?"

It amazes me that I was somewhat ashamed of my ability to hang onto facts. It amazes me that I would actually hold back, that I'd try not to act "so smart."

There's a difference between having knowledge and being a "know it all" I realize. I know I've crossed that line before and undoubtedly will again. One of the hardest things for me to admit is that I don't know something, a close second being that I don't have an opinion about something.

When it comes right down to it, though, I know it's impossible to know everything. I imagine that more is learned every day in this ever changing world then I could ever fit inside my skull. I can never know it all. While I accept that, it sort of bugs me.

Honestly, the only area that I can be totally infallable about is very personal, the things I like. Even that, though, is changing. I like things today that I didn't realize that I liked when I was younger or even a year and a half ago when I moved to Cheyenne. But in whether I like something or not, particularly after trying it, I can never be wrong. I know that completely.

I was walking across the bridge at USSB one day and I thought I heard Glen Purdie say, "what was the question?" It was part of a conversation that I wasn't in on, I hadn't heard any of the rest of the conversation, I was just passing through on my way to Control Room B (the one with MTV in it...) but hearing that made me think for some reason.

What was the question? I don't know, but suddenly I wanted to know the answer. It's funny how something will stick in you brain and just won't get out. Plus I'd be sitting in the same room for the next 8 hours, and it would stew inside my head until I had to drive home.

Beer is the answer, the t-shirt reads, what was the question? Of all of the truths in the universe, one that I am completely confident in is how much I like beer. I know a lot of things, but I don't have first hand experience with them.

I know that the Mississippi River flows from Lake Itasca, Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico south and east of New Orleans. I've read this in books and seen that this is the path of the river on maps. I know the Mississippi River exists, at the time I was living really close to it. But I'll never know, actually know for myself that this is true until I visit both of those places. Moreover, I can't know it is completely true until I travel the entire length of the river from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.

I do know, without any shadow of doubt, that I like beer. I don't have to take any of that on faith. It's simply true. Everything I read, everything I see requires scrutiny on my part. Yes, some beers I don't like. Most, however, I do.

So all of this stuff stews in my head for a while and it starts to come out much more poetically that I've spent a whole lot of words just now trying to express:

Lots of questions in life lots of things to know
I wanna learn 'em all before my time to go
I got questions about death and the dearly departed
I got questions about women, man, don't get me started
I can tell you what I've learned in just one easy lesson
Beer is the answer, what was the question?

From the factual to the metaphysical to the stuff that relationships are based on, I have no idea. I'm clueless. I'd love to know everything, but I never will. But there's one thing I do know.


They told us in school that knowledge is king
But when it comes right down to it we don't know a thing
We got Atlantis and Big Foot and alien abduction
No answers just heresay and powers of deduction
But there's one thing I know 'bout the rest I'm just guessin'
Beer is the answer, what was the question?

Tony Olson worked at USSB and was absolutely certain that aliens were here. I don't buy that at all, but, well, I can't be completely certain that they don't. Nobody can prove that they don't. I don't buy it, but I could be wrong. It's just one more thing that I'll (probably) never know.

Being a linear songwriter, it was hard for me not to begin with the chorus, which was the first thing that sprung to my mind. The chorus and this final verse were the first things I wrote in Control Room B that day. The two verses above took a long time and came much later. I have a chorus to a song that I wrote back in October that I still haven't done anything with. I'm sure I will someday, but I can't force it. The same with this:

Well beer is the answer, what was the question?
I ain't got none now but I know where to get some
A tall glass of brew is my only redemption
Beer is the answer, what was the question?

Life is a test it ain't multiple choice
It ain't fill in the blanks it ain't true or false
There ain't no time limit it don't grade on a curve
You do the best that you can and get what you deserve
I've been studyin' too hard and my brain needs some restin'
Beer is the answer, what was the question?

I'll never know everything. For me, that's pretty humbling. I take great comfort in being completely sure about something.

I also like the way beer tastes.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I'm not sure I really want to write about this. My general philosophy on Paris Hilton is that if people stop talking about her that she'll just go away.

But I can't pass this up.

Paris Hilton is in jail!!!

Generally I try not to delight in the misfortune of others, but this Paris Hilton, famous for, as near as I can tell, being famous.

Her jail cell is probably nicer than my apartment, she'll more than likely eat betterthan me while in the can. But if I want to go to a movie tonight, or drive a car anywhere, I can. I don't plan to, but I can. I can.

So for a month, the most fundamental thing about my life will be better than some rich bitch's.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I wrote a much more elaborate post on this subject last week, but blogger ate it. Them's the breaks, I guess.

You should really check it out. Great guest performances, excellent arragngments and production by Ben Folds and my favorite track was written by Folds and Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy):

That's Me Trying
(featuring Aimee Mann and Ben Folds)

I got your address from the phone book at the library
Wandered in, looked you up and you were there
Weird that you've been living, maybe, 2 miles away for the best part of 20 years
You must be, what, in your early forties now
If I remember,
You were born in June or was it May?
Eisenhower was the president although it may have been JFK

Years of silence
Not enough who could blame us giving up?
Above the quiet there's a buzz
That's me trying

You still working in that store on ventura?
You still going with--no, that's not fair
I know I haven't been the very best of dads
I'll hold my hand up there
The reason that I'm writing is that i'd like for us to meet
Get a little daughter dad action going soon
We can put things behind us
Eat some pizza, drink some beer
You still see your sister Lemli?
Bring her, too

Years of silence, not enough
Who could blame us giving up?
Above the quiet there's a buzz
That's me trying

But I don't want to talk about any of that bad stuff
Why I missed out on your wedding and your high school graduation
I'd like to explain, but I can't
So let's keep things neutral
Stick to topics that won't bug us

How 'bout this?
Let's choose a book and we'll read it before we meet
Then we can sit down at a restaurant
Have a look at the menu and talk about it while we eat
See, if we never had a problem
Then that's what life would be like
Easy
Uncomplicated
Cool

So let's just pretend that the past didn't happen
I don't really like thriller as well.
I don't want to know if I've got grandchildren
no need to tell me where I went wrong
I don't want to know what happened in your thirties
You wanna try 'cold mountain'?
Or is that too long??

Years of silence, not enough
Who could blame us giving up?
Above the quiet there's a buzz
That's me trying
I'm trying

I'm not kidding, check it out!

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

I wrote a really great Positive Tuesday post about William Shatner's Has Been album, which is really great, but Blogger ate it. Better, it left it in my drafts with the title in tact so that I thought it was still there and ready to go.

Yes, I revealed one of my secrets, sometimes I write posts in advance. Never more than a week, usually only a couple of days. I'm not always feeling positive on Positive Tuesday or bitchy on the MBW. I am positive or bitchy in any given week.

So I guess I'm positive about the ability to engage in blog chicanery (sp?). What I can't do on Blogger is tell it to post something I've written at a given time ore date. I can post date posts, but Blogger will immediately post it with the date I've selected. That's proven to be useful at times, like with lists that I keep at the top of the blog for a week.

I'm also supposed to be able to blog via email. This would be cool because I can't post from work. Oddly, our blocking technology at [Nameless Company] doesn't recognize this blog as a blog (go figure), but it does block any attempts to post anything, be it post of comment. Email would circumvent this. I'll have to look into it.

Wow, this was a crappy Positive Tuesday post. I'll try to do better next week.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday

Popularity in Music is a baffling thing to me. I simply don't understand what makes a musician popular. It's not that I have bad taste, some of the bands I like have become poular, most, however, remain in obscurity.

So this is Positive Tuesday and Mega-Bitch Wednesday (I'm out of town and may not have regular access to a computer). These are all musicians who have had limited mainstream success (no Top 40 appearances that I know of), but deserve so much better.

I'm not just talking about people I know, people with limited recordings like Willy Grigg or Amanda Conway, I mean people who haver released music that is available to anyone.

The Blasters - A college roommate descirbed them as "What Stray Cats would be if they weren't so damn commercial." As good a description as anything I suppose. Real Rockabilly music played by some of SoCals finest musicians.

No longer a running concern, though vocalist Phil Alvin occasionally gets groups together, but they're lacking guitarist and songwriter Dave Alvin, who has his own nice little solo career going.

Biggest Success - The song Dark Night was featured in the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez collaboration From Dusk Till Dawn. A cover of Dave Alvin's Long White Cadillac was a minor hit for Dwight Yoakam.

Why They're Not Famous - It's Rockabilly and they were playing in the 1980's. Right band, wrong time

Holly Cole - Sultry song stylist who is a magnificent interpreter of other people's music. Her album of Tom Waits covers, Temptation, takes great songs and turns them on their heads. Her cover of Elvis Costello's Allison was completely unexpected the first time I heard it.

Backed by a strong jazz trio on her earlier albums, she's moved onto bigger arrangements. Think Diana Krall but with more pop sensibilities.

Biggest Success - Her cover of Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now appeared in a Chevrolet commercial.

Why She Isn't Famous - It's Jazz, it just doesn't have mass appeal. Too bad, she's really pop friendly.

Steve James - Finger style acoustic blues played in a traditional style, but often about contemporary issues.

A great picker, handling the material of the greats (Leadbelly in particular), but also a great songwriter. His Banker's Blues should have been played during every news story about those Enron bastards.

Biggest Success - I honestly can't think of one. He's not even that popular in the blues world. It's a shame.

Why He Isn't Famous - I could cynically say because the general public is really stupid, but that's not fair. It comes down to two words: Acoustic and Blues.

Abby Someone - OK, one group of guys I know. Amazing talent from the RC. Shawn Michael Bitz is the best writer (music and otherwise) you've never heard of. That's a shame, something that really needs to change.

Great songs, an amazing stage pressence, this band has everything it needs to be famous, though I haven't seen the newest incarnation.

Biggest Success - Fall Down in Love had some regional radio success and will be in an upcoming independent film.

Why They Aren't Famous - It's sad to say, but South Dakota isn't a hot bed of music. That's the only reason ASO isn't ridiculously famous.

Sue Foley - One of the best guitarists playing today, equally comfortable in a rocking electric style or laid back acoustic. I'm doing what I can to make her famous, but I'm just one man...

Biggest Success - Sue Foley Photo Fiday? Dear God, I hope not...

Why She Isn't Famous - Blues. It's hard to make it big in this genre. Too bad.

Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women - I give their Live & Uppity - to the strong women in my life. Even as a guy, I find their music empowering.

Clever and energetic, this is a band that must be seen to be believed. This is acoustic blues in the classic femenine style. Something about a woman singing blues, they can get away with stuff that no man ever could.

Biggest Success - That time they..... When they were on the soundtrack to..... Uh..... I guess none.

Why They Aren't Famous - See entry for Steve James.

Albert Collins - If Jonny Lang were an old black dead man, he'd sound like "The Iceman." I actually got to tell Jonny that I thougt he sounded like Albert.

If you like the Texas blues of the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughn, then Albert is for you. If you enjoy great guitar playing, Albert is for you. You should really be listening to Albert Collins regardless of the type of music you like.

Biggest Success - Played ay Live Aid, though somehow I missed it.

Why He Isn't Famous - A bluesman who isn't from Chicago? That don't fly...

"Icepick" James Harman - Besides Ben Folds, probably my favorite song writer. He's also a great harmonica player and his bands are always top rate.

You can't go wrong with Icepick and I've been lucky enough to see his live several times. I bought my copy of Black and White directly from James. He was in a surly mood so I was affraid to get it signed.

Biggest Success - Kiss of Fire was playing in the background during the rape scene in Jodi Foster's The Accused. He also appeared on David Letterman with ZZ Top.

Why He Isn't Famous - I get the feeling he's a bit of an asshole, I saw him go off on an audience member once. Entertaining and just a little bit scary..

BOJ

Labels: Lists, Mega-Bitch Wednesday, Positive Tuesday

I grew up in a military family. Some of my earliest memories are of my dad calling long distance from remote locations, of us sitting around and reading letters from my dad. This was primarily in the 60's and 70's, technology wasn't nearly as advanced as it is today.

When we lived in Texas in the 60's, my folks would try to call my gradparents in South Dakota. You couldn't direct dial a long distance call then, of course, but had to have an operator connect you. There was a strange problem when this would try to happen, my grandparents exchange had a 772 prefix. We would constantly be told that there were no 772 prefixes, be told that the number we were trying to reach couldn't possibly exist. A work around was created when my folks talked to the telephone operator in my grandparents hometown who told my folks how to tell the operator to dial the number.

Later, I lived in that 772 town while my dad was in Thailand for a year during the Vietnam war. It was a one year TDY, we lived in the town my granparents lived in to save a little money. Mom worked in the local diner (where she once met my favorite wrestler "Wahoo" McCaniel and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, but that's another story) to help keep two households going.

The military gave dad one phone call during his stay, anything else he did was on his own. I remember him calling a couple of times during that time, once with the assistance of an amateur radio operator. I remember being amazed at how someone could place a phone from, literally, halfway around the world, even if there was a tremendous amount of hassle to do so.

A couple of years ago, my brother-in-law was stationed in Korea for a year. He and my sister set up an internet conferencing program and were able to talk anytime they wanted for no cost except the set up costs. My own phone service is internet based (VOIP) which means I can make long distance phone calls at any time to any place in the world. I made three long distance phone calls this morning, no one was at home at any of them, I simply left a message and didn't sweat it. I'll call back later. And it didn't cost me anymore than it would have not to call and not leave a message.

I don't particularly embrace the cell phone thing, not that I don't believe in the technology, but because I don't think I need to be that kind of accessible to everyone. Still, it's pretty cool, that I can call someone while they're in their car. It gives me whole new ways to annoy people. That alone makes the technology worthwhile.

Labels: Positive Tuesday

Sometime around 1999, I bought a Sony 300 disk CD changer. I was so stoked when I bought it, finally, I had easy access to all of my CD's in one convenient location. I entered all of the CD titles so I could see what was playing when the unit was on. Very cool, and it got a lot of use while I was living in California.

Also while living in California, Apple released iTunes, a Mac based MP3 player that I installed on my computer. I encoded a couple of my CD's, and I really liked the way iTunes handled my music, much cooler than the Sony 300 disk changer. I could create playlists by dragging and dropping individual tracks, instead of being limited to 8 broad categories.

I started playing some music after moving back to the RC. In P957 we would often record performances on video. I'd get TSA to convert the audio from those performances to MP3 for me and I'd be able to play them on iTunes. I found that there was a lot of music out there, available for download, free or otherwise.

I had encoded my entire CD collection to MP3 years ago, but I'd acquired lots of music on the net along with stuff I'd recorded. In short, my computer had more music on it than a device that was built to do nothng but play music. And I find myself listening to music at my computer more than anywhere else.

I resisted the urge to purchas an iPod when they came out. The first models were under 1GB. Later they got bigger and bigger drives. They added a color monitor on later models. So a couple of weeks ago, I bought an iPod. This one is an 80GB unit that not only plays music, but movies and photos as well. I have three hard drives on my computer, my iPod has more storage capacity than two of the drives I have installed.

And what do I have on my iPod. Today I have 4717 audio tracks, 3 movies and 96 photos. I'm not even at half capacity. I was looking at my iPod the other day. It's about the size of an audio cassette. An audio cassette that holds about 90 minutes of music. Today, my iPod contains twelve and a half days worth of music.

That's so cool...

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday