Pete Duquette, Hudson, NH
Hey Pete - I saw
your t-shirts on line, in the local newspaper. Cool! It's great to see that you grew up to be an artist. You had the soul of one way back when. Do you sell them online? Do you have a website?
Wo sie sind, Art Horn?
Not Horn -- Art Horn.Wait a minute - I haven't seen Art Horn on the
Channel 30 weather lately . . . you don't think he's been replaced by that little dark-haired guy with the curl in the middle of his forehead, do you?? That's a shame. I liked Art Horn just because he wasn't handsome, he was kind of goofy and awkward, and that's how a weather man should be. It was a mini-adventure watching him: he didn't stick to the script, and would often say something "normal", which is weird for a weather guy. And he seemed like a regular guy, instead of a generic vanilla meteorology robot.
I will spare you the blah-blah-blah on the world becoming too homogenized. We need people to be different, to have variety, in order to remain interesting! There. I'm done.
Art Horn will present
The Wonders of Weather, a slide show and talk at
Mary Cheney Library, 586 Main St., Manchester on Thursday, Feb. 23. The free program will begin at 7 P.M., is open to the public and registration is not required. Light refreshments will be served. For further information, please call Adult Services/Reference at 860-645-0821.
Time out for a different perspective
Taking Neddie's suggestion to download & listen to a "Dylan's roots" thing -
www.highwatereverywhere.com. Jason Chervokas put together some of Dylan's outstanding songs with old blues and folk songs that were obviously inspirational to the man. I can't wait to hear the rest of Jason's work.
Here are some thoughts during the 68 minute long podcast:
It's the stories that are so fascinating. his intepretations of them, his acting-out.
I LOVE the Basement Tapes. I bought the cassettes in the mid-90s and kept them in my pocketbook for about six months, until I couldn't listen to them any more. I'd listen to them in the car and wonder how I got to work. I'd listen to them at home and realize that hours had gone by. The music, the voices, were like a drug to me - all-immersing, mind-controlling - and I was helpless to resist. Besides, they're legal! But I had small children to care for.
I've never heard a live version of "Cold Irons Bound." It's so much bigger and scarier.
This music makes me feel so un-self-conscious. I feel like everyone, like I'm not alone, like I belong.
Jimmie Rodgers: a friend of mine made me a tape of Jimmie Rodgers' songs, mingled with contemporary artists interpreting. Love Dwight Yoakum singing "T for Texas," Allison somebody singing so sweet. Wonder what happened to that tape? Gotta go dig that up. I love to yodel.
Brownsville Girl, right? No, this is the other version - Danville Girl. Ah, Bobby's disco/hollywood period. Gotta love it. He's so incredible. Just when you think you might have had a glimpse of a little of what he's about, someone juxtaposes some songs a certain way and you get blown away all over again, just like the first time you heard him ("Street Legal," 1978, stolen from my older sister's collection. Not impressed. "New Pony" is OK, the rest is ... eh. Eleven years later, in the living room of the man who would become my first husband, I was transfixed by the very same album, and I've been hooked ever since . . . . a whole other story.)
oh! mama! can this really be the end?
And here I sit so patiently, waiting to find out what price you have to pay to get out of going through all these things twice.
It's not dark yet, but it's getting there. And it's getting late. Wow. What kind of dreams will I have tonight?
Music for our time
Neddie Jingo waxes poetic (oh, what a woefully inadequate description of what he does!) about evocative music from his childhood, the “Theme from Midnight Cowboy” most specifically, and his appreciation and awe at the wonder and power of it remind me of my feelings about what I was listening to yesterday (or the day before? Or every day? It’s stored in the ipod of my mind): the album “World Gone Wrong” by
Mr. Dylan (released Oct 26, 1993)
A few years ago, before I’d heard of blogs, I had grown to have such powerful and intricate thoughts about so many Dylan albums that I thought I needed to expound on those thoughts, someday, somewhere, to elucidate those who did not know, and to share with those who did. Right here, right now (well, as much as I can get in during my lunch break, and more in the days to come), I will try to explain why I Love The Man and His Music (again, woefully inadequate to describe what I feel).
The collective impression of this album is the raw, pure emotion of life and love, through a filter of age and history. These covers of old songs, not one penned by Bob, are each a chapter in a sad, bitter, hopeful, solemn story of life in some distant past. In listening, no, inhabiting these songs, you are transported back to these places, these people: the grimy, ragged characters wending through their lives of pain and heartache, with glimpses of joy or the possibility of it.
(For more eloquent descriptions of this particular album, see the true believers’ comments on
amazon.com.)
By song:World Gone Wrong I love the guitar on this song. More inspiration to learn how to play better. The voice begins with the pain of rejection, through pleading, and by the end to a proud, angry resignation – “No use to ask me, baby, ’cause I’ll never be back.” The words themselves are a template, classic lines of love gone wrong, but Bob’s interpretation brings you inside the jilted man’s heart.
Love Henry It’s a glimpse of a story, a brief camera pan through a humble cottage filled with desire and jealousy and murder. Strangely, it’s the impact on the off-camera “pretty little girl in Cornersville” that stays with me most.
Ragged & Dirty Here’s the wily tramp who wants whatever he can get from you, and his plea is so honest and plain that you just may give in. You know he’ll take whatever he wants and leave, and all you’ll have is the memory of his wilderness, that you could tame for only a moment. All in all, a fair trade.
Blood in My Eyes This man’s a step above “Ragged & Dirty:” he’s made some money and wants to spend it on a woman, but he’s not waiting around through dinner and drinks. I don’t know what the phrase “I got blood in my eyes for you, baby” means, but when he sings it, I know what he’s talking about.
. . . OK, I guess lunch is over. More later.
