May 13th, 2016
Қайырлы таң! (Qayırlı tañ!)! (“Good Morning” if you were in Kazakhstan!!!)
Oooooh Friday the Thirteenth complete with a full moon! Quick someone break a mirror!!! 🙂
Its different, this Chula Vista rhythm.. Granddaughter Darrian had me do a “peer review” on a college paper of hers this week. Grandson BJ had to mix sound for a production at a local high school. I have been trying to catch up on a multitude of little broken things around the house and yard. Oh yeah and we had a big time Mom’s Day feasting frenzy starting with Eggs Benedict in the morning and ending up with some of Grandpa’s Ass Kicking Spare Ribs with Tater Salad in the evening (which turned out to be a dubious selection for two kids in braces – who knew!) Also apparently, when you live alone having acute hearing is not as important as when you live with other folks.
This has been another one of those wonderful weeks where living long enough really pays off and you find someone lost in time. A dear old friend of mine popped up on Facebook after 20 or so years of radio silence. Donna tried understanding me way back when I had just started wreaking havoc upon EDS’ solid and staid group of financial technology leaders. Coley Clark’s vision (Aka Mike Breslin?) for the Financial Industry Group was to put EDS squarely in competition with IBM’s Hogan Systems and other big bank enterprise solutions with Bobby Grisham, Don Flores, Mike Fallin, Jim Benson, Donna, me, and others down at the pointy end of the stick trying to turn Annacomp vapor into delivered value. She was so smart and worked so hard that I don’t think she noticed that I was too crazy to fail till it was too late. We had us a time! She never seemed to get tired of pulling me back from the edge. She took almost no pleasure in pointing out how many acts of political suicide I seemed to perpetrate. She would often try to catch me before I could become, “dead right” one more time! I had one of my most embarrassing moments in her presence and she still forgave me. My world is better knowing she is still in it.
This week I learned some stuff:
• I have been reading the new memoir by Rita Coolidge, “Delta Lady”. It has been interesting read as her life has intertwined with so many of my favorite people and musicians. A long time ago, I heard that Kris Kristofferson was a Rhodes Scholar but I had no idea he was also a graduate of West Point and a Helicopter Pilot
• Reacquainting myself with why I never liked plumbing!
• There is a special AT&T hell for those of us who are foolish enough to have to try to consolidate two Uverse accounts into one and change their home phone numbers during the same 2 week period. Eeeeeeeewwwww!
Website Update
• Last week for this Vocabulary quiz!
Painting Update:
• Hope to get my art table set back up this week yet.
Writing Update:
• Still digging out from the move. I am starting back on the final review next week as well
Weird-Stuff-O-Meter:
• Well the “Unplugged Meatless Monday” was a total and complete failure. We remained plugged in and gnawed on the bones of left over Chinese takeout and Bar-B-Que Mom’s Day ribs…and so was a abject failure as a kickoff… maybe next week.
Music Update:
Well, I just don’t know who picks out this here music but bless his pea picking heart!:) A couple of reminders – Click on the underlines to hear the song in your browser. Some songs are 4mp format (iTunes) so some browsers may struggle with them. To be honest I am not sure what happens if you have iTunes or not. It may be some protection schema. In which case, I am sorry but you will just have to sample the song at the iTune Store. Some songs may be listed in a different order here than on the website but that shouldn’t matter.
• Sting – If You Love Somebody Set Them Free — Sting has impressed with every turn of his craft. He has a strength of phrase and musical structure that is breath taking and compelling. His messages are simple as they are disarming and inviting. Join me again on another of his 4.14 tours of our universe
• J.J. Cale – Magnolia — This one graced the UJT over a year ago but it came up this week on rotation like an old friend returning from a long trip. Like all old friends, I just welcomed him in and found a comfy spot and offered him a drink. The next round is on you.
• The Zombies – It’s The Time Of the Season — I imagine its been a long time since most of you to have heard this elder classic. I know it has been for me. But I always like it and thought it might mix things up a bit for you all this week.
• Eric Clapton – Layla — From the Vinyl!!! I learned some stuff about this song this week. It turns out that Rita Coolidge and Jim Gordon did the original noodling on the song and the piano refrain at the end and put it on a demo tape for Eric when they were all on the Bonnie and Delaney and Friends Tour of Europe. Eric and Jim scraped the lyrics that Rita wrote and replaced them with Eric’s tribute to Pattie Harrison. At it’s heart it is essentially the same song but they never credited Rita for any part of it.
• Dire Straits – On Every Street(Live Album Version) – Just about my Favorite live cut song by the DS. These boys just blow me away live. They simply have no right to be sooooo good. Its a celebration of joy to see them do their stuff.
• The Fixx – The Sign of Fire — This is one of what I call my coupon collection. When we lived in Reston, Va a couple of hundred decades ago, my little kids and I used to take all the grocery coupons we had collected that week to the grocery store and trade them in on cash after doing the week’s shopping. We would take the cash from the coupon’s next door to the used record store and buy records. We got “Reach the Beach” during one of our Sundays!
• Gordon Lightfoot – Carefree Highway — This is my favorite song from his Sundown Album. Sundown won all kinds of commercial success for my Canadian friend but I always loved this song the most.
• Simon and Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water — Simon and Garfunkel created a body of musical poetry that is as timeless as it is surprising. This is an interesting song in a couple of ways. One is that Paul wrote just as the duo were splitting but thought that Art should sing it solo in that ‘white choir boy style” and it was put together around that premise. Over the years it is said that he regretted that decision as the song became a indelible symbol of American spirit.
That’s it… Do the best you can; Laugh every chance you get; And always remember, the best is yet to come!
As always, thank you for being my friend!
James