August 31, 2010

90's

It has been a long hot Summer here in Louisville, so hot it has broken the record for the hottest Louisville's ever been. Day after day after day it's been in the 90's since June. I've never wished so much for Fall. The rest of the week and Labor Day weekend is predicted to be in the 90's.

I curse the Summer of 2010.

August 26, 2010

Another One From Boz

Boz Scaggs  'I Just Go'  2001.

How Do You Stop?

Joni Mitchell 'How Do You Stop?' 1994.

August 25, 2010

Close And Far Away Memories

Walking out last night to my truck to make a store run I saw someone who I haven't seen in maybe seven years when her mother had passed away. She had come to her father's home, where she grew up to visit. She was packing to go back to her Junior year in college up north.

It was so good to see her. I remember when she was eight or nine, running over to watch me work around the house asking a million questions. She's changed in appearance so much but her voice is the same. I can see her mother peeking out from her eyes. How can time pass so quickly?

August 21, 2010

Zinnias are Last

Last Tuesday I pulled a double shift and spent the entire time at the emergency room in downtown Louisville. Seems an inmate had an emergency medical condition and I was the lucky one to transport him there.

Across the nurses station was an elderly woman with red hair and a man with his back to me came to see her. I don't know why but I thought of Harold Tabor when I saw him. I never got to see his face but I remember his mother had red hair.

In a room with a LMPD officer at the door, it's drunk occupant yelled "CAN I GET A GODDAMN CUP OF FUCKING ICE WATER?" You get to see the worse in people at places like these.

We went to eat the best pizza in Louisville tonight. The whole fam damnily was there. I had three Blue Moons and wife had to drive home. Long live Impellizzeri's Pizza.

We've got quite a few zinnia flower arrangements around the house and tommorrow's the last day of the pool. I'm off work tomorrow. The crickets are chirping, it has turned a shade cooler, the sun has that slight lower slant, and everything is right, at least for now, in the world.



August 16, 2010

Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell 'Seven Mile Island' 2009.

August 13, 2010

A Little Boz

Once you're outside...the first step...it doesn't seem that bad. After five steps someone put a heavy winter coat on your shoulders and you feel like there's a mask on your face suffocating you.

The record hot summer here in Louisville, and most everywhere else. We're all getting very tired of it. This song kind of goes with the heat hand in hand.

Boz Scaggs 'King of El Paso' 2001.

King of El Paso

King of El Paso

About a million stars in that desert sky
So high and lonesome it can make you want to cry
Or drive your young blood wild

And a burning glow above that northern ridge
Three day ride will get you straight down to old Juarez
A fool's El Dorado

He got a taste for Mescal and sweet perfume
Didn't take long to get him in the back room

All of sixteen and first taste of the border

There's a pile of bones out on the desert floor
All that's left of el Conquistador.. the conqueror

Well I rode that beast down into the ground
Through every draw and every border town
That devil carried me

You watch a few go down to the fire or the rope
You leave little to chance and nothing to hope

An old 24 and nothing could hold me down

(Ain't gonna ride no more)

Ain't gonna ride no more

Well you cross it once you're gonna cross it again
Something keeps you coming back to that shadowland

And so I did for the mysteries

To hear that old soul stirrer slamming through the night
Tombstone train cuts its own daylight

Ain't gonna ride no more

Though my leathers worn and my cuffs in tatters
My hearts on straight and that's all that matters
If I lose a few moves it aint no loss
Cause there's only one border left for me to cross

(Ain't gonna ride no more)

I'll take my sweet time on that one

Aint gonna ride no more

(Ain't gonna ride no more)

Oh I aint gonna ride no more

They call me King Of El Paso and my advice
Learn that road between here and paradise

(Ain't gonna ride no more)

Ain't gonna ride no more

(Ain't gonna ride no more)

August 12, 2010

Synthetic Pop

Passion Pit is an American Second Wave synthpop band from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Formed in 2007, the group consists of Michael Angelakos of Buffalo (lead vocals/keyboards), Ian Hultquist (keyboards/guitar), Ayad Al Adhamy (synth/samples), Jeff Apruzzese (bass/synth bass) and Nate Donmoyer (drums). All of the band members, except Angelakos, attended Berklee College of Music.

Passion Pit 'Sleepyhead' 2008.

Pop Goes The Harold

The phone rang last night and it was Ben with a story to tell. He was out on beat patrol in beautiful Portland earlier in the afternoon when a man pulling a lawn mower on a trailer tells Ben there might be a dead man lying face down in a backyard off 42nd Street.

Ben drives to the address and, sure enough, there's a man lying face down against a backyard fence wearing shorts and a tee shirt. Ben said he could tell by the skin showing he wasn't dead. Ben pokes him with his Maglite, "Party's over bud, time to move on." The man, reeking of body odor and alcohol, staggers to his feet.

It takes Ben a shocked second to realize it's none other than the terrorist from my childhood, Harold Tabor. He's living back in Portland, Louisville.

Flashback 45 years:

My brother and I are running around with Harold who has a screwdriver tip embedded in the end of a broken off broom stick. Harold and I have climbed atop an old spring house off Old Westport Road near our neighborhood. Brad has his hands on the edge of the roof, still trying to get up top.

Harold takes his homemade spear and starts stabbing the roof between Brad's fingers. Brad is hanging there, unable to let go, his eyes wide pleading with Harold to stop. Harold keeps stabbing and laughing. He was having a good ol' time.

August 9, 2010

Blue Motel Room

Heard on the radio on the way to work early last Sunday morning. How come old songs sound so good when you least expect to hear them?

Joni Mitchell 'Blue Motel Room' 1976.

August 5, 2010

Van Gogh Van

I was leaving the mall today and parked near me was this.





Sounds Good To Me

Black Cow:
2 oz Kahlua coffee liqueur
2 oz half-and-half
3 oz Coca-Cola

Steely Dan 'Black Cow' 1977



Black Cow

In the corner
Of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high
You were high
It was a cryin' disgrace
They saw your face

On the counter
By your keys
Was a book of numbers
And your remedies
One of these
Surely will screen out the sorrow
But where are you tomorrow

I can't cry anymore
While you run around
Break away
Just when it
Seems so clear
That it's
Over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here

Down to Greene Street
There you go
Lookin' so outrageous
And they tell you so
You should know
How all the pros play the game
You change your name

Like a gangster
On the run
You will stagger homeward
To your precious one
I'm the one
Who must make everything right
Talk it out till daylight

I don't care anymore
Why you run around
Break away
Just when it
Seems so clear
That it's
Over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here

August 4, 2010

100 In The Shade

We've had a very warm Summer. It's rare that it doesn't ramp up over ninety degrees most days. The local TV news rolls out it's annual warnings on how not to die when it's hot out.

Awhile back they said "drink plenty of water" then came "drink plenty of fluids." Nowadays it's "stay hydrated and don't leave babies in a hot car."

I went to the hydration recreational unit this morning, packed my thermal control box with hydrate cubes, and threw in a couple of soda hydration aluminum cylinders.

At about 1100 hours I bi-pedaled out to my internal combustion machine. the heat hit me in the cabeza like a open handed strike to my mandible area. Before I got out of my truck at the pool I scanned the extended cab for babies.

It's 101 degrees now. We're sick of this stuff and looking forward to October.