A Sort of Halloween Story

We had next door neighbors, two women, who had a side business involving estate auctions and antique sales. All sorts of stuff was always being moved in and out of their garage...chairs, sofas, antiques of all sorts, knick knacks, bric-a'-brack, paddy whack, and give a dog a bone. Jackie and Betty were real characters.

A first Saturday in May Betty calls me.

"Barry, look out on our back patio, do you see that woman?"

"Yes"

"She just walked up and sat down and she won't say anything to us, she acts like she on drugs or something. Can you walk over and try and talk to her?"

The seated woman had her back to me with an arm leaning against on patio table. She was wearing a black dress and had a black wide brim hat on her head. I thought since it was Derby Day she may have wandered over drunk from another party. Wait a minute, black on Derby Day? nah. All sorts of scenarios were running through my gullible head.

As I got closer I said "Ma'am...Ma'am? she remained stock still. Then I saw it was a mannequin and looked up to see Jackie and Betty at the back window laughing.

Good one.

Crown Mold

We recently had crown molding installed in a couple of rooms. I can do alot of things involving carpentry, but crown molding is beyond me. I've installed chair rail, shoe mold, and base board but crown molding I don't get. It would seem to be straight forward but there's much more to it than meets the eye. You have to think inside out and it's difficult to visualize the inside or outside corners when you're out making cuts with the miter saw. 

We had a friend who lives across the circle install it. He's been a finish carpenter all his life. He said that when someone tells him they're going to install crown themselves, he always replies, "Can I watch?"

Burn It Down

There's a severe drought here in Louisville and most of Kentucky. Everything is brown and lifeless and doesn't look like it's going to be a very colorful fall.

Los Lobos  'Burn It Down'   2010

Radio Flyer Car

 

I Was a Teenage Punk

I was in a car with five guys, most of whom I didn't know very well. We had one more guy to pick up who had to sneak out of the house and into the waiting car down the street. His strict father was picky about who his son hung out with. We were going to the State Fair, or so we thought.

We stopped for gas and strict father pulls up behind us and commands his son to get out of the car. He walks up to the front passenger side window and asks for my name.

"Why do you want to know?"

WHAMMO! strict father hits me in the face with his fist. My nose gushes blood. Strict father goes to his car and pulls out a miniature Louisville Slugger baseball bat. Everyone is yelling at the driver to start the car, he's coming back with a bat!

The car finally starts and we pull away in time. I'm still dazed from the punch in the nose. I look up and there's a spray of blood on the inside windshield and all over my shirt. I look at the other guys in the car and they're all wide eyed and white as ghosts. I thought I must look pretty bad.

We stop at the driver's home, I clean the blood of my face and we ditch the idea of going to the fair. I come home with a bloody shirt and a fat lip. I told the story to my father. He calls strict father and he comes to our house and offers apologies and tells him that he has anger issues and problems with his son. As I recall he may have been a minister...probably Baptist.

Ghost Of Love

I was reading about David Lynch one night as well as listening to the sound track of his movie "Inland Empire" one night. The next morning I heard the same song on WFPK so I had to post it. It seemed like I had to.

"Ghost Of Love" from the David Lynch film "Inland Empire" 2006.

Comfortably Numb

There is a Pink Floyd song which they play on the radio to this day. That song is  'Comfortably Numb' which has the most noted and famous guitar solo of all time played by David Gilmour, who was co-writer of the song with Roger Waters.

According to Rolling Stone, Roger Waters was injected with tranquillisers for stomach cramps by a doctor prior to playing a Pink Floyd show in Philadelphia on the band's 1977 In The Flesh' tour. "That was the longest two hours of my life", Waters said. "Trying to do a show when you can hardly lift your arm". The experience gave him the idea which eventually became the lyrics to this song.

Although much of Pink Floyd's music was good for its time in the 60's and 70's, 'Comfortably Numb' stands the test of time and is a classic.

Pink Floyd  'Comfortably Numb'  1979.

Coconut Cream Pie

Tonight we went out to eat with friends, then came back to our house to eat desert. A beautiful relaxing evening. Wife makes a mean pie too.

Chris Whitley

Chris Whitley 'Weightless' 1996.

Magnifique

We were browsing the wares at Williams Sonoma. Wife has been wanting to buy new pots and pans, specifically the pricey five ply all clad pots and pans. I don't blame her for wanting the best. She loves to cook and she's good at it, so...what the hell.

This five ply all clad stuff is supposed to heat up faster and, so the saleswoman said you'll almost never have to turn the burners above medium flame. I can't wait to fry myself some gourmet bologna sandwiches...I'm sure they'll be magnifique.

Last week we celebrated a birthday and wife baked a rasberry chocolate cake. It fell apart as she was pouring the ganache on the three layers. It didn't look so good but was heaven to eat. I called it Firing Range Cake and wife gave me the stink eye.

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.

Another One From Boz

Boz Scaggs  'I Just Go'  2001.

How Do You Stop?

Joni Mitchell 'How Do You Stop?' 1994.

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?

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.

Jason Isbell

Jason Isbell 'Seven Mile Island' 2009.

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)

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.

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.