For the first time in years, I've run out of new music to listen to. All my most recent purchases have been listened to a sufficient number of times and have been moved into the room that houses the permanent music collection (per OCD policy). The New Music Pile is nonexistent, so I've been digging through the archives and playing a bunch of stuff I haven't heard in a long time. It's a lot of fun for me, so I thought I'd share a few songs that have been in heavy rotation. Of course, I can't just post a song...I have to give you notes. That's the kind of guy I am.
Miracle Legion/Even Better - I've been listening to a lot of old Miracle Legion records lately. I'm particularly fond of their 1989 release, Me and Mr. Ray. I bought it on vinyl a few months back, but didn't get around to listening to it until recently. Every time I go into a music store, one of the first things I do is check out their selection of Miracle Legion records. Much of their discography was never released on CD, and there's still quite a few things I haven't been able to find.
Jim White/Heaven of My Heart - I bought a used promo copy of Jim White's The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted Wrong-Eyed Jesus! in 1997. I bought it because it only cost $1 and because it featured the most interesting liner notes I'd ever seen. It took me awhile to appreciate the album as a whole, but I loved "Heaven of My Heart" the very first time I heard it. I rediscovered it a couple nights ago. I've listened to this song at least 35 times since then. It sounds even better to me now than it did back then.
Jayhawks/Bottomless Cup - I remember buying Sound of Lies the day it came out, rushing home, kicking my girlfriend out of her own room so I could take over the stereo, and then sitting down on the futon and listening to the new CD in its entirety. It was a huge disappointment to me at the time. I'm not sure why. Maybe I missed Mark Olson's voice. Maybe it was too depressing. Either way, Sound of Lies turned into one of my favorite records a few years later. I love it all the way through now. Tim O'Reagan's song is my favorite.
Richmond Fontaine/Post to Wire - This is another one of those rare songs I can put on repeat and enjoy over and over again. This is one of my favorite songs for singing aloud. My natural singing voice (never heard by anyone other than me) sounds similar to Willy Vlautin's. I have much more difficulty with Deborah Kelly's voice, but I still sing both parts.
Old 97's/Rollerskate Skinny - In last Thursday's yoga class (the real one, not the Yoga for Athletes bullshit), the instructor was talking about love and being open to it in all its forms. We were all being solemn and I was trying hard to take the hippy-talk seriously. Then the last line of this song popped into my mind. A smile came to my face. It was a crooked smile, but a smile nonetheless. If anyone was looking at me, I'm sure they thought I was contemplating all the love and joy in my life. Nope, just thinking about the Old 97's.
If you listen to this song, you really should listen all the way through (or start at the end). Not only does it feature the line that came to me during yoga class, but it also features another of my favorite song lyrics. You know, the line about being "collarbone high".
My watch came in the mail today. It's the Enduro Max by Highgear. I thought it would be a good watch to use for my runs and my timed CrossFit routines. There's a big problem, though. The damn thing doesn't fit me. I've mentioned before that I have "the daintiest of wrists", but I thought I was just exaggerating. I thought it was my warped sense of self shining through. No, it's true. Even on the smallest notch, the Enduro Max hangs on my wrist like a bangle. I'd show you a picture except it's too embarrassing. Sure, people often say to me, "M-----l, you look freakishly skinny. Eat this bowl of tater tots." I thought they were just being cruel. I always thought I was nice skinny, runner skinny, rollerskate skinny. Apparently not. It turns out that I'm watches-don't-fit-me skinny.
I went back to the Highgear website to see if they had any smaller watches. There's one called the Enduro Mini. It looks like a good watch. It's basically a smaller version of the one I have.
It only comes in pink.
The Apocalypse Reader--Justin Taylor (editor)
As the name would suggest, The Apocalypse Reader is a collection of 34 short stories dealing with the apocalypse. Justin Taylor defines the term very broadly, so readers will be disappointed if they're looking for a book about zombies or robots that take over the planet. For every story about the living dead or alien invasions, there's one about Jews escaping from the Inquisition or marriages falling apart. I came to this book hoping for stories in the same vein as The Road, World War Z, and "After the Plague". As far as I'm concerned, too many of the stories in The Apocalypse Reader were off-topic.
There were a few good ones, though. Here are my personal highlights from the book:
-
"These Zombies are Not a Metaphor" by Jeff Goldberg was one of the best stories in the collection. It's the only story in the book that featured the brain-eating living dead. Unfortunately, it was only three pages long. Boo!
-
Jared Hohl's story, "Fraise, Menthe, Et Poivre 1978" was another of the highlights. It's about a group of friends slowly starving to death in Paris. According to the brief biographical blurbs at the end of the book, this was the author's first published story. I look forward to his second.
-
"Crossing into Cambodia" by Michael Moorcock was also a favorite. I thought it was going to be the usual, run-of-the-mill Vietnam story, but I soon realized it was much more than that. It featured a chilling ending that I'm sure will haunt me for awhile. I'd love to see that closing image on the big screen.
-
"An Accounting" by Brian Evenson tells the story of a man who accidentally becomes a "Midwestern Jesus" to some post-apocalyptic rubes. He inadvertently makes cannibalism one of the tenets of their new religion. This was probably my favorite story in the book.
-
I also liked "The End" by Josip Novakovich. It featured a non-traditional apocalypse, but was still a quality story. Much of the action in "The End" took place in my real-life neighborhood.
In addition to the stories mentioned above, the ones by Nathaniel Hawthorne and H.G. Wells were also worth reading. I'm going to be honest, though. The rest of this collection was a disappointing waste of my time. Some of the stories were flat-out garbage. Dennis Cooper's contribution, "The Ash Gray Proclamation", was basically 30 pages about boys selling their bodies for heroin. I now know what "fisting" means, but I really wish I hadn't read that story. Let's talk about comics.
The Best American Comics 2006--Harvey Pekar (editor)
I read and largely enjoyed The Best American Comics 2007 earlier in the year and decided to go back and read the 2006 edition. The worst part of The Best American Comics 2006 was Harvey Pekar's introduction. For some reason, he felt the best way to introduce the book was by spoiling the endings for all the stories he'd selected. Seriously, he went through the stories one by one and basically ruined them all. If you read this book, save the introduction for the end. You'll be better off.
My favorite comics in the book were "The Amazing Life of Onion Jack" by Joel Priddy and "Adventures of Paul Bunyan & His Ox, Babe" by Lilli Carré. The former features Onion Jack, a stickman superhero who'd rather be a chef. The latter features a melancholy Paul Bunyan who'd prefer to stay inside and read Proust than go out for drinks with Babe after a long day spent kicking down trees. Paul also bemoans his inability to find an appropriately-sized woman. Both of these comics managed to be funny and sad at the same time.
Other personal highlights were "Dance With the Vultures" by Jonathan Bennett, "Thirteen Cats of My Childhood" by Jesse Reklaw, and "Passing Before Life's Very Eyes" by Kurt Wolfgang.
Of course, in a collection this size, there are bound to be some selections that I didn't care for. The blabbermouth editor could have left out "La Rubia Loca" by Justin Hall, "Wonder Wart-Hog" by Gilbert Shelton, and the incredibly stupid "Busted!" by Esther Pearl Watson. Overall, though, The Best American Comics 2006 was a worthwhile collection and slightly better than the 2007 edition.
Deadeye Dick--Kurt Vonnegut
I bought a very old hardback version of Kurt Vonnegut's Deadeye Dick. It came with the dust jacket, but there was absolutely nothing printed on it that even hinted at what the book was about. There was no plot synopsis and not even a single reviewer's quote. There was, however, a full-body photograph of the author napping on a couch. He's wearing a beautiful button-up sweater, a brimmed cap, and no shoes. There's a tiny dog resting on his lap. I don't think Kurt Vonnegut was faking for the photographer. I think he was really sleeping. I liked the picture so much that I bought the book even though I had no idea what it was about.
I think that if you have any interest in reading Deadeye Dick, you should approach the book as I did...without knowing anything about it. I also think you should look around and get an old copy with the picture of Kurt Vonnegut sleeping on the back. It'll be worth it, trust me.
The Postman Always Rings Twice--James M. Cain
I read James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice because it was mentioned in the introduction to the Dashiell Hammett books I recently read. Also, at 117 pages, it was the shortest book I hadn't read on the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels list. Having read it, I have no idea how it made the list. It was a well-written novella about a drifter and an unhappy young wife who team up to commit the perfect murder--and how even the best plans can unravel if a cat decides to climb up a step ladder. It wasn't a bad book by any means, but I can't imagine that the Modern Library couldn't have come up with something with more substance to it. If I had a section on my bookshelves labeled "Pulp Fiction", I'd place The Postman Always Rings Twice right there.
I've now read 74 of the 100 books on the Modern Library's list. I'm going to read The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, but then I'll probably retire the list. There's not much left on it that interests me.
CURRENTLY READING:
- Death and Restoration--Iain Pears
- The Pillars of the Earth--Ken Follett (audiobook)
I stayed away from the computer last weekend and spent most of my extra time reading. It's amazing how much I could get through when I wasn't checking my e-mail every twenty minutes. I finished up Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, read McSweeney's #25 in its entirety, and then read the majority of Robert Coover's A Child Again (which I finished up today). I usually do my "Stuff I've Been Reading" post at the end of the month, but I have horrible recall for the things I read, so I've decided to cover these three books while they're still fresh in my mind.
BOOKS READ:
Red Harvest--Dashiell Hammett
Red Harvest was the third and final novel in my Dashiell Hammett collection. The other two, The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man, were good, but I thought Red Harvest was much better than either of them. Not only did the book add the phrase "blood-simple" into our lexicon and partially inspire the Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing, but it also featured one of the highest body counts of any novel I've read. In fact, one of the chapters was actually called "The Seventeenth Murder". There were still a lot to go, too.
Red Harvest sees the Continental Op (we never find out his real name) arrive in Poisonville only to discover that the man he was supposed to meet has been murdered. The detective quickly solves that crime, but he's annoyed by the locals in the process, so he decides to stick around and rid the town of its criminal element. The criminal element in Poisonville consists of bootleggers, loan sharks, heads of industry, hookers, hitmen, thugs, bookies, crooked boxers, and just about the entire police force. Why does the Continental Op stick around when he could just as easily head home? For "fun", of course. He's a bad-ass...and something of a criminal himself. Before the book ends, he's breaking laws left and right, planning murders, playing sides against each other, and even taking hits of laudanum.
I understand that the Continental Op appeared in a number of Dashiell Hammett short stories. I'm definitely going to look for a collection. I'm not usually interested in the crime genre, but I've been very impressed with everything I've read by Hammett, and I think I'd enjoy the further adventures of his character.
McSweeney's #25--Dave Eggers (editor)
I'd been putting off reading this collection because it featured a short story by David Hollander. He wrote a novel called L.I.E., which was, by far, the worst book I have ever read in my life. I hated it so much that I ripped it in half and threw it in the garbage when I finished.
Fortunately, David Hollander has improved a bit since 2000. His story in McSweeney's #25 was actually one of the highlights. That's not saying a whole lot, though, as this issue was something of a dud. Like many recent issues of McSweeney's, it looked pretty (ahh, shiny gold and silver!), but didn't offer much worth reading.
In addition to the Hollander story, the only other highlights were "The Ape Man" by Alexander MacBride and "A Death in Custody" by Chloe Hooper. The former was a brief look at the darker side of the Tarzan legend. The latter was a non-fiction piece about Australian police brutality; it was an update to a story originally published in McSweeney's #21.
A Child Again--Robert Coover
A Child Again is a collection of short stories that update some of our most enduring fables and fairy tales. In "Sir John Paper Returns to Honah-Lee", Robert Coover looks in on the characters from "Puff the Magic Dragon". Jackie Paper, who long ago lost interest in his dragon friend, has grown up and become a famous orator. Puff, on the other hand, spends most of his time setting towns on fire and eating virgins. In "The Invisible Man", the titular hero gets sick of fighting crime and becomes a thief and a voyeur. In "Alice in the Time of the Jabberwocky", Alice tires of Wonderland and grows old, fat, and grumpy. I don't even want to think about the sordid activities Prince Charming engages in with his wife's little friends in "The Dead Queen".
My personal favorite was "The Return of the Dark Children". That story revisits the town that refused to pay for the Pied Piper's rat-removal services. Years have gone by and a new generation of children has replaced those lost to the Piper. Everything is gradually getting back to normal...and then the rats return.
All of the stories mentioned above were inspired and a lot of fun to read. There were a couple in the collection, however, that I could've done without. I didn't know the story revisited in "Playing House", so I didn't get much out of that one. There was also one called "Suburban Jigsaw" that didn't seem to fit in at all. Still, as a whole, A Child Again was a great collection and one I'd recommend to anyone interested in new takes on some old childhood favorites.
CURRENTLY READING:
- The Apocalypse Reader--Justin Taylor (editor)
- The Pillars of the Earth--Ken Follett (audiobook)
BOOKS BOUGHT:
- The Adventures of Augie March--Saul Bellow
- The Pillars of the Earth--Ken Follett (audiobook)
- If on a winter's night a traveler--Italo Calvino
BOOKS READ:
Tree of Smoke--Denis Johnson
If you know me in the real world, I've probably creeped you out by giving you a copy of Denis Johnson's Already Dead as a gift. If not, just wait awhile. I've bought every used copy I've ever found and you'll get yours soon enough.
Denis Johnson is one of my favorite contemporary authors. I've read all seven of his novels, his short story collection, his book of travel writings, his collected poems, and four of his plays. Tree of Smoke is Denis Johnson's Vietnam novel. It follows the twisted adventures of CIA operative, William "Skip" Sands, the Houston brothers, and about 40 other characters who drift in and out of the sprawling 600+ page book. I thought it was a tough read, but ultimately rewarding. The main issue I had with it was the sheer number of characters. Had I known there were going to be so many, I would've kept a list of them from the beginning to help avoid confusion.
Tree of Smoke won the 2007 National Book Award.
Zeroville--Steve Erickson
Steve Erickson is another of my favorite authors. The writing he deletes or shreds is better than the best published work of Chuck Palahniuk. I've read all eight of his novels and can honestly say they're all amazing. Zeroville is probably my favorite so far.
Zeroville tells the story of Vikar, a man with the image of Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor (from A Place in the Sun) tattooed on his shaven head. He arrives in Los Angeles on the day of the Manson Family killings. Over the course of the book, Vikar gets involved in the movie industry and ends up becoming a successful film editor. His duties in the field eventually lead him on a search for the original version of the 1928 silent film, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc. (If you've never seen this movie, drop what you're doing and go find a copy. It'll change the way you see.)
I would highly recommend this book to people interested in the history of cinema. There are hundreds of movie references in the book and real-life actors and directors appear thinly-veiled throughout. On top of that, it's just a fantastic book.
The Invention of Everything Else--Samantha Hunt (audiobook)
I'd been having a lot of trouble reading since February. Something happened to my brain and I lost my ability to read in the middle of Samantha Hunt's The Invention of Everything Else. I finished the book, but struggled with the second half. I switched over to graphic novels and started listening to the occasional audiobook.
One of the first audiobooks I picked up turned out to be The Invention of Everything Else itself. I felt that I had to give the book a second try. I'm glad I did. It made a whole lot more sense the second time through.
As mentioned in my original review, The Invention of Everything Else is about the last days of inventor Nikola Tesla. He lives in the Hotel New Yorker and befriends a maid named Louisa. They bond over a mutual love of pigeons. Who doesn't love a book about an eccentric inventor, pigeons, and...time travel?
I can now publicly announce that there's nothing wrong with Samantha Hunt's book. The problems I initially had were mine alone. I would like to officially declare my adoration for everything Samantha Hunt has ever written (or ever will write) and my growing respect for the criminally neglected Nikola Tesla. Now gather your book club friends and read this book!
Please.
The Thin Man--Dashiell Hammett
I found the Everyman's Library edition of this Dashiell Hammett collection for $2 at a Friends of the Library sale. I don't even have much of an interest in Dashiell Hammett, but the book was too beautiful to leave on the shelf. I couldn't resist buying it. I'd already read The Maltese Falcon, so I started in on the second book in the collection, The Thin Man.
The Thin Man was originally published in 1934. It was tremendously popular and eventually spawned a series of movies and television shows. The book is famous for introducing the characters of Nick and Nora Charles, a married couple with a prodigious thirst for alcoholic beverages. In between benders, they occasionally solve a crime or two. The book seemed kind of quaint in places, but it was refreshing to read a mystery where the author didn't rely on the character's cell phone or internet access to solve the crime. I also found it interesting to see how much of Robert B. Parker's writing style was copped from Hammett's.
Drunk by Noon--Jennifer L. Knox
The owner and operator of the world's most disturbing poetry/digital arts blog recently told me about Jennifer L. Knox and suggested that I'd like her book, Drunk by Noon. I'll read any book named after a Handsome Family song, so I ordered it from the library, walked up to get it a few days later, took it into my bathroom (the only place in my house approved for the reading of poetry--I always read poetry aloud and the bathroom has the best acoustics), opened the book up at random, and proceeded to read a poem called "Music to Watch Girls By in the Mysterious Perfect Infinitive". The poem ends with the following line, a line so brilliant that the poem itself automatically leapt into fourth place on my All-Time Favorite Poems list (yes, I have a list):
How could I have known true love would come, briefly, on one leg, after 56 Jell-O shots in an upstate fraternity basement listening to Ted Nugent's "Wango Tango," so drunk I'd just fucked a pile of phonebooks?
I don't know anything about poetry, but I know what I like, and I like that a lot. The complete published works of Emily Dickinson don't touch me half as much as that one demented line. I will admit it; there were a couple duds in Drunk by Noon, but that's to be expected in any collection. I'm happy to say that the vast majority of the poems in the book were very enjoyable. This was the perfect poetry book for me. Not only did it have the Handsome Family reference, but one of the poems was even dedicated to Denis Johnson himself. I'm definitely going to need my own copy of Drunk by Noon. I'll also keep my eyes open for the author's other book, A Gringo Like Me.
CURRENTLY READING:
- Red Harvest--Dashiell Hammett
- The Pillars of the Earth--Ken Follett (audiobook)
Inspired by hotrod, I have decided to post my desert island discs. You know what I'm talking about...the ten albums I'd bring with me if I was getting abandoned on an island that just happened to have a CD player on it. Here they are:
- Various Artists - Real: The Tom T. Hall Project
-
Chappaquiddick Skyline - Chappaquiddick Skyline
- Jackson Browne - Late for the Sky
- Neko Case & Her Boyfriends - Furnace Room Lullaby
- Yo La Tengo - Fakebook
- Wilco - Being There
- Chris Isaak - The Baja Sessions
- Paul Weller - Wild Wood
- Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971
- the Kinks - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
And yes, that is the Zombies boxed set, Zombie Heaven, hidden over on the right side of the picture. I know it violates the accepted desert island disc rules, but I'm going to sneak it on in addition to my ten discs. I need the complete works of the Zombies in order to survive. If you have a problem with this blatant disregard for the rules, I challenge you to come to my side of the island and try to take Zombie Heaven away from me. I will fight you. I will smash your head with a coconut if you force my hand. Then I will take your desert island discs and add them to my collection.
What do you love about where you live?
Submitted by Emu with a Clue.
(downtown Cincinnati as seen from Newport, KY)
(Lemon Grass, Arnold's, glacial mocha from Coffee Emporium, Coffee Emporium, Everybody's Records, Cincinnati Zoo, Blue Manatee Children's Bookstore, Shake It Records, Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Esquire Theatre)
(Ault Park is so great it deserves three pictures, Southgate House, Hofbräuhaus, Tall Stacks, Cincinnati Opera at Music Hall, Cincinnati Bengals, Cincinnati Reds, the downtown library)
Have you ever heard strange scratching sounds coming from your fireplace? Have you ever smelled animal odors wafting through your chimney vent? Have you ever looked up your chimney and seen a pair of eyes staring back at you? If you answered yes to these questions, there's a good chance you've had a family of raccoons living in your chimney.
I once had a family of raccoons living in my chimney. My first thought was that I should build a fire and smoke them out. I quickly nixed that idea as soon as I realized I'd probably end up cooking the raccoons. I got out the phone book and called some local animal control companies. There were two problems with the companies I contacted. First of all, they were outrageously expensive. Secondly, they all said they'd have to kill the raccoons once they trapped them. Apparently, it was the law. I'm a cheapskate who likes animals, so this wasn't going to work for me.
I did some investigating and learned that chimney animals will often leave if they hear human voices. I read that playing talk radio non-stop is a good way to get animals to move out. Unfortunately for me, playing talk radio non-stop is also a good way to get me to go into a murderous rampage. I'd rather share my house with vermin than listen to talk radio. It is one of the most odious things in the world to me.
I decided that if non-stop human voices were what I needed, then I should just play an audiobook on repeat. I moved one of my stereos next to the fireplace, aimed my speakers up there, and put on a data disc that contained The Ultimate David Sedaris in its entirety. The Ultimate David Sedaris, of course, is an audio box set of the author reading selections from Barrel Fever, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Naked, etc. I turned the audiobook on random/repeat and went about my business.
I played The Ultimate David Sedaris for an entire weekend...day and night. I eventually got sick of hearing "Twelve Moments in the Life of the Artist", which for some unknown reason always seemed to be playing when I walked by. I turned the stereo off and opened up the chimney vent. I looked in there with a flashlight and poked around with a stick. Little eyes didn't shine back at me. Nothing grabbed the stick. The raccoon family had packed up and moved out.
The next day I called a chimney repair company and they came out and put an animal-proof cap on the top of my chimney.
[NOTE: This "review" has very little to do with Gordon Lightfoot or the concert he put on at the Aronoff Center. It mostly has to do with other stuff like surprise Vox meet-ups, secret handshakes, and imaginary drink vouchers. There's a little bit of true concert-related information buried amongst the extraneous ramblings and blatant lies, but you'll have to dig for it. Consider yourself warned.]
How I Ended Up at a Gordon Lightfoot Concert With a Guy I'd Never Met Before
A strange thing happened on Friday evening. I was sitting at my computer wasting time when I got a message asking if I wanted a free ticket to a Gordon Lightfoot concert. The message was from local Vox stalwarts, Amy and Scott. They had two tickets for the show, but Amy wasn't up for a night on the town. For some reason I still don't fully understand, they decided to ask me. I only knew the couple from their respective Vox pages; I'd never seen or spoken with either of them in person. My initial reaction was a resounding "No!" Why would I want to go to a concert with some guy I'd never even met before? More importantly, why would some guy I'd never even met before want to go to a concert with me?!
Things were more complicated than that, though. I actually like Gordon Lightfoot; I like him a lot. The only reason I hadn't made plans to see the show on my own was that a surprise $334.69 electric/gas bill recently ate through all my disposable income for the month. I decided to break my date with the girl from the gym and accept the concert invitation.
Scott and I agreed to meet at the coatcheck at 7:45. I got there early and stood up against the wall trying to look like Vincent D'Onofrio. I'd been waiting for about 15 minutes when I noticed that the coatcheck looked awfully small for a venue that seats 2,700. I quickly walked to the other end of the building and found another coatcheck. Yes, there were two frickin' coatchecks! I spent the next ten minutes walking from one end of the building to the other trying to recognize a man I only knew from a blurry member image. Was this a belated April Fool's joke? I imagined Amy and Scott planning to send me down to the Aronoff where I'd spend half an hour walking back and forth between the two coatchecks asking all the dark-haired men of a certain age if they had anything they wanted to give me for free. Those jerks! What did I ever do to them? I quickly thought of a dozen smart-assed comments I'd left them. Ah, I shouldn't have mocked the CD Scott's band put out. I shouldn't have told him I've been looking for it in the local bargain bins. That was stupid of me.
I walked back and forth at least a dozen times.
With about five minutes to go before showtime, bells were ringing and lights were dimming. I was about to kick down the gigantic Kermit the Frog made of canned goods that inexplicably stood in the lobby, when Scott and I finally found each other. He was talking to an ugly dude he thought was me. Haven't you seen my self-portraits, Scott? I'm a handsome bastard! He ditched the ugly dude and we shook hands. We started off with the traditional businessman shake and then transitioned into the top-secret handshake that Vox sent us via e-mail when we informed them of the first ever Queen City Voxers Meet-up. (We also got free shirts and a $50 drink voucher to split between the two of us.) After the top-secret Vox handshake, we transitioned into one of those chest-knocking, back-slapping hug-things that athletes do after successfully performing feats of great skill. It was all Scott, though. I just let him have his way because I was getting a free ticket out of it. I think he took it too far. Afterall, we'd only just met.
A Legitimate Account of the First Set
We went on in and quickly found our seats. Before we even had a chance to attempt a real conversation, a skinny little man close to 70 strutted out and started singing "Cotton Jenny". Contrary to what you may have heard, Gordon Lightfoot is cooler than you, me, and your favorite singer put together. His voice is shaky, but when a singer has songs as good as his, it doesn't really matter that much. I'm willing to overlook some vocal issues to see the man and hear those songs live.
The first half of the show was heavy on the hits. Mr. Lightfoot and his band played "Carefree Highway", "Rainy Day People", "Beautiful", "Ribbon of Darkness", "Sundown", and a touching version of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" to end the set.
Here's the setlist for the first half of the show:
First set: Cotton Jenny/Carefree Highway/Sea of Tranquility/14 Karat Gold/Never Too Close/A Painter Passing Through/In My Fashion/Rainy Day People/Shadows/Beautiful/The Watchman's Gone/Ribbon of Darkness/Sundown/The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
What Happened During the Intermission
Something odd happened during the intermission. Scott and I talked and (I think) we actually got along. There were none of those awkward silences that often plague new people. We just chatted away like we'd known each other for years...or at least weeks. Even more important, I didn't feel the urge to punch him even once. I usually want to punch men when they open their mouths.
The Second Set/Early Morning Rain
After about 15 minutes or so, Gordon Lightfoot and his band came on back out and started in on the second set. I wasn't familiar with as many of these songs, but I still enjoyed myself. The best part, of course, was getting to hear "Early Morning Rain". It's one of my all-time favorite songs. I've loved that song ever since I was 14 or 15 and found it on my parents' vinyl copy of Peter, Paul & Mary's Ten Years Together. Really, is there a better song out there? How many other songs have been covered by Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan?
Here's the setlist for the second half:
Second set: Triangle/Hangdog Hotel Room/Restless/If Children Had Wings/Waiting For You/Make Way For the Lady/If You Could Read My Mind/My Little Love/Early Morning Rain/Blackberry Wine
Encore: Old Dan's Records
The Part That I Totally Made Up at 3:00 in the Morning While Listening to "Carefree Highway" on Repeat
We were barely into the second set and our Vox drink voucher was long gone. Fortunately, I never go to a show without a bottle of slivovitz in my pants. We hit that bottle hard. We were hootin', hollerin', and clappin' at inappropriate times like all the other rubes in the audience. Scott kept shouting for "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" even though it had already been played in the first set. He really wanted to hear it again. It was kind of embarrassing, but I didn't pay much attention to his drunken outbursts because I was too busy making out with the woman sitting to my left. Her name was Ann, and I'll be damned if I recall her face. I remember her mouth tasted like cinnamon, though. Eventually Ann's husband came back from the bathroom and we had to stop. I joined Scott in shouting for "Edmund Fitzgerald". Three ushers approached from the aisle and tried to get us to shut up. Scott started in on a rant about it still being a free country, but I wasn't having any of it. The time for talk was over; it was time for drunken violence. I smashed the empty slivovitz bottle into the face of the biggest usher. She went down and Scott took care of the other two before they knew what was going on. We ran out of the Aronoff Center just as "Old Dan's Records" was coming to a close.
The Real Conclusion
Overall, it was a great show. In a perfect world, I would've traded in a couple of the songs I didn't know for "Did She Mention My Name" or "For Lovin' Me", but that's not a big deal. Those were the only personal favorites I didn't get to hear.
I Couldn't Make This Up If I Tried
On the way home, I think I saw my first girlfriend's twin sister walking a dog.
C'mon, people, this relationship has to go both ways. Think of all I do for you. Think of all the joy I bring to your lives. Isn't it about time you bought me something to show your appreciation?! Yes, I think it is. Fortunately for you, my six month Amazon boycott has just ended, so now I'm willing to accept gifts purchased there. Go ahead, take advantage of their lower prices and drive your local shops out of business. I don't care. I'm in it for me. Remember, you get free shipping if you spend $25. Go crazy!
I like music:
And books:
And sometimes even DVDs:
[NOTE: I would buy this stuff for myself except I just got a $334.69 electric/gas bill.]