Criminy!

The hoops I had to jump thru to be able to get back to my new blogger account.

Note to google: IF IT AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT!

"Don't tell me this town ain't got no heart...."

I lucked out big time when I was hired as a receptionist at a law firm in downtown San Francisco in 1990. I had left my TV career behind when we moved and I was kind of floundering around. I worked for a year for a small construction company in my neighborhood, trying to gain office skills. I applied for the job at Burnstein & Walker, and at my interview, I hit it off with the office manager so she invited me back for a second interview with the attorneys. They were concerned that I had no experience. I told them that I was a very fast learner, and if they would just give me the chance to prove myself, they wouldn't be sorry. By the time I got home, there was a message on my answering machine that I could start right away. This was during the recession in the early 90's, and that firm literally received over 200 resumes for that one position.


I worked on the 6th floor of the Monadnock Building, and our suite is clearly seen in this picture. The lobby is floor 1, so just count up from there. We didn't have the entire 6th floor facing Market Street, but about half of the windows (from the middle to the right side) were ours. Every year Brian and I would go to the office to watch the annual Gay Pride Parade from my suite. The year my firm relocated over to Berkeley, 1996, my dear friend Jim (who is still the building engineer) let us come back to the now-empty suite to watch the parade, and in fact, we ended up having a huge Pride Day party up there that year, with about 30-50 people, food, drinks..... including a 6'5" transgender named Bridgit who was wearing a yellow bikini, playing electric guitar while rollerblading through the office. It was truly a "Tales of the City" day. After that, Jim would let us use the office space on the 3rd floor because there was a nice, wide ledge outside the windows so we could sit on the ledge and watch the parade.

When the 49ers won the Superbowl in 2005, the parade came right past our building too.

I couldn't find any pictures of the ceiling murals on line, but inside the front doors are these fantastic paintings along the arched ceiling, which incorporate famous San Franciscans and Northern Californians from days past, like slain Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone, who were shot in cold blood in 1978 by disgruntled Supervisor Dan White (the one who made "the twinkie defense" famous), environmentalist John Muir, vaudevillian Lotta Crabtree and Sir Francis Drake who made landfall in the Point Reyes area of Marin, on his ship The Golden Hinde. The famous [Sheraton] Palace Hotel is next door.

The Monadnock Building has a very interesting place in San Francisco history. In 1906, the Monadnock was under construction and nearly completed. Then the City was rocked by the famous Quake of '06, and the Palace Hotel was all but destroyed; opera singer Enrico Caruso had given a concert the night before and was staying at the Palace that night. Legend has it that after the quake, he was so frightened that all he could do was throw open his windows and sing (Caruso never returned to San Francisco). The Monadnock, however, stood proud. After the quake, fires raged for days and flattened all of downtown. Not knowing what else to do, the men started dynamiting what buildings were still standing to create a fire break. The Monadnock refused to come down.

Here's another shot of it. The Palace Hotel is to the left, and a destroyed building is to the right.
Needless to say, I felt very confident that if we ever had another huge quake while I was at work, I'd be completely safe.

This is Lotta's Fountain, across the street from the Monadnock. The fountain was donated to the City in 1875 by Lotta Crabtree. See that intersection behind the fountain? In 1991, I was nailed in the crosswalk by a car running a red light on Kearny Street. I was trying to catch my bus on Geary and this dude in a big old American car just skidded right into me. I picked myself up, ran to my bus, and grabbed a seat. Then, and only then, did the massive pain kick in. I was bruised from hip to ankle on my left leg, my left hand was badly bruised across the palm and my wrist & thumb were sprained as well. I remember an old lady getting on the bus after me and saying, "My goodness dear, are you OK?! Why didn't you stay? That man in the car is absolutely sick about hitting you!"

Needless to say, my boss was furious with me for not staying on the scene and going to the hospital, because he could have gotten a great settlement for me since the guy did run the red and I was in a crosswalk. But all I could think about was getting home, and how would I get word to Brian what happened, and how terrified he'd be if he got a call from the SFPD telling him his wife was rushed to the hospital!!!

These are extremely recent photos of the renovated fountain which was completed for the 100th anniversary of the '06 quake in 2006. The fountain did not look like this when I worked in SF, it was made of dull brownstone and usually had trash thrown in the fountain basins. After the '06 quake, many families used Lotta's Fountain as a meeting point, and every year after that at 5:17 a.m. on April 16, survivors would gather at the fountain to mark the anniversary. When we lived there, only about 12 old timers would show up, and those numbers dwindled with each passing year.

The Palace Hotel next door to the Monadnock was renovated in the late 1980's and is a wonder to see!

I was so incredibly fortunate to have worked right in the heart of San Francisco for 6 years. Every day at lunch, as long as the weather was good, I'd walk all over the place, usually shooting photos. The City is only 7 miles x 7 miles, so it's very walkable (that is if you can hack the hills). I could walk to Union Square, Chinatown, the Ferry Building, the Psychedelic Shoppe, and even take the bus to City Lights Bookstore in North Beach and walk back to my office in my lunch hour. On summer solstice each year, the City celebrated "World Music Day" and musicians would set up on both sides of Market Street for many blocks and play all day. You name a kind of music, and it was there: Folk, rock, drums, African, 60's, electronica, even a couple of groups from the Andes. During Pride Week, there'd be rainbow flags hanging from every single light post up and down Market Street from the Ferry Building to City Hall.

To quote the famous Tony Bennett song, I left my heart in San Francisco.

It's only Monday and I can tell it's gonna be a rough week. To quote from "Airplane": "Looks I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue".

Seriously though, I am in the process of weaning off the anti-depressants that were prescribed for me when my dad died in 2003. Back then I definitely needed them, because I was going down that dark road of not wanting to leave the house and sleeping all the time. I'm still under a lot of stress, but these days, who isn't, right? I'm kind of tired of taking them. It's getting to the point where I forget, and if I go 2 days without them, I get all weird and disassociated. Sort of like the episode where Mr. Mackey takes drugs in "South Park" and his head flies around town like a helium balloon. Anyway, I'm on week #2 of the step down and I gotta tell ya, I'm choking up at the stupidest things. TV commercials, episodes of shows I've seen a thousand times, songs that aren't sad, the adorable puppies in "The Puppy Bowl" yesterday. I cannot even imagine what it must be like for a junky to quit hard drugs.

I'm not the world's most patient person on the road. OK, I have road rage. There. I said it. But today.....let's just say that it's a good thing I didn't have a rocket launcher because I would have left a 22 mile trail of carnage between Bonney Lake and Tacoma this morning. I get to work and it's 7:15 and the fucking phone starts ringing off the hook. With the high-maintenance clients too, of course. I haven't even gotten my computer booted up yet and I can feel my blood pressure rocketing upwards. There was nothing I could do to keep the contempt and disdain out of my voice as I answered the phone in such a way that they had to know I couldn't care less that their ex did something scandalous over the weekend, and I was very pissed off that they disturbed me.

If tomorrow starts off anything like today, I am going back on the anti-depressants because I gotta tell ya, I scare myself.

So, I leave you with "The Woman's Prayer"

So Far Today I Am Doing All Right.

I have not Gossipped, Lost my Temper

Been Greedy, Grumpy, Nasty, Selfish or Self-Indulgent.

I have not Whined, Cursed or Eaten Any Chocolate.

However, I Am Going to Get Out of Bed In a Few Minutes,

And I Will Need A Lot More Help After That.

Estimated Prophet

People sometimes ask me what my favourite Grateful Dead song is. It's really hard to pick just one because I have so many, but the first song that always comes to my mind first is "Estimated Prophet".

Last night Brian and I decided to watch a Grateful Dead DVD, of a Shoreline Amphitheatre concert on June 16, 1990. It so happens that we were at that show, and through pure luck, we'd received 8th row tickets from the Dead's mailorder. We were so excited for the show and we had our list of "I hope they play" songs. The Dead never played the same show twice, ever. They had such a vast repertoire of songs, and the only thing you could count on at each show was "drums/space" during the second set, and if it was a Saturday night, they'd do "One More Saturday Night". Other than that, it was a crapshoot what you'd get to hear.

We'd moved to San Francisco during the summer of 1989, right after we got married. We were so poor that we couldn't even afford cable TV for over a year. We both started out making like $6 an hour, and if it wasn't for the savings I'd built up when I was working at the TV station in Boston, we'd have been in a world of hurt. We bought cheap food, and Brian was the master at making fantastic dinners using cream of mushroom soup, pasta, chicken, rice, etc. In fact, we even bought generic beer. I saved an empty can - it's all white and in big black letters, it says "Beer". I bought all my clothes at the used clothing stores in Haight Ashbury and the Ashby Flea Market in Berkeley; all of which were those hippie skirts from India. But we ALWAYS had money for Dead shows. It wasn't even a question. We spent all of our money on tickets to see the Dead or Jerry Garcia Band. By June, 1990, we'd been to a ton of shows, including our first New Years Eve Show. We were about 2 weeks away from getting to meet Jerry Garcia and Bobby Weir at a benefit. Life was good. We were poor, but we were living the San Francisco Deadhead dream.

So anyway, that night we sat 8th row, they did Brian's fave "China Cat Sunflower/I know you Rider", and I had my fingers and toes crossed for "Estimated Prophet" and I was in 7th heaven when they started to play it.

I'd fallen in love with San Francisco on a trip I took with my friend Charlene after I graduated from college in 1986. I wanted to move there. San Francisco felt like home. In 1987, I took another trip out there by myself but stayed with an aunt and uncle. I fell more in love with the City by the Bay. During 1987, I was making the transition into being a Deadhead. I was listening to WZLX, a great radio station out of Boston and they would play Dead songs from the albums that no one else played. I mean, everyone knows "Truckin'" and "Touch of Grey", but 'ZLX played "Eyes of the World", "Friend of the Devil", etc. They even had a show on Saturday nights called "Dead Ahead" and for 2 hours they'd play live and album cuts. I was working at Channel 56 in Boston, living on my own in a great little studio apartment in East Sandwich.

I still wanted desperately to move to San Francisco, but I wasn't quite sure how to go about it. The Dead are from the Bay Area, and I knew it was Deadhead Central out there. I needed to be close to my new fave band. This was in the days before the internet, so researching a move like that was going to take a lot more creative thinking on my part. My family thought I was insane. I'm an only child and the thought of my moving 3,200 miles away to the opposite coast made my parents crazy. Everyone said there was no way I'd be able to do it. It was too expensive. Where would I work? Where would I live? How could I leave my home? My family and friends? They'd say they'd give it a few months and I'd come running back to Cape Cod.

One night, on "Dead Ahead", I heard a song that would change my life forever. That song was "Estimated Prophet".

The song starts:

"My time coming, any day, don't worry about me, no
Been so long I felt this way, I'm in no hurry, no
Rainbows end down that highway, where ocean breezes blow
My time coming, voices saying they tell me where to go.
Don't worry about me, nah nah nah, don't worry about me, no
And I'm in no hurry, nah nah nah, I know where to go.
California, preaching on the burning shore
California, I'll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine.

My time coming, any day, don't worry about me, no
It's gonna be just like they say, them voices tell me so
Seems so long I felt this way and time sure passin' slow
Still I know I lead the way, they tell me where I go.
Don't worry about me, no no no, don't worry about me, no
And I'm in no hurry, no no no, I know where to go.
California, a prophet on the burning shore
California, I'll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine."

I was stunned. The song reached deep into my soul and right then I knew, I was gonna do it. This was a sign. My favourite band in the world telling me I was going to go to California and I was gonna be OK, and sung by Bob Weir who I had an enormous crush on at the time. The next part of the song, when they do it live, reaches a frenzied crescendo, as Bobby practically screams the lyrics, and the band is just jamming like crazy:

You've all been asleep! You would not believe me!
Them voices tellin' me, they tell me you'll receive me!
Standin' on the beach, the sea will part before me
(Fire wheel burning in the air!)
You will follow me and we will ride to glory!
(Way up, the middle of the air!)
And I'll call down thunder and speak the same!!
And my work fills the sky with flame!
And might and glory gonna be my name, MY NAME!
And men gonna light my way!!!!!"

I think I burst into tears when I first heard those words. Then I knew, it was meant to be. I was gonna be alright and everything was going to work out just fine. I just needed to focus on my dream, set a time line, and go for it. So in 1988, I decided to subscribe to the San Francisco Examiner Sunday paper. It got to me a week late, but at least I could get a feel for employment and the cost of apartments, learn the area, keep up on the news. I started saving my money like crazy. Whenever I would think that I couldn't possibly make such a move, or people would say that there was no way I'd leave my high-paying job at Channel 56 to chase a pipe dream, I'd listen to "Estimated" to keep me on track. In the summer of 1988, I decided to take a 3 week trip to California, spending most of that time in SF. I asked my dad to come with me, because I wanted at least one of my parents to see that the City was fantastic, safe and to check out neighborhoods with me. I'd already decided I wanted to live in the Richmond District, a small neighborhood in the western end of the City, sandwiched in between Golden Gate Park, the Presidio and Ocean Beach.

Of course I was scared, and I was trying to find someone to move with me. Holly wanted to, but she'd just started a great new job in Hyannis. Jef and I were dating off and on during this time, but I knew he couldn't leave because his daughter Alicia was only 7 at the time and he couldn't leave her. Brian and I became close friends during the winter of 1988/89, and I asked him to come with me and he said, "Yeah, sure, why not? I have nothing to hold me here!" And the proverbial die was cast.

After the whirlwind jam in live version of Estimated, they bring it down, nice and slow, set you back on your feet:

"My time coming, any day, don't worry about me, no
It's gonna be just like they say, them voices tell me so
Seems so long I felt this way and time sure passin' slow
My time coming, any day, don't worry about me, no
Don't worry about me, no no no, don't worry about me, no
And I'm in no hurry, no no no, don't worry about me, no. ...."

Even though the 1989 quake scared the shit out of both of us, there was no way we were leaving. Those were some really fun times, in the early 90's. We were young, poor and blissfully happy, going to shows, trading tapes, hanging out with all of our new Deadhead friends. I have no regrets.

Happy Birthday Pepper!

Little Pepper Pepperoni Puppington turns 6 on February 2! We actually don't know what her real birthday is. The information provided at the Humane Society said that she was 2 years old, so we picked a date for her birthday. She's my little pal and I take her with me when I do my errands on Saturday. She gets so excited when I say, "let's go!" She jumps around in circles and wags her whole back end, while giving me a huge grin and doing her "I want" whine. She puts her ears up so that she looks like she's wearing a nun's wimple, so we call her "Sister Bertrill" (from "The Flying Nun") when she does that. It's adorable.

Of course we've given her like a million nicknames: Beanie Weenie, Beans, Beebs, Snuggs,
Bubbles Magoo, Snufflebumpkins, Fleef (that one evolved from saying "flea flicker"), Fluppy, 'Roni Roodles (she loves mac-n-cheese), and well you get the idea.

Ever since the storms, she's been snuggling with me in bed at night. I always said I'd never allow a dog on my bed, but she's just too cute and sweet to resist. And it's been so cold that I appreciate the extra warmth!

One of her favorite things to do is beat up her little brother, who outweighs her by about 40 lbs. and runs way faster than she does. They are very comical, racing back and forth across the yard, around the trees, slapping at each other. Sagan absolutely adores Pepper, and we are certain that she likes him more than she lets on.

Sometimes I take her with me when I go to work, mostly on Fridays or if she has a vet appointment after work. My boss is not a dog-person, but he adores Pepper. He would always ignore my former boss' golden retriever when she'd bring him in, but he goes out of his way to pet Pepper. One year at Krissmiss, he gave me one of those 3' plastic bones filled with dog biscuits. Then I knew for sure that he loved her. She's the perfect office dog: she's quiet and obedient, and just sleeps on my floor or follows me around. Happy birthday little Beanie Weenie sweetie pie! We love you!

Punxsutawney Phil

Bryde did a great post in celebration of Imbolc, which is today, so I'll do one for Groundhog Day, which is tomorrow.

From Wikipedia: "Groundhog Day is a traditional festival celebrated in the United States, Canada and parts of Australia (particularly in South Australian, in the region in and around the capital city of Adelaide) on February 2. It is a cross-quarter day, midway between the Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox.

In traditional weather lore, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow because the weather is bright and clear, it will be frightened and run back into its hole, and the winter will continue for six more weeks."

Here in the States, the official groundhog is Punxsutawney Phil, from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Here's the official website: http://www.groundhog.org/ He'll come out of his burrow at Gobbler's Knob tomorrow to make his prediction.

Punxsutawney held its first Groundhog Day in the 1800's and the first official trek to Gobbler's Knob was made on February 2, 1887.

Isn't he cute?


Punxsutawney is in Western Pennsylvania, but Gobbler's Knob is in Central PA.
This is a stuffed toy of Phil (yes, Brian, I want one). As for me, it's been a rough winter in the Pacific Northwest, so I wouldn't mind if Ol' Phil didn't see his shadow. However, now that we have the generator ready to go, I also wouldn't mind at least one really good storm!

Sorry, not seein' it....

Tony Goldwyn as "Michael Goren".

What do you guys think?

New! From Mattel!

The new Western Washington Barbie Dolls!! OK, I don't expect anyone from outside of Washington to really get these, but they are still funny and you can get the gist, and even adapt the Barbies to your own regions!

1. Mercer Island Barbie. This Princess Barbie is sold only at Bellevue Square. She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named "Honey" and a McMansion on Lake Washington. Available with or without tummy tuck and face lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented Barbie.
2. Sammamish Plateau Barbie. The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Windstar Minivan and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately. 3. Tacoma Barbie. This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Chevy with dark tinted windows and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills)....unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.
4. Medina Barbie. This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own Starbucks cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.
5. Kent Barbie. This pale model comes dressed in her own Wrangler jeans, two sizes too small, a NASCAR t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a six-pack of Bud Light and a Hank Williams Jr. CD set. She can spit over 5' and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt when she is drunk. Purchase her pick up truck separately and get a Confederate flag bumper sticker absolutely free!!
6. Carnation Barbie. This tobacco-chewing, brassy haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Southside Barbie's house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid washed jeans, fake fingernails and a see-through halter top. Also available with a mobile home.

7. Fremont Barbie. This doll is made of actual tofu! She has long, straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her "Willow". She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Fremont Barbies and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free!
8. SeaTac Barbie. This Barbie now comes with a stroller and infant doll. Optional accessories include a GED and bus pass. Gangsta Ken and his 1979 Caddy were available, but are now difficult to find since the addition of the infant. 9. Capital Hill Barbie/Ken. This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on parts.

Many thanks to my friend Averie (in Kent) for sending this to me today!! And in Averie's defense, I've never seen her dress like "Kent Barbie".

My favorite picture of me

I was just going through some old pictures and found this. It's my fave picture of me when I was little. It was probably taken in the summer of 1967 at Springhill Beach, East Sandwich, Mass. My dad had a beach cottage at Springhill that he rented out. He owned it from 1964-1977, and we never once spent the night there. I love Springhill Beach and I still make sure to visit every time I go back east. I used to love to climb on the jetties, look for treasure (beachglass) and play on the sandbars at low tide.

So this is typical of what my dolls looked like. Clothes long gone, hair missing and/or wadded up, limbs twisted in a heap. And me, for whatever reason, watering it with a really sick smile on my face.

Don't say I haven't been warned....

I was downstairs doing the laundry right now and was reminded of an amusing story.

I hate doing laundry. I hate folding it. I hate putting it away. So I don't pay much attention to what I'm doing when I am folding it. As a result, I often come home from work to find one of my socks, tossed unceremoniously on my bed, obviously by Brian who found it mixed in with his t-shirts. One day I came home to find a pair of panties hanging from one of the bathroom light fixtures. OK, Brian, I get it. I have to pay better attention to what I'm doing.

In fact yesterday, I took my car to Jiffy Lube and when I got back in after they vacuumed it, there was a black sock covered in pine needles placed on my passenger seat. I started laughing, at the thought of the sock being stuck to my pants and falling off in the car, and how long had the sock been stuck to my pants to begin with.

Anyway, one time a few years ago when Brian was working at either Pinnacle or Ward, he was walking through the office when he noticed something down by his feet. There was something dark sticking out of his pants leg. He shook his leg and one of my black socks popped out on the floor. He snatched it up and shoved it in his pocket, looking around to make sure no one had seen. When he got home, he threw the sock at me and said, "Guess what I found coming out of my pants leg today?" I started howling with laughter, and those of you who know me, know how hearty that is. As I doubled over, slapping my knee, he went on, "I do NOT need to pack socks! And I swear, if a pair of panties EVER comes out of my clothes, I WILL hunt you down, and kill you."

Amulet bags

I've been meaning to try scanning some of my crafts directly to the computer instead of shooting pictures and although I wish they were bigger, the scan didn't come out too bad!

These are little amulet bags I make from fancy jacquard ribbon that I get at Pacific Fabrics & Crafts in Puyallup, since they have the best selection and the largest sizes. Back in CA, I bought a kit that showed you how to make them. At the time, the kit was purchased from a place called Bead Boppers in Puyallup. I had no idea where this town was when I got the kit, so imagine my shock when I moved up here and literally drove past Bead Boppers one day while out doing errands. It's a good thing I didn't get into an accident that day as I slammed my brakes on and whipped into the parking lot; Pacific Fabrics is across the street from Bead Boppers' old location, so I figured that's where they got the ribbon to make the kits. Since making the first kit, I have been able to expand and do my own.

You start with a piece of ribbon 6" long. Then I fold the bottom 2" of the ribbon up and stitch the sides with beads, and fold the top third down as the flap, and stitch beads all the way around. Then I add beaded fringe and charms, and then the beaded strap. The amulet bags themselves are probably only about 1" to 2" long when done, and range from 9" - 12" long with the straps and fringe.

The graduated fringe takes the longest time, because you have to make sure to accurately count each row of beads and plan out the "V" pattern. This one I tried doing loop fringe which twists back on itself, instead of straight strands.
This one's my fave bag. I got the last piece of ribbon in this pattern and have never seen it again at the fabric store. I used Swarovski crystal and a dragonfly charm on the fringe, and then just chose miscellaneous beads for the strap, with a metal flower connector charm at the top. I think if you click each individual picture, you will be able to see the details and colours.
I'm kind of addicted to making them and I have 9 of them hanging on the walls in my room.
Because I'm so afraid of rejection, I haven't gone out to peddle my wares to see if anyone wants to buy them or show them on consignment at a store. So my friends usually end up receiving packages of crafts and/or jewelry that I've made simply because I don't have room for all the stuff I create.

Everytime I make something, a scene comes to mind from that Krissmiss special, "Santa Claus is coming to town", when Burgermeister Meisterburger decrees that there'll be no more toys, so Santa's elves keep tossing the toys they make into a big pile outside the Toy Shoppe door.

How did he escape my attention?

As my friends and family can attest to, I was in love with many, many musicians (and actors) over the years. How David Gilmour slipped past my ever alert "dude-radar" is beyond me.

Musical Musings

Man alive! I just had an aural fuck of epic proportions.....

It's been a long week, and with Debby out, I've been extremely busy. So I suggested to Brian that when we got home tonite, why don't we watch the Pink Floyd "Pulse" DVD, from where they start the "Dark Side of the Moon" album all the way through to the encores. I really just wanted to get lost in the haunting music, something I so rarely find time to do these days. So I decided to help the mood along with a Xanax. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, 30 pills lasts me 6 months, so I do only use it when I need to mellow out after a rough week.

My all time fave Floyd tune is "Comfortably Numb". In fact, it's in my top 5 all time fave songs. From the moment I first heard it in 1980 when "The Wall" was released, it struck a chord in me. It can still bring me to tears, with its mournful wailing guitar, especially the live versions we have on DVD or video. Brought me to tears tonite too. Even though I was well into punk rock by the time I was a senior in high school, I still wanted to use this quote in my yearbook:

"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse,

Out of the corner of my eye,

I turned to look but it was gone,

I cannot put my finger on it now,

The child is grown, the dream is gone."

The only reason I didn't was because they put a limit on how much stuff you could have under your picture and so I had to be content with a much shorter quote so I could have more room to list stuff under "likes and dislikes". So I used "I need to scream every now and again, try to understand it's only me", from a Boomtown Rats song called "Fall Down" and sung by their drummer Simon Crowe.

The Floyd show just finished and I tell ya, they are one amazing band. I grabbed a lighter after the encore and held it up and lit it, so Brian grabbed one and did that too, just like we used to at concerts oh-so long ago. And I don't know how David Gilmour never came to my attention before, because he is one cutie-patootie, even now with his short grey hair. Brian showed me some pictures of David when he was young and I definitely would have been into him big time. So androgynous. He has the cutest dimples when he smiles.... sigh..... oh, ahem...where was I?

I swear if Pink Floyd ever tours again, with or without Roger, I don't care how much it costs, but we are SO flying first class, scalping very expensive tickets for whatever seats are available (I really don't care if it's nosebleed either), and staying in a hotel suite, at whatever city in which they are playing is closest to us. First class all the way, baby.

Anyway, while listening to this amazing DVD, I started thinking about my own transition from the vapid top 40 of the mid-70's (and don't get me wrong, I still love 70's music and I have a collection of 45's to prove it) to FM rock radio in the late 70's/early 80's. Once I outgrew JB-105, I found WCOZ and, on a crystal clear day, WAAF out of Worcestor. They played stuff I'd never heard before because I didn't hang out with kids that listened to it, like Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, etc. I knew kids that listened to that music, but they were all "burnouts" and I didn't hang out with them. In fact, I actually went to pizza-and-soda parties where we danced and ate pizza, maybe played spin the bottle. (Right about here is where I can see Holly and Liz cringing, as I drag up long forgotten, and for good reason, memories of high school). So anyway, I'm kinda liking this "rock and/or roll" that I'm hearing on WCOZ. Derek and the Dominos, the Doors, Procol Harum, Cream, Hendrix, Grateful Dead. Good stuff, that. There was a brief period of time where I could have easily ended up listening to that stuff all the time, instead of what I ended up listening to.

During said brief period of time, I was a voracious record shopper. I grew apart from some of my girlfriends from junior high, because all they talked about were clothes and hair and all that high maintenance crap that I never cared about. And still don't. By this time, I had a show on my high school radio station, WSDH (a big thank you to Holly for forcing me to do it), so I liked to bring my own records in to play, as well as use the station records, which weren't that bad at all. I began to make new friends, who were into music, like me. Liz and I have been friends since 3rd grade, and we got to know Holly by working in the radio station. OK Fine I was an A.V. geek! Holly liked to go record shopping too and neither of us will forget the day that she bought "London Calling" and I bought a Van Halen album, because she will never let me live it down. But the VH album came with a black & white poster of David Lee Roth, on his knees dressed in tight leather pants, with his arms chained above his head, his long main of blonde hair cascading over his shoulders and a saucy pout on his face. I thought Eddie was much cuter, but I knew the poster would bug the absolute shit out of my mother, so I tacked it to my ceiling. My theory was that gravity would pull the middle of the poster down away from the tacks and give his groinal area a more 3-D effect. Another factoid Holly, and Liz, won't let me live down either.

One day though, Holly came over to my house. She was in 10th grade and I was in 11th, and we always brought our records over to each other's houses. When we got upstairs, she said, "Go sit down, I'm going to play you this record and you are going to love it! Trust me!", as she comandeered my stereo, I sat on the floor and became mesmerized by something completely different: Raw, angry, cynical, snarling, and the driest humour I'd ever heard.....Holly brought to my house "Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex Pistols". And that brief window of my becoming a hardcord Floyd fan slammed shut. I called Liz and played it for her and she loved it too. And so we became the "Three Punk-ateers". Holly was really our groundbreaker when it came to this music. She got us hooked on WBCN, which played a lot of the stuff coming out of England....much later than it was popular in England though, because by the time we discovered the Sex Pistols, Sid had been dead for 2 years and John Lydon was well involved with PiL. Through 'BCN, I was exposed to The Clash, Echo & the Bunneymen, Joy Division, New Order, Squeeze ("Cool for Cats" is just too cool), The Jam, U2 and of course, The Boomtown Rats.

The 3 of us LOVED the Rats. We LOVED Bob Geldof. One cold January day in 1981, my dad took Holly & I shopping in Boston. He rode the bus up with us, and good humouredly let us drag him from record store to record store all over downtown. It was at one store where the clerk mentioned that the Rats were coming to the Orpheum Theatre. We were so excited....my poor dad had to put up with us all day chattering excitedly and how we couldn't wait to get back to the Cape to tell Liz!! Then on the ride home on the bus, Holly pulls out a Gang of Four album she'd bought to discover that the cover was not suitable for display in public.

Liz's dad worked at Tufts University in Boston, which was very close to the Orpheum ticket office so he volunteered to get the tickets for us during his lunch break. Holly's parents decided to make a night of it in Boston and provide our transportation, then go out to eat while we were at the show, and wait for us outside when it was over. We had such a blast at the concert. We went right over to Holly's after school to get ready for the show. We tried to paint our hair with psychedelic poster paint but it all flaked off in the car on the way up. When the Rats hit the stage and the lights came up and the curtain opened to reveal the band, Liz and I literally clutched either and screamed like it was the Beatles or something. Holly was completely mute, jaw dropped, eyes wide. What a show though, they were very entertaining and of course we knew all the words of all the songs by heart.

Right after that we found out that Holly's family was going to move to Oregon. It was devastating for us to be separated like that. The three of us were together all the time, on the phone all the time, we ate lunch together. That was one sad day that summer when she left. She was trapped in Waldport, on the Oregon coast, miles from a decent grocery store, much less a record store! So Liz and I assembled a "punk survival kit" for her of safety pins, records, a silk screened Boomtown Rats "Mondo Bongo" shirt either Liz or I made in Graphics Class and sent it to her. Sometimes our parents would let us call each other, but back then long distance calls cost a bundle to/from the west coast from Cape Cod, so we were limited to like 15 minutes.

So Liz and I carried the punk torch at Sandwich High School, often frightening the underclassmen when we'd wear our button covered army jackets and use that coloured hair spray to do bits of our hair blue. We got to be good friends with the local punk bands, especially the guys in The FreeZe, because the lead singer, Clif worked in Baskervilles, a record store that we visited all the time, mostly to hang out with Clif. The guys in The FreeZe all chose funny names for themselves: Clif Hanger, Rob DeCradle, Ben Dover, Papa Verjen. Then Wave Records opened on Main Street above the army/navy store and Bill sold all the imported punk stuff we were dying to get our hands on: The Damned, Crass, Angelic Upstairs, Iggy Pop, the Dickies, Black Flag & Dead Kennedys out of California, imported 45's, picture discs, etc.

Those were some good times, hanging out with all those punk rock kids from the other high schools. We were members of a very small minority of people who were into that kind of alternative music in the late 70's/early 80's; long before the Clash sold out with "Combat Rock" and bands like the Psychedelic Furs, OMD, U2 and the Human League began to get play on Top 40 radio.

I still love all kinds of music. You are just as likely to find me listening to classical as you will bluegrass, 70's top 40, 60's psychedelia, punk, classical, rock, blues, 80's and some modern stuff too.

Well, guess I'll head on back downstairs and enjoy the rest of my evening!

What planet are you?

Here's the link for the little quiz I took.

http://www.youthink.com/quiz.asp?action=take&quiz_id=115

I look forward to reading everyone's results!!!!!

Wow!

I was just browsing one of my fave store's website and came across these photos that were taken earlier this month by the shop owner, Kathy Kleczek, of La Luna Loca, in Cannon Beach, Oregon. That's Haystack Rock. You don't see snow on the coast very often! Another shot of Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock in the snow.
The shop, La Luna Loca, sells fantastic batik clothing, and other items from Asia/India. If you are interested, check out their website: http://www.lalunaloca.com/

But I wanted to be Saturn

No, not the car.

So Brian's downstairs right now, watching "Deadwood" as he does each night. It's not my cuppa tea so I came upstairs to surf around the blogs I visit each day. For some reason, I decided to google "quiz what planet are you" and I got a list of those funny, time wasting quiz things that go around by email from time to time.

There were only six questions and I answered truthfully on all of them. As I was finished, Brian came up to get a beer, and I told him what I was doing. He chuckles and says, "I can tell ya what planet you are, it begins with a U..." and he cracks himself up. I had just clicked on "get results" when he said that and I whipped around to look at him, with a loud, "HEY! Not Uranus!" I turn back to the screen, and there are my results: "Uranus". The big blue planet. I then yelled, "OH NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Brian looks at the screen and doubles over laughing, says, "Put that on your blog!" as I put my head on the desk.

Look, there's a ring around Uranus. tee hee hee I know, that was a really juvenile joke, but someone had to say it. And don't tell me any of you weren't thinking it either!

Magic Kingdom Indeed!

I got this picture emailed to me today and I have to give these people snaps and props for creativity..... I'm fairly certain this was taken in N'awlins.

Sweet Bill, Smouldering Charley

These are two of my top fave characters played by Vincent. How could you not love Bill in "Mystic Pizza"? Actually the question really is, how could JoJo not want to marry sweet Bill? With thanks to Fezzi for the pictures.

Charley from "Crooked Hearts" is the angst ridden, tortured bad boy, which is a major turn-on too. I've always been one to like the bad boys, so I was instantly attracted to Charley. With thanks to Jill & Eliza for the pictures.


Other than Bobby Goren, what are your fave Vincent roles?

Have a safe climb, Julie!

Julie was going on a climb today in Oregon! I hope you made it up and back safely, so that you can set your sites on The Matterhorn this summer! Although I know you'd also like to be climbing him as well.....

Lost in Space?

While checking the traffic cameras along my route home, I notice that the way the snow is stuck on the Tacoma Dome's roof looks like the Jupiter 2 from "Lost in Space"!!!"WARNING! WARNING! Run Will Robinson!"