This Just Takes the Cheese

From today's New York Times: a cheesemaker in Westcomebe, England who has installed a webcam that allows you to watch a big hunk of cheddar age. He's dubbed it Cheddarvision. You can see his site at:

http://www.cheddarvision.tv/

or watch the Youtube three month time-lapse of the cheese (considerably more exciting than the live feed).

Musical Superlatives Meme

I was going to post something relating to the seminar I had last Friday, but I thought I'd hold off a few days, given the incomprehensible awfulness of what happened in Virginia yesterday. You'll understand when I post it.

Instead, I thought I'd have a hand at a meme that I saw on Bubs' blog.


What was the first recorded music you bought?

I'd recieved records as gifts, but the first music I bought with my own money were three albums I bought in 1976 at The Swollen Head, a record store/head shop that used to be in Lagrange, Illinois. They had records 1 for $4.59 or 3 for $12, so I bought three. They were:

Hotel California- The Eagles
The Best of the Doobie Brothers- Doobie Brothers
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars- David Bowie.

I still have the Eagles record.

What was the last?
I was inspired by a post from Bubs to finally get the cd of "A Vision Shared," a fundraiser for Folkways, now owned by the Smithsonian. It's got covers of Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly songs by a bunch of great artists-- Bob Dylan, Little Richard, John Mellencamp, Brian Wilson, Sweet Honey In the Rock, Pete Seeger, etc.

What was the first "professional" music show you ever went to?
The summer of 1977, I was 16 and went to the first installment of "The Superbowl of Rock," in Soldier's Field. The line-up was the Climax Blues Band, Foghat, J. Geils Band and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Foghat and Geils were incredible. My friend's father was afraid to be downtown after dark (it seemed a lot of people in Western Springs were that way) and we missed ELP, who were performing with a full orchestra.

Maybe that was an omen: that was the height of pompous, overblown "progressive rock," and within a year, I started getting into punk (see next question).

What was the last?
Sunday night, April 15, Iggy and the Stooges. They were godhead.

What's your "desert island" album?
I'd be hard-pressed to choose between The Clash's "London Calling" and Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited." I'd probably end up choosing the Clash.

What's your favorite album/song title? (the *title* which is your fav, not the actual album or song)
Favorite album title- "What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits" by the Doobie Brothers.
Favorite song title- (I'm Gonna Start) Living Again If It Kills Me- Dave Edmunds

What's your favorite album art (include an image of it if you can)?
A tie.

Sticky Fingers- The Rolling Stones. I found a copy with the zipper in a resale store some years back. I'm getting ready to dump most of my vinyl, but that'll be one I keep. It's by Andy Warhol.

BTW, a few years back, they released a limited run of the cd with working zippers.

The other is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' "Whipped Cream and other Favorites." I loved it the first time I saw it when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, but didn't understand why until I was about 14.



Ideal choice for a karaoke song?
My favorite to do is Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart In San Francisco," but everyone else likes when I do "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" by The Looking Glass.


Song you don't like that WILL NOT LEAVE YOUR HEAD if you hear it.
Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band.



Which is cooler? -- Vinyl? CD? Cassette? 8-track?
I loved vinyl, but have finally succumbed to cd's-- they take a lot less room and are so much easier to handle.

Wait, I've Heard This One Before...

I was reading about the Bush Administration Scandal du jour (Wolfowitz) and thinking about how much sillier Attorney General Alberto Gonazales and the rest of the administration sound every day as they come up with more and more excuses, each one lamer than the last-- missing emails is the latest (Holy Rosemary Woods, Batman!).

It occurred to me I've heard this sad litany before. Unfortunately I couldn't find the appropriate clip among the Blues Brothers snippets on Youtube, so this'll have to do.

"I ran out of gas. I had a flat tire. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! It wasn't my fault, I swear to god!"

In My Tribe

This weekend, I went to not just one, but two shows. The first was on Saturday night, Lucinda Williams, at the Vic.

When Kim and I met, in November of 2004, it was through our Reader "Match" ads. One of the canned questions they had was "What four people would you like to have dinner with." Among mine were former Soviet premier Nikita Kruschev, labor and political activist Lucy Parsons-- and Lucinda Williams.

I'd first become acquainted with Williams' music, like many people, through her breakthrough 1998 album Car Wheels On a Gravel Road, which got a lot of airplay. Her song Can't Let Go really grabbed me-- I refer to it as the "stalker" song. It's a song about someone who can't let go of a former romance. What I loved about it was the humor in it.

That album also had Right In Time, the prettiest ode to onanism that's ever been recorded.

I grew to really like other Lucinda Williams songs. I hadn't known she wrote "Change the Locks," which Tom Petty covered. A particular favorite is "Minneapolis." Minneapolis is my wife's hometown, and I think she knew she was going to marry me the night I played it on the guitar and sang it for her. It turned out, after we met, that she was a big Lucinda Williams fan too.

She and I finally got a chance to see Lucinda Williams on Saturday. Ms. Williams didn't disappoint. She covered a nice range of her material. Her band was great-- although I was a little amused how her guitarist changed songs every single song!

She played a nice mix of old and new. One of the things that struck me, that seems obvious in retrospect, is the spirituality running through her music.

Her opening act was Carrie Rodriguez. She alone was worth the price of the show. She's the daughter of Austin legend David Rodriguez (who now resides in Amsterdam). Her music runs through a few styles-- straight up country, bluegrass, roots, etc. If you get a chance to see her, do so.

In 1968, Iggy Pop (nee James Jewel Osterberg) teamed up with brothers Ron and Scott Asheton and Dave Alexander to form The Stooges. Their first album, simply called The Stooges, has become a stone classic. From the power chord opening of the first track, "1969" ("It's 1969/Another year with nothin' to do...") to the end, it never lets up. It ended up changing music forever.

The Stooges were never able to benefit from it. There were lots of drug and alcohol problems-- particularly Iggy's heroin addiction. They dissolved in 1974.

Over the years, Iggy and the others have cleaned up (except for Dave Alexander, who died in 1975). In 2003, the Stooges reformed. They were in rare form last night.

I've seen Iggy three times-- twice in 1988, and of course last night. He was great all three times, but seeing the reformed Stooges was a religious experience. Mike Watt, of the Minutemen and Firehose, very ably filled in for the late Dave Alexander. I wish they could bottle Scott Asheton's guitar playing. When he hit the "wah-wah" guitar solo in "1969" I lost it.

They played a mix of old and new. For some reason, I've heard, they aren't playing anything from the legendary "Raw Power" album. That was an album that passed through the hands of several producers (including Iggy's friend David Bowie). I've heard it described aptly as "an out-of-control classic." I definitely missed the material from that album last night.

The band was tight and Iggy was his bad ol' self. Early in the show, he invited audience members onstage. It was mostly 20-somethings up there-- showing how long-lasting the Stooges' influence is. The audience was the most age-diverse of any show I've ever seen. From people in their early twenties, to people in their fifties, and possibly sixties-- it was amazing.

Iggy himself turns sixty this Saturday.

I saw a couple of regulars from the restaurant, people I know are in their fifties. And right after we got there, we ran into Pat Miller, a sculptor friend of ours from when we went to Eastern Illinois University in the eighties. I hadn't seen him in about 20 years. I got his email address so that we can stay in touch. Earlier in the day, I'd run into another friend, a guy I'd worked with here in Chicago. I hadn't seen him in ten years. It turns out that we have both worked out at the same fieldhouse gym at Welles Park for years, and somehow never ran into each other.

One old friend was missing, of course, in body, at least. The last time Dan and I had seen Iggy, in the Cabaret Metro, which was right around the corner from our Wrigleyville apartment, our friend and roommate Mark was with us. We felt like he was there last night spiritually. The music of Iggy, the Clash, the Damned, Naked Raygun and many others are part of what bonded me, Dan, Mark and a bunch of others, who found one another because of our shared love of that music.

As I stood in the Congress Theater, rocking out to Iggy, it occurred to me how important punk rock has been in my life. From the political manifestoes of the Clash to the fun of the Stooges, and everything in between, it's helped define my life in a good way. As I stood there, looking around, at people of a forty year age range, men and women of every walk of life and ethnicity, it occurred to me last night, that I was with my tribe.

Two Great Shows, Two Old Friends

I just got home from seeing Iggy and the Stooges. I'm exhausted, and need to get to bed, so I'll post more tomorrow. I'll just say, it was a fucking great show.

Last night, Kim and I saw Lucinda Williams at the Vic theater. also a terrific show. Like I said, more later.

In addition to the incredible shows, today, in two separate situations, I ran into two old friends-- one whom I hadn't seen in 20 years. More tomorrow.

Play Ball!

Given the icy temperature for the practice, it seemed funny to think of our young players as "the Boys of Summer," but there they were in their cleats and last year's uniforms taking fielding and baserunning practice.

Ever since he was a baby, Adam has been impervious to the cold. I was wearing two jackets, and was still a popscicle at the end of the practice. He was in a short-sleeved shirt, and seemed unaffected.

He wore his jersey from last year (Oakland A's), but his hat let his loyalties be known-- the Chicago Cubs.

Adam was born at Columbus Hospital, a now-shuttered hospital in Lincoln Park that was just a little over a mile from Wrigley Field.

As the day of his birth approached, I searched for the first words I'd say to my newborn child. I made my decision. The first time I ever saw him, in Columbus, the first time I ever picked him up, my hands shaking (I'd never even picked up a baby this young before) and whispered to him:

"Remember, son: the Cubs are bums!"

He didn't listen. After a brief flirtation with basketball as a toddler, he became obsessesed with baseball in general, and the Chicago Cubs in particular. When he was little, he'd play whiffleball in the backyard as long as I would let him. He'll still play catch until my arm hurts too much to continue.

When he was only 6 or 7 years, he first stated those infamous Cubs-related words:

"Dad-- I think we're going to have to wait until next year."

Assuming the Cubs do not win a World Series this year-- a pretty good bet-- next year's season, the 2008 season, will mark a century of World Series drought for the North-siders.

In any event, at the end of the practice, our new coach gathered all the parents up for a short meeting. I liked what I heard.

He told us that his main goal for the season was to create good memories for the boys. He pointed out that probably only 10% of the boys playing in the league would even play high school baseball. Of those, only a fraction would play college ball. And of all of those, it's unlikely that even one would play in pro ball. This isn't a farm team for the majors. It's his hope, he said, that some day, years down the line, the boys will think back on what a fun time they had that season. Nothing more.

This is our fifth season in the league. We've seen a lot. Coaches who cheat, coaches who yell at kids, coaches who yell at umpires... all kinds of things. But most of them don't. Most of them are men and women have kids in the league, and it gives them a chance to share something with their kids, like our coach.

Frequently, the offenders end up in the top of the standings. Truth be told, Adam's never been on a team that finished higher than 3rd place. But every February, he double-checks that I signed him up for baseball. He just loves playing.

This afternoon, I'll endure a frigid practice, remembering that in a couple of months I'll be complaining about the heat, instead. Adam will work on his field, hitting and running. While I sit there, he'll pretend I'm not there-- he's with his boys.

It's funny, realizing that if you are successful as a parent, if you're doing your job, you make sure that they'll be able to deal with life without you eventually.

In a little over an hour, I'll be sitting out in the cold and enjoying every minute of it, realizing that the clock on his childhood is ticking.

Lucky Friday the 13th Random 10

Had a day of teaching seminars that were great-- one on teaching "at-risk" kids and another on ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). It was one of the best seminars I've ever been to. There'll be at least one post coming out of it.

We finished up early, so I've got enought time to post my Friday the 13th Random 10 and run off to my son's first baseball practice of the season.


1. Freeze-frame- J. Geils Band
2. Do You Wanna Touch Me?- Gary Glitter
3. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry- Johnny Cash
4. Life In the Fast Lane- The Eagles
5. Enter Sandman- Pat Boone
6. That Girl- Stevie Wonder
7. Standin'- Townes Van Zandt
8. Suspicious Minds- Elvis Presley
9. Typical Girls- The Slits
10. No Feelings- The Sex Pistols


Notes:
1. In the first edition of Dave Marsh's "Rock Book of Lists," J. Geils Band, which had been around since the late '60's, was in the list of great bands that have never had a #1 hit. Of course, within a year of the book's publication, they had a #1 with "Centerfold," from the Freeze-frame album-- and then broke up. The title track was my favorite from that album.
2. Joan Jett later had a hit with this one in the early eighties. This song has grim irony now for Gary Glitter.
3. A great Cash cover of the Hank Williams classic.
4. Hotel California was one of the first records I ever bought with my own money (along with The Best of the Doobie Brothers and David Bowies' "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars."
5. From Boone's hilarious "In a Metal Mood" cd, where he does covers of various rock and metal classics.
6. This was one of the last songs before Stevie Wonder started sucking.
7. Townes Van Zandt has been around forever, and I just started listening to him. Wish I'd started sooner.
8. I've loved this song since I was a kid. The Fine Young Cannibals did a great cover on their first album.
9. From the "No Thanks!" box set of 1970's punk.
10. I realized recently that I didn't have "Never Mind the Bullocks" on cd (I actually only got it on vinyl just a few years ago). I spotted it in a used store in Seattle last week, and here they are on a Random 10 already.

Kurt Vonnegut

I was saddened last night to hear that author Kurt Vonnegut had died. His novel Slaughterhouse Five was based on his real experiences-- surviving and witnessing, as a prisoner-of-war, the aftermath of the February 13-15 Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany, a beautiful city of no military value. The stated intention of the bombing was to hamper the movement of German troops and hasten the fall of the Reich. The immediate effect was to kill 25,000-35,000 civilians and destroy a historic city known for its architecture and beautiful delicate china.

Vonnegut, unaware that he'd also survived another atrocity-- the execution of over a hundred American POW's by German SS troops in the Malmedy Massacre, was forced to help in the burying of the dead. When it became clear that there were too many dead to bury, the Germans began burning the bodies with flamethrowers.

This obviously had an impact on Vonnegut, a middle class guy from the midwest (Indiana). The fact that he, a soldier in the army that had committed the atrocity, was protected because of his POW status, while tens of thousands of German civilians were defenseless against the firebombing, must have given him a sense of the absurd that was profound.

My knowledge of Vonnegut's art is limited. I'm hoping Vikki, who has mentioned being a big Vonnegut fan (and like him, a native Hoosier) will do an overview of his work.

Like half the high school seniors in the United States, I read Cat's Cradle, a criticism of the blind advance of science outracing humanity's ability to deal with its moral and ethical ramifications (e.g. the atomic bomb). His masterwork, Slaughterhouse Five was almost a companion book to his friend Joseph Heller's Catch-22 in its examination of how even the Allies, in fighting a clearly evil power, began sliding down slippery moral slopes in fighting that power. The popularity of the books have to be understood in the context of the Vietnam War, in which many were questioning whether the United States had lost its moral compass entirely. The United States had emerged from World War II with a pretty legitimate sense of moral superiority in having helped defeat three fascist powers. Slaughterhouse Five questioned, to many readers, whether the ethical and moral slide had begun not with Vietnam, but much longer ago.

If I were to pick one word to describe Vonnegut, it would be "absurdity." He saw the aburdity of the human condition, of modern life and even the absurdity of his own life. One of my favorite pieces of his writing was an article he did in the Rolling Stone in 1981 in which he examined life and suicide. He mentioned being the child of a woman who'd committed suicide, and how that left the temptation to take that solution to life's difficulties. I think that Vonnegut would appreciate the absurdity that he, who'd missed being killed in the Battle of the Bulge, who'd avoided death in Dresden, would succumb to injuries suffered in a fall at home.