"Why is this thus? What is the reason for this thusness?"

Okay, I’m old. I said it. I don’t mind it. If you have a problem with it and need to make yourself feel better by joking and laughing because you will be in the same position one day, it’s not my fault. Sucka!


I come to this realization naturally, genuinely, and honestly. I don’t have a problem with it. I am not writing like this to affirm or deny it. I am not writing this to rationalize a need/desire for a two seat sports car. I am however writing it to belabor a point of one of my whims I have; (Yes, I have many, they’re free and I’m allowed.)

I have gained my interest back for music recently and still have an interest in journalism and I see my friends having fun playing and jamming with people all over the world. I see them doing what we used to do together and making connections with all manner of talent from extremely familiar and famous like Joe Walsh, Blake Shelton to obscure and local artists. The main point though, they’re playing and having fun. I will be playing again soon and playing my own music which will have copyright so I can possibly sell to some folks in the end. A great outcome of that would be the awesomeness of actually being able to write on a regular basis for artists. I like to perform but it hasn’t been a goal of mine to be a professional performer of notoriety since I was 20. Not because I don’t feel I can do it but it just isn’t as valuable to me as just being CONNECTED to the industry and enjoying the time of playing for folks while they enjoy their time with you.

Some folks put down playing out in bars and other places as if it is trivial or meaningless and since most are drunk, you don’t matter. That couldn’t be any farther from the truth. The majority of audiences are out to have a good time. Whether they were drunk or not doesn’t negate the fact that they came out, witnessed your performance and hopefully had a good time doing it. That’s why the owner of the establishment had you perform in the first place. Then you bring in regulars to follow you and spend more money at the spot and attract their friends. And their friends tell their friends and yada.

I have the utmost respect for musicians that spend their Thursday and Friday nights playing for us folks that just like to appreciate decent live music and relax. They practice hard through the week work a main job and take care of their families. And if they’re having fun then its better for us.

I remember a band my wife and I used to watch back at Kingston Alley in Knoxville, TN. They aren’t together anymore but my wife and I really enjoyed them. They were a cover band and had some distinct characters in the band. They had a singer guitar player who reminded me of Sam Elliot and I forget who he reminded my wife of but he was definitely a decent singer. The bass player was a real character who reminded me of a Doobie Brother but could play the crap out of a bass. They had a drummer that could sing decently and were just a real tight band. They were called The Hip Twangers. We would look for where they were playing each weekend for the chance to go sit and hear “Bad case of Loving You” or ”Jessie’s Girl”. I think that was an indelible mark on my memory that I will have for ever and cant think of a bad night out listening to those guys. I want to have that kind of impact when I play. That’s a great legacy.

If I can sell a song or two and say “You know Kenny Chesney sings a song I wrote?” I don’t like him but that would be cool. So off I go!

ILY XO YM

SOX Controls and hopefully they win tonight.

An exciting day awaits me: Discussions on Sarbanes Oxley Controls: YUMMY! But first, lunch. A ham sandwich with home made wheat bread and Swiss cheese, potato salad and some Pork Rinds.


So I hear Google+ is taking over the earth now. The new Facebook is the latest new and improved avenue for everyone and my son, who doesn’t want to go on Facebook for security issues, is pawing around looking for an invite to be a beta tester.

I recently, yesterday, found out one of my birthday presents was stolen from me. I had received another Xbox controller and it hadn’t even been opened yet and it is now gone. One of the repairmen that fixed either the AC or the electric has taken it because otherwise, someone broke into the house and took that yet left the brand new laptop and other items there: Pisses me off.

I haven’t played my games much yet. I have Madden, MLB and Medal of Honor as well as a few Kinect type games. I was looking forward to maybe playing one night when the house was quiet and I could focus on learning to play again since it has been so long. I can still play with one controller for me but it was purchased to play the sports games with the kids.

I’m going to fix my bike this week so I can go riding again. I need some tubes and probably should replace the tires. I am just not going to spend $100 doing it. I couldn’t believe how much some places charge for an inner tube and tire. Wow!

As mentioned earlier I am entertaining a business idea of starting a kennel. It is of more interest to me than usual and I think would be a great work for my heart and bring a lot of satisfaction, I just need to build the business case appropriately to generate enough income to sustain life for the family. I look forward to working on making that happen. I would love to work with animals like that: They’re better than people…

Gotta go, lunch break over. LETS GO SOX! White sox I mean.

It was the Summer of 69....NO 79! I'm not that old!

Songs remind you of all kinds of things. I know one I write about often on here is “Purple Rain” and my mother. Today I heard one while at work that took me back to the summer of ’79. “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones. Not sure when that was actually released, but it is a song I remember hearing a lot that year.


I had a friend I hung out with all the time. We used to have a gang we called the Mad Dragons. Yeah, it was 6th grade. “The Warriors” was one of our favorite movies along with “Saturday Night Fever” and believe it or not “Grease”. We saw that movie a hundred times easy. We went to the Palace Theater every Saturday afternoon and watched episode after episode. They used to let us in free. There was hardly anybody in the theater with us and we’d just sit there and watch trailers and movies.

Another song around that time that always played when we were waiting on the movie to start was “My Love is Alive” by Gary Wright. That song got me into the 70’s funk music. I love Parliament and George Clinton. I got into Lakeside and so many others.

My mom really pushed me to be open to music and I was but since the early 90’s I have been more critical. Music just isn’t as good. It is getting harder and harder to really find good music.

I remember watching the Midnight Special with my mother and the one memory that I remember above all others was the night Janis Joplin was on and Momma turned the TV up real loud and was dancing. We lived in an apartment down town and one of the neighbors called the cops and had said a woman was screaming down stairs and thought she was fighting with her husband. Now my mom wouldn’t hold back from knocking the crap out of my dad if he got stupid and they did tend to get rowdy, but tonight she was dancing and enjoying her music.

Back to my original thought, there are a lot of songs that make me think of times in my life like that. That one is pretty nice to remember running all over Blount County, Tennessee, riding my bike or skate board. Playing baseball and going to the swimming pool. No bills to pay, just school was all I had to worry about and the occasional bully or fight.

I miss my mother and those times and I know I had fun back then, but now I can really appreciate what she was enjoying. She just loved good music and feeling alive and would share that with anyone. Her favorite thing she always did was sit at her desk with the radio on, listening to the Eagles and writing short stories. She would do that all day and be perfectly content. I love you momma.

Back on the wagon...better buy extra wheels though!

Now our AC is fixed. I need to vent a little about my new abode, which I know is all relevant to the time of year. I understand this that storms will come and go and no one knows what will happen from one day to the next however, I have lived in rural areas all my life and never had so much failure of infrastructure and broke parts in my life.


Thee events have me really wanting to move much sooner than I originally wanted to. Logic says the cost isn’t prohibitive but not effective. However when calculating loss and inconvenience, long term costs are outweighed by short term comfort and sanity.

Right now, if asked by my cute wonderful spouse if I want to move? YES. Just tired of the problems. Beautiful country but they suck at taking care of the area. I have never had so many power outages and just felt so isolated before in my life. I’m from Tennessee BF Egypt areas too. This is ridiculous. I don’t want to hear another redneck joke about a Tennesseean again from these idiots when it takes a week to restore power to a small rural area just 40 miles west of Chicago. Give me a break. In the words of one of my favorite AFV videos, “Now How you gonna tell me….” You can’t provide high speed internet out here yet? I have to use satellite DSL to get to the internet and can’t get cable. Really? This close to Chicago you can’t upgrade the facilities enough to provide cable and internet. Don’t ever talk about how far above raising you are from a southern boy!

Anyway, I have plans for this weekend. We’re grilling a little. Making some spinach lasagna on Sunday and I need to get parts for my bike so I can enjoy the bike trails around here. Plus a trip to the square to see what the market has to offer now that corn should be grown and I think I saw peaches and tomatoes too.

I’m making fried chicken, beans and mashed potatoes with cornbread tomorrow night. I need to get my wife by the library and check out some more music. I find myself in rotations. I listen to classic rock for a while and then back to country. The reason is that I get tired of the same old songs all the time but I can’t stand the new rock and pop crap. Country is the closest to original classic rock anyway.

So what happens is I give it a year or so and then new country music comes out that’s good, I get tired of it and switch back to rock for a while. I am finding though in my old age, acoustic guitar appeals to me more and the singing with the accompany accompany accompaniment is more pleasing to the ear and my voice.

I am also still in need of getting back to school and improving the grey matter a little. I have plans. Some long term plans include

(SOMEWHERE HAS BEEN NARROWED TO THREE AREAS NOW! BUT I’M NOT TELLING!)

Opening a Kennel somewhere

A used bookstore with a coffee house somewhere

Writing songs for extra dough

Of course writing books/journalism as a hobby(Free for a local rag or something)

Playing at diners or small bars in a duo or trio maybe o if I get back to stage presence I used to have doing it alone.

Biking

Disc Golf

Hunting

Fishing

Camping

Cooking

And what’s cool is most of this my wife would do with me in some fashion (Except the hunting)

What do you have going on now? Drop a comment!

XO ILY YM

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it has been since….well look at the previous post. That long. So let me update:


Truck broke, truck fixed, car broke, car fixed, wife bought great toys for my birthday and fathers day: Martin Guitar, Telecaster Guitar, FX Processor, Music Stand, Guitar stands, guitar case, CD’s and DVD’s Galore, some cool sport collectibles which I adore, kids have been out, daughter at bday, sun at July 4, been to three baseball games, its hot, power outage lasted three days for us, ac broke, still broke, satellite TV broke getting fixed today, electrician out to repair some outlets, outlets broke after electrician installed, no electrician out to fix yet, health issues with me and my numbers unexpected, lost a lot of weight, gaining some back now, my wife had some health issues which we are still dealing with and I wish her well and she has blabbed about it to some degree on her blog, changes at work that were unforeseen and not pleasant but we’re weathering through, did I mention it was hot?

So yeah that last paragraph is a bit cryptic and for good reason. Topic and subject is enough since I don’t have time or patience to write the diatribe that would reveal the boring details around those events.

On a lighter note, I am playing guitar a little more again. I am editing some of my songs and bringing them up to date with the world and lingo of today to maybe sell a few one day. I am working on getting some folks together to play out in a few venues one day soon. Maybe a lounge or something. Just a simple little gig with acoustics maybe.

I need to repair my bike so I can start hitting the trails up here. There are a lot of bike trails in Illinois and especially where I live. This one trail is 27 miles long and goes to the Wisconsin border. It had 100 miles of trails attached as well so that sounds interesting. I want to start a bike log and record the trek on here with pics.

I also played a little disc golf while the boy was up. KICKED HIS BUTT I DID! 9 under par for me. Yes thank you.

Anyway, I have a basketball hoop to put together as well for exercise but not until this heat is done.

So until next time…adieu!

XO ILY YM