Tag: Mike Campbell

Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: waitsive (waiting with a pensive feel, ya know?)

Greetings from the third rock. It’s Tuesday, June 25, 2024, and we have a crispy summery morning for you. Temperatures are slipping through the mid sixties and they’d keep that line going until we’re into the mid- to upper- 90s here in Ashlandia. The sky’s so blue, it must be true.

The status quo for me has settled. Act 1 is over, the first half, whatever sports or theatatrical term you wanna apply. We’re at intermission, half time, etc. Next, we’ll see what happens — the debates, the wars, SCOTUS decisions, Dad’s dialysis decision, my annual physical and my ankle, etc. I’m sure you have your own list of matters.

Yes, my ankle worsened yesterday. I went about without wrapping it, and it rewarded me by blooming into a larger size last night. I reciprocated with rest, ice, and elevation. Now it’s wrapped again. Bah, humbug.

With these matters occupying Der Neurons, songs with a waiting theme were percolating in the morning mental music stream (Trademark simmering) but then someone said something that sounded like, “Coming for you.” This was followed by some f-bombs and dog barking, all of which was traced to the street, a good long bomb pass away. A man was walking, his large dark dog unleashed. A woman with a leashed medium-sized canine was taking umbrage and the dogs were cursing one another with great teethy zeal. I went back in and checked on the cats (repping in the back yard) (repping: resting but not quite napping) and resumed my usual routines.

Pretty much a nothing burger, but it shifted Les Neurons’ path. Now they plied the morning mental music stream with “Great Rain” by John Prine with Mike Campbell from 1991. Conducting some forensics, I realized that one point in the verbal melee outside (would that be a verlee?), I thought I heard someone call my name. Confusing and brief, but it apparently hooked The Neurons, inducing them to think of this song’s lyrics, “I thought I heard you call my name.”

Stay positive, stay strong, lean forward, and Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee is being sampled and brain city is coming alive. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: retrospective

Good morning. It’s Tuesday, October 3, 2023. 52 F outside, it’s foggy and wet. A light rain falls in Ashlandia, where the water is limited and the optimism is eternal.

A prepondence of Ashlandia trees have embraced autumn and show its effects in their color stylings. This isn’t true in my neighborhood slice. I guess the trees here are late adopters. All immediately outside my window remains verdant with a wet sheen. We’re warm and dry in the house, and the domino effect is that it’s a cozy fall morning. Coffee has brewed, embedding the ambiance with wistful nostalgia.

I’m happy that it’s still shorts weather.

Meanwhile, the cats take opposite approaches to the fall weather shift. Papi, the young ginger blade who likes being outside, came in from the rain and colder temperatures. Right now, he’s posing on the master bed, looking calm and majestic in the soft grey light through the windows. Tucker, a big old cat with thick back and white fur, has headed outside and is curled up and asleep by the front porch cairn, protected from rain by the eaves.

While it’s cool now, we’re going to work our way up to 69 F. People aren’t doing much of the work; the sun, wind, and air do the heavy shifting today.

I tried Amla — Indian Gooseberry — powder today. My wife is always searching for healthy additions to our diet and habits. She’d read about amla and ordered the powder off the net. I added a serving to my oatmeal this morning. The gooseberry powder infused the oatmeal with a sweet berry flavor that I much enjoyed. I’ll be on watch for its impact on my health.

I have “City of New Orleans” as covered by Arlo Guthrie in the morning mental music stream (Trademark screwy). The Neurons selected it because I was reviewing a bill last night from the City of Ashland. This is a utility bill – water, electric, sewer, storm drain, street and street lights. $104 for the month. Half of it is services, fees, and taxes. Part of that is because the electricity charges are offset by our solar panels. 2K, I had them installed back in 2010.

I see clearly how The Neurons were thinking: City of Ashland = “City of New Orleans”.

While I searched for a video version of the song I wanted, I discovered a fascinating video of Mike Campbell explaining how “Boys of Summer” was written. I’ve always enjoyed that song and had wondered who the guitarist was when it was first released. Turned out to be Mike Campbell.

Campbell, who played with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, also backed Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. He’s a guitarist who I’ve long respected for his clean and simple playing style, so hearing this tale was a treat. It was also a fascinating reveal of some modern rock history, and an engrossing explanation in how he and Henley wrote the song, “Boys of Summer”. Many obstacles and near disasters were overcome. Check it out if you have a moment.

Campbell’s closing remarks reverberated with the writer in me. “When you hit a stumbling block, you gotta keep going. Don’t give up. Keep pushing, pushing, pushing, and working till you get it right.”

Stay pos and fresh, strong and optimistic. Coffee has been guzzled on my end. I’m ready to commence the day. With a morning like this, I’m expecting to have a good day.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Up early. (Well, early-ish.) (With le chats.) Opened the back door and ventured into the cool air (well, coolish, low seventies, but it’s a relative thing, innit?) and clear blue sky (well, clear-ish and blue-ish, save for the marring brung in by wildfire smoke to the south and east, gentle nudges to check the wildfire updates). Birds were speaking but it was quiet (well, quiet-ish, as cars’ motoring punctured the mo’ — again, again, again). Thought of the world sit, rolling into longing for where I was and where I preferred to be.

Here’s a song from another time which I think evokes those senses, “The Boys of Summer” by Don Henley and Mike Campbell, with Campbell on guitar, from 1984. By coincidence, it captures the sense of summer, 2020: “Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach. I feel it in the air, the summers out of reach. Empty lake, empty streets, the sun goes down alone.”

Hmm, seems like an -ish kind of day…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrvVQm6kKZ4

 

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Saturday’s Theme Music

I’ve always liked this song. While a powerful declaration, it features a strong beat, and the special voice and style of Aretha Franklin. Annie Lennox’s voice is good as well, and Mike Campbell (of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and the guitarist on “Boys of Summer”) sits in.

Why “Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves” (1986), The Eurythmics with Aretha Franklin,  is running the stream today is beyond me. Dream material? Suppose so; it was a busy dream night (too much to write down today).

It’s a good sentiment, though, for any sex or race, orientation or gender; do it for yourself. Don’t let yourself be labeled and stuck in a silo of expectations and stereotypes. Stand on your own two feet and do it for yourself.

 

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