Randy Newman’s "Harps and Angels" - if it’s your last 10 bucks...
Current mood: enthralled

Buy Randy Newman's new CD, "Harps and Angels"...I downloaded it this AM, listened to it on the way to the office - and had to fix my eye makeup when I got here because it made me laugh 'til I cried and cry 'til I laughed.  It's mostly incisive political satire, with two of the most beautiful love songs ever thrown in for good measure.  if he's not the 21st century's Mark Twain, no one is - makes Colbert and Stewart look jejeune.  He lampoons everyone from Nero to Jackson Browne. 

And "Losing You" and "Feels Like Home"...tear my heart out and eat it for breakfast, why dontcha.

A few of the songs were released earlier; "A Few Words in Defense of our Country" was released on iTunes last year and became a NY Times OpEd piece.  The gorgeous "Feels Like Home" - the one that made me cry the most - has already been covered by lots of folks but I like Randy's version best.  I heard some of these songs last year when I saw him at a very small theater in Baton Rouge.

The title track, BTW, is in the voice of a man lying on a New Orleans sidewalk.  Randy's New Orleans connection is one reason why I love him so but not he only one.

This is his first new album - except for sound tracks - sinece 1999.  It's worth the wait.

Currently listening : Harps & Angels By Randy Newman Release date: 2008-08-05

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Synclive is the coolest!
Current mood: bouncy

I couldn't make it to Lafayette tonight for the Figs CD release party but they put it on Synclive!!!  OK, sound quality is indifferent but WHAT fun!  Not like being there but beats watchin' TV while waiting for gumbo to reach its perfect state.

Currently listening : The Figs By The Figs Release date: 2008-02-12

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Scary News (x-post to LJ)
Current mood: pessimistic

Yes, scarier than the Bush budget deficit....more worrisome than McCain's health plan...comes the news that World Trade Organization trade talks have broken down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/business/worldbusiness/30trade.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Why?  Because if the Old World doesn't come to terms with the New World (and folks, that ain't us), we got trouble right here in River City.

People ALWAYS act in their own economic self-interest.  We have to deal with farm subsidies, open up markets and make international trade easier.  If we don't - the US will become Britain in the '50's - and we don't want to do that.  I don't LIKE beans on toast.

We are on the verge of being a post-imperial, post-war economic afterthought.  Irrelevant.  May be too late.  DAMN Bush and his idiocy.  If he was just venal, that would be one thing..  But it's all just stupidity and -thanks to CheneyRumsfeld - living in the past. and dooming Thomas Jefferson and John Adams republic to history's dustbin.

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Cats, Irish Music and Figs
Current mood: fabulous

with the handsome, talented, intelligent, and modest  musical genius Marc Gunn in town...Friday night a rain-soaked but way-fun house concert chez moi, a successful in-so-many-ways CD release party for  "Whiskers in the Jar" on Saturday at the wonderful Saltwater Grill on S. Carrollton that benefited the La. SPCA - TWO reporters showed up from the Times Picayune and although we didn't score anything in the Sunday paper, I'm expecting a nice write up in Ann Nungesser's pet column.   MANY good friends from past and present LRF casts attended - but so did at least 20 people who read about it in the paper or got emails - so new fan base and friends for LRF.  Then off to tapas with the posse and finally Tips for my new favorite band, the Figs.

Yes, the Figs - a 6-girl band from Lafayette who wear girly dresses and cute shoes who sing songs like "I wanna shoot a gun with you" and other fun things - but what I ESPECIALLY like about them is the literary reference that their name includes....   bought a CD and there it was - a quote from the D. H. Lawrence poem - http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classic%20Poems/Lawrence/figs.htm.  

How cool is that?  They're cute, talented AND make literary references!!!!

Then back at the house for a wonderfully relaxing Sunday afternoon during which I got to be an apprentice autoharp repair technician - won't THAT read great on my resume.   Made fried chicken etc., and used cast iron instead of the usual electric skillet - went PRETTY well except that a large piece of chicken wound up a little undercooked - but I have not killed anyone with my fried chicken yet - at least short-term - the cholesterol might get them later, I suppose...Then having KatieKat school me on my own damn dulcimer.  Having talented children is a blessing and a curse...but what FUN!

OOF.  Back to work...but the memories are wonderful.

Currently listening : Whiskers in the Jar: Irish Songs for Cat Lovers By Marc Gunn Release date: 2008-06-10

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Bastille Day!!!
Current mood: rebellious

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Wishbone Ash and Musical Memory
Current mood: adventurous

An AMAZING experience this morning - after talking with a friend yesterday about rock music and Wishbone Ash in particular, I went to iTunes to find that Wishbone Ash's "Argus" album has been remastered and reissued - bought it and this morning on the way to work, found not only that I remembered every lyric but alsdo every guitar lick and chord - no thinking about it, they were just THERE.  Now, mind you, I spent a substantial part of 1973 in line at the old Warehouse  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warehouse_(New_Orleans), an amazing venue,. to see Wishbone Ash and a million other great bands, but it still surprised me that the music was just THERE.
And it's  a GREAT album - not a packaged up concept album, but a tightly knit assemblage of songs that build to a LOTR-ish story of freedon fighting.  Last song is "Throw down the Sword" because we were all against war back then.

Anyway, commend it highly!

Currently listening : Argus (Remastered & Revisited) By Wishbone Ash Release date: 2002-03-05

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Wishbone Ash and Musical Memory
Current mood: adventurous

An AMAZING experience this morning - after talking with a friend yesterday about rock music and Wishbone Ash in particular, I went to iTunes to find that Wishbone Ash's "Argus" album has been remastered and reissued - bought it and this morning on the way to work, found not only that I remembered every lyric but alsdo every guitar lick and chord - no thinking about it, they were just THERE.  Now, mind you, I spent a substantial part of 1973 in line at the old Warehouse  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Warehouse_(New_Orleans), an amazing venue,. to see Wishbone Ash and a million other great bands, but it still surprised me that the music was just THERE.
And it's  a GREAT album - not a packaged up concept album, but a tightly knit assemblage of songs that build to a LOTR-ish story of freedon fighting.  Last song is "Throw down the Sword" because we were all against war back then.

Anyway, commend it highly!

Currently listening : Argus (Remastered & Revisited) By Wishbone Ash Release date: 2002-03-05

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Hurricane Babies Photos Uploaded
Current mood: thoughtful

I never did get around to posting any photos of my expereinces during Katrina - there weren't too many, we were too busy.  The only one of me is posted.  yeah, I'm crying at the miracle of the 29 babies and 9 moms we rescued from University Hospital through the unbelievable efforts of pilots who basically ignored orders and did a soft landing at University after watching some of us have temper tantrums at the state Command Center. 

There's a photo of the HEROIC staff at University on the roof - desperate - these people were incredible.

I wish I could tell you that things will be better this season.  We learned a lot - but things are not - let's just say - well organized in spite of the efforts of those of us in the perinatal commnuity over the past three years. 

BUT - fact is that while 154 people died in hospitals during the aftermath of Katrina, not one of them was a baby or a child. 

Let's hope for a quiet season.

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Inane to meaningful in a heartbeat
Current mood: contemplative

Interesting thing last night - business dinner, really boring, then...a conversation with a woman seated next to me turned from inane to meaningful and I experienced it as a physical sensation.  Blah blah small talk - then she disclosed that she had lost a son a few months ago - and our eyes engaged and I caught my breath and she and I had a great conversation about things that matter - but the subtle shift was SO, I don't know how to describe it.  I mean it's not like we will be bestest friends or anything but we won't forget each other's names.  And I might have missed it...it would have been easy to gloss over her devastating loss with a sympathetic remark.  Staying open to really listen to people has remarkable rewards.
She did not join a group of us for an annual event - the walk on the beach in memory of Wade Speed, a wonderful man, the original husband number three,  who died four years ago in the crash of his small plane near Hammond.  I loved him dearly and miss him daily.  I did whisper her son's name and the name of another friend lost this year.  The walk is starting to get longer and more meaningful, too.

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I’d Better Get Busy!
Current mood: creative

Oy, I have a lot to do - only four months and a bit before Faire, and I've got to:

1. Make Dudley's doublet and venetians - and no jokes about too many inseam measurements, thank you!
2. Choose all the wines for the wine tastings - which means agonizing over things like should I serve a Tasmaniam sparkling wine or stick with a New Zed; I spend HOURS doing that - get the catalogs, place the orders, buy more glasses, bleach the tablecloths, write up the tasting notes, and find someone to help with the set up
3. Plan the Patron Party for the week before and get press out
4. Clean out the vardo and the cottage - it's always interesting
5. Maybe do some plantings around the wine tasting stage

And I actually have to do all this before October 1 because I will be at TRF as often as possible this year - plus get my son ready for a year in Spain, get Katie off to her sophomore year.

Oh yeah, and build a new hospital. No more napping with Albert the Cat
I sure have an interesting life.

Currently listening : Rockferry By Duffy Release date: 2008-05-13

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