Tuesday, November 27, 2012

#605: Post Turkey-Day playlist

Here's the at-work playlist 4 Thanksgiving Day & everything since....

Scarlet Rivera -- Day of the Unicorn.
Love -- FOREVER CHANGES: Alone Again Or, A House is not a Motel, Andmoreagain, The Daily Planet, Old Man, The Red Telephone, Maybe the People Would be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale, Live and Let Live, The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This, Bummer in the Summer, You Set the Scene, Hummingbirds, Wonder People (I Do Wonder), Alone Again Or (alternate mix), You Set the Scene (alternate mix), Your Mind and We tracking session highlights, Your Mind and We Belong Together, Laughing Stock; My Little Red Book, Seven and Seven Is, Number Fourteen, The Castle, She Comes in Colors, Singing Cowboy, Your Friend and Mine -- Neil's Song.
Five Man Electrical Band -- Absolutely Right, Julianna, Money Back Guarantee.
Fleet Foxes -- Blue Ridge Mountains.
Florence + the Machine -- Shake it Out.
Joe Jackson -- Invisible Man, Too Tough, Citizen Sane....
Nektar -- Fidgety Queen, King of Twilight, Do You Believe in Magic?
Sparks -- Eaten by the Monster of Love.
Can -- Uphill, Mother Upduff, Moonshake, Future Days, Cascade Waltz, Father Cannot Yell.
Squeeze -- Another Nail in My Heart, Pulling Mussels from the Shell, Is That Love?, Labelled with Love, Black Coffee in Bed, Annie Get Your Gun, King George Street, Last Time Forever, No Place Like Home, Hourglass, Trust Me to Open My Mouth, Footprints, If it's Love, Love Circles, Take Me I'm Yours, Goodbye Girl, Cool for Cats.
Jade Warrior -- A Winter's Tale.

Ghod, is that ALL? I thot there was MORE....
OK, so I've been using the holidays as an Xcuse 2 slowly work my way thru a good-sized stack of mostly-unheard CD's, with an occasional familiar item or 2 thrown-in 2 keep me motivated while working. This will likely continue til I get thru this new-2-me stuff -- still have 1/2adozen strange CD's from Crabby 2 listen-2....

NOTES: "Day of the Unicorn" is a rocking & rolling violin-led instrumental from a 1978 album (SCARLET FEVER) that is otherwise almost completely forgettable.
Love's FOREVER CHANGES is a 1967 psychedelic classic that only rocks in a few places, but it sure is pretty. Gorgeous vocals, strings & brass, & the songwriting is really strong. There's not a bad song on it -- I especially like "You Set the Scene," "Maybe the People Would be the Times" & "Alone Again Or." You can definitely tell it's from a Different Time, & there R some dark lyrical undercurrents running thru it, but mostly it's gorgeous '60s pop. Even summa the at-1st dumbest lyrics (try the opening of "Live and Let Live") lead in2 some Xcellent, memorable songs. There's also a few moments of flashy Hendrix-like guitar thrown in....
The other Love stuff listed here is from their DEFINITIVE COLLECTION, following the band from their punk/psych early daze 2 their bloozy later period. "My Little Red Book" is hysterical, "7 and 7 Is" is non-stop rush, "The Castle" & "She Comes in Colors" sound like The Byrds Go Baroque, & summa the rest ("Laughing Stock," "Singing Cowboy," "Number Fourteen," "Your Mind and We Belong Together") R just plain WEIRD. Great stuff....
5MEB's "Absolutely Right" is more adrenaline rush, "Money Back Guarantee" is silly & gimmicky, but it's cute & catchy ... & 1 older customer heard "Julianna" & said "This has GOT to be a CD...." Turns out he graduated from highschool in '72 & recognized the song, hadn't heard it in 40 years. I love it when that happens....
"Blue Ridge Mountains" sounds 2 me like SMiLE-era Beach Boys meets '60s folk music. It's also the EZest track 2 get in2 on Fleet Foxes' 1st album. "Shake it Out" is still my choice 4 Best Song of the 2000's So Far....
Followed these with 3 trax from Joe Jackson's CD/DVD RAIN, sent 2 me by my buddy Crabby -- "Invisible Man"'s pretty good, & I was impressed by the tightness of Jackson's longtime trio. "Too Tough" & "Citizen Sane" R equally moody, & there's some rather ornate piano from Jackson. Nice, impressive, but a little downbeat -- definitely not party music. More of this later....
The 3 rockin' Nektar trax R unbeatable, tho the mix on "King of Twilight" (from their DREAM NEBULA best-of) is REALLY trebly.... Sparks' "Eaten by the Monster of Love" has hilarious lyrics & great choruses -- it shoulda been a hit. You might've heard it in the classic early-'80s flick VALLEY GIRL....
Can might've scared some customers off. Ah well, I'll havta play MORE. "Uphill" is a killer riff that just keeps going&going, "Mother Upduff" is a long joke set 2 music. Summa their later stuff mellows-out a little, but it's still worth hearing -- there's always some great Jaki Leibezeit drumming or Michael Karoli guitar 2 grab on2. Then I backtracked 4 the brilliant "Father Cannot Yell" -- great trance-inducing pounding rhythms, & some marvelous almost-sensible chanting from Malcolm Mooney. I'll havta play more of these guys' early stuff & REALLY mess customers up....
Squeeze. Hmmm. I've wanted 2 like these guys 4 YEARS -- their ARGYBARGY album is good, solid early-'80s New Wave, not 2 weird, closer 2 Pub Rock. Their upbeat songs R usually pretty good: "Pulling Mussels from the Shell" is a classic that shoulda bn a hit, & I've grown 2 enjoy "Another Nail in My Heart" more over the years -- there R parts in the verses that R sung just perfectly (listen to the lines "Tryin' to be good by not bein' 'round" & "I want to be good, is that not enough?").
But despite Chris Difford & Glenn Tilbrook's clever lyrics, cleverness ain't enuf if the tunes don't grab you. There R 3 great songs on their GREATEST HITS, & the rest is just sorta flat -- gray stories about broken marriages & failed relationships & drinking binges. The added saxes on "Hourglass" REALLY set it off -- + it has a great repeating-mantra chorus. But summa the rest....
"Labelled with Love" adds a country twang that doesn't help. "No Place Like Home" is just ... disturbing. "Black Coffee in Bed" is boring. I stopped hearing "Tempted" years ago. Summa the others I can't remember well enuf 2 comment on. Summa the later, higher-tech trax brighten up a bit, but overall their best-of is kinda thin. & why isn't "In Quintessence" on here?
"A Winter's Tale" is pretty glorious -- it's an olde favorite of mine, perfect 4 Wintertime listening, with some great loud guitar at the end.
More soon....

Thursday, November 22, 2012

#604: Don's Greatest Hits

On Thanksgiving Eve I played some music at work 4 the 1st time in nearly a month. This lapse happened mostly because I became a news junkie before the election & it was tough 2 break away. I was also bored 2 death with local radio, bored with most music -- a friend thot I was depressed.
But facing a Bad Week, I took a bag of mostly-unheard new-2-me CD's 2 work Weds nite 2 help keep me motivated. & it worked, tho it took me awhile 2 get 2 them. I'll B taking them again tomorrow 4 Turkey Day.
Mostly I played Love's gorgeous 1967 psychedelic masterwork FOREVER CHANGES, which I'd never heard all the way thru B4. There's not a really bad track on it, from the Tijuana Brass-style horns of the shoulda-been-hit "Alone Again Or," 2 the Hendrixy guitar freakout at the end of "Your Mind and We Belong Together." Even the outtakes & bonus tracks & studio tracking sessions R good. I should have a review of this stuff posted soon.
But I started out with 1 of my old buddy Don Vincent's old favorites, Scarlet Rivera's riffing, rocking violin instrumental "Day of the Unicorn." It really woke me up like nothing else has in weeks. & after that I couldn't stop.
I've been wanting 2 do a "Don's Greatest Hits" piece since I discovered that Don had died suddenly early in Sept (see "An obituary," below). Without him, I probly wouldn't be on this continuing search 4 Strange Music. When we met after highschool, Don was the only guy I knew who's musical taste was farther out-there than mine. & he would take the wildest chances on stuff -- buy albums by artists he'd never heard of just Bcos he liked the covers. He didn't care if he blew $3.99 on a turkey.
He had pretty good luck, 2. Below is a sorta best-of list of music he discovered & then turned me on 2. Most of them I've written about B4. This list is 4 you, Don. Ghod bless ya.
* Gryphon -- "Lament," RED QUEEN TO GRYPHON THREE, RAINDANCE. "Lament" is the most gorgeous progressive-folk-rock instrumental ever. RED QUEEN features that piece & 3 other lengthy tracks, & a unique wind-up-toy-band sound unlike any1 else, ever. Found in a cut-out bin 4 $2.99! RAINDANCE's 2nd side shoulda been minted in gold: 2 catchy short pieces & a 16-minute epic that continues their lighter-than-air sound & adds some punch 2 it.
* David Sancious and Tone -- TRANSFORMATION (THE SPEED OF LOVE). YOU try buying an album with no band info on the cover, just a spacey painting of a guy hatching from an egg & crawling out 2 meet a prehistoric sunrise. With a cover that good, the music inside had 2 B great, right? & it was -- keyboard-based jazz-rock like an even-wilder Mahavishnu Orchestra, & Sancious himself was a synth wizard. The 18-minute title track is stunning -- there's even a melody....
* Hawkwind -- HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL. Another 1 pulled from the cut-out bin, with a crash-landed spaceship on the cover, & a landscape with 3 moons above it on the back. Inside is heavy space-rock with a few classics: The driving "You'd Better Believe It," the spooky "Lost Johnny," & the ominous mantra "Psychedelic Warlords." & then there's those spacey synth mood-changer instrumentals....
* Space Art -- A TRIP IN THE CENTER HEAD. Imagine the best synthesizer album you've ever heard, then double it. Better & more melodic than Tangerine Dream, Rick Wakeman, Synergy, Klaus Schulze, or any1 else I've ever heard. Jean-Michel Jarre (under a pseudonym) handles the keybs & performs pieces I can STILL remember even tho I haven't heard them since 1982. & the album's been out-of-print FOREVER....
* Amazing Blondel -- FANTASIA LINDUM and ENGLAND. Straight outta 1582. Take Gryphon's light folk tunes & add sometimes kinda-fruity (tho marvelous) singing, & you have perfect soundtrack music 4 THE THREE MUSKETEERS (the GOOD 1 from the early '70s with Oliver Reed & Michael York & Racquel Welch).
* Scarlet Rivera -- "Day of the Unicorn." The album this comes from is no big deal, but this violin instrumental starts all misty & shadowy & -- with just a brief pause 4 atmosphere -- a riff follows that drives on 4 7 mins of non-stop brilliance. & Scarlet fiddles her ass off.
* Nektar -- THRU THE EARS best-of. Great crashing British/German mid-'70s prog, dramatic & driving, with lotsa great guitar from Roye Albrighton. Best: "It's All Over," "King of Twilight," "Do You Believe in Magic?," & the great rocker "Fidgety Queen."
* Jade Warrior -- "A Winter's Tale." Another 1 from the cut-out bin. This ballad about being alone with your beloved on a snowy day starts out hushed & intimate & Xplodes out into a swaying, guitar-driven singalong. Some say they invented New Age, but the guitar here's way 2 loud 4 that.
* Charlie Dore -- LISTEN! Solid early-'80s mainstream pop with some added drama & comedy. Don played it non-stop when enduring a separation & missing his future-wife Robyn. Best: The dramatic "Don't Say No" & "Wise to the Lines," "Like They Do it in America," "Falling," title song, "I'm Over Here," "Sister Revenge."
* Pat Metheny -- PAT METHENY GROUP. Mellow melodic jazz with lotsa great guitar & keyboards. "San Lorenzo"'s best, but it's all very pleasant -- on the strength of this album, I bought these guys' stuff 4 years....
* Synergy. Keyboard whiz Larry Fast did some great stuff on his late-'70s albums SEQUENCER and ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA. Best: The dramatic 12-minute epic "Warriors," "S-Scape," "Icarus," "Classical Gas."
...Course I didn't love ALL the music Don liked. He was a BIG Rick Wakeman fan, & Xcept 4 RW's WHITE ROCK and CRIMINAL RECORD, I could never see what all the fuss was about. Don was also a sucker 4 rather delicate jazz-rock bands like Shadowfax & Ethos. I never heard anything distinctive from them -- it was mostly OK mood music. I never got in2 Chick Corea & Return to Forever back then, tho I'm doing a little better now. Bo Hansson's LORD OF THE RINGS was some of the most primitive & dated-sounding synth music I'd ever heard.
& Aphrodite's Child's 666 -- well, I NEVER figured out what the HELL was going on THERE....

Friday, November 9, 2012

#603: Isn't that interesting...?

I think I 1st heard classic mid-'60s psychedelic rock band Love when I was working at the record store back home in Boise, Idaho, around 1979 -- that's when I bagged an 8-track tape of their old Elektra best-of LOVE MASTERS for $3.99.
& tho my dying old 8-track player at home didn't always work right -- the sound was kinda mushy & the player's heads were slightly out of alignment so you couldn't always hear all the music channels -- still some of the music reached out of the speakers & grabbed me by the throat. Especially the best-of's closer, the epic don't-waste-your-life call-to-arms "You Set the Scene."
It was sorta like SGT. PEPPER with soul. Kinda. Definitely 1967, but with some intense feeling. Not all surfacey & flashy.
Thirty years later, I grabbed a copy of Rhino/Elektra's DEFINITIVE COLLECTION, 2 CD's of the best of Love, & I'm still trying 2 digest some of it -- like the psycho/punk "7 and 7 Is" or the really silly "Number Fourteen," or the disturbed & fragmented "Your Mind and We Belong Together." Or there's the band's 1st "hit," Burt Bacharach & Hal David's "My Little Red Book," in which Love-leader Arthur Lee tries 2 Do A Mick Jagger on 1 of those silly '60s pop songs you KNOW you've heard before. (But who did this 1 1st? Manfred Mann, maybe?)
The trax that work best 4 me on DEFINITIVE are the 7 taken from Love's magnum opus, 1967's FOREVER CHANGES, which over the past decade or so has been hailed as a forgotten psychedelic masterwork -- Lee's songwriting was at its strongest, weirdest & most melodic, & the string&horn arrangements are gorgeous.
Andrew Hultkrans' FOREVER CHANGES (2003) -- part of Continuum Books' 33-1/3rd series -- takes a look at the album & what behind-the-scenes happenings may have led Lee & fellow bandmember Bryan MacLean 2 write the songs.
But here's the thing: The book's not BASED ON anything. There R a few quotes from period interviews, but that's all. There is nothing in the book about the actual process of writing the songs & recording the album, very little about how the string&horn arrangements were chosen.
The rest is just supposition -- like an English teacher noting the similarities between Bram Stoker's DRACULA & the recent TWILIGHT series & then saying "Hmmm, isn't that interesting...?"
Well, maybe. MAYBE Arthur Lee based his lyrics on what he picked up from the Gnostic Gospels & Peter Weiss's play MARAT/SADE, but where is the proof? (But aren't the similarities intresting?) Certainly Lee must have been affected by the Watts riots -- he had to travel into Watts to check on his mother's safety while the riots were going on, according to Hultkrans. But where does this experience come out in his songs?
Hultkrans sez Lee thot he was dying at the time he wrote the songs for FOREVER CHANGES, & that therefore Lee felt called-upon 2 prophecize -- & Lee confirms in a period quote on Pg 6 that he really DID think the album was going 2 B his "last words." But not much is done with this. & Lee lived on in2 the 2000's. But the late '60s were an apocalyptic time....
Whatever inspired Lee, Hultkrans includes 1 great quote in which the songwriter sez he always writes about the people around him, his environment, "what I think needs to be changed and what I think shouldn't."  That 4 me is enuf to blow-off all the other theories about where Lee's inspiration may have come from.
There ARE some good things in the book -- mostly the quotes from interviews. Both Lee & MacLean (who wrote FOREVER CHANGES' gorgeous almost-hit "Alone Again Or") are dead now, so only the band's surviving members can set the record straight. Tho I think Hultkrans is on2 something when he writes about Lee's self-imposed exile in the Hollywood hills, I think most of the other theories about "influences" on his songwriting as outlined in this book R pretty-much hooey.
But if books like this get the word out about Love & their recorded legacy, that's gotta B a Good Thing. I just wish there'd bn more about the making of the album here. The rest is just mildly-intresting words, idle speculations. 1/2 the songs on the album R ignored.
(Ben Edmonds' liner notes 4 Rhino/Elektra's FOREVER CHANGES reissue R solid, detailed, & include a LOT more info about the writing & recording of the album than Hultkrans used -- so maybe Edmonds should've written the book...?)
Based on other reviews, I'd say Continuum's 33-1/3rd series is kinda hit&miss. Some of the books R supposed 2 B really solid, others a bit beside the point -- 1 book in the series, on Radiohead's OK COMPUTER, gets an average rating of 1 STAR at Amazon.com. But I reviewed 33-1/3rd's best-of volumes a couple years back & found Good Stuff in each: Gillian Gaar on Nirvana's IN UTERO, Warren Zanes on DUSTY IN MEMPHIS, John Dougan on THE WHO SELL OUT, Dan Connelly on Phil Ochs' I AIN'T MARCHING ANYMORE, some others. Summa their other choices I wonder about, tho -- what new is there 2 say about PET SOUNDS at this late date? Or EXILE ON MAIN STREET? ABBA GOLD? LED ZEPPELIN 4?
Anyway, there R good things in this book. The postscript, which mentions the prison sentence Lee served late in life, & outlines the tour he went on in the early 2000's after his release -- during which he was hailed as a hero & a rock legend, especially in the U.K. -- is a positive, triumphant way 2 close. Hultkrans describes Lee's full-strength stage shows back then as "not preaching -- inciting to riot."
& Lee himself gives a positive, uplifting final quote -- a sort-of epitaph 4 him & a motto & goal 4 all of us. He went on working, he said, "because I have a lot more work, and I choose to do it."

Monday, November 5, 2012

#602: On becoming a news junkie

Before I became a reporter, I pretty-much hated the news. Never read it, watched it or listened to it. Had no real use for "current events." Closest I got to reading a newspaper was skimming thru some long non-fiction piece in ROLLING STONE.
But somewhere along the way I got hooked on the work of journalists like Hunter S. Thompson, John McPhee, Tim Cahill. & when I got to Journalism School, I hoped that -- if I had 1/2 the writing talent I THOT I had -- maybe I could figure-out some lighter, more personal, funnier approach to writing 4 newspapers.
"Personality features" were always my favorite assignments at J-school. Something where you could loosen the rules a little bit, let some of your subject's personality in -- have some FUN with the writing. Wasn't until YEARS later that I realized you could do the same thing with sportswriting -- practically ALL the time....
On my good days, when I could write some real-life comedy (33 Thanksgiving turkeys delivered to a local resident due to a computer glitch -- she donated them to the Senior Center; old couple gives up growing a lawn & replaces it with multi-colored carpets -- causing car wrecks in front of their house), I thot I DID contribute something new & unique 2 the newspapers I worked 4. It was a joy 2 share a laugh with readers on the front page. & every fun story was like a gift from God -- most of them practically wrote themselves. They were almost effortless.
I couldn't see why EVERY reporter didn't do them.
They were also a great break from the usual grind of car wrecks, murders, trials, council meetings, DWI arrests, drug busts & political stupidity that is the avg reporter's daily diet. Journalism is a great career 4 a young person with lotsa energy & no social life. If you're a little older, with a Significant Other & a family, the job will eat you up. Because it never stops.
I don't look at newspapers much anymore, because most of them just make me want to know MORE. Or I wonder why the reporter doesn't journey much past the just-the-facts approach. Why so few reporters seem 2 do the daily job with much STYLE. They may be accurate, but they aren't that much fun 2 read.
I DO read local newspaper COLUMNISTS. The FUNNY 1's. & I wish there were MORE....
I have a little more fun with TV news, tho it can B frustrating 2. I gave up on most TV political coverage months ago -- the way the national media were more intrested in Herman Cain's Women Problems or Rick Perry's Senior Moments than they were in Xplaining Romney's plan to save the country. Besides, I'm pretty-much sick of the prez election & grateful that by this time Tues nite our long national nightmare will be over. Or perhaps it will be just beginning....
In addition 2 being great waking-up TV, I'd agree that nothing unites us like the national news-media in times of crisis -- Hurricane Sandy (Proof that there's No God: The Atlantic City Boardwalk is destroyed, but Snooki's house is OK), Katrina, 9/11, the Challenger explosion, etc. I just wish they worked up 2 their potential more often.
On the night before Election Day, you may know where Obama & Romney stand on some of the issues, but do you know what their plans 4 the future are? Do they have any clear, substantial, detailed plans for saving this country?
I don't think turning the clock back 2 1980 is a vision 4 the future. But clearly there R millions of people who wouldn't mind going back there. Or who didn't learn anything the 1st time around.

My news addiction has even gotten in the way at work. I haven't been playing much music lately. (Still recovering from the batch of strange CDs Crabby sent me awhile back -- Cromagnon's CAVE ROCK may have scarred me 4 life....) I'll get back 2 it, of course -- but mainly over the past week or so I've been listening 2 Seattle's news-radio station, KOMO. Tho they have a definite format they repeat each hour, the great thing about the news is that it CHANGES -- unlike the playlists at all the local rock stations.
Have listened 2 a little music that's grabbed me, tho -- Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring," Beatles' "A Day in the Life," Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me," Led Zep's "When the Levee Breaks," Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" & "I Want You," Cat Power's "He War" & "Speak for Me," part of a track off the new Neil Young album, "Walk Like a Giant" (which sounds a little like the return of "Like a Hurricane") -- & some great trax by classic late-'60s psychedelic band Love: "Alone Again Or," "Maybe the People Should Be the Times," "You Set the Scene," "Your Mind and We Belong Together."
These last replayed while reading Andrew Hultkrans's book-length look at Love's 1967 cult-classic album FOREVER CHANGES -- not sure I buy all Hultkrans' claims 4 what influenced Love-leader Arthur Lee 2 write the songs 4 FOREVER CHANGES, but the album turned out a mostly-gorgeous period piece anyway, a great forgotten companion 2 SGT. PEPPER and PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (and DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED). Should have a review of the book posted soon....

Thursday, November 1, 2012

#601: Last man standing...?

Is music blogging Over With? Is the blog as we know it dead? Are these even important questions? (And I was just getting rolling....)
Today I read that my buddy Crabby over at Crabby's Music Review and Top 10 Site is seriously considering retiring at the turn of the New Year. He won't be the 1st. But if he hangs it up, I'll miss his cranky ranting about local radio & his Xcellent Weekly Top 10 lists of the Overlooked.
But there've bn a LOT of music bloggers dropping out over the last year or so. Maybe the newness wore off. Maybe they didn't get enuf feedback. Maybe they have Real Lives 2 devote themselves 2 -- a much better choice than spending all your free time stuck in front of a computer.
Last time I checked, Groove Sandwich had become a working musician and college student. Layla hasn't posted in over a year at her formerly-very-popular Classic Rock blog. Drew has a family life, & tho he'll pop up every couple months with a nature/photo update, I guess you could say he's semi-retired. He's not even doing Green Bay Packers updates this year! (Go with the family thing Drew -- & Thank Ghod 4 the visitors you keep sending me....)
Perplexio hasn't posted 4 awhile at either of his websites. Seano at Circle of Fits has been taking a lot of breaks over the past year, most of them due to health issues. Lex Dexter at The PrisonShip is taking a LONG break over problems that I think he could maybe write his way out of -- it worked for me awhile back.
Even Mark Prindle -- the Godfather of us all, without whom I wouldn't be doing this -- hung it up awhile back.
A few R hanging in there -- Rastro is still posting stuff at his Tumblr site, & we R continuing 2 wreak comedy havoc on Hunter S. Thompson & Larry Niven at Fear and Loathing in Known Space 2x a week, but with the World Series & the prez election, R's bn a busy guy.
Gardenhead is continuing 2 post great stuff at Asleep on the Compost Heap -- he just recently posted a review of his favorite album of 2011! The NERVE! I don't see him ever stopping, either....
As 4 me, there R LOTS of things I still wanna talk about, time & energy permitting. I still have a box of weird CDs from Crabby I'm trying 2 get thru, & more stuff stacked-up that I hope 2 listen-2 someday. I still have Air Force stories & Newspaper stories I wanna write-up. I still have stories & novels I wanna read & talk about. & there's sure 2 B more fits of Nostalgia I'll B posting here without prior warning, & Ghod Knows what might set them off.
I'm still having fun here. But then, I've been a compulsive writer since age 10, & it always makes me Feel Better to have written something, no matter how meaningless & silly.
So I'm gonna keep going, as long as me & the World's Smallest Laptop hold out. Thanx 4 dropping by -- & for gosh sakes will all you good folks from the U.K. & Russia & the Ukraine & the Netherlands & France & Canada & Germany & wherever-else please leave me a comment so I can figure out what the heck you're all reading?
Take care, all You Out There. More soon!