FSATFFMATVE

Double duty, the First Sunday After The First Full Moon After The Vernal Equinox is both a lunar and a solar fertility feast. So to celebrate, I will hard-boil some eggs and make some fine, fine egg salad and eat egg salad sandwiches. Yum!

And for all my Jewish readers and friends, happy Feast of the Murdered Children (aka passover).

This morning biked 1h21m 17.1 miles, top speed 32.2 mph. I went on and wore arm and leg warmers but probably could have done without them. I took Woods Ln south from Delaney Ferry to 169, then left and back through Keene. I've taken Woods Ln many times, but I think always in the past I've taken it in the opposite direction. Of course, the hills were worse this way ;->

It was worth it tho, because I saw a bluebird on Woods Ln. I think only the 3rd time I've seen one.

What is a Milkman?

So, I wonder what the min age is for not knowing what a milkman is? I think when I was growing up, I was fuzzy on what an iceman was. A job species in the economic ecology that is definitely on the endangered list.

I was thinking about milkman based on the fact that I now have three different versions of "My Very Good Friend The Milkman" in my iTunes:

1. Fats Waller, 1935. Genre is Early Jazz.
   
2. Eric Clapton, 2010, off of his latest album. Genre is Rock.
   
3. Paul McCartney, 2012, of the album of standards he just released. Genre is Pop
   

The Fats Waller version is, of course, the best.

So on to new music for the 1st 2 months of 2012.

• "For The Good Times", by The Little Willies -- Norah Jones country band. Very listenable. 3 stars, with 4 for the title track.
  
• "All Hours", by Ivy (2011). I think they are getting a little tired of their format. 3 stars.
  
• "An Innocent Man", by Billy Joel (1983). I ripped this with the fine USB-out turntable given me by my children. The quality from this is surprisingly good. This was a family favorite as the kids were growing up, lots of dancing in the foyer in sock feet to these songs. I think too that "Leave A Tender Moment Alone" may be my wife and my "song" -- the only other contender I can think of is "Wonderful Tonight". That it came out after we'd been married 9 years I believe to be immaterial. 4 stars.
  
• "Duets" soundtrack (2000). We loved this movie, about competitive karaoke singers. Great ensemble cast with Gwyneth Paltrow and Paul Giamatti in particular acquitting themselves well with their singing. 3 stars with a couple of tracks 4 stars.
  
• "With A Twist...", by Todd Rundgren (1997). I've always been a big Todd Rundgren fan, and I've loved bossa nova since I first started playing guitar and was given an Antonio Carlos Jobim songbook by my first guitar teacher at age 15 or so. So an album of some of Todd's greatest hits done with bossa nova arrangements definitely gets me off. 4 stars.
  
• "Le Voyage Dans La Lune", by Air (French Band). So this is a new soundtrack written for the re-release of the colorized version of the 1902 Georges Méliès movie, known for its image of the moon with the shell/rocket stuck in its eye. (Méliès, BTW, is the topic of the recent Scorsese move "Hugo", one of those execrable Hollywood patting itself on the back movies -- "Movies are magic, and we make them! Hooray for us!") Listenable I guess, 3 stars.
  
• "Kisses On The Bottom", by Paul McCartney. Released on Valentine's Day and given to me as a gift by my lovely wife. McCartney covers 30s to 50s standards. I don't think his voice is really that suited to this material. 3 stars (maybe more like 2.5).
  
• "Paralytic Stalks", by Of Montreal. I don't like this as well as some of their earlier stuff. More neurotic than psychotic. 3 stars.
  
• "Young & Old", by Tennis. I think the best find of this batch. I put the genre as "Girl Groups". It's got kind of Phil Spector production value (reverb on the drums?). Very nice quality songs. 4 stars. This is their 2nd album, I'll have to check out the 1st. Wikipedia says it's a husband/wife duo. This was a $5.00 special from Amazon.
  
• "Where It Hits You", by Jim White. Quirky southernish tunes once again. I really like his stuff. My favorite was "My Brother's Keeper", about the death of an old friend who he hooked up with a "honky-tonk angel" who broke the friend's heart, after which he wouldn't leave the house and grew to 400 pounds. Started at 3 stars, ended at 4.
  
• "Obadiah", by Frazey Ford (2010). Mostly folky stuff with a variety of instruments. 3 stars.
  
• "Some Nights", by fun. These guys remind me of Of Montreal or Apples In Stereo -- vocal harmonies sounding like ELO are the main giveaway. This is also reminiscent of Queen and maybe BeeGees. Kind of a show tune / rock opera sound. 3 stars (maybe 3.5).
  
• "All Of Me", by Estelle. My favorite Brit-hopper does a take on "The Miseducation of Lauren Hill". So like Miseducation, you have to go through and mark all the spoken bits as 1 star. Some good tracks, 3 stars.
  
• "Something", by Chairlift. A Brooklyn duo. Edgy arrangements. I put in Chick Pop genre. 3 stars.
  
• "Break It Yourself", by Andrew Bird. Nothing really jumps out from this album. As usual a solid piece of work tho. 3 stars.
  

Suffered a shock Wednesday night. After playing at O'Neill's, which was pretty thin both crowd- and musician-wise, I stopped by Lynagh's, where I sometime play at the open mic Wednesday night. I wanted to talk to Jamie Green and tell him that I'd mentioned him to Ross Compton, whom I've been trying to get Jamie to hook up with re getting some tracks down.

Lynagh's was closed! The guy mopping up came and told me that they'd been real slow so they closed up early. Not a good sign, I worry about live music in Lexington.