Saturday, March 14, 2020

800 Songs

My song book was traditionally a 3-ring binder. The 1st summer I played with Fuzzy, I was taking it out to gigs with a conductor's stand.

Winter of 2017-2018 several musicians in Naples, FL turned me on to the OnSong app. It is a great app for song management. It is unfortunate that it is run by a cult. They sign emails "Blessings", and [sarcasm] I love my free issue every month of "Worship Musician". [/sarcasm]

I told this story over and over. "It's like reverse loaves-and-fishes! It's a miracle!" Here it is from a compendium of tweets in April, 2018.

April 4: I love living in the future! My three ring song binder was getting really heavy - 374 songs/pages. But it seems like I can add as many songs as I want to my iPad and it doesn’t get any heavier!!! Magic! #ItsGettingBetterAllTheTime #TheFuture #music #OnSong
I did the initial import of 374 text files on my pc April 2018. I wrote the 1st procedural code since my retirement in September 2012 - a 4 line bash script to take a list of files and prepend their name to their content. I then did "vi *.txt" and manually edited 376 files adding artist, key, & genre.

Here's a reference to it from September, 2018; it was at 580 songs. A discussion of how the songs are added - one of the great features of OnSong is that you can create books at will, and a song can be as many books as desired. My main books are for bands I play with; songs that I call at jams; that other people call at jams; weddings; funerals; background.

On March 11, 2020, I added songs #799 & #800 to OnSong: "kentucky woman", and "lay down sally". About 70 songs are red-flagged as "need-work".

It felt like I should capture the list. Here it is, 800 songs. Sorted alpha. I would like to have sorted by, say, descending date added, but that gets broken when you hit the initial mass import.

  1. (how much is that) doggie in the window? by pattie page in C
  2. (i can’t help) falling in love with you by ub40; elvis presley in C
  3. 1983 a merman i should turn to be by jimi hendrix in Gm
  4. 24k magic by bruno mars in Em
  5. 3-5's of a mile in 10 seconds by jefferson airplane; marty balin in E
  6. 3:12 by annemarie radecki; jim dumas
  7. 6345789 by wilson pickett; steve cropper; eddie floyd in Bb
  8. 8:05 by moby grape in A
  9. 867-5309 jenny by tommy tutone in F#m
  10. a face in the crowd by tom petty in Em
  11. a hard rain’s gonna fall by bob dylan in C
  12. a horse with no name by america in Em
  13. a pirate looks at forty by jimmy buffett in Bb
  14. a song for you by leon russell in Am
  15. a whiter shade of pale by procol harum in C
  16. after midnight by j.j. cale in G
  17. after the goldrush by neil young in G
  18. ain't no sunshine by bill withers in Am
  19. ain't too proud to beg by the temptations in G
  20. aint misbehaving by fats waller in Bb
  21. al di la by connie francis; emilio pericoli in G
  22. alison by elvis costello; linda ronstadt in E
  23. all aboard by muddy waters in D
  24. all along the watchtower by bob dylan; jimi hendrix in Bm
  25. all i want to do by sheryl crow in E
  26. all my loving by the beatles in B
  27. all over now by bobby womack; stones in G
  28. all right now by free in A
  29. all shook up by elvis presley in G
  30. all you need is love by the beatles in G
  31. alright for now by tom petty in D
  32. always on my mind by willie nelson in C
  33. amie by pure prairie league in G
  34. and it stoned me by van morrison in G
  35. angel eyes by jeff healey in C
  36. angel from montgomery by john prine; bonnie raitt in C
  37. angie by stones in Am
  38. anna (go to him) by arthur alexander; the beatles in C
  39. anna begins by counting crows in G
  40. annie’s song by john denver in D
  41. another brick in the wall by pink floyd in Dm
  42. another day by jamie lidell in C
  43. another rainy day by corinne bailey rae in Bm
  44. around and around by chuck berry in C
  45. as by stevie wonder in A
  46. as the years go passing by by albert king; jeff healey in Bm
  47. as time goes by by louie armstrong in C
  48. at last by etta james in F
  49. baby it's you by ronnettes; linda ronstadt in C
  50. baby please don't go by big joe williams; john lee hooker in E
  51. baby what do you want me to do by jimmy reed in E
  52. back in the high life again by warren zevon; steve winwood in A
  53. back in the usa by chuck berry; linda ronstadt in C
  54. bad bad leroy brown by jim croce in G
  55. badge by cream in Am
  56. bald headed woman by ronnie baker brooks in A
  57. bald headed woman 2 by the who
  58. the ballad of el goodo by counting crows in A
  59. banana pancakes by jack johnson in G
  60. barney google by the andrews sisters in C
  61. the battle of new orleans by johnny horton in A
  62. be thankful for what you got by william devaughn; mudbone in D
  63. beast of burden by stones in E
  64. before you accuse me by eric clapton; eugene mcdaniel in E
  65. bertha by grateful dead in G
  66. best of my love by eagles in C
  67. beth by kiss in C
  68. big black mariah by tom waits; john hammond in Gm
  69. bitch by stones in G
  70. black by pearl jam in C
  71. black betty by ram jam in B
  72. black cat bone by albert king in A
  73. black hole sun by soundgarden; chris cornell in A
  74. black magic woman by santana in Dm
  75. black velvet by alannah myles in Ebm
  76. black water by the doobie brothers in D
  77. blackbird by the beatles in G
  78. blister in the sun by violent femmes in G
  79. blow wind blow by muddy waters in G
  80. blue jean blues by zz top in Bm
  81. blue on black by kenny wayne shepherd in D
  82. blue suede shoes by elvis presley; carl perkins in G
  83. blues man by alan jackson in G
  84. bo diddley by bo diddley in G
  85. bobby in phoenix by gorillaz; bobby womack in A
  86. bold as love by jimi hendrix in G
  87. bonaparte's retreat by the timejumpers; pee wee king; redd stewart in D
  88. bony maronie by larry williams; johnny winter in G
  89. boogie on reggae woman by stevie wonder in G
  90. boogie oogie oogie by a taste of honey in Dm
  91. boogie shoes by k.c. and the sunshine band in Bb
  92. boom boom by john lee hooker; eric clapton; the animals in E
  93. boom boom, out go the lights by little walter in C
  94. born in chicago by nick gravenites; paul butterfield blues band in A
  95. born under a bad sign by albert king; cream; booker t. jones; william bell in C
  96. the bottle let me down by merle haggard in C
  97. bottle of red wine by eric clapton in C
  98. bottle of wine by dr. hook in E
  99. the boys are back in town by thin lizzie in G
  100. brandy (you’re a fine girl) by looking glass in E
  101. brass in pocket by the pretenders in A
  102. breakdown by tom petty in Am
  103. breaking up sombody’s home by albert king in Gm
  104. brick house by the commodores in Am
  105. bring it on home to me by sam cooke; the animals in G
  106. brooklyn (owes the charmer under me) by steely dan in C
  107. brother where are you by oscar brown, jr
  108. brothers and sisters by mavis staples in Am
  109. brown eyed girl by van morrison in G
  110. brown sugar by stones in C
  111. busted stuff by dave matthews in G
  112. but it’s alright by j.j. jackson; huey lewis & the news in A
  113. california by joni mitchell in F
  114. call it what it is by ben harper in E
  115. call me by blondie in Dm
  116. camille blues by jim dumas in G
  117. can i change my mind by tyrone davis in B
  118. can't you hear me knockin by stones in D
  119. can’t find my way home by blind faith in D
  120. can’t get enough of your love by bad company in C
  121. can’t get enough of your love babe by barry white in F
  122. can’t turn you loose by otis redding in C
  123. can’t you see by marshall tucker band in D
  124. caravan by van morrison in G
  125. castles made of sand by jimi hendrix in G
  126. cats in the cradle by harry chapin in F
  127. the chain by fleetwood mac in Em
  128. chain of fools by aretha franklin in Cm
  129. champagne and reefer by muddy waters; stones in G
  130. change by mavis staples in E
  131. change the world by eric clapton in E
  132. checking up on my baby by sonny boy williamson in A
  133. cheek to cheek by fred astaire; irving berlin in C
  134. cherry bomb by john cougar mellencamp in G
  135. cinnamon girl by neil young in D
  136. clap your hands by whilk & misky in G
  137. cmon everybody by eddie cochran; nrbq in D
  138. cocaine by j.j. cale; eric clapton in E
  139. cocaine blues by johnny cash in C
  140. cocoanut by harry nilsson in C
  141. cold shot by stevie ray vaughn in Am
  142. come and go blues by allman brothers in G
  143. come as you are by nirvana in F#m
  144. come on (let the good times roll) by jimi hendrix in E
  145. come on in my kitchen by allman brothers; eric clapton; keb mo in G
  146. come together by the beatles in C
  147. comin back to me by jefferson airplane in G
  148. cortez the killer by neil young; dave matthews; government mule in Em
  149. cowgirl in the sand by neil young in Em
  150. crazy by patsy cline in G
  151. crazy mama by j.j. cale in G
  152. creep by radiohead in C
  153. cross eyed cat by muddy waters in G
  154. crossroads by robert johnson; cream in A
  155. crystal by fleetwood mac in G
  156. d jam by steve & chris in D
  157. dancing in the moonlight by king harvest in Eb
  158. danny's song by kenny loggins; anne murray in D
  159. the dawn of the moon by annemarie radecki; jim dumas in G
  160. dead flowers by stones in G
  161. dear doctor by stones in G
  162. death waits by johnny bonniego; jim dumas in Am
  163. deep down in florida by muddy waters in G
  164. desperado by eagles; linda ronstadt in G
  165. devil with a blue dress by mitch ryder & the detroit wheels in C
  166. diddy wah diddy by traditional in G
  167. dig a pony by the beatles in A
  168. do i ever cross your mind by bonnie raitt; ray charles in D
  169. dock of the bay by otis redding in G
  170. doctor my eyes by jackson browne in E
  171. domino by van morrison in G
  172. don’t be cruel by elvis presley in D
  173. don’t do me like that by tom petty in G
  174. don’t get me wrong by the pretenders in C
  175. don’t go, please stay by the drifters in A
  176. don’t know much by linda ronstadt; aaron neville in C#
  177. don’t know why by norah jones in A
  178. don’t let me be misunderstood by the animals; nina simone in Am
  179. don’t think twice it's alright by bob dylan; eric clapton in F
  180. don’t you leave me here by jelly roll morton; hot tuna in E
  181. down home blues by z.z. hill in G
  182. down home girl by stones
  183. dreams by fleetwood mac in C
  184. drift away by dobie gray in A
  185. driven to tears by the police in Am
  186. easy by the commodores in G
  187. el paso by marty robbins; grateful dead in D
  188. electric avenue by eddy grant in A
  189. escape (the piña colada song) by rupert holmes in F
  190. every breath you take by the police in G
  191. every day i have the blues by b.b. king in A
  192. everybody needs somebody to love by solomon burke; wilson pickett; blues brothers; stones in A
  193. everybody's got to change sometime by taj mahal in E
  194. everybody’s got to learn sometime by the korgis; beck in E
  195. everything i own by bread; david gates in A
  196. everything is broken by bob dylan in G
  197. everything's coming our way by santana in G
  198. everytime i roll the dice by delbert mcclinton in F
  199. evil ways by santana in Gm
  200. factory girl by stones in D
  201. faith by george michael in A
  202. family affair by sly & the family stone in Dm
  203. family romance by department of eagles in Eb
  204. farmer john by the premiers; neil young; grateful dead in E
  205. fast car by tracy chapman in A
  206. father and son by cat stevens in G
  207. feelin alright by joe cocker in C
  208. feelin good by nina simone in Gm
  209. feelin’ good by levon helm in G
  210. feels like rain by john hiatt; buddy guy in C
  211. finger poppin time by hank ballard & the midnighters in A
  212. fire by jimi hendrix in D
  213. fire 2 by bruce springsteen; pointer sisters in C
  214. fly like an eagle by steve miller in Am
  215. fooled around and fell in love by elvin bishop in B
  216. for no one by the beatles in A
  217. forty days and forty nights by muddy waters in A
  218. the french girl by ian & sylvia; gene clark in D
  219. friday i’m in love by the cure in D
  220. friday night in town by richard zvonar in A
  221. full moon on main street by omar and the howlers in Am
  222. further on up the road by joe medwich veasey; don d. robey; eric clapton in G
  223. galway girl by steve earle in D
  224. gentle on my mind by glen campbell in D
  225. georgia on my mind by ray charles in G
  226. get down on it by kool & the gang in Em
  227. getting better by the beatles in G
  228. gimme shelter by stones in C#
  229. gimme three steps by lynyrd skynyrd in D
  230. girl from the north country by bob dylan; johnny cash in G
  231. givin' it up for your love by delbert mcclinton in G
  232. glamour girl by duke robillard in G
  233. gloria by the shadows of night; them; van morrison in E
  234. going down the road feeling bad by grateful dead; traditional; woody guthrie in A
  235. going up the country by canned heat in Bb
  236. gold dust woman by fleetwood mac in Dm
  237. gold on the ceiling by the black crows in G
  238. good morning little schoolgirl by grateful dead in A
  239. good times by sam cooke in G
  240. good times 2 by chic in Em
  241. got love if you want it by billy gibbons; slim harpo; the yardbirds in E
  242. got my mojo workin’ by muddy waters in E
  243. gotta serve somebody by bob dylan in Am
  244. gravity by john mayer in G
  245. great balls of fire by jerry lee lewis in C
  246. the groove line by heatwave in E
  247. guitars, cadillacs by dwight yoakam in A
  248. hallelujah by leonard cohen; jeff buckley in G
  249. happy by pharrell williams in F
  250. happy together by the turtles in E
  251. hard times by eric clapton; ray charles in D
  252. hard to handle by Otis Redding; black crowes in A
  253. harlem shuffle by bob and earl; stones in Am
  254. harvest moon by neil young in D
  255. have mercy by delbert mcclinton in A
  256. have you ever seen the rain by ccr in C
  257. have you seen my baby by randy newman in C
  258. he’s so fine by the chiffons in G
  259. heat wave by martha & the vandellas in C
  260. heaven (how far is) by los lonely boys in F#
  261. hello mary lou by ricky nelson in A
  262. helplessly hoping by crosby, stills & nash in G
  263. hemingway's whiskey by guy clark; kenny chesney in F
  264. her love rubbed off by carl perkins in C
  265. here i am (come and take me) by al green in F#m
  266. here there and everywhere by the beatles in G
  267. hey baby by delbert mcclinton in G
  268. hey bulldog by the beatles in B
  269. hey joe by jimi hendrix in E
  270. hey jude by the beatles in D
  271. hey paula by paul & paula in G
  272. hide away by freddy king in E
  273. higher ground by stevie wonder in E
  274. higher love by steve winwood in G
  275. highway 61 revisited by bob dylan in A
  276. his latest flame by elvis presley in G
  277. hold me now by thompson twins in C
  278. holy cow by the band in G
  279. honky tonk women by stones in G
  280. hoochie koochie man by muddy waters in G
  281. hooked on a feeling by b.j. thomas; blue swede in G
  282. hotel california by eagles in Em
  283. hound dog by elvis presley in C
  284. hound dog 2 by eric clapton; big mama thornton in A
  285. the house is rockin’ by stevie ray vaughn in A
  286. house of the rising sun by the animals in Am
  287. how blue can you get by b.b. king in C
  288. how can a poor boy by van morrison in G
  289. how deep is the ocean by eric clapton; frank sinatra; irving berlin in C
  290. how long by ace in Bm
  291. how sweet it is (to be loved by you) by marvin gaye; james taylor in C
  292. hudson commodore by jason isbell in G
  293. hush by deep purple; billy joe royal in A
  294. i ain't drunk by albert collins in A
  295. i aint got a home by the band in C
  296. i can't tell you why by eagles in F#m
  297. i can’t go for that by hall & oates in Am
  298. i can’t make you love me by bonnie raitt in C
  299. I don't know by jim dumas in Am
  300. i feel good by james brown in D
  301. i got loaded by tab benoit; los lobos in E
  302. i heard it through the grapevine by marvin gaye in Em
  303. i hope that i don't fall in love with you by tom waits in G
  304. i just wanna make love to you by muddy waters in E
  305. i need to know by delbert mcclinton in E
  306. i never loved a man the way i love you by aretha franklin in F
  307. i put a spell on you by screamin' jay hawkins in Am
  308. i saw the light in your eyes by todd rundgren in G
  309. I shall be released by bob dylan; the band in G
  310. i shot the sheriff by eric clapton; bob marley in Em
  311. i should have known better by the beatles in G
  312. i still miss someone by johnny cash in G
  313. i talk to the wind by king crimson; giles, giles and fripp in E
  314. i thank you by sam and dave; bonnie raitt; zz top in E
  315. i want to be loved by muddy waters in C
  316. i want you to want me by cheap trick in G
  317. i will by the beatles in F
  318. i will survive by gloria gaynor in Am
  319. i wish by stevie wonder in Em
  320. i wont back down by tom petty in G
  321. i wouldn’t want to be like you by alan parsons project in Cm
  322. i’d rather go blind by etta james in Am
  323. i’ll be around by the spinners in E
  324. i’ll stand by you by the pretenders in D
  325. i’ll take you there by the staples singers in C
  326. i’m a man by the yardbirds in G
  327. i’m a man 2 by stevie winwood; spencer davis group in C
  328. i’m goin’ down by don nix in D
  329. i’m gonna be (500 miles) by the proclaimers in E
  330. i’m henry the 8th i am by herman’s hermits in A
  331. i’m looking through you by the beatles in G
  332. i’m not talking by the yardbirds in C
  333. i’m on fire by bruce springsteen in E
  334. i’m ready by willie dixon; buddy guy in G
  335. i’m still in love with you by al green in G
  336. i’m the only one by melissa etheridge in G
  337. i’m tore down by eric clapton; freddie king in C
  338. i’m yours by jason mraz in B
  339. i’ve got a tiger by the tail by buck owens in B
  340. if this is it by huey lewis and the news in G
  341. if you could only see by tonic in Am
  342. if you love me like you say by albert collins
  343. if you want me to stay by sly & the family stone in Bm
  344. if you’re a viper by fats waller in G
  345. imagine by john lennon in C
  346. in my life by the beatles in A
  347. in the air tonight by phil collins in Dm
  348. in the early morning rain by gordon lightfoot; peter, paul, & mary in D
  349. in the midnight hour by wilson pickett; steve cropper in E
  350. instant karma by john lennon in G
  351. into the earth by bloc party in Abm
  352. into the mystic by van morrison in E
  353. is this love by bob marley in G
  354. isn’t she lovely by stevie wonder in A
  355. it ain't me babe by bob dylan; johnny cash
  356. it don’t seem fair to me by bill dumas; jim dumas in G
  357. it had to be you by isham jones in D
  358. it's all right by the impressions in G
  359. it’s a man’s man’s man’s world by james brown in Bm
  360. it’s a shame by the spinners in G
  361. it’s in the way that you use it by eric clapton in E
  362. it’s so easy by linda ronstadt; buddy holly in E
  363. it’s too late by carole king in Dm
  364. jackson by johnny cash in C
  365. jailhouse rock by elvis presley in C
  366. jawbone by the band in E
  367. jeff’s boogie by the yardbirds; jeff beck in G
  368. jesus just left chicago by zz top in G
  369. jigsaw puzzle by stones in E
  370. jimi thing by dave matthews in E
  371. johnny b. good by chuck berry in G
  372. joy to the world by three dog night in D
  373. jump jive and wail by brian setzer in A
  374. jumpin jack flash by stones in A
  375. juniors farm by paul mccartney; wings in G
  376. just got paid by zz top in E
  377. just my imagination (running away with me) by the temptations in C
  378. just what i needed by the cars in E
  379. just won't burn by susan tedeschi in Am
  380. kansas city by fats domino; the beatles in E
  381. kansas city blues by traditional in G
  382. keep your hands to yourself by georgia satellites in G
  383. kentucky woman by neil diamond in A
  384. key to the highway by big bill broonzy in G
  385. killing floor by electric flag in A
  386. killing me softly by roberta flack in Em
  387. king harvest by the band in Am
  388. kiss by prince in A
  389. knocking on heaven's door by bob dylan in G
  390. kung fu fighting by carl douglas in B
  391. lagrange by zz top in A
  392. last kiss by j. frank wilson and the cavaliers; pearl jam in E
  393. lay down sally by eric clapton in A
  394. lay lady lay by bob dylan in A
  395. layla by eric clapton in Dm
  396. lazy bones by traditional in C
  397. let it bleed by stones
  398. let it grow by greg stone in D
  399. let it rain by eric clapton in D
  400. let me roll it by paul mccartney in E
  401. let the good times roll by b.b. king in G
  402. let you down by dave matthews in Bm
  403. let's get it on by marvin gaye in Eb
  404. let's go crazy by prince in G
  405. let's go, let's go, let's go by hank ballard & the midnighters in A
  406. let’s stay together by al green in F
  407. the letter by joe cocker in Am
  408. life (mother nature bats last) by steve & chris in Am
  409. life being what it is by kaki king in Em
  410. light up or leave me alone by traffic in E
  411. like a rock by bob seger & the silver bullet band in G
  412. like a rolling stone by bob dylan; jimi hendrix in C
  413. like a star by corinne bailey rae in Em
  414. lips like sugar by echo and the bunnymen in C
  415. listen people by herman’s hermits in G
  416. listen to the music by the doobie brothers in D
  417. little bitty pretty one by bobby day; thurston harris in G
  418. little by little by nappy brown; junior wells; b.b. king; gregg allman; susan tedeschi in G
  419. little red rooster by stones; willie dixon in G
  420. little sister by elvis presley in E
  421. little wing by jimi hendrix in Em
  422. live with me by stones in G
  423. lodi by ccr in G
  424. lonely man by albert king in C
  425. lonely ol’ night by john cougar mellencamp in E
  426. lonely teardrops by jackie wilson; huey lewis & the news in D
  427. long black veil by the band in G
  428. long cool woman by the hollies in G
  429. long distance call by phoenix in C
  430. long haired country boy by charlie daniels in D
  431. long tall sally by little richard; the beatles in E
  432. long train runnin by the doobie brothers in Em
  433. longer boats by cat stevens in G
  434. lookin’ for a love by the j. geils band; bobby womack; the valentinos in C
  435. louie louie by chuck berry; the kingsmen in E
  436. love and happiness by al green in G#m
  437. love ballad by george benson in Em
  438. love in vain by stones in G
  439. love is stronger than pride by sade in Dm
  440. love me like a man by bonnie raitt in E
  441. love me two times by the doors in E
  442. love potion no. 9 by the searchers in Am
  443. love song by lesley duncan; elton john in Em
  444. love the one you’re with by csny; stephen stills in D
  445. love train by the o’jays in A
  446. lovely cruise by jimmy buffett in C
  447. lovely day by bill withers in E
  448. loving cup by stones in G
  449. low rider by war in G
  450. the low spark of high heeled boys by traffic in Am
  451. lowdown by boz skaggs in D
  452. luckenbach texas by waylon jennings in G
  453. lucky man by emerson, lake & palmer in G
  454. lucy in the sky with diamonds by the beatles in A
  455. lyin' eyes by eagles in G
  456. mama told me not to come by three dog night in Ab
  457. mama tried by merle haggard; grateful dead in D
  458. man we was lonely by paul mccartney in A
  459. manic depression by jimi hendrix in A
  460. mannish boy by muddy waters in A
  461. mary jane’s last dance by tom petty in Am
  462. masters of war by bob dylan; pearl jam in Em
  463. matchbox by the beatles; carl perkins in A
  464. me and my uncle by grateful dead in Em
  465. me and the devil blues by robert johnson in A
  466. melissa by allman brothers in E
  467. mercy mercy mercy by the commodores in A
  468. midnight in harlem by tedeschi trucks band in A
  469. midnight rambler by stones in B
  470. midnight rider by allman brothers in D
  471. midnight special by leadbelly; traditional
  472. miss you by stones in Am
  473. mohair sam by charlie rich in E
  474. moondance by van morrison in Gm
  475. moonlight mile by stones in G
  476. more than this by roxy music in C
  477. motherless children by eric clapton in A
  478. move it on over by george thorogood; hank williams in G
  479. mr jones by counting crows in Am
  480. mr. bogangles by jerry jeff walker in D
  481. muddy water by the standells in E
  482. multiply by jamie lidell in G
  483. mustang sally by wilson pickett in C
  484. my generation by the who
  485. my girl by the temptations in C
  486. my own worst enemy by lit in E
  487. mystery train by paul butterfield blues band in E
  488. natural blues by moby in Am
  489. natural woman by aretha franklin; carole king in A
  490. nature’s way by spirit in C#m
  491. the nearness of you by norah jones; ella fitzgerald in C
  492. the needle and the spoon by lynyrd skynyrd in D
  493. never make your move too soon by b.b. king in A
  494. new new minglewood blues by grateful dead in E
  495. new orleans by gary u.s. bonds in G
  496. new san antonio rose by bob wills in G
  497. new york city blues by the yardbirds in G
  498. no expectations by stones in E
  499. no ordinary love by sade in Bm
  500. nobody knows you when you’re down and out by eric clapton; bessie smith; jimmy cox in C
  501. not fade away by stones; grateful dead in E
  502. nothing to fear by jim dumas in E
  503. number 41 by dave matthews in G
  504. oh carol by chuck berry; stones in A
  505. oh darling by the beatles in A
  506. oh girl by the chi-lites in G
  507. ol' 55 by tom waits; eagles in G
  508. old love by eric clapton in Am
  509. old man by neil young in D
  510. old time rock and roll by bob seger & the silver bullet band in E
  511. on the road again by willie nelson in A
  512. once in a lifetime by talking heads in A
  513. one fine morning by lighthouse in Em
  514. one headlight by the wallflowers in G
  515. one horse town by blackberry smoke in C
  516. one night with you by elvis presley in E
  517. one way out by allman brothers in A
  518. the one you love by glen frey in G
  519. only you know and i know by dave mason in E
  520. open up a can of funk by jim dumas in C
  521. our love is here to stay by george gershwin; ella fitzgerald; louie armstrong in G at 120 BPM
  522. outside woman blues by cream in E
  523. over-lovin’ you by electric flag in A
  524. parachute woman by stones in E
  525. paradise by john prine in D
  526. peaceful easy feeling by eagles in D
  527. pearl of the quarter by steely dan in C
  528. pennies from heaven by bing crosby; frank sinatra; billie holiday in A
  529. piece of my heart by janis joplin
  530. pink cadillac by bruce springsteen; aretha franklin in D
  531. play that funky music by wild cherry in E
  532. play with fire by stones in Em
  533. poison ivy by the coasters in E
  534. polk salad annie by tony joe white in E
  535. pretty woman by roy orbison in E
  536. pride and joy by stevie ray vaughn in E
  537. prodigal son by stones in E
  538. promised land by grateful dead; johnny rivers
  539. promises by eric clapton in G
  540. proud mary by tina turner; ccr in D
  541. psycho killer by talking heads in A
  542. puff the magic dragon by peter, paul, & mary in G
  543. purple rain by prince in A
  544. the pusher by steppenwolf in G
  545. r.o.c.k. in the u.s.a. by john cougar mellencamp in E
  546. radioactive by imagine dragons in Am
  547. rainy day woman # 12 & 35 by bob dylan in E
  548. rainy night in georgia by tony joe white; brook benton in E
  549. red house by jimi hendrix in G
  550. reelin’ in the years by steely dan in G
  551. respect by otis redding; aretha franklin in C
  552. return to me by dean martin in D
  553. return to sender by elvis presley in D
  554. revolution 1 by the beatles in A
  555. right string wrong yo-yo by speckled & piano red; carl perkins; ferlin husky; jerry reed; elvin bishop in F
  556. rio by duran duran in Em
  557. rip it up by little richard; nrbq in A
  558. rip this joint by stones in A
  559. ripple by grateful dead in G
  560. the rising of the moon by peter, paul, & mary in Am
  561. roadhouse blues by the doors in E
  562. rock me baby by b.b. king in A
  563. rockin' chair by the band in F
  564. rockin’ robin by bobby day in G
  565. rocks off by stones
  566. rocky mountain high by john denver in E
  567. rocky mountain way by joe walsh in E
  568. rocky racoon by the beatles in C
  569. roll with it baby by steve winwood in G
  570. rollin' and tumblin' by muddy waters; cream; jeff beck in G
  571. roxanne by the police in Am
  572. rub it in by billy crash craddock in G
  573. runnin’ down a dream by tom petty in E
  574. running up that hill by kate bush; placebo in Cm
  575. salt of the earth by stones in E
  576. sarah smiles by hall & oates in Dm
  577. satellite by dave matthews in G
  578. save me by aimee mann in Am
  579. say you love me by fleetwood mac in A
  580. searchin by coasters in C
  581. season of the witch by donovan in G
  582. see see rider by mississippi john hurt in C
  583. sentimental lady by fleetwood mac in E
  584. september by earth, wind, and fire in A
  585. september in the rain by norah jones; dinah washington; frank sinatra in C
  586. serenade by steve miller in Am
  587. serves me right by john lee hooker in E
  588. the seventh son by willie dixon; johnny rivers in E
  589. sex and candy by marcy playground in D
  590. sexual healing by marvin gaye in C
  591. shake your hips by stones; slim harpo in A
  592. shakin' shakin' shakes by los lobos; bonnie raitt in A
  593. shakin’ all over by johnny kidd & the pirates; the guess who in Em
  594. shaky ground by the temptations; delbert mcclinton in E
  595. shape of you by ed sheeran in C#m
  596. she came in through the bathroom window by joe cocker; the beatles in A
  597. she cheated with the preacher by bill dumas; jim dumas in G
  598. she smiled sweetly by stones
  599. she's not there by the zombies; santana in Em
  600. shining star by earth, wind, & fire in E
  601. shotgun by jr. walker & the all stars in A
  602. showdown by elo; jeff lynne in Gm
  603. sideways by citizen cope; santana in Em
  604. signed sealed delivered i’m yours by stevie wonder in E
  605. silver springs by fleetwood mac in C
  606. simple man by lynyrd skynyrd in Am
  607. sir duke by stevie wonder in G
  608. sissy strut by the meters in C
  609. sitting on top of the world by grateful dead in G
  610. sixteen tons by merle travis; tennessee ernie ford in Am
  611. skin and bones by the kinks in G
  612. skip deep by buddy guy in A
  613. the sky is crying by elmore james; albert king; stevie ray vaughn in A
  614. slip away by clarence carter in G
  615. slippin and a slidin by little richard; the band in G
  616. slipping into darkness by war
  617. smile by charlie chaplin in E
  618. smoke, smoke, smoke by tex williams
  619. smokestack lightning by howlin’ wolf in E
  620. smooth by santana; rob thomas in Am
  621. smooth operator by sade in Dm
  622. some kind of wonderful by grand funk railroad in C
  623. somebody to love by jefferson airplane; darby slick in F#m
  624. someone else is steppin’ in by z.z. hill in F
  625. something more than free by jason isbell in G
  626. something to talk about by bonnie raitt in E
  627. songbird by fleetwood mac in Bb
  628. soul man by sam and dave; the blues brothers in E
  629. spanish harlem by ben e. king; aretha franklin in C
  630. speedo by the cadillacs in D
  631. stand by me by ben e. king in A
  632. statesboro blues by allman brothers in A
  633. stayin alive by the bee gees in Em
  634. stir it up by bob marley in A
  635. stolen away on 55th & 3rd by dave matthews in A
  636. stop draggin’ my heart around by tom petty; stevie nicks in Em
  637. the storm by tedeschi trucks band in E
  638. storms never last by waylon jennings; jesse colter in G
  639. stormy monday by b.b. king in G
  640. stray cat blues by stones in E
  641. stray cat strut by stray cats in Bm
  642. street fightin man by stones
  643. streets of philadelphia by bruce springsteen in Bb
  644. stuck in the middle with you by stealer’s wheel; gerry rafferty in A
  645. stuff you gotta watch by muddy waters; levon helm in G
  646. such a night by dr. john in F
  647. sultans of swing by dire straits in Dm
  648. summertime by george gershwin in Am
  649. summertime blues by eddie cochran; the who in F
  650. sunshine of your love by cream in C
  651. sunspot baby by bob seger & the silver bullet band in E
  652. superstitous by stevie wonder in E
  653. surprise surprise by stones
  654. susie q by ccr in E
  655. suspicious minds by elvis presley in G
  656. suzanne by leonard cohen in E
  657. sway by dean martin in Am
  658. sweet caroline by neil diamond in G
  659. sweet dreams are made of this by the eurythmics in Cm
  660. sweet home chicago by eric clapton; robert johnson in E
  661. sweet little sixteen by chuck berry in C
  662. sympathy for the devil by stones in E
  663. take it easy by eagles in G
  664. take it to the limit by eagles in E
  665. take me back to tulsa by bob wills in G
  666. take me home country roads by john denver in G
  667. teach your children by csny in D
  668. tears of a clown by smokey robinson in G
  669. tell mama by etta james; janis joplin in C
  670. tennessee jed by grateful dead; levon helm in G
  671. tennessee whiskey by chris stapleton in A
  672. tequila sunrise by eagles in G
  673. that smell by lynyrd skynyrd in Am
  674. that’s amoré by dean martin in A
  675. them changes by buddy miles in E
  676. then came you by dionne warwick and the spinners in F
  677. they call me the breeze by j.j. cale; lynyrd skynyrd in G
  678. they can't take that away from me by george gershwin; ella fitzgerald; louie armstrong in D
  679. think by aretha franklin in A
  680. this land is your land by woody guthrie in D
  681. this masquerade by leon russell; george benson in Am
  682. three little birds by bob marley in G
  683. the thrill is gone by b.b. king in Bbm
  684. thunderbird by stevie ray vaughn in A
  685. tick tock by stevie ray vaughn in A
  686. ticket to ride by the beatles in D
  687. til it happens to you by corinne bailey rae in C#m
  688. till the money runs out by tom waits; john hammond in E
  689. time is on my side by stones in E
  690. tin man by america in G
  691. tired of being alone by al green in D
  692. to find a friend by tom petty in F
  693. tobacco road by the nashville teens in A
  694. train kept a rollin by the yardbirds in E
  695. trouble no more by muddy waters; allman brothers in A
  696. true fine love by steve miller in G
  697. tryin to win by peter, paul, & mary in E
  698. trying to live my life without you by otis clay; bob seger & the silver bullet band in D
  699. tube snake boogie by zz top in E
  700. tumblin dice by stones
  701. tupelo honey by van morrison in G
  702. turn on your love light by bobbie blue bland; grateful dead in G
  703. turn the page by bob seger & the silver bullet band in Em
  704. turquoise house by jim white in C
  705. turtle blues by janis joplin
  706. tush by zz top in E
  707. tutti frutti by little richard in C
  708. twilight on the trail by bing crosby in B
  709. unchain my heart by ray charles; joe cocker in Am
  710. uncle albert / admiral halsey by paul mccartney in C
  711. uncle john’s band by grateful dead in G
  712. under my thumb by stones in G
  713. under the boardwalk by the drifters in G
  714. unfaithful servant by the band in E
  715. unforgettable by nat king cole; natalie cole
  716. unknown legend by neil young in G
  717. up on cripple creek by the band in A
  718. upside down by diana ross in Gm
  719. use me by bill withers in B
  720. valerie by amy winehouse in Eb
  721. vehicle by ides of march in Ebm
  722. vienna by billy joel in Gm
  723. voodoo chile by jimi hendrix in E
  724. voodoo chile slight return by jimi hendrix in E
  725. wagon wheel by bob dylan; old crow medicine show in G
  726. walk away by james gang; joe walsh in A
  727. walk of life by dire straits in E
  728. walkin’ after midnight by patsy cline in C
  729. walking in memphis by marc cohn in C
  730. the way you look tonight by jerome kern; fred astaire in C
  731. we can by steve & chris in G
  732. we’ve got tonight by bob seger & the silver bullet band in B
  733. wedding song (there is love) by paul stookey in C
  734. the weight by the band in G
  735. werewolves of london by warren zevon in G
  736. what a wonderful world by louie armstrong in F
  737. what about me by quicksilver messenger service in Gm
  738. what becomes of the broken hearted by jimmy ruffin in G
  739. what i like about you by the romantics in E
  740. what the world needs now by dionne warwick; jackie deshannon; burt bacharach; hal david in Bm
  741. what you won't do for love by bobby caldwell in Em
  742. what's love got to do with it by tina turner in G#m
  743. what's the use by jamie lidell in F#m
  744. what’d i say by ray charles in E
  745. what’s going on by marvin gaye in D
  746. whatever gets you through the night by john lennon in G
  747. when a man loves a woman by percy sledge in A
  748. when love comes to town by b.b. king; u2 in C
  749. when rita leaves by delbert mcclinton in E
  750. when something is wrong with my baby by sam and dave in G
  751. when the lovelight starts by the supremes
  752. when will i be loved by linda ronstadt; the everly brothers in E
  753. where are we now by david bowie in C
  754. where there's a will there's a way by delaney & bonnie; bobby whitlock in A
  755. while my guitar gently weeps by the beatles; george harrison in Am
  756. whipping post by allman brothers in Am
  757. whiskey river by willie nelson in G
  758. whiskey rock a roller by lynyrd skynyrd in D
  759. white man's world by jason isbell in Bm
  760. who do you love by bo diddley in A
  761. whole lotta love by eric clapton; led zepellin in E
  762. why get up by the fabulous thunderbirds in B
  763. wichita linesman by glen campbell in D
  764. wild horses by stones in G
  765. wild nights by van morrison in G
  766. wild world by cat stevens in Am
  767. willin' by little feat; lowell george in G
  768. the wind cries mary by jimi hendrix; john mayer in F
  769. wine by electric flag in A
  770. winter time by steve miller in Bbm
  771. wise up by aimee mann in G
  772. wish you were here by pink floyd in G
  773. witchy woman by eagles in Em
  774. with a little help from my friends by joe cocker in A
  775. with arms wide open by creed in C
  776. wonderful the way i feel by my morning jacket in G
  777. wonderful tonight by eric clapton in G
  778. woodstock by csny; joni mitchell in E
  779. working man blues by merle haggard in A
  780. wrap it up by the fabulous thunderbirds in Am
  781. yeah man by sam cooke in G
  782. the yellow rose of texas by gene autry in G
  783. yellow submarine by the beatles in G
  784. you are everything by the sylistics in A
  785. you better run by the young rascals in C
  786. you can leave your hat on by joe cocker; randy newman in C
  787. you can't always get what you want by stones
  788. you can't sit down by the dovells
  789. you don't know how it feels by tom petty in G
  790. you don't know me by ray charles; eddy arnold in C
  791. you may be right by billy joel in A
  792. you never can tell by chuck berry in C
  793. you really got me by the kinks in G
  794. you were never mine by delbert mcclinton in F#
  795. you wreck me by tom petty in E
  796. you've got to hide your love away by the beatles in G
  797. you’ve got a friend by james taylor in A
  798. young blood by the coasters; bad company; leon russell in G
  799. your love is king by sade in A
  800. your memory, me, and the blues by delbert mcclinton in G

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Guitar Fun

Let's start with this post from January 11, 2019 titled "Electric Guitar Weights" that for some reason I never published.


Despite my attestations, another guitarist couldn't believe how heavy my 1978 Tele was. I weighed the St. Vincent for comparison. So I decided to weigh them all. I used a bathroom scale accurate to 0.5#, standing on it with and without a guitar. The Tele indeed wins.

Make & ModelYear#
Gibson Les Paul Jr19617.5
Fender Telecaster197810.5
Gibson Les Paul Custom Classic200710
Steinberger synapse transcale20087
Fender 50th anniversary Stratocaster20049
Gibson ES-33520089
DBZ Imperial20118.5
Sterling by Music Man St. Vincent Signature20187


I've been playing a different guitar every month. I've been through them all in the last year. Now that I'm in a band (Coral Stone Band, based in Bonita Springs, FL), I feel I should be more professional about it. So going forward, I'm just going to play the Strat and the St. Vincent. They have the same style whammy bar (tremolo) with the springs in the back.

  • The Les Paul Jr (SG), the Les Paul (and the Flying-V semi-permanently on loan to excellent young guitarist Harlan Cecil) all have Stets Bar whammy bars. It's not bad, but not as good as the Strat style.
  • The ES-335 and the DBZ Imperial have a Bigsby tremolo, which gives you very little whammy. However, I am still trying to swap the heavy 1978 Tele for one with a Bigsby, just so I can play it sometimes.
One thing that really surprised me was the St. Vincent is head-heavy - if you let go of the guitar while wearing it, the head heads for the floor. It was surprising because is has a fairly big body and a small head. But it only weighs 7#. Here's pictures and discussion from when I 1st got it.

So I had the thought, since the St. Vincent would be 1 of only 2 I'm playing, could I maybe address the head-heaviness? Could I put some weights in the electronics cavity so it would balance better? It had a fairly big electronics cavity.

Amazon, of course, had 4x4oz lead weights for $5.99, which I paid for with Amazon bucks.

They fit stacked in the cavity perfectly!

But, I don't want them rattling, so it's time for my secret sauce: mounting putty.

For fixing "shouldn't move, moves" problems, I use mounting putty pretty much exclusively - duct tape, hardly ever. So put some putty on the side and bottom.

Fini! Installation feels very solid.

So the guitar now weighs 8# instead of 7# - my only guitar lighter than it is the SG at 7.5# - but it is still head heavy. Not as bad tho, so I think the additional weight is a win.

It's tempting to just play the Strat, which is perfectly balanced. If you are addicted to whammy bars as I am it is the way to go. After I 1st got that Strat, I played nothing else for maybe 3 years. But, damn, everybody brings out Strats. It is the default blues guitar. So, I will bring out the St. Vincent for some variety.

Tuesday, March 10, 2020

4 More

The latest reads:
  1. "The Vanished Birds", by Simon Jiminez, 2020, 457 pages. I thought this was going to be a serial novel, with a constantly changing narrator, but it does wind up with a fairly limited recurring cast. Good, realistic characters. But they adopt a technology that reminded me of Ziegler in "Moulin Rouge", when he signs the deeds over to The Count even knowing that Satine is dying of TB. Designing a system with a single, personal point of failure is not good design. This was a decent read.

  2. "The Enchanted Castle", by Edith Nesbit, 1907, 235 pages. I came across a mention of this book as an alternative to the Narnia stories. Nesbit was apparently a popular children's author in the 1st 1/4 of the 20th century. The story has some whimsical fun, but very British in feel. It will not be going to my granddaughter, which was who I was reading this for.

  3. "One Man", by Harry Connolly, 2019, 569 pages. I like Connolly's writing, lots of action. The historical plot threads are interwoven nicely. I look forward to more in this series.

  4. "Finna", by Nino Cipri, 2020, 97 pages. This came across as something cheesy, made-for-SyFy-channel fluff. And lo, originally this was a screenplay in a writing class. The review calling it an "anti-capitalist adventure" is really a stretch. The 2 main characters in McJobs say "That's capitalism for you" or some such thing to each other as a joke - pretty weak for an anti-capitalism theme.

    1 of the characters is a (queer?) female, the other is a transgender person who identifies as they/them/theirs. I really dislike the they/them/theirs. It is immediately ambiguous between singular and plural usages. I thought of the French 3rd person impersonal pronoun "on" - you could translate that to Engish as "one" - "give it to one" - but that still has ambiguities.

    They should have gone with new, unique words designed just for this purpose. Didn't Anne Leckie have such pronouns in the Ancillary books? Other sci-fi authors as well. Ze/zir/zirs maybe? If we're going to add new language, let's do the best job we can.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Only 2

Just finished the February magazine stack, not sure what I want to read next. Heading for Guadeloupe next week with my wife, we'll be there for Carnaval!

So I figure I should clear the stack of unblogged books, of which there are 2:

  1. "Invisible Planets", edited and translates by Ken Liu, 2016, 415 pages. 13 Chinese short works of science fiction. There's not a bad story in the bunch. At the end there are 3 essays on how Chinese SF is different. The main differences I see are the presence of the Communist Party - kind of as the "spirit of China" maybe? - and the edginess of having developed so far and so fast recently.

  2. "Agency", by William Gibson, 2020, 326 pages. My 1st book published in the 2020s! Set in the same universe as his prior novel. There's not a lot of dramatic tension in the book, which I didn't mind. The characters are likable, the pacing more leisurely than I would expect from Gibson. Still, a satisfying and enjoyable read.

Tuesday, January 07, 2020

Dear Mr. Fantasy

It seems like deconstructionism is taking its toll on me. Even just reading for escapism, I can't seem to get loose of politics and economics.
  1. "Quillifer the Knight", by Walter Jon Williams, 2019, 643 pages. The 2nd of this series, the 1st is blogged here. Court intrigue, dragon slaying, etc. Williams is reliably enjoyable. But, another novel that is, if not glorifying, at least spreading the memes of feudalism. Sigh.
  2. "Ninth House", by Leigh Bardugo, 2019, 643 pages. I kept seeing references to this on various lists, so I decided to give it a try. Who knew that Yale was secretly Hogwarts??? Did we really need a book about Yale secret societies? The author is a Yale grad. Gee, I'm so disappointed we didn't have secret magical societies at MIT. It is a good read.
  3. "The Ten Thousand Doors of January", by Alix E. Harrow, 2019, 417 pages. I was reminded at 1st of "The Never-Ending Story" - a good thing. A very nicely constructed story of the multiverse.
  4. "The Scar", by China Miéville, 2002, 767 pages. The 2nd of the Bas-Lag (the name of this world) series. I think I read the 1st, "Perdido Street Station", shortly after it came out in 2000. I have come to appreciate Miéville's writing more in recent years. More horrorish than I prefer, but very impressive world-building and bizarre races and creatures. This is an interesting story, but the protagonist/narrator is fairly unlikable. It still works though. I have purchased the 3rd book of the series, "Iron Council".
On to some short stories, I think.

Saturday, December 14, 2019

Moving Fast, But Not Fast Enough

I was going to just forge ahead on another book but then remembered I hadn't blogged my last 5 reads. Unread collection in Kobo reader continues to grow - still 62 left after taking these out. A good problem to have, I guess.
  1. "Auberon", by James S.A. Corey, 2019, 78 pages. An Expanse Novella. A nice little story set in the Galactic Empire pivot segment of The Expanse. Can the new incorruptible Fascist government stay that way?
    I watched the 1st 4 episodes of "The Expanse" on Prime Video last night, FTW! I feel very comfortable with these characters.

  2. "The Menace From Farside", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 119 pages. A novella set on the moon of McDonald's Luna series. The title refers to a female rival of the moody, female teenage narrator. I guess I'm too far away from moody teenagers, I really didn't care for that much. Some action & plot, etc.

  3. "Time Was", by Ian McDonald, 2019, 97 pages. I decided to give McDonald another chance. Another novella, this one was a evocative and charming tale of accidental time travelers and the bibliophile who is tracking them.

  4. "Factoring Humanity", by Robert J. Sawyer, 1998, 343 pages. I remembered reading a Sawyer ("Calculating God" I think) from the Lexington Public Library years ago and liking it fairly well. I think this one was a BookBub bargain - I might not have bought it if I had realized how old it was. What was I'm sure germane social commentary at the time is now horribly dated. This is a 1st contact story, with some AI thrown in. The main character, a scientist, behaves in a completely unscientific way that I found unsettling.
    I looked up Sawyer on Wikipedia, he has the letters CM and OOnt after his name. CM is the Order of Canada and OOnt is the Order of Ontario. He's Canadian, and apparently they still do this goofy monarchist crap. The Order of Canada is the 2nd highest honor, 1st is the Order of Merit which can only be awarded by Canada's monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.
    Is that some stupid shit or what? Maybe if Britain had gotten rid of the monarchy decades ago they wouldn't have all these old farts wanting Brexit. Very sad.

  5. "Ancestral Night", by Elizabeth Bear, 2019, 599 pages. The Culture lives! Bear give props to Iain Banks' Culture series. Galactic civilization, ancient aliens, smart-ass AI shipminds, ships with long, snarky names, humans with direct control of their brain chemistry.
    The novel is very, very talky, and felt to be at least its 599 pages. The main character's mind has been extensively reconstructed, and she uncovers several versions of why. She is way beyond neurotic.
    The foil to Bear's The Culture analog The Synarche is libertarian pirates. Some timely political discussions, the pirates general being painted as freedom-loving psychopaths. "Libertaranism - the I got mine, fuck you party" is 1 of my taglines.
    Bear also quotes directly another of my taglines: "There is enough to go around", directed to the main pirate figure.
    I suspect there will be more of this series, titled "White Space", and I look forward to them.
I also went to clear the magazine stack for December after these books. Sky & Telescope is transitioning from the Zinio app to ... something else. Couldn't find the December issue, just February - they publish fairly far ahead so people can plan their observing schedules. After a very unhelpful reply from their customer service, I decided I'm going to quit reading it, and not renew my subscription, which expires in April. I get plenty of astronomy news and pix from several blogs whose RSS feeds I follow. Wow, end of an era, I have been getting S&T for 30 or 40 years. Does this qualify as an old dog learning a new trick? Or unlearning an old trick?

Monday, December 02, 2019

Music In - and Almost Timely!

August, September, October, and the 1st 1/2 of November.
  • Of Monsters And Men, "FEVER DREAMS", 2019, 11 tracks. Well-engineered alternative rock, no standout tunes. 3 stars.
  • Buddy Guy, "Skin Deep", 2008, 12 tracks. Someone requested that I work up the title track, "Skin Deep". It was a good tune & I enjoyed working it up. Of course, it is the standout track on the album. 4 stars for "Skin Deep" with Derek Trucks on slide guitar, 3 stars for the rest, despite Clapton playing on 1 song & Robert Randolph on 2.

  • Dave Alvin, "The Best Of The HighTone Years", 2008, 18 tracks. This was pulled up for purchase on my friend Steve Konopka's computer at the time of his death. His wife went on and bought it, she said this guy was 1 of Steve's favorite guitarists. The material is all over the place - folk, country, rock, southern rock - apparently he considered himself Americana. I don't have an Americana genre so I made him Southern Rock. 3 stars.
  • The Teskey Brothers, "Half Mile Harvest", 2018, 10 tracks. A recommendation from an old friend & coworker who is in the process of becoming an Australian. You listen to this & go, OK, black dudes in the US playing some decent R&B. Then find out, 4 white Australian dudes playing some decent R&B. 4 stars. Here's "I Get Up".

  • Pernice Brothers, "Spread The Feeling", 2019, 13 tracks. Bandcamp I think. Very nice, reminds me of, maybe, Matt Duncan, or the Jayhawks? These guys have been around since 1996, but this is their 1st album since 2010. 4 stars. They have broken my system, there are no videos for this album on YouTube yet. I was going to include "The Devil and The Jinn".
  • Ra Ra Riot, "Superbloom", 2019, 12 tracks. There very latest. OK tunes but I realized one of the things I really liked about their 1st album, "The Rhumb Line", which included a 5-star song, was the strings. I think they had female violin & cello players. No more strings anymore, just synthesizers. I'm guessing intra-band romances got terminated. Too bad. 3 stars.
  • The Grateful Dead, "From The Mars Hotel", 1974, 8 tracks. Saw a reference to this and wondered why I didn't have it. No great tracks; "US Blues" probably the strongest. 3 stars.
  • Winds, "Venus And Mars (Deluxe / Remaster), 1975, 28 tracks. Someone was telling me I needed to listen to "Magneto And Titanium Man", which was on this album. At $12.49 for 28 tracks, this wound up being quite the music value. In addition to the original album, there are several singles that were never on an album: "Junior's Farm", "Sally G", others? There are also 10 or so outtakes, jams, not of much interest unless you are a total Wings/McCartney fan. 18x 4-star, 8x 3-star, 2x 2-star (for old versions, standard handling). Here's "Sally G." recorded in Nashville. Pedal steel FTW!

  • Jorja Smith, "Lost & Found", 2018, 12 tracks. Bandcamp. English R&B singer/songwriter. Very nice stuff, only 22 YO. 4 stars. Here's the 1st & title track, "Lost & Found". It takes a while to get going, but it is worth the wait.

  • Delta Sleep, "Younger Years", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. Decent tunes, a little too loud for me. 3 stars.
  • Jakub Zytecki, "Nothing Lasts, Nothing's Lost", 2019, 11 tracks. Bandcamp. Polish prog rock, what's not to like? Very interesting guitar work, creative stuff. 4 stars. Here's "Sunflower".

  • Le Big Zero, "Ollie Oxen Free", 2019, 9 tracks. These are friends of my daughter Erica in Brooklyn. She sent me the t-shirt, I figured I'd better get the album. A good effort, but a little too punkish for me. 3 stars.
  • Juana Molina, "Forfun", 2019, 4 tracks. Bandcamp. Argentinian punk, what's not to like? Normally hard for punk to get 4 stars in this blog, but, I liked the energy of these. Molina has been around for decades. Here's the 1st track, "Paraguaya Punk".

  • Charly Bliss, "Supermoon", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. Power-pop from Brooklyn, FTW! Alternative with decent guitar & female singer. Here's "Slingshot".

  • Redeyes, "Unfinished Theory EP", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. Way mellow electronica/dance. Very enjoyable listening. 4 stars. Here's the intro "The Unfinished Theory". I like the name & concept.

  • Bahamas, "Bahamas is Afie", 2014, 12 tracks. I really enjoyed his latest, "Earthtones", blogged here. So I'm working backwards through his stuff - this is album 3/4. I just really like his voice & guitar. Thanks to musical friend Josh Brown of J. Renders Southern Table & Bar for the recommendation. 4 stars. Here's "Waves".

  • Muddy Waters, "I'm Ready", 1978, 12 tracks. His prior 1977 album, "Hard Again", blogged here, was fantastic. I've worked up 3 songs from it, 2 at the request of my Canadian harpist friend Owen Evans. "Hard Again" was produced by Johnny Winter. There is not a bad song on that album. "I'm Ready" a year later, I'm guessing wasn't produced by Winter. Overall, pretty blah. 3 stars.
  • Vampire Weekend, "Father Of The Bride", 2019, 18 tracks. Apparently they lost a member. 18 tracks is a lot, generally pretty high quality & sounding like Vampire Weekend. 4 stars. Here's "Harmony Hall"

  • Blind Faith, eponymous, 1969, 6 tracks. The supergroup of Clapton & Baker from Cream w Winwood on keys and Rick Gresch on bass from Traffic. Only 6 tracks. 3 stars for "Do What You Like", which is just too long. 4 stars for the rest. Here's "Can't Find My Way Home", which I recently played in the latest incarnation of Acme Dance Band: Brent Carter on guitar & vocals, Haywood Ferguson on harp, Steve Parrish on drums, & me on bass & vocals. I played "Sea of Joy" Back In The Day. Not so good, oops!>p>

So, 19 more albums, reviews current through mid-November. Next Music In will prolly be late March. If anybody not a bot reads these Music In posts, you will have noticed that I need more good new music. So, plz comment with any new music recommendations. [I know, crickets.]

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

A Binge

After figuring out last time that I had read book 5 of the "Gods and Monsters" series, I decided to binge the other 4.

The underlying plot of all the books is that Jehovah aka Yahweh staged a coup and drove all the other pantheons out of, what, metaphysical space and into meat space, which understandably created a power struggle here on earth. There also new gods a la Gaimann's "American Gods", and fictional gods (aren't they all?) a la Cthulhu. Meanwhile, all the father gods seem to have disappeared - and nobody has seen Jebus. Hmmm, I'm glad not to have to read about Jebus, but, maybe a little bit chickenshit on the part of the authors?

All these books are written with the snark dial set to 11.

The whole series is:

  1. "Unclean Spirits", by Chuck Wendig, 2013, 417 pages. We meet Cason Cole, who is a grandson of Lucifer and a son of the stag god of nature. Most of the characters in this one are Greek gods.

    This ebook also contains a 2nd novella "Drag Hunt", by Pat Kelleher, which features the great trickster god Coyote, who appears again later on in the series.

  2. "Mythbreaker", by Stephen Blackmoore, 2014, 295 pages. The protagonist is Louie "Fitz" Fitzsimmons, who is the only sane prophet alive. Prophets can channel gods and write their stories. Several pantheons are vying to obtain his services.

  3. "Snake Eyes", by Hillary Monahan, 2016, 307 pages. The protagonist here is Tanis Barlas, a snakish woman who is a daughter of Lamia. The snake people are pursued by their ancient enemies the Gorgons.

  4. "Food of the Gods", by Cassandra Khaw, 2017, 307 pages. Note, I also purchased "Rupert Wong, Cannibal Chef", 2015, 99 pages, which wound up being part 1 of 2 in this book. And I notice that part 2 is available as a separate ebook, "Rupert Wong and the Ends of the Earth", 2017, 204 pages. I find this kind of double publication confusing and annoying, and it led me to purchase the same content twice - a ripoff to my reckoning. Ghouls, Chinese gods, Greek gods, new gods, and Lovecraftian gods are now in play.

  5. "The Last Supper Before Ragnarok", by Cassandra Khaw, 2019, 222 pages, blogged here. This makes more sense and is more enjoyable after having read the others and getting the backstories on all the main characters.
All in all, lots of fun with mythology, old and new, which I always find enjoyable.

Time for some science fiction, I think.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

A Bit More Variety

5 book reports this time.
  1. "The Corn King and the Spring Queen", by Naomi Mitchison, 1931, 985 pages. I blogged Mitchison's "Travel Light" here. This one seems to be regarded as the best of her 90 or so books. Set in the Black Sea area, Sparta, and Alexandria around 150 BC. Fairly historical, except for a main character who is a practicing witch. Very good account of fertility magic; Stoic and Epicurean Greek philosophers; an attempt to reinstill traditional values in Sparta; intrigue in the court of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, in Alexandria.

    I was surprised, for 1931, at its matter-of-fact retelling of Greek homosexuality, particularly between older men and (pre)pubescent boys - Wikipedia does say that the book was somewhat scandalous for its time.

    The book has lots of interesting characters and ideas and plenty of plot. By the end I was definitely ready for it to be over. Then there was a very random Appendix set 100 years later which seemed to me to be almost completely pointless???

  2. "Crucible of Time", by Jeffrey A. Carver, 2019, 481 pages. The 6th of this series, I thought it was supposed to be the last 1, but, no ... still 1 more in the pipe. This installment pretty much follows in the footsteps of #5. Our expanded team of intrepid galactic trouble-shooters gets mostly reunited. I'll be glad to put the last one behind me.

  3. "seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees: expanded edition", by Lawrence Weschler, 2009, 336 pages. Subtitled "Over Thirty Years Of Conversations With Robert Irwin". This was a belated birthday gift from my oldest daughter Erica, the Brooklyn graphics designer.

    Robert Irwin is (still alive, age 91) an LA based artist, active since 1960. He is a fascinating genius of a man. He grew up in the LA area, into cars, girls, dance contests, and gambling in his teen years in the 1940s; he went to various art institutes; he supported himself in a lot of his adult life betting on the horses.

    He did some abstract impressionistic paintings to start, but quickly got a LOT more conceptual. A painting should have no images; it should be only what was in the artist's mind when he created it. With his Line paintings in 1962, he spent 2 years creating 10 12"^2 paintings in a solid color, usually orange, with 2 1/8" horizontal lines somewhere. He said things like "moving 1 line up a tiny fraction of an inch completely changed the result".

    Next up were his Dots paintings - 2 of which were vandalized by some very serious art critics in Sao Paulo. Then came his Discs, which were paintings without frames.

    Trying to abstract his way out of the figure/background dichotomy of paintings, he became an installation artist. He later designed gardens, buildings, all kind of stuff.

    I really liked 1 story he recounted. A NYC art critic was in LA for a show & got into a discussion with Irwin of Folk Art. To the NYC guy this meant pottery etc. Irwin found an ad for a hot-rod being sold. He took the critic to meet the late-teens guy who was working on a new hot-rod. All the aesthetic decisions the guy was making, expose bolts or not, how many coats of paint - to Irwin this was modern folk art. The NYC critic was having no part of it - as opposed to LA, NYC has 0 car culture. When he couldn't convince the critic, Irwin stopped his car somewhere in Southern California and told him to get out. Nice!

    Erica also got me, by the same author, "true to life: Twenty-five Years of Conversations with David Hockney". I have found that art must be done in small doses, particularly when Erica is involved. Good art is like getting punched real hard in the head - I need to definitely control the dosage. So this 2nd book will be put off for a good while - hopefully I will remember to come back to it.

  4. "The Last Supper Before Ragnarok", by Cassandra Khaw, 2019, 222 pages. Apparently this is Gods and Monsters #5 - I've read only 2 others by Khaw, here's the latest. Hmmm, this shows as "Persona Non Grata" series - no mention of "Gods and Monsters" - apparently we have some quantum series indeterminacy, hopefully the competing wave functions will collapse out soon. Researching, the GaM novels 2 & 3 are by other authors, just bought #1 & #4 by Khaw. Persona Non Grata seems to indeed be a different series, with the demon-possessed cheap detective protagonist.

    I somehow thought this was novel length, but it is another novella. Very good use of competing mythologies, an interesting cast of somewhat supernatural characters. A fun read. Khaw is from Malaysia, and incorporates much Malaysian (and Chinese) mythology and cuisine.

  5. "Ninth Step Station", by Malka Older & others, 2019, 414 pages. From Serial Box: 10 episodes, feeling very much like TV series episodes, an intro (pre-credits teaser), followed by 4-5 Acts. I have pretty much sworn off of TV police procedurals as of 2-3 years ago. But, these have some good new SF elements - eye implants with IR vision, other implants/bionics, drones everywhere - so I gladly un-foreswore procedurals for at least this series.

    Following serious earthquakes & a lame North Korean attack, followed by a Japanese response, the Chinese have invaded Japan & hold the western 1/2 of Tokyo. The other half is what's left of the Japanese government propped up by US peacekeeping forces.

    Our main character is a Tokyo police inspector (lesbian or bisexual of course), her partner is a Japanese-American peacekeeper forwarded in the spirit of cooperation. It does the good thing of having each episode have a case to be solved, while meanwhile a larger story arc re China vs Japan + US develops. It is well done, but I was a little burnt out by the end. But, the ending sets up Series #2 for lots of drama, as the China vs Japan + US narrative heats up.

Time to go back to the magazine stack. I just switched my last print magazine, Technology Review, over to electronic only, yay! But, I am embarrassed to admit, somehow with my magazines all being electronic I seem to be losing track of where I am on the stack much more easily. Hard to beat a stack of physical magazines being read and then moved to a different physical stack across the room for tracking.

Tuesday, October 08, 2019

Weather Is Broken

I've been going back & forth about writing this post, I've decided in the best Dumbass traditions to let 'er rip!

I have looked at weather maps every day for over 40 years. I think I could be a decent weather forecaster - but, I have never read a single book on the topic, oops - that might be a start.

My browser fires up with 6 tabs open to weather sites:

  1. NWS radar
  2. Current US Weather Map
  3. Wind map
  4. Global Jetstream Forecast
  5. Lexington KY 10 Day Forecast
  6. National Hurricane Center
I have been telling people for a couple of years now: forget everything you thought you knew about weather. Weather is changing. Weather has changed. It's a whole new world out there.

Case in point. On (?) Sep 23, Lexington had its 1st rain in 24 days: a totally weak-ass cold front finally came south, and generated < 0.1" of rain. The same occurred 4 days later.

So, after record rainfall in September 2018, record lack of rainfall in September 2019. After those 2 pitiful rainfalls, we went right back to the 3rd or 4th 5-6 day stretch of highs in the mid-90s.

The drought finally broke on October 6: finally, in late evening, a serious, drenching downpour, FTW!!!

Here's a pic of the NWS radar at 5:30 PM, September 27. Those dim blue areas are what the radar normally looks like at night. They basically mean there is no weather - you're just getting low-level scattering off of hills, etc.

What did the weather map look like? No weather - just 2 highs dominating the entire southeastern US.

The wind map confirms: no wind in the SE US.

Here it is 2 days later, after one of those weak-ass cold fronts came through: huge highs over the entire eastern US. No weather. Drought.

So glad we finally got a decent rain. But no rain in the forecast until Saturday, so I will have to go back to every-other-day watering of my vegetable & my wife's flower gardens.

Weather is broken.

Friday, October 04, 2019

Steven Mets Konopka, 1950-2019

Plus, A Brief History Of The Old Farts Blues Jam (OFBJ)

Steve Konopka, aka Fuzzy to musicians, was born May 14, 1950 and died August 28, 2019.

I met Steve playing at the OFBJ (Old Farts Blues Jam) maybe 10-12 years ago.

  • I first played at the OFBJ in January, 2006 at the American Legion off S. Broadway. I met Lindsay Olive, David Harrod, Donnie Crisp. Bob Hopps, Steve Moore (RIP).
  • Spring 2006 the OFBJ moved to High Life Lounge, formerly Lynagh's Concert Hall, later Cosmic Charlie's, on Woodland. I met Patty Butcher and others there.
  • After a couple of months it moved 3 doors to Lynagh's, where it stayed for 18 months.
  • Then it moved (in, what, Fall 2007?) to O'Neil's for 4.5 years. During that time, the house band was the Here For The Party Band: David Harrod on harp & vocals, Lindsay Olive on guitar, Erik Shields on drums, Bob Hopps on keys & vocals, and Michael Anderson or Matt Noell on bass & vocals.
Here's the oldest picture I can find of Steve at a jam: O'Neil's January, 2012. Steve Parrish on drums, Steven Poe on guitar, me on guitar & vocals, Fuzzy on Harp, Keith Hubbard on keys, and that looks like Jimmy Olive on bass?

[Note, I loaded all these pictures in X-large size so you could make out the faces. Most of them got cropped on the right. So please click on a photo and look at them in camera roll mode to see the whole pic.]

Here's another pic from March, 2012. Lindsay Olive on guitar, me on guitar & vocals, Erik Shields on drums, Fuzzy, Michael Anderson aka Cheesehead on bass, and the OFBJ long-time keyboard player, Bob Hopps. Bob is also an excellent blues guitar player, harpist, and vocalist.

  • After O'Neil's, the OFBJ moved downtown to Cheapside for a few months.
  • It was at Paulie's Toasted Barrel downtown on Main St. for a year or so around 2013.
  • Then it moved to Patchen Pub for maybe a year?
Here's a pic from Patchen Pub, October 1014. Brent Carter (playing Johnny Cash) on my Flying V, Mighty Joe Linville on sax. Gordon Parks on bass, probably SkyJack Miller on drums, Fuzzy, most excellent young guitarist Jeff Adams, and Jerry Woodyard playing the flattop.

  • The jam then morphed into Sherman House Presents the Lexington Blues Jam booked by Matt Noell. It was at Shamrocks on Patchen outside Sunday evenings for 2 years.
Here's a pic of Steve (& me) at Shamrocks July 2015. Great shirt!

Spring & Summer of 2013 I ran the Tuesday Night Rock & Roll Party at Henry Clay Public House downtown on Upper. Here's Steve playing with Lexington blues legend Teedee Young - & his son, who is now part of his band. Logan Lay is on bass.


After Fall 2016, there was no blues jam in Lexington for 10 months. I was missing my playing time, so I approached Steve about doing a duo, me on guitar & vocals, him on harp. He had played a few duo gigs before with Richard Mattingly. I chose Steve because of the 10 or so harp players I had played with, Steve was by far the most versatile. He could find a harp part on almost anything. No offense, but most harp players want to play nothing but blues.

A Digitech Vocalist Live 3 sang harmony with me on 1/3 of the songs (and did autotune on all the songs). I also used a Boss RC-30 Looper on a few songs.

We named ourselves, very imaginatively, Steve & Chris. My older brother is named Steve, so I had heard "Steve & Chris" for all my young life.

We pretty quickly got 50 songs - enough for a 4 hour gig. That grew to 90. So we moved 45 to a Duo Other book. But Steve and I were both horrible about holding the list down. The final count was 122, ha ha!

We rehearsed in the music area of my basement. We tried songs out live at Coralee's Open Mic, which was at Willie's Locally Known on Southland, then Cosmic Charlie's on National, and then The Burl. Coralee was always very encouraging and supportive. After Coralee moved to Nashville, we switched to the Red Barn Radio Open Mic, now Listen Locally Open Mic, at Twisted Cork off of Clay's Mill, Sunday, 5:30-9:00. We played there lots of weeks - 25 set lists in my app - until Steve started to weaken in Summer 2019.

We also played at LexJam, the 2nd Saturday of the month, 1-5, currently at Ranada's on Old Vine. Steve played at LexJam for ~15 years. Steve loved LexJam and LexJam loved Steve. Rennie Neubecker who runs LexJam seemed to be hit particularly hard by the loss of Steve. Steve & I last played at LexJam July 13, 2019.

Here's the poster Rennie made for the memorial they had for Steve.

We played our first gig at J. Render's Southern Table & Grill May 2017, thanks to the GM there, my musical friend Josh Brown. They were having a special fixed price dinner paired with local Alltech beers, with master brewer Ken Lee - "The Beer of Bourbon Country". We got the dinner and beers for our pay, yay! We passed the audition, and played J. Renders several more times. Here's a pic from that 1st night.

We decided that Steve would wear a baseball cap rather than going with 2 straw hats. LOL! Here we are playing indoors there in November.

We also played Grillfish and Patchen Pub, and here's a pic from Big Blue Martini.

The next year, 2018, we played J. Render's, Shamrocks, Squires, and The Cellar. They liked us everywhere we played, but the same thing happened at Patchen Pub & The Cellar: their in-house music critic, a 30-something dude probably in a band, noticed that we were old! Need younger blood!

Here is the link to the Steve & Chris YouTube channel. 7 videos, 2 of originals from the basement, 2 from Big Blue Martini, 1 from J. Renders, 2 from Grillfish.


Meanwhile, Matt Noell got Sherman House Presents (formerly known as the OFBJ) started again Spring 2017.

  • It was at Life Brewpub off of Richmond Rd. for a couple of months maybe. I remember my daughter Erica who lives in Brooklyn came out and got to talk with Steve.
  • It then moved to Lynagh's and stayed until December 2018. The original house band was Roger Barber on drums, Matt Noell on bass, David Ponder & Brent Carter on guitar. I took over for Ponder in Spring 2018.
  • In Summer 2017, Dane Sadler started the Blues & Groove Jam at Squires, Sunday 7:30-10:30. So we had 2 jams/week for a while, yay! That jam is still going strong. Boogie G. (George Burdette) and J.J. Davis alternate weeks on bass. Both are monster players on bass & vocals, & J.J. also is an unbelievable lead guitarist - Hendrix + Van Halen licks. I've filled in for Dane a few times.
Here's 2 pix of Steve at Squire's playing with Teedee again on June 23, 2019. Teedee is playing my St. Vincent Signature. Dane on guitar, Mighty Joe Linville on sax, and Erik Shields on drums.

The last time Steve played out was at Squires on July 28, 2019, 1 month to the day before he died. I think this pic is from the month before. Erik Shields on drums.

Here's a couple more pix from those last few months. I love this selfie that Haywood Ferguson took. You can clearly see Steve projecting harpiness into Jerry Mayfield, who's projecting it on to Haywood.

Haywood greatly respected Steve's playing and had been learning from Steve for the last year or so. Steve told me several times, he couldn't believe how he would show or tell Haywood something for the harp, and next time Haywood would be doing it. Haywood did Steve & Chris songs with me at LexJam, Twisted Cork, and Steve's memorial. Thanks Haywood!

Here's 1 from April. A good pic of Steve IMO.


My wife & I had both picked up nasty colds on Tuesday, so when Julie called on Wednesday August 28, 10:30 am to tell me Steve had died at 6 am, I could not offer to come over. I went by the following Monday, & Julie asked me to put together music for Steve's memorial - it is what he would have wanted. "How big a band?" "The bigger the better", Julie sez.

I told her 20-25 musicians, we got 19 signed up. Plus, King William Allen was there but did not want to sign up and play. We had 2 electric guitar + 1 acoustic electric amps, 5 mics on stage. We didn't get the 4 piece horn section we were shooting for (the fuzzyhorns), but the 2 horns we got, Mighty Joe Linville on tenor sax and Kevin Sparks on trumpet, acquitted themselves famously.

The memorial was Saturday, September 21, 3-5. We started setting up at 2 but still started 15 minutes late. We went a little over. It was at Clark Legacy Center, 601 E. Brannon Rd, Nicholasville. Past all the Brannon Crossing development, on the left.

Here's a pic without the horns. Len Wujcik on harp, Vanessa Davis on my electric classical + vocals, Ron Northrip on my bass, David Ponder on my Strat + vocals, Brent Carter on his Les Paul. David & Brent totally helped out playing guitar for the last hour. They love to play together, having played in Thirstin Howl with Sherri McGee & Matt Noell. Ron did me a double solid, taking over for me on bass (our planned bass player was a no-show) so I could work the list, and finishing out the afternoon without getting to play any guitar. Thanks David, Brent, & Ron!

Steve & I knew Vanessa from the Twisted Cork open mic. She has a fabulous voice, has written many most excellent original songs, and is a great guitarist. She is a star at the Twisted Cork open mic. It was really nice of her to come out and get that side of Steve's recent music represented.

Here's the full effect, with the fuzzyhorns on the left. That's Randy Ethridge aka Woody on drums. He was from Richmond, moved to FL 4-5 years ago. He was back up for the funeral, that same day, of his 25 YO daughter claimed by the opioid epidemic. A completely tragic loss. He came out to get some musical healing, I think he did.

Here's everyone who signed up. The original list got soaked & smeared by the 1/2 pint of Maker's Mark in my gig bag that decided to sacrifice itself to the gods, so I had to recopy it.

From the time Julie appointed me music director I was sweating bullets that it would go well. But it did go well, Julie, the kids, and her family all enjoyed it. We finished with all the musicians, including 4 harp players trading off riffs, on stage, doing "I Shall Be Released". Brent Carter told me he had to put his sunglasses on during the song, because he was tearing up. I saw Julie singing along, and many others.

Another thing at the end that was completely heart-warming was David Harrod giving out 3 harps to young ones there. Haywood was trying to get them all playing in the finale.


Here's what I posted to Steve's Tribute Wall.

I met Steve 10 years ago playing out at blues jams. He and I started playing in a duo around 3 years ago. My concept of our collaboration was: I would play guitar and sing and keep the songs going so Steve could play beautiful blues harp over them. He could find a beautiful harp part for pretty much anything. Everybody at the jams loved Steve; he was very encouraging to the less experienced players and was happy to act as a mentor - although he was surprised when they actually used the things he taught them. He did not have a mean bone in his body. I still several times a day think "I need to ask Steve about that" or "Steve needs to hear this song". I hope he stays with me for a long time - he will be a good influence. My deepest condolences to his family.
I had not thought of this beforehand, it just came out as I was writing it. But I've thought of it several times since then, and discussed it with people. When someone dies, as we all do, we still have them in our minds. I still think several times a day, "I need to ask Steve that" or "I bet Steve likes this song, I can't wait to hear what he does on harp with it." After people like this die, I think we sometimes try to let our recognition of these occurrences time out, because they make us sad when we realize the person is gone.

But, I think I will try to keep Steve alive in my head. He was one of the nicest people I ever met. He didn't have a mean bone in his body. I think he was always a good influence on me, so I will try and keep that influence around.

But NO Ancient Alien Astronauts! Steve loved that show, I finally watched an episode and, no way!

I have a Steve-shaped hole in my life. I can't imagine how big that hole is for Julie & the kids, Jesse & Rose. But I think his presence in our minds will be a positive influence for as long as any of us can remember.


Penultimately, here's 1 final pic of Steve: from the album cover of "Come Round Baby" by The Stella-Vees, 2007, 16 tracks. Steve was joined by Steve Parrish on drums, Jason Lockwood on guitar & vocals. Lindsay Olive told me he played bass on the album, I have no idea who the bass player in the picture is.

I burned 6 copies of the album and took them to the memorial. 5 were taken, yay! Anytime a track from this album comes up on shuffle play out of 20,000 songs in my iTunes, I immediately recognize Steve's harp.


And finally here is the song about Steve that Dr. Kevin Holm-Hudson wrote in 1 day. Dr. Kevin is a regular & star at Twisted Cork, and a prolific songwriter (and a UK music professor and a member of The Twiggenburys). He woke up in the morning with 2 lines about Steve and wrote 5 verses that day. It was very moving, both at Twisted Cork and LexJam.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Music In Is Broken

Well, processing the current Music In has been problematic.

Amazon used to send me weekly music recommendations. That is now monthly, oops! That & word-of-mouth were my main sources of new music.

Trying to get more coming in, I started getting a bandcamp weekly newsletter. This normally has 5 new albums or EPs featured.

I got several of these - alternative rock, indie, with nice melodies and good female lead singers - stuff I am a sucker for.

They are all good, but, the problem is, after 5-10 listens, I can't particularly tell most of them apart. So in this emptying of the pending music in tunes, lots & lots of 3 stars, and very few 4 stars.

Is this a function of my aging brain struggling to assimilate too much new content? Or maybe the music on bandcamp is just a touch below being catchy, to where it would stick better?

Inquiring minds want to know. Here we go.

  • Van Morrison, "Moondance Expanded - Sessions, Alternates & Outtakes (All Previously Unissued)", 1969, 11 tracks, and "A Night in San Francisco (Live)", 1994, 14 tracks. These were both recommended by my friend and blues harpist Steve Konopka (fuzzy). I enjoyed them more than I expected. The "San Francisco" 1 features other band members singing lead. 1 thing I definitely got out of these is both have versions of "Moondance" with the vocals done in 3-part harmony. That song gets performed fairly often, I'm kind of tired of it, but next time it gets called I may try and sing some harmony with it. 3 stars.
  • The Jayhawks, "Mockingbird Time", 2011, 12 tracks. Starting to work backward through their catalog. Not a bad album, but no standout songs. Somewhat disappointing, should I keep going back? 3 stars.
  • Ra Ra Riot, "Beta Love", 2013, 11 tracks. This is the 4th of their albums I have, probably my least favorite. Nothing particularly catchy. They just put a 5th album out in August, I think I will check it out. 3 stars.
  • Hop Along, "Bark Your Head Off Dog", 2018, 9 tracks. Bandcamp. A Philly indie band that's been around since 2004. Good tunes, good female singer, no standouts. 3 stars.
  • Maria Taylor, "In the Next Life", 2016, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. Taylor has been around for 20 years. Good tunes, a variety of instrumental backing, no standouts. 3 stars.
  • Petal, "Magic Gone", 2018, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. More rockish than the rest. Chanteuse & guitarist Kiley Lotz plus studio musicians. Nice tunes, no standouts. 3 stars.
  • Barrie, "Happy To Be Here", 2019, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. More indie rock, a little better engineered and more dancable. Debut album of what appears to be 5-piece indie band from the Northwest with an alto lead & harmony singers. Finally, 4 stars! Here's "Dark Tropical".

  • Britt, "Kill the Man", 2019, 6 tracks. Bandcamp. A bit more ethereal and conceptual than some of the others. Soprano lead singer. 3 stars.
  • Great Lake Swimmers, "New Wild Everywhere", 2012, 13 tracks. I have enjoyed their tunes when they come up on shuffle play, so I decided to get more. No standouts on this album, 3 stars.
  • David Bowie, "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", 1980, 10 tracks. The song "Ashes to Ashes" came up somewhere and I discovered it was not in my collection. So I bought this album to get it - and of course, it is the only good song on the album. So 4 stars for "Ashes to Ashes", 3 stars for the rest.

  • Tal Wilkenfeld, "Love Remains", 2019, 10 tracks. I of course greatly enjoyed Wilkenfeld's work as the 15 YO Australian immigrant playing bass for Jeff Beck. When I found she had an album singing & playing guitar, I had to check it out. Somewhat interesting blues/rock, but nothing really standout. 3 stars.
  • Mavis Staples, "We Get By", 2019, 11 tracks. Mavis keeps on keepin' on. This album was written and produced by Ben Harper, and it is excellent. I gave it to Steve to pick the tracks he liked best for us to perform. He picked "Brothers and Sisters", and "Change". 4 stars.

  • The National, "I am Easy to Find", 2019, 16 tracks. I think their 1st in a while. I like the baritone lead singer, who is joined by an alto on several songs. 3 stars.
  • Children of Zeus, "Excess Baggage", 2019, 7 tracks. Bandcamp. Some nice electronica/dance for something different. 4 stars. Here's "Vibrations (Short Edit)"

  • Christelle Bofale, "Swim Team", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. Austin TX based singer-songwriter. Nice arrangements. No standouts, 3 stars.
  • Rick Howard, "Lil' Noir", 2019, 10 tracks. Rick is the most excellent guitarist of the most excellent SW Florida band Mudbone, live album blogged here. He is the nephew of Moe Howard of the 3 Stooges (?!?!?), and I take guitar lessons from him, so far working mostly on 1930's standards. Plus, neat new chords! I love that I have been playing guitar for over 50 years and still learn new chords. This album is 10 original jazz tunes, played with a 4 or 5 piece combo. Mudbone blues harp player Jerry Fierro plays on a couple of the tracks and acquits himself well. A very professional effort, 3 stars.
  • Santana, "Africa Speaks", 2019, 11 tracks. Some world music from Carlos, assisted by various African artists. Some great grooves and rhythms. 3 stars.
  • The Appleseed Cast, "The Fleeting Light of Impermance", 2019, 8 tracks. Bandcamp. A bit more abstract than some of the others. Out of Lawrence KS, apparently these guys have been around for 20 years. 3 stars.
  • Market, eponymous, 2019, 4 tracks. Bandcamp. Australians, yay! Just over the catchiness threshold, 4 stars. Here's "Circles"

  • Black Pumas, eponymous, 2019, 10 tracks. Bandcamp. Yay, some good modern R&B! Why isn't there more of this? This is 2 guys out of Austin. 4 stars. Here's "Black Moon Rising".

  • Kate Bollinger, "I Don't Wanna Lose", 2019, 5 tracks. Bandcamp. This indie rock somehow managed to hit my sweet spot. Interesting instrumentals & alto vocals. 4 stars. Here's the oxymoronically titled "Untitled".

  • Morley & Friends, "Borderless Lullabies", 2019, 21 tracks. I'm not sure where this came from. It is a collection of lullabies, by many different artists, in different languages and different styles. I burned a copy for my grandsons, maybe they'll like it to go to sleep by. 3 stars.
  • The Soft Cavalry, eponymous, 2019, 12 tracks. Bandcamp. The debut album of a husband/wife duo. Very well done. Somewhat reminiscent of early Coldplay. 4 stars. Here's the 1st track, "Dive".

Phew, 24 albums! But things have gotten a bit sparse again, the Unrated smart playlist has only 64 songs in it. Guess I need some new acquisitions.

Tuesday, September 03, 2019

Reality - Who Needs It?

Continuing with all sci-fi and fantasy, all the time.

1st up, "The Reefs of Time", Jeffrey A. Carver, 2019, 539 pages, #5 of "The Chaos Chronicle". After a hiatus of 11 years, Carver returns to this series. The 1st 4 books are blogged here. This book is billed as Part 1 of 2 in the "Out of Time sequence", with the 2nd part coming in October. We merge a couple of plot threads, plus the universe of Carver's 2 Starstream novels. The team gets split into 3 groups, 2 rejoin, the big reunion presumably coming in book #6. They continue fighting the hostile AIs bent on wiping out organic life so it will quit wasting resources. This is 1 of those transition books that mostly just sets the table for the grand finale.

Next, "The Expert System's Brother" by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2018, 139 pages. I liked the title. An interesting little novella, a tale of bioengineering humans so they can survive a foreign ecosystem. One of the plot elements I found somewhat unbelievable.

Next a fantasy, "Travel Light", by Naomi Mitchison, 1952, 136 pages. I think this was recommended by Tina Eisenberg (@swissmiss) or Maria Popova (@brainpicker). I figured that any fairy tale with Odin All-Father as a character deserved a look. I bought a paperback copy for my 8 YO granddaughter figured I'd read it before sending it on to her. I read about 1/3 of it and then went on and bought the eBook as well - it was what my old eyes wanted. Mitchinson definitely knows how to write a fairy tale - the prose has that numinous quality that makes you feel like an old, old story is being recounted to you. I was a little disappointed when christians were part of the plot as well as norse pagans, but they weren't portrayed very sympathetically. The heroine's adventures make for an interesting story. I have purchased the eBook of what appears to be Mitchinson's most popular work, "The Corn King and the Spring Queen".

Back to sci-fi and another short read, "Phoresis", by old favorite Greg Egan, 2018, 143 pages. Egan again builds an interesting world - and this time without particularly altering the laws of physics! The story moves along well. In what appears to be a definite trend, the characters are all women. The male role in this book is pretty creepy: women all have 1-3 horny little 6" guys in their womb, who fight to get to emerge and impregnate other females?!?!?

Last Tuesday my wife and I both came down with colds, apparently from 2 different sources. So time for rest and fluids. My sophomore year of college I remember getting sick and then spending 4 days in bed rereading "The Lord of the Rings" cover to cover. At the end of that, I couldn't walk through the woods without expecting to see elves, ents, orcs.

So in a similar vein, I decided to reread the Philip Jose Farmer "World of Tiers" series as I recuperated. I had picked up "World of Tiers Volume 1" - "The Maker of Universes" (1965), "The Gates of Creation" (1966), and "A Private Cosmos" (1968) - 820 pages, I think from BookBub for $1.99. I went on and bought "Volume 2" - "Behind the Walls of Terra" (1970), "The Lavalite World" (1977), "Red Orc's Rage" (1991), and "More Than Fire" (1993), 1200 pages.

The 1st 5 I had read before and were as I remembered - rollicking adventures on unusual worlds. Farmer wrote forewords, in a few of which he complains that title changes and edits were made with his being consulted - oops. There were some funny moments in the 1970 novel - Farmer reacted to the counterculture of the time about as you would expect a 52 YO white male to react.

1 thing that surprised me: I really liked the concept of "temporal fugue", I thought introduced by Roger Zelazny in "Creatures of Light and Darkness" (1969). Basically time-travelers getting ready to go mano-a-mano send multiple (1000s) of copies of themselves back through time to the time & place of the big battle. Then it's 1000s vs 1000s. I thought Zelazny had invented this, but there are time-traveling creatures who basically do this in the 2nd Tiers book, which came out in 1966. So Farmer was 3 years ahead of Zelazny.

The 6th book "Red Orc's Rage" is kind of weird. Apparently some psychiatrist came up with a therapy based on having the patient read the 5 World of Tiers books and then becoming 1 of the characters?!?!? Apparently this is a form of projective psychotherapy. The 6th book is about a teenager undergoing this therapy - but it fills in a lot of Red Orc's back story that gets used in the 7th book.

By the time I got to the 7th book, I was definitely ready for it to be over. Also somewhat annoyingly, the main character of the 1st 2 novels, the lord Jadawin / Robert Wolff, and his girlfriend Chryseis (of The Iliad) are left in limbo - missing for the last several books, still missing at the end.

On to the magazine stack. Then probably more of the same. I don't know if I'll be ready for reality until Agent Orange leaves office.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Progressive {$everything}

This past Friday we drove from Lexington KY to Durham NC via the West Virginia Turnpike. What had been 3x$3 tolls was now 3x$4 tolls. This disappointed me, as tolls are a regressive tax - one that affects poor people much more than rich people. In the US, since 1913 the progressive income tax has been 1 of the only things countering the natural tendency of capitalism to produce runaway inequality.

A natural next step is a progressive wealth tax. aka capital or Piketty tax. That is why proposals like the Green New Deal include such a tax.

Further afield, I have recently been thinking about promoting (voluntary) progressive tipping. My wife & I got to visit France 6 years ago and both liked the "no tipping" of servers in France. Pay the people a living wage, what a concept!

Meanwhile, back in the United States of Capitalism, even though trickle-down economics is, per Krugman, a "zombie" economic theory - one that is known to be wrong, but that refuses to die - it still has influenced a lot of the US economic system for many decades. So I try to actually practice it via aggressive tipping: 100-33%, $5 minimum tip. All 3 of my daughters worked as servers (my son was a very good dishwasher), and for every 1 who over-tips, I guarantee there are 5 who under-tip.

A progressive tipping policy might look like:

  • if you're in the 0-50th %tile financially, you tip 15%;
  • 50-60, 20%
  • 60-70, 25%
  • 70-80, 30%
  • 80-90, 40%
  • 90-99, 50-100%
  • .01%'ers, 500%
  • .001%'ers, 1000%
I think this should be a no-brainer for the better-off. But, unless you are in the 0.001%, you probably don't think of yourself as "better-off". Maybe this would be another form of tumbrel insurance for rich folk besides UBI?

Note, someone told me that "tips" stands for "to insure proper service". Whatever. If service isn't great, I don't know what that server is having to deal with, so I support them regardless.
Then I got to thinking, tips are a "cost of goods" - a price. Why not have progressive pricing on everything, on a scale similar to the tipping? The rich are willing to pay big bucks for exclusive/rare/top-shelf products - how about they pay big bucks for everything, and subsidize purchases by the less well off?

Or, maybe even better and easier, expand the really inventive concept put forward by Karl Schroeder in "Stealing Worlds". There Schroeder posits that the emerging dominant cryptocurrency automatically distributes coins from wallets with too much to wallets with too little. This idea reflects one of my mantras: that money is software. How about a cryptocurrency that implements progressive pricing? A progressive cryptocurrency.

What is the range over which this adjustment should run? Why, the range that keeps the world in Kate Raworth's Doughnut, of course! I would guess that the upper limit on income/wealth would be greater than, say, the 9:1 ratio which limits the wages of executives based on the lowest paid workers' wages implemented by the Spanish Mondragon Coop. I suspect we can stay in the doughnut and still have filthy rich people - but maybe not the 182,000:1 wage ratio of Jeff Bezos to a $15/hour worker.

The concept, brought forth by Schroeder, is that, rather than trying to address inequality with band-aids after the fact, we should build more equality directly into the infrastructure. And while we're at it, this gives us a throttle which we can use to get us and keep us in the doughnut.

Hopefully food for thought. What else could you build into a cryptocurrency?

Monday, August 12, 2019

That Didn't Take Long

So after establishing a reading heuristic, no books with "empire" in the title, I nonetheless decided to read "Empress of Forever", by Max Gladstone, 2019, 655 pages. I liked his Craft Sequence, and this book had great reviews.

Bad behavior rewarded! There was 0 feudalism, just an insanely powerful Empress of the Galaxy, who got her job by taking control of The Cloud on earth - which expanded to be The Galactic Cloud - at a very early stage ?!?!?

Very engaging writing, a memorable fellowship established to fight the Empress, including a character who is gray goo. A very good read. Note, the fast majority of characters are female, & I think all the romantic relationships in the book are female-female. A lot of this lately in sci-fi. Male geeks aren't offended, & females are empowered, FTW!

Next up, non-fiction?!?!? "Rising Tide", by John M. Barry, 1998, 653 pages, subtitled "The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America". It was recommended to me several years ago by Michael Boggs of Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville. It is: a history of flood control theories from 1870 to 1930; the story of the 1927 Mississippi flood which put 1000s of miles^2 underwater; and the tragic tale of LeRoy Percy, friend of Teddy Roosevelt, boss man of Greenville MI, in the heart of Mississippi delta.

Very informative. I sometimes find it hard to read historical stuff when the real people being followed are total assholes. The main lesson from the book: aristocratic/oligarchic noblesse oblige will fall by the wayside when greed/capitalism dictate. Percy was very progressive in his treatment of blacks - but because economically, he needed their cheap labor. He kicked the klan out in the 1920s as his father had kicked them out after the civil war.

But when it was time for the blacks to be taken off the levy and to safety in the worst of the flooding, Percy undermined his son's decision to evacuate the blacks along with the whites because he was afraid the labor would not return. His son, the county disaster manager, reacted badly to his father's betrayal and his relationship with the now imprisoned blacks became increasingly bad, and a national scandal. Oof!

#3, "This Is How You Lose the Time War", by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, 2019, 136 pages. I enjoyed the other Max Gladstone a lot. This one not so much. I like the title, and it has an interesting plot: (female) time warriors/fixers, 1 from the Red civilization - computers, VR, the cybernetic singularity - and 1 from Blue - bioscience, genetic engineering, Avatar (the movie) type sensibilities - battle each other across the ages, trying to change various events to favor their side. They start corresponding, fall in love, etc. Romeo & Juliet I guess. Somehow it just didn't work for me. It was short though.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Plant Trees!

Writing a letter to the editor:
The climate crisis - climate change, global warming, ocean acidification - is the greatest challenge human civilization has ever faced. It is very daunting to address as an individual, particularly when our government is currently doing the completely wrong thing: continuing to subsidize fossil fuels.

Years ago I read that the #1 thing an individual could do to help fight the climate crisis was to buy a more efficient car. We bought our 1st Prius in 2005; my current 2016 Prius gets ~55 mpg driving around Lexington.

Just recently, tho, there was another idea. A July 4 Scientific American article discussed a study which concluded that planting trees everywhere possible could offset "two thirds of all the CO2 humans have generated since the industrial revolution".

Wow! Plant trees! Surely all of us love trees! Plus, planting trees near your house will eventually shade your house and cut down your summer air conditioning bills.

We should all get behind efforts like our own Reforest the Bluegrass and Branching Out programs.

Lexington housing developers are currently doing a great job of infill development; please look at adding as many trees as possible to your developments.

On July 31, I read that Ethiopia set a new record by planting 350 million trees in 1 day. How about we establish a competition, who can plant the most trees?

On bad days, I figure it's too late - greed/capitalism will trump the survival of the human race.

But, maybe not! Pitch in, plant some trees!

Chris Heinz
Lexington

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Stealing Worlds

"Stealing Worlds" is the latest by Karl Schroeder, 2019, 311 pages. This is 1 of those books where I'm going "I have been waiting so long for this book." A very near future, with ideas on tech to use to escape from ever-rapacious capitalism, 80-90% of which are or could be in place nowish.

Schroeder has touched on some of these topics in his earlier works (see here for example), but this seemed to pull everything together. The infodump by one of the characters that makes up most of Chapter 14 represents that synthesis.

The only tech he uses that we are still reaching for is AI. But the AIs he described are not particularly ineffable, and may be within reach of big-data based systems.

I liked his concept of distributed autonomous corporations (DACs) - a corporation with no human employees, run completely by an AI. The owner gets all the profits - the very essence of capitalism? I also really liked his concept of a cryptocurrency that automatically redistributes from wallets that are too full to wallets that are empty - gotta love that outside-the-box thinking. And he again talks about thalience.

I really think we should get Schroeder, Cory Doctorow, & Kim Stanley Robinson together to design the future for us - the Green New Deal writ large. Can we get to a post-capitalist, post-scarcity utopia before the out-of-control paperclip-optimizing AI aka capitalism finishes turning the entire world into paperclips capital?

Friday, July 05, 2019

4 + 2

I think BookBub offered me "The Chaos Chronicles Books 1-3", by Jeffrey A. Carver, for $2.99 or some such. I remembered Carver as being a hard, galactic sci-fi kind of guy a la Gregory Benford or Greg Bear, so I went for it. The 3 novels it contains are "Neptune Crossing", 1994, 582 pages; "Strange Attractors", 1995, 352 pages; and "The Infinite Sea", 1996, 379 pages. These were fun, comic-bookish stories. An alien artifact on Triton implants an earthing with high-tech translator stones. He saves the earth, and then moves on to other galactic adventures with other translator stone holders. It kind of reminded me of Green Lanterns (DC comic). There is lots of action. The 2nd book does a good job of keeping us wondering, will the earthling hook up with the female 4-breasted humanoid empath stone holder? I did like that the main power of the translator stones was to ... translate, enabling communication with several other alien species.

I enjoyed these enough that I bought the 4th novel of the series, "Sunborn", 2011, 478 pages. Another cosmic story. Ha ha, in this one, at one point, our earthling tells 1 of the 2 smart ass robots that are part of the company, "Lead on, kemosabe." I'm immediately going, wow, is that a temporal tell, or what? And sure enough, Carver was born in 1949, so he's 2 years older than me. Ha ha, I wonder what is the youngest person who would get the reference? I queried my son born in 1976. He knew it had to do with the Lone Ranger & Tonto, but not sure exactly what. I queried my youngest daughter born in 1983. She replied with the image below, so I guess she got the reference. But I bet a 20-something would have no clue.

A 5th novel in the series is due out later this year.

I had 2 Karl Schroeder novels on my iPad, plus a Neal Stephenson. Decisions, decisions. I went with the older of the Schroeder novels, "The Million", 2018, 192 pages. I'm guessing this was actually a novella. It is set in the same universe as his "Lockstep". This is a really interesting concept - that in the absence of FTL travel, the way you could have an interstellar civilization is by slowing time way down by having entire worlds hibernate most of the time - except for The Million, who are the real-time caretakers. The novella is an interesting exploration of the ramifications of the concept, with action, plucky characters, etc. As the characters are mostly young adults, I'm guessing this is a YA story.

Then, on to the Stephenson: "Fall; or, Dodge in Hell: A Novel", 2019, 892 pages. Well, it was great to see Stephenson give props to "'D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths" and "D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths". These are family favorites - I have already bought all my grandchildren copies.

But, I was a little sad that the 1st person uploaded posthumously into quantum computers builds a world strongly along the lines of genesis. It was interesting as time passes and many of the books real-world characters get uploaded and now take part in the drama in Bitworld - culiminating in a Tolkienesque quest. But I kind of agree with the story's antagonist, El (Elohim), that they maybe could have done a lot better than creating a very medieval flavored world.

There wasn't as much snappy dialog and turns of phrase as is usual for Stephenson. So, an enjoyable, sprawling read, but maybe Stephenson is showing his age slightly.