Comfort and Joy? Let’s Hope So…

  So we only have 10 days until Christmas.  This has been my second Christmas season in retail, and I have to say it has not been pleasant at all.  It has been too much take, and more take, and not enough giving.  The seven deadly sins happen every day with most people who come into the store.  I have seen the underbelly of greed,lust,gluttony, and selfishness?  Indeed I have.  Now I am not saying not to buy gifts to give to your loved ones and friends.  Nothing wrong with that,  this is a celebration of the birth of a Savour named Jesus Christ.  But that is what the majority of the sub humans forget about.  We go into debt to buy all the pretty thingys to give to one another, and more than likely we will return, for what?  I have come across a web site that speaks of all this.  It is called,’Advent Conspiracy’.  The concept behind this website and movement is as follows:

[Worship Fully]

It starts with Jesus. It ends with Jesus. This is the holistic approach God had in mind for Christmas. It’s a season where we are called to put down our burdens and lift a song up to our God. It’s a season where love wins, peace reigns, and a king is celebrated with each breath. It’s the party of the year. Entering the story of advent means entering this season with an overwhelming passion to worship Jesus to the fullest.

[Spend Less]

Before you think we’re getting all Scrooge on you, let us explain what we mean. We like gifts. Our kids really like gifts. But consider this: America spends an average of $450 billion a year every Christmas. How often have you spent money on Christmas presents for no other reason than obligation? How many times have you received a gift out of that same obligation? Thanks, but no thanks, right? We’re asking people to consider buying ONE LESS GIFT this Christmas. Just one.  Sounds insignificant, yet many who have taken this small sacrifice have experienced something nothing less than a miracle: They have been more available to celebrate Christ during the advent season.

[Give More]

God’s gift to us was a relationship built on love. So it’s no wonder why we’re drawn to the idea that Christmas should be a time to love our friends and family in the most memorable ways possible. Time is the real gift Christmas offers us, and no matter how hard we look, it can’t be found at the mall. Time to make a gift that turns into the next family heirloom. Time to write mom a letter. Time to take the kids sledding. Time to bake really good cookies and sing really bad Christmas carols. Time to make love visible through relational giving. Sounds a lot better than getting a sweater two sizes too big, right? Need a few ideas?

[Love All]

When Jesus loved, He loved in ways never imagined. Though rich, he became poor to love the poor, the forgotten, the overlooked and the sick. He played to the margins. By spending less at Christmas we have the opportunity to join Him in giving resources to those who need help the most. When Advent Conspiracy first began four churches challenged this simple concept to its congregations. The result raised more than a half million dollars to aid those in need. One less gift. One unbelievable present in the name of Christ.

How can anything so simple, be so hard to do.

Happy Christmas, and may Christ bring you amazing comfort and joy.

Wynton Marsalis-Christmas Jazz Jam

  So this year, I’ve been searching and scouring for any new Christmas records, but so far it’s a fairly lame season.  I know there is a new Sting out there, but come on, in my opinion, Gordon Sumner hasn’t released a good record in years.  My advice to Sting, quit being so serious and make a rock and roll record for crying out loud.  I have previewed a few others, but can’t comment until further listening.  The one I do want to mention and have spent quality time with is a little secret I found at Target the other day.

  As any music geek does, when you go into a store you look for these treasures, and with joy I came across, Wynton Marsalis,’Christmas Jazz Jam’.  Twelve traditional Christmas tunes, but not only Wynton’s twist, but his band’s take on these classics. Wynton gets better and better every time I hear him.  His band is so damn tight that it  sends chills up my spine.  It seems they actually enjoy working and playing together, and you can tell when listening that they are smiling and laughing and carrying on during all this beautiful noise.

  ‘Santa Clause is Coming to Town’.  Yep it is old school, and the band makes the song what it was intended to be, “FUN”!  It’s a kid song, and the band play it in a swing jazz mode, with Wynton stepping down hard on his solo.  Wes (Warmdaddy) Anderson lets loose throughout the song and this record on his alto.  I know now how the man got the moniker, ‘Warmdaddy’. 

  As I have said earlier, this band has brought back the true meaning of swinging the jazz.  They ‘New Orleans it up’, on their take ’ Jingle Bells’, with Reginald Veal,bass, Walter Blanding, tenor sax, and drummer,Herlin Riley, all taking 8 bars, and turning this classic to tap a foot or two too.  And of course you can’t forget Warmdaddy and Marsalis blowing a few worthy notes.  The old Negro spiritual is next, and ’Go Tell It on the Mountain’, has never sounded so good.  The only version that could possibly compete with this would come from the five Blind Boys of Alabama.  The track opens at a breakneck pace with everyone jamming.  It’s church and the band is pulling you inside the doors.  Marsalis adds tuba, Wycliffe Gordon,  and banjo Don Vappie, to the track.  If you don’t know this, both instruments were a huge part of early jazz.  Listen to old Louis Armstrong tracks.  His band the Hot Five had a banjo player!

  Vocalist Roberta Gumbel uses her powerful gifted voice on a few tracks also, to add a bit of female color to the proceedings.

  ‘O Christmas Tree’, has a new look and it feels so new Orleans in the summer time.  This take is the celebration after a New Orleans funeral, done proper.

  The last two tracks, might be my favorites on the record.  Wynton plays a nice muted trumpet for his look at ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’.  It does swing, but it’s also one of romance, tenderness, and sharing a nice fire with a loved one.  ‘Greensleeves’, closes the record with a somber solo trombone, and piano, played so beautifully by Gordon and Dan Nimmer.

  Now be warned.  This is a JAZZ record first, a Christmas record second.  This ain’t your lame Kenny G kind of jazz, so be careful where you tread.  If your liking a Kenny G thing, then this ain’t yer cup of tea.  But if you want the real thing, then grab this record.  It will add to your family rich musical taste and to your holiday time together.

Pops

   It’s a cold and wet Sunday afternoon.  I am basking in yet another win from my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers, and now with a full stomach I am on the couch in the music room, watching a Marx Brothers movie, ‘A Day at the Races’.  I love these movies.  Not so much slap stick comedy, but word comedy, as in dialogue between the actors, and when the brothers Marx made a movie, you really had to pay attention to the dialogue or you would be left behind.    But this bit-o-blog is not really about movies at all.  It is about my Dad.  I called him Dad, my kids called him Grandpa.  The other grandkids and everyone else called him,’Pops’.  That name is a long story that I won’t get into right now.  The whole reason of this writing is the fact that my Dad has been gone for 10 years now.  He passed on October 8^th, 1999.  It doesn’t seem possible that 10 years have gone by so fast.  Dad had been sick for a few years.  He had many types of cancer.  The last time that the doctors found cancer was on the back side of a kidney.  He went into chemo, but if I remember correctly he hated and stopped soon after.  He was dying.

  Now my Dad was the best Dad he could have been.  All of his work was in retail all of his life, and he was very good at what he did.  When he was at home he watched a lot of television and he loved to build model airplanes.  A few times I got to help him, or at least hang out with him.  I get my sense of adventure from my Dad.  He loved to explore.  We would go off and find old abandoned buildings and just walk through them.  Museums were also a favorite place for Dad and I to go visit, or maybe just drive until something or someone caught our eye.  He took me down to Beale Street, in Memphis, Tennessee, back in the early ‘60’s.  Of course during that time period, we were possibly the only white people walking up and down the side walks.  But  his 7 year old son loved the blues and it excited me and that it was part of my heart.  He wanted me to experience the real thing, and this, he thought was as close as we could get.  I still remember the smells, the neon and the music of my heart pumping out of each and every door way we passed.  It was breathtaking.

  Dad didn’t play much with me.  I can only think of a few times that we actually played catch.  He did help me to be a real little boy.  Bought me a BB rifle and taught me how to respect the weapon and shoot it.  He also taught me to work hard at what ever I do, and to do the work properly.  What he taught me more than anything else was integrity, and to be honest. 

  I think I’ve done the best I could do since then. Yep, I’ve fallen.  I’ve screwed up a few times, but I think he would be proud of me.  I am proud of him, that’s for sure.  He raised me the best way he knew how.  And that’s all that counts.

  Well, this is where it all links up.  Dad turned me on to the Marx Brothers, and the Three Stooges.  What more could a son ask for?

  One memory I will always have in the last few days of Dad’s life, is the fact I got to feed him his last solid food.  It was a pleasure to feed him and to watch him eat pancakes, eggs and bacon.  Every bite seemed to me that it was his last one.  The face he made was, well, there no words to describe it really.  Pure joy is the only thing I can come up with.   I also prayed with him.  I had tears running down my face.  We told each other how much we loved each other, and we lay in bed together and just held each other for a while.  Soon after that, he went down hill fast, and was gone within a couple of weeks.   I miss him.  When I see a movie like the one that’s on, or I hear some music I know he would like, I smile.  I look up toward heaven and say thanks Dad.  Thanks for the kind and sturdy heart.  Thanks for love, comedy, and adventure.  I love you.

 

George William Deahl Sr.-1928-1999

once again…Beatlemania 2009!

 

 

 

 

   It is now 11:37PM, on Saturday night.  Only a mere 4 days ago, I awoke and had one thing planned until I had to go to work, and that is possibly scoring the only Beatle box set in town.  I had cased out Best Buy during the weekend and they said, “Yes we will have it, but we are only receiving one”. “Big mistake”, is what I thought back to them, and also told them I would see them early Wednesday morning.  Now to devise the plan.  It was simple really.  Get up to the store by at least 930AM. I was their in the parking lot by 915.   I cased the parking lot every time another car drove up. At one point there quite a few people around my age.  I was frightened.  I decided to get out.  I walked up at the door at 20 minutes until the store opened, and camped out.   I had been saving my money from my side job of mowing yards.  I paid half, and my lovely wife foot the rest of the bill.

   At 5 minutes to the hour the store opened.  I rushed in; ask the clerk where ‘IT’ was.  She showed me and then said,” We only got one”.  I said,”I know”, and grabbed the prized collection.  On my way to the check out I over hear two other customers being told, that the store only got one in, and “That gentleman got it”!  I was trying not to gloat, but I did a bit of that.

    I got it home, but with no time to dive in.  I waited patiently.  Now finally I am hearing it and it is phenomenal!    The best way I can describe it is for years now the compact discs have been wrapped in Saran Wrap.  You could hear the music, but it was covered in something that deadens the sound, made it lifeless.    Now, it’s like your right in the studio.  The vocals are amazingly crisp, the guitars are all out front and Lennon’s is mean, while George’s is ringing like bells one moment and he’s ripping the strings off with his pick, but in a melodic way.  McCartney’s bass is so powerful, harmonious, and it’s not just keeping the beat, but it is now truly a lead instrument that we finally hear for the first time.  And of course we can’t for get Ringo and his drumming.  Some of the greatest, if not the finest fills ever played on skins, and Ringo could hold a beat for a life time, and he does it so well.  The separation of the instruments and the actual stereo sound is truly remarkable.  You can hear everything, as it was intended to be heard as it was recorded.  For me, being the music geek I truly am, love the things that even on LP, (long playing album for those who don’t know), you could barely hear.  The clap tracks, the drumming and the fills, the Hammond B3 that is now brilliant.  The small sounds of guitar and bass, the squeaking of the piano bench at the end of,’ A Day in a Life’.  I know that’s a bit strange, but I love it all. I want to hear those sounds, those notes that the Fabs produced and what George Martin put down on tape.

  And for a limited time, each CD is packaged nicely with photos that I’ve never seen, plus each disc has a bit of added feature, with a computer driven document about each album, with more photos, and dialogue from the studio.  Hey, it’s fun!  This is what the Beatle fan has been waiting for a long time.  If we can’t have the Beatles, we can now have the music, even better than before.  We can live the memories all over again.  We can dream all over again.  All the past comes forward to the present with the releases.  Thank you to John, Paul, George, and Ringo for giving up your life’s for us.  Thank you   for sharing your hearts and spirits with us.  Your spirits still live in each one of us in many different ways.  Heck, years ago I adopted the way George made his,’G’ when he wrote his name.  The Beatles were a big part of my life, and now it is all coming back again.  Thirteen albums, and a load of singles, and 190 some odd songs to bathe in, to turn off our minds, and relax, and possibly float down stream.

SUB-HUMANS, That’s what they are.

  I have now been in a discount retailer for a bit over a year.  Wow, how my heart and mind have changed about how the so called human race , and the way we treat each other and our own self’s.  I think humans dealing with life itself have tried to forget about problems and thought more of themselves and in turn buy, buy , buy!   Anything to forget you know?  We have customers coming in 3-5 times a week, just to see what they can fix their heart with, or their emptiness perhaps.  Being a music geek, I can tell you that I do not go to the stores every day.  I am a avid roadie, riding 50-80 miles a week on a bicycle, but you don’t see me going to the bike shop every day, or even the book store everyday.  I would really get totally bored with it all.   I think humans are missing the whole point about life.  To enjoy and share with everyone, not just think about,”ME”.  Their hearts are empty and need fulfilling.  The only way I know to fill my emptiness is with my Saviour, My Abba in Heaven.  Is there such a thing as Shoppers Anonymous?

  I also think the world has made some humans changed,  transformed them into a sub species of humans.  Almost a animal like species or a human that has been in the deepest, darkest, part of the world and they have no other contact with humans other than their own selves.  Well, they have invaded the store I work in.  I mean come on.  A human named Luis, writing his name on the bathroom wall with his own feces???!!!!  WHAT THA????  I am sorry, but I have never been that bored whilst using the bathroom  and, well you know.  Maybe there were drugs involved or something, I don’t know, but that’s just grazing the surface.

  And it amazes me how a person can be so totally engrossed into shopping and not even see me, (6′5″-220lbs), and run right over me trying to get to something that is obliviously glowing or shooting off sparks or lasers.  And let me tell you about the folks in the scooters, God bless them.  When you see this people on their scooters, get out of the way.  What ever it takes just move, because they will get their way and try to run right over you at 4 MPH.  It’s happen…really!

  What happen to courtesy?  I give supreme customer service.  I am good at it.  But does it really matter?  I have seen people drop clothes and everything else on the floor and walk over it, run over it, or step on it, just to get to the next glowing, shiny piece of merchandise.  TRUE STORE TIME.  Let’s all get into a semi circle and I’ll tell you.  One night a woman in her mid 30’s a regular customer, and a person with money mind you, was trying on blouses over her own clothes  the middle of the department.  After she pulled them off, she was laying them over the racks.  Not hanging them back up, but tossing them over the rack, some falling to the floor.  Now this was about 15-20 minutes before we closed.  I walked over and started picking up her mess and I asked her in a kind way, “Ma’am if you could please pick up after yourself”, and I smiled.  She in turned flip another blouse over the rack and said , “Thar’s your job”!  She then turned and walked away.  Well, I got to tell you, I was a bit miffed, to put it mildly.  I was fuming actually, and I wanted to put my hands around her throat for a few minutes, or at least until she turned blue.  Maybe go out side and key her pretty Range Rover..

  I’ve been wanting to share this for a while, and now that it is off my chest I do feel a bit better, and less murderous.  Would love to have you all share some thoughts.  Oh yes, one more thing, “Thanks for shopping with us”!

this and that

  Les Paul died.  I am sadden.  Les lived to be 94 years old.  If you know anything about guitars and the electric of them, then you know without Les Paul, a lot of rock guitar players might have been lost.  He invented what he christened, ‘the Log’, which was a long plank of wood filled with primitive electronics .  He also developed recording techniques such as multi- track recording, overdubbing, and inventing the 8 track tape recorder.  Without all of these inventions, the Beach Boys and the Beatles would have never sounded this good.  Les Paul in my opinion was a genius.

  09/09/09, will re-invent the Beatles.  Capitol is finally releasing all the Beatles catalog in full digitally remastered glory.  After gazillions sold with no remastering, they finally got it all together.  Now I got to tell you, I’ve heard some of this and it was different.  I heard things, I’ve never heard before. I am impressed, and I can’t wait to get my hands on them.  I am leaning toward the box set of them all, because I can.  I wish Capitol Records would have really made the box sets with both mono and stereo versions on each disc. I do  believe there is plenty of room seeing that most Beatle records were less than 30 minutes each.  But I can’t have everything right?  Oh yes, and of course Beatles Rock Band on the same day.  VH 1 and VH1 Classics have been showing footage of the game as videos, and once again I am blown away.  I don’t own a Rock Band and don’t really want to, but this game would make me go out and throw some cheeder down for this one.  The graphics are very impressive and the artists interperations in some areas make me wish they were all here again, playing and inventing new music for us.

  One more thing.  Cheap Trick will once again be performing in its entirety, Sgt. Peppers Live, starting September 13th and running through the 23rd.  They have done this in the past, and rave reviews have come back each time.  If you can’t hit the Vegas shows, then the next best thing to come is a DVD and CD of the live performance,(more than likely taken from the Hollywood Bowl set from last year), which is set to release on August 25th.  Yea, you better go on line to buy it, if you don’t live in a metro area, because in my case, there more than likely won’t be a record store in town that carries it.

WHERE YA BEEN????

  Well I have been here, just not here.  I have so many ideas floating around my head, and I promise I’ll get them on the blog as soon as I get some free time.    During all this time without an entry to this here blog, I did have a vacation with my lovely wife, going to the hill country of Texas.  What an amazing place.  Beautiful country, great food, tons of picture taking, and fantastic company!   I also completed yet another century ride on my bicycle.  Yes, it was once again for MS, and it felt great completing another 100 miles in a bit over 5 hours.  And we can’t forget work.  That’s going to have to be a whole blog entry in itself.  Discount clothing retail is full of humans that aren’t really human at all.  I call them sub humans, both customers and employees.  But again this will be a entry all to itself soon. 

  Please look forward to a few music reviews, and book reviews, plus,’What I Did on My Vacation’!  It will be excting.  Please come back soon and visit.  I promise I won’t leave you hanging again for so long.

Queen of the Blues, gone but never forgotten

    We have lost a national treasure, and most people have never heard of her.  The great,Koko Taylor passed on June 3rd in her hometown of Chicago.  It was a result of complications from surgery on May 19th.  She was 80 years old.

  Koko was known world wide as the,”Queen of the Blues”.  She won 29 Blues Music Awards in her career. She also won the NEA, National Heritage Fellowship Award, which is among the highest honors to an American artist.  Koko, was indeed a blues singer.  If Janis Joplin were alive today, she would have been bowing down to this woman.  Koko could sing a lot of men blues singers under the table.  She was not shy about the blues, and you could hear her pains and sufferings in her voice.  The first time I saw her live, the power behind this timy woman actually sent chills up my spine, and in some ways scared me, and even excited me!   The girl could sing, my gosh could she sing. 

  Her big hit and what became her signature song, was the Willie Dixon pinned, ‘Wang Dang Doodle’, which was first recorded in 1965, at the infamous Chess studios.  She had several singles on the label, but of course being black and singing the blues didn’t do much for the singer, besides black and English audiences.  Koko found her home finally in 1975 at the great Alligator Records.  She made nice albums with Alligator, the last in 2007, titled,’Old School’, which won her one of her 7 Grammy nominations.

  She was born on a sharecropper’s farm outside Memphis,TN, in 1928, as Cora Walton.  The name Koko, came from her love of chocolate.  She began belting out blues, (and belting is a weak word to use, but I can’t think of anything stronger), with her brothers and sisters.  She grew up listening to DJ’s, BB King and Rufus ‘walking the dog’ Thomas on WDIA radio in downtown Memphis, and fell in love with real R&B and the blues.

  She moved with her soon to be husband to Chicago in 1952, and she cleaned houses during the day and sang the blues at night.  She took her music from the tine clubs on the South side of Chicago to major festivals in the states, and then to the world.  The great true ’Queen of the Blues’, will be missed. 

Selections

Koko Taylor-MCA Cheess

THe Earthshaker

Queen of the Blues

Live from Chicago

Force of Nature

Old School-all from Alligator Records

lonely in the metroplex

   I woke up yesterday morning at 3AM, I have no idea why.  My flight was at 6AM, again I ask myself why.  My meeting I was to attend wasn’t until 9AM on Wednesday morning.  So I sit and wait for the co worker coming in on a later flight.  But it did give me ample time to people watch, one of my favorite pastimes.  People are interesting, and I saw plenty at DFW yesterday morning while drinking my Dunkin Donut coffee and the first Dunkin Donut I’ve had in years,(I kept the paper it was wrapped up in, that’s for breakfast this morning).

  It’s now 6AM, Wednesday and I am in a hotel lobby just south of the airport in beautiful downtown Dallas, Texas.  What a complete bore.  Since I walk down to hunt down a cup of coffee, I have come in contact with two humans.  Interesting point to make considering the millions that live in this town.  And they both spoke to me, which was a surprise.  Hold up, one more human just walked by, how cool is that?

  I miss my wife.  I miss her bad this morning.  I missed her yesterday.  I miss my kids, (one at home, one married).  I don’t like to travel as much as I use to.  I done a lot of that in the past.  It’s good to see other places.  But come on, Dallas?  Give me a break.  Dallas just ain’t what it use to be.  I don’t mind coming in for a good show or to see family, but this place is to stoopid crazy.  Too many angry people so far, or worse yet, pushy people.  Maybe that’s what is wrong with the world.  We’re all in a hurry to get no where fast.  And why do we have to be so bossy and pushy?  That’s why the world is the way it is.  That’s why there is no peace in peoples hearts anymore.  Something to ponder don’t you think?

 Say good morning to some one today, hopefully a complete stranger.  Smile at people for crying out loud.  Stop frowning, and stop being so pushy to get no where you really don’t want to be in the first place.

 

Peace and Grace upon you

the “sacred store” is no longer

  So what is a guy like me to do, when I am looking forward to a music release that I know the so called music stores,(and I use that term very lightly), won’t have it, and in some cases never heard of it? Last Sunday, I was rummaging through the ads and circulars in the newspaper and came across the Best Buy ad.  Now being a record geek, I naturally look at any music releases.  I saw an artist whom I fell in love with a couple of years ago named Melody Gardot.  She is 23 and has a 50 year old heart and voice and spirit.  I thought to my self, “Wow, Best Buy is advertising this?  I think I go in Tuesday and purchase it, just because I was proud of the chain supporting new and upcoming artist. “   

  Well, Tuesday rolled around and I went in expecting to pick up this new release.  But I was disappointed.  Now, I got to go back to last year to connect this whole episode.   Now last year in the summer for 4-5 consecutive Tuesday’s I went into Best Buy and was ready to lay down hard earn money for new records that most other stores would not even think of carrying.  Two titles come to mind, one being Todd Rundgren, the other the latest Pretenders.  I go in on different days, and damn, if they don’t have these titles.  I say, “Check your computer”. They do.  Three units in store, but no one can find it.  Now this stuff goes on, like I said for four to five weeks and finally I had to let them know. 

  I think it might have been the Pretenders.  They couldn’t find it.  I kind of blew up at the kid, who more than likely had no idea who the Pretenders were anyway.  After this happened I ask for the store manager and told her what had been going on.  No sympanthy for me at all.  She did say she was sorry, and that there new inventory systems must not all be up and running.  RIGHT? 

  Now, it’s coming up on a year and guess what?  The dang inventory control is still out of whack?!!!  I don’t think so.  Now I thought for a moment, all of these titles, (expect Rundgren), were in Best Buy Sunday ads.  So why on Tuesday are they not stocking a circular ad title?  Damn if I know, but I am done with Best Buy and buying my music.  I’ll wait a couple of days and order on line at Amazon.  I can hear some of it too on line, heck you can’t hear anything decent in the stores anymore.  

  My beloved record store is dead.  I’m not talking Best Buy.  I’m talking the real record stores; they are all gone, at least around the big yellow.  Don McLean called the record store, “the sacred store”, in his hit, ‘American Pie’.  The sacred stores are few and far between now, only sweet memories.   

 

my thanks to the grammer nazi for correction