The Sandwich Life

a summer song....

man....I've never particularly been a fan of Kid Rock but I LOVE this song....  Do I wish the girls didn't all look like strippers?  Well, yeah but you know what?  It sounds great anyway....

Whiskey, Tequila and Beer, oh my!

No, that's not what I drank but it is the chorus to a Dale Watson song called Honky Tonk Wizard of Oz.  Yup....Dale Watson last night at the Rose Bowl in Urbana. It's been many a night since I had quite so many of these: 

Yes, that's a champagne flute and a little bottle of Gallo wine----that's what you get when you order a glass of chardonnay at the Rose Bowl.  I like to drink wine but I don't particularly care for drinking TOO much wine and luckily I have this little switch that tells me when I should stop and it generally works quite well when I'm at home or in a bar or restaurant......unless there is live music that I'm enjoying....and then all bets are off.

Had a good weekend.  We took my mother out to lunch yesterday.  We haven't been to Fries and Peanuts with her alone since Dad died and it did make me a little sad that we fit at a smaller table now.  And I missed him playing pool with the boys....but it was a nice time despite that and then afterward we went over to West Side Park and enjoyed the sun and watching the boys race around on their bikes. Oh and by the way....we got over to my mom's house early to do shopping, etc.  I asked Ernie to look in their basement for something I wanted to borrow.  A few minutes later he popped up out of the basement rather more emphatically than usual and  closed the door quite firmly....  A possum is living in their basement.  Geesh...one more thing to take care of....

Leo with a friend from school. They look so grown UP....sigh.

 

Anyway......after bringing my  mother home I came back and took a nap.  Yes, I am becoming quite the devotee of naps.  I woke up and wondered if I really wanted to go out but then the doorbell rang and the babysitter was there.  Whoops.....guess I'm going....  

I'm glad I did as Dale Watson was great....the Rose Bowl is a wonderful place to see shows.....

Nice jacket, huh?

Ernie needing a shave and hunching down to get to Dale's height.  Dale had had quite a few drinks himself and somehow managed to kiss my hand.  I'm really not the hand kissing kind of girl but if he thought so that's fine by me:

There's more to write but that's all I have time for now....

Random Notes from the Sandwich Life

1.  The other day in a fit of rage Owen yelled at his father, "Dad, you, you SAVAGE FOOL."  Huh.

2.  The frigging Japanese beetles are destroying my Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate plant.  Damn them.

3.  I made a bad dinner from good ingredients last night.  Made a wonderful sort of corn salsa/salad of corn, poblano peppers, garlic and great tomatoes.  Unfortunately put it over some salmon that just  tasted bad.  Not bad like gone bad, make you sick....just bad.  First I thought maybe it wasn't cooked enough although I tend to like fish more towards underdone than overdone.  Cooked it some more and it still just tasted funky.  Threw it and my beautiful corn salsa in the trash.  I made do with curried popcorn...Ernie made do with nothing.

4.  It looks like Ripe Persimmons is winning.  I must defend poor Indiana Clay though----the color isn't true on my computer anyway.  I really like Indiana Clay at night but during the day it's got too much pink in it.  At night I love it but I think we're going with Ripe Persimmons.....or dreamsicle.....

5.  I'm embarrassed to say that I never knew that the Joan Jett song I Love Rock N  Roll was a cover.  I have discovered a new favorite pop band though....the Arrows....DO watch this video....oh, and from an Arrows website:

Some little known facts about Jake Hooker (the guitarist for the Arrows)--As a manager, in 1979 Jake got Hilly Michaels a million dollar deal with Warner Brothers records, and he orchestrated the deal for the first big budget MTV style video to promote Hilly's single "Calling All Girls". It was a landmark, breakthrough video in the industry.

Monday, Monday

1.  Wonderfully relaxing picnic at Meadowbrook Park the other day.....  Owen hurt his hand on the monkey bars and not only did Dick have a band-aid in his wallet but later, when that one gave up,  Sasha actually pulled out a first aid kit in a tiny little Whitman's sampler tin.  Is that the cutest thing you've ever seen? My how times change.

2.  More vandalism in the garden at work this morning.  Sigh.

3.  Leo and Owen are both a bit sick today.  Owen has had a bit of a cold and is all stuffed up----I'm trying to convince myself that's why he's been so foul lately.  Leo now has a fever and a bit of a cold. Damn it all.  Kids aren't supposed to be sick in July!  And I'm supposed to have one of my best friends----Gisela---over tomorrow.....we'll see.

4.  O.K.....we just watched Nashville Star---the longest two hours on television but given how tired I was from both Owen AND Leo trying to sleep with us last night it was perfect.  They kept picking on performers/contestants for not being country enough....so why didn't they PICK country contestants???

5. Last time we saw Kane Welch Kaplin Kevin mentioned onstage (before they did David Olney/John Hadley'sPostcards from Mexico) that David Olney was touring with Sergio Webb and when they did this song Sergio used a megaphone....here it is at long last.  I  gotta admit that I love Kane Welch Kaplin's version of it but this pretty much kills me too. I don't understand what's going on with me and David Olney....it seems everytime he plays close by I'm unavailable.  One time several years ago he played in Chicago the day we were doing the Ann Arbor Antiques Market and then played Ann Arbor the day after we left.  He played a day or two after we saw KWK this spring but we couldn't get up there/stay up there after having seen them.  NOW after obsessively looking at his touring schedule  I found that he's going to be in PORTLAND, MAINE the DAY after we leave.  WTF???  Geesh..  One day David Olney...I just KNOW it....

6.  O.K.....I know nobody watches these clips I put on but they make me damn happy. I watched pretty much this whole video the other night before realizing it was Billy Bob Thornton....sometimes I'm clueless.....  Anyway, I kinda like what I've heard...it's all covers but for God's sake they do a MOTT THE HOOPLE song....(not this one mind you).....

7.  O.K....so I listened to the Vertebrats thing on WGN but I must admit that I'd had a couple of glasses of wine and Ernie'd had a whiskey or two (hence him actually calling in) but anyway that night I had all sorts of odd dreams (as I do most nights.....) and the next morning I thought to myself, "did Kenny actually say they were considering another reunion next summer?" and then I told myself that no....that must have been part of one of my dreams.  I considered emailing him about it but I feared that he would respond, "Cynthia...how much wine DID you have?" so I didn't do it.  Now that I can listen to the whole thing again however I realized tha the DID say that and it wasn't a wishful dream.....  What freaks me out is thinking that I imagine that would be their 30th anniversary.... Woo-hooooooooo!!!1

8. O.K....I guess I'm off to bed....

and then again...

I was searching for a youtube clip of Pere Ubu's Non-alignment Pact....one of my favorite songs.  Couldn't find one and landed on this instead.  Very different but it gets me in the same place in my chest oddly enough. It's a Kieran Kane song off the album he and Kevin Welch did in Australia a number of years ago. I gather the images were put together by Howie Klein of Crooks and Liars and Down with Tyranny.

I'll warn you....if you're feeling down this can make you cry.

A song for Dad and me

There was a little storage/work area off the back of my parents' old house.  It was my father's domain,,,,he would putter around in there wearing his khaki colored work pants.  I don't think I ever saw my father in a pair of jeans.  When we got a 'new' stereo he put the old record player in there.  I can still smell the slightly musty smell in there and see the old fold out phonograph...

The other night Ernie was playing various cds in the kitchen while he was getting ready to put something on the grill.  I walked in the room just as he put this one on, saying "this is for you Cynthia" and I promptly burst into tears.  My father loved this song and I can still hear it echoing from the storage room....

Ricky Gervais and I BOTH looked different in 1984

T-ball, Pounding Hearts and Pop Songs

After work I went to Owen's first t-ball game and smirked myself silly.  I have rarely been so continually entertained for a solid hour.  Now if it had gone much longer it might have worn off but honest to god it was amusing.  We've got to figure out how to have Owen not play so hard all day on his t-ball days as yesterday he was damn tired by the time he got there....little yawns through the whole thing and his running was a somewhat sleepy lope for him.  He was incredibly happy throughout though.

He's bursting through all his clothes....he looked as though he could have eaten some of the other kids for a snack. I swear I'm going shopping this weekend. I had innocently figured that having two boys two years apart would give me hand-me-downs for the younger one.  Ha.

Leo chose to hang out at Grandma's house.  I don't mind as I think it's nice for them so have some time one on one. 

Just talked to my mother and she didn't sound so hot...she woke in the night with a pounding heart. Hmmmm.  I am taking her to see her doctor tomorrow so I guess if she seems o.k. we'll wait until then.

sigh.

Well, since I'm in popster kind of mood here's some more Phil Seymour---this time looking much cooler while playing drums for Dwight Twilley.  Notice a skinny little Tom Petty back there playing as well.  Ahhhhh......sweet babyfaced popsters....

A Little Pop for a Summer Day....

 

Oh man I loved that first Phil Seymour album.  A couple of amazingly bad videos....particularly Let Her Dance but good to hear...especially on a summer day....

You guys KNOW how happy the Vertebrats make me....

Woo-hoooooo.  I LOVE having a Vertebrats alert!   This news came via Matt's Vertebrats blog.....

On Sunday, June 8 the next official installment of the radio version of the 'Secret History of Chicago Music' will air at 11 p.m. central time on WGN-720 a.m. on the Nick Digilio show.  The segment will feature....THE VERTEBRATS!.  This week's strip will be in the Reader....you can catch the webcast/stream deal at http://wgnradio.com/listen/index.htm and strips are archived online at http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/secrethistory.

Guess I'll have to stay up 'late' huh?  When I was in high school my mother and I had a deal that whomever got up first could pick the radio station.  I of course would always pick WLS....she would pick WGN.  There are times that I just can't believe that I now sometimes listen to WGN....I mean, it's for grownups, right?  Times change.....huh?  Or then again, maybe not.....

 
Is that OUR Annette that is thanked?

oh.....and I must say I don't know if the picture of Roy does him justice.....sorry Roy.....we know better....