Harps

Favorite Music of 2011

2011-12-17T16:42:00.000-08:00

Favorite new music 2011, in no particular order:

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings – Kings and Queens
The Black Lillies – 100 Miles of Wreckage
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Here We Rest
Wilco – The Whole Love
Lucinda Williams - Blessed
The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow
Kenny Vaugh – V
Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
Dale Ann Bradley – Somewhere South of Crazy
The Decembrists’ – The King is Dead
My Morning Jacket – Circuital
Middle Brother – Middle Brother
Owen Temple – Mountain Home
Dawes – Nothing is Wrong
Ryan Adams – Ashes and Fire
Nick Moss - Here I Am
The V-Roys - Sooner or Later

Ranking them would be a difficult and pointless task but do have to say that Blackie and the Rodeo Kings spent more time on my iPod than anything else. The album by the long-time Canadian roots band featured strong female guest accompanists like Lucinda Williams and Emmy Lou Harris, and I was especially taken with Serena Ryder on "Black Sheep".

And The V-Roys make the list as a late entry. The music on "Sooner or Later" is a rerelease of a couple of albums put out in the late 90s' by this regionally loved Knoxville TN band that broke up in 2000. I heard them do a reunion performance on Music City Roots this fall and realized they were an Alt Country original and understood why they were so popular in the Americana, country, bluegrass stronghold of Eastern TN, Asheville NC and western VA.

How to Stay Married

2010-09-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

“Do I look fat in this?”
“No, you look fantastic”
“Right answer”
“What, you mean the truth?”
“That’s even better”

Kind of a reversal of deny, deny, deny.

Jamey Johnson "The Guitar Song"

2010-09-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

The songs on Jamey Johnson’s “The Guitar Song” are so textured and well-written that I’ll be listening to them over and over for a while.

Its a wonderful collection of music for so many reasons. One in particular, the songs don’t end where you think they should, there’s some little riff or noise or laughing/talking at the very end (Hawaii 5-0 violin riff at end of “By the Seat of Your Pants”).

Music Summer of 2010

2010-08-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Can’t resist listing and commenting on some of my favorite new music this summer:

1) “Messenger” by Joe Pug – can listen to this again and again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14VInJLnTU
2) “Texas” by Sons of Bill – excellent country rocker; excited and hopeful for the growth of this VA band. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NafltOGRfJY
3) “Mano Negra” by The Famous – hard to pick one song off awesome new CD (July 2010) “Come Home to Me” bc they’re all good but I’m going with this one. Missed this SF band by a night when I was in the bay area a couple of months ago. (bummer) http://www.thefamous.net/
4) “Yes to Booty” (And No to Beer) Elizabeth Cook – classic country theme with modern vernacular
5) “El Camino” Elizabeth Cook – Ms. Cook gives me hope for the future of country music when I hear this fine song with lines like “and if I wake up married I’ll have to annul it, and right now my hands are in his mullet” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKZkM437TiY
6) All songs from The Fox Hunt’s “Long Way to Go” CD – Great sounding (what’s wrong with that) and compelling rock/bluegrass/country. Eagles when they did not suck meets bluegrass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4uRCdSmWFY&feature=related

What it means to be a Man!

2010-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

Watched a movie about the Crips and the Bloods, LA Gangs, tonight. Alot of talk about what it means to be a man. And much of it came from youths that did not have fathers in their lives. Like many young men, both poor and even middle class, in the south suburbs of Chicago. So very thankful that my Father gave me so many lessons in being a real man, not having kids, or committing violence, but in particular caring for someone at much personal sacrifice. And not doing it for any other reason than there was no other way to deal with the situation. Thanks Dad, for showing me what it means to be a real man, and so many other things. Love you and miss you and Mom so much.

Country Songs about Jesus

2009-12-06T06:51:00.000-08:00

Top Country Songs about Jesus:

"She Left Me for Jesus" – Hayes Carll (satirical people, satirical! Strong faith doesn’t mean you cant laugh)
"I Found Jesus on the Jailhouse Floor" – George (set me) Strait (good old country twanger and also inspirational)
"If I Was Jesus" – Toby Keith. Altho some his songs are a little too right wing for me,TK's phrasings are excellent, Country's Sinatra
"Getting High for Jesus" – Holly GoLightly and the Broke-offs (honestly, not crazy about the song but just love the name of the band)
"Prince of Peace" - Leon Russell
"Roll Away the Stone" - Leon Russell. Some old songs, circa 70s' from the very underrated Leon Russell. Thanks to Owen Temple (another excellent musician) for bringing me back to Leon Russell.

I am a committed Catholic, but ...

2009-08-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

Heard 2 wonderful Nuns talk at Mass this evening about the Sisters of Providence and the great work that they do. Sister Lucy and Sister Mary. Inspiring. So why is the Vatican pointing their boys club laser/microscope on one of the few things that makes me proud to be a Catholic - our wonderful committed Nuns who do such great work at such sacrifice? Like the beautiful and holy Virgin Mary.

Do they want to drive out the few remaining Nuns and make it a complete Male cluster-f..., er mess-up. So many bigger problems in the Catholic Church that need to be addresed and this is what Pope Benedict and the questionable Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith are up to. Really? Come on?

What keeps me going is that at my church I know I am part of a wonderful faith community that puts up with all the Archdiosece and Vatican bullshit and archaic rules and still makes me feel closer to grace.

When I take communion at Mass every week I know in my heart I am part of something bigger and far more important than Cardinal George and/or Pope Benedict and the very concerning Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I just hope I am worthy of the Late Cardinal Bernadin, and all of our Saints and Martys, many of whom were Nuns (and women) that understood far better than me what Christ's words really mean.

2009-08-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

I am going to do two 100 mile bike rides in September (North Shore Century and Apple Cider Century) on behalf of the SmileTrain, an outstanding organization that provides cleft lip and palate surgeries for children in need. Please sponsor me. More details at the following website:

http://www.smiletrain.org/site/TR/Events/General?pg=fund&fr_id=1040&pxfid=3940.

People are always amazed that my son Charlie was born with a cleft lip and palate because he is such a handsome (and in my unbiased opinion, also a wonderful) young adult. Charlie, and our entire family, benefitted from the fantastic doctors at the Rush Hospital Craniofacial Center, particularly Drs. John Curtin, John Polley and Alvaro Figueroa.

Our whole family is grateful that Charlie (pictured above with his sisters) was able to get the medical help he needed, but also saddened that so many children with cleft lips and palates do not. That is why I am riding to support The SmileTrain.

Help me and needy children by sponsoring me on my September bike rides.

2009-08-06T04:22:00.000-07:00

The Tour de France ended over two weeks ago and I am still going through withdrawals. The 09 Tour was an awesome sporting event with following highlights:
· Contadour was amazing (too amazing?)
· Cavendish, the Manx Missile -Cav and Team Columbia were the stars of the 09 TdF
· The Contadour – Lance rivarly (09 just a start, 2010 TdF gonna be a grudge match)
· Nicki Sorensen bringing home a stage win for bike-crazy country of Denmark (Grandmother whom I never met and my mom barely knew (GM died when Mom was a baby) was born in Denmark; makes Danish my main ethnicity)
· Great Tour for France (a country I used to dislike but now thoroughly admire (when you’re right, you’re right (ie, Iraq, food, wine)) with wonderful stage wins, ie, the gritty Thomas Voelkler and young Brice Feillul
· George Hincapie (Team Columbia) getting screwed out of yellow by Garmin (Garmin – Columbia up there with OSU-Michigan as far as rivalries) and Astana (yup, still blame Astana, pulled too hard and too long at the lead).
· Phil and Paul – best sports announcers there are, ‘nuff said
· Paul Sherwin’s daily African proverbs (ie, “A roaring lion catches no prey”)
· Fabian Cancellara took prologue and was in yellow for a couple of days. Fabby and Roger Federer (Wimbeldon champ) gave Switzerland a brief domination of world sports and Fabby got my wife and daughters interested in the TdF (apparently they consider him a “hottie”).

Our vacation coincided with the 2nd week of the Tour which, since the vaca consisted of biking, beach and hanging out at a nice condo, worked out very well. Except the condo’s cable did not get Versus (premium channel?). Fortunately I figured out the Versus stream, which was not really intuitive (poorly constructed site by Versus this year) and watched some great stages in a streaming mode.

I biked in the morning, generally got home in time to watch some of the TdF and then posted about the TdF stage and read some biking friend’s posts on fb (fb definitely improved the TdF experience for me and certainly bewildered most of my nonbiking fb friends).

Cannot wait for 2010, in the meantime the Spanish Vuelta and Tours of Ireland and Missouri will have to do.

Tour de France TTT Daydreams

2009-07-07T18:32:00.000-07:00

7/7/09 AP

Tour de France upset – Plank Road Cyclery Wed PM Bike Group takes team time trial, shocks Astana, SaxoBank. Jim Harper in yellow, Armstrong, Contador, others concede with over 2 weeks left…, oops, sorry, guess one of daydreams found its way into this blog.

Very Excited about the Upcoming Tour de France

2009-06-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

Tour de France – so many questions, Armstrong’s comeback, 2 defending champs (Contadora and Sastre), can Levi Leipheimer and Christian VandeVelde (Chicago’s own, CVdV’s kid was baptized by my friend, Father Larry) rebound, Menchov is hot, the Schleck brothers, Cadell Evans runner-up last 2 years? Biggest question tho – can I get the Ridgewood Tap, total blue collar dive bar, to put the TDF on one of their TVs?

I am an avid biker but I started watching, and loving, the Tour de France, years before I started biking. It was part Lance Armstrong era (altho he's not my current fav), best announcers in the business - Phil and Paul, it was like taking a 3 week tour of France in my living room each July and the mystery of biking strategy (still not completely comfortable with it) and the team aspect.

Musings on Cub Relief Issues

2009-06-26T17:49:00.000-07:00

Cubs Relief Pitching Situation is a Mess

Of course Carlos Marmol is having a bad year. At the beginning of the year, Lou and Larry Rothschild (HFHS grad), essentially told Marmol that he was not as good as Kevin Gregg when they made Gregg the closer. Turns out Gregg sucks (although he shut down the Sox in the 9th (6/26/09); even a broken clock is right twice a day (or once if digital)). So of course Marmol has to be thinking that if I am not as good as Gregg, and Gregg sucks, then I must really suck. And thus it has turned into a self fulfilling prophesy and what looks to be another mediocre season for our Cubs. Way to go Lou and Larry.

Cubs v White Sox at Harper House

2009-06-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Daughters are huge White Sox fans. OK with me, who needs a lifetime of Cub aggravation.

Joe Crede trade to the Twins brings their loyalty and devotion to the Sox in question - they quit referring to the Twins as the Twinks and recently heard this, “never really hated the Twins, always thought they were plucky”.

Now being asked if there is a cable channel that shows Twins games.

Sentiment that lack of J Crede brought about Sox aesthetic degradation heard from their mother/my spouse and female contingent of Flossmoor Running Club.

Friday Morning Bike Rides

2009-06-20T04:39:00.000-07:00

Try to bike 20-35 mi on Friday mornings before work. Have to get up early, but that's ok because I get up early anyway. Love my Fri AM rides - peaceful, wind is usually nonexistent to calm and the roads are relatively clear of autos. A little tired at work, but you know what - its Friday and I can gut it out.

Route choices:

Old Plank Trail west to Frankfort or to Hickory Creek in Mokena
South - Park Forest to GSU to Monee, sometimes as far as the Monee Reservoir off of Pauling Rd.
Southeast - Park Forest to Steger to Crete via the fantastic Richton and Kings Rds.
Northwest - to Tinley trails through Oak Forest and Palos Heights. Route requires going north on the fantastic Central Ave (newly paved 2 years ago) bw Flossmoor Rd and 167th St.
North through the underrated neighborhoods of the south side of Chicago (West Pullman Park and Roseland)and Riverdale. Scary - not at 6:30 in the morning and on a bike. May not be that scary anyway.

Pic from Friday AM bike ride, Spring 09

2009-06-20T04:30:00.001-07:00

A Chicagoan Gets into His Ethnicity

2009-06-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

Apparently there is some law that in Chicago that you have to make a big deal out of your ethnicity. So after a little thinking, and even less research, here is why I am proud to be Danish:

Danes dominated the Baltic and North Sea late first, early second millenium; that’s right, regularly kicked Sweden’s butt, kept the Germanic tribes in line and used England as a vacation home.
Danes have not allowed Germans to own ocean front land since being occupied in WWII. Forgive some of it, forget none of it, and don’t let ‘em have any of the prime real estate.
Scuttled their navy under German occupation in WWII so ships could not be used by Nazis and got most Danish Jews to Sweden before things got bad.
Respectable intntl table tennis teams. We (yea, I can see how this ethnicity thing is appealing, its fun to say “we” when talking about people you have nothing else in common with) play the Chinese tough, but usually lose.
Other – best form of govmnt (constitutional monarchy), happiest people, 2nd most peaceful country (after Iceland) – source the always 100% impeccably accurate Wikipedia
Other, part 2 - home of Nicki Sorensen, an otherwise average pro cyclist who won stage 12 of the 2009 Tour de France.

So who’s up for a Danish Day Parade? Heard there is an opening in Beverly in the middle of March.