verse chorus

A little music and book talk to open the day. As so often happens with me, I end up rolling down the highway with a little nugget that piqued my interest. I remember reading Bill Gates’s book a number of years ago and ending up with a copy of Solo Faces by James Salter and a mountain climbing anthology; one of which had been brought up by Gates. From there I ended up reading some Jon Krakauer articles and eventually all his books – now I’m waiting on release of the movie Into the Wild (directed by Sean Penn) which is based on one of his second book. This chain-of-events has been going on for something like twelve years.

This week’s entry ramp was a link to a song/video by Brent Best (Slobberbone, Drams) that appears on a tribute CD of sorts. The project drew together a group of musicians, primarily from Mississippi , who wrote songs either based on or directly from the writings of author Larry Brown. I knew nothing of Brown. He died in 2004 and had been a great friend with a bevy of great musicians…and apparently a very good writer. I don’t have the full story on all the songs – I’ll download them tonight – and I haven’t yet read his work. I’m off to the library tonight to grab one of his novels and a collection of his other stories. I’m always amazed at how we fall in line with artists (authors, musicians, etc.) whose work we enjoy. If Brent Best is writing a song for a tribute project than the subject of said tribute is clearly going to be someone I dig. I’ll let you know the results. The song and video, titled Robert Cole, is a cracker.

As The Eleven sat chatting around the dinner table the other night I confessed my absolute lack of house plant knowledge. The point of this mea culpa was to clarify my inability to actually take care of everyone’s houseplants while they cavort in New England every summer. I generally get directions that I might understand and then pretty much water all the plants when the dirt gets dry: that’s my entire skill set, dry dirt = water. X, playing the role of my confessor, tried to appease my angst by passing along tips that included how fast the water flows through the pot, how clay pots allow more water to escape but ceramic pots hold water, the well known fact that it’s almost impossible to kill a spider plant, and myriad other plant and/or garden-based trivia. When she finished I pointed out that this flood of information hit my brain the same way it would hit her mind if I suddenly began describing the Nebraska football counter trey play. It’s not that either of us can’t comprehend either subject – it’s just that neither of us care. I did learn that mushrooms growing in a plant pot isn’t really a good sign.

A woman being interviewed on NPR just used one of my most despised words: redouble. It always seemed to me that you’d first have double your efforts and if that doesn’t work then you can redouble, which is actually four times the effort you initially put forth, right? What happened to tripling your efforts?

That's Brent Best with his newest band, The Drams, he's second from the right.

The gent in the second photo is Larry Brown.

Kisses to all.

T