the tenderloin

Sometimes you wander the cities of the globe and you're put off by the idea of so many people living in such a small space. They can be claustrophobic in the best situation, scary in the worst. I think the scary affects people more when visiting cities than the sheer number of inhabitants on the streets. If one comes from a less urban environment the shock can be stunning. Oh, I'm not done...

I was trundling through virtualtourist.com earlier tonight, reading inputs for cities that I know and love, and wondering just what has gone wrong with people who do nothing but visit Orlando. As an aside, since no one is really listening, I'm perfectly happy strolling through the inner 'despair' of big cities; that's where all the good clubs, restuarants, CD shops and characters live. Maybe I shouldn't feel so safe, maybe my mother would disapprove, but I've been doing it for as long as I can remember; from the days of the riding the train to Chicago, and my ever-growing love of that city during every visit, I've always been happy enough with the grit and grime of big cities. In the long haul maybe I'm a more comfortable person within the bounds of a city than those who haven't been through Chinatown on a Friday night. The jump-off to this tirade was inputs about San Francisco and the hazards of the inner workings of that fine city. The first thing I thought about when reading the horror of crime in the Bay Area was a discussion I had with Sarah when we were there last year that covered keeping your wits, enjoying the city, seeing how much life changes from block-to-block, and about what can go wrong in people's lives. We wish it weren't so...but shit goes bad for some people; they lose jobs, their homeless, and they look frightening most of the time. This conversation had hardly ended when we came upon a horrific argument amongst a homeless couple enroute to a coffeehouse (we were enroute, not they). Point made...loud and clear to her. That night we went down SoMA-way (the south of Market St. area) for a one-man show about the horrors of teaching school in the inner city.; if I'd only read the reviews on virtual tourist about that area, "STAY AWAY from SoMA! it's the third most dangerous part of the city!". Hmm, didn't know that then; we walked down and back with caution and well survived the evening. The next night, of all things (!), I dragged her down to the Tenderloin District (virtual tourist input: "Almost the MOST DANGEROUS part of the city! DO NOT GO THERE AT NIGHT!") for the Old Crows at the Great American Music Hall. From what I can discern, the Tenderloin ranks behind only Hunter's Point for death, murder, rape, pillage, plunder, and the overall horrors of society. And I was thinking of Hunter's the next night! (kidding.) I'll readily admit that the T'loin can be off-putting but it's certainly not Dante's Inferno. Maybe I should consider the name virtual "tourist" and understand that it's mostly written by the Hilton-resorts-Disneyland-Red Lobster crowd. Fortunately, I've got a bit more grit on me than the nice hotels, tourist traps, and worries about evil all around us. London had very similar inputs...as did Barcelona. Barcelona? Barcelona is like Des Moines for crying out loud; that put me over the top. Don't think I don't know...I see you thinking it...yes, I'm tallish, I'm male, and for some reason (proof never provided) nobody seems to want to eff with me. I'm well aware of that; I'm also well aware that it's a usually your comfort level in any city that makes you safe. To think that size matters, in the end, is a bit inexperienced. It'll be hard to convince me that SanFran isn't the best American city. I know it is because I doctored my test results to fit my needs.

A lovely weekend to all.

(p.s. up there ^^^ is a view of the Tenderloin and a shot of the inside of the Great American Music Hall)

tx

doing good; doing nothing

There was a bit on NPR last year during their "This I Believe" series on Monday mornings (I've downloaded the best of NPR 2005 on Podcasts). The premise of the five minute spots is to allow famous, and unknowns alike, a chance to pass on life's nuggets of wisdom. Some of the pieces can be a little overwrought for my taste but others are more pertinent to everyday life. I've been rolling a phrase around in my head for many a moon, trying to get it perfect, as a phantom response to an unknown person asking why I might be doing something: bringing bags to the grocery store, not driving a SUV, recycling...that sort of stuff. It's not perfect yet but it goes something like, "I may not be the solution, but I'm certainly not part of the problem." The way I riddle the issues of the world is that we may not know the answers to the ills of every neighborhood or country, but we can certainly avoid adding our own flames to the fire. Diedre Sullivan was the contributor and her take concerned funerals and the lessons she had learned from her father. She was a teen at the time and remembered her father telling her that she needed to attend a viewing of her fifth-grade teacher. She didn't want to, though she'd been to funerals before, because it just seemed a bother. She was the only child at the viewing, passed some lame words to the widow, and later came to know her better. The widow never forgot that she'd been there, and how thankful she was to see one of his former students. It mattered. Ms. Sullivan later realized that sometimes there are things in life that we don't want to do: attend funerals, help people, visit someone in the hospital when we don't seem to have enough time, and any other 'time-consuming' functions that show even a little side of us. Lessons learned...and an idea that her life isn't a battle between good and evil, she says that's too dramatic; but a tug-o-war between doing good and doing nothing. The things we don't do don't make us evil, or lazy, or lost...they just aren't done. The stuff we do has an effect on everyone around us. Such a simple idea.

If you have the mind, and the ability, to listen to online music, I'll throw out the Flogging Molly instudio performance at the Current in Minneapolis. They're a lovely 'irish' band with fantastic tunes.

Flogging Molly in studio

(scroll down to Flogging Molly)

xxx

T

latin maxims

Sometimes the law provides something beyond good guidance; dig far enough and there's some laughter for the rest of us. I know it's not fair to segregate the population into lawyers and us, we'll probably be sued for being discriminatory; but facts is facts. The hard part is sorting why the practice of law seems so different than any other; a career that's based on arbitary assumptions and opinions. Actually, I think I'll pitch the psychology and sociology fields into the breach as well. That'll be quite a disturbed little room of opinions. Doctors seem different, a little more scientific and anchored in facts, symptoms, things we can actually see by "looking with our eyes". The law posse is really just a group that have ideas about what could be right, could be wrong, could be agreed, disagreed, argued, published, decided, not decided, adjudicated and all the other stuff we did in kindergarten. Sometimes the playground monitor came over to help solve the unsolveable mystery of whether or not I had called Scooby-Doo before getting caught in a rousing game of cartoon freeze tag. There are utterances beyond those put forth from the high bench that just as effectively decide an issue with the finality any of us might need. It seems as if any judge (or playground monitor) could easily add these to his repetoire of courtroom utterings and get by just fine. Examples? How about Buzz Harrison's response to the "Have you seen (fill in the name)?" / "What happened to (fill name)?" query; "...he went to shit and the hogs ate him." For just a second you pause and wonder...what the hell does that mean? A quick second later and it makes perfect sense, no more questioning required. A scintillating combintion of "I don't know" and "I don't care". I say it compares favorably with overruled. What about Dave Porter's brilliant utterances, "build bridges not walls" and, "don't hate...appreciate". That's solid playground, or courtroom, legal advice if I've ever heard it. I can hear AGAG uttering either of those while being grilled by any number, and there have been a number, of Senate Committees. In the movie Fargo, William H. Macy's character blurts out, in the middle of a very confusing scenario, "What the Christ!". Indeed.

prosecutor (P): "Your Honor, I object!"
judge (J): "What the Christ!"
(P) "Well, your Honor, I think the defense attorney's question has no effect on this case"
(J) "And how is that you think it's beyond the pale of this case?"
(P) "Well...what about Supreme Court Justice Thomas' opinion in Doolittle v. State of Georgia? What about Justice Thomas?"
(J) "Thomas? Went to shit and the hogs ate him. Overruled."

Just as I said.

There is actually a legal phrase that cuts to the chase and I've got to throw out a bone: "res ipsa loquitur". Roughly translated it means "the thing speaks for itself". If I have this right in my pea-brain it means that there's only one possible solution to a case and the evidence presented. There is no other way the event could have happened and it doesn't matter how it happened; it just is.

(P) "Your honor, what do you mean by that statement about Justice Thomas.
(J) "Res ipsa loquitur"

I have some more cleaning to finish. I've no idea what that all means.

love to all,

t

early 40s

A birthday weekend out West. I pulled into Reno Saturday afternoon and settled in for a Todd Snider show at the Nugget in beautiful downtown Sparks (suburb of Reno). Stayed at the highly entertaining, yet trashy, Silver Inn. That's not fair...it's clean, cheap and very well run. Close to what I want and generally a great rock hotel. A quick dinner at a microbrewery between the Inn and the show at Uncle John's Celebrity Showrom. Here's the kicker...a fantastic 90-minute set by Todd and the Nervous Wrecks that exceeded even my expections. An unbelievable band, an entertainer of the highest order, beers, and great seats. Made me wonder about the best shows I've seen...the ones that made me SO very happy. I kept waking up and trying to plot it all into a list that boys so love. Really. Live shows are what make me tick and I'd be happy to drag anyone to any live show and then stare deep into eyes to get a feel. Nothing turns the human like a live performance...nothing. What I decided wasn't so much the 'best' shows, but the most influential: every Slobberbone show was in the top five (that's them to the left) but only one counts. Here are the specs:

1. Old Crow Medicine Show / The Borderline, London UK - So many factors fall into this ideal: I flew back to England for a five-day weekend with Christine. If you must know, the smell of Heathrow, the knowledge that I could buy the Independent, the thought that I was finally back home, and the inkling that she'd show up only adds to the brilliance. The Borderline is my all-time favorite venue, the beer is great, the Crows are the best...most importantly, we sat there laughing, kissing, and being extremely cool. The dinner that night was 'stumbling fabulous'. If you must know, the first night in town we saw the Royal Shakespeare Company perform 'Hamlet'. Getting from 'Hamlet' to 'Wagon Wheel' says it all...the most memorable night of my life.

2. Slobberbone / The 400 Club, Minneapolis, MN - The end of the greatest band of all time. Brent took the boys on the road for a final six dates...we knew it was coming but it didn't make it any easier. I flew to the Cities for the show after Skip procured tickets for himself, his sister Dana (I still see her as a 14-year old), and ME. The opening band, Two Cow Garage (great in their own right), had a van breakdown somewhere in the upper Midwest so the boys came out early and did almost three hours of the best music you'll ever hear. Brent was tuning his axe while I screamed out, "Where's the banjo?", to which he replied, "in pieces on my kitchen floor." I got an answer from Brent Best. Brilliant. I have blog entries to come that deal solely with his lyrics.

3. Tift Merritt and Tres Chicas / Slim's, San Francisco, CA - I have a undying love for this city and this was a fantastic show. The Chicas opened with some ungodly harmonies...stuff to make your hair stand on end; beautiful songs. I didn't want them to go, but they did...and were quickly replaced by Tift and her band. I'll never in my life see a guitar playing, tambourine banging, ass shaking artist that has more sex appeal. The band was from rock n' roll central casting (aside from the bass player) but they were something.

4. "Rock for Karl" / Quest Club, Minneapolis, MN - October of 2004. Karl Mueller was the bass player for the seminal Minneapolis band Soul Aslyum. Throat cancer and pile of medical bills brought on the idea. You see, for those of you from beyond the Plains of America, Soul Asylum was one of the pillars of Cities music. It's impossible to pass on the idea they represented if you weren't there...but according to CitiesSkip, in their prime they were the best band you'd ever seen. The lineage of The Replacements/Husker Du, Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, Gear Daddies, Run Westy Run, and Golden Smog is a run that may never be duplicated. For Paul Westerberg (the 'Mats), Bob Mould (Husker Du), the Daddies, Smog and Asylum to get together for one evening in salute to Karl is an amazing thing. I flew in for the single night of rock n' roll. Nothing will ever match the vibe of the Cities from the late 70s to the early 90s - a time and place that is only there by dumb luck. Karl passed in early 2005...a salute to the brilliance.

5. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band / Earl's Court, London, UK - (What a crap venue!) Hard to really get the nuts and bolts of this show into words. No doubt two decades later than I would have like to see him but I finally got the chance...and it was with a British crowd. I've never seen so many people lose their minds at one song....the opening chords of "Born to Run". The lights came up, and at that moment, I knew what rock n' roll was all about. Sometimes his music seems like too much to assimilate; I wonder if I can take in everything it represents, but in the end I succumb to the sound. Any thoughts that make you wonder are lost; just trust the music.

Honorable Mention:

Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men / The Tarbox Rambers - The Hacienda, Reno, NV
Lucinda Williams / The Fillmore - SanFran, CA
Steve Earle and the Dukes / The Corn Exchange, Cambridge UK
Chuck Prophet and the Mission Express / The Hacienda, Reno, NV
The Be Good Tanyas / Union Chapel, London UK
Bellwether / Robert McCreedy - The Borderline, London UK
Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash - The Zoo Bar, Lincoln, NE
Los Lobos - Caesar's Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe, NV
Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - The Nugget, Sparks, NV
The Uptown Rulers - Iowa Memorial Union (circa 1984)
Todd Snider and the Nervous Wrecks - The Nugget, Sparks, NV
Joan Baez / Steve Earle - Hawkins Amphitheater, Reno, NV (Joan had the best band I've ever seen...)
Emmylou Harris / Buddy Miller - Hawkins Amphitheater, Reno, NV

That's that...come hear the music.

When the attorney general of the United States suggested, before a Senate Committee, that anyone who questioned anything the government did in the name of Homeland Security was, "aiding and abetting terrorism"; Sen. Patrick Leahy said, "Well, Attorney General Ashcroft has the same First Amendment rights as the rest of us."

Tx

a matter of degrees

There's a pic of James McMurtry's axe from the Friday night show in Reno.

These seeds were planted last week after hearing some of this, and a little of that, during my routine little life. What exactly is a demonstration or protest? Really. Before anyone gets too riled up, let me clarify that I think Cindy Sheehan has lost the plot. I don't know if she ever had it, but that's another story. I'm going to lump her, in this instance, with the Senator's wife that also chose to wear a t-shirt to the State of the Union speech last week. Apparently there's a law that forbids protest/demonstration on Capitol grounds. Apparently the Capitol Police have no idea what the law actually entails. Granting them the benefit of the doubt for now, does a t-shirt signify a demonstration? A protest? Neither women wore shirts with profanity or egregious examples of libel. (Bad taste in semi-formal attire is only a Joan Rivers law.) Both were asked to cover up the t-shirts (Sheehan's asking when the war would end and the Senator's best gal's supporting the troops), both declined. Both were escorted from the upper gallery prior to the speech. We're not talking unfurled banners, disruptive behavior, yelling, screaming, or rotten tomato-tossing. I'll ask this; what if I had an anti-war organization that sported little purple ribbons? What about the swank lapel flags worn by everyone in D.C.? Are those protests one way or the other? What if I don't clap at the appropriate 'applause' sign during the President's speech? Is that a demonstration? A protest? The hackneyed decision to make either woman leave is a VERY sad commentary on the way we see our country. Don't even think about the 'what if they went bonkers during the speech' argument...our country wasn't settled on the presumption of something happening. Seems a matter of degrees.

Marlon Brando to Kevin Bacon...go.

Marlon Brando to Robert Duvall in The Godfather; Robert Duvall to Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder; Nicole Kidman to Val Kilmer in Batman Forever; Val Kilmer to Tim Robbins in Topgun; Tim Robbins to Kevin Bacon in Mystic River. Voila! Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

....matters of degree.

T