Progress report on 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list. I've listened to 317 albums so far. So I'll be about 1/3 of the way through by the end of the year. Revising my goal down to 500 albums or so. I'll be happy if I hit 50%. Looking back perhaps an album per day was ambitious.
What was definitely ambitious was my fantasy of blogging about every album. Lester Bangs I am not.
So, I'll just highlight a few albums that I was most surprised I liked.
1) Peter Tosh's Legalize It. - Never thought I would like reggae as much as I do but this album by ex-Wailer Tosh proved me wrong. Till Your Well Runs Dry is a great song.
2) Arular by M.I.A. Great hooks.
3) Viva Hate and Your Arsenal by Morrissey - I liked these better than I liked The Smiths' albums. Not that I disliked The Smiths, but I think they are better as singles than as albums. Well, maybe excepting Strangeways, Here We Come - that hangs together well.
4) Sweetheart of The Rodeo by The Byrds - I never knew the folk rock pioneers had cut a great country album. I maybe shouldn't have been surprised at this one since The Flying Burrito Brothers (Gram Parsons' band post-Byrds) were already a favorite.
5) Get Rich or Die Tryin' by 50 Cent - I love this album like a fat kid loves cake!
Albums that I wasn't necessarily surprised I liked but just had never encountered before in their entirety:
1) Rust Never Sleeps by Neil Young - Mostly for the excellent and haunting Thrasher.
2) Most of The White Stripes catalog - I hadn't listened to them much before, but now they are some of my go-to albums.
3) Ramones by the Ramones - Straight ahead punk rock.
4) The Doors by The Doors - More great song bang for the buck then any other album. Particularly a debut album.
5) Nevermind by Nirvana - Even though I was in high school in the early 90s I think I let grunge mostly pass me by, but I can see why this was such a turning point in music. You just let Smells Like Teen Spirit roll over you and the rest of the album keeps going.
Overall I am very happy with how this is going. I'm being exposed to a lot. Hopefully breaking out of my bubble. As an ex-girlfriend told me as she was becoming my ex: "There is more out there than the Beatles and The Rolling Stones". Turns out she was right. Though Let It Bleed still rocks.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
#62 - Doctor!, Doctor!*
Finally got my ass to the doctor. For all my neglect, everything was fine. Bad cholesterol was a little high. Everything else was perfectly in range.
I feel better knowing that now. And it is good to establish a relationship before anything bad happens.
I'm sure I'll get sick sometime in the next year, so I'll be able to get there again before the deadline.
*Apologies to the Thompson Twins.
I feel better knowing that now. And it is good to establish a relationship before anything bad happens.
I'm sure I'll get sick sometime in the next year, so I'll be able to get there again before the deadline.
*Apologies to the Thompson Twins.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
#80 - Hiking with someone you love
Two new hikes to report:
1) Washington State Park (Oct 16-17th) - Backpacked the 6 mile Rockywood Trail. This was my first solo backpacking trip. I have to admit it was kind of scary being out alone. Did you know that at 3 o'clock in the morning an acorn falling off of a tree sounds like Death coming for you? True fact.
Nice trail, and as it turned out I was pretty well prepared. Should have tossed in an extra quart of water, but it wasn't critical. One note, the area highlight of Native American rock carvings are kind of a letdown, and not worth making the trip for alone.
2) Englemann Woods Natural Area (October) - A pleasant little 2 mile day hike out past St. Albans, MO. Not much to say, just a pretty jaunt through the woods. The guidebook is correct that you should carpool to the trail-head since parking is non-existent.
P.S.A.: Dogs on trails are fine, and even letting them off the leash is acceptable (though technically wrong). But either have the dog trained or have some means to control them. This public service announcement is because at Englemann I bumped into a dog without a collar or a leash and while the owners were there and the dog was friendly, it was a bit overactive and jumped and bumped.
1) Washington State Park (Oct 16-17th) - Backpacked the 6 mile Rockywood Trail. This was my first solo backpacking trip. I have to admit it was kind of scary being out alone. Did you know that at 3 o'clock in the morning an acorn falling off of a tree sounds like Death coming for you? True fact.
Nice trail, and as it turned out I was pretty well prepared. Should have tossed in an extra quart of water, but it wasn't critical. One note, the area highlight of Native American rock carvings are kind of a letdown, and not worth making the trip for alone.
2) Englemann Woods Natural Area (October) - A pleasant little 2 mile day hike out past St. Albans, MO. Not much to say, just a pretty jaunt through the woods. The guidebook is correct that you should carpool to the trail-head since parking is non-existent.
P.S.A.: Dogs on trails are fine, and even letting them off the leash is acceptable (though technically wrong). But either have the dog trained or have some means to control them. This public service announcement is because at Englemann I bumped into a dog without a collar or a leash and while the owners were there and the dog was friendly, it was a bit overactive and jumped and bumped.
#49 - First Aid Kit
Put together my backpacking first aid kit a couple months ago. Actually I did 3 kits - a big kit for week long trips, a smaller one for day hikes, and then a body substance isolation kit which I keep on my person when hiking.
The BSI kit is something I had never considered before but I took a Wilderness First Aid course in April and it was highly stressed. My kit contains a couple pairs of vinyl gloves (non-sterile since I'm outside), a CPR mask, a little LED light to do the PERRL test, the patient evaluation sheet from my course, a pen, some hand sanitizer, and some safety pins.
I won't go into details on the other kits, it is pretty basic stuff. A lot of good resources are online. My advice to anyone following my footsteps is to do it yourself. A prepackaged kit is convenient but generic. Tailor it to your situation and typical hiking environment. And of course your personal medications.
Most importantly, the best first aid resource is practical knowledge. So get a book or take a course. Even if you have the perfect kit, do you have the confidence to take charge of a situation and render aid? Knowledge is empowering. Without a kit, but a brain that functions under pressure, you can make a difference.
Still on the list is #51 - Wilderness EMT or Wilderness First Responder training. The WFA class was good but I want more.
The BSI kit is something I had never considered before but I took a Wilderness First Aid course in April and it was highly stressed. My kit contains a couple pairs of vinyl gloves (non-sterile since I'm outside), a CPR mask, a little LED light to do the PERRL test, the patient evaluation sheet from my course, a pen, some hand sanitizer, and some safety pins.
I won't go into details on the other kits, it is pretty basic stuff. A lot of good resources are online. My advice to anyone following my footsteps is to do it yourself. A prepackaged kit is convenient but generic. Tailor it to your situation and typical hiking environment. And of course your personal medications.
Most importantly, the best first aid resource is practical knowledge. So get a book or take a course. Even if you have the perfect kit, do you have the confidence to take charge of a situation and render aid? Knowledge is empowering. Without a kit, but a brain that functions under pressure, you can make a difference.
Still on the list is #51 - Wilderness EMT or Wilderness First Responder training. The WFA class was good but I want more.
#91 - Plan B in D Major
My original plan for Equus was to go on September 18th. However, it was a hot ticket, and given my twin proclivities for a) showing up at the last moment and b) not planning ahead, I got shut out at the box office. Having already paid for Grand Center parking I cast about for an alternative for the evening. I decided to walk up the road to the Symphony. I had no idea what was there.
What I found was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. On the program as featured soloist was Joshua Bell, who evidently is a big deal amongst people who know who the big deals in classical music are. As I've stated before, I am not one of those people, but it sounded pretty good to me.
So what could have been a wash-out of an evening was converted into an enjoyable new experience. The list proves it worth again. Chalk one up for openness to adventure, and what may come.
What I found was Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. On the program as featured soloist was Joshua Bell, who evidently is a big deal amongst people who know who the big deals in classical music are. As I've stated before, I am not one of those people, but it sounded pretty good to me.
So what could have been a wash-out of an evening was converted into an enjoyable new experience. The list proves it worth again. Chalk one up for openness to adventure, and what may come.
#90 - F'ed up Families Edition
Play recap from the last 3 weeks:
1) High by Matthew Lombardo. A play-in-progress starring Kathleen Turner, touring the country as it makes it way to Broadway. Turner is a no-nonsense nun, who works as an addiction counselor. And, of course, harbors some dark secrets of her own. She attempts to council a drug-addicted teen, who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own. The only other person in the play is the priest who runs the place. Who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own.
Ultimately this play disappointed me. While Turner was good, I felt I had seen this all before. Maybe this says more about me but this supposedly hard-hitting material felt very after-school special. I wasn't even mildly shocked by the two big reveals in the play. And the onstage nudity (not Turner) was a yawn. The nudity in Equus was done a lot better and was much more integrated into (and integral to) the story. Here it was tacked on. And Evan Jonigkeit, playing the homeless hustler addict, came off about as bad-ass as a Sweathog. Maybe that was an intentional choice, playing tough but scared, but it didn't feel right. At the St. Louis Rep.
2) The Chosen by Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner - Play about two Jewish kids in 1940s Brooklyn, with very different fathers. Bias alert - My cousin David Chandler played Danny the Hasidic Jew whose father can only speak openly to him through intermediaries. I thought he and the other cast members were great. The play itself is good but not great. I can agree with other reviewers who noted that having a narrator on stage is a clunky exposition device. An exception is, of course, made for Our Town.
Here is hoping David has a long career in the theater. At The Mustard Seed Theatre.
3) Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill. The granddaddy of all addiction plays. Long play - 3 hours with 2 intermissions. But it doesn't drag, it just relentlessly circles the drain, as each character slides deeper and deeper into their own personal hells. Sounds like a fun night out, right? Well, perhaps not exactly fun, but it was riveting to watch, in that car wreck sort of way.
I really noticed the repetitiveness of O'Neill's lines. Characters keep using the same phrases again and again. I think it helped to show the never-changing nature of addiction. You felt like these characters had lived this same day again and again. Stephen King was right, "Hell is repetition".
Ugh, I need a shower. At Muddy Waters Theatre.
1) High by Matthew Lombardo. A play-in-progress starring Kathleen Turner, touring the country as it makes it way to Broadway. Turner is a no-nonsense nun, who works as an addiction counselor. And, of course, harbors some dark secrets of her own. She attempts to council a drug-addicted teen, who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own. The only other person in the play is the priest who runs the place. Who, of course, harbors some dark secrets of his own.
Ultimately this play disappointed me. While Turner was good, I felt I had seen this all before. Maybe this says more about me but this supposedly hard-hitting material felt very after-school special. I wasn't even mildly shocked by the two big reveals in the play. And the onstage nudity (not Turner) was a yawn. The nudity in Equus was done a lot better and was much more integrated into (and integral to) the story. Here it was tacked on. And Evan Jonigkeit, playing the homeless hustler addict, came off about as bad-ass as a Sweathog. Maybe that was an intentional choice, playing tough but scared, but it didn't feel right. At the St. Louis Rep.
2) The Chosen by Chaim Potok and Aaron Posner - Play about two Jewish kids in 1940s Brooklyn, with very different fathers. Bias alert - My cousin David Chandler played Danny the Hasidic Jew whose father can only speak openly to him through intermediaries. I thought he and the other cast members were great. The play itself is good but not great. I can agree with other reviewers who noted that having a narrator on stage is a clunky exposition device. An exception is, of course, made for Our Town.
Here is hoping David has a long career in the theater. At The Mustard Seed Theatre.
3) Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill. The granddaddy of all addiction plays. Long play - 3 hours with 2 intermissions. But it doesn't drag, it just relentlessly circles the drain, as each character slides deeper and deeper into their own personal hells. Sounds like a fun night out, right? Well, perhaps not exactly fun, but it was riveting to watch, in that car wreck sort of way.
I really noticed the repetitiveness of O'Neill's lines. Characters keep using the same phrases again and again. I think it helped to show the never-changing nature of addiction. You felt like these characters had lived this same day again and again. Stephen King was right, "Hell is repetition".
Ugh, I need a shower. At Muddy Waters Theatre.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
525,600 minutes left
One year to go until the deadline of 11/11/11. Still have plenty of time to accomplish many items on this list. Maybe won't get to all but this list is doing what I wanted it to do.
I'm happier than I have been in a long time.
I'm happier than I have been in a long time.
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