715. Happy New Year - a day late

One of my seven faithful readers happens to be one of the biggest fans of The Beatles this side of Liverpool. Olivia Fuchs, who is otherwise an attorney, makes endless You-Tube posts, newsletters called the Bea-letter (or something), and other event-related comments about the Fab Four, especially as the Abbey Road on the River, conventiently abbreviated as AROTR in most of the posts, makes its way to Louisville late each Spring. Olivia, however, knows that while I share a great love for music in general, the Fab Four aren't among my favorites. That isn't to say I do not like their music. There are a few songs in particular I love - I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Twist And Shout come to mind immediately. Below is a quote from a different Beatles' song, one written by Paul McCartney with input from the late John Lennon. The song was written and recorded in March 1967 and released on June 1st of that year. The song is my story as it relates to the last few weeks. The quote below was the working title and it appeared on the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club album.

I get by with a little help from my friends. (1967)

Followers of my Facebook page may recall a status update of mine posted back around Thanksgiving. It expressed my concern, for myself and others of my ilk, who find the holidays - now thankfully past - difficult at best and extraoridnarily lonely at times. Yet, we manage to make it through the seven weeks or so from Thanksgiving to yesterday, New Year's Day. And, again for folks of my ilk, we could not do so without (more than) a little help from our friends. Late in the night, actually about 3:15 am on New Year's Day, one of those friends called me. It was a call I was hoping for, worried about getting and not getting, and most pleased to have received. The caller, Michael, reminded me of our friendship, the other friends I have, and the support they have all given me, some in large and known ways, others in the quiet corners of the season. Each year I do dread the holiday season. Thankfully, each year at this time I get by with a little help from my friends.

Thanks to all of you.

Happy New Year.

*****

Below are the full lyrics for the song. I'm going to work on the chorus in my own life for 2012.

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me.
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,
And I'll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm,I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends.

Do you need anybody?
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love.

What do I do when my love is away.
(Does it worry you to be alone)
How do I feel by the end of the day
(Are you sad because you're on your own)
No, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna to try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody?
I need somebody to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love.

Would you believe in a love at first sight?
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
What do you see when you turn out the light?
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine.
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm I get high with a little help from my friends,
Oh, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends

Do you need anybody?
I just need someone to love.
Could it be anybody?
I want somebody to love

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends
Ooh, I get high with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends,
with a little help from my friends

709. The advent of snow and other seasonal commentary

Ok, it's December and I've been away for a while. I have had a few of my seven faithful readers ask if I have given up on the blog, a logical conclusion given I have made few visits here recently, or for that matter in a long while. The end of the blog shows the number of entries for each month and year and as we approach the fifth birthday of the blog, now less than a month away, the numbers - as they always do - speak for themselves. There has been a steady decline month-by-month, year-by-year. My hope is to reverse that trend and given that 2012 is an election year, and my highest numbers of viewers and page visits came in 2008, I am hopeful to get the blog back on track. Today's entry will be simply a few catching=up items and little more.

First, you all know I am a big admirer of the heavens when they open up with the white stuff. I cannot remember any year where we had to wait until December 7th for some of it to fall here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606, but that is the case for 2011. As I am typing, off to my right is a mirror through which I can see the weather outside to the north (along with the garage door and window, and the factory mill on the other side of the floodwall). And there it is - snow, glorious snow. I'm not sure if it was in the forecast or if this is just a few flakes passing through the area. In any event, now that I've seen the snow, I am a little recharged for the season.

Speaking of seasons, I snuck one in the title of the entry - Advent. In the liturgical calendar, we are in the season of Advent, the few weeks in preparation for the birth of Jesus and the concelebrated Mass honoring His birth - Christ's Mass, or Christmas, as it has come to be called. In Advent we wait, recall, preprare, and then celebrate. It is akin to Lent in preparation for Easter. I've written about Advent before and you can use the search bar at the top of the page to look at that entry. Christmas, then, and its "Twelve Days," arrives the night of the 24th and extends to Epiphany in the New Year. So, if any of you are out singing "On the First Day of Christmas, My True Love Sent to Me," you are ahead of schedule.

The immediate future has enough on its plate as it is. Today, of course, is the National Day of Remembrance for Pearl Harbor, a day which lives in the infamy promised to it by President Franklin Roosevelt in his speech after the attack, which took place seventy years ago today at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, back when Hawaii was still a territory, or possession, of the United States. On this day I think of my grandfather, Dan Hockensmith, who wasn't there but was a Seabee in the United States Navy during the Second World War, and loved to sing the Song of the Seabees, where one of the lyrics is "And we always will remember, the Seventh of December!" So, as I always do on this day, I am thinking of him and his war buddies, many of whom I knew when I was a little kid, almost all of whom have probably passed on to their eternal glory.

Next week marks the 23rd birthday of a favorite person of mine, Preston Bates, who is often mentioned in these entries as well as those of my Facebook page. Now, understand Preston and I are miles and miles, chasms, even canyons apart in our political beliefs. He is a libertarian of sorts and at times has called himself an anarcho-capitalist (although he has backed off that for the moment). I, on the other hand, believe in a strong system of governments at all levels, from the local municipality - something we gave up in a vote back in November 2000 (I voted NO) - to the County to the State and to the Federal, along with a willingness to work with other governments worldwide in an effort at peace and stability. Suffice it to say, Preston doesn't. But in our discussions, we find room for agreement here and there. Some of it is simply the experience of politics and government. There were many things I didn't do when I was his age that I wish I had of. One was to participate in a meaningful way in a presidential campaign at the earliest of stages. The only presidential campaign I was ever a part of to any degree at an early stage was that of United States Senator Paul Simon (D-IL) in 1988. That didn't get far, but it was fun and quite an experience. I've expressed to Preston that should he ever be offered the opportunity to have such an experience to do everything he can to make it happen, even if it is a candidate and party I could never support. And, I've promised to help him however I can. Irrespective of the candidate, the party, and the outcome, being involved in a presidential campaign is a near-unique experience and I hope he gets to live it. After all, in the 235 year history of the Republic, only 43 men have been chosen as a leader of the free world and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

A different discussion Preston and I had a few weeks ago at the Granville Inn on S. Third Street in the U of L neighborhood focussed on music and math, two things we both enjoy (in different ways) and can easily agree on. In that conversation, we discussed the relationship between the two, or even the idea that they are ultimately the same. A few days later I went to see a theatrical performance at the indoor venue of the Iroquois Amphitheater. The play called Broadsword, a production of a local theater company, Theatre [502], whose artistic director and one of the founders is Gil Reyes - see their website at www.theatre502.org. The play's run, locally, is over and I meant to post about it before it was over. The play is set in urban New Jersey and is centered on a reluctant reunion of a heavy metal band after the death of one its members. Pretty cool play but the thing that stood out - gave me cold chills, in fact - was one of the lines in the play wherein was discussed the relationship between math and music, mimicking the earlier discussion between me and Preston. It wasn't a theme, just a line in the play, but it underscored the proposition of that relationship that Preston and I had posited a few days earlier. As for Mr. Reyes, I've been following his work, or works in which he has been invovled, since about 2002 if memory serves me. It was through Gil I first met Stuart Perelmuter, another friend mentioned here and there in the blog. In one of Gil's productions, another friend of mine, Josh Peters (who celebrated a 32nd birthday a few days ago) played a key part. The Theatre [502] troupe produced three plays this year, two of which I had the good fortune to see.

That's all for now. I'll be back soon.

I would ask, since it has been so long since I've posted, that if you've read this far - to the end - please post a comment below - even anonymously - to let me know I still have some readership out there in the ether.

672. Billy Joel, Alison Lundergan Grimes, and Hidden Location #10

Back on November 3, 1973, as I was beginning the 8th grade at Durrett High School, California singer Billy Joel released his ode to lounge-lizard listening, a song entitled Piano Man. It is one of several songs I learned to play a few years later under the guidance of Shera Baker, a young lady who was two years behind me in school. Her living room and its piano served as a launchpad for those of you who've since heard me play, for good or for bad.

The first line of the fourth verse of Piano Man is "It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday, the manager gives me a smile ... " While today wasn't a Saturday, and there were no pianos involved, there was a pretty good crowd today at an event I attended after work, and the manager, so to speak, was all smiles.

If you are in Louisville, you know we've been threatened with four to six inches of snow, an accumulation which has probably fallen from the skies, but for one reason or another has not quite accumulated on Mother Earth below. Nonetheless, the city went into its usual "snow mode" letting school out early, closing businesses, and generally providing a sales boon to the local groceries. See the picture below for a snowy scene in downtown Louisville.


Despite the cold weather and heavy falling snow, a "pretty good crowd" gathered today on the second floor of Louisville's famed Glassworks facility at 9th and Market streets - technically 9th is still Roy Wilkins Avenue at that point, a name typically observed only in the breach. The event was the Louisville reception for my friend Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Lexington attorney who today filed her papers for the Democratic nomination for the office of Kentucky's Secretary of State. Earlier events were held in Lexington and Frankfort, and tomorrow there will be additional events culminating in Maysville, a small river city in northeastern Kentucky, and the hometown of Alison's father, former Kentucky Democratic Chairman Jerry Lundergan, the metaphorical smiling manager in Joel's song. I'm supporting Alison in her bid to this office in the election which will be decided this fall.

Alison addressed the "pretty good crowd" for this snowy afternoon with three important women in her life looking on from the front row of the room, her mother and her two grandmothers. Her mother, Charlotte Lundergan, and I serve together on the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee. She is also one of Kentucky's representatives on the National Democratic Committee. Alison was joined by other members of her family as well as a host of Democratic luminaries from across the state. The current and two former lieutenant governors were present, as well as Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives Greg Stumbo of Floyd County, who introduced the candidate. There were also a few members of the Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee present, along with others of the general public. The press was represented by Joe Gerth, a writer for the Courier-Journal. Again, for a snowy late afternoon, it was a "pretty good crowd."

Below is a picture which, for lack of any others in hand, we'll use as Hidden Location #10. For those who live or work downtown, as I do, this one should be relatively easy. Leave any comments below.

Finally I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge today's 50th anniversary of the Inauguration and speech of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the first inaugural of my lifetime. It was on this date fifty years ago that the new president admonished and obliged the American people to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." I grew up with that expression never too far removed from one's mind, an era when the American populace was more concerned with the collective "we" which comprises America, as opposed to the individualistic "I" which, since the presidency of Kennedy's later successor Ronald Wilson Reagan, has destroyed the fabric of American culture, a great loss to each other, our Republic, and the world. When "The Fall of the American Republic" is written, which it will be soon, perhaps in the next fifty years, one of the turning points will be when Ronald Reagan reported in his inaugural that "the government isn't the solution, but rather is the problem." How more different could the attitudes be between Kennedy and Reagan, the former telling us to be concerned about our country to the point of "doing" for it; the latter proclaiming that the government is the problem and should be abandoned. Sad!

Again, Hidden Location #10 is below.

670. I was seven years old in 1968; Reflections on January 8, 2011

I was seven years old in 1968. As such, I do not remember a lot of it. Unlike my little brother, who can cite incidents from memory with the accuracy of blue-ray technology, my memory is rather faded and shaded for a great number of my earliest years.

I began 1968 as a second grader at Blue Lick Elementary School in southern Jefferson County. My teacher was Miss Hoagland. I rode Bus #402 to and from school each day catching the bus at the foot of my street, where Whippoorwill empties into South Park. Afternoons in my neighborhood, that period after school and before supper, consisted of bike-riding, tree climbing, playing in the woods behind our house, or just hanging out.

There were a few places where the "just hanging out" took place. At the dead-end of Mason in front of the Rogers' house was a gum tree. I'm not sure exactly what kind of tree it was but it had a clear gooey substance oozing from various points in the tree. At the other end of Mason, in the Riddle's front yard, on the southwest corner with Walter Avenue (where Walter was (and remains) one lane wide) were two trees that, at the age one is in second grade, was about as far as I was suppose to travel away from home, about 750 feet from our side deck.

Eventually, every evening about six it was time to come in and eat. We ate breakfast and dinner, called supper, religiously at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. For the record, our dining room was a formal room in which, until my grandmother's passing in 1976, we rarely ate other than at Christmastime. At this kitchen breakfast bar on one side sat me and my grandmother; on the other was my grandfather, my brother, and my mother. Opposite the end of the bar was an oversized portable dishwasher on top of which sat a Zenith television set. That's what you called them back then, a television set.

And it was at the breakfast bar, after we had eaten, that we all five sat and watched the national news learning the events of the day from across the Republic and around the world. We watched NBC and its newscast, which I remember being called The World Tonight, but I wouldn't bet more than a nickel on that memory.

Whatever it was called, it was on that black-and-white TV that I watched most of 1968 pan out, a melodramatic year which, thankfully, has not been equalled during my fifty years on the planet. Of great interest was the War in Vietnam. I recall that I had older cousins and a few friends and neighbors who were serving in Vietnam. I learned of other places too, called Laos and Thailand and Cambodia. If there were comments on the war, I do not recall them. It was from that berth as well that I watched the news of the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee. I honestly had no idea who Dr. King was although my grandparents found his assasination to be horrific. I was mostly interested because I had just a few summers before that been to Memphis and was anxious to see if I could remember any of the locations now being played and replayed on the television screen.

It wasn't that TV but another larger one, an old big brown box of the Motorola brand, in the living room that I do clearly recall the assasination of Senator Robert Kennedy, late in the night. Politics has always been an integral part of my family and Kennedy's ascension in the Democratic Party was being followed as he had spent time in eastern Kentucky making friends with people from our state. My uncle had supported Senator McCarthy and I do not remember if my grandparents were Kennedy people or not. I do know that after his death, we strongly supported Vice President Hubert Humphrey in his bid to become president.

It was only from stories in the years to come that I learned more and more about 1968. When I was 14, one of my first jobs was working in a men's clothing store in Okolona operated by Mr. Howard Klein. Mr. Howard, as he was known in the neighborhood, was a wonderful man, my first real boss. He had moved his store to the Silver Heights Shopping Center location in 1968. He formerly had operated a shop at 28th and Dumesnil in Parkland but his business succombed to the riots which took place in the city that summer. He told me stories of how that area basically ceased to exist as a business center during the summer of 1968.

I also learned about the 1968 Democratic National Convention from my Uncle Don and my grandmother Hockensmith, both of whom were Democratic operatives. Don was from the left side of the Party while my grandmother was more of a moderate to center-left person. I remember scenes from the convention from watching TV.

Many years later while in college, I learned even more of the summer of unrest for our country, the summer of 1968. I learned about a government and response to the government of acronyms from SNCC to the HUAC, which became the HCUA, as well as SCLC and SNCC. I learned about CORE, the NAACP, events at UC-Berkeley, and something called the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, which many folks called the Black Panthers.

It seemed to me then, as a child living in a nearly-totally white suburban neighborhood, that most of the problems associated with 1968 were related to tension between whites and blacks. And as I became more educated, I learned that what I believed to be the truth was in fact the truth. A great number of Americans had not quite accepted the amagalmation of African-Americans into the general society, something that was in part a result of a civil war which had been fought in this country, and in my state, more than 100 years earlier.

Through my lifetime the tensions have seemed to either go away or just became more acceptable. Few people today work or shop or attend school in places that are solely white or solely black. The exception to that, as has been noted for many years, is during the worship hour on Sunday morning. In that place, we have remained quite largely segregated. Even in my rather liberal congregration of Episcopalians, I can think of only one African-American who attends on a regular basis.

But, on the whole, the blacks and whites of our country have lived more or less harmoniously for many years since the tensions of 1968. But that changed to an extent in 2008 with the election of a bi-racial president, Barack Obama. President Obama handily defeated the incumbent president winning states which Democrats had not carried in many years, perhaps since 1968. And that win began what has been seen as a strong decline in the civility between the races, a decline which can be heard most any day on AM radio.

And many ugly things which had never been said before were and are now being said regularly without much recrimination. Talk show hosts have all but called for a revolution. There has been a great rise in the number of hate groups springing up across the country. Places like the Knob Creek Gun Range in western Bullitt County have allowed their premises to be used to sell merchandise which could easily be described as racist and alarming.

Certain talk show hosts have been far more incendiary than others and no one who is listening cannot believe that these folks do not know that the words they are using can and will lead to violence.

The non-violent nature of our country, a nature fostered by Dr. King in the early 1960s before his assasination in 1968, was shattered today in Tucson, Arizona where a 22 year old gunman opened fire in a grocery store parking lot, killing six persons including a nine year old girl and a federal judge, and sending thirteen others to the hopsital, many with life-threatening wounds, among them a member of the United States Congress.

This was an assasination with great and grave results. I believe, unfortunately, that it is only the beginning. Our country is civilly broke. The confraternity of men and women which has sustained us for 235 years is no more. We have become a nation of I's - you's and me's - we've forgotten that we were a nations of we's. We've forgotten that the first and most important word of our Constitution is We, as in "We, the people."

I am a partisan person and I feel there is blame to be placed at the feet of certain individuals and certain political parties. I will not lay that blame here. At this point I will close, hoping that when America wakes up tomorrow morning we will reflect on the tragic events of January 8, 2011 and make a united effort at changing course. The alternative is civil war. This is where we are headed. And that is sad.

CIVIL WAR (1990)
Written by Axl Rose, Duff McKagan, and Slash.
Sung by Guns 'n' Roses

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

My hands are tied
The billions shift from side to side
And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
For the love of God and our human rights
And all these things are swept aside
By bloody hands time can't deny
And are washed away by your genocide
And history hides the lies of our civil wars

D'you wear a black armband
When they shot the man
Who said "Peace could last forever"
And in my first memories
They shot Kennedy
I went numb when I learned to see
So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can't trust freedom
When it's not in your hands
When everybody's fightin'
For their promised land
And

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
Ow, oh no, no, no, no, no

Look at the shoes you're filling
Look at the blood we're spilling
Look at the world we're killing
The way we've always done before
Look in the doubt we've wallowed
Look at the leaders we've followed
Look at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

My hands are tied
For all I've seen has changed my mind
But still the wars go on as the years go by
With no love of God or human rights
'Cause all these dreams are swept aside
By bloody hands of the hypnotized
Who carry the cross of homicide
And history bears the scars of our civil wars

"WE PRACTICE SELECTIVE ANNIHILATION OF MAYORS AND
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS FOR EXAMPLE TO CREATE A VACUUM
THEN WE FILL THAT VACUUM AS POPULAR WAR ADVANTAGE
PEACE IS CLOSER" **

I don't need your civil war
It feeds the rich while it buries the poor
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
And I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no
I don't need your civil war
I don't need your civil war
Your power hungry sellin' soldiers
In a human grocery store
Ain't that fresh
I don't need your civil war
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
I don't need one more war

I don't need one more war
No, no, no, no uh-oh-uh, no uh-oh, uh no
WHAZ SO CIVIL 'BOUT WAR ANYWAY?

653. About those songs . . . .

(It occurs to be that trips down memory lane shouldn't be taken after three or four glasses of wine. Nostalgia can honestly be depressing.)

By the way, this is a very long entry.

A few entries back was a list of the music my friends Lisa Tanner and Lauren Ingram recorded for me to play at the Birthday Celebration last Sunday. Thirty-eight of my thirty-nine favorite songs are listed, if you take into account that the list doesn't include any patriotic or religious songs, or Broadway musical numbers, which would extend the list by several more. Such songs would include America The Beautiful (especially as sung by Ray Charles), The Prayer of Saint Francis, and I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady.

Of the 38 listed of my 39 favorites, the 39th which isn't, is Puff The Magic Dragon, easily the first song I remember from childhood. I can still see that little red 45-RPM record going round and round on my Hi-Fi Record Player. For those of you under 30, you'll have to google it to get the image.



Music is said to be a or the universal language. It certainly allows one to relive memories, re-taste certain foods, re-smell certains aromas, and frankly revisit people and relationships no longer present - some of which are gone forver.

On this first Friday of the Second Century of my life, I've been thinking long and hard about people and events which got me from 1960 to 2010. It has been, as I am sure it is for everyone, quite a journey. Below are some thoughts next to the titles recorded on the CD. Some have deep personal meaning, others are quite simple and unimportant. Nonetheless, these are the songs which have been the music to which I've lived my life thus far. So after the title will be a short note or name which comes to mind when listening to that particular song.

To wit:


You’re Sixteen, Ringo Starr - Cheryl Eadens was the younger sister of a girl in my class, Glenda. I had a huge crush on Cheryl. I wonder what became of her.

Hotel California, The Eagles - just a song from high school. It came out my senior year at Durrett.

Piano Man, Billy Joel - Murphy's on Main Street, which had a piano room to the left. I enjoyed hanging out there requesting certain songs. As a piano player, although not a very good one, I konw many of the songs on this list are piano-based.

Free For All, Ted Nugent - another song from high school. It came out during my sophomore year, the most difficult of my life. Both of my grandmothers had died while I was 15. This was also the first year of court-ordered bussing in Jefferson County. A very tumultuous time. My brother was a Ted Nugent fan as well.

Undercover Angel, Alan O’ Day - no one or no thing in particular. This song and Chevy Van, which could have made the list alongside this one, just seem like fun songs.

Garden Party, Ricky Nelson - There comes a time when you feel more like a loner than a joiner - breaking away from the norms expected of you. This is what Ricky Nelson is singing about and I can easily identify. Like Puff the Magic Dragon, I think I've known this song most of my life.

Running On Empty, Jackson Browne - Jackson Browne is my favorite singer. I've liked this song since it came out in 1977. Another piano-based recording, it was released the very day I began my freshman year at the University of Kentucky. It is part of several songs which became standards for me and Mary-John Celletti in our visits back-and-forth between Lexington, Frankfort, and Louisville in our Young Democrat days.

Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations - This song, and a few others, remind me of my friend Rob. Next July Rob will have been gone 20 years.

American Pie, Don McLean - My dad turned me on to this song while he lived in Torrance, California, which was also home to the writer and singer Mr. Mclean. I first heard this song over the telephone played by my father on a guitar. I was ten years old at the time. At over eight minutes long, it is one of the longest songs on the playlist.

I’ll Be There, Jackson Five - I wrote last summer on the passing of Michael Jackson. He sang the lead in this song early in the career of the Jackson Five. I love the words and the passion with which he sang it in those early years. As an aside, my friend Keith, who now lives in Brooklyn, is a dead ringer for Jackson from the early years.



I Just Called To Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder - just a neat, simple song, seemingly played on a Hammond Organ as opposed to a piano. It mentions a Libra Sun. I suppose such is related to an Autumnal Equinox/Harvest Moon, which regular readers know got me excited a few nights ago. Erroneously, Wonder mentions an August Harvest Moon. I don't think that is possible.

Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen - Who, from the my age, doesn't like Queen?

Lyin’ Eyes, The Eagles - This song, and the next two following (and a few later in the list), reminds me of Janice Platt, a young lady I adored from the first moment I saw her when I was in 9th grade and she was in 7th. It was #264 on the jukebox at the old Busch's Tavern on Poplar Level Road.

My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli - The second in the series. If when riding in the car with my mother this song comes on the radio, Mom knows to end whatever conversation we are in, to be quiet, and listen.

Mandy, Barry Manilow - The third of three. I like a lot of Manilow. This one begins with the mellow keys of a piano. I like how his songs typically built up to a great crescendo, then played out.

Boys Of Summer, Don Henley - Another song which appears for no reason other than I like it.

We Are The World, Michael Jackson and others - This collaboration from the 1980s is one of the greatest collections of voices anywhere to be found on vinyl. Lionel Ritchie plays the piano in my favorite version.

Killing Me Softly, Roberta Flack - While this song was first recorded in 1971 (and 1973 by Flack, a renowned pianist) and has been a favorite of mine for many years, it took on new meaning in February 2003 when I met Migael Dickerson. Migael is an excellent classical pianist and shortly after meeting him and learning of his musical ability, one snowy afternoon we visited the 851 Mansion, part of the old house within Spalding University's Administration Building. In the parlor of the house is a grand piano which Migael played for nearly two hours, completely mesmerizing me, a spell which remains to this day. If you watched the You Tube videos from the Birthday Celebration, Migael is the interviewer/videographer.

Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Browne - Another from California rocker Jackson Browne, this from his first album in 1972. And like so many songs herein, underlain by a piano - this one very, very upbeat. Like many songs from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, there is an interior verse or two which is strictly instrumental, something of a jam session and something which writers/singers no longer do. I miss jam sessions between the second and third verses of songs.

Take It To The Limit, The Eagles - Belinda Holloman was another girl from high school. She lived in Audubon Park and I spent many afternoons there. I haven't seen her in years but she come to mind everytime I hear this song. I know her mother Bonnie passed away recently.

1999, Prince - An anthem for my generation.

One More Try (Teacher), George Michael - This song came out in 1988. Several from George Michael sound alike but this is easily my favorite. Very mystical due to what sounds like a pipe organ, it reminds me of, really, nobody in particular, other than maybe Keith in Brooklyn.

Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody, David Lee Roth - This is just a very, very fun song, a remake of a big-band era (1929) less-than-fun song based on World War I life in Austria. David Lee Roth, the former and present lead man for Van Halen, hails from nearby Bloomington, Indiana.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Guns ’n’ Roses - Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1973 and it was later popularized by Billy Rose/GnR. It is another song bringing to mind my late friend Rob. He covered this on guitar. I like the music, Rose's rough voice (which my friend Keith mocks in a perfect impression), and the lengthy jam session, which is heavily laden with piano playing on the far right end of the 88 keys. It is a great song.



Load Out/Stay, Jackson Browne - the culminating song from the 1977 Running on Empty album, it is another of the long songs in the playlist. The falsetto from the Stay part of the song is memorable for many. And like so many of my favorites, it is played on the piano, starting from the fresh dark notes to the rollouts toward the end. It was the closing song for most of Browne's concerts.

Patience, Guns ’n’ Roses - This was the song for Rob and his girlfriend Tiffany, who lived over by Bowman Field. And, again, I'm an Axl Rose fan.

Black Water, The Doobie Brothers - I remember listening to this song over at my friend Janice's house on East Manslick Road when I was in the 9th or 10th grade. I used to ride my bike from my house to her's, a distance of exactly three miles.

Dream On, Aerosmith - Another high school fave.

Ben, Michael Jackson - What can I say? I loved the early sounds of a young Michael Jackson.

All Summer Long, Kid Rock - This is a very recent song, compared to all the others, debuting in the United States in April 2008, a crossover rock/country song. Admittedly, I'm not a Kid Rock fan but this is his greatest hit to date. I am a fan of the southern rock genre although very few songs on this list fit that category. Like Doctor My Eyes, many southern rock songs have an interior instrumental jam session. This song is an homage to Lynard Skynard and others from that era. I really like it.

It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday, Boyz II Men - This a capella version of a 1975 Rhythm and Blues song was released in August 1991, a few very short weeks after the death of my friend Rob. "And I'll take with me the memories, To be my sunshine after the rain, It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday."

Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks - This is a song from my early teen years, reminding me of my friends up and down Whippoorwill Road, especially Susan LaCour and Debbie Bischoff. We spent a lot of time at Susan's, whose room - I remember to this day - was decorated in many shades of purple.

Same Old Lang Syne, Dan Fogelburg - Janice Platt, again. Will it ever end?

I’ll Be Missing You, Sean Combs/Faith Evans - This HipHop ballad/homage to the late Notorious Big (about whom I know nothing) is a very moving song blending words from The Police's 1983 Every Breath You Take, and a line from the gospel song I'll Fly Away. It placed #1 on music charts all around the world following its release in 1997. Who among isn't missing a friend who we hope, as the lyrics say,"In the future, can't wait to see, If you open up the gates for me." Indeed.

Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd - I don't remember when, but at some point in 2004 or 2005, my aforementioned friend Migael took off to Cleveland. This song, which I've known forever, took on new meaning as I wondered if he would ever return to Louisville. He did.

For Once In My Life, Stevie Wonder - What is there not to like about Stevie Wonder? This song is a lot of fun.

Good Bye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John - No repertoire of songs for a 50 year old would be complete without an Elton John or two. Crocodile Rock was an early favorite of mine, a song my friend Glen Shumate played for hours on end at his house on South Park Road. GBYBR is my favorite Elton John recording.

Free Bird, Lynard Skynard - Hell, yeah. At 9 minutes, 6 seconds, it is the longest song on my list, or probably anyone else's. Free Bird is the quintessential southern rock anthem. It is the quintessential anthem for a generation or two of Americans, especially those in the Old South, for which Louisville (just barely) qualifies. It is a song that irrespective of the weather, if you are driving, you are prone to roll down the windows, turn up the volume, and sing along. I've been doing that since I first started driving in 1976, cruising around in my 1967 Chevy II Nova. I miss it. I miss it all.

*****

Well, that's it. Thanks for reading. What are your favorites? Why? And, how many of these have you been humming along with?

First Addendum to #649. Links to Videos and a Song List for the Birthday Celebration

The last entry discussed the celebration. Unbeknownst to me, my dear friend Migael Dickerson, along with Curtis Morrison (www.louisvillecourant.blogspot.com), were busy making two videos - a walking/talking documentary of the event - which have been posted on YouTube. The links to the videos are below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9MQVfk6stw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXELlwfsxKY&feature=related

Also, I mentioned that Lisa Tanner and Lauren Ingram made some CDs for me, something I referred to the "music of my life." I had them arrange the music in a particular order and I've listed the playbill below. I absolutely enjoyed listening to what I could during the celebration but couldn't hear all of it. I've since been listening while at home. Here is the list:

1.You’re Sixteen, Ringo Starr, 3:59
2.Hotel California, The Eagles, 6:30
3.Piano Man, Billy Joel, 5:38
4.Free For All, Ted Nugent, 3:20
5.Undercover Angel, Alan O’ Day, 3:40
6.Garden Party, Ricky Nelson, 3:59
7.Running On Empty, Jackson Browne, 5:20
8.Build Me Up Buttercup, The Foundations, 3:00
9.American Pie, Don McLean, 8:33
10.I’ll Be There, Jackson Five, 3:57
11.I Just Called To Say I Love You, Stevie Wonder, 4:16
12.Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Queen, 2:45
13.Lyin’ Eyes, The Eagles, 3:58
14.My Eyes Adored You, Frankie Valli, 3:37
15.Mandy, Barry Manilow, 3:19
16.Boys Of Summer, Don Henley, 4:47
17.We Are The World, Michael Jackson and others, 7:02
18.Killing Me Softly, Roberta Flack, 4:47
19.Doctor My Eyes, Jackson Browne, 3:11
20.Take It To The Limit, The Eagles, 4:47
21.1999, Prince, 6:25
22.One More Try (Teacher), George Michael, 5:17
23.Just A Gigolo, David Lee Roth, 6:00
24.Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, Guns ’n’ Roses, 5:40
25.Load Out/Stay, Jackson Browne, 9:06
26.Patience, Guns ’n’ Roses, 5:56
27.Black Water, The Doobie Brothers, 4:17
28.Dream On, Aerosmith, 4:24
29.Ben, Michael Jackson, 2:44
30.All Summer Long, Kid Rock, 4:57
31.It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday, Boyz 2 Men, 3:07
32.Seasons In The Sun, Terry Jacks, 3:36
33.Same Old Lang Syne, Dan Fogelburg, 5:20
34.I’ll Be Missing You, Sean Combs/Faith Evans, 5:30
35.Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd, 4:53
36.For Once In My Life, Stevie Wonder, 2:52
37.Good Bye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John, 3:14
38.Free Bird, Lynard Skynard, 9:06

Do you like any of these songs? Let me know. A few of them remind me of specific people or specific times in my life. Others I simply like. If you were at the party, you could have heard all of them since the play time runs right at three hours.

644. September Opens with a Democratic Opening

First, Happy September. Today is Buddy Vaughn's birthday. He is a friend from college days in Lexington and is a year or so older than me. To celebrate he sent me, via Facebook, Jerry Orbach's recording of September Song from the Broadway musical The Fantasticks. The Fantasticks opened off-Broadway the year I was born and ran continuously for forty-two years, making it the world's longest running off-Broadway musical. It reopened in 2006 and is still running. The story is a combination of Romeo and Juliet along with A Midsummer's Night Dream. But then most everything to me can be reduced to something from either Shakespeare or the Bible. Still, the song is one of my favorites. But this isn't a theater entry.

Rather, this is a political entry, albeit brief. If politics isn't your cup-of-tea, click on the "travel" link on the right and read about something else.

If you are still with me, it has been a good day politically here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. The Democratic Party opened its Coordinated Campaign Headquarters, which is being co-sited with the Jefferson County Headquarters at 640 Barret Avenue, behind the old Jillians, a few feet northwest of Broadway, specifically in precinct L115, the home precinct of State Representative Tom Riner.

A crowd of about 250 gathered in the parking lot under warm but comfortably breezy skies for the occasion which featured speaking from Congressman John Yarmuth, mayoral candidate Greg Fischer, State Representative Reginald Meeks, and U. S. Senate candidate Jack Conway. Food and drinks were served.

After that, I attended a fundraiser for Greg Fischer at the home of Congressman Yarmuth. For the purposes of full disclosure, I am a paid consultant to both campaigns and this criss-crossing of the two was convenient for me, if nothing else. After the fundraiser, I stuck around the Congressman's home with other friends and family members for several discussions of great import. Needless to say, I learned a lot simply by listening.

I'm not one to take too many pictures and I keep forgetting my phone doubles as a camera (among other things). I did snap a picture today of my friend Shawn Reilly at the earlier Democratic rally. I've always been appreciative of the fact that Shawn, along with Josh Mather, were the first people who came over to Yarmuth's headquarters after the '06 Primary in which their candidate for Congress came up short - within a few days. That was classy on their part. Here is a pic of Shawn at today's event.



That's all for now. September should prove to be interesting - and far more comfortable than August.

637. ME7-1387

Tonight's entry number reminds me of old telephone exchanges. My Aunt Louise Roberts' (nee Anna Louise Hockensmith) phone number was ME7-1387. In my mind's eye, I can still see my grandfather's writing in his little phone book indicating his little sister's phone number. She lived on S. Floyd Street in Old Louisville, just up the street from the old Saint Philip Neri Catholic Church. She herself belonged to Walnut Street Baptist.

My grandfather's other little sister was also in that book with the number 50-BU3-xxxx. I won't list the last four digits because Aunt Mildred Smith (nee Mildred Hockensmith) still lives in the same house over in Clarksville where she lived when I was kid. And, still has the same number. Back then, you had to dial 50- to call over to Indiana. For a while, you had to dial 502-. All that has changed.

Those telephone letters were remnants from the older telephone exchanges from around town. I'll be honest - I never used them. I learned telephone numbers had seven numbers, not two letters and five numbers, except in Frankfort where all the numbers began with 22- so you just dialed the last five digits. But, I digress.

You could tell where a person lived by their phone exchange. We had EMerson, MElrose, JUniper (or JUpiter), SPring, TWinbrook, WOodlawn, WEst, GLendale, and CEcil, all of which later in life became phone numbers beginning, respectively, with 36-, 63-, 58-, 77-, 89-, 96-, 93-, 45-, and 23-. Back then all those exchanges served a particular area. South End, Old Louisville, Downtown, West End, East End, Okolona, PRP/Valley Station, the Highlands, and Fern Creek. I'm not sure what the exchange for Jeffersontown was, with its 26- numbers; some combination of the letters A-B-C with M-N-O - maybe COral or ANne or something like that.

I used to always try to figure out where the exchanges changed, from one set of numbers to another. They were sometimes marked with higher-than-usual phone poles with those ubiquitous upside-down glass jars in a line across one of the poles' t-beams. Where Belmar Drive goes under the Norfolk Southern Railroad is one of those cardinal points, bringing together the 36-, 63-, and 45- numbers. Similarly, 36-, 96- and 45- came together where Durrett Lane and that same railway cross under the Watterson Expressway. Where Wathen Lane crosses the Paducah and Louisville Railroad was the demarcation line between 63-, 36, and 44-, the latter serving the Shively area (and another exchange whose "name" I don't really know). Another spot is along Pennsylvania Run Creek, south of Mount Washington Road, where the separation occurs between 96-, 23-, and the 95- exchange in northern Bullitt County, known in history as the Echo Phone Company and later the Pioneer Phone Company, serving Zoneton, Brooks, and what was then called Maryville but since the 1970s has been known as Hillview.

As I know you know, numbers, in various configurations, have always intrigued me. Phone exchanges are just another set of numbers, which when linked together, allow people to communicate. Kind of like notes on a scale in music. In the proper order, they make sense.

636. July 24th

My friend Rob died nineteen years ago today. It was a Wednesday morning. Below are the lyrics to Bob Dylan's 1973 song Knockin' on Heaven's Door, one of Rob's favorites. It was written the year he was born and gained wide popularity the year he died as part of Guns 'n' Roses Use Your Illusion album.

Rest in peace, Rob.

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

619. Luck Was A Lady

We ended the last entry with a song sung in the 1950s play Guys and Dolls. Staying with the theme, today's entry reminds us of a song performed in the 1955 movie version of the play. A very sultry and handsome Sky Masterson, portrayed by a 31 year old Marlon Brando, sang Luck Be A Lady. That was the story in today's running of The Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.

A record crowd of just over 116,000 watched the favorite Blind Luck (on the left in this Courier-Journal photo) win her race over Evening Jewel by a lucky nose's length on what could only be described as one of the prettiest days weatherwise in many years here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Rafael Bejarano rode the filly to a win in the 136th renewal of the classic race for fillies. A winning two dollar ticket paid $4.60, $3.60, and $2.80. Blind Luck ran the 1 1/8 mile race in 1.50.70 according to the Courier-Journal.

Tomorrow's weather promises to be wet and windy. If the sun is to shine bright, let's hope it does so late in the day for the 136th running of The Kentucky Derby. I placed my bets today on Stately Victor, Jackson Bend, and Noble's Promise. Odds at the time were 30-1, 15-1, and 12-1 respectively. As is my wont, I rolled some perfecta and trifecta boxes, hoping for a payoff worthy of today's weather. We'll see. As Sgt. Sarah Brown of the Save-A-Soul Mission sings in Guys and Dolls, come tomorrow night, I'll know.

Happy Derby.

618. I've got the horse right here, his name is Paul Revere . . . .

A little over two days and five hours from now will be the 136th running of The Kentucky Derby. I've got plans to bet on three horses - rolling them together in a perfecta box and a trifecta box. The horses are Jackson Bend, Stately Victor, and Noble's Promise (in the photo at right).

Below are the words from a song sung in the 1950 musical Guys and Dolls. It is called Fugue for the Tinhorns. It's about a horserace.

Happy Derby.

*****

NICELY NICELY
I got the horse right here
The name is Paul Revere
And here's a guy that says that the weather's clear
Can do, can do, this guy says the horse can do
If he says the horse can do, can do, can do.

(Benny starts singing his part at this time, while Nicely continues:)
Can do - can do - this guy says the horse can do
If he says the horse can do - can do, can do.

(Rusty starts singing his part as the time, while Nicely and Benny continue:)
For Paul Revere I'll bite
I hear his foot's all right
Of course it all depends if it rained last night

Likes mud, likes mud, this X means the horse likes mud
If that means the horse likes mud, likes mud
Likes mud.

I tell you Paul Revere
Now this is no bum steer
It's from a handicapper that's real sincere
Can do, can do, this guy says the horse can do.
If he says the horse can do - can do - can do.
Paul Revere. I got the horse right here.

BENNY
I'm pickin' Valentine, 'cause on the morning line
A guy has got him figured at five to nine
Has chance, has chance, this guy says the horse has chance
if he says the horse has chance, has chance, has chance

I know it's Valentine, the morning work looks fine
Besides the jockey's brother's a friend of mine
Needs race, needs race, this guy says the horse needs race
If he says the horse needs race, needs race, needs race.
I go for Valentine, 'Cause on the morning line,
The guy has got him figured at five to nine
Has chance, has chance, this guy says the horse has chance
Valentine! I got the horse right here.

RUSTY CHARLIE
But look at Epitaph. he wins it by a half
According to this here in the Telegraph
"Big Threat" - "Big Threat"
This guy calls the horse "Big Threat"
If he calls the horse "Big Threat",
Big Threat, Big Threat.

And just a minute, boys.
I've got the feed box noise
It says the great-grandfather was Equipoise
Shows class, shows class.
This guy says the horse shows class
If he says the horse shows class
Shows class, show's class.

So make it Epitaph, he wins it by a half
According to this here in the Telegraph.
Epitaph! I got the hore right here!

Easter

Today is Easter Sunday, the Day of Resurrection of Jesus. Without Easter there would be no reason for Christianity. With all its diverse beliefs, schisms, offshoots, sects, megachurches, tiny chapels, and divisions, through it all, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic or Orthodox or anywhere in between, all of Christendom shares with each other because of Easter. Happy Easter.

Below are the words of two old hymns I've known since I was little kid. They are two of the earliest songs I learned to play on the piano. Both remind me of my grandmother who died in 1976 and even of her mother, my greatgrandmother, who died in 1967. If I knew how, I'd provide a YouTube link for both of them. You'll just have to do that on your own.

The hymns are In the Garden and He Lives.

In the Garden
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The son of God discloses

He speaks and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet that the birds hush their singing
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing

Chorus:
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known

He Lives
I serve a risen Saviour, He's in the world today;
I know that He is living, Whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him He's always near.

In all the world around me I see His loving care,
And tho my heart grows weary I never will despair;
I know that He is leading Thro' all the stormy blast,
The day of His appearing Will come at last.

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs To Jesus Christ the King!
The hope of all who seek Him, The help of all who find,
None other is so loving, So good and kind.

Chorus:
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me - and He talks with me - Along life's narrow way.
He lives, He live, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives: He lives within my heart.

From the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Chapter 28, Verse 6: "He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

596. "Oh, he's my cousin"

I cut class today - no, I played hookie from work today. I didn't call in sick - I actually told my boss I wouldn't be in and he said ok.

Part of my unscheduled holiday was spent in Louisville doing those things you can't always get done during the day because you are at work. But I had planned my afternoon around a trip to Frankfort. (I know what you are thinking - how many times is he going to write about a trip to Frankfort pretending such a trip isn't just another in a series of the mundane adventures of a political junkie?). Well, here is another in the series.

Today's trip had little to do with politics. I attended a ceremony at the Old State Capital on Broadway honoring the conclusion of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial and the beginning of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. Today, of course, marks the 16th president's 201st birthday. During the last few years the nation has been celebrating the bicentennial of his birth. Many of those events have taken place in Kentucky, in places like Springfield, the Lincoln Homestead State Park, Larue County, and in downtown Louisville on the waterfront where we have a new larger than life size statue of Lincoln, created by Louisville's famed sculptor Ed Hamilton. All of those celebrations, at least in Kentucky, officially came to an end today. But with that closing of one door, we open another, the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War, or as some call it the War Between the States, or the War of Northern Aggression. Through the Kentucky Historical Society, of which I am a member, Kentucky will be marking the Civil War for the next few years. That program will be ran by Donna M. Neary, the director of Kentucky's Civil War Sesquicentennial Initiatives.

After the official program this afternoon, I found a friend in the audience, former State Senator Lindy Casebier, and we discovered each other's interests in being present today. I told him I wanted to meet Ms. Neary as she and I had already been exchanging tweets on the Twitter. She came over to our conversation and he made the formal introductions and an expansive conversation ensued. The end result is that I am hoping to somehow get involved in this sesquicentennial celebration as the Civil War in general, and the Civil War in Kentucky in particular, is something which holds my interest. My backroads travel of the Commonwealth often - regularly - involve stopping to read historical markers scattered across the state, many of which concern the Civil War. I have "cousins" buried here and there in the state, some with graves marked by a cross and the letter USA for the United States Army, while others have the same cross, but the letters CSA, for Confederate States Army. Most any Kentuckian with roots in the state have relatives on both sides of the blue and gray line. Again, it is something which interests me.

During our conversation, we somehow got talking about the colorful new interior in the New State Capital, which itself is celebrating a milestone, its own centennial. And at some point in that conversation I heard a familiar name and responded, "Oh, he's my cousin." I didn't go on to explain just how we were cousins as I have never thought of this person as anyone other than my cousin. I see him pretty regularly, we are the same age, and fairly close. But then it occurred to me that here I was in the Old Capital, which in the past housed the Kentucky Historical Society, which is the repository of so many genealogical records and resources, that maybe my casual reference to this person as simply my cousin was an orthographic faux pas. After all, we aren't simply cousins.

I have no first cousins. My brother and me are the only grandchildren of both sets of our grandparents. Our cousin-counting technically starts with second cousins, or properly, in some instances if we had any, first cousins-once removed - we don't have any. There is a nomenclature amongst genealogists, some of whom follow it with zeal and precision while others are lazier in their observance of the proper rules and terms. The person I casually referred to as my cousin is technically my third cousin-once removed. I am his second cousin-twice removed. Some people might call us fourth cousins. We share a common ancestor - Annie Collins. Annie Choate Brawner Collins was his great-grandmother. She was my great-great-grandmother. She lived at the fork between E. Main and Broadway, just east and opposite the Capitol Avenue bridge in downtown Frankfort. I've written about her before here on the blog. Whatever the technical relationship, in my family we're simply called cousins. And I have a lot of them.

*****

Before I left Frankfort, I stopped in my favorite Frankfort coffee shop, the Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe, located across Broadway from the Old Capital Annex. It is a ritual of mine although I've never been in there this late on a Friday. The time was about 6:30 p.m. There was a band setting up while I was there which was to be performing tonight to a sold-out house. Now, to be honest, there probably aren't 30 seats in the house, so selling it out shouldn't be difficult. For Louisvillians, the best way to describe the Kentucky Coffeetree Cafe is that of a true combination Heine Bros. - Day's - Old Louisville - Sunergos coffeshop with a little Rudyard Kipling thrown in for music. It is quickly becoming a cultural center for downtown Frankfort.

Tonight's band is The Farewell Drifters, based in Nashville, Tennessee. With one exception, they all looked about 22 years old to me - with one older. The promo picture at right reminds me of a Procol Harem promo pic from the 1960s. They have a website - thefarewelldrifters.com. The warmup was a very mellow combination of folk music and bluegrass picking, played a little too loud but I am sure with a full house it won't be. I wish I could have stayed and the truth is I probably should have. As a Jackson Browne devotee, I am sure, based on the fifteen or so minutes I was listening, that I would have liked their performance. Here is some copy from their bio:

"Zach Bevill (guitar, lead vocals) and Joshua Britt (mandolin, vocals) write eclectic folk songs unbound by tradition, yet invariably influenced by it. Add the rest of the Drifters – Clayton Britt (lead guitar), Christian Sedelmyer (fiddle), and Dean Marold (upright bass) – and you have a delightful synthesis of folk pop and traditional string band music that appeals to a wide range of listeners."

The coffeehouse itself has a website - kentuckycoffeetree.com. Those of you into indi music should check out their show schedule. Just remember, the seating is very limited. Also, they have a varied food menu and their beverage list isn't limited to coffee. There is also beer and wine, and being Kentucky, Ale-8-One in a bottle.

Another reason Frankfort is my favorite little capital city.

580. And So This Is Christmas

Some stories for Christmas.

This will be the second-to-last entry of the year, barring some earth shattering news, such as the governor calling for a tax increase, the Harrods Creek Bridge opening up, or the Republican Party discovering the teachings of Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas.

*****



The Gospel of Saint Luke, Chapter Two

The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

*****

Happy Christmas (John Lennon)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

*****

A Visit from St. Nicholas (Clement Clark Moore, 1823)


'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar plums danc'd in their heads,


And Mama in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap —
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below;
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a minature sleigh, and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name:
"Now! Dasher, now! Dancer, now! Prancer and Vixen,
"On! Comet, on! Cupid, on! Donder and Blitzen;
"To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
"Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky;
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys — and St. Nicholas too:

And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound:

He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys was flung on his back,
And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack:
His eyes — how they twinkled! His dimples: how merry,
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face, and a little round belly
That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly:
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle:
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight —
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.




*****

I Heard The Bells on Christmas Day (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1864)


I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head
'There is no peace on earth,' I said,
'For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.'

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
'God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.'

Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.



*****

Merry Christmas.

558. Weekend Wrapup

I was busy the entire weekend. Covered a lot of ground in many different places and a few different ways.

The busy weekend started with my friend Morgan Ransdell at Actors Theater on Main Street in downtown Louisville. It was a production of William Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. It was quite a production that, had it been a movie, might have been rated R or at least PG-13. The acting was interesting as the story was set somewhere in haze of the drug-infused 1960s, replete with a Volkswagen full of second-rate actors for the play-within-the-play, a Shakespeare staple. Older readers might recall sets from Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In or the old Dating Game.

As written by the Bard, the stars are Oberon, Titania, and Puck, respectively the King and Queen of the Faeries, and Oberon's special servant, Puck, sometimes known as Robin Goodfellow. As performed, the characters of Puck and Bottom (the Ass, from the Players Troupe) took the center stage of the viewers' attention. Eric Bondoc , my favorite for the night, played a very seductive and somewhat homoerotic Puck to his master King Oberon, played by Edward O'Blennis. Puck's unusual singing voice, a sultry lower-middle range, added to the intensity. O'Blennis' portrayal was a cross of Jimi Hendrix, Richard Pryor, the performer once and presently known as Prince, and a few others. He was great. Bottom was portrayed by Aaron Munoz who is transformed as an ass and plays lover to Queen Titania, which was played by Jessica Morris. Munoz as the Ass as well as his Bottom was over-the-top in so many ways. His ramblings around the stage interacting with nearly every other cast member at some point was excellent. We laughed through the entire production which was a litte long on time but never short on creativity and excitement. A great Friday night.

Saturday and Sunday were spent with Preston Bates touring the counties which comprise the 14th Kentucky Senate District, a district where it is anticipated a Special Election may be called for December 8. Preston was already in the area with his U of L History class on some sort of field trip to the Perryville Battlefield State Park in Boyle County, one of my favorite places in Kentucky and our stake in the tourist department for Civil War buffs. Waiting for Preston's class to end, I hiked one of the two loop trails, a distance of about 1.5 miles through Parson's Ridge, the Widow Gibson site, overlooking the Bottom House, up and down Loomis' Heights, along Doctor's Creek, and eventually returning to the Trailhead near the Confederate Cemetery and the Union Monument. I can use the exercise, and this little hike was probably the most I have had in years.

Eventually Preston and I joined up, leaving Perryville and headed to Harrodsburg. We viewed the site for the new Court House, going up on the same Civic Square where three previous courthouses have been erected. Harrodsburg is the county seat of Mercer County, one of the five counties in the 14th Senate District. We headed north out of town and out of the district into Anderson County toward the BG Parkway. As Preston's class had centered on the Civil War, I took him to the Salt River Baptist Church Cemetery in Lawrenceburg where, among many others, are buried distant cousins of mine, the Moore brothers, Samuel and James. Samuel and James were Confederate soldiers under the command of Louisville's Lt. Col. Bennett Young. Here is a trivia question for you. The Moore brothers of Lawrenceburg, Kentucky participated in the northernmost skirmish of the Civil War as privates in the 8th Kentucky Cavalry of the Confederate Army. The "raid" occurred fifteen miles from the Canadian border. Any takers on the name of the raid?

Also buried in the Salt River Cemetery is my 5-Greats Uncle and 6-Greats Grandfather, the same person, Johann Michael Hockersmith, a veteran of the Revolutionary War whose grave is marked by a Sons of the American Revolution plaque. He died around 1812. The cemetery and church date from 1798.

From there, as it was getting late, we took the Bluegrass Parkway over to the western side of the 14th District, to its most populous county, Nelson, and its county seat of Bardstown. However, again a detour. Preston has asked me in the past about the Catholic population of central Kentucky. Nelson County is the base of this popluation, and even before Bardstown was the community of Saint Thomas, home for Bishop Flaget's cabin, the Saint Thomas Church, and the original building which housed Nazareth College, the forerunner of my alma mater, Spalding University. The building dates from 1814. From there we went into Bardstown where we ate supper at a Mexican restaurant on Third Street. We called it a night and proceeded back to Louisville.

Sunday's trip covered the rest of the 14th District, beginning in far southern Taylor County at Tebbs Bend. This beginning again took us into Civil War territory. On July 4, 1863, while the rest of the country was focussed on battles at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and Vicksburg, Mississippi, another smaller battle was being fought over the Green River Bridge at Tebbs Bend in Taylor County. A confederate cemetery marks the spot and among its graves are those of James Hockensmith and Alexander Hockersmith, cousins of mine, both from the family of Johann Michael mentioned above. We left the cemetery driving into Campbellsville with its very non-descript courthouse built in the 1960s as well as Campbellsville University on the northwest side of town.

From there we headed north on US68 and the detoured onto KY208, an older path between Campbellsville and the Marion County seat of Lebanon. This road takes us through Calvary, a small town memorable for me as the place where my Ford Ranger PickUp crossed the 100,000 mile mark on the odometer a few years back. Ah, the memories. In Lebanon, we drove around several parts of town noting the statuary at the corner of Spalding Avenue and Walnut Street. Spalding heads out of Lebanon and Marion County and into Springfield and Washington County, following KY55. Nine miles of very good highway separate the two county seats.

In Washington County I am always interested in passing the Mordecai Lincoln House, once belonging to the president's uncle. I helped with its original fundraising drive for restoration back in 1979. Upon the death of Mordecai's father, Abraham, who was killed in a Native American raid in Jefferson County, Mordecai inherited his father's property in Washington County. The president's parents were married a little north of this site in 1806. Three years ago, a reenactment of that marriage was the official opening event of our country's celebration of President Lincoln's bicentennial. The marriage license marking this event can be found in Washington's 1816 courthouse, Kentucky's oldest still in daily use.

We ventured north out of Sprinfield past the Lincoln Homestead Park, using KY555, Kentucky's proposed Heartland Parkway. Although this is a very wide two-lane highway, you can see the even wider right-of-way marked by the fencelines, right-of-way which someday could allow for the construction of another two (or more) lanes. I've written before about this connecting road between Green River Lake and Taylorsville Lake, and it was on KY555 and its connecting KY248, that we returned home to Louisville, thus completing our tour of the 14th District's five counties, counties we will need to know all we can in a few weeks as we approach the Special Election.

I will add pictures later.

509. And the connection is what ?

You never know when a conversation is going to take an odd turn. A semi-regular Friday night habit is joining friends for food, conversation, and - importantly - half priced bottles of wine at Carly Rae's, a sprawling eating and drinking establishment in Old Louisville on the northwest corner of Oak and First streets.

Of these two regular friends for the occasion are first one who is just slightly older, a Fine Arts graduate from Murray State University and employed as the executive director of a quasi-governmental agency charged with a number of duties all related to the promotion of downtown Louisville. My other companion is considerably younger, African-American, and a graduate of some small college in the South followed by a prestigious law degree from Vanderbilt. He is a high-priced corporate attorney who I am confident is worth every penny he makes.

Our conversations typically center on politics - imagine that. While all three of us are Democrats, we represent different places on the spectrum, the executive director and I occupying varying roles left of center of the Party, and the attorney filling a libertarian, corporate and, shall we say, rather conservative slot to the right. As I said before, our Party is housed under a big tent.

Tonight's conversation was rolling along after several glasses of a Lindeman's Pinot Noir of 2008 vintage, along with, at least for me, a plate of Town-and-Country crackers slathered in old-style beer cheese. We had talked about the governor's race as well as his accent. We touched on Richie Farmer and Trey Grayson. There were comments on the Louisville mayor's race in 2010, whether or not this July 20th or 21st's widely expected announcement would bring on a cavalry charge of candidates, to use the words of our mayor in an interview last week on WFPL's State of Affairs radio program, should he decide not to run again, one which, in my opinion, would in all likelihood be won by a sitting councilmember who is already assembling a stellar group of supporters and staffers; or if only Tyler Allen would be competition for His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, something Allen indicated in a recent LEO article.

At some point, referencing back to the governor's accent, which I attributed to his hometown of Dawson Springs, a town I've been through on several occasion where the Beshear name is readily applied to a number of businesses and even the nearby state park lake, our discussion turned to western Kentucky and even far western Kentucky, where at length we spoke of how that land, west of the Tennessee River, came to be purchased by Andrew Jackson in 1818, hence the name The Jackson Purchase.


If you do not know the story, there was always a problem with Kentucky's (and Tennesse's) claim to this land, shown at least in Kentucky at right in the picture, which was home to and controlled by the Chickasaw tribe. After many attempts, negotiations between the tribe and the United States arrived at an agreement. The negotiators for the United States were Andrew Jackson, who would in two years become president, and Isaac Shelby, who earlier served as both the first and fifth governor of the Commonwealth. The land itself covered the territory east of the Mississippi River, south and west of the Tennessee River, and north of the the state of Mississippi, commonly known in Kentucky as the Jackson Purchase and in Tennessee as West Tennessee. Agreed to in 1818, it became law when the Treaty of Tuscaloosa was signed into law by President James Monroe on January 7, 1819.

So there we were discussing the Jackson Purchase when my one friend, the older one, responding to a comment by the other one, said, "Oh, that's like Michael Jackson."

Michael Jackson, really? WTF. We were a little dumbfounded as there was no real segue between the two, really none at all. We both allowed the third to make that connection, wild as it was, after which the conversation left the confines of Jackson's Purchase and turned to the life and times and untimely death of the singer all three of us seemed to like.

The question for my six faithful readers is what is the connection between The Jackson Purchase and Michael Jackson, other than the common surname involved, which had nothing to do with tonight's discussion. Until tonight I could not have dreamt of any. But, at least in the mind of my one friend, there is. If you have an idea, leave a comment. There are no prises for getting it right, just the idea that such a connection could be made.

504. Independence Plans

So we begin the second half of 2009. Time is flying.

Me and a friend a going for a hike in the Knobs State Forest, a 1000 acre spot not too far south of Louisville near Bernheim Forest. The Knobs State Forest just came into the state system in 2006. It is one of several places not too far away to go hiking, the others being Bernheim which is right next door, Taylorsville Lake State Park, the Jefferson Memorial Forest, and the various Riverwalk locations here in Louisville.

Tomorrow will be the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence by the Louisville-Jefferson County Democratic Party, something I've attended for a generation or more. We will meet at 9am at the corner of 5th and Jefferson and take turns reciting the various passages of Thomas Jefferson's document, here in the county named for him on a piece of legislation signed into law by him four years after the Declaration was adopted.

The Louisville Orchestra is playing a concert on the Jeffersonville side of the river at their downtown landing, shown here, on the evening of the 4th. I'm hoping I can find someone to attend with.


Celebrating birthdays on the 4th are Dan Mongiardo and Fred Gravatte. Celebrating on the 5th are Jack Conway and Dan Borsch. Is there a pattern? The 5th will also mark the date my grandfather, U. G. Noble, passed away in 1987.

Enjoy the weekend.