So much for another trip to Madison. I think there's a reason why I try
to make it a two day thingy rather than one. The feeling of getting up
at 7 to get to ready and take off around 8:30 to make the two hour
twenty minute commute. It marks the 15th year of going there on a
yearly basis. I got it now that I avoid the beltline altogether. To
get to the west side from college town, just follow Regent to Speedway to
Mineral Point and it will get you there. To the east side it's 151
although once again they're tearing up Washington Avenue. So I didn't
go to the PrePlayed store on that side of town. Didn't want to deal
with the rush hour and road construction. Plus I can only take so much
of the dumbass students who seem to walk out in front of cars every
chance they get and of course I got more than my share of them. If they
only had a brain.
Highlight was being in Goodwill just in time
for the power to go out. But part of the east side of Madison didn't
have working stop lights and it was rush hour and of course, traffic was
full of dumbasses as well. Don't know if there were any accidents but I
took the back way into town and avoided most of that and did come back
into working stop lights about a mile down the road. Of course they
were red.
Again hindsight tells me that I should have spent
another day up there. We finally got the two days of sunshine that I
wanted but due to my impulse judgement I called in work and went out to
the road. Got a awful Breakfast Burrito at McDonalds in Platteville and
paid the price all day. Had a Pollo En Mole at the Los Benevidas
before going home but they gave me beef in mole sauce and it was pretty
tough. Should have stuck with their king sized burrito. And after a
day of going through most of the record stores that I knew about and all
the HP Books and Frugal Muse Book Stores, I did the walk around Lake
Monona before pushing old Purple back on the road, back to home. In
another couple months, I'll venture back up there for a extra day of
bike riding and to see if I can bike ride around Lake Monona and get
rigor mortis all over again by drinking not enough water. Funny how 15
years ago, I could do this without any problems, but this one day event
tired me out big time. And I didn't find all that much in terms of
bargains either.
Other things of note-A woman out in California
bought a Keb Mo Cd from me the other day and I mailed it off Thursday in
Cascade before heading to Madison. She got the cd the next day!
People bitch about the USPS and so do I but I have to admit that I'm
very impressed on how they got that cd to California in a day. Hell, I
can't drive that far that quickly. I definitely need to thin out more cds
and after I get done writing this blog, I'll go do that. It's time for
the annual Crabb Easter Day Donation and it's time to give the gift of
music to the needy.
April 12, 1994. I met the one woman who
would be a part of my life for just about three years. I can't remember
dates very well, I don't remember her birthday nor her children but I
remember that day. I was downtown CR, bopping around the skyway and I
ran into Clarise at some lawyer's place. She was coming out and I was
bopping along as said. I used to see her at the old DeSoda's hangout
and we'd dance a while and cuddle but she then disappeared around the
time of the floods of 93 and thought that was the end of it. But we
managed to trade phone numbers and then became a couple. First two
years were fun and things were going well but cracks begin to show
around the time my appendix almost brust and starting signing on dotted
lines on things that I should have not signed on. I also remember the
Forth Of July 1996, when we got into our first argument and things
started to slowly go downhill after that. Thought about getting married
after coming back from the Vegas/Phoenix getaway 96 but we were
drifting apart. I also remember February 12, 1998, our breakup date.
She was seeing somebody else for the past six weeks and finally told
me. Sure there was tears and sadness but the next couple years I had to
find ways of getting my name off the damn trailer and had to get old
Purple back after she didn't make the last three car payments and damn
near tanked my credit rating. I still have memories of when things were
great and I still think Clarise is a good woman and mother. I think
both her sons have graduated from Prairie and Jesse, the third child
will turn 15 in May and wonder if his dad has anything to do with
him. I don't venture much into the trailer court where she lives,
it's out of the way. I do know when I did picked the car back up that
the guy she left me for, she booted out of the trailer for abusing her
kids. Which is why I never moved in, her boys would find ways to try my
patience. I haven't seen her in a decade but I'm sure she'd be
impressed that I remember a nice sunny day in April and for three years
we did our best to be together.
But she could never tame the
bargain hunter that was me and she never understood why I jump in a car
and go far for more cds. You can't change fact of life and i'm sure in
the end she resented it to the point of accusing me of sleeping around.
To which I replied I got barely time for you, I sure don't have time
for anybody else. Some people like food, or booze or messing around. I
just love music. That's all.
I ask myself how long am I going to
review new music and seek bargains. It's has been a labor of love for
22 years in the CD era but I'm beginning to tire of buying new music in
shitty digipaks and have decided that after the Bob Dylan album (which
will probaly be in a shittypak as I now referred them-the Neil Young
Fork In The Road and it's sharp corners didn't impressed me) unless it's
a band that I follow, that I'm not going to review anymore cds in
shitipaks. I know it's a fact of life that most bands don't care for
standard jewel cases and more power to them but that's why I didn't
spring for the Pearl Jam Ten reissue, even though I saw it for 8 bucks
used. The reason is that try driving down the road and trying to fish
out a damn CD that's in a double fold shittipak and just about losing
control. I got rid of a couple decent albums cuz of that. I don't have
the time nor patience for this. Better just to make a damn copy and
sell the cd off and let somebody else scratch it up. I also noticed
that Bob Dylan's reissues of New Morning, Dylan And The Dead, The
Basement Tapes and Before The Flood are in this new and unimproved
digipaks. So I'll review the new Bob but anything after this in digipak
your on your own.
And finally I got to hear John Rich's Shutting
Down Detroit and I found his new album in the two buck bins at HP
Books. The reason why it was two bucks that the Cd was already
scratched but not the point of being unplayable. I think it's the best
thing that Rich has done even with Big Kenny out of the picture for this
new album but anything after that song is the usual Nashville
grandstanding cliche. And Rich is very right wing although not as bad
as Ted Nugent or Rush Dumbass. While he sings about the Trucking Man or
the Solider fighting the wars, he also complaining about folks trying
to be him without being in his shoes and paying dues in Nashville. Only
problem is Rich was part of the Lonestar band, that odious pop country
band that had a big hit after Rich left the band. And the usual redneck
anthem, To Turn A Country Boy On, (Put on some Wrangler's and cut them
thigh high, Crank The Hank and the football game and chug a ice cold
beer (and later put out)). Drive Myself To Drink is a big band
arrangement that is out of the ordinary but for the most part John
Rich's Son Of A Preacher Man isn't anything to write home about outside
of Shutting Down Detroit. A good reason why there's Itunes anyway. In
other words, your typical country crock of cliche and half inspiriation.
Hoppy easter everybody!
Album grades
Neil Young-Fork In The Road (reprise) B-
Neil Young-Chrome Dreams 2 (reprise) B plus
John Rich-Son Of A Preacher Man (Warner Nashville) B-
