Month: January 2020

I Was Home

Sunflower Bean – I Was Home

I should be en route to the Sunflower Bean show/beer tasting that I excitedly bought a ticket for a couple of months ago. But instead I am home, doing nothing.

Not that I need an excuse but I have a few. 1) It’s actually over an hour away. That’s a lot of driving there and back. 2) I had some small cysts removed on Friday and while it was a very simple in office procedure, it actually was surgery and it hurts more than I thought it would (sorry for the TMI). 3) The friend I was going to meet up with texted me that she was thinking of bailing. She lives five minutes from the venue so if she wasn’t up for it, I feel less obliged. 4) It was only $15.

It bums me out because I just feel old and like a loser but I also felt like I’d feel even older at the show, standing there with a sore back and not enjoying it as much as I could and what if people bumped into me where the incision was, blah, blah, blah. Getting older sucks.

If I lived five minutes away I would have rolled on over there at 9 and seen what was what. I could easily have done an hour, maybe a little more. But basically four hours? Sadly not tonight. Hopefully Sunflower Bean comes back through in the warmer weather and I will be more up for it. I haven’t been to a show since September and I miss it.

Love, Love Alone

The Jody Grind – Love, Love Alone

Shout out to Prince Harry. Upholding family tradition by saying, take your royal protocol and shove it. He was never going to be crowned king anyway so what’s the fuss?

I was delighted to see the great Kelly Hogan, who I had only known as the singer of The Jody Grind, as part of Neko Case’s band when I saw her just about two years ago. Such gorgeous harmonies. She also helped transport the practice organ of the former Chicago White Sox organist (along with Max Crawford, from Poi Dog Pondering, who also works at Wrigley Field) from Chicago to Boston where Josh Kantor, who plays with the Baseball Project, lives. He plays the organ for the Red Sox (as well as a day job at Harvard), and that’s about the sum total of my baseball knowledge. In fact my knowledge about how all those musicians intersect is much more impressive than any baseball fact I might know. (Article linked above written by Annie Zaleski, who wrote the liner notes for the 25th anniversary reissue of Out of Time. Just to tie it all up with a bow.)

Wikipedia tells me that Kelly Hogan has been working for the cartoonist Lynda Barry since 2013, arranging her teaching schedule, etc. How many more of my favorite people can I cram into this post?

Coolest of the cool.