I was able to Endure, now i'm Damaged... am i Crazy?!

I've got nothin'. Or do I? It often seems like I have nothing of importance to say but when I get going, something comes out...

I'm beat.

And I'm down because I pay a lot of attention to the news. STILL, in the midst of the cyclone aftermath in Burma/Myanmar, the "government" there is showing less than very serious concern for victims. People are starving. People need medical care. No urgent need, thinks the leaders of that nation.

And then, my God, the earthquake in Communist China. If any consolation can be had it's from the fact that everything possible is probably being done for the victims of that tragedy. I hate to commend the Chinese government, who strips their citizens of what should be basic human rights, but they're working their butts off and truly mobilizing in huge and quick ways to help. Maybe, hopefully, someday they'll realize they need to have stricter building codes in earthquake-prone regions and then less people will die. Unless a 7.9 hits New York City, so many people would not die in the United States in such an earthquake. In the eyes of so many, we're such a horrible country... yet at the same time so advanced while the rest of the world lags behind and lets their citizens die in massive numbers.

It's just all so damn sad. I hate to post about such horror in the world... but it's important. And since I don't go about my life spreading that haze of sadness post in and post out and everywhere I go and to everyone I come in contact with, a little now and then does emerge from these fingers. Helps to get it out of me.

Had been a decent day until I changed the channel from ESPN (to real news) and until I started to read some news sites. No work today so I got errands done, laundry done, and then I killed myself with a run. Literally. I'm dead with no Dead pun intended. Dead i.e. deceased. I'm now a ghost.

Well... that's what it feels like. No, it just feels like I'm dead, totally wiped out dead. Time to recover.

58°, sunny, had my Spring debut yesterday... but it still feels so good to be back outside!

Tuesday early afternoon Run: 20 minutes 22 sec

+3 sec

XXXXXXXX++++++·-05 sec·++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time May: 2 hours 21 minutes April: 3 hours 51 minutes <-failed to pass March March: 3 hours 57 minutes

A wicked hard time with running today. Holy friggin' couch potato, Doogie Howser. I feel like quitting. Forever... and just sitting on the couch to watch TV from now until I'm 420 pounds.

Running indoors ROCKS. Why? No bear tracks and No chance of being attacked by a bear. Let's add onto that hell the fact that I ran through 20 minutes of thinking: "Just quit, stop, turn around, quit, you don't need to do this, quit, this is stoooopid, your legs HURT LIKE CRAP, quit, now, quit... etc." Yeah, that was fun. Music? What music? All I heard was that bull in my head while on and off I attacked it with a volley of: "STOP WITH THOSE THOUGHTS -- RUN -- YOU... CAN ...FINISH... THIS!!!"

Worst run all year... I think. Definitely my worst run in recent memory. Reason: the surface of the trail is different from the indoor track I've been so used to. Yesterday my run completely kicked my ass but I didn't fully know it until today... my quads were aching like a motherf.... but I wanted to push myself, I wanted to git 'er donnnne... I don't know why... I'm not trying to impress anyone... I just don't know... I guess because I'm not one to take it easy anymore... like I said, I wanna push myself. I did.

Twenty minutes down the trail and the walk back felt like 2 days long. When I got in my front door and into the shower I sat down and stayed there for over 20 minutes... I didn't wanna get out... but the darn water turned cold so it was either get out or get hypothermia... I chose the first one.

Now... I rest... and have a brief love affair with Advil.

Running tunes came from the album of the day...
	Plumb The Best Of 2003
Here With Me Sobering Stranded Endure Late Great Planet Earth Who Am I? Phobic Crazy Damaged Concrete God-Shaped Hole Pennyless Endure (Remix) Who Am I? (Remix) Crazy (Remix)

Who in their right mind puts out a Greatest Hits album after only 2 studio albums?!?! Plumb did so they could fulfill their recording contract before Plumb the band became Plumb the artist on a new record label.

I really dig this stuff. Tiffany Arbuckle Lee has a great voice and every song here has a cool "alternative" sound to it that I like. And while this is "Christian" music, there might not be a single utterance of the name God or Christ anywhere within the lyrics here. What that means is this doesn't cater to those who want in your face praise and worship while it does have mass appeal to those who want praise and worship without being so churchy preachy. I'm sure a lot of people listening to this might never make the connection.

Anyway -- here's some reading and reviews and some videos for Plumb from Jesus freak Hideout and Christianity Today.

find a dload @ Música Cristã MP3

VJ time!
not today. no video

Happy Bruce Day... that doesn't mean anything, just being ridiculous

I'm wondering... is there any love in the world? Is there any peace in the world? Well... is there? I'll tell ya this -- there's peace in my stomach! Or at least there was earlier, after I wolfed down a giganto stack o' chocolate chip-banana pancakes. It's not often that I go out to eat but this morning, after my shift, when asked I said sure, what the heck. That's always a dangerous thing; when given the chance I will over-eat to my heart's delight. Bad, bad, bad. Was there peace in my stomach or turmoil? After a 12-hour shift, that hit food hit the spot, without a doubt... so yeah, there was peace. But when I walked in my front door awhile later, all I wanted to do was turn into a statue and never move again.

But the thing is -- I had to move! Been 3 days since I last ran... I'm okay with that but I'm not okay with more than that so I absolutely had to motivate.

Now that that's done -- sleepy time, big time.

Trail Run!!! Outdoors -- Sunny, 58°

Late Monday Morning Run: 20 minutes 19 sec

+4 sec

XXXXXXXX++++++·33 sec·++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time May: 2 hours 0 minutes April: 3 hours 51 minutes <-failed to pass March March: 3 hours 57 minutes

Good deal. 6 runs in 12 days. Didn't add much time, a minuscule 4 seconds, but at least I ran! And it was outdoors!!

We have had some seriously dry weather for the past week or so and with the sun beginning to show itself for the day starting around 4:30 a.m. and darkness finally occurring around 11 p.m., lotsa time to dry out the land. That's exactly what was needed to be able to finally get back on the trail down at the end of my road. Actually I had one outdoor run a couple weeks ago... but on snow... yo. That's approximately 98% gone, still some patches down below some thick spots of trees, but the trail has dried out, the mud is gone, and the ground underfoot is nice and solid.

Just one problem -- my legs and feet have gotten used the gym, very used to the gym. There's quite a difference between the wooden track indoors and the dirt/rock/gravely trail. I felt amazing immediately after my run, no big whoop what-so-freakin'-ever. Now, after showering and sitting, my legs are like jelly, they're a bit weaker than usual.

So long as I don't fall behind my 50% frequency rate, I won't be worried. I'm just gonna have to adjust to this warm weather outdoor surface again.

Bruce Springsteen The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle 1973

320 kbps
	Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle - Part 1 The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle - Part 2

Not as good as his debut from earlier in '73... but still a great listen all the way through. 4th Of July and Rosalita are both incredible tunes and without them this wouldn't be too memorable. This may not have had great commercial success but it makes for a great stepping stone between that amazing first album and what comes next, the collection of tunes that would launch Springsteen way out there, escalating his popularity to legendary status -- Born To Run.

WHOOPS -- late edit: I completely forgot to mention, not that it really has anything to do directly with this album, the Grateful Dead connection here. Clarence Clemons has played with the Grateful Dead, maybe just once... and a whole bunch of times with the Jerry Garcia Band... all in 1989, I do believe.

The E Street Shuffle

4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)

Kitty's Back

Wild Billy's Circus Story

Incident On 57th Street

Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

New York City Serenade

Have some ice cream with your Bird Song?

Yesterday when the lady next door answered the bell, there was a man there. And the man said to the lady, "I'm terribly sorry, I just ran over your cat." See? That's sad. The poor cat. And then the man said, "I'd like to replace your cat."

And the lady said, "That's alright with me, but how are you at catching mice?"

HAAA!

I was flipping through channels and I caught the ceiling tea party part of Mary Poppins... good stuff. I need to watch that someday... been ages, simply ages I tell you. Ages!

Anyyyyyway... I'm at work and we're closing in on what'll be the the deadest hour. I'm soooooo bored. Wait, back up... that was actually a bad choice of words... or word, singular -- deadest. Technically that would mean, well, death and that's bad. Don't want death therefore it'll be the quietest hour, yeah, quietest works.

But quietest doesn't jive with using deadest hour in another way, you see. I thought of saying something like: how about I turn the deadest hour into the Deadest hour. You see how that works? Genius, huh? Yeah... I thought so, too.

I put together most of this post earlier but time ran short, I had to leave to get to the station for work at 9. When my shift is on I need to be ready to get into the ambulance and on the street in a moment's notice... no, really, like lickety-split up & out. That means I usually mostly avoid being on the internet which is cool with me... but now, since it's currently one of the quietest hours of the morning and odds are soooooooooo high that there won't be a call to go out on, I'm bettin that I can write this part up and Publish without bein interrupted.

Right, so, so far so good. Did I even need to put all of this up? Of course not... but it's what I do. Got a problem with that? Well... do ya? Punk!?

Good. What's good? Life in general, ya know. And it's good that I'm about to wrap this up! Sheesh, could I ramble any more? Probably. But nahhh... on with the show...

Before there were Jerry's Kids... there were Jerry's Kids!

Grateful Dead - December 6, 1980 Mill Valley Recreation Center Mill Valley, California

Dire Wolf, On The Road Again,
I've Been All Around This World, Monkey & The Engineer,
Jack-A-Roe, Cassidy, Bird Song,
Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie, Ripple

"This is sorta like rock and roll."
-Jerry Garcia-

Twas just over a year ago that I gave this show a listen and since then I've gotten the book that has a picture, maybe the only one known to exist, from this cool little performance... so I thought I'd do a whole entire re-post with a scan of the snapshot included.

Five weeks before this "show" the Dead had finished up a string of 25 shows with an acoustic set included in each. The Reckoning album was released (and re-released in an expanded version) featuring beautiful soundboard recordings from those acoustic sets. So why then is this rather brief set needed? Well, I'll tell ya why. Because I say so, that's why!

In all seriousness, if I live till I'm 500 and I've heard every Grateful Dead show, every Jerry show, every Ratdog & Phil show... in the end I will probably dig this set of music more than any other. There were no tickets sold, no pot smoking hippies here or Heads who had dropped acid... just some adults throwing this shindig, maybe some parents and some counselors or what-have-you... but primarily just kids with muscular dystrophy. Someone from the Marin-Sonoma chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association had invited them to entertain and they did.

I almost hate to criticize this show but it's kind of unfortunate the boys weren't inspired to throw something into the setlist to help add to the theme of the gathering which was a Christmas party. Maybe a little Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree? And late in the set a kid says, "I want rock and roll." Man, what cool thing it coulda been for them to throw something else in the mix. Ah well.

Still, what's here is simple and straightforward but beautiful none-the-less. It's interesting to hear, or not hear, the applause from the crowd where it should be at times, like at the first notes of Cassidy. It should be there... but this crowd doesn't know that. Also interesting to hear how small this gathering of people is. I really kinda wonder how many were in this room... 30 maybe? I don't know. Just an intimate, private audience and for a wonderful reason, to help bring some smiles to some kids' faces.

Source
Betty Cantor-Jackson's Master Audience Cassette > DAT > CD
·
Sound Quality
A/A+ ... Could seriously be a Soundboard,
it's not but really has that great of a feel to it.

12-6-80 Mill Valley @ Archive.org
for your listening or downloading pleasure

12-6-80 aka 12-06-80 aka 12/6/80 aka 12/06/80 aka 80-12-06 setlist download mp3 320 kbps

i couldn't think of a title for these mutterings so these mutterings will be untitled

Back to some music tomorrow. Maybe something tonight (but it won't be a soundboard download, just an Audience source of a GD show to listen to and/or download, if you want, from Archive, I guess.)

And back to Denali next weekend. Yesterday afternoon I
was -->this close<-- to going, at least for 24 hours or so. Can't really do much at Denali in 24 hours but all I wanted to do was put up a tent and sleep in the main campground and do a little hiking on the easy trails located near the main Visitor's Center...

then I got really tired and decided not to go. Yay. Stoopid night shifts. They don't allow a person, or this person, to normally be wide awake all day... I needed to catch my Zzzzz's yesterday afternoon just like I'll do again in a little while for work at 9 o'clock tonight. I'll be changing back to day->evening shifts this week so maybe next weekend I'll drive on down. We shall see.

With a broken leg all last summer, Denali was not included at all in anything I did. I've really gotta get back to the Alaska Range. It's right there, it's so close. Maybe that'll be my vacation this summer. I was thinking of going somewhere further away from Fairbanks but I can load up my backpack wander into the backcountry wilderness of Denali and feel like I'm a thousand miles from anywhere. Each evening I'd find somewhere with a gorgeous view of the mountains to stop and put up my tent for the night. Ahhhh.... well, I'd better stop daydreaming about it and save the typing for the actual backpacking trip recap.

For now, how about some...

Unconscious Mutterings

a free association game -- I say... and you think ... ?

1. Track :: Running

2. Snake :: Wrestler ... why that answer popped into my head I have no clue because I don't watch wrestling, I don't play wrestling video games, I don't care about wrestling ... beats me.

3. Assignment :: school
4. Blockbuster :: Video

5. Bombastic :: loud and annoying

6. Adventure :: Denali ... Hmmm... I wonder why that came to mind.

7. First time :: virgin

8. Aged :: cheese... or wine, perhaps a nice Barossa Valley vintage? Screw that Napa crap: Imperialistic American Scum!
9. Grip :: Get a Grip! Napa Valley wine's just fine, I'm only kidding

10. Shortcut :: What everyone wants in life, for everything under the sun. Right?

No answer here really makes me wanna throw up a related pic or a video... so hmmmmm.... I'll have to let my mind wander and find a good dessert for anyone who's interested in clicking Play...

Let's see... how about.......

Ridin' AZ shotgun...

I don't like grapefruit. Or peaches. But I pop into my mouth a few Vitamin C drops everyday and sometimes one of 'em is grapefruit... and I like it. Never would I eat a grapefruit, though or drink grapefruit juice... well, I suppose if I was starving but I just don't like it.

Similar thing with peach flavor and peaches. I used to like just fine peach Jolly Ranchers and then Peach Snapple Iced Tea... but never an actual peach. No, thanks.

Apples and oranges and kiwis and bananas and mangos and watermelon and cantaloupe and honeydew and grapes... sure. No peaches. No grapefruits. Sue me.

I don't know why I thought of that, it hasn't nothing to do with this...

some (other) randomness...

from my massive ginormous collection (numbering well into the dozens!) of personal photographs from through the years, here's a couple for maybe no other reason except to put something else up before I motivate this afternoon...

In my '67 VW bus, cruising westbound on I-40, I think this is west of Winslow, Arizona on the way into Flagstaff for the night.

A day or two after the Super Bowl in 1995, my friend Summer and I started the journey in the rural Virginia countryside, in the town of Sperryville, far from almost anywhere... heading down through Columbia, South Carolina & New Orleans, Louisiana, taking the southern route on the way to Fair Oaks, California which is right next to Sacramento. (She was moving there from VA

Shortly after that it was back to Salt Lake City for the first Grateful Dead shows of 1995 (and first in Utah since 1987) then back to Northern Cali for Mardi Gras shows in Oakland and then back to Salt Lake City for me. Whew. Somewhere in there there was supposed to be 3 Jerry shows at the Warfield which got canceled. Oh well... still a great trip... not including the fact that my bus had a cracked head requiring a 98 mile tow through the Mojave Desert at 2 in the morning which stranded me in Bakersfield for 3 days while Summer went on to Sacto via Greyhound. And also somewhere in there, after one of those runs of shows, I drove from Sacramento to Los Angeles and back, doing a favor for a friend driving him home and while down there I spent a couple days soakin' up the sun in LaLaLand. Man... I'm sure glad gas only coast like a buck and a quarter then!

(as usual, click to see bigger, if ya want)



Other pics from this journey: Texas - Earth - New Mexico

plus here's a GD shot from 1969 by Rosie McGee...

Caring...

Click anywhere... give

Cheeseburgers In The Sub-Arctic and The Duke Dies

I've gotta leave Alaska. Tonight helped hammer that feeling into me.

There was a going away party-thing-get-together for an EMT at work who is leaving tomorrow, going back to New Mexico where's he originally from. Twas a casual gathering at someone's home, complete with plenty of horrible beer (which I passed on) plus the grilling of burgers and hot dogs outside in the backyard. While people were free to go inside and out as they wished, most of the night took place on the deck where the grill and beer was. Warmest day of the year it was today; before the sun began it's long, slow descent below the horizon, we were all the way up into the low 60's. For many, myself included, it was the first backyard [BBQ*] of the year.

It's early May, closing in quickly on the middle of the month... and this was the first time I've had food off the grill this year. Because of the weather this far north, that's the way it is here... and that just doesn't seem right.

I dunno... I'd just really dig having four distinct seasons again, seasons that last longer than 3 weeks... which is about how long Spring and Fall are here... maybe not that short but it seems like it... while Winter lasts more than half the year, essentially... and I think I'm getting tired of it.

From the first snow in mid-October until it's gone in late April, I never complain... at least I can't recall complaining. I truly get a kick out of 20 degrees below zero (and worse.) It doesn't bother me... well, working outside sometimes, that can really hurt the fingers but other than that, it's interesting.

But come this time o' the year, I really get to thinkin how I might wanna end this Exile on Cold Street and head back where I'll be more at home -- New Jersey or New England... where the weather makes sense... where the wind don't blow so strange. Beats me. This much typing about it just has me confused. I've settled in here for almost 4 years now... but did I ever think it would be forever? The fact that I'm questioning that says no.

In any case -- had a nice night sayin goodbye to someone who's been my partner on dozens of shifts throughout the years. We weren't really close as friends but I guess we were work friends who'd have a beer after work or have breakfast after an overnight shift. Yeah, there was a bunch of that so it was good to know him and I wish him luck down in New Mexico.

* to BBQ I no longer consider cooking hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill because real BBQ is usually pork or beef, slow-cooked over low heat and is most definitely not flipping burgers on a grill!

Now, an attempt to get back to posting about some movies I watch...

Wake Of The Red Witch

1948

starring: John Wayne, Gail Russell, Gig Young


It has been at least a dozen years since I've seen this. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe like six or seven. Ya know what, I don't keep track of when I watch movies. It's been awhile and there was very little, if anything at all, that I remembered about Wake Of The Red Witch.

The Duke plays a sea captain in the late 1800's sometime, sailing the South Pacific and making his way from one island and one ship to the next. He's a complicated character -- rough, mean, nice, sensitive, daring, drunk, cunning. Of course, along comes a girl (Gail Russell) who complicates things between Captain Ralls (John Wayne) and his employer, Sidneye, a shipping owner who's got nothing on his mind except greed and revenge. The two never have a final showdown in the end but Captain Ralls has the upper hand all the way... which shouldn't be a surprise because he, John Wayne, is the star after all. There's an unexpected ending as the hero doesn't ride off into the sunset as he usually does. He leaves on his own terms, though because, again, he's John Wayne.

Seeing the Duke in this setting isn't my favorite. Always better he is, I think, in a military uniform or on a horse... or both. This was certainly different. His character has a lot of range here and the story seems quite complex for the time, more so than other John Wayne movies. Overall not nearly one of the best but it was alright.

This world works so beautifully, doesn't it?

WEEKEND, BABY! Yeah, that actually doesn't mean much to me. I don't have to work again until Sunday night so I do have (most of) the weekend off... but that's not always the case. Working a Saturday or a Sunday is a usual occurrence for someone who serves the community.

Anyway, let's see here... anything of substance this morning?

Burma/Myanmar sucks. Their IDIOT government wants foreign aid in the wake of the cyclone that struck there a week ago. But right now aid workers are sitting on their asses twiddling their thumbs in neighboring countries while visas are continually being denied or taking for-freaking-ever to be issued. Meanwhile -- people suffer. Meanwhile meanwhile -- much of the world doesn't care. I dunno for sure, that's just a cynical guess. All people can do, basically, is give a few dollars but I wonder how much of that is going on. As it appears at the moment, supplies are hardly getting to those who need them anyway. The brutal, murderous junta (military dictatorship) "running" that country is the biggest example of schmuck-face dooshbagery in this world right now. They almost make Ahmadinejerk and Kim Jong Mentally Il look sane. They certainly make the Bush regime look like a bunch of haloed Easter bunny genius angels in Santa Claus suits with bells on. Hurricane Katrina and the response to that was a spilled glass of water compared to the cyclone and aftermath in Burma.

The events there have turned from tragic to... I'm literally shaking my head at how insane this all is. In many affected parts of the nation, there's NO sign of any aid at all. Corpses, decomposing, lie about here and there with no one to pick them up. Not a few, not a hundred... thousands of them.

WHY DOES THE WORLD ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?!? The world, collectively, goes about their business and allows a "government" like the one in Myanmar to do whatever they want... and now TENS OF THOUSANDS are dead, MILLIONS are suffering, homeless and without food and water. Military dictatorships who treat their people worse than dirt need to be forcibly removed from power. Sanctions against these nations just prolongs suffering and things do not change.

God, I envy (sometimes) the Americans who go about their lives not giving a crap about the rest of the world outside of their immediate line of sight.

I just can't be that person.

still muddy trail but getting close to being runable... for now still indoors.

Friday After Work Run: 20 minutes 15 sec

+6 sec

XXXXXXXX++++++·14 sec·++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time May: 1 hour 40 minutes April: 3 hours 51 minutes <-failed to pass March March: 3 hours 57 minutes

Couple hours ago, after my shift was over at 9 a.m. this morning, before I came home, turned on the news and got mad and sad, determined to keep up my current running frequency, I headed straight to the gym to the get my needed exercise in.

5th run in 9 days. Nice. Another good 20 minutes. I've been having no ill effects from this increased amount of running and these days these runs go pretty smoothly. After that misfortunate leg fracture last spring, I've certainly recovered and am doing well on my way to longer and longer running times... of course that's taking forever, it seems, but slow and steady wins the race... not that I'm running a race but what I'm a sayin' here is slow and steady is helping to better assure myself that I'm not pushing it too much, possibly dangerously so. Last thing I want is to be sidelined.

Running tunes came from the album of the day...
	Fee We Shine 2007 (debut)
All Because Of Jesus We Shine Glorious One Burn For You Beautiful The Blood Happy Day Life High Victorious Grace Will Be My Song Broadcast Faithful You Are The Light

This is a fairly kickin' album. I had a feeling it would be. At the moment I don't listen to Christian radio but occasionally I check a Weekly Top 20 List and Fee, with the song "We Shine" (I think) was on their for awhile... maybe even reached #1? Just checked again and they have a song at #5. Popular new band, they are. Very cool.

Their debut from last September has really put them in a national spotlight. Lotta loud songs here with a nice amount of guitar to give a good edgy sound at times... especially with the Number 1 single here -- "We Shine". Holy cow, the video below shows them (loudly!) playing this song in church. How cool is that?! Other songs on the album aren't as fast and as "alternative" sounding as We Shine but overall it's a good mix that doesn't get too fluffy. Lyrics stay right down the middle, not overly preachy but at times they are raising up Christ directly by name rather than wandering into ambiguous territory. Some Christian music reviewers will not exactly applaud Fee calling them unmemorable and cookie cutter but they are what Christian music needs in order to give fans a wider array of artists to listen to.

find a dload @ Música Cristã MP3

VJ time!
From the North Point Community Church
in Alpharetta, Georgia -- Fee with "We Shine"

Shenandoah in the Garden

Hi.

Well, Spring has Sprung here in central Alaska... for real... sort of. The ice on the Tanana River has achieved break up and the water will be moving towards the ocean soon. Before that happening, Spring was here... technically. Psychologically speaking, we've turned a corner and today is a new day. Spring is truly here. It's time to look ahead. Couldn't do that before, nope, 'cause there was a wall up, a barrier that couldn't been seen over. That wall's been toppled and the future is in my sights. Actually I don't see a whole lot on the horizon that's definitive, but at least I know the future's out there.

First things first -- I need to think about a vacation! Somewhere, anywhere (almost) that I'll be free from the internet, free from work, free from most everything that revolves around living this daily life that I live. Not that it's a bad life... but I need a break to not have a care in the world 'bout nuttin'! Yeah, that would be nice. It's been over a year since I've had anything that resembled a vacation... I could really use a few days to decompress, recharge, and to just be. Ketchikan maybe. Or Dutch Harbor. Or Burma to help with everything that needs helping there. That wouldn't be much of a vacation but helping others in need should be my #1 priority in this life... not self. Never self.

Now that I've nicely messed up my idea of going hiking and relaxing somewhere for a few days, let me move onto the main course for this post: some music, maestro... tis time to Press Play!

Grateful Dead September 24, 1991 Boston Garden Boston, Massachusetts

1st Set: Let The Good Times Roll, Feel Like A Stranger, Althea,
It's All Over Now, High Time, Beat It On Down The Line,
Big Railroad Blues, Desolation Row, New Speedway Boogie

2nd Set: China Cat Sunflower-> I Know You Rider,
Women Are Smarter-> Ship Of Fools-> Dark Star->
Drums-> Space (w/some Shenandoah)-> Foolish Heart->
I Need A Miracle-> Standing On The Moon-> Around And Around

Encore: The Weight

In the 1990's when I was in full Dead swing, you might say, there was a serious drawback to going to college anywhere West of the Appalachian Mountains: Fall Tour was not entirely doable, I'm sad to say. Fortunately for me, my school -- the University of Utah -- was on a quarter system at the time. Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer versus the normal three semesters. What that meant was we didn't have our first class until about September 18th-ish at the earliest. What that additionally meant was in September of '91, before I had to depart the East Coast to head back to Utah, I got to see some shows on that Fall Tour.

That was a pretty nice tour, overall -- and a pretty good year overall -- with my highlight being, and I hate to sound like I'm bragging here, 9/10 at Madison Square Garden with special guest Branford Marsalis. After seeing that, quantity no longer mattered. I saw a bunch at MSG that run but no Boston Garden. Too bad for me, in a way... but at the same time, I had a great Fall.

After MSG, some good shows took place over those 6 nights in the Gahhden... and this just might be one of the two best.

LTGTR! It might not be a kickin' Bucket or Bertha or Jack Straw... but it's a pretty fun way to open a show! If only maybe they'd taken some time to rehearse a nice transition into what would come next. Ahhh well. Criticism aside, what does come next really helps to set the groove for this night -- Stranger is perfection! One title for this show that I had in mind -- The Bruce Hornsby Era Was Way Too Short! Man, he shoulda stuck around for the duration 'cause what a beautiful difference he makes! His piano playing helps make Stranger absolutely perfect. Then again, listening to this show for about the 3rd time in a week now, I can't help but be impressed by the entire band here just blowin' this outta the water! Sooooo nice!! And then Althea is just more of the same and Bruce again totally shines on All Over Now. He's a musical genius on piano and with this music he fits in amazingly.

I hate to sound like a freakin' broken record but the rest of the set is just more greatness right until halftime. Jerry hits every word and every note of High Time making that just beautiful.

BIODTL is the set's main speed dance tune... but uh oh, there's only the briefest of pauses before it's time to boogie to Jerry on Big RxR... a great number for Phil as well as Jer, both of 'em right up until Bruce takes the spotlight then Jerry's turn again while Phil never misses a beat! Oh mama! Those two songs back-to-back makes for a great little 8-minute dance-fest!

After Desolation, there are a few blown words from Jerry in New Speedway but here's a case where it just doesn't matter because everything's been going so perfectly; some missed lyrics here mean nothing. What an interesting way to close the set. They'd been playing Speedway all year... but for the first time since 1970!

China->Rider to open Set 2 -- heaven. Just breathtaking. There's no need for me to elaborate... but I will, a little. It's not often when I say that I'd really like to give the Aud of a sweet, sweet soundboard a listen but I wanna give, in the future sometime, the Aud of this a listen. Why? Moments like right after the first line of Rider when the crowd always cheers at that spot... and when Jerry just NAILS with such intense emotion "I wish I was A HEADLIGHT, on a northbound train. I'd shine my light through that cool Colorado rain." Holy freakin' crap. It brought me to tears... again. When Jerry is really on, that's perhaps my favorite part of any song... and yeah.... I'll get choked up like I am now after hearing it about a minute ago. That's the show right there. Anything else after this just doesn't matter.

But since Jerry's right on the money tonight, after a nice Man Smart, Woman Smarter, how about an almost stellar Ship Of Fools? A few flubbed words take away the total perfection but still an A+ version!!

My pinnacle had passed in that Rider but for most everyone in the arena that night, I've gotta wicked feelin' that Dark Star is their moment. Second appearance on the tour with the first being that night a couple weeks ago in Noo Yawk with Branford. Well, sorry, folks, it can't be better... but it can still be pretty nice. Another bit of heaven to be sure... and another song for Phil to really stand out... sweeeet.

If you listen closely during Drums, thanks to the soundboard, you can hear Mickey, I think, often letting out a yell that seems like half a chant at times. I'd love to see the video of this because you can clearly hear Billy & Mickey really enjoying themselves. They have a pretty go at it but not for too long before they exit and the others come out for Space. And here fans get such a treat... over halfway through it kinda sounds like they're setting up for I Will Take You Home... of course that won't be played as it's a Brent tune but the tone here really seems like this is Summer or Spring of 1990 and not Fall in 1991. Onward they play... whoa... what? Shenandoah? Seriously, Jer? WOW! For just a moment it's there then it's gone then bits come back... but altogether it's so much Shenandoah Lullaby you could reach out and wrap your arms around it... wow. Do I use that word too much? Or these two -- so sweet!!! Wow. Soon after that Foolish is in full bloom but I'm still recovering from how cool that Shenandoah moment was.

Everything on this night is just hitting so magnificently. Foolish is practically flawless and then with Miracle it's audience participation and Bobby having some quick fun. Standing On The Moon... I'm... again practically speechless. Another plateau. Another!

Around And Around is pretty typical but a fun way to get that last bit of dance goin' before we get one of my favorite encores -- The Weight. With Bruce I think this is even better. He adds an extra bit of greatness to the tune. The crowd, of course, goes nuts when Phil takes his verse. Everyone throughout is right Dead on, pun intended. It ain't even a Grateful Dead song but who cares! Almost any non-GD song the Dead do, they make it like it's their own. The Weight is one of those all the way. The smile on my face and the tears in my eyes as it comes to a close... yeah... I knew my time spent seeing shows in the 90's wasn't a waste. I knew it! This show is an example of the greatness that there still was. Hell yeah!

Source: Soundboard > DAT > CD
·
Sound Quality: A+

9-24-91 Boston Garden @ Archive.org
for listening only

-or-

Download It Right Here

9-24-91 aka 09-24-91 aka 9/24/91 aka 09/24/91 aka 91-09-24 setlist 320 kbps mp3 SBD download

From May 2 to May 9, there've been over 150 show downloads from this blog. 0 comments related to all that download activity. This will be the last show I post unless people start getting more involved with commenting about the shows you download. It truly saddens me that people are so... I don't know what to say. You have time to download but not say thanks? Will i give you AIDS or something if you leave a friendly comment? Get involved. Stop letting this be all one-sided. Grateful Dead 9/24/91 Boston Garden - 1st Set · Set 2, Part 1 - Boston 9/24/91 · Boston 9/24/91 - Part 2, 2nd Set

When the Tripod Falls... the Divinyls Play... and I Run

There's no lottery in Alaska, at least none of the usual daily and/or weekly games of chance where you hand your money over, pick a bunch of numbers or scratch off the little thing-a-mobs and then discover you've just wasted your money and might as well have paid for the air you breathe... but Alaska has the Nenana Ice Classic.

The small village of Nenana, population 402, is located about 55 miles down the Parks Highway on the way to Denali, Talkeetna, and Los Anchorage.

A few years ago, 1917 to be precise, a bunch of railroad workers had time to kill while they waited for ice on the Tanana River to clear so they could begin... (you have to sing this like Elmer Fudd:) workin' on da wailwoad ... of course. What else would they be waiting for?! Eh? The lifeguard to come on duty so they could go for a swim?! (Actually I read they were surveyors for the railroad wanting to build a dock on the river but it did have to do with the railroad and Elmer Fudd doesn't sing: "I've been workin on the dock, all the wiv wong day."

Anyyyyway... the workers all took bets on when the ice would break and the river would begin to freely flow once again. Since that time it's been a tradition for local folks to make the same bet every year. That annual guessing game has turned into Alaska's only form of a lottery. People can buy tickets and guess the date and time when the ice will move 100 feet downstream, triggering a cable attached to a clock on shore to stop that clock right at the magical moment Spring in central Alaska unofficially begins.

Half the proceeds from ticket sales go to local citizens who work selling the tickets as well as to local charities that help better the community... so basically it's kinda similar to other lotteries in the United States except this one happens just once a year and is dependent on four feet of ice breaking.

The moment of truth this year occurred last night at 11:53 p.m. The winning ticket holder, or ticket holders, will receive just over $303,000. If you convert that to Euros I think that'll buy a Vespa.

I didn't win. I don't need a Vespa anyway.

my trail's impossibly muddy for running... so still indoors.

Wednesday After Work Run: 20 minutes 9 sec

+7 sec

XXXXXXXX++++++· 1:19:59 sec ·++++++XXXXXXXX

Run Time May: 1 hour 20 minutes April: 3 hours 51 minutes <-failed to pass March March: 3 hours 57 minutes

While Fairbanks was coming alive this morning, I was just getting off work from the overnight shift. Today would be a run day... another run day. The push is really on for my Total Time in May to eclipse March. Of course I could totally blow it but so far so good. If I keep my percentage of days run at a minimum of 50%, I'll be doin' okay. Today -- Run #4 in 7 days. Doin' okay.

I was under way with a pretty good-sized paragraph here about why I exercise. Often I wax a little on that subject but this was headed towards 500 words and beyond if I didn't be careful to keep it brief. Another time, though because what an important subject, I think, for me, and for every able-bodied person to try to stay healthy!!!

So anyway, no horribleness from my increased rate of running lately and today I added a whopping 7 seconds -- I'm on my way up!!

Running tunes came from the album of the day...
	Divinyls self-titled 1991
Make Out Alright I Touch Myself Lay Your Body Down Love School Bless My Soul (It's Rock-n-Roll) If Love Was A Gun Need A Lover Follow Through Café Interlude Bullet I'm On Your Side

"If you gotta have disposable pop music" begins a sentence by the Infinite Fool about this album. Yeah, I do gotta have disposable tunes, I mean sheesh, this blog is proof of that! If I didn't run, I'd probably never listen to half the music that I do. I just wouldn't care that much.

Sometimes I get something into my ears that's really good, that I'll play a good handful of times leading up to the day that I use the album for a run... and I know I'll dig having that album for future listens.

Other times I press play on these suckers sometimes just two or three maybe... they serve their purpose well but in the long run (no pun intended) -- mostly unmemorable and quite disposable.

This album -- kind of in the middle. That one quite naughty song on here, I heard that a lot on KJQ back in Salt Lake when that was the one radio station I listened to for a couple years time. The Divinyls are still a fairly popular band in their homeland of Australia... here not so much. But in 1991 they hit the big time with that tune and the equally (if not more so) provocative video (seen below.)

The rest of the album isn't that bad. I bet some people'd argue that I Touch Myself pales in comparison to other tunes on here. It's a good "alternative" kinda new wavey early 90's sound. There's a reason this album made it to #5 on the Aussie album chart and to 15 in the U.S. -- lead singer Christina Amphlett has got one heckuva sultry and seductive voice and along with guitarist Mark McEntee, they make some good music.

find a dload @ Infinite Foolisness

from Sydney, New South Wales...
Divinyls -- "I Touch Myself"

LT & MM

Cartoon Time!

I love Looney Tunes & Merry Melodies cartoons... I've never done it but I could watch them all day long! They weren't made for kids, you know. It's a shame they're not on Cartoon Network anymore. Yeah, yeah, they're on Boomerang but I've gotta pay extra for some package of channels with that one and I don't... but I've got the DVDs! I don't like to own much in this world but those are cherished items of mine, without a doubt!

Anyway... I'm at work right now and I'm taking a gamble that I can give a few minutes to this without getting a call... when one comes in I've got to jump and go without clicking this and that to save my work and log out, yada yada yada.... anyway, I've got speed this up -- faster, Chris!! .... I kinda wanted to put up a quick post tonight... but what since nothing I do is really that quick?

I'll (hopefully) be putting up another Dead (or GD-related) show on Wednesday afternoon (can't say what, that's between me and my uncle... HA, get it, Me & My Uncle... GD... anyyyyyway...) but for now how about some cartoon entertainment for anyone who's interested?

I don't generally care for Youtubery but eh, I might be embracing it... a little bit. These are the best cartoons in the world, methinks, so I just might make this a regular thing.

On with the show...

from: 1948, directed by: Robert McKimson

starring: Foghorn Leghorn and Henery Hawk...

"The Foghorn Leghorn"

Breakfast with Jerry

Oh boy, 9 pm as I begin to create this post... coffee is made and is this my morning? Or what? Earlier this afternoon on into the evening I slept, close to 8 hours worth of Zzzzzz's. Now I'm awake and I'm ready to go! I tell ya, working my "normal" daytime/evening hours and then changing my schedule for awhile to work the night shift, man, that really messes me up. Okay, maybe not really so much... but seriously, is this my morning? Do I eat breakfast now? Did I mention it's 9 in the p.m.?

Anyway... I wanted to give this show another listen and post it up before I went to sleep... but seeing on the news all that death and destruction in Burma really wiped me out. Stoopid darn freakin' cyclones. In moments like that I reflect upon what Bob Weir said one summer night in 1995 -- "music can be used to ease us through the sad times." Yes... tis very, very true... but sometimes you've gotta put the tunes on hold for a little while. Burma really needs help right now and I hope everyone reading this cares enough about human lives to fork over a couple bucks, at least, to do a tiny part to help out. Two bucks seems like nothing... but believe me, aid organizations welcome every dollar they get... and the government of Burma is NOT going to do everything they can to help all the people who right now have nothing. Not only will they not do everything they can... there's little that they can do. Those people who were slammed by that storm, they're human beings... and they need the help of fellow human beings. Alright? So give, darn it!! (Handy links in the post just before this one.)

Well, now it's time for some music! Yes, yessir indeedy, and I don't announce any old music like all those assorted albums I use for running... nah, that's all well and good in my ears but this is truly what makes my world go 'round... and if it helps make yours go 'round as well... then enjoy!

Jerry Garcia Band - March 2, 1985 The Stone, San Francisco

1st Set (partial)
Let It Rock, Simple Twist Of Fate, Deal

2nd Set
How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You),
When I Paint My Masterpiece, Run For The Roses,
Gomorrah, Reuben and Cherise, Midnight Moonlight

So now how many years has it been since I've listened to some JGB from 1985? Anyone know? I have no clue... but it's been awhile... how long? Too long, I say! Too darn long!! (The whole problem is these days and weeks and months -- they're all too short!!!! We need more time in this life, more time for all this GREAT music!)

Anyway... in the first 60 days of 1985, the Grateful Dead had only played 3 shows and t