"Shroud", a Photograph by Danielle McArthur

November 21st, 2013, Little Red Hen, Green Lake, Seattle.

You Can Take the Boy Out of San Francisco...

Well of COURSE that's gin in that wine glass; all the Martini glasses at the Hen were broken...

IBL:mm

Fire Hydrant Plus Brief Story

It's no secret that I see, well, crosses here and there in the world around me.  Yesterday at the Woodland Park Zoo, in my new hometown of Seattle, I thought I saw a cross in this little fella, so bent over to take a snap.  Even as I did, I wondered if somebody might see me and, as I was likely obscuring the hydrant, wonder what creature I might have in my sights.  Well, Danielle reports that a woman walked by and and said to her companion, "I wonder what that woman is taking a picture of, maybe a peacock?" (I believe the zoo has exactly ZERO peacocks on display; I believe that, should you not know me, it was my long hair that fooled her.)  When I stood up there was palpable disappointment on her part, I suspect due to the lack of peacock.  "Wrong on both counts," as Danielle opined...

I decided not to keep the photo; I only include it here for the purposes of the story...

IBL:mm

Danielle Makes A Friend...

@ the Woodland Park Zoo yesterday.

"Chantilly Lace"

An original IBL photograph taken November 21st, 2013, Little Red Hen, Green Lake, Seattle.

Just Working My Shit Out

A fair amount of my crosses spread out on the bar at the Little Red Hen, November 13th, 2013.  Yep, I'm drinking a Kibble - Bombay Sapphire and Heineken (twin towers of a sort).  Only one bartender at the Hen will have any idea what you are talking about should you decide to order via this route, so check with me before you go hog wild, okay?

IBL:mm

"Light"

An original IBL photograph taken November 16th, 2013, Tractor Tavern, Ballard, Seattle (prior to Alejandro Escovedo).

"Sag Harbor" by Colson Whitehead

Read this book.  You will probably like it.  We could even talk about it later if you wanted.

IBL:mm

E.E. Cummings After the Least Uncomfortable Prostate Exam Ever -

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands


IBL:mm

"SE Corner of E Green Lake Way N and 4th Ave. NE, Seattle, WA"

An original IBL photograph taken November 9th, 2013, outside our very own homestead in Green Lake, Seattle.

My Mother Weeping Big Old Blub Crytears

on a couch in the living room when I was living on Pacheco Street in Santa Cruz with George Angel, Denise and Beth.  At the time I was dating Jamie, and she'd been over for dinner maybe and then gone on to her own place.  Wait, I take that back - I was sleeping on the couch and had given my mom the bedroom.  And George and I stayed up late and were bullshitting about this and that and, eventually, he went to bed and I did the same, and that's when I heard my mom crying in the other room, just bawling.  So I knocked on the door and went in and asked what was wrong.  It seemed out of the blue, her tears, though it was not that long after my father died, less than a year I guess, so maybe I figured it was that.  But it was not that.  No, instead she was crying because she was afraid that I was going to marry Jamie, and Jamie wasn't a Catholic.  That is what she was crying about, that.  Now, at the time, I likely thought I was going to marry Jamie, but I'm pretty sure I consoled my mom with the thought that such a scenario was inconceivable, not to worry.  I mean I didn't know what else to do, she was in such a state.

Stay tuned for the follow-up vignette wherein I actually marry Danielle, and my mother declines to come to the wedding.  Good, good times...

IBL:mm

O! The Poor Whites Are In Trouble Again!

Southeast corner of Main Street and Occidental, very near Pioneer Square, Seattle.  You see all kinds of interesting things when you walk around.  No word on the larger fort but I'll keep looking.

IBL:mm

Interlude - Fictitious Observation

So I was watching TV the other night and Christian Mingle had a woman on their ad with some seriously nice tits, I mean really, really good.

IBL:mm

Interlude - You Tell Me

Hey, remember that one time Jesus died for our sins up on the cross? That was freakin' AWESOME!


IBL:mm

"Cross"

Pen on coaster, 3.5 x 3.5 inches, 10/17/13.

In truth, I must claim this as a "found" cross.  I was at the Little Red Hen with Alice and Don Rudolph one evening, and Don was maybe drawing directions or sketching a tiny map for me in answer to some locale question I'd posed him and, when he was done, he pushed the coaster aside.  But I saw what he was really drawing; oh yes, I saw...

IBL:mm

"Nightmare", Artie Shaw

Something I heard yesterday for, I'm fairly confident, the first time ever, while listening to the 40s on 4 satellite radio station.  I had to stop what I was doing and look at the monitor for title and artist.  From 1938, or so I'm lead to believe...


Nightmare by Artie Shaw...


IBL:mm

Outlaw Country Meets 40s on 4 on the Satellite Radio

So I've had satellite radio now for maybe four years, and I couldn't be happier with it.  Truth is, I do spend the majority of my time on the Outlaw Country station (Waylon, Willie, Johnny, Kris, various Hanks, Merle, etc.), but I do like to change it up on occasion, and so yesterday I spent the day over at 40s on 4, which is dedicated to songs that, as you might have guessed, are predominately from the 40s (though they spill over into the 50s from time to time) - big band and vocalist stuff including Xavier Cugat, Les Brown, Bing Crosby, Nelson Riddle, Louis Prima, Andrews Sisters, Dean Martin and like that.  I love listening to this music because I simply like the way it sounds (though there is a fair amount of, let's call it "cheese" that pops up, stuff that hasn't aged as well as it could have), but I also love it because I imagine my father listening to it in the 40s as he was going about his life in Los Angeles (he was born in 1907), and it makes me happy to share that with him, albeit way, way after the fact, and him long gone now.

Anyway, because this is how things work, I heard at least three songs during the course of the day on 40s on 4 that I would also be likely to hear on my Outlaw Country station (though recorded by different artists and far more recently, of course - Asleep At The Wheel for sure and perhaps Wayne Hancock responsible for the updates) - Jump, Jive and Wail; Saturday Night Fish Fry; and, I think, Miles and Miles of Texas.  Ah, the point when Outlaw Country via its Texas Swing component sets down for a spell with 40s on 4 and its Big Band Swing component.  I love understanding the through line, I surely do...


IBL:mm 

"We Love Our Customers"

An original IBL photograph taken November 8th, 2013, Little Red Hen, Green Lake, Seattle.

"Speedball Tucker", Jim Croce

Last night I heard Operator by Jim Croce over at the Little Red Hen in Green Lake, Seattle, and was reminded for the millionth time what a huge musical loss it was when his plane went down in 1973 (I remember it all too well, he and Roberto Clemente were the two first big losses of my childhood; how the radio kept playing Croce's I Got A Name afterward and how incredibly sad it made me, and how I would think, "He can't be dead, that's him right there." (I was ten.)).  Then, today, on the Outlaw Country station I heard this song, and I honestly can't say that I remember hearing it before.  A possible function of the aging process, perhaps, or maybe I really just missed it.  Anyway, in case you missed it, or your aging process precludes you from remembering -

Speedball Tucker by Jim Croce...

"Non-stop back to Dallas, popping them west coast turnarounds..."

IBL:mm

"SE Corner of Ballard Ave. and 20th Ave. NW, Seattle, WA"

An original IBL photograph taken November 2nd, 2013, Ballard, Seattle.

"Cross"

An original IBL photograph taken October 27th, 2013, Little Red Hen, Green Lake, Seattle.

Homer and Jethro?

They simply do not work for me...

IBL:mm

A Body Gets Busy, Then a Body Gets Tired

So, at the end of the day, when a body's energy flags, the blog suddenly looks like a Goddamn mountain, I'm not going to kid you.  Moving forward I shall attempt to perceive said hallowed IBL ground as simply a hill.  We'll see how that works.

Onward,

IBL:mm