Death and Dylan

OK, OK, I know this getting habitual, and I seem to becoming lazier by the day. And what does it say about me when I tell you that the obituaries are the first place I turn to in the paper. (The online paper, by the way, a concept with which I'm still having trouble getting my head around.)

But yes, the obituaries it is, and there you're never quite sure what you'll find. So as I moused my way through the paper this morning, I enountered the attached obituary recounting the life of William Zantzinger, the real-life inspiration behind Dylan's song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.

Now I was never really a Dylan guy--he's a little before my time, and I never could get past his voice to want to spend time with his lyrics. But after reading this narative, and the seemingly inevitable and horrifying arc of the evening of February 8, 1963, I have a new appreciation of why Dylan spoke so powerfully to his generation. And I have to dust through the LPs, and see whether I have a copy of this laying around. It may be a long, snowy day today, and a cup of tea and a little music might be just the thing. Ah, there are the first flakes now...

Raw Power, Extinguished

Ron Asheton, the guitarist for The Stooges, who unleashed a whole new sound in electric guitar, and then kept at it for the next three decades, passed away January 6. Read more in the NY Times obituary.

New year, no resolutions

So...another year has bitten the dust, and another steps forward on tottering, baby steps. Welcome, little fella, and let's hope that 2009 is a good one. We lost a lot of good rock and rollers this past year, as readers of this blog (all 2 of you) know. Yes, for a while I could do nothing else but link to obituaries and keep a not-quite accurate toll of just who had died. Hopefully, in 2009, I'll move beyond that lazy-man's way of filling blog postings.

In addition to these musicians, much else was lost in the US financial system. Despite the unfathomability of losses in the trillions of dollars, and that fact that I have zero connection with hedge funds, those losses are no longer just abstractions--in the past year, 3 people I know (including myself) have lost jobs. It's a new, cruel world out there, and if it has to get worse before it gets better, let's hope it's not bad for too long.

But before I go too far afield of music, and before this gets too grim, there is also good going on. We have a new president, and by his election I feel more hopeful than I've been in some time. And the band continues, and continues to be a whole lot of fun, thanks to a great bunch of guys and wonderful fans who enjoy what we do. We don't have a whole lot of shows so far this year, but we're working on that and we'll keep you posted as new opportunities arise.

And I've been busy posting photos from a recent show. I had previously posted photos from the Oxford Furnace (thanks to Sung for those photos), and now, thanks to Debbie, we have photos from a November 2008 show at Cryan's. If you click on either of those items on this site, you should be magically transported to the Picasa site, which will allow you to see larger images and to read my sometimes snarky comments.

We hope to see you all once again in 2009. Please let us know if there are songs we should work on, clubs to approach, or matters of personal hygiene that we really should pay attention to. We are listening.