They’re Selling Postcards of the Hanging: Playlist 10-27-09

I just started teaching a freshman writing class on the music of Bob Dylan. They’ve yet to get rolling on the blog, but once they do you can follow them here at Hiway 61. Today’s Street Parade, then, was mostly early Dylan since that’s what’s on my brain these days (with just a bit of Billy Bragg thrown in for fun):

Billy Bragg/Wilco: “California Stars” from Mermaid Avenue
Billy Bragg/Wilco: “Hoodoo Voodoo” from Mermaid Avenue
Bob Dylan: “Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again” from Blonde on Blonde
Bob Dylan: “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” from Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan: “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” from Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan: “Desolation Row” from Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan: “Mr. Tambourine Man” from Bootleg #4, 1966
Billy Bragg/Wilco: “One by One” from Mermaid Avenue

Yea, sure, not a lot of variety in terms of artists here, but all good stuff!

See ya next week.

RIP Steve Ferguson

The Street Parade was very sad to learn of the passing of guitar great, and NRBQ co-founder, Steve Ferguson who died at age 60 due to cancer on Oct. 7. Steve Ferguson formed NRBQ  in 1967 with  keyboardist Terry Adams, , singer Frank Gadler, drummer Tom Staley, and bassist Joey Spampinato. It’s true that Ferguson only played with the band for a few years, but his influence on the band’s direction as a whole and particularly on his successor Big Al Anderson were vast. When they hired Anderson, the primary qualification was for the new guitar player to be able to even come close to playing Steve’s intro to “Flat Foot Flewzy.” Ferguson said he had the right hand of a country player and the left hand of a blues player. Throw in a touch of Sun Ra to the mix and you’ve got the heart of one of the best live bands ever. Ferguson and Anderson played together on the 1972 album “Scraps”–one of the all-time greats. The original album and the collaboration with Carl Perkins are also amazing. Finally, as listening tribute, I’m going to suggest his recent reunion with Terry Adams, “Louisville Sluggers.” Good fun and goofy R&B to the core.

On another related note, any NRBQ fan will also be saddened by the loss of “Captain Lou” Albano on Oct. 14. Yea, yea, yea, forget the Cyndi Lauper connection, it’s all about the Q. As Lou screams at the end of “Captain Lou”:

They’re talking about me!
Captain Lou Albano!
Maker of champions, baby!
Twelve tag-team champions!
I take them, I mold them,
I think it’s charisma, it’s pandemonium!
It’s psychedelic pandemonium!
Ah ha ha ha ha ha! I, am “the Guiding Light,” ha ha!

Brewnost

MB and I were offered some last-minute, complimentary tickets to Brewnost, the benefit for the National Czech and Slovak museum in Cedar Rapids (thanks much Matt and Michelle!). The event is now in the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art because the Czech building was completely ruined in the floods last summer. I’m not sure what the future is as that location will most likely become “green” area in the new Cedar Rapids map.

We’ve always wanted to go but it’s a bit pricey for an event at which vegetarians can’t eat anything and in which the beer list is a bit questionable for us (yes, I know it’s a benefit, but….). The beer list is pretty much eastern european lagers which don’t do that much more for me than Budweiser. Sure, they have some more malt to them and more hop profile, but then the hops for most of these beers are a bit worn by the time they hit our shelves. I usually say, eh.

And so it was in fact partly what I expected. No food for veggies, and a list of light eastern european beers. There were more beers than what is generally advertised, though. Boulevard had its smokestack series there. Millstream had its beers. There was a guy who just 5 months ago started a brewery in his garage outside Janesville (Briar Patch). It wasn’t great, but I definitely liked it and would buy it. I don’t know how he got on the list frankly, but it was nice to see a new brewer out there just brewing that recipe he perfected as a homebrewer. Cheers to that. So we found some good beer sampling. But mostly, it was nice to see such a well-attended and festive benefit. The art museum was packed and everyone was definitely having a good time. The silent auction seemed like it was going really well.  A fun night and a good sign for the continuation of this cultural landmark in the land of eastern european heritage.

10-13-09 Playlist

Here’s today’s playlist from the Street Parade. Mostly random stuff here except for a little nod to John Lennon in the middle who would have been 69 on October 9th.

Lafayette Gilchrist: “Assume the Position”
Medeski, Martin, and Wood: “Dracula”
Jerry Garcia/Merle Saunders: “The System”
Jerry Garcia/Merle Saunders: “Imagine”
The Beatles: “Tomorrow Never Knows”
The Beatles: “Everbody’s Got Somethin’ to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey”
Jeff Beck: “A Day in the Life”
David Crosby: “What Are Their Names?”
The Mekons: “Dark, Dark, Dark”
The Political Blockheads: “Diplomat”

Next week is department meeting day so I probably won’t make it in to the show, but I’ll be back in two weeks. Same bat-station, same bat-time.

The Street Parade Returns to KRNL

The Street Parade has been on a several year hiatus from radio, but it has returned this fall, Tuesday afternoons from 5-6 on 89.7, KRNL from Cornell in Mount Vernon (or at least 3 out of 4 weeks–depending on how department meetings go on the 4th week). Feel free to listen here–unless you happen to be one of my many readers here in the 20 mile radius and can actually get it on the radio.

Here is the playlist from week 1, Sept. 29, 2009:

Earl King “The Street Parade”
James Booker “Make a Better World”
Allen Toussaint “Mr. Can Can”
Dr. John “A World I Never Made”
Curtis Mayfield “People Get Ready”
George Harrison “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)”
Dr. Lonnie Smith “Jack Ass”
Dr. Lonnie Smith “Where It’s At”
Les McCann “Let it Lay”
Les McCann “North Carolina”
Wild Magnolias “Brother John is Gone / Herc-Jolly-John”
Eddie Bo “When the Saints Go Marching In”
Earl King “Street Parade”

Yes, a few glitches in there. I was going to play the funky Lonnie Smith’s “Where It’s At” with the extended funk Jam “North Carolina” back to back, but I was having trouble getting the right songs cued so, well, I just went with it and played a couple others. They sounded good anyway. And it turns out at the moment there’s only one CD player in the station which means I can’t cue up the next song, so I’m fumbling for a new CD between songs which is a bit clunky, but it’s college radio, you know?

I won’t be around next week for the show since I’ll be in North Carolina, but I’ll be back on the air, Tuesday Oct. 13. See ya then!

The Bombaman Videomaster!

I’ve been enjoying my nephew Jay’s newfound skill at movie-making. Definitely a director in the works. So here are a few for your enjoyment, two of my favorites (I particularly like the title of the first one, “side effects from melatonins”):

Fall Catch-up

Well, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted anything on the blog. It’s been a busy few weeks, so a few random updates.

First, we had a couple of really excellent events at Cornell. First, we had a great visit from “Farmer John” Peterson. I showed his movie “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” to my nature writers course and then he visited and spoke with us. He’s a genuine and generous figure. The students and I really loved meeting him (for me, so much so that I hope to go spend some time working on his farm next summer so that I can talk with him and try to write about his experiences and his farm). That evening we had a free community screening and he spoke there as well. A great night. Many drinks with him afterward at the Lincoln Wine Bar and a great experience all around.  A few days later, we had our 4th annual “Global Voices” reading with Maxine Case from South Africa and Milos Durdevic from Croatia. This, too, was a splendid evening. They met with some students in the afternoon and discussed their countries, their backgrounds, the arts in their countries, and what it means to be an artist, etc. Then they gave great readings in the evening and were really generous in their discussions about being writers from very troubled parts of the world. Both events were a great way to kick off this year’s visiting writer’s festivities. Up next is fiction writer Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum on Oct. 15.

I gave a public talk at Cornell a while back on my own poetry and creative process (I say “talk” and mean it that way–it was really an open discussion with the audience rather than some formal lecture). I read some new poems that I haven’t shared yet which was a great experience, and the feedback from the audience was quite encouraging and useful. I’ve never really talked about my writing process so intimately with an audience before. A totally new experience for me and really quite useful; I thought about my work in ways I hadn’t before, both from the pressure of articulating ideas for an audience and from the questions and observations they made. And who knew I could have such a useful discussion with an audience about the semi-colon as metaphor!! 

Then, I’ve been buried under a class on American Nature Writers that I just finished. It was a wonderful class filled with passionate, curious, engaged students. While it generally kicked me in the butt just to keep up with the class and other assorted work through the month, it was one of the best classes I’ve had at Cornell. If you’re interested in some of their thinking, feel free to check out the class blog here.

Then this evening I just watched the first installment of the new Ken Burns documentary on America’s National Parks. Now, I’ve never really been too keen on Ken Burns as an individual (his tone of voice just wears me down when I hear him speak–I’m pretty sure I don’t want to sit and have a beer with him), but he does some pretty incredible work. And this one seems like it might be his best. It’s beautifully filmed, well written, and incredibly important as we look at the future of the planet in these uncertain times. What struck me from the very first moments, though, was how much I could have used this documentary in the class I just finished. Everything went to the heart of discussions I’ve been having with my students for the last month. I’m sure it will become part of my collection for this class on nature writing, particularly the passages drawn from John Muir. If you missed the first installment, don’t miss the rest! This is at the heart of what we mean by “America.”

Next up, a trip to Asheville next week to visit my sister-in-law and spend some time hiking in the smokies and exploring some brewpubs (what else?).

More news soon!

The Ark, Part II

Just a while a go, I posted some comments about the current deluge. Well, I just drove from Cedar Rapids to Mount Vernon and several streams I cross are now 60 or 70 feet across, some tiny streams are rushing torrents, and the rain keeps coming down. All day, the radar has looked like we’re right at the end of the line of rain, but the line keeps forming. We’re over 7 inches now, and it looks like we could hit 10 by the time it’s all done. As I said, I’m building an ark…

Brewing in the Ark

It’s been raining a ridiculous amount the last day and a half. Last I checked, we’ve had about 7 inches and it’s still coming down.  It’s very reminiscent of the rains we had last June with the flood. Now, even though creeks and such are well out of their banks, this is nothing compared to those rains when it did this for several weeks on end. Nonetheless, I’m sure this is bringing back some bad memories for the folks who lost their houses last summer.  I’m thinking of building and ark just in case.

And in the meantime, I felt the need to brew before the fall got too crazy. We’re in the midst of freshman orientation/advising week, but I didn’t have to go to campus this morning so I took the opportunity to brew. Went for a pretty standard, classic English style pale ale. It’s the first time I’ve brewed since surgery last fall. Felt good to brew again.  Here’s the beer:

1/2 lb toasted malt
1/2 lb cara-pils
soaked grains in 1 gallon 170 degree water for 1/2 hour
6 lbs northern brewer pale malt extract
1 lb Munton & Fison’s dried pale malt extract
4 gallons water
boil for 1 hour
1 oz Kent Goldings (4.9%) boil for 60 minutes
1 oz Fuggles (4.6%) boil for 60 minutes
1/2 oz Fuggles (4.6%) boil for final 20 minutes
1 oz Kent Goldings (4.9%) boil for final 5 minutes
Irish Moss in boil for final 5 minutes
Cooled wort, aerated and added a starter of Wyeast  London Ale yeast.
Will ferment at 75% and wait
Original Gravity = 1.059

Farmer John Update

Awhile back I mentioned that “Farmer John” Peterson, the head of Angelic Organics and the subject of “The Real Dirt on Farmer John” will be visiting us at Cornell. At the time, though, I didn’t have all the details. Well, it took awhile to figure it all out, but we have finally got the details hammered out. So….

We will be screening the documentary at 7 PM in West Science Hall, Room 100 on September 11. This is free and open to the public. After the screening, John will join us for a discussion. He will possibly be joined by some other local organic farmers, most likely including Laura Krouse who, besides running her own CSA, taught at Cornell for many years (she is, as she notes, one of the few people who leave other jobs to farm full time).

I hope to see you all on September 11!