The Spirit of Giving

Ahhh.... I never get tired of that long view. But the landscape is seriously lacking in a blanket of that stuff we in Minnesota used to get sick of in years past. Today, I miss it and not having some makes it more difficult to get into the Xmas spirit. HA! Gotcha! That's bullshit! It's in the 40's today and I LOVE IT. And last weekend, it was pushing 70 degrees on Saturday and in the 50's on Sunday. No long underwear, no scarf covering my entire face, no freezing for the first 20 minutes until I start sweating under all the layers and then getting cold again once I'm lathered. No shoveling, no driving home at 30mph in a white-out. But, someone needs to educate me about whether this continued diminishing of cold and snow in Minnesota is really due to global warming or if that's another of those bastardized scientific phrases being thrown around like we all know what we're talking about. Boyce? Bring it.

Music is everywhere in the TC, and the last couple weekends were no exception. First, Alpha Consumer released their CD on December 2. Amazing night from front to back, including special guests Chris Koza, Story of the Sea and our beloved Dosh. Here's Mike, Jeremy & JT (barely visible in the back on drums) making arena moves in a local bar. Uh-huh. And here are links to them all: http://www.myspace.com/alphaconsumer = http://www.myspace.com/doshanticon = http://www.myspace.com/storyofthesea = http://www.myspace.com/chriskozaband =
Go check them out, listen and buy their CDs if you like any of it for Xmas gifts or a present for yourselves. Music is always the gift that keeps on giving.

Next weekend, Alex Ward came up from Jacksonville, AL to record more songs in the Mary Ellen Studio on Lyndale. Rumor has it he tracked 40 songs or so in three days -- it's hard to explain, but he writes a song while he sings a song. Prolific doesn't touch it. He's also a brilliant poet. I got to do a little hooting with him on a couple piano offerings. He also graced me with a coveted hardcover of collected poetry by Paul Celan as a belated birthday gift. He'll have a new CD out on Mary Ellen Records in 2007. In the meantime, go here http://www.myspace.com/aalleexxwwaarrdd to get to know him a bit. His website is difficult to read with that blue wash over it but I'm quite sure it was chosen intentionally.

Same weekend, Kitty and I saw Fog and Low perform at First Avenue. Fog, another band we can claim as local, is a power three-piece now and I was wishing they had played in a different venue but it still kicked ass. I cannot wait for their new release. Low? ... well... Kitty turned to me after the second song and said..."I wish I were on my sofa..." It's true. They sounded great and it was sort of amazing to witness the packed First Avenue mainroom floor hush to silence when they started the first song. But, there's not much to see or experience differently than through your stereo splayed out on a comfortable, parallel-to-ground surface, even though some stoned guy named Clarence in a long, black leather coat who glommed onto Kitty while I ran to plug the meter between sets swore that they were the best live band that ever took the stage. He stood there swaying in reverence while Kitty and I grinned in complicity. Yeah, Clarence, whatever.

Still same weekend... The Starry-Eyed Lovelies,comprised of Dean Granrose, Mike Lewis, Dave King and Anthony Cox (Google any of them) played the AQ in St. Paul. That may possibly have been some of the best super-jazz jazz I've heard in many years. They rarely join up and play out, but dear god... it's pretty life informing stuff. If there is ever a recording, I'll let you all know. The best I can offer for now is a visual........ so, I dunno, use your imaginations.

Meanwhile, today marks the 50th straight day in a row that Brent has been in the studio, producing the lads from White Light Riot, who were big winners at the Minnesota Music Awards this year. (ok... it's true he had Thanksgiving off) Brent has clearly entered another dimension of existence, which is fascinating to witness. He's been talking in his sleep in full sentences, most recently "just hammer it in... it'll work" giving orders to his interns, or honking my boob like a bicycle horn three times, and then saying "do you hear that?" One night he was throwing down rhymes ... I mean, seriously, like stanzas of them. He wishes I'd recorded him so he could release a CD of his own dream-inspired work under the name of MC Slumber Flo. I have to move my dictophone from the car to the bedroom.

On another musical note, symphonic swells to Buggy who arrived in my driveway with his kids during that balmy aforementioned weekend with a truckload of firewood (our "Christmas present", he said). After we stacked it all, we took a cruise on the property and he felled a nicely-dead red elm, which he chainsawed in short order and we added the smaller logs to our cache in the shed. He took the rest home at my insistence and if he brings it back to our house split, I'll have to kill him. He redefines the phrase "spirit of giving" and raises the bar for us all since he does it continuously year-round. I, for one, know that I'll never be able to even the score, no matter how hard I try... but I plan to keep trying.

I'm slowly getting things ready around here for the holidays which translates into cleaning after weeks and weeks of neither Brent nor I being here very much. We'll be lucky enough to see some of you at our table and fireplace over the holidays. I wish all of you could be beamed here for Christmas Eve.

This just in... the Humphreeds getting into the spirit out in upstate New York.
Big Love to you all.

note: remember that all you need do is click on images to enlarge them for your viewing pleasure