The Cars

In other "looking backward, not forward" news, I stumbled across this concert video of "The Cars" circa 1979 last evening. 

The Boston-based Cars were, I suppose, my gateway drug into what became known as New Wave - national bands like Blondie, Talking Heads, Pretenders, Cheap Trick, The Police, Elvis Costello, B-52s, and yes, The Knack - bleeding over into punk, to brit-rock, to ska. I blame Jim Reedy who was (and still is, no doubt) far more musically progressive than myself. I'm not sure if we ever saw them live in small clubs in Boston (it's possible that we did, Jim was adventurous and a positive influence that way) - I know I saw them in '79 at the Yale Bowl* for SunFest79 (Beach Boys, Eddie Money, Flo & Eddie, Henry Paul Band, The Cars) and again during college (Boston Garden, it's possible the Clash or one of their off-shoots opened, the internets are not cooperating this morning in terms of documenting the show)

I'm struck by how "small club rock & roll" they seem here, rough around the edges and unpolished compared to modern standards. Remembering the individual members (one of the few groups I came to learn all the band-member's names), remember playing "Good Times Roll" in Jim's basement. Did not realize bassist Ben Orr passed away so long ago (2000) and so young (53, pancreatic cancer) - he kind of has a bit of a "Sting" vibe here.

Nice to take a look back. The Cars made the jump to MTV, but broke up in 1988. I picked up a Best of Anthology on CD along the way but I never replaced my vinyl copies of The Cars or Candy-O. I remained a big enough fan to pick up Panorama, Shake It Up, and Heartbeat City on vinyl back in the day (all long gone), but I dropped out by the time they released "Door to Door" which I do not remember at all.

* I also went to the 1980 edition - The Eagles, Heart, and Little River Band - and I wore an Eagles baseball concert shirt often enough for my artistic college roomie to make it my signature garb when caricaturing me. This second concert is a blur - I had worked the overnight shift at McD's. And somebody (Robin V?) had pot which I rarely smoked but did that day, all I remember is being about as far back as possible in the Yale Bowl and my fatigued, sun-baked, and stoned brain thought I was watching the concert on TV.

National Geographic

It's hard to begin to quantify how much of who I have become as a person was influenced by the fact that my parents subscribed to this magazine. My parents were not intellectuals or academics; dad was an IT guy in the 60s and 70s, mom was a nurse / full time mom. Neither was a huge reader (other than the newspaper; yet my childhood was vividly informed by a Merit Student Encyclopedia on the shelf, and National Geographic magazine once a month in the mail. I devoured them - in my room, in the bathtub, in the car, cover to cover.

My knowledge of the world with its continents, oceans, and nations, my love of nature, curiosity about space and exploration - and perhaps all of these coalescing into a spiritual curiosity - between the covers of this publication.

It's been a long long time but I decided today, out of the blue, to subscribe again, after many years hiatus. Happy to be back in the fold.

Underwood Typewriter

I gave away my typewriter.

It was an electric model - an Underwood 565 (I think) that my parents gave me for graduation. I say my parents, because sometime between purchasing it and my graduation day, my dad passed away - it was perhaps the last gift he bought for me and a typewriter as a gift has his hand all over it. I had not remembered that fact until sitting down to write this - on a Dell keyboard and an internet blog - and not on my Underwood typewriter. This fact saddens me a little; although it needed to go regardless. When it comes to sentimental remembrances of dad - his St. Christopher medal (which he wore constantly throughout his marriage and adult life) and his bowling ball (a 16-pounder that I have bowled a few rounds with back in the day) will have to do.....

But back to the typewriter. I made my way through high school with an old 1920's vintage Underwood (one of those big cast iron things) that I fed with corrosable onion skin paper (the better to type head-to-paper, as was my wont back in the day). It was a beast - and it survived into my adulthood, sitting in my basement in Waterbury until I decided to discard it (no freecycle or craigslist back then, but I left it on a table at the curb and it found a home before trash day). The electric model went with me to college, where it was sporadically used (not a lot of call for typewriters in engineering school) although I did peck out an Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) on the MA Bottle Deposit Law (fairly new at the time and resonant with my working at a package store), as well as an analysis of the Who's "Tommy" using classical techniques. A handful of treatised on Shakespeare and classical music (in retrospect, I took a lot of non-engineering courses). Also a couple of dozen long winded letters to my buddy Jim out at Univ of Chicago. Think I still have one of those (written out, not typed) floating around here somewhere. I ought to send it to him, for the heck of it. Here's who we were, way back then.....

So, after having moved the typewriter several times (home and office) without removing it from the case, it was time to find a home for it. A lovely young woman and perhaps boyfriend stopped by tonight. I asked if she were a writer and she said no, but "....my favorite poet used an Underwood."

It has a good home and a new life, and will do the things a typewriter was born to do. And I have one less piece of stuff in my life. And the technology, plastic, and metal avoided the landfill.

Yogic unattachment? Getting old and realizing that life will not go on forever? Just getting tired of carrying stuff around? Not sure.....

Cassette Tapes - Fini

I've gone from about 200 cassettes to 100. I initially started to just toss 'em all, but thought better of it. There is some local and difficult to recreate history there - Berlin Airlift? The Stompers? Go Van Gogh? early Dar Williams (pre Honesty Room)? early David Johanssen? the New York Dolls? And I am envisioning a different life once I move into my own place - with hopefully space and time for more conscious music listening. So I decided to hang on to some stuff.

I ended up tossing anything (purchased or dubbed) that I had access to in another format (CD or digital). Tapes that folks have given me over the years that I never really listened to (mostly folk artists). Exceptions were made for Springsteen and The Clash. And I probably chucked a few things that I did not have another copy of but was not really interested in.

I ended up going over to the CD rack quite a few times. Do I really have Marc Cohn? Freedy Johnston? Specific Indigo Girls or Suzanne Vega CDs? Most often, yes, I did have them.

I was struck by some unusual trends. I'd consider myself a big Warren Zevon fan - yet I only have two CDs - Greatest Hits and his penultimate Sentimental Journey. His debut and Excitable Boy - cassette only. Similarly, a lot of Neil Young on cassette only (although a lot of CDs as well) - because back in the day I'd find and buy his stuff in the cut-out bin. The Clash (as I mentioned) - all their stuff through Sandanista on cassette. I do not own any Talking Heads except on cassette. I think I own one John Hiatt CD (greatest hits) yet probably 3 or 4 dubbed cassettes (my ex, I recall, was a big fan). I own no Joni Mitchell, yet 4 of her early works made it into my dubbed cassette collection.

And a lot of the dubbed stuff that I copied from vinyl (long since sold) - I remember owning the albums. So a little bit of a trip down memory lane. And I still have a dozen or so cassettes of my usical history (a tape of a sophomore year in college jam session, an entire evening of music (180 minutes) at the Westboro KofC hall, a tape of studio recorded songs, and perhaps a 6-8 tapes of me solo - open mics recorded from the board or just hacking around with a small cassette recorder. need to go through those more carefully.

A more or less successful cleansing. Although later tonight I was in the basement working on another project in preparation for the move and found a showbox full of more cassettes. Doh! I went through those as well....