Random Friday thoughts

It has been hot here the last few days. I know it's hot everywhere, but Seattle only has a handful of days each summer where it's so hot it's miserable, and we always forget about them til they're here. Trying to sleep just makes you cranky because it's too hot to have a bed pressing against you. It's too hot to eat. Sitting in a chair involves sitting in your own sweat, the kind of sweat that seems to sit right under the surface, cooking you from the inside. Walking across the apartment to the bathroom involves fresh rivulets of sweat breaking out. Then you sit in the old sweat for awhile.

But it's Seattle, so no one has any air conditioning. There was a neat picture on the internet this week, of the fan aisle at Target and it was completely empty. Since there's only a few nice days in Seattle each year, one of the unintentionally hard things about living here is that there's this pressure to make the most of every sunny day, to live each nice day as if it were your last, because you just don't know when it's going to be gray again. I rarely feel like I live up to the challenge.

Last night around 4 a.m. it started raining really hard, and it was wonderful. Wonderful because it was a break from the heat, but more because it sounded like a good hard east coast rain that means business, and not a Seattle drizzle. The kind of rain that's really comforting to fall asleep to.

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Today I discovered a great scam that both obtains quarters (a huge challenge for anyone who has to use coin-operated laundry) while simultaenously getting rid of dimes and nickels (as opposed to more useful currency such as dollar bills). You go up to a soda machine and pretend you're going to buy a drink. Put in 50 cents in any combination of dimes and nickels. Then push coin return and voila! you have two quarters. One thing I know about myself is that I can never live in an apartment that doesn't have a dishwasher, but I will know that I have really arrived when I have my own washer/dryer as well.

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I really like it when bus drivers going one way wave to the drivers of the same route going the other way. I can't imagine it's because they all know each other, because I would think Metro is too large to have things like regular staff meetings, but more out of kinship for the route.

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"Phantom sunglass head" is a term I've come up with to describe the condition of feeling like your sunglasses are on top of your head when really they're not. It's common after events such as vacations or nice days, when you might be alternating between outside to see stuff, and inside to eat. When you're inside you push them to the top of your head until you finish eating or whatever. But when you take them off for the day, it might still feel like they're still up there. You might reach up there to steady them. But they're not there. That's "phantom sunglass head."

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Today I had a cheeseburger for lunch which was an immense relief because I have been craving one for days. The related anecdote I would like to share is that I was reading on the internet about a cheeseburger that has a Krispy Kreme for a bun (it was one of the lead stories on Yahoo! this morning). Can you even imagine a cheeseburger with a Krispy Kreme as a bun? Even I, who love both cheeseburgers and doughnuts more than life itself, could probably not eat that. The only thing that might be unhealthier is the Gusburger, which is the specialty of a place called The White Spot. Apparently my dad ate them a lot when he was a student at UVA, and it is probably a miracle he is still alive. It is a cheeseburger with a fried egg. And heaven help me, it is good.

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Last, I would like to give a shout-out to Bruce Springsteen. Normally, I am not one for reissues or for live albums, but about a year ago, one of the best albums of all-time came out, and it is called We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. It is Bruce Springsteen singing old Pete Seeger songs, and I talked about it endlessly to anyone who would listen. If I never talked to you about it, just give me your phone number, and I will. Then, several months after that, the re-issue came out. By adding only 4 songs, Bruce made this CD even more amazing. And now I have spent today listening to Live in Dublin, by Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band. It captures some raucous nights in Ireland. And it's as great as I wanted or expected it to be.

What's cool about the CD is that some of the older songs get the Seeger Sessions treatment: "If I Should Fall Behind" becomes a waltz, "Blinded by the Light" kinda sounds like something a snake charmer would sing, and "Atlantic City"...well I probably can't think of a good description for what "Atlantic City"is, but it's awesome. What I'm trying to say is that if Bruce decided to do his entire back catalogue with the Seeger Sessions Band, I don't think I'd mind too much.

Bruce always puts on a great show---seeing him in 2002 in Atlanta is probably one of my top 3 concert experiences---and I think he is one of the few artists that translates well to a live album. It's just that usually I would rather just listen to the original and go to the show myself. I guess people who are into jam bands might disagree with me, like if you wanted to capture every single way Trey ever played something or other. But here, to me, are the unique touches that can make a live album fun:
--Singing a song that mentions the city in which the concert is taking place. Obviously when Jeff Tweedy gets to the line "the wind blew me back / via chicago" on Kicking Television: Live in Chicago, that's going to be a special moment.

--Inserting the concert city's name into a song that mentions a place. While Jimmy Buffett talks about getting "a Mexican cutie" tattoo in "Margaritaville," when he sings it in concert, the cutie is from the town he's in (ex.-"Nantucket cutie"). And crowds go wild! So cheesy, but I love it.

--Letting the audience sing the song without you, or counting on them to fill in certain parts. A good example of the former is on Tom Petty's Pack Up the Plantation: Live! where the crowd sings about two minutes of "Breakdown" before Tom finally comes in, drawling, "y'all gonna put me out of a job." Then he does the honorable thing and sings the whole song anyway, so people who didn't know the song don't feel left out. An example of the latter would be Elvis Costello letting the audience handle "oh why's that" and "oh, that's too bad" and "oh I'm so sad" in (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes. It's just a nice nod to fans and people who like the music.

--Slowing down on deliberate parts that are funny or meaningful. This one's hard to define, but for example, the Indigo Girls went to Emory, and the second verse of one of their big songs is about how much college sucked for them. So when they played at Emory my sophomore year, they slowed down on the part that went, "got my paper, and I was free" so we could all cheer about the shared experience.

--Cover songs. Enough said.

Anyways, enjoy a video clip of Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band: