can't get "South Hampton Dock" out of my head.

**another day, more quality hours logged at Kaldi cafe. wrote this p-card to my pal, p. in white plains**

Sunday May...15? 16? eh. Sunday.
Walked into Kaldi coffee this afternoon and heard something familiar playing. Turned out to be a Marillion song...one of those that at one time was in heavy rotation chez moi. A couple of yrs ago I pulled a bunch of old CDs out to sell. I gave a few of them a last spin to see if I wanted to keep them. This Marillion album, "Misplaced Childhood" was one of them. As anthemic & prog-y as ever, but my heart wasn't in it. And so, to Amoeba...
This album was so a concept record that I can't remember the song title b/c they were all so obtuse. :)
Anywhoo. It kind of blew my mind to hear it out in a cafe, not in the studio apt. of a friend w-a bunch of D&D figurines. Since I'd outted myself as having a soft spot for the Prog during that R. Waters Coachella set, I knew you'd be the right ear for this story. :)

**a couple years ago p. & i spent a day @ coachella. the headliner that night was roger waters. he was playing a varied first set, then coming back and performing "Dark Side of the Moon." i had to leave early b/c i had an early work day. as r. waters took the stage, p & i had some dinner, then started across the grounds to leave. now. this is when my dormant pink floyd zeal came to the surface... we got near the stage, i recognized the song he was playing, grabbed p's arm and yelled, "it's "Fletcher Memorial Home" from "the Final Cut!" I've never heard him do this before!" at which point we stopped to listen. 20 min later, p was laying on the grass and i was still enthralled by the music.
now i wanted some coffee for the long drive home. while waiting for joe, waters & band took a break, and came back out to perform "Dark Side". at the end of "Time" i told p. we had to make a break for it or i wouldn't leave until the end of the show.

i was what you might call a serious teenager: distracted by the cold war, and the threat of a nuclear war (ahh, the 80's). the anti-war, critical of the existing powers (ronald reagan, margaret thatcher) era of pink floyd was right up my alley. it wasn't a new thing, i credit my brother with turning me onto them when i was very little. he was 13 when "Dark Side..." came out. he called me into his room, had me put on his headphones, then played "On the Run". that's the wild stereophonic piece. blew my little mind.

my parents wouldn't let me recreate the album cover of "The Wall" on my bedroom wall, so i used the back side of a 4' x 5' sheet of paneling, then hung that up. when "The Final Cut" came out, i left school early and caught bus 82 to tower records to buy it. when i heard on the radio that the band had broken up, i went into our basement found a plastic floral wreath, spray painted it black, and hung it on my locker door at school.

so, i was serious, but still a dork. and i still listened to Cheap Trick, Triumph, the Greg Kihn Band, so it wasn't all about dying in a mushroom cloud or during a nuclear winter.
(after typing this i reached over and grabbed the thesaurus on my desk. i've had this thesaurus since i was 9 yrs. old. this is a pic of one end: ha!)

i don't have any pink floyd albums on CD, and don't ever play the records. but i still have most of them. getting completely caught up in the music walking across that field at coachella, was a total surprise to me.

since roger waters started releasing solo records in the mid-80's i've been to lots of his shows. oh my, some good times, those shows. (again, ahh, the 80's ;) ) but i don't think i'll see this "wall" tour. maybe it's the cost, maybe the scale. eh.

i have a feeling side 1 of "Meddle" is getting played tonight. that run from "One of These Days" to "Seamus" is pretty fucking great.**

absolute trust keeps me moving in the Right Di-rec-tion

**since getting back from my road trip i've been getting back into the postcard writing groove. i wrote this while sitting outside Kaldi coffee in Atwater Village. when i walked in to order my drink, "The Good Thing" by Talking Heads was playing. Made me smile.
below is a card i wrote to my friends stacey & harlan in texas. the picture on the p-card is of a quilt sewn by Annie Mae Young. it's from the photos of quilts from Gee's Bend.**

5.14.10 Thurs
Things Rad & Not So Rad (NSR): talked myself into riding my bike to this cafe (Rad). On the way mailed 2 bills, 4 postcards & 1 letter (Rad). All the patio umbrellas have gone missing from the cafe (NSR), but it is cool & breezy enough to sit in the direct sun (Rad!). was served a stellar cappuccino (rad). Decided to try a Japanese drink b/c it's clear & carbonated. turned out to be soda pop (NSR) alas. A Eurythmics song from 1988 or so just came up on the shufle (Rad). For a few boyfriends between 1988 - 1997 this served as my record to listen to upon breaking up. Now, I just love it. :) (neat) Im in week 3 of what I hope will turn out to be hiatus (not just unemployment) (Rad). Grant-Lee Phillips played Largo last night for the first time in many months (super rad). The old casket store/funeral service shop has moved up the street. in its place: some kind of medical marijuana UNIVERSITY. (just plain odd). for the first time since my job ended i have nowhere i have to be tonight (fucking awesome). took a week long solo road trip (rad). saw 2 minor league b-ball games (OH, SC) & 5 concerts in 5 states (rad). Brilliant way to leave my old gig behind. :)

**follow up: i sat in the sun writing p-cards and knitting long enough to get a sun burn on my shoulders. sigh. amateur hour, i tell you! also: it's official, the show i worked on last season was cancelled. so: we call it unemployment, not hiatus.**

also, after typing this it took me 15 min of jumping through log in & transfer links and pages to post it b/c blogger switched something around. i wasn't notified BEFORE i typed it. pain.in.my.ass. grr.

anything to not clean any more: postcards from march!

this pic is of a plaque outside of Stage 2 on the Sunset-Gower Lot where i used to work.

since thursday i've been cleaning my apartment. i've been tearing things apart, so it's slow going. however, last night i started to see some real progress. i have a few tasks to do that will take me out of the apt, so things are on a bit of hold until tomorrow.
today i have to take my car for it's bi-annual smog check. it's 20 years old this year, but well cared for. i'm hoping for the best. a few years ago my car stereo was stolen. while the car was in my car port. sigh. two days after the stereo was stolen, the thieves broke back into the car to steal some wiring they'd missed the first time. as my car was like a convenience store for thieves, i decided not to replace the stereo. well, after driving a rental car with a working stereo for a week, i've decided that if my car passes its smog test i'm going to put in a new stereo. something not too shiny, but SOMETHING. (the stereo that was stolen was one i'd bought only 4 months previous. i'd replaced all the speakers in the car, too. so all those terrific speakers are in there laying dormant.)

right.

during my cleaning i found a xerox of some postcards that i'd meant to post here. so in the interest of clearing stuff out of the apt, i'm posting them now.

card 1: written to a friend in san francisco who i knew was in chicago for some music

Saturday 3.13.10
Today is my first day off since President's Day and it's gotten off to a weird, but ok start. weird: cell phone & smoke detector both beeped at intervals during the night and woke me. (it was due to a power outage.) But! this morning i found my MISSING SINCE NOVEMBER flip flops!? They were sitting on the shoe rack the whole time (they were hidden among the skirts of hanging dresses). And now, i am sitting outside a new (!) deli cafe on hillhurst, drinking a good coffee, enjoying a scone and reading a little John Hodgman.
I'm particularly grateful to him this morning b/c the novel i'm reading has gotten very heavy hearted and i just couldn't bear to read it this morning. so. two cups (1/2 caff) into saturday. You are, no doubt in the vicinity of the Vic as I write this. Oh! I got a reservation confirmation for PFT (Paul F. Tompkins) last night. woo! now, i just need to finish work on time that night. :)
If i go home right now I just know i'll start doing chores. Just don't know if i'm ready for that yet... Hope to see you soon!

card 2: written to my sister & brother in law who live in the bay area

3.21.10 Sunday -- 2:30pm
It's been slow going getting my sunday m.o. in action: finally sitting out on a patio w-an iced coffee drink, listening to some great music. Yesterday i took out my earphones just in time to overhear a woman say to her friends, "It's like Tyra Banks says, 'the way to tell a good model from a bad one is the amount of airbrushing they require" immediately i put my earphones back in, and remembered what compels me to wear them in the first place. :)
Just had the standard "baseball is too slow for me" conversation with the owner of this cafe: he's not a baseball fan. as we started discussing team strategy more customers came so we had to stop chatting. can't wait to point out the diff. between Ntl. & Am. Leagues to him! When i go in for another drink, i'll pick up the conversation there. :)
Hope spring finds you enjoying your home office/pool!

**ok, i sound a positive dork about baseball in this second card. spring training will do that to me. my fervor mellows out a bit by mid-may.**