Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Cats and Weather

So I was out delivering a wheelchair to a rehab in Pawling, NY, and as I was leaving, I noticed some precipitation. Have a guess what sort of precipitation I would encounter on a December evening. Try hail. That's right, kids, there was a significant fall of pea-sized hail in NY in December. Over a fair radius, too-I saw hail on NY 22 for like 3 miles. After the hail, there was a thunderstorm that continued on for like 20 minutes after the hail passed. Rather like a summer storm.

It kinda freaked me out. So I got done with my work, and on the way home I gave the ex a call to tell her about this weird thing. She said that she had heard there was a hail shower this morning-people were coming into work talking about it. She lives in Liberty-about 100 or so miles to the west of Pawling. Now I've heard a lot of hugger-muggery, puggery and thuggery and buggery about climate change; It supposedly doesn't exist, according to some. Now I must have imagined running around Brooklyn in shirtsleeves a couple of weeks ago, or today's snow to thunderstorm evolution, or the times I've been running around in 70 degree weather in Manhattan-in January. Or something, whatever.

---


Speaking of cats, I got to see my old pal Spot the other day. He's actually attached to my son Nathan; but he and I have always liked each other, and even though I see him infrequently, he always remembers me-he doesn't run off and appreciates a pat and being picked up and paid attention to.

He's had a rough go of it of late: He's gotten some sort of nasty upper respiratory infection that's been lingering for a couple of months. For a while, I was worried that he was going to succumb to it, he looked really, really bad. But the last time I was up he looked a great deal better. His fur is smooth(though his tail is a wreck), he's eating, and of course, he was happy to see me and wanting attention.

He's still got sinus, and he looks like he has a little balloon stuck on the end of his neck with a cat face painted on it. Poor little guy. Not like he's suffering, since he seems in good spirits and all, but just the same. I told the ex to see if he can get a steroid shot.

Meanwhile, with my lot, someone in my crew(I suspect Corey or Jasper), does some funny stuff w/the litter box. If the box is not clean enough for his liking, he'll scoop out some clean litter onto the bathroom floor and drop a deuce on that. Today, I came home, and found that someone had left something in the scoop that I clean the box with. Guess they thought they'd cut out the middleman.

Monday, November 16, 2009

What if the Hippies had evolved?

An interesting question. If you think of hippies, you think of the 60's and early 70's-nothing really modern comes to mind-especially musically. Or so you might think.

So imagine my surprise when I first encountered Ebenezer at a show at Angel's Lounge back in June. Now to see these guys, you'd think they'd just got in from following the Grateful Dead(and I've known people who did that, so I know If what I speak) around. Not exactly what you'd expect at a punk show, by any means.

But I'll check out anything at least once-I try to keep an open mind. When these two guys took the stage, it was anything but what you would expect, given the way they looked. They played thrash, and buy gum, it was good; not only that, they were excellent subjects for photography-Dave Buss, the guitarist moved around a lot: I like action(I think I get that from my cats. They like things that move a lot). Tyler Moyer, the drummer was also a good subject. About halfway through the set, I regretted not bringing my video, since still shots really only captured part of the intensity of the experience(http://www.flickr.com/photos/otto-yamamoto/sets/72157620289918800/ for those interested). By the end of it all, I was pretty impressed, and was keen to get some of their music.

Well, as luck would have it, they have put out a CD-it's available via interpunk.com and is well worth the $8.25 asking price(cheaper than iTunes!). The only problem I have with it is that it's not long enough. The music draws you in, and before you know it, it's over! It's like time doesn't pass at all. Now the original gangsta hippies tried this, but what you ended up with were long, dreadful, plodding and pretentious pieces that could put you to sleep. Ebenezer's stuff is a lot cleaner, and has a nice edge that gets your attention. The CD makes good use of overdubbing(since Dave is the only guitarist), layering variations in the guitar tracks in an interesting way, and contributing to the overall ambiance of the CD.

Yeah, I could listen to this a lot of times over and over, and annoy the bejesus out of people, always a plus in my book. But what I like the most is that Ebenezer takes the concept of the Hippie, and brings it up to date in a very original way-one that gets respect from people who don't particularly care for the original concept(I lived through part of it).