Good Meme Material Everyday if You Don't Take it Too Serious...

Looks like it's going to be a fine season for memes. 

 And of course everyone knows that when she gets elected they will only be able to listen to Drum and Tuba Christmas.  

Thank you, thank you very much. I'll be here as long as I can. 

The End Times Blog Post...

 

Early on in history man thought the end times would be around just anytime. I'm sure the building of the mounds in Poverty Point, La which we recently toured had some element of that expectation built in to the goings on there 3000-5000 years ago. I'm a believer but no Bible scholar but Jesus told the disciples he would be back soon. He didn't say how soon but he tried to leave the impression of a flexible day or time. They thought pretty soon so all gathered in the Upper Room to wait it out. Naturally trying to know the mind of God they were wrong and pretty soon had to go back to day to day activities which for Early Christians was beheading, crucifying and being stoned. Speaking of being stoned it's reported in the news this morning including the New York Times that sharks off the coast of Rio de Janeiro have increased levels of cocaine in their systems.     

Now we know that we have pooped the nest enough that the effects of global warming, yesterday was the hottest day the Earth has ever seen, look to be irreversible. It seems that if you are rich that's not going to matter. You will be able to afford food, shade and air conditioning and probably feel a bit of empathy for the poor folks who probably are not the ones doing the most cocaine.   

Apparently the cocaine in the sharks as well as anti depressants, various medicines and birth control is due to the sewage of all the the people ingesting these things then flowing into the ocean which means into the food chain, the air, the rain and so on.  

So I guess we might arrive at the fact that this might be a better sign of the end times than anything we have had so far. Looks like everyone is high and there's too much poo and pee. I'm not against getting high. It's a you do you world these days but if you have ever had your order hopelessly fouled up at a drive through hamburger joint everybody being high is going to have some effect somewhere. 

But hey, maybe the end won't matter that much anyway. Those guys in the Upper Room had some misconceptions at first and it will be ok if you don't have it quite right either.   

The Turning Point...

I must have just turned 19 years old and was living in the dorm at Stephen F. Austin State University in the spring of 1976 when the guy in the room next door, Quince, introduced me to the music of British bluesman John Mayall. Quince is still listening to good music and I know he has seen Mayall, who passed away today at 90 years old, in concert a number of times over the years.  

After hearing this news I checked the old record collection and found I had an even dozen John Mayall recordings. Most of these records I bought in the late 1970s but Mayall's recording goes back to the early 60s British Blues boom when roots American music and the people who played it were more appreciated in England than at home. Mayall's bands featured one of the most extensive who's who family trees of music with many British musicians getting their start honing chops in his groups such as Eric Clapton and members of Fleetwood Mac and the Rolling Stones. Recently Texas blues guitarist Carolyn Wonderland has been featured in the guitar chair for Mayall's music. 

At the time Mayall appealed to me, a horn player, because he used jazz horn players in big band type sections like one of my favorites trumpeter Blue Mitchell, and he released albums with unconventional lineups he called "blues without bashing' that featured flute, nylon fingerstyle guitar and violin. In these records there were no drums which was a departure from the style of blues Mayall had been playing.

For a musician to live to 90 years old and stay active as Mayall did only recently retiring is a good run. He's scheduled to soon be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He deserves it. 

 

 

   

 

Best Things in Life Are Free...

 Hicks Antiques in downtown Lufkin had records and cds for free. They want to get rid of them. Cathy hit them up last week going through the cds picking big band compilations of lady jazz singers, several by folk singer Michelle Shocked, some Irish and classical music sets and one by Ray Wylie Hubbard. Yesterday I hit the store to browse the albums deciding to limit myself to just 10 (I don't want the back of the house to fall off from the weight of the record room) and turned up nine gems. I think these are all original releases. No reissues and in fair to good condition very very playable.  

1. The Subterraneans. A 1960 soundtrack from the Kerouac book of the same name. I have been working on filling the late 50s/early 60s jazz niche of my collection.

2. Bill Black's Combo plays Chuck Berry. From 1964, Bill was the bass player on the early Elvis hits. 

3. Once Upon a Time in the West.  1968 movie sound track. I have this music on compilations, some remixed but this is conducted by composer Ennio Morricone himself. Concert idea: play all this spaghetti western music and serve pasta in the lobby before, after and during the show. 

4. Big Band Cavalcade Concert. I have some many big band compilations but this was people I did not know, mostly famous in pervious decades and this 1973 live album was new to me.  

5. Baja Marimba Band. This band cashed in on the coat tails of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. No Hispanics in the band, their album covers always had a guy in the background taking a leak. From 1968.

6. Jack Teagarden Dixie and Blues. Some called him the greatest pre bop trombone player and jazz singer.  This album 1963. 

7. Eddie Gomez Cuban Mist. Eddie is still around as an in demand side man on string bass for all kind of jazz music. This 1957 record with him leading is as old as I am.  

8. Exotica by Martin Denny. I believe this is the original mono recording from 1956. Denny was the father of the exotica genre and lately I have been having some good finds of this type which might means a section of it's on in the collection. 

9. Last but not least Leon McAuliffe of Texas Playboy fame this 1963 album The Dancin'est Band Around brings us back to some old cowboy swing. 

There really was not any great records left, certainty no pop music and it looked like a Mitch Miller lover died and his kids got rid of the records as quick as possible. That might happen to me.  

You can stream all this easily but I like records. 

          

Missed That Note and They Took it Back...

I was driving home the other day and I snapped this cell phone photo of the old Little Flock Baptist Church as I cruised past at 50 mph. My house is a 100 yards or so behind the grounds. The church is abandoned and closed down. The grounds are becoming unmowed and unkept. I'm not quite sure when they left but it's been at least over a year. 

The preacher they last had down there had a way of nosing into my business. One morning as I set up for a fish fry, a cooking area and musical instruments on my garage stage, he walked over just to check on me. He should have seen that I was doing alright although when I informed him I was an active long time member of the Catholic Church he probably had his doubts. 

Another time back in 2021 or so I was mowing and he approached me to "make sure I was watching Fox News" so I "knew what was really going on." I put him on the road and told him if he was following Fox News instead of the Sermon on the Mount he was on the wrong path. I don't imagine this sat well as he realized that in addition to being a Catholic I was also had a different idea about politics and I never saw him again.   

Now the church is closed down. In the photo on the right against the trees is where the original wooden church sat. Maybe 40 years ago they moved that structure out on highway 103 east and it looks to be a thriving place of worship under a different name and is very neat and well kept. I'd say people who care attend there. 

There is much development in this area with the construction of very nice houses all around filling up unused lots including on the other side of the farm road from the church. I think the old church would make a great event venue center hosting weddings in the chapel and dining in the hall with cooking in the kitchen but I half expect to wake one morning to demolition crews taking it down to make room for new $400,000 houses.

Thinking about this I got curious about who did own the property so I got one of my trusty assistants (you didn't know we actually have a writers room @theolderyouwillget) to research the owners. Turns out the church is owned by The Texas Southern Baptist Foundation. I looked that up and turns out the Foundation is some kind of finance institution. I don't know but I suspect the governing body of the Little Flock borrowed money, missed the note and lost the property which had been put up as collateral. The property does not seem to be on the market.

That's a sad thing. Some churches have money and some don't. Some churches the population gets old, dies out, the kids move off and they don't thrive. Some don't have good leaders. I don't think the Little Flock preacher needed to change his core beliefs to be successful but I think the Fox News thing was a secular dry stream he attempted to paddle his boat up to the point where he ran aground. 

Some might lay this misfortune on the work of the Devil. Whatever you call it humans are humans. All need to work together to make sure the property stays mowed.           
     

 

Drum and Tuba 4th...

We made it a drum and tuba Christmas July 4th with patriotic tunes played for a picnic at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Morgan was on drums for this gig with guest appearances by Parker, Cullen and Ezra.  

I am a patriot with love of my country and all things about it and people in it. I'm against a nationalist who exhibits devotion to one particular group or cause over all others. There's some of those running around so watch out. 

We played all the favorites, National Anthem, service hymns, Columbia Gem of the Ocean, America and more. 

I think the crowd was pleased. We even had a couple of bucks thrown in the tip jar. 

Thanks to Father Denzil for inviting us to play and being an energetic priest and Drum and Tuba supporter.

 

 

 

Recycle...

I try to be a good hippie. I got my hair out all long and I don't shave my legs or under my arms. Wait a minute, that's her that don't do those last two things but I do drive a hybrid and argue with strangers online about wind power and the advantages of electric cars. That's why I feel so embarrassed when about once a year I load up the trailer with the metal items that have somehow turned to junk in my possession and take it to the metal recycle place.   

Does your stuff turn to junk? My metal bodied resonator guitar is about 27 years old and is fairing pretty well as are the tubas, the baritone, the trombone and the alto horn I own so maybe it's not me.  I just wish BBQ grills didn't burn out, lawn chairs were more durable for big ol boys to sit in and those pesky storms that are bound to be caused by global warming didn't blow through my campouts and twist my sunshade pop ups into avant guard art.

It's not just these non durable goods that I hauled off but I added in various metal poles from who knows what and parts to things that I used to could fix stuff with. I decided these spare parts were useless because the world has changed so much that you don't really fix things anymore and I guess that brings us to a full circle to why I have a trailer load of junk. 

The recycle place is only a few miles away and while I have cashed in for more it's a commodity and the price is up and down and right now stands at 7 cents a pound. I backed into a valley with walls of metal almost as tall as the grabber they guys deftly used to unload me with my junk sorted onto the mountains by a system I could not decipher. They were very nice about it and seemed genuinely glad I brought my stuff to them.     

One thing on my pile of cull was an old fish cleaning table. I searched online and found a local big box with fish tables on clearance. It was almost exactly the same price as I was paid for the load of scrap. 

I will make a trip sometime soon to the city dump with non recyclable trash but I figured this was enough embarrassing hippie-ing for one day and I relaxed with some tree hugging.