Ramblin' with Roger

There was a conversation about just passing on the opening act and to go right to the headliner, but that didn’t happen. Instead, Buzzy Linhart did his opening set. Don’t remember much about it, except that, since he knew we had no idea who he was, he kept name-dropping. He knew David Crosby and Bob Dylan. He worked with John Sebastian and Jimi Hendrix. It was all so…irritating, even though it turned out to be true. He seemed most proud of the fact that he co-wrote the song “Friends” that Bette Midler recorded.

That’s a story that I all but forgot until I read that story a couple weeks ago about Americans having fewer friends.

I think I’m pretty lucky that I’ve had some very good friends over the years: my racquetball partner Norm for maybe 20 years, my first-day-of-college friend Mark since 1971, my friend Karen from kindergarten (!), just to name three that I’m regularly in touch with.

So, my three questions, which I would appreciate a reply to:

1. How do you define “friend”? In a MySpace sort of way, or does it actually mean sharing some substantial thing? (Or am I just missing the point of MySpace?)

2. Can you be friends with people you haven’t met, that is, electronically? I contend, much to my surprise, yes.

3. Does the isolation of American life – longer commutes, busyness, distance from the core family – mean that the report is right, that we do have fewer friends, or is it merely a definitional issue? Certainly, school is a great way to meet potential friends, at least in my life, but I think the number of my friends would certainly have diminished had I not been involved with church and other organizations, and (OK, I’ll say it) this blog, which has been a way for me to keep in touch with people when I wouldn’t have otherwise (no Christmas cards sent two years in a row).

Lessee.

Oh, she tries to squeeze too much in to a time frame, which sometime makes us late. In fact, today, scheduled a walk, a trip to the Y for a swim class for Lydia, a Bible study…and she IS allowing me to take her to dinner.

And…

Well, that’s pretty much it.

Do you know what she wants for her birthday? For me to help her pick up things around the house, and a gift card from one of those kitchen appliance stores. Check, and check.

This summer, she’s co-ordinating this ESL summer enrichment program, thus cutting into her downtime – teachers NEED their summer downtime, I gather.

Anyway, she’s a good mom.

She’s gotten a lot more cynical about politics (like her husband) than she used to be, which is too bad, though quite understandable. She pays more attention to the news.
I could write a lot more, but the chances she’ll even see it is quite minimal.

After the Las Vegas incident of July 2004, I was peeved enough to go out to buy her 4-disc box set. Don’t make me angry; I spend money.

The collection is put together in a most interesting way. The first disc and the first half of the second disc generally follows her career, with album cuts from throughout, but from then current (1998), back to the beginning, skipping over the a couple phases. (It is light on what is probably my favorite album, Hasten Down the Wind.) The rest of the second disc is comprised of songs from the three albums she did with Nelson Riddle and the two discs of Mexican songs.

The third disc is a collaborative disc where she performs with everyone from Kermit the Frog to Frank Sinatra, plus of course, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Aaron Neville. It also runs from most recent back, but doesn’t include her background singing with Neil Young (Heart of Gold, et al.) or Under African Skies (Paul Simon).

Disc four is her rarities, including her contributions to Randy Newman’s Faust, a contribution to Carla Bley’s jazz opera Escalator Over the Hill, a collaboration with Philip Glass and much more. Again, latest to earliest.

I believe that in order for a box set to be successful, it must have both enough familiar stuff to reel you in, plus enough GOOD unfamiliar stuff to make it worthwhile. This set succeeds on both counts.

Last month, I heard her and Ann Savoy sang a couple songs on the radio show A Prairie Home Companion. One song was a Cajun tune, the other a ballad.

Then I came across the June 29 episode of Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Mahar. (The full episode also features Teri Hatcher: memoir, Burnt Toast; Annabelle Gurwitch: book and documentary, both titled Fired!; “dog whisper” Cesar Millan.) “11-time Grammy Award winner Linda Ronstadt and Ann Savoy harmonize beautifully on “Walk Away, Renee” and “Too Old to Die Young.” Between numbers they spar with Bill on the American South and Las Vegas.”

I’ve added their collaboration “Adieu, False Heart” to my shopping list; the album comes out on July 25.

This year, though the explicit promise wasn’t made, we are attempting to have some dates again this season. So far, we’ve been on two.

The first was to see the movie I’ve been wanting to see for months, Thank You for Smoking, which I wanted to see even before Gordon recommended it a couple months ago. I found that I smiled through the first half, but actually laughed out loud a few times during the second half, but am embarrassed to admit that I missed the Pieta reference until my wife mentioned it to me afterwards. (If you saw the movie and don’t know what I’m talking about), think 16th President of the US.)

The second was to go on a boat ride provided by our realtor David on the Dutch Apple Cruise, a two-hour tour on the Hudson River from Albany, past the port to the fancy houses in Glenmont to and back. We met very interesting people, such as this Brazilian couple; her name was Maine, and she has five siblings also named after U.S. states, such as Tennessee and Maryland. Really. We talked about the English language, comic books, and a variety of other topics. There was also someone who turned out to be a neighbor of ours whose mother is a member of our church. It was a great time of great adult conversation.

One couldn’t help but notice, however, how high the Hudson River was getting. And it, along with other rivers in the Northeast, would only be getting higher…
***
“It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” 40th Anniversary Essay Contest – deadline is July 21.
***
The World e-Book Fair, sponsored by Project Gutenberg and World eBook Library, will be offering up to 300,000 books online now until August 4, 2006. Fiction, nonfiction and reference books plus classical music scores and recordings will be available for free downloading.
***
Signs I blog too much:

*CBS News Sunday Morning has a piece on blogging. This is the emotional equivalent of how the death of disco was signaled when Marvel Comics came out with the Disco Dazzler (changed to Dazzler).

The special spends much time with John Cassavetes, who was inspired by the Italian neorealism and French “new wave” following World War II, and was the epitome of the director who, like later directors who would max out their credit cards to work, just HAD to work. Stanley Kubrick was also given considerable air time. Sam Peckinpah, who has put out a number of graphically violent films, was described as a filmmaker showing the clash between man and his environment.

One of the interesting comments came from John Sayles, who indicated that the limitations and challenges of independent film are also liberating. One is “forced to create an artistic solution” without the big budget.

You may quibble with the definition of “independent film” or complain that a given director or another was given short shrift. Woody Allen has final say in everything from casting to the final cut, and that’s about all we hear about him, for instance.

But I liked it, and if you like film, I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Every Wednesday night this month, TCM is showing “filmmakers who have worked on the edges of Hollywood”. The “Edge of Outside” special will be rebroadcast on Wednesday, July 19 at 11 p.m. The final evening of the series, July 26, features Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, Robert Altman’s Nashville, and Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull.