August 14, 2007
Walking the 'walk
So, you're in London. You love the Beatles. You take a Tube ride out the St. John's Wood. What else are you going to do when you see that crosswalk?
Time Off Well Spent
Hmm, looks like my new job has been keeping me from posting. But a lovely 2-week vacation to "Old Europe" has given me a chance to actually read some books.
First of all, I have come to completely and utterly adore the writing and general tender-tough pose of Anthony Bourdain. So I spent the last couple of weeks tearing through Kitchen Confidential, The Nasty Bits and A Cook's Tour. I have to say that I probably enjoyed the writing most in The Nasty Bits--it's a more recent compilation--but KC is a really, really cool book. I'll throw some quotes in here later, but for one thing, his books make me want to see farflung places and things. And they make me glad that he's out there representing us Americans.
But the more earth-shattering event was that I've finally read Phillip Roth. My friend Peter has been haranguing me for months to do so, and the appearance of Everyman on the shelf of the WH Smith in the Eurostar Terminal in London seemed to be all the harbinger I needed. I don't know where or when I had decided that my life was rich enough without Mr. Roth's writings, but god was I wrong. Full of bleak, funny, sexy, spot-on observations, it's a tiny little morsel of a book that has more life in its scant 150 pages than most "great" novels have in three times the length.
June 26, 2007
Rise Up
We're heading off on a camping trip in a few weeks with a couple of other families. An opportunity to bring the guitar and the songbooks and just hang. On of the other dads is an amazing guitar player and fun to jam with. My problem is that I have completely lost the ability to remember the chords to more than a couple of songs from start to end. If I have it written out in front of me, no problem, but the part of my brain that used to be devoted to remembering the changes to, say, Thrasher (Neil Young), Apeman, Allison, etc
has gone. Lyrics? No problem. But I'm hopeless without the music. So, I'm trying to find books full of great songs that lots of people like to sing.
So far, nothing beats my copy of Rise up Singing, which has everything from Showtunes and Union rally songs to choice 60s and 70s folk (Ochs, John Prine, Dave van Ronk, Dylan) and Child Ballads. Chords are simplified a bit, but great for singing along. All the lyrics are written out with the chords, so you aren't flipping back and forth all the time. Best part is that the book is spiral bound (there's a non-SB version, but why bother) so it will lie flat.
We'll also be packing some Beatles song books, but I need more advice.
