Take This Child, Lord (Tucson, AZ)
I recently had a dream where I was asked to play second base for the New York Yankees. Just me, in my street clothes, with no particular baseball skill, suddenly asked to jump into the middle of a game and start playing. And instead of saying no I just stalled [...]
Archive for June, 2008
Take This Child, Lord (Tucson, AZ)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
State Quarter Review: Mississippi
Posted in Currency on June 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Mississippi’s state quarter is an interesting failure. It does something right that most quarters don’t: it chooses one image and displays it boldly. Mississippi is the Magnolia State, so their quarter presents the caption “The Magnolia State” along with two beautifully composed Magnolia blossoms. It is truly some of the best artwork on any of [...]
State Quarter Review: Illinois
Posted in Currency on June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Good Lord, Illinois, what is going on here? When you had your quarter design contest, did you whittle it down to the top ten ideas and then just paste all those together into one design?
Let’s review what we have here. Abraham Lincoln, apparently from his school days, is about to step through an outline of [...]
State Quarter Review: Kentucky
Posted in Currency on June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Kentucky’s state quarter features a thoroughbred racehorse behind a fence, a mansion looming on a hill, and the caption, “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Those last words are the title of a song written by Stephen Foster that is now the official state song of Kentucky. The original lyrics started thusly:
“The sun shines bright in the [...]
I Shall Now Review All 50 State Quarters
Posted in Currency on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In 1999, the United States started printing a series of commemorative coins to honor each of the fifty states. They decided to introduce five new state quarters each year, and this year, 2008, we have seen the final five states.
Why a review of state quarters? Quarters are not only microcosms through which we [...]
He Strummed His Way Into Trouble (West Texas)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Olivia Pepper gave me a haircut on a bench in a small park in Austin, Texas. The park was filled with strange birdfeeders that looked like Scandanavian condominiums. A random man walked by and saw what was apparently the first outdoor haircut he had ever seen and shouted, jokingly, “Hey! I’m next!” Olivia yelled out, [...]
Repair is the Dream of the Broken Thing (New Orleans, LA)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The sickness grew and mutated. It had a name and a face, though I promised the sickness that I wouldn’t tell anyone what it was. It tormented me like a bully at school. It pushed me down and let me get up and then pushed me down again. It was psychedelic. It entered my brain [...]
All My Favorite Singers Couldn’t Sing (Chicago, IL)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My friend Dave Depper has contributed a lot of good to my life, like the one time that me and him played an informal set at the Roadside Attraction in Portland that consisted of nearly half the songs from the White Album, done spontaneously as best we could from memory, switching off between guitar and [...]
I Need to Play Music With My Friends in the Street (Boston, MA)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
After the glory and wonder of Wichita had to come the confusion and awkwardness of Oklahoma City. As all things have their beautiful rises, they must also have… well, Oklahoma City. We played in a small juice bar with an adjoining music space and no one knew why we were there. Everyone looked stunned at [...]
Sad Songs and Waltzes Aren’t Selling This Year (Wichita, KS)
Posted in Tour Diaries on June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We play music.
We live to play music.
We play music to live.
And we are so blessed. We drive in a Pontiac Montana, a mini-van that is literally the size of Montana. We sleep in abandoned mansions, with refrigerators full of food. We have the coordinates to the mansions sent to us ahead of time, and we [...]
