Two by Four

Went out to dinner with Taylor last night. We went to a joint that specializes in cajun/barbeque cooking, and blues music, where we ate cornbread, crawdads, spicy chicken, and listened to bagpipers.*

Had a great time.

And had a better time after we got home. I don't kiss and tell...at least not on this blog. If you want to get an approximation of what happened, read one of Madame X's stories, and replace the word 'spank' with 'kiss.'

Or, occasionally, 'chocolate.'

At any rate, that's not what I'm blogging about tonight.

I thought I'd do the meme that the lovely X posted the other day.

2 moments in your life you’d like to erase

1. February 2, 1977
   
2. July 14, 1978

And if I could only choose one of them, I would erase the first. In a heartbeat.

4 moments I like to relieve

1. My son was about nine months old. My wife was working evenings, so I was in charge. I had given him his evening bottle, and sitting with him on the couch. He was mostly holding the bottle on his own, but sometimes he would wrap his little hand around my finger, so we were sort of holding it together. He finished it, and I burped him, and then he snuggled back down into my arms and looked up at me with his big blue eyes, and I looked down at him and smiled. We watched each other for a few moments, and then he closed his eyes and went to sleep in my arms.
   
2. January 12, 1975. Super Bowl Icks. That's what I called it (it was IX). My Dad, my brother, and I watched the Steelers beat the Vikings 16-6, in what, I admit now, was a less-than-spectacular game, but until this point in their history, the Steelers had been a horrible team, not only never winning a championship, but barely ever having a winning season. My brother and I had been Steelers fans since 1969**, but my dad had been a sufferin' Steeler fan since the 1930's. It was great to share this experience with him.
   
3. January 1991: I was on vacation with my family at Disneyworld, staying in one of those condos right around Pleasure Island. The second night there, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers were going to be playing a free concert. The Bluesbreakers! So many rock-n-roll legends began their careers with them. At the time, their guitarist was Coco Montoya (listen to his icy-hot playing on the song 'Sensitive Kind' sometime). There were only about 300 people there to listen, but I didn't mind, I was right up front digging the music. After their first set, they just sort of hung out next to the stage--no security or anything, so I went up and talked to this man who was so instrumental in the careers of Eric Clapton, John McVie, Mick Taylor, and so many others. "Why are you playing at Disney World?" I asked him. He lit a cigarette and looked at me. "They asked us, didn't they?" was his reply.
4. March, 1996: Mike & Ana's wedding. Mike, Steve, Rick and I all worked together in Public Television for about three years. Our careers took us out of each other's orbits, but we always got together for weddings. Mike was the last to get married. Mike's 'after-reception-reception' was held in an empty apartment in Mike's building. It was decorated with balloons, cardboard cutouts of Star Trek and Star Wars characters, and pinatas. It was just the four of us and our wives. All but one of the marriages ended,*** but that was a fun, fun evening.
   

2 places you wouldn’t want to go again

1. Trenton NJ
2. Carey NC
   

4 places you can’t wait to visit/visit again

1. Toronto
2. Jamaica
3. Helsinki
4. San Diego
   

2 foods you can’t stand

1. Lima Beans
2. A weak, runny mixture of ground beaf, red kidney beans, tomatoes, and .5 grams of seasoning my mother had the temerity to call 'Chili.'

4 foods you love

1. My Chili (I was a competition Chili cook in another life)
   
2. My Guacamole
3. North Carolina Pig Pickin
4. Chocolate Milkshakes
   

2 current songs that make you change the station
I don't listen to stations that play bad music, so here are my two songs that are the musical equivilent of Ipecac:

1. 'More than a Feeling,' Boston
2. 'Lyin' Eyes,' the Eagles
   

4 current songs you play over and over
Again, my listening choices mix new and old, so I'll just list the four most-played songs from my itunes' "Recently Played" list:

1. "As Is" by Ani diFranco (quite possibly the best love song ever written)
2. "Lick or Split" by Calvin Owens (BB King's former bandleader, a blues masterpiece that starts with a muted trumpet and desultory bass line, and ends eight minutes later with a full-blown blues orchestra with a screaming Hammond B3 laying down a solid wall of pain. Tasty.)
3. "Toothbrush and my Table" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. An amazing talent, and quite sexy. She'll never make it big in this business. Thank God
4. "Can't Run But" by Paul Simon
   

2 books you’d never finish/read again

1. Clemente, by David Maraniss. I idolized Roberto Clemente as a kid. Reading this book reminded me of how great he was as a player, and how much greater a man he was. His death tore me apart in 1972. I'm glad I read it, to be reminded once again about this man, but his death still hurts.
2. John Updike's Rabbit Angstrom books. I read the first three before the fourth came out. I remember standing in line at the bookstore in the early 1990's with "Rabbit at Rest" in my hand, and thinking why the hell am I doing this again? I put the book back.
   

4 books you have read more than once

1. Thud! by Terry Pratchett
2. Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
3. Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
4. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs
   

Sense a trend? I could list another twenty-two or so books here. As soon as I finish a Discworld novel, I immediately re-read it. The first time, I enjoy the story. The second time, I enjoy the writing.

Yeharr

*No, really. There was a funeral down the street, where the pipers played. They stopped off afterwards for a pint or two. The blues trio that was playing asked if they wanted to sit in. They might have been joking. Too bad if they were. Which led me to ask the following question: How can you tell if a bagpiper's playing badly?

**1-13, under Rookie Head Coach Chuck Noll. Do you remember the name of their starting quarterback? Nope. Terry Bradshaw was drafted the next year. In '69, their QB was the legendary Dick Shiner. That's right, Dick Shiner. More than a name--a hobby.

***Mike's was the most famous. He later appeared on an episode of Oprah as a 'loser in love.'