Estoy Nueces

One of my gripes about musicians websites: Go to almost any current musicians' website and go to their biography. You start reading and before you realize it, you are reading all about their current CD release. I see this over and over again and it pisses me off! If I want to read a biography, I want to read a biography. I biography is not just about this last year of their life, it should include all of it. I notice this, maybe more than most, because I'm always checking websites to get information for an interview or something. Can I just get the facts, please? No, I have to read a corporate or manager take on the whys and wherefors of their musical challenges on the new album. Dull dull dull.

My other complaint is this computer. It will work perfectly for a while and then go on the fritz again. I get up this morning, the screen saver is keeping the computer busy and all looks well, but when I tilt the screen back a little, it all goes black, that black that tells me it is gone and ain't coming back (the computer is ON and functioning, but with no screen there ain't much you can do!). Reboot. Windows welcome, desktop pops up, BLACK. Fuck. Reboot in safe mode just to be able to do what I need to do. And I'll turn it off, go away, and next time it make work perfectly. And it may work for weeks. I've got to make some decisions about it and replace it or fix it or at least make sure everything is backed up again. What a pain.

My aunt has gone to California today. I have not written about this. She's in her 80s. She is very mobile and energetic, but hard of hearing. She hasn't been on a plane since she was a girl and was scared to death in one of those small planes that comes to town and takes people for a ride for a dollar. So she has never flown on a commercial airliner. Today she is going. She is going to see her "boyfriend." Yes, her daughters are freaked out about it all. My uncle died last year and my aunt has been emailing and calling and writing with her husband's old boss. She hasn't seen the man in 50 years, but they've always kept in touch with Christmas cards and such. His wife is dead and he is 95. They've had a hot and heavy correspondence for a while and now she is going to see him. I admire her very much for being brave and flying and for doing what she wants to do despite the protestations of her entire family (I'm sure what she is getting from her sisters is far worse than from her daughters). But I also hope it ends nicely and she comes home and will be happy to stay home again.

I had a legendary singer/songwriter on my show yesterday... that no one has heard of. Jimmie Dale Gilmore was on and it was very interesting. I was nervous and intimidated before meeting him because I've known of him for so long and have never had the opportunity to even see him play, much less meet him. He was gracious and interesting and so nice, so all worries were for naught. (for naught? what makes me use phrases like that?) He brought a couple of great box sets of music... early Sun recordings and the country recordings of Ray Charles and we played those and his new CD and he played live. It was good. I don't know if the audience had a clue who he was. Sometimes they are in the dark, but maybe this enlightened someone and maybe the two or three people that were intelligent enough to know of him were entertained. This was one of those interviews that was for me more than the hoi polloi. (hoi polloi, now THAT is a phrase I love)