Love love love love love

...love this.   My grandmother and her family were Geordie, would like to have heard a bit of that.

The Great Vowel Shift

Yes, like Mellotrons, sometimes I geek over The Great Vowel Shift.

Some of the best things ever

Two of the all-time best things I've ever seen on the Internet.  I'm blogging them so I have them handy:



and:

Video of Instinctive Drowning Response

http://mariovittone.com/2011/07/video-of-instinctive-drowning-response/

Drowning doesn't look like drowning in the movies.  Be safe around the water!

Women are from Mars

I have been both characters in this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/16/when-to-end-a-friendship_n_5325932.html

I've been the toxic (melodramatic, flamboyant, furious) friend that had to be jettisoned into the night. Certainly.  Alternately, I've had to cut off a toxic friend or two.  One I remember as I simply, in the middle of a conversation she peppered with little bits of viciousness, came to the aha! realisation that I didn't enjoy her company, her conversation, nor did I find any interest, in any aspect, of her life.  Why was I staying around? Ain't nobody got time for that!

But I can't help as I read this article pointing out that the men I know do not have these friendship implosions.  Now my sample in the study is admittedly a small number of guys but seriously, they just don't.  Many of them have friends they know from being little, little kids.   And they still get along.  And they always will.  They just *do*.  Sometimes I envy that.

Such a nice night

It was so nice to be at The Nick and see old friends again for the first time in years. We were all there yesterday for the Memorial for Mats Roden. Great feeling being on the stage again with Ed Reynolds as well.
The Lawson sisters and I went to Pam Stallings and told her we had an idea - for the Sunday before Memorial Day weekend to become an annual reunion day at the Nick for folks from the old days... hopefully that can become a tradition because it was lots of fun. I also think Mats would approve. — at The Nick Rocks.

Ed and me

Locust Fork Gauge Correlation

Scot Donald has created this helpful correlation between the Locust Fork gauges, to give paddlers an accurate prediction of what the water levels will be based on the Sayre gauge. Remember that the Sayre gage is a ways downstream from Cleveland and a spike in Cleveland may not show up on Sayre for several hours. Be sure to check a 24 hour precipitation map against a watershed map in case of recent rain.http://www.waldensridgewhitewater.com/.../Nat.../NorthAL.jpg

Saw this last night

I'm not a movie buff, so I hadn't heard of this director or of this project before.  I have read Dune a zillion times so I was familiar with that... anyway, this was the sort of documentary that will take days for my brain to process:

Live

My good friend Jody told me, after my mother died, that my mom would want us kids to live.  "Live!" he said. "That's what your mom would want.  That's what she would tell you.  Don't stay in sadness.".
It's been three years since she passed, but for some reason I felt that posting what Jody said to me would help someone, somewhere, today, so I'm posting it.
Today I am going to two memorials of friends that have recently died.  A bunch of my friends from my band days seem to be passing these days; it's scary and sad.
I try not to ponder my regrets very much, because it doesn't do any good.   What did someone tell me... 'don't look behind you because that's not the direction you're heading'.  I believe that is good advice. And really, as much as I miss some people who I don't communicate with now, there are others that I don't miss at all.  It's weird; I was around some old friends I hadn't seen in years yesterday and it struck me how different I am from the last time I talked to them.  That would have been before I started doing outdoor sports, back when I was a band member.  We really have little in common now.  But when someone from the Southside scene dies, especially someone as talented and accomplished as Mats, and as sweet and cool as Barry, I am reminded that I will always be part of that group of people, and we are all saddened by his loss.
T Regarding my letter, I am sorry, but not regretful, about what I wrote, because I was telling the truth, just in the most vicious way I could express; that I am sorry for.  People have to treat each other with respect or they deserve to get served.  We're not put on this Earth to hurt each other or take abuse. Ain't nobody got time for that.  Life is hard, damn it is hard!  Don't make it harder for each other. Everybody remember what you're making that pile of money for. What you spend the majority of your time awake doing - remember why.  If you don't know why you're doing what you do, find out.  If you think this post was rambling, you're right.  Now I gotta go to the memorials.  In the meantime read this: http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/03/19/15-ways-to-live-and-not-merely-exist/

Yes

This is an excellent Yes concert from 1999 in the House of Blues.  It doesn't have Wakeman on keyboards but it does have Jon Anderson... anyway it's really great:

Poem

Quality

Most of my friends are artists or musicians, and they are talented and witty people.  These folks send me Quality links.  QUALITY.   Here's one from Tone that has me giddy this evening, so I'll share:

Something Else Trio

So yesterday, a friend was telling me about going to see a trio of elderly ladies, called the "Something Else Trio", perform at Local Color Cafe (I think one of them owns the cafe). He said, "They have the best jazz pianist in town... hell maybe in the state... she really swings and puts these cool color chords in the tunes. And nobody knows about her." After a couple questions from me he reiterated, "Judy, they do songs like Roll Out The Barrell, and she makes them awesome."  They also ad lib these three part harmonies like the McGuire sisters.  I found some youtube clips of them and now I must see them live.

Alabama Flatwater

I've decided to start a blog specifically about my flatwater paddling trips.  What is flatwater you might ask? It is a term that describes a creek or river that doesn't have any whitewater on it.   My new blog will include maps and descriptions of the runs, with photos of the put-in and take-outs etc. as I have them.
Please check it out at:

http://alabamaflatwater.blogspot.com/

Friend of mine is doing an AT thru-hike

My friend Gary, aka Garmachi, is starting a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.    Here is a link to his website with a blog of his adventures, that have already started in his shakedown pre-AT hike with a bear encounter:
www.wheresthenextshelter.com

He also has a kickstarter program for the book he is going to write about his trip.  I can promise you that if it's anything like Gary is in real life, it will be very entertaining reading.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535439444/wheres-the-next-shelter