There’s a tiny shard, like an archeologist, teasing the maximum amount of information from the tiniest shred of evidence, I’ve got the smallest fragment of a memory.
The place was a carpet warehouse, and the name of the cabaret was Nick’s Uptown. Herbie Hancock, the jazz master, doing something on stage with there dancing legs, a DJ ‘scratching’ and keyboards. Don’t recall the rest. One night, a long time ago.
Or the old Ford, burning through through the night, the Sultan of Swing, on the stereo, “It’s not what they call rock and roll…”
Libra at Little City:
“I’m the edge of an empty highway, howling at the blood on the moon.”
I was making idle conversation with the Libra as he was pouring us some coffee, “I mean, I’m from Oregon. You can’t go to Portland, it’s too close. Seattle is too much like Oregon, only more so, and California? Can’t go there – everyone in Oregon despises California. So I wound up in Austin.”
The Grateful Dead were lyrically reminding me, “Since I came down from Oregon, there’s a lesson or two I’ve learned.” (Pride of Cucamonga – song and album probably predate the guy working at the coffee shop.)
Townes Van Zandt:
“That old White Freightliner going to haul away my mind.”
(White Freightliner Blues)
Meditations:
“Interrogate yourself and find what inhabits your so-called mind and what kind of soul you have now. A child’s soul, an adolescent’s, a woman’s? A tyrant’s soul? The soul of a predator – or its prey?”
(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book V, #11)
Ghost riders
“Ghostriders in the Sky” (The Outlaws) was playing in the background when I thought of this. I’ve heard a sound byte from Bart Simpson, a true scion of American arts & letters, and the clip said something like, “23 minutes and 40 seconds,” although, doing this from memory, it’s a little difficult. But that was the average amount of “show” in a half hour Simpson’s episode.
Round that up, 24 minutes in half an hour of eyeball time. Not bad numbers, but I have no way of knowing how this breaks down. only, I’m wondering, if I paid to have cable delivered to my trailer, why must I also endure the advertising? At least 20% of the viewing time on “normal” TV, be it cable, local, or otherwise, is going to be advertising.
And that’s me, guessing at the numbers. I’m not even sure if it’s a valid figure.
So I was working on a “pop-under” for the free horoscopes, last week’s news, and I haven’t even come close to implementing it yet, as I find such advertising simply horrible, but the Ghost Riders made me think about that Bart quote.
Instead of 20%, like skim milk, isn’t “less than 2%” a better deal?
Ghost Riders in the Sky:
The Outlaws
Duane Eddy
Johnny Cash
Marty Robbins
Roy Clark
Dick Dale
There’s a haunting ZZ Top B-side, from “back in the day,” that I can’t shake.
