Presidents Of The United States Of America "Kitty"

I was thinking about this song (particularly the refrain) on election day, when my cat was driving me nuts.

But now that it's in my head, I've got other kittys to think about.

My daughter turns 5 today!

We asked her on several occasions what she might like to have as a party theme.  And for my wife, no party theme is too weird, no party theme is undo-able.

Two years ago, when her two favorite things were "Dinosaur Train" and her dance class, my daughter suggested we have a dinosaur ballerina party.  So we did.  My wife actually found a great book called "Brontorina," about a dinosaur who wants to dance ballet.  And we did some decorating.  (Note the dinosaur's outfits)



This year, we ask our daughter what she thought a good theme might be.

"Cats and Warthogs."

Huh?

"You know, the girls can dress up as cats.  And the boys can come as warthogs."

Uhh . . .

Well, maybe there is a theme that's too weird.

So we backed it up to just a cat theme.  House cats, jungle cats.  A lion cake and a tiger bouncy house.

I feel a little bad that we couldn't quite fulfill her vision.

(But I am still happy that my girl thinks boys are analogous to warthogs)


The lyrics of this song are NSFW!!!

Hear the song on Youtube.

Trey Anastasio "Pigtail"

Continuing down a tributary of yesterday's post . . .

I wasn't crazy about the first single "Let Me Lie" off Trey Anastasio's new album "Traveler."  Lyrically, it was pretty weak, and musically it just wasn't a cut above the rest of the songs in the "Going For Adds" pile.

But Trey is one of those artists that I feel like we should be playing if he's got a new album out.  That the audience expects us to play if he's got a new album out.

So Barbara suggested I look to another song, something she had played during her new music show "Uncharted Waters."

Right away "Pigtail" grabbed me with a good, enjoyable hook.  It immediately felt like something that mvy could play.

I was grooving to the song as it seemed to be circling to its conclusion.  But it kept going.  And going.  Repeating the refrain "Your pigtail has been dipped in ink/Your pigtail has been dipped in ink/Your pigtail has been dipped in ink/Your pigtail has been dipped in ink."  And repeating.  A full minute passed from when I thought the song was about to end, until the song actually did end.

Ugh.  Like a friend who doesn't know how to end a conversation, no matter how interesting they are, you start to dread talking to them knowing you're going to be stuck in an overlong uncomfortable fade out.

So I put Trey on the back burner.

Seems like radio, in general, felt as lukewarm as I did about the first single "Let Me Lie," because Trey's label moved pretty quickly to single number two.  And wouldn't you know, it was "Pigtail."

I knew Barbara had listened to the song, but I thought we could listen together and discuss.

Sometimes, when a label sends a single, they'll include a "radio edit" which might shorten the track to make it more "single-y."  Unfortunately, they didn't do this for "Pigtail."  I assumed that was going to be a dealbreaker for me. 

About halfway through the tune she ask me what I thought.

"Well, up to this point, I think it's great.  But then it goes on and on."

So we listened.  And listened.  And listened.

I talked about how there really needed to be an editor on this song, to have cut it short.  Barbara pointed out that sometimes there is a vision on the part of the artist and there is a reason a song may include a certain part.

Funny thing happened.  On this listen I focused less on the repeating "Your pigtail has been dipped in ink" refrain, and heard what was going on underneath it.  The various, slightly altered reading of the lines, the horn solo, the background singers rising and falling.

What felt like simple repetition, was actually a clear journey.  The song needed time for the horns to wind around, for the background singers to come and go, for the song to fully circle in for a landing.

I liked the song much more, on this listen.

So I guess the question is if we start playing it, which song will listeners hear?  The one that has a subtle but pleasing logic to its last quarter of running time?  Or an irritating acquaintance they try to avoid contact with for fear of being stuck in a refrain that won't quite end?



Hear the song on Youtube.

Neil Young "The Loner"

Especially if you are not familiar with it but even if you are, it would be good to listen to this song before reading the post about it.


Hear the song on Youtube.


I've heard this song for years on mvyradio.  Played it as a DJ, heard it when I was just listening.

I don't think I really knew it, before coming to work at mvyradio.  The song came out when I was still in diapers.  But I always like the simple crunchiness of a good Neil Young tune.  But didn't have any particular feeling beyond that.

Last week a I walked into the studio at 1pm, as I do every day.  Barbara Dacey was finishing up her shift and clearing out to turn things over to me.  She had "The Loner" cranked on the studio speakers, and was really into it.

She started talking about what it felt like to her, when the song came out.  That she remembers it so clearly.  That it seemed a step beyond anything that had come before it.

She marveled at the amazing diversity within the songs structure.  The acoustic guitar that starts the track that sounds like a typical acoustic tune, followed immediately by the clear-but-fuzzy lead guitar riff.  At :40 seconds strings suddenly appear, and come and go throughout the song.  At :55 seconds everything stops as Neil sings "The Loner . . ." and everything halts for a moment, followed by a short bridge, then back into the main riff.  At 1:50 it goes into a piece of music entirely different from the rest of the song, before the lead coaxes the tune back.  The long outro is a dance between the delicate acoustic and strings, coupled with the pointed, noisy-but-direct electric guitar.

Barbara talked at length about the complexity of the tune, of how it was such a composition on a level about what the others in Neil Young's cohort group were doing a the time.

I have to admit, I had never heard the tune like that before.

While I am familiar enough with the song that I guess I could have identified the various parts, if you had just asked me about the tune without me hearing it, I probably would have only heard the crunchy riff in my head, not recognizing the complexity.

The other thing that is evident about Barbara's reaction versus mine, is context.

At the time this song came out, Barbara was already an avid music listener and consumer.  She was also a musician.  She heard the song in the context of the time it came out, and could compare it to other things she'd been listening to.  And compared to other songs out at the time, Barbara felt it was a big innovation, and her reaction to the song, even today, is colored by that excitement.

At the time this song came out, I was working on chewing solid foods.  So I never heard the song in the context of its day.

For me, this song is neither before nor after "Times They Are A' Changing" or "London Calling" or "Born To Run" or "Let It Be."  They ALL fall under the category of "before I started listening to music."  So the song could never really hit me in the same way as it hits Barbara.

You listen to the radio day after day, and it's simply not possible to dive into every single song and react to every single song and pick apart every single song.

But it really lifts the listening experience when you can grab ahold of just one tune, and shake it for all it's worth.

Bob Marley "Ambush In The Night"

Here are some things that happened while I tried to "get out the vote" and "get of of my house," yesterday morning . . .

My wife had to leave the house super-early, because she remembered last-minute that she had an early meeting.  This meant I was completely in charge of getting the kids ready to leave the house for the day.

My 2 year old loves peanut butter.  So I asked him if he wanted peanut butter on a bagel for breakfast.  He said yes, so I put peanut butter on a bagel.  He protested.  "Not peanut butter on top!"  It took me a few tries, but I figured out what he wanted.  He wanted an sandwich.  He didn't want the peanut butter on top, he wanted it in the middle.  Being the practical sort, I just took the two halves, squished them together and made a sandwich.  Unfortunately, he had seen that the peanut butter was actually on top, and could not unsee this horror.  He sobbed for 10 minutes, saying "Not peanut butter on top!"  I was unable to convince him that the peanut butter was now in the middle.  In his mind, it was forever on top, and he could never eat such an abomination.

Not only did my wife have to work early, she was going to have to work late.  So late, that she was not going to be able to pick up our almost-5 year old at her pre-school at pick-up time.  The solution was that I would take my daughter to work Tuesday.  The night before, Mom and daughter had gone shopping, and had spied a heavily discounted Halloween costume.  For 5 bucks, why not?  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  But on Tuesday morning, my daughter insisted that only suitable outfit for "Going To Work With Daddy" Day, was a cupcake costume complete with a cherry-on-top hat.  Did I really want to get in a yelling/crying standoff with a giant rainbow sprinkle covered cupcake?  "Choose your battles," the saying goes.

Amid these two mini-dramas, the friggin' cat was driving me crazy.  She's 18 years old (though she doesn't look it), and I was wondering if she was having senior moment.  Inside.  Outside.  Inside.  Outside.  She kept coming in and out of the kitchen slider, each time letting stiff morning chill shoot through the room.  And she kept meowing, Meowing, MEOWING!  "What is your beef, kitty!?"  I kept asking her.  On the shopping trip that yielding the cupcake costume, my wife had also bought some fancy-shmancy catfood---the kind that comes in gravy that actually looks kinda good---and I figured kitty was agitating for another bowl after she'd inhaled the first.  Hey, at least someone ate breakfast, right?  But what's with all the meowing and discontent?

So as I'm running out of time to get out the door, get the boy to daycare and get to work, plus squeeze in voting before the drop offs, the full on chaos begins as my daughter has decided to fulfill my request to "bring a toy you'd like to play with" by picking out, I dunno, an anvil or something insanely heavy and my son is furious because he sees his sister packing a backpack and realizes HE'S not packing a backpack and hell if I know where his Elmo backpack is and as I'm stomping through the house looking for it I'm muttering "why is it my responsibility to know where you throw your shit?" . . . I step in shit.  Or vomit.  I'm not sure.

Yeah, I misread the cat's issue.  Not a senior moment.  Diarrhea.  She was meowing because she was in gastro-intestinal distress.  And I stepped in it barefoot.

So yeah, I lost my cool and it took another 10 minutes to clean up, marshal all the kids' shit (not the literal kind of shit, just the kind of shit you put in a backpack) and hope that I could get in and out of the polling place so I was not late for everything else that I had to do that day.


Monday evening (the night before) . . .

As I've mentioned in previous posts, mvyradio has a trade with Adam Cab, for various reason, you might find a staffer catching a ride in one of their vans.  As I have also mentioned, a number of their drivers are Jamaicans.

So I was riding with one of the Jamaican drivers on Monday evening, and he was talking about how this was his last week---it's that time of year on the Vineyard, when our foreign workers are coming to the end of their visas.  They'll depart over the course of the next month, ready to return in April or May for another season.

I asked him what he'd be doing in Jamaica for the winter, and he said, "nut-ting to speak uf."  I asked if he'd come back for another season on the Island and he said, "I 'ope so.  We see what 'appens tomorrow."  He expressed concern that if Romney were elected, he might place tighter restrictions on Visas to protect American jobs.

As we drove through the darkened, quiet daylight-savings-is-over and the-season-is-over empty streets, he marveled, "The streets are quiet tonight, sir.  The night before an election?  Is not like this at home . . ."

I asked him what it is like.

"Tense.  Vera tense."  He went on, "People with guns go into neighborhoods of the opposition.  Try to intimidate 'em.  Lotta lives lost."

He paused, and then he said it again to make sure I heard it, "Lotta lives lost . . ."


Back to Tuesday morning . . .

I had slept soundly the night before.  There were no hazards to navigate, inside or outside the polling place.  I chose candidates that I have confidence in.  I left and went about my day.

Daycare schedule changes, peanut butter sandwiches, missing backpacks, sartorial dessert-orial decisions and cat diarrhea---these were first world problems, not anything to get hung up about.

I voted Tuesday.  And I felt lucky.


Here's a lesser know Bob Marley song, in which he address being shot in 1976, possibly for political reasons.  Go to the Youtube page to see the lyrics.


Hear the song and read the lyrics on Youtube.

Smart Songs "Voting Rap"

Thought I should post something for Election Day . . . 

I won't say these guys are the dopest rhymers.  But give them credit, they actually make a decent, informative song about the ins and outs of the American voting system.

Hope you vote today!


Hear the song on Youtube.

And for more of their clever songs about other aspects of our government, check out their Youtube page.

Suicide Machines "No Face"

Ballot Question #2 in Massachusetts is a version of what some States have tackled as "assisted suicide."  The proposed bill in Massachusetts is not an "assisted" bill, per se.  It would allow a "physician licensed in Massachusetts to prescribe medication, at the request of a terminally-ill patient meeting certain conditions, to end that person’s life."

Heavy stuff.

It's pretty amazing that this Question has arrived on the ballot rather quietly.  Given the strong feelings the subject matter provokes, you'd think that there would be a lot more talk about it.  But its under the radar enough that I know some of my friends weren't aware that this was something they were going to have to consider in (or before) the voting booth.  Or maybe they are aware of it, but they just don't want to talk about such a dark, loaded, emotionally charged subject.

My awareness of people's sensitive, passionate and emotional responses to the topic comes, in part, from a t-shirt.

There was a mini Ska-music revival in the mid-90s, and I became hooked on this band, The Suicide Machines.  From Detroit, I assume they took their name due to fellow Michiganite, Jack Kevorkian.

How psyched was I, that the record label person in appreciation of my radio support of the band, sent me a band t-shirt?

A simple navy tee, it had the band's name and logo on the front, and the album name, "Destruction By Definition" on the back.

Amazingly, I still have this t-shirt and it's still in pretty good shape even though it is well over 15 years old.

Why is it in good shape?  Because I only wear it occasionally.

I felt like, geez, you just never know when you're going to be somewhere where the words "Suicide Machines" emblazoned across your chest is inappropriate.

As far as fashion and clothing goes, I've always subscribed to something I read about Jackie Kennedy.  Her theory on clothing was that after you left a party, you wanted people to say you looked great, without them exactly remembering what you were wearing.

Now I'm no Jackie O and I've never worn a Chanel suit or a pill box hat.  But I do tend to wear things that are nice but plain, that effect a persona, but are not the focal point of that persona.

I'm definitely not the type of guy who wears a shirt that says, in effect, "Hey look at me.  I'm confrontational!"

So mostly, I've used my Suicide Machines tee as an undershirt, where a collared shirt can hide the logo.

But every time I put on this shirt, or listen to the band, I think of this one time . . .

It was when I was living in Virginia.  There was certainly a large population of social conservatives there, who would frown upon a shirt like the one I had.  Literally.  Some people were not shy about staring at you disapprovingly for something as simple as a t-shirt.

I was out with my friends at an arts and crafts and music festival in town.  The early part of the day had been cool, but the sun had come out, so I decided to take off my sweatshirt.

I had completely forgotten that I had the Suicide Machines tee on.  And as I was walking with my friends, trying to decide if I should but the sweatshirt back on, I could see this elderly woman staring at my chest.

She started toward me.

I suppose I could have thrown the sweatshirt back on, but I was kind of frozen in place, wondering how I was going to counter whatever argument she was about to throw on me.

She stepped right up to me, squinting at my chest to make sure she was reading correctly, right up until she was upon me.

She grabbed my arm and looked me in the eye.

"I love your shirt," she smiled.

And she gave me a thumbs up.

Then she walked off.

I suppose she'd be voting Yes, on Question #2.


For details on Ballot Question #2, and the Massachusetts Ballot in general, the State has a really great website.



Hear the song on Youtube.

John Prine "Automobile"

Following my post on Thursday (when I wrote some personal thoughts on Ballot Question #3 in Massachusetts), my friend Scott jokingly asked if I was going to write blog posts about the other two Ballot Questions. 

Actually, I was planning on writing about Question #2 on Monday, believe it or not.  Though more in a peripheral way.

But I might as well do a post about Ballot Question #1.

It's called the "Right To Repair" law, and if passed it would mean that auto makers and dealers would have to share diagnostic and repair information with independent auto repair shops.  Currently, they can keep that information to themselves, preventing independent shops from doing certain repairs.

Honestly, I don't know the issue so well.  I'm all for the sharing---which is consumer-friendly and should make auto repair more competitive.  But I'm also leery of government forcing inventors/creators, to share proprietary intellectual property.

Too much thinking for a Sunday.

Instead, let's just listen to John Prine sing about a broken down car.

(But if you want some good information, with balanced pros and cons, visit the state's site for a sample ballot and further information about this specific question.)



Hear the song on Youtube.

Ben Sollee "A Few Honest Words"

Sadly, I'm not sure there is a single candidate, in any race, that fits the simple criteria that Ben Sollee sings about here . . .

But during this ugly, mean, wall-to-wall negative political ad season, his call to action---to vote thoughtfully---is perhaps the most powerful, moving "ad" I've seen.

Ben Sollee - "A Few Honest Words" at the Lincoln Memorial from Mason Jar Music on Vimeo.

See the video on Youtube.

The Mountain Goats "Cry For Judas"

My friend Ross turned me on to this band---how had I never listened to Mountain Goats?  He/They have been making records since the mid-90s and somehow I’ve never crossed paths with them.

Now that November has arrived, this is the time of year that I love discovering records.  New releases grind to a halt, and so it’s an opportunity to either a) go back and relisten to records from earlier in the year that we might have missed or b) go out on a limb and play an artist that might stretch the boundaries of the mvyradio “sound.”

The danger, as a programmer, with taking a header, is that you tend to lean on your personal tastes.  Which, when I’m being objective, is something I try to avoid.

That’s a good time to turn outward and ask for advice.

I love this song.  But does it sound like an mvy song to you?


One of the things I love about this track, is that despite a series of memorable and provocative lyrics (“Mistreat your altar boys long enough, and this is what you get”) I have no idea what the track is about.  The even more provocative video doesn’t clarify anything, just adds to the mystery . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Dave Matthews Band "Tripping Billies"

“You know, the cops are never going to buy this.  Smoking dope outside a Dave Matthews Band concert.  They’re going to look us and say ‘Yeah, right.’”

We DID seem like a cliché.  Two young folks, with sloppy looking clothes and slopey looking knit caps, red-eyed and smiling, sitting in a parked car outside a concert arena in Providence following a Dave Matthews show, smelling---reeking, really---of pot.

If a police officer tapped on our windows, he’d have a hard time telling the difference between the thousands of other stoners outside the show, and us.

“I’ll just show them my scar,” she said.

Amy had cancer.  Brain tumors.  She’d been through radiation.  And now she was going through months and months of chemotherapy.

There’s not much you can do that makes you feel valuable, when a family member has to walk down that hard road of heavy duty drugs, exhausting tests, extreme weight-loss and the crushing bouts of depression that come with cancer taking over their life and their focus.

The best you can do as a brother, is try to bring some lightness, some mental relief and a distraction.

It was good news that on the night of the show, Amy was feeling well enough to go see her favorite band.  When I’d given her the tickets as a present, we were both nervous that she wouldn't have the energy and ability to last through a whole night out.

Amy was hard to read, so I’m not 100% sure she enjoyed the show.  I mean, she smiled and said she liked it.  But it wasn’t like Amy to be jumping up and down, screaming at a concert, whether she had cancer or not.

When we got back to the car after the show, she pulled a sub sandwich out of her backpack.  We’d bought in on the ride down to Providence, but she wasn’t feeling well enough to eat it before the show.

“Do you mind?” she asked, with a raised eyebrow.  I knew exactly what she meant.

I was not a pot smoker.  I mean, I had tried it.  I DID inhale.  But I never enjoyed the sensation of being high.  Where it relaxes some, and increases pleasure for others, pot just made me itchy in my own skin.  So somewhere not too long after college, I just stopped pretending it was fun to try.

But I knew plenty of people who smoked for the enjoyment of it, and I didn’t really have any ethical problem with that.  I wasn’t crazy about friends smoking dope in my car---because I would be on the hook if we got pulled over by the police---but for Amy, I could make an exception.

Besides, she knew how to win over any police officer.

“I’ll just show them my scar,” she said.


Amy had several brain tumors, the largest of which they were able to remove, surgically.  So on top of being mostly bald due to the radiation, she had a 10+ inch L-shaped scar on the left side of her skull.  And though she mostly kept it under a wool cap, she wasn’t afraid to show it if nececessary.

Now, to be clear, Amy liked smoking pot long before she got cancer.

But there is also no doubt, that smoking pot during her treatments aided her immeasurably.

In the space of a year and a half, Amy had gone from just over 140 pounds to just barely above 100 pounds.  And a large part of the problem was the difficulty she had, eating.

The chemicals coursing through her body made radical changes to the way food tasted.  And, more often, it sapped her of her appetite.  At a certain point the only thing that gave her an appetite, was a quick toke before a meal.


My Mother was an operating room nurse.  To this day, I have never been on a motorcycle, because of the innumerable times Mom came home from work to tell us about the guy they had tried (and occasionally, failed) to put back together after he crashed his bike.

As teens we were give very direct, honest and real information about sex---the biology, and the potential consequences.  For this reason (coupled with my own ineptitude), I remained a virgin longer than any of my friends.

And we were given frank talks about drugs.  Strangely, of all three, this one included not only that straight information about the potential negative impacts of illegal drugs . . . more than the others, drug use also seemed to equal some kind of moral failure to Mom.

Which was why I was shocked during one of the holidays when the entire extended family was at our house, that Mom pulled me aside and said, "I need you to take your sister for a ride."

While she couldn't bring herself to be around someone smoking pot, she wanted Amy to be able to eat and enjoy her meals---especially on a holiday.  So I drove around Newburyport for 15 minutes while Amy got high in the passenger seat.  Then we ate ham and lasanga.

Somewhere, Mom had come around to marijuana for its practical, medicinal value.


With all of the noise here in Massachusetts surrounding the Presidential race and the Brown/Warren Senate race, you may or may not be aware that there is a Ballot Question that would end the criminalization of marijuana for medical use.

To be clear, this does not make marijuana legal for general use.  It does not mean you can walk around smoking pot even if you are sick.  It does not legally require your doctor to prescribe medical marijuana.

It seems to be a detailed bill, with a number of caveats to make it clear that it is authorizing the legal use of marijuana in a fairly narrow set of circumstances.

I'm going to guess that a lot of you who are my peers who read this blog, are perfectly comfortable with the idea of medicinal marijuana.  So I'm not trying to convert you.  But what about your Mom?  Is she like my Mom?  Does she feel like drug use is a moral failing and so she's thinking about voting against Ballot Question 3?  Maybe you should talk to her a bit before Tuesday.

People who advocate for the decriminalization of pot have a lot of salient arguments are to why it should be legal for general use.  You can find their points online.  I'm not here to sell you on that.

I AM here to suggest that a cancer patient who doesn't have the umphh necessary to eat a tuna sub without the aid of marijuana, shouldn't also have to worry that a police officer may arrest her.  Even if it is outside a Dave Matthews Band concert.

Read the full ballot question, plus For and Against viewpoints.


Hear the song on Youtube.