Ramblings of an EdMan

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Car fun

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We have had a code/ check engine on the car since November. It’s for an EGR valve which was replaced in 2014. It’s going to cost several hundred dollars.

I also had a switch for the shifter fall off. It’s on there now but missing something. And this little part costs almost $200.

I wonder how much our cars cost us with the cost of cars, deprecation, repairs, roads, the environment…

Kurt Vonnegut said gas is a very expensive high and I agree. I wonder how different our country would be today if the car didn’t take over after World War II. It’s very hard to live without one in most of the United States today. Places like big box retail and completely designed for cars and often shopping districts are incredibly bad places for pedestrians. I wonder how that will change in the future.

It’s Just Another Music Monday

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I decided to make this Music Monday a few weeks ago on the blog.

Did play music on iTunes today. Didn’t play guitar.

I was exhausted after work.

Been enjoying singing and playing chords. I think I want to play Rocksmith again. I think I want to work on strumming patterns.

Also tempted to try to learn some blues shuffle. I do love the sound of the blues and the roots of rhythm.

Right now though I am very tired. Maybe I will add “Manic Monday” by the Bangles later. Maybe something else.

Play on!

“Till The Cows Come Home” – Very Dirty Blues (NSFW)

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So I was playing around YouTube. I wanted to share a great song I was listening to by Blind Boy Fuller. One of the best songs from the “Blues from the Vocalion Vaults” collection I got from Amazon. I love very old school blues there is some great stuff before World War II that most people haven’t heard.

And I had YouTube on autoplay and one of the most hilarious songs I have ever heard came on “Till the Cows Come Home” by Lucille Bogan. It’s one of the bawdiest, raunchiest and most hilarious songs I have ever heard. I was wondering if this kind of song was more common back in juke joints, but I didn’t see much like this in dirty blues collections.

And I read an interesting blogpost about it that included the lyrics, I guess women of that era called their vulvas cocks in that area, which I actually think is pretty awesome. Prudishness to me is a very, very odd thing. Sexuality is part of life and being hilarious like this is totally awesome.

Her most famous song is probably “Shave ‘Em Dry” which is also very raunchy. I wonder though is she was too upfront with her sexuality for some people. Reading her biography she didn’t go by Lucille Bogan later in her career. I wish she did more amazing songs like this. There isn’t much like it, ever. The lyrics are also very, very dirty.

I feel like we lose something from censorship. There was pushback in the 1930s from Mae West to possibly Lucille Bogan, I am not sure in music, but my guess is it was likely. I know the Hays Code came in during that time in 1930-1934, which probably stopped a lot of hilarious movies and jokes. And possibly some very interesting and fun movies in the Golden Age of Hollywood that could have stood the test of time.

And of course there was new censorship in the 1950s and the comics code in 1954 which I know stopped a lot of awesomeness. There is something relatively boring about the superhero having danger and solving it every time in only 32 pages. And the code lasted a long time, quoting the Wikipedia page: “By the early 2000s, newer publishers bypassed the CCA and Marvel Comics abandoned it in 2001. By 2010, only three major publishers still adhered to it: DC Comics, Archie Comics, and Bongo Comics. Bongo broke with the CCA in 2010. DC and Archie followed in January 2011, rendering the Code defunct.” And I think having comics away from the code is allowing for some wonderful creativity finally.

Tipper Gore would definitely not approve of Lucille Bogan, I think so many hip hop stars would. Don’t fear the seven words you can’t say on television as George Carlin said: piss, cunt, motherfucker, cocksucker, fuck, shit and tits. Such a bizarre list, cocksucker and motherfucker are heavy words. Shit it my favorite all time word, and it’s just poop. Piss is just pee. Tits are what we use to feed babies and sound like a nickname as George Carlin said. We are all born from cunts, and it’s an ancient word that I actually think is beautiful. And of course as Lucille Bogan says fucking is how we make more humans. Some thoughts from the Atlantic magazine on the 7 words you can’t say on television.

I am against censorship and think it’s unamerican. I am very much pro Lucille Bogan and hilarious, fun raunchiness.

Wearing out My Guitar Strings

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I got my Ibanez AF71 Hollowbody Electric Guitar in February. It’s gorgeous and I love it.
Even more since I have been playing chords.

I probably picked a horrible place to play a high desk with my computer on it and a chair with arms.

I have to be careful I don’t bash the guitar into the desk/table.

But, it is where I can turn on ultimate-guitar.com and have iTunes going. Both of which annoy me in different ways. Ultimate-guitar.com has autoplaying videos I have to pause, turn off or just mute Google Chrome or Firefox for. I must have a bad version of iTunes because it likes to just not play sometimes. I am wondering if it’s a memory issue.

In other news, my cat Lenny wanted to help me blog by going in front of my monitor and sitting on the keyboard. He is very, very helpful.

But, when you are playing several hours after work your guitar strings eventually wear out. They don’t seem to sound as nice tonight. I don’t know if it’s the capo or just playing a lot or both. My guess is more playing a lot.

But still tonight I played “Lean on Me” by Bill Withers. Which of course is an all time classic. I played it a couple times but then I had to get to Target Pharmacy before they closed.

I then came back and played an underrated Johnny Cash cover of Loudon Wainwright III’s “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry”. It’s the song I played most tonight maybe five times or so.

I then started listening to Loudon Wainwright III on YouTube. My favorite video was two songs on Austin City Limits he dedicated to his son Rufus.

Then my ITunes didn’t want to work while I was burning Rolling Stones “Let It Bleed”, REM “The Best of the IRS years: 1982-1987: And I Feel Fine.” and Jimi Hendrix records from the library, I think “Voodoo Child: The Jimi Hendrix Collection” is what didn’t want to play with iTunes.

So eventually I played just reading the music. So I did “Suzanne” by Leonard Cohen, found a nice cover with Judy Collins from back in 1967.

“Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver. I really like this bluegrass cover. Seems appropriate for a song about West Virginia. I also love this song has 4 types of string instruments: banjo, fiddle, mandolin and acoustic guitar.

and “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Johnny Cash

So my guitar strings don’t sound quite right, with the odd design of the bridge on my Ibanez, I think I want Joe at Banko’s to replace them. The strings actually hold the bridge on, so I want some help with making sure I put it all back on correctly. It’s definitely different.

It make so happy to play and sing so many beautiful songs. It makes my heart glad too.