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1. This morning, I returned to the Good Ol' Grateful Deadcast and listened to the episode exploring the history, evolution, and enduring impact of "Friend of the Devil" as the producers of this podcast explore, one by one, each of the tracks on American Beauty. "Friend of the Devil" is the Grateful Dead song most covered by other artists and was not only a staple of Grateful Dead shows, but also of shows given by the Jerry Garcia Band. Just hearing the mention of the Jerry Garcia Band led me to want to hear "Mission in the Rain" and "I'll Take a Melody" and so I played the band's album, Reflections. Later, I wanted to listen to some Zero, but I didn't take the time to really dig into the World Wide Web in search of live recordings and so, instead, I played Legion of Mary, a favorite album, featuring Jerry Garcia and Zero's sax player, Martin Fierro.
I came to the Grateful Dead late in the band's history. I didn't attend a show until 12-31-87 in Oakland and only saw about six shows after that, about two in Eugene and about four others in Oakland.
It's very possible that I had to age into my late thirties and early forties to begin to appreciate the Grateful Dead and The Jerry Garcia Band. I find that the older I grow, the more deeply their music, lyrics, improvisations, and general sound get inside me, often move me.
Now, I would have the Grateful Dead and other jam bands playing in the house and the Sube all day long if it weren't for my simultaneous love for jazz, classical, a wide range of rock, bluegrass, folk, outlaw country, and other styles of music. I even thought today how fun it would be to be able to play and listen to three or four styles all at the same time and not have to choose each day what to listen to.
2. After nearly a week of recuperation, today I decided to see how my right big toe would hold up if I walked about a mile. I put in my ear buds, played The Pillars of the Earth on my audible app, and headed out to the trail that leads to the high school. It was a successful and comfortable walk. I thought I might get winded walking uphill on the trail, but I didn't and my legs, as well as my toe, held up very well. Weather permitting, I'll take off again on Friday and try to extend my time and distance.
3. I fixed a pot of black bean soup. Billy Collins returned to his poetry broadcast after a five day hiatus and I enjoyed listening to him. Poetry books I ordered are starting to arrive in the mail -- my reading life has been enhanced by the arrival of Ruth Stone, Charles Simic, and Sharon Olds with several more books in transit. Each of these poets is challenging, each in very different ways. I have to turn off the music when I read them. The poetry's music and the sounds of jazz or the Grateful Dead or Brahms cannot co-exist. As my day and evening of music and poetry and cooking wound down, I made myself a cup of Ghirardelli hot chocolate and enhanced it with rum, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. As the evenings get colder, I'm finding much comfort in this concoction and in the similarly flavored hot buttered rums I've made.
A limerick by Stu:
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