1. I got a call from Ed around 9:00. We had planned to meet up with Sue D. at 4:00 at the Hill Top for a beer. Plans changed! It turns out Joni was coming over from Spokane and so Joni, Carol, Wanda, Sue, Ed, and I met at the Snake Pit for lunch. Ed and Sue took a few minutes to make sure that were on the same page about their respective upcoming trips to Iceland and for the rest of the time we all yakked about all kinds of stuff, told stories, entertained each other, and enjoyed our meals.
It was a fun surprise. I didn't wake up this morning thinking I'd see a bunch of my KHS Class of 1972 pals.
2. I had planned to take a walk before going to the Hill Top, but with the change in plans, I also had to readjust my walking schedule. Over the last year I've discovered that if I walk soon after eating, I get winded in no time flat. So, I let my lunch digest and took care of a couple or three things at Christy's house and, around six o'clock, I hoofed it up to the high school on The Trail and returned home walking south on Jacobs Gulch Road and turned east on Cameron until I arrived back at the house.
My walk was enjoyable on its own, but I enhanced my enjoyment by diving into the archives and listening to the first of two Hard Rain and Slow Trains podcast episodes focused on Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Dan Mackay created these two Dylan/Beatles episodes to coincide with the release of the Peter Jackson documentary, The Beatles: Get Back.
Everything Dan presented was news to me. Until today, I'd never thought about Bob Dylan and The Beatles meeting each other, let alone thinking about the influence they had on each other. I'm not sure I understand their impact on one another in musical terms -- some of this discussion went over my head -- but I think I began to grasp the way they inspired one another to innovate.
Whatever I understood or didn't understand intellectually, emotionally this episode was most satisfying and triggered some sweet feelings of nostalgia and some sweet memories.
My favorite memory, just for the record, came back to me when Dan played "Norwegian Wood". Suddenly I was at the University of Idaho Jazz Festival (now named after Lionel Hampton). I was a sophomore at KHS and went down mainly to hear Kellogg's Lab Band (the Taco Benders), but I made a special point to listen to Lewiston's lab band. Our band teacher, Glenn Exum, had high praise for the Lewiston band's director, Eddie Williams. I'd known Eddie's son, Gary (KHS, Class of 1970) for a long time in Kellogg and I wanted to hear for myself just how good the Lewiston jazz band was. I'd heard Lewiston's pep band and it was awesome so my expectations were pretty high.
Eddie Williams' band met my high expectations and exceeded them and the one song they played that electrified me was a jazz band version of "Norwegian Wood".
So, there I was, on The Trail, headed to the high school and suddenly I was transported to Moscow, reliving one of my favorite Kellogg High School memories when I attended the U of Idaho Jazz Festival and heard the great Lewiston Bengal jazz band absolutely rock "Norwegian Wood".
3. I returned home, finished the pork gravy I made the other day by pouring it, once again, over egg noodles.
As I finished dinner, it was time for another Blissful Thursday.
Since Dan Mackay is on the road attending activities in Tulsa as the Bob Dylan Center opens, tonight's episode of Hard Rain and Slow Trains was a repeat from 2020 and featured songs that closed Bob Dylan albums. Last week, he played a show from the archives that featured album opening songs.
I'll repeat what I said last week: I don't know Bob Dylan albums well at all. I trust that what Dan had to say about the purposes of these closing songs was accurate. For me, the show expanded my relatively new experience of listening somewhat regularly to Dylan's song and I enjoyed hearing these songs a lot.
Then Deadish came on.
I thought maybe I'd pushed a wrong button.
Instead of a new May 12th Deadish broadcast, I was hearing a repeat of last week's May 5th show.
I sent Jeff a quick email and he confirmed that he didn't know what was going on, that he'd sent a new show to the station, but someone, somehow, messed up.
Well, I especially enjoyed the Grateful Dead tunes Jeff played last week from their May 5, 1979 show in Baltimore, so I kept the show on and enjoyed them again.
In the meantime, Jeff sent me an electronic file of the show he worked hard to produce earlier in the week but that didn't get played tonight.
It reached me around 10:20 and by the time I got it downloaded and ready to play, it was too late for me to start listening to two hours of Deadish. I turned in.
(As I wrap up this blog post on Friday morning, I've also just finished listening to the "lost" 5-12-2022 episode of Deadish. It's awesome. It must be heard someday by Jeff's listeners. I'll write more about it when I blog tomorrow about Friday, May 13th.)
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