1. So they could work in the cool part of the day, the crew arrived at 6:00 this morning and did the prep work and set the forms for the concrete to be poured and our patio to be finished next Friday.
2. I started the morning listening again to two hours of Zero via Deadish, thanks to the KEPW-FM archives. His July 28th show ended and I went to Internet Archives and called up a show Zero played at the WOW Hall on December 3, 1993. It's a great show featuring two generous sets, a playlist that showcases how Zero moves easily and readily between rock, blues, jazz, reggae, and other forms. It's a perfect blend of instrumental tunes and other songs featuring both Judge Murphy and Merle Sanders on vocals.
I tried and tried to figure out if I went to this show.
Then it hit me! I might not have gone to hear Zero on December 3, 1993, but the night before, on Thursday, December 2, 1993 I was in the audience at WOW Hall for the first ever live performance of Babes with Axes.
I wasn't familiar with the music of three members of the band, Laura Kemp, TR Kelley, or Katie Henry, but I had heard the fourth Babe, Debbie Diedrich, perform a few times and I went to this show because she would be singing and playing.
Today, in Eugene, Debbie, Katie, Laura, and TR are all in town at the same time, a rare occurrence. I talked with Debbie briefly around noon to let her know about the patio and she was on her way to Laura's house where the four of them were meeting up.
So, I indulged in some nostalgia, remembering that first Babes with Axes show, having no idea on the evening of December 2, 1993 that four years later Debbie and I would be hanging out together, soon living together, and on December 24, 1997, driving to Coeur d'Alene to get married.
Listening to recordings of Zero performing live stirs up my longing for that incomparable experience of being in the friendly confines of WOW Hall, hearing invigorating live music, dancing, and feeling connected to all those other people in the house who were also being transported and feeling joy as Zero played.
The rapturous experience of listening and dancing to live jam bands was readily and easily accessible to me in Eugene and for about six years, give or take (about 1989-95), I regularly joined in the fun at WOW Hall.
Fortunately, that feeling of rapture has not disappeared from my life. I felt it again when Dirty Betty played at our 50 year reunion three weeks ago. I felt it when I heard Sverwood at the Timbers back in June. Just before live venues closed down in March, 2020, on back to back nights I was transported by two bands at the Bing in Spokane: The Black Tuxedo Orchestra paying tribute to Pink Floyd and the Cream tribute band, The Music of Cream.
It's been a few years, but in the spring of 2014 and again in the summer of 2017, I got to feel the rapture of hearing Babes with Axes perform at the WOW Hall when the band performed two reunion shows. To this day, I can still feel the full body pleasure I experienced those two nights listening to Debbie and her bandmates perform.
I do my best to stay focused on the present, to not spend too much time living in the past. I have to admit, though, when I listen to Zero I let their music carry me to those ecstatic nights at WOW Hall and it was an emotional bonus today that listening to Zero's show from December 3, 1993 carried me back to the 12/02/1993 Babes with Axes debut and the startling reality that Debbie and I began our life together four years later. The memories flooded my mind and, for a while, nostalgic sweetness occupied my body, mind, and spirit.
3. Ed called me early in the afternoon and invited me to join him for a beer at The Lounge. We went up around 4:00 and I enjoyed some crisp, ice cold Miller High Life beer and Ed and I had fun yakkin' and yukking it up.
Before Ed picked me up, I watched the last hour of Martin Scorsese's documentary, My Voyage to Italy.
In this last hour, Scorsese paid reverent tribute to Federico Fellini and Michelangelo Antonioni, contrasting their styles and explicating the indelible imprint their work made on filmmakers world wide.
For now, at Vizio University, I'm focusing on watching movies made in the USA. At some point, though, drawing upon Martin Scorsese as a guide, I will watch some of these Italian moves and do my best not only to understand their genius and influence, but emotionally to experience their power.
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