1. I was a little slow getting out of the house this morning. I kept thinking of things to take care of before I left: feed the cats, scoop the litter box, take dishes out of the dishwasher, put others ones in, etc. Finally, I climbed in the Camry and tried to get my cell phone to play Daniel McKay's Bob Dylan podcast through the car's sound system and nothing worked. I got my destination plugged into Google Maps on my tablet, though (that worked!) and gave up on listening to the podcast episodes. Instead, I listened to SXM radio channels Classic Rewind and Deep Tracks, but, after a while, I switched to what I really wanted: The Grateful Dead channel.
After all these years of listening to the Grateful Dead, I am still a long ways from matching, in my head, song titles to the songs themselves. Today, I think I finally nailed "New Speedway Boogie", "Cumberland Blues", possibly "Minglewood Blues", and I'm working on others. Having these songs come up randomly on the Grateful Dead channel helped me in my efforts to get this all straight.
2. I pulled into a rest stop somewhere out on I-90 and decided to try again to get my cell phone to play through the Camry's sound system.
I didn't do anything different, that I know of, from when I was home, but for some reason it worked.
I had Daniel's Sept. 30th episode of Hard Rain & Slow Trains downloaded and, much to my delight, it came on. It's the first of two episodes Dan created to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of Dylan's album, Time Out of Mind.
I don't know this album (of course -- not knowing Dylan's catalogue well is why I listen to Dan).
I thoroughly enjoyed Dan's analysis of the album and the background he delved into regarding its production.
Dan has a keen understanding of how the tracks relate to each other and constitute Dylan's exploration of the riddling nature of time. Dan's production notes were also fascinating.
3. My drive to West Seattle was easy. I ran into a small amount of congestion leaving I-90 and merging onto I-5, but it was minor.
I got settled into my room and set off for a walk.
I wanted to poke around a little bit in the area of West Seattle known as The Junction and, since I hadn't really eaten much all day, I wanted to try a sandwich at the Husky Deli, on Hugh C's recommendation.
I ordered a half of a Jack's Special on Rustic Sourdough bread, cold, not grilled.
Why a half? I have discovered recently that if I eat a whole deli sandwich, I feel sluggish, uncomfortable, and I get winded easily if I'm out walking.
The size of the half sandwich was absolutely perfect. The sandwich itself was loaded with Italian Prosciutto, Hot Coppa, Toscano Salame, Fresh Mozzarella, Balsamic Vinaigrette, Basil, and Tomato. I loved the bread.
Nourished, I made my way on down California Street to C & P Coffee Company where I met up with Bill and Diane and we joined about 8-10 other people and listened to Jim Page and Orville Johnson perform. Occasionally Jim's wife Katy Keenan sang backup and Katy played a short set to get the evening started and to make sure the sound system was working.
I was trying to remember when I first heard Jim Page perform.
Was it back in 1985, 6, 7, or 8 at the Oregon Country Fair? Was it at Sam Bond's a few years later? I know he and Bill Davie gave a house concert in my home in the fall of 1993, but I'd heard Jim Page before that.
I just couldn't place it.
Originally, I had planned to drive to Seattle on Thursday to hear Bill Davie perform at C & P.
Bill told me, however, on ZOOM, that Jim Page was performing at C & P the night before him -- that was tonight.
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hear Jim again live. I'd heard him recently streaming online, but I really wanted to be in the same room while he played and it was awesome tonight, especially because I'd never heard Orville Johnson play along side Jim and Orville's playing and his occasional vocal accompaniments were exquisite.
Say what you will about driving all the way from Kellogg, Idaho to West Seattle, WA in a day to hear Jim Page, but, for me, it was a peak experience.
I'm ecstatic that I did it.
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