Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for January 29, 2013

It’s the alcove of audio expression !

And Dorothy puts in her earplugs right after dinner each evening.

There was something about Cock-a-doodle-decaf that crossed my addled brain or maybe it was something about the chickens coming home to roost…er … get lay..er..eggs.Never mind !

Oh, I played a few Diana Krall tunes on the jukebox for Red and Susan when they get in. Fenton will provide you all with the libation of your choice, on me, and hit those songs when the time is right – g’night !

Have you read the book, “Drumming of the Edge of Magic?”Denis has.

Hi all….

Oh…. just heard there’s a drink for me….thanks Linguist.Hope you don’t mind if I taste that Irish magic….

Mmmmm…. smooth.

Hullo Red….I myself am a big fan of Diana Krall’s husband… Elvis Costello.

Nobody writes lyrics anything like his.

And I love Buddy Holly, too.When I want music I can listen to all day that never gets annoying it’s Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Ritchie Valens….

Bev…. Stel will LOVE the rooster…. how did you train him?

BTW…. I TRIED to tell Dorothy she wouldn’t like that cut rate hairstylist in the strip mall.

But, you know how it goes…. she just mentioned something to Denis about the $145 he spent on a nice set of pots just so he could bang on them…….

And he politely mentioned that after all, she wouldn’t let him use her good Revereware….And there was a bit more…till it finally came to his bringing up… rather firmly…. how many times a year she gets a perm….

So she decided to make an appointment at Mr. Don’s Discount Donuts and Dye, instead of with me.

So of course, Mr. Don soothed her with all his sweet talk about the letter D, and convinced er she needed that blue stuff to make her hair look whiter…PLUS she needed a special soundproofing treatment…manicure, nail tips…

She ended up spending 172 dollars!!And she’s coming to me next week to have the blue removed.

Never again.

Drum solo InAGaddadaVida. Ron BushyWhen he tosses them around the room now his is Keith Moon.Neil Peart comes to mind.John Bonham and his off count beat.

EC is one of my favs, also, but Bob Dylan will always be the top songwriter in my book.

I like that kind of jazz/blues, but have to say watching my lover play fully arranged romantic music like All the Things You Are, One Song, Yours, and many others that skip my mind right now is a REAL treat to me. So good that he likes to relax that way after dinner. He was getting just the first sheet of some of the ones I like, so now I have bought some and printed at his house (tho’ I never learned to read music). I’m glad he prefers his pianos to banging on pots and pans (I had enough of that when my kids were little). His new piano is that fancy Yamaha programmable but he has had the other since we first met in the 70s and I helped him install solenoids in all the keys and pedals before technology advanced. We no longer use the valves, but they are there.

I agree that Denis could probably go that crazy on his “drums” but I repeat that I love my man’s soft piano playing a lot more.

Hey, Red, glad to hear you’re enjoying the Red Breast. I know it’s a splurge for me, also, but well worth it.Right now, I’m kicking back with an ice cold Arrogant Bastard Ale, and watching end of an exciting match between Arsenal and New Castle. They’re in stoppage time ( overtime ) as I write, with New Castle desperately trying to hold onto a 2-1 lead.My wizard of a mechanic fixed my vacuum leak in my car very quickly and reasonably this morning, hence the celebratory ale !Enjoy your day !

Thanks for that beviek anything would do when you are flying around out of control. I would thank you tremendously. I have been tossed about in a patrol car one time. My partner and I were out in Far West Texas when a storm came up. We were told to try to get through it to check for a tornado. We checked alright. Ran right into it. Picked the car up swung it around landing on top of a road cut 5 feet off the roadway. No way to drive up there much less off. Blew out all the windows and covered us with mud. I picked up the radio and called in the tornado. The station asked could we follow. I said no we cant we are out of commission. There was a pause. The Sergeant came on and said I know its dangerous but follow it if you can. I looked at my partner all mud covered shaking uncontrollably and went back to the radio saying we will try but if it picks us up and slings us about again I am going to give you such a pinch.He got the message and help showed up later.Whata Ride. I don’t recommend doing this at home.

As you can tell made it back alright.Just a big rain with wind. Bad stuff stayed mainly north. If you are east of Texas hang on because this is coming your way.

While I enjoy music of all sorts ( except rap ! ) and have hung out with musicians, and known and admired many others, I can’t carry a tune in a paper sack ! After two years of fruitless piano lessons as a little kid, the teacher advised my mother ( who played piano, herself ) that perhaps I should concentrate on my acting. The talent gods gave me many gifts, but playing a musical instrument was not one of them.

Or perhaps Denis follows the beat of a different drummer.Babatunde Olatunji

And when he really gets going… Kyodo Taiko

Now if she could play drums too.Shara Lin performing Jolin Tsai’s “Dancing Diva”

The man can drum+++++++Yes he can but…Needs more Cow BellDylan Elise

Now on the more serious side of drumming

He’s never drunk when playing but I’ll admit he has not practiced much except when entertaining me, so he plays a little of this and that and seldom completes more than a page of any of them (partly because his sheet music is all mixed up). The playing is nothing like your examples and I always enjoy it until we go up to bed. He is just relaxing and gets alll the notes correct and usually the phrasing (sometimes misses a single note) but he understamds the chords and I enjoy the songs that they are.

Back in August on Skype he was tryimg to get me to learn the words to All I Ask of You, but the key is way too high for for me. We DID sing it together with a YouTube tape. I’m glad he dropped that one (pretty song but I could not do it justice) I sent him a film of me singing the one from the 50s that came to my mind this summer – “Would I Love You”, but I recorded just sitting around late one night (only 1/2 dressed and pincurls in my hair) as we Skype very casually ;-) so anything like that is not for sharing; I’ve only posted a tape I made with Cuddles online. I sang in the choir but never to entertain anyone but family other than in church. He has also taken me to many stage plays and operas over the years as we both enjoy music of various types.

He’s too busy in this cold weather to do much other than his work most of the time, so I will schedule my visits more carefully from now on. I’m always happy with him tho’ and I’m very proud of his wok ethics; we share the belief in doing the best we can at everything and I have admired him greatly from the first night we met. Discussing it with my daughter this year, she remembers that night but only about all the time I spent chatting with him in the basement while he fixed my furnace (We were very discreet so she was asleep later) and she was only 11 or 12.

I see all these interesting drums and I still have some that my parents brought home in their travels (up in a guestroom closet) they purchased anything curious like that and I have may fun percussion items (steel drums frm Jamaica were one they liked). I kept them around for grandkids to play. This trip we visited with his older daughter (same age as mine) and her family who were visiting from Switzerland. Door was locked the nights they stayed at his house even though they would not have disturbed us. Both our daughters are 48 now and thei kids are teens; His younger one lives in WI so we see her and that family more often. We even went to Vegas with her before her marriage and she has stayed with her dad and me here.http://tinyurl.com/p9ftag

Looks like more of a rumpus room.

James Dean Cleo’s not…

https://cleoandcompany.net/january-29-2023/

Good morning Balladeers.

Hi Tigressy!