random post, sadness

Trying to keep my promise to myself, bi-weekly posting, not going to happen this week.

On Sunday, October 14th, my grandmother, Margaret Mary Clancy, woke up and had some breakfast, went back to sleep and didn't wake up again. A blessed, easy end after 94 years but deeply sad for all of us still here. My father and his brothers and sister are hit the hardest, of course, you only get one Mom, but their husbands and wives and the grandchildren and their husbands and wives and really everyone who knew my Grandma feels it. She was a Titan, truly. We won't see her like again. We have the wake today and the funeral tomorrow. Been a rough 2007.

Some random notes:

1. Found this in my notebook, trying to describe the theater we try to make:

"Raising the question of a society's values is different than questioning the society's values. This is the tightrope a responsible artist walks." Deep as hell or gibberish?

2. Bought a hundred dollars worth of music on Monday, a late birthday present to myself.

New Springsteen, great if you like Springsteen, he's back with the E Street Band, amazing sound.

Stevie Wonder's greatest hits since I realized we didn't have any Stevie Wonder in the house which is a shame and a crime. Remember "You Haven't Done Nothing"? Put that on and listen to the outrage. He was so good when he was mad and then he committed the ultimate pop-out with "I Just Called to Say I'm a Big Pussy".

Church It Up, Nancy's selection, a bunch of gospel from the church of Bishop Sherman Scott Howard. Pretty good except when they get all contemporary. I used to have a tape of the Swan Silvertones and the Blind Boys of Alabama, old gospel and man, the hair on your arms would stand up when they started getting into it. That old Baptist god had a beat.

New White Stripes, not able to get into it yet, tried it twice. Might be one of those albums you have to let sit for a few months and then try again.

Something called the Great American Songbook, Bing Crosby and Perry Como and all those old white guys crooning. Haven't even taken the plastic off of that one.

And then the best: Neil Diamond Forever. Three CDs, Stones, Moods and Touching You, Touching Me. Imagine someone putting out an album today called Touching You, Touching Me. Any music purist out there snickering at Neil, I challenge you to put on Holly Holy or Crunchy Granola Suite, turn that shit up loud and if you don't start rocking, well then go quietly fuck yourself while listening to your Radiohead. Or as Neil would say, "Good Lordy".

That's my post. Lots of interesting stuff going on with the big EIF project and something else that I'm writing, a strange one-man thing that's either going to be really great or total horseshit, one of those things. More next week.