My Music Journal 2025: July 8, 2025

 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Time: 7:30 AM
Song: Alien
Artist: Bush
Mode of Consumption: Listening MP3s on shuffle on the way to the work. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7MlSqukmCbchfF5dAUqrz3?si=db8f11d75c6445ee

I think my mind wanders most in the mornings during my drive to work. Mayne it’s a dread of another day at my desk, even though I don’t really carry such dread into the office. Maybe it’s just my brain sparking fully to life. Maybe it’s just what happens. 

Whatever it is, it always feels like my brain is saying I want to be somewhere else even though I don’t feel that way. 

I think about decisions from the past. 

Should I have joined the high school wrestling team? I was approached several times by the coach after having tried the sport in junior high. Would I have enjoyed it? Would I have been good? Would I have been a better football player for it? What else would I have experienced? 

What if I had learned an instrument when I was younger? 

What if I had found a writing program at a younger age? 

Picked a different college? 

Pursued more internship opportunities? 

Would I have lived somewhere else? In a big city? Would I have started dating Jodi? 

The “what if” game. I suppose it’s fruitless to look back. I suppose you could play the same game looking forward. 

What if this happens? What if that happens? 

It’s just the brain acting out scenarios. 

Of course, it’s also where I get my ideas. I take myself and tweak things, bend myself, and create someone new. Put them in a new place 

My Music Journal 2025: July 7, 2025

 

Monday, July 7, 2025

Time: 7:55 AM
Song: Gypsy Davy
Artist: Woody Guthrie
Mode of Consumption: Listening MP3s on shuffle on the way to the work. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5qNyzWW91FhtUsryyzSrhu?si=724b7eaa402d4349

So, I guess this is how we learn things. 

This song played as I entered Dixon this morning on the way to work. As I turned off Route 2 on to 4^th Avenue. I had a realization: This is pretty close to the same song as The White Stripes “Blackjack Davy.” 

I wondered if Jack White was inspired by this song and changed the name and lyrics a little to be more PC. I had read an article a few years ago about how the Romani people were trying to shed the derogatory “gypsy” label. Maybe Jack White was ahead of the game on that. 

I learned more though. 

The lyrics are similar, but not quite the same.

Apparently, Guthrie’s song is a version of a song that dates back to as early as the 1720s when a Lady Hamilton rode off with a gypsy named Jonny Faa and his band in the Scottish Borders. 

Blackjack Davy is also an old Scottish fable. Davy was a lady killer from the deep woods, who apparently was an inspiration for twentieth century folk artists like the New Lost City Ramblers, Bob Dylan, and Dave Alvin (The Blasters). Blackjack Davy has become a sort of Robin Hood in modern times.

It’s a fun connection between songs and lore and artists with different sounds from different eras. 

My Music Journal 2025: July 6, 2025

 

Sunday, July 6, 2025

Time: 5:37 PM
Song: Millions
Artist: Caamp
Mode of Consumption: Listening Midwest Revue on 94.7 FM.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/66PYWmVolRfCo0oaZp0H7L?si=74c7972aeb554e1b

 Pretty much for the duration of our marriage, Jodi and I have entered exhibits in the Carroll County Fair in the hobbies, the baking, the fine arts, and really any other category that we can either find items that we have to enter or that we can think of making to enter. 

We are both big fans of the fair, and know that the more exhibits they have the better. It means more entry fee and it means more things for fairgoers to look at. Yes, we win some back, but I think our ultimate goal is just to enter as much as we can so that there are fewer blank spots on the shelves, and hopefully someone walking around sees it and thinks, “I can do better than that!” and enters next year. 

About seven or eight years ago, they included an adult coloring book page contest. I thought, “I can do that!” 

It’s weird because I wasn’t big into coloring as a child, but I have found that I enjoy it as an adult. I suppose those in some circles would frown on a grown man coloring without a child nearby, but that’s fine. I’ve stopped worrying about such things a long time ago. Life is too short. 

Jodi had bought me a Beatles coloring book for a present and I had yet to color any pages in it or thus enter any of those in the fair. 

Over the winter, I started working on two pictures in it. They were replicas of the two Greatest Hits albums some of you might remember with the blue and the red borders and the foursome looking down from a hotel balcony.

I toiled on these pictures through the winter and spring, and I felt like I was spinning my wheels for what likely would be a subpar final product. 

So, I called an audible. I went with a picture of the foursome with umbrellas. I am sure hardcore fans can conjure the picture from memory. In the coloring book version, there are flowers surrounding them in the background.

I was less tied to what the original art was and after a few weeks, finished the picture today. I’m not sure it’s as good as some of my past entries, but it will have to do. I still have to do a colored pencil art page that I draw myself. The fair is less than a month away.

My Music Journal 2025: July 5, 2025

 

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Time: 5:05 PM
Song: Tell Him
Artist: The Exciters
Mode of Consumption: Listening to the Big Chill soundtrack while pricing vinyl records. 

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7rGOWzo4evAQQ2FzrSKp0B?si=f9161cdb454b4b7a

We actually had this conversation last night. 

“So, if I kick off, are you going to get rid of the animals?” Jodi asked. By animals, she means the big livestock. Her quarter horse, Sugar, the mini-pony, Rex, and the new calf, Buttercup. 

“Oh, I don’t know.”

“Well, if you do, you have to promise you’ll find them good homes. Get Betty (Jodi’s aunt) to help you.”

“Well, I probably will want something on the pasture.”

“So, you’ll keep Buttercup.” 

“I guess.”

There’s a pause. 

“So, if I kickoff will sell all the vinyl records in the basement all at once, or will try to have some sales?” I have several hundred vinyl records in my sale pile right now. 

“Hmm, I’d probably want to have some sales until I had to carry them all. Maybe I’d just call that guy that said he buys collections.” 

“Well, you could just take a few boxes up for a sale and work through them that way.” 

“Maybe. I mean, I’ll keep the ones upstairs. I listen to those. I’d probably keep listening to the newer lots to see if I want any of those.” 

These are the kind of conversations you have after seventeen years. 

My Music Journal 2025: July 4, 2025

 

Friday, July 4, 2025

Time: 1:15 PM
Song: In the Summertime
Artist: Mungo Jerry
Mode of Consumption: Listening to a mix CD on the way home from Freeport.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/2uzlv8PjqsVvF1DhEahyhy?si=96f7a7a6c65b4009

We drove to Freeport for the Holiday morning and did a bike ride on the Jane Addams Trail. It was overcast and warm, but the trail which runs north from Freeport to the Wisconsin border was shaded, so it was a comfortable ride. 

We went about seven miles to McConnell Road. Jodi’s cruiser bike just doesn’t seem to have a gear that allows her to keep pace without working twice as hard. 

A few years ago, we had been adventuresome and did the thirteen-mile ride to the border, but neither of us had a twenty-six-mile roundtrip in us. It was getting warmer, and we had baled the pasture the night before leaving me at least a little sore and slow moving. I do want to do that ride at least one more time before I get too old. 

We rewarded ourselves by splitting an order of chicken tenders and loaded fries at Beef-A-Roo, and followed that with ice cream at Union Dairy. 

I suppose it doesn’t get any more summertime than July 4^th, and we made the most of it. Capping it with a trip to the movie theatre to see the new Jurassic World film. 

By the way, while this song has a fun sound, it certainly has a couple lines that a little sketchy. 

My Music Journal: July 3, 2025

 

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Time: 7:51PM
Song: The Story in Your Eyes
Artist: The Moody Blues
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way to work.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3kcaix8VptngsWoYDTqEN2?si=5ffa73dcea62422b

At Write On Tuesday night, we discussed the opening chapter of “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. The previous month we had looked at Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” and we compared how the setup was similar. Two characters on the road, seemingly alone but for each other. One character clearly is in the position of authority or protection for the other.

In “The Road,” The Man is clearly taking care of the boy. While in “Of Mice and Men,” Lennie is reliant on George.

Things differ quite a bit after that in terms of setting, tone and plot. Although both opening chapters make it clear it would be difficult or impossible for either leader to continue living without their dependent.

Our discussion turned to how we update “Of Mice of Men” to a modern-day setting. Perhaps in a city. Maybe with two homeless people, we discussed. Perhaps they could be veterans with one suffering from PTSD and possibly recovering from injuries.

I was almost surprised to find that there hasn’t been such a work inspired by “Of Mice and Men” already published.

I’ve toyed with idea of writing an opening chapter set in a different time and place but with similar scaffolding and characters to George and Lennie.

What would motivate these characters?

How and why would they be bound together?

What dream might they be chasing instead of a farm with rabbits?

My Music Journal 2025: July 2, 2025

 

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Time: 5:28 PM
Song: Maria, Maria
Artist: Santana
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on shuffle on the way home from work.

 Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/3XKIUb7HzIF1Vu9usunMzc?si=17978490d6274332

Carlos Santana was announced as coming to bat against the Cubs as we listened to the game on the radio.

“Hmmn, so he’s taking up baseball now?” Jodi says, facetiously.

Of course, the Carlos Santana coming to bat was the 39-year old infielder for the Cleveland Guardians. He’s been in the league since 2010, most of the time in Cleveland (in fact it’s his third stint with the team) and has had stops with Kansas City, Seattle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Minnesota. He’s nearing the end of his career with 334 home runs, 1,120 RBIs and career batting average of .242. That’s good enough to end up the Hall of Good, but probably not Fame.

He also played against the Cubs in the 2016 World Series.

The Carlos Santana that Jodi was referencing is the 77-year-old guitarist. He came to fame in the 1970s with as the leader of the band Santana with hits like “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman.”

His 1999 album “Supernatural” brought him back into the popular spotlight. The album featured collaborations with youngers artists, the most notable being “Smooth” with Rob Thomas.

He followed that with 2002’s “Shaman” that spawned the hit “The Game of Love” with Michelle Branch.

He has spent the last fifty years considered one of the top guitarists in the world. He’s in the Hall of Fame, rather than the Hall of Good like his baseball namesake.