It's only about seven months until there's a possibility for snow, so preparations are under way now.
Two new bulletproof gallon jugs for maybe finally getting gallons of milk down the trail without breaking, leaking or freezing; a new tougher, more efficient cooler as well. Actually the way I use it, it's to keep food from freezing, reverse cooling. Then there's a long-range antenna to bring in a TV signal; XL frogg toggs recommended by my friend Joe May to pull over my winter wear when working in wet sloppy snow (last winter i soaked through a suit of insulated Carhartt; coverall, a wool shirt, heavy pants, base layer and into my t-shirt shoveling the roof one day); a new pair of slip-on shoes for those mid-dark excursions outdoors; a new Clive Cussler novel and the last season of Shameless. All vital equipment for a pleasant winter at the East Pole. Now settling in to wait. Two of those items are the ones I wrote about earlier whose manufacturers won't ship to Alaska. Well, my niece took delivery for one and forwarded it and Amazon came up with the other, neither of which charged what I would have had to pay the makers. I hope they lost money on the deals.
Of course there's more to purchase, but buying a little at a time seems better than those huge spirit-bruising long lists of supplies at the end. Less painful this way and also helps keep up the optimism. Also as I look over what's there, it tells me I already have most of the important stuff to live out there (not counting food). It's like now I am adding comfort gear. I hope my kids enjoy their inheritance LOL.
Lots of time to go and lots more to purchase but it's a start.
Now, about that number 1,000. Did anybody guess? There's a nickel in it. If anyone figured it out.
If not, here it is: This is the 1,000th post I've made on this blog. Damn that's probably a couple of books' worth of words at least, maybe not book quality but there are lots of reasons. Anyway this is it, 1,000 posts, holy crap on a cracker.
I hope it's been a happy ride and offered some humor, some insight, some steam blowing and the music, yes, of course the music. Thanks to everyone who gave it a look and especially those who chose to comment with a few kind words. For a person who lives like me, you are my society, you are my dinner companions, you are my Algonquin Roundtable, and yes, now and then my adversaries; perhaps most of all you are the person at dinner whom I get to tell how my day went. So it goes.
What's the most emotional song you know? What song comes on and no matter where you are or what you are doing you pause if only for a moment to listen and feel the song and the emotion it raises, perhaps a recollection of a memory, or one that marked a specific moment in your life or one that has no personal relevance to you at all, but brings that warm feeling to your body, maybe some moisture to your eyes and you savor that emotion, again, if only for a moment? I'm not talking about a song that simply brings up a fond memory. I am talking about one that hits you in the gut and sends a shiver through you, a song where the writer and the performer touched you in a way you cannot ignore and it draws up long forgotten emotions that live more than you expected.
What brought this on? I have to start by admitting that for all these years I have been a closet fan of "Grey's Anatomy," a show that admitting, again, often raises some emotion in me. For the past two years an associated show titled "Station 19" has been added to the schedule and appears right after Grey's. It's set in a Seattle fire house and there sometimes are overlapping plot lines. Station 19 comes up to the quality of Grey's, perhaps because Shondra Rhimes is the guiding light behind both. The show tonight was one of the best written of any I have ever seen on television, at least in the regular drama network genre. A wonderfully intricate plot dealt with members of the station experiencing the death of the chief of the entire department and ended first at the funeral, then in a bar at a wake. It raised those emotions. Sitting in silence after it ended thinking about what I had seen, that's when the question about the most emotional music came up.
So at this moment I am starting a search. I poured a glass of single malt scotch, started this document and at this moment going to YouTube to see what I can find.
I will journal the progress if it works.
10:21 pm: Turning to YouTube. OMG thought of the first one before I even turned it on. "Hey Jude," The Beatles. Why the emotion?. Going through a divorce. My 10 year old son discovering the blues. I told him you have play each note from deep inside you. He asked what that meant. So I used this song, explaining to him that Paul McCartney had written it with John Lennon's son Julian in mind as the boy went through his parents' divorce. "Take a sad song and make it better …"
10:34 pm: While the Beatles are here, another one: "Back in the USSR." Explanation as quickly as possible. During Glasnost early 90s a group of Russian musicians joined a group of American musicians on a stage in Anchorage, Alaska. The Soviet rock group Stas Namen which had traveled with the program, was not on the bill, but there was a setup for a rock band on the stage in the background. During the concert a young ( I am talking early high school young) Native boy from the Bethel area performed with a traditional Yu'pik group of singers and dancers and obviously stood out. Later, at the end of the performances in the program, the announcer surprised the audience, announcing Stas Namen. (They had been left off the bill to prevent the audicence from being overwhelmed with a bunch of rock-crazy kids.) They picked up their instruments and started playing. Then abruptly they stopped, someone shouted, and that Native kid came out on stage. Right behind him came the very familiar notes of the song. We all stood, I recall holding hands with people on both sides of me, neither one of whom I knew and tears welling down my cheeks while a rock band from the depths of the Soviet Union rocked out while a Native kid from Bethel, Alaska shouted out the lead vocal. That was emotional.
10:47 pm: You could not have lived through the uproar of the 60s without hearing this song and for me at least it still carries weight."We Shall Overcome." I heard Pete Seeger sing this in Anchorage at UAA.
10:54 pm: Lightening up a bit. This song may sound frivolous to some perhaps but I have never run into a thinking boat person who didn't react to it. The emotion? You probably had to be there. One night in our favorite harbor tavern, late after several jars had hit the bar this song came on the juke box. All of a sudden everyone stopped talking and we started singing along. Commercial fishermen, weekend sailors, professionals of one sort or another, but all with a feeling for the big ocean. "A Pirate looks at 40." When the song ended and the singing stopped, that place fell into contemplative silence and a lot of knowing glances were passed through the brotherhood. "The occupational hazard be, my occupation's just not around."
11:02 pm: While we're on the ocean, there's this one. I can't count how many times I have sung along out loud while driving on dry land. Still looking for that Southern Girl. "Southern Cross," Crosby, Stills and Nash.
11:07 pm : There are so many performances of this song, but has there ever been a more emotional performance than President Obama singing "Amazing grace" at the funeral of a murdered minister.
11:13 pm: While we are in this mood, anybody who knows me knows I love traditional Christmas music. I could make a whole list of emotional carols. So, picking just one. Do you think it might be because I had a crush of the girl who sang it at our church Christmas pageants every year when I was kid? "Oh, holy night," by, who else, the Mormons.
11:21 p.m.: All right, You might have caught a hint about where I am going now from the last one, but if not I will be patently obvious. You'd think anybody recollecting emotional music would go to old loves first. I did, but honestly at first at least I couldn't think of one. I guess that says something about me. I have fallen in and out of love and lost more times than I care to count. Yet right off the top of my head I couldn't think of a love song that drew any emotion out of me at all. Maybe that says something about all those lost loves. As Jimmy Buffett sang in the last chorus of "Margaretville," It's my own damn fault." Anyway as time has gone on two come to mind, and honestly both do draw some emotion from me.
11:29 pm: First, this one though it came along later than the other one. The other one is perhaps a better song to end this on. Here you go: Dan Hill: "Sometimes when we touch." "I'm just another writer still trapped within my truth."
11:33 pm: OK last one (maybe) There is this one. And, yes, it relates to s a single person, there was a Sweet Judy Blue Eyes in my life and I can feel Steven Stills pain over Judy Collins even though it is personal to me as well. Of course, Crosby, Stills and Nash again, "Suite Jude Blue Eyes."
Well, that's it. Even if I am the only one, that's enough emotion for one night (maybe, I still have half of my second single-malt to go). I guess my best hope for this is somebody enjoyed it and somebody perhaps went off into thoughts about songs that touched them somehow.
11:39 pm: I love you, Chris, wherever you are.
And may "Station 19" be renewed for another season.
There are many songs, whole soundtracks I would not know but for crewing on the boat with you. Many of those artists and songs are part of my own soundtrack now. For emotion nothing is more powerful for me than “How Could Anyone?” by Libby Roderick. …
I consistently love your taste in music (it matches mine in many ways.) I've always found the CSNY Deja Vu album evocative. I loved it and would listen to it repeatedly, while looking at the album art, long before I became a photographer. Years later when I was early in my photography career, I met
(one of the photographers who worked with CSNY and has work on that album cover) who looked at my beginner's portfolio and was very encouraging. So the album means a lot to me for several reasons.
ADMIN MSG: this account was locked by Twitter for posting objectionable content. We post his content and get locked but he doesn’t face consequences. If you want to report him for bad behavior, please remember to report him, not this account. pic.twitter.com/AtIIQqhzh6
"Unfollow Trump" is a Twitter handle for a group of people who retweet the #fakepresident's tweets. The idea is you can see everything the guy says but you are not registered as a follower on his own account and therefore you are not listed on his page as in anyway supporting the president. You follow Unfollow Trump, but not Trump himself, thus deflating to a certain extent his bragging rights in terms of the number of followers he has.
That said, the other day Twitter, which has not censored the #fakepresident for anything he's ever said, blocked Unfollow Trump for simply repeating what Trump posted.
In short, Twitter ruled the president's words as unsuitable for Twitter, but only if someone repeats them word for word.
There's a lesson here somewhere. Are the Twitter people coming through the back door to tell us Trump's words are unsuitable and should be removed, but they are afraid to go against the president? Or, are they attempting to protected him by blocking critical posts even though they are simply repeating what is already posted?
This is 2019 and in the past couple of weeks I have run across two large companies that still won't ship to Alaska. For the record #Igloo and #RTIC, both makers of outdoor equipment. For crying out loud #RTIC even has a form of the word "arctic" in its logo along with an image of a polar bear and still won't ship to the only Arctic region of the United States. Years ago this was not an unusual occurrence. Many vendors excluded Alaska and Hawaii using the excuse they only shipped to the Untied States or only to the continental United States. When we pointed out that a) we're indeed in the same country, and b) we are on the same continent, at times some of them relented and it hasn't happened to me in some time now. At least until this week. What you really hate is going through the whole ordering process including credit information only to see a red warning pop up when you "place your order" that tells you the company doesn't ship to Alaska and Hawaii. There did come a time when I won one of those battles. A few years ago Scholastic, the firm that sells books in schools, had a contest for students to write a short essay on how a Harry Potter book affected them. I was teaching a creative writing program in my son's elementary school class and thought it might be a cool writing exercise for the kids. They were excited and many made the attempt. When I went to write instructions for them to submit their essays, I learned Scholastic excluded Alaska and Hawaii. I wrote complaining they were happy enough to sell their books to us, then drew a line at including Alaskans in their contests. A few other people wrote also. Scholastic relented, extended the contest two extra weeks and encouraged our kids to enter. A girl from Fairbanks won one of the prizes. Later for my complaint, Scholastic sent me a boxed set of the first three Harry Potter books. I donated them to the school. Since then I don't recall running into the problem, at least not frequently. Alaskans also have another problem. Many of us live in areas without regular postal delivery and so use Post Office boxes. Several vendors refuse to ship to a PO box. Our own Post Office has a work-around. We can have things shipped to the Post Office's street address and put our box numbers in the "apartment" box on the order form delivery instructions. Companies like UPS and Fed-Ex will deliver our packages to the Post Office and we can pick them up there. This is also helpful in preventing thefts of packages left on doorsteps. Two problems solved. But nothing solves the problem of retailers who refuse to ship to Alaska and Hawaii. In some ways many of us are quite happy much of the world thinks of Alaska as inaccessible, but then it's irritating when they won't send us stuff we want. So you end up in a situation where you really want a product, but you never want to deal with this company now or ever again. Sometimes you can find what you want from another seller like Amazon, but in the case of the jug, not. My niece has offered to let them send it to her and she will mail it to me. I haven't been able to find anything else like a container that holds a gallon of milk and can take a beating on a rough trail, not leak or break and pours without spilling all over the place. #RTIC has a stainless steel one that looks good and it's on sale for half price, but not for #Alaskans. When I think of all the milk spilled along the trail. The frozen gallon-sized chunks of milk that split a plastic container open or the cooler-material type that leaks all over the trail tote on the trail and all over the counter when it pours, I really, really want this stainless steel beauty that looks like it can take a beating and not leak. So it goes, swallow my outrage and buy it. Follow this space.
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