I apologize for the delay in the post I promised previously. It *is* coming, honest!!! As you can see, I'm wracked with guilt:
Well, OK... maybe I'm not that guilt-ridden. :D But I promise it will be posted forthwith! For reals this time!
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A special shout-out to the Divine Miss M, who took the above pic of me guzzling down my Shirley Temple (seriously, that's what it is!) last weekend in between bites of my kimchi & chicken. She is, in her own words, "shameless about [her] social media photography skills." (Hey, why be modest when you can capture my multitude of freckles in all of their melanin-induced glory like this, right? ;D) Thanks again, hon!
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Since I've used Tom Petty's "The Waiting" in an earlier post, I decided to get creative. Accordingly, here are The Band and The Staple Singers, with a magical version of "The Weight":
This, of course, is from The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese at the height of his powers. (He'd just finished Taxi Driver and, after his ambitious-but-flawed New York, New York, would go on to direct Raging Bull.) Talk about a meeting of giants!
Yup... it's time for yet *another* video from yours truly. One again featuring shaky camerawork, questionable wardrobe choices, and ill-advised attempts at humor. Hmm... this sounds like a porn video, actually. Which, come to think of it, would do wonders for my view count... Anyway, that's an idea to set aside for another day. >=)
But for now, settle back and enjoy another installment of Cass's Coulda-Been-A-Blockbuster. :D
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So my friend R was nice enough to braid my hair for me again on Friday, as I had plans later that evening. After arriving home I chatted with (who else?) April (no prizes for guessing that! lol) until nearly 3:00 AM. I watched an episode of Treme, which I'm FINALLY getting around to at long last, and then, at long last, prepared to go to bed.
I undid the braid, bent forward, and shook it loose. When I flipped it back up and looked in the mirror, I saw this... and burst out laughing - because this was what I saw!
(BTW, that was my attempt at the "Boston-tough-chick" look. I needed to apply at least one more tube of pink lip gloss and add hoop earrings to really pull it off though...)
I laughed and laughed (did I mention it was after 4:00 AM?), and was telling a friend today that I could walk onto the set of L.A. Law or Dynasty circa 1986 and no one would have batted an eye. We are talking BIG hair here!
I much prefer it pulled back off my face, but these were too funny not to share. Hope you got a kick out of them!
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I've been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan, The Band, and The Byrds this week, what with the release of the latest Bootleg Series release of The Basement Tapes. These are the sessions Dylan held in the spring and summer of 1967 with what would soon become The Band, literally recorded in the basement of the home the band was renting near Woodstock New York. I thought I'd include a few songs from those sessions here.
First up, "Million Dollar Bash." The joy they were taking in simply playing for the joy of playing is infectious:
The Band's "I Shall Be Released," featuring Richard Manuel's haunted lead vocal:
And finally, The Byrds, doing a great live version of "This Wheel's On Fire," co-written by Dylan and Rick Danko:
The smokin' guitar solo was courtesy of the amazing Clarence White, one of the great guitarists of all time. He was killed by a drunk driver in 1973 while loading his gear following a show in 1973. He was 29 years old.
Here's one more, Nashville West," featuring White's mind-bending guitar technique.
Roger McGuinn - not exactly a slouch on guitar himself - would routinely introduce this song by saying, "Clarence is gonna pick one for you now. And I'm gonna try to keep up." You can see why here!
(Thought I would throw a bone to my friends on the other side of the Atlantic with that title. :D)
Greetings from frigid New England, one and all! As I write this, I am in my living room, huddled under two blankets, watching the Bruins defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime (yea!) while wearing the following items:
A t-shirt
A long-sleeve t-shirt
A fur-lined hooded sweatshirt (zipped all the way up)
Three pair of leggings
Heavy wool socks
Calf-length boots
And I am *still* cold. Even my pal Cody the Cow can only provide so much additional warmth:
Clearly karma remembers my years of mocking my mother and sister for complaining about the cold. (In my defense, however, I *was* dealing with the handicap of trying to pretend I was a boy at the time!)
It is slightly warmer today than it was yesterday, when we had temperatures in the lows 20s with 25 MPH winds. For those of you in countries that use sensible means to measure temperatures and such, that means it was wicked cold (as the locals say). :c)
Now that I have established the hardships I am enduring, I thought I might share a bit about last week.
Well, I'm afraid I had a bit of a scare yesterday at the office, the end result of what has been months and months of stress.
I had worked all weekend, and didn't come remotely close to finishing what needed to be done. I hadn't slept well for... well, for months, really.
I have multiple deadlines this week. I'm far behind, for reasons that are nearly all beyond my control, so I was working frantically to stay on top of things. And yesterday afternoon, it all finally caught up to me.
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