Hello all. Hope you're having a good week so far. Believe it or not, I'm only just now beginning to feel better from my bout with the flu.
I was diagnosed with bronchitis (again) early last week after being sick for over a week already. I wound up being out sick all of last week. I battled bronchitis back in November as well, which leads me to believe it never really went away.
I spent every day from New Years Eve until Sunday in bed, which is highly unusual for me. Generally even at my sickest I feel well enough after a few days to at least get out of bed; not this time, however.
I managed to go back to work this week - minus my voice, alas, which seems to have taken the brunt of the damage in its pitched battle with my nightly coughing fits. I want to give a heartfelt thank you to my colleague C, who kindly made me a drink combining hot water, honey, and lemon every day this week. It went quite a ways towards soothing my vocal cords. Thank you again, Mr. C! :c)
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
***
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!
***
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!
The events of the past 36 hours have been horrific beyond description. I don't have children, so I cannot begin to fathom the pain of the parents who lost theirs in yesterday's senseless slaughter.
As a rule, I don't post political material here. But I will make an exception today.
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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