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Halloween songs, of a sort

Donovan

Halloween not XmasI decided to pick some Halloween songs, mostly because I haven’t done so in years. The only criterion is that it has to be something I own in physical form, with the exception of the second Bach. That means no Disturbia by Rihanna or Bury A Friend by Billie Eilish.

Oldies

Ghost Riders In The Sky -Sons of the Pioneers
Witchcraft – Frank Sinatra. OK, a bit of a cheat.

Comedic

Monster Mash – Bobby “Boris” Picket
The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Nature Trail To Hell – Weird Al When he reviewed all of the Weird Al tracks, SamuraiFrog/Aaron noted that this song is about a minute too long; fair assessment. 

Leitch

Season Of The Witch – Donovan
Celtic Rock – Donovan

Classic rock

I Put A Spell On You – Creedence Clearwater Revival; I don’t think I have the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins version
People Are Strange – The Doors
Sympathy For The Devil – The Rolling Stones
Black Magic Woman  – Santana; I don’t have the Fleetwood Mac version
Boris The Spider – The Who

’70s/’80s

Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) – David Bowie
Psycho Killer – Talking Heads
Werewolves Of London – Warren Zevon; always reminds me of Raoul Vezina of Albany
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper – Blue Öyster Cult
Runnin’ With The Devil – Van Halen

Motown adjacent

Superstition – Stevie Wonder
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell 

Film/TV

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker Jr. I read at the time that everyone was praising his new video, which he figured was one he had done weeks earlier. Nope, they rushed this one out.
Tubular Bells  Part 1, excerpt – Mike Oldfield. I’ve never seen The Exorcist
The Addams Family – Vic Mizzy
Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show

Get Bach

Two versions of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. One of my favorite chords of all time is at about 7:30
Virgil Fox 
unknown 

Advice before turning 70

avoiding CRAP

Dan Lewis, the Now I Know guy, suggested to his readers an article from Kevin Kelly. Kelly was pondering on what advice he wished he had heard when he was young, now that he is turning 70. I suppose this struck a chord because I SHALL BE turning 70 on my next birthday.

Most are useful. But some resonate with me more than others.

“Don’t keep making the same mistakes; try to make new mistakes.” I sure do that with a certain degree of regularity.

“Anything you say before the word ‘but’ does not count.” Almost always true.

“Courtesy costs nothing.” He has some examples, e.g. “Let the people in the elevator exit before you enter.” But I think it’s a bit more… intentional than that. When you’re paying attention, you can find all sorts of things you can do, even when, or especially when no one is around. Moving a large branch that has fallen across the sidewalk (someone could trip over it at night). Or moving whatever is blocking someone else’s path either physically or metaphorically.

“Efficiency is highly overrated; Goofing off is highly underrated… The best work ethic requires a good rest ethic.” Heck, yeah.

“The biggest lie we tell ourselves is ‘I don’t need to write this down because I will remember it.'” I’m LONG past THAT!

Ask a librarian

“Half the skill of being educated is learning what you can ignore.” One thing I heard a lot when the Internet was expanding and Google was becoming a verb is that soon we wouldn’t need librarians. All the information would be at everyone’s fingertips. What they didn’t realize is that a lot of the information out there is CRAP, and having a librarian to help discern that is useful.

“What you actually pay for something is at least twice the listed price because of the energy, time, money needed to set it up, learn, maintain, repair, and dispose of at the end. Not all prices appear on labels. Actual costs are 2x listed prices.” At LEAST twice the list price.

“Don’t believe everything you think you believe.” Often evolving.

“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.” That must mean I am about 37.

Active October, part 1

Three events on October 1st

Literary Legends 2022It’s been an active October 2022, a mix of joy and anxiety, so much so that I have to diary this, and this is just the first part.

Saturday, Oct 1: Go to my former church at 9:45 a.m. We in the pickup choir rehearsed How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place, then sang it at the Jim Kalas service. I also told the story that I noted in the blog post.

There was a reception afterward in the quite lovely parlor. It’s always a bittersweet time returning to a place I spent 17 years worshipping. Some of the parishioners there still remember me, and vice versa.

My wife and I had a 3 p.m. play to attend. Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors was written by Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, who have penned Ebenezer’s Big Christmas Show and Crime and Punishment: A Comedy. Dracula is described as “Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale… put into a blender with the comedic influences of Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and the 39 Steps.” The five-member cast, playing multiple roles, was entertaining.

Still, I wouldn’t have picked that particular day to see the production but for a scheduling snag of my own making. My wife and I have a subscription for plays at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady during the 2022-2023 season. Part of the package included a couple of shows at the affiliated Capital Repertory Theatre, usually designated as Capital Rep.

Who calendars for this guy?

It was not until I looked at the online tickets that I had scheduled us to see Dracula and Aladdin ON THE SAME DAY. I’ve seen two different movies in a cinema, back-to-back. But watching two plays in two cities six hours apart? That did not work for us.

I bumped Drac to October 1, knowing the following two weekends were out because I would be away at my sister’s high school reunion and visiting my daughter’s college. It wasn’t until I started putting the plays into the calendar on my phone that I realized I had created another problem.

The Literary Legends gala, the primary fundraiser for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library Foundation was ALSO on October 1. And as a board member, I had been working on the event! So I missed the setup (oy) but there for the event.

Sunday, October 2: the usual. Church, ZOOM meeting with my sisters. There was another event we could have gone to, but I begged off.

Readers Theatre

Monday, October 3: My second visit to the Capital Rep building, this time to help set up for the Wizard’s Wardrobe signature fundraising event, The Readers Theatre, “an evening of powerful readings.” Addressing the theme of Hope for Changing Times, the speakers included Alice Green of the Law and Justice Center.

My wife noted that I experienced the unusual Exacta, people recognizing me from working at FantaCo (1980-1988) AND being on JEOPARDY in 1998 at the same event. More surprising was that the latter was Nell Stokes, one of the other speakers, who I’ve known for about a decade. “I didn’t know you, but I was rooting for you!”

The other speakers were Paul Grondahl of the NYS Writers’ Institute, Jean-Remy Monnay, Holly McKenna, and an eighth-grader who had memorized her impressive talk. The host was Casey Seiler of the Albany Times Union.

Among the tasks for my wife and me was welcoming people at the door. My wife felt chilly, presumably from the night air. But I’m the one who was more likely to feel cold. I found it mildly curious but didn’t think much of it.

Lydster: off to college

Western Mass.

Our daughter is finally off to college. We dropped her off at a location in western Massachusetts with her supply of almost everything she needs in her home away from home.

She is far enough away that neither she nor we are likely to just “drop in.” But she’s close enough that we could reach her in a couple of hours if necessary.

One of her primary projects over the summer was to clean her room. How bad was it before? We have no idea because we don’t go in there. However, shortly after she graduated from high school, we could not help but notice how much fuller the garbage cans became. And she was doing more loads of laundry

Empty nest?

Lots of people ask us how we feel being potential empty nesters. I don’t know. In the past two years, she’s spent a lot of time in the cave she calls her room, so there would be hours when she was home, but we wouldn’t see her.

She had been out with her friends a LOT. I attribute a lot of this to COVID, or more specifically that she wasn’t SEEING very many people during the various lockdowns and is trying to make up for the lost time.

But I also don’t think I’ll feel like an empty nester because we were older parents. We had a lot of life before she was born. We’re both retired now, though I rush to explain that my wife retired young. But I could be wrong; it would not be the 101st time.

Now what?

NOW, my wife and I have no excuse for not doing the renovation, cleaning, and other projects we need to tackle. Well, except for fatigue. Did I mention I am retired?

Still, I WILL miss her not being around, even if it’s me Instant Messaging her from the living room to her bedroom, telling her it’s time for dinner.

n.b. This was SUPPOSED to be the August 26 post!

Plan B, when you’re tired

STEIN

Plan BIn the past couple of weeks, or probably longer, I’ve had to resort to Plan B several times. This isn’t always a BAD thing, merely a change in plans.

I have started a whole series of blog posts to explain it all. Because reasons, I started two of them and have only gotten about halfway through each after four days. This is – what’s the word I’m looking for? – inefficient.

In the main, one of the ways I gauge my busyness is by the number of posts I have in the blog queue, which generally bounces around by two or three. In the last three weeks, the number dropped by ten, which is unusual. But it has been an unusual time, which I will explain in due course.

I’m so tired

But I have been so TIRED the last week or so. My buddy Peter posted this graphic on his Facebook page, and I totally related to it. I go to bed, sometimes exhausted, but I can’t get to sleep. Can one REALLY be TOO tired?

Eventually, I drift off for anywhere between two to six hours. There’s no rhyme or reason to this, in terms of what or when I ate, caffeine consumption et al. If I can’t get back to sleep, I get up and do Wordle, which can take anywhere between 30 seconds (STEIN!) and 30 minutes with pencil and paper; every time I start Wordle, I feel as though that’s the day the streak will end, as it easily could have on DANDY.

If I’m still awake enough, I’ll tackle Dordle, Quordle, Octorordle, then pinochle on my phone until the sandman finally decides to beat me up, and I go back to sleep.

Oh, another thing, I haven’t had time to take a nap. The last time did, my wife also did, after I had fallen asleep, and an ALARM CLOCK awakened me. SHE does timed naps, but I do not, and I awoke, well, grumpy.

Cancelable

The one thing I have learned in 2022 is to book everything cancelable, refundable, and the like. In the summer, my daughter was going to visit her cousin by train. But the cousin’s plans changed. I COULD have bought a cancelable ticket at a slightly higher price, but I did not. Lesson learned.

We have since canceled three hotel reservations. In the timeshare we booked, though, we “ate” the loss of points, which is why I hate dealing with timeshares.

In any case, all of Plan B stuff will become clear soon enough. Meanwhile, here’s a graphic my buddy Eddie posted on Facebook, tagging me.

librarian gang tattoos

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