30 Day Challenge – Day 29: Somewhere You Want To Visit

Now the Girlfriend said, if I’m not going to New Orleans, which I had pitched and was rejected, why not try to go to Hawai’i with her?

I always wanted to go to Paris, and after seeing these pictures from Luxembourg daily, I’m practically packed. Ah, but what am I to make of the travel alert to Europe over terrorism? At least it’s not a travel warning, such as what exists in Mexico.

Domestically, the place I most want to go is Hawai’i. There’s a story about that. Back in 1995, when I was going out with The Girlfriend, who eventually became The Wife, she was working for an insurance company. She had achieved some significant designation in the industry and had won a free trip for two to the 50th state. Did I want to go? Well, of course, I did, except…

At the very same time, there was a work trip to New Orleans. Now my job in the organization at the time was to do liaison work with other SBDCs and going to the ASBDC conference fit in with that. I SHOULD be going on this trip. Unfortunately, we had gotten a new boss about a year earlier, and she was prone to pick her favorites to travel. I was not one of her favorites; none of the three men were, and only about half the women she liked. So she decided that only she and her most favorite would go to New Orleans because the office would otherwise be short-staffed.

Now the Girlfriend said, if I’m not going to New Orleans, which I had pitched and was rejected, why not try to go to Hawai’i with her? Because I knew she’d reject that too since the office would still be shorthanded.

Then, at the last minute, the boss decided that I COULD go to New Orleans. This was not her being magnanimous. It was her realizing that they had heavy equipment to schlep on and off the plane and that they needed someone strong to do that, and I was elected.

Knowing that boss as I did, I firmly believed that if I had pitched going to Hawai’i, I would have likely have gone neither there OR to New Orleans.

I don’t think The Girlfriend truly understood this as not a rejection of her, but a realization of what was possible. I believe this incident played into us breaking up about six months later. Obviously, we’ve overcome it, but going to Hawai’i with her now would be splendid.

Name Brand QUESTION

I do tend to by the name brand because of an unfortunate incident of buying an oat ceral that approximated the taste of cardboard.


I try hard to periodically test my notions about things that I believe, even those that are experientially based. So a couple of weeks ago, I had a scoop of store-brand vanilla ice cream; it was awful. It was so bad, in fact, that I used some chocolate sauce to drown the flavor. Now there is a number of brands that I find acceptable, but most store brands just don’t taste that good to me.

A few years ago, I had a bad cold, and I bought the generic equivalent version of Vicks NyQuil. It was the most vile-tasting thing I had ever consumed. Not that Nyquil is exactly yummy, but it isn’t bitter. (And I hate using NyQuil; I feel as though I were stoned for about four hours after I get up.)

There are generic equivalents to Cheerios cereal that are acceptable, but I do tend to buy the name brand because of an unfortunate incident of buying an oat cereal that approximated the taste of cardboard.

My wife is totally off the generics for dishwashing.

What items do YOU buy where only the brand name, not the generic equivalent, will do?
***

Oh, and, off-topic, as I’m wont to be: What album cover does this remind you of?

 

Neil Percival Young is 65

Don’t Let It Bring You Down “guaranteed to bring you down…it starts off slowly, then fizzles out altogether.”


Before our work unit moved to Cubicleland, we used to have offices, with doors. And we used to play music – out loud, not using headsets – in said offices. For a time, I shared an office with my boss Mary, who had very catholic tastes. I played (and play) a very eclectic set of music. And there were only two musicians she ever objected to, both because she just couldn’t stand their voices: Willie Nelson and Neil Young. Neil, in particular, was a particular irritant because she’d hear his music more often on the radio. Moreover, she and Neil are both November Scorpios.

Suffice to say, I love Neil Young. Here’s a none-to-clear video about his love of trains and his son Ben who has cerebral palsy.

I decided to look at Neil’s discography. But if I commented on every record I owned, it’d take forever.

*I own

1963 The Squires “The Sultan” b/w “Aurora”
1966 Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield
1967 Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again
1968 Buffalo Springfield – Last Time Around
Neil Young – Neil Young. Not only do I have this album, I even reviewed it here.
1969 *Buffalo Springfield-Retrospective
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This is the album with the wonderful handclap driven Cinnamon Girl, which undoubtedly is one of my 50 favorite uptempo songs, plus two classic, lengthy – around 10 minutes each – tunes, Down By The River and Cowgirl in the Sand.
1970 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Déjà vu. Features Neil’s Helpless.
Neil Young – After the Goldrush. This was my Neil college album. Only Love Can Break Your Heart was a minor hit (#33), but probably my favorite song was When You Dance I Can Really Love, an even more minor hit (#93), but which I most associate with my college sweetheart; also, I love it starts off really slowly but picks up tempo – get to the end, then go back to the beginning.
1971 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – 4 Way Street. A live album with the first version of Neil’s “Ohio” (“tin soldiers dead and Nixon coming”) that I owned. Also contains a funny monologue intro about Don’t Let It Bring You Down “guaranteed to bring you down…it starts off slowly, then fizzles out altogether.”
1972 *Neil Young – Harvest. Contains his only top 30 single, the #1 Heart of Gold. From the liner notes of his Decade album, I got the sense that the commercial success made him uncomfortable.
Neil Young & Graham Nash – “War Song” b/w “Needle and the Damage Done” – have War Song on a Warner Brothers Loss Leader album. It eventually shows up in the 2009 box set.
Neil Young – Journey Through the Past
We now come to the me, poor college student section.
1973 Neil Young – Time Fades Away
1974 Neil Young – On the Beach
1975 Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
Neil Young – Zuma
1976 The Stills-Young Band – Long May You Run. The title song, one of my favorites, appears on Decade.
1977 *Neil Young – American Stars & Bars. Featuring Like a Hurricane.
Neil Young Decade – a greatest hits (as it were) album. With “Sugar Mountain”, a B-side not previously on an album, though played often on my college radio station.
1978 Neil Young – Comes a Time
1979 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps. I prefer Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) over My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue), because it’s LOUDER.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live Rust. The songs from Rust Never Sleeps ARE ALREADY live.
1980 *Neil Young – Hawks & Doves
1981 *Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Re-ac-tor
1982 *Neil Young – Trans. Lots of vocoder stuff including yet another version of Mr. Soul which I may prefer to the original.
1983 *Neil Young & the Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rockin’
1985 Neil Young – Old Ways
1986 Neil Young – Landing On Water
1987 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Life
1988 *Neil Young & the Bluenotes – This Note’s For You – the title song’s about rockers selling out to commercial interests.
Crosby Stills Nash & Young – American Dream. Neil’s stuff was the best on the album.
1989 Neil Young & The Restless – Eldorado
Neil Young – Freedom. Features Rockin’ In The Free World, twice, plus his version of Wrecking Ball, which Emmylou Harris covered.
1990 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Ragged Glory
1991 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Arc Weld
1992 *Neil Young – Harvest Moon. Besides the title song, painfully tied to an old relationship, I especially like From Hank To Hendrix.
1993 Neil Young – Lucky 13
Neil Young – Unplugged. Quite fond.
1994 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels. Favorite song: “Piece Of Crap”
1995 *Neil Young – Mirror Ball. Grungy album with members of Pearl Jam.
1996 Neil Young – Dead Man
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Broken Arrow. Loud first side, more mellow second.
1997 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Year of the Horse
1999 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Looking Forward
2000 *Neil Young – Silver & Gold. Middle four songs feature vocals by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.
Neil Young – Road Rock v1
2001 Buffalo Springfield – Box Set
2002 Neil Young Are You – Passionate?
2003 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale
Neil Young – Greatest Hits
2005 Neil Young – Prairie Wind. On my Amazon list.
2006 *Neil Young – Living With War. Perhaps too pedantic, but I liked it anyway.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live At The Fillmore East 1970
Neil Young – Living With War: In The Beginning
2007 Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall 1971
*Neil Young – Chrome Dreams 2. Features the 18-minute Ordinary People, which, surprisingly, works for me.
2008 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – CSNY/Déjà Vu Live
Neil Young Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968
2009 Neil Young – Fork In The Road
Neil Young – Archives Volume 1 Box Set
Neil Young – Dreamin’ Man Live ’92
2010 Neil Young Le Noise

A great article about Neil I came across.

The War To End All Wars: 92nd Anniversary Edition

The end of the Great World War, later dubbed World War I, was supposedly the “War to end all wars.” How has that turned out?

They use different criteria, but here’s one list of current conflicts, a second roster of current conflicts and a third tally of hostilities.

Found some war quotes here:

“There are no atheists in foxholes” isn’t an argument against atheism, it’s an argument against foxholes.” – James Morrow

“War is only a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.” – writer Thomas Mann

“The more you sweat in peacetime, the less you bleed during war.” – Chinese Proverb

“War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.” – Martin Luther King, Jr

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.” – Albert Einstein



20th Century Warriors: Native American Participation in the United States Military.

The Doors: The Unknown Soldier.

Beatles Island Songs, 213-204

And after all that drama, “FUN is the one thing money can’t buy”? Really?



The rules of engagement

Links to songs included.
213 Dig It, a trifle from the Let It Be album attributed to all four Beatles.
212 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise). I like this well enough, actually – Paul puts it near the end of his live shows these days – but the intro will have to do.
211 Revolution 1 from the white album. I really LIKE the shooby doowap stuff on this Lennon variation. Sigh.
210 Wild Honey Pie, another trifle, from Paul, on the white album.
209 Octopus’s Garden, from Abbey Road. I already had this song. It was called Yellow Submarine. This is Ringo’s rewrite, complete with sea sound effects. I didn’t realize that this song bugged me so much until it showed up on the Blue 1967-1970 album. If Yellow Sub didn’t exist, this would rank much higher.
208 She’s Leaving Home from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. While I like the call and response, it’s Paul’s overly sentimental domestic dirge. And after all that drama, “FUN is the one thing money can’t buy”? Really?
207 Maggie Mae, from Let It Be. A traditional song arranged by the band, and yet another trifle.
206 Run for Your Life from Rubber Soul. John Lennon has pretty much dismissed this song for its message, which dovetails with my feelings about it, even at the time. Jaunty, though.
205 Mr. Moonlight from Beatles for Sale (UK), Beatles ’65 (US). Never enjoyed John’s vocal intro to this cover, and the rest I was indifferent to.
204 Her Majesty from Abbey Road, which I like well enough, but I’ll survive without it.

Ramblin' with Roger
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