Ramblin' with Roger

Some guy wrote me: “I was thinking about how cool it would be if you did a feature like Gordon highlighting an album a month that you may love (and who knows, only have on vinyl).” At first, I was resistant to the idea; I mean, Gordon already does a fine regular piece. Then I thought, “Maybe it should be “Albums in my vinyl collection that I used to play a lot, but haven’t played in a while,’ which would be quite a mouthful as a title.”

Thus was born “Underplayed Vinyl”. Oh, yeah, I decided the once a month would fall on the birthday of the artist, or at least a member of the group. And maybe I’d look at more than one disc.

First up, Neil Percival Young, who turns 61 today, and his first album, cleverly titled Neil Young. OK, that’s a little cheeky, but after being in a band as contentious as Buffalo Springfield apparently was, maybe an eponymous title was called for.

Confession time: I learned about the existence of this album through Three Dog Night. “The Loner” appears on their first album, the one with “One” on it. I had already purchased Neil’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “After the Goldrush”, and quite possibly “Harvest”. I noted the “The Loner” did not appear on any of them, and so I hunted this album down, bought it, and played it.

Was I disappointed.

After hearing the instantly accessible subsequent LPs, I was rather confounded by this moody, low-keyed album. Even “The Loner”, which TDN really rocked, sounded strange. But then repeated listens brought out the stark, fragile beauty of the album. “The Old Laughing Lady”, while possibly done better live a quarter century later, caught my ear, as did the lengthy last tune, “Last Trip to Tulsa”. Then “I’ve Been waiting for You.” Eventually, the whole aural pastiche started making sense to me, and I grew to appreciate this album all the more. Still, it would have fared better in my collection’s playlist had I heard it before albums 2 and 3, and possibly 4.

By 1981, I was used to following Neil wherever his muse took him. Still, I’m not sure what to think when I heard re.ac.tor. It was raw. It was rough. It was intentionally distorted at times. I liked it immediately, especially “Opera Star”. I thought the lyrically minimalist, grunge-inspiring “T-Bone” was especially a hoot. The aural assaults, and his use of synthesizers (horrors!) were tempered by some short sweet tunes.

I started reading the reviews, which, as I recall, were pretty brutal. I began to wonder if maybe my tastes had gone south.

Then I thought, “The heck with it,” and played it all the more, as loudly as possible.
***
These are the answers to Lefty’s Friday Three Questions for November 10th, which I attempted to post at 4:30 pm Friday, but couldn’t because of some techno-glitch:

1. I was born in Binghamton, NY, spent my first 18 years there, plus for a few months in 1977. I’ve lived in Albany since 1979, or 27 years. Albany’s more my home, in part because the highway construction has altered Binghamton to where it’s no longer second nature to get to places.

2. Islands: Manhattan, Long, Barbados, probably others.
Grand Canyon: not yet.
The desert: seemingly so, but I’m not remembering specifics.
The two oceans: yes.
Outside N Am? no.

3. I have no idea. The sunset RIGHT now is pretty spectacular.

On Armistice Day
The philharmonic will play
But the songs that we sing
Will be sad
-Paul Simon

Three events from last weekend color my view of this Veterans Day. One is a Friends of the Albany Public Library luncheon commemorating the release of Portrait of War: the U.S. Army’s First Combat Artists and the Doughboys’ Experience in WWI by Peter Krass. What was evident in the book from the author’s presentation is that the U.S. government, which hired eight artists to go to Europe, wanted the war depicted in a certain, heroic, way. (American general Jack Pershing, though, sided with the artists’ desire to be more realistic.) This mindset of war has been around for a very long time. Remember the source of “killing the messenger”, when the leaders would literally have struck down the soldier who would bring bad news from the front. The glorification of Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman is hardly new.

Another item was a speech by Phyllis Trible at my church who spoke about how stories of domestic violence permeate the Bible. One example was Judges 19, where a man throws out his concubine to save himself, and she ends up being be gang-raped and killed. This reminded me that in so many wars (Darfur comes immediately to mind), there is a different sort of war violence placed on the women. This is done presumably to terrorize. But then what explains things such as American soldiers raping and then killing a teenage girl, and then killing her family?

The third is a sermon I read about Abraham and Isaac. It cites Bob Dylan’s Highway 61, reason enough to mention it, but it’s this quote that got me: “warfare is a form of child sacrifice, where nations offer up their children because, like Abraham, we believe that’s what we’re called to do.”

I suppose my point is that “War IS hell”, should be avoided at almost all costs, for even wars that most people would consider “just”, unintended consequences abound.

Which leads, inevitably, to these questions:

1. What circumstances, if any, would justify a “just war”?
2. What wars would you say were “just”?
3. What can WE do as individuals to stop or prevent war?

For whatever reason, I have found myself involved in a number of search committees over the years. I rather like it, but I always feel responsible to the organization to make sure that I’ve done my due diligence.

Here’s some things I’ve learned over the years:

Be on time, or a few minutes early. If they’re scheduling back-to-back interviews, it’s likely that the latecomer will get the short shrift.

If you go into an interview, they ask you what you know about the organization, and you reply, “Not much”, they’ve already decided to pass on you, even if they talk to you another 30 minutes. Look at the website of the company you’re seeking to work for.

Interviewers really like it when you remember their names. Writing them down is O.K., if your memory is poor in that regard (and they have seven people in the room!)

If they tell you they’re hiring for a particular time frame, and you tell them you’re available in that time frame, and then you decline because you’re really not, you’ll tend to really tick off the interviewers for a good long time.

Don’t be surprised to hear the standard interview questions such as, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” You might seriously consider at least mentally preparing an answer for that one.

In general, answer the questions you are asked, rather than the one you want to have asked. But don’t go on too long.

Certain foods should be avoided before an interview, foods that can land on one’s clothes or stay in one’s breath.

If you seem bored at the interview, assume your boredom is contagious.

There’s a subtle difference between looking people in the eye and staring them down; one is good, the other, not so much.

Confident is good; cocky – “I’ve already got THIS job sewed up” – is not.

There are lots of places with Job Interview Tips. Consider actually using them.

Only recently had I heard about Performance Based Interviewing. This includes sample questions that are dependent on the level of the job.
***
Ed Bradley of “6o Minutes” was cool. No, it’s not because of the earring, or the huge ‘fro he had as a younger reporter.

It was because when the CBS News reporter did certain stories with musicians or other creative people – his piece on Lena Horne was his favorite – you felt the affection he felt for the artist and the respect the artist had for him. Yet he could also do the hard news interviews, such as Timothy McVeigh, with directness and passion. Ed never seemed full of himself, unlike some in the news industry.

To the voters, disgusted with negative ads: You may not know that in 1800 Thomas Jefferson’s opponents claimed that the anti-Federalists would “burn churches and murder opponents” to get the White House. So, those promises that negative campaigning will go away? Don’t believe ’em.

To Donald Rumsfeld: I’m sorry, Mr. Secretary. This will sound harsh, and probably ageist to boot, but when I’d see you on those Sunday morning news programs, you’d use words, but they didn’t SAY anything. I started to think of you as a doddering old fool. So, enjoy your retirement. Here are some well wishers.

To the President of the United States: Your ability to baldly prevaricate about Rummy’s status in your administration, even as you were planning his departure, gives me some…apprehension.

To What’s-His-Face: THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your attack on Michael J. Fox. You’ve gotten Democrat Claire McCaskill elected Senator from Missouri.

To Michael J. Fox: THANK YOU, THANK YOU for your classy response to What’s-His-Face.

To Tennessee Republicans: Thank you for reminding us that race still matters in America. (Wink, wink.)

To Nancy Pelosi, incoming Speaker of the House, and third in line to the Presidency come January: I’m happy for you. You wrangled Democrats to have some party discipline. My wife, I must say, is THRILLED with your upcoming new job, as I suspect many women (and men) are.

To Howard Dean, chair of the DNC: Congratulations on the 50 State Strategy, without which the Democrats would never have won the Senate in 2006.

To Bernie Sanders: Congratulations on your election to the Senate, the only independent. (Joseph Lieberman belongs to the Connecticut for Lieberman Party).

To Congressman-elect John Hall (D-NY, via Orleans): I read that you didn’t want to play your guitar much in public during your campaign, for fear that people wouldn’t take you seriously as a candidate. Well, go play your guitar, since it’s a stress reliever for you.

Do you ski? Since you are now going to be in the tradition of singer-songwriter-politician Sonny Bono, PLEASE be careful around trees.

To the press release: a belated 100th birthday!

Yet, I’ve never actually been interested in actual cars, and I don’t know cars. Few questions do I duck if I can at work, but ones about motor vehicles -unless it involves statistics or regulations – tend to make M.E.G.O.

At least when I was a kid, I knew that all the Chevy cars started with C, such as Chevette and Corvair, and even I knew that Ford made the Mustang (“ride, Sally, ride”). Now, if you give me a car model, my chance of correctly identifying the make is about 1 in 5. Maybe. I loved the VW Beetle because it was SO easy to identify – the old one, not the new one – but I knew people who could tell the difference between the 1964 and 1966 model, e.g., unfathomable to me.

My wife has had this 1997 Ford Taurus since she was working for a credit union association, traveling all over the Northeast. When she left in early 1999 to go back to school – and not so incidentally, to get ready to marry me – she bought the car with 50-something thousand miles on it. It continued to serve her, and us, well.

But somewhere north of 120,000 miles, small things started taking place. First, a lot more dings, and a little rust, then more substantial things (don’t ask me what – she told me, but I have no memory of car stuff).

So, it came to pass that Carol found herself in the market for another car this fall, when a series of knocks, electrical problems, and notably a gas leak would cost about $2000 to fix.

My wife began studying cars with the passion I associate with a horse racing handicapper. Not one generally known as one to use the Internet, except as it specifically applied to her job, she was spending so much time online that it was becoming difficult for me to even blog. (Horrors!) She looked at Carfax, the Kelley Blue Book Cars.com, Enterprise Car Sales, plus dealers’ websites.

She went to at least three dealers, test drove at least a half dozen cars. She asked if I wanted to go along. Not particularly. I DID care about how much it would cost, but she is the far better fiscal agent in the household, so I pretty much trusted her to determine what kind of car she wanted and whether we could afford it.

Ultimately, in September, she bought her first non-American car. Truth is, I simply cannot remember the model with remembering that it has something to do with Bryan Ferry – oh yeah, the Avalon. By whomever. And it’s a good car.

There’s a part of that old Taurus that I think Carol misses, though. And even I was a little sad to discover that the Taurus is no longer being made. How the most popular car turned into an automotive also-ran would be astonishing to me if I understood cars at all.