I bought a 3 CD set of Johnny Cash at Target (pronounced Tar-jay) around Christmas. Now, if you read this blog often, you’re not surprised to know that it’s been through the Bermuda Triangle a coupla times and today I finally opened the cellophane. Oh, it is so good that I have kept Ellen on “mute” for nine whole minutes. Yes, folks, one of the two mornings a week I get to watch Ellen and J.R. Cash is just captivating me. (Update: I think this collection will have to grow on me--they put one or two great songs on each CD, with lesser known songs.)
The Clean Up Spot is something Jack Boget does every morning at about 8:45. It’s the place where you hear what Gen X-ers recognize as “News of the Weird.” It’s where you hear about stupid criminals, mostly. I work at nine one day a week, and I don’t always listen to WJAS in my car, so The Clean Up Spot never gets old for me.
But this post is not that kind of “clean up spot.” Instead, this is a place for all that stuff that’s been rattling around in my brain and I’m using artistic license with the name. Updates, clarifications, corrections, that’s what you’ll find here.
Updates: Marian got a Room-ba for her birthday. Yep, that’s the vacuum cleaner robot! I gave her pictures of my parent’s flamingo and magnetic frames so she could showcase them at her desk, which she did. Interestingly enough, a true God moment: I had gotten some fizzy bath beads at Target (see pronunciation guide) and needed just one more thing for Marian’s gift, so I added them to the mix. When Emily and I exchanged Valentine’s, wouldn’t you know Emily gave me some fizzy bath beads? She also gave me a chocolate rose. Which segues right into clarifications….
Clarifications: I emailed my dad my Valentine’s Day post. He gave me the real details. It was 1966 when my dad first sent flowers to my mom on Valentine’s Day. It was 1967 when he sent them to Iran. In both cases, he was sending them as a way of “participating in the day,” knowing that my mom was really just a good friend who happened to be a girl (someone he could send flowers to on Valentine’s Day). He likened it to the Jewish folks that sit on the floor in the post office in New York answering letters to Santa as a mitzvah. A way of participating in the beauty of a moment. I love my dear old Dad even more now than before, if that’s possible. Because what Emily and I did Tuesday was not just a consolation prize, let’s do this because we have no men. It was a participation in the day. Which I advocate always. Participation is a great way to live life. You get more laughs, more hugs, and you get great chocolate!
(note: the folks who catalogued the contents for these CDs did not get a MLS in library school.) (Maybe the ones who did the packaging did, but the folks that wrote the stuff that shows up on my Windows Media Player got a lot of titles wrong.) (Example: my computer thinks it’s playing “Sugartime,” when really it’s playing “Busted.”)
Notes on my most recent “Show and Tell:” Joke recently mentioned that in order to keep my meds on a schedule (I had a lapse this week) I need to think of Wallace and Grommit. So when I had to do a close-up, I thought, why not show him part of what I already have in place. Yes, I have Hello Kitty on my key ring. It’s a plastic thing that used to hold Hello Kitty stickers but I, always on the lookout for attractive/utilitarian ways to transport my meds, thought, yes, this would work!!
Ellen update: Betty White is on. I fear I missed the interview, but I’ll get to watch Tyra Banks teach Betty to walk the catwalk (it’s a Super Model thing.) I love Betty White. She has been on TV longer than just about anybody. Bep has rediscovered the Golden Girls (how I envy yins that have cable) and watches it almost daily.
Furthur (Why is it spelled Further?) notes on S&T: the blur that is between the close-up of my keys and my keys is my attempt at Georgia O’Keefe (no one looks at a flower up close). It’s actually a pen that has a rose attached at the end.
And the judges gave Betty White a perfect TEN on the catwalk. She gets the Gold Medal.
(commercial)
And some lady just “won” a Quiznos franchise! WOW!
Things that are rattling around in my brain:
- The Hedgehog concept (coined by Jim Collins in Good to Great) It’s based on the fable where the fox keeps thinking of new ways to get the hedgehog and the hedgehog has one weapon only, he curls up in a ball with those spikes. The way to go from good to great is to have a Hedgehog concept. It’s really fascinating…
- Community. I'm actually jealous of my sister, who is living at home at the moment. I am jealous of my brother, who lives three blocks away. He lives with two high school friends and a college buddy who just moved in. I am sick of the Cold War that lives in this house—we just don't communicate! I miss the days when Sally and fam lived downstairs and we didn’t lock doors and I could just kidnap Zach to watch the Muppets when Sally was on the phone. Sally and I watched the TV on 9/11—I heard it first on the radio and she was still downstairs in bed. I woke her up, and we watched the TV all day. Now she lives ten blocks away and I haven’t been to Zach’s birthday party for two years!! (It was Zach’s birthday yesterday. I stopped by on my way home, sans gift. He was watching Zoom and really couldn’t be bothered. Oh it broke my heart.) Luckily, Sally’s husband was just coming home as I left, so I got to say hi to him.
I mean, I love my garret. It’s over ten years I’ve been paying rent on it. It is one of my favorite places in the world. The skylight...all my little decorations, my stairwell...I could quote the whole of The Big Orange Splot and tell you my apartment is me, and I am it, my apartment looks like all my dreams...
But there’s no space for parties unless I stuff everything in the walk-in closet and I wish there was someone who understood VCRs and stuff.
Get Rhythm when you get the blues…I love Johnny Cash!
Dad and I agreed that Walk the Line is really a love story and in some ways the story of how June Carter saved Johnny Cash. I cannot wait to get the book (I requested it yesterday!!)
Do you remember that line from High Fidelity where Rob goes off on books? Let's see if I can get it (thanks to imdb.com)
Rob Gordon: Hey, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I'm certainly not the dumbest. I mean, I've read books like "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Love in the Time of Cholera", and I think I've understood them. They're about girls, right? Just kidding. But I have to say my all-time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography "Cash" by Johnny Cash.
So it's been a coupla years that I've been waiting for a good reason to read this book. Over and out.
1 comment:
oh, and today's clean up spot sucked. All Jack did was read old Burma shave signs. There were no stupid criminals...sigh.
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