Another week, another pile o’ drama. Par for the course.

Work has been ridiculously stressful, the weather’s been awful, kids have been extra twitchy lately, and the tension is bouncing back and forth amongst everyone in the tiny Parker household (including the cats who deign to stay) and everyone is on edge.

Yay.

I did have a neat little adventure last night; some friends we hadn’t seen in quite a while dropped me a line on Wednesday evening about a house concert in town, and as we didn’t have anything else going on (for once!), so Colleen and I joined a bunch of other “music nerds” to catch a pretty great performer named Keelan Donovan at a neat little “underground” venue, Chilton House, where some great folks bring some great performers (and some big names!) for very intimate performances, and I really hope I’ll be able to catch a show again sometime, or at least swap cool Replacements stories again with Angi soon.

Thanks, so much, Michelle and John, for thinking of us at the last minute.

Anyway, I got not quite enough sleep last night thanks to this (although as we’re all old professionals, the show wrapped at the perfectly rational hour of around 10pm), and I’m going to focus on the positive vibes I’m still kind of feeling after having such a good time last night.

As I’ve indicated previously, starting Monday mid-day, I’m in the wind (or at least the wilds of middling Maryland) for a month-long program management course. Work until then is largely about shutting down the shop for a while, as in getting things ready to roll in my absence (or at least toss problems over the fence to the boss, who had no problem doing so to me when he took this class in June). Right now, my team’s ahead of schedule on our stuff, but all the other moving parts seem to be doing less moving these days, and who knows if I’ll even have a staff come the new FY, as the contracts shop is moving even less.

Dammit, I said I wasn’t going to bitch about work. Sorry.

Let’s change the tune, but stick with the music. I read a really good book this week: Natania Barron’s Rock Revival, published by my buddy John Hartness’s imprint, Falstaff Books. Really great story of music, band dynamics, and making art. Seriously, check it out (as well as John’s other stuff – he’s a talented guy).

For the weekend, some other friends are having a wine and cheese party tomorrow afternoon. I think it’ll be a good time, especially since we’re bringing mead along to go with our interesting cheeses. I think I’m finally going to get rid of the P.A. I’ve been holding onto since April (and using to bail out dance company events) as well.

Anyway; here’s some music – pretty decent mix, and I’m going with the name on the 45rpm record for #8, even if Pandora went with the modern equivalent, and #14 (oh, I stretch the bounds of eleven) is a blast to play as a soundcheck, especially when you shift the chord progression to White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”:

1. “Poofter’s Froth Wyoming” – Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart
2. “Tonight Feels Different” – Keelan Donovan
3. “You Shook Me All Night Long (live)” – AC/DC
4. “Hello” – Adele
5. “Making Art” – JD Samson @ MEN
6. “Sweet Emotion” – Aerosmith
7. “The Gold” – Manchester Orchestra
8. “Jack and Diane” – John Cougar
9. “Our Swords” – Band of Horses
10. “Medley: We Used to Know/For a Thousand Mothers (live)” – Jethro Tull
11. “Always Something There To Remind Me” – Naked Eyes
12. “Soma” – The Strokes
13. “It’s That Bad” – Go Betty Go
14. “Sweet Dreams (are made of this)” – Eurythmics
15. “Fade Into You” – Mazzy Star
16. “That Thing” – Hazel English

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* – Many of those who know me know my rule; “Never** refuse an opportunity for live music”. I almost always win when I follow this rule. Doesn’t matter the genre, venue, etc; live music is an inherent good, and you should enjoy it (and if you can, be present, don’t do this if you can help it – couple of photos is fine).

** – I include the asterisks, because of my biggest hit/miss with this one, but it’s complicated. Once I missed a chance to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at the Meadowlands, after missing out earlier that day on U2 tickets**. That said, because I wasn’t actually there to answer the phone to take the Springsteen opportunity (see, it’s fuzzy, I didn’t actually “refuse”), I got to spend one last evening with my dad. “Never” is a tough one, and I have passed on a couple of opportunities since, but in general, it’s a good idea to go see music played if you have the chance.