Compilation CD in real time

"The following took place on Thursday between 2p.m. and 3p.m.  The events occured in real time."

I'm, of course, paraphrasing Keifer Sutherland's "Jack_Bauer"  from the show 24.  I did something Thursday that I hadn't done in years.  I made a compilation CD, or comp CD, as they are commonly called, in "real time".  It was a revelation to me as if I was revisiting myself in a former life.

What can be said about the mix CD, or in a previous life, the Mix Tape that hasn't already been said, mostly by Nick Hornby?  You can do or own research on Nick or just go rent, or better yet, read Hornby's book, "High Fidelity".

Oh, I still make a mean "Comp CD" from time to time but nowadays they take the form of sterile, lifeless "drag and drop" playlists.  I got my first CD burner around the year 2000, ironically, about the same time "High Fidelity" the film was released.  The mix tape came to an abrupt end with the advent of a burner.  How convenient!  Drag, Drop, (Rock) N Roll!  I missed the intimacy of creating a mix tape almost from the start despite how easy a mix CD was.  I missed getting my stack of CD's out, cueing up the needle, playing songs in my head, what would sound good after, say, Van Morrison's Jackie Wilson Said or if there ever was a better leadoff song like The_Replacements "I Will Dare"?  

Thursday I decided to make a comp CD for my brother, in real time.  I picked out, played and listened to every song for the CD.  This was no drag and drop affair.  I kept it simple and made a comp of the Drive-by Truckers.  Since he is new to the band, I kept it simple and heavy on Southern-Rock-Opera .  He's knows Skynard, he knows a few Neil Young songs.  It was mostly culled from vinyl with a few DBT cd's thrown in for good measure.  The time and effort was worth it.  I had out my stack of DBT records, a stack of DBT cd's, the brain was churning, what would sound good after "Carl Perkin's Cadillac" or should I lead the mix CD with "Let There Be Rock" or close with it?

Roger McGuinn at the Hemmens Auditorium Elgin, Illinois

It was once said (many times) that if a living legend is playing live within a reasonable driving distance to your house you go make an effort to go see that living legend.  While I personally may not practice this principle all of the time (and what is the true definition of "reasonable driving distance"? 30 minutes? 12 hours? 2 days with a hotel stay?) I did so on this particular evening.  Roger McGuinn played the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin, Illinois March 21st.  The Hemmens is well within said reasonable driving distance, heck, it's within reasonable walking distance to my house.

 

The house lights dimmed and the opening chords of the Bob Dylan-penned "My Back Pages" echoed throughout the pristine acoustics of the Hemmens.   It was a sound so incredible that it almost sounded like it coulda been intro music for the former leader of The Byrd's.  From out of the shadows and into the spotlight stepped Roger McGuinn himself with his famous 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. Yeah, that one, the jangly guitar.  The guitar that made describing jangly guitar music to a friend an adjective, "You know, it sounds jangly, 'Byrdsy'."  It's the guitar McGuinn saw George Harrison play in the film "A Hard Day's Night" that possessed him to get one for himself.  If I could somehow bottle how I felt at that exact moment when McGuinn played "My Back Pages", those opening chords, last night at the Hemmens, I'd be happy and misty-eyed the rest of my life.  

Words like "national treasure", "legendary", "iconic" get bandied around way too much in this day and age but with someone like McGuinn these words chime true.  It's criminal that oldies radio formats and cable TV playlists play just a few greatest hits from The Byrds.

Roger McGuinn, formerly known as Jim (had to get that in somewhere), then took a seat along side a banjo, a 12-string acoustic, and his specially designed for him Martin HD-7. He began to weave wonderful stories of growing up listening to a transistor radio, "the iPod of it's day", learning to play early rock n roll on the guitar, going to the Old Town School of Folk Music, and getting his parents to sign a paper so he could fly to California to join the Limelighters just after high school graduation. Among these stories he'd intersperse a Leadbelly song, a Woody Guthrie song, some more Dylan covers, and of course songs and stories from The Byrds.  The show was well paced, if not rote (not a knock on the show, mind you, you can hear some of the same stories almost word for word on YouTube) since he has really honed and crafted his show to focus on the many highlights of his career.  Here is a YouTube link of a version of Eight Miles High not too different from the version last night.  McGuinn is still in great voice for a man his age.  His guitar work is immpecable, even mind-boggling, to think he is getting all that sound out of one guitar.  And then to be able to sing and get all those sounds from the guitar does truly make him a national treasure.

Hardwood Flooring

I'm not sure how many people actually read this blog, if you even want to call it that, but the reason I haven't been around in a few weeks was that I spent the better portion of them installing a hardwood floor in my house.  To the left is the final product.  It's 3/4 inch tongue and groove oak flooring.  

I did approximately 650 square feet of flooring covering 4 rooms.  It's the entire mainfloor of our house, save for a small bathroom and a kitchen.  I had ripped up the carpet, the pads, any little nails that I could find (even by kneeling on them) and then just did one room at a time.  A friend came over to help me square up the room, show me how the floor nail gun worked and got me started on the first few rows of wood floor.  From then on, I pretty much was on my own.  Oh, I'd call a few times and pick his brain (which as I think about it, was valuble beyond words) about something, my brother came over and offered a suggestion or two, but other than that I did the whole thing on my own.

Here are some before, during, and after photos:

Photos from the same room with simlar angle

I had much trepidation going into this ordeal.  Would our house be torn up for months?  Wood (heh!  wood floor.  wood.  heh) I not have the room squared and the end planks be crooked little sliver pieces on one end?  Would I end up overwhelmed and have to have my friend over to "hold my hand", do all the work, and wonder what the heck I did wrong?  Does this old floor have to many dips, waves, and imperfections so that the pieces would not meet from one room to the other?  Next summer is all this wood gonna all buckle on me?  Well, that remains to be seen but the more I thought about it, if wood floors were buckling left and right in people's homes, then I don't think they'd be so popular as flooring.

In the end it came out great!  We are very pleased with how the floor came out.  I just got going, got started, a little tunnel vision focus didn't hurt with the project, listened to a lot of "shuffle" on my iPod since I didn't have time to be flippin records over or even exchanging CD in and out of the player,  Of course I also had the "get what you pay for knee pads", which were frequently slipping down to my ankles.

Here is another link with some more photos:  http://family.webshots.com/album/570505611QoSxas