Rubber bands, computer cables and happy cats

You pull it. I'll chase it!

 

 CATS HAVE IT figured out. Less is more, unless you are talking about sleep.

Coco spends her long winter days asleep in any number of places. If I leave a sweatshirt on the floor it becomes her mattress. Or she'll crawl onto the east-facing window ledge in the morning and warm up with the sun.

She is usually awake and going crazy when I get home from work. She likes the attention and loves to play. So we've acquired an impressive amount of cat toys. Most are stuffed birds, balls and things tied to a stick. There's a flopping fish which actually has a rechargeable battery - I somehow found a cable to charge it up and it's flopping again.

Coco is a playful cat but unless you put catnip on her toy, she is one and done. So I picked up a bunch of old and moldy cat toys recently and tossed them. Coco didn't mind. "It's kind of like after the Lions finish the season. You just throw it away and forget about it," she said.

The other night Coco was charging around the house with the zoomies. Then she jumped five feet in the air and batted at something. It took a second until I realized it was a rubber band. Yes. A STUPID rubber band. All these toys and this is what riles you up?

"Rubber bands are the best," Coco said. "You can pull them and smack them and try to break them but they just seem to bounce back. And they make funny noises if you pull them the right way."

That's been cat toy No. 1 lately, until she finally snapped it too hard and it broke. Coco was disconsolate. But, lo and behold, the computer cable I used to charge up the flopping fish was laying on the ground, and Coco attacked it with a vengeance. 

Now it's every morning. "You hold it up and I'll bat it and try to eat it," Coco says. 

Every. Morning.

Here's the moral of the story. You can have all the toys you want, the latest and greatest gear, the desensitizing video games, the stuff that makes Amazon and the world go around.

Or you can be happy with a rubber band and a computer cable that looks like a string.

As usual, Coco is the one making sense and teaching life lessons. It's her world. We are just the ones holding the computer cables so she can bat at them.

 

All trivia and no Lions

  COCO IS STILL very upset about the Lions losing Saturday night. She's also ticked off I didn't watch the game with her.

Coco, of course, thinks she's a Lion. And she's only become interested in the Lions since they started winning a few years ago. She's a bandwagon fan, like most of the Chiefs fans around here, but Coco doesn't sugarcoat it. "Look, I've only been alive a few years. I'm not bitter and old like you," she says.

A month or so ago I got invited to be on a music trivia team by Justin Sievert. It was the same time as the Lions playoff game. Oh well ... I left the game on for Coco and headed out.

Fellow Prospect Road member Alicia McCarl was also on our team. I learned a few things Saturday night - don't argue with Alicia about the name of the stupid Belinda Carlisle song, for starters. Also I actually knew the words to a Queen song but learned them wrong. And yes, I did know that Vixen sang "Edge of a Broken Heart" which is both gratifying and terrifying at the same time.

Anyway, Emily texted me from sunny Florida and let me know the Lions played badly and blew it. So my blood pressure stayed a lot lower by going to a music trivia contest instead of watching the game. Even Coco eventually agreed I was better off. She was depressed all day yesterday and is still in a funk. As usual something else made her finally boil over.

"What? You bought a heated cat bed for the garage alley cats? You ... you .... TRAITOR," she meowed.

Emily was born in Michigan and lived for many years in upstate New York, so she's also a Bills fan. A long time ago she said, "Dad, at tailgate parties these crazy Bills fans jump off of campers and into tables like wrestling!" That was enough to hook me and now I'm a Bills fan too.

Even Coco was glad the Bills won yesterday. We are both wondering if they will get flagged for breathing on the Chiefs quarterback this Sunday. "That KC quarterback flops like a fish," Coco said. She's right. All the time.

So we'll probably watch Sunday, and Coco will either feel better about it or really get ticked off. Cold January days and nights are tough enough to get through and I want Coco to be happy.

C'mon Bills! Beat the floppers. And make life a little easier around here for Coco. And me.

 

  

Tips for dancing with a local star

 The 15th Dancing With The Local Stars event is Feb. 7 at the Ambiance in Quincy. It's modeled after the TV show and is highly entertaining. Why would I know?

Well. I was in the first one, 14 years ago. My partner was Julie Venvertloh. We did a disco routine and our instructor was from Vancil Performing Arts. I met the late Frank Haxel for the first time at the Vancil studios when I wandered into the wrong building - there's something poetic about that - and he told me to go across the street, but not when there was traffic.

I can remember walking up and down a snowy 9th Street to attend practices, and how I felt like a massive klutz. This was the very first DWTLS event, and Cornerstone hit gold right away. It took place at the Holiday Inn on East Broadway and was sold out. It was also right before we opened Second String Music, so there was a lot going on.

Happy days, indeed.

The Mighty One, Adam Yates, is competing this year. He's dancing with Sam McKelvie, who is amazing. It's a bucket list item for me to attend one of her Zumba classes, but I'm afraid everybody else would be laughing too hard, or horrified, and I'd disrupt the class.

Strange how Adam and Sam haven't reached out to ask for advice or tips from an OG. Actually, it's not strange. I can't dance. But geesh, did Julie and I have fun.

Sheryl managed to find a gaudy disco outfit. I found the wig and sunglasses the other day while decluttering a junk room.I'm making an effort to toss stuff, but I don't have to heart to get rid of the disco outfit - yet.

Julie was sensational. I did not forget half the routine, I improvised half the routine. I believe there was a lot of beer involved. Chris Kelley was a judge and gave us high marks, but the other judges may have had too much beer and weren't as kind.

I was a judge the next year, to the best of my recollection, and that was fun as well. A couple of years later Kathleen Birsic and Kris Kutcher won it, and the next day they paraded around downtown with the trophy while making, uh, pit stops. They came into Second String Music very proud and very happy, with predictably hysterical results.

Sam and Adam have their work cut out for them this year. I've seen The Mighty One bust a move a time or two, and he has obvious rhythm skills being a drummer and all. But there are some formidable teams and some Quincy Community Theater veterans dancing, and they'll be good.

I look forward to being entertained! If Sam and Adam win, maybe we'll parade around town the next day too! Not.

 

Bands battling - good and bad

 HERE IS AN interesting event May 31 in Quincy - a battle of the bands, put on by Quincy Raceways.

Intriguing. There hasn't been a "battle of the bands" around here for a long time. When Second String Music started up we were involved in several of them, and while it was great to see local talent on the stage, the experiences weren't always the best for us.

For one thing you have to have judges, and judges are biased, no matter how experienced and fair they might seem. You would hope judges give each act a chance and decide how good they are by performance. 

And there's a telling statement in the Quincy Raceways promotion for people attending - "bring your best dance moves." Hmmm. Makes sense, because they want people to be entertained.

Right now there are not that many bands period, let alone younger bands, in the Quincy area. Twenty-five years ago when The Funions were around there were amazing younger bands like Fielder, SuperImposed, PreDawn Hour and many more. Now? I'm getting into trouble because I know there are younger bands out there, so my apologies are issued in advance.

This should be about bands, not people who play to tracks. There are performers out there who do this and are very good at it and that’s fine - but this for bands. There is something real about actual live performance. 

There is a thriving area metal scene and some seriously talented bands. They do what they do very well. But most local venues aren't going to pony up for that kind of scene. They. Just. Aren't. That's why you see great shows at places like The State Room, where five or six bands play on the bill. Those bands do it for the love of playing and I have a lot of respect for them.

Friends like Brad Fletcher and Ian Carlstrom are involved in such projects and they are incredible. They should be playing sold-out arena shows, not sharing the bill with five other bands in a cramped basement venue. Then again, bands like Continued Without A Finding love playing in cramped basement venues. Or Iceland at a death metal festival. It's who they are. Rock on!

Somewhere I hope there are younger people who want to play who are motivated by the Quincy Raceways event. Dreams, belief in what you do and the passion for playing are beautiful things. If it takes a battle of the bands and a $5,000 first place prize to stoke the fire, so be it. Do it!

Combat the cold by thinking Goony

Indian Mounds Park this morning.

 

  THERE IS SOMETHING lucid and searing about a cold and pristine winter morning. We just got back from an Indian Mounds Park walk - the dogs love careening through the snow and it's not bad if you keep moving.

But ... the snow and the cold can get you down. Do what I do if you want to combat the winter blues - think about a Lake Michigan beach and Goony Races!

 

Roland Hart, my cousin, sent the above photo from about 10 years ago. I think Sheryl may have taken it. Roland’s father, the late Peter Hart, is my uncle. Peter and Helen Hart lived on a wooded dune above Lake Michigan, and we spent countless sun-drenched days on his beach between Saugatuck and Holland.

You can see Peter's grandchildren and others lined up, ready do the Goony Race. I invented it, more than 20 years ago. Peter is just to the right, egging us all on. We all lined up and charged as fast as we could into the waves of Lake Michigan, acting as silly and "goony" as possible. At the end, the silliest person won. It was always me.

Uncle Peter could be a serious man who tackled serious issues, like world peace and conflict resolution. But he also delighted in the absurd and he took great joy in ... joy. So the Goony Race was right up his alley.

I'm feeling the warmth of the sun from this golden day a decade ago. It's probably on a Labor Day weekend. It looks to be early afternoon. The grandkids had been begging for a Goony Race for a while. When you are on the beach and listening to the waves and having good family conversation, you took your time before unleashing Goony.

Of course, the cold beverages ("rivers of beer" as Peter called them) didn't hurt either. And by late August or early September, Lake Michigan was warm enough to swim in and cool enough to take the sting out of the summer sun.

You can see Peter laughing as we all head to the water. He didn't go in, of course. It was his way of pranking us. But I also think we wanted to see all the silliness and sheer childish joy unfolding in front of him. Who can blame him?

I'm already feeling warmer while starting out the window at the winter landscape.

The snow will melt and the air will get warmer and soon I'll be making plans to go to that beach to help spread Peter's ashes. Maybe I'll be a little Goony when I do it.

Think warmer Goony thoughts and we will get through these cold winter days. In other words ... Just. Keep. Going.

Resolutions ... whatever

 NEW YEAR, NEW plans. Blah blah blah. I think New Year's resolutions are like Silly Putty - fun to play around with and stretch, but no practical application.

But ... I'm gonna try a few things. Why not? If you fail, you fail. Just. Keep. Going.

1. DRY JANUARY: Just got done with two awesome band gigs, at The Club Tavern on New Year's Eve and Jan. 1 afternoon show at Shorteez in Clayton. I had very little to drink NYE, and nothing to drink yesterday. I feel surprisingly good this morning. Hmmmm .... might be something to this whole not drinking thing. So, January is no booze month. We'll see how long it lasts.

2 LESS IS MORE: Santa brought me a Strymon Iridium pedal for Christmas. Actually, he made me pay for it and he charged me shipping, but that's another story. This thing is amazing, just a small box that replaces your amplifier. On stage, it means way less volume because you plug it right into the PA. I used it the past two gigs and it made a huge difference. How nice it is to not have your ears ringing for days! The moral of the story is that less is more. Musicians tend to get obsessed with gear. If you play in a band, nobody cares what kind of guitar or amp you have, they just want to hear good music.  I am a very average guitar players but the Iridium is helping me play better. So the less ends up being way more!

3. MORE, NOT LESS: I gotta do more of these blogs. I go long stretches where I'm struggling for ideas and unmotivated. That has to stop. The number of blog hits doesn't matter. I'm not great at it, but writing is therapeutic and rapidly becoming a lost art.

4. UNCLUTTER: I have a really nice Fender Blues Junior IV I don't use. I'm selling it. PM on Facebook if you want. I'm going to try and go upstairs into the junk room and slowly but surely get rid of stuff. 

5. EMBRACE IT: We have snow coming this weekend. Everybody around here is panicking already. Why? It's fun to play in and it's better than icy rain. When stuff comes up, you can bitch and moan, or face it and deal with it, even own it.

6. READ MORE BOOKS: Stop going down stupid social media rabbit holes less. And don't read the comments from the Web Warriors. Nuff said.

So there it is. 2025 - Just Keep Going. Here's to a better year.