happy birthday too

So, at the end of not my most exhausting, but still, overall fun bday.  Spent the evening with Sylvia, Shea and her Rick, munching on munchies, sushing on sushi, wasabi included, very fun, as were the gifts, the wine, the cupcakes...the whole experience.

Others who remembered were Heather, Anders & Torben (by call & gift), Don & Louise (by card & call), Wayne Quigley (by email), everyone else, well...what can I say?  I guess I did.

Brian did call, but to ask if he could spend tomorrow here, which is okay, especially after what happened to his Allison, daughter, who got pistol-whipped, of all things last Sunday, in Albany.  Not good at all.

Got just about all my 45s cataloged and filed, no small task after all these years. 

 

 

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today I turn 62, which in another way of speaking, is too soon, too fast, but is also my first and final grapple with Social Security.

In the past week or so, I've been wasting time cataloging and filing 45s in a slippery attempt to create a passably neat office/record room for myself and visitors.  I guess I'm making progress, but everytime I uncover a new box of 45s, I have to deal with them, which means more work, in a hot and sometimes humid period.

This past Sunday, we went to Bernie Pearl's annual backyard blues and bbq bash and as usual had a great time, ate some hot dogs & chicken, and listened to an impomptu blues combo with Clarence Hangin, a somewhat noted bluesman, handle some vocals.  It was there that I learned that Rachel Faber had recently died, quite a shock, tho I'm still looking for real details.  I know who to go to, I just hesitate.

As I said, baby it's hot.  Sylvia seems to be planning a pretty nice day, Shea & Rick will be over to help celebrate and I hope to hear from friends and relatives, maybe I will, maybe I won't.  As I told Sylvia, had I had my own way, I'd probably just live another day and avoid celebrating. 

This weekend, a friend Ruben Molina will be on my wpmd show with his lowrider book, maybe will go to Wagman's Blues Party and maybe to the OC Record Show on Sunday...maybe, maybe not.

I'll let you and who(ever) know.  Have to go photo some trash tubs now, but that's another story.

interview from across the seas.

Two days ago, I got this message...

"Good morning Steve, It's Niall Martin writing from
Irish national radio in Dublin . Wondering if you could
have a few words with us on the first rock n' roll
record in response to the colonisation of the acolade
by the Elvis recording machine. We had thought Jackie
Brenston could claim the title but you trace it back
alot further."

so I emailed back, and by that night (11:30 p.m. our time, 7:30 a.m. their time), I was on Irish Radio One for a four minute interview about rock and roll's beginning. It was pretty much available all day, the interview, that is. And they're going to pay me for it.

Fourth of July was spent by me from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Wagman's backyard listening to blues by Andy Coats with about 15 to 20 other blues fans. From 5 on, Sylvia and I were in Chris & Sally Flicker's Downey backyard, having a great old time, talking, munching chips & sausage, drinking beer and rum drinks, scarfing ribs and tri-tip, and when we left, dodging serious fireworks all the way home at about 9 p.m. with nervous Dorothy jumping all over the place. Don't you just love the 4th?

happy rockin' July 4th!

Rockit Radio just posted their 1000th show on July 3, pretty exciting to be part of it, and no doubt I'm one of the more obscure sounds ever heard on the Internet, after all, that's the fun of it for me.

Today is the 4th of July - you've heard of it. At 1, I'm due at the Wagmanblues.com backyard party, possibly to be raided by the cops...or as Wagman himself wrote...

"Friends,

Well, my whole neighborhood got together 2 days ago and held a
meeting to discuss the concerns that they had about me having
parties with live nusic in my backyard. I attended the meeting.

Some objected to the loudness of the music, some to the parking
impact, others just to the number of events. There were a few who
expressed positive feelings about the events, but it was less than
10% of the crowd.

Also invited were four uniformed Long Beach police officers who
told me "We will come and put you in handcuffs and take you to
jail if it gets out of control." All this, just for having a party
in my backyard.

Personally, I have never really found the idea of incarceration
particularly appealing. And I don't think I can expect the ACLU to
jump in on this one."

After we get bailed out, we go to Chris & Sally Flicker's annual 4th party in Downey later in the afternoon, and might watch fireworks this time out.

Happy Birthday U.S.A.