Put some twang in my thang and crank it up!

Since I spent nearly 8 hours on the road this weekend, driving between my current home here in Salem to my childhood home in Bum-Fuck-Egypt Eastern Oregon, I had a lot of time to kill, so used it to listen to some podcast episodes that have been piling up in my iPod.

I listen to songs on shuffle a lot, so I was in the mood for something different. And different I got. I while back, before a trip I took in the spring to Southern California, I discovered a podcast called the Outlaw Punk Cowboys Show.

The Outlaw Punk Cowboy show is rock with twang, it's country with a kick. It's stuff from up-and-coming or alternative artists, ones you don't hear on mainstream Top 40 Country radio.

I can't say I always like all the music the host, Bubba, includes on the show, but I like being exposed to new music. It sort of reminds me of when I lived in Southern California and used to get to hear live country/rock acts at some of the clubs in the Mojave Desert and Palm Springs area. One of my favorite country bands was a group called American Made. That band probably has too much of a straight-forward traditional country sound to ever make the Outlaw Punk playlist, but I enjoyed their musicianship and that they would play a fair amount of their own original music in their shows, in addition to keeping the dance floor packed with covers of hit country tunes.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I haven't listened to much country radio because if you listen for more than a few hours, you hear the same songs over and over. There just aren't enough new country songs released throughout the year to always keep the sound fresh. That's what makes the music on the Outlaw Punk show so fun, because it's fresh, at least to me. It's not the same old songs I've heard a million times. And it's music that tends to the raw, powerful and blunt. Artists playing for their art, not just to be popular. If you are up for a little kick-ass music, and aren't afraid to hear a little twang once in a while, you might want to check it out. Bubba rambles a little too much and thinks he's a little funnier than he really is, but he has some eclectic and interesting taste in the music he chooses to share. But in between his ramblings is some fun music.

I added a list of podcasts I like to the ol' Fishwrapper. Some are music. At least one is video. And some are just fun, or funny, especially for anyone with a slightly warped sense of humor. Check 'em out if you like, and share any interesting podcast you find out there that I can check out.

Something's missing

I've been reminiscing a lot lately. Obviously it was the trip to the old desert stomping grounds. That place, those people, have a profound effect on me.

I spent my 30s in the deserts of Southern California. In many ways, I came of age there. I learned and grew a lot professionally, achieve some successes and endured some setbacks. It was a bit of a mixed bag socially. I made some great friends, and strengthened some key friendships, but the dating life was disappointing, except for a couple of adventures and one romance spectacular in its emotional highs and lows.

I am not deluding myself. It was not all sunshine and roses. But there was a lot of sunshine and I love the sunshine.

Fortunately the sun was shining today and spring is in the air, at least for a few days. But I miss the friendships built over the California decade. I miss working in a big office filled with people and energy, excitement, enthusiasm and ideas. I miss nights spent dining out or talking under the stars.

I miss the me I was there. I miss the me I could see myself becoming.

Fortunately, I'll be spending Easter with my daughter and her family. I'll take unconditional love and acceptance where I can get it.

OK, maybe I made a play to buy a little of that love with my daughter's birthday present, an inscribed silver bracelet that came in a distinctive blue box. Better to be bankrupt than disappoint my one and only child on her Sweet 16!

I'm gonna soak up the sun

OK, so my last couple of posts have been a little gloomy in tone, but by the end of the week I plan to be soaking up some sun and seeing some old friends in sunny Southern California.

I am optimistic that the warmth of a desert spring and close friends will be the perfect remedy for my spirits.

So in honor of my sunnier disposition and my Coachella Valley amigos, I'm offering a quick list of 5 Southern California/Coachella Valley/Palm Springs-inspired songs from the ol' iPod.

"Route 66" -- Depeche Mode
"Palm Springs Jump" -- The Frankie Capp Orchestra
"Hotel California" -- The Eagles
"California Dreamin'" -- The Mammas & The Pappas
"Back to California" -- The Wallflowers

And, as a bonus cut, another take on the Mother Road.
"Route 66" -- The Brian Setzer Orchestra

And, as a tribute to one friend who I won't be able to see.
"L.A. Freeway" -- Jerry Jeff Walker
Henry, thanks for the Jerry Jeff CD, my friend. You are, and will continue to be, missed.
R.I.P.

It's just about time to...
"Soak Up the Sun" -- Sheryl Crow

Time out of the bottle

I think I've figured out why my life is so disjointed right now. I was checking out this podcast from back "home" and realized how many community events I've been missing in the ol' stompin' grounds.

My routine is off.

The calendar is wrong.

For the last several years of my life, the passage of time has been measured by an array of community event related to the California desert.

There was the International Date Festival, Bob Hope Chrysler Classic golf tournament, the Pacific Life Open tennis tournament, the Kraft/Nabisco/Dinah Shore (or whatever they call that LPGA golf tournament now), Dinah Shore Weekend, the White Party, etc. For most of my recent life, that has been the calendar that marked the time from New Year's Day into spring.

Yea, I'm sure there are community events here too in Salem and Western Oregon. I hear tell of a tulip festival up the road, but that's really not my cup of floral tea. Besides I haven't seen the cycles come and go or attended events year after year, so they aren't MY events yet. And I'm not working in a place where my life and work are as closely tied to these events.

So I've become a guy out of time.

So, I need to establish a new calendar.

Well, that and getting laid probably wouldn't hurt matters either.

Time
Community events
Homesick

Going ballistic

A relic of the Cold War, originally designed to carry nuclear warheads, has been retired. And in a warped and weird way, I'm sort of going to miss it.

The Titan IV rocket was launched from the last time this week from Vandenberg Air Force Base. The rocket has been one of the staples of the classified space satellite business.

I've never seen one of these 16-story monsters up close, well unless there was one on static display at the Kennedy Space Center when I was there. But, I've seen several launches or their aftermath from California's high desert.

For whatever reason, sunset seemed to be a popular time for missile launches. And even though Vandenberg, which is on the California Coast, is a long ways from Victorville, which is in the Mojave Desert, you could see the flame from these missiles rocketing skyward in the twilight sky quite clearly on a clear evening. And the missiles left some spectacular contrails through the sky.

It rarely failed that whenever there was a Vandenberg launch of some big missile (not always a Titan), people would call the newspaper where I worked. And many times those callers were convinced that we were under attack from Russia or that aliens were invading from outer space. Those launches at or after sunset can sometimes be seen as far away as Tucson, Ariz.

There is something about people who choose to live in the desert, particularly some of the outlying areas in the Mojave Desert. I'm not sure if too much time in the relentless sun makes people crazy, or if the remote barren landscape and hardscrabble existence is a magnet for those on the psychological fringe. Maybe it's both. But desert rats are professional conspiracy theorists and a few Joshua trees shy of a forest. They believe in UFOs, Area 51 government coverups and mythical creatures called chupacabras.

So Cold War missiles like the Titan, Minute Man Delta blasting into space at sunset had a way of getting people's attention. The contrails in the evening sky made for some oddly surreal photos like this and this and this.

And perhaps it is surreal that I would say I'll miss a missile first designed to rain destruction down on civilians. But I will.

Vandenberg Air Force Base
Titan IV
Missile launch
California desert

Digital housekeeping

One casualty of the move from California to Oregon and changing e-mail addresses seems to have been my Blogroll. I haven't been able to add or delete entries for a while now. So, today I decided to do something about it.

I've created a new Blogroll, and got rid of the old one. But, being the lazy sort I am, I didn't more all the old links to the new roll.

I didn't mean any slight to the folks on the old roll. There were a few dead soldiers on there, but generally I put the links in there because I thought they were sites worth checking out, and were sites that I enjoyed.

However, in creating the new Blogroll, I decided to start specifically with the blogs that I know link here, and a few favorite sites that I monitor daily through their RSS feeds. I do intend to add more links eventually, maybe even more later today. And If you have a link to this blog, or want to get listed on the roll, let me know. Otherwise, we will sort of start over here, including some old friends, and seeking out some new ones too.

Blogging
Links

Californegon

While much of the world was following, to a greater or lesser extent, the news of terrorist bombings in London, I was taking an extended lunch break and waiting for my number to be called at the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles.

Is there any state out there where a trip to the DMV is not dreaded? I remember when I moved to California, a Californian gave me a tip about how to deal with the DMV. Never just show up and wait in line. Call and make an appointment. It worked pretty slick, and my only times at DMV counters in California, to register my car and get my driver's license, were relatively painless. OK, so they were also more than a decade ago, so maybe my memory is giving the California DMV experiences more credit than they deserve. And there was certainly sticker shock at how much I had to pay to register my car. That was not a pleasant experience. But I didn't have to wait a long period of time to pay the state of California big bucks. And the only other times I went to California DMV offices was to pick up, or drop off, forms and get the hell outta there.

Today I was back at a good old Oregon DMV office. I wasn't expecting an ungodly wait. When I stopped in there a week or so ago to pick up some paperwork and a driver's manual, the line didn't seem to bad. But today, when I stopped in after lunch, the line was almost out the door. They had a person working a little triage booth inside the entrance to direct people to which line they needed to stand in and to hand out forms, and little numbers, so we could each wait our turn.

My number: 71.

The number the counterworker just called: 25.

I took my paperwork and made my way over to the chairs to wait. For 45 more people to be helped.

I should have brought a book. I should have brought my driver's manual. At least I could study for the driver's test so I could make sure I only have to make one more trip to DMV.

Fortunately for me, people don't seem to have a lot of patience, or time, and a lot of people had left long before their numbers were called. The clerks were blazing through numbers 3 and 4 at a time before someone would respond and walk up to the counter. So my wait was not as protracted as I had feared. And I walked out with a new set of Oregon license plates for the truck.

Oregon and California DMVs work different in other ways too. I think I got my first set of California license plates at the DMV office the day I registered my car, but my driver's license I had to wait for, as they send that through the mail. All licenses are issued out of Sacramento. Of course they confiscated my Oregon driver's license at the same time, so for what seemed like an eternity, I had no photo ID, which was much more traumatic when I was in my 20s and still occasionally carded at bars or buying alcohol. Now, it probably wouldn't matter much. Although I have had to show my drivers license a few times lately in setting up accounts, getting my apartment and such. But here in Oregon the DMV hands you your license before you leave the office.

I find myself wanting to mix and match the benefits of Oregon and California to suit my likes and dislikes. Oregon's closeness to family with California's closeness to friends. Oregon's cost of living with California's pay scale. Oregon's scenic beauty, melded with California's sunshine and blue skies. Oregon's housing prices, with California's self-service gas. Oregon's all-nude strip clubs and California's ability to buy liquor at the grocery store.

If I think of others I'll try to remember to post them later in another entry in my ideal state, Californegon. Or would that be Oregfornia?

And before I close, I will note that sometime in the next 24 hours, this site is likely to welcome it's 5,000th visitor since about January 5 of this year. I've revised the site counter so lucky No. 5,000 will know who they are. I won't likely be able to tell who that person is, (although I've figured out who a few of you are by how you access the site), but if he or she chooses to self-identify, that would be great. Maybe we'll even come up with some sort of prize like we did for the 3,000th visitor, which was never claimed.

Oregon
California
DMV
Blogging

The Palm Springs accent

I was born in Nebraska and lived there until I was about a month shy of my 8th birthday. Then I lived in Oregon (pronounced Or-ee-GUN for those of you from points east) until I was 29. Since then I've lived in California, which is not pronounced Kal-LEE-for-nee-a by anyone but body builder-turned-actor-turned-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I have always assumed that my Midwest roots have had a profound effect on me, that being my formative years and all. But according to this quiz I took (completely scientific I'm sure) the Midwest has been largely battered out of me, or my speech anyway.

I guess I've been Californicated, or something, somewhere along the way. Oh well, that's no big shock. I'm too impressionable with dialects. One time in college I traveled with a friend back to his home state of Texas and spent about a week there. Within a few days I was saying y'all and speaking with a twang. My friend through I was making fun of his fellow Texans (he did not speak with a twang, the legacy of being a military brat I think). I wasn't I was merely an accent susceptible dufus.

So, without further ado, here are the results of my linguistic quiz stolen from Dave Morris.

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Language

Accents

Fear and loathing in the blogosphere

Hunter S. Thompson broke the traditional rules of journalism. He wrote himself into the story. Sometimes he was more the story than the people and events he was supposedly writing about.

I can't say I was a huge fan or anything, so I don't try to write a eulogy for him now that he has stamped a -30- onto his life. But he sure wrote the final chapter his way, didn't he?

I got to thinking that what Thompson helped get started is now being played out on computer screens across the globe all day every day. Aren't blogs just the modern extension of Gonzo journalism?

Gonzo journalism has a point of view, a perspective. It is subjective and personal and raw. If you follow the link you will read that Thompson was well known for missing deadlines, sending materials too late for editors to read, but with just enough time to be printed.

Aren't those all things that bloggers are doing? Bloggers show us the world through their own eyes, through their biases and opinions. Things are important on a blog because someone says it is important. No pretense of objectivity. One of the biggest news in newspapers this week has been President Bush's trip to Europe. Here in California, it's how Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is polling. But in the blogosphere? It's probably that Paris Hilton's Sidekick got hacked, spreading celebrity phone numbers and photos of her bare-boobed and kissing another woman.

Carry on you new Gonzo journalists. But mix booze, drugs and weapons at your own peril.

Blogging
Gonzo journalism
Hunter S. Thompson

The rain has stopped

The rain has finally stopped, but water is still flowing in torrents in the flood channels, and many roads are still impassable in the Coachella Valley.

We saw blue skies today, for the first time in days. And the winds kicked up, blowing palm fronds and other debris off of the palm trees. There were scattered power outages and the roads were a mess between the litter from the palm trees and main roads clogged by drivers who couldn't take other main roads due to flooding. What a mess.

But, just seeing blue skies and rainbows again made the day bright indeed.

Who said it never rains in Southern California?

It's still frickin' raining here. And foolish people still keep trying to drive through high water and across closed roads. Luckily, no one has died here in the Coachella Valley.

But we aren't getting quite as much rain as they are on the west side of the mountains, where there have been mud and rock slides washing away houses, and some people with them.

I have that Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood song (© Copyright 1972 by Landers-Roberts Music) going through my head. They may have meant something else when they wrote it, but boy they sure were right on the money.

"Seems it never rains in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
It never rains in California
But, girl, don't they warn ya
It pours, man, it pours"

Perhaps it's appropriate the former Palm Springs Mayor, the late Sonny Bono, and Cher recorded a version of the song. Although Bono probably wouldn't be too thrilled that it was raining during the annual run of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, which he founded.

We've had almost 2 inches of rain here in Palm Springs in the last 48 hours. And washes, which are like big natural ditches here in the desert, are now raging, flowing rivers where only days ago their was nothing but sand.

The air is so thick with water it looks like fog, even when it's not raining, but it's more like mist.

Well, at least it's a little warmer. And the forecast indicates we may get a reprieve by Wednesday or Thursday.

In the meantime, let's follow the link and sing along.

Raining again

It's raining. Again.

I'm tired of the rain.

The governator

You've got to admire Arnold Schwarzenegger's pluck.

For those of you who don't live in California, the Terminator-star-turned-governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, delivered his State of the State address Wednesday night. It was a doozy.

Arnold wants to reform the way state legislative districts are drawn, wants to completely change the state budget system and wants to pay teachers, because education is such a big expense in the state budget, based on merit, not tenure. Oh, and he wants to make public pensions more like a 401(k) system than having a defined benefit. There are a few other reforms too, but those are some of the biggies.

The thing is, the things he wants to do are probably exactly what California needs. But the other thing is, none of it will probably ever happen.

Arnold is certainly no politician, because he still hasn't figured out how the game is played. And that's what politics are, just a game in which politicians, lobbyist and some public employees make too much money nursing off the public teat without doing much to earn it.

Thursday, the unions and others were screaming bloody murder before anyone really has much of an idea what the reforms might look like.

Good luck Arnold. You sure don't act like a politician. Now we'll see if your script can get out of development and into production.

It's going to be fun to watch!