Yesterday morning, I was sitting on the curb of the landscaping outside the hotel I was staying at. I was just staring out into the sky, thinking, and drinking a cold Cherry Coke.
From behind the bushes, a yellow lab bounds up towards me and makes a face.
I noticed right away that he was wearing a bright red vest. I knew what that meant, but I read the writing on it just to make sure. Sure enough "Service Dog - Do Not Pet Me". So I stood up and looked around.
There was no one in sight.
I began to panic. I got nervous as I thought about all the wonderful people I have met, who needed a dog like this. I got anxious as I thought about how the owner might feel to have lost a life companion. The dog was ambling away in the bushes. And I panicked further, knowing that we were a mere 40 feet from Highway 99. So I pleaded internally, "Please dont let this dog run away from me. Please."
I began calling the dog in a very soft voice. "Hey buddy. Come here. Come here."
He came. And I pet him. I scratched his ear and asked, "Can you wait here please?" And I started to reach for his collar. "Thats a good dog. Good dog!"
He moved a bit. "Buddy, I need to look at your tag. Please stay."
He sat. "Good dog!" He chuffed and licked the air between his mouth and my face.
After a few minutes of mucking around with his collar and my phone, I got the number and called. We lost connection before they heard my Hello. I called again and explained the situation. The woman asked if she could call me back, because her phone was about to die. So I gave her my number. I heard something off in the distance and the dog went bounding towards the hotel.
I saw a woman in an electric wheelchair, smiling and cooing at him. He was wagging his tail furiously. So I inferred that he was her dog.
"Is this your dog?" I asked her as I approached.
"Yes. I dont know how he got out. He is not being very good - he should be at my side!" She replied.
"Oh okay, well I just called the number on his collar to report him missing."
She thanked me and told me that she would just explain to them that her dog had been returned. She told me that she was from Chicago.
A moment later, I got a phone call. The woman at the service center was audibly fretting. And I explained that I just returned the dog to his owner. She confirmed that it was the woman in the wheelchair.
And then she said:
"You are a Hero. Thank You"
I didnt feel this was correct. So I said that it was nothing. That I didnt do anything. It was just a phone call.
She replied, "Most people dont make that phone call. They dont even think to look at the collar. She must have been distraught to be without her companion. So yes. You are a very kind soul, and a Hero."
We wished each other wonderful weekends and hung up.
And you know what? This makes me sad for the state of affairs in this world. Extremely sad.
Since when is doing the Right Thing so abnormal? Since when is it so out of place ... that a simple phone call is enough to warrant a proclamation of being a Hero?
I am not a Hero. I didnt risk anything. I didnt really even do anything that required work or time. I just made a phone call. I just have empathy. And wanted to do what was right.
And if that does make me a Hero. Well ... the world is very dark and filled with indifference.
Dont contribute to that. Ever.
Mylyn is a Task-Focused Interface for Eclipse that reduces information overload and makes multi-tasking easy. It does this by making tasks a first class part of Eclipse, and integrating rich and offline editing for repositories such as Bugzilla, Trac, and JIRA.
See also
Eclipse Video Tutorials
- http://jonah.cs.elon.edu/dpowell2/Courses/EclipseTutorial/EclipseTutorial.htm
- http://www.intelligentedu.com/blogs/post/best_new_training_sites/3688/top-15-free-eclipse-video-tutorials
- http://www.bestechvideos.com/2007/01/18/eclipse-video-tutorial-by-dave-powell
- http://live.eclipse.org/
- http://sourceforge.net/projects/eclipsetutorial/
and of course
How are you celebrating the 4th of July?
hmmmm... we are in the midst of that. Ben made a video of his new bike and put it on youtube. We cleaned the car. We made yummy drinks with ice, limeade and RUM. mmm I am still feeling it. We are cooking brats and made a batch of gazpacho. Dinner was yummy. We played with sparklers - more later once it's dark. Home....
)Today is July 4th, America's Independence Day. I have put together a collection of Americana/Roots music as theme. Some artists are not strictly in this genre, and to group them together might be unfair, so I suggest if you like what you read and hear, find out more about them on their respective websites.
Of course, when you think of "America", the one name that really comes to mind is Bruce Springsteen. Since 1973, "The Boss" have been representing the everyman with his American heartland rock music. He's probably best known for his album (and song), "Born in the U.S.A." at the height of his popularity in 1984.
The album tied for "Most Top 10 Songs from One Album" award, alongside Michael Jackson's Thriller and Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, with - count 'em - seven songs: "Dancing in the Dark" , "Cover Me" , "Born in the U.S.A." , "I'm on Fire" , "Glory Days", "I'm Goin' Down" and "My Hometown".
With an amazing string of hit songs, it's actually not surprising that find out that Springsteen's albums consistantly hit #1 on the Billboard charts, with eight #1 albums: The River (1980), Born in the U.S.A. (1984), Live/1975-85 (1986), Tunnel of Love (1987), Greatest Hits (1995), The Rising (2002), Devils & Dust (2005), and Magic (2007). With the exception of Jay-Z, all of the chart-toppers are no longer around (The Beatles, Elvis, and The Rolling Stones), so this is a pretty amazing feat for an all-American New Jersey boy.
By the way, I have never seen Springsteen live, but from watching SNL and reading about it, I get the impression that The Boss and the E Street Band plays an amazing, live show, full of blood, sweat, and tear.
|
CORY CHISEL
thewanderingsons.com ♥ myspace.com
The EP I have here is called Cabin Ghosts, and it's listed simply as "Cory Chisel", but I believe the full, and correct, name should be listed as "Cory Chisel & The Wandering Sons". There is also no cover art with the EP, so please note that the art that I used to represent them here is not the final CD cover. I tried looking up when the CD will be release, but I couldn't find any details of the details. I am assuming it will be release sometime in 2008 and/or only sold on tour. Listening to the EP, it sounds to me to be very Springsteenesque, especially when Chisel sings out, "The thunder roll, its angry heart, across my shoulders in the dark, maybe I'm losing ground" on "See It My Way". I am also guessing that the EP was recorded live as there's clapping from the audience inbetween the songs, but on some songs, the audio sounds too perfect (you can clearly hear everything, from backup singers to the quiet acoustic guitar). The song I was asked to use is "Home In The Woods", which I can understand as its lyrics and theme is about wanting to escape from the city and live in an isolated cabin in the woods - perfect for an EP called Cabin Ghosts. They are currently on tour with Joshua James. See tour information below.
Jul 16 - The Intersection - Grand Rapids, Michigan
July 17 - Club Cafe - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania July 18 - Radio Radio - Indianapolis, Indiana July 19 - Beat Kitchen - Chicago, Illinois July 20 - The Ark - Ann Arbor, Michigan July 22 - Shank Hal - Milwaukee, Wisconsin July 23 - Varsity Theater - Minneapolis, Minnesota July 24 - Waiting Room - Omaha, Nebraska July 25 - The Record Bar - Kansas City, Missouri July 30 - Toad Tavern - Denver, Colorado July 31 - Belly Up - Aspen, Colorado Aug 1 - Club Sound - Salt Lake City, Utah Aug 3 - The Triple Door - Seattle, Washington Aug 4 - Doug Fir Lounge - Portland, Oregon Aug 5 - Boardwalk - Orangevale, California Aug 6 - Hotel Utah Saloon - San Francisco, California Aug 8 - Casbah - San Diego, California Aug 9 - Hotel Cafe - Los Angeles, California Aug 10 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, Arizona Aug 15 - Lawrence Memorial Chape - Appleton, Wisconsin Sep 13 - Red Rocks Amphitheater - Morrison, Colorado Nov 26 - New American Theater - Rockford, Illinois
|
SAMMY WALKER
ramseurrecords.net ♥ myspace.com Sammy Walker is a folk/country singer/songwriter from Georgia (but I think currently in North Carolina?), was briefly popular from 1975 to 1977, with two of the albums on major label, Warner Brothers. It would seem he went into early retirement until 1994 with Old Time Southern Dream. Now, after 14 years since that release, he is back now with Misfit Scarecrow to be released on July 22nd on Ramseur Records. Walker has a very distinctive, southern, and clear, but aging, voice. Some of the melodies and lyrics really made me think of Bob Dylan. Since I don't have Walker's earlier works, I can only imagine what his earlier works might sound just like early Dylan. Walker's songs all tells little timeless stories, all told through the eyes of the protagonist. Sometime that person might be a corpse ("Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone") or a scarecrow ("Misfit Scarecrow") or a farmer ("Proud and Poor"), but they all tell epic tales. I really enjoyed "Another Sad Song About You", a song about running into someone from the past. It goes into great detail describing someone leaning on a lamp post: "a blue scarf around your neck, and a silver charm across your heart". Despite a timeless feel to the song, I did enjoy the modern references, in such lines like: "I heard about your brother, when the Twin Towers came crashing down." The country/blues song, "Someday I'm Gonna Rock and Roll", ends the album with a humourous tone. I get the impression that the song is really about Walker, himself. He must get a lot of people telling him he should do rock and roll, but he scoffs at it.
In case you were wondering why that line is so funny, it's because Rodgers is often considered as the father of country music. |
|
FISKUM
fiskum.com ♥ myspace.com
Fiskum is actually from Minneapolis, and his album, Darkness/Fire/Dancing was released late last year. The first time I heard "Tom Waits' Bar And Grill", I thought of Harry Chapin's "Taxi", especially when he sings "and she says 'hi, how'd you been? I saw your call, I stopped on in'". With the title, you can tell that he is giving a little nod to Tom Waits, and, like Waits, paints a story about a chance encounter with an old close friend at a bar & grill. I later read Fiskum got the idea for the song from a short conversation with someone trying to "explain to his new girlfriend why he was seen hanging with his old flame." He wrote notes for each of his song on his music page, and this is for "Tom Waits' Bar & Grill":
There is a
surprise at the end of the album, it's another version of "Winter
Moon". The song looks like a live recording, and it's sung entirely in
Welsh by an uncredited woman. You can find Darkness/Fire/Dancing at your usual location on Amazon and iTunes. |
JOSEPH ARTHUR
josepharthur.com ♥ myspace.com
Peter Gabriel saw something in Joseph Arthur, because he signed Arthur on his record label, Real World. Although he's no longer on Real World, he's releasing a ton of material on his own record label, Lonely Astronaught. Already this year alone these are the EPs that's already released: Could We Survive (Mar 2008), Crazy Rain (Apr 2008), Vagabond Skies (Jun 2008), and Foreign Girls (July 2008). At the rate he's going, he'll probably have three or four EPs released before his album, Temporary People comes out September 16th, 2008. I actually have only two of the EPs, Could We Survive, which seems to have a (anti?) war theme, and his latest, Vagabond Skies. There's something perfectly folk and pop on the lead song, "Slow Me Down", that you should check out. As you can hear on that song, it's not completely traditional folk. Such beat/loop machine can be found in the background of "Pretty Good Company" and "Second Sight". It's also nice to hear Joan Wasser (violins) doing some backup vocals on some songs, I hope she participate more in the upcoming album. I like what he's doing, bundling his limited art prints if you buy two EPs ($20). This is good for hardcore fans to collect his art, while at the same time give the second EP as a gift of music to their friends and family. |
PS, this article took very long to write. There may be a part two later tonight.
Links:
www.weheartmusic.com
Easy Eclipse for LAMP which is fully multi-platform compatible including GNU/Linux & Apple Mac OS X now has add-ons, extensions, plug-ins for :
- DataBase
- Bugzilla, Trac, and JIRA
- SubVersion
- Trac & Subversion integration
- Log Watching
- HTML
- JavaScript
- XML & XSLT
- QA & Testing
and you can find even more Easy Eclipse plug-ins @
to make it one of the best free libre open source IDEs for LAMP web developers !
My "baby" the 125 red vino was loaded into a van and driven off to live in Monterey. :::waves:::
Whee... $4600 toward by NEW baby! I made the call for Ben's bike as he was just to anxious too leave the bike at the dealer any longer. That's when Greg told me they knew where my BIKE was. OMG. It is at an Aprilia storage facility. They are going there on their day off (4th of JULY) to pick up my bike! I had to ask the pressing question that's been plaguing me. "Is the seat cream color or black?" The one I saw online was cream and I fell in love with it. I did not want black, but I would have taken it. He said, " it's CREAM!" Happy dance! So we went down and got HIS new bike and paid for mine. I go in on SATURDAY and get my new sweet ride!
I've been looking at new helmets (and jackets) and am shifting toward the scorpion dahila products.
- 23:15 How many fireworks false starts do you get before you're disqualified from july 4th? #
- 08:29 Already know this is a stupid question, but, are dogs allowed at zeitgeist? (godamn you @forwardretreat) #
- 08:58 @rain I think I remember that. Gotta love a bar that leaves poison lying around in public areas. #
- 19:11 How nice to leave the stressors of the internet for the peaceful tranquility of the 14 Mission. #
Hey! LoudTwitter did all the work. Neat!
My Groups
-
Underground Hip Hop Updated: 4 hours ago
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Links from my Neighborhood
Headstone Swiped from Joy D...
Curtis, who was recently played by Sam Riley in the well...
Ben said "draw a circle!"
Ben said "draw a star!"
Ex-Whitesnake Guitarist, R....
Galley played for the hard-charging, Led Zeppelin-influe...
Kylie Minogue saves fan fro...
Kylie Minogue has saved a fan from stabbing himself to de...
