Alabama.
Where do I start?
Shaniqua, Shaneyney, Shabannon, LaDarious, Laquanda, LaShunny, La-I don't give a damn what creative name you come up with-qua. Such creativity, I do commend them on their efforts.
That was the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this waste of American territory known to many as ALABAMA. I have a few other choice words for that waste of space, but it behooves me to actually not put them in writing in case I decide to run for a political office in the future.
Let me give you a synopsis of my past couple months (if you have Facebook, this isn't anything new)
Jan 20 - Left paradise, willingly yet unconvinced, for a paycheck that was dangled in my face in the light of unemployment...very inticing at the time.
Jan 21 - Arrived, thankfully at night, because by the time we had arrived, I realized this wasn't where we were meant to be, and at least Amie has something to look forward to the next morning in seeing the sights and surroundings.....I didn't want her to be dissappointed from the onset of our arrival.
Jan 22 - Moved in, thankfully Amie was distracted by getting into our new place, which I must say, was a VERY nice townhouse. If we could have had that place here in AZ, we would be set for quite awhile.
Jan 23 - The first day of the worst job in the history of jobs in America.....and the very first time I actually kicked myself in the ass with the realization that my gay cousin Doug was right....for the first time. (Damn, why didn't I listen to him, I was thinking at the time. And this is the first time he's hearing this from me as he reads it...so pat yourself in the back, my favorite gay cousin, for being right! YES DOUG, I shoulda listened to you!!)
Jan 24 - Feb 10 - This was an optimistic period as I tried to make the best of the situation. Amie had found a job, we were both working, and I figured if I could just hang in there for a year, there might be better times ahead...........keyword MIGHT.
Feb 10 - Feb 26 - We were starting to get more settled in our home, the highlight of our entire experience. At the same time, the hate for our employment grew exponentially. There's only one thing that makes a shitty job in a shitty city tolerable, and that is money....and trust me, we weren't making enough money to justify our misery.
Feb 27 - Mar 1 - We planned a trip to Ohio to go to my cousin Zach's wedding which was Feb. 28. It was definitely nice to go home to the wedding and see pretty much everyone in the family and a lot of friends. We had a great time staying with Chas, Joy and Chase and hanging out with everyone. We were supposed to make the 9 hour drive back on Sunday, March 1, however, the thought of going back to the shithole and shit jobs repulsed us, so we decided we would be "sick" on Monday and just drive back then.......this was the height of my realization, if I would rather miss work and stay an extra day in GLOUSTER rather than leaving to return to my "new home" and "new job", then something has gone terribly wrong. I have longed to escape Glouster and here I find myself wanting to stay an extra day.....talk about a rude awakening. When I lived in Arizona, I'd go to Glouster and couldn't wait to leave, and now I live in Alabama, and suddenly I didn't want to leave. Anyone that understands Glouster knows that this is a total swing of the pendumlum and how dismal Alabama must be.
Mar 2 - 17 - Ever increasingly getting more frustrated, depressed, pissed off and unhappy.
Mar 18 - After talking with Amie, seeking advice from some close friends and a lengthy conversation with my Mom, we had decided we were both putting in our two week notices and moving back to the place that we were most happy....Scottsdale, ARIZONA, which I'm sure you all know.
Mar 19 - Two week notices put in.
Mar 21 - My last day of work which lasted one hour (explanation to follow)
Apr 1 - Amie's last day of work, we picked up the Uhaul, my Mom arrived to help with the move and drive across the country.
Apr 2 - We started the drive....I loathe packing and moving, but I have never been so happy to do just that.
As you can see, our adventure was short lived, however, in our minds, we were there 2 months and 12 days too many. It's amazing the rationale one goes through when they are unemployed and faced with a job opportunity 1700 miles away for a wage that, in hindsight, isn't nowhere near what a move would dictate. I often get super angry at the situation, however, the lessons we learned in our move are lessons that we could have never learned if we stayed in Scottsdale. (more on that in a bit)
Let me elaborate about the job for a moment, in an effort to give you a sense of my misery. Allow me to start from the beginning....................I have a cousin who has been invovled in Taco Bell for his career. He took an opportunity to be part of the lead executive team for the largest franchisee of Taco Bell's in the country. In the light of my unemployment situation, I spoke to him about possible opportunities. He offered for me to come to Alabama to see the area, observe what he did on a daily basis and then offered me to come there and run one of his stores. At the time, it sounded like not such a bad idea.........I went to Alabma, wasn't too thrilled with Birmingham, but thought we could manage and with the "promises" of growth and development in the company. Being unemployed, this seemed like the most logical course of action. The experience had it's value, but the explanation of the full details of the job had zero value. I was unaware that the company wanted your life for, comparitively, what seemed like zero money. That company absolutely does not compensate fairly for the level of committment they expect. Here is a rundown of the bullshit......The work week was 50 hours (I have no problem with that so long as it's fair), if someone calls off, it's your problem, if you work 100 hours, sorry about your luck; you get two paid days off (Christmas and Thanksgiving), you have an option of working 8-6, 10-8 or 4/5-2/3, which means you can never have a normal evening life...no normal dinners, no normal schedule, and I'd hate to see if you had to juggle a kid into that mix. What happens if your sick, you ask?? Well, you have two options...work 6 days in a row, or take vacation time!!! The day in Ohio we decided to stay extra, I returned to those options. I was expected to work EVERY Friday AND Saturday until at least 6, usually until 8. The mentality of the company was such that no matter what you did it was never enough. Sales were never high enough, speed was never fast enough...nothing but constant criticism, yet they tried to mask their constant bitching with false hopes to the underlings,the ones actually slingin the tacos, with the occasional word of encouragement. I'd hear those occasional words and just roll my eyes at the bullshit that was flowing profusely out their mouths. Their most intent words to the managers of the stores were to "ACT LIKE AN OWNER"......I wanted so bad to tell all those bastards that if you want "Owner" level of committment out of me, you'll find me tending to my own business....not this brainless shit you are barely paying me to do anyway. Here is the latest bullshit from this place that eloquently illustrates the way they roll........I put my two weeks in, with the full intent of working the last two weeks, and getting paid for it. They told me to go home on the second day of my two weeks and now, they are saying that I have to work my hours to get paid for it, yet, when they told me to go home, there was no mention of me not getting paid my regular pay up to April 2, which would have been my last day. Had I known, I'd have told them either I stay the entire time and get paid, or you committ to paying me up until the day I'd have left.....so now they are saying this bullshit. But, that just illustrates how much of a bush league company they are.
I had an epiphony several weeks into my adventure at this shithole that helped me realize why people actually put up with their slave-like labor iniatives. 99% of the people running this stores come from a background filled with minimum wage jobs, if not fast food, a simliar industry. The people running these stores truely feel like they've "made it"...and you know, they have, within the scope of their careers, so I can't fault that. They are successful in their own right and that I commend. But I have put this into perspective time and time again, and their version of "making it" and my version of "making it" are galaxies apart, hence my enormous frustration and total unhappiness at work. For example, the person training me, once worked 30 straight days from 8am to 2 or 3AM (depending if it was a weekend or not)........Trust me, there isn't enough satisfaction in slinging a sack full of chicken quesaDILLa's to every moody fat bastard that rolls through the drive through to make me want to do something insane as that...and here's the kicker, NO EXTRA PAY!!!!!! The people running these places started at minimum wage cleaning shitters and now they are telling people to clean shitters.....so, there is satisfaction for them. But for me?? Total Frustration. The deal for me to come to Shittybama, was that in a year I'd have multiple stores that I'd run, but even with that prospect, my frustration level was so intense that there's no way I could have lasted another 10 months. Retardedness runs rampent in this environment, and if you're offended, too bad, that's the way it is, and I'm calling it like I see it. This entire experience has been life distrupting and quite frankly pisses me off. We left a place we liked living, it cost me thousands of dollars and made us pretty much broke, it has forced us to postpone our wedding to May 8, 2010 and a multitude of other things, so hopefully you can understand why I'm so opinionated, if not, you'll get over it eventually.
Once Amie and I had enough, we made the decision to come home, made the arrangements for us to come back and here we are....back in the place we love.
We learned many valueable lessons......the biggest of which I'll highlight:
-We never fought once...not in the face of shitty jobs, shitty environment, daily unhappiness, and being broke....so, through that, we know that our relationship is solid.
-We know where we want to live for a LONG, LONG, LONG time....and that's right here in good ole sunny Scottsdale, Arizona.
-We know we aren't naming our kid La - (insert any combonation of letters) - qua.
-We appreciate 8-5, M-F desk jobs
-We know how to relax.....most importantly.
We're happy to be back, we know where we want our future to lead and we're happy again, and that's most important. It's just annoying to have to "start over" when we should be more established....but I'd rather learn those lessons now rather than later.
Until next time,
Kyle
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Alabama Sucks....
Alabama sucks, horribly.....so if you haven't heard, we both put our two weeks in, and we are moving back...heading back to Arizona this Thursday, ironically on the same day I left Ohio last year. No, this isn't going to be a yearly event, trust me! I'll write a detailed blog on my thoughts of Alabama, my job from hell in Alabama and our decision to move back....a great decision I might add!!!!
Until then,
Kyle
Until then,
Kyle
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Blogging Ineptitude
I realize I have been slacking on my blogging about all the new things in my life....but I assure you they are coming soon. I'll be blogging on my displeasure with Alabama, the excitement of our wedding planning and the desire for us to get back to Arizona AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! More to come on all those topics....It's just late right now here in Shitty-bama and I've got to carry on my insane work schedule tomorrow...but again, more on that in the very near future. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't gotten too good for you all down here in luxurous Alabama......riiiiiiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhhttttttt!
More later!
Kyle
More later!
Kyle
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Alabama....er, uh, Arizona?
Have you ever wished so much that you were somewhere else, that when hear a simliar sounding word, it sounds like the place you would rather be?? That's everyday for me....I hear on the News, "Alabama's First Source of News" and what my mind tells me I hear is this, "Arizona's First Source of News"....I know my cousin Sydney understands living in the United Arab Emiretes, you hear "United" and your brain makes your ears hear "States of America"........It's a constant reminder of where I'd (we'd) rather be.
I do have to say, that we both do like Alabama a lot, we have a nice place, the people are the most friendly I've ever experienced, and the scenery is amazing (if you like hills and trees). It reminds me a lot growing up in Southest Ohio, except the hills are much bigger...but very similiar landscape beyond that. We are about 8-9 hours from home....which I guess could be a good thing, but I could be 8-9 days from home and it would be that much better.......it's a place I don't care to visit much, but we are actually making the trip back next weekend for a cousins wedding.....so, we'll see how that goes.
So far, everything is going OK down here. We are starting to figure out where we are going and getting our bearings, what's around us, where the nearest Sam's club and shopping mall is located. We are getting aquainted to the landscape, the traffic, and the craziness that is inevitable in a town full of rednecks and hillbillies. Life is lived much slower in these parts. If you expect fast service and good drivers, you better not take up residence in these parts.
Amie and I never wanted to leave Scottsdale in the first place, but the economy, and the fact that neither of us could secure employment, led to our decision to move. We understand that life doesn't always deal you the perfect hand, but nonetheless, you are still dealt a hand. If I had to compare, I'd say that we were dealt, in a game of Texas Hold'em, a Queen-10, with another Queen on the flop, and a 10 on the turn card, hoping to hit a Queen on the river....meaning we have to wait a couple rounds to see what the final result will be, but definitely worth staying from the initial cards. We are looking at this experience, probably for a couple years, each year being a new card. If after all the cards are turned over and we decide the hand isn't good enough to stay, we'll pack our shit, fold our cards and head back to the promise land we miss so much already (after a month). But, on the other hand, we could hit that Queen....and things will be totally different, but it's all about how long we can tolerate it, how well the business opportunities present themselves, and how happy we are with our surroundings. So, time will tell, and it'll depend on how big our "pot" is to keep us in the game here.
When I first moved to Scottsdale in April of 2008, I was dead set on living there for MANY years. I had a job, the woman of my dreams, a place of my own, a nice care and just enjoyed being in the Scottsdale atmosphere. Granted, I hated my job, but I only looked at that as temporary, granted I could find something else in the area. Unfortunately they got to me first by laying me off.........which I must say is the best thing that ever happened to me in the way of employment, because I thoroughly hated going into that place day in and day out, but I needed the paycheck. Then a month later, Amie got laid off, so here we are, both jobless, with car payments, bills, rent, and any number of things you can think of. Let me just take a moment to officially announce the company that laid us both off, since I usually just refer to them as my "Former Employer"....and I do this so when people google the company name, maybe they will get this blog and read it and find out what kind of company they really are.....and I do digress, but I must..................AERO JET SERVICES, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA.....PIECES OF SHIT. Ok, I've done my duty on that one. So, we're both unemployed, both have zero hits on our resumes, zero prospects and looking for anything to pay the bills, because the cash flow is running desperately low! So, fast forward a couple months...enter Birmingham, Alabama. Going into it, I tried to look at it with the highest hopes and intentions, and I still do. Ironically, it's holding up to those intentions, but what I didn't anticipate is how much I love Arizona and Scottsdale. I think I got caught up in looking at all the positives of "starting over" that I lost sight of how much I loved where I was. But, that's normal I think...noone wants to leave where they are comfortable so they start irrationally rationalizing the acceptance of what's upon them. I did just that!! Now, I'm going on record in saying that we do like it here, and we will be ok, but I didn't expect my yearning for Arizona to be this strong. I mean, it's going to be 75 there today for shit's sake, and SUNNY! How can a person NOT love that?? There are some downfalls about Scottsdale too, like expensive housing and more importantly to me, unaffordable golf, but it's nice to know that once I can afford a $150 round of golf, I have an unlimited amount of world class golf courses to go enjoy it on (yes, there is some sarcasm there)..........the golf thing is my biggest bitch about Scottsdale, you have to be rich to enjoy golf there........but the golf thing is my biggest compliment about Alabama....it's actually affordable.
Scottsdale is just so much more entertaining....you have the Suns, the Diamondbacks, and the Cardinals.....pro sports year around, not to mention a BCS Bowl Game once a year, and they are part of the Super Bowl rotation, they had the All-Star game there this year, the FBR Open (PGA golf event), Nascar races and a countless amount of other things going on there, ALL the time. Birmingham??? They have good music, I have to give them some credit there, but zero sports. You have to be into college to enjoy sports here....it's all Alabama or Auburn, and quite frankly, I don't give a rats ass about either. Atlanta is two hours away, so I can get the sporting events there, but who likes Atlanta?..... and Nascar is 50 miles away, but it's not that same as when it's "just down the road".
So, all in all, we like it here for what it's worth, we want to most definitely find our way back to Arizona very soon. So, I'm giving this place a year to two years MAX and if nothing happens in the way of our careers, we're packing our shit and heading back HOME!
I'll post pictures on my next post of our trip back to the worst place of all....Glouster. It'll be nice to see everyone, but depressing to see how shitty the area is getting! But that conversation is for another day.
But, since I haven't put up a Perspective in Music for awhile, I'll do that now, so hopefully you'll enjoy hearing this artist that I'm sure a few of you haven't heard before....and if you have, hopefully it'll serve as a reminder at how great he is!
This post will feature an artist by the name of Nick Drake. Nick is not known for many productions, in fact he supposedly killed himself after only 3 albums....but his work is genius, at least it is to my ears....here is a brief biography and some video and audio of his amazing work!!
Since Nick Drake's death, his eerie, jazz-tinged folk music has had an ever-growing cult following. Born to British parents, Drake spent his first two years on the Indian subcontinent before moving to the English village of Tanworth-in-Arden. He played saxophone and clarinet in school but turned to the guitar at age 16. Two years later he began writing his own songs. He was a student at Cambridge University in 1968, when Ashley Hutchings of Fairport Convention heard him performing at London's Roundhouse. Hutchings introduced him to Joe Boyd, who managed Fairport, John Martyn, and other leaders of the British folk revival. Boyd immediately signed Drake to Island Records and put him on Witchseason concert bills. In 1970 Elton John was hired as a session vocalist to record Drake’s songs to use as demos to entice established singers to covet Drake’s compositions.
Drake was a shy, awkward performer and remained aloof from the public and press. By all accounts his isolation and confusion, results of severe mental illness that at times would leave him catatonic and requiring hospitalizations, grew more severe. By the end of 1970 he had stopped doing concerts. He lived for a short while in Paris at the behest of Françoise Hardy (who never released the recordings she made of his songs) and then settled in Hampstead, where he became increasingly reclusive, allowing the company of only his close friends John and Beverly Martyn. He recorded Pink Moon totally unaccompanied, submitted the tapes to Island by mail, and entered a psychiatric rest home. When he left the home months later, vowing never to sing another song, he got a job as a computer programmer. In 1973 he began writing songs again. Drake had recorded four when he died in bed at his parents’ home in 1974, the victim of an overdose of antidepressant medication. Suicide was considered probable by the coroner, but Drake’s friends and family disagreed. Fruit Tree is a box set containing his three albums plus the four songs recorded in 1973. In 2000 Drake’s music reached a much larger audience than during his lifetime after Volkswagen used his “Pink Moon” in a car commercial, which greatly spurred sales of his recordings. This music also turned up on a few film soundtracks and became the subject of tributes performed by such artists as Duncan Sheik. Drake’s original albums were remastered and repackaged on CD in late 2000.
A documentary....Worth watching! (Parts 1-4)
I know this one is a little less "mainstream", but I recommend checking out his stuff............let me know how you like it.
Have a good one!
Until next time!
Kyle
I do have to say, that we both do like Alabama a lot, we have a nice place, the people are the most friendly I've ever experienced, and the scenery is amazing (if you like hills and trees). It reminds me a lot growing up in Southest Ohio, except the hills are much bigger...but very similiar landscape beyond that. We are about 8-9 hours from home....which I guess could be a good thing, but I could be 8-9 days from home and it would be that much better.......it's a place I don't care to visit much, but we are actually making the trip back next weekend for a cousins wedding.....so, we'll see how that goes.
So far, everything is going OK down here. We are starting to figure out where we are going and getting our bearings, what's around us, where the nearest Sam's club and shopping mall is located. We are getting aquainted to the landscape, the traffic, and the craziness that is inevitable in a town full of rednecks and hillbillies. Life is lived much slower in these parts. If you expect fast service and good drivers, you better not take up residence in these parts.
Amie and I never wanted to leave Scottsdale in the first place, but the economy, and the fact that neither of us could secure employment, led to our decision to move. We understand that life doesn't always deal you the perfect hand, but nonetheless, you are still dealt a hand. If I had to compare, I'd say that we were dealt, in a game of Texas Hold'em, a Queen-10, with another Queen on the flop, and a 10 on the turn card, hoping to hit a Queen on the river....meaning we have to wait a couple rounds to see what the final result will be, but definitely worth staying from the initial cards. We are looking at this experience, probably for a couple years, each year being a new card. If after all the cards are turned over and we decide the hand isn't good enough to stay, we'll pack our shit, fold our cards and head back to the promise land we miss so much already (after a month). But, on the other hand, we could hit that Queen....and things will be totally different, but it's all about how long we can tolerate it, how well the business opportunities present themselves, and how happy we are with our surroundings. So, time will tell, and it'll depend on how big our "pot" is to keep us in the game here.
When I first moved to Scottsdale in April of 2008, I was dead set on living there for MANY years. I had a job, the woman of my dreams, a place of my own, a nice care and just enjoyed being in the Scottsdale atmosphere. Granted, I hated my job, but I only looked at that as temporary, granted I could find something else in the area. Unfortunately they got to me first by laying me off.........which I must say is the best thing that ever happened to me in the way of employment, because I thoroughly hated going into that place day in and day out, but I needed the paycheck. Then a month later, Amie got laid off, so here we are, both jobless, with car payments, bills, rent, and any number of things you can think of. Let me just take a moment to officially announce the company that laid us both off, since I usually just refer to them as my "Former Employer"....and I do this so when people google the company name, maybe they will get this blog and read it and find out what kind of company they really are.....and I do digress, but I must..................AERO JET SERVICES, SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA.....PIECES OF SHIT. Ok, I've done my duty on that one. So, we're both unemployed, both have zero hits on our resumes, zero prospects and looking for anything to pay the bills, because the cash flow is running desperately low! So, fast forward a couple months...enter Birmingham, Alabama. Going into it, I tried to look at it with the highest hopes and intentions, and I still do. Ironically, it's holding up to those intentions, but what I didn't anticipate is how much I love Arizona and Scottsdale. I think I got caught up in looking at all the positives of "starting over" that I lost sight of how much I loved where I was. But, that's normal I think...noone wants to leave where they are comfortable so they start irrationally rationalizing the acceptance of what's upon them. I did just that!! Now, I'm going on record in saying that we do like it here, and we will be ok, but I didn't expect my yearning for Arizona to be this strong. I mean, it's going to be 75 there today for shit's sake, and SUNNY! How can a person NOT love that?? There are some downfalls about Scottsdale too, like expensive housing and more importantly to me, unaffordable golf, but it's nice to know that once I can afford a $150 round of golf, I have an unlimited amount of world class golf courses to go enjoy it on (yes, there is some sarcasm there)..........the golf thing is my biggest bitch about Scottsdale, you have to be rich to enjoy golf there........but the golf thing is my biggest compliment about Alabama....it's actually affordable.
Scottsdale is just so much more entertaining....you have the Suns, the Diamondbacks, and the Cardinals.....pro sports year around, not to mention a BCS Bowl Game once a year, and they are part of the Super Bowl rotation, they had the All-Star game there this year, the FBR Open (PGA golf event), Nascar races and a countless amount of other things going on there, ALL the time. Birmingham??? They have good music, I have to give them some credit there, but zero sports. You have to be into college to enjoy sports here....it's all Alabama or Auburn, and quite frankly, I don't give a rats ass about either. Atlanta is two hours away, so I can get the sporting events there, but who likes Atlanta?..... and Nascar is 50 miles away, but it's not that same as when it's "just down the road".
So, all in all, we like it here for what it's worth, we want to most definitely find our way back to Arizona very soon. So, I'm giving this place a year to two years MAX and if nothing happens in the way of our careers, we're packing our shit and heading back HOME!
I'll post pictures on my next post of our trip back to the worst place of all....Glouster. It'll be nice to see everyone, but depressing to see how shitty the area is getting! But that conversation is for another day.
But, since I haven't put up a Perspective in Music for awhile, I'll do that now, so hopefully you'll enjoy hearing this artist that I'm sure a few of you haven't heard before....and if you have, hopefully it'll serve as a reminder at how great he is!
This post will feature an artist by the name of Nick Drake. Nick is not known for many productions, in fact he supposedly killed himself after only 3 albums....but his work is genius, at least it is to my ears....here is a brief biography and some video and audio of his amazing work!!
Since Nick Drake's death, his eerie, jazz-tinged folk music has had an ever-growing cult following. Born to British parents, Drake spent his first two years on the Indian subcontinent before moving to the English village of Tanworth-in-Arden. He played saxophone and clarinet in school but turned to the guitar at age 16. Two years later he began writing his own songs. He was a student at Cambridge University in 1968, when Ashley Hutchings of Fairport Convention heard him performing at London's Roundhouse. Hutchings introduced him to Joe Boyd, who managed Fairport, John Martyn, and other leaders of the British folk revival. Boyd immediately signed Drake to Island Records and put him on Witchseason concert bills. In 1970 Elton John was hired as a session vocalist to record Drake’s songs to use as demos to entice established singers to covet Drake’s compositions.
Drake was a shy, awkward performer and remained aloof from the public and press. By all accounts his isolation and confusion, results of severe mental illness that at times would leave him catatonic and requiring hospitalizations, grew more severe. By the end of 1970 he had stopped doing concerts. He lived for a short while in Paris at the behest of Françoise Hardy (who never released the recordings she made of his songs) and then settled in Hampstead, where he became increasingly reclusive, allowing the company of only his close friends John and Beverly Martyn. He recorded Pink Moon totally unaccompanied, submitted the tapes to Island by mail, and entered a psychiatric rest home. When he left the home months later, vowing never to sing another song, he got a job as a computer programmer. In 1973 he began writing songs again. Drake had recorded four when he died in bed at his parents’ home in 1974, the victim of an overdose of antidepressant medication. Suicide was considered probable by the coroner, but Drake’s friends and family disagreed. Fruit Tree is a box set containing his three albums plus the four songs recorded in 1973. In 2000 Drake’s music reached a much larger audience than during his lifetime after Volkswagen used his “Pink Moon” in a car commercial, which greatly spurred sales of his recordings. This music also turned up on a few film soundtracks and became the subject of tributes performed by such artists as Duncan Sheik. Drake’s original albums were remastered and repackaged on CD in late 2000.
A documentary....Worth watching! (Parts 1-4)
I know this one is a little less "mainstream", but I recommend checking out his stuff............let me know how you like it.
Have a good one!
Until next time!
Kyle
Monday, January 26, 2009
Sweet Home Alabama!
After a VERY BUSY January, I have actually found time to sit down and update everyone of the past few weeks, with a glass of wine sitting in front of the fireplace of course! Blogging is supposed to be relaxing, so I figure it needs to be done with wine and fire.
Sunday, January 11, my car, my golf clubs, my guitar, a small suitcase and myself, in our lonesome, started an excruciatingly long journey, which I mentioned previously, from Scottsdale, Arizona to Birmingham, Alabama. I had two goals for this trip, the first to get my car and a few belongings to the state, and the second and more important, to find Amie and I a place to live! My journey started around 7:45 AM Sunday morning. I knew I was in for a long day but I wasn't sure exactly how far I'd get on day 1. The initial part of the trip was great of course, with the scenery surrounding Scottsdale, Phoenix and heading towards Tucson. I've driven to Tucson a couple times, so the drive started to get boring pretty quickly, but my salvation was that I have never traveled beyond Tucson in a car, much less through Southern New Mexico, so I was interested to see how that would go. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I should have known to expect pretty much nothing. It's just a bunch of desert landscape......long, straight, flat roads you can see for MILES and MILES.......Ever seen a 40 mile stretch of road, perfectly straight and never-ending?? I have, officially!! Up next, El Paso, Texas...affectionally known to myself as "El PassHOLE", Texas. WHY? Because it is definitely the asshole of the U.S. Anyone that has ever traveled to a "border town" between the U.S. and Mexico, knows the quality of town you are about to encounter. It could be considered an "economic center" gone terribly wrong. It's amazing you can see the very line where poverty is divided by extreme poverty. On one side of the hill/valley you have acceptable housing, and even in some areas, places I would consider living, and on the other, shacks hanging off the hillside that entice you to pull over just at the anticipation that they might all start one big "houseslide" down the hill. It's amazing the difference in less than one mile of landscape.
After scooting past El Passhole in one piece, I started on what I knew would be the longest, most uninteresting portion of my trip, which was the long haul across Texas. I knew Texas was a big state, but...SON OF A BITCH, it is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! I found myself about 2 hours into Texas and was ready to be out of the state. I didn't know if it was because the lack of interesting landscape or the fact that this is the very state that produced the worst President in modern history. Knowing my feelings on that subject, I have money that says it was the latter. The one positive about Texas was after I got past the mountains of west Texas and into the flat lands, it was evening and the sun was setting and I got to see about an hour long sunset. Not just the setting sun for an hour like you see everywhere, but I mean a brilliant multi-color sunset that lasted longer than anywhere than I have ever seen it. Because the land is so flat, you can see the sun and its color for a lot longer than you can anywhere where it's hilly and the the sunsets last about 20 minutes......OH, and I can't believe I almost forgot, their daytime speed limit is 80, so I was balls to the wall on the gas pedal for a long as I could possibly justify it. Once the sun dropped over the extremely flat horizon, I was none too happy to drop back to a 65 m.p.h. speed limit. My first day of driving, I drove 1100 miles, give or take, and finally found a Holiday Inn Express about 50 miles past Dallas at about 1:00 AM. I spent the night there and awoke for the next 9 hours of my drive into Alabama. The scenery from there to Birmingham was pretty consistant. It was a variation of rolling hills, farm land and forest....it reminded me a lot of "back home" with the landscape, but also reminded me that I missed the desert already and I hadn't even moved. The highlight of this part of the trip was crossing the Mississippi river which is always a spectacle.
Once I got to Birmingham, I relaxed at my cousins for the rest of the evening to get geared up for my massive house hunt I was about to embark on the next couple days. Looking for a place to live, in an entirely new place, is a very daunting task, and at times very discouraging. More than once I had one of these two things happen: 1) Thanks for your interest but that residence is off the market; or, 2) (insert some long sales pitch for the place) and rent will be (insert a ridiculously unaffordable amount of RENT (an amount you'd rather pay towards a mortgage)). Going into this housing search, I had done enough research to know which areas I would be focusing my search. We all know that it's no secret that Alabama, in addition to a fair amount of southern cities, isn't necessarily the safest place to reside. So, I had certain parameters established, in which the areas I would consider had to fall in. Anyone that can read between the lines knows that these areas aren't prominent here, but, nevertheless, I found one!!!!!!!! On the evening of day 2 I found a place for us, in a very nice neighborhood. We have a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse with our own yard and garage, backed up against a forest. I'm pretty excited for how things are going to be when everything starts blooming and growing and I can take Amie for a hike back in the woods, reminiscing how it was growing up. She's always been a suburban girl so this is all a new experience for her and I want her to be able to appreciate this wilderness the way have I have been able to growing up in the sticks of Southeast Ohio.
After I secured our future residence, I flew back to Arizona to pick up the rest of my stuff, Amie and her stuff, and the dog. We decided that we both felt better with all of our stuff in our possession instead of some shipper, so we decided we would rent a truck and we would make the drive again. Initially, we had planned to tow Amie's car behind the moving truck, but after some careful consideration, we decided we would check into getting it shipped. The initial estimates were way too expensive, so I enlisted the help of my favorite gay cousin Doug, who is in the automobile brokerage business. (If anyone has a dealership that they want to liase with to buy/sell any type car, Doug is your guy.....introduce yourself, introduce Doug and his company, let Doug do the work, you get a healthy commission....WAY SIMPLE and EASY MONEY....go to http://www.ctsullivans.com/ and contact Doug...No, Doug didn't pay me for the Plug!) So, through Doug we got a smokin deal and decided we'd send the car and not have to stress about dragging it behind us.
I flew back on Thursday, had Friday to get things finalized, the movers were coming at noon on Saturday to load all of our stuff onto the truck. I've practically broken my back moving before and I have vowed to NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, to ever move myself again. My rationale is the money I'd spend in movers loading my shit for me is astronomically cheaper than paying for a back surgery. Call me lazy, pompous, selfish or whatever, but I figure if people are maintaining a business of moving, then I'm going to be a consistant customer and relish in the fact that I'll be able to walk when I'm 40. We got all of our things loaded on Saturday, had a Tuesday morning departure planned, so we planned time to enjoy our last couple days in beautiful Arizona with our families before we headed out for the big trip across the country.
The trip across in the comfort of my own car was bad enough, much less in a moving truck, so you can sense my enthusiasm, I'm sure. But, thankfully this time, I had Amie and the Dog to keep me company and we made it "our" trip of sorts. Even though the noise level was way loud and sitting on a shitter would have been more comfortable than the truck seats, we made the best out of it and had a great experience. Even though the landscape was the same, the trip was preceptually different because we left at a different time, had a slower vehicle and I got to see different places along the way in different light. For example, I had not idea what East Central Texas looked like because from Odessa, Texas to east of Dallas I drove in total darkness. On the first trip, just past Odessa I started seeing all these flashing red lights, on and off in unicen, and thought they were oil rigs....thousands of lights along a 50 mile stretch, on and off all at the same time....it was very interesting to see at night. We drove through during the day light hours, I realized was I was seeing was a wind farm that stretched for miles and miles.....Thousands of windmill's generating electricity. It truely was amazing to see such an engineering feat. It was totally ironic to me at the time as well. What I thought was oil wells and their contribution to destroying Mother Nature was in fact an enormous wind farm trying to save Mother Nature. Amie is passionate about green energy, so this was her favorite part of the trip, which made me happy as well. Once we passed that, we went into Dallas, which I only saw at night, and that too as pretty interesting to see Downtown. We quickly scooted past Dallas and headed towards Louisiana and Mississippi River. We arrived at the Mississippi River just as the sun was setting ont he horizon. At the where we crossed the river, it juts back to the west a bit, and since the sun is setting in the southwest due to the winter months, it looked like the sun was setting on the river which made for some amazing colors and scenery. We both didn't want the trip across the bridge to end. So, after that, it was dark and on to Birmingham we went.
We stayed at my cousins house that night, and promptly in the morning went to sign our lease. After the lease signing we celebrated with a breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Once that was over we headed to our new place to meet the movers. I hired them on this end for the same reasons that I stated before. That went realatively quick and we were once again inundated with boxes, but this time, since we have a lot more space, it doesn't seem quite as bad. Amie did in an amazing job in two days getting most everything organized and put away while I started the new job. I'm thankful that she has a knack for organization and wants thing as tidy as I do.
Amie flew to Denver today to meet with our wedding planner in a series of meetings at different venues for the wedding and reception, floral suppliers and photographers. I told her she needed to go now, because once the job hunt commences and she finds a job, there won't be any time to do all the things that need accomplished IN Denver and they need to be taken care of. So, she is there now and will be coming back Saturday to start the massive job hunt. So, if anyone knows someone in BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA that wants to HIRE a PRETTY GIRL to WORK for them, let us know! FYI: based on the last sentence and the way the web searches for things, this blog will probably be a hit on the web for something non related (side note: the above capital letters does not insinuate prostitution ;-))....but it's all about exposure.
In a nutshell, everything is going good...we both like it so far and we are looking forward to all the exciting things we have planned for this year (except for the summer humidity)!!!
Until Next Time,
Kyle
Sunday, January 11, my car, my golf clubs, my guitar, a small suitcase and myself, in our lonesome, started an excruciatingly long journey, which I mentioned previously, from Scottsdale, Arizona to Birmingham, Alabama. I had two goals for this trip, the first to get my car and a few belongings to the state, and the second and more important, to find Amie and I a place to live! My journey started around 7:45 AM Sunday morning. I knew I was in for a long day but I wasn't sure exactly how far I'd get on day 1. The initial part of the trip was great of course, with the scenery surrounding Scottsdale, Phoenix and heading towards Tucson. I've driven to Tucson a couple times, so the drive started to get boring pretty quickly, but my salvation was that I have never traveled beyond Tucson in a car, much less through Southern New Mexico, so I was interested to see how that would go. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I should have known to expect pretty much nothing. It's just a bunch of desert landscape......long, straight, flat roads you can see for MILES and MILES.......Ever seen a 40 mile stretch of road, perfectly straight and never-ending?? I have, officially!! Up next, El Paso, Texas...affectionally known to myself as "El PassHOLE", Texas. WHY? Because it is definitely the asshole of the U.S. Anyone that has ever traveled to a "border town" between the U.S. and Mexico, knows the quality of town you are about to encounter. It could be considered an "economic center" gone terribly wrong. It's amazing you can see the very line where poverty is divided by extreme poverty. On one side of the hill/valley you have acceptable housing, and even in some areas, places I would consider living, and on the other, shacks hanging off the hillside that entice you to pull over just at the anticipation that they might all start one big "houseslide" down the hill. It's amazing the difference in less than one mile of landscape.
After scooting past El Passhole in one piece, I started on what I knew would be the longest, most uninteresting portion of my trip, which was the long haul across Texas. I knew Texas was a big state, but...SON OF A BITCH, it is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!! I found myself about 2 hours into Texas and was ready to be out of the state. I didn't know if it was because the lack of interesting landscape or the fact that this is the very state that produced the worst President in modern history. Knowing my feelings on that subject, I have money that says it was the latter. The one positive about Texas was after I got past the mountains of west Texas and into the flat lands, it was evening and the sun was setting and I got to see about an hour long sunset. Not just the setting sun for an hour like you see everywhere, but I mean a brilliant multi-color sunset that lasted longer than anywhere than I have ever seen it. Because the land is so flat, you can see the sun and its color for a lot longer than you can anywhere where it's hilly and the the sunsets last about 20 minutes......OH, and I can't believe I almost forgot, their daytime speed limit is 80, so I was balls to the wall on the gas pedal for a long as I could possibly justify it. Once the sun dropped over the extremely flat horizon, I was none too happy to drop back to a 65 m.p.h. speed limit. My first day of driving, I drove 1100 miles, give or take, and finally found a Holiday Inn Express about 50 miles past Dallas at about 1:00 AM. I spent the night there and awoke for the next 9 hours of my drive into Alabama. The scenery from there to Birmingham was pretty consistant. It was a variation of rolling hills, farm land and forest....it reminded me a lot of "back home" with the landscape, but also reminded me that I missed the desert already and I hadn't even moved. The highlight of this part of the trip was crossing the Mississippi river which is always a spectacle.
Once I got to Birmingham, I relaxed at my cousins for the rest of the evening to get geared up for my massive house hunt I was about to embark on the next couple days. Looking for a place to live, in an entirely new place, is a very daunting task, and at times very discouraging. More than once I had one of these two things happen: 1) Thanks for your interest but that residence is off the market; or, 2) (insert some long sales pitch for the place) and rent will be (insert a ridiculously unaffordable amount of RENT (an amount you'd rather pay towards a mortgage)). Going into this housing search, I had done enough research to know which areas I would be focusing my search. We all know that it's no secret that Alabama, in addition to a fair amount of southern cities, isn't necessarily the safest place to reside. So, I had certain parameters established, in which the areas I would consider had to fall in. Anyone that can read between the lines knows that these areas aren't prominent here, but, nevertheless, I found one!!!!!!!! On the evening of day 2 I found a place for us, in a very nice neighborhood. We have a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhouse with our own yard and garage, backed up against a forest. I'm pretty excited for how things are going to be when everything starts blooming and growing and I can take Amie for a hike back in the woods, reminiscing how it was growing up. She's always been a suburban girl so this is all a new experience for her and I want her to be able to appreciate this wilderness the way have I have been able to growing up in the sticks of Southeast Ohio.
After I secured our future residence, I flew back to Arizona to pick up the rest of my stuff, Amie and her stuff, and the dog. We decided that we both felt better with all of our stuff in our possession instead of some shipper, so we decided we would rent a truck and we would make the drive again. Initially, we had planned to tow Amie's car behind the moving truck, but after some careful consideration, we decided we would check into getting it shipped. The initial estimates were way too expensive, so I enlisted the help of my favorite gay cousin Doug, who is in the automobile brokerage business. (If anyone has a dealership that they want to liase with to buy/sell any type car, Doug is your guy.....introduce yourself, introduce Doug and his company, let Doug do the work, you get a healthy commission....WAY SIMPLE and EASY MONEY....go to http://www.ctsullivans.com/ and contact Doug...No, Doug didn't pay me for the Plug!) So, through Doug we got a smokin deal and decided we'd send the car and not have to stress about dragging it behind us.
I flew back on Thursday, had Friday to get things finalized, the movers were coming at noon on Saturday to load all of our stuff onto the truck. I've practically broken my back moving before and I have vowed to NEVER, and I do mean NEVER, to ever move myself again. My rationale is the money I'd spend in movers loading my shit for me is astronomically cheaper than paying for a back surgery. Call me lazy, pompous, selfish or whatever, but I figure if people are maintaining a business of moving, then I'm going to be a consistant customer and relish in the fact that I'll be able to walk when I'm 40. We got all of our things loaded on Saturday, had a Tuesday morning departure planned, so we planned time to enjoy our last couple days in beautiful Arizona with our families before we headed out for the big trip across the country.
The trip across in the comfort of my own car was bad enough, much less in a moving truck, so you can sense my enthusiasm, I'm sure. But, thankfully this time, I had Amie and the Dog to keep me company and we made it "our" trip of sorts. Even though the noise level was way loud and sitting on a shitter would have been more comfortable than the truck seats, we made the best out of it and had a great experience. Even though the landscape was the same, the trip was preceptually different because we left at a different time, had a slower vehicle and I got to see different places along the way in different light. For example, I had not idea what East Central Texas looked like because from Odessa, Texas to east of Dallas I drove in total darkness. On the first trip, just past Odessa I started seeing all these flashing red lights, on and off in unicen, and thought they were oil rigs....thousands of lights along a 50 mile stretch, on and off all at the same time....it was very interesting to see at night. We drove through during the day light hours, I realized was I was seeing was a wind farm that stretched for miles and miles.....Thousands of windmill's generating electricity. It truely was amazing to see such an engineering feat. It was totally ironic to me at the time as well. What I thought was oil wells and their contribution to destroying Mother Nature was in fact an enormous wind farm trying to save Mother Nature. Amie is passionate about green energy, so this was her favorite part of the trip, which made me happy as well. Once we passed that, we went into Dallas, which I only saw at night, and that too as pretty interesting to see Downtown. We quickly scooted past Dallas and headed towards Louisiana and Mississippi River. We arrived at the Mississippi River just as the sun was setting ont he horizon. At the where we crossed the river, it juts back to the west a bit, and since the sun is setting in the southwest due to the winter months, it looked like the sun was setting on the river which made for some amazing colors and scenery. We both didn't want the trip across the bridge to end. So, after that, it was dark and on to Birmingham we went.
We stayed at my cousins house that night, and promptly in the morning went to sign our lease. After the lease signing we celebrated with a breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Once that was over we headed to our new place to meet the movers. I hired them on this end for the same reasons that I stated before. That went realatively quick and we were once again inundated with boxes, but this time, since we have a lot more space, it doesn't seem quite as bad. Amie did in an amazing job in two days getting most everything organized and put away while I started the new job. I'm thankful that she has a knack for organization and wants thing as tidy as I do.
Amie flew to Denver today to meet with our wedding planner in a series of meetings at different venues for the wedding and reception, floral suppliers and photographers. I told her she needed to go now, because once the job hunt commences and she finds a job, there won't be any time to do all the things that need accomplished IN Denver and they need to be taken care of. So, she is there now and will be coming back Saturday to start the massive job hunt. So, if anyone knows someone in BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA that wants to HIRE a PRETTY GIRL to WORK for them, let us know! FYI: based on the last sentence and the way the web searches for things, this blog will probably be a hit on the web for something non related (side note: the above capital letters does not insinuate prostitution ;-))....but it's all about exposure.
In a nutshell, everything is going good...we both like it so far and we are looking forward to all the exciting things we have planned for this year (except for the summer humidity)!!!
Until Next Time,
Kyle
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
New Year, New Chapter
A couple big events have happened since my last post, so this will serve as an announcement of sorts. First, I have decided to accept the job in Alabama so Amie and I will be moving to Birmingham in the next couple weeks. The prospect of a new job is exciting in that I'll start getting a paycheck again, something that I've missed the past 2 1/2 months. I've heard good things about living in Alabama, so I'm anxious to see what that's going to be all about. I'm dreading the humidity though, but I'll probably be used to it since I'm not totally climatized to desert life yet. I do feel sorry for Amie though, having only lived in Denver and Scottsdale, both very dry climates. I will drive my car over this Sunday or Monday and spend 5 or so days looking for a place for us to live. Then on Jan. 19, I'll fly back out here to Phoenix to get Amie, the dog and our things. We are going to do the Uhaul option as we feel better if our stuff is in our possession at all times. Plus, the experience of driving across the country will be a first for Amie, so we'll make it a fun trip. The only shitty party for me is two 25-hour trips in as many weeks. I'll keep you posted on the move as things progress, in addition to addresses and such.
The next announcement, and definitely the bigger of the two, is that this past Friday, Amie and I were officially engaged. I've posted some pictures of the day below. We spent the day in Sedona, Arizona, one of my favorite places. Amie had never been there before, and having living lived here for 6 years and being so close and never having visited, it was an absolute must that we visit before we leave for 'Bama. We took the long way into Sedona, via Oak Creek Canyon. You basically go to Flagstaff and come in from the north. When you reach the canyon, you drop about 3,000 feet in a couple miles so it's a pretty dramatic drive into Sedona. Once we got to Sedona, we looked around for a bit and then decided to have a beer while taking in the amazing scenery. On the way out of town, there was one more place I wanted to take Amie. There is a church built into the red rocks that has the most amazing view of the entire area, and the church is amazingly beautiful. It was there that the question was asked. We are planning a September 19, 2009 wedding in Denver, Colorado, and we'll also be having a reception in Glouster a couple weeks afterwards. I'll keep you all updated as those developments happen. All in all, its going to be a busy few months with the move and wedding planning......enjoy the pics.
(I thought by changing my layout, I could get this picture thing figured out....apparently NOT! Talk about irritating.)
Almost to Flagstaff, foot of snow on the ground
More Snow.......
Amie's dog, Brooke
Me, Amie and Brooke
The road down to the bottom of the canyon
The Canyon to Sedona
Having a frost adult beverage
Driving up to the Church
Another angle of the church
Walking up to the Church
The inside of the Church
Us at the Church
Amie and Brooke
Me and Brooke
The Very Spot the question was asked
The hardware
The next announcement, and definitely the bigger of the two, is that this past Friday, Amie and I were officially engaged. I've posted some pictures of the day below. We spent the day in Sedona, Arizona, one of my favorite places. Amie had never been there before, and having living lived here for 6 years and being so close and never having visited, it was an absolute must that we visit before we leave for 'Bama. We took the long way into Sedona, via Oak Creek Canyon. You basically go to Flagstaff and come in from the north. When you reach the canyon, you drop about 3,000 feet in a couple miles so it's a pretty dramatic drive into Sedona. Once we got to Sedona, we looked around for a bit and then decided to have a beer while taking in the amazing scenery. On the way out of town, there was one more place I wanted to take Amie. There is a church built into the red rocks that has the most amazing view of the entire area, and the church is amazingly beautiful. It was there that the question was asked. We are planning a September 19, 2009 wedding in Denver, Colorado, and we'll also be having a reception in Glouster a couple weeks afterwards. I'll keep you all updated as those developments happen. All in all, its going to be a busy few months with the move and wedding planning......enjoy the pics.
(I thought by changing my layout, I could get this picture thing figured out....apparently NOT! Talk about irritating.)
Almost to Flagstaff, foot of snow on the ground More Snow.......Amie's dog, Brooke Me, Amie and Brooke
Amie at the Canyon
The road down to the bottom of the canyon The Canyon to Sedona Having a frost adult beverage Driving up to the Church Another angle of the church Walking up to the Church The inside of the Church Us at the Church Amie and Brooke Me and Brooke The Very Spot the question was asked The hardwareUntil next time,
Kyle
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Another Perspective In Music
Since I don't have any happenings in my boring life, and people want me to write more, I thought I'd entertain this post with another Perspective in Music. Afterall, with all the time I have with my unemployment status, why not spend some time doing what I love to do best.....listen to music.
This Perspective In Music features a band from a previous generation of pot smoking hippies....which is the generation of music that I, on any given day, tend to pull my playlist from. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, depending on what album your talking about, sometimes they are called just Crosby, Stills and Nash, is a band that I had never heard of until I attended on of their concerts. I was a freshman in college at Ohio State University, and some friends of mine from home were coming to Columbus to see a concert. I had asked who they were seeing, and they told me, "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.". My first reaction was, "Who the hell is that?". After some research on the very first music downloading site Napster, I found that I actually liked these "old guys". So, I bought my ticket, and because I was so late into the game, I had to sit by myself. In hindsight, it turned out better because I was able to really pay attention to the concert.....and what an AMAZING concert it was. It was only the second concert I had been to, but I was an instant fan. I have since seen them two other times, and each time they continue to amaze. The nature of the band is that you only sometimes see all 4 of them, other times you just see 3 or them, and sometimes you just see 2. So, the videos I'll post below may have some or all of them. They could all have their own post, but they are best served together (I'll do another of Neil Young, he most definitely deserves his own post). But first, a brief biography........................ Enjoy!
Crosby, Stills & Nash, also Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when including occasional fourth member Neil Young, are a folk rock/rock supergroup. The band is known for their distinctive vocal harmonies and activist politics, and have a strong association with the segment of 1960s counterculture known as the Woodstock Nation. They are commonly referred to by their initials CSN or CSNY.Initially formed by the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, the genesis of the group lies in two 1960s rock bands, The Byrds and The Hollies, and the demise of a third, Buffalo Springfield. Friction existed between Crosby and his fellows in the Byrds, which came to a head specifically in 1967 over two issues: his substitution, at the invitation of Stills, for an absent Neil Young during Buffalo Springfield's set at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in June; and the Byrds' rejection of Crosby's controversial "Triad" composition as either a single or an album track in August. As a result, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in the fall of 1967. By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield disintegrated over personal issues, and after aiding in putting together the band's final album, Stills found himself unemployed by the summer. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the results of one encounter in Florida on Crosby's schooner being the song "Wooden Ships," composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner. Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the UK in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby.At a party at the home of either Cass Elliot of the Mamas and Papas, Joni Mitchell, or John Sebastian, depending on differing accounts, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, "You Don't Have To Cry," blending a second harmony on the spot into their singing. The vocals gelled, and the three realized that they had lucked into something quite special.
The Hollies, who had enjoyed pop hits in the mid-sixties, had been struggling with the changing music scene in England due to the advent of psychedelia, and were planning to do an album of all Dylan covers. Seeing this as a step in the wrong direction, and creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit and throw his lot in with Crosby and Stills. After failing an audition with the Beatles' Apple Records, they were signed to Atlantic Records by Ahmet Ertegün, who had been a fan of the Springfield and disappointed by that band's demise. From the outset, given their respective band histories, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure, using their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee against the band simply continuing without one of them, as had both the Byrds and the Hollies after the departures of Crosby and Nash. Their record contract with Atlantic reflected this, positioning CSN with a unique flexibility unheard of for an untested group. The trio also picked up a unique management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen, who had engineered their situation with Atlantic and would help to consolidate clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby's words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Roberts and Geffen would play key roles in securing the band's success during the early years.
Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash of 1969 was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format, in its early days populated by unfettered disc jockeys prone to playing entire albums at once. Other than the presence of drummer Dallas Taylor, Stills had handled the lion's share of the instrumental parts himself, a testament to his talent but leaving the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, now a necessity given the debut album's commercial impact.Enter Neil Young.
Déjà Vu album coverRetaining Taylor, the band decided initially to hire a keyboard player, Stills at one point approaching Steve Winwood, who declined. Over dinner with Ertegün, the Atlantic label head suggested Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, also managed by Roberts, as a fairly obvious choice. Initial reservations were held by Stills and Nash, Stills owing to his history with Young in Buffalo Springfield, Nash due to his not knowing Young at all outside of his work. But after several meetings, the trio expanded to a quartet with Young a full partner, the name duly changed law firm-style, the terms allowing Young full freedom to maintain a parallel career with his new back-up band, Crazy Horse. With Young on board, the group went on tour in the late summer of 1969 through the following January, their second gig being a baptism-by-fire at the Woodstock Festival in front of their peers, CSNY with their hit record of the event later being seen as its embodiment. By contrast, little mention is made of the group's subsequent appearance at Altamont, CSNY having escaped mostly unscathed from the fallout of that debacle. Great anticipation had built for the group, and their first album with Young, Déjà Vu, arrived in stores in March of 1970 to zealous enthusiasm, topping the charts and generating three hit singles. Reflecting unerringly the tastes and viewpoints of the counterculture as the sixties changed into the seventies, with protest against both the establishment and the Vietnam War gearing up, the group made no secret of their political leanings, Crosby in particular. While staying at a house down the peninsula from San Francisco, the ubiquitous reports of the Kent State shootings reached Young and Crosby, inspiring Young to write his protest classic "Ohio," recorded and rush-released weeks later and another Top 20 hit for the group.
Between "Ohio," their appearance in both the festival and movie of Woodstock, and the runaway success of their two albums, the group found themselves in the position of enjoying a level of adulation far greater than experienced with their previous bands. The collective talents allowed the band to straddle all the flavors of popular music eminent at the time, from country-rock to confessional balladry, from acoustic guitars and voice to electric guitar and boogie. Indeed, with the Beatles break-up made public by April of 1970, and with Bob Dylan in reclusive low-key activity since mid-1966, CSNY found itself as the adopted standard bearers for the Woodstock Nation, vouchsafing an importance in society as counterculture figureheads equaled at the time in rock and roll only by The Rolling Stones. An entire sub-industry of singer-songwriters in California either had their careers boosted or came to prominence in the wake of CSNY, among them Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and The Eagles. All were managed, incidentally, by Roberts, and all but Nyro signed to Geffen's Asylum label, which would be the home for what came to be known as the Mellow Mafia for the remainder of the decade.
However, the tenuous nature of the partnership, built into the group philosophy from the onset and strained by their success, weighed on the individual personalities, and the group imploded after their tour in the summer of 1970. Concert recordings from that tour would end up on another chart-topper, the 1971 double album Four Way Street, but the group would never completely recapture momentum as years would pass between trio and quartet recordings
This Song, "Ohio", was written in the aftermath of the shootings at Kent State University that ended with several students killed and wounded. I actually know one of the people who was wounded, shot in the back, and now confined to a wheel chair. This era of politics and music are pretty powerful, and brings a whole new meaning when it hits close to home.
This Perspective In Music features a band from a previous generation of pot smoking hippies....which is the generation of music that I, on any given day, tend to pull my playlist from. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, depending on what album your talking about, sometimes they are called just Crosby, Stills and Nash, is a band that I had never heard of until I attended on of their concerts. I was a freshman in college at Ohio State University, and some friends of mine from home were coming to Columbus to see a concert. I had asked who they were seeing, and they told me, "Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.". My first reaction was, "Who the hell is that?". After some research on the very first music downloading site Napster, I found that I actually liked these "old guys". So, I bought my ticket, and because I was so late into the game, I had to sit by myself. In hindsight, it turned out better because I was able to really pay attention to the concert.....and what an AMAZING concert it was. It was only the second concert I had been to, but I was an instant fan. I have since seen them two other times, and each time they continue to amaze. The nature of the band is that you only sometimes see all 4 of them, other times you just see 3 or them, and sometimes you just see 2. So, the videos I'll post below may have some or all of them. They could all have their own post, but they are best served together (I'll do another of Neil Young, he most definitely deserves his own post). But first, a brief biography........................ Enjoy!
Crosby, Stills & Nash, also Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when including occasional fourth member Neil Young, are a folk rock/rock supergroup. The band is known for their distinctive vocal harmonies and activist politics, and have a strong association with the segment of 1960s counterculture known as the Woodstock Nation. They are commonly referred to by their initials CSN or CSNY.Initially formed by the trio of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, the genesis of the group lies in two 1960s rock bands, The Byrds and The Hollies, and the demise of a third, Buffalo Springfield. Friction existed between Crosby and his fellows in the Byrds, which came to a head specifically in 1967 over two issues: his substitution, at the invitation of Stills, for an absent Neil Young during Buffalo Springfield's set at the famous Monterey Pop Festival in June; and the Byrds' rejection of Crosby's controversial "Triad" composition as either a single or an album track in August. As a result, Crosby was dismissed from the Byrds in the fall of 1967. By early 1968, Buffalo Springfield disintegrated over personal issues, and after aiding in putting together the band's final album, Stills found himself unemployed by the summer. He and Crosby began meeting informally and jamming, the results of one encounter in Florida on Crosby's schooner being the song "Wooden Ships," composed in collaboration with another guest, Paul Kantner. Nash had been introduced to Crosby when the Byrds had toured the UK in 1966, and when the Hollies ventured to California in 1968, Nash resumed his acquaintance with Crosby.At a party at the home of either Cass Elliot of the Mamas and Papas, Joni Mitchell, or John Sebastian, depending on differing accounts, Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, "You Don't Have To Cry," blending a second harmony on the spot into their singing. The vocals gelled, and the three realized that they had lucked into something quite special.
The Hollies, who had enjoyed pop hits in the mid-sixties, had been struggling with the changing music scene in England due to the advent of psychedelia, and were planning to do an album of all Dylan covers. Seeing this as a step in the wrong direction, and creatively frustrated with the Hollies, Nash decided to quit and throw his lot in with Crosby and Stills. After failing an audition with the Beatles' Apple Records, they were signed to Atlantic Records by Ahmet Ertegün, who had been a fan of the Springfield and disappointed by that band's demise. From the outset, given their respective band histories, the trio decided not to be locked into a group structure, using their surnames as identification to ensure independence and a guarantee against the band simply continuing without one of them, as had both the Byrds and the Hollies after the departures of Crosby and Nash. Their record contract with Atlantic reflected this, positioning CSN with a unique flexibility unheard of for an untested group. The trio also picked up a unique management team in Elliot Roberts and David Geffen, who had engineered their situation with Atlantic and would help to consolidate clout for the group in the industry. Roberts kept the band focused and dealt with egos, while Geffen handled the business deals, since, in Crosby's words, they needed a shark and Geffen was it. Roberts and Geffen would play key roles in securing the band's success during the early years.
Their first album, Crosby, Stills & Nash of 1969 was an immediate hit, spawning two Top 40 hit singles and receiving key airplay on the new FM radio format, in its early days populated by unfettered disc jockeys prone to playing entire albums at once. Other than the presence of drummer Dallas Taylor, Stills had handled the lion's share of the instrumental parts himself, a testament to his talent but leaving the band in need of additional personnel to be able to tour, now a necessity given the debut album's commercial impact.Enter Neil Young.
Déjà Vu album coverRetaining Taylor, the band decided initially to hire a keyboard player, Stills at one point approaching Steve Winwood, who declined. Over dinner with Ertegün, the Atlantic label head suggested Canadian singer/songwriter Neil Young, also managed by Roberts, as a fairly obvious choice. Initial reservations were held by Stills and Nash, Stills owing to his history with Young in Buffalo Springfield, Nash due to his not knowing Young at all outside of his work. But after several meetings, the trio expanded to a quartet with Young a full partner, the name duly changed law firm-style, the terms allowing Young full freedom to maintain a parallel career with his new back-up band, Crazy Horse. With Young on board, the group went on tour in the late summer of 1969 through the following January, their second gig being a baptism-by-fire at the Woodstock Festival in front of their peers, CSNY with their hit record of the event later being seen as its embodiment. By contrast, little mention is made of the group's subsequent appearance at Altamont, CSNY having escaped mostly unscathed from the fallout of that debacle. Great anticipation had built for the group, and their first album with Young, Déjà Vu, arrived in stores in March of 1970 to zealous enthusiasm, topping the charts and generating three hit singles. Reflecting unerringly the tastes and viewpoints of the counterculture as the sixties changed into the seventies, with protest against both the establishment and the Vietnam War gearing up, the group made no secret of their political leanings, Crosby in particular. While staying at a house down the peninsula from San Francisco, the ubiquitous reports of the Kent State shootings reached Young and Crosby, inspiring Young to write his protest classic "Ohio," recorded and rush-released weeks later and another Top 20 hit for the group.
Between "Ohio," their appearance in both the festival and movie of Woodstock, and the runaway success of their two albums, the group found themselves in the position of enjoying a level of adulation far greater than experienced with their previous bands. The collective talents allowed the band to straddle all the flavors of popular music eminent at the time, from country-rock to confessional balladry, from acoustic guitars and voice to electric guitar and boogie. Indeed, with the Beatles break-up made public by April of 1970, and with Bob Dylan in reclusive low-key activity since mid-1966, CSNY found itself as the adopted standard bearers for the Woodstock Nation, vouchsafing an importance in society as counterculture figureheads equaled at the time in rock and roll only by The Rolling Stones. An entire sub-industry of singer-songwriters in California either had their careers boosted or came to prominence in the wake of CSNY, among them Laura Nyro, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and The Eagles. All were managed, incidentally, by Roberts, and all but Nyro signed to Geffen's Asylum label, which would be the home for what came to be known as the Mellow Mafia for the remainder of the decade.
However, the tenuous nature of the partnership, built into the group philosophy from the onset and strained by their success, weighed on the individual personalities, and the group imploded after their tour in the summer of 1970. Concert recordings from that tour would end up on another chart-topper, the 1971 double album Four Way Street, but the group would never completely recapture momentum as years would pass between trio and quartet recordings
This Song, "Ohio", was written in the aftermath of the shootings at Kent State University that ended with several students killed and wounded. I actually know one of the people who was wounded, shot in the back, and now confined to a wheel chair. This era of politics and music are pretty powerful, and brings a whole new meaning when it hits close to home.
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