Wednesday, January 1, 2014

NEW YEAR'S DAY KICKAROUND AND RECORD PARTY




It's snowing in KC.  When we went into Minsky's on Main for a late lunch/early dinner, it was cold--but when we came out it was snowing and we both said AH!  What a nice surprise.  That's what happens when you don't check the weather report.  Minsky's still has the same perfect sauce to cheese ratio that made them great when I was growing up.

I'm listening to the Unwound Kid Is Gone box set.  Got it for Christmas.  It's a great set and the booklet is a good read.  It's often better to read the story of how teenagers and young adults bond to make music than to read the rest of the story, even if the rest of the story results in more expert, and even classic, music.  If you lose track of the origin, you can kind of lose the plot. Weird to read that now that I don't live in Eugene or get up that way.  The legend of Olympia sort of emanated.  Like Slint, Slovenly, and Come, Unwound kind of emanates too. 



We drove out to Kaw Point Riverfront Park today, but it was cold and windy and we kept it to a half-mile walk and a shivery look-over of historical placards about Lewis and Clark's stop, and then drove through the KCK.  After that we parked at River Market and walked down to the Columbus Park neighborhood and really enjoyed that.  If we hadn't had the dog with us we would have stopped for Vietnamese food.  We're still thinking we want to live in almost all the new neighborhoods we check out.  You have to go back a few times.

I also got a Syl Johnson record for Christmas, his first one, Dresses Too Short.  Very snappy.




After Minsky's we stopped at Dave's Stagecoach and sat for a while, and ran into Judy, the record lady who sold T the aforementioned records. The bartender is in a band called The Bad Ideas. They are going out to Eugene and Portland and West Coast in June.  The Replacements and The Undertones came on the stereo at Davey's.  I floated the idea that "Teenage Kicks" is one of the greatest songs ever.  Someone I like believes this to be true, it could be Ed Cole, or maybe Steve Wynn.  Maybe it was the snow coming down, and the pizza, and a New Year's Day kind of affability, that I would float such an idea to a total stranger.

Tomorrow is Thursday, but this feels like Sunday--though earlier it felt like Saturday.  There's a Monday-Thursday hybrid thing happening with the first day after these midweek holidays.  I played some guitar today and found myself playing "Swallow My Pride" by The Ramones, after noodling along in the key of D on an unplugged Melody Maker.