Crossword With A Pen.

There's Judy Garland taking Buddha by the hand
And then these 7 little men get up to dance
They say Confucius does his crossword with a pen...

When Blogchex unceremoniously collapsed, I began writing The Long Way Home again here on Blogger, but my dear friend & fellow music geek O-Dogg made himself a nest at Wordpress.

And it ate at me.

I wanted a blog at Wordpress too.

So, secretly, I started writing there. I didn't even tell O-Dogg at first. I didn't tell anyone. I just wanted to see if I liked it, see if I had other things to write about that I didn't write about here at Blogger. I made the focus music, & I started writing. I had some random visitors who cheered me on. I found that I suddenly had blog diarrhea when it came to music.

When another music geek friend Keith began publishing his own blog I got this idea. I mean, I know Keith has virtual novels to write about music; we conduct music nerd discussion probably 50 times a month. And Crossword With A Pen became a group blog. There are 5 of us, although I'm currently the only one who's got the runs.

Anyway, I told Lara once she got her bio up there I'd actually tell people about it. So here it is.

Crossword With A Pen.

A Little Visit To Anna's

There's a chances some of you may not know Eric.

Eric is identified on my phone as "Jukebox Hero." This is partly because I have other Erics on my phone list & an appellative ID becomes necessary, & partly because Eric can do Foreigner like no other in our bar. He's also my indispensable source of "Cara Mia," but Jay & The Americans is just too long & frankly "Cara Mia" would make me think of Gomez & Morticia. By the way, his pitch is better than that linked video.

(Pictured above, Anna's veteran & Guinness drinker Porter doing sound, & Peter Bond of Hat Makes The Man, Spiny Norman, & Island Guitars fame.)

Eric, however, does not sing in his band, named Stone Jones (uh oh) for lead singer Rob Jones; he plays bass while childhood friend Rob plays guitar & sings. They were playing "Cat Scratch Fever" as Terrence & I approached the building, & that was pretty much the only song I recognized; Stone Jones is a mostly originals act. Fun times!

Plumb.

I find new music in all kinds of ways.

A couple of weeks ago I was shopping in Longs & was arrested by the overhead music. I ended up stopping under a speaker & memorizing some lyrics, which I then Googled when I got home.

And so I discovered Christian/Rock/Dance singer Plumb, mother of 3 in Nashville. Her voice makes me think of Amy Lee channeling Sarah McLachlan. Naturally, I bought her current CD, Blink, which contained another very likeable song, "Always." The video here is for "In My Arms," which first caught my ear in Longs, but the images there are from some video put together by a fan. Looks like an interesting show though.

The rest of the songs on Blink were nice, but this is a 2-song CD for me.

At her MySpace I listened to another song from an earlier CD, "Cut." Unlike the majority of her songs on Blink which are obviously sung to her kids, "Cut" is apparently about self abuse. Her vocals are quite haunting; the CD (Chaotic Resolve) arrived today. Chaotic Resolve was a great first listen pretty much in its entirety. It's high energy, strong vocals girl stuff; I especially liked "Real Life Fairytale."

At right is the official video for "Cut." A little lacking in volume, but you can turn it up.

In other news, my remastered copy of Avalon arrived, & is not only remastered... it's a hybrid SACD! Quite frankly, though, it doesn't sound anywhere near as good as my 30th Anniversary Dark Side of the Moon. Well, I suppose there are CDs & then there are CDs. If the original AAD was shitty enough, I don't imagine anyone could remaster it sufficient to make it sound like magic. Ah, Bryan Ferry. I love him. I need better speakers.

And then my Fiction Plane arrived as well. This is Sting's son's band, & Cathy & I saw them opening at that epic concert in February. I haven't opened this one yet; you can't rush music listening.

I guess they kinda sound like The Police. Joe Sumner definitely sounds like his dad.

I'm just kicking myself over & over again because I can't believe I missed the Lifehouse show at Pipeline. Dammit dammit dammit. I just plain old forgot. Someone please kick my ass.