Dry Slot

The principal item of fallout from my recent birthday was a new camera. Here's a sample:



I'm still learning how to use the new toy. It's got more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. This picture is remarkable to me, because I could not have taken it with my old camera.

Hey, ycd. The camera was a birthday present, given to me six days ago. I've had time to start reading the manual and everything!

The house Wife and I inhabit came with some of the worst toilets I have ever seen. The brand is famous for its "bold look". The company may have designers on its payroll, but they need to hire some engineers. Those toilets don't flush. They clog.

We have replaced two out of three toilets in the house with a Japanese brand, Toto. The new units are amazing. I don't mind advertising for them, because I am a satisfied customer.

Ho, ho, ho, Mass. We're having a mix of old and new. Mom brought us a couple of family heirlooms, and Wife got a Kindle Fire.

Alas, my Christmas forecast was a bust. It's cloudy. I could blame it on the local NOAA guys, on whose information I based the forecast, but I should have done my homework. The forecast was a rush job.

Down here in the non-sunny south land it is fifty degrees. Cool. There's a stalled front raining on South Carolina, which accounts for our clouds. NOAA still says sunny tomorrow. (That's what they said yesterday.)

Hey, Ylee. Since when are mattresses not practical? Sleep is a good and necessary thing.

And there are other possible, uh, uses. Those can keep you up at night, but most people are willing to sacrifice a little sleep for health and happiness.

Ha, went to YouTube to listen to that song. In the middle of the video the words stop scrolling, and it just says, "Guitar." What a masterpiece of understatement!

I'm looking forward to learning what tricks the new camera can perform, too. One thing it can do is take passable pictures indoors without a flash. It's amazing what a difference that makes.

BF - Tuesday began with rain, but there are signs the sun may return before the day is out. The front is passing. We're moving into the Dry Slot.

I took Mom home yesterday. I was planning to spend the night, but after looking at the forecast, I decided to return immediately. That was a lot of driving, but it was all on dry pavement. I had enough of rainy roads last week.

Speaking of waiting for winter, the last picture I uploaded is of daffodils blooming at Christmas time. I have also noticed redbud trees blooming all over town. I started to upload a picture of a tree in bloom, but it came out sideways, so I cancelled. I'll try again later.

These plants are obviously very confused. It is not springtime. The NAO chart in the header seems to be trending ever more believably negative. We have another six weeks of eligibility for seriously cold weather. Snow chances will persist for a similar interval beyond that.

That's the historical picture, anyhow. I suppose global warming may have other plans for this part of the world. Maybe we'll get fire ants, killer bees and malaria instead of a hard freeze.

I happened to tune in Palladia channel last night while they were airing a concert by Rush. Rush was never my favorite band. Their songs all sound the same to me, but seeing them 'live' was impressive. There are only three guys in the band. To make that sound they stay very busy.

Hi, Rob. Thanks for the tune.

I said Rush is not my favorite band, but that's a relative thing. I'm always glad to hear some Rush. Watching that concert reminded me of how many songs of theirs I instantly recognize without necessarily knowing the words or the titles.

My criticism, if you can call it that, is that their songs have a very consistent sound. They share the same instruments and the same harmonies. The only thing that changes is the tempo and the key. Other than that, no problem. These three guys are excellent musicians -- at least within their genre.

I admit that I've had the luxury of being spoiled by bands like the Beatles, who can seemingly reinvent themselves between the tracks of a single album. The Beatles are probably not my favorite band either, and in this case it could be because of the sheer scope of their talent. Their albums present the listener with a broad mix of styles. Sometimes I'm up for that, sometimes not so much. Or perhaps it would be fair to say I would prefer a different mix, especially if I'm going to listen repeatedly or for long.

For one thing, I really like blues. One doesn't go to the Beatles for blues. The Beatles are too upbeat.

You don't need to have the blues to enjoy the blues. To me, the blues live somewhere very near the center of music. Happy songs (Singing in the Rain!) dip water from the same well of human experience. The funny thing is, that listening to even the darkest, saddest blues... can make me happy. :o)

And here, continuing with the weather theme --

The Rolling Stones are a band that often, down the years, has been compared with the Beatles. Like the Beatles, the Stones are capable of great diversity of expression. One obvious difference is that the Stones, as a group, have been extremely long-lived. In all that time they have surely ventured places musically that I could not gladly follow.

Another difference is that the Stones can and do play the blues. Here's a raw, bleeding example, one that I still have a hard time getting over.

Ho, hum. Methinks it's time to hie to bed. It's going on three o'clock!

Hi, Karen, and thanks.

We're working on it!

Yep, we all miss Stevie Ray.



Well, most of us, anyway. Those of us who didn't evacuate to Rio.

Speaking of cold shot, the augurs and predictomancers intimate that we're due for an arctic blast Real Soon Now.

'Bout time, say I.

The Beatles might not satisfy all my minimum daily requirements, but I have a feeling I could listen to them for a very long time before I would starve.



I remember when Come Together was released, I heard it several times on the radio before I learned who was playing.

The Beatles? No way!

Ahoy, Shore! Happy new year to you!

You posted Chuck Berry as I was queuing up John Lennon et alii.

I'm in no hurry for snow. I just have a nagging feeling that in this part of the world it ought to get cold sometime during the winter. January is prime time for chill. I worry that if winter doesn't show up soon, we might miss our chance altogether.

There's a parka hanging in my closet that has some wear left in it. If the cold comes, I'll be ready.

Monday, Monday...

Today we have half a dozen bowl games on tap. Let's see, there's the Sticky Wicket Bowl, the Bank Bowl, the Out Back Bowl, the Gator Bowl, the Rose Bowl and the Corn Chip Bowl. Alas, the scheduling is such that several of the games overlap, which makes it impossible for an ardent fan to watch every minute of every game without recording some of them.

I'm not sure we have enough bowls yet. Currently all the football teams playing in post-season games must have tolerably successful records. As a reward they get to have even more fun, one more shot at glory. But what about all the poor fellows who had a rotten season, slogging through game after game with nothing to show for it but contusions, broken bones and concussions?

I propose that we should identify the two worst teams in the NCAA and invite them to play in the [Corporate Sponsor to be Determined] Toilet Bowl. The losers of this game would receive an all expenses paid vacation to Minot, North Dakota. Let it not be said that they played in vain!

It occurs to me that there might be a problem with my Toilet Bowl proposal.

I never said it was perfect. I was just putting it out there to see whether it drew any comments.

The thing is, awarding the losing team a paid vacation might endanger their status as amateur athletes. (One could argue that the losers of such a game have little enough to brag about as athletes, amateur or otherwise, but let's set that aside.) College football is supposed to be played for the glory of the alma mater. All the student athlete gets out of it is physical fitness (assuming he sustains no career-ending injuries) and a sense of achievement (if, in fact, he achieves anything beyond disappointment).

Winners get a chance to participate in the NFL draft. All financial rewards must be deferred until after the student graduates, drops out, signs with a pro football team, defaults on his student loan or whatever. Maybe we could present the losers of the Toilet Bowl with vouchers redeemable whenever the individual athletes are no longer concerned about their amateur standing. Would that satisfactorily skirt NCAA rules? I could google it, but heck, this is brainstorming, not research.

So there you have it. The winners of the Toilet Bowl go home happy. Finally they can chalk a hash mark in the W column. The losers get to spend, like, three days in sunny Minot. In winter. When they're, like, thirty years old. They can sit there in Happy Joe's Pizza and reflect on the capricious nature of destiny. Or something.

Hmmph. This whole discussion was motivated by a desire to succor the perennial losers, who are condemned to sit glumly at home watching all these bowl games with no hope of ever participating. Now look where we've ended up. I'm not sure this is helping. As much as the eternal optimist in me wants to deny it, there may be some problems for which there is no simple remedy.

shoreacres - That USBtypewriter may be clunky, but it would likely be an improvement over the touch screen keyboard on the iPad. We can hope that unmitigated authenticity offsets any perceived absence of sleek design.

Alas, I do sometimes wonder how much authenticity counts for in this modern world of ours. Do you have any idea how many commercials one must endure in the course of watching six bowl games? Neither do I, and I doubt that an accurate count would make either of us feel better. Advertising on this scale reminds me of carpet bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Let's nuke the general area just in case Charlie sticks his nose out.

Speaking of the modern world, as of 2011 there were right around three dozen bowls scheduled over a period of more than three weeks. They won't be done until next Monday.

sp34n119w - How could I forget Aerosmith?

The first time I heard this group, it was on the eight track player in my roommate's Javelin. Forty years of longevity goes a long way toward explaining how Aerosmith became America's best-selling rock and roll band.

They have never sold anything to me, and I absolutely cannot explain why. I reckon I've been missing out for all these years. Perhaps I should wander over to the Magic Mushroom and ponder the caprices of fate.

That Beatles song is another example where they ventured toward the heavy, bluesy side of things. One wonders how the world might have turned out differently, if they hadn't run out of tape right there.

Skyepony - Yep, snow on your mountain and a chill in the air down here in the flatlands. The high temperature forecast for today is 34°. It is currently 28°. The low tonight will drop to near 20°.

The cold won't last, though. Tomorrow the mercury tops out at a balmy 43°.

Ah, yes, the infamous Sticky Fingers album. Looks like there's a big hanky in the pocket of those jeans. Useful, no doubt, for wiping away residual stickiness.

ycd0108 - Glad you're enjoying our new year's celebration. Stop by any time.
Here's one of my favorite Stones numbers. I conjecture that it appeals to me because I'm a primate.

Seventeen degrees when I woke up. Hello, Jack Frost.

Paradoxically, today is perihelion.

sp. after reading your exegesis I spent the rest of the afternoon listening to Aerosmith on YouTube. I thought about why, given four decades of opportunity, I had never bought an Aerosmith recording.

First of all, back in the day, when I was young and impressionable and responding unwittingly to peer pressure etc., when I was buying most of the music that helped form my tastes and identity -- back then I had roommates, and the roommates had records, and among their records was Aerosmith. So I could listen to Aerosmith all I wanted without necessarily buying any.

I've been able to afford my own digs for many years now, so there must be another explanation. Here we have another band, like Rush, that has a characteristic sound. If you like that sound, then this band is for you. I guess that I have always found Aerosmith a bit disappointing in that regard. Take their hit song, Sweet Emotion, for example.



We're treated to one minute of utterly beguiling intro, then the song reverts to Aerosmith's standard fare. The introductory theme never comes back. It does not inform the rest of the song. It feels like something that was tacked on, not an integral part of the structure of the music. I can't help feeling that there's something missing, something more to explore. In fact, I feel that there ought to be an entire undiscovered country behind that intro, and a band with greater vision or artistic integrity might have found a way in.

Don't get me wrong, I like this song. There was a time when I played it loud and often.

But I never bought the record.

As for seeing the band live, the problem is one of location. I don't live in a major entertainment market area. I'm not quite as far off the map as joealaska, but I expect that seeing Aerosmith would entail a road trip. Right now the band is off in Rio or someplace. I'll watch for play dates in my vicinity.

Good morning, Skye. Temps are approaching forty here now. I have been outside, and it doesn't feel bad at all. The sun is shining. The sky is blue. The wind is calm. Nice day for a brisk walk.

Aerosmith's album Toys in the Attic, which featured the song Sweet Emotion, appeared in 1975. Cable network MTV opened for business in 1981. Therefore it's safe to say that the video is an afterthought. The music came first. Indeed the copyright notice on YouTube indicates that this video dates from 1991, or sixteen years after the song was published.

My remarks above are about the music, audio only. If I were reviewing the video, I might be kinder, especially if I thought the music and video were conceived in one piece. The music complements the story arc of the video very well. On the other hand, the content of the video bears no relation to the lyrics of the song. Not that it's easy to tell with this hard rock genre -- I had to google the lyrics.

I don't mean to suggest that it's a bad thing for a band to have a characteristic sound. If a group of musicians has fans, sticking closely to the band's core competence will minimize the chances of alienating those fans. I'm simply pointing out that this can be a kind of self-imposed limitation. Some groups, e. g. the Beatles and the Stones, routinely push their limits. If they do it well, they can gather fans from outside their native musical range.

I recently acquired a couple of CDs from James McMurtry, an artist I discovered over on Barefoot's blog. McMurtry's tunes are all the same. Except for occasional changes in pace and instrumentation they could almost be the same song. What I like about McMurtry's work is the words. For one thing, you can actually hear them over the music. McMurtry is a balladeer. He paints pictures with his words.



Popular song lyrics often take the form, "I really like waking up next to your warm cushiony butt each morning!" (I made that up. :) It's a noble sentiment and accessible to all, but it doesn't travel well. Once you climb out of bed, put on your clothes and venture into the light of day, this insight appears less momentous. McMurtry has something to say about the wider American landscape.

I guess part of what I'm saying here is that life is a journey. I've had a personal relationship with music for over half a century. In all that time my tastes have changed.

So be it.

sp, I remember when Abbey Road came out, my English teacher devoted an entire class period to listening to it in its entirety.

She was quite young, in her first or second year of teaching. We all loved her forever afterward.

I know I've posted this tune before. There's a reason for that. It never fails to satisfy. I had a hankering to hear it again tonight.



Here on this page I've talked about a number of groups that are not my favorites. I can't say that about Procol Harum. I may not like every single song, but there are definitely some, like this one, that I would not like to live without.

More and more I'm hearing talk of teleconnections and pattern change. The stratosphere over the pole is warming. La Niña may be ending. The Arctic Oscillation is going negative. The North Atlantic Oscillation is poised for a drop. The Madden-Julian Oscillation has been wavering over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific.

What does it all mean weather-wise? Well, here in the Southeast, not much at all so far. Jack Frost seems to be cranking the chill up a notch, but verily 't is the season. If not now, when?

The part about the AO means that a pool of cold air will settle over Hudson Bay. That will affect the northern tier from the Great Lakes into New England. The storm track will shift southward a bit. A frontier between arctic cold and southern warmth will set up across the mid-Atlantic states. There will be recurring chances for snow and wind along that line.

The Dry Slot is located just south of that zone. On average this area should be on the warmer side, especially while La Niña persists.

The NAO is the wild card. If that goes negative we can get an omega blocking pattern, which would allow cold air to penetrate far southward. Storms looping around the jet stream would have time to deepen and develop into nor'easters. That hasn't happened so far this winter.