the [young folks] talking about the [old style]

is it just me, or does the, "above 65 crowd", know how to party?

i don't know, but every where i go, i see this "crowd" living it up. walking down the sidewalks, gallery crawls, free concerts in old town, music theater, estate sales, and working out at the downtown Y, actually that's one of the reasons i frequent the downtown Y. i find that even with the shape i'm in, i manage to be in the top 50%, fitness wise. actually i just squeak into the top half, because i know there are a lot of old men that could wipe the floor with me at racquetball.

now it could be very possible that i'm just incredibly old-fashioned and i enjoy the same activities as these hipsters, but i'd like to think that it's something else. a love of activity. doing some math, i figure this generation was just prior to the "baby boomers." a generation not raised on televisions and transistor radios. they were a little too old to get into all the individualists ideas, experimentation, and social change of the sixties and seventies. this generation new how to seek and find entertainment through social interaction and other events, for themselves, instead of having it fed to them, in the many modes of media that developed after WWII.

i remember my grandpa telling me about how the towns in western kansas would organize and put on dances during the summer months. events that would draw people from different areas and create interaction. at one such dance he saw a young women that he wanted to dance with, they fell in love, and as they say the rest is history.

i know that i'm being extremely hypocritical here, for the fact that i'm sitting here blogging about this, but the social interaction that takes place on-line today, is sickening. now there are advantages about being so cyberly connected to everyone, but, i'd like to think that some of the best activities out there making our cities lively are because of the values and traditions of an older generations, that i hope we don't loose as the years progress.....

or maybe i should just stop wearing brute.

a second [city] to think...

i never needed a break from work, more then i did last week, thankfully, i had already planned a few days off. i used the placement of the fourth of july, on a wednesday, as an excuse to take an extended holiday weekend and travel to chicago.

there were a number of events during the trip, that could be lengthened and elaborated on, to the point of becoming mildly interesting "blog-worthy" anecdote's, however, in keeping with the idea of a"break-from-work" i'll keep this post short, and just mention a few of the events, i'm thankful for, that made this vacation...a vacation.

-the generosity and hospitality of old friends
-millennium park
-fireworks on montrose beach
-meeting new and incredibly fascinating people
-thrift store shopping in wicker park
-coffee in wicker park
-wicker park
-meeting mikael jorgensen, the keyboardist from wilco, on the train, and telling him how much i love the new album (well.....hopefully it was him)
-the food and conversation at bistro campagne
-traversing an entire city without car
-shedd aquarium
-driving through the flint hills at midnight, with oldies playing through my truck speakers
-coming home, and highlighting the new roads taken, in my atlas.

if [you] could read my mind........

"...what a tale my thoughts could tell..."

last wednesday, my dad cashed in on his father's day present.

tickets to see gordon lightfoot.

now that name might not be recognizable to most people, but as everyone in my family knows, this is my father's favorite artist, and has been since the early seventies. basically, gordon lightfoot was a song writer in the sixties, that helped popularize folk music, who then went on to his own solo career. to make a very quick analogy, and put things in perspective, colin meloy is to eric, as gordon lightfoot is to lloyd. the only mark against my dad's "number one fan" status, is the fact that he's never seen his favorite artist in concert, so upon hearing that mr. lightfoot was coming to wichita, i think it was absolutely beautiful, on my mom's part, to get him tickets.

now, love may not be a strong enough word for how my dad feels about gordon lightfoot. not only does he have most of his albums on vinyl, but he can also play a number of his songs on the guitar. as a kid i can remember, late at night, after i was suppose to be in bed, i could hear dad in the garage playing, "if you could read my mind" which is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. now i'm not sure if it's this childhood memory that influences that opinion, all i know is that i loved when my dad played it,in my opinion, better then the original, and as i kid, i wanted to play guitar just like him. that's why i was so honored when i got to go to the concert with my dad. gordon was the main reason my dad started playing guitar, and my dad was the reason i started playing. last wednesday, with our tickets in hand, we went to see this pioneer of folk music. sitting up in the balcony, listening to his set, i had never seen my dad so excited about music before. it was like sitting next to one of my friends. he knew all the songs, was the first to clap when the song ended, give a few loud whistles, and of course led the standing ovation in the balcony area.

for just a moment, in the vintage atmosphere provided by the downtown orpheum, it felt like we had stepped back in time to 1975, and we were both in our twenties, enjoying the same show.

i'm not sure who got the better gift that night, my dad seeing gordon lightfoot for the first time, or me, seeing my dad, see gordon lightfoot for the first time.......