Spring!! yeah, right...etc.

Well, here I sit on the first day of spring, looking out at drizzly cold rain and reading about “Winter Weather Advisory” up north of here.  Will it ever end?  And, incidentally with apologies to Danny Flowers and Don Williams, I am still “Livin’ on STANDARD time”.  I still don’t get rational and cogent until sometime after (DST) nine in the morning.  The only saving grace I can see is that cocktail hour arrives sooner…  sort of..

Social Misery

Anyway, I began this morning with a bout with Facebook.  Last night after we got home from the concert (read on) I checked it, and had a “friend request” from somebody I had already befriended.  Didn’t think too much about it, so “accepted”.  Well, a little further down were comments about “you were hacked” and DON’T accept the request.  So this morning I put out a post to that effect that if you get a “friend request” from me, ignore it.  Comments came back: “you need to change your password”.  Now, if there is one thing that scares the daylights out of the feeder is messing around with established passwords.  Visions of “Password not accepted, you have been erased” and similar awfulness came to mind.  Besides I have never changed my facebook password since setting up the account years ago.  I couldn’t even find where you could change it.  So a back channel messaging with my Facebook guru located the right spot, and, despite my fears, was able to remember (guess) the old password and change it.  So I think I am okay now and back on the Social Media highway.  If some of you are Facebookers, and we are friends, if you get a request from me, ignore it. Sigh…

Music

On a happier note, MFO and I joined some friends for (an early) dinner last night at Café Des Artistes, before going to a Celtic Society of SOMD Concert at St. Mary’s Ryken high school.   For any of you who are devotees of Shad Roe, it is now on the menu at CDA.  I have tried it, and am not a huge lover of it.  It was offered as sautéed with smoked apple bacon and a buerre blanc sauce.  I quipped that the bacon was to cover up the taste.  But, that’s not fair.  Anyway, I had a very nice pate starter and a piece of grilled mahi mahi on a bed of lightly sautéed vegetables.  Quite fine.   After the dinner, we journeyed up the hill to Ryken High School for a concert put on by the Celtic Society.  In all candor I have to admit that I was a bit unsure about that, fearing it was going to be one of those “Riverdance” affairs with troupes of people clomping around the stage to recorded phony music. 

I am overjoyed to report that I was dead wrong.  It was one of the more enjoyable experiences I’ve had in a long time (outside of good meals).  The show was put on by Carlos Núñez, a world class Galician (Northern Spain’s Celtic coast) performer of Celtic music.  He has toured internationally and was just finishing up an eleven stop American tour, having performed the previous evening at Swarthmore  (not a chump venue, as you know).  He was accompanied by a guitarist, a fiddle player (I don’t think you call it a violin), and his brother who played percussion.  Carlos was a bundle of energy, mostly playing the pennywhistle, with his upper body absorbed in that and the lower body was always dancing.  He also played the pipes in a couple of different forms which he talked about.. who knew?   They played “Celtic” music in several genres, like South American and Mexican, as well as classic Irish styles.  At one point he said that Maurice Ravel visited Galicia and that visit gave birth to the famous Bolero.   Their version played by the whistle, pipes, and fiddle was as haunting as I've ever heard the piece played.  Almost chilling. 

Another highlight was when the drummer used two (I think) scallop shells as rhythm instruments and did a little number with intricate phrases and emphasis.  Never seen that before.  then Justin Myles, a native of Mechanicsville, came out and tap danced.  I think he is the same Justin Myles that was in the Piranhas, and now has his own band, the JM Experience which has a large following here.  Reading the program revealed he toured with “Stomp” for a number of years.  Anyway, he did a great performance of tap dancing, in part with the percussionist, going back and forth, trading riffs.

Toward the end of the performance, the fiddle player led a line of dancers behind her, and another locally famous Carlos showed up, Mr. Yanez who had a wonderful time.  Another luminary in attendance was Reid Silverman our vastly underappreciated photographer who took a bunch of shots.  I hope they will be available someplace.

Usually when I yak about music here, it is about Brian Ganz.   Carlos is at that same level IMHO..  Great stuff.  who says there's "nothing to do in Southern Maryland"

Cheesy

Bringing things down to a much, much, lower plane, have you watched or heard any commercials lately for various Sandwich chains (Subway, Firehouse, etc.)?  Well, apparently they have decided that describing their cheese as “melted”, it now must be called “meltY cheese”..How stupid.  A typical foodie site has lots of posts like “I guess "melted" isn't good enough for fast food purveyors any more. Their cheese has to be "melty” I've lost track of how many chains are advertising items featuring "melty" cheese.  When fast food chains are dumbing things down, you know you're getting into heretofore unexplored levels of dumbness”; or another (expurgated) version: “first subway did it and now McDonalds is using it too. apparently the term "melted cheese" just isn't seductive enough for these fat ing mouthbreathing stoners. no. now it's "melty cheese".  MELTY CHEESE. lmao. can't wait to see what they come up with next.”   Anyway it appears that “melty” is nothing more than marketing.  Pay attention..

Okay enough for spring day one.  Yeah you bet.  You might want to (eventually) change your wardrobe, but still you must

DFD

Errata: to close the book on the Book Sale (close, book, get it?) i'll pass along that when all the books leave here, they mostly wind up in schools and libraries overseas, not strictly the military..