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The Eddy Spectacular

The aptly named Eddy Spectacular was a week ago tonight. Thanks again to Rob and Robyn for organizing. There are more pictures here. If you have other pictures for the collection, send them to Mike.

Ry Cooder Takes on Republicans

You should take a listen to Ry Cooder's Election Special album. It's an overtly progressive collection of Cooder original songs about the election featuring Cooder's down-home mandolin and slide guitar. Some of it is very funny. In "Mutt Romney Blues" we hear the complaint of Romney's roof-riding dog. The singer of "Cold, Cold Feeling" is President Obama, who complains, "Jim Crow is coming round once more/They're gonna resegregate the White House/And I'll have to go in the kitchen door." A Republican convention delegate sings "I gave all my money/Sarah Palin calls me honey/And shakes the peaches off my tree." Great fun, and you can hear it for free on Spotify.

Some Love for John Hartford

You can hear Sara Watkins, formerly of Nickle Creek, cover a John Hartford tune on NPR's World Cafe here. Move the time slider over to 20:28 to hear her introduce the song. You'll be surprised at which one it is!

Reason No. 1,423 to Vote for Obama: He'll Buy a Round of Beers

So Obama shows up at the Iowa State Fair and someone offers him a smoothie and he says, "I'd rather have a beer" and beelines to the beer tent. (Apparently they actually sell beer at the Iowas State Fair!?!!) He pulls out his wallet and declares he has enough cash to buy ten beers. The chant arises: "Four more beers, four more beers." May it be heard throughout the land. Don't believe me? Here's the video.
Raw Video: Obama Surprises Iowa Fairgoers by associatedpress

Not Dark

Despite lyrics to the contrary, Ernest Tubbs record shop is not dark as I found out on our recent trip to Nashville.  The drunks were gone from the Merchants hotel which is now a restaurant.  I did see Jamie kind of hanging around there though.

New Steve Essay on New Home vs Old Home

You can hear Steve's most recent radio essay about appreciating your old house when you've moved to your new one here.

Burning Tree

Is that a firetruck emerging from the back of Mike and Bonnie's barn? Yes, it is. And here's the story of how it got there.

We had a rip-roaring thunderstorm about 5 a.m. yesterday morning, with some fierce thunder and lightning; I recall on very loud explosion that seemed quite close, which takes on significance later.

Later Sunday morning Bonnie kept saying she smelled something burning, and finally on the screened porch I caught a scent of it too and suggested we go walk around the rental house. The renters were gone for the weekend, and I was concerned something might have happened at the house. I went ahead and walked around the rental's yard and didn't see anything. As I was passing the barn on the way back, however, I saw smoke drifting across the valley from behind the smaller of our barns. I cut through the barn lot and saw the big sycamore behind it was pouring off smoke at its base. Several feet up the trunk was hot to the touch. Bonnie called the local volunteer fire department and we had a guy here within five minutes and a fire truck within ten.

They hooked up the hose and shot water into the base. Then they figured out that they needed to open the tree up to they could spay up and down. They used enough water that they had to summon a tank truck with a large water supply. More holes were cut, more water was sprayed, firemen and pickup trucks accumulated (nine firemen eventually and about as many pickups). After about an hour of these proceedings it was felt the tree was adequately cooled and the firemen returned to their Sunday morning pursuits. We were very appreciative of them and felt good that we could muster about half the township's male population on short notice.

The popular assumption was that the tree would die from the lightning and the burning. We'll see; we have another sycamore that has survived a strike but had no burning. You could see a vein of blasted bark where the bolt traveled down the tree to where it ignited the dry rot at the hollowed out base.

And that was our excitement for the weekend.