My First Blog

 

April 17

Hmmm, think I'll start a blog today.  Three issues I'm going to address, I think: one, being a baseball bum, two, my new novel, Zelda Rising, and three, the music I listened to that day.

Okay, first off, just watched the doubleheader between the White Sox and my adopted team, the Kansas City Royals: I visited their stadium when I went to see a Babymetal concert in KC a few years ago and was impressed by its beauty, a wall of waterfalls and fountains in the outfield, spectacular.  KC won the first game while the Sox were leading the second game when I left it.  And the Cubs won today, finishing off an unusually successful West Coast trip, even though they didn't face the Dodgers, who usually send them reeling into the cellar after their games. 

It may be a while before I go to a game, though.  I am heading out to Colorado late next week to hang out and stare at mountains.   They actually have spring there: my nephew tells me the flowers are abloom and the weather is mild.  Too bad the local minor league team Trinidad Triggers don't start up until late May though, when I'll be in delightful Milwaukee to see first the Cubs then the White Sox the next day.

I continue to market my novel, especially using some bookmarks I had Outskirts Press make up for me.  I left some in free library posts around the Edgewater/Rogers Park area yesterday.  During my urban hike, I stopped over at Cunneen's tavern in Rogers Park for some draft RC Cola, which I mention in the novel as being a rare delicacy:you only rarely see RC Cola served like that.  The bartender said it wouldn't technically be a "draft" or "on tap" as that is reserved for beer, go figure.  We eventually compromised with "out of the gun".  Anyway, when I showed her the cover, she told me that her dog is named Zelda.  Synchronicity all over the place with this book.  I do wonder where it is all leading to.  I think one of the models for a character in the novel is royally angry with me, but, you know, she has problems anyway, so there's that.  

As for music, today while watching Cubs/Sox with the sound muted, I listened to a CD of Zappa's Weasels Ripped My Flesh, with my favorite album cover of all time, and that's saying a lot: a smiling cartoon guy using the claws of a weasel for a shave.  The album was an all-time favorite in my teenage years, which was unusual because our main fare was usually Black Sabbath or Grand Funk Railroad back in the day, well, Weasels is full of Edgar Varese experiments, weird R&B, and free jazz.  Better than what Zappa later put out.  Then it was on to the two CD Deluxe Edition of the Velvet Underground & Nico: one in stereo, the other in mono.  I prefer the stereo, because it includes selections from Nico's first solo album Chelsea Girl, where she's backed by the Velvets while singing songs that Lou Reed wrote for her.  I remember my old chum Father Satan telling me that Andy Warhol was on tambourine for Venus in Furs ... I like to think so, but doubt it. 

So there it is: baseball, novel and music.  I wish I could get rid of this gnat infestation in here, but from what I'm hearing, I'm not the only one with that problem of late.