3/31 I don't think I have said anything about our Japanese and American Friends in Cullman Association. We meet here at the coffee house twice a month. In attendance are several members of the Japanese community here, mostly from Topre, a local Japanese industry and several members of the local community. The purpose of the association is to share aspects of our two culture with each other and the community in general. Our first two outings were cherry blossom viewings, a traditional Japanese custom, first at the Japanese Garden in the Birmingham Botanical Garden and then at Dr Adams place outside Cullman. The Birmingham viewing was hosted by the Japanese American Society of Alabama and the Topre wives sponsored the local viewing. I went to both. The Birmingham Japanese Garden is very beautiful, I go there as often as possible, and the Tea House was open, a rarity. It was a nice day, but the blossoms were not fully opened. At the local viewing the Japanese ladies provide traditional Japanese food, sushi, rice balls, and many other things-delicious. The cherry trees were in full bloom and the day was beautiful and warm. We had a great time. If I can figure out how, I will post some pictures. Anyone is welcome to attend our meetings, just let me know. Our goals are to provide venues so the Japanese can teach Cullmanites about their culture as they learn about ours, we also want to find a sister city in Japan and a long range goal is to have our own Japanese garden. We are all excited about this, although I did have one major disappointment: I found out that the Japanese screen in my Japanese Tea Room is really Chinese. I guess I'll have to change the name of my tea room to our Asian Tea Room.
3/31 My wife says I shouldn't sing or post the song that I wrote today, its too descriptive. It came out of my first medical procedure ever, a colonoscopy (not literally "came out", but you get the point). I call it "The Low Down Colonoscopy Blues". Might not make the charts, but probably everyone over 65 will want to buy it. Its got six verses and any anyone who has had this procedure done will identify with all six I'm sure. Any one who hasn't had it done will think it gross or outrageous, like my wife. But she has one scheduled later this month so she will also be singing the Low Down Colonoscopy Blues with me soon. Maybe we can perform it at open night. Maybe we'd better have a senior citizens special open mike. I won't record it here, but I think I'll give you the next to last verse.
The procedure went fine, I was out like a light
I didn't remember a thing, but that was all right
The doc took pictures and boy was he proud
It was the inside of my colon for crying out loud
I still got the low down colonoscopy blues
3/30/08 Andy Smith put on a great show. We had a decent crowd and they all enjoyed his music. I bill Andy as an authentic 60's revival folk singer and he is, but he is so much more than that. He has a really nice voice, smooth, almost tenor, very mellow and he puts feeling into his songs. That's what I try to tell the young singers, they need to be passionate in their presentation. Good guitar work and a good voice isn't enough. Andy has it. His voice is soothing, but not dull or tiring and I love his finger picking style. It is reminiscent of all the old classic 60's musicians from Joan Biaz to PPM and Bob Dillon. I guess it is a variant the Carter Family's picking style. Andy plays this style as well as anyone I have ever heard. I also like Andy's choice of music, kind of the more offbeat popular 60's stuff and some obscure folk songs. And he writes some really neat songs as well. My favorite was an old song he titled Maid in the Garden which I have heard in slightly different versions and under different names. But the story is the same: a girl is walking along or is at home or is in her garden and a stranger, usually covered in a cloak, approaches and usually asks for food or water. He asks about her status and she always answers that her lover has been gone to sea a number of years (up to 7 or more) and she is faithfully waiting for him. The stranger casually answers that he may be dead, or has found another or something and she replies that if that is so she will have no other love in her life. Then the stranger reveals that he is her lover under disguise, making sure he was still welcome I guess and they have a happy reunion. Many times these are in minor cords and are classics. It was a great show and I hope to have him back.
3/29/08 Our second karaoke night, Friday, was successful. I don't think we had quite as many people as the first night, but it was as much fun. Looks like we will have some karaoke regulars. Roy Moon, the host added some new songs to his repertoire, some James Taylor and he will be adding more as time goes on. I've had two people make the comment, that they didn't think you could have fun at karaoke without alcohol, but they found out different. Alcohol may loosen you up so can more easily make a fool out of yourself, but this is such a relaxed and friendly group you can do it here without it. This will be a monthly event as long as people show up.
3/24/08 A couple of items I would like some feedback on. We experimented with keeping the coffee house open later at night (to 9:30 pm instead of six). We started this in November and after about four months it is not working, we don't have enough business to keep it going. We have already gone back to 7 pm on Monday-Wednesday (except of course for open mikes) and Our plan now is to go to 7pm on Thursdays also and only keep the later hours on Friday and Saturday, or maybe even just for music nights. In addition, I have a lot of local musicians who want to play concerts here and I don't have enough dates available with only doing 2-3 Saturday night concerts per month. I can't move on the 2-3 Saturday nights a month, I'm not ready to get divorced, but I think we can schedule some on Friday nights to see how it works out. Josh Brooks is our night manager and I think he is good with this. So look for some Friday night concerts with new local talent, I'll keep Saturdays open for the more experienced musicians, the kind that perform here now. If enough people support this it will work, but I wonder if there is enough interest to have music two nights on some weekends. We will try it and see. Check our schedule of Events.
3/24/08 I love Spring, it may well be my favorite time of year, but I like Fall also. In the Fall the forests reign with their glorious fall color and being a forester by profession, I just really love a good fall color year. Here in north Alabama every few years everything comes together for a glorious fall. We have a lot of hardwood species here, growing together in our forests each with their own distinctive fall hue, but many falls the colors are washed out and don't develop. But when they do.... Spring on the other hand always develops, you can count on Spring. Tree always bud out and many have flowers that come before the leaves. Right now the redbuds are in their glory, although in this part of the south they tend to be lavender instead of red. Alabama also has a wealth of wildflowers, really marvelous ones, gems, but you have to be on the lookout for they come and go fast. From trout lilies to shooting stars and Dutchman's britches to Indian pipe, many really exotic and beautiful species and they come every Spring, you just have to know where to look for them. And of course there are all the ones that we see everywhere, Sweet William, philox, wild azaleas, rhododendrons, fire pinks and many more. Kind of the "in your face" flowers that you can't ignore. And Spring is so uplifting: it brings new life, renewal, it promises hope for a better year. But, alas, Spring in the South can be so fleeting, gone almost before it comes it sometimes seems, it didn't used to be like that. Is it a climate change thing I wonder? Many years, last year was one, if you blinked Spring was gone and Summer here to stay. I've found that the key to enjoy Spring is to notice it. Especially notice the flowers. Slow down, it will be gone too soon. When I worked in the woods it was easy, they were all in place, blooming at their appointed times, easy for me, an experienced woodsman, to see and enjoy. But now in retirement I fall victim to letting Spring pass almost unnoticed. If it weren't for daffodils, redbuds and the rest of the "in your face" spring blooms many of us wouldn't pause long enough to let Spring sink in and only when we noticed that summer was here would we then wonder where did Spring go. So pause NOW and over the next few weeks and notice what is happening in Nature. Notice not only the obvious, but look for the harder to find gems, the woods will be full of them soon. I'll start carrying my camera with me now hoping to take a better picture, the perfect picture, of one of our beautiful wildflower gems than I did last year. Here is a poem I wrote about Spring a long time ago:
Ah Spring!
Life seems new the future bright, as glorious days unfold
Sun's rays give way to satin nights, and gone is winter's cold
A bud breaks forth, a leaf is born, an age old pattern seen
The twig which winter left forlorn, is clothed anew in green
New flowers grow near mountain streams, in alpine meadows too
Providing lazy springtime dreams, with grand breathtaking views
But break away, there's work to do, there's fields to plant and sow
Ah Spring, a time when life seems new, a time to dream and hoe
3/18/08 Another really great open mike. We only had a few people when we started but the place was pretty full by 7:30. We had a young banjo player, Sam Wigham, an Auburn student from Atlanta who is visiting here, who stole the show. He was a really good picker, kind of a modified blue grass with some double thumbing thrown in. He did "Bill Cheatum", "Old Joe Clark" and "Salt Creek", really neat old fiddle tunes and sang a couple others. Carlo started us off and the crowd responded well, so I knew it would be a good night. Then came Dennis Kahler followed by Sam Wigham, then Joe and Justin. Jamie and Rebecca (she hasn't been here for a while) sang some great harmony. This was Rebecca's first time to play the guitar in public. Then came Josh Brooks, Justin, Cody Ginger with his red Gibson Hummingbird, and Joe Carter closed us out. We actually got two rounds in. It was a good night.
3/17/08 I missed Dennis Kahler and WP Smith's concert Saturday night. Gerri and I had to make a trip to Pensacola for the christening of my granddaughter Sadie Katrina Grace Struk, my daughter Kristy's adopted girl from Kazikstan. Julie said that we had a good house and everything went well. Our trip was great, weather excellent, but it was a quick down on Saturday morning and back again Sunday afternoon. It was our first trip in our new Ford Escape which we just traded for. We got rid of the 2002 Windstar van which had about 140,000 miles, the 2003 Escape has 30,000. I usually try to buy a car with 15-30,000 miles and run it to 175,00 or so and trade. That plan has worked well for us for 25-30 years so why change? I also always buy Fords, just because I have always had good luck with them. My last six vehicles before the Windstar were Aerostar vans; I love Aerostar vans, but Ford stopped making them. We really didn't like the Windstar which is why we traded early. So far so good with the Escape. While in Pensacola we attended a soccer game that my grandson Tanner was in, a basketball game my grandson Ryan was in, and hung out with Kristy and Mark and the kids Saturday evening. The christening was Sunday at a Methodist church, it was a nice service. One of Kristie's old friends Andrea Hart had her baby christened at the same time. Another of Kristy's friends, I knew here as Andrea Borden, held a reception at their condo on Pensacola Beach at a place called Portafino. Their place was on the 20th floor overlooking the ocean, nice digs! It is the last condo on the east side of Santa Rosa Island before you get to the National Seashore Preserve. What is interesting about that, is that the condo complex (it has five towers) is built on the exact spot that we used to hunt ducks on when I was stationed at Pensacola Naval Air Station as a Marine student pilot, in 1965-66. We lived on the Beach that winter after the rates came down (four of us rented a house, yes it doubled as a party house) and built our duck blind on the Sound side of the island, right next to the National Seashore which was a mile or more away from any any development back then. Over the course of that winter, my roomates and I (Skip Gunniss, Mike Barksdale, Andy Curtin) and maybe a few others shot mallard, redhead, canvass back and pintail ducks as well as blue and green winged teal. For not being on a major Flyway the duck hunting was good back then. It was all illegal of course. We didn't get to stay long before we had to head home. I have alway thought that I could live on or near the beach, as long as I could fish, crab and hunt in the marshes and adjoining forests. I don't care about sitting in the sand and getting sunburned and I don't care about swimming. When I was growing up in California we used to body surf, but the waves aren't good enough here for that. The trip back was uneventful.
3/5/08 We had a really great open mike on Monday, if fact we have had a series of really great open mikes. This was Robyn's first visit and she started us off. She is from Arab and plays and sings some really good bluegrass. She did a couple of Rhonda Vincent songs. She has a wonderful voice and obviously has studied bluegrass, she was right on. John Lott was next, singing some new stuff he had just written with Dennis, as always he puts on a great show. Andy Smith sang some originals which he performed in his great folk revival style. He will be putting on a concert here on March 29th and I am looking forward to it. Dennis Kahler was next, he is a crowd pleaser. Seth did a version of Knocking on Heaven's Door. Marci Green, a folk singer also in the 60's folk revival tradition picked old Stella (my old mailorder Stella guitar that I keep around for people to play)and sang Amazing grace and Freight Train. Jesse, whom we haven't seen for a while as he has been off to school, I love spring break when they all come back, read three of his poems. Meleah who has just moved back from Athens sang several of her a-capella songs followed by Carlos with an Irish cat drinking song and some Frank Zappa stuff. Sharon sang the classic "Five pounds of 'possem in my Headlights Tonight" which brought down the house and then told several bad jokes. Mark McGraw, who hasn't been here in a while sang followed by garland Talbert who performed his legendary version of "Casy at the Bat". I need to record that, Jimmy where were you? Abby smith sang and played her guitar and Josh closed us out with several originals and "Hallelujah" from Shreck, Gerri's favorite of those he does.
3/3/08 Mike Patton bills himself and his band Wait Thankful as a Christian band. But he would not fit the stereotypical Christian band image that most people around here would envision. By appearance, most local mainstream Christians in Cullman and Cullman county would most likely have prejudged him as not being qualified to be called a Christian band because of his tattoos and piercings before he ever got to sing his first song. And anyway aren't Christian bands supposed to preach, witness and testify from the stage and flaunt their Christian superiority to the audience? Mike didn't do that, he didn't say too much he just sang his beautiful songs. I am a Christian and this is not an anti Christian diatribe. I just hate stereotypes and judgmental attitudes. I believe Christians come in many different forms, and those who are not exactly like we are cannot be dismissed as less.
Wait Thankful consists of three members, only two could come Saturday night, Mike and Nick Smith. Mike is a songwriter and, of course sings a lot of his own stuff, but he also does covers. He is a strong guitar player, has a nice voice and could carry the show alone. But Nick, a rock guitarist first class, really added a lot of class to the show. His background licks and vocals plus his instrumentals were fantastic. He can bend the strings with anybody. I was surprised that we had that kind of talent here, i hadn't heard of him. Together they had a real solid, mellow sound with some good rock signatures. So I think I would characterize the music as light rock. It was a good show, fairly well attended and those who came really enjoyed it, even those who came looking for something else had their horizons expanded.
3/1/08 Well I was wrong. That in itself is not so strange, I've been wrong before, but usually not about stuff like this. I resisted having a karaoke night here for years, I just didn't think it would work and it didn't fit my vision of what I wanted the coffee house to be (and truthfully it still doesn't). But Roy Moon pestered me enough that I said ok reluctantly. I figured one time and that would prove that I wouldn't have to mess with it again. We had our first one last night and it was a resounding success. Everyone seemed to have a great time, a lot of laughter, fun stuff. Afterwards some of the customers thanked me very emotionally for having it and wanted us to keep having it, they had a ball. We had a packed house all night long, mostly people I had never seen here before. They bought food and coffee drinks and tipped the barristas, so from a business standpoint it worked ok. Roy MC'd for tips and I don't know how he came out, but he wants to do it again. Roy dressed up like Elvis and put on a little opening Elvis improv to start things off (he needs to keep his day job, but it was fun). People sang and more people sang, some were good some not. I called it the good the bad and the ugly, but it was fun. They even got me up there to do a rousing rendition of Folsom Prison Blues (at least that was my take on it). I had a good time. The music that Roy played, he had a list of 1200 songs I think, was heavily oriented to country, which doesn't really fit my normal customer base (although that's what I listen to on the radio usually, but folk is my love). Since he brought most of the crowd and that is what they like, I won't say too much, but I think I'll ask him to broaden out his music. For example there were no James Taylor songs, Josh would have sang if they had one. Bottom line it was a good family fun night (we had kids perform) and we will do it again soon.