Thanks again for the well wishes, all... I'm hanging in there, if slightly loopy from the meds, so bear with me!
Dusty, I hope you get your place back for Christmas.
Thanks for the santa hat, mcol, I'll switch my icon later tonight!
Mark and Glen always make me happy - somewhere, I have the very first performance I ever saw them do together live (Red Chord, which is Glen's, and It Beats Me, which is Mark's), which remains one of my favorites of all time. I tease Glen that he's a Big Rock Star now and far too famous to talk to me - purely because he finds the idea of being too busy to talk to anyone *horrifying* and I like to mess with him... but I won't mess with Mark, cause Mark is just the nicest guy I've ever met, so I always feel a little guilty if I harass him too much. He won't let me pay for gigs or merch and he's driving around the country (and in Ireland) in various rattletrap vans that are two feet from falling apart, and he does that for most of the year... and he does it for the love of music. But since he does have a wife and kids whom he loves very much, as well as elderly parents in Ireland, I always wish he could at least afford to *fly* to his shows more often so he could see more of them. I have been known to shove money in his back pocket mid-hug (he's a "hug when he sees you, hug when he leaves you" kind of guy, as is Glen) and then book it in the other direction shouting "Byyyye!" Eddie Izzard style so he can't catch me. For God's sake man, let me pay you for your music!
Here's one of Mark's more recent songs, this one got a little radio play iirc.
For anyone who doesn't know, "the black dog" is a fairly famous metaphor for depression, ascribed variously to Winston Churchill or any number of Irish writers - Churchill was the most well-known user of the expression, but whether he swiped it from the Irish writers of the time or they from him, no one is quite sure - the documented uses all pop up around the same time. I haven't specifically asked Mark whether his intention is to use that metaphor in this song, but I don't think I need to - firstly cause I know him fairly well, and secondly cause I've never been in a roomful of Irishman where referring to "the black dog" did not result in instant understanding from all parties. So I'm fairly sure this is typical Mark - a seriously upbeat song about hanging on by one's fingernails! I particularly like the image the lyrics evoke of one's own personal black dog sunning itself. Seems a nice humane thing for it to keep busy doing so that it's not snapping at one's heels!
Hey Dusty........this one for you
What kind of motorbike does Santa ride?
A Holly Davidson!
Yes he does, my dad took me to see him do so when I was about 5. Oh, you said a *Holly* Davidson... well, it had holly designs all over the gas
tank, does that count?
Anyway, Santa wouldn't be able to fit on one of those little hairdryers, it's a Harley or nothin'.
Oh, almost forgot - I have vapemail! If these bottles were steaks, they'd still be mooing, they're that fresh... gonna need some loooong steeps! I planned for that, though, so I'm not worried. I did pick up some Key Lime, two shots, so I could report back on the key-lime-shots question for the
thread... smells good, but even that one is gonna need some serious steep time before it's remotely fair to test it. I figure these are all gonna need at least two weeks, and quite possibly a month.
