Wild Night

I spent my morning and mid day living vicariously, starting at 0600 with the Armstrong and Getty Show. The Chuckleheads (as I refer to them) were in fine fettle. There's no better way to start my day than chortling before I even get out of bed!

Out of bed...Pot of French Roast...watched the meat of the New iPad Debut...garbage and recycling up to the curb...cleared two inches of snow from the car's windows, hood, and trunk...what's this? Giants vs Rockies streamed for Free at 12:05? Duh...

Getting the MLB.com stream hooked up was a little cranky today, and I missed most of Tim Lincecum's two innings of work...a good thing it turns out, he got shelled by the Rockies' batters. Eight of the thirteen batters he faced made it on base...ouch!

Lincecum, catcher Chris Stewart, and coach Dave Righetti talking it over

Man I love hearing the crack of the bat again! Mysteriously, the stream died in the seventh inning, and it never came back...sigh...I caught the final score Giants-8 Rockies-6 a little later on Twitter.

Out into the cold afternoon sunshine, I warmed up the car, put the garbage can back in the garage, and warmed up the snowblower. The Sun had done it's work on the now almost snow-free car, which I moved to the opposite side of the driveway and blew the last of the snow from my side.

I stowed the snowblower, and off I went.

Sunday and Monday, I failed to find one ingredient, Crème de Cacao, for a homemade ice cream recipe I want to make, in either grocery store, or drug store here in Truckee. I drove Downtown...what's this? The Tourist Club Liquor Store is no more? It's some kind of tony arts n' crafts shop now?

I didn't want to go to Reno with a perfectly good, full gas tank, so I turned right, crossed the tracks and the Truckee River...Next stop Lake Tahoe.

I found the Crème de Cacao in the King's Beach liquor store, and rolled back to town. It was a beautiful afternoon, though it was quite cold compared to Monday's tropical temps. With the bright Sun out, I turned on the A/C, zoned out on the radio, and enjoyed the drive home. It's supposed to warm up Thursday.

After dinner, I scanned for something on TV...nothing but reruns and pledge drive fare. *Ding* I fired up the stereo. I thought about a movie...for all of two seconds...and scrolled through the DVD/CD Jukebox until I found Ronnie Montrose's "Open Fire". I cued it up and turned up the volume. What happened next surprised me to no end! At the vamp between the first two tracks, tears rolled down both of my cheeks. It's been a couple of years since I listened to the whole album.

There's not a single "throw-away" track on the disc. "Open Fire" was one of many late-70s guitar instrumental efforts that were the vanguard of Fusion. Jeff Beck, Miles Davis with guitarist John McLaughlin, Lee Ritenour, Joe Satriani and many others were blazing new trails away from the pure forms of rock, pop, and jazz.

The first track "Openers" is an homage to John Williams' "STAR WARS" themes. This made me curious about the timelines, so I went to the Internet Movie Database and AllMusic.com It was one of those chicken and egg deals...who inspired who?

Though subtle for a guitarslinger's album, "Openers" was recorded after "STAR WARS" lit up the big screen.

AllMusic is a fabulous resource...it reminded me that Ronnie Montrose did all the session work for Van Morrison's amazing 1971 "Tupelo Honey"...the disc was just four slots away from "Open Fire", and I played it next.

"Tupelo Honey" is Morrison's tour de force of love found and going Back to the Land. Again not a single "throw-away" track on the disc.

AllMusic said:
"Tupelo Honey is typical of Van Morrison's early-'70s work in both sound and structure; after dispensing with the requisite hit -- here, the buoyant, R&B-inflected "Wild Night" -- he truly gets down to business, settling into a luminously pastoral drift typified by the nostalgic "Old Old Woodstock." At the heart of the record are a pair of stunning love songs, "You're My Woman" and the hymn-like title cut, one of Morrison's most enduring and transcendent compositions."

These love songs were written by Morrison for his new bride, jazz singer Janet Planet. (see what I did there?) She sings backup and is pictured on the Album Cover.

Like the first single from "Tupelo Honey", I'm hoping for a Wild Night! Our very quiet Sun stirred when huge sunspot active region,  AR1429 erupted in an X5 Class Solar Flare sending a Coronal Mass Ejection towards Earth at 1300 miles per second. We've got a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights with our Full Moon for the next night or two.

Bookmark those links, they're gonna be handy for our new Solar Cycle 24!