Starting to feel the Christmas spirit, which is nice. When my daughters were younger and I used to go see one or both of them in the Boston Ballet's Nutcracker each year, that used to be the point where I would begin to get into the Christmas thing. Call me a sap, but I couldn't walk out of that experience without feeling a little Christmassy. It is a little more subtle now, but Kippy got into town yesterday and she and Danny and I had a nice pre-Christmas lunch today. Helping Danny carry his Mom's present up the stairs to hide it in his bedroom closet Friday afternoon may have gotten me started. He really worked hard to build her something -- can't say what! -- in his woodworking class.
I used to love going caroling in Sandwich with my church youth group when I was a kid, and going to church on Christmas Eve, mainly because I liked the singing. Right-click on this lovely Christmas picture of my friend Rena lighting her Christmas candles to hear my favorite Christmas carol.
I had a great workout this afternoon. Did lots of weights, mostly torso rotations and crunches and butterfly, and kicked some serious butt on the elliptical and the treadmill. I will sleep well tonight.
Lots of work left in the last 8 days of 2007. I've pretty much cleared the decks of copywriting assignments for now, but I have two chapter/articles to write about the Kindle, and I also need to post about $600 a day worth of books onto my "Windwalker Books" Amazon marketplace business to keep up my end of the bargain for December listings with my book scout. Should be no problem on either count, and the good news is that I am looking forward to all of it, including the writing.
Have a wonderful Christmas, if Christmas is your holiday! And together we will make 2008 the best year ever. I mean it.
Pheromones - December 23, 2007
Last year when the cold weather came I joined the rather posh health club at the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square, where I have had a membership off and on for about a dozen years. I was pampering myself some after some recent transitions, and I don't regret it.It's very nice there, but a little rich for my blood these days. Over the years while I worked out there I occasionally found myself in next-treadmill conversations with Robert B. Parker, George Stephanopoulos, and other lesser celebrities.
I ratcheted down to Mike's Gym near Fresh Pond this year, for less than half the dough. I haven't seen any bestselling authors there (except for when I look in the mirror!), but I've had a couple of great conversations with Richard Brown. Richard knows his baseball and his basketball. He's one of the few guys I know whose recall of arcane baseball details from 40 years ago can match my own. He has run 31 marathons and like me (after only 5 in my case), he is babying those ankles and knees now by doing his sweating on the low-impact elliptical rather than the roads or even, for the most part, the treadmill.
What else? He's a dentist, and I think he said that he comes from Brooklyn, which my daughter Kippy and my old friend Amy Wilkins both can tell you is God's country.
But the big news here is that Richard plays a mean mandolin with the ReUnion Bluegrass Band, and I defy you to listen to the tracks you can sample at the band's website without starting to tap your toes and maybe even pop your fingers. Try listening to "Shady Grove" or Richard's own composition, "Silky Rock," and tell me I am wrong. It's not going to happen. The samples are just that, but the good news is that you can get the Reunion Bluegrass Band CD directly from Richard for a good price. Just send a check for $7-plus $2 shipping and handling to:
39 Garfield Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
They'll be playing at First Night in Chatham on New Year's Eve, from 10 to 11 pm at St. Christopher's Church on Main Street. I doubt I will make it to Chatham on New Year's Even, but I might try to catch them at Johnny D's in Somerville on January 22.
You listen to their music and tell me you wouldn't try to catch a gig if they had one in your neighborhood. Their music is addictive, and it says here that that is a good thing.
"Pheromones" is a regular feature of this Blog, in which I share and share alike from among the reader creations and suggestions that flow back toward me. Feel free to send yours in to me either as comments on the blog or by sending me an email at hppress@gmail.com .
She might deny this, but early in our marriage and a-courtin' days my first wife asked me more than once how I turned out to be such a pro-feminist guy (or words to that effect) in spite of everything. I would hem and haw, more because I wasn't convinced it was true than because I was confused about the seminal influences. (Among the many things I knew about myself was the fact that I had character flaws (er, like, being a mildly controlling horndog myself, whose eyes would immediately be drawn to the video image below) that rendered me more the product of less noble forces in my upbringing than the progressive self-invention of my own intellect).
But had I hazarded an opinion about what influenced me to at least try -- which I did, and still do -- to be progressive and open-minded about the issues of power and fairness between men and women (even long before my two daughters came along), I probably would have said that it all started with this Lesley Gore song. I listened to these lyrics countless times as a young adolescent, and it was hard not to at least begin to get it. If anyone knows who wrote it, please shoot me an email at hppress@gmail.com.
Thanks to Ned, who writes:
The writers of "You Don't Own Me" are John Maldara and David White, out of Philly.
http://www.thatphillysound.com/john.html
Now, back to work.
Ned
Christmas Soundtrack
Miles Davis & John Coltrane - "So What"
Make you believe in the baby Jesus when you hear these guys play.
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