The amazement begins when you open up the CD jewel case. There is a reproduction of the playbill for a concert:

Friday Evening November 29

8:30PM and Midnight

At Carnegie Hall for the Morningside Community Center

Thanksgiving Jazz

Miss Billie Holliday

Dizzy Gillespie with orchestra with Austin Cromer

Special Attraction: Ray Charles

Chet Baker with Zoot Sims Quartet

Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane

Introducing in Concert the brilliant Sonny Rollins

The tickets were only $2, $3, $3.50, and $3.95 and were tax exempt because the concert was a benefit for charity!

In 1957, the great Johnny Coltrane was fired from the Miles Davis quintet because of his substance abuse problems. In response to that, he fought and managed to win his way free from the twin demons of alcohol and heroin addiction. He was given another chance by the great jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. In the few months that he worked in Monk's quartet during that year, Coltrane had to learn how to play Monk's challenging music with Monk. Coltrane learned how to fly via the power and passion of his own music, and through his new-found love for God. It was to be the turning point of both his life and his music.

The music itself was long considered to be lost -- until earlier this year when someone found the tape of a charity concert where Monk and Coltrane performed in a quartet together in an unmarked box at the Library of Congress. It was immediately recognized for being a priceless treasure, and the next few months it was prepared for release as a CD.

The result is breathtaking. Monk, playing on the concert grand at Carnegie Hall, gave a performance filled with fire and joy. He and Coltrane traded off solos and pushed each other into the stratosphere. And in Coltrane, you hear a man who has found his way to freedom - a man who has learnt that no matter how much you might have previously messed up your life -- you can still come back from any sort of hell and learn how to soar across the sky to the music of the angels.

The sheer joy and energy and exuberance of this music made me cry the first time I listened to it this afternoon.

Believe any and all hype you might hear from your jazz fan friends. This is the real deal. This is an immediate classic.

Last night it was really rainy. Today it is clear as a bell, just absolutely gorgeous. But it's pretty chilly. I opened the windows for the cats a few minutes ago, and I am already ready to make some hot chocolate or hot cider and put on a sweater or a hoodie. Fall is definately here now.

 

Still no word on being deployed. Maybe I can relax a bit and make some plans for the long weekends I will have off of work in the next two months. Bill does need to visit some college campuses, and if we could squeeze in a couple of campus visits in those long weekends, that would be great. Obviously, he won't need visits to the universities he's applying to which are within ten miles of home, but one of the ones he's interested in (because of its architecture school) is down in Indiana, and that one if definately worth a visit. So I will probably sit down and try to figure that out this Saturday. I think there's a nice state park in Indiana, just under the Michigan border with a lodge to stay at, and that might be a great place to stay, given the leaves will be at peak color.

Tomorrow is supposed to be as glorious a day as today. I should be able to plant lots of bulbs and fall flowers.  I'll have to bundle up, though.

 

The week is moving on. Three nights down, two to go. Tonight was better than last night, though we were short shifted on both. Last night I was feeling pretty tired out (at one point when walking down the hall at work I actually nearly fell down because I hadn't lifted one of my feet while walking! ). Today my cold seemed to be a bit better, and I wasn't as bone-jarringly exhausted tonight.

Sometimes other people freak me out. Last night someone was commenting on my nasty wheezy cough, and this guy I've worked with for about ten years told the commentor that "Yeah. She gets sick like this every year in March, in September, and at the Holidays." After thinking a few minutes, I realized he was right. But I thought it was very weird that someone who isn't even a family member knows my health history better than I do!

Am looking forward to the weekend. Hopefully I will even be healthy!  If so, on Friday I will plant flowers all day. And since the hives are pretty much down to little scabs and strange little flakey areas maybe I can try to shave my poor hairy sasquatch legs again.  On Saturday I will be going out to dinner at a wonderful and romantic seafood restaurant in Ann Arbor called the Gandy Dancer.  Then I will be going to a concert with jazz legend Sonny Rollins. And then I will be going for a midnight soak at the hot tub gardens. I can't wait.

Meh. Sill fighting the stupid cold. Will be glad when it is gone.

Talked to the one of the cops who went to New Orleans last night, and also to a lady whose husband has been down in Louisiana and Mississippi since Katrina hit, and will probably be down there for about two more months. He is a lineman for the big electric company in Detroit, and they sent down a lot of people and equipment to help get the power grid back up and running. Some amazing stories. The suffering of both people and their pets (the lineman has spent more time with the stray dogs than the people, since the people have been evacuated from the areas where he's been working) are just heartbreaking. 

Watched Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood this morning. It was OK, but the book was way way better (as is usually the case). The book got much more into the intricacies of the tangled love and horror and anger and pain in the three generations of abuse and cruelty. The movie only hints at the cruelty of the grandmother, which so strongly affected the mother and which helped turn her into a abuser herself.

Hurricane Rita looks as if it might not have done as much damage as everyone had worried it might. Thank God. New Orleans is being flooded again, but so few people were there that it will not have the same horrific death toll as Katrina. And no one will be trapped for days in the hells that were the Convention Center and the Superdome. Houses can be rebuilt, but people cannot be replaced in this lifetime. And the citizens of New Orleans have suffered enough for any lifetime.

Had a quiet day at home with Bill. He took a practice college prep test (the ACT) this morning, and I went over the things he answered wrong with him. Dan worked. Steven met his best friend at the library in Ann Arbor and they entered a Nintendo tournament. They had a great time!

Tonight we went to a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park.Autumn has definately arrived, and I was worried it would be chilly (since I am still trying to rid myself of the stupid cold), but it was a perfect early fall evening. The Tigers even won!!

I sat by the friend whose father recently passed away from cancer. It was good seeing her, and she seems to be holding up well.

Having a quiet day mostly at home. They started making rather dire predictions about the price of gasoline going up dramatically with hurricane Rita in the Gulf of Mexico, so I filled up my Jeep yesterday at $2.50/gallon. When Bill got home from school today I took his little truck in to the same gas station and it was $2.73/gallon. And there were lines both days. The only other time I have seen a line at our corner gas station was when the power went out in a big chunk of the eastern US and Canada a couple of summers ago, and that station was one of the first in the Detroit area to get its power back. Even if Rita spares the oil refineries, there might be shortages because everyone is so freaked out by the news reports of $5/gallon gas that they are topping off their tanks, just like I did. But what can you do? I need to make sure I have gas -- I have no public transportation to get to work, and I work in a hospital. I have to make sure that I have gas.

The cold is better today. Still sniffling, but drinking tons of hot mint tea has helped a lot today.  I should have been planting flowers, but decided to spend most of the day doing quiet things, resting, and drinking hot tea instead. With this new hurricane, I need to try to get and stay healthy in case I get sent somewhere down south.

I did go grocery shopping, which is always interesting. It is still September, and the store is filled with Christmas products.  Is that weird or what???????????

I cannot even bring myself to watch the news today. After Katrina, I cannot stand to watch the possible devastation and suffering from Rita.  I should watch it, since I might go down there -- but I just cannot stand to watch it today.

I was thinking earlier that the some of the earliest national issues I can remember as a child are the end of the Vietnam War and Watergate. My poor children will remember September 11 and Katrina (maybe Rita).  I got the end of a war. They get the beginning of one. I got a bloodless political corruption scandal. They get unfathomable suffering and dead bodies floating in the water.

 

Mary Janice Davidson

 

I picked up a little vampire novel at the warehouse club the other week because it looked so cute. It is called Undead and Unwed and is written by Mary Janice Davidson. It tells the story of a 30 year old secreatary from the Twin Cities who is run over by a car in a spring snow storm, and finds out that she is now a vampire and cannot stay dead.

from the back cover:

Quote:
It's been a helluva week for Betsy Taylor. First, she loses her job. Then, to top things off, she's killed in a car accident. But what really bites (besides waking up in the morgue dressed in a pink suit and cheap shoes courtesy of her stepmother) is that she can't seem to stay dead. Every night she rises, with a horrible craving for blood. She's not taking too well to a liquid diet.

Worst of all, her new friends have the ridiculous idea that Betsy is the prophesied vampire queen, and they want her help in overthrowing the most obnoxious, power-hungry vampire in five centuries - a badly dressed Bela Lugosi wannabe, natch. Frankly, Betsy couldn't care less about vamp politics, but they have a powerful waepon of persuasion: designer shoes. How can any self-respecting girl say no? But a collection of Ferragamos isn't the only temptation for Betsy. It's just a lot safer than the sexy Sinclair - a seductive bloodsucker whose sexy gaze seems as dangerous as a stake through the heart...

Even though my TBR pile is very high, I just couldn't resist a book with an opening line of:

Quote:
The day I died started out bad and got worse in a hurry.

I have gotten some very good chuckles while reading the book..   It was really funny!

I suppose I should warn people that there is a lot of swearing in it, and a lot of sex scenes. I know some people do not feel comfortable with either of those elements.

I have moved on to the second book, which was also at the warehouse club. It is called Undead and Unemployed. I have only just started it, but Betsy finds her dream job -- the night shift in the designer shoe department at Macy's in the Mall of America.

Apparently there is a whole series of books about Queen Betsy. I will have to look for further books at the library.

Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere Mini-Series

Over the course of two mornings this week I watched the tv miniseries Neverwhere. It was originally made and shown on British tv in six 30 minute episodes. It is now available on two dvd's; each 90 minutes or so long.

Many people have read (or heard of) the novel Neverwhere, but the tv miniseries actually came first, and Gaiman based the novel on his screenplay.

I really enjoyed the miniseries. I hated the music (it was unpleasant enough that it was actually distracting to me) and some of the special affects were a bit cheesy (though that is understandable given that it was made for television on a tight budget).

But the strengths far outweighed those two issues. The acting was quite good. One thing I like about British productions is that the performers tend to look like normal (albeit attractive) people rather than plastic dolls.   I think that they are chosen on talent rather than looks. And of course the story is top notch and very interesting.

The story tells of a man named Richard Mayhew. He is a man originally from Scotland, who now lives and works in London. He has a rather uneventful life, warpped up in work and his beautiful and somewhat mean fiance. Then one day he stops to help an injured girl on the sidewalk and his life is completely changed as he gets sucked in an alternate London.

Last day of the work week. One more night to go, and then I will be free for two days. This cold is starting to kick my butt, so I will be glad to have the time off.

Hearing more stories about New Orleans from the people who were deployed down there has been very distressing, especially about body recovery. Not all of the bodies they've been finding were victims of the storm. Some of the people were murdered. Some were raped and murdered, and their bodies concealed in piles of garbage. At least one of those was a child. May God hold the victims' souls close and give them great healing. And may those who could take advantage of such a tragic situation to commit rape and murder someday be brought to justice. There can be no words strong enough to express my disgust for the behavior of such people.

But for every person who did monstrous acts, there are numberless - countless - individuals who have stepped forward to serve and help the storm victims. There is evil in the world, but there is a lot more love, a lot more kindness. Most people are good, are loving, are generous, and kind.

And with hurricane Rita -- even stronger than Katrina -- coming to landfall in the next two days -- there will be a great need for that love, that kindness.

I am now the proud owner of not one -- not two -- but three Sander's bumpy cakes!!! I found out a couple of weeks ago that someone I am aquainted with knows where to get them (in Livonia). I had not seen one since I was a little girl and Sander's was no longer in business. So its like getting back a beloved bit of my childhood. I shared one of the two little ones with friends this evening, and froze the other little one, and froze the great big one (which will be my birthday cake this year).  For anyone who does not know what a Sander's Bumpy Cake is -- it's a Detroit thing like Vernor's flavored ice cream and Faygo pop, that people in other areas of the country sort of shake their heads over, but that we love.

My cold is still giving me a nasty nose, but I am hanging in there. I drank about half a gallon of piping hot herbal tea today, and just drank a big mug of hot apple cider. I am about to take a hot shower, then get a good night's sleep. I'm hoping to shake this thing by the weekend.

Spending the day before work doing laundry and watching the first half of the British tv miniseries Neverwhere. Also blowing my nose. I haven't had any new hives in two days, so of course, now I have a nasty cold to compensate for getting better, and I have to carry a box of tissues around the house with me because my nose is so disgusting. I don't know whether to laugh  or scream.I guess I prefer to laugh. Screaming takes to much energy.

Tropical Storm Rita (who has ever seen them get to an "R" name before???) is now officially a hurricane, and is brushing by the bottom of Florida and Cuba today. It is heading into the Gulf of Mexico. Once it gets into the Gulf, and all of that warm water, it is expected to get a lot stronger, just a little less than Katrina (Katrina was a 4 of 5 when it made landfall, they are thinking this one will be a 3 of 5, which is a major storm). They think it might hit either Louisiana or Texas. The area it might hit in Texas has tens of thousands of Katrina evacuees. Those poor souls will have to evacuated again, if that is the case. How much will these poor people have to endure before they can reclaim their lives?

 

I am feeling better today. Work was busy (we filled up nearly all of the inpatient beds) but not horrible like last night. And I only had to listen to the Talker for about half an hour, which really makes things a lot better.

All of our deployed employees are all back from New Orleans, safe and sound. They said you literally cannot imagine how bad conditions are down there, between the heat and the overwhelming odor of the rotting raw sewage and death (the bodies of deceased animals and fish are in the water and in the leftover muck in the dryer areas -- we won't talk about worse things ). At least one person says he will be going in for some couseling for nightmares. It was so bad down there he is afraid he will have PTSD from his experiences.

I still have to hear anything about whether or not I will be deployed. With the new hurricane (Rita) about to enter the Gulf of Mexico, they might be waiting to see if and where that one will make landfall before sending in more volunteers. What a bad year for storms -- I cannot ever remember them getting so far into the alphabet before, and there's still at least a month of storm season to go.

Someone will be bringing me a Sanders Bumpy Cake tomorrow. Bliss!!!