Good morning! 9:17 and 33 degrees. Winter didn't exheunt, it just took a break. It's back with us for at least another week, just like a bad Lounge Singer. Try the veal, I'm here until Friday.
Way back in the day, I spent a lot of time in Nevada. Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, Elko, Reno, Wendover. 1985 and a little bit of '86. I was in a road band. Never took to gambling, and indulged the one-arm bandits just long enough to win my money back.
Nevada, and especially Vegas, is someplace I never care to return. You could, however, get an amazing breakfast for 99 cents(though an orange juice would run you a couple bucks.). Lots of vagrancy in the Silver State. But it's cheap and gaudy. To borrow a fancy word from one of my teachers at Peabody, it's meretricious. Alluring but in a cheap and gaudy way. Like a streetwalker..
In this case, though, the fancy word was used to describe Leonard Bernstein's Mass. Mr Cotel was devoutly religious and took great umbrage at things being done incorrectly as far as religious rituals. I once saw him walk out of a concert for the same reason. Meretricious trash were his words.
So all these years later, here's my tribute. It's also today's tune. The very latest album I've released, called St Vitus's Dance Card, has a piece on it entitled Meretricious Trash. This one's for you, Morris Moshe Cotel. Despite his religiosity, he was not a humorless man. Might've even appreciated this..
I guess all this is to say I don't have any news for you today. Just stories. The only gig I have is an hour for the Seniors at Northfield Center on the 16th. Supposed to be 70 degrees then..
I will have some new music to share soon. Got a couple smaller albums- 18:30 and 19 minutes, respectively; and a bigger one at 39 minutes. The Lab seems to be my home. I leave it here and there to play a few gigs, but it's always something I return to. So, more to come!
Well thanks as ever for stopping in and reading. Happy Monday to you, if that's at all possible. For now, ich bin outa this place. More later.
