Shortly after Chris Moore changed my life via karaoke, he changed my life by introducing me to the wonder that is Todd Snider. Then I changed Darron Luesse's life by dragging him to a concert, sight unseen, at which he also fell in love with Todd. The very next night, I changed Gillichi and Jeremiah's life by taking them to the second night of a two-day run at the Bluebird, because my own life had been so changed.
Since then, I have seen Todd many times in many states, and usually not just states I happened to be in. Most of the time , I wear a homemade concert t-shirt on which I have used a sharpie to write "Todd Snider Rules" in big letters, referring to one of my favorite stories that he tells (here's a not-great-recording of the version of
Rose City Blues during which I first heard him tell it in KY-- you can hear my whistle if you know it well). Sometime about 2 years ago, I changed my mom's life, and I am not sure if a bigger fan now exists. You want evidence?
Exhibit A. Todd's last concert t-shirt, like many hip concert t-shirts, featured the album art on the
back of the shirt (his wife
Melita Osheowitz's work). My mom is SUCH a fan, she insists on wearing the t-shirt backwards.
Always. Not just at concerts.
Exhibit B. My mom was in a terrible car accident last spring, and we are pretty sure a significant reason she pulled through is because we piped Todd Snider into the ICU 24-7, then in the hospital room, then at my sister's house, throughout her recovery. She listened to 5 discs pretty much on repeat for about two and a half months, much to my sister's delight. Often, amidst her drug-induced stupor, she made up Todd-inspired ditties to chronicle her recovery-- my favorite had the line "Lord, don't want to be a junkie no more. Push that pain pill out the door!" But you have to drop the end of some of the words, like a old blues singer, all this while regularly hitting the button to deliver more pain medication through the IV....
And finally, Exhibit C. This is the email she sent me today after going to the concert last night, pasted in its entirety (for those of you wondering where my exuberance comes from, look no further):
"Sis, It was all that it could be and more... I LOVE Todd. He was soooo cute, It was a small loving crowd..he was warmly recieved. By paying 5 bucks a piece we were able to upgrade our seats....Second Row center. Perfffeeecccttttt. he played afew from Queer Peace. the rest were shout outs from the crowd. I did blow him kisses....Nancy and Chiara had a blast too. I can't wait for him to return...i wished he played here two niites in a row like he does in Indiana. I am almost ready to go on the road and follow HIM....I just don't know how to afford that!!
It was the best night of music since I heard him last."
In true Schaack form, she just told me over the phone that she is not washing the stamp off her hand-- like mother, like daughter.
me a call if they, too, plan to be at DFW for more than an hour between flights so we can visit. I also promise not to jeopradize any future attempts at making connecting flights (he made it-- a bit sweaty-- but he made it!)
The spectacular Lynx rufus.
Since then, I have seen Todd many times in many states, and usually not just states I happened to be in. Most of the time , I wear a homemade concert t-shirt on which I have used a sharpie to write "Todd Snider Rules" in big letters, referring to one of my favorite stories that he tells (here's a not-great-recording of the version of Rose City Blues during which I first heard him tell it in KY-- you can hear my whistle if you know it well). Sometime about 2 years ago, I changed my mom's life, and I am not sure if a bigger fan now exists. You want evidence?
Always. Not just at concerts.
Have you ever seen Breaking Away? If not, do. It is a great movie (required viewing for all IU students and bike race enthusiasts) in which the art of quarry-going is depicted very well. The giant holes that result from the extraction of limestone fill with rainwater over time and provide welcome relief from the suffocating heat and humidity, as well as a bit of a thrill because the gravel road entrances are plastered with Do Not Trespass signs threatening everything from imprisonment to almost-certain-death. We managed to avoid both, in addition to the most real threat-- getting towed.
Today's post comes from Pacific Grove, CA where I have been attending a conference on transposable elements (TEs). Most of you have heard me go on and on about them at some point or another, but for friends from other walks of life, it is probably worth explaining that TEs are mobile pieces of DNA that move around the genome. Most of the time they are unwelcome, but occasionally they modify the host genome in positive ways. They were discovered a long time ago by a rock star geneticist named Barbara McClintock. For about 50 years, they were largely ignored by most biologists-- relegated to the margins as "junk" DNA. Now we know that they comprise a huge fraction of the genome and are super dynamic. McClintock's contribution was eventually fully recognized and she won the Nobel Prize for her work. I could go on and on about them, but I will hold off for now-- preferring instead to share morsels of fascinating TE antics in the genome during future posts.
A picture to share: This part of CA is spectacularly beautiful-- so much so that no 2 megapixel picture can do it justice. On the way down here, however, my lab clan and I stopped in Santa Cruz for lunch and got to ooh and ahhh over the sea lions, a surprising number of which were performing what appeared to be some type of pre-coital water ballet. In an effort to keep this blog kid-friendly, here's a picture of them performing their other favorite activity.....
Today's post comes from the terrific little town of Tempe (pronounced temp-EE), just outside the terrible urban sprawl of Phoenix, AZ. I am here visiting one of my favorite people, John Gillece (pronounced gil-EE-chee) and learning to appreciate the desert. Yesterday, we went to Sedona to go hiking. Sedona is supposed to be a vortex, or at least there are supposed to be lots of vortices around that area. The only time I have ever been in a vortex previously was Danilo's Italian Eatery, just outside of Gainesville, FL. We went there for dinner one night (because it was supposed to be a vortex), but nothing strange happened. Nothing strange happened yesterday either-- except for the fact that I mentioned the band The BoDeans to Gillichi on the way there and, strangely, a BoDeans song came on the radio on the way home. I haven't heard a BoDeans song or uttered the name of the band since, I think, 1990. A musical vortex?
