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Daily Journal, May 13, 2019

Yesterday I wrote up a long post before bed, closed my eyes and through the miracle workers of the Internet, found that my post was not there by morning. Abracadabra. Just a paragraph and a sentence stopped before its end.

I realize I need to be careful with that. Some folks think I may be dropping any minute and when they see a sentence unfinished … well, I can imagine the scene, elderly couple reading my latest post on his tricked-out Dell laptop:

Old man says to his wife: “Something ain’t right with that man on MyVinylCountdown.com. He just stopped writing without finishing the words and, he’s got a brain disease called Lewy.”

“Well what did he write? What were his last words.” Maw maw asked.

This was my last sentence:

“On my question yesterday about why …”

And this was his last word: Warranted.

My earlier missing version had the sentence at the bottom\

Will post more, if warranted. The last sentence I was asking about my question related to why Joe Cocker is getting the most traffic on my blog, up against my 300-plus posts including artists like Allman Brothers, Al Green, Carpenters, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Beatles, George Harrison, Heart and the Temptations.

A reader named D.L. suggested the upcoming 50th anniversary of Woodstock in August (if it’s still on) might be a reason for a bump in traffic. Cocker got his bones at Woodstock.

And in case you’re wondering I didn’t die mid-sentence — that would make for good headline though. Memo to me: I need to come up with some good last word(s).

Rosebud.

Sorry, taken.

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Daily journal May 11, 2019

1:57 pm: Happy Birthday Catherine – Love of my life. Had a few other events here rolled up. Happy Mother’s Day mom. I made her breakfast (eggs an bacon). Then I went to play my weekly game of basketball. It was fun.

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Daily Journal,May 10, 2019

2:45 p.m.: Need to remember journal every day. Still battling my hands a bit. I’m going to check out some of that transcription software. I’m not sure how it’s going to work but looking forward to trying. Also several folks here have it. (The software not Lewy.}

Will do a survey.

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Daily Journal May 9, 2019

I rolled out about 5:20 a.m. to get ready for a speech to the Vestavia Hills Rotary Club.

I spoke at 7 but I needed all the time I could get to get ready.

It went well, I think. I told them I had to set my alarm for ‘yesterday’ — that’s how early it was. Good people. I spoke mostly on living with Lewy body dementia.

I did talk a little bit about our upcoming Mike Madness basketball fundraiser. And don’t be surprised if you see a Rotarian team in the 3X3 classic at UAB Rec Center on July 20.

Don’t have sign-ups right ready to roll but here’s some links about donations and my blog.

Here’s the link to donate (more on how to register your team (3 or 4 people) to play. Expecting big things this year.

Also my blog www.myvinylcountdown.com

1:45 a.m.: Went to lunch. Got caught in rain, wet but feeling all right. Right hand starting it up again, hoping meds catch up soon.

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Nick Lowe — 357, 356, 355, 354


ALBUMS: The Rose of England (1985); Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit (1984);
Nick the Knife (1982); Pure Pop for Now People (1978);

MVC Rating: Rose 4.0/$$; Cowboy 3.5/$$; Knife 3.5/$$$; Pop 4.5/$$$.

The best Nick Lowe album on this list is the oldest — Pure Pop for Now People, a minor classic of smart rock popcraft ‘So it Goes’ kicks off the album and sets its tone with a little bemoan alongside a rock and roll beat. Then comes (I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass and we’re off to the races.

A song about ‘Marie Prevost a silent film star who soared but died in poverty of acute alcohol poisoning has this line: ‘ “She was a winner who became the doggies’ dinner.’

So it goes indeed.

The Rose of England is good, even if Nick resurrects for the umpteenth time the song: (I knew the bride) When She Used to Rock and Roll. The song seems (to me anyway) to be about Carlene Carter and Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds who were both playing on her record at the time and both men have recorded versions of that song. Nick and Dave were frequent collaborators. Nick married Carlene.

But see the Edmunds/Carter video in the Carter post to see if you don’t see some old flame sparks — kinda like the song.

So a Lowe album that’s better than three out of four of these is ‘Labor of Lust’ which my brother had, and I never bought because i played his so much. Rockpile’ ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ is a classic album I’ll be reviewing later. The group featured Edmunds and Lowe.

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Daily Journal April 30, 2019

Hunting and pecking this morning. It’s 7 a.m. I’m going to get some coffee and hope the meds kick in before Cat takes me to work..

9 a.m.: Got to work, hands better. I’ve got several things to do but here’s where the Lewy kicks in. I can’t make up my mind on what to get started on and I can’t seem to find my To-Do list. Now that would be funny except I need it. A lot of people ask me about symptoms and I can tell them about deterioration (mild) of fine motor skills. But it is harder to describe the thought processes and how they are changing. It’s like shagging fly balls when I was a Little Leaguer. I wasn’t super in the outfield. The fly balls would keep coming from the coach, faster faster. Run this way, run that way, here comes another one. Well that’s kind of how I feel sometimes that my mind won’t focus one thing. I try for one fly ball but then stop and check out the next one.

It’s funny we switched cable companies last week and had some problems with the transition. After working for while, our signal dropped out. The screen told us to check the input. Sure enough it was the old ‘wrong input’ ploy. Well I feel somebody’s (Lewy) is messing with my input. Like the Cable Guy I am trying to fix what is being processed by my brain using information that comes in through the input. I do this because the output, how I act talk and do what I do, is working like the movie on the telly. I’m feeling confident I have got this thing under control. (I may not be HD however.)

If you missed myvinylcountdown column on AL.com here it is.

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Daily Journal April 28, 29

As you can see I missed my 4/28 post. Well to be honest I forgot; I mean I actually remembered about mid afternoon but put it off and then forgot. Actually I was probably distracted by the afternoon lunch/brunch prepared at our house by dear friend Mary Porter. I had two helpings of a delicious dish of quinoa in a coconut milk sauce and chicken. Delicious and healthy. Also Sunday, Cat and I went for a long walk around HP golf course. If you take that walk you might consider strapping on a helmet for that part on Clairmont. We had one golf ball sail over out heads. Few minutes later we heard a golfer shout FORE and I nearly did a barrel roll on the sidewalk. Back when I was driving I remember a ball went over the fence and bounced right in front of my moving vehicle. Survival in the big city. Bye for now,

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Los Lobos — 358

ALBUM: How Will the Wolf Survive (1984)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

The Wolves known by their Spanish name Los Lobos kick off this album with a rocking ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and then follow that with music reflecting their Mexican roots all rolled up in a mix of blues, country, folk and good old barrelhouse rock and roll.

I saw them at the Marin (Calif.) fair from about 12 feet from the stage and I can tell you as good as they sound on records, they are better live. David Hildago can play.

The album kicks off with “Don’t Worry Baby,’ a guitar guided soul/dance track, then the diversity and musicianship is on display the rest of the way.

Rolling Stone ranked this in the Top 500 albums of all time at something like 300-ish.

I have The Neighborhood and Kiko on CD, all excellent and all different. I would recommend this album if you are interested in exploring the Lobos. Kiko is my favorite, a little off the beaten path. And Colossal Head is a steam roller of guitar rock.

I don’t think you can go wrong with any Los Lobos record. I respect their musicality and their ability to bridge diverse groups,

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Daily Journal 4-26-2019

10 a.m.: It’s Friday, usually a good day, but I have some work to do before I can relax. Check-ins. Sleep Through the night, awesome. Diet. Had good low-carb lemon cilantro chicken last night Catherine made. Cheese stick for breakfast. Mental Health. Like I said today is Friday and that’s always an extra bubble of electricity of the positive kind. People in the newsroom feed off of each other — so when the newsroom is buzzing, everybody picks up the vibe. (And vice versa but won’t explore that right now). I’m currently trying to figure out how to channel my efforts into one big cohesive plan. I’ve got several, no make that many, avenues and ideas. And I’m excited about getting all cohesive. In another post likely today I am going to lay out some ideas, some specific, some broad about my vision for the July 20 Mike Madness event. I’m hoping and planning to make it bigger than ever. And I’ve got a few tricks which I will discuss later today or over the weekend. Happy Friday readers. From a broader standpoint, I will say that I can tell this thing is progressing, however slowly. With doctor consultation, I’ve added a small boost to my dosage of carbidopa levadopa medication which treats Parkinsonian physical symptoms such as tremor and the aforementioned fine motor skills skills such as typing or picking something off the ground.

Now wait, I’m going to do a joke here as I am wont to do.

So, you see one metric I use to determine fine motor skill deficits is the value of a coin that I will actually bend down and pick up.

I noticed this when I walked by a dime the other day. Will stop for quarters though. (This Parkinsonian/Lewy metric is not for everyone. Ask your doctor if you need to stick to dimes for a while, or maybe wait only for dollars.)

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Led Zeppelin — 359


ALBUMS: Led Zeppelin IV (Stairway album 1971); Houses of the Holy (1973).

MVC Rating: Stairway 5.0/$$$$; Houses 4.5/$$$$

Robert Plant’s voice is/was a force of nature. No doubt about it.

If you were a parental unit at about the time Led Zeppelin hit maximum frenzy, you would describe that force of nature as the sound of a thousand feral cats f… ,um, fighting.

To a young boy/man feeling spunky and cocky and awkward all at the same time, Plant’s flying screeches were a magic carpet ride at 100 mph going through tunnels of Jimmy Page spun guitar scales and crying runs, halfway tamed by John Bonham’s dinosaur bone skin beating.

From thrash metal to lilting folk it was all featured in this Tolkien fantasy land where if you spark up the right mood you were transported and time flowed until it slowed to a drip.

Some influential critics, outing themselves as not-so-different- from the parental units, bashed Led Zeppelin. They literally made fun of them. What they failed to see was this was the artistic and commercial pinnacle of the electrification of blues absorbed by white British kids. New soul. Clapton Cream Yardbirds (from whom Jimmy Page came) had already turned up Robert Johnson’s amp tenfold but Led Zeppelin kept pushing the excess, no, pushing the word ‘excess’ beyond the bounds of its definition. Albert King and Muddy Waters set up the white boys with high lobs. Paged and brethren smashed it. Ace.

My two LZ albums (I have more on digital) are indeed classics. Critics came around. Like the Beatles, there will likely not be another band that created a sound so distinctly different (despite the plagiarism and blatant lifting of old blues lyrics and riffs.) They took it and made it their own, tho that’s certainly disputed by certain plaintiffs.

On Plant’s voice: The only other one in this era and genre who had a voice that could make thousands of black birds explode from the trees was: Janis Joplin.

The 4th album, Stairway, is the commercial peak and like Free Bird or Hotel California or Bohemian Rhapsody, the song is an epic game changer. Even if no one really knows what they are talking about.

Houses of the Holy was a perfectly executed escape from Stairway overkill. It had playful reggae D’yer Mak’er, a James Brown tribute, the Crunge, and a dance tune, ‘Dancing Days.’

There will not be another Led Zeppelin. (Did somebody mention Greta van Fleet?)

“Many times I’ve wondered how much there is to know.”