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John Lennon — 353, 352, 351

ALBUMS: John Lennon/Plastic Ono band; (1970); Imagine ( 1971); Greatest Hits (1978)

MVC Rating: JL/Ono– 5.0/$$$$$; Imagine — 4.5/$$$$; Hits 4.0

I’ve been putting this one off. What can be added to all that has been written about John Lennon?

He was possibly one of the world’s most influential persons. “Bigger than Jesus” he said to one reporter, describing the millions of enthusiastic young Beatles’ fans. That comment led to worldwide controversy, and John said he was just making the point about what was true. Not that it was wrong or right.

In Birmingham there were bonfires to throw Beatles records into the conflagration, fuel for the fire.

White albums turned black.

(OK, don’t call and tell me they hadn’t put out the White Album before the bonfires. It’s too good a line to let the facts get in the way. Some albums may have been ‘shattered’. Or so I hear.)

Some of Lennon’s best work, his first solo album and Imagine, the follow-up, asked the big (frustrating and depression inducing they could be) questions:
If the Beatles had more influence than Jesus or parents, and teachers — Why?

In the song ‘God’ I think Lennon is saying you can’t count on many things. For him, he feels safe and happy with himself and Yoko

‘God’ comes with a recital of what he doesn’t believe in. Here’s a random mix, but it sure seems to be his intention to say I don’t believe in anything or anybody: I don’t believe in Zimmerman: I don’t believe in Beatles; I don’t believe in I-Ching; I don’t believe in Buddha… And so on (Zimmerman is the birth name of Bob Dylan). He ends this piano-backed ballad declaration of adoration for Yoko witth what he does believe in: “Yoko and me, that’s reality.”

John also wrote “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” Sounds like he’s not a big believer in the God presented by various churches, Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues.

But in a video clip, Lennon was asked about death. Standing by two cars in a parking lot, he got into one and then into the other saying death is getting out of one car and into another, he said.

I am giving the basically untitled first solo album a rare 5 stars. Ironically I can’t listen to it a lot. So much emotion is layered into that album. Lennon was using primal scream therapy and shows off his angst-ridden screams several times through-out, especially on “Isolation,” ” Found Out’ and “Mother.’

Sample lyric: ‘Mother, you had me, but I never had you.’

His mother was struck and killed by a car at a crosswalk in 1958; His father was a Merchant Marine who was not home much and finally quit coming home at all. So John was raised by his aunt. John’s edge was nicely counterbalanced by McCartney’s silliness. Both had amazing songwriting abilities — though despite Lennon/McCartney being on most of the credits, in the later years, they filed their songs separately. In other words, John wrote “Day Tripper” for example, and Paul wrote. “Get Back.” But all were credited with Lennon/McCartney.

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Who moved my clock? Daily Journal May 15, 2019

Up until recently. We had a clock that was on a piece of furniture near the front door. It was a special little table clock, simple elegant and it kept good time. It was a gift from me to Catherine so many many years ago.

Recently, we cleaned up and partially reconfigured some rooms, adding decorative paintings and such. This happened a few weeks ago upon the arrival of my brother David and sister-in-law Lori Oliver. They help throw things out and put stuff in other spaces and stuff like that. Well in the process, they moved my clock.

I can’t say I was much help …I kept saying looks like a good day to go for a walk. But back to my clock.

For years, this clock has been over by the front door and every time i’d come down the stairs, I’d see the clock. Always there to glance at, quick time.

But now that it’s gone its usual place — it’s just two steps around the corner on the fireplace mantle — I keep looking for it.

It’s kind of like tricking myself when I set the clock ahead 10 minutes to get my carcass out of bed.

Again it’s practically autonomic in that your body starts reacting, adrenalin infusion even before your brain tells you ‘Relax, you built 10 minutes extra time into the wake-up program. ‘

Oh yeah! I smiled.

Then I started wondering.

Now I’ve been trained to look at that clock. As hard as I try not to look at that clock — because I know it’s not there — I still can’t help looking for that clock as I amble down the stairs. But every time I look for that clock. I’m aware that I’ve been lured, again, into a habit that I can’t stop.

When I started my first newspaper job at the Birmingham News in 1982, I was paid as a ‘part-time’ correspondent to cover Etowah, Calhoun and Talladega counties. Catherine and I rented a cheap house in the woods of Jacksonville off of Nesbitt Lake Road. The house had no central heat.

Space heaters were set up in some of the rooms. The rooms were tasty warm but the hallway was freezing. Whenever we had to get up for a glass of water, use the restroom or grab a late night stack, we had to come out into the 40-degree hallway which we responded to by autonomically clinching. Over the months this became ingrained. When I was promoted and we moved to Birmingham, we found a house with central heat. But guess what?

For months thereafter as we went out into the hall we would clinch, bracing ourselves for the expected chill.

Even our dog Pavlov got involved. Joke. Seriously our dog Maggie liked the warm rooms better but her first priority was to find humans wherever they might be.

So I’m left with the thought that I may be conditioned like in these examples to react a certain way under certain conditions, even when unnecessary. I guess PTSD would be an example of a cause for a harmful type of this kind of pre-conditioning. I imagine we all have layers of this preconditioning, reaction to ads, politics, and music to name a few.

I think we may move the clock back.

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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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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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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 April 27, 2019

,On this day in 2011 the worst tornado outbreak in memory slammed the Southeast with Alabama taking the brunt of it.

Dozens of tornadoes killed 250 people in this state alone. I spent a year writing about the aftermath with a team of great reporters. We exposed problems that included FEMA evaluations of houses that defied logic. One story I did featured a Joe Songer picture of a family standing in their house with all four walls gone. FEMA in its reports called it insufficient damage to qualify for a FEMA grant. Here’s story and pic.

Another story that I did on an anniversary of the storm I think nicely described how the day unfolded. Must read to the end though it takes a click at the end of the first part.

Here’s first part.

Here’s second part:

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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.)