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Cats are cool

Hey, I forgot to tell you.

We have a new animal living in our household, and a new human. Well, the human is not exactly new. She’s our grown-up daughter, one of three.

So Emily needed a place to stay for an undetermined amount of time, and she came packing cat.

Her name is Yuki.

I had some trepidation. at first, wondering how the new cat would get along with our dog. Gus is a small male golden doodle or labradoodle. (Sometimes we just call him psychodoodle).

But she’s welcome to stay as long as I can feed her. The daughter, that is. Yes, the cat, too.

Did I mention the dog is estimated to be 16 or 17 years old? And that’s in ‘people’ years. We rescued her in mid-to-late 2007, in a shelter in San Francisco one block away from the church my wife, Catherine, was working at the time. A shelter worker told us Gus was about 1-year- year old.

I still had some concerns about taking in a cat beyond the two animals’ relationship. Will she go to the bathroom in a litter box that will not stink? Will she meow all the time? Will she be a nightstalker, something to trip over when I get up at night?

The answer is she exceeds expectations. She’s affectionate but will quickly move when shooed. She already seems to know which furniture she can jump up on, and which she probably shouldn’t. (Maybe Gus told her all the rules.)

And surprise surprise, Gus hasn’t tried to eat Yuki or chase her even. Gus pretends like he is ignoring her. But Gus will go get his plastic bone and parade it in front of her, daring her to go for it.

Yawn. Says Yuki.

She isn’t interested.

Then Gus takes a lap or two around the house with a bark or two for good measure. I laugh, Catherine laughs, They make us feel young again.

If, for a moment.

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Andy Pratt — 257

ALBUM: Andy Pratt (1973)

MVC Rating: 3.0/$$

After about 30 years of not listening to this record, I put it on the other day and have been through it about three times. Before I listened to it I read a description of Pratt’s music as ‘experimental.’

I bought this for his song, the original version, of “Avenging Annie.” I had Roger Daltrey’s cover of the song from his album ‘One of the Boys.’ I still can’t tell which version is better. I lean toward’s Pratt with that falsetto going. But Daltrey’s is a little more straightforward with his lead singer pipes.

But, yes, unlike the Daltry album which was had a couple of mildly interesting songs and then filler. Pratt is indeed experimental, at least when compared to Daltrey.

Pratt tends to go for esoteric dreamy mood songs, that feature a wide dynamic range. Soft singing, loud singing, soft singing, loud singing.

The problem is most have odd structures that upon this renewed hearing sounds like no structure at all. He has a fragile voice. I think it comes down to who has the best Avenging Annie and I say Pratt by a hair (In fact, Pratt and Daltrey have very similar hair.) . I gave Pratt the same grade I gave Daltrey.

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Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – — 331

ALBUM: United (1967)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

Early Motown soul by two talented soul singers. Of course Marvin Gaye is one of the genre’s all time greats.

Sadly they both had careers cut short by tragedies.

Terrell, sadly was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had eight surgeries before dying in 1970 at age 24. Gaye was a close friend and some say he never got over her death and battled depression and drug abuse all his life, according to Terrell’s Wikipedia page.,Gaye was shot and killed by his father in an argument in 1984.

Their biggest song together ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ was huge. The song had a second life when Diana Ross and the Supremes covered it. The songs are tasty and make for easy soul listening but Mountain is clearly the best song here.

There is a song in here called ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ which took me aback as Marvin sounded like he had changed voices. He sang the song like one of the Herman’s Hermits. Now I don’t mean that disparagingly to either the Hermits or Gaye, it just doesn’t sound like Gaye. Listen below.