Grateful to have Norm on call for electrical issues. Got the new stove cleaned up and was about to plug it in when I realized that the cord had four prongs and my outlet have slots for three. I’m glad to report that I now have a working stove after replacing the cord. Not only did he walk me through the diagnosis via text, he and Ian stopped over after errands to make sure I was good to go.
Grateful to have a stove again (finally picked one up off of Craigslist); Norm helped. As always, an adventure found us. Also got a couple of things done for the house and helped some friends knock a couple of items off their respective punch lists.
Grateful for a big block of (mostly productive) LLTAM session time in the studio with Norm and for his patience with me while I was less than pleasant to deal with.
Also had a fun night with some of my favorite folks: had an old fashioned at Otto’s, dinner and tequila flights at Cilantro, and dessert at Bluphies!
Had a great ‘birthday’ lunch with Homey and Norm. We have a tradition of getting together on or around each other’s birthday for lunch where the other two buy. Fun to catch up. Lot’s of kudos at work today for a status update on our new loan program I provided for the executive group yesterday. Sledding with the GDFB’s, et al with a trip to Cafe Zoma afterwards for not cocoa. Finished the night with a burger and beer at Dexter’s Pub. Great day!
Welcome to installment #1 of Weekly Repeat…
“Soul” seems to be making a comeback and I’m pretty happy about that (with the exception of all the Adele knock-offs increasingly popping up). Quality vocals seem to be one of the underlying foundations and prerequisites of soul and R&B. While I do love Randy Blythe (Lamb of God), I don’t believe he’s interested in doing any Smokey Robinson covers. I’m a fool in love when it comes to some golden pipes. But I digress…
I first heard Mayer Hawthorne’s The Walk on Triple M. It immediately stood out so I whipped out MusicID to figure out what and who it was. That very evening Norm encouraged me to check out a new artist he’d recently heard and had just gotten the CD. Completely unsurprisingly, it was How Do You Do from Mayer Hawthorne.
Hawthorne does the “throwback soul sound” pretty well both vocally and musically on his second studio release How Do You Do. He’s cultivated a comfortable, ‘vintage’ kind of sound and refreshed a bit with some more contemporary lyric phrasing (meaning profanity); though I could totally hear Marvin Gaye singing this (only way better, Mayer is no Marvin):
From the moment that I met you, I thought you were fine, so fine
But your shitty fuckin’ attitude, has got me changing my mind
(from ‘The Walk‘)
I really dig that Andrew (Hawthorne’s given name) writes his own stuff and plays several of the instruments himself. He’s also got a decent voice (not quite golden pipes). The content is a bit sugary at times but its a generally enjoyable R&B groove all the way through. There’s also a duet with Snoop too if you’re into the D-O-DOUBLE-G sort of thing.
Grateful I stopped down to the City’s Development Services Office to ask a few questions about my remodeling project. Reviewed a few things I already knew and learned a major one I did not. Unfortunately, it has a significant impact on my project. Will need to do some additional reserach this weekend and consider the alternatives.
Also had a productive day at work, received a gain-share check, got some errands completed, made some plans for the weekend and spent the remainder of the evening working on the kitchen and doing laundry. A good night.
Grateful there was only one sleeve of Thin Mints left.
Grateful for a no-evening agenda and for getting a few more things organized around the house. Opted to take a little more emotional risk earlier today in helping someone out that I didn’t need to; things seemed to work out ok. Incremental progress.
Clearly, music always has been extremely important to me. I love to listen to it (both recorded and live), experience it, write it, perform it, analyze it, appreciate it, and share it. So I’m dedicating a portion of my blog to sharing some of that with you, my legions of loyal readers (where legions actually means 3). My intent here is to share what I’m heavily listening to this week or thereabouts. Maybe its really a couple of days or a couple of weeks but something that I’m currently enjoying repeatedly. Might be a new artist or a new album by an “old” artist or maybe a nugget I recently discovered. I don’t plan on giving an actual review necessarily but more of my particular take on whatever it is that moves me. I welcome your feedback and comments and invite you to share whatever you’re currently into.
Thanks for listening (where listening really means reading).
