Buffet Blogging (All You Can Read)

Weird week. Random in all its glory. And now, from the family perspective, it’s over as the not-so-little one gets released from school early today (with no school tomorrow either) so that the steady stream of parents can come in to have those little chats with the teacher figures.

As a student, I remember dreading having my parents come into the classroom to chat with my teachers. I was fearful about how much the teacher would spill forth about my various antics. As a parent, I have no anxiety because, somehow, our eleven-year old is a rule follower. Imagine that. Think: Mother influence.

Yesterday, however, I took a giant leap toward making her a rebel-in-waiting (rock variety). You see, I yanked her out of school early to go sit with local guitar legend, Dave Keller, for her first lesson. Her assignment going into the lesson was to collect some CDs containing her favorite songs so they could get right to work learning to play the music she loves – a big change from the constant stream of dopey Disney tunes she’s been learning in the school’s sleepy band program.

While my feelings were a bit hurt that she didn’t go with any Drunken Boat “classics,” I was a beaming proud rock-daddy to see the collection she had all lined up for me to bring when I picked her up: The Beatles (White Album), Johnny Cash, Woody Guthrie, Belle & Sebastian, and Kimya Dawson. They spent their first lesson learning The Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon.” Cool.

Pretty soon, once she goes electric and all noise on me, we’ll be jamming together. Drunken Boat Jr.?

Speaking of the junior in rock: My friend, Jack-the-Carpenter, alerted me last night to the return of Dinosaur Jr. to Burlington’s Higher Ground on April 4th. Be there. We will. It was about two years ago that we ventured to see the “dinosaurs” of grunge/punk at the same venue, a night that is still remembered as a night to remember. Or something like that.

Dinosaur Jr. is about to release yet another album and, lucky us, their Burlington show is one of their first to debut their new material. Rumor has it – or is it Dinosaur’s website? – that those who attend their upcoming concerts will be given pre-released access to their new material on the web. Good enough for me.

If you go, don’t forget to bring your earplugs. Higher Ground was selling them at their last show. And while I scoffed at the idea at first I was rushing to get them in my ears after about the first 30-seconds of the show. The boys like to play loud, so loud, in fact, that J. Mascis’ amp started on fire. Can you say “Marshall Stack”? I knew you could.

Let’s rock.

Supreme Court Fall-Out: Lots of good media and feedback on last week’s Supreme Court victory. For those who missed the radio conversation I had with Mark Johnson earlier this week, he’s got the podcast up for your listening pleasure. You can listen to it by going here.

Gay Marriage Hearings: Kudos to the pro-gay marriage crowd who showed up in force last night at Vermont’s Statehouse to engage in a bizarre debate with a most hateful bunch of Bible-thumping opponents. I watched much of the live-stream on the Internet and was truly amazed at the pure dignity demonstrated by the members of/and supporters of Vermont’s gay and lesbian community. They came forward with one heartfelt and beautiful message after another, only to have to play tag-team with one mean-spirited and religious-bigoted hate-mongerer after another.

At first, I was angry. But then I realized how it was all sounding: Love, hate, love, hate, as the separate sides took turns testifying to the overflowing crowd. Oh sure, there were many very low points – you know, like when opponents declared that gay marriage would lead to child rape or a future push to allow marriage between a man and a horse (sorry, but I’m already married to four).

Personally, I thought we were a nation that believed in the separation of church and state. I guess not. Because not once during the nearly three-hour hearing did one of our elected officials try to rule one of the Bible-readers out of order for trying to commingle our state with their church. Shameful.

But, again, bravo to the gays and lesbians and their many, many supporters who showed up in force to counter the wall of hate put forward by the religo-nuts.

Blogger Babies: Well, well, well, it looks like two of my favorite bloggers are doing a bit more than blogging lately because both have recently announced that they’ve got little-baby-bloggers-to-be on the way. Yep, NTodd and wdh3 (links) have let it be known that they’ll be proud papas in the not-to-distant future. Congrats, fellas. And, um, get your writing done now because, well, things are about to change.

Happy Friday, my friends. And thanks for playing.