"Not To Say What Book Of Poems"

Successful and busy day. Went over to my aunt and uncle's place this afternoon for family get-together. My paternal grandfather turned 74 today, so we saw that as cause to celebrate. Ate well, piddled on guitars (my dad was showing my uncle his new Martin acoustic...even let me play it a bit, and damn if that thing doesn't sound good even when I'm playing it), and chased my cousin's daughter around the house all afternoon.

We think we actually figured something out with Bailey this afternoon. She always calls me "a'Chuck," and we've been scratching our heads trying to figure out why. But we also noticed she calls my dad something similar--"a'Ron," or "Uncle Ron," as we've told her to call him. So we decided she was trying to call me "Uncle Chuck," which is kinda cute and endearing, really.

Before I went to my aunt and uncle's place, I made a little sojourn to Hastings, where I unloaded a few CDs I never listen to anymore (like my old John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits CD, which was kinda redundant what with owning the two-disc Words and Music collection now). With the money I made off those, I picked up Mermaid Avenue, a record by Billy Bragg and Wilco. It's a collection of songs done using old Woody Guthrie lyrics (lyrics which Guthrie never put to music). It's a damn fine album, and I'll talk about it at great length tomorrow probably.

Spent the evening doing laundry (needed clean pants, underwear, and socks. Would've done more laundry, like shirts and whatnot, only I didn't have enough quarters for that) and watching the first volume of Samurai Champloo. My initial thoughts on the anime are that it kicks serious ass. One of the main characters is voiced by the guy who did Spike in Cowboy Bebop and happens to be one of my favorite English voice actors. I was worried that this was just going to be Cowboy Bebop in feudal Japan with swords, but it's not. This series already feels much less episodic and much more plot-driven than Bebop was, even in just the first four episodes. My only concern is that I have to wait until the end of March (or probably April, since this is Oklahoma) to get the next volume. Maybe that'll give me time to actually save up the money for it (pfft, yeah right, me save money. That's funny).

Oh, last thing--Wilco will be in OKC on April 25. I just need to find someone to go with me.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Billy Bragg and Wilco, "Walt Whitman's Niece"