"The Other Side of Life" by The Moody Blues

Choices for the Fundraiser

Genevera sent me the 3 photos on the above left as options as a picture of me for the fundraiser flyer.  The photo on the right was one I thought of as a possibility.

I decided this morning to go with the one where I was in red, that Cat Palmer took for her Transgender display last year.  After all red is my power color, I'm all about the RED!!

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I was just thinking back over the last couple of days.  I fell yesterday trying to keep my MIDI keyboard and other shit from tipping over. (See yesterday's post)

Today I went into Trader Joe's and got a few things, and then into Natural Grocer's to get a few more things.  I had gotten a few cans of things and some spaghetti, when I suddenly felt so weak.  I could hardly move my legs and just picking up a can was hard.  In fact I dropped one can and one of the other shoppers picked it up for me.

I decided to cut the shopping short at that point, I needed to get home ASAP.  I couldn't even carry the basket at that point, I left it at the checkout stand while I found one last item.  After I checked out I asked if someone could help me by carrying my items out.  That same shopper said she would help me out.

When I got home, I didn't dare try to carry the small box of things into the house.  I left them in the car for Sue to get.  I thought I could carry the two bags from Trader Joe's in safely because it was with my arms at my sides and kind of balanced.

But just after I went through our back gate, I lost my balance, dropped the bags, spun slightly and started falling over.  I broke the fall by grabbing a pipe that supports one of the pergola's legs on my way down.  So I landed on my butt and my head didn't hit the ground.

However, I was too weak to pick myself up.  I pulled out my cell phone and called Sue.  She came out and tried to help me up, but I was in too awkward a position and could not get enough leverage to get my legs under me.  She finally went back in the house, got the walker and with it on one side of me and the pipe on the other I was able to get my legs under me and stand up.  Using the walker I made it to the stairs and was able to get into my room.

Sue made some spaghetti and I went to bed and slept until a few minutes ago.  I started thinking about how I've been facing the end of my life for most of this year.  I can't count the number of times, this year, I've thought that I should get my affairs in order.

Then the title of this song popped into my head.  For some reason I was thinking it was a Marty Robbins song, but this was the only song that popped out at me when I did a search on YouTube.

This has always been one of my favorite Moody Blues songs.  For some reason I kinda relate this song to Kim, I can't remember exactly why.  If I remember right, she really liked the album it was on.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnAbx6sgOY
YouTube (Vevo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USujNc5uPBs
YouTube (Topic): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2dFmFLDnO0

"Rock Lobster" by the B52's

Marz shared my band's (FTP) practice with Shell and she said Shell was reminded of this song.  I thought gave it a listen and thought the keyboard part didn't sound terribly difficult and thought I would try playing along.

But the pins on the cheap-ass USB connector on my MIDI keyboard were still buggered up from last week.  I decided to try straightening them out again and borrowed a pair of needle-nose pliers from Sue.  The needle-nose tips were way too big to get down inside the USB plug.

So I got my tweezers and tried straightening them out as best I could.  I got them to a point where they didn't look too bad.  I was able to plug the USB cable in at least most of the way... as far as I could tell anyway.

I got my laptop and plugged the other end into it.  I was so excited that the power came on the keyboard and it showed up in the audio connections in the Jack dialog box on my laptop.

I hooked up my MR Rack synthesizer to the laptop and connected the keyboard to it.  Nothing!  No MIDI events were being sent to the synth.  :(  :(  :(

I installed a virtual keyboard on my laptop to test the setup.  After a bunch of fucking around with them, I was able to determine that the synth was receiving MIDI events and playing sounds.

I was pretty stressed out at that point and then the keyboard started to tip over, I tried to grab it and knocked some other junk over trying to catch it.  I lost my balance fell into my record cabinet, then tipped sideways, fell into my walker that was sitting there and landed in the middle of the floor.  I laid there and cried for a while.  Eventually, Sue came to see what the rukus was, found me and helped me up.

Later I went to get some groceries but remembered that it was the rehearsal for the Equality Utah Allies Dinner and realized I was going to be late.  I got all stressed because I couldn't remember if it started at 6:30 or 7:00.  So I took off, got there at exactly 6:30 and the parking lot was empty.

My knee was far too messed up after last night at the SunTrapp to do anything but sit there.  I came to the realization that with all the problems I've had with my condition this year there was no way I was going to be able to participate this year.  The odds of my being in a state to perform are extremely slim to none.

And I was in such extreme pain from the MS Hug that I finally couldn't even wait to talk to Mindy or say goodbye to Talia, Melahn and Lisa G.  I had to get home ASAP.

Anyway, this is such a fun song and the video is SO fun too!!!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofkzvM7Skxg

"Moon River" by Rachel Edwards

Again, I feel weird about posting my own stuff, but at this point in my life I feel like I have to do the things that make me happy.  They may suck, but they are mine.  They are part of me.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d28lL0gyDuU

"A Scary Time For Boys" by Lynzy Lab

A friend send me this video and it is spot on.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N34hehRgw9g
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2OBaE_T9K8
YouTube (live): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN-3F8T4t5w

A video from some conservative asshole reacting to it popped up on YouTube and really annoyed me.  I'm not going to even validate it by adding a link.

"One Mint Julip" by The Clovers

I got the DVD of the film Carol and I love it.  This song came on the car radio in the film and I remembered the title but couldn't remember the group.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_(film)

I believe there is at least one problem with the time frame.  The film is set in winter 1952-1953, but stereophonic sound is mentioned in two places in the film.  First, when Terez is in the department store there is an announcement to see the stereo console on display.  Second the desk clerk at the motel says there are stereophonic consoles in the rooms.

But according to wikipedia stereo didn't really become available for mass market until 1957:

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound

Anyway, this is a great song:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFZUC-GfwUY

"Lazy River" by The Mills Brothers

Back of Mills Brothers album and inner sleeve I tried to patch-repair

Sheet of notepad paper and 1207 S. Main today

See my post for Sept. 30th for the front of this album cover.

This is funny way back when I attempted to repair the inner sleeve by taping a sheet from an old note pad that my grandpa Gus had.  I was wondering what was at 1207 South Main now and found it was Nate Wade Subaru on Google Maps.

Note old style of phone numbers DAvis 2-1621, now 322-1621.

The live TV video is with Dean Martin.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zchVgfr9KI8
YouTube (live TV): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rBBRePqMXg

"You Know I'm No Good" by Rachel Edwards

I never in a bazillion years would have thought I would be posting something I did here.  Mindy said last week this was the best female I've ever done with her, so I decided to make it the first female vocal I posted to my YouTube channel.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVJHuotD74Y