Spitball Army

Real critters spotted by our intrepid wildlife correspondent in the swimming pools of Birmingham, Alabama.

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Besides other humans, dogs are probably the smartest animals that we come in contact with on a daily basis. I’ve known some dogs that are most definitely smarter than some humans I’ve known, but that’s another story. Dogs play with us, they keep us company, and they make us happy. It is no surprise, then, that after humans (in, for instance, love songs and murder ballads), the next most popular animal represented in song is man’s best friend.

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Here’s another video clip from Josh Ritter’s April 16th in-store at Laser’s Edge. This one doesn’t suffer from the shaky and unsure camera work that characterized “Wings.” This performance of “Bone of Song” features a nice, delicate little guitar break beginning around 1:50.

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Josh Ritter, not long after the release of 2003’s Hello Starling, performing a solo acoustic set at Laser’s Edge in Birmingham, Alabama. This video contains the last half of his song, “Wings,” in a very, very quiet – but far from empty – room.

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An in-store performance by Ben Kweller, at Laser’s Edge Compact Discs in Birmingham, Alabama, on 22 April 2004. Ben pauses mid-song to point out the Led Zeppelin boxed set sitting on the rack.

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The two buttons above were created to help promote a couple of stage productions put on by Harvard theatrical groups while I was an undergrad, between 1978 and 1982.

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I missed most of opening act Ron Sexsmith’s set because I foolishly went to eat a Japanese dinner with several music business folks. After getting no service, I excused myself and headed downtown; otherwise, I would have missed Ron’s set completely.

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I accompanied a writer from one of our local papers to this concert. It was, by every performance measure, a really good show, and was one of the tours when it seemed that Elton had realized that there were more people who wanted to hear his moldy oldies and album cuts than wanted to hear dreck like “The One” and “Something About the Way You Look Tonight.”

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I’ve mentioned casually several times on this blog that there are piles of things throughout my house. If you’ve been there, you know the condition; if you haven’t, there may be room for you to visit in the near future. I have been going through all the “stuff” inch by inch. There is so much of it! Here, for instance, are some ticket stubs that I have been hanging onto for some reason…maybe just to provide material for a series of blog posts!

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Birmingham Magazine’s online music column recently proposed a playlist that would take listeners on a journey through the South. In addition to posting their list, they opened up for reader submissions. I posted one…

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