Giving Thanks for Family, Friends
Like most of us, Val and I were fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving in a relatively quiet manner, with our family. Val and I picked my mother Sheila up and went to Val's sister Tricia's house, where she, her husband Brad and their son, Jack, almost 2, entertained us along with Val and Tricia's mother, Janice; the meal and company were wonderful.My Thanksgiving started a bit earlier than expected with a nice surprise.
Walker Evans, who is feeling much better, thank you, started barking around 9 a.m., which woke us up.
I was wondering why he was barking more than he would if a dog or person walked by the house when Val said, "I think I heard the doorbell, hon." I hadn't heard the doorbell, but it made sense, so I headed downstairs to check and, if nothing/no one was there, to start the dog's food.
I looked out the front door as I got down the stairs; I saw nothing at first, then a bald head I immediately recognized.
I went to the door and greeted Prego and Prego Pup from Rust Belt Ramblings. Apparently, Mrs. Prego was getting rather, er, intense about the Thanksgiving preparations (roast duck at their house), so Prego figured a little bit of air and company of a dog were good things.
We ended up talking about a half hour in much warmer and sunnier than expected weather.
Today, Friday, while I was taking Walker Evans on his walk, the driver of a car driving past us on Bryant Street toward Richmond Avenue honked his horn; I turned to look and saw a friend of mine from college, Kurt Hartman, who pulled over and got out of his car to talk. I haven't had the chance to talk to Kurt in years (we knew each other mainly from Student Union Board at Buffalo State College, where he was a big wig and I was a volunteer concert security person and USG Senator/wanker), so we caught up on a lot of things.
It seems like the smaller, unspectacular events around Thanksgiving are the best, like the three above.
I found a tape of theirs (later period) and was cranking it in my car the last few days, with the above lyric included.
The band was made up of Jim Redden on guitar and vocals, Jimmer Phillips on bass and vocals and Jimy Chambers on drums and vocals. While all went on to other bands of some success and renown (most notably Chambers as drummer, percussionist and other contributions to Mercury Rev), the Moment was an amazing blend of Mod, psychedelic, pop, rock and even shades of progressive rock at times.
The band performed a wonderful reunion show 2-3 years ago at Mohawk Place, and I'd love to hear another some day.
Cry away ..
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posted by Kevin J.
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