LP #17 Gordon Lightfoot – The Way I Feel (1967)

This was another early LP purchase (at the bookstore in the basement of the college center) once I arrived at college. I was feeling pretty adventurous back then with my record purchases – I’m not sure if I’d heard any of these songs before, although I was probably familiar with better-known Lightfoot tracks such as “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me”, which were both covered by Peter, Paul & Mary. Lightfoot’s voice is still in great shape here, the arrangements are effective, and the songs (all written or co-written by Gordon) are great. Over time, I wound up buying all of his albums that I had missed, and picked up new ones as they came out through the end of the Seventies. (WARNING: Stay away from the Gord’s Gold collection, on which many of the tracks are re-recordings.)

 

Favorite tracks:

Canadian Railroad Trilogy

The Way I Feel

Softly

Crossroads

Song For A Winter’s Night

Squid Jiggers w/ Side By Side, El Golfo Restaurant (Silver Spring MD, WFMA showcase), 4/12/2015

Highlights – excellent Salmon Pacifico … arriving just in time to get one of the few remaining spaces in the restaurant parking lot … Side By Side performances of “Leviathan” and “Unchained Melody” … Squid Jiggers doing “Squid Jigging Ground” to open (of course), plus “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “I’ze The B’y”

 

Other – Side By Side announced the upcoming end of their 31-year partnership (Doris is moving to “paradise”, exact location unspecified) … Squid Jiggers insisted on sing-alongs on nearly every song

April 9, 2015 – Mets 6, Nationals 3 – Nationals Park

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_04_09_nynmlb_wasmlb_1#gid=2015_04_09_nynmlb_wasmlb_1&mode=wrap

 

Umpires: HP: Tim Timmons. 1B: Todd Tichenor. 2B: Tim Welke. 3B: Mike Everitt.

Weather: 47 degrees, cloudy.

Wind: 8 mph, Out to RF.

T: 2:54.

Att: 25,327.

Section 416, Row C, Seat 1 (in our “regular” seats for the first time)

 

Highlights – “Uptown Funk” for the seventh-inning stretch … no rain, despite the gray skies

 

Other – Nats “offense” completely shut down by Matt Harvey (first regular-season start after Tommy John surgery) … another Desmond error, this one on a likely double-play grounder … Strasburg unable to limit the damage, leading to a 4-run third inning for the Mets (3 of which were unearned), and giving up two more runs before being lifted in the top of the sixth … cinnamon pretzel bites were definitely not at their best either

April 6, 2015 – Mets 3, Nationals 1 (Opening Day) – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/116692890/max-scherzer-undeterred-by-hiccup-in-nationals-debut

 

Umpires: HP: Tim Welke. 1B: Tim Timmons. 2B: Chris Segal. 3B: Todd Tichenor.

Weather: 76 degrees, sunny.

Wind: 14 mph, Out to CF.

T: 2:35.

Att: 42,295.

Section 420, Row J, Seat 26 – upper level out beyond first base, but not bad overall

 

Highlights – great weather … got to the old lot HH before it filled up (after failing to find a parking place at the Shady Grove Metro) … got to the stadium just in time to get one of the last of the 25,000 10th Anniversary Commemorative Collectors Tins … the usual Opening Day ceremonies and announcements … the Nats’ three hits (leadoff single by Taylor in the 1^st, homer by Harper in the 4^th, single by Harper in the 6^th) … nice debut for Max Scherzer … brisk pace of play

 

Other – the Nationals offense (except as noted above) … two Desmond errors that led to the 3 Mets unearned runs … waiting over 20 minutes to get into the old lot HH to park

April 4, 2015 – Yankees 4, Nationals 3 (exhibition) – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/116345110/chris-youngs-homer-for-yankees-negates-strong-start-by-nationals-doug-fister

 

Weather: 57 degrees, partly cloudy, 17 MPH wind left to right

Time: 2:46

Attendance: 36,998 (game was included in all season-ticket packages, not nearly that many bodies in the stands)

Section 416, Row N, Seat 20

 

Highlights – new Subway on M near Half Street finally open (and $6 footlongs all month!) … list of 10-year season ticket holders is posted on both lower level (beyond the Jammin Island stand in centerfield, just under the grandstand) and upper level (across from section 305) … A-Rod DHs and goes down swinging in all three plate appearances … Nats jump out to 3-0 lead in the first (singles by Taylor and Escobar, 4-pitch walk to Harper, Ryan Zimmerman sac fly, 2-run single by Ramos)

 

Other – seats in topmost row of the section (but with nice river of the river and beyond if you turn around) … windiest I’ve ever felt it at Nats Park … upper-level pretzel stand not open … Yanks come back with 2-run homers by Stephen Drew in the 5^th (off Fister) and by Chris Young (off Storen) in the 8^th for the victory … tree fell on the northbound GW Parkway just beyond route 123 after the game, so I went around the other way (and 295 was painfully slow)

Shuffle #53 (April 4, 2015)

Wooden Ships – Jefferson Airplane

Concierto De Aranjuez – Jim Hall

The Road To Hell – Chris Rea

River’s Gonna Rise – David & David

March 24, 2015 – Phillies 5, Braves 3 – Lake Buena Vista FL

Phils blow early lead, rally for win

 

Weather: 70, cloudy

Time: 3:10

Attendance: 7,304

Section 213, Row J, Seat 3 – upper level, a few rows below the press box, just to the right of home plate, on the aisle (not sure why there were no seats 1 or 2). Very comfortable weather for a game, the lights were on at the start but the sun came out around 2:30.

 

Champion Stadium certainly doesn’t have any small-town charm, but if you can tolerate ESPN / Disney corporate overload – Mickey supervised the ceremonial first pitch – it’s not a bad place to see a ball game. While the main concession stands mostly featured “baskets” (sandwich or other entrée with chips or fries) that ran over ten bucks, I found a decent pork BBQ sandwich for $8.50, along with a bottle of Coke that was a relative bargain at $3.25.

 

The Braves gave three-inning auditions to two of their young starting rotation candidates. Mike Foltynewicz didn’t particularly help himself, giving up a run in the second prior to walking two (including the Phillies pitcher), then yielding back-to-back homers to Ryan Howard in the third. Manny Banuelos, on the other hand, kept the Phils off the scoreboard for the next three innings.

 

Severino Gonzalez got the start for the Phils and made a good impression, working quickly and shutting out Atlanta in his three innings of work. Colton Murray and Paul Clemens extended the shutout through the sixth, but Andrelton Simmons hit a two-run homer off Clemens in the seventh and tied the game later in the inning with a run off Phillippe Aumont. The Phils, however, came back against Luis Vizcaino for two in the top of the eighth, which featured the odd sight of Aumont being allowed to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. (He struck out.)

March 23, 2015 – Nats 7, Yankees 6 – Viera FL

Given the ominous weather forecast, and the over-two-hour round-trip to Viera, I decided to skip this one, figuring there was no more than a 25% chance of getting much baseball in. Naturally, things cleared up some, and they got the game in without interruption (I listened to the radio broadcast), although I believe there was some rain here and there.

Serendipity #32

Do-Wah-Diddy – The Exciters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn6ho_R4soA

Heard 3/23/2015 around 7:00, playing in Old Town Kissimmee

Shuffle #52 (March 23, 2015)

Oye Como Va – Santana

The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff

Raise It Up – The IMPACT Repertory Theatre & Jamia Simone Nash

Bring Me Some Water – Melissa Etheridge

Been To Canaan – Carole King

The Way – Ariana Grande

Paper Thin – John Hiatt

Where The Boys Are – Connie Francis

Your Fire Your Soul – Dar Williams

Kiss This Thing Goodbye – Del Amitri