Friday, January 23, 2009

Friday Thoughts

1. Queen. Every time I hear Freddie Mercury sing, I understand religion. I also mourn. Damn, what a beautiful miracle is that man's voice. Here's what I wonder, though: if we can stipulate that Freddie's voice is what made Queen a transcendent band and not merely a great one, if we can stipulate that a Freddie solo record would lack something, what is the SECOND element that makes Queen so fantastic? Lyrics? Backing vocals? Brian May's innovation? Brian May's slightly harder edge serving as counterpoint? John Deacon on the bass?

2. Closing up the penultimate show of Weekend America. Having done both in the past year, I observe that ending a show is similar to moving out of town. There is sorrow, there is a deathy feeling, but there is also hope for the next thing. I'm looking forward to saying hello instead of all these goodbyes.

3. Microsoft laying people off? Microsoft?! For college educated types from Seattle, Microsoft is like the post office. As the saying goes, if all else fails, there's always work at the post office. In my case, that's been the big Redmond company. Unnerving. Odd. Also, probably not as big a deal as people make it out to be.

4, Thought I had this morning: you know what we need around here? More snow. And now it's snowing. So I'm...adjusting?

5. It did warm up, though, and we heard birds singing and saw the bunnies out in the yard again. Spring will happen, pitchers and catchers report in less than a month.

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7 comments:

Bill said...

Was it on Weekend America that I learned Brian May is now DR. Brian May. He finally finished his Doctorate in Astrophysics...

Nope, it was that OTHER canceled show...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90273890

Bill said...

I've always said that cold has NO EXCUSE for being unless it brings snow...

Lot's of life-halting snow.

Anonymous said...

So John, will you move back to Seattle? Come back to KUOW ? Please, let there be SOME good news out of all of this...

The Man Who Couldn't Blog said...

Hi John. Matthew from University Book Store here. Best Reuben recipe I know is from Ann Arbor's Zingerman's:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_26407,00.html

Anonymous said...

Steve weathered the layoffs and still has a job. But, his department got hit pretty hard. They lost a bunch of folks.

Anonymous said...

"Lost" had me lost after the first year of episodes. Now I can't even understand their re-caps. I'm hated by my family because I have to keep asking questions about who a character is or where did she come from. I gave up after last season.

Your NPR program was great. New and more exciting things are coming your way. Have you thought about writing a book about your kids? Automatic best seller!

Amanda from Georgia said...

Queen is just one of those lightning in a bottle experiences where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Why? I'm not sure either.