Freewheelin'

There are a number of happenings in the news right now, but I only feel qualified to comment on the following:

Bob Dylan's Neighbors Sing Outhouse Blues

Apparently Bob Dylan put up an outhouse on his property and it is stinking up the neighborhood, forcing them to complain.  No, it's not a slow news day.  There's taxes on bonuses, abuse of power in Toledo area police departments, pleas to Iranian governments.  But, somehow, a passive agressive neighbor feud snuck through.

At the end of the article, it speaks of how, in a previous incident, Mr. Dylan got around accessibility requirements for his guardhouse by providing a written note to county officials promising he wouldn't hire any handicapped people.

Sigh.

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Brian: Stewie, you’re just judgmentally quoting Bible verses and you don’t even know how to read.
Stewie: Welcome to America, Brian!

Weekend Waxing - Bartering for Nettie Moore

Song: Bartering Time Again
Artist: Eric Dude
Game: Dragon Warrior II

An LG Chocolate 3 has netted me my first mp3 player. The CD Player in my car has been broken for probably a year now. As a result, I've spent this past year very far away from music, which is strange for someone who is a musician, I guess. I've filled my time with other hobbies and time commitments, but I always look at my dusty guitar and borrowed banjo in the corner of my room wondering if today's the day I pick it up again. Twenty four hours a day don't seem like enough anymore. I've got nearly thirty years worth of hours, but I don't seem to have traded them in as wisely as I should've.

One of the first CD's I transferred over to my Chocolate was Bob Dylan's Modern Times. It took only a few moments to realize how much I really missed music. But, I guess it hit me hard when it came to his song "Nettie Moore". This was a song that I had completely forgotten existed, but as soon as the chorus hit, I was singing along remembering the tragic life of poor Nettie.

Nettie Moore is a reference to a very old folk tune of the same name. During the time of slavery, poor Nettie was a slave and had fallen in love with another slave. This slave she loved is the author of the tune, and he also had fallen hard for her. By a little white cottage, he "often sat and listened... to the voice of pretty Nettie Moore." However:

one sunny morn in Autumn...
came a trader up from Louisiana Bay...
who gave to master money...
and then he took her off to work her life away.

Now, he sings of how much he misses her, telling everyone, "The busy days are long... for you're gone from our little cottage home."

Dylan throws two lines into the chorus:

I loved you then and ever shall
But there's no one here that's left to tell

Everytime "I miss you!" is screamed, with every expression of loneliness, and with every set of new ears willing to listen, the frail memories bloom again and the trail between now and then seems not so long. Unfortunately, one can phrase how much another is missed in only so many ways. When there's nothing new to say and no one new to listen, the memories fade and the world moves on.

Dragon Warrior II was a long time ago; 1990 to be exact. I don't want all of it back, but I need some of it. No one told me what was being left behind and what we could keep. I am in no way unhappy with where I stand now, but there's a lot I would trade in for just a little, if I could.

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Did he just say, "Blessed are the cheesemakers?"