First Post

This is going to be a work in progress, until I get my footing about the technical aspects of the blog down, and the focus of what to post. My initial intention was nothing original, just a venue to write about some of the music I have been listening too lately. While that may be easy enough, here is a quick list of (some) of the music I have acquired in the month of October:

1. Shreveport Southern Soul - The Murco Story
2. CocoRosie - Noah's Ark
3. Ted Nash - La Espada De La Noche
4. Wayne Shorter - The All Seeing Eye
5. Portastatic - Bright Ideas
6. Marty Erlich - News On The Rail
7. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
8. Greg Dulli - Amber Headlights
9. Children of Nuggets - Original Artyfacts from the Second Psychedelic Era
10. Atmosphere - God Loves Ugly
11. Slint - Spiderland
12. Sonny Clark - Dial 'S' for Sonny
13. Joe Henry - Tiny Voices
14. Betty LaVette - I've Got My Own Hell To Raise
15. The Roots - Tipping Point
16. Liz Phair - Liz Phair
17. Martina McBride - Timeless
18. Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
19. Iron and Wine/Calexico - In The Reins
20. Happy Apple - The Peace Between Our Companies

Do I like all of it? Don't know. Hell, I can't say I've even heard all of it. But I want to. That was part of my intent for the blog - to force myself to sit long enough to give the music I acquire a well deserved listen before I move on to the next thing.

Most blogs about music that I've seen tend to focus on one style of music, the writer's favorite. Which is fine - they should write about what they love. Myself, I tend to devour styles and artists like I may never hear them again. So I'll go through a Barbra Streisand phase, then a funk phase, then decide Wham! was it, then zip through all nine Beethoven Symphonies - no, I need to hear all the Blue Note albums featuring Grachan Moncur, just after I listen to this Carter Family compilation. You get the picture.

It's a great big musical world out there. Forty thousand plus albums get released every year. I want to hear every damn one of them.

Now that I've stated what the blog is about, I need to say, that that might not be what the blog is about. Brenda gave birth to our third child on October 9. If I'd been quicker, I would have named him after John Lennon, with whom he shares a birthday, but alas, I settled for Leö Gerard.
He's a total joy to have in the house, and Brenda and I are so happy with the way Jack and Will have taken to him. Leö was born with a ventricular septal defect, a large hole in his heart, that will require surgery in several weeks. He is eating well and is healthy despite this, so our main focus (besides knowing more as much about this procedure as possible) is to fatten the boy up so he's big and healthy when it is time for the operation.

Leö also has Down Syndrome, so that is a second step in our education process with this third child. We have already received a wealth of information from friends and from the the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota, and add to that Brenda's special ed background, and we're still not quite prepared for the road ahead with this little guy. But we're looking forward to seeing where it takes the five of us.