Music Monday - "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" - Traffic

For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.



There is nothing more evocative from my high school years than "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys".

I switched from a very alternative, small school that I had attended from pre-school through 8th grade, to a power prep school for high school.

My old school was in Harlem; my new school was in Riverdale (what was really a suburb and extremely nice area). At my old school, we called most of our teachers by their first names; at my new school, everyone was Mr. or Ms. or even Dr. At my old school we did term projects on topics of interest - we built African villages in Central Park, we created a speakeasy for our studies on the 20s, we passed petitions on Hudson River clean-up, we participated in moratoriums against the war. At my new school, we wrote essays, we read Beowulf in the original, we wrote out mathematical equations, we carried masses of textbooks. At my old school, the school song was "Make New Friends, but Keep the Old;" at my new school, it was a theme in Latin that took me until Senior year to get through without a hitch (and I never did understand what all the lyrics meant).

I was, in my own small way, in culture shock.

My parents tried to help by "fixing me up" with a couple of their friends' kids who went to that new school before I entered. And the interesting thing I found out, was that no matter whom I met, when our talk turned to music, as it generally did in those days, Traffic was a constant. And I almost always found the familiar sky blue album cover with the checkered floor somewhere in a new companion's collection.

I got over my culture shock eventually and made many good friends. I was always a "floater" - rather than having a particular group, I had friends in several. The one common denominator continued to be "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys." I could listen to this album in an apartment on Park Avenue with a bunch of preppies, or with my hippie friend, Jose, in his apartment in the South Bronx, with my partying Irish friends in Yonkers, or with my theater crowd on the Upper West Side. It didn't matter. We all liked Traffic, apparently.

And to this day, I can not understand the connection. But maybe you can. If you have some time, listen to the track below. Or maybe you already know it. What do you think is the magic that brought together so many diverse kids of the early, NYC 70s?

PS. For some reason the video isn't posting, so if it doesn't get here, you can find the piece here

What Happened to the Content of Their Character?

I'm angry.

And if you're a citizen of the United States, you should be angry, too.

Our electoral system is irreparably broken, and our elected officials don't seem to care.

This current presidential contest in no way reflects Democracy or a healthy Democratic system, so when Mr. Village Idiot spouts that he would like to spread the American version of Democracy to other, less politically fortunate countries, he's doing his usual head-in-the-sand thing.

I live in Michigan. And I've been a card-carrying Democrat as long as my state's Democratic Governor has been a U.S. citizen, and she is doing everything she can to ensure that my voice won't be heard. She wants her candidate to have the nomination, and she's trying to block the idea of a do-over. (For more on this, see this post).

I read the blog of a wonderful writer from Los Angeles. She's been documenting, beautifully, the racial divide that's getting wider as the Democratic campaign continues.

I have someone I love very much in New York. She's been like a second mother to me over the years. And yet, I'm not sure she's speaking to me right now, because in her eyes I've betrayed my gender with my choice of candidates.

We are lucky to be able to vote for our elected officials. But make no mistake - we are NOT voting directly. And there's tons of party politics between what happens between you and yourself in that voting booth and whether your vote actually counts.

Carville and Dean were on Good Morning America on Thursday spouting about the fact that this election is wonderful for the Democratic party because there's real debate and people are so excited that they just can't decide between two excellent front runners.

Just one question for them: are they on crack?

We all have to vote our conscience. And that should entail looking at the issues and looking at the, yes, as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it, "the content of their characters." Those should be the reasons that we choose our candidates.

Not because of what they have between their legs. Not because of the color of their skin.

I would no more vote for Hilary Clinton because she's a white woman than I would vote for Barack Obama because he's a black man. Nor would I vote for John McCain because he's a white man. I mean, let's face it - there have been some good, white male Presidents. So, that should mean we should all vote for McCain, right?

Sure.

We are already a nation divided by race, economics and religion. We are in crap shape economically, our young people are dying in droves overseas in conflicts that the majority of us do not believe in, our health care system is a mess and our children are failing educationally compared to almost every other industrialized nation.

We are still one of the wealthiest nations in the world and we can't fix these problems?

Well, we sure can't if we are all off in separate camps and refusing to work together. We can't if we don't truly have votes. If our voices can't be heard by Washington. If our majority of votes never rule once the Super Delegates, Electoral College and, yes, some pissant Secretary of State from Florida get involved.

We need majority rule. We need better education so that when we vote we are looking at issues, not categories. We need a Congress of brave human beings who will work for good, rather than for Pork and the next election.

Our system is broken and America is failing.

This needs to be our only priority.

Singular Saturday: The Way Our Current Primary System Is Run Is

DIVISIVE



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One Love for Liv Blog Tour and What's Cooking "Wednesday: "Salmon a la Liv"

Today, we have Marianne Arkins visiting with us. She's the author of One Love for Liv, published by Samhain Publishing. At the moment, One Love for Liv is only available as an e-book, and you can buy it here. I've written about Liv in this post already, and it's a wonderful read.

I asked Marianne some questions about the book, which she graciously answered, and since it's also a What's Cooking Wednesday, I decided to tie that in as well. There's a wonderful scene where Liv, a pampered member of Boston society, is left to cook dinner as part of a cleaning/cooking gig that she's pretending to need (long story, and very funny, and you'll just have to get One Love for Liv and read it yourself to understand what led to these circumstances). The recipe is for salmon poached in a dishwasher (yes, you read that right), and the recipe can be found here. Marianne challenged me to make this for What's Cooking Wednesday, and I was planning to take her up on her challenge, but the flu reared its ugly head, so I made up my own recipe, "Salmon a la Liv," which is posted below. Enjoy the following literary and culinary delights!

1. Frank is a neighbor where Liv has her cleaning/cooking gig, and Frank spends the book trying to break bizarre Guinness world records, which is only one of his many quirks. He's absolutely hysterical. Where on earth did you come up with Frank? Was he someone you knew on any level?

Heavens no! LOL… while I was writing One Love For Liv for NaNoWriMo, I got about a third of the way through and was bored. So I took a trip through the NaNo "dares" forum and found a dare that mentioned having a character trying to break a Guinness Book World Record. I took the dare and twisted it around a little because, of course, my character couldn't be trying to break something as basic as… say… longest time jumping rope.


2. If this hits mega-sales will you open up a posh spa in the Boston area, like the one Liv owns, or will you keep writing? And why?


If I opened up a posh spa, it wouldn't be in Boston. Maybe Calistoga in the Napa Valley of California (possibly one of the most beautiful places in the nation), but not Boston. Why would I want to live in or drive to a big, ugly city every day? *G*



I don't think I could stop writing if I tried. But my DH would sure be glad to retire and spend his days fishing. In fact, he asks me if he can retire with every release I have! LOL…


3. Have you ever lived with a ferret? How did you come up with/research Rett (Rett is the pet of Mike, who mistakenly hires Liv for a cooking/cleaning job)?


I wanted to use an unusual pet in the story, and since I already hat a rat in another WIP, I opted for a different rodent. I had a good friend when I lived in California who had two ferrets named Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (despite ownership of them being illegal there and then) and was endlessly amused by them. They're little thieves who only have two speeds, nuclear and sleep, and are always into everything. Cats' curiosity has nothing on a ferret's.

Well... okay, but ferrets smell! Let me put in a plug for guinea pigs in your next one! Or maybe not, since I have guinea pigs in my mystery.


4. Did you know from the outset what the ending would be, or did your characters "tell" you over time? And no, this doesn't have to be a spoiler.

I always know the ending before I write the book. I'd actually written the ending of this story first, based on a writing prompt I'd stumbled across in a writing group at WVU (Writers Village University). For all intents, it really stayed pretty much the same from the moment I wrote it. I love to write my ending first. Yes, I'm weird.


5. I know you're a huge fan of chocolate. Chocolate and romance novels go together naturally - what chocolate would you pick for One Love for Liv?

I actually have a bar of it right now: Lindt 85% dark chocolate…so bitter your lips pucker when you eat it. It's just short of straight cocoa. And, oh yeah, really yummy. Seriously, for chocolate, the darker the better. In my opinion, white "chocolate" should be outlawed. Or, at the very least, renamed.


6. If you could have any parts of Liv's life, which one would you pick?

Hmmm… can I have Mike (the romantic protag)? LOL… Seriously, I'd really love the ability to have an entire health spa at my beck and call. Massages and pedicures and facials, oh my! I could learn to live that way.

Her condo is pretty nice, too.

Well, folks, there you have it. Marianne has also published a variety of heart warming short stories, and you can find out more about her writing at www.mariannearkins.com or her blog, Reading, Writing and Stuff That Makes Me Crazy. In the meantime, as I've said before, I'd highly recommend Liv - it's a lovely confection of humor, great characters and a nicely-charged love story.

And now for "Salmon a la Liv":



This recipe is based on a recipe from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Mr. Bittman is a food writer for the New York Times and How to Cook Everything, is the closest I have to a cooking bible. He's written several books that are riffs on this theme, and I've often bought How to Cook Everything: The Basics for former students, young relatives, etc., who are starting out in their first taste of adulthood.

I figured this was the perfect recipe for Liv, because it's so easy, even she can't manage to mess it up! The salmon is Bittman's; the sauce is mine.

"Salmon a la Liv"




Ingredients:

for the salmon:
1 1/4 lb. piece of salmon fillet
water
2 heaping TBS salt

for the sauce:
1 large handful of chopped, fresh dill
juice from 1 lime
pepper to taste
pinch of cayenne
1/4 cup lowfat yogurt
a pinch of sea salt

Accompaniments:
whole wheat couscous, made with water, 1 TBS olive oil and a pinch of sea salt (according to package directions)
frozen (or fresh) spinach as a bed for the salmon

Directions:



1. Place salmon fillet in a saucepan that is large enough for the salmon to lie flat. Cover the salmon with cold water. Add 2 heaping TBS sea salt.




Bring to a boil. Take off the heat. Cover. Let sit for 10 minutes - 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the salmon. Remove cover and enjoy. You can chill this first, if you wish to.

2. Wash and chop dill. Put in mixing bowl along with other ingredients. Whisk together. Serve over salmon. Note: You can make this SO many ways - with sour cream instead of yogurt. With lemon juice instead of lime. Cumin instead of cayenne. A bit of soy sauce instead of the spices. This is a sauce that is meant to be played with, so play!

3. While the salmon is still sitting, make couscous according to directions (usually a five-minute process) and cook the spinach, again, according to directions.

4. Plate everything together nicely, and you're done! This dinner can be made, start to finish, in as little as 15 minutes, if you have a thin piece of salmon.

So... Marianne, d'ya think Liv can handle this one?

And now please go to Shan's place for more What's Cooking Wednesday participants.

Music Monday - "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" - the Beatles and William Shatner

For other tales of musical adventure, please visit Soccer Mom in Denial.

Okay, so week two of pure silliness for Music Monday.

My sister was eleven years older than I. When I was very little, none of that made a difference, and I just worshiped her like the puppy dog I was. She was actually my half sister - my father's daughter - and I didn't get to see her as often as I would have liked (which would have been 30 hours out of 24), so when she did come and stay with us, I would trail her in a way that probably drove her crazy.

But as I grew older, jealousy reared its ugly head around Christmas and birthdays. Oh, we were equally loved, and my parents were inherently fair, but darn it, for some reason they felt that a seven-year-old and an 18-year-old might have different needs in terms of presents, and I decided that my sister got all the cool stuff.

I coveted.

And the coveting started with my sister receiving Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I mean, come on, I loved The Beatles, too!

But my sister was a sweetie, and she shared when she was home. And we both loved the record. And even my dad would go around the house whistling "When I'm 64." I loved drawing and painting, though, and by far, my favorite song was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." I had no idea what the actual context/meaning was, of course, but I sure loved those images and had a great time drawing tangerine trees and kaleidoscope eyes.

And my friend showed me this absolutely hysterical version this weekend, so I just had to share it. See it below and let your 60s groove come flying back!

William shatner in Lucy in the sky with diamonds

Singular Saturday: I'd Really Rather Be

READING



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