Hey Hey I Am Or Was Lazy Today (06/22/13)....

Just kicking back tonight listening to Ronny Mack on the overnight and trying to figure out how I will be more productive on Sunday than I was today. LOL.

Let's just say that I did not set the bar too high today. After sleeping about 2.5 hours last night I headed over for my monthly massage with Becky at Massage Envy. She asked me where I was sore and I gave her the usual I am tight all over once again. She laughed and said that's the usual on my long body. She focused on my neck for a while and asked if I am one of those side sleepers that's put an arm under the pillow. LOL. She obviously knows something about the cause of the stiffness on the right side of my neck. For a lady that may weigh less than half of what I do and is about a foot and half shorter she sure uses her strength well as I walk out of there loose as a goose and feeling great for a couple of days until my bad habits screw everything up.

After the session I headed over to Costco and dropped a few hundred on the usual weird grocery orders that I do. I did pick-up a GPS thingee for the car as Harrison since getting onto my insurance policy early this week has decided that he needs my car every day to get out and about. Turns out his sense of direction came from my DNA as he is also getting lost or going out of his way to get somewhere. Last night he was on his way to Spartanburg to pick up someone up that was in Greer. Nothing like going past 3 or 4 exits later on the highway and then back tracking on regional roads to get to where you want to be. I figure the GPS will help him. It'll help me as well. LOL. Hopefully he figures out how to fill up the gas tank as well seeing his propensity to drive the car this week. I did notice that my latest fill up is disappearing but quick.

Well that pretty much sums up what I did today activity wise. I had a massage and went to Costco. Had a nap or two to build back up the sleep deprivation bank and watched my Nats get blown out by the Colorado Rockies. Man oh man it is hard to watch Dan Haren pitch. He is such a stand-up guy but his splitter isn't splitting and is often ending up over the fence.

I not only follow my Nats on MLB but as well on DC website MASN and love posting there as the games go on. It gives me a chance to either cheer or vent on how the team and the games are going on a franchise that I have been following for 43 years. I've decided though after last night that it just isn't worth it when faced with infantile behavior displayed by someone whose lack of intelligence is on display regularly on the site. I questioned some of his more ridiculous comments and this amoeba (Piero B) called me out in Italian like a 7 or 8 yr. old in a playground somewhere and wants to have a fight. What an effing dumbass! First of all to post in Italian thinking that people wouldn't understand and secondly to call me out for a fight. This is supposedly a grown man hiding behind some fake avatar with some fake name acting brave. I hate effing internet bullies and especially hate people that post on websites hiding behind some fake identity spewing their filth and fake outrage while not having the balls, backbone and cojones to do so without using some fake identity. Fucking loser cowards! LOL.

Okay enough venting about that. Suffice to say I was not happy that my Nats also lost today 7-1 and are back at the mediocre level of winning one and losing one. Winning two and losing two.

Anyways time for some midnight munchies. Peace out rock and rollers and don't forget that we still have one day left in the glorious weekend!

Meandering On A Sunday Morning..Another Word For Babbling... (06/16/2013)

Well I am on coffee Kahlua number two this morning and I already have a load of whites in the dryer and am fixing (haha) to get a load of darks into the washer. I used fixing in a sentence just now and earlier this week I used y'all in a sentence; it's official I have been southernized. LOL. Next I will be asking for grits with my eggs. Okay that will never ever effen happen! I have been down that road less traveled a time or two and I was definitely a lost soul in the papier mache taste land.

I even folded the cloth dinner place mats that have been sitting on the dryer for the last month or so. It could be even longer that they were there actually as I know that whites have ended up on top of those several times in the last couple of months. It is absolutely incredible or perhaps ludicrous is a better word how I can put off doing things that literally take minutes to fix, clean, put away, etc. etc. and then bemoan the fact that my house is a tip. LOL. Maybe I like being a whiny bald man. Emphasis on whiny.

Music on the radio is getting interesting once again. Love hearing bands like The National, The Barr Brothers, City and Colour, Mumford and Sons, Half Moon Run, etc. The focus seems to be on the lyrics and understated musicianship. Throw in new stuff from Muse, The Queens of the Stone Age and The Foo Fighters and it's fun to turn on the radio and find out what's next on the radio dial. Not always the same old same old.

In my lazy mode yesterday I happened upon a Cheers retrospective on one of those TV stations that I have that helps explain why the TV part of my Charter bill is over $100. Anyways the part I caught was about all these famous people that have had guest appearances or cameo roles. One of them that brought the memory machine back into operation was the Evan Drake character played by Tom Skerritt. I googled him afterwards as I haven't seen him in too many things lately at all. Turns out that he is 79 yrs. old. Geez Louise I still picture him as Mike "Viper" Metcalf in 1986's "Top Gun". Wow time flies when you are busy living and accumulating debt. LOL.

I guess that today I will have to mow the back part that passes off as a lawn. Ms. Carolyn will be happy that I do so. I should get out there in the next little bit before it gets ridiculously sticky. I did the front yesterday late in the day and I got totally soaked in sweat. Not a pretty sight to have this 51 yr. old man's body in a totally soaked t-shirt form fitting what used to be a fit body. Yeah live well be well my derriere! LOL.

Okay rock and rollers time for breakfast and perhaps another coffee Kahlua. Perhaps. Haha. How about effing likely! Peace out and don't forget to brush your teeth from time to get rid of that broccoli bit you had in your salad one day last week!

Just Another Saturday State Of The Marc Ramble (06/15/2013)....

So two weeks from now I will be somewhere in Georgia on Interstate 75 heading south on my way to a one week vacation on Sanibel Island. Good Gawd I am looking forward to the recuperative powers of the warm Gulf of Mexico waters and eating at places like Doc Ford's, The Island Cow, Key Lime Bistro and the Sunshine Seafood Cafe & Wine Bar. I may need to get a couple more books to bring along as my unread collection has dwindled down to three. Booked this condo six months ago and finally "the Rock has come back to Sanibel". Haha. Okay the Schliv works better there as it will actually be me and not Dwayne Johnson heading there.

I headed downtown last night to have a couple of beers and catch some live music at Main Street Fridays. They had a smooth jazz band playing and while the musicianship seemed good especially the horn section; after three songs I was bored silly. Perhaps I am just uncouth but I need my rock and roll or reggae to get into the weekend frame of mind. Smooth jazz works for me on Sunday nights. I finished my beer but quick and headed back home with a quick bite to eat detour at Bailey's. I really really wanted some Mediterranean or Middle Eastern food last night but at 930pm the options are rather limited here in Greenville. No Kojax, Maison Grec, Amir, etc. etc. to be found. LOL. No couscous for you to paraphrase the soup guy on Seinfeld. LOL.

I've no big plans today. Lots of cleaning up around the friendly confines of Schlewing-stan and working outside to burn off those beer calories of mine. Going to make a super duper fruit salad and think of tonight's grilling options. I think mahi mahi and grilled asparagus spears are in my near future.

One thing I know for sure is that in order for me to clean up some I need to get off the darn computer to do this as BooBoo Dammit and Jynx Schlewing don't seem to be in the mood to help do some of the chores. Cats have a good life.

Peace out Derek and the Dominos fans aka rock and rollers and remember to not under any circumstances text while drinking spirits. Ha!

An Ode To The Last Day of School (06/07/13)....

So I was driving home last night from work and passed in front of Plain Elementary on Neely Ferry Rd. just around the corner from my house and realized that yesterday was the greatest day of all days except for Christmas on an annual basis from the ages of 5 to let's say 17 or 18 yrs. old.

Yesterday was the last day of school for the elementary, middle and high school kids in Greenville County. It made me smile as I drove by and flashbacked to the positive memories of that last day of school way back in 1967 at Bannantyne Elementary in Verdun to 1979 when I graduated from WLHS in Chomedey.

Back then in the olden days (haha) we didn't have three half days of school to end the year like they do here. We had full days and let me tell you that last day of school for the year was most likely the longest day ever in the annals of childhood. In those days each classroom had a large clock and I swear that the second hand on that clock was going backwards. It felt like the day would never end.

In 1972, Vincent Furnier along with four other men living near the Motor City penned the ultimate paean to the end of the school year. Yes that was the year that "School's Out" was released by the Alice Cooper Band. That song became the end of school year anthem for the rest of my elementary and high school days. I know that this song is as relevant today as it was back then. Not sure if today's students even know of it though given the crap I hear coming from people's cars these days. Yeah yeah I am getting old. Whatever!

The last day of school signified about 10 weeks of sleeping in, staying up late, playing pick-up baseball games at Montcalm Park or going to the public pool that they had there. It was time for bike rides and three hour games of hide and seek. It was time to play Strat-O-Matic or Risk and use the ultimate strategic flip of the board game when Kamchatka was about to invaded and you were heading to an inglorious defeat. It was time to listen to CHOM and call-in incessantly trying to reach a deejay to play your favorite song. We had rotary phones. Speed dials didn't exist. It was time to listen to Russ Taylor and Dave Van Horne on CFCF radio for the Expos games. It was a time of year that the only work or chore obligations I had was delivering the Montreal Star in the late afternoon and bringing my youngest brother (Rene) to the park. It was the time of the year to hang out on the Levitt's porch or the Voronoff's porch on Parkway Drive for hours on end and debate sports as if our lives depended on it.

It was bliss and it was the end of the school year until the Tuesday after Labor Day. The good old days when being grown-up didn't seem like all that much fun as it involved going to work and not having ten weeks off. Ha!

Peace out rock and rollers and don't forget to have your pets neutered. LOL.

Ouch At 345AM (06/02/13)...

So I started off my day at around 345am. LOL. Yes 345am. I woke up thirsty and figured I'd go get a glass of water or something. Well not something. Just water. Anyways I swing myself out of bed and for some reason I managed to bang my right knee on the dresser on the right side of my bed. Let's just say that a choice 4-letter word escaped my lips rather loudly. Here's a hint. It starts with F and ends with K. If the other humanoid in this house along with the two felines were sleeping my bellow changed all that but quick. Once I was able to speak through the pain; I apologized to all in the house. LOL.

I ended up staying up for a couple of hours listening to my man Ronny Mack online on CHOM and reading a Brad Thor novel who's title escapes me now. I am sure it will come to me soon. It's a quick read. Typical for Brad's novels. It reminds me a bit of a Jason Bourne adventure only his protagonist is named Scot Horvath. I kind of picture a younger Scott Glenn type as the Scot Horvath in any future movie productions. I went back to sleep at 630. It's no wonder that I have weird sleep patterns during the week as this is kind of typical for me on weekends.

Today I need to be a domestic gawd! I have much laundry to do. The house definitely can use a sprucing up. I will likely head outside and work on what I call my lawn. I am going to make another sauce for pasta this morning. I have most of the ingredients handy. I would be having pasta for breakfast had I prepared it yesterday like I originally thought I would have done. I love pasta as a mid-morning breakfast lunch thing. Call me weird. LOL. I have been called weirder.

I need to get busy. Peace out rock and rollers and don't forget the deodorant.....

Darius Rucker at Charter Amphitheater (06/01/13)....

Let me first say that in no way is this a professional review of last night's amazing performance by Darius Rucker at the pretty close to sold out Charter Amphitheater. I would love to say that the local paper reviewed the show but I guessed that they deemed it was not fit to print as they were likely reviewing some event that had 225 people attend. Turns out that the attendance for Darius Rucker was 11,941. That's the biggest crowd yet at the Amphitheater.Impressive!

I would love to say that I could review this professionally but I had too many $9 beers and was too busy making up the words to various songs that were being performed last night to come up with flowery "blahblahs" pretending I am a connoisseur. I walked into this show having heard his "country pop" stuff but besides "The Come Back Song" I don't really know the lyrics. Hence my making up the lyrics.

So I got home around 530 and got into my customary t-shirt, shorts and sandals with the shades on and my backward facing Road Warriors ballcap and had a quick Yuengling or two and I was off to the show.

This is the first concert I have attended solo since either September 1st or 2nd, 1979 at the old Montreal Forum when I was staying at my "Ma Tante Exilda's" flat in Point St. Charles. I told her something about meeting some friends at the movies and instead I hightailed it on the bus to see the Bee Gees on their "Spirits Having Flown" tour. I even wore my white Lee painters pants in homage to the Brothers Gibb.

Okay enough memory lane stuff and back to the present. LOL.

The venue kept posting updates on their Facebook page letting concertgoers know that they needed to make every effort to get there early as they were expecting an overflow crowd. They weren't kidding. This was my 5th or 6th event at the venue and it was definitely crowded. The biggest issue is getting into the place. There is only one way in it seems and they should really try to make it two lanes going in so that it doesn't take 30 minutes to park your car. It amazes me that you can drive on I85 at 60mph and have 8 cars on your ass behind you and then when you are stopped at a light or in a line to park people give you 20-30 feet between cars. Here's a newsflash that open space between cars would make a whole lot more sense on the highway than when stuck in traffic. That is just my two cents here. Ha! One thing I will note for the next show I attend there is to take the opportunity to tailgate prior to the show. I think I would like to partake in that tradition. It would be a cheaper way to eat and drink prior to the show rather than pay what they charge in the venue.

The unenviable task of opening the show went to Jana Kramer who has charted a couple of country hits it seems. People were still streaming in when her set started and she tried hard to get the audience involved but it is dauntingly hard to do so when half the audience attends a concert as a social event to stand around talking with friends or better yet texting. I think people nowadays spend half their time looking at their phones rather than what's going around them in real-life. Her set lasted about a half hour and mostly featured to my uneducated country ear the typical female country artist type sound. Not saying it is bad. Just not my thing.

Next on the bill was Justin "Mr. NRA" Moore. He definitely makes his viewpoint heard in his song selection and his blatantly inaccurate political commentary. It's like shut up and play your music! Trying to curry favor with the redneck element attending last night pretty much leaves out 97% of the normal people that were there at the show. Yeah your comments were real popular with the confederate flag t-shirt wearing chewing tobacco types drinking Bud Lights. Congratulations are in order. LOL.

I will say that I prefer his country rock sound more than the typical country twang I sometimes hear. He and his band did an amazing cover of Joe Cocker's classic "With A Little Help From My Friends". It's too bad that the social set at the show were too busy taking pictures of their painted toenails to send to friends or acquaintances sitting ten feet away because had they listened they would have been impressed. I know I was!

At about 945 the light show started on stage along with the sound of a heartbeat going faster and faster until all the lights came on and there was the almost hometown act on the stage front and center. He led off the show with "Heartbreak Road" off the new True Believers disc which led into "Alright" which was the 3rd single released from 2008's "Learn to Live". Definitely country feels to those songs. A bit of a stretch from his Hootie days that's for sure.

He then slowed it a down with his first number one hit on the country charts from 2008's "Learn To Live". "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" was the first #1 from a black or African-American artist since Charley Pride's 1983 "Night Games". The song title is a tongue twister. LOL. Nice song. Kind of middle of the road ballad-y stuff.

Then Darius got me singing and dancing (or shuffling) to his version of Steve Miller's classic "The Joker". Some people call me Maurice...whoo hoo...LOL. Definitely a highlight for me last night. Fun, fun, fun!

Then came "Come Back Song" from his "Charleston, SC 1966" disc in 2010. This was another crowd pleaser and continued the good time vibe that was definitely taking over the crowd. By this time everyone was up singing and dancing. Nice feeling to be a crowd of 10,000 plus feeling positive! He then followed up with "Southern State of Mind" from the same disc. Love that line about asking a waitress in a NYC diner for some sweet tea. LOL. So true.

Then the tempo slowed down a bit with Rucker's paean to seeing his daughter growing up "It Won't Be Like This For Long". A nice song. Nothing too original but a good sentiment nevertheless.

Then the first of three Hootie songs showed up. "Only Wanted To Be With You" from 1994's "Cracked Rear View". Another one of those singalongs from the faithful in the crowd. Then he went back to his new disc with "Lost In You" which is another pretty ballad. This led into an amazing version of "Let Her Cry" which started with Darius alone on stage with single spotlight on him. That song will never get old for me. A true heartache song! He followed that up with the ballad "History In The Making". Another pretty song that to me showcases his baritone rather effectively.

Tempo picked up again with "Hold My Hand" from his Hootie days. Darius Rucker definitely knows how to pace his shows. Couple of girl-boy songs. Couple of country rocker type songs. Couple of singalong songs. Excellent act live and his band is tight as hell. They followed up with "This" from the "Charleston" disc. Another crowd favorite there. Or here. LOL.

He then brought Jana Kramer and Justin Moore back out and they all covered Hank Williams Jr. 1979 "Family Tradition". Now that is definitely a party song with the singalong "get drunk, get stoned and get laid" call and response with the crowd. I went southern there for a brief moment in time. LOL. A brief moment in time. The beers helped. Ha!

He finished up the show the pre-encore part of the show with the anthemic title cut "True Believers". I had not heard this song before last night and I really enjoyed it. One of those start slow and build up songs that I tend to like.

Then the encores shortly after 11pm. Started off with the opening licks from the instantly recognizable southern anthem for the years 2000 and up "Wagon Wheel". I think that Bob Dylan and Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show are enjoying the royalties from this recent #1 hit. The line "heading west from Cumberland Gap to Johnson City, Tennessee" is something to be heard when 10,000 people are singing it. Truly a unique moment!

As has been the norm for the last couple of years, Darius ends his shows with Prince's epic "Purple Rain". Man oh man the band and he do it justice. The guitar solos, the organ/keyboard lines, the cymbal crashes and the heartache of the lyrics being sung. Amazing rendition. Simply amazing!

All in all Darius Rucker put on an amazing performance of 17 or so songs lasting an hour and half showcasing his vocal strengths and his great backing band. Definitely was a great great show. Peace out rock and rollers...