Tunes this week

This week I've been digging these discs on my commute:
Matthew Sweet, that Japan-only disc he put out last year. I heard he had to write and record this in one week. Most of the musicians from the Girlfriend session are here, and this makes for a sloppy, great return to form.
Smithereens, Especially for You. Home rip and burn of the vinyl debut release from these guys. Excellent power-poppy, kinks-ish bar band stuff. Prime cuts: Strangers When we Meet", "Time and Time Again".
John Cale, Slow Dazzle and Helen of Troy. Former Velvet Underground skronk man puts out a series of killer albums in the mid-seventies. I'm missing Fear, but these two combine enough pure pop, proto-goth, chamber music, and doomsday into each song.

High Chair

My Dad made this high chair for Alice. It's pretty danged nice, and nothing I could ever build in my lifetime (my wood tinkering skills leave a bit to be desired).

The Pants Return!

The Pants are reuniting! For those of us living in Burlington, VT during the mid-nineties who weren't into the Phish/noodle rock thing, there was a thriving, local scene of great bands. Centered around the long-lost Club Toast, each week we could catch great indie-oriented music made right here at home. There were a few camps from the hardcore (Five Seconds Expired, Never Only Once, 12 Times Over, Rocketsled, etc) to indie/shoegaze/dream pop (Wide Wail, Invisible Jet, various bands containing Brad Searles and Colin Clary), weird Zappa pop (Cranial Perch, Outer Mongolia), Charlie Messing's Be That Way, with my brother on drums, and a whole bunch I haven't listed. The top of the heap, the one we all hoped, no, expected, would find greatness, was the Pants. Great guitar pop with off-kilter rhythms and a sense of humor, there was a time when we all looked forward the a Pants gig most weeks in our little town. Well, time wears on us all, and their time turned out to be a bit short.
Ten years later, life is different. I have a wife and baby, have lost interest in the bar scene, and don't get to catch live music anywhere close to as much as I did or would like to. Well thanks to Seven Days we can relive, or at least remember that era in time. May 27, at Higher Ground in South Burlington.

Valentine's corkscrew

So for Valentine's day Julie got me a really cool corkscrew. It's a 'Messermeister Pakkawood'. No fancy rabbit-style gear crap or forced-air drigen stuff. It's just a really well-made, comfortable, beautiful screw.

Alice waves...

So I’m sitting here working on some LostMeadowVT.com content while Julie is sitting across the room with little Alice, just chatting and hanging with her. I said something ti Julie and Alice starts to turn her head around, looking for where that sound is coming from. So I wave to her and give her a little hello voice, and I’ll be damned if she didn’t wave back! Not even nine weeks old, and she’s waving to me. I’ll admit I got a little tear to my eye with it all, but any non-parent would have thought she was just wiggling around.

Alice at Eight Weeks

Alice turned eight weeks old yesterday, and she is a completely different person than she was just a little while ago. And I mean person, as she is no longer just a baby. Well of course she is still a baby, but she is developing a personality a little more every day. I have been back to work for two weeks now, and I have changed my schedule to work four long days a week. Add in a couple of hours or more commuting each day, and I don’t see her much during the work week. So when I do get to spend quality time with her, I notice the changes much more. Julie tells me each night that she smiled more than the day before, or that she reached out and held a toy. When I sit with her in my arms, or watch her under the mobile myself, I can really see it.

She has reached 11 lbs already, up 3 lbs 5 oz since birth just a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it’s felt like that long or not; the sense of time now is still pretty warped. In some ways time moves so slow, especially for Julie who still hasn’t gone back to work. At the same time it flies by; I can barely picture what she looked like in those first couple of weeks. I guess I’ll keep in mind the cliché….remember and enjoy them at this point, because they grow up so quickly. So far it seems like ‘they’ are right, and I’m only two months into this.

Cheap Vinyl

One of the great things about collecting vinyl records is that you can get some really good music for cheap. I mean cheaper than the time you waste downloading MP3’s. Consider how many records were stamped out as commodities from the 1950’s through the late 1980’s. And now many people regard their records as trash, as they replaced them fifteen years ago with worse-sounding cd’s, and now are dumping them onto their ipods as even worse (exponentially so) sounding MP3’s! This is not to mention many of the artists who put out great, undiscovered music which now sits in the cutout bins of history, if it hasn’t hit the dumpster yet. Especially great are some of the indie records from the ‘80s, many to be found as college radio stations dump their collections. With a good cleaning and a new inner sleeve, there is much great music to be had for next to nothing. Here’s just a very small sampling of my finds:
Classical. Tons of this stuff can be had for next to nothing, usually in great shape at yard sales, thrift stores, etc. I’ve gotten a bunch in case I ever need it, and throw it on sometimes to feel smart. Probably haven’t paid more than $0.25 for any one record.
Aretha Franklin, This Girl’s in Love with You, Soul ’69, Spirit in the Dark. Yard sale, $0.10 each in excellent condition.
Thin White Rope, Exploring the Axis, The Ruby Sea, Sack Full of Silver, In the Spanish Cave, Moonhead. Great 80’s guitar band, very Television-like guitar interplay, spooky vocals, incredibly underrated in America. Lead singer went onto a Botany career at UC Davis. This is about 80% of their catalog. $1.00 each
Sidewinders, Auntie Ramos’ Pool Hall, solid indie guitar-pop from Arizona; reminiscent of Soul Asylum, Gin Blossoms, Husker Du. $0.25
Flaming Lips, Telepathic Surgery. Freakout stuff from future greats. $0.25
Chris Mars, 75% Less Fat. Pissed-off pop from former Replacements drummer.$0.25
Smithereens, Especially for You. Pure pop debut LP from these New Jersey/New Mersey greats. Two copies, $1 and $0.25
Posies, Dear 23. Sugary pop from Seattle, this was their big major-label debut which some consider their best. I prefer both Failure and Frosting on the Beater, but this ain’t bad. Two main guys (Auer/Stringfellow) would go on to complete the eventual Big Star reunion. $0.25
Lou Reed, Transformer, Blue Mask. Got these from a guy down the road who had digitized his collection. $3.00 each
Talking Heads, True Stories, Remain in Light. Same guy, $3.00
Just with these last two I’ve scratched the surface of the $4-6 used record store finds, which I’ve loaded up on. Posies Failure? X See How we Are? John Cale Vintage Violence, Slow Dazzle, Helen of Troy, Honi Soit? Rockpile Seconds of Pleasure? XTC Most all of their stuff up through Oranges and Lemons? Just Scratching the surfaces
I’ve just listed of a fraction of my collection of 600 records or so. I’d guess that my average cost for an LP is around $3. For every ten I get for $6 or less (including those for a quarter, or free even) I might buy one or two at $10-15, with the very odd record running up over $20.
In defense of value-priced cd’s I’ll say that I have found a few great bargains in cutout bins, like Television self-titled from 1991, Elliot Smith Figure 8, and Smithereens A Date With… for $1 each.

Beatles Box Set

Originally written January 16, 2006

I have been a music consumer/collector for about twenty years now and I have to make a confession: I don’t own any Beatles albums. That’s actually not true, I picked up a copy of Revolver on LP at Buch Spieler last summer. BUT, before that, I never owned anything by the Fab Four. As a matter of fact I had never even put on one of their albums that belonged to someone else. I guess I always thought their music was ubiquitous, that I would hear it through the course of my life from elsewhere, like Phish and the Steve Miller Band. But the freakin’ Beatles are certainly worthy of spins on my own setup, on my own terms, especially since much of the music I love from the Kinks, Big Star, and the Replacements, to Pernice Brothers, Olivia Tremor Control, and Apple in Stereo is so influenced by them.
So I’m itchin’ to spend some Christmas dough on some new tunes today. I have my Norton Records mail order catalog all scratched up with circled tunes on dogeared pages. Time to get the Ramones first three albums to replace my various cassette copies and cd comps. Oh, and they have the first two New York Dolls records! And the original Velvet Underground records reissued on Verve…I have the first one, but the last two real records I only have on pretty worn cassettes. And of course there’s all those crazy psychobilly/raunch rock comps that Norton specializes in.
SO I’m up at 4:30 AM trying to get little Alice to sleep. I’m dicking around on the computer and poke through eBay. I remember those Beatles Blue Box collections, from the late ‘70s, put out in England (I’ve since learned they were put out all over the place) that contain every studio LP released on Parlophone or Apple. Twelve albums in all, thirteen if you count the second LP in the White Album. It also comes with a rarities/B-sides record. All on what’s considered to be pretty good vinyl/pressing quality, many feel better than the MF$L early eighties pressings which fetch $50-100 per LP. I’ve looked just a little bit at them (the Blue Boxes) on eBay, where they’re not hard to find, and always balked at the cost. Well this morning on was about to go off on a record binge anyway, and I found a set closing on auction in about ½ hour in Australia at a pretty reasonable price. Maybe I could pop in a bid, not too high, but reasonable considering what we were looking at. I did, and I won the auction.
Now I await the arrival of my full Beatles collection. Sure, to be a completist I would need the Magical Mystery Tour and some of the singles collections, handily pulled together on the Red/Blue sets from the early seventies. But for all intents and purposes, I’ve got it all. And what did this set me back, you ask? How about $128 US. Sound like a lot? It’s an absolute bargain to me.

Update February 7, 2006:
I finally received this and have to say it's freakin' great! The Blue Box is a little worn but the jackets are great and the vinyl in near pristine condition. Lately it's been all Beatles, all the time at my house.

Amazing Alice

January 19, 2006
I was feeding Alice in the wee hours of this morning and I again couldn’t be more amazed by her. Here in my arms was a tiny human being who would grow up to have dreams and experiences like we all do. In this little nine-pound sack was the beginning of a whole new life. It all fits in my arms, and is dependent on us for everything. I don’t suggest that I am some superhero, but I now realize the enormity of responsibility that being a parent entails. Everything Alice needs must be given to her, and we as parents will teach her life’s lessons in the hope that she will eventually thrive on her own. I am amazed. And I am disheartened by the (too many) parents out there who don’t get it, and who allow their child to start life at a disadvantage because they couldn’t get it together to realize that this little nine-pound sack is the most important thing in life, period.

Baby Alice comes into this world

Originally written January 17, 2006

My baby girl Alice Cecile Bradshaw was born on December 21, 2005. Julie’s labor was long and painful, as Alice was posterior and most of the pain was felt in Julie’s back for 26+/- hours. We made it through, and Julie held up beautifully, although in that last hour she was obviously in the greatest pain she has ever experienced. After sixteen minutes of pushing, Alice saw her first view of the world outside. Nothing in life can prepare you for the flood of emotion that comes with seeing your child make it into this world. Nothing is so beautiful as a fresh-born child, lying on mama’s chest, feeling the world around her. We owe thanks to Drs. Knowlton and Yanowitch and our nurses Donna S. and especially Denise Parry at Central VT Medical Center for their help with it all.
We had the usual trials that new parents experience upon first coming home, the feelings of joy mixed with helplessness. Our troubles were compounded with Julie’s foot, broken only five days before Alice was born, and Alice’s troubles with latching at the breast. On the latter note, we know that breastfeeding is the best possible choice for a child, and we were committed to it. But Alice was having trouble still, even with the nipple shields recommended by the lactation consultant. The shields prevented Alice from getting a full feed, and Julie from getting full suckling stimulation, so we were supplementing with formula and pumping to maintain a steady milk supply. Those days were rough, with Julie bearing the brunt of the pain. The pressures to breastfeed are strong in our society, and verge on religious dogma, and we were feeling like failures. Alice was thriving because we refused to let her starve and gave her formula when the milk supply wasn’t enough. We finally, after much pain (physical and emotional) decided that what we were doing wasn’t working. Each time we gave Alice a bottle we felt that we were jeopardizing her chances of ever latching successfully, yet every time we tried a latch she wouldn’t, and Julie was getting torn up inside and out. Like everything in life where there are two opposing camps, I feel that the truth lies in the middle, so we began a pump and feed routine which has been working. It means more work in one way, because we have to both pump the milk and feed it through a bottle. But we could pump less often than feeding would be demanded, and I could share in the feedings and split the work up that way. Julie felt that she would be missing out on the bonding experience of having baby at breast, but I get to share some bonding time, and we can now spend more time enjoying our baby and less trying in frustration to get her to latch. She now eats about 85-90% breast milk with an occasional topping up with formula and she is thriving. As far as I’m concerned she is getting the best of both worlds, especially considering the iron source in the formula. Yesterday, at the age of 26 days, she has gone from a birth weight of 7 lbs 11 oz to 9 lbs 2 oz.
Our first scare happened January 3 when Alice lost her appetite, had a fever, and had a case of diarrhea in the middle of the night. I had a cold at the time, and thought she may have caught it. A 3 AM call to the doctor suggested that we lay off the formula and add pedialyte as needed, but she wouldn’t drink it. She was getting enough at feedings and wasn’t dehydrating, and within a day or so she was back to normal. On January 6 she looked okay at her first pediatrician appointment, so we felt we were out of the woods.
On Sunday morning January 8 we were in for another scare as her appetite dropped off, she grew lethargic, and her temperature reached 100.5. A call to the Doc has us go in, and given her age and temp she was admitted to the hospital. Tests were done including blood and spinal cultures, the latter of which scared the hell out of us. That first day and night in the hospital she was pretty rough; sluggish and limp with a poor appetite. We knew that she likely had whatever viral bug I was fighting off, and I was feeling particularly shitty that day, so much that the nurses demanded I not stay at the hospital that night.
Julie had a horrible, worried night with no sleep. Her mom stayed with her at the hospital, but she didn’t sleep a wink. When I got back up there the next morning Alice was doing better; she had an IV in over the night and was on fluids and antibiotics, her fever had for the most part subsided. She was eating a little bit better, and so far the cultures were coming back with no bacterial growth. I stayed with Alice that night and sent a wrecked Julie home for a good night’s rest. She needed it badly, as we were afraid that she would fall apart physically and mentally if she didn’t rest soon. Alice was much better over the course of the night, even being fussy between feeds and eating much better. During our checkup the next morning we learned that all of the cultures were negative for infection, little Alice was fighting off a viral bug, and fighting it off very well. We were back home that Tuesday morning, and continued to give her all of the love and care we cold muster. I was on the mend from the bug, now Julie was coming down with it, so we took care of ourselves as best we could.
Again, there is nothing in life that can prepare you for the joy and beauty of bringing your child into the world, the fear and frustration of bringing her home and learning what to do to make her thrive, and the terror of her being sick at such a tender age. Alice is a true blessing to us, and is the most beautiful creature on the face of this earth. Julie and I are incredibly lucky to be going through this as a loving, committed couple. We are fortunate to have the time off from work to devote to Alice and each other. Having our family and friends as support is a great thing for us. I don’t know how people in lesser circumstances do this. There are many children brought into this world with a much weaker foundation than we have, and it amazes me that so many make it out okay. My appreciation for the blessings I have in life has grown infinitely, as has my love for my wife and daughter. There’s no comparison to anything else in life.

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