Everyone has a local bar. Not everyone has THE Local Bar.
Local is one of those places. Strangers are not met here. Everyone is a regular. First time? Have a hello jello shot. A great place to breathe deep on Sunday as you head into the week.
Fun day indeed. Tough out.
I bought a book the other day. Not an eBook. Not an Audiobook. A real, live, physical book. With covers and pages made out of paper. You remember those. Seriously old fashioned.
One thing I noticed right away was the weight of the book. It was a paperback but it was the large format type, and felt heavy. Then I started turning pages. They stick together. Took a few minutes to figure out the whole page turning thing.
Holding it was awkward too. Accustomed to holding a tablet or phone when reading, it was a weird transition to hold a book that had pages and weight and seemingly a mind of its’ own. And then came the process of putting it down.
When reading an eBook it just remembers where you were and opens to that spot. With the book, I was nonplussed. I wanted to close it but didn’t know how I would know which page to go back to. I thought about folding down a corner but it’s a brand new book. I didn’t want to ruin the aesthetic of this vintage piece of history. So I memorized the page number. Thirty-two (32). Still remember it. Not sure how, I can’t tell you what I had for breakfast today.
Then I vaguely remembered a thing from my past…
bookmark noun book·mark\bu̇k-märk or bookmarker\bu̇kmärkər definition: a marker for finding a place in a book
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Of course my bookmark was nothing as fancy or funny as the one pictured. I think it was an old receipt or some other random piece of paper, but it did the trick. I’m still on page 32 but the bookmark will come in handy when I either forget page 32 or I read further into the book.
At any rate, it’s coming back to me, this reading a book thing. And I wasn’t sure at first that I liked it but now I think I quite like it very much. No temptation to reply to notifications. No temptation to play a game instead of read. No backlit screen to mess with my eyes. I can leave the phone in the other room, sit quietly and read.
Remember that?
Tough out.
The title of this post may be confusing. There is a great song that I like very much. It’s written by two other great Texas music artists, Jamie Richards and Walt Wilkins, called Privileges of Youth. You can listen to Jamie’s recording on Youtube here. The lyrics begin with:
“The boys and I used to pitch in for the gas and drive to Dallas”
It’s about a group of guys wanting to escape their small town (for me it was Gun Barrel City, TX), go to the big city and “meet a girl from SMU”.
In my youth we did that a lot (the driving, girl meeting not so much). Most weekends matter of fact. And that hourlong trip would usually be accompanied by blaring music from an 8 track tape of one of ZZ Top’s first three albums: The First Album, Rio Grande Mud, or Tres Hombres. Just those three because in 1973-74 those were the only ones released.
The soundtrack of our discovery of the privileges of youth was filled with this music. Yesterday Dusty Hill, 72, a founding memberof ZZ Top and rock and roll hero of mine passed peacefully in his sleep.
Texas Monthly’s Chris Vogner writes an excellent piece and calls Dusty, “ZZ Top’s Center of Gravity“. Quoting Chris: “that’s the end of ZZ Top as we knew them.”
And that could well be true. When your band has only three guys as recognizable as Billy, Frank, and Dusty who played together so long, it’s hard to just plug in another bass player.
Texas music, Rock & Roll, and modern Blues music have lost a great one.
Rest in Peace Dusty. Shaking your tree one last time.
If you’re having trouble kickstarting the day Dr. Semitough has exactly the prescription to get you going. Take one Youtube video, add Stevie Wonder and Stevie Ray Vaughn. Sprinkle in some Jodie Watley on backup vocals. Hand Salt N Pepa some tambourines and such and have them dance in the background. Then crack into the most funkiest version ever recorded of Wonder’s super smash hit Superstition.
Impossible you say? Such a thing cannot exist you say? Au contraire. Behold, in all it’s VH1 glory…
Have a great week. Tough out.
Semitough: Suburban Guerrilla 