I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday. The details are not important. I'm sure we have all had a bad day or two in the last three months. I tried turning it into what I hoped would be an amusing rant and actually posted it last night in haste. A few of you may have seen it, if you just happened to be at the wrong place at the right time. My apologies. As I lay stewing over a great number of things, I decided to revert the rant back to draft just minutes later. I thought sharing it would make me feel better. But alas, I felt worse. After a not so good night's sleep, I realized that the major source of my anxiety was something that could be easily eradicated. And so, with a few key strokes, I removed myself from the holy hell of all that is not real, Facebook. Talk about a pandemic! Want to see germs spread faster than a pool party in the Ozarks? Scroll through your friends Facebook feeds for a few minutes.
There. A mini rant after all. I feel better.
So how about some music?
Here is a terrific McCartney cut from his terrific "Flaming Pie" record. Below, is the Brad Mehldau Trio, from their terrific record, "Seymour Reads The Constitution," with their version of the same song, "Great Day."
FYI- that Mehldau record is the best thing he's done since 2002's "Largo." The trio also covers the Beach Boys "Friends," as well as a few standards and some Mehldau originals. It's a truly wonderful collection.
Have a great day everyone...if you can.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by.
17 comments:
These days I figure we all get a few extra passes :-)
Be safe ... Be well!
No more songs on the ukulele? Some of my favorite "FB live" sessions! :-) Feel free to post them here!
So many times I wanted to deactivate (not delete) my FB account. I do have some younger family that I connect with on there- and some friends who have remained rational and sane, and so it remains. I've learned to unfollow (which I dislike doing, but it's become necessary).
I agree with Jay, we all get a few passes right now. ;) I hope you know that this blog is a source of comfort for many, and I've found I need music more than ever during this time. Thanks for sharing your passion.
Thanks for reminding me why I've never participated in such communication. You don't need to know my thoughts and business. We have a lot of insecure folks on this planet. I've never joined FB, never texted, tweeted, instagram; only email and landline (never owned a mobile phone, always seemed like a security blanket substitute). If I can't hear you, I'm not interested, except email and snail mail. I read about stuff I never see, and it does not want me to participate, to drink the Koolaid. It is a weird sense of freedom, kinda like the Twilight Zone.
Hello all...no, please remain seated,
Flaming Pie really is a wonderful album. That cover of Great Day is really good...would never have thought it would convert to jazz easily. That bass player really had something to say and I Heard strains of Mercy, Mercy, Mercy in the piano. Could also imagine Tierney Sutton and her band doing a bang-up job on this.
Best....RichD
Big LOVE...Big THANKS...
Nowt wrong with a rant now and then. None of the social media stuff appeals to me - only the social distancing of which I heartily approve! Living out in the sticks I'm lucky to have fields full of cattle, sheep & lambs on the doorstep (not literally as that would be silly) so a refreshing walk in bucolic, pastoral surroundings works wonders. And there's always music, of course: where would we be without the music. Keep on keeping on. Cheers!
Hey, Sal. Thanks for all that you do, brother. You have turned me onto so much great music over the years. Every day that I get to visit "Burning Wood" is a great day indeed. To me. the internet is a better experience without social media. I left Facebook in'08, and have never looked back. All the best to you. :)
I feel like these time & daze are a sort of no apologies zone for most of us...
now, there are some people who oughta be apologizing to all of us, but this isn't my place to rant & rave.
appreciate you, Sal, and all y'all,
eric
I'd like to say I am all for "free passes" and a bit more understanding. We do what we can to cope.
What I won't tolerate is the convenient use of the words pandemic, virus or COVID as an excuse for behavior that was intolerable long before the world exploded. It's pretty easy to spot.
:)
Like Elmer, I've never participated, and for the same reasons he enumerated. I did get a flip phone in 2014, because I was starting a divorce and needed it to communicate with kids, soon-to-be-ex, lawyers; it was the first phone I ever had (and I was over 50 then!), and I still have it. When you don't do social media, you find a flip phone will suffice. But I don't begrudge anybody their social media, because people are social animals; it's just not for me. Texting is a necessity for me, but is used like the phone -- just conveying info in words rather than verbally. As might be apparent from a dude not owning a phone til he was in his 50s, phones are to be used sparingly, whether for texting or calling.
As to folks getting burned out on FB, I've seen more than a few posts on this site when our esteemed host bemoaned the shitty side of it, and I always wondered what kept it attractive; the allusion to uke shows by Shriner tells me that there was some good to mitigate the bad, so maybe it's not all a (negative) time-suck.
In sum, if eschewing FB means you spend more time here, I call it a win. I love this blog.
C in California
Been going back and forth on whether to finally get on Facebook, and its posts like this that make me continue to stay off. People in my community are pretty big on FB and I've definitely gotten the sense of being out of the loop because my wife and I are not on, but the idea of my data being collected and used, along with the agita FB seems to cause in many people, gives me serious pause. Seems like it would be a huge time suck as well.
So, not that I'm going to convince anybody that FB is the best thing since sliced bread.
It's certainly where I've seen a bunch of "Facebook Live" shows that have been just great and a welcome distraction from staring at the TV, going for walks, or reading during quarantine. Chris von Sneidern and Cliff Hillis (two examples) have been doing fabulous weekly shows for a while now -- sounding great with professional studio equipment, etc. Thomas Walsh (from Pugwash) did 2.5 hours of XTC covers last Friday that were *so* full of why he loves their music that it moved this jaded heart (and Thomas indicated many times that he's trying hard to get Andy Partridge to do something like this...)
I'm not going to defend the ignorant posts of people (though I think it helps identify them) -- I think I've been super lucky to curate my list of friends and the vast majority of them are reasonable people so FB is (still) a net positive for me.
Sal, I live in the Ozarks, though I don't lay claim to those dipshits at the Lake.
Just want that known.
Randy
@Shriner,
I've connected with some truly great people on FB. I've reconnected with some of my oldest and dearest friends that I thought I'd never hear from again through FB. And yes, during the last three months, there have been a few live shows that have made the troubled times more bearable. But I think the bad...the poison...far exceeds the good. It's a breeding ground for behavior that would never be tolerated in real life. Even the brightest people speak as if they are anonymous just because they are behind a computer screen.
People visit Burning Wood because they know what they are getting. I'm an opinionated, blowhard, who loves vinyl, New Orleans,and Todd Rundgren. Occasionally, I'm an okay guy. But at least you know what you're getting. Facebook exposes the worst in people. It's like one step above YouTube or Yelp Reviews.
Hey Sal,
Thanks for dumping something that makes you unhappy. Life is too short! And thanks for getting the rant out of your system...and then removing it from the web. That also seems really healthy...both steps! Thanks for not mocking me when I suggested a dozen plus albums from the 2010s might some day be classics in my book. :) (I gave them all four stars! out Of four!) Thanks for the "Great Day" clip and the great "Great Day" cover by Mehldau.
Thanks!
Yours in music,
Michael
I used to tell people that Facebook is great for seeing how people you went to high school with and haven’t seen in years have become deranged lunatics- political conspiracy theorists, religion, gun nuts, anti-vaxxers, etc. It gets really interesting when that’s all wrapped up in one person!
My FB experience improved greatly when several Trump supporters unfriended me. It’s funny how people make political posts and get upset when someone politely disagrees and posts an article to show that they’re wrong.
I only have 42 friends, it keeps the drama down, and I don’t want to spend much time there anyway. Family and friends don’t do a lot of posting, but I can keep track of bands and local events, and I follow pages for music, photography, and cars, and a few comedy/satire pages. Humor certainly helps these days! Most of the people I follow don’t have web sites, they use FB. The bands obviously aren’t doing much, but Deke Dickerson is always good, he’s been posting bad album covers recently.
You’re right, I doubt that the hostile people would behave like that face to face, so I avoid most of them, I don’t need UNsocial media. I learned a while ago not to go there for affirmation or support, so I’m not disappointed when I post several old Free videos (after listening to your SOTD) and get no response. I finally posted about 10 photos of a car show I went to a few years ago and got some good feedback. A week later I posted another 10 from a different show and got nothing. Go figure.
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