Hurricane Sandy...from South-Central PA

Well, very little wreckage for yours truly to crawl from just yet.  Back at the Office, and I'll give you some updates on the world about me.

I decided there was very little to do but sleep, as I am working today.  Wonder what the road to Harrisburg will be like.

Just before 7 pm, the power flicked off, but returned a couple seconds later.  Lucky.  So far I've heard 1 million are w/o power in Pennsylvania.

The rain pretty much stayed heavy with little change as the night went on, and we got the wind gusts.  Sounded like a good ol' Nor'easter, as we New Englanders like to say.  

I was awakened at about 1:15, when the full force of the winds hit.  It went on for some time, but there was nothing for me to see at this point, so I stayed in bed.  No point.

So I did finally get up around 9:30.  The gang at WITF was still at it, and we have extended local coverage today; I'll be walking right into that.

My first order of biz was to check the property.  As expected the second big tree, an evergreen that has been at a 45-degree angle for years snapped and went over.  So there's two for the landscapers to get rid of.  Beyond that, nothing.  My landlady survived the night okay, and she had company, which I was glad to see.

I've seen almost nothing in York that would make you think anything really happened.  A number of businesses are still shut down as are the schools.  Traffic has again returned to normal, and the usual gas stations and the like are open.

I'll have more pics, hopefully and another report from the road.

###

Now, the worst of it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20137363

My friends in New York, I hope they're safe.  Some of them live in these areas, but they've dealt with worse than this.

For the local picture:

http://www.witf.org/

Other than that, we were damned lucky.  The state sounded much better prepared this time than for Hurricane Irene.  We'll see how the wild night went for others. 

For me, I appreciate not having too much excitement, especially at my age.

Flooding, a New Concept Album, Activity of Varied Sorts

I've been busy of late, in different ways...been mostly seated at the temporary York Office (read:  Morebucks), and while on it, I've been trying to accomplish something.


My iTunes is a wonderful thing, once there's enough music in it.  It trumps the horrid burnt offerings that this shop has to play at eleven.  Who decides that this music is good?  Pretentious, and wanky for the most part.


"Eat Me" by Rachel Fuller is playing...wonderful song, and this lady's stuff has really been inspiring.  Doesn't hurt that she's Pete Townshend's collaborator and girlfriend, now does it?


But no, one of Rachel's songs, "Imperfection" has made its way into "Silk Road Days," a long-winded novel I am endeavoring to return to today.


"Revival," a little Allman Brothers, shall we?


Anyway...the flooding is a horrible situation.  If you thought we were out of it with Hurricane Irene, we're not.  Recent tropical storms and Hurricane Katia's behavior in the Atlantic have made things a terrible mess.  


Yesterday was another monsoon, and it snarled traffic badly all over the region.  Flooding shots from all over the state are pretty rough; we have had at least four deaths across the region, and hopefully no more.  


I'm not required; normally, I'm doing something, somewhere, but not this time.  I've actually had the past few days to myself, which is good, because starting next week, I will be busy as all hell.


Working out going well, broke 40 days without a smoke...gaining some definite strength, and I think I have lost a little weight.  Some tightness in the tendon areas of my arms, I've noted, but nothing painful.  There's a difference between feeling a bit tight, or burning, and pain.


Writing music and lyrics like made the past few days; I've assembled 13 songs and some bits for a concept album about my life in radio.  It comes out of listening to "Radio KAOS" by Roger Waters; a very good story and idea, but I don't know if the music overshadowed the story, or it was just not articulated as well as could have been.  Either way, a good revisit to the 80's.


"Dixie Highway," Journey...hmm...don't remember this song.  Never was a huge fan of theirs, but it's interesting.


So anyway, yeah...I have these songs, mostly new that fit together in a song cycle.  I also pulled a couple of old songs that I wrote in the 90's for this.  There is one song from the Ahltyrra days, and a cover by John Hiatt, which just fits.


Another thing I'm working on, as you can see...


...what else?  I have been putting together character sketches for a new story, and it's cooking a lot in my head.  I'm not ready yet to write it, and I wonder when on Earth I'll have time to do that!


"Silk Road Days," trying to get back to it, with new scenes.


"Take Another Road," Chapter 12 was just put up here the other day, and I'm going to need time before I can do the next one.


Songs...ei yi yi, music for several of the concept, new tracks, and a bunch of other ideas that are connected.  Going very close to manic the past few days.


One of my guitars is due out of the shop today; put off getting it fixed for a long time.  Another is awaiting a set of bridge pins, and yet another no longer has the electrics working.  Still plays beautifully as an acoustic; I'm not gonna worry about that yet.


Restrung (yes, I did!) my #1 Laguna...also gave it a good cleaning.  #2 (which is the one I am playing in my profile pic) needs the pins, and I'm getting brass ones, because this is the second time the plastic ones have gone to shit on it.  I generally do not restring my axes until they need it; my hands are fucking horrible at that, and I'm not one of these purists that changes them all the time.  Not needed, for what I do.


Trying hard not to buy a Martin...yeah, there is one I like very much where my Fender a/e is getting fixed, but I don't have the money, nor the justification for buying it...yet.


"Fire Lake," Bob Seger...skipping this one...not in the mood right now...sorry, Bob...


..."Street of the Broken Dreams," my song, done with Ahltyrra...no, not right now...


..."Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," the Who.  That's more like it!


Still some more cleaning at home to do, and other stuff on my mind that needs to be dealt with.


Interesting back and forth on the email from my bass player and me.  Dan really should do a blog, and I have encouraged him to do it.  He looked at my recent rant, and pointed out a few things.  He is right about this area, much much more so than I, as Dan has lived here all his life.  


There's things I don't see, and I wonder if I'm removed from a part of the world I need to see and know about again.  


My situation is thus:  I really can't move, unless I either get the chance of a lifetime, the Sweet Dreams Series gets picked up by a publisher, or I feel that this place becomes so untenable, spiritually politically and otherwise that I must get out.  So I'm doing my usual of making sure I am useful to my colleagues...that's where the concept comes in...this is what I do.


All these crazy insane things I do...hahahahah...wish all to be safe out there...

Irene Update, Part 3

This will need to be short...it's about 1:30 in the morning Eastern Time as I write this...we are now getting lashed by wind and rain here in the Midstate.  Bear this in mind:  I am a good 90 miles west of Philadelphia.  This is a storm here, with continuous rain and winds; go that far east, and think of how rough it is.

I was roused by a sound that didn't shake me, but it was enough:  power outage.  Momentarily, thankfully, and I was able to get things back up.  Cold, clammy conditions, forcing me to close my bedroom window.  With it closed, you can feel and hear the situation outside.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Watch-Live-Storm-Tracker-Hurricane-Irene-Coverage-128389848.html

I've been watching NBC 4 (hooray for the Internet and streaming!), or listening throughout the night; they have done damned fine work.  New York is getting it now...what you can hear on the stream as well as see proves it's getting worse.  Now look at this:

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/feature?section=weather&id=8320373

This ABC affiliate's fine weather link shows Irene has not yet hit New York.  It will not be paralell to Philadelphia until 8 am.  Now, that is telling.  While Irene appears to be weakening a little, it's still powerful.

The storm appears to be skirting the Jersey Shore, but it's on track to move on New York, especially the western edge of Long Island, then into Connecticut, through New Hampshire and into Canada.

Now, we are getting some higher winds, gusting up...they are talking of storm surges.  We saw what it did in Japan, with the tsunami; we're not going to have that but it's still dangerous.  3-8 feet along the Jersey Shore.

Anyway, I must crash again...a long day tomorrow, and I'm sure I'll have much more to report as my day wears on.

Again, be safe, all...

Irene Update from Midstate PA...

A pretty quiet evening on the whole for this part of the Mid-Atlantic; my guess is we in the midstate are going to get off reasonably lightly.

The past 2-1/2 hours have had light to moderate rains and breezy conditions, but nothing serious.  That could change as the night goes on.

http://www.my9tv.com/subindex/news/live_video

An interesting steady cam on the Jersey Shore somewhere...the sound of the wind, the rain hitting the camera and the ground is different.  There are some voices, but I don't know if they're camera minders or people just out for "fun."

http://www.weather.com/tv/tvshows/Livestream

The Weather Channel has done pretty well on the coverage today and tonight, mostly because the Drama Queens aren't on much, if at all.  The people who do the real work are at it, and it's good work so far.

Now if you've watched any of this, the closer to shore you are the more dangerous this is.  Then, there are some people who have no clue whatsoever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY4gJoKwtAQ&feature=player_embedded&has_verified=1

What do you want to bet someone's gonna demand that idiot be charged for indecent exposure?  Actually, the whole world now knows he's a moron, so that should be enough shame for him...do have to admit though, it was pretty funny.

Twitterverse for me is pretty quiet, don't have a lot of followers.  Some of the comments and re-tweets are pretty funny.  A literary agent named JC reports her cousin in Vermont is terrified she will die.

Um...as a native Vermonter, the storm's not going up there...she stands a better chance of being butted by an irate deer while jogging than dying from the storm.

I'm so having too much fun...no specific duties until tomorrow morning.  Quiet day at WITF, covering KYW Sports...wall to wall weather coverage of course:  Phillies game postponed, Union match postponed, just about everything shut down and done till the storm passes through. 

I thought tonight might be a good stretch of my skills as a blogger, to keep you in the loop.  Just for fun more than anything; right now, pretty quiet.  Still very light rain, and the wind has again picked up, but nothing too terrible at this point.

The cats are pretty calm about it all; you can generally tell if something's up, based on their behavior.  Baldrick I think was a bit worried early on yesterday, but now everyone's laid back.

Hell, even the deer are back...more pics on my new folder on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/tory.gates

Yeah, having too much fun here...I will see what else there is to do while listening and checking in on things.

If you're in the zone, I wish you safety through this time and to be careful. 

1 million w/o power in the Mid-Atlantic, heavy gusts in Virginia; I'd check with friends down in the VA/DC region earlier...it's getting a bit more hairy now, I'm sure.

Okay...again, be safe!

Dentists, Shady Dealers, Publishers and that Fucking Train Song!!!

Do forgive me if I haven't mentioned by way of explanation how much I hate that "Hey Soul Sister" song by Train.


The singer is featured on the cover of Pro Audio Magazine, using some wireless mic.  I had to be reminded; then I had to hear that fucking song again in the dentist's office today.


They were playing "The Blend" via my old company, Sirius/XM.  Sounds like any boring, conservative Adult Contemporary, No Blacks Allowed radio station.  Shitty A/C songs, one after the other.  I would rather have had muzak.


The Train song is one of the worst singles I have ever heard in my life.  It's sad that the title track of the album it is from, "Save Me, San Francisco" is a great song.


That whiny voice singing about Mr. Mister, one of the worst of the 80's pop groups, his girlfriend "cutting a rug," does that asshole even know what that actually means...just awful, soulless, sappy lyrics with too many hooks.


But I digress.


I've had my teeth and gums dug through for the final time this morning at the dentist.  The lower right needed it bad; this is what you get for not going to a dentist for 22 years.


But other than five fillings over the past few months and the deep cleaning, I do have the beginning stages of periodontal disease.  Not as bad as it seems; caught it in time, gotta do that stuff they tell you to do.  Still, yuck.


My old friend Peter Carli has often said when it comes to the music business:  "There's the music business, and there's the music BUSINESS."


How true.  There are also a lot of people in this business you need to be careful of.  I'm not too pleased with reports I've gotten about recent individuals who have left a bad taste in the mouths of others.


It's part of it; you need to watch your ass.  


Getting the bad taste of Train out of my mouth with Slayer, the ORB and other music...cleansing, ahhhh...


Now...good news @ last:  my agent informs me that another publisher has agreed to read the first book, Sweet Dreams:  Searching for Roy Buchanan.  Puts the count back to four that are considering it.  


Very nice to hear.  Still working on "Out Among the Stars," my latest creation.  We're at the end of Chapter 11, but as usual, there's holes all over the place.  My hope is to get the first draft out, then I can go back and piece things together properly.


This is pretty normal; I'm not too worried about it yet.


Nasty weather; three or four inches of heavy wet snow, and while it's stopped, my guess is there will be more.  The big worry I'm having right now, is that it'll freeze on tonight.  That will suck wind.


Also considering my hill to the house goes straight up, then angles 90 degrees to the left, while still going straight up.  Lovely.


Okay...stuff to do...!

90 Degrees in Wiscasset, Maine? Say What?!?

Yeah, I had to wonder about that, too.  I'm traveling today...after a quick stopoff in Portland for Tim Horton's Candy Cane donuts (a little taste of Canada for Riz, Leesh and whomever else), I was on my way to Portsmouth.  Biz meeting with Riz @ the famous, original Friendly Toast.  Also gonna melt my plastic at Bull Moose Music, I'm sure.


Anyway...my sister's Subaru Outback is an interesting vehicle.  My Big Sis is very small, and how she crams herself into that tiny driving space, I have no bloody idea.  Besides, her back pad, the rug over the back pad, and the electronic seat is a total weird mess I cannot figure out.


Now the car handles beautifully.  I may well buy one of these, when the Silver Saturn announces its retirement, but hopefully that won't be for another 2 or 3 years.  It has a bunch of odd features to it.  One of these is a separate WB...Weather band.  So you can get NOAA Weather Radio on it, from wherever you are.


Very neat.  The robotic tones of NOAA are a part of my life.  Dad used his little weather radio for immediate forecasts in order to plan farm actions.  He loved the thing.  I have one myself, which I have used for years to track the weather and to plan my driving, be it to Harrisburg, or DC or wherever.  A very decent and needful thing.


So this car radio has one!  Weird.  And the report is extremely long for Maine; it lasts like 15 minutes.  Coastal forecasts, tides, wave heights, and then forecasts for everywhere, temps, etc.  Weather Junkies...if you think the Weather Channel is hot shit, you have not lived until you've sat and droned yourself into unconsciousness with this thing.


Don't get me started on the Weather Channel...since they injected Stephanie Abrams with more Prozac than needed, and hired that ignorant jackass Al Roker, the channel is now a ratings-driven joke channel.  Oh, I got started.


Oh...90 in Wiscasset?  Well, someone hit the wrong keystrokes at the NOAA center, because it's cold up here!  22 degrees, or something like that.  Typical winter weather; then I heard the robot voice say it was 90 in Wiscasset.


Okay...unless Global Warming has decided to open fire on the town known for two abandoned schooners that are no longer there and Route 1 running through it, something is wrong.


I'm in the rest area food court in Kennebunkport.  My meeting in Portsmouth is not for a while, and I needed to stop anyway.  So here I am updating you.


Susan looks well, but is dealing with health problems.  I now admit I am starting to worry about her a little; she's undergone a couple of major procedures, and her lungs are not good.  She does not smoke, but she has asthma...like Dad, not good.  But she hangs in there and does her best.


Rob is dealing with a bad cold, but the dude is built like a fucking tank and has no quit in him.  I can only hope I don't pick it up...can't afford it right now.


Freeport is the same; but it was very quiet earlier this week.  Not a lot of folks getting about; I popped into a couple of places I love that are unique to here, Mexicali Blues for one, the Mangy Moose for another.  I'll go to Bean's tomorrow I think.


Yeah, I shop...so what?


It's been good up here again...I miss New England, have I mentioned this?  To be practical, my chances of living in Boston ever again, or any of New England due to the taxes is highly unlikely, unless SDS-1 takes off.


I'm not holding my breath.  I am positively convinced that it will sell, but I will not bank on it becoming a monster hit.  I have to remind myself, that is not in my hands.  That is in the publisher's hands to get it out there right, and then it's up to you, dear readers.


I have gone on, haven't I?  In any case, I'm really happy to just be back here, even for a few days.  Vermont is a different spot than Maine (the former my home state), but New England is a land all its own.  It's got a character you can't find anyplace else in the world.


Okay...I gotta get moving.  Stuff to do!