Gonzai Gallery

The rest of the story from last night - one of the guys from Roots Cafe turned 50 this week, and he and his wife decided to have a party. But not just any party - they rented the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. And booked a very loud band. It was a little tricky trying to find the place, I've never been to the Streetcar Museum, or ridden on one for that matter. Bad me, revoking my local cred card. But I did find it and there were about 200 folks there, so it was a serious party. The streetcars were running all night, 4 different cars. I rode Car 1164, which was built in 1902 and was a bit, um, breezy. Open seating. But very nifty and it got some pretty serious speed going at one point. The band was good but crazy loud, especially inside a brick and tile museum, so most of my listening was done out front. Everyone from Roots came, the first time most of us have seen each other in 3 to 5 years, so it was like a reunion. I also met an announcer from a local radio station, and ate a serious variety of olives. 'twas an enjoyable evening.

I couldn't get the photos off my phone, so here's the
( Baltimore Streetcar Museum's web site. )

Started off the weekend with Dave's funeral. Definitely not your usual service: the guess-timated attendance was 600. The church was huge, but still not big enough as the service itself was standing room only, folks squeezed into every corner and the start delayed half an hour so everyone could park and squeeze in. (Arriving early, Bryce and I parked 2 1/2 blocks away and sat in the next to last pew.) Then we had an assortment of music, including bluegrass, Irish, Hawaiian and church traditionals. Then there was a jam session in the church's social hall. We were packed in tight between the high attendance and the truly spectacular spread. Not sure I've ever seen so much food in one place before, but table after table with assortments of repasts plus another 3 tables of desserts. Conversely, one small drink table. They did forget something! We were surprised by both the amazing attendance and how few people there we knew; we were the only people there from Roots Cafe, as far as we could tell, and most of the bands we knew had just one member attending. But still, what a turnout. Dave had quite the following.

Funerals plural, because Sunday I found out my sister-in-law's grandfather, with whom we've shared Thanksgiving the last six years, passed suddenly on Friday. His funeral is tomorrow. Two funerals in 4 days. (I suspect Art's funeral will be a bit smaller than Dave's.)

Football - I think going straight from Dave's service to the Ravens game tempered my mood just enough to keep me merely disappointed by the results, instead of devastated. There's a lot of devastated going around town these days, so in that regard I'm fortunate. The Ravens were also the only game I didn't correctly pick. Perhaps my pick'em touch is back.

Last but not least, computer follies. So the motherboard is dying and with it, the computer. It took much of the weekend but I was finally able to convince Mom that we do have to replace the computer, and she's willing to foot that bill if I pay for all accessories/needed software. (She may be getting the better end of the deal.) I searched about on the net and found what seemed to me to be a good computer at a decent price - ( this Gateway model ). I ran it up the flagpole past the same computer folks who deemed the motherboard failing. Half of them insisted I should get a Mac. Uh, guys, work & netbook computers are PCs, all software is PC, Mom can barely handle the familiar stuff. Not the time to make that big a move. The only opinion offered about the Gateway was negative, and that guy suggested ASUS. My netbook is ASUS and I'm quite fond of it, so I went back to the board. Best I could come up with ( was this ASUS model ), not quite the RAM or rating of the Gateway but comparably priced. So now I'm torn between these two computers, or possibly a door number 3. I definitely want to try to get ahead of the curve for a change, a quad core processor, lots of RAM & hard drive, etc in the hopes I can get 4-5 years out of a computer, but I doubt I can get Mom past $700, if that far. Any suggestions are welcome.

Back to (holiday level) work. That is, nearly none.

Here I am, to recap yesterday at Hot August Blues to the best that I can, given how utterly wiped I am right now.

( Longish writeup and a LOT of photographs under the cut )

Finally home after braving the panicky Balmorons at the supermarket, only to get a call from Aimee, from the old Roots Cafe gang. Margo, who worked the door with me for 10+ years and who is presently the cleaning person at the office, passed away on Wednesday. Her family didn't bother telling any of her friends or her employer that she passed, and the only reason Aimee found out was because she called a couple hours ago to tell Margo the concert they were supposed to go to tomorrow was cancelled, and one of her sons answered the phone. No word at all about arrangements, cause of death, or anything else. Just that she's gone. Second year in a row and 4th out of six that a Roots person has died during the holidays.

The one good thing is I know Margo's with her husband Joe now, and that will make her very, very happy.