Longhaired twang thang

So you know you are getting older when it is 10 p.m. on a Saturday night and you are working on a blog post. That is ok because today was a great day and next week will be a great week. Next week is fair week and for our family basically our summer vacation even though Christine and I will both come home a few times during the week for a few hours. I know for some of you this sounds terribly boring or hickish but I will have a better time than most anyone in the world next week. I plan to try and post a few times just to show you why and to keep you updated. For some of you local readers I will be looking for a handy laptop around the fair. Hint, hint.

In my very first blog post I made a disclaimer that I would probably offend a few people at different times. Today is one of those posts that it may be possible to be offended if you are someone who gets offended easily. If you are someone who does not get offended easily you will probably still be offended but hey, for the price you pay for this blog consider it a bargain and a chance for mind expansion!

So this morning we did some irrigation changing as a family and a few things at the corrals with Dakotas fair steers and with some miscellaneous animals I currently have there for various reasons. Two words “cervical prolapse” *eye roll* was today’s fun exercise .Then Dakota and Chris headed to Connell to use the printer at Chris’ work for some pictures and various other items needed for the fair. They continued on to Kennewick to the fairgrounds to set things up for this week. We set up a borrowed for beef travel trailer from one of Chris’ coworkers there yesterday. Thank you to Amy and Dave for the use of the trailer this week.

That left me alone for the afternoon which is seldom a good thing. I changed the rest of the irrigation water and that went well. I have mentioned before how much I enjoy music and today I felt I found a real future “classic” as far as my musical preferences go. I am pretty open minded when it comes to music. I certainly like country and classic rock the most but I am always on the lookout for some new talent from just about any musical genre. For example as I type this I am listening to George Thorogood singing “I drink alone” but the previous song was Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley singing “Just good ole boys” and the one before that was Billy Squire singing, “Don’t say you love me”.

I think one reason I do this is because it helps you stay young in your mind. If I had not been open to new music I would have really missed some great talent in my opinion over my lifetime. For me I have a hard time explaining what music I enjoy but when I hear it I KNOW it. Seldom will a song “grow” on me or do I change my opinion to the negative about a song after hearing it the first time.

For me the things that make a song great are a combination of things. Does the song have good instrumental music behind it? Everyone is different but I like what my dad used to refer to as “long haired twang twang music.” That noise a steel or slide guitar can make or a fiddle or dobro that is somewhere between a whisper and a shriek is to my ears what peach cobbler alamode is to my taste buds. I also am a sucker for lyrics that somehow take you to a place in your memories or some "twisted logic" or a "double entendre" . The lyrics can be rough, soft, loving, brutally honest or whatever but certain songs of some genres are appealing to me based almost entirely on the words. The last thing is the song has to “grab” me. It has to make me laugh, cry, reminisce, anger me, or take my breath away or appeal to me on some other emotional level.

The song I heard today had all these factors even if it was a new rock/metal type of song. Many of you will not like it because in your opinion it is screaming. Some of you will really not like it because the lyrics speak to an issue that can be tough on some from a morality standpoint. For me however this is why I will try to always give new music a chance.

I love the instrumental music backing this song even though it may not be the taste of others. I also like this song because it is the kind of song that would piss off Tipper Gore. Her ex husband Albert pisses me off so there you go. I think just about every male can laugh and maybe reminisce to this song in one way or another from his single days. This song has lyrics that made me die laughing for many reasons because in its absurdity it also has quite a few elements of truth in my mind.

Here is a link to the song that also has printed lyrics so those who cannot sort through the screaming can follow along with the text. Female readers may want to get a male opinion before listening. If you do not like this song or especially the instrumental solo by Zakk Wylde towards the end maybe you should change more hand lines or replace a few more cervical prolapses in your day. Believe me you WILL find some appreciation for this kind of “long hair twang twang.” In my next blog post I will share a song that is a bit more mellow both in lyrics, music and meaning just to balance this out. If you are using headphones or loud speakers you may want to start at mid level. Welcome to the music world the Canadian band My Darkest Days with their first single…….http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP_wjflirPM&feature=related

*chuckle chuckle ladies”.

Today’s real environmentalist species found on the ranch is the Western Yellow Jacket aka Vespula pennsylvanica.

Today’s picture is of a big fat rockchuck (yellow bellied marmot) near his or her den earlier this summer.