Real Rock Radio?

Quotation of the day: Garrison Keilor ~ I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.

I've written about the St Louis radio station KSHE (www.kshe95.com) before, and how listening to it and hearing about the city thereon, kickstarted my interest in going there and my feeling of affinity for the place. I used to think that KSHE was a wonderful station but it's changed in the three years i've been listening. They used to play a lot of schtuff that you never heard anywhere else but now, most of the time they now play the same old songs that every other rock station plays.

But they have a few special programs that convince me that this is an exceptional radio station. For example, there's “The Seventh Day” every Sunday evening – where they play seven albums in their entirety.

There's also a show presented by their overnight deejay – and my Facebook friend – Tommy T., “The Rock Magazine.” On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, he features a different artist and plays deep tracks by them that are rarely heard elsewhere. On Wednesdays, he has a “themed” show; recent themes included songs about winter, and, on Ash Wednesday, songs with “fire” in their titles. The man has a sense of humour! Unfortunately it comes on at 4 a.m. my time; i'm usually up, i'm an early riser, but sometimes i miss it.

But my favourite of all is the “Klassics” show, every Sunday morning, presented by a St Louis broadcasting legend, John Ulett. It's on from 9 a.m. -- 1 p.m. (my time) and it's absolutely brilliant! It's all classic rock music that's never played anywhere else, and that's my era. I used to work every Sunday and had to listen on my phone or on my laptop, but i work in such a noisy place i could hardly hear it. It took me almost a year of complaining bitching moaning groaning and just generally being a pain in the arse but i finally managed to convince my Masters to give me Sundays off and what happened?

KSHE made their audio stream unavailable to Canada. Aaaargh!

It took me a while but eventually i found a VPN i liked – Tunnel Bear – it costs me $10 a month but i think it's well worth it.

If you have the patience to read it, here's the “Klassics” playlist from a couple of weeks ago:

The Grateful Dead -- Uncle John's Band

Ted Nugent -- Call Of The Wild

George Harrison -- What Is Life

Deep Purple -- Space Truckin

Shooting Star -- Last Chance

Cream -- I'm So Glad

Little River Band -- It's A Long Way There

Charlie Daniels -- Caballo Diablo

Robert Palmer -- You're Gonna Get What's Coming

Tarney Spencer Group -- No Time To Lose

Dave Mason -- Feelin Alright

Peter Gabriel -- Solsbury Hill

Jefferson Starship -- No Way Out

Blue Oyster Cult -- In Thee

Loggins & Messina -- Back To Georgia

The Beat -- Don't Wait Up For Me Tonight

Eagles -- Ol' 55

Brownsville Station -- Martian Boogie

Little Feat -- Fat Man In The Bathtub

Danny Spanos -- Hot Cherie

Jethro Tull -- Thick As A Brick, part 1

Steely Dan -- Deacon Blues

Headstone -- Turn Your Head

Stillwater -- Women

Pure Prairie League -- Two Lane Highway

America -- Don't Cross The River

Moxy -- Sail On Sail Away

Journey -- Topaz

The James Gang -- Alexis

The Rolling Stones -- Wild Horses

The Moody Blues -- Legend Of A Mind

Lake -- Key To The Rhyme

Jim Capaldi -- Living On The Edge

Elton John -- Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

Rod Stewart -- Every Picture Tells A Story

Joe Cocker -- She Came In Through The Bathrrom Window

Poco -- Good Feelin';

Ian Hunter -- Cleveland Rocks

Captain Beyond -- Sufficiently Breathless

And here's my most recent playlist:

James Taylor -- Greatest Hits Volume 2

Small Faces -- Ogden's Nut Gone Flake

Runrig -- Mara

Rush -- Power Windows

Fairport Convention -- The Bonny Bunch Of Roses

The Albion Dance Band -- Shuffle Off!

Various Artists -- The Son Of "Morris On"

Peter Gabriel -- Peter Gabriel

Spriggsblog vs Her Majesty's Passport Office, Part 2

Quotation du jour ~ Mark Twain: One cannot see too many summer sunrises on the Mississippi

When i left you, in my last episode, it was September, and i was distraught, discouraged and disheartened. I think that a huge part of the problem i'd had was that i had been dealing with two different passport offices, and they weren't talking to each other. Trying to get them to communicate with each other was like smashing myself over the head with a brick. So i didn't want to look at a passport application ever again. I still wanted to go to St Louis, though!

December arrived before i found the nous to download another application (and pay for it online) and ... it was completely different to any of the other applications i'd seen! So once again, i said WTF?!

Even though i knew that a time factor was involved, Christmas was fast approaching and i was just too damned busy with the festive madness to look very closely at the paperwork, although i did manage to have a second photograph taken ($20 + tax). It wasn't until early January that i completed the form and took my picture to Peter for re-authentication, and finally sent the packet off (registered mail again, of course!).

A couple of weeks later i received an email from the heart of bureaucracy, Durham. (There are six passport offices in the U.K.,apparently and it seems i was dealing with the one in Durham. No idea which ones i was dealing with in round one.) OK, i'd made a few minor errors on my application. These were easily fixable. But, here's a new one: as Peter's passport is Canadian, they needed a colour photocopy of the page upon which his photograph appears. This had never come up in my initial application! Just another WTF moment, i suppose, but, really.

I really was reluctant to put further demands on Peter's time, but i asked him and he agreed readily – he thinks it will be good for me to go to St Louis, broaden my horizons and whatnot. He did add that i should guard his colour photograph closely, as passport fraud is rampant these days. (Understandably so.)

So it was registered mail yet again.

About two weeks later, i came home from work to find a “sorry we missed you” note from a courier service, DHL Express. They'd tried to deliver something, but i'd been at work, and would i please contact them to arrange for a new delivery. Oh, well, i figured, it's just my old passport being returned with the news that this application too had failed. Contact them i did, however, and asked them to deliver it to me at work the next day. No, they wouldn't do that. They suggested that i go to Kitchener and pick it up at their depot. Right, and lose a day's pay – but i couldn't have done it anyway, as literally all of my ID was in the package (passport and birth certificate). So i said ok, re-deliver tomorrow, but i'm not usually home much before four o'clock. Again they suggested that the better option would be for me to go to Kitchener and collect it in person, to which i replied “Aaaargh!!!”

The next day, i'd been home for maybe half an hour, there was a knock 'pon my door. Oooh, the courier service, maybe! But no, it was the manager of my apartment building. But yes, he had a package for me. From DHL Express. And it contained this:

Oh, my word: nine months and probably $600 later. There was relief and celebration here at Spriggs Towers that evening i can tell you!

Spriggsblog Vs Her Majesty's Passport Office, Part 1

Quotation du jour ~ Pye Dubois: on the road / confirms something about yourself /confirms something about your mold--some say it's freedom / freedom some say / is when you get back home.

It all began a little over three years ago. My frend Dave, from St Clair, Missouri, told me about a St Louis radio station called KSHE (www.kshe95.com) and i listened. Online, of course. Listened, and liked the music and started listening regularly. And a strange thing happened. Hearing the on-air personalities talking about St Louis, and hearing what goes on there, fascinated me. I did some independent investigating (a.k.a. Googling) and the more i learned about the place, the more interested i became. It looks a beautiful city and i definitely began to feel an affinity.

Maybe two years ago, i determined to go there.

It took me a while to save the money. I don't make a lot, which is fine: normally i don't need a lot. I have no debts and my monthly expenses are easily manageable. I don't need things at all – buy the occasional new CD or DVD, and i generally only buy new clothes when the old ones wear out. It took a while. But i did it.

There was another stumbling block, too: my old passport expired in 1990. (I haven't been outside Southern Ontario since the eighties!) No problem, though (i said to myself, hopefully) – i was easily able to download an application for a U.K. passport in January of 2015 and ....

Lordy mama, have i ever said how much i hate government forms? I looked at it once and decided to hibernate for the winter rather than try to deal with the bureaucratese. It was June before i girded my loins and finally tackled it, and i was in trouble right from question #1! But i struggled through it, answered what i could, and then went back to the U.K. Government website to see what to do next. Oh, i found, i could also fill out an online application and pay for it online, which i did, and which would presumably begin the process in advance of the paperwork.

Next step: passport photograph. I had one taken. The things is, though, that the last time i applied for a passport, the photograph had to be authenticated by a professional person – doctor, lawyer, priest, someone like that. I supposed, without looking into the matter, that it was still the same. I don't have a doctor at the moment – thank you, Canada's famous health care system! -- but i have a dentist (no lawyer or priest) and so i went to his office and ... the receptionist told me that he was on holidays for two weeks.

Now the time factor enters the picture. The application process is supposed to take six weeks or more. I was planning my trip for mid-September, it's now late June or early July (i forget which) and there i was, stuck spinning my wheels for two weeks. A fortnight later, back i went to see my dentist and a different receptionist told me that he wouldn't do it – he refused to share his own personal passport info, but that the rules had changed and the authenticator no longer had to be a professional person: anyone who had known me for a substantial length of time could do it. Well fuck me blind (i said to myself), two weeks wasted! I took it to the owner of my restaurant, with whom i've been friends for well over twenty years and he verified that i am, in fact, me. I sent it off, along with my old passport, by registered mail ($22.00 to the U.K!) immediately, of course.

About a week later, the fiasco began. I received an email from some functionary explaining several things i had done wrong. For instance, i had applied to renew an old passport. Wrong! My old one was so old i should have applied for a new one. Er, nowhere on the application form had i noticed anything about that. Further, i as i wasn't in their computer database, they needed a lot more information. They needed my parents' dates and places of birth, for instance, which i didn't know, and they also needed my birth certificate (which took me a few days to find). Also, they said, i hadn't enclosed my payment.

?!?! Well, of course i hadn't enclosed a payment – i'd paid online several weeks earlier (and had the statement to prove it). Unfortunately, this was one of those “noreply” emails so i couldn't reply to the geezer with this info; instead i went to the bank and said, these people say that they didn't receive this (pointing to the item on my statement), what do i do now? They said they'd look into it for me and give me a call. They didn't.

It's now August. I filled out the new form they sent me as well as i could and sent it off by registered mail ($22, as you may recall) and hoped for the best. I've decided on Sept. 22 as my departure date and i know i'm cutting it rather fine here, but that's over six weeks away and i remained hopeful.

During, i think, the second week in September, i received an email from a different functionary, informing me that the ninety days required for me to complete my application (which i hadn't known about) had elapsed, therefore they were withdrawing it (the application) and retaining my payment to cover administrative costs. Wait, what? Last i heard, they hadn't received a payment at all. WTF?

I was pretty distraught, i don't mind admitting. I had been looking forward to going to the Mississippi Valley so much. A few days later i received, by courier, my old passport back. They kept my photograph, though. Nice touch!

Distraught, discouraged, disheartened. I didn't want to think about passports at all for a while.

To be continued. Here, have a playlist.

Led Zeppelin -- Physical Graffiti

Kim Mitchell -- Rockland

Max Webster -- High Class In Borrowed Shoes

The Allman Brothers Band -- Brothers And Sisters

Oysterband -- Here I Stand

Mike Oldfield -- Music Of The Spheres

Arkells -- High Noon

Rory Gallagher -- Cradle Rock

David Gilmour -- Rattle That Lock

Led Zeppelin -- Boxed Set 2

Bruce Springsteen -- The Essential Bruce Springsteen

Joan Osborne -- Relish (20th Anniversary Edition)

Elvis Costello -- Spike

The Beatles -- With The Beatles

Siouxsie & The Banshees -- The Rapture

Billy Joel -- Turnstiles

Marillion -- Anoraknophobia

Bluehorses -- Ten Leagues Beyond The Wild World's End

Carole King -- Tapestry

Kelsey's -- The End Of An Era

Quotation of the day: J.R.R. Tolkein ~ Orcs, and talking trees, and leagues of grass, and galloping riders, and glittering caves, and white towers and golden halls, and battles and tall ships sailing.

As my regular reader will know, my favourite pub in town for many years has been Kelsey's, and the primary reason i went there three or four times a week was that i liked the people who worked there (and in fact loved one of them) (although she was 'way too young for me) (or i was 'way too old for her, your choice).

The staff were great: new hires, upon realising that i was a regular, would make an effort to learn my name and it was almost like family. At one point i was Facebook friends with virtually everyone there.

And they were good to me, too: i would go in on my birthday and i wasn't allowed to spend any money. I would go in for lunch on Christmas Eve and i wasn't allowed to spend any money. One year, i went in on Thanksgiving Day. The Kitchen Manager had made turkey dinner with all the fixin's for the staff -- and they gave me a huge plate of it to take home. Then there was the occasional free pint (the way to a man's heart is through his liver, etc.) and the occasional complimentary dinner. They appreciated my business and they earned my loyalty in spades.

But, about a year ago, the place deteriorated drastically. They had an almost 100% staff turnover, very few of my friends were left, the atmosphere deteriorated terribly. One of my friends there told me that the thought of going to work gave her anxiety attacks. She's much happier where she is now (i saw her the other day). (I still love her.)

They can no longer keep staff -- no one wants to work there any more; it seems that every time i go in there now, there's someone working i've never seen before. And of all of these new people, i am impressed with ... none of them.

Today was the last straw. I went in, no one i knew was working, and the Muzak channel they had on was utter disco-pop rubbish. I mean, really. It was like having needles driven into my ears. It couldn't possibly appeal to anyone over the age of fifteen, why would a pub play such shit? I stayed for my usual two pints, trying to cover my ear holes as i used my phone to try to catch up on email and Facebook, but it was hopeless -- the noise in the background was too painful. And i said to the manager, "this music is fuck'n horrible." She tried to make a joke of it but didn't offer to change the channel so i downed my second pint very quickly and fled.

I may never go back.

The Muzak at Crabby Joe's -- and at Bentley's -- is much better.

Here, have a playlist:

Florence + The Machine -- How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Van der Graaf Generator -- Merlin Atmos
Rory Gallagher - Irishman In New York
Various -- Essential Drive
Max Webster -- High Class In Borrowed Shoes
Fairport Convention -- The Wood And The Wire
Peter Hammill --This
Jefferson Airplane -- After Bathing At Baxter's
Pat Benatar -- Best Shots
Bruce Guthro -- Guthro
Colin James -- Take It From The Top
Jeff Beck -- Live +
Richard Thompson -- Still
Marillion -- The Thieving Magpie
Matchbox Twenty -- North
The Albion Band -- The Vice Of The People
Max Webster -- Mutiny Up My Sleeve
Ian Anderson -- TAAB2
Paula Cole -- 7
Stephane Grappelli -- Live At The Cambridge Folk Festival

Random Thoughts From A Random Idiot

Quotation Of The Day ~ Clive James: Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing.

Skeeters.

No doubt because we had such a damp spring, the mosquitoes are out there in abundance these days. I slip out to the back of the restaurant for a smoke three or four times a day and am eaten alive. They must like the taste of my blood. All the alcohol that's in it, probably. So beware, visitors to Splatford: there are hordes of crazed, alcoholic mosquitoes out there.

Debit / Credit Card Anxiety.

Surely i'm not the only one. When i pay for something using my debit or credit card, have my accounts been hacked? Has all of my money been siphoned off to North Korea? I feel a definite sense of relief when i see "Approved." Every single time.

KSHE95, The Rock Of St Louis.

This is the radio station that kickstarted my interest in / fascination with St Louis when i first started listening to it (online, obviously) nearly three years ago. Not only did they play some great music, but just hearing about what was going on in the area -- and even listening to the local ads -- made me feel a definite sense of affinity for the region. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, KSHE changed the outfit that streams their audio, to listenlive.co. I didn't like them from the start -- they replaced the local ads with songs of their own (and it was usually something either incongruous or awful or both). But worse was to follow: they blocked Canada, and i can now no longer listen at all. Another of life's little pleasures i no longer have.

St Louis Classic Rock

One door closes, another opens. I discovered this, Internet-only station: http://www.stlouisclassicrock.com/ The music is great. Unfortunately it lacks the local colour that i enjoyed so much with KSHE. It's ad-free, and i have yet to hear an actual human dee-jay, but i've been listening almost every morning.

Playlist.

That's all for now. Have a playlist:

Richard Thompson -- Daring Adventures
Steve Rothery -- The Ghosts Of Pripyat
Peter Hammill -- And Close As This
Van der Graaf Generator -- Merlin Atmos
Fairport Convention -- Myths And Heroes
James Taylor -- Before This World
The Cars -- Greatest Hits
Bob Dylan -- The Times They Are A-Changin'
Roxy Music -- The High Road
Fairport Convention -- The Festival Bell
Melissa Etheridge -- Yes I Am
Marillion -- Sounds That Can't Be Made
Peter Hammill -- The Silent Corner And The Empty Stage
King Crimson -- Starless And Bible Black
Ten Years After -- Live At Reading 1983
Tangerine Dream -- The Essential Tangerine Dream
Steeleye Span -- Rocket Cottage
Chris Squire -- Fish Out Of Water
Max Webster -- High Class In Borrowed Shoes
Donald Fagen -- The Nightfly
Fairport Convention -- Angel Delight
Kathy Mattea -- Coal

I Shall Go To St Louis!

Quotation of the day: Me (paraphrasing Dwight D. Eisenhower) ~ I shall go to St Louis

It should come as a surprise to no one that i have been planning a trip to St Louis, Missouri, for close to two years now. Without making too many sacrifices, i now have managed to save enough for the trip -- the air & train fare and five or six nights in a not-too-shabby hotel not too far away from downtown. I still have other expenses to look after: a new passport, new glasses (so that i can see what i'm looking at) and Cate will have to be boarded for a week -- oh, and i'll need to eat and drink and play tourist whilst i'm there! Things are progressing slowly but steadily and the trip is now, tentatively, planned for the third week in September. (The Cardinals play at home all that week.)

The "sacrifices" weren't all that rigorous, either. Instead of going out to lunch once a week, i've been going out once a month. Savings: $90 a month. (I'm quite happy to pay $30 for lunch, i believe that the three hour lunch is wonderful invention.) And instead of going out for a couple of beers after work 4 / 5 times a week, i've been limiting myself to thrice. Savings: $18 - $36 a week (i drink a premium ale, for my sins). It's extraordinary how quickly it adds up!

And so, on Saturday, i was at Kelsey's, having a couple of beers after work (my 3rd and final visit of last week), when my phone went (imitates ringtone) VOOM VOOM VOO VOO VOOM. (My ringtone is Tom Robinson's "2-4-6-8 Motorway", if anyone was wondering what the hell i was trying to do just there.) It was a message from my friend Chuck, in Belleville, Illinois, just across the river from St Louis. He was wondering if i'd settled on the date(s) for my visit? I replied, no, but it'll be sometime in September. He messaged back, do you have accommodation settled, to which i replied, no. Dave (a mutual friend) had offered me a place to crash in St Clair, Missouri, but there's no way to get from St Clair to St Louis unless you have a car (and i don't even drive) so that wasn't really a viable option. So i told him about the research i'd done into hotels and he wrote: save your money. I have a spare bedroom. It's sorted! Bless you, Chuck!

Belleville -- which looks like a very pretty town -- (oh, look, here's a pic!)

 is considered a part of St Louis Metro East and is served by MetroLink (the public transit system there) so getting back and forth will be no problem at all. I have so much to do, but the process is well underway!

And here's a (very short, since my last post was yesterday) playlist:

Richard Thompson -- Daring Adventures
Steve Rothery -- The Ghosts Of Pripyat
Peter Hammill -- And Close As This

Ink, Part 2

Quotation of the day: Jon Anderson ~ Tattoo. What a loaded word it is, rife with associations to goons, goofs, bikers, tribal warriors, carnival artists, drunken sailors and floozies.

As i haven't had my ink for very long, i've been thinking quite a bit about the whole idea recently. Why do people get tattoos?

Here's what Wikipedia has to say on the subject (so it has to be taken with a grain of salt): "Many tattoos serve as rites of passage, marks of status and rank, symbols of religious and spiritual devotion, decorations for bravery, sexual lures and marks of fertility, pledges of love, punishment, amulets and talismans, protection, and as the marks of outcasts, slaves and convicts. The symbolism and impact of tattoos varies in different places and cultures. Tattoos may show how a person feels about a relative (commonly mother/father or daughter/son) or about an unrelated person.Today, people choose to be tattooed for artistic, cosmetic, sentimental/memorial, religious, and magical reasons, and to symbolize their belonging to or identification with particular groups, including criminal gangs or a particular ethnic group or law-abiding subculture."

I also heard someone say that they are a way to connect with one's tribal roots, but i don't go for that: tribalism is and always has been the cause of all war. I may be many things, but tribal? No.

So why did i get one? Partly for the experience, of course, but mostly (as it's a treble clef) to symbolize the importance of music to me. I'd been thinking about it for quite a long time, but it wasn't until four or five years ago, when i saw a photograph of Wendy Boomer with a treble clef on her arm and knew what i wanted on my arm.

I got it solely for myself, too: it's 'way up at the top of my arm, where it will be mostly invisible. I have very few (if any) shirts with sleeves so short that it will be revealed. And i'll probably never get another: after all, you wouldn't put a load of bumper stickers on a Ferrari....

It's quite a different world to that which i am used to, too -- the world of tattooing. The shop i went to is owned by a couple of guys who met when they were learning their craft in the penitentiary. The artist who did me -- an extremely pleasant guy named Jay -- he's a widower, his wife was a crack addict who died of an overdose, and his 15-year old daughter had just run off with a 17-year old dude.... He, as was his partner, was covered with ink. So different to the world of books, music and art that i inhabit.



I am very glad i did it!




Here, have a playlist:


Peter Hammill -- Skin
Steeleye Span -- Storm Force Ten
Jethro Tull -- Thick As A Brick
Ian Anderson -- Thick As A Brick 2
Rush -- Exit ... Stage Left
Sandy Denny -- Rendezvous
Stephane Grappelli -- In Tokyo
Joni Mitchell -- Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Tim Hart & Maddy Prior -- Folksongs Of Old England, Vol. 2
Fairport Convention -- Unhalfbricking
Steeleye Span -- Tempted And Tried
Fairport Convention -- Before The Moon
Fairport Convention -- XXXV
Sandy Denny -- Sandy
Steve Rothery -- The Ghosts Of Pripyat
Chris Leslie -- Dancing Days
Jethro Tull -- The Minstrel In The Gallery
The John Kirkpatrick Band -- Welcome To Hell
Steve Earle -- El Corazon
Sandy Denny -- A Boxful Of Treasures
Mark Knopfler -- Tracker
Joni Mitchell -- Dog Eat Dog