Between Random Planets

The Best of San Diego's Caffeinated Sound, No Strings Attached....

....unless they're attached to a ukelele or guitar and the grind is being served at the marvelous E Street Cafe near the ever-so-romantic Moonlight Beach.

Rich and I were fortunate enough to catch our very talented In-law Christopher Luessman at the E Street Cafe, doing a one man string serenade and multi-media presentation a few weeks ago. 

I'm hard pressed to find anything more fun than having a second double espresso and soaking up the grand ukelele sounds of Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."

I hear that he'll be back at E Street Cafe again soon (my listed date was October 26) and his show is a must-see for that laid-back So Cal beach sound.

He even drew adoring fans from the outside of the cafe (note the look of abject amazement in the background in picture two taken by my horribly inadequate cell phone camera).

Which is why it's always nice to have your own personal bouncer around.  Rich decided that Adoration Man was too distracting and the huge shoulder you see in this next photo would be my protective spouse.  What a darned cute family moment and what an amazing night from an amazingly talented young man.  San Diego does have more than great burritos and salty surfers.  We've got Christopher and we've got culture.

...or cultchah as my favorite New Jersey massage client always says.   She's  postive that as long as you've got good cawfee you got yourself cultchah.

Just Because We Get Around....

We are not linear here at Between Random Planets, so being perilously behind (or largely out-of-sequence) with current cultural tidbits won't get our panties in a twist....especially since I've been hibernating in a warm and fuzzy spouse-cocoon since my husband's return last week from deployment on the U.S.S. Reagan.

Before I backtrack, however, this little gem must be presented while it's fresh. 

With eternal thanks to my pal Laurie who thought enough of me to send this link -- here are The Zimmers and their timely cover track of The Who's My Generation:

Their lead singer is 90 years old, their band is 40-strong, and this current internet cult hit was recorded at Abbey Road -- in good historical company with England's other famous popsters who recorded there (The Beatles).

All this fun comes courtesy of Tim Samuels, who has created a BBC documentary on disenfranchised groups who fight to get their voices heard in a big, noisy world.  These little lads and lasses are the toast of You Tube -- and if I ever need to stick it to The Man I know which gray-haired grannies I'm consulting with. 

Judging by the very last frame in this video, these little fireballs will never get old.

"People try to put us down
Just because we get around
Things they do look awful cold
Hope I die before I get old"
~The Who: My Generation

Radio Free BRP Goes MTV

In keeping with this week's trend to visuals, here's a fun salute to the USS Ronald Reagan from our favorite Parrothead, Jimmy Buffet.

This video is older and pre-surge deployment, so you actually manage to catch a bunch of Reagan crew members having enough free time to contribute a little "Parrothead wave".  They're all currently working their collective butts off at the moment, but soon -- oh, soon. There will be time for many, many margaritas.

Radio Free BRP: Chant for Happiness

Although we started with Radio Free Negishi in 2005, spinning the occasional tune via blog post for your general amusement, it's been some time since we spun something tuneful as Radio Free BRP in our new home.

I woke up today, for the second time, at noon.  This is because my mate and I got about two total hours of sleep before I drove him to the base at 4 a.m. for his scheduled deployment on the U.S.S. Reagan.  When I was young I hated going to sleep -- I was always afraid I'd miss something.  Years and mileage don't mean squat. Under certain circumstances not much really changes.  All week long, Rich kept hearing the loudly ticking bathroom clock and it reminded him of his rather finite home status.  It is possible to resent an inanimate object, even the humble, hardworking clock.

In the surreal, sleep-deprived darkness of Naval Base Coronado at 4 a.m., it's a shock to realize that you're not alone.  Hundreds of cars ejected hundreds of duffel bags.  There were hundreds of kisses, hundreds of profound embraces and a thousand things we wished we had said, or said more eloquently, before driving home alone.   I did see, however, something I hadn't expected to see until the ship's return.  I saw a lot of hope.

The sailors on a ship have signed up to do a job that they can't easily legally avoid.  Their spouses are another matter entirely.  These spouses keep on truckin', keep on dreaming that their lives will get better, keep on hoping that their mates aren't getting spread so thin that they snap, keep searching for that light at the end of the tunnel.  The light might be a little dim at the moment, but it's there.  And you're not alone.

Radio Free BRP is spinning a little Seal -- today's hopeful tune for the spouses of every fleet. Keep your friends and family close, and keep hoping...even if your faith gets a little smudged sometimes.

Download Newbornfriend.seal.wma

Nobody could have said it better than Rich -- the second those guys step on the ship, the countdown goes the other way.  The clock starts ticking in your favor.

"If I chant for happiness, maybe that will make me feel better.
I can't changes my ideals, I can't put out the fire.
If I chant for happiness, maybe that will bring us together,
For the better..."

Even I Can't Talk for 28 Straight Hours...

At 1:00 in the morning, San Diego doesn't always look so shiny.  Making the 2 mile-long drive across the Coronado Bay Bridge (our 200 foot high suspension link between land-locked civilians and surfside military) during the wee hours feels a little like Grand Theft Auto in real time.  Of course, it's also the "jumping hour" so even though most people don't talk about it, bridge drivers are always on suicide watch, hoping that they don't have to talk anyone down from a potential permanent face plant.

Safe to say, it only adds to the irritation when I'm making the drive to drop off my favorite playmate who's leaving for yet another Mystery Tour (i.e. a ship's  underway).   Rich had a good point though....if we had to lose sleep, we could at least share the pain and tune in to The Mikey Show, San Diego's only hard rock station.  These nuts were in the middle of a 28 hour non-stop broadcasting marathon.  No music breaks, no sleep...no exceptions.

Their job was a little harder...they had to be entertaining and get no sleep.  All I had to do was drive.  It's amazing the stuff that your brain latches on to when you're sleep-deprived.  Skittering across the fast lane, I kept seeing really tiny versions of mutated bugs from World of Warcraft's Twin Emperors.  I took this as a sign to turn up the radio.

Highlights:
(if these concepts aren't marginally amusing, then you got 8 hours of sleep last night):
~People who have Frodo Baggins hairstyles
~Ham Taste Test: Costco ham vs. Honeybaked Ham
~MST3K-styled versions of Star Trek: Wrath of Khan and The Wizard of Oz.  Listeners were urged to put in their DVD copies and hit "play" when the deejays did so fans could see exactly what visual was being slammed.  I'm ashamed to say that I've seen both of these movies so many times that I had a perfect internal visual while driving down Interstate 5.  Wrath of Khan's "Let me show you something that will make you feel young as the world was new" really just can't be said with a straight face anyhow.  Please.

On my sad and solo return home, I was re-routed through a downtown construction zone and ended up in a darkly questionable blind alley trying to slalom around it's even more questionable roaming night-time inhabitants. Thanks to the Mikey Show's hyper-caffeinated hallucinations, I emerged (unscathed) with that all-important sense of humor intact.  Normally I'd be swearing like a sailor.

And speaking of sailors, here's where I get to thank my favorite sailor for tuning my little round dial to 105.3.  I know it'll be a while 'til I see my man again, but a little rough humor will make it easier to bear.

Podcast Links - The Mikey Show

In Southern California, Fender is More Than Just an Automobile Accessory

Since I guitar-referenced Fender in my last post, it seems timely that San Diego's Union Tribune also just published "Influential Instrument Maker Fender Celebrates 60 Years of Making Guitars".

Leo Fender introduced his first electric guitar in 1945, created in a tiny little shed behind his radio repair shop in Fullerton, California.   He kept tweaking, inventing, and fine-tuning until he introduced the legendary Telecaster and Stratocaster, turning the music world on it's head and sending it in wildly creative new directions.

A friendly and unassuming kind of guy (his personalized coffee mug was a styrofoam cup with the word "Leo" inked on it) he held the lifelong devotion of his employees who insisted that their best working years were spent under Leo Fender's care....even though he couldn't play a note of music.

We're not all just botox, tan lines and over-priced real estate. Southern California pops out some amazing cultural gems when we get our heads out of the sand.

History:
Leo Fender: The Man

P.S. -- I just noticed that Wikipedia has a listing of Playstation's Guitar Hero2 songs (soon to be released on November 7).  Any game that could combine The Pretenders' Tattooed Love Boys, Dick Dale's Misirlou, Rush's YYZ, The Foo Fighters' Monkey Wrench and Lynrd Skynyrd's Free Bird is a guitar game worth buying.  Leo would be proud.

I Don't Want to Move a Thing

Someone extraordinarily dear to me reminded me of tune awhile back:

I didn't hear you leave,
I wonder how am I still here
I don't want to move a thing,
It might change my memory

Oh I am what I am,
I'll do what I want, but I can't hide
I won't go, I won't sleep,
I can't breathe, until you're resting here with me
I won't leave, I can't hide,
I cannot be, until you're resting here with me

In Negishi, Ikego and Yokosuka our ships may soon come in.   Missing our mates during Thanksgiving, the lawn-mowing, the bill-paying, the vet visits, the child-tending, the minutiae of decision making and the gift-buying of the Christmas season  will be a faint memory. 

When he's gone, there are days where I-am-woman-hear-me-roar.  But sometimes, there are nights where I cry myself to sleep.  The sun usually comes out the next day.  But this is the reality of our lives, and this is the Seventh Fleet.

"Here With Me" Dido: No Angel