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Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer

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Archive for April, 2010

Well, That Was Fun

After taking in a local art show (with pieces by several friends including mixed media artist Lori Chilefone), I set out into the night (OK, it wasn’t dark yet and I only had to walk 50 feet) to attend the Jaggernauts/Drunk Drivers concert.

Solicitous aside: With respect to the range of folks who drop in here, if you intend to chase down the links that follow, please know that the artists in question sometimes express their art in a frank manner.  I like Frank and I like frank, but it ain’t for everyone.

By common consent, the ‘Nauts show was one of their tightest, including a full-on live version of “Zombie, Robot, Ninja Pirate.”  Good to see Noel and the boys at work, and as always, fun to see the “other” Ramey (in another musical life he is a Long Bed).

As for the Drunk Drivers, I hadn’t seen them in a few years, and man they were all I remembered.  Small-town-rooted boot-stomp, outta-my-way, sweaty-t-shirt gut-rock with lyrics that balance smart (“Model Citizen” is far more than a star-spangled drinking song) with unapologetic busted-knuckle fun (The evening’s rendition of “Blatz Sabbath” was definitive).

Others agree:

“The manic energy that the Drunk Drivers bring to the stage ensures they always sound fresh …Combine tight rhythm section, strong singer-front person and non-wanky guitar hero; add Farfisa (and Blatz) as needed; stir crowd frequently.” Isthmus, Madison WI

“Drunk Drivers’ sound contains genuinely serpentine swagger… equal parts Graceland, Jonestown and Waco exultation.” The Pulse, Minneapolis, MN

“Bukowski set to music by four guys who have somehow managed to make being a motor head from small-town Wisconsin sexy.” Minneapolis Star Tribune

“They drank and played for almost 2 1/2 hours. Their crowd consisted mostly of Wisconsin natives in stocking caps and flannels hoisting their Old Style bottles well above their heads. Good times.” –Big city concert goer

Regarding that last quote: Yes, if you attend a Drunk Drivers show, due to audience enthusiasm you may endure a certain krausening.  A fine foamy mist as if from heaven.  But I had a great time in the back with my ear plugs and bottled water.  And as a bald old Dad I was tickled to see the lead guitarist’s tot daughter pogoing for Pop up there in the front (this was a non-bar setting, and yes, she was hearing protected, and went home to bed early).

Anyways.  Thanks, Jaggernauts and Drivers.  That was good loud fun.

P.S. Thanks to our hosts.

A Woman of Strength

For me, it all began with the poems she read at an open mic night in Downsville, Wisconsin, way back when I didn’t know what to do.  I guess I expected “little old lady” poems.  And that’s exactly what Norma read…except when I got my breath back, my dumb thick-necked, pin-headed definition of “little old lady” had undergone a drastic recalibration.

Powerful woman.

Obituary here.

&$#@$

Spent an afternoon stacking wood.  Not well, apparently.  Because when I took my daughter out to show her the progress made (she has a vested interest), I heard a tick…tick…tick noise.  She was leaning into the doorway visible in this photo.  When I heard the ticking, I realized it was the sound of the woodpile shifting.  “You better back up – I think the pile might fall,” I said, and no sooner had I said it than the entire row came avalanching down and spilling out the doorway.  Just missed her.

This is just a fraction of the wood that fell.  The rest is inside the shed.  Took a photo of that, too, but didn’t post it because it didn’t look all that dramatic.  Just looked like a jumble of firewood.  That has to be stacked.  Again.

Coop in Paperback

Time speeds along faster than a chicken coop on wheels!  The very first paperback copy of Coop arrived via the UPS truck last week, and we are now able to take orders (all orders will be signed by Mike).

Here’s the cover:

Yep, those are our chickens, and that’s our tyke herding them.  She had only recently learned to walk when the photo was taken.  Now she’s threatening to read the book herself.  Once again, this cover was the work of our friends John and Julie.

As you can see, the book has a new subtitle.  On the hardcover, the subtitle was “A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting.”  I’ve never had a book come out with two separate subtitles before.  There were meetings involved.  I believe we are attempting to broaden the demographic, as they say.  I’m plumb happy with my current demographic, but welcome any newcomers.  Question is, does this make the hardcover (signed copies still in stock!) even more valuable as a collector’s item?

By the way, this paperback version is a “P.S.” model, which means it includes an author interview and a new essay by Mike updating events (feral guinea hens, anyone?) since the hardcover release.

I’ll be on paperback tour in May and April.  We’ve added tentative dates to the calendar with more details to follow soon.

Paperback edition includes author interview and new “P.S.” essay by Mike updating events (feral guinea hens, anyone?) since the hardcover release.

The Logsplitter Shot

This photo proved to be pretty popular.  Nice one, Mills.

Rain, finally.  Not enough for the long term but plenty to give things a boost.

Gonna move the chickens to the new coop.  Then see what kind of a grade it will take without tipping over…

Also today, headed for the New Auburn Area Fire Department chicken barbecue.  Definitely a Top Five social event of the year.

Yer One of Us…

Sending this out to my friend Jay Moore at Moose Country radio, where the tagline is: “If you’ve ever [insert goofy jackpine knuckleheaded behavior here] … yer one of us.”

Background, Part 1: For the past three years I busted up all of our firewood (and sometimes not enough of it) with a simple splitting maul.  I like splitting wood.  Good for my body, good for my head.  However, we burn a bunch of it and I was getting behind.  I saw a hydraulic splitter on sale.  I made the move.

Background, Part 2: My buddy Mills is forever helping me with projects and lending me things.  I rarely have anything he needs, and as far as helping him, I always seem to be on the road whenever he does a project.

So: When Mills asked if he could borrow my splitter, I was tickled that I finally had something he could use.  He towed it home behind his car.

But when he brought it back a week later…(photo after the jump) (more…)

Chicken on Wheels

Once upon a time I wrote a book about (among other things) building a chicken coop:

Now we have a new project in the works…

The Three-Year-Old Votes with Her Feet

And what’s got her going is Tab Benoit, “Somebody’s Got To Go,” off Power of the Pontchartrain.

“You play the piano*, Daddy, I’ll dance!”

*Air piano.  Don’t tell her.

Gatemouth in the Morning

Moved the chicken panels while the sun was still on the rise.  The neighbor is up too – a stratified skein of smoke hangs over the valley below (these days turn out warm but but the mornings benefit from a wood-fired boost).  At the keyboard now, with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s Back to Bogalusa on the CD machine.  Mister Brown is the “Gatemouth” in the subtitle of Off Main Street, as it includes a profile I wrote on the man.  I was due to interview him on September 14, 2001.  Got him on the phone, because he wasn’t getting on any airplanes, he said.  Never did meet him.  But we did speak on the phone at some length.  He was seventy-seven and full of crusty wisdom and sly wisecracks.  Someone once said his country licks didn’t sound country: “What country you talkin’ about?” asked Gate.

Three days after 9/11, Gatemouth said, “…when things is smooth, nobody likes one another, they hate one another’s guts.  But when a crisis happens, everybody hugs one another with all this bullshit sympathy.  I mean why can’t you have respect and concern for each other before?  It’s just like Christmas – from January to December everybody is just on your own.  But when that one day comes up…”

He’s gone now.  He was sick before Hurricane Katrina hit, and it wiped him out.  He left the music, and it sounds right this morning.  The violin on “Breaux Bridge Rag,” the feel of “Folks Back Home,” somehow it works right here in Wisconsin on a warming springtime morning.