Memorial Day 2021

 

Friday Art and Music

Since I discovered the Ventures album of Jim Croce covers and listened to it a couple of times, I have been obsessed with the catalog of this band. 

It’s unbelievably huge. Album after album, year after year, filled with great versions of all kinds of well known songs across many genres. Country, pop, R&B, soul, jazz, TV and movie themes, you name it, they’ve probably done it. 

This band is so much more than just their best-known songs — Hawaii Five-O plus their first big hit “Walk Don’t Run” and a few others that got them labeled incorrectly as “surf music”. That was just a small part of what they did.

This music is best appreciated with good headphones, or turned up loud on good stereo speakers. 

This one of course features their version — the original and best — of the “Hawaii Five-O” theme song, easily one of the greatest TV show themes in history.

From the same album here’s “The Letter”, a big hit first for the Box Tops — another excellent band — and later Joe Cocker.

“Galveston”, a huge hit for Glen Campbell:

“Lovin’ Things” a UK hit for Marmalade, later covered by the Grass Roots — a solid pop hit, but this one sounds best to me because there’s more going on musically. 

“Theme from A Summer Place”, a melody that is instantly recognizable even if that title is not. The hit version in 1960 — a re-recording of the movie theme by Percy Faith — was a giant hit, staying at #1 for nine straight weeks which was a record at the time. I could listen to this on a loop all day.

Several more like this: “Dizzy”, a medley of Classics IV hits and another one of Fifth Dimension hits, “I Can Hear Music”, another hit from that era by the Beach Boys (a cover of the orignal by the Ronettes), and more.

It’s all great, because the arrangements are spot on, and the musicians are top notch. The innovation and excellence of these musicians is an entire topic all by itself. As it says in their Wikipedia entry:

The Ventures have had an enduring impact on the development of music worldwide. The band was among the first to employ and popularize fuzz and flanging guitar effects, concept albums, and twelve-string guitars in rock music. Their instrumental virtuosity, innovation, and unique sound influenced many musicians and bands, earning the group the moniker "The Band that Launched a Thousand Bands".

And they did many albums like this throughout the 60s and into the 70s. Many, many albums. 

More to come on this band. 

Artworks

Pissarro, Landscape at Eragny, 1894.

Each Memorial Day weekend my thoughts turn to honoring the fallen.

It’s about remembrance. That’s the whole point of the holiday.

Memorial Day was originally established as Decoration Day on May 30, 1868 to honor the over 600,000 Civil War dead, a formal recognition of the Decoration Day ceremonies that many towns and villages had started to observe in the 3 years since the end of the war.

At that event Ohio congressman James Garfield, the future president, said: 

“For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”

Patriotism and virtue. 

Later it was renamed Memorial Day to honor the fallen from all wars, shortly after World War I. 

However today we mainly see it as a day off from work, a bookened holiday with Labor Day defining summer, a good day to throw a party and have a cookout. For most folks, “honoring the fallen” is not part of the mix, and as a result we have lost something very valuable in the process.

Upon learning more about all this several years ago I started a new tradition: paying my respects to the fallen at local cemeteries, especially those I had read about during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, by visiting their gravesites and planting a small American flag and saying a silent prayer.

One particular Memorial Day weekend I visited the gravesite of Marine Lance Cpl. Nicholas Larson. Nick was killed in Iraq in 2004.

He was nineteen years old, having graduated high school just 18 months before. 

As I approached the gravesite I saw a man tidying up the area and so I assumed it might be his father. At first I was unsure if I should say anything or even approach him, since I did not know him personally — but then I thought if it were me in his shoes, I would really appreciate knowing that a random stranger took the time to visit my son’s grave to pay their respects, and I would definitely like to meet them. 

So I introduced myself and offered my sincere condolences and mentioned that I had visited Nick's grave several times over the years to pay my respects. 

He was friendly and appreciative. As a father of 3 boys, I empathized. It was an encounter I will never forget, even though it only lasted 30 seconds. 

I would encourage everyone to visit your local military gravesites and learn about the people and stories buried there. Buy a few of those tiny flags at the grocery store and plant them in whatever graves you can find. Observe a solemn moment of silence at each grave and maybe say a little prayer. 

It helps you feel connected to the whole idea of Memorial Day, and it feels good to leave a little symbol of your appreciation behind. It’s a small gesture, but it feels right, and it’s packed with meaning. And hopefully their loved ones know that some of us are trying to do our best to honor the fallen for their patriotism and virtue. 

Marvel Mystery Oil

I’ve been noticing some slight hesitation with my 2007 Honda Accord and figured the injectors might need a good cleaning, so I decided to get some fuel injector cleaner on the way home from work Friday. 

I found many many brands at AutoZone but nothing jumped out at me. Then I saw this stuff ... Marvel Mystery Oil?

Hmmm ... says you can add it to your gas to clean injectors and upper cylinders and improve performance with better gas mileage too, plus other important stuff. And, you can add it to your oil to clean and de-gunk the engine.

Pretty impressive. Does all of that? Really?

What’s in it? Who knows! It’s Marvel Mystery Oil! Since 1923. 

I’ve got to buy this stuff and try it. Since 1923! 

So I bought it and went straight to the gas station. The instructions say to use 4 ounces for 10 gallons of gas, so I added the 4 ounces but there was already about a half tank so I just put in a couple more gallons. 

The hesitation is mostly better but not gone. I don’t really track gas mileage with any regularity so that will be difficult to measure. I’ll use it every time I get gas and see how it goes over the next few weeks.

Here’s the promoional video from the website.

Summer has finally arrived

But not for long, I guess

Yesterday we hit 90 or thereabouts, although the humidity was not bad so it was not oppressive. 

However I see that the upcoming forecast is getting cooler again though. 83 today, 54 on Friday. 

Well, that’s May in Chicago for you. There will be time for sweating and discomfort later this summer, I’m pretty sure.

After getting out on the bike 3-4 times in March - April but not at all in the last 4 weeks I finally got out for a couple of hour long rides on Thursday and Saturday, and will do one this afternoon. 

Biking is my primary source of exercise in the warmer months — I aim for 3-4x per week, 45 minutes or more. This amount does a lot of good for my metabolism, cardiovascular system, leg strength, mood and emotional state, and sleep quality. 

About 20 years ago I had a job that was about 8 miles away and accessible by bike path, so I decided to start riding to work twice a week. This worked great, and kept me in pretty good shape. 

The only tricky parts were drying off at work and having dry clothes to wear, and making sure I had enough calories to handle the ride home during the hotter part of the day. I used powder and paper towels plus a change of clothes for the first challenge, and found that the best solution for the second was a small bag of vending machine potato chips right before I left. The salt, carbs and fat were perfect for energy.

Energy food looks like this sometimes. Don’t listen to “experts”. Your body knows different.

I did this bike to work twice a week from May - September for about 10 years at two different jobs that were pretty close to each other. Sadly that came to an end when I got one of those “work from home” jobs that everyone seems to love so much.

Working from home does not provide this opportunity. Keep that in mind.

Memorial Day is coming up

Did you know it’s literally one of the most important days on the calendar? I’ll post an essay about that on Thursday.

Enjoy your Tuesday friends. 

Brooks Robinson with his 15 Gold Glove awards. Or is it 16?

This means he was voted best fielder at his position 15 separate times. Or is it 16?

Imagine having so many awards that it’s difficult to count them in a photo.