The Naked Cowboy

With apologies to Pitti-Sing and W.S. Gilbert:

When the day is cold
A cowboy bold
Is a cheering sight to see;
And it's oh, I'm glad
He was barely clad
And right within sight of me!

Saw the Naked Cowboy in front of the train station this morning. He gets a lot of credit; it's only 23F/-4C out there.

Earth Day comes but once a year

"Earth Day every day!"

Uh, sounds great, yeah. I mean, really, it's a good thing to be aware of your impact on the environment. I believe conservation of energy and natural resources.

I also work at a place where Earth Day brings out some of the same feelings as Christmas if you work at a shopping mall. Yes, it's great, and it brings you lots of attention, but it's also crazy busy and you feel a distinct relief when it's over.

I got to write a post about this for our blog at work. I wrote a straight version and a rhyming version, and I'm pleased to say that they published the latter.

I have mixed feelings as we approach Earth Day each year. I wish we started planning further in advance so that it wouldn't feel so flurried. I prefer events that accomplish something tangible to ones where people make speeches. This year was better than most; we had a clear theme of recycling electronics and medications that was easy to embrace. (Actually, recycling is not something our agency regulates, but everyone thinks we do. We encourage the heck out of it, though.)

We organized a number of events and I think it went well. Our booth at Daley Plaza got many visitors and we gave away lots of publications. It really is heartening to see so many people thinking about protecting the environment. I never thought I'd hear the phase "carbon footprint" anywhere outside our office, but now it's in all the mainstream media. (I sometimes wonder what it's like farther away from urban media epicenters like Chicago. Do I just think that people are excited/upset about the environment because our local media are saturated with those themes? What do people in the rest of the country think?)

Our band performed again for one of the events. We call ourselves the Earth Tones and play environmentally themed songs plus my favorite Irish and American fiddle tunes. :^)

Earth Day is also a personal anniversary; my better half and I had our first date on Earth Day. (My friend Al used to suggest celebrating by practicing running in slow motion toward each other across a flowery meadow. It's usually too cold or too damp on April 22nd for that.)

I hope your Earth Day brought something you can use the rest of the year.

P.S. - The Earth Tones are booking for 2009... ;^)

More music, more reading, less dishes

It'd be a shame to waste the opportunity for New Year's resolutions. I want to move away from mindless duty and do more things that I like instead of waiting till all the chores are done to get around to them.

So I will find more time for playing music and reading, and not be in such a rush to get the dishes done, because by God, those suckers will not care one bit if I wait.

I was listening to Cathal Hayden's 1999 album of great, bracing fiddle music. I remembered how I always play better when I get to play with good players. This is not nonsense; it was even true back when I played in orchestras in high school. You rise to the level of those around you, and you feel great in the process. So I'm trying something: putting on headphones and playing along with the recording. It worked pretty well this evening. But man, that guy plays fast!

As for reading, I made myself a nest in the spare bedroom with all kinds of lovely books. And I wound up settling on The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie (yes, the actor). I suppose you could fault the text for being over full of clever bits, but then you would probably turn out to be someone who thinks there can be too many chocolate chips in Toll House cookies.

The kitchen is looking only slightly sparkling. So far so good. Happy New Year.