…Chicago is. Moreover: bet’cher bottom dollar you’ll lose the blues in Chicago. That just may be the truth, Judy.
Travel seems often to have a rejuvenating effect, and I’m thinking that’s the case for me after a long, down summer. My wife Josephine and I spent last week in Chicago, the greatest city in America, celebrating our 5th Anniversary. I recommend a free summer’s eve concert at Millennium Park, a snapshot at “the bean,” and the lattkes at Russian Tea Time.
As to rejuvenation: for the record, this is the 4th (fourth) restart of this blog. Perhaps best not to make any promises about 3 posts a week and so on. I’ve also not been on Facebook in 4 months, barely met my writing comittments, nor returned any of your calls or emails. Depression is evil… It won a round (but will ultimately lose the fight… dammit!).
So if you’ll just play along, check in occasionally…
Moving on, there is also something about this time of year (and I mean this exact time of year: the last two weeks of August/first two of September) that lifts the spirits. Oh yah, sure, it’s partly the State Fair ya know, but it’s also something else. As one of those nerdy kids who actually wanted to return to school each Fall (having endured summer ymca camp and endless days of nothingness), when those late August crickets start humming in the evening, my mind tunes to the “starting anew” channel…always…even at age 51.
BOOKS: The three-volume set Bob Dylan: Performing Artist by Paul Williams (founder of Crawdaddy…remember?) is a fantastic 1000-page analysis of Bob’s music, but if you don’t have 2 weeks for that, try this: put on 1976’s Desire and let it’s unique sound take over as you think about the fact that this was basically a 2-day jam session. Lot’s more books to tell you about coming up (check back).
AMMO: “Don’t tell me sin is rampant and rife/ think of that man who danced with his wife/ in Chicago.”
Peace/Dale (rejuvenated)
You look good, Dale. So, I won’t read anything into not hearing back from you (as I’m want to be a bit paranoid). The black dog (as Winston Churchill called depression) is hard to shake, but I’m glad he won’t win against you. He won’t win against me, either.
I enjoyed reading your articles, especially ‘Love is A Mix Tape’…sounds like a good read.
Take it easy. Congratulations on your personal and career successes (I, myself, just celebrated 10 years of marriage – and to the same man, no less
), and best wishes for future success.
Kathleen (Sipple) Brummert