BLOGAHOMA

Eric Clapton San Francisco Filmore Ad

I keep thinking if I don’t write them down I am going to forget who I saw in concert. What artists I got to hear. Most were in the accompaniment of my husband, Michael but a few weren’t. I have also included Music Festivals and Musical Theatre. Most of the musical acts you will have heard of but some are local talents, worth the mention. I tried to remember dates but we heard so many in the 70’s that it is hard to pinpoint. If my pocketbook was deeper the list would have been longer but I appreciate those live performances. We also shy away from any HUGE venues including baseball stadiums and refuse to pay exorbitant amounts. As John Bassett once sang “I did not go to Woodstock and I might not go again. Just too much confusion for the kinda state I’m in”. So I think we saw the Mama’s and the Papas but I can’t bring up the details. So maybe later tonight I will remember. Yes, I remember details. Occasionally the details end up being more memorable than the music. Like the Throat Singers concert in San Francisco Presidio where our taxi never showed up and we ended up hitchhiking with the performers. Or my teenage son, Colin, calling and calling the radio station so we could get tickets to see the Subdudes at Peabody’s Downunder in Cleveland.

Not in the list but noteworthy are the local bands and singers that are part of the Medicine Park Music Festivals and local drinking establishments including Blueprint and Curly Jackwire, Usual Suspects, Amanda Cunningham and Live to Tell. Also not on the list are the Operas I attended with my Mom because she loved them and my dad didn’t.

Please note that I didn’t actually see Eric Clapton but I did get this flyer and every blog post needs a visual. By the time we saw John Mayhall the Bluesbreakers, Clapton had moved on.

For my 64th birthday Michael took me on a road trip down Route 66 to Pop’s a avant garde shaped restaurant puncuated with a giant pop bottle. The fair is homemade diner style with diner prices set in a expanse of a Soda emporium with over 500 varities. Stepping away from my usual healthy food regimeI had a BELT, bacon (apple smoked), egg salad, lettuce and tomato sandwich, side of fries and a coffee malt. The most fun part was picking a couple dozen soda pops to bring home.

photos by Michael & Muriel Fahrion

A few posts ago I took out a bunch of vintage matchbooks and brought them to “show and tell” on my blog. I didn’t want to set the world unfire I just wanted to spark some imagination. This time it playing cards. I loved the swapping card thing when I was kid I did own anything as frivolous as playing cards, not when you needed milk money, so I had to be content to look on as other girls gathered their favorites like kittens or horses or flowers. I ran across a few I had bought somewhere on a whim, just a handful really but I’d thought I’d share with my small audience. I like the Pueblo Indian designs and wonder if they may have been sold at Harvey Restaurants in the New Mexico.

Dedicated to my father Jack H. Norris

Jack Norris behind his desk Greyhound Bus Terminal, Cleveland 1949

I’m a night owl, and my father is to blame. He worked two jobs to support his brood so in order to get my one-on-one I stayed up late, very late. After homework, approved television was a diet of news, travel journals and variety shows but following the last newscast father and “daughter number three” shared old movies while munching on sardines in mustard sauce and saltines. Dad was fond of operettas like Rose Marie or Naughty Marietta starring Jeanette McDonald & Nelson Eddie. “Ah! Sweet mystery of life at last I’ve found thee,” we’d sing. More intriguing to me was Lena Horne in Cabin in the Sky an all African-American cast. Dad proclaimed Lena a “torch singer” and then (like always when introducing new words) he proceeded to define the term. It was at that pivotal moment I declared myself a fan of “torch singers”. During commercials dad critiqued the movie du jour. He pointed out great dialog or retched triteness, historic accuracy or slipshod inaccuracy. He expressed disdain for predictability or lackluster lyrics. I never asked questions but waited for my father’s effusive explanations.

The emergence of the penny stash in the majolica sugar bowl signaled gin rummy night with Uncles and buddies. Hours after siblings scooted off to bed I remained. I didn’t ever ask to stay up I was just never told to go to bed because I was unobtrusively quiet and most helpful. I fetched beer and refilled the pretzel bowl. Selfishly I stayed up to learn gin rummy by my father’s side watching over his shoulder as he played. He would (without utterance) point out possible run combinations. I watched intently as he drew and discarded. His movements were deliberate as if recorded in slow motion so I could catch on. After sufficient amount of “lessons” dad suggested his 8 year-old play a hand. I was paired with Ted, a bus driver, who had honed his skills on layovers. There was great amusement among the observers when demonstrated that I had not only grasped technique but after a few verbal slings of “mini snatcher” “are you fishing?” I also talked the talk. The “ah hah” moment came when I timidly announced “Gin” and scooped up the pennies.

Yes, music, vocabulary, history, critical thinking, strategy and a million things taught in stealth manner by my father who avoided triteness, sang like Nelson Eddie and delivered the most amazing dialog.

Susan, Lucy, Dad and Me 1947 Rocky River, OH

The clock I chose to render in 3D is the Nelson Wall Clock designed by
George Nelson in 1948. George Nelson was a signature mid century designer. And this clock clock which produced in wood and metal both painted and unpainted symbolizes that post WWII era (the atomic age).

A full Nelson is a wrestling hold executed from the backside and so the the metaphor. Holding back time, grappling with time, wrestling with time. Interesting to note that it is not a “finishing” action and you cannot pin you opponent “time” down.

Not that either of these came to mind when executing this 3D. I liked the clock and thought “easy” to recreate in 3D.

So what’s next in my 3D brain buffer? Perhaps something by Heywood Wakefield. Mid-centure Moderne so much easier than Victorian.

Created in Cheetah 3D on a 13″ MacBook.