Sunday, April 16, 2006

weakened

because i suck, i missed gigs by the rueffer brothers, quaker city, lady pearl's b.t.a. band, and sunward this weekend.

was feelin' under the weather friday night, then saturday, we received word that my sweetie's uncle alan sprenger had passed up in columbus, ohio. uncle alan was a catholic priest of the old shoe-leather variety. he founded syntaxis youth homes back in the '70s and made a diff to a lot of kids, as well as regular parishioners he served over the yrs. he also played a role in integrating the public pools in columbus (yeah, they have racial boo-shee in the north, fo' sho'). he owned a succession of dobermans, all named "john." i had the pleasure of meeting alan and "johnny quatro" at the family lakehouse in ohio a coupla summers back. a good man who didn't talk religion-talk all the time, just lived his life the way j.c. told his ppl to. as my sweetie sez, he lived a life of consequence, and incidentally, he (and her li'l sis) inspired her to follow the course she's taken in life (working with disabled kids).

anyway, i bought my granddaughter an easter dress and saw my youngest dtr yesterday, which i don't get to do all the time. aside from the sad news from ohio, it was a pretty good day.

went to two different half price books and scored big on the vinyl: a clean copy of fz's overnite sensation, a great hank williams sr. comp (i'm gonna tape "why don't you love me" off it for lee allen to prove that the chili peppers didn't write it), sly's there's a riot going on, an okay faces comp (but one with "ooh la la," a song that's been on my mind much lately), an old bob seger alb that has a song on it i usedta call the radio station in my idiot town on lawn guyland and request _every single night_ the summer i turned 15 (they never played it, either), and jim colegrove's panther city blues.

had stoogeaphilia prac this evening, so now my left hand hurts like hell again from playing barre chords (only four hours this time). we sweated our balls off in the shed tonight -- it was supposedly 93 degrees out. burnt up one fan and only discovered another as we were knocking off. we're breaking the seal on this project during this week's wednesday night jam at the wreck room -- it'll be "stooges at midnight," in between whatever else is going on. also trying to get a thursday night at the black dog, since billy wilson's booking the bands there in what used to be confusatron's slot. and impulse of will might play a norml benefit at the wreck room on may 28th. calendar's getting "busy."

next weekend we're supposed to go to a cookout on a ranch someplace east of dallas. inasmuch as i am loath to drive an hour in any direction, i am somewhat ambivalent about this. film, as they say, at 11.

2 Comments:

Blogger andrew m. said...

sorry to hear 'bout yr wife's unc. he sounds like a swell cat.

with all the bad news regarding catholic priests these days, it's easy to forget how many truly righteous men o' the cloth are out there doing the lord's work. i grew up cath, REAL cath, and i gotta stop my cynical self sometimes from gettin too carried away with my anti-church 'tude. best to leave the passing of judgement to the man upstairs hisself...

had the pleasure of meeting two fine padres this past month. the first was the cat at my unc's funeral. we had a private for-fam-only viewing at the funeral home pad the morning of the burial and father dooley (a REAL old skool pre-vatican II era ordained holy man) was supremely righteous. he, as my wife so eloquently put it, "really got it." no stone age fire and brimstone hardline vatican action from this cat - just an honest to goodness living embodiment of how to live one's life in accordance with the teachings of JC. his words did much to help us in hour of sorrow and i dug him much. a great man indeed, and the example he set was a good reminder why it's improper to judge the whole lot based on the actions of a few.

met the other righteous father later that day at a wedding i attended. an EX priest who married and quit the priesthood, but still had the ability to marry legally, still wore his priestly garments, and still considered himself to be a man o' the cloth. he stressed, big time, the idea that "the church" is a gathering of the faithful, and not simply a building made of brick and stone. i dig that much cuz most cath priests won't marry folks outside of a church building. a stand up cat if there ever was one.

doubt i'll be assembled among the flock of the faithful on a weekly basis anytime soon, but hearing 'bout righteous cats like uncle alan reminds me of all the good things about my religion i'm missing out on when i'm soapboxing 'bout the state of the cath church. like JC said: "judge not lest ye be judged yrself." words to live by...

3:37 AM  
Blogger andrew m. said...

shoot... i haven't heard the faces "ooh la la" in years. what a swell tune. strange to hear it on some car commerical a while back...

3:43 AM  

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