Sunday, July 31, 2022

Hit The Deck

 Picture it:

Saturday July 30. Morning. 1:57am to be exact. I awake to the sound of someone banging on the window behind my head. No, I think, that's not someone banging on the window... that is gunfire.

"Hit the deck" I don't remember saying, to my mate in bed next to me. What a silly thing to say.

We scrambled for the ground. I peeked out the window blinds. Two young black males with automatic weapons with their faces covered, were 10 feet from our window, shooting at someone running outside along the fence. We live in a gated building. The fence surrounds our parking lot. Whoever was running was also shooting, directly at the two men in front of me. I could see the flash of his gun as he fired toward us. All I could hear was extremely loud "pop! pop! pop! pop! pop!'s" in close succession.

I ducked down, grabbed my phone, and called 911. My mate did the same thing and went in another room. I was on hold for a few minutes waiting for an operator. When one finally answered, she said, "Saint Louis emergency, this is Renee." I paused, for a moment, because usually they say something like "What is the address of your location" etc. So I explained the situation to Renee, that there was a gun battle erupting outside our apartment, and no sooner did I explain to her what was happening that another barrage of gun fire exploded alongside the west facing window, down by the outside stairwell to the entrance of the building. I heard screaming.

"Get down!" I yelled for my mate, who was still on the phone waiting for 911 in the next room.

I peeked out the blinds again to answer Renee's questions, few and far between as they were. I saw a stream of young ladies wearing booty shorts and high heels following a group of men with their faces covered - with t-shirts, COVID masks, etc. One gal had a to-go box of food in her hand. No one appeared frantic or in distress. They all appeared non-chalant, as if this was a regular occurrence for a Saturday at 2:AM. You know, just your average morning of murder and mayhem.

The operator, Renee, said she would send the police right over.

My mate was also with 911, standing in the hallway by the front door to the apartment. We heard a gaggle of excited voices ruminating over what was happening. Whether these were concerned neighbors or those involved, I am still unsure.

20 minutes later...

Police lights. The two men who I saw originally, were accompanied by what I counted to be 5 other men (later this turned out to be a group of 9 but forgive me if my counting abilities were slightly stymied at the moment) slowly marched, with the women in tow, toward the pedestrian gate where the police were waiting (waiting? Not marching in dramatically with weapons in hand? No). Their weapons were gone, but a few of them still had their faces covered.

I do not understand what happened, why it happened, how it happened, or why they appeared to be turning themselves in. I also don't understand the complete lack of intensity to these perpetrator's behavior. No one was tense, everyone was completely calm.

Whenever anything happens that is insanely crazy to us, we can never - let me highlight that.. NEVER find anything about it in the news, social media, crime blotters, etc. I have no clue why not one single person from this apartment building posted anything about it on any of the outlets that we so often use to connect to one another.

My mate, however, did finally find a very bare bones version of an arrest report, indicating the ages of those involved, which was anywhere from 16 years of age to 40. 

This was all a crazy nightmare, and I can't believe it happened. Perhaps I am still in shock.

And now, for a picture of a bullet hole in a neighbor's car windshield:


So.. that was my weekend. How was yours?

Friday, July 8, 2022

Brandi Carlile @ Starlight Theater 7.6.22

The Brandi Carlile concert in Kansas City was awesome. It was about the 6th time we have seen her live and she always puts on a great show.
The Twins (Phil and Tim) came out rocking their guitars to open the show and set the mood, pretty fun to watch. Brandi came out to open the show with Broken Horses, a new song off the new album. 
She was wearing a glittery/flower pink jacket with matching pants. It was 93 degrees outside and extremely humid. She looked dazzling but I thought it was a poor choice for the weather. She must've been sweating to death. 
I'm not sure which songs were played in what order, but I know they did The Things I Regret, Mama Werewolf and a Joni Mitchell cover. They also did "Rocket man" by Elton John which was fun. 
The encore consisted of Tanya Tucker making her way back on stage (she was an opening act) as well as Katie Pruitt who also opened. At the end, Brandi did a solo of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" with a rainbow 🌈 backdrop, stating that she thinks pride should be every month.
"Sinners Saints and Fools" was a really fun time, high energy and great jam at the end. Got it on video although the quality is terrible. 
A fun show and great birthday celebration for my mate who turned 39 on the 7th. 🎉 🎂 🌟 🎁 🎈 ❤️ 

I'm glad we got there early, time enough to scope out our seats and grab a beverage , and at the end, we walked back to the conveniently located Air BnB and were there within 15 minutes.

I liked Kansas City in general, though I will need to go back again to really get a good feel for it.

Monday, July 4, 2022

Brandi Carlile Song Rankings

 We've been long time fans of Brandi Carlile, ever since the late 00's when she was a Seattle local. We've watched her career blossom from playing small stages to large amphitheaters, and we decided to sit down and rank her songs from "Awesome", then "Good", then "Meh" and then "Skip." These categories should be self explanatory, so I won't elaborate. I have comments for some of the songs. Just know that this was very hard, her whole catalogue is full of great stuff.



AWESOME:

!. The Story - Arguably her best song.

2. Raise Hell - This one gets the crowd going. Awesome song.

3. Hard Way Home - Perhaps a very underrated song of hers, one of the best if you ask me.

4. Rise Again - Another underrated song that not many people remember, but beautiful.

5. Losing Heart - Just wanna sing along. But my singing is terrible, so only when I am alone.

6. Before it Breaks - A beautiful song with a great thought, "Let it bend before it breaks." I like it.

7. Dreams - Another great early song.

8. Hold Out Your Hand - Sincerely catchy.

9. What Can I Say 

10. Turpentine - A fun one when done live

11. Broken Horses - Brandi's vocals in this one are bananas

12. Mama Werewolf - I love the sentiment of having your children there to ground you

13. That Wasn't Me - Off the Bear Creek album (their best one) 

14. Sinners Saints & Fools - A song about a good lesson to learn

15. 100 

16. Dying Day 

17. Wherever Is Your Heart - Sounds like a song that should've been on Bear Creek.

18. The Things I Regret 

19. Stranger At My Door - Has the coolest ending to a song ever

20. Fall Apart Again

21. Closer to You

22. Mainstream Kid

23. Throw It All Away

24. When You're Wrong


GOOD:

25. That Year

26. Someday Never Comes

27. In The Morrow

28. Right on Time

29. Late Morning Lullaby

30. A Promise To Keep

31. I'll Be There

32. Looking Out

33. Save Part of Yourself

34. Pride And Joy

35. Blood, Muscle, Skin, and Bone

36. Cannonball

37. Have You Ever

38. This Time Tomorrow

39. Alibi

40. Futon County Jane Doe

41. Shadow on the Wall

42. Touching the Ground

43. Sugartooth

44. I Belong To You

45. Caroline

46. Josephine

47. You And Me on The Rock

48. The Joke


MEH:

49. Follow

50. Gone

51. Keep Your Heart Young

52. Happy

53. Wilder (We're Chained)

54. Beginning to Feel the Years

55. Just kids

56. Downpour

57. The Mother

58. Throwin' Good After Bad

59. Until I Die

60. Oh Dear

61. Harder to Forgive

62. I Will

63. Every Time I Hear That Song

64. Most of All

65. Stay Gentle

66. Murder In The City

67. If There Was No You

68. Heroes & Songs

69. Whatever You Do


SKIP:

70. The Eye

71. Sixty Years On

72. Tragedy 

73. Letter To The Past

74. Party of One


I would also like to comment on Brandi's aesthetic now. I really miss her long brunette hair, her hipster Americana hats, her waistcoasts & vest. It really fit with her musical style.

Now, she looks like David Bowie, and I think it may be a mid-life crisis. She is still gorgeous as hell don't get me wrong, she just.. doesn't look like her music, and her music doesn't match the glitter & glam. 

Just my .02. Love you Brandi! See you in 2 days at Starlight!

Redgloam Revisited

I started fiddling with making music on the computer in 2000. I called myself "Redgloam" and I had a lot of songs up on acidplanet...