Working Class Dog

The first concert I ever went to was Rick Springfield, his Working Class Dog tour. Oh that it could be something cool like the Stones. But alas it was Rick during his Jessie's Girl phase. I didn't realize it at the time, but old Rick was a plot maniac --"Jessie is a friend,yeah, I know he's been a good friend of mine/ But lately something's changed that ain't hard to define/ Jessie's got himself a girl and I want to make her mine." Yeah, there it is, folks -- the ever elusive plot points! I went with my friend Melissa and her mother and we sat in the nosebleed section where a man passed us a joint. Melissa's mother had gone to sit in the lobby and procure us Working Class Dog! t-shirts with Rick's phase superimposed over a dog wearing a tie so she was spared this horror of the evil weed. Melissa and I were in the seventh grade and had not a clue how to smoke. So instead we borrowed his binoculars where tiny Rick became oh so slightly larger and therefore more real.

I saw a lot of concerts after that, but Rick stayed with me. Maybe it was his role on General Hospital, maybe seeing Adrian Belew in a small club in Texas wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Folks, there was no air-conditioning and it was August. King Crimson is great, but not that great. Living Colour put on an excellent show, and I did see the Stones Steel Wheels tour, which all my friends were calling the Wheelchair Tour. I still have the t-shirt from ever so long ago. As for Jessie's Girl, it stands the test of time and weirdly influenced the note pattern of contemporary Christian music in the eighties, something I'm guessing Mr. Springfield didn't plan. He did play himself recently on Californication which was something to see. Church, he said, when Charlie's wife asked him to go make out to his own records with her. Church, indeed.

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"If you want to truly understand something, try to change it." Kurt Lewin

Cocktail Hour
Any good end of summer reads?

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Monday!