Daniel “Slick” Ballinger

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Daniel “Slick” Ballinger’s story is literally the stuff of movies. Young white boy travels to the Mississippi Delta to live with –and learn from– aging blues legend. Barb and I drove to Kennett this weekend to hear him play. He and two sidemen (Terry “Harmonica” Bean and drummer Kenny Kimbrough) did two one-hour sets at a local bar called The End Zone. I grew up in Kennett and don’t ever remember paying a ten dollar cover charge but The End Zone was packed. The back story on Slick is worth a read and the best place to start is Tweed’s Blues. Tweed maintains the semi-official Slick Ballinger page there. (Be sure to read the Como Chronicles.)

I won’t waste a lot of words trying to capture the Slick Ballinger Experience. Like all such moments, you had to be there. If you pressed me for a word to describe Slick’s performance, I’d have to go with “intense.” I shot some video under what has to be the worst conditions imaginable. Check back in a couple of days. If I got anything usable, I’ll post it. 

I don’t know how Slick learned to play a guitar like that in less than twenty years. And I can’t imagine where that kind of passion comes from in one so young. Uber-fan Viretta says some of the old timers back in Mississippi think Slick is the reincarnation of Robert Johnson (doesn’t the screenplay practically write itself?).

We ran into Slick, Kenney and Terry the next morning at McCormick’s. They were fueling up on biscuits and gravy before hitting the road to Chicago where they’re performing at a Sara Lee corporate function. Slick doesn’t have a record deal and apparently doesn’t want one. Sounds like all of his bookings are word of mouth. After watching him perform, it’s hard not believe I’ll see him again…with a Grammy in his hand. But that won’t make his music any better. And those who know him say it won’t make him any happier. If you’ll give me one more word to describe Daniel “Slick” Ballinger, I’ll go with “authentic.”

[Note to Viretta and Nancy: You were right.]

Puppy-proof shoes

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And sometimes you must improvise. All puppies love to chew and shoes are a favorite. I’ve modified a cheap pair of canvas loafers that I wear around Lucy. Masking tape covers the leather laces so she can’t get at them. More importantly, the soles are smooth. This makes it easier to hose off the dog shit. This is important because it’s no longer possible to simply avoid stepping in dog shit.

Our house sets on the corner of about three acres but we only use about one. But that’s still a lot of yard and woods. Even with two dogs shitting twice a day, you’d think it unlikely you’d step in a pile that often. I’m running about 20%. I know the dog shit is there and I make an effort to watch for and avoid it. But I keep stepping in it. As one that looks for –and finds– life’s lessons, this one is pretty obvious. If you want to live in a world with lovable Golden Retriever puppies, you must be prepared to step in dog shit and deal with it.

Sheryl Crow to speak at Chamber event

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From the Kennett Chamber of Commerce website: “Nine-time Grammy award winner Sheryl Crow will return home to serve as the keynote speaker at the 58th Annual Kennett Chamber of Commerce Banquet. The banquet will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 12th, at the American Legion Building in Kennett. Tickets for the event are $25 per person for Chamber members and $35 per person for non-Chamber members. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Chamber office at 573-888-5828. The deadline to purchase tickets is March 15th. The meal will be prepared by Simply Delicious Catering Service.” Can that possibly be a coincidence?

Lucy: 9 Weeks

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We’re spending so much time with this new pup that it’s a little hard for me to observe that she is getting bigger. Of course, she is. Happy, playful, getting along well with Ripley. Trying not to go nuts with photos but couldn’t resist posting a few new ones at Fotki. Barb and I keep our Casio Exilim “Wearable Card Camera” close at hand. I can’t get over how cool these things are. This brief (40 seconds) video clip was shot with the Casio and edited in Studio 8. The camera can only shoot 30 seconds of video at a time but you’d be surprised how much fits in half a minute. If you’re thinking about a digital camera, the Casio Exilim is THE camera to buy.

Pick one memory

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Jonathon Delacour on the movie After Life.

“The premise of After Life is simple. Every Monday, people who have died walk through an open doorway suffused with pale light into what looks like a derelict boarding school. Each is issued with an ID number and assigned to a counselor who will assist them in preparing for the journey to the other side. Much of the film is taken up with these counseling sessions, which commence with an explanation of the rules:”

You’re going to stay here for a week. Everyone gets a private room. Please feel at home. But while you’re here there’s one thing you must do.

Out of the __ years of your life, we’d like to ask you to choose one memory, the one you remember and cherish most. There is a time limit. You have three days to decide.

After you choose your memory, our staff will recreate it on film as exactly as possible.
On Saturday we’ll show the films to everyone. The moment the memory comes back to you most vividly, you’ll go on to the other side, taking only that memory.

Via Halley’s Comment

Cory Doctorow on blogging

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“Writing a blog entry about a useful and/or interesting subject forces me to extract the salient features of the link into a two- or three-sentence elevator pitch to my readers, whose decision to follow a link is predicated on my ability to convey its interestingness to them. This exercise fixes the subjects in my head the same way that taking notes at a lecture does, putting them in reliable and easily-accessible mental registers.”

[via Halley’s Comment]

Rules for Being Human

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From Cherie Carter-Scott’s “If Life is a Game, These are the Rules.”

Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. “There” is no better than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.”

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life’s questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all this.