I saw this story about the debate over what should be the New Hampshire state drink.

Apples are getting some competition from cows in the debate over what New Hampshire’s state drink should be—cider or milk.

The House will weigh in this week when it votes on a bill designating apple cider as the state drink.

A lawmaker introduced the bill after Jaffrey Grade School students contacted her. Later, Gilford Elementary School students lobbied for milk.

The House Environment and Agriculture Committee is split. Some members support cider while others propose killing the bill.

I never heard of a state drink before. Not all states have them. Missouri doesn’t. Here’s a list of state drinks/beverages I found at StateMaster.

Alabama Conecuh Ridge Whiskey (State Spirit)
Arkansas Milk
California Wine
Delaware Milk
Florida Orange juice
Indiana Water
Kentucky Milk
Louisiana Milk
Maine Moxie
Maryland Milk
Massachusetts Cranberry Juice
Minnesota Milk
Mississippi Milk
Nebraska Milk, Kool-Aid
New York Milk
North Carolina Milk
North Dakota Milk
Ohio Tomato Juice
Oklahoma Milk
Oregon Milk
Pennsylvania Milk
Rhode Island Coffee milk
South Carolina Milk, South Carolina Grown Tea
South Dakota Milk
Utah Hot cocoa
Virginia Milk
Wisconsin Beer, Milk

Milk seems to be the P.C. choice.

“End Of The Blues” by Freddie Roulette.

If you’ve never heard Freddie play or, if you’ve ever messed around with a lap steel, you should watch this.

As always, bend your bar and click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

“Eleanor Rigby” by Ray Charles.

A couple of months ago, I had lunch with Ron Roskowske and he was talking about Ray Charles’ arranging skills. Now, every time I hear a Ray tune I pay attention to the arrangement. It’s one of those deals where you don’t always consciously notice because it’s so spot on.

As always darn it; click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

I don’t know why stuff like this delights me but it does. There really was a Granny Smith of Granny Smith apple fame. From Wiki…

The Granny Ramsey Smith green apple is a tip-bearing apple cultivar. It originated in Australia in 1868 from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Ann Smith (née Sherwood, b. 1799, d. 9 March 1870), from whom comes the name. It is thought to be a hybrid of Malus sylvestris, the European Wild Apple, with the domestic apple M. domestica as the polleniser. Widely propagated in New Zealand, it was introduced to the United Kingdom c. 1935 and the United States in 1972 by Grady Auvil.

Here is a photo of Maria with an unidentified gentleman…

Thanks Granny, great apples!

I got a sack of ‘em and I’m thinking about dicing them up, throwing ‘em in the old black iron skillet and caramelizing ‘em this evening.

Process or method? Method probably isn’t the right word. There probably isn’t a right word. If you asked a songwriter; “How do you write songs?” I wouldn’t trust the answer. Because, the answer is fluid, always changing.

Sometimes though, you can pick up some tips and tricks that are helpful. I’ve tried most every trick and tip that’s been handed to me. None are foolproof.

I find myself going back and forth between a couple of different songwriting processes.

1. Using a multi-track recorder as a writing tool.

2. “Self contained” writing.

If I’m using a multi-track, there is more focus on arranging or orchestration.

“Self contained” is when I just grab the guitar and write a melody, lyrics and chord progression…something I can present by myself.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

Using the multi-track, things often get too complex and the pure idea gets lost. Spend more time on the frosting than the cake. There’s been times when I’ve presented a demo and been handcuffed by it. The musicians couldn’t get past parts I laid down and stuck true to them rather than running with the ball. I’m not a keyboard player, drummer or bass player and sometimes I’ve walked away feeling like I should have brought something simple to the table so those guys would give more input.

Going the self contained route sometimes things are too distilled, too self contained. It can get to where everything sounds folky, which is fine unless you want to get more funky. Sometimes the musicians can’t see the funk through the folk.

If it’s a good song, you can usually get past this stuff either way. Sometimes, it can be a good song that doesn’t fit a particular batch of players. Sometimes it’s just a crappy song.

But, you got to slog through. You got to start somewhere.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been writing mostly self-contained. And, I got a stack of songs that don’t really fit a current project. About a month ago, a friend deposited a 24 track machine at my place because he wasn’t using it and I said I’d probably put it to work.

So, in the last few days I’ve set the thing up and went about the drudge work of thinking how to set all the stuff up to record as functionally as possible.

This morning I went in and laid down some ideas. Real early stages of the multi-track writing process. Could be crap, could be great, could end up a million miles from where I started. But, I started the process. And, just in doing that, I realized that I had grown stale working mostly one way. I was avoiding starting the process.

Now, I’m feeling that I just freed things up. The process is under way. And, that’s when ideas start to flow. And when that happens, the process isn’t so important any more.

Sometimes you just got to mix things up, change the process.

“Cubano Chant” by the Oscar Peterson Trio.

Any superlative will apply.

As always, our man in Havana advises; click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

Elton John or Billy Joel?

So, let’s say you’re in south Florida and you grow weary of the mundane day to day affairs so, you seek some spiritual guidance. Somehow, you come across a guy that will help you on your path. Would you draw the line, come to your senses, if said guy told you that you must eat some snail mucus to find the way?

Devotees of a man claiming to practice a traditional African religion said they had to ingest the mucus of a Giant African Snail that sickened them. Federal authorities in January raided the Miami man’s home after receiving complaints. The man has not been criminally charged, but prosecutors and state and federal wildlife agencies are investigating. The Giant African Snail is prohibited in the U.S. without special approval.

Evidently, it isn’t illegal to coax people in to eating snail mucus. So, bring in the fish and game dept. and try to get the guy on a technicality. Giant African Snails are contraband. They’re still investigating so…..who knows? Maybe the guy got rid of the snails. Maybe, he never had the snails. Maybe, he just keeps some mucus on hand. Is Giant African Snail mucus illegal?

All that aside, snail guy isn’t the yob here. The devotees are…

Followers said they got violently ill, losing weight and developing strange lumps in their stomachs.

How much snail mucus does it take to cause that kind of reaction?

I imagine those fellers would be up to the task.

“Pygmy Twylyte” by Frank Zappa.

I’m especially fond of this era with Napoleon, Duke and you got to love Ruth Underwood. Frank was really diggin’ in on guitar too.

As always, retain conceptual continuity and click pause on the music player located in the side bar before playing the YouTube.

I live at the end of a gravel road you know. One day last week, I was coming home and there was a late model Chevy truck headed towards my place. Now, we don’t get many folks coming down the road, especially Okies so, I was pretty curious. Turns out, it was a guy delivering the census form.

Now, a couple of weeks before, I was traveling and listening to some radio call-in show where the host and the callers were yakking about how the census was going to have personal questions, the bureau was compiling personal data and that was unconstitutional and there should be protest etc. So, I was kind of curious about that too.

Anyway, I filled the thing out this morning. Big black letters on the envelope say…

YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW

Pretty ominous and serious, no? Ironically, the first question is; How many people were living in your household as of April 1, 2010?

Since it’s only March, I could say anything and it wouldn’t hold up in a court of LAW.

On the personal data, they want your name, phone number (in case they have a question about your answers…hunh!!??) and race.

A little creepy and intrusive but, I’m pretty transparent. I give my name and number to strangers all the time. I’m not trying to be evasive about being a white guy. No big deal.

But, there are a few more things I’m curious about…like…

Why do they send some guy from Oklahoma and pay mileage when there are drummers I know, right here in Stone County, that have taken the test and applied for that very job?

…and…

Why is tax payer $ being spent on sponsoring a stock car?

From the Census Bureau…

The U.S. Census Bureau today officially announced an agreement with Roush Fenway Racing to serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 16 Ford Fusion driven by Greg Biffle for three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races.

The agreement will see the No. 16 carry a special 2010 Census paint job in Sprint Cup races at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 7; Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 21; and Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 28. To increase awareness and encourage participation among hard-to-count populations living in rural parts of the country in the upcoming 2010 Census, the three-race sponsorship schedule lines up with key census mail-out and mail-back dates.

Oh yeah, those pesky backwoods rural folks and the old “increase awareness” scam.

Which, brings up another curiosity. At the bureau site, I learned that on the last census, 72% of the population responded.

If they didn’t count everybody then, how do they know that?