RE-POST: Upcoming Solar Eclipse Might Make 2017 the Perfect Summer to "Live Nebulously", at Least for a Little While

Even if I can't set off on my epic 14,000 mile cross-country drive this summer, it would still be an ideal time for a road trip of some sort, seeing as a monumental solar event is expected to take place, and seeing as I have a specific childhood memory related to it:

There was a solar eclipse on February 26, 1979, my kindergarten year.  It was not a total eclipse where I was, but it was visible enough for our class to be called to the south-facing windows of the school to view with those cardboard box contraptions, called sunscopes, which 'project' an image of the eclipse through a pinhole. I can recall being amazed and excited by the concept of darkness during the day (I still am...), and even more so by the teacher informing us, as we each took a turn putting our head inside that box, that we would all be forty-four years old the next time something like this occurred.

I'm not sure how she knew this, she must have consulted some kind of almanac, but she actually named our future age, seemingly right off the top of her head, and her exact words ("forty-four") have stayed with me all these years. They were my introduction to the concept of myself as something other than what I saw in the mirror. I can recall - quite vividly - being able to picture myself as a grown-up, viewing an eclipse in an otherwise completely unimaginable future.

Sure enough, her prediction was right on the money. A total solar eclipse will indeed take place on August 21, 2017, and I will be forty-four years old, just as Mrs. Leciejewski said.

And who knows...with any luck, on the road somewhere.

The 1979 event dealt just a glancing blow to northern Wisconsin. The path of totality - that relatively narrow track of the moon's shadow that gets plunged into total darkness for a few minutes - swept through Washington State, Idaho and Montana, but then swung northward toward the arctic. But this time, it will sweep straight through the middle of the country. According to Wikipedia, the longest duration of total darkness will occur in Shawnee National Forest, south of Carbondale, Illinois.

February 26, 1979 - A total solar eclipse's path of totality (in blue) delivered a glancing blow only to the extreme northwestern states, but the event was partially visible through the south-facing windows of little ol' Beaser Elementary School in Ashland, Wisconsin....on the shore of Lake Superior.  ;-) 

Animation Courtesy of Andrew Sinclair
 http://web.archive.org/web/20080121012947/http://members.aol.com/eclsat3

August 21, 2017 - A total solar eclipse will sweep straight through the center of the U.S., with the "path of totality" being visible in a number of states, from west coast to east coast.  

Images courtesy of Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA's GSFC - http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

It's only going to last less than three minutes, but what a potent show it's going to be. And how cool would it be if I were on the road somewhere, living nebulously, when it occurs?

But honestly, how cool would it be to view even if I'm not actually on 1/48/50, even if August 21 turns out to be just any old Monday?  The eclipse will be visible from all over, but I really like the thought of viewing it from somewhere in the path of totality. I might just take a mini-road trip, if I can. I'm only nine hours from Carbondale, Illinois.

I could drive that in my sleep.

If I'm going to do it, however, I better make arrangements now...or be prepared to sleep in my car.

I guess I could do that in my sleep too. ;-)

Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#217) "It's All Over But the Crying" by Hank Williams Jr. -  Recorded in 1968, "It's All Over But the Crying" pre-dates the "Bocephus" persona that distinguished Hank Jr. in no uncertain terms from his father, whom Nashville was hell-bent (hell bound?) on forcing the younger Williams to look and sound exactly like for most of the 1960s.

It's not surprising that he wanted to shake all that off and establish himself as an artist in his own right, but there's something to be said - a lot, actually - for the old country music sound, as thin and clear as the AM band it was broadcast over in the days when that's all there was.  It possesses none of the aggressive flair and flash pumping out of FM "Hot Country" radio today...it's really kind of an acquired taste, at this point. But it also doesn't inadvertently stereotype itself, as so many modern artists do by going out of their way to prove to the world how "country" or "southern" they are....it just kind of exists, a reflection of ordinary people, in ordinary towns, living ordinary lives fraught with joy, sorrow and turmoil. Honestly, it could be said classic country music is as much "folk music" as anything...which, in a way, makes "It's All Over But the Crying" a great road trip song, as the best road trips, the important ones at least, journey through the ordinary lives of ordinary people.

"It sounded so true when you said I love you / Now I'll say my good-byin', cause it's all over but the crying..."

#218) "Montana Cafe" by Hank Williams Jr. - This song is from the Hank Jr. era most people associate with him, the sunglasses, beard and bluster, but it's slower-paced, introspective, and illustrates his range as an artist, which too often gets overlooked. I like the sentiment a lot...the idea of escaping to a simpler life somewhere that almost seems like a simpler time and place...and I've always kept it a part of the ideal existence I maintain in my mind, and hope one day to get to.

A Montana Cafe still exists in the town of Darby. I'm not sure if it's the exact one Hank Jr. sang about in 1986...it does indeed seem to be "off Highway 93", but I think it may have been closed for a time, then re-opened under new ownership. In any case, it gets high marks on sites like Trip Advisor. Definitely a potential way point on 1/48/50. Hopefully it hasn't become too touristy and gimmicky.

Although who knows, maybe it was touristy and gimmicky when Hank Jr. was there (and Ernest Hemingway and Teddy Roosevelt, so the song goes...). Still worth a look. I suspect there's a lot in Montana, and out west in general, worth a look.

"I'm so glad I reached this point in my life, I finally got my priorities right / And I'm way out here, on the Idaho line..."

Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#215) "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)" by Hank Williams Jr. - Born of country music royalty, Hank Williams Jr. probably wouldn't want to hear this, but I think as an artist he has far outpaced his famous (and deservedly legendary) father, and I give him props for the personal demons and the stigmatization he overcame to get where he is. He's not the son of Hank Williams, he's Bocephus.  Whether you like his music, it cannot be denied he's an American original, a living legend in his own right, and that doesn't often happen to the children of legends.

As the years have passed, Hank Jr. has found a political voice, like a lot of artists. Ultimately, of course, that's fine. That's what being an American ("original" or otherwise) is all about. But personally, I don't like when artists get political and start shooting off at the mouth. To be clear, it doesn't matter if their views are conservative or liberal, I don't like the distraction of knowing how they're going to vote, or how they'd prefer I vote, when I'm trying to dig on their music.

There was a time when "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)" was easily applicable to my own life, and when I listen, I simply want to remember being twenty-five, standing on the precipice between young adulthood and...not middle age, but something else...pre-middle age...and realizing, with some shock, that everyone I know has or is about to leave the college years behind, get on a career path, get married and start having children, and that I'm seconds from being left behind, becoming "that guy" who has nothing going on. Not to mention the disillusionment that comes with realizing that despite what you dreamed about in the days and months and years leading up to turning twenty-one, the bar scene is actually pretty lame, and becomes exponentially sadder (as in pathetic) with each year that passes, once you start crowding thirty.

It's a unique milestone in life, with a unique set of emotions.  And it doesn't really matter who the president is when it's happening, or whether it's happening in a red state or a blue state.

"And the hangovers hurt more than they used / And corn bread and ice tea's took the place of pills and 90 proof / And it seems that none of us do things quite like we used to do..." 

#216) "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" by Danny O'Keefe - Another song about trying to stay young too long and allowing time to slip from your grasp, "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" takes a more somber approach. In fact, no other song I've ever listened to better exemplifies the experience I had as a young adult in my hometown, or captures the quiet but potent angst of a small town Sunday afternoon (and all that that implies).

I lived in the perfect town for that angst to be especially acute. It's gotten better in recent years, but twenty years ago, my hometown was locked in the glacial ice of despair, a thirty-year hangover separating it from the "good times", which, when they ended, left not a lot in the way of jobs or opportunity. For a few years, from about age 22 to 25, I was lost, schlepping through the despairing days and nights, bumping from one dead end job to another, where my path would cross the paths of other losers who hadn't bothered to go to school, and were exiting the "college years" in name only...

For a better explanation of what my town was like, and a sense of how significant "Good Time Charlie's Got the Blues" was (and why), CLICK HERE

I've grown up since then, snapped out of my malaise by refusing to let despair turn into self-pity, but this song still haunts me, for what could have been, and was for a short while.

"You know my heart keeps telling me, you're not a kid at thirty-three..."

Reason #42 to Live Nebulously

I know...I know...this sort of thing is really supposed to improve our lives, and our safety, yadda, yadda, I get it...

But what I can't get is on board. Just can't do it. To me, everything about robots and cyborgs and the like is unnerving, and putting ourselves in a position where we're depending on their artificial intelligence in any way, for any reason, seems perverse, like something from an apocalyptic movie.

Why is a dog no longer good enough?

CLICK HERE: "NEW HOME SECURITY SYSTEM DEPLOYS DRONE TO PATROL YOUR PROPERTY"

Yet ANOTHER Top 100 (or so) Songs I Absolutely Must Have With Me on 1/48/50

#213) "Tug of War" by Paul McCartney - I know I've said this a couple of times now, but once more, Macca (uhh, yeah...about that) demonstrates that when he wants to drive an emotionally charged point home, take a break from the silly loves songs everyone has come to expect from the "cute Beatle", he's damn good at it. "Tug of War" is the title track off Sir Paul's (definitely a more appropriate nickname) most emotional album (from 1981), and not surprisingly, it contains one of the most potent lines in music for my money, reflecting, I'd be willing to bet, his state of mind in the immediate aftermath of John Lennon's murder.

And (the point being) also accurately reflecting anyone's state of mind in any kind of "aftermath"...

"In years to come, they may discover what the air we breathe and the live we lead are all about / But it won't be soon enough, soon enough for me..."

#214) "The Entertainer" by Billy Joel - I've always thought Billy Joel gets a bad rap, unfairly maligned (at least by music snobs) as a pop music sell-out to a street cred early in his career that was itself not entirely legitimate, mostly just "gangs that dance"...

But even if that's true (and I don't know that it is), he's still one of the greatest songwriters of the twentieth century.  Like McCartney (maybe even a little more so), Joel is a true crafter of music. Over the years he has written and recorded countless durable ditties that never become too dated, and also reveal a far-reaching range of musicianship and vocal ability. He tries different things, different styles, and - more often than not - succeeds in getting them to sound really good.

Among the standouts on his long hit list is 1974's "The Entertainer", a sharply satirical indictment of the music industry that is just as relevant now as it was 40 years ago. If anything, things have only gotten worse, much worse, as symbolism has replaced substance, image has replaced artistry, and an undeniably lazy approach to pop music has eroded the original heart of the art form down to a barely discernible nub that is no longer freeing or enlightening or emboldening, but too often a prescription for conformity.

This song alone would seem a prime example of how drastically things have changed. It hit #34 on the U.S. Charts in 1974, but with its minstrel guitar and plunking banjo, would be unlikely to even chart today.

Top 40 music seems to be populated mostly by "entertainers" these days, rather than artists.

"I am the entertainer, and I know just where I stand, another serenader, and another long-haired band / Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts / But I know the game and you'll forget my name, and I won't be here in another year if I don't stay on the charts..."