Last Dance, Indeed.

I usually don't get a chance to post when someone famous passes away.  Usually, it falls during one of my non-posting times or else I've already got a ton of posts done and scheduled and don't have time to rearrange things.

I had to make time for this one.  Donna Summer was part of the soundtrack of my high school days.  I wore the grooves off the Last Dance and Bad Girls LP's through repeated listings.  I've never been ashamed of my disco-baby past and I'm not going to start now.

Looking back over Donna Summer vids on YouTube, I'm struck by two things.  First, that's a helluva a voice!  I'd forgotten what a powerhouse vocalist she was.  That woman could sing!  Listen to those high notes and long notes.  Wow!

Secondly, she was making music for the audience to dance to, but she's not really dancing herself.  Kind of refreshing to see a singer concentrating on entertaining folks with her voice rather than her stage show.  I'm going to sound like an old fart when I say this, but those were the days, huh?

Keith tweeted me the news of her death yesterday.  I was on the bus to work at the time, but, for just a few minutes, I was a fifteen year-old again--hanging out with friends, listening to the radio, trying to finish my geometry homework.

And, there she was, playing in the background.

You'll be missed, Donna.  Thanks for the music and thanks for the memories.

Once Again, The Incomparable Roy Zimmerman!

In costume and make up, yet!

27 Different Kinds of Awesome

Just so you can see/hear what I'm talking about, a couple of cuts from the Amy Ray album I was talking about yesterday:



No way I could not like this one:

Monday Rambles

Okay.  I have managed to do what I could not do at all last week--carve out a few minutes in the day to put up at least one blog post.  Let's do this.

Thanks to Shara and Lynn for their sweet comments on my last post about not making my rent.  It still smarts a bit, but I appreciate the encouragement and support.  The whole deal has really made me second guess myself and whether I really know what I'm doing in this junk field.  More on some of those thoughts a little later.

This is my last week on this schedule.  I'll have a few weeks with slightly reduced hours, until about mid-June, so blogging (and junking) should pick up a bit for me.  I hope to get some posts that are hanging around finished and then stored away. I still have that 2005post total to beat!  I'm getting too close to be messing around with work and such!

Sales this weekend sucked!  I think I bought maybe a dozen small items.  Not even enough to fill up one of our backseats.  If my sales at one site continue at the place they've set so far this month, I'm going to be hurting for stock soon.  I may have to pull from the slower booth (which is struggling to get to rent again this month) to make do.

We went to four different neighborhood sales and it was only at the last one that we found sufficient quantities of sellers for it to be worth our while.  Even at that, though, most sales were nothing but crap.  I did get a cool stuffed Hong Kong Phooey toy, some glass Fleur de lis stuff, and a couple of vintage wooden kids' school chairs, but nothing else worth mentioning. 

However, we passed my former comic shop and saw that they were having their sidewalk sale, so I was able to stock up on comics, bags, and--oddly enough--old religion books.  I think I've got enough now to tide me over for a while. 

Yesterday marked Mother's Day number two without a mother.  Memorial Day will be the second anniversary of her death. Time keeps marching on in spite of everything else, doesn't it?

Finally got to listen to the new Amy Ray CD, Lung of Love, over the weekend.  It's about 27 different kinds of awesome and I cannot recommend it highly enough,  A couple of cuts give me goosebumps!

Speaking of goosebumps and cuts and such, I burned my arm on an exposed light bulb in a lamp in a booth where I was shopping last week.  I've been putting aloe and Bactine on it, but it still hurts and it's formed a blister.  I'm not sure what to do?  Should I pop the blister or leave it alone?

Okay, my few minutes are up.  Time to spell check this, throw in some links, post this puppy and go!

Monday Rambles

Still losing weeks to this schedule.  Still trying to catch up with it.  All work and no play makes Eddie a dull boy.  Seriously.  That's about all I got going on right now.  I'll try to be more fulfilling and entertaining in the very near future.

Still, I got a couple of points:

Hit a ton of yard sales Saturday, despite the Derby Marathon (yes it's time for that madness) closing streets all around just about everywhere I wanted to be.  Why do churches schedule their sales knowing customers are going to have a hard time getting to them? And two of these are among my favorites for the year!

Thankfully, we were able to use the freeways to get over the race course and where we needed to be.  At one sale, which was the second day of a two day sale, I was referred to Ducky to price me out, since I had so much.  She carefully went through my box, and then said those four words junkers live to hear:  "How about 10 bucks?"

I also ran into one of those rarities, a seller who knows how to counter-offer!  We were bartering over an unpriced wooden mask she had for sale.  She couldn't decide what she wanted for it, so I offered two dollars to break the ice.  She said:  "Oh I can't do that."  I thought the deal was dead, but then she said "How about four?"  I came back with three and she agreed.  Now, that's the way this game is played!  Win-win.

Junk set out is coming back to my neighborhood right after Derby, so I'll hopefully have some finds and stories to tell out of that.

For the first time ever, I am going to have to go in and actually pay rent on a space tomorrow.  I have not made rent this month at one site.  My perfect record is ruined.  But when you don't have any sales for fifteen days out of a month (I counted), what do you expect?  Something is missing in this formula, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it is.

Monday Rambles

It would seem that I have not yet adjusted to my new schedule, even after a couple of weeks.  I promise that I will get into the groove of doing more than an abbreviated Monday Rambles soon!

In the meantime, here are some highlights:

Saturday was Keith's birthday.  To celebrate, we went camping.  Passed two church rummage sales that I could only wave at, because we had no room in the car for anything.  Sigh!  We had a good time, though.  It was a little on the cool side, but relaxing.  We actually had to chase wildlife out of the tent, which was a first for me.  A field mouse and a chipmunk both decided that they fancied our digs.

Saturday was also the kick-off to the Derby festival, which means that were are now in the two weeks of madness where everyone would rather do all kinds of activities instead of buying secondhand junk.  I ask you, where are people's priorities these days??

I'm going to finish out the month okay at Peddlers Mall--which means rent was made a while ago, and I'll get something over that.  Not a spectacular record-breaking month, but I'll make some money and that's okay by me.   Still working on the rent at the other place.  It's been a long slow climb there.  I've never been this close to the end of a month without rent made.  It's freaking me the hell out.

I'm needing to score some cheap comics in a hurry.  I've about sold through my stock and they keep selling.  The hunt is on!

Last week, I got into a grabbing match with another dealer at Goodwill.  They had this rack of vintage salt and pepper shakers and planters for a buck or less.  I was there first checking them out, when he just pops up and starts grabbing everything in sight.  Having no choice, I started grabbing too.  I prefer to conduct myself in a slightly more genteel fashion, but he started it!!!  I checked out right behind him, too.  It's a good thing I did, because I could tell that I got all the best ones. 

And, another week has begun.  I'll work on getting some more up here soon.

One of the saddest songs ever recorded

And also one of the most beautiful.



"Blue Umbrella" by the great John Prine.

I usually don't use vids shot in concerts by attendees because the quality is so crap, but it's rare to catch him doing this one live.