I AM ROCK 'N' ROLL!

NGC 2169, otherwise known as the "37 cluster"

Philip Glass, Akhnaten

Yesterday I was shockingly productive despite my best pouty efforts to not be. 3000 words of bar analysis laid to digital print, side shrub thing weeded, I was on the radio talking about Oxford American and my forthcoming book, went to Groovin' on the Grounds, outdoor concert thing on campus that once upon a time was a cool deal - remember that year when Rev. Horton Heat tore it up at a baseball diamond and wasn't Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on the bill too?

Now we got OneRepublic as the headliners and Steel Magnolia - manifesting as a variety band but I think they don't view themselves as such. Or maybe that's now an irrelevant concern, a holdover from pre-karaoke, Empire times. I got the impression that they'd seen Scissor Sisters on Glee and had a That Is Rock And Roll moment. To each his and her corny own, but it reminded me of when Pet Shop Boys had Liza Minelli as a guest on a track and she remarked to Frank Sinatra something like "Frank, they want me to do rock 'n' roll now" and Frank was all, "Toots, you are rock 'n' roll!" and I feel like I just lost valuable hit points in merely remembering and relating that anecdote. Let this substitute for any neglected breast-tearing about the passing of Elizabeth Taylor on my part. "Steel Magnolia", though? "Fried Green Tomatoes" wasn't available as a band name?

We also squoze in a trip to the observatory where they were checking out the above numerological anomaly nestled somewhere in Orion's pants area. Imagine the sweet stoner astronomer trying to explain what he swears he saw the next morning. "No, asshole, it was a '37', like the numbers!" frantically tracing them in the air for his unbelieving roommates chuckling over their cereal.



Speaking of numbers in the sky, I turn 42 this week and as of last Wednesday am at the brink of under 200 for the first time in at least a decade. I don't know if there is cosmic significance in either, but the numbers don't lie. I ran the obstacle course shown below with Maya and didn't have a heart attack. Not just outside with my phone but inside the bouncy-bounce vinyl arena itself! Twice! Y'heard, Frank Sinatra? I AM ROCK 'N' ROLL!