You Can't Keep Me Here -- Eddie Vedder

The setting for this video is so stunning and dramatic it is easy to overlook the lyrics to this powerful personal anthem. It's not kosher, but I'm not Jewish, and I think this and Myles Kennedy's "Summergirl" would make much better funereal songs than the normal boring hymns. Just my opinion. And no, I'm not planning on going anywhere soon, but people do think about these things, and I'm not the only one.

That said, enjoy this gorgeous video for Eddie's new song. I only wish we were going wherever this was shot to hear his concert this Saturday evening instead of Minneapolis.



"Can't Keep" by Eddie Vedder

I wanna shake
I wanna wind out
I wanna leave
This mind and shout

I've lived
All these lives
Like an ocean
In disguise
I won't live forever
You can't keep
Me here

I wanna race
With the sundown
I want a last breath
That I don't let out

Forgive
Every being
The bad feelings
It's just me

I won't wait
For answers
Oh you can't keep
Me here

I wanna rise
And say a goodnight
I wanna take
A look on the other side

I've lived
All these lives
It's been wonder
Full at night (?)
I won't live forever
You can't keep
Me here

These boys have always been able to capture what I'm feeling. And that's why I love them so. Read more!

I Don't Need No Stinkin' Cake

All I need is Myles Kennedy for my birthday, and Cornell friend Denise Fitz delivered with this fan video she found. It was made by Danish Superfan Sascha Andersen who, I suspect, has met Myles Kennedy more than his poor wife has ;)



Thanks, Sascha!!



It opens with my favorite moment from the 2009 Amsterdam show, shots of him playing Travelin' Riverside Blues, Hallelujah, and playing something shirtless (I sort of blacked out). Shows his fan devotion and inherent geekiness, and even his course of forgetting his own lyrics, God bless him. Lucky for him, with his voice and looks, we don't care what the hell he's singing, as long as he is.

So happy fucking birthday to me. A toast to Myles Kennedy, who makes rockin' 45 a whole helluva lot easier.

Go watch it again. I won't tell anyone. Read more!

Alter Bridge Rocks Luxembourg

Myles Kennedy with Alter Bridge

Alter Bridge in Luxembourg on June 15, 2011. Link leads to some more pro shots from Cedric Letsch.

Myles was subjected to a virtual avalanche of tweets before and after the show, our attempt to draw his attention to a 10 y.o. fan in attendance with her mother, Ritam. The gal has a good set of lungs because she got his attention and got herself a couple of autographs. Probably not concentrating on much else today at school!

This was one small venue--about 600 capacity--and you can get an idea from the German fan group that was on hand before the show, @Metalingusde:

Setlist after the jump...


Setlist from Luxembourg.

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Sedona by Helicopter

Sedona by Helicopter

This link is SUPPOSED to let anyone go see my heli photos of Sedona at Facebook, but we'll see if it works... Let me know!

John, Jayne (MWI employees), me and Sarah post-flight

Another taste of that which awaits you..
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Just because...

My man Myles Kennedy...

You're welcome.

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I Miss & Love You So

And I'll never forget. Thank you for still visiting all my dreams.

Cocoa Bean and Mubarak in Seattle, 1995

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Pure Imagination

Willy Wonka and Charlie

Sometimes a song comes back into your life just when you need to hear it. There are many wonderful songs from this movie--the original--that are worth treasuring for a lifetime. This is just one.

Pure Imagination, Willy Wonka

Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination

We'll begin with a spin
Trav'ling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy
Explanation

{Refrain}
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world, there's nothing to it

There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be

Read more!

My Published Stories/Novel Excerpts

Christmas in Cairo, 1993 (Photo by Kacey Dewing)

I am intensifying my search for an agent and/or publisher, and am using this as a place to list the links for my stories (excerpts from two novels) which have been published.

The genre is creative non-fiction (a.k.a. true stories). These were all published in a handful of issues of Mused--Bellaonline Literary Review.

[Following are excerpts from Below Sea Level, novel about 10 years with husband suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder]

Shadow of the Mountains

Dog Day Afternoon*

Goodyear

Cycles

*Personal favorite

[Excerpt from The Agoraphobic's Guide to Cairo, about my year abroad in Cairo, Egypt in 1993-94]

Al-Abyaad - The White One (About the horse who did not kill me.)
-----------------------------------

Interview:
Nancy Dietrich: In Her Own Words


Further unpublished excerpts can be found on this blog:

Kickback from Below Sea Level

Painting the Town Blue from Below Sea Level


Al-Qitta (The Kitten) from The Agoraphobic's Guide to Cairo


Bustan al-Hayawanat (The Zoo) from The Agoraphobic's Guide to Cairo


Any suggestions appreciated. Thank you. Read more!

Jordan turns 5 years old today!!

Jordan with her buddy, Taylor

Happy birthday to my favorite 5 year-old in the entire world!! (And that includes a whole lot of 5 year-olds!) You have brought us all great joy and unbelievable tales in the last 5 years and we all promise to re-tell the best ones to you over and over again once you grow up! I could not love you more, Jordan.

Have a wonderful birthday, and save me some cake tonight!

And here's a toast to many, many more birthday cakes! Read more!

Goodnight, Elizabeth

National Velvet, 1944

Elizabeth Taylor, 1932-2011

And let us not forget her lifelong love of dogs, mostly Maltese.

Read more!