Words of wisdom

Was glancing through "Tales of Beedle the Bard" and came across this bit of wisdom from Professor Dumbledore: "Truth is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution." And I think, hmmm, maybe he’s onto something there.

I have read six of the seven books in the Harry Potter series. My wife and son are gone for a long weekend while the calendar turns. Seems like a good time to curl up with the last one.

I also will (finally!) be getting more Ian Hunter songs onto my iPod. I have been wanting to put “Ships” on for the longest time, but that song is not available via iTunes. One of my Christmas presents was a record player that has the ability to record music from vinyl onto a CD. My new Macbook Pro (yes, the one machined out of a solid block of aluminum and the fancy touch pad) does a quick rip and the music is iPod ready.

This is will be a slow process, as one has to play the entire LP. Although I really like the unit I was given, I have to manually separate the tracks. So the remote has been permanently affixed to my hip for the past few hours. Since getting home this evening, I’ve recorded Roger Daltrey’s “Ride a Rock Horse”; Ian Hunter’s “You’re never alone with a schizophrenic” (Ships!); Arlo Guthrie’s “Amigo”; "Misfits" by the Kinks, and Gordon Lightfoot’s “Endless Wire”. Nazareth's "Hair of the Dog" is going on now. Do you see a pattern? No? Good, neither do I.

OK - my last one for the night is John Mellencamp's "Scarecrow". It was recorded in the mid 1980's - in a period when depressed crop prices drove a lot of farmers (particularly in the Midwest) out of business. In addition to the title song, which gives me shivers every time I hear "ninety-eight crosses...", this line from "You've got to stand for something" has resonated with me tonight: "We've got to start respectin' this world/Or it's gonna turn around and bite off our face". This was written more than twenty years ago. Why do I feel like Rip Van Winkle?