Happy Birthday!

11-14-07 Happy Birthday

Today is my GF’s birthday. She doesn’t usually read this blog, so I can say whatever I want to. In January, we will have been together for 10 years. How time flies!

Shortly after we got together, she turned me on to Tortoise, the Chicago-based instrumental band. I told her they sounded like This Heat or Hatfield & The North – she was not familiar with either artist. That’s OK.

She listens to more “new music” than I do – so it’s because of her that I am familiar with Tahiti 80, LCD Soundsystem etc. – artists that I really like! She is also very helpful to me by finding stuff I am looking for, on my behalf, in the record stores of the world.

And she is the most patient woman on Earth, as far as I am concerned. She went with me to “Progfest” a few years ago, so I could catch up with old friend Aad Link (the manager / tour manager of Supersister). She just loved that finally she was at a concert where there was a line for the men’s room – but not for the ladies’ room!

I believe Charlie Watts (or Bill Wyman) of The Rolling Stones once said something to the effect of “25 years of rock & roll is 20 years of waiting around”. Nobody knows this better than my GF. Record Surplus in Los Angeles is a superlative record store – it has public restrooms, but – alas – nowhere for the patient GF to sit as I endlessly rummage through the $1 bins upstairs. Damn it, there needs to be more chairs in record stores! (To attempt to be egalitarian, I am very patient with her in rubber stamp / paper stores – which seldom have restrooms or chairs – for male patrons).

So, what can I say? She’s fair, compassionate, funny, a good sport, she likes to walk, she can sing, she’s great with a yo-yo – in short, she’s wonderful. To me. And that’s what counts (to me).

I said “good sport” – sometimes we spend Sunday mornings watching DVD’s of “Countdown”, the Australian 70’s music TV show. She eventually came around to liking Ian “Molly” Meldrum – I didn’t put (very much) any spin on it, Molly was taken at face value. I wonder how much Garry McDonald / Norman Gunston she could take? (I’ve taken her to see Barry Humphries several times, I might add).

I’ve used my ‘special record collector powers” on her behalf – doing my best to find her every Connie Francis and Elvis Costello record on Earth. We’ve hit the glass ceiling with Connie – all that we’re missing are the original 50’s and 60’s 45 picture sleeves, er, with about a million of them around at $12 - $25 a pop. So, we’re not necessarily going to go there. I even made her an Elvis “list” (for the Palm M125), trying to cut down on accidental unnecessary duplications.

So, happy birthday, sweetie! Thanks for a groovy almost 10 years. I hope you have a nice day today. Love, Ron