Introduction for Explorations in Music

 

Canoeing with The Boys, picking blueberries.

    My name is Temple Dillard.  Though I'm of the millennial generation I'm a bit anachronistic.  I don't care for a lot of modern country, it's awful close to rap, of which I only enjoy a narrow, narrow selection from back when I was a jogger.  I wear a $15 Casio instead of a smart watch, it took me years to figure out how to use an iPhone and just when I got'er figured they update or compel me to upgrade.  I'm disinterested in Tiktok, Pokemon Go, and video games, though I had a proclivity for that Wii hunting game from Cabela's.  I admit a weakness for Facebook, and Instagram has grown on me, and though I'm a regular poster on YouTube I don't seem to be getting much traction.  I'm a 36 year old father of three, I work full time at the U, and I spend every minute I can drag myself and my family away from the screens outdoors trying to fill our freezers with wild organic meat, fish, and berries.  I'm going to learn more about our local flora, there's fiddleheads, wild spinach, mushrooms, and various others I'm missing out on, to garnish the rare moose steak.  Can't eat rare bear, they carry trichinosis like pork. 

 

 The Dead South

    My relationship with music is a bit amorphous, what I listen to depends on what I'm doing.  For studying, reading, school work like writing this blog, I have my Pandora set "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."  Classical sounding music with no lyrics, just instruments, it helps me be calm and thoughtful.  When I work out I like faster music, Sea Shanties on Spotify is good, Shakira, Antonio Banderas and the Mariachis from Desperado can really help me crank the reps.  Country makes really good driving music, Dolly Parton, Tanya Tucker, Jimmy Dean, and King Johnny Cash can keep me awake at the wheel.  The Almond Brothers put out a really good song a while back.  Luke Bryan has a couple good ones, when he's not trying to rap.  The Dead South speak to me pretty good, as does Rammstein.

    I tried to learn guitar but my left hand is little more than a club and I couldn't work the frets.  Part of that, in retrospect, was the curved neck on that guitar, but that didn't impede the guy I sold it to, he riffed on it hard before he handed me the cash.  I've gone to a few concerts, but nothing big; one at The Loon near 15 years ago, Poison at the Patty Center near 18 years ago.  I'd rather go to a baseball game.  Live music at restaurants can be nice.

    Linked below are a few pieces from which I either get great amusement, motivation, or get really stuck in my head when I'm at the tiller of the boat for hours on end.

This here could be driving or workout music.

The only time I listen to this is when I'm jogging...or trying to, I haven't been a real jogger in a long time.

Dolly is a gorgeous ol' lady, but having seen pictures of what she looked like when she first sang Jolene, you gotta wonder, what voodoo was Jolene packing?

 

  Being a bow hunter, not an archer but a bow hunter, this song gets me in my bones.

  Damn, I may have to pick up an acoustic and give it a try, learn to play Fred Bear.

     

This one lived in my head a couple weeks ago when my oldest and I were caribou hunting.  All we came back with was blueberries, some grouse and ptarmigan we saw on the way back, and some great memories.

 

 What a monologue Robert Shaw gave right before that.  I had trouble swimming in pools for a bit after the first time I saw that movie.