notmovingpictures Episode 025: Vacation Talk

This episode is a bit, well, lengthy. Okay, to be honest it's a conversation mainly about my family vacation. Tommy and I talk about almost everything we did like the daytrips to NYC and Atlantic City, buying vinyl records and talking about trying new things musically. It does get a bit wordy and kind of drags for a bit. I loathe doing a lot of editing to notmovingpictures but believe it or not I did do some. Really I like to pretty much present things as they are, warts and all. With that you have episode 25, you might want to skip this one.

Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day  
Closing Music: The Go-Go's - Vacation
Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

move - New Poem/Lyrics

I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with this most recent piece that came to me on Tuesday but it is what it is. I'll definitely be working on it in the near future. It just feels like it will need something but I can't quite put my finger on it.

                move

don’t like it around here no more

stayed past my welcome
now I feel disconnected
the only thing constant is change
and I’ve got a big one in mind

change my face, change my shape
move out of state, then go further
pull up stakes catch a plane
get the family to rearrange
and then we start to live

a new land’s been calling

better find a way to make it work
words, thoughts and ideas take shape
hindered by self doubt and fear
i just don’t know the language yet

what to do, how to do it
when do I get to live that life

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 067

Some new stuff this week mixed in with some old stuff as well as some obscure stuff. I included Agent Orange because they'll be playing in Tulsa in October. The Dirty Mugs are from Tulsa and they add their twist to punk with an accordion without sounding Celtic at all. It works, trust me.Some songs are from albums that I DIDN'T buy on my vacation but I wrote their names down and looked them up after the fact. Expect more of that in the future, as well as the stuff that I did buy and some Dirtnap Records stuff I ordered if the Post Office ever gets around to delivering it. That's about it this time.



Parquet Courts - Black And White
Future Virgins - Cheap Seats
Short Dogs Grow - I Got It Right
Agent Orange - Everything Turns Grey
The Dirty Mugs - Dance With Me
The Eat - Communist Radio
Homeowners - Lost In The South
Ghost Pains - Kids For Rent
Blooper - Tinted Windows
Disaster Committee - Puppet Show

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Vacation Visit To The Record Store

One of the things to remember about going on a family vacation is that most of the activities will be for the family to do together instead of what only one person wants to do. Please note that you should never force your family to do things that are only your interest because they’ll be bored and if they’re bored they will complain and if they complain that will ruin the good time you are trying to have. You see where I’m going with this, it’s just not worth the hassle of arguing about things when you should be enjoying what you’re doing. For instance, I knew that when we took a day trip to New York City on our recent vacation that unless there just happened to be a music store right across the street from someplace that my wife wanted to go, then it wouldn’t be happening for me. One thing you need to know about me is that I can spend hours in a music or book store drifting from spot to spot as I painstakingly go through the racks and stacks looking for that one gem that will make my face light up.

 

While I knew that I wouldn’t be having that experience (someday, someday) in NYC, that knowledge was softened somewhat when I found two shops in Easton, Pa where we were visiting along with a trip to a flea market. On our second day In Easton I spotted Sackers located at 60 Center Square which is a strange address since Sackers is right by the traffic circle. It’s a comic book/music/pawn/collectibles store contained in a very large space. Unfortunately there is a ton of stuff there and most of it is piled over and the owner even admitted that he didn’t know for sure everything that he had. The comics were the main draw for me here as the records were pretty standard fair. It was just a lot of music that was popular years ago but not much that was rare or unusual, stuff that could be found pretty much anywhere. Still, I had a good time walking around looking at things.

Later, I found out that roughly one block away there was an actual record store called Used Grooves at 401 Northampton St. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time I was able to walk by. Still, just being armed with the knowledge that it was there was enough to have me salivating at the bit for a chance to go in and peruse their stock. As luck would have it, or more accurately not have it, I wasn’t able to visit it for at least five days due to other plans. There just never seemed to be a time for me to get away on my own so that I could satisfy my own selfish desires. That sounds kind of lewd, doesn’t it? With some patience sprinkled with some artfully crafted hints to my wife like “I really want to go to that record store” eventually my time came. The skies opened and my prayers were heard as we had a break in our schedule, an open day to relax and my wife and mother-in-law dropped me off, probably so they wouldn’t be forced to listen to me whine about it anymore.

The only caveat however was that my son wanted to go with me. If you want to spend time without looking at a clock I would advise you not to bring a seven year old along for the ride. Their attention span is short at best however I couldn’t deny him. He just loves tagging along with his old man, hanging out and eventually I think these kinds of events will help open him up to more in life and he’ll become a well developed young man. So there we were, we walked in and I was greeted by row after row of vinyl records. I didn’t know where to begin so I just drifted over to the rock-various artists section and slowly flipped through what was available. Pretty fast I found two compilations, one featuring American punk and rock bands and the other U.K. bands. It was all music right up my alley and I gleefully clutched them to my chest.

Right about this time the questions started. Not the “Can I help you with anything” but the “When are we leaving” kind of questions. The (not-so) little guy had exhausted his patience already and wanted to move on to greener pastures. I however did not share that opinion and was far from ready. I knew then that I wouldn't be able to spend the amount of time that I wanted and that a deal needed to be brokered so that I could stall him just a little longer. With promises from me that we were only going to stay “just a little longer” he seemed to accept his fate, temporarily at least. As I moved towards the front of the store I saw a rather small section that said Punk/Hardcore and knew that I'd found my spot. Quickly I started flipping through the bin as I looked at vinyl with some band names that I knew (alright not a lot) and even more that I didn't know. This is far from a setback however, it's just what I like, the chance to find some new to me music. It's even better if they are local to regional bands that never released a great deal of albums. There's a different kind of joy when you unearth some really cool music that for whatever reason never made it big.

After I made my way completely through the bin I had more albums than I knew my wife would be cool with me bringing home. With virtually no previous knowledge about these bands I had to make some hard decisions and fast. Besides, my son was starting to grumble again. That's when the saleslady came to my aid. She showed my son that there were records for children right below the bin that I was looking in. It only took a few seconds for him to locate a Batman book and record set that cost more (a paltry $10) than any one record that I was looking at. As he excitedly looked up at me (something that will only happen for a few more years, the kid is huge I tell you) and asked if he could have it there was only one answer I could give. Of course he could have it. What kind of selfish jerk would I be if I denied him while I was indulging myself? Besides, I want to bring him up right, with a love of the vinyl. Now we just need to work on his patience. Yeah I know that only helps me also get to spend time on the things that I like but hey, at least it's something we can enjoy together and that's always a fathers job. Bring them up right and they'll remember days like this forever.

By the way, we also went to a flea market in nearby Quakerstown where I was able to find and buy the only punk record there. Not only that but I also haggled down the price an extra dollar. How's that for patience and persistence? If only I had more money to spend, I'd end up broke.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Lonely Man

This is something I started last Sunday and after a few days I had the time to look over it. I decided to change nothing for now. Perhaps in the future it may evolve but for now it is what it is. By the way, I was thinking of the song "Every Man For Himself" by Articles Of Faith.

A lonely man
A solitary one
Driven by fear
Pain and suffering
Hard lessons learned
Confusion abounds
Reluctant to change
Separate by choice
Suspicious of motive
Of strangers needs
Cynical and twisted
It comes down to
Controlling life's greed

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 066: It All Starts With The

This episode is a look back in time at an era when music was drastically changing. People wanted something different and music started evolving. None of these bands had a major impact in the U.S. although they should have. They did however have an influence on a ton of other artists. The U.K. bands were far more successful however none of them lasted. It's almost as if they were put here for a purpose and then once that was accomplished they moved on to different groups, different endeavors in life. I know I'm romanticizing it but what else have I got to do? Oh yeah, and all of the band names this episode start with "The."



The Weirdos - We Got The Neutron Bomb
The Zeros - Don't Push Me Around
The Bags - Survive
The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight
The Ruts - In A Rut
The Undertones - Jimmy Jimmy
The Circles - Billy
The Plugz - La Bamba
The Dils - I Hate The Rich
The Nuns - You Think You're The Best

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

A Day At The Beach

Contrary to published reports a great white shark did not beach itself in Atlantic City on August 6th. That was just me taking my shirt off to go swimming. Seriously, I don't tan so much as I burn. I'm a mutt who has German, British, Irish, Scottish and even a little bit of American Indian blood in his ancestry but it's the U.K. parts that come to the fore in my physical appearance. I'm pale, hairy and covered in freckles so you can understand why I tend to stay out of the sun. Getting sunburned is never a pleasant experience but on this occasion it was definitely worth it. Besides, the weather was quite nice and there was lots of cloud cover so it turned out to be rather minor which was a pleasant surprise.

Now I can say I get it. I understand the allure of the beach for those that live or grew up near one. Now I'm talking about a real beach here, not one like I've written about going to before with the family that was created at a lake near here. I'm talking about a proper beach at the ocean. My wife is one of those people, she is from Lima, Peru which has a lot of beaches close by. She's told me stories of walking thirty to forty minutes to get to the beach with her brother and cousins when she was young. I never really understood what would draw you to walk that far, to be in the heat, to get sunburned (okay they didn't get burned), to put up with crowds and bugs and everything else that goes with it. Until now that is.

While on vacation visiting my mother-in-law (amongst other relatives) we took a day trip to go to the beach in Atlantic City. I thought it would be nice for my wife since she hasn't been to a beach to swim since she came to the United States over eleven years ago. That's saying something since like I said, she grew up living very near the beach and used to go all the time, especially when she was young. My own experiences with, as I refer to it, a real beach, were confined to a vacation in North Carolina when I was about ten or eleven years old and one in Spain where I was on leave for a week while I was stationed in Germany in the U.S. Army. For the former I was an undersized, scrawny, easily sunburned (yeah I know I'm beating this point to death) and massively insecure kid and for the latter it was winter and the water was freezing cold so I didn't get to swim. In other words, my exposure to the beach was very limited at best.

We met up with a friend of my mother-in-laws who was in from Peru visiting her sons that live in Atlantic City and once together we set off for the beach. I thought I'd swim for about twenty to thirty minutes, get out and cover up while relaxing before getting back in the water for a bit with my shirt on and my bald head covered. That didn't happen. Instead, something wonderful occurred. As I said, the weather was great, lots of clouds, not a lot of the sun beating down on us. After I got in the water and waded out to chest level I really began to enjoy connecting with the water, determining whether to dive under individual waves or float over them. My son was learning to boogie board and he was having a blast. Later he started following my lead as I taught him everything I had just learned. My wife was also enjoying her time in the ocean water once again. We were getting used to the strong pull of the water as in came in and out, from different angles, over and over and over.

Basically I felt the connection to nature. As much joy as I saw on my son's face as the wave caught him on his board and propelled him forward I know it was showing just as much on my face as I went further out and stopped attempting to battle the waves and instead tried to move with them. Now I understood why people want to live so close to the beach, why they want to spend a lot of time there, why they enjoy learning to boogie board or surf. It's a natural thing to want to spend your time and do things there. Now I get it. The joy I felt was worth the fatigue that came from resisting the tide, it was worth getting bitten by flies, worth the fearful shame I had of people seeing my pale, overweight body without a t-shirt on and absolutely, positively worth the sunburn. Nor did I care that I smelled of the ocean when we went to go eat afterwards. None of that mattered because I felt my family and myself  bond with the sea.

If you think I'm being melodramatic for the sake of the story well, you are wrong. If you don't believe me I don't care, you weren't there. I was. I simply advise you to get yourself to a beach and find out for yourself. Make up your own mind with real life experience. With any luck you'll have a similar experience to mine, something to remember and share with your family. Now I want more, I just have to find a way to make it happen more frequently, something not easy in a landlocked state like Oklahoma. It's doable though, now that I get it.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

notmovingpictures Episode 024: Thoughts After The Supersuckers and The Dirty Mugs Show

This is a short solo episode that was recorded on my ride home after watching The Supersuckers and The Dirty Mugs on July 22nd at The Shrine in Tulsa. Once again, the audio in episodes recorded while I am driving suffers greatly due to the noise of the truck, the recorder moving around and so forth. I talk about the small crowd (hey, it was a Tuesday night show in Tulsa), the lyrics/poem that I wrote before the bands came on and I close with a gripe and a stolen bit from Doug Loves Movies. Oh yeah, I also forget at the end to say over and over and over and over......and over. You should be able to tell but if not, it's about the selfies.



Opening Music: Alloy - Live To See The Day 
More Opening Music: The Supersuckers - Creepy Jackalope Eye
Closing Music: The Dirty Mugs - Dance With Me

Email: notmovingpictures@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Older episodes can also be found @ www.archive.org, just search for notmovingpictures.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Visiting With My Father

One activity I forgot to mention the other day about the things I've done on my vacation was that I had a chance to go see my father, or more accurately, his grave. My father passed on in 1999 and his latest wife (he's been married at least seven times that I know of, I've written about this before) didn't want my aunt and my dad's twin sister to let his children know. You see he had married her after leaving my Mom and then all those years later he had returned and married her again. Anyway, she didn't want his original firstborn children to know anything about his passing on I suppose so that we wouldn't show up at his funeral and spoil the little myth that they had built up about their marriage and life together for all of the people that thought they knew him.

Anyway, I'm getting far too off track here. Since the Ft. Indiantown Gap National Graveyard is right off of the highway that takes you to Hershey, Pa we decided to stop by on our way back home, after we had all of our fun. When they do a burial there you do not get to see them put the casket in the ground. They have a spot where the do the whole military ceremony thing with the folding of the flag and the twenty-one gun salute and then you go on your way. So the first and only time I had been there I never actually knew where he was to be buried. I was able to look up the information online and it didn't take very long to find his grave.

Once the grave was found my wife, son, mother -in-law and her husband stood there for a few minutes and then they gave me some personal time to do whatever I wanted. I'm not sure I believe that a persons ghost or soul or a piece of it or whatever lingers on at their gravesite. I think it can for the place they died, especially if it was a violent demise but I'm not convinced about their final resting place. Still, there were some things I never got the chance to say to my father face to face that I needed to get off of my chest.

I won't get into the details but I was the one who stayed with him from the middle of my junior year of high school until I dropped out of college, I had his back in a manner of thinking. Then he treated me worse than everybody else and it took some time to forgive him but because of the situation there was no closure over what he had done. I forgave but didn't forget which was the sensible thing to do when dealing with him. Now I finally had a chance to get some things off of my chest in the only way that remained. It probably worked out better this way, at least now I didn't have to hear any lies.

It only took about two minutes and I was done, with as much closure as I'll ever possibly be able to have. That's the way it goes, I can't change any thing that happened so I just have to deal with it. Life goes on and hopefully lessons are learned and not repeated. Hopefully.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Ten For Tuesday Episode 065: From The Pages Of Razorcake

This episode comes directly from the pages of Razorcake magazine #80. Every artist was featured in the magazine or at least were in an ad. Razorcake is a really great punk magazine that comes out every two months. It's not expensive at all so you should do yourself a favor and check them out. Lot's of great stuff there. Besides, they also do podcasts, are a record label, a book publisher and more. I'm sure I'll be getting a lot more music from them in the future.



The Marked Men - Right Here With You
The Joliettes - Quicksand
New Creases - Covered Bridges
Million Dollar Marxists - Parasite
Mind Spiders - Worlds Destroy
Dott - Leave Tonight
White Murder - Harold's Place
Nervosas - Window
Crusades - Beacons
Sedatives - Backlash

Ten For Tuesday is a podcast dedicated to playing the music I couldn't find anywhere else. The music I like varies from style to style, genre to genre and era to era. You will hear punk, ska, rock, Americana, metal, country, rockabilly and more from all over the world. It doesn't matter if it's a major label or indie as long as I like it then it gets played. The motto is Less Talk More Music which means you won't hear me waxing poetic for fifteen minutes between songs. At TFT its all about the music...and me of course.

Email: tenfortuesday@gmail.com Twitter: @notmovingpics
Blog: www.notmovingpictures.blogspot.com

Old Episodes can be found by going to www.archive.org and searching for Ten For Tuesday

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

Vacation Thoughts So Far

I've been away on vacation and haven't had any time to write anything until now. So far things have been, well, different. We are spending two weeks with my mother-in-law and her husband, sort of. The original plan as it was explained to me was that since her mother's apartment was too small for all of us we would simply rent the downstairs apartment from them which is unoccupied. Where she lives in Pennsylvania there are a lot of houses that have been turned into apartments. Most of them are halved and then there are upstairs and downstairs apartments on both sides. That way a two-story house now generates more rent money and it's easier to rent out apartments than it is a full house.

As I said, their plan was for us to rent the downstairs apartment for two weeks. Then we would sleep on air mattresses and do everything else in the upstairs apartment. Only, the landlord wasn't willing to do this. No landlord approval means there is a major problem in this plan. Luckily a friend of my mother-in-law lives about a block and a half away. She graciously has allowed us to take over her living room and sleep on the aforementioned air mattresses. Even more luckily she has a daughter just a little older than my son and they have become fast friends. Not so luckily it is hot in the apartment and there is a neighbor who has a penchant for blasting music all hours of the day and night. Nothing is perfect in life and I just try and accept things for how they are.

What makes it easier is the knowledge that we cannot afford a hotel room for two weeks. Still, it will be nice when I get back to my routine and don't have to worry about intruding in the lives of another family. So what have we been doing with our time? We went to the Crayola Experience which our son loves. In fact, he loves it so much that we got annual memberships and in less than a week we've been there three times. We've been to a Peruvian restaurant where we met an unbelievable number of Peruvians that my wife knew in the brief time she lived here. We went to a Lebanese festival and watched some of their cultural dancing. There's been a visit to a comic book/record store, swimming at the Y as well as visiting family members.

Friday was a day trip to New York City. Now, you have to know that my wife and I differ greatly on vacations. If it were just me visiting I would have eschewed the touristic sites and gone into Brooklyn to find record stores to cater to punk, ska, metal and other indie music. I'd find a hot dog cart and later a pizza place. Then my visit would be a success. I'd also go to Red Bank, NJ and visit Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash (Kevin Smith's comic book store). But this isn't my visit, it's my family's visit and that means my uber-tourist wife gets things done her way.

First was the Statue of Liberty where we faced long cattle like lines, overpriced food and hot weather. Next was a drawing in the park that looked nothing like my son. A short subway ride later we exited and walked a few blocks and were in Times Square. Times Square was populated by teeming masses of idiots who walked as if they were the only people around. They texted and drifted along halting and stopping at odd intervals, cutting across or just plain stopping to gawk or take photos. I include my wife in these goings on. As I said, she is the uber-tourist and she lives for taking pictures of mundane things like getting on the escalator at Toys R Us (we've got one back home but it's only one floor). I have to admit I bumped and then shoved my way through a few knots of tourists just to keep up with my family and I'm not ashamed about it.

One thing that has been made apparent is that I couldn't live in NYC without the hate coming out. I'd find myself becoming very dark, cursing out people and getting into fights. Let me rephrase that, all of that would be true if I had to exist in the tourist areas of New York City. If I could be in normal areas I'd probably have no problems. As we were making our way to the Port Authority to catch our bus home I was insulted by a stereotypically rude New Yorker for no reason and yeah, my first retort was to simply curse him out and advise him to keep walking. A few minutes late of course I was able to compose the perfect rebuttal insult that would have left him grasping for thoughts but by then it was too late. I don't know, maybe that's his thing, being the rude local to all the yokels. Good luck with that life and all the anger you invoke.

We've been to Cabelas, an outdoors type of gigantic store where I got some cool shorts (no you can't get a picture of me in them). Today we went to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pa. It's the one place where my son didn't mind my wife making him pose for pictures. Here's a tip for you though, don't put the chocolate that you just spent a lot of money on in the trunk of the car. I already knew this but was over-ruled. Now everybody knows after it was all turned into more of a liquid than a solid. We've got even more things on the horizon. A day trip to the beach, more family visiting, a trip to the laundromat and another record store that I've found here in Easton. There'll be more though, we're not quite halfway through our visit yet. I see my feet hurting more and my wife making me pose for more pictures with things I don't care about. The things I do for love.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.