Muddy Waters

“The sky is dark, the moon is blue

I don’t know what I’m gonna do

It’s like I’m falling

Down into muddy waters.”

    Aaron Neville, “Down Into Muddy Waters”

Due to threatening weather Thursday’s Thrill of the Grill was moved inside IUN’s Savannah Center.  Mo Jo Daddy Band, featuring Kenny Kinsey of the Kinsey Report, played lively blues selections to a disappointingly small audience.  They were excellent musicians; I especially liked their rendition of the Aaron Neville song “Down Into Muddy Waters.”  At first I thought it was about the blues legend.  Omar Farag, who booked the band, was judging an Elvis tribute artist contest in Wisconsin, but I talked at length to his assistant Brenda, whose 12 year-old son was halfway through “Gary’s First Hundred Years” and looking up words he was unfamiliar with in the dictionary.  When Sandra Smith started swaying to the music, I almost got up and danced with her.

The IU Board of Trustees is meeting on campus for two days, so there were plenty of men dressed in dark suits stepping outside during breaks to use their cell phones.  I’m sure there’s been much talk of Indiana governor Mitch Daniels being named Purdue’s next president after his term expires at the end of the year.  At least the SOB won’t be going to Washington.  One cartoon joked that he might sell Mackey Arena to a foreign corporation like he did the Toll Road.  A hundred people were on hand to hear IU President Michael McRobbie address the Board.  Chuck Gallmeier looked cool in a light tan sports coat and slacks.  I had on a white IU shirt I inherited from Dave.

In the news: Thirteen year-old boys in a town near Rochester, New York, ridiculed 68 year-old bus monitor Karen Klein.  A tape of the ugly taunting, which went on for over ten minutes and left the woman in tears, went viral and put the incident on the front page along with the Sandusky and Zimmerman stories.  A fundraiser set up to raise $5,000 for a nice vacation for Klein has brought in a half million dollars.  Only in America.

A condo board meeting lasted over two hours with the most contentious issues being landscaping and whether to allow ornamental blue lights to remain up after the holiday season.  A young board member who took the place of someone moving to Indianapolis probably didn’t know what he was in for.  The previous two meetings only lasted an hour, so there is some hope for the future.

George Cairns, a friend of environmentalist Lee Botts, wants to interview me on July 3 for a documentary about save-the-dunes efforts over the past century.  The semi-retired professor of theology wrote that he wants from me “a general overview of the dynamics in the region and state that have had an impact on the parks during the twentieth century.”

A rerun of “The Office” had to do with Michael (Steve Carell) discovering he had herpes and calling up women he had sex with.  Not a barrel of laughs.  Carell is in a strange movie entitled “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” about how one spends his last days knowing an asteroid will soon destroy the planet.  Rolling Stone’s reviewer only gave it two stars because no sparks flew between Carell and co-star Keira Knightley, but I thought the relationship was very moving.  Talk about strange, also playing in Portage was a flick about Abe Lincoln as a vampire killer.

A Rolling Stone article about Rachel Maddow contained a 1990s photo of her as a big-haired blond.  She was raised a strict Catholic, and her parents learned she was a lesbian when someone sent them an article she wrote while attending Stanford.  Her lover of more than ten years seems to be an earth mother type of hippie quite a bit older than her.

The reigning “Jeopardy champ has won less than $12,00 in two days.  First she lucked out when everyone missed Taj Mahal (an answer I knew) but she only bet a few dollars because she was way behind the others.  Friday neither of her opponents knew Nuremberg (shocking, really) so she pulled off another last-to first victory.

We went to Hobart to see a production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”  James was fantastic as Schroeder, the musical genius that Lucy hopes to marry some day.  Becca was just in the chorus because of rehearsal conflicts with “Music Man,” and after the play ended she sang a selection from “Music Man” that brought down the house.  I’ll see another “Charlie Brown” performance Sunday with the Hagelbergs.

 

Charley Blum gave Becca free tickets for the Jacksons’ Unity concert in Merrillville but because it conflicted with “You’re a Good Man,” she gave them to Marianne and Missy Brush.  Michael’s four brothers visited the old homestead earlier in the day.  It’s hard to believe it’s been three years since Michael died.  The brothers ended their show with the number “Gone Too Soon.”