Hi, all, I was walking to my mailbox about 1/2 mile from my apartment, and was *softly* but audibly singing Passion Play from NRH (anyone who ever heard me sing would applaud the "softly" part -- I do it to avoid scaring animals and small children, and probably plants) when I got to the lines "I am up a sycamore/looking through the leaves/A sinner of some position" just as I passed a man of the cloth. Perfect timing. He probably thought, "Oh great, another sinner singing off key -- I gotta get him for my choir", but apparently he thought the better of it, and just gave me a look.
I went into my favorite bookstore, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place For Books, (that's really the name -- other San Franciscans can verify), and went as usual over to the music section. I saw a series of little books -- called Rough Guides -- one of which was called something like "The 100 CDs You Must Have". I had to look to see which Joni album was in it, and ta-da! HoSL! I know there are several jmdlers who particularly like that album (Jim L'H, if I'm not mistaken) -- I do -- but I've never seen it in any "Top 100" kind of list (more often, one sees Blue, C&S or Hejira), so I was pleasantly surprised. (I neglected to check the date on the book or the series of Rough Guides, so this may be old news.) btw, I bought a book in spite of being broke -- it bothered me that I no longer remembered augmented, diminished and suspended chords -- and I *used* to know these things, I used to be able to wing it with/from a fake book -- so I bought a book about basic chord structure (for piano). I miss playing, and in spite of my shaking hands, I'm thinking of trying again. Hell, if Joni can play with Post-Polio, I can play with neuropathy. I hope. :-) warmly, walt
