Accordion Set List

/ Shane / 1 Comment
So I haven’t gotten much practice in lately, but I’m developing a list of songs that are on my “must have” list for my accordion repertoire. They are, in no particular order:

They last one was chosen because I wanted to learn something that was sort of New Orleans style (zydeco), and I figured that would fit the bill. It also happens to be my high school fight song.

The first song I learned, and the only song I can play reliably, is Happy Birthday. I know a good chunk of Hava Nagila, but that’s only the keyboard side, I don’t know the bass. I’m also making a little progress on the keyboard part of the Pennsylvania Polka.

I think it would also be nice to learn Funiculi Funicula and Au Champs Elysees, because I’ve heard these played many times on accordion by street buskers, and both have some meaning to me (the first was sort of an inside joke on our Italy trip and the second was from our Paris trip).

So what am I missing? Any critical accordion hits that I must learn? Maybe something by Weird Al? (And yes, I am aware that it is traditional to learn Lady of Spain, but I don’t really know it or have any reason to learn it.)

90 Miles Cuban Cafe

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I like to try all different kids of food. When you do that, you sometimes pick something you like, and sometimes you strike out. That’s just the way it goes (although I think there are a lot more wins than losses…I’m not very picky). However, there seems to be one kind of food that never seems to disappoint, and that’s Cuban food. Maybe its because they make ridiculously good sandwiches, and I’m a sandwich kind of guy. Maybe something about the pseudo-Spanish spices are just on my wavelength.

Anyway, all of this is just to explain why I found myself at the 90 miles Cuban cafe last weekend, the long odds it was up against, and how I ultimately wasn’t disappointed.

The cafe is very small on the inside. It’s more of a take-out kind of place. So when we showed up with the whole fam, we basically took up half of the available space. There’s only a high counter with bar stools, so it’s not exactly kid friendly, but they do inexplicably have high chairs.

Since everything sounded pretty good, we ended up ordering a metric ton of food. We were kind of sheepish about it, but A) we spent less than $30, and B) we ate all of it. So I guess it wasn’t so ridiculous! There wasn’t a single thing I didn’t like. The consensus winner was the chorizo and goat cheese empanada. We split on the yuca con mojo, but my cubano sandwich was amazing, and Sara’s bistec was equally good, if very different. There was much, much more (though they were out of shakes).

I even like their slogan, “Taste the Forbidden”. It makes me feel like I’m getting away with something. And gobbling down delicious empanadas also makes me feel like I’m getting away with something.

So, long story short: recommended!

The Mariner’s Revenge Song

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“The Mariner’s Revenge Song” by The Decemberists

If that’s not the most awesome song you’ve ever heard, I don’t know what to tell you. This is the first Decemberists song I’ve ever actually heard, though I’ve heard of them before. It’s got everything: chilling lyrics and vocals, a steady accordion beat, and though it doesn’t feature pirates per say, it involves mariners swallowed by a whale.

The lyrics are reproduced below:

We are two mariners
Our ships’ sole survivors
In this belly of a whale

Its ribs our ceiling beams
Its guts our carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen

But I remember you
And I will relate to you
How our histories interweave

At the time you were a rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money on the whores and hounds
Ohhhhh Oh

You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet

And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease

As time wore on you proved a debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother a poor consumptive wretch
Ohhhhh Oh

And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind

And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind

Then one day, in spring my dear sweet mother died
But before she did I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
Ohhhhh Oh

“Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave”

It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street

Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat

But never once in the employ of these holy men
Did I ever, once, turn my mind from the thought of revenge
Ohhhhh Oh

One night I overheard
The prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea

The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for a wanton cruelty

The following day I shipped to sea with a privateer
And in the whistle of the wind I could almost hear…
Ohhhhh Oh

“Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

“There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed”

And then that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months at sea

Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook the sky went black and the captain quailed
And before us grew the angry jaws of a giant whale

oh ohhhhhhhhhh
[screaming]
ohhhhh
[screaming]

Don’t know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth

But, oh! What providence!
What divine intelligence!
That you should survive as well as me

It gives my heart great joy to see your eyes fill with fear
So lean in close and I will whisper the last words you’ll hear
Ohhhhh Ohh

Quote Monday plans to kill again

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Evie: “I want to wear these sunglasses all the time. I’ll wear them in the house and I’ll only take them off when I’m sleeping. Then I’ll be just like daddy.”

Evie: “Can you imagine? Dorothy had to walk all that way, and she didn’t even complain?” – She came up with this as motivation all on her own! The sidewalk is no yellow brick road, but if it keeps her from complaining…

Evie: “I was almost asleep, but then my potty ticket woke me up. It kept talking to me, saying, ‘I’m lonely!'”

Tom: “What kind of cheese is it?”
Evie: “Shark.”
Me: “Sharp.”

Evie: “I have a plan to kill an imaginary person.”
Me: “What’s your plan?”
Evie: “To kill an imaginary person.”

Harry Baals Memorial Building looking like a long shot

/ Shane / 3 Comments

Well folks, it looks like it’s not going to happen.

Fort Wayne’s new government center is NOT going to be named after one of the most prominent, important, and longest-tenured government officials the city has ever known. I’m speaking, of course, of 4 term mayor Harry Baals.

First off, don’t open your Internet poll to write-ins if you don’t intend to honor the winner. The Harry Baals Government Center has more than 3 times as many votes as its nearest competitor. And it’s not like people were writing in Superman or something, Harry Baals is a legitimate, historical, government figure in Fort Wayne. I think the city should have to honor the poll. The man died in office, can’t you give him one building?

City officials said the name is embarrassing, and they “probably” won’t use it. So you’re saying there’s a chance!

I like how it mentions his descendants changed the pronunciation of the name from “Balls” to “Bales”. They all got together and decided, “We must make sure nobody can ever name their kid Harry Baals again!”

Link via Nate “Bacon” Halbach.

Even Jimmy Kimmel weighed in on this important issue: