Last night, Dennis and I went to see Neil Young in concert.
Full disclosure: I am not a Neil Young fan, per se. I appreciate Neil Young’s contribution to modern music and recognize his talent, but if you were to ask me anything about his body of work, I couldn’t up with much more than “Four dead in Ohio!”
That being said, the show itself was an adventure and generally a pleasure (certainly better than Bob Dylan, who we saw about two weeks ago at the same venue). Some random observations:
- Neil Young fans offer an interesting slice of humanity. There was a peculiar abundance of people with walking sticks (the best was the one that had a carved bald eagle’s head for a knob). There were the neo-rednecks, with their camouflage baseball caps and Rolex watches. There were wide-eyed college students, but the most predominant group appeared to be baby boomers who were incapable of handling their alcohol. Do you lose your ability to metabolize booze after the age of 50?
- While listening to the opening act, Young’s wife Pegi, I started thinking about the viability of composting. Could you compost effectively in an apartment or is it something better saved for our eventual migration to suburbia?
- There was a man sitting about two rows in front of us, on the left. Dennis hit the nail on the head when he remarked that the man looked like a Muppet. He was likely younger than us, with frizzy Art Garfunkel hair, a handlebar mustache and a vest too tight for his own good. Every time he walked by we sang, “It’s time to play the music, it’s time to play the lights…”
- Neil Young’s acoustic set was so mellow all I wanted was a muffin and a nap.
- For those interested, Neil appears to shop at Tommy Bahama, playing his set in a khaki jacket, khaki pants and white shirt. On the stool in front of him was a SIGG bottle with what I assume was water and an Amstel Light. I would have pegged him more a Sam Adams kind of guy.
- During “A Man Needs a Maid,” there was this weird synthesizer solo. Remember high school theater productions, before intermission at the height of the drama (e.g. someone is being kidnapped, someone is rushing out of a room to confront someone else) they would play bad music to heighten the tension? That’s what it was like.
- The electric set was outstanding. There’s something very entertaining about the way he kind of stomps around and thrashes at the age of 62. Keep on rockin' Pepaw!
Most urban composting would happen outside on a roof deck or a shared yard. You can effectively compost in a house, but the smell would be difficult and costly to contain. Also, the space needed is a bit bigger than what you would probably want to give up.
Plus, if you have no where to use the composted materials (i.e. a garden space) what are you going to do with the compost when it finishes decomposing? Give it to friends? Bring it to the park and help save the trees there?
Just some thoughts.
Posted by: matt | November 14, 2007 at 09:12 AM