My Starter

Llorca found this for me. It’s a statement from Be Here to Love Me director, Margaret Brown.

 

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The film had footage of Lightnin’ Hopkins performing, which is damn cool. And a nice snippet of Townes doing Hopkin’s “My Starter Won’t Start This Morning” on Austin City Limits.

 

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When I was really getting into blues as a young man, sometimes I didn’t have much to go on. I’d get interested in some guy simply because I’d heard of him, or a guy I liked name-dropped him.

 

So Dad took a business trip to Dallas, and he picked me up some Lightnin’ Hopkins records out of the blue. One was Po’ Lightnin’ (on Arhoolie) if I recall. And Blues in My Bottle and a couple more maybe.

 

It was a direct hit. Great stuff, just gold from start to finish. I listened to Lightnin’ non-stop for quite a while. I really liked “My Starter Won’t Start This Morning,” which Townes does in the film, actually.

 

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So good work, Pop. Lots of guys I used to listen to back then (Johnny Winter, Roy Buchanan) have become less interesting to me, but I still love Lightnin’.

 

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And on a final Townes note, for now anyway… he’s the source of one of my favorite quotes: “I just need an overwhelming amount of love. And a nap. Mostly a nap.”

 

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Went for a jog yesterday. The good news is that my calf felt/feels fine.

 

The bad news is that otherwise that jog was a disaster. I only intended to go two miles. I’d stretched my favors from Kelli as far as I could, so I didn’t want to be gone more than about a half hour.

 

(She let me crash a bit since I’d gone to bed at 2am and gotten up at 7am… nice of her to do that for me since going to bed so late was my own fault. Getting up so early was THEBOY’s fault though)

 

The one-mile track at the junior college is my favorite place to run. It’s on a fairly open patch of ground that’s slightly elevated compared to its surroundings. Where I come from they’d call it a mound. Maybe “tiny hill” is better.

 

Anyway, there’s nothing to block the wind, so on a blustery day I was basically running into a 40mph headwind half the time. Having it at my back was no fun either.

 

My stamina was poor, it was 85 degrees, and I couldn’t seem to breathe well. I’d say the first 9 miles of the marathon were an easier run than yesterday’s two, somehow.

 

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Did some yard work (hello blistered hands), showered at the rec center, and watched USA vs. Japan on DVD. Ended up being a fine evening, though I hit the sheets early.

 

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Coming soon: The gayest piece of clothing I own.