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The Chronicles of Nani On Video

I am overcoming my inability to type with my ability to talk (and talk and talk and talk) I'll be posting a video every week on my YouTube channel. I'll be posting those videos here too along with an occasional regular blog in the mix. (As long as my hands are up to doing the extra typing.)

You'll be able to watch the videos here, but I encourage you to stop by my channel at YouTube once I'm up and running to follow me and get my numbers started!


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Contact Nani at
chroniclesofnani@gmail.com

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Weekend Playlist January 20

I know I always start the talk about my weekend playlist with the fact that my musical taste is about as eclectic as my tastes in pretty much everything. I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't like to limit myself to any one type of anything. Of course sometimes deciding between flavors of ice cream or what to have for dinner and the restaurant can you make me a bit of a pain. The truth is, and I know this is an expensive way to go, but ever since I was little kid I would rather order a few things off the appetizer menu than an actual dinner anyway. Of course as an adult unless I won the lottery on the way, I tend to try to stay away from appetizer menus as much as possible. LOL

So here are the last five songs from my music library on shuffle:

September Morn, Niel Diamond
You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone, Brooks & Dunn
Grenade, Bruno Mars
Brand new me, John Michael Montgomery
Kansas City, The New Basement Tapes

I did just notice that out of 1970 songs in my library (thank you Apple music subscription) Buddy Bat, which is the name of my iPad where I put my library on shuffle for my Weekend Playlist, sometimes get stuck in the favorites mode. Last night when I started this project it seemed like every third song was either Neil Diamond or Night Ranger. Yes, I do happen to have a lot both of those artists in my library. But I970 songs and the whole catalog is on shuffle. It sounds to me like a musical mood and sometimes I just wonder how smart our smart devices have become? My Apple devices talk to each other and I swear they know as much about me as I do and if I press the right buttons I can have a conversation with Siri for a while. I'm eventually going to have to talk about that Brooks & Dunn song because it really seems Buddy Bat wants me to. But I usually write my blog on Joey, my main computer, and Joey seems to still allow me to be in charge. 😉

This week's song is Kansas City by The New Basement Tapes. I can tell you that this is one of a bunch of song lyrics Bob Dylan wrote after a car accident… Whatever. I'm not a huge Bob Dylan fan but I just happen to really like this song. The lyrics of the song don't really speak to me but I enjoy the rhythm of the song the music and Kansas City makes me think about two things.


The first and only time I have ever flown into Kansas City I got to see my name on a sign with the NBC peacock on it because I was flying in for an interview with the NBC affiliate in Topeka, Kansas. The creative services director picked me up and we drove into downtown Topeka and he took me to lunch at a very nice upscale salad bar. I don't mean salad bar as in put your lettuce and all your stuff on your lettuce and take it back to your table. I mean salad bar as you look at all the different types of salads that they have choose the 3 or 4 that you would like and they put them on a plate for you. I was thinking to myself at that time, if I get this job I'm going to spend a lot of time in this restaurant. We enjoyed lunch and talked about the job and the Topeka area including the importance of how close the Kansas City Royals are.

There were a couple of things that didn't sit so well about living in Kansas. The gas prices were just a little higher than they were in Detroit and based on the value of my car it would probably cost about $600 a year for a license plate. My gas mileage wasn't that bad but for the price of the license plate tag? Yeesh! I was not giving up my only six years old Camaro to be a creative services producer in a small market. But we hadn't discussed salary yet it was still early in the day.

The next part of the day I worked very hard to keep myself from laughing, because the NBC station was smack dab in the middle of a cornfield. I mean you saw the building and the antenna and nothing but corn anyplace else. Once we walked into the station it was an incredibly modern building and in the production area it was totally state-of-the-art. It was better equipment than I worked with at the cable company and even at Tiger Stadium and it was very comparable to the production equipment where I was currently working as a video librarian. We did lots of talking about the type of commercial production that was done there. I got to meet a lot of potential coworkers they seemed like decent and very creative people. I even got to play with a couple of pieces of the equipment and recorded the voiceover while I was there. The job sounded great. The toys were fun. Downtown reminded me a lot of Royal Oak, Michigan, a city I absolutely adore. If the apartment rental in the area was decent and the pay was okay I was ready to start packing if they offered me the job.

Unfortunately the salary the job paid was a FEW THOUSAND dollars LESS then I was making as a video librarian and I lived in a suite in my parents home rent-free and paid just under $100 a year for tags for the plates on the Camaro. The CS director brought me back to the airport in Kansas City complementing my skills and raving about my voice and still trying to sell me on how great the area was. I did realize that that meant very good things about my standing in the finalists for this job. He even brought up that although it was more expensive for registration the gas prices were better than Detroit, which they word but I didn't say that, and the weather is better so it's better on the car. It still wasn't enough to make "I'm at creative services producer and a barista with a really great roommate who I met a day ago" very attractive. I sent an email later in the day of the next day explaining that I'd given it some thought and for financial reasons I just couldn't consider the position. But on the flight home I already needed extra peanuts because I felt so bad.


I do want to go back to Kansas City though! There are two things in Kansas City that I absolutely have to see. First off, of course, I want to see a baseball game there. The other thing that Kansas City has that no place else in the world does is Shuttlecocks! Note the capital S on Shuttlecocks. I'm not talking about stopping in a sporting goods store. Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, built and installed four 18-foot badminton shuttlecocks on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, it can be done in one day but if I go to Kansas City I must see a Royals baseball game and Shuttlecocks. And I mean I've got to power wheel out there and get my picture taken just to show you how much taller than my wheelchair the shuttlecocks are.


And that's what Kansas City is to me and it's what this song makes me think about. You may get something completely different from the song. In fact it would be really weird if you didn't. It a nice song. Hope you enjoy the video.

1 comment:

Edna B said...

Hmmm, I never heard that song before. I've been to Kansas city once, many moons ago. Sadly, I don't hanker to travel very much any more. It gets harder each year, so I'm happy with my one little vacation to Florida every winter.

It is so cold here today that my feet feel like popsicles whenever I have to take them out from under the blanket. Sadly though, I do have to keep getting up to do things. But then Pogo and I hop right back under the warm blankets to get warm again.

I'll be so glad when Spring gets here. This cold weather is not my thing. Not Pogo's either. We're both warm weather bunnies. This cold isn't good for my hands either. It's difficult to crochet with cold hands so I'm thinking I'll try it with gloves on. Wish me luck.

Speaking of my blanket, it's time for me to get back under it. I'm hoping you are having a good day my friend. I'm wishing you many more of them. Hugs, Edna B.