I wanna be a cowboy

Let me tell you something, this was some kind of week. And I don’t know where this post is going, and I don’t rightly care. I say it that way, “… I don’t rightly care …” because of the book I’m currently reading and the picture I’ve decided to throw up here.

The book I’m reading is “No Country for Old Men” by Cormac McCarthy who, if you are unfamiliar with his works, is one helluva a brilliant stylist but the also one helluva grim son-of-a-bitch. Cormac – lighten up pal!

Geez ... the guy is an absolutely wonderful writer of prose. But with the exception of a comic scene in one of his earlier novels, he's obsessed with violence and life as a bleak fiasco.

Anyway … this picture is from my country radio station days. I use to work in radio. Long ago, I lived in Ottawa, Ontario and I was working in a book store. I needed a job. I was a radio guy so I looked for a radio job. I found one in Edmonton, Alberta.

I thought, “What the hell? Let’s try it out.” So I travelled across a fistful of miles and took up residence at the local (Edmonton) YMCA, where I lived for a week. Note: sleeping on a bed at the YMCA is like sleeping on a cobblestone street that has a flannel sheet thrown over it.

So … I take the job. I get to Edmonton. I arrive at work. In my head, a realization dawns, “This is a country station.” I didn’t know that when I took the job. I thought I was going to a rock or pop kind of station. I knew jackshit about country music.

It was an education.

Today, I quite enjoy country music though, as with all music, I am particular. I love your Ricky Scaggs, your George Jones and your Dwight Yokam and Patsy Cline and the Carter Family. What passes for country, which is essentially pop music with steel guitars, I’m not so big on.

Whatever … the accompanying picture is me at CISN-FM, circa about 15 years ago? That’s a wild guess. I don’t know when it was taken. But I like the fact Clint’s in there.

And you know something? This is not the post I thought I would post. I thought I would tell you why I haven’t been posting anything this week and why the comments I’ve left at other blogs were so … scattered and stupid.

Maybe that will be tomorrow’s post.

Tag: Cormac McCarthy, Radio, Country music