Where's the Rain?

Much to my surprise, it was merely cloudy and humid when I opened my eyes around 8 AM. We had some noisy storms last night, and we were supposed to have more of the same today. I put on the American Top 40 to enliven a gloomy morning. Although disco was the going genre in mid-May 1977, many of the songs in the countdown had more than dancing on their minds. Hits included "Couldn't Get It Right" by the Climax Blues Band, "Right Time of the Night" by Jennifer Warrens, "Southern Nights" by Glen Campbell, "Hotel California" by the Eagles, "Got to Give It Up" by Marvin Gaye, and "Sir Duke" by Stevie Wonder.

While Leo Sayer had a hit earlier in the year with the disco classic "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing," he slowed things down for his second #1 song of 1977, the ballad "When I Need You."

This morning was incredibly disappointing. Today was supposed to be Haddon Township's Town-Wide Yard Sale. I only saw two yard sales all morning. One was in Haddon Township, the other was in Collingswood), and neither had anything remotely of interest. The Farm Market, on the other hand, was once again packed, despite the road through and next to the parking lot where it's usually held being repaved. (It had been paved enough for the Market to go on in the usual place.) I didn't really need much, and the crowds were once again elbow-to-elbow. Just bought red potatoes and scallions. (I debated asparagus, but the Acme's having a big weekend sale on local asparagus, so I just picked it up there later.) Oaklyn's Spring Fling had been rescheduled to June, and many local festivals had been canceled or rescheduled as well in anticipation of the weekend's storms.

The storms never came. The sun even came out briefly later in the morning. The only drops of water I felt all day was when the high winds shook them off the trees. The irony of all the fussing is, everything probably could have gone on as planned with the application of tarps to cover wet ground or high tables. All the storms must have passed us. (And my later chat with Lauren revealed where they ended up at. She got rain in Pittsfield all day.)

I got home much earlier than usual and spent the rest of the morning cleaning. I'm putting off a lot of my major spring cleaning until Lauren's visit next month...and because I simply don't have the time for it right now. I did manage to vacuum the entire apartment and wash the windows inside and (as much as possible) out. I also had a decent lunch of home-made bean vegetable soup while watching Sailor Moon episodes.

Work was tiring, even at just four hours. While it wasn't as busy as last weekend, it was still rough on someone who was up late last night and early this morning and didn't have a great week. I was very happy when the manager said I could shut down without a relief.

Went straight home after that. I made salmon, red potatoes, and scallions with rosemary in olive oil with a spinach and radish salad for dinner while watching Monterey Pop. Despite the DVD booklet's insistence that this is a movie musical, it's really a concert documentary on the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival. The predecessor of Woodstock has some really amazing performances, including Big Brother and the Holding Company (with an incredible Janis Joplin), Otis Redding really working the crowd into a frenzy, Jimi Hendrix's guitar-flaming "Wild Thing," and The Who's "smashing" version of "My Generation." It all ends with Ravi Shankar, bringing World Music to the fore and revealing why he was much admired by many musicians in this era, including George Harrison.

Along with Woodstock and Gimmie Shelter, this is a must-see film for fans of classic rock, the late 60s in general, or any of the artists in particular. While the library's copy is Criterion's later one-disc version, there's a three-disc set out there that apparently includes even more acts that didn't make it into the main film. Who fans who enjoy this will probably want to move on to the documentary on them made over a decade later, The Kids are Alright.

And I just went and checked, and yes, it's finally raining...in a nice, steady shower. I thought I heard thunder earlier, but it doesn't seem to have done anything at press time.