Showing posts with label music from New Jersey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music from New Jersey. Show all posts

Saturday, February 24, 2018

This one is for Spinelli

I decided to watch "Let it Go", a comedy special done by Bill Burr in 2010. My first impression is that ol' Bill has a few anger issues, just sayin'. Fortunately he works it out through comedy. Boy is on edge to say the least. His standup routines are very good, he manages to stay agitated for an hour - what discipline! As a pet owner there was one bit I could relate to, about getting a dog from a pound. In an alter ego voice Burr says "This is my dog, he's a rescue, I rescued him!" Then, as himself "You rescued it? You pulled it out of a burning building? You jumped into a river with your wingtips on? With no concern for your own safety? No - you went to the pound and got a free dog!"

Of course his over-the-top delivery contributes to that sketch. Mere words alone just can't convey the contempt he expresses for people's virtue signaling.

The reason I liked that bit is because I actually did rescue a cat a couple of years ago. The building she and her 6 kittens were in was not on fire, more like very slow motion oxidation. It was a shanty that was returning to the earth. Every system was failing - the field stone foundation - falling down. The floor and porch joists - rotten. The roof - well, I guess it was a roof once. Anyway, the mooks that lived there, in squalor, with no power, weren't really taking care of the animals so a friend of mine, who had been delivering food to them one day decided to go over and remove all the cats from the premises. We walked up, she kicked in the door (holy cow - even I might have been reluctant to do that), she grabbed the kittens which were inside while I grabbed the momma cat out on the front porch.


I documented that moment just in case there was some action taken against us, we loaded the 7 cats into my car and took them to the pound. After all the necessary tests, operations, vaccinations and whatnot were done, I went down and adopted that very same cat. It's been nearly two years now and while she will never be as calm as a cat raised around actual humans, she is doing okay.

The junkies moved away, all of the related cats found homes, and I was successfully able to resist the urge to burn down the shanty. Yeah, people who mistreat pets make me angry, but I try to keep things in perspective - the cats are safe and that's what matters.


This is a picture of how she looks these days - amazing what having regular food and no kittens will do for an old girl.


Crank up the volume to feel the power of this composition played on that instrument.