Tiny Pineapple

The Intro

It has been almost six years since it went off the wire, but I still hear fairly regularly from former listeners lamenting the demise of Radio Free Tiny Pineapple. (Hey, Paul!) But, while it was an awful lot of fun while it lasted, quite honestly, the end came at a pretty good time.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been going through a real music-appreciation dry spell. Most of my favorite artists have released lackluster album after lackluster album and I’ve found blessed little new music to get excited about. In fact, I can only think of one album from the past five years that I can still listen to today with the same enthusiasm as I did when it was released.

So, when my friend Scott walked into my office a few months ago and said, “I’ve been listening to some music that I think you’d like,” I was more than a little skeptical…and not just because Scott has a bewildering fondness for obscure Scandinavian black metal bands.

He told me to go to DebraFotheringham.com and as soon as the home page loaded, music started playing. “Autoplay” web sites are a pet peeve of mine, and I was going to say something to that effect, but I got a little distracted halfway through the first sentence of my mini-rant. “Man, I hate it when they automatically…um…uh…well, I don’t think sites should…uh….who did you say this was? This is…um…wow…I really kinda like this.”

And I really kinda liked the next song, too. And by the third song I was really kinda buying the CD from the CD Baby web site and, let me tell you, it is really kinda brilliant.

What’s more…she’s a local. (She grew up just a few miles north of here in American Fork, Utah.) And, let me tell you, she is fantastic live. The girls and I were going to catch her at a Christmas House Concert back in December, but a round of the stomach flu squelched those plans. But I was finally able to hear her live at Muse Music last Friday night and I was absolutely blown away.

Note to savvy record company executives: Sign her. Now.

Note to everyone else: Buy her CD. Now. Either on CD Baby or iTunes.

Or, better yet…

The Concert

What are your plans for this Saturday night? Well, cancel them. Debra Fotheringham will be performing live (with a full band) at the Tahitian Noni Auditorium down in Riverwoods at 7:30pm.

Here are the exact details:

Bring your friends. (Well, find some!) Bring your spouse. (It’s the perfect way to make up for that lousy last-minute Valentine’s Day gift you bought at the supermarket on your way home from work.) Bring your kids. (I am. My girls are big fans.)

Tickets are only $5 at the door, but if you order them in advance (and pick them up at the door) it’s “Buy 1 Get 1 Free.” (Just go to her site and click on the “Store” link.) For Pete’s sake, at $2.50 a seat, you could bring your entire dorm!

The Contest

At Friday’s show I was able to get Ms. Fotheringham to autograph four copies of her CD for me. She looked a little startled when I asked her to sign four. I think she thought I was a stalker. Either that, or she thought I was trying to impress her:

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t want you to sign a CD. Because, unlike the other guys in line who only want you to sign a CD, I need you to sign FOUR of them. That’s right, FOUR! Because one just isn’t enough for a man like me. I’m the kinda guy who needs FOUR.”

But what I was really doing…besides stalking and/or trying to impress her…was getting some prizes for a little contest.

So, here’s the deal:

1. Leave a comment on this or any other entry on Tiny Pineapple between now and the end of the month.

2. On Friday, February 29th, I will randomly pick four comments left during the month of February and send each of the four commenters one of the FOUR autographed CDs.

3. Did I mention there are FOUR of them?

It’s that simple. Your comment doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. Just say “hi,” or introduce yourself, or tell us how you discovered Tiny Pineapple, or tell us your favorite nurse book title, or ask me when I’m finally going to get around to writing Chapter 6 of Her Majesty’s Gardener. (Answer: next week.)

Whatever, just go for it…

Update: Here’s an article from the Daily Herald about Ms. Fotheringham and the show.

I’m being oppressed.

Or, rather, I’ve been allowing myself to feel oppressed by the gargantuan pile of undone To Do lists, unanswered email messages, and unfinished side projects that has built up over the past three months. So I’m taking the day off of work today and making one final push to Get Things Done.

But I’ll warn you right now…if it doesn’t get done by 7:00pm tonight, tain’t never gonna get done. Because at 7:00pm MST I’m declaring bankruptcy and all outstanding obligations will remain unfulfilled forevermore.

I’ve been doing a lousy job of meeting people’s expectations lately, and that’s partly because I’ve done a lousy job of setting a realistic level of expectation. When time and resources get tight, my non-child-related obligations are naturally going to be the first slip. As a result, I sometimes feel like every interaction I have with other adults involves me apologizing for being a single parent.

• “I’m sorry I didn’t return your phone call. By the time I got home, it was after 11pm.”

• “I’m sorry. I got your email message, but I haven’t had time to reply.”

• “I’m sorry I missed the totally unnecessary meeting that you scheduled at the last minute, but I had to pick up my daughters from school.”

I need to resign myself to the fact that in order to be rock-solid reliable for my daughters, I’m probably going to end up looking flakey to just about everyone else. But since I didn’t outline this flakiness in our original Service Level Agreement, the party of the second part has a right to be cheesed off.

So, here are some of the provisions in the new Service Level Agreement I’m working on:

• If you’ve written something trenchant and witty on your blog in the past month, there’s a good chance I haven’t read it yet. It’s nothing personal, and I’ll probably get around to it eventually, but please don’t start our next conversation with, “What did you think about what I wrote last night on my blog? Wasn’t it trenchant and witty?” Because then I’ll have to smile wanly and say something vague like, “Well, you’re always trenchant and witty, so when I read your blog first thing this morning, as I always do, I said to myself, ‘My, that certainly is trenchant and witty!’”

  In return, I give you permission to not read this blog. I already assume you’ve got better things to do with your time, so I’m never going to spring a pop quiz on you to see whether you’re keeping up with my two posts a month.

• If you’re worried that I forgot your birthday, rest assured that I probably did. If it makes you feel any better, I saw it on my calendar at the beginning of the month and reflected warmly on our long association together, but when the day actually arrived I got so busy sorting laundry in the basement that I completely forgot to call until it was too late. And now I’m too embarrassed that I missed it to even mention it, so can we pretend it didn’t happen and I’ll promise to try harder next year?

• If you call and I don’t pick up, I’m probably in a meeting (or class)…or huddled in the closet. If it makes you feel any better, when I saw your name on the Caller ID I reflected warmly on our long association together, but I don’t want to be rude and leave the meeting (or class) in order to answer your call…or the mere thought of having to engage in even cursory social interaction is just too exhausting at this particular moment and if you leave a message I’ll return your call as soon as possible…or stare at the little voice mail icon for a few days until I can summon enough energy to listen to it and call you back.

• If you’ve sent me an email message in the past few months that didn’t demand an immediate reply, I promise that I read it as soon as it arrived, but it has been sitting in my “Urgent: Must Reply” folder ever since. If it makes you feel any better, when I saw your name in the “From:” field, I reflected warmly on our long association together, and your message hasn’t been lonely since it has had the company of the other 2493 messages in the same folder. If, for some reason, I’m unable to reply to your message by 7:00pm this evening, please resend your message and rest assured that it will sit prominently at the top of my new, freshly-purged “Urgent: Must Reply” folder where it is sure to command my immediate attention for the next three months or so.

That’s just the start, but I think it sets the right tone.

So, why am I stopping work at 7:00pm tonight? Because Debra Fotheringham is playing at Muse Music tonight and, DANG IT, I NEED A NIGHT OFF! I’ll be the one sitting in the back, nursing a diet ginger ale and trying to look inconspicuous. I’ll also have a large orange carnation in my lapel. Be sure to say “hi” if you see me.