Loose Leaf Notes

1. Alanis Morissette’s album, Jagged Little Pill, was my Joni Mitchell Blue of the 90s (and in between Joni and Alanis was Tracy Chapman). Turns out that Morgan Wade, our Floyd VA hometown star who sang with Alanis and three other female singers at the CMT awards, has a new song about Morissette’s influence on her: “Scream on the stage / and let out your rage / till the lights go out / Fame is hollow / Jagged pill’s hard to swallow / while they pick you apart / Oh, one hand in my pocket / and the truth is shocking / when there’s nothing to lose / I know how to be brave / keep the demons away / all because of you / Oh, Alanis… And you oughta know that Morgan was also nominated for Best Female Break-out Video. Follow the link for more pictures and update…  More from The Morgan Wade Update HERE.

2. “Songwriting is like fishing in a stream; you put in your line and hope you catch something. And I don’t think anyone downstream from Bob Dylan ever caught anything.” – Arlo Guthrie

3. Brad Heller, who we heard Saturday night at Dogtown, is a really good songwriter, but I was so busy dancing that I only recorded this Neil Young cover and THIS original.

4. Once a flower child always a flower child.

5. “I’m writing a book, “You Fools, You Fools!: How I Avoided The Banking Crisis By Not Having Money In The First Place” -Recently Seen on Facebook

6. After a while those positive Mindful directives for happiness just sound like someone telling me what to do.

7. The best video I heard all week was THIS valedictorian graduation speech by a non-speaking woman with autism.

8. I listened to THIS podcast on The People’s Pharmacy on the value of neurodiversity and, according to Temple Grandin and neurologist Lawrence Fung, I’m considered neuro-atypical because I have dyscalculia. Other neuro-atypical conditions include dyslexia, ADHD, Tourette’s Syndrome, bipolar, schizophrenia and autism.

9. I have a friend who has face recognition disorder, a neurological disorder that causes her not to be able to recognize faces. I told her I had “place recognition disorder,” which means I easily get lost while driving, and even though I knew I had dyscalculia, it really hit home one day when I realized I could drive the same road every day for years and still not know or be able to visualize what landmark was coming up next.

10. I don’t think of dyscalculia as a strength as many supporters of neurodiversity do, but I do understand that because I had trouble reading an analog clock, trouble knowing left from right and up from down, can’t process maps or directions or instructions, can’t do math in my head and had to drop out of algebra, have no mechanical ability, find it difficult to follow prescribed dance steps or copy yoga positions, I have other strengths that  make up for those lacks, such as the fact that I can read situations and people easily, I am a creative and intuitive thinker, I persevere and have good focus on what I am interested in and I have strong language skills, as cited HERE.

11. THIS is where we named all the songs we could think of about fire, Light My Fire, Fire and Rain, I’m  on Fire, Ring of Fire, We Didn’t Start the Fire. More From Happy Camper HERE. 

10. And HERE’S Morgan showing us around Floyd County in a USCellular spot called Small Town, Huge Impact.

_______Thirteen Thursday