The Blizzard of Lies Will Always Melt...

Sure. Yes (see previous post).The lies of a desperate and flailing, wanna be strongman, get more wild, & over the top as reality starts poking back. And reality always has it's say. Building anything on a foundation of lies is sketchy, and a fool's paradise. The blizzard of lies starts to melt in the face of facts. Those of us who believe in truth, can see the hard glimmers & shards of a spiky reality, suddenly popping up everywhere, all at once. Sure the liars may have their power, their guns, their Bibles, their hate, but the opposition is armed with a healthy relationship to facts, truth, science, rationality, logic, math, gravity. We have the clarity of questioning & discerning minds. We observe & learn from Nature, and the real world. Those are great teachers. Always inspires those great qualities: Wonder & Humility.

Hall of Lies...

The problem with this current administration. These people lie. You know, always, always lie, about the little, easily disproved things, and the big, easily disproved things, about, you know, fucking anything & everything; and when they get caught red-handed in their lies, they just double, triple and quadruple down with a barrage of more over-the-top, gob-smackingly, audacious lies. Where does that leave us? First blush, assume the opposite of whatever the adminstration is saying. We live in "opposite-land." Then we are grasping, gaping, searching, trying to drill down to the nub of things. Seeking the facts, trying to swim to a certain clarity & truth. We are stuck in a Hall of Lies. Sure, it's a strategy to wear us down. To defeat us, to make us want to tune out, to throw our hands up in surrender. But, fuck, that is the way to a certain ignorance & madness. We must work towards clear, verifiable facts. We are all essentially like scientists or private eyes; think of yourself as a Marlowe or Spade, in a  Raymond Chandler or Dashiel Hammet novel. Testing, verifying, doing our best to see clearly. Making decsions based on cold, hard facts.  Essential work for being a real Human Being.

Our Nation Turns it's Lonely Eyes to the Cowards in Power...

Yes. Well. Sometimes you turn to the court jesters amongst us for the best insights. I think especially of Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Lenny Bruce. They don't make them like that anymore. What of the Onion?  Sometimes the only way to find any sense is thru nonsense. Makes sense right?! As AOC puts it (see previous post), "The President's disastrous decision is a grave violation of the Constitution and the War Powers act." A Congress with a spine, a drop of integrity, a hint of conscience, and a moral compass would vote to Impeach and Remove this Tyrant in a heartbeat. Cowardice is a many-splendored thing, and a terrible waste of a Democracy.

Wrong in So Many Ways...

Many of us could see that electing Trump was a major catastrophe for America & the World. Wrong in so many ways. We could see that this lawless conman and his boot-licking lackeys could lead us all to a horribly wrong-headed, idiotic, heartless, criminal future. Well. Just how wrong can it go? Thinking epically, prodigiously, un-imaginably wrong. We are now deeply in the fuck around & find out phase of our existence. Yikes. Below is a pitch-perfect response to the latest outrage & stupidity. AOC is one our favorite Democratic Representatives, an essential voice in the middle of the chaos...

A Small Victory...

A small victory over here. We played a show last night, billed as a Summer Solstice Celebration, at a little, well-lit, totally cool & elegant wine shop, nestled in a very urban landscape. It was a warm summer evening. We played our set inside, gorgeous chandelier above us, gaping, unlit fireplace behind us, a room full of cool people in front of us. We were testing out our new, very tiny mixer board with two small speakers, you know, anything to make the schlepp a bit easier, and it sounded really good in that little room. It was just a trio, guitar, double-bass & percussion, 2 voices. 

Seems we connected with the audience, which is always gratifying & surprising. We are on our own very stony path, a creative journey; quirky, gnarly, very much homemade. We are always amazed that people can connect with these very personal, "vision songs." 

My bandmate triggered an episode of vertigo in the middle of our song, "Murmurations." She nearly spun out, but hung in there,  she truly is a creative dynamo, fearless and determined. We finished the set, smiles and cheers all around. Pretty sure we made some new fans. A couple guitar players in the audience came up to  talk tone. That's always a good sign. My beat up guitar was sounding very "present." All those little experiments with strings, pre-amps, speakers, seems to have paid off. The three of us definitely "got there." It was nice how the instruments all claimed their space, and stood out. We are always intent on losing ourselves in the moments of performance, it worked last night, even with the spinning couldn't deny us.

The Heavier Lift...

Ha. Feeling a bit philosophical this morning. This usually happens when I have "lost the thread." Events seem to be careening out of control, and I just don't know how to process it all. So, in my head, there is a strategic retreat into the realms of philosophy, I fall back on a ruminative posture. Figures like Sartre, Wittgenstein, Hume, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates pop up. It's all a bit of a confusing churn. And, then, of course, the thorny field of psychology is also "tangled up in blue," in my head too. I find myself in a hall of mirrors. Who am I? What am I doing? What's it all about? Where is all of this going? WTF?!  I remind myself that if you look closely enough, it always feels like things are carreening out of control, because, there really is no control. And who I am is always morphing, evolving, revolving, devolving. Everything is a moving target. Sure there is gravity & physics, but beyond that, so little to hold on to. I think of that David Byrne/Talking Heads line: "Stop making sense." You know, this morning, that seems easy. It is a piece of cake to get beyond the rational & logical, and into the poetic, intuitive. But, what about making sense? Of the world, and myself? That seems to be a heavier lift.

A Knotty Problem...

Getting your head around things. You know, reaching for some kind of hard-earned wisdom. No grand statements or theories. Suspicious of wide-ranging conspiracy theories. Resisting the simple answers, they often seem like fairy tales, off-target and more concealing, than revealing. Or what they reveal is an ability to obscure and evade cold hard truths. Sure, we like to tell ourselves stories that we can understand, about the world & the people in it; but of course, we will never really understand the world or the people in it.  People. They are always the problem, they are sometimes, rarely, the solution. Although, ultimately there are no solutions. Just problems being worked over & worked through, across generations. People are confusing, contradictory, arbitrary, shallow, self-dealing. Yep. The Tricky Monkeys who think they are smarter than they really are. There is often pain, suffering & chaos in our  human world. Most of it self-generated. Some of it is beyond human, there is Nature, Biology, to contend with too. It's a knotty problem. Living. You will never solve it. You just get to do it, be it, experience it.

Rewarding Bad Behavior: Strategy for Failure...

Rewarding bad behavior. It's become a thing. It's all too much. Feed the Out of Control Monkeys too much money & attention, and well, shit goes wrong; badly, weirdly, prodigiously, immensely, horribly wrong. That is where we are at the moment; in our culture, our politics, our social media landscape. Swamped with Bling & Bad Behavior.

Have we breached some kind of limit of Bad Shite?! The realm of no shame, no morals, no common sense? 

Not sure. And then, what comes after the reckoning? You know, there is always a reckoning. I mean, who the fuck knows?! Yikes, the scoundrels, the cheats, the liars, the fuck-ups truly reign supreme. We are well and truly fucked. It's sort of funny in a not so funny way. Are there any clear-headed, mindful, honorable, respectful folks to be found? Are they hiding? I imagine there is a vast underground of folks, calm, clear, composed; the level-headed resistance to the stupid debauch. Keeping their shoulders to the wheel. Doing their best to do the good work. Not because it pays, no cold hard cash, just because, it's good to be good. Ha. That's the new, radical stance, & credo, right there.

Hazarding a Guess...

Folk #1: I am going to hazard a guess. I woke up early this a.m. with a deep unease. I can't really call it a premonition, it's too vague, even to me, just a deep, dark, feeling of existential dread for all of us. This fool & idiot in the White House is going to do something really stupid & bad. No, I know, no big surprise, this fool & idiot always does stupid & bad things, we are getting numb to the stupid & bad, but I am just guessing that soon, this fool & idiot is going to stumble into doing something so stupid, so bad, it implicates, and has consequences, for all of us. Every last one of us. You know, blindly hurtling to some very stupid and bad catastrophe. Yikes. It's a bit of doomer idea this morning. Whatever it is, I'm not predicting the actual thing, whatever it is, it's not gonna be fun or entertaining. Those of us who somehow survive, and get thru it all, and God only knows who exactly that will be, will be left with one cursed thought: We are well and truly fucked. Hope there is light at the end of the tunnel. Good Lord. Yikes. Damn the torpedoes.

The America They Hate, The America We Love...

Funny. 

The Trump/MAGA movement can be summed up with one very elemental word: HATE. It is HATE that binds them. HATE that drives them. HATE that makes them all cowards, bullies, and assholes.

They actually HATE America. You know, the America we actually happen to live in. America is a land built by, and inhabited by, immigrants from all races, creeds, colors & countries. It is a vast multi-cultural & wildly diverse stew of Humanity.

If you happen to be one of those immune to the HATE, this all looks like madness, stupidity, fascism, white-Christian-nationalist madness. So inhumane & Un-American.

This weekend (see previous post), we reaquianted ourselves with the America we love. Folks from all walks of life meeting in the public square declaring our LOVE for America, Democracy, the Rule of Law, the Constitution, the melting-pot of a thriving, beautiful Human Civilization.

It is a much better place to choose to live in. Yes. We choose the classic American Dream, and reject the American Nightmare the HATERS want to sell us. Their HATE is built on a web of lies. It's a dead-end. A falsity, a nullity.

The Dreamers Unite...

Hey, over here in our sleepy little town, Evanston, IL, the No Kings Protest yesterday was magnificent. Great turnout for the 10a.m. - 12p.m. event. We've been to three Indivisible protests at this same town square this year, and, no doubt, this one was the biggest, most vibrant, enthusiastic, creative (so many great signs), and inspiring. Lots of old, young, middle agers. Lots of families too. It is amazing how quickly this adminstration has fired up the opposition. A good sign for a vibrant, lively, diverse, America. I hazard a guess: Democracy is not doomed, not defeated. Too many of us actually do care, and do still cling to an open-hearted, American Dream.  We are all the Dreamers.

Just Showing Up...

Yes. We are going to the NO KINGS protest in our sleepy little town later this morning. It seems to us to be an essential duty as human beings, and as citizens of the country, and the world. We want to stand up, and be counted. We are part of the opposition to this current adminstration. So, yes, a renewed commitment to activism & protest.  It's a little thing, a small gesture & stance, but, the least we can do. The country has taken a dark turn, and we ARE AGAINST IT. Peaceful protest. My partner is making a sign. We will chant & sing and, you know, just show up. Damn the torpedoes.

Dystopia is Here...

I suppose it should not be a surprise that electing a "stone-cold liar" (hat-tip to California Governor Gavin Newsom), a criminal, and a chaos agent as U.S. President, has manifested into a full-fledged regime of crime, and the total cruel and stupid fucking chaos we see unfolding now. We are barely 6 months into the thing and the seams of reality seem to be pulling apart. 

We all should apologise to each other, and to the world, for unleashing that shit-storm upon the planet. Of course that liar & conman should have been impeached after the January 6th insurrection, and disqualified from ever holding office again. Total fail there, for sure.

OK. Maybe there are no seams to reality, no stitches either, instead, there is endless flow & flux; reality is an ocean, a cloud, an atmosphere. Everything is always revolving, evolving, devolving. We are in it, and of it. For sure, we are in the deep unraveling phase of our world. Yikes. Dystopia is here.

"No Kings Protest" tomorrow. Fuck that guy in the White House and everyone who works for that fuck. He truly is a plague, a scourge, a crime against humanity. We all deserve so much better.

The American People Say, "No Kings..."

What are those little dots all across the map of the USA? Sites of the upcoming "NO KINGS" protests on Saturday, June 14. How many citizens will come out to show their support for America, the Rule of Law, and the Constitution? Who knows?!

I will venture a guess that the number of folks protesting the current lawless turn, will dwarf Trump's stupid, pointless, costly, ridiculous military parade in Washington D.C. We shall see.

Poked the Sleeping Bear?

Maybe ICE and their Gestapo tactics, and the Trump administration's over the top authoritarian, ham-handed efforts to fan the flames by deploying the National Guard and Marines into American Cities has poked a sleeping bear?

It's true, we all have been sleeping at the wheel, taking our Democracy and our Bill of Rights for granted. Suddenly protests are springing up across the land. It's a good thing to see. Folks who care about the country, their communities, their fellow human beings, & rising up to oppose mass deportations of folks who have been living and working here for years.

We love this country. We oppose this regime with all of our hearts, heads and spirits aligned. Stand up and be counted. This is our American Dream.

Easy to Choose Sides. Power to the People.

 This. Exactly. 

"Trump knows exactly what he’s doing when he falsely applies the term “insurrectionist.” Senate Republicans letting him off the hook for 1/6 was a massive blow to the constitutional order."

We have major problem on our hands and it isn't the protestors. It is the wanna-be strong-man wielding his authoritarian power. 

From David Huerta, President of the Service Employees International Union California, injured & arrested last Friday by ICE:

"What happened to me is not about me. This is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”

USA: A Country Built By Immigrants...

Unsurprisingly, the President and the folks in his administration are lying about L.A. & California. They are trying hard to stoke and fan the flames. A terrible way to run a country. ICE kidnapping, detaining, and deporting folks who work at Home Depot? Do we all see the idiocy and inhumanity?

The USA is a country built by immigrants, now demonizing immigrants? That won't fly. Abolish ICE now.

Our country is a grand immigrant experiment. The most vibrant, successful, multi-cultural country on the planet. Most of the undocumented immigrants in L.A. in California, across the land, are hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying folks. Many have been here for decades; generations, families, grandparents, young kids.

This deportation scheme is wrong-headed, inhumane, counter-productive, un-American. There are no "illegal" Humans here. There are undocumented folks. If they live and work here, pay their taxes, contribute to society, they should be given a sure & easy way to citizenship. And welcomed with open arms.

This has been a festering problem. It does need to be addressed. But, of course, this adminstration just wants to use it to increase the hate, to divide the country. And they lie, and lie, and lie. It is a consistent theme

Abolish ICE Now...

ICE raiding a Home Depot in L.A. County looking for undocumented folks? Kicking off a confrontation with protestors? WTF?! Do you see the problem here? Common folks working in the USA. Folks doing a job, paying taxes, trying to live the American Dream. This whole nightmare deportation thing is so counter-productive, so inhumane, so mis-guided. A nation inhabited and built by immigrants, now demonizing immigrants? Insane. Stupid. Evil. Dumb. Ugly. Abolish ICE NOW! We must fix our immigration system. No doubt. Anyone living here, working, doing their best to live the American Dream, should be given a simple path to Citizenship. We should welcome these folks with open arms. They help make America great, now.

I Lean into the Silence...

This morning I turn to the blank page. Start to fill it with these words. What do I want to say? Actually, I am stunned into silence. Words fail. Musical vibrations rule. The things of the world around me seem ungraspable. I am listening to music with no words, the sun is rising over the lake, my little furry friend is playing with a toy duck. There is a dance of beauty & light, there is an order and a chaos all around me. So, yes, a word-less silence, not really silence, but words and thoughts float away, it seems like the only appropriate response to the moment. How to convey my most profound thoughts? Do I have any profound thoughts? Who needs profound thoughts? What's profound anyway? Here is my quite meager attempt at a response:

...

...

...

The Fallout/The Battle...

Did you hear the news? Two montrous, despicable characters have had a falling out, and are now battling on social media. Think: Skeletor Vs. Godzilla. Couldn't happen to a better pair of reptilian-like scoundrels. Who am I rooting for? Neither, of course. Two narcissistic-assholes with egos of massive proportions; they truly deserve each other. Let them destroy each other. That would be a beautiful thing. Let them reap what they sow, and get their just deserts. The planet will be a much better place without either of them on it, or, in it.

Horror Films...

Thinking of horror films. I think current events have led me back to horror. 

I am no expert. I have seen a few horror films over the years. I recently plunged back into a few of my favorites. They reclaimed their titles of being "great." I notice they are from a certain time and place. Formative of my own personal mythology. 

The best horror is the horror that is closest to us. These films hit the bullseye. What's funny is that all of these films are quite successful as horror films, and at the same time, they are absolutely hilarious. The hilarity comes out of the deep unease of the horror. Finally, you just have to laugh.

These films are about the calamity and catastrophe of being a human being.

Brian De Palma's "Carrie."  (1976).  Based on a Stephen King novel. The horror of puberty, the horror of high school in America, the horror of teenage boys & girls, the horror of organized religion, the horror of oppressive adults.

Stanely Kubrick's "The Shining."  (1980). Based on a Stephen King novel. The horror of being a child, captive to two very limited, and conflicted human beings, also know as the parents. The horror of alcoholism, and the horror of the snaky, creepy ways the human mind can go off the rails. The horror of seeing, & being seen, clearly.

David Cronenberg's "The Fly."  (1986). Based on a George Langelaan short story. The horror of the human body. The horror of aging, morphing, evolving. The horror of having no control over how your body changes over time. The horror of becoming. 

Really, these three films kind of sum up the complete horrorshow of being a human being.

Let me throw one last film into the mix.

John Huston's "Wise Blood." (1979). Based on a Flannery O'Connor novel. Some call this a "black comedy," but it's also a horror film. The horror of faith & religion, the horror of of Jesus, sin, guilt, & judgement, the horror of the American South, the horror of racism, and human ignorance, the horror of Christianity writ large, the horror of puritanism, the horror of human small-minded-ness, the horror of rural communities, the horror of small-town America, the horror of slavery, sexism, & misogyny. 

All these films are creepy, disturbing & fun; super-funny and so fucking great. Great film-making & story-telling. All are reminders of the horror that engulfs us. We live within the contours of a landscape of horror. Good luck dealing with that my friends.

A Lame Game...

Yes. The nub of it. Some of these people, you know, the real fucking assholes strutting about wielding their might, may own lots of things, flaunting their gaudy wealth, but inside they are surely hollow. They are full of bitterness & cruelty; they delight in bullying weaker humans, all in a mad desire to feed their enormous, ridiculous, over-stuffed egos. Pretty disgusting. Insatiable. They must consume & destroy everything good and beautiful in the world to feed the monstrous void eating them up from the inside out. The funny thing. You do not want to be these people. Their fate, their sentence, their hell, their prison is to be them. All that wealth & power is just a lame fucking game.

Greeting...

A subtle shift. I greet the day with: "What do you have for me now?"

No existential dread (where did it go?). Few expectations. More of a come what may attitude. Figure on surprises, challenges, fuck-ups, distractions, side-tracks, hills & gullies. The question: how will I deal with it all? Lately, calmly, carefully, with a smile on my kisser. I am all about channeling amusement & bemusement. Not so much seizing the day, or being seized by the day; just a concentrated focus and attention on the details of the day. It seems to be working. Surprise. Looking to be, to flow, to fly, to take in the moment to moment, every moment, and damn the torpedoes...

Making it to Sunday...

Yes. Well. You survive a down-turn, make it through a rough-patch, and you think: "I'm a survivor." The will to live is strong. Ha. At least until it isn't. A fabulous Sunday of goofing off. Meditating, listening to albums from Andre 3000 and The National, hanging with our little flock of birds. Biking to another one of our favorite restaurants for a late lunch, came back, did a bit of iMac trouble-shooting (it's a mystery), put another new set of strings on one of my acoustic guitars and then watched Wim Wenders "Wings of Desire." (1987). One of our favorite films. Angels in Berlin. Peter Falk too. So beautiful, poetic, gorgeous  (no CGI!). Yes, it's heady, intelligent, soul-ful, life-affirming. Fine art. I ended the evening reading another great Caleb Carr book, this one a memoir of his cross-species love affair: "My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me" (2024). Amazing. Extraordinary. I am totally captived by Caleb Carr's writing; it is always layered, clear, and full of insight & depth. He opens your eyes and head to the world. I love the way Caleb Carr sees, and then decribes the world and everything in it so vividly. He was an extraordinary perceiver, his senses five totally alight. This is the fourth book of his I have tackled, every one of them has been fabulous, head-opening, and clarifying. So, so good. Anyway, Sunday was a good day. I survived!

Change. Flow. Being.

Hey. You know. We live in this Universe where everything happens. The good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the strange, the wonderous, the tragic & unconscionable too. It seems like some grand experiment. Everything seems to be in motion. Everything seems tentative and temporary. We too are tentative & temporary. We are in flow & flux, no matter what. There is no holding on, no clinging to. Seems we are here to experience. Every element seems essential, even the things that don't seem essential. Contradiction and paradox, that is life. Ha. That is the crux of some kind of hard-earned wisdom. But any wisdom is fleeting too. We grasp at straws: chance, luck, fate, chaos, entropy. Change. Flow. Being. That is what we have, that is what we are...

Brain-Addled Rich Guy...

What would you do if you were the richest man in the world?

I certainly wouldn't be wrecking government for the common folk. I wouldn't be destroying agencies and organizations that are working to feed poor children around the globe. That would be fucking evil. I wouldn't be using technology to spy on Americans, or to kick them off Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare.

I'd probably buy a new guitar, actually a really old Martin, and maybe a new pair of boots. And then, find some worthy causes to help make the world a better place for all.  Ha. Maybe that's why I'm not the richest man in the world. 

Funny. The screenshot above is from the NY Times. Seems Mr. Swasticar, one of the richest men on the planet, has been playing that "this is your brain on drugs," thing. No wonder his cars suck, his rockets are exploding, and he and his team were just wrecking our government. Waste, Fraud, Abuse. It's all in his head...

I mean, sure, sex, drugs, r&r. But everything within limits, my friends. That's way to do it. Contrary to William Blake, the road of excess does not always lead to the palace of wisdom. Sometimes you're just out of your freaking, tweaking, mind. Brain-fried.

Don't Play the Fool...

There was a "magic bar" in Chicago once. Doubt that is still there.  I have no clue where it was, it's just a dim memory in a hazy part of my life. A hard Chicago street. A classic tavern. The bartenders did magic tricks with cards. This was a time when my friends and I actually thought sitting in a dark bar, sipping a strong drink, and being "fooled" by a bartender slinging drinks and performing card tricks was fun. The line that was displayed on a plaque behind the bar read: "It's fun to be fooled."

Ha. Maybe so. Although, you know, the dirty little secret you learn along the way: "Fun isn't what it's cracked up to be."

These many years later, I am now in a more clear-headed phase of my existence, the whole fun to be fooled idea seems pointless and maybe a sign of something sinister. Looking around the scene now, it's hard to argue with idea that Human Beings actually want to be fooled, and really, like being lied to. They prefer playing the fool, as opposed to being clear-headed, in touch with reality, with a capacity to accept truth, even cold-hard truths. 

Just take a look at our Politics, Wall Street, Pop Culture, etc. Fools fooling each other for $ & amusement. It's a game, but then, of course, some people really suffer, get scammed, & beaten down. It can be an ugly thing.

Better to be clear-eyed, clear-headed, able to spot the lies, in touch with reality, gravity and truth. It's maybe a bit more difficult. You have to accept limits, you have to be disciplined, you have to acknowledge that you are often wrong, and if you want to be a person of quality, always learning. 

Sure. Embrace curiosity, wonder, astonishment. But don't willingly play the fucking fool...

Happy to be at the Table...

We dined at a Peruvian restaurant last night with a group of quite interesting characters. A famous actress (sorry, won't reveal her identity), a fabulous Peruvian classical guitarist, two shop owners, an architect, & a wealthy woman of distinction. It was quite the collection of distinguished human beings. My partner and I were introduced as leaders of an indie r&r band. The biggest things that set us apart from this little group? We are vegetarians and well, we don't drink alcoholic beverages. Funny. We don't think of those as radical things, but, you know, we often find ourselves out of sync on the food and drink front. Also, rarely do we eat after 7:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night, or any night, really. There was an amazing two member Peruvian band playing instrumental music. A guitarist and a woodwind player, playing various odd-looking pipes and horns. So good. Lively & beautiful. Big plates of seafood, lamb and beef were brought to the table. My partner and I shared a vegetarian plate. It was quite tasty. What did we talk about? Everything under the sun, except Politics and all the ways things seems be devolving. It was fun, lively, interesting. A multi-cultural group of souls. Alive in the moment. There were tales of other cities, Paris, Rio De Janiero, Lima, Las Vegas. These were cultured and intelligent citizens of the world; soul-full, full of love, heart and beauty;  funny, quirky & cool. We were happy to be at the table.

The TACO PREZ...

Wall Street Clocks in...

Funny. The $ people. Not so happy with the Toxic Stain Prez and his wacky tarriff shite.  

TACO. 

Wall Street Mocks Trump with 4 letter code to call bets against him.  What does TACO stand for? 

Trump Always Chickens Out.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Day On/Day Off...

I was "working" yesterday, eventhough it was a holiday. Mainly, "working," for me is just being me, only in a mobile fashion. Walking around the neighborhood, with some furry friends, talking to them, to myself, to imaginary folks, and "real" folks I meet on the path.  Thinking & talking is a big part of my life, "being me." 

I still found plenty of time to goof-off, which is always an essential part of my existence. I played my guitar, working on a new song, and, really, finally it seems to be coming together. It's an interesting, organic process, playing parts over and over again, making little discoveries, incorporating them into the composition, moving things around, until it feels, and sounds, solid.

I also watched one of my favorite movies, "Two-lane Black Top," (1971) by Monte Hellman. I first saw it as a young kid with my Dad. So, you know, it really resonates with me. It's so existential. In the moment. Famous musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson play the leads. Plus the great Warren Oates is just astonishingly good. Funny. One of the all-time great endings. Maybe the greatest. I won't reveal it, don't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it.

The neighborhood was alive with families & BBQ's, even though there was a cold breeze coming hard off the lake. The folks just wanted to party & picnic, nothing was going to deter them. Think of the Human Rainbow. Families of every creed & color eating talking, biking, hiking, playing volleyball, throwing frisbees, tossing footballs, etc.

Life. It just goes on. 

I had a long chat on the phone with my partner. She was in New York City for a wedding. She told that me that yes, New York is still amazing. One of the greatest cities ever. Teeming with life. Bigger, bolder, more diverse & inclusive than just about anywhere else in the Universe. She visited some of our favorite places on the planet, MOMA & Central Park. Sure. Tourist kind of things. She assured me that New York was thriving, fabulous, overwhelming. Truly a jewel, and the crowning megalopolis in our teeming Democratic Experiment.

Makes me happy and optimistic. No matter what the Toxic Stain wants to do to our American Dream, I think we are just too big, too diverse, too open, too woke, too fucking intelligent & energetic, to be defeated. Damn the torpedoes...

Stand Up for Something

 

Ok. Yes. Unfortunately, it seems we are getting numb to the madness, the idiocies, the cruelty, the lying, the denial of Truth & Reality. Still, if you want to get to the fundamental essence of this American Experiment, get to the nub of the thing, you land on the idea of No Kings. Supposedly, the Toxic Stain is going to have a military parade the same day. Wouldn't it be absolutely fabulous if millions & millions of us tuned that ridiculous display out and gathered in protests across the land to celebrate Democracy, the Constitution, the Rule of Law, Truth, Justice & the American Way ( a very Woke, totally DEI utopia). You know, that would be totally, fucking, Super, Man...