Big, cartoony, funny, ominous.

We went to the Art Institute yesterday. A field trip: Free February at the 'Tute. Took the Red Line all the way into the heart of the Loop. The Museum was jam-packed with people.

Free is good. We wandered through the New Wing. Saw Wm. Eggleston photos of the south in early 60's - mid 70's. Big colorful portraits, small black and white snaps. A hushed beauty to the work - the American South - a sad and vibrantly weird place.

Then we trekked over to the Modern stuff. My favorites: Francis Bacon, Philip Guston, Jean Miro and Jean Dubuffet. I always get dizzy going to museums - maybe too many people, too much conflicting energy coming from the pictures.

I find it confusing - especially so many works crammed together without any context except - it's here in a museum - this place now. The mind reels - why these works? Why these artists?

Every time I go something new calls out to me. I guess this time it really was the room with the Philip Guston stuff. Big, cartoony, funny, ominous. I think that kind of sums up my world too.

A Joyful Sadness

As WhiteWolfSonicPrincess, the Lovely Carla and I having been writing songs. Turns out many of them are sad songs.

It's funny, there is such joy in writing and singing these songs, but they are dark and sad. We aren't dark and sad, but the music seems to come out that way.

Still, I think the joyous energy of their creation is also alive in the material. It has been a beautiful and profound collaboration for the both of us.

For a taste of what we've been doing we've posted some new live tracks at our site here.

I wonder, if we were both on The Meds would we sound like ABBA? Why is it that sometimes joy and pleasure seem shallow, and sadness and pain seem deep and profound? Maybe it's just a vibration thing.

Joy and pleasure are a higher vibration. Sadness and pain a lower vibration. So a joyful sadness ( the divine dialectic) would be absolutely sublime!

Snappy Questions - Fuzzy Answers

Question: Is there an objective reality?

Answer: Well, I guess it depends how you define objective. And how you define reality. And just who is the "you" that's gonna do the actual defining?

And you have to wonder if the definition has anything to do with reality anyway. And just what is reality? And how do you assume an objective posture if you're just a human being walking around on a spinning globe in the middle of a big old universe? And really as human beings can we really all agree on anything? And do we want to live in a world where everyone agrees about anything? And if we can't agree about anything how do we get anything done? And just why is the world so cocked up?

Anyway, I hope that helps. But I doubt it.

A Hollow Husk of a Place!

I think this is certainly the story of our era: Wall Street's Bailout Hustle. No one has done a better job reporting and writing about it than Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone.

It's clear the wealthy folks of this country have scammed the rest of us. And the filthy rich (they are not filthy rich because they are smarter than the rest of us, they are just privileged crooks!) are playing the Feds for total patsies. Are the Feds just total saps or willing accomplices? Maybe both?!

This is a must read. What a Con game. What serious freaking money. We were so worried about foreign terrorists somehow destroying Fortress Amerika. Guess what? It turns out Wall Street, all those button downed bankers and traders burned the house down.

Our Empire is now a hollow husk of a place. We be Zombie Nation now. If there were still debtor prisons we'd all be on our way there now! Holy shit.

Surrealistic Pillow Talk

The Lovely Carla talking about one of our lovable but hard-core crazy friends: "She's a realist."

This sent me off on a mind-reeling adventure:

Visions of flaming giraffes, melting time-pieces, psychedelic colors, disappearing walls, fractured pictures, animal heads morphing into appliances, appliances acting like children, men and women as gibbering popsicles, all accompanied by Enrico Morricone-like soundtrack music punctuated with Theremins and glockenspiels.

sunnyjimmy: "Oh yes, and I'm a Surrealist!"

Meat on the Hoof!

OK. I'm a Centaur.

A pissed off Centaur.

Moving. Charging forward.

I don't know where I'm going. I'm leaping about. Just going!

I just want to feel something. I'm sick of waiting.

"I know I've dreamed you, a sin and a lie..." - Jagger/Richards

Kind of in a haze this morning.

I'm wandering around the web and came across Kim Morgan's post on Sunset Gun about my favorite decadent rockers the Rolling Stones and their beautiful song "Wild Horses."

Kim says everything and more you want to know about the song. It's one of my absolute favorites too, probably the best "love song" Jagger/Richards ever wrote and recorded.

A great little write-up, plus there's some cool pictures too...

Rationality - The Mask!

We unplugged and went to a movie yesterday afternoon. A sort of gloomy Saturday afternoon. We sat in the dark and entered Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island."

I totally surrendered to the film. It had me from the first scene to the last. It's a work that masterfully captures a certain time and place - 1950's America. Leonardo Dicaprio is so good. He is truly one of our most gifted actors.

Also, of course Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow - what can I say - movie magic!

I love how the camera moves in a Scorsese film. This will remind you of Hitchcock - it almost feels like it was made in the 1950's.

And who are the mad ones and who are the sane ones? This movie is a glorious mind-bender. Highly recommended!

I Love Yoko Ono

I love Yoko. I love this photo - Yoko, Eric Clapton (Is that a look of supreme befuddlement on Eric's face?) and Sean Ono Lennon. I love this story. I love the Plastic Ono Band.

Yoko is probably one of the most famous conceptual artists who ever walked the planet. She's famous for hi-jacking one of our most beloved Pop Cultural Icons and taking him in a completely Un-MopTop-Type direction.

It was a love and art thing beyond compare. She suffered lots of abuse and ridicule for loving and collaborating with a man.

Still, she powered on and has continued to make great, challenging work all these decades since we lost Beatle John to a madman.

I find Yoko one of the most inspiring people I've ever come across. Love her music, her style, her mind.

She is the ultimate artist and poet. Always ahead of the curve...

2/18/10

WhiteWolfSonicPrincess Tour Diary:

6:00 p.m. - Stop at the coffee shop to get a caffeine fix. Back at the apartment pop in a new battery for my delay pedal, tune up guitar, put it in my beat-up guitar case, close it by wrapping a belt around it - probably time to get a new case. Carla is ready - she's got her music stand, her tambourine, hair curled. We get on the EL and head to the big city.

7:00 p.m. - We disembark at Addison. Clark and Addison. Wrigley Field - a big silent stadium in the dark winter night. This area of the city is sports bar heaven. Lots of neon. Shiny and friendly places - wood and silver - dedicated to sports and beer. Arrive at the Goose Island Beer Pub - a magnificent bar - kind of like the Chartes of beer joints. Long bar, big booths, lots of artery clogging food, big vats of beer - this is where the golden liquid is made.

8:00 p.m. The band trickles in. I have it easy. Just my acoustic guitar and a couple of effects pedals. I feel sorry for the drummer - it's all about setup and tear down with the show kind of shoe-horned in the middle. The sound guy is helpful. We're a pretty elaborate outfit now - bass, drums, electric and acoustic violin, the Lovely Carla and I. We do a sound check. It's a big room, large stage, nice lighting. It's a little strange - we're used to playing in a circle all connecting, the stage setup kind of works against our tight circle of communication.

9:00 p.m. The show goes well. The room is dotted with friends. A small but enthusiastic audience. We feel pretty good. No major glitches. Carla is singing with power and authority. My guitar sounds a little weird to me. We are so used to our little rehearsal space. Always need to adjust to the moment.

9:45 p.m. Another show under our belt. You have to approach each show as if it's that last stand. And then chalk it up to the next step in the process. It's all just an unfolding. Our band is really starting to jell. The sound is still evolving. It all felt good. My friends from Famous in the Future - Frank and Terry, tell me we sounded "Prog" - prog rock?! My great friend Ken tells me we sounded "Stonesy" - ala the Rolling Stones, and then someone else says we sounded: "indie-country-rock-punky-tori amos." Wow.

12:00 a.m. We hitched a ride home with our bass player. Sitting watching Craig Ferguson on the box. Man, that guy is funny! Hard to come down after a show. Hit the pillow and think about fighting windmills and grabbing circles of gold...

How Many Monkeys to Wire a Tele?

If someone took apart my Telecaster Thinline guitar they would find a mess of wires and solder. I've taken the thing apart so many times, the patient is getting restless. It's kind of like a gall bladder operation over and over and over.

I've done all kinds of experiments and mods. Changed the pickups repeatedly; went from the standard setup to Texas Teles then pulled those guys out went back to standard and then ordered up some Seymour Duncan Hot Rails and installed those sleek black humbuckers. Lined the inside with copper tape, then pulled the shit out. Pulled out the 3-way switch and put in a 4-way switch.

Wired and then unwired and then rewired, then unwired, then rewired. I kind of did the Monkey Tech thing. I had 4 different wiring diagrams. They were all contradictory. I ended up wiring and unwiring until finally the thing worked right.

The inside of that poor sucker really is a mess. The solder job looks like a Jackson Pollock painting gone wrong, a study in silver. I must admit, I've taken the thing apart and put it back together as some kind of therapy. For some reason I like taking the damn thing apart.

But finally, I think it's done. Last night I put the Tele through it's paces at a Telepaths rehearsal. Man that thing played hot! I think my crazy ass tech approach actually resulted in a pretty unique guitar sound. And those humbuckers are so quiet - with a robust mid-range. Sweet!

Invited to the Table

You've got to check out this new site called, Creative Roundtable. As their mission statement makes clear:

"If it’s about the care and feeding of your creativity, it’s game on!"

It's created and hosted by two very creative, dynamic and dazzling women, Kris Cahill and Debi Cates.

The Lovely Carla submitted a couple posts on Thinking Outside the Tool Box. Plus there's folks from all kinds of disciplines talking about their process and discoveries.

It was great to be invited to The Table, what a cool place to be!

Emerging From the Egg

Emerging from the egg. I know it's a long time coming. I didn't even realize I was in an egg. It was an egg of my own making. Or maybe I inherited it. I was comfortable in there. But I started bumping up against the sides. And cracks started appearing.

I kicked my way through and emerged into blazing sunlight. Who would of thunk it? That big old sun has been waiting for me. I mean it's much bigger than me, doesn't even notice me. But it's been there ready and willing to shine down on my meagerness. And it's warm and giving. And the golden light is everything.

Law of Ever-Increasing Returns

Trying to figure out

a revenue model

for a life of

Creativity,

Magic

and Shamanism...

FROG VS. LENIN - EPISODE ONE

Frog: Aaahhhoooogaaaa!

Lenin: I'm sorry Comrade. That is not how frogs talk where I come from.

Frog: Ribbet?

Lenin: Dah! So much more froggy!

Zero Hedge: We are All Insolvent

Is this true? Is the world insolvent? Beats the hell out of me. But something rotten does seem to be floating in the political and economic swamps.

I've been getting this "world out of control" feeling a lot. Doesn't really scare me, I'm not a Chicken Little. If the sky's falling, I'll probably just sit back and watch it collapse on my head.

And then where will I be? Beats me.

So I read a lot of this stuff that seems plausible. I check out the numbers and charts not really grasping it all. I mean, if everyone is insolvent, doesn't that mean that no one is insolvent?

If we all just pretend, won't everything just be OK?! Can we all just print up more money and roll around in the stuff?

I know it doesn't sound like a great plan, but what else we gonna do? Beats me.

Blake and the Eternals

"Inspiration & Vision was then & now is & I hope will always Remain my Element my Eternal Dwelling place." - William Blake

Welcome to the Grinding!

I heard a phrase this morning that has kind of been circling around in my head like a hungry buzzard...

"The unrelenting, remorseless, grinding of events."

Isn't that what we call a life well-lived?!

Everything is Broken

Dylan once (1989) wrote a song called "Everything is Broken."

I think he was just a little ahead of the curve. Which is what we expect from our prophets.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around

Something else just hit the ground

Our Bubble Empire has popped. Turns out Global-ism is the ism that killed us.

I think the aftermath is gonna be a long time coming. Probably good for art. And barter. And drugs.

?

I'm so full of questions. My life is all about questions. They fill me. They haunt me. They occupy me.

I look in the mirror and all I see is a big, fat question mark.

????

Days of Reckoning

There's always the day of reckoning.

The mystery is who keeps the accounts?

How are the debts totaled?

And what of grace?

Does it add up?

And what of good intentions?

Do they have any substance?

A Joyful Noise

We played our favorite open mic last night. Our new violinist joined us. We brought such energy and passion to the place it was almost like the room levitated.

I realize it's not so much the music, although, of course it is the music, not so much what we play, of course it is what we play, but more than anything, it's the passion we bring to our songs that makes it magical, amazing.

The three of us played and sang with such confidence and passion, it carried us beyond the music into some kind of spiritual/energy field.

For about ten minutes time stood still. And the room was just pure sound. Now that's something!

The Elbo Room is Primo!

The Elbo Room in Chicago really is a great rock club. We were the openers last night. A Friday night and the place was hopping. The other acts were all pretty much hard core rockers. Our set was sort of an outlier.

We gave ourselves a B minus. We were a little rough around the edges. It's so weird, we've rehearsed these songs, but put us in a new room with a different sound system and everything seemed a little off.

Still by about the third song I think we hit a groove. Surprisingly our drummer showed up last minute. Didn't know he was gonna make the show. It was great to debut the new lineup. We are all so excited by our new sound. It is still coming together.

This morning I hear people from all over the country and Korea tuned into the web-cast. Now that's freaking amazing! WhiteWolfSonicPrincess flies!

All That Jazz

"It's show time folks!" - Joe Gideon/Roy Scheider/Bob Fosse

WhiteWolfSonicPrincess at the Elbo Room Chicago

WhiteWolfSonicPrincess are openers Friday Feb. 5th at 8:30 CST at the Elbo Room in Chicago. Supposedly, if the technology works, if you can't make it live, you can watch the show via the web.

Below is a link.

This show will feature, me, the Lovely Carla and Michael our new violinist. About a 20 minute set. Should be interesting. The Elbo Room is a nice Chicago hangout. The sound at the club is excellent. I hope it all translates via the internet.


Watch this show and more at SyncLive.com

Honey-Pot Chronicles

jimmydumps (dyspeptic, poetically over-wrought): I have bitten the bitter fruit of life and my heart is poisoned.

sunnyjimmy (cloyingly cheerful, ever-smiling): Dude. Just... spit... it... out!

Joy of the Falling Rock

I went through my existentialist phase. I read Camus. I digested his famous essay on Sisyphus.

Sisyphus rolls a rock up and hill. He gets close to the top, and then inevitably, it escapes his grip, it falls back down. Thus showing the ultimate futility of all human action.

Sisyphus of course does this over and over for eternity. It is a punishment.

Yesterday, many decades after I read that essay it finally dawned on me that there's another interpretation of the myth.

Sisyphus burned a lot of calories getting that rock up the hill. It was hard work. But when he finally got it to the top he just let it go! Why? He loved to watch it roll! It is entertainment!

FROG VS. LENIN

I've decided I'm actually a conceptual artist. Kind of in the mode of Damien Hirst. Maybe without the brilliance; certainly without the rich patrons, the big bucks and the world renown.

No, I haven't dissected any sharks lately. But I did put together a little sculpture piece in the window of our new Black Forest art space.

I'm calling this one Frog VS. Lenin. It is a one of a kind. Of course it has a back story. It is a major statement on life in the 21st century, but I'm not talking.

Any wealthy collectors out there? For a ridiculously outlandish price, I can recreate this for you in your own space.

Saturn Circles - People are on the Move

We get these cryptic messages from a "trans-medium" in the neighborhood. We call him "The Running Man" because he likes to sing and chant on street corners while he "runs in place."

He sometimes does this for hours at a time. He has incredible energy and he is totally musical. He is most certainly channeling some wild-ass frequency which other people just can't access.

For some reason he is totally "lit up" around the Lovely Carla and I. We have some kind of cosmic connection with him.

Maybe it's because we are not afraid of him, don't ignore him, we actually smile and acknowledge him. He says interesting things all the time. We have actually gotten some ideas for songs from things he's said.

The latest line, which we put into song form yesterday - "Saturn Circles. People are on the move."