The Dumbing Down of Conservatives

So my post yesterday had me ruminating and googling. Which is a dangerous combination. I was concerned that my conservatism = stupid formulation was a little too broad brush. I mean, there has to be some "smart" principled American conservatives out there, right?!

I must admit that for me conservatism suggests: pig-headed, backward, small-minded, fundamentalist, nostalgic, jingoistic, insensitive, pro-big business, dogmatic, greedy, selfish, nationalistic, militarist, anti-scientific, irrational, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-diversity, rigid, inflexible.

My personal experience has been that arguing with a doctrinaire conservative is very similar to arguing with a profoundly ignorant and/or religious person. Facts don't matter. Evidence doesn't matter. They cling to core beliefs that have nothing to do with the real world. There is a willful and intentional "dumbness."

They are the kind of people who cling to "core principles" even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Which in a debate sometimes seems like a certain bold clarity, or a simple certainty, but also comes across as an ignorant arrogance which some (Palin, Cheney, Bush, etc.) wear as a badge of honor. I googled "famous conservative thinkers" and came up with this list. I mean, wow, it is sort of a rogues gallery of rogues, except for maybe Eisenhower, Jimmy Stewart, Frederick Douglas, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (OK, Lincoln is more my kind of conservative!).

But when it comes to the famous contemporary conservatives, sorry, case closed! What a Clown Factory of over-bearing, willful idiots!

The Secular, Humanist, Liberal, Scientific Vision is the Winner!

So we have all these freaky talking heads and pundits blathering on about everything under the sun all the time. Most of them seem to just add to the constant white noise of pop culture.

Do any of them have a clue what they are talking about? Well, it seems that if they are conservative and have a law degree too, no, they really don't have a clue. And maybe that makes sense. Someone with a very rigid, fixed, conservatively ideological view of the world (think George W. Bush - the man, who when he touched it, turned it to shit) really is clueless when it comes to our complex, every-changing reality.

So anyway, a college class analyzed political and economic pundits and their predictions. Turns out most of them did really poorly. If you wanted to predict the outcome of a particular event, you might as well as have flipped a coin.

Who scored best as a prognosticator? Paul Krugman! The liberal! And this too makes sense. A liberal thinker would be more flexible, change-able, maybe wishy-washy, someone who will change their mind based on the evidence! If you ever read Krugman, you realize he is always looking at the underlying evidence. Sifting the facts, trying to understand the nuance. He is flexible and quick-thinking, which is a much better frame of mind in which to see the world clearly.

He is clear-headed, and has a heart.

Sometimes it is frustrating read Krugman, because he often seems so right, and yet, no one seems to be listening. I guess it's easy to tune the liberal out. That would be just what the conservative mind-set would tend to do.

I can't help thinking today conservative really does equal stupid!

Incentives and Disincentives

I suppose if you were a nation state that sends big bucks to another nation state to find a particular individual, that beneficiary of the big bucks might be motivated to find that individual, or alternatively that beneficiary of the big bucks might actually be motivated to not find that individual, assuring that the big bucks keep flowing.

So then you might find that that individual is living in the relative lap of luxury in a nice part of town near a military academy or some such place. And then when you do track the dude down, and engage in a bold operation to smoke him out and waste him, that beneficiary nation state may look complicit in actually hiding him all these long years.

And then said beneficiary kind of ends up with egg on their complicit faces. Or something like that. And well if that nation state is a teeming nation bulging with people and nuclear arms, well, a little humiliation goes a long way, with who knows what kind of consequences.

Still, in retrospect, that little SEAL operation looks pretty slick and successful. And it was a really risky, gutsy move that could have easily gone seriously wrong with all kinds of unforeseen consequences. And the guy who made the call now looks like a smart, cool operator who rolled the dice and came up smelling like roses.

Sometimes one man's fall can be another man's rise.

Skeptics and Cynics

Skeptics and cynics.

I can go there too. But I was surprised to be out and about yesterday, and to hear people who are relatively intelligent and politically aware, expressing skepticism about the major event that went down in a compound in Pakistan.

I do think an empire crumbles when the citizens no longer believe or trust their government, their press, their media machine, and the motives of their fellow citizens. Of course, much of this skepticism is well-earned. We have often been lied to and misled by those in authority, and we've been lied to and misled by each other too. We almost expect to be lied to and misled. Any action is suspect. We wonder, did this really happen? What is the real motive? Why now? Who got paid off? Who benefits?

And we live in a world of information over-load, ideological spinning, covert operations, black budgets and double-dealing. Often we can't even agree on the basic facts. All information is subject to spin and warp.

And then there is that great conspiratorial frame of mind that ties everything up into some kind of grand narrative. Almost like there is an invisible hand guiding events. Not a god-like entity but some all powerful CABAL that manipulates and orchestrates events in some secret room somewhere.

We've all seen lots of movies. And in a way, we want to believe that there's some coherence to the way events unfold. Maybe it's biological. It's built into us that we want to discern some kind of coherent pattern. Even if that means we can't take events at face value.

And sometimes an all powerful CABAL does sit in a room manipulating and orchestrating events. That's how they got the Bad Guy after all.

Big Time Bad Man Sleeps with the Fishes

You turn on the radio, you hear the news that a Big-Time Bad Man has been gunned down by Special Forces. You think Justice has probably been done; that it was a very neat, in the moment, execution.

You can't really celebrate another person's demise, but it does sound somehow like good news. But then, surprisingly, (even to you), you wonder if it's all really true. That's the kind of freaky world we live in, where everything is suspect, even when the word comes from people you think you trust.

Then you hear that the Big Time Bad Man's DNA (maybe now they can recreate him in a CIA lab and re-engineer him to be a Hip Hop artist or something?) has been taken and preserved, but his remains have been buried at sea. And this information is so weird, so unexpected. Really? Buried at sea? He now sleeps with the fishes? Really? Strange...

Beat Up Old Coat

Belief was a kind of shabby and beat up old coat that he would occasionally wear. He would spruce it up, put a flower in the lapel, attach shiny new buttons; anything to give it a little class and gravitas.

And just what was this shabby coat, this heartfelt "belief?" It was all about transformation, and energy, and change. And how most of the things of the world were shrouded in a shiny, glowing and colorful mystery. And this was a good thing, a hopeful thing.

Meager Narrative

He was living a very meager existence. And it was getting old. His supply of meagers was dwindling, they were running out like rats jumping ship. He couldn't really imagine a life without meagers. But the cold reality was staring him in the face. He was thinking it was time for a little improv!

The Bananas Nation!

America: The Bananas Republic.

The President calls a press conference to present his birth certificate and to declare that yes he was of woman born, that he really is a human being, that he was birthed in Hawaii, which is actually, despite Don Ho and those all tacky leis, part of the United States.

The Donald, Mr. Trump, that over-stuffed dude with that horrendous growth on his head, (no don't tell me that's just a comb-over, something hideous has parked itself on that man's head), is being taken seriously by the Tea Party. Seriously. Really. I mean as a Presidential candidate. The man is a clown, a carnival barker, 4 times declared bankrupt, inherited his father's wealth. Only in the Bananas Republic.

Oh yeah, and don't forget other potential Republican Presidential candidates Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachman, and well, the list of seriously deficient, sadly pernicious clowns continues to grow. Beyond scary. It's hysterical!

And yes, we are all in debt to our eyeballs too. No, it's past our eyeballs, in debt well over our big, empty heads. We are juggling three wars, and we maintain the largest military since the dawn of man. And just how are we supposed to solve our ballooning debt problem? Well, we intend to beat up on old people and poor people, and immigrants, and needy children too. Must keep America safe for the crony capitalists, the kleptocrats, the bankers and rich fat fucks.

Hell, this is the Bananas Republic!

Mixing Session #2

We did another mixing session yesterday. There are going to be lots and lots of future sessions in order to get a full recording of 10 or 11 songs. We did finish one song, and took another one from scratch to completion.

Turns out mixing brings up all kinds of questions, and some answers too. It's kind of like Philosophy 101...

What is an accident or a mistake? Is it, as Brian Eno tells it, a secret or hidden intention?

When is less more, and when is more more? Should you turn this instrument up? Or should you turn everything else down? What is perfection? Is it a chimera? Is it attainable? And if so, is perfection actually lifeless?

Do the "mistakes" or imperfections actually make a recording unique? And beautiful?

Just because we have lots of studio tricks and effects, should we really use them? Is it happenstance or fate that we used this guitar, this pickup, this kit, this bass? How did we find ourselves in a room together?

Can we capture the magic of the moment and preserve it forever? Or at least until the technology fades away and falls to ashes? If we can re-do a mix over and over, when is it officially done?

Is it all just madness? Why do we love to do it?!

Bush's Gulag

I've dipped my toe into the festering cesspool, the NYT articles on Gitmo. I think you can judge a society on how it treats the weakest and most vulnerable among us. That would include the poor, the indigent old, the immigrants and the lowest of the low, our imprisoned, suspected terrorist enemies. There are supposedly some really, really bad actors at Gitmo, but it's hard to tell the good guys, the bad guys, the guilty, the innocent, amidst the human degradation.

A civil, moral, society ruled by laws would not have built and maintained a torture center like Gitmo. Crimes against humanity were carried out in a systematic way. It's sickening and corrosive. And even though it was done in our name, and done for our "security" it shows a brutal madness beyond the pale. Did it really make us safer?

Supposedly the torture has stopped under Obama. But who really knows? Gitmo stands. We are all darkened by the shadow of that horrific gulag.

Don't Need No Stinking Hell, Heaven Neither!

Maybe Ross Douthat is a smart, principled, catholic, conservative, but some of his columns for the New York Times just come across as a kind of parody of a smart, principled, catholic, conservative.

Is this dude kidding?*

This one about hell, had me laughing, and scratching my head. I mean do we really need hell to make us more human? Do we really need the threat of eternal damnation to give our lives and the choices we make a certain gravitas? Do we need the threat of punishment hanging over our heads in order to fill our lives with kindness and grace?

And as long as we are on the subject, do we really need heaven? Do we need the promise of a reward after shuffling off this mortal coil in order to live with love for ourselves and our fellow sentient beings?

Do we really need to believe this stuff to be decent and fulfilled and "moral?" I think not Dear Pilgrim. And just where do we go when we die? Don't really know. But I wouldn't be surprised if it was kind of like that place we were before we were born.

Be here now. Sometimes it may seem long, but it's brief. And can end at any time. Love it.

* If you are a pious, rule-following Catholic you are to believe that the ascetic, flesh and blood, Hindu, holy man M. Gandhi is in hell because he wasn't baptized, and he didn't think Jesus was exactly the bomb. And there must be a hell because Tony Soprano, a fictional HBO character, can't be admitted into heaven. HUH?!

Unplug from the Crazy

Saturday night we found ourselves at dinner with a very nice couple. We found out in the course of the conversation that the guy works as a sports psychologist. Now normally when I hear "psychologist" I run for the hills. I was a psychology major. I know those people; many folks of that genre are like the "black holes" of the spirit. Think B.F. Skinner.

But this guy was funny, and cool. He works with athletes and obese kids. It became clear that his real-world experience and results-oriented approach keeps him grounded and level-headed. He said lots of funny, sensible things. Who woulda thunk it?!

I especially loved his idea that our present culture is crazy; that our "normal" approach to food, to education, to politics, and all things social is actually bat-shit insane. He works with folks to unplug from the crazy and to make lifestyle choices that work for them.

You have to choose another crazy, the crazy that works for you. It's not easy. You have to gain some knowledge, be disciplined, and go your own way, which is against the great stream of our existence.

First step, assume that everything you know, everything you hear from our Global 24/7 Pop Culture Behemoth is probably propaganda for some corporate entity that actually wants to make you a brain-addled, consumerist-crazed, fat fuck.

Celebrate Away!

Yes, and let the endless partying begin...

"I'm just celebrating the vastness of our ignorance." - David Eagleman, Neuroscientist

Mixing Session #1

We were back to the recording studio on Thursday. The basic recording is done. Now it's onto mixing. It was a real eye-opening session. Our recording engineer broke one of our songs down to it's basic elements and then put it all back together again.

We started with a fairly simple track- just bass, drums, acoustic guitar, vocal, tenor sax. We brought in sample some tracks to use as a sort of template for the type of mix and sound we are hoping to achieve, we listened to the tracks and talked about what we liked and what we didn't.

We ended up using Cat Power's "The Greatest" as our base example - a real nice mix. Our engineer started tweaking our tracks - he made the bass a little cleaner and warmer, he pumped up and tightened the sound of the snare drum, he added a little echo and reverb to the voice, added reverb to the sax and added a little compression to everything.

The final result was startling good. To our ears our track stood up well in comparison with our example. Suddenly a decent track sounded multi-dimensional, full, strong and complete. We walked out of the session riding on a cloud. There is a ton of work to do, but we saw a glimmer of how good this set of songs could be... to be continued...

Note: Of course our track doesn't have piano or a synthesizer, and Carla's voice isn't really like Cat's, and we have a sax, and our drummer uses cymbals, so in many ways our song is nothing like this example. Still, check out the feel of the drums and listen to how Cat's voice is mixed in with the band. That's what we're going for!

Amen Obama!

You know some cliches are cliches for a reason. For instance: "It always darkest before the dawn!" Obama is back on the case saying all the things that should be said...

"This isn't a matter of charity; it's a matter of what we think it is to live in a good society. And I think it is good for me, it is good for my life if when I'm driving around, I'm saying to myself, you know what, that school is producing all kinds of kids who are smart and are going to help build America's future.

"And I drive around and I see some seniors, and they're out for a walk. And I know, you know what, I'm glad that I live in a country where in their retirement years, they're going to be secure. That makes me feel good. That's the kind of country I want to live in. That's the kind of country you want to live in. And we've got to make sure we're willing to fight for it." - B. Obama

Patients Are Not Consumers - Krugman

Exactly. And obvious. And symptomatic of our dollar-addled times.

"The idea that all this can be reduced to money — that doctors are just people selling services to consumers of health care — is, well, sickening." P. Krugman

Multi-tasking Idiots!

It turns out, if you are a chronic multi-tasker, (and more and more of us are), you are actually making yourself an idiot!

And the more you are an idiot, the less you think you are an idiot. Perfect!

No Matter How You Look At It

We live in a universe of life and light. This life and light is bounded by darkness. Our lives are filled with light, and this profound darkness kind of bookends it. There's no getting around it...

Messenger Germ

What is the upside of a nasty germ totally hi-jacking your body? Knocks you down a few pegs. You get back to basics. Can I breathe? Can I walk? Can I eat? How long can I stay conscious today? How come everything seems underwater?

Reminds you how fragile "health" can be. You wonder if this sickness is some primitive punishment for cellular blood-acts never named, or an ancient curse for some secret transgression.

And then, when you are on the mend, let's assume you are on the mend, it's kind of like slowly re-surfacing to a new reality.

What's important? What tastes good? Is this a second chance?

The germ is a messenger and a message. Message received. What now?

Process

So you have to ask questions. That's how you get things moving. The answers are not so important.

You open your eyes and you see. You see how wrong things really are, and that's the beginning of the process of change...

Never Normal

Yeah, never really wanted a "normal" life. Always wanted to push against it.

Of course there are the up and downs, the re-invention/failure thing. That comes anyway.

Yes, better to reinvent. But the failure is necessary too.

Dancing in the Dark

Some days you think you know what you know.

And then some days, you know you don't know even what you thought you knew.

We will call the latter; Dancing in the Dark Days...

The Progressive's Hope. Still

Maybe what is extraordinary about "my" Obama, yes, I'm reclaiming him after his speech yesterday, is that he is a "boundary-crosser." It's hard to put him in a box and say "this is what he is, and this is what he will do."

I do think he is a savvy operator. And he's the progressive's hope. And he's articulate, and thoughtful. And just when you think his silence betrays some kind of lack, he gets up and delivers a great speech where it all comes together.

I suspect he is a great card player. And maybe, just maybe he has a stronger hand than appearances lead to believe.

Still, there's the talk, and then there's the walk. Can the boundary-crosser carry the day?!

The Great Game

I keep thinking Obama has some grand strategy that is gonna kick in at any moment. So, yes, well, he has disappointed me in some profound ways, (Do I really have to enumerate them?), but hell, he didn't get elected by me alone to do my bidding.

It is painful to watch him "negotiate" with the crazy wing-nuts of the right. It's kind of like watching someone wrestle with a muddy pig. No matter how "above the fray" he tries to be, some of that piggy slop sticks to him too.

Then I think (maybe hope) that he's playing a very smart, closely held, game. Maybe he's a bunch of moves ahead of everyone else? And once all is said and done, my Missionary of Hope will emerge triumphant and my fears of him being the Missionary of Botched Compromises will turn out to be illusory.

Maybe he's not playing poker or chess, maybe he's playing Twister, or Charades, or Statues, or We All Fall Down!

UPDATE: You know "my" Obama may not really be "the" Obama. I think I'm probably more liberal than that guy with that job. My idea of hope and change, may have always been much different than that guy's idea of hope and change. I mean, he was Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and well, he is a millionaire, and he was a successful one-term Senator, and maybe I thought he would be the voice for the poor and the downtrodden, but maybe that's never really been how he saw himself. Maybe he's always considered himself the Great Compromiser, and Re-conciliator and maybe he's quite happy with the way his first term is panning out? I voted for the Symbol of the man, and I ended up with the man. So, I'm left with Hope. Hope for the best!

Not As Bad As Chernobyl, Not As Bad As Chernobyl; OOPS, AS BAD AS CHERNOBYL!

I hate to be an alarmist. But if the alarm is ringing, what are you gonna do? The canary in the coal-mine dies first...

The more I read about nuclear power, the more I realize the whole thing is just a fantasy, built upon a house of sand.

We pretend that it is a safe source of energy. And we hope nothing goes wrong. And maybe nothing does goes wrong for awhile. But then inevitably, something will go wrong. Horribly wrong. And that should be the deal-killer.

Also we just kind of forget that we have no clue where to bury the waste. And some of that toxic shit is supremely toxic for a long time - a million years?! And maybe because a bunch of dorks in business suits and hardhats tell us that everything is OK, we just go along with the whole charade.

There's a whole bunch of money on the table. And we need the electricity. But that doesn't mean we should be stupid, and crazy, and poison ourselves and all life on the planet!

As Dmitri Orlov says: "if it turns out that the way you've been generating it happens to be criminally negligent, then you shut it all down. If you have less electricity, you will use less electricity. If this implies that economic growth is over and that all of your financial institutions are insolvent and your country bankrupt, then—I am sorry, but at this point in time that's not even newsworthy."

It's Just A Picture

It's therapeutic to stop the internal monologue once in awhile. Maybe not so good for blogging. But good for the soul...

I meditated on a bench yesterday and just took in the world. It was sunny, 80 degrees in the heartland. Everyone was out. It was almost like we all just woke up from a long gray sleep.

I found the calm center. I became the Eye in the middle of the hurricane. Found peace and strength deep inside.

Sometimes the world may appear to be going to hell in a hand-basket. It's just a picture of the world. Don't have to embrace it.

I luxuriated in the silence, the calmness, the transcendence. Meditation is just one of those amazing tools we have, and we can turn it on at any time.

Little Picture/Big Picture

When I concentrate on "the little picture" things seem pretty good. Roof over my head, food on my plate, making music, writing, keeping my head clear.

When I concentrate on "the big picture" things don't seem so good. Billions of us on a planet that seems stressed out. The planet has a fever and we are the pesky little germs. Multiplying like we're going out of style.

You wonder, have we "topped out" as a species? And can we really "think as a species" to come to some kind of consensus about keeping the game going in a life-affirming way for all living things?

We are good at the individual thing, and the tribal thing, and the nation thing. But can we work together as a species to make sure we all thrive in a sustainable way? Can we really even think that way?

That's kind of an open question for a Sunday morning...

Recording Session #6

Still working on a new set of music with Victor Sanders at his Lakeview studio. We had a special guest for our recording session #6: Steve Gibons, an amazing Chicago violinist who heads up the Gypsy Rhythm Project. Steve laid down some beautiful sounds on three of our new tracks.

Steve is an intense, soulful presence. He came in, put the headphones on, and brought his "magic." It was so inspiring. Humbling. Steve brought pure beauty and poetry to the task.

It all happened in a very focused flurry. We didn't know what he was going to do. He ran through the tracks a couple of times and just gave it his all.

We were so grateful. Speechless. Sometimes music can elevate you to another consciousness. Steve's performance took us all to another place. Breath-taking, poetic, beautiful...

SouthSide on the Town - WhiteWolfSonicPrincess

Hey Southside on the Town reviewed our 4/2/11 Elbo Room show. Highlights...

"Reminiscent of the flower power generation, this local band still keeps that spirit alive within its music, sound, and lyrics."

"The music had a flowing melodic Folk/Americana vibe..."

"There were moments in which this band expressed a poetically mystical side..."

"SouthSide highly recommends feeling the groovy-ness and spiritual essence of WhiteWolfSonicPrincess..."

Plus she said some nice things about our wonderful drummer.

Things I'd Like To Fix, But Can't Fix On My Own, So I Should Just Stop Worrying About, But Can't, Because Well, I Worry About Them...

I was gonna come up with the list. But really do I need to bother?!

There are so many things I could put on this list. But I don't have the heart to type them out at the moment.

Hell, I am not a Megalomaniac, really... these "issues" are not solvable by "me." Maybe they are solvable by "us," but I'm losing faith in the collective wisdom of my species.

Let's just say our "to do list" is getting long and messy and ridiculously apocalyptic!

I Know They Are Out There

I know there are cool, creative, progressive, forward-thinking, generous and kind folks out there. People dedicated to social justice and equality.

People ready to help their fellow man, willing to reach out to the poor, the old, the downtrodden, and to help them pursue a healthy, happy, sustainable existence.

People not mesmerized by ego and money. People who know we are all in this together. I know they are out there. I'd like to meet them. I wonder what planet they live on?!

Nuclear ClusterFuck

I do think we are seriously stupid. Or delusional. Or just plain in denial. And we must be hypnotized by the money. We have serious, monied people from all walks of life telling us that Nuclear Power is safe, it's clean and it's our future.

Then you read that in Japan they are dumping 11,000 tons of radioactive water into the Pacific ocean as a result of their nuclear clusterfuck. Of course, we are told there is "no immediate threat to our health."

BTW - the water they are dumping into the ocean is contaminated 10 million times legal limits!

The mind reels.

And what about renewable energy? What about building the largest solar array ever conceived by man in the Mojave Desert? What about another idea for our "energy independence?"

Anybody out there?!

What Engages?!

The last few days, our little music video has elicited a range of responses including: funny, dark, menacing, silly, insensitive, catchy, dazzlingly playful, well-intentioned, somber, and in bad taste.

I strongly believe in following the creative impulse, even if that impulse leads you over a cliff. In fact, I'd say that's my main working method when it comes to our theater work with Black Forest.

I've always gone with the idea that if something totally engages me, it may engage someone else too. I haven't always been proven right on this idea, but hell, you have to draw your lines in the sand somewhere.

What engages? Human hopes, human fears, and the working out of that humanness in the world...

A wacky little blast of madness, triggered by real world events...

Love the Show!

Played a WhiteWolfSonicPrincess show at the Elbo Room in Chicago last night. We were the openers for a 5 band night.

We do love that rock club. They always do a nice job on the sound, and the staff is unnaturally courteous and helpful. Which is an amazing feat considering they do multi-band shows every night.

I thought we did a good job. Our little four person outfit has really bonded, we have grown into our songs, and the interplay between us is subtle and intuitive. We all listen and play off of each other. Our bass/drum combo is extraordinary.

I played my acoustic standing up, (got a new strap) which sounds like a little thing, but every detail counts. It allowed me to be a little more expressive, I could see more (wow our drummer does some amazing things back there on the kit!), but every once in awhile my strap started slipping, I was some times sort of wrestling with my guitar. Gotta make that work better.

The Lovely Carla did some of the best singing I've ever heard from her. We went first last night, and being the opener is kind of hard, people were still wandering in, the room was a little cold, it was a challenge to make us to focus on each other. Focus we did.

Big Star's Lost Masterpiece - I Finally Found It!

Is it possible my favorite record of the moment, which I just discovered a couple days ago at the used CD store, was recorded in 1975, was shelved as too uncommercial, and was the swan song for an unlucky, un-star-crossed band?

Yes, it is possible.

I'm talking about Big Star's "Sister Lovers," I guess it's also known as "Third." It's certainly a strange, unholy mess, packed with weird and beautiful music. Some kind of pop masterpiece, featuring one of the greatest vocalists to stand in front of a microphone - Alex Chilton.

I don't know how I missed this record, this band. I was vaguely aware of Chilton from his number one Top Forty hit "The Letter" recorded with the Box Tops, a band he fronted, when he was 16 years old. I was also aware that Chilton died in 2010.

Anyway, I'm totally bowled over and captivated by this record. It's amazing, beautiful, funny, sloppy, all over the map. I guess Alex was struggling to make a career, and he was at war with the producers and the demands of the record industry. Seems Alex had the saboteur working inside him, (it shows on some of the cuts) even as he had a stunning creative spirit coursing through him.

There are so many take your breath away tracks: Femme Fatale, Kanga Roo, O Dana, Big Black Car, Holocaust, Dream Lover, Take Care. My Rykodisc version has bonus tracks, live stuff, a cover of a Kinks song, Whole Lot of Shakin Going On too. It all works in some left-handed, off-kilter way...

Highly recommended. One of my favorites discs of all time for sure!

Poison Cloud Coming From Tokyo - The Music Video!

No one asked for it, but we couldn't help ourselves. First, I was totally obsessed with the recording of the song. Then, the Lovely Carla became obsessed with the making of the video. Collaboration in the best sense of the term!

So now Poison Cloud Coming From Tokyo is a music video! Where's MTV when you need it!?! What are we saying?! Renewable energy anyone?

Recording Session #5

Yes, we did it again. We trekked down to the big time studio to lay down some more tracks. Yesterday, we brought in Nick Anaya from the 3.5.7 Ensemble to add tenor sax to 3 of our songs.

We had a little kitchen rehearsal with him first to familiarize him with the songs. He pointed out that one of our songs went from 6/8 time to 4/4 time. Who knew?!

It was a totally thrilling session - one hour of concentrated beauty. Nick is an amazing, intuitive player. He brought a great focus and professionalism to the moment. He did a couple passes on each song and there were smiles all around. His contribution will be a highlight of the record, no doubt!

Degrees of Crazy

You hear all kinds of funny arguments in the world. Again, if you assume that most human beings are crazy, it all starts to make sense. That's right, assume that your fellow travelers are seriously twisted, and everything starts to make a certain sense.

Of course, you must assume that you too are seriously twisted. So whatever is making sense to you, is also probably really crazy too. Again, I'm not talking about "drooling on your shoes" nuts. Most of us seem competent and coherent. We can tie our shoes. We can walk and talk and appear normal.

No, the thick veneer of normality is probably the first hint that the crazy lurks nearby. And those of us who insist that they aren't crazy, the ones that think they have the answer, the moralists, the ones who want to tell you how to live your life, yep, those are most certainly the most perniciously twisted of the bunch!

There is no normal. There is no sanity. Only degrees of crazy...

Humanitarian Bombs, Humanitarian Bullets!

I'm not jumping ship just yet, but if you would have told me that the guy I voted for in the last election would help bail out rich bankers, would be contemplating cutting programs for poor folks, and would be jumping into another war, I would have told you to quit smoking that wacky weed!

Soul-Full - Feeding the Soul

Back to the kitchen. Our little band got together yesterday for a "kitchen rehearsal." We had nowhere else to go, so we set up our equipment next to the stove and the refrigerator. The acoustics in the kitchen are quite good.

Anyway, it had been awhile since our band was all together in one room. We ran through a set of songs, some we've been playing for awhile, some new ones too. We were all really tuned into each other. Everyone was sharp and everyone listened.

There is something so powerful, so inexplicable, so logic-defying about 4 individuals all working together for one sound, one vibration. 3 voices, a guitar, bass, drums all shining, all blending, all adding to each other. Amazing.

It's a pretty unique circumstance, definitely a great way to beat the crazy (see previous post). And a positive alternative way to do the human communication thing. Intensely powerful.

The intensity level of the session was matched by an ease. Our music is very "soul-full" - full of soul and feeding the soul. We floated, and flowed. Afterwards it was all smiles. A very satisfying, life-affirming exercise. I recommend it!

Crazy is Our Aquarium!

The idea that the majority of human beings running around on the planet are "sane" or "rational" is getting more and more untenable. I mean, I wonder if I've ever really believed it. Sometimes I think the prevalence of the drooling, talking-to-the-wind types, kind of distracts us from the reality that it's everyone else you really need to worry about.

If you engage in a conversation of any length, basically anything after small talk about the weather, the crazy starts to rear it's head. Maybe we've grown so accustomed to the "crazy talk" that it becomes less and less recognizable as crazy talk.

No sense in going into examples here. I've been swimming in the crazy lately, and I've engaged in it too. Yes, I too can do the crazy talk, the crazy walk. But then I can sort of retreat into a dark corner of my head and realize that what is said, what is believed is crazy! It has permeated all areas of human behavior.

Beliefs: religious, political, social... Totally Over the Bend Nuts!

Grace

Heard a story about Tennessee Williams on the radio this morning. The phrase that resonated and stuck to me... "survive with grace."

Seriously Silly!

We are working on a little video for our song "Poison Cloud Coming From Tokyo." Hope to load it up to You Tube in the next few days. Why? Because we can. I know it might be a little like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater, but in this case the theater is burning and the fumes, well, they are toxic and it looks like they are contaminating our water, air, and ground. That's the trifecta. Living things breathe in this stuff, or eat it, or touch it, and they die!

I know this is all happening a long way from our shores, but this crisis is a good example of how we are all connected. A nuclear accident in Japan has consequences for all life on the planet. It's not a happy situation.

Elizabeth Kolbert in the New Yorker explains in chilling detail that basically the whole nuclear industry is an act of imagination. It's all just a serious folly. We are all pretending that these reactors are safe and we will figure out what to do with the waste and everything is peachy keen. They aren't, we probably won't, and it isn't.

Our little song is sort of silly. But it's a serious silly...

The Singles from WhiteWolfSonicPrincess

Julian Schnabel's "Miral"

When you say "this film-maker is an artist" it is absolutely true if you are speaking of Julian Schnabel.

He has made an amazing string of films. Beautiful, indelible "artistic" films. And he brings his painter's eye and supremely artistic sensibility to all of his work.

His latest film is about a Palestinian girl growing up in Israel. Which is no doubt a highly-charged subject that is already bringing a lot of heat and controversy. Some people just don't want to see a "Palestinian" depicted as a human being. I figure it is a must-see film, just as Before Night Falls and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were must-sees too.

"Like I said, the concept of having an even hand, to make something more balanced — I don’t think that’s the job of an artist." - Julian Schnabel

Just Exactly

Some times I have trouble understanding what I'm thinking at any particular time.

And then I wonder, how does one make the leap of understanding what some one else is thinking at any particular time?!

Poison Cloud Coming from Tokyo

Poison Cloud Coming from Tokyo was "triggered" by recent events. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. At least that's what all the authorities are telling us. Hell, being exposed to a radioactive cloud would be like getting a CAT SCAN. Maybe multiple times? Over and over? Right?!?

Anyway our new song emerged out of our own little nightmare world. I hear a little bit of Joy Division, X, The Violent Femmes, The Ramones, Yoko Ono, and The B-52's in there.

It's a 1:50 second blast of Pop Madness. Check it out!

The Singles from WhiteWolfSonicPrincess

Exports!

Three Wars! Simultaneously! It's as easy as falling out of bed for the Good Old USA!

Bombs and bullets! Our greatest exports!

Disconnection!

What they are telling us, isn't what we are seeing...

The Last Refuge

Momentous shit seems to be happening everyday. There's so many people on the planet now, our schedules are so chock full of big-time events. No sense in panicking. And fleeing seems futile, since there's nowhere to flee to.

We retreat into our heads. Not really safe there either. But it's the last refuge.

I barricaded myself in my little home studio yesterday. Working on some new "self-recorded," "self-produced" music.

New songs. Kind of like those old cave paintings. Sitting in my little enclosed space, creating my own little world. Almost like a religious or "magic" act. Conjuring something inside. To bring outside later.

And the inside is just reflection of the outside. A facsimile. I sacrifice an idea on the altar of my own craving, and create a song with a little life of it's own.

And the world of momentousness just rages on.

Wondrous Machinery

The Fat-Cat Wizards of Authority are behind the curtain, working their wondrous machinery, trying to convince all the little people, the down-trodden masses, that everything is okay.

Life on the street seems to be telling another story. And the divergence between what the rich ones want us to know and think, and what we are learning and thinking on our own, seems to be expanding.

And maybe the wondrous machinery isn't so wondrous anymore. And maybe once all the down-trodden ones realize they are being tricked by elaborate fakery, maybe those Wizards of Authority won't appear so authoritative anymore.

The curtain is pulled back more and more often, showing the Fat-Cats in all their reality-denying glory. And maybe the down-trodden ones will start to look around and count their numbers.

And maybe they will come to realize that the Rich Ones aren't rich because of good luck or divine right, but because the game is rigged, and the rich are rich because the poor are poor.

There are the few with all the money, and the many with their sore feet and tired arms and empty hands and new-seeing eyes and hungry mouths. And maybe one day the light-bulb blinks on, and they click their heels together and RISE UP!

Circle of Empowerment

Strangelovian nightmares were dancing in my head yesterday. Maybe it was all those early years hiding under my school desk coming back in full force?! Even as a small child, I knew that hiding under a desk was a kind of lame and panicky way of dealing with a nuclear holocaust.

And there is a certain cold logic that a dark radiating plague would be a result of a series of unforeseen "accidents" and not a mad act of martial malevolence.

We had sunny blue skies in the heartland yesterday. No dark clouds of radiation in sight. Still a major uneasiness hung over me even as I basked in the sun (armed with a hat, sunglasses and SPF 30). Serious events unfolding a long way away just make me feel even smaller and more helpless than usual.

I'm left with my own little life and the few meager things I can control. I can rearrange my meagers! It's a little circle of empowerment, (sort of like a friendly noose), which seems to get smaller and more hermetic every day. Still, it's a life!

Dark Clouds

And then some events occur where you struggle to find an "upside." I mean, not every dark cloud has a silver lining. And if you see one, well, maybe you're an idiot.

You'd like to think that "Everything will be all right." Still some of those dark clouds are really, really dark. And well they might be radioactive too...

Raw Data

Supposedly, we humans are good at pattern recognition. We see patterns in random events. Sometimes we even see patterns where there are no patterns. Still, this human is starting to discern a pattern. Lots of raw data is piling up.

Lots of really "bad" things seem to be happening around the world. Now of course, we can assume there's lots of really "good" things happening too.

But the bad things seem really, really bad. And they seem to be accumulating.

And well, even thinking optimistically, I presume that can't be good.

Black Swans Around Every Corner

Seems the world is swimming in Black Swans.

When is a Black Swan a Black Swan? And when is a Black Swan not a Black Swan?

And if rare and unexpected events happen all the time, are they still rare and unexpected?

And if we expect to see Black Swans around every corner, why are we still surprised when we do?

Are we just wired that way?

Wishing, Having, Wasting, Lasting.

I'm still reading Shout, Philip Norman's opus about the Beatles. Almost done. The major sections of the book describe an arc. It goes like this...

The Wishing, the Having, the Wasting, the Lasting. Which kind of tells a story right there.

In this particular narrative it turns out the Wishing is probably the most inspiring part. Also the most revealing. I just loved the scruffy Hamburg days, the days when it was all about the playing, the honing of a sound, the trials and tribulations of a working band.

The Having is the story most of us know; at the heart of it is the bizarre Beatlemania phase. Totally inexplicable. The frenzy, the madness, the celebrity culture swirling around like an out of control carousel. Turns out Beatlemania was an ordeal for the band. On the one hand, amazing love and adulation, on the other, the music drowned out by screams. The Fab Four turned into performing monkeys.

The Wasting kind of kicks off when Brian Epstein kicks off. The Beatles are still making amazing, compelling music, in fact they create music that is just overwhelmingly great, (where did it all come from?) but the band concept begins to crack and fragment. The Beatles form Apple and then start to play businessmen. It's clear they were better musicians than merchants.

And then, well, you know...

And finally when all is said and done, we have the tracks. And there is a dazzling exuburance that these four people laid down that just can not be explained away. You must enjoy it! And we do!

Messy!

And some act as if we are all in it together. And some act as if we are all pitted against one another. And some act as if it's a little of both. It sort of gets messy.

Trouble with Middles

The beginnings are always promising. The endings always clean and swift. The middle part is where it gets complicated.

Myths to Live By

"Well, yeah, of course it's a myth. Sure. So what? I've built my life on myths."

WhiteWolfSonicPrincess on Sound Cloud!

We just joined Sound Cloud. It seems like a really cool music site with a really nice music player. Check it out! The old MySpace site has just become this weird Zombie infested place. Here's our song "Everything is Everything!"Latest tracks by WhiteWolfSonicPrincess

He Was Acting, Right?!

If you've seen this movie it seems you either think the dude has totally lost it, and he's lost it so bad, he's so clueless, he doesn't realize how bad he looks in this "documentary," - fat, self-aborbed, whiny, petty, ridiculous; exhibiting all the behaviors of the worst sort of debauched Frat Boy, with delusions of Hip Hop glory.

Or you think this is all just superb acting. Maybe the best acting performance since Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. A seamless performance, where Joaquin Phoenix risks it all to portray a character of our time, the time of our berserk celebrity culture. A character he totally inhabits to the nth degree.

And if you go with the second interpretation, and I do, then you realize this is just a brilliant movie that uses the whole celebrity machine in the most subversive way. So even as everyone was wondering what the hell happened to Joaquin, ("Is he really off the rails, is he really chucking his acting career just when he reached the top of his game?"), he and Casey Affleck have constructed a movie that exposes the whole Hollywood myth-making machine, and plays with the expectations of a celebrity industry that loves to eat people whole and spit them out.

The movie is funny, and makes you think, and tests your patience, and makes you marvel at someone willing to risk everything for a role. I mean, someone even willing to demean his own image, his own "brand" in a culture where brand is everything.

Superb, thrilling, silly. Excellent. A great companion movie to The Social Network. These are movies of the moment.

The last sequence in "I'm Still Here," when Joaquin "walks the river" is beautiful and dare I say it "metaphorical." And transcendent.

There Will Be An Answer...

We played the local open mic Saturday night. We played one original and one cover. The cover was a Beatles song, yep, I've totally been on a Beatles kick, and somehow I convinced the Lovely Carla that we should sing "Let it Be."

On the one hand, as someone at the coffee shop remarked, "you can't go wrong with the Beatles." Meaning it's probably gonna be a good song that lots of people know and probably love.

And that's the downside too. At first, singing "Let it Be" seemed ridiculous. Hearing my voice ringing out, seemed like satire. I mean, we aren't really going to top the original. And singing such a famous song kind of exposes your own weaknesses.

So we kind of re-arranged it so that I sang the verses and Carla came in on the chorus. And instead of a piano, I banged out the chords on my big old acoustic guitar. Plus Carla did some sweet tambourine work.

Suddenly we sort of made it our own. We both totally connected with the lyrics, it's a sort of mystical gospel-like incantation. "When all the broken-hearted people, living in the world agree..."

It wasn't perfect, but when we got to the end we were banging it out with total exuberance and I was surprised the roof of the place didn't just open up and the two us didn't rise up out of the place into the sky...

We didn't... but we might've!

You Know that Band!

I'm reading Shout! by Philip Norman. I picked it up at my local used bookstore for $7. It's a story I know, I mean, it's a story we all know, it's basically the Pop Culture origin story for a certain generation, but of course, it's all the little details that make it an exciting and extraordinary read.

And you find out all kinds of things you didn't know...

I'm about a third into it. And really I just love the tale of the Silver Beatles and their time in Hamburg Germany. And I'm fascinated by Astrid Kirchherr and that great lost boy Stu Sutcliffe. And it all gets you to wondering if Stu was really that bad of a bass player. But of course, the guy that wanted the job happened to become one of the greatest bass players of all time.

And then there's the whole cast of characters: Lennon, Starr, Voorman, Harrison, etc. And there's grit and luck and happenstance. And events had to happen just so, or maybe the story would have been different. And the story rolls out like destiny. An amazing journey...

Breathing is Good. Pretty Much.

Of course mainlining the zeitgeist has it's drawbacks. Too much zeitgeist can curdle the blood. Which goes with the territory, I mean, you can't stay pure in this world.

That's not possible.

You bounce out of the womb into a contaminated world and must fend for yourself. Even if you have a little help from your friends.

So you take in as much as you can stand without losing your head. There is no purity. You breathe in, and hope the breath doesn't kill you. Breathing is good. Pretty much.

Everything is pretty much good. Unless it isn't, then well, good luck.

Mainlining the Zeitgeist!

My hopes are still high for the guy in the White House. But I hope he doesn't just see himself as some kind of super-cheerleader.

Whoever coined the "Win the Future" slogan, should take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror.

It's not good when you can shorten the phrase to WTF. Which in my book has a totally different meaning. And maybe if the guy in the White House latched onto that as his slogan, everything might make more sense.

So every time you hear that guy say "win the future," think "WTF!" Every time you hear that "the White House is negotiating with the Republicans," think "WTF!"

You will be mainlining the zeitgeist!

THINK NEW!

It seems this time around I'm always starting something new. New work, new band, new song, new play, new company, new thought, new blog post. I'm not very good at looking back.

Always looking forward. That's just the trajectory of my life. I don't know if it's good or bad, it's just the way it seems to work for me.

I have a history. I have a whole string of false starts, abortive attempts, interesting experiments, dead ends, lots of flotsam and jetsam, lots of discarded or misused dreams.

It's not very edifying for me to look back. So I look forward and THINK NEW!

Recording Session #4

Yeah we're still at it. I'm keeping track for you. We had a long hiatus, due to weather, sickness and money flow - tracking songs at the big time studio. Saturday we did backing vocals, some oohs and aahs, and also re-did a couple tracks live in the studio - bass, guitar and two voices.

It was totally intense and exhilarating. The clock ticks and time = money. We came in prepared, and the "live in the studio" stuff seemed pretty tight.

The backing vocals were tricky. Not sure how well they came out. I guess we'll figure that out in the mixing phase. Almost done with tracking - we're thinking one more session to add a saxophone and maybe harmonica.

Then it's mixing. Should be an interesting trip...

Crony Capitalism - American Style!

I guess if someone asked me, I'd sum up the whole financial crisis thing and it's aftermath, like this...

Rich Banker or Wall Street trader gets in trouble, the government (all the little people) band together and bail them out, make them whole again so they can get back to business as usual.

The Little people, the Common Folk, those who did the bailing out, well if they got in debt, or missed payments on their house, or lost their jobs, well, that's life baby, "shit happens!"