Sochi and Pussy Riot

Sochi Winter Olympics? 

No. I don't even have to try hard to not be interested. At all. Saves lots of brain cells.

Pussy Riot? 

Yes! I mean, I was always in their corner. Love acts of provocation against the heavy hand of authority.  I loved to see them do their thing. I hated to see them be persecuted, prosecuted and imprisoned. I was delighted when they were released.  And I love that radio and television and media people of all stripes have to constantly say, "Pussy Riot!" That alone is very cool.  I mean, just say it, "Pussy Riot, Pussy Riot, Pussy Riot!"  It conjures up all kinds of images. And, at least for me, none of the images have anything to do with cats!

The Hype vs. The Snark

The Hype vs. The Snark. People can't help themselves. Pop/Celebrity culture brings it out in us. And it really is the worst. 

First, The Hype. 

Events, sometimes Faux-Events are built up and sold as the second coming of some God you didn't even know existed. Everything is blown out of proportion. There is no proportion. There is glitz and glamour and lots of huffing and puffing. Smoke and mirrors. Beautiful, rich, desirable and successful people stand up before the multitudes and demand to be honored just for being the great celebrities we've all decided they are. They demand our attention and envy. And we do pay attention, and we do envy them.

Then comes The Snark.

Every little thing is up for scrutiny. The snark is poisonous. And we love to do it. We rip people for daring to be old, or fat, or too thin, or phony, or too serious, or too ridiculous, or in it only for the money, or for being glory hogs, or for being awkward, or for having too much hair, or not enough hair, or coloring their hair, or altering their noses, jaws, etc. We tear these people down, with a million little poisonous cuts, those who dare to stand before us, we devour them, destroy them.

We love our celebrities. We love the machine that builds them up. And we hate these people too. And we love to destroy them. A little cut, a little bit of snark. One biting little cut at a time.

Transcends the Bullshit!

We watched the Beatles 50th anniversary show with a bunch of people last night. Lots of Beatle fanatics in close quarters. We heard lots of Beatle trivia. The Beatles story really is the Pop Culture Origin Story!

We all thought the show was over-blown but pretty well-done! Still, the hype machine is an amazing thing to behold. It is more than a little bit over-bearing, but must say the Beatles music somehow transcends the bullshit.

And Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are both class acts.  They did what they had to do and they did it well. You got the sense that for them it was just another show in a long, long line of shows. And you realized they had no idea how big the Ed Sullivan appearance had been to so many people in America back in 1964.

That's what's still kind of amazing. The survivors are still pretty much dedicated to the music. Even all these many years later.  Good job boys! 

Broken Bells - Astonishing!

This is brilliant, and elegantly (a simple, shimmering elegance) done… Broken Bells (which is a collaboration of Danger Mouse -reinvented from Brian Burton and James Mercer - reinvented from being the lead singer of the Shins) do one of the most beautiful songs ("And I Love Her") from the great Beatles catalog.

And they do it with a couple audio/visual loops of Ringo Starr - he really is one of the great drummers in r&r!  What a great way to bring the past to the present. And they throw in a nod to "I Am the Walrus" too.  Astonishing!

Can't Imagine the Not-Beatles!

OK. I guess I'm on the bandwagon to the countdown too.

You can't imagine a world where the Beatles didn't come to New York and blow the doors open to the British Invasion. You can't imagine a world where they didn't become the biggest band in the world.  You can't imagine a world where they didn't inspire generations of boys and girls to pick up instruments and form bands too.

Those four dudes from Liverpool made it all look fun. Joyous. They played with a smart exuberance. And then the music got better and more intricate, and really, really artful. You can't imagine any other band filling that slot. That's not how history works. They did it. Nobody else did. All other comers were just following in their path. And lots of the others wore Beatle boots and had cute haircuts too.

Wayne Coyne, Sean Lennon, Flaming Lips - BEATLES!

It's the countdown to the big 50 year anniversary of the Beatles breakout show on Ed Sullivan in 1963. "Big shoe" this coming Sunday! No one has ever adequately explained the mass hysteria that The Beatles debut unleashed in America and around the world. Young girls engaged in an incredible mass hysteria of screaming, hair-pulling and panties-wetting over those four cute Liverpullian Mop-Tops. Beatlemania! A mystery. Unexplainable. A Beatles concert was typically 20 mins. of unbelievably hysterical screaming, it was some strange ritual that had little to do with music.

The Beatles could only take it for a few years and then decamped to the recording studio, "got weird" and created some even more amazing music.  Another mystery - how did they keep it going, how did they make those creative leaps, how did the insanity and crass commercialism not totally destroy them as people and musicians? Unexplainable.

Anyway all week on Letterman different acts are doing Beatles songs. Was really looking forward to Wayne Coyne and the Flaming Lips collaborating with Sean Lennon on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." They did not disappoint! Love these guys. I thank the "Great What's-It" that they exist!

The Bigs and the Littles

I was gonna write how "the bigs always eat the littles." Just look around in nature, in polite society. "The bigs," whether they are hungry or not will eat "the littles," just because they can.  Ethics don't enter into it, conscience doesn't enter into it, "doing the right thing," doesn't enter into it.

But then I thought about how "the littles" also eat "the bigs." That happens too. "The littles" can swarm, they can infiltrate, they can destroy a bigger foe.  I guess it really is an "all against all" kind of game.

Everything lives off of everything else.  You can think "it's ugly," or whatever, but it's just the way of the universe. To a certain extent we can build a polite society based on ethics, conscience and doing the right thing, but underlying the whole grand edifice is the war of the next meal.

And sometimes "the bigs" or "the littles" just want to flex their muscles and stir up the shit.  "That's entertainment, baby!"

People - Capable of Anything!

When people do outrageous things, things you didn't think they were capable of doing, and it happens all the time, (just scan the news), people you think you know end up doing things you didn't think they could or would do, well, I'm reminded of this scene from Roman Polanki's "Chinatown." And I remember too that Polanski fled the US to avoid his own little scandal. And well, it's easy to judge people, but all of us are just people, and well, let John Huston tell it...

John Huston's character: "See Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact; the right time, and the right place, they're capable of anything."

Yes, And Sometimes No

So yes, in the world of improv, in order to keep the scene going, you are advised to answer, "Yes," or "Yes, and..." to just about any proposition. A "No!" is always a scene killer.

This works in life too. You can spend your days always saying "Yes," or "Yes, and..." but, of course, it can get you into trouble, or  lead you into unwanted adventures.

When we are children we live in the world of "I WANT!"  Some of us live in the world of "I WANT" throughout our lives.  It is a childish way to live. But it certainly helps drive our consumer culture. Some of us start living in the world of "No!" More and more, "No" becomes the answer. "No meat," "No gluten," "No vodka," "No bullshit!"

It's a delicate balance. You don't want to live in a world of renunciation. You try your best to live in the land of "Yes, and of course, sometimes No."

Death of an Actor

Philip Seymour Hoffman's sudden death at 46 is tragic and shocking. I didn't think of him as a celebrity. I thought of him as a working actor. An extraordinarily compelling working actor. One of the best. Ever. And you think that the work, being able to do the work, and at such a high level would be everything.

Of course, it isn't, there's all that other messy stuff that makes up a life. And maybe some of that messy stuff was actually beneficial to him when he worked. He had a vast well of emotion to draw upon. Made for amazing work, and maybe sometimes a difficult life.

Seems it was an overdose of heroin. Shooting heroin, one of the riskiest of high risk habits. Unfathomable. You think the work, doing the work, would have been enough. But it's more complicated than that, unfortunately, and addiction is a killer.

I will not forget his amazing, extraordinary, moving work in True West, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, The Master, Doubt, etc.

The Essence of Soul!

I caught some of the Grammy's show last week. What a big, over-blown spectacle. Lots of glitz, lots of huffing and puffing. Lots of pretending that what was on stage was significant or compelling.

Still, I did love seeing Stevie Wonder sitting in with Nile Rodgers, Pharrell Williams and two French dudes dressed as robots performing "Get Lucky." It really did seem like the song of 2013. And well, sure, it could have been a big hit in the Disco Years long ago, but it strangely seemed  "of the moment" too.

And in my book Nile Rodgers and Stevie Wonder, well they are music royalty!

When the world sometimes seems like it's falling apart, imploding from the inside out, maybe getting lucky is as good as it gets.

And then, I started looking for some early Stevie Wonder, you know when he was "Little Stevie Wonder?" And I found Fingertips. Love, love, love it. Does anybody play a chromatic harmonica any better? I think not! The essence of soul! Stevie!

 

Atoms for Peace - Skirts or Kilts?

Yes, I really like Thom Yorke's "other cool band," Atoms for Peace. (How is it possible that Thom could be the lead singer and lyricist of two incredibly awesome bands?)  Their record "Amok" has been on my hot play-list for months and months.  But even though I really enjoy the groove of the record, I don't think I really understood how great this band is until I saw it play live in concert.  Thank goodness for You Tube!

Just to see Thom Yorke and Flea jumping around like Mexican Jumping Beans in skirts (or designer kilts?) is so worth it.  I love this band. I love the joy, exuberance and pure adrenaline rush of watching these guys totally get into playing together.  Just wow! Here's their complete set in Austin. Amazing!

How You Got Here!

You generally have a "sunny" disposition, but you also often wear apocalyptic glasses. You are a positive thinker and you tend to believe in a better future, but you can also envision the grand edifice, the mad, multi-headed beast of human society that we have constructed, imploding, and crashing into a million tiny pieces.

You can enjoy the day, but you can marvel at the ignorance and blind stupidity that rules much of human activity. You see beauty and humor all around you, and at the same time, you see the deadly, crazy-making mindset that compels humans to be so blood-thirsty and selfish.

You marvel at the contradictions of existence. You wonder how you got here. You hope for the best, even as you catalog the daily, mindless acts of outrage.

Ringo Starr - R&R Diety!

Sure, it's easy being a holy person if you are born into it, or reincarnated into it. I'm thinking about you Dali Lama.  I mean, if you are born into a world of holiness, and treated like the next version of the Buddha or something, well, you probably have a leg up on being a wise person, a transcendent being. And yes, the Dali Lama fits the bill.

But what if you were born a sickly child? Big ears, big nose. Spent a lot of time in bed, trying to overcome various illnesses? And what if you spent a lot of time in bars and clubs in a working class city, a neighborhood of toughs and sailors?

And maybe you were a drummer in a really, really popular band. I mean in an insanely, irrationally, maniacally crazy kind of popular way.  And somehow, you came out of it relatively intact. You didn't become a total asshole, you didn't let your ego blow up to mega-proportions. You actually emerged as a total class-act.

You did everything with humor and grace and class. And you were funny and kind and humble, and well you preached peace and love. And you were clean and sober, and a vegetarian to boot. And you really were/are a fabulous drummer, with a track record unmatched by anyone else on the planet.

And that band you were in, well, 50 years after their wildly received debut on a big American TV show, people are still listening to your music and reveling in the joy and energy and over-powering creativity of that little 4 person outfit.

Well, if all that were true, you'd be Ringo Starr - R&R Diety! Rock on Ringo!

Hate Your Boss!

It's gratifying to hear the truth.  Some times it only comes in little dribs and drabs. Little nuggets of truth kind of poke up from this great ball of lies and confusion.

"Voters hate their bosses." When people hear "job creator" they understand, "Boss."  People hate their bosses. How true. Amen.  This is coming from a Republican. How can this hatred be corralled into a new political movement?

Hate your boss! Viva la Revolution!

Chip on Your Shoulder

"Is that a chip on your shoulder? It's a sizable chip. Must make it hard to walk. It's better to be light on your feet. You should lose the chip… No, it's not an asset... Really... OK... If it works for you, I guess, I'd say, 'different strokes for different folks.' You gonna dare someone to knock it off? That's just that old macho bullshit.  Really? Are you sure? A chip, right? On your shoulder? Hah!"

Don't Take it Personally!

It's probably best not to take the weather personally. I mean, it's kind of hard, when you are being pummeled by the wind, when the temps make your fingers and toes freeze, when snow falls down upon your head, when you have to wrap yourself up like a layered mummy just to even step outside for a minute or two.

The freezing cold, yes, the polar vortex-type weather makes it hard to breathe. Yes, the sub-zero freeze seems to sit on your head, and on your chest, and just dare you to come outside for some punishment. So yes, the weather seems like a punishment, and it seems like you are being punished. You personally.

And you ask yourself, "Why?" If there is a god, why is god punishing me? Or the universe. Why would the universe go out of it's way to make things so uncomfortable for me? It's probably best not to take the weather personally… but, it's hard. Really hard.

That's Our World

No great insight today. Maybe just stating the obvious. We are survivors. And we celebrate the survivors. Those who carry on through adversity. Those who have discipline. And prevail against the odds. And the odds are always stacked in opposition.

But you only survive until you don't. And it can all end in a blink of the eye. Any moment. That's just the way it is, and you need to get your head around that if you want to live, for real.  We are here. And everything is possible. But there's only a brief window of opportunity. And we don't know how brief. That's our world.

There Will Be A Spring!

Yes, well, the cold. The freezing. The absolutely numbing cold. It has descended here. There is a closing down, a closing in. You wrap yourself up in layers, you are like a walking zombie. One step. One step. Make sure you don't slip on the ice. Your world is closed to the smallest increments. You can't help but recoil. Makes you want to hide. To curl up next to a fire and wait for spring.  There will be a spring, right?

Bieber's Jailhouse Rock!

I must say I know very little about Justin Bieber. And I'm not gonna bother looking him up! He's a young singer right? He was just in the news for driving his Lamborgini really fast in a residential neighborhood.  Didn't pass a sobriety test.  Ended up in the dock.  But really, look at the hair! So rock and roll. A little James Dean, a little Elvis.  I don't know if this young dude has the chops as a singer, but he's got that rebel, rock and roll look. You must admire his grooming skills! Even in the county jail! Pass the mousse Dude!

The Essential 5

Lately some friends of mine have played that game of naming records that "changed their lives." It's been kicking around in my head. Yesterday, taking shelter from the bitter cold, I decided to fill the CD carousel with my choices.  This carousel only holds 5 CDs, so here are the 5.  I put them on shuffle and listened to the tracks in a randomized order.  All the songs stood toe to toe with each other.  All of these records still resonate with me very, very deeply.  They help make me who I am today. Yes, really.

1. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band --- Lennon's first post-Beatles record. Stripped down, elemental truth. Powerful, razor sharp with great production by Phil Spector.  The wall of sound reverb meets bass, drums, guitar, piano and Lennon's amazing, heartfelt, cutting voice.  Still brings chills.

2. Bob Dylan - Highway 61 --- A blast of exuberance. Funny, over the top, genre busting. No one ever recorded songs like this before. Dylan fronting an incredible band featuring Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper. A shock. A blast. Mind-bending. Dylan never sounded more engaged, more intense, more alive and funny.

3. Neil Young - Tonight's the Night --- Shakey's "dark night of the soul." A death-haunted record. A great band pushed to the ragged edge. Raw, bleak, darkly funny. Neil opens up a vein.  Spooky and cool.  L.A. Dark shades. Bleary nights. Filled with flaws, quirks - perfect.

4. The Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed --- The Stones at their darkest. Decadent blues, desiccated country. Perfectly realized r&r.  Jagger and Richards at the peak of their collaboration.  Perfectly recorded and produced by Jimmy Miller.  The Stones made other great records, but this one is complete. Flawless. Thrilling.

5. Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows this is Nowhere --- Neil emerges with the first and greatest Crazy Horse lineup. Danny Whitten on vocals and guitar is the secret weapon.  Long guitar jams. Overpowering sound. Funky. Cool. Sad. And when the "Horse" kicks it up, there is nothing better.

UPDATE: This was cross-posted over at whitewolfsonicprincess r&r diary!

You'd Like To Fly!

You'd like to fly. You think you know how. You have seen yourself fly in your dreams. You have experienced soaring in the air. You have experienced the feeling of spreading your arms, and taking flight.  

Sometimes you seem so heavy. So earth-bound. You know this isn't the only way. You know you can fly. You can feel it in your bones. You can see yourself up in the clouds. Light. Graceful. Free.  You can see it.

Believing Things!

You believe in evolution. You believe in re-invention. You believe in renewal. You believe in fresh starts. You believe in play. You believe in creativity. You believe in imagination. You believe in following your dreams. You believe in spirit, and heart and integrity. You believe in responsibility. You believe in a better world. You believe in conservation. You believe in science. You believe in accountability. You believe in forgiveness. You believe in action. You believe in love. You believe in courage. You believe in truth (even if you don't know what it always is).

You believe in believing the things you believe in.

I Have Met My Match!

"Yes, well, of course he's lovable. That's true and obvious. And I guess I do "love" him. But he's also "butt ugly." He drools, and pants, and snores like a freight train, and when he farts, well, you need to clear the premises pronto. He's on meds, but I don't know what the meds do, they don't seem to mellow him out or anything. He's a randy, humping force of nature. I have met my match. There's nothing to do with him. He is who he is, and that's the end of it. Being in his orbit for a few days has totally whacked me out…I just need to find a quiet corner, sit alone and try to recharge.  I've had my fill of Bruce. Too much Bruce. Overdosed on Bruce!"

The Unredeemables!

Yes, I'm in the camp of those who loved Martin Scorcese's "The Wolf of Wall Street." It's funny I've come across lots of people who did not like it. Or maybe it's more accurate to say they loathed it.

It seems in Pop Culture we can tolerate and even elevate all kinds of transgressive characters into mythological status.  I mean, we love the Hookers and the Hit Men. We love our Mobsters, our Drug Dealers. We can even imagine interesting "genius" Serial Killers.

But "Wolf" shows us that some characters are just not appealing at all... these are the lowest of the low, the totally unredeemable ones... I am talking about, of course, the Financial Services Salesmen! And yes, well, I do understand the loathing... yes, I do. 

Global Everything Present Now!

Douglas Rushkoff tells us "How Technology Killed the Future."   I totally get it. He frames it all in a political context, but I think this idea transcends politics and bleeds across our consciousness into and thru our media-saturated society, and global culture, and changes not only politics, but every aspect of our lives. How we think of ourselves, and how we live in the world. 

The ever-expanding, "Present Now," has swallowed up the past and obliterated the future.  We no longer have a need for the future. And the past is no longer past, it's always available to us through our vast and varied communication technologies. 

So yes, no "future thinking," or "future plans" just the GLOBAL EVERYTHING NOW PRESENT! It's the vast in-the-moment moment.  Our flashy gizmos, flickering screens, and constantly updating Twitter-feed existence is all-consuming.

And yes, well, if you believe the now growing frantic Climate Change Crowd (and I dare say, you should), the future for human beings is pretty dicey. And if we keep our heads only in the present… well, the present may come to a  very unpleasant halt in the not so distant future… I mean even if we don't believe in a future...

"She just didn't want to…" - N. Cave

Nick Cave… (and Grinderman), what can you say… rage, rage against the dying of the light!  

"Your limitations make you the wonderful disaster you most probably are.

Being on stage meant I got to be that person I always wanted to be. Then, you look down into the front row, and someone yawns." - N.C.

Confidence Game = Confidence!

So yes, if we take "con game" to be slang for a confidence game… can't we apply it broadly to much of our lives, and to our great American "can do" spirit? And really isn't the whole "power of positive thinking" enterprise just an elaborate con game?

And isn't Stuart Smalley's - "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and dog gone, people like me," just a great personal con?

Or that Little Engine that Could? "I think I can, I think I can…"

And if we dream and try to do anything new, create something that hasn't existed before, don't we have to con ourselves into thinking that it will work out, that we will have success despite all the odds against success? And isn't it people who successfully con themselves into taking a chance, who are the ones who do take a chance?

So yes, the con game. For ourselves and others too...

American Dream/American Con

The American Dream/The American Con…

Yes, they go together. They are inextricably linked.  The Dreamer dreams a dream and then tries to get others to dream too and maybe separates them from a little bit of cash to be applied to the dream.

The Con Man (selling confidence) sells a dream and then tries to get others to dream the dream with him, and also separates them from a little bit of cash to be applied to the dream.

The Dream is a dream. And some live the dream. And some just get to dream. And some of us con ourselves and others, and some times the con pays off, and sometimes it doesn't.

Steve Jobs and Jordan Belfort are not so different. Both are con men. Both were selling "confidence." One becomes a business world hero, the other becomes a convict.

It's a thin line separating the two Cons...

Imitation Anything!

Google the word imitation and you get… imitation crab, imitation of life, imitation of Christ…

Imitation. Imitation anything, such as imitation cheese!?  My advice? Avoid. Avoid at all costs! Just take my word for it.  Do not get or consume imitation anything. If you are gonna get, gonna consume, get the real deal. Not a copy. Not an imitation. Really. I mean it!

Maybe Not So Surprising!

Well, maybe it isn't really all that surprising. Turns out cake, whiskey, a night of Elvis songs - singing and playing through the evening = Pure Joy.  I mean, throw in some great conversation, lots of laughter, and a little bit of insight, and it all adds up to a satisfying evening. Good vibes and a great time. Our songs held their own. We did our best to command the room when it was our chance to shine. And shine we did!

Cake, Whiskey and Elvis! Mercy!

It's finally here. The Cake and Whiskey Club presents "Hunka Hunka Bourbon Love" tonight at the Homegrown Cafe. Our band whitewolfsonicprincess (acoustic duo with second guest guitar), will play a mini-set of Elvis songs. This is a cool concept created by our friend Carlo Garcia.  Every month the Cake and Whiskey club hosts an event featuring a whiskey, a cake and a musical theme.  We are honored to be part of this one.

Picking Elvis songs was a challenge. And at first, I didn't think it was gonna work for us. The trick is to find songs that you have some kind of connection to, or songs that you can sort of "make your own." It took some work, but we finally came up with a little set that sits well with us. Yesterday we had our last rehearsal and it was a deeply rewarding session.

Hope it works for the audience tonight!  Happy to say this one is sold out! Should be a good rocking time!

An Elected Oligarchy!

OK it's official… we really are "ruled" by millionaires.  And even if our representatives are elected by "the people," it just so happens that this country works much less like a democracy and much more like an oligarchy! We are ruled by the few, the elite, and we willingly go along. It's a freely elected oligarchy.  

And here's what voting really means (this is not cynical or jaded, just realistic - I vote, even if I think it's often pointless) - our choices are usually between a very rich, very conservative, right-wing ideologue backed by other rich people and big corporations VS.  a very rich, somewhat less conservative person, a supposed  "moderate," backed by other rich people and big corporations.

The right winger is rich and basically doesn't give damn for anyone but other rich folk, (they despise the poor), and the moderate sort of gives a damn, or at least pretends to, and maybe once in awhile tosses a crumb to the huddling, seething, masses.  There's your choice! That's Democracy, baby!

The rules of the game of society are made by those millionaires, and surprise, surprise those rules seem to always favor the millionaires over the vast majority of the people. We all act like it's some kind of divine right of the rich.  Maybe it's a hangover from the time of Kings? And if we are punished or ignored, well, we are just the poor schlubs… maybe those rich people will be kind to us, or maybe somehow, some way (the lottery?), we will one day join the club too?

And yes, well, we hope to be like those rich ones. And we toil away. And hope they will look kindly on our days of toil. But of course, they can't really be bothered, they are too busy being rich!

3 Chords and the Truth!

One of the surprises in my life has been that old news is often new news, and those old, worn shabby cliches (at least some of them) that you have heard a million times actually are true. Now this does not mean we should look at the world with "tired eyes," we should not stop looking at the world, we should not assume that we know everything already, we should not become blasé or jaded, we should always be on the look-out for the new, the unconventional, and we should always be open to the idea that "everything we know is wrong."

So really the surprise is that, yes, a lot of those old cliches are true AND everything you know is wrong!  Case in point… "Three Chords and the Truth!"  It's a tired old phrase, and a new album just released by an old bluegrass master named James King. This came out at the same time I've been working on some old rock and roll songs. And yes, well the three chord thing is absolutely true.  The best of blues, bluegrass, rock, rockabilly, country, punk - three chords is more than enough for sure. Anything beyond three chords is jazz or classical or some kind of avant garde thing!

And well, it's songs about "truth" that make the biggest impact. I guess I mean some kind of emotional truth. Those are the songs that really resonate. There is a universe of music and emotion in three chords and "the truth." And you learn that playing less (less chords, less notes) is more all the time.  You delve deep into the essential, and you find that the essential really is everything...

It's Not Always Pretty!

One of the knocks against Scorcese's new movie is that it "glorifies" low-lifes and scumbags. This is funny. Just by putting a camera on a character it somehow glorifies that character? I suppose you could say the same of just about any movie Scorcese has ever made.  Think Jake Lamotta, or Tony Spilotro, or Henry Hill, or Frank Rosenthal, or Travis Bickle.  A pretty motley, low-life crew.

Where does Jordan Belfort fit in this spectrum? Well, he ripped off a lot of people. But he didn't kill anyone. Oh yeah, he did more drugs, had more sex, and lived a lifestyle of bling that would put Caligua to shame, but compared to the mobsters in "Good Fellas" or in "Casino" Belfort's crimes fall short of the brutality of some of those thugs and murderers.

And if we took out novels and plays and movies about low-lifes and scumbags, we'd have to forget about some the great works from some of my favorites, including plays and novels from these guys: Shakespeare, Dostoyevski, Nelson Algren, Charles Bukowski, Jean Genet, Jack Kerouac, Hubert Selby Jr., Sam Shepard, etc. … and most of David Lynch's work and the best films of Francis Coppola too!

I think these guys and Scorcese tell very,very human stories, stories about humans… and it's not always pretty, not always uplifting, but most of the time very illuminating!

The Matter of Cinema!

As you may know, if you happened to read a previous post of  mine, I loved Martin Scorcese's new movie. It has created some controversy. Some people were turned off by the movie, turned off by the people in it, and criticized Scorcese for spending 3 hours telling Jordan Belfort's story in vivid, and exhausting detail.

I was surprised when one of my writer friends actually said she was "boycotting" the movie, sight unseen, and attacked Scorcese for making it.  To me that seems so counter to the whole creative endeavor. I mean, I can understand not going to see a film, but to criticize it without actually seeing it, seems indefensible.  I mean, hell, I don't go to see any Sandra Bullock movies, she sort of makes my skin crawl, but I don't feel like I have any right to actually speak about her movies since I haven't actually sat through any of them.

And well, I am convinced that "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a great film. But I don't really think I need to try to convince anyone one way or the other. See it, or don't see it. Do I think Belfort is admirable? No. Do I think he is an interesting, compelling character? Yes. Do I think the three hours were well spent? Absolutely.

Scorcese wrote an "open letter" to his daughter about the "future of film."  It's worth reading. Loved this…

"You have to be absolutely dedicated to the work, you have to give everything of yourself, and you have to protect the spark of connection that drove you to make the picture in the first place. You have to protect it with your life. In the past, because making movies was so expensive, we had to protect against exhaustion and compromise. In the future, you’ll have to steel yourself against something else: the temptation to go with the flow, and allow the movie to drift and float away.

This isn’t just a matter of cinema. There are no shortcuts to anything. I’m not saying that everything has to be difficult. I’m saying that the voice that sparks you is your voice – that’s the inner light, as the Quakers put it.

That’s you. That’s the truth." - Martin Scorcese

Sub-Zero Survival!

Tramping, trudging, slogging, slipping, sliding. Wrapped like a mummy in layers and layers of fabric… that's how it goes out in the sub-sub-sub-zero temps...

Beat the Deep Freeze!

If you've ever seen Game of Thrones, you have often heard the line, "Winter is coming." Yes, well, John Snow, winter is here in the Windy City.  They are saying wind-chills of -40 today.  Now, that's cold brothers and sisters.

Yesterday how did we beat the deep freeze? We didn't venture out. We had a kitchen session.  We set up our little p.a. with 3 microphones and two acoustic guitar inputs and played music. It was warm and cozy.  The radiators were playing a tune too.

Two guitars, three voices doing Elvis songs. And surprise, surprise the songs are really rounding into form.  We did a little bit of "arranging," changed some tempos, added a few little flourishes, and really made these songs "ours."

It was very encouraging. Bodes well for the show next weekend… now we need to slog thru and get there! 

Here's our little 5 song set-list: Now and Then, Suspicious Minds, Fool Fool Fool, I Forgot to Remember to Forget, That's Alright Mama...

Just Marvel and Smile

"Trying to see as God sees…" I think we do this all the time. Or try to. Even if we don't believe in the concept. And I think this "god-like" seeing does sometimes elevate us. Especially if we end up marveling and wondering at the splendor of the universe.

Although, no doubt, it also leads to hubris and arrogance, and ignorance and lots and lots of our problems. Our man vs. man problems. Playing god, thinking like god, or speaking for god, is a deadly trap.

But this little mashup of music and image… is so beautiful and amazing, and sort of takes your breath away… Think of a silent, powerless god who could see all of this, and just marvel... and smile…

The Expectations Game

I don't know if it works like this for you, as it does for me, but time and time again Low expectations = High payoff. 

I wonder if we set ourselves to "no expectations" at all, maybe everything we experienced would be experienced as it really is, and that "is" would often be amazing… Maybe.

Change

Change… is it possible? Is it inevitable? Or illusory? Does it come from intention? Or does it just happen?

You Think It Shouldn't Work!

You think this movie by Spike Jonze shouldn't work. And the description - "A man falls in love with an operating system," doesn't really capture or explain it at all. I found this movie profoundly, deeply, and totally moving. It makes you see the world and your place in it in a new way. I found it renewing, a healing, a clearing. Life-affirming and beautifully realized.

It asks all the big questions - "What is love? What is life? What is reality? How do we connect with others? How do we feel? What makes life worth living?"

And it opens you up in a totally new and subtle way. There are so many layers to this film. It's a mystery. A beauty. Genius.  Really. With a light touch, and lots of intelligence. Amazing.

 

Pork Rectums - Yum!

Happy 2014! 

I thought this story about "imitation calamari" consisting of pork rectums on "This American Life," which hasn't' aired here yet, and which I haven't heard yet, and which may be just a joke, and may not be true, but should be true, because it is so emblematic of so much of the American Way of life and of capitalism, would make a great first blog post for the new year.

I mean, we don't know what we are eating. We must trust the food industry. And time and time again the food processors have proven to be low-lifes and scoundrels, and pork butt-holes are the same shape and consistency of calamari, so you could see someone coming up with the idea of making a switcheroo.  And hell, who would know the difference?

And you have to admire the audacity of it. And also how it seems just as innovative and ethical as "credit default swaps" or "mortgage securities," or all the other imitation crap that people pass off for quality every day in the market place.

Yes. Pork assholes… perfect! Welcome to America 2014!

Might As Well Enjoy It!

When I was a little kid, growing up in the last century, I never really thought too far ahead, it just was not in my nature. I still don't really think too far ahead. And I don't like to dwell very long in the past either. It just isn't something I like to do, and don't do often.

But when I was little, I must say, the year 2014 never seemed real, anything after 2000 seemed like the way distant future. The impossible future. A future of antiseptic, hermetically-sealed chambers, with flying cars, and strange, time-saving gadgets.

And well, there are lots of things that turned out differently than I thought they would turn out way back then. And although I don't look back often, and don't look forward often, I have learned that much of what I thought would happen didn't happen.  And maybe that's why I kind of stay "here now." Saves lots of time from worrying about things that will never actually happen.

And then of course, lots and lots of things have happened, and I do think about the world in ways I never thought I'd think about the world. And the world became a very different place from what I thought it would be. And surprisingly I am still here. At least right now. And that's pretty much all we have, right now, and if we must be here, we may as well enjoy it. That's the best advice I can give. To myself, and anyone else who would ask me for advice!

Long Live the Anti-King!

So yeah, it's weird. I've been reading Neil Young's book, and listening to his records, and learning some of his songs too.  At the same time, we are working on Elvis songs. Cruising thru YouTube, watching Elvis performances, (it's sad and invalidating) trying to select a handful of songs to do for an upcoming performance.

I realize I was learning Neil Young songs as almost an antidote to working on Elvis songs.

It's The King and the Anti-King. One wears big white suits. The other wears flannel shirts and jeans. One has a big, over-powering voice, the other has a shaky, fluttery kind of voice. One recorded lots of songs, but all of them are covers, the other pretty much, or almost exclusively wrote all his own songs, and his music is a record of his mind and his days.

One represents glitz and in-authenticity, the other seems homemade, authentic, full of heart and soul… at least this is how it seems to me.

One I often find ridiculous, and one I always find compelling. One sort of invalidates the whole pop culture/celebrity thing, (for me) the other seems to be working to an internal clock - one of mystery and loneliness and heart.

Both indulged in lots of mind-altering substances. Legal and illegal. One died fairly young, and one is still doing great work all these many years later…

Turns out "better to burn out than to fade away," is a pretty good line, but not really a blue-print for living! I'm sort of repelled by the King, (although I do love the early Sun Sessions Elvis) but I gladly, whole-heartedly embrace the Anti-King!

Love & Chemistry!

Just finished Neil Young's "Waging Heavy Peace." Loved it.  Not much to say, except Neil is a great story-teller, and a real original, and he has a pretty amazing life-story to tell.

It's all there in his music… listen to Tonight's the Night, or Zuma or Harvest, or Rust Never Sleeps, or On the Beach, or Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, or Ragged Glory or After the Gold Rush, or… hell, listen to all of them… and add in Journey to the Past, and Harvest Moon, and American Stars & Bars, and Comes a Time and if you are ambitious listen to the Buffalo Springfield records, and maybe CSNY's Deja Vu too… and don't forget Weld! And Arc Weld too!  And La Noise!

And for sure check out the Neil Young and Crazy Horse Live at Fillmore East, and Neil Young live at Massey Hall… and hell, anything else you can get your hands on… and preferably you have a vinyl copy of his records, and you still have a phonograph player and you live somewhere where you can really crank the volume, and PLAY IT LOUD!

As Neil says, it all comes down to "Love and Chemistry!"

Messy!

Yes, people disagree about stuff, I mean, pretty much everything. Always will. It makes you figure out what you believe and what you don't. It can make for messy times. Messy conversations. Messy politics. That's the breaks, that's the world. We need to figure out how to go forward even with the disagreements. No one has a monopoly on truth. It's sometimes hard to figure out what the truth really is.  It's good to listen. And to think. And to re-examine all of your beliefs and opinions, often. Maybe daily. 

American Id Running Rampant!

Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" is a stunner. It is over the top, balls to the wall film-making of the highest order. Certainly a masterpiece, up there with his other two great American epics "Good Fellas" and "Casino." And Leonardo Dicaprio as Jordan Belfort is hilarious and amazing.

This is a very, very funny movie. Ridiculously funny. And freaking appalling. It's an example of Capitalism Unbound. It's the freaking American id running rampant. Belfort is addicted to sex, to drugs, to money, and to the deal. He is the American/Capitalistic Wolf. A salesman extraordinaire. Belfort shows us that more is more and more. And who doesn't want more?! All the freaking time?!

And it's definitely a movie of our times - what about business ethics? What about decorum? What about shame? Is there any morality in the land? How old world, Baby.  What if Motley Crue were stock brokers - only in this case, there is more money, more sex, more drugs - it's kind of like that… but crazier too.

This trailer hooked me a few months ago and assured that I would be in a theater seat the day it opened. Kanye West's song is not in the movie, but it's great in the trailer… Wow!

Musicians & their Influences

If you (like me) read lots of books by and about musicians, you often read about musicians writing about their influences.  And it's often among the highlights of the books…

For instance…

Richard Hell writing about the first time he saw Patti Smith doing r&r poetry.  Patti Smith writing about watching Jim Morrison locked in battle with an audience. Pete Townshend describing entering a small club in London and seeing Jimi Hendrix on stage playing guitar. Jimi Hendrix describing how he'd carry around a Bob Dylan album with him everywhere he went. Bob Dylan describing how he wanted to become Woody Guthrie, and about the first time he listened to Robert Johnson. Neil Young describing how Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" changed his life. Marianne Faithful describing watching a young Mick Jagger dancing and singing in a small flat in London. Keith Richards' describing how Chuck Berry taught him everything he wanted to know about playing guitar. John Lennon describing how hearing Elvis Presley's  "Heartbreak Hotel" blew a door open in his existence.

Etc.

R. Kelly vs. Jim Derogotis

I know it's Christmas… so yeah, have a Merry Christmas… 

I wanted to wade into the R. Kelly vs. Jim Derogotis story.  Even though it's "stomach-churning." It seems Mr. Kelly has a major problem. And lots of people have known about it for a long time. And well, the hits keep coming, and supposedly hip institutions like Pitchfork and Bonnaroo are "enablers" and "co-signers" and anyone buying Kelly's music, should maybe have a re-think.

I applaud Derogotis for standing up against the pop machine…

"The saddest fact that I've learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody." - J. Derogotis

It takes guts to be the only one standing up to say that maybe the Emperor has no clothes. This is not a pretty story.  Thank you Jim Derogotis!

Maybe the tide has turned. Maybe people will open their eyes. Maybe we shouldn't look away...

Neil Young - Living the Hippie Dream!

I wrote about buying Pete Townshend's autobiography over Neil Young's autobiography in a blog post here… and you know what? I was wrong. I mean, I did enjoy Pete's book, it was a pretty good read, although it's also a little disappointing, seems Pete is kind of a tortured soul, and he didn't really enjoy the glory years of the Who as much as I do, but Neil's book (I'm only on page 77) is a truly great read. And if there's one thing I can say about it, Neil certainly isn't bullshitting anyone.

What a great character. Neil is a strange one. So unique, so original. A "weirdo" an iconoclast, a singular being.  He's into things I'm not into, things like Lionel trains, and classic old cars, and he's also into things I'm very much into, like old tube amps, vintage guitars, following the muse, and MUSIC!

I must admit that Neil is one of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time, up there with Bob Dylan and John Lennon and he is absolutely my favorite guitar player.

"But you know life has her ways. Nothing is obvious, and you never know what is going to happen." - Neil Young (from "Waging Heavy Peace").

Lost in Elvis-Land!

Yesterday I was still in Elvis-land.  Played some Elvis songs at our little rehearsal studio with another guitarist.  It's amazing what can happen if you add just one more musician to the mix. Simple chords and notes suddenly take on a little more resonance, a little more nuance.  

Simple additions open sonic doors: they deepen and add granularity. You think such a simple, plain thing of adding a second guitar shouldn't have such a profound effect, but it does.

I sang those songs. My humble voice mouthing those words. It wasn't Elvis, but didn't sound bad. At least I was in tune, on pitch.  It's something.

Also got in two intense conversations about Elvis with two different musicians. One plays saxophone, one plays guitar.  Seems everyone who knows and loves Elvis, really has their own version of Elvis too. I realized their versions of Elvis were really different and a reflection of them too. Elvis is more than just a man, more than just a singer… he is a way of life, a way of looking at life.

The Handsome Hero/Great White Whale of Excess

I don't want to turn this into the Elvis channel, but the King is on my mind, getting ready for a performance of some Elvis songs in early January.  But it's true I am totally fascinated by the King. Growing up I was not a fan. As a young lad I was in the Dylan/Beatles/Stones camp, and Elvis was so much a part of the cheesy entertainment establishment in the late 60's & early to mid-70's.  I always thought he was kind of a joke.

The movies were terrible. The Vegas Elvis was the epitome of bad taste.  But of course, that was not the whole story.  If you did a little digging, it turns out that people like Dylan, Keith Richards, Neil Young and John Lennon were tremendously influenced and inspired by Elvis.  Especially the young, early rocker Elvis.

Later I discovered and devoured the original Sun Sessions, and that haunting, amazing voice - so beautiful, so strange, so unique, finally hit me like a freight train. And if you dig a little, you will find amazing music - Blues, Country, Gospel and Rock & Roll.  I saw Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train," and then finally I read the two volume biography of Elvis written by Peter Guaralnick. It is a masterpiece. One of the greatest biographies I've ever read… of any kind, I'd put it up there with other great bios I've  read (and I've read lots of them). 

And the Elvis saga almost seems Biblical. Mythological. And so American. It's an inspiring ride. From very humble beginnings in the South to wild fame and fortune and then a horrifying, numbing, drug-addled decline. And Guranlnick captures it all in vivid and beautifully written detail.  It's an improbable, impossible story… and Elvis is the young, handsome hero who morphs into the great white whale of excess. 

It's a story of the birth of rock and roll and it becomes a story of the madness of celebrity culture too, and so much more… and finally you are left with just a man… Elvis… and that haunting, over-powering, improbable voice...

And Well, What Exactly is an Elvis Song?!

So here is an interesting question (at least to me), what exactly is an "Elvis song?" Well, it's not so easy to define.  He wasn't a song-writer, and he sang lots of songs and recorded at least 759 of them.

And if you do "Get Back," or "Hey Jude," or "Bridge over Troubled Water," aren't you really cheating? I mean, Elvis may have recorded them, but not many of us really think of them as Elvis songs.

So then is it only "the top forty hits" that count? Maybe, but man, does that eliminate lots of great songs, and maybe the best of Elvis' work was not on the top forty. He sang Country, Gospel, Blues, Rock & Roll, and Schmaltz and Dreck, and just about everything in between too.

And if you sing an Elvis song, you find yourself trying to sing like Elvis.  I think this may explain the Elvis impersonator phenomenon. You not only want to sing songs he sang but you want to sing them like he sang them.  Elvis had such a big, distinctive (some might say bombastic) style that sometimes totally overwhelmed songs he sang. This was both good and bad. Elvis became the King, and everything he touched became Elvis, and just like King Midas this kind of became a tragic flaw too.

If you find yourself in Las Vegas, big, bloated, fat, drug-addled and sick, and all the adoring fans are still flinging their underpants at you, and you are forgetting lyrics, and stumbling around onstage, and everyone is still telling you that you are "the King" that can do no wrong… well, do you kind of find the whole thing sort of hollow and unfulfilling?

Anyway, not sure how to resolve the "Elvis Song" question… here's Elvis in rehearsal doing the Beatles "Hey Jude"… "let it out and shove it in!" Hah!

The King's Call!

One of my friends knows I'm on an Elvis kick and he sent me this song that Phil Lynott wrote about the demise of the King…

"Me, I went to the liquor store, I bought a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin…"

It features Mark Knopfler on guitar… how did I miss this one? The song takes on a little extra gravity when you know that Phil didn't make it very far down the road either…(love that Gretsch White Falcon!)...

The Rocker, the Cheesy One, the Great White Whale - Your Choice!

In January we will be doing some Elvis songs, or I guess, since Elvis was not a song-writer, songs that Elvis covered, for a gathering of folks drinking whiskey and eating cake. At first I was thinking of doing songs from the legendary Sun Sessions, I mean it really was the birthplace of Rock & Roll. But it turns out that another performer has snagged most of the songs I was considering.

So, there's all the other eras of Elvis to consider, including the cheesy Hollywood Elvis of the early to mid-sixties, or the era of the Great White Whale Elvis, where all taste and decorum and "integrity" was pretty much obliterated by adoring fans, massive quantities of drugs, large and improbable jumpsuits, mountains of peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and questionable song choices. 

But you know cheesiness, dreck, mutton chops, and enormous white suits with over-sized collars and belt buckles, and tastelessness, that was all part of the glory of Elvis. This one is from the cheesy Hollywood era… and it's pretty cool - in a silly, cheesy kind of way! 

Cobain Channeling Leadbelly!

This aired on MTV twenty years ago. I always thought it was a masterpiece too. It's funny, Nirvana was a very loud, very electric band from Seattle, but it was their unplugged set in New York that was a total revelation. And Cobain channeling Leadbelly is one of the most beautiful, haunting, chilling and sort of scary performances I've ever listened to and seen. Cobain's voice seems ancient, other-wordly. Such a big force coming out of that little fragile-looking man. There's real pain. And death hovers all around this set… amazing… three months later Cobain took his own life… the man burned… and rocked, and lit the world up with his passion…

The Big Things Really Aren't

According to this science article - "Life does not exist." Another example of how we have built our understanding of the world and our place in it on castles made of sand.  Our understanding of all the big things that make up our world are suspect…

Life
Reality
Death
Time
Memory
Love
Health

It's all a little unsettling… but as Kurt Vonnegut once wrote in "Slaughterhouse Five" ... "So it goes."

Reality! Really?!

Reality? What is reality?  Maybe there's only "reality." With quotation marks. Even the most solid, real things sometimes seem fungible - flexible, changeable, interchangeable.  Fluid too.

You can easily blow a hole in your own reality. It can actually happen in a blink of the eye. What do you believe? What do you choose to believe? What do you see? And what do you choose not to see?

Reality is a relationship. It can work for you, work against you. You can choose how you engage with it. You can embrace or deny it, but still, you meet reality halfway, and your half helps make reality what reality is or at least what you think your reality is…

Happiness Baby!

Maybe the struggle, the over-coming of obstacles, the concerted effort despite the vast pool of those twin dark matter evils -  hostility and indifference -  really is what makes all things worthwhile? 

Free and easy is nice. But nice isn't enough. I never got it that in Camus' "Myth of Sisyphus" - you know the one where the dude rolls a boulder up a hill, and then when he gets it to top he loses his grip and it just rolls back down? And he does this over and over and over? I never quite got it that we are to "imagine Sisyphus happy!" 

How did I miss that? I always thought Camus was using the myth to illustrate futility and the absurdity of our existence. But I didn't get that futility and absurdity would vanish or be rendered powerless if we imagined that the simple rolling of the rock makes one happy.

And well, I guess, it's true… and all those years of futility and absurdity and rock rolling that I have endured? Happiness Baby!

Thoughts After Seeing the Coen Brothers "No Country for Old Men" for the 3rd Time!

We can imagine we live in a world of large and powerful forces, forces which we can't name, can't understand, can't control. We must contend with these forces, or maybe, really, we just bend to their will. We can imagine that we have autonomy, and we can imagine we have a say in our "fates." But the powerful forces that hover above and around us don't really take our imaginings into account.

We can imagine we live in a world of power and probabilities. We can imagine that everything is basically a coin toss and every decision, every event in our lives is an event of luck and percentages. We can imagine that there are other forces and reasons to our lives, but again, our imaginations are pretty much bounded by our heads.

Our hopes and dreams are vanities.  But maybe we do need a little bit of vanity to carry on. But those forces that guide and bound our lives don't really care and aren't influenced by our imaginings, or vanities, or reasons. It's a hard, clear-eyed way of looking at existence. Maybe it's no country for old men, and really, we are all old, or will be old. We are all implicated in this hard country.

Still, it is the country we live in. And living, is our thing, and living does have it's upside. Sometimes.

The Weather Just Is

I hate stories about the weather. Someone's house gets blown down, or the river washes it away, and some well-coiffed TV personality with a microphone asks the poor schlub how it feels to have his life's dreams evaporate before his eyes . Not too freaking good!

Yeah, the weather just is, and we must endure it. I can understand how Midwesterners think that extreme weather can "build character." Sometimes just strapping on your boots and heading out into the elements seems like a true act of courage.

The elements can damage you. They can impair you. They can kill you. You must respect the elements.  And yes, I suppose, survival is an honorable thing. You do what it takes to get through the day. You brave the elements and do your best to endure, to make it in one piece.

At least for a time. This time. This day. The weather. Hah!

Pearls of Wisdom!

I always have to have a book to read. I'm between books right now, I have a few on my "wish list" but haven't actually plunked any money down yet to buy one.  So I'm browsing through some books that I've already read. I have a couple from Chuck Klosterman. They are easy reads, sort of funny, covering music and pop culture.  They almost seem like throw-away kind of books.

If you read Klosterman you will read about Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. You will read about Cocoa Puffs, and the loneliness of Billy Joel. You will read about TV shows you've never seen, like "Saved by the Bell." You will laugh and be amazed how someone can really like the band KISS, and can devote lots of time listening to and describing the pleasure of listening to a long list of "hair-metal bands," that you will never listen to.

Also you might come across some cool insights… little pearls of wisdom…

"The goal of being alive is to figure out what it means to be alive…" - C. Klosterman

Enjoy!

"Enjoy your day in the sun!" 

Seems like good advice. Even if today there is no sun - just clouds, and snow.  And even if the temperature is a harsh "sub-zero." 

Enjoy!

Little Knit Caps for All!

It's funny. We were recently in L.A. Temps were pretty much in the mid-sixites. All the beautiful hipsters - boys and girls were wearing little knit caps. They are all the rage. Nice accessory, pretty much a "fashion statement." They were everywhere!

Here it's near zero degrees. Those little knit caps are essential. And you need to pull them down low, way down. Not so fashionable here. All the lonely gray people wear them here too. Not so beautiful, just sensible. Not so fashionable, just reasonable.

And those L.A. hipsters sort of seemed like "posers," but really, who are the silly ones? Those who choose to be fashionable, or those who choose to live in the land of frozen tundra?

Random Wisdom!

It's funny. Maybe the most liberating, profound advice (see previous post) comes from a fortune cookie. Something that was just randomly typed up and inserted in a cookie and then randomly left on a table, and then just randomly picked up, cracked open and read. And usually this method of conveying information just makes you laugh, or shrug, or yawn or whatever; the words don't really stick… but then, maybe this time, this message, really, really hits home, and you think: "Wow, how come no one ever told me that before?" And it really resonates. And you carry it with you, and pass it on...

Joy Yee - Words to Live By!

Maybe it's no surprise that my favorite restaurant has the word joy in the name.  Joy Yee Noodles. And no surprise that it's a great place for a vegetarian to dine. And the pictures of the food on the menu don't really do the food justice. The food is better than the pictures!

And I was so happy to discover yesterday that they will pretty much make whatever you want. Even if it isn't listed on the menu.  Black mushrooms with Thai Curry Noodle? No problem. 

And yes, you always get a fortune cookie with your bill. I never eat the cookie, but always crack it open and read the message. Yesterday's fortune was a keeper, and actually used a semi-colon!

"Just be yourself; you are wonderful."

Words to live by!

The Conservative Right was Wrong about Apartheid Too!

Yes, we should emulate the example of Mandela. Be humble, forgive, move on. But also, we should remember, that the U.S. was a long-time friend of apartheid, and friends to the oppressors that ran South Africa. 

And yes, the Conservative Right was wrong about apartheid, and South Africa and sanctions for a very, very long time.  They were the useful idiots and they were kind of a star-studded group - names like Ronald Reagan, Jesse Helms, William F. Buckley, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson - they actively worked against sanctions and helped keep apartheid in place… a rogues gallery of rogues.

Mandela!

“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would 
lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my
bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”  - 

Nelson Mandela

27 years in prison. Willing to die for his cause. Fighting against an obvious evil - apartheid.  He was a firebrand, a revolutionary willing to fight, and also a man of grace, strength, power. A humble man who walked out of prison to lead a country. Once free  he embraced non-volience and reconciliation, and he brought a people together. An amazing, inspiring human being.

Mandela!

Moving too fast for conditions!

It's a sad and tragic thing. Death. And Paul Walker, an actor in the Fast and Furious movie franchise, dying in a fiery crash in a Porsche, out on the road in California, well, it is sad, baffling and strange. A story almost too symmetrical, too neat, almost like an O. Henry story.

They could make a movie about it. A young, blue-eyed actor, riding high in a big time movie franchise that features cars moving too fast for conditions, dies in a car moving too fast for conditions. Don't know why this story has resonated with me.

You see someone who looks like he has it all. Fame, fortune, good looks. And it's snatched away in an instant. "An accident." Maybe really doesn't make a very good movie after all.  Kind of leaves you baffled and hollow at the end. And the thrill of riding too fast is a cheap thrill and not really worth it!

Conservative Right - Always Wrong!

Yes, all this hostility from the Conservative Right to "Obamacare," and the certainty that subsidized health insurance is some crazy, Rube Goldberg contraption that can't possibly work, seems so irrational. If you've ever worked in the tech industry, the idea that a website has "bugs" is so "ho-hum."

It's funny how out of touch with reality the Conservative Right has turned out to be. Maybe it was always so.  You think even a broken clock is correct occasionally, but almost by definition it looks like the Right is always, always wrong! Funny!

The Irish Curse!

I wrote this r&r diary post over at our band website about the great, sodden, Shane MacGowan.  I ruminated about the state of the man's liver.  Doing research for this post, I also discovered the meaning of the "Irish Curse."  I always thought it was a tendency to over-imbibe alcohol, but supposedly it's the propensity to having a less than average-sized penis!  Who knew?! I mean, what about Bono? Suddenly all those great songs have a new resonance… "I still haven't found what I'm looking for…" 

JP Morgan Chase's Twitter Fest Breaks Bad!

This from Matt Taibbi is funny and heart-warming!  JP Morgan Chase's little Twitter-fest breaks bad. Really bad. What started as a cool little PR event idea for the bank, quickly became something else entirely. Maybe "the people" are not as brain-dead as those well-heeled bankers think…

"Can I have my house back?"

"I have Mortgage Fraud, Market Manipulation, Credit Card Abuse, Libor Rigging and Predatory Lending AM I DIVERSIFIED? #AskJPM"

A Long Day & Night!

Yesterday. Woke up early on the West Coast. Up in the hills, looking down on the blinking lights of L.A. Oh yeah, there's the Griffith Park Observatory.  Isn't that where Sal Mineo died? Finished the day late in the wee hours of the morning at a little bar on the North-side of Chicago. Playing guitar and singing in two r&r bands. It was a long day. A very long day. And we wrung out just about every emotion and feeling you can think of: exhaustion, joy, exuberance, edginess, satisfaction, neediness, wanting, thirstiness, hunger, fulfillment. Burned out this morning. But wouldn't change a thing. That was pretty good day and night!