Gargoyle!

"When I think of you, I think...  BROKEN-WINGED MONSTER!"

The Secret Code of the Universe

The Secret Code of the Universe: "Everything changes, nothing is lost." - Ovid

Way Too Late!

You just know when the glaciers are melted, and the water is lapping over the streets of Manhattan and Miami and New Orleans, and the forests are ash, and the crops are burnt to a perfect crisp, and the people are cowering in their air-conditioned nightmares, starving, and slathered with sun-block, you won't be able to find any of those global warming deniers.  They will deny that they ever denied. And we won't be able to hold them to account anyway. And we'll be asking ourselves "what happened?" And of course, it will be way, way too late!

Not Clear!

Sometimes you have to "take the bull by the horns."  Is it a "brave and direct action?"  Or is it just a dumb move?  I guess it depends.  If you wrestle that bull down, and emerge triumphant, well, I guess it was brave and direct.  On the other hand, if that bull tramples you, pounds your body into the dirt, and you end up broken and bloody, well maybe it was sort of a "dumb," stupid, and dim-witted move.  

Acting

What is that advice again...?  


Act like you are the person you want to be and you will be that thing.  


Really?!

The Tortoise!

So happy to say that people are buying our CD 10+1.  Slow and steady.  Be like the Tortoise!  


And very happy with our next show's poster.  Cal's is a hole in the wall kind of bar, a Chicago institution; lots of cold beer, no stage, just push the tables aside and let it rock!  We plan on going electric and primal for this show.  Thinking of doing the Door's "Soul Kitchen." "Speak in Secret Alphabets..."

Perspective

"He's the kind of person that looks better from a distance."

Go to Albums

r&r diary - whitewolfsonicprincess shares their "go to" albums...

Sales & Formats!

A subject near and dear to my heart.  I pay for music, always have.  I have owned 45s, 33 rpms, 8 tracks, cassettes, CDs and digital downloads...  lately I've spent most of my money on used CDs. I like owning a tangible thing, I enjoy the album art, the liner notes; I enjoy listening to a disc as one coherent piece.  I very rarely spend more than $10 for a disc, sometimes as little as $3 or $4.


You look at this chart and you marvel at the reign of the CD format.  CD sales peaked around 1999 (Backstreet Boys) looks like the bubble burst in 2000, right around the 9/11 thing.  And music sales are down just like everything else in these post-bubble years.  And when people say that there is a resurgence of vinyl, well, it's certainly a micro, micro, micro-market.

You wonder if the record companies blew it when they were selling CDs for $16, $17, and $18 dollars. But maybe the world just took a turn, and this is just another window into "The Great Reset." There is now a generation of people who have never paid for music.  CD sales have fallen dramatically.  There's a big debate about the ethics of illegal downloads vs. actually paying for music, but for lots of folks that horse left the barn long ago.

The Mystery Clarifies

It seems to me, that as life rolls out, I don't really understand what life is, instead, I slowly start to understand what life isn't.  It's not a very elegant sentence, or formula for living, or a very efficient way to conduct yourself. But there it is...

Where Does the Time Go?

Yes, an excellent, heart-breaking question... Sandy Denny's voice is radiant...

 

No Normal

The "new normal" seems to be pretty "non- normal."  And maybe it's not so new either.  It's a weird time in the land.  And "the land" is basically planet-wide.  Strange, unexplainable things are happening all the time.  And the "conventional wisdom wielders" try to tell us that everything is fine, that "up is down," "slavery is freedom" and "ignorance is intelligence."  That there are no mysteries, everything is fine, and explainable.  It's clear they are clueless and really poor liars.  And once your eyes are open to the lies that people tell, and the unreliability of our reality, you realize anything and everything is possible.  And there is no normal.  Never has there ever been a "normal."

Straddling

You do a lot of straddling. You straddle between a hard-headed/clear-eyed approach vs. a plastic-headed/dewy-eyed approach.  Between the smart-guy take and the not so smart guy take. 


You straddle the world of physicality/materiality vs. the world of spirituality/immateriality. 


You approach the world and your life as some grand unholy beast of contradictions.  Makes for interesting dinner conversations. And it's the source of all your problems and all your solutions too...

Plasticity

So yes, well, our hope lies with the "plasticity of our brains."  It's a thin reed of hope.  You see much of humanity resisting change, resisting the fluid, flexible approach; sometimes it seems the "dumb ones," the egotists, the ideologues, those with firm ideas of what constitutes life, those with the loudest voices, or the splashiest robes, or those with the biggest checking accounts get to call the tune.

The Rich

I don't know if Felix Salmon's reviews of these books is fair or on target, but the statement at the end of the review hits the bulls-eye...

Yeah, it's a simple formulation, so for that reason, maybe it's suspect, but it certainly seems simple, clear, concise and totally, totally spot-on!

"This is now a country run by the rich, for the rich."

Pretty Sure

And if you do fall into a worm-hole, what do you do?  Don't panic, don't fly off the handle. You can deal with it.  You may be annihilated, or reconstituted, or something, but I'm pretty sure you can endure it.  Pretty sure. You can come out the other end.  And live to tell the tale.  Maybe.

Worm-Hole

Cell Phone Transcript:

Caller #1: "I cooked my nines."
Caller #2: "Stop saying that."


Caller #1: "That's the best way to describe how I feel."
Caller #2: "We fell into a worm-hole.  It's the longest day ever."


Caller #1: "Hmmm..."
Caller #2: "Time has stopped."


Caller #1: "A worm-hole? I'll meet you on the other side."
Caller #2: "What if we can't find each other? 


Caller #1: "I don't..."
Caller #2: "It would be weird not talking to you on the phone."


Caller #1: "Yeah..."

It's Pretty Simple!

Yes, Kevin Drum has a nice little post summing up how we ended up in such a disastrous economic pickle. 


It's an election year.  


It's good to remember how we got here.  And it's pretty simple: The Republicans destroyed the country!  

One Grand All You Can Eat Buffet

Yeah, this is not a pretty story, but it is the story of our time.  "We have basically killed most of the wildlife that was available to us only a single generation ago."


We have done an admirable job as a species of being fruitful and multiplying, but the rest of nature is suffering, and disappearing at an astonishing rate.  And some of us are concerned, but our concern seems like a paltry, ineffective thing.


We have pretty much trashed the place, and we seem to look at the bounty of nature as just one grand all you can eat buffet.  And there are limits to this buffet.  And then what?  Nap time? 

Hot Ashes for Trees

 

Incidentally, I'm beginning to think Pink Floyd's "Wish You Here" is not only a masterpiece, and maybe their best album, and a showcase of David Gilmour's fabulously soulful guitar, and a haunting tribute to genius of the lost soul, Syd Barrett, and one of their most cohesive efforts, but it's also a less bombastic outing than "The Wall," and more open and airy than their masterly claustrophobic "Dark Side of the Moon."

And dare I say it, Roger Water's acid lyrics to the title song ring so true and prophetic to our human condition on this spinning little planet at the moment.  And is that guy on the cover with flames shooting out of him a stand-in for us?

And did they get you to trade
Your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange
A walk on part in the war
For a lead role in a cage?