Who?

Walking someone else's foot steps. Wearing someone else's sunglasses. Chilling out in someone else's homestead. Walking someone else's dog...

Kind of identity-busting. Everything is different, still, everything is the same. Little changes add up to big questions.

Who am I today? Who will I be tomorrow? Who was I yesterday?

Sustain!

The Telepaths played a rock show last night. A little bar called Dukes. Nice place, a warm, cozy room. We totally rocked out. I tried out my new sustainer/distortion pedal! Afterwards I was told we sounded like Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Wow. That is music to my ears. Very much the r&r musical vibe I love. The owner of the joint invited us back! Surprise! And he complimented me on my guitar playing. Now you can't beat that!

Here, There, Nowhere...

The Lovely Carla tells me my presence can be disturbing to the peace.

My absence too.

That about covers it.

The Oil Habit

Someone pointed out to me that we are the "oil people." We are swimming in the stuff. We eat it, drink it, breathe it.

It is the blood of our way of life, oil and it's derivatives are ubiquitous in the products we produce and consume.

I guess their point was that getting off oil was going to be near impossible.

Still isn't it totally necessary if we are to save ourselves? Don't we have to get off the stuff? And isn't what looks like near impossible today, totally doable some day?

And shouldn't we try to get to that "some day" soon?!

Breathing

Last night we did a yoga session at our little storefront space. The heat and humidity were totally oppressive.

I was sweating bullets like James Brown, "the hardest working man in YOGA!" It was difficult and challenging, and when it was over I was glad to be breathing.

Sometimes that's more than enough...

A Happy Dream

Playing music on the main stage this weekend felt really, really comfortable.

A sort of euphoria descended upon me. I felt closer to the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, than to all the "people stuff" going down on the street.

Of course, it was all a momentary illusion. Still, for most of the weekend I sort of floated around in a genial bubble.

It's back to earth this morning. But that "elevated feeling" still lingers like a happy dream.

Summer Street Fest

We played a street festival yesterday. Blazing hot day. We went on at 1:00 p.m.

Main stage, baby! Our violinist was a no-show, he was stuck on the east coast, so everyone kind of rose to the challenge to fill up some of the space in our songs.

One of our best all-time shows. The sound was superb, our music blasted down the avenue. It was all so fun and satisfying.

Got lots of love from the audience. The best feeling ever.

Clean Living

All this "clean living" is starting to catch up to me...

I'm expecting to fly anytime now...

Instructive

Yesterday was instructive...

I found out I know some things I didn't know I knew.

And I found out some things I didn't know I didn't know.

Surfing the Moment!

The Lovely Carla: "It feels like everything is coming together and falling apart at the same time."

sunnyjimmy: "Yes it does!"

The Dutch!

This woman is such a blithering idiot...

Call in the Dutch!?!

Looks

You look at the world and sometimes it seems that everything is just unconnected random chaos. You look again and it seems that everything is interconnected and working in a secretly ordered manner.

Same world...

Malingering

A series of events turned into a kind of nostalgia tour yesterday. And I hate nostalgia. Too many ghosts, wrong turns, dead channels.

I'd rather be in the now. I carry all those ghosts with me anyway. No sense in lingering...

No $ Required

Free Stuff. Turns out it's the best stuff. And you can't put a price on it!

Dissatisfied Mind!

It's really weird. Sometimes that void-inducing feeling of dissatisfication (is that a word?!) can be quite satisfying!

Opinions

I've learned it's okay not to have an opinion about everything. Probably especially about things that I don't really know much about, which is actually a pretty vast knowledge base.

Still, I think it's sort of a "revelation" to realize that my opinion really doesn't matter...

I mean, sometimes even to me...

When the Trouble Begins

To paraphrase Buddha and Woody Allen...

Life is suffering. To love is suffering. To live is to love suffering.

We come out of our nice and snug amniotic capsule, we come out all bare-assed and squalling, into a world we didn't make.

It's all kind of downhill from there, or maybe uphill. Anyway that's when the trouble begins...

Shaman Echoes...

Things I learned from a Shaman...

1. Even though it sounds biologically impossible...You can be your own mother and father!

2. Everything is sacred. Which means nothing is "special." Everything/everyone is amazing.

3. We are connected to everything.

4. Be real.

BP Oil Spill Re-enacted by Cats

This is good. The BP oil spill re-enacted by cats.

It's funny.

But are those tears on your cheeks from laughter or despair?

Having Sex, Owning a Cat, Hanging with a Shaman

It's funny, probably the most important stuff to know, is impossible to explain. You are either there - to experience it, to live it, or you are not.

There's no translation that works. By the time you filter it through your brain, and try to explain it, speak it, write it down, it's basically gone, or the essence of it is squeezed out.

I guess, it's sort of like trying to explain what sex is, as opposed to actually having sex. Or dissecting a cat, as opposed to owning a cat. Or hanging out with a Shaman Woman, as opposed to describing what happened when you were in her presence.

ETC.

Spirits of the Seven Dircections

This incredibly sexy Shaman Woman visited our space yesterday. Astrid. She's from Chile. She's part Chilean and Swedish. Now that's a striking combo.

It all came together, pretty much on the spur of the moment, or on the spur of a couple of moments. So we ended up in a circle around flowers and candles with a small group of people who somehow found themselves in that particular place at that particular moment.

Astrid led us through some songs and chants. We called up the Spirits of the Seven Directions. And we said hello to Father Sky and Mother Earth. We connected with our ancestors and with the future generations of human beings coming down the line.

While we sang and chanted, a robust storm blew through and and a hard rain came down upon the roof. It was all very sexy and profound and fun and life-affirming.

Not your typical Saturday evening...

Twisted

What a marvelously twisted road we traverse!

House of Cards

Even my own "White Rhino" is stunned by the audacity of lies! Tissue thin and oh so lame.

That corrupt house of cards is teetering in the breeze of hot air.

Can't wait for it all to come crashing down!

Web of Lies!

It is sort of amusing to watch the Liars continue to spin a web of lies around themselves.

Maybe they think it protects them somehow.

But their web is completely transparent!

The game is up Liars!

Chickens!

And then, finally, all the wayward chickens come home to roost.

Later - chicken salad!

Contradictory Dress

Let's say you have a really low-status job, you dress very high status.

Let's say you have a really high-status job, you dress very low status.

Let's say you don't have a job, pajamas & martinis!

Song for Natalie

WhiteWolfSonicPrincess played the Red Line Tap last night. We did "Song for Natalie" which was inspired by Natalie Wood. We dedicated the performance to Dennis Hopper.

This is the full band captured by our little digital recorder. I love that you can hear the crowd partying, playing pool, chatting. The band was in fine form. One of our most satisfying shows...

Check out the song here:

Dennis Hopper is Dead...

No, no, he's just outside looking in.

I heard the sad news. And thought, the man will never be dead to me. He and some of his performances are indelibly etched into my consciousness. He will be with me until I'm no longer too.

I see the manic long-hair on his motorcycle in "Easy Rider," I see the mad prophet photojournalist in "Apocalypse Now," I see a twisted spoke of human degradation on the darkness on the edge of town in "Blue Velvet."

Those performances were so vivid, alive, and Hopper's intelligence, passion and charisma informed every moment.

Plus there's the legend: a friend of James Dean, the rebellious battles with the Hollywood establishment, phenomenal success with little biker movie, the drug-crazed madness, time in a nut house, the 4 hour cut of Easy Rider, the great lost masterpiece "The Last Movie," the out of control madness of Coppola's Vietnam opera.

He was a supreme method actor and in the method much madness and life. A mad visionary. I saw it too!

Frog VS. LENIN - EPISODE TWO

It's been awhile since we've had a Frog VS. Lenin Episode. For those who forgot Episode One, check it out here...


Frog: What's up with the head-gear?

Lenin: I have headache!

Frog: Dude, your head is metal.

Lenin: I still have feelings, you green little scamp!

Shaman Thursday!

So yes, the moon was full and we did the Shaman thing.

We turned the lights down low.

We lit candles.

We chanted and sang songs.

We burned stuff.

I beat a drum.

And floated above the room and called back all my ancestors.

And then when Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past" blasted in the room, everyone laughed and danced!

So...

Well, yes, so history is a circle.

And it's a full moon.

And our friend is coming over to do some kind of Shaman Dance...

Free and Easy Wonderer

You wonder if basically we all do know right from wrong, but since we live in a world where we are paid to do the wrong thing all the time, and call it a "job", that we end up doing the wrong thing willingly, consistently and with gusto...

Ancient Chinese Secret!

Our Acupuncturist (everyone should have one) has got us on the juice...

Chinese herbs to enhance our lives.

First, there's the Phlegm Transforming stuff - can we transform that phlegm into gold?!

And now there's "Free and Easy Wanderer." I wander, I wonder. It is all so free and easy!

A handful of tiny black pills, plus some Kenyan AA free trade coffee and I'm ready to wander through the hills and the dales!

The Stoned Buddha!

This is the next photo I'm putting on my refrigerator...

Check out the NYT on Exile on Main Street.

Also the Telepath's Big Bang has a great take on the re-release of the Stones' "masterpiece."

Write Me a River

"We don't write songs, we write rivers." - Mike Watt

Running in the Fog

I'm lacing up my running shoes this morning, getting ready to go for a run on the lakefront. A heavy fog has descended in the area.

That's right, running in the fog. That's my life...

Shaky Town

Shaky Town. That's where we live. Shaky Town.

dj. shak·i·er, shak·i·est 1. Trembling or quivering; tremulous: a shaky voice. 2. Lacking soundness or sturdiness, as of construction: a shaky table. 3. a. Not to be depended on; precarious: a shaky alliance. b. Wavering in firmness: a shaky belief. c. Open to question or doubt: shaky evidence. shaki·ly adv. shaki·ness n.

Days of the Weasel

Dear Smiling Weasel: Your days are numbered. The KARMA TRAIN is barreling down the track and it has your name on it!

School of Hard Knocks

"Hey kid, my advice... don't take anyone's advice."

Inner Light Video

This is a pretty cool video

my brother put together

using "found footage."

All public domain stuff.

Plus, he worked in some

of his artwork.

That's sunnyjimmy on vocals

and guitar, and that's my brother

(I call him Bacchus Blue) on harmonica.

Nice job, Brother!

Pop Culture Curmudgeon

You know you are a Pop Culture Curmudgeon when...

Basil Rathbone is Sherlock Holmes.

Sean Connery is James Bond.

Errol Flynn is Robin Hood.

Adam West is Batman.

George Reeves is Superman.

Humphrey Bogart is Philip Marlowe.

Also, when you no longer actually need to see the latest Blockbuster, must-see movie to know that it is a flaming pile of crap, all you really need to see is the over-heated trailer and the multi-million dollar PR campaign.

Huge Oil Plumes Killing Oxygen and Everything in their Paths

The old TV show told us it was "Black Gold," and I guess it was and is, but, at the same time, it has always been "Black Death" too.

Crisis Management

When the burden of a world gone wrong gets too great...

When crisis overload grabs you by the throat...

You are left with one last defense mechanism...

The Marty Feldman Method of Crisis Management: "What Hump?!"

Time for a Re-Think?

Watching the PR machine in action, I'm starting to suspect that they really have no hope of capping that oil well at the ocean floor.

If that's true, then that sucker is just gonna empty out, leaking maybe 2 billion gallons of oil into the ocean.

Heartbreaking. An ecological disaster of major proportions.

Maybe it's time for a re-think? About our way of life?

Alone Again, Naturally

You listen to the news and it all sounds like madness. Babel. Then you read John Robb at Global Guerrillas and some sort of "sense" emerges:

"Instead, the current sovereign debt crisis is about something much more interesting: it's another battle in a war for dominance between "our" integrated, impersonal global economic system and traditional nation-states. At issue is whether a nation-state serves the interests of the governed or it serves the interests of a global economic system."

It is the Great Unraveling, and we are watching the Global Market at war with Nations. And the Global Pool of Money (They say, "the love of money is the root of all evil," and this pool of money is seriously in love with itself and only itself!) seems to be winning.

"You are on your own. You are in direct competition with everyone else in the world, and your success or failure is something you alone control." - J. Robb

If Life is...

If life is a poem, a messy, meandering poem - opaque and obscure, with false starts and dead ends, and no clear moral lessons, well, hell that's just the way it is...

Free Music!

It's so cool to be able to embed this in my blog.

Take a listen to WhiteWolfSonicPrincess!

"Shadow Boxing" & "Black Black Wings" is the full band.

"Inner Light" is jimmy jammer & bacchus blue

"Everything is Everything" is carla and jimmy

Honor the Dead

Whistling past the graveyard.

And then sometimes the graveyard whistles back...

High on Life

According to this dude, we no longer live on planet Earth. We have made a new planet with our stupid and messy ways, he calls it planet EAARTH.

Is it possible so much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is making us crazy?

Maybe we're all just high?

Circles

What if it's just one big circle? And every once in awhile you re-trace steps you've walked before?

And of course, in the retracing, nothing really is the same. It's pretty obvious, you have changed, and your steps don't really exist, except in the fog of memories in your cranium.

Still there are echoes and recurrences, and odd twists and they kind of tug at you like a hungry dog.

You think, "I was in this place doing this, and now I'm in this place doing this..."

And was it really you, and is it really you now? And what exactly happened anyway? And you look for reasons, and meanings, and maybe they are there, and maybe they aren't.

And no one is going to interpret it all for you. Anyway.

"The Telepaths are Melting My Face." - E. Bradley

I played a rock show with The Telepaths (take a listen to our song "Crude War - someone remarked that we sounded like a cross between the Dead Kennedys and The Doors - I'll take it as a high compliment), on Thursday.

We were tight and loud. I cranked my amp up and let it rip.

Pretty happy with the results. Someone came up to me after the show and told me he loved my guitar playing and he asked if that's what I did for a living.

Nope. But gee, a guy can dream can't he?

Global Depression?!

Most of the news is bad. That can't be good.

Still maybe this is how a new world is made.

Messy, messy, messy.

I'd Say Mystic

When it comes down to it, I'd say "mystic."

As in the fundamental aspect of our universe seems essentially mysterious to our noble but feeble efforts of understanding.

And as in "mystified" by the awesome power and arbitrariness of much of our existence.

Paralyzed By Catastrophe

You ask, "how many unforeseen catastrophes can dance on the head of a pin?"

And then "unforeseen catastrophe fatigue" sets in...

Mad Consumer Paradise

I don't think "oil spill" really catches it. How about an open vein? A gaping, bleeding wound?

A severed artery bleeding out into the ocean?

This may be the end of the Gulf Coast as we know it. Leaving lots of death all around.

Cheap oil, cheap gas, cheap trips down to the mall. And something irreplaceable is destroyed. Not exactly a rational trade-off.

Another sign of the madness of our consumer paradise.

And You are In It...

And then you realize you are in a speeding car with a whole bunch of crazy people - people shouting and arguing about really stupid things. And the brakes don't work, and the accelerator is stuck, and the steering wheel is actually just a prop.

And you're in the back seat, you 're strapped into your seat, you're chewing gum furiously, you look out the window and the landscape is just one long blur, one long smear - there's what look like the shapes of trees and buildings and burned out malls and lots of rust and dead stuff.

You can't see what's behind you. It's just a blur. And it's all just gone, gone, gone.

You can see something ahead, it looks like a brick wall, no maybe that's just a hallucination, it might be a cliff, there's lots of blue sky and it looks like the road ends.

And there's some ominous looking clouds - it may actually be a funnel, "oh shit" heavy weather. And the funnel is massive and it's heading your way, and there's all kind of debris, jet trash, broken TVs, cables and strings and garbage, lots of freaking garbage.

Spinning like some Horror-Show Carousel. There's some kind of creepy circus music coming from the funnel. You realize this is your world. And you are in it.

Playing an Empty Room

We had one of those long, rambling, totally intense rehearsal sessions yesterday afternoon. It was so absorbing. Like falling into another zone.

Time just dissolved.

There were moments of beauty and of dissonance too. We played for each other. For an empty room. And that was enough. No, it was more than enough.

Destroying the Irreplaceable

"Mother Nature on the run in the nineteen seventies..." - Neil Young

I guess by now, we've run her over, stomped her into the bleeding ground, and left her in a million tiny oil-saturated, globally-fired pieces...

Jimmy Jammer & the Jams - "Big Box Store"

Hey I wrote and recorded a song a couple of days ago called "Big Box Store." It is now available on Amazon for $0.89 cents. It will soon be available pretty much world-wide at other fine digital sites and download outlets including iTunes and Napster, etc.

Check it out if you are so inclined!

Maynard G. Krebs Universe

If you listen to those wacky scientists, we started with a big bang, and this big production number has been rolling out ever since.

The longer it rolls, the more entropy gets employed, the more entropy in the works, the more things break down and get wacky.

Starts out all bright and shiny then gets all kind of "beat-nik."

I dig it.

Unthinkable

Of course the unthinkable happens every day. Who woulda thunk it?

Days of Reckoning

And then there are those days of reckoning. You don't always see them coming. And sometimes you do.

See them coming or not. It don't matter. Finally you have to reckon with them.

The Waiting

As Tom Petty once said, "the waiting is the hardest part."

Waiting for the "other shoe" to drop in a universe of shoes.

The Dog Star Rages

The Dog Star rages. And we are left with the Burden of the Mystery...

Clip their Wings

Don't want to do it. But the Lovely Carla tells me it's time to clip the little birdies wings. They've been just little "too flighty" lately. Me too.

Any little thing can set them off. They start flying around like the world is burning. And maybe the world is burning.

Still, maybe it's for their own good. Put a little damper on their flight worthy-ness. Slow them down a little, bring them down back to earth.

Maybe they'd thank us, if they could.

Wounds

Some say that adults are just damaged children. Often it seems so.

As my resident house poet (Dylan) puts it: some are "wounded in love," some are "wounded in hatred."

I'd also add: some are wounded in laughter, some are wounded in remembering, some are wounded in forgetting.

It's a big old world. Lots of wounds all around.

Good To Be Wrong!

I like it when Physicists use the language of the poets and the mystics.

For instance, there is this one talking about "the arrow of time," and describing how the arrow tends to go in one direction.

I like it when Physicists wonder why "we remember yesterday and not tomorrow..."

I like it when a Physicist conjectures that the reason the Universe seems to be getting crazier is because of entropy.

I guess, I like this stuff because science doesn't really debunk the mystery of the universe, it actually increases the freaking mystery of everything.

Which for me increases the opportunities, the sea of possibilities. Maybe everything I know is wrong. That would probably be a good thing!

Reminds me that there's more than meets the eye. I like that!

The American Con Game!

I love this line from Kevin Drum's post, because I think it applies to Amerika as we know it now:

"A large part of the activity of the financial sector seems to be a machine to transfer income and wealth from outsiders to insiders..."

It's all just an elaborate CON GAME. Ånd the same con is carried on by the Food Industry, the Drug industry, the Religion Game, etc

We are a society that has gotten expert at hustling itself silly. We are actually entertained by the hustle. We are the happy dupes looking to be duped, over and over.

That Explains It! Approximately!

Ok, now I've circled back to Plato and his realm of ideas. What a long strange trip it's been.

So yes, I'm thinking there is this Realm of Ideas. It really exists. We can only access it through our brain-waves. Our brains are receivers.

So there's the world of Ideas, Ideals. And then there's the world we live in. Everything in our world, our realm, is an APPROXIMATION.

Everything we do in our realm is only an attempt at realizing the IDEAL. And the process goes on and on, as long as the universe exists.

Nature knows. It continues to churn out forms that don't quite measure up to the ideal. That's what makes the world go round.

It could be frustrating. Always trying to reach the ideal and always falling short. Aye, there's the rub!

Every Thing Counts

It has slowly dawned upon on me. I mean, after a long string, a long, slow, meandering string of days...

Everything counts. Every thought. Every word. Every action.

And we are the result of the count.

Our bones, our blood, our flesh, our brain matter reflect the count.

I guess this is sort of my version of existentialism. Every. Thing. Counts.

Elites Beating On Elites!

Goldman Sachs Busted! It's good to see one group of Elites, going after another group of Elites.

After all these years of rich and poor people ganging up and beating on poor people (Why would poor people beat up on other poor people? No one wants to be poor, no one wants to identify with the poor!) we finally get some rich people beating up on other rich people.

And not a moment too soon.

Maybe this all goes nowhere, I mean, Goldman Sachs will have a team of the best lawyers in the biz fighting tooth and nail, or alternatively negotiating some slight tap on the wrist.

But it is good to see someone throw down the gauntlet. See, I'm an optimist, hopefully not a sap. And clearly these guys are crooks! They are not the best and brightest. They are craven greed-heads feeding at the trough.

And we are such a rich-obsessed, celebrity-crazed society, we actually end up applauding, and lauding these wealthy criminals.

As Woody Guthrie once sang, "Yes, as through this world I've wandered, I've seen lots of funny men; Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen."

And that fountain pen skullduggery draws real blood and devastates real lives...

Convergence of Some Really Cool Souls

We had a kickass, packed to the gills, standing room only show last night at our humble little performance space.

There was lots of love in the room. You can't just manufacture all that good feeling on demand.

It was all just a little happening. A mirage, a convergence of some really cool souls all there to listen, chill out and have a good time.

Plus, we finally had the mirror ball up and spinning around. I mean, come on, how you gonna beat a mirror ball?!?

Hey All You Appalling Offshoots - Dig It!

“For all our supposed sophistication, a human is still an animal, a primate,” Mr. Lorentz said, as sunset flashed pink over Bergdorf Goodman. And primates, he added, “are probably among the most appalling offshoots that exist of mammalian evolution.” The more time one spends around other species, he added, “the more you realize how foolish humans are.”

Tears for Stalin!

You see the Tea Party rallies and you think George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead."

We've seen these brain dead zombies before!

Turns out lots of Tea Partiers are nostalgic for the George Bush years.

Reminds me that people cried when Stalin died!

Here's Rick Pearlstein on these swine: "they are the same angry, ill-informed, overwhelmingly white, crypto-corporate paranoiacs that accompany every ascendancy of liberalism within U.S. government."

A Rat in the Vat

Words. Names. I don't know, sometimes all you have to do is pay attention.

For instance, Dodi Fayed.

Dood in Dutch means DEAD. So with a little creative transcription: the beloved, ill-fated Princess Di was dating a guy named DEAD Di.

Someone should have pointed that one out - maybe she'd be alive today.

And now we have a Pope named RAT ZINGER. All I can say is, of course.

Everything Goes Wrong At Least Once

You know, in theater we say, "You don't really know your show, until everything goes wrong at least once."

And the thought occurred to me, even as I hoped it wasn't true: "You don't really know your life, until everything goes wrong at least once."

Hopefully things "going wrong" is something you learn from and survive to tell the tale.

Of course, there's wrong, and then there's dreadfully wrong. That's a whole nother can of worms...

Mr. Mo Mojo

If you say "yes" you end up in places you didn't necessarily know you'd end up in. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not so good.

Yesterday it was good. I ended up in Mr. Mo's living room, listening to Mr. Mo and his friend from Madison, WI running through pop songs together. Mr Mo played guitar, piano and ukulele. Mr. Mo and his friend sang and harmonized like the Everly Brothers or John and Paul at their best.

It was a truly virtuoso performance. They ran through a mind-boggling catalog of songs: Beatles, Harry Nilsson, Beach Boys, Kinks, Simon and Garfunkel, Roy Orbison, the Archies, Abba, etc.

I think my favorite was Mr. Mo singing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" to his own ukulele accompaniment, although "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" were pretty amazing too.

Who knew Mr. Mo had it in him?

Freedom in Increments

I guess I was thinking about Dylan's line, "If dogs run free, why not me, Across the swamp of time?"

Although it's a nice rhyme, the reality is that most dogs don't really run free. Except maybe in brief increments. Freedom is kind of parceled out.

That goes for us too. Freedom is kind of illusory. It's parceled out for us too. It's another chimerical state we pretend to stake our lives on.

Coyote is a lonely road. We can't just choose to be Coyote.

Wild, Free, Haunted

Dogs are sellouts to the humans. It makes sense in a big, cruel, dog eat dog world. We provide the meal ticket, the warm hearth. They provide companionship and loyalty.

Humans can identify with the dogs because they are sellouts too. To the corporation, the company, the state. Any higher power that assures a meal and a warm hearth.

When you come across a "wild dog" for instance a coyote, it's very disturbing. This is a "dog" that "sells out" to no one, to nothing.

I recently spied two of them running across the street, through the park, along the lakefront. Two scrawny, mangy creatures. Lightening fast. Moving, always moving forward. On the run, on the hunt, they seemed determined, wild, free, haunted, alone even if they traveled together.

Free to starve, free to survive with no provider, no big daddy, no friend willing to lend a hand or a morsel of food.

Zone Out!

I can step into the zone of my own zone, and I can completely zone out in that zone.

I recommend it.

When there's no future How can there be sin We're the flowers in the dustbin We're the poison in your human machine We're the future, your future

I guess Malcolm Mclaren was some kind of hero to me. Pretty much based on his managing the self-negating, quickly-vanishing-before-your-eyes "career" of the Sex Pistols, and two books I have read, Greil Marcus' enthralling Lipstick Traces and Simon Reynolds' Rip it Up and Start Again.

I still own (never play) a vinyl copy of the Sex Pistols' "Never Mind the Bollocks." Mclaren was detournement in action. He was like a spiky-headed version of Elvis' Colonel Parker to Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious.

Mclaren was a provocateur in the best sense of the word: "one who provokes." He was an intellectual "shit-stirrer." And sometimes the shit needs to be stirred.

It's possible the Punk movement as we know it, would not have existed, and certainly wouldn't have had the same spiky, edgy flavor without McLaren's influence.

One man can make a difference, even if his credo is smashing and mashing up differences.

UPDATE: And of course he was a showman, a promoter extraordinaire! Little Johnny Rotten was the apple of his eye and the whole Pistols thing was a wicked r&r spitball into the cultural stew!

Something Nasty

I think those global warming deniers, are kind of like penguins walking around on a diminishing shard of ice, telling themselves everything is gonna be fine, just fine.

I'm thinking James Lovelock the author of "The Vanishing Face of Gaia" is onto something. But maybe it's information we are just incapable of processing.

Still, I think it's plausible, as he says, "You can't put something like a trillion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere without something nasty happening."

Lovelock thinks we're in for a major population reduction. It's kind of like we're the germs, and global warming is the fever. Gaia is sick, the fever will break, and all hell breaks loose.

And I'm sure every germ thinks it is the center of the universe! Guess what germ!

I am Sun Green!

The highlight of my day yesterday...

I encountered the Dancing Man on the avenue yesterday.

The Dancing Man is our neighborhood trans-medium, our own "Shaman on the Block." He is a very unique character, a large spirit. Sometimes friendly, sometimes a little scary. Clearly in his own world, usually tapped into another realm, riding on his very own wavelength.

Sometimes he sings, sometimes he drums, sometimes he runs in place, or runs backwards.

The Lovely Carla and I are always keen to listen to the Dancing Man. Sometimes he conveys information. He has inspired lines or little seeds for songs. "Everything is Everything," came from the Dancing Man!

Yesterday he and I passed each other on the sidewalk. He looked me in the eye and broke into a big grin and said, "Sun Green." I took it that he was dubbing me "Sun Green." Now what's funny, one of my favorite Neil Young albums, "Greendale," which I love and listen to often, has a character named Sun Green.

Somehow all this has deep meaning for me. I mean I don't know what it means, but it means something. There's some secret narrative that I once in awhile glimpse.

I mean, I guess it was a slow news day.

Amusing Universe!

A professional "amuser," now that's an idea!

And with that in mind, I've got a sweet idea for a brand new band!

Jimmy Jammer and the Jams!

Private Resurrection

Easter. All alone. I sat on the floor of our bathroom (the best reverb in the apartment) with my acoustic guitar and a digital recorder.

I recorded 12 songs. All Jimmy Jam-master stuff. I'm thinking of calling this collection "Porcelain and Chrome."

I wonder if it will ever see the light of day? Or will I just bury it?

It almost felt like a Resurrection.

Cold

And it was a malady of the spirit. How to regenerate a spirit? It was another of those questions that stopped him cold.

Cure

"They were trying to cure him of something they created." - Anonymous entry in an old notebook.

Last Minute Plans?

Hey just wanted to mention...

If you live in or around Chicago, and you have nothing going on, come join WhiteWolfSonicPrincess at the Elbo Room Upstairs Lounge tonight, Good Friday.

We are the featured musical artist in a very cozy room. First set starts around 9:00 p.m. The band is tight and the sound is hot. Check it out!

Cloud Land

Some days it's like trudging in mud.

Some days it's like walking on clouds.

Yesterday it was all cloud land.

A flea-ridden, blind dog

Hunter S. Thompson had the Brown Buffalo. I have the White Rhino, or maybe we can imagine a more svelte embodiment, let's go with the White Puma?

So the White Puma and I are on a crusade. Battling the forces of darkness.

And we are seeking Justice. Some say Justice is a blind-folded woman balancing an un-wieldy scale contraption.

I don't think so. No, Justice is a flea-ridden, blind dog. A beat and rumpled spirit with a hell of a good nose.

Can smell a rat, or a Lying Weasel from a mile away!

It Just Is...

Yesterday the sun was shining. The grass was growing. The flowers budding. The birdies singing.

Spring in the midwest. Got me thinking...

Life in it's multiplicity of forms needs no justification. It just is...

The flip-side of that coin: death needs no justification either. It just is...

And that's the lay of the land.

Plus Bonus Tidbit: "Some things are better in Pants!" - MPS

Wisdom via MPS channeled through the Lovely Carla...

"Treat the mean ones like they are the lowest of the low. Treat the weak ones like they are the highest of the high."

Soul Session

Our band WhiteWolfSonicPrincess will be playing two sets of music at the Elbo Room's Upstairs Lounge this coming Good Friday.

Roll away the stone!

Yesterday was our last full band rehearsal for the show. It was really intense. Two full sets, almost 90 mins. of music!

I don't know if it's bad form to rave about your own band, but the session (which we recorded) was mind-blowingly good.

Our bass, drums, violin and acoustic guitar combo is just getting better and better. The Lovely Carla is singing with beauty and authority.

It's just so exciting to find a group of talented people all dedicated to something so delicate, so ephemeral.

As Blake once put it: "Energy is Eternal Delight!" Ain't it the truth?!?

MXR Carbon Copy: Recommended!

I've been playing guitar pretty intensely the last few years. With two bands. I have a basic setup. Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, a little tube amp and a couple of effects pedals.

The effects pedals I use are an Ibanez Tube Screamer and an MXR Carbon Copy analog delay pedal. It's a nice combination that gives some color to the sound. Adds a little overdrive, sustain and shimmer.

Awhile back the MXR Carbon Copy went bad. The switch got stuck. The pedal was always on. Could not switch it off. I e-mailed their support group and surprisingly they told me they'd send me a new switch for free. I guess it was still under warranty.

They sent me a new switch, which I installed myself. Big mistake. Once I got done with the install the pedal was totally DOA. So I got back in touch with their support team and they told me to send it in.

Well, they put a new PC board in the thing and sent it back to me. It works perfectly - better than ever! They did a nice job. It's good to see a company standing behind their product.

Thanks Jim Dunlop!

The Pigeon Game

People are still torturing pigeons.

So which are you?

The helpless tied up pigeon?

Or the pissed off hungry pigeon?

The Home of the Beast: 666 St. Peter's Square

** I don't know what was up with Blogger today. Every time I tried to post the little rant below, something would go wrong. I began to think that someone or something didn't want me to post it. This got me thinking about the Bavarian Illuminati, Knights Templar, the Masons, Tom Hanks, Dan Brown and those dudes flying around on those little go-karts decked out with rugs... oh yeah those freaky Shriners!

Even if you had a supremely diabolical imagination, you still probably wouldn't come up with this hideously twisted story about a Priest abusing 200 deaf boys. I mean it almost sounds like a set up for a really sick and twisted joke.

And worse than that mind-numbing horror, you then learn that the Catholic Church hierarchy's "highest priority was protecting the church from scandal."

This is truly evil! The Pope and everyone in that freaking decision loop should be defrocked or worse!

How about Hornswaggled!?!?

For some reason, I think about Sinead O'connor and her zany protest on Saturday Night Live those many years ago. I don't know the specifics of her beef with the Church, it may have seriously hurt her career. She broke the rules of showbiz. Do not say something real during our entertainment.

I'm thinking all those people who gave her shit for expressing herself, should get on their knees and beg forgiveness.

Ripping up a picture of the Pope. Oh how quaint! I mean, you don't want to paint with a broad brush but it's clear the Catholic Church is a supremely dysfunctional organization, no scratch that, a criminal enterprise that should be taken apart brick by freaking brick!

Interesting Guy

I lived it, then I wrote the song...

"Packed up my confidence. Went to the conference. Went up the escalator, could of been an elevator.

Walked in the front door, didn't want to be there no more. I carried a paper, had my permanent record, threw it on the table, she picked it up directly.

She looked in my eye, through my disguise, looked in my eye, said I'm an interesting guy.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it.

Walked out the door, I was feeling sore, thought I'd never come back no more, no more.

I got myself a coffee, actually it was given to me, I drank it down, it was free.

A random act of kindness, makes you feel like a highness, isn't it crazy how it can be?

Still I can recall, like it was great fall, down at the mall.

Well she looked in my eye, through my disguise, said I'm an interesting guy, looked in my eye, through my disguise, said I'm an interesting guy, interesting guy.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

I thought lady, you don't know the half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it.

The half of it."

Product Spotlight - Seymour Duncan

Yes, I sold some gear on Ebay to get a Woody XL and I must say, I love it.

An easy install. No modifications to your acoustic guitar necessary. You just pop it in and you're ready to go.

I turned up loud and the thing is dead quiet. And the tone is deep and resonant.

Seymour Duncan is the real deal. I also modded my Mexican made Telecaster Thinline with two Hot Rails and it's now a humbucking monster.

Totally changed the tone of the thing. Which I like.

Good stuff!

The Dark Cloud Folks

And then of course you come across the folks who see a dark cloud in every silver lining!

No news is good news.

Even good news.

Oh well...

He is the Man!

After a lot of hot air, fear-mongering, and mindless sound and fury, Congress finally bellied-up and did the right thing.

I agree with Matt Yglesias: "Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America's finest Presidents."

No matter what, even if the bill is kind of a mash-up of half-baked ideas, it's a great step forward. Proves that social liberalism can carry the day.

The bill isn't the greatest thing ever passed, but I think it will be a first step towards a more rational and inclusive healthcare system.

Of course, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But sometimes we need the good intentions to win against the greedy fear-mongering bastards. The GOP has proven to be a collection of craven shit-meisters.

Obama is too gracious to gloat. I'll do it for him! Nice going Big Guy!