Growling

Growling. It comes in handy. Believe me.

Deed

And of course, once the knife is squarely embedded in the back, once the deed is done, "I'm sorry," just doesn't cut it...

"All My Friends are Going to Be Canines"

I have a soft spot in my heart for Larry McMurtry's "All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers." One of the all-time great literary titles. Plus the novel itself is quite funny and kind of existential in a distinctly American way. I remember reading it when I was hitch-hiking across America back in the late 70's.

For some reason that title was swimming through my consciousness yesterday as I walked the streets. Maybe it has something to do with betrayal and friendship and my naive propensity to trust that people will usually do the right thing. I guess, sometimes they think the right thing to do is embed a knife squarely in your back.

So I think my version of the title would be: "All My Friends are Going to Be Canines." I mean with the canine class you get what you get. Fur and paws instead of the grubby hands of all that needing, wanting, grasping...

Running Lives

And then there are all those wonderful people who just want to run your life for you. It's not that they are doing such a good job of running their own. No, in fact, they are expert at making a wreck of their own lives. But somehow, they think it's time they took a shot at running yours, even if it's into the ground. Good intentions and all that...

Amazing Power

As long as we are alive, self-invention and self-renewal are still possible. Possible every day, probably every moment of every day. This is a source of both hope and responsibility.

If you aren't happy with your circumstances, you can change your circumstances, or at least change the way you think and act within those circumstances. Which is an amazing power that we have, although it may feel like a certain powerlessness.

We don't have to be the person we were yesterday. We don't have to be anything anyone else thinks we should be. We can accept new ideas, new feelings, new experiences as they come to us and interpret them in a new way. This newness might actually be a simple shift in perception.

Doesn't seem like a big thing. But it's planet-cracking, world-changing. Mind-blowing. Just the kind of experiences we should have each and every day...

Artful Dodger

And then you don your Artful Dodger persona, and skate!

The Backbone

The other thing I love about Keef's book is his discussion of his musical obsessions and influences. Keith studied the blues of Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Little Walter, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, as if it they were the Priests of the Holy Grail. He happily acknowledges he learned, mastered and made his own, every guitar riff Chuck Berry ever devised.

We also meet some of the unsung heroes of the Stones saga: Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys and Jimmy Miller. I have always thought that Jimmy Miller was one of the great rock & roll producers. It seems George Martin always got the greatest accolades for his work with the Beatles, but Jimmy Miller's string of albums with the Stones is totally mind-blowing, I mean these are all arguably in the top ten or twenty best rock albums of all time: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street, Goat Heads Soup.

As Keith says they are the "backbone" of their work. I still listen to these records today, oh these many years later. And not as some nostalgia trip. They just happen to be some of the best r&r recordings in existence. They stand up today. You can put one of those discs on right now and they kill! And even if it's hard to define what Miller actually brought to the table, the "groove" the "feel", the "vibe," whatever, (maybe he was smart enough to get out of the way?!), the results are undeniable.

Keef's Book

After reading Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, I jumped into an autobiography from our very own, real live Steppenwolf Keith Richards. I'm in the middle of his book Life right now.

It is certainly one of the best books on rock I have ever read. I'd put it up there with the finest stuff including Peter Guralnick's Elvis Books and Nick Tosches' "Hellfire" about Jerry Lee Lewis.

I mean, I think it's actually masterful. Keith wrote the thing with James Fox, a novelist and friend, and together they have created a superb book. Amazingly Keith remembers a lot, and his life time memories encompass a fascinating chunk of our world.

Keith's voice comes through in spades. He's funny and humble. He's a combination of Long John Silver, Captain Kidd, the Vampire Lestat, Monkey Man, Rock & Roll Junkie, Riff Master, and Lord Byron with a Telecaster.

And the times of his life include everything from his birth during World War II (1943) to now. An amazing slice of time. He was at the center of a hurricane of a rock and roll journey. He is a very cool character. One of the great characters of our time. And now a great character in literature too.

Know Your Enemy!

I have found that having a NEMESIS is a useful thing. You now have someone to define yourself against.

As in, "I am this, not that." And as Billie Joe Armstrong tells us, "Know Your Enemy."

"Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency
So rally up the demons of your soul"

Still it's a surprise when you find your Nemesis can multiply! And well thinking of Lombardi this just makes you tougher, it just doubles the pleasure!

And it's an instructive lesson: the best, most useful Nemesis you can find is probably right now called "Friend!"

Some Days

And some days it seems like you have rocks in your pockets. And shackles on your feet...

And some days its seems like your engine is turbo-charged. And you have wings on your feet...

Trap for Fools

Just like Hunter S. Thompson, I have found it necessary to befriend a lawyer. It may seem like a drastic step, and really, at the time that I first hired him, it was a drastic step.

But it turns out that my lawyer is absolutely the perfect lawyer for me. He has come in handy in a couple of cases, lately he helped us buy some more time at our storefront space so that we could do our Lennon Bash.

Also he's on the case of a much bigger case, we've been in the trenches together locked in battle with some real bad actors. So anyway, last night we were on the phone strategizing, and making jokes.

It helps to have a lawyer with a sense of humor. But I know this is the lawyer for me when he starts quoting Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools...

Calculus of Energy

I think a well-lived life means tossing yourself head over heels into whatever you are doing at any particular moment. To seek out those all-consuming situations and just giving it all up.

You might end up with some bumps and bruises, hell you might get cut to the bone, still if you're in the game, it's probably best to play it to the hilt.

And the mystery of it all - Energy makes Energy!

Recording Session #1

Up early, sipping coffee, listening to the rough mixes of our recording session yesterday. It was an amazingly intense experience. 4 1/2 hours of very focused work.

We've lived with these songs over the last year. So walking in the door we knew we were damn tight as a band. And we lucked out to meet an absolutely extraordinary sound engineer. He had everything set up, microphones everywhere to capture the live sound.

The goal for this session was to capture the bass, guitar and drums working together as a unit. I wanted it to sound to live, warm and organic. Even in it's rough form I think we were successful.

And the Lovely Carla sang live with us in another room. We could hear her and see her through a little window. She was doing what's called a "scratch vocal," although she gave it her all in the moment, some of the best singing she's ever done. And it sounds extraordinary to my ears.

There were smiles all around. Lots of work left to do - overdubs, additional instruments, vocals, backup vocals, etc. But this was an incredible experience and we are getting closer to "that sound!"

Big-time Studio!

Well, well, well. This is going to be a totally new experience. Our band, WhiteWolfSonicPrincess is going into a big-time Chicago recording studio today. It's the full band, bass, guitar, drums, with the Lovely Carla on vocals.

The studio is in a big old house. The 2nd floor is a state of the art facility. We loaded-in last night and did a little sound-check. We have an ambitious list of songs which we're going to track. We will blast through our set a couple times and see what we get.

I'm really excited to finally get our bass and drum combo tracked in all their glory.

We've done some home recording, and we've done some live and rehearsal recordings but this is the real deal. Our recording engineer is a pro, he's also an amazing guitarist. He's heard us a few times over the last year.

It seems like a marriage made in heaven. We will see. Hope to capture that "lightening in a bottle!"

Life Time Themes...

1. As a writer, I have come to realize that I usually have the last word. At least in my own realm. This has been a feature and a bug in the fabric of my existence since the early days.

2. Fight the Power. Always. And always pick your fights with those with more power than you. Otherwise you are just a bully. Which means most of my fights have been with bigger, more established people and entities. Which means my win/loss record is not exactly peachy-keen-sterling.

3. But then as per #1 one I do usually get in the last word. For what that's worth. I get to feel just a little bit better as I lick my wounds.

When will the Banksters think Gangsters and Wall Street Kleptocrats be held accountable for Crimes Against America?

This is the message pasted in the window of our now sadly abandoned storefront space. The Lovely Carla took the photo. You are seeing the reflection of the building across the street.

Just in case it's not clear, it reads...

" When will the Banksters, think Gangsters and Wall Street Kleptocrats be held accountable for Crimes Against America?"

I suppose that's what you'd call a rhetorical question. The author? A-non-y-Mouse! The ghost of John Lennon hovers...

Merit Bank of Ohio, you probably think this song is about you. Don't you?

We Are Steppenwolf

I continued with my Hermann Hesse quest. I just finished "Steppenwolf" maybe his most famous and controversial work.

You can see why it was so influential in the 60's culture of Amerika. Sex and drugs and r&r (actually jazz).

Hesse himself thinks the novel was pretty much mis-understood. He's so good at depicting the "despair" of the modern world. Maybe not so convincing on the way out of that despair.

It's a hallucinatory trip! A hall of mirrors. Again it's a "spiritual" novel about the "essential work" of trying to dismantle a personality, a personality that is defined by the family, the church, the state.

It's "not for everyone," maybe for "madmen only." The work inspired the Magic Theater in 60's California, the rock band led by John Kay, and of course Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago.

And what is the way out? Humor! Chop that EGO down to size! Don't take yourself so seriously. Live. I loved the novel. It totally resonated with me. It's CLAIRVOYANT! One of the great works of our time. Sometimes we have to take a step back to take a step forward. Steppen - Wolf!

The Smoke Clears - My Spin

As a long-time Political Junkie, I must say, the junk just doesn't have the same kick it used to. Maybe that's inevitable for someone who came of political age in the Dark Prince Nixon years.

My spin...

1. The smoke clears and Obama is still President. It wasn't a referendum on Obama, he wasn't on the ballot. I mean, some folks might think he's a socialist, a commie, a pinko, a Chicago agitator. Ha! Ha! He's Mr. President to me!

2. Lots of conservative Democrats were replaced by even more conservative Republicans. No great loss.

3. Russ Feingold in Wisconsin, probably the most decent person in the Senate, needs a job. Obama better appoint him to something cool! Soon!

4. Government is not a business. It's not supposed to be about profits - this whole "fiscal discipline" thing is a bunch of hooey! The Fed can print up money. The whole business ideology/analogy is a bunch of shit. Basically all those conservatives who think government should be run like a business need to get their heads out of their asses.

5. The country is still totally screwed up. I don't think it's just the fault of government - although many if not most of our politicians are toadies to big business. We are ruled by an oligarchy of rich folks - corrupt banksters and Wall Street Kleptocrats. Not one of them were kicked out of office. The problems of this golden land run very, very deep.

Video of Radio Man

Here's a video my brother made of an early version of "Radio Man." We recorded the song at the now defunct Golden Roach Studio. That's the Lovely Carla on vocals, Sunny Jimmy on guitar and my brother on harmonica. There's also a little studio trickery to kind of sweeten the whole thing.

The video itself is all my brother's doing. Nice work Dude!

Gnarly!

Being human is such a gnarly exercise. To be fully human you must delve deeply into your own gnarly-ness.

You must own it.

You won't be rewarded with anything except even more gnarly-ness, but hey, no one promised you a rose garden!