I'M DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my thesis is done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 237 pages!!!!!!!!!!!! it took 11 hrs today to get it finished, & i only have one brain cell ping-ponging in my noodle right now, so this site reflects how i feel at the moment (courtesy of the great grottu) www.zombo.com ... to see a preview of my thesis, click link at right titled "Learning with Soul" -- whoopeeee!!!!!! :) :) :) :)

"why does the sun go on shining? why does the sea rush to shore? don't they know it's the end of the world, cause you don't love me anymore?"

-> time for a breather from music & thesis & 1/2 marathon prep... it's movie night! for my dough, these are the greatest apocalypse movies, ones that actually end with the world's end:
1. miracle mile (1990)- so beautiful, quirky, sad, romantic, wonderful, scary, full of dread & longing!! (spoiler here:) crashing into the la brea tar pits in a helicopter while kissing your beloved as the world blows up... wow!! set in smellay, so one bit better than...
2. last night (1998)- see above! set in toronto, which, tho not LA, is a real cool city, too, esp its incredible international market... what great acting & writing! like #1, a dark & exquisite (little exaggeration there) movie about "love conquers all"...
3. dr. strangelove: or how i learned to stop worrying & love the bomb (1964) - "gentlemen, you can't fight in here! this is the war room!" all the best grizzled character actors deliver the funniest, most awful & cynical lines: this movie makes me cry & laugh both. more quotes from the black-hearted gem at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes
-> the next two technically are POST-apocalyptic, both based on richard matheson's ultra-cool "i am legend":
4. the last man on earth (1964) - w/a world-weary vincent price! you can watch this free online!!
... &, of course, 5., the omega man (1971)...
pure cult-cheese, great if only to see charlton heston make out w/rosalind cash (his only better role was playing "the mexican" varga in "touch of evil"...)(look for the simpsons parody, gross & irreverently funny) :)

waaahoooo!!! nearly done!!! : birthing a behemoth

finally!!!!! i just completed a fairly large section of my thesis, the story appendix that accompanies the curriculum/study guide i'm writing... this sucker is a behemoth!!
tentative page counts:
main thesis - 67 pages
curriculum/study guide - 35 pages
education standards - 1 page
at a glance lesson planner - 4 pages
appendix one (leveled stories) - 81 pages
appendices 2-10 - 35 pages
and it's still not finished!!!! so far i have 223 pages!!! i've been a "high maintenance" student, maybe, worried about everything & wanting to do the best i can (which means i ask lots of Qs), but still the profs've been supportive, especially my lovely advisor dr. jo sanzgiri, who is kind, patient, organized, & enthusiastic, too!... this is an important project i've undertaken -- this is definitely no phone-it-in kinda work for me!! read the overview & please give feedback, if you wish... http://www.freewebs.com/learningwithsoul/index.htm

cut it, check it, put it to bed

woke up this a.m. w/nice email surprises -- i've been off-on editing-revising texts for two guys, one a mad-creative circuit speaker w/dark-funny sensibility; the other one of the world's absolutely greatest boogie-woogie pianists, a big-hearted wildman who tells hilarious-salty tales. the last bit i got from clancy was a year ago; gene sent a few graphs last month. today, both sent sections! (rub hands w/glee...)
this'll give me some fun when i'm not thudding toward the thesis finish-line. :) clancy's writing a spooky-funny celtic-occultic adventure; gene's is a loose-&-funny semi-autobio about the life of an itinerant musician... 5 1/2 yrs ago i started a little underground pub that indirectly changed a lot around here, i've been told... i handed it over to another fellow in 04 hoping not just relief for myself, but that the charge would improve his life, & the paper changed in ways i didn't much anticipate, tho the new guy did put a much bigger face on it (not one i would've, but again, it was his - what could i say?). since 04, i've missed regular writing & editing, so to have this & a few other little blogs, my thesis, & now getting to work w/my pals, well, i'm thankful for it all. really don't matter if anyone reads, it's just part of me, to write, & occasion allow me to do it, so i must.
a few quotes: "better to write for yourself & to have no public, than to write for the public and to have no self." "write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it." blablabla.
-30-

pix from scott's tribute show

all photos from writer & local gadabout greg goodsell :)

"someday she's gonna be a star, (but right now) she's a sucker for a cheap guitar"

(paraphrasing ronnie dawson)
this evening i took my niece to get her 1st strat pack. recently she became enamored of getting a "red electric guitar" like the one her "j-pop" music idol plays & started babysitting the many family kids to earn the dough. the family's been dubious since maddy's taken no interest in the child's acoustic guitar i fixed up & gave her one xmas (it had been mine! ungrateful heathen child!), or the electric keyboard from grandma, but maddy explained, "but i didn't ASK for those. i WANT this!" when i'd watch maddy on alternating tuesdays, we'd trek down to the guitar center to let her visit "her guitar" - they'd get her all plugged in & she'd pluck away (god love g-center for this). grandma said she'd pay half, & by this evening maddy had saved enough dough (grandpa had her count it out & add up what was what, tax & such, w/the calculator), so away we went (we wonder if the family kids now will get dropped, babysitter-less, like lead balloons, but once a kid gets a taste of making her own green,...) in tow w/me & 13-yr old maddy was 6-yr old brendan, who cheerily plunked all the "small" & low-lying instruments - mandolin, tambourine, drum pedals. "i like this place cause you can make all the noise you want without getting in trouble!" maddy cheered.
the guy helping us had to go into the dungeon or vault or someplace to dig out a specifically red one. he finally emerged, maddy counted out $268.11 in bills & coins (the cashier, onto her, jokingly announced the total to be $600 & her jaw dropped), & the young gal at the door gave each kid a guitar pick.
"here, maddy," i said, "put that in your wallet." she did & looked at me.
"now you're an official musician," i said.
"oh, aunt jenny," she said, giving me her funny little sly bashful smile.
on the way home over celebration slurpees, she said her stomach was doing "flip-flops." she says she already knows what she's going to write in the thank you to grandma & grandpa - but not tonight. "tonight i'm gonna play my guitar until mom MAKES me stop!" she said gleefully.
lately i'm so busy i don't know my head from a hole in the ground, but thank goodness i get to be a family samaritan these days, instead of the family butt, like i used to be. :) little brendan says now he's gonna save his money for a guitar... then all the kids can have a band. for all kids, unending music & happy days like summer, as many as earthly possible..

pretty little angel eyes pretty little angel eyes pretty little angel pretty little angel pretty little angel eyes... more blablabla!

(curtis lee & the halos, phil spector, producer, a tune 1000s of females like me used to hear from beaus.) just read art fein's updated page at www.sofein.com (some thought-provoking & also funny stuff - read the ones about bob barker & the dif betw lyrics & music!)... 1st there's his monthly "1st record/1st show" page. this month's - very interesting! well-written! nostalgic! then you get to the bottom & holy crud - it was written by art's friend, "the greatest record producer in the world," phil spector!! then right below this is my name & a link to the "rockin 50s report"! the proximity threw me a tad, & so i write about it, cause greg goodsell & i met lana clarkson, the actress who died in spector's house, just the day before the shooting, at a monster movie-vamp convention down south. i remember thinking, wow! skin-tight leopard outfit & big leopard cowboy hat, very blondly glamorous-beautiful & polite & friendly, & next day, she's dead... the "connection" means nothing, but i still can't help but feel just a little weird & sad. elsewhere on art's page are pix of the band i saw down south, 3 balls of fire, plus THE original BLASTERS!!!! i had gone down (i thought) to see them, but that didn't work out, then 4 days later, i find out they're playing that night in hollywood... drat! just couldn't make the drive again, last sec like that. then art reported the blasters show had no "magic" & "lots of tension" betw the alvin bros, so guess i got lucky, catching a moody, spirited, dramatic 3BOF show w/net buddies instead of a sour blasters show. that would've been a real bummer!... one-woman band update: thx to captain morgan, local musico, i got a high-hat stand: whatta guy! this young punk gal stokely earlier sold me a couple other drum pieces, & i had the bass drum from ex-dusk devils bassist philbeaux, so there you go. i've got about 5 songs worked up so far. it's a dang challenge, trying to get the boom-chicks vs chick-booms right while playing piano & singing, but i think i'll be able to do it. then i go on the road w/3 chord whore... hahaha!! :) & bloodshot bill & i have a date for 2011, when he can come back in the u.s. i've gotten many kind comments here, on myspace, bakotopia, email re my 2 songs at scott's memorial. as a pal told me, re the one-gal band, "maybe you're on to something here"... who knows? never hurts trying!
in short, w/progress coming big-time on thesis (i think it's gonna clock 150-200 pgs!!), upcoming debut show w/old 99 pending, & wonderful family festivities yesterday & fellowshipping today, this 4th of july week has been bless-ed. :) my sponsor calls herself "the luckiest woman in the world," & today i really knew how a person can feel that for herself. it's not an exclusive feeling, either - you, also, can be the luckiest person in your own world, & i can be happy for you & share in it. we both are bettered in the realization. :) vaya con dios, mis amigos y amigas!!!