merry christmas! & whoohoo!!!! let's celebrate the king (of rocknroll, that is) (some would disagree, but falalalalalalalala)... :) :)

the avalon is at 1735 vine st (at hollywood), LA CA, 90028. show starts 5:30 pm. proceeds benefit the firemen's fund. for more info, keep checking www.sofein.com ... i know we & manuel will be there, & many of art's friends, wonderful performers from famous to little-known... it will be great to hang out w/manuel & listen & watch as everyone remembers elvis!!!
packing for colorado... brrr.... merry christmas, happy hannukah, happy festivus, happy new year!!!! :) :) :)

merry christmas & a happy new year

the laughingstock speaks; move over, guy

- i'm the butt of family jokes, as is whoever's not in the rm, when my family gathers -- cheapskate (they don't know i save every cent for when they all are in the poorhouse due to their flagrant ways); "the makeup" (old family nickname: morticia); wild past (now the far past, except when our texas cousin comes a-visiting & she tells my every dumbass drunk tale since for some reason she was with me near-every time i was especially inebriatedly stupid). they can't joke anymore about the church falling down if i walk in because i've got mother mary goddess-worship going on (in memoriam, dear grandma) & rapture (not the holy roller kind) when w/in mother church (tho must plug ears tight in spots so can be rapturous instead of despairing)... tonight our meeting got on the topic of humility & a lovely pal talked of "the universe's" (i'll call it) will oftentimes being uncomfortable & seeming unfair, but that it's not about her, but the greater good, & another spoke of sacrifice & the magnificat & i thought, oh crap, we're getting awful religious here, but next was near-tears... such talk doesn't make me wanna barf anymore & in fact brings moments that feel like revelation, freedom, possibility of relief from the infernal self, the cunning varmint that won't go way. faith works for & brings peace to much better folks than i. who am i to judge?
- the family says i can't cook. and they're right. nor do i want to. except lately we saw that show w/the funny chubby guy fieri laughing & shmoozing & eating at all these delicious fun roadside joints & so then tonight i made not just dinner that didn't injure my spouse, but energy bars, & they came out dang good. just goes to show: know thyself... then watch that self change.
ynnej's energy bars:
- big handful dry flaxseed/oat cereal
- 2 big handfuls dry oatmeal
- a big handful of raisins or craisins
- handful of peanuts, handful of almonds
- small handfuls of sesame &/or flax seed
- 2-3 packs of the pink stuff (sweetener)
- pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg, even ginger
- dose of vanilla flavor (the non-alcohol kind)
- big splash each of fake eggs and applesauce
1. mix until batter consistency. 2. spray down a cooking dish. 3. plop batter in cooking dish & shape it so it looks nice. 4. top w/whatever you want -- dried cocoa, drizzled honey, marshmallow, etc. 5. cook at 325 degrees for 25 mins or until crispy. 6. let cool. 7. be near the can. this stuff is fiber-heavy &'ll clean your pipes. makes 6-8 bars, depending on how big you cut them.
- i think a banana would work in here, too. look out, guy fieri.

kicks!

-> listen to manuel's cholo-rocking christmas tune "santa claus" (farmer john) here! :) :) :) -> http://www.crackedpistonrecordings.com/music-53.html
-> we got to take the train to hanford yesterday w/47 great friendly folks & sat w/the funnest couple, dan & marylou, who spun ideas for inventions & movie scripts (lately have thought it'd be fun to do a film short)... like if i were gonna make a movie, it might come out something like this poster (gene v, esquerita, & sputnik m would appear only in ghost form)(& i dropped the library-murder scheme dan suggested, tho librarians'd probably laugh w/great satisfaction at it)... they really fired my imagination. philbert suggested a storyline wherein we go town to town playing music, then i lure people in & he kills them by hitting them w/his guitar & we all split to the next gig (once again, i realize philbert & i are more alike than it appears) & dan & brian concluded the movie should be strange, shocking, nerdy, kitschy, noirish, funny, innocent, yet redemptive. good lord! what a task! so i'll just make a poster for now & call it good... still, i know so many folks w/really good character mugs & great personalities. it'd be so fun to see them on the b&w big (or small) screen; then if anyone saw it & enjoyed, that'd be the lagniappe!
-> ... mebbe i'll try to do this. only the great eggnog knows...
-> am still recovering this a.m. from the ice cream sundae we had in hanford at superior dairy (AFTER dinner! it was somewhat obscene!): banana & maple nut ice cream w/walnuts & marshmellow. if i lived in hanford, i would be sideshow-big bc of this wonderful place -- was slurring my words after just a few bites: it was that sugar-overloaded delicious... now it's time for a little penance, a nice run, my 1st in near-2 wks cause i'm finally getting well!!! then philbert & marko come over & i will give them new songs to sing. so what a nice day, & best to you who might read this... feliz navidad, prospero ano y felicidad....

geez louise. bettie page is gone.

- was posting manuel's xmas shows (tomorrow at the game in temple city; go to www.myspace.com/bigmannyband to see) & chuckling w/him excitedly about the record when i read that bettie page died. :( 85 yrs old. (not young; she had a heckuva hard life: abuse, pinup yrs, holy roller, insanity - tho in her last photo, at age 80, she looked great!) she made the rest of us women look like little men, i think. considering she's a patrician blonde, gretchen mol did a pretty darn good job as bettie in "the notorious bettie page," getting her spirit (i suppose), but gretchen mol, too, looked like a little man compared to the real bettie.
- she exercised daily before most women did. she had the most perfect, lovely figure (revealed most beautifully in bunny yeager's shots) & bewitching features. i saw color film footage of her once & she was indigenous-brown. she was a teacher for a while. she didn't drink or smoke, which gave me hope when my life was very dark. later in life, she struggled big time w/mental illness. (i did too before i stopped drinking, tho i never stabbed anyone. bettie did.)
- i think if i hadn't had to clean my life up, i'd've been one of these rockabilly gals steeped in bettie-worship, who blackens & rolls her hair just like bettie, dresses just like her, drives herself bonkers being in love w/"being" bettie, but i did, so i don't. plus who am i kidding??
- she was more magical than 500 of her impostores. none can come even close because soul, which bettie had, is organic & free-flowing & imitation is studied & ironic, the opposite of soul. in black & white, she was the sweetest angel, the naughtiest devil, the mightiest queen, & everything in between. the wanna-betties (that sounds harsh; what's a better name?) can't imitate that amazing quality because it was spontaneous & authentic; like elvis impersonators, they can only ape. oo-oo-oo!
- but heck, i guess it's cooler to ape bettie than say... heck, most anyone else. so don't mean to sound unnecessarily harsh, but i think the point is, why ape at all? there'll only ever & always be one bettie page, & now she's gone. so just be yourself!... whatever THAT means!!
- row row row your boat, c'est la vie, memento mori... forry, bettie, the evidence keeps building. i guess ain't none of us getting out alive, so go have fun, friend, kick up your heels & go.

dusk devils pic from walter the dancer

at the barndance back in oct, walter, earl, & b took a bunch of pix, which was really cool! just saw this one on my myspace (a "tagged" photo) & like it. the guys look handsome!!
that was a fun albeit rather strange night. one of those deals where you just get warmed up & it's time to clear the stage! ronnie mack looked like abraham lincoln to me. i just love abraham lincoln; it kinda haunts me, so i don't think about it. and he was very kind, sincere.
i wonder if we'll do it again? w/my lingering laryngitis, i've just been concentrating on staying warm, getting better... the holidays are zooming up. seems like the evenings & weekends are filling up fast!!!!!!
well, that's plenty o'posting for one wkend. feliz semana! :) :) :)

mos def as chuck berry!! "...a lot of people call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists."

->in the movie "cadillac records," the singer/actor (tho diminutive, younger, w/different singing style) looks so much like berry, he does many scenes even sans pencil-mustache. his 1st scene was so great, i started blubbering w/joy!!! this movie, to my cashiers-du-cinema [sic] mind, was fair, w/moments of excitement, but mostly inducing the mopes as swell blues & R&R music morph into the slow stuff, but the topic... SO WORTH IT!! and beyonce, jeez, what a movie star: marilyn curves, beautiful baby face, husky southern drawl (but the movie was weird in having the actors "interpret" the [i think] uninterpretable songs... leave the songs be!!!)...
now we need movies fully devoted to specialty, king, imperial, verve, & of course, sun, then eccentric later labels like arhoolie, norton, rollin' rock, rhino, slash, bomp, uh uh... add to the list! on CR's soundtrack is a slithering, smoldering tune "let's take a walk" that i thought was some great 50s female soul singer, some unknown-to-me plum... then maybe al green... but no, it's raphael saadiq, & feeling like vincent price in "last man on earth," i didn't know of him!!! if you don't, either, here's his site: Www.myspace.com/raphaelsaadiq

forry lives

-> the legendary (yes, legendary!) creator of famous monsters of filmland passed away today. 92 yrs young! he'd been sick for quite a spell, but i thought of him akin to bradbury: a fellow old in yrs, but ever-young & amazing in imagination, therein somehow eternal... his mag changed so much about pop culture, proffering "the monster" as what we resemble & desire since we (well, me, for one) feel misfitted, misunderstood, monstrous a bit or a lot: it was a bible that way. an ex, the blazers bassist dude, had scores of FMOF up in his bedroom closet, plastiqued & coveted like i have my mad mag cache, & he'd only let me glance at them, never touch...
-> we (not blazers dude, but me & b, me & greg) went to forry's ackermansion near griffith park many times in the early 00s. the house alone was aged & fabulous, near (heck, maybe in; i dunno) the hollywood hills, where the streets are so steep, narrow, & windy, you're sure you'll crash back into yourself on ascent. i imagine the vintage near art fein's place, which is only a stone's throw away: exclusive silent era.
-> he had maria -- the REAL maria! golden, forbidding, beautiful, from metropolis, his favorite movie -- looming before the giant picture window in his sunken living rm, which overlooked hollywood. god, that alone was impressive!! he had face masks of ALL the horror greats -- karloff, lugosi, chaney jr & sr, everyone! (he knew them all, too) -- & the place, opened to the public saturdays, teemed, moaned, groaned, creaked basement to ceiling w/the most amazing collection of horror/scifi movie memorabilia & reading you could ever in your life've seen in one place. you'd wind thru that house, agape, pinching yourself at how every wondrous site from every horror/scifi film ever was there! how could it be???
-> each time we'd go, & all gathered at end of tour in the living rm for forry's fireside chat, he'd use me while telling a story of a famous actor on a drunk who chased a "pretty girl" & i'd be flattered as heck, tho know it was only convenience that let me be the model. (really wish all the pix weren't buried on a disc someplace in this old haunted house...)
-> my friends gary & darrell, who along w/but distinct from greg goodsell are bakersfield's forrest j. ackerman, 4-5 yrs ago put out a drive in-cold war-vibed horror flick, "the creep." forry introduced it! by the time of their 2nd film, "silver angel vs. the death zombie," forry was too ill to do the intro. so guess who did it??? yours truly!!! yes, a lovely costume lady altered an old halloween dress &, in that, aided by G&D's soft lighting, i looked like a million bucks!! i could scarcely believe what i saw, actually... heard was another story. i cannot act w/no piano in front of me, not even by a toenail... but back to forry: greg goodsell will write more & better about him. i say rest in peace to someone who helped us all recognize & grow to love the monster w/in. "fangs for the memories," dr. acula.

weegee the wonderful and the curse & blessing of instant infomation: my name is croaky & i'm...

how are you, kind reader/skimmer of this post? i've had laryngitis off/on this wk, so made mistake of looking the condition up & now the magic mind tells me i have vocal nodules. apparently it's not enough to block web md: must stay off all sites having to do w/health or the turncoat between my ears tells me it's fatal, from stubbed toe to runny nose, this is it. say goodbye to everyone you love, cause you ain't long for this lonely blue & what made you think you'd last, anyways, you little fool??... met recently w/my sponsor -- wise & regal rescuer of desperate souls, i say, not hyperbolically, neither -- & she suggested rationing net time so i can have a little more what some people call "peace of mind." so i set my internal timer & after an hr, whack: turn that sucker off. at 1st, i had moments of gnawing jones: while talking to someone, driving, brushing my teeth, the enemy whispers, "wonder if you got any emails? wonder how your sites are doing? wonder what he/she/it is up to?" but like drinking, like smoking, seems (knock wood) like after just a few days, the obsession is being lifted.
so just for today, i feel free. heck, even sick, since just saying no i've done 90% of the xmas shopping (& we're talking a LARGE family, of choice & blood) & read a novel, the caveman's valentine (not bad; liked the wild weird protagonist a lot, tho this wingnut i knew who's like him scares the crap out of me) & am starting a john irving now. that's right -- i read BOOKS! i'd relegated that to 2nd to reading humming diode-lit screens! books are much better, & heck, i'm a librarian now, so dang it, books first. must've been lost to think otherwise...
am in love w/lots of things, & it's ever-wandering, & right now it's weegee. always thought his stuff mebbe was coming from an arbus-like, sort of misanthropic, pugnacious-shocker pov, but never really LOOKED at it, & check out this quote: "when you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know you are on the right track." a humanist. weegee loved people. especially the underdog, the lonely, the poor, the departed. it's so swelled up w/love when i look w/the right eyes, i could just cry.
time's up. gonna go. love, froggy

ddevils originals on youtube! plus pasta-making arms & the sad monster stare

(update) yippee!! our new young friend paul posted part of art's show on youtube! thank you!! :) here is the link, & thanks for commenting/rating. this is so cool! :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUoP2T0vq3o

(original post) just saw these pix were added to trouts' myspace -- they are from P.M. (pre-mark) dusk devils in spring 08 when we were a fabulous (tho bass-challenged) trio... phil gets this romantically-suffering boris karloff-dave gonzales kind of look, pictured here w/what my mama has called my "pasta making arms".... "those are arms & hands that do things," she always says... & tho i still wish they were willowy, i think she's right. only way i'd be willowy'd be after sitting in a coffin for a few hundred yrs (except i'm gonna be buried in my piano, then cremated in the middle of the desert). however, tho willowiness will never be my prize, i know i can do a lot more pushups than many females my age. it's not a contest, but still that's something i'm glad to be able to do.
btw, if you've got no time, do the charles atlas daily workout: http://artofmanliness.com/2008/01/08/every-man-every-day-should-do-these-exercises/ ... before looking it up just now, i remembered it this way: 50 pushups, 100 situps, 100 squats. if your mood is sour, it'll change you up, & i mean it!!!

late at night...

...i go online & try to find proof that elvis possibly still can be alive. i'm not being ironic, & decent people shouldn't write or speak of elvis that way. derision or sarcasm on the topic are just plain wrong, too. i know 2 guys who dislike -- heck, say they even hate -- elvis. i'd just like to slap them both.
tonight i see this pic of an extra in home alone & think, now i have to suffer thru that whole thing to watch this one scene? thank the pearly gates for youtube...
i hope against hope, then dream... elvis; the house w/big windows, surrounded by ocean; climbing & descending amber trails w/rocks & switchbacks; searching for the dogs; whole cities & streets & big familiar old buildings w/lots of rooms, places i've never really seen or lived but know thru recurring dreams; more water seeping around me, ever-present, but i always get out; other uncanny, subconscious, yucky, silly, weird-like-dreams-are stuff...
tonight we watched one of my most favorite movies of all time, "touch of evil," & i wonder why i can't find online proof that welles's makeup was modeled after j. edgar hoover's pug features? must look harder. i love that tough, smart, sordid, romantic movie so much, it's kind of kookoo. in fact, am that way about lots of movies, & songs, & people, & about lots & lots of stuff. life's just too too big & fleeting to feel half-way about.
this vacation has been so very nice, w/kith & kin absolutely packing mom & dad's house, & playing on the little keyboard they've got over there (took the piano when i got hitched, as mama said i could) w/everyone singing christmas songs to get in the mood, extreme calorie consumption, much rest, much couch time. tonight i got in a 5-miler & even a mtg, & what a wonderful thing, the rhythm & hush of breath & feet & the smells & glimmer of winter night. my new ebay shoes are absolute jaguars, corvettes, lamborghinis, & they move me so efficiently along dirt, gravel, asphalt, my machine-like respirations damp in the coolness: sht-sht-sht-(inhale)-sht-sht-sht-(inhale)... i'm automatic, blissed out, i glide, i'm the terminator, james brown, elvis: they are really some shoes!!! hope any who read this are having peaceful & merry times...

weird romance, procrastinating

i told my better half i'd clean the bathroom. but instead i made this video. hope you like it.

this wkend has had small peaks & valleys: went to & left a mtg. girls took 3rd places in oral language fest. :) called manuel to get final ok on his record (he hasn't called back). watched day of the jackal. the great escape (for the 90th time). went consuming. went to sleep & missed music show. waited by mailbox all sat, but didn't get my super-cool running shoes in mail, as ebay dude promised. stupid ebay dude. sulked. made a bouquet. visited aunty rita & uncle henry. made video.
so now i guess it's time to go clean the bathroom. such tasks build character. not to mention make the house nicer. :) happy beautiful autumn & upcoming winter...

yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!! baravelli on cirrhosis: "so roses are red, so violets are blue, so sugar is sweet, so so are you."

... to which wagstaff (groucho) replies, "i can't see him, but i'll bet i know who he is..." b celebrated 20 yrs w/o the hair o'the dog today! thus cirrhosis, at least for today, again has been averted by 200% in this household... unsinkable uncle henry left icu for a regular hospital bed today. :) my hives went away - no more itching!! the librarian pt of my job is beautiful! my little oral language festival team is quite great! the teaching pt of my job, generally horrifying this yr, has seemed nearly manageable lately (knock formica), w/improvement nascent! i feel warm & fuzzy toward young-uns i have wanted to run screaming from (preposition dangle)... we practice this eve w/all 4 ddevils & fueled on a $1 store energy drink & funny friends & music, i was rocketed into the 4th dimension. :)
manuel finished his record today!! i sent him final artwork tonight. next it's off to the printer's in (i think) missouri or someplace... i'm excited to hear the final mix! (here's the back cover i made. mono is his little dog.) :)
my favorite time of yr is here... family family family family family friendship fellowship food food food food food laughs warmth love music music music music music... the phantom turkey run is thursday!! we might do a little holiday gig next wkend!!! we'll see. stay tuned fo mo on the latter, if it floats your boat. :) :) :)

one night of sin, the philbert wails on bride, happy bd to mark, the allergy emergency, the monkey speaks his mind...

-> new music here: http://www.esnips.com/web/jenny-angel-dusk-devils-ex-girlfriends-music/ - give it an eschucha & let me know what you think - thank you! :)
-> art fein sent our tv show lickety-split (thanks!) & we had just sat down to watch it the other pm when a powerful, horrible, wonderful itch seared my torso. i started scratching wildly, skin burning, remembered the feeling from kid-dom, when i could scratch my name in my torso w/my fingernail like something outta the exorcist! i pulled up my shirt to see what the heck was going on & b yelled, "we have to take you to the emergency room right now!!" i had had some freakish allergic reaction, & by the time an rx saw me & gave me a shot, i was covered w/huge welts everywhere except my face, fingers, & feet. for a few days, i felt like i had the flu from the antihistamines (can't take anything; am such a lightweight), & was all welted up. then it calmed to a sort of measles... & now is about gone. it was shocking, weird & ugly, but still better than anaphylaxis, asthma, blinding headaches, balance trouble, & all the other stupid symptoms an allergy to this world can cause!!
-> i think i was allergic to my image on the tv screen. :) ah; aging. what a lovely phenomenon. :) but we had a very good show! art wrote on the package, "yippee!" & he ain't one to blow smoke up your skirt & has good taste, so i was happy. :)
-> thurs we celebrated marko's bd w/pistachio ice cream & a super-sized stocking full of goodies. we watched the show & laughed over how nervous we'd been & how good it came out in spite of us. "i just love how your guitar fits w/everyone," i told phil. "you figure out parts that just GO, & it feels like you're not trying to dominate, but like we're all working together. thank you!" he just smiled humbly & replied, "well, that IS why they call it a GROUP!" which i thought was really funny. :) they left & i collapsed into bed...
-> feeling a bit better tho crabby today, i put up two new songs on esnips, a version of dave bartholomew's "one night of sin" (elvis did it that way & more famously & sanitarily as "one night (w/you)") & "bride of frankenstein" w/the phil on guitar!! (link's at top)
-> bartholomew, you likely know, was the legendary new orleans composer, band leader, musician, & more who wrote so so many great songs w/for fats domino, elvis, shirley & lee, lloyd price, & the list goes on & on! here are lyrics for his great, deep, rockin, cool cool cool cool song, "the monkey":
"three monkeys sat in a coconut tree discussing things as they are said to be / said one to the other, now listen, you two, there's a certain rumor that can't be true / that man descended from our noble race, the very idea is a big disgrace! no monkey every deserted his wife, starved her baby & ruined her life / yeah, the monkey speaks his mind / & you never known a mother monk to leave the babies with others to bunk or pass them on from one to another til they scarcely knew who was their mother / yeah, the monkey speaks his mind / & another thing you will never see, a monkey build a fence around a coconut tree, & let other coconuts go to waste, forbidding all other monkeys to come & taste / why, if put a fence around this tree, starvation would force you to steal from me / yeah, the monkey speaks his mind / here's another thing a monkey won't do: go out at night & get on a stew, or use a gun or club or knife to take some other monkey's life / yes, man descended, the worthless bum, but brothers, from us, he did not come..." nietzche couldn't've said it better -- but music aces philosophy in that the former lets you sing out the suffering- of- the- human-condition, sing it thru to the other side & a brighter place.

pix from our last-standing honky-tonk

this event, pioneer days, was a fundraiser for kc's country music museum. top: mark yeary; jerry hobbs, al hendrix, rockwell, geo tillett, larry petree, jimmy phillips. bottom: al hendrix, the lost rocker; me meeting lloyd reading. not pixed: me & lynda; me & mark; celebrity performers such as red simpson; lloyd's awesome guitar player; bob wills' 93-yr old drummer; you get the picture. it was an amazing afternoon. all pix by lynda.

"for a minute, i thought that was jerry lee lewis over there!" pioneer days at trout's, bakersfield's last honky-tonk

well, i can't get the dang pix to upload, so that'll come later...
-> al & laraine hendrix are the nicest people -- met yesterday at trout's 9th annual pioneer days. al will talk your ear off: he's spry (even after recent hip surgery!), kind, & upbeat, & his stories are so interesting -- elvis; ann margret; col. parker; fats domino; bakersfield's wild 50s teenaged r&r band the go daddies! his wife laraine is funny & warm as can be, & everyone at trout's was nice. 3 people knew dad from the historical society (he's pres & the country music museum is affiliated w/it) & they gaped cause i don't look like dad (the astronaut). in addition to the hendrixes, enjoyed seeing/meeting/talking w/don kidwell (annie wasn't there yet, unfortunately), bobby tidwell's (token okie's) wife angel, enid, lynda, & joyce simpson (mrs red, who used to work w/dad). & what a line-up of music!! every "living legend" of the bakersfield sound was there (except merle haggard, who is sick)... lynda took my pic w/mark yeary, whom i finally got up the nerve to go talk to. he smiled in a quiet, impish way & said, "i can teach you everything i know in 5 minutes..." i don't think so!! that's what sue palmer said, too!! these great people are far too modest!! anyways, he motioned me to come up & play, so i stationed myself behind him on the stage & watched HIM play.
-> finally, when al sang "johnny b' goode," which i DO know, mark stood up & there i SAT at a really nice roland, banging away w/hands shaking cause i was following mark yeary -- but i heard people came inside to see "the girl playing the piano." (the trained monkey effect, i say, i hope not derisively; really, i & ones like me are inherently a novelty act to some degree, tho maybe not 200 yrs from now...) after the song, mark said, "that was it - note for note, just like the record!" & al said the JLL comment. talk about generous! then they went into a lloyd price (i think) number, & i thought, i could've (mostly) done that one!! but it was really cool to see how mark voiced chords (everything's 5-fingered!), so i'm gonna call him & get a lesson, i hope. it still kills me how many world-class blues-boogie-honky tonk pianists i've gotten to meet. gee whiz!!!!!!!!!!!!
-> al rocked & the dance floor was packed! he has a great voice, & i hope he gets hemsby & any of the fests that are calling for him now. truly i hope he won't remain "the lost rocker! he said more than once, "jenny, laraine & i truly think the lord sent you to us, sent you into our lives to help us," & more such kind, kind things, & i kept thinking, i don't go for anything unless i love it like mad cause i just can't, & i loved al's songs & singing BEFORE i knew he recorded in bako & was kinda like the dusk devils' grandpa, & yet my corny stage name, the one that used to make me cringe, really seems apt at times when somehow in spite of the raging ego i get to do something nice, & boy am i lucky to get to live to see all of this, & boy is this a lot for which to be grateful & happy. :)
-> after, we all went to dave's bbq & gentlemanly jimmy phillips told some wild & scary stories about being a 15-yr old drummer for the go daddies!! seeing al triggered memories for him, & what jimmy recalled was hair-raising for a boy to have experienced! if i had been his mother, i would've been severely pi**ed, as my cousin would say! "those kinda things happen," he said, "and you can't ever forget them..." i thought how i'd never seen a person outside the fellowship talk so non-gratuitously openly & honestly to strangers. everyone similarly touched me w/their sincerity & plain-spoken kindliness. we definitely were not w/the indignant, cynical, know it all, hipper than thou, or post-anything crowd, thank goodness for that.
-> fri (art's show & r&r pizza), sat (manuel & family), & sun, i/we sure got to be w/a lot of down to earth & big-hearted people, more than ever. ciò è così bella vita. and so it goes.

HAPPY BD TO JANI!!!!! :) plus: "i've never cried at a session before..." & singing it "more cholo"

-> my dear friend jani is having her bd week... happy bd, my friend!!! :)
-> today in music in my tiny life, i finished playing a glockenspiel pt on "silent night" & looked over & there was "big manny" in his armchair, in tears. "that was so pretty," he said, wiping his face & smiling. "usually at sessions, i'm like, 'you son of a b**ch,' or want to slap someone..." & then he laughed. next, after a little coaching (he's teaching me to be a bit less obvious, more complex musically), i did a fake strings pt & there he was again, sniffling, so i stepped over & gave him a big hug & felt so happy cause i knew i was on the right track... "thank you, you guys; i'm so blessed," said generous manuel.
-> manuel & bassist/engineer leo record on manana time, but it's so nice to hang out w/manuel & family, i don't mind, long as i have the gas $$, time, & stamina to get to his little place off the 60, as well as the understanding spouse who lets me go go go (phil & i were talking last night about our respective huge fortune in this area). in the fall, manuel & i developed a take-off on a terrific 60s e-side soul song i don't wanna name yet but think will be a real holiday hit if it gets out there - truly! so, bonus, he let me sing harmonies on it this eve, & what fun, to really belt out into a nice condensor mike a cool, funny song w/leo & manuel bopping their heads & grinning. (even aged uncle guillermo, sitting on the nearby couch, was smiling some.) manuel stopped me at one pt & said, "no no no -- you're losing your character. more cholo!" so i sang it again "more cholo" & he beamed, "ah, jenny, you're a real live performer." i wasn't sure what he meant, but it felt good!
-> as i rushed out the door & hugged everyone goodbye, guillermo stirred from his seeming nap & took my hand & shook it. "i like you, too," he said softly. :) then it was back on the yoyo to bakotown, w/b smiling, "you have that light in your eyes," & he did, too, having spent the day w/cody, so home we sailed to the swingin, rockin&rollin sounds of a bitchin comets LP recorded at rollin' rock studios, & such a night, oh such a night it was, it really was such a night!!

jaws at the r&r pizza, dusk devils in the valley, kindness, running running running

10 mins to blog!! heading out to manuel's in ela to record xmas songs, pioneer days at trout's tomorrow 1-5 pm, in short, this is the last wkend to run run run w/music!!... yesterday was 90% pure & wonderful fun. :) am so so grateful to have such good musicians, & for the simpatico guys in my band who are consistently kind & supportive. THE most important factor in my band is demonstration of willingness to get along w/others, & of mutual respect, or i will go back to the drawing bd... last night i saw clearly i must release a struggle to the great & powerful oz, so we'll see what happens now. & who knows - people change. is it more important to be right, or to drop the rock & get to be pt of something fun? i've forced being right in the past, & alienated & angered others, & then been cut off from fun, left wondering what the h happened, bewildered, alone... i don't wanna do this to anyone, & i love all the guys in different ways, but we must get along, & it's my band, so i pick the team -- that's just how it is. life's too short to be unhappy, as the phil said. we'll just see what happens...
-> we filmed art's show in van nuys on the run, then zipped to the r&r pizza - what a cool venue!! the stage was our 2nd tiny one of the day -- the smallest ever! joked about state rm scene in night at the opera, appropr bc our poster for the show was the marx bros... we made it work by swinging the vocal mike sidesaddle, which gave the resulting look. ha! i look like a bond villain!!
-> art showed up & we talked of musicians who should just play, not sing, & doug fieger, art's dear friend who'd done his 230 show, while he ate all the salad & pizza that was provided. :) (he does this, & it's funny.) krambo brought his friend brett, who was smiling & seemed happy by the end of the night, & philbert brought in friendly young andrew (a great gospel musician, he says) to run sound. it was just swell to have the help of those two!! the friendly owner of r&r pizza said we were the best band they'd ever had... & they've had some impressive ones, so we were flattered! the audience smiled & cheered, a cluster of little (& big) girls danced the night away, & one of my greatest loves is knowing we're contributing to an audience's happiness, so it was all quite swell. thank you to steve price & petra for having us!!! (altho the others ate my pizza...)
-> i haven't booked anything for the holidays bc life's been so overwhelming lately, w/work (like 2 jobs still!), fellowship, family, home, AND music, but maybe we're gonna... anyways, always -- that is, siempre, -- feliz, feliz, un feliz dia to you... :)

a happy day in the u.s.a., poker party folds?, rock&roll pizza yumyumyumyumyumyumyum

here are dos flyers for our uno gig friday night... pizza!! this place publishes pix of its pies that are near-naughty... drool... in its sunset months, dang it (i don't know why he won't keep making shows & posting 'em online; he's got the perfect sunken-living room to film in, a little like the old ackermansion, & a large audience aided by youtube), art & his poker party will host us in the afternoon, then we'll take the freeway down over to the pizza gig... it's gonna be a swell time in the southland that night!! ... i hold hope that art's got too much greasepaint under his nails, & he just ain't gonna stop making shows, cause he loves the underdog too much, & how can he let the fatcats squash the little guy once again? his is the longest-running cable access show in smellay. he knows everyone. he's a stone-cold music freak. it's nerdy cool fun. but who knows. everything has its time, gets old, insert ecclesiastes/byrds song here...
mebbe he's ready to give it up. i know i only had my little paper for 3 yrs & giving it up was kinda like giving up a beloved pet, tho i just had to or go nuts from being overly busy. but a bit of me died.
and that's every change, isn't it? c'est la vie... til it isn't!
oh well. best to art. & thanks for having us. :) :) :) :) good lord, this is all gravy. what an amazing, happy day in the u.s.a.... the rest is all gravy... heck, can you believe it?!?

gooogly gooogly goo goo

-> some wonderful topics from the wkend to google, should you wish: benoit mandelbrot & fractals (thought the latter were merely wild patterns acidheads trip on, but wow! what an amazing story in both mandeldrot's life & the lay explanation of his discovery!!); betty mcquade "midnight bus"; BCI (wow again! thank the universe for our productive scientists & mathematicians!); the nation; fats domino "be my guest"; pioneer days at trout's (fri-sat); "the spy who came in from the cold" (novel bests movie, natchly) & le carre in general; new pretenders LP; tv on the radio "wolves like us"; pocket coffee; torrones (insert homer simpson drool); bella bella portovenere; bill moyers; hemsby rock'n'roll weekend; uncle henry & aunt rita (oh that's right - you won't find them on google, tho they & our mama together have nearly as much trivia stored in their hard drives...)
-> another topic you won't find is "spider boogie," which i'm playing w/right now... can't you just see the little spider trying to work its way up the web? it's such a max fleischer-kinda boogie-woogie thing i get... & after these last shows this coming wkend, we dusk devils i hope can learn some more of my new tunes... as well as some new old tunes i/we just love love love!!
-> my library & i're having a mock election tomorrow at school & the kids i hear are excited!!... a good good day is coming to this country, i say w/great hope & happiness... it's like falling in love at this pt: i can no longer deny my heart's yearning, so risking possible total heartbreak & devastation, i must succumb...
-> the lost rocker al hendrix & the mixers (a lovely man, w/a lovely wife, what nice & grateful people) will be here this wkend; celebrate the bakersfield sound & a new day at trout's w/pioneer days!!! ...dad & mom are home safely from italia, & now dad kisses on both cheeks & greets all w/a heartier melody in his voice, & life lately, washing closer to music, seems beautiful & tho this, too, shall pass, i wish you a lovely today.

!!!!!happy halloween y dia de los muertos!!!

to see more pix, please go to www.myspace.com/theduskdevils :)

mwahahahahahaha!!! dusk devils this friday night halloween at narducci's & this wk on RFB!!!!

here are some flyers for friday night, which we just found is NOT for charity... but will be a rockin' good time on all hallow's eve! :) ... latest news: ddevils are on RFB again this wk: go to http://radiofreebakersfield.com/ & look for show #103; "big manny" is a real rocknroller, yet is teaching me musical variety & subtlety & has not one mean bone in his body (spent 5 hrs recording yesterday in e.la); got turned on to a swell just-off-the-101 h-wood breakfast joint by AF; driving home into bako is much nicer when slurping down a milkshake & listening to full-blast cumbia radio; we did a little interview this p.m. w/a nice young gal from the cal & debuted "rockin' bones" for the halloween show -- it's gonna be fun!!; on halloween, fox theatre is showing horror movies (not free) on the big-screen all day & night, culminating w/DOTD at 4:15 a.m. on 11/1!! must call greg goodsell asap!!!; the arizona cafe has the greatest atmosphere & chile verde in bakersfield; & tomorrow, happy happy bd to big b!!! :)

the flu the flu the flu, & some pictures, too

man, have i got the flu!! a person's gotta wonder what a high fever does to the brain (maybe this has been my problem all along)... haven't hardly been able to lift my head since yesterday at 3 a.m. on the up side, mister paul boulanger (what a great guy, very simpatico) sent these pix from the candye kane show. boy, do i look tired!! and as you can see, candye's more glamorous than ever. :) the woman in blue is the amazing sue palmer, the queen of the boogie-woogie!! it was a really swell night, tho all i can really recall right now is wolfing down tortas at 3 a.m. w/the phil, who hogged out (he'd admit as much) & burned his mouth...

rockabilly or shlockabilly? crazy man, crazy; culture, sex, & gender in the "scene;" riffing & a rolling, rocking & a ranting on book fair day....

-> ...real rockabilly really is more shlockabilly, i think. it's pure & wild & played with katie-bar-the-door grit, hellbent, heaven-sent, whatever you wanna call it, not neat & tidy & studio-clean. it's the music of the disenfranchised, the outsider, the squirrel, the soul that's gotta go go go now now now. it's the music of the dirty, greasy, laboring white man, mean mister phil alvin said one time, like the pictured joe coleman rendering of "the haz" (who also, like the killer, chuck berry, like all real R&R maniac males, was probably mean, esp toward females... why are so many of the great ones mean, w/misogynist leanings, seemingly straight from or needing to be in the bat factory?)(insert here essay about creativity & madness...)
-> do the great women R&R artists hate men? are they also nuttier than a payday? candye kane was pretty great the other night (she even got me up there to sing harmony on "crying time" w/her, & smiled as i hope i didn't deafen her w/my loud warbling). she's nice to everyone, & generous-spirited. but other than candye & wanda jackson, i've met only a few female musicians, & don't know the reputations of the big ones, really, like i do the males, since in the history of vernacular & american music (the stuff i like) male's've have the lion's share of the spotlight (except the blues women, & maybe it was craziness in part that gave them the spirit to forge ahead at a time when they were total outsiders...). i'm drawn to the crazies, but again, how come they're mostly guys? and from whence comes the pointedly girl-aimed hatred that seems to fuel the guy-crazy? is it all mama? are they just a**holes?
-> i think great women can't get away w/the spoiled, whacked-out, mean-spirited stuff. they'd be rejected, spurned, villified. remember what used to happen to women who spoke up too much: staked & set afire!!!! friend karen the other day was talking a fascinating line: "we're the mysterious creatures, the source of power, the ones that bleed every month & live, the givers of life, & men can't do any of that, so they have to misbehave, threaten, intimidate, push to control so they don't feel lost, bewildered & inferior... without us, they would not be, & they know it, so they have to try to knock us down. they're scared."... anyways, that was her opinion, & i definitely have mine on culture, sex, & gender, so that's enough for now...
-> rockabillies tend to be cool. i'm (and maybe you're'm) more like that line from american me: "i'm so cool, they call me culo." rockabilly guys generally look pretty good, w/the sideburns, slicked hair, & greaser or western duds: it's a flattering, masculinized look. rockabilly chicks tend to be drop-dead, vampy, make-you-stupid-when you-look gorgeous; they're pomaded, pancaked, push-up-bra'd, & corseted glamourous & retro-seductive. even the dorky ones are just sexy; it's the code, which demands exaggeration & stratification of the male/female gender roles so everyone knows who's who. comfort in the traditional. really very reactionary, when i think about it (so let's not). :)
-> the true billies do look great, but they more importantly know, revere, & carry forward all the wonderful old music... not like the ones who think the stray cats or social distortion (??) are the heart of the genre. i think folks like the latter are just in it for the fashion, which, red-state associations aside, again is pretty cool compared to many other pop culture looks... & w/luck they learn to love the old music, too, or quickly get bored & go away. anyways, that's enough on that topic...
-> i was chided the other day for often writing about my makeup. but dang it, every time i do, it's cause some MALE has said something about the facepaint. so i write! it's my face, for pete's sake!! it's my blog!! mine mine mine mine mine!!!!
-> today i looked at over 1,000 books for our school at the district book exhibit & earmarked at least 400. cross your fingers we get some!!!! there were so many really great titles. what a sincere wonder children's authors are, & the good good people that bring kids & teens books & encourage them to enjoy, escape, learn, & grow thru reading. :) tonight's aerobics & the drunks. tomorrow's flics (i won their contest!! i am queen of the nerds!!). sat is smellay, breakfast w/art fein & music all day w/manuel. sun is band practice. mon is big b's bd -- heinz 57! tues mom & day come home from italia.
-> whatta treat all this is!! i say this for myself as well as you: be grateful for this day, & be glad in it. get hot or go home. stay sick, turn blue. hail hail rock & roll. [let] the big beat keep you rockin' in your seat. etc etc etc. :) :) :)
-> my ballast has come home, so we shall now venture to cost-co to indulge in corporate consumerism- consumption worship. and get dog food. :)

road dogs lift souls with humble good-time blues

gee, just remembered how fun it was to write "real" headlines, w/column/pica count & all that: always a satisfying challenge, like a puzzle. is that another lost journalism art, i wonder, like doing "real" paste-up? oh well... the above right now (6 am) describes for me candye kane & band, to the one down-to-earth, cooperative, generous, friendly folks. not a one of them, from candye to awesome boogie-woogie pianist sue palmer (sue palmer!!!) & all in between, boasted, assumed, or name-dropped; they just played their butts off for the audience & had tio leo's rockin & boppin & hoppin. the worst thing that happened that day was rick again snapped his achilles tendon, so the poor mug played our whole set in pain. (!!!!) the more i think of it, the worse i feel, tho i didn't cause it, the mcgraws (what wonderful friends!) reminded me. will write more later... but wanted to urge anyone who reads this to check out candye & band. what good people, in a "biz" where many aren't, or are so wrapped up in ego, all they talk about is themselves, or are snobs (likely all out of fear, but still no fun to be around)... thank you, candye. :) there's a reason you've got the reputation you do!!
hope someone sends pix... i cancelled texting on my phone (keep it simple, right?) so now i can't get my phone pix to the web. ha! outsmarted myself yet again. que vallen bien & que tengan un buen dia, amigos y amigas. :) ... off to the school library now...

toughest girl alive meets los diablos oscuro next saturday & misc.

upcoming shows (flyers by kram):

well hope all've had the best wkend possible in these if-we-look-at-em scary times. on this bachelorette stint, i found myself down the rabbit hole, barricaded like an addict in my music rm. was sposed to go to a political rally w/my folks. they pounded on the door, but i was deep in recording a part & didn't hear. later, beating on the drums, i espied my mother's furrowed brow thru the blinds. oops. they had come back to see if i was ok. it was embarrassing. must pay more attn & not get so dang obsessed. this is the bachelorette life, around here...
i like my latest songs. :) they are cheerful, not too neurotic, & catchy, too! music puts one so in the bliss (insert vonnegut quote here). last night the spell finally broke & i jogged to meet jani & patty. we hit the spkr mtg & i talked at great length w/wonderful pat, who saves lives like mine all the time w/her advice & support. philbert turned me on to jalapeno poppers tues night when we drove home from el cid, so jani swung us by fast food & after gobbling them down, i got this morgan spurlock-kind of fast food bellyache... upside is, too sick to sleep, i saw this really great documentary "off the grid: life on the mesa" on the tube. it was touching, frightening, eccentric & heartfelt, & i recommend it mucho.
b came riding up around 11 am & pulled me back down to planet earth. (sing to tune of buck owens song): i'm tethered again. it's turned fall here in bako & is california clear & cold, just lovely. we had our school carnival fri; the kids were by & large wonderful, darling, sweet. i love so many of them more & more all the time. :) i am grateful for what i have, for what i don't, & wish you the same.

dolly sez... el cid's a really cool joint. and more...

a friend alluded to this quote, & i like it, so here it is: "i think of my make-up as a box of crayons & i look at myself as a blank canvas – i like getting paint on there. it makes me feel better. i'm not a natural beauty. it's not that i'm beautiful w/all that s**t, either – it's just that's what i enjoy & what makes me comfortable." amen.
ronnie mack's barn dance at el cid in smelLAy was great fun. :) i'm still recovering, 2 days later, & i don't even drink!! carilu, western band leader & nurse, had a warm demeanor & powerful, truthful-kinda voice that made art go "whoa." her 1st song, i said, had that bayou swing, & he just looked over & grinned like a kid in a candy store. dear manuel was there w/his friend max & we did the encore together, the one we'd practiced over the cell phone, but not in person! what fun it was to be on stage w/manuel, as well as my "handsome ugly guy" band, as mark calls them (he's wrong. they're character-actor handsome, i think). :) they brought their families & friends & all seemed to have a great time eating, drinking, & hanging out at a really cool venue...
more folks than usual took pix; i've just seen two sets, w/many strange "singing-face" pix of me!! (it's good for my ego to see them, how weird i can look...) :) you can see more pix at www.myspace.com/electricearl, in fact (thk you, earl, & how nice to finally meet you.) the pix here are from dear brian, & the nicknames you read are phil's. :)
i think more folks showed at el cid than sometimes do in bako, among them young cody; blue-eyed smokey miles aka count smokula; art; maureena; russell scott; ray campi; twinkle-toes walter vb; burnin' mike vernon of austin; rabkid david; & more! skip edwards & harry orlove were there in the awesome house band, & more musicians whose mugs but names i don't know. i thanked ronnie mack for having us as we left the stage & he took my hand & said gently, w/a sort of weary lincoln-esque smile, "you are wonderful." :) i heard skip heller dedicated a song to the band, but i missed it while talking side-stage w/all the nice folks who came up afterward. david serby was kind & complimentary, & my regret is we had to get on the road home to work the next morning & missed his set. next time, i hope!... there might be more to say about the eve, but i can't recall right now... so it's off to the drunks for me. :) next we gear up for our show oct. 18 w/dear candye kane in san diego. woo-hoo!
a beautiful weekend to all who read this... be gooooooood, or at least be. :)

dds at ronnie mack's barn dance tuesday!

in smellay! thx mark for the flyer, tho we're on at 10 pm... the show is free! am looking especially fwd to mtg cari of cari & the black rose band, as well as ronnie mack, & seeing friends, & putting on the best mini-show possible. was worried for about 5 secs that we wouldn't fit in w/the alt-country lineup, but art fein reminded me, "conformity has never been a concern of mine, nor your'n [took out his ref to odious politician], far's I know. nobody [ref again omitted] doesn't like rock & roll. it's what you do." whatta pep talk. :)
last night i was home twiddling my thumbs & TWO MORE SONGS PLOPPED OUT! (i'm picturing a clucking & shucking fat hen, & mebbe you are, too.) played them tonight for the guys, & they liked em! then we had a band mtg & it went on so long we missed fattkatt's crystal palace show w/swell & "bona fide" (in the o brother where are thou usage) musicians, gentleman larry petree (boy, that man is dapper!), "suitcase" red simpson, billy mize, sonny langley, mel lawrence, tommy hays, jimmy phillips, & i'll bet more of the bakersfield sound old-timers, too! it's cool & right for fattkatt to showcase our musical forefathers... tomorrow night friend o.t.'s band mroscat's playing at dagny's, 6:15 pm (free!), & i'm sure bassman kram is playing SOMEPLACE this wkend... so nice to play w/these fellers. we are the band w/the plan... plan nine from outerspace... beep beep beep beep beep

ME & MY APPENDAGES ON RFB!!!

jorge from radio free bakersfield is running my version of RAILROAD BILL this wk on RFB, his online garage punk-rockabilly-psychedelic surf-born bad-psycho-hillbilly show... it's a fasty roughy that i recorded on the uber-cheap home alone & it's on his 100th episode. he's got me pictured next to hasil adkins, & i'm on right after HA!! there's a bunch of the greatest raw DIY music on this show, from the staggers to the MUMMIES to the hazz himself (r.i.p.)... wow!! here's the link to the show: http://radiofreebakersfield.com/bands.htm
thank you, jorge!!!!!

"put on your pretty red dress, let's go see about this mess..."

...we change the lyrics on that particular hank ballard song cause i sing it, so i say (growl/scream), "i'll put on my pretty red dress..." tonight i realized during set up we weren't gonna be playing to a genre crowd, so i went home & put away my rockabilly outfit & put on the pretty red dress i found at "my favorite store" (that always means the thrift store, no matter which one it may be). when i found it many months back, i was so happy, realizing, "this is my pretty red dress!!" i never wear red, but there were about 10 women tonight wearing it, so that was nice, i kinda fit in, & if you can have a one-night-only color-specific zeitgeist, i guess it was RED!!
am very sick right now, so my writing is very repetitive. will check it later... hope i never again have to play all night long while so so sick. just kept using horrid throat spray & sore throat lozenges all night, & pounding monster drinks, & keeping the best attitude i could. i mean, if rick can play drums w/a cast on his leg, i can play while deathly ill. the show must go on! and it did! :)
what was nice tonight was seeing friends like jani, mark, carol & phil's & mark's families, & a sizeable, pretty good crowd & people whom i could tell don't know "this kind" of music reacting in many cases w/great enthusiasm! we sold a few cds, met a cool guy who said he has a line on an upright bass for kram, played every dang song in our repertoire (except one, which i forgot). phil's & mark's songs went over great! we were really rocking in many spots, despite my ill health. and a few of my new songs got big applause ("mexican blanket" & "bride of frankenstein"), which was delightful. :) it was nice to dedicate "love my baby" to b, & go out at break & visit the doggy dears, which b brought, & do some halloween songs, & to while in the swim of things, disoriented, swooning as if tipsy, sick out my gourd, look over & see mark's & phil's friendly faces, look back & see rick grinning away w/that blasted devil hat on, & feel like a team... then we got some dough & i tipped the men cause i'm just so grateful for them, grateful to do this at all, grateful grateful grateful.
i don't know where i'm going at this pt, just sick sick sick yet happy. and if mark's reading this & it's past 3 am, i say GO TO BED!!!!!
thank you to every one of you who came out tonight to hear the dusk devils. :) we now are on itunes (link at right) & have several upcoming shows (listed at top). the next local's halloween (FRIDAY NIGHT!!! 10/31!!!!) at narducci's, 10 pm. get your costumes ready!!! woohoo!!!
as edward r murrow used to say, good night, & good luck.

the greatest band, right from the u.s.a.: blasters pic-o-rama

-> buon giorno! johnb is always collecting blasters pix for their hugely popular myspace (www.myspace.com/theblasters - i got to start it way back when!), so here are a bunch. send him yours, if you have any! some of these are from our collezione, some from the net, some sent by past-blasters drummer, movie star-handsome surfer jerome. to view pix full size, click on "view all slides," then the one you like, then "view full size." if you next right-click, you can save pic.
-> we dusk devils have a show coming up here in backwardsfield next sat., sept. 27. & two after that in smellay & san diego!! & halloween at narducci's! see the flyers below!! :) :) :) (hope you enjoy the pictures...)

bassman does it again -- amended & prolonginated version

gee whiz! i posted the bottom flyer, then got on mark's myspace... & the guy'd made another one! so here it tis:
and here is the 1st version. take your pick! print teether one! or not! :) you can hire mark to make flyers & graphics for you, too: www.myspace.com/markallenpowell
jani & i had so much bucketloads of fun at the fair tonight, the great kern county fair, which didn't look like doodoo this yr because i did it in the right order & will go to the LA co fair NEXT. we walked & talked, ate ourselves silly, that is ambulated, ruminated, & masticated, stayed long enough to see some lovely midway neon... the only thing i did wrong was once again forget to turn on my cell ph, so didn't get to hook up w/the fabulous hickersons (that is, philbert & family), but i imagine & hope they had a great time at the fair, the county fair, what an american, american thing, what a wonderful thing, the fair, the smell of hay & corn dogs & cinnamon rolls & the animal pens & sizzling meat & fried sugared dough & the sweat & swirl of wonderful yelling laughing whooping giddy humanity all around. i wrote about the fair so many times when i had my little paper, & here, too, on this blog!, so will not go on & on here. but ah - the fair... just listen to the song "county fair" - that about gets it. :) ... life is nice right now, w/music, a meaningful-seeming job that looks headed toward increased involvement of students w/reading & true engagement, & friends, & thoughtful caring partner in b, & the steps, & solemn, handsome charlie rich music so sad & gorgeous, and and and and and... wishing you well, should you be reading this, no matter who you be. really. luceat lux vestra, ab ovo usque ad mala :) :) :)

upcoming shows - tell your friends!

(i forgot to put info about the new cd, itunes, etc. oh well.)

cheese & crackers.

- what a weekend. was supposed to practice w/manuel down south, & got another music offer, too. flattered, i knew in my heart i must not do the latter. but since i have somewhat eroded boundaries lately, i waffled & worried about what to do. well, last sec manuel called to cancel; his bassist got a fill-in w/cannibal & the headhunters. i felt like the lord was stepping in on my behalf, & stayed in backwardsfield.
- today was mostly relieved from idle hands/mind by girlfriends in the program, w/whom i got to hang out; saw my wonderful sponsor speak; came home to a big bomb dropped. it was a bomb that has needed to drop, however, & tho horrified & sad, i was thankful for it.
- the paxtons picked me a song yrs ago: “my eyes say no, but i push right over.” being in that kinda situation is maybe fun to imagine, but it's scary in real life! i have had sufficient ballast to prevent actual capsize, but i don't sing that song anymore! some might say god beat the devil this time, or “it's LOVE that won, & ol' left hand HATE is down for the count!” (night of the hunter) the problem is, that sucker gets back up.
- three people in the committee of my mind need to be evicted: the little wimp that wants everyone to like her; the nerd that assumes no one ever would; & the egomaniac that loves flattery, caves to it, & insincerely coaxes it on, to everyone’s detriment.
- tonight i wrote a song about it all, but no one’ll ever hear it. in fact, i wonder how some people can bear to sing their very personal songs of heartache, guilt, suffering, & pain. for me, that’s like dying over & over! so i’m sticking to the innocuous, fun, rockin’ songs we do. they’re more soulful than the sad ones, to me, because they bring happiness. (dickens quote in pat’s house: “no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”) i must be useful or i am nothing. that's how i feel at this moment, anyhow.
- did i mention i got the new job i (think i) wanted? found out friday, but haven’t really been able to enjoy the realization. i’m librarian now at a middle school where kids desperately need comfort & books. 13 women (but never no man in town) now come to the house weekly to work steps. bomb dropped, now i’ll get back to my life, back to the person i know i should be. tonight, i'm sad people are hurt, but grateful to get back on the straight & narrow. music is enough wildness for me. the rest just will not be.

sufferin' succotash!!!! pipes of rusted gold sing away the bachelorette blues

p.s. (pre-script): read below about us dusk devils on the radio free bakersfield podcast this week!!
- today, day one of my bachelorette half-wk, the normally well-behaved (tho hyper) border collie chucked his toy hedgehog into the toilet & later peed on a guy's camp chair while the guy sat in it -- OUTSIDE the dog park (if the peeing had happened inside, all would have chuckled & blown it off). the other dog, not at all a neurotic brainiac, has been stat today - fat, dumb, & happy. :) my "noble savage" notion that the less-smart have it easier is reinforced -- it chaps my hide, yet too often seems to ring true, like that mars & venus doodoo...
- but in the wonderful vein, tonight i found an astounding singer!!! everyone in LA & true lovers of R&B rockabilly world-wide must know of her (i continue to be totally unhip): what a voice!! i post here in case you haven't heard her, or the others... for here she is, w/two others i just love:
- www.myspace.com/lilgizzelle -- GOOD LORD!!! LISTEN TO THIS GIRL (she's 22) SING!!!! her other myspace profile suggests her to be a normal young woman who likes normal young woman things (what i imagine they like, anyhow)... but blessed w/the voice of big mama thornton!!! i almost want to put my head in the oven, hearing her sing, to invert the motive of art fein's comment in this month's page o'his. what a gift this powerful sprite possesses!!
- www.myspace.com/sharonjonesandthedapkings -- by now, every music lover on earth knows about her, the female james brown (thank you, luann, for turning me on to her), this former prison guard who worked hard hard & long & now, in midlife, is huge thx to amy winehouse, who used sharon's band (but not sharon) for her "back to black" LP, indirectly drawing the public eye to sharon (i think AH is awesome, too, her billie-holliday-ronettes-russ-meyer-rockabilly-switchblade-sister-60s-soul image, her amazing songwriting & smoky vocals, tho her songs are so steeped in the addict lifestyle, it's painful for me to listen too closely -- what a talent, tho!!)
- www.myspace.com/candyekaneband -- the toughest girl alive just got home from south africa. what a sparkle she has, what chi, what chutzpah, & what a voice, from velvety to growl to all in between...
- neurotic genius dog, realizing his "dad's" still not here, is now on a barking tirade. meanwhile, texas bubba dog is sitting, smiling at me & drooling gently. dad? what dad? time to stop typing. (ps - i don't really have the blues. i just like alliteration.) :)

ddevils on radio free bakersfield (reincarnated)

when i had my little underground paper here in backwardsfield, jeff b (i think tim rosen was involved, too, at one pt) had a real underground radio station by the above name that ran under the wire & even got raided a few times!! the name's been reincarnated online by whorehay [sp] of the spahn ranch boys, but whorehay only plays roots/punk music (western, rockabilly, boogie, surf, cowpunk, proto rocknroll, garage, the like) - & it being a podcast, the new RFB doesn't have to worry about being busted. jorge is playing the dusk devils on this week's show. check out the old band picture on the link! :) one of the current devils commented, "he must not know how handsomer the band is now" - no offense intended to the old guys, i'm sure! :)
we're on this episode with the mummies AND eddie angel!! wow!!! a big gracias to whorehay!! be good!! :) http://radiofreebakersfield.com/bands.htm

what a bunch of mugs

yes, this is quite premature...

...but manuel called & really liked the cover i made. so here it is. :) the other guys are john palmer of mac curtis, ronnie dawson, lisa finnie, cadillac angels & more fame, & leo valenzuela (i'm sorry, leo, i can't remember your western swing band's name). like john, leo plays in many bands. but both are very lucky to play with manuel, i think. :) and i shore am, too. :)
this record will not be available til fall. but it will be a fun one, i gear-ron-tee. enough dialect from me. happy eve!!

i'm depraved on account of i'm deprived

just sleep-deprived, that is (name the song & win a prize)... to balance my hypoxic "depravity," here's a nice graphic mark made. i kind of get a kick out of it! mark made this unsolicitedly, which is esp nice bc in the old band, i used to have an ongoing fight w/one fellow about this "jenny angel and the..." thing. not that i so much want to be in charge, but it does make it easier. and in 08, w/the rest of the band wanting me to be in charge, we've accomplished a lot i'm happy about!! i know they all are happy, too: there is enough spotlight to go around. it feels right for now, so i'm grateful for each day of it, & for them. :)
i'm just a-riffin' here, since ah'm so tahrd, as a countryboy beau used to say it... made a graphic last wk for manuel's xmas LP, too, but am not posting that here til he gives it or some spin on it the green light... we're gonna practice again next wkend. this wkend, i'm sleeping for THREE DAYS (excepting dd practice & family fiesta, that is)!! :) the HUGE dog & pony show's going on all wkend at safari sam's, set up by dave alvin to benefit musicians' medical coverage, specifically here for candye, drac, & chris gaffney's family. everyone from the knitters to the blasters will play. yes, it'll be rockabilly- roots royalty sat-mon, & for quite a good cause! (tho one that wouldn't be necessary, were the u.s. health system humane.) i've emailed/ talked w/about 10 folks who are going or've mentioned it; it's gonna be so great, what fun, wow! ...but i just can't go. but here's a link to all, so please go for me & tell me about it: www.myspace.com/safarisams ...
the lost rocker al hendrix won't be here after all next wkend, since his wife laraine's recovering from recent surgery. but you can listen to him here: www.myspace.com/alhendrix1 - he's the dusk devils' musical grandpa, the 1st full-on rocknroller from bakersfield!!!! al will have a new cd out soon - he's sending bb & i a copy this wk. :)
a bunch of the dd's ep songs are live on myspace at /b2studio & /markallenpowell as well as /theduskdevils - & the funniest compliment i got was from st rebekka, the beautiful brainy gal i remember from jr high nerd classes (she wasn't a nerd, tho): "i love your growly munchkin voice." :) soon enough the cd will go live on itunes & a bunch of other places, thx to llewop kram. he da best!!! ... every day i drag home from work feeling like my feet are gonna explode: exhausted. i imagine it's just getting- back- to- work fatigue, plus bakingfield 103+ heat. yesterday i musta had 6 cups of joe, trying to get to respiratin'. rick & i caught skip heller's set at narducci's in the eve. it was fun to hang w/rick, tho i couldn't get my peepers opened all the way. skip injected this show w/moments of dry humor. he'd looked over at us, then play something like googoo muck, or mix recognizable melodies into other songs (tho not smarmily, which is something that bothers me at some rockabilly shows. even when being funny, sincerity is key, in my libro). there were some lovely moments, too, in the way skip, drummer dale, & elegant upright bassist paul would lock in. wish phil had been there to watch the lightning fingers, but he's been working long long hrs, too - outside!!! in broiling kern co, that's a brutal mission... after the show, i had to beat it quickly bc of being so tired, but of course, once home, the caffeine hit & i was vibrating off the bed all night long. so i say buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, rock tonight, & i say buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, rock it right... well, gotta go to the salt mines now. happy weekend to all who read this. :) :) :)

dusk devils downloads available for a short spell

we had a really fun rehearsal tonight (learned THREE songs i've written recently!! & the guys make the songs sound great!!), after b & i spent day visiting cody in smellay (carney's, petersen museum RV exhibit). we dusk devils've got some fun shows coming up, listed above & at bottom of this post. woo-hoo! to all who read this. :) sorta strapped for time lately (to put it mildly), i'm pasting below my blurb from myspace. hope you'll copy/paste & listen to the songs, & that you'll like them!!
-> sharon marie at B2 studios here in bakersfield just put up a song from the EP we recently recorded. it will be available for one week (til next saturday), & here it is (look for "tearin' my hair out' the dusk devils " on the player):
www.myspace.com/b2studio
-> our bass player mark also has some songs on his player. go to www.myspace.com/markallenpowell & look for songs by the dusk devils (mark plays in about 28 bands)... :)
-> if you like the songs, please spread the word. we hope to get everything straightened out & have CDs available w/in the month. we thank you for your kind comments & support, & thank you a bunch. :)
jenny, phil, mark, rick, the dusk devils, www.myspace.com/theduskdevils
upcoming music shows:
sept 27 - b.rider's, 9pm-1am, bakersfield, come down & sit in, have a drink, etc
oct 7 - ronnie mack's barn dance, 8:30, el cid, hollywood, ca
oct 18 - opening for the one & only candye kane, tio leo's, 9 pm, san diego, ca
oct 31 - halloween extravaganza, narducci's, 9 pm, bakersfield, ca

i don't care about history, cause that's not where i wanna be, i just wanna get some kicks, ...

i love that song. i love rocknroll. i love teaching. they seem exclusive sometimes. yes, at times it's hard to be "the man" - that is, the teacher. two days in, & yesterday was quite a looloo. no class list. no classroom key. so of course the class was wild. two of my three classes are intensive (lowest level). the poor dears don't read. some can't, some can't or won't concentrate long enough to try. one group's so loud & "easily distracted" (as is said in eddication), it's lion-taming right now. herding cats, some say. i'm hustling from one room to another to sub for the librarian (job i'm applying for) while trying to on-the-spur mentor the sub who has my class. not sure what materials i can/can't use in the other classroom that is not mine. have to copy 110 5-page tests (pared down from 12). the copier is out of paper. someone wants to talk. why would i say no? the person is nice. a parent wants to talk. we want to talk to parents. always.
all of this is time-consuming. the campus is big. my feet hurt. wah wah wah. teacher comes in & says the kids saw someone messing w/my car... a few hours ago. i go out & see that thieves have removed my catalytic converter. over $1000 to replace. i want to use four-letter words, but i'm a teacher. thank god i'm a teacher.
my folks drive me home. b & dad go get the car, which now sounds like a rocket (a beat-up one). call the insurance. call the repair place. take the thing over. borrow another car for tomorrow. thank goodness for family & support. thank goodness for nice & supportive boss. file police report. go talk to the campus supervisor. two other teachers say they saw someone under my car. i want to sock them both.
many people would be completely ruined by this, dad reminds me. they wouldn't have insurance, be able to afford the repair, get to work, get the kids to daycare. ruined. this would be it for them. no one was hurt, mom says; it's just stuff. who cares in the long run? redistribution of wealth, dad says. this is the price of poverty. people are desperate. the economy is in shambles. it's just a car. things will get better.
they are right. if i have to get hit, & we all have to get hit here & there, i guess i was lucky this time.
the kids are cute. most of them are well-behaved. two-thirds want to learn. :) this, too, shall pass. :) i am fortunate.
tho the lyrics to "rock & roll high school" are more realistic of students' attitudes, i prefer right now the following more optimistic ones. probably because i'm the teacher. :) this song also has the most rockin' & thrilling concluding guitar/piano surge. wow.
i wish i could know that all my students, all kids, have a fun & safe place to go after school, be it home or soda fountain, but i know it's not the case...
more important, then, that we are there for them. bless you, my fellow teachers. bless you, students. and your parents, too. we are in this together.
Hail Hail Rock & Roll
Up in the mornin and out to school / The teacher is teachin the golden rule / American history and practical math / You studyin hard and hopin to pass / Workin your fingers right down to the bone
And the guy behind you wont leave you alone
Ring, ring goes the bell / The cook in the lunch room's ready to sell / Youre lucky if you can find a seat / Youre fortunate if you have time to eat / Back in the classroom, open your books / Even the teacher dont know how mean she looks
Soon as three oclock rolls around / You finally lay your burden down / Close up your books, get out of your seat / Down the halls and into the street / Up to the corner and round the bend / Right to the juke joint, you go in
Drop the coin right into the slot / Youve gotta hear somethin thats really hot / With the one you love, youre makin romance / All day long you been wantin to dance, / Feeling the music from head to toe / Round and round and round we go
Hail, hail rock and roll / Deliver me from the days of old / Long live rock and roll / The beat of the drums, loud and bold / Rock, rock, rock and roll / The feelin is there, body and soul.