the miracle worker, dr bridgette bonnet of bakersfield; billy at trout's this wkend

thx to good genes, i rarely get a cavity. my old silver one finally blew out, so the nice dentist replaced it w/the tooth colored stuff... hadn't had a filling in 7 yrs, & despite his & his friendly assistants' kindnesses, the experience was pretty wretched & i even got sick!! the epinephrine made my heart race & stomach flip; i had to get many shots to numb the stupid tooth; then i probably sucked in a flea-mine of mercury while he drilled it out, since i couldn't breathe thru my nose.
yesterday i was convinced something was seriously wrong: had my head off pillow for about 2 hrs, slurred words, couldn't eat. i talked to mama that eve & she reminded me that it's the same for her, & was for her mama, my beloved departed little juaneno grandma. lightweights!! oversensitivity: it can be such a boon, allowing a person to appreciate Life & Its Beauty, & such a hazard, like when you gotta take medicine or feel excited or blue...
today i worked (weakly) & the nice doc called this pm to see how i was. then i went to see the miracle worker, my naturopath chiropractor, the little good witch, dr bonnet w/her mysterious but effective cures, & i not only felt better afterward, but smiling & singing, even. you can find her link at right; she is quite the cheerful curandera & i am so grateful (also "weller") to know her. :) ... despite this, i think i'd better lie low & rest & make sure "good health" is really mine for now.
thank god my dentist is so nice: in the dentist chair, experiencing fear i hadn't in a long while, i had memories of my orthodontist, whom i called w/a kid's exaggeration (better to be sarcastic than scared) "dr mengele," a real sadist. i remember him putting his knee on my chest, his face an angry mask! i got braces at age 8, for pete's sake. pure meanness!!
enough ranting about someone who's passed on... i hope to go to the "bakobilly" fest at trout's this wkend, at least drop by. fattkatt'll play along w/young blues rockers the councilmen. tho a musical half-&-half, the show promotes rockabilly culture. i'll go for music, so here-here to some good tunes! :)

swing it

this is incredibly wonderful :)... wait for the duo between louis prima & pee wee russell... & who is that on piano? the guy's really getting a workout. imagine playing like this! even watching it: what joy! imcomparabile! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBYC3gEnZs

frankenelvis

http://flashface.ctapt.de/
this is the coolest site i've seen lately. if you go to it & type in "frankenelvis," you'll see something i made. flashface allows you to make faces police sketch-artist style (but not save them; drat): great for blowing off steam. anyways, it worked wonders this pm, when i got news of something at work as i was leaving (late, i'll add) that knocked the wind out of me, it sounded so horrible.
fortunately, things have cleared up, my good kind boss sed via email... thank good goodness... hope you make some cool faces, & when you do, send me the link, please.
tomorrow: to 1/2 marathon or not to 1/2 marathon?... my health & the rain will determine the answer to that question. be well & cheery, all who read this...

"pore little critter own the road," where's my dunce cap?, & the baby whale on the stage

yow, i am that critter, & am i SORE!!! yesterday i ran (jogged) about 7 miles around ventura beachtown in prep for next wk's 1/2 marathon here in bako (www.bakersfieldtrackclub.com/btchalfmarathon.html) ...man, after last wk's traveling & all the sick i've been getting (people say frm my "germ factory" students, but "they say" this yr's flu is esp bad, so i don't wanna blame the kids too much)... i did NOT wanna go to ventura, which shows my 1st instinct is always wrong. i had a nice time! we went RV "camping" w/fellowship friends, many of whom have these RVs the size of & w/more amenities than my old studio apt. we camped in B's "love wagon," his souped-up van w/4WD, "penthouse" (pop-top slab-bed), reading lights, TV, potty, heaters, swivel chair, cooking gear. last night the group had a potluck, so about 20 of us hung out & ate & had smores at the bonfire & as usual, being around all those witty folks made me wonder where i put my dunce cap... the dogs had nice lawn to lounge on & even an off-leash area along the ventura river near some farmer's land. :)
came home & art had sent a video of the elvis show!!! i was reminded that carlos guitarlos's songs that night rocked!, esp his version of "promised land," swellingly, thunderingly sloppy-tight wild & grooving!! art put on the vid all kindsa neat stuff, headed off w/US! i watched gene taylor 2x, then went down to the piano & played what i heard & to my amazement, saw my hands doing things they never have... i think w/gene's vid piano-side, i'll be able to learn some frm the master, who's now in belgium. what fortuity to have caught him while he was here!! the blasters are on the video, & rip, & a bunch of others, too... lastly, i got a little reality check watching the vid. looks like i got a bit too much into the holiday sweets this year (cue whale calls)! however, life's too short to worry much about such stuff, & i'd rather be a baby whale than a user of people or mean or greedy, so i think i'll go set up for band practice now. :) and then go for another run. :)

i don't know what to write i don't know what to write i don't know what to write i don't know what to

(no music news at all in this post.)
-> the title's what i've told my students to write when they are stuck. the idea is, it leads to something to write about.
-> ...on the horizon, ideas are galloping up like my texas pup, gonna knock me down in a big blustery !whomp!... here goes! it worked!
-> i have "fear of flying"... there's little i hate more than the acceleration & thrust of jet engines. (insert chicken clucking sound here.) worse than that is how airlines puff you for explosives, prod, poke, separate, strip, search you, filch your goods w/no apology. i know: terrorists. but it's hard to fly nowadays & keep much dignity. arms outstretched, mild-faced grandpas, white-haired grannies, schoolmarms, milquetoasts, depressed-looking teens, middle-aged twerps, golf guy, trophy wife, all are frisked, zapped, grilled by TSA muscle. everyone's made timid --we just wanna fly, for god's sake! --, looking like they just got pantsed & trashcanned by the school bully. there's only kick, no kiss - & once you're on the tin can, no food, no pillow, no movie, seats like cracker boxes, it's all rub. americans are so desperate to fly, time starved, stressed out, pulverized by the need to Own More Stuff, the gotta get to pt B AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, we endure it all.
-> as soon as we get bullet trains, i'm never flying again. NEVER. and once we get time machines, well, bar the doors, katie.
-> denver's criticized as "the LA of the rockies," but i love smellay, & i love denver, too, w/its sprawling brick buildings & ungentrified 50s-60s neon sign boroughs & old motels & bars & great restaurants like lucille's cajun/creole & big record stores w/real vinyl & even the uptown spots look good to me, tho i never spend time there, just drive thru & peep.
-> boulder's "the sta barbara of the rockies," & i'm less comfortable there, tho do love the university's creekside bikepath & wonderful shows (peking acrobats!), stately homes, yuppie mega grocery marts stocked w/plenty, & i love window-shopping the pearl st mall, like i love doing that in sta barbara, never buying one nickel's worth of nothing, happy i breathe the same air, see the same sites as the rich & it doesn't cost squat & no one can stop me because this is america.
-> it's hard to run in these places w/their extreme elevation, but it's worth it. lungs scream but heart glows at snow & sky & brick & sandstone & flagstone & aspen & foliage & deer, squirrels, raccoons, magpies, that awesome mountain view, rockies as far as you can see & every peak & valley has a name. i plod along for miles, freezing, happy, picturing south american ancestors, squat, strong, charging endlessly up alpine paths, powered by sturdy lung & leg.
-> every time i've been, the public johns on the pearl st mall are piping ray charles in some kinda weird coincidence or maybe even miracle... for me, the ghost of texas stacy is in boulder, & memory of blasters, moto trips, brother in law paul, so in the end, i guess i love boulder, too, even tho i feel part-mutant when surrounded by its long-limbed golden youth swathed in north face & casual ski apparel.
:) esquerita wouldn't fit in in boulder, either, tho. :)
-> dr derek sent me a funny "dusk devils" pic he created the other day & put on his metaphysics website (go tw the bottom): http://www.qm21.com/quote.html... met him decades ago when he was selling R&R memorabilia to help fund his (i think) ontology school. he looked like a sort of fey gerard depardieu (i love GD!) & sold the coolest stuff for cheap, like a wooden fab four stamp, rockabilly bootlegs, never-glued on holo-cover frm "her satanic majesty's..." worked under him at buck owens' yrs later & he & jack-mormon loren (r.i.p, dear guy, artist, anarchist, friendly oversized shlub in buddy holly glasses) scanned (a recent techn at the time) my drivers license & did obscene things to my tender visage. in the early oughts, dr derek wrote for my underground paper (r.i.p.) & now has a book coming out called "man is dead."
"man is dead." brilliant! read about it at www.qm21.com.
i read like crazy yesterday, about raymond carver's editor who pared RC's stories into their famously spare style, & about how bad soy really is for a person, as bad as corn syrup because it's in everything we eat, & today i got to take flowers to dear silvia who has endured so much, & to angie, & spend time w/my dear niece. we had a family pizza & told stories & my sore back feels less stoved up... & i guess i figured out what to write. :) buonanotte. :)

crystal palace slide show

sorry we don't have pix of everyone, like dear jani, olen, shirley and kelcey, rick's friends, people who came in after we started. i wish i had a pic of my hubby & i, my folks & i... oil well... what a fun night! :)
dusk devils are up and running. :) two shows coming up, but i'll write about them later. :) felix fin de semana!!!!

j'wheez!

too beat to put up the slideshow of last thurs, so will tomorrow. here's one pic til then.
whatta long, long, long day... 13 hrs! how'd that happen?? came home to this email: "Love that honky-tonkin' sound you've got. She's the next coming of Wanda Jackson, I do believe! All the best, Barbara Martin, Publisher, Western Swing Monthly, Austin"... AUSTIN! them's some nice words she wrote... from AUSTIN!!
also, 3 chord whore mailed me to do the 1-man band this wkend w/them... and i can't. boohoo!!! but i'm grateful they'd think of me (esp now that my high hat's fixed & i actually know which way to turn the kick drum) & happy the shows & kind words are coming in. :) "there's life in the old gal yet," quoth mehitabel, & life in the old guys, too.
no, phil & rick, i'm not calling you old. :) only in the best sense. like wine, tho the dusk devils (best bela lugosi imitation now), vee never drink... vine. our spirits don't come out of no bottle, not today, anyways... :) zzzzzzzzzzzzz

crystal palace last night, fun times in bako, the good, the puzzling, & the ugly, wardrobe error #5,326

-> the good: 1st of all, big thx to fattkatt for inviting us!! :) his band's gotten real tight, over their 100 shows at the crystal palace! when fk sang orbison's thrilling "running scared," mom & i clasped our hands, a little worried, maybe, even, then proclaimed "yay!" when he hit the high note, flat out hit it! fk invited all his ex-bandmates & most showed up, & i had to laugh at all those slap basses bumping around onstage like elephants in a tarzan flick. whatta lotta furniture! les webb rolled & flipped around like ray campi - whatta ham; whatta showman! and matt munoz honked big just-right sax on every tune, even "tiger by the tail" - fantastic! matt adds a warm dose of grinning cool & top musical chops to all he's near; the guy is majorly skilled & fun!... most of my life i've gone south to hang out at music shows, but last night matched the good times i've had in smellay. i found out phil can dance (i knew, uncannily, he could), & rick danced, & we all danced, friends, strangers, funny, silly, just wupped it up w/o a care & had so much fun.
-> i respected that fk & co invited all & i heard no backbiting or gossiping, saw no one-upmanship, no grousing or criticizing, just the sharing of the stage w/the desire to make music, let bygones be bygones where needed, put on a show. we all had to come down for work the next am, so left after hearing blonde, voluptuous nikkita sing "angel baby" - she has a much purer singing voice than i ever could muster, & just the right intonation for that song, esp on those high, high "ooh-ooh, i love you" parts. :)
-> the puzzling: phil - the guitar player who doesn't turn up! i know he's just a little noiviss for now, but when he realizes how good he really is & puts it on 11, well, wow!!! the dd's just reconfigured about 45 days ago, so i think it's prudent for him to build up before turning up; we've done two showcases on big stages in the last 23 days & he's learned about 20 songs in that time!... on the other hand, rick, who drummed under contentious conditions w/dd's back in '04, plays so happily these days... we all get along well, & he's so expert, well, he can wear that crazy what-he-calls "dusk devil" hat anytime (for a while, i thought his superman T would be his stage shirt). heck, he could wear a burlap sack, for all i care. the man can really play!
-> tho of course it was fattkatt's show, good gravy, i can't count how many people showed up to see US, but i know we made the palace some serious G's, & i know auntie rita will let them know it! i felt so grateful for all the love & attention, & committed to give it back to the audience. the friendly soundman power (no, i didn't razz him) dialed us in well, & tho big rooms are always weird because the sound goes OUT, i felt pretty good about the whole thing & could hear people laughing & cheering, not just politely, but enthusiastically (couldn't see them, tho!)... afterward, compliments, compliments, compliments. :) i was heartened by the young staff slapping me on the back, shaking my hand, grinning; you could tell a bunch of them just loved it. another especially nice moment was seeing my young niece all dressed up lovely to see me play, & meeting kevin "styx"'s daughter, tiny little kimberly, who shyly told me that she can play chopsticks on piano & then, at her daddy's coaxing, that her stage name is... "kimberly angel." oh goodness; that was a "died and gone to heaven" moment for me. :) also, i was so touched to see my dear friend jani.
-> the ugly: i don't know what i was thinking when i got dressed. i'll use my "i was sick" excuse. i need a professional! i knew my skirt was blue when i left the house, but really... my brain said i matched. my draggy makeup, well, that's fun, like painting a picture; but matching clothes? i love clothes, but matching can just make a head hurt.
-> for yrs & yrs, i wore black everyday, head to toe. when i saw pix from last night, i remembered why!!! my sister has said many times she's coming over to "geranimal" my wardrobe. i think i need to give her a call.
-> in the grand scheme, all is so incredibly trivial. :) thank you, if you were there, & thank you, if you read this. may your weekend be filled w/health & love. soyez gai, chéries!! PICTURES TO COME SOON...