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!!!!!