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 :)