sol omnibus lucet / devil doll devil doll rags & bones & battered shoes

beside self w/that warm feeling; i think it’s called peace! wow! ain’t felt that for some time… 1st wk of school left me w/the conviction that what i’m doing is IMPORTANT: these little kids need me! have 36-6th graders (the babies of the mid school) who don’t really read or compute what they read, an academically very low class, innocent & boisterous &, w/attention & love, so far responsive. i can help them!! haven’t felt that way about teaching in some time; what a gift. then there’s the library, which is shaping up beautifully! received a stunning art print set from smithsonian inst, so have gorgeous art all over my library. can’t wait to open! suiting up in teacher dresses & heels & hoofing all over this big school has been fatiguing & also detriment to my dogs, & speaking of dogs, i took a school stray home for a day & night & fretted so much over him, nearly got sick! i named him willie, hoping aunty rita would want him for her birthday (willie nelson’s her favorite), but that flat-lined, as did 4 other attempts to get willie a home, as did knocking on doors surrounding the school… he was an angel while w/me, demure, sweet, potty-trained, learned his name immediately, followed me like my little love, but i can’t have pets, so he had to go. but then a gal at wk took him home that next day (not before i blubbered like a big baby about the whole thing) & he became devil dog, peeing on everything, bothering her other dogs, howling all night! she brought willie back next a.m., set him down, & willie ran home!… beyond this drama was the letting-go of a few drummers; some good times in my little abode w/tasty home-cooked meals (amazing! i don’t cook, yet i did!); ribs w/art fein, who stopped off en route from crescent city (& described bo diddley coming out on stage at one show as being “like zeus descending from the heavens”); went to secret hot springs in kern canyon & managed to fall in kern river & lacerate my leg; went to my favorite secret society mtg & saw a friend nearly get in a fist-fight, right in the meeting hall!; got interviewed by memphis mike, a friendly, garrulous mug who asked me what dusk devils meant, so it was fun to tell him; just overate on mom’s pancakes & am nearly comatose now. hope cakes settle so’s i can go for a little run once the sun calls it a day…
and… most important for my band… we have a new dusk devil. :) i’m excited, but feel a bit like ernie k. doe’s “a certain girl,” so won’t go into it right now too much cause why spoil a good thing by blabbing too much at the outset? i’ll just say he’s warm & affable, responsible, has great timing, has good musical influences, & loves the idea of being in this band!
time to do some lesson plans. happy wk to anyone reading this, or reading anything, for that matter! too many cannot!

arrrrrrrrgggggggggghhhhhh!!!!!

they finally posted the results for the final summer series 5k &... (hold applause, doff hats, bow heads, ready hankies)... i was not in 2nd place this time. yes, for the last one (pix of that particular suffering are elsewhere on this blog), incredibly, nay, miraculously, i came in 2nd, even getting a nice write-up on printcasting.com that i'll quote here: "Taking second is a long time Andy Noise (when he was known as a record store) friend Jenny *** aka Jenny Angel. She is a member of the Dusk Devils band and always is sporting a great rockin t-shirt and her trademark shades." (i think andy - aka, paul - might've written this.) when they posted online my new start time, it said -1:52. cool; i could get there on time for that. but when i got to the race, my start time for some reason had moved up to -0:41. immediately i was seized w/the gotta-get-to-the-john-now-jones, waited in line w/various fit anglo people in running togs for what didn't seem too long, got my number sharpied on my arm (a disturbing look, really) & shlubbed on up to the start line only to see they were already up to -0.10. "i'm late!!" i sputtered to the girl taking time slips, & waited like what seemed an eternity before she grabbed mine & urged me to go. i bolted off, & thought i'd run harder than ever before, but when i got to the end, all the young kids, the real runners, the track people were stacked up in this HUGE HUGE line!! so we didn't even get our times counted for at least a minute... i took that to be a good sign at the time, that i'd come in at the same time as all the fast people (tho they started after i did), but today's postings say i came in...108th place. geez, what a great defeat it was to see that number: one-hundred-eighth...
i blame my lateness. i mean, i coulda been a contender.
ha!
well, school started & i'm cautiously optimistic. the classroom's well-organized & students seem lilliputian, sweet, ready to learn, & i have (please, great pumpkin, save me from saying this) A Plan (too late; it's out). so school feels ok right now, tho still have urge to run away & live in algiers, LA where life'd be perfect, mebbe, except for hurricane season.
compared to school, much else in life seems poised over the bowl maybe about ready to be flushed, & is that good or bad? when my favorite aunt, whom i loved so much altho she tortured me, used to hang me over the bowl & tell me she was gonna flush me, it definitely was bad. now, what i think is so bad, well... maybe i know nothing. squat, nada, jack. i got nothin, brudda, except knowledge that those kids'll be there tomorrow morning, & god & the good of the universe & buddha & allah & the great spirit bless them one & all.

burning the candle at both ends

no pix from meathead's party at the dome... it will air next wk on brighthouse on demand, tho. they had a great set-up w/live editing van. sound was difficult. meathead plans to make a drive-in movie set-up. wow! deke show went fun - hard to hear from the stage. was nervous about the band sleeping set-up, but he'd gotten a hotwire rm. crazy joe was that & more. they switched instruments thruout the show. deke hitched up his drawers at show's end & did this bizarre elmer fudd-lux interior rap, then moonwalked "in remembrance of the king of pop." r&r pizza 1st set was so great: we sounded like austin's ginny's longhorn saloon honky-tonk. 2nd set, rick played w/us; thank you, rick. pizza was great, all in all a busy & productive wkend. thank you, michelle, for the flowers for my hair. thank you, family & friends, for "being there." this a.m. brought a nightmare about my puppy & a mtg re divorce papers. my husband is a consummate gentleman, but still, it's so sad. pat & i visited a fellowship friend, a beautiful lady, in icu. headed for a mtg. life life life. don't wanna quote jim morrison, but he was true to say "no one here gets out alive." bleh. must keep moving forward, trudging... thank goodness for the good called music. b helped me bring my stereo to my houselet (like i said, what a gentleman), so i listened to louis jordan & johnny horton this a.m.
this is all over the place, so bye for now.

guitar geek a go-go; www.dekedickerson.com

we're playing friday night at fishlips in bakersfield (flyer below) w/this fellow:

deke is well-worth seeing: international rockabilly star, late of untamed youth, dave & deke combo, american musicologist, promoter/ supporter/ player at fantastic events like rockin 50s & ponderosa stomp (& his own annual guitar geek fest), highly admired sideman, writer for guitar world mag, vinyl collector/geek, etc etc etc. it's gonna be one high energy, fun & wild show!
cover's $7, not $5, i just found out from the cal. hope you'll be there, if you can. guitar players & music fans will plotz & girls will scream. i myself will have my fun, & believe if you go, that you will, too!

blablabla

this was a pic from a recent relay for life show: quite fun! thanks to ann, jim's (drummer's) wife, for taking it... summer's almost gone & it's been fun camping & hiking, going to the beach, going on runs, traveling in general, tho i know i'm just trying to stay gone, is pt of the reason i've been so busy. soon enough school'll start for me, both as student & teacher, so then will be time to hunker down & stay put. but i hope the next 10 days or so'll bring more adventures. recently i was walking on the venice beach boardwalk & heard a familiar raspy shout. "that sounds like carlos guitarlos," thought i, & it WAS. as i approached, he nimbly morphed his lyrics on the spot to make playful reference to him & me & bakersfield in his song... i wish i'd had my camera. i stood nearby & huckstered a few cds for him, then it was time to move on to find food.
the weather there & here's been beautiful & mama & aunt rita are staring at me & making jokes as i type, so guess i should sign off & go wash beach sand out of the truck, pick up the dog boys, then meet my friends for band practice.

good friends, good eats, good god, let's eat

(grandpa phil's good-humored tho some might say blasphemous dinner prayer)
tho i told people not to bring gifts, i still got lovely & cool gifts. tho i sed don't bring food, people brought delicious grub, anyhow (mark, a mini mart's worth of little debbie!). people like to give. people are generous & good. what a memorable & happy time i had, & i hope everyone else did, too! :) i love my friends & family & am grateful to be around these days. a friend wrote to me on a bd card, "i am so happy to be in this world at the same time you are." wow!
many music friends showed up & played various styles. when my band played, friends gathered in the small living area & in my periphery, i could see them beaming & bopping w/such joyful fervor, it really lit me up. jim, mark, & phil grinned w/good cheer, there in my little living rm w/such a swell little crowd.
"you made me feel so happy, like i was young again," smiled penni, who is always so sincere.
yes, what a lovely time yesterday was, & what a lazy day today is: i didn't even leave the house til 2 pm! these are the last days of summer for me, as well as the dog days, so i don't feel so bad... what a treasure, to lounge around my little pad, lazily cook cereal & toast, go back to bed, nap, read, then have leftover bd cake w/tea, now using the net while sitting under a tree at central park. they put a nice riverwalk in here; it's really lovely here, on this blazing, texas-like day. it's humid & the sun is so bright, it burns the skin. i feel alive. a young couple are kissing over by the river archway. kids shout & trot & jump on the nearby crayola-hued play equipment. a cool breeze just swept by, mysteriously, out of noplace. is there anywhere better right now? no, my friend, there isn't, & may you feel the same about your present condition. :) now it's time to scram, for, thinking of my father, i quote, "he who loveth much saith little."

good grace in part involves accepting kindness; thank you, memphis mike, who lives online at http://memphismike.com & many other places

pat (the wisest woman in the world) has told me i need to acknowledge & accept compliments, & moreover, believe & internalize them wherever possible (good lord!! do you do that?)... memphis mike wrote this a few days ago & i just saw it cause i'm not online regularly these days, so i post it here since, frankly, i think it's unbelievably nice that he wrote these compliments unsolicitedly! :) he is the fellow who has told me i have a "phil [alvin]-like grin," which i take as high compliment, tho other women perhaps would be insulted & shocked because it does not mean pretty, but to my mind DOES mean interesting. phil alvin looks something like a deranged bugs bunny when he grins, but he is loved, lusted, & revered for this & other qualities such as prodigious talent & fervent commitment to ideas, & so i, lover of monsters beautiful & horrifying, am most flattered... :) here's what mike wrote:
Tomorrow is my friend Jenny's birthday...and I want her to have the most excellent one EVER!
Backstory: A few years back, I picked up The Blasters' live DVD and aside from a truly memorable performance, I noticed the cameraman pan to a certain chicky with the coolest, most insane grin on her face. Some time later, I had a friend request on McSpaz and thought to myself, "Gee, she looks familiar." Turns out it's the same chick!
Long story short, we've become pretty good buds. I think she's about as sweet as diabetic blood and I want her to have an especially great b-day this year. Soooooooo...I'm putting links to some of her & her band's (The Dusk Devils, from Bakersfield, CA) video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc18WHzIsJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJQMnoV6dZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrf7wzkHCuo
Send the girl some extra special Yinzer love! She deserves it!
And Ynnej, I best be seeing a big ol' grin SOON! ;-)