good morning!

it's so beautiful outside. the wildflowers have been gorgeous! the mountain is stunning these days.  the air is so fresh, so enlivening, so evocative... may your day be lovely.

work it through, work it through...

i know my husband is a hunk, even if some fake-faced idiots act as if they're "above" him, even tell him that, as they slaver & drool over him. i understand he has power over women (haha; can't help but think of dr strangelove when i write that line). i've seen hundreds (no exaggeration) of women's eyes light up & bodies start to quiver as james does his weird & virile thing. they quake. i get it.
however, it is NOT ok for people who know we are married -- from dumb, moronic & slutty to merely dumb & moronic to quite bright (tho those types don't do this) -- to disrespect us by sending him flirty messages & trying to flirt with him when they think i am not looking. (i always am looking. but i ignore most all so that i have some sanity.)
men who've tiptoed &/or trod into sexual-interest toward me have been threatened with bodily harm. some received bodily harm. all have fled for the hills years ago. no man talks flirtatiously to me at all any more... not just bc i'm now gray... not just bc i'm 49 years old... not just bc i stay clear of all men except the wonderful blues express band, my dad, my bro-in-law, & my spouse. (i've tended to have binary feelings toward men -- demonizing or idolizing -- so it's a relief, actually, to just stay away from them...)
all other men who know of james know they might end up in cement shoes if they go too near me.
i have no recourse except to hold my head high. but just for the moment my mind seethes w/revenge scenarios that would make a slasher movie bad guy shriek.
my sister is a black belt. i will give her a call.
greer likely deals with this problem with her adorable anthony. greer is super-cool & mellow & smart, but i look at her & know she doesn't put up with any nonsense. she also looks like she could clean someone's clock REALLY well, if pushed!
i am not weak, "all muscle, baby," james will say as he growls like frankenstein, but my temperament  fundamentally is too gentle for me to take it out physically on someone else...
so i will fantasize about angie & greer taking turns pounding the dogsh*t out of slutty moron dumbhead. then good sense will return as i remember mama's adage: "living well is the best revenge."
slutty moron dumbhead fakeface may drool over james, but i am married to him. as he says, "those b*tches don't know me. nobody knows me but you, baby."
i think i wrote a song on this topic! i will now go to the piano & sing it.
ha! good sense has returned! thank you, muse. thank you, great pumpkin.

no yoga!!! aaaaah!!!!... and cool photos

photo by casey reagan

thought yoga teacher debbie was still in costa rica, didn't go. she's here. aaaaaaahhhh!!! i missed awesome saturday morning yoga at the library!!!! crap!!!!
just added a new free yoga channel on roku, so guess will do that today. and "run." i put that in quotes bc my pace has become snail-like after reading the book the world at my feet, a boring book about an amazing accomplishment: aussie guy my age or beyond runs AROUND THE WORLD using "attrition running" method, which means slowwwww & steady, the way ancient humans used to wear out prey. our physiology reflects this basic purpose, from steadying tendon behind skull (so we don't head-bob like a chicken when ambulating) to gigantic gluteus maximus (shock absorber) to arch of foot (same). i've been sometimes running w/my cheerful science teacher friend christy, who noted my BP & resting heart rate will drop if i will run more.
I LOVE TO RUN!!! I NEED TO DO THIS FOR MY HEALTH & HAPPINESS!!!!
anyways, we didn't go see gene & phil yesterday. james has been sick w/cold. so here are pix from last wkend's shows, which both were really awesome except oildale people AGAIN stole from james (time-before-last, his t-shirts; this time, his harmonicas), so next visit to oildale will likely bring major ass-whuppin' upon some rat coward thieves & disrespecters... except for the top, these great pix are from kaykay & krystal. i feature more pix of me bc this is my blog. top pic of james is one that casey r photoed: james is one super-photogenic awesome stud of a frontman. :)
oh! and now i can say: he & band (he says including me) will play at this year's bayou blues festival AND doheny blues festival. :) whoo-hooo!!!
one more fest is pending. more later. time to go "run." :)

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by krystal kozak

photo by krystal kozak

blablablablablablabla

- i've been thinking a million things, so here are some: driving & crying the other day, home from kicka*s mfing fantastic show in seal beach, welled up w/sorrow listening to chuck berry tribute on kpfk, was thinking how one of my most favorite things to do in this life is to drive & listen to chuck berry. i wrote a song about it, in part, 20 years ago. chuck berry's music & driving have been an inextricable part of my life. so many emotions, so many feelings, so many memories... god bless chuck berry, even if he personally was a mfer. some of the most talented people on earth, i know, are more than part-crazy, & a big part of that can be mean as a junkyard dog. it all just goes together... then that night i dreamed i was married to manuel, my dear departed friend who played beautiful rockin chuck berry guitar, & god bless james, i told him about my dream & he gently quipped, "i dreamed i was married to manuel, too"... bloodshot bill posted on facebook a CB pic he'd cut out of a library book & hung on his wall when he was young and... I CUT THE SAME PIC OUT OF A LIBRARY BOOK & HUNG IT ON MY WALL WHEN I WAS YOUNG!!! (it's still up there, in fact!)... so i watched one of bb's more recent videos in which he plays w/a band instead of just himself (no lewd joke there; that's been his wild shtick) & there were too many bodies on the stage; it was unnecessary; but i still dig his charlie feathers/hasil adkins vocals, even if mister page says they're contrived. to contrive to sound like those cats is universes cooler than the contrived vocals many other musicians bleet & blah. it's like "girl" singers who ape wanda jackson or janis martin or "girl" scenesters who ape bettie page: just about who on earth is cooler to imitate than them??? i wonder when "girls" will start trying to be like sister rosetta or big mama or poison ivy?... then suddenly on kpfk came the most horrible, putrid, lame-a*s version of "come on." i began to scream; in my rage, i nearly wrecked my car!!! it felt like my ears had been hit by a dumptruck of sh*t!! simpering, whining sh*t!!!! turns out this "come on" cover had been the rolling stones' 1st single, & i knew in that very moment why james has always despised the rolling stones... their version of "come on" was SO, SO, SO, SO BAD!!!!!
- the brit invasion bringing american music back into the world was not just ironic, but a catch-22: ironic cause they loved & still love our music more than we do, catch-22 bc back in the early 60s, new audiences were being exposed to our wonderful american music via lame, flaccid, face-bashingly bad covers! had the stones' version of "come on" been released 10-15 years later, i like to picture, american music purists would have stomped the crap out of mick & the stones & all others who did injustice to the CB catalog!!
- i calmed myself; the terrible cover ended; kpfk played some more great chuck cuts.. then, just like that, like projectile vomiting, ELO's "roll over beethoven" came on... WHY HAS NO ONE KILLED THEM FOR PUTTING THIS OUT?!?!?! WHY DID CHUCK BERRY NOT GET A TRUCKLOAD OF DYNAMITE & TAKE OUT EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM?!?!? i am married to someone who once pelted in the mug w/a grapefruit a certain phony pop-rockabilly icon, right in the middle of the icon's big fancy stage show (& then was removed, laughing hysterically, by bouncers, who "beat the sh*t" out of him while he continued to laugh maniacally)... and that rockabilly icon, phony as he may be, at least had the decency not to desecrate a chuck berry song by releasing it as a single... Editi used to think ELO were merely innocuous, but now i know: ELO & all like them  who re-record our great american music with evil intention of "improving" upon it must be stopped... STOP THEM BEFORE THEY RECORD!!!! CHAIN THEM!! KICK THEM REPEATEDLY!!! SEND THEM TO THE CORNFIELD!!!
- this week, w/great music on my mind so much, i flashed on this dunce i was involved with in a 2-year mistake that saved a place for james. this genius used to say things like, "you're just judgmental. i like ALL styles of music because I'M open-minded" (this from the most judgmental person i had ever met). then the person would talk about the one gig he did in his entire life, in which he of course named the band after himself (it was most likely just a set, not an entire gig)... but i know that, rather than me being "small-minded,"i have good taste, i know what i like, & he was & probably still is a do-nothing turd. james & i know what's good!!! we will not budge on what is good!!!!! life is too short to listen to bad music!!!!!!
- oh, it has been such a long week already... i think i'm kinda delirious...
- we are supposed to go see the gene taylor trio on friday; i can't wait! gene posted a vid of himself  playing, & his hand position is so perfect, so loose yet firm; he can play every run with perfect ease & groove; his attack is so solid, so friendly, so rockin... phil alvin will be joining the trio. james & i will, i hope, have a swell old time. and if that combo pays tribute to chuck berry with a song, i know one thing: it will honor the king of rock'n'roll. it will be worthy....
just realized i forgot the pix. i'll put them up another time... gnite.

sadsadsadsad news.... and busybusybusybusybusy

oh my gosh, last night after somnambulating home, i finally got tucked in bed next to the snoring one & read the chuck berry had passed away yesterday. oh my gosh... so sad. but manuel now gets to play with his number one hero in heaven, my child-imagination pretends. and linda a from bakersfield wrote, "he was 90. let him rest. we still have his music." that is too true. but also, james's friend james cotton, the magnificent blues harmonica player/musician, also passed away thursday. :( i am so not looking forward to telling him when he wakes up. this is sad news. chuck berry has been our shared musical hero, along with the blasters, big joe turner, the 5 royales... no one has innovated music like chuck berry (with johnny johnson's rollicking piano integral to it all): no one!! so this morn as we prepare to go will be delicate, but i need to let him know...
oh so busy... yes, gonna wake the man in 10 mins, so blogging quickly. we'll be playing at clancy's in seal beach noon-4 pm today. have had his whirlwind birthday weekend; this is the closer. it's been a bit too much this time, all the music this weekend, w/my right-now-extremely-busy teaching schedule,! but friday in bksfld was so sosososososo fun!! what a thing i get to do, even with the sometimes crash-&-burn experiences in between with moody me & moody james.
the place was packed. the family showed up. dad looked dapper with lincoln beard & bola; mama smiled so prettily throughout; angie & big doug wore silly st patty's hats & sturdily helped break up a fight...
this will be a big year for james gig-wise. :) can't say more right now!! he has some really swell engagements coming up in the late spring-early summer months.... yayyyy!!!!!!
as for me, time to get ready to go. peewee will have to be a latchkey kitty for one more day. i get to chauffeur the mercurial, magnificent whiteboy james to the show, then be part of the amazing blues express roller coaster w/absolutely winning & wonderful anthony, as well as steve & blake, then escort my dear whirlwind home, then teach school tomorrow... whew. i am a very lucky sometimes massively depressed & crisis-filled bag of fragile human water & assorted other matter.  today i hope will be happy auto-pilot w/lots of endorphins, smiles, & maybe a few nice solos amongst the pounding horn parts my clumsy piano fingers play...

estomago

i have a stomach ache. very tired. it's cold.
the weather, that is.
started yesterday an interesting reading class for teachers in bakersfield. six sessions.
fascinating, really. inspiring, yes.
never liked these teacher classes. thought they were stupid. thought many of the teachers were stupid.
i don't think it was the classes or other teachers that were stupid, come to think of it. :)
long long day today, leaving bakoland at 6 am with lunch packed by mama (to whom angie, me, james & doug all are perenially 8-9 years old, tho our actual combined ages are closer to 200). heaven love mama & dad, who gave us an extra mouse to replace the stupid apple one that took a crap bc apple is all about expensive built-in-obsolescence robbery (though the system be much hardier than pc).
james hits the pavement again starting this weekend. malarkey's, 4 pm sunday, LBC. be there or be a tomater.
i will not type what he just said.
it was obscene.
now he is singing a scatological version of a christmas carol, so i beg him to stop & now he's doing an impromptu version of something that sounds like the itchy & scratchy show, but to the tune of "do you hear what i hear"...
"i'm married to the ghost of robin williams," i told mama last night, & she hee-heed merrily. after dinner last night, after the not-stupid class, that is, we all sat & visited, & when james  & bro doug get going, the volume is unholy & if we all weren't falling on the ground laughing at their bellowing hilarity, we'd likely become deaf. "your mother & i didn't mean to marry such similar persons," i told pained-looking niece madeline, "you know: two loud obnoxious strange-o's who are yet so lovable & look like extras from some 1940s gangster film..." this made her laugh.
he is happy to have just spoken at length on phone with mister james the second. "he's a good guy," he says, worrying away at the latest clay figurine. our house is filling up with clay monsters, but this one is "a liddo wabbit," he said, now singing a song about the worthless cat: "obi wan keno-peeee..." now he is dancing around the kitchen. now imitating a machine gun. now... oh, i can't say. :)
time to go watch shum boob toob.