a two-pet night & joy to the world!

peewee on my left, penny on my right... that's the 1st song i remember singing along to, "joy to the world," from 3 dog night, & never did i consider the meaning of the band name til i moved here & learned what perfect bedwarmers pets can be!
and now it's snowing again! returned to frazier mountain yesterday at dusk to a winter wonderland! - to the delightful sight of snow-dappled evergreens & snow-piled mountains & the park filled w snow bunnies, hundreds of them!, their cars lining the roads everyplace, then going up the road, the sky a white mist, more people, more families, laughing, lobbing snowballs, slipping, piling it on their flatlander vehicles to preserve a snowy bit, sledding down the hillsides, what a lovely sight indeed! once home, i was happy to feel that my shower curtain insulating had worked sufficiently as well as the parabolic heater we got last week at the thrift shop, so no need to build a fire, i just climbed under the covers w the pets to finish my book & snapped this pic.
oh boy, it's really coming down now, not in big lush chunks like the other day, but in icy needles bc this afternoon it's supposed to warm into a rain which i hope will not flood "downtown".
there must be over a foot out there; the backyard's mostly buried. so glad for my snow boots & warm sweaters & coats. the holiday spirit is here! i want to make snowshoes! i want to read in bed! i want to write! i want to sing! i want to celebrate & play music! it's good to be alive in this season -- in all seasons, true, but the palpable joy of winter, the promise of christmas, they fill up my heart right now in particular.
i mean, how sweet it will be to return to school & get to continue reading to the kids "a christmas carol," one of my favorite novellas, with scrooge's miraculous change, particularly parts like this, so tantalizing, so scrumptious, so warm & lively (quoted in "charles dickens - food and drink"): It was his [Scrooge's] own room. There was no doubt about that. But it had undergone a surprising transformation… Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam…

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

james took off last night for the harp blow-off one day early, & good thing! i woke up to this:

in other great news, my funk of the other day lasted only a few hours... such an improvement over the long-lasting blues of (i hope it remains in) the past! the sun is come out now... such a beautiful thing, all the fluffy whiteness below that deep blue sky with cottony billows scudding across! well, just caught a video on facebook fort tejon chp stating they'll keep the grapevine open, so after breakfast, i will pack up girl dog & make a break for it!
happy hollydays to all! if you in smellay area tonight, go early to this to watch james destroy the stage then maybe chuck-berry- or maybe elvis-like, leave the building... https://www.facebook.com/events/2417149781858951/
here are pix from recent 5k i did w/christy z at fort tejon... and only 5 people showed up!! that night i did 5k w/sis in bakersfield, blacklight run... and 1000s showed up! in between, i did 5k w/penny in hills behind gias... and next day brought much muscle soreness but also happiness! running is a wonderful wonderful activity that humans are designed to do often!... and lastly, big manny christmas chango jam 2 is shaping up so very well. i know in my bones & heart manuel would be so very happy to know a christmas show is continuing in his name, w/a music fund set up, also in his name, for young musicians & -- thank you, jaime saenz for great idea! -- gear drive!!! more details to come on this show...

stupid coconut

i have no reason to be bummed out except sometimes my neurochemicals are busted
this, too, shall pass

chango jam 2

December 15 at the Redwood Room will be the 2nd annual Christmas "Chango" Jam in celebration of the yuletide spirit and memory of Big Manny Gonzales. The show will benefit The Big Manny Young Musicians Fund to put instruments in the hands of East LA kids and teens. Big Manny was co-leader of East LA's roots-rockers The Blazers (Rounder Records), who, after parting ways with musical partner Ruben Guaderrama, led the Big Manny Band and played around town with everyone from The Blasters to Tierra to Guaderrama, with whom he remained life-long friends. He was especially loved this time of year for his Christmas shows and now is remembered during the holidays as a sort of "Chicano Santa Claus" -- the cover of The Big Manny Christmas Album features smiling Manuel as Santa beside an open fridge, holding a Christmas toy and a Gibson. At 6'4" and 600 pounds, Manny was known by Ronnie Mack as a "gentle giant," and although he sang like an angel, his fiery rockin' guitar playing was puro Chuck Berry meets Jimi Hendrix. Last year's show featured musical friends of Manny's such as Bordertown, Joey Delgado, Ronnie Mack and Cody Bryant, Whiteboy James and more. A "chango jam," Manny once said, with typical weary humor, was when "you got 15 guys up there [on stage] all playing 'Rumble' all at once." The show promises to be a good-natured reunion of East Side Soul, roots-rock, cumbia and rockabilly artists who will gather to remember "The Big Man" and celebrate his love of Christmas. https://www.facebook.com/events/2459375944339100/

ultra double-triple FUG

james played this last night on the tv: just listen. JUST LISTEN! listen to chuck's badass interstellar solos and how he messes & messes w the hippie backup band & they hang in there. how many horrible backup bands did chuck berry have to play with, ones who didn't even know the canon of rockandroll america, "chuck berry songs"? (remember bruce springsteen in hail hail rock and roll doc, excitedly talking about the wild ride of trying to back chuck berry... a band shouldn't've ever done it unless they at least knew the keys, songs, & were smart enough to FOLLOW THE BANDLEADER!!!) james commented, about playing w sh*tty backup musicians, we've all had to do it; even chuck. look at him!, as the hippie musicians flail along, grinning like christmas, god bless em, they do it.
chuck is gigantically tough cool cool cool in this, & intense, & smooth, & monstrously awesome, & even if he was a total a**hole, like so many of the greats, man, just  LISTEN TO THAT GUITAR!! this is rockandroll. this is america. this is eccentricity, not giving in to the norm, not giving a damn, knowing oneself & displaying that to everybody, genius. chuck berry in toronto 1969
ps, again, anyone who says, at all disparagingly, or dismissively, "oh, i know that chuck berry stuff," then goes on to play it w any iota of hippie or metal... GO DIE!!!!!!