this weekend

friday all will say goodbye to manuel gonzales, or "big manny," our friend departed. here are details:
viewing - noon to 2 pm, funeral & burial, 2-3 pm, home of peace memorial park mortuary, 4334 whittier blvd, whittier ca; potluck reception for family & friends, vfw hall post 1944, 4-8 pm,  16157 e. gale, city of industry, ca.
i made this so i will remember always his face & person the way i remember him. there's a beautiful pic of him & james on this blog if you go back to april 2016, but i -- perhaps selfishly -- just put the ones here where i'm posed with him.
saturday will be the following: Come See Whiteboy James - Sat. Aug. 13th
WHERE: Shenanigans Irish Pub & Grille
423 Shoreline Village Drive
Long Beach, CA 90802
USA 8 PM-11:55 PM
COST: Free
CONTACT:
562-437-3734

the following saturday, we'll play here in town at sue's tavern, & after that, james will have me replaced with an electric bass & i'll just play with his band wherever i have the energy (& when he wants me, of course). the kids will be back in class

& i again will be a public school teacher.

swinging like a pendulum, walking down the aisle...

A big weekend ahead for us! Hope you'll come to one or more of our shows. Thursday: The Whiteboy and Jenny Combo at Oasis, Taft, CA, 6 pm; Saturday, Jenny gets to play with J&J's great friend Big Manny and his Big Manny Band at Redwood Room, LA; Saturday night is Whiteboy James and the Blues Express at Forbidden City, Long Beach, CA. Go to www.whiteboyjames.com for times and details for all shows that feature Whiteboy James smile emotico

better cleopat than giant andre, i spose

"Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies" (antony & cleopatra)
(blogger won't let me add the image i'd like to, of mehitabel from don marquis' archy &..., one of my all-time favorite reads...)
i got the "cleopatra" comparison again this past wkend & then again today, which is much more flattering than if i were told i resembled, say, andre the giant, but it prompted me to look her up & find this awesome quote... the line favoring her over other women makes me a little queasy, for isn't that the problem for too many of us fems? comparing your outsides to my insides? revolted by but under the lash of "you can never be too rich or thin"? that whole line of blah?
despite it, i felt a tad powerful reading the quote, tho it's not about me, & maybe becky (cattie ness) would say it's the uncanny recognition of the goddess w/in, or maybe it's just a cool quote... ok, just sitting here glutted on oatmeal waiting for it to digest so i can go for a jog, then go play at the school's winter concert this eve, then a little party, then hope to hit at least pt of my home mtg... if you're in covina fri, come see me w/the big manny band! sat dusk devils are at branding iron! (read post below for links)
happy warm eve to all. :) xoxoxoxxoxoxoxox

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. :) :) :)

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. :)

yes, this is quite premature...

...but manuel called & really liked the cover i made. so here it is. :) the other guys are john palmer of mac curtis, ronnie dawson, lisa finnie, cadillac angels & more fame, & leo valenzuela (i'm sorry, leo, i can't remember your western swing band's name). like john, leo plays in many bands. but both are very lucky to play with manuel, i think. :) and i shore am, too. :)
this record will not be available til fall. but it will be a fun one, i gear-ron-tee. enough dialect from me. happy eve!!

big manny & the corn man; crazy clancy rocks the house; dusk devils por vida :)

-> we were in manuel's front room in e.la., practicing a christmas rocknroll tune, when he stopped mid-song & cocked his head, like a kid who's heard the ice cream truck. from behind the screen (not green) door, i heard a clown-horn honking & a shout: "elote! elote!" so i ran out & stopped the corn man, his cart loaded w/all kinds of goodies. we all feasted on gigantic corns on the cob dripping w/butter, salt, & chile. "watch out, jenny," manuel joked. "if you hang out with us, you WILL gain some weight." we also had apricots, fresh limeade, & his wife terri's delicious, fried, smashed meat-bean-papas tacos w/fresh pico de gallo & more... manuel is a lovely & loving man w/melodic talent & heart to match his king-sized frame. i'm doing what i can to help him w/his wish to tour texas these holidays w/"the big manny christmas band." :)
-> brian & i just helped along the "fatten jenny up" path by hogging out at the newest chain bbq joint, which was a surprisingly fun experience! very charming plump server w/beautiful espresso skin & flashing white smile; more-than-decent music; so so much sauce; that lovely drunken feeling that comes as blood rushes from the brain to aid the glutted gut... i'm gonna lay off on the big meals for a while now, tho - i know it's better if i pig out on music than on food, & also that i can go overboard on most anything pleasureable, if i'm not watchful. (not to mention that if i do these things too much, guilt kicks in & ruins everything...)
-> "just kill me!!! just kill me now!!!!!" lovely lunatic speaker, friend clancy, exhalted to the heavens last night about a particularly wonderful moment he'd experienced... i could say the same. the love was palpable, the joy everyplace, the excitement, well, wow! there were about 200 people stuffed into the club & we all sweated together like stuck pigs (a terrible but convenient simile), smiling dripping happy dancing pigs... yes, dancing!! clancy's a swing dancer, so from the podium he many times enthused, "let's have a dance!! jen & the dusk devils're playin' after this!! let's have some fun!!" so when he was done & i thought the place would clear out, everyone stayed, & more came in, & we started up, boom! & folks started dancing!! the kindly snakecharmer vibe slithered up my spine: quiet song, everyone danced small; big fast song, bodies flew all over the room! i loved seeing the surprise & happiness in my many friends' eyes, the ones who didn't have a clue i "do this"... :) the fellows rocked everyone's socks off, & phil & mark BOTH debuted their songs. it was great to hand the show over to each of them, & the generous & enthusiastic applause that they each got. early on, someone flipped all the lights off in the middle of a song, & i thought, well, i can't see what i'm doing, but cool; it's kinda like a high school dance! so i said this, adding, "except i never went to one," and everyone laughed. :) having the lights out swelled my heart up w/this huge feeling that performer & audience were one, that it was truly a "we" thing, & i've never had that feeling so fully while performing; it was certainly a spirited & spiritual deal. :)
-> i announced our cd, & our hopes to send it to austin for sxsw, & everyone cheered. :) at one pt, i was having so much fun singing hard, something in my throat went sideways & suddenly i sounded like eartha kitt! or maybe etta james! or maybe a munchkinlander on a bender! it hurt a bit, but i went with it cause it sounded cool! but then we had to stop early when i felt my voice totally blowing out. "i sound like madam," i croaked, thinking of the drag-queen puppet, & then announced the last song. people sitting down jumped up to dance, too, & there were my folks' & brian's beaming faces in the crowd as they all hopped up & down in a genial snoopy kind of dance... afterwards, people came up wanting the cd, & their insistence flattered & surprised me. :) a beautiful newcomer gave such a sincere compliment, about happiness & really being able to smile for the 1st time, that my tender-hearted bud jani burst into tears. i was so very touched, too, but was too beat to blubber. it all let me know, tho, that my instinct to do the show was right: it really was a "we" deal thru & thru, & my many fellowship friends, as well as others who came out to see us, had a great time.
-> a little more bragging (cause if i don't write it down, i'll forget it immediately): "i haven't seen that much dancing at one of our events in years!" jani said. "total success," mark m smiled. :)
-> it was even fun breaking down, joking around, w/everyone so sweaty, it was comical. i'm so pleased & fortunate to play with phil, mark, & rick. the dusk devils are what i've hoped for. :) now we just need a few saxamaphones & we'll be really styling, tho not as styling as "the phil" was last night in his cowboy-rockabilly dude garb. :)

Home is the sailor from the sea, The hunter from the hill.

here's a collage of the motorcycle vacation. we've taken this trip & others like it so many times, we no longer take pix of stuff like the grand canyon, grand tetons, utah's national parks, indian country, etc. the picture never captures the experience, anyhow. these are what remain.
tomorrow i get to mix our little LP with sharon marie. whoopee! i'm so excited! then monday i get to go practice christmas songs with manuel. again, whoopee! so excited! then friday night's our little alano club show for friends. whoopee! so excited! (hey, marcus aurelius, may i get the flyer from you? thank you so mucho.) :)
this wk, too, it's back to work, & tho i cry, in my heart, i know back to teaching i must go. i love thrills; get to do way more fun things than many; & tend to float away like a delirious helium balloon -- therefore even more crucially do i need to have my feet firmly replanted on the ground each fall when school begins & i resume the important role of educator. it's quite a responsibility & privilege. for although i fervently lament & dislike the legislation that's turned our schools into impoverished, embattled-yet-neglected test-prep factories, i still love the kiddies. :) (a.e. housman poems: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poems/housman.html)

music music music music music music music

here's a cell ph pic of skip heller from when he played at narducci's recently. at the end of the night, he said, "jenny, why don't you come up here & sing 'fujiyama mama'?" my brain tried to leap out of my head, but i did it, getting the funny looks & smiles that tell me things are going ok. :) i'm a very fortunate person to get to do stuff like that & flattered skip asked me to sing. movie-star-looking skip plays another free narducci's show on july 31, but i'll be gone, so please go in my place. he speaks guitar more fluently than just about anybody! very impressive. :) (philly, you need to go in my place!!)
this wkend i hope will bring travel to smellay to hang out w/friends & MUSIC!! fri night my dear old pals ruben & manuel of blazers, as well as many others, will play a jam session at the elks lodge montebello. sat is the upland blues fest w/phil alvin's doppelganger white boy james & many more. sunday's the safari sam's brunch americana, w/the blasters coming on at 9 pm!!!! i'll get to spend time (what a weird expression) w/one of my dearest friends in this world, & i hope her genius children, too. :)
hope i have the nerve to give phil alvin the song i wrote... maybe i should not... but writing this, i sense that i will... know that i will... (does that process ever happen to you??) why not? "better to regret something you have done than to regret something you haven't done." ciao ciao ciao for now, for now, see you down the road, & how... :)

my sleep-deprived texas train trip: snippets

not pictured: burnin' mike vernon, luann williams, kinky friedman :)

bass ackwards in the lone star state: the queen of know-nuthin speaks

if you are ever in my presence & i suggest we take a short cut or say anything that suggests a "clever" or easier, softer (& especially cheaper) way, please slap me!!!! i have had many adventures on this trip & now am (literally) cooling my heels in the hi-austin after a day out in 100 degree texas heat wearing the wrongest & stupidest shoes any female could've conceived to wear for such a trek!!! of course the shoe broke, so i being so goddang resourceful found a pin in the road & a hair tie & "fixed" the shoe & proceeded to walk another 10 miles w/my blistering dogs taped w/stickers i peeled off the wall out front of the record store & basically all it accomplished is i was slowed like a turtle & nearly crippled myself!! i love this place a lot (tho not as much as i love my loved ones), but that combined w/my FIVE HOUR wait yesterday at the amtrak station in rural cleburne (the station was closed, of course, & it was 100 degrees, & i was all alone, but then i found a penny, & found one today, so i stick w/foolishness, thinking it's all part of the great plan, most certainly) mean i am more than ready go home... i have had a swell time, but more than anything, more than music, more than mama, i await my sleeping car on tomorrow's train (which of course cost a zillion dollars to grab because i only realized i had to get one or croak after the "going to war together"-like grubby camaraderie of riding over w/NO SHOWER). i'll get on this time, shower up, & get rocked to sleep by the train's gentle gait.
...dang, i hope that didn't constitute an expectation on my part. my serenity is directly related to my expectation level... so that wasn't an expectation at all, i say: just a hope. :) i know it's ok & in fact is good to hope. :)
will report more later on the great music i've heard & will hear, my beautiful family, their beautiful little italian donkey, the beautiful rural texas dusks alive w/night-singing bugs & peaceful, endlessly flat & lovely canopies of lime-green fields & dark, stately post oaks... below i'll list some music, so "all yall" can know what's been up here... & more details later. :) peace happiness & good times to all who read this...