stompstompstompstomp

saturday at the doll hut, james was in highest form, a god on the stage, a superhero, an icon! he was a big whoaaaa. we made it back to kern county for easter with the family. we were home today on frazier mountain working on the house. i put up the patio again & took a little sauna. tomorrow school resumes. as does the music. now here we go! our combo renamed & restamped! i hear pour house has good food. yessss! we are going to stomp stomp stomp!!!

this just in!

i posted the bottom paragraph on facebook & now james's phone's ringing off the hook w/his friends calling to find out all about what happened! i don't guess it's the kinda thing your average city-born  cult-hero bluesman does... maybe cause there's only ONE person of that description who would've had the wherewithal to know what to do! :D
i'm so glad he was here cause i would've probably tried to save it & ended up getting bit in the process... dumbbell the cat, as is, was trying to get outside to play with it...
here's the post:
james killed a rattler on our porch. i got this house over 5 yrs ago & have never seen a snake til now, never mind a poisonous one, & never mind right at the front door!! r.i.p., dear viper, now headless carnivore chow in arroyo. thank goodness for james the snake slayer...

yayyy!!!! "oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful..."

i am quite excited about this show! if you're in the area, or feel like taking a road trip to the piney, pretty los padres mountains between sta clarita & backwardsfield, w/its potential for wintry snow, come on out. it will be a very positive & happy event in one of our most favorite towns on this planet!... at the last show i did as dusk devils, in long beach, i was backed by my adept & photogenic new guitar player scott abeyta (also blues express guitarist & one of james's best friends!) as well as max bangwell & the friendly scott lambert (two more of james's best friends... & i so love james for the scores & scores of dear & long-time friends he has!)... at the show advertised here, the line-up will be robbie on bass, scotty on guitar, & tony lopez on drums, 1st playing w/me, then backing james the extraordinary... being very much a cornball who loves all holidays, i'm so looking fwd to singing & playing christmas tunes as well as ushering in the yuletide season w/my family & friends new & old as well as bandmates new & old (tho robbie's really quite young, compared to the rest of us!)...

happy thursday night to you, dear reader.

happy independence day!!! and it's a big music weekend for dusk devils, karling & the atomics, more!

today is july 4, an especially important day for me (see below) as well, of course, on a much, much larger scale, the united states of america... may we all be freed today of whatever oppresses us, be it physical, spiritual, or elsewise. a special prayer, thought, intention, too, for dear loved ones who are in pain. i fervently, sincerely wish them return to good health & strength as quickly as possible... as i know many more of you are experiencing, too, tho life may be wonderful, it hurts to see loved ones suffer... i pray that i'll be ready to help however possible, whenever asked.
meanwhile, in the fun & frivolous dept (tho sunday's a benefit for a kind friend), this weekend:

vee heff flyers...

this coming weekend, brian p & i'll play with the atomics, backing karling abbeygate, at a really huge event near our friend candye kane's landing pad. here's more info... SoCal Rockabilly Fest ... the other shows displayed here should, too, be a hoot! the thursday event, "the dusk devils featuring karling abbeygate" (she'll start the set with us) is put on by the city of sta clarita & is on the same block as the vu, where we played a very fun rockabilly fest that also featured hard six & inazuma... the latter is our second appearance at sue's tavern right in frazier park, & if it's half the fun the last one was, well, bar the doors, katy!!! it's gonna be such a blast!!!

yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwnnnn!!!!

that's not a reflection on this image! just lately's been fun, but not manic... which means i'm nearly asleep a lot of the time! anyways, after 9 days of crazy high energy & creativity, the rollercoaster peaked & gentled out... we had a lovely bd party for my ex-husband, then i went out w/bsp & met up w/eddie e & wes c for a bit, then played a fun quincenera down in santa ana for fabi dean's little sister, who had the coolest gown! she looked like a little punk rock princess! we got to eat chicken mole they'd brought from mexico city! it was, need i say, mouth-on-fire scrumptious! we (cattie ness & the revenge, in this case) came on after the mariachi & pounded the joint! it was a fun set... then i was gonna go see james @ his eldorado halloween show, but the revenge was tuckered out & i wasn't gonna go by myself dressed as a zombie french maid, for heaven's sake! that's just dumb!! not that i'm a supermodel or anything near it... just wanted some company, going in a fairly skimpy getup like that... anyhow, we caravanned home & becky talked my head off & we got lost & it was super tiring but also fun, then halloween came & i only had my costume on for about 10 mins, not long enough for a pic, so i'll just have to make sure it fits for next year! or i'm thinking i might modify it to be a pilgrim @ the above show... no! what am i saying?? i can't be a frigging plymouth-style PILGRIM!!
anyways, back to halloween: went to crazy duck chinese restaurant up here on the mountain w/my friend, then watched a scary demon movie & scared the crap out of ourselves, then later went to the beautiful new library & checked out books & hiked up to this dilapidated, cool old house i'd like to buy, a (an) historical monument w/rough-hewn, dramatic stonework & killer view, but the whole house is brittle! it's a tear-down & start-over, unfortunately, cause tho existing house is rustic-cute, it's dangerous to inhabit! it's also abandoned for now, as you might guess, so we grabbed a bunch of apples off the tree... apples grow well here, little sweet crunchy ones... i just realized i need an apple tree...
- the wind's blowing here to beat the band! stupid wind! no yardwork today - glad i did it yesterday... well, i have no creativity, so this humdrum writing will have to do for now... :) heading to smoggy bakersfield to be w/dusk devils & family... hope snow doesn't come, like's predicted. i'm bringing my hiking boots, just in case i have to somehow crosscountry-it back up to my house (i'm about 500 ft higher than town proper, & i'll get snow when "downtown" frazier has none!) to get my dress for saturday's show w/cattie ness & deke dickerson in fresno. that should be a blast! go to www.cattieness.com for details... ok, bye all! :)

and if you get scared on the rollercoaster, hold my hand & move a little closer, doin' some huggin' & lovin' at the county fair

- dusk devils!!! we play sunday!!! don't miss the desert empire fair, ridgecrest, ca. we'll play a nice long set, 330-5 pm. before us is a johnny cash tribute band called walk the line & afterward will be roots rocker stalwarts cadillac angels (wanda jackson's backing band, among other accolades, as you might know!) & there might be other bands, too, cause this is "rockabilly day" at the fair... address is 520 s. richmond, ridgecrest, ca. the fair'll open at noon... the fair! the fair! the fair! whoopee!!!
- this wkend, too, is the opening of the new library in frazier park, saturday, 10 am... you should see the place -- it's huge & gorgeous! amazing to think such an edifice could be constructed & maintained in these times so dire for arts & education... i'm so looking fwd to seeing this new library! if you drive into frazier park, there's no way you can miss it: left at the post office off the main highway (the only light in town), then a right at park drive. just follow the signs!
- off to st vincent de paul now to do some art & make more friends & try to be of some use, for heaven's sake... my cousin the cop (i mean sheriff's dept chief public information officer) is having me design a patch for his motorcycle club, so i'll have something to draw myself today, not just stand around like the teacher... life is wonderful. how lucky can a person be? hope you feel the same today... & maybe to see some of you out at the desert fair! here's the website (don't look for us; i forgot to send in a picture): desert empire fair

blablablablablablabla

here is a little video to celebrate great music, friends, & a bee-yoo-tee-ful day... huge, huge birds are in the trees out the window! they must be a foot in height each! wow!

it really looks like this! (pour me out & call me sugar. impossible to be bitter in these pts, after all.)

found this pic from life magazine - i believe it could be the road heading away from my very own house! it really looked that beautiful here today, in any case, after last night's storm... yes, anybody'd delight w/living in this lovely mountain town. today i made the rounds of locals shops w/small goal beyond being out & about... an old man named john, who volunteers @ the various thrift shops, smiled, clapped his hands, & exclaimed, "oh! you're back. you are so beautiful!" HE'S beautiful: straight-backed, coffee-colored, beaming broadly, today in neatly pressed turquoise shirt & shiny western belt buckle. i'm not special except in that john makes everyone feel special. he is one of the kindest & happiest fellows i've ever met! going place to place around the mtn, ppl were friendly, happy. the day was stunning! what was to keep ppl on the mtn from feeling joyful to some degree? this morning, a mist resembling snow danced around the sky, shiny particles swirling & tumbling in heavenly jitterbug, but the climate was too warm for snow; a deep sniff of air brought a clean fragrance of aliveness, refreshment, even the beach! it was magical, as is, i believe, this place, this golden mountain, these rocks, these trees, trees that sang & sighed & moaned during last night's storm. best of all was to share the evening w/my dear sister here, the palpable connection w/loved ones, & now to settle w/a book or maybe even a movie. gentle evening to all.
announcing: we have more gigs coming up
building: next wk, a labyrinth
cleaning: house, in several ways
deciding: whether to paint or not
emphasizing: to try to control others is to demean them
fine-tuning: new songs from the last few days
gravitating toward: a gentler & happier way (i hope)
hoping: for a full moon
ignoring: the mean ones
joking: with my sister tonight over dinner
kissing: roscoe & gusgus
listening to: the space heater, ocean sounds
meditating upon: acem
needing: rocks for my labyrinth
orienting: to new ways of thinking
postulating that: plants are sentient & therefore feel pain & therefore
questioning: what the heck do we eat?
reading: just kids by patti smith
stuck on: wonderment that i'm still here
thinking: dinner @ los pinos w/angie was sure good
unable to: fly
valuing: having been awakened again to life
wanting: a fire
x-amining: the evidence, instead of the voices in my head
yearning for: iceland, new orleans
zoning out: because of a full stomach

moving

arrrrrrgggghhhh!!! my fingers!!!!!!!!
i think i reherniated myself. i look like my sister, lover of mosh pits & martial arts: bruised bow to stern. how did i ever amass so many gd LPs, CDs, music equipment, movies, &, most of all, books??? (&, reminds randy, big shoes.) i should have been collecting granite all these yrs. it'd've be less agonizing to move. however, despite my pain & fatigue, & the possible pain/fatigue of all the loved ones who helped me, the home in the mountains is shaping up cozily (tho the outside still resembles a haunted house). waking up to a window full of national forest & robin's egg-blue sky, with cool clean breezes wafting thru the curtains, fills me with an even happier feeling than i ever imagined... ahhh; to be able to breathe is a wonderful thing.
i hope grandma mary's spirit doesn't take this as blasphemy: peace be with you.

a long meditation on the horrors of leading a band that includes professional session players, a dd gig, & la vida sonsa

-the other day we got to play w/mark yeary, who truly is an awesome piano player! he has backed many, most famously merle haggard. his physicality & smoothness reminded me of gene taylor - hopping from island to island, square hands always perfectly balanced to attack the keys with strength, speed, & agility. when he sang, too, in a voice somehow both laid-back & energetic, his style still reminded me of gene the boogie-woogie king: muscular yet no effort wasted, soulful but w/lightness of touch. mark yeary is one swinging cat!
-i asked him to play some nola style songs & he did both roberta & some fats domino! his band was really solid, w/steve woods on guitar. two fellows well-known by all but me played trumpet (wow!!!!! a tall man named john...) & saxophone (we did honky-tonk w/him, an elderly fellow probably famous except to this know-nothing). later in the night, ray mcdonald strolled in & smoothly crooned some merle songs...
-i found out i'm not a band leader except w/dds. when you're talking about a band that's practiced only in certain tunes, then you're expected as a unit to follow, there're just too many carcasses to haul thru the mud on a tune that's unknown by even one poor soul.
-yes, mark yeary, the fantastic & famous pianist, wanted me to lead. my playing already was suffering bc i was nervous to play in front of him! but he kept looking @ me to kick it off & i kept looking at him hoping he'd kick it off. some songs would've been great if we didn't do 95 go-arounds, but i wanted to be sure everyone got a chance on every flippin' song. see how polite i am??? there were 85 musicians on the stage & i wanted to give each one a go-around... the set groaned... finally, phil, dear man, stepped in & pulled everyone out of the drink. yes, he's more portable, but his musical direction was also more adept (not to mention he can pull any style out of his can, like a human jukebox). i just wanna go fast! in the presence of fine musicians (except dds), such as folks playing music w/thrilling-to-watch but terrifying-to-accompany finesse, my star does not glimmer or shimmer. it just gets dimmer. and i feel dumber. like a bummer.
- enough already on this; i know. but rats. and dang! still, we all were honored to be around such great musicians... that trumpet just killed me!! i truly had no idea that this kind of & quality of music was going on in bako! i will go back again - to watch! and i think phil will have little problem sitting in... go to julie's branding iron 3rd friday of each month to catch this swell show. it'll just kill you!!
- now here's a flyer for our next show (corrected for a 3rd time!). we also have a private deal on june 4 & a few more pending. i might be moving, but we're not dead, no sir!! one possibility's such a kick. a kick! i'll reveal its secret @ later date... bwahaha
-this eve, my doggies are here (they finally laid down to rest after the border collie spent the 1st hr here bouncing like a jumping bean); i've started packing a tad; the mountaintop residence is turning into an actual abode rather than dump bringing horror to my loved ones; my dear cousin's coming in this wkend from tx; i "get to" make an amend in lotusland (character building & soul-clearing, i hope). next wk, the last of school, i'll hope to have a library party. am gonna miss those kids so much. hope i don't start blubbering too much. wouldn't want my dear students to cry even one tear, not a one. i hope i'll always remember them, least as long as i'm on this wild blue.
washington irving: "there is a sacredness in tears. they are not the mark of weakness, but of power. they speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. they are messengers of overwhelming grief... & unspeakable love.”

good timing/carpe diem!

we don't have any immediate gigs... but what serendipitous timing! phil is w/his family, mark's w/silence club, randy's knee-deep in the good times, & my home in the mountains just closed!! went there yesterday to mt w/handyman, hope to go back today to see bout getting some paint on the walls, oh wow - can't believe i'm gonna live someplace so beautiful!... however, it's gonna take a bit to get in there since it's a super fixer-upper, to put it mildly, if i haven't said so already. the drive home last night from there was spectacular; the mountains & colors just make my heart swell.
pix to stir your imagination (do mine, anyway):
where i'd like to be:
how i'm feeling right now:
my bud & everyone else's: sacre bleu; carpe diem; hail hail rocknroll; wail, baby, wail!

long long long long time since blogging

am back to work! the kids are so swell. :) will fill this in later meanwhiles, here are pix...

yurt, dome, or yome? & "you gotta dig a little deeper": the best movie in town's at the dollar theatre

have caught on fire w/house-hunting mania (quietly, tremblingly so, from my computer here)... what variety of properties the mtns have! have put 2 bids in in last 2 days... we'll see! meanwhile, for the property i hope to get, shall i add to it a yurt, dome, or yome? google these terms together, & fascinating sites on alternative dwellings come up... next, here are pix from my favorite movie of late. a magical valentine to nola rather than a glossing-over of jim crow & the plantation era, as have heard it described, it has wonderful vernacular joyful songs, inspired voice acting, beautiful color & animation, lovable characters, & of course, all set in new orleans, so the enamored & noble little firefly speaks gentle mumbly-mouthed cajun; the villain is basso purple-clad voodoo bad (his human disneyland imitators resemble esquerita or screamin jay, & how cool is that?); the gigantically happy bashful sidekick gator blows horn & is named after jordan, armstrong, or prima, take your pick; & the rescuer is a toe-cracking, cackling, gospel-singing little blind hoodoo lady named mama odie. the princess & the frog plays now in bakersfield at the dollar theatre - go see it, if you haven't! "dreams do come true in new orleans"... the city is pure enchantment, despite hardships; this movie celebrates that & i believe aids in the ongoing rebuild of the crescent city's spirit, as did the recent victory of the saints... hope you'll see it, or already have. :)

tweedeedeedeedeedle-eedee / "the greatest wealth is health" (virgil)

- was surprised to find this video on youtube! it's the only one i've seen where i'm clearly reading words as i sing (taped to the piano) - now i know i need to smile more when i'm doing that! was happy, tho, to hear my voice problems at that time weren't too apparent.
-please watch & rate the video (if you like it, that is) :)
-another on youtube from that same night also is under sofein's videos... if you will, please watch & rate it, too (again, if you like it, that is...) :)

-speaking of sofein, was sposed to lunch w/him yesterday in frazier pk, where i went bc 1) had no doctor's appts yesterday; & 2) have concluded i must move from bakersfield before summer hits if i'm to continue to live... looking back on this blog, i realize i've been sick now for SIX YEARS (tho probably longer, since this blog only goes 5 or so)!! i've had to conclude my poor health is due to the filthy air here, unfortunately, since i do love so much about backwardsfield, tho it's like a bad relationship, as i've said, one you can't get rid of but sometimes surprises you by being a real good time... art is going thru bereavement following the recent passing a very dear friend, grief that expressed itself in his back, so staying home in his hollywood bed, he was able to rest & i was able to be super-busy w/realtors. i was delighted by the variety of properties in frazier park! - left w/a feeling of real excitement. ideally, w/a place there, i'll be close enough to bako to see family, loved ones, doggies, dusk devils (& maybe find a band in socal, too!) & still live in a place where i can jog, hike, maybe rest & find peace, but most importantly, GOOD HEALTH!!!!
- found out the other day too that i have a bona fide "other" health condition besides thyroid & sinus/allergy problems... it was sort of a shameful moment of realization, but now, like realizing & facing alcoholism, i can accept a solution. some say "there are no accidents"... i dunno bout that, but perhaps all this bad health news will lead to a better & happier life for me & those who care about me.
- i agree 100% w/the following: "in order to change, we must be sick & tired of being sick & tired" (unknown) or, put another way, "to goodness and wisdom we only make promises; pain we obey" (proust).
-a few more truths & jewels: "joy and temperance and repose / slam the door on the doctor's nose" (longfellow).
- "diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body" (cicero).
- "a good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book" (irish proverb).
- and lastly, for myself & for you, if this be your problem, too, i second that "mens sana in corpore sano" (your prayer must be for a sound mind in a sound body) (juvenal). rock, rock, rocknroll, the feeling is there, body & soul...