Santa Claus - an odd & innocent film

this low-budget mexican-made flick was parodied on MST3K: i recently watched & enjoyed it minus smarmy hilarious asides via one of our roku channels ... it gives santa's setting & the whole christmas story a real twist: at his outer space hideout, st nick is aided by tykes of different nations who monitor earth's kiddies using devices apparently from pee wee's playhouse. they focus mainly is on little lupita as she struggles against mean old scratch because "i don't want to be evil;" the tiny child is sincerely adorable, her story moving. this cult movie is to me a pleasing combination of weird, sweet, boring, & touching. maybe you'll get a kick out of it, too. (for some reason, i was trying originally to post a link to in the electric mist, tho it's not a holiday movie: look for & watch it, if you can!)
merry christmas to all... we ran out of the photo christmas card you see here, so i will post one here for anyone who wants to see one but didn't get one from us in the mail as well as a picture sister angie sent me. my heart soars that, tho she has become so firmly religious, angie retains her demented humor. she is a true gia... to paraphrase elvis, let's make "everyday be like christmas..."

"my prayer to god is a short one: 'oh lord, make my enemies ridiculous'. god has granted it." - voltaire (WBJ interview)

after an intensive day of laying around, doing yardwork, listening to music on youtube, writing songs, playing music, chainsawing firewood, & eating pizza, we happened across an interview with whiteboy james that seemed a tad vacuous. we attempt to top that here: anonymous interviewer: whiteboy, what would you do if you were instead called black boy? wbj: probably make more money... [computer crashes.] ai: apparently, divine intervention could not trump bad taste: the question and reply stand. onward, what is your favorite kind of ice cream? wbj: garlic mint ripple. [computer crashes again.] ai: g*ddammit… wbj: well, it you weren’t so lightning fast… ai: what’re the first 78s you ever heard that stand out in your memory? like three, four… wbj: stay all night, bob wills and texas playboys; great big chainsaw came near, spike jones; &, hmmm.... ballad of smoky joe, cab calloway. ai: what was your favorite toy when you were a kid? wbj: g.i. joe. ai: we never had one cause it was a “boy toy,” like all the cool stuff back then… oh well… and what was your favorite tv show? wbj: when i was a kid? hmmm… get smart. ai: if you could beat the sh*t out of any famous person living or dead, who would it be? wbj: lemme see… that’s a good one… art fein. [laughs hysterically.] no-no, wait: charlton heston. maybe john wayne… [laughs uproariously.] ai: what’s your favorite exercise? wbj: [reading from ipad:] here i got a message from you on march 21, 2010… [reads it aloud.]… that was a lonnng time ago! that’s neat goin back and seeing that stuff, you know? [grins.] where are we? ai: what’s your favorite exercise? wbj: that’s a tough one. ai: yeah; i agree… wbj: playing 40 man squamish. ai: what’s the best thing about being married to jenny? wbj: hmmmmm…. being married to jenny [smiles.] ai: to quote a recent interviewer, “what can a white guy possibly know about the blues?” your reply? wbj: "go f*ck yourself." ai: that’s great! ok, last question: what do you want to do this evening? wbj: my wife. [photo: WBJ & interviewer in 2010. photo by very myopic, jealous, or possibly sneezing bystander.]

FRANKLIN MOTEL by Jenny & the Phantoms

[FOREWARD TO THIS POST: these songs most all are about james page, my now-husband, which i could not say at the time...]have had too much energy lately, 90% good... yesterday i got fed up & decided to do something useful w/it, like record this little thing, which in the old days might've been dubbed an EP, but today is just a DIY, one-day, one-woman toss-away... hang in there, if you will, thru the 1st song, on which i really messed up the levels: yikes! it improves after that... made this song collection a video cause wanted to present lyrics, too. they were fun & satisfying to assemble! i never much heed lyrics while enjoying music, tho do love to write them... hope you like the songs, slapdash as they be. :)
thanks to all my friends, musicians & non, who've encouraged me to make a "real" solo record in a "real" studio... maybe it'll happen! we'll see if there's any reaction to this latest batch of tunes... meantime, it's so awesome that such well-known & respected american roots scholars, performers, & songwriters (listed below) would think i'm worthy!! all i know is, i love to write & perform music, tho to call my efforts rough would be generous (have got this impatience thing that prevents me from doing many retakes to get things more correct, like on solos, levels, etc, & i have no idea how to mix)... i'm so happy to have realized lately that no matter, who ever, wherever, whenever, nothing ever can or will separate me from my music... it's as much a part of me as breath. how about for you? can you or should you allow yourself to be separated from your bliss? i think we should not, long as that bliss doesn't hurt anyone! :)
dusk devils play tomorrow, march 17, at the ridgecrest fairgrounds sometime in the evening... we'll headline a super-rocking long set w/our sturdy awesome rhythm section... i should have a flyer; i should have this & that; really all i know is, i'll wear my new piano-keyboard punk-lolita tutu & some green for st patty's day, & we will kick butt!... tomorrow, too, is my friend jp's birthday. i'll miss his awesome bd bash down south, but we dusk devils are gonna have some mondo-top-fun, i just know it!! and afterwards we all got comped rooms, & since i don't have "real" TV here at my mtn home, HBO, here i come! :)
meanwhile, happy birthday, frankenstein! may you who read this be, if not in, then en route to your bliss, one way or nuther... :) xo
:D

a jolly mania numero uno

worth a gander!

wow! check these out!!
www.culturalequity.org
www.curious-places.blogspot.com ...and these. heehee. :)

idiots; i never learn...

whoever wrote this is not an idiot: what wit!... people who purport to be writers should know their stuff, tho, i feel, & right now i'm angry about a situation in which i am looking down at "writers" who don't know their comma & pronoun usage, using that as an excuse to feel superior, which is a bad place for me to be (especially since, sue to laziness, i never capitalize when blogging)...
of language, twain commented, "anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination." my dad, whose name bears six letters total, is one of the brightest fellows i've ever known, but has always had trouble w/spelling... i am all over the place, p.o.ed about having been asked to become involved in something that really is none of my biz, a petty little turd i could've not stepped in, but smoosh, there i went... "we step on the toes of others & they retaliate, seemingly w/o provocation"... it's my fault i'm disturbed; still, can't help looking down my nose @ the retaliator, whose music is crap, i've always thought; who is known for writing blogs yet doesn't well-enough-for-me use basic american english mechanics (hence the graphic here); who is an associate of an arrogant & untalented local writer whom i to-this-day dislike (can you tell?); & who also, it seems from a quick online search, possesses what-i-think-are smug, provincial attitudes... so of course this dunce would have started the sh*tstorm she did.
but i didn't need to become involved.
i need to not do things just cause people ask me to, or even worse, just suggest that i do; why do i still want so to please people when they wouldn't care one bit if i were to stay out of frays? dad certainly would not have gotten involved; he is the mushroom, & i'm sure better off when i am, as well.
"don't borrow trouble," donna wisely would say. when i borrow trouble, most ppl seem pretty damned stupid, & i don't mean just bc they don't know basic punctuation or usage... i become the judge & they become greedy, venal, ugly, useless, detestable, hypocrites; then i snarl & pant & feel like a sap... if i mind my own business, i don't get on my high horse; i don't despair; i ignore dunces as well as decisions made by friends w/which i disagree. when i tend my own garden, i delight in my wonderful life & am appropriately supportive of others... but once again, i forgot, & once again, i'm the dumbbell, the one to pay... lessons come so slowly when you've a head of rocks & marbles.
that's all for now.

papa alpha india november sierra uncle charlie kilo sierra....ppphhhhhtttthhh!!!

awesome evening last summer -- 1st time brian p had seen james & his blasting band... i didn't know i was gonna film this til the song started & i realized w/a start what a gas we all were in for. this is one of james's own compositions; like me, but even more so, he is a train nut, so to combine that theme w/blues seems natch for him.
well, how are you? my guts are killing me; this must be what labor feels like. i've accomplished next-to-nothing in the past few days: some household chores, larry sanders marathon, surfing net, catching up on old new yorker mags, each moment out of bed being so much toil... oh, this cursed pain. arrghhh. i realized 30 mins ago two of my friends are suffering horrible stomach pain, far worse than mine; is it the stars? coincidence? worry about friends? psychosomatic? "that bug that's been going around?" pain's the body's alert system: we are out of homeostasis! do something before the ship explodes!! sometimes i know, tho, recovering from illness just takes time. the "do something" means lie low, stupid, & rest. owwwwww...
bill cosby's joke (paraphrased): "my wife told me, 'would you like to know what labor is like?' 'yes,' i said, 'i would,' so she tells me, 'well, take hold of your bottom lip,' 'uh-uh, ok, i'm doin it, honey, what's next...' 'now pull it over your head...'"
we used to listen to bill cosby records all the time when we were kids, especially the routines "go carts," "chickenheart," and "tonsils." i'm comforted remembering all this. nearly anything can be made funny -- hence kenneth mars' character in "the producers," or singers like james who take the real blues of living & transform it into something wild & astonishing, or a thousand other examples of tears of pain becoming tears of laughter & joy via the alchemy of comedy... some might argue, in fact, that humor derives from pain, but that don't wash w/me as an absolute. whatever your take on it, i do believe that blessed is he who laughs, but even more blessed is he(she) who makes another laugh... time to go lie down. and watch something funny. if i'm lucky, on a whoopee cushion. :)

elvis show today!

read below for info + to view flyer... meanwhile, here's a pic of karling abbeygate & i from last week's show. karling likes monsters, too. this is a nice thing. :) my outfit for tonight is half elvis, half can-can girl. plus ripped-up hose. i hope that'll look more punk than bag lady... but in the end, who cares!! we'll put on the best show we can for the crowd. :) i wish i knew what times some of my friends will be on, esp since we'll miss pt of the show practicing... it'll be fun to ride w/the band & to play w/wild aj & friendly stevo (as well as bsp)... hope any who read this have a lovely sunday elvis-birthday-day...

the great dane & the great proboscis

it's been wks & i still really have no singing voice. have been babying it, hoping it comes back. dratted vocal chords!!! dratted insane snarling growling singing style!!! if i were a crooner, i'd be back at it by now!!
oh well.
yes, have been home a lot, so've been playing lots of piano. lots of classical, actually, trying to rebuild dexterity, also just for enjoyment, variety. forgot til these past wks about the many composers i really love! most recently: mussorgsky, faure, kabelevsky, brahms, tchaikovsky, the bach inventions, of course... then there are the czerny books; oh, how i loved czerny exercises when i was a kid! i think the repetition calmed my ocd tendencies, mebbe.
here are some videos i love, both sort of piano-related, from the great dane & the great proboscis (the latter is the only thespian i can think of who acts w/his nose).

well, i usually never put this kinda thing up

but i think both these are pretty funny, tho one, mordantly so. thank you, toni!! well not much is up except it's freezing here in bakingfield. (my students would write "wtf???" & i spose i just did, too.) last night randy hosted practice & then got us naked juices & frugatti's pizza, a "noni's special," which was pretty great: basil, garlic, cheese, that's it. i learned in NYC they call cheese pizza "plain," not "cheese," so there's a tidbit for you, if you're a californio, like i am... am going out that way @ the holidays & am trying to regenerate some excitement for the trip, for i fear i'm not just gonna be lonely, i'm gonna freeze... on the other hand, w/this trip, my whole life could change, blossom, bloom again. i certainly cannot foretell which it will be; maybe it'll be something in the middle (imagine that)... guess all happens for some reason, so making the best of it & trying to have no expectations is probably a wiser mentality. i mean, for heaven's sake, i'm going to NEW YORK!! no matter what happens, like my NOLA trip, it'll be an adventure... heading to see one of my angels now... stay warm, friends!!!

a few days late...

always have i loved john candy, tho i heard recently sad news about some struggles he had his life. yes, i always felt a sadness might exist in him, watching his movies; maybe that's pt of the reason i like him! but more likely it's that he was a big, handsome, funny, kind-seeming man.
this is one of my very favorite movie scenes ever, which i watched last night!! i don't see how to imbed it from youtube, so please click the link to watch it: john candy, messaround
my additional top 10 funny movie scenes (for right now, 8:55 am on sunday morning):
1. miller describes the cosmic lattice of coincidence in "repo man"
2. gomez and morticia speak of their love in "addams family"
3. the concluding opera in "night at the opera"
4. the monster is created in "young frankenstein"
5. professor wagstaff rows a boat & everyone sings in "horse feathers"
6. the general store scene in "it's a gift"
7. the agents drive thru a tunnel while listening to elvis in "men in black"
8. the drunk sequence of "mystery train" (with joe strummer)
9. peewee goes into a biker bar in "peewee's big adventure"
10. the family goes to buy a christmas tree in "a christmas story"
...so many more. add your favorites, if you want. :)

swing it

this is incredibly wonderful :)... wait for the duo between louis prima & pee wee russell... & who is that on piano? the guy's really getting a workout. imagine playing like this! even watching it: what joy! imcomparabile! :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxBYC3gEnZs