seester!!!!! i love you, seester!!!! :) :) :)

happy birthday!!!!! :) angie is such a devoted teacher and friend, as well as kind, bright, sunny, helpful, talented person... i so love my little seester!!! :) :) :) she actually is at via arte, an annual chalk art festival at bakersfield's marketplace, today with her students... she does it every year. she is so committed to art & to her students! i'm so proud of my sister! she makes good choices today. she is a really good woman! she loves, & is loved. :)
road trip!! today will be trip to blues jam in bako w/brian paxton, then fresno to hang out w/cattie ness & co... tomorrow, we record! only four songs, but should be super-fun, tho usually i DESPISE multi-track recording. i hope we do it live!! hope hope hope!! but if not, i know my friends & i will have a nice time. :)
out of the low spot of yesterday, i got a new song... & it's a good one! people who write songs know (i guess unless you're leiber & stoller, or chopin, or some fantastic, god-kissed composer) the ratio is 75% crap songs to 25% keepers. or maybe 90-10. the important thing is, when the fire's lit, nurse that thing! add to it! make it roar! after all, who knows when a dud will turn into a nugget of gold? :) in songwriting, just like all other writing, initially there can be no critic -- the flow is what's key. scrutiny comes later. anyways, i've written two keepers this past week!! one's a slinky rockabilly dance number, the other's a "goodbye" broken-heart kinda tune i hope will turn out like a blasters-like thingy. i do wish j the best. i hope he reads this & knows that.
- last night i dreamed i went to a party at phil alvin's house w/my friend the blues musician, & another musician -- who resembles a rail-thin charlie sheen -- was showing off & dominating the conversation. he then called me a filthy name & my friend, who used to be a boxer, turned, &, still smoking his cigarette, punched the other guy's lights out. i woke smiling a bit, realizing i feel safe these days, not just in the universe's flow (which doesn't guarantee good will happen to me, but which has purpose & beauty i can find reassurance in), but with my friends...
that's all for now. gotta get ready to hit the road. xo & happy weekend to all!

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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