i see ghosts... getting eddicated in books and in life

took niece to bookstore so she could get the latest manga mag she wanted. thought i'd get a few texts for my sf-masters program, like henry V, civilization & its discontent... looked to my left & a sandy-haired man was walking the opposite aisle from me, quickly, to keep pace w/me, smiling w/bright eyes & a mischievous smile. i was knocked for a loop cause it was a ghost from the far past, someone who'd broke my heart, who i never should've been with, but someone who suffered giant heartache himself recently when his famous & ignoring daddy died. i felt great sympathy for this fellow when his dad passed b/c i remembered how sad he was that he hardly got dad's attention; a very talented singer himself, his heart was broken because all he wanted was to sing on stage w/his pop just once, but he knew it wouldn't happen.
and it didn't. son continued to fail, it seemed, & dad continued to ignore, tho i guess in the last days, son got to be there for his ailing father. i extended my hand but he wanted a hug (he was the guy who taught me to hug & be friendly, tho ironically he'd learned it in a phony & glad-handing way)... i was shocked by how he'd changed, from a burly linebacker, baby-faced kinda guy to this handsome but aged, sad-eyed, thin fellow, about my height w/me in platform shoes. we chatted just a little. i felt he was looking for cheering up. he introduced me to his scared-looking little girl. i'd seen them before, two yrs ago, & at that time the child looked scared, too. that family was taught to be suspicious... a child that age, it seemed to me, should be happy & trusting, but obviously that wasn't what she'd seen & learned. this was worst of all, to think that the same suspicion & fear the ex-beau felt was being carried on as some kind of family tradition... i guess when people wish for fame, they (i) should consider its consequences on soul & family. i would not want to have led the life this fellow has...
it was the longest relationship i had at that time. i was a child & we were mired in partying. he was raised rich but ignored, right-wing, blustering, uneducated, emotionally abused. i was raised lower mid-class, lonely but loved, idealistic, educated, backward. he told me one time i was the only girl who didn't want his money. i thought i could save him. seeing him, i was reminded that i'd left a tiny bit of my heart with him. the feeling seemed to be reciprocal. i'd sent him condolences thru a friend, & as i walked away, he said, "thank you for the card." i looked back & he said, with sincerity in his eyes, "i mean it. thank you." (i include this picture, taken over 20 yrs ago w/brother jack, because jack one time dunked my head in a fountain at magic mtn when i was being an immature little brat. so jack was one of the very few people i knew back then who'd here & there let me know how out of line i was!... the original pic also showed their uncle dale, but since i didn't know the man, it didn't seem fitting to put him here.)

the daughter of the yodeling blonde bombshell & leaving downtown school

(pic from www.carolinacotton.org) today was my last day teaching at a high-profile public school in the middle of town... of course, it took me 5 yrs, 2 wks to realize people there cared. self-centeredness can make a person (me) really dense! anyway, i will miss the kind, generous staff there, the retired-nfl-looking, southern-gentleman crossing guard, the sunny daycare gal who'd come in after school to have homework class, the office & cafeteria staff, our short, strong custodian-lady, &, of course, the children... i was able to have some fun side projects while at that school, like a backyard b-movie society, a local underground paper that's still publishing, a band... but now that part of my life is past for the most part & next wk i start that masters program in san francisco. whoopee! and uh-oh... but i guess change is always scary.
tonight i got to go to b2 studios & lay down a piano part for fattkatt's record. sharon marie opened the door & i saw in her pretty, friendly face her mama, carolina cotton, with whom i taught at mt vernon school for several yrs. when i knew her, mrs cotton had been teaching for decades & was well-respected, retirement age: may she rest in peace.
sharon marie is nice & easy-going as can be & devoted to her mama's memory. for in addition to being a well-known, old-school, caring, dedicated teacher, carolina cotton as a young woman was a beautiful, slender blonde western singer who acted in movies w/gene autry & the likes! she could yodel, sing in english & spanish in a warm, pretty voice, & smile & entertain in a most lovely and inviting way. i remember her being quite beautiful as an old woman, with sky-blue eyes, a patrician nose, & a pretty smile.
rockabillies & country-western music fans should get carolina's cd, which sharon, who mastered her mother's music from original acetates, has available. the western swing music is upbeat, nostalgic, & wonderful. :) . here are some links: (sharon's studio) www.myspace.com/b2studio ; (carolina cotton) www.carolinacotton.org ; (carolina cotton on myspace) www.myspace.com/carolinacotton ...

willie for texas energy czar, auntie rita for president

tonight auntie rita took me (tho i drove) to the tachi tribe's palace casino in lemoore to watch willie nelson (future texas gov kinky friedman's energy czar). aunt rita is an apple-shaped, copper-toned senior citizen with a mischievous smile & crow-black eyes that twinkle. she starts talking & crowds gather. she is loads of fun, likes to stir the pot, & can beat anyone at spinning a yarn. men love her & they always will, even when she's 90 years old. in her day, she was gorgeous & wild as they come & had more fun than 5 wild women could've. when i was a baby, she told me i would be a go-go dancer - now, she says my little cousin meredith will be a pole dancer (times change). she & my mom are fiercely devoted to each other in the love-hate way opposite personalities are - sisters, on top of it! they cook feasts for each other & the family, go on obscene shopping sprees, worry, yell, fret, laugh, & talk s**t about whoever's not in the room.
i enjoyed myself, both of us chowing "rez dogs" & a butt-burning pepper at the casino, me watching aunt rita play the slots, walking around amidst the jingles & flashes of the dark casino world while sipping free douwe egberts coffee (a tasty brew!), waiting forever & ever in the late-summer sun to see willie, worrying a bit about my aunt standing all that time as she chewed my butt for not working the security to let us in (razzing me to "flash some boob" or "show 'em your g*d* indian card!" as people in line laughed & laughed), but then once inside, everything being ok as the friendly, musty, jazzy, country-blues washed over everyone. usually the slow stuff makes me want to rowf! but willie's mellow show had much heart & soul. the music was laid-back, but definitely not sappy; the songs were romantic & felt authentic. i loved the sloppy elegance of it, how the band seemed to fall down the stairs, then all land at the bottom, soundly & together: ta-DA!!
willie's band was billed as "willie nelson and family" & that's how it felt - like watching a bunch of old friends playing road-weary, nose-tweaking, tough but good-hearted backwoods tunes, with a touch of big city. the church songs were especially rousing, but then willie said, "i'm gonna try an instrumental now, somethin by django reinhardt."
"that was bee-YOO-tiful!" aunt rita said at the end of it.... & it WAS.
john fogerty followed, but we didn't stay. aunt rita wanted to beat the post-concert traffic, she had more wild & funny & crazy stories to tell, & i was just along for the ride... tho i was driving. so off we headed for home, into the dusty, humid, dairy-stinking, but somehow lovely valley nighttime moonlit fields.

the lost weekend on secondlife.com

popular science had an story about second life, a free-membership, streaming video program, a mix of virtual reality games (tho a game with no objective), ebay, & myspace. you create your character, "teleport" to different "lands," meet people, use fictitious $ (which you obtain with real $) to buy & sell stuff.
i was intrigued when i read that you can mold your character/avatar's appearance to your specs. i love photoshop & being a half-breed kid during the 70s, have always been obsessed with my (what i think to be) odd facial features & skin tone, so i jumped at the chance to create a cyber jenny & find others on secondlife who looked like me or like my mixed family.
that was thursday. i came up for air last night.
secondlife is highly addictive. and now i must delete it.
but before i do, i forwarded secondlife info to friends, especially artists. let them become immersed for a bit, too!
the avatar part was most fun! i was obsessed w/making my character "really" look like me. quickly i learned that it's impossible - you can only create an idealized "you." the facial feature possibilities & skin tones are anglo-centric. the body types & skin textures are of healthy 20-somethings. however, it sure felt creative to mess with the little template female til she came out looking generically enough like a cartoonized me. (see pictures of "me" at my "home," a swiss chalet. i don't know why my home was a swiss chalet. i think there were parties going on inside, but i was scared to go see.)
i opened an account for & made an avatar of my spouse, too, but he didn't much like it, so i won't post it here... i thought the resemblance w/ him was much closer than the one i made of me, but that makes sense since i objectively observe his looks better than my own.
anyway, in my three days lost in secondlife, i was befriended by a young guy who took me on a ski lift ride & helped teach me to walk & fly (you can fly places, realistically, probably one of the most mesmerizing features of secondlife, especially if you've ever wished you were a bird) & then asked me to go get a drink, so i teleported to beat it... i went to "amsterdam," & it did look like the real place, but it was filled with impossibly tall, gorgeous, muscular, &/or scantily-clad young people looking to pick each other up.
it became more & more apparent that the "people" i saw on second life didn't WANT to look like their real selves... many of the conversations i observed (i mostly just flew places & was a voyeur) were about second life being escapist, a fantasy place. i really thought i'd find lots of folks who, like me, wanted to be themselves! secondlife is very UN-myspace-like in this way. myspace is juvenile & narcissistic, but i've met many music & movie nerds on there, bright & strange & wonderful people who proudly display their own visages & quirky interests. i've actually met people i have stuff in common with on myspace! second life seemed quite generic, by comparison, a place i guess where you'd go to "get away" from yourself & your "first [real] life"... i did chat with a chubby, bearded guy in trapeze artist garb who said he was in his "first life" in a hospital in bangkok, but i got spooked again & beat it out of there.
i put brian's avatar at the car & motorcycle races, but at each, there was only one car & one bike, & no other people.
secondlife felt lonely. i felt like charlton heston in "the omega man." i found myself flying all over the place, looking down on empty villages, buildings, towns. i would land & there would be groups of young people talking. it felt like high school. i felt awkward. everyone was toweringly tall & slim & glamorous. didn't anyone want to look like themselves?? maybe i just was in the wrong places... i kept trying to find nerds, goofballs, fat people, record collectors, movie fans, but no luck. oh, one more thing: on secondlife, you'll find lots of porn. and lots of furries. you don't have to even be on the look-out: both are just THERE.
when i realized hours & hours were passing with me unawares, it was time to stop.
so i say goodbye to vinyl raveup, my second life alter-ego (you have to pick a canned patronym). i'm gonna quit second life. this time, i'll stop. i can do it. i'll quit tomorrow. :)

los lonely boys texicano rocknroll por vida... & why my friend brian paxton is wrong because i'm narrow-focused, not narrow-minded... :)

our dear friends david & yoli gave us a night on the town - dinner at mama roomba's, then tickets to los lonely boys. i knew nothing about the band, so went on youtube & heard that grammy song w/all the melody & thought, "oh, YAH!!" it has the line that goes, "how far is heaven". :) ... saw friendly, ubiquitous matt munoz outside the rob-a-bank cnvntn ctr & recalled the last time i was there, at a rodeo at which the ambulance came down SEVEN TIMES to whisk away crushed-up cowboys... how nice it was to see 100s of happy people out for a night of music, happy even buying plastic cups of beer for SIX BUCKS... but then the opening band came on & i was dunked into irritated depression, practiced TM a bit, thought to myself, well, they're working hard at it, ...but they weren't even sweating!!! then the guy beside us said the frontman looked like jim morrison & i got even more bummed because he looked as much like jim morrison as i do, but wore an army coat, so there was the resemblance, how dang dumb can people be, i thought, grumble grumble, but then pulled the evil one back in & thought nice thoughts... but how did this band get this opening slot?
maybe the agent pitched it like this: "we got this band, & they have an accordion, & they have this song called 'paloma'"... the frontman (a nice enough i'm sure, self-serious looking guy whose songs i have written myself, but keep locked in a drawer) looked a bit like lux from the cramps, so i finished their set imagining him w/big greasy punker hair wearing fishnets & stiletto heels & that helped the time pass.
i went to the can & was spooked when i spied a stalker from the past, so ran back to the seats & soon enough, the show was on.
los lonely boys, of san angelo tx, are a brother act with lots of vocal harmonies a la other brother acts like the everlies, & their voices all are a lot like dave hidalgo's from los lobos to me, or my friend manuel, late of the blazers, who were under los lobos' wing for quite some time a decade ago.... there is a cute (bassist), skinny (guitarist), & chubby (drummer) lonely boy, & they sweated enough for both them & the opening act. i don't know this type of music much, but a few main influences seemed to be santana & stevie ray vaughn; i especially could imagine frail, long-haired guitar-whiz henry locked in his room as a teenager, going over & over & over those carlos parts w/spidery finger til they were perfect.
i loved a lot of the first 1/2 of the set, with its ultra-melodious songs performed in two- & three-part harmonies near-throughout: east side louvin brothers! there was a really lovely tune with a haunting half-step cuban-kinda vibe... then dad came out, looking like a mexicano kinky friedman, a cheesily handsome, big smiling man w/black moustache & white 10-gallon hat, & sang some tex-mex tunes. then even better! they winged two buck owens songs & i finally! realized what that music means to a lot of people. they didn't know the lyrics & blew changes & endings, but the emotion & heart were inspiring! :)
drummer ringo came out at the end & thanked the audience & god & his family... "the greatest thing in the world is when i'm playing and i look to my left & right & there are my brothers," he said, beaming like the happiest boy on earth... i've never seen THAT at a concert!!!!! the set wound up with a 15 or 20 min solo-orgasmo piece w/lots of wheedle-wheedle guitar & excess (we'd already had plenty of evidence these young fellows are bad-ars on their instruments), but overall, the night had so much heart & the musicians such commitment to putting on a good show...
it's kinda nice to like a popular band; i feel a bit more like i belong... maybe. it doesn't really matter, but it IS nice to have commonalities w/fellow humans. brian paxton says i'm narrow-minded, but i don't see what's wrong with liking what you like & knowing it. good music doesn't have to have a label or name, but to me, there's only good music & bad music. bad music is intolerable. it actually makes me physically ill!!!! it's like trying to have a conversation w/a person who's just vomited all over you!!! or having to play hostess while holding an enema!!!! ...no, someone telling me music is good will never convince me. i learned that back in childhood when the cute boy at school told me to go buy this new foreigner album. that was the last time i let the opinions of others influence me musically!!!!!! ...well, here i am rambling again, so happy weekend to all. :)

suitcase simpson & one-handed jenny on piano

i found out fattkatt wants me to play piano, not sing, on his record!!! aaaaahhhh!!! he told me, "don't worry, it's like a carl perkins song," but carl perkins played guitar!! he had backing piano on early cuts, especially on sun, where most all the platters featured keys... so i listened to fattkatt's song a few times &, after clarifying whether he wanted a jerry lee or floyd cramer kind of part (both recorded with carl early in his career), i came up with something kinda a little killer like: lots of 7ths & stabs, bloodied-finger glissandos, heavy on the south side... good thing i'm a lefty! good thing brian p just gave me rips of all the JLL mercury sessions! (i had one or two of them, but they're buried in my vinyl collection...)
it's kinda funny & amazing that red simpson is the other piano player on this record... because all red has to do is a red simpson kind of part. :) this is the guy who wrote "close up the honky-tonks" and hundreds of other great songs!!! my name'll be on the same record. it's amazing, really... :) here's red's website: www.suitcasesimpson.com
the other day, art fein called out of the wild blue asking us to be on his tv show & i was very flattered, but also stressed!! ...because a certain someone in my band was unavailable to play... so i got on el horno with all the interesting artsy people i could think of in the smellay region, sent art names: ruben from blazers/pistoleros, romeo carey (filmmaker son of timothy, the world's greatest sinner), pixelfest honcho gerry fialka & songstress wife suzy williams, count smokula, my ultra charming maniac writer friend clancy, and finally got cody bryant on the phone. pitched the show to him and red simpson. cody used to play shows with red at viva cantina by the racetrack in pasadena; don't know if he still does. he was en route to a gig, but called back. i don't think it worked out in end, but art was interested in having them on, and i hope he does!
fattkatt went and saw red last monday at trout's, so i guess he's doing better health-wise and that's real good news. he and his wife joyce are the best of folks. :)
anyhow, the corn is ready on the stove, so time to run... but first, in case your soul is missing, in attempt to get mine back visavee [sic] my profession, i'm starting this masters degree program in two weeks, twice a month in san francisco: http://www.newcollege.edu/leadership/index.cfm . two people said it "changed their lives." that sounds like just the ticket! i made curtains today for my truck cause i have a feeling i'll be sleeping in it a lot while doing this gig......................... dang! there was smoke coming from the kitchen!!!!! i burned dinner!!!!!!!!

i'll gladly pay you tuesday for an htmlburger today

i just love cryptograms & other such code-like puzzles & was a typesetter for the baron of bakersfield for several yrs, but i don't know squat about how to write html. i guess it's not something you can just intuit... one time as a kid my dad showed me some basic programming & i wrote a little thing that made the computer insult you. clever kid, huh? (TYPICAL kid, that is.) :) anyhow, people've been pestering me periodically: how come you don't have links on your blog? finally, nick belardes (www.nlbelardes.com) set me up. i just needed him to get me started. once i SAW the code & how it goes, i could ape. i like, no, LOVE learning patterns. like when i was a kid, i was crazy for that game simon. i could go up into the 50s, repeating the musical sounds, before bombing out. so i love all that (i can't type it correctly or blogger thinks i'm writing code) < f =" blablablablablog.blogspot.com "> < / a > < / li > stuff. it's all new!:) i went in & added more links to the ones nick had started for me, & now (i'm a little obsessive) there's about 100 of them, & i hope you look at them all, & suggest more of them. :) especially be sure to read "how to yodel." nick says my beefed-up page looks "cool," implying it didn't before :)... which i know it did not... & it still ain't, except what the presence of the names of cool people give it, but i'll take the compliment! thank you, nick.

go faster, go go faster, motorbike

here are the remaining vacation photos. the first is the waterfall you see at the end of a lovely 2.5 mile hike through calf creek (canyon in so utah)... next is me & viking lynn. she, stacy & i were the chi-chi sisters (distaff motorcycle "gang" counterpart to the kehoni bros [say out loud]) & i dressed ultra ultra colorful to remember stacy (rip). lynn gave me the longhorn tie-die; she & stacy were lone star gals & i've got texas in my heart, so it fit. next is dear brian & i at maynard dixon's house (he the renowned western impressionist), www.maynarddixon.com. next row shows beautiful terri & 4'10" cece, who rode her own huge black dyna-glide the whole way & back. middle is the whole group, w me looking stupid trying to get really tall (& succeeding); then a lovely view on the utah side of lake powell. last row is a few of the friendly crew pulling in at our house; middle is the one & only johnny garcia; and last is part of the chichi-kehoni-glutton group, right before the parade through cedar edge, co. every year, the townsfolk want to see the sober bikers, so every year it gets more colorful & more candy & beads are thrown to the kids. this is a fun thing i get to do, & i need to be grateful, & i am right now. :)

kismet? coinkydink? caught w/pants down... not! :)

this is turning into a blog with too many photos of me & none of the band, but oh well... for now, the band is dormant, i think, as always happens, & why can't i just seize the helm like cattie ness?? she modeled it, but i still can't do it. however, i'm no model & never will be, pic here excepted, whereas becky is haughty glamour in the flesh... here's a little story about the sort of goth-pretty artwork you see: i was on the phone today with my sponsor, a dignified, respected, eccentric, lovely retiree of regal carriage who helps many many local females. she said, "before you go, lemme ask you: have you posed recently for any semi-nude photos?".....................
a pregnant pause fell while i searched my memory banks for possible embarrassing photographic incidents from my semi-wild distant past... then i remembered! lysa luna's tarot deck & craft! ... pat sent me the link, & there it was: lysa placed me (like recent very cool three chord whore collage i saw that obviously was her work) on a 4th of july-like background. she didn't know it, but that was the day, 11 yrs ago, i had to make a major lifestyle change. so this life i have today start on independence day back then, & there she seemed to put me! serendipity? coincidence? the stripes probably signify something totally different to lysa & i may be way off... i usually am... oh well... to me, it was cool kismet :) link to lysa's work is below, where you will find two other pix from her.

denver pix + sat night roller girls' fundraiser

my bro in law & i went to lakeside amusement park in denver co on last leg of my vacation trip... it's a kind of run-down but wonderful place that hasn't been renovated probably since the '50s. he coaxed me into riding the wooden rollercoaster & if i hadn't been so terrified, i would've reached over & slapped the tar out of him. i just hate rollercoasters (the only thrills i used to indulge in, well over a decade ago, were chemical & therefore sedentary), but i gotta admit... it was fun, in a dreadful way. the other pic's with my mom at 10k+ elevation near gold hill in colorado (someplace uphill from boulder)... mom flew out & met me (i broke from motorcycle troupe & took greyhound over loveland pass to denver to hook up with her & bro in law paul). we ate like no tomorrow & paul was the host with the most. denver is the big sky, red brick, mile high city of many cultures... the elevation got to mom, but she said she had fun :) ; more pix will come when hubby gets home from rest of motorcycle jaunt (he's still on the road, tonight in winslow az)... i'm sure glad we didn't go to sturgis: the indians are protesting & that really would've been awkward!! (tho we wouldn't've been the ones partying on sacred ground: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-31-indians-bikers_x.htm )... this weekend's the big bakersfield roller girls' fundraiser show with lotsa bands. through one after another miscommunication, the dusk devils won't be playing, but go out and support it. you can get the scoop at www.bakotopia.com ... prosit & cheerio to all.

happy birthday to me happy birthday to me happy birthday dear me happy birthday to me

we're heading out on the motorcycle trip at 3 am. i've gone on this trip for a decade. we always leave on my natal birthday. this year's no different. my friends who we'll meet up with in mesquite nv sent me via mail a birthday faster pussycat kill! kill! lunch pail, so i'm carrying toiletries, makeup, medicine in it. it actually packs very well! we have a responsible & kind little gal watching our doggy and cat family; lord, let the ac keep going for her... people have been dying here in the west from the blasted heat. for my bd, i got a beautiful bouquet from my sister; a fringy suede jacket like i've wanted for decades + an elvis book + a handmade bracelet (turquoise & pearl) from mom and dad; and a documentary i've wanted forever from my hubby: piano players rarely play together. we're all going out for thai food now, then tonight before we head out, i hope we'll all watch the movie (prof longhair, allen toussaint, tuts washington). i'll see lots of country on this trip, lots of nice folks, will be homesick, will squeeze in an extra adventure by breaking from the group early to bus it to denver alone for a few days, then fly home. i will miss my dogs, the piano, music, but i will not miss this heat! the weather report is for thunderstorms... i wish we were going to new mexico, but we're not... happy days to all...

is it you i want, or that automobile...

that's a line from this great song called "secret dan" by austin songwriter & performer jo carol pierce. i just love her music, her sort of punchy, sing-songy, scratchy-friendly drawl, about all the crazy stuff that goes through the heads of wild women... she does this great spoken-word about how all the men she meets are another side of jesus & so she can't pass up kissing even one because she has been set on this particular spiritual path, and, she asks jesus, "what are these boys for and what am i spose to do with them?" ... www.myspace.com/jocarolpierce ... well, this morning i wrote two more songs... i'm no jo carol, but i'm sure enjoying being creative, in my do it yourself kind of way...

life is such a rollercoaster. i don't like rollercoasters.

last night we practiced on a bunch of "new" stuff, plus a few of my new songs, throwing in "popular" songs we never never play (like the doors, that era), then jumped in the paxtons' pool. i was quite filled up & enthusiastic last night, so this is next-morning disappointment i'm feeling, i guess, a little like a hangover without the physical part... anyway, the songs sounded just great with cesareo and jason there again. lately brian p & i've been working on my originals, just the two of us eking out bass & drums, but our percussion guys are tops, really solid & strong, & make all the difference. the eight songs i have are these: 1. i'm a sinner (brian sings); 2. mr right (now); 3. a woman i know; 4. a matter of time (brian sings); 5. i'm not going after him again; 6. drinking singles, drinking doubles; 7. texas gold; and 8. backseat blues. when i get back from motorcycle trip to colorado, it'll be nice to get these songs finished.. i guess i'll go now do the next positive thing, whatever that is, to shake off the ennui... again, i feel if i could get by without my head somehow, my life'd be much easier!

fattkatt record with merle haggard, bako music stars,... & me. very weird!!!

my friend fattkatt contacted me recently about participating in his latest record project. this is good! i tend to get so wrapped up in my own obsessive musical & other fringy interests, i don't connect much with local artists... last fall with david nigel lloyd, the lysa luna tarot project, now this: it's so great. i was gonna work, too, with greg goodsell on his lords of bako filmlet for the nick belardes contest based on nb's novel (i still ended up casting co-director, setting up fab jon-o panic as the star; greg reported, "jon-o was great!!"), but then was out of town & missed out... i probably would've obscured or normalized greg's vision, anyhow!
the fattkatt thing: this sounds like fun! he originally asked me to sing a song, maybe a broken-heart kinda country thing, i'm thinking, but on the most recent studio list, it has me playing piano!!! i hope that's wrong!!!! because red simpson is also playing piano on this project!!! i think my fingers will get stage fright bad, if i have to go in & play where old red's been playing!!! others involved are (obviously) fattkatt & his band; highly respected steel player larry petree (red's sideman); bakersfield sound legend tommy hays; talented & friendly mento buru/bakotopia frontman matt munoz; paul cartwright & mel lawrence; merle haggard's best friend & guitarist sonny langley; and (are you ready for this???) MERLE HAGGARD!!!! ... i sure hope i'm singing, not tickling the ivories... anyway, you can look at fattkatt's latest at www.fattkatt.com ... my band has a website, too, but it's very rarely updated: www.duskdevils.com ... we have a show coming... on jan 20, 2007. i sure hope there'll be something before then, but we'll see!!! perhaps the wind or a wild hair will blow me away from this backwardsfield place before then!!

"the hotel room in spain had the cutest little water fountain..."

happy birthday, mama! today, she's 29 again, like i will be next week... :) gene taylor, the greatest boogie-woogie piano player around, the king of the 88s, former & current wildman, sent this picture with that caption. gene, whom i've admired so much since my teenage years, turns out is a real jokester. :) he says i'm his "favorite piano student," but i'll bet he just says nice things like that easily: he flat-out radiates good vibes in hilarious writings & pictures like this from the road. right now he's out with his long-time band, the fabulous thunderbirds (www.fabulousthunderbirds.com) ... he has played piano since childhood & also is one of those geniuses who can play anything (guitar, drums, bass, sax, probably the accordion, lap pedal, harp, even tuba or glockenspiel, i'd think...). he's played with the blasters, canned heat, ronnie hawkins, rick nelson, & grew up, like the alvin bros, playing with legends like big joe turner & t-bone walker... i feel so very fortunate to get to know people like gene, even just a bit. "gene is a national treasure," said skip edwards... that is, skip edwards the fantastic piano player himself! people with this caliber of talent don't have to be so dang nice, but some of them sure are... it gives hope to a jill of all trades like me that if i keep sawing away at it, some day my fingers will play the melodies my brain hears. did i tell you gene sings, too? he has one of those great, wistful, light-touch chuck berry-little walter kind of voices i just loves. he has a cd out on pacific blues & you should get it, if you can. http://www.pacificblues.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&products_id=187

$%!!!&@!!!?%%@friggafraggaraggadagnabbit

well, gosh dang it, none of the photos would upload, with the descriptions below, but here they are separate!

give me one hand loose & i'll be satisfied...

this summer i've heard some good music, but yesterday was tops!! if there's no fan club for bloodshot bill, there should be!! little pedro's downtown LA was nearly EMPTY when this fabulous talent & the formidable ghostwriter (from austin) did their afternoon show... it sure didn't help that it was 110 degrees plus in LA... i stayed with my dear friend in laverne, & when i left today to head back to the barn said, "i'm goin home to bakersfield where it's COOL!!!" (it's only been 108 here...) hotter in smellay than backwardsfield: if this ain't the end of the world, i don't know what is... or maybe i'm talking dumb due to dehydration. anyway, these shots are funny because vanessa & richard (friendly folks i'd just met) (he brother of mummies/phantom surfers/etc. russell kwan) kept saying stuff like, "look intimate! sit closer! look like you're into each other!" when i'd never even met bbill (photos by vanessa reynoso) ... then this nice young man got onstage, and, using just his voice, a beat-up old guitar, a snare, & a PLASTIC bar trashcan for his bass drum, turned into this wildman one man band! playing, stomping, spitting, squealing, hiccuping, wailing his heart out to about six of us, a small but very appreciative audience... i probably scared him with my enthusiasm afterward, but i haven't seen such a fevered rock&roll performance since the first time i saw the blasters or the cramps!! and this was just one skinny, sweating young fellow. the first song he said, "this one's fer you, jenny, it's buck owens," & i couldn't tell you what song it was, but buck never sounded so wild! then about 30 mins in, he started asking for requests, & i yelled "that certain female" & "one hand loose," which he winged quite impressively... it was the closest a person could've gotten to hearing charlie feathers on this earth, with the maniacal energy of hasil adkins: magical... (www.bloodshotbill.com or www.myspace.com/bloodshotbill ) ... the other shots are from the talented local artist lysa luna, who is creating a gothish tarot deck... i was happy that she wanted me to be the star, which is symbolic of the future & hope & harmony... lysa uses her human models as the foundation for her work, as you can see... in one shot i'm enlongated, in the other, a bit compressed. thank you again, lysa, for letting me be part of your art! you can see lysa's dark & lovely work at www.myspace.com/lysaluna

bloodshot bill lived on a hill never worked & he never will... oops: wrong bill

bloodshot bill, the maniac canadian one-man-band reincarnation lovechild of hasil adkins & charlie feathers (the hyperbole is appropriate for bill's wild style) will play in socal saturday, 4 pm, at little pedro's, 901 e. 1st st, los angeles, and 11 pm at the doll hut, 107 s. adams, anaheim. i want to go!!!!! this guy knows how to keep it simple and plays exhilarating, raging, gutbucket R&R.

boomchickaboomchickaboomchickacheek musicwriting soothes the savage beast

one of my heroes phil alvin told me one time (an interview: an hour 45 mins via phone & i think i got in four words!!!), "to be part of the river that is music, you have to enter it." so profound! probably especially due to the sonorous, pontificating manner in which he spake it: i almost expected to hear the vesper ring out in that great moment.
but i forget that i can participate in & produce, be part of the inventive activities that make Life a thrill... i think i'm just a spectator, an everything manque, & that last statement's true, but that doesn't mean i can't incubate & actualize, too... we hacks, we salieris, we live, breathe, produce, too!
brian hubby started the engine; he was the catalyst: "stop complaining and do something!!" he told me many years ago when i was grousing about lack of happening CULTure around here... & so now & then i remember his advice & i jump to it again.
we've as a band been playing these fantastic cover tunes for 3-4 years now, great ones by the blasters (phil's band, you know, with most songs penned by bro david 25+ yrs ago), hank ballard, johnny cash, wanda jackson, the hollywood flames, robbie fulks, etc. the songs are fantastic! but then folks say, you can only go so far as a cover band; your options are limited... brian p thinks NO ONE knows these songs in our repertoire, & he will probably read this, so i'll just say, respectfully, & once again, buddy, YOU'RE WRONG!!!! these songs we do are cherished & well-known/-worn ones within a certain musical genre & among its aficionados/ fetishists/ dictators. we certainly couldn't bluff our way into SXSW by submitting as "our song" "riot in cell block no. 9" (speaking from experience here... eek...)
... so i've been in a bit of a pickle lately cause i've been convinced for some time, why add songs to the billions out there when i've nothing to say? all the stories have been told; all the good songs have been written. but now i am realizing more and more, sticking to our repertoire of well-loved oldies limits our possibilities. and my earlier thinking was just a cop-out so that i wouldn't have to try. (that's actually the most important realization!) boo, hiss! i've been a lazy little cheese.
then the clincher: in a recent conversation about "the biz" & exploitation LPs of the 60s, a wise friend told me, "there's nothin' wrong with writin' one-offs. everybody else is doin' it." wow! everyone else is doing it; therefore, i can do it, too. why not??? what makes me so special that i have to judge & thwart my abilities & separate from the herd to the degree that i accomplish nothing in the end???
five-six years ago i was writing songs like a little demon, anyway, without such stultifying self-consciousness, because i was driven suddenly. it's like the switch was flipped & the songs started rolling out. en spiritus, you know? what an exciting time, only rivaled when i published a local underground rag for 3 years... creative toil, ink on hands, blisters on fingers, sweat on brow, pulse fevered, mind dancing with rhymes, rhythms, couplets, melodies, the excitement of productivity & finding just the right word or note!
i had this little four track & i was my own one woman ultra-low-rent brill building, locked in the parlor of our old house for 6-8 hours each night after work. i must've written 150 songs!!! yes, most of it was crap, but here & there i uncovered a tiny gem, a diamond in the rough (apologies for all the cliches, but this ain't no pulitzer, yknow, not even purple prose...)
well, then some a**hole broke into the house & stole all my little recording gear (twice). it really wrecked me. i felt like god was saying, "it's time to stop." they stole my new guitar, too, which i'd got as a gift so that i could play all the (rough) musical parts on all the songs. (bass isn't so bad, but the demon guitar, with its non-linear, insane mad-math structure... well, i rationalized that god did not wish for me to play guitar, either... )
but now i'm back at the songwriting trough, because to be part of the stream of music, you have to enter it, & there's nothing wrong with writing one-offs cause everyone's doing it, so the songs are falling from my brain again & it's bliss. it helps (???) that i've been going through some physical & much self-inflicted mental & spiritual torture: i don't act much out of my comfort zone unless i'm in some kind of pain, lazy consumer that i am... the kick is, some of the songs don't even sound like knock-offs!!! the best ones are like hillbilly opera, though i'm neither hillbilly or operatic, but i did used to love & work for some hillbillyish people & my boyfriend liked to sing roy orbison, & orbison was called the "caruso of pop," so maybe that's it.... or maybe i just type too dang fast & who cares??
maybe someday someone will hear my songs. this guy in florida, johnny fire, recorded one from the old days ("my heart remembers when"). what a thrill to hear someone else's interpretation! (it sounded kinda like "see you on the other side" by australian 80s newwaveabilly brian briggs.) brian p's been nice enough to record some of my songs with me & his creative input is making them really pop with possibility.
today, i birthed two more. plop!
aahh... music. without music, life would be an error... i didn't write that; i knocked it off. :)
ad astra, ad infinitum, ad maiorem Dei gloriam

appropriate use of explosives

happy independence day to all

POST No. 100: THE GREATEST COMIC EVER!!!!

i found him online!!!! the greatest comic book character ever!! (well, except for 10 others, but at this moment this seems like it was my favorite ever because i could NEVER FIND this comic)... when i used to pinch mad, tomb of dracula, love and rockets, howard the duck, mister x, american flagg!, & superman (this was eons ago, if any students are reading, and i got caught one time & it was QUITE HUMILIATING), i would PAY FOR reid fleming, since it seemed so special to just be able to get my hands on one. here's the website: www.reidfleming.com

it's the greatest sound, right from the u.s.a.... & the rest of the world, too, you know... :)

here are some ron jones band pix from the show saturday... just got to do something else fun, a "visiting artist" gig for the Arts Council of Kern (http://community.kern.org/artscouncil/ - currently showing an awesome collage exhibit by william lichtfield!!). thank you, david nigel lloyd, for considering me! so this week i go to outlying communities around kern county & teach migrant farm workers' kids about american rock & roll! i was reluctant to do it at first since i believe i'm an entertainer, a hack, a "just do it," throw it in the pot & lets see what comes out type, certainly not an artist... but troubadour dnl, who schedules these things, convinced me i'm a "workingman" kind of artist, and well, i certainly liked the sound of that. also, the purpose of this program is quite appealing: to show children they can do more with their lives than work the fields; that their lives have possibilities. :) who could say no after hearing that?? ... it was a positive experience. i miss these kinds of kids; they were quite polite, sweet, & loving. my little keyboard & i (no mikes; i could become a shout singer, if this keeps up!) hacked out "la bamba," "hound dog," "go, johnny, go," "tutti frutti," & more as the kids sang along. they got to practice funny singing - mooing, mewing, barking, yipping, growling, all the sounds that loosen up the throat & the sense of seriousness that can bog down the music... mature & collected young ursula lloyd is my "assistant" this week, & she was so much help; afterward we got boba & drove around the old parts of town a bit. another amazing day, when, i must remember, i really should be taking a dirt nap. this dispatch concludes with a pic of the happy paxtons. :)

those were people who died, died, they were all my friends... and they died

that's an awesome jim carroll band song i can't listen to because i get this lump in my throat when it's on & it becomes impossible to swallow... today in the obituaries, there he was, another friend, someone from meetings who used to ride his bike by our house on his way to work, used to read out of the big book with us all, a stout, friendly, early 40s fellow with curly dark hair & olive complexion, an addict who didn't stay clean & sober, and now he's gone, gone, gone. my experience in 10 years, 357 days has been that most people in our condition, allergic to the poisonous stuff that other people can put down when they "start to feel it," are unable to put it down, think they can control their usage, and then it's "jails, institutions, and death." rest in peace, V. :(

like sands through the hour glass...plus my face for the world to...[fill in the blank]

well, today's long beach adventure (ink & iron show at the queen mary) went fairly well all things considered, i'd say. thank you to cesareo for playing with us. pac west/brent m did sound - great job! we kept the songs rolling well enough that i didn't have to "tell my joke" (i have one little joke that i tell when brian starts futzing or we stop playing for too long... so i said, "i'm gonna tell my joke," and he said "AWWW, naw you don't," & launched into the next tune. it worked!) big crowd, lots of tattoos, people moving to the music though they didn't much come up to the stage, cute girls dancing had us sign drumsticks, nice green room (though the energy drinks were gone by the time i wanted to drink one), nice crew and promoter (trac edwards), lots of motorcycles & hot rods, a more varied sellers hall than at, say, a straight biker run (counterculture stuff from rue morgue mag to tattoos to vintage clothing, though i was sad no hollywood book and poster...). the queen mary is quite a dinghy; if you like art deco, you should go down there and check it out... the breezes on deck were a quenching respite. today in bakingfield, it was 112 degrees! it was a nice ride home with the paxtons & jones of atlanta, but when i got here & loaded the day's pix, i was horrified to discover i'd committed Yet Another Wardrobe Felony. what's new! feliz domingo a todos & if you live here in "bakerssippi," as i heard it called recently, well, try not to keel over from the heat.

Sat @ Queen Mary, Long Beach (details below)

Sat at Long Beach Tat Fest, Double-D's feature el bombero fabuloco, the one & only C. Gar :)

SAT June, 25 2006 at Long Beach Tattoo Convention
The Queen Mary, 1126 Queen Hwy, Long Beach, CA, 90812
Cost: $20 adv. / $25 door
Set Time 4:45-5:30
w/ Charley Horse, Cadillac Tramps, James Intveldt, Manic Hispanic, Jake LaBotz, Cacti Widders, Danny Dean & the Homewreckers, Hayride to Hell, Yard Dog Road Show, Los Creepers, & more... Deals on rooms start at $135.
www.electricinkpromotions.com/HTML/LB/09-LBT-Schedule.html
That same weekend at the Queen Mary is the Long Beach Bayou Festival, as well!!!!!!! The music'll be stomping and a hopping and a dancing... and it'll be just the place to get drunk and tattooed, if that's your thing. :) ... We're fortunate to have Mento Buru's & Moonshine Deathbed's Cesareo Garaza on drums for this show, so you won't wanna miss it, if you can make it!

marlo venus was a beautiful lass she had the world in the palm of her hand she lost both her arms in a wrestlingmatch to meet a browneyed handsome man

... or blue eyed... or hazel eyed... or fill in the blank eyed... say, where are my arms?
everyone says it better than i can...
"if it's got more than three chords, it's jazz" (lou reed)...
"if ya ain't got it in ya, ya can't blow it out" (louis armstrong)...
"we are all of us living in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" (oscar wilde)

i've been everywhere, man, i've been everywhere

i ain't been home in 11 days. first was a stay with dear friends in encinitas/carlsbad, sleepy and sea-friendly, next to salton sea, desolate and rankly romantic, then to desert hot springs, calming and 50s resort-style rejuvenating, then to hollywood, busy and glittery and invigorating... next i got on the plane for the lone star state to stay with my dear cousin and her nice little family in granbury... texans aren't like californians: they are unequivocably dang proud to be texans. i sure do envy such certainty. LA people have freeway maps imprinted in their brains; texans have farm and county roads. my cousin, to get her family's supplies and run work errands for hubby, will drive to cleburne, fort worth, weatherford, acton, all over the darn place like it's nothing... texans are like bakersfieldians in being stubborn & bible beltish, but texans are friendlier, or maybe it's me friendlier to them... austin's the best, combining stubbornness/fortitude with open-mindedness, inclusiveness, good health, and respect for american musical tradition like no place else on earth i've been, and there i heard a bunch of dang great music & left a part of me, like i always do, like a kid leaving disneyland or on the day after christmas, a bit heart-broken each time i have to go home, but since i'm grown-up, ready to return to everyday responsibility... tomorrow it's home, me and gus the puppy. eighty bucks it'll cost to take the new pooch home via airplane, but it was that or he was to go off with a stranger, or be offed via rifle shot. he'll leave behind his ranch doggie, goat, and horse brethren here to make his new place in backwardsfield, where he'll be a welcome little brother to roscoe the wonder dog. junior the mammoth and mammothly grouchy cat will not be happy, but he never is. my family thinks if j.r. becomes an indoor-outdoor cat, it might melt some pounds off him. and maybe improve his attitude, too!
can't wait to get home, can't wait to leave. this push & pull in me is familiar, but i'm not unique. there are plenty of us squirrels, wanting to burrow and nest for a bit before venturing out again for more of that happy lonesome feeling going brings. not just in california, "land of fruits and nuts," as bomar calls it - i think it's just human to want to stay and want to go, that yin-yang, tension of life thing. i'm going outside now, to hear one last june bug, cicada, frog and cricket central texas night-time symphony.

red blood, white bone, & a backbeat, you can't lose it

ain't nothin' shakin' but the leaves on the trees... the watermelon's lusciously sweet right now, the evenings are lengthening & hottening, soon it'll be time to go late sleeping & fig rustling, the kiddies & their teachers are about to burst out of school... ahhh, summer, hello there: you're unforgiving, punishing, blazing in these parts, but you've got such allure, still... well, my collage won't upload. the quote on it said, "we're all red blood and white bone underneath" - carl perkins...

His voice could jar a corpse... Life without music ain't life

Bob Dylan wrote "Roy Orbison … kept you on your toes. … [He sang] his compositions in three or four octaves that made you want to drive your car over a cliff. … His voice could jar a corpse..." Phil Alvin says the purpose of music is to "bring forth the collective conscious of those who've come before us," but there's an emotional part, a spiritual part to being filled up with good music... "It's only rock and roll, but I like it, like it, yes, I do..."

video killed the radio star / PRIMITIIIIIVE.. that's how i... live

not me; the words above, of course, are song lyrics!
so here's a link to some music videos i like... http://www.youtube.com/profile_favorites?user=duskdevils&page=1 (parental guidance suggested on a few)

rock hudson didn't deserve what he got.. and there's life in the old gal yet

distressing, depressing, disheartening... got some bad music news (minor compared to so, so much bad news a person could get), so instead of dealing with it, i watched movies. yesterday was "the savage eye" (1960), an early cinema-verite/dramatic fiction about a divorced woman's move from despair to hope, then today, john frankenheimer's "seconds" (1966), involving & shocking. in common: both lonely B&W pix are gorgeously filmed (james wong howe & haskell wexler, respectively) & are about "American hopelessness," the futility of chasing the empty dream of acquisitions bring happiness & desire for outside-in instant personal transformation. blind conformity kills! the first, quite dated in parts, still socks you in the gut with candid footage of sad empty-eyed "real" folks, & lines like "there are two kinds of people in this world: the living and the afraid," & a long scene of church healing with people speaking in tongues, & vintage strippers & queens, but in the end, it has hope-- our gal sees she's united with all in suffering this life & its trials, can have compassion & love for all. but the second,... wow! i felt instant sympathy for its sadsack protagonist (1st played by john randolph, then rock hudson, both with mournful, soulful eyes). he makes a faustian deal to change his identity/face/ life (that action film "face off" ripped that part from this flick & from the french "eyes w/o a face"), but even becoming gorgeous & loveable rock hudson doesn't make the guy happy, & in the end, he pays big time. the final scene took my breath away -- horrible!! horrible!! -- & now i have to type because i can't sleep, keep thinking of that terrible scene, & poor rock hudson, & all the people who try to fit in (like he did in real life) & end up lost, & on and on.......... expectations can kill one's soul: "if only i could be/have/do [fill in the blank], THEN i will be happy" or "if only [he/she/it] would be/have/do [fill in the blank], THEN everything will be ok..." or "if i do [fill in the blank], i will receive [fill in the blank]." oscar wilde said, "a man who does not think for himself does not think at all." the opposite of bravery isn't cowardice, it's conformity!! add to that action with expectations & you have one sad, angry, disappointed human. as spake the oracle at delphi, "to thine own self be true..." & as spake the cramps, "stay sick, turn blue..." that rhymed, which is why i put it there... as if anyone is reading, or gives a care... yes, virginia, life can be unfair... i don't know how to end this, so beware... each line stinks worse than its pred-e-sair...

you're a dirty robber, i said you're a dirty robber... well, you take my love, & then you run away

tonight at the speaker mtg, something wild happened - the mild-seeming, sort of casper milquetoast-looking speaker said he used to go to wailers shows in wash state... no, people, not the bob marley wailers, but the tacoma 60s garage-punk R&R band, the howling vocals, slamming piano, saxes, & guitars akin to the sonics & the mummies (all recorded "dirty robber," for instance)... it was like hearing your grandma say she used to party with jerry lee lewis!!! here's a wailers snippet (go down to "dirty robber"): http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3896076 ; sonics version: http://www.101cd.com/detail.aspx?productid=56493 ; the mummies (go down a ways) http://www.101cd.com/detail.aspx?productid=56493/detail.aspx?productid=56493 ... these bands were/are rough, wild, alive, with production/studio quality/all that talk that makes me crazy second to the rock & roll... when you're in my (non)league of musicality, who cares what mike or monitor or whatever is used??? who cares what clothes you have on, or what you're "supposed" to play? (like phil alvin said, "i ain't never been nothing you call 'billy'!") you just want to wail... & there you go: there's the band's name... on topic of practiced players who don't need perfect gear to put on a dang good show, the other day at school we had a swell cinco de mayo assembly with local legends mento buru. the school orchestra played a few tunes & i plunked away on accompaniment at request of our upright music teacher (who can blow mean sax). on the mexican hat dance, each time we'd all chime in instrumentally on the "clap-clap" part, i'd hear los mentos over there, giggling... then matt was nice enough to read aloud with me "the story of cinco de mayo" so we'd have an educational excuse for it all, then the band began to wail, using our cruddy school PA (set up time for entire band: 15 minutes)... & it worked just fine!! the kids went nuts, whooping wildly; a high chorus of kiddie cheers erupted at the end of song one, & matt said, smiling widely, "that's the best applause we've ever gotten, kids!" near the end, i found out one of our teachers used to own a dance studio, so my god! why was she sitting? i asked her to go up & dance with a few of the kids, then a few more little hams ran out there & started shaking their stuff... it was wonderful! ......... i wish all local bands were as soulfully cheerful & rocking as mento buru, but i do remember My Teens & Twenties, when life was dark, dark, dark & verrrrrrrrrrry serious... well, my experience is, the teens & 20s must be endured... then life gets fun. :) ............a show i DO VERY MUCH want to see is this guy, playing at gigantic vintage on may 18: www.myspace.com/duckmandu ... an accordion punk rock one man band!!!! of course, on the same blasted night, my friend greg goodsell opens a poetry event. here in backwardsfield, CULTurally, it never rains, but when it does, it pours. i would like to reiterate:
it never ever, ever, ever rains here. but when it does, it pours.
my favorites tonight: 1) jogging til i'm lit with endorphins & yet feel like i have rigor mortis; 2) oatmeal with peanut butter, salt, & cinnamon; 3) mordantly witty, romantically violent song titles like your pretty face is going to hell (the stooges) & the world's a mess it's in my kiss (x); 4) limewire; 5) ricardo's coffee at tonight's meeting (it's ALWAYS horrible at drunk meetings, & this was a happy exception!); 6) orson welles' touch of evil, which i'm about to go watch for the 20th time or so ("the sleaziest good movie ever made" "a masterpiece of bad juju" http://www.austinchronicle.com/gbase/Calendar/Film?Film=oid%3a142768 ) ... happy mothers' day to all mamas... i hope everyone's mama is as smart & wonderful as mine & angie's is... in fact, it's funny - the older i get, the smarter my folks get.

great guns... eric's dusk devils pix from sat's show

just a hunka-hunka-burnin' love

...our friend woody told us elvis didn't like that song. woody used to go out with elvis's ex, linda, & she told him it was so. "burning love"'s in our repertoire now, & i guess i could see why elvis didn't like it, his personality being so much part of american myth & culture now that we (well, i) can feel we (i) know the king well enough to guess his inner workings... gorgeous, hammy, gifted elvis was still shy & pious in his way, & maybe didn't like the song's boastful conceit, one that goes back to john donne, an ecstatic prayer about sexual fireworks... we just had our benefit show & the band actually matched! everyone showed up in white, black, & red... we actually looked like a cohesive unit, i thought. more importantly, we played well. i think coming in "uniformly" started things off right! people walking their cancer laps came bopping & hopping & dancing by as we hammered & slashed away. i saw lots of smiling faces, some what-the-eff looks, but overwhelmingly it was a good good thing. in the distant crowd i spied our first drummer, handsome mark, grinning away, & he's not one to blow smoke up your skirt, so i figured we sounded just fine. at the end of burning love, my mom smiled & my shy dad gave a big thumbs up, so then i sang him happy birthday & my dad, 65 tomorrow, hopped up & down with happiness. that alone would've made the whole thing for me! eric snapped pictures, the excellent soundman gave me a congratulatory hug, i got to ask downtown school parent jim scott (tv talking head) if he'd named his son after rockabilly singer jack scott (i've been wanting to ask him since i first saw the child. jim said no, but in that context, it was welcome news for him. maybe little jack'll turn out to be an american-music freak someday now!), brian p dedicated a tune to his granddaughter, who was sacked out on lisa's shoulder, i played through the tough part on roll 'em pete so that we could end the set with a resoundingly successful crash, then my brian whisked tired-looking sean to the free hamburger tent so he could get some nourishment... the coming down after the show part's always tough, so it's good this was a day-timer -- so hard to come home in the wee hours of morn with head a-buzz with music & monitors & drunks & chatter & blurry smiling faces & cheers and... and... then the house is quiet & dark & still, and what to do, what to do? so this is good. :) ... today i recommend the video "the blues vol. 7: piano blues." i got it off greencine (alternative netflicks), am only halfway through the show, but already they've shown cleo brown, dorothy donegan, art tatum (amazing!), ray charles, doctor john, marcia ball, the wonderful wonderful fats domino and .... MY FAVORITE!!!!... professor longhair. fess talks about rolling junk pianos off the new orleans streets & into the house & in that way learning to fix them... he'd take a hammer off this one, a string off that one, & make one working beast. talk about low-tech and D.I.Y.! then he played and sang "tipitina," distorting the mike as he howled, and it was a died-and-gone-to-heaven thing. :) hubby brian's in the garage with his beloved motorcycle(s) & dog, the chicago blues section of the video awaits me, tonight we have basque feast in celebration of papa's 65th, & so it's another good day in backwardsfield paradise, & i hope it is for you, as well, kind reader.

DUSKDEVILS/at/RELAYFORLIFE/csub/SAT/onepm

i was digging through old band pix & found this one... we used to play these street fairs downtown, which the city insanely holds in the middle of summer, so we're melting here, brian and i, with our first drummer mark in the background... then here's heidi & lisa from when we played relay for life few yrs back... the heavens erupted & dumped great waves upon the stage as a gigantic wind came up & i was forced to duct tape my skirt down... we played through, wondering if we'd be electrocuted, & when the set ended, the grand old sun reappeared warmly & i thought, "well, of course," & we snapped this picture... more details on this saturday's benefit set are below... it's free, so hope all will come on out. :)