punk rock queen exene's top 8: dusk devils

johnny fire from FL emailed & told me exene had put the dusk devils on her myspace top 8... !!!... this is something of a small compliment, a big one, in old punk circles. it'll be gone soon, but here's the link: www.myspace.com/exenecervenka ... exene is a celebrity, like the great moolah or buck owens, about whom folks seem to have strong feelings. i saw her original sinners at jerry's one time, in a ear-bleedingly loud, screaming, shredding, but bouncy-fun & exciting event. exene, just a bit my senior, looked like a pretty, broken victorian thrift-shop doll. 3 chord whore's shantell had a punk rock book filled w/autographs she'd gathered from punk royalty: exene was flattered & happy to sign it. i had a scrap of paper; exene was not flattered or happy to sign it. this was one of punk rock's queens, what did i expect: pollyanna? it was a great show. not everything's personal!! ... when i was young & everything was personal, exene was to me cool & mysterious & more accessible than siouxsie of the creatures/the banshees... exene's band x was punk-poetry, but their guitarist, billy zoom, had the look & lines of rockabilly. they were quirky & stubborn people, you could tell, who covered the doors, jerry lee lewis, the troggs, whatever they wanted to, & wrote brutal & beautiful odes to LA life. they liked what they liked & i respect that, tho when their music went more metal, i stopped listening.

"some people never go crazy. what truly horrible lives they must lead." - bukowski

just concluded school wkend #2 in shaky town, the city by the bay, just can't call it san fran-sicko, that just ain't right... the 152 over pacheco pass is the way to go, i think, past the reservoir & casa de fruta, then on 101 where i stopped off in burlingame & caught the bukowski pic "factotum"... i am not shiteing you when i say i've dreamed many times of this movie house, from the windy staircases & terraced seating & partitions in the pie-shaped theatre to the mirror-backed tree growing in the foyer. it should've been creepy to finally see it, but it was downright cool & wasn't weird a bit! fri night a lovely & gracious 1st grade/art teacher put me up in her bernal hts home & i went walking in the cool eve & had the greatest malted at this little hamburger joint full of winking lights & flowers & chromed surfaces.
sat's classes dazzled me. after near-15 yrs in elementary ed, i'm so grateful to receive education (& to know i still can learn!)... my favorite teacher is neeli, who was drinking buddies with bukowski & has formidable credentials in beat poetry, street & school, life & learning: he's in line to be poet laureate of san francisco right now. he's this beautiful, broken-toothed, brilliant, big-hearted soul who spins wildly fascinating, rambling lectures. when the profs get going, & neeli especially, my heart pounds like it's love or music... it's too thrilling to learn learn learn, & i feel grateful, humbled, invigorated. Man has specific manifestations, but Man is one: i love it. i'm a bit of a slouch in the group, mebbe, having majored in english tho i should've majored in "pub" & learned little formally, but i feel worthy of my seat. i may not have big school breeding, comparative classics muscle, or polyglotism, but i've got life & i've got willingness &, doing the new college program, i'm getting my heart & soul back. (bukowski said, "if you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.") a little more on neeli:
http://www.newcollege.edu/profiles/profiledetails.cfm?profileID=15 ...he & gary tombleson, the program's keen & regal director, took a road trip to smellay for the donation of bukowski's writings to the huntington. the info is here: http://www.huntington.org/Information/bukowski.html ... tho it doesn't feel as funky-safe as austin or as rambling-romantic as LA, sf's mission's diversity & rhythm invigorate me: stopping in for a burrito-blimp that lulls the maw all day, rummaging thru free books on a sidewalk, hanging out at a corner to listen to mexican or jazz music coming from bars while watching yuppies walk dogs & realizing that HERE, i look like a square, L7, a dork... cool! no one cares how much makeup i have on or what i'm wearing; no one stares, like happens at times in bako. it's like when i was a kid & wished to have powers of invisibility, but it's real & i can reappear at will, by smiling at or greeting a passer-by... due to brain drain, i forwent more movies at the corner roxie theatre ( www.roxie.com ) & hit the road, on the way home cheered to realize, tho my nocturnal vision's getting awful dim, if i can be a chase car & have music, i can drive all night: chicago soul, old crow medicine show on prairie home companion, classic country & western, reprises of creepy, wild wolfman jack shows: the songs kept the truck rolling & i was home before 10, greeted by spouse & menagerie.

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.