another revolution

so the plan for the next 300 or so days is that i will teach one last yr, playing music here & there, then burst back upon the world of vernacular music like a quazar, back into the rocknroll circus, as my seester calls it, but the question is will it still catch fire like it did? before this chapter, i was free lonesome selfish glamorous, & so many were here who now are not (except in spirit). they were important ones who made life thrilling, people like Manuel & Art, filled up with american music. this chapter's been so long, it took out lux interior, little richard, chuck berry & muhammad ali, & tina turner, lorrie collins, dearest gene, dex romweber, so so many i can't even keep it straight. jimmy carter, apostle of southern goodness. not to mention all the family. i'm here at the coast with family to celebrate mama's bd, mine too today, & just finished a moving book, anachronistic but memorable, the four winds, & guess it's got me thinking. long as i have two hands that still move & a voice & brain that still work i will want to play american music. guess i just hope i've got more than a yr left on this plain/plane to do so. thank you to anyone reading this & to memphis mike out there, too.

you must

get this important book, if you don't already have it. i could hardly put it down!! maila nurmi, as described sensitively & skillfully by her remote but adoring niece, was glamorous, frustrating, tempestuous, wildly innovative, pugnacious. the story ultimately is touching as told by talented niemi: indelibly humane & memorable. orson welles, marlon brando: both were her boyfriends? the streets & insider scenes of hollywood in the '40s & '50s? that's just the start: in between bouts of poverty & deprivation, both self- & other-inflicted, maila's life unfolds, enabling readers to enjoy maximum shivery fly-on-the-wall thrills & chills. willful, eccentric, difficult, she also was stubbornly admirable, gifted, prodigiously creative: a bona fide iconoclast. thank you, phil s, for getting this for james, who lent it to me... & now i'm keeping it! it has a special spot now in my bedroom bookshelf, where the most cherished titles go. sometimes when i'm resting, i look over at those most precious tomes & feel so happy to be alive to have read them... i'm not kidding -- READ THIS BOOK NOW!! (the link is to abe books, but it's also on thrift books & elsewhere online.) i hope sandra niemi, maila's niece, has written more, for she is a certain talent!

almost 59!!

in a few wks i'll be one yr shy of 6 decades. wowza! tomorrow two of my sponsees are taking me to dinner to celebrate my recent sobriety bd. 31 yrs w/o booze & drugs! wowza! this is the first time in the many yrs that i've had sponsees do this. they call themselves "sober sisters" & express to me gratitude & affection. i just adore them both as humans & am so grateful for their thoughtfulness!! we will chat, eat, laugh, & i hope set up a step 4 meeting for us three. i'm on that one too, again!, never-endingly!, since a 12 stepper's work is life-long. always, more layers of the onion must be peeled to ensure continued personal improvement. as they say, "uncover, discover, discard." i do NOT want to remain the person i was yesterday. every day brings a promise of better living, even with certain bumps in the life-road: our credo is to keep trudging (i think of the ancient r.crumb image w/its motto "keep on truckin'"). i bring up yesterday bc many occurrences then (not much other way to put this) SUCKED! however, the sun set & rose, & here we is still... today the worst has been that, while making curry with vegetables, i accidentally dumped a huge portion of chili powder in the mix. the dish now is delicious, but whoa nelly!: taste & swallow with caution! have an inhaler nearby!... here is a pic from the tunnel leading to leo carrillo state beach. carrillo was mythed to be a maternal relative until dad did geneo research & found that to be a grandiose grandpa falsity. on that side, the famous relative is john gavin (of psycho & u.s. politics), apparently reluctant to admit his hispanic heritage when contacted by dad for interview! i spose in his generation & career, non-white blood mebbe was a handicap... (???). this connection pales compared to james (of course), who counts among his several famous relatives bettie page! criminy jeepers!... we had gone on a central coast trip in our "new" (to us) car, silvia cristina murano, the most comfy ride we've together had, starting @ the museum of jurassic technology in sta monica & ending @ the historic sta maria inn. it was a trip of mild pleasures, lovely coastline, & some good good eats... well, just abloggin here, nothing much to say except siesta season has hit frazier mtn: cool morns & eves, warm daytimes. i'm happy to have fans, shade, & lovely places to rest my bones. going to go join the pets & spouse now w/hope of soon & restful sleepytime.