i can shake a chicken in the middle of the room

- boy, last night's show at the branding iron was fun fun fun. :) 1st, phil & i met w/a couple opening a diner downtown at 19th & eye - they've got 45s glued along the tops of the walls all around the whole gigantic place! i looked @ most all (hundreds) & didn't see any that'd make a vinylphile cry if he/she saw it glued... we loaded in & then @ the last sec i had to speed home cause i'd forgotten to bring the plug for the PA head. ahhhh!!! then we played a (sort of) mellow little set bc it was early, & the crowd was very appreciative & happy & warm. by 2nd set we screwed it down quite a bit more & by 3rd set, robert tidwell was there screaming his mike ness versions of rockabilly tunes & phil even improvised a jazzy blues-billy thing when i left the floor to go answer a Q from an audience member & i so love riffing like that, tho i know sometimes it can be hair-raising, like when you don't know where the song's going next & just have to use your ear... all tight on the stage together, we cozied in & it felt swell to play together, like we were one unit rather than 4 separate souls.
- we met art byrom, who was really nice & complimentary, & i just loved how all the women in particular kept getting out to dance together, like the band & i were empowering them (i never really noticed a common theme running thru our songs - not just of sex, but of a certain independence) & several times i saw people singing along not just our covers, but w/MY ORIGINAL SONGS!!! - yes, looking @ me while i played & singing MY SONGS w/smiles on their faces... oh my gosh, that was too too cool!
- here's a pic from lovely angel of when i got on bass for a minute bc mark claimed he didn't know how to play johnny b. goode (i think he wanted to go burn one) - that bass was huge & heavy! but the pic's kind of cool. :) mark & phil were just hilarious throughout the show, what comedians. and the ladies really like phil, who always dresses up smart for the shows... he had some crazy running joke about chickens going all night & i realized we do two songs that mention them! i couldn't even sing "let's have a party" for the longest time bc i'd crack up when it comes to the line "i can shake a chicken in the middle of the room"... sometimes i still do laugh when i get there, but it's ok, it's all ok, we're sharing in the happiness of the room. :) next we need to add in the cramps' version of "chicken," tho i guess we'd have to do the dusk devils' version, since no one can well-imitate the cramps!!
- then we all went to zingo's & shared egg sandwich, biscuits, & country potatoes. i came home & everything went to crap. that morning had been so calm & peaceful, walking the labyrinth at st philip's & enjoying the lovely weather, & this morning's going to be good & beautiful & it's off to the drunk society where i'll be w/good good people, so life goes on til it doesn't, & then who knows what'll happen? ashes to ashes, dust to dust, make hay while sun shines, we must we must...

turkey / phantom pie run this thursday!!!

(from bk track club website - this sounds like FUN!!!!) Phantom Pie Run - Meet at section 7 of Hart Park for a fun run or walk of between 3 and 12 miles starting at 6am. Bring a pie to share with a couple hundred of your fellow health enthusiasts. What a great way to kick off Turkey day!

happy to be living, obsessed: chicken, waffles, toxic sodapop fuel the monkey

first of all, we all lost another friend the other day. he was lucky, maybe, to go very suddenly, but still, how sad (especially for my hubby, w/whom he was friends; i know b admired j very much, like everyone did). j was taken too early... he was one of two people i recall from '91, when i lived every day in a sick & altered state & yet couldn't see why i had such blasted bad luck. thru then-called-kernview hospital, i wound up at the drunk club (didn't come back til '95) & the smiling, rangy-athletic fellow w/the buzzed, prematurely-grayed hair helped make me feel at home. may he rest in peace, sweet soul that he was. i know he will be well-remembered; we wish his family solace.
i know it's saddest for us still living when we lose someone... being a friend of bill w's means i have more camaraderie & fellowship than i ever could've possibly dreamed, but then loved ones go, suddenly or slowly, here & there, & it stinks each time, but it's life. i know soon enough i'll be shuffling off myself, so i guess the best thing is just to stay with the herd, appreciate & love people while we're here, & try to remember them gratefully & reverently, not sadly & self-centeredly, when they leave.
maybe i'll be so lucky, but i guess that part doesn't matter... remember marcus aurelius, so noble, writing repeatedly that one must act & live from a place of one's own truth, w/o worrying about the condemnations of others, & how the 1st book in his "meditations" pays loving homage to his many role models... he obviously was a man who loved & appreciated many, but knew not to pay unnecessary heed to critics & those lacking vision.
on to the mundanities of life: today, dedicated to polishing off part 3 of my thesis (been at it all wk & sick of it), i sat at the computer for 9 hrs & embarked on a strict regimen of chicken & waffles (a whole essay could be written on this alone, but i'll spare everyone), swashing it down w/a particularly creepy yet delicious sodapop, maybe even deadlier-better than diet big red, called diet pepsi jazz caramel creme... do you think the ingredients of such a potion could fit on the side of a train car? but hi-dee-ho: let's have another can.
that the paper's done & i still live is a really nice deal. :) there's all kindsa music stuff to attend to, especially w/my new band "old 99" (those fellows really want to get stuff started asap... i do wish it were that way w/dusk devils, but not for now, i guess). i have been a little negligent in my saintly duties, as well, but it all has had to wait cause i have had research monkey brain (haven't even been sleeping lately; too many ideas sloshing around in the noggin). by 3 pm, i had birthed another 18-pg paper & it was jig time. we're supposed to turn in 8 pages by april 14, and i've written 42. my thesis is up to over 60. i am very pleased!!! overachieving is necessary in this context; i won't get done by august, otherwise. (btw, i found out guitarist keith wyatt went to new college!!) the toxic chemicals, i guess, help, in the short run (tho kill in the long, but what the hey, let's play play play). not to mention obsession... productively funneled, the latter can be quite a boon. :) (P.S. - tho roscoe's down south has the world's best, dope-wonderful chicken & waffles, J's Southern here in town serves them, too... j's is finger-licking good stuff, dang worth it, on ming avenue, but tho lisa paxton - I MISS LISA!!! - knows the name of the cross-street, i don't.)