let's help big manny. + "i've been waitin a long long time, just realized it's true, that my heart will always be in love with you."

this eve at practice scotty mentioned this video... what a delight to see it! this was the song where i really felt the music soar... to be in the middle of such a thing is quite a feeling!
al, dear man, threw us a curve ball toward end of song, as in his happy enthusiasm he tends to do, but laraine, his wife, shut the video player off right after that. :) i remember we caught the ball & brought it all home just a moment later... w/no video evidence, you'll just have to believe me. :)
time for bed, for tomorrow the gias bring chorizo & egg breakfast to the scores at SVDP & then i will get to hold peoples' sacred trust again, reading & writing & chatting w/them, as i got to do last wk.
life, o life, where will you take us all next?

upcoming: sat jul 9, noon-4 pm, al hendrix backed by canadian band six gun romeo at ethel's old corral... also, please spread word about the below event, taking place to help my dear friend, gentle man, & monster of powerful, melodious rocknroll american-roots guitar:

this saturday!!!

just found out that BRIAN LONBECK is playing w/blackboard playboys @ trout's on fri-sats, too!! really looking fwd to saturday's show w/al, plus going over to trout's to catch flying-fingers lonbeck, as well as see the tidwells & banny bannister... (ps - currently i have no graphics program -- hence the irritating gigantic white border on all recent flyers/graphics! oil well. if anyone reading wants to trim this flyer & email it to me, i thank you!) :)

road, rough road, then tunes, wild tunes, then road, rough road, then home, sweet home, then road, then home, then road, then home, then aarrggghh!!!

ohhh.... it's so very nice to be in my home again... i do love road trips, but that I-5 gets old!!! just saw this online:
'Matt’s [Munoz's, of bakersfield californian] Picks: April 16!
Al Hendrix and The Dusk Devils at Ethel's Old Corral, 4310 Alfred Harrell Highway, Saturday, April 16th, 6 p.m., free, 661-873-7613. If you're looking for some real rock and roll, you should plan on taking a little drive out to Ethel's this weekend. Appearing live will be the great "lost rocker" himself, Al Hendrix. He's performed with many of the legends of the Bakersfield Sound, and is slowly getting his due respect as a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. He'll be playing all his hits, including "Monkey Bite" a song that caused quite a stir in '62 because of it's suggestive lyrics. That's rock and roll. Backing Hendrix will be Bakersfield band, The Dusk Devils.'
- i just found out, tho, we're not backing... it'll be like a full-blown dd show, w/al "helping out." i'm sure glad to've got that clarified w/the lost rocker before this wkend!! anyways, i'm looking fwd to a fun, fun time w/my pals. :) the weather should be perfect! ethel's serves a mean hot dog, too, so will have to break the seemingly-interminable lenten meat-fast, or rather, switch my sunday for a saturday, i think. the latter is, after all, the sabbath in many cultures, so the lord shouldn't care too much... i'm sposed to make a flyer, so i hope i do... al'll be doing the above show on his way to viva las vegas. he called w/good news, which was that deke dickerson'll be backing him on bass sax at viva... sounds like he'll have an all-star backing band! the other good news is, mr tidwell's recuperating nicely, which is a relief to hear. :)

long long long long time since blogging

am back to work! the kids are so swell. :) will fill this in later meanwhiles, here are pix...

the lost rocker

happy vday blablabla & the axe falleth

- just finished a bunch of valentines for the kids at my school, tho i'm not there. could only recall them as a whole (about 100) by going into the online library program & selecting my top patrons, then going thru kids' names & trying to match w/faces. can't believe it's so difficult to remember after just a few wks away from school, but i guess that's typical of the state i'm in (not golden...)... my personal, prized valentines are universal monster ones my sister gave me one yr, but i never fill them out & give them away; i just keep them, which mebbe is valentine abuse, as having a drink & setting it down bc you're "starting to feel it" is alcohol abuse (well, just kidding, sort of...). here are a few valentines that are similar to mine; one i think's real pretty (the bride truly made the wrong choice).
- yesterday i got some bad health AND work news, sort of a double-whammy, but i spose all happens for a reason, be careful what you wish for, take your lumps & keep moving forward, as long you're not pushing up daisies, there's hope... but the poor kids; that's what kills me. at my school, these cuts (not that they had much before) leave them w/nearly zero enrichment, nearly zero for those who need it most. i'm too beat to get on the soapbox, but really, it's not just disheartening, but seemingly evil, or maybe more apt, callous & greedy, that the dedicated counselor; the talented clerk who organizes all the special school events & provides the extra niceties that make the school warm & inviting; & yo are cut by the district while (mama calls them) the "hallwalkers" & politicians downtown remain. my boss is a swell guy; i can only imagine how stressful this whole mess must be for him... :(
- i need to get to band practice. hope i can sing. either way, it'll be so swell to see the guys. :) in summation, the world keeps turning, & happy vday to all. may we all recall the many forms of love & not feel one bit lonely this time of yr... an article i read in a back issue of utne reader wrote of these wisdoms from a kenyan culture: love your community; trust your elders; don't fear death. these words to me speak of true love, a recipe for happy life. nuff for now.
- ps - the lost rocker, al hendrix, will be at the crystal palace fri & sat night around 930 pm, doing a mini-set w/the token okies, & i get to sit in, if buckaroo jim shaw will let me use his piano. so come on down, everyone!!!