-happy birthday to bomar... 29 again! thank goodness for friends, family, and loved ones. no man's an island, etc. etc. etc. my latest movie recommendation is "j'ai ete au bal (i went to the dance)"... it's a documentary about the history of cajun/zydeco. exhilarating!
-in less exhilarating news, why why why? here we go again. drummer number eight. i was tempted to go into a drummer d
iatribe, a cynical slideshow, a la nicholson in "carnal knowledge," of the many who've passed by... but that wouldn't be kosher. not copacetic. not kind. it would be rudely satisfying only to me, and quickly followed by guilt, inappropriate... wise, warm, crackling-with-life sister b said recently, "if we knew all, we'd forgive all." of course, i don't know the full story of why number seven is vacillating in his commitment. i just need to get this band out of his way... & begin the search for number eight, i guess!
-i asked my friend ruben (guaderrama) if it'd be easier to find steady, enthusiastic musical buddies if i lived down south, but he replied grimly, "no, it'd just be more complicated." even he is going solo these days, after near-40 years playing with his right hand man & life-long best friend. even that has dried up! i hear mento's drummer caesareo (sp) wrote a blog on the topic of "the cat versus the..." canary? the committed music lover versus the leaf in the wind-- brian p knows. i'm sure it's well-worth reading. you could find the link through nl belardes' site, i'd bet!
-so where is the bako equivalent of jerry angel? bill bateman? lisa pankratz? jose, why do you live in orange county??? or even, why are we here in backwardsville? why don't folks just want to play traditional, fun, rocking music here, get together and stomp feet, pound and saw, yell and purr and growl, tell stories in song, make melodies, make folks jump, dance and smile? so many drummers we've had have been held back by Life stuff like money, disapproving other halves, the drive... it really stinks. i guess the days of sitting on the porch playing all night are long gone. que lastima, as some would say.
- anyway, jose plays with cattie ness. he is not just a great drummer, but a quick study and a nice dude, also willing to drive and drive for the prospect of putting on a fun gig. bruce jones, olen taylor, you're local, you're the best, come back! you've rested long enough... haven't you? ...........oh well. i'll just watch movies for a while to keep the joy level up, i spose. and celebrate halloween, and the beginning of holidays season... all is not lost...
-however, there's this other problem: for the past couple of months, i've wished i could somehow live without my head, a reverse of "the brain that wouldn't die" -- just a torso walking around and pounding the keys. the pain in my skull is constant. it moves, too -- one day in the face, next in my ears, then over the eye socket. i told a recent drummer, a happy kind of guy, i'm looking at sinus surgery & he asked, "will that change your singing voice?" didn't even consider that, but the pain must go! the psychic pain of daily life can be enough at times. (ha! spoiled middle class american complaining... i really have no right, yet i do it!) adding physical pain to the mixture... well, what for, if it can be avoided, what for? the pain -- be it in my sinus cavities or sitting on a drummer's saddle -- must go.
-ha! there's my cheap shot. see? now i feel guilty. shouldna said it, but i did. at least keith moon exploded after putting in hundreds, thousands of heavy-pounding shows.... but i suppose he was keith moon, & exceptional, committed musicians are who they are for a reason. that fire & dedication is what separates them, maybe... but again, doesn't anybody just want to get together and make some happy noise, some rocking country blues, some hepped up, melancholy, jumping life music, just to do it, just for the wonderful release and pleasure of doing it?... the weird captain howdy clown face on the bootleg cover reflects the music-less situation. he's dressed for fun, but just sitting there... waiting. oh well. life goes on... though i complain here, as long as you and i are upright and breathing, there's hope. so it's movies for now, til the music comes back.
"cinema is most close to music. not literature, not poetry, but music..."
this is a pictorial of how the fresno show went... the worse it got, the harder i played & the more i grinned. the show must go on, right? it was grim, but perversely enjoyable, in the way you might enjoy purging after a bacchanal, or motoring your little boat full speed ahead into the approaching tempest that you know will end it, once and for all... however, once again i have to think it sounded more hopeless from the stage (the monitors went demonically, stone dead upon our first note, this after an extensive sound check with a wizard-like sound man) because people clapped & cheered. i even got to play a little boogie-woogie solo that i love at one point when the show stopped... afterward, bomar & i supped at a steak house with cattie ness & mr john bruce... sean got it to go, told us about pedal steel & drumming before hitting the road to get to work at 530 am. he & jason play real well together; it's a treat to have them. it was nice to see mom, dad, lisa, aunt kathi, & the labruces.... oh well. bad show, another life experience, another notch in the belt. you know what the french say. i don't mean voulez-vous couchez avec moi, neither.
it's a lovely cold & clear backwardsfield morning! and we play a show tomorrow, fri night feb 17, in fresno at the belmont.... although "the band" would not agree to pile into the van & have the communal love-fest ride up together, which certainly would be an experience ripe with laughs & camaraderie, i still think the show itself will be fun. :)
here's a pic of sally jo & me from (again) the elvis show. sally jo & her hubby justin curtis (pic'd below) are super-attractive, real friendly, smooth dancers, & have a great, home-spun honky-tonk western swing act (www.justincurtis.com). good listening, good times. there are more pix now posted at www.sofein.com, too... but for now, i am deliriously sick from latest allergy treatment. they don't usually get me this bad, but here i am! sore ears, sore throat, swollen eyes, no energy... i was gonna write a list of favorite songs, just for fun, because why not?, this is my blablablablog & who cares, no one's much reading, but no brain power to do so... there's a lot going on this weekend here, but i'm not doing any of it: blues jams at fishlips, ethel's, bluegrass fest, live shows, plays, runs, etc. then there's something i've heard of called (i think) "superbowl" tomorrow. it'll be a good day to go to the movies, i say, or stay in bed. in fact, i'd best hang it up right now & go to bed. toujours gai, as mehitabel said, but for now, the pillow & oblivion's all i seek. one thing's for sure - this too shall pass: the good, the bad, the ugly, the everything, so more the reason to sleep off a sick & get back into the stream of life. happy, healthy weekend, & this sermon's now kaput.
feliz domingo! lalalalalalalalala... after much arduous, tedious, aggravating, finger-cramping computer doofus labor (i learn as i go in most things i do, resulting in a lot of time-intensive mistakes), i was able to put up some dusk devils videos from art fein's poker party, shows we di
d in summer & fall 04. we were supposed to do one last nov., but were thwarted by drummer woes!! perhaps now that sean the great is on board, art'll have us again... go to www.youtube.com and search Dusk Devils & you'll get the videos. you can watch, but to rate or add comments, you'll have to sign up. everyone should keep a free junk email account for just such purposes! too, mike generic of bksfld underground music scene added a profile of us recently... go to www.bums661.blogspot.com , then our name under band profiles... rock rock rock rock everybody... roll roll roll roll everybody... that's something else cool about youtube - you can watch public domain films like invasion of the star people, plan 9 from outer space, rock rock rock, etc... it helps if you have dsl, of course! denizens of the dial-up dark ages will just have to wait... or go read a book, mebbe!
some more elvis show pix... the first one's of sound guy charlie; the wonderful skip edwards, who is an amazing piano player, and a gentleman, too; phil alvin of the blasters, & me. (i have lots of heroes, find it encourages my existence to look for them everywhere...) PA was giving a detailed explanation of why he bristles at the term "country music." the next shot i included for those admirers & revilers of the blurred look :), also cause, tho out of focus, it's what i glom to be a characteristic "garrulous phil making a point" pose... brian p, did you move on purpose when you took this one?? 
next is brian p, me, ray campi, & multi-talented count smokula (of dr demento, troma films fame, who plays violin, who writes songs, who knows how to have fun!)... 
then brian p & rod from the tonemasters, with lovely dawn shipley on deck in background...
then me and sporky (carol); her boyfriend joel played with dawn. she is a funny, smart, & sweet LA gal & myspace friend :) by this time i was worn out & had lipstick on my teeth, which of course no one told me... & finally is art fein & i (i keep typing art gein, like ed gein, heh heh heh; his eyes kinda have that look in this particular shot, along with the impressively little richard-like coiff). it was a swell time, & i won't write anymore about it now except to say if anyone found a burgundy faux-fur collar that night, please send it to me cause i lost it. good thing i'm a teetotaler -- it's hard enough for me to keep track of my head sober when good times are going on!
, "odd." i suppose yet another growing experience. "grown-up" life is full of such things. so last night, to see my friends & to abate the odd feeling, i went to 4 meetings in a row to celebrate the local drunk club being open now 53 years. at the 3rd mtg, an old man who'd been sitting in seeming anguish for hours, a passer-through town on the holiday weekend, blurted out that the state of texas had just executed his son. he burst into sobs & stumbled out the door. ed r, who was leading the mtg, stood right up and provided what my friend jani called "an old-timer minute": he followed that fellow right outside to help him. i've always kinda had a little platonic crush on ed, who's a tall, silver-haired, straight-standing southern gentleman type who plays honky-tonk barrelhouse piano. it became such admiration at that moment... it was just the right danged thing to do. i'm lucky to have made lots of friends in the past decade who are like that, bomar being a big one. they just do the right thing, no matter what; it's inspiring, & they're not doing it to show off at all, which just makes it more inspiring... i drove home, overwhelmed by my good fortune, to have been part of the human & humane events of the evening, couldn't sleep, thinking about Life, loved ones, returning monday to my kiddies at work, my newly healthy physical state & the "good witch" who's got me there, hepped up on caffeine, so i did the best i could - made a collage. it was too late to pound joyful heartache tunes on the piano or listen to some music, so this was the next best thing. when my soul is grateful, it hears songs. these pictures help me hear the music and remember to be grateful... & to want to share it with other people.
iatribe, a cynical slideshow, a la nicholson in "carnal knowledge," of the many who've passed by... but that wouldn't be kosher. not copacetic. not kind. it would be rudely satisfying only to me, and quickly followed by guilt, inappropriate... wise, warm, crackling-with-life sister b said recently, "if we knew all, we'd forgive all." of course, i don't know the full story of why number seven is vacillating in his commitment. i just need to get this band out of his way... & begin the search for number eight, i guess!
