seven years ago

at left is 1st pic of us, 2010
at right is most recent pic of us, 2017
i have lost my girlish looks, but at my age, i think that's ok.
i remember that day: it was hotter than hell in bakersfield at vinny's; james's then-guitarist rushed in while we played & gestured for us to keep going. james was late. later i learned he'd almost died that day in a near-wreck en route to the show. spying the ppl he was with that day, i ignored my suspicion that james was underworld-connected, mebbe... he walked me to my car, talking my head off about being a voice actor, korean fans lined up 100s deep to get his autograph at blizzcon, comic books, gigs, a history book he was reading, & so many topics, i thought, wow! this guy is so nice! so friendly! i must've been wrong in my earlier assessment! i like him! what a cool guy!
seven years ago.
later that eve, james showed up at my 2nd band show of the day at narducci's. i remember kaykay telling me, "i think he really liiiikes you," but it didn't really register because how could it be true that a steamrolling chick-magnet tough guy like whiteboy james would like me?... james & my then-bass player did tricks w/cigarettes & then i had to go home because in those days i was really stupid. my then-guitarist walked me out bc he had to go home, too. (he was married. that was not stupid.)
i wish i'd stayed & hung out with james that night, but i was too stupid, as i said, divorce-grief-stricken & -guilt-ridden & self-punishing. didn't know things would get much better in my life, tho it would take years & lots of james & i getting to know each other.
four days and counting to our vacation!!!!!!

blue blue blooooooobloooooooooooooooo

many yrs ago my band the dusk devils pulled onto (probably; i didn't know LB back then) shoreline or ocean in long beach to go play a festival at the queen mary. i saw signs for & heard wonderful music from the long beach bayou blues festival. i thought, "i want to play THERE!, not WHERE WE'RE GOING!!!" now i get to play there with james & the blues express.
this has been a wonderful day, & now i have the blues. this is how it goes for me. i had wonderful yoga, with kind, funny debbie; wonderful talks with wonderful people; wonderful mexican breakfast with wonderful parents & handsome spouse (he's wonderful, too); wonderfully soaring mountain drive through purple lupines, scatterings of bright orange poppies (popping with color!), startling spray of yellow splashed across rolling green fields out of impressionist paintings; a winding valley of dark-green pine & bucolic ranchos, the glorious air, magical "elfen" pine canyon road,  overhanging, curling oak branches & leaves dappling the road with shadows, then shopping in our little town: a rummage sale; the market; our new organic food store, carrots fresh from the earth,  sweet & covered with dirt, once washed, snapping with flavor... but now? blue blue blue.
i know this: this, too, shall pass.
here is a bio i wrote for the fest; they picked a dazzling pic of james to accompany it. his handsome mug with my grabbing copy make for, i believe (tho with considerable bias) the most compelling & attractive musical act of all...
please check out the link. whiteboy james at bayou blues festival
here's what they picked to run for doheny: whiteboy james at dohney blues festival
... when i am in shavasana lately, i realize: this is where you'll be permanently in not too many years. jenny: you and everyone you love & every human to walk this earth... what kind of crap is that to ponder???
my gloomy-happy brain must be this way for some reason... or maybe not! there must be purpose... right?

good morning!

it's so beautiful outside. the wildflowers have been gorgeous! the mountain is stunning these days.  the air is so fresh, so enlivening, so evocative... may your day be lovely.

work it through, work it through...

i know my husband is a hunk, even if some fake-faced idiots act as if they're "above" him, even tell him that, as they slaver & drool over him. i understand he has power over women (haha; can't help but think of dr strangelove when i write that line). i've seen hundreds (no exaggeration) of women's eyes light up & bodies start to quiver as james does his weird & virile thing. they quake. i get it.
however, it is NOT ok for people who know we are married -- from dumb, moronic & slutty to merely dumb & moronic to quite bright (tho those types don't do this) -- to disrespect us by sending him flirty messages & trying to flirt with him when they think i am not looking. (i always am looking. but i ignore most all so that i have some sanity.)
men who've tiptoed &/or trod into sexual-interest toward me have been threatened with bodily harm. some received bodily harm. all have fled for the hills years ago. no man talks flirtatiously to me at all any more... not just bc i'm now gray... not just bc i'm 49 years old... not just bc i stay clear of all men except the wonderful blues express band, my dad, my bro-in-law, & my spouse. (i've tended to have binary feelings toward men -- demonizing or idolizing -- so it's a relief, actually, to just stay away from them...)
all other men who know of james know they might end up in cement shoes if they go too near me.
i have no recourse except to hold my head high. but just for the moment my mind seethes w/revenge scenarios that would make a slasher movie bad guy shriek.
my sister is a black belt. i will give her a call.
greer likely deals with this problem with her adorable anthony. greer is super-cool & mellow & smart, but i look at her & know she doesn't put up with any nonsense. she also looks like she could clean someone's clock REALLY well, if pushed!
i am not weak, "all muscle, baby," james will say as he growls like frankenstein, but my temperament  fundamentally is too gentle for me to take it out physically on someone else...
so i will fantasize about angie & greer taking turns pounding the dogsh*t out of slutty moron dumbhead. then good sense will return as i remember mama's adage: "living well is the best revenge."
slutty moron dumbhead fakeface may drool over james, but i am married to him. as he says, "those b*tches don't know me. nobody knows me but you, baby."
i think i wrote a song on this topic! i will now go to the piano & sing it.
ha! good sense has returned! thank you, muse. thank you, great pumpkin.

no yoga!!! aaaaah!!!!... and cool photos

photo by casey reagan

thought yoga teacher debbie was still in costa rica, didn't go. she's here. aaaaaaahhhh!!! i missed awesome saturday morning yoga at the library!!!! crap!!!!
just added a new free yoga channel on roku, so guess will do that today. and "run." i put that in quotes bc my pace has become snail-like after reading the book the world at my feet, a boring book about an amazing accomplishment: aussie guy my age or beyond runs AROUND THE WORLD using "attrition running" method, which means slowwwww & steady, the way ancient humans used to wear out prey. our physiology reflects this basic purpose, from steadying tendon behind skull (so we don't head-bob like a chicken when ambulating) to gigantic gluteus maximus (shock absorber) to arch of foot (same). i've been sometimes running w/my cheerful science teacher friend christy, who noted my BP & resting heart rate will drop if i will run more.
I LOVE TO RUN!!! I NEED TO DO THIS FOR MY HEALTH & HAPPINESS!!!!
anyways, we didn't go see gene & phil yesterday. james has been sick w/cold. so here are pix from last wkend's shows, which both were really awesome except oildale people AGAIN stole from james (time-before-last, his t-shirts; this time, his harmonicas), so next visit to oildale will likely bring major ass-whuppin' upon some rat coward thieves & disrespecters... except for the top, these great pix are from kaykay & krystal. i feature more pix of me bc this is my blog. top pic of james is one that casey r photoed: james is one super-photogenic awesome stud of a frontman. :)
oh! and now i can say: he & band (he says including me) will play at this year's bayou blues festival AND doheny blues festival. :) whoo-hooo!!!
one more fest is pending. more later. time to go "run." :)

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by kaykay jagger

photo by krystal kozak

photo by krystal kozak

photo by krystal kozak

blablablablablablabla

- i've been thinking a million things, so here are some: driving & crying the other day, home from kicka*s mfing fantastic show in seal beach, welled up w/sorrow listening to chuck berry tribute on kpfk, was thinking how one of my most favorite things to do in this life is to drive & listen to chuck berry. i wrote a song about it, in part, 20 years ago. chuck berry's music & driving have been an inextricable part of my life. so many emotions, so many feelings, so many memories... god bless chuck berry, even if he personally was a mfer. some of the most talented people on earth, i know, are more than part-crazy, & a big part of that can be mean as a junkyard dog. it all just goes together... then that night i dreamed i was married to manuel, my dear departed friend who played beautiful rockin chuck berry guitar, & god bless james, i told him about my dream & he gently quipped, "i dreamed i was married to manuel, too"... bloodshot bill posted on facebook a CB pic he'd cut out of a library book & hung on his wall when he was young and... I CUT THE SAME PIC OUT OF A LIBRARY BOOK & HUNG IT ON MY WALL WHEN I WAS YOUNG!!! (it's still up there, in fact!)... so i watched one of bb's more recent videos in which he plays w/a band instead of just himself (no lewd joke there; that's been his wild shtick) & there were too many bodies on the stage; it was unnecessary; but i still dig his charlie feathers/hasil adkins vocals, even if mister page says they're contrived. to contrive to sound like those cats is universes cooler than the contrived vocals many other musicians bleet & blah. it's like "girl" singers who ape wanda jackson or janis martin or "girl" scenesters who ape bettie page: just about who on earth is cooler to imitate than them??? i wonder when "girls" will start trying to be like sister rosetta or big mama or poison ivy?... then suddenly on kpfk came the most horrible, putrid, lame-a*s version of "come on." i began to scream; in my rage, i nearly wrecked my car!!! it felt like my ears had been hit by a dumptruck of sh*t!! simpering, whining sh*t!!!! turns out this "come on" cover had been the rolling stones' 1st single, & i knew in that very moment why james has always despised the rolling stones... their version of "come on" was SO, SO, SO, SO BAD!!!!!
- the brit invasion bringing american music back into the world was not just ironic, but a catch-22: ironic cause they loved & still love our music more than we do, catch-22 bc back in the early 60s, new audiences were being exposed to our wonderful american music via lame, flaccid, face-bashingly bad covers! had the stones' version of "come on" been released 10-15 years later, i like to picture, american music purists would have stomped the crap out of mick & the stones & all others who did injustice to the CB catalog!!
- i calmed myself; the terrible cover ended; kpfk played some more great chuck cuts.. then, just like that, like projectile vomiting, ELO's "roll over beethoven" came on... WHY HAS NO ONE KILLED THEM FOR PUTTING THIS OUT?!?!?! WHY DID CHUCK BERRY NOT GET A TRUCKLOAD OF DYNAMITE & TAKE OUT EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM?!?!? i am married to someone who once pelted in the mug w/a grapefruit a certain phony pop-rockabilly icon, right in the middle of the icon's big fancy stage show (& then was removed, laughing hysterically, by bouncers, who "beat the sh*t" out of him while he continued to laugh maniacally)... and that rockabilly icon, phony as he may be, at least had the decency not to desecrate a chuck berry song by releasing it as a single... Editi used to think ELO were merely innocuous, but now i know: ELO & all like them  who re-record our great american music with evil intention of "improving" upon it must be stopped... STOP THEM BEFORE THEY RECORD!!!! CHAIN THEM!! KICK THEM REPEATEDLY!!! SEND THEM TO THE CORNFIELD!!!
- this week, w/great music on my mind so much, i flashed on this dunce i was involved with in a 2-year mistake that saved a place for james. this genius used to say things like, "you're just judgmental. i like ALL styles of music because I'M open-minded" (this from the most judgmental person i had ever met). then the person would talk about the one gig he did in his entire life, in which he of course named the band after himself (it was most likely just a set, not an entire gig)... but i know that, rather than me being "small-minded,"i have good taste, i know what i like, & he was & probably still is a do-nothing turd. james & i know what's good!!! we will not budge on what is good!!!!! life is too short to listen to bad music!!!!!!
- oh, it has been such a long week already... i think i'm kinda delirious...
- we are supposed to go see the gene taylor trio on friday; i can't wait! gene posted a vid of himself  playing, & his hand position is so perfect, so loose yet firm; he can play every run with perfect ease & groove; his attack is so solid, so friendly, so rockin... phil alvin will be joining the trio. james & i will, i hope, have a swell old time. and if that combo pays tribute to chuck berry with a song, i know one thing: it will honor the king of rock'n'roll. it will be worthy....
just realized i forgot the pix. i'll put them up another time... gnite.

sadsadsadsad news.... and busybusybusybusybusy

oh my gosh, last night after somnambulating home, i finally got tucked in bed next to the snoring one & read the chuck berry had passed away yesterday. oh my gosh... so sad. but manuel now gets to play with his number one hero in heaven, my child-imagination pretends. and linda a from bakersfield wrote, "he was 90. let him rest. we still have his music." that is too true. but also, james's friend james cotton, the magnificent blues harmonica player/musician, also passed away thursday. :( i am so not looking forward to telling him when he wakes up. this is sad news. chuck berry has been our shared musical hero, along with the blasters, big joe turner, the 5 royales... no one has innovated music like chuck berry (with johnny johnson's rollicking piano integral to it all): no one!! so this morn as we prepare to go will be delicate, but i need to let him know...
oh so busy... yes, gonna wake the man in 10 mins, so blogging quickly. we'll be playing at clancy's in seal beach noon-4 pm today. have had his whirlwind birthday weekend; this is the closer. it's been a bit too much this time, all the music this weekend, w/my right-now-extremely-busy teaching schedule,! but friday in bksfld was so sosososososo fun!! what a thing i get to do, even with the sometimes crash-&-burn experiences in between with moody me & moody james.
the place was packed. the family showed up. dad looked dapper with lincoln beard & bola; mama smiled so prettily throughout; angie & big doug wore silly st patty's hats & sturdily helped break up a fight...
this will be a big year for james gig-wise. :) can't say more right now!! he has some really swell engagements coming up in the late spring-early summer months.... yayyyy!!!!!!
as for me, time to get ready to go. peewee will have to be a latchkey kitty for one more day. i get to chauffeur the mercurial, magnificent whiteboy james to the show, then be part of the amazing blues express roller coaster w/absolutely winning & wonderful anthony, as well as steve & blake, then escort my dear whirlwind home, then teach school tomorrow... whew. i am a very lucky sometimes massively depressed & crisis-filled bag of fragile human water & assorted other matter.  today i hope will be happy auto-pilot w/lots of endorphins, smiles, & maybe a few nice solos amongst the pounding horn parts my clumsy piano fingers play...

estomago

i have a stomach ache. very tired. it's cold.
the weather, that is.
started yesterday an interesting reading class for teachers in bakersfield. six sessions.
fascinating, really. inspiring, yes.
never liked these teacher classes. thought they were stupid. thought many of the teachers were stupid.
i don't think it was the classes or other teachers that were stupid, come to think of it. :)
long long day today, leaving bakoland at 6 am with lunch packed by mama (to whom angie, me, james & doug all are perenially 8-9 years old, tho our actual combined ages are closer to 200). heaven love mama & dad, who gave us an extra mouse to replace the stupid apple one that took a crap bc apple is all about expensive built-in-obsolescence robbery (though the system be much hardier than pc).
james hits the pavement again starting this weekend. malarkey's, 4 pm sunday, LBC. be there or be a tomater.
i will not type what he just said.
it was obscene.
now he is singing a scatological version of a christmas carol, so i beg him to stop & now he's doing an impromptu version of something that sounds like the itchy & scratchy show, but to the tune of "do you hear what i hear"...
"i'm married to the ghost of robin williams," i told mama last night, & she hee-heed merrily. after dinner last night, after the not-stupid class, that is, we all sat & visited, & when james  & bro doug get going, the volume is unholy & if we all weren't falling on the ground laughing at their bellowing hilarity, we'd likely become deaf. "your mother & i didn't mean to marry such similar persons," i told pained-looking niece madeline, "you know: two loud obnoxious strange-o's who are yet so lovable & look like extras from some 1940s gangster film..." this made her laugh.
he is happy to have just spoken at length on phone with mister james the second. "he's a good guy," he says, worrying away at the latest clay figurine. our house is filling up with clay monsters, but this one is "a liddo wabbit," he said, now singing a song about the worthless cat: "obi wan keno-peeee..." now he is dancing around the kitchen. now imitating a machine gun. now... oh, i can't say. :)
time to go watch shum boob toob.

"forget it, jake. it's chinatown."

Marseilles isn't a city for tourists. There's nothing to see. Its beauty can't be photographed. It can only be shared. It's a place where you have to take sides, be passionately for or against. Only then can you see what there is to see. And you realize, too late, that you're in the middle of a tragedy. An ancient tragedy in which the hero is death. In Marseilles, even to lose you have to know how to fight.

Jean-Claude Izzo

i've been watching the netflix french potboiler marseille (a sleazy-fun view: dallas for francophiles), starring gerard depardieu, my favorite crazy actor. he might be a nut, but can he emote more with his nostril & small wince of porcine eye than can most any other actor? certainement! and his voice: i've fallen in love w/various males largely because of their pipes (well, & large frontal lobes). only twice did i have boyfriends (ha!) of uninteresting, even annoying vox, & each time it was fubar enormous... it's always fascinated me -- maybe you, too? -- great &/or gorgeous men who go to pot: orson welles, elvis, marlon brando, oliver reed, even: maybe being that spectacular is too much for the human flesh bag to contain. no one since brando has puffed up & weirded out quite like depardieu, i don't think, but yet he allures...

then there's the experience that resembles depardieu: something ugly in which one must root out beauty, like an easter egg or junk store jaunt or exploring abandoned places or doing seemingly unending research... these experiences can be so much more rewarding than the new & "perfect," in my opinion, when they reveal beauty/revelation/discovery. and that's why i always will love bakersfield, which long ago i realized is like a bad relationship, so often dissatisfying, disappointing, even heartbreaking, but the moments when it is beautiful shine brighter than sunlight because of their rarity.

james tells me most places are "bakersfields," like even the places i used to think "if only i were THERE..." i think he's right. i can't demonize bakersfield anymore: nearly every place is bakersfield. there IS that thing called the bell curve, yknow, which, while not applicable, i don't think, to racial or SES matters, IS pertinent in our human cultural world, which maddeningly seems to slide toward the mundane, even stupid.

oh heck, i forgot why i got on here. oh yeah; something beautiful in bakersfield: 

NO SCHOOL AGAIN!!!!! aaaaaaaahhh!!!!

- we had to cancel shenanigan's yesterday due to the weather! dang it!!! and now school's cancelled!
when i worked in bakosfield, i woulda loved all these school cancellations. this is the 6th snow/wind/weather cancellation this year!  not that i didn't like the kids in backwardsland, but i didn't love my job then like i love it now, teaching on the mountain. i know now how mama felt all those yrs. i could never understand why she'd stay so late at school, grading papers, arranging her room. she had the most beautiful room. she was a super teacher. she devoted herself 200% to school, as she does everything. mama is a lover & a doer, a creator, a leader. i'm certainly not in that caliber or ever will be, but i really enjoy now staying after school in the quiet, prepping everything just so for the next day. it's comforting, energizing: it feels right, like playing the pianny or talking to another woman drunk or listening to good music or running or watching a great movie or kids or animals at play or homo sapiens being kind to one another... anyways...
 it helps to be rid of the distraction of always trying to be glamorous, yes, it helps being older (not really wiser, tho). i love the kids kinda like a grandma would, i think (gadzooks! i'm their near-grammy age!), plus i get to be creative at this school, so i get that "mama" feeling in that way. at this school, the boss lets us come up w/ideas & try them out, so now i'm doing drumline, color guard, art class, book room, library in addition to 6th grade class. yay! now she'll likely let me have meditation time for the kids who want it, tho likely under a different moniker so parents fundamentalist or otherwise won't freak out. we have a lot of traumatized &/or wigged out kids at our school: i think correctly planned, this could help the ones who want it.
wow! it's really coming down out the wihnder! they cancelled school, i think, bc of high winds/rain, the latest storm. altho it's been in the 30s & 40s, relatively warm compared to january, we're sposed to have more snow tonight. i read an interesting bit about rain/snow conversion on our local weather website, w/which i'm obsessed. living in this elemental place can cultivate obsession even in the most normal, i'd think, & weather-mania is a healthy direction to point craving feelings. here's the website, maintained by a golden local, god bless him for being so meticulous: www.fpweather.com
- this might be only interesting to me, but maybe you, if you're interested in such things: i downloaded an android altimeter app (called simply "altimeter") & discovered the following: long beach ca, where most of our music gigs are, is at 13 ft elevation. poo! whatever! however, our house is at 5040 feet. i like that! now come the big contrasts: downtown frazier park, just 1 mile below our home, is near-400 ft lower. no wonder it's so hard to chug up that road on foot! our exit from the interstate, 5 miles down the road, is 1200 ft lower. my school is 1800 ft lower. the entrance to the san joaquin valley, the rd to bakerspatch, is 3800 ft lower than our home!! i hope our blood is becoming super-rich from all the elevation changes we experience daily. :)
- anyways, back to today: when dad fell off a 5-foot ladder some months back, indomitable, hyperbolic aunty rita called cousin tushi in tx & told her "uncle gil fell off the roof!" aunty rita's a member of the same mutant race james is. (he, too,'s been known to shuck facts in favor of a rollicking tall tale: maybe it's a trait connected to the superhuman metabolism of such folks?) she called this a.m. at butt-crack-thirty to tell me "you gotta get off that mountain. they're saying on the news the winds are gonna be blowin' 90 mph. you & james gotta get down to bakersfield NOW." merde! i got back in bed, somewhat troubled, clutching james's warmly sleeping hulk for comfort. soon after, a gust blasted the house, shaking its timbers & ripping across the roof like god's gigantic comb. ah! we just lost the roof! thought i. how much is THAT gonna cost?!?!
no more sleeping now.
but the weather says the gusts only will be 65 mph.
i think we'll be ok. :) we've had 70, & no one here blew away to oz.
at this rate, tho, we'll never get to play shenanigan's on a thursday night til winter is completely over. va fan! this has been a heckuva winter, tho i know pallid by past-decade standards.... cacahuates! now it's snowing again! how is that posssible when it's 37 degrees?!? time for more coffee.

poster by mister page

he is learning postermywall & so has been making gig flyers. we will be at this show tonight unless it rains in long beach... have a parent mtg for one of my favorite kids early, better get cracking. happy day.

el dia de la enfermedad & go see wbjbe tonight at shenanigans in lbc ca usa

am trying to blog, but the cat won't have it. he crawls behind the computer & swipes a claw at the mouse as i move it. with great effort, i haul his gigantic bulk to the ground, & he responds with a pounce, teeth bared. earlier he was a big fat sweetheart warming my feet as i rested, but now... we know if he were human-sized & human, he'd be an autistic psychopath & we'd both have been shredded to pieces long ago...
been having weird dreams the last few nights. they come up whenever i'm sick. today's, time was kerflooey, as dreams are, & i was telling my ex-husband, a good man, that i'd been a crummy wife, then i jettisoned a yucky creep, feeling much better about the whole thing than the way it shook out in real life many yrs ago... then was looking all over for james to tell him BC i felt he'd be proud i'd been honest & in the dream, i FOUND HIM & all was well. he was silly & dashing & goofy & tough, like he is. in past dreams, i can't find him. so this is all good. 😀
wanted to post about decent silent film just watched on pub-d-hub (think that's what it's called) on the old roku on the old tv we just got free from a local lady... set it up in bedroom for lovely tv viewing on sick bed day... feeling weary. it's one of those "it's going around" illnesses... but wanted to share that this is worth watching for its social realism & lead actress & poignant plot & lack of misogyny... the goddess ... not the greatest film ever, but worthwhile.... if you're near long beach ca us this eve, go see the amazing whiteboy james on stage all night. if you don't know it yet, he is an astonishing performer, the wonderful, one-in-a-billion, big-hearted galoot... better go now. be well.

where i'll still be tonight

where james will be tonight & we'll be thursday

snow day, day 2!!!

yesterday, no school due to snow that Never Arrived... today, snow day numero dos! and this one is warranted! it's wondrous to witness the changing weather up here. this a.m. i had my coffee & watched the dark sky to the east suddenly melt into the most beautiful robin's egg blue tinged with eastery pinks & yellows & silvers & thought, well, that's it, better get ready for work, when shazam! just like that, black clouds enveloped the heavens & walls of snow started dancing & prancing across the sky like a scene from a vintage holiday movie! james says after a lifetime in smell/swellay (my name for it, not his), he enjoys seeing four seasons. i second it!
but oh heck, what now? i've had coffee, straightened the house, read for quite a while, petted the cat, researched how to fix an electric keyboard, paid bills, ate breakfast, drank more coffee,... (thumbs twiddling...) ... and now begins the descent into instant Cabin Fever... arrghhhh...

more shhhhnow

this past wkend was quite busy with music & being in the car going this place & that. here are nice pix snapped by roger f & richard c sat at shenanigan's. i will not write that i need to lose weight. oops -- already did... oh well. it was really fun playing that day with wonderful anthony & king james. we thundered!! we kicked a*s!!  the place was packed. people cheered & laughed & danced. it was a real kick!
we are getting old, but we still take a good pic, i think...
i hurt myself working too much in the book room at school yesterday, but that's a good thing about being formerly athletic (as well as a female w/lifelong entanglings w/the moon)

: i know what physical pain feels like, so i can bear it. plus gimme muscle pain any time over the head & chest pain i lived with in bakersfield (sinus infections, asthma, allergies, blehh!)... long ago, a kind friend gave me a buckwheat-filled heating donut, so that's easing the throbbing muscles & joints right now while i cool my heels, waiting to go to school on a snow-delay day. we'll see what happens weather-wise. supposed to have snow all week. woo-hoo! that's good for the mountain. however, we're supposed to be at shenanigan's this eve, so hope the weather won't prevent that!

shhhhhnow!

- now i know why james's childhood friend lisa, a very successful reality-tv producer, opted NOT to  create a reality show based on james. i read this article in the NYer (my fave mag, yknow, cause i get free copies & can read & read & read for hours & hours, plus the cartoons are great). the article was about a female reality-tv producer, likely someone lisa knows bc the article's subject was a co-producer on one of lisa's shows, the bachelorette. the business sounds soul-sucking, requiring one to resort to calculating, brutal, immoral tactics. lisa said at the time, i can't subject james to that. the article's subject (no, i don't remember her name) eventually quit & produced a parody of the reality-tv biz, the name of which i can't remember, either. ah-so.
this comes up bc this pic came from the cartoon part of the "pitch" i created for lisa for james's prospective show. i used the image for tomorrow's music show at shenanigan's.
- we celebrated an anniversary, kind of, on jan 8, what would've been elvis's 85th birthday. jan 8 2010 was the first time i saw james in the flesh. he remembers me as having birds & flowers tweeting & flying around my head, like snow white, he says, & an entourage of guys flocking around me, he likes to say. and that's the eve he told his former guitar player, "i'm gonna marry that girl." wow! i remember a tough-looking boy-man with large forehead & determined, fixed gaze who tho bald & obviously middle-aged was boisterously friendly & cute as a big kid. then he kept laying kisses on me, & tho wet, they were very romantic, not lecherous. i'd never had anyone do that! i was wobbling, confused, seeing stars as my former guitar player & i got in his car to drive off & he said, "i think someone LIIIKES you!" here are some pix from jan 8 2017, in front of the gias' beautiful door, & one from later that day at o'henning's in bakersfield/ oildale, where james played some & i got up to sing one w/him. we'll be there this sunday, too, to support kaykay, after saturday's show at shenanigan's, where i'll be bass for the day. with steve at his place in hawaii right now, i'm looking fwd to seeing little anthony & playing some music. old fart who don't like me, be danged. ha!
ok, so to be more linear, here's where we'll be:
-fri, snowed in, no blasters show in ventura
-sat, shenanigan's, LBC, 2-6 pm
-sun, o'hennings, oildale/bakersfield, kaykay jagger benefit, 3 pm

the snow is doing 100 different dances outside,  & here is what i posted on facebook. bye for now. :)

Snow day! Originally we were on 2 hr school delay, & in a moment of miracle, our bad cat sat in my lap (only the 2nd time he's done this) & went to sleep as I drank my morn coffee & admired the (then) light snowfall. Now it's really coming down: lovely! Yesterday at school, the kids were lunatics toward end of day!! What is going on with you guys?!? I implored. We're gonna have a snow day tomorrow!! they cheered. How can you tell? I said. We just know! the little barometers cried. But the snow bunnies! they whined. We don't want them to come up here! They make a mess & we cant go anywhere!! Yes, on NY Day, get this: an estimated 168,000 people came up to this mountain to see the snow. 168,000!!!! The entire greater mtn population is less than 15,000! In attempt to better regulate things, signs coming up the mountain now read Chains Required & 2 Hours to Snow Play. It was taking 2 to 4 hours on NY to drive 15 miles! Tons & tons of garbage, too, were left by the roadsides. I hope this time will be better! 

fiddling around friday

no, this site won't let me upload a simple music file, either...  if i knew more about coding, i'd be able to do it, no problemo...
(hang on a minute...)
(...)
(...)

https://sites.google.com/site/duskdevilsaudio/config/pagetemplates/jennypage-audio?previewAsViewer=1
i don't know if that will work...
- the 1st song is james & me fiddling around one eve when he was feeling sentimental about his long-time friend & mentor... but i wish i had practiced before recording it... i've developed a potty mouth in past years, never would've said "sucked" in previous life (however, just read those who swear are more imaginative, so maybe i'm gettin more maginative)... james came in to my classroom this eve (i stayed late to grade papers & do the 100 other little tasks teaching school requires) & started playing "help you dream" on the classroom pianny, singing the melody so sincerely over the wrong changes like he does (how does he do that?!?), so i stopped grading & played as he sang & looked into my eyes with a little tear & a smile & it was a moment surely sweeter than when mr alvin did that one night long ago when i'd gone to see the blasters... james is pure heart, which those who love him know (but as he always say, most who think they know him, don't at all...)
the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th are these: a song i wrote while we were separated; a voice acting demo i recorded from a book & i forgot the details of, which is lame bc its words are very wise; and a song i wrote years ago in the dusk devils days that james wants to use in his repertoire/album eventually, but i wanted to put it on here now bc i have little self-control at times, so if i put this one on here, i won't put on here the other 10 songs i want to, ones he's gonna put in his repertoire eventually cause i shouldn't do that, but i wrote this one & actually used to sing this it, too, so i'll put it up...
what else? deutsche kuchen red cabbage & apples. bomb-a*s aldi, our new favorite grocery store. (we went in germany! there's one in backwardfield! now THAT is weird!). new strength moves.  the trabampoline. a new side job as book clerk at school. tomorrow after yoga, if i can find a haz-mat suit, i'll go to school & start cleaning it out. today, a clean septic tank for only $600 (aaah! kill me now!). funny how the bathroom smells so much better now, less eau de bum. neat articles about ursula k le guin, leonard cohen (the new yorker: endless reading, so cheap, & the best cartoons). power failure on the mountain. caveman cavey's, such great pizza. yum! 23 degrees this morn, with ice so hard on my windshield, the ice scraper couldn't budge it! our cat, his whisker now mysteriously curled. such a feline butthead, he certainly would never rescue us from a vicious dog, as a bakersfield cat hero recently did when its 6-year old human-child was attacked. something i just learned about: quipa. and the language created by & used by only women: nushu... so much blablablaboloney that doesn't make any sense, even swimming in the head that thinks it... you might know how the big dumb coconut can roll like a big wheel... through a georgia cotton field... so i will hush. ta-ta for now!

blablabla

just checking in since i haven't written in a long bit. here are some randoms:
- went to post office, which was closed, bearing tardy holiday gifts that are past-due needing a-mailing, saw group of frozen locals standing on edge of highway with signs reading "if you won't respect our home, LEAVE." man, you should've seen the traffic crawling along the little highway! mile after mile of visitors, which the locals were protesting: the messy, multitudinous snow bunnies who've clogged our roads & hillsides of late. our poor little mountain has looked almost bad as the 405 at some times recently.
- james & i caught some of it driving back home on christmas day. at first we grumbled & complained, then started to enjoy watching all the flatlander families playing in the white stuff, hundreds, maybe even a G of  'em between fort tejon & gorman along the 5 as well as along the highway to our town, clambering & sliding on the hillsides, climbing over private fences, taking selfies, laughing, making snowmen, packing snow in their vehicle beds & on hoods, heck, one family even had out a full picnic & BBQ set up!
- still, presence of the hordes ultimately is annoying bc we live up here in part NOT to deal w/urban human numbers. funny: Facebook wags referred today to "snow dummies" & "citiots," the latter of which definitely is my favorite neologism of late... it made the whole thing light-hearted again. plus, give this a week & we'll be back to being a tiny mountain hamlet with near-no visitors... with luck the bunny/dummy invasion has helped local business...
- oh, i think that's it. vacation is over, it's still cold cold cold up here, but tomorrow morn bright & early, i'll be in the stalwart subaru heading to school... i've missed my students, but there's much to be said for sleeping in... feliz anyo nuevo [sic]

going on now!!

get hold of james to find out what he's selling and how to get to the bizarre bazaar! orders accepted by mail, as well... now til the new year... tell yo friends! (see poster for his contact info)

ps, come see us this thurs at shenanigan's, shoreline village long beach ca, 7 pm-11 pm, for our holiday show (which means i'll sing christmas songs and we'll do the rest of the regular combo show, with james leading the repertoire!)... haven't written in a good long while, but all is well... look what mom & dad celebrated yesterday! wow! happy holidays!!!

so anyways...

i have to go to the bathroom, but the cat is on my lap. he looks up at me with trusting green orbs, blinks, puts a soft paw on my arm. dang it. i have to go to the bathroom!
we had such a great time in swellay. actually hollywood. i'll have to post more later.
oh good: kitty just remembered he really is a wild, only-semi-domesticated beast & swiped at me with claw. off the lap, beast!
now i can meet nature's call...
here's a poster i made for saturday night. i'm gonna play on this show.
ahhhh.... vacation: leisure time! i like it. :)
may your holidays be filled with love & not too much internal conflict as you reconcile breaking bread w/dear ones in commemoration of a genocide... i choose instead to focus on the fam!

where were we?

our cousin, the super-beautiful one, was accepted on a cooking tv show, i just found out. master chef?  i will tune in. happy for her -- she's long-been on the edges of the entertainment field! the only cooking show i watch is chopped, tho that one gets old quickly. i love the female judges, all beautiful in marked-different style, & supernerd host ted allen, & superman-handsome scott whatever-his-name-is...  i've learned from chopped that one can combine the most disparate elements to make a palatable dish. james shrugs, says, "chemistry," as if it's so everyday, to know this particular magic. me, i, who kisses better than cooks, to paraphrase my fridge magnet, made a delicious casserole this morn from leftovers: thank you, chopped... included in dish were the powerfully-aromatic garlic fries we had yesterday eve, at charlie brown's terrific americana-overload  junkporium, en route home from biker gig in san bernadino. we took the city route over, the desert route home w/dusky heavens flamed w/color the way they do only in high-desert: gorgeous! :a nostalgically maxfield parrish feast for the orbs.
he's home from store; i'll write more later.
he brought my favorite ice cream: thrifty's chocolate malted crunch!!!!
truly this is vacation time... :D