Black Friday

...all the news outlets having been referring to this day as "Black Friday" perhaps because of the huge crush of holiday shoppers out looking for bargains and creating some black ink for retailers as opposed to the red ink they've been hemorraging during the idiotic rule of the current junta...
...but this phrase took on a blacker meaning on this dark late November morning in a Wal-Mart in Nassau County, New York...as the doors were being unlocked, the unruly surge of shoppers literally knocked the doors off the hinges and crushed a Wal-Mart employee to death and caused a pregnant woman to miscarriage...to celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus...

...Jesus Tap Dancin' Christ...you'd think it was a Who concert or something...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all, get a fuckin' clue...please?

back in buckeye land ~ part two

this is an interesting life i've chosen for myself, this business of making money making music...one never knows what sort characters one will encounter, even while doing something as mundane as loading gear into a club...yesterday was a perfect example...as we were heading through the door of the venue with the first bit of equipment, a crusty wrinkled old codger with a face like a saddle was in the doorway having a smoke...as i walked past, he growled, "You guys don't make music, you just make noise."...keeping my composure, i replied, "You haven't heard us play a single note my good man."...he countered with, "Well, i'll bet you don't play any country music." "Wrong" i say..."We play all sorts of stuff, including some Merle Haggard and Johnny Cash" ..."That's not country music.", he snears back at me...i realized at this moment that any further conversation would be a lost cause and only tend to piss me off, so i ignored the continuing barrage of derisive comments and tried to keep a Zen patience here in this land of astounding ignorance...and speaking of astounding ignorance, i have had to just get up and walk out on several racist-tinged jokes and conversations about Barack Obama...visiting here just reinforces for me the reasons i moved away from this place...so many small minds, dark hearts, just plain ol' dumbass rednecks...i don't know how any compassionate artistic souls survive in this place, let alone be able to grow up to be old enough to run away from the bleakness...the soul of this place is lost in hatred and stupidity...
...but on a more positive note, last night's gig went well...not as many folks turned out as we would have liked, but we played well and those who were there were groovin' and the club owners love us and want us to come back on our summer spin through the midwest...we shall see...the way i'm feeling right now, i'm not sure if i want to subject my spirit to the dark side of this place ever again...
...try as i may to spread love and light, the people around here look at me like i've got two fucking heads, and i feel like i'm smashing both of them into a brick wall...

back in buckeye land

today i can see the sun for the first time since leaving arizona...the weather here is as it is supposed to be this time of year...cold, gray, windy...but thanksgiving day is supposed to bring a respite and the good ol' glowin' orb that gives our planet life is forecast to be unencumbered by clouds...
...first of three gigs that we have booked on this trip is tonight...a new venue for us and we are planning on blowing the roof off the joint and make them beg us to book more shows when we come back here in the summertime...
...not much else to report at the moment...

Happy Thanksgiving...

More Kate

oh...those eyes...

...a bit creepy, this one...see if you can find the currently mega-popular television star amongst the actors in this video...

The Food Chain

i was reading an article earlier today about vegetarian food options for Thanksgiving dining...there is much tradition associated with the food customarily served on American dinner tables on this holiday, and being one who flirts with vegetarianism but hasn't gone into it whole hog (please pardon the pun), i'm always interested in new meatless options...the article was honestly a bit of let down, mostly soups and sides and not much in the realm of entrees and the big surprise came on the comment pages...a die hard carnivore (another ironic term) conservative took the opportunity to spew his hatred of vegetarians, liberals, hippies, women and all things that look scary from the smoky mouth of his cave...ignorant, knuckle-draggin' Neanderfuck...actually thinks that vegetarianism and environmentalism are threats to "his way of life"...

...we have come so far and yet still have so far to go...

For My Cobalt Blue Friend

on this full moon and all before and all to come

love...

...i make noises like this when i drink IPA, but i keep my paws on the outside of the glass...

Veteran's Day

are we going to fight to take back our country
and make the fallen heroes as proud of us
as we are of them?

all battles and revolutions don't require
a blood sacrifice

some just ask us to love...

imagine if you will...

...this goes beyond tasteless...it is hate speak of the worst order...imagine if you will, a black musician such as Kanye West or 50 Cent saying something like this about Bush or McCain or any other white politician...he would be hauled off to jail at the end of the show...we have a long way to go my brothers and sisters as long as dim-witted assholes like Ted Nugent practice such "free speech"...

is this what our fathers and grandfathers died to defend?

...borrowed this from Patti at 37days...a great song is great forever and here is one of many anthems for this new awakening...

and speaking of mysteries...

...it doesn't get more real than this...another great mystery solved...

mystery solved...

...as i lay down to sleep last night and all the noises of the city died to a faint murmur, i detected a strange sound in the air, seemingly coming from all directions...it was barely detectable at first, but built in intensity with each passing moment...what could this be, i thought...crickets?...a horde of locusts?...a steady tschick-tschick-tschick echoed in the dark...like the tell-tale heart in the story by Edgar Allan Poe, this sound began to drive me mad until i leapt out of bed and ran outside to find the source of the racket...
...and then it hit me...it was the sound of thousands and thousands of McCain/Palin bumper sticks being furtively scraped off in unison...

Exhale...

now...roll up yer sleeves...

we have work to do...

Happy Birthday, Pixie

i
love
you
(bushels and bushels of pecks)

SP

Electoral Insomnia

...it seems to be going around, like a mutant mental virus, this sleeplessness, this tossing and turning, the flipping of the pillow to the cool side, almost slipping into sleep and then the questions loom again, "What if the polls are terribly wrong?...What if the thugs can engineer another upset?"...it's not just me...lot's of people are fighting through this malady that thankfully will be cured in a matter of hours when we perform our civic duty and try to bring on the start of a new, peaceful revolution...it's not up to the politicians...it's up to us to change how we think and feel and treat one another...it really is just that simple...

and rest in peace Madelyn "Toot" Dunham...please watch over your grandson...