Ah ha!!!

Okay okay, the last post blew. But every now and then I blow. Hehehehehehehehehhehehhe. So last night I was bored and had nothing to do (as boredom usually entails), and so was Angie. So long story short she picked me up at around 9:30 and we headed back to her house. There, I saw old pictures of my dad and her mom from 1970, one of which my dad was holding this giant fuzzy foot and laughing (his head seemed even bigger than it does now), and the other of he and Angie's mom comparing noses. It was silly. Then I observed the pile of clothes and other such things she calls her "room". It was nice actually. Well it wasnt cleaned up or anything, but thats the way I like it. We rumedged through some of her old notebooks and binders and whatnot and talked about what boy has the cutest butt. That is to say, not that at all, but it was close once. Anyway, so I didnt get home till about quarter of 1 in the morning so I was alittle sleepy. But did I sleep? No. Wanna know why? Well Id tell you that I watched the fresh prince cause thats what I thought I did, but I just remembered it wasnt on.

Anywhoooooo, how's the 4 to 5 people who read this doing? I could've been doing better earlier, but then it dawned on me that I wasnt actually doing bad at all. I went to DiaBenny's house earlier. It was nice for the brief amount of time that I was there. We listened to alot of stuff that I brought cause he was interested in it, and it's funny, cause everytime he and I are listening to anything I realize how fantastic of a listener he is. We sit there and he hardly moves for however long whatever it is we're listening to is. And he picks up things that alot of other people dont so quickly. It's great to see because I hate when people say they're interested in something and really wanna hear it but then when they get the chance all they do is talk or hardly pay attention to it at all. It's very annoying, and it makes me respect them alittle less. Or alot less, depending on how bad they are when something is actually playing.

Once again I am friendless, for everyone is off doing better things. But I dont mind, my spirits are light tonight. I'd tell you why but it's too risky.

I'm finally starting my drivers ed. classes next Monday at BR. Im not excited, nor do I even want to do it at all, but fortunately Im not as paranoid about going to places like that as I once was. In fact Im not as paranoid about it as I was last week, which is great. Im thinkin I may ask John to walk with me down there just to show me where the room is and for moral support. But if not thats fine, I just hope there isnt an abundance of people outside of the classroom. Otherwise Ill be alittle freaked out. I hope I dont see anyone I know either. Not that I dont like the people I know, I just feel weird about seeing them in a setting like that, cause I wouldnt know what to do, like if I should say something or not. Hopefully they'd just say "hi" and I could say it back and that would be then end of that.

I wish I had more to say cause Im in a typutive mood. Unfortunately I lack verbal skills in nearly every form and I have no creativity whatsoever. Ah well, back to the drawing bored. The figurative drawing bored that is. The literal figurative drawing bored that is. The liturative figeral drawing bored that is.

The reason my "spirits are light" tonight is because alittle earlier I forced myself to start to figure out some classical guitar peices. Okay well Ive only started one, but its the one that Ive wanted to do for a while but havnt had the drive to do so cause I thought I sucked too much. There are other that Im planning on figuring out though and its all very exciting, cause I havnt done this on a steady bases for a couple years now and back then it was the thing that kept me as stable as I could be. So figuring out things as complicated as classical peices will boost my confidence. At least I hope it does, otherwise Im screwed. Screwed out of living a life filled with confidence. Maybe it's time to wrap this up, but I still feel typutive. Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... I still havnt gotten an e-mail back from Gail Zappa (for those of you who dont know, I located Frank Zappa's wife's personal e-mail address). Im not expecting anything soon, if anything at all, but that would be cool, wouldnt it? Yeeeaahhh you dont care. Anywho, ya'll have a good night/day.

Well Folks...

I had a great post earlier, but then this computer (which is actually the better one now that we moved my sisters into the kitchen) had to kick me off and not let me back on for a couple minutes. Funny how everything is so fastpace nowadays that even couple minutes can seem like the longest time in terms of computers. Anyway, I cant possibly rewrite what I previously wrote. I apologize, but it was too good to recreate. Long story short, I dont see the point in posting much now cause I lost all of my creative flow when I got kicked off. Also Im tired. So Im afraid this'll have to do for now. Chances are Ill just delete this one at a later date and rewrite it. I apologize most of all to Taylor as I know he was looking forward to this post. It'll be better next time. Goodnight.

Bitches Brew Liner Notes...

Unfortunately this would make alot more sense to the people who have heard it, but it's an interesting thing nonetheless. Im gonna start a paragraph into it cause the first paragraph is more personal. So here it goes.

"... and sometimes I think maybe what we need is to tell people that this is here because somehow in this plasticized they have the automatic reflex that if something is labeled one way then that is all there is in it and we are always finding out to our surprise that there is more to Blake or more to Ginsberg or more to 'Trane or more to Stravinsky than whatever it was we thought was there is the first place.

So be it with music we have called jazz and which I never knew what it was because it was so many different things to so many different people, each apparently contradicting the other, and one day I flashed that it was music. That's all, and what it was great music it was great art and it didnt have anything to do with labels and who says Mozart is by definition better than Sonny Rollins and to whom.

So Lenny Bruce said there is only what is and that's a pretty good basis for a start. This music is. This music is new. This music is new music and it hits me like an electric shock and the word "electric" is interesting becauset the music, either by virtue of what you can do with tapes and by the process by which it is preserved on tape or by the use of electricity in the actual making of the sounds themselves.

Electric music is the music of this culture and in the breaking away (not the breaking down) from previously assumed forms a new kind of music is emerging. The whole society is like that. The old forms are inadequate, not the old enternal verities but the old structures. And new music isn't new in that sense either, it is still creation which is life itself and it is only done in a new way with new materials. So we have to reach out to the world with new ideas and new forms and in music this has meant leaving the trditional forms of bars and scales, keys and chords, and playing something else altogether which maybe you cant identify and classify yet but which you recognize when you hear it and which when it makes it, really makes it, it is the true artistic turn on.

Sometimes it comes by accident. Serendipity. With the ones who are truly valuable, the real aritists, it comes because that is what they are here to do even if they can say as Miles says of his music, I dont know what it is, what is it? They make music like they make those poems and those pictures and the rest because if they do not they cannot sleep nor rest nore, really, live at all. This is how they live, the true ones, by making the art which is creation.

Somtimes we are lucky enough to have one of these people like Miles, like Dylan, like Duke, like Lenny here in the same world at the same time we are and we can live this thing and feel it and love it and be moved by it and it is a wonderful and rare experience and we should be grateful for it. Look. Miles changed the world. More than once. That's true you know. Birth of the cool was first. Then when it all went wrong Miles called all the children home with Walkin'. He just got up there and blew it and put it on an LP and all over the world they stopped in their tracks when they heard it. They stopped what they were doing and they just listened and it was never the same after that. Just never the same.

It will never be the same again now. How can it ever be the same? I dont mean you cant listen to Ben. How silly. We can always listen to Ben play funny valentine, until the end of the world it will be beautiful and how can anything be more beautiful than Hodges playing passion flower? He never made a mistake in 40 years. It's not more beautiful, just different. A new beauty. A different beauty. The other beauty is stil beauty. This is new and right now it has the dge of newness and that snapping fire you sense when you go out ther from the spaceship where nobody has ever been before.

What a thing to do! What a great thing to do. What an honest thing to do there in the studio to take what you knew to be true, to hear it, use it and put it in the right place. When they are concerned only with the art, thats when it really makes it. Miles hears and what he hears he paints with. When he sees he hears, eyes are just an aid to hearing if you think of it that way. It's all in there, the beauty, the terror and the love, the sheer humanity of life in this incredible electric world which is so full of distortion that it can be beautiful and frightening in the same instant.

What is so incredible about what Miles does is whoever comes after him, whenever, wherever, they have to take him into consideration. They have to pass him to get in front. He laid it out there and you cant avoid it. It's not just the horn. It's a concept. It's a life support system for a whole world. And it's complete in itself like all the treaures have always been.

Music is the greatest of the arts for me because it cuts through everything, needs no aids. It is. It simply is." - Ralph J. Gleason

I agree with most of the stuff he said, with the exception of a couple things. But I thought it was great regardless and something to ponder if you're interested at all in that sort of thing. My posts havnt been as music oriented lately as they usually are so I figured this would be somethin good.

I dont have a Dentist Guru...

But apparently some other people do. John being one of them. I just got back from the dentist and my mouth has this weird... clean feeling. Im not sure I like it. But I showed them, cause last time I was there they said "Be sure to use the floride rinse and floss every night", so i did for a while, but then stopped entirely, but now im flossing, but not using the floride rinse and do I have any teeth problems? No siree. Tim= 1 - Dentist= about 5 or 6. Im assuming thats how many cavities Ive had. Im catching up though.

So lets seeeeeeee, what day is it? The 9th? That aint too bad I suppose.

Hey so I read in the paper today that this guitarist from this band I used to like a long time ago called Pantera was shot and killed on stage at a show in Ohio yesterday. Or I think it was yesterday anyway. But anyway, isn't that nuts? I mean, I havn't listened to them for a long time and I wasnt that huge a fan when I did, but still, thats very sad. A guy just ran up on stage and shot him at point blank range a bunch of times and he died right there. A cop did shoot the guy who shot him, and he died too, which is good that he got what he deserved so quickly, but still. I mean, his own brother is the drummer in the same band as he was. Imagine seeing your own brother get shot and killed right in front of you while you're doing the same thing that you've done most of your life. Scary stuff, man. Scaaarryyy stuff.

Who's up for some dodgeball? I think Im hungry, but Im not sure. Well fella's, I really dont have anything to say, I wish I did more so as to briefly entertain anyone who looks here, but Im far far too illcreative to do so. Good day.

Rock Island Line...

This has been one of the best Saturday mornings I can remember. I got up and my dad and I listened to some Robert Johnson and talked about how great the old blues is, and the history of American music and then somehow got into a long discussion about God and stuff of the like. It was great. It always serves me well to talk to him about things like that. Also, as of the past few days I have, with my dad's knowledge of older rock 'n' roll, become aware of a man by the name of Lonnie Donnegan. Who is Lonnie Donnegan, you ask? Well, ya know how everyone says (usually) "The Beatles started it all" or what have you, or that they're so influencial? Well Lonnie Donnegan, my friends, was the man who influenced The Beatles. If it weren't for him they would never have existed. "Well so what?", you say, "everyone has influences and The Beatles wouldn't be an exception". Of course that's true (except for the few nutcases that think they started it altogether), BUT, it was his sound. They actually copied his sound at the beginning of their career. If I may quote Van Morrison: "Without Lonnie Donegan, there wouldn't have been a British music scene at all, I'd put my money on that." Now for some liner notes: "Morrison's claim is barely exaggerated. When John Lennon's teenage record collection came up for auction a few years ago, the artist most heavily represented wasn't Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly, but Donnegan. Paul McCartney has admitted that it was hearing Lonnie's first single that persuaded him he could form a group of his own. The Beatles duly began life as the Quarry Men Skiffle Group, trying to duplicate both the instrumental line-up and more importantly the sound of Donnegan's early hits."

Hhhhmmm, interesting, isn't it? Anyway, enough of that. I was gonna put something else here but I think I'm gonna wait, or not put it up at all, ever. Off I go!