Chuck Brown Beautiful Life (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

Rest in peace, Chuck. There's a great message in this song. A message that everybody should pay attention to. Don't worry so much about what you don't have. Be grateful for what you do have. 

In our current circumstances, I think a little bit of luck might come in handy too. America is at a fork in the road. We can keep going like we've been going, barreling-ass down the road straight to hell, or we can put the country back together like it was fifty or sixty years ago. But, you know, without the giant unnecessary war, the racism, and the homophobia. The big difference would be returning to fair taxation and fair wages. Those things worked, and none of it hurt the rich people one little bit. 

People now love to complain about all of the homelessness, and the tweekers, and the Oxy junkies. Wake up and smell the coffee. Don't complain about the symptoms, treat the disease. Fair wages and fair taxes. 

Still beating my head on that wall, and it hurts. My greatest fear is that enough people will continue to vote for the MFs that have gotten us into this mess, are making money from this mess, and just want to make the mess worse, and permanent. 

The Velvet Underground - Foggy Notion (Audio)

An Entire Lesson In One Sentence

 

Every sentence in a great novel is a work of art. Context; delivery; tone; word-choice; grammar; maybe even a bit of metaphor or allegory. A simile. I write this blog as though I were under a strict time limit, whereas a great writer crafts every sentence as though she were cutting a famous diamond. A diamond that would be given a name and treasured for all of history. This is the sentence that I will be remembered for! The beauty of a great sentence can stun a sensitive reader the way a masterpiece by a great artist can stun a viewer. Each thing proves, in its way, the potential of humanity. They broadcast to the world: this is the greatness that lives in mankind. It doesn't always work out that way. There are examples in literature and the visual arts that stun for all of the wrong reasons.

Without placing it at any particular point on the value scale, I offer the following sentence as a lesson for the would be writers out there:

“Reinhardt shuddered awake, again, clawing himself up from that dream, that nightmare of a winter field, the indolent drift of smoke and mist along the hummocked ground, the staccato line of the condemned and the children's screams.” *

This is the first sentence of a novel that is available on Amazon. It's not a vanity project like my own Amazon offering. This book was actually published by Berkley, and has been sold through Penguin Group (USA). I am in no position to evaluate greatness in other people's English sentences, but I do know a good one from a bad one. I am simply a humble reader, and writer, and sometime editor. If my own sentences read smoothly and deliver a clear meaning, I am content. I try not to be judgmental, unless I am being paid to edit something. As a reader, I tend to be forgiving if the writer is a real historian and the book is non-fiction. Reading novels and other fiction, however, I can be quite demanding. This is probably a fault in me.

But sentences, and in particular the above highlighted sentence. Not all are worthy of study. This example, however, should be closely examined by all beginning writers. My lawyer has advised me that I am not to say one more word about this sentence. I am a lawyer, and I am therefore in charge of my own risk-management division. We live in a litigious society, and people get sued for the damnedest things. I generally listen to the lawyer in me, so that will be my final word on the subject.

*From “The Man from Berlin,” by Luke McCallin

CHAI - N.E.O. [YouTube Music Sessions]

I go back a long way with Japanese groups. I've always found the heavy representation of women in the groups to be fascinating. I'm leaving out all of the sweet young woman pop singers. I like the serious rockers. The Sadistic Mika Band are a classic example. There were a lot of guy groups, sure, like Guitar Wolf and Teengenerate, but bands like the Pugs, the Love Pigs, and Melt Banana were always in the mix. Chai seem like fun to me. (That's my music motto: if the band is having fun, I'm having fun.) 

You're Welcome. Carry On Dreaming

Say thanks! I'm not going to write about anything substantive today. I'm in a mood.

Relax, I'm not going to describe any dreams. Poetry and dreams are certain death for a blog. But I have a comment on the process. Of dreams, that is, not poetry.

I am informed, and believe, that what we see in dreams are merely place-holders for the actual subject matter. Many writers have kept dream notebooks and found ideas for stories in there among the nonsense. That might work, and good for them. It does appear, though, that mining dreams for their deeper meaning is probably a waste of time. If it's all symbolic, or only the photographic record of separate items that the brain is sorting in our sleep, then dream analysis really is a waste of time. They have their effect though, don't they? They do on me.

Over the course of the last week, I have awoken from two dreams that were very similar in the style of the imagery, the nature of the subject matter, and the overall tone. Vague on the details of the visuals; family centered on the subject; and without any fear or menace in the tone. Both had a powerful emotional impact on my mood upon awaking. One gave me a feeling of well-being and absolution that lasted throughout the day. The other left me sitting on the edge of the bed feeling responsible for terrible things, worthless, and horribly alone.

We go to sleep at night, and for an unknown portion of that time, we dream. The brain remains active for the entire time that we are asleep, forming, collating, and filing memories, solving problems, searching too, I think, for long ignored bits of memory that would have come in handy earlier on that particular day or another day, perhaps long ago. I know for sure that the brain, in sleep-mode, goes over events that happened weeks or months ago, still wondering if important actions or information had been omitted. Amid this hurricane of electro-chemical activity, dreams bubble to the surface to console us or taunt us, or just to confuse us.

Many people never remember dreams or dreaming. They may know that for a medical certainty they do dream, but asked under penalty of perjury if they did, in fact, dream, they would be forced to say, “not to my knowledge.” They might be the lucky ones.

For the rest of us, dreams are our fate, and we enjoy them or suffer them accordingly. May all of your dreams be cheerful and lighthearted, and may all of your nightmares be forgotten even before you realize that you have had them.

CHAI - Plastic Love - Official Music Video

I love how Chai stands the Girl Group model on its head in this video. No fancy outfits; no elaborate choreography; little or no make-up; just the girls next door enjoying a nice walk in the neighborhood. 

If you need any convincing, the group is Gerry Casale approved! Devo are very well versed in the challenges faced by a group that the music industry finds difficult to package or market.  

I should probably wait to see how they play out before shooting my mouth off. I only read about them in the Times this morning, and I've only seen two videos. We'll see.  Good luck, girls! 

"No Face, No Name, No Number"- Traffic w/Lyrics

The 1960s were an amazing time for the so-called popular music. New Orleans music took off as of the late 1950s and zoom-climbed for a while. Surf music was a sound and an idea that found its genius in Brian Wilson. Girl groups, Motown, Phil Spector. Then Kennedy got shot, and we all looked down at our shoes for a month or two. 

The Beatles quickly reminded us that we enjoyed having fun, and the next five or six years were a period of profound changes and innovation in the music that the young people liked. The big labels were still signing and developing bands, we were all still buying records and listening to the radio, concerts were still rather intimate affairs. It was a great time to be a fan. 

This song is from the first Traffic LP, released in December, 1967. We were familiar with Steve Winwood from the Spencer Davis Band, but when we first listened to this record it really put us back on our heels. It sounded fresh; it sounded like some new direction. That could still happen in the late 1960s. 

You can complain about the new music if you wish. Me? I'm quitting while I'm ahead.