Saturday, May 14, 2011

Martin Luther King, may I mambo dogface on the banana patch?




WARNING: I recently read a report that said if you use a cellphone while eating heavy proteins, you could give yourself heart palpitations.
So please, if you are going to eat something like a bacon cheeseburger, keep the cell phone at least three feet from your head until your food is properly swallowed.

I just completely made that up.
Thanks to the interweb and even blogging; we can be misinformed by anyone and the more people we can reach, the worse off we all are.

Steve Martin once joked, “Wanna have some fun? Teach your kids to talk wrong! Imagine the teacher’s dismay on the first day of school, when a child raises their hand and asks, "May I mambo dogface on the banana patch?"

Misquoting Martin Luther King on the internet to make a point about the killing of Osama Bin Laden; are an extension of what Steve Martin was joking about (or most things said on FOX NEWS, but that is for another day).

The quote that went around was:
‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." Martin Luther King, Jr

It was a perfect quote for the moment for many thoughtful, sensitive Americans. I was torn between being a New Yorker; seeing personal friends lose their spouses, brothers and everything in between. I am glad he is dead, he asked for it. Yet, seeing anyone celebrate a killing in a "spike the football" fashion just feels kind of like an a%*hole move. Most of the quote is by King from "Strength to Love". That first sentence, though, is a complete fake.

There were retractions, but hey, when The NY Times screws up you hear about it.
Great things can come from sharing information. It's just too easy these days to pass around info for good or bad, that is just plainly inaccurate.
All these false quotes and my cellphone/heavy protein/heart palpitations info is out there on the internet to google and learn from ...forever.

So I ask YOU
May I mambo dogface on the banana patch?"

Friday, May 13, 2011

By the time we got to Woodstock... they fell asleep.





We somewhat re-located to the Woodstock area 3 1/2 years ago. We still have a crash pad in Brooklyn is what I mean by somewhat. I love coming back from a tour with the ability to drive the van in to my driveway and walk into my house and go to sleep. Sometimes the worst part of a tour is coming home to NYC exhausted, load in gear upstairs, and THEN go find parking, anyone that has done this will agree... it sucks!

I have looked for gigs to play in the Hudson Valley area to mixed results. My favorite was playing with Junior Brown @ The Bearsville Theater. He even came back to our house for a bit after the show. Many people would think that Woodstock would have great gigs to offer, occasionally but not often. It is a town of baby boomers, rock stars and wannabe rock stars that generally don't go out to shows unless it is a band connected to the 69 festival in some way (Even Jefferson Starship sans Grace Slick does well). There are also some pure music lovers and great people here, but they can be hard to find. Woodstock apparently is 65% second homes, so a lot of folks get up here and understandably just want to enjoy their home. The most popular (and only) regular show in town is Karaoke, where it can at least be about themselves for a while.

It is a beautiful place filled with far too many people wanting to tell you about the time they smoked pot with Jimi Hendrix (it'd be great if they were actual stories, more often... that is the WHOLE story). Yes, the local bar I drop into, they still refer to me (at 43) as the young guy.


Daria (me wife) and I were lucky enough to meet some of the best friends we could ever ask for right here in town. We met Jason Bowman, one of the Jack Grace Band drummers within the first few weeks of moving here. Jason's band, Five Points Band, a family band and all involved are those friends. Magic still happens up here. It just isn't floating all over as it had in say 1966. You have to find it hiding around corners and behind very quaint closed doors.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Junior Brown Thinks Yer Dead...


"Jack you gotta really be careful about putting this kinda stuff out there, I mean folks will expect you to live it"
Junior Brown on viewing "Drinking Song For Lovers" CD.


OK, It's gotten to the point where if I don't feel like drinking and I go out in public, there are folks dissapointed in me, calling me a fraud even. I felt like I was doing something different for a while. Now it feels like a drunken trajectory of mayhem sending me into a tailspin of predictable "not as fun as they used to be" scenarios. I wanted to be a person enjoying the pitfalls of life with a martini in my hand. I have enjoyed that.

I have begun working on the new CD. The subject matters are far more varied then in past releases.

Maybe I will finally take Junior Brown's advise and put something else out there:
"Cuz yer wanted by the po-lice and my wife thinks yer dead."
Hmm was it just me, I always thought that was a song about a bender Junior...
He wrote the song using second person narrative though, hmmm that's one way...

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

When one flies the coop...

http://gawker.com/5800433/berserk-naked-racist-wig+out-marks-another-day-on-the-nyc-subways

OK so seeing this tells me a few things.
1) It's funny how no one seems threatened by the guy at all.
2) That cop is not the cop you want around if and when you are in trouble.
3) With all the pressure that a city can put on you, I'm surprised not see this more often.
4) He doesn't seem to be any good at being a racist. Is he just being shocking? We could ask a lot of questions there....
5) When I finally do this, what will I yell about? I bet it will be about food.
6) When he grabs the ladies bag, that's where he begins not to know what to do next.
7) Drugs, mental imbalance, a combo, or did some guy just finally have enough and wanted to get naked and be a racist?
8) I have awoken with a few hangovers cringing about a few things I have said. This puts those moments in perspective (At least I think so).