I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

March 19, 2014 - 11:43 a.m.

Kristin Shout

I of course accomplished less than I wanted to yesterday. Doesn't that always happen? but you were rewarded with an idiot story. I started doing my laundry way later than I wanted to. I had to leave here at 6:16 to make my show at Barb�s. I started around 4:30 or so. I was a bit at sixes and sevens. Instead of leaving my cart there while the laundry was being done I pushed it home and didn't notice till I got there. That's not the idiot story. A little before six I went to take it out of the drier and the manager tells me that I left my white laundry in the washer. Ugh, I never dried it and didn't have time to dry it now. I put it in the grocery sack I had washed and took it home with the dry clothes. Then I hung them all across the shower rod to dry out. I had to do that very fast to make my train.

I was going to see Kristin Andreassen and Alec Spiegelman. The show was scheduled for 7:00, I walked in exactly at 7:00. The only one in the room was Kristin. I wasn't the first person there, someone else was at the bar. Apparently everyone else knew that a 7:00 start time meant 7:30. But people showed up and there was a decent crowd by 7:15 so they started early with songs not on their set list. These were bonus tracks.

I have seen them before but then Alec accompanied Kristin on bass clarinet.

This time he sang songs and played guitar and piano.

Alec plays in the band Cuddle Magic and in some jazz combos. He's in instrumentalist. He's really good on the bass clarinet and sax and I believe clarinet. He plays piano well. Being a singer/songwriter is not his usual thing. he has no recordings. He neither sings well enough nor plays guitar well enough to be a singer. But here's the thing. I would rather hear him sing than 90% of the people that can. That might be conservative. He's someone I'd go out of my way to see again. The way I put it to Kristin was, "I got to NERFA and hear 8,000 singer/songwriters,. 7,500 of them might was well be the same person. Not Alec. He has something to say and he says it well. He's funny. He's meaningful. So what if his voice stretches to reach the notes and he misses them now and again. And he does know what he's doing,. When he harmonizes with Kristin in sounds great. The elements of performance are songwriting, musicianship, stage presence, and genius. What most performers lack is genius. He has it in abundance.

I was afraid of writing that. I didn't want him to read it and feel bad. I wrote Kristin and asked how he'd take it but she hasn't gotten back to me and I have a deadline to meet. I'm sticking with my gut and writing it and counting on him understanding that this is praise.

You might have noticed that I'm seeing Kristin often. I have always liked Kristin as a person and a performer. It's pretty hard to not love someone that wrote Crayola. But now she's taken it to a new level. She's one of the people I'm obsessing on. She's as good as anybody out there. She has a unique point of view and can sing not like an angel but a nature spirit, she's too earthy to be angelic. And she does body percussion and clogs and she wrote the greatest song every written.

She did a songwriting challenge, 20 songs in one day. She made it to 18. This was as you might expect song 13. I love that it's not so much about 13 wolverines but 12+1 wolverines. There's always one left over. And she does it in a cartoon bear voice.

That is totally not representative of her music but it is so much her.. I also got a video of the body percussion version of Crayola

I didn't know anyone at the show and there were a lot of people there. I am going to give you advance notice next time I see her and you should do yourself a favor and go see her. I will video more typical songs.

Oh back to being an idiot. I didn't have time to put my clothes away before I went out. I left them in the laundry bag. When I came home things were sort of wrinkled. I asked the landlady if I could borrow an iron and she lent me one. So I ironed for the very first time since I moved out of my house in Bayside. I hate ironing and I'm terrible at it.

I was going to write something personal but I'm not doing anything worth writing about today so I'll save it till tomorrow. And I want to get bagels today and that's a bit of a walk so takes time. I better get going if I want to eat at a decent hour.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile March 19, 2014
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