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

September 20, 2015 - 1:25 p.m.

Hello Betty Soo Goodby Heart and Rebecca sings a Low B.

I have to break up this late start on my day thing. I need to shift my live two hours earlier. Oddly part of the reason I'm staying up so late is that I'm back to reading before I go to sleep and I don't start that till I should be finishing it.

I'm trying to write this fast and get to the point but I can't. If I'm not conversational and show you my inner dialogue it isn't Wise Madness. So I have to let you see me debating whether or not to include this paragraph. The entire cosmos is now going to implode in self-reference.

Last night I went to Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 to see Rebecca Loebe and Betty Soo. I've known Becca since 2009 or so but I have never seen a full set by Betty Soo. Oddly we've run into each other enough times to know each other. I didn't know she knew me till I got there. Fred joined me. Rebecca was on my "Fred must see" list. I knew a significant portion of the crowd, there was also Howard, Eliot and Fran. Is that it? But here's the thing, both Howard and Eliot go to more shows than me. I go to more shows than Fred. People think that Fred goes to a lot of shows. Yeah this was music addict night.

Betty Soo and Rebeccca are a great fit for each other. They are both stand-up comics between the songs. It's great when people are actually laughing out loud. Betty Soo did a bit about how much fun it is traveling with Rebecca; I kept thinking I bet it would be the third person in that car.

Betty Soo was on first. If you know my tastes you might guess that I wouldn't like her. She is a sensitive singer/songwriter. She's a chick with a guitar singing love songs. While I often mock those things it's because they are so easy to do poorly and that's exactly what most practitioners do. Betty Soo does it very well. She can sing, she can write, she's musical, and don’t forget that she' funny. I'll go for that every time.

Most people are struck by Rebecca's voice. She has a great one. I always think more about her songwriting. She's someone I love as a performer for exactly the same reason I love her as a person, she has interesting things to say. When I write about Rebecca I very often say "I forgot how funny she is." I wrote that so many times I now remember it. So she did only one funny song to emphasize that point. See that's funny. OK you don't see that's funny but I do and that's what matters.

After the show Fred and I hung around talking to Betty Soo and Rebecca then Fred suggested getting dinner. You know how much I love post show eating. It turns out he has never been to Katz's so I insisted we eat there. So I had great music, the world's best pastrami, Dr. Brown's cream soda, and post-concert dinner with a friend. That's all good.

There was one negative. It was late and I knew that if I went to Pathmark they pharmacy aisle's would be closed so I wouldn't be able to buy nasal strips. So last night I woke up several times because I had trouble breathing. I also don't have butter which will affect what I have for breakfast. I was going to make bacon and eggs but I really like a buttered bagel with that. I'll figure something out. If I had not slept so late I'd be having a musical triple header and be at the Melodica festival right now. So instead it will be a double-header, Villa Palagonia at the San Gennaro Festival followed by Anthony da Costa and friends at Rockwood.

Wow this is super short. Oh, I forgot to include photos. Fred took some good ones and I'll use his.


Betty Soo


Rebecca Loebe



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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 September 20, 2015
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