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
October 31, 2013 - 11:05 a.m. To wake, perchance to write. Aye there's the rub. I'm listening to Jean Rohe and the End of the World Show perhaps that will inspire me. It's making my list of top albums of 2013. I did NOT go to WfUV yesterday. I did NOT hear live music. First time I could say that in a while. I did the dedicated teacher thing. After school I wrote a test, printed it out, and inserted the question papers into the blue exam books. I like my tests. I solve Diophantine equations to make the numbers come out nice. Think there's a market for a book geared to math teachers on how to make up problems? I know many people that write problems for text books can't do it and I'm pretty sure many teacher's can't either. On the other hand I'm sure all my teach friends can do it with no trouble. That was pretty it for my day. I went to Trader Joe's and grabbed some pizza. My legs can use the rest. I love the way things interconnect. Tonight I'm seeing SONiA & disappear fear at Joe's Pub. Thinking about them made me realize that I might not know many of you lovely people if not for them. My life would certainly be different. So now for some of my musical history. Let's go back to 1978. I was at Queens College and my new friend, Carey, now known as Bad Carey had an extra ticket to a concert and asked me if I wanted to go, It was right on campus. I said, sure. I had never heard of the band, Renaissance. Why were we late for it? We only missed seconds but I know we did, He might have been teaching or I might have had a class. But that's not the point. The point is that I loved the band and he and I started to go to every show,. That continued as long as the band did. They made their way up to playing Radio City but then started at smaller and smaller venues and ended up at the Bottom Line. Some time around 1991 they played there and the opening act was two sisters, Sonia and CiNDY aka disappear fear. I loved them. The next time I saw them they were opening for Cliff Eberhardt. I won tickets for that show, a late one. It must have been from WfUV. After that I was hooked. The next show was one of my favorite concert stories. I saw in the Village Voice that they were doing their first headline show in New York at the Village Gate. The ad was only in the paper one week. I saw no other references to it anywhere. But I bought tickets for me and Carey. We got there before doors and noticed something odd. We were the only men on the line. Usually two attractive women will attract lots of men to their shows. I figured there was only one explanation, lesbians. I did not know of the lesbian music circuit at the time. I had never heard of a show aimed at lesbians but what else could it be? Of course I couldn't ask, "excuse me are you all lesbians?" But when I got in the welcomed everyone to the Woman in Music series for the Gay Pride Week show. Carey and I had a lot of fun talking to the people at our table. They didn't know the band and I let them know about them. That broke the ice. I kept thinking how it could be a Seinfeld Episode. They'd all go to a show where everyone else was a lesbian. George and Jerry would get all excited and act like adolescents. Elaine would feel insecure because nobody was hitting on her. Kramer would end up going home with the leader of Girls in the Nose one of the opening acts. CiNDY got pregnant and I saw her last show before she gave birth to Dylan. It was at the Rodeo Bar. I always say that she was 10 months pregnant. She had to sit down between songs and sat with me and I got to talk to know her. But that's not the point either. The point is that before I went into the bar I saw a guy standing out front and I talked to him. I have no idea why. But it turned out that he was he drummer for Valentine Smith, a band that I had heard Vin Scelsa talk about. The drummer, I wish I could remember his name, said they were on after disappear fear. I liked what I heard on Vin and stuck around for their show. I loved them! So now I had a new band to follow. Some time after that I looked in the Voice and saw they were playing someplace I never heard of, Caf� Sine. I went to see them and discovered the wonderful world of East Village no cover venues. For the price of a coke I could sit and hear music all night. I started going pretty much every week. It didn't make a difference who was playing, I'd check out whoever it was. It was not a good time in my life. I didn't have a decent job and not many friends. I thought I might meet people. One of the musicians I discovered was Ruth Gerson. She impressed me so much that I started to follow her around no matter where she played. One day she came over to me and said how she kept noticing me in the audience. We became friends. And even though I had talked to Christine Lavin before and to CiNDY this was different. She came over and talked to me and we just talked as friends. The performer/audience barrier was broken. And That's how I ended up having half my friends being musicians. I never would be doing the Budgiedome without that. And to make things come together tonight I'm seeing disappear fear and Ruth Gerson on Saturday. My tastes stay pretty constant. Oh and to add to the fun. One of the musicians I got friendliest with is SONiA! So SONiA is the reason I'm friends with SONiA. This ended up being longer than I expected. I'll have to save my music discoveries of the last year for another time. Now to make my first breakfast at home in over a week. I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge: please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
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