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

January 14, 2015 - 10:28 a.m.

Alec and Apologies

I have no time to write but of course I have to write. I know I’m going to make breakfast first and maybe write later this afternoon. I'll be back. I have to leave here in an hour and 20 minutes. It doesn't help that my computer is acting up.

OK so here's the problem. I saw five acts last night and I have 43 minutes to write it up. clean up my breakfast dishes, and get dressed. I have a musical double header tonight too. I could try writing in between my business coffee date with Carolann and the shows tonight but I also have to shop. I get anxiety not writing.

Last night I saw in order, Alex Spiegelman, John Platt's On Your Radar with Butchers Blind, Katie Pearlman, and Robert Bruey, and Kristin Andreassen. Sorry today if you don't have a macro you don't get a link.

the train got stuck between stations on my way to see Alec. I wasn't sure if I could stay his whole set as he was on at 6:00 and OYR at 7:00. They were both ar Rockwood Music Hall but different stages, 1 and 3. Before I went in I asked the door guy whose name I should know, I have asked it, if I could walk through stage 2 to get there. There was a paid show in 2 but as he knows me well, he probably remembers my name because he's not an idiot, he let me do it. Otherwise I would have to walk around the block and give myself more time. I got to Rockwood at 6:06 which wasn't too late. I figured maybe I missed half a song. Nope. Alec wasn't there. His train got stuck beneath the East River. He showed up late so he had to cut a few songs from his set. But he said they were the songs he didn't know well so they wouldn't be good. I don't believe him.

OK here I am with no time and tons to write about and I'm writing details about the commute and I have lots to say about Alec and so be it. I'm under time pressure. As Katrina always says to me, "Just love me."

I have to write about Alec because hardly any of you know him, he's great, and I have something clever to say about him. Yes that's the secret to deciding what I write about, having an angle.

Alec is all angles, As Lovecraft would say non-Euclidean angles. He gets us to see the dimensions we don't normally perceive. Or perhaps gets us to see them in a different light is a better way. He gets us to see up and down as left and right and front and back as up and down. He gets us to see the vase where we see the faces and the faces when we see the vase.

I once said that Alec couldn't sing in the conventional sense, that's totally wrong. Alec can sing, I just had to get used to it. He approaches it differently than most. His voice is not resonant but he's musical. I took one note last night, "Definitely White." That's the title of one of his songs. It's not a polemic about white privilege, it's not mocking white people not having rhythm. It's just about when you look at him you know he's white. Without any real jokes in it people, including me kept laughing. It's brilliant. And who else could work "Ashkenazi Jew" into a song? Mark Berube could but it would be a fast patter song. Alec is always slow and easy. Mark's the one I always want to compare him too but their music is totally different. It' just that they are both so damn clever.

I stayed to the very end of his set then raced to Stage 1 Good thing for me I get a seat reserved at On Your Radar. I didn't sit with anyone last night. The other seat at my table was stolen by the infamous chair thief, Jon Preddice. He played cello with Robert and Katie and felt that his need to sit while playing cello was more important than me having company at my table. Can you believe it? So self-centered.

There was a nice crowd there despite the cold. I think not as many of my friends as usual. It was a Long Island show and much of the crowd was from the Island. Still I had plenty of peeps there.

Who does Katie Pearlman's speaking voice remind me of? I can see her face. She's a singer/songwriter from Jersey, as is Katie. She's a friend of mine. This drove me nuts all show. OK I am already nuts.

OK no more time. Sorry everybody else. Sorry Kristin who knows I love her as she gets a macro linking to her page. Sorry Jefferson Hamer who played with her and I talked to but don't think I have a macro for but I might if I could find it. Sorry Andrew Vladeck who I watched the show with and is a great musician in his own right. Sorry Robert and Blind Butchers. But I gotta go.


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 January 14, 2015
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