What a long strange trip it's been

Another post. Another loss.

I am up early this morning. Later today instead of protesting I will be with community to celebrate a soul who is no longer with us.

I met him when I was in 11th grade. He was friends with one of my friends and we became hi in the hallway acquaintances. By the end of my senior year there was a Mad Dog Brotherhood with a core group of people that would play tag in the middle of the night in a park. A driving game was created (not sure who made it up) where you would have to turn right at a stop sign, left at a green light, and so on. I think to win you would  have to pass Tommy’s. Tommy’s was/is a place where you will need to have a Pepcid after you eat there. A bunch of us played music so there was lots of support for each other’s creative endeavors. The summer after my senior year was a whirlwind of constant hang outs, adventures and shenanigans.

A few years after graduating high school, relationship changes, and general restlessness me, him, and another friend (who unfortunately has a post on my blog when he died) decided to move to San Francisco. We had no money and no idea what we were doing. But we did it. My mom took a photo of us in the Sentra, U-Haul attached as we drove away. I found it the other day and a picture never felt so heavy.

He only lived in SF a short time before his journey continued to Seattle, Sebastopol, and eventually Santa Cruz.

Looking back at letters he wrote me, texts we had sent each other, and general sad face memory lane I realized something about the both of us. We both value the connections and relationships we have with people. The interactions are not just transactional. The ebbing and flowing that is life is just part of the grand scheme how people come and go in your personal parking spot. The connections you make can have impact that one may never really come to realize. There are different kinds of connections. Too many to go into this silly blog, that help the emotional ice sculptor that you are trying to keep from melting. Caring about people is a full time job especially if you are trying to care about yourself. My friend thought time was a construct and though I didn’t find that charming when he was 2 hours late to my wedding, I understood that the music he was dancing to was his own. He also knew that I loved him for him.

I would go months sometimes years without seeing him in person and the minute we were in each other’s space it was like no time had passed. There wasn’t a sense of having to “catch up” because we were connecting on a spiritual plane during our REM cycle.

On a trip to Arizona to see the Dead, he conveniently fell asleep at dawn, so I had to drive into the sunrise the entire way there. On the way back since I was driving (again) I decided that we could only listen to the best of Janis Joplin for 5 hours.  He embraced it and 6 months later a biography of Janis Joplin with a thoughtful note appeared in my mailbox.

I will miss your snake oil salesman, mobius strip surfer, ridiculous historian aura and the joke you aren't sharing behind your smile. You had so many nicknames and lived in many dimensions on this planet we call Earth. I know you will always be in the ether.

 

Do you have the time to listen to me whine? About nothin and everything all at once.

2025. Well- here we are.

How do I tackle 2025?

Do I put my head in the sand?

Stay clear of all social media?

Riot?

Protest everyday?

Boycott everything?

Get well fitted blinders?

Lobotomy?

Here is the thing. I want balance in my life. There are things I can control and so many things I cannot.

So maybe a little of everything is in order.

Already I have set the bar very low for 2025. 

But not for myself. 

Professionally and artistically I am working on projects and trying to get the best work possible out of me. 

Hopefully this year the book I co-edited will be coming out (some really good stuff in it if you are into academic librarianship), I am co-moderating a round table at a conference, and will be looking for call outs for  book chapters. It has been awhile and I think I am due to write some more on the profession I love.  I will continue to kick ass at work and serve students at 150%.

I have also decided to take some classes so I can work with other mediums and create art (mosaics, knitting), make more puppet videos, and get some music projects going. Oh yeah, and write. Fiction? Maybe. I dunno maybe start a writer group or something. Not sure still workshopping this endeavor.

To be able to have balance in my life I think  some days I will have to  have my head in the sand, be free of social media, and give myself a temporary lobotomy with popcorn tv binges. Other days I will participate and add my voice of dissent, and do other duties as needed to start a revolution.

The world is whackadoodle these days. War. Hate. Distrust. Garbage people in power. The works (shitty works!).  

Lucky for me I have a rad kid and an awes husband who are there for me to help me put my head in the sand or walk beside me during a protest.

Good luck to all of us.

You don't have to answer me. You don't have to call me back. Your phone's off the hook...

It is no secret that X is my favorite. 

The first time I saw X was in 1987 and I have seen them between 1-3 times (just about) every year since.

I also enjoy many of their solo projects as well as, their other bands.

For the past 9 years or so I get sad the next morning following one of their shows. Why you ask?

Because I think it will be the last time I see them live. 

This past year they released their final album and did a final tour to support it. I am lucky enough to live in the same state as 3 of the 4 members so X will still probably have shows close (enough) to me. They typically do a handful of X-mas shows (I know, clever) every December in my neighborhood. 

For the past 40 plus years I have seen them open for Willie Nelson, Psychedelic Furs, B52s, Jerry Harrison & Adrien Belew, and Squeeze. I have seen them play with Jane's Addiction (yep, when they opened for X), Blasters, Los Lobos, Bad Religion, Social Distortion, Detroit Cobras, Rollins Band, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Primus, Iggy Pop, and soooooo many others.

These are not young people John Doe and Billy are in their seventies and Exene and DJ are both 68. 
Last night when they were ripping up the stage in Berkeley it gave me hope that as long as I do my stretches and eat right I will still be as nimble as them. My husband referred to one as being still quite nimble. I would love for that to be a word used to describe me at 70.

Music keeps me sane, whether I am playing it, listening to it, or experiencing it live. 

X's music and live shows have been a consistent for almost my entire life. 

Last night my kid went to the show with me. I am glad they got to see them live. Because it might be...

You can't write if you can't relate. Trade the cash for the beef for the body for the hate. And my time is a piece of wax falling on a termite. That's choking on the splinters.

Dump truck won again. Gross. Just gross. 

So much hate. 

It is so sad that people do not want to have a female president. Someone said to me that they thought her voice was annoying. Really? She seems like a bitch. Really? 

So a straight (rich) white man who has said horrible things about women, disabled people, and many different ethnic groups. He is the better choice?

Hated on veterans. Vowed revenge on people who have "wronged" him. He is the better choice?

These are totally acceptable things because the other candidate has an unappealing voice. 

A friend wrote something that I appreciated on a social media post this morning asking how people who consider themselves Christian can vote for dump truck. I would like to extend that to people who have a vagina. 

It is your right (for now) to vote. 

As an educator I am nervous about the dismantling of the department of education. As a parent I am concerned for my daughter's rights. As a bird watcher I am worried about the environment. As a person I am anxious about the fate of humanity.

Though I am feeling hopeless at the moment, I believe I will get my optimism back.

But it will probably take awhile.

Busted flat in Baton Rouge, waitin' for a train...

 Kris Kristofferson passed away recently and I started to think about what I knew him from and how I got to know him as an artist.

I had always liked his acting choices- Convoy, Heaven's Gate, (of course) Star is Born, Silver City, Lonestar, Blade Trilogy (don't judge, I really like those movies), and Big Top Pee Wee.  In his younger days he could really rock an unbuttoned shirt and his quiet demeanor made him a kick ass vampire hunter. 

To me he is in the Sam Elliot catagory of acting- interesting on screen to watch and always with a little shadow of mystery surrounding them. 

For his music besides writing "Me and Bobby McGee," I really didn't know much about his music. 

The Highwaymen was my first introduction really (besides his songs in Star is Born) and though I was a little late to the party I kind of got it. I watched a PBS concert fundraiser drive thing and it was really good. I saw that he was playing with the pros and killing it. I ended up purchasing their music, but not delving into his discography. I liked the collaboration, but at the time wasn't interested in going deeper into their individual catalogs. 

I got my undergraduate degree through a weekend program. Once a month I would have class for 16 hours. I had a friend in my class who I ate lunch with and got to know really well. Side note- sad that we lost touch, I really liked this person. Anywho, she and I were sitting eating our lunch at some cafe on Valencia Street and we were talking about amazing shows we had seen and she mentioned that one of her most memorable was Kris Kristofferson at the Great American Music Hall. The show sounded amazing and I always kept that information in the back of my mind.

Life traveled on and I would see him on venue calendars now and again, but it was never the right time. 

I was in grad school and broke (his tickets tended to be a bit pricey), I was not in grad school still kind of broke and other shows looked more interesting to attend, had a baby and what limited free time I had Kris Kristofferson wasn't on the menu. This was until he was on the bill of the Roadshow Revival. It was a Johnny Cash revival type festival in Ventura. The bill was The Blasters, Lee Rocker, X, and Kris Kristofferson. It is no secret that I am a super fan of X (and a pretty big fan of the Blasters) so even though I was 7 months pregnant I was still game to go to the show see bands I love and FINALLY get to see Kris Kristofferson. I had missed out on seeing Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings (have seen Willie a few times), so I was excited to cross Kristofferson off the must see list. 

Holy cow. What a boring show. He stopped a song to start it over SLOWER than it how they had started it. He kind of mumble sang his lyrics. The band was uninteresting and the highlight was when some para-gliders passed by behind the stage.  My hope is that we got him on a super off night. I can't blame it on my very swollen ankles because the mood around us while we were watching was "what the hell is going on?"

It was such a boring and lackluster show that I have never forgotten it. The unmemorable-ness has made it memorable to me and the husband. The set seemed super long and also only like 4 songs. Kris Kristofferson created his own vortex that the crowd fell into and was only released when he had to retune his guitar and play a different song? I dunno. It was sure something. 

Thanks Kris Kristofferson. 

I am one bend away. I am one step away from the precipice of crazy. I am holding all the pieces in place.

 I am really into bands/artists from Australia and New Zealand.

I have probably written about this before because my down under obsession has been going on for some time now.

My first run-in was the movie Starstruck. It is a typical early 1980s new wave movie about a group of kids wanting to be rockstars. There is a local competition (on TV that is how the whole town will see them), some prize money, love interest, and a great soundtrack.

I discovered the Swingers. They were in the movie (which I saw on Night Flight) and I want to say I saw their music video on Video One with Richard Blade. Totally hooked. Phil Judd would depart the Swingers and start Split Enz with the Finn brothers. Ooooooh how I love the Finn brothers (still mad I didn't get tickets for Crowded House at the Fox). From here I seamlessly became fans of the bigger names Midnight Oil, INXS (The Swing is their best record if you ask me), AC/DC, and Men at Work. Then I moved to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Cruel Sea, and Hunters and Collectors. I was shocked later in life to find out that The Little River Band are also Aussies. Have YOU heard about the lonesome loser? Beatin' by the queen of hearts every time. And of course we can't forget Air Supply. 

I have a fond memory of me and my friend driving back from the Spoleto festival (we saw Damon Albarn Gorillaz symphony - epic) and since she had a doctorate in musicology and I was getting my master's in musicology and we were coming from an amazing musical experience it is not a shock that our conversation turned to music. I asked her what her favorite band was from down under and she without even taking a beat said Air Supply. We listened to their ultimate collection and live in Tokyo recordings back-to-back for the rest of the drive home.

But this isn't really what I wanted to write about...I was with a friend the other day and they were processing some drama they are going through and they said to me quite glibly (is that a word?) that I didn't have problems. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but as I was going to sleep last night that is all I could think about. Does this person really think that? If so, fuck you. But also, thanks? Perhaps I don't have "problems" in the area of their drama? What one might think is not a problem is to others. You know kind of like someone's trash is another one's treasure. Is there some secret qualifier chart to what can be considered a problem? I am not one to throw up my "problems" on people (though there are some lucky folks who have worn my emotional vomit on their shirts) so it may appear that I do not have problems. I think it was a throw away line, but it got me thinking about personality masks.

 There are people that I have known, heck even related to that I have no idea really what they are feeling. I am positive that they have and had problems (issues, situations, difficulties, worries) but they did not share them out to me at all. I think that there are also folks who are more comfortable with sharing out problems, issues, situations, difficulties, and worries. This is not a judgment, just an observation.  With the check-ins (usually a quick text) that I do (since 5 of my friends died) with my chosen family, it is all about effort. You do what you have the capacity for... I am always available to be a shoulder, ear, soundboard, or whatever for people I care about. Even when I am having a problem. But sometimes I feel like the song I chose for the title of this blog. Not today. But some days.

The band is (you guessed it) from Australia. They are called the Middle Kids and this song is a favorite on John Richard's show on KEXP, my drive time listen. And if you live in the bay area can now listen to on the radio proper at  92.7. I know. Old school.

You are not alone. 

And the sky was made of amethyst and all the stars were just like little fish...

 The album "Live Through This," by Hole came out 30 years ago today.

I know every note on that record. I can play many of the songs on guitar and/or bass and for 36 months it was one on HEAVY rotation in my musical soundscape. 1994 was a good year for my record collection, besides the Hole record others were:

Bakesale, Sebadoh

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Pavement

Mellow Gold, Beck

There's Nothing Wrong with Love, Built to Spill

Grace, Jeff Buckley

Weezer S/T (Blue Record)

Strangers from the Universe, Thinking Feelers Union 282

Foolish, Superchunk

Ill Communication, Beastie Boys

The Coup, Genocide and Juice

The Crow soundtrack

Ruby Vroom, Soul Coughing

American Thighs, Veruca Salt

and of course Dookie by Green Day.

These are of course the bigger artists. 1994 was filled with small club musical experiences of all kinds of genres and that could be a separate blog post. San Francisco 1994 was filled with music of all sonic shapes and sizes.

"Live Through This" is probably first for me. I don't listen to it much, but when I do it instantly brings me back to a time and place emotionally. Living in SF, playing music with one of my musical heartbeats, and becoming an adult. 

A friend of mine from a thousand years ago came back into my life recently- thanks Instagram. And they asked me the other day if there are songs that I lose myself in and I have to say that "Violet," gets me every time. I understood the lyrics, I felt the lyrics. They were very similar to what I was writing in my journals at that time. Uncertain confidence. Naive and reckless. Scared and fierce. Goldfish memories.  Slow motion reality.  Friends. Romance. Laughs. Tears. Lots of drugs and alcohol. That is how I remember 1994.

Happy Anniversary to all the music of 1994.