Lucinda more Neil than Norah

I made the journey to Nashville this weekend to see two of my special ladies. Heather, who I have written about before in this very blog and Lucinda Williams, one of my favorite singers.I'll be mostly writing about Lucinda here.

Now to start with I was a little worried about the show because her new album has really got me yet. Usually her music seeps into my consciousness and really fucks with me. She has a way with her simple songs and emotional poetry. Her Band and guitarist Doug Pettibone are the perfect scenery for her tales of human wreckage and redemption. The new album "West"
is sort of flat. I can tell there are good songs but it seems the edges have been sanded off. It seems like the album has been produced to give that sort of flat Norah
Jones or later Bonnie Raitt polished sound. It makes sense, people got mouths to feed, got to make the money but does it serve the music.

Last night, Heather and myself had great seats way down front in the already intimate Ryman Auditorium. It was such a great thrill to see Lucinda in her old hometown in the mothership of country music. The show was amazing. The crowd was a happy bunch and it made Lucinda and the band really relaxed and happy. They played plenty of old favorites and tried many of the new songs. They played for a couple hours and yet it seemed way too short. It could have gone all night as far as I'm concerned.

I guess the main point of my blog is that after the show thinking back to the new songs, I liked them all much better live because they were more real. Lucinda is real, her voice cracks, she dances awkwardly, has truckstop hair and looks like the road has been a long one. The band are real guys too. They are normal looking guys who could be playing in any bar across America. Yet they are on stage at the Ryman creating a beautiful, dirty and fragile sound that is very special. Lucinda and her band remind me so much of the special bond that Neil Young has with Crazy Horse. Seventies Rolling Stones also comes to mind. It's warts and all but it touches you real deep.

Come on Lucinda. We know you are more Neil than Norah. For your next record give us Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings that's why we love you so.

I'll be back in Nashville Again

Just a few more days and I'll be traveling to lovely Nashville to see my lady. If you would had told me that I would travel to Nashville three times in 2 months, I would have told you that you were crazy.Here I go again, I can't wait.

Things go wrong, things break

The last week has been a little trying for me. I've been sick for week. Things having been breaking left and right in my life.Yesterday it came to a head. I took a fall at the park while enjoying an amazing Seattle winter day. It banged me up pretty good and I broke my new camera. It sucked. I melted down.

The thing that I have remembered todaywith a clearer perspective is that life is pretty good . Inspite of the complications and set backs, life is pretty nice. Things go wrong and things break, it's a part of things just like nice sunny days and our finer moments.

Something to make you feel better

This was recently posted at brainsturbator.com. It's a very thought provoking website with lots of interesting articles and a huge reference archive.

For Now

lost in this confusion
is this love or just illusion?
doesn't matter, we all find something either way
there's me and then there's you
let's just hope that it will do
because it never really worked the other way
there's silence in the one
but many voices in the myriad
of Christmas card decorations
we're all in this together
you're never alone
it just feels that way
take a chance on me
I'll take a chance on you
hope for the best
and live the rest
it'll never be puppy dogs and rainbows
but we may just get there any way
we won't have matching bathrobes
or pleasant dispositions
we'll be watching too much television
swearing like sailors
not drinking or smoking
just teas, candy and lots of sushi
living on the loving
just here and now
were we can manage
and tomorrow is a child
that will take care of itself

Fear of Music: My Top Ten of almost Rock Albums

Here is my top ten albums that influence my life. I've never really been a straight rock guy. I usually like an art damaged album that rocks.

1.Fear of music - talking heads

2.Before and after science - Brian Eno

3.Starfish - The Church

4.Hail to the Thief - radiohead

5.///CODENAME:dustsucker - Bark Psychosis

6.Roseland NYC Live - Portishead

7.entertainment - Gang of 4

8. Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons - Blonde Redhead

9.Surfer Rosa - The Pixies

10.Repeater - fugazi

Back in Seattle

I've been traveling alot lately. The last month is a blur. I'm hoping to get my wits about me over the next couple of weeks so I can get back out there in the mix.Until then, my own bed feels real good .

greetings from green mountains

Bukowski pt. 2

I went to see the documentary "Bukowski: Born into this" a couple of years ago. It is a decent movie about Bukowski. It definitely deals with the whole man. It shows the great pain and violence contain in him, the hard worker, the romantic, the poet, the writer and all the other things that make up a dynamic human being.

The disturbing part for me was the footage of him reading in the clubs and theaters. It was more performance art than poetry reading. The audience was there to see the atrocity. He was nervous, angry and scared on stage. He would drink to calm his anxiety and then the crowd would egg him on and he would drink more in a vicious cycle.It was sort of sad. These performances were a necessary cash cow, they advanced his career through exposure and the creation of the myth of the man. He is reported to have hated these gigs. Hank would have been more interested in writing or being at the race track.

When I was watching the movie there were several inebriated members of the audience, probably over half. They cheered the excesses of his alcoholism. Like at his poetry reading, they were drawn in by the spectacle and not the man.

Bukowski really curtailed his drinking after illness late in life. He dabbled in mediation,healthier living and using his beloved Apple computer. He wrote his last book "Pulp" and some of his best poetry during this period. It seems to me that he had found a little peace at the end of a turbulent life.

This taken from wikipedia:

Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9th, 1994 in San Pedro, California, at the age of 73, shortly after completing the novel "Pulp", his last. His funeral rites were conducted by Buddhist monks. His gravestone reads: "Don't Try".
According to Linda Lee Bukowski, her husband's epitaph means something along the lines of "If you spend all your time trying, then all you're doing is trying. So don't try. Just do."

TS Eliot

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?
T. S. Eliot

radiohead in my head

radiohead are working on a new record. I can't wait, it will be the perfect soundtrack to how I feel right now.

Bukowski: A Wonder Filled Poet

I've really come to appreciate the poetry of Charles Bukowski. There's a certain dance between truth and beauty that delights me. It would be great if he was remembered more for this than being a drunk.




liberated woman and liberated men

look here
the one you considered killing yourself
for.
you saw her the other day
getting out of the car
in the Safeway parking lot.
she was wearing a torn green
dress and old dirty
boots
her face raw and living.
she saw you
so you walked over
and spoke and then
listened.
her hair did not glisten
her eyes and her conversation were
dull.
where was she?
where had she gone?
the one you were going to kill yourself
for.

the conversation finished
she walked into the store
and you looked at her automobile
and even that
which used to drive up and park
in front of your door
with such verve and in the spirit of
adventure
now looked like a junkyard
joke.

you decide not to shop at
Safeway
you'll drive 6 blocks
east and buy what you need at
at Ralphs.

getting into your car
you are quite pleased that
you didn't
kill yourself;
everything is delightful and
the air is clear.
your hands on the wheel,
you grin as you check for traffic in
the rearview mirror.

my man, you think
you've saved yourself
for somebody else, but who?

a slim young creature walks by
in a miniskirt and sandals
showing marvelous leg.
she's going to shop at Safeway
too.

you turn off the engine an
follow her in.

workin' together

You've seen her before on this very blog and she's back again. It's the Hezza from Nashville. After many hours of phone time, we have decided to use our super powers for good and do a co-authored photoblog. In each edition, we will both post a photo from our own location. It will be a visual continuation of all the long phone conversations that we have had and will have. It's called seatac to bna . Check it out.

wintery weather

"Ravenna Icy"
Originally uploaded by Figgy Studio Assistant.

I got back from San Francisco on Friday night. It was fun and warm there . On return, Seattle was and is frosty and cold. The side streets around my house are iced over. I can't get my van out to the main roads, it drives terribly in the snow and ice. I'm snowbound, holed up watching television and sleeping. Feeling recharged now but I have a little cabin fever. I hope it thaws tomorrow.

Moon Over Bloomingdale's

Moon Over Bloomingdale's
Originally uploaded by Figgy Studio Assistant.

Day two in San Francisco:

1. In the workshops, we finished up the FInal Cut Master Class. It was an alright class but it seemed a little short of a "master class". From my classmates questions, I wonder how some of these people get out of bed and get anything done. Steve Martin was an excellent teacher. I would love to take a small group advanced class with him. He gave us a full DVD of all the lessons . Fuckin cool.

2. Jobs gave the Keynote and answered the geeks prayers with the Iphone which is an amazing piece of technology. I however just want my phone to be a phone and do a good job at that.

3. Opening day of the Expo was a zoo. I went in early checked our booth, took a look at a few others and went to class.

4. Took an urban hike in the afternoon up to Haight-Astbury. My feet hurt but I had some really good lemonade and fried squid.

5. Tonight we are going for tapas at Cha Cha Cha on Haight.

Last night we saw "Pan's Labrinth" . I was skeptical going in but this was pretty awesome. I will dedicate a blog entry to this and "The Fountain", two excellent movies that the stupid main stream media will ignore to suck off Clooney, Pitt and all the other hacks in Hollywood.

There was a small eartquake here today, bad timing to be living in a tall building.

I'm out.