Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest re-enactment crew.



Shiva always gets to play Chief Bromden.




Poor Cisco.

Please to notice conspicuous New Yorker brandishing.

My Russian Cousin

More shots of my Russian doppelganger. Eerie.

Further Adventures of Cisco

Hey! Who turned out the lights?






I'm serious. A little help here?

Vengeance is mine!

I will admit that I am not above gently tormenting my own dogs. This was completely Cisco's doing though. He came flailing out of the bedroom with it over his head.

The Future

Went to the Coffee Hound to pound down a quick macchiato and leaf the latest New Yorker. I was confronted by the above.

There I am. A dissident Russian DJ. About 20 years on.

Wait. No. Maybe more like 10 years.

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.

-Soren Kierkegaard

Mmmm. Word to that, big K.

Mind Altering

Two epiphanic episodes this week for me.

Driving the truck up Veteran's Parkway I look down and see the left turn signal has been flashing for the last half mile. In my defense, the blinker is totally silent. You can only see that is on.

"Way to go grandpa." I say to myself.

And then I think about this. "Grandpa," hmm.

Soon I will be 40. It's not totally implausible that I could have been a father at 20. It didn't happen, obviously. But it could have.

And if I had son or daughter at 20 why couldn't they have done the same?

You look at yourself in the prime of life one moment. The next, viola! Grandpa!

Freaky.

Also, this:

When I took over the business, I got out my two best vacuums, lined them up and addressed them Patton style (i.e. I put on breeches and gestured with a riding crop)

"You two vacuums are my best two vacuums. You have served me well and you continue to run quietly and efficiently. " Here I paced back and forth swishing the crop through the air for emphasis.



I round on them, pointing,"Some day you will break down. It is inevitable." I let that soak in for a while and then continued:



"But what you must not do, must never do, is break down at the same time as your comrade. That would be bad. That would defeat our mission"



Of course that is exactly what they did. I think the bearings went out on one and I know the plastic fan snapped on the other.



I ordered a new motor. I never think of my self as being handy with stuff or adept at all with the more malleable aspects of the physical world, but a new motor was about $150 cheaper prospect so I thought I'd give it a whirl.


I disconnected and removed the old motor and installed the new one
quite successfully. With minimal parts left over (2 weird little springs that somehow, inscrutably, attach to the inside of the housing.).



It made me feel so buoyantly happy to penetrate the mysteries of my own vacuum. I woke up that morning as someone to whom the innards of the Sanitaire were a void. And now...


Two instants where the universe revolved and deposited me in totally unexpected place.

The Gold Standard

Album

I might have already sent you one.

But if you like, I will send you our new album.

Send me your address.

Wrong

The name is wrong but that's no big deal. They don't really look at the name.

11. Yes.

Harbottle. Close. Easy mistake.

Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.

No.

Barometers

Just got back from our night walk.

A time for inspecting the neighborhood running around from yard to yard. Tonight at midnight it is still stiflingly hot and humid.

In the middle of our walk Shiva and Cisco stop dead in the street.

First they come over to me and look me in the face. Very strange since they almost completely ignore me on our walks. They are too busy smelling stuff.

Then they face into the wind about 10 seconds before a blast of cold air hits us.

Clever little things.

Muttonhead songs

I am going to post some info about our upcoming album on our website for reviewers and fans alike to peruse if they wish. But I want you to read it first:

First off "Muttonhead" is the nickname given to our esteemed producer Jerry Erickson. Have you ever seen the movie "Any Which Way But Loose"? At the end there is a scene where all are gathered in a bar and a country and western band is playing a song. The bass player has pouffy hair and big muttonchops. That's Jerry. Muttonhead.

1. "From the McLean Co Lockup"

This a song that used to be called 'The Stir'. It is the result of reflections made subsequent to my little brush with the law all those years ago. I think it is the last of the 'Gallery' songs. The Gallery was a legendary music club and watering hole (is 'liquoring hole' a phrase?)here in downstate Illinois to which many of us were attached in one way or another. It has been the subject of many of my songs.

It took me about 30 takes to get it right as we wanted to record both the vocals and the guitar at the same time. There are some tiny little flaws in the recording that we just said "Fuck it" to. It was the right performance.

The guitar is run through 2 amps. A Matchless Spitfire and Jerry's sweet c. 1960 Fender Pro. All blended together. Mmm.

2. "After 4"

This always sounds like mid-90s pop to me. I expect the DJ to come on and say that he's gonna follow that up with some Semisonic and Fastball. It's super-tight because we have played it 1 billion times. You don't like this song? Don't worry; its barely 2 minutes long.

3. "Kelly"

A country song. Our friend Martin Hartzold deserves half credit for this song. He was the one that came up with the very country notion of a man made wretched by unrequited love but, living as he does in a trailer, unable to hang himself because his ceilings are too low.

4. "Disorder"

An ode to obsessives and compulsives I have known.

5. "Truculent"

Our hit. This song is about trucks, people in my neighborhood, belligerent foreign policy and Toby Keith. Oh, and the environment. It's all in there.

Northwest guitar heavy A P Starkey takes a turn with the space rock. During the recording I innocently asked if the guitar was in tune. This provoked barks of laughter from Aaron and Jerry. "What he is playing has nothing to do with being in tune," said Jerry. "Ah, right." says I, chastened.

After we had been playing it for a while I noticed that the song's structure and vibe is the similar to "Question" by the Moody Blues. One of my childhood favorites.

6. "Time"

An affectionate and teasingly disrespectful cover. "What is Pink Floyd not?" I asked myself as we set out to play the 1973 chestnut. "Sexy and Latin" was the reply. People often don't recognize this song when we play it live. Mission accomplished.

7. "Lucky Double 9s"

Named for Chiang Kai shek's favorite brand of cigarettes. A foray into the postmodern approach of hijacking historical figures and re-purposing them in fantastical narratives. Here Chiang Kai-shek drives though my town, Bloomington Il...and makes many observations that bear a suspicious similarity to my own.

This song also appeared on our 4 song EP.

At a recent show some drunken fellows stumbled up the stage to tell me that I "Have a great voice for screaming." The implication being that, in their opinion, the singing (or indeed, conversational speech?) was not up to snuff. I should just scream and be happy with that. I don't really agree with them but did not bother to point out that only screaming forecloses a great many vocal and musical subtleties.

But this screamy song makes their point somewhat convincingly.

8. "In Memoriam" Written about a friend's stepfather, of whom I was fond.

Delusional II

“It’s full speed on to the White House,” Mrs. Clinton confidently proclaimed.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't that what I used to say as I stumbled home from the bar?

Too Slow

It ain't easy coming up with album names.

Not only is 'Houses of the Holy Moly' already taken, but so is 'Pastor of Muppets.'

Damn.

Elite

Times is tough for the elites.

Gotta keep your head down .

Frank Thomas lays it down here:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120873309012529689.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries

Ahh. That's better.

If you go here: http://basenjirescue.org/CalendarContest/ViewEntries.asp


you can find 25 pages of basenji porn.

Try not to over-do it.

Embarrassment

Mostly I work in complete solitude.

Strange hours of the night or beautiful Saturdays when everyone else is trying to wrest some leisure out of their weekend.

I listen to my ipod. Sometimes I try to work out harmony parts to my own songs. Other people's songs too. Not just vocal lines either; interesting instrumental ideas that I hear in my head. Sometimes I will slip one ear off of my headphones and concentrate and listen and sing out some little bit.

I am more likely to belt out something that I am pretty sure won't work. A peculiar interval or jagged melody line. Something weird. Gotta hear it out loud. "No. That wouldn't work" But sometimes it does.

But it is only when I am singing the most stratospherically high and warbly parts. Totally wordless and tremulously nonsensical. That is when I will turn a corner and find a slightly alarmed doctor in my building.

This has happened like three times in the past month.

Also, I submitted this picture to the basenji rescue people for inclusion in their calender.

Unstaged (you can't make a basenji stage anything).So sweet, it could put you into a sugar coma.

I like mash-ups. Lots.

Well, I like good mash-ups. There are bad/boring ones certainly. The good ones are definitely an example of two things coming together and forming a star (Eliot?)

The best source I have found is the Best of Bootie series.

http://www.bootieusa.com/bestofbootie2005/

http://www.bootieusa.com/bestofbootie2006/

http://www.bootieusa.com/bestofbootie2007/

It's free too. Right on!

All three years are good. To get you started I particularly recommend the Billy Joel/Jay-Z mash-up.

You don't think Billy Joel would have made a good rapper? You're going to find out how wrong you are. Seriously. It's a shock.

The Blankenblogger

I think we're all pretty happy that we can reach out and touch K Paddy B online. If you are curious to know what he is up to in DE check him out here:http://theblankenblogger.blogspot.com/

Above is what became of his former place of residence on Wood in Blm. They totally knocked that whole block down. Just piles of muddy rubble.

I've seen plans for the proposed statue. Kevin in his cut-off shorts and glow in the dark basket ball with his arm around Tommy, fuschia shorts and flip-flops. Aw.

Pond Ogre

There is this crazy dude who lives by the pond where we take our daily walk. He only appears at intervals long enough for me to forget he exists. In this way he maximizes his capacity to surprise the shit out of me.

Late last summer he came out of the little house where he lives and screamed,

" HEY MAN! 'R2D2' "

He actually made air quotes. He is a really big dude and when he yells at me he shatters the arcadian calm of my quiet little neighborhood.

The spring before that he came jogging up beside me and asked to pat my dog. This was pre- Cisco; just me and Shiva. He didn't seem crazy at all until he gingerly reached out and gave Shiva a quick touch on the back and ran away.

Yesterday he emerged into the cold to holler

"ASS DISPLAYED IS ASS LOST!"

This cracked up Melanie who was walking Shiva with me and Cisco.

I don't like this guy much, but I am not worried because Cisco is learning the ancient martial art of Mop-Fu:

Mr. Esgar

http://esgar-acelerado.blogspot.com/

Found this strange Portugese dude on myspace. I kind of dig his stuff.

E L Doctorow

Major Sense turned me on to this author. I am reading Billy Bathgate and getting in touch with my Jewish Gangster roots. He had a great short story in the New Yorker recently and this quote about our heroic prez:

The president we get is the country we get. With each president the nation is conformed spiritually. He is the artificer of our malleable national soul. He proposes not only the laws but the kinds of lawlessness that govern our lives and invoke our responses. The people he appoints are cast in his image. The trouble they get into and get us into, is his characteristic trouble.

Finally, the media amplify his character into our moral weather report. He becomes the face of our sky, the conditions that prevail. How can we sustain ourselves as the United States of America given the stupid and ineffective warmaking, the constitutionally insensitive lawgiving, and the monarchal economics of this president? He cannot mourn but is a figure of such moral vacancy as to make us mourn for ourselves.

Nicely put.

Laurie Taylor

An excellent podcast on the topic of craftsmanship. This is my favorite radio program and I listen to it with relish each week. Lots of excellent facts figures and ideas here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/

Misc Music

Do you remember last fall when I was going on that I was going to start my own record label? Remember that you thought that it was a fine idea but a bit ambitious? "That's a lot more work than he thinks. When will he have time for that? I don't see that coming off at all."

Well, your lack of faith in me is disheartening but accurately placed. But I am happy to report that you are right for the wrong reasons.

That is because just as I was formulating my plan Blake contacted us and wanted to put our album on his superb Austin Texas label, Miscellaneous Music. Now we bask in the reflected glory of folks like Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston, Blake's own band Aliens and many more (go check it out!)

Much easier that way, no?

?

Returning to some of my prog-rock roots has led me to download the Moody Blues chestnut 'Question.'

Why do we never get an answer
When we're knocking at the door?
With a thousand million questions
About hate and death and war

I think the answer is pretty obvious.

Maybe he should try bringing cookies next time.

MJ of mixtapes

Oh yeah and by the way do you remember Michael Jordan's like, second game back after not hitting AAA curve balls for the Charlotte Knights? I think it was against the Knicks and he dropped like 55 on them? You remember that?

That's what the ol' Colonel did when he sent me a jazz mix CD last week. A stunning return to form after years in the cassette tape wilderness ("Dude, get a tape player" to paraphrase).

He has finally updated his setup so that he can record his vinyl onto CD.

He is just waiting for you pester him to make you one too.

I call the above photographic essay. 'The many moods of SDH'

Working

Cleaning and teaching like mad. Here are some preliminary sketches of the cover art for our next album.




Also, we are now involved with a sort of record label called Misc. Music. They are bassed out of Austin Tx. You can check them out at miscmusiconline.com.