working with the flying circus
Back when it just the Enemy Below and me things were simple – he come over to my place I’d come over to his place and we’d bang things out together.
However this may 18th gig is turning into a monster of sorts – we have someone who will play drums, someone on bass, someone to play accordion in addition to Spencer, the Enemy Below, the Insect Girl, another young lady to sing, and my humble self (who is I insist the least talented of the lot – I mean I’m starting to feel like Ringo must have felt in the Beatles – I mean it’s turning into the bloody philharmonic – which I don’t mind on one hand – there are bits that these folks can add to the songs that are amazing – it’s just getting everybody’s schedule in line – especially since they are all doing this because they want to out of the goodness of the heart - It’s like herding cats and gives me a low level throbbing headache that won’t go away. It’s not the kind of oh god kill me now pain I get when watching a really really bad movie (Like Zontar mother of god – I want to dig up Bachaman’s corpse and set it on fire just for that film, but because that’s crazy and illegal as hell I won’t) but it still hurts.
Anyway still and all I’d rather have this kind of problem than others like where the hell’s my insulin or I’ve been kidnapped by aliens and here comes the anal probe or is this or is this not a bomb and what does cutting this wire do? – it’s all a matter of perspective.
Which oddly enough leads me to Buddhism – which I guess is about perspective – one of its central tenets is no matter what you got you’re not really going to satisfied (desire is the root of all suffering is the quote) – which rings true for me at any rate. There’s that old Peggy Lee song “is that all there is” that expresses the feeling in different manner.
One interesting essay I read one time was right wing fundamentalist critique of Buddhism – it was obviously important to the writer to tear down Buddhism but he had a hard time doing so, finally seizing on Christ’s divinity as a reason to reject Buddhist teachings – which is weird since the validly of Buddhist thought doesn’t depend on who the Buddha was or even if the Buddha existed – really. Not to enter a thorny thicket but Jesus being the son of god and not just some guy is a big part of mainstream western religion. That is not so much the case in Buddhism.
Well before I get sent to hell – onward.
Today is May Day and the 4th anniversary of W’s silly stunt on the carrier. At the time conventional wisdom was that it was a brilliant piece of theater and would get him re-elected and ensure huge GOP majorities in both house and senate and un-curdle milk – now it’s a huge embarrassment.
Speaking of embarrassments – Paul Woflitz , besieged president of the World Bank, is dropping hints that he may quit if the bank’s board clears him of wrong doing. Still since you have to trust people like Wolfitz about as far as you can spit an elephant what the hell is there to prevent this clown form once being cleared by the board just staying on and claiming that since the board cleared him of wrong doing there is no reason for him to step down. It’s not like he wants run the world bank, he wants to wreck it as part of some bizarre neo-con master plan to do something, what I don’t know, screw up everything is what the plan seems to be but that can’t be the real plan – cause they’ve screwed that up as well “what do you mean you’ve eliminated poverty in South America! You were supposed to increase the disparity between rich and poor idiot!”
Meantime another story comes down that ‘Texas heavy hitters’ came to see W got to ask one question and then were treated to an extended rant by about his problems that his critics are messed up, he is not understood and if he was all would be right. It is by all accounts a classic melt down of a man in way over his head.
(I’d do some kind of parody scene here but I’m already gone on – tomorrow perhaps as more details emerge – love to see a press guy ask him about this – granted he’d get his credentials yanked as he stood there but still W’s deer in the headlights look would be worth it)
I’ve been spending Monday nights listening to Spencer and some other folks play jazz nights at the Waltz Astoria coffee shop – it’s great stuff and well played by talent folks passionate about the music. Well worth a trip.
That said I personally have a rather prickly relationship with standards – the ones that have come down to us are good but well there is something in them, maybe its just they can be too polite to pretty in their expression of emotions. There is no room in there for Dylan’s How does it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll sneer snarl howl of pain or Johnny Rotten’s No future or the white noise of the Ramones or the loser wisdom of Mott the Hoople – sometimes you have to say fuck you when you mean fuck you .
More on this at another time – and stuff about string theory (run he’s writing about physics! Run!).
Peace Love Rants
However this may 18th gig is turning into a monster of sorts – we have someone who will play drums, someone on bass, someone to play accordion in addition to Spencer, the Enemy Below, the Insect Girl, another young lady to sing, and my humble self (who is I insist the least talented of the lot – I mean I’m starting to feel like Ringo must have felt in the Beatles – I mean it’s turning into the bloody philharmonic – which I don’t mind on one hand – there are bits that these folks can add to the songs that are amazing – it’s just getting everybody’s schedule in line – especially since they are all doing this because they want to out of the goodness of the heart - It’s like herding cats and gives me a low level throbbing headache that won’t go away. It’s not the kind of oh god kill me now pain I get when watching a really really bad movie (Like Zontar mother of god – I want to dig up Bachaman’s corpse and set it on fire just for that film, but because that’s crazy and illegal as hell I won’t) but it still hurts.
Anyway still and all I’d rather have this kind of problem than others like where the hell’s my insulin or I’ve been kidnapped by aliens and here comes the anal probe or is this or is this not a bomb and what does cutting this wire do? – it’s all a matter of perspective.
Which oddly enough leads me to Buddhism – which I guess is about perspective – one of its central tenets is no matter what you got you’re not really going to satisfied (desire is the root of all suffering is the quote) – which rings true for me at any rate. There’s that old Peggy Lee song “is that all there is” that expresses the feeling in different manner.
One interesting essay I read one time was right wing fundamentalist critique of Buddhism – it was obviously important to the writer to tear down Buddhism but he had a hard time doing so, finally seizing on Christ’s divinity as a reason to reject Buddhist teachings – which is weird since the validly of Buddhist thought doesn’t depend on who the Buddha was or even if the Buddha existed – really. Not to enter a thorny thicket but Jesus being the son of god and not just some guy is a big part of mainstream western religion. That is not so much the case in Buddhism.
Well before I get sent to hell – onward.
Today is May Day and the 4th anniversary of W’s silly stunt on the carrier. At the time conventional wisdom was that it was a brilliant piece of theater and would get him re-elected and ensure huge GOP majorities in both house and senate and un-curdle milk – now it’s a huge embarrassment.
Speaking of embarrassments – Paul Woflitz , besieged president of the World Bank, is dropping hints that he may quit if the bank’s board clears him of wrong doing. Still since you have to trust people like Wolfitz about as far as you can spit an elephant what the hell is there to prevent this clown form once being cleared by the board just staying on and claiming that since the board cleared him of wrong doing there is no reason for him to step down. It’s not like he wants run the world bank, he wants to wreck it as part of some bizarre neo-con master plan to do something, what I don’t know, screw up everything is what the plan seems to be but that can’t be the real plan – cause they’ve screwed that up as well “what do you mean you’ve eliminated poverty in South America! You were supposed to increase the disparity between rich and poor idiot!”
Meantime another story comes down that ‘Texas heavy hitters’ came to see W got to ask one question and then were treated to an extended rant by about his problems that his critics are messed up, he is not understood and if he was all would be right. It is by all accounts a classic melt down of a man in way over his head.
(I’d do some kind of parody scene here but I’m already gone on – tomorrow perhaps as more details emerge – love to see a press guy ask him about this – granted he’d get his credentials yanked as he stood there but still W’s deer in the headlights look would be worth it)
I’ve been spending Monday nights listening to Spencer and some other folks play jazz nights at the Waltz Astoria coffee shop – it’s great stuff and well played by talent folks passionate about the music. Well worth a trip.
That said I personally have a rather prickly relationship with standards – the ones that have come down to us are good but well there is something in them, maybe its just they can be too polite to pretty in their expression of emotions. There is no room in there for Dylan’s How does it feeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll sneer snarl howl of pain or Johnny Rotten’s No future or the white noise of the Ramones or the loser wisdom of Mott the Hoople – sometimes you have to say fuck you when you mean fuck you .
More on this at another time – and stuff about string theory (run he’s writing about physics! Run!).
Peace Love Rants
posted by Unknown at 9:45 AM
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