Morning word: Adult Protective Services in Tucson spent two hours talking to Helen, then upset my sister in Los Angeles by calling about all the same bullshit: Helen told them she has five kids, but no one will help her. No one will help her? Oh, please. I expect they’ll be calling me too. The [...]

I think it’s always been there, though rarely mentioned, this cold, black thing that kills all love and joy. Always! Though in my memory the first remembered taste of it came in Abilene, Texas when I was barely 13 years old.
This would be during the early years of rock & roll, 1958, when Buddy Holly [...]

Here, try this:

Well, that was a night, all right. That’s “John-John” by the original Zoo Pilots at our one and only paid gig — funded by a Kent County, MD Arts Council grant, if you can believe that — at Washington College in, uh… [ponder] 1984? ‘85?? It says right here at my audio page [...]

Oh, what a grand few days…
We look at another place I know I won’t like — I’m one of those who know — and I’m not overwhelmed. Expecting the deal to crumble in the end regardless, I stay on my best behavior and pretty much keep silent. (Mistake!) But right away, in the absence [...]

Well, crank up the worry machine. (Or not! read on…)
What I find most interesting about using the Internet for finding news is how much of what the rest of the world sees never makes it into American media consciousness. For example, all but a rear guard of 800 Australian troops just came home from Iraq [...]

I know, I know, but we have to call it something.
I was having the usual midweek ZoukFest freak-out. All that exposure to transcendental musicianship, wow! Or oy… On the one hand it was like swallowing holy razor blades, while on the other hand, the antidote for same. At first I started auguring in, like a [...]

That’s what I can’t stand.
As soon as someone comes along who offers to do things differently, who speaks to me like I’m a grownup, who’s tapped into a universal desire for positive change, then come the killers of hope. Every so-called “realist” comes out of the woodwork, saying things like:
It’s a dream!
You’re naive!
The world [...]

I can hardly believe it: my wife and I have a chance to get away.
People tell me you have to get out of Taos every so often, for reasons that would never be apparent to you unless you stayed here over an extended period of time, and they’re right. This is Taos, and everything else [...]

A few days back I wrote in the comments:
Before this election season, I was in a psychological/spiritual space where those things didn’t affect me in the same way, and then I got sucked in again! Damn, damn, damn. Now I have to go back and do it all over again, just so I can function. [...]

This may become a series. I sure as hell hope not.
Right now the number one priority is finding a studio for my wife’s two pianos. We might even rent a place just for them, instead of making this an all-in-one affair. We’re reading ads, hitting Craigslist all the time, driving by at least two or [...]