PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA's INAUGURAL ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Can't think of a more mindblowing day in my lifetime...now granted seeing The Beatles on Ed Sullivan just 4 short months after being home sick and watching JFK shot on TV, was quite a relief from what I was feeling as a 7 year old who dreamed nightly of missiles coming down on us (oh those duck-and-cover drills scared the shit out of me) and The Fab Four opened a world of youth and hope and fun before me even at that young, impressionable age.

I had learned how to read off of Presidential flashcards. My parents, even then die-hard Republicans had taken me to a Goldwater rally, but Kennedy was MY first President. I was too young to know or care about Ike.

And the Beatles and Dylan and the counter-culture, the youth culture of the Civil Rights years, the anti-war movement, the music that was our soundtrack kept me intersted and hopeful and pissed off through that time as an inquisitive young pre-teen and teenager. The slogans of the time though simple and sometimes naive, still resonante with me and my generation in different byut vibrant ways--somehow "All You Need Is Love" set the stages for my investigations into Buddhism and Eastern thought..."War Is Over, If You Want It" has always been a beacon of hope in what seems to have been some sort of ongoing war somewhere in the world for as long as I can recall...

And though the disillusionment of the deaths of MLK and RFK and the riots in Chicago took the wind out of the sails of the idealism of the 60s, the sheer force of will that a people's consciences could help to stop the Vietnam War and could help to bring down the illicit wrongdoing behind Nixon's presidency gave me faith once again...faith that found glimmers in a peanut farmer who was culturally our style but who couldn't muster up what it took for the fight he needed to fight, thru the facade of Reaganism, the clandestine meanderings of GHWB, the hope and charisma of the Clinton years gone down in a hail of hypocritical attacks that forced the public's eye away from real issues into foaming holier-than-thou soapboxing, to the Prodigal Son's comeplte and utter ineptitude in the name of God and Daddy...

Remember that the moon landing was a beautiful, boundary shattering moment that came on the heels of the violence of 1968 and which for a brief moment showed us a look back at Earth in all of it's fragile beauty and made us feel the hand of creation and its hope and the miracle of our existence.

"...Picture a bright blue ball, just spinnin', spinnin' free / it's dizzying, the possibilities..." of course, the next line to that Grateful Dead song is "ashes, ashes, all fall down.*" And there have been many dark hours since the astronauts looked back and saw us staring up at their other worldly achievement.

Well, hold today's moment of hope close and cherish it and let's see if the magnificent, perspective shattering moment that today signifies can hold its water. My prayers are with President Obama (sounds damn good, doesn't it). I pray you will have more strength than you will ever need, more wisdom than you'll have time to use, and more open-minded, human compassion, insight and love than any mortal man before you. You just may need it. Here's to a brave, and diligent and dedicated man. Be your best and push beyond it. Ball is in your hands and there is a full court press on. Make your shot count, sir.





*Lyrics from "Throwing Stones" by John Barlow (c) Ice Nine Publishing

MISUNDERSTANDINGS

A joke for the day...

"THE BOTTLE OF WINE"

For all of us who are married, were married, wish
we were married, or wish we weren't married, this
is something to smile about the next time you see a
bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an
elderly
Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she
would like a ride.

With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman.
The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at
everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat
next to Sally.

'What in bag?' asked the old woman.

Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, 'It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband.'


The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

'Good trade.'

####

Then there's the other side of the story...



RICHARD THOMPSON solo version of "I Misunderstood" live in Seattle 1990

and a nice 'lil lo-fi rare audio track from DEREK & THE DOMINOS live at Curtis Hixon Hall, Tampa, FL featuring Duane Allman

2009 SCHLOCK TREATMENT

Well, it has been a few months and I've decided to try a few new tricks here to get myself blogging at STMonkey more often. I know, so many distractions...that evil thing called work, those distractions like eating, playing gigs, sitting on Facebook and MySpace for hours, watching the entire Season Six of 24 before Season Seven starts...having a different book and magazine next to each chair I may plop in (and this includes the front seat of my car, the commode, the bed...even the rocker on my front porch)...chasing girls..the usual distractions.

So I'm taking a turn from some of my fellow bloggers and I think I will use this place as a dump for whatever cultural claptrap comes across my desk each day as well as the occasional diatribe, cd or concert or book review etc. I always seem to wait until I have a huge writing urge and those tend to get divided between my letters to friends, my journals, my sex blog (don't ask) and random assorted networking rambles...so my promise is to attempt a more frequent attentiveness and instead of just letting some of this stuff flow by, I'll stick it here and see what happens.

Of course, I will love any feedback you can give. If it is just easier to post this stuff on MySpace or Facebook, I may just wind up there but at least here it will be a concentrated view as opposed to shifting through news of my band, my friends' daily personal issues, etc.

So here are a couple of things of interest (to me anyway)...come back again, subscribe, hang out...

The DEAD to play Barack's Inagural Ball

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/01/15/barack-obama-selects-the-dead-for-inauguration-ball-it-was-quite-an-honor/

Okay but I think some of the guys played at Clinton's Inauguaral...any one recall? So what WILL they play? Songs from the set list from the 10/13 ROCK FOR CHANGE show may give some clues...Help On The Way...Throwin' Stones...Dark Star...Not Fade Away...Playin' in the Band...all somehow appropriate. Any other ideas? I say GOLDEN ROAD works...

Elvis Costello sings the Grateful Dead tune LOSER

Years ago, when I first heard a tape of Elvis' live version of the Dead's SHIP OF FOOLS I was blown away by what a great match it was for his voice and style. This is cool too is a tad raggedy. Looks from the backfrop like it was from Golden Gate Park but I'm not sure. That would indeed be appropriate. Elvis is one of the great music fans out there. A huge collector with a vast knowledge of so many styles and genres. I was pleased to be in the studio with him on a couple occassions for a Mingus Orhetra session where he wrote lyrics to and sang a relatively obscure Mingus tune, Invisible Lady. I also had a chance to be in on the session for Elvis's performance on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz show on NPR and he was a fabulous guest. Gracious and full of insight into the jazz tunes and standards he played with Marian that day. Very cool. Check out his talk/music show on Sundance Channel, SPECTACLE. Possibly the best music show on TV since NBCs NIGHT MUSIC years ago.





Ryan Adams Quits the Music biz


http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/148460--ryan-adams-is-quitting-music-says-ryan-adams

Ok, so many of you know I think Ryan Adams is the best damn songwriter out there these days. Yeah, I dig Ray LaMontagne as well but Ryan is the man. Prolific as can be, stylistically interesting like Neil Young, Todd Rundgren, and many of the best "artists" before him. The Bowie's, the Willie Nelson's...guys who always sound like themselves, have an identity but are not afraid to push the envelope some every time out. Artists who were there influences out in the open but always add something totally unique and intriguing everytime out.

Now MANY famous artists retire, some over and over agin, just to find life out of the spotlight boring and suddenly realize that they are gonna be creative no matter what so they may as well share it with the world...Artie Shaw and Elton John retired numerous ties...Bowie, Tina Turner, Dylan, Charles Lloyd and many of them have come back and given us some of their most timeless work.

See ya in a bit, Ryan. We'll miss ya while you're gone, and we'll look forward to your return. I'm sure it will be not a minute too soon.


(Photo at top of me, Marian McPartland and Elvis Costello courtesy of RJ Capek)