The Black Forest

Random blaghness...

Underneath the Clouds...

Underneath the clouds I stand, my spine grows into the ground and out a blade of grass for a fly to tickle on its way to fresh and steamy animal droppings, fecund with larvae that grows up to beat their kids and drink themselves drunk on nectar collected from hummingbirds that beat their hearts fast enough to live a thousand lifetimes and love ten thousand lovers each in their own favorite sexual position and sounds they make when they come into and all over the knowledge they share, connected forever in a mirror facing another mirror showing exact and not so exact images of what we were and never what we are, because it can't be shown in a picture but in a taste, tasty licks of the honey of being known, known and still wanted, wanted like a hunger, an itch given by a blue and yellow mosquito that takes you and gives a little of itself back, it's disease, it's dirty fingerprint on a window that will be washed off by a homeless person looking for a handout to take the last midnight Night Train bottle from the thank heaven it's 7-eleven store owned by a hard working family from Jakarta whose family were well known elephant trackers in their local region where their great-great-grandfather was born in an elephant cemetery and before he died, made the great long walk to where he was born to mix his bones with other elephants, antelope and tigers and bears licking the marrow from broken scapulas that were bashed against the rocks to remember the sound of making, the sound of creating, the sounds of pelvis to pelvis collision of the fourth kind, of abduction, of stolen moments of bliss from the incessant pounding of monotony that rises up to the sky like a spilled cup of tea, a tea of souls that lives in our skin cups, say skin-cups seven times fast and I'll give you a brown bag to breathe into for 2 minutes, 2 minutes saved from tippy-tapping on your phone instead avoiding the real questions, the real answers to the reason why we need all this noise and deception to stop us from knowing why we are...

Sent from the Black Forest...

Mateus Bottles and Colored Melted Wax...



Being born in 1967 I grew up a child of the 70's. Empty Mateus bottles turned into candle holders with multi-colored candle sticks bought from Spencer's Gifts, incense, blacklight posters of black panthers in trees, macramé plant holders, vinyl records, color t.v.'s, flashy cars with chrome and leather couches as seats, bell-bottom jeans, Herbal Essence Shampoo, Goody combs with the big handles sticking out of your back pocket, 8-track boom boxes, Polaroid Insta-Matics, really straight hair or curlalicious fro's, cassette mix tapes, CB radios, bubblegum baseball trading cards of the Oakland A's Billy Martin's Mustache Gang, Hot Wheels, water rockets, dune buggies, and M-80's to blow up mailboxes of the grumpy old men telling us to get off their yard...

Did I mention phones or computers? Nope. A phone was a quick call to meet up somewhere and a computer was something the government had.

This will not be some "When I was a kid we walked in the snow 40 miles to school and we were THANKFUL we could!" kinda crap. We are in a new age. A new revolution. The digital age is here. Like when the industrial age showed up, many jobs were lost because they were replaced by machines. We had to make up new jobs, new ways of doing things, new ways of life. It's that time again. A refresh button on the world.

My greatest hope is that we can change from being a wasteful society to a useful one. Reuse not refuse. Creation not destruction. Upgrade not throwaway. Connection not separation. Understanding not ignorance.

Time will tell. Eventually another revolution will come and wipe away what is now into a yellowed memory. Until then I'm gonna grab a pillow, lay on my wooden floor and put on my "Hot Buttered Soul" album by Issac Hayes and listen to him talk for 8 minutes before he even sings "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"...

Leaving Bread Crumbs...

I'm leaving bread crumbs.

When you leave bread crumbs, you want to be found. Though, halfhearted, because the animals are gonna find those crumbs and eat them...maybe even eat you. There's a good chance you'll never be found. Not good prospects...but it's how I like it.

I'm still wearing the same clothes I wore yesterday. A vintage brown Italian Hounds tooth wool jacket...a sky blue button-snap shirt...a brown tie with golf floral design and little knights on horses jousting...flared blue jeans...brown leather Italian shoes with square tips...a little greasier...face courser with a shadow growing...the shadow will be a small shrub in a few days. I thought that was cool when I was in seventh grade. Now...hmmmm...I don't know. I've had facial since I was 13. I like it because I stick out, but it also covers me up.

Just like this bread crumb thing called the internet. It must be some crazy character flaw I have. Seen but not known. I try to be as honest as I can writing this verbal defecation. It opens me up, and I know I need to do it. To be open. But open is scary too. It's amazing how fast people draw sides, make decisions on other people. Friend or foe. I automatically have new friends and enemies simply by being seen...to be found.

Am I left wing? Right wing? A meat eater? Do I have a sailors mouth? Is Jesus my savior? Has my cock passed the quota of allowed cunts in a life time? Am I an acoustic artist? Too much distortion? Not enough? Is my wit too...umm? Or do I even have a wit? Do I know how to put together clothes in an interesting and creative way?

All these questions have answers...and these answers will make friends and enemies.

Why do I want to be found? Why the hell do I want to be known? Hence the bread crumbs. Honestly... I admit I do want those things, but I am content if I never get them. I like being lost in my forest, but I don't mind a few visitors from time to time.

Sent from the Black Forest...

Hey Now...

A few moments of introspection. Introspection itself is tethered to our outlook.

How we feel is how we see.

For me, I have just about finished a new song for my next album. It's called "Hey Now", a nice sappy love song that I proudly say Neil Diamond might have wrote. I love Neil! My mom brought me up on all those singer-songwriters from the 60's and 70's. Neil Diamond, Carol King, Jimmy Webb, CSN, Neil Young, Nick Drake, The Carpenters and Burt Bacherach...

I need to add a couple tracks of trumpet on it, which I hope to complete next week. I always drive in my car and tool around the neighborhood listening to the mixes, production, and if my vocals suck. Most times I think my vocals suck, but if it's in tune and sounds honest then I'm done with it. I am no judge on my voice. I'm too prejudiced against it. It sounds like me...and I'm not my musical heroes. *laughing*

Knowing this, I am still happy the way the song came out. Only two chords dancing between themselves, building, always building. It's funny how a song grows up. You hope for the best, but in the end, they just do what they do. I'm proud of this one. A happy song-parent. A doting ditty-dad I am...

Back to my point...how we feel is how we see...or perceive rather. I feel great! So...the world looks beautiful! It's a sweltering day here in Southern California Inland. Do I care? Hell no! Not today! The breeze, the sky, the rustling date palms, even the angry busy-bee-automobiles buzzing and whirring 'round are beautiful. Now I know I'm under a spell! A spell of hope and beauty because I created something today. Whatever it becomes or not becomes isn't important, but that it was made. It's what I do, my nature. Succumbing to my nature is like falling into the arms of God, the Great Om, the perpetual spin into oblivion.

Happy am I. For today, for now...and I didn't even touch my absinthe yet.

The Analog...



We are analog beings. We do not make perfect copies of ourselves. Our memories bleed like a watercolor canvas. Never truly static. A little water will change everything. Our nature is true. Our chemistry sets are somewhat predictable though volatile.

My age is showing. When I see film emulsion, magnetic tape, watercolors, oil paints, charcoal drawings, imperfectly drawn circles... I see us. Skipping down the sidewalk with decay. The slow fade to black. No color. No color at all.

Why are we so scared? Why do we hold a death grip fighting change? Do we really think that at this very moment we are at the height of our capabilities? That this is it? Our possibilities are just diminishing returns from now on? Is this why digital technology is so appealing? The perfect copy. The perfect memory. Static and immortal for all time?

We are immortal. It's just that we are just a part of it. The notes of our echo are still ringing, just not perfectly from our initial bursts. They may barely resemble us as we think of ourselves now. Just as we barely resemble ourselves from when we were children. We've grown up. We've changed. Life has stained and run us through.

A painting is no less powerful whether it be new or old. It is what it is. However faded it becomes, the residue and essence remains true... as we.