Strange Territory...

June 12, 2009

I've entered into a strange territory this week. I'm writing/recording (I typically write and record as I go, then learn the song when it's mixed. *laughing* ) a song that is totally not what I do. These last few weeks I've been writing and recording songs for a little funky EP "Los Feliz", based on the Los Feliz neighborhood in Los Angeles. Spending time up there visiting my friends Frank, Cindy, Annissa, Erika, and Glen I really got attached to the area. A combination of 1930's Hollywood, with restaurants that have been around since the 50's, bars from the 70's, taqueria stands, mostly L.A. hipsters, but with a real strong Latino presence.

What the hell does that sound like? Well...the first 3 songs ( "Goth Coke Dealer", "So Alive" , "Los Feliz" ) have been pretty close to it. The one I'm working on now has sounds of Ennio Morricone, disco, rap, and Latin dance music. Anyone familiar with the music I usually write, this is a stretch! But it's good to stretch! I've grown a little from this Los Feliz experiment and I like it. I only hope that during my stretching I don't pop an ear-string and hurt myself with a song that sucks! *really laughing*

(Notice I *laugh* a lot? Yea...well, if you saw my bank account you would too!)

Why Do I like You?

June 10, 2009

Why do I like you? I like you because you smell and taste good. If I don't like you, it's because you're probably a Brussels sprout, cauliflower, or some kind of melon (I simply cringe at having to eat them...). It's just how it is. You like something or you don't. You don't even have a choice about it. Chemistry. We are all walking chemistry sets that when mixed with other chemistry sets produce positive or negative results. Can you think of someone whom you like that, by in large, aren't that great of a person and someone else who is always nice and sweet and you are repelled by? I can. (No I'm not telling. *spank*) Then there are always some exceptions like "acquired tastes". It took me years to like spinach. Now I love it. Perhaps my chemistry changed? Adults like different food than children. Adult food is more complex with strange and bitter qualities. Such things a child would just spit out. However much you might be "half-squinting" your eyes at me for this bullshit tinged diatribe in disbelief for equating the like of types of food to people, I think there is really something to it. Not in so much as finding out with our tongues, but acknowledging a deeper chemical connection to people and our environment. If we could logically choose our mates and friends we would, but we don't. It's by circumstance and chemistry. That's the ticket to a-pair-of-dice! *laughing*

Delirium at 103 Degrees.

June 9, 2009

Yesterday suddenly I was taken over with a high fever and chills. Like I was taken into a Hieronymus Bosch painting, except not the "The Garden of Earthly Delights" but more like "Hell". I've had these rare high temperature onslaughts all my life. They rarely happen but when they do, they come down upon me like a hammer with a million volts of electricity.

Today is the calm, half-in and half-out world of the aftermath. Birds singing. The sound of my heartbeat. Inhale. Exhale. Life. Nothing makes me want to create more than when life is appreciated. Maybe tomorrow I'll pick up the guitar or pen, but for now I'm just gonna lay here and listen to what these birds have to say. Maybe this time I'll understand...

Sunny...70...and...the Floodplains of America

June 7, 2009

It's sunny, 70 degrees, and I've run out. Empty. Vented. Drained. It has all been flowed, poured, sluiced, gushed, spouted and spewed. The reservoir has run dry and the tap is tapped. I want to be filled again. Filled to the brim. Chock full of nuts. An overflowing dam that will set the valley awash in flood. The cow's on the roof. The ice cream man is in a canoe. The tumbleweeds are tumbling downstream to a distant land that has not been laid low by a wave in 30 years. It will know again the feeling of soaked thoughts and drenched dreams. For if nothing the flood plains along the Mississippi have taught us is where it once flowed, it will flow again...

BElieVE...

June 6, 2009

I believe that everything is connected...I believe there is no death...I believe in destiny made by free will...I believe a double cheeseburger is always better than a single cheeseburger...I believe everyone should follow their heart and their brain will eventually follow...I believe in Karma because if I don't, I won't be able to keep bad things from happening to a minimum...I believe everything has a cost and can only live so long on credit...I believe that it's the silences that have the most to say...I believe if I get paid peanuts I can still eat them...I don't know what I believe, but I know there is more than I know, which makes anything possible...