Robin Williams And Now This (Suicide Moves Closer)

Derek Rieth, a founding member of, and percussionist for, the Portland pop orchestra, Pink Martini

"Derek's enormous heart and spirit, was too big and wild for this world. Look hard and see if you recognize anyone you know in his eyes. Call them. Find them. Go to them. Eat and drink with them. Fucking grab them and try to keep them here."

- Storm Large, who my heart goes out to - Stay strong, Kid.

Wha? Say Wha?? The Crack Emcee Is Still Alive? Wha?

Storm Large is Wang Qingren is The Crack Emcee is a liar:

Chairman Mao Invented Traditional Chinese Medicine

Why did the U.S. Senate unwittingly endorse 1950s Chinese Communist Party propaganda?

Doesn't matter - cut it off,....

A Reminder (Of My Other Life)

 

 My friend, Storm Large, is doing what I should be and performing in England right now - and there's video!

 

Painful Lessons

So my shit's gone from *sweet* to TARFU so fast it's making my head spin, but just as I thought to feel bad, I took a look at my peers:

Country music star Randy Travis suffered a stroke while at a Texas hospital and was in surgery late Wednesday, the singer's publicist said. 

Publicist Kirt Webster said Wednesday night that the 54-year-old Travis suffered the stroke while he was being treated for congestive heart failure because of a viral illness. 

The North Carolina-born Travis is a traditional country purist who is a pivotal figure in the genre best known for his hits "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "Three Wooden Crosses." His Warner Bros. debut album "Storms of Life" sold 3 million copies and helped return country music to its roots. 

The illness came as Travis was trying to put his life back together after a series of embarrassing public incidents involving alcohol. Travis pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated in January following an arrest last year and received two years of probation and a $2,000 fine. He was required to spend at least 30 days at an alcohol treatment facility and complete 100 hours of community service. 

He recently made several public appearances, including a spot on the Country Music Association Festival's nightly concert lineup and a poignant performance at George Jones' funeral. 

His peers and fans have been watching Travis' progress closely.

And Storm Large - a female-type, inside baseball, friend-friend who once wanted to join my band - just came through town but, because I'm off Facebook, I had no idea:

She sang in Spanish, German, Japanese and Turkish. And then she sang about ketchup. 

Storm Large, the lead singer of Pink Martini, mesmerized the capacity crowd at Red Butte Garden on Tuesday evening with not just her lyrics, but also her stage presence. For a band that refers to itself as "a little orchestra," Large is anything but little. Her voice and constant dancing onstage commanded the Portland-based band as she seamlessly moved between samba mixes, swing jazz tunes and a little bit of humor.

It's a fact of existence - and why the NSA "scandal" doesn't scare me:

Trying to watch anybody's progress "closely" is never as simple as it sounds,...

 

Long Time Gone

Wow: it feels like I haven't posted in, like, forever. (When you write as often as I do, even a *slight* return to real life - i.e. "offline" - can seem like a betrayal.)

I put up a few more music tracks, on the post with some of my album covers, so if you're interested in what I do - beyond talkin' shit - then go get 'em. They're all favorites, from my pre-conservative days, back when I thought working on shit like this postcard, above, was deep (the Ralph Steadman-like "crack" was my contribution to that particular revolution). You live, you learn.

Sometimes people hear my older stuff and find it hard to believe I'm the same guy but, yea, it's still me: I've just gotten from underneath everybody else's thing, and can, finally, speak my mind without worrying about the leftward tilt that's always been expected of me as a performer. (I'm partially-pictured with Kevin Carnes' U.A.F., above, in the top left.) Plus, I've always been "harder" than the people I've played with - and I've never liked Clinton, or cultish behavior, so none of this is really new.

Hell, in some ways you could say I went so far left politically, and as an artist, that I merely came full circle. It works for me anyway. All parts of the whole.

Writing and playing my own stuff probably has a lot to do with it: I can remember working with Consolidated on their "Play More Music" album and just feeling that, no matter how much I love those guys and/or how talented they are, their politics and mine just weren't the same.

And though my first Little White Radio (above) was filled with my hand-picked guys, they were playing with other bands too, so it wasn't really my thing yet. But - check it out - I did have my "electric shaman" feeling by then! And - hey - check it again: the guy sitting down in the picture, playing bass, is Ubi Whitaker: Bob Dylan's god son! Not only that but - for anyone who discovered Storm Large on that American Idol-like TV show, Rockstar: Supernova - check out who the Storm was blowing people out with back-in-the-day (that's her on the right):

Sigh. Oh well: I'm ramblin' and reminiscin', I guess. I just wanted to get something down before I returned to my usual reading. I'll probably be up late tonight, catching up on all the latest haps.

People have been trippin' since they reported we've been in Iraq for 5 years, and now they're all worried we're headed to Iran. Those people worry about everything. I swear, civilians have got to learn to get a grip:

I'm fine, and I've been dealing with this Middle East shit for 30 years,....