Tag: Tuesday Post

Zeitgeist 11/25/25

It’s been 62 years and a couple of days since Kennedy was shot and killed, most likely by the CIA. Just this morning, I was thinking about how it feels to me like we’re living in the 125th year of the 20th Century, especially here in the US. I think all of the concerns of post-WWII America are still with us. We just keep dancing around the same old things — burgeoning fascism and the plight and willingness to fight of everyday people in this country to keep what we and our forebears have fought for in the past. I honestly can’t say what we’re headed for, but I know we’re still recycling our past, which is not sustainable.

I hope we manage to break the cycle of resentment and corruption that seems to be the biggest impetus acting on what’s going on in the world, but there’s no guarantee that we ever will. I’m convinced that if we don’t manage the feat, we’re in for a hellish time going forward – not that the 20th century has been such a picnic up until now.

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I’m playing my bass again

That’s been interesting. It had been long enough that my fingers wouldn’t do precisely what I wanted them to when I picked the thing up after a decade away from it. It’s nice to have the thing in my hands again, and this little combo practice amp I bought sounds better than my old live rig did.

I got it cleaned up and restrung by the guy over at Replay in Turner’s… Ray, I think his name is? I may be wrong about that. He has not been super-supportive, but he did do a moderately good job cleaning up my bass. He seems sure I’m not going to stick with it, and told me when I’m ready to sell my Rick to let him know. Thanks dude, I’ll keep that in mind.

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I just finished a revision to the novella I’m working on, and resisted the temptation to go right back to it. I definitely have more work to do on the thing, but I think that the story will benefit from my taking a little time to process. That being said, I admit it might be a year before I get back to that particular story.

In the meantime, I’m beginning the selection process for a chapbook. My conception of the thing right now is that it will look like a volume of poetry, and it will contain a few short poems, perhaps, but most of it will be prose. My idea is to walk the line between fantasy and creative nonfiction. Some pieces will be clearly on one side or the other of that line, but I’m hoping to find some way to synthesize the two things together. Based on the work I’ve found so far, I should be able to accomplish the feat for the 16-20K words I’ll need. Once I get that done, then I will go back to the novel for another pass.

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Finally, my wife’s health struggles continue. She’s keeping up her spirits as she spends sooo much more time interfacing with the health care industry than anyone would ever want to, feeling the impact of the various problems she’s in the midst of fighting. She’s still active and hardworking, which is amazing.

I am so glad we are together, she makes my life better in countless ways. She says I do that for her, and I am trying to believe her. I’m skeptical sometimes, but I do try my best to be helpful and supportive. I love her like nobody’s business.

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That’s about all I have for now. I’m going to try to be a better correspondent. People seem to like when I post here, so I promise to try. Do me a favor and leave a comment once in a while? The occasional like and subscription are also much appreciated.

TTYL.

ZEITGEIST 11/12/24

The Death Cult Wins

The Trump/Jesus Death Cult has grown to such a size that they’ve won a national election in a landslide. As of this writing, this information has been hanging in the air for a week. My assessment is that some are greiving, some are beginning to bargain, some are in acceptance.

I’m angry: at the Republicans, yes – I have family members in the Cult, and a few that aren’t. I think I’m more angry at the Democrats for not having a primary. They’ve behaved like absolute fools this election, playing the palooka to a “T” again.

In 2019, Kamala went from being the top-rated Dem in the primary to having to drop out before Iowa to save herself from embarrassment. Why does nobody remember this? Soon as it became clear that she was the candidate, I knew she would lose.

My All-Time Top-Ten Favorite Albums, Until I Decide Differently

As of 10/22/23

1.) The Beatles — Revolver
2.) The Anthology of American Folk Music
3.) Yes — Fragile
4.)Siouxsie and the Banshees — Juju
5.) The Beatles — s/t (The White Album)
6.) Sex Pistols — Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
7,) George Harrison — All Things Must Pass
8.) John Lennon — Plastic Ono Band
9.) Yes — Tales From Topographic Oceans
10.) Buzzcocks — Another Music in a Different Kitchen

Honorable Mention:
Pink Floyd — Saucerful of Secrets
Paul and Linda McCartney — Ram

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This is me trying to give my life-long top ten. I’m still exploring, so this is still subject to change. So many Beatles thingies on this list…

I am in a proggy phase right now, hence all the Beatles and the Yes stuff. Maybe at some point I will post an all-time favorite Prog albums, which I think the Beatles may not appear on (well, maybe Revolver will show up, because I think that is the original prog album!)

Update About My Incessant Scribbling

I guess this is a thing now.

I recently got published in Meat For Tea: The Valley Review with a piece called The Casserole Tree. I read at their issue release party at Gateway Arts Center in Holyoke. I didn’t read the published piece, I had already read that one out, and there was something else I preferred to share. I liked that event. It’s in a bar, there was music and visual art and poetry and rock music. I’m looking forward to the next one.

As far as the piece I read at Gateway Arts, I plan to read that one again at Paul Richmond’s Third Tuesday Word this week.

Work on the summary of The Story is proceeding. It’s taken me months to even summarize this thing, and all I can think as I go through it is how much work it needs. I am sure it’s going to grow from the current 120K draft, but who knows by how much? All will be revealed in time, I suppose, but this thing is not going to get shorter, and there is so much work to do. It really is going to take years.

I want to read an exerpt from the thing in front of people, but open mike slots are 5 minutes as a rule and I want to read for at least 10. I haven’t found a 5 minute chunk that’s worth excerpting!

In other news, I still have the Socialist Ghost Story sitting out, waiting to be returned to. I was struggling with that one a bit, but I theorize that the reason I was struggling is Too Many Irons In the Fire. Once I can devote my whole brain to it, it will come into sharper focus. I am afraid it might be a while before I do get back to it. Maybe I should drawer it, but I definitely want to go back and finish it.

Object 3: Heaven and Hell By Black Sabbath Deluxe Edition CD

My friend James began a project of writing about each Black Sabbath album in order, based on one quick listen to each from Spotify. He was going to do one a day. He’s stalled after their fifth album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. I want to talk about Sabbath, but I can’t do a series on every Sabbath album because I would have the same problem as James, stalling out somewhere along the way. I’ll talk about a couple of their albums, though. I present this first commentary as part of my Objects series.

I have been having a bout of obsession with this band. A few months ago I rebought Masters of Reality for the song “Children of the Grave,” which has long been my favorite of their songs. Tucson punk band Just Us covered it, as I recall, bassist Paneen claimed it was “the greatest punk song ever written” and I have to agree with the sentiment if I can’t back it up as a statement of fact.

Around this time (early to mid 80s), I was listen to Heaven and Hell in relatively heavy rotation. I didn’t think abut it from a genre perspective, even with Paneen’s comment in my head, but lately it’s come back to me that there is a significant commonality between what Black Sabbath has always done and what every punk band I’ve ever played in did in terms of attitude and songwriting process. From my far-after-the-fact perspective, I must admit that Sabbath both elevated that ethos and served it well. Lately, I’ve come to think of them as the idealized version of the band I’ve always wished to play in.

Heaven and Hell was the first album the band made after firing Ozzy Osbourne. I was among the many who thought that Black Sabbath was probably over with as of his departure, but this album inpressed me. Reading the liner notes to this edition I learned that they wrote Children of the Sea at an afternoon jam session the first day they met with Ronnie James Dio. They sound like a band reborn. Guitarist Tony Iommi contributes some of his crunchiest riffs here. The material sounds timeless, whereas the two previous albums had sounded like a band working to “update” their sound. You can hear elements of the poppier direction the band had pursued on their previous album Never Say Die in a couple of the tracks on side two, notably “Wishing Well” and “Walk Away” – both of which are fine songs – but the meat here, the content of their rebirth, was the heavier material: all of side one and “Die Young” from side two especially seem to characterize the throughline from the band’s original sensibility and the new chemistry that came with the addition of Dio.

The live material on the second CD here bears that out. All five songs I point to are the material that made its way to the stage and these recordings.

I like having this album as an object again, and the live tracks, including original Sabbath drummer Bill Ward who departed before the band recorded and toured their second Dio-fronted album Mob Rules, are a welcome addition to my collection. The CD has been on my desk since it came out of the shipping package. I fidget with it, looking at the pictures and layout, reading the liner notes. It’s a token of a former time, a reminder of a dream I once held dearly and haven’t quite let go of.