Having sons is a give and get of every energy, man. No?
M’Best to you & yours on behalf of m' two sons
and sweet ocean-eyed-lady bride & I....
Burbank?
It’s tough, having watched & listened to Triage again,
not to feel numb enough to presume all
places are basically fckd now,
...take your bites now
cousin ‘cuz the
needle’s
in....
The notion doesn’t settle well at all. If there’s a will, it never will. After all, I reallly dig the sunshine & the moon...& try to have an open mind in regards to people on a one-on-one basis. I used to drive a posh & polished shuttle for a cranked-out set of managers slowly eating away at a very well-intended bidness; tooled ‘round b’tween Burbank & LAX & parts north for a time giving folk comfortable rides. Got to like th’ Burbank streets...and those big movie posters along the outside of Warner Bros Studios. Had to park along there sometimes waiting up to a couple hours for pick-ups.... Every coupl’a days I grabbed take-out at Silver Lake Chinese, right across the street from the airport jet-wash: Curried Shrimp Lo-mein. Yeeouch...goood...lots of curry. Every couple’a weeks we’d head down south to Chadney’s open jazz nights ~~ as well as a few features: ...Saw Jimmy Smith there, great-great nite, long azz story. Jimmy was situated left of our table, my left knee rested against his floor tom for two numbing sets. Left of him was that corner booth...full of ladies ‘round his age and much younger. Cool ol’ cat was drinkin’ coffee with his left hand...zoomin’ the chicks in the booth like there’s no tomorrow...and keeping unnatural perfect intricate & precise metronomic jazz-cat time with one hand and two feet. Blown away by the music that night, ...piano, alto & tenor sax, ...& this brilliant gent on bass that rounded-out the rhythm section; ...and a lavish if not a bit windswept mama that stepped-up to vocalize ol’ school for a couple tunes. I get th’ feelin’ u want 2 enjoy all this now b’cause it’s blessings...& yet we seem 2 have to squander th’ miracle and rat-race the 6.5 odd billion, ...m’brotha. So many good times out left....
There was McCabe’s, up the street in Santa Monica, where I saw Ray Manzarek & Michael McClure; ...radiant organic sets [...Not long after I did a half-hearted paper on MM ...because I was stuck on For The Death of 100 Whales & didn’t until later gather enough ideas about him to write a worthy paper.] ...& a few other shows. I still recall the inside o’ that place, ...most panoramic guitar store, period. I’m pretty sure DB played there, ...but I wasn’t hip to his music then...sheltered or something. Another dark Santa Monica venue we dug was At My Place (which I guess has changed names since) where we saw, among others, Allan Holdsworth [BLAMM, w0w...good gig...I think somebody must have slipped me a mickey that night...I might have been trippin’ just a little].... Then over to Leo Carrillo to chill & listen & look...& narrowly avoid getting our car keyed by the localsurferdudes...hahaahhh ~~ hey, it’s their house; ...their macking soul train....
Been back-east better then a decade now, JW, ...& it’s good. Still, ...SoCal and the Mohave Desert are always a step-home to mine & I, miss it, yearn a bit~~our sons were born there...yada-yada (...one in Lancaster & th’other in Pine Mountain Club up in Mt. Pinos.) Good times, yep. REAL hoppin’ good times. But now we have the seasons...and rivers...and lakes...and woods...and country roads, and well, ..some noted city. ...Sure do miss driving those old desert hwys though: the 14, the 58, the 15 to Vegas & back, the 62 &, our personal favorite, the 138; ...there was this lil Mexican La Casa in Arvin that was the sht; ...& the races at Oildale; ...& the Kern River & Sequoia & Lake Isabella; Lakes Piru, Pyramid...&...Quail, even Castaic was a kick on th’ upper lake...& a poet’s gesso on canvas from down below; Vasquez m’fggin Rocks, man; Bouquet/Spunky Cnyns. or San Francisquito into Leona Valley...& the old road along the grapevine even in winter; surf & turf @ Jeremiah’s in Palm Springs &...Joshua Tree National Monument; the Whisky, the Roxy, the Comedy Store; the PCH...; Pink Floyd, sans m’ dear uncle Reg, at the LA Sports Arena; the Orange County Blues Fest; The Concerts for Walden Woods @ Universal.... ...Okay, now I’ve digressed into melancholy....
