My 10-year-old nephew is going into fifth grade, when they start band. He already plays piano and viola a little, though guitar is really his main instrument. He picked French horn for band because, he told me, you play it lefty, which he is.

James, didn’t your Mexicali trumpet style come from a few years playing French horn? And if so, is it really played left-handed, or was the guy at the music store just shining him?

Warning sign

Apparently the administrators at Blogspot are having some trouble, since posts don't seem to be going up. How was Dan Hicks?

We finally got a new computer so I can post from home now. I'm also planning to use it for recording, an update from the 1993 model 4-track I've been using. At the suggestion of Mr Leach (how pleassant!) I opened a Myspace page, which, currently quite primitive is:

http://www.myspace.com/johnyblood

(Hmm, now I can make it a hot link. Go figure.)

I put some old stuff up there, but eventually I want to post new songs as I record them.

Last night I dreamed we were all playing together again. I lent Peter my accordion, and Jimmy was playing the Marauder and I was playing my baritone ukulele with some kind of little pick-up on it, and Bill Ney was there with an acoustic guitar—he’s a Springsteen fan, but a nice guy for all that and I didn’t mind having him sit in. Then Tracy showed up, so I thought why not I’ll play the bass, let’s rock, and Jimmy had some new songs to work on and for once I wasn’t dreaming about waiting to go on, or finding everyone or equipment not working we were just playing so that was very nice.

Today a woman I work with was singing "Wombles of Wimbledon" as she was wombling up her trash from lunch. Her name is Ursula and she's from New Zealand.

Today's Verse: 9 June 2007

Why do legions flee
Priceless liberty
Turning back, tail, tide
Up down out inside
Off or on or twilight dim
In between
Im between
I said as a child
And still say to myself
What's the difference
In these states
These tender, fearsome
Loves and hates
Can't have all
Or none
But go and come
In and out
Off and on
Intermittent
Permancence
I doubt that's how Napoleon thought
Ever
Or Phillip the Second, but maybe Caesar
Or Alcibiades
The sensuous, the traitrous
Expedient kind of monster
Who really scares being so desirous
So enchanting
Virile and bewitching
Who watches these movies anyway
The way they go on
Through tortuous variations
On the five standard plots
Stumbling through a tedious sequence
Of binary choices
That lead through tears and gasps
To the end
Expulsion
Exhaustion
Befuddlement
Cessation
Is that what Jesus Christ died for
God no
God knows
I give up
Gave up
Never give up
Never surrendered
What difference does it make
What I did yesterday
It's today that counts
Seize the day
Make a choice
Live your life
Be yourself
Be somebody else
Be somebody bad
Love somebody bad
Love your bad self
On TV
Share I mean
Spread it around
Give it up
But don't give it away
All these instructions
Are getting me down
Why can't life be as simple
As a good crap
Or pissing in a field
That's probably what Napoleon thought
When he spoke with Josephine
Or rather suffered her relentless
Prattle
And she was thinking of his shoulder
Or his arm or the cleft beneath
His adam's apple
Or a recipe for mayhem
Or murder
Or his best friend and where are you now
Jesus Christ I never bargained for this

Pie

I was eating pie with my nephew this weekend, and he said, jokingly, "What a hard life", to which I could only respond, in a Sri Lankan accent, "Yes, it is a hard life, Jim."

Hey Jim,

Just visited the Flickr site of your tree house. You live such an exciting life! Were you at home napping when "Timber!"? Somehow brings to mind the time Johny's roommate's (what was his name? scraggly bearded bibliophile, Kevin?) massive iron statue crashed into the table inches away from Stephen's head, I believe, or was it mine? "Look a bird as big as a dog." Somehow forget who was who in these stories.
Nice to see Annie on the street. Is she going to college soon?

Do you still do Alaska?

Hey Johny,

Email sent to you from my home email addrress (james@becswitz.int.ch) gets rejected by your aol account. That's what the mail daemons tell me anyway. Is there some way you can identify me as an "OK" sender?

Monsoon's arrived - hurling re-animation in wild abandon between heavy bouts of brooding and expectancy.

Mira likes the new Brian Ferry.

Love