we might just be sitting around rethinking our destineys,
and seeing what they would be like ...had we chosen other paths.
Back in the 1980's,
I played in a band.
We made records and played alot of great gigs... and some real crappy ones.
We did (a few) tours... mainly to Los Angeles and the east coast.
And, I believe, we made some real quality music,
we made people dance, ...and if they listened,
we made them think...and feel.
Had the Fates been kind, we'd have been made famous,
and the rest would have been history... as the proverbial saying goes.
There did come a point where our lives and aspirations diverged ...and the association ended.
The only thing I regret, was my stubbornheadedness and unwillingness to seek an imaginative and honorable comprimise.
But for the most part I'm quite proud of what I did do... a very minor accomplishment in some ways...and a major one as far as my continuing the path that I'd always desired... which was simply to lead an interesting life.
The last year and half I'd begun taking stock and archiving many of my various musical and artistic endeavors.
You get like that when you reach a half a century in age.
You want to think that if someone has given you a half a century to get something done that it wasn't a total waste.
For me, it wasn't. It wasn't on the scale that I'd have liked it... but the ability to self promote is valuable in any part of the music or art world.
That is one ability I've always been short of.
This last week my kids were with me.
They switch back and forth weekly between my ex and me.
They're cool with it...and I'm cool with it.
I was thinking... if things had gone differently for my band...
they'd either never had been born,........ or I'd never have been around to raise them as much as I have.
If those situations were possible to choose from,
being famous and rich but minus my youngest kids or unable to spend any time with them...or, like now...broke but spending alot of time with my kids,
I think the first two scenarios would be utterly inconceivable.
I can't help but wonder there's a place where I'm watching these separate decisions played out, and choosing...
Just like in the writer/director Richard Linklater's 1991 film 'Slacker' where the director himself appears in the first five minutes to set up the premise for the rest of the movie. He steps out of a train or bus station and then chooses a taxi. He then rattles on, to the indifference of the cab driver, about a dream he's had about having taken a different mode of transport...hitch hiking and because of having done so (in his dream) was picked up by his dream woman who then offered to take him home and offer all kinds of 'hospitalities'. He peruses the possibilities that exist when every thought awakens a different reality in another dimension or plane of existence. That by even thinking about getting out and walking... then already another him is out on the road somewhere walking and experiencing a whole separate independant existence.
The rest of the film is mainly a camera POV narrative that randomly shifts from person to person as they cross paths, and follows these individual stories.
As I write about this I'm reminded of (and wondered if Linklater also was influenced by) the story of 'La Ronde', a story originally written in 1900 by Arthur Schnitzler as a morality play about the dangers of venereal diseases... where the story's focus switches from couple to couple which after a series of secret affaires and love triangles then showed how everyone is interconnected. I'm presuming the lurking danger of an STD was the main character. This was later to become a film in 1964 by Max Ophuls ...one of my favorites! ...and later remade in 1973 by Roger Vadim; -who seemed quite big on doing remakes back then.
Anyway, ...one thing I do know,
most likely my mouth would have gotten me neck deep in shit back then had I access to the press. Forget about 'Saint Bono' or Sting, ...too often my mouth moves before my brain has been notified.
Speaking of politics,
The Butcher's Bil today: 400 plus dead and over 1200 injured in the Gaza Strip.
The US has blocked a UN resolution demanding a cessation of the israeli assault on the already long deprived area. For months now there's been a blockade of the most basic needs such as bread and medical supplies, electricity had been cut off from Israel -
" As supplies are being further withheld, most mills have shut down because they have little or no grain. People who have long been deprived of many food items now cannot even find bread at times.
Reserves of food have long been depleted and the meagre quantities allowed into Gaza are not even enough to meet the immediate needs. Families never know if they will have food for their children the following day.
When people do have food, they generally have no cooking gas or electricity with which to cook it. Last week, less than 10 per cent of the weekly requirement of cooking gas was allowed into Gaza. "
Reserves of food have long been depleted and the meagre quantities allowed into Gaza are not even enough to meet the immediate needs. Families never know if they will have food for their children the following day.
When people do have food, they generally have no cooking gas or electricity with which to cook it. Last week, less than 10 per cent of the weekly requirement of cooking gas was allowed into Gaza. "
- Amnesty Intl.
For some time now the lack of electricity has made it so that thousands of gallons of raw sewage have been left unpumped and unfiltred and overflowing on the streets of Gaza.
These people have been through alot.
Obviously I'm not an anti semite. I don't hate israelis. And my argument has been for some time now to anyone that vehemently "anti zionist" is that the nation of Israel is NOT going to disassemble to become part of the diaspora again.
There is no solution that doesn't involve both parties.... all the political parties immediately involved.
I always point out the cases of Northern Ireland and South Africa... there would've been no treaties or truces made had not overtures been made to the ANC and the IRA who rightwing gov't representatives refered to then as 'terrorist organisations'.
Like it or not, ...they represent considerable numbers of people. And so does Hamas.
True, Hamas needs to knock it off with the rockets... but hey, what do you think they're gonna to do faced with a blockade that's starving their population which was mounted by the far right Israeli gov't (who provoked this Intifada in the first place) as a reaction to the palestinians electing Hamas.
Ridiculous really. Had the Israeli gov't taken a different tact... believe me, people who have things good aren't going to vote for extremists. Israel has created this radical chic.
Plus, the palestinians have just as much right to the same sovereignty that Israelis insist upon, they must stand up to a racist religious minority known as 'settlers', and to apocalypse -obsessed western christians who'd love nothing less than the whole of the 'holy land' to go up in flames just to fulfill what they believe the prerequisits are for the return of "their" god,... and yes, Hamas has to face up to the reality of Israel's very existence.
I was really glad to see this blog called 'Occupied' showing that over 50,000 arab and jewish israelis protested together against this invasion a couple of days ago.
These people have been through alot.
Obviously I'm not an anti semite. I don't hate israelis. And my argument has been for some time now to anyone that vehemently "anti zionist" is that the nation of Israel is NOT going to disassemble to become part of the diaspora again.
There is no solution that doesn't involve both parties.... all the political parties immediately involved.
I always point out the cases of Northern Ireland and South Africa... there would've been no treaties or truces made had not overtures been made to the ANC and the IRA who rightwing gov't representatives refered to then as 'terrorist organisations'.
Like it or not, ...they represent considerable numbers of people. And so does Hamas.
True, Hamas needs to knock it off with the rockets... but hey, what do you think they're gonna to do faced with a blockade that's starving their population which was mounted by the far right Israeli gov't (who provoked this Intifada in the first place) as a reaction to the palestinians electing Hamas.
Ridiculous really. Had the Israeli gov't taken a different tact... believe me, people who have things good aren't going to vote for extremists. Israel has created this radical chic.
Plus, the palestinians have just as much right to the same sovereignty that Israelis insist upon, they must stand up to a racist religious minority known as 'settlers', and to apocalypse -obsessed western christians who'd love nothing less than the whole of the 'holy land' to go up in flames just to fulfill what they believe the prerequisits are for the return of "their" god,... and yes, Hamas has to face up to the reality of Israel's very existence.
I was really glad to see this blog called 'Occupied' showing that over 50,000 arab and jewish israelis protested together against this invasion a couple of days ago.
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