Strange Days Indeed
"May you live in Strange Times."
So I come into rehearsal last Wednesday like at biscuit under a gravy sky. Just sopping. Had I been a magazine, I would have looked like a phone book by the end of the night is how water logged I was. But the boys had cheshire grins on their faces, and all because somebody had anonymously responded to my last blog. After some debate, I decided that anonymous is none other than my ma. I can think of nobody else who would beef with my using the word shit for my gear, be so worried about my housing sitch' and bring up Stephen King and Tom Waits in the same sentence. Even Al Capone had a mother, and mine's been a real Ma Barker when it comes to these artistic pursuits of mine. So thanks ma. The guys rib me that it's some sort of secret admirer, which opens so many Oedipal cans that I don't even want to discuss the worms -but hey, maybe. Whomever anonymous is, that's what they said, "May you live in strange times."
Vince and I are big believers in the Mayan Prophecy. And it was only a matter of time before this made its way into the blog so here it is. The Mayans were a super advanced civilization down in the jungles of South America long about the time of all them other civilizations that you read about. And they had a much more accurate calendar than ours -it was based on the sun, you see. None of this Roman 30 Days hath September tricks to remember the months. It was all much more straight forward than that. And to this day, their ancient calendars predict eclipses and such. The upshot of all this is that according to their calendars, time is a bunch of cycles that are part of much larger, grander cycles -and we're coming to the end of one of them in 2012. Round about Christmas time in fact.
Nobody knows exactly what's supposed to happen at the end of one of these big ass cycles -they really only guess. Some get all apocalyptic, some go with a quantum leap in consciousness -not unlike what supposedly happened between the ape and the illustrious caveman. They just know that it's the end of one great cycle and the beginning of another. Some venture that the aliens show up and stage an X files version of the Rapture. Interesting mostly because the Mayans disappeared without a trace. Nobody really knows what happened to them. Some says the mothership came on down and picked 'em up, qua Parliament, "Swing Down Sweet Chariot Stop and Let me Ride" Others says they just gave up on civilization and melted into the jungle. Terence McKenna thinks it could be something as simple as 2012 is when we discover time travel, which would obliterate our illusion of time being a linear thang. Part of me buys 'em all.
I think that we've always had the technology that we have now. There have been radio waves and television ways flowing through the air straight on through Egypt. What good is technology when the weather's having its way with you. That's what's so amazing about the looters in New Orleans, plasma screen televisions with no electricity. Who knows? My brother was telling me about some footage he saw of a guy guarding his bicycle with a hatchet. What MAD MAX outtakes did this come from? Folks are getting displaced, as my buddy Philly says, "The dust bowl is filled with gumbo." Okay, this is a bit tangential, but let me just pose my own little theory and what happened to Mayans ...
Based on this blog, I would suggest that the Mayans were listening to the Cowboys get thrashed by the Redskins one Halloween, when Orson Welles's famed hoax Broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS came through the air waves and scared them so silly, they hid out in the woods and never came back. Kind of like they did in New Jersey. Shit, if every place is like Jersey, why not the Mayan Civilization too, you know. Just shows to go what folks will do when they get wind of something through a piece of media they trust and get a little scared. Folks in New York know all about that -I guess folks every where know alot about that. So look at what happened to the Mayans and the folks in New Jersey one Halloween and take heed.
What if the folks in Plato's cave are just some folks that found a vault of well preserved Hollywood movies and figured out how to run them and decided that those movies are their history and that everything in them really happened? And it takes Plato to go, "No man, these are the just movies from that place that fell in the sea -Atlantis, Hollywood -places fall in the sea sometimes, you know? Anyways ...
I saw a statue of Columbus at the subway today. Besides my immediate reaction of disgust that they could put him up there, I thought of the story about when he came over on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The story goes that the indians couldn't see the boats. They flat out couldn't see 'em. The idea of three frigates showing up on the horizon was so outside of their perspective of what reality could possible be, they couldn't percieve the things. Finally, a shaman of some village or other noticed that the water on the shore was behaving strangely. And he began to percieve with an open mind, and that's when he saw the boats. Then he showed everybody else. Most of 'em prolly wound up wishing they'd never been shown what was happening with the water. But as my widow in Williamsburg said, "Strange things are happening ..." and it ain't just the water. I think it's in the serendipities and synchronicities around us every day and how we need to pay them some mind, and so I try and write about 'em a little bit here. And I think faith and love and hope are important in times like these, and that a great song or a piece of music has a way of cutting to the core and raising the spirit-I'm thinking of Woody, Marley, Dylan, and a host of others -lots of the new hip hop guys, and hopefully one day, Huck' Slim will be in that class. Making folks feel good, reminding them of those things about their own spirits, and showing 'em how funny that water's been acting of late. But mostly just making folks feel good 'cause that's the real blessing. But as for Chinese blessings anonymous, whoever you are, let me just say, (and I think this is just as important) "May strange times live in you."
So I come into rehearsal last Wednesday like at biscuit under a gravy sky. Just sopping. Had I been a magazine, I would have looked like a phone book by the end of the night is how water logged I was. But the boys had cheshire grins on their faces, and all because somebody had anonymously responded to my last blog. After some debate, I decided that anonymous is none other than my ma. I can think of nobody else who would beef with my using the word shit for my gear, be so worried about my housing sitch' and bring up Stephen King and Tom Waits in the same sentence. Even Al Capone had a mother, and mine's been a real Ma Barker when it comes to these artistic pursuits of mine. So thanks ma. The guys rib me that it's some sort of secret admirer, which opens so many Oedipal cans that I don't even want to discuss the worms -but hey, maybe. Whomever anonymous is, that's what they said, "May you live in strange times."
Vince and I are big believers in the Mayan Prophecy. And it was only a matter of time before this made its way into the blog so here it is. The Mayans were a super advanced civilization down in the jungles of South America long about the time of all them other civilizations that you read about. And they had a much more accurate calendar than ours -it was based on the sun, you see. None of this Roman 30 Days hath September tricks to remember the months. It was all much more straight forward than that. And to this day, their ancient calendars predict eclipses and such. The upshot of all this is that according to their calendars, time is a bunch of cycles that are part of much larger, grander cycles -and we're coming to the end of one of them in 2012. Round about Christmas time in fact.
Nobody knows exactly what's supposed to happen at the end of one of these big ass cycles -they really only guess. Some get all apocalyptic, some go with a quantum leap in consciousness -not unlike what supposedly happened between the ape and the illustrious caveman. They just know that it's the end of one great cycle and the beginning of another. Some venture that the aliens show up and stage an X files version of the Rapture. Interesting mostly because the Mayans disappeared without a trace. Nobody really knows what happened to them. Some says the mothership came on down and picked 'em up, qua Parliament, "Swing Down Sweet Chariot Stop and Let me Ride" Others says they just gave up on civilization and melted into the jungle. Terence McKenna thinks it could be something as simple as 2012 is when we discover time travel, which would obliterate our illusion of time being a linear thang. Part of me buys 'em all.
I think that we've always had the technology that we have now. There have been radio waves and television ways flowing through the air straight on through Egypt. What good is technology when the weather's having its way with you. That's what's so amazing about the looters in New Orleans, plasma screen televisions with no electricity. Who knows? My brother was telling me about some footage he saw of a guy guarding his bicycle with a hatchet. What MAD MAX outtakes did this come from? Folks are getting displaced, as my buddy Philly says, "The dust bowl is filled with gumbo." Okay, this is a bit tangential, but let me just pose my own little theory and what happened to Mayans ...
Based on this blog, I would suggest that the Mayans were listening to the Cowboys get thrashed by the Redskins one Halloween, when Orson Welles's famed hoax Broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS came through the air waves and scared them so silly, they hid out in the woods and never came back. Kind of like they did in New Jersey. Shit, if every place is like Jersey, why not the Mayan Civilization too, you know. Just shows to go what folks will do when they get wind of something through a piece of media they trust and get a little scared. Folks in New York know all about that -I guess folks every where know alot about that. So look at what happened to the Mayans and the folks in New Jersey one Halloween and take heed.
What if the folks in Plato's cave are just some folks that found a vault of well preserved Hollywood movies and figured out how to run them and decided that those movies are their history and that everything in them really happened? And it takes Plato to go, "No man, these are the just movies from that place that fell in the sea -Atlantis, Hollywood -places fall in the sea sometimes, you know? Anyways ...
I saw a statue of Columbus at the subway today. Besides my immediate reaction of disgust that they could put him up there, I thought of the story about when he came over on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The story goes that the indians couldn't see the boats. They flat out couldn't see 'em. The idea of three frigates showing up on the horizon was so outside of their perspective of what reality could possible be, they couldn't percieve the things. Finally, a shaman of some village or other noticed that the water on the shore was behaving strangely. And he began to percieve with an open mind, and that's when he saw the boats. Then he showed everybody else. Most of 'em prolly wound up wishing they'd never been shown what was happening with the water. But as my widow in Williamsburg said, "Strange things are happening ..." and it ain't just the water. I think it's in the serendipities and synchronicities around us every day and how we need to pay them some mind, and so I try and write about 'em a little bit here. And I think faith and love and hope are important in times like these, and that a great song or a piece of music has a way of cutting to the core and raising the spirit-I'm thinking of Woody, Marley, Dylan, and a host of others -lots of the new hip hop guys, and hopefully one day, Huck' Slim will be in that class. Making folks feel good, reminding them of those things about their own spirits, and showing 'em how funny that water's been acting of late. But mostly just making folks feel good 'cause that's the real blessing. But as for Chinese blessings anonymous, whoever you are, let me just say, (and I think this is just as important) "May strange times live in you."
2 Comments:
Anonymous Waits as jewels drop from the mouths of Kings. The Mayan calendar ticks the days til the end of the beginning. And as you struggled with your gear on the street, you still landed on yer bootheels and feet, and as you look for a room with some heat, at least yr not beat.
The pearls from yr mother shine brightly from my screen in the night, and remembering the old days it seems like she was always sorta right. My heads vacant my thoughts have retired. The worlds changing, what I'd saved has expired. There's no middle I'm constantly tired or totallty wired.
So I'll slough off to bed and I'll likely dream of lying awake. I'll wait for the mornin sun to reach down and give me a shake. Then I'll see Venus as she escapes in the dawn. And she'll remind me some hats you just can't put on. And tho I listen to the words of her song, it just runs on too long.
So it's back to the day to day drudge that I've grown to despise.
But don't you know that my ladies hold the key to why I always rise. As they sleep like angels they seem. They look alike like plays on a theme. And I regret every moment I was mean as I watch them dream.
Row Jimmy row, gonna get there? I don't know. Be watchful how you respond on this here blog, my friend, them words may well wind up in our songs. They already do though ...keep posted for Row Jimmy's lyrics in the new Huck Slim number, TAKE ME BACK ya'll. The man is mean with a pen and can bootleg with the best of 'em.
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