The Blivet Bag

Well, I’m back in Sacramento and feel compelled to point out an observation I have made before and confirmed on this trip i just took across the US. California is a land of complete slobs with absolutely no regard for the environment. For a great look at what I mean drive down any freeway in this state and occasionally glance to the side of the highway and notice the trash. Mounds of it! It’s gross. Wrappers, tissues, cans, bottles, paper cups, newspapers, and all manner of trash line our freeways, highways, and streets. No where else in 13 states did I see trash routinely scattered along the roads.

And California is supposed to be the leader in eco-friendly practices. Somebody forgot to tell the Cali citizens. I always though of California as a clean conscious state, but from LA to Sacramento every freeway I travel on is completely marked with garbage. We throw it out and never, ever pick it up. Not so in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Those rednecks keep their stuff clean. And even in huge cities, like Kansas City, New Orleans, Dallas, Fort Worth, And Denver, there is not trash laying beside the freeway anywhere. They either don’t throw it out, or they do pick it up.

It also reflects in how people act in the great interior of the United States. Every where I went people were friendly, went out of their way to welcome me, and had a good word to say. In California it’s like pulling teeth to get someone to even look at me in the eye and smile. The more I stay in California the more I think people here are plain slobs with little redeeming value.

We in California could learn a lot from those red states. Pay attention to the things that are real, and forget about saving the world with banners and signs filled with empty logos. The proof is in how you keep your own little square that you get when you populate this world with your little body. Don’t throw trash, and if you do, PICK IT THE FUCK UP! There’s lots to be said for those God-fearing folks in the red states; they care about their world. We don’t.

Also I did not find any people who openly hate gays, black, other people of color, or even Democrats. They just live their life. Now I’m sure there are some closet KKK members in the recesses of Mississippi, but they don’t poke their heads out where I could see them, in California the jerks are obvious and many-numbered.

I’m hoping that we can learn what we preach and soon.. California was the most beautiful state in the union not long ago, now it is a garbage dump in more ways than one.

Catchy title, huh? Don’t know where this came form really, but I said it one day and it became one of our phrases. Part of the comraderie that happens while people spend a lot of time together in close proximity like the band I am touring with. We drive hours to the next gig and the conversation takes, as it usually does with men together with no sobering influences, turns to the dark humor that men are so adept at. The twists of the fine art of one-upmanship and word play.

And the words have developed into a mantra of sorts…” Do whut?…Yonder!…Nice Dick…Y’all. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it does draw an inside laugh with the three of us, There’s also Left hand Right Hand. The rest of the lines don’t have top exist anymore, the joke is well-worn, and even a cursory aside to it will draw the laugh.

A by product of traveling together is an increased awareness of the fellow traveler’s id as well as their thought patterns and ideas. The two I travel with now, Chris and Reid, are both sharp and even brilliant in some cases. Chris reminds me of John Brossard a lot; a brilliant thinker, with an eye for out of the ordinary thought process, and Reid is the schemer, and not in a bad way. He has the ideas and he also has the drive and talent to make ideas come to life. It’s a pleasure to interact with people like them.

The end of the trip draws near for me, and the stories will travel home with me. Chris was remarking the other day that it will be interesting to inspect the stories when they finally come home a few months after me. The stories from my perspective will have had some germination and maturation by the time they get home, and the same stories will be more distant to them when they see me again, and will have altered in their minds. it will be interesting to see the amalgation.

But, back to the Nice Dick… Words are the level for humans. They determine a man’s worth, his future, and his past. And should you ever want to draw a response from an unresponsive man, repeat that exact phrase while standing next to him at a urinal.

So we got the Sammie. No explaining it really, at least I can’t. I don’t think any of us really expected to be nominated, let alone win the damn thing. And it doesn’t matter, we played the Sammies show and won our category, and incidentally had a blast!

 The Sammies, Sacramento’s version of the Grammys, Sacramento Music Award is a yearly event, where the local bands are nominated in different categories and popular vote determines the winner in each category. It’s all fairly political, and the bands that aren’t included, plus others, pooh pooh the whole process, as well as the show itself.

And my bitch about it; there is very little local coverage by the media save the News and Review and Alive and Kickin. The major TV stations and the major newspaper never say anything about the Sammies, yet it is a popular show, filled with the talent of Sacramento’s diverse music scene. But this bitch is for another blog to be directed to the different media yokels here.

This blog is about my experience with the show. What a blast! I told Amee, my band partner, that it ranks as one of my highlights and it is right up there. My babies being born may have more impact, but in an entirely different way, plus they were long ago, and now my memories are of the memories, if you know what I mean.

The first first. Amee looked beautiful beyond any vision I have ever had of her. I know it’s weird but she has always been a beauty to me, and with the new hair do, and the make-up and especially the super-etheral glow, she stunned me as we were driving to the show together. And that stun lasted the evening through. Playing next to her on-stage was even more astonishing than normal for me.

And the band played well, I played well, and sang well, and the ambience was perfect. Exciting was it when we played later in the show, letting the audience settle in, and after the completely diverse mix of bands and acts, I believe we were a welcome new sound. We were very warmly greeted with loud cheers and not just from our people. It came from everywhere, made me feel fuzzy and warm.

Thanks to the staff that put the show together, it was all very professional, good sound, good lights, and great organization for a very tough show criteria. 20 bands on two stages and three and a half hours make a tough show to put together and make work. They did a superb job, even dealing with a few bands that have very slow clocks, turning eight minutes into fifeen.

We took pics in a limo, exiting the limo, with a well thought system that every nominee got to take advatage of. I can’t wait to see all of the pics. I’m pretty jaded about bullshit like that, but being with the band it was just a ton of fun.

I also got to do it again with beautiful Roberta. Like always, Roberta brightens times when I think it is as glowing as it can be, and sharing that time with her only made my excitement ten-fold greater. The only way the whole evening would have been any better is if Roberta would have won too. Next year! And for this year she is still my great friend and a bright light to me.

Another fabulous plus for me was having my mom, my daughter Audrey, and my son Cory there, to see us tear it up on stage and to win. And all of Amee’s family who have become special to me, her dad and mom, and her grandma. Lots of friends too. And especially Nichole and Harper. Harper got go with Amee and Todd to accept the award and she sang her little song to the hundreds in the audience. What a trip. Choked me up, especially when Amee thanked everyone and particularly the opportunity for her Grandmother to be there.

As always, when she is around, I had the exquisite pleasure of spending time with Harper after the award. She’s like one of my own kids, and really the only baby besides my own kids that I have ever been close to.

We went to Richard March’s show at Marilyn’s afterwards, and were greeted so well and graciously by Richard who aknowledged us from stage. Richard is such a fine man, a musical force here in Sacramento, and the only feeling I had that approached the intensity of my joy in winning the Sammie, was my dismay that he did not. It was really my stint in the Richard March band that allowed me to become a known player in the music scene here, and my respect for him as a musical entity is extremely large, and I consider him one of my best friends.

The after after party was the perfect end to a fabulous day in my life. Amee’s partner Nichole, in a very rare opportunty, joined us for  a while. It is always a joy for me to be able to spend time with Nichole. She is one of the sweetest, smartest people I have known, and she is so bright it lights a dark room. It was so loud at the place we were we couldn’t really converse very well, but sitting next to her is a lot like playing next to Amee. Pure bliss!

Griff because it came to me when I was trying to decide on title for this. It don’t mean nuthin. Dylan does have a iron-clad thread to the story though. The word and the man. Yeah, Bob Dylan. T’was his birthday last week, and there were celebrations.

Amee and the boys were invited to play a set of Dylan tunes, and that was a whole nother story. This is the story as I see it, not so much how it really happened, and more about the behind the wheel scenes, unseen by others, just me. The concert was a flop; very few lights can get through a miasma such as the Big Finish and the boss at the Hotel Utah on Tuesday night.

We probably didn’t sound bad, but we were. We only played four tunes and Amee allowed that we should pack up and roll. Thanks. No real disappointment from anybody either way surfaced; I think we all wrote it off before it came to be, maybe from the practice last that may have been the basis for all of our musical troubles of a Tuesday in San Francisco.

The trip down was awesome, bright, sparse traffic, tunes on the stereo and the second hour plus ride with Amee for me in a span of three days. Besides the time when we are playing and in the pocket, that is the high-light of the Amee trip for me. Always a new revelation, sometimes, (more and more as I get to know more Amee) nothing ground-breaking, but sometimes a bright surprise, usually shinning belt-buckle lit. But no longer is it so amazing to find out things about her, she’s pretty amazing through and through, and the amazement is past.

Note: This is begun again after the last blog regarding the opening of my mouth was totally written. I love Amee like maybe no one else in my life ever. The real jewels of my life have been the times I have spent with her in music and in friendship. There is most likely going to be a change soon with the Amee part of my life, and however that change manifests it will be for my good. The memories I have of her and her music are enough now, but I could never be full either, and the hope is that we will play music for the rest of my time

Well, I’ve got other blogs here and there, but maybe this will be the one that I use most now, since it is on my website. Have to be careful what I say, because someone might read it. Of course, that’s why I write them. And sometimes people read them that should have read them, at least that’s what was going on in my mind, way back there where you can’t really touch, when i wrote it. It did turn out right though, one way or another.

 Anyway, here’s where I can write some of the bullshit that does wend through my smoke. And when someone reads it, we’ll have to deal as it lays.

Mostly this blog is about music, probably, since that is pretty much my life. I don’t know what I would write about the other parts of my life. Building websites, selling, chasing kids around, and enjoying is not something easilyor neccessarily put on screens to read, but I suppose there will be times when I might write some different stuff. Anumber of story ideas have surfaced again, and if and when i get the time, maybe I could get one or two of them out.

Out