City of Legends

The boots are more than adequate (Yay!) and I will debate within myself the jacket I have taken under consideration.

I was listening to a random scramble and shuffle off my iTunes and hit Bette Midler’s athletic version of Bob Seger’s Fire Down Below and…and…and…

I sat down and engineered a shell for my reading of I rained poetry I have Jezika™ right now working with.  It’s good.  It’s different for me, but good.  If Jezika™ doesn’t get it done or I don’t like her version, it will go on the CD instead.  I might even include both…two takes on the same work.  Hmmmm.

I also have to confess I am working on one of those monster production numbers, like Wordslinger, Erotic V and Beasts of Legend.  It may come together, or it may not.  Watch for further word on it here.  It is lush, fantastic and a worthy golem.  I am calling it Aubergine.  And if that doesn’t send a few chills down some spines, then I’m Will Smith in New York, surrounded by the undead revenants of a plague.  And who wants to live in that sort of world?

John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band…take me to The Dark Side.

It took more than one take (that’s an understatement), but after a long hard day being an essential cog in the American Military-Industrial Complex, I spent a substantial time yesterday putting the finishing touches on yet another track for Evangelist:

as linen frames your sleeping form (click on the title to read the poem at Amomancer)

Arguably one of the more erotic poems in As such… and I think we did it justice, just had to bleed off some over-emotional inflection in my voice (dammit) that rendered me all but inarticulate at a few points. (I asked my friend Thomas when I might expect this tendency to end when trying to read works about, er, from that book and he said "If you were human, a few months…you? Never. Get used to it." Bastard.)

But I finally got the takes I need (Yes, what you will hear when the CD is released is actually an amalgam of three different readings). It’s a short, acoustic piece, but it has a nice punch to it and will settle in well with its brethren. I have decided to set an arbitrary deadline of June 14th (Ann’s 10th anniversary clean date) for the tracks for the CD, so if Jazz and Jezika™ don’t get their assignments in by then, I will just go around them (I am patient, but not infinitely so, as some may attest).

I see where Hillary won Puerto Rico convincingly. Not that it will do her any good. The boys in the back room have decided that a woman’s place is not at the top of the ticket, being the prejudicial, half-wit, sexist, chauvinist pigs that they are. I think the Democratic Party is ricking losing the affection of about 50% of the electorate in one blood-curdlingly stupid move. Four more years of Republican rule. Not that John McCain is a bad guy, but his stepping up means a lot of the policies of quite possible the worst President we’ve ever had will be continued.

A friend called me last night to get caught up on things. I told him I could answer 99% of his questions in a paragraph. I paraphrase here:

"I am well, the kids are good, work is passable. Writing is good, the books and CDs are doing well and I am planning a massive, bone-cracking tour for later this year which will most likely end with either my death or my permanent relocation to Los Angeles or both. Fell in love, good for writing, bad for sanity, relationship seems to be in strange and alien territory, don’t ask. Grandma is getting out of the hospital, Dad and Mom are great and I should be finishing up a screenplay this weekend."

It felt like one of those Christmas letters people are so fond of putting out. I did an HTML version one year, I will have to see if I can find it.

Last night I stayed up way too late and laid down tracks for the Jezika™ collaboration (the ™ thing gets tedious) and for the revived Evangelist project. Made a wrong turn and allowed myself to connect with the material. Powered through. Larry, I owe you, man. When I see the damage done to so many people I care about, it makes me think you may be right. But I think it is a more of bad human judgment than anything else. Everyone wants to compromise, no one wants to be smart or do the right thing anymore. We want strawberries and steak in the blender. It rages me major.

Remind me sometime to tell you about John Henry and the 500 lb vibrator.

Good news: Now that they have rebalanced her electrolytes and gotten her fever down, Grandma is feeling better and is much more lucid.

Bad news: She now wants to go back to living alone. And she’s asking questions I don’t have answers for. Sheesh.

For sale or trade: One life, well-used, high mileage but with most of the original equipment (missing only heart, soul and cajones).

In less bizarre corners, I think I have found the perfect poem for the Jezika™ project.

Since all of my other collaborations are on hold indefinitely (now you know why I am usually a solo act) I have fallen in cahoots with extremely gifted techno-dance-musical artist Jezika™ for a song project, utilizing my words and her sounds (yes, that’s her. yes, she’s very pretty, why do you ask?).

I will let you know how it turns out, but anyone interested in hearing (and seeing) more of this very talented young woman need only hit her MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/jezikajunglemonkey

Don’t worry, all, I am keeping one hand firmly lashed to the third rail of the one in whom I trust whose name must not be said because you all are tired of hearing it.

Jezika and I are still discussing what poems or poems to adapt, but this is my first time in a while working with a musical collaborator, and I hope it comes off well. Who knows? I might have to take her on the road this fall!