Porcupine · Burrito

You were all invited yesterday to my house for the monthly Denverfilk housefilk at the Precious Blood of Flipper Chapel. Among the many notable guests were Kathleen, myself, Dana, 2 Cheryls, Bruce, Robin & Fred, Sandy, Erik, Peter S., & young folks Mindy, Tammy & Alex. It was a delightful housefilk with much food, song & conversation.

But no photos. Oh well, maybe next time.

(I thought of belatedly inviting everyone after a recent Leon Redbone concert, in which he announced several times, after songs, "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that was a singalong." I remember hearing him once in the 70s in a big audtorium full of college students who kept trying to clap in rhythm. Almost unnoticably he would vary the rhythm just enough to throw them off and make them give up, but without stopping or hurting the music. Amazingly talented.)

That last post took forever to write, and I already realized I forgot a few things.

Harold, thanks again for the CD of the strange Kora player from the NYC subway.

Anyone wants one of those advance reading copies of Rosemary and Rue by Seanan, they're available on abebooks.com.

Plug for new CDs:

I've listened to all of Brooke and John's new CD. What can I say? It's the best thing I've heard in filk in a very long time.

The triple-disc Kathy Mar set with two audio CDs, video from her Worldcon music guest concert and digital bonuses is a real bargain at $30 and I believe if you can't wait until the next con, you can get them directly from Spencer or Persis.

SO MANY of my LJ friends have written Concertino reports, I'm thinking, OK, my turn. This may get kind of long, so I'll LJ cut ( the interesting parts. )

Brooke's concert was, um, FANTASTIC! Normally, Brooke is really, really good in concert, but I noticed a few improvements this time. I don't know if she slowed things down a bit or my ears speeded up, but I followed the lyrics better than I have previously. I think working on that CD has sharpened her performance abilities. I've said this before, and I'll say it again here - if Brooke doesn't get to be a GoH at a filk con in the next 2 years or so, I will be very surprised. Performing without John, and in those circumstances, was obviously a very difficult thing to do, but throughout the audience was in the palm of her hand, the performance was strong, and the encore and standing ovation were richly deserved. John's t-shirt and badge on an empty chair in front of the stage were very appropriate and touching.

I finally managed to do something I've tried to do several times in the past 3 years - ( and failed at miserably. )

Woke up in time to get to the song contest at 2:00 (so, not much sleep), and perform my song. The theme was Take It Back. Roberta Rogow won, and my song made 3rd place. I'm content with that.

The Return of the Jedi, N.I.B.
by Blind Lemming Chiffon
verses ttto I Am My Own Grandpa and When I Grow Up I Want to Be Peter Lorre (Smith)
chorus ttto Take It Back (Kathleen Sloan)

Not so many years ago, oh, maybe two or three
Somebody bought a Jedi doll, and gave the thing to me.
Perhaps it was my birthday, or some similar occasion -
I COULD sell the thing on eBay, and be sued for tax evasion.
I don't want this Jedi 'round my house, it gives me such a pain,
Two dead eyes staring at me through a wall of cellophane -
And then I had a thought, and at the bottom of the sack
Was the original receipt - I vowed to take the darned thing back.

They've got to take it back, give me the money back.
I don't want this Jedi any more.
I hope they take it back, give me the money back
When I take back this Jedi to the store.

The curse of MY existence is both movies and TV,
And products that they generate that I don't like to see.
This Jedi, new in box, is like the chicken pox,
A shoddy thing that's made of plastic; it makes me feel iconoclastic.
Encased in so much cardboard, imprinted with bad art,
Because, if sold unwrapped, the thing would likely fall apart,
So . . . it won't be fun at all, but I'll take it to the mall . . .
No, I won't smash or shoot or burn it:
I'LL GO TO TARGET AND RETURN IT!

(Note to self: repeat chorus and slink offstage apologetically.)

(Concept for future 3rd verse or sequel: the next person in line is requesting a refund on an Elvis Presley doll. The Return of the King. Oh, wait - pun taken.)

Most of ( the remainder of Sunday. )

I am going to really enjoy my retirement. 9-1-10.

One hour and 45 minutes and it's off I go on my journey to beautiful downtown Worcester. Before I leave, I need to pack last-minute stuff, change, maybe wash my hair, water the lawn, practice songs I'm supposed to play on stage with someone, and oh, let's see, I should work on the song I'm writing for that Take It Back contest.

Midnight flight on the BEM (Bug-Eyed Monster) express, landing @ Logan approx. 5:30 AM their time (3:30 AM Denver time), expect to feel like a sardine being removed gently from a tin by a herd of hungry cats when I get off the plane. I hope I am able to stay awake long enough to pick up my 200-pound lead weight guitar, call for the limo service (I don't feel like negotiating commuter trains in rush hour in heavy traffic while in my zombie state) and just hope the hotel has an empty room they can put me in where I can get some sleep when I get there.

If anyone is going to be at Logan early Friday morning anyway (like 6-7 AM) and could give me a lift, my cellophane number is 720-982-6208. There could be a free lunch or dinner involved.

An infinite number of really great things that I like, delivered approximately every 8 hours, forever, with many fine cheeseburgers.

Tune: Dylan's Only a Pawn in Their Game
Parody: Only a Clog in My Drain

I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this! I will NOT write this!

http://www.nobelprize4pete.org/index.html

What a great idea!

...and I found this Tom Smith video. Either he's changed quite a bit, or there are two musically talented people with the same name.

I just got this in a spam email from a friend. I don't know how old it is or if people have seen it before, but it was new to me & made me laugh.

Lawrence Livermore Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

I was suggesting Charango as a rhyme for Kathy's song - it pretty much has most of the other good ones - and somehow this photo came about. It was at the house concert in my back yard last summer just before Denvention.

My favorite photo from Denvention, out of an entire day's worth. Thanks, Fred & Robin, for permission to share.

I think I've now learned how to shrink photos to a reasonable size. This one is of a house concert in my back yard in 2005. Yes, I really do live in a neon blue Victorian house. That's John William Davis and friends making some fine music.

Photo, once again, by Reggie Barrett.

And, again, sorry for posting those large photos. I went back and resized them. I just didn't know how.

My mind is infected with bad ideas - like opening a kitchen remodeling business called The Counter Fitters, next to a decorating business, Call an Ambiance.

I wonder why there's a post office and no pre office, and why anyone would listen to experts, knowing they used to be perts. If you re-cycle an old calendar, does history repeat itself?

All ideas were original at some point.

Yesterday afternoon, I mostly spent lying in bed writhing in pain. Bad back. Finally, around 5:00, the Tylenol started to work, and I checked the internet because I wanted to find out how John Caspell's surgery had gone. I expected good news. I didn't get it. I spent a good 10 minutes crying and raging against the universe before I could think even close to rationally or type. I thought, someone had better call Kathleen, who is my friend, a guest at Concertino and Interfilk honcho. After a teary call to Kathleen, I had to get ready and go to a concert at Swallow Hill. I do volunteer work there.

First person I ran into was my friend Reggie, who took some wonderful photos for one day of Denvention 3, including the 4 I posted today. She is Swallow Hill's unofficially official photographer. I told Reggie the news, she gave me some food, and we hung out for a while talking with our friend Kim Rea, who is an incredibly funny songwriter.

http://www.kimreamusic.com/music.htm

I went out of my way to be nice to the patrons - I usually do, but even more so last night. The concert was Steve Forbert. I've been a fan of Steve Forbert for 31 years, since I first heard him open for Dave Van Ronk, probably at The Bottom Line in Greenwich Village, in 1978. At that time he was pretty much an unknown, then he went on to a flurry of stardom in the 80s - Rosanne Cash had a hit with one of his songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8iWn795AXY

and I have every single album he's ever put out. They're all great, but Alive on Arrival, the first, is still my favorite. I rank it up there with John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III for great first albums.

Opening for Steve was Don Conoscenti. A singer songwriter and incredible guitar player out of Taos, NM, Don was also in an accident, on his bicycle, in March and was airlifted from Taos to Denver, oddly enough to the very hospital where I work in my non-fannish life, where they rebuilt his leg with titanium. Don's medical bills are up around $100,000 and has no medical insurance. If you'd like to read about that, view his x-rays, or maybe buy some of his music first of all because it's good but also to help him out with his medical bills, he's at:

http://www.donconoscenti.com/

I talked to Don, bought a CD that Reggie told me I needed to buy, and got it autographed. Really nice guy.

Steve had 3 albums I didn't already have, and I bought them. One of them has a cover photo by Reggie Barrett (the one who took all those photos at Denvention). This isn't her first pro credit, but it's a huge one. It's this album, here:

http://www.steveforbert.com/discography/albums/meridian.htm

So I got both of their autographs on my copy. Reggie gave me a lift home and I sang her my swine flu song. I think I posted it here a couple of days ago.

Since then, I've either been asleep or on the internet. I took a break to take a shower and do some lawnmowing. My nephew dropped by - he has a deal to rescue books and stuff from a recycling center and he sells them on Amazon - he brought over a box of guitar instruction cassettes and VHS tapes from Kicking Mule that someone had thrown out. Incredible stuff. Reverend Gary Davis, John Renbourn, and so on.

I just got off the phone with my friend Jeb. Jeb rides a motorcycle, mostly on mountain roads, not too often in traffic. I asked him to please be very careful.

I was going through the pictures again, and I like this one because (a) it really captures the wicked grin that John & Brooke shared, and (b) John is playing my Everett 6-string.

Sorry the pictures are so large. I just figured out how to do this and I don't know how to make them smaller.

(later) went back and made them smaller using the advice received from Howeird.

photos by Reggie Barrett

Feeling small? Feeling like nothing you do makes a difference, depressed, beaten down, unhappy? I CHALLENGE you to watch this video and not change your mind just a little. Everything you do matters, and everyone makes a difference. You don't even have to know what it is; we are all here for a reason. (And Arlo. What a story teller!)