Nonsense, Drivel, and Balderdash

I want to be DH Lawrence, but with my books only being banned in countries without literary awards. I want coffee not to be bitter I want to be a beat poet, without the bongos and berets I want to be able to talk to animals, but only when I feel like it I want to be a Romantic poet with their flowers and birds, but where more than one gets shot mid-flight on its way to the nest I want to get a cancer that evokes sympathy but that secretly gives me superpowers instead of hurting me I want to be Oscar Wilde without the legal woes I want to be paid for no reason I want to be Shakespeare without the ambiguous identity I want to be worshiped without wanting to be worshiped I want to be Emily Dickenson with a thong and bigger boobs I want to write the great 20th century novel in the 21st century I want to be Chaucer without the morals in my stories I want to have a muse that I can turn on and off I want to be Whitman, but better looking I want to be a chaste whore I want to be Hemingway but ...

There are some deals you can't pass up. Like a Monk's outfit at the local toy and costume shop. It's all good. I am in a state of spiritual peace. Can't you tell? Now here I am, recieving divine relevation. This is clearly me ascending into heaven. Ah, and this is an old monastery yearbook foto. Yes, monasteries have yearbooks.

I generally don't like live recordings of musical artists. By "live" I obviously mean an album that has been recorded at a concert venue in front of an audience. In no way am I advocating music that was recorded by people who were not alive and breathing. Zombies are notoriously bad a music, though I suppose Vampires are alright if you are into Goth. So all this to say that I generally prefer studio albums. I must make an exception for Jazz however, because I think it works differently. That being said, I figured I would give you a run down of my top 4 live albums. These are albums that not only are as good as the studio stuff, but in some cases are better. Here we go: 4) Live at Stubbs- Matisyahu I really like Matisyahu. He is a bit of an odd character, being that he is a hasidic jew that sings/raps reggae. But still, he is really talented and fresh. It is really surprising how well the themes and sounds of jewish mysticism mix and meld with the yearning styles of rastaf...

I miss a real spring. Before I moved to Boston I couldn't figure out what the big deal about Spring was. I would read all those poems about the thrill's of the season, but the real meaning of them would elude me. You see, in Madrid we don't really have much of a spring or an autumn. In most of Spain we only have two defined seasons: Summer and Winter. Fall and Spring sort of meld together into a muddy and indefinite period. Not settling on winter gray nor summer light, Autumn and Spring go back and forth from grey to colour like a flickering television set. And so my madrilenian springtime is a bit of a tease. It is a tricky time of year, with mornings that suggest that you will need a jacket only to then blast you with heat as soon as you are too far to take it back; or often the opposite, promising sun and delivering rain. That is why I miss my Boston springtime. I remember the rhapsodic elation that filled in the air as the snow finally melted away and the bruised grass ...

After I wrote the previous post about my musical history, I went off to the Jazz club where I have been going on wednesday nights. I usually go and sing a song in the open mic segment. It is fun because you have a full jazz ensemble backing you up. So far I had only done the typical "fly me to the moon" and "there will never be another you." Today I didnt really find any songs from the book of standards that I felt like singing, so taking advantage of my bummed state this week I told the band to just play a blues and I would improvise. The drummer asked if we could funk it up a little, so it turned into a funky blues thing. I just sang the typical "my lovin' woman's left me..." kind of thing, though I did get a bit crazy in the solo section when I started scatting in the style of a wah-wah guitar. It was all good fun. It is quickly becoming the highlight of my week. I get to hang with friends, sing some tunes, listen to some jazz. All goodness. Her...

I have been doing musical stuff ever since I was a kid. In fact, my memories of music go back almost as far as my conscious memory does. As a little boy I was always listening to tapes and records and things of that sort. Then, when I was 9 I started with the trumpet. I kept playing the trumpet until college, sometimes with more commitment than on other occasions. My main problem was (and is) that I am terrible at sight reading music or any other aspect of musical theory. At first it was just "one of those things" but as I have gotten older I have become fairly certain that my brain simply cannot process that kind of information; the mathematical, rhythmical, quick thinking calculatory ways of thinking. I can understand the theories behind much of math and music, but as to the execution of such theories I am hopeless. In terms of mathematical IQ I am probably retarded. However, I have what most people refer to as a "good ear." A very good ear in fact, which is the ...