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Where Art Thou?

Well two posts in July and now one post at the end of August. Whew, I've outdone myself!

OK, I moved across the state, sort of. I have a house, a bed, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 1 daughter and some frozen pizza and beer in the fridge. Hey sounds like a party. Not really, more like an extended excursion at the local Days Inn. Oh well I'm here and I know things will get better when the wife and furniture finally arrive.

So where is here?

You know they say you can't go home again, and maybe they're right, but I don't know the "they" that say those things...... so here I am again.

She's Callin My Name

Where did the month of July go? Well it sure didn't go into this blog. So I guess I should apologize to the 3 faithful readers that have stuck with my sporadic ramblings.

I have come to realize over the past few years as I reflected on my life that I have lived a decade at a time. That may seem confusing to you but makes perfect sense to me. From about the age of 15 till now, my life has undergone dramatic change every 10 years. About 2 years ago I began to wonder if this cycle had forgotten me or maybe my Gypsy angel had just skipped town and didn't leave a forwarding address. Well she didn't leave after all but came knocking at the door or rather just barged in and said pack your bags boy it's time to go. I can't give all the details yet but will as soon as I can. I would just ask that if you can hang with me for a while I will be back and running or at least posting on a more regular basis as soon as I can.

But thinking back on my past lives, I just received a link to an old friend of mine who is still plugging away in the arts. You know I love art, dontcha? So I have to point you to her site. If you like clay, if you like drawing, then how about both wrapped into one tasty nugget? Don't forget to read what she writes about herself and her work. I love good words, too. Another one of my favorite Arizona artist friends sent me the info and I would link to her site...but...she's updating it she's done so here it is.

Will my future life collide with a past one and create some new twist for the next decade? God only knows, but that's good enough for me. Now I must go and wipe the dust off of my well worn traveling shoes. See you soon.

Terra Nova

I have been a music junkie my whole life. Some of my earliest memories are laying in my little attic room listening to the rain on the tin roof while being lulled to sleep by my nightstand radio. My addiction has only increased over the years as I spent every spare dime on vinyl (for you kids those are the big black disks that you may have seen during your last class trip to the natural history museum) then CD's and now MP3s. Music has been important to my art and to my life. Like many of you a song can spark memories of places and emotions and people that have drifted through my life. I still have boxes of vinyl in my basement that I havent played in years but can't seem to be rid of. Some weird emotional attachment, I guess. I have shelves of CD's and now I have thousands of songs on my iPod. And crap since I'm spilling my guts here I guess I should admit to the few 8 tracks that I have owned. Yes I really did...wide magnetic tape in a big plastic box...so there you have it, the whole ugly truth about my musical sickness.

So where am I going with all this? Well, I've also been acused of a YouTube fetish too. So I may be a little late to this party but I just discovered a new and great voice for the future of Rock. Terra Naomi is that voice. If you love intelligent heartfelt lyrics and great music then this super unknown is going to be the next big thing. But if big music is too stupid to do anything with this girl then you owe it to yourself to check her out on the internets.

Full and Dry

I hadn't been to Ruidoso New Mexico since 1999. Since June of 1999 to be exact. The last time I was there I had to bury my brother in a hard scrabble piece of ground in the dry mountains near Mayhill. My mother lives near there and I haven't been back since. Not something I am proud of, just something that happened. I don't understand how we let things slip through our fingers and through our lives and through the years, but we do, and somehow it ends up just being the way it is.

But I went back and it was OK. Yet death was there again, and this time one of my hero's is the one that will spend time in that hard and dusty place. I had the honor of meeting this man several times when I was an artist. I had the privilege to sweat with him as we moved some of his pieces from a truck to the museum grounds. This man didn't care who you were or where you came from, but rather regarded you as a unique individual. He shook your hand as an old friend. I don't think he ever let things slip through his hands. Luis Jimenez, you will be missed, for your art and more importantly for your humanity. Your patch of hard scrabble, your El Jardin de los Angeles is just a little more beautiful now. Adios.

Can You Hear Me Now

I like Apple. I really do. They have been the cool company for twenty years now. So what’s happened? I wonder if it was the rush of iPod mania? It seems like Steve’s head has expanded beyond the normal gargantuan proportions.

I know, I know, how could I say anything bad about Apple. The heresy, the outrage. Well it’s not so much about the products, they still rawk, but the way they are being fed to us is well, not cool. Remember all of those ad’s throughout the years, the groundbreaking 1984 theme, the Think Different stuff, then the iPod everyone’s a rock star spots...All brilliant. But then came the Stanley Kubric 2001 A Space Odyssey rip off which also stole directly from the band Postal Service. C’mon, a copy of a copy, and this from Apple the innovator. The talk on the Net was harsh, and maybe Steve’o listened cuz the spot aired like maybe 3 times before being pulled. But now…

Who came up with this PC vs Apple parody? Yeah, it’s pretty funny. You know, the cool hipster making fun of the poor Bill Gates look alike, ha, witty as hell. But what are you trying to do here Apple, sell computers or alienate a new segment of the market? Apple has all these new Intel machines coming out that can run Windows and MacOS, so instead of embracing these new potential customers Apple tells them they just aren’t cool enough to use a new MacBook. Duh, fire the ad agency and start again.

Speaking of the MacBook, who came up with that name? We have McNuggets, we have McMansions, we don’t need McLaptops. The name iPod is cool the name MacBook is not.

Remember the Sony Walkman? As great as the iPod is I think it’s destined to be the next Walkman. Oh no, heresy again. Naw, just the writing on the wall. Apple’s new venture with Japanese telecom giant Softbank just sealed the iPod’s fate. The golden era is over. Who will need a separate player when your new phone will have all of the newest music features that Apple has to offer?

iTalk anyone?