William Randolph and comple anos (sic) *** pictures to follow to-morrow)

Friday nite in outpatients.....no no, Friday nite in Humbolt Park, or maybe even the next neighbourhood over. Wait- from the beginning.


It was W.R. Heurt's B day celebration Friday nite, and it was decided by him to have it @ the latest in "Outpost" bars, the .........uh, it's like 3600 West Armitage, so it may even be beyond humbolt- I'm not sure. But it is a wilderness for similar-me types in that part of Chicago, and I'm always interested in new places.





I left late- Nephew.3 was having a 13th b-day party, and I stayed late for the pizza and sympathy. Neice.3 was complainging- she's 15, and all she wanted to do was go out with her frenz (just wait, young parents all- the time put in now is well worth it 10-15 y later.). The rest of the crowd showed up. Gf was here as well- it was gonna be too late for her to go to North Side and then back to work, so she chose this as her battle.

Weegee's Lounge - the name of the place- was pretty good. Like I said earlier, it's kinda an outpost place- sotra like Rainbo in the late 1980's or Black Beetle in early 2000's or many other types. Good crowd. The Young Guard moves en masse et esemble rarely these days (Unlike the stunning envelopement manuevers of 7-8 years past- when this unit lived less off the baggage train and more on the land). However, I was in a good mood and fairly chatted up the crowd well. Made a point of accosting everyone about the aprty in 2 weeks- some can't, of course= the Smoky Treats, the Snowdens, and the Vampires are out. Boo. But some attrition was expected, yes...?


They had expensive cider. $5.50 a bottle. Yeesh. I'll go back, though. Nice crowd of us and nice crowd not of us.

the dutchy

A well written article on drugs passed on to me- or, err, something like that - and a less well written article on " The myth of the Orternal Return ".

Combine them and it's ambrosia, rite??

Death Note

The kids kept telling me get into this shit. 'Please read this and tell me what you think' I was asked, so I jumped into one of them. So:

What do I think??

I think this is fucking great!!!!!!! Sorrily all the kids here do as well, so even with my presidential powers in the library, it's hard to get the first volume of the set. However, it can be done. A quick check in the computer shows me who has it (and due in October !!), and I tracked her down. I lied and said 20 people wanted it- well, I count for 20, don't I??- and she will give it to the lib and save it for "the male librarian". Mine come monday. And I will sin and read #2, which is rite behind me.

The student was rite. This series is the best, so far.

My 35,266th time as a teacher

Not bad. I amidt i'm a little nervous being a classroom teacher again (for a month), but it's going well. He left me some good lesson plans, which generally are the key to success in teaching (well, students s-e-s, support from the adm., parents who care, materials like computers (((Even in 1996- HOW WAS TEACHING EVER DONE WITHOUT COMPUTERS??))).

It's strange being out of the library so much, but I am enjoying it. I work in the library as much as I can- it's an addictive atmosphere to be in.

I'm out. A pizza party for nephew.3 and a drinking party for William Randolph Huerst awaits. And a little bit'o' Russia to take home wit me.

Zepplin review

Felt like posting it after I read ...

Best line?

Unlike Mick Jagger, Mr. Plant — the youngest of the original members, at 59 — doesn’t walk and gesture like an excited woman anymore.

Blackstaff

Talked to Blackstaff last nite. he doing very well, despite the adjustmentt to the new job. Wanna visit them- it's only a 5h drive (well, 'only', but...) but since I'll have some time over xmas, maybe. (or MLK weekend). Plan it up.

The distrubing news from hm was totally personal. One of the bands I'm in, The General Strikes, consists of Blaxx and I. He's all music, I'm all voice ('cept for the occasional handclap percussion bits etc...). Over the years we have haphazardly recorded a lot of songs- we must have 10 or so songs of varying quality as set pieces of work.

And in my opinion, the best was a song called "The Last Patrol", and was so deeply personal that the lyrics had to be garbled, shouted, screamed, and scrabbled, and otherwise made so totally indecipherable so that no one could tell what I was writing about. You won't find out, either- still too harsh a time. But I do know that although he has never heard the song, the title alone will inform one person EXACTLY what going on- another mite take a word and surmise. I remember recording it, too. When it came time to put down the vocals, and the pain and camouflage came out, John's old lover, the Tejas Gal had to stop herself from coming into the music room to quiet us (me) down. She waited till I was done. We all burst out laughing, but I loved that song best. I've heard it twice ever, too- recording it, then playing it back once.

Listen: even Blackie has no clue- so leave me alone. But it fits my pattern- if i can't directly talk about it, hide it- like most of the 'poems' I do here, and especially "Ithica".

And now, we are in danger of losing the tapes. Seems that it was recorded on the Tejas Gal digital machine, and she's now gone and in S.F., another machine is needed (or something). Maybe even a dash of water to the back of the neck and the codes.

Reminds me of my Mac problem. I have 40 or so papers from grad school on an ancient Mac. I tried to copy all the good stuff onto floppies

Needs to get done.

Picture of Albini via Rocky Welcome the Shellac shows this wkd.

Sister I'm a teacher

For @ least the next four weeks of class time, I'm once again a history teacher!! How did that happen?? One of this schools finestest's wife is having an Elliot Dax type experience, and I'm taking over his classes.

Like I said, he's one of the best. So organized, with outlines and post it's and hi-lighters on this and that days assignment. So, in all reality, the hard part is mainly done 'till Xmas- the PREPARATION. After xmas, he's giving me the option to make the lesson plans for all but one of his classes, and I am taking it. My past teaching experience was so hard (Promethus i'm saying, except his rock was a pebble). However I have changed so much professionally- that I'm dying to test myself again. I really get 'jealous' sometimes because I don't get to teach history any more. At this point, I'm so comfortable inside a classroom- the point is to be just as comfortable outside that room- which, strange as it may seem to non teachers-is just as important.

In case you missed my firday nite aboard /// Jeeze what a RockySrRockyIssac like face

friday nite

Martin Macguiness

It’s very strange to see Ian Paisley and Martin McGuiness to-gether, smiling. Very strange. Saw the RTE news on public TV that shows the 10m of Irish news every Wednesday @ 1830h. They are leading figures in the Northern Ireland government who were bitter enemies for decades.
Tell you the truth, although he was such a hated figure for so long, I don’t mind seeing Paisley’s face. I’m all about peace and reconciliation. If Sein Fein can make peace with the unionists, that’s all rite with me.

I have cousins who live in the North. I may have written about this before, but when I visit (not since 2000) its so strange to see the army deployed on the streets. Patroling the streets, guns @ the ready, eyes up, in a straggling line- just like Bagdad!! However, they did pose for pictures- I took a few “hidden shots” before I realized they didn’t care about some Yank w/ a camera. And then there were the helicopters, two @ a time. One would be in the air to cover the landing one. Fucking Vietnam, some of the times with a few flites of them flinging over skies.

And then there was the Manchester attitude. Got cousins in Manchester- same side, same relation. Manchester had been bombed in the 90’s something fierce. Man U. cousin had an overwhelmingly negative view of the IRA.

All three of us like Manchester United, however. On that we can agree.

Berghoff

Liz hosted up a downtown drinkery party for a tuesday @ the Berghoff. This marked the first time since Q’s undergrad graduation that I hung @ there. Well attended. We took up two tables and had a nice and cheery time. They were all eating and boozing it up. I had double Belgian Beers, and they tasted good. Generally I hate beer, unless its Guiness with an equal amount od cider underneath- then I love beer- but this was good. Not too ale-y. A famour belgian beer, @ least here. Wonder if it's as spliffy famous in belgium, though. Like Chop Suey in China. Wait, how did I become all Ulysses's-like all of a sudden? Must be the influence. The skirt on that one today. Ineluctible. Must get the kidney's for her lunch. just ....

What I noticed was all the time the smokers were outside smoking their cigerettes. I'm glad I do not smoke them. Fuck cigerettes. But inside was none. Do believe that the smokers of Illinois have but 3 weeks to enjoy the leaves of their success indoors publicly. No one talkd of it though. They talked of babies and Blackies, french actresses and american actors, music and radio, the difficulty of digitising analog recordings with cheap equipement and naval actions off of the northern coast of Java. Wait- even I didn't talk about Java. Next time.

Since I knew I was going to Liz’s bash, I decided to go to cps to clear up face to face my insurance problems. the fone takes forever- I've learned jut to face to face it. And since I was already going to the Loop, I decided just to do it. I got the best of all news on that front. I got the good insurance- like I would if I was full time- till June, and all that $$$ I’d been paying into Cobra insurance = rite back @ me. Really. Wow.

Also went to Harold Washington to get some more movies. I also was looking for sound effects. Got two, plus hopefully supernice vrc tape. Mite be the only thing I need. Wait- Ulysses again. Stop it!! And the stop @ Harolds. Bet I still stink.......

Here's Liz's Lynx to lots o fotos of stuff...

The yellow rose of Tejas

The Yellow Rose of Tejas

candle

candle

Thurston

Waiting till this class ends, so i can go back the the library to see if THAT is the place I left the NYT. Then , I will look about the front desk in my continuing vain attempt to get the CPS insurance card I needed this morning.

Forget about ewhat I lost last nite- I found it after getting up out of the chair I was working in, went downstairs three times and out to the car once and then giving up and sitting back down in the exact chair I was working from- there it was.

We had a student librarian in this fall, and one of her jobs was to remind me where to go. She often remarked when I tizzied about the library looking for whatever I had just left down "here we go again".

Last year same thing. We had a retired librarian in, and she woulf remark on my tizzies about looking...

Mom, Gf, same thing. Not fair to them. Not fair to me, anymore. last nite was the "....... fuck man.....fuck...... well, one more time into the breach"

I've written a brave poem on this= well, four lines. Now, and seriously, when I track it down, I will repost it here. But until then.......

What ??

This version of this song has kinda been dominating lately. What?? I could get over the stones so quickly?? And to think, when I wrote all that Stones stuff, I wasn't particularly in a Stones mood. Now I am.

So, a litttle more Stones, only less so......

I've got lots of frenz who make music, and a treat is when they play stuff for me they haven't completed yet. They'll sit me in a seat optimised for speakers, three times a chalice or more'd, then: "ready?'d". Always a treat. And the funny thing is, a lot of time as the newsong courses through the music receptors in the ears and synaps and grey matters and the neutrons and back, lots of times I add my own little ideas on how to make the song better. A favourite of my is the tambourine and the hand clap- I'm always puffing them up, maybe 'cause I can actually play those instruments. But dominating every idea when I hear a song and think "Boy, this song would be cooler if...", it's always the introduction of a Keith richards riff. I've probably aid it to each friend @ least once. I have, I'm serious- if you don't remember, let me remember for you.

The You tube link below* is of the Stones (Germany/'67) doing an incredibly alive live version of "Under my Thumb". There are many versions of this song. The original single, from Aftermath, is one of their classics. Very studio - non noisy, with piano and that other percussion instrument. Then there's the Gallo version from the movie "Gimmie Shelter"- slow understated groove, nice riff. On the 1981 tour, I believe they opened up with the song. And there is a superior exciting live version on their "Got LIVE if You Want It" LP from 1966. This was always my favourite, although the quality of the LP was terrible ( I'm pretty sure it was two audio tracks on this LP- one side the band, and the other side girls screaming).

Oh- and the version of Joe Piscapo as Sinatra doing the song on SNL - he drops whole lines of the song, saying just "Thumb", f.ex. Just thought I'd include that one.

Good song in all its guises- but this is now my favourite version. The video doesn't go with the audio, but they still are well matched. I absolutely love how exciting this version is. Racing rocking version with soundboard quality. The drumming, Mick singing "HA!", Mick's dansicing style around the 1m50s mark, and, especially: THAT RIFF. It's the deeply imposing thing elbowing itself foward rite when Mick chours's "The change has come / Under my thumb"**

Anyway, music people, remember- if I say the song needs maybe a tambourine or something like the below riff, just remember not to take me that seriously. But- sounds great in this song, yeah?

.......................................................................

*=yes, yes, I got that trick down now. Figger'd it after a bit.

**= try 33-36s and 1m4s-1m8s, to name twice when it surfaces in the song. I said it's all rite, it's all rite.

white sox 1990

punch that into youtube and see what you get. Funny how one stumbles onto other worlds sometimes.

No, not my deal either- y k'now I'd boast it if it was. Just thought the findings of these were funny.