Days of the Deads

November to Remember. Stay tuned.

More to Come...

Happy Halloween, everybody. America's favorite funblog will be back soon, pending good election results. Vote Obama or sink deeper.

Left to Write

Ahh, sweet California again, here with the lovely Annabelle at the Huntington Gardens near Pasadena. Fortuna has dealt me another unexpected turn as the temps here topped out around 100 this weekend in a freak wave of heat, but there is so much here to brighten the soul that I've hardly noticed. Tomorrow the mercury 'sposed to drop into the normal range and by Friday I should be golfing in the seventies, score and temperature (no Centigrade jokes). I'm sitting out back right now at Annabelle's little house in Attwater Village. A quaint arboretum shades me with exotic limbs and vines all above that silently crackle with the brittle, pink, paper leaves that occasionally fall on my keyboard. I'm just missing a cup of tea but I have other delights to make up for it. I spent almost one entire year in one time zone. Weird. Thoughts like that fly at me here and I relish a new perspective. Obviously I haven't posted in a month because I really just haven't had anything to say. Besides, this thing has gotten to a weird point where there are things I wouldn't now feel comfortable writing about since my name is on this behemoth. I do have a new painting on the slab but it's thousands of miles away at the moment. Funny that when I work on it again, it will take on a new personality because some of my experiences here will be in it emotionally. And that's fine.

Cat Snatch Fever

The heads, you're looking at the heads... I'll explain later.
I'm having a hard time getting the auto focus to zone in on this one. Adding the contrast layer for the phantom image was a gamble but finally I can push it out of the nest. Even when the inspiration comes from within, it can be very delicate. The photo below came out a little better than last time but it's a little fuzzy on detail.

Spoiler alert for the gross part! My animal, Jonny Cat, is infected with spring fever and has taken to killing everything within a fifteen yard radius of the back door. A few days ago I came across a chipmunk head and tail sitting on the kitchen floor. The next day, she carried in two lizards which she had to eat in front of me, complete with little bones crunching. I had to leave her in the house for a while after that but when I got back, there were the lizards, sitting in a pile, a pile of vomit and arms and legs and two heads. Yum. Then, yesterday, as I'm practicing my golf swing on the back porch, she brings up a mouse that has intestines trailing out one side as its trying to get away. I gave it two good whacks on its little noggin with my sand wedge, an open faced club (s0me of you know what joke to insert here). Anyway, I got her to drop the chipmunk today and it ran out of the house, a la Chainsaw Massacre. There'll probably be a sequel.

closer.... Closer!!!

I beg your indulgence in presenting, here above, a work in progress. The centerpiece was supposed to be the one below, left. I thought I got a few fine enough shots of it using a bounce flash, but when I set it up on the big screen I discovered that the light had drained and bounced out the dark tones so I just scrambled up the order. I'll insert an updated pic in the next entry. It was too late tonight to go back into the camera. Anyway, this is the kinda stuff I've been doing. Feelin' good's good enough.

I attended the Braves' home opener which we lost in heart-breaking fashion, 11-12 in the 12th inning. The hurt receded quickly as I went back to the stadium on Sunday to see the mighty and mystical John Smoltz outpitch Johan Santana of the Mets who look frail in the early going. As for the good guys, we've lost five one-run games. Sheesh. Too early for concern but these things nag like a little spider that's biting the back of you're head and you're not sure what the hell's going on but a win streak will kill the bugs. No sugar tonight in my coffee.

Which reminds me... I got a whiff of the road and life just off the highway in the form of a bouncy, black waitress that sucked all my life for a little while, but in the end... all I got was a little knowledge.

It was twenty years ago today...

My last post got some nice comments from fellow heads so I'm glad to continue in that vein. This date, March 24, is very special in Dead history with at least eleven different shows on this spot on the calendar. I just finished listening to the first show the boys ever played at the Omni, having outgrown the Fox. It happened on this date in 1988 and I recommend you give it a try: http://www.archive.org/details/gd88-03-24.aud.wood.9540.sbeok.shnf Tripping back through the songs, the memories flood in of that wonderful, dank, old building that shook with emotion. There aren't many venues with any character left. Anyway, this was my second Dead show, having come home from the long road, and I was redirecting my life in Atlanta (a lot like I am now, kinda). But the music on this night went to the next level that I can hear going backwards in time, before heroin had taken that last, extra spark away from Jerry. The second set had four big songs come after "Space" which almost overnight changed with the old men running off stage after a few closing tunes. No, on this night they played large. Even "Lovelight", normally a snoozer of a closer for me, really cooks. I saw many, many great shows after this one, but I didn't know that I was getting a flavor of something that was almost already gone, to be shared by some and untouchable to most.

No big surprise here, but this part of the year holds multiple memories and this date hits another special one. In 1993, we had three sweet shows here at the Omni but that wasn't enough for my friend, Jeffrey Nathan Speer, and me, so we piled in to his Honda and tooled up to Chapel Hill and two nights at the Dean Dome. The 24th was the first night of the UNC shows so it was already an anniversary of a sort but the earlier night at the Omni in '88 had been Jeff's first show so this was his five year anniversary. Sorry if that got convoluted but we had a hell of a time getting into the disaster of the building that is the Dean Smith Center. This stupid joint holds 4000 more than the Omni did but has smaller concourses and fewer facilities. I was in such a sour mood by the time I got settled in that I was shocked when this incredible music pulled me up and out and the energy from that night still shakes in its own unique way only we 20,000 can actually remember. Give this really cool show a try, too: http://www.archive.org/details/gd93-03-24.sbd.nawrocki.16885.sbeok.shnf

In other news, the painting above is my first try at an abstract in oil. I call it "Venus on the Whole" and I give no explanation. The view at left here has a little skull I started tonight. I'm not sure if he's finished yet. I'll probably go in for some refinements. Story of my life.

Night Equals Day

The equator leveled off 41 minutes ago and we enter the period when night and day learn to share. Still, this shining ball of blue we call our home is tilting toward the sun and I offer my own pale skin, so starved of colour now. Time to cut into the winter growth and expose myself to new forces and problems. The wind thunders and swirls in a rage at this dark minute while the sun is away and I listen to an Omni show of the Grateful Dead from this date, 3/20 in 1993. Those were salad days of a different sort when this time of year meant spring training for the Braves and spring tour for the Dead. I still have the Braves but recordings of Birdsong and all the rest will have to do until the next messiah cometh. I miss the Dead and the Omni and the Hawks and basic decent fair play. This spring will hardly rock which is to say that the manner in which it rocks will be hard.