What is the color?

What is the color, when black is burned?

Anti Mass by Cornelia Parker










It's a line from Neil Young's "I am a child" and it's been haunting me for days. "I am a child" is clearly about his father, and then this line, dark and sad, is stuck in the middle.

What is the color when black is burned? It speaks to me that when black is burned it's no longer a color, it's beyond that. It's a feeling, a trigger, something that is registered in the gut, not abstractly like color but somatically like pain.

When black is burned it's something that was there that is no longer. Whatever burned it, burned it away. When Neil was young, his mom left his father- she packed their bags and took off with Neil. So what is the color of black when burned?

When black is burned it's not a color it is loss.

I remember my parents at this time of year. They died 5 years ago. They were always there, and now they are gone. That is the color when black is burned.

"I Am A Child"

I am a child, I'll last a while.
You can't conceive
of the pleasure in my smile.
You hold my hand,
rough up my hair,
It's lots of fun
to have you there.

God gave to you,
now, you give to me,
I'd like to know
what you learned.
The sky is blue
and so is the sea.
What is the color,
when black is burned?
What is the color?

You are a man, you understand.
You pick me up
and you lay me down again.
You make the rules,
you say what's fair,
It's lots of fun
to have you there.

God gave to you,
now, you give to me,
I'd like to know
what you learned.
The sky is blue
and so is the sea.
What is the color,
when black is burned?
What is the color?

I am a child, I'll last a while.
You can't conceive
of the pleasure in my smile.

Led Zeppelin Dreams

Yesterday Led Zeppelin performed in London. *sigh*

See what happens?

Wow, a lot has happened since I started Googling my way down memory lane yesterday.
After ordering the Perfect Jewish Couple CD, I might be getting together with Shari the next time she's out here on biz. I hope to reconnect with Kelly too!
From the PJC website I found out that another friend from that time, Marc Chenault, passed away this year with cancer. How very, very sad. He was an amazing guy and a truly gifted musician.

So I started looking other random names: a lot of folks are still making great music, which is wonderful to find out. I typed in Paul B. and found out that he is a sought-after toy sculptor. Paul also did this 50 x 20 foot bas relief scupture at the entrance of Cincinnati's new ballpark. Congrats to Paul!



Wow! This is fun...

Birthday ponderings

So here I am, sitting and thinking, which are both unavoidable owing to the broken ankle and all.
It's my birthday. I'm 48, which comes a big surprise to me, since, for some weird reason, I had somehow convinced myself for the last year that I was turning 49, and only one year away from 50. When I went in for my ankle surgery, I saw on the admitting form that I was 48. Wow, I thought, how did I do that? I guess I was so concerned with being one year away from 50... well now it seems very cool that I am actually TWO years away! (heh heh) Oh-- it's just funny now!
I looked up birthdays for today... my birthday is the same as Peter Buck's! Nice... because I have a good and dear friend who also knows Peter. So now I'm going down memory lane, thinking about all my good and dear friends over the years and how I used to be a complete music junkie, local band supporter and sometimes band groupie.
First I thought of Tinsley Ellis, the mind blowing blues guitarist, and googled him to find he has a new album out... and yes I still say "album"...















I've known Tinsley since 1989 when I was "dating" his keyboard player. That "relationship" didn't last long, of course, but because of it Tinsley and I became a good friends. We don't stay in touch often these days, but he's a great guy and I'm proud to call him friend. I ordered the CD today and can't wait to hear it!

I started thinking about the Cincinnati music scene that I was a supporter of in the 80's. I say "supporter", because I was only in the background as I actually had a "real" job, but that meant that I could supply crucial fundage at times. Believe it or not, we had quite a progressive and creative little bubble in the midst of all that conservative Cincinnati bull shit. Maybe that made us closer... and very protective of one another. (The good citizens of that city are famous for, among other things, banning Robert Maplethorpe's photographs, banning Larry's Flint's Penthouse mag, burning a KKK cross in the center square of town and infamously brutalizing it's AfricanAmerican residents) The police would wait for our bar to close and then follow us home, stopping us at every intersection, trying to intimidate us punk-ass freaks I guess. In fact, repeated police harassment and beatings were a major reason why many of us fled to San Francisco and New York City in the last years of that decade.

But for a short while all us freaks banded together and built an amazing art/music scene around a couple of bars, The Metro being the center in Cincy, with the Jockey Club across the bridge in Kentucky. I was thrilled this morning to find Shari and Kelly's band Perfect Jewish Couple has recently released a remastered CD... If you go to their Myspace page, you can listen to some of their tracks... click here



















I ordered it and can't wait to share it with my friends. What a blast from my new wave/alternative/punk roots! Of course the band RedMath was next on the list.


















Long ago I lost my RedMath album during one of my many moves, but today I was able to find a used one on sale thru Ebay, so that's on the way too. No websites for RedMath, but it was a very influential band at the time. Three of the band members moved out here to SF, and we keep in touch. I don't know where the others are. Paul moved back to Dayton, Geno is owns a successful hair salon and still records music, Mike is a world renown tattoo artist (he did all of mine) and still makes art and music in his rare spare time. A LOT of 0ther folks from that Metro scene all moved here too- Kenny is a bike mechanic in Northern Ca., Nelson is here in SF, and every once in a while I run into someone who looks very familiar and we find out we were both back there at the Metro.
Another guy from our little Cincy scene , Ital Shur (Sleep Theater was his band at the time) moved to NYC, eventually wrote "Smooth", sent it to Santana and won a Grammy. I'm sure he wouldn't remember me at all, but it was very exciting to see him up on stage accepting that award!

Those were fun years I will never forget. But the future is now, and there is lot's to be done, so let's get hoppin'! Happy Birthdays to everyone! ;)

Things I learn while on crutches...

1. Cable sucks
2. Direct TV does not suck.
3. XM radio channel "Deep Tracks" is completely amazing!
4. Grocery stores are overwhelming and frightening places.
5. Museums have wheelchairs you can borrow.
6. IKEA has wheelchairs too!
7. Thank god for friends.
8. When you can't carry anything, you can't do much.
9. Kneepads are essential.
10. My boyfriend rocks!!!