Good to hear from you. I was offline for a bit recently, and it was pretty nice! Things have not been good here lately, and it is all too easy to disappear into the net to avoid all the crap that really needs to be taken care of!

One thing I don't miss about England is jerks on trains. The London underground is full of them! Once, there was this respectable looking old woman on the tube late at night who took offence to me for some unknown reason and promptly told me to get out of the country and to go back home where I came from. I helpfully tried to point out that I was born and bred about three stops down the line, but she was certain that I was some kind of undesirable alien who needed repatriating.

I actually think that watching a firework display on TV that was happening a few blocks away is pretty cool! It's shame we couldn't watch our work on TV so we didn't have to go.

As for the meaning of life, I tend to go with the one suggested at the end of Monty Python's Meaning Of life movie. Something about trying to read a few good books, travel a bit and try not to be too horrible to anyone. That probably isn't what it said at all, but it seems to work for me. As to why people suck, they suck because they can!

I meant to write "taking the subway"- not "talking the subway" although that could be a great new term to use. ie: I got jumped cuz I been talking the subway and runnin my attitude wild.

Hey there! I'm good. Just been working like mad and I was without cable for about a week, so I had to do dial-up and my time on the world-wide-webs was limited. I have to tell you, it kind of felt nice. Other than that I watched the fireworks for the 4th on TV, even though it was happening about 2 blocks away from me. I know I'm lame. Other than that, just trying to figure out the meaning of life and why people suck. I was talking the subway home at around 5:30 am last week and some drunk guy on the train asked me if I wanted to take the train home, which I was already doing, but I told him "no" and he called me a creep. Funny though- it kind of hurt my feelings- I don't think I have ever been called that. Oh well. How's things?

How are you? Hope you are ok

Bonjour,

Yeah, I have the web pages but nothing on them as yet. I am working on a couple of mixes myself. Did you see my Bo Diddley mix. It was a spur of the moment tribute thing but it kept me quiet for an hour. I am exhausted. In the last twenty four hours I have gone from Porterville to Ventura to San Diego to Ventura and back home again due to family emergencies. It is approaching triple digits here and I have a four set gig this evening from six in the open air, or what passes for air in the Central Valley.

I am looking forward to next weekend more because a friend from London, Pete Brown, will be over working in LA for a couple of weeks. He is the guy who wrote the lyrics for Cream and Jack Bruce songs back in the day and he is a very rare thing in the music biz, an honest decent funny person. Anyway, he is over mixing an album and we will meet up. He is staying at the Chateau Marmot on Sunset which is very rock and roll but of course not as fab gear and groovy as the Econo Lodge I can afford! Anyhow, I am really looking forward to seeing him.

Meanwhile, have a great weekend, enjoy the mix making and I will try not to expire in the bloody heat.

hey hey hey! What's shakin? I am just happy it's the weekend. i have gotten to that pathetic point where I live for Fridays. How's the music going? I saw that you got some websites going on. That's cool. I haven't been on in a while. I want to try to put a mix together. I will probably put it together tonight/ morning somewhere around 3 am maybe....but we'll see. I want to see The Happening tonight. I am not a big fan of Shamalama but want to see how he ties this all up. I think it's funny how they are pushing it as his first R rated film.
How are you healing up? Hope all is swell.

Yes, I like Blues Brothers very much. The first film anyway. The second one is a bit shite although the music is ok. I will seek out the people you mention because that is the kind of rock and roll animal that I am. As for data entry, I sympathize. The thing creative people do when they are not being creative or there are no substances to abuse. i once did a data entry job transferring tax details from a card system to a computer. The only thing it had going for it apart from the paycheck was that I got to learn who had the silliest names in my home town. My favourite two were Attila Klingsik and Selvin McBeady.

Hello hello! My head has been buried in mindless but very time consuming computer entry for work---just what I always wanted to do with my life...
Anywho...two hour gig! Wow! I would be tired too. Good to hear that you actually had a honorable Memorial Day. I would really hate to see this site go. I try to be more active on it, but lately I haven't had the time to put a mix together or actually sit down and write. Well maybe reply to you and a few others on the site.
It's funny you mention Vic Mackey. I was thinking of doing a follow up mix. I also wanted to finish my Oren & Margaret Machine 2 mix. it's sitting in my mixes. Oh well....Just listening to Samiam right now and I think I will call it a night from computer entry. Did you know that 9 digit customer numbers can cause a person to go cross eyed? Cross I noW eyeD am
Found a site that had Blues Brothers music live from 79 and 80. It's pretty cool.
Do you like the Blues Brothers? I love the film. I was thinking that I needed to buy it and add it to my collection of DVD's.
You ever hear of Famous L. Renfroe? I just got it off of emusic. I really like it.
Something old is something new. Hey you ever hear of Mingering Mike. I won't say more, but if you don't know (you probably do) check him out. Interesting life and mind. I love that kind of stuff.
Ok, so I have rambled. ramble ramble. I will shut up now.
cheers!

Hiya. How are you? I had a migraine all weekend but today I feel bloody good despite the ridiculous central valley heat. I am doing some recording tonight with a view to doing something with it which is exciting. Only a mere twenty six years between releases if I can mange to get something out.

Meanwhile, I feel like the old MTC is fading away, and it scares me a little. I spend about an hour a day on the net, mostly writing emails and checking out MTC plus a little music downloading. It would be a shame if this place just fell out of the electronic sky!

Just to end on a different note, a guy working in my local market today was the spitting image of Vic Mackie. Quite scary when all you want to do is to ask where they moved the cheese to!

I am glad you had a relaxing weekend. The gig on Monday was, well, different. This was the last gig with our drummer who has left for another band. Like our other guitarist, he is a a member of the Yakut native american tribe, and he had fixed up for us to play at the Memorial Day lunch at the nearby Tule River reservation, which is up in the mountains above our odd little town. A lot of traffic goes up that way as there is a casino up there, and the road was crowded on the way up. As we got near to the res, what appeared to be a procession was coming down from the casino. To cut a long story short, our truck somehow became part of the veterans procession, with people out on the streets taking pictures of us, and us posing and waving back as those are the kind of people we are! After a very slow progression through the res, we arrived at the sports hall where the ceremony was to take place. Unlike most qausi military things I havre experienced, this was actually dignified and even beautiful, with Yakuts singing Indian songs in honour of their dead family members. Alongside the US, Californian and regimental flags, there was also the ceremonial tribal spear of the Yakut. I am an anti war kind of person, but as I say, the whole ceremonial side of this moved me a lot. Then, we had to go and break the mood by playing. The second set was nearly two hours long and I could hardly stand afterwards, I was that tired, but I got through it and in all it was a pretty good experience.

How was the gig!?
It was a gorgeous weekend---did nothing but relax and hang with friends.

Healing pretty well, but I am doing a 4 hour gig on Memorial day which will be a real test. How are things in sunny NY?

I love that story. Disgusting and entertaining at the same time!!

healing all the way?

This is an audience story, but one that seems to stick with me. In the early 80s, I was working for a small touring theater company in Birmingham, England and also gigging with a Carribean blues and soca singer, so I tended to be busy. When I did get a night off, we tended to go for it. One night, we had gone to a pub in Birmingham where a new band The Jesus and The Mary Chain were playing. My friends and I were happily off our heads and missed the early part of the set because one of the people who was with us slid down a wooden bannister not noticing that one of the guys from the support band was leaning against it. It all ended in much shouting and pointing (from his one good hand anyway) but was finally resolved by the plying of much beer.

We finally got back to the gig, which I have to say was magnificent. The crowning glory for me though was that on the very last note and drum beat of the set, someone in the crowd (some feet away from the stage) projectile vomitted, the puke flying high above the crowd and totally hitting a very unhappy Jim Reid totally. It was the timing, right on the very last note of the set that impressed me. No million dollar pyrotechnics could have been any better! I know that the band had a reputation for being moody on stage early on, playing short sets, turning their backs to the audience, etc, and I have always liked to think that it might just have been because of this gig.

so the road to recovery is being paved! Take your time, rest and relax when you can, but you probably know that. hope your book isn't held up because of someone's sensitive feelings. what are going to do now about the band? figures they decide while you are recuperating. keep up the gigs anyway. I think it will help keep your mind at ease, right? Your new toy sounds great. I do the same thing with manuals. I try to figure it out as I go along. Sometimes reading instructions seem like wasting time especially when you want to play. Although I am sure it is beneficial to read everything before hand.
i say "what's shakin' all the time! I have been working a lot. Kind of doin' the do of work life. Other than that, nothing. Pretty boring huh? Yes! Bring on the stories. No pressure. anytime you can! cheers!

Hi! It has been a very strange week. I had my second procedure, results came in which were not as bad as they could be but enough to freak me out a little. We went to the coast to be with relatives over the weekend which was actually quite nice for once! I got back, still a bit sore, but generally ok. I was greeted by some shitty emails about my book, and then I found out two members of my band left putting 10 or 12 paid gigs in peril. Tuesday night I played with a pickup band at the local state hospital and it was perhaps the strangest but by no means worst gig I have ever been involved in. I am doing ok though. I bought things to turn my PC into a recording studio today and have been happily making noise and sticking to the male doctrine of not reading instruction manuals and then wondering why it took four hours to make everything work. A fun four hours now. How about you? What's shakin' as we geriatric Brits say? (Well, I am the only one who says it still, I think!) I shall come up with another story in the next day or so if thats ok.

Howdy, how's thangs?

well then hope your first meal of the week was satisfying! Ah yes Black Keys- good music to recoop to. Just been listening to a lot of different stuff. oldies-newbies. my dad sent me bose earbuds- excellent! I am so spoiled now, jamming out on the subway. AND they don't fall out of my ears. I hate that. My computer speakers on the other hand--i think i blew them out--oops.
I never learn. chow!

I'm home, sore, miserable, but the Black Keys are blasting out of my pitifully weakened speakers, I am about to eat for the first time since Monday, and pretty much all is well with the world. Have a great day/evening/night (delete where applicable!) Toodle Pip

oh dear well I hope you get some decent recoop time and any other procedures are not so bad. i love indian food too and i always feel gorged afterwards. Glad you got to groove for the mountain people or half mountain people. I am guessing Golightly is supposed to help things run smooooth. :) Hang in there. I wish you the best health! Go ROCKIN! (i know cheesy)
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