DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

I love that the new home owner portrayed in this song squares off against a threatening demon, declaring: 

“Ain’t no Ha’nt gonna run me off!” 

This is one ballsy gentleman, Mr. Jumpin’ Gene Simmons. And, fittingly Mr. Chaim Witz of Kiss fame, (another ballsy guy),  took his name in tribute to this man. 

Morris Eugene Simmons (1937-2006) started his career in 1956, at Sun Records, and opened for Elvis Presley, but he hit pay dirt after leaving that label and landing at the fledgling company of Hi, where he made this recording, which peaked at #11 on the Billboard chart. 

It’s simple, repetitive, and silly, but, man, does it cook! And, when he croons “I’ll be right here when the morning comes….” It’s a statement of unshakeable positivity, a guarantee by a man standing his ground against supernatural forces, and you just know that even if they have to end up living together, Gene ain’t gonna be the one leavin’.

I CHING: GHOSTED

Wikipedia defines being “ghosted” as: “someone you are communicating with suddenly stops all contact and ignores your messages without giving any explanation.”

Have you ever been ghosted by a friend, lover, or family member? It’s a bad feeling. It can gnaw away at your ego and make you question your sense of reality. “What did I do to warrant this rude behavior?” Is it me or you? I mean, I could understand it if it were a new-ish relationship - it can be awkward, so better to let it go and move on. But, what if its a friendship of long standing? Doesn’t the rift deserve some honest dialogue, and be given a chance to repair itself? Perhaps, being generous, one might intuit that the recalcitrant person is going through some shit of their own - something personal and private. But, without an explanation, its impossible to know. 

So, instead of tearing myself apart trying to figure out what to do, I’ll ask the oracle: WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I’M BEING ‘GHOSTED’?

ANSWER:

HEXAGRAM 48 (THE WELL) Water over wind - #3 changing line HEXAGRAM 29 (WATER) Water over water

IT IS TIME TO WALK WITH THE ZOMBIES! '
 WELCOME TO THE PORTAL NO ONE LEAVES ALIVE.
 HALLOWEEN IS UPON US, AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE THIS TERRIFYING TRADITION THAN A "DIG THIS" JOURNEY INTO THE THE NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE.
 YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED AND EDUCATED WITH DELIGHTFUL DREAD AS WE VISIT THE TALE OF ROCK AND REAPER ICON ROKY ERICKSON, A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPOOKY SPLENDOR OF HALLOWEEN AND THE MEMORY OF JOHN ZACHERLE, THE HEAD MASTER OF THE GHOUL SCHOOL OF OUR YOUTH.
 ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!

ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT

CAMELOT by the Original Broadway Cast (Columbia TC8, 1978)

In 1960 I was seven years old, and impressions of enduring memory from that time were starting to implant themselves into my pudding-filled cranium: Robert Goulet, on the Ed Sullivan show, singing “If Ever I Would Leave You” was definitely one of them. In fact, Sullivan, showcasing numbers from Camelot, Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway musical adaptation of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, saved the show, which was straining after mixed reviews. And, through this national television exposure, the show’s Lancelot, Canadian baritone Goulet, became an American star. 

The show opened on December 3, 1960, a month after John Kennedy’s election, and closed three years later, after 873 performances - the same year as his slaughter, and will be forever associated with that administration. Shortly after the murder, the First Lady quoted the title song with the words: “for one brief, shining moment…there was Camelot,” and theatrical history was cemented forever.

Richard Burton won the Tony for essaying the role of King Arthur (it’s a pleasant surprise to hear him attempt to sing); Julie Andrews - (she, of the divine voice) - fresh from starring in Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, reappears here as Guinevere; and, rounding out the cast is Roddy McDowell, co-starring as Arthur’s snotty, treacherous son, Mordred. 

As I say, memories of those childhood days: ducking and covering under our desks during the Cuban Missile Crisis; Walter Cronkite announcing JFK’s assassination on a black and white screen; and the crooning of Robert Goulet on the Sullivan show -  are flashing afresh, courtesy of this cart - acquired in a lot, and never heard until now, as it summons up ghosts from sixty two years ago with its luscious orchestration. 

PROCRASTINATION

Procrastination is a killer. It’s a terrible habit of mine which invariably gets me into more trouble than it saves me. For example: I always file my taxes late, because it’s such a heartbreaking headache, and as a result, I always have to pay added penalties. 

Making out a will, making arrangements for my ultimate disposal…. The laundry list of “to do’s”goes on… and, I don’t want to face them, even though I know I’ll feel better when they’re done.

In the ant-grasshopper scenario, I’m the grasshopper, of course, who plays his music through the summer, and, then when winter comes his cupboard is bare. I have some beautiful memories, but you can’t eat your memories. 

So, I’m gonna ask the oracle for some direction on how to get a hold of this ingrained, self-destructive tendency. Now, I already know the cliched maxims: “a stitch in time saves nine,” “why put off til tomorrow what you can do today?..” Etc., But, I need something more practical, a method whereby I can, without over-thinking it, just rely on automatically. You see, THINKING is the problem: because thinking about the dreaded thing is so anxiety provoking, I distract my mind any way I can.  

In an example of weird synchronicity, today’s NY Times features an article on strategies for overcoming procrastination. They cite something psychologists call an intention-action gap between the beneficial things we mean to do and the problematic ones we actually do. 

To combat this they recommend: starting with a smaller, easier win to motivate you to do the avoided thing; “trying to put something that you want to happen alongside something that you need to happen;” this is called “temptation bundling”. How about giving your “future self” a gift? All well and good, but I’m wondering if there’s a perspective shift that will turn everything around?

Since it’s better to have something specific to ask, I’m phrasing my question like this:

“How can I stop procrastinating, and do this thing I don’t want to do?” 

This was the I Ching’s response: Hexagrams 55 (Abundance), with moving lines 1,2,& 6, which morphs into Hexagram 50 (The Cauldron).

This goofy confection of Sunshine Pop was so at odds with the popular music of the day that it seemed doomed from the start. The Dedrick family, (Chris, Sandy, Bruce, Ellen, and Stephanie), were so unhip that the classical-jazz compositional genius of Chris Dedrick and the sublime sibling harmonies on display were incomprehensible to the rock intelligentsia. (There were The Cowsills, of course…but….) For God’s sake, The Free Design were produced by Enoch Light, of all people - ( I always loved that name) - my dad’s “Easy Listening” guru; it was the music he had on in the background when he did his weekend paperwork.

They only existed as a group from ’67-’72, after which Chris pursued an award winning, film composing and arranging career in Canada. And, here’s where the trajectory of this esoteric ditty arcs interestingly: their only charting song, Kites Are Fun barely peaked at 114 on the “bubbling under the hot 100” list, after which the group plummeted to obscurity.  But, later, much later, like an excavated Paleolithic fossil, their catalogue was uncovered in the 1990’s, and reissued by Trattoria, a Japanese record label. Since then, this tune has been lauded, covered extensively, TikTok’ed, and featured in numerous tv commercials and shows. And, now, no one can deny that kites are most assuredly fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(Lou_Reed_album)

Transformer is the second solo studio album by American musician Lou Reed. Produced by David Bowie and Mick Ronson, the album was released on November 8, 1972 by RCA Records. It is considered an influential landmark of the glam rock genre,[2][3][4] anchored by Reed's most successful single, "Walk on the Wild Side", which touched on controversial topics of sexual orientation, gender identity, prostitution, and drug use. Although Reed's self-titled debut solo album had been unsuccessful, Bowie had been an early fan of Reed's former band the Velvet Underground and used his fame to promote Reed, who had not yet achieved mainstream success...

The Wanderer is two minutes, fifty-one seconds of pure swagger. Imagine my surprise when I read a quote from Dion where he said it was essentially a sad song, and that the one of lyrics demonstrated the singer’s existential crisis: “with my two fists of iron - ( I always thought it was “two fifths of wine”) - and I’m goin’ nowhere!”   Dion is a Buddha of self-reflection.

He has always been my rock and roll Sherpa since the age of 8 when my friend Larry Bader and I would play “Dion and Chubby Checker on tour”. Larry was Dion and I was Chubby (‘cause I was) - we’d put on the records and lip-sync our act. The Beatles took over as an obsession a couple of years later, but Dion was never far from my thoughts: he kept coming back through the decades: in the late 60s as a folky warrior for peace; playing coliseumson the oldie circuit in the 70s; in the 80s and 90s as a grizzled, born again survivor; then, producing a string of hit blues albums in the 2000s,  And, he’s still at it, sounding better than humanly possible. At the age of 84 he’s producing some of his best work ever.- just listen to American Hero, his latest with Carlene Carter, and genuflect.

The long delayed Norton release of “Kickin’ Child”, an album he recorded for Columbia that was scrubbed, posits the notion that it was perhaps Dion, before Dylan, who first took folk music electric with the master producer Tom Wilson.  He’s always been in my life, and I’m so grateful for that. If he had taken that doomed plane ride with Buddy Holly in ‘59… just think about what would have been lost. 

LIFE: A DREAM, OR REALITY?

I’m confused - confused about the nature of “reality.” 

I’m listening to the film maker, Roger Avary on Rick Rubin’s podcast, and he’s talking about “creating your own reality.” He says he subscribes to the S.P.E.C. method: “select it, project it, expect it, and collect it” — as a way to manifest his chosen reality. The term was originally coined by a 1950s housewife, Helen Hadsell, “The Contest Queen”, who used it to win over 5,000 contests.

Avary, who spent time in jail for killing someone while drunk driving, was relating the harsh tale, describing how he had lost everything, but, then had an epiphany of deep gratitude upon his release, whereby he vowed to reorder his priorities. 

I know the Stoics say that “you can’t control what happens to you; all you can control is how you react to those things.” Is this an example of creating your own reality, or of simply accepting the fact that life is chaotic, random, and painful? 

Without being aware of it, I also have practiced the SPEC method of visualization to manifest reality, specifically in regards to my vision of eventual success that propelled me through the roller coaster of a 3 decades-long professional life. But, then, I walked away after a couple of busy years, because the image that had sustained me had suddenly vanished. I decided to stop beating myself up waiting for the big win to happen, and began living for my family rather than to gratify my own ego. In Buddhist terms, I freed myself by stopping “wanting” it, and, in fact, the appeal of whatever that “success” would look like became moot. 

But, doubts remain. So, to clear up the confusion, I’ll consult the oracle on whether of not it’s preferable that one should accept that we are simply observers in a senseless dreamscape, or, to believe that one can create one’s own reality?

HEXAGRAM 40: LIBERATION, with moving lines 1,5 & 6

HEXAGRAM 10: AUDACITY

DREAM:

I was awakened from this morning’s sleep with a mini-nightmare. 

I heard groaning, so I investigated the source of the sound. As I turned the corner into the kitchen, I see two legs with moccasins (like mine) on their feet. There was a woman face down on the floor with puddles of something  (vomit? Blood?) Around her head. 

The old woman was dying, in the last moments of life, and a number of people were sitting around, basically ignoring the old ladies situation. 

I became upset, (but of course, I wasn’t relating to her either) - and, I said to one younger woman who looked like my wife’s friend, Susan, “I wish Chemayne were here, she’d minister to the dying woman. She was too good to live!” And I woke up weeping. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Saxon

Sky "Sunlight" Saxon (born Richard Elvern Marsh; August 20, 1937 – June 25, 2009) was an American rock and rollmusician best known as the leader and singer of the 1960s Los Angeles psychedelic garage rock band The Seeds.[1]

A Web of Sound was produced by Saxon (under the pseudonym Marcus Tybalt) at Columbia Studio D, Hollywood, in July 1966 with Rafael Valentin as engineer. Although Hooper was now utilizing the Fender bass keyboard on stage, the group brought in Harvey Sharpe to fulfill bass duties on the album.[2] In addition, Norman Desrosiers (aka "Cooker") from The Groupies played slide guitar and harmonica,[5]which when combined with the Daryl's new Farfisa organ gave the album a different sound to the debut. Many of the songs were developed on the spot in the studio, with Hooper working out the music and arrangements while Saxon provided lyrics.[2]