You know, I'm thinking that I procrastinate on the writing "everyday" because I'm afraid that I won't write something worth the readers time. Damn! I break my own rule! Artists shouldn't spend much time worrying about whether people are going to appreciate their work! They showed be singularly focused on the work right here in the fingertips and not the frigging outcome! The work will be whatever it will be and people will judge it based on whoever is viewing it at any given time! Sorry, I just watched Interstellar this weekend and a got all this Quantum Theory mumbo-jumbo freefalling through my brain cells . . . or are they STRINGS of consciousness? Hee!
Went out the other night and took a few "night shots" around The Corner. That's one up there above. I love taking candid pictures of people as we walk or drive around Norman Town. Is that creepy? I don't feel creepy doing it . . .well, no more creepy than I usually feel. I don't like asking someone if I can take their picture because then you get this forced smile and stiff pose. Not all the time, though.
Let's be honest. When folks are just walking around town they usually have that Zombie/noncommittal look on the face as if they weren't really present, as if the mind had left their bodies and their bodies are functioning on autopilot. People! When you are walking down the street, be present . . . IN your body! Explore the world of sidewalks and trees and store fronts and weird, little old men snapping pictures of you! Get off your cellphone, take the iPod ( or whatever that damn thing is) out of your ears and HEAR the world you are presently in! Smell it, taste it on your breath . . . just be in it!
Okay, enough of my sermonizing for today. maybe I'll write a little more later on. I hope I do, and I hope you do too! {SMILE}
Tuesday, November 11, 2o14
I believe it's important to remember certain things especially those events that have had a hand in shaping your life. Whether it is for the better or not, being in the Marine Corps and going to Vietnam has a lot to do with who I am as a person and an artist.
So, David showed me a website last night that had all the restaurants in Norman town that offered "FREE MEALS FOR VETERANS." "You want to go?" David asked. My response, "HELL YEAH!" Because there were so many local eateries that were offering free food to vets, I thought it would be a great idea if we hit as many as we could! I mean, just start eating at every location until . . . well, until we couldn't eat no more. But on second thought . . . that would sort of be like cheating, you know?
But where to go for lunch and get the best "free" deal we could. David had his heart set on attacking Zoe's Kitchen . . . but we couldn't find it! What to do? David got on his cell phone while he was driving. He dialed the number to Red Robin's (Yum!) and tried to hand me the phone. "What the hell you want me to do with that?" "Talk to the person at RR's and ask what they are giving the vets to eat!" "Don't hand me that damn phone! You know I don't know how to use it." With a sigh, David pressed send and talked to RR's. Nope, no good. All Red Robin's (Yum!) was offering was one kind of burger! What the hell, man? One kind of burger?! What? Am I in Russia? Much better was the selection at Applebee's. Four different meals you could choose from! David got a steak and I got some shrimp!
The cool thing was that there were so many vets at Applebee's, and most of them were old (like me and David)Vietnam guys. There was, however, one really old, old guy who I'm guessing was WWII, and there was at least one guy who looked more like an Iraq vet. The manager, the wait-people were all very nice to us and . . . hell, it was just a fun thing, you know? But more than that, it was time to say thanks to the men and women who sacrificed a lot for their country.
I don't usually put poetry on this blog. However, I did write this poem about my Vietnam experience that seems appropriate:
My Cream Colored Psychedelic Flashback
tumble dried in memories
flashing back toacid coated tracers
tracking jungle-booted steps
across a stoned-hinge reality...
*"It's getting near dawn..."
Cream's psychedelic shadow
crackling over a portable radio...blue stained skies draped
in a white cloud cloaks...
rumbling thunder spouting
black diesel smoke...
"When lights close their
tired eyes..."
faces green with camouflage,
burnt suntan brown beneathflak jackets, stale breath
and bubblegum...
way, way back
when we were young,
dumb and full of
deadly dreams...
"I'll soon be with you my
love..."
rolling along Highway Nine
adrenaline rush bouncingup and down my fragile spine
in the bed of a Marine green 12X...
Big Daddy G behind me
with his salty slight of hand
magically fires-up his dovetailed joint
against a sandpaper wind...
suck it down, brother, pass it around...
hitting on heaven in my cupped hand
and... it's one small toke for man,
two giant tokes for mankind and...
suddenly...
"To give you my dawn surprise..."
48 hours earlier
stranded at LAX,tongue-tied to each other,
my fingers tangled deep
in your blond hair,
the soft flesh of your arms
surrounds me...
a second skin...
never wanting to let go...
your kiss tattooed
upon my lips,
your gentle whisper
in my ear,
"I love you... forever...!"
"I'll be with you darling soon..."
lock and load!
click, click, click!every swinging Rickie pops
a fresh clip into his M-16,
feeling lean, feeling mean...
the sun drilling tiny holes
through the top of my helmet,
the dust thicker
as the convoy slithers
out of Saigon
like a metal python...
" I'll be with you when the
stars start falling..."
as the city gives way
the jungle green and darkblossoms before us like
an open wound...
the convoy picks up speed
didi mauing like a mother...
lush rice paddies,
napalm skittish mama sans
knee high in mud
nothing but a black pajama blur...
old grunts in ratty utilities,
head tripping glances
over their shoulders
listening with their dead eyes
scrutinizing every tree,
every movement, every sound...
and all us gung-ho
bastard sons of John Wayne,
all us boot camp Jolly Green Giants...
gearing up for war...
ho, ho, ho! rock and roll
screaming in my head, that
pounding rhythm frees my soul
as we disappear into a cold,
gray-hearted darkness...
"I've been waiting so long..."
13 months after...I
waltz out of the jungle...
" I've been waiting so long..."
back in the world
dragging a sea bag of dyingthought behind me...
"I've been waiting so long..."
back at the airport
where I left her,listening...
to the suffocated echo
of those last words
she ever said to me,
"I love you... forever...!"
"To be where I'm going..."
knowing all the time...
I'll never see her...never hear her...
say those words...
again...
"In the sunshine of your love.”
*Sunshine of Your Love
written
by Jack Bruce,
Pete Brown,
and Eric Clapton Wednesday, November 12, 2o14
It's getting even colder outside. The temperature dropping like a meteor. It's 2:16 AM and I can't sleep. Got a doctor's appointment at 9 AM which means I have to be up by 7:30 AM to call David on the phone and wake him up so he can drive me there. It's going to be one of those long, slow, cold days tomorrow. But I've been told if you can't go to sleep you might as well do something until you can close your eyes. I don't know who said that.
Thursday, November 13, 2o14
Well, I did get three hours of sleep before I had to go to the doctor's office yesterday for my "checkup." You know, I have no qualms about going to the doctors when I'm sick. But going to the doctors for a routine examination . . . I don't know . . . makes me suspicious? I mean every movie I have ever seen where a guy goes to the doctor's for a health evaluation always winds up with some exotic disease and 6 months to live. So, that kind of visit worries me more than going to the doctors with the flue or something. AND after you take all the "routine" tests (EKG, Chest x-ray, lung power test {where you have to blow into a tube real hard and if you don't do it right some damn computer gizmo makes you do it over and over}, and TWO tubes of blood for analyzing I don't know what) you gotta wait at least another week to find out if you're gonna die! What the hell? Why can't they have a damn lab there at the doctor's office?
I finally talked David into going to The Diner for breakfast. He doesn't like to go there. The smell of eggs makes him sick to his stomach. So, I ordered a patty melt and fries instead of breakfast . . . and an ice tea. We ran into an old friend of ours there, Stephen Overfield, and we asked him to come sit at our booth and finish is breakfast. He happily did so. Stephen is a real gregarious type, he really likes to talk and smile and laugh. He likes talking baseball, which I don't have much interest in. In fact, I don't talk much sports at all mainly cause I don't know much about any of it. 
12:38 PM
Well, must have gotten plenty of sleep early this glorious morning! Been awhile since I've naturally woke up at 8 AM! Yeah, I have gotten up early in the day when I really, really needed to do so . . . but up at eight because my body had enough sleep and decided it wanted to play with my mind? Unheard of in modern times {SMILE}.
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