Got Pretty Good At Bein Myself...

...Don't know who else I'd be.

Decided to pull back the gossamer veil of anonymity and post under my own name. The nom de plume conceit was getting tiresome. Forces for good in the community will cluck disapprovingly, but WTF, right? Onward and upward!

The Nuclear Option: Time for Rebranding!

In order to grease the rails for Dubya’s eminently qualified nominees, I humbly submit:

“The Choice”
Liberal senators can’t bee seen as anti-“choice” right?

“Fristing”
A pre-emptory change based on the idea that no senator would want to admit to being “Fristed”

“The Crawford Smackdown”
An invitation to the Republicans to “Cowboy Up”

“The Undocumented Worker Protection Act”
See “The Choice” above. Truth in advertising is for chumps!

“Advise and Consent: XXXtreme!”
Senators from the porn belt are sure to bite. Also exploits red-state desire to be seen as “hip” and “with it” with the Gen-X crowd.

“The Clinton Legacy”
Weighing his options, Bubba might just decide this is the best way to get into the history books.

“Minority Nominee Assistance”
Of course, the minority in question is conservatives in the Judiciary.

“The Alternative Fuels Option”
Just a few greens on our side could tip the balance.

“The Wide World of Sports Rule”
It’s the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, baby. To the victor goes the spoil. Them’s the rules. Get yourselves elected President and you won’t have to worry about it next time.

“The Status Quorum”
Acknowledging the fact that the Nuclear Option is really just the way it’s always been done.

Music In A Land Of Yellow Death

The true allergy season has inserted it's eagle claw fishooks in the sinuses of the faithful. Well, in my sinuses at least. I usually do just fine through the magic of a single claritin-D 12 hour a day, but for two weeks in the spring, the pain comes down. I'm not sure what gets me. Two weeks after the Dogwoods and Pines paint the town yellow with their clouds of vegetable love, the air is clear and I want to stick a plumbing snake up my nose.

This year's agony happens to coincide with a rather busy music week. I'll be covering Laura's seat at the Wednesday night Music at Water street. Hopefully I'll get Mr. T to help me out. Next Friday I'll be in a songwriter's showcase at WHQR. It hasn't been my most fruitful season. I hope I can measure up. And next Saturday is the much anticipated Airlie Arts festival appearance. All with post-nasal drip on vocals! Yeah boy! Don't get much better than that.

With A Name Like Lovewhip...

I was sorting through my links yesterday, and thought I'd check the link to my friend Arthur "Lovewhip" Shuey's web site. I was promptly connected with a most un-work-friendly German/English porn site. I guess this thing happens now and then to the Whip.
I hope it was voluntary, and he was able to recover his site. Lotsa good stuff. Adult and intended for Mature Audiences in the old fashioned sense.

I've removed the link, despite the inevitable loss of traffic. They'll just have to make do, somehow.

Weekend at VA Beach

Took a trip up to VA Beach, VA with Babydoll and the Folks. We went through Jacksonville and Washington on the way- a new route for me. I was impressed by how much of rural North Carolina looks the same in architecture and lay of the land. Several stretches of the trip felt nearly identical to stretches on the way to Fayetteville, or for that matter, Myrtle Beach. Just an observation.

Many of the bridges on the way provided spectacular views of large bays and rivers. The highlight of the drive, really, which was otherwise a trifle dull. I’ll be more inclined to try the small state highway route the next time we’re headed that way. Of course, I wasn’t the driver. Dad had that covered, and I had my old seat, back seat passenger side, watching the side of the road.

We went to see my brother, the Lutheran minister, his wife and daughter. It was a rare weekend that he wasn’t running the service, so he had a little extra time and energy for company. VA Beach is one God fearin’ town, let me tell ya. A church on every corner. Big ones, too! I’ve left my feelings of churchly repression pretty much back at college, but I could feel that old sense of alienation creepin back. I’m sure it’s not entirely the fact that my brother is connected to a remarkable intense congregation that generates the antipathy for me. It probably has to do with that old yankee sense of mindin yer own business, where the churches are everybody’s business in VA Beach. Wilmington feels positively secular in comparison.

Light Up My Life

I can't wait for these LED Lights(via Transterrestial Musings) to become mainstream. Imagine the market for low watt, low heat indoor grow lights. It could revolutionize horticulture as we know it.

Life on the Coyote Trail

This story (courtesy of Michelle Malkin's The Immigration Blog) prompted me to write my latest song. My natural inclination, I think like most americans, is sympathy/pity for the illegal immigrants, who brave desert passage and uncertain future for the promise of hard, low paying work and a better standard of living. However, the immigrants' story isn't the only one.

The question I keep coming back to is: Why aren't there jobs in Mexico to keep these folks home? Shouldn't folks with this much strength, daring, and work ethic be transforming Mexican society from the ground up, instead of filling the ranks of the underclass in the US?

Are You Kidding!!!

I need one of these. Right now!

Call to Order...

Went to the inaugural meeting of the Roots, Rhythm & Blues Association of Coastal Carolina last night. First order of business was to drop “Blues” from the masthead in order to avoid the perception of conflict or competition with the Blues Society of the Lower Cape Fear. Methinks the lady doth protest too much...

Regardless of protestations to the contrary, I believe the Blues Society will feel threatened. I also have no doubt that their insecurity will manifest itself in unsubstantiated smears, outright sabotage, and other forms of general unhelpfulness. It will be unfortunate, but of course, unavoidable given human nature.

As Scott Cable has outlined his vision for the new organization, the Association will be more focused on charitable aims than I ever percieved the old Blues Society to be. Maintaining the charitable impulse will be our greatest challenge once we get past the initial push. The folks who showed up last night certainly have the talent and stability to form a great musical organization. Whether the desire to give will survive the desire to simply play remains to be seen.

Hat’s off to Scott and Arthur for getting the ball rolling.

Turning the Page

I’ve begun reading for pleasure(escape?) again. It started with picking up Stephen King’s Bag of Bones in December. Sunshine and me were in Logan Airport and anticipating long waits on the trip home from Massachusetts. Since then I’ve burned through a passel of King novels: Insomnia, Desperation, The Dark Tower epic I-VII. I took a detour through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and just finished The Talisman and Black House, a couple Peter Straub/King collaborations.

It’s been fun, knocking off these huge novels, one or more a week. The reading is usually fast and easy. I do feel a bit compulsive about it- it’s one of those activities requiring little effort for much pleasure, like sex(masturbation, at least) and drugs, which have the high potential for abuse. But considering the empty intellectual calories I’ve been ingesting from television and the web, a binge on pop fiction/fantasy/schlock hardly seems the greater evil.

The most significant effect this reading has had upon me was re-awakening of a desire to write. I’ve written songs all along, but my prose has been little and infrequent as of late. The title of this blog is a small tribute to Mr. King. I’m grateful that reading his work has made me want to write again. Of course, his writers very often come to bad ends, but who wants to live forever- right?