I found a NPR podcast (free) of a Tom Waits concert. It is a must hear/download. There is a story about how I stumbled upon this thing. My pals Lou and Clinton in Long Beach have a like for this guy Waits. I had heard of him and thought he was an actor and a singer. Tom Waits is much more than that. Think Renaissance Man/Polymath
November 2008 Archives
play taps and have a drink (or whatever) as I will be disappearing for the most part for quite a while. The old mac is definitely not going to last more than a few days or weeks....most likely days. I will try and use a public computer but I have an aversion to them and the people who hang around them.
Some notes to myself that I left on my computer yesterday:
I am canceling the apple dot mac accounts so if you need to get in touch with me you can at: ( ajax.diomedes.fan at gmail dot com )
I will most likely take my internet service off in a week or so when the new billing cycle starts.
---
It's funny that my last post before this was about---back where it all began.
sigh
It's been a fun run. now back to the business of starting over.
see you all on the internet(s).
---
I'll close with a copy of my first post written back on July 3rd, my brother's birthday and the day I put Dante down:
The notes I left were so I could remember what my state of mind was at the time. Most of the above would make sense to a perfect stranger excepting the last few lines. To start: Dante, is/was my dog.
9:46 am
I am writing this before I take Dante in to the Animal Rescue League of Boston be put down.
His final moments with me as his companion:
My final moments with him as my loyal companion:
Will I feel comfortable putting the word loyal in the above?
We'll see how I feel about it later.
The appointment is at 11:30 AM
now: off to the ARL 9:48 AM
mike's b'day:
dante/michael :::::
tony maf's tunes
Mike, is my brother who passed away 6 years ago on April 22, 2002. He was born on July 3, 1956.
Dante's original name when I adopted him was Michael, and right from the start I knew there was no way I was going to call the dog by my brother's name. What to do?
I adopted the 100 lb pup home when he was only about 10 months old. He got the name Dante, from me because I had recently taken out a book about Dante Alighieri and his Divina Commedia which included illustrations by Gustave Doré. It was on the coffee table when I was sitting around trying to think of a new name for what was to become my best pal and most loyal companion for over a decade: Dante.
During the time I had Dante with me and especially when my brother Michael passed away from a second bout with cancer, I reflected on how Michael/Dante was adopted by me when cancer had become an issue for my brother. I am not a superstitious person nor am I one who puts much stock in any supernatural phenomenon or beliefs including religion, but I must confess to being awestruck by the coincidences that appear in one's life, especially my own. It is as close to feeling spiritual as I get these days. Awe, is awesome.
During the last few years I have been in touch with some old childhood friends of both Mike and me, and one of them is Tony Maffei. Tony wanted a few tunes put on a disc for his car stereo disc player. I planned on coming home and keeping busy by making tunes for Tony. Also, seeing Tony reminds me of the good old days when we were all young and innocent and had the audacity to think we would all live forever,
Do I feel I can put loyal into the 4th line of my notes after having put Dante down?
Yes and no---definitely maybe.
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Today starts off a new chapter in my life. I am calling this chapter "A New Beginning" for more reasons than are obvious here.
Don
ps, Tony never got his tunes. I stopped by a place to have a beer on the way home from the ARL and I bumped into two acquaintances from years ago. It was just what I needed at the time. There was no way of knowing anyone I knew would be at this place as it was in downtown Boston and I hadn't hung around there in ages.
Small world full of coincidences.
go figure
ltr
;/)
d.
---
Go to dantesdilemma on youtube
Hide in your shell cos the world is out to bleed you for a ride
What will you gain making your life a little longer?
Heaven or hell, was the journey cold that gave your eyes of steel?
Shelter behind painting your mind and playing joker
Too frightening to listen to a stranger
Too beautiful to put your pride in danger
Youre waiting for someone to understand you
But youve got demons in your closet
And youre screaming out to stop it
Saying lifes begun to cheat you
Friends are out to beat you
Grab on to what you scramble for
Dont let the tears linger on inside now
Cos its sure time you gained control
If I can help you, if I can help you
If I can help you, just let me know
Well, let me show you the nearest signpost
To get your heartback and on the road
If I can help you, if I can help you
If I can help you, just let me know.
All through the night as you like awake and hold yourself so tight
What do you need, a second-hand-movie-star to tend you?
I as a boy, I believed the saying the cure for pain was love
How would it be if you could see the world through my eyes?
Too frightening- the fires getting colder
Too beautiful- to think youre getting older
Youre looking for someone to give an answer.
But what you see is just an illusion
Youre surrounded by confusion
Saying lifes begun to cheat you
Friends are out to beat you
Grab on to what you can scramble for
Dont let teh tears...
... just let me know
I wanna know...
I wanna know you...
Well let me know you
I wanna feel you
I wanna touch you
Please let me near you
Can you hear what Im saying?
Well Im hoping, Im dreamin, Im prayin
I know what youre thinkin
See what youre seein
Never ever let yourself go
Hold yourself down, hold yourself down
Why dya hold yourself down?
Why dont you listen, you can
Trust me,
Theres a place I know the way to
A place there is need to feel you
Feel that youre alone
Hear me
I know exactly what youre feelin
Cos all your troubles are whithin you
Please begin to see that Im just bleeding to
Love me, love you
Loving is the way to
Help me, help you
- why must we be so cool, oh so cool,?
Oh, were such damn fools...
What will you gain making your life a little longer?
Heaven or hell, was the journey cold that gave your eyes of steel?
Shelter behind painting your mind and playing joker
Too frightening to listen to a stranger
Too beautiful to put your pride in danger
Youre waiting for someone to understand you
But youve got demons in your closet
And youre screaming out to stop it
Saying lifes begun to cheat you
Friends are out to beat you
Grab on to what you scramble for
Dont let the tears linger on inside now
Cos its sure time you gained control
If I can help you, if I can help you
If I can help you, just let me know
Well, let me show you the nearest signpost
To get your heartback and on the road
If I can help you, if I can help you
If I can help you, just let me know.
All through the night as you like awake and hold yourself so tight
What do you need, a second-hand-movie-star to tend you?
I as a boy, I believed the saying the cure for pain was love
How would it be if you could see the world through my eyes?
Too frightening- the fires getting colder
Too beautiful- to think youre getting older
Youre looking for someone to give an answer.
But what you see is just an illusion
Youre surrounded by confusion
Saying lifes begun to cheat you
Friends are out to beat you
Grab on to what you can scramble for
Dont let teh tears...
... just let me know
I wanna know...
I wanna know you...
Well let me know you
I wanna feel you
I wanna touch you
Please let me near you
Can you hear what Im saying?
Well Im hoping, Im dreamin, Im prayin
I know what youre thinkin
See what youre seein
Never ever let yourself go
Hold yourself down, hold yourself down
Why dya hold yourself down?
Why dont you listen, you can
Trust me,
Theres a place I know the way to
A place there is need to feel you
Feel that youre alone
Hear me
I know exactly what youre feelin
Cos all your troubles are whithin you
Please begin to see that Im just bleeding to
Love me, love you
Loving is the way to
Help me, help you
- why must we be so cool, oh so cool,?
Oh, were such damn fools...
Pretzel Logic is about as good as IT gets.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I would love to tour the Southland
In a travelling minstrel show
Yes I'd love to tour the Southland
In a traveling minstrel show
Yes I'm dying to be a star and make them laugh
Sound just like a record on the phonograph
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
I have never met Napoleon
But I plan to find the time
'Cause he looks so fine upon that hill
They tell me he was lonely, he's lonely still
Those days are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
I stepped up on the platform
The man gave me the news
He said, You must be joking son
Where did you get those shoes?
Where did you get those shoes?
Well, I've seen 'em on the TV, the movie show
They say the times are changing but I just don't know
These things are gone forever
Over a long time ago, oh yeah
The Great Southern California Shakeout. Please check out the Long Beach and other links on what can/is expected to happen during a 7.8 magnitude quake.
and I am here: My Shakeout Page
ltr
d.
I've made my decision. Hello World! I'm back. The last few months have been filled with set backs, but all is good.The die is cast. Tomorrow I am going to make the case to a friend out here for what I want to do and see where it leads. I was made an offer that I've been mulling over and it seems tailor made for me. Fate and Fortuna may yet exist in reality, can religion and spirituality be far behind? The personal issues that have contributed to my hesitancy have been removed. I didn't know for sure whether I wanted to pursue other plans which involved other options and another friend but recent events have forced the issue. No looking back. I will make the offer and then either way I will be moving on. If all goes well late tomorrow I will list what it is I will be attempting to do.
ENTJ
Follow the bliss.
note: I got a call earlier from a friend who left Arizona for Boston. She was supposed to stop by here on a detour and didn't get the chance. She called me and was in trouble. I called Boston and the problem has been temporarily resolved. The earth truly is flat. Technology has changed things in ways we never thought possible. I take Friedman's thesis seriously on many levels.
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is an international bestselling book by Thomas L. Friedman, analyzing the progress of globalization with an emphasis on the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as flat or level in terms of commerce and competition, as in a level playing field--or one where all competitors have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover indicates, the title also alludes to the historic shifts in perception once people realized the world was not flat, but round and how a similar shift in perception --albeit figurative-- is required if countries, companies and individuals want to remain competitive in a global market where historical, regional and geographical divisions are becoming increasingly irrelevant.
The book was first released in 2005, was later released as an "updated and expanded" edition in 2006, and yet again released with additional updates in 2007 as "further updated and expanded: Release 3.0." The title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, the former CEO of Infosys.
I've come around to the reality that it's time to seriously think about where and what I want to do when it comes time to move on from the rest area known as Long Beach. I've got a few plans in my mind that may well pan out if I choose to pull them out into the light of reality. One involves keeping the apartment here as a home base while looking for a new area to sample or settle in. The others involve drastic changes on some levels and may need to be extinguished as they feel like poor choices.
Going to the mountains and dessert the other day was really full of amazing experiences on a subtle level. I met real working rancher/cowboys & cowgirls,, Mexican-Americans who fed me an awesome home-cooked meal, really sweet people out at a dessert valley that felt as wind blown as the White Mountains of New Hampshire (where I had a similar spiritual type experience as I had on a mountain side the other day) and more. I also saw deer crossing the highway who were most likely in search of a water source as the area I was in had a HIGH fire danger warning posted everywhere. It is my understanding the area is as dry as it ever gets. Bambi and company are coming down to drink. Always an iffy prop seeing as man is not the deer's best pal. For all these experiences and more I am truly in debt to my friend Bob and his wife Sue, and the gods...starting with Fortuna.
---
for now I am working on making space on my mac to put a few videos and stuff on the web for Bob. I ran out of space and it is time consuming to load big files onto cd discs, but my old mac does not do dvd and my external hard drive is broken.
after the weekend I should have some pretty nifty content to put on sites including here and youtube..
I'm going to the mountains after the dentist. Whoo Hoo!!!
ltr
d.
today is a good day to die
I got up a little while ago and wondered about what was keeping me up. It took a few minutes to realize it was the pitter patter of a downpour coming through my window...
...more later
---
later: (4:58 AM)
I've had a few revelations about myself this morning--not all pleasant, but when did anyone ever promise that progress and growth would look and smell like a rose garden?
I've been away from my software for too long. Even before I left the East Coast to come out West, I had slacked off using the stuff. I feel more than rusty. I feel like a beginner again---lost.
A new day has dawned and I'm living it. Yesterday was a pretty decent day with very few headaches, and after the rain stopped (I loved experiencing a little weather out here) the sun shone through the clouds and I got to spend some quiet time in the sun. Can't ask for more than that without feeling greedy, but then again...I ended the night at The Blue Cafe in Long Beach California, where my buddy Bob plays on sunday nights. That would be Big Harmonica Bob with his crew The Outsiders. How does it get any better than that?
I have a short video of Bob and The Outsiders playing at the GVC. I'll try and post a quicktime version of it here, but for now I have a few things to download (and upload).
---
note: I am running out of space on my old mac and my external drive is broken. I am stuck. what do I do? (steamed!)
Here we are up @ 4:00 AM again. It's almost time to take my morning stroll through the mean streets of Long Beach (lol). Long Beach is not really all that bad a city. The neighborhoods I've been in are so far are relatively safe and I've yet to feel threatened during any of my walks---excepting the few odd lurkers who'll size me up at early hours when nobody else is out--who you'll find in almost any city at the hours I often stroll through town.
I have a new pal who we'll call Miss Kitty. She's an older woman with a few health problems who has adopted me as her savior or something. A few days a week she takes a ride over to a military base for what she says is some sort of work she's doing part time. I have a feeling she is telling a few white lies and I find it all amusing. I observe her as I do most people and I wonder what it would be to be a senior citizen and all alone out here in California a she is. She has my admiration for her guts in going it alone out here. Her health problems seem to spook her. So I've allowed somebody from some medical team to put me down as a contact in case she has an event or something and they have me down as somebody who daily looks in upon the woman. Dealing with Miss Kitty, brings me back to the days in the old Maverick Housing Projects with Mrs. Wright and the other elderly ladies I'd run errands for and look out for. The old projects was a great place to grow up in and the elderly (at least in my time) where safe and secure there. Anyway, Miss Kitty is constantly making demands on me as she tries to manipulate me into looking out for her. It's an odd yet familiar role to be in.
I'm going to try and get Miss Kitty and a few others who are out here alone and maybe do thanksgiving day together. We'll see.
---
Maybe it's time to start fixing up the main page of my web site and to jump back into learning more about actionscript as a programming language. I'm almost done emptying my ipod so I can reset it and I should be spending more time on things I love like playing with web design(s).
Time to do a few stretches and feed the face in preparation for my new exercise routine. (5:06)
d.
ps, it's gotta be every other day for now---I'm so out of shape. wtf?
pss, ahhhhh, different body parts different days. got IT!
I have Neil Sedaka on my ipod. I was just transferring tunes onto discs so I can reset my old ipod that has become corrupted or some such crap. Unfortunately Apple's ipod software has restricted my ability to play my own songs on my own web site so I'll use www.playlist.com again.. Apple is beginning to suck big time. Anyway, here is a playlist of the few tunes I have by Sedaka (I have some others on a hard disk that is out of order...sigh), minus one---Next Door To An Angel.
Next Door To An Angel
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
I'm living right next door to an angel and I just found out today
I'm living right next door to an angel and she only lives a house away
She used to be such a skinny little girl
But all of a sudden she is out of this world
I'm livin right next door to an angel
And I'm gonna make that angel mine
Since I saw her this morning, I'm on cloud number nine
Found a garden of eden at the house next door to mine
I took a look and oh what a shock
To find a little bit of heaven right on my block
I'm livin right next door to an angel
And I'm gonna make that angel mine
I can't believe that this is the girl next door
That funny little face isn't funny no more
Sicteen and oh what a dream
Ain't it strange how she changed
Into such a lovely angel
Saw her walking down main street and I couldn't believe my eyes
It used to be such a plain street but now it's paradise
I'm feelin happy I'm feelin so good
I'm the luckiest devil in the neighborhood
I'm livin right next door to an angel
And I'm gonna make that angel mine
REPEAT TO FADE: Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
Do do do, doobie bop bop bop, Oh do bop she don don
----
How can you beat a song like that? btw, It's obvious now that the trip to the mountains/chaparral with BHB has been rained out.
