My very first concert, the July 19, 1980, World Series of Rock at the Cleveland Stadium, also happened to be the very best and most memorable concert I’ve ever attended.
That day was one massive mess of merriment and music…
music videos
We Should Be Dancing… Not Dying
With all the constant blood and violence in this constantly bloody and violent nation of mine, a la yesterday’s insane mass killing after a gun-toting asshole goes off his nutty handle during a routine traffic stop, I hardly feel like getting my groove on.
But get my groove on I must or else I will become completely consumed by the constant blood and violence and do nothing more than wallow in a constant state of misery and fear…
A Poem Illicit by Cindy Knoke
The popular photographer and poet Cindy Knoke wrote us a poem in response to our ongoing flash fiction contest (which ends at midnight tonight so go vote for your favorite story!). Unfortunately, per the fine print of the contest rules, only flash fiction responses meeting the stated criteria will be accepted. All other responses are to be deleted. Yeah, I get down like that. However, reading Cindy’s poem felt to me like listening to a Tom Waits song and if anyone knows me they know I have a huge man crush on Tom. No way I could abandon her poem to a trash can death. So instead I share it here with you where it can shimmy and shake for all eternity as a special supplement to our weekly Sunday Song to Spark the Spirit and Summon the Moves of the Dance…
Sunday Songs to Spark the Spirit and Summon the Moves of the Dance
So for the past two months I’ve been stuck within the tedious and grinding and painful first phase of the developmental process for my next book (while I can’t say the first phase is my favorite phase of the entire book development process — to me the entire process of developing a book is tedious and grinding and painful — I can at least say it is the least tedious and grinding and painful of them all) when it recently suddenly dawned upon me that I am not yet ready to let go of the last book I that tediously and grindingly and painfully developed…
Which of course is The Good Kill, thank you very much.
At first I tried to fight through the desire to not let it go but it wasn’t working…
So Many Weird Grammar Moods Give Me the Blues
Weird moods such as…
As do weird modern remakes of classic Moody Blues mood music…
#newisnotalwaysbetter
The Spirit of What Remains
While I’ve given up completely on superhero movies, ugh, especially Marvels’, UGH!, I am still a fan of the superhero genre in spirit and I have very fond memories of as a child riding my bike to the local grocery store and spending all the allowance I had just received on the latest Batman, Superman, and Spiderman comic books and, at a penny a piece, a handful of Bazooka bubblegum with its own little Bazooka Joe comic strip on the inside of the wrappers.
The Draught of Naught Troubling
More good stuff from my sons Willis’ and Bobi’s band Aelios* in the form of a music video of their latest release.
You should be able to tell who my sons are because you should be able to tell who the blood brothers are in the video. The third member, Colin Bates, while not a blood brother, he’s a brother nonetheless.
Incidentally, Colin, an all around artistic talent and graduate of Juilliard, collaborated with me on my movie Leave. You can learn more about him and other cast and crew members here.
Incidentally again, my son Bobi’s other band Saving Apollo, just returned from a tour that culminated in them playing SXSW. It was a very successful tour and set them up to now tour with this summer’s Warped Tour. Pretty huge, no?
BTW, if you have enjoyed the video, please take the time to “like” it on youtube and subscribe to their channel and then tell everyone you know, and I do mean everyone, about it.
Is that asking too much?
Probably, but hey, what’s a dad to do?
#happysaturday
#rockon
*Aelios are Willis Brindley (blue-hooded wizard), Vaughan (Bobi) Brindley (yellow-hooded wizard), and Colin Bates (black-hooded wizard)
Wake Up
This gif best when served with the following kickass music video:
#stuckinthematrix
#amnotwriting
United States of Me
The egalitarianism typical of human hunter-gatherers is interesting when viewed in an evolutionary context. One of humanity’s two closest primate relatives, the chimpanzee, is anything but egalitarian, forming hierarchies that are dominated by alpha males. So great is the contrast with human hunter-gatherers that it is widely argued by palaeoanthropologists that resistance to being dominated was a key factor driving the development of human consciousness, language, kinship, and social organization. . . [WIKIPEDIA]
While I’m loathe to give credit to the hardcore Silicon tech bros due to so many of them having a bent toward misogyny and authoritarian ideals, which also made Trump so appealing to so many of these tech nerd dictator-wanna-bes, a la Peter Thiel, however, one of their ideals that somewhat sort of does appeal to me is a their striving toward a kind of hyper-freedom/ individualism, a striving so much so that some, again a la Peter Theil, are working to create these technology island havens of sort where each island would be governed autonomously as its own country and where, it seems to me, the island owners could proclaim themselves king or queen.
Remains to Be
New York-based Dancer Sarah Antal choreographed this beautiful dance routine to “Remains to Be,” a song from my sons’ band Aelios off their album “Refining Chaos.”
#stillhopeforhumanity
#proudpapa