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[__)|. . _ / `|_ _ _ ._. |
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[__)|(_|(/, \__.[ )(/,(/,[ |
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(Blue Cheer) |
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July 24, 2023 |
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About a month ago I did a rare, punctuated, big social outing, going to a |
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music festival. Me and my partner live a rather quiet life, socially |
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speaking, by design. She's a heavy introvert, and I'm a recovering |
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misanthrope. But I still need people and new experiences. The festival did |
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what I hope these big events would do, bring some new perspective into my |
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life, enough to enrich it. |
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It was an outdoor punk festival in Oakland, which ended up being exactly |
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what I thought it was going to be: freaky, loud, raucous, colorful, but |
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gentle and accepting simultaneously. My show partners were my friend |
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Parrot (no, not her real name), whom I'm starting to get close to, and my |
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quasi-nephew Raven, who I am learning more about every time we hang out. |
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This isn't intended to be an entry about the show, though, it's supposed |
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to be the after effects. |
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I came away from the event knowing I need to make some changes in my life. |
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Well, this isn't completely accurate, because I know that I've needed to |
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make these changes, I actually came away resolving to make the changes. |
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One, is to lose weight. I've put on more than a few in the recent years. |
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While in some ways I'm decently physically active, the weight has taken |
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its toll. Two, communicate more on a daily basis. Sometimes I feel, |
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lately, that I'm so much in my head, that I'm losing vocabulary and the |
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ability to formulate ideas into words. This isn't completely natural to me |
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as a native thinking process, my internal dialog is not exactly verbal. |
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And third, I resolved to listen to more music. I'm a podcast junkie, and |
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not always in a positive way. Though they can be enriching |
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informationally, I also am just addicted to the drone of familiar voices |
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and subjects sometimes. They also have a tendency to do the opposite of |
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what I need, they put a wedge between me and life. Hearing people talk |
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about things pushes me too far into an abstract space. I already have an |
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issue with feeling disconnected with my environment, I need to be pulled |
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in. Music does that, it at least connects me to feelings in a way subject- |
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oriented discussions do not. And I can have my cake and eat it too, and |
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nerd out about music stuff. |
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It's been a subtle shift, but now there is more music in my life, which |
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leads to discovery of new bands. Fuck, man, Blue Cheer, their first two |
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albums are amazing. I love liminal music, bands that define genres, sounds |
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that can't quite be confined to a time and place. They do this, they go |
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hard in `68, so hard they inspired punk, metal and grunge. And they were a |
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mess, which love. Dick Clark told them backstage before an American |
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Bandstand performance that they're the types that give a bad name to Rock |
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and Roll, how is that an insult, that's more rock and roll than anything |
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I've heard. And this fun bit from Wikipedia, "The group underwent several |
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personnel changes, the first occurring after the 1968 release of |
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Outsideinside after Leigh Stephens left the band due to musical |
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differences or, as some report, deafness." This had me laughing. |
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Anyway, getting back to music discovery is good. Much like I believe Love |
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led me to California, and The Pentangle opened a portal to my homestead, |
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maybe Blue Cheer will move me somewhere. |
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