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Eight Weeks Plus

Oh man, I was working on my ‘eight weeks of quarantine’ post and thinking about my situation in all of this, and our collective state of affairs, and ooh, I started spiraling. No one needs that. All I have to do to fly into a rage at the evil stupidity of . . . well, nearly half of my fellow Americans, is click on that “f”(ing?) icon on my phone. But y’all know I’m like a neo-Trotskyite, there’s no reason to go there now.

No, that’s an unhealthy habit, and the scale of the current injustice, and the pure wrongheadedness of so much of what’s happening, is so disheartening, and knowing that we are powerless against so much of it is alarming, and scary as fuck. One thing that particularly upsets me is this rolling back of environmental regulations - and wether or not the virus is directly related to pollution, I mean, why? It’s just “Disaster Capitalism.” If you want go there dig Naomi Klein. I have her latest book, but I haven’t cracked it - I can’t handle that level of truth right now. I read The Shock Doctrine some time ago, eye opening for sure, but difficult to bear.

Jesus, I almost did it again! As antidote, all we have is art. In the words of Leonard Bernstein, "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." The second song on my latest EP is kind of about that.  (Make no mistake, there is violence in the disgraceful contortions of the Republicans and 'conservatives' inflicting the kleptocracy on us.) 

I’m actually finding a lot of inspiration, connection and dedication in the artists right now - it’s one positive thing that the social medias can bring us. I started following Brian May (@brianmayforreal), the guitarist from the legendary rock band Queen (and astro physicist!) on Instagram. He does guitar demos, overdub performances, and even occasion science posts. And then there’s the Universal Treasure of Patrick Steward. He's reading doing #ASonnetADay on Facebook - I listen as a kind of meditation, his voice is so soothing. Can’t we just put just put Captain Picard in charge of spaceship earth?

Lot’s of my peers are doing their thing as well, have you followed G. Love’s endeavors? Amazing! And inspiring. I was doing a ‘piano meditation’ - pretty regularly live on fb, but I don’t think I’m going to continue broadcasting, because I tend to perform when I think even my four regulars (hi Mom) are watching. I need to relax my mind more though, and let myself stop and practice, and write, which entails playing riffs and progressions over and over again, breaking them down, scribbling on my notebook . . . it’s just too annoying to think of anyone watching.

But I am going to post more to my Instagram series on solo bass, and I’m getting better with my video editing so I’m going to work on a more produced piece, with backing tracks and whatnot. I’m also working on some more singer songwriter stuff to complete the album started with my Rockstar EP. Genius drummer / percussionist James West is working on three roughs now.

Eight weeks in people. Hope you're keeping it together.

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Portland, Rain is back.

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