The Bush and The Squirrel

I spent the night at my lady friend’s house. She had to attend an AA meeting at ten in the morning so I was up and about at a decent hour. I drove to my house and played some Big Bill Broonzy on the guitar. There is a lot to the Saint Louis Blues, it’s not a song you can learn in a day.

My mind can only handle a little at a time before it feels like its going to explode. I was beginning to feel like I was watching the Inside Job. That movie should have been called The Hand Job, because that’s what Wall Street got from the American people. Actually, Wall Street did much better than that. The corn hole job is more to the point.

I took a break from the guitar and went outside to do some gardening. I was cutting back some bushes when an older woman pulled up in her car and parked. She got out of her car and walked up the road a bit before she stopped and bent over to pick something up. She had a plastic bag in her hand and I thought she was picking up after a dog, but then I noticed some kind of animal hanging out of the bag.

“What’s that?” I asked

“A dead squirrel. I can’t leave it there. It will get squished by cars and I’ll feel bad about it when I drive by.”

What a nice lady.

“I’m not sure what to do with it,” she said.

I wasn’t sure what to do with it either. My mind went blank. I had no answers. No solutions. How can I be helpful? I felt selfish just standing there with no resolution to offer.

“I’ll take it to my backyard and bury it,” the woman finally said.

I nodded my head.

The woman put the squirrel in her trunk and drove away.

Big Bill

I went to the studio today to over dub some vocals. Martin and I wanted to experiment with a doubled vocal track. Martin mentioned that John Lennon doubled all his vocals, and that was all he had to say to convince me to try it.

The word studio is funny. It sounds so grand, when in reality Martin and I record in his bachelor apartment in Silverlake. It suits my needs, and it’s close by, and Martin is giving me the bro deal, which is nice. Beyond that I didn’t get much done. I ran some errands and cashed a check and watched college basketball March sadness. My teams seldom if ever win. I find myself rooting against teams, and getting worked up about it. It’s silly, but I do the same thing every year.

I’m learning Saint Louis Blues by Big Bill Broonzy on guitar. It’s a nice song a real classic. It’s the end of the day. Bye for now. End dispatch. AB

Hello Once More

I haven’t posted in a while. I’m not sure what to do with this Blog thing. I’m insecure about my English skills. I’m not the greatest self-editor in the world, and was never a great student in school. But oh well, here I go again.

I’ve been spending much of my time working on the business side of books and music. I haven’t written much lately by way of prose or poetry, but I have managed to write a few songs. Three or four in last few months, which is a lot for me. I’ve gone years without writing a song. I’ve never been one to push the creative process. I’ve tried to when I was younger, but learned rather quickly that when you force it; it seldom if ever turns out any good.

So I’ve been putting books together and writing and recording songs at my friend Martin’s house. I’m still building my cabin, and things are pretty good, pretty, pretty good. I’m working on a Bandcamp site, but I don’t have but one song recorded so I’m waiting until I have at least two. My goal is to create two styles of music, traditional songs with lyrics and less traditional bass driven pieces with less form and predictability.

I hope everyone is well out there. I’ll try to be more consistent and post more regularly. I guess I’ll use the Blog more as a public journal. Public is not really my style, but I’ll give it try. Love.