Conspiracies

     I'm a sucker for a good conspiracy. JFK, 911, Vegas, are just a few conspiracy theories that I subscribe to. Pearl Harbor is another.
     Though not conspiracies, I believe O.J. is innocent and Michael Jackson wasn't a child molester. I wouldn't normally admit that in public, but both men were acquitted, so I'm not entirely mistaken.
     Where I draw the line is when people say the moon landings never happened. I think these conspiracies are nuts. Not only are they nuts, they're offensive to me, because I was a witness to the moon landings. Television would never lie, haha.
     There were things that struck me as odd at the time. The manner in which the astronauts moved about the moon. The shadows. The footage. The fact that there was any footage at all was amazing to me. How did they do that? I wondered. The whole event was incredible to me. Not to be missed, that's for sure.
     But when you think about the complexity of fooling a nation, the world, with a moon landing, I'm not sure it's possible. There are too many variables involved. You'd have to emulate a rocket taking off into space. A moon landing, a moon orbiter, Cape Canaveral, a splash down, astronauts being quarantined (that's not so hard), interviews with astronauts for years and years afterwards. I think it would be too difficult to fabricate. Plus, someone would break their silence and spill the beans if it wasn't true. People blab. They're braggers. It would be next to impossible to keep everybody quiet. 
     Another thing is money. There was a lot of money to be made by the aerospace industry. They're not going to fake it, they're going to make it, and sell it. Even if it doesn't work. 

Justify

  
     I met a gambler the other night. He was going to plop down five-hundred dollars on Justify to win the Kentucky Derby. Gamblers are weird dudes. They're optimists. They're forever chasing a hunch. 
     This gambler pulled into the bar I was playing music at. It was about 1:30 in the morning when he came in. He was an older man. In his sixties. I respect people who go out at night. But it does strike me as odd at times when they come in late. 
     This man was different, no doubt. He had a big head, and I couldn't stop staring at it. He was a confident man. He was convinced that Justify was going to win. I thought he was on the right track. Justify is a great horse. But for some reason I told him Bolt D' Oro was going to win. I immediately regretted my words after saying them. Deep down I knew I was wrong, but it was early in the morning and I didn't feel like correcting myself. Instead, I grabbed my guitars and said good-night.
     Justify did win the derby. I hope the man followed his instincts. I'd sure hate to be the reason why he lost five-hundred dollars. 

Number One Or Number Two

     I wonder if there are countries in the world where number one is number two and number two is number one. I'd hate to be a taxi driver in one of those countries. You pick up a tourist and few minutes into their fare they tell you they need to use the restroom. Number one or number two? You ask. Number two, but you think it's number one, so you take your time. 
     I wonder how long we've been using the number system? It seems it never goes away. You can be eighty-three years old and turn to your wife, friend, or lover and say I have to go to the bathroom. And they might say, number one or number two. You look at them funny, thinking you're not a kid anymore, number two ...
     
     
     
     

Mansion

     I have an idea for a new social media platform. It's called Mansion. The goal is to make enough friends to build a mansion. 
     When you make your first friend you get an icon of a man with a shovel. With your second friend a man with a pick-axe shows up, and so on. A couple of thousand friends later and you get an one bedroom apartment. And so it goes. Until, one day, maybe you're living in a tract-home in the suburbs. 
     The part of the game that is not revealed is that the algorithm would be designed so it's nearly impossible to get a mansion. It's more like a dream than a realty. There's no old money. Nepotism won't help you. Sure, there will be a few people who get mansions, but just enough people to make the game believable. Most folks will be living in a trailer park in hurricane country, or a studio apartment in Jersey.

     

The Unbreakable Piñata.

     I finished a twelve hundred and eighty-seven page book and was unsatisfied with the ending. I don't regret reading the book, but come on. I understand, endings can be difficult. Saying good-bye can be difficult. But, when you read a long book, a book that didn't need to be as long as it was, you deserve a good ending. 
     I had a sinister thought the other day. I had the idea to invent an unbreakable piñata. It's similar to the mindset behind the trick birthday candle, but on another level. 
     When I was a kid there was no cutting corners when it came to the piñata. You got blindfolded. There were strict rules that had to be followed. You only got a certain number of swings. 
     I remember trying to cheat when the blindfold wasn't put on right just to survive. I could see out of the corner of the blindfold just enough to take a few good hacks.
     Kids today have it easy. Sometimes they don't even get blindfolded and they get as many swings as they want. The fun of the game is trickery. You're blindfolded and swinging wildly, and being mocked by the adults when you miss. When else can a parent mock their child? It's an opportunity.
     The unbreakable piñata levels the playing field. You don't need a blindfold, hahaha!!!

Plant-Based Meats

     I was waiting at a red light. There were people to my left standing in a long line that wrapped around the corner. There was a sign that read, "plant-based meats." I had seen the place before. It was a little pop-up restaurant that served plant-based tacos.
     Why do they call it meat? I wondered.
     The following day I found myself in a plant-based restaurant. I looked over the menu. Curry chicken, seafood soup, noodles and ham. I was confused by it. Why were the using old terms for new things? It didn't make sense to me.
     I ordered the udon stir-fry. It was delicious. It had chunks of plant-based meat that reminded me of a hotdogs.  
     I've seen it all before. The plant-based movement is nothing new. And I understand why people choose to be vegetarians. The meat industry doesn't give a hill of beans about you. Or anything else, for that matter. 
     After dinner I started to think. What's in plant-based meat? How is it made? Where are the plants coming from? How are they grown? Where are the grown? I had a lot of questions. There was so much to think about and so much to learn. It's not like I eat a lot of meat to begin with, but if things keep up, I'll be eating meat all the time, even when it's not meat.
     
     

Song Writing

      
      I try not to talk about the songs that I'm writing. I've learned my lesson that way. First of all, I'm not very good at explaining them. And no matter what the explanation, if I talk about it, it tends to fall flat and makes me feel bad.
      My songs are important to me, and I realize they're not as important to other people. So when I open up to somebody about a song I'm writing, I'm taking a big risk. I risk that they might say something insensitive and not fully formed, and stunt the creative process. 
      Sometimes I feel by talking about a song I'm putting a hex on it. It's no longer pure. Its been affected by outside forces.
      Songs are subject to change and if I talk about a song too soon, before I have it figured out, it can sound ridiculous. It's like talking about a dream. Dreams are hard to follow and not always that interesting to the listener. 
      Try to imagine John Lennon talking about "I Am The Walrus," to somebody. Yeah, it's called I am the walrus, and there's this part where I say, "sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come."