Usual Rubbish

Track it.


Hmmm… I know I left that lying around here somewhere. Ah, here it is. Not sure where I’m going without this little number.

No, it’s not my brain. It’s my list of songs. Sixty five songs and counting. Shoo-wee, right? That’s enough songs to fuel the enormous asbestos-clad boiler of the abandoned Cheney Hammer Mill for a hundred years. (Well, that may be a slight exaggeration.) What was it I heard Lincoln (or anti-Lincoln) saying the other day? Oh, yeah. “A chicken’ll make you a meal… or it’ll lay enough eggs for a thousand breakfasts. A lamb – that’s about two weeks worth of mutton. Or you can have warm wool coats from now until doomsday…” That Lincoln- just brimming with frontier wisdom. (Actually, I think he borrowed that from Royal Dano in one of his more nefarious incarnations on The Big Valley, Lincoln’s favorite T.V. drama.)

Where was I again? Oh, right. The songs. Yeah, we have an enormous backlog of songs, some never recorded, many represented by the most rudimentary demos. Lot more Christmas material, true. Fact is, our first album – 2000 Years To Christmas – was just as selection of numbers from a vast body of ludicrous Christmas songs, mostly penned by that keee-razy brother of mine. Probably about fifty of those in total, though only about a dozen have made it onto our record/perform list as of yet. Intriguing, no? (No? Hmmmm. Is that your final answer? Want a life line?)

Sure, there’s that. Then there are the songs that are complete and yet still in the can, never released commercially. Mostly these are recordings that have no proper album to call home. They are made in the usual Big Green way – lay out a polymer disc, slather it full of mastic, add music and apply pressure… much pressure. Then toss. Well… we tossed them a little too far, perhaps, and no one has had the energy to go and pick them up. Those will likely see the light of day at some point, though I don’t know exactly when. (Let me consult with my fellow nut cases and get back to you.)

Speaking of nut cases and music, an old friend of mine shared a champion little number with us the other day. Enjoy, campers!

Political Rants

Do or die.

Short takes again. Damn, I’m lazy! Lie down, dog, you are tired.

Bread heel. We’re always told that it’s better to settle for half a loaf than no bread at all. Well, that may work for bread. I’m not so sure about anything else. I mean, if you need a car, and you ask your spouse to go out and find one for you, and s/he comes back with one axle, a steering wheel, three tires, and a seized engine, you still are not going anywhere. Same deal, it seems to me, with health care. For all the cautionary comments about “not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good,” we really do not have a whole car here, so far as I can see. For one thing, they stripped out the most popular provisions, namely, the public option and Medicare expansion – features that would benefit people immediately, save money, and make for a much more reasonable system.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m for single payer, always have been, always will be. It’s the only thing that makes sense in an enormous, complex society such as ours, contrary to what many have tried to suggest (i.e. that our nation’s complexity somehow makes a Medicare for all type system impractical – it most assuredly doesn’t). But if they can pass an insurance reform bill that provides access to a Medicare-like option (or Medicare itself) to anyone who can’t get decent coverage in the private market, that’s a good first step. Why the hell can’t people have that choice?

Well, let me tell you why. Because too many people would opt for it. That doesn’t work for the money-drenched cretins that the insurance companies have sent to Washington to represent us. I’m afraid I have to include my own congressman, Michael Arcuri, in that number. He has thrown up his hands on health care, and while I wouldn’t blame him for not supporting the Senate bill, he should join with progressives in trying to pass some reasonable version that has a strong public option. They put the scare into him, and the insurance lobby is buying lots of T.V. time in our market telling people to call Arcuri and have him vote against the bill (which, ironically, he has already said he will do).  Don’t just sit there and vote no, Mike – pull together with some of your colleagues and make it better.

Did I say short takes? Maybe I was thinking “shortcakes” – am getting a bit hungry, as well as tired. Oh, well… Here’s my pitch. Call your congressmember and senators and tell them to support a strong public option if they’re going to support the health bill. There were plenty of people who supported it last year when 60 votes were needed in the Senate – they should be able to get 51 now, if people find their spines.

Work the phones. I’m going to bed, damnit.

luv u,

jp

Usual Rubbish

Pick your poison.


Holy hell. Is that thing on again? Well then, what’s that little red light for? And the countdown box…. Twenty-five, twenty-four, twenty-three….

Oh well. While we’re trying to figure out what’s going on there… What’s been happening here at the mill? Usual stuff. Keeping the roof on, as they say, and the fridge stocked with lunchables. (Or, at least, snackables.) You have to be versatile to please the mix of tastes we have around this joint. Take Lincoln (please). Now, he’s a fan of chicken fricassee. Of course, being a vegetarian, I won’t have anything to do with the stuff, but that doesn’t stop him. He keeps putting it on the shoplifting… I mean, the shopping list. And I keep coming back with tofu. (He’s no happier now than he was in 1863.)

But it takes more than food to make a life. We’ve been working on the next album, as you know. Quite a process. Some of you have been on the inside of our album construction activities, some not. For those of you who haven’t witnessed this first-hand, here’s a little peek inside our methodology. We start with a big boatload of songs. This time, it’s a mishmash of about 60 or 70 numbers that we’ve done demos for at one point or another. Now you may wonder how, with so many possibilities, we could possibly arrive at a decision on the final project list. There are a number of things Big Green considers… and they include:

  • Specific Gravity – This is a no-brainer. If the specific gravity of a song is too heavy, we try making an alloy by blending it with some more light-hearted material. Failing that, we scrap the sucker. Perhaps the constituent parts will come in handy (they sometimes go into making a first-rate pedal bike). 
  • Stock Value – Something that relates back to what I was talking about before, with the chicken fricassee. Before we consider recording a song, we put the lyrics in a pot of water and simmer it for six hours. If it produces a broth that can be used in pilaf or gravy, it’s a keeper.
  • Particularness – I don’t know if I can explain this. I’m looking for some word in particular… mmm, can’t think of it. Oh well… it will come to me.

These and 37 other parameters give us all the data we need to make an informed choice. That’s why we say… the quality goes in before… oh wait. That’s someone else. What do we say? (It’ll come to me….)

Weird ass music since 1986