I am Thankful to be a Fishhead

Thanksgiving week is upon us once again, and at first glance, it appears the only thing to give thanks for is having a full day off with family to cook a real meal, watch football and generally loll around.
But there is much more I am thankful for...
I am thankful for finally electing someone as President who will tell the truth and work to better us all.
And I am thankful that I still have a job, even if I am not making enough money to pay all my bills in one month. Which of course makes me thankful for retirement accounts, and extra stuff I can sell to people who do make enough money to pay their bills, though I will miss that guitar.
And I am thankful that I have three other guitars to comfort me in these lean times, because they make me money, they look very cool in the living room, and they make me feel rich beyond belief.
And I am thankful that my brother is having us over to his house, and that he is doing all the cooking, so my kitchen won't be all screwed up for weeks afterward. And yes, I don't clean up real often, so I am also thankful that I could give a shit if you think that is slothfull.
And I am thankful that in fact my brother is buying a turkey that is fully prepared and cooked because he is an absolutely dreadful chef, so the meal will be good, and my kitchen will still be clean.
And I am thankful that I have some of the most talented and seriously twisted friends to play music with in no less than 4 different groups over the holidays which means I can actually buy some Christmas presents and get paid to party and jam and eat free food and drink free liquor and make really loud but bitching noise with three guitars, a drumset with my new Swiss Paiste cymbals, and of course my treasured congas. So to those of you who thought being in the band in high school was nerdy, go fuck yourself.
And I am thankful that I am a Fishhead. And not just any Fishhead, but one of the founding members of the "Joe Willy, Neckbone and the Fishheads" Fishhead! It means I am certified by the Guild of Working Blues Musicians to sing about dirty stuff, marital discord, drunken and disorderly behavior and jailtime in front of anyone I want, get paid for it, and do it over a microphone at loud volume so they cannot miss the nasty words I am singing.
And I am thankful that lately, the only time I have been in a courthouse was for jury duty.
And I am thankful that my dog Dizzy is absolutley ecstatic if I just come through the front door, regardless of what time or day it is, or what mood I am in. In fact, if I am drunk, he is even happier and thinks it is really funny and we must be paying a new game if I start knocking stuff over. Of course this game can turn really bad if he gets spooked by something I do and he bolts out the front door as it is ususlly late at night and very dark and he is pitch black and intent on being as far aaway from the house as he can be in a New York minute.
And I am thankful that I work for a Ford dealership and not a GM dealer so that there is some chance I will still have a job after the first of the year.
And I am thankful that Sarah Palin has continued to prove just how crazy funny she is by pardoning a turkey and then giving an interview while two of the freed turkey's friends and probable family members are butchered and exsanguinated by being crammed in large funnels covered in the blood of all those who preceeded them directly behind Sarah while she discussed how lucky she was to be there. Makes you wonder if she even wastes her time cooking the turkey dinner on Thanksgiving, or just rips the live bird apart with her bare hands and eats the entrails and heart while still warm and pulsing before she heads out on the tundra to beat some baby seals and have monkey sex with a grizzly bear. What a girl!
And I am thankful that the Swedes are such good engineers so that my two 1993 Volvo's with over 400K miles between them both run and I can flip the bird to anybody who has to make a car payment.
And I am thankful that I live in a country that allows me to write this drivel without immediately being run in for any number of trumped up charges only to have my head cut off like one of Sara's turkeys.
And I am supremely thankful that I am not conflicted with traditional religious values that would make me crazy with guilt and rancor and a phantasmagorical belief that something happens after I am gone, because I absolutely hate to leave a party and I would be very pissed to die expecting some nirvana only to find a complete void. Especially if I had been getting up and getting dressed to be social and nice at church on Sunday mornings with people I found to be shallow and hypocritical when I could have been sleeping in and watching Meet the Press before football.
So, thanks to my friends, thanks to most of my family, and thanks to me.

The Blue Willy Trio...smokin!

This week, a new chapter in the saga of the Joe Willy Band as we do an unplugged Blues thang with just three of us at the local Pub. A little Vino, a little blues and always a tab to pay.

We will call ourselves "The Blue Willy Trio."

We are looking forward to cutting it up a little free and unplanned. We are using our lead guitar player, the lead singer and his harmonicas, and me on congas, guitar and vocals. As always, we will pull out of our ass whatever you will remain seated and listen to. If you attempt to leave, we will grovel and spin like good jesters and charlatans seeking your approval and tips. Yes, we are whores.

But Whores with a heart of gold. Whores who can play more than mere sexual acts of wonder and desire. We are Blues musicians.

Years ago, I played almost exclusively Rock and Roll. I thought Blues guys were too dark and down for me. But I remember the wise words of an old friend who was an awesome guitar player and unapolegetic whoredog who taught me much about life as a musician—"I ain't playing to make money, I'm playing to get laid." And get laid he did. And he played the raunchiest Blues I had ever heard, even though we were a Rock band. He had my full attention.

So for the last 15 years or so, I have grown into a Blues man who plays some Rock and Roll. And it's all good. I have learned to love and embrace our national treasure in the down home idiom of the Delta players and their big city counterparts.

So come on down some night to Tanner's Pub in the little hamlet of Wiener Haven, and hang out with the boys on stage playing a little Statesboro Blues, or Louisiana Blues, or Sweet Home Chicago. We'll get ya going, and the Blues will set ya free! But bring cash, and don't approach the band too closely, they are dangerous mens!

And with that, here's some words I wrote in a previous post that seems appropriate:

The Night Rag
The tequila is cold, & the bar will be smoking',
the women so hot, they're red, raw & choking.
Don't mess with the band, 'cause they kick & they bite,
Their sound is thick and it's sweet, and they're on for the night.
I'm ready for whatever, bring it all, bring it now—
the bands got no name, and the night sings through them now—

Drink me, eat me, dance & play on me son,
Don't stop till I'm gone, don't ease up on the fun.
Nothings covered, no one's safe, we're all scared of the night,
feel the heat, make it steam, lose yourself it's alright.
I'm running, I'm gunning, jump this miracle feat.
watch it slip, watch me fight, It's my time on this beat—
time goes out like a light—when it’s lost, it’s not cheap.
Can’t go quietly, or go soft, back into that night.

A good friend of mine recently wrote about her feelings regarding race. How we got here, where we were, and where we may go. She was very personal about her personal journey through southern bigotry and our journey along the white and black path to equality.
Through this journey, she spoke of her guilt just by being white, and how we all filter the world in our own way that makes reality as we know it. i tried to assure her that that guilt was not hers, but an "oily film we all wear."
But her words made many connections for me, and instigated deep philosophical thoughts (okay, only in comparison to say, Monday Night Football which I also have been thinking about as I get ready to leave work this fine Monday evening) about filters and reality and the mind.
It occurred to me that mostly we feel that what we see is the filter we use on the world, but I think that is wrong, or at least naive and overly simplistic. I think our entire body, and the world all around us—our hands and feet and limbs and hair and eyes and ears and skin and dirt and air and people and everything combine to absorb the entire realm of existence and universe that we are aware of, as if we are an infinitesimally small sponge deep in the middle of an infinite ocean. All that we take is delivered to our personal filter, the mind.
In this mind, the filtering occurs which defines and identifies our world to each of us uniquely. In this way, reality is only the synapses and electrical activity in our mind. Our mind is just the final stage of the filter which creates our reality. So as each galaxy is made up of millions of individual stars and their associated wave structures, energy and gravity, so are the millions of synapses in each brain.
This makes me think that it isn't what is "out" there that is important or real, it is what ONLY happens as a brief chemical and electrical event deep inside us that is real. All else is handed to us by what has come before our newest thoughts.
Now if this seems inconsequential or silly, I submit it is only because your internal reality is not as real as mine, or you are Sarah Palin. but seriously folks... The thought that we are effecting change does not seem as real to me as the thought that we are only "witnessing" what our collective nerve impulses have already absorbed and processed. Our entire existence and the construct we know as the universe could easily be a mass fabrication of minds processing incorrect initil data that us brought us to the wrong current conclusions.
And this is where I found this thought process so interesting. True revelation may only come when the universe we have created actually hands us new data that we have not had, that does not fit theoretically or physically with what we think we know. Walla! We are all really just nodes in an energy field in a storm in the void. Or, we are frog like creatures with magical abilities, pink skin and outrageous musical talent that do nothing but play Beatles music through the millennium.
Needless to say, this is a long walk from the state of race relations in this country. And I promise, I have not been drinking or imbibing anything that set me into an Alice in Wonderland stupor. I'm just saying!
So here's to hoping change can come from within and without, just like Mighty Quinn the Eskimo. Now if you expect me to parse the meaning(s) of an early Bob Dylan song, forget it. These mysteries will remain until the end of days!

Goodbye Sarah...

Note to Sarah...your arrogance and ignorance are only surpassed by your ambition—a very dangerous situation. You have highlighted all that is wrong not only with Republicans, but with politics as usual in this country. When in doubt, lie, create innuendo, divide, make it someone else's fault (the press, the RNC, McCain, your Brother-in-law, your employees, etc). When one considers all the high points of your limited career, it is clear you are motivated purely by greed and the acquisition of power without any regard to your actual abilities or fair play. I think we have all underestimated the power of Barack Obama to effect change, even in the Republican Party. The RNC and their brightest new members (no, not you Sarah) will see from his example that dumbing down the populace (Joe the Plumber comes to mind) and working to foment hate through lies and innuendo does not win the day. I suspect even they will be positively affected by the Obama wave, and we will see an evolution even in the RNC that will be most welcome to lift all of our body politic up. You will be cast aside like a dead wolf missing a paw that some barbaric hunter hacked off to make a buck. Good-bye Sarah—go home, give the clothes back and SHUT-UP!