081609

This week I've been sleepless and distracted; I finished my steroids on Tuesday. I did go over to an old friend's house for dinner; it was great to hang out with him again, and spend time with his wife and young son.

*Teachers*

After I moved to Seattle in 1993 (I arrived with an east-coast girlfriend on Thanksgiving day) I was still on fire from having studied with Tuck Andress. I found an open mic on Pioneer Square and went, having worked up a couple of Andress-style arrangements. One in particular, of Van Morrisson's Cold Wind in August, I remember with particular fondness. The song is a perfect candidate for an Andress approach: it has a distinct and memorable bass line, simple guitar comping/chords, and an equally memorable melody. Tuck would have done it instrumentally but I was a singer, so imagine four guitar parts (bass, rhythm, backbeat, melody) combined with trained vocals; I was the entire band and folks were blown away, from the moment I started. I'm pleased to say that not only did I get the more straight-forward elements, I also translated full-band parts to the guitar fretboard, which takes no small bit of finesse. I can only look back now and be pleased that I was once able to do such things, with a great deal of lament that I can do them no more.

*Poem*

Knots of Snakes

It's amazing who and what

one sees on the nearest Avenue.

When you sit at a cafe

or restaurant

staring out through the doorway

across the road

the parade does not let up,

it unfolds relentlessly,

the way a cosmic snake would,

continuously falling

from the sky,

one section at a time.

You see delivery people

scamper across 1st,

you see an aging

theater reviewer

confused by his failing body,

you see lovers walking proudly,

you see unspeakable loneliness

and hope,

hope which doesn't stop

no matter what,

and if you look hard enough

you see back to your beginning,

your own hope for love,

the innocent ways you once

pictured the world

tied up neatly in knots.

We are knots

and unfurl in sections

from on high.

We are cosmic snakes trying

to figure out some way

to leave this place alive.

*Politics*

I have a terrible, incurable, degenerative disease. The _only_ reason I still have any health coverage at all is because I have a now-wealthy mother; you'd be stunned at how much we have to pay to keep me covered--more than the majority of Americans earn in an entire year, just on health insurance! If I didn't have my mother, I _would_ be homeless and I _would_ be without health insurance, which would mean necessarily my disease would get much worse. A total overhaul of the health-care system is absolutely essential. As it is I can't work. How can I contribute to the good of this nation if at any moment I could be out on the street? From David Axelrod, senior advisor to President Obama:

"Eight ways reform provides security and stability to those with or without coverage

"1. Ends Discrimination for Pre-Existing Conditions: Insurance companies will be prohibited from refusing you coverage because of your medical history.

"2. Ends Exorbitant Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Deductibles or Co-Pays: Insurance companies will have to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge for out-of-pocket expenses.

"3. Ends Cost-Sharing for Preventive Care: Insurance companies must fully cover, without charge, regular checkups and tests that help you prevent illness, such as mammograms or eye and foot exams for diabetics.

"4. Ends Dropping of Coverage for Seriously Ill: Insurance companies will be prohibited from dropping or watering down insurance coverage for those who become seriously ill.

"5. Ends Gender Discrimination: Insurance companies will be prohibited from charging you more because of your gender.

"6. Ends Annual or Lifetime Caps on Coverage: Insurance companies will be prevented from placing annual or lifetime caps on the coverage you receive.

"7. Extends Coverage for Young Adults: Children would continue to be eligible for family coverage through the age of 26.

"8. Guarantees Insurance Renewal: Insurance companies will be required to renew any policy as long as the policyholder pays their premium in full. Insurance companies won't be allowed to refuse renewal because someone became sick.

"Eight common myths about health insurance reform

"1. Reform will stop "rationing"--not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a "government takeover" of health care or lead to "rationing." To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies.

"2. We can’t afford reform: It's the status quo we can't afford. It’s a myth that reform will bust the budget. To the contrary, the President has identified ways to pay for the vast majority of the up-front costs by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. In the long term, reform can help bring down costs that will otherwise lead to a fiscal crisis.

"3. Reform would encourage "euthanasia": It does not. It’s a malicious myth that reform would encourage or even require euthanasia for seniors. For seniors who want to consult with their family and physicians about end-of life decisions, reform will help to cover these voluntary, private consultations for those who want help with these personal and difficult family decisions.

"4. Vets' health care is safe and sound: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will affect veterans' access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President's budget significantly expands coverage under the VA, extending care to 500,000 more veterans who were previously excluded. The VA Healthcare system will continue to be available for all eligible veterans.

"5. Reform will benefit small business--not burden it: It’s a myth that health insurance reform will hurt small businesses. To the contrary, reform will ease the burdens on small businesses, provide tax credits to help them pay for employee coverage and help level the playing field with big firms who pay much less to cover their employees on average.

"6. Your Medicare is safe, and stronger with reform: It’s myth that Health Insurance Reform would be financed by cutting Medicare benefits. To the contrary, reform will improve the long-term financial health of Medicare, ensure better coordination, eliminate waste and unnecessary subsidies to insurance companies, and help to close the Medicare "doughnut" hole to make prescription drugs more affordable for seniors.

"7. You can keep your own insurance: It’s myth that reform will force you out of your current insurance plan or force you to change doctors. To the contrary, reform will expand your choices, not eliminate them.

"8. No, government will not do anything with your bank account: It is an absurd myth that government will be in charge of your bank accounts. Health insurance reform will simplify administration, making it easier and more convenient for you to pay bills in a method that you choose. Just like paying a phone bill or a utility bill, you can pay by traditional check, or by a direct electronic payment. And forms will be standardized so they will be easier to understand. The choice is up to you--and the same rules of privacy will apply as they do for all other electronic payments that people make."

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck

http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/realitycheck/faq

Please think of me--and the above FACTS--when you decide how you feel about Obama's health-care plan. Don't listen to quacks like Limbaugh, or Lou Dobbs, or Fox, or CNN, or any other talking heads who have _vested interests_ in maintaining the status quo; listen only to the facts. They speak for themselves. The disabled and diseased citizens of this country can really use your help; _I_ can really use your help.

*Quotations*

I can't understand these chaps who go round American universities explaining how they write poems: it's like going round explaining how you sleep with your wife.

--Philip Larkin

I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, and consequently suggests more tugging, and pain, and diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.

--Edith Wharton

Writing fiction has developed in me an abiding respect for the unknown in a human lifetime and a sense of where to look for the threads, how to follow, how to connect, find in the thick of the tangle what clear line persists.

--Eudora Welty

When one has come to accept a certain course as duty he has a pleasant sense of relief and of lifted responsibility, even if the course involves pain and renunciation. It is like obedience to some external authority; any clear way, though it lead to death, is mentally preferable to the tangle of uncertainty.

--Charles Horton Cooley

Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.

--Sir Walter Scott

Oh what a tangled web do parents weave when they think their children are naïve.

--Ogden Nash

I say that I am myself, but what is this self of mine but a knot in the tangled skein of things where chance and change combine?

--Don Marquis

The Three in One, the One in Three? Not so! To my own Gods I go. It may be they shall give me greater ease than your cold Christ and tangled Trinities.

--Rudyard Kipling

I've always done things the hard way. I was born like a piece of tangled yarn. The job is trying to untangle it, and I'll probably go on doing it for the rest of my life.

--Karen Allen

So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.

--Gordon W Allport

*Music*

Charlie Hunter's record of Bob Marley covers, the original Marley album Natty Dread, is absolutely sublime. Charlie Hunter is a jazz player. Like Tuck Andress (who is one of his main inspirations), Hunter is all about making full-band music on his one instrument (well, almost but not quite as radical as Tuck); Hunter however doesn't use a regular guitar--he uses one that has a whole bass neck and actual bass strings on the bottom (the late Michael Hedges also played a similar instrument sometimes, his harp guitar). Hunter studied with Tuck when he started this approach. I can attest to the fact he has gotten _much_ better at it over the years.

When he first started, neither of the two parts (bass or guitar) was very good; he's become an honest-to-goodness funky bass player, and the guitar part ain't half bad. Natty Dread is a quartet, Hunter, two tenor saxophones, and a drummer; they completely tear it up, hitting you with some dope new takes on classics. Hunter does some great-sounding stuff with his guitar, not so much in his actual playing but more so in the sound he adopts: he plays through an amp which goes through a rotary-sound device and then back into another amp. The sound is thick, dense, and wet; it makes for the perfect combination of rock, jazz, world, Africa, creole, etc., unclassifiable. You definitely want to check this record out, no matter what kind of music you like.

_____

In my old mixes I see the person I used to be, and I used to be all over the map! The following is a perfect example:

Citizen Mix August 2005

1. Florida, Diplo

2. Ramblin'(Smith), Aretha Franklin

3. The Beat Goes On (Sonny Bono), Patricia Barber

4. Big Lost, Diplo

5. Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads), Jacqui Naylor

6. One of These Days, Camper Van Beethoven

7. Heaven, Meshell Ndgeocello and Lalah Hathaway

8. After the Gold Rush (Neil Young), Michael Hedges and Michael Manring

9. August Day Song, Bebel Gilberto

10. Cold Wind in August, Van Morrisson

11. Jacaranda, Luiz Bonfa

12. Money Power Respect, Diplo

13. Birdland (Weather Report), Niacin

14. Tight Like That, Little Axe

15. Water Song, Hot Tuna

16. You Came a Long Way from St Louis (Brooks/Russell), Abbey Lincoln and Hank Jones

17. Hot Type, Michael Hedges

18. You Still Believe in Me, M Ward

19. Safe Sane and Single, Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five

_____

Top ten random tracks from Me'shell Ndegéocello (an interstellar female bass player who's also all over the map, as comfortable playing hip hop and rapping as she is playing excellent modern jazz):

12. Mu-Min

11. Love Song #1

10. Papillon

9. Come Smoke My Herb

8. Al-Falaq 113

7. The Sloganeer--Paradise

6. Aquarium

5. Body

4. Andromeda and the Milky Way

3. Hot Night

2. Heaven

1. Fellowship

Peace love and ATOM jazz