Time and Space fragments

March 5th:

I cannot find the up-lode image button any more. I wanted to throw out some random thoughts about the recent hunting accident involvelving the only Vice President we have. A heart beat away from the president,gulp!,they used to say. (maybe it was Bush insurance against assissination!) When Ronnie called giving me the news that Chaney had peppered some judge or lawyer on a hunting , I was hoping it was Justice Scalia. I know that probably is not the way to spell his name. But I am spelling impared, if you want to know the truth. Mama, the school marm, would beat the spelling words into me for the Friday test. She would sound out the words very carefully,I guess, ignoring the fact that English is particularly a non phonetic language when it comes to spelling. SEP-AH-RATE...




March 16th, Austin:

IT IS THURSDAY, AND I AM IN AUSTIN. Came down yesterday mainly to hear my Tarheel friend's current band, Classic Case, perform at the SXSW mess going on. Got hold of Serge and Kevin, who has a central located business address, Strike Productions, more like a house that is arraqnged like a loft. Pictures will come later. Serge and I made our way down through busy down town, and thanks to electronic miracles in this wired-for-sound city, negociated tricky traffic with KEVIN in one ear, and Serge offering suggestions, until we see my friend waving frantically on the next corner. (Lack of traffic lets me cut across a couple of lanes to negociate....) I am directed onto a surprisingly quiet shady street with old solid stand-alone houses. A peaceful island right in things American......

Inside I meet Christian again, his partner. We try to get a cab to Beauty Bar on wild wild 6th Street, but one is not forth-coming. So K drives us across town in the Honda. After some inquiries, find Josh just unloading for the gig. We chat and catch up. I shoot a picture for his Mom and posterity. It is in the back yard behind the bar and it is easier just to look over the fence than to get signed up on the guest list. a couple of bands procede, and Kevin wants to drink and eat so we go across the street to this bar that specializes in sea food and brew...... The Boiling Pot, complete with paper table clothes rolled into place by the hostess and waiters. There was a dixie-cup with crayons for any artistic expression on the table cloths. Serge and Kevin had brew, Keving ordered crawdads, whose steaming bodies were dumped in front of him, and the waitress tied a bib on. K pronounced them undercooked, but I liked them hot, spicy and slimy.

Back at the music:

(It is beginning to rain) Pay five for parking. Even the bands cannot find such. Unloading in the jammed alley. Classic Case has come from Lafayette LA. where they gigged yesterday. How these bands do the traveling is beyond me. Youth and energy. Until they become so famous and rich.... Maybe their time has come, as Austin is packed with companies signing bands at this SXSW phenom. Such a boiling pot of country, rock, pop, punk, hip-hop, swirling dizzily along the streets and avenues, venues galor, thousands cheering, mass clamoring for music music music. Classic Case is thick layered rock, with influences of metal punk art rock... but manage to be creative and original, and have won many fans in the US and the UK. Josh's former band, Beloved, died or natural causes last fall, (the drummer got married!) and was put to rest with a big show in Winston Salem, the farewell out now on DVD, Kiss it Goodbye"

Josh comes from a musical family I have known for some 30 years. The Peele's, especially, are all natural musicans, his mom, Ginger sings like an angel, her two sisters and brother John, drummer and singer, we all thought would continue a musical life. There dad had beautiful voice too. Ginger married Michael, one of the biggest and most knowledgable fans of rock and pop you can find anywhere. Josh has a twin brother who has a band and plays a lot, but not on the hectic road. Beloved started when the boys were still in high school, so the story I got goes, while working at the local supermarket. They remained faithfull to the Christian Faith, they grew up in, and the band, though fiercely heavy sound-wise, played in Christian venues from one end of the country to the other. I heard them at the Ft Worth and Dallas "Door" clubs: no smoking, no alcohol..... all ages. But one generation back, the Ocean View United Methodist on Oak Island, NC, would get a moment of shear beauty and magic each Christmas in the late 70's, when Ginger, Joy, and sometimes Big John, would sing "Little Drummer Boy" with "cute little John" doing the tapping on the plaintive tambour. Such sweet harmony would make the Angel's jelouse!

This trip has brought me out of the doldrums, not surprisingly. More later when I can get some photo's up somewhere!!!!!