The Things Caught In My Mind

So the pipeline that the Standing Rock folk we’re afraid was going to leak and the Oil-Whores we’re adamant wasn’t, has. I knew this would happen. I wept as I watched the drone fly over a great tract of earth forever ruined by 5000 barrels of Crude. One of the main concerns of the people was that the pipes would be pumping what is known as “Dirty” oil, a far more caustic and dangerous substance than ordinary oil (if that’s possible) and so we see the first chapter in the story of the great destruction of Turtle Island in the digital age. An act of stupidity, a great shame and something we must all claim some responsibility for here in the west. We all profit, in some small way, from the progress made by North America, we all enjoy the benefits of that savage and horrid culture, even if it’s only by using their search engines or watching their movies we are culpable. There are worse things happening in the world but this is one that I know about and so I feel a sense of responsibility for it.

I don’t drive. I know, I know, I have driven and I will again but at the moment I get by with feet, public transport and friends when necessary. I walk miles upon miles to service friendships that, as far as I can tell, won’t even hop in a car to service mine and I bus to the city when I need to do stuff. I feel no sense of moral superiority, more of a distrust of my peers who will drive to the corner store rather than walk… That particular blood is more on their hands than mine. On the other hand, I am a junky and so I am responsible for, some would say, a far more destructive industry with far less benefits than petrol ever had. So there you go gentle reader of mine... The Ying and The Yang.

So here’s the song I was singing as I walked in the door just now, it’s a real dozy and it will cut your little heart to ribbons in the most delicious way if you are just open enough to let it.

I have about 2000 tobacco seedlings. Ok ok that might be an exaggeration, but maybe 1000 and counting. If you would like to try growing them I will gladly pot you some for you to pick up. They are really hardy and once you get them in the ground there is not much that will stop them from maturing. They are super easy to cure too, you can have smokable tobacco in about a week if you really rush it through from picking or you can have a really fine quality tobacco in a few months if you take your time and let it cure. I do a quick one to get started. Usually I have smokes from the leaves that fall off and die or get damaged by wind or cats or feet or heavy rain or whatever and need to be plucked, plus, you know, sometimes I’ll nab some of the nice big fat leaves at the bottom just to give myself a head start. The sooner I can be smoking it, the sooner I can stop paying for it. I have a huge garden this year and intend to plant enough to last me a year. Plus I am hoping that, due to being in a stable home, I can leave the plants in the ground after harvest and get a second crop later in the year. I think it would be entirely possible to let them grow into some kind of tree even. I’m gonna give it a go. The curing process is quite cool and I’ll post a blog about that soon too. It’s fun and involve lots of booze. It can be time consuming but it’s really rewarding and I believe that, due to the bespoke nature of it all, that there are less chemicals, more nicotine and therefore less carcinogens as you smoke less and enjoy it more. I don’t know if you smoke , gentle and kind reader, but the cheap and nasty smokes that are on the market taste and feel horrid.

I’m listening to Sananda Maitreya, he used to be called something else but he has changed his name. I recently read an interview with him. The music industry destroyed him at the peak of his career and it sent him into a terrible spiral. Apparently there was only room for Two “Black” superstars and Prince and Michael Jackson had dibs on those spots so he got munched up and spat out. However, for one brief, shining moment he was the greatest recording artist on the planet. Not a bad story for the kids, or whatever. He has such a beautiful voice and a pretty face and man he can dance too and play instruments. No wonder those other two were worried. Well, having said that, he explained that it wasn’t Prince and Michael themselves but the heads of their respective record labels. Record labels that would soon after cause Prince to wear the word Slave on his face for the best part of a decade.

I have all this music trivia in my head. I have been a sponge for it ever since I was a kid. We have a magazine in NZ called Rip It Up. When I was a kid it was a free weekly or monthly newsprint paper type of thing and from the age of about 10 or 11 I would catch a bus into the city on a friday night and go to the record store with a few bucks to buy a single or a cheap L.P or tape and grab a copy of Rip It up and nab any posters or other music mags that were going. I’d then go to the music shop and buy a pick or any strings I needed and paw over the instruments. I wasn’t really into electric guitar or amps yet so I wasn’t spending too much time there… yet… Then I’d spend what was left on hot chips and maybe drop a few twenty cent pieces into a video game at one of the two arcades in town before bussing home to watch “Radio With Pictures”, Red Dwarf”, “The Young Ones” and maybe hit the fish and chip shop for more chips and another game before midnight. They were good days, kids were safe out there in the dark. Or at least we thought they were. Invercargill was a different world. ANYWAY, what I meant to say was that I’d get that magazine home each week and absorb it like a sponge. I knew all the names of the bands, band members, producers, label heads, film makers, critics and stuff. I am still like this. If I buy and album I am flipping to the back page to see who they are thanking, who engineered it, who mastered it, who is it dedicated to, where was it recorded, who was playing what on which track and stuff like that. Then I’ll sit there and follow the lyrics through the songs and well, yeah I am a geek kind and patient reader, a geek truly. I love all that stuff. It’s of no use to me mostly but it means that when mike and martin start jabbering on about the stuff they know about I can usually follow along or at least be savvy enough to ask the right questions. The best part about having my own house was having friends.

So I was up early again. My dreams are potent and vivid and they wake me three, four or five times a night so that when the sun rises at 530 I am eager to be up, if only to placate the ache in my back or to dance away from the nagging dreams that seem to belong to someone else. It’s a beautiful day and Ravi Shankar is now buffeting the neighbors with that twang that belongs alone to the Sitar. I could never be a Sitar player. I am probably too old now but I am far too steeped in narcotics to submit to a guru and live according to the rules. I’d love to though. My friend traveled to northern India , found a guru and studied for 3 years. He also spent 6 months learning Tabla and the Ragas associated with those two instruments. Now, I have never heard him play either but is seeps through him and into his music in other ways. It must’ve been an amazing experience. The 60s and 70s were, as far as I can tell, very special.

So I dunno about much today, I am afraid to look at the news, seems like musicians are dropping dead again and I don’t wanna know. I have been for a huge walk today and I am going to try and find a way to earn some money. I really want to have my new drums before this weekend but I am still $200 short. Ah fuck and my flatties just told me Ive got bills this week too and my welfare has been cut because I didn’t fill out a form right. FUCK! Fuck money sucks aye friend? Anyway, if you have any jobs I might be able to do, gimme a holler. I can do manual stuff and am pretty nifty at video, audio editing, writing copy, producing audio segments like ads or podcasts, I can do graphic design and assemble stuff like logos and “Photoshopping” stuff (to a point) and I can make music and art to specifications, produce beats. I’m pretty ok looking too if I can do man-whoring I’d probably be pretty happy and could even supply a doctors cert with a clean bill of health, I’ve had the old snip/snap too so there’s no chance of babies and I’ve got a single bed that I could sweep the cookie crumbs and guitars off it onto the floor so it can be used as a “work-bench”, a work-bench for a man-whore! Ha ha ha. Anyway… yeah if you hear of anything (except the manwhore bit), I’d love to be useful. I really like making stencils and stuff, if you’d like something turned into a stencil that you could spray paint over your own canvas or your neighbors fence…. I just want to feel useful. Writing copy is probably my best asset. Reviews, endorsements, biographies and stuff… Sorry, gentle reader, I guess this is coming off as desperate… Well, I am. I really am desperate and afraid.  Today’s lunch and dinner consist of grapefruit and tangelos from the garden. The thing is though, it passes, it has never killed me, being poor. I am sure I’d remember if it had. I refuse to sell drugs or do anything nasty like serious crime. I’d grow pot but I do not know what I am doing. I started setting up bitcoins and I downloaded Tor yesterday. I want to buy a bottle of lsd25 for the summer, to share with people at festivals but that’s not to make money, that’s to bring people joy and to spread love, peace and open minds. I spose you could make a lot of money with one vial of it and some blotter paper. Meh, I love the idea of dressing up in costume and offering people mind expansion out of the blue.

I do hope you are well and happy out there, who-ever you are and wherever you happen to be. Don’t let em get you down ok? You are shiny and wonderful, you must be coz I don’t tend to associate with anyone who isn’t. xxxxMark 

I just discovered that Scarlet Begonias is a Grateful Dead song! Hah! Love me some Sublime! They are still teaching me stuff!