I would not listen to Greg Abbott give a press conference on a mass shooting in Texas for the same reason I would not listen to Charles Manson give a press conference on the Tate-LaBianca murders.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
I Would Not …
Posted in Uncategorized on May 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
My New Jazz Album
Posted in Music, Salon De La Guerre, Uncategorized, tagged Eric Randolph Rasmussen, Hot Tears, jazz, Music, Salon De La Guerre on November 30, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Within the next month or so, Salon de la Guerre will be releasing two new albums. One is best described as an “art country” album. More on that later. The other is my first album dedicated to jazz and it’s mostly in the Miles Davis-John Coltrane mood, though there are a couple of curveball songs.
Why did I do this? Why do I keep straying from the garage rock that is Salon de la Guerre’s main order of business? Well, there are a few reasons. One is that playing around in different genres helps me innovate and come up with new ideas. Next, I had built up a collection of melodies that didn’t really fit into pop or punk or rock songs very well. After enough of them piled up, I decided to do the right thing with them.
Then there were a few mundane, practical reasons. As regular readers know, I’ve made a few short films; for years, I have had to hide one of my student works from 2006 because I had put a popular Louis Armstrong song on the soundtrack. It was going to be a huge burden to pay for the rights to this song every year, and so I tried to think of a way I could capture the spirit of the piece and make my own jazz song to save the film, “Scrabble Rousers,” from oblivion. I took a huge risk and tried to score it using my own saxophone playing (something I’ve done only a little of since high school). Once I had the sax in my hands, I thought I might as well go all in and record an entire jazz album.
Sorry for the long-winded explanation. The upshot is that I’m fairly proud of the result, which is called Hot Tears.
Attached is a song from the album, which is almost completed.
I’ve Been Told …
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged election 2020 on November 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »
…since I was a child by Republicans that outsiders ended Rome. Now Republicans are trying to end the Republic.
I’ve been told since I was a child by Republicans that there has to be a hell, because otherwise what would be done with Nazis? Those people have now joined a Nazi movement.
I’ve been told since I was a child by Republicans that I had to follow the teachings of Jesus when Jesus scorned their world view specifically.
I’ve been told by so-called libertarians that they don’t want to be told what to do by Democratic leaders but whom now use protests by African-Americans as an excuse for a strongman to invade the cities with force.
I’ve been told by Republicans that black Americans should give up their grievances because slavery is over, and then these same Republicans try to explicitly deny African-Americans’ votes.
I’ve spent my entire life forming an opinion of Republicans based only on what Republicans say and do. They think I’ve been in a bubble. I have been. Theirs. And nothing in it is true.
Remember
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Joe Biden on November 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »
You were freed, too, conservatives.
It’s Inflating
Posted in Global Affairs, Poetry, Politics, Uncategorized, tagged Antonio Gramsci, culture, dollar, Federal Reserve, monetary easing, Politics, transgender on October 13, 2019| Leave a Comment »
I read about monetary easing
And thought of a guy painting a house
Who didn’t give a shit.
He was mad at trans people
He didn’t think of the Fed and his paycheck
He was thinking about chicks with dicks and bathrooms
And he was caught in economic deflation
And the degraded value of his labor
And the asset inflation made him wiggle like a mosquito
in a spider’s web
And yet he’s not thinking of excess trading value
It’s all those dicks, he’s thinking to himself, wriggling around
In an invisible dance of dollars.
Being pushed from job to job, house to house
The dollar making him whip it out, I mean his money,
And buy more expensive
Cigarettes and beer and chicken and barbecue
While people laugh at his overalls
And tumescent paintbrush
“All those breasts and dicks,” he keeps thinking.
From the Republican Convention in Cleveland …
Posted in Uncategorized on July 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” –Melania Trump
‘Clam Fake’ Is Reviewed on No More Division
Posted in Uncategorized on March 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I hope it doesn’t seem perverse of me, but I like criticism of my creative projects. I used to be a critic and now appreciate the turnabout, which I feel is good for cleaning out any karmic havoc I might have caused. Here’s a not-entirely-positive-sounding review of my album, “Clam Fake,” my favorite line of which is “I have to hand it to de la Guerre for giving zero shits.”
My Music Site
Posted in Uncategorized on January 22, 2016| Leave a Comment »
I am pleased to unveil the website for my music project Salon de la Guerre, now up and running at salondelaguerre.com.
Check it out.
Beauty is Imperfection 