I wish I was an Okie from Muskogee...you know, that place where even squares can have a ball.
It seems like too many people have lost the ability to just have FUN anymore. These days, it seems like folks can't have a good time without drinking, smoking pot, snorting something, popping a pill or belittling someone else (usually someone not present). What happened?
I thought that we, as a species, were evolving. Instead, it seems that we've stunted...and as 8th graders to boot! I remember when I was a kid, I couldn't wait to be 'grown up' so that I wouldn't have to deal with childishness anymore. Alas, it seems that the grown ups have all gone off and died and left the brats in charge.
Everywhere I look these days, I see rampant immaturity. No one wants to take responsibility for anything anymore. Guess what, part of taking responsibility means facing up to the mistakes we make. These days, it seems that most folks would rather sweep their follies under the proverbial carpet rather than admit a mistake. Worse yet is the immature attitudes people carry these days. I could point out case upon case to quantify this but what's the use? We all know it.
I remember when we waved Old Glory down at the courthouse and we even had Christmas decorations up. But nowadays, we might offend someone. What the hell????You may be asking "what's the point Metzger?" but the point is, all of us, whether it be politics, the media, entertainment or just your average working folk, we're all too busy acting childish to accept the responsibilites we have to face.
Yes, this country is in a mess and would you like to know who's to blame? We ALL are! For too long, we all sat idly by waiting for someone else to take responsibility. When the credit, housing and mortgage crises were starting, did any of us ask "What the heck's going on here?". No. We didn't. And if any of us did, we didn't ask loud enough.Now we're a country in crisis. The numbers we hear on the news are way off. It's a lot worse than we're led to believe. I know. I'm one of the numbers not being counted. Why not? Because I'm not a statistic. Yet.
So here's an idea: why don't we ALL take responsibility? Let's teach our children to do the same. Yes, we're in a mess...but WE can fix it! We can make this country, and this entire planet, a great place again! Let's get our priorities straight. Let's be responsible. Let's make those in authority accountable for the powers we grant them. If they can't be, then its up to us to take it back from them and give to someone who will be accountable.
Common sense is no longer common. Wisdom is becoming a myth. What say we fix the problem before it's too late.
I wish I was an Okie from Muskogee...but CNN, Fox News and the internet have probably ruined that place too....
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Haunted Pittsburgh #2: A Ghost Close to Home
You could almost say I have a ghost in my own backyard! Well, not quite my back yard but at least close to home. You'd think that living close to a cemetary, I'd be telling of ghosts there but you'd be wrong! This is the story of Peter, a little boy ghost. I've heard this story for years! My family has lived in this area since the early 20th century. Up until recently, the oldest house in Allegheny county was our family homestead, but after the death of my great aunt Alberta, the house was sold.
My grandmother and great aunts used to tell me stories of prohibition and all the crazy times. I wish my great aunt Ann was alive so I could get more information on this alleged 'bordello'. (she lived right up the street...but WAS NOT a working girl! LOL)Anyhoo, on with the story...
BLAHA FLOWER SHOP (Etna, Allegheny County) Shop owner David Kornely relocated his flower and gift shop to Bridge Street in Etna in 1991. He had heard the building was haunted but had no second thoughts about the making the move. He even kept the shop's former name, Michael Blaha Flowers. Then he got to meet Peter. The tale goes that the the building was a bordello in the roaring 20's and that Peter was the illegitimate son of one of the working ladies. He was playing with fireworks in the attic when a fire started, losing his life at the tender age of 8. He's still playing in the building. When the landlord was remodeling the shop, lights flickered and tools were unplugged. Once the shop was up and running, stuffed animals disappeared only to show up months later. He enjoys fiddling with electronics, deprogramming the cash register and scrambling the answering machine. The shop is often found in complete disarray when it's opened and one girl that worked there claimed her hair was pulled by Peter. Psychics say Peter likes the owner, thank God, and is just being playful. He disappeared for a couple of years, when a furnace was removed - spirits attach themselves to metal objects, according to the psychics – but he returned. Peter's current status is uncertain. The shop's been closed and boarded up for years. There's a chapter on Peter and Blaha's shop in Ghost Stories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County by Beth Trapani & Charles Adams III. (Pittsburgh Tribune Review “Steel City Haunts Require Nerves of Steel,” October 31, 1998)
Peter: An update (Oct. 8, 2009)
After work today, I stopped by the flower shop (Always In Bloom), where Peter the ghost resides. Technically, he resides in the back building, where he died on the 3rd floor, which at the time was supposed to be the attic.
Susan, who now runs the flower shop, is a pleasant, attractive and decidedly NOT crazy person. She just happens to have the ghost of an 8 year old boy on her hands. She was more than happy to discuss Peter but stressed that she doesn't go out of her way to use him for publicity.
It seems that the previous owners, 2 sisters, did...and not to Peter's liking. They tried seances, etc. which seemed to 'upset Peter'. Susan's 1st encounter with the boy ghost was when some scribbling in crayon appeared on her desk. Her partner, Kevin, assured her that he had nothing to do with it.
In the years that Susan has run the flower shop, she's had little more than mischievous pranks from Peter. Last Christmas, a voice/touch activated decoration would start playing "Jingle Bells" for no reason. Neither Susan, her partner, employees or dogs were anywhere near it. Susan chalked it up to Peter and told me so with a pleasant chuckle.
Peter has a fascination with plush toys. In the basement of the building is an old crib filled with plush toys. At the bottom of the heap was a plush gingerbread man. To activate it, one needs to squeeze the foot, and as it's an older toy, one needs to squeeze with some effort. For nearly a week, the toy kept being activated, presumably by Peter. Mind you, it was at the bottom of the pile.
There was a family living on the 3rd floor of the back building and they had small children and pets, which Peter seemed to enjoy. Susan had nothing but positive remarks to make about the family's encounters with Peter.
Peter is, however, still quite the prankster. When Susan's partner Kevin was doing some renovations on the building, tools would go missing and extension cords would unplug themselves with some frequency.
Only one person known to Susan has had a physical encounter with Peter. A few years back, they had the steps to the basement rebuilt and the workman, a friend of Kevin's, met the boy ghost face to face. The workman, a large burly man by Susan's description, was so unnerved that to this day, he refuses to return to the building. He and Kevin are still friends...but the man still refuses.
In discussing Peter with Susan, I must say that she had nothing but positive things to say about Peter and she feels that he doesn't give her any trouble because she speaks positively of him. There are currently two brothers living on the 3rd floor of the back building and they seem to get on well with Peter and Peter seems to enjoy them. Peter, like any 8 year old boy, seems to prefer the company of children, older guys and family pets. Susan keeps her two rather large dogs in the flower shop with her when she's there and the dogs seemed rather non-plussed by Peter. They were far more interested in sniffing me...perhaps to make sure that I'm flesh & blood and not ectoplasm.
An interesting side note would be that the flower shop still has it's original hardwood floors. The building was built in the late 19th century and has been at various times a hotel, restaurant, bordello, florist shop, etc. It has also survived a the fire which killed Peter, a major flood....and a ghost. Now that's craftsmanship!
Believe it or not....more to come!
My grandmother and great aunts used to tell me stories of prohibition and all the crazy times. I wish my great aunt Ann was alive so I could get more information on this alleged 'bordello'. (she lived right up the street...but WAS NOT a working girl! LOL)Anyhoo, on with the story...
BLAHA FLOWER SHOP (Etna, Allegheny County) Shop owner David Kornely relocated his flower and gift shop to Bridge Street in Etna in 1991. He had heard the building was haunted but had no second thoughts about the making the move. He even kept the shop's former name, Michael Blaha Flowers. Then he got to meet Peter. The tale goes that the the building was a bordello in the roaring 20's and that Peter was the illegitimate son of one of the working ladies. He was playing with fireworks in the attic when a fire started, losing his life at the tender age of 8. He's still playing in the building. When the landlord was remodeling the shop, lights flickered and tools were unplugged. Once the shop was up and running, stuffed animals disappeared only to show up months later. He enjoys fiddling with electronics, deprogramming the cash register and scrambling the answering machine. The shop is often found in complete disarray when it's opened and one girl that worked there claimed her hair was pulled by Peter. Psychics say Peter likes the owner, thank God, and is just being playful. He disappeared for a couple of years, when a furnace was removed - spirits attach themselves to metal objects, according to the psychics – but he returned. Peter's current status is uncertain. The shop's been closed and boarded up for years. There's a chapter on Peter and Blaha's shop in Ghost Stories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County by Beth Trapani & Charles Adams III. (Pittsburgh Tribune Review “Steel City Haunts Require Nerves of Steel,” October 31, 1998)
Peter: An update (Oct. 8, 2009)
After work today, I stopped by the flower shop (Always In Bloom), where Peter the ghost resides. Technically, he resides in the back building, where he died on the 3rd floor, which at the time was supposed to be the attic.
Susan, who now runs the flower shop, is a pleasant, attractive and decidedly NOT crazy person. She just happens to have the ghost of an 8 year old boy on her hands. She was more than happy to discuss Peter but stressed that she doesn't go out of her way to use him for publicity.
It seems that the previous owners, 2 sisters, did...and not to Peter's liking. They tried seances, etc. which seemed to 'upset Peter'. Susan's 1st encounter with the boy ghost was when some scribbling in crayon appeared on her desk. Her partner, Kevin, assured her that he had nothing to do with it.
In the years that Susan has run the flower shop, she's had little more than mischievous pranks from Peter. Last Christmas, a voice/touch activated decoration would start playing "Jingle Bells" for no reason. Neither Susan, her partner, employees or dogs were anywhere near it. Susan chalked it up to Peter and told me so with a pleasant chuckle.
Peter has a fascination with plush toys. In the basement of the building is an old crib filled with plush toys. At the bottom of the heap was a plush gingerbread man. To activate it, one needs to squeeze the foot, and as it's an older toy, one needs to squeeze with some effort. For nearly a week, the toy kept being activated, presumably by Peter. Mind you, it was at the bottom of the pile.
There was a family living on the 3rd floor of the back building and they had small children and pets, which Peter seemed to enjoy. Susan had nothing but positive remarks to make about the family's encounters with Peter.
Peter is, however, still quite the prankster. When Susan's partner Kevin was doing some renovations on the building, tools would go missing and extension cords would unplug themselves with some frequency.
Only one person known to Susan has had a physical encounter with Peter. A few years back, they had the steps to the basement rebuilt and the workman, a friend of Kevin's, met the boy ghost face to face. The workman, a large burly man by Susan's description, was so unnerved that to this day, he refuses to return to the building. He and Kevin are still friends...but the man still refuses.
In discussing Peter with Susan, I must say that she had nothing but positive things to say about Peter and she feels that he doesn't give her any trouble because she speaks positively of him. There are currently two brothers living on the 3rd floor of the back building and they seem to get on well with Peter and Peter seems to enjoy them. Peter, like any 8 year old boy, seems to prefer the company of children, older guys and family pets. Susan keeps her two rather large dogs in the flower shop with her when she's there and the dogs seemed rather non-plussed by Peter. They were far more interested in sniffing me...perhaps to make sure that I'm flesh & blood and not ectoplasm.
An interesting side note would be that the flower shop still has it's original hardwood floors. The building was built in the late 19th century and has been at various times a hotel, restaurant, bordello, florist shop, etc. It has also survived a the fire which killed Peter, a major flood....and a ghost. Now that's craftsmanship!
Believe it or not....more to come!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Haunted Pittsburgh #1
Grrrrrrrrreetings and welcome to my 1st Halloween-inspired blog!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA
OK, everyone loves ghost stories and such...well, at least most of the people I know do! I know I love them...and as I'm also a bit of a history geek, I thought I'd mix the two! So here goes nothing! A bit of 'haunted local history'. If you know of some scary local history, please fill me in! It doesn't have to be Pittsburgh, it can be from anywhere!
NOTE: I didn't write the following. I took it from a web site. As a bit of a Halloween prank, I'll let YOU figure out which one! MWAHAHAHAHAHA Enjoy.......
The Original Most Haunted House in AmericaCongelier Mansion, 1129 Ridge Avenue
Formerly known as the Most Haunted House in America, the home of carpetbagger Charles Wright Congelier, his Mexican wife Lyda, and a young servant girl, Essie, was located at 1129 Ridge Avenue, in the Manchester, North Side, neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The story of its life as a haunted house* begins in the winter of 1871, with Lyda's discovery of Charles having an affair with the maid. Lyda was so enraged, that she fatally stabbed Charles and chopped off Essie's head. For the next 20 years the house remained vacant. It was remodeled to accommodate railroad workers in 1892, but they soon moved out, claiming to hear the sobbing and screaming of a woman. The Most Haunted House in America once again stood vacant
Around 1900, Dr. Adolph C. Brunrichter bought the home. "Keeping to himself, the doctor was rarely seen by his neighbors. Then on August 12, 1901, the family next door heard a terrifying scream from the Brunrichter residence," wrote Richard Winer and Nancy Osborn in their book, Haunted Houses. "When they ran outside to investigate, the neighbors saw a red explosion-like flash shooting through the house. The earth under them trembled, and the sidewalls cracked. Every window in the doctor's home was shattered."
When officials entered the house to investigate, they found a decomposed female body strapped to the bed and five headless young women in basement graves. "Dr. Brunrichter had been experimenting with severed heads," wrote Winer and Osborn. "Apparently he had been able to keep some alive for short periods after decapitation." Dr. Brunrichter, meanwhile, had disappeared, and the house once again stood vacant.
As a result of its reputation for being haunted, the house stood empty for several years before undergoing its second remodeling to ready it for housing emigrant Equitable Gas Company workers. These workers experienced many strange occurrences but wrote them off as pranks by the American workers they had replaced (for lower wages). One night things took a tragic turn, however, and two of the workers were found dead in the basement. One had a board driven like a stake through his chest, and the other was hanging from a rafter. These men had both been seen alive just minutes earlier.
In 1920, the famous scientist and inventor, Thomas Edison, came to study the house. Edison spoke of a machine that he was building to allow communication with the dead. Edison died before the mechanism was perfected. Winer and Osborn wrote that Thomas Edison's visit to the house at 1129 Ridge Avenue apparently influenced his strong belief in the afterlife.
In September of 1927, a drunk was arrested who claimed to be Dr. Adolph Brunrichter. He told police gruesome stories of sex orgies, demonic possession, torture and murder that had occurred in the house. The authorities could not determine if the man they had in custody was indeed Dr. Brunrichter. The man was released after a month and was never seen again.
Days were numbered for the haunted house which everyone was convinced was evil. Nearby, on the site that is now the Carnegie Science Center, stood the largest natural gas storage facility in the world. On the morning of November 15, 1927, the giant gas storage tank owned by the Equitable Gas Company exploded with an awesome force which was felt across the county. The Story of Old Allegheny City, compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration, describes the destruction. "As houses collapsed and chimneys toppled, brick, broken glass, twisted pieces of steel and other debris rained on the heads of the dazed and shaken residents who had rushed into the streets from their wrecked homes, believing that an earthquake had visited the city." The force was so strong it reportedly blew out windows throughout downtown, Mt. Washington, and as far away as East Liberty. Dozens of manufacturing plants and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed within a 20-mile radius.
The Most Haunted House in America, which once stood at the present day site of the Route 65/I279 interchange, was obliterated in the explosion. According to Winer and Osborn, it was the only structure destroyed in the blast for which no trace was ever found.
* The above ghost story is just that - most likely a story. Born partially of truth, but the vast majority appears to be fictional in nature. Perhaps the house really was evil, however. While the house was damaged, not completely obliterated, in that Equitable Gas explosion, Marie Congelier, age 28, died that day according to newspaper reports. She was hit by flying glass and bled to death on the way to the hospital. Even if the rest of the Original Most Haunted House in America tale isn't true, I wouldn't blame her for haunting the area!
more to come..... MM
OK, everyone loves ghost stories and such...well, at least most of the people I know do! I know I love them...and as I'm also a bit of a history geek, I thought I'd mix the two! So here goes nothing! A bit of 'haunted local history'. If you know of some scary local history, please fill me in! It doesn't have to be Pittsburgh, it can be from anywhere!
NOTE: I didn't write the following. I took it from a web site. As a bit of a Halloween prank, I'll let YOU figure out which one! MWAHAHAHAHAHA Enjoy.......
The Original Most Haunted House in AmericaCongelier Mansion, 1129 Ridge Avenue
Formerly known as the Most Haunted House in America, the home of carpetbagger Charles Wright Congelier, his Mexican wife Lyda, and a young servant girl, Essie, was located at 1129 Ridge Avenue, in the Manchester, North Side, neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The story of its life as a haunted house* begins in the winter of 1871, with Lyda's discovery of Charles having an affair with the maid. Lyda was so enraged, that she fatally stabbed Charles and chopped off Essie's head. For the next 20 years the house remained vacant. It was remodeled to accommodate railroad workers in 1892, but they soon moved out, claiming to hear the sobbing and screaming of a woman. The Most Haunted House in America once again stood vacantAround 1900, Dr. Adolph C. Brunrichter bought the home. "Keeping to himself, the doctor was rarely seen by his neighbors. Then on August 12, 1901, the family next door heard a terrifying scream from the Brunrichter residence," wrote Richard Winer and Nancy Osborn in their book, Haunted Houses. "When they ran outside to investigate, the neighbors saw a red explosion-like flash shooting through the house. The earth under them trembled, and the sidewalls cracked. Every window in the doctor's home was shattered."
When officials entered the house to investigate, they found a decomposed female body strapped to the bed and five headless young women in basement graves. "Dr. Brunrichter had been experimenting with severed heads," wrote Winer and Osborn. "Apparently he had been able to keep some alive for short periods after decapitation." Dr. Brunrichter, meanwhile, had disappeared, and the house once again stood vacant.
As a result of its reputation for being haunted, the house stood empty for several years before undergoing its second remodeling to ready it for housing emigrant Equitable Gas Company workers. These workers experienced many strange occurrences but wrote them off as pranks by the American workers they had replaced (for lower wages). One night things took a tragic turn, however, and two of the workers were found dead in the basement. One had a board driven like a stake through his chest, and the other was hanging from a rafter. These men had both been seen alive just minutes earlier.
In 1920, the famous scientist and inventor, Thomas Edison, came to study the house. Edison spoke of a machine that he was building to allow communication with the dead. Edison died before the mechanism was perfected. Winer and Osborn wrote that Thomas Edison's visit to the house at 1129 Ridge Avenue apparently influenced his strong belief in the afterlife.
In September of 1927, a drunk was arrested who claimed to be Dr. Adolph Brunrichter. He told police gruesome stories of sex orgies, demonic possession, torture and murder that had occurred in the house. The authorities could not determine if the man they had in custody was indeed Dr. Brunrichter. The man was released after a month and was never seen again.
Days were numbered for the haunted house which everyone was convinced was evil. Nearby, on the site that is now the Carnegie Science Center, stood the largest natural gas storage facility in the world. On the morning of November 15, 1927, the giant gas storage tank owned by the Equitable Gas Company exploded with an awesome force which was felt across the county. The Story of Old Allegheny City, compiled by workers of the Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration, describes the destruction. "As houses collapsed and chimneys toppled, brick, broken glass, twisted pieces of steel and other debris rained on the heads of the dazed and shaken residents who had rushed into the streets from their wrecked homes, believing that an earthquake had visited the city." The force was so strong it reportedly blew out windows throughout downtown, Mt. Washington, and as far away as East Liberty. Dozens of manufacturing plants and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed within a 20-mile radius.
The Most Haunted House in America, which once stood at the present day site of the Route 65/I279 interchange, was obliterated in the explosion. According to Winer and Osborn, it was the only structure destroyed in the blast for which no trace was ever found.
* The above ghost story is just that - most likely a story. Born partially of truth, but the vast majority appears to be fictional in nature. Perhaps the house really was evil, however. While the house was damaged, not completely obliterated, in that Equitable Gas explosion, Marie Congelier, age 28, died that day according to newspaper reports. She was hit by flying glass and bled to death on the way to the hospital. Even if the rest of the Original Most Haunted House in America tale isn't true, I wouldn't blame her for haunting the area!
more to come..... MM
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Creative Process
I've long said that I liken creativity to psychosis...and if you really think about it, it's probably not far from the truth. The creative mind sees/hears/smells/tastes things that don't exist until we create them.
As a musician, writer and photographer, I view the world with my own weird set of senses. I hear music that no one else can hear. I see images that while visible to others, are probably not perceived the way I perceive them. I have stories running through my head at all times. It can be quite a frightening mess at times! LOL But every now and then, I can get these ideas OUT of my head and transform them into something that others can (hopefully) enjoy or at least recognize.
I, for years, played in rockabilly bands almost exclusivley. During the past few years, along with some serious personal issues, I found this to be severely stifling. My photography suffered from it as did my writing and composing. I found myself becoming a caricature of myself. I did NOT enjoy this one bit! So I did the only thing I could: I backed away from all of it. I bought a new guitar and started playing different styles for my own amusement. I fought the urges to incorporate this "into the act". I turned down more shows and tours than most cats my age ever get offered. I continued to suffer through my own personal issues without my outlet for my creativity. But I perservered and dug deeper into myself and within the past year, I've been getting the old magic back. The creative process, as in decades past, was back with a vengeance!
I produced a CD for an old friend and got to approach music from all sides. I got to takes the songs and rebuild them my way. It was a truly interesting and fun process. I'd listen to the basic tracks over and over...listening for the smallest weeds of sonic ideas to grow. My girlfriend was most likely sick to death of hearing these songs, but as she's a very supportive type, she perservered...and kept to headphones close by so she could escape my noise! LOL
Around this time, I'd been writing freelance. I took whatever writing gig I could get...and let me tell you, there's some real crap writing gigs out there! But something unique happened...I took whatever assignment I was given and let the creative process take it over. I figured that I could take even the most dry assignment (writing copy for a tech school was one of the gigs I had) and make it at least SEEM interesting. I played with words. I made the mundane seem magical. I eventually lost the gig because I got a bit too wordy. LOL They wanted Jack Webb ('just the facts ma'am') not Jack Kerouac! LOL But it brought it all back to a head. I could still write!
Then I started digging deep into my musical library...I went for the most stripped down old blues records I could find. I didn't want 'bands', I wanted cats who let their souls ooze out of their pores and onto the microphone! I started delving into old Mississippi country blues and found what I was looking for. These guys didn't necessarily follow the standard blues patterns. No, they went for something more natural...more primitive, something that flowed in their blood. A lot of the music just droned on and around one chord. But it has a beauty that floored me! I started to experiment with this style...could I really find the magic trapped inside a single chord? Needless to say, I think I have. I'm not comparing myself to these legends by any stretch of the imagination...but their influence has unleashed the creative process again!!!!! AND I'm having FUN again!
I'm doing something that I haven't done in ages...I'm making plans! I'm multitasking! I'm all over the place! God...please don't just let this be a manic episode to be followed by a big crash! That's the downside of the creative process. Sometimes...there's a crash....
To be continued.....
As a musician, writer and photographer, I view the world with my own weird set of senses. I hear music that no one else can hear. I see images that while visible to others, are probably not perceived the way I perceive them. I have stories running through my head at all times. It can be quite a frightening mess at times! LOL But every now and then, I can get these ideas OUT of my head and transform them into something that others can (hopefully) enjoy or at least recognize.
I, for years, played in rockabilly bands almost exclusivley. During the past few years, along with some serious personal issues, I found this to be severely stifling. My photography suffered from it as did my writing and composing. I found myself becoming a caricature of myself. I did NOT enjoy this one bit! So I did the only thing I could: I backed away from all of it. I bought a new guitar and started playing different styles for my own amusement. I fought the urges to incorporate this "into the act". I turned down more shows and tours than most cats my age ever get offered. I continued to suffer through my own personal issues without my outlet for my creativity. But I perservered and dug deeper into myself and within the past year, I've been getting the old magic back. The creative process, as in decades past, was back with a vengeance!
I produced a CD for an old friend and got to approach music from all sides. I got to takes the songs and rebuild them my way. It was a truly interesting and fun process. I'd listen to the basic tracks over and over...listening for the smallest weeds of sonic ideas to grow. My girlfriend was most likely sick to death of hearing these songs, but as she's a very supportive type, she perservered...and kept to headphones close by so she could escape my noise! LOL
Around this time, I'd been writing freelance. I took whatever writing gig I could get...and let me tell you, there's some real crap writing gigs out there! But something unique happened...I took whatever assignment I was given and let the creative process take it over. I figured that I could take even the most dry assignment (writing copy for a tech school was one of the gigs I had) and make it at least SEEM interesting. I played with words. I made the mundane seem magical. I eventually lost the gig because I got a bit too wordy. LOL They wanted Jack Webb ('just the facts ma'am') not Jack Kerouac! LOL But it brought it all back to a head. I could still write!
Then I started digging deep into my musical library...I went for the most stripped down old blues records I could find. I didn't want 'bands', I wanted cats who let their souls ooze out of their pores and onto the microphone! I started delving into old Mississippi country blues and found what I was looking for. These guys didn't necessarily follow the standard blues patterns. No, they went for something more natural...more primitive, something that flowed in their blood. A lot of the music just droned on and around one chord. But it has a beauty that floored me! I started to experiment with this style...could I really find the magic trapped inside a single chord? Needless to say, I think I have. I'm not comparing myself to these legends by any stretch of the imagination...but their influence has unleashed the creative process again!!!!! AND I'm having FUN again!
I'm doing something that I haven't done in ages...I'm making plans! I'm multitasking! I'm all over the place! God...please don't just let this be a manic episode to be followed by a big crash! That's the downside of the creative process. Sometimes...there's a crash....
To be continued.....
Friday, October 2, 2009
When the music was still playing....
30 years in the music biz and damn, alot has changed...except for the money. Musicians make LESS now than 30 years ago! LOL
But I was just thinking about all the places I've played over the years...and how many of them are gone. Just here in Pittsburgh, the list goes kinda like this...
But I was just thinking about all the places I've played over the years...and how many of them are gone. Just here in Pittsburgh, the list goes kinda like this...
The Decade (and its many later incarnations, The Next Decade, Tobacco Roadhouse, Ribbits, etc...)
The Upstage
The Attic
Zelda's
Thirsty's
Kangaroo's
Anthony's
Nick's Fat City
Jack's on 18th
Dolly B's
Boo Boo's
Luciano's
Skelly's
Del Frati's
The Jukebox
The Electric Banana
Club Ed
The Riverside
Penn Cafe/Nooner's
3 River's Brewery
Rosebud
Metropol
Graffitti
and the list goes on & on....(these are just places that I used to play regularly
See kids, THIS is what happens when you don't support LIVE music. Businesses go under. That means that YOU have to pick up the tab for those lost tax dollars! LOL
Man...it's just sad.......
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)