"...you know how you carry something around with you, and you know that one day it will surface, but you don't know when?" - My dad's old drinking buddy/bench napper, the late artist from BK, Vincent Smith.Too bad I only really caught art fever this badly since the fall. Woulda been nice to have talked with him about this and gotten some tips and encouragement. So anyway....Can't get enough learning, seeing, making art these days. Art openings - their free drinks lead to lots of good talks about what you're seeing, even if you think it's junk.Peanut butter and jelly on wheat.LISTENING to music, making a bunch of noise on my harmonica and it's pretty new mic and Pignose amp, stickball and all it's lovers, cooking, bike riding, reading lots of non-fiction, watching people, tryin to leave shady types alone, buddhism, history (not the history channel though, cause everything on there in about some military campaign, dreaming about daydreaming in a hammock with my dreamland unicycle leaning on the tree and my flask staying cool in the stream....
More good people. Not gooder people, but good people.....more of them. I'd also like to meet up with my friends tonight for drinks. Oh, and my uncle I didn't know existed till last year. And his children. I'm not sure if he's even still alive. Family secrets are something! I also think it'd be fun to bike ride around town with Lisa Lisa. My pal Jerry Wexler in person....Tennis with Sade (Adu, not Marquis De)...The ghosts of Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, and Canada Lee.And someone who can make and share that Dominican platano lasanga with me.
A few I love to listen to these days:Jimmy Rushing Jamiroquai Mos Def's cover of Louis Jordan's "Caldonia" Tortured Soul Andre Benjamin Aretha Franklin Bobby Darin Frank Sinatra Bill Withers Hall and Oates Nina Simore The Mighty, Mighty Dell Butterfly Mecca Stephanie Mills Dusty Springfield Duke ("Lotus Blossom" - beautiful. Actually, it was composed by... Billy Strayhorn (what swings like "Take the A Train"? His last tune "Blood Count" too) Stevie Willie Nelson John Mellencamp Q-Tip Hope to hear Imami Uzuri live soon Amel Larrieux Bruce Springsteen Daft Punk Pee Wee Russell Paul Simon Bill Withers George Gershwinmyself when no one's around or the party is so loud that no one can hear me
The Blue Brothers, The Natural, The Bicycle Thief, Rafifi, Children of Heaven, Woman in the Dunes, Our Song, City of God, Imposters, Superman Two, Grand Illusion, A Bronx Tale, most Spike Lee movies, Bananas, The 40 Year Old Virgin...
Spam did good here. I can skip this part. TV is collecting dust and taking up space.
Currently reading.... ---"Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence" ---""Reading Jazz: A Gathering of Autobiography, Reportage, and Criticism from 1919 to now" ---"What Did I Do?: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Larry Rivers" ---"Poems of New York (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets)" ---"The Encyclopedia of New York City"and I can't remember what else.....Oh wait, and.. "The Best Buddhist Writing 2005" I recently finished.... ---"Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World's Most Revered and Reviled Bird" ---"A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present" ---"The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art"and I can't remember what else....
Ephriam W. Bull (INVENTOR OF THE CONCORD GRAPE), the creators of indoor plumbing, the bicycle, Alexander Graham Bell (he invented the phonograph, right?), great pizza makers, water, Hatuey (sp?), Tecumsah, lots of folks who put it on the line......and more things and people i'm not putting down right now.