Kitty West profile picture

Kitty West

There comes a time when silence is consent. All that is necessary for evil to win is for good men to

About Me


I like to think things through, sometimes for a very long time. Sometimes I am impulsive. I love people, especially children and old crinkely folks.
I have 3 kids, Norah, Joseph and Emmalee, each one incredibly magical, amazing and precious. If I've done anything worthwhile in this life at all, it's because of them. I still miss Norah and Joseph's dad, Bob, and know he is proud of our kids, and watches over us from heaven.
I have 2 grandchildren, Tristan and Georgia. Norah is an awesome mother...much beter than I will ever be. Tristan melts my heart and Georgia is all I could ever imagine good in a grand daughter!! Joseph is a talented artist / skateboarder and Emmalee is a poet, among other amazing things and is in her Junior year studies at Warren Wilson College in Asheville.
Music is the foundation of my life, it's the Truth.....I have lived a life of music, every day is a musical to me. I love the boys in the bands I've been in and am specially close to my many women musician friends/sisters.
ARLO GUTHRIE has been one of my major roll models/teacher. Sarah Lee Guthrie,(Arlo's daughter) is a a true vocal wonder, her husband Johnny Iriona good match,respected musician who has taken time to encourage my daughter Emmalee on the guitar. Olivia, their daughter is precious, Abe, Arlo's son, is one of the funniest people I've ever met, not to mention extremely talented.
Another early influence, both musically and in Life-Matters, is MELANIE. I remember how blown away I was by her album "CANDLES IN THE RAIN". I heard "LAY DOWN" somewhere "up North" where I was playing, and immediately had the band (Warm) learn it. We were the first ones to do that song at The Attic in 19?? and everyone thought it was me on the radio singing it when it finally the charts in the South. I was tempted to tell folks that it was indeed me, (*grin*) but told the truth so that others could hear more of Melanie's amazing music.
"Lay Down" was an epic song of the times then, and it is every bit as appropriate today. I encourage everyone to revisit the inspiring world of Melanie's Music!
I play solo mostly these days but can pull a band thing together quickly with the help of my genius friend Mike Edwards. My band is sometimes called Kitty West and Her Clean House....so once in awhile I HAVE a clean house. I love playing with the girls....we are called "The Strawberry Cheesecake Gospel Goddesses, someone came up with that name when we couldn't figure one out for ourselves, and it stuck.
I am spiritually awed by all of creation, impressed and grateful to the max by our Great God! I wonder how someone can be against abortion , pro war and for the death penalty all at the same time.
I enjoy laughter, sunshine, oceans, trees and flowers, wobbly kids and silly jokes.
As a child I was always in trouble for "not paying attention"......I always wondered what that was all about. I've paid so much attention thru the years, I should OWN attention by now.
ONE OF MY DISORDERS IS MY HOUSE.
Now that Emmalee is settled into college,I am giving up living in houses. It just costs too much. I understand camping better than housing. Keeping only what I can fit into my car, I'm going on a QWalkabout, a Bilbo Baggins Adventure, to the Left Coast to meet my new granddaughter Georgia, and spend time with Norah and Tristan....and hang out with Joseph a bit on the way.
I am a friend of Bill W., thanks to David Crosby.
I was in a convent boarding school the first 2 years of high school, then went to a public school right outside of Wash DC which scared me to death. I thought I didn't have any friends that year but 30 years later met Barry T who had been there all the time! There were a group of kids in that school who had a band called The Nighthawks. They are sill together after all these years.
Moved to Gainesville Fla, 1967, Tom Petty was in my class, his family's back yard adjoined my family's backyard. My father thought Tom was a loser. My father was wrong.
I lived at Creem Mag for awhile on Cass Ave in Detroit, Lester Bangs liked to go to gigs with my band because my band was so terrible that he thought we were doing it on purpose. He would hide under tables and scare people, then pass out in any car in the parking lot and we'd have to find him when it was time to go home. It was funny to see how "balanced" he was represented in the movie.....Barry Cramer promised to give me one of the delicately carved pipes he brought back from the far East, but he died before I got one. Lester died too. But I'm not dead yet.
Had lots of fun with band "Dreams" in DC, did a lot of gigs with Nils Lofgren's band Grin, played the Stone Pony in Asbury Pk with lots of great folks, and on and on it goes.
The Headrest in Atlanta was a blast, 2 stages, continuous music. Players from all over Atlanta would blow in after their own gigs, jump on stage and somehow manage to keep riffs going as the other musicians handed over their instruments...I've never seen anything like it! "Skinnerd" boys had to borrow guitars from my guys for their audition, they were poor then. They aren't poor now. I still miss Ronnie. Sometimes hear from Ed King still, but rarely. We remember the drummer and the crazy 8 Days Inn on Clairmont that cost $6.00 a night then and we wondered why they called it EIGHT days Inn!
I have countless memories, many, many wonderful people who influenced my life, Al Kooper, Tim Hardin, Lee Houskeeper, Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Flying Burritto Bros, Cream, Bono, The 4 Tops, Temptaions, .....the list goes on forever. I am impressed with so many bands today and believe music is one of the GOOD things in this world.
Support Live Music. Revisit some of the music that inspired a whole generation (and then some), like Melanie, Youngbloods, Arlo, Traffic, Cream, C,S,N&Y,Al Kooper, Leon Russell, Bonnie Bramlett, etc.
Support Life. Be nice. Mind your manners. Do your best. Be patient..with yourself and others. Speak he truth. Feed the hungry. Defend the weak. Laugh heart-ily. Love One Another. Live Peace from the inside out.

"There is a very important component, to have passion, to have a dream, to have a purpose in life. And there are three components to that purpose, one is to find out who you really are, to discover God, the second is to serve other human beings, because we are here to do that and the third is to express your unique talents"
................Deepak Chopra
Forget practice. .....It's SHOWTIME!
I created my layout at KillerKiwi.net

My Interests




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Save Darfur!






Things that move, things that stand still, colors, sound, people, quantum physics, humor, sentences, the constant evolution of all things, kids, old people, stories, gatherings, spontanimity, disorders, order, Music of all kinds, Shadowboats, oceans, planets, stars, moon, sun, weather, Art of all kinds, Firsts, Lasts, and the wide eyed wonder of children's discoveries.

I'd like to meet:


BONO,The Dalai Lama, Tom Cochrane, Robbie Robertson, Melanie, Michael Moore, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkle, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Ram DAss

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/br From: John Edwards Date: 1/16/2007 Thanks for finding me and friending me. I appreciate your support a lot. If you want to do more, please sign up at www.OneCorps.com and consider spreading the word in your profile and among your friends...

 This is just the beginning - it's your campaign to change America - keep in touch!


Music:

Arlo Guthrie, Sarah Lee and Johnny, David Gerichten, Parmalee, Jerry Thomas, Robbie Robertson, Melanie, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Arthur Lee and Love, David Crosby, Jim Roberts,Allison King Band, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Lucinda Williams, Neil Young, Steven Stills,Tom Cochrane / Red Rider , Bono, Cream, Jaco Pastorius, Nils Lofgren, Coldplay,Lou Reed,Damien Rice, Guster, Jack Johnson, Al Cooker, Flying Burritto Brothers, Johnny Cash, Traveling Wilberries, Crosby Stills and Nash (and Young), Bonnie Bramlett, Katy Mitchell, Molases Creek, Cayote, Alan Parsons Project, Pink Floyd, Gordon Titcomb, Bob Dylan, Amazing Rythem Aces, Simon and Garfunkle, Kate Wolf, Mike Hamer, Andy Boller, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Ian and Sylvia, Tom Paxton, Tim Hardin, The Wallflowers, Aron Neville, Bonnie Raitt, Fleetwood Mac, Pennywise and millions more....

Movies:

Flashback, What Dreams May Come, Moulin Rogue, The Notebook, Seven Years In Tibet, Kingdom of Heaven, U2 -Rattle And Hum, Kill Bill 1 and 2

Television:

Joan of Arcadia, Lost, Gillmore Girls, Charlie Rose, Austin City Limits, Bill Moyer, PBS travel stuff

href="http://www.myspace.com/kidsforworldpeace"

Books:

The Gita,The Dalai Lama's Book of Wisdom, The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living, My Land and My People : The Original Autobiography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet, The Universe in a Single Atom : The Convergence of Science and Spirituality, How to Practice : The Way to a Meaningful Life by His Holiness the Dalai Lama , The Little Prince, The Cloister Walk, Our Lady Of The Lost And Found [br] [/br]

Heroes:


Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, Bono, Jimmy Carter, Thich Nhat Hanh, Arlo Guthrie, David Gerichte, Ghandi, Jesus, Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Jerry Thomas, Mike Edwards,Melanie,Allison King,David Crosby, Bono, Msgr.Michael F. Farina, Dylan, Beth Montgomery,Bill Stroud,Heavy, Warehouse, Lew you know who,Dulaney, my children, Maria Von Trapp, People who care about others actively.....

----------------- Bulletin Message ----------------- From: The Sad Monk Date: 1/15/2007Martin Luther King, Jr - Letter to the Nobel InstituteJanuary 25, 1967The Nobel Institute Drammesnsveien 19 Oslo, NORWAYGentlemen:As the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate of 1964, I now have the pleasure of proposing to you the name of Thich Nhat Hanh for that award in 1967.I do not personally know of anyone more worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize than this gentle Buddhist monk from Vietnam.This would be a notably auspicious year for you to bestow your Prize on the Venerable Nhat Hanh. Here is an apostle of peace and non-violence, cruelly separated from his own people while they are oppressed by a vicious war which has grown to threaten the sanity and security of the entire world.Because no honor is more respected than the Nobel Peace Prize, conferring the Prize on Nhat Hanh would itself be a most generous act of peace. It would remind all nations that men of good will stand ready to lead warring elements out of an abyss of hatred and destruction. It would re-awaken men to the teaching of beauty and love found in peace. It would help to revive hopes for a new order of justice and harmony.I know Thich Nhat Hanh, and am privileged to call him my friend. Let me share with you some things I know about him. You will find in this single human being an awesome range of abilities and interests.He is a holy man, for he is humble and devout. He is a scholar of immense intellectual capacity. The author of ten published volumes, he is also a poet of superb clarity and human compassion. His academic discipline is the Philosophy of Religion, of which he is Professor at Van Hanh, the Buddhist University he helped found in Saigon. He directs the Institute for Social Studies at this University. This amazing man also is editor of Thien My, an influential Buddhist weekly publication. And he is Director of Youth for Social Service, a Vietnamese institution which trains young people for the peaceable rehabilitation of their country.Thich Nhat Hanh today is virtually homeless and stateless. If he were to return to Vietnam, which he passionately wishes to do, his life would be in great peril. He is the victim of a particularly brutal exile because he proposes to carry his advocacy of peace to his own people. What a tragic commentary this is on the existing situation in Vietnam and those who perpetuate it.The history of Vietnam is filled with chapters of exploitation by outside powers and corrupted men of wealth, until even now the Vietnamese are harshly ruled, ill-fed, poorly housed, and burdened by all the hardships and terrors of modern warfare.Thich Nhat Hanh offers a way out of this nightmare, a solution acceptable to rational leaders. He has traveled the world, counseling statesmen, religious leaders, scholars and writers, and enlisting their support. His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.I respectfully recommend to you that you invest his cause with the acknowledged grandeur of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1967. Thich Nhat Hanh would bear this honor with grace and humility.Sincerely,Martin Luther King, Jr. "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." Martin Luther King, Jr."Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." Martin Luther King, Jr.,br

My Blog

Check out this video: Kittys Mothers Day Weekend

Check out this video: Kittys Mothers Day Weekend ..Add to My Profile | More Videos...
Posted by Kitty West on Sat, 10 May 2008 09:00:00 PST

Check out this video: My Back Pages

My old friend and 1968 Gainesville High School classmate Jim Conner sent this....I AM eating my heart out, Jim!!Go Gators.Check out this video: My Back Pages ..Add to My Profile | More Vid...
Posted by Kitty West on Thu, 08 May 2008 06:44:00 PST

Check out this video: Native American Robbie Robertson

FALLEN ANGEL. This is the song I listen to when I think of David.Thank You Robbie Robertson for lending me words while mine are still searching....Check out this video: Native American Robbie Robertso...
Posted by Kitty West on Sun, 04 May 2008 09:56:00 PST

Announcement from WOODYFEST in regard to Bob Childers

please help spread the word -ZACK AND JESSE CHILDERS (Bob's sons)Would like all to gather at the Blue Door in Oklahoma City on this coming Sunday April 27th from 2 o'clock till ???? to honor their fat...
Posted by Kitty West on Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:51:00 PST

Dream

I dreamed I was flying. In my dream there was nothing unusual about flying. In my dream I enjoyed the feeling of banking turns in the air, right, left, circles, forward and down.In my dream I enjoyed ...
Posted by Kitty West on Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:26:00 PST

Horor Scope and Wether (or not) Advisory

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day. Well, just about every day here in this part of Oregon is beautiful.But it IS wild, uncharted territory for many of us who bop in from somewhere else (or, as we say on t...
Posted by Kitty West on Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:13:00 PST

Health, etc. Update

It's hard to write out updates on my health / life issues as I am living them. Seems like it sort of puts me through it all over again and I don't necessarily WANT to go through things more thsn once....
Posted by Kitty West on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:59:00 PST

In Memory Of David Gerichten (copied from KITTY WEST MUSIC page)

When I heard of David’s death, my whole world shook, I was shattered. So sad I could hardly breathe. There is a hole in my heart bigger than my heart. My creativity shut down for the time being,...
Posted by Kitty West on Sun, 06 Apr 2008 08:31:00 PST

**"AND WITH THE DAWN, REJOICING"**

I slept through the night, woke up just before dawn.When I woke up, I REALIZED that I had slept through the night.Isn't it funny how we have no idea of some of the things we're doing as we're doing t...
Posted by Kitty West on Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:57:00 PST

**I REMEMBER SLEEP**

I vaguely remember sleep. It was always one of thse things I didn't have to think about ~ it just WAS. I woke, did stuff for a lot of hours, got tired, then went to sleep. Simple.I sure miss my old fr...
Posted by Kitty West on Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:27:00 PST