So there I was in divorce court. It was interesting what an assembly-line procedure it was. All the cases were with the same lawyer, to speed things up, I’m sure. The first couple cases involved other lawyers and were basically a matter of setting a later date with the judge for what I guess would be more of a trial. Then the routine cases started up, 20 or 30 of them. The lawyer had advised me when I checked in with him that I was next to last.

I haven’t heard the music yet, of course, since Jeffrey needed the DVD to compose to, but last month’s installment was wonderful and well-played. Really, if you’re looking for something to do Saturday afternoon, this is pretty hard to beat: 3:30 pm, at the beautiful downtown library, 14 W. 10th Street. Admission is free, and they even provide snacks! The movie is about an hour long. They do recommend reservations—call 816.701.3407.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden fell to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

There are many reasons why American media have done such an appalling job of covering this war: news departments concerned only with the bottom line keep cutting back on overseas staff, the idea that extremely complicated issues must be reduced to bumper sticker-sized sentiments, the way real substance is constantly trumped by celebrity worship and the pettiest of personality quirks—it goes on and on.

Of course it doesn’t help that our government is lying through its teeth for political motives, both as a CYA move and to bolster support for an attack against Iran. In a related post on his own site, Professor Cole says administration claims that the (nationalist) Mahdi Army is a tool of Iran “is like calling the Minutemen vigilantes in Arizona tools of the Mexican government.” Muqtada al-Sadr’s group’s whole purpose lies in rejecting outsiders like the US and Iran. Who do the Iranians support? The al-Maliki government, which US troops helped bail out a couple weeks ago in Basra as they tried to defeat the Mahdi army. So we are helping the Iranians even as we attack them verbally, and quite posssibly prepare to attack them militarily.

I almost wrote that attacking Iran is one of the few things that could make the situation in Iraq worse, but of course reading Cole’s articles illustrates there are many, many ways it could get worse, and almost certainly will. We’ve landed with both our big flat feet in the middle of a hornets’ nest and done nothing but kick and flail blindly for five years. What happens now? Whether we stay or leave, we’re going to get stung, and I fear, stung badly.

As it happens, the cover band I play with on weekends just the other day worked up “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” By “worked up” I mean we figured out an ending, otherwise we wouldn’t have had to even play through the song once. Everyone has heard that song so many times it’s, like, inscribed in your DNA. We listened to a live version to hear how they ended it, and everything sounded wretched. I had all sorts of snide things to say about their live sound (ha! now I remember I went to see them in 1981 because I wasn’t sure how much longer they’d be playing).

And then, a little while ago, I saw this YouTube video from the movie. And maybe, maybe even for the first time ever, I get it.

You can take your Ringos, your Mick Fleetwoods, your Charlie Wattses—you can take the masters of taste and restraint, your Jim Keltners, your Russ Kunkels, your Jerry Marottas. Sure Sly Dunbar can lay down a groove so deep an elephant could tiptoe in it, sure Terry Bozzio can do impossible solos over an ostinato pattern—but could any of them play like this guy? I think not!

I have no idea if non-musicians will think this is funny, but I was howling after the first verse.

The coolest thing, which I had the least to do with, is Charles Barsotti’s cartoon blog at the New Yorker—he’s the Cartoonist of the Month for April. He will have a new image up every weekday all month long. Please be encouraged to send him email about what you think. He’s been working with one of those Cintiq monitors, the ones where you actually draw on the monitor rather than a tablet, and it has resulted in a radically different style from what most people associate with him. Personally, I think it’s cool as hell, but I’ve worked with him for about twelve years now and he’s a good friend as well as a client. And he never fails to crack me up.

All I did on that project was to provide some technical help and help translate one side to the other.

Another project is a revamping of Doug Medlock’s voice talent website. The boy is poised to do big things. Art work and audio are by Doug; I just put things together into a Flash site.

Finally, the Dorfman Plumbing Supply website redesign went live last week. Plumbing supplies don’t sound very exciting, but these guys do high end spa equipment (as well as about everything else) and their showroom is a thing of wonder. There are a couple parts of the site that are still waiting for content, but you can get the idea. I did the design and built everything; photography is by the incomparable E.G. Schempf, whose normal stock in trade is photographing art for museum catalogs.

We now return you to my usual ranting and raving.

monoinvcf.com: Despite the geeky band name, Mono In VCF is seriously cool (the name is meant to imply something like a label you’d see on a patch cord jack on a vintage synth). Their sound includes elements of Phil Spector’s wall of sound, spaghetti westerns, ’60s psychedelia and vintage soul. I heard a song on NPR’s Song of the Day (oddly, it’s no longer listed as far as I can tell), then went to their website and was instantly hooked. The album is available as download only, which includes printable cover art and a press packet, and goes for $9.99. I’ve been listening to this album constantly for over a month, just haven’t gotten around to blogging it.

Anyway, by coincidence today I happened upon Peter’s account of signing our band. Which was pretty interesting for me to read, and maybe for you too.

I wasn't in the band at that point, btw, as Peter’s post makes clear. I guess for purposes of this story I am “an appropriate drummer.” Or better, maybe “the best they thought they could do under the circumstances.” Anyway, there it is.