Good afternoon! So in today's top headlines, Michael Cohen will be arrested tomorrow, and he's been dumped by his legal team for failure to pay. Ah, you can clearly see who Mr. Cohen has been taking lessons from.
He's knocking his former boss out of the headlines, which is a good thing, since the headlines are false. Do not believe anything you read about North Korea coming from the White House. They are now bold face lying on an hourly basis:
So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018
What a lowlife. More importantly, WHAT A PSYCHO*.
*but his supporters are worse
Okay, enough of that. So as I sit here stewing over the disgrace in Washington and the disgrace of the entire Republican party, my favorite song of the moment just came on my You Tube shuffle, and guess what, it's by our Natalie!
She is so freaking great, isn't she? Music is everything.
Anyway, tomorrow and the rest of the week should be most interesting. I haven't checked Twitter in an hour but I'm sure there will be a psychotic tweet storm soon :)
Anyway, tomorrow and the rest of the week should be most interesting. I haven't checked Twitter in an hour but I'm sure there will be a psychotic tweet storm soon :)
What else. Let's see. Did I talk about the Adrian Belew Power Trio's show in NY? It was mind blowing. Adrian told us that after the livestream, he got an email from Robert Fripp. Did I ever tell you guys my King Crimson story?
When Gary and I were 16, we were already dating, and my knowledge of any music other than jazz was pretty limited. I knew the Beatles. Rock music was pretty much banned in my house because my father was a jazz musician and felt that the Beatles killed jazz. I've touched on that theme in a lot of my short stories and even a couple of my novels. Anyway, Gary is a guitar player and by age 16, was already a musicologist. He could not understand my father's hatred of rock music, and one night after several glasses of wine and puffing on about an ounce of pot (back then it was from Mexico and $15 an ounce. Eat your hearts out!), my father* finally agreed to listen to some music by rock bands Gary swore to him were real musicians.
*back then, a father could get high with his kids without it making headlines
So out of all the albums out in the late sixties and early seventies, Gary chose In the Court of the Crimson King and the first Emerson, Lake and Palmer records to bring over my house and play for my dad. There was no way he could listen and say he hated it, and even more no way he could say they were not accomplished musicians. Right? Erm...
Well, he hated it. But that was my father. But as for me? I was like WHAT IS THIS MUSIC IT'S THE BEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD IN MY LIFE.
For the next thirty plus years, King Crimson and ELP were my two favorite bands along with the Beatles, of course. If you had told me at age 16 that I would go on to meet both bands, and that my daughter would freaking play with many of the members of King Crimson, I would have laughed my ass off and said, Oh sure.
Disclaimer - these photos were taken 30 pounds ago, before I became a vegetarian.
The best, though, was meeting Robert Fripp. The kids had just joined Adrian's band, and Adrian was still in King Crimson as well as the various Projekcts. Projekct 6 had a show in Philly with Adrian on drums, and we were on the guest list. We knew Robert Fripp has a sweet tooth, so Julie and I baked him brownies to take backstage. We not only had the brownies, but omg, I had a camera. In my hand. I never expected to actually meet Robert backstage, I just thought I'd hand the brownies to Ade, and I swear, I wasn't taking pics at the concert (in case anyone reading this does not know, cameras are banned at King Crimson shows, and quite frankly, I wish everyone would ban them at concerts) but the camera was new and I honestly thought I'd take pics at the bar afterwards of Julie and Ade. So I actually tried to hide it behind my back while I said hello to Robert. Tell me I didn't die when he said this to me, in that wonderful British accent: "I'VE READ YOUR BLOG."
Yep, over 10 years later and I'm still high from that remark.
My Emerson Lake and Palmer story is even weirder. We adored that band so much we would have ELP listening parties. The night I went into labor with Julie, Gary kept playing Take a Pebble for me nonstop to calm me down. To this day, 32 years later, I cannot listen to that song without weeping.
DO I FUCKING BELIEVE I MET EMERSON AND LAKE AND HUNG OUT WITH THEM FOR LIKE AN HOUR.
You know what? I met them in 2010, when I was incredibly active with this blog. I bet if I go back into the archives, I'll find the whole story. Hang on....
Holy cow, I just found my entry from that night and read it. I should just erase everything I typed today and let you read that instead, but I'm a writer and like most writers, I can't bear to erase anything I wrote so just consider today's version the abridged version and go here to read the whole thing: http://inherownwrite.blogspot.com/2010/05/emerson-lake-and-slick.html
Okay, I am writing this from my office, where I am currently blasting some Adrian Belew Power Trio music while I take an abbreviated lunch because You Tube is now my bitch. It even threw in that Deva Mahal tune Eric plays on in my shuffle this morning.
Back to work...
Meet you guys back here tomorrow. Hope to see Michael Cohen in an orange jumpsuit by the evening!
Hey, it could happen.
xo
