on leisure

don't you hate those titles..."on leisure." pompous asshole! that's almost as bad as the "early years." "picasso; the early years." fuck that.

in any case, it is a good feeling to sleep in, to take a walk, to actually not dread scott doing house work. they say that a house cleaner has no rights that the rest of us are bound to respect, but with leisure, everybody respects everybody. although i suppose it would have been better to get hitler a hobby.

take today. i slept to 11. i got up and heard a message asking me to do the dishes, which i hadn't done since people were still excited about ron paul. but first, i went for a walk at the local pond, where i pondered many things, such as "when should i do the dishes? should i get a slice of pizza? what pandora station should i listen to today? should i rewatch sicko, or just return it? or perhaps i can compromise and just watch the special features?" by the way, how did we survive before special features? imagine having to be sustained by the movie alone. sort of like those folks before skim milk. how did they ever make it?

yeah, digging the free time. free time is the shit. i'll take it over money anyday, though sadly, the electric company has a slightly different view. imagine if everyone, instead of nagging you with "what are you doing?" asked "do you still have plenty of free time?" the sad thing is in our culture if you can't convert what you are doing into money, most people don't value it. is there anything sadder than that?

rollins is playing from the bridge album. to my ears, his tone is not as good as it was on the 50's prestige and blue notes. also, i think he may be thinking too much, instead of just blowing. of course, the album is considered a classic, but i really don't think rollins has done much on record since the 50's. someone once called my dad a "musical reactionary" and perhaps the term applies to me as well. hey, i can't help it if i think "settin the pace" is a better album than "a love supreme," out there" superior to "out to lunch," and i believe that "soul station" is more compelling than any ornette recording. sorry. it brings to mind an old line from zoot sims. once he said that he liked a dixieland group, and the more modern players got on him for it. he replied, "well fellows, you know that i don't have very good taste." by the way, zoot once gave a homeless guy a buck, but insisted that he spend it on booze, and when asked how could he play so well while loaded, answered "i practice when i'm loaded." dig anything zoot ever played. he is one of those guys who always satisfies.

well, i suppose you can tell from this blog that i've got some free time on my hands. in fact, i've got about 8 seconds on my hands that i should probably wash off.

man, if i were around in the 50's, i would have voted for ike...

ike quebec.

one more story. charlie parker was two hours late for a gig, when the club manager stormed into his dressing room and demanded that he play. bird answered "don't you realize it is disrespectful to disturb a man while he is eating?" which come to think of it, brings to mind groucho. man, in the old days, the great musicians were personalities too. we don't have that now.

what do we have now? well, we have the documents left behind by the great ones of yesterday.

saw a card with a picture of a regular phone and a cell phone. underneath, it said "what we call progress is replacing one nuisance with another nuisance."

i would like to end with the words from a postcard i purchased yesterday...

Religious Truth

Taoism: Shit Happens

Buddhism: If shit happens, it really isn't shit.

Hinduism: This shit has happened before.

Islam: If shit happens, it is the will of Allah.

Catholicism: Shit happens because you deserve it.

Protestantism: Work harder, or shit will happen.

Materialist: Whoever dies with the most shit, wins!

Atheist: I can't believe this shit.

Agnostic: I don't know shit, and neither do you!

Judaism: Why does shit always happen to us?

Eco-spiritual: Compost happens. It's all good shit.

Rastafarianism: Let's smoke this shit.

on the back, the card reads...

"religious truth. one dozen different perspectives. religious intolerance. narrow thinking. no sense of humor. bad shit. celebrate spiritual diversity. coexist! think globally, shit locally."

yeah, "think globally, shit locally."

why didn't i think of that?