Kinda feels like I’m an astronaut who can’t pay attention. Other interpretations welcome.
I’ve been pretty stuck lately, hard time writing, harder time finishing anything. This drawing was just a bunch of doodles that didn’t mean anything, but it kinda shows where my head’s at lately. Lots of activity underneath, not much happening in my consciousness.
Outlaw country singer Johnny Paycheck, CB’ing truckers for a cocaine hookup. From Tales from the Tour Bus.
I’ve been amazed, learning all sorts of insane lore about various outlaw country artists.
I found out about this series of videos via Bill Burr’s podcast. I’m kinda like he is about it. How did nobody tell me about this?
It’s hilarious.
Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill and a whole lot of other great stuff, made a series called Tales From the Tour Bus. It’s apparently on Hulu which I’m not gonna get, but I’ve been watching these little shorts on YouTube.
The stories are insane. Of course I’d heard stories about guys like Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis being into drugs, but I had no idea how crazy the scene got.
You have to watch this one, where George Jones develops multiple personalities, one of which talks like Donald Duck and gets in arguments with his old man personality.
The above two videos are pretty damn crazy. Billy Joe Shaver shoots a guy through the cheek in a bar fight (he lives) and gets away with it in court.
When people call this stuff outlaw country, they mean OUTLAW country. These guys lived like gangsta rappers. It’s barely even a question of whether they were good or bad. They were a mess. Alcohol cocaine mental illness and guns.
And yet I love a lot of these songs. I probably would no matter what I learned. I’m not a huge country fan, but when I hear them I remember the words. They were part of my childhood.
Which got me thinking about the whole “can you separate the art from the artist?” question. I don’t think we have much choice especially once a work of art becomes part of the culture.
You can cancel Michael Jackson but it’s too late to cancel Thriller.
Some things want to be in the culture and they’re going to be in it whether you like it or not.
I like how philosopher Timothy Morton refers to songs as entities in this exchange with Bjork. Entities… Not quite alive, but not exactly “things.” Almost spirits, because they can inspire.
Sometimes I feel like art wants to get into the world and it only needs a vessel. I don’t think it has a moral preference as long as it finds one.
I just finished watching an astronomy video from one of my favorite science YouTubers, Anton Petrov.
Did you know we’re not just in the Milky Way, but part of of a galactic super cluster called Laniakea? Which is only one of many such super clusters?
Learning how small humans are in the scheme of things can be humbling or it can be humiliating.
I see it as humbling, and at the same time inspiring. How amazing that we’ve learned as much as we have. How far we’ve been able to see into time and space.
It’s as if the creatures I used to look at in the microscope had mapped the inside of my house. Could you imagine? If any extra-dimensional beings are studying us, I think they would have to be impressed.
On a slightly related note, I just thought of Blood Music, a wild science fiction novel by Greg Bear where single-celled life becomes as intelligent as us thanks to carelessness in a lab. It starts as a Horror Story as colonies of cells begin rearranging the earth.
Then it becomes a complete mind-fuck as the microsopic world discovers and learns to communicate with humanity. And the weight of their strange concept of physics begins to change the universe.
Varaha Roopam from the soundtrack of Kantara.
I’m so overwhelmed, I don’t even know where to begin. I was going through YouTube, looking for interesting traditional music from around the world and discovered the arts and music of Karnataka, a state in the southwestern India.
Om Shakthi Jai Shakthi – Ravi Raj Karadi and team Beemsandra Tumkur. The video that first grabbed my attention. The costumed dancers are depicting the goddess Durga in her angered form, about to vanquish the evil lord Mahishāsura. This is part of the story of how the evil asuras Chunda and Munda were slain by the goddess Kali. (Thanks to a friend on Mastodon who filled me in.)
Some of it I loved right away. Some is so different from what I’m familiar with, I can’t tell yet. All of it fills me with awe. The variety of rituals, the complexity, the way everyone there seems to be involved.
I’ve never experienced anything like that kind of depth of culture. One thing in particular that blows me away is the theatrical art of Yakshagana. Through acting, singing, dancing and elaborate makeup, participants tell stories from history and religion.
Yakshagana – Bheeshma Vijaya 2
Vocal percussion tradition Konnakol is an art form I’m still trying to tune my ears to. One thing is for sure, this takes a TON of skill and training to pull off. Beyond impressed.
V Shivapriya & BR Somashekar Jois – Konnakol Duet
Molly Drake – The Tide’s Magnificence: Songs and Poems of Molly Drake
Molly Drake is my new favorite artist and will be for a while. Nick Drake’s mother! Why didn’t anybody tell me about this?
I haven’t been this moved this much by anything in years. Just a beautiful voice singing beautiful poetry. I guess I can see where Nick Drake got his talent. She was obviously an influence.
I just discovered her songs and was captivated. If I had discovered her when I was in college I probably would have retroactively fallen in love with her. I was a weird kid.
Her music is old school art. She should be as famous as her son, as a singer and as a poet. It’s kind of… I don’t know, classical? 40s pop? British folk? It’s kind of old fashioned, but at the same time it’s like buried treasure. Something your art teacher forgot to mention.
Her music had no exposure until 2000 when people heard a couple of her songs in the Nick Drake documentary, A Skin Too Few. It seems crazy that she’s been so little-known all this time. She also has an amazing life story.
In a way it makes me sad. We’re all having wars about culture and we have plenty of entertainment, but it sometimes feels like people have forgotten how to love art. Except for hip hop of course. (They’re the only relevant American poets anymore. Not all, but some.)
I love this almost as much as Pink Moon. It’s crazy that I hadn’t gotten around to talking about Nick Yet and here I am posting about his mother. I just had to share. I’m that big a culture nerd.
Just figured out what’s happening in my “Starry Night with UFOs” T-shirt. The aliens are coming back to blast that village for being mean to their boy! Take that haters! Zzzzt!
I’ve always loved Van Gogh and his unique vision. I was an art student for two years, how could I not? I still don’t know if he’s been honored properly in recent times.
I like “American Pie,” but I’m frankly underwhelmed by Don McLean’s “Starry Starry Night.” It comes off kinda maudlin to me. I also wasn’t as impressed with the Doctor Who episode as my wife was, nor could I get into the Willem Dafoe movie.
I get the impulse we all have to try and make up for how shitty he was treated in his day, but the Doctor Who fantasy is not possible. He’s never going to know.
Maybe I have trouble with all the tributes. Of course his life makes a good, if sad, story. Who wouldn’t be interested? But I would focus on what he created, rather than how sad his life was.
That’s what he wanted. For people to look at his art and try to get it, not talk about his various humiliations.
I went to one of those traveling Van Gogh exhibits where they project his art on the wall and the floors. I still don’t know if it did him justice, but at least his art had the biggest part in the show.
What I see in Van Gogh is a challenge to creative people. How much are you willing to sacrifice to remain true to your vision? How much are you willing to compromise in order to be accepted? (Or as is increasingly the dilemma today, pay rent?)
He painted the way his soul demanded and gave up everything. Eventually it became impossible to ignore him.
I don’t like to like to dwell on “tortured soul” Vincent. I prefer to think of him as a badass.
I can’t help but love humans, as much as they may break my heart. I still hope our species will defy the odds, travel to the stars and and survive for thousands of years. Or millions, while we’re wishing.
Because humans can access a miracle known as inspiration.
I’m addicted to the stuff.
Jim White – Static on the Radio. (This song conveys the idea perfectly. I used to do this as a kid. The mystery…
Real artists bring things to life that never did exist in this world. To be honest, I consider myself a rational man, but it feels like magic.
Maybe it’s not magic, but I’m hanging onto that.
I think of it as the dragon’s whisker. Sometimes it feels like you could almost pull the entire dragon into this world.
When I see certain art, hear certain music, I feel it. It’s a bit like fishing. You can’t see it, but something is there. Something tugging the line. Something from somewhere… Else.
The fish may get away, but you KNOW you had something on the end of the line.
I have had a few tugs, but I don’t think I’ve reeled in any dragons yet. Dragon minnows at best.
I envy the people who reel in dragon after dragon, producing works that change people’s lives.
From the outside they may appear miserable. Magic takes it out of you.
But I know why they do it. It’s better than any drug.
Dead Can Dance – Summoning the Muse
I’m trying to expose myself to as much inspiration as I can before I leave this earth. I know it’s irrational, but I have a drive to listen to every great work of music from every time and culture. Impossible, but I try anyway.
Sarah Jarosz – My Muse
When I can’t channel it myself, I have to get it secondhand.
When I feel that tug, I’ll share. You might not feel it. We’re not all on the same wavelength.
But I have to try. My muse or whatever the hell it is, requires it.
Late Boomer's Den 
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