May It Be

It's May Day, Labour Day, International Workers' Day... and hopefully more people understand now how important and underappreciated a lot of workers are. Healthcare professionals and other hospital workers, first responders, teachers, grocery store employees, truck drivers, postal workers, plumbers, sanitation workers, and so many more: they're essential. They make the world go round, they make a difference. Not Sir Richard Branson, who wants government assistance to keep Virgin Atlantic afloat, or Elon Musk, who rails against state governments preventing his workers from going back to the factories. Not the governors who are reopening their states for business, nor even the ones who say it's too soon. Not, for the love of the gods, any celebrities. I have my share of favorite actors and musicians, too, but guess what? They're not as important, not as essential to our society, as those workers. Neither are politicians, or Wall Street bankers. Amazon is overrated; I haven't ordered anything from them in over a month and a half. Now that I'm all caught up on "The Tick" and "Good Omens," I may well wave my Amazon Prime membership goodbye.

(OK. Breathe, Andy, breathe.) Thing is, I knew all this stuff before. Some of you probably did, too, at least some of it. But it's becoming clearer to more people, and there are some out there who don't like that fact at all. The idea that "we can't go back to 'normal'" scares the kind of people who made lots of money or got some sort of power from the old 'normal.' So what if 'normal' meant there were a lot of people who were never more than two or three paychecks away from desperation? So what if 'normal' meant that people living in one neighborhood never had to worry about the police, while people in another could never be comfortable around them? So what if 'normal' meant that an illness could bankrupt someone? So what if 'normal' meant that people would obsess over the latest celebrity gossip or outrage or "beef" while important and relevant news died in a vacuum?

Yeah, I don't much like the idea of that 'normal' coming back. I do want to be able to go to ShopRite or Dunkin' or Walgreens again without covering my face. I don't want to keep getting E-mails trying to sell me expensive outdoor furniture or guitars or computer hardware or software at a time when those things mean nothing to me (OK, almost nothing). I do want COVID-19 to fade into the background. I don't want anyone to play it down because "more people die of this, that, and the other thing" (which can't spread the way the coronavirus does). I do want to go to the park or to Greenwich Village, and see and smile at women's faces - and even get the occasional smile back. I don't want to hear politicians taking undue credit and deflecting due blame. I do want discourse and dialog and critical thinking. I don't want knee-jerk reactions and propaganda and entrenched camps that refuse to consider other points of view. I do want the economy to recover, and the Virgin Atlantics and Teslas and Amazons of the world to continue to operate and employ countless people. I don't want it to happen atop the bodies of workers, essential or otherwise, and widen the wealth gap even further.

I don't claim to have the answers, but at least I'm not afraid to consider the questions. And whatever your political, social, religious, ethnic standpoint, for this society to persevere, we need to work together. We need to talk. To argue, certainly, but to have a conversation. With discussion and compromise, or without, change is coming.

Eight years ago today, I marched with Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and the Occupy Guitarmy in New York City, in support of Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement in general. Some things have gotten better since then, some things have gotten worse. Change is never easy, and sometimes you do have to take a step back, like it or not, before you can push forward another two steps.

Going back even further, twenty-five years ago (yes, I am) I tried my hand at creating a scene. No, wait, a 'zine: the Extreme. "Sort of an alternative to the established 'alternative,'" I brazenly claimed in the first issue. Well, while I threw in the towel much too early, I did sell some copies, and I did get a lot of submissions. After all this time, I've finally begun the process of digitizing the entire eight-issue run (the material I've held onto has held up surprisingly well). Looking over those old copies of "a magazine for three finkers" has made me nostalgic. And defiant. Maybe the stir-crazy has awakened my inner Skinny the Foo...

Anyway, happy May Day, and thank you, again, to all the essential workers.

May Day! May Day!

It's May Day once again, and while I spent the last one marching and playing tunes with the Occupy Guitarmy in the streets of Manhattan (led by one Nightwatchman, also known as Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello), I'm sitting this one out.  By which I mean that I'm at work.

May Day 2012 in Union Square with the Occupy Guitarmy

I still support Occupy, and the idea that we common men have (or should have) at least as much of a say in our government and society as the fatcat bankers and business owners and politicians.  I've just had too much on my plate and on my mind to commit the time to learning the songs and spending the day in New York.  In fact, I've decided not to do Make Music New York this year, despite taking part for the past five years.  Between the Webcomic and the wedding, I can't spare too much time for the music, at least not right now.  Perhaps I'll shift my efforts and put out a digital EP, rather than the full Tougher Than Flannel album that's still in the works, around the time we get married, but that remains to be seen.

Laura and I did manage to spare a weekend and have some fun in Massachusetts, even though the Boston Comic Con was postponed at the last minute (it's now rescheduled for August 3-4; not sure if we're going) and we couldn't spend too much time in Boston proper.  We've still got all these Slime buttons we'd planned on giving out!  She enjoyed spending some time at WEBS and other yarn shops, and we had a great breakfast at Zaftigs on Saturday morning and a tasty Indian meal at Masala Art in Needham on Friday night (while the second bombing suspect was being apprehended not ten miles away!).  Before heading to Salem on Saturday afternoon for some wandering and dinner, we did take in Boston Common and the Public Garden:

Laura and me in Boston's Public Garden

Getting tasks accomplished is a good feeling, and it's even better when you find them meaningful.  I wish you great productivity and self-satisfaction today, no matter what you're working at (or who you're working for).  Happy May Day!

Swingin' in the Park

A month and a half ago, I dusted off my righteous rage, put on the activist armband again, and joined the Nightwatchman and the Occupy Guitarmy in a march and some music in midtown Manhattan on May Day. The rest of the month involved quite a bit of marching, too, including a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, two weddings, Mother's Day visits to both my mom and Laura's, and a rare Not An Exit jam/recording session with Jon Wardell.

Jon and Andy: this is Not An Exit!

At the beginning of this month, I stood by and watched Laura march instead.  Well, actually, I watched her run, in a 5K race, her first, and I was incredibly proud of her.  She's planning on doing the 2013 New York City Marathon, and I'll be there to watch her, too!  Last week, however, I slowed things down a bit, and the two of us headed to a Victorian bed and breakfast, the Hewitt Wellington, down the shore (yes, we say "down the shore" in Jersey) in Spring Lake for an overnight stay. There was a brief period of rain, much of which we escaped by ducking into a wine shop, but the weather was otherwise wonderful, as were both the lake and the beach, and we even got to commune with the squirrels (and ducks) and swing in the park, though it wasn't after dark. We had an amazing if puzzling dinner Thursday night at Café Artiste; we were never given menus or asked for our orders, and by the time we'd figured out that the chicken special mentioned outside was the only meal available, we'd already been served bread, lentil soup, and salad. After sausage and peppers and a side dish of peas, we finally got to the chicken dish, which certainly lived up to the hype by Cosimo, as did the incredible peach pie we barely managed to tuck away, too.  Dessert was plainly not optional, and I for one didn't mind.

I brought my acoustic/electric along, too, and Laura snapped some nice shots as I played a little on the beach early Friday morning. (Speaking of pictures, I know I haven't updated the Gallery... of Death! at all this year.  Since Apple is doing away with iWeb, I'm thinking of migrating my photos to Picasa and redoing the Gallery from there instead of iPhoto/iWeb; I just need to get around to doing it.)  She found a sand dollar among the tide's remains, which was a nice surprise, and we got quite a lot of walking done.  I know we did, because I finally have a Jawbone Up that seems to be lasting!  I got this one (I think it was the sixth replacement since Christmas, though honestly I've lost track) on May 2nd, and it's still going strong.  The longest that any of the others went before dying on me was three weeks, and that was the original one Laura bought me.  At least Jawbone's customer support has been very good about it, and each replacement was sent to me at no charge, not even shipping.  If this one goes the distance, I will be very happy indeed.

On the Beach at Spring Lake

A week from today, I'm lugging the Danelectro to Jackson Square at Greenwich and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan to play some tunes outdoors at 2 PM for this year's Make Music New York.  It's free, as are the hundreds of other performances taking place around New York all day, so you should come get an earful if you can!  I'm planning to add my newest song, "So Much Happy," to the set, and there's a new T-shirt design available ay my CafePress shop if you're interested; for the new free buttons and/or guitar picks, you'll have to come to the show.  ;-)  The shirts feature my two main axes on the front and Slime's Doug the Slug, plus his hedgehog and penguin buddies, on the back (thanks, Laura!).  You know you want one...

Some days, trying to find time for everything (including updating my personal social media accounts and 'blog - and now I'm adding RebelMouse, too?!? - in addition to the "music" and Slime social media accounts; writing the dialog, and scanning and prepping the artwork, for Slime; making the occasional YouTube video; playing guitar; and of course waiting hand and foot on the Chinchilla Princess, Meguilla) after spending a workday on Microwize Technology's user forum, 'blog, and to a lesser extent its social media and clients' data issues can feel overwhelming.  I need to record a medley of the Police's "Too Much Information" and Living Colour's "Information Overload" as my theme song... but where would I find the time?  Heh.  Then again, the minuscule interaction my "music fans" (102 on Facebook, 90 on ReverbNation, and 294 (!) on Jango, allegedly) provide can feel underwhelming; I still haven't gotten any responses to my query as to which artist(s) I sound like or remind listeners of, and I'm not holding out hope for many people I know showing up at Jackson Square next week, though of course my honey will be there supporting me.  Still, in spite of dwindling time resources and limited active interest on the part of the general public, I'm not ready to give it all up and live a "normal" life.  I want to revamp my Web sites, I want to come up with more creative outlets for the Slime characters, and certainly I want to write new music ("They Might Be Roses" is brewing in my head, and maybe I'll finally pen a song about the experience of playing live, for real people) as well as record some already-written songs that haven't been laid down yet ("I'll Live," "When Giant Giants Attack!" and "Occasionally Tormented Soul," I'm looking at you in particular).  I want to spend more time trying to interest people in that music, for while I'm neither trying nor expecting to become the "next big thing" in music, I do intend to keep at it, and input and criticism can only help.  I want to keep writing in general, and boy, did this 'blog post turn out to be longer than I'd planned.  I want to stop using so many parentheses and semicolons; no, wait, I don't (I really don't)...  Slouching back on the couch and watching the game and the latest reality show is too easy and not satisfying at all, and besides, there are way too many people doing that already.  Also, I can't really teach Laura to play tennis that way.

After all...  Better that your life be a blur than a blurb.  Happy Flag Day!  Got somethin' to say about any or all of this verbosity?  Leave a comment, then!

Makin' Music Again

Late last year, I heard about and signed a statement from musicians who supported the Occupy movement.  The message hasn't always been coherent, and of course there have been acts of violence and vandalism at Occupy camps and events (though there are always bad elements in any group of sufficient size), but overall I am in favor of shaking up the status quo and leveling the playing field a bit.  I'm not against capitalism per sé, but I do oppose giving bankers and corporate executives hundred-thousand dollar bonuses and private jets while homeowners and factory workers struggle to pay their bills and get food on the table.  There's got to be a better way to give everyone a chance at life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and the money to afford the rising costs associated with said pursuit.  That, to me, is what Occupy is about, and I'm all in favor.

Anyway, as a result of signing the statement, I later got followed (on Twitter) by @WeOccupyMusic, and therefore heard about the Occupy Guitarmy being mobilized by the Occupy Wall Street Music Working Group for all the Occupy and union and other marches and demonstrations and things going on for May Day in New York City.  It sounded like an excellent idea, and while I didn't expect them to actually realize their goal of a thousand guitarists marching down Fifth Avenue, I decided to "enlist."

Yours truly, surrounded by other Guitarmy irregulars in Bryant Park

This was only my second march (the first being against the then-impending war in Iraq in 2003), and I had a lot of fun!  I'd guesstimate there were well over a hundred volunteers in our Guitarmy, and among the brigade leaders was none other than Tom Morello, aka the Nightwatchman.  The sometime Rage Against the Machine axe-slinger penned "World Wide Rebel Songs," one of the tunes we were playing as we marched; we also strummed to Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" and Willie Nile's "One Guitar," and "We Shall Not Be Moved" and "Which Side Are You On?" and "El Pueblo Unido" and other songs.  After gathering at Bryant Park to get armbands and chord "cheat sheets" and practice the songs, we headed downtown to Union Square, making music and noise along the way, and eventually the luckier among us (myself included!) managed to crowd onstage with Morello and add our guitars and voices to his in renditions of "World Wide Rebel Songs" and "This Land Is Your Land."

Tom Morello (center), on the same stage as me!

I left after that, being tired and hungry (and of full bladder), but I was happy and grateful to have been a part of such an event!  I'm even in a photo on the MTV Hive site.  My next outing with guitar, of course, will be for Make Music New York on June 21st, a Thursday this year.  This time around, I'll perform at Jackson Square, where Eighth and Greenwich Avenues meet (at Horatio Street) in the Village, between 2 and 3 PM.  Come on out if you can!  MMNY is free and going on all over New York City, all day long.  There's a good chance my set'll include a song or three I learned with the Guitarmy...  :-)

Just in time to celebrate Barack Obama's long-delayed public support of gay marriage, Laura and I are going to the wedding of my friends Stephanie and Nicol tomorrow evening!  This is hot on the heels of Laura's cousin's wedding last weekend, and our short trip to Baltimore and the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  We're still pumping out those Slime strips, too, and I've been teaching her to play some tennis in between jaunts to Montclair (to see Regina Spektor) and to Manhattan (to revisit Central Park and get some German grub and grog at Rolf's).  Things have been busy lately, but hey...  "Better that your life be a blur than a blurb," am I right?