ANOTHER GREAT MEME

 

JOHN MAYALL R.I.P..

John Mayall became one of my favorite music makers the first time I heard his band The Bluesbreakers debut album in 1966. I thought he was the coolest, sexiest, most authentic of all the Brit blues rockers, including all the future stars who passed through his bands and whose talent he mentored and nurtured, like Clapton and Mick Taylor and three of the founding members of Fleetwood Mac.

I loved his later jazz blues fusions and was eternally grateful to be introduced to the awesome talent of violinist Gene "Sugarcane" Harris et al. And after I moved to LA was lucky enough to meet him, through his then wife Maggie (they were together for over 30 years before splitting I believe) who I adored, like everyone else did. 

They lived in one of those houses in the hills that from the street seem to be one story but when you get inside you realize it's hanging from a cliff and goes down two stories with a pool at the bottom and a beam sticking out over the pool a story or two up with a rope at the end of it you could drop into the pool from. Not me!

I remember sitting at a small bar top in the room overlooking the pool, with him behind it, and noticing a silvery sculpture hanging above his haad that seemed to have the tines of a fork sticking out of one spot. I asked him who the sculptor was, and he said a house fire in his Laurel Canyon home a few years before. It was melted silverware. How cool to turn at least one small part of that tragedy into art.

My deepest condolences to his family friends and fans. Rest In Peace John Mayall.

NEW FAVORITE MEME

 

YES

 

HIMSELF

 

My Irish immigrant grandfather "Iron Mike" Lally, at two different stages of his career as a policeman, allegedly the first one in my New Jersey hometown. The story was  that my grandmother got the police doctor to get him an early retirement before he got kicked off the force for hanging in saloons when he was supposed to be on duty. My older relatives in the clan, in the Irish tradition, always referred to him as "himself" as when telling me "Sure if you don't look like himself."

OLD FRIENDS

 
Me and Kale Browne celebrating his 75th birthday and our 41 years of friendship. [photo by Cristi Zea, my shoulder purse made by one of my housemate/caregivers (partner to my son Miles) Hannah Bracken]

GEOFFREY YOUNG'S POETRY

To see why Geoff Young is one of my favorite poets (and people), check out these Youngian sonnets:

https://www.relegationbooks.com/article/five-poems-young/ 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAYS

My adult grandchild Deak celebrating at a PRIDE festival recently where they were face painting others and did this to their self: "channeling David Bowie" as they said. Proud of their independence, as I am all my kids and grandkids.

AND AGAIN

 
SAY IT AGAIN An Autobiography In Sonnets, my latest book, came out this year, 2024, and now the year is half over and as far ss I know there haven't been any reviews or even mentions in publications that pay any attention to poetry. But there have been (as pointed out by friends) some amazing reviews on Amazon, for which I am totally grateful.

This book is the result of decades of work and according to some readers is as easy to read as watching a movie. In this case a documentary about how the impact of music, poetry, art, culture, politics, and life experience changed a working-class ethnic wannabe tough guy into an anti-war, civil rights, feminist gay liberation activist.   

If you haven't read it yet, give it a shot. If you have and you enjoyed it, spread the word however you can. Not just for me, but for Beltway Editions, the small press that published it (and may then publish the sequels in the future). And for all the creative souls that pour their hearts and hard work into something hopefully meaningful.