18 September 2017

What's Goin' On?


I guess I owe it to all my dear friends here at NSS to explain what’s been going on with me since March. It’s a mighty grim tale & I’ll probably start ranting before I finish, so here’s some sweet Dub music to soothe the edges. From the early days of M. Lloyd Barnes Bulwackies great work recorded at the original Wackie’s House of Music on White Plains Road, NYC in 1979.



Bullwackies All Stars - Black World Dub, Hardwax Records 1040LP, 1979.
all decryption codes in comments

Side A -

Recording Connection
Skylarking
Troubled Land
Morning Star
United Rock

Side B -

Black World
Simple Little Woman
Tribute to Studio One
Shining Star
Rain from that Cloud

__________________________________________________________

So here goes...

It all began on the morning of March 17th.

I’m not really one to make future plans, chosing mainly to live in the Here & Now, but I was so caught up in my plans for the up-coming week-end. I was going to start my planting the following two days. Much earlier than usually, but I was going to attempt something I had never tried before this year. A life-long friend & fellow grower had been extolling the virtues of early planting as a sure fire way of sexing one’s plants, an early identification system for boys & girls. If I could weed out the boys before I even got very far into the season & only kept the girls, I could save myself a great deal of needless work & expense.

So I’m sitting in our breakfast nook having a fresh baked croissant & a cup of Tieguanyin before I head off to work when the phone jangles. I grab it so as not to awaken the distaff duo sleeping in the adjoining bedrooms (Black Dahlia & Lao respectively).  It’s our landlord calling to let me know that the owner of our house is putting it on the market this very day. We have sixty days to vacate the premises.


I just kinda crumble back into my seat. WTF! I just drop the handset back into the cradle. I’m incapable of movement or thought for quite some time. So much for this years crop...that’s my first thought, as my mind was already awash with the plans for the next two days. Then it all sweeps over me like an avalanche...I was just finishing a major five month project enclosing the rear patio into a catio for Ralf, Lao’s cat...now in full recovery from having her left rear leg amputated. As a former outdoor cat, now needing much more territory than our house afforded her...we made her a new world...this was our WORLD...we had no plans to move...what about all the detritus we had accumulated over the years???how were we going to afford to move??? Sixty days.

Fuck. Hold up. I just can’t do this. I’m finally coming out the other end & this feels like just so much bullshit bitchin’ right now.

I could explain about digitizing all my music & then selling off my record collection. About how the very next day...yeah, the very day after I copied the last CD & parted ways with all things jewel case bound, that my external hard drive (8T) crashed & burned. 

About the -4.5/-4.8 rental market here in Sacramento...yeah, there are between 4.5% to 4.8% more people looking for rentals than are available to rent.

About the fact that what five years ago rented for $850 now rents for $1300+.

About how mid-move, my pick up truck blew a head gasket & threw a rod.

About how on the day before we were finally moving to Oak Knoll, our latest abode, my coon-hound Hungry Chuck Biscuits (brother for the last eighteen years) died in my arms...

I could explain, but I won’t.

I’ll leave you with this (+ one more musical delight):

from T. Lobsang Rampa - The Cave of the Ancients, Corgi Books 1963
     Over us the stars wheeled on their course, endless, eternal. Smiling, the Lama Mingyar Dondrop reached in his robe and brought forth a box of matches, treasure brought all the way from far-off India. Slowly he extracted one match and held it up. “I will show you Creation, Lobsang!” he said gaily. Deliberately he drew the match head across the igniting surface of the box, and as it flared into life, he held up the blazing sliver. Then he blew it out! “Creation, and dissolution,” he said, “The flaring match head emitted thousands of particles each exploding away from its fellows. Each was a separate world, the whole was a Universe.   the Universe died when the flame was Extinguished. Can you say that there was no life on those worlds?” I looked dubiously at him, not knowing what to say. “ If they were worlds, Lobsang, and had life upon them, to that Life the worlds would have lasted for millions of years. Are we just a stricken match? Are we living here, with our joys and sorrows - mostly sorrows! - thinking that this is a world without end? Think about it, and we will talk some more tomorrow.” He rose to his feet and was gone from my sight.


from Rob Garza, half of Thievery Corporation. A bit rougher & tougher than TC.  Let me just say that "Cherubim Sing" saved my life.


Dust Galaxy - Dust Galaxy, Eighteenth Street Lounge Music ESL 124, 2007.

Sun in Your Head
Limitless
Mother of Illusion
It’s All Yours
River of Ever Changing Forms
Sons of Washington
Cherubim Sing
Overhead
Down
Come Hear the Trumpets
Crying to the Night

What he sez,

16 comments:

  1. Black World
    aZ-yGuqzohaiKycPbLXn8q86hASRi_-ObEORVTU6ipg
    Dust
    bdA-Nk9RmfunoHa9B1szQnbE4gF-Z_j3wI_D7cF3PRE

    ReplyDelete
  2. If we lived in a world without tears
    How would misery know
    Which back door to walk through
    How would trouble know
    Which mind to live inside of
    How would sorrow find a home?

    If we lived in a world without tears
    How would bruises find
    The face to lie upon
    How would scars find skin
    To etch themselves into
    How would broken find the bones?

    -- Lucinda Williams, "World Without Tears"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Somehow I thought from your recent posts that your health was in jeopardy, or that you were contemplating suicide (or both). In a small way I am relieved, but sorrowed to learn that you have lost a home. "Home" meaning more than a shelter and a place to store your possessions. As you say, a home is a world: for your family of people and animals, for your livelihood, and for the world of music that you have shared here over the years. I am especially sorry to learn of the loss of Mr. Biscuits. If I can return any of the music that disappeared in your HD crash, I would be more than glad to do so.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks so much for both of these comments. I haven't really thought about what I'm going to do about the musick. When things are more settled around here, I think I might pursue some form of data recovery first. It might prove costly, but...

      The worst thing for myself & family is that all this crap came on the back of the Trumpocalypse. Already depressed enough. The thoughts of ending things flirted with me, I can not deny, but me family & friend (such as yourself, dear Hope) keep me stronger than such haunted teases.

      I survive & conquer. This has just been an unfortunate turn of events.

      Delete
    2. My first thought was this: data recovery seems quite a costly option as you rightly observe; you are more than welcome to a dupe of my own drive, though it will not make much of a dent on 8TB. It is a start, though. If it passes customs.

      My second that was. Shit. It sounds that that you have been through - are going through - the mill. Have you found a new place yet ? Can you pick up mail from your old address ? WTF, indeed. Sorry. I am rambling. So sorry to hear about all this crap.

      Delete
    3. Thank you Brother Ib for all you offer. We are moved into a new place. Trying to get settled. The old address will forward & as soon as I have a few spare moments, I'll email you our new address.

      For now I am undecided as to the future of my musick collecting. I am so thankful to both you & jonder for the offer of replacement tuneage. I will let you both know.

      Delete
    4. The worst thing for the whole NSS blogging thing is the loss of Ultima Tuneage as source for shares. I'm thinking I might have to switch directions here & start crate digging or something. Any suggestions?

      Delete
  4. Jesus, man. I'd pray for you, but you know... the whole There Is No God thing...

    Strikes & gutters or something like that. I didn't realize you were in Sacto. Do you know Lob? He's been going through some shit as well. Must be something in the air down there. Or everywhere. Maybe the universe is just shitting on us. I don't know. I don't actually know anything cheering to say except we love you 'cos you've made the world (not just the internet) a better place for the rest of us. Be strong.

    -Xtm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you as well, dear Xtm. Just knowing the caring is sharing lifts my lowered spirits beyond words. I'm just old & kinda set in my ways. Thought all this shit was behind me. It's the Culture of Fear as Thievery sez.

      Delete
  5. Email me if you feel like offloading. If you have the time.

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  6. Hey NØ,
    Just saw this post and got to say that those things that happened were the worst timing of all. But it seems that bad timing is easier to com by these days than good. I'm glad you found a new place to live. I'm so sorry that you lost Biscuits. I just lost my cat too. It hurts, I know. I hope that things get better for you. Seems sometimes we might be damned under the Trumpocalypse. Hope he gets impeached. xoxo -M.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sweet SS M, thanks for the hugs & kisses. They worked even better than all the bromance from elsewhere across the aether (sorry dudes, but I'm hard-core hetro & she's a hottie)(well, maybe my sick humor is coming back...hallelujah)(maybe this whole confession/whining[whinging-whingeing] thing is good for the soul after all).

    You might hate the 90s but I'm hating the TrumpTeens.

    Don't ever leave me, baby.

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  8. I'm here my friend! I had some trouble - had my favorite desktop pc get struck by lightning, including my router and modem. Sucked but luckily I had another desktop but its hard drive failed. Then I connected my laptop and guess what? Its hard drive failed too. LOL Luckily I had an extra hard drive for the laptop and slapped it in. But man, this summer has been a shitty one. I'm hoping things get better for you. I know it's hard but we will survive our shit. :)

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  9. Man, I'm sorry to know you've been dealt such a shit hand lately. Losing your hound must be especially difficult but I hope you get through it all without losing too much of yourself.

    I'm in a similar predicament with my landlord, Brooklyn is prime "hipster" real estate and my landlords have turned into money hungry pricks, I at least have a year before my lease is up to find another apt in this overhyped and overpriced city.

    Anyway, I hope things improve soon.

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  10. Damn, your blogs are fucking otherworldly!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I don't know you, but I like you, as far as I can tell through your posts: you seem a good guy, thoughtful & funny. I cringed through your story. I've been through lots of that, including giving my albums away in prepare for emergency moving, and soon after harddrive crash... but every person's crisis is different, also.

    Anyway, since I have taken advantage of your good taste in music, I wanted to say at least, Thanks.

    cheers,
    Scraps

    ReplyDelete