Draft -

 

                                            

 

                 

                                      hisashi uetake  1994 -5

These, along with some 50 other paintings and works on paper, including wonderful sumie, or Chinese ink, drawings reside in one of my closets.  He rolled up another 200 so they could fit in his tiny Manhattan dwelling.  Some he's given away, some live on the walls of the partners of Price Waterhouse Coopers.  Some - I've volunteered to kill him if he gives them away. 

I continue, even after such a long time, to be taken by the way he paints families with fathers, instead of the western concentration of the mother and child, drawing from the infant Christ and the Virgin Mary.  There are few painters who are so inclusive.  Egon Schille is one is one of the few.  

As you may recall, Sashi is now an auditor with Price Waterhouse Coopers and no longer paints.  Sometimes I want to kick him in the ass about that.

 

Love ya,

pearlbamboo

 

pictures and paintings copyright h. uetake

He eats and breathes guitars.  He writes well.  I think he's the cat's meow and I love his hands too (see comment on previous post.)

Having lost his first effort on "the zone" to the Xanga "I'll eat your post bug," he's written a "let me get started at this and figure out how it works" one today.  

You can find him at Just1moreguitar.

pearlbamboo

    

It's a beautiful guitar with a wonderful sound.  It has cracks, well mended, and a gorgeous inlaid wood rosette around the sound hole.  The owner sold it to Dave because he thought he would treasure it.  He was right. 

Bird is busy with his new girlfriend, but stays in touch and we continue to "write" together.  Sounds counterintuitive, but we agree that we are closer than ever, now that the shape of the relationship has revealed itself and settled..

Dave (aka Picks) becomes ever more dear to me as we each find ways to chip at invisible walls.  (for those of you who don't know bird and dave see this entry.) 

A tribute to old guitars by Neil Young -

 

THE OLD GUITAR

This old guitar ain't mine to keep
Just taking care of it now
It's been around for years and years
Just waiting in its old case
It's been up and down the country roads
It's brought a tear and a smile
It's seen its share of dreams and hopes
And never went out of style
The more I play it, the better it sounds
It cries when I leave it alone
Silently it waits for me
Or someone else I suppose

This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar

This old guitar has caught some breaks
But it never searched for gold
It can't be blamed for my mistakes
It only does what it's told
It's been a messenger in times of trouble
In times of hope and fear
When I get drunk and seeing double
It jumps behind the wheel and steers

This old guitar ain't mine to keep
It's mine to play for a while
This old guitar ain't mine to keep
It's only mine for a while

This old guitar...

   

I understood this song on only an intellectual level until I watched Picks remove it tenderly from its case and slowly tune it from below the correct pitch so as not to stress its 150 year old self unduly.

Meanwhile, there are flams, paradiddles and ratamacues!

love ya,

pearlbamboo

copyright 2006  ep hodges <A

 

No, I'm not dead or lost.  I am just drumming - all the time, one hour, two hours, sometimes six hours a day, though not all at once.  Now that we have audio, perhaps I'll do a little progress demonstration. 

It was from picking out the drum grooves in one of Jim's Mudboy and the Neutrons albums that I developed my fascination with drums.  And if you just have to know, here's the skinny on Mudboy and the Neutrons - http://home.istar.ca/~beeman/mudboy.html. 

For those of you who've been  around for a while, you may remember that this fellow was my boyfriend during my first two years in college at Baylor.  He was in the drama department working under Paul Baker; I was in the music department doing a performing arts degree in violin and seeking refuge from sacred music majors.  Dickinson was the refuge, from the sacred music majors, from the rest of my life. (see entry of  http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=pearlbamboo&nextdate=4%2f21%2f2005+23%3a59%3a59.999   and  8/15/ o4 )

He did his first solo recording in 1972, Dixie Fried, playing at the moment, about which Jerry Wexler,  head of Atlantic Records in New York, said, "If Bob Dylan made this record," he said, "they'd call him the risen Christ."   Years passed, then he recorded Free Beer Tomorrow in 2002.  ( http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=pearlbamboo&nextdate=4%2f21%2f2005+23%3a59%3a59.999   ). 

Now, there is another - Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger. 

                       

                                           Jim, Then and Now

Here's one of many reviews -

CLICK HERE http://www.joespub.com/caltool/index.cfm?fuseaction=detail&performanceID=2065 to go to a website with Red Neck Blue Collar and Truck Driving Man mp3's to listen to or download.   

"Jim Dickinson... is a natural groover with an encyclopedic knowledge of American roots music. His new solo album, Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger (Memphis International), features songs as terrific as they are obscure, all bursting with infectious spirit." -Baltimore City Paper Jungle Jim & The Voodoo Tiger is the third studio album in 34 years from pianist/vocalist/ bandleader/producer/session-player/raconteur/ cultural iconoclast Jim Dickinson and his Memphis International debut. Actually, the album, like the two that preceded it, is credited to Jim’s artist alter ego, James Luther Dickinson. Over the course of the past 40 years, Dickinson has worked in the studio with Ry Cooder, the Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Arlo Guthrie, Sam & Dave, Big Star, Tony Joe White, Bettye Lavette, the Replacements, Duane Allman, The North Mississippi Allstars and many more. Jungle Jim & The Voodoo Tiger was produced by Dickinson and Memphis International’s David Less, the two having earlier collaborated in producing Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Grammy® nominated Down In The Alley and Harmonica Frank Floyd’s The Missing Link for the label.

Jungle Jim & The Voodoo Tiger is a set of songs that Dickinson has collected over the years in, as he puts it, “the jukebox of my mind,” plus some new songs by writers he greatly admires. Backing is by sons Cody (drums) and Luther (guitar) of North Mississippi Allstars fame, along with Alvin Youngblood Hart (guitar). Bass duties are shared by Paul Taylor (electric bass) who was part of the band DDT with the Dickinson boys and Amy LaVere (stand-up bass) whose own album This World Is Not My Home has been making waves of late plus a number of other top shelf Memphis players. Jim Dickinson handles vocals and keyboards. It’s an album that knows no genre or category but is sure to be a favorite on Americana radio. Dickinson expects to tour upon the release of the album with Cody and Luther’s backing, bringing their skewed version of “family values” to the great American road. Recorded late last year in less than two weeks at the Dickinson family’s Zebra Ranch studio in rural Independence, Mississippi, the album songs range from rollicking barrelhouse (“Hadacol Boogie,” “Rooster Blues”) to stinging social commentary (“Red Neck, Blue Collar,” penned by legendary folkie Bob Frank) to contemplative and atmospheric (“Violin Burns”) Song highlights include “Somewhere Down the Road,” written by Chuck Prophet from Green on Red and a honky tonkin’ rendition of the Memphis classic “White Silver Sands” with the sly soul of “Love Bone” and “Can’t Beat The Kid.” Says Jim Dickinson, who is often James Luther Dickinson’s harshest critic: “I’m real happy with it; it’s damn a good record for eleven days!” Ry Cooder contributed comments that are part of the CD artwork for this, the latest release of a man he’s proud to call his “personal friend.” Cooder writes of the Jungle Jim experience: “Take a seat, listen in, find your place.”

http://www.memphisinternationalrecords.com/page.cfm?merchantpageID=340

He's no younger, neither am I, hitting 64 on the 20th myself.  I am going to write to him this week.  I never aswered the letter he sent with his music to me two summers ago.  It's time now...

and where the heck is the html edit button so I can add decent links?????

 

pearlbamboo

 

                          A Cross -cultural Encounter

Lily's here, sort of.  More news over the next few days.

Meanwhile, here's one of my favorite cross-cultural artifacts.  This one is a souvenir plate for Arizona tourists, hand-painted in Japan, probably in the late 40's, early 50's.

Think upon the predicament of the Japanese painter assigned to do these plates.  There he sits, brushes in hand, paints disported on his table and Arizona is as far away as the moon and equally unknown.  

"What does a saguaro cactus (he undoubtedly has a photograph as a reference) look like, in situ," he asks himself and begins to paint.  

              

Almost, but no cigar, as he's moved from representational art, what the Arizona buyer is hoping for, and has instead drawn a place existing only in his imagination..

 

pearlbamboo

copyright  e.p. hodges

 

 

A protected post follows.

There was one with whom I wrote before bird, very different.  You'll see.

 

No Name Rough Draft

The last ride
On the the light curve 
Into night's known places
Flashes on traces
Of my young faces,
Index of metamorphoses
Under my Cover Girl,
Pentimento,
Showing through.

The last ticket handed over,
I curl underneath the beam,
My face an old book
With broken dictionaries,
Telling stories
I don't understand.

 

                           Drummergranny Gets Her Groove

 

"He who rules the snare rules the drums."  That's where technique starts, that's what one practices forever, as long as one puts stick to drum.  

                      

                                                     MY DRUM

You'll hear rudiments in their pure form in a marching band with the snares playing  their rolls and ruffs.   Should you be so inclined, you can also check them out here and here, where there is notation, an audio clip and video clip for each rudiment.

Having examined what I suspect are all the free drum lessons on the entire English-language wobbly, I decided that those of Mark Wessel were far and away the best - the most thorough, the most easily understood and laid out in such a way that the acquisition of technique is layered and sequential, not scattershot as is the case with so many others I've checked out. 

The only bone I would pick with him is his recommendation that one repeat an exercise for 30 seconds and then move on.  This strikes me as pandering to the American wish to "learn piano fast."  I've seen too many Chinese violin students practice the same eight bars for more than an hour and have done the same myself to think that 30 seconds really does the job. I don't stop at 30 seconds (did I need to say that?)

I've made it to lesson 8, although next week when the DVD and book arrive I'll go back and start over, going through all the lessons with more care and using his accompaniment tracks and repetitions. 

When I've finished my slog through rudiments, I turn this on. Scroll down to Joe Bergamini and click on "slow funk" and "Motown" links.  I like these the best out of what he has here and have worked my way  through the simple groove on to the advanced one, using the playalong without the drums track that's at the top of each section and pretending my glass table is my hi-hat.  Did I tell you this is the most fun I've had in my entire life?

Last weekend I played my first "gig" and smiled for a long time afterwards, maybe days.  My 21 year old housemate poked her head around the kitchen door and grinned.  "You're really groovin'  now," she said, and danced her way through the door into my room and stayed with  me, dancing, while I played away on Bergamini's Motown groove.

Did I tell you I LOVE this?

 

pearlbamboo

copyright e.p. hodges