Celebrate Chuck Negron

I was saddened to hear that Chuck Negron, the lead vocalist for Three Dog Night, had passed.  I saw them at least twice, maybe three times. Once with Steppenwolf I believe, maybe the Allman Brothers, Nitty Gritty and the Chambers Brothers. Way too long ago.

One of the absolute best cover bands to ever hit the stage but their personal story was even more remarkable. One leaves to become editor of Field and Stream Magazine and another, Chuck, becomes a stoned cold junkie and loses it all.

I heard a remarkable interview once between him and Howard Stern. Chuck, then in recovery after a long servitude to smack, recounted his bottom.

He was panhandling for change, basically in the gutter when he looked at the tall skyscraper behind him and realized that he had once owned the whole entire building. And now he was penniless.

Now that is a crash.

But he picked himself up. Good for him. Stuck around for the third act. A handsome man with one of the best voices in music.   

From the New Yorker

 

Good interview with Jorma Kaukonen

If you liked the music of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna you might enjoy watching this recent interview with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. I know that I did. Long but informative. There is another written interview here. 

Leslie and I were lucky enough to see the Airplane play with Grace Slick at Papa John Creech's funeral and will treasure the memory forever. Sat at the bar with Jim Marshall. People forget what kind of an impact they made on the nation and the world in the psychedelic era, both with Signe and Grace.

I loved the music of the Airplane, my older sister Liz was a big fan and I remember waiting outside the Fillmore East for her after one of their shows. She was heavily dosed and laughing at invisible nothings in our apartment's kitchen when she got home.

Way back in Texas I remember our evil stepfather repeatedly smashing her white rabbit 45's and tearing down her yab yum poster. This was maybe 67.

Anyway I love Jorma's fingerstyle work, especially Quah, but have to admit that I am ambivalent about Hot Tuna. I saw them many times but their music could be quite monotonous and often put me to sleep. Any music that requires large amounts of unnatural stimulant to enjoy might not pass the acid test?

I once fell asleep at a Tuna concert and woke up an hour later and could have sworn they were playing the same song.

Anyway, the point I was going to make is that as mixed as I feel about listening to Hot Tuna live, I freaking loved my cousin Jorma's electric playing with the Airplane. I think it was revolutionary and he doesn't give himself enough credit for it. It was jangly and bit very hard sonically and defined the Jefferson Airplane sound.

I love his electric work at least as well as his acoustic work, which is also masterful.

Good News!

When you have had bouts of cancer for a long period of time, in my case 41 years, you sort of keep your head on a swivel. You are always looking over your shoulder. Because you never really know when your number is going to get called.

Suddenly you slide down a black and white chute in which you have to relinquish total control of your life and surrender to whatever. That is why I look forward to my semi yearly check ups with dread, always thinking the worst is about to happen.

Thankfully it appears I have dodged the latest bullet. I just looked at my cyto-pathology report and there are no reports of high grade urothelial carcinoma present. Yippee!

I have not talked to my doctor but I am sure she will agree that we made the right decision delaying the chemo for a month or two. It will certainly make my life and job a lot easier.

Thanks for all the support and good vibes.

John Lennon and his epiphone

Battle Is Over But The War Goes On

Paradise waits...

About a month ago I went to my cancer urologist for a long overdue check-up. Somehow I spaced on 2025. Unfortunately she found a new mass in my bladder, not sure if it is a big deal or not. So just to reiterate, for those of you scoring at home, I first got kidney, ureter and bladder cancer in 1985, lost a bunch of my left kidney and had about ten separate surgeries for literally hundreds of bladder tumors.

Wanting to find a more systemic approach to curing my cancer problem I switched doctors and started seeing Dr. Joe Schmidt at UCSD, our local teaching hospital. I became part of the first BCG research study.

Fast forward to 2009, the cancer returned to my kidney and I had the rest of it removed by my original doctor, now deceased, John Greisman. He accidentally cut an abdominal nerve , which gives me my present asymmetric Quasimodo like shape, my guts having fallen out on my left side. It's a good look.

Seven years ago, in 2019 my cancer returned. All the experts, including the man at Scripps Encinitas, Juma and USC Keck, said that I would have to have my entire bladder and prostate removed and would be peeing out my belly button the rest of my life on account of a new neo-bladder fashioned out of my large intestine.

I said no fucking way.

Juma actually told me that I was toast, he misread some liver masses, basically told me to call my friends and loves up and say goodbye.

Instead, I found an expert in Hillcrest, Carol Salem, and pleaded with her to get me back on BCG. She listened and I have bought myself seven years of pissing the old fashioned way with her help. 

God bless her.

I have had stage four tumors in the bladder wall several times in the interim but she has taken really good care of me and here I still am. We switched from BCG to a newer chemotherapeutic agent and have actually had better and less painful results.

For some reason the cumulative effects of the BCG knocked me on my ass and I am also very prone to urinary infections post infusion.

Last night we drove to Coronado to stay with Chip and Cecilia because I had an early 5:30 call at the hospital in Hillcrest. Had a last supper at a Thai place in Imperial Beach. Got up at 4:30 a.m. and made ready for my day, got there on time.

My doctor showed up around seven and I told her that I was pretty stressed out because I am usually worthless for three days after the procedure and in a lot of pain but I had to pack for the next round of shows which are coming up quick.

She made a management decision and the right call to hold off on the chemo for now. I will try to reschedule for early March before Texas.

Great nurses today, nice woman anesthesiologist. I asked her to be put under to the dulcet strains of the Grateful Dead's Help on the way and was whisked into LaLa land on a nice familiar ship.

I was discharged a few hours later. Haven't checked the biopsy results yet, might wait for her to tell me. Ignorance and bliss, you know? Leslie and I went to Jasmine at opening for some fresh dim sum, hot off the presses.

I actually feel really good, better than usual. Napped all day will try to get a couple things done tomorrow if I am not too miserable. I wonder how I will feel when the drugs all wear off?

Show must go on!

Bad guy

What a great idea

The Trump administration is suspending environmental review for new nuclear facilities. So what happens when you stick them on top of let's say, an active earthquake fault or a river that supplies potable water, is that just, my bad?

Remember this?

Or this?

Or even this?

Think we ever learn?

Chernobyl

Stefanie Hempel & The Silver Spoons

My fave fab harmony.

Shorebirds

 

Papa John Creach

Hey now!

Trump may have had his problems fixing the economy but at least he has brought the measles back. Polio can't be far behind.

The measles outbreak in South Carolina is showing little sign of slowing down. The state has confirmed 847 cases since the first case was reported in October, making the outbreak bigger than the one in Texas, which started just over a year ago.

Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina's state epidemiologist, points out that in Texas, measles cases grew over the course of seven months, while in South Carolina it has taken just 16 weeks to surpass the Texas case count.

When asked whether the potential loss of measles elimination status was significant during a press call this month, Dr. Ralph Abraham, the principal deputy director of the CDC, said, "Not really."

Abraham said losing elimination status would not impact how the administration tackles measles. He said the administration supports the measles vaccine, but "You know, the president, Secretary [Kennedy], we talk all the time about religious freedom, health freedom, personal freedom. And I think we have to respect those communities that choose to go a somewhat of a different route."

Two very scary articles on this administration and the current status of measles and polio.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who was appointed chair of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month, said decisions on whether to receive a vaccine should be made by patients and doctors, not by mandate.

"We were concerned about mandates, and mandates have really harmed and increased hesitancy," Milhoan said. "Does it [need] to be mandated for you to go to kindergarten, that these kids have every one of these vaccines that are recommended? That should be individually based. That is what I do as a doctor."Co-host Tom Johnson asked Milhoan about his philosophy on individual autonomy with the example of a parent who chooses not to get their child vaccinated against measles and that child subsequently infects a different immunocompromised child. Johnson asked Milhoan if there is a line to cross where individual autonomy infringes on another child's safety.

“I would say I agree, there are two different things at play here. We don’t take one over the other,” Milhoan said. “Let’s just flip that the other way around. What if the child gets a measles vaccine to protect your immunocompromised child and gets a negative consequence from that? Wasn’t that your child causing that child to be harmed?

Pray harder people and enjoy your trip back to the middle ages. 

Candi Staton - 1963

Bird Shots

I haven't been shooting lately but I have many thousands of pics that I have never processed. Thought that I would share a few with you.

Juvenile bald eagle in flight

Irate female harrier

white faced ibis

yellow headed blackbird

Anna's Hummingbird

The Flecks

Highway 61 Revisited

Just ducky!

So I have had this duck in my freezer for an awfully long time and decided it was time to do something with it before it flew away.

I thawed it for a couple days, gave it a salt brine and left it in the fridge for half a day to dry out uncovered. Then I went to serious work on it.

Removed the innards, cut off the loose skin, patted it dry and I then perforated the skin all over the place with a skewer. Seasoned it once again and stuffed it with oranges and rosemary.

I decided to rotisserie this duck on the Weber kettle but for a twist left a pan full of Yukon gold potatoes underneath to catch the dripping duck fat.

I cooked it for about seventy five minutes at around 375 degrees but had to take the lid off repeatedly because the rotisserie rod came out of the motor several times. This won't happen again any time soon, hopefully, I just bought a new one.

When there was about fifteen minutes to go I did a light baste of an apricot glaze on half the duck, my wife did not want sweet.

I thought it came out perfect, she wanted it to be a bit more cooked so after splitting it in half with my kitchen shears, we gave it a short broil.

After about five more minutes in the oven, everything was exactly perfect.

Leslie made an arugula salad with Parmesan.

The meal was delicious, the potatoes, best ever,

I will refine my technique a bit with the next one, more time off in the refrigerator to dry out and a bit hotter kettle with the lid hopefully staying on.

Probably should add more coals too.

But all in all, wonderful!

Looking forward to doing this again.

Who could want more?

State of the disunion

I posted this on Linked in today, might as well paste it here too.

We were all once "the kid" in our business. You work and work and then one day you wake up and all your cohorts have died or retired or ended up doing something else and you find yourself the old man on the block.

I got a call today from a man who I did shows with about thirty five years ago and he told me that he was thinking of opening up a shop with a one year lease and what did I think?

Because he said I had the longest running gallery of anybody he knew. And I was taken aback and had to think about that. Really? I know Trotter and Karges and Stern have been at it longer but that is strictly art, not art and antiques.

So maybe I am one of the last dinosaurs? Over fifty years selling art and a shop open since 1996. Of course it is only open by appointment and rarely even then, since most of my biz is done at shows and if I'm not open I don't have to unbox between them.

It is weird. I have seen so many movements come and go. Great movements. Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Jugendstil, Arts and Crafts, Mexican Silver, Oriental carpets, 17th through 19th century, the Persian taste, Hudson River, California landscape, California style, many movements now deader than a doornail.

A friend did a print show this weekend in a city I shall not name and said that he sold nothing from the 30's, my favorite decade along with the 60's. And I think the writing is on the wall for WPA and depression era stuff, which I absolutely adore. It is not catching fire with today's younger generation, who have never known the struggle the time represented.

Things don't resonate forever, especially in a world where less and less art history is taught and where therapy groups are being started to help free our erstwhile muggles from clutter.

So what have we to look forward to again, great 80's Ikea style? Cork, paper lamps, faux Melania jackets? 

Please turn the light off when you (we) exit.

Epic fight with a black sea bass

I Still Believe (Great Design)

Rainbow Creek

It started several months ago. Apparently owners of a creek front property past the hairpin curve on Willow Glen Rd. created a ramshackle encampment and installed some really ugly chains and fences at every conceivable opening. They typically scowled at you when you drove by.

I couldn't really figure out what was up because you couldn't build on the banks of Rainbow Creek, I honestly didn't know what they were doing. Was it a campsite? Why would anyone go to so much trouble destroying a riparian area?

They felled a large Washingtonia palm and just left it lying there near the creekbed, where it sits to this day. 

Very odd. 

I know they are not native but why kill it and leave it as an eyesore? Like dogs marking their territory.

Last week they dumped gravel and spread it around, very close to the creek.

Yesterday when I drove by I saw the tire tracks across the creek for the first time.

Now I understand. 

It appears that they are using this spot as an entrance to their landlocked property. 

I have lived here for 46 years. 

I have seen this creek rise to the top of its banks and over in 1993. 

Four people were lost in the floodwaters that year. 

Their bodies have never been found.

Using the creek for entrance and egress is very ill advised. 

Contaminating it is criminal, in my opinion.

Rainbow Creek is a major tributary to the Santa Margarita River, a stone's throw away.

How can people be allowed to use it as a crossing on their property?

I was once a real estate developer and there are a lot of CEQA and NEPA regulations that govern riparian habitat.

How does the County of San Diego, F.P.U.D., the Watermaster of the Santa Margarita River, The Wildlands Conservancy and Camp Pendleton, which relies on the river for potable water for our troops, allow this encroachment?

I'm very interested in seeing who allowed this to happen?

Is it legal?

*

Postscript - I have a case number with county code compliance now. Will keep you informed.

*

Second postscript - Their goats are in the creek area this morning. Goat defecation in waterways can lead to giardia. I've had it. Not fun.

Salt Of The Earth

It tolls for thee

It is always sad when people you love are hurting financially. I have had three or four people ask for help recently. I'm trying my best. 

Why?

Because I have been up and down myself and not that long ago people were helping me when I had no where else to turn.

As many of you know, I was rich once, basically a retired millionaire.

Man came around and managed to steal over twelve million dollars from my family's company. 

Then my ex left and cashed the c.d's at the bank ten minutes before I arrived. 

Threatened me with all sorts of nasty stuff if I didn't give her everything I owned.

So I went from the penthouse to the outhouse in a matter of seconds. I was literally eating out of a bowl of change under my bed. 

The guy who had not long before was on an expensive safari in Africa, flying around in hot air balloons and having catered lunches on the savannas in the middle of the zebra herds.

Can happen to any of us. Instantly. Bam, you are on your ass. Believe me.

Friends say I became a nicer person after my fall from grace, less arrogant, I don't know. But I certainly was humbled. And it took years of grinding to make my way back to solvency and to learn a new career.

Years on the blacktop with Leslie selling our crap at flea markets after getting up at two in the morning and working to exhaustion, week after week.

Honestly, I don't trust people that have never failed or never fallen. They probably just got lucky. My admiration is for the people who picked themselves off the ground and found a way to make it work.

*

My friend Bob the Carpenter told me something that made me laugh today, something his grandfather once told him.

"Better to shit in your own sink than to sink in your own shit. Let that sink in."

John Donne was right back in 1624, No man is an island, nor even a peninsula as Grace Slick countered so much later. We are all connected, even a humble nurse in Minneapolis trying to help people in the street and brutally murdered. And we are all diminished by his tragic end.

No man is an island,

Entire of itself;

Every man is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Europe is the less,

As well as if a promontory were:

As well as if a manor of thy friend's

Or of thine own were.

Any man's death diminishes me,

Because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

We can't make it without each other.

You Want Change For Your Re-Run

Leslie and I were huge fans of the late Arthur Lee and Love. The first black hippy. We caught over 16 shows the last three or four years of his life and befriended the band. Such an amazing artist!

This cut came up on Leslie's Pandora feed this morning when we were playing cards. I didn't recognize it.

"Who is this, Hendrix?" I asked her.

"It's Arthur Lee."

Not sure how I missed it but I like it. I assume that is Johnny Echols playing guitar. [Wrong - Charlie Karp] Hendrix and Arthur were really tight, it sounded like he was playing if not singing.

Arnold and Arthur at 16

Arthur's best friend from childhood, Arnold Briscoe, was a dear friend of ours. 

We used to play guitars together in my shop. 

He used a very light pick and had a cool and unique style.

He introduced us to both Arthur Lee and Paul Barrere. 

He passed a few years ago, we miss him a lot and we miss seeing Love too.

Copfart

I watch a lot of cop bodycam videos but this one had a nice surprise in the middle.

Go fund me for Marty Wolpert

My old comrade Martin Wolpert has fallen on hard times. He has been through a lot and now he can't get out of bed and can't pay rent. One of the oldest surviving art dealers in Los Angeles. Please help Papillon. Any amount will help.

Pink Floyd

Hitler Quotes

The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.

*

The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.

*

The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.

*

Humanitarianism is the expression of stupidity and cowardice.

*
Anyone who sees and paints a sky green and fields blue ought to be sterilized.

*

The very first essential for success is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.

*

The broad masses of a population are more amenable to the appeal of rhetoric than to any other force.

Dire Straits - Wild West End

Joshua Tree

 

Wayne Raney - Why don't you haul off and love me?

First 2026 Roadie in the books...

I got back from the cool little Cowboy and Indian show in Prescott, Arizona the day before yesterday. 

Stopped off and spent the first night in Palm Springs to pick up a big red yei blanket and a rare wild west poster.

Well, actually little isn't the right word, there were over 250 dealers there. 

The right word was inexpensive, even spartan. 

But warm and cozy too and filled with good friends and comrades.

While I have done several shows in the past that have cost me upwards of 14k for a booth plus expenses, this one cost one hundred sixty dollars a table. 

I took two and they were at a premium. 

Stayed with great friends in a beautiful home up on the rocks for free.

The event was held at the Findley Toyota Center.

I split my space with my pal Barry so we could pal around, set up and shop. 

My goal was to sell a couple things and buy baskets, which I did. 

Really exceeded all expectations.

This was old school. No walls, no cases. Throw it out there and have a good time.

I put my better baskets behind me on the bleachers so that nobody could get their mitts on them.

For some reason, a few people think it is okay to grab baskets and handle them without permission and it makes me rather nervous. 

They can be very easily hurt if you happen to be an idiot.

I was fortunate to have a really good space. 

A woman had obligations and couldn't make it so I was able to get the second table, would have been tight with just one.

The people in the hallway bombed, as usual. With the absence of Mesa and the Las Vegas Show turning so many dealers and clients off, dealers need shows like this to survive.

I didn't take many pictures but should have. 

Some real characters walking around.

An aging dealer base of course. 

Blackburn walked up to me and said, "In ten years every person in this room will be dead," a quite cheery thought.

Might not be that far off.

There were excellent dealers there, Compton, Mackley, Munns, Vandenberg, Selser, Terry de Wald, Bob Nelson and more.

Cream of the crop.

My fellow Fallbrookian Tony Zimmerman had a  great show.

Mark and Linda Winter and Terry Schurmeier stopped by en route to Las Vegas.

Terry bought a nice bracelet from me. Thank you!

My booth was between Voracek and Randy Rodriguez.

Everybody I talked to had a good show. 

I sold baskets, jewelry, all sorts of stuff.

I bought four nice apaches, a washoe and this sweet yokuts double rattlesnake bottleneck that had once sold at the Heard Museum for three grand.

Ate well, had a lot of laughs with Bob, Sandi, Ron and Ronnie Guy as well as the Voracek crew.

Prescott is a gorgeous town. 

I think I saw the most beautiful sunrise I have ever witnessed from my perch up top on the mountain.

Epic. 

It was cold but no snow but there was some still on the ground.

Easy pack in, easy load out, couldn't ask for more.

I left Thursday morning and was engrossed in conversation with Barry when I turned off on the freeway.

About an hour in I started noticing plant forms I have never seen before. Then a rock spire on my left that resembled something from Monument Valley. Just where in the hell was I?

I looked down at my screen and saw that I was actually headed to Las Vegas. Wrong road. I took about ten more miles before I could find a place to u-turn on the mountain grade.

Bob called and asked where I was?

Quartzite.

It took five hours?

Don't ask...

Having righted my ship I made my way through the desert. And then the yellow oil light came on. I stopped and checked and I was real low but was in bumfrick egypt and no where to stop. Nursed it to a oil change place in Temecula. They said no oil whatsoever which is weird because I am on a 4k schedule. No leak either but the plug smelled burnt. 

Not sure what is up, going to change the plugs but the engine might be burning oil at 90 k which should not be happening.  Will keep a better eye on things. Can't afford a new car right now.

Anyway, life is what it is. Good to be home with my sweetheart, going to rotisserie a duck tomorrow on the Weber, with an apricot glaze on my half of it.

Take care, all.

Al Di Meola - Uncle John’s Band

Queen Bitch

Sinema Scope

I regularly thrashed Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema on this blog when she was in office. 

The blonde bimbo from Arizona and her cohort in West Virginia did more to deepsix the Democratic party than anybody, every chance they got. 

She was featherbedding her future at every opportunity, thought nothing of her constituency, only sucking up and aggrandizing herself to big money interests. 

Here we catch her smelling a fat payday ahead in her tasteless Elton John meets the munchkins ensemble.

She is in the news twice this week. Elizabeth Warren called her out on the carpet for her corporate butt sniffing the other day.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Monday ripped her old colleague, former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), for “cashing in” by representing crypto, artificial intelligence (AI) and other wealthy corporate interests since leaving the Senate at the beginning of 2025.

Warren accused Sinema of protecting wealthy industries during her final years in the Senate before “cashing in” and cited a recent Wall Street Journal article that, according to Warren, “marveled at the sheer number of projects Sinema has taken on from crypto, AI and other wealthy corporate clients.”

“Meanwhile, millions of working Americans who have not seen a minimum wage increase in almost two decades are still waiting for Democrats to deliver on one of our most basic promises,” Warren said Monday at a speech at the National Press Club on the “future of the Democratic Party.”

The Massachusetts senator took aim at Sinema, in particular, or her vote in March of 2021 to raise the federal wage to $15 an hour and then spending the rest of her Senate term opposing Democratic efforts to raise taxes on wealthy corporations and hedge fund managers.

Now the self avowed bisexual ecstasy user is apparently trying to milk corporate psychedelia as well.

The Wall Street Journal reported in August that Sinema “has launched an array of projects and new jobs focused on cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and psychedelic research.

Nothing against psychedelic research but she gives me the willies, definitely a bad trip.

*

In other news, Sinema is getting sued by her bodyguard's ex wife for seducing her husband and ruining their marriage.

Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) has been sued by the ex-wife of a former congressional aide who is accusing the onetime Arizona senator of breaking up her 14-year marriage through “intentional and malicious interference,” according to a lawsuit filed in Moore County, N.C.

The plaintiff, Heather Ammel, is accusing Sinema of seducing her ex-husband, who served as a member of her security detail beginning in April 2022 and then as a salaried member of her Senate staff as a defense and national security fellow, according to the complaint.

The complaint is full of bombshell claims, including that Sinema asked her security employee, Matthew Ammel, to bring MDMA on a work trip so that she could guide him through a psychedelic experience and that she messaged him about sexual positions in certain scenarios. Heather Ammel is seeking to hold Sinema liable for “alienation of affection,” a legal claim that allows a spouse to hold a third party liable for interfering in a marriage in such a way that causes loss of love or companionship.

This useless woman is and will always be bad news.

Shadows and Light

Robin and Dave with the Ormidale Chorale - Argyll, Scotland

The Beach Boys - Vegetables

Downtown

A friend sent a mysterious text Sunday with a tic tok video attached, Beware! I don't do tic tok so I called him Monday morning and asked him what was up and if there was anything in particular that I should be concerned with.

He said not to worry, he just wanted me to know that a noted Fallbrook street person (rhymes with Meth) was seen fishing mail out of the mail slot at the Mission Theater with another urchin.

He followed them behind another business and watched them sort through it. He called the cops, told them that he had video and they did nothing, Went into an alley and laughed. No arrest, no nothing.

I thought mail theft was a federal offense?

Not in Fallbrook, apparently, where the cops don't like to make waves. Unless they are prosecuting my wife for defending herself against a crazed Maga-ite who punched her in the face. Because "it is her word against yours and we are going to side with the conservative." That one cost us some money. Good thing a scared witness who saw the whole thing finally stepped forward.

Anyhow I don't usually bother talking to the deputies about the homeless who seem to run roughshod on Main St. The ones who crap near my back door and who I continuously have to pick up after. I filled a garbage bag yesterday. I have seen them charging their phones in one of my utility outlets that is practically on the roof. But nothing ever changes, I think somebody is bussing more and more derelicts in.

Not sure why they are my responsibility to clean up after but at least they have mostly stopped screaming foul epithets at customers and shopkeepers and scratching their names on my window. I just pick up trash and power wash poop,

My friend told me that one of these losers had a gun and tried to carjack him a few months ago. But law enforcement won't do anything. Pretty useless.

What a shame.

I used to have a lot more sympathy for the downtrodden but I have used up my quota. All they seem to do is take. And the rest of us are on our own. 

Neighborly

 

Black throated wind

Love you, Bob.

So saddened to hear about the passing of Bob Weir. 

Dave alerted me that the end was near a few weeks ago. 

I didn't want to believe it. 

During my long tenure as a fan and member of the dead community I managed to meet, hang out and talk with every member of the dead but Kreutzmann for some reason.

But Bob is the only member of the dead I ever drank with. It was at Griffin's funeral. 

We drank a bottle of tequila, right out of the bottle. 

Jerry was drinking whiskey in the bar but Bob and I were swigging right from the bottle outside.

This was way back in 1991. We talked about a lot of things that I don't totally remember at the moment but I do recall talking to him about Griffin's Imperial Message mural that Gordon and Griffin erected behind the dead back at the infamous Swing show in San Bernardino in 1977. 

Bob had no clue it was ever up, apparently until I told him, he didn't have any idea. They were looking the other way. Tried to tell him how powerful that night was for many if us, not sure it got through. Anyhow he was a genuine guy and I was and still am quite grateful that he took the time to reminisce and share a bottle of spirits with me mourning our late friend.

Beautiful man, will be sorely missed.

Weather Report Suite

The Ol' Cardiff Days

After forty three years of chemical sobriety, I have to figure all the criminal statutes have expired by now and I can safely expound on my misbegotten youth. So a confession; I was not always such a squeaky clean boy scout as I am today.

College was quite the experience. I had two roommates, Dave and Jeff. Rick Griffin called us the original Furry Freak Brothers. Never went to class much, interfered with our partying. Dave recently sent pictures.

We had quite the bachelor spot, right on the bluffs of Cardiff. Pretty legendary, industrial sized nitrous tank, glass tabletops, Motown parties, we were like pioneers of our craft.

We all have our roles to play. I was sort of the mature adult chaperone in this household. "Have a glass of milk, have you done your homework?" Somehow we managed to fit in quite a few Grateful Dead concerts in between our scholastic efforts.

Me to the right, my first year issue red BMW. Not sure about the white pants. Dave had a green BMW CS coupe, one of the early ones. We set the bar for high or low, depending on your pov. Lots of fun times, many girlfriends.

An older milf type woman named Francine would open her door and scream loudly so everyone on the block could hear, "Robert, do you want to f-ck..." I tried not to ever let the old gal down.

blotter tongue

easing congestion

Tempe airplane ride

Dave says he has a lot more shots, some even more disturbing than these. These pics actually scare me now. We were definitely out of control. But we sure had fun. These whippersnapping kids these days...

Brick in the wall...

What sad times we live in when a communist lesbian agitator is allowed to run over a masked ICE officer with her car. Wait, what do you mean that never happened?

String Cheese Incident

Bully Power

“We live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power,” he said. “These are the iron laws of the world since the beginning of time.” Stephen Miller

Our application and newfound love for the Monroe doctrine in places like Venezuela and Greenland will have one immediate result; it will be an invitation to Russia to take over Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Poland and bring them back into the puppet state fold. 

Look for China to greenlight their takeover of Taiwan as well.

We have set a stunning example with our rhetoric, threats and bullying actions. We have forsaken and alienated our longtime allies and given strength to ruthless adversaries.

Europe and the west will be the new enemy for Trump and his new allies in Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang, who share his love for unbridled power and autocracy.

It is frankly a shameful time to be an American, both internationally and domestically.

*

Having said that, kudos to several Republicans for finally standing up to Trump. Thank you Thom Tillis, Bill Cassidy, Roger Wicker, Dan Sullivan and Don Bacon, a retired Brigadier General. We need more people of every political stripe and tribe to speak out against the insanity.

Jesse Ed Davis

Note from Big Dave

I thought that this was an interesting screed and probably quite accurate.

Remember January the 6th