Sunday Interlude and Sermon

Steinbeck wrote a book titled Moveable Feast, and I thought of it, as I provided a feast for the mosquitoes out at Fort Missoula. I was there before dawn one morning to photograph the iris garden. There must be over 200 varieties, a bounty for any flower lover. If you go out there, don't forget your citronella oil. If you go to shoot the iris, take some scissors or hand pruners to nip off dead blooms to clean up your frame.

The sermon for this lord's day comes from the trial of the Grace CEOs. I will not revisit or argue the verdict, but I will point out the common truth once more shown by it. As the world now stands, corporate profits are more important than human lives. People are being murdered everywhere to guarantee American corporations continue to stack up profits.

The bottom line dictated the invasion of Iraq, and it paid off well for the people who invested in it. Cheney and Halliburton made tons of money, as did several other big companies and the rich people who controlled them. A million dead meant more weapons sold, more profits, higher stock returns, and a huge victory for the free market. It is only one example of native people being killed to make the oil beneath their lands available for American industry to suck up.

The republic is dead; we are empire, the largest and mightiest the earth has ever seen. So has it been since the beginning of human history: empires rise and fall. Read Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is a blue-print of where we stand and where we are going. The decline has already begun, our government is corrupt to the core, we are constantly fighting someone somewhere, mercenaries are doing more of the fighting and the rich get away with murder.

Our religious leaders are the same Pharisees and hypocrites Jesus dealt with in his time. They are greedy, lying tools of men who would rule the world. That's the reason church and state should be separated, because the leaders corrupt each other. Serving your religion requires serving your government, while the government makes superstition rather than reason the law of the land. They make a good team for controlling the masses...and making themselves rich.

Thus, we have people labeling themselves pro-life who will do anything to preserve zygotes, a handful of mindless dividing cells, claiming human life begins at conception, while ignoring the murder of real, thinking, feeling humans worldwide. Does that make sense?

We want the whole world to give us their natural resources, sacrifice their cultures and eat McDonalds, drink Coke or Pespsi, wear Nikes and Levis, watch our movies, buy our music, worship our god, believe our superstitions. Sometimes we kill them for refusing our generous offers.

Aren't those iris something. They were my mother's favorite flower and I inherited her collection, when she died. I doubled the size of the iris beds, over the next four years. That is one thing I do miss from Arkansas. There's a bunch out at Fort Missoula. Go see them before they are gone.

Sizzling Music as Summer Approaches

Friday night in zootown found hot music everywhere. I must start with my favorites, Zeppo, MT, who lit up the Top Hat with their jazzy version of old time rhythm and blues. My friends can play, and some listeners can't help but dance, when the music starts.

I've said a lot about Zeppo in the past. Now I must say more about the Top Hat. I know there are people out there who will not return to the Top Hat, because of past grudges. Give this place another chance. The music is still terrific, and now the atmosphere is, too. True, there is usually a cover charge, but the $2 fee for Zeppo was a bargain to hear this quality band.

What can one say about the old master, except, may he live long and prosper.

School was out, the students gone, and Reverend Slanky was missing a hundred or so of their posse, but they still packed the Badlander, Friday night. Their funked up versions of dance standards had the crowd bouncing. These talented musicians won the PBR Performance Series last year over a field of excellent Montana bands.

Commander Cody is in charge.

I thought that more cowbell stuff was just a joke, but in the right hands that thing is a beautiful instrument.

Over at the Union Club, Tom Catmull and the Clerics had the dance floor packed, as they always do when they play the club. This is another prize-winning band, voted "Best of Missoula" last year.

Behind Tom, one of my favorite madmen...I mean drummers. He's a photographer, too.

Yost goes crazy, as do a couple of fans.

All of these groups are top-notch, and I absolutely had to cover all three, as Friday, June 19, 2009, produced a little pre-summer sizzle. All three venues should be encouraged with your business for supporting live, local music. There's never a cover charge for live music at the Union Club on Friday and Saturday, but there is smoking until the law changes. The Badlander and the Palace have more music between them than any other venue, and the diversity is impressive. The Top Hat has an impressive heritage, a beautiful bar and a new attitude.

Today is Saturday, and the summer solstice will occur late tonight. Reverend Slanky will open the Pig Roast music behind the Old Post this afternon, at 4 pm. Zeppo will be right behind them at 7pm. You can hear both bands in the same place. Don't miss this treat. There will be some dancing going on. There will also be some feasting, and I suspect a libation or two may be drunk. It means another busy day. I better make some coffee.

Shake Down at the Ritz

Originally, I went to see Rooster Sauce, because I loved Adelaide, now incarnated as Sara Lee Rooster. Now, I go see them every chance I get, because they are one of the truly fun bands appearing in Zootown. They opened a special Monday night event at the Badlander, inside the historic Ritz Building.

Did he say, "Jack Burton?" Rooster Sauce performed a sensational set and prepared the audience for the wildness to follow.

Expectation filled the Badlander, because these guys had a rep as heavy-duty, kick-ass and wild.

To say the singer of the Legendary Shack Shakers is intense would be a vast understatement. This dude puts the psycho in psycho-billy. Colin Hickey was right up front congratulating himself for booking this bunch, but when the spittle began to fly, he did a fast fade. Others treated the flying spit and sweat as a baptism and danced in religious ecstasy. These guys lived up to their billing with a rousing, roof-raising performance.

It was not my intention to be out late on Monday night. I figured I owed Rooster Sauce one, because I had missed their recent shows. I planned to leave after a few minutes of evaluating the headliners, but... They started playing, and this madman cavorted around the stage spouting subversive lyrics and mugging ferociously, with a touch of carnival barker and clown. I was hooked.

To make up the lack of sleep I was in bed, tonight, before 10pm, when my landlady and her boyfriend fired up a lawnmower outside my bedroom window. I'm getting pissed off again just remembering it, now. People who know me will tell you the old kitchen poet is usually pretty mellow, but this night I flew straight to rage, without breathing deeply, counting or anything else. I leaped to my window and shouted, "Shut that fucking thing off, and get the hell out of here." The machine soon died, and as he tried to restart it, I asked him if he had heard me. He said he did and continued with the mower. After reminding him of the time, I repeated my previous order. He left griping bitterly about just trying to clean the place up and do a good deed. He also shouted that I should show my landlord some respect.

So here I am early in the morning catching up on the blog and some other photo work, wishing I wasn't humming like a high-tension wire. I don't need this shit. The trip to Arkansas was stressful enough. Did I mention the night of my return, at a little before 11pm, pulling the U-Haul down the street to home and finding the landlady in the yard waving a weed-whacker around? She didn't have the boyfriend with her that night, but she was making plenty of noise on her own. When I told her she had to be violating a noise ordinance, she said she had to get those dandelions, because they had been on her mind.

Did I rape and murder nuns in a former life? What did I do to deserve this? Where do these people come from?

On a positive note: a thorough physical at Partnership Health Clinic found me to be in great shape for an old fart. My blood pressure was excellent then. I'll bet it isn't now.

Caras Parties

When the scheduled act canceled their Out to Lunch appearance, Chuck and the band were ready to step in. Zeppo had the crowd swinging on a Wednesday afternoon.

The second Downtown Tonight event produced the largest crowd of the season in Caras Park. Part of that was due to Joan Zen, who sings with her whole heart, and part the improving weather.

These events in Caras Park are a real deal. The music is terrific, and there's a diverse array of food available under the big tent. Out to Lunch is every Wednesday, 11 to 2. Since it is after midnight, I can say Full Moon Prophets are playing today's event. See their photos in previous posts, or in the flickr archive.

Downtown Tonight is every Thursday, 5:30-8:30pm.

Now, you might be asking yourself why, when I swear I'm too old to handle the late night music scene, I am posting this time of night. Well, it's a long story, and I'll just go right into it in the next post, after I work on some Legendary Shack Shakers images I captured last night. Holy shit, did those guys rock the Ritz, at the Badlander.

Zeppo will play the Top Hat this Friday, June 19th, and play again the next evening at the Pig Roast. The following Friday, June 26, they will play their monthly spot at the Union Club. You all know I love this band, which means once more I have to say get your dancing shoes on and get out to hear them.

Walking Zootown and Thinking

Did the roadtrip completely derail my thought processes or just put them on a new track to which I haven't quite adjusted? I hope, of course, it is the latter. Things seem jumbled, at the moment, and I hope they start to sort out soon.

One of the aspects of Arkansas I haven't mentioned yet is my sister's hoarding disorder. It seems to be growing in popularity, among current dysfunctions, and has been featured on Oprah. Maybe, soon, I will go into more detail about how I came to Missoula, covering the years in Arkansas, nursing my parents through the last years of their lives. It was a shock to return to Pop's house (I still consider it his house, although he's been dead three years.) and find it full of garbage up to the windows, wall to wall.

I can't get those images out of my head, and they are depressing me. Maybe a little walk will help.

This could be a map of my brain. How many of you can identify this wall? Being an old alley-runner, I have seen it many times, and photographed it often.

A small piece of art states clearly that art can be found anywhere, not just in museums and galleries. That's not art, you say? Are you old-school, or just a purist?

Seeing happy people always improves my mood. These folks made my day.

Kitchenpoet Kisses the Ground

Of course, Louis would be there backing up Andrea at Caras Park for the first Out to Lunch of the summer. And, over on the other side, another regular.

But who are these other guys? Oh, yes, Schmed is on the keyboard, and...Joe Nickell on the drums. I didn't know what the "and Band" on the promotion meant, but I didn't expect this development. Joe talks about it in his regular column Nickellbag.

Sweet jumping Jesus, I am glad to be back in Missoula, I've just had a roadtrip to hell and back. I mean It wasn't like having your village bombed day after day, because someone suspects militants are hiding there, or hastily burying a friend or relative and running for cover, but it was damned traumatic to me. I didn't want to go to Arkansas, I couldn't afford to go to Arkansas, and I had to go to Arkansas.

There are good people, even in the armpit of America, and I must thank some family and friends for helping me make my trip.

But, holy mother of god, am I glad to be home. I missed Missoula, my favorite hangs, the Saturday Markets, the music and my friends.

Kitchenpoet is back, but he has some catching up to do. Please, be patient with the old man. This trip has caused some life changing thought processes. There may be a change of focus at hand. In the meantime, I have some images in the can to work on. First Friday was a busy one, and I went to Love Your Mother on Sunday. Today was another Out to Lunch.