You Gotta Suffer If You Wanna Sing The Blues

Did you hear about the aspiring writer who sued his parents for giving him such a normal upbringing that he had nothing to write about? Or is that just another ridiculous urban legend, like that smoking marijuana somehow magically makes you want to do other drugs?

I just got a million-dollar bonus, bought a bigger house with a pool, my parents are proud, I have a shiny black SUV, a red sports car and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, I've got two girlfriends who get along together, but all life on the planet just suddenly came to an end. NOT FAIR.

That there's a big controversy about this whole same-sex marriage thing here in California is a hoot, don't ya think? It reminds me of restaurants that require men to wear a brightly colored piece of cloth around their neck or they can't eat there. "You gotta be just like US." (In MY restaurant, men and women must have nose rings if they expect to be seated. But hey, we're not snobs. If you don't have a nose ring, we'll lend you one to wear while you eat.) Corporate Rule has driven us to the brink of extinction, the effects of maintaining an unrealistic standard of living so a few folks can get super rich is taking its toll on our world. Record-breaking storms, record-breaking tornadoes, record-breaking floods, record-breaking wildfires, record-breaking drought, record-breaking crop failures, record-breaking climate change, an evaporating ozone, dying oceans, and melting ice caps all conspiring to do us in, yet The Saved Ones still somehow have time to be concerned with making everybody have sex like they (and God of course) think is the only right way. And they get to gather together tax free to come up with their pious nonsense. We're doomed I'm afraid. Though every day we're hearing more and more ways people are coming up with to save gas, use less energy and water, eat better and cover the basics for less, it's a pity we had to wait until we were going over the edge before it became a public issue and made The News, finally no longer just automatically labeling anybody daring to suggest using less as old hippies, eco nuts, or other whacko-types. Yet the Chosen Ones ignore all the mindless corporations and their bought-and-paid-for elected representatives that are doing us all in, and continue to do battle with free-will and pleasure. Wouldn't it be neat if all the Guy In The Sky people all over the planet turned their venom on the ones doing us all harm rather than only attacking anybody trying to have some fun out of life? Damn, I really hate going on about this so much, but if you'll look around, the planet is SERIOUSLY starting to fight back. She's fighting for her life, but why aren't WE? We need Planet Earth more than She needs Us.

Today I rode the bus down to the library on 48th, just the other side of Vermont, to pick up the third and final new Brigitte Bardot DVD, the one that has the fifth movie and the bonus feature. Up in San Francisco at the new library years ago, I asked for a book on Ms Bardot--it was kept in a back room, I couldn't take it out of the building and had to leave my drivers license at the desk until I returned it--that included a display of pictures of all the famous women that followed who copied BB's look. There were thirty or more of them. She was the first point of light that appeared during an exceptionally dreary time in history. She certainly opened my young eyes. And I remember from the Biography video about her, when asked about doing sexy films, if she would rather do more serious acting, she answered, "Oh, I like my kind of movies. I'll do more serious movies when I'm older." Good for her. She changed me from a potential cradle-to-grave paycheck junkie to a happy bed-to-bed rounder. Thank you, thank you, Brigitte Bardot.

Tim Russert died today. Dropped dead at age 58. And he was yet another rich and famous guy who went suddenly from natural causes who was younger and had better health care than me. I'm 62, so besides having partied all my life, by living longer I'm even farther ahead of the game, yet I'm still freaking out about the way our little speck of dust floating through space we like to call Planet Earth is being used up by and for the Lords of Wall Street. I can not for the life of me figure why so many folks with their lives ahead of them don't seem concerned about anything except lower gas prices, which will only make us all fry that much sooner. Just lame, easy shit like cutting out plastic grocery bags by the year 2020 just ain't gonna cut it. What kills me is that fun is cheap and takes so damn little, prosperity consumes all ones time, creates lots of waste and pollution, and doesn't really make anybody happy except corporate CEOs and their accountants. Save the planet, stop being a total consumer and party more. More Grasshoppers, less Ants. Win/win as they say.

Today I've been hearing that Susan Atkins might be released from prison to die. I read her book right when it came out, Child of Satan, Child of God. The part where she first got led onto death row really got to me. Remember in the book, Helter Skelter, before anybody had even heard of Charlie Manson and The Family, some guy in jail somewhere told an account of the murders so vividly that a cell mate had gone to his parole officer and said he thought the murderer might be this guy who'd told the story? I was in that cell, heard the story being told, and knew the guy who went to his PO trying to get out of being sent back to state prison. The guy's wife continued to visit me after he'd been sent back, and after the arrests, she'd told me what her husband had thought and tried. Then several years later, in a mountain cabin up in British Columbia, reading the book, I came to the part where that incident is mentioned. Small world. (Old [at that time "new"] Orange County Jail, H-tank, cell-5. And I remember both guys' names.) They were sure wild and crazy times.

So anyway, again, good luck to us all.