Dear Friends,
The losses this year have been significant.
It started with my friend, Jim, checking out of this mortal coil back in March. Jim was one of those dudes that was just ‘there.’ He would pop up places and always had a huge smile on his face and we would talk for a bit and then I would look forward to the next time I saw him. He was the kind of guy I looked forward to seeing, even if it was just to get a quick hug and say hello.
It sucks that I don’t get to do that anymore.
He was just the first of many, though, this year. My Uncle Tom died after a quick battle with cancer. My great Aunt Peg died. Mike Sversvold left us. Dave Cookus….
Ah, CooCoo. Dave. My brother from another mother. How I missed seeing you back in October. You should have been there, man.
Doug.
I miss Doug every day.
And Donnie Ho. Today, we will celebrate his life. It will be emotional. The last time I saw him was at Jim’s memorial. We talked for quite a while, and I didn’t have any inkling it would be the last time I saw him. Stupid, fucking cancer.
It was the same the last time I saw my Uncle Tom. I figured we would get a little more time here and there. We had such a good conversation. It was my cousin’s wedding and Uncle Tom seemed so proud and happy. I’m glad that is my last memory of him.
With Donnie, we had a good chat, too, and talked about seeing each other at the next cool show. I miss my friend and I’ll be feeling his loss today as we gather, but I have nothing but good memories there. Regrets are not part of the equation.
I’ve learned in the last few months that you can’t give a lot of time to regrets when it comes to death. You have them, you think about’em, and then you have to move on because there is nothing you can do except honor the person’s memory as best you can.
I regret not stopping in Cleveland and saying hello to Aunt Peg one more time. I had a couple chances. She was the last link to the old guard of the family. So now I can just do my best to be a good cousin to those who are still there. I need to visit next year.
With Doug…so many regrets from how our interactions went this summer. I didn’t hug him goodbye when I left in July. I always hugged him goodbye, but I was irked at him when I left for being a dick to Rhondi and I didn’t hug him.
I also walked away from that last exchange, just poking my head into his room and saying, “See you in October,” feeling like I wouldn’t see him again. It was a gut feeling and maybe it was my guilt from not going in for the hug, I don’t know. Maybe it was the way he said, “Okay” and kind of grinned at me like he knew he wouldn’t be there.
I’ve replayed that moment so many times in my head that I’ve distorted the memory, kind of like when you would play a cassette tape too many times and it would start to squeal. Change is inevitable. Decay is part of change.
That feeling of regret, though, I’ve had to keep letting it go and the pain is getting easier. I can’t change it. I can’t go back in time. What I can do is feel confident that he knew how I felt about him and I know how he felt about me. That’s what really matters.
Too heavy for a Saturday morning.
*****
I need to keep a notebook of things to do stand-up comedy about. I had a great little monologue going yesterday about something I saw in the news, and I’ve lost it. I think stand-up comedy would be an incredible challenge to take up. Probably not going to be a challenge that I will take up, though. Too scared and too lazy.
It seems like I mentioned in a previous blog that I used to think about turning my spiel about healthy relationships that I did while I worked for Casa into a stand-up routine. People like to laugh about how bad they are at relationships.
*****
The kids sang their little hearts out yesterday. It was really nice. The program went off without a hitch and we had a good day.
*****
Here’s what happens when you look shit up. For many years now, I had been thinking that I had missed out on seeing The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy when I lived in Berkeley. What actually happened is that I got turned on to their song, “Television, the Drug of the Nation” while I lived there as the college radio station in Berkeley, KXLU, played the Beatnigs version.
It was 1992 when I got the CD version of Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury. It was the band’s first record, and I loved it from the first listen. I’m kind of a closet hip hop fan, I guess, but I definitely tend to veer off into liking the groups with more socially conscious lyrics.
I realize now that my misremembering came from looking at the San Francisco Chronicle’s Sunday edition at Bookstar at Town and Country in the early 90s quite often so that I could see what shows were coming to the Bay Area. It was in the ‘Pink Pages’ that I would The Disposable Heroes of Hiphorisy popping up all the time.
I digress.
Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury is definitely getting mentioned now because it is one of my favorite records of all time. I have spent hours and hours listening to it. Michael Franti, who also put out some great stuff with Spearhead, too, did an amazing job on this particular record. I need to listen to Spearhead’s Home record again soon. It may yet make this list.
Franti and Rono Tse were partners in The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, but Charlie Hunter played on the record, too. Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury sounds sofa king good. I mean, the lyrics are fantastic and maybe my all-time favorite hip hop lyrics, but the record sounds amazing, too.
There are bits of straight up noise in there with a jazz and hip/hop foundation. The whole record has a lot of cool samples and just straight up genius grooves. You can’t help but bob your head to Hypocrisy Is the Greatest Luxury.
“Satanic Reverses” is 32 years old but is still completely relevant. Franti talks about different things that were happening in the early 90s from a political and economic angle, including “bail out the banks/loan art to the churches.” If you listen closely, though, to a lot of it, it’s almost as if he was talking about what is happening in the world today.
‘Famous and Dandy (Like Amos and Andy)” is another slice of brilliance before the piece d’ resistance, “Television, the Drug of the Nation.” This is definitely my favorite rap of all-time. I like it even more than “World Destruction” by Time Zone.
“On a brighter note” is how it all starts. Franti takes the piss out of TV, and it pulls no punches. Once again, the song is still super timely. This song really opened my own eyes about TV and I love the medium. The lyrics still haunt me, too.
The record is not over, though, after the band’s most famous song is done. “Language of Violence” is a terrific song about bullying. I remember being riveted by it when I first heard it and then later when I was working in Bullying Prevention, I always wished I could play it for students and teachers alike.
“The Winter of the Long Hot Summer” name drops Peter O’Toole. I’m not sure how many hip hop songs do that, but it can’t be too many. It’s another serious song, as they all are, and the album is still just kind of getting started.
The title track is another good one, but “Everyday Life Has Become a Health Risk” is a great jam. It’s got a little bit of the same feel that some of the background tracks on the Spare Ass Annie record have. It’s a groover.
“INS Greencard A-19 191 500” is a little ‘fun with samples’ kind of song. It’s not what I would call a ‘fun’ listen, but it does make you think. “Socio-Genetic Experiment” is a bit laid back in style, but if you listen to the words, they don’t get much more powerful. Franti did such an amazing job of creating a vivid picture of what his young life must have been like.
“Music and Politics” is a bit of cool jazz. The guitar riff on it is pretty sick. I’m guessing that is Charlie Hunter. I don’t know for sure, but he’s the only guitar player listed on the liner notes. It’s actually a pretty sounding song, even if it is not pretty lyrically. There is a bit of hope in there, though.
The groove comes back strong with “Financial Leprosy.” The lyrics and samples from the news media are still about as heavy as it gets, but there is such a great vibe to the music. The CD comes with a cover of “California Uber Alles” by Dead Kennedys, too. It’s pretty awesome.
I love this record. I will always love it. I’m sad that more people don’t know who great it is, but I’m thankful that people will continue to discover it in small doses. I feel pretty confident that a hundred years from now, there will be people who find this recording and get their groove on.
Good for them.
*****
See you tomorrow.
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