Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The death of a president ...

The death of Gerald Ford takes me back, back to the early 1970s and my own nascent awareness. I was 11 years old.

I remember the day Nixon resigned. I remember standing in the breezeway of our house; my mother coming outside urging myself and my friends like Bob Hezlep to come in and watch T.V.; that Nixon was resigning. I and my friends could care less.

I remember perhaps a year earlier, I had taken a vacation to Washington D.C. with my mom and dad and older sister Jill. We were visiting the House of Representatives and my mother pointed to Gerald Ford in the chamber saying that man would be the next Vice President as Spiro Agnew had just resigned.

I remember being at the beach for our summer vacation and seeing a headline of a magazine inside a store on Balboa Island. The headline read: Impeach Ford? It�ll be a cold day in hell. This must have been before he had actually pardoned Nixon.

I remember the campaign posters from 1976 and thinking that with Ford/Dole you had the opportunity to vote for a car and a pineapple.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sun bursts upon A Blue Breaking Sky

Blue breaks spreads out
Amazing morning sky, tawny
Robust with promise
Glorious with sun curling orange & red
Screaming into a new day
Rages this first day of December
Into the moment forever
Now

Thursday, December 14, 2006

All the TV dads are dying

All the TV dads are dying
Morty Seinfield & this Christian monk

Are now to be remembered
Doting fatherly upon this sitcom season's fall from Grace.

These words a prelude in
a requiem for Tommy

Sweet Tommy quiet Tommy
In the field where he lies
All of us would drive by
Wondering where he was
He was there all the time.

Waiting for angels from up high in the sky
He would lie there for days
Having simply laid down to die

No one really knew him still all knew something was awry
When he failed to call us as to a reason why.

And now everyday on my way to and from work I do drive
Past the fields where Tommy sweet Tommy died.

And I pray to the heavens & think these simple rhymes;
All fate is entwined by these fields of Time.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Realms of hell in the mideast

These are the realms of the hell beings
The miserable streets, & dry desert air
Home to anger, hatred, fear
Dust in the street, & blood everywhere.

Do they not see
Not Mohammed
Not Buddha
Nor Christ nor Yaweh
Nor angelic hosts
Stir in their midst
Only Satanic hatred
Born in the yoke of religion.

False gods of every hue under the sun.

The male ego fever fears
The other, others, groups, finds tears
For theirs, their own, & others only hate
Sows the seed, cements their fate.

yet all have been torn
>From the same flesh, earth, woman, womb.
All is one in a circle sun
Around the world, the globe, love turns
Waiting for us to see this whole
Event was just for us
To know ourselves inside Each Other.

Can you not see?
That darkness rears
Its gruesome head
When so readily with violence rise up in anger
To wipe away, with strokes of hate
Your soul, your life, with such easy gait.

Truth is, truth is, what you see & get
Whether bright or burning, dark or wet
The empathy you have; the connection you congeal
With what is living, once lived, or long been dead
Is what you take to the other side?

No Virgins wait; no Pearly gates
No St. Peter, no Santa Claus
Just the knowledge inside you
You could have basked in love
But instead you chose to hate.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Jesus was framed!

Framed into stained glass mosaics
& story-telling
Nailed onto the Cross
And history.

Ancient wise Jewish saint of circumstance
Buddha in a white robe
Roaming Palestine
W/vagabonds & virginal Mary
Magdelenas

I ponder your intent as others put words in your mouth
Bask in the hypocrisy of the Bible beltway south.

Sweet nomadic soul in the land of the distant sun
Who can fathom the mystery of your being set so long ago
As we head into the year end feast of Feasts & feast of friends

On a never ending solstice spin
Equinox in a Phoenix sky
Celebrate a birth that never was when they say it was.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Slip sliding highway blues

Who can roll forward
With out any of this melancholy blue

When even simple songs & melodies remind us of friends no longer living

Or friends no longer caring that we care

In the crisp nascent November air

It might be Jerry Garcia
Or just a soundalike singer
On a radiator xylophone
Stirring sounds of memories
& a yearning for familiar faces
In a sea of alienation w/
No direction home

As I slip on down the highway
And in and out of you
Nirvana seems so easy
So transparent & so cool
I still can't help but feel I'm less the wiseman, more the fool.

Joerossi from the blackberry 11/13/2006

Friday, November 10, 2006

Slouching towards Disneyland

On the outside here
Rattled & ruffled
scorned and shunned
Shouted down,
shut out
Standing still while on the
Run

But its ok I am right where I need to be.

Who knows me the warm ghost of history
The silent soul who lurks below
Every conscious moment
Like a window or a hole.

Within the walls o' forever
The mechanical way the world dances forward flowing faster still
Into a Kingdom already at hand
Waiting in the wings as it were
For the sun
For someone or something to show me the way

For someone else something new to get us through

Some new Lord & His motley crew of creatures
A band of brothers, Jehovah's favorite choir in a flat bed ford

Roaring through Winslow
Leach like river phoenix surging like mojo rising over Nixon's ancestral home

Kill the fat man in the bath tub before he gets to tucumcari
Kill the fat man in the Santa suit before the clock strikes Disney

Something has survived in this jurassic state of mind
In the mystic morning daybreak
He awoke w/ round, black eyes

What rough beast its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Los Angeles to be born?

Slouching towards Disneyland


On the outside here
Rattled & ruffled
scorned and shunned
Shouted down,
shut out
Standing still while on the
Run

But its ok I am right where I need to be.

Who knows me the warm ghost of history
The silent soul who lurks below
Every conscious moment
Like a window or a hole.

Within the walls o' forever
The mechanical way the world dances forward flowing faster still
Into a Kingdom already at hand
Waiting in the wings as it were
For the sun
For someone or something to show me the way

For someone else something new to get us through

Some new Lord & His motley crew of creatures
A band of brothers, Jehovah's favorite choir in a flat bed ford

Roaring through Winslow
Leach like river phoenix surging like mojo rising over Nixon's ancestral home

Kill the fat man in the bath tub before he gets to tucumcari
Kill the fat man in the Santa suit before the clock strikes Disney

Something has survived in this jurassic state of mind
In the mystic morning daybreak
He awoke w/ round, black eyes

What rough beast its hour come round at last
Slouches towards Los Angeles to be born?

Thursday, November 09, 2006

The Eye of God

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Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Senorita (Big Mike



This man is my brother in law. I love this shit. This is Big Mike & Senorita!

Monday, October 30, 2006

Caves & Myths

The unintended consequences of well meaning martyrs, visionaries, saints

Myths of ignorance in the cave of dreams

Plato's cave
Jung's collective sea of unconcious archetypes

Churches, temples, gardens, graves.

Sweet Jesus Christ no longer
Here or Campbell
Word masters
Myth players

Music of the spheres
I am reading about myself learning from within myself.

All around myself
Clues to the mystery
Abound.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Apologies, samsara, and the beat goes on

Somewhere inbetween Joseph Campbell and my Algebra class, here at UPS erstwhile hell on earth. It's in these rare moments, thriving on new knowledge in old forms, that I am most peaceful, when I am learning and reading, challenging my mind.

Truth is as I flounder around in my negative emotions I realize I have no business feeling sorry for myself or expecting a pity party from anyone else.

I have lead a fairly priviledged life in a wealthy family. In many ways I have always felt much like the historical Buddha, who was royalty and sheltered but left the comforts of his good fortune to achieve enlightenment and compassion for others.

I look at my life but step outside myself and have a hard time feeling sorry for myself. I have a job, kids are healthy. I am not dying from AIDS, not starving in Africa, or seeing my country torn apart by Islamic terrorism.

So don't feel sorry for me. You don't like me and it hurts that so many people I care about could be so oblivious to how my feelings are hurt, but we all hurt and have our own problems.

I am sorry for how I have acted and my outburst towards Sharon and Bill, but I see little point in even bothering with a lot people anymore, truth is I would love to just join a Buddhist monastery and just focus on the beauty of nothingness and read books, write, chant, and pray.

But I have kids and responsibilities and thus am locked in this spinning wheel of samsara for some time to come. I realize most people don't like me or embarrassed by me and I have done things and said things to alienate people, and there is little I can do but just work on myself and tune eveything else out. But I am sorry. Truth is often times my job at UPS turns me into a despondent miserable shell of who I want to be but I continue with it as trial by fire, as a form selflessness and sacrifice, but really loathe the vortex or eye of the storm role I play, the incessant barrage of orders, demands for information, yelling, belittling, bitching, badgering, griping, & the relentless beeping of reset belts, that are part and parcel (no pun intended) with my job as flow control.

But I do it. Why?

Because of my kids.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Strange fires

I am. Strange fire.

You. Me. Us let's do this thing. Overcome great distance. Space and time. I am reading Joseph Campbell again. We only have now.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The Dalai Rossi

This is an MMS message.


Enlightenment now! Ask me how.

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Joe Rossi report

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Thursday, September 21, 2006

why do they call it Rush Hour?

Ever wonder why they call it rush hour? How many people you actually see rushing during rush hour. They should probably call it “crawl hour” or “creep hour” or start and stop hour.

Ever see those Progressive Commericals where they say, and I paraphrase, if we treat you that good while you’re shopping for car insurance, just imagine how we treat you once you’re a customer. Bonk. Wrong answer. Ever hear of a thing called courtship. Bait and switch. The fat lazy husband drinking beer of the couch watching football who was all sweetness and romance when you were dating. If they're that nice to before you become a customer, just think how poorly you'll be treated once you take the bait.

By the way I did save a bunch of money by switching to Geico from Progressive. True story.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Presenting Pam Rasada, David Osti, Old Classmates, & YouTubing!

Back in 1991 or so, when the Presenters were doing their thing, and I had written Sex w/An Angel, Pamela Rasada briefly joined Loose Connection and contributed some gorgeous background vocals to Sex W/An Angel. So out of the blue she dropped me a line, and we've been playing catch up, and connecting the loose connections.

David Osti has a new website: http://www.davidosti.com Check out him ripping out Cold Shot at B.B. King's in L.A. David played the drums for Heaven Can't Make Up Her Mind, which sits on antiquated tape in my closet. David Osti is awesome. He is gotta be one of the best musicians I've ever known.

On a lark, I registered with classmates.com figuring it would be worth the few bucks to see just who I could catch up with. It's been a blast. Neecie & Julie F, we go back to grade school, and that's a rush. Old neighbors as well, that I remember but don't remember me. :-) LOL Glenn, the midnight creeper, ol CB buddy, he's in Dallas, just up the ol' interstate. As a social networking site it really sucks; wish there was an alternative.

YOUTube is a blast. I wish had more time to check out everything that's there. Here's my site http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=looseconnection or
http://www.youtube.com/joerossi42

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

This strange dance

is life not a strange dance we play
from the moment of our birth till they lower us in our grave
from nothing to pure nothing
rage about for the better part of a century
tasting, smelling, seeing, believing, speaking
succumbing finally to the pull of time & nature
back into the dust from whence rose your momentary fame

a soul to be reckoned with on this 3D plane
a person who walked down streets w/ no name
an identity just one among billions, to march in this parade
did I win the lottery somehow being manifested on this stage

seems a miracle itself, a fluke, a chance event, just one of gadzillions
that I might find myself here in this place & time, staring into a future that
will fade w/ my dying eyes

looking back upon all that is to be remembered
knowing full well all must join the ranks of the forgotten
one day when the supernova comes
or the asteroid bears down
and the dinosaurs die again a second death
& pluto may have the last laugh yet
in her outsider role.

musings on our predicament
this quaint, hairless, ugly, gorgeous ape-like creature man
& all of our self-importance
& all of our good-intentioned plans.

matters for what, who the hell knows
up against the vastness of the span
of a universal event, from glory to the pangs of
the big bang

just as they called in their witnesses
& the dinnerbell rang
I ran out into the street & shouted at the cosmos
& at the sky, & at the ku klux klan,
polygamists, and pseudo intellectualists
like so many cardboard men
you cannot prophesize nor punish
nor reveal what God has planned

so step down from that head trip
back away from that ancient parchment
& look, examine, the fine lines in your hand

its nobody's place to teach others what
they know from deep within
ancient shadows reveal simple truths
& there is no grander plan

than this, to exist & find in the moment here & now, the reason why
is right before your unbelieving eyes.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Michele Bauer's Trip to the Chapel

Remembering, wondering whatever came of Michele Bauer. She had married Walter Mattheau's son, whom she meet kind of via me, via Greg Davis, whose Dad, the late oil tycoon who bought Fox back in the early 1980's I believe.. maybe it was just the studios, or I don't' know?!? I know or think I know that it is now owned by Rupert Murdoch.

But that's not my point. Greg was my roomie for a short time at USC, and Michele ran off with him to party at his bungalow at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and met Charlie there. And they dated for years, and finally they married in the late 80's or early 90's. That was the last time I saw Michele. I was living in Sierra Madre at the time, in Munchkin Land, up in the canyon. She came by a couple times to visit and was upset because Charlie was asking her to sign a Prenup agreement.

She wanted to dump him but then relented, and I guess it was a good thing for Charlie because recently I saw Charlie's picture in the newspaper, with a new wife on his arm, a blonde, and no mention of Michele; just that it was his second marriage.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Seventh Heaven & the Seven Seas

she's in Seventh Heaven or so they say
& the evening news rolls & blends
images of hemorraghing violence in the restless
eastern sights

beyond the seven seas of crimson doubt
in her troubled heartland; an ocean apart
a dog's daydream, or poet's scene
in the husky voice of sailors
& Wenches on their starboard side.

this thing never grows old or cold
in a brand new day you might find a way
to dance sublime in a crystal cage

dispel Jesus, yet embrace a cloister's crown
the same Jewel the builder tosses out, the cornerstone
to her crown in the (Night She is Splendid.)

Grow without
& within the gilded cage built by men

who walk in circles
with their heads down & bowed
before an unseen God & an UnSeen Mind

a voice beyond the voices, but hearing voices is insanity.

wake into a new of hearing saner voices in between thing
& the white spaces in between the black lines of words.

Friday, August 04, 2006

Hell Yes I listen to Jeff Ward

Well, I've been wanting to write for some time, and here it is August 4th and I haven't updated my blog in a few days.

Jeff Ward, BTW, is the only, and I MEAN THE ONLY reason to listen to KLBJ-AM here in Austin Texas. The rest of the programming: Rush Limblah, the cantankerous Neil Boorring Bortz, Fox News every hour for news. And yet Jeff has the nerve to actually make fun of his employers.

He is mostly libertarian, and not too fond of Big Brother Republicans. He can be pretty in a deadpan almost self-deprecating kind of a way, likes Van Halen and AC/DC for bumper music, and, oh he's a big sports guy too. Loves football, is overly analytical but hell, he knows football. I guess he was place kicker for the Longhorns and even played for Cowboys, I hear.

I've always wanted to make up some bumper sticker that reads: Hell Yes I listen to Jeff Ward.

Friday, July 28, 2006

Retired Air Force Major weighs in on P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me

(editors note: I appreciated this reviewers harsh assessment of my grandfather's situation, because it puts it rather bluntly while giving him the respect and integrity he deserved having risen above his shady origins.)


P.S. KISS THE DUCHESS FOR ME



I had a book sent to me that was written by the grandson of a WWII army infantry soldier. A soldier who was dead on the battle fields of France before he was in-country thirty days. The book is "“P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me" from Hats Off Books (www.hatsoffbooks.com). What was different about this soldier was that fact he was thirty three years old when he entered the army and his wife kept all the letters he wrote home, right up to the last ones written from a fighting position in France. His grandson Joe Rossi found the letters and used them to create the story. The average age of a soldier in the US Army during WWII was twenty six years old. That seems old by Vietnam statistics, where a GI was between 21 and 22 years old. Private Joe R. Moss was an "“old-man" by WWII standards. He was born in Ottawa, Canada to Romanian-Jewish immigrant parents. His family moved to Detroit in 1920 and there are questions as to the legal situation of the family's immigration status. In the body of the book you discover Private Moss did not get his legal status as a resident until he was in army basic training. His family was in illegal gambling rackets in both Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The impression I got about pre-army induction Joe Moss was he was bit of a loser. He was smart enough to get into college in California, but did not stick it out for very long. He married his high school sweetheart and had a daughter in the second year of marriage. The daughter is the "“Duchess". He worked in the family business of illegal gambling but never amounted to much. He was always borrowing money from older brothers also in the family business. When WWII came alone he was a married man with a daughter and the draft was not looking hard at that category of potential soldiers. In 1944 Joe Moss is in the army. The family does not know how he got there. Was he drafted or did he enlist at the age of thirty three, deliberately leaving his wife and nine year old daughter? I suspect he enlisted and there was some underlying feels of abandonment in his family. He never seemed to finish or accomplish anything in his life, perhaps the military was something else he was running to or what was it running away from? The book is based on the 150 letters he wrote home to his wife and daughter while he was in army training and during his few days in combat. This is an important note; the saving of these letters is why this combat killed veteran is remembered by his family and now the readers of the book. Too many veteranÂ’s stories and history have been lost because no one kept the correspondence from the veteran and no one documented the personal military history. As I have said before in my column and I say yet again, we must remember. When that veteran is gone he or she is only as good as the memories we have. If they died on the battlefield we have even fewer memories. As you read the letters mailed home by Private Moss you find a man who like all new military members is in a world completely out of his normal elements. And what you discover is the loneliness that sets in very early for a new recruit going through basic military training, knowing he is headed to combat. As I read it I remembered my days at Officer Training School. The first six weeks they kept you so busy you were too tired to be lonely, but as things loosened up in the second six weeks you had time to dwell on what you missed back home. Also I knew I was going to see my wife in a few weeks and I was not headed straight into combat. I had no daughter at that time, where as Private Moss through his letters was most assuredly missing his child. He got a ten day leave prior to shipping out to France and was able to see his family for the last time. The book is only 100 pages and an easy read. If you have a deployed GI in your life, read the book to learn, then start documenting and saving the history of your veteran. We must always remember. Memorial Day 2006.





24 May 2006

Major Van Harl USAF Ret.

vanharl@aol.com

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Connections, Dave Zirbel, The Sundowners & More ....


There is much I'’d like to blog about. Much of my blogging lately has taken on a new form of poetic journalism. Mind you many of the names I am dropping or using to color my surrealistic musings are messages in a bottle as it were, a way to put friends names out there, that I still remember, or wish to remember, and by blogging them into my poem and I'’m able to revisit their memory, perhaps jog some more memories, get off creatively, and at the same time put their name out there in cyberspace so that google and the other search engines will eventually record it, and that person upon doing a search on their name, an entirely vain and very common practice in this day and age, and stumble upon my blog.

Anyway, Dave Zirbel,. an excellent musician from my home town, has checked in, reported in, as it were, a soldier reporting for duty. Check out his band
at http://www.myspace.com/zirbman And my Aunt weighed regarding a poem. I'’m thrilled, but hey look at this Pearls Before Swine cartoon. I laughed when I saw this.... you're supposed to put your comments here on my blog so it seems like its really popular!

Hey hung out with cousin Christian after a day trip to Legoland down at Carlsbad. We had dinner and talked a bunch and it was great. Thanks for the chow, Cuz!

Also, Don Moss and I had fun checking out old pictures and letters, recollecting and looking at old film footage my grandfather shot of Detroit and Balboa Beach back in 1938. Ran into Mark Ferris and Scotty Comings. Mark has a cool band called the Sundowners, and hopefully I can start playing them soon at cosmicwavesradio.com. Scotty looks like the same, and it was great seeing him again. Also had fun with my Auntie, my sister and her family, their neighbors, and checked in on Margaret and Eric and their new baby, and of course, got verbally abused by Taunt Judy for my gut, which grew over vacation.

Big Misses. My drunken house cat friend, Brian, Bill, Sharon, Pamela, Lori, Warren, Grady Harp, who I wanted to buy a drink after reading his review, one of my favorites, at amazon.com. Thing itravelinging with kids is exhausting and logistically just nuts..Nextext time I'm just going to do what we once did, and is throw a party and let everyone come by and say hello. I miss y'all.

Ok back to insipid musings.

In many ways I feel like a child, capable of only a rudimentary of understanding of how the world works. And yet what is that: the ability of my rational mind to cognitively understand the whole universe. Impossible. And in the vast spectrum between the babbling retard with downs syndrome and the Mensa Genius capable of impressive grasps of the complexity of all things and the intricate nature of numbers and math, formulas and science, and the way the natural world operates, somewhere in between all that, somewhere in the vast vague middle is me, a little man, one life, one man, of average intelligence, whose brief time on this earth is in the middle of its history, amazed at times, where I stand in the midst of human history. Sometimes it feels as though I'’ve come at the end, as everything, environmentally, politically seems to be gaining in intensity.

How disconnected we all are, from each other, especially from our past, and how seriously we take all of if that is happening right now, how important it all is, and yet is so very transitory the very nature of our experience, who we are and what we experience. In other words, think about your ancestors, five or six generations removed. You may know your grandparents and maybe a little about your great grandparents. But what about their parents and the parents before them. You probably know very little Â…. And yet this people lived and breathed, perhaps made sacrifices for their kids, worked so their kids and the kids of their kids might have a better future, only to be forgotten sooner or later, in the great dust cloud of history. How much do you know about your ancestors.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Raindrop (by the window) in Berkeley California

Raindrop the word Mylius
Less the angel drunken harlot
Queen of the Arbolada street gang
& the Temple clan, Ken Whiteley fans, that was Juan, or Juanito
whatever happened to the son of Mary &
Joseph. Quiet artist. Catoonist.
Sailor.
Friend.

She was the first to deride me
In a crowded San Francisco night
Where the subway opened up into the Castro District
So long ago, and ages since
We went the wrong way through a BART turnstile.

Only to face the morning
Come down.
A Second Mark Comings. A Range of Experiences. Ayatolla John, and Playing in the Band.

In the Stands. The Greek Theatre. Danny Vanni driving mindless but soul-filled through twisting streets of campus; the dead stirring echos of dark star
& bright diamond mornings.

dripping bible verses & phillipino-glazed starry eyed dreaming.

I got a handful of this.
Christian Brodale, brother of Shelly,
& Kerstin Hege, Marshall, & Telegraph drunk revelries with the Bubble Lady, poet laureate.
of the freaktown street, weird love avenue... the long walks past gardens
& Ashby, and black churches

Through the Sather Gates, past the drum circles, past Ginsberg, in the Quad. The Tower.

Small chic espresso spots before Starbucks was even a notion.

An Orange Julius selling Newcastle Burgers, stamp-sized chomps.

The old high school aquaintence, Andrea John
Joking as it were, bringing me home speechless, and catatonic,
Wondering if she might employ a nearby grocery basket
As a means of sending me on my way.

Whistling and we can't remember the words to
My Sister's Moonlight Eyes ....

Sam Plastic's Cosmic Stove

Weird fun psychedelic streaming ad hoc newsreporting by joe rossi. The Joe Rossi Report.


And then to where I roam and there without
& sunshine eyes
The coast she rolls to Carlsbad,
cool doom & games in legobrickslandlaid
We bounced upon her turnpike face,
faced down a sunset not drab nor grey
But bursting burst fourth with
all manner of play, in waves that rolled like smooth silken glades

(in the miniland tour of New York City, indeed the two foot prints sit offset by a tall freedom tower preincarnate in toyland)

(VH1 went backwards 1976, and Jessica Lange, gorgeous dumb dwan in huge dark hands
& an earlier reinvision of the vision on the beast. And this Kong there played the scene of his giant leap from one tower to the other.”)

& upon this backyard. Wayward flow puzzle
shine pundit spin in cal poly romances & Lorie Phaff & the 57 corridor through
diamond bar & Daniel the guitar player freak on echo feedback, echo/bunnymen
screaming people our strange in some closed business floor space just off the highway
in the middle of the night ….

& spit and polish, new Detroit breed
in a thundercoat, racecar getaway television dream team
an actor burnt on liberal piety & conservative shades of gray

the focus to remain calm
saw Christian by the Sea
practicing not practicing
talking books, and songs, & memories of family
by the Sea.

And Ted Bishop sits inside the laguna hills of my memory, are fading away
In the fields behind Irvine Meadows, where the spirits came to play one day.
Just Suzanne Sommers once scored high in UC Irvines computer class and was last seen romancing in the bay area and just as surely subsiding into the recessed scenes

Of what was, once was, the mental imagery
Of names & faces, discarded in the glass, or the history
We drink with fatal class.

Happenings in the parking lot, the forever lost on 1960 crowd
Dancing in the aisles tween cars & circles of souls
& thinking how that Seventies, and how Surrender sounds exactly the same at the end as they do on that Seventies Show, only Daddy’s not all right, and Mama shes retired military, yes, & we’re hanging out, down the street. That was a cheap trick he says,

almost as an afterthought
combats fatique with more coffee
Starbucks®brewed in a starbucks coffee pot
& splenda tossed in, to ease our stimulated way
into more words, unending words, formented, fermented in
Sam Plastic’s Cosmic Stove.

And nowhere to go but forward and so we must
Discuss the dark corner that waits all of us, and how is it we don’t know just as sure as we
Knew how to breathe
How to eat
How to think
How to sleep
How to dream
We know how to die as part of one Larger Process of which we all partake
The Unfolding of Human History, from our unique perspective
Shows us the way we are to live, for a time, and then die, for a time.

Forever. A period.
A diamond of eternity, ever radiant, on black velvet
Revealing the hidden secrets & the shadows of lust.

Trust in the energy of night
That pulls you to slumber, to the strange place of dreams
Where faces & friends & a mysterious lover it seems, change
Shapes, phantasmagoria, into the shadows of the day’s new events, to become memories hinted
At, achingly, in moments of déjà vu & sudden remember (ing)

In parking lot crowds, and B. Weisman & Sharon, wondering aloud or the Abroad gang in the Sierra Nevada, or with Robb Shinn, & Travis, Caustic Monkeys rabid punk heavy tapping drummer.

Driving down Huntington to Ronnies & the light pole falling and the fixtures fading of failed attempts to be who you’re not, and so what it was all a masquerade, a game to play, a joke that failed in the cool wispy salty gasps of ocean air in Newport Beach, where we first set sailing.

Cousin Rhonda and her blonde friend chick can’t quite pin down her name. And in Laguna Bishop & Freedom & Enterprise.

W/ Lori Hardy, or Byron at a New Year’s party on the Rose Parade Route

Death will comes as natural and timely and perfect as every other wave that ripples across the timeless face of God.

It’s in the Buddha come Jesusmind
that all is One & beyond sublime
just simple ideas
& a State of Grace.

No bloody Koran or Biblical overkill on an ancient kingdom’s bloodlust
Or the warring thoughts of man against mankind and ideas like the world is flat
& heaven hangs with gates of pearl, in the clouds that float above our childlike eyes.

(& virgins shall dance with men free to deliver, and the righteous shall sit in judgement of their brothers.)

Yeah right we are no more pawns than our gods Kings and Saviors, White & shining on white horses with swords of lights & books of Names of the chosen, the select & the righteous.
No doubt today it might be called the Democracy of God, and God drives a Hummer, with PODCASTS of his word ready with wireless transfer for download to the chips dug in just beneath our skulls.

So Big Brother may watch us as we shine, shine, shine.

And in Jesus Christ Light Grace
A bloody scourge and battered Saint bleeding
For the Great Cannibal Feast and the flowing grails of
Mystical magical blood, infused with flowing sparkles of love & grace.

The feast of the love vampire. The Drinking of the Blood.

Yes, maybe so in the dream exercised trial & judgement
of a lifetime’s activity and Life as a Whole
& a price paid, atonement hewn

in a fucking murder. A freaking gothic horrorif act of barbarity.

No a Light May Shine.
Like a Cosmic Flashlight
From someplace deep and low
In the pit of your soul.

Did Waterlion take elbop’s berekley breathed along with the reason for one
Generation’s hope?

Oh the cold dark night of the soul
And in this final fragment of thoughts to be continued on until who knows when
Flow control has us flowing from this reading & scribing of our living will.
No doubt flow control will find us later on, and maybe on some distant morning.

Return to discuss the wild party of mindstorms going on over at Sam’s place
That hip party of the underworld, and all the fantastic magical beasts that swarm there
To frolic & to play, that mental mindspace called Sam Plastic’s Cosmic Stove, where all the ancients
Like to go.

If you lean your head too hard to hear Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row.

Sunday, July 09, 2006

Insane Children of a Despot God

Who are you
Insane sick children of a despot god
So willing to let rage & bloodlust
Destroy your very conscience
Your very soul

In bloodbaths
& torrents of terror
In duststorm streets
Beneath blazing skies

& memories burned of
A lost innocence
No sea of joy or sense of justice.

Just burning death rage
& the dark emotional fuel of fear

Where is this place?
This Carnival of Horrors
Called Babylon, Eden, Garden
Of Hellfire.

Somewhere where the Euprhates and the Tigris entwine
& the sandy shores of Tikrit.

What’s needed is ironic an iron fist
& the cold hard rule of might
These children, wretched slaves to violence
& the hatred seared into their hearts.

Know no other yoke, than the rule of madness.

California DreamCoast Dreaming

dreamcoats
of whispering rainfree blue sky
in the shadow of light brown mountain face of Wilson, its crown metal
solar reaching antennae skies

the city of sierra madre sleeps
in soft sweet foothills
arcadia, greek land of peace & manicured lawns
flora & fauna, ferns, shrubs, wide avenues

suburban siloheuttes, kids on skateboards
highschools planted against hillsides, roadways winding
twisting roads into the hills
vistas of seas of sparkle & lights

& I might think of Vicki Anderson
& Lucia might mention her as well
though these words explore not my present but my long strange past
& the path it took through Ken Whiteley times.

And Vicki Anderson lived on one of those wide streets;
Just down the road from Sierra Madre & her alien pod courtyard/square

They shut down Howies Ranch Market.
I hear Bruce Sprangenburger stills lurks in her canyons, Nature Friends still
a chalet tucked away in Munchkinland Heaven.

Castaway was a drifter on a bike
smoking demonweed CB radio times, there was Turbo Prop
High up in the canyon, cobbled walls of stone

recall tom sawyer vans tour into the canyons & devils gate, the Rose Bowl
oh ancient home of childhood & riding horses and sinking into blue school swimming pools
high up in the Linda Vista hills & desert canyons. And Janie Ricter, and Tim Healy and heaven's knows Steve Seine insane on Rick Swanson/Chris Wing lazy dry summers searching ragweed scorching michelle bauers psychedlic trips into a premature USC futures wasted on Sean Shenanigans as Jesus Christ loopy twisted turns into a DeEvolving 80's ... ROQ of the Eighties, yahoo
& tortured New Wave reading of the Tubes, and Blondie, & Punk Rock Pizza. down

at Venice
fractured Harry Perry, white turbaned, rollerskating psychedelic soldiers of the time.

grateful dead came later, winding stories from friends about Dylan trenchcoat hipness in crowds plotting the rebirth of the groovy 1960's yeah

never quite came on a Mark Comings FlashBack Ride. his own guru fire swept up in John Range's mane, as a Lion born of the Great Desert Faith of Nomads burning jihad
into a never ending epiphany

of messiahs surfing into a bar chord summer riding a minor & a major
back beat
tunes strummed on Whiteley's guitar humming or maybe Doug Maas, might make moss turn on a simple rolling stone, or a simple twist of ten-foot faces breaking like waves on Bob Hezleps' John Wayne Beach.

Yeah Ted Bishop son of ancient Roman poets, Popes, and posers, surfing languna naked
suicide stuck of Christian hope for owning homes & equities in her lush

aquatic garden.

do Bailey, dance with Jonathon Winters, chance to
to find the House of Bluth atop our one time, old stoner
middle school canyons.

Oh Song of Arcadia
This gentle land of Peace & precise lawns
and Letterman lives lived out of homes now razed to make way for Mansions
built on Asian Silver & Gold
and post-communist horizons.

2000 came and Arcadia still thunders, slumbers
into raging, thermoglobal, thermonuclear future, full of holiday spectacles & maybe these children are hopeful of some unknown solution

or is this the end?
that the bluesman sang, in the leather coat to a soul in Europe on the eve of college and certain post adolescent wanderings & missteps.

a soul lost
& soul begot
the lost electric soul
no longer wandering on a Berekley street nightmare, with dead poet, Eric, now Rimbaud forever & ever
no bubble ladies or Tami Bond Spy Capers. Only children, three bright eyes for a future rising to meet fate,
& the Incan Lady from the gates of Heaven, above Cuzco & Lima, Macchu Picchu, and
a new world shining.

I taste her miracle poison
& the memory of a soldier
& a childhood now chased into a mirror.

Look at my past
glazing back at me, forever echoing the words of a poet, rolling numbers, & Rick Swanson green vines, Scotty C, and Mark Ferris Wheel fun zone just beginning...

to taste the roses of Dylan's sweet desolation rows, & I think of Eric always Eric playing us the tale of the hanging and postcards from an edge flowing

a house on Parker Street.
Telegraph
& a Mediterraneum Coffee Shop
Where the flow of coffee & german kerstin hege memories of
German reconcilitation.

I remember a soldier
& a heartbeat snuffed in hosptial in the bay area.
& a drummer & a beat & a band of gypsies & Jehovahs.

A motorcyle repair shop on Giant Road.
A Universal Mission. Save the World. Explode the future.
And endless songs played into an endless night.

That is it for now,
& New Year's Eve
Come cold Christmas morning.
We were there; we remember
A nightmare Billy Rameriz roaming wild streets
& police station recoveries.

searching for meanings, messages, meandering
into the future, the future still just keeps coming, how soon till
it all quiets down,
into a space just beyond the edge of the end, before
there ever was
& forever after?

I fall forward more
not sure just where I am
falling ...

Sunday, July 02, 2006

P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me

The Cat Rants

The Cat Rants

D.Cat Chopra...

check her out. errr, him out. vampires. blondie. the tube.
the tubes. those are his thingz, manz.

He's infectious. You talk to him, you start talking like him.
Maybe we need a quarantine.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Seaworld Submersion

Jerry Anthony makes a big splash & some bubbles in this Seaworld Brochure. He is the guy blowing bubbles in the bottom right.

Welcoming Sebastian Leon Jerumanis, The Thugz, and MAAS!


THE THUGZ

Got a hold of my good friend Dugger... drummer Doug M. whose been in Northern California for about the same amount of time, I've been in Austin. He is in a band, and it's not a hip hop band.. it's called the Thugz. Visit their website at
http://www.thethugz.net/ .. their a jam band.


THIS JUST IN! A BABY BOY!


well well well.. Margaret & Erik had their baby.... a baby boy born Friday June 9th. He weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and is 20 inches long. Congrats to mom and dad and gramma judy.

  • Still trying to find my friend Mark's band on myspace.com. They're another rocking band from Southern California called the Sundowners. Have you heard them?

As you all know, I've got my book P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me out there now. I keep wanting to post this snippet from the Austin American Statesman from some years back.

As long as we're in this WWII, "Saving Private Ryan" frenzy, Joe Rossi ... has collected and posted letters from his grandfather, Joey Moss, who was killed in action. Log on to this for a good cry. -- Gregory Kallenberg, Austin American-Statesman, August 6, 1998.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Well, I am hearing from folks that they do in fact read this blog.

Thanks to the original Maggie McGill, from NZ. Didn’t I send you a tape?

Drunkenhousecat is one of my longtime friends. He is utterly insane, lovable, creative genius and a noted mediaologist. I'm going to dig around for his blog and post a link when I can.

Remembering him recalls Sean and the whole creative manor adventure, Don Franklin, and Russell “Dr. Tooth” Masunaga, and misadventures in Venice, Calif. Hey Russell, I called you and you never called me back. You suck.

Everyday is a trip down freaking Memory Lane.

Cima Serena.. whatever happened to her, the infamous Wildlove of long lost Doors Chat …. And of course, Spidergod Railroad AKA INdie, that southwest spirit from the valley … wants to know where she figures in this picture. She is there --- fixed as it were, in my mind and memory as much as anyone. She recently found got married. Hopefully lil’ INdies will be along shortly.

Speaking of marriage, Trip Mom, my friend from AZ with triplets just got remarried. Woohoo!
Congrats to Tammy.

Hey doing my radio show over at www.cosmicwavesradio.com on Saturday early evening or whenever I can on channel 2. Speaking of my radio show, I now have Matthew Kahler MP3s
to play. Still Matthew Kahler is MIA. Anybody in Atlanta want to let him know I say hello.

P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me!!! I got some pretty good reviews going over at amazon.com.
San Antonio COX radio did a show with me reading from the letters. But I want to feel some excitement out there. Did you get the book? Can you review it at amazon.com ... maybe get a some discussions going? I want to feel some excitement out there!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

all the while thinking about Rich Gowen, where the hell are you ?

rambling down these Texas highways, and I find myself thinking about Rich Gowen, my long lost pal Rich, whom I dreamed of last night, along with his wife and his gig some art place, where he was hanging out, doing his art.

And wild flowers along the Texas country roads, might make me recall Jefe, the late Chief Broom, or Barry Welch, whom I directed west one year in his quest to snap images of the blue bonnets and other wildflowers that spring up everywhere in central Texas.

And Lucia is really starting to show, and for father's day, I was greeted with a lovely father's day movie, and the last few slides announce Christina Grace Rossi, Coming this Fall.

To be honest, things are quite up and down for me. I go from being so optimistic and happy about the future, to deep bouts of regret. I think about the friends I have that have blown me off in one way shape or form, like Matthew Kahler, and Sean Hennigan. I think about the education I could have had, that I wasted.

I think, now looking back at my life, I would like to have been an academic. Everything interests me, and I love learning and growing and understanding. But now so much of my life is focused either on my job at UPS, which has grown to be quite demanding and in many ways rewarding and validating. What I do there isn't rocket science but at the same time, it's demanding and requires someone who can mutlitask up the wayhoo. But it doesn't give me much of my "prime time" a chance to read and study. Then I drive down those Texas roads, interacting with a cast of characters, digging on the people and trying to be happy.

I come up with all sorts of plans, and am raring to get home and make a little headway, but then by the time I do get home, I am so burned out from working two jobs all day long, that the only thing I want to do, is drink a bloody mary or a screw driver, toast my late mother and watch
The Simpsons (which she hated) at 6:00 and Seinfeld (which she loved) at 6:30 and hopefully pass out between 7 & 8 so I can sleep 5-6 hours before waking shortly after midnight to do it all over again.

And in amazing spells of synchronicity, shows like the Simpsons and songs on the radio mock my self flagellation, and Lucia is quick to remind me how much my kids love me, and how much she loves me and that's what is really important.

And in moments. as the music shuffles through the air from my IPOD to my FM radio, I think about playing music, and singing Dylan and Doors, and playing guitar and grateful dead and doing something here online at cosmicwavesradio.com, or else just buying some portable power and doing songs and shows while standing next to the bubbling brooks and streams in the wild Texas hill country, and just putting out a hat, and saying hell I am a musician, and playing the songs I want to hear ... Desolation Row, Friend of the Devil, The Wheel, Positively Fourth Street.

And some how I think of Lara Rossel, and Nadine Patterson, and James Martin and my brain storms names and forgotten souls, and how we chatted/joked Zimmy in the old Doors Chat.
I might even muse on Hoon, that Dark Doors Arch Conservative, who beats up verbally anybody who disagrees with his ideology.

And Ken Whiteley who really chewed me out the last time I talked to him. Still, his guitar can be heard on the Internet today.

And I might think of Blazing Skye, this long time friend, so supportive and encouraging and a friend by my side, proving that even in cyberspace true friendship can endure. And there's Jane and Dee, and the Tribal Soul Kitchen, a zine we concocted ten years past, and how it's still flying ... And there's Billy Rameriz, the Bee, and styling Bryon and I want to call these cats up and ask them how I rock out on the internet, and the answers are simple enough.. and yet in the back of my mind I still harbor that silly delusion that somehow we can all still make music together, middle-aged, and growing older in the sunset of our own lives, watching as the world we were born into slowly heats up and careens down a course towards god knows where ...

and I wonder if Iran will get the bomb or if Sun Young Kim will lose his mind, and it will all come crashing down and it occurs to me that the only difference beween true apocalypse and say the Asian Tsnuami, is one of scale. That at some point and time, a natural force like an earthquake or supernova, or sunburst, or asteroid, could easily wipe out all 5 billion just as readily and several hundred thousand were swept away in that god awful tsuamni.

And all the while, the Iraq war rages on and I try to understanding how it is that I can be happy and peaceful in a world where some folks are so miserable, so unhappy that violence and self destruction is the only response to the amazing universe they can come up with.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Into INK, light, rain

who wants to roll in the lone star state
race to the gate, tempt wait & then wait
forever burning her shining star & sun-swept face

indigo into soul
she sought sanctuary in the sacred but severed branch
from the talk dark tree

in the garden
in the forest garden night
cradle vision of incandescent light.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

electric fine Odin's Day.

my pretty window pretty pane
plane of glass, windowflame
war of words & wordsmith games
whose to know what who's the same
sure enough, fine wood grain

strain to see right though the sheets of rain
barrel down, tall crop-lined rows
Silos, Mills, Watertowers, live stock
floating in & out of farm to market fame

a bridge too far
a lake, dammed & swam
in rock pool coves
and trail side dives

into the creek
into the row
a slender fleet of dancers, coy & cool
to touch on her one weird weakness
The coiled dancers sang.

too cool to roll
& rolling wood ways
my sunset, she prances like a fire ballerina
feast of reds & golds on the sky, it stretches
from here unto forever, immaculate dawn

& a day to finally remember.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Spring Forward, Fall Back Redux

Rolling as it were, day by day, towards who knows where, but always at UPS, either on the road or in the tower, managing the flow control.

A whole world unto itself, there. Egos, know-it-alls, tempers abound. Everyday a relentless quest to get it down. Down on time. Wrapped. By driver start time.

The book: Who Knows? Seems like a whole lot of people just don't care. The ones that do, grab on and go for the ride. Those are the ones to do it for.

So much more, I want to do. Yet, each is like I look at my life as this dwindling supply of days, in which I can express this idea, do this thing.

I have a blog and hardly update. Why. Nobody reads it. Oh, some do. I see, an occasional visitor evidenced by a strange I.P. and a longer 0.00 stay.

So anyway, thanks for coming. Have your say.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

roll into a blue day, new day
way to skip and fascinate rhyme
find words in focus & nickles and dimes
and dandy fine rainbow stroking prism'd ribboned glacier night

the soothing smooth sleek glass neon dylan heads shine fire into the smokey jazzy bars in liquid nights.

who walks here in rain gear
walks & takes the chance, romance the shoe shine gypsy looking cradle robbing concubine from hell another planet yet to be
these song she says she sings to me
to me you often catch the fate
of all the prisoners in your face

the night
it howls
all as one
and who the finest of them all he's all the rage
and he's the reason for the war you rage
and all the seasons turn the page
I can't hear you, can't be done
with you I'm not not anyone

and who hears what she grips his face
and tries to turn that fateful page
and all the manner all the stares
of millions crimson gathering there
in hushed hues & soft spoken cries

the flames they leap and lap the bride
nestled in her red widows gown
and all the people of the town
have come to taste her poison & gait

who strives among us
coins are tossed
games are won & games are lost
and who is it that sits you there and
acts as though they really care

and open up the dream this wide
a fantastic freak of vision, fashion flare
into Dylan's word garden flowing derision

on all the feasts and cadences
and all the planes and cages
and backroom deals
fights in the square
gentlemen from better parts of town
come down just to have a look around.

idle strangers standing there.
car cruises bye mirrored hair
smokelet, ringlets, starlet, tear
her ripped blouse
flowing mouth & eyes soft gentle stare

and breasts of night, and sweet sweet light
forever in her studied care

night rolls on
the cars they bowl
for pretzels, pizza, parties all the more
on the riverwalk
or at the fair
Circus animals, frogs & lairs
of crazy critter stream
fenced and gloat

the milk of Jersey cow, she fills the moat
of the castle of the hill, where the kings he roars
and writes his life in pages from his horrors he compiles
titles of time, and tortured styles.

this he said to her weaving groaned
played the hammond organ and then intoned
I must see you here
Naked as white dust doves & steamy smoke debris.

they cannot chase us here, find us there, on the cusp, breaking into, breaking bread
breaking into heaven, finding you instead.
find myself a way to wrestle demons shouting doubts and dread
in my ancient splitting head.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Strange not to find your drumbeat

in the middle of the day
in the middle of the room
in the middle of a great big riddle

pour away
flow rap rhythm pulse the night
she explodes in reds & blues & golds
like America's streak into a future sleek & fat
on a wave like the edge of a shop-lined street.

it's strange not to work here
write here
be here, quite next to you over there, sitting there in your quiet stare
a rainbow gift; a sudden glare

she of the crescent river soul moon flower bloom into
a river of soft decay & wasted twilights
stumbling across the bridges, tossing airs & frolicsome on its promise
(oh and in case you forgot to grow; did not know; did not care, nor hunt for stares.)

oh castle creed her flaming brow & midnight tolls
She beckons in, to see her flow & bright diamond shine
like no other, nuclear sunshine
just radiating there.

crimson palace, gold hair
strong & graceful, elegant, her gem-stoned studded affair
on the brink of a harsh rude wide awake and in the cold death grip of a fatal instant.

You become everything and nothing and fade away into the white night glare.
like city lights on seeping knowledge; the young they gather on the slops of of towns in cars
& parked on the side of hills, drinking beer, tossing rhymes into the starry sky,
talk about rock & the Wisdom she borne, the prophecy fortold; the bridegroom doomed

in the prophet song
the prophet town
of old becomes solid, cold.

(encased in stone)

Truthful glare
ancient eyes
& wonderful memories

thoughts going back and hour a day
no other way
sifting there, sands of time shift
a memory of names and fates, people at the pearly gates
waiting on whispers
wondering why

blessed air
in the mystic one life love blossom fold open wake up bloom into again a soft decay.

the wonderful day, ends
unconscious in the birthstone setting
midwife, on the behest of minds
nurtures soul, spirit, mind
and into her cradle, soft grave betray
nothing for noone's here; it's ok, she smile & die.

die into her soft, soultakesmeone
& opens me up to someONE
& then everyone. hears me around the corner cops chasing sirens
sirens sweet maidens luring with their dusk songs, drifting flowers, notes
of souls, & peace, and water/river/love forever flowing.

Flowing
Growing Electric Soul.

The King inside a Cage
The breaking of the windows.
The tolling of the pink floyd bells.

cages. flowers. glory.
seed.
Rebirth into a fossiled discovery
Always a a resurrection
Always a return to a shallow end.

In the Birth of Tragedy, and Zarathustra, This Rough Beast, in a T.S. wasteland.
the cold hard bite of his words. the precise way
to walk into this open room
& not know anyone, but everybody's deepest secret soul.

in the quiet waking whispers
a light at dawn is draped in sheets of red, orange,
& california gold.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Chief Broom 1947-2006


Woke up this morning to some sad news, that my friend Barry Welch aka as the online persona Chief Broom, had passed away back on March 1. I had a gnawing suspicion for weeks, as my emails to him had gone unanswered as had my phone calls and messages. And then one day the answering machine stopped picking up.

I drove by his house one day. His black BMW sat in the driveway next to a truck/camper combo. I knocked on the door and nobody answered. Now, he had been having problems with some DUIs so I kind of thought maybe he was back in jail. Or gone on vacation with someone who parked their camper in the driveway.

Finally, I asked an old friend who was a member of the Wheel, a online deadhead virtual community, and he confirmed what I had suspected, but had only found out a day earlier:

Oh my god.

We just got the news yesterday.

Barry died March 1st.

- Bill

Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:25:18 -0500


We're back from the 2006 Old Settler's Music Festival, held Thu-Sun in
Driftwood TX just SW of Austin. I've only a moment for this note and
Wade hasn't had a chance to post anything yet, but I wanted to pass along
this news from Austin....

Barry Welch, aka chiefbroom, a special friend who we were looking forward
to sharing camptime with at Old Settler's, died March 1. August Welch,
Barry's son who he frequently touted in this forum, was not only in town
tending to Barry's lifetime of collected music and various memorabilia,
but used Barry's ticket to attend the show and hung out with us
throughout.

The festival's advertised highlight was a multi-media tribute to Vassar
Clements presented by Mike Marshall, who mixed classic video of Vassar
with various live stage lineups paying homage. It was impressive, but the
REAL highlight was the preceding set by the Peter Rowan/Tony Rice Quartet.
August had received a backstage pass when he picked Barry's ticket up,
and got to talk with Peter and Tony before they went on. Mid-set, Peter
dedicated a wonderful new tune to Barry's memory; from that point, the
whole set and show really turned to a Barry Welch tribute, and not just
from our point of view.

Saturday, April 08, 2006

The Immigrant Song

Of Immigrants
On the hunt for a better life
In a land stolen from their ancestors

No fair the shrill their cries drown out
Pity this poor American,
Illegal they bellow, as they themselves drive DUI down the highway going eighty
In a 65

I see these invisible phantoms all around me
Speaking to them in broken fragments of Spanish
Working hard, at thankless tasks for the thankless
Working hard to feed their life the things they need
To send home the bread they knead

Just like me, they cry & bleed
Laugh & sneeze
Have kids to feed.

Criminals hardly they seem in the grander scheme
Just hungry souls from a barren land
With Shantytowns, and dirty streams
Where Mexican mobs cook up crack
In makeshift shacks
Where women are found raped and dead
In Juarez.

It’s a Democracy or so they say
They should be happy in their place
Know their place, their caste, their race

This is our land
This is our dream
A gift from our ancestors, yes
Our glittering prize
This beautiful America, don’t
Dare scale that fence into
Our precious home.

And soil our soul
Our pure Christian soul.

We don’t care
That you don’t have food
Live in poverty
Have no home.

Oh we might write a check to a Christian ministry
To send on our behalf food for your starving & huddled masses.
We give to Sally Struthers, OK, just so you know we care.

Unfortunate for you that you don’t hail from Cuba
Are a little boy floating in the waters off the coast, clinging to ship-wrecked hope
Fleeing not poverty, corruption but something more sinister & fierce
With which we might have an ideological bone.

A single boy we might welcome, herald, praise
His late mother, who died a hero at sea.

What if the masses were to raise a red flag
Brazen, and blazing, a hammer and sickle
And the Peoples Republic of Mexico
Our new neighbor South
And thousands upon millions become something more
Not just merely illegal but true refugees.

Yes, I pity the poor immigrant, but I pity this poor American more
The immigrant may be homeless, but this American has no soul.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Press Release for Official May Release

For Immediate Release

P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me: Letters from an Unknown Soldier.
ISBN: 1587365839

Experience World War II firsthand in this dramatically told story in the form of letters from an enlisted man to his wife and daughter.

Austin, TX May 29, 2006 – Just in time for Memorial Day “P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me” honors the memory of one fallen solider. This elegant tribute recalls 1944 in candid, colorful and charming detail as a man who obviously missed his calling as a writer corresponds with his wife and nine-year old daughter over the course of eight months while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

This first person narrative of Army life manages to make interesting what undoubtedly is a common story. His tale is told with a wry, dry, self-deprecating sense of humor, and a sarcastic, yet romantic view of life. Written and edited by free lance writer Joe Rossi, the Duchess in the book’s title refers to Rossi’s mother; and the letters that form the bulk of the book, were written by his namesake and a grandfather he never got the chance to know, Private Joe Moss.

From the first letter where he says “our training consists of 17 weeks of learning how to kill and after only the Good Lord knows what will happen,” to the dispatches from the French countryside where he assures us “I have a comfortable foxhole, no hot and cold running water of course but the best I can get under the circumstances,” you feel as though you’re right there alongside him. The writing is emotionally charged, painfully honest and forthright. “I’ve got the funniest kind of feeling in the pit of my stomach. I suppose it’s due to the fact that I am scared to death. I’ll get over it, I know, but just the same, it sure is an uncomfortable feeling.”

The book’s subtitle is Letters from an Unknown Solider. It’s a twist on the concept of the unknown solider such as the ones that can be found in Tomb of the Unknowns, or sung about in the Doors’ “The Unknown Solider.” Here is a soldier who is virtually unknown, an anonymous white headstone in a V.A. cemetery. For all intents and purposes, they are unknown, even though who they are is no secret to their families. What “P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me” does so well is introduce us to such an unknown solider, letting us get to know him, thus making him known. It clearly shows us the true cost of war in documenting the inner thoughts and feelings of a single soldier.

January 3, 1944

It was a good thing we left the station in L.A. when we did, for I think I would have broken down if we had stayed any longer. I miss you both so very much and I know that it will take a great deal of will power to concentrate on being a good soldier and keeping myself in the right frame of mind. The only bright spot is the fact that I am doing something that may contribute to the safety of my loved ones. I think I know how both you and Marilyn feel and I am sure that you, too, will be good soldiers.

This morning also, I had my first look at German war prisoners. They all seemed cheerful and happy. The sergeant told us that most of them never want to go back to their native land and they look forward to Germany’s defeat.

April 10, 1944

Just started to rain again, although it is quite warm. This is truly a blue Monday. Dreary, rain and a sad horse opera coming in over the radio. We are sitting on our bunks. Some of the men are cleaning their rifles, some are writing letters. Others merely

dozing off. No one seems to be saying much. You can almost see their trains of thought in their faces. Wives, children, and home are uppermost in their minds. It’s getting so close to furlough time that we think of nothing else.

July 7

They put me on this hospital guard and it was my duty to sit in front of the prison ward and allow no one in or out without proper authority. The balance of the wards in my post were the rehabilitation wards and it is the most pitiful sight seeing these young boys walking to and fro with an appearance of total disregard for anyone or anything. Shattered nerves and shattered minds. War is truly "hell."


An interesting if sorrowful sidelight was a young fellow who appeared to be about 24 taking his morning walk. He had to pass in front of me and before he went by me, I noticed that his right hand shook as though he had "St. Vitas." I had a loaded carbine slung on my shoulder and upon confronting me he stopped, became highly agitated and burst into tears. The sight of the rifle unnerved him and I found from his orderly that the fellow was gun shy due the fact that he had shot someone while on guard duty. His mind cracked and now they are trying to rehabilitate him.

Officially being released May 29, Memorial Day, this is Joe Rossi’s first published title. Rossi has written for alternative news weeklies, including the Pasadena Weekly, The Austin Chronicle, and Austin Homes & Gardens, among others. He is also a former managing editor of Unisys World. This story in particular first appeared in print in an abridged version published by the Pasadena Weekly on Veteran’s day in 1995.

# # #

Operation Good Soldiers

Operation Good Soldiers

As many of you know, P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me will soon be a published book available for purchase at online sites such as amazon.com.

Very shortly, we’re going to launch a two month media blitz leading up to Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor and remember those who gave their lives in foreign wars. P.S. Kiss The Duchess for Me will be officially released on this day, so that stories and reviews about the book will have a nice angle on Memorial Day

I know I can count on all of you to be good soldiers and spread the word about Joe Moss and this special book.

P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me: Letters from an Unknown Soldier.
ISBN: 1587365839

What I need for you to do, is the next time you’re at or near a bookstore, inquire about the book and find out if you can pre-order it, and if you can, then pre-order it. If money’s tight that’s understandable. Just asking about it will help. Have everyone you know ask their bookstores about it. Perhaps, we can create some interest and intrigue prior to publication by asking about the book at bookstores nationwide. Even if you don’t buy the book, asking and inquiring about it, is bound to stir up interest. Call, write, and email your local bookstores today!

P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me: Letters from an Unknown Soldier.
ISBN: 1587365839

Participate in online forums newsgroups, and message boards. Post a little something there if you’re so inclined. Do you know someone who would enjoy the book? It makes a great gift. Do you know or are aware of someone noteworthy, important or influential. Order the book online and send it to them, or drop them line telling them about the book.

The book can be preordered by visiting this website:

http://www.wheatmark.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BS&Product_Code=1587365839

As you know, amazon.com let’s people review books, so if you’ve read it, no time better than the present to post reviews. The site is already up for the book at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1587365839/sr=8-1/qid=1143321303/ref=sr_1_1/104-4097925-3003143?%5Fencoding=UTF8

My love and appreciate goes out to you all. You know how much you mean to me and you know how much this books means to us all.

Thanks,

Joey Rossi

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Sunburst Morning Sky

It is what it is
and noone could explain the loss of diamond rain
or cool cloaked secrets
discussed in smoke-filled rooms

and bimbos
disgusting discussing common retreats
& altruisms.

boasting four different colors
& seven coats
The Alkaline Household (poised for recovery)

our resident den
of iniquity still delights
w/ a poison pen

& writes her name upon the walls of forever
a diamond glistening in rain-driven wind
& who camps about in her splendid grass
like snakes in a spiderweb railroad
like lost thoughts on a continent and a cool swift breeze

who waits for me on her crystal island
who lies with me in an eternal sea
what words of wisdom from this siren's breasts
what tide will tug us away onto her forgotten shore

oh blissful diamond of peace who shines in the night
oh moonlight memory of time & space and all the thoughts that come between
breathes, a part of a pattern within patters within circles within Mind.

logic rules the cascade poets fierce unyielding pen
insane logic based on invisible rules of pushing, to & fro
into her, another rough night

and an hour come round at last
Yeats spells it out,
As the worst are full of passionate intensity

this new beast, a beast of love, or a beast of anger
raging in the desert, in the sands of the thousand nights
where yesterday is piped into tomorrow
clogging up the sky and our view of the future
smoke on the horizon

& the proverbial water
rising to meet a darkening sky-
a destiny marked by the certaintly, all living things must die.

and into her mouth of eternity
only the blessed children lie
in sheets of white & rays of gold
like a sunburst morning sky.

Friday, March 17, 2006

P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me

The book can now be pre-ordered by going to the this link:
http://www.wheatmark.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BS&Product_Code=1587365839

The actual release date should be some time in April!

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Blast From the Past (your own!) & you don't even know it

I did a search on google groups, on a subject of interest to me, and I came across a post that I really agreed with.. I mean it was amazing. The things this person were saying we're right up my alley. So I scan to the bottom on the posting to see who this writer was, and I see that it was written by jrossi@jato.nasa.gov in 1990!

I had written it, before there even was world wide web, when I was Usenet junkie back when the Internet was limited to techies and geeks in computer labs. I was working for Jet Propulstion Lab at the time, and this was pretty much my first email account.

Blast From the Past Part 2

To be put on a list of bumper stickers we'd like to see:
  • Fair & Balanced My Ass
Ever notice those billboards that ask, "Does Advertising Work?" To which they answer their own question with a perky response: "Just Did." Fat chance. Just because I see a billboard does mean that advertising works. Now, if I go home and immediately call Reagan Outdoors, or Lamar, or whoever, and put down some cash for six months of advertising on the northbound side of I-35, then yeah it worked, but not until then.

And today's blast from the past is Russell Masunaga, or Dr. Tooth, based in Hawaii. Went to USC with Russell and even lived with him and his future wife Kathy, for a spell back in the early 80's. Russell is doing well as a dentist. Called the phone number I found for them via the Web, and Kathy answered. She sounded suprised to hear from me. Anyway, I think that website they have must be a real old one, because it shows them with their kids, and their kids are like kids, and I know that the last time I talked to them, oh ten years ago, their kids were kids.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me


For Immediate Release

Experience World War II firsthand in this elegantly told story in the form of letters from an enlisted man to his wife and daughter.

Austin, TX February 17, 2006 – “P.S. Kiss The Duchess For Me” recalls 1944 in candid, colorful and charming detail as a man who obviously missed his calling as a writer corresponds with his wife and nine-year old daughter over the course of eight months while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

This first person narrative of army life manages to make interesting what undoubtedly is a common story. His tale is told with a wry, dry, self-deprecating sense of humor, and a sarcastic, yet romantic view of life. Written and edited by free lance writer Joe Rossi, the Duchess in the book’s title refers to Rossi’s mother; and the letters that form the bulk of the book, were written by his namesake and a grandfather he never got the chance to know, Private Joe Moss.

From the first letter where he says “our training consists of 17 weeks of learning how to kill and after only the Good Lord knows what will happen,” to the dispatches from the French countryside where he assures us “I have a comfortable foxhole, no hot and cold running water of course but the best I can get under the circumstances,” you feel as though you’re right there alongside him. The writing is emotionally charged, painfully honest and forthright. “I’ve got the funniest kind of feeling in the pit of my stomach. I suppose it’s due to the fact that I am scared to death. I’ll get over it, I know, but just the same, it sure is an uncomfortable feeling.”

The book’s subtitle is Letters from an Unknown Solider. It’s a twist on the concept of the unknown solider such as the ones that can be found in Tomb of the Unknowns, or sung about in the Doors’ “The Unknown Solider.” Here is a soldier who is virtually unknown, an anonymous white headstone in a V.A. cemetery. For all intents and purposes, they are unknown, even though who they are is no secret to their families. What “P.S. Kiss the Duchess for Me” does so well is introduce us to such an unknown solider, letting us get to know him, thus rendering him known. He’s someone we feel we now know, someone who really lived and is no longer with us. It clearly shows us the true cost of war in documenting the inner thoughts and feelings of a single soldier.

Available from Hat’s Off Books, this is Joe Rossi’s first published title. Rossi has written for alternative news weeklies, including the Pasadena Weekly, The Austin Chronicle, and Austin Homes & Gardens, among others. This story in particular first appeared in print in an abridged version published by the Pasadena Weekly on Veteran’s day in 1995.

radio paradise.com and Fractalvision!

Life flows forward .. hooked with long time friend Arnie Greif of Fractalvision fame ... he was here in town for Red Cross training.. it was awesome seeing him and hanging out.
He has some friends here in Centex and they all know each other via the site radioparadise.com
Checked it out and they have some cool song lists. It seems much like the site where I do a radio show, GodLike Productions, at glpradio.com.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Missing souls part 2

  • Greg Papay
  • Ed Vernon
  • Gesine
  • Her friend Jeff the guitarist (why the hell can't I remember his last name
  • The Airdrummer (Tom are you out there?)
  • Dave Bentzen (Good Morning Mr. Benson)

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Hook 'EM HORNS!


Well, it's been quite awhile since my last post. I guess I'm not a very prolific blogger, but then I wonder how any one finds time to do this kind of blogging. I just find myself so busy and when I post something I want it to be right.

Anyway, my New Year's was excellent! I'm not that big of a football fan but it was hard not to get sucked into the enthusiasm this year with local gridiron greats over at UT going all the way with an upset win over the USC Trojans at the Rose Bowl this year. And I was there with USC alumni my father, and he was a good sport when SC fell to Bevo in what truly will go down as a historic moment in college football.

Managed to snare another lost soul on my list of missing friends. My old pal from my Berkeley days, a one Marshall Nagle, called me out of the blue while I was in L.A. and we all had a family outing down at Balboa Beach. Between shots of tequila and cracked crab from the crab cooker, lots of rehashing the old days, and discussing the present and the future, it was a great weekend all in all.