January 2010 Archives

Seasonal obedience means retract your energy.

Be a little sprout if there is no snow, or be the quiet tunda wind voice if there is snow. Be the winter creature.

If you get sick, take a long and very hot bath and then get out and put on your most comfortable pjamas and cover up with a heavy blanket. Drink a cup of ginger tea, or mint, or cayenne and lemon, and sweat out the sickness. Close your eyes and dream up the memories of summer, or a portrait of your most vital and feel the sickness working for you, making you retract, rewind, reflect in preparation for future adventures. Make sure you change your bedding and clothes before you go to bed, after sweating but not until exhaustion, and your immune system is stimulated by that experience.

If you are having trouble healing, remember that love for yourself is the most powerful medicine. Respect your body's process.

Be alone if you want to.

I do want to be alone, but then I want to talk to you.

I cooked a big dinner, wild mushroom risotto, and roasted brussels, and celery salad with pickled plums and almonds, and grilled radicchio but then there's nobody home but me to eat.

I would cook for you if you were here but I am kinda glad you are not!

I want to see you when I have more to say, and when you are not coughing.

I turned 30 a few days ago, two days before the change of the decade, so I had the chance to reflect both on the unnamed decade we just endured and also my 20s.

I was in Ixtapa, Mexico on New Year's 10 years ago and when the clock struck from 1999 to 2000, a big frail structure jizzed fire all over these BMWs in an amatuer fireworks display! This year I was in a similar situation when I was next to a Christmas tree shooting flames when midnight came. The flames were coming close to these weird bottles of propane near me and dude I just took off because in this last decade, I have seen too many close calls in the world of fireworks, Burning Man jerks, artsy shit, etc. and I have decided that I am finally old enough to know better and move away from hazards!

You know how when kitties are super happy and they knead blankets and stuff? That's how I feel about turning 30. I'm like, yeah, I can get really comfortable here!

Wow, I want to illustrate how grand these last 10 years have been but it's hard to describe. I just never thought I would be so blessed to be here, to have a creative practice and good buddies and a whole family hugging me with acceptance.

Music changed my life. When I entered the world of music I thought it was and always had been so frenetic and frenzied and heart pulpy. That was 2003 in Portland, and the commotion was insane. The mental image that illustrates that most for me is when Lightning Bolt played Million in probably 2003 or 2004 and it was so packed that my chin was on some jock guy's shoulder and the whole room was people melted together. It was so hot that the venue walls were wet with sweat for days.

It still is this hot vein running through culture and enlightening teenagers and keeping the scared and polluted proud and daring, but music didn't end up being everything as maybe we thought it would in the early days of the Bush administration.

And honestly I'm happy about that.

I'm happy to see my friends who were so committed are now diversifying, and choosing to hold the musical and creative torch still, but also valuing being a family member or a helpful professional, channeling their spiritual gifts into less abstract functions, or even becoming luxuriously lazy sometimes because we work so hard to be something and it is sumptuous to just be happy basking in earth's hues with no concerns at all.

Tour, tour, tour, practice, practice, practice, email, email-----so much work!

Sometimes I imagine myself a mold budding bright blue on your windowsill or a ruffly mushroom on a wet log.

Obeying the seasons. It's not wimpy! It's a maximization of energy.

I am so grateful for the musicians and artists who stimulated my chakras through this decade, but as there is no lack of accolades for those dedicated people, I want to say that the creative people who changed my life most are cooks.

I would cook for you but maybe let's wait a little bit, so I can get all the alone time in with William T. Vollmann books helping me ignore my wanderlust. But in a few weeks, let's eat radishes and mustard greens and notice how winter has a special spiciness. Let's go hunting for mushrooms!

Above is a picture of me playing in Darmstadt, Germany, one of the performances on my European tour in November. Before I played I had some traditional German food, including red cabbage braised with apples. Every time I had delicious food prepared home style before or after my show, I was so happy that I would play excellently and laugh really deep all night. That tour made me so happy!