Winter

I am a native of Phoenix, Arizona. Winter does not exist there. Well, your nipples might get a little hard and you might have to turn on the pool heater, but you get my drift. Winter exists here in the high desert/mountain, whatever-in-the-hell-this-place is. I hate it. I'm too fat and old to ski. Well, maybe not. It's too damned expensive. Yeah, that's the one. I mean, where have all the good times gone? Answer: summer. I'd make a lousy Eskimo. I think my body type points more towards "albino Samoan". Ah, the South Pacific islands! Never been, but I hear they have coconuts. I'm a bit bananas in my coconut. It's not the same thing as being crazy. Trust me, I've looked into it. It was looking back at me, if you know what I'm saying. I'm sorry, you don't know what I'm saying. It's just that winter sucks and snowmen are frozen clowns waiting to get me.

Okay, no more half asleep posting for this guy.

Sister

This is one of my favorite pictures of my late sister Bonnie. She is holding our nephew Robert, who is now a teenager. She wanted to have kids of her own but it never did happen. However, she helped out a ton with our oldest sister's children, especially Robbie.

I'm really not sure what to say at this moment. I miss her just as much as I did a year ago. While my emotions are not going through the shock that they did back then, the loneliness for her is always going to be with me. I'm not the most social guy in the world. I have a hard enough time letting people in as it is. However, when I make connections they are rock solid. Having to accept that one of my top people in the whole universe is gone leaves a huge hole in my life.

I didn't mean for this post to be about me. Bonnie, I hope that you are having the time of your afterlife. I mean that. I have thought hard about those last months of your life and what you went through. As much as we all thought that the help you were getting was working, I'm beginning to think that we sent you off to some fancy prison. You died and they got $60,000 dollars richer. Rehab just made your financial situation all the worse when you got out. Your job was laying down ultimatums and your therapists told us to not contact you. Talk about your classic cluster fucks. Who could succeed, given all of this?

I don't blame you. There are some people that I think didn't do their jobs, but I just wish you were here and healthy. I am grown up enough to know that you have moved on ahead of me. I will get on with my life down here. Till we meet again, sis, love you forever.

Nude beginnings

We all came into this earth nude. Some of you may be nude right now. Why is that? Do you like me in that sort of way? Come on, you can tell me.

I have been wondering, what if Willy Wonka and Chewbacca had a baby? I think it would be bad for the chocolate factory, but maybe they could start a traveling family band, like the DiFrancos or Cowsills. I'm assuming that Willy Wonka is a woman. It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Well, no, it doesn't make sense. Just humor me as always.

Have you ever been distracted by a Christmas tree? It's just a simple question. Don't get mad at me. I'm just really concerned that our lives may be in danger here. Accidents happen, you know.

You get only three funny paragraphs tonight. Sorry.

I wanted to thank all of you for your support during Performance Week. I still have one more clip left to share, but I am saving it for later. I have learned that too much of me isn't always a good thing. So I am showing some restraint, despite my need for attention. I am like a plant, people. Talking to me helps me grow. Also, it is not nice to use my planter as a urinal or to confuse me with a coat rack...unless you are into that sort of thing, which I'm not.

Nighty morning noon!

Performance week continues: A double header!!!

Performance week continues with a double feature performance by yours truly, Grunt. First off, I was asked by Rawbean in the last post comments what my influences are and my answer is simple: Jesus. Well, it is hard to nail that one down, but what I listen to doesn't always show up in my own music. Bob Dylan, Beatles, and Neil Young are givens, but guys like Jonathan Richman, Chris Bell, Robyn Hitchcock, Nick Drake, Gordon Lightfoot, Todd Rundgren, and Gram Parsons are definitely high on the list of things that I find creeping into my thoughts when writing songs. I'm leaving out a ton here, but this is what came to mind.

The first song "Losing It Again (For The First Time)" is one that came to me when I was mowing a lawn back in 2006. I had a strong creative streak that spanned from 2002-2007, especially in the middle. Anyway, the chorus came to me first and the rest just fell out of the sky when I went to record it. What is it about? Well, the concept is fairly clear and is about rediscovery. The story must of came from Satan. Yep.

The second song is "Words". This was another song that was written fairly close to the previous song. My rhythm hand is anxious on purpose because the mood should not be regretful, rather, it should be worried. The song and lyrics are like a nagging thought that has no resolution.

Oh, one more thing, I got to use a "star wipe" for the transition between clips. My life is now complete. Enjoy!

Performance week: You asked for it...sort of.

So, you are getting more clips of me howling and such. I like self defecating humor...uh, depreciating. Anyway, I've just been using my laptop's camera to record these clips, so getting the right mixture of guitar and vocals has been difficult. In this clip the guitar is way quiet and the vocals can be heard clearly. It's a good thing that I am not tone deaf or this would qualify as torture for all of us. Actually, getting a stronger vocal mix on this tune is more appropriate. This is a song that I wrote in the Fall of 2006 called, "Leaves Changing". This song is one that I used to sing a lot by myself when I was going through chemo the following year. I think when you listen to the song you will be able to understand why.

Grunt performs for you

So here it is, finally, right when it was the least requested: a performance by me, Grunt! I've posted some here and there about guitars, writing songs, and recording. I've also put up short clips of me demonstrating some of my guitars, but never have I posted any performances...until now. Why now? Because I have only about five readers max now. I figure that the collateral embarrassment will be minimal, so what the frock, eh?

The song I chose to perform was "Got Bad Luck". I wrote this little throwback-style ditty back in 2002 abouts. I've done quite a few versions of this song over the years. However, this version is closest to the first incarnation, since it is only me and my guitar and not recorded using multi-track devices. Old artists from the '50s, like Buddy Holly and Jimmy Donely, were in my mind at the time that this all came together. Enjoy!