And That Concludes Another Tuesday Night At The Abbey Pub Open Stage

"Grits On The Griddle", the title song off of HomeKookin's second CD ended the evening. How the evening got started I'm not so sure due to I wandered in late. Not too late though to play with Barry at the top of the list. No sooner stroll in, say hi to Fred but Barry says he's 1st up, would I play on some tunes? Yes. Yes I shall. We play Greg Techer's tune "Look to the Highway", "Served The Law On Him", a tune of Barry's, and Willie Nelson's "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground", a stellar tune in any one's book.

It is an offnight crowd-wise, but who gives a shit.

Ron Hayden gives me mail from the Chicago Songwriter's Collective that didn't follow me on my recent move. He is the president of the organization and a stalwart songwriter--always something new in his bag. He does Springsteen's "One Step Up and Two Steps Back" and debuts two new songs in a row, "Brother's In Song" and a rocker--both strong crowd pleasers.

Rick Wells invites me up to sit in with The Wells Park Express for a round of "All Along The Watchtower"—only he starts in "California Dreamin'" and finds his way there—very satisying. Then it is on to Morrison's "Tupelo Honey" and "Stormy Monday" with Ray Augustine joining on harp for both.

Where is Kris Nichols?

I hang out. Fred discusses Herodius and his version of history; said it had to be written by others. If Pilate and the Sanhedrin's hadn't both convicted Jesus, than how guilty would he have been really? Anyway, they were all crest fallen when Jesus was not into lopping off heads like other religeous leaders. Peace dawdles. It wasn't sporting. 300 years later the whole Roman system falls into disrepair and neglect and Jesus' message spread the Gospel to all parts of the World—history being unkind to all that stand in the way.

Back in the room a New Guy named Joe Murphy is tearin' it up with what sounds like Robert Fripp in a swamp blues outfit, only it's original stuff, straight acoustic, no band, and not bad at that. Janice and Bruce are sitting at the front table. They've never been in the room before. Husband and wife, desperate to hear music at a neighborhood joint—they live nearby—they've been wanting to get outta the house without dropping $300 to see some music played. The music here is free.

Sue and Doug, who are practically royalty in the establishment, arise to venture forth with Irish tunes, folk from the coasts of Nova Scotia, melifluously and gorgeously sung by Sue with able and apt accompanyment by Doug. We out there toast the empty air with glasses of appreciation. John Garland becomes the major's first eight game winner as the White Sox beat the Rangers, pulling even in a series.

It is a swell night. Fred's up.

Kris shows up. His daughter was in the chorus in a chorale concert. The seventh grader's gave it their all. Kris is hankering to play himself. A natural born singer-songwriter, Kris brings tunes that have depth and majesty but are told in straightforward, economic songcraft with melodies as easily apparent as the seasons. "Criminals From Texas", "Another Man", "Look Back and Smile"--they roll and knock the pins down.

I do a tune of mine called "Moment of Doubt", followed by "Stay All Night" and "Last of The Night" with Jeff Sachs on bass and Ray on harp. I'm exploring the theme of nighttime. Some nights you get to play more here than you get to play on an actual date. It scratches the itch.

Kris and I decide we are heading toward a dark place. The wealthy have found a means to shut others outta the picture and they care not a whit if the middle class is gutted with no means at the end of it. We are going the way of the 3rd world who have to plunder their raw resources and sell their labor below a level of sustenance to satisfy the fully empowered elite who force international trade policy down their throats and drain their country's economies of all the interest revenue they can. No one is doing much about it, but you know it is predatory lending on a global scale with an agenda set firmly by corporatists trying to cash out and remain liquid all the way to armaghedon if possible. Them is now us. It is an ugly future but a lovely night.

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The Left Coaster: Draft U.S. paper allows commanders to seek preemptive nuke strikes

It seems to me that as long as we have an irrational fear of WMDs we will be subject to irrational response to their threat. While it is true that a place like Halabja suffered horrible destruction from a chemical weapons attack, that attack was a sustained one involving several hours and multiple sorties. In that instance, the chemical weapons were dropped all through the night. Can we really imagine a terrorist force or a hostile country bombing us from the domestic skies with impunity? Moreover, with as much dread as there is about chemical/biological weapons, do we really have a notion about how to defend ourselves against them? Can the average American even name the three most deadly chemical weapons and how to tell if they have suffered exposure?

No, and the reason may be that the threat simply all that real. Our military knows that chemical/biological weapons are not all that deadly relative to other conventional weapons in modern warfare. For instance, it takes over a ton of very expensive weaponized nerve agent to cause a single casualty because it is so easily dispersed into the air. Most of the threat of biological warfare are purely theoretical. Although, biological warfare has been around since the middle ages when dead lifestock were placed in the water supply of seiged villages, diseased corpsed were catapulted into fortresses, or even in the American West when blankets infected with smallpox were distributed to Apache tribes. The reason that this type of warfare is rare is unfortunately not that it is morally repugnant, but rather it has never proven very decisive.

The only real WMD it seems are nuclear weapons. A tremendous debate was carried on for decades with voices like Einstein, Sakharov, and many others stating firmly that the use of such weapons is inhumane and irresponsible. No matter what the yield ratio, no matter what the context or justification, maintaining a first strike option with our accrued knowledge of what thermonuclear warfare represents is repugnant. Such a pursuit debases our humanity and mocks the integrity of those who may still think of us as civilized.

If facts are ever allowed to seep into the highly-charged, emotive matrix of the media, we will maybe begin to wean ourselves from irrationalism and begin practicing sound threat/response scenarios, but not as long as raw fear is the mother's milk our government gives the feeble minded mainstream.

Now, when I say feeble minded mainstream, I of course do not mean you. You are brilliant and eclectic.

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