Monday, August 29, 2011

BIRTHDAY BLOW-OUTS

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Today is my birthday. Tomorrow is my father's. Today is also the anniversary of hurricane Katrina. It was that year I was wall to wall with evacuee's and my father returned from vacation and it was hard for us to get together that year. I also lost 2 friends mid Sept. and my father was in an accident first week of Oct. We never exchanged cards that year but the gift he gave me is invaluable.

A few years before Katrina I had lost my 2 Afghan Hounds and a grandson within a years time. Doing a 180 from the reputation of the soberist bar manager in New Orleans, 'land of bars', I started to drink. I then opened my own bar where I would drink a case of beer before leaving and end up at friends bars where I progressed to bottles of rum, jack, gin...whatever my entourage and I decided to roll with. Sometimes I would ride with other bar owners in an RV hopping all of our bars that lined the path from New Orleans, Slidell, and into Biloxi and go for days. I was suffering severe liver damage and ignoring the doctors. I was self destructive.

2 hurricanes hit in the same month less than 2 years before Katrina damaging my beach house. My father's love, support, and determination to get me home and sober me up put things in motion for me. I came home...but it took another 2 years to become sober. It was after his death I started to try and keep my promise to him.

I still drink now and then with the doc's permission but it doesn't even add up to 4 times a year. And that's the holidays and our birthdays. That gift of love, support and determination became my saving grace. I think it prolonged my life and I am able to enjoy the love of my dog Paros, Jim, and others.

Happy Birthday, Dad...your love and words still ride with me. You did your job well and I pray God's love enables you to rest in peace. I know you were my gift and blessing from him and I can't help but miss you still.

I will always blow out the candles for us both :}



Sunday, August 28, 2011

BYWAYS

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Well...I commented on how pretty a dining room set was and I don't know what compelled Jim to buy it for me but maybe it was to avoid laying the wood and slate floors I wanted. Maybe he felt getting me a practical gift like floors wasn't the way to go. I am a virgo and virgo's are practical lol. Most I know. He is one too :} Thank you, honey. You are sooo sweet and I would have been just as happy with the floors but if this is what you wanted me to have...it just makes me a bit happier :)))


Old pics (97ish) and quickie Bday cards posted (wacom up but still drawing with the mouse :/). Suffered hurricanes for 25 years but it became really bad when I bought a small beach house after a divorce. My front yard eroded away every year so it was filled, seeded, and pool remained heavy with tree limbs. I can't even say how many times I fetched the mailbox from floating down the road so I am happy to be high and dry now. So thoughts to you on the east coast. Be glad it's not a yearly ordeal!


Happy Birthday Jerry, Jim, Memory, Danny, me, Dad (Dor, Tanya, Kevin...and the rest!)



Thursday, August 11, 2011

CROSSROADS

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Metaphorically, crossroads are where 2 worlds meet. Usually the spiritual and physical world. To me, it is a time to decide if I want to keep on the same linear path or veer off into another direction. Living on the blues trail from Louisiana to Memphis....it is depicted in blues songs just as that; a point in life a particular road is taken.

Down here in the south...Mississippi is well known for their crossroads. It is considered to be where you meet the devil to bargin with and legend has it that Robert Johnson, a legendary blues singer and guitarist, dealt with the otherworldly being to learn guitar. Or so as history writes it. He couldn't play a lick and disappeared for a year but when he returned....he could blow them all away. Those crossroads are where 61 and 49 meet in Clarksdale (couldn't find my pic so posting this one of Reverand Zombies voodoo shop in New Orleans French Quarter here. See City Confidential: Devil and Delta Blues or The Search for Robert Johnson).

Of course those southern dogs don't hunt with me and if I see the devil coming or know I am on his path...I'd definitely be changing direction if I'm out of whoop a** cans or don't have an entourage of bikers behind me. The old official crossroads were really where the Southern and Yellow Dog railroads met in Moorehead, Ms. Old schoolers would say "Where the Southern cross the Dog". (Video of the month and all the Clapton/Winwood I've been playing the past year from Crossroads Guitar Festival...DVD's at amazon :).

And naturally with my birthday this month and turning 50....I can just see them crossroads ahead. And evaluating everything, or what Jane Fonda calls a 'life review' when writing her book "Primetime", there will be some changes to come.

Of course it sometimes feels as if I'm just doing doughnuts :/


(Graphics: rerendered my last years 'abstract' from the tutorial found here. The above can be used as a wallpaper for most any size monitor if you set the background to black. Also... KPT filter on guitar drawing from last year but new virgo symbol from webdings in PS CS5 Extended...no filters installed...yet ;)






See write up on Robert Plant's visit from local paper here.


Local Blues Links:

MS. Blues Trail
Delta Blues Museum
MS. Delta Blues Info
Ground Zero Blues Club
Highway 61 Blues
 Central Ms. Blues Society
Blues Foundation
BB King
BB King Blues Club
Muddy Waters
WC Handy Blues
Billy Holiday