A Double Feature

And Now Here's The Busking News.

I played at two farmer's markets this weekend. And my finger burn like hell-fire. I got to be the "official lunch time background enhancer" for the U-district market. And thus I was paid in kind by being given a whole, organic, freshly made, no cheese pizza by Mike a the Rolling Fire Pizza Concern. Great goddamighty that was tasty! and Again! Aaron at The empire ice cream stand tossed me the last of thier strawb sorbet - great lord that was awesome. I'm not kidding. These foods...their not like food. it's like - they are their own art. There's so much trade and barter that happens at the farmers market, it gives me hope that corporate capitalism in not the only answer to allow humans to thrive. It feels very healthily pre-AND-post capitalizm.

In the Dr. Who Role Playing Game, which I owned at one point - they had a chart that listed levels of political advancement for a planet. From least advanced to most it went - no org, tribal/clan based, city-states, nations, democracy, whole world govenrment, and at the apex of civilization? - tribal/clan based. Ah....such cleverness. If feels so true. Like how regions have thier own cultural flavor within the EU countries...they all have a simultaneous eye to the larger interests of thier collective - while celebrating their own hertiage and culture at a local and regional level.

Anyway - i played for about 2.5 hours on saturday and 3 solids on sunday. My new songs are "hey Good lookin'" and "james Alley blues" and i made a pretty good stab at improvising a "ring of Fire" for a super-fun couple (the lady sang along with "When you love somebody" by the Fruitbats!) and thier super cool kid who parked in front of me for like, 1/2 hour. I don't know why i didn't learn Hey Good Lookin' before - It's just perfect for this thing - everyone knows it, it's easy to dance to, it's a bit rascally, it's postive, just a perfect song. And Peter - who kept at me about James Alley Blues is absolutely right - It is one of the best older folk songs in the world - so clear, so clever, so full of emotion, so soulful, and i'm going to play it for the rest of my life. (on a side note - Mcguinn and Wilco got it wrong - Rabbit Brown doesn't sing:
I bought her a gold ring and i paid the rent
He REALLY sings
I buy the groceries and I pay the rent

The difference is that instead of singing a trope - Gold ring = marriage - It keeps it grounded in the day-to-day details of ANY relationship - sanctioned by the bourgeoisie/state/church or not. For some folk music that is RARE, mang - so personal/universal and special.

Ok...back to regular life, and learning new tunes....I'm actively working on Pancho and Lefty and Georgia on my mind (SO! beautiful!), and These boots are made for walking.

Wish me luck!