BB King 1925-2015

The chairman of the board has passed.

If you want to play the blues you have to pay your dues.

He paid his dues. 

Rolling Stone

The Guardian

The Thrill is Gone

trust

Sanitation workers in green

Environmental vests

With broom music swept streets for Lunar New Year.

Make it new. Day by day. Make it new.

We should be so lucky to have crystal clean sheets.

Every day is anew year.

One day is like a minute.

One minute is like a day.

That's relativity. All my relatives are dead.

Never trust an atom. They make up everything.

When you know what you don't know you realize moral character with social intelligence, integrity, and courage.

Courage is an unknown word in our head and heart.

Running away is our way. Survival.

Everyday I have the blues. No one loves me but my mother and she could've been lying too.

kampot Peppers

A wandering minstrel happened into a Kampot place.

He saw a player with a sax and a stage with instruments.

Wow, this is great, said the minstrel. Live music, need a blues harp player?

Ask Shawn, said the sax player. He plays slide and sings.

Sure, said Shawn. Join us.

He did.

Here's a clip from their blues jam. Going to Kansas City.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_OdHB4VK8w

Enjoy. 

Etta James 1938-2012

Her voice, loss, recovery, passion, life.

Paying her dues. Singing her blues.

"She was able to dig so deep in kind of such a raw and unguarded place when she sang, and that's the power of gospel and blues and rhythm and blues. She brought that to all those beautiful standards and rocks songs that she did.

"All the number of vast albums she recorded, she covered such a wide variety of material that brought such unique phrasing and emotional depth," said Bonnie Raitt, a close friend, in an interview on Friday afternoon after James' death.

"I think that's what appealed to people, aside from the fact that her personality on and off the stage was so huge and irrepressible. She was ribald and raunchy and dignified, classy and strong and vulnerable all at the same time, which is what us as women really relate to."

See and hear:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADDigK8LwyE&feature=related

hello december

tomorrow is national day here in laos, said orphan.

big deal, said a little red rooster. cock-a-doodle-do.

ain't nothing but the blues, said a sallow shallow faced female teacher. a skin teacher.

i dance. i drink beer. i hunt foreigners. it's a job. 

rooster crowed. cock-a-doodle-do.

orphan said, it was blatant child abuse and he was one pissed off kid. i tried to murder his attitude, his free spirit. 

i was trapped in my chair. he was trapped in the relationship. he learned how to be a pain giver, an efficient manipulator. he carried his heavy bag of neglect, emotional pain, shadows and independence into through and out of relationships. he distributed gifts of emotional suspicion. 

he practiced the ancient art of abandonment. loving and leaving. 

i finished doing my wheelchair time. i posted bail. i was released on my own recognizance. i stumbled, adjusted, and found my balance. i renewed my sense of self determination and self reliance.

i walked on the curvature of the earth. a simple walking meditation. a kinhin.

my kensho was a liberation and a loneliness.