Lazaro Vega

Let 'em roll!

I loath Levitra commercials. Something had to be done. Too much fear, no more loathing. The major media talking heads are a bunch of overpaid cowards who shun their responsability like lazy Girl Scouts with rich fat uncles who can't stop eating cookies. There's no community about it. Hard Ball my ass. Seen more hard balls in the old Times Square. (How's that? I'd rather not be shot our of a cannon, though).

r.i.p. Dr. Thompson

You know, doing live radio can be complicated but I’m glad Marshal Allen and Henry Grimes were able to get there without too much fuss or mad science, you know --MERCY GOD ALMIGHTY WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!!!??? FLASH-BANG-ZAP!! Sweet Jesus, a squirrel just ate the rubber encased wires feeding the transformer box on the telephone pole across the street causing the loudest crack bang I’ve ever heard. Oh man, my heart is racing. Poor little bastard. I just saw him fall to his death, rigid in the air, bouncing once on the frozen snow. Huh? Now what the fuck is that? My neighbor just ran outside his front door naked. His door is wide open. Now he’s flopping in the snow. Call 911! I’m calling 9-11!! I gota go! Should I? I really don’t know him very well, he’s an army guy. What should I do?? Holy shit, what’s that on his Johnson? For the love of Mike, is that what I think it is? My God I haven’t seen a “Vacu-Jack” since the back pages of Mad Magazine. I know this machine. Lemme help..... (later)... Wow. The paramedics did a great job. There goes the ambulance down the street. I think he’s going to be o.k. Seems Ranger Rick was “experimenting” with his Vacu-Jack while under the influence of Levitra -- had been working on one of those four hour erections -- and when the squirrel ate through that circuit it sent a jolt through the manipulator turning it up to “express,” where it locked on. Those things are as cheap as they look: seems there’s no fuse, so a huge surge zapped his member, too, rendering the drooling patriot helpless. The paramedics knew just what do to, they’d seen this before. They had a syringe as big as that spire on the Empire State Building. As one of the Docs pulled the plunger back, drawing out an excess of blood to flood the Nile, he caught my eye and said, “How’ze that for draining the weasel?”

People talk about getting high on coffee. I got high the other day, but not on coffee. Here's how. Threw on the big orange coat and black rubber boots, grabbed the labs and headed out on the snow covered lake. Worked the spud until it opened a hole in the thick ice, carefully fitted a diving mask and snorkel on my face, laid down on my stomach and then stuck my head in the ice hole. My head was a small olive in a God sized frozen martini. It didn't take long for the hallucinations to come. All across the floor of the dark frozen lake bed emerged, wavering to life with spectacular colors, an enormous Inca sun calendar with animated dragons and weird gargoyles surrounding some volcano god. I read references to Sirius, Canis Major, and thought, “Good doggies stay,” but came back to the importance of seeing the Dogon people in the calendar and suddenly realized the phantasmagoria had meaning and it was speaking to me across the obliterated centuries. Oh ice head! Oh mystery of life thaw to clarity! It was overwhelming this getting in touch with my roots. BLAM! Sweet Jesus what a tremendous crash! The entire lake convulsed in a screetching paroxysm of cracking ice and violent black water. WHAT WAS THAT?!!! I couldn't get my head out. It had frozen into the hole. I had to watch as the lake smashed open and like the hand of some angry sky God three giant Eagle talons cracked through the ice, plunged to the bottom and grabbed the Inca Sun Calendar then, like Sitting Bull pulling the scalp off that Custer, ripped the vision up by the middle leaving a wake of cold, silver bubbles and mountains of ruffled mud silently rumbling through the vast liquid blackness..... About then a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter flew over the lake high above me out on a courtesy flight with a very special passenger: a young soldier returned from Iraq. As he looked down on his Michigan and the expanse of snowy whiteness the lake cut through the surrounding woods and houses he noticed two black labs sitting in the snow next to a prone figure in orange coat and black boots. The sight reminded him of the start of a sentence, "! followed by the empty miles of a blank white page. He thought about it some more and saw the story of his life at that moment and so much unwritten. What he didn't realize, but I knew, even with my bleeding head frost bit to hospital blue and white, he saw the first Spanish sentence written in the New World. After the labbies pulled me out by my belt we went inside and had a nice hit of espresso (they nawed on Denta bones) and I bandaged up, thawed out and came down just in time to help the kids up from their naps.

I told them I DID bath, though, Chuck. Very good Marcello. Thanks for the report..... Man, that was a lot of Bix....

Wonderful.

They haven't started yet at WNUR -- they'll be on in about 10 minutes for those of you interested in hearing them live. Avreal Ra will join on drums....

Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen SPACESHIP ON THE HIGHWAY ! a road tour of the northeastern U.S. << >< > < > <> < > <> < >> > < > Contact: Margaret Davis, (212) 841-O899, musicmargaret@earthlink.net << >> <> < >< > <> < >< > <> > Tonight, March 10th, at 8 p.m. central time, the duo appears live on WNUR radio from the Northwestern University in Chicago. Friday & Saturday, March 11th & 12th: the Henry Grimes Quartet featuring Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, & Avreeayl Ra, HotHouse, 31 East Balbo Ave., Chicago, IL, one set at 9:3O p.m. each night, 312-362-97O7, www.hothouse.net, www.hothouse.net/calendar/genre/jazz.jsp#667. Tuesday, March 15th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, Passport Project's Global Community Arts Center, 128O1-3 Buckeye Rd., Cleveland, Ohio, workshop at 4 p.m., concert at 8:3O, 216-721-1O55, http://passportproject.org/goingsOn.php, chloe@passportproject.org. Thursday, March 17th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, Rosewood Theater, 218 Walnut St., Morgantown, WV, 3O4-292-8999, www.rosewoodtheatre.com, Gary@rosewoodtheatre.com. Friday, March 18th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, Slought Foundation, 4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 8 p.m., 215-222-9O5O, http://slought.org/content/11282, info@slought.org, markc@slought.org. Saturday, March 19th: Henry Grimes & Marshall Allen, Vision Series, Clemente Soto Velez Center, 1O7 Suffolk St. betw. Rivington & Delancey (2 blocks east of Tonic), New York City, one set at 1O p.m. , 212-26O-4O8O, http://csvcenter.com/2005, www.visionfestival.org, info@visionfestival.org. (Full bio information may be found under the "Jazz Radio" heading, and the Grimes/Allen thread).

Very good. Bix tonight. Do you have a p.c. or Mac?

Medeski Martin and Wood, as well as a few appearances on CIMP, and a recording with Kidd Jordan (?) all since Sun Ra left.... "The All Star Game" (Eremite MTE 044) with Allen, Kidd Jordan (tenor), William Parker, Alan Silva (basses) and Hamid Drake (drums). I spoke to Allen about that last night (when he played at our radio station) as it gives you the sense he played "obliggato" to Jordan through the whole concert. Marshall said, "I was just waiting for him to take a breath! So I could jump in...We made it work. Oh! We maneuvered it." He laid two new Sun Ra Arkestra discs on me, those under his leadershp.

Playing it right now on the radio.....

Jim, And anyone having trouble connecting with Blue Lake's web stream, please try the following link and report and differences and/or errors...thanks for your help in us getting up and running... http://bluelake.ncats.net/bluelake.asx

Fast Food Nation -- stirring. ":barf:"

Sorry, that was actually Pittsburg. Looking forward to tonight. The band came in a day early to avoid the snow. Blue Lake's server has room for 70 -- it would be great to max it out for creative improvised music, send a message to management and all. Tonight at 10 p.m. est. www.bluelake.org Thanks y'all.

Tour Schedule from Berne's web site. Acoustic Hard Cell [berne/Taborn/Rainey] STATES Mar. 05, 10pm Tonic/NYC Mar. 06 Boston Mar. 08 OTTAWA Mar. 09 SEATTLE Mar. 10 PORTLAND(OREGON) Mar. 11 EUGENE Mar. 12 VANCOUVER Mar. 13 MINNEAPOLIS Mar. 14 CHICAGO Mar. 15 ANN ARBOR

Did anyone catch the Philly radio interview with Marshall Allen? Trying to find the link to that around here and missing it. (I was at a wedding -- a combination of DeGroots and DeGraffs; all the women were 6'5" blond and young, and all of their men were like 7 ' tall, blond and young -- and missed the web cast).

Tuesday night at 10 p.m. live on the web, too, if all goes well. The stream will be back up on Monday. www.bluelake.org

Good to see Joe and Randy at Schuler Books tonight digging Kalaparush!

Yeah Jim, Like I said this is a work in progress and an experimental one at that. The second link you provided goes to NPR but that isn't Blue Lake's web stream. We have classical music during the day. I don't know why the WMP doesn't open up when you go to the link at www.bluelake.org. It should open up on the web page you see. For what it is worth, it isn't opening up for me, either, and that might have something to do with us using an I-Mac, or our WMP is corrupted and we need a new one..... Yet the Blue Lake web stream is up and running...Hope you can have it resolved. I come on tonight at 10 p.m. est. Hey man, shouldn't I be playing some of your music on the air? Lazaro Vega Blue Lake Public Radio 300 East Crystal Lake Road Twin Lake MI 49457

You need a windows media player....

Well that sure was a hell of a lot of fun. Kalaparush!

Have you tried it? Need a Windows Media Player and you'll be all set. Kalaparush just called: he's coming to the station early to rehearse and work up the broadcast. Really looking forward to this. First night on the web and we're into pure melody with Kalaparush live. Lost leader found.

Please join us for jazz which comes to you in the best of taste from Blue Lake. (This is in the experimental stage so please be patient if the stream is interrupted). http://www.bluelake.org/radio.html Jazz Schedule Monday through Thursday, 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. est. Continious jazz programming from Friday night at 10 p.m. until 11 a.m. Saturday morning. Sunday, Midnight to 7 a.m. then 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Special live broadcast of Kalaparush and The Light tonight, March 3rd, at 10 p.m. With support from Schuler Books and Music, Grand Rapids; Best Western Inn and Suites of Whitehall, MI. Special live broadcast of Henry Grimes and Marshall Allen Tuesday, March 8 at 10 p.m. With support from Vertigo Music on South Division, Grand Rapids; Weathervane Inn, Montague, MI. contact: radio@bluelake.org if there's something you want to hear.

Anyone catch the WNUR interview today?