Downwind From The Bloodhounds

Tom Waits: Trouble's Braids

well, I pulled on trouble's braids and I hid in the briars out by the quick mud stayin' away from the main roads passin' out wolf tickets downwind from the bloodhounds and I pulled on trouble's braids and I lay by a cypress as quiet as a stone 'til the bleeding stopped I blew the weather vane off some old road house I built a fire in the skeleton backseat of an old Tucker and I pulled on trouble's braids I spanked cold red mud where the hornet stung deep and I tossed in the ditch in a restless sleep and I pulled on trouble's braids I hung my rain-soaked jacket on some old barbed wire poured cold rusty water on a miserable fire I pulled on trouble's braids the creek was swollen by daybreak and I could just barely see and I floated downstream on an old dead tree and I pulled on trouble's braids I pulled on trouble's braids I pulled on trouble's braids

We Dance That Way Revisited

COMANCHE POINT

HORN RAPID

Robbie Robertson: Ghost Dance

They're all gone,
my tribe is gone.
Those blankets they gave us,
infected with smallpox,
have killed us.
I'm the last,
the very last,
and I'm sick, too.
So very sick.
Hot. My fever burning so hot.
I have to take off my clothes,
feel the cold air,
splash water across
my bare skin. And dance.
I'll dance a Ghost Dance.
I'll bring them back.
Can you hear the drums?
I can hear them,
and it's my grandfather
and grandmother singing.
Can you hear them?
I dance one step and my sister rises from the ash. I dance another and a buffalo crashes down from the sky onto a log cabin in Nebraska. With every step, an Indian rises. With every other step, a buffalo falls.
I'm growing, too. My blisters heal, my muscles stretch, expand. My tribe dances behind me. At first they are no bigger than children. Then they begin to grow, larger than me, larger than the trees around us. The buffalo come to join us and their hooves shake the earth, knock all the white people from their beds, send their plates crashing to the floor.
We dance in circles growing larger and larger until we are standing on the shore, watching all the ships returning to Europe. All the white hands are waving good-bye and we continue to dance, dance until the ships fall off the horizon, dance until we are so tall and strong that the sun is nearly jealous. We dance that way.
--Sherman Alexie
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

BRAHMA, ZOROASTER, WOTAN AND VISHNU

A Brief History Of Time

Grateful Dead: Dark Star...11/11/73

A well-known scientist once gave
a public lecture on astronomy.
He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun,
in turn, orbits around the center
of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, What is the tortoise standing on?
You’re very clever, young man,
very clever, said the old lady.
But it’s turtles all the way down!
--Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time

Downward Through The Evening Twilight

by the shores of gitche gumee
by the shining big sea water
downward through
the evening twilight
in the days that are forgotten
from the land of
sky blue waters
and i said: hello operator
get me memphis tennessee
and she said: i know who
you're tryin to call darlin'
and he's not home
he's been away
but you can hear him
on the airwaves
he's howlin' at the moon
yeah this is
your country station
and honey
this next one's for you
and all along the highways
and under the big western sky
they're singing
ooo oooooo
they're singing wild blue
and way out on the prairie
and up in the high chaparral
they hear a voice
it says: good evening
this is captain midnight speaking
and i've got a song for you
goes somethin like this:
starlight starbright
we're gonna hang some new stars
in the heavens tonight
they're gonna circle by day
they're gonna fly by night
we're going sky high
yoo hooooo hooo
yeah yoo hooo
ooo hooooooooo
so good night ladies
and good night gentlemen
keep those cards
and letters coming
and please don't call again
geronimo and little nancy
marilyn and john f. dancing
uncle took the message
and it's written on the wall
these are pictures
of the houses
shining in the
midnight moonlight
while the king sings
love me tender
and all along the watchtowers
and under the big western sky
they're singing
yoo hooooo
they're singing wild blue
and way way up there
bursting in air
red rockets bright red glare
from the land of
sky blue waters
sent by freedom's
sons and daughters
we're singing
ooo hoooooooo
we're singing wild blue
we're singing
ooo hoooooooo
ooo hooooooooo
and dark behind it
rose the forest
rose the black
and gloomy pine trees
rose the firs
with cones upon them
and bright before it
beat the water
beat the clear
and sunny water
beat the shining
big sea water

Laurie Anderson
"Hiawatha "
Iowa City, Iowa 3/12/90
----------------------------------------------------
wikipedia raven
Powell Plateau from Serpentine Rapid
Anasazi ruin, Haunted Canyon
Crystal Rapid from outside Slate Canyon
saddle of Cheops Pyramid and Isis Temple
dry waterfall, Papago Canyon
Colorado River below Palisades Canyon

World Without End

Here is the word from a subatomic physicist: "Everything that has already happened is particles, everything in the future is waves." Let me twist his meaning. Here it comes. The particles are broken; the waves are translucent, laving roiling with the beauty like sharks. The present is the wave that explodes over my head, flinging the air with particles at the height of its breathless unroll; it is the live water and light that bears from undisclosed sources the freshest news, renewed and renewing, world without end.
--Annie Dillard


Hang Massive: The Warmth of the Sun's Rays

And The Night Falls On The Setting Sun

Neil Young: Pocahontas

They made us many promises,
more than I can remember,
but they never kept but one;
they promised to take our land,
and they took it.
--Dee Brown
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee:
An Indian History of the American West

Gillian Welch / David Rawlings: Pocahontas

I Think I'll Call It America

Bob Dylan's 115th Dream












I was riding on the Mayflower
when I thought I spied some land
I yelled for Captain Arab
I'll have you understand
who came running to the deck
said boys, forget the whale
we're going over yonder
cut the engines
change the sail
"haul on the bowline"
we sang that melody
like all tough sailors do
when they're far away at sea

I think I'll call it America
I said as we hit land
I took a deep breath
I fell down, I could not stand
Captain Arab he started
writing up some deeds
he said let's set up a fort
and start buying
the place with beads
just then this cop
comes down the street
crazy as a loon
and throws us all in jail
for carrying harpoons

ah me, I busted out
don't even ask me how
I went to get some help
I walked by a guernsey cow
who directed me down
to the Bowery slums
where people carried signs around
saying ban the bums
I jumped right into line
saying I hope that I'm not late
when I realized I hadn't eaten
for five days straight

I went into a restaurant
looking for the cook
I told him I was the editor
of a famous etiquette book
the waitress he was handsome
he wore a powder blue cape
I ordered some suzette, I said
could you please make that crepe
just then the whole kitchen
exploded from boiling fat
food was flying everywhere
I left without my hat

I didn't mean to be nosy
but I went into a bank
to get some bail for Arab
and all the boys back in the tank
they asked me for some collateral
and I pulled down my pants
they threw me in the alley
when up comes
this girl from France
who invited me to her house
I went but she had a friend
who knocked me out
and robbed my boots
and I was on the street again

well I rapped upon a house
with the US flag upon display
I said could you help me out
I got some friends down the way
the man says get out of here
I'll tear you limb from limb
I said you know
they refused Jesus, too
he said you're not him
get out of here
before I break your bones
I ain't your pop
I decided to have him arrested
and I went looking for a cop

I ran right outside
and I hopped inside a cab
I went out the other door
this Englishman said fab
as he saw me leap
a hotdog stand
and a chariot that stood
parked across from a building
advertising brotherhood
I ran right through
the front door
like a hobo sailor does
but it was just
a funeral parlor
and the man
asked me who I was

I repeated that my friends
were all in jail, with a sigh
he gave me his card
he said call me if they die
I shook his hand
and said goodbye
ran out to the street
when a bowling ball
came down the road
and knocked me off my feet
a pay phone was ringing
it just about blew my mind
when I picked it up
and said hello
this foot came through the line

well, by this time I was fed up
at trying to make a stab
at bringing back any help
for my friends
and Captain Arab
I decided to flip a coin
like either heads or tails
would let me know
if I should go
back to the ship
or back to jail
so I hocked my sailor suit
and I got a coin to flip
it came up tails
it rhymed with sails
so I made it back to the ship

I got back and took
the parking ticket off the mast
I was ripping it to shreds
when this coastguard boat
went past
they asked me my name
and I said Captain Kidd
they believed me but
they wanted to know
what exactly that I did
I said for the Pope of Eruke
I was employed
they let me go right away
they were very paranoid

well, the last I heard of Arab
he was stuck on a whale
that was married to
the deputy sheriff of the jail
but the funniest thing was
when I was leaving the bay
I saw three ships a-sailing
they were all heading my way
I asked the captain
what his name was
and how come
he didn't drive a truck
he said his name was Columbus
I just said good luck

Night On Bald Mountain

Samhain, pronounced sow-en and called Halloween today, is the ending of the Celtic year. The Celtic new year actually begins at sunset on October 31. This ritual is known as Ancestor Night or Feast of the Dead. Because the veil between the worlds is thinnest on this night, it was and is considered an excellent time for divinations. Feasts are made in remembrance of dead ancestors and as an affirmation of continuing life. A time for settling problems, throwing out old ideas and influences. This is either celebrated October 31, or the first Full Moon in Scorpio.

And A Short Time To Be There

look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or rain is falling from a heavy sky
what do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through?
for this is all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago

walk out of any doorway
feel your way, feel your way like the day before
maybe you'll find direction
around some corner where it's been waiting to meet you
what do you want me to do
to watch for you while you're sleeping?
then please don't be surprised
when you find me dreaming too

Grateful Dead: Box of Rain

look into any eyes you find by you
you can see clear through to another day
maybe it's been seen before
through other eyes on other days while going home
what do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through?
it's all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago

walk into splintered sunlight
inch your way through dead dreams to another land
maybe you're tired and broken
your tongue is twisted with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear
what do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through?
a box of rain will ease the pain
and love will see you through

just a box of rain, wind and water
believe it if you need it
if you don't, just pass it on
sun and shower, wind and rain
in and out the window
like a moth before a flame

and it's just a box of rain
i don't know who put it there
believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
and it's just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
such a long, long time to be gone
and a short time to be there

PHIL LESH (3/15/40--10/25/24)

The Which He Vents In Mangled Forms

Grateful Dead: 10/18/74
...50 years ago

and in his brain,
which is
as dry as
the remainder biscuit
after a voyage,
he hath
strange places
crammed
with observation,
the which he vents
in mangled forms.

--william shakespeare
as you like it