Prolific Rock-n-Roll Concert Goer!

I just went through my 7 scrapbooks of significant events, which have been compiled to date from age 11 to now, 55 years. And the object this time was to discover how many unique performers and groups I have seen in concert, excluding theater shows, like on Broadway, or the West End in London primarily. I knew that at least some of the listed performers will have been repeated, as I like to do things that are pleasurable repeatedly.

The longest list of performers seen repeatedly was Bruce Springsteen, both with and without the E Street Band, now standing at 19 times seen live in person. But then, that was a no brainer, as I have been dubbed the #1 fan in all of New York State. My home is a  shrine to him, and also with Patty, in some of it. With Bruce goes Patty, after all. And she counts as a subcategory too, for being in the E Street Band, as I enumerated these groups and performers by how many have women in them. Unsurprisingly, rock is a male dominated domain. We came in with 47 groups or performers female, at least one member, out of total list count of 145.

Wow, 145 distinct groups! But I also followed the rule that the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame uses: that a musician can be included both as a solo performer as well as a group member. There are several instances of that too, in my list. A few of the performers were counted as concerts, even though the line between theater like spaces and concert halls might have been blurred, in a few cases. For example, Springsteen on Broadway was a theater, but he qualifies as a concert artist, because the bulk of appearances were in concert venues. Saw him on Broadway three times though, 2 of which were in the 1st and 2nd row orchestra, so we interacted again, all 3 times even, because I am loud and boisterous in my enthusiasm!! He saw me, wearing my custom made T shirts, with him and me meeting in person, for his book, Born to Run, which was in the same week, in September and October 2016, NYC and Seattle. Yup, bonkers 4 the Boss! Blinded by the Light of his brilliance indeed.

Now methinks that this list should be made into a work of art, but that is in the realm of fairy dreams…as it will be a commission of an artist, which isn’t something I have ever done. Probably too much to do, in cost. Or a patchwork quilt? Another pricey item…and how do u include 145 artists on a quilt 4 a bed??!! Sounds like too much. As a rebellious teen-ager, I wrote on my bedroom wall, in black magic marker, a list of my performers, among other important things…on a mint green painted wall. I remember the parental reaction too, back then, of writing on walls. My compromise was to repaint the wall, years later, into Dark Purple, so writing was not an option then. Still rebelling, year after year after year. It also said on that pre-wall: SEX, DRUGS AND ROCK-n-ROLL REIGNS SUPREME! You might have thought my single mother at the time might have been alarmed by such a religion of my teen self so obviously displayed. And I was experimenting, from age 15 on, because I was an early bloomer in all these things. Permissiveness was the parental style in my teen years. When sex was on the menu, a visit to the gynecologist was necessary then, to prevent pregnancy and STD’s. OK, they thought, kids are growing up…and this is part of that. Practical advice and medical care, that was it. And yes, alcohol experimentation, weed, hash even, but nothing worse than that. No cocaine, no crack, no OxyContin, which might not have even existed back then.

Today’s young people have a whole panoply of threats to their welfare, much more than in my youth. A country gone amok with gun crazed lunatics, armed to the teeth with AR-15’s, AK-47’s, vaping with permanent damage quickly to young lungs, many many pain relievers that are narcotics in the homes of their parents, and a culture that is avoidant of such narcotics, which means inadequate pain relief, even when it’s clinically indicated. Because countless millions have already died from the heroin substitution post no more narcotics availability. Fentanyl, laced products with horse pain relievers, that kill just on the first time. Add on all sorts of threats, including biking in streets filled with unconcerned motorists, who look at the bicyclist like he is an impediment to your getting where you want to go, fast! It’s the same attitude that drug dealers use: it’s all about me, and my own needs; never mind you, and your needs. That doesn’t concern me.

We are in a soup of threats, which to me the biggest one is the climate change catastrophe. One of these threats will be coming to get you, one day or the next, so my advice would be to be good, to help your fellow man, and to care about him and her, because the good you do counts on your life ledger, before the Last Judgment. And in the meantime, enjoy your music, food and drink, sex, whatever floats your boat!

It’s later than you think. Have a party too! Because people like that sort of thing. Sing, dance, eat and drink…no harm in that. And the endorphins are flowing, which is its own pleasure, the natural kind. We will keep doing the stuff we love, even while the world is crumbling, in pieces, shattering glass, up till the end. Kristallnacht will be repeated in the future, and it won’t only be the Jews, but any minority group you find yourself in. They are coming for you too, because hatred is this time’s Boogeyman. Everywhere. And no one is safe, ultimately.

In the Eye of the Storm: Dorian

Irony: the beautiful calm of the sea, with sunset nigh, waters calm seemingly, but churning just beneath the surface, in the canyons with volcanoes and vortices of whirlpools, unseen, just beneath rising sea levels.

One day soon, the land will be swallowed up, under those rising seas, with low lying lands first, islands slammed by 200 mph winds of hurricanes, cyclones, monsoons, whatever you call them, it’s all the same: deadly. Today, it’s the Bahamas, a protectorate of the United Kingdom, tomorrow Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, US mainland, presumably guarded by all stages of government, federal, state and local.

Except that FEMA is functioning, telling the gospel of self-reliance, because that’s what the Feds want you to do. DON’T LOOK TO THEM! They will not save you from the inundating waters, not really. It’s a coins toss whether some rescue officials will come to get you off your house’s roof, or fish you out of your submerged car. FEMA funds have been cut by this POTUS, in favor of building that Mexico and Central American blocking wall. That is the priority: keep those would be immigrants out, but at the expense of Americans who will die in the flood waters, or the catastrophic surge, or in diseases in the aftermath of the storm, in camps with cots, tarps sure, but nothing more…it’s a long term problem, and FEMA needs more funding to fight it.

Hatred is corroding the USA from within. Microwaves inundating our government workers who were working in Cuba and China. Big study of the effects, neurological damage all, permanent, by University of Pennsylvania Medicine. State Department is playing politics with these workers and their families, as CHINA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH USA IS TOO BIG AND SPECIAL, SO WORKERS DON’T GET LABELED AS HARMED BY SECRET MICROWAVE RADIATION WEAPON, AND MEDICAL COVERAGE IS LIMITED BY TIME, OR DENIED, AND THE EFFECTS ARE PERMANENT. CHILDREN AND SPOUSES ALSO HARMED AS WELL, NO PAID REHABILITATION FOR ANY OF THEM, BECAUSE CHINA HAS TO BE DEFENDED, EVEN IF OUR PEOPLE ARE THE ONES WHO PAY A TERRIBLE PRICE. Another hostile country has also used this weapon against our government workers, but it is classified, so we don’t know which one. We only know because 60 Minutes is a massive resource for American citizens to know the truth, which is out there, simply to discover.

Dorian is churning, moving at 1 mile per hour now, destroying the whole of the Bahamas, then us next…and the government just issues platitudes ahead, to get 7 days of supplies of non-perishables, which won’t be nearly enough, when the lights go out, and there is no potable drinking water, and there are so many high rises, with no working elevators, and the pumps of gasoline run dry, and flood waters inundate the foolish, who stayed behind, maybe as  death wish, despite mandatory evacuation orders.

And people have short memories, not recognizing that these monster hurricanes are repeat affairs, year after year, and one year, it’ll be arriving on your doorstep too, as the sea level rise is in progress, with ice sheets melting into the world’s waters, killing coral reefs, and then fish, and then the last consumer: humans. Coming soon are the days of no viable drinking water, no tap water, no electricity as our Earth burns up. And the death counts rise annually. One day they will categorize such deaths as under the umbrella of Global Warming.

We needed to care, but we didn’t, not in time anyway. And the children and grandchildren will condemn our generation for not caring enough, for not doing enough when the scale was tipping and we could have averted catastrophe, but didn’t. When you vote for President Trump, please consider your children’s and grandchildren’s future on this warming Earth. He is no friend to the Environment, and he is 73 years old, a narcissist textbook definition that, with no concern about others, even his own family, who will live longer in this soup than he will. If I were you, I’d be mad as hell about that.

We are talking about the future of our entire Human Race here. Politics should not enter the equation, as we can see, if we have but eyes to do so. If you care about your future family, who gets to live in this severe and worsening problem, do something NOW! It’s already upon us, the Judgment. And if you do nothing, or vote Republican by rote, as it’s your worldview, or your upbringing, your culture, consider that you voted for the Death of the Entire Human Race. I can hardly believe that I needed to write this before we have been snuffed out.

For the record, I live in a coastal city too: New York City. Even though the water of the Atlantic Ocean isn’t at my doorstep, it also isn’t too far away. When the tsunami of water comes, it’ll swallow me up too. But I have lived my life already, and I grieve the young, because I was one who did care about the future, even though I did not bear children myself. I have a piece of paper in my desk drawer that reads thus:

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!'”- Luke 23: 28-29. Said by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke. This quote is being made true by our times right now, as we approach further into the Hourglass of Running Sand, whose time is running out. And it’s counter-intuitive to say so, as humans have always revered mothers, and mocked the barren and childless. But it’s comforting to me, to know that I have been mocked thus. But I grieve, as a would be mother, if that had been my life fate. I care about our world and the people in it.

When will we wake up? From this nightmare scenario? Connect the dots, people, and consider my words. We have to examine what the greater good or the lesser evil is, before the future adults curse us in our graves, for not acting, when there was still time.