Nothing worth having... Comes without some kind of fight

I've started a new blog (yeah yeah yeah... I know) with the intention of expressing things from my heart in ways that I might not otherwise express them.

The name is "Bleeding Daylight" and the address is http://kickingatdarkness.blogspot.com. The title and the address come from a Bruce Cockburn song on the incomparable album "Stealing Fire" (that's the cover there over on the side). The line that I stole the title and address from is "Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight, you've got to kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight" from the song "Lovers in a Dangerous Time." This is a song which to me has always described the reality and the struggle of attempting to stay alive and awake in the contemporary world, especially, but not exclusively, in the U.S.

The album was released almost 25 years ago and it is perhaps even more poignant now than it was then.The first time I heard that line, sitting on my couch in San Francisco, not long after a trip to Nicaragua in the early 80s, I was knocked over and knocked out. It did, and still does, what art is meant to do; it calls us, even drives us, to our better selves.

I am hoping that Bleeding Daylight will do the same.. if not for you, at least for me.

And it is, after all... about me.

The Day The Music Died

I just heard that Larry Norman died on Sunday. I'll have more to say (and play) about him a bit later when I've had time to put together my feelings on the matter.

The thing that I find surprising at this moment is how much this has affected me, and how sad I feel. I was with Larry only a few times over a period of twenty years, but the thing that is more significant - as I reflect on him, his music, and his life - is how much his influence (particularly when I was a teenager in Arizona) affected (and/or reflected) much of what I came to believe then, and still believe now.

His ability to link life, politics, action, and faith is what became for me the vital reality of my life. It is, quite unfortunately, something which so many "Christians" on today's political scene (not to mention today's "Christian Music" scene) seem to have missed entirely.

For Larry, his God was real and vital and present, and he was one of the first people to help me understand that for myself.

I'll miss ya Larry.

All You Need Is Love

Yeah yeah... I know the drill; it's a fake holiday, a "Hallmark" holiday, a day for saps and suckers... a day when the jewelry industry (its all its nefarious and questionable glory) makes a killing from a bunch of saps hoping to get laid or at least maintain some sort of peace and quiet on the homefront.

But I don't buy it! The day is actually much older than the modern era, and besides that, ANYTHING that puts more love - even ersatz card company versions of love - into the world increases the "sum of light" in the world. Perhaps that means just one little selfish corner of the universe is improved, or maybe it means that, like the legendary butterfly's wings of chaos theory a small action (say the giving of a flower to a stranger) will set off a chain of reactions that ultimately lead to the end of war in Iraq, or homelessness in Los Angeles, or the devastation of New Orleans, or genocide in Darfur. At the very least it will put a smile on someone's face and maybe a lightness in their heart. The generation of endorphins is almost always a good thing. Reaching out to another human being, in any way, is the acting out of the hope we carry for community even on our darkest and most depressing days.

So... regardless of your present state of circumstances, heart, or mind, I hope you have a wonderful day. It's a day for love, and we can all use a little more love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

YES WE CAN!

This is the most moving and exciting political and musical statement I have seen in a very long time (maybe ever). This is what I believe. It is why I will work in every way I can to see Barrack Obama elected President.

Si Se Puede... Believe!

Everywhere Else It's Just Tuesday

I'm sitting at the computer with Kermit Ruffins pounding out of my tiny little speakers while WWOZ in New Orleans gives me my first Mardi Gras fix of the day.

In much of the rest of the country, people are voting in the big Super Tuesday primary, hoping to figure out which two people will contend this November for the priviledge and responsibility of leading our country (and the burden of extracting us from the mess that King George has gotten us mixed up with in Iraq) for the next four years.

In New Orleans it's a different kind of day.

Mando Kayo has already taken their "get in front of the parade and parade" philosophy down St. Charles and Pete Fountain's Half Fast Walking Club is heading down Bourbon Street. Zulu is starting out the day of parades that will go on until dark, and the Society of St. Anne is parading along Royal, just a block from the idiocy taking place on Bourbon.

Yesterday, on Lundi Gras , the Social Aid and Pleasure Club Task Force mounted the first parade of Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs to EVER parade during the Carnival season, and today, on Claiborne Avenue the Mardi Gras Indians are showing their colors.

My friend Mary just called and let me in on some of the music playin' on the street, and my friend Tom Morgan just came on WWOZ (with a pre-recorded version of his show because he's off at Mardi Gras). All of this both made me feel better... and it made me feel worse. Dr. John, singing Mama Rough, just used the line "second line fever today" and that would be a pretty good description of how I'm feeling right here at this very moment.

This year, firmly ensconced in my renewed connection to Petaluma, I really thought I was going to find myself disconnected from Mardi Gras in New Orleans. I tried, like last year, to catch some of the parades on NOLA.COM but software issues kept me at arm's length. From the beginning of Carnival, just after New Year and going until the day before Lent begins (and not just today, like so many people think), Mardi Gras is the time for celebration of the craziness in life; a yin/yang juxtaposition with Lent that plays out, like a great drama, the realities of the way life unfolds. For some ridiculous reason I thought I would be able to extract myself from the deeper (and lighter) meanings of the season, and for most of the last month I've done exactly that.

Well... not any more!

Right now... with my friend Al Johnson on the radio singing Carnival Time... I really DO know what it means to miss New Orleans.

HAPPY MARDI GRAS Y'ALL!