rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

This Just In: Punk Rock Blues Newly Employed!!!

      Author's Note: I'll be continuing the 'Six Feet of Water' series later in the week. The evacuees arrive tomorrow. In the meantime I have some happy news to report. The lady I've been housepainting for these last few weeks just offered me a full time job working on her ranch. Stop laughing, I can so too be a punk rock rancher! Obviously I'll have no idea what I'm doing for the first little while, but anyone who's read this stuff for any length of time knows that not knowing what I'm doing has never, ever stopped me before. I can't tell you what a weight off my mind this is. I've been hustling up little jobs here and there while I paint these houses and was starting to worry about what I'd do once I finished them. Wheew.

      Anyway, I got tons of stuff I got to do so I might be out of touch for a few days but, mark my words, I'll be back soon with more reporting on the Katrina Evacuees and the sociological eddies in the time pool they are sure to cause here on the plains as well as more formless ruminations on subjects like Kate Bush, Elvis Costello and Suicide (the band, not the social statement).

      So everybody have a great day and I'll see y'all soon (gotta start working up that cowboy lingo, you know). OUR CROPS ARE SAVED!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: timbyrnes at 22:01 | link | comments (2)

Six Feet Of Water In The Streets Of Evangeline Part 3: Living in the Black & White World

     So far, so good. The evacuees arrived yesterday and are still getting settled. Luckily the pinhead contingency hasn't made any formal move of protest. Although one idiot got mad when he saw a black teenager going into a local convenience store yesterday morning, started running his mouth about how the n words are gonna take our jobs etc - and I happen to know this particular pinhead has been unemployed for years and gets his SSI check onh the 3rd of every month, but that's not the funny part- turns out the kid was coming from the bus from Denver that had stopped in Fowler to pick up freight and take a rest stop. He just happened by to get a pack of smokes or something. But the incident was so indicative of how so many folks are responding to this sudden influx of difference in our little town. Basically jumping to conclusions w/no real information to back it up.

     This time it was harmless. The kid didn't hear the pinhead's remarks, but I still noticed the kid's eyes as he passed us. Untrusting, maybe a little scared. There were 3 of us white guys sitting around a table in a little hick town. So maybe he jumped to his own conclusions about us. In either case the pinhead was wrong and so was the kid, but only a little. I really thought that the fact that race relations in America were in desperate straits was old news but apparently it took Katrina to bring to light the cold, hard truth that there are (at least) 2 Americas. John Edwards tried to tell us, but the country didn't want to hear it. Still doesn't. It both disgusts and scares me how easily some people can justify and/or deny a blind hatred of a complete race of people just because of color. And apropos of maybe just a little something: I've always been treated better as the only white guy in a black bar than I've seen the only black guy treated in a white bar.

It's recently been made know to me that in my town, Fowler, Colorado, it was freaking illegal for Mexicans to live within the city limits until 1964.

1964!!!!!

I cease to be amazed at the venality of some people. I guess I am naive (another accusation aimed at me by the pinhead of my last post), I thought that when the shit really came down, as it has w/Katrina, that folks would be smart enough to realize that "there but for the grace of god etc" and, like all good people, come to the aid of their party. Another civics lesson learned. Now I know I've written stuff about the uselessness of life and how people are garbage and all before. My only defense is that I wrote these things while extremely depressed and only thought I meant them when I wrote them. In this time of true desperation, I've thrown all my rhetorical smart assedness out the proverbial window and expected others to do likewise. Most have, as the amount of donations to not only our little shelter, but throughout the world, has been nothing less than amazing. I guess it's my own problem that I'm still concentrating on the few who stand against helping their fellow man, but it pays to keep yr eye on the paranoid extremists of our time.

      Well here I go, all vague and disjointed and not writing about music again. Sorry. I guess I'm just trying to figure out the whole right and wrong of things and failing miserably. Things aren't black and white, there's a whole lotta gray area to consider here, beyond the obvious (get these people off the roofs and into a safe place). I fear for the future (as usual) but now, I think that fear is rooted in something more concrete than any free floating anxiety. Once the dust settles America will be host to an entire new class of refugees. Folks displaced and shell shocked all around the country. It will be a test of our national identity how we weather this storm after the storm.

     For once I'm betting on humanity

Posted by: timbyrnes at 21:53 | link | comments (2)

Six Feet Of  Water In The Streets Of Evangeline Part 2: We Should Be Together

     If my last post seemed a little vague and disjointed it's only because it was, as I have been feeling vague and disjointed these last 2 weeks myself. Trying to tie the Katrina tragedy to something as frivolous (and glorious, always glorious) as rock and roll seems a little, uh insufficient these days but whatcha gonna do? We all have places and things we turn to for guidance or succor or just blatant escapism. Religion, television, rock and roll - in many ways they're all the same.

     I've often considered the whole 'rock scene' pantheon or cast of characters or whatever you want to call those bored kids with guitars that blare from radios something of an extended family. My granfalloon as KV would call it, but recent events have pushed my sickly psyche towards a closer, possibly more true community: that of real people who, much like the rockstar hordes I've (over) concerned myself with for far too many years, don't know me, never will and could care less about my opinions.

     Good for them. My opinions are meaningless, but hopefully a little entertaining from time to time, no?

     In any event, the evacuee tragedy being played out across America has forced me to get off my self-centered ass and attempt to do something, anything, to somehow make any kind of difference I can. As I mentioned in my last post, there was a town meeting here in Fowler, Colorado (Population 1,200 SA-LUTE!!) Friday night regarding the use of our old elementary school building as temporary housing for victims of Katrina. It was my assumption that the meeting would be a debate as to whether or not the building would be used. As it turned out, the decision had already been made at a previous meeting and this meeting was to let the townfolks know the who, what, where and why of the project and apart from a few questions regarding who had made the decision and who was doing the background checks on the imminent visitors, response was mainly positive. It truly hadn't occured to me that anyone could possibly be against the idea of extending what we could to folks so devastated.

     After the meeting, boy, did I get a Civics lesson! I stopped by a friend's house just to say 'hi'. He let me in, I said 'Hey, I just came from that meeting...." and before I could finish the sentence he announced in stentorian tones that he was "completely against the whole thing". I sputtered a weak "Really?" and he proceeded to go on a tirade against Bush and the "Holy Roller Do-Gooder Church expletives" that he was certain were 'behind' this. He went on to complain about the prospect of (and I quote) "Disease riddled criminals" living in the same town as he. He went on to say he was going to empty his garage and have a loaded shotgun at the ready, as he's certain that "these people" (to his "credit" he didn't utter the N word until I prodded him) would be stealing cars and breaking into houses to engage in the traditional flood victim sport of raping women etc. I was stunned. I always knew that my friend was a little crazy (ie: the Holocaust never happened, Hitler and the KKK really had good ideas that have been tainted and distorted by the, as always Jewish media, etc.) but I also thought that our conspiracy theorizing and living room Bush bashing were just psuedo-intellectual exercises and that he, like me, would see the waste of time such speculation was in the face of this new, true disaster.

     Boy was I wrong!

     He went on to state that my support of this travesty (I donated some towels, a VCR and some shaving cream) marked me as a "dupe of the Christian Right and George Bush!!" Now anyone who's even accidently read anything I've posted here knows the madness in that statement, but the kicker was that since I was supportive of this that I was no longer welcome at his house! He also said that he "won't answer the door when you and your little dog come looking for a gun when this all goes bad" and "Don't piss me off, you don't want to piss me off" when I said that his attitude was stupid. A harsh statement that I quickly modified to 'ignorant' but you know what? It is a stupid attitude. His 'don't piss me off' statement still hasn't registered as the threat it was because I'm still pissed off ('"I'll be scared later, right now I'm too mad!" -Bugs Bunny) at this guy's beyond redneck racist response to people in real need.

     And what scares me even further is that this pinhead isn't alone in his thinking. I've overheard much negative conversation at the local cafe's and convenient stores. The N word flying like it's alright and a small, though vocal portion of my town spitting nickels getting mad at people they haven't even met yet. The saddest part was that, in tone and invective, I recognized myself. Hell the 'redneck' reference above marks me as a bigot. I'm working on it, I really am and I guess the lesson I'm learning is when you get off your self centered ass and actually get involved with the world you really do gotta take the good with the bad. Not to pin a medal on my chest here, but I think I'm trying to do the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing. I'm not looking for anything beyond the satisfaction of helping someone else out. It's a new feeling as I've been a taker all my life.

      It's like something my good friend and manager Carl Simmons wrote as an addendum to a typically bleak and suicidal lyric I wrote some 25+ years ago. I don't remember what I had written, although I'm sure it was bleak and useless, because the words I DO remember, the words Carl added were these.

      "It's not much of a prospect/Finding everything suspect/You need a real calamity to set you straight"

      Thanks, Carl. Maybe this is it. I'm not making any of those "I'm never gonna drink again" type promises, but I do think that the next time I feel myself sliding into the 'life is useless' zone, or piss on god and government I'm gonna be able to stop and think it through. A real calamity does tend to alter focus and I'm starting to change what I think is important. Right now, apart from mine and the kids' (And by 'kids' I mean Buster, Bleeker and MacDougal. I remain blissfully childless myself) own survival, I want to help who I can as I can and I want to help prove the pinheads wrong. I hope by welcoming our new friends when they arrive tomorrow, by offering to help them get situated, give them a ride or a couple of days work helping me wrap up these houses I've been painting I might counter balance some of the negativity 'these people' are bound to have inflicted upon them by my ex-friend and people that think like him.

      As for my friend, he also stated that he's not gonna buy the house he's living in after all and intends to move away from the 'disease riddled criminals' and the Churches and their ilk ( Which apparently includes me. Stop laughing, Simmons!)  who dared to offer outsiders shelter from the storm without consulting him first. Well, as a my first official act as a humanitarian, I'd be only too fucking happy to help him cart his honky ass towards the horizon.

     Peace be with you. And, oh yeah, since this is obstensibly a music blog, you gotta love dem Black Eyed Peas, don't cha?

Posted by: timbyrnes at 21:42 | link | comments (4)

Six Feet Of Water In The Streets Of Evangeline

     Like the rest of us, I'm sure, I've been alternately fascinated and repelled, inspired and apalled and flat out saddened and angered by the events of the last week or so. I'm speaking of course of Hurricane Katrina and, more importantly, what has followed. Now before I go into my usual rant mode let me say this: If you have money; give money. If you, like me, have no money, than give blood. Apart from all the politial football and race card games that are being currently played and will no doubt continue to be played by everybody from the Grand Poohbahs of this world to it's Punk Rock Blues wannabe critics, this is a time for all of us to do what we can to help those of us so sorely disposessed.

     Now, having said that, off to the rant, shall we? I want to talk a little bit about Randy Newman. My favorite millionaire and the hoarder of America's secret soul. Like a drunk buddy run amok in a new neighborhood, Newman's proclivity for speaking his mind and saying those sort of things that many, if mot most of us, rarely admit to even thinking, has cost him much of the fame he richly deserves. But again America is Home of Shoot the Messenger. In the liner notes to his (buy it now) box set 'Guilty', Newman confesses to being an American "...at least as much of an American that a Jew is allowed to be.". Coming to his own party with that kind of chip on his shoulder is a Newman trademark. Throghout his career, Newman has peopled his story/songs with characters you might recognize, but would normally not identify with or claim as friend or family. From the sneering slave trader of 'Sail Away' to the bigoted madman of 'Short People', the two bit hoods of 'Little Criminals', the pimp/savant relationship scaringly delineated in 'Davy the Fat Boy' and the racists of 'Christmas in Capetown', 'Rednecks' and much of the 'Good Old Boys' record Randy Newman has given voice to the least of us;the pig headed, the amoral, the users, the cheaters, the types of people who allow our society to become what it is all the while smirking and whispering 'Too bad, too bad'.

     You know, most of us on any given day.

     I was reminded of Newman by Aaron Neville's performance of 'Louisiana 1927' on the Katrina Concert NBC aired last week. This song speaks of the flood in Louisiana that fateful year when the city fathers, hoping to relieve the pressure on their good neighborhoods, allowed the poorer neighborhoods to be flooded, promising to rebuild said neighborhoods. Of course they didn't. Rebuild that is. Ths atrocity, it's been said, led to FDR's New Deal, much like the Johnstown Flood, years earlier, where the rich man's pond flooded the poorest of the poor led directly to the Progressive Movement.

     What will Katrina lead to? I've already heard a number of Sunday Morning Talking Heads spout on about how the pictures we're seeing every day of the devastation etc. 'brings home' to the average American the reality of the 'Two America's' concept most recently, and succesfully, brought to light by John Edwards in his unsuccesful run for VP last year. Speculation abounds that, were the flood to have struck a more upscale (read:White) neighborhood, the response might have been quicker and perhaps the levees might have been properly maintained in the first place. Maybe, maybe not. I don't want to pour gas on any fires here, not really, but every black person I've seen on tv this last week has essentially been angry and talking about 'dead bodies on the Interstate' while standing waist deep in water, his elderly Mother of Grandmother floating behind him on an air mattress, basically surrounded by alligators while every White person I've seen has been standing inside, in a clean Community Center type building, warm,  dry, clean and in one instance standing in front of a bank of working pay phones, and what were these people doing, I ask you?

     (And it pains me to say this) Whining, that's what. Demanding to know what, where, when and most importantly how much was the government gonna do for them! They want answers, of course, we all want answers. But it seems to me that right now, the important thing to do is to get everbody safe, fed and sheltered. And I imagine that that in itself is a bigger job than any of us have ever had to do. So maybe we can forget about the recriminations and the social architecture involved until AFTER everybody's Grandparents are off the roof and put up for the night if not relocated. There's a town meeting tomorrow night in the small Colorado town where I find myself doing time lately, regarding  turning an abandoned school bulding into  temporary housing for 5 or 6 evacuee families. I'm going to see what I can do to help. I would suggest that anyone reading this do the same in their community. Maybe if we as a people can actually rise to this occasion and treat each other as true brothers and sisters than maybe, just maybe something good can come of this tragedy.

     We can always hope.

     "what has happened done here is the wind has changed

      wind blowed in from the north and it start to rain.

      rained real hard and it rained for a real long time.

      six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline.

     Louisiana, Louisiana, they're trying to wash us away..... they're trying to wash us away"

                                                                                                 Randy Newman "Louisiana 1927'

Posted by: timbyrnes at 21:44 | link | comments (1)