Well, in the same way that video killed the radio star (and the internet killed the video star), Facebook has totally deep-sixed my need to blog. Ah, our world of instant gratification. Though it’s not as gratifying as it is instant. I certainly am not as addicted as some people I know (hi, honey!), but it does provide a gateway to an immediate audience of friends and family. And since I’m not roaming the third world anymore, my need for the blog format has been deflated. Many things last year have left me deflated…

However – it’s a new year! Congratulations on making it to 2012. You all win a cookie. BUT – I do have a resolution. That resolution is as follows: joy. I have to find it. Joy. Happiness. Peace. It’s out there somewhere. There are methods and programs and yoga positions and various illicit products that are meant to guide me. But I have to find it… or else my doctor says my heart will explode (he exaggerates). So that is the plan. And maybe even writing again will help bring this about. Stop focusing on the problems and look more toward the horizon. Toward light.

So, here is a final rundown of stuff Added to the iPod! I will only give you the new since most of what I added was either old vinyl, classics or magazine compilations. Ready?

Dropkick Murphys – “Going Out In Style” For the title track alone.
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – “Through the Devil Softly” Surprised it was there and very good.
Thievery Corp – “Culture Of Fear”
Gillian Welch – “The Harrow & The Harvest” All you have heard is true.
M83 – “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming” Good stuff.
Tom Waits – “Bad As Me” God.
Low – “C’mon” Wildly underrated band.
The XX – “xx” Who would of thought someone would tap into the Young Marble Giants?
Femi Kuti – “Africa for Africa”
Ana Moura – “Coliseu” Live collection from a great fado singer.
Ha Ha Tonka – “Death of a Decade” Good rock album.
JuJu – “In Trance” World-fusion at its finest.

Let’s hook up again sometime. It is an election year after all. Something interesting may happen. Doubtful, but ya never know. But for now – at the beginnings of 2012 – Gorky signs off.

When you drive around your town or beyond, take a minute to notice the memorials. You’ll see them on trees, telephone poles and intersections. Some will be right in front of you and others off to the side – separate. Ribbons, pictures, flowers – to commemorate a loved one. They’ll come and go. A new one will pop up in a different place, though, as another fades away. They are abundant in June when high schools are graduating.

For the past month, we have been a one car family and – because of the circumstances – we do a lot of driving. A regular taxi service of sorts. So I have to pass a memorial nearly every day. Twice actually – going to and from to pick up Chris. It is at a tree in front of a white picket fence, which holds a large open field of green against a clear open sky. The tree is surrounded by flowers and little signs. In its branches are balloons. Colored chalk drawings of hearts and prayers decorate the street in front. At night sometimes one or two young men (or women) will be sitting by the fence, their cigarettes glowing in the dark. A silent vigil for a young man named Daniel who was 18. His accident happened just days after Christopher’s. He knew Daniel. One night he looked over at the tree and said “That could have been me”.

Which is something I know too well.

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

Just me and the dog here in the living room. My wife is at the hospital with my son. He was in another car accident yesterday, two blocks from the house. On his way to work. Just lost sight of the road and went a bit too fast. He didn’t walk away this time. He had to be pulled from a burning car a medi-vac’d to the hospital. He is bruised, battered and stitched – but physically fine… Last night was the last performance of the show I was doing. I was at the hospital, so hopefully the director took the part for me. That has never happened before in my entire life. But Life is fairly unpredictable… and has been for some time now.

I feel like the tree has already hit the house. And the storm has barely begun.

So – where is the Liberal “tea party”?

Why indeed?

Deficit spending is not new. There was Federal deficit spending – debt – as far back as 1840. Credit cards for individuals came into being in the 70s, but mortgages (long term debt for something you can’t afford) have been around for eons. When I was on council, every time we had to raise money for a road project or something that wasn’t in the budget, we bonded for it. This means we sold a bond and that was what we used as a loan. On Wall Street, Municipal bonds were(are) the closest thing to a sure bet you could find. Soooo – any idiot that says the government is spending beyond its means and should always have a balanced budget is a total moron and should be slapped. It not only will never happen, but there is no need for it.

Second – why are we in such a big deficit (besides Wall Street and the banks playing three-card monte with OUR money)? Bush cut taxes for the wealthy and then spent TRILLIONS over 8 years on wars, Homeland Security and corporate welfare. Cut income and increase spending. Doesn’t that seem fiscally sound? I keep trying to get my bosses to understand what a bad idea that is, but it never sinks in. Part of the deficit increase was when Obama came in a started adding the wars costs to the budget… which for some reason was never counted before.

But should we really care? The country is in debt – that’s true. But it seems EVERY country on the planet is deep in debt! The only two countries without this problem are China and Saudi Arabia. Are they REALLY holding promissory notes for every country on the planet? And if so – so what? China is having trouble managing their own country. Are they really going to take over the US and Europe? No. Actually every nation’s debt is probably owned by every other debtor nation. So nobody is in any position to win. Maybe we should just cancel all those loans and start clean.

Or maybe this is all just paper gymnastics anyway. Another political game that really has no meaning and no value except to get the middle class to pay for another large increase in somebody else’s dividends. “What if our ratings drop?” What is Moodys but a New York company started in 1909 and owned by Berkshire Hathaway. Standard’s and Poors was started in 1860 and owned by McGraw-Hill. They are just a couple of American corporations. As Bill Hick’s said – the “economy” is fake to begin with. A theory. A game. Nothing more.

So – musically – I been doin’ pretty well. Graham Parker, Garland Jeffreys, Godspeed You Black Emperor, P J Harvey, Southside Johnny and Little Steven in Asbury Park and now Paul. Coming up: X, Portishead and M83.

Also – I will be onstage again in August, doing my first Tennessee Williams, “Suddenly Last Summer”.

In Rockport, Maine – where I was staying on my road trip – the Ames Cemetery was just around the block. The majority of the dates were from the 1800s. There were a number of family plots, as well as certain groupings of three – a husband flanked by his two wives. I saw this grouping more than once and the wives usually died in their 20s (presumably in childbirth). It seemed strangely common. And of course there were a number of tombstones for very young children. Tough life in the 1800s.

The day I visited was by coincidence Memorial Day. Flag were respectfully placed at the tombstones of anyone who served this country in the military. And there were quite a few. Many who may have lost their lives in the Civil War. Some earlier (many of the older stones were without dates).

At the far side of the cemetery, set back in the shade of two evergreens, I saw a flag. It was posted next to a small, thin stone. It was so deliberately set apart from everything else.

The stone marked the grave of Julia F. Smith. She served in the US Navy. She was 22 years old and died in February 1985. If you can’t read it, the inscription says “One short sleep past, we wake eternally”.

As I said – it’s about the history. There were a lot of young people in that cemetery. There are a lot of young people who are giving their lives daily far from their country and their homes and the shade of an old evergreen. I’m glad this young woman found her place of peace. I wish all our military would find themselves safe and at peace back home.

Here is a photo of the honkytonks at night, with the Batman-like AT&T building in the background. Welcome to Nashville! I am here at another accountants convention – staying on another compound across the water from the city. However, this compound is near the Grande Ole Opry where we will be spending our final evening of software indoctrination and frivolity. Nashville’s Broadway area is all we got to see so far and it is nothing special. I plan on investigating further Thursday before I leave. Lord knows there has GOT to be a non-tourist area somewhere around here.

I also want to mention that yesterday was my 25th Anniversary with my lovely wife, Kerry. I think everyone who hits this mark should either get a prize or get divorced like Arnold and Maria. I’m hoping for the prize myself. I believe Kerry celebrated the evening with champagne. I had fried pickles and beer. THIS is how we stay together…

Glad this whole Birther thing is over. Now we can really focus on Charlie Sheen.

What happened to Prince William’s hair?

Tripped over my dog this week. I think he broke my knee. It’s one thing when a small lap dog or cat hovers around your ankles. Another when it is 90 pounds of solid dog.

Bought a vinyl Album today. New one by Explosions In The Sky. A beautiful package: two-disc gatefold, fold out poster, large postcard, vinly etching. Very, very pretty….

I can’t stand that we are starting to get into “election” mode again. Haven’t we listened to them lie enough? And I hate that I will be forced to vote for Obama again. He has been an immense disappointment. But next to the gaggle of looney toons the Reps will be fielding – what choice is there?

Spring is here… and so is poison ivy. So let’s all be careful out there.

Yesterday’s was the hard one. We said goodbye to Seth, an energetic young man of 26. He was the son of a friend of ours and brother to Christopher’s best friend, Bart. There is nothing about this loss that is not tragic. The death was sudden, unimaginable and it happened when the rest of the family was out of the country. The mother and her two sons – as was said in the eulogy – were a very tight circle and to know one was to know all three. They were each other’s source of life, energy and protection. It reminded me of my little family circle, so the whole event just adds a few more sleepless moments to my nights. The funeral mass showed the immense amount of breakage around this family now. But the saving grace was seeing the solid outpouring of love from family and friends, particularly from Chris and the rest of Bart’s friends. It was great to see this young male Mafia ready to do anything and everything for this family that has meant so much to them over the past decade. Nothing can make this loss better, but this kind of support will ease the pain.

On Monday, we say farewell to Kerry’s great Aunt Gertrude. She was 95 and is the last of three sisters (Kerry’s grandmother and another sister no one speaks of and we never met.) She had three daughters and her sister had three daughters and the daughters had daughters… So this is a farewell to a matriarch. One side of the sisterhood arrived at the house on Thursday night. Our group will meet with the rest of the tribe tomorrow for the wake, then Monday for the funeral itself. The stories and tears will flow and the torch of the Matriarchy will be passed. Then the tribes will again disperse to their native lands… to await the next great gathering of the Sisterhood. Or maybe Christmas.

And Gorky has entered it’s fifth year. I’m not quite sure how much farther I can go. I really should be, you know, Writing Something. And it’s been harder and harder to find things to talk about that aren’t my job and my immediate family (who are my main readers). The last was a fairly adventure-less year… except for the two previously mentioned topics that I don’t discuss here. I’ll have to see wherewe go from here.

But in the meantime, a quick look at my friend Jewaira‘s website shows me that there was a giant sandstorm the other day in Kuwait. Saw a few of these in my day (and was even in one or two). So – enjoy! The vantage point actually looks pretty familiar to me…

There was an article about corporal punishment in our schools. Imagine my surprise to find out that 20 states still paddle disobedient children and young adults. Most of these states – surprisingly – are in the South. (Since their congressmen cut education funding, despise teachers and the Texans butcher textbooks, I don’t know why they even bother sending their kids to school. You don’t need an education to show up on “COPS”.) Scarier is that the parents are fighting the move away from corporal punishment. Many parents still protest for the right to have school administrators beat their kids! (Because the kids just don’t listen to them…)

So coupled with this article was a picture from a protest outside a Catholic high school in New Orleans. St. Augustine’s High School just banned corporal punishment after 60 years (they felt ready) and there is a picture of a group of parents protesting this diabolical change. And one dipshit is standing with a sign that reads “Spare The Rod/Spoil The Child” and above this sound burp from the Bible are the letters “WWJD”.

Imagine. “What Would Jesus Do” Hey – Dumb Ass! What would Jesus do? Jesus would NOT BEAT CHILDREN!!!

My favorite – “Christians” who know nothing about Christ. Every time now that I see the initials “WWJD”, I think…. Willy Wonka’s Jewish Deli. No! I look at this phrase as a plea for help. Because these stupid Southern Christians can’t read, so they have no idea what Jesus would do. That’s why it so easy for them to believe that Jesus wrote the entire Bible by himself – from Deuteronomy to Revelations – and it’s a very heavy book and long with big words and who can really know what his point was.

Ah, America. To be dumb, violent AND religious. Is Hoarders on yet?