It’s Friday and I feel like I’m really ready to start the week now
Kinda like being ready for bed at 5 am
Some weeks go like that and it’s better late than never
I got a text from an old friend today
One of my best friends actually
Someone I went on many tours with
All over europe and America
The UK
Canada
We were like brothers
And the brotherhood lives on through the distance
People who stay in your life gain value in days such as these
You realize the gift of true friendship
The value of it
Against the backdrop of backstabbers
And shite talkers
The real ones glow a little brighter
I think of some of the adventures we went on
Things like residencies in Provençal towns in Ireland
Staying upstairs from pubs in Kilkenny
And then playing for 35 people
And traveling to Cork
Or Dundalk
Real World records supporting us out there. Trying to build it
Before the internet
When you just went from town to town
Hoping the local rag would write you up
Or that maybe you could get in the radio station
We did things like that for months
Just out there floating
G. Was not only a brother but a therapist
And talented as hell
(I
Remember screaming in a car
With him driving
About how things weren’t moving and him talking me
Off
Of many ledges. Thanks for that G. And sorry about that G.)
I really didn’t know how lucky I was
In and amongst the storm of that struggle
But I could say the same for so many stations of this life
Including the day I’m in today
The one where I get to wake up with you and your mama
And sing to you and see the expression on your face
Shift this way and that
Being in the moment is the trick of life
To not be overwhelmed by the struggle
And forfeit the enjoyment
But live it all as it comes
And unwrap it like a gift
Open the present in the present
And stop looking for something more
While ignoring what is
Cause what is
Will be everything
As you look back at your life
I met G at Real World studios
When they had a recording week
Families and stars from all over the world getting together to record music for a week or so in the various studios
At Peter Gabriel’s studio
I met G
In a room Joe Strummer set up
With a four track and a tambourine (strummerville)
(At least my memory says I met him there)
We became fast friends
And when the recording week was over
I called him up in South London
And like a scragglier journeyed that way and ended up living in a house out there for the better part of a year
With him and his two roommates
Who also became friends but not to the same degree
I set up a room in their living room making walls with bookshelves
We’d listen to The Prodigy and smoke spliffs
It was the UK in the nineties
Everything was Blur versus Oasis
And geezers need excitement.
What an adventure I was on
Today he wrote me this
Hey man, just taking a moment to slow myself down, life getting a bit overwhelming, to put it nicely..
Started by doing an Aura session and ended up on your Heavy Lifting blog..
Focused as ever..????Just read: Dear Alessia 072721.
Beautiful, honest piece of writing.. ????????♂️
Did you really lose Band, Manager, record deal as you write? If so is that directly due to your stance on the state of the world right now..?
To the sensitive souls, the worlds turning in on itself, a snake eating its own tail. To the rest, well they’re not aware the snake has a tail and if there’s a snake at all.
Mexican Army springs to mind – when was the last time you played that..?
“I don’t know where we’re going from here
I’m just following orders
I don’t know how we’ll conquer the king
This ain’t my revolution.”
Big love to you though these strange times my friend maybe Alessia’s arrival is equipping you with the only thing one needs to find their way – it’s corny I know – The Power of Love.
He’s right
You have equipped me with all I need during these times
The power of love
We are each other’s rainbows
We will look back at these days as well
And see the magic in them
Even through the chaos and misunderstanding
There will be much about them we wish we could revisit and live again
Your first thirty days on the planet
You’ve come at that most chaotic time
But great things are also in the air
You are getting bigger by the day
And you are a joy to hold. I count myself lucky
I wrote back to him
That happened months ago. I feel like more are aware of the snake lately. I still hope they come around and figure out the agenda they were supporting wasn’t so benevolent and righteous after all. I feel like that’s becoming increasingly obvious
That being said if a friend of mine feels differently. They don’t stop being my friend. I don’t stop loving them. I just think we think different.
I do wonder as the scene changes
As now the double jabbed will join the ranks of the unvaxxed unless they get the third
Will a new (third tier of society emerge?)
Or will they just join the unvaxxed if they get resistant to endless jabs from this point?
Certainly some will say enough is enough
And they’ll have to dial back their perspective
I wonder for those that have had falling outs
If perspectives will shift yet again and heal fractured connections
I’m sure in some cases that will happen
The fiction that will emerge from this time in history will be something else
Strange new dynamics of human connection and misunderstanding
Can be played with til the cows come home
And we thought Blur versus Oasis
Drove families apart
(I kid)
Anyway
I’m making this one short.
Today we go to Jersey and look through storage
We see what we have to deal with to make our escape
Should we need to escape
To find some faraway pub in the middle of the country and play for 35 people sounds kinda like heaven right about now.