Slackjaw's Forum

Well this Wednesday I’ll be playing at the Tempest Lounge here on Tacoma’s hilltop. I got to know one of the owners working for the State, and as they’re starting to have musicians come in once a week to play I tossed my hat in the ring. It’s actually turning out to be a pretty busy month for music, as last night I headed out to a place called Bishop’s on Vashon Island to play, this Wednesday at Tempest, next weekend I’ll be in the studio recording with Jeanlizabeth , early next month recording my next CD with Doug and Tony at Dougs new studio and playing guitar at the CD release party of my brothers new CD, Kick the Dirt . Last nights show at Bishop’s was a quick in and out. I was warming up for Geoff Muldaur to a bunch of people eating dinner before the big show. It had a bit of a busking feel about it, as people bustled with their food and caught up with old friends. It was a short set and I thought I played well, heck I even managed to sell a few CD’s at the end of it. I...

Today is Wednesday. In one week I’ll be playing a show at Tempest Lounge starting at 8. On Friday Ike will be 8 years old. Today is Sweetie and my 26th anniversary of our first date. I’m not getting enough sleep. I’m not getting enough sleep. I am not getting enough sleep.

Well I haven't posted a reply to a readers request for quite a while, but this one came in last week from a good friend and I thought I'd share. Dear Slackjaw, I'd like to hear your opinion on something. What is folk music? What is acoustic music? What is country music? What is Americana music? What is bluegrass music? What is old timey music? I'm trying to find interesting ways to explain to people what the differences are between these genre's that people often lump together. Thought you might want to weigh in on the subject. Thanks,~Angie Well now...thanks for asking, I guess. If I were to break em down I'd probebly do it like this. What is folk music? Folk is to music, what folk is to art. It’s less schooled than its counterpart, and because of this more people are able to participate. Its power comes from the masses, instead of from the elite. It became a powerful political weapon because it gave the poor and disenfranchised a voice. Unions were formed ...

Happy Valentines Day Sweetie. For all the posts I have added over the years, I don’t think I’ve ever had one that started off by saying that, and why that is I have no idea. But this much I know, that’s just not right, and so this year I’m turning this around. Happy Valentines Day! I love you. Yeah, I love the kids and the dog and the new trailer too…but at the center of it all, I love you. Here we are, a few short weeks away from our 26th year together…24 valentines’ days past…boxes of chocolate eaten and bunches of flowers wilted and thrown out. But it’s the kisses that have stayed around…Kisses layered on top of other kisses on top of other kisses. Of course this year will have chocolate. Of course this year will have flowers. Since what’s a Valentines Day without them? But I’ll also take one more kiss for the collection, because those seem to be what sticks around the most. 25 Valentines later and we’re not even half way there. xo

Tossed the chains, the dog and the Older Boy into the 402 on Saturday and headed out to the snow. Most time if we haven’t seen any of the white stuff, we take ourselves to Snoqualmie Pass, as they have an inner tube run and a play area off of I-90. This year we decided to stay in the county, and headed down Pacific Highway out past Spanaway, La Conner, Alder and Elbe to visit Mt. Rainier. It rained the entire trip to the state park, but once inside the gate after we put on our tire chains, it did nothing but snow. We crawled our way to Narada Falls where we then spent a good long time playing high up in a snow bank, throwing snow at the dog and laughing. We’d heard that Paradise has a place you can bring your sled, so we all hopped into the car and headed up. By the time we reached our destination the snow was coming down fast and heavy. The play area was more crowded and the line for the sled run was longer than we expected. We made our way up the long steep track and waited for our t...

The Older Boy’s 4th grade class came down to the state capital today. The Representative from our district talked to them for a while and after he finished, the Senator for our district spoke as well. The kids were all well behaved, were silly and attentive, excited and controlled. The Older Boy wanted to know why the flags were at half-staff—in memoriam of Senator Conner of Sequim, He was told, who represented that district from 1957 through 1992. Managed to remember the camera when I came into work today, so was able to take lots of pictures, the Older Boys teacher was very happy. Not all the hours are as light and uncomplicated around here as this one was. Some are a little harder—a little darker, and though I no longer leave and come home to a dark blue sky, I can hardly wait for the feel of a warm sun on my face. With Spring training around the corner, that can’t be all that far away, can it?

I found myself in the middle of a trailer park dispute the other day. Once Dewy heard I was working for the state down in Olympia, it didn’t take her but a few days to call and complain. As everybody in the park knows, Dewy and the owners have been having it out for the past six months, all due to the fact that once they paved the roads in the park, her carport has been flooding. I guess this past year, the Attorney General’s office has been in charge of all trailer park landlord tenant disputes, so a few months back Dewy called them to see if she could get some help. From what I heard, it didn’t go all that well with the AG’s office, and after a few rounds of arguments, they had to switch the AG assigned to her case, cause the one she had wouldn’t talk to her anymore. I talked to her for a while, you know, a lot of this job is just listening to people vent their frustrations, after weeks of dealing with bureaucracies the first chance they have to talk to someone who will listen, they ...

Sweetie sent this in a while back now , but since they've added comments I've been enjoying going back every now and then to see if anyone has added anything.

Chuck Norris being in the news has made my readership jump to over 100 hits a day. It’s a crazy world out there when you type the words “Chuck Norris Lone Wolf Ranch” into Google, and this here forum is the number two link. Sweetie says who knows, maybe ‘ol Chuck swung by at some point to read my entry. Now I’m not sure I’d call that having arrived or anything, but I think it’s still pretty damn cool. Ifyouknowwhatimean.

Had an interesting conversation with a niece the other night—we were at an art opening of her fathers. Eight pieces, women mostly, some dancing, some sitting, some more abstract. It bounced around some, but really boiled down to this: Children don’t want anything to happen in their parents life that brings them pain, and parents don’t want anything to happen in their child’s life that will bring them pain. We all cower at the kind of pain that is hard and visceral; the kind that leaves scars in the back of the mind long after the image fades—the kind that requires exorcisms by therapy, drugs, escapism or art. It made me wonder if art isn’t the imitation of life, but the effect of living.

Back in a suit this week…well this week and the next dozen or so. Found some government work down in Olympia for the cold months of winter when the legislature is in session and a shirt and tie are part-and-parcel. Most of my work clothes were a bit tattered and torn, so I dusted off my credit card and bought a few new things. A couple jackets, some shirts, ties and socks. A few too many most likely, but I look sharp what with a new hair cut and all, even if I do say so myself. Things have started off quiet enough here this week, but once the session gets up and running I hear I’ll have plenty to do. This week is all about finding the stairs and getting the computer and phone set up I guess. This morning a light dusting of snow covered everything but the streets, and as I headed further south the heavier the cover became. But by the time I arrived at the capital the deep footprints in the snow were filling up with water, and wet globs of snow were falling off the highest branches, cove...

It’s different in the new trailer—no longer pacing back and forth like we were forced to do in the single wide. There is open space all around us, space in the kitchen, space in the dining room where a piano, an overstuffed chair and an almost 8 foot table sits comfortable together. There’s a basement for me to record in, a home for all my stuff, guitars, amps, keyboards and the like, plus a whole ‘nother room next to the washer and dryer to use for who knows what. We’re happy in the new place, not just because of the extra space, but the whole package put together. We were invited to the neighborhood Christmas party, and then to the neighborhood New Years Eve Crawl, where with the bar packed in a little red wagon, a group of 24 made stops along the way as we made our way to midnight. We love the new park as much as we love the new trailer. I start a new job working down in Olympia next week. It’ll be the first time Sweetie or myself have worked full time since Ike was born. I’ll be wo...