branching out. sweet lemons. and humanity.

A musical treat. Play while reading. Michael Franti & Spearhead.
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I dedicate this post to Ron and Sharon. And the Auto-Doctor. And Micah. And beautiful humans.

The reason that the flier for tonight's event had so many pictures of people on it is explained below.

Today was a swell one at work. Seems like this past week - and this happens about once a month - was a real busy one. Looking back on these posts I see an open mic, I see that Humans Helping Humans had a great meeting (one that I matter-of-factly told Chris Brown about - umm - at least ten times...), and tonight there was an amazing performance down at the good ol' bookstore. Robert Sarazin Blake was the guest performer of the evening, but the breakaway stars were harder to pick out than that. You couldn't just say that he was the big deal. Only one of many. Unsung heroes are everywhere. There was Jody McLaughlin - of the longest running zine around Minot, The Compleat Mother - she helped me find a nail that was jutting out of the hardwood. Recommended a hammer, which I couldn't find. There was Rhonda from Chicago, who couldn't help but remind me to get an email list started, because - as she said, "I'm not from here - but my FAMILY is - and they need to be coming DOWN!" Her enthusiasm was more than beautiful. And about that - B. Smooth - he wrote a poem about being beautiful - "from her head to her cuticles!" All went well with Jazmine, and Lou (great poem about freedoms, a trapped bird, and his daughter's precocious words...) - Brent Braniff (I'm attempting to get permission to post a song for download off of his latest release) was in top form playing with ex-Mapatazy member Ryan Alexander (how did THAT come about? If you know, do tell.) Then remember that moment when Pat Lipps was such a good sport (he was in the bathroom, and I had the crowd applaud his efforts - while he was in the middle of them!) I guess what I'm getting at is it's everybody else - always has been and always will be - that makes these things happen. Ricardo Mendoza and Amina the French teacher were there! Ricardo said, "Como Estas?" and asked me if I needed any help. He carried in a guitar. Micah helped carry chairs from the basement - and back down. Lou did that too. Little things? Not so sure...well, I loved every minute anyhow. The next H^3 (Humans Helping Humans...) meeting is Monday @ 7:30pm. Email me for details.

Joshua Plogue (the vegan-chef - has a zine out that talks about various shows he played in with Behead the Prophet etc. and one of the shows he talked about being a part of was a celebration of EVERYONE - like all the kids who come out would get their five minutes - to talk about THEM! It sounds beautiful. What say you?) Why was all of that parenthetical?

And hey! Buy the new Potential Caskets and Brent Braniff CD's if you know what's really rubberneckin good.

Gotta sleep now. Here's a Robert Blake video treat!

UPDATE: After discussing it with Charlie I've decided that it's O.K. to mention that another really touching moment from the night was when he played a cover of a Fist Full of Knuckles song, "White Knuckles." I hadn't wanted to mention it - for vanity's sake - but, as Charles reminded me - having a blog is pretty damn vain in and of itself. So, thanks Charlie - you played it better than I ever have.