LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD

I guess it was Ozzie Nelson who said on an episode “The world is too much with us”. That would make an excellent essay for Dr. Levy. The trouble is when Dr. Levy has all these sessions on ones aspirations in life, he routinely ignored the Elephant in the room. By the way yesterday for lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches with carrot salad and grapes for desert. I just thought I’d throw that in. One has to keep oneself in balance, You need to learn lessons from the past, if you can, without becoming obsessed by it. But I’ve been thinking lately, “You know, in a way I’ve got it pretty good around here. I no longer have the money problems I had the past two years, and I really do have friends and stuff around here.” And when I have one of these nightmares like I just had last night I wake and think “Thank God it wasn’t reality”. I was in some really dusty Motel room with bed bugs and other creepy-crawlies, and there were these rats that were crawling all around the room and I kept brushing them off my covers. And there was some party going on and I was out there for a while but told them I was tired and had to go to work the next day- - and when I finally did get into bed there were all the rats and cobwebs and whatever and there was still all the noise that I couldn’t shut out.

Last night it was the usual Mc Laughlin report. I’ve been smoking too many cigarettes. I find that cigarettes are excellent for “quieting brain chatter” and when I try to give up cigarettes for two long I become obsessive-compulsive and there is all this “stuff” in my mind. Anyhow did you know we were headed for a double dip recession? There are telling us for the umpteenth time that we are only this time they act like they really believe it. If it were so this really would be the worst economic recession of the past eighty years. Anyhow I was watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and other stuff on TV followed by the ABC Disney movie. But in my mind a bunch of memories from the 2^nd half of 1981 came crashing back into my mind with stunning clarity- - as I went through them one by one sorting out causes and motives. Some say this “Pandoras Box” of events was unleashed by my buying the El Dorado album by ELO either in very late June or else July first or something. (prior to the 4^th) Of course I bought “Blizzard of Oz” at the same time but I have always blamed El Dorado. I’m going to get back to this a little more later, but one thing I did not do that I was tempted to do is to relive all those events by writing it down, which I was half tempted to do, because it would make an interesting Blog, and another long one. The thing is with my Blog readers I haven’t gone into the obsessive detail that I used to do on my many “snail mail” letters to the media. Those recipients have a whole lot better what I’m talking about. The next time I have to shovel through that much shit hopefully it’s a hospital job working as an orderly with a bright Medical carrier ahead of me- and we know that’s not going to happen. In my snail mail letters I portrayed myself as committing suicide in late November by throwing myself on the railroad track and having a train run over me. I got this inspiration from sound effects on a Blue Oyster Cult album. After this you never saw the name Guy Owens on a media mailing from me in a long time, because I was dead. And there was even a trial about it in April I dramatized where others made me do it. But after a while I admitted to being alive but I was off in Chicago having intensive therapy from a Dr. Bleishtaff. I don’t think the name Guy Owens surfaced again till about late summer of 1983. So whenever I do the “long form birth certificate” it’s going to have a lot of details on it that don’t comport entirely with the snail mail stuff “the public” sees, just like the President’s long form doesn’t agree with the “public record”. Right now they called coffee break as “La Bamba” fades out. I better hurry.

I just barely made it to get the last coffee and rushed back up here. I waited because I wanted to hear “Things we said Today”. That’s a Beatle song I never get tired of. This morning I got up a bit later and got coffee from Dana. I had KABC on and went to breakfast. We had Raison Bran and I decided I’d use sugar today. Loretta says she’s going to church again. I asked her if that couple still comes Sunday nights and she says they still come but then don’t announce it, to keep out the riff raff. I’m sure if I were nice about it Loretta wouldn’t mind my attending but I’m not sure I want to. So we had the usual fried eggs and toast and butter ect. Newt Gingrich was on Meet the Press. There is a relic from the past that young voters regard as a “new face”. I guess that’s how the Beatles stay in business. But the credibility gap of these Republicans is a little laughable. Even Newt himself in the early 1990’s said he was in favor of precisely the sort of health care program the President passed last year. And of course Mitt Romney’s big success story is a health care program just like the President’s. And Newt makes all these weirdo statements with a racist tinge to them like “people who were born in Kenya have grown up with this anti-Colonialist bias that’s contrary to the American tradition”. And he says “President Obama is known as the greatest Food Stamp President of all time” and there are zone zingers about the city of Detroit, with some vague anti M0-Town bias. And apparently the reason for his two failed marriages is that “I’m a busy man who works hard politically and perhaps I got too involved”. That’s one way of putting it. One time he said “It was a mistake of my youth” even though he was in his fifties at the time.

Of course I had Beatles on later. John Lennon talks about unsetteling dreams but the thing is in latter 1981 I told Laura that I’d been having dreams lately about all my teeth falling out”. And Laura responded, “That’s funny, I’ve been having those kinds of dreams, too”. “How Do You Sleep At Night” just might be about multiple people. For instance the verse about “A pretty face may last a year or two, but pretty soon we’ll see what you can do” could be about Donnie Osmond. (“Department of Youth” anyone?”) But I had to take strong issue when they said that “Sometime in New York City” was not a good album. It’s quintessential Lennon. It’s John’s best solo album. (“Venus and Mars” is Paul’s best solo album- - obviously it’s “All Things Must Pass” for George (now a recent three posting blog) and for Ringo it’s “Goodnight Vienna” of the albums of his I’ve heard. However Ringo-Rama and Choose Love” may well be better.) They talked about Paul and George having “musical backlogs” that were intended to be Beatles song, but John’s brain had been swept cleaner than Raphael Hernandez on Days of our Lives. He started fresh after his “Primal Scream” treatment. And by the way Yoco completes John. John can’t be really John without Yoco. John’s two worst albums were “Rock and Roll” and “Walls and Bridges” made without Yoco’s influence. In fact as you know I have perported to have a lot of conversations with John Lennon after he died. Someone reading the transcript of all this dialog might well say “You know- - something is missing in Lennon’s personality that just isn’t quite right”. Then “ding” a bell will ring and they’ll exclaim “It’s YOCO”.

. I was going to call the blog either DEAD ON ARRIVAL or else HERE COME THE ASSHOLES. And it could be argued I was one of those assholes myself. Let me conclude by giving you the “short form” Birth Certificate version of that period in the 2nd half of 1981 What’s that saying, “Calgon, take me away!” or “Where is Jess Ryder when you need him?” I’ll be very brief. It started in terms of bad events- - a day or two after the 4^th of July when Marcus Arelius, Pete Richards, Bill Gunderson, and David Snow and perhaps a fifth person (as I recall it was an all male crowd) went to Magic Mountain and we came back in the evening about dusk and our dog Toby had clawed off the back door screen in a hysterical panic. We could chalk it up to being around the Fourth, but the dog did the same thing after a trip to the LA Zoo we took in late July. Toby was having some sort of a nervous breakdown. There was event after event- -that betided me – ah but let’s jump - - let’s jump to December. I was going to mention October 24^th as a “bad day” but the stream of negativity kind of ended just days before Christmas when I received a windfall I had about given up hope of ever getting, that really took a load off my mind - that had been weighing on me for at least several weeks. “What was it- - a renters rebate check?” “No, not that”. (money worries are a bad thing) Sometimes being a persistent jackass pays off if the other side sees they can't win. Of course this period wasn’t all bad. There was a wedding in there. Sometimes you want to do the deed before the devil gets his boots on to try and stop you. Marriage is good. Of course if you’ve even been married you know a secret that it doesn’t mean you “leave your old life behind” and the day you’re married start a whole new life” just like that. You’re still the same “person” you were the day before. (It’s not like you just got baptized or something) What I mean by that is that “Life goes on” and there are still the same social entanglements and obligations and just the day to day interaction and commerce of life. John endeavored to describe this phenomenon in one of the Beatle’s Christmas messages. It may have nothing at all to do with the relation between you and your wife. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I really didn’t find happiness sill I was to a degree able to separate the present from my “old life” that wasn’t all that long ago. I just had to back, off, Jack, and let other people lead their lives, and I would lead mine. So basically I’d like to come full circle and just say that right in the here and now I’m not doing badly. Why not just let sleeping dogs lie. So I have a dream about “another life”. Don’t worry about the what if’s in life. Don’t borrow trouble. Sure when my Mom dies there’s going to be a whole Pandora’s box of problems and challenges opening up. But that day isn’t today. I’m going to blog most of this but surgically snip out a few sentences. That personal stuff? Of course at times editing can be deceptive. Politicians run into problems all the time saying how they were quoted out of context. This happened with John Lennon. There is a prominent interview I’ve heard “the long version” of. Unfortunately they are airing the edited version of the exact same interview where he appears to be saying the exact opposite thing from what he’s actually saying. “You know the one I mean”, John. But this whole thing about a new marriage and other people still thinking they Own you- - “OK, I get it”. Not cool. December of 1981 was basically a better time for me than the previous five months. Due to the hour and lunch being upon us I’ll post this after I get back.

- - - And Thanks To The Late Mark Campbell for all of his invaluable support of me during this period. And I value him as a writing collaborator.

"Stop Dragging My Car Around" -WEIRD AL YANKIVIC

PREVIOUS POST ADDENDUM: It has come to my attention that readers are associating another event that occurred in late May of 1955 other than the one I was thinking one, about a vow to never return to a certain city in Mississippi. I don't remember that as the disaster the authors portray it as. I had in mind an event a lot closser to home- - About the break-up with a certain girl that went- - Very Badly. In fact if there was a newspaper headline "The Greatest Fool of them All" it would have her picture right above it. And believe me with her looks she can't afford to be too picky about who she chooses to throw under the bus. And I bet there a lot more fans that agree with me rather than the media spinmeisters.