November 6, 2024

 Well folks, God Bless America. Yesterday was a great day, though I'm not here to rub it in because I know what it's like to be on the losing end, and until just about 12 weeks ago, I was as ardent a Democrat and committed anti-Trumper as anyone, until George Clooney and Van Jones pulled an Ides of March job on Joe Biden and replaced him with the worst presidential candidate in the history of politics. I said she was gonna get creamed on the day she was coronated, and I was right. The thing with Queen Kamala (who used to pronounce her name "KA-muh-lah" before it morphed into "commala") is that she was like an evil character from a fairy tale, cackling at the world, full of herself, in favor of policies so absurd that you wondered if she was serious. ("Open the borders!" "Defund the police!" "Let the rioters out of prison!" "Legalize theft!", et al) And she was serious, of course. That's what made her so dangerous. She was like a "Batman" villian. She wanted mayhem. She didn't like civilized society. She didn't like people. She was only in love with herself. On top of that, she was a dim bulb. And like an evil fairy tale queen from out of the past, it was easy to recognise her, to see her coming from a mile away, to see who she really was behind all the word salads and comical accents. So thank God she is gone, and may we never see the likes of her again. Let's hope she takes George Clooney and Van Jones with her. I may be done as a Democrat, but to my friends who will always be Left, I say, "whatever you do, please don't pick someone like Queen Kamala EVER AGAIN." And reject the Far Left in general. God Bless. And don't worry, because this time it's Friendly Trump as President. His daughter-in-law and campaign chairwoman Lara Trump did a brilliant job with the makeover, turning him from Mean Trump to McDonald's Trump. And it's not just Trump, but Team Trump, with J.D. Vance, Elon, Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard (there's your first woman president), and many more. It's a coalition presidency and good things are gonna happen. As things stood, with the current administration, it couldn't have been much worse. So keep your chin up. We may have some daylight ahead.   

I don't have a whole lot to report that you don't already know about. I will say that yesterday was one of the greatest days of my life, and not just because America rejected Queen Kamala. A big part of my work involves memory recovery, and I remembered something yesterday that made my heart soar. And today is a wonderful day as well because it's the birthday of a very special person, who may even know what it was I remembered because she is a supergenius! I'll leave it at that for now.

Though it's been an amazing week, with David Gilmour, Halloween, the Election and The Wonderful Memory all in a seven day period, this does not mean that everything is well. See the last blog for emphasis. Things are even crazier in my life than they were when I last wrote, and you could almost say I'm in an emergency situation. I sure hope it doesn't come to that.

Here I was, in July (only four months ago), having just published "Pearl the Wonder Girl" (available on Amazon!). I was so excited. I had a real book, complete with pretty cover and everything. I'd written and designed it myself, a real bookstore book. And I had another book in the can, almost ready to go. All I had to do was give it one more proof-read, maybe a tiny bit more polish, then I'd be all set to release it, maybe by the end of this year. That was my plan, in July, to have both books out by the end of this year.

But then All Hell Broke Loose.

Things were uncovered that set my world on its end. The second book threatened to become two books. My third book, a rewrite of "What Happened in Northridge" would now take five lengthy books to complete.

I hope to get re-organized now that the election is over. I've got a massive investigation to complete. I'm gonna miss Depressed Ginger, Red Eagle, Election Time Channel and the great Megyn Kelly, who've been part of my daily coping mechanism through the summer. Before the infamous June 27 debate, I wasn't really paying attention. Then suddenly, I couldn't look away. Those podcasters, and other shows on Fox (like Gutfeld, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Waters, The Five, and the brilliant ladies on Outnumbered), they got me through all those tumultuous days. But now I've got so much work to do that I can't have any diversions or interruptions. I also need a bigger living space.

There are other issues (near emergency) that are far more pressing, but I have faith that God will help me.

Happy Birthday to the aforementioned Wonderful Person. I wish you a beautiful day. To everyone, we've still got a couple Monty Movies to watch and we'll try to get back to regular blogging. Stay tuned.

November 1, 2024 (David Gilmour)

Howdy folks, and Happy November. I'm sorry I haven't written for a while, but right now I'm really straining to keep the blog going. There's just so much going on, most of it not good, and because I don't wanna report nothing but negative stuff, I've opted for the last couple weeks to remain silent. You'd do better these days to read The Book of Revelation, and you should be reading your bibles anyway. I'd say we're in the End Times, and I almost hope we are because I can't stand any more of this.

To the good people of the world, I say "Prepare Ye the Way of The Lord"! That's the title of an anthem we used to sing in choir. And to the bad guys, I say "Run to the Hills!" That's a song by Iron Maiden. Run to the hills, bad guys. Run while you still have time, though it won't do you any good in the long run because "King is Coming". That's a song by King's X.

On the good side, I saw David Gilmour in concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night. I went by myself, took public transport round trip, and you know what? It wasn't half bad. For one thing, it's not like the old days when, if you missed your bus, you had to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the next one. I can remember many a junior high school afternoon standing at the Nordhoff/Amestoy bus stop, waiting and watching for the RTD, and as every kid knew, it wasn't coming. A watched bus never boils. But this is fifty years later and the buses and subway trains run every ten minutes, and with even greater frequency at peak hours. I left at 4:30 and got on the 240 Metro bus at Reseda and Superior (i.e. "The Street That's 'Just A Little Bit Better" Than All Other Streets"). The senior fare was 75 cents, with a free transfer to the Orange Line, which took me from Reseda and Oxnard to the Noho Red Line Station on Lankershim and Chandler (the Orange Line goes past a very dear address, en route). From there, the fare was another 75 cents for the tube. My train left two minutes after I boarded. I got off two stops later at Hollywood and Highland at 5:45, just 75 minutes after I started my trip. I doubt I could've driven to Hollywood that fast in rush-hour traffic. The total price was just $1.50 versus the ten bucks in gas and even more in parking fees had I driven. Getting back, by the same method, cost just 35 cents (senior fare at off-peak hours and free transfers). $1.85 round trip. Yeah, the bus is a little cramped, and there are occasionally sketchy people on board, but this time the trip was unobtrusive and efficient.

I walked up the hill to The Bowl and got there by 6:10, which was very early but I wanted to take no chances because I had to go to the box office for a paper ticket. I purchased mine when the Gilmour shows went on sale in May, knowing an electronic ticket wouldn't upload to my flip phone, but there was no way I was gonna miss David Gilmour, so I bought it anyway (Section S, dead center, incredible seat) and did what I did for The Who two years ago: went to the box office, showed the nice lady my flip phone, told her "I'm a Cave Man", and she got me a paper ticket. Then I had ninety minutes to kill before showtime, so I went up to my seat, watched the sun go down behind the hills, watched The Cross light up on the adjascent hillside, and meditated on The Current State of My Life. I was blowing my mind in both good ways and bad, and then the Bowl went dark and David Gilmour came onstage at 7:42.

I've seen DG four times now over a 44 year span beginning in 1980, when I attended the very first concert of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" tour on February 7 at the old L.A. Sports Arena. That was the night the stage curtains caught fire from the pyrotechnics and, for a minute, everyone thought it was part of the show. I also saw Gilmour play the solos from "Comfortably Numb", which - come to think of it - may have been the first time he played them in front of an audience, and of course, he was and remains God.

The next time I saw him was in April 1994 at the Rose Bowl. Pink Floyd was his band by then, they were touring for "The Division Bell" (my favorite album of all-time), it was three months after the earthquake and six months after my first memories returned. It is tied with the California Jam for the greatest concert I've ever been to.

22 years went by until I saw him again, in 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl. By that time, I was 56 and working as Pearl's caregiver. My life had changed so much since that Wall show in 1980. Just to give you some perspective, when that show happened, John Lennon was still alive. I had yet to meet Lilly. My goodness.

In 2016, DG was 70 and touring for his solo album "Rattle That Lock", a solid effort yet not near the level of "The Division Bell". Still, he was as great in concert as he ever was. I am sure I reviewed it here at the blog, and I probably said it was once again tied for the greatest concert I'd ever seen.

This brings us to Wednesday night, October 30, 2024. David Gilmour is now 78. The first time I saw him, he was one month shy of 34. My life since 2016 is so remarkably different that I don't know what to say anymore, and it's almost impossible for me to review the concert because it's too personal and imbued with symbolic-but-very-real meaning. In fact, I can only symbolize it in metaphors, or "summing terms". Wednesday's concert was 1962, it was Edwards Air Force Base, it was Meadows, but most of all it was Lorne Street School. If you know what I mean by those things, then you know a little bit about me.

There is something intrinsic about David Gilmour and his music. His guitar has that "radio" tone that only the early Beatles ever got. I'm not talking about the way he plays, which is entirely different than The Beatles. I'm talking about that Radio Tone.

The light show was suggestive of (or was deliberately evoking) another time, a Downtime (or just prior to The Downtime), lost now to all but a few. Does anyone besides me and the Office of Naval Intelligence remember the Downtime? Well, David Gilmour seems to. I realize this "review" may not make much sense to most readers, but it's as accurate as I can get, and what else could I have said? That it was "the greatest concert I've ever seen"? Yeah, but you probably already knew that.

This time was extra special because he brought his angelic daughter Romany on tour. I mentioned in a recent blog that she was introduced to the world as part of the Gilmours' "Von Trapped Family" podcasts during Covid. She sang and played harp, with her Dad and solo, and she was so good that many fans including myself called for an official collaboration. Now, she's appeared on his recent album "Luck and Strange" and sings lead on two songs, one of which - "Between Two Points" - she performed Wednesday night at the Bowl. Everything about the show was "off the charts" as I like to say. They played 2 hours and 20 minutes of music, and during intermission, a cheer went up among the fans as it became known that The Dodgers had just won the World Series.

So that was a Very Good Night indeed, and so was Halloween.

I went for my usual walks, including a Reseda walk that encompassed Lorne Street School. If you know why I did that, you probably have a top secret clearance at ONI or ONR. Reseda rules. It is my favorite town in the world, and Lorne is my favorite school, and on Halloween night, the streets surrounding the school were like a giant block party, with every house lit up and decorated to the hilt, and more trick or treaters on the sidewalks than anywhere else in the area, which was already very crowded. My Northridge walk was good, too, and of course I love The 'Ridge, but not as much as I love Reseda, and I absolutely detest and protest what's been done to 9032. Drive by and see it for yourself. It looks like a prison bunker.

But yes, the last two nights were amazing, amidst everything else that is going on. Now, we head to the election, and if Trump wins, we may have the slightest chance for daylight...

I will write you again when it's over. Stay tuned.