Speaking in Tongues

I had such an interesting interview with artist Marjorie Guyon yesterday. She and her beautiful agent, Alaina Simone, talked about her latest project Nation of Nations. In that conversation I was reminded that artists think deeply, considerately, passionately.

I've been surrounded by academics so long that their insistence to be right, without doubt, unequivocally perfect, that it crushes the possibilities of what might be, what could be - perception. It's all about perception. Even the sciences - it's all perception, isn't it? Today it's this rule, but tomorrow some other genius will find something better, truer - another perception is born.

Meanwhile....art is one person's perception. It just is what it is. You're not forced to study it or accept it as truth, you're just asked to look and think.

I'm not happy in academics. I miss the freedom of art.

RCC Continued

I love Facebook (when the developers haven't screwed it completely). I created a note yesterday with all the band name suggestions we'd gotten - 149 of 'em - with the 150th quickly following the post. Some are really, really good. Some are just funny. Some are sick (yet somehow funny, but that's just me). But the one that always sticks out is Red Couch Conspiracy, as I mentioned yesterday. Dan is at peace with it - Pete hasn't chimed in because he's "winter camping" right now (I don't know if that's code for -"I'm freaking out so, I've gone to sleep in a tent in the UP in the dead of winter and hope I don't wake up"). Whatever....

In the meantime, Stacy Yelton, who came up with the name RCC, sent along this very interesting article on how all the good band names are taken. Fortunately, Googling RCC only turns up my blog! Allmusic.com doesn't turn up anything either, though there are lots of conspiracies out there.

So, there's this new thing called reverbnation (thanks to Matt Burke for turning me on to it) and I've created a Red Couch Conspiracy profile there. It's sparse yet but I may throw together some snippets of of our songs just so you can get a sense of where we're going.

In the meantime, here's the note I created on facebook with all the names my friends have come up with. Enjoy!

Pool
Take That Charlie
Slap Charlie
Up In Ya
Bend Over Charlie
Chainsaw Critters
Face Velocity
Screaming Zucchinis
Portable Squirrel
Potable Squirrel
6 Minute Abs
Once in a Bleu Moon
Once with Bleu Cheese
Terry, Tereski, and Tood
The Electric Intestine
Bleu Greene
Kopana Terry and the Fuzzy Sphincters
Kopana Terry and the Killer Titties
Kopana Terry and Kapow! Tings!
Poppy Twang and the Bluebirds
kopana terry and the pool boys
super blue moon pool
The Wilsqueezblues
squeezbluesco
Kopana Terry and the Killer Time
Kopana Terry's Killer Time
Killer Ko and the Daydreams
Pool Hall
Pool Haul the concrete Pool
the cement pool
the Pool Cues
Pool Time
Skip skool for the pool
Skip Sckool and the Pools
Pool of Drool
What Would Ko Doo the Great Danes
pool-rific
Once With Bleu Cheese Dressing
Once With Roquefort
Once With Gorgenzola
Koko and the Puffs
Koping skills & the Trauma
Spill in isle 3
Deere John and the BushHogs
Red Couch Conspiracy
watch me play these instruments
Trout Grinders
bordello botox
Crouching Squirrel, Chainsaw Charlie
Witchita Wheat
It's my favorite sofa
Letters To Lennon
kitten vortex
Pussy Magnet
Red Pussy Magnet
Dang! That's all I gotta say about that
RPM
Dewey Decimal System
East Coast Seismic Warning
Flow Charts
Power Point Presentations
Kopana's Man Band
AnaPok
Aunt Pannies Mannies
Aunt Mannies Panties
koping skills and the lorazepams
Sleepless
lack of sleep
Dreamy Ko and the Sleepers
Hot Flash and The Night Sweats
Kick-Ass Birthday
I'm Graying Here
Here Comes the Gray
Not today Gray Grays Labotomy
That Guys' Band
Space Anatomy
Shell of a Man
Michelle and Man Shells
That Guy and Ko
Ko Guy Ko
Ko Man Ko
Bang Sum Guy
Any Given Holiday
Koko Kollective
the kopa kopanas
kopana blue
The KoKo Kochos
Ass Kickin Ko's
Ass Kickin Mo's
Ko-a-Kolas
Gravel Drop Travellers
Stone's Throw Caravan
stonecipher road/trail/lane
Kopana Stone Shakers
Kopanana and the Mandrills
Blue Ko and the Crew
Blue Ko and the Hue Crew
Bluestone Road
De Cypher
Blue De Cypher
Ko-Band-Ah
Common thread
Cut and Paste
Off Base
Word Smith
Tune Smiths
Sleazy Cheesy
Rock-on !!! and always rule the day
Peace
Floating Feathers
Sky ward bubbles
stone of hope
mountain of dispair
Hot Koko and the Mellows
a stone's hope band name
name band
insert name here
band camp
Kohunas
flirting with elves
screaming tin pickle boxing the bald husky
befriending the big goodness
Kopascetics
Witchita Wheat & The Threshers
Me and The Boys
Bittersweet Downs
TV Snow
Nekkid Mole Rat
Yes, No, Maybe
Sleeping Lizard
Reptiles in Repose
Resting Reptile Reclining Reptile
Kopana and the Drunken Militia
Kopana Moonshine and the Stills
Sweet Grass and the Foggy Bottoms
Kukla Kopana and the Ollies
Kops and Robbers
Ted Kopana and the Nightly News
Hats on a Drunken Worm Band Name
Bootilicious and the Hot Pockets
Blank Book
French Terry

Red Couch Conspiracy

This is the working name for the band...at least for now. Speaking of "the band", everyone keeps asking about it so, here's the skinny:

(rehearsal space, December 2009)

About 6-7 years ago I said to an old guitar player pal, Pete Poggione, that technology was catching up so we could play together again since he was then, as now, living in Michigan. That grew into the idea of "Pool" as in a pool of talent wherein people I had known or played with over the years could be in the same band from anywhere in the world.

At Christmas 2009, three of us from said Pool got together at my house and began writing/playing some stuff; myself, Pete, and Dan Kibler from Harrisburg, PA. Three days later was born "Red Couch Conspiracy" or RCC for short.

(Left: Dan Kibler, Right: Pete Poggione)

We've currently got 9 songs and we're scheduling our next rendezvous when, I suspect, we'll finish writing said songs, write a few more, and actually record (for real this time) a good portion of them. Once that happens, we'll be able to invite other guests from the "Pool" to fill in the gaps. But it was pretty clear in '09 that the core of the band was the three of us.

Words can't describe how grateful I am to Pete and Dan. I have a renewed sense of self, and a renewed sense that my life won't end with a day job and a pocket full of stress. There is hope on the horizon and it's name is Red Couch Conspiracy.

What do we sound like, you ask? It's a little hard to categorize (but we must, it is the human way, after all). It's actually easier to say what we are not: we are not country, blues, or jazz. We are not opera or classical. We are not Top 40 pop, rap, or hip-hop. I would venture we sound like a mix of Squeeze, Wilco, Crowded House, Over The Rhine, with a hit of blues and touch of The Stones and Mellencamp. So - if you can come up with a category for all that, then that's what we sound like.

(Above: Kopana and her Mannies on the Red Couch)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a whole lot better this time than it was last year. Last year my beloved Jack cat had died just two days prior. It was a harbinger of the year to come but, at the time I didn't know that. But it ruined VD just the same.

I still miss that old cat. He was the best.

2010 brings more play, less work

The title is exactly as I had intended 2010 to be. The first thing to go, less Tonic. Now, before you thousands of fans turn blue from gasping, fear not. The interviews continue - I've got three lined up over the next 10 days in fact - it's just that the show has been streamlined. That means, some things nobody was paying attention to anyway have been cut, like the Call to Artists and Remembrances. For as much as I'd like those to remain, they are time-eaters and I just don't have it to give anymore. So, until some $$$ starts flowing my way to help support the time it takes to keep them up-to-date, they've been 86'ed.

"The" book

Yes, it's come to be know simply as "The" book. People are as sick of hearing me talk about it as I am of hearing myself talk about it. But finally, things are moving.

Well, they were.

Then I got a call from a friend who asked me to send the manuscript (now a completely designed book) to the University Press of Kentucky, ironically, the only publisher I had approached previously and the only to reject me. Granted, it was the nicest let-down I'd ever gotten but it was a "no thanks" just the same.

So, just how weird is it that they want to see the book some three years later when it's ready to be self-published? I'll keep you posted on just how weird weird really is.

Hats off to The Black Rose

It's been eight months since my last post. Seems when my dog died she took some of me with her. But many, many things have changed since then - and all for the better.

One of those great things was the new friends I made through Humanity Academy. It was a week-long session filled with many ups and downs, mostly downs because we had to confront the horrible ways we treat one another, either because of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or just because somebody doesn't look and act the way we think they ought to. Stupid shit, but it's real and it hurts. But in all that dust-up I found a few people I could connect with. One of those is my friend LaKetta Rollins. She writes The Black Rose and has encouraged me to start writing again as well.

And so....here is to all things in the past, moving on, being stronger, and finding good friends along life's path. Thanks L. Shawn Rollins for being my pal.