The Waste I Made Of My Life.

As you all know, I toured for over a year with a "package tour" of BB King, Albert King, Bobby Bland and(from PGH,)Phylis Hyman(Hymen?). I had to be available on call to play rhythm and lead guitar for all, though I was primarily in Albert King's band. If the guitarists for the others was sick, too high or drunk, had a family emergency or whatever, I had to practice, know the material and be prepared to be guitarist for whichever performer needed me.
Between revenues from their respective recording labels, tour intake fiduciaries, royalties, memorabilia and merch etc. monies, I was paid $7000 per week(AFTER taxes) whether we performed every day or not. Just to be there I got paid. I was young, dumb and wasteful of this income and have nothing to show for it now other than my PEAVY 212 DEUCE amplifier, some records I bought, some paintings I bought and memories.
Let's say I played 365 days. Added up it comes to about $2 million 5 hundred 55 thousand dollars!
Money wasted, squandered and mis-spent.
What a terrible, sad and unforgivable waste!!!!
That is why people more famous in their own right continue to tour beyond there prime and present day abilities.

February 5th snowstorm.

You should be in Pittsburgh! We are under several feet of snow! Drifts up to 12 feet! People are dieing. Electricity and heat are off for thousands. Streets are impassible, stores, and businesses are closed. Snowed in for 7 days now since Friday February 5th. We have been declared a state of emergency. You only hear about Washington, DC!
Schools, public buildings, corporations all are closed. Snow removal teams are having a tough fight. We are having cabin fever cozz we been in our homes since Friday last. Friday and Saturday we were pummelled with snow. The temperature, meanwhile, went up and then down. Freezing the previous deep snow. Then Tuesday a second storm with over 2 feet more snow. That killed us. We are in our homes and apartments. The homeless are where? Grocery stores that have managed to be open are being emptied of basic products. State likker stores that manage to open manage to be besieged with people who otherwise" can't get out!" :)
Carbon monoxide deaths mount as people without power make contrived heat and light, causing fires. It's a mess. Yet I, so far am warm safe and secure in this "gated community" that I am staying in.
The positive things. People are snowshoeing, skiing, and roughing it through the deep snow. Children and teens are out sledding, building playful snow structures, or helping with serious shoveling. People that would never speak are helping one another. There are teams of youths going around checking houses and apartments to ascertain the well-being of the elderly and infirm. I, on the other hand have been sitting here all these days inside mostly, doing nothing. Snowed in yet my electricity or gas or water have not ceased and I am warm and have plenty enough food. A trapped yet comfortable and thankful soul; suffering privation.

Red Leather Motorcycle Jacket

So one day last spring(2009) I was riding my bike towards home down Larimer Avenue. I got to the corner of Larimer and ***** and these two people were walking. One had on a beautiful red leather motorcycle jacket with Japanese script on it. Across the back between the shoulders it said "ATLANTA" in Japanese katakana.

"Sick-assed Jacket", I said to dude, "That says ATLANTA in Japanese."
"Yea", he said, "Howdja know?"
"I can read that shit!"
"Yea, you wit' it! I'm from Atlanta; I alway had to TELL niggahz what that say! You the 1st that tol' ME!!!"
And that was it. We went our ways. Damn!!! I WANTED that fuckin' jacket!!!

Jimi Hendrix's and a few others' Guitar Techniques.

trotskyismyniece posted this on Jan 19th, 2010 at 03:01:08 pm:
"The thing that always sort of blows my mind is how much guitars just look like toys in his(Jimi Hendix's[Albert King's/Stevie Ray Vaughan's]) hands. He's always holding the neck at such a weird angle almost up near his shoulder, and his hands are just too huge." Trotskyisnyniece is speaking about Jimi Hendrix but the same is true for Vaughan and Albert King, though they all held their guitars in different playing positions.
I agree with the Hendrix hands/playing technique mystery thing. When you see footage of him playing, it's not like you see him playing the notes. His hands just make a big swathe of movement about the guitar neck. Jimi, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King all seem the same in this respect. You watch a video of them playing and no matter how closely you watch, they seem to play the most amazingly exact riffs while employing this un-definite, unclear, "broad swathe" fingering technique(like an actor "playing" guitar in a movie with fake guitar playing movement). You watch other players and you can see what they are doing visually in relation to what you are hearing. Not so with guys like Vaughan, King and Hendrix. I played with both BB and Albert King; I have sat there and WATCHED Albert CAREFULLY at rehearsals and jams. I could hear and mimic what he did, but to WATCH him, I couldn't tell what the fuck he was doing on the guitar neck!
Albert King tuned his guitar to a 6th or 11th chord(depending on mood and material), like a steel or "Hawaian" guitar.
Stevie tuned normally, albeit a half step down from "CONCERT" tuning.
Neither of those facts have any bearing on being able or NOT being able to determine by observation what they were doing as far as fingering technique.

The Button Ladies of Liberty Avenue(Pgh, PA)

I found myself in a fix today and it caused me to remember the little long, skinny shop on the north side of Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. It was either between what is now the tobacco store and Howlers or just past Howlers or ,maybe, up past Pearl St. in that block near the sweeper and hardware stores.
It was 2 older women with their shop full of spools of thread in every color and texture/source material imaginable. And BUTTONS! Jars, drawers, boxes and walls full of buttons of all types. Lost a button? They had the replacement or could order it.
What companies does one order buttons from?
I used to work on Liberty Avenue at a place called HH Sales. It is the little stand alone structure off Pearl St.. There is maybe a drive in parking space to the left(west) and a little fence to the right that leads to the back of the building. Anyway, when I worked there it was HH Sales, a fairly empty place with a few items here and there. All variety of items. Clothes, cassette decks, calenders, knick-knacks, kitch shit. The place was a front. For what, I never asked and never was told, I only worked there. There was a police sting operation one day with the attending newspaper reporters and television news crews- the next day, back to normal.
HH had another store, a little grocery, down near Baum Blvd on the corner of x and x streets(I'll remember and place the street names).
He was also into real estate. He had properties in Bloomfield. Commercial and habitable.
One time he invited us workers at his various "businesses" and other friends to a "House Burning" party and cook-out in the North Hills. He indeed burnt a furnitured property of the old late 40s to early 50s suburban style. A sturdy brown bricked, angular place with 2 chimneys. The local volunteer Fire Dept. was on hand to make sure the fire didn't spread to the neighbors' homes, telephone and electric wires or the suburban flora. Beer, soda, grilled hot dogs, bbq, macaroni and potato salads flowed Every now and then the firemen would handle the occasional troubling hot spot with a dousing. Far be it from me to say whether he got insurance money or not but HH built a nice new home there and perhaps is still suffering privation there in his dotage.
At that time I was seeing a woman that lived in Garnet Way. We used to call it Garnet Mimms' way after the soul singer. I was playing in blues bands. On good afternoons I used to sit on the steps of the church at Pearl and Liberty drinking a quart(there were no 40s yet) of Iron and smoking weed; sometimes playing my guitar. I didn't smoke cigarettes yet.
Stevie Ray Vaughan spent a night in that little place in "Garnet Mimms'" Way. That was when I 1st met him.

Black, Mods and Rockers; Pittsburgh Style 1960s

In this photo: Rockers.
In Pittsburgh there were "mods", "slicks" and "young blacks" that were different than our Negro parents. No true British style mods, nor true British style Rockers. I was a young black mod/rocker. Slicks were "norms". Mods were the 1st mass gtr generation. We began learning to play British invasion, folk, blues, top forty, country, bluegrass and r&b/burgeoning soul on our guitars. Not pop. We hung out at Lomakin's Music on Liberty Avenue downtown, Tarshis' Music on Baum blvd. in East Liberty off Highland Ave., the "listening rooms" of the various National Record Mart stores, Point State Park, and the Village Pizza on Ivy Street off Walnut in Shadyside. We began to wear leather jackets over "Carnaby" fashioned shirts. We accessorized with iron crosses, swastikas(I know),leather boots and garrison belts, wristbands of leather and steal link chain, etc. Some of us began smoking weed by late fall of 64. After I moved to Boston circa 1966, I found acid which had been slowly leaking out of Cambridge to the general mod/hipster public.

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/swastika.jpg

SWASTIKA 1: Ancient occult symbol of the sun and the four directions. Revived by Hitler, it represents racism and the "white supremacy" of neo-nazis. Like other occult symbols, it is often placed inside a "circle".


http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/swastika2.gif

SWASTIKA 2 (Crux Dissimulata): An ancient swastika which symbolized the four winds or directions and their corresponding spirits. It was also a "fire and sun symbol occurring initially in Asia and later among the Germanic tribes," according to The Herder Symbol Dictionary.[4] "The cross inscribed in a circle mediates between the square and the circle," emphasizing the "joining of heaven and earth.... and "the perfected human being."

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/symbol22.gif

SWASTIKA 3: A contemporary variation of the many swastikas with labyrinth patterns. Like the two swastikas above, its arms point counterclockwise indicating a mystical, lunar and female orientation. Compare its two intersecting lines with "Sun Sign 2, its curved arms (following the shape of the circle) with Swastika 2, and its dark areas with the "Iron Cross."

http://www.radioliberty.com/Symbols%20and%20their%20meaning_files/cros-iron.gif

CROSS (IRON or EISERNAS KREUZ): Also called Mantuan or Maltese cross. First linked to an ancient goddess temple on Malta, it was adopted as the Iron Cross in Prussia. During the First World War, it appeared on German fighter planes and tanks. Later, it became a fascist symbol in France, Portugal and other nations.

I post these in refute of the Nazi meanings of these symbols and would refer you to their TRADITIONAL meanings BEFORE they were appropriated by Nazi Germans.
In the Mods/Rockers(Early Beatles) era of the 1960s, we wore these Swastikas and Iron Crosses with leather/Carnaby Street fashions with their ORIGINAL meanings' intent; we wore them in defiance and repute of the 1930s-45 Nazi significations.

Copy and paste image URLs to see art/objects referred to.

Also reference blog entry: http://duaneridesagainblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2009/07/pagans-mc.html

The Time I Got Drunk In Az(circa mid-1970s)

(From a chat session)
dujones: i miss az
i used to live there in holy shit what the fuck town asu ist TEMPE
TEMPE AZ
Meriel: hahaha

i want to go there.
dujones: I was forced to b drunk and the police came and arrested this guy that was forcing me to drink. weird story....
Meriel: wtf??
dujones: I should call and see if I can get that police report
I was in this bar having a sammich and this neighbor guy came in and offeredd a drink so i said yea and he bought me a shot
then I said I gotta go to a job innervew and he said have one more
then after that he bought me another but nothing for himself then he just kept buying them and getting meaner and was I AM PAYING U BETERR FUCKIN KEEP DRINKIN OR I WILL FUCK U UP FOR WASTING MY CASH
then he started forcing them down my throat i asked the bartender to please stop and the bartender laffed at me and i was startiing to get really drunk and sick
finally i said i gotta piss and they said go ahead there is no way out back there BUT
there was a phone booth by the mens room and i dialed 911 and told them.
when the cops came he had me on the floor pouring a drink down my throat he was sitting on my stomache
The cops arrested him called more cops and they arrested the bartender and made the owner come and lock the bar till further notice
the owner was pissed cozza his loss of money so immediately fired the bartender in cuffs
they were closed for a week
meanwhile I had my bike so the police took me home instead of jail only becauese i was forced to drink.
Him and the bartender had a hearing and me and the bar OWNER were testifying against them
ever since then though I got free drinks (to a point) at the bar


Sent at 12:26 AM on Saturday
dujones: but there is more, I stupidly got on my bike and tried to make it to the job innerview and passed out in the street while trying to ride my bike someone called 911 and the original arresting officers came and got me. THIS time they put me in an unlocked cell till i slept and so.bered up then they took me home WILD Story huh?
whew!!!!!!
Meriel: sorry stepped away let me read
Sent at 12:29 AM on Saturday
Meriel: whoa duane!
what the hell was up witht aht guy?? That's insane!
dujones: It was weird I think i had alcohol poisoning a little I finally puked into dry heaves and could not eat the next day, i just lay around headachy and puking
I think he was trying to kill me with alcohol and I KNOW WHY cause it came out in court
and THAT is another amazing story to hear the REASON he did it.
1/15/10 the guy that forced me to drink's 1st name was Maurice, David new remembers now. Still working on a last name.