Zero to Twenty-Thousand in Four Months!

The blog switched from Silas Scarborough to Alan Fraser in December and that meant everything started from scratch.  All the subscriptions were gone, blah, blah.

The blog, despite its dumb name, has busted past twenty thousand reads since then and I'm most pleased with that performance.  Thanks so much for your interest!

One thing that amused me was the day the idiot was spouting all the hatefulness on Facebook was the same day the blog crossed over three hundred reads earlier than it ever had before.  So, yah, go ahead and hate me and talk yer sorry crap.  Do it some more, please!  Apparently P.T. Barnum was right that there's no such thing as bad publicity so long as they spell your name right (laughs).

(Ed:  I'm guessing you won't be spelling The Idiot's name right?)

Good guess, my brother!  Besides, it would be impossible as The Idiot has three different avatars on Facebook and then talks about Truth.  The Idiot wouldn't know Truth if it bit her on her dumb ass (laughs).

Keeping up the pace with the blog is a bit more of a challenge as I'm putting a lot of work into Katakolon News.  I saw Harry just a little while ago and he's pleased with how it works so that's most encouraging.  He's well-aware of the business opportunities in it and that's very good also.  The map has taken a tremendous amount of work but that's not something that will be a continuing drain on time.

Here's what people were reading yesterday:

Entry	Pageviews
Griechisch Autobahn Denkmäler Jan 19, 2013	28
The Elven Children (poem) Feb 4, 2013	16
"I Love Rats" - Remix by Michi Renoir (video) Mar 26, 2013	15
Kreuzfahrt Katakolo im Regen Jan 25, 2013, 1 comment	14
Michi Renoir Goes Trippin' at the Circus Mar 27, 2013, 2 comments	13
Trying to Find Some Light Mar 26, 2013	10
Synthetic Marijuana Can Easily Kill You Feb 6, 2013	9
"Bring the Cyanide" (poem) Mar 26, 2013	6
Damn, That is Some Bad Bird Mar 23, 2013	5
James Corachea is Already Back in the UK Mar 26, 2013	5

The thing that intrigues me about these reports is that some of the articles are months old and yet they are still attracting readers.

So, I'll keep this stuff coming and hopefully keep the articles interesting.

Michi Renoir Goes Trippin' at the Circus

When Michi Renoir started out last night at Cat's Art MusikCircus, it was with space sounds that filled the place with a quite unearthly feeling but then through it came beautiful piano melodies.  And so it went that he kept pushing out into all manner of trippy sounds but all the while holding it together with melodies he would devise as he went.

There really is no telling what Michi Renoir will do from one week to the next and this is a large part of what makes his music so compelling.  Janeel, his squeeze, said he plays according to his moods and I took a dim view of that as I see moods as things for Facebook or high-school girls.  Actually what I hear from Michi is quite a cheerful mood every time I've heard him play but that doesn't at all dictate what he will play.

Last week he was hammering it, culminating in a wild surprise with his remix of "I Love Rats!"  If that's a mood, it's a great one!

Last night wasn't at all an "I Love Rats" performance as it was lovely in a very different way and more than one person commented that it was relaxing.  Ordinarily, music that is intended to be relaxing has the opposite effect on me as it's boring and I get more and more tense waiting for something to happen. A lot of New Age music is that way and it seems to me if you mix a lot of cats in a basement apartment with New Age music then you will probably get a serial killer every time.

What Michi was playing last night was relaxing in that still you need to think but it's in a vibe that's very pleasant and flows into beautiful places.  I don't want to turn my mind off and it resists that anyway but I don't want to be solving differential equations all the time.  What Michi was playing last night flowed as if going down a gentle stream in the woods on a Spring day, surrounded by birds and little animals.  It was very much a transcendental experience and it was highly reminiscent of the feeling of Tangerine Dream in krautrock in which the music is calming but not soporific.

But then he would surprise us and throw out a hard 4/4 disco beat to ramp it up for a little while so maybe that was when our canoe was going through some rapids.  It was an evening of playing diverse sounds off each other for a wonderful effect and it's all improvisation.  He has a very impressive talent for it and jamming with him sometime would be very cool.

And of course Cat and I danced

Maybe this is dancing or maybe it's gymnastics but either way it's beautiful to do it.  We went out after the show to get yet more dances as Cat is constantly building the mix of dances from which people can choose when they come to the Circus.

And, yes, I might have done better with my outfit but, what the hell, I got it for free and I know Cat will get a smile out of that.

Here's a close-up of my beautiful self as what else will make your morning complete!  (laughs)

Just like real-life, right!  (laughs some more)

"I Love Rats" - Remix by Michi Renoir (video)

The video just uses stills but hopefully you will enjoy them.  Some of the pics go back to the total maniac days of Silas Scarborough in which no show was complete without explosions, preferably really big ones!

Thanks again to Michi Renoir for doing this!

Trying to Find Some Light

The egregiously venomous behavior within Facebook requires an immediate antidote and I have uploaded a great many pictures by Emmanuel Psarris to the Katakolo News Gallery.  Frankly, they're not my style and you saw the commentary on that in a previous photo series here on the blog.  Nevertheless, they're very pretty and I hope you will enjoy them.  One of them shows FIVE cruise ships in-port at the same time!

In fact, why not give you a taste right here:

There are really only two things of any importance in life, love and art, and really art is love.  Detracting from art necessarily detracts from love and there is no art without love, what would be the point.

The only way to counteract the poison in Facebook is through an extra-helping of love and hopefully you will feel it in these pictures.  A very brief overview of what is happening in Facebook is that there's some jerk with more mixed- up sexuality than anyone needs and his/her response to anything is that you're homophobic.  Well, no, the problem isn't that you're gay or whatever, the problem is that you're a self-absorbed narcissistic fuckhead.  Keeping your asshole behind you is how life was biologically-ordained and that works just fine for me.  One either walks away from toxicity or is consumed by it.  There are no other choices.

All you need is love, love, love,
Love is all you need.

"Bring the Cyanide" (poem)

Bring me now the cyanide
I must escape this life
I'm tired of this Facebook
and it's endless swirling strife

The things I've seen them doing
and the way they live their lives
leads me only to one thinking
that humans should all die

There's claim of seeing the spirit
from someone with a gun
who lives for puerile torment
with blame for everyone

I'm a man, I'm a woman,
I'm a bitter bleeding child
but it doesn't matter on this morning
it hasn't mattered for some while

You can try to live for art's sake
but there's no reason left to sing
blinded by their egos
they cannot hear a thing

I cannot help their anguish
it's not mine to control
I'm in a deck of playing cards
and it's time for me to fold

There's no way to escape them
until taking that last breath
and the prospect of that freedom
makes me yearn for that cold death

"Sea Fever" - John Masefield (poem)

This was the first poem I ever took to heart and, as you can see from They Call it Stormy Monday (w/pictures of Plakes Beach), I love going back down to the sea as much as I ever did.  It doesn't appear Masefield had much use for deck chairs or beach umbrellas either.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

- John Masefield

From SALT-WATER POEMS AND BALLADS, by John Masefield, published by the Maxmillan Co., NY, © 1913, p. 55; The poem was first published in SALT-WATER BALLADS, © 1902.

It has something of the feel of "Ithaka" by Constantine Cavafy which is also a personal favorite but which I did not discover until it was revealed by a friend fairly recently.

James Corachea is Already Back in the UK

Now you may wonder just how James Corachea got back to the UK so quickly if he was in Key West yesterday and the answer is quite simple.  He wasn't in Key West yesterday except virtually and it was my sorry reporting that had the error.

So what's bad for Key West is good for Cat's Art MusikCircus and he played there tonight.

Does he have the penetrating eyes or what!

At first the evening sucked bad as my audio was cutting in and out.  That made it almost impossible to tell what he was doing.  I suspect what was happening is someone else was pounding the Internet and that sucked up all the bandwidth as it suddenly got better about halfway through his show.  After that his music came in continuously and sounded excellent.

While covers of Neil Young or The Beatles or whatever are very approachable, that sort of stuff doesn't require much thought beyond, oh yeah, I know this one.  James plays some complicated stuff but that's the magic of it.  His music does require you to think but why would anyone not want that!  And why do people ask rhetorical questions (laughs).

I said at one point that James plays with a delicate and gentle style but maybe he heard me as he ripped it up pretty good after that.  Even so, he still has a delicacy and a gentleness when he plays hard.  It's an extraordinary technique!

And Cat and I danced!

The picture doesn't show it so well but I was wearing a shirt that could stand-in if ever the Katakolon Lighthouse breaks down as it could easily guide ships to port in the dark of night.  Cat didn't say anything but there was no need (laughs).  She was dressed in a very cool outfit and, um, well, I wasn't (laughs).  I will fix that for Michi Renoir's show tomorrow night.  Maestro Michi returns!

They Call it Stormy Monday (w/pictures of Plakes Beach)

They call it Stormy Monday
but Tuesday's just as bad

And so they sing those bluez!

Those are shower heads along the water.  Anyone want to go swimming?  This is Plakes Beach on the north end of Katakolon.  You can see it on the map at Katakolon News.

It really wasn't stormy but rather quite windy at high tide and the breakwater was definitely earning its keep.  There are no waves at all on the other side of it.

A distant ship's smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move but I can't hear what you say
(from "Comfortably Numb")

I find a quite unearthly beauty in these pictures and this is no credit to myself as a photographer as all I did was go there to shoot what was already happening.

Update:  here's one more

I was riding on this same beach to shoot the Valentine's Day video.  Good luck doing that without pontoons today!  Nevertheless, I enjoy the beauty of the scene as shooting pics of sunny days with beach umbrellas is pretty but it's very obvious.  In the shots today there is the power of the sea which is quite a marvelous thing to me.

Absolutely Don't Drink the Water - Just Don't Do It!

Last month when things became so desperate and doubtless will again that I ran out of everything including water.  I thought I had a good answer in melting ice cubes from the freezer but they had been there since the last tenant and, apparently, they were frozen from water from the tap rather than bottled.

After drinking the water from the ice cubes, I developed some kind of infection in my mouth with multiple open sores.  I didn't say anything as there was nothing anyone can do about it and couldn't see a doctor anyway.  What I did was drank enough orange juice to re-float the Bismarck.  Harry knew I was broke and kept bringing oranges which was very, very helpful.

It was quite spooky as it lasted for four or five days and I was thinking, fark, is this some damn mouth cancer from all the smoking of tobacco, reefer, and who knows what else in my checkered past.

It's not conclusive that the water caused this problem but I'll damn sure never drink it again.  Maybe it was just some damn bad luck and had nothing to do with the water but no way I will take that gamble again!

Greeks have told me the water is fine for cooking so apparently heating is enough to remove anything harmful.  It's still not clear what exactly is in it beyond lots of minerals but you saw above that doesn't matter to me anymore as there's no chance I will drink it.

James Corachea at Cat's Art MusikCircus Tonight

Writing a report is all very well but maybe it's not such a bad idea to tell you when these people will be performing.

So ... James Corachea will play at 1:00 PM US Pacific Time (Second Life Time) at Cat's Art MusikCircus.  You can see the week's schedule for the MusikCircus without going into Second Life and it's very fast.  I'm considering adding an email subscription list to the MusikCircus site so please do let me know if you would find that helpful.  Personally, I can't stand email because of all the damn spam, same reason Facebook is so annoying.

I know Yevette and most of you, in fact, can't stand Facebook so I'm looking for the best way to let you all know what's happening as I don't think single solutions such as Facebook, Google+, etc are particularly effective and even if I spam every social network on the planet then a good many of you STILL won't see it (laughs).

Hope to see you tonight and on with the show!

Vettel Loses the Race by Winning It

Sebastian Vettel 'won' the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang yesterday.  However, the win came because Mark Webber, Vettel's team-mate and an Australian with ten Grand Prix wins, slowed down when given team orders to save his car.  Vettel had the same team orders but he defied them to go ahead and pass Webber.  In other words, he only got the win because Mark Webber, under orders, gave it to him.

This is not world championship class, this is something one would expect from a driver in a demolition derby.  Vettel was all boo-hoo after the race in saying he was sorry but that's just talk.  It's not the first time there has been a situation like this.  (CNN: Vettel apologizes after controversial F1 win in Malaysia)

My brother, Lotho, was so annoyed and disappointed by what Vettel did that he commented about it to me and that's most unusual.  He said Vettel had fallen a great distance in his eyes and I suspect that's true with many people.  It's true that Vettel has great driving skills but so does Webber and he's not the first Australian of this calibre as Jack Brabham was World Driving Champion in 1966.

Germany has produced champions with major class but Sebastian Vettel is not one of them.  Being a champion in Formula One is more than winning races, it's how you win them.


This is a story the long-time regulars have heard before but I'll tell it again anyway as it's about when Hambone, my other brother, and I met Jack Brabham, lo these many years ago.

Alex Fraser, my ol' Dad, had a TV show in Sydney, Australia, and he also had a tremendous enthusiasm for racing.  One of my favorite memories is sitting on top of a car in the rain at the Bathurst track while we watched a race.  I sat on one side of my ol' Dad and Hambone sat on the other.  Umbrella?  You're joking, right!  My ol' Mother was the only one with any sense and she watched from inside the car.  To this day I still cringe at the number of times the three of us had her scrambling to get to an emergency room because of one us got all banged-up in a crash.

So, combining the TV show with his love for racing and his friendship with Brabham wound up in an invitation to Brabham to appear on the show.  My father had other shows but this one was for kids and Brabham was doing very well in racing with tremendous support from Australians so introducing him to kids seemed quite a good thing to do.  Brabham accepted the invitation and so came the day of the show.

Always the great one for spectacle, my ol' Dad asked Brabham if he could get some film footage of him doing some laps in the parking lot and again Brabham agreed.

However ... my ol' Dad didn't quite anticipate how this would go.

Jack Brabham arrived for the show in a Ferrari and he was accompanied by a friend who was driving another hot-rod.  My ol' Dad thought it would make a great connection with kids plus Hambone and I would really dig it if we rode with Brabham and his friend while they lapped around the parking lot.

What my ol' Dad did not anticipate was that Brabham and his friend would turn this into a small-scale Formula One race and they were running around the parking lot at breathtaking speed.  Each time past the cameras, Hambone and I, ten and eleven at the time, would be yelling and waving at the cameras while my ol' Dad realised he was getting quite a bit more in the bargain than he anticipated and there would be hell to pay when my ol' Mother found out about it!

I can cheerfully report both of us survived and I don't remember anything at all about the show but the part in the parking lot I will never forget.  Australia!!

James Corachea Takes a Swim

It might be a little unusual for James Corachea to go swimming as he lives in the UK and it's a wee bit cold up there just now but he is in Key West, Florida, for a live Second Life jam.  This is when a number of musicians will get together to play in-person and broadcast the show to Second Life.

Liz Harley put it together along with Eo Sands and Galt Hax.  It takes a tremendous amount of work to stage one of these events in terms of arranging a place to play, arranging rates with hotels, etc, but it all seemed to come together well.

From left to right:  Liz Harley, Coreopsis Bluebird, ??? (her name!), Sweet Ana (mostly obscured to my left), Silas Scarborough, Lyric Wilberg (almost entirely obscured behind me), and Noodlze Thorsveld


I have known Noodlze Thorsveld for quite a while and I was hoping to hear him play but my line was too slow and the audio kept cutting out on me.  I did get to hear some of James' set and he was playing in his marvelously-intricate style.  It was lovely work and I would have liked to hear more of it.  Noodlze was sweet to say he would kill to hear me play and that was very encouraging.  Thanks, bro!  If I ever get a line fast enough, I will do it for sure!

Note:  No-one else was having this difficulty.  It was just me because I have a very slow Internet connection!

You can hear the jam live from Key West, Florida, as it is ongoing at the Key West Resort and Marina in Second Life.  Enjoy the party and the water!