Thursday, July 28, 2011

Small Bones * Ronoso * Streights * Young Guns - Aug 1.






Small Bones - Punk from New Orleans featuring a former resident of New Mexico that used to play in City is a Tower amongst other bands during his time here in Burque. You can check some out here http://www.myspace.com/smallbonesnola

Absence Part 2

At the end of may a couple of fires broke out in western Arizona that went untamed for weeks.  The smoke from those fires traveled all the way into western and central New Mexico and settled in the valleys.  The smoke was so thick that at times you could not see more than a block away.  It also made the evening sun disappear on several occasions.  Ash fell and covered our plants, cars and sidewalks like it was a January snow.  The smoke made it hard for even the most healthy of us to breath comfortably.  For those that were old, young or of poor health, the smoke was dangerous.

In may my cat Tabitha a.k.a. 'Gata' turned 22.  I adopted her in June of 89 when she was between 4-6 weeks old.  She moved with me to Albuquerque in 1995.   Over the last 7 years she had settled into her age.  She slowed down a bit.  She lost most of her hearing and developed cataracts last year.  But she was still getting around the house.  Thanks to the smoke from the Arizona Wallow Fire she developed respiratory distress and died June 6th.  Those of you that aren't close to your pets will not understand.  Those of you that are close to your pets understand the devastation. 

My house has been quiet and lonely since.  I have begun to adjust.  And resuming posting to this here blog is part of me getting back into a more normal pattern.

Let's see if i can maintain this blog a bit more consistently from here on out.

And about the fires in Arizona.  Screw you Gov. Jan Brewer.  You should have made more of an effort to get that crap under control quicker.  You did not declare a state of emergency, which allows you to activate the national guard, until the 7th of June a week and a half after the fire began.  By the time you declared a state of emergency the fire had already grown to over 200,000 acres.  Then what did you do?  Sat and made a few phone calls to the feds?   Our governor, who i don't really care for, was down at the AZ/NM border even before the fire crossed into New Mexico to get an up close look at what was going on.  She was at least pro-active.  Even though hers and your powers as governor are not extensive when it comes to forest fires, she was at least ready and quick to make any and ALL resources available to the fed incident commanders.   

Gov. Brewer - screw you and the dumbass that started the fire! 

Absence Part 1.

So i skipped out on posting for the last couple of months.  I call it procrastination.  Things got a little down for a lot us here in New Mexico, the lack of rain, fires and the resulting smoke, motorcycle accidents, friends and companions passing on.  So here is the first posting that i have been putting off for a while now:


Back in May ago I was getting ready to write a few posts about some of the bands from Espanola, NM.  This northern New Mexican town has had several bands that I have been familiar over the last decade of so.  In preparation for this I contacted Pat Clements to see if his band Osoatomico was still active.  He wrote back explaining that Osoatomico was defunct, but he was working on trying to get something new started.

Two days later he died in a motorcycle accident.

I first met Pat a little over a decade ago when my band at the time first played in Espanola.   We hit it off pretty well, as we did with most everyone in Spana.  I think the first band that I remember him in he was playing bass at the time.  Later he was in Gloryhordeorchestra, playing bass as well.  The last time I saw him play was when one of my bands shared the stage with him at a show down here.  At that time he was in Osoatomico and had switched to playing drums. 

He was very talented and, as with most talented artists and musicians, was emotionally volatile.  It just comes with the territory.  I think we had the volatility in common.  Don’t be mistaken, there was no violence or hostility.  It was more like he wasn’t able to restrain his emotion.  It is the type of emotional and passionate explosiveness that can make it hard to work with others, but it’s also what helps drive creative process.  He had a passion for music and motors.  He was interested only in the quality of the music that he was playing, and in the quality of the bands that he listened to.  He didn’t give a crap about popularity.   It is those qualities that made me respect and appreciate him.   Not many people are that genuine. 

Over the years I would run into him on campus when he was going to school down here, or we would run into eachother at shows down here or up in Spana.  It was always great running into him, and I would always hope that I would run into him at the shows up north. 

He was a big guy with a big personality.   Our community lost something big when he passed.  From everyone in our bands here we send our condolences to his Family and Friends up there in Spana.  If his loss hit us this hard we can barely begin to imagine how devastating the loss is for you all.  Please, take comfort in knowing that he did make an impact on many people.  He made a contribution to our lives that can be looked back on by all of us as something real and tangible.  We all benefited from knowing him.   He was genuine. 

Here's a couple of videos of Osoatomico at Burts Tiki Lounge.  He was playing the drums.
 



 Osoatomico at the Espanola plaza