Southpaw Jones

CRUELTY is now available!
Order the CD now at southpawjones.com.
Purchase MP3s at cdbaby.com or .
Grab a copy in real time at Waterloo Records, End of an Ear, or Bookpeople in Austin.
Or buy one from me any Thursday at Flipnotics @ the Triangle.

Ah, Monday. I washed my car with the Weather Channel’s explicit promise that Austin would be rain free for several days. Of course, it rained all over my shiny hood all the way to work this morning. At least nature can’t undo the fact that I vacuumed, unless a woodchuck climbs in there to harvest pecans. I better put a sock in my exhaust pipe.

Sweet Maggie and I traveled way north to the local art house cinema (i.e. Darkened S&M Tavern of White Liberal Guilt) to see Man on Wire Friday night. Whoo, it’s a good one, go see it!

What can I say without ruining it for you?

It’s a documentary, that’s safe to reveal, but there are reenactments in there!

You can check the web site and see the preview, but I recommend seeing it under cover of ignorance.

It regards a particular piece of performance art in 1974.

Or is it a stunt?

Or a prank?

Or a one-ring circus in the sky?

It’s the story of a team of misfits and their charismatic leader coming together to do something wonderful with no guarantees.

All the principal players tell the story as if it happened yesterday, and it’s clear they’ve been telling it with regular frequency their entire lives.

The film will make you think about life differently.

It is very French, although the subtitles are minimal.

What struck me most is that Americans are focused a great deal on the question “Why?”

I never realized how much it affects us.

I wonder if that question does far more harm than it does good.

After all, we’re just little ants on a big ball in the middle of a very cold, dark cosmos.

If the macro seems to have no great purpose, why should the micro?

I try to follow my soul and write my little songs, even though it is rarely more profitable than costly.

I hear the troublesome, practical voice of my parents and grandparents echo in the back of my mind:

“Shouldn’t you be making wiser investments of time and energy?”

Oh, you guys…

All of us could easily fall into the trap of why-ing away the very essence of our lives.

You run around and do stuff that makes you feel good or complete or sane.

Sometimes you do stuff that comes from (and results in) some inexplicable thing.

Don’t ask why.

Life is a big blob of craziness. And it happens to be very, very short.

“Why?” is for toddlers.

Go see Man on Wire, or rent it when it’s available.

What’s that?

Because I said so!

as reported in The New York Times

September 8, 1908
TWO SINK IN QUICKSAND.
Daughter Caught Trying to Rescue Father — Both Are Saved.
The Macre family went down to Coney Island yesterday to pick wild flowers. The head of the family is Frank Macre, a steampipe manufacturer, who lives at 210 East 109th Street. With him were his wife, his daughter Janette, and his son Charles. They hit on the stretch of land between the back fence of the Brighton Beach race track and Coney Island Creek as the best wild-flower field in sight.

One clue whose answer consists of two rhyming words:

John McCain is a maverick! A solitary animal beyond party control! And somehow, he is ahead in national polls today. Surely he’s just a fashionable flash in the pan! I have faith that it won’t last, but how long will he get to be this…

Highlight here for answer: [rogue vogue]


The Condiment Packet Gallery

It is no small mischief to a boy, that many of the best years of his life should be devoted to the learning of what can never be of any real use to any human being. His mind is necessarily rendered frivolous and superficial by the long habit of attaching importance to words instead of things; to sound instead of sense.
William Cobbett

EVERY DANG THURSDAY
8:00 PM
Flipnotics at the Triangle
4600 Guadalupe
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 380-0097
www.flipnotics.com
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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2008
7:00 pm
Celebrating the lyrics of CRUELTY!
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
AUSTIN, TX
(512) 472-5050
www.bookpeople.com
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2008
7:00 PM
Five Things Austin
Do512 Lounge
2208. S. Lamar
AUSTIN, TX
Each artist is given an item purchased at a local dollar store (mundane to insane) and a month to craft a 5-10 minute piece (fiction or non-, musical or otherwise) that involves the item as directly or obliquely as the author wishes. The item is then put on display during, or incorporated into the performance. Featuring Owen Egerton, Spike Gillespie, and more!
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2008
9:00 PM (Doors open at 8.)
Matt the Electrician & Southpaw Jones
Anderson Fair
2007 Grant 77006
HOUSTON, TX
713.528.8576

http://andersonfair.com