My son just named his new guinea pig “Sally,” and though I’m not a fan of rodent type critters, I think Sally is pretty cool. Also, guinea pigs make this really odd electronic kind of sound when their excited.

Some time ago I wrote about a Jean Dushon single on Atco Records “I’m Tired,” produced by Phil Specter. And with absolute over the top aplomb I ranted, raved and foamed like peroxide on a road rash about that track. “How,” I thought  “can it get any better than this?”  A discovery like this, out of the blue, only happens once in a lifetime to a lowly record store employee.

I went so far as to write that my aching back was miraculously healed by the Bo Diddlyesque drumbeat; it had to be the vibrations!

Well … I may have been wrong; I know this revelation may surprise you. I’m generally not one to exaggerate. Really. Anyway, my backache returned and eventually worsened, but did I lose hope? Almost … but no! I felt that somewhere down the line something greater, something deeper was going to breathe life back into me, an empty shell of a man. Carpe Diem! Corpus, Mens, Spiritus! E pluribus unum! Eureka! Ars longa vita brevis!

A few months back I discovered a 7 inch record from a somewhat obscure singer, Anna King … and this time I think I actually had a religious experience. My back wasn’t healed, but I swear to god I didn’t have an asthma attack for weeks. It’s as if my ears and lungs and bronchial tubes were touched by healing hands.

“Was that you Katherine Kuhlman?”

Long ago I discovered that the flip side is often the hot side, and "Sally" is the B-side to "Mama’s Got a Bag of Her Own", a kind of a dig at Anna King’s old boss. "Sally" is an impossibly soulful, medium tempo ballad with just a hint of a musical arrangement. To start with, there’s a little piano, a touch of a bass line, a kick drum and all the room in the world for the vocals. King first starts off a little breathy, a little hesitant, telling her dear friend Sally about her no good boyfriend.  But by the end the full band kicks in and the vocals just lay it on the line: Sally should just forget about that son of a bitch, because as Anna King plainly states, “I’m gonna steal him from you.”  And I thought they were pals! I just don’t have the words to explain the greatness of this cut. Find it, if it takes you a decade, it would still be worth your time. Think of it as a religious pilgrimage. I’m serious!

One day it's the 1970's, I'm trapped in the kind of hell a youngster homo freak usually is trapped in, and hey, Patti Smith is the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. (Who in the '70's didn't watch Belushi when you were 9?) Suddenly, you realize you can stop jumping off the roof of any building you can scale the side of, you stop trying to figure out how to knot a noose, and you ... embrace life.

Because you realize if this woman is on TV in America ... that there is hope. And when Gilda Radner did her Patti Smith impression--you loved Gilda even more. Crazy.

Next thing you know, a some 3 decades later, you are standing on the Santa Monica Pier watching Patti Smith from about 3 feet away. Life is so weird and magical.
30 years later, you can barely stand up, you're half deaf, blind in one eye and ... none of that matters a god damned bit. Yeah, you feel all the pain, and you clutch the stage so you don't fall over ... it's just that being there makes it all bearable for a little while, and that is all any of us can ask for. I'm not a unicorn: tons of people are broken into pieces: but these beautiful and generous artists give to us that magic, that roar of love ... that medicine that the HMO and free clinic can't conceive of ... the kind that really does heal you.
And for the first time since Patti played her show at Amoeba Hollywood, I can feel my soul, I can feel your heart and I keep turning around to witness the joy in the people around me.

Yeah, she's a genius. Yeah, Patti Smith is an inspiration ...  She is a force of nature. I think if there are any Gods at all ... they roar truth and power through her voice. But face it, she doesn't save your soul. You gotta do that. She shows up to do a non-profit, save The Santa Monica Pier, and if you want to know without any question at all that the people do have the damn power--you show up, and you feel pretty damn grateful and powerful.

Academy Home Entertainment 1062

Sabrina
Almost One Year of Employment
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ME:  Hi.  So Sabrina, you are a newish arrival to San Francisco.  What do you love about living here?  Why did you move here?

S:  I didn't really tell anyone I was moving out here, I just did it.  I was on a self journey and I was so done with Boston.  I've been called a hippie my whole life so I figured I might fit in here.  My parents would call me "Greenpeace" when I was a kid.  I liberated a petting zoo when I was in high school cause I was a vegan straight edge kid.  I used to be a brawler, big time.

What was the first show you went to see upon arriving  here and where was it?

It was at the Elbo Room and it was the first week I was here.  It was a metal band from Japan and I don't remember the name of them.  I had really long hair and little Lennon glasses on.

So you were really going for the hippie thing!

Dude, I was so surprised-- people were just smoking weed indoors and it was kind of ok.  It's not as acceptable there [Back East].  It's just not as open.

What's your favorite place to see a show?

Great American.  The Lipo Lounge is pretty rad.  Edinburgh [Castle] is rad because they have the fish and chips you can order from next door!

So you're not vegan anymore?  

This second part photo-series (following yesterday's AMOEBLOG) shows the almost-finished art project done by the H.O.M.E.Y. Project (SPIE, Trigger etc.) on 24th Street near Capp in the Mission District of San Francisco. These pictures were taken two days ago, as the painting was being finished up. The mural caused some controversy with the SF Planning Commission, who are funding the art project, over some of its Palestine content. At first glance the art might look the same, but there are a lot of new details filled in on the large and wide mural since the first batch of photos (posted here yesterday) were taken ten days earlier. 

The five pictures below are taken left to right (top to bottom) and almost capture the beauty of the piece, but really, if at all possible, the best thing is to go see it in person on 24th Street just down a bit from  Mission Street.