Interview with Townes Van Zandt about Blaze Foley:

Interviewer: “So, what songs did Blaze write?”
Townes: “Ever heard of Clay Pigeons?”
Interviewer: “No”
Townes: “He wrote that. How about Big Cheeseburgers?”
Interviewer: “No”
Townes:He wrote that. How about “Theres no Goodwill Stores in Waikiki”?
Interviewer: “Um, no”
Townes: He wrote that. How about Achy-Breaky Heart? Have you heard of that?
Interviewer: “Yes! I know that one.”
Townes: He didn’t write that one.
From the 2018 movie "Blaze". Good movie.

Blaze pictured left with Townes in the middle.

SHE COULD TALK THE EARS OFF A WOODEN INDIAN

The X mrs Bulletholes likes to tell the kids about how we met working at the Hyatt. I had just finished cleaning a big Halibut, which included carving his eye out and placing it in my mouth for a little kitchen fun. I turned to go show my buddty that I had three eyes by opening my mouth to display the big Halibut eye which was a perfect size for such nonsense.

As I turned, there she was, redheaded and freckled and cute and I had been dying to meet her for months. She was a Banquet Bartender.
'Hello" she says. 

All I could do was give her a long faced look, the one where you try to keep from smiling...and I nodded and grunted in reply. She began to talk to me, just chatting away, and me making all these dumb expressions, unable to say a word trying to figure out how to get out of this.
I was really stuck, stuck like a fly on sticky paper. At some point I just thought what the hell, opened my mouth and displayed this big fisheye. 

She screamed and then she laughed.... thats when I knew she was the one!

PAY ATTENTION

I like it when I go to Sonic, and the girl taking my order sounds like she is new; she stumbles over the order a little bit (unsweet raspberry ice tea, easy ice) and when she comes out the door I can see that she is worried, tentative, maybe her last customer was mean, but she comes out the door and shes frowning and uptight, she looks up and sees me, I give her my biggest best smile and I can see the worry melt off her face, her shoulders relax, and she is smiling too, and she gets to the car and I give her my best hello and thank you, now she's half laughing happy and relieved and says you're welcome and confidently skips back to the door, what a great day at work she must be thinking. Its not much, but its good to know you can have that kind of power if you just pay attention to someone besides yourself.

THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE FLAG

We have a legend and an artifact down at my NA Group. The artifact is a mop handle with a white towel hanging from the wall. The legend is that one day a recovering addict was wanting to use. He called his sponsor. “What should I do?” he asked.

“Where are you ?” asked the sponsor.

“I’m at Precinct Line and the freeway”

“There is a Target store there, yes?”
“Yes”

“Pull in to the Target parking lot and park”
“Ok Done”

“Now go into the store, to the household aisle”

“OK, I’m there”

“Grab a mop handle and a white cleaning towel.”

“OK”
“Go to the register and pay”

“All paid”
“Now go outside and tie the white towel to the end of the mop handle”

“Got it”
“Now go out to the corner of Precinct Line and the freeway, wave your flag and yell “I surrender”.

So he went out to the busy intersection and followed his instructions.

“I surrender, I surrender, I surrender” he hollered, waving his flag.
His sponsor asked him “So now, do you still want to use?”

In all the excitement, he had forgotten all about using…

We say surrender is the key. And following instructions, surrenders baby brother.

Sorrily, the white towel and mop handle was misplaced when we painted a while back. I wish we still had it.

THINGS OVERHEARD THIS WEEKEND

I have a friend whose grandkids, 4 and 5 years old, were invited to have their pictures taken with actors dressed as WW2 Nazi soldiers.
They shook their heads. No. They would prefer not to.
One of the Nazi soldiers asked them “Is it because we are dressed as bad guys?”
One of them nodded his head. Yes. 
No statues needed to inform today’s youth who the bad guys were. They pick it up. They know.

THE POWER OF ART
You wont find many WW2 Memorials in Germany. You will find many commemorating the First War. Sometimes names were added to the First War sculptures of those fallen in the Second, such as this sculpture, created in 1935 and amended after 1945.
They say most of those sculptures created in the 20’s and 30’s were part of the Nazi propaganda effort.
Artistic style and expression was giving way to Nazi aesthetics.
More here…
https://vova.pomortzeff.com/german