Two of my most favorite people are known to have said, well, Jerry Garcia said, I think, “I’ll catch up on my sleep when I’m dead.”  Warren Zevon said “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

I was strummin next to the oil lamp, as its is too hot for a fire, and thinking about law school and music and my age.  Most of my favorites weren’t young stars nor still popular. and music historically is not Led Zepplin.  Its a folk art.  People say the music industry is dying.  Its really a short span of human music.  and the assholes who run it are business men now.  people complain about CD sales.  its because they support shit and not good artist’s. Brittany could make a CD anytime she wants or some American Idol asshole, and nobody knows a Jay Farrar, or even Jeff Tweedy.  Not to mention a Dale Watson or musicians like Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams, or Taj Mahal.  its best the industry as we knows it dies.

Its too hot and the middle to the night in Texas.

One Time in the New Lin

In our usual booth

Talking   to the waitress

                   eating  potstickers

Two men who were begging on

 walked into   to      the restaurant

     onJackson street

The bigger one with the red beard ordered

  And said, wearing suspenders,

“You cook good corned beef for a china

      nees restaurante”

A funeral prossession goes by outside again

“I’ll have corned beef and a

   glass of milk”-and goes to smoke

   outside

the limosine passes by

I put sugar in my tea

The bath room is downstairs

   And dark, old, and wet

Reminds me        of old
Chinatown

    stories,         and books,  and  OpiUm

Old Chineese men

Whose wives  have pro bably died

   eat dishes of weird food

and hardly look up

their jackets hang on the wall

I get claustrophobic

      and go outside

I’m feeling good after hearing about Al Frankin today, especially after watching all the news today on NBC and Jim Lehrer about out health care situation.  The News Hour was pointing out that only 2% of medical students go into Primary Care because they make an average of $180,000 a year.  It takes along time to pay back their loans and they have to work many hours a week.  They also have to spend 50% of their time talking to insurance workers and filling out papers for them, and also figuring out which medicines they can prescribe based on insurance. I guess all doctors must do this in America right now, yet some still cling we have the best health care in the world despite all the facts that point in the opposite direction. 

Tonight we will be heading down to Emo’s for free night to see Full Stride.  Hopefully get a ride down there in the band van and catch a cab back.  I dont really like going downtown, but for a free show and drink tickets I just might.  I just might.

I will be getting married to my fiance Rose in a couple months out here in Austin.  Im originally from Northern California and have been out here for a years.  I play in a band out here with Amber Lucille.  I play slide guitar.  I also write songs and record songs which you can hear at www.myspace.com/tomasijohnmontana.  So my blog should be full of stories from playing in a band in Austin, TX, drinking escapades, politics, literature, and getting married.

My main focus today was working on a new tuning I developed on guitar.  I play it like like 5-string open G, (open G is the tuning Keith Richards learned from Ry Cooder and used heavily through out the seventies.  His famous quote about it is something like, “all it takes is 5 strings, 3 fingers, and one asshole to play it.”  Its like a banjo tuning.} but I leave the high E.  so its EBGDG from high to low.  I like it because I can solo and play chords like in standard tuning, but also all the strings except the high E is an open G.  So it is good for slide and blues riffs.  Today I tried to figure it out playing along with the Rolling Stones and Son Volt.  This blog is probably more musically technical then I will ever be again.