Enough Is Enough.

17 April 2011

Doris: I’m a Jew. l was born a Jew. Do you hate me because of that?

Harry: And if our parents converted to Catholicism a month before you

were born, we’d be Catholics. They’re clubs. They’re exclusionary. They foster the concept of “the other”…so you know who to hate.

Doris: That’s enough!

Harry: A question: lf a Jew gets massacred, does it bother you more than

if it’s a Gentile or a black or a Bosnian?

Doris: Yes, it does. l can’t help it. lt’s my people.

Harry: They’re all your people.

Doris: Burt is right about you. You’re a self-hating Jew.

Harry: l may hate myself, but not because l’m Jewish.

(Deconstructing Harry: Woody Allen)

President Obama needs to talk with Israel about the creeping settlements in “The Holy Land,” a misnomer if there ever was one. If any other nation were doing what Israel is to her neighbors, Israel would be the first to accuse. The occupation of Palestine –illegal, inhumane, and inconsistent with Jewish values –has lasted forty-four years and is only augmenting daily, yearly. Israel seems to think that the rest of the world is too preoccupied or too stupid to see that she is making an immoral land grab in The Middle East, and then blaming the people she robbed from when they finally protest in senseless and suicidal violence. This is a cowardly, calculating, cynical game and it’s time for it to cease.

The United Nations Security Council made a resolution condemning the Jewish settlements. The United States with characteristic lack of resolve, voted against the measure. Germany voted for it and Benjamin Netanyahu called the German Chancellor to complain. Angela Merkel replied,“How dare you? You are the one who has disappointed us. You haven’t made a single step to advance peace.” Yes, it was Germany, and, yes, if anything she understated the case.

Prime Minister Natanyahu is not going to move from his present position. It is up to the other nations of the world to point out his egregious wrongdoing in this “settlement” matter. There are many Palestinians who have the keys to their houses, houses that they can see everyday, houses that Israel has taken from them and given to Israelis. Do you think this hurt is going to disappear just because many clever words have been used to disguise it? How would you like it if someone took your house and gave it to someone that you really don’t like?

There is a lot of unrest and revolution in The Middle East right now. Things are in flux. This is a good time to correct some wrongs that have existed a long time. The United Nations is considering a vote to welcome Palestine as a member whose territory includes all of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. This may happen in September. Thoughfful fair minded Jews and concerned people everywhere know that Israel cannot keep encroaching on other peoples’ lands and goods without some kind of reckoning happening. Anyone with a brain, but especially with a heart, knows that there is something seriously wrong here, and that wrong will be corrected one way or another, no matter what specious arguments are put up to defend the status quo.

Israel has settled hundreds of thousands of her citizens inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem and acknowledges that she will have to withdraw from much of the land that she now occupies there. In the United States, The Republican Party, the deny evolution, deny climate change, deny Obama citizenship Republicans, are siding with Israel. Doesn’t this tell you something? Why are they siding with Israel? Because they believe every word in the “Bible,” and the Bible says that the Jews are God’s Chosen People and the Republicans want to be on the right side when The Rapture comes. I repeat. Doesn’t this tell you something?

Two things are sure: Israel has a right to exist and Palestine needs to be an independent state. I hope that when the time comes everyone can think clearly and make the right choices, and stop doing evil in “God’s name.” It would be best if Israel and Palestine could work this out by themselves and I fervently hope they will.

We wrote our own songs, played jazz and rock and roll, had a lot of gigs, cut a record. My first band The Cool Notes, with Jim Como who is now a studio player in London, and Marty Bonin who is probably a general in the United States Air Force by now.

Here’s to people who make toasts. And to beautiful women.

Janis Joplin and Peter Albin in our satin and velvet phase.

Jim Wall, Mary Bridget Davies and Ben Nieves surrounded by restless natives.

Vicenza, Italia.

That’s a loooonng engine under there. A straight 8, or a V 12.

Jym Fahey, the Snake, charismatic, musical, Irish Spring. Lucky Charms.

This was such a pretty place, Anapolis, Maryland. Peter Albin and Tom Finch.

Out of the Sighs, 2005. Graphite on paper.

Elise Piliwale. We had her birthday weekend and went to see Rock of Ages and the next day we heard Amy Goodman in San Francisco. It’s so much fun being with Elise. She has a vivid sense of humor, she’s sweet and very lively. Oh, yes, and an IQ of 144 doesn’t hurt either.

Janis Joplin in fine fettle.

My first groups were vocal ensembles. I love to sing those C Am F G7 songs.

Actually, I love to sing anything. Even thoughts that I have as I am walking down the avenue.

My brother Lee. He’s a helicopter man.

My friend Dario da Rold bought a new Chrysler 200. He’s happy with it, after a lifetime of owning Italian cars. OK, so now we know he’s assimilated.

Mary Ellen Loomis, Butch Brashear and Tom Powers entering this party on Okinawa with a mysterious flourish.

Doing an interview at my house, playing the Hummingbird guitar that Janis gave me.

Henry Kaiser’s lagoon and Hawaiian Village, 1957. Henry Kaiser recently came to sit in with us at George’s in San Rafael, and I think that is the back of a Kaiser there in the photo. My family owned one of these cars. Henry Kaiser, the guitar player, must be a grandson or great grandson.

Taking a rehearsal break at school. Larry Henson, guitar; Jim Como, alto saxophone; Marty Bonin, tenor; unidentified; Sam Andrew, guitar. We played all the time at school, at the beach, at parties, waiting for the bus. This was a real rock band, years before I played in Big Brother.

Lisa is such a great violinist, highly intelligent and very accomplished.

I say I am picking up litter here. My brother Bill says i am trying to look up someone’s skirt. Gee, I wonder who is right?

Assemblage, 1980s.

My brother Dan Andrew and his daughter Diana. I can almost hear Dan purring with pride here.

Janis Joplin getting a hand. Audiences loved Janis. They knew she was real.

Babs Reed, Bill Lawton, Rhoda Watson, Sam Andrew, Vicki Carlson, Bruce Read, Okinawa 1960. Not sure why we are in a lineup like this, but I loved all these people.

This is such a great photograph, isn’t it? Peter Albin.

My sister Lillian, Okinawa.

The Sam Andrew Band. Scott Matthews, Robin Sylvester, Peter Walsh, playing a benefit for The Haight Ashbury Medical Clinic at University of California, San Francisco.

Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, 1954, before it became a one way street.

Ben Nieves and i in Bethel, New York. The great thing about playing music in public is that you have so many things to attend to, plugging in cords, making sure that everything is in tune, knowing how long there is to play, the best shape for the set, what the amp is going to sound like, how closely the technical people are really monitoring everything, that there is no time for terror until the last split second before the performance begins. And then it’s too late. You have to do it.

Ye Royal Axmen. Rahman d’Amato and Tom Finch.

Waikiki from St. Louis Heights, 1957.

“In my neighborhood, if you’re dressed like that, you better be a hotel doorman.” Fred Willard, Best In Show

Peter Kraemer at Aroma Café, 2011. Peter is unique. In every way.

Frank’s Corvette. One of my favorite shades of yellow. We’ve been through the whole “Hey, what is this, your second childhood?” thing, and it’s still a beautiful car.

Paul Bullis, Erin Homs and Stephen Andrew. One of these people could be the father of the others, and is the actual father on one of them.

Michael Joplin, Sam Andrew.

Laura Gomez on the right. I wrote a couple of songs about her.

Silvio 10 April 2011 (pen and ink).

My sisters and brothers, Paula, Stephen, Lillian and Dan.

Mary Bridget Davies, guitar player.

Jason Andrew, Kirsten Amundson, Lee & Edie Andrew, St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Switzerland’s version of a Woodstock. All healthy and beautiful.

Snooky Flowers at George’s, San Rafael, California.

Nancy Gurley breastfeeding Hongo Gurley and boogalooing at the same time.

Nails.

I had an art show recently and George Fuller came to see me. We graduated from the same high school in Okinawa, Japan. George and I have been here in The Bay Area off and on for thirty years, and this is the first time i saw him since Okinawa. Odd, since we know many of the same people.

Lee Andrew, Bill Andrew, Sam Andrew, Terra Linda, California.

The Marin Town & Country Club, Fairfax, California, sitting here patiently awaiting a rebirth.

She comes and watches me paint at Aroma Café.

The always beautiful Elise Piliwale.

Kacee is shooting us.

Paula Andrew, my pretty sister. Sweet and smart too.

Joel Hoekstra’s extremely pared down effects board. When Elise and i saw Rock of Ages last weekend, we noted that the guitar player, who had learned his part from Joel, was using many of the master’s mannerisms and movements, especially at the conclusion of the show. Encore showmanship!