Notes from a Bindle Stiff

Bindle Stiff:  (bundle man, hobo)   Jack London in a 1901 letter, ”Wyckoff only knows the workingman, the stake-man, the bindle-stiff.”

girl airplanes

Come live in my tent and pay no rent.

bird

Appreciation makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

miles

Don’t play what’s there. Play what’s not there.

egg

A good education will show you how little you know.

ficken

If you understood everything I say, you would be I… or me.

antea

Mistakes in improvised music?  There are none.

glen farg

Probably the main duty of the young is to challenge the received notions of the old.

james gurley 1966

A jest is a truth with a melody.

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I sometimes wonder if Americans aren’t fooled by our accent into detecting brilliance that may not really be there.

jockey

When are you going to figure it out about guns?  How many shootings is it going take?  They are occurring almost daily now.

jimi 17 sept 1970

People see the past as better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be

noah peter

It says “extinguisher,” but it looks more like “stinker.”

signs

Anything is possible as long as you keep working at it.  Don’t back down.

biella

Common sense is not so common.

acarena

You can’t leave yourself out of that mix. You have to be honest enough to say, I’m the messed-up one in the family.

1

I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.

mari photo

The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

aoe

Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.

marty kerry

God gives us nuts, but she doesn’t crack them.

jack

Take a deep breath after any outburst of vanity or complacency.

aki

It wasn’t Don Quixote’s madness that bothered him. It was Sancho Panza.

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You Greeks are god driven crazy! One of the most beautiful peoples of the kosmos.

fass

A stairstep not worn by footsteps is only a boring something made of wood.

mari photo 1

Begin with what is right rather than what is usual.

sally

Women dress for women.

jaway

I’d rather they all hate it and I like it, than vice versa. I make music to please myself first, and if the audience likes it, all the better.

5

My father wouldn’t get us a TV, he wouldn’t allow a TV in the house.

hands

Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. If anything, they are underrated.

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I’m always happy to have a job.

jender

Interviews are all right with me. I don’t pursue them. When the people I work with deem them appropriate, I’m perfectly willing to serve.

Chaplin 27

Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity.

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I think that no matter how much you don’t like yourself or the drama of your life you can still find some comedy in it.

dix

The proper union of vodka and vermouth is a great and sudden glory; it is one of the happiest marriages on earth, and one of the shortest lived.

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The mind and the heart have their own logic but do not often let others in on it.

jouis

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It’s scary to wake up one morning and discover that your university class is running your state.

Lincoln inaugural 1861

Watch out how you see yourself, because how you see yourself may be what you are.

hannah

Growing old is an interesting process. There’s no cure for it. The best medicine may be laughter, if laughter is any kind of medicine at all.

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I’ll play it and tell you what it is later.

juke

The universe is truly large. From here to Alpha Centauri is an unimaginable distance, and that is just a tiny, tiny corner in this whole universe, almost imperceptible. So, now, what were you worrying about again?

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The feeling about a soldier is he wasn’t really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: he wasn’t going to play music that would be as ravishing, enlightening and as impassioned as there ever was, but how do we know this?  History is full of examples of people who were almost going to die, and yet, because of some unlooked for miracle, survived and went on to do such great things that benefited us all. What a narrow escape, and think of those who didn’t escape. Anyone who reads biographies will be very conscious of this.  There is only the most tenuous thread between life and death for us all.  Accidents play a much larger part in life than we are willing to recognize.  What if Jimi Hendrix had been killed in Viet Nam?  Who WAS killed in Viet Nam?

mari photo 3

I wanted to write about a normal young girl whose only difference was that she behaved in the way a boy might, without any sense of guilt on a moral or sexual level.

hippo cart 1924

If you’re feeling strong and emotional when you’re creating something, it will come out that way.

mari photo 2

Whiskey is by far the most popular of all remedies that won’t cure a cold.

karm

Name me an emperor who was ever struck by a cannonball.

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I don’t really want to control anyone, to be honest.

heat

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

mari

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing views. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Saipan 1944

I speak Spanish to god, Italian to women, French to men, and German to my goat.

karsshall

Abolition of a woman’s right to abortion, when and if she wants it, amounts to compulsive maternity, a form of rape by the state.

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The missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages, as if the savages weren’t dangerous enough already.

beidi

The tragedy of war is that young soldiers die fighting each other, instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.

kauto

A drink a day keeps the shrink away.

alexandra

The trouble with returning to a place where you once were is that you can never repeat the same experience.

Jesse James 16

Our neoconservatives are neither new nor conservative. They’re as old as Babylon and evil as Hell.

ahn

Ignorance, apathy, hate, fear, greed, as long as these things are in human nature the Republicans will get some votes.

suzanne

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity for the human spirit.

heather

It’s not the equipment, it’s the operator. It’s the singer, not the song.

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I think when I practice, but feel when I play. The playing occurs ahead of my ability to understand it.

keak

Some parts of my solos are OK and other parts I can’t stand. You have to live with that.

bookstore London 1940

I keep reading between the lies.

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I was born lucky. I’ll be the first to admit that.

Back Camera

TV = Terrible Vaudeville.

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If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do a  job, wait until you hire an amateur.

koboe

A person’s intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view she can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

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Forgiveness is good for your health.

London 1940

Aeschylus said that it is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered, but I think I have this quality. Several of my friends have gone on to fame and glory and I very seldom want to kill them.

idiot

OK, I’ll give Brooke back her underwear.

silvia sf

There are a lot of people in the phone book, but very few ideas.

Back Camera

Not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.

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The best time to buy something is a couple of years ago.

abbot

We all think we’re going to get out of debt.

space chimp 1961

don

I would have answered your letter sooner but you didn’t send one.

skip spence

Much better to desire than to have.

lamy

I’d better say I belong to myself and the world rather than belonging to one nationality or another.

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felise

Nothing is ever the same as they said it was.

Princeton students 1893

You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.

veronica f

The best cure for hypochondria is to forget about your body and become interested in someone else’s.

lask

The thing that’s important to know is that you never know. You’re always sort of feeling your way.

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amara

Artists don’t retire. They stop when there’s no more art in them.

droga

We might be be the holographic image of a two dimensional structure.

vittoria silvia franco

Tell me about yourself, your struggles, your dreams, your telephone number.

Hitler's men Xmas 1941

I consider your conduct unethical and lousy.

leet

There are some people that if they don’t know, you can’t tell them.

Whitney-Houston-amazon-charts

All my life my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name.

baby

I consider myself more of a visual comedian than a physical one.

iltaire

People look for happiness as a drunk looks for his house: he can’t find it, but he knows that it exists.

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loor

If you get the quality right, then the marketability or whatever; your ability to sell videos or your ability to earn money or whatever, will follow naturally. But try to be creatively lead rather than market lead.

Liberty 1885

I’ve been so liberated it hurts.

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Tokyo to Nagoya.

hancaster

One of the most attractive things about writing your autobiography is that you’re not dead.

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While I have never been a regular churchgoer, I’m anything but immune to the power and the majesty of a spiritual experience.

chad

I swear, if you existed I’d divorce you.

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box

In those days, boxing was very glamorous and romantic. You listened to fights on the radio, and a good announcer made it seem like a contest between gladiators.

barion

The marvelous thing about a double entendre is that it only means one thing.

dale

He won’t, won’t he? Then bring me my boots.

mask

If Attila the Hun were alive today, he’d be a music critic.

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I am the the type to have a personal experience with a celebrity, but I’m too classy to bring that up.

andrian

I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. She said that I was being ridiculous… everyone hasn’t met me yet.

report card

If ten was the perfect score, he needed help in French.

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My wife was afraid of the dark. Then she saw me naked and now she’s afraid of the light.

might

The way my luck is going, if I were a politician I’d be honest.

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Nossa! Quanto tempo!

dontan

One of the fundamental truths about marriage. The wife is in charge.  Fine by me.

Back Camera

There is hope for the future because god has a sense of humor and she thinks we’re funny.

samurai

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.

bershaid

Do you ever really look at people in a health food store. They are pale, skinny and look half dead. In a steak house you see robust, ruddy people. They’re dying, of course, but they look great.

mony

Wally!

aonii

Old is always fifteen years from now.

eastellon

There are no authorities on love, just those who have had luck with it and those who haven’t.

nee

May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.

Russia 1941

Death is caused by being born.

devin

His eyes so dim, so wasted each limb, that, heedless of grammar, they all cried, that’s him!

nelise

I have one day today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

Das Städel

Anyone who says he understands women is missing a lot.

annie

Just because you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean that the circus has left town.

nimmy

Timmy from Lassie.

Disney

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do.

ilyria

Bella questa.  Che stelline che siete!   What stars you are.

not

I wanted to improve my looks at The Body Shop, but now I’m improving them at the Photoshop.

aoupy

I’m shy, but I’m not clinically shy. I don’t have social anxiety disorder or anything like that. I more have a gentle shyness. Like, I have a little trouble mingling at parties.

engelo

One way to find out if someone’s honest. Ask. If he says yes, you know he’s not.

otar

In the beginning there was nothing. Then god said, “Let there be light.” So then there was still nothing but you could see a lot better.

binge

Aim high. That way you won’t shoot yourself in the foot.

oudic

People think because I can make them laugh on the stage, I’ll be able to make them laugh in person. That isn’t the case at all. I am essentially a rather quiet, dull person who just happens to be a performer.

eoley

Hello Kitty will never speak.

parby

Marriage is a mistake every man should make.

perry

As I get older, I get smaller. I see other parts of the world I didn’t see before. Other points of view. I see outside myself more. I was one meter and eighty-five centimeters when I lived in Paris in my twenties and now I am one meter and eighty-three centimeters, so I’m smaller that way too.

Tasmanian Tiger 1933

Better to burn out than to rust out.

ascal

Act the way you’d like to be and soon you’ll be the way you act.

Elise-Piliwale-flower-dress

Partnership is the way.

box

Sam Andrew Lisa Battle

When we talk to god, we’re praying. When she talks to us, we’re schizophrenic.

poel

Journalists were so unkind to me. They said I knew only three chords, but they were wrong. I knew four.

caureen

Sometimes the best songs come all at once in twenty minutes or half an hour. Chords, words, melody, everything.

Churchill

Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease.

hit parader

Multitasking?  I can’t even do one thing at once.

pouse

Who’s your real friend? The person who tells you the truth.

aalex

If you think your life is tough, read a bit of history.

fouse

Karl Rove said that if Arnold Schwarzenegger’s father weren’t a Nazi, Arnold wouldn’t have any credibility with conservatives at all.

l'avantage

The advantage for the snorer is that he is the one who’s sleeping.  (Merci à toi, Thomas.)

eourdes

The word “privacy” does not appear in the Constitution.

standard

I want the world to be better because I was here.

manu

Everybody’s nuts. Enjoy the ride.

olise

If you hear me saying, “I’m a serious artist,” please slap me.

quili

“Republican party” is an oxymoron, isn’t it?

ceffi

People take comedians seriously and politicians as a joke.

quirk

Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. Believe in what you are doing.

les

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

omount

You can learn by travel, by reading or by associating with people who are smarter than you.

rig

Advertising can convince you to spend money you don’t have to buy something you don’t need to impress somebody you don’t like.

ingrid

Crime does pay… if you’re a lawyer.

rim

Things aren’t what they used to be, and that’s a good thing.

evin

There is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I’ve never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say that you can become so angry with yourself that you forget to hate your enemy. Actually, I doubt this very much.

paul

A holding company is a guy you hand the stolen goods to when the police arrive.

roe

Marriages are made in heaven. So are hurricanes.

ion

Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.

roma

Don’t just do something, sit there.

dat

asile

If you love someone, say so.

Lisa Dave Tom 1996

What if, at this very moment, we were living up to our full potential?

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aosie

People who complain about President Obama should consider how things would be if Romney and Ryan were running the country.

coriana

Not everyone in Hollywood is on the left.  Just the smart ones.

saroma

Strength doesn’t have to be boastful, belligerent and loud. Quite the opposite, really.

cellen

Every musician knows that a melody can come to you that is so beautiful, so universal that it’s not yours but god’s. You’re just a conduit.

olvia

That’s what show business is, sincere insincerity.

black swan sampler

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

sird

Such is life and life is such, and after all it isn’t much, first a cradle then a hearse, could’ve been better, could’ve been worse.

carianna

solor

I started school in Okinawa, Japan, and have never really stopped.

sour

Steam punk can be scary.

ELM STREET DALLAS 1920

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.

linda paul

I always wanted to be a physicist, but it seemed that I was doomed to be nothing more than a very silly person.

Sam Andrew motorcycle Lisa Battle

Thank you for being here and we’ll see you next week.

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