Sam Andrew in the Civil War, 1861 – 1864.

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5 February 2012

History, biography, memoirs are fictions that we construct to bring order out of this chaotic, complicated reality called life.

Samuel David Andrew, born  1839 in Jefferson County, Georgia. Died 1885, Corsicana, Texas.

Sam Andrew is an old name in our family. It dates from at least the eighteenth century and probably long before.

Jane Andrew and her son Samuel lived in Jefferson County, Georgia (1802-1822), where Samuel David Andrew lived for much of his life, so it seems very likely that they were his great grandmother and grandfather.

Part of the Andrew lineage.

Eliza Finney Clarke married Allen Andrew, an English born physician, on 25 September 1836 in Augusta, Georgia. Allen died on 11 September 1839, in the terrible yellow fever (cholera) epidemic. He was only 22 and he came to Georgia from New York. Allen Andrew was buried in the Magnolia Cemetery, Augusta. Eliza and Allen’s son Samuel David was born only a few months after his father’s death.

Magnolia Cemetery.

Samuel David Andrew’s mother Eliza Clarke met America’s benefactor, the Marquis de Lafayette when she was seven. Her parents served on a welcoming committee for Lafayette when he visited Augusta in 1826, and Eliza had sharp memories of crying because she could not shake the hand of the general, being “only” a child at the time.

Eliza Finney Clarke Andrew (1819-1897), Sam Andrew’s mother.

Samuel Andrew was the son of a physician and he married the daughter of a physician, Ireana (Irene, Rena) Scarborough on 21 July 1860. Irene’s father was Dr. David Scarborough and her mother was Penelope Louisa Bembry. Sam met Irene because he was a tutor to her brother David Scarborough, Junior. Sam was well educated for his time, and he taught school both before and after he was married.

Through Irene Scarborough Andrew, I am related to most of the Scarboroughs in Georgia, and to all of the Bembrys.

To Kevin Bembry…

To Amber Bembry…

Irene Scarborough Andrew in 1880, Penelope Louisa Bembry’s daughter and Sam Andrew’s wife.

The first year that Sam and Irene were married, there was talk of war with the North. All the young hotspurs in Georgia were anxious to join the army. Sam went to Hawkinsville, Georgia, and enlisted on 16 May 1861 to become a private soldier in the Pulaski County Volunteers commanded by Dr. T.D. Lawrence Ryan, soon to leave for Virginia in May 1861.

Hawkinsville, Georgia, steamboat landing.

Sam stayed behind a while to make sure his young pregnant wife was taken care of, and rejoined the Volunteers in Winchester, Virginia, June 1861. His outfit had been busy.  Assigned to General Joseph E. Johnstone’s Shenandoah Valley Command, they marched to Harpers Ferry late in May and helped Thomas Jonathan Jackson take a good quantity of military supplies back to Winchester. The taking of all this ordnance and even some railroad locomotives was a boon for the Confederate Army. This feat helped T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson become a brigadier general.

Winchester, Virginia.

Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson.

Harpers Ferry at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers in the long, beautiful Shenandoah Valley, higher at the southern end, lower towards the north. Thus, marching “up the valley,” was to travel southward.

The Pulaski Volunteers were absorbed into the main army and renamed Company G, 8th Georgia Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Francis Bartow, a Savannah attorney and politician, later killed in action at Manassas. He was the first brigade commander to die in the war.

My wife Elise owns several daguerrotypes and tintypes from this time.

First Manassas  (Bull Run) 21  July 1861

Company G was not yet fully trained when they received orders to march to Manassas Junction which was quite a distance over the Blue Ridge from Winchester. The Company left so soon that Sam Andrew and a few other men did not even have enough time to retrieve their laundry. About ten in the morning on 20 July 1861, Sam became one of the first Confederate soldiers to be under fire at the stone bridge over Bull Run. He received a bullet nick on his musket. (Much of the equipment dated from the Revolutionary era.)

The action at Manassas showed both sides that this war was not going to be over any time soon. Now there was a long wait for spring.

Sam wrote home from winter quarters in Centreville, Virginia. (He spelled it Centerville.)

Camped at Centerville, October 20, 1861

My Dearest Darling Wife,

Today the twentieth day of October I seat myself to answer your dear welcome letter of the 6 inst. Oh Dolly the pleasure that it affords me to get one of these letters from you is indescribable, the lingering uneasiness of the hours are swept away by them as by some fairy hand in an instant and I am all thankfulness and filled with pleasure atr the idea of my darling being in good health. As I scan the pages whose lines are penciled by her hand bystanders can clearly see the  heavy gloom leave my brow and the pleasant smile present itself in the stead on my lip at the intelligence of Sam’s having a letter from home and it from his Dolly. Oh Dolly, that home, home sweet home. Who can express an idea of thy luxuries? (and thy man’s – the loved wife of one’s heart and the dear little babe of his bosom) so will say the Poor Soldier who has left thee and thy dear ties – no matter whether they be, “The humble clay pipe, or the more aristocratic Havana, silk dressing gown, embroidered slippers, or an uncut Magazine, he has exchanged thee for the hardships of the battlefield, and subject to the vile and inhuman control of base upstarts shielded by parchment and shoulder straps (part of sentence illegible)… from the upstart officers is enough to melt away the patriotism of the most zealous, which cannot be resented on account of the commissions they hold which would subject us to Court Martial, but there is not a man in the Army of the Confederacy but at the close of war will have something to settle with Capt this or Col that when the insolent Puppies will not be any better than we are and the sholder strap and the commission will be an ineffective barrier to hide behind. enough of this. Dolly, you asked me a question in your last in reference to a fight with any of the boys. Oh! Dolly how glad will you be when I say I have not as much as had a quarrel with any of the boys, nor do I expect to unless I can’t keep out of it. Instead of this I have gained the respect of all the boys that are in the company. To prove to you, but keep it to yourself, they are anxious to elect me orderly sergeant in place of and over the heads  of all other sergeants. But I will not accept it as the boys who come here in or with the company are entitled and they suit me well enough. You may say that is quite a small office which it is but it is next to third lieutenant and the Pay is about 21 dollars a month.

Orderly sergeant’s insignia, Army of Northern Virginia.

You say it ain’t worthwhile to write. I don’t get the letters, in August I got only one and in Sept two but since that I have gotten every letter you have written I guess as these dates were about a week apart so you must must write to me My Dolly if you don’t the Bullet will not get a chance at me for such would shorten my days a hundred percent. Well Dolly news is scarce (illegible sentence due to fold in paper) … fallen back and are granted an encampment there where we were when we were at Fairfax Court perhaps at the same place. We are now at Centerville all huddled up together anxiously awaiting the attack which I hope will come soon so then I can get to come to Dolly sooner than if it is delayed much longer, if I do not get killed which I feel confident will not happen although I may. The Yanks are in greater force than at Manassas but we will give them licks if they come on us as that is what we retreated for – we are fortifying Centerville. In a few days I guess it will be in a good state of defense against the Yanks, but it would not surprise me if we win (next two words illegible) greatly diminished our baggage and we were compelled to send many things of necessity to us but could not have them hauled so there was no other alternative. Well I must close My Dolly by Giving my love to John, Can, Em, Aunt F, Cousin E, Betty, Davy, John G., Vic, Tomy, Bob, Uncle Tom. Remember to Maj. I would write to him and Uncle, but they wont write to me so receive a large share of love for your Dear self. May God Bless and protect you in the prayers of your

Dear Husband, SDA

(“Can” is Kenneth Bembry, killed at Gettysburg, July 1863, and Uncle Tom is Thomas Bembry.)

Varina Howell Davis, First Lady.

Now the men leave their winter encampment and began the march to the Virginia peninsula. June 1862. This map shows the Union movement. The Army of Northern Virginia came from the west.

In the spring of 1862, , the Union Army was at Yorktown where General Cornwallis had surrendered to George Washington a lifetime earlier.

Sam Andrew and his comrades in the 7th and 8th  Georgia attacked and drove out the northern troops and now occupied the wet, moldy, muddy trenches, where Sam caught the flu and had to be sent to the Medical College Hospital in Richmond and was only fully well again at the battle of Malvern Hill.

Medical College Hospital, Richmond, Virginia.

General Robert E. Lee now created the Army of Northern Virginia from commands of Jackson and Longstreet and the 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th Georgia were assigned to General Longstreet for the rest of the war.

Cecil Johnson, 8th Georgia.

Malvern Hill, July 1862.

Second Manassas, August 1862.

A.P. Hill.

T.J. Jackson’s regiments began leaving Frederick, Maryland, on 10 September 1862, traveling through Hagerstown and Williamsport to encircle Harpers Ferry. On the march through Frederick, Sam Andrew had one of those strange, fortuitous encounters that happen occasionally to all of us. As he was walking, he recognized James McGlohen, his mother’s husband,  leaning against a bridgerail. “Too sick to walk,” James muttered. Sam said he should get on one of the wagons and rest, and that, he, Sam, had to rejoin his company. That was the last anyone in the family ever saw of James McGlohen.

This is the fuel for all of that marching and fighting.

Hard tack. A cracker that was difficult to smash with a hammer. Most of the men soaked the  hard tack in their coffee. Sailors called this sea biscuit or pilot bread which I occasionally see in markets, although I assume that the present version is much more palatable. I seem to remember that in Two Years Before The Mast, Richard Henry Dana called it hard tack. The men were issued eight to ten of these crackers a day.

D.H. Hill.

McClellan’s leading corps ran into D.H. Hill early on 14 September 1862. The Confederates were outnumbered by several thousands but they held strong positions in the mountain passes. General Longstreet ordered Hood’s half division and G.T. Anderson’s Georgia Brigade into the fray. Sam Andrew and his comrades were soon under attack by a Federal division. The Texas Brigade came to the rescue and the Union soldiers were beaten back with heavy losses. This is where Sam met many Texans that he was to know in later life.

John Bell Hood, Major General, commanded the Texas Brigade.

Another Georgia name that will resonate with Texans, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar was from the same county as Sam Andrew, and he was secretary to Governor Troup. Janis Joplin went to Lamar State College in Port Arthur, Texas . Her mother Dorothy worked there.

Sharpsburg (Antietam), September 1862.

Not long ago, Big Brother and the Holding Company played in Hagerstown, Maryland. It still looked much like this.

During our set, I kept seeing images of battle and death, and actually winced as I was playing. Not sure what was happening, but I was thinking powerfully of another Sam Andrew that day.

The same thing happened to me when we played outside one afternoon at Gettysburg. I had an intense feeling that, “Well, you can be in a mass of men and murder each other, or you can play music, and it’s not entirely in your control which one you will be doing.” I had such a strong sense of connection to what had happened here.

Fredericksburg, December 1862.

It’s one thing for men to be damned fools and kill each other, but it’s quite another to drag the horses into it.

Camped at Fredericksburg, Va, January 5, 1863

My Dearest Rena

I have come to the conclusion that you are entirely (out) of writing material or surely you would have written to me before this time. I wrote to you yesterday stating that I was well except Dysentery. I am now well or so nearly so as to feel very much better. My Darling if I could only hear from you and my Mother, Grandmother, I should be entirely changed or feel so, but it has been so long since I heard from you I am quite miserable as you may know as all the solace or comfort I have now is in writing to the one of my affection. I am perfectly restless you just ought to see me like an Hyena never satisfied unless moving or running about. The boys are now preparing breakfast and I writing to pass off the time untill Roger McCall makes out the biscuit that I may bake them. Gainor is baking beef and Jim is arranging his knapsack. Tate Bridges is drying a towel he has just washed, Henry Shepard is looking on wishing for breakfast. Pap Eubanks is spinning a yarn greatly  to the amusement of the whole Mess. George Folds is poking the fire hurrying up the cooks and I am in my feeble way writing to my Dolly. The weather is quite pleasant here now if it remains so much longer, I think we will have another brush with the Yanks before long as they are lying just on the opposite bank of the river by the thousands.

I wish I could see you now I would be entirely happy. I have a faint hope of getting to come this winter or next spring as I think there will be a mediation on the part of the European Powers. I hope there will. Give my love to all and receive a large share for your dear self. Kiss the baby for Sam.

Sammy

Chancellorsville 1 – 3 May 1863

This was perhaps Lee’s greatest victory, but he lost his “right arm” here. General T.J. Stonewall Jackson died in this battle.

In Stephen Crane’s short story, “The Veteran,” published a year after The Red Badge of Courage, an elderly Henry Fleming reminisces about his first experiences in battle: “That was at Chancellorsville,” he remembers. The veteran Henry’s recollection of his reasons for flight match those of his younger namesake in The Red Badge of Courage, and he recalls with sorrow the death of Jim Conklin, the “tall soldier.” “The Veteran,” then, explicitly identifies the battle in Red Badge as Chancellorsville, one of the bloodiest struggles of the Civil War.

The Girl I Left Behind Me.

Camped near Orange Court House, May 31, 1863

My dearest Rena

I addressed you yesterday or the day before and now feel like writing to you again as I had some news to write you but felt a delicacy in letting you know of it until things came to a head. It was this, on the 25th of the present month I ran against Sergt. G. W. Folds for 2nd Lieutenancy gr and at last I was elected by a majority of 12 votes. After I was elected I had to go before the examining committee for eamination. Which came off yesterday evening and this morning. I passed without a riffle so I can tell you with propriety that I am a Lieutenant. The above is the reason I did not tell you of it the other day as I was afraid I might possibly make a failure. I as well as Jim are well and feel fully recompensed for the way I was treated in the preceding election. I do wish I could see you. I would be happy. I have not heard a word yet from your uncles if you have do not fail to acquaint me of it. I hope this will find you, your Aunt Anna, Emma, and all the others of the family in the enjoyment of good health. I hope this may reach Aunt F restored to health. Remember me to … (names illegible due to fold in paper) . We had a long service today in which we had a sham battle though I recon nobody was hurt as there were no balls in the cannons. I must conclude Wife, may boy & write soon to your Dear Husband

Lieut S. D. Andrew

Second Lieutenant collar strap, Army of Northern Virginia.

Gettysburg, June-July 1863.

General Hood’s regiments took the summit of Round Top easily, but were blocked in an area of rocks and boulders, not far west of Little Round Top. This place was called Devil’s Den and it earned its name.

Generals Hood and Anderson were wounded, and, indeed, most of the officers were dying. Captain John A. Young of Company G, 8th Georgia had a mortal wound and First Lieutenant G.L. Bridges was captured. Sam Andrew was now in command of the company. He had lost his best friend, Jim Gordon, and his wife’s uncle “Can” Bembry that same day.

General Robert E. Lee began moving the wounded toward Hagerstown during the evening of 4 July. The 8th Georgia assumed rear guard duty and suffered still more losses at Funktown, Maryland, on 10 July, during which Sam Andrew lost his second in command, Lieutenant William J. Sapp.

Gettysburg finally ended the hope that the European powers might intervene.

Diagram of a minie ball.

Camp near Rogersville, Tennessee, on the road to Bristol, Virginia,

December 11, 1863.

My Dearest Rena.. I am once more permitted to thank Kind Providence for carrying me through another fight though not entirely unhurt. But so slight I never left camp for it. I have been very uneasy about you ever since the fight as in a short time after our communications were cut off by a large force of the enemy coming up in our rear from Chattanooga which made it impossible for me to get the news to you as we had to leave Knoxville and are now on the road somewhere I dont know where. The wound I got was from a minie ball in the side which cut the skin about four inches through. It is well now and I hope I may hear from you soon as I am almost crazy to hear from you and my boy. Tell him when  when I come home I will bring him the knife he told me about. John came through the fight safe. A. W. Folds was killed, Charley Vaughn was killed and George W. Folds was shot in the back of his right eye and the BAll popped out behind his left ear. I fear he will not recover. We had to leave him in the hands of the enemy. Remember me to all and receive my everlasting love. Kiss my boy.

Your loving

Sammy

P. S. I am not certain this will get through (words illegible) so short. I will write you a longer letter when we get into camps.

Wilderness 5-7 May 1864   This was the Overland Campaign.

General Robert E. Lee was the “winner” of this battle, but, unlike Grant, he couldn’t replace the men he had lost. One of those men was Sam Andrew.

On the second day of Wilderness, 6 May 1864, Union general Hancock attacked and began driving back A.P. Hill. The 8th Georgia came under cannon and rifle fire while advancing down a gentle slope toward the Federals. Sam was hit on the right wrist and his hand was mutilated. They sawed off his arm right there on the field, and he was then taken to General Hospital in Charlottesville for convalescence.

In Hospital at Gordonsville, Va

May 11, 1864

(Written lefthanded)

My Dearest Wife.   Today I am trying to write you a few lines to inform you of my health. Though my dear dolly as you see it is quite an undertaking for my dear as you know by this time of my misfortune in the late fight at or near Chancellorsville on the 6th of the month in which I had my right arm shot off. It is gone from about halfway between my wrist and elbow but I am alright now my wound is healing very fast and I feel as well as I ever did in my life. John was well at the time I left the line and unhurt. I shall try and get home in a very short time if nothing happens to impede my recovery. I shall get home by the first of June so my dear wife do not give yourself any uneasiness for me as I am able to move about whenever I want to. I am not confined to my bed at all. Goodbye, kiss my boy and excuse this for I am writing it with my left hand.

Your loving Sammy

Clara Barton.

Sam Andrew was furloughed to Millen, Georgia, for convalescence. Irene Andrew had relatives nearby. Her sister Narcissa was living in Sardis, Burke County, already a war widow. Several months later, Sam was ordered to apply for disability retirement. He did that and was waiting for the result when the war ended April 1865.

There was plenty to do at home. Sam helped Anna Bembry with the Kenneth Bembry estate and Julia Emma Bembry with John Bembry’s farm properties.

Bembry family cemetery.

Sam and Irene had a son, Oscar David Andrew, and Irene was expecting a second child now. Sam became a schoolteacher and a storekeeper through most of the post war period.

This man Oscar David Andrew, Sam’s son, raised my father whose mother died early and whose own father was mostly absent.

After Wilderness and his amputation, Sam Andrew had traveled on foot and however else he could to Millen, Georgia, where Irene had been visiting for a while. He was learning to use his left hand, and as a boy I always thought I was left handed because of his new skill. Sam and Irene returned to Millwood. They had a daughter Lena (1865) and another daughter Frances Amelia (Fanny) 20 August 1867. Life was hard in Georgia, and Sam began thinking of his old Texan friends from General Hood’s command.

Sam and Irene had a small amount of money from the Scarborough and Bembry estates and Sam’s work in Georgia. It was just enough to move to Texas and buy a small farm.

Zada Lee Scarborough.

“Texas fever” was in the air.  Sam, Irene, Eliza McGlohen (Sam’s mother), Arthur and Frances Clarke, Anna Bembry and others talked of transportation to Texas, which was to be by ox-drawn wagons.

Maybe on the old Federal Road?

Sam and Irene were ready to leave as soon as the 1868 crop harvest was complete.

The first party to leave were Sam and Irene with their three children; Anna Bembry with her four children; David Scarborough, Jr; Thomas and Narcissa Hodges with Narcissa’s twelve year old daughter, Amelia; and the John M. Collins family.

Maybe their trip to Texas looked like this, but, well… no, probably not.

They arrived in Dresden, Navarro County, Texas, where Sam soon became a partner with R.J. Grady in a general store three and one half miles north of Dresden at a crossroads which became known as Gradyville, and which in time became the new town of Blooming Grove.

Sam later bought 140 acres from Anna Bembry and he began farming the land with Benjamin Bembry, 14, Oscar David Andrew and John Bembry, 10, as his helpers.

Grave of Benjamin Bembry near Hawkinsville, Georgia. Certainly a relative but maybe a son, grandson?

Sam was appointed deputy marshall to take the 1880 Census of Barry Community and this is part of his report:

Blooming Grove, Navarro County, Texas. First it was Gradyville and the Grady House where Sam died might have had something to do with these Gradys. The Andrew and Bembry farms were located on what is now the southwest edge of Blooming Grove.

Corsicana was about ten miles east of Blooming Grove.

The Dallas Morning News:

Corsicana

A farmer found dead in the street.

Special to The News. Corsicana 10 December. Capt. Sam Andrew a well to do farmer residing about eight miles west of this city was in the city yesterday on business which kept him overnight. He stopped at the Grady House last night but was found by a policeman lying on the ground by the sidewalk dead. He slept during the night on the second story of the house and is supposed to have arisen in the night and walked out on the awning from which he fell to the ground. When found his neck was broken and his body was still warm. A coroner’s jury was summoned and a verdict was rendered in accord with the above statement. His body was taken to his home this afternoon and will be buried at Blooming Grove tomorrow. Capt. Andrew was a candidate for the office of Tax Assessor of this county a few years since and was well esteemed throughout the country.

Broke His Neck

Fort Worth Daily Gazette:

Corsicana Texas 10 December 1885. Captain Samuel Andrew an old citizen of this county for a long time engaged in mercantile pursuits but lately engaged in farming fell this morning from the awning of the Grady House and striking on his head broke his neck and was instantly killed. His wife and children are in good circumstances. Capt. Andrew was a soldier during the Civil War in which he lost an arm.

Samuel David Andrew is buried here: White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, Texas. (If you’re going to make a spelling mistake, try not to do it in wrought iron.)

Irene Scarborough Andrew, Sam’s wife, was born in 1845 and died at Forth Worth, Texas, 1940. She was fifteen when she married Sam and when the Civil War began and she lived into our modern age of automobiles and airplanes. She made the long trek to Texas. Her husband died in 1885 and she lived  55 more years, the Andrew family matriarch.

Irene is buried here, Bradford Cemetery, Troup, Texas.

Direct descendants of Samuel David Andrew: (clockwise from top) Sam Houston Andrew, Jr.; Albert William Andrew; Sam Houston Andrew III; Leland Thomas Andrew, Albany, Georgia, 1948.

… and younger, more attractive siblings: Paula Jeanne Andrew, Stephen Andrew, Lillian Marie Andrew, Daniel Timothy Andrew, Austin, 1980s.

Samuel David Andrew’s grandson Sam Houston Andrew holding his grandson Sam Houston Andrew III, San Diego, California, 1943.

If Sam Andrew had lived in Ohio, he would have fought on the Union side. He was not a slave holder, and, in fact, probably 95% of his comrades were not slaveholders. The slaveholders stayed home. They were the one percent who avoided combat. As is usual, this was “a rich man’s war, but a poor man’s fight.”

I wrote this using my father’s memoirs as a starting point. Donna Patterson, indispensable Big Brother cyber maven, has helped so much with the genealogy. Donna, thank you for everything.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Chime Children

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22 January 2012

 

Alan Merril wrote I Love Rock and Roll… and then he retired. He’s truly a gifted singer and a good friend.

J.K. Rowling’s books, targeted for their sorcery, were banned by some American libraries and burned in some cases. Shame, shame. You are the followers of Qin Shi Huang, Diocletian, Savonarola, the Nazis, Republican senator Joseph McCarthy and other ignorant book burners throughout history. Have you learned nothing? Of course not. You are book burners.

With Susan Zelinsky.

La bellissima Arianna Antinori, Roman by birth, and now she lives in Vicenza.

Ben Nieves, a real, true musician, born that way, and has studied since.

Lani from New Orleans, love you, Lani.

Herb Caen, what is there to say? He was Mr. San Francisco for fifty years, even though he was a suburban kid from Sacramento.

He did what he called “three dot journalism” EVERY DAY for years and years. Item, item, hoosegotta item?

Carmine and Kacee, Hawaii.

Chad Quist, a Berklee product, although I knew him before he went to Berklee and he was very good then.

Cher and Gregg Allman in their funky southern phase.

Cher in her earlier Sonny and Bob chapter.

Don Graham with Chloe, who was our singer that night, but she has since moved on, with Joel Hoekstra, to the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Danny Dastrup at Aroma Café. There was a big hole in our lives when Danny moved on, as we knew he would.

Dava’s lower half. And her upper half is even better, but we’re not going to see it today.

David Peters is in Uganda now, filming in Ginga, helping people become better, as he is wont to do.

Don’s party.

And, then, a little later in the evening…

Dylan.

Eartha Kitt and James Dean in a dance class. Now, you don’t see that every day.

You are what you think.

Engrid Whisenant, scholar, partisan, Renaissance woman, PhD.

Ezio Guaitamacchi, Italian talk show host, researcher, media personality.

Franco, Szilvia and Veronica.

Fred lives across the street from where I paint.

George Michalski and Chet Helms. George has the money and Chet has the time.

Szilvia when she was a beautiful baby.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. Don Aters took this photo.

Amazing Grace, how sweet that face.

Musicians on the big island, Hawaii.

Szilvia, all grown up.

… and her beautiful friends.

Jackie and Steve.

Jane and Freddie.

Janis and James.

Joel Hoekstra.

Jennifer, the goddess, Espinoza.

She can really sing.

She’s 18 now.

Not bad looking either.

She’d be a good model for a Madonna.

Jimi in Little Richard’s band.

With Bobby Womack and Wilson Pickett.

Quanked: overpowered by fatigue. From Anglo-Saxon cwanian, to be weary or faint, and cwencan, to quench.

Chirology: the art of conversing with the hands or fingers.

Pythonic: pretending  to foretell future events; from pythoness, the female or priestess who gave oracular answers at Delphi.

Things to say while driving:

Thou damned tripe-visaged rascal. Thou clay-brained guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-catch.

Lifelode: the leading of one’s life (Middle English). So much prettier and apt than lifestyle, isn’t it?

Gommacks: tricks, mischief, foolery, from Gaelic guaineach, giddy, sportive, frolicking.

Millefleurs: a perfume distilled from flowers of different kinds; formed on the French eau de millefleurs. The equivalent Italian millefiori is a glass sculpture.

Ensorcell: to enchant, bewitch, fascinate. Adapted from French ensorceler, from sorcier, sorcerer.

I wrote many songs with Kim Nomad. Only now are some of them being recorded. She has a beautiful way of singing.

Kristina Kopriva and Liam Hanrahan.

(Book title, 1672)

New Instructions unto Youth for Their Behavior: A Discourse upon Some Innovations of Habits and Dressing, Against Powdering of Hair, Naked Breasts, Black Spots, and Other Unseemly Customs.

Lucubrator: a person who studies by night, or by candlelight.

La Città della Pieve, Umbria, Italia.

Linda LaFlamme.

This was fun.

Snickersneeze: a term without meaning used to frighten children, “I’ll snickersneeze you, if you don’t.”

When at Niagara Falls, I was escorting a young lady with whom I was on friendly terms. She had been standing on a piece of rock, the better to view the scene, when she slipped down

and was evidently hurt. “Did you hurt your leg much?” She turned from me, evidently much shocked, “The word ‘leg’ is never mentioned before ladies. I am not so particular as some people are,

for I know those who always say ‘limb’ of a table, or ‘limb’ of a pianoforte.”   I then recalled seeing a pianoforte in a “seminary for young ladies” whose four legs had been dressed by prudish

residents in modest little trousers with frills at the bottom.”          Frederick Maryatt, English army captain, 1837.

Lunarian: an inhabitant of the moon.

“I abroad with my wife and little Betty Mitchell…to show them a play, The Chances…The whole play pleases me well, and most of all the sight of many fine ladies, among others

my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Middleton. The latter of the two hath also a very excellent face and body, I think. Thence by coach to the New Exchange, and there laid out money,

and I did give Betty Mitchell two pairs of gloves…I was troubled with my pain, having got a bruise on my right testicle, I know not how. But this I did make good use of to make my wife

shift sides with me, and I did come to sit avec Betty Mitchell, and there had her hand which elle did give me very frankly, and did hazer whatever I voudrais avec la, which did plaisir

me grandement, and so set home with my mind mighty glad.”                            Samuel Pepys          5 February 1667.

Navvy: a toiler, principally with a spade, short for navigator, but a navigator of the land, day laborers without benefit of bulldozers, backhoes, computers.

Chantepleure: she that sings and weeps both together.

Napiform: having the shape or appearance of a turnip (Latin napus, turnip).

Bezaubernde: German, bewitching, charming, ensorcellating.

Norton and Lisa Buffalo. Norton was a prince among men and a real musician. Lisa is a high quality person, and I wish her well.

Shana rhymes with Anna, Savannah, or, if you’re loose, with Shannon. Kat rhymes with “Who dat?”   Naturally.

A missed opportunity. To paint a portrait is a knack I possess, which many artists, far better than I, lack. I painted hers, but then was asked to do it again for a fee, and I could not.

When money is involved, I immediately lose interest, if you’ll pardon the expression.

Shrumpsed:  beaten in games.  I’m sure Rachel could shrumps me anytime in any game.

Fragor: a strong or sweet scent.

Saltation: the act of dancing or jumping.

Sasha and her beau.

Dowsabell: a common name in sixteenth-century poetry for a sweetheart, especially for an unsophisticated country girl.

The word means “sweet and beautiful,” from French douce et belle.

Today is the birthday of William Smith, an English admiral who compiled the rich and varied glossary of nautical terms Sailor’s Word Book, 1867. His famous grandson Robert Baden-Powell

founded the British Boy Scouts in 1908.

One of Admiral Smith’s words was “mallemarocking,” the visiting and carousing of seamen in the Greenland ships. This word came from the Dutch “mallemarok,” a foolish woman,

a tomboy, from “mal,” foolish and “marok,” adaptation of the French “marotte,” an object of foolish attention.

Carfuddle: to discompose, to rumple, synonymous with carfuffle, to disorder. Also spelled kerfuffle.

Susan Zelinsky and Ruby who has grown to look exactly like her mother.

Galericulate: covered, as with a hat. (Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1755)

Lycanthropia: January was called wolf month because people are always wont in that month to be more in danger of being devoured by wolves than in any other.

Just last week the first wolf in a hundred years crossed into California. We welcome this creature now and wish him well. Some of us do anyway.

Szilvia.

Drury: gallantry, courtship, love, delight (from the French drue, a mistress). I have often walked Drury Lane in London.

In the days before motels and hotels, travelers often stayed anywhere they could, and sometimes slept in the same bed as their hosts. Husbands and parents  frequently permitted these guests

to “bundle” with their wives and daughters. Prudent mothers gave daughters approaching the bundling age a “courting-stocking” completely covering the girl’s body from the waist downwards,

with room for both legs within it. Such stockings were often heirlooms.

Veronica Farnetani and Andrea Zurli. I met them in Umbria.

Vicki is from South Africa. Her accent is soft and beautiful, just as she is.

Wassail Eve, also known as Twelfth Night was the evening when the Three Wise Men came.

“Wassail” was derived from the 13th century Norse toast Waes hail. (Be thou healthy.)

Crazling: a person affected with a craze or mania.

 

See you next week !

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Minden, Nevada.

Posted on by tagged.

15 January 2012

We have black bamboo in our yard, and Elise took some to her friend Yukiko Neibert who specializes in ikebana. Yukiko created this beautiful work of art using our bamboo.

Yukiko’s floral design studio is in Kentfield, California.

Big Brother and the Holding Company played in Minden, Nevada, on Friday  13 January 2012.

(Minden, oil on panel, work in progress)

Minden, Nevada, is 4,721 feet high. You can always feel that elevation when you try to sing a high note. It can be difficult to get enough air.

Two thousand, eight hundred and thirty six people live in Minden, which is named after a town in North Rhine-Westphalia.

This is one of the top spots in the world for non powered flight. Buoyed by thermals, gliders have sailed here for a thousand miles. You can see why. Minden is in the Carson Valley between two rather ambitious sets of mountains.

The Minden Inn was a favored hangout for people like Jean Harlow and Clark Gable.

The best way to get to Minden is to take Highway 50, at Sacramento, around the bottom of Lake Tahoe. It is really a beaufiful way to go. Some years past, Elise and I drove to Salt Lake City using this same route. It’s the high desert and is most interesting.

This is the Carson Valley Improvement Club where we played. A very interesting place, part community center, part theatre, and all fun.

When Stefanie and I arrived in Minden, Karen Lyberger and Peter Albin were regaling the crowd with true, very detailed accountrs of the counterculture in San Francisco, 1965-1970.

So we sat down and told some lies too. Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Somebody said that.

Then, Donna Patterson took Stefanie and me to a magic place for another interview.

Donna set up the camera and Stefanie interviewd me about Big Brother’s 1968 performance at The Carousel Ballroom, which Owlsey Stanley recorded.

In March 2012, SONY is going to release the concert that Owsley recorded, and they wanted us to talk about him and the Carousel.

Becky Soderman was there in that Douglas County Library setting, and her intelligence and forthrightness were most welcome.

We had a good gig that night. We played Down On Me, Combination of the Two, I Need A Man To Love, Save Your Love, Call On Me, Blindman, Summertime, Bo’s Bio, Turtle Blues, Bobby McGee,

It’s Cool, Hold Me, Women Is Losers, Piece of My Heart and Ball & Chain.

Or… as we put it in Big Brother shorthand:

Stefanie loaned me her Mesa amplifier (again). I love it. I have to get one. Well, I already have a (very heavy) Mesa Boogie, but it is nowhere near as good as Stefanie’s.

Stefanie could be a star.

On our last day in Minden, Stefanie needed to see some friends who had just had a baby, Ramses. She left me at a Century Mall, or something like that. There were some VERY interesting people here.

And even horses.

 

The Farns: John Farnsworth, always a funny, fey, fantastic, formidable personage. I wish he could have been in Minden with us.

I went to see the film Joyful Noise.

Joyful Noise was all  gospel music.

Now, you know this music is always going to open your heart and inspire your mind… and that’s putting it mildly.

Keke is such a great singer, and she is a beautiful woman.

I loved this film. The plot line is somewhat conventional, but, the music? The singing? Beyond belief. Just so good and so revealing of the divine truth of music.

This was a bit of a Juliet and Romeo story. Jeremy Jordan, who once was the understudy for Rock of Ages, a musical in which my friend Joel Hoekstra excels, is a good vocalist with a real feel.

So, now Stefanie comes to pick me up at the cinema, and we leave for home.

West on highway 80 out of Reno.

Sitting in the dark night, heading home.

Traveling can be educational.

We reach Donner Summit, a place where people truly suffered not so long ago.

I have traveled this way, a guitar and a bag, since I was eighteen.

I’m so relieved. See you next week?

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The End Is Near.

Posted on by tagged.

1 January 2012

 

Behind every successful woman there is a man staring at her ass.

Graceful Janis.

Elise and Dario Darold.

How odd that Mitt Romney should compare President Obama to Marie-Antoinette, who, by the way, said something like, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”

Is this the same Mitt Romney who said to a group of unemployed persons in Tampa, “Hey, I am unemployed too.”   Monumental insensitivity. Jobless Mitt.

 

From the church bulletin:

We are starting a New young Mothers’ Group. Anyone desiring to be a new young mother is to meet with the pastor in his office.

 

Elise Piliwale, Boxing Day, 26 December 2011.

 

Actual courtroom dialogue:

Is that the same nose you broke as a child?

 

Now, doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, in most cases he just passes quietly away and doesn’t know anything about it until the next morning?

 

Q:  What happened then?

A:  He told me, he says, “I have to kill you because you can identify me.

Q:  Did he kill you?

 

Ask for what you want. Let us be clear. No subtle hints.  No strong, blunt hints. No overly obvious hints. Just say it.

 

In the courtroom again:

Were you alone or by yourself?

 

Do you have any children or anything of that kind?

 

Q:  I show you exhibit 3 and ask you if you recognize that picture?

A:  That’s me.

Q:  Were you present when that picture was taken?

 

Donna DiBasilio.

 

Were you present in court this morning when you were sworn in?

 

Susan Zelinsky, singer, actor, woman extraordinaire, is one of the organizers for this breast cancer benefit every year.

 

Mary and Frank Bertolli.

 

Q:  Do you know how far pregnant you are now?

A:  I’ll be three months on November 8.

Q:  Apparently, then, the date of conception was August 8?

A:  Yes.

Q:  What were you doing at that time?

 

Knock, knock.

Who’s there?

Athena.

Athena who?

Athena flying saucer.

 

Sex is not the answer. Sex is the question. Yes is the answer.

 

Woman to naked man:

Are you cold?

 

I want to achieve immortality, not through my art, but by not dying. So far, so good.

 

Sam Andrew, Shiho, Woodstock)

 

How many Episcopalians does it take to change a light bulb?

One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks and one to talk about how much better the old one was.

 

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.

 

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting a bull not to charge you because you are a vegetarian.

 

Samantha took us all to Paris.

 

Being American is about driving a German car to a Palestinian liquor store to buy Russian vodka and then stopping by a Thai restaurant before going home to watch a British comedy on a Japanese television.

 

Talent hits the target which no one else can hit. Genius hits the target which no one else can see.

 

Spiritual fruit, not religious nuts.

Always remember that you are unique… just like everyone else.

 

Utility is when you have one telephone,

luxury is when you have two, and

paradise is when you have none.

 

Keep in mind that if the world didn’t suck, we would all fall off.

 

Monti singing us a song at Dario’s party.

 

A conservative is a worshipper of (long) dead radicals.

 

How do you expect me to remember your birthday when you never look any older?

 

My dog went to a flea circus and stole the show.

 

A lot of my misspent youth was spent here.

 

A adult is a person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

 

Father to son:  Lot was warned to take his wife and flee, but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.

Son:  What happened to the flea?

 

Elise Piliwale and Sam Andrew.

 

Tom Jones and Janis Joplin.

 

Darian Gray and Nathalie Delahousse.

 

 

Moby Grape with Sam Andrew, Santa Rosa, California.

 

A fine is a tax for behaving badly.

A tax is a fine for doing well.

 

Alton Kelley, one of the good people.

 

Teacher:  How many animals went into the Ark.

Student:  One mail and one e-mail.

 

French Canadian visiting Edmonton, Alberta, calls the hotel desk:

I need some pepper.

Black pepper or white pepper?

Toilette pepper.

 

Susan Royce and Shahram Ghodsian.

 

Alessandro il Stitico.

 

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.

 

Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don’t have batteries.

 

24 hours in a day. 24 beers in a case. Coincidence?

 

What’s the speed of dark?

 

I played with many of these people in New York: Pepe Aparicio, Pepi Gennerelli, Bob Steeler. I love them all.

 

Forget shampoo! Get the real poo.

Forget champagne! Get the real… oh, never mind.

 

Something vaguely familiar about these peter peppers. Jessie, thank you.

 

I had amnesia once… or was it twice?

 

When I read about the evils of drinking, I quit reading.

 

Gene DiBasilio was our milkman when we lived in Lagunitas, probably the last milkman in the western world. Gene has had a misspent adulthood. He quit delivering milk and founded a company which he later sold for several million dollars, poor guy.

 

World’s shortest book:

My Christian Accomplishments And How I Helped After Katrina               by George W. Bush.

 

You know you’re a nurse if…

You’ve seen more penises than any prostitute.

 

Peter Albin and Arianna Antinori.

 

Christianity? You mean the religion of the Prince of Peace?

 

The easiest way to find something you have lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

 

When you have paint or gesso all over your hands, either your nose will immeidately begin to itch, or you will have to pee.

 

Ben Nieves, Stephen Long, Sam Andrew. Mostar, Bosnia, 2011.

 

Only an artist would look at this and think of Matisse.

 

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, “Dam!”

 

Plastic surgeon’s sign:  Hello, can we pick your nose?

 

Why do we press harder on the remote control when we know that the batteries are going dead?

 

Lawyer:  Are you sexually active?

Witness: No, I just lie there.

 

Chris Madding and his daughter Amélie.

 

Flight attendant:  Would you like dinner?

Passenger:           What are my choices?

Flight attendant:  Yes or no.

You’re never too old to learn something stupid.

 

Black eyed peas loom large in the legend of the South. In Civil War days, some planters had nothing to eat but black eyed peas at a certain New Year’s dinner. They were lucky enough later that year

to regain their fortunes, and they somehow connected their New Year’s dinner menu with their new success. Thus, in many places, black eyed peas are a good luck meal on New Year’s day.

 

Silence is often the best answer.

 

Change is inevitable except from a vending machine.

(Woman on the métro)

My husband and I divorced over religious differences.

He thought he was a god, and I’m an agnostic.

 

Happy New Year to you, and I’ll see you next week.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Paintings.

Posted on by tagged.

Ab Origine, 2004.

All Souls’ Day, 2009.

Ancestors.

Andressa, 2010.

Arianna Antinori, 2010.

Arlecchino, 2010.

Aroma Dogs.

Aroma Café   (oil on canvas)

Aroma People    (oil on canvas)

Each painting done in three hours.

The first painting I did in oil. Copied from a photograph by Keizo Yamazawa.

Crisanta   (oil on canvas)

Self Portrait    (oil on canvas)

Big Brother and the Holding Company   (oil on canvas)

 

Big Brother Dance

Blessed Mother (2003)

Born Of Flesh and Ghost (2010)

Caro Viaggiatore

 

In German “dur” (hard) is a major key and “moll” (soft) is minor. This is how one culture looks at the qualities of a key.

 

“Major” and “minor,” our terms for the same phenomena, mean larger and smaller. Also informative. French, Spanish and Italian terms are similar to English. Majeur, mineur, Mayor, menor, maggiore, minore.

 

Da terra si può vedere la Stazione spaziale?   La Stazione spaziale internazionale appare come un puntino piuttosto luminoso che, nel volgere di qualche minuto, attraversa la volta celeste.

(Can you see the space station from earth? The international space station appears as a small shiny point, in the flight of several minutes, across the arch of the skies.)

 

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy. All who draw and paint know that the darkest dark sits next to the lightest light.

 

Can you imagine Jesus as a Republican? Or Grover Cleveland wh0 said this:

“He mocks the public who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.”

 

I love heavy metal. A lot of white suburban kids telling us how pissed off they are about how the world is mistreating them.

 

“Sell our country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the great sea? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children?”

Tecumseh (Shawnee chief) speaking to General William Henry Harrison, 1810)

 

El Jarabe Tapatío (the Mexican hat dance) is often played in C.

 

A sempiterno merito di mio padre, bisogna dire che lui non pensò  mai seriamente, nemmeno per un momento, di vendere i figli e di scappare.

(To the eternal credit of my father, be it said that never did he think even for a moment of selling his children and escaping.)

 

Yesterday was originally called Scrambled Eggs.

 

If you can be enthusiastic, warm, generous and can keep your sense of cool and proportion at the same time, you can do great things.

 

If you would thrive,            Get up at five.

 

Kurt Cobain was cremated. His ashes were scattered passim, as the scholars say, here and there and everywhere.

 

Noodles, pasta, dough wrapped around a vegetable or beef ingredient are staples all around the world. Tamale, ravioli, a garden burger, pirogi, wonton, enchilada, spring rolls crêpes, piroshki, pork rolls, hot dogs, sandwiches of all kinds.

 

Tea is made from the young leaves and the leaf buds of the tea plant, a species of evergreen (Camellia sinensis) . Ancient Chinese and Japanese legends refer to a beverage made from the infusion of dried tea leaves, the introduction of tea being sometimes attributed to the emperor Shen Nung (2737 before the common era).

 

Togo, a West African republic, has a 32-mile coast and extends northward for about 320 miles between Ghana to the west and Dahomey to the east.

 

Alexis de Toqueville wrote the classic De la démocratie en Amérique (Democracy in America) 1840, a close and often prophetic observation of American culture in the early 19th century.

 

Tocharian is an Indo-European language that was spoken in northern Chinese Turkistan (Tarim Basin) during the latter half of the first millennium of the common era. The language is fascinating, since it shows more affinity with western branches of Indo-European than with Iranian or indo-Aryan.

 

Torts is a legal term used in both common- and civil- law systems to describe various wrongs that may give rise to civil proceedings, mainly in the form of an action for damages.

 

Italian: Ho torto   I am wrong.                         Forse Lei pensa che ho torto.               Perhaps you think that I am wrong.

 

Henri-Marie-Raymoond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa was born 24 November 1864. His family lineage extended without interruption back to the time of Charlemagne.

 

Toulouse-Lautrec could capture the likeness of a person with fewer lines than many, many other artists before or since.

 

When Ben Nieves and I were last in Paris, we went to the Musée d’Orsay across the Seine from the Louvre where there were many works by Toulouse-Lautrec. Very beautiful and accomplished, his drawings and paintings were often done on cardboard and the most ephemeral of materials, but were all the more interesting for that.

 

Toulouse-Lautrec’s own father took slight interest in his son after his disabling injuries and regarded his son’s work as only “rough sketches.”

 

“Tragedy” came from the words “goat” and “song.” The word could have referred either to the prize, a goat that was awarded to the best dramatists whose plays won the earliest competitions in Greece, or to the dress, goat skins of the performers, or to the goat which was sacrificed in the primitive rituals from which tragedy developed.

 

Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Traianus) was the first Roman emperor not born in Italy, but in the provinces, near Sevilla, Spain.

 

A group of finches is called a charm.

 

James Cagney never said “You dirty rat,” and Captain Kirk never said “Beam me up, Scottie.”

 

The Sitka spruce is Britain’s most commonly planted tree.

How Die He Do That ?       (oil on canvas)

How To Get Ahead               (oil on canvas)

La Vie En Rose                               (oil on canvas)

 

Light Show                      (oil on canvas)

Autoportrait                    (oil on canvas)

Lynn                                (oil on canvas)

Megan                                     (oil on canvas)

 

Mind/Body                                               (oil on canvas)

Minden       (oil on panel)   1 February 2012.

Mami Wata                               (oil on canvas)

 

From The Life of Johnson:      James Boswell.

Johnson:   Well, we had a good talk.

Boswell:     Yes, Sir; you tossed and gored several persons.

 

The only mother and daughter to be nominated for Oscars in the same year: Diane Ladd and her daughter Laura Dern for Rambling Rose (1991).

 

“On n’est jamais si malheuruex qu’on croit, ni si heureux qu’on espère.”                  Duc de la Rochefoucauld 1613-1680

One is never as unhappy as one thinks, nor as happy as one hopes.

 

It’s called a capo in English and a capo d’astro in Italian. Germans call it ein Kapotaster and in Spain it’s known as una cejilla or un cejuelo.

 

“The American girl makes a servant of her husband and then finds him contemptible for being a servant.”          John Steinbeck.

 

“At all costs try to avoid granting yourself the status of the victim… No matter how abominable your condition may be, try not to blame anything or anybody.”         Joseph Brodsky.

Salomé (oil on canvas) 2004.

Or, as Jimmy Buffet might say, “Some people say there’s a woman to blame, but I know… it’s my own damn fault.”

 

Ikh heys Freyde.   (Yiddish)    My name is Freyde.

 

“To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy.”          Nelson Mandela.

 

Southerners speak very differently from Northerners all over the world. If a European were to fetch up on our Gulf shore, she might be charmed to hear, “Honey, sweet darlin’, y’all want some pah with yo grits.”   Charmed, but perhaps puzzled.

She Shall Have Stars (19 January 2012)

Still As Stone

 

In Germany, which became a nation very late, as Italy did, there are many interesting dialects, and the Southern German is quite interesting, especially die Münchner, the way of speaking in Munich. Here are a few examples.

 

Munich dialect     English                          standard German:

A Mo                        a person                        Ein Mann

Wos is a?                What does he do?       Was hat er für einen Beruf?

Kummt a aa?          Is he coming too?       Wird er auch kommen?

Ami                           American                      Amerikaner

Augnglasl                eyeglasses                    Brille

Bams                          child                              Kind

 

“People at that time lived like there was no tomorrow,” says JJ, lead singer of Murasaki, a band that played the Okinawa Koza rock scene in the 1970s, a time when Okinawa was a launch pad for the Vietnam war. Rock and Roll nights in Koza were a celebration, a farewell party, but for JJ there must have been complicated emotions. JJ stood between two very different worlds, and yet he managed to build a bridge between them with charm, talent and intelligence.

 

There was always a public face and a private face in Okinawan lives.

 

Ten is a satisfying number, probably because we have ten fingers. Twenty was used in the numbering system of the Celts. Fingers and toes. In fact, still in French today, you don’t say “octante” for eighty, you say “quatre vingt,” four twentys. It’s a Celtic remnant in modern French.

 

For the same reason, “seventy” isn’t “septante,” but “soixante-dix,” sixty (three  twentys) plus ten. it’s unwieldy, especially, say, 77, which is soixante-dix-sept, sixty seventeen. This in the language of a people who pride themselves on their clarity and reason. I love the French language, though, and the French people.

 

People never liked stinky underarms. The early Egyptians recommended following a scented bath with an underarm application of perfumed oils. They developed special citrus and cinnamon preparations that could withstand the semitropical climate.

 

Bacteria thrive in secretions of the apocrine glands. Deprived of moisture by an “antiperspirant,” bacteria cannot multiply.

 

L’amore non è mai stato troppo facile per l’uomo preistorico. E non lo è nemmeno adesso.

Love was never too easy for prehistoric man. And it isn’t even now.

 

Sammy Davis began in show business at age three as Silent Sam, the Dancing Midget, alongside his father and uncle in vaudeville. He had no formal education whatsoever. In 1946, at 21, he recorded “The Way You Look Tonight,” which was named Record of the Year.

 

A wise person’s country is the world.

 

Ideograms looked like this near the beginning of their development. This one means bad, incorrect, and by itself is pronounced HI (hee) in Japanese.

 

HI is based on the image of flapping wings. Still, to this day, when a Japanese does not want to relate to something, she will wave her hand in front of her face in rapid motion… like the flapping of wings.

 

When used with other characters, as here, this ideogram is pronounced arazu.

 

Freedom is all, to heed every call. Freedom to do wrong, to make a bad song.

Freedom to err, to be a cur. Freedom to soar… or else, what for?

 

“The uneven division of power and wealth, the wide differences of health and comfort among the nations of mankind, are the sources of discord in the modern world, its major challenge and, unrelieved, its moral doom.”

Patrick Blackett    Nobel laureate, physics,1948.

 

My first job was delivering newspapers by bicycle. I had to collect from all the customers at the end of the month. All of the poor people paid on time, in cash. The more well off paid with a check, often very late, with many sweet excuses, and promises for next time, a check that was sometimes irredeemable. This was my introduction to the American “classless” society.

 

I would never ask Jean Jacques Rousseau,

Whether animals can talk or no,

Nor ask le Monsieur Voltaire,

If lions know how to swear.

Curse and roar, and roar and curse,

So many questions on this earth.

 

Will The Circle Be Unbroken (oil on canvas) 31 December 2011.

Hannah Adams (1755-1831) was the first American woman to make a living by writing. She published a number of books on religious subjects and A Summary History of New-England (1799).

 

My friend Zwanda. She’ modeled for me for years.

 

Well, as they say in grade school, I’ll see you next year!

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

No Left Turn Unstoned

Posted on by tagged.

30 October 2011

 

Janis Joplin with two left handed people.

 

Ken Kesey had a place in La Honda, California, where there was a sign with this message. The world’s first Acid Tests were performed there.

 

The main thing about left handed people is that they are adaptable. They have to be, being born into a right handed world. So, left handers are ambidextrous, shifty, labile, flexible and often sly and slinky. From an early age they learned that there is more than one way to do something. Nicole Kidman had to learn that.

 

There are scholarships for left handed people, because, well, we’re rather backward.

 

I often paint with both hands when i’m in a hurry, or when the background is very simple. I paint the background and foreground at the same time.

RJ Franco took this photograph:

 

The left hand is governed by the right brain, seat of intuitive, non linear thinking, so left handed people are overrepresented in art, music, drama and other creative endeavors.

 

The Italian word for left handed “mancino” means crooked or maimed. “To the left” in Italian is alla sinistra which has sinister connotations. Leonardo was left handed.

 

Manu sinistra pro destra utitur (Latin). She uses the left hand for the right.

But when she plays the piano Aretha Franklin uses both hands. There are no left handed pianos.

 

The rudder on a seagoing vessel was attached on the right side, the steerboard side, the starboard. So docking was done on the left, the port side. Cole Porter often sailed Port Out Starboard Home (POSH).

 

In ancient Hebrew, left handers were called “eetair yad y’mini,” a constricted right hand. Ruth Bader Ginsburg writes opinions with her left hand.

 

Dutch “linker” left handed came from Old High German “slinc,” related to Old English “slincan” crawl, slink. In Swedish linka equals “limp, dangling.” M. C. Escher did all of those amazing drawings with his left hand.

 

In Bulgarian, there are three words for a left handed person. Levichar, levoger and levak. Levak is considered very offensive. There is a term lefteren (from English “left”) which describes something that’s not working properly or isn’t strong enough. Angeliina is as beautiful as her name suggests, and she is gauchée as the French call a left handed woman.

 

In Chinese, the word left is sometimes associated with the “dark side.”

Albrecht Dürer, a left handed person, very successful in his own time, had his own dark side.

 

In Danish, Venstre-håndet means using the left hand. Note the similarity to “sinister” (Latin) Kejthåndet, another word for left handed, has the word “kejthet” in it which means clumsy, awkward. This is a Danish leftist.

 

The origin of left and right as applied to politics goes back to the seating in the Chambre des Deputés, which our own congressional seating imitates.

 

When Democrats enter the House they file to their left, and when the President addresses the chamber, s/he sees the Democrats on her/his right.

 

The Republicans sit on the “right.” That is, on the right as they enter the Chamber, the House. When the President addresses the Republicans, he sees them as being on his left, but they see themselves as being on the right.

 

Barbara Dennerlein is a left handed German woman, worshipper at the Hammond B3 altar, as am I. They didn’t make any left handed Hammond B3s either. You have to play them with everything you’ve got. Both hands and both feet. You could use your nose too, and, god knows, no one would complain. Barbara is such a great B3 player, cool, hot, collected, happening.

 

In Dutch, the word for left handed is Linkshandig. In the Brabants dialect, Links means “inside out,” especially for clothing. The Great Dictator was left handed too, just as Adolf Hitler was. Tellingly, though, Hitler signed autographs with his right hand.

 

Charles Chaplin played the violin left handed. This is very rare. Most violinists, left or right handed, will play the instrument with the bow in their right hand.

 

Elizabeth Cotten was our hero when we were 18,19, and still today. She had a beautiful fingerpicking style that we all tried to emulate. Maybe her special sound had something to do with the fact that she simply turned a right handed guitar upside down, so that the treble strings were on top.

 

In German, Links and linkisch (left) mean awkward. Einstein was a linkshänder, although I see him write at the blackboard with his right hand. He and Picasso used either hand.

 

The Hindi phrase “ulta haanth” means the left hand, and it has the literal meaning “opposite, wrong.” Eudora Welty never married and lived in the same house where she was born in Jackson, Mississippi, all her life. She wrote beautiful, unsentimental stories for The New Yorker with her left hand.

 

The Hungarian language has the word “bal” for left. “Balszerencse,” left luck, means disaster. “Baleset,” left event, is an accident.

 

Gaelic “ciotóg” left, means “the strange one.” “Citog” means left or stupid.

Fiona Sit likes to draw with her left hand. She speaks Cantonese, English, French and Mandarin.

 

Romanian “stangaci” means left hander as well as unskillful.

Paul Klee is left handed and his birthday is 18 December. We have a lot in common.

 

Australian slang has the phrase “Mollie Dooker,” for a left handed person, meaning something to do with having fists like a girl.

If you’re going to be a feminist, and who in their right mind wouldn’t be?, you could always look like Germaine Greer, noted left hander. Germaine lived at The Chelsea Hotel when we did, and she was always cheerful, kind and smart.

 

Polish people say “leworeczcy” or “mankut” for left handed, terms that also mean illegal. Goldie is using both hands to assume the position here.

 

“Canhoto” (Portuguese) is left handed. Canhoto also means lacking ability or physical coordination, clumsy. In Portugal, the Devil is canhoto. A common saying is “Diabo sejas cego, surdo e mudo! Lagarto, lagarto, lagarto sejas canhoto!” (Devil be blind, deaf and mute. Lizard, lizard, lizard be left handed!”) Michelangelo, definitely left handed. My “Leftar” would have told me that even had I not known. I mean, any artist who would argue with a pope must be more than a little obstinate and gauche.

 

Remember the Eugene Levy character in Best In Show? He had two left feet.

When Tamra Engle is sailing down the Seine towards the Atlantic Ocean and she passes through Paris, la rive gauche, the Left Bank will be on her left, the south side.

 

Tamra Engle with Steve Martin. No… just kidding, it’s the equally estimable Willy Porter.

 

Tamra in front, the farthest from the left.

 

In Mexico, “chueco” means “bent.” It also means left handed. There are other words for someone like Jessica Alba, zurda, manca, siniestra, all meaning left handed.

 

I’m going to pay him a left handed compliment and say that I will vote for him, but I’m not going to be totally thrilled about it. I’m hoping that when he gets in there for his last term, he will really step on it and deliver all of the beautiful promises he made the first time.

 

Filipinos say “kaliwete” for left handed. When someone is called a “kaliwete,” it can mean that the person is unfaithful, a two timer. Lady Gaga is left handed.

 

In Russian, left handed is “levsha,” meaning not trustworthy. In the Orthodox church, the women sit on the left side. Paul is a lefty, but he plays drums right handed.

 

Scottish people can be corrie-fisted which comes from the Gaelic “cearr” which means left or wrong hand. My Leftar (like Gaydar, only for left handers) would have told me that Marilyn Monroe was left handed even had I not known that.

 

“Zurdo” in Spanish is left handed. “No eres zurdo.” (You’re not lefthanded) means “you are clever.” Right handed people are “diestro” (able, dextrous) and left handers are “siniestro” (creepy, freakish). In Spanish there is also a very proper word “manco” (cognate with Italian mancino) that means left handed. Picasso era manco, zurdo, chueco y siniestro. He’s painting Guernica with his left hand.

And he’s painting this plate with his right.

 

In Swahili left is kushoto, or weak. Weak would hardly describe Oprah Winfrey, though, and she’s left handed.

 

Ahhh, here we go. In Swedish, vänsterhänt is left handed. “Vänster” left originally meant “the favorable side,” and is related to vän (friend). Rafaello Sanzio (Raphael) drew and painted like an angel and he did it with his left hand.

 

Turkish solak (left handed) also means obstinate, clumsy, out of balance, not functional. Pink, who uses her left hand for most things. She was once going to play Janis Joplin in a film.

 

Lifshá (Ukrainian) for left handed means sneaky or mistrustful also. Benjamin Franklin was sly, inventive, a typical left hander.

 

Chwith in Welsh is left handed. O’i chwith means something is wrong or out of place.

 

Baseball diamonds were often made with home plate in the western corner of the field so that the sun would not be in the batsman’s eyes. Thus, when a left handed pitcher faced the batter, the pitcher’s throwing arm was on the south side. He was a southpaw. Lenny Bruce was definitely out in left field somewhere.

 

In Belarus (White Russia) there is a word “liewsha.” It means left handed, and it also means sneaky or mistrustful. Shirley MacLaine is left handed.

 

Dave Barry, one of the many people who is left handed, but who plays guitar right handed. Duane Allman and Gregg Allman are two others. I’m another.

 

A left handed snowboarder is called “Goofy,” and a left oriented board is called a “Goofy Board,” because the board is designed to slant in the opposite direction of the right handed boards. Tina Fey is goofy in her own goody, goody style.

 

Cack handed to mean left handed is term I have never heard, but it is apparently quite common in the UK. It is related to Old English cack, excrement or dung. Cachus was Old English for a privy. These words come from Latin cacare, to defecate. Matt Groening celebrates left handedness in his own left handed way.

 

Left handed people are also over represented in the gay community.

 

A left handed person photographs left handed people. Cecil Beaton.

 

In Thailand, there is a phrase “e sai pai kee,” which means people who use the left hand to touch excrement.

 

Tippi Hedren, left handed mother of Melanie Griffith.

 

You don’t want to be left handed in the Arab world. These people lived in the desert where there was little water, so the left hand is used for all unclean purposes and the right hand is used for taking food out of the communal bowl.

 

Albert King not only played the guitar left handed, but he also strung and tuned his guitar differently so it was often impossible to tell what he was playing. Those beautiful string bends that he used resulted from his being able to pull the strings down instead of having to push them up as right handers do.

 

In Japanese and Chinese, “left” is written like this:

 

The above is basically a drawing that represents the left hand in this position:

 

The left hand was considered a helper for the right hand, so the original meaning of this character was “to help.” Now it means “left” and in Japanese can be pronounced SA or hidari. When the character is used in combination with other characters, it is pronounced SA. When it is used alone it is usually pronounced hidari.

 

In ancient times, the right side was considered to be better. Left meant inferior, low status, contrary, evil.

 

Hidari kiki (left handed in Japanese)

 

The characters for left and right written together have several meanings:

 

“I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”     Mark Twain. (left handed)

 

We’ve left.

(Taking the kindergarten diploma in my left hand.)

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Back to the Big Rope.

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23 October 2011

 

 

 

Wesley Freeman took us to Okinawa.

 

This is the way Okinawa is written now,

and Okinawa prefecture.

 

One of the many folk etymologies for Okinawa is “big rope.” The island looks like a rope on the map and the sound of oki nawa in Japanese could be heard as “big rope,” so the derivation becomes as irresistible as it is false.

During the harvest festival, there is a tug of war, perhaps the grandest in the world, where male and female sections of rope are joined by a pin.

 

Elise is an oncology nurse, and she also teaches and uses several types of models for demonstrations.

 

 

The pacific ocean from our hotel room.

Okinawa has always been in my heart.

My voice has always been from my diaphragm. i am quite shocked to see how high it resides in the thoracic cavity. Why, it’s just under the heart and lungs. I had imagined it much lower, down around my, oh, you know, penile area. That’s where it feels like the voice comes from.

 

I have had a yen to return to Okinawa since I left at age 18.

(77 to the dollar this time. I remember when it was 360 to the dollar.)

 

Wes put us in this beautiful hotel near where we used to live on Okinawa.

 

We played for the Uchinanchu Festival.

 

Uchina means “Okinawa” in the native language, which is completely different from Japanese, and “chu” means person, so Uchinanchu is the Okinawan people.

 

Konkai kono tai kai no tame ni kaette kimashita.

Now we have returned for this occasion. (With Nao-sensei)

 

This is a very emotional return to the Ryukyu Islands.

 

“People with their roots in Okinawa, wherever they now live in the world, will come back to their homeland to mingle with 1,338,000 prefecture citizens,” said Okinawa’s governor, Hirokazu Nakaima.

 

Minna-san, Tracy Freeman on drums!

 

George Murasaki’s chart for Down On Me. This is Wes Freeman’s photograph of the chord changes and it saved George from having to write out everything again after he lost the first chart. The mystery to me is how people read this stuff onstage with all of the chaos that is going on. I like to memorize everything, but often there is no time.

 

Our opening act. They were outrageous. The Okinawa All-Stars.

 

Lena, one of our singers, with Wes Freeman.)

 

We could be smirking about this smorking area, until we try to write Japanese ourselves and see how many mistakes we would make.

 

I like to see how the Japanese personalize their houses.

John Patterson and Reny Civico.

 

One drink is called piss and the other is called sweat.

 

On the same day, Elise and I were separately involved in dog rescue efforts on Okinawa. She worked very hard to save a dog, tick ridden and miserable. Elise made many calls to vets around the island and really went the extra distance to help her. Mother Elise saves people and animals every day.

 

I was out walking and rain began to fall in torrents. Hearing a desperate yelping somewhere above me, I looked across the street to see a puppy wound around a stake, stranded in the downpour, so I climbed into the yard and down a slope to free her. She ran happily to dry shelter and, seeing me walking on the same street next day, barked and wagged her gratitude.

 

To me cicadas were always “locusts,” probably because they were often called Seventeen Year Locusts, so, when I heard the passage from the Bible about the Plague of Locusts, I always thought, “Well, they make a lot of noise but I don’t remember them eating all that much. Turns out the “locust” is what we call a grasshopper. When the “locusts” descended on Salt Lake City, and the seagulls ate them all, that was a grasshopper plague. Still, to this day, when I hear the word “locust,” it is a cicada that first comes to mind.

Anyway, the cicadas on Okinawa have much higher voices. They sound like a fleet of frogs in the Fall, you know, that high cricket chirping sound that seems to come in waves? American cicadas sound more like motorscooter sputtering or lawnmowers. I always thought the cicada song was hypnotic and meditation inducing. Sitting under a tree with thousands of cicadas singing has always induced a kind of trance in me. It’s like a didgeridoo or a harmonium. How do such small things make such a big noise?

 

While walking toward the Pacific coast from our hotel, Elise and I found a commercial art studio where all manner of objets d’art abounded.

 

This was most interesting and reminded me of days spent with Mouse and Kelly at their air brush studio in San Francisco.

 

We found this Okinawan atelier early in the morning, just as the artists were arriving for work.

 

There is a certain cannibalistic impulse, that I recognize very well, with these workers to use any image as grist for their mill.

 

Since we were rooting around in their refuse, they immediately saw us as kindred spirits and yelled happy greetings.

 

When the Andrew family first lived on Okinawa, the town of Koza, just outside of our gate at Kadena Air Force Base, looked like this.      (Photo: Mark Irish Payne)

 

It looked like this in 1959.

 

Then, much later, Koza (now Okinawa City) looked like this.

 

Now it looks like this.

 

Chiko and Mark Irish Payne.

 

Mark’s mother.

 

ONE of Mark’s restaurants, or 25 feet away from it anyway.

 

I used to go to this place with my girlfriend when it was the Okinawa Yacht Club. She was 17. I was 18.

 

Wesley Freeman gave us a tour of Kadena Air Force Base, where my father was stationed twice.

 

Cheerful and helpful Ken Robillard came along on our Kadena tour. He speaks the fastest Japanese that I have ever heard.

 

For this tour, as the joke went, we had our own doctor and our own nurse. Elise and Brett, a flight surgeon.

 

Elise  looking towards Hawaii.

 

Elise Piliwale and Gary Epperson looking at the China Sea.

 

Last time I lived on Okinawa (1958-1960), our house looked something like these in this same neighborhood. Stearley Heights, Kadena.

 

Gary Epperson, singer, lived in this house on Kerby Loop near where I lived.

 

Cheryl and Al Rogers, once Okinawans, now live on the Kitsap Peninsula across from Seattle in Port Orchard. I have played there, and also in Port Townsend and Port Angeles.

 

Raymond Carver, a talented writer, lived in Port Angeles.

 

After the Kadena tour, we went to the Officers’ Club where an incredible buffet was in progress.

 

Okinawa is a good place to learn Japanese, Chinese or Uchinaaguchi, the native Okinawan language.

 

Shinjichi nu ada nayumi.   (native Okinawan proverb)

Kindness will never be wasted in any way.

Elise with her toes in the pacific ocean.

 

The most beautiful things in the most unlikely places.

 

“You don’t see one of these everyday.” (George Harrison, Hard Day’s Night)

 

Elise and I explored a lot of tombs. Fascinating. They are so new now.

When my brothers and I explored them, they looked like this.

Now they look like

 

Elise venerating her camera.

 

In Mexico they put a worm in their tequila.

 

In Okinawa, they put an entire poisonous snake, the habu, in their awamori, a liqueur to which honey and herbs have been added. The habu, a pit viper, is believed by some to have medicinal properties.

 

When I lived on Okinawa, there were habu mongoose fights. People would bet on the outcome. The mongoose would kill two or three habu, and then when it was tired another habu would kill the mongoose.

 

Cruel? Stupid? You bet. Habu mongoose fighting is illegal now.

 

Elise and I were walking by the Pacific and we saw these signs.

 

To all flight attendants and ticket agents of all airlines:

See?   My guitar will go in the overhead of a Boeing 767… with room to spare.

 

And they are my witnesses.

 

Sayonara.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

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11 October 2011

 

 

We are on Okinawa Sunday 16 October.

 

The first time I came to this island was 27 July 1946, sixty five years ago. We were the first American children on Okinawa.

 

Look where we left from, Fort Mason, San Francisco. I taught music there at Blue Bear School of Music in the 1980s.

 

Notice that the trip to Okinawa took two weeks on the USS David Shanks.

 

Years later, in 1958, we returned to Okinawa, and, when we left in 1960, my father, an Air Force officer, was stationed at Hamilton Field, Novato, California. This is the base hospital. I think my brother Stephen was born here.

He said, “Yes, you can.”

 

An auto repair shop on Okinawa in the 1960s.

 

It was an adventure being on Okinawa both times, and, of course, I am thrilled to be back. 1946, 1958 and 2011. This island has meant much to me.

 

In my next week’s writing there will be many photographs of the island as it is today.

 

David LaFlamme (It’s A Beautiful Day) and I at The Whisky a Go Go, Hollywood, California.

 

Elise Piliwale and Lizzie looking out at the rain.

 

John Dylan Whitcomb Myler learning the tricks of the trade from his father.

 

We did a play called Love, Janis, together. Well, he wrote and directed it and I was the music director. A great experience.

 

Okinawa 1960, the last time I was here. Jimmy Grant, Larry Henson (my rhythm guitar player in The Cool Notes) and Jim Mason. So I have returned after 50 years, probably the largest closing of a circle in my life.

 

Cathy Richardson and Mary Bridget Davies who did Love, Janis, with us.

 

Duking it out with James Gurley.

 

Vesper who has excellent social skills. She’s a dynamo.

 

I see her almost every day across the street from this mannikin.

 

My father (Andrew) at the Okinawa “Officers’ Club,” 1946.

 

These guys are on the other side of the world, Europe in 1944, near some jumping off place.

 

Mädl. She lives somewhere below.

 

With her.

 

It was difficult to leave Okinawa in 1960. We formed serious attachments there and really never got over the place.

 

I began university that year and we all went to the Surf Theatre in San Francisco to see such films as Otto e Mezzo (8 1/2). Marcello Mostroianni didn’t care much for Anita Ekberg, but he loved Anouk Aimée. I was right there with him on that one.

 

 

Alton Kelley, Gretchen Golden and Yossarian Kelley in an iconic photograph by Irving Penn.

 

This is that baby Yossarian as a man. He looks like his father.

 

L’Avventura, La Dolce Vita, Il Divorzio all’Italiana, Le Chien Andalou, Viridiana,  La Strada, Rocco e i suoi Fratelli, Giulietta di Spiriti, Throne of Blood, Rashomon, Woman of the Dunes, Street of Shame, Zéro de Conduite, Au Bout de Souffle,  The Horse’s Mouth, A Taste of Honey,  and, three or four years later in that same Surf Theatre, Hard Day’s Night, were an education for us, as important as classes at school. More important perhaps.

 

Big Brother and the Holding Company saw Hard Day’s Night in that same theatre, the same night, as The Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service and Country Joe and the Fish. We were on our way.

 

School was out.

 

Forever.

 

Nick Gravenites remembers a lot about James Gurley from 1961, 62, 63. I love hearing these stories.

 

Tom Finch’s daughter, Makenna, named for Makena Beach, Maui, where I lived with James Gurley off and on for a couple of years.

 

Allen Ginsberg on a beach in Japan shortly after I left Okinawa.

 

Among the first 1000 to die in Iraq. I thought I could paint them all.

 

Big Brother opens for Quicksilver.

 

Elise Piliwale and I in our avatar phase. Study for a painting.

 

Joel Jaffe, a prince among men, runs Studio D in Sausalito, California, and Matt W. helps him a lot.

 

We did a recording session with the woman who is the most illuminated, Shiho-san. She is a big star in Japan, and she is on Okinawa this week.

 

Joel with some of his other friends, Maria Muldaur, Joan Baez and Jane Fonda.

 

Andra Mitrovich, so beautiful, so warm, so great with an audience.

 

On Don Aters’ porch in Kentucky.

 

Our home town guitar player Tom Finch with his daughter Makenna and wife Tara Coyote-Finch.

 

Etak is a good guitar player too.

 

Chris Leighton ! Patti Allen-Lehman ! Hot stuff. Chris is such a great drummer. We had some beautiful gigs together. With Chris on drums it was always like, “Hey! This is the big time.”

 

Our little friends. We put these people on the inside of an album cover, and I wish we had done this on every recording we did.

In many cases here, most cases, really, this is the only image of these people we have.

 

Norton and I wrote a couple of songs together. One of these days I will find that tape. Norton and Lisa Buffalo.

 

We’ll see you next week with some photographs of today’s Okinawa.

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

_________________________________________________________

The Musical Secret of Life (or one of them anyway)

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9 October 2011

 

 

 

For any of our friends who will be on Okinawa during the Uchinanchu Festival, there will be an invitation only event on Sunday, October 16, 2011 at Sam’s by the Sea. Because space is limited, tickets are required and are available upon request, but the event is free, and is open to the alumni and teachers of Kubasaki, OCS and CKS, and to all of our friends from around the world.

 

A little honesty can get you in trouble. A lot of it can be downright dangerous.

 

Well, if I called the wrong number, then why did you answer the phone?

Photo: Max Clarke.

 

A che cosa serve la noia?

What is boredom for?

 

This face has lasted for a long time. It’s a Barrymore face from the 19th century.

 

Drew’s father was John Drew Barrymore. If they ever made a film about his life, Sean Penn could play him in a second. Drew has two great acting strains  in her family, the Drews and the Barrymores.

 

John Drew (1853-1927) was an actor and a matinée idol, one of the great stars of his day. His father was also a great actor. Louisa Lane Drew, John Drew’s mother, became the manager of the Arch Street theatre in San Francisco, which she ran successfully for thirty years.

 

On her opening night at age 21 in New York, Ethel Barrymore was scared, and someone shouted from the gallery, “Speak up, Ethel, all the Drews are great actors.” A lot of people still think she was the greatest actress of her generation.

 

We should show life neither as it is nor as it ought to be, but as we see it in our dreams.    (Chekhov)

(John Barrymore)

 

Lionel Barrymore, a huge talent, painter and actor, who had so many great roles, maybe the most interesting in Dinner At Eight (1933).

 

So, let’s just say that Drew Barrymore has a lot in her soul. Still continuing the tradition after more than a hundred years. Here’s to you, talented one. You are a Drew and a Barrymore.

 

Big Brother and the Holding Company, Sophia Ramos.

 

Elie Piliwale, the youngest and most attractive member of a very young and attractive family,

 

Art must begin locally so that it may end universally.

 

Will The Circle Be Unbroken? (I just today learned the trick of painting this, after a week of frustration. I’ve only got a little start, but it is a start, and now I know how to do it. That was a tough beginning. (Photo: Max Clarke)

 

What we love tells the story of who we are.

 

Laura Joplin and her daughter Claire.

 

An old saying in English: She was “in the pink,”

means roughly the same as the French “la vie en rose.”

 

What people look like on the street in São Paolo, Brazil.     (Photo: Elise Piliwale)

 

Nat King Cole was such a great piano player. He was as fleet, fast, furious and fun as anyone who ever played the instrument. I still can’t believe how good he was.

 

Die Welt des Glücklichen ist eine andere als die des Unglücklichen. (Wittgenstein)

The world of the happy is other than the world of the unhappy.     (Photo: Max Clarke)

 

LASCIATE OGNI SPERANZA VOI CH’ENTRATE.     (Dante)

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

 

Beginning improvisors, here is the    Secret Of Life:

Arpeggios with a judicious addition of chromaticism, scale motion and blue notes.     (Milan Melvin and Mimi Fariña, 1968)

 

The great object of music is to touch the heart, and this end can never be obtained by mere noise, drumming and arpeggios. Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach.

 

One of the most ancient and reverential gestures that accompanied prayer was the spreading of arms and hands heavenward. In time, the arms were pulled in, folded across the breast, wrists intersecting above the heart. Each of these gestures possesses an intrinsic logic and obviousness of intent.

The folding of hands, in the now familar image of prayer, is mentioned nowhere in the Bible.

 

This prayer gesture didn’t appear in the Christian church until the ninth century. Subsequently, sculptors and artists incorporated it into scenes that predated its origin… which, it turns out, has nothing to do with religion or worship, and owes much to subjugation and servitude.

 

The folding of hands in prayer, as we know it, originated from the holding out of hands to be handcuffed. The joined hands became a standard, widely practiced gesture long before it was appropriated and formalized by the Catholic Church.

 

Before waving a white flag signaling surrender, a captured Roman could avert immediate slaughter by affecting the shackled hands posture.

 

He’s tough, sir, tough is Slick Aguilar, and devlish sly !

 

That’s her name there written out in hieroglyphics. Kleopatra.

 

The arpeggios are like the big road map and the chromaticism and blue notes are like little detailed roads to the next town, the next chord.

 

Elise Piliwale, if she were one of those fancy women at the Red Dog Saloon, Virginia City, Nevada.

 

Main thing is… learn the arpeggios of all keys in all positions and inversions. Major, minor, augmented, diminished and, especially, half diminished chords.

 

Knowing the “melody” is also important, even if it is only your own melody.

 

Christy is beautiful, inside and out.

 

Big Boobster and the Holding Company, Maury Baker, Sophia Ramos, Peter Albin, Ben Nieves.

 

I am trying to get one of these people, if not both, to come sing with us soon.

 

Melody and arpeggios… of course they are both vital. it’s like line and color in painting.

 

I’m Charley’s aunt frrom Brazil where the nuts come from. In fact, Brazil was named frm the nut and not the other way round.

 

I still haven’t done a satisfactory portrait of Ben Nieves, but this one is growing on me.

 

To Alechim without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this blog would have been finished in half the time.

 

A long way is nothing. It’s how you take the first step that counts.

(Jim Wall, PhD Percussion, Doctor Drums)

 

Learn all these arpeggios in all these positions and modes and save years of time.

 

On the other hand, I suppose it could take a lifetime to learn all these arpeggios in all these positions.

 

It certainly has taken me a lifetime.

 

Of course, i didn’t realize for a long while that learning arpeggios should have been my goal.

 

When I began, I played in a linear style. Melody was the only thing. Melody and paraphrase of that melody.

 

So I played “horizontally.” Up and down the neck from first position on a string all the way up to as high as I could go, 20th fret and beyond.

 

After going through the Berklee methods for guitar, I slowly, dimly began to realize the importance of arpeggios.

 

Then, in the 1980s, 1990s, i began in earnest to learn the arpeggios everywhere on the guitar neck… and on the piano, saxophone and voice also.

 

The arpeggios give a schematic of where we are in the music. We don’t have to play them, but feeling them is good, because they are the outline of the chord. The skeleton. The map.

 

It is important to feel music horizontally and vertically at the same time.

 

This means being able to play melodically step by step and chordally by leaps and bounds. Melody lines and arpeggios.

 

There are many new tricks, mostly in the right hand, that I will probably never learn, but which are important for someone to learn now because most serious players use them at present.

 

If you look up my friend Joel Hoekstra, you will find a gifted teacher who will show you more in his videos and writings than you can probably learn in a lifetime.

(Mick Taylor, Sam Andrew)

 

Joel is not only a teacher, he plays in real life, plays as well as anyone, better than anyone really. See for yourself.

 

I heard a recording tonight of Joel Hoekstra, Blake Thompson and me in a room in Arizona going over Summertime for the show Love, Janis. The musicianship in that room was astonishing. I am tempted to release that recording, but it would only interest guitar players and other musical people. It’s not going to be on the Top Ten real soon, but it is a fascinating document.

 

The chronicler of daily nonsense in Zug, Switzerland.

 

Music is a tongue that utters no mean nor sarcastic words.     Photo: Don Aters.

 

This is the Foul Fiend Flibbertigibbet.

 

Sophia Ramos and I in Las Vegas.

 

Conscience, an inner voice that warns us that someone is looking, even if it’s only ourselves.     Photo: Max Clarke

 

Cogito, ergo sum.

 

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant… You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in society: but don’t THINK foolishly.    Samuel Johnson.

 

Cant (Latin cantus, song)

Phraseology taken up and used for fashion’s sake, and not as a genuine expression of sentiment.

Insincere, especially conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness or piety, the jargon peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, e.g.,  The cant of the music industry.

 

You usually hear cant when people aren’t really thinking. Their mind slips into neutral and they begin parroting common, trendy thoughts. Politicians do this a lot. You hear accepted notions fly by like banners of banality.

 

Marin County Cant, early 21st Century:

(Full Disclosure, I am a vegetarian from Marin County.)

MARIN CANT

I’m radiating total acceptance now, so, I love you, man, no, I really love you.

It’s all good. Don’t blame me for that Astral Projection. My Mars was conjuncting Jupiter.

What color is my aura? Red? Holy Atlantis, it was green just yesterday !

I wish my chakra were red. I’m channeling BaBa Lu and psychometrisized on my spiritual journey. I’m on the path, closer to the godess, bro.

There are other realities, like, like tantric sex which will lead us to manifesting abundance. It’s a Higher Consciousness, so consult the Tarot and use your Third Eye. That’s my special mantra.

 

We’re going to Okinawa, Japan. We’ll see you next week.

(I think Kat Feaver snapped this.)

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

__________________________________________________________

Letter To Janis – Sundays With Sam

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                                                Sam Andrew and Janis Joplin

Remember the day when Otis Redding died? You called me and your voice was trembling. I had never heard you like that before and you seemed so forlorn. We met at your place and played all of Otis’ records. It was a good night because we honored the man but now and then you would get a troubled expression on your face and I knew that you wanted him to still be there and that you knew he could do so much more if he had only lived.

Well, guess what, Janis? Tonight I am sitting here with a glass of wine in my hand after playing a song that we wrote together a long time ago. I am thinking a lot of you and it is making me happy, but, you know? There may be a slightly troubled expression on my face. You were a good friend to me and I wonder what you would be doing if you were still here and playing your music. I know one thing for sure. We would be laughing a lot right now. You were one of the funniest human beings I ever knew. You had a way of expressing yourself that was original, picturesque and Texan, raw and wry. You always sounded like home to me.

What about that time our band Big Brother and the Holding Company was backstage at the Fillmore doing a photo shoot? Remember that? I was playing a Stratocaster through a small tuning amp and you were opening a bottle of champagne. I think we were actually writing a song at the same time, one that we played together for a long time. You weren’t doing such a great job of opening the bottle though. The cork flew out of the bottle neck and bounced off the guitar neck. The lost cork playing the lost chord. We found a new lick that day. I still have the photographs from that session and even see one in a book now and then. There is champagne all over the floor and we are all laughing as hard as we can. God, that was a fun session. One of those days when everything seems right.

I liked the jazz standards that we did together and would have loved to do an entire album of them just for a pleasant sidetrip. We only had the chance to do Summertime and Little Girl Blue but they turned out rather well, didn’t they? You really were on your way with Little Girl Blue. That night at Columbia studios in New York when you got the phrasing right and made the song your own in such a strong and tender manner was a chilling experience. Suddenly I realized that you could sing anything you wanted to and that you could probably sing it really well. This made me want to find an aria from one of the great operas and hear you interpret something in a bet canto style. Later I adapted one of Donizetti’s beautiful songs Una Furtiva Lacrima for Big Brother and we actually performed the tune for a couple of years. Every time we did I wish you could have been singing it with us with all of that power and style a la Joplin.

Well, Janis, I have just returned from Santa Barbara where I played with Peter Lewis from Moby Grape and John McPhee from the Doobie Brothers. We had a good time. Peter really writes some quality songs and he has a classic voice. John is a perfectionist, totally unassuming and a lyrical guitar player with a great ear. Remember when he was in Clover and they used to open for us? Huey Lewis was in that band and he was just the harmonica player. Alex Call was the singer. We have done a couple of projects together. I remember that Clover’s road manager used to try to get fifty dollars for them when they were playing with us. Fifty dollars for the whole band. I think I helped him once and they seemed so grateful. Then Huey went on to make gazillions with Mario Cipollina and friends. Life is funny. You should have stayed around to check it out and laugh at it a little bit. Where are you, Janis?

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Peter reminded me of one date when Moby Grape and Big Brother were playing at the Fillmore and you had a crush on Bob Mosely who was a great singer and who looked like a blonde surfer boy­dude from Southern California. You chased him all the way out on to the fire escape a couple of floors above the street and had him cornered. Peter says you almost shoved Bob over the side. You totally intimidated the man and he was not usually intimidated by anyone.

You were a strong woman, my dear, and I will never forget you. You came into our black and white lives and they instantly turned to color. You were my best friend and I will always love you. We learned a lot together and even better we laughed all the time. Even when any sane person would be crying. I miss you every day but not in any tragic way. It’s more like I feel lucky to have spent the time with you that I did and to have had a woman friend like you.

Here’s hoping we meet again.

Janis Joplin and Sam (no further description for Sam) rehearsing on a California motel patio in 1969. Photo by John Bryne Cooke