THE WAG’S TALE

15 May 2011

 

 

I have a lot in common with this dog.

 

OK, Donald, just in case, here it is.

 

One of the places I would love to be over would be over a delicatessen.

 

Cathy Richardson playing my Hummingbird duriing an interview in San Francisco. She sang a truly great Bobby McGee that morning.

 

The Way We Lived Then: 1967

Phil Hammond, Chet Helms, Joanne, Sal Lombardo, Robert Dries, Kathleen Kelley, Bill Merrill, Mary Ellen, Martin Gorak, Bob Fine, Alan Stone. Photograph: Irving Penn.

 

The Way We Lived Before Then: John Farnsworth, Sam Andrew, 1960.

John is playing the blues in E, because we really suffered on Okinawa.

 

This is the grave of my great, great, great grandfather’s sister on my mother’s side.

 

Don Wehr had such a great place on Columbus Avenue in San Francisco. Everyone came there. Don had great prices for amps and guitars and keyboards. A 17 year old kid came in there, and started playing. It was Neil Schon. He was so good. It was a thrill to hear that much talent and energy all brand new and ready to go. Chepito, Carlos, all the Mission kids were there.

 

 

Big Brother and the Holding Company in Moscow, 1995. We had so much fun on this trip. The Russians are beautiful and intelligent and do they love to party?

 

Rozman Khalid went to Malay College, maybe the best private school in Malaysia. Then he came to the USA and learned our evil ways and even some ways to better those evil ways. In Arabic, Khalada means to last forever. And Khalid, which can be a surname or a given name means immortal or eternal. In Egypt, the pronunciation is often Khaled. This is a pre Islamic name. Khalid Ibn Al-Walid was an Arab general who defeated Byzantine and Sassanian forces and never knew defeat himself. Rozman is my Thursday friend. That’s his day off and he comes and talks to me. We laugh a lot.

 

My mother’s father Albert Mann and his friends. Look at the way that rifle is just lying there in the dirt. So organic.

 

Elise Piliwale photographed this dumpster in Mariposa, California. “Mariposa” means “butterfly.”

 

An interview (in my kitchen!) with the BBC. Yes, we even had the kitchen sink.

 

You’re A Thousand Miles Awa-hay…

 

My first review. Fifty dollars was a lot of money then, probably equivalent to $ 750 now.

 

In 2005 I was doing a lot of drawing like this.

 

 

The job of a vice president… to get kicked in the balls now and again.

 

Sam Andrew is an old name in our family. He is the third or fourth one.

 

There are two kinds of air travel in the United States, first class and steerage. Did you see Night At The Opera (Marx Brothers)? Economy class is like the stateroom scene in that film.

 

My brother Lee and I at a little theatre in St. Cloud. Upstairs they had the, ahem!, oldest urinal in Minnesota, all marble and regal. Quite impressive.

 

Dan Andrew with his daughters Diana and Kelsi.

 

Bernice Cartledge and Sherwood Carter on their way to the Prom. Okinawa, Japan. In our senior year, Bernice and I were in a play together and I was called upon to kiss her. Lots of howling and catcalls from the audience. Such innocent times. Oooo, la, la.

 

The Vitales: grandfather, father, sons. This could be Roman portrait sculpture. Gene, Michael, Anthony and Chris Vitale.

 

OK, so now you can which one Chris Vitale is, right? No? He’s the one on the right. You couldn’t tell that? Come on.

 

Shakespeare, despite the fact that a lot of people say he is good, really is very good.

 

Sarah Palin, Bettie Page and Angela Davis, girlfriends. OK, it doesn’t look like them yet, but it will, it will. Or else I will change the title. (Photo: Max Clarke)

 

Micaelas Schönesfoto. Micaela’s beautiful photograph.

 

Kalakaua Avenue near Montserrat, Honolulu. Speed limit 25.

 

In every big fat book there is a little thin book trying to get out.

 

Ben Nieves had to put his glasses just to SEE this amp.

 

You have to believe in luck and timing. How else are you going to explain the even partial success of someone that you don’t like? BaDaBing.

 

 

Did you know we had Commonwealths? This is the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands. They are all US citizens. Ah, the farflung empire.

 

Fashion is a temporary disease ordered by clothesmakers once or twice a year. (Jack Andrew, Erin Homs)

 

Better copulate than never.

 

Why is it forbidden to show someone blissfully fornicating in the movies, but it’s all right to depict a horrible slashing murder? Isn’t this kind of backwards? In every sense of that word?

 

 

The Queen’s advice to Katy: “Close your eyes and think of England.”

 

A sense of humor is an asset, if you can conceal it at the right time.

 

I want a girl, just like the girl, that married dear old dad.  (Oedipus Rex)

 

The main problem with being rich is that you have to socialize with other rich people.

 

American cities might seem frenetic because it is usually hard to find a place to pee.

 

There is not happiness; there are only moments of happiness, and I have these moments when I look at the art of Jude Harzer.

 

Oh, Katharine, Katharine!

 

Katharine Boyd at Aroma Café, May 2011.

 

Poem:

I have learned to spell hors d’oeuvres, which gets on everybody’s nerves.

One third of psychoanalysis is psycho and and another third is anal. And we won’t talk about the sis part.

 

I’m almost seventy and I still don’t need glasses. I drink right out of the bottle.

 

Law is the opposite of sex. Even when law is good it’s boring.

 

Sam Andrew, Bill Andrew, Nashville, 1953.

 

Injustice is hard to bear, but hardest to bear is justice.

 

You can live happily ever after, but you have to take it one day at a time, and don’t buy anything.

 

Every man has disciples. Just don’t let Judas write my obituary.

 

Io te amo. Non dirlo à nessuno. (I love you.  Don’t tell anybody.)

 

Praise and criticism are both frauds.

 

So far the 21st century isn’t going all that well.

 

When confronted with two evils, take the prettier one.

 

Is sex better than drugs? That depends on the connection. While I’m sure many frequent visitors to sites like https://www.nu-bay.com/categories/112/big-tits would argue so, others would argue that drugs give you a much better time.

 

I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking, but then I thought, “Nah, it would just be the same old thing again. What good is that going to do?”

 

Nothing matters very much, and many things don’t matter at all.

 

See you soon!

Sam Andrew

Big Brother and the Holding Company

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