Overheard at Booth 3: Son Jarocho

"Think of it!   'Are You Lonesome Tonight?' ... in the Jarocho style!!"

"You're nuts."

"You're singing it in your head.  You know you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are!  Where can we get ahold of Los Lobos?  They'll sound great!"

a scroll left on the counter

On one long roll of paper, much like the Kerouackian style of novel writing.   

We think the poet, MR, had just come in some time when nobody was looking an just left it on the counter, because he was tired of being bugged about working so slow.

Still, though, he's not even out of January yet on his little poetry project.   Lame.


Songs for Poems of the Day

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2013-0114

 

Song:

Slaid Cleaves

Broke Down

 

Poem:

Windowsill, half-cracked open, and outside:the big’ol 18 wheelers

rolling, rolling by, criss-crossing all of America, interconnecting at

this focal point: a motel room with a broken AC and a bed of crumpled sheets.

 

 

(NOTE:  A cover of this song is the final track on the S and M CD "Sod the Mocker")

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2013-0115

Marisa Monte

Ensaboa

 

Poem:

a touch of mold on the bottom of the shower curtain

froth-tinged water flows through the cracks in the tile to the drain,

a hand, not her own, smooths a bar of soap down her infinite valley.

 

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2013-0116

Ray Charles

I Got a Woman

 

Poem:

A plaid apron, now tossed against the corner of the kitchen,

the screen door latch hooked neatly inside the circulet,

Potatoes left boiling in the forgotten cooking pot.

 

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2013-0117

Song:

Gordon Lightfoot

Carefree Highway

 

Poem:

She opens her eyes but the laundry is still there, stillwarm and

lumped in clumps and heaps upon the table,

She looks out the window, watches as the trees scatter their shadows across the lawn.

 

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2013-0117

Zero 7

Give It Away

 

Poem:

night.

Rainslicked streets.

Lights from dim houses like moonlight sprinkled through treeleaves.

 

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2013-0118

Song:

Miram Makeba

Unhome

 

Poem:

anathema is a word that you would never use

to describe the snippets of your dreams, or

All the hope that spills out the sides of your fisted ruins

 

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2013-0118

Song:

Bob Dylan

Shooting Star

 

Poem:

Ages and ages ago, we used to dance barefoot through fourths of July

with sparklers in our hands and older brothers shooting each other with

roman candles as the laughter of our parents fades into the distance. 

 

(Note: S and M have also covered this song as well, but it has yet to be slated for a forthcoming album)

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2013-0119

Song:

Al di Meola

Perpetual Emotion

 

Poem:

plucked strings in harmonious intercession, vibrations at 90-degree

arc, circumlocuted and cross-hatched, concentric and convexed;

you can see images of all peoples of the earth in each tapped note.

 

(NOTE: Verble has taken down this poem and transcribed it onto a napkin that he will paste into his scrapbook entitled "Zen and the Art of the Acoustic Guitar")

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2013-0120

Song:

Darol Anger and the American Fiddle Ensemble

Andre de Sabato Nuovo

 

Poem:

Autumn in New England, driving upstate New York

the trees explode in their last annual glory, spilling

all their colors across the glass of your passenger window

 

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2013-0121

Song:

U2

MLK/Beat on the Brat

 

Poem:

Ripped up vans on the streets of new york

boots on the wet streets of Dublin

fists once were raised in the air, against

 

the backdrop of sootwhite smoke belched from factories,

hideous and hated when they still fumed,

and achingly missed when finally stilled.

 

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Overheard at the Counter: Song of the Day

The song for March 2, 2013 is

Van Halen
Could This Be Magic?

Van Halen's version of a pub ballad.   Shows fantastic acoustic guitar work by Eddie, who - don't laugh now - would have made a fantastic classical guitarist.    I can imagine him playing anything by Tárrega ... I can hear his rapid fire style just bringing those pieces to new fire!



MR says, "OK Verble if you stop doing my job, here, and lemme gittdownta bizness, I got some lines you want me to penscribe here, so . . .

If I told you I sailed out tomorrow,
Would your eyes they fill with such sorrow
That you would bring me a beer
And sit beside me, my dear,
And present me your maidenhead to borrow?

[a pause a the café]



Verble: That's terrible!

MR: Wha - !

Verble: "maidenhead to borrow."  You don't borrow a maidenhead - you take it -

Lucky Moran: . . . and for a limerick it doesn't scan at ALL.

MR: What do you know?!  Philistine!   The narrator is ASKING to borrow it - that don' make no pretense that izz actually real.   He knowzzit - but the GIRL don' knowzzit!   See?

Verble: I don't care.   I'm not paying you for that.

MR:  You never payzme anywayz!

Verble:  [walking to the back] Still doesn't scan right.

MR: [mimicking]  'still duzznt scan right'  - everybuddy's a critic!

Lucky: Well, he's right.   Here.  Run it by me again . . .

Otis Redwing:  If you wanna turn it into a pub ballad, you could give it a refrain, something like "Sail away with someone's daughter"

Lucky:  Dude - that's part of the song.

Otis: Hey, don't get bent.  I'M not the poet here - HE is!   and right now it looks like he's chewing the counter.

The Barista comes down the counter with a rag and a new mocha and says, "As Oscar Wilde once wrote 'a poet can survive anything but a misprint'"

Neil Young "Pocahantas"

Neil Young at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=0ihBRiHTaMQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=0ihBRiHTaMQ

Yeah, I know what it says.   It says WTTW from 1992.    But anywhere acoustic music is played, it's played at the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe. 

That's the miracle of Acoustic Zen Guitar.



By the way . . . I like to sleep with Pocahantas as well.   In the homeland I've never seen.

The Strawbs: From the Witchwood

Verble says, "Ah yes, here is one of my prized possessions!   After all these years, I finally found it on vinyl again.   The Strawbs' From the Witchwood LP.   A brilliant piece of acoustic guitar work, flourished by Rick Wakeman's ebullient, if sometimes completely overDONE, keyboards - this was Wakemen just before he went off to hit it big with Yes.   But seriously, the acoustic guitars make this: they sound just like they would have sounded in the Middle Ages, IF the current acoustic guitar design had been available in the Middle Ages.

"I could go on forever about the difference in design between the instruments; frankly, I have always found it sad that while we can replicate the instruments of the time, they always seem to be merely replicas.  We will never be able to hear what an original guitar truly sounded like in the environs of the day.  The sounds of the guitar, at least in my opinion, is not just the instrument itself, and not just the player, and not even just the room or studio that it's being played in, but it's the AGE in which it's being played.

"Seriously, listen to the albums as they go across the decades: there are similar guitars with similar designs, but the sound it different, each decade.   You may think that it's the recording techniques, and that may be part of it, but it's also the time.

"But back to the Strawbs:  I hear this album, and it feels like what it would have sounded like then, in a think-planked pub, or dining hall, or out on some minor lord's lawn.
"And if you think that's all a bunch of crap, well then, just give it a listen because it's just 10 good late 60's psychadelic folksongs!"

Overseen at Table 2: picture of guitars

Just because some days you just gotta look at a picture of a wall of acoustic guitars.    And a balalaika.

The name of this picture is Studio VT10.   Don't know whose collection this is, but man would I love to hear him/her play!

Ian Anderson 1978

Ian Anderson, of Jethro Tull.   Perhaps the most overlooked acoustic guitarist in all of rock and roll.   Reading him in interviews, he always seems rather humble about his guitar playing.   I think I remember he called himself  'lazy' or perhaps even 'sloppy' - but some of his arpeggios, his hammer-ons/pull-offs, the way he can take a phrase and turn it into a breeze, and then that breeze becomes a hurricane.

His acoustic guitar tunes are as intricate as calculous, yet, they create a tapestry that you  feel like you can just pull off that castle wall and fly out across the moors toward snowpeaked mountains.

At least, that's how I see it.

-VG

Overheard at Table One: Not Ranked Acoustic Guitar Songs

These are not any order ranked, so no silly "Top Five" or anything like that - just good old Acoustic Guitar Songs:

Goo Goo Dolls - Name
Led Zeppelin - Bron-Yr-Aur
Jefferson Airplane - Embryonic Journey
Blind Faith - Can't Find My Way Home
Violent Femmes - Nightmares

Check 'em out.   You'll be glad you did.

Overheard at Booth 3: Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather

Boy, 19: you know I'm gonna miss you like, freakin crazy, you know?


Girl, 19: don't worry, we'll text all the time and we'll skype and, hey, just let me know if there's anything you want, let me know, and i'll like, get it, and send it back to you, OK?


Boy: i don't want nothin, i just want you to come back soon, OK, I mean, i thought it was gonna be OK, but the closer it gets the weirder it feels, you know, this stuy in europe program, i mean, wow, it just like, hit me. you're gonna be GONE!

Girl: yeah but it's gonna be so like, freakin cool, i mean it's like freakin EUROPE, you know? and like, really, if you want me to get you anything, just tell me or text me and i'll like, buy it, really.

Boy: why do you keep asking me that when you know all i want is you. you got me singin old U2 songs here, and you keep asking me what i want? what i want right now is what i'm gonna want for every day you're gone for this semester. thank god you're coming back in 4 months!

Girl: yeah, about that . . . i was thinking that maybe i might stay for two semesters. i mean, they're gonna let me decide when i get there. i think it'll all just depend on how i feel about it.

Boy: oh. OK. that's cool . . . so, i guess there is something you can get me while you're there.

Girl: cool. what's that?

Boy: Spanish boots of Spanish leather.
















Note: This beautiful picture I loaded from another blog, called
Ngorobob House:
Life From The Hill
....little notes and commentaries from a pink house
on the top of a tanzanian hill....
(to the blogger, if you wish me to remove the picture, I certainly will, as I mean no disrespect)

To readers: Looks like a nice little blog, maybe you should check it out.

Zither or Guitar

Verble holds up the canvas of the new Picasso he has just purchased at auction in the Netherlands. "Isn't she beautiful?" he asks.





"What is it?" says Niall Carter, sitting a few stools down, warming his hands around his steaming mug.





"It's called 'Woman with Guitar or Zither' - Picasso, circa 1911," says Verble proudly.

Steppenwolf snorts. "You mean even he couldn't tell?"

"He got lost!" shouts out Lucky Moran, sitting at table four with Otis Redwing.





"Philistines!" growls Verble, as Steppenwolf and Niall burst into laughter.





Verble picks up the painting, somewhat roughly, and begins to start toward his office, when the Barista says to him, in a rare serendipitous moment, "Come on, Verb, why don't you put it up here behind the counter? There's a good spot by the espresso machine."





Verble stops. A pause. A smile begins to pull up at the corners of his mouth. "Why, my dear," he says with true amazement, "surely there IS indeed one of you who can appreciate art."





"Sure, I have a good eye for art," she says. "Plus, it'll go just right with the colour of chalk I'm going to use on the board to advertise the new cherry mocha grande!"

A few notes on bracing

Bracing: a bracing wind is a strong wind, usually very chilly. To brace yourself means to prepare yourself for something difficult, such as bad news or a hard physical assault of some kind.



Bracing, in the world of the Acoustic Guitar, is something more graceful, more structurally beautiful.



I found a good explanation on another website (http://www.thecraftmanspath.com/ from a post on April 8, 2008):



Whereas the back braces are a bit more structural in nature, the top actually has a more complex bracing pattern that keeps it strong but also allows it to vibrate giving the guitar its unique tone.



Just the description itself leads me to imagine this guitar, I can feel the warmth emanating just from the words around that most wonderful instrument that God himself gave Humanity the ability to create.



So, the next time you hear a guitar playing a song so incredibly beautiful that your breath stops short, just remember that all its parts are working in unison, even down to the bracing inside.

An Acoustic for Every Room, a Book for Every Corner

That's Verble Gherulous's mantra for living, and he means it. In the Zen and Tao Acoustic Café Verble keeps several acoustic guitars, tuned and on stands in the back corner near the small stage, for whomever wishes to play when they wish to play. And even if you don't play, you are certainly more than welcome to come and just pluck the strings and listen to the warm tones of this most wonderful instrument.

And books! My goodness, does he keep books scattered around the café . . . there are floor to ceiling bookcases on either side of the front doors, so that every person upon leaving has the opportunity to take a book with them when they go. (Verble not only believes that people should read more, he also read once that by giving someone something free to take, they won't be tempted to steal - his theory: if they have the gift of taking off with a seven dollar trade paperback book, they won't run off with the $800 Martin DX1 acoustic guitar!)

But there are two texts featured most prominantly, usually on the counters: the Holy Bible and the Constitution of the United States. Verble once told me, "While I would never anyone to think that I actually am placing these two texts on equal footing, since one is written by God through humanity and the other is written by highly intelligent rich white guys, I do think that in this American culture, both of these documents need to be given away more freely and more read than what they are; The Bible and the Constitution are the two texts that everyone quotes but no one really reads. I mean come on! The average American citizen only knows that the Constitution lets people say whatever they want, lets them carry guns, and has something about freeing slaves. Some even think it guarantees them the rights to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

"And don't even get me started on the American lack of understanding of the Bible! Most Americans can name more American Idol winners than Apostles of Jesus Christ! Some hide behind it, rather than reading it, because they're afraid of the mirror . . . and some ignore it without realizing that it denounces the same hypocrisy that they despise . . . .

"Either way, both must be read more than they are, and I'll do whatever I can to get them into people's hands.

"Now, you prefer the King James, the American Standard, or the New International Version?"

photo 442

If we knew each other's secrets, what purpose then would those secrets serve? - Giuseppe Salinghetti

John on Acoustic

John Lennon should have written more acoustic songs than he did - still, he left us with a great cauldron of 'em, the most popular (and rightly so) being "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)'' "Dear Prudence" and "Across the Universe"

Seems strange that the general consensus always ascribes McCartney as the acoustic one and Lennon as the rocker, (I know, I know, you'll pull out "Blackbird" "Yesterday" etc - but remember 'twas Paul who wrote "Back in the USSR'' and "Helter Skelter")

Still, back to John - he had a subtle presence and his acoustic tunes were intricate without being overly flashy, each note flowed into the other - I think of his acoustic songs like a stream, a brook, whereas Paul's were more like leaves on treelimbs

and yes, I just realized how overly saccharine that just sounded.

I'll just leave you with a picture of Mr. Lennon, on his Gibson acoustic. Is that a J500? Somebody let me know.

Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe

Today I was talking again to some of the others in the Praise Team who say that they're going to miss me when I move, and they mentioned my guitar playing. It's not that I'm all that great a guitar player, but for some reason people really like the way I play, and before I even thought it, I just blurted out the words, "It's because other people just play the guitar, I LOVE the guitar!"

And it was only after I said the words did I realize it was true: I just love playing the guitar, I love touching the guitar, I love pressing my fingers against the strings, I love moving my fingers over the various frets, trying to make them work the way they're supposed to . . . I just love everything about the guitar!

Don't really know what all that means, except that most nights you will find me in the corner of the Zen and Tao Acoustic Cafe, playing for tips and cappucino.