My Guitar Psychologist - 5-26-16

Little change in Unca Jeffy's personal life.  My therapist is retiring/moving on.  I have a new one all set up and I'm looking forward at a different perspective on things, but I will miss my old guy.  

Dave A. is about 70 and has worked most of his psychological career through the military and through the VA.  He's a big believer in musical therapy.  You see, listening to music does wonders in the brain.  It lights up a lot of different areas that sometimes don't get used and fires off all kinds of endorphins and dopamines and feel good things that fight depression, and especially serotonin.  A regular dosage of serotonin keeps Jeffy happy and not sad.

Well, PLAYING music fires up even MORE areas of the brain and gets even MORE juices flowing.  When you play music your brains dealing with math, motor skills, language skills, all kinds of creative areas light up and on and on and on.

Turns out that when you play music (an instrument, not just an mp3), your brain becomes wayyyyyyyyyyyy too busy to ever dwell on nonsense that makes you mad or sad.  It just gets to do it's job, and that makes it happy.

So sessions with Dave A. have pretty much for the most part consisted of me sitting in his office one day every fortnight and playing guitar and singing him some songs.

And it's really helped.

This reminds me of a doctor I once had working on me in urgent care that prescribed candy to alleviate a calcium deposit I had formed in my salivary gland.

These are GOOD doctors.

I'll miss Dave A.

Talk to you soon.

"I'm With Stupid" - 5-25-16 - A Fester Faceplant Joint

Quick one today!

A quick doodle I did the other day for my old buddy Mark Knox (Fester Faceplant to you).

I can't explain much more though.  Top secret stuff.

Now I'm off to a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally long day at work.

Talk to you soon.

Squirrels on Mars - 5-24-16 - Meeting Missoula @ Open Mic

I met a couple of new guys on the old open ic circuit here in my new hometown of Missoula.  A couple of guys in their early 20's, Sean and Colby.  They play as a band called
Squirrels on Mars.  Their FaceBook page describes them as just a couple of sensitive guys who like Faith Hill.

That's a really horrible likeness of Sean, but DAMN did I nail Colby.

Sean plays guitar and sings and Colby plays drums and harmonizes.  At open mics Colby usually plays bass (easier to tote around) and they sound great.  I got to see them at the Imagine Nation Brewing Co. where they keep a drum kit set up and got to hear them in full gear.

A couple of really nice guys who have some really great songs.  Stuff like the one about "life going on and on...and on and on and on...and on and on" and my favorite sing along of theirs "I Like Being Unemployed".

Solid stuff.

This is a really talented town that seems to attract even more talent.

Talk to you soon.

Caterwauling! It's still in style - 5-23-16

Yesterday morning I got a text from my friend Debbie, here's what it said.

"Good morning.  A cat decided to sing a broken hearted love song outside my window last night.  Some cat chick gave him a LOT to sing about.  He went on and on and on." 

So with all the empathy I could muster I stopped laughing.

Then I drew this.

It does my heart good to know that certain stereotypical comedic principals are still in place in the real world and sometimes life can be just as absurd as an old Warner Brothers cartoon.  Like...

"Back Alley Oproar"

or...

"Notes to You"

or heck, even a Warner Brothers live action sequence by Busby Berkely.  Like...

"Sittin' on a Backyard Fence"

Keep up your caterwauling!

Talk to you soon.

A New Song and Writing More - 5-19-16

Last night I again hit the open mic road.  Wednesday's a good one with The Starving Artist Cafe at 6 and The VFW at 9.

I did a nod to Guy Clark (who died on Tuesday) at "Starving Artist.  I did "Black Diamond Strings", "The Cape", "Dublin Blues" and "Stuff That Works".  That made me happy.

Then I headed up to the VFW and did my own stuff.  I haven't written a new song in years, but just this Monday I did.  There's a place here in Missoula called The Oxford Saloon and it's a great place, too.  The diviest of dive bars with the greasiest of cheeseburgers and breakfasts and a long history which includes selling booze and gambling during some times in our country's history when those things weren't really allowed.

It's always struck me odd, that this place shared a name with one of the finest institutes of higher education in the world.  Then as I got older, it dawned on me, just how many smart people I've met at  the Oxford.

So I wrote a song for all of them.  There's a few lines being flubbed here, but you'll get the idea.

"The Ballad of the Ode to the Legend of the Oxford Scholar and Other Stories"

It's been a hit at the couple places I've sung it.  Makes me want to write more. 

It's like a lyric sketchbook.  So it counts.

Talk to you soon.

The Justice League of America - 5-18-16 - Since DC won't...

People seemed to enjoy my "Jeffy cartoon take..." on the superheroes from the movie "Captain America Civil War".

Marvel has done a really solid job of bringing their characters to the silver screen over the course of 13 movies in 8 years.  DC however....

In the same time frame they've done 2.  Both of them reeked to high heaven.

They've so far starred 2 of their characters (Superman, Batman), featured 1 (Wonder Woman) and cameoed 2 (Flash, Aquaman).

Step on the gas, DC.

So since they're never going to get around to making a good Justice League movie (they are doing a movie, it just won't be good) I thought I'd cartoon me up a version of my own.

To be fair, DC does a kick-ass job with it's animated forays and it's TV versions of these heroes currently on CW/CBS have been lots of fun.

I'll point out that while they've onnly brought 3 of their heroes to the big screen, no less than 8 pictured here have appeared full-bore on their TV shows (Red Tornado, Hawkman, J'onn J'onzz, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Flash and the Atom), 1 has appeared from a distance, in silhouette and mentioned often (Superman) and at least TWO more have at least been alluded to (Green Lantern, Elongated Man).

Seriously, DC.  Pull the trigger on the movies.

Talk to you soon.

Pictured: (top row) Red Tornado, Green Lantern, Hawkman, J'onn J'onzz, Friestorm.

(bottom row) Green Arrow, Black Canary, Aquaman, Superman, Elongated Man, Batman, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, The Flash, The Atom.

Guy Clark dies at 74 - 5-17-16

Guy Clark died today.

Guy Clark was one of my top 5 favorite songwriters of all time.

This is not a happy day.

I'll miss you, Guy.  Say hello to Townes and Suzanna.

Talk to you soon.