Rock 'n' Blues Stew II: Classic rock 'n' roll, blues, jazz, and more

On Amazon.com

 How to make a rock & blues stew

 Mix together with extreme caution and a touch of frenzy: an insatiable passion for the wild and dangerous smokin’ steamy blues and gutsy rock ‘n’ roll; a healthy measure of renegade rebelliousness and rambunctious mischief; full-moon madness driven by the zodiac and other Cosmic capers; a razor-sharp mind that splashes words like a paintball fight; a call for the open road and skies—and you have the ingredients for the music, the people, the backstage presence and the sights and sounds of Rock ‘n’ Blues Stew II.  Follow what my friends call “Mitch-Tripping the Musical Universe” with the heroes, angels, and devils from the onstage and studio days of Derek and the Dominos, George Harrison, The Band, the J. Geils Band, Delaney and Bonnie & Friends with Eric Clapton, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Leo Kottke, Richard Thompson, Rory Block, Buddy Guy, and many others of voice and instrument.

 Here are some of the essays, interviews, and articles that brought me friendship and fun through the world of the music circuit and the artists who make it their life calling.  From Nashville and Memphis to the Ozarks, down in the Mississippi Delta, Gadsden, AL, Macon, GA, Muscle Shoals, AL, or Red Bank and Asbury Park, NJ:  if you play it, shake it, or just let it give you the groove, then drop in these stories and let it flow. It’s a stew of rock and blues for your musical news.  Living and loving large as a freelance editor, travel with me to the homes and life stories, concert backstage rooms and sound studios, and the fame and glory of some famous and upcoming drummers, guitar players, vocalists and songwriters of our time—and the tales they have to tell.

Psychological Astrology for young people, parents, and holistic workers

Paperback  Kindle

The 21^st Century is the Time for Psychology and Astrology

The doors astrology can open are based in a psychological frame:  that we possess a natural system of looking within and seeing ourselves in an organized structure of behaviors, responses, growth, and sequential outcomes.  We have available a 12-way mirror of the soul with multiple levels of potential views and choices to make to take us further on the pathway that we call Life.  We can become the artist who creates the living painting of our decisions and their results.  These are ideas to help the working, thinking, considerate practical healer of body, mind, and soul, whether or not the person is a professional physician, holistic healer, or just someone interested in understanding the vast range of experiences that come with a lifetime (especially those who are blessed as parents).  

What is PA? In western world terms, it’s a language of human actions and choices that can be discerned with the symbols that represent those actions and choices. It’s a blend of the myths from Greece and Rome that describe the stories of humans and their views of the gods and goddesses—the alleged beings of powerful energies of nature. Those gods and goddesses mirrored the choices and decisions of humans that are so vital to our awareness of life: love, war, intellect, enjoyment, surprise, emotions, self-identity, spirituality, discipline in building character, and ultimately, how we face death—and rebirth.

The participants in PA are like actors and actresses who partake of their roles in those choices and decisions. They take on nine (9) major themes (the major planets), with secondary back-ups, and present themselves with twelve (12) styles of appearances (the signs). Each actor/actress, in their exchange “on stage in life,” either cooperates or challenges each other, or several others, according to the life lessons to be achieved or mastered (the aspects). Or not—there are no guarantees! Within those roles and challenges-cooperation, there may be one or more key areas of 12 Life Experiences—or “stages”—to facilitate this. Each “stage” (or ‘house’) has its own setting.

The diagram of the birth chart (or current event chart, or even relationship-compatibility chart, if desired), shows who is in which role, how they are “costumed” for it, and in which areas of Life Experience they are “on stage” for the challenges or cooperation dynamics. There are also factors for passive or aggressive responses and “acting out in character,” and introversion/extroversion options. The results are ultimately up to each individual to learn through the “script(s)” that have been crafted for each actor/actress in the Life Performance. There are surely failures and also achievements, which all are up to the person who knows their Life Blueprint by way of PA.

As a hint: yes, the symbols are easy to learn in astrology. If you know your alphabet in any language, it’s just like that. Each symbol has its own ‘sound’ or role of action or energy to deliver. If you know your language by symbols (e.g., Hebrew, Sanskrit, Arabic), you know this already. If you know your language by complex symbols (Chinese or Japanese), you know it already.

There can be a lifetime of study within PA because psychology is the study of human behavior and the decisions that impact those behaviors. You may also learn how to identify which Life Lessons are appearing in your current life cycles or age. These are options that I can also teach—but I emphasize that it is much easier and rewarding to know the basics. To know yourself is to know your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. It may also reward you to know these qualities within those who are your key associates, family, and social network. Again, welcome!! 

 

High School memoir (humor and fun)

(On Amazon.com)

(PS: After our 50th reunion last October, I gave a copy to the current principal. 

He had no idea of these stories...well, NOW he has homework!!)

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Chapter One

 Welcome to “Horror Day” High School—and a few holidays too

        I know kids in school complain about teachers, assignments, parents, homework, tests, cafeteria food, classmates, buses, pick-up and drop-off, and sports events. But I promise that all the kids who went to my high school would complain about all that AFTER they told you about the general attitude and atmosphere in the building—which we all thought was the coolest place for the strangest reasons. See, it was both the best place in the world and also the freakiest, depending on whether or not it was a national or local holiday. And that’s part of the reason that the school got its official real name and nickname—“Holiday High School”—but that’s not the only answer.

You see, it was the way that the students dressed and acted during the school year that reflected their views about holidays—and how they “showed their colors,” you could say, by their gear. Everyone was supposed to have his or her own favorite holiday, and we expected to dress accordingly. The school mascot was a scorpion, but we nicknamed everyone in our group as “The Dirt Devils.” You’ve probably never seen one before: when the wind whips up the dry desert sand and soil and sends a small whirling cloud dancing along the ground. It can be hard to avoid them when they happen—and we felt we were the same way. If you didn’t watch out, we’d stir up a bunch of trouble and mischief!

Naturally, we took it to a new level. We had leprechauns, werewolves, vampires, 4^th-of-July patriots, and even a Frankenstein monster in my circles. And they were some great kids! To me, the STRANGE ones were the athletes and the intellectual brainiacs. We had them too, in bunches. It wasn’t so much about their clothing and images and personalities as it was about their attitude about themselves and us. And the way we acted and misbehaved is why our classmates called it “Horror Day High School.” To their dismay, we were proud of earning that nickname.

        The real name of the school was supposed to be “Holliday,” and we all said it was from the character from the Wild West who was part of Wyatt Earp’s group, “Doc” Holliday. It was really named for a famous lady in our town—her name was Margaret Holliday—and her claim to fame was that she was the first woman doctor in our town after her family moved from nearby Boulder City. We’re on a part of the south side of Las Vegas, Nevada. Old Margaret opened the school back in the late 1800s in hopes that she could get more attention to the need for qualified doctors and medical people. She had a good idea, I think, but I wish she had settled herself somewhere closer to the ocean. I’m not a Southwest desert-style person, and we tend to attract a lot of people whose families are coming and going from one part of the state to the other, and sometimes back and forth to California or elsewhere, like Texas or Arizona. The school is no longer there—they bulldozed it down about 15 years ago, and it was replaced by a shopping mall. We’ve all grown up and moved away, but when we come back for reunions and visits to see each other, it’s a different place in our minds to sit in our cars and look back and remember what used to be there and what we did in the school for fun and amusement. And also what we did for mischief and trouble. We did plenty of both.

Oh, as an example—here’s something about our nearest competitive school and sports opponents—the high school in Boulder City—because it had a cemetery next to it. (Yes, it’s still there: it’s just a fenced-in area maybe 20x20.) The gravestones are from the late 1800s, and it’s a part of the Holliday family legacy. When we would follow the bus with our fans for Friday night games, we would get a small bonfire blazing outside the fence. The scene always raised a question and a cheer: “How come your high school has a cemetery, and ours doesn’t?” 

Our answer was just waiting for the comeback: “Holiday High School students graduate. Yours don’t. And we bury the losing teams after Friday night games.”

The Creative Classroom Experience

Paperback   or   Kindle

Welcome to the Creative Classroom Experience

 “The current curriculum”…is a theme I have heard for years in all levels of schools: elementary right up to international university. So as I understand, “curriculum” consists of the ideas and concepts that a group of individuals thinks is relevant for learning. I agree. However, I have a different word that I like to use—which is the reason for this book. That word is “education,” which doesn’t mean a prescribed set of ideas that someone (or many people) think is the correct mandated set of lessons. Education has several meanings: “The wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual after studying particular subject matters or experiencing life lessons that provide an understanding of something.”

I agree again. So after 20 years of working in the field of teaching, I have met many teachers—and only a handful of educators. In MY view (and I’m biased on this), an educator EXPANDS the level of learning of students. It’s not just “absorb this and prepare for the next standardized test.” I like to extrapolate and juxtapose ideas as I teach. (Hint: to extrapolate means to think beyond boundaries. “Thinking out of the box” is one way to say it. I think on parallel tangents—and also dimensionally. Not just physically dimensional, but beyond that realm. I also like to juxtapose: to place ideas side-by-side and compare, contrast, analyze, and look for similarities and differences—and how they are one-and-the-same. I also like them because they have the letter ‘x’ in them, and that’s not too often found in vocabulary.)

 So I’ve been an educator who extrapolates—and juxtaposes. I’ve taken my students’ minds to higher levels on cross-curriculum and multiple subject matter. That’s what an educator should do—as I see it. I’ve had that satisfaction on both the East Coast and West Coast of the U.S. as well as a state in the Deep South—and also at a major university of finance and economics in China. Welcome to a creative educational way of “thinking outside of the box” for a different way of learning. And please leave standardized testing for the companies who milk the education system for data at the expense of students and teachers.

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Star Light, in Sight (for Alix Bogart)

  In a time quite long ago, You were one who yearned to know

The secrets of the Universe. A person who was sometimes terse.

With someone else who loved to ponder

Things that happened here and yonder.

Both of us would wonder why, Things occurred up in the sky.

And further out; we tried to see, Splendid things that seem to be

Hidden from the average soul, To learn them all became our goal.

I was one who had intentions, Make good use: my mind’s inventions.

You would read and contemplate; Between us two, we did debate.

Other’s thoughts in ancient Greek, We scientists did learn to speak.

Powdered wigs upon our heads, We challenged what each other said.

You have returned; I’m glad to see

Your name, I think is known to me.

But who I was, I’ll let you guess, But worry not, nor feel duress.

I told you then of what I know, And now I see ingrained to show.

You did not know the thoughts I shared

But I am glad to see you cared.  

Enough to wish  to learn them now

I’m back again; I’ll show you how.

But be of cheer; you made your claim

And what you found has kept your name.

It does appear: it seems to burn

Samuel Clemens: he did learn

That when it came to see his birth, 

He knew his time allowed on Earth.

So solve this riddle, and you’ll see

Identities: both you and me.

The Guiding Stars will tell the clue

The hint of what I said to you:

“I studied it (our tempers hot);

I know it, Sir, but you do not.”

 

 

 

Children's book: "The Girl Who Made Friends with Dragons"

Paperback   or   Kindle

Suzy is a little girl who lives with her parents beside a big mountain. She never talks to anyone because she hears their thoughts in her head--and they can't hear her answer them. Inside the mountain live a group of amazing dragons: they are hiding from humans for hundreds of years. They create huge tunnels by eating rocks to visit their families in other countries. 

When a young boy dragon forgot to cover up the exit to the dragon’s home cave, Suzy and Goldie, a little girl dragon, meet one day by accident. They become friends and stay out late when they learn dragons hear human thoughts! But there's trouble when Suzy's father and Goldie's dragon father come looking for their missing children!

 A little human girl and a little dragon girl become heroes who help everyone make up a peaceful way to live and work together. Come join the adventure of their story--and learn about delicious-flavored gemstones (dragons think they are like candy!), a dragon-hosted heated swimming pool, and a dragon/human neighborhood cook-out barbeque!

The Sting (Revisited): a 7-Oscar-Award-winning movie

Paperback  Kindle

It was a way of life: grifting, and the art of the con--to swindle someone out of a sum of money. For Johnny Hooker and his friends, it was all they had--until the game turned deadly. And then it was up to a pro to show Hooker how to play for BIG money--with a mark who was a crime boss who would kill a grifter for pride if he found out he was cheated. However, he was rich--and greedy. Doyle Lonnegan was a banker, a cheating card player, and a malevolent man who ran a tough numbers racket out of Chicago. His life was focused on winning at any cost--on his terms.

When one of his men lost $11,000 in a bait-and-switch scheme, he took immediate revenge. He never expected to encounter the likes of Johnny Hooker--or Hooker's efforts to get his own revenge, even if it might cost him his life. But the temptation was too strong--and the money was too good. And the Sting was on (again) with the help of some clever con men, including the masterful Henry Gondorf and their "Office."

Follow the dialogue and scenes from the 7-Oscar Award-winning-movie in detail, full, rich language that captures their emotions, thoughts, and...creative ways of taking a half-million dollars!

 

Children's book: "I am the Flumps"

Paperback   Kindle

 Hello! Let me tell you my name. I am The Flumps. I live with a person who feeds me.    He loves me a lot too. I agree: I am worth it.

My real name is “Oreo” like the cookie. I am three years old. I was a Christmas present for a young girl who lived with her grandmother and her service dog. But the person who feeds me and keeps me warm calls me “Flumps.”

That is what he says I do: I fall down and go “flump” on the bed or the rug when I am tired. It feels good, and then I sleep. 

(You need to read more about me in the book...)