Fools and Racist Nutters

I happened to watch a video of Eric Clapton playing Hootchie Cootchie Man on youtube, and made the mistake of reading the comments.

The one that got to me stated that while the commenter loved it, he found it sooo weird to see an English guy "channeling Chicago and Delta blues".   There is a lot of that when it comes to blues and such.  To me, if music grabs you, it grabs you.

Obviously this idiot has no clue that much of rock ad roll, and the best of the British Invasion was blues based, and a lot of it even has elements of Bach.  Is it somehow off limits for other ethnicities to play music written by black people?

Are black people and non-whites banned from playing Beethoven?   What fools.

Granted, a lot of people just do not feel the blues groove.  Much of it gets me moving like few other genres.  I find it grabs me whereas a lot of bluegrass doesn't.  Either things resonate with a person or not.

I can assure you that Clapton, the Stones and other Brits ot only recognize the source of this music but did much to bring greater fame and rewards to may of the old blues guys like Howlin' Wolf, and others.

It never ceases to amaze and irk me when people insist on making a racial issue out of such things.

Clapton does a good cover of it, by the way.  He's not pretending to be black. He likes the music.  He has done entire albums of Robert Johnson, the protagonist of the crossroads legend, as well.

Oh, and another guy wanted the meaning of the lyrics explained.   Much of the blues is full of sexual metaphor.  I refrained from going into it.  Some of it contains terms which originate in superstitious magic type practices.  

More fun to play what you like and for me, to play off stuff that allows improvising and just letting out what you feel.  Blues offers that.

I believe basketball was invented by a white guy.  Do you think it is out of line if Africans or Chinese like to play the game?

Really, the worst thing about the internet is that it has made me painfully aware that there are millions of idiots running around loose.  I was naive enough not to know the number of dimwits was so large.
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Not In Miami Are We Toto?

Snowing and raining in East County.  That's a big deal in SoCal, even though this is the eastern sticks of SoCal.

Probably the odd neuro-wiring of my brain, but weather, geography and the like seem to have a big impact on me.  This is definitely far different than anywhere else I've lived.  That is not a bad thing.

Last night a huge owl flew over the hood of my car from left to right at eye level.  Not the first time.   It was really a surprise the first time.  It makes for a stunning moment on a country road in the pitch black night.

A couple of times I've been startled o the back deck at night when a big owl swoops within a foot or two of me on its way, hopefully, to help a mouse meet its maker.  I assume it is a owl.  Obviously a bird of prey, and very quiet in flight.  It is easier to see the ones that barely miss the windshield than it is the ones that fly by the back deck.

It just happens now then, not like a flock of them.  Not like owls fly in formation the way pelicans do.  That's another cool thing.  I can go to the coast any time I want to see the pelicans do their thing.   It brings back something of Miami and South Florida.  A bitter-sweet feeling.  I miss it, ad I don't.  I think I equate Miami to pain if I goo back too far, but it also brigs back some of the best years ever if I only go back so far.

Kid in a candy store there (Miami) for awhile.  But that eventually resulted in a poor choice and that was a crusher in the end.

Maybe I expect too much, or too little, of myself.  I do find it tough to let go of regrets, and that causes me to stagnate for fear any action ad ambition will only end badly or end in someone going home crying.

Some of us have an overactive imagination, or an overactive conscience, or both.  I tend to ignore the times I've been wronged much more than I can ignore times when I think I let others down.  Lack of balance.  Then, at the same time, I say, "Screw it, I'll show them!".  "Them" being a very vaguely defined tribe.

Best to be grateful for all that warrants gratitude.  I'd rather be me than anyone else when it comes down to it.  Good, bad, and ugly.

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