i’m at some kind of awards ceremony in LA, an outdoors estate, white pillars and arches, golden fountains, rows of folding chairs and well-dressed celebrities. i pace back and forth on the right hand-side, along the garden fence, cell phone to my ear tho maybe i’m not even using it. just a disguise. at the right moment i sneak thru the door by the stage, into the building. the ceremony is over now and i’m in the empty church. i enter the door to one of the radiating chapels (the term after looking it up, did not know it in the dream) and in the dark, pale blue light streaming in with my female partner in crime, we find the pool. There in the center of the room, the white marble floor descends, becoming a pool of clear blue water some ten to twelve feet deep. Having just learned last week in waking life to dive, swim downward and retrieve objects underwater, i dive down until i reach the brass plate at the very bottom. There is a single flat-head screw the size of a nickel on the left side. I am running short of air and first think i should return to the surface for a breath and a screwdriver, but i muster my strength, turn the screw with my thumbnail and remove the plate. As i rush back to the surface, the pool drains into the hole where the plate had covered.
When the water is gone, there is an ornate silver box, 8-9′ x 5′ x 2′. Whatever is inside is what we have come for, we pick it up and hide behind the altar as two officials or priests approach the door…

3 July 2011
im in the field, the corner pasture by the driveway, the section which we just fenced in waking life, and a python, 20 feet long and thick as my leg, slithers along the ground. The kids might be around, and i feel protective. I step on the snake’s neck, then reach and grab the snake at the back of the head, squeezing in the way that makes the mouth open and venom sprays out like a hose with a finger over it. Venom evrywhere. Then another python, same thing. A python now in each hand. Then a third. i Don’t panic but what do i do exactly? Seemed to not be a problem… Three poison pythons…
At the Ghostbuster booth i give them a phone number and then receive my new ID/credit card, but the last four digits are wrong. i tell them and they say no no it’s correct without looking. mom is there and i shout at them no it’s not fucking right. im not mad but don’t you tell me it’s correct. they see and apologize and take the card to fix it. im looking for garbage bags in the school building before dawn. much confusion ensues. nice morning fog. dehydrated.

dehydration, confusion and poison snakes – that is what happens after three beers and two cigarettes.

Directed by J. Cody Baker
Produced by Ram Paul Silbey
A Saloon Studios Job

The very fifth day in the fine month of May,
After a cross-country, my tenth time or so,
The studio started to roll and recorded
Thirteen songs, some written full five years ago

Another week later, the hills of the Satyr
Saw me back a-bounding my homewoods aga’n
I planted the garden i feigned to work hard in
But mostly i practiced my bow and handstand

The top of the pumpkin had started to jump in
The dirt by the time i had promised to part
And so the zucchini, the pea and green beanie
I watered, and wandered to Manhattan’s heart

In old San Francisco, the curse and the kiss co-
exist, as a fist hides a holdable hand —
But back in Manhattan, it’s harder to fatten
A flatfooted lacklust if still he won’t stand.

Now Calendar’s calm, come secular Psalm!
Fall into my palm as it pushes its plow
I feel like a fraud but when busily trod
O gud Gawd ah been busy, but don’t ask me how.

This is not really a quote from Lao Tse or anyone. I stayed up for 40 hours, followed by 16 hours sleep which just ended with reading that paragraph in a book. I almost let myself forget it until i realized it’s not from any old book, it’s from my brain just now. Not that i mind having inspired quotes dropped on me, but it’s springtime! This is too heavy for spring, i’m goin outside!

From the album “John Houx’s Green Period”
Directed by: Brandon Vedder
Cinematography by: Colin Mika
Art Direction: Tim Stafford

When practice makes perfect, it translates idea to instinct, mind to muscle, thought to no-thought.
All skills* operate on muscle memory.
Muscle memory is beyond the grasp of conscious thought.
Even once learned, action falls apart when THOUGHT about. Why?

The BODY is a ship, steered by the SELF (subconscious center). The EGO (conscious thought) is the cabin boy, who thinks he could be a better captain. He takes the wheel from the self, but hasn’t the strength to steer, nor the ability to juggle so many duties, and the ship goes off-course. The cabin boy must either give the wheel back to the rightful captain or risk a dangerous crash.

————–
See also: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!

* Skills in the real-time world of three or four dimensions, excepting skills on computers or within one’s own mind.

my new five-song EP NO PERMISSION is now streaming and downloadable at www.shatteryourleaves.com/ !

it’s pay-what-you-want, which means it’s free if you want it to be. just like you. there’s four new songs of mine and a reworking of smashing pumpkins’ “Thirty-Three,” an old favorite. thanks and enjoy!

it’s getting to be a long winter
began before even the fall
with not much to do but look into
the future, it’s but a black wall

so you deactivated yer facebook
to reconnect with what’s for real
and wonder why suddenly space looks
barren and boring, like jail

and you take to the road with some project
and yer fooling yerself, well aware
cuz evryone’s on electronics
and without them, there’s nothing to share (but a glance, little words)

The Arcade Fire took home the Grammy
Tho it seems no one knows who they are
And it means you have to reexamine
The meaning in striving for stars

That one world yer in’s insulated
As all other worlds on this one
How few venture out their own bound’ries?
What work’s ever really been done?

And it frees you from winter and caring
How long you have til spring arrives
Expecting, recalling, comparing
Those “ing” words controlling our lives!

Or rather, “we” or “wo”. Like, whoa.

Anyway, I’m on a bus to Rosendale NY for tonite’s show, I love that little town…