nice stories

http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2005/11/23/news/news3.txt

http://www.sbsun.com/entertainment/ci_3245792



FRIDAY EVENTS:

12 noon- 4pm faux mardis gras parade, including dramatic readings (truman capote, anne rice, tennessee williams, etc.) and concert (artists tba) at noah purifoy foundation outdoor museum. with masks created by joshua tree kids club. all ages. five dollar donation requested.

directions: at the east end of joshua tree turn north at sunburst. follow
the road as it curves right and the left again and turns into border. turn
right on aberdeen, then left on center, then right on blair. drive approx.
1/4 mile to noah purifoy foundation.

7pm at the beatnik in joshua tree: art auction, stella shout off, gumbo
cook-off (served in hand-made ceramic bowls by d.mumm & the pottery), new orleans film fest (a streetcar named desire, interview with the vampire, easy rider).
artists include: William Almas, k. bradford, Cynthia Cox, Donna Slipper, Sydney McHutcheon, D.Mumm, Wally Pacholka, Bret Philpot, ted quinn, Juliette Ramade, Emmelle Sohn, Peter Spocker, Jane Jeong Trenka, Andy Warhol and Judy Wishart.

all friday events are free with a suggested donation of $5

SATURDAY ALL DAY AND EVENING CONCERT:

pappy & harriet's pioneertown palace
12 noon outdoor and dusk to midnight indoor concert featuring:

from new orleans,
brice miller
(www.bricemiller.com)

rojer arnold
barking pupfish
shari elf & the fairy elves
john garcia & dandy brown
randy hoffman
honky tonk train
juke logan
lunatics on parole
naughty boy
glenn patrik
kristina quigley
the spores
thrift store all stars
the tree
waxy

and our own louisiana belle,
miss victoria williams

$20 tickets at paladin video, rattler fine foods, rock-it-man cd's.
$35 tickets available online http://www.nomadhouse.com/higherground/
$50 tickets available at the door. pappy & harriet's pioneertown palace.

checks can be made to higher ground joshua tree. donations are tax-deductible through our association with high desert living arts center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

this event has already made possible a home for one new orleans musician and his family, through the generosity of dean team real estate agent jim dunlap, contractor kevin rice and steve tharp of kelly's future.

please plan to be with us in this special thanksgiving event, as the high
desert joins together to help with the living expenses of more displaced
musicians and their families.

with gratitude in this season of thanksgiving,
higher ground joshua tree

www.noahpurifoy.com
www.jtbeat.com
www.pappyandharriets.com


please forgive us if you receive this email more than once!!


t.quinn,
music chair,
high desert living arts center

when the levee breaks: HIGHER GROUND

www.nomadhouse.com/higherground

866-374-4236

 
FOCUSING ON WHAT IS, RATHER THAN WHAT IS NOT

yesterday was my birthday. i spent most of the day with sage, starting with a trip to the farmer's market. debra was there with summer ruby rose, with a birthday card. summer reached out to little sage, who keeps his eyes closed when he's out in the sun. (never really sure if he's asleep or not.) stephanie bought me some wine and sage-colored amaranth and then met us at water canyon. sage loved the guitar playing of stevie barsotti. (lynne invited us to a party but we had our own planned at the beatnik.) sage was very animated. laughing. moving his arms. dancing..
we went to the thrift store where i picked up a drafting table for five dollars!we bumped into tee, eric and forest (another green baby boy.) momet picked age up at my house (my house beginning tomorrow, when escrow closes!) and i did my favorie quiet time rituals of walking negra, taking a bath and preparing a couple of songs. i went to do a radio interview with mindy j at the radio station near the rancho. we talked about moving to the desert, 'dog years' and higher ground joshua tree. mindy played 'death of cool,' 'tar beach', 'sky cathedral', 'if you do' from 'help wanted' and 'perf ct world' from 'dog years' (dedicated to judy). i told about fred, dig your own cactus and the tree & amritakripa. fred burke met me outside with gifts including 'no direction home' soundtrack and a copy of that days newspaper which had a months old picture of me , monet and sage at the thai buddhist temple.
i headed to the beatnik. tony was there with a hug outside. michael and bobby were working on setting u the webcast & bira did beautiful sound. lisa, phillip and maria from higher ground were there. tim riley had driven up with his girlfriend and another couple, including a singer named ben henry. monet and sister lindsay, ajari, don lombardo...judy gave me an amazing card made by the young men she cares for at angel view, with each of their hand prints in white paint, as well as the dvd of 'the concert for bangla desh.' her best girlfriend jana gave me a beautiful sage green scarf she handcrafted, and a matching pork pie hat, as well as a flaming (cat-in-the) hat to match the pants i got from her at the swap meet a couple of months ago. monet brough sage and her sister, lindsay, and gave me a hand-bound made book by her friend, the poet, joseph robertson (whose dad i had met at water canyon yesterday).
sage was asleep for a while but fully present when i performed later in the night, watching me and smiling, in his new friend stephanie's lap.

songs performed included: joe city garcia played 'everybody knows this is nowhere,' which we used to do in dream army/l.a. & 'leaves don't cling,' written about ten years ago & which has never been performed 'live;' sunny sundowner did his own anti-nuclear version of 'after the goldrush,' and 'don't let nothing shoot you down' (or 'don't/shoot'); kevin stetz did 'walking on a river,' 'perfe tworld' and 'only so many heartbeats' from 'dog years' and 'see the sky about to rain' from 'on the beach'; randy hoffman did 'hoochie coochie quinn;' ellen & billy shooo did 'la porte, indiana' and 'go tell aunt rhodie,' which i remnemed 'go tell auguste rodin' for the occasion of our shared birthday; tim riley did a song for his father, who died in 29 palms after exposure to agent orange (which he explained is how he found me and my music , after a google search of '29 palms...') called 'killing dancers;' his friend ben did 'out on the weekend' and ;down by the river,' as well as some nice originals; sue bradley did 'momma (i can't stand the light in my eyes)'; eric watkins did 'neon nirvana,' a song he wrote a tune for from lyrics i wrote when i was 16 and tripping on acid, as well as the old cross-dressing classic folk tune ,' jack-a-roe' (jack ero?); monet did 'comes a time,' the best i've ever heard her sound, and a neil young song i didn't know, with a great line about 'going for a spin in the laundromat' (what song was that?); i took a full hour and a half to play just three songs to start the show, all from 'on the beach,' which i explained was my favorite neil young album, along with various other (hopefully) humorous stories about ny, the title track, 'vampire blues' and 'ambulance blues,' which had been requested by two separate people via emails - odd since it has always been my favorie neil young songs, or one of them, anyway - one from lewi longmire in portland and one from heather in seattle. i closed the night with two songs written for my late scorpio brother dave, 'if that's what you wanted' and 'rain of love,'plus neil's 'new momma,' and then, with bill maresh from honky tonk train, 'i am a child,''on the way home,' and 'expecting to fly.'
in the end, our dear engineer tried to save the recording file and the cmputer froze, so the recording was lost. but the performance was not. that's one reason i wanted to write it down here. there was a time when it would have bothered me, but our ffriend was plenty upset for both of us and i couldn't add to his misery by joining in. i figure, how many great performances in history have been caught on tape (or computer) in comparison to how many have not. it doesn't matter. it's better to keep what is than it is to worry about what is not.
all in all, an incredible day. a million miles away from where iwas a year ago when tthe split with elia and the rancho were fresh. before sage was conceived and i thought i was almost gone. what i realized is that when i sensed it was the end, it was really just a shedding of skin. it's better to reduce and simplify and diminish than it is to take on more layers. experience should be about stripping away. it keeps us lighter and makes more room for new life to begin.
"leaves don't cling to trees that want to bend, they fly in the wind. they fall to the ground and wai for spring to be needed again," as joe reminded me.

 
FISH IN TROUBLED WATERS

Go with the flow of your heart
And you will soon find the river
Washing away the grasping spirit of fear

Let go of the pier
The rocks ahead are just pebbles
Massaging our memories out
So that we may travel light

You say the current is strong
Pushing past the meadows of spring
That winter ahead is cold
That turbulence don't let you near

Ahead!

Don't hold your breath as you go
And you'll soon feel fins growing
From the bottom of your soul

A fish out of water jumps in
And I feel tempted to follow

Close your eyes there's nothing to see
Just feel your legs as you bend them
And the breeze brushing your hair

Elia Arce
Houston, TX
11/12/05

 
WELL HELLO MISTER SOUL

TONIGHT: TED QUINN & THE TREE WITH GOD & DIG YOUR OWN CACTUS
AT PAPPY AND HARRIET'S - PIONEERTOWN, CALIFORNIA - 7PM - FREE

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH
TED QUINN INTERVIEWED ON Z107 FM, JOSHUA TREE, 6-7PM

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 12TH
TED QUINN & NEIL YOUNG'S BIRTHDAY WITH TONY MASON (BORN NOV.8)
AND OTHER DESERT SCORPIOS
8PM - BEATNIK CAFE, JOSHUA TREE, CALIFORNIA
THIS SHOW WILL BE RECORDED FOR FUTURE WEBCAST AT WWW.BEATNIKRADIO.COM



-------------------------------------------

IN "OTHER TED QUINN" NEWS:
Fire lieutenant wins write-in campaign for library trustee
Salem News - MA, USA
PEABODY -- Write-in candidate Ted Quinn, a lieutenant with the Peabody Fire Department, won the hotly contested battle for the fourth Peabody Institute ...

 
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Dear Rob: Thanks for your ongoing attempts
to burn away negative stereotypes about us Scorpios. Here's more fuel
for your fire: I'm not perfect, nor do I aspire to be so. Perfection is
a form of death. I'm grateful for my demons because in the worst of
times they're my allies, and in the best of times they're the measure
of my accomplishments. I don't seek truth, I seek reason. Truth is
relative and found only by consensus, while reason is irreducible and
adamantine. When in the presence of other people, I try to locate the
soul essence I can't see with my eyes. It's good practice for my main
hobby, which is to locate the soul essence in myself. If these habits
make me obsessed, intense, and inscrutable, so be it. -Scorpio to the
Nth Degree." Dear Scorpio: I'm publishing your letter because it's an
ideal time for all Scorpios to meditate on your wild ideas.

rob breszny writes poetry disguised as an astrology column, his is one of the many fine features in the latest los angeles free press.


today, rob's newsletter introduced me to a cousin i never knew i had; the bonobo.

check out our sexy, feminist, peace-loving nearest relatives in the congo.

 
100 DAYS

 
GRIM REPERCUSSIONS

hearing about jemma omega moday's performance at a
recent hallowe'en show fills me with righteous anger.
jemma, who i consider to be one of the few real
artistic geniuses in our community, was heckled and
mangled by the crowd, all dressed up and drunk with
savage mob mentality. and this was a supposedly 'arty'
crowd. puke.

i'm reminded of the poem allen ginsberg wrote when
john lennon was murdered. in 'amnesiac's thirst for
fame,' ginsberg likens '(the killing of) the beatles'
to the smashing of michaelangelo's pieta.

to me, it's like slashing the throat of the mona lisa.
it's the taliban blowing up the buddhas in
afghanistan. it's a nazi rally in hipster disguise.
it's the time i saw richard pryor getting boo'd off
the stage, only to be followed by tom waits, who also
was driven off by a stupid crowd, eager for some vegas
entertainment. it's the same mob that gives us an
idiot president and an insane war. it's the same
perverted thinking that calls bob dylan judas -
although i'm sure that all of THOSE hecklers would
tell you today that they were there and that they GOT
what he was doing (yeah, fucking right!!) it's the
cultural elitists who walk out on "the rite of
spring". it's the witch-burning of sinead o'connor.

see, for me, art is salvation, if not my religion.
it's the impulse that drove elia arce to introduce
jemma to the avant-garde performance art audience in
santa monica. and , hopefully, that inspired a popular
band to invite jemma to open for them the other night.

it's art that has saved my life, made it okay to NOT
be part of any crowd, clique, elite or group-ego. it's
what makes it okay NOT to sing jingoistic anthems or
walk in goose-step with the rest of the sheep, to
cross-breed my metaphors.

it's the permission slip given to me to be the person
that creation, god's or my own, i don't care which,
told me i had the right to be, at birth.

it was a herd mentality that forced christ to drag his
cross and nails up that hill.
in this age of conformity, cookie-cutter music,
movies, cars, houses...can we please allow for some
individuality? can we learn to applaud someone who
dares not to blend in?

in the recent scorsese film, dylan said something
which has reverberated in my mind ever since: "when
billie holiday sang 'strange fruit,' nobody clapped."

just before the virus hit the crowd and it turned them
into the monster, before the garbage and the insults
were sent flying into the face of an artist presenting
his challenging and thoughtful work, one friend of
mine said to the other, "he reminds me of jim,"
meaning jim morrison. the fact is, we don't deserve
jim morrison's or billie holiday's or sinead
o'connor's - and i see fewer and fewer artists of that
caliber, willing to risk it all for their work - as
long as we treat them with such disrespect. i am
ashamed and hurt by the actions of this gang of sick
revelers.

i stand with jemma and the side of history which seeks
to repair the fragile, broken limbs of the pieta. i
ask for the crowd to go home, as the restoration is
made to the mona lisa's throat.

ted quinn
joshua tree

 
neil: brown & green, leather & suede, midnight,
scorpio, free, deep & dark, winnipeg, hot & cold, wild
sense of humor, hearses...
(from buffalo springfield debut lp)

thursday nov 10 at pappy's - 7pm - tq/tree/tmb/dyoc
saturday nov 12 at beatnik cafe - 8pm - ny's bday

celebrate their scorpioness...

(poster by mark courtney)

 
TELEKIN 2005 (missing cathie & donnie & ray, of course, fred)

my mom, dad, brother bob and sister deb (who we really had to watch, as she kept trying to put sage in her suitcase to take home to massachusetts!!) sister diane must have taken all these shots, as i don't see her anywhere. (diane hosted an amazing 3 month birthday party for sage where friends, spanning twenty five years, met sage for the first time...)

here is monet with rebecca and deb (immortalized in 'my sister's getting married' song and film.)

the next eldest quinn, garey, is a proud cousin with his new baby, sage.

johnny vargas, jeremy gilien and i were once called the new flesh. this evening saw partial reunions of four of my bands: telekin, new flesh, ministry of fools and dream army. pics of telekin and dream army must have been on someone else's camera. (all of these were dianes. i'm pretty sure.)

this is a little family shot, of monet, sage and me. i look like a weird old painter, which i guess i am at times.

we all had the most amazing time. sage couldn't stop talking about all his cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents...the chinese restaurant, tree people park, the party at di and jim's and casey's and jamie's, the quinn(2)'s bringing over lox and bagels on sunday...

did i mention that i'm completely in love with sage?

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