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The Machine’s Pump Volume 23 – #7 – July 2020

Now don’t freak out, but it’s gonna be a short newsletter this month. I just don’t have enough time to think about it more than a couple of hours, right now. Sorry. I know all of you live for my words of wisdom and uplifting points-of-view, but you’ll have to fall back on your inner strength for the next 30 days. My “to do” list is way beyond manageable. How can this be? Nothing has happened, gig-wise, for months. I’ve been home every day since, I don’t know, some date in the distant past and, for the most part, it’s been surprisingly okay. But I thought I would have the whole house painted by now. I haven’t even painted the old bench we inherited from our elderly neighbors when they passed away a few years ago. I also thought I could do a simple plumbing job in the main bathroom on one of my “free” days. I envisioned myself setting the day aside, running out to Lowe’s, putting on a mask, buying the exact right piece of pipe, coming back to the house, and installing it well, functionally, and aesthetically. Nothing’s happened. That day seems more unlikely now than it did four months ago. And I would be happy to have a plumber come to the house and fix us up, but the COVID-19 numbers in North Texas will not level off. Until they do, we can live with the ornery sink. I hope you are faring well, wherever you’re spending your days-in-and-days-out.

BIG SHOWS. Partly due to this special situation in which live music finds itself (an almost complete void, world-wide) and partly due to our general growing interest in such things, Brave Combo has some online concerts coming up you don’t want to miss. Check our itinerary often. As we get better at this we might just start live-streaming ourselves going through old BC memorabilia and talking about all the crazy and stupid stuff we’ve experienced over the decades. Or maybe we could show ourselves learning new dances, with masks, 6-feet apart. Or maybe I’ll decide one night to share my favorite quarantine recipe and compose a new song, using the recipe as the lyrics. You like spinach? Brussels Sprouts? Potato chips? Vegan mayonnaise? Turnip pickles (pink ones)? Garlic-free hummus? Bread? Great! Don’t mix these all together. These are just some things I eat. I eat a lot of other food, too. Like veggie corndogs and chik (fake chicken) patties and apples and lettuce and tomatoes and fake bacon and crackers and cookies. A cookie is a good snack or dessert item. I like cookies, if they’re good cookies and if I like them. I won’t eat a bad cookie. I eat different kinds of noodles, often with tofu, which I enjoy either fried or not and, of course, rice and beans and tortillas and salsa. The menu is endless, actually, even if you don’t eat meat. Or maybe I’ll live-stream a walk around Denton’s downtown square at midnight while listening to KUZU-FM (local terrestrial radio station) on a boom box. Would anyone tune in for shenanigans like that? Goofy cooking shows are probably rampantly cliche on the internet, so I probably will not go that direction after all. But I like the idea of walking around the square at the witching hour. You know our Confederate statue, Old Chalky, just packed up and left in the middle of the night recently, leaving behind a massive breath of fresh air where he stood for about 100 years.

Speaking of shows coming up, tune in on Friday, July 31 at 7 pm (CT) / 8 pm (ET) for THE BRAVE COMBO SHOW. It’s being presented by some producers out of Baltimore called Folkal Point through their association and collaboration with the venue An die Musik Live and Instant Seats (instantseats.com). But don’t worry about all that. Just click here and get your ticket. The performance is exclusive to this event. What a strange time we live in.

Our good friend, Tsunekichi (Tsune) Suzuki from the Japanese roots/rock/pop band, Sement Mixers, passed away on July 6. It’s impossible to describe how important this person and his band were to us at one time. I was lucky enough to produce one of their albums and they recorded my song, “A Night On Earth.” Tsune sang the lead vocal. Here are two videos of him performing his song, “Omoide.” One studio and one live. RIP Tsune. Time moves on, it appears.

HEY POLKA FANS! I was recently a guest on Jake Kouwe’s polka radio show, talking about polka (the music and the power). Jake leads the fabulous and fabulously hip Chardon Polka Band from Chardon, Ohio. They play Slovenian (Frank Yankovic, etc.) style and make it all sound fresh and cool, cause they’re all fresh and cool. Anyway, check out all the important things we had to say here.

Okay, as promised, a short newsletter, which, as it turns out, isn’t that short. That wandering food list took up a lot of room, but with very little substance. Anyway, I am going to bail out of this space now and launch myself into another; one full of mystery and sameness. Don’t forget to believe in science and smart people. I wish I had a Ferris Wheel in the back yard. Hooray for online tutorials!

The Machine’s Pump Volume 22 – #11 – November 2019

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Sometime in August, about four months ago, Texas was really hot. I was concerned about our AC at home. It shouldn’t still be working so well. We thought we might have to replace it years ago, but it just keeps on doing its thing. Anyway, Christmas Holiday music seemed a long way off. Polka season hadn’t even happened yet. Slowly, but surely, though, time marched on. The days got shorter and by October the temperatures began dropping dramatically. Not much Autumn in Denton this year. September was stupidly warm, then, suddenly, it was cold. Then everyone was anticipating Halloween and once that happened, the flood gates opened. Halloween equals Thanksgiving equals Christmas equals New Year’s Eve. Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam! Everyone’s all revved-up now, ready to travel in bad weather and spend, spend, spend. An unseen force has taken control and is moving us along. I find this phenomenon both curiously entertaining and curiously annoying. No one can really escape being involved to some degree. Our poor little town is bursting at the seams and it appears Dentonites are hitting the stores in record numbers this year. Why not? We have Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Best Buy, Kohl’s, Rooms-To-Go, Party City, Macy’s, Guitar Center. You name it, we’ve got it. Just like you, wherever you are. We even have our token struggling mall and two different theaters where you can eat a full meal during the movie, just like watching TV at home, without the luxury of being able to pause it. This town is full of stuff, ready for the masses to buy and take home. And the masses in Denton number about 10,000 more people than were here in 2018. Whatever, during this “most wonderful time of year,” stuff is definitely king. New things in boxes give us a thrill. We simply LOVE boxes with stuff in ‘em. The problem is that we sorta do this all year long. Most of us, if we can afford it, treat ourselves every day to special things. According to reruns of the old TV show, THE RIFLEMAN, back in the wild west days, for Christmas, you might only get an orange. I know, I know. This isn’t a new observation. People have been trying to get back to “the real meaning of Christmas” and away from over-commercialization since I was a little kid. But, apparently, a healthy economy depends on all of us spending extravagantly as much as possible. I mean, would things fall apart if we didn’t buy tons of new crap constantly and then, at the end of each year, go consumer berserk? It doesn’t matter. I’m just thinking out loud. Nothing can change, so it’s hardly worth pondering. And besides, the holiday season has been very good for Brave Combo over the years. It has added about 30 songs to our permanent repertoire. Bob Dylan even covered one of our arrangements (“Must Be Santa”) for his Christmas album a few years ago. We did a whole tour of Japan in support of our album, IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN, a year before we even released it in the USA. Did you know Japan goes Christmas bonkers, too? Maybe even more so. But Jesus isn’t really part of the festivities. Love hotels are, though. Anyway, I’m always thinking about how to improve something or make it more efficient or, perhaps, even more meaningful. It really bugs most people around me that I’m constantly unsettled. From my point of view, there’s always something different around the corner, waiting to be discovered, created or fixed. The world is forever new. Merry Christmas!

Speaking of now, Brave Combo has some super-duper shows coming up. The Holiday Funhouse is waiting for you! On Friday, December 6, we return to Andy’s, in Denton, for our annual hometown bash. On Saturday, December 7, we’ll be at Poor David’s Pub, in Dallas, for our annual North Texas bash. On Friday, December 13, we are really excited to bring the funhouse to Knucklehead’s, in Kansas City. Our good friend, Mike Dillon, will be joining us for this show. If you live within 100 miles of KC, you must attend this event! On Saturday, December 14, it’s the ultimate Christmas happening, at mighty FitzGerald’s, in Berwyn (Chicago), Illinois. Another good friend, Danny Jerabek, will be on stage with us, playing some excellent notes! And on Sunday, December 15, it’s matinee party time at the Zoo Bar, in Lincoln, Nebraska. Get off your butt and come out and party with us. You can sing along with everything! “O, Holy Night (Cha Cha Cha)!”

Speaking of Christmas music, we have just received a shipment of IT’S CHRISTMAS, MAN CDs. This has been somewhat tricky to order in recent years, so we’re glad to have a decent stock for the holidays. BUT, do not tarry, if you want one. They tend to sell out. It’s a classic. Go to our store right now and order several today!

So, here we are, nearing the end of another year. Things seem hopeless, in many ways. The United States is divided into two tribes and, it appears, the best we can hope for is “our side” keeping a lid on “their side,” whatever that means to you. Unfortunately, winning-at-all-costs doesn’t really work anymore, especially when our enemies are the people with whom we share the country. I think people want to get along more than certain people in high places would have us believe. When I’m walking my dogs, and cars pass by, I usually wave and smile at the drivers. Almost every time, even if those people don’t look anything like me, they will do the same. Most people want you to like them and they want to please you, believe it or not. We are united in our insecurities and long for acceptance. This is a wonky world and no one knows what will happen next. It might behoove us to concentrate a little more on the ways we’re all similar. For instance, I’ve had a pretty terrible cold for over two weeks. I bet we can all be united in our desire to not catch really bad colds. See, that’s a place to start. Most of us like our favorite foods and hate road construction. We all, I assume, hope to sleep well and wake up refreshed. And I’m sure we would all like to put five dollars in a slot machine and get back five thousand. That would put almost everyone I know in a good mood, even if they had a headache. Oh yeah, no one likes headaches, probably. We can agree on that, right? Okay, you can take it from here. Have a Damn Happy Holiday Season. Make music part of your fun. Yes, fun! Have some fun!