Thursday, May 31, 2007

it don't come easy

a beautiful rainy morning
in bed
the house dark
clouds all around
thunder
rain beating on the rooftop
the happy family
took our time coming around to meeting the day
we played with our son
listened to his rambling stories
took it easy
didn't get out of bed until 11
what a good life
i don't think i ever got to spend a morning like this
with my parents
i wonder if they know what they missed out on

excercised at noon
yes
that's right
don't laugh
don't squint your eyes in amazement
it's true it's true
i'm doing it every day now
and i've never felt better
a revelation for me
i feel like a fool
for the sedentary life i've led
these past 10 years
oh well...
better late than never
right?

sitting in gavin's room this afternoon
a song came in
it was the most bizarre thing
i hadn't even thought of the subject matter
or the words ever before
and BLAM!!!!!
there it was
it all came out
fully formed
like i'd tuned into some radio station
out there in space
playing this beautiful song
and all i had to do was dial it in
and steal it
look
it's mine now
and i'm excited 'cause it's one of the best tunes
i've written in ages
and it was so easy easy easy
i can't wait to play it for you
i promise to memorize it for one of my acoustic shows this month

they don't come easy
or good
like this one
very often

so for me late tonight
it's a cause for celebration

Thursday, May 24, 2007

6 years!!!!

friday may 25th

jayme and i tied the knot in vegas
at the chapel of the bells
sometime around sunset
6 years ago
i can honestly say
that was the best day of my life
(other than the day G was born)

we'd opted for the camp wedding
on the vegas strip
with a bizarrely over-tanned elvis
and a grumpy white haired lady
performing the service
the chapel was wood panelling central
elvis rolled up in a pink cadillac
and sang "viva las vegas"
after the vows
while our 6 guests snapped bad digital photos
like gawking japanese tourists
i was exactly what we'd always wanted
no fuss
lots of fun
no stress from the family

jayme and i had met 9 months earlier
at 5400 live oak
we lived at opposite ends of the same apartment complex
i was there 8 months before i ever caught site of her
then one night
coming home late after a happiness factor show
in september 2000
my life was about to change...
there was some sort of costume party
in the courtyard
she was dressed as gwen stefani
tall and outrageously funny
with a straight blonde wig on
next thing i knew we were running around the building
with a bunch of people
searching for some poor party-goer
deemed the "power properties" stalker
it was kinda like keystone cops meets the beatles
"hard days night"

the next evening
another random run-in at the mailboxes
in front of my apartment
led to our first date
we've been inseparable ever since

jayme changed my life
made it a lot better
i as happy as any person could ever hope to be
i owe it all to her

Sunday, May 20, 2007

order

today everything feels perfectly in its place
our lawn freshly groomed and manicured
gavin playing peacefully in his room
beds made
laundry spinning
house clean
mind serene
a nice lunch with J and G
a good exercise in the morning
the weather is sunny with a nice cool breeze
it's one of those rare afternoons when everything
is in order
i love this life we have here
it's what i always dreamt of
i can't believe i made it here
i want to stay in this place forever
why does it all have to be so impermanent?

it's been a busy year at the nourallah compound
all kinds of repairs and projects around our house
finishing records
playing shows
mixing
fixing
writing
also the 2 busiest months pleasantry lane has ever had

sometimes i'm so caught up in doing
that i forget to notice all the good things around me
i'm taking it in today
trying to make these beautiful moments last as long as i can

i played 2 shows this weekend
and worked a lot in the studio
but i'm not worn out
i feel great
i'm doing what i'm supposed to be doing
i'm doing what i should have done when i was 21
i had the energy back then
but no matter how hard i tried
i couldn't find this life i have now
that's the way it had to be

the show at bend last night helped me
it was cathartic
it was for anju
i felt like i played and sang 1000 times better than the previous night
i felt a.g. there too
after the rockstar melodramatics that went on
behind the scenes friday night
the mellow calm of bend was just what i needed
i'd felt "robbed" at the granada
i never quite got lost in the moment
too many thoughts swirling around in my head
for me
music is supposed to be an escape from the bullshit of this world
so i hate it when that bullshit follows me into the moment
of performance
the biggest joy of the evening was seeing some of your familiar
smiling faces out there
thank you
because you saved the night
it would have been terrible without you
i wish more people had known about the anju gill benefit
but it was set up on one week's notice
maybe next time?
we have a lot of work ahead of us on that front...

i'm going to take most of the day off
and hang out with gavin
then work a bit tonight
i'm very lucky that i can do that
i hope you enjoy your weekend too

love


s

Friday, May 18, 2007

an advertisement from your sponsor

i'm playing the granada theater tonight
with the noise
we're not playing again until the cd release show
in late july
chris holt left for the UK with johnny rollins
yesterday
so zech lumpkin will be filling in for him
he sounded amazing in practice wednesday night
i'm looking forward to it
i wanted badly to play this show because my good friends
the damnwells
all the way from NYC
are headlining
i haven't seen them in ages
we made friends way back in '03
on the rhett miller instigator tour
i love them
so i wanted to make sure i could make it out tonight
the best way to insure that was to play on the same bill
alex d. is married now
i just found out
wow
i'm really happy for him
i want to hear all the details
we play at 8:45
you might be able to jones a pre-release copy
of snowing in my heart from me
i only have a handful
the code word is
"dolphin"

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

a day for mothers

i was thankful sunday
that our son
wasn't grown up
and fighting in iraq
i thought of all the mothers who sent their kids off
not knowing if they would ever see them again
i wondered what kind of mothers day
they were having...

we all know this war has been going on
for years
but does it even seem real to us?
it hardly does to me
it's like some movie playing out
somewhere outside of our lives
there's a bunch of villains
and guys running around with guns
and every now and then we catch sight of something
horrific
on the TV
and shudder
maybe let out a small sigh of relief
that no one we know is there...

my friend kristy lost her brother in iraq
it has devastated her
that's the closest it's come to me
and it still seems unfathomable to me
that it's all happening
i just go about my daily business
and try to not think of it
safe in this soft existence of mine
it just makes me too sad
and angry
to think about it all
the futility too
there's nothing i can do to stop it
if i threw a "bag-in" for peace
who would come?

humankind still hasn't learned
anything
have we?
for all our technological advancements
we're still barbarians
with automatic weapons
bombs
jet fighter planes
and missile guidance systems
instead of loincloths and clubs

Thursday, May 10, 2007

karen mae

on this day
1940
detroit michigan
karen mae severs was born
to robert and edna
the 2nd of 3 children
she was a happy and talkative child
her father nicknamed her "pumpkin"
she played the piano
and painted
a straight-A student too
as a teen
she never aspired to be a housewife
she was independent
and headstrong
she was gonna be an artist
she attended cottey college
a girls school in missouri
on scholarship
then went on to get her masters degree
in art
from the university of illinois
that's where she met fayez
waiting for the bus to come
on a sunday
the buses weren't running that day
they were the only 2 who didn't know that
he asked her to join him for coffee
she thought he was french
she said "yes"
she later said
"he's was the most handsome man that had ever talked to me"
they were married in august of '64
she was 24
her aspirations to become a working artist
squashed by the birth of her first son
me
may, 1967
faris was next in january '69
then miriam and ameer
she set aside her own ambition
to devote her life to raising us
she spent all of the those kid years
in el paso
self-less
with an even temperament
ALWAYS
even in the face of trying to manage
4 rambunctious kids
daily chaos
and pressure to be thrifty
i remember this little green datson
she would try and cram us all into
it was the nourallah clown car

she was (is) a great mom
she taught me that LOVE is supreme
the most important thing in the universe
something to aspire to
and something to cherish when it comes your way
she was always there
to listen
and never judge
interested in whatever i was interested in
always positive and upbeat
she promoted creativity
and individuality
and remained the eternal optimist
even in the face of eternal pessimism
she was always so happy
with an energy for life that still hasn't been dimmed
i'll never forget the horror of seeing her break down
one afternoon when she answered the phone
to hear the news that her brother richard had died
of cancer
i couldn't bear to see her in so much pain
so i went to my bedroom
and tried to drown out the sound of her sobbing
with the sound of music
i still feel badly to this day
that i wasn't able to comfort her in any way

i was very lucky to have been raised by karen mae
such a smart beautiful and charming person
i love her very much

Sunday, May 06, 2007

lederhosen sunday

thank you for all the emails
and kind words
i had a great birthday
one of the best ever
there wasn't anywhere i would have rather been
than here
with my family

i've spent a rare slow lazy sunday with G
he's humming quietly at my feet
and playing with his robots
while i sit and type this
living room curtains open
beautiful sky pouring in
dark clouds creeping toward us
a gently muggy breeze barely moving the trees
it's been threatening to rain all day long
now G is trying to get my attention
"do you wanna watch me stand like this?"
both hands in the pockets of his camo shorts
"see look at this...can you put my lederhosen on?"
"can you get my lederhosen please?"
he's been repeating this over and over again
now for about 3 minutes
i guess this concludes this lazy sunday blog

it's lederhosen time!!!!

Thursday, May 03, 2007

may 3rd

where has the week gone?
it was just saturday
when i last checked in here
gone in a blink
wait a minute...
come to think of it
where has the last 40 years gone?
it's my birthday today
not the one you look forward to
but i actually feel great
not depressed
because love is all around me
and that's what matters most
the power went out last night
and jayme and i watched das boot
on the laptop
in the dark
german version
it was eerie
and tense
waiting for them to go down
or for the lights to shoot on
today i'm glad i'm not on a submarine
in the atlantic
in the second world war
waiting for the depth charges
to blow our stinky sweaty tube to bits
i'm also grateful that i'm not in iraq
or any of the other horrible places i could be

we've got a good life here
i feel very lucky
and today i'm going to go out with my family
(and later on...friends)
and enjoy it
do some shopping
eat at my favorite places
have some fun
take it easy...

it's good to be alive
isn't it?

love you all,

old man time - salim