Suburban Blues

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

I lifted the title from an ani difranco song, "To the Teeth". It was such a good phrase, it deserved its own song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irC5Zrlp77o

Dream Womyn

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

Our holes become our wounds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRx1vBLOolg 

Just Smile

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

Like a baby bear...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD2IuVz-4GQ

You-oo-oo

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

My semi-hidden sweet side...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZcy2le1sWw

"You Are Your Best Thing"

(Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience)

-edited by tarana burke & brene' brown

2021

If you're not reading books that are hard to read, you're not reading the right books.

And by hard, i mean kind that hits your stomach and makes you want to run away, because you know it's literally unhealthy to absorb too much of what you're reading, if your heart is open.

This book's subtitle eliminates any need to explain what it's about, except to say that the authors are all of color.

Instead, i'll share my personal resonances. One point the book makes is that the only way for a white person to truly understand black trauma, is by offering love and friendship to a person of color. I have two such recent experiences...and the fact that both of them blew up in my face is perhaps evidence that black trauma is not to be taken lightly. One was a friendship i'd cultivated for five years, a man a bit older than me, and sometimes more conservative and angry. I always knew his friendship was no bargain, but felt he was worth it. We shared artistic tastes, and i held the hope that our familiar friendship would eventually lead to him to share his deepest self. It never came to that, for i recently said something in complete innocence and goodwill, that triggered a huge anger response. Without letting us talk about it, he ended our friendship. I think his rage was significantly about some ancient trauma that my comment made him relive.

And then a more recent acquaintance, a womyn for whom i'd had a breathtaking attraction response. We texted for a few weeks...she said she'd like to get together, but it didn't happen. I kept offering her my new mantra - no secrets, no expectations. I hate texting - it's the enemy of real communication. And i soon realized there was a huge imbalance - i was emotionally open, and she was closed off. I suggested we back off from each other, but she encouraged me to keep writing. I finally wrote something about my attraction response that hit her so wrongly she wrote hurtful words, and walked away. My triggering words weren't anything i hadn't already expressed, but i used language that was more vivid - the word "cock" in particular. Still, her reaction seemed to come out of nowhere.

But it was through reading this book, that i was soon at peace with what happened. This book teaches that the only way to earn someone's trust is to be radically vulnerable...which was exactly what i'd been doing. And i was ultimately grateful she'd felt safe enough to hurt me, as that's a crucial step in healing. Many people who have been traumatized never even feel safe enough to hurt someone.

Feeling safe enough to NOT hurt someone is, of course, the goal.

Would she say that race trauma had anything to do with her reaction? I don't know.

And another resonance, that illuminates how permanently crippling trauma can be. I have a brother who was mugged violently by black men, and it might be fair to say it has forever poisoned his feelings toward people of color. He says and does things that feel more racist than anyone in our family since my grandfather. One specific? He followed the 49ers devotedly his whole life...until colin kaepernick. Just like that, he adopted a new team.

It's all just heartbreaking. And his mugging was NOTHING compared to the thousands of tiny and huge violences people of color absorb every day.

So these things take time. And yes, fellow foolish white people, if black trauma burns you...do your best to swallow it and try again.

Driftwood

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

So tired...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbWZGbxTxPI

Quiet Time

wrob's music videos

A list - greatest concert ever

B list - specialty occasions

C list - oblivion

Me and my monkey...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBt8Tuj-XI

foole on the (hippie) hill

How is the greatest concert in the world progressing? Great, but the process of song selection gets ever-more-brutal. With over 300 songs, and practice time for only 30, plus 30 specialty songs...it's C-list oblivion for most. So many i thought i'd play forever, which haven't survived.

So here's where we stand - give me feedback! What's worthy, what's not...for the first time, i'll include YouTube links, so you can "experience" the concert. On any continent.

A-LIST (greatest concert ever)

Apocalypse Rock (video pending)

Killer Moon!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5hNvtp2WuE

Jeff Bezos is Lost in Space

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYCxdyS9tkY

Goin' Down Slow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ-5FAKvTV4

If You See Kay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ispsZSQlww

Loneliest Fool

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3giMqNaUIk

Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnyaazYvTL0

Gilmore Green (video pending)

Poop Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKqem_sB7g

Ain't Got the Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGyO7B6k4i8

Don't Ask Y! (video pending)

Sexy Knees (video pending)

The Beating Goes On

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gu0HqZ_ysU

Phony (video pending)

Warm Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2I5wgztRrQ

Bom-Chicka-Bow-Wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO4mKb31JaY

Midnight Remedy (video pending)

Sex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNIXUvDwuOY

Suburban Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irC5Zrlp77o

Dream No More (video pending)

No Money No Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He-_S8-pRx8

Whitey Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcepptfEXHU

Eight Billion (video pending)

Black Bart the PO8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcvwrEqCQYY

Pequeno Cimarron

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1wXxmjI5zk

Sam Hall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPhhe1hefps

Bomb Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hshjXAZtGhE

Kill the Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eZOkt6ZqSI

San Francisco Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0XaIcW8TyI

Treesexual

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4vAsq0emug

Hug Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1YP11SHfHg

B-LIST (specialty songs)

MMMphony

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBB4KbyxOX0

Not-dyin' Sci-fyin' Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WddrA1A9Z90

Ugly Song (video pending)

Fun to Squeeze (video pending)

Marry Me, Baby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPk2XMb3cF4

Hot Mama (video pending)

You'd Look So Good With a Baby (video pending)

Happy Holy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxfVQ9NrJ8

FM Blues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjcSl_3zZZE

Don't Let the Door Hit You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCLXYk3btRM

Zeus-Fuckin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Isu-0Mg5Nqc

Sexy Fuckers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtZtrjoG3RI

Millionaire Rock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfgsmW795yU

Goin' Ape

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbDfOk4YM74

Kick the Balls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqxu_F6rr8A

(HALLOWEEN SET)

Hearse Song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he8-rB35Qj8

Demons (video pending)

Creature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYaY-BrX2a0

(DECEMBER SET)

Jesus vs. Santa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WX2yPwpH20

Don't Do Me Like December

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h1tM9eodEs

The First Festivus Miracle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTYttwI4zIY

Monkey Butt Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O1Fr85JUhU

Pupus-aria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8rk2uW-bXU

Happy Geezer Day (video pending)

Butterfly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GA-sBpHke8

End of the Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qSpq8SC0tA

Ugly American

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOYVNvkvWoo

1491

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r1X7yYj2yk

Never Take an Old Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyldAIJTar4