Stammer and Crumb

Dave Stammer visited last week while Mary Lou and Jenny were vacationing in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. I had played with Larry Bradford at Henry Turner's Listening Room for the first time 2 weeks earlier on March 24 and Henry had asked me to come back and play for 3 consecutive Thursdays. We worked up six songs with Dave and ended up playing four due to the appearance of two more artists (an individual and a duo) that evening. Both performances at Henry's went well. While Dave was staying at our house, he and I watched The Kids Are All Right, a documentary about the Who, and another documentary, Crumb, about iconic comic artist R. Crumb. The latter was a poignant and intimate glimpse into the strange life of Crumb and his bizarre and extremely dysfunctional family of origin. Through the cartoon art and Crumb's dark artistic vision, the documentary brought up vivid recollections of my rejection of American and indeed world society during my adolescence and my own dark view of civilization, such as it is. My thoughts have been haunted since viewing it over a period of three days. I want to write more to articulate the impact but will I? I'm doubtful but we'll see.