David Rogers -- Feature Of The Week

FEATURE OF THE WEEK

August 15, 2010

'It's up in the morning in old Eugene,
Gonna get out the vote for the new Slug Queen,
Come a tie-dye hippie hippie high, hippie hay,
Come a tie-dye hippie hippie hey-y!

(Eugene cowboy song to the tune of 'Old Chisolm Trail')

Getting more gigs - Lots of fun events coming up~
Things could be a lot worse~

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A new song by yours truly--watch for the music in upcoming videos:

The Crude Awakening
By David Rogers

If the shrimps are boiled in crude oil,
Then the French Quarter must have been moved,
And the offshore riggin’ is waywardly diggin’
In any way it feels behooved,

Your old man was drawin’ overtime,
But he better check his next meal,
Because the fishermen’s catch is all enmeshed
In slime that’s just unreal.

CHO:

Drill, baby, drill, Spill, baby, spill,
Check out your karma when you make out your will,
And the oily boids are catchin’ the woims,
Layin’ in the cold cold ground.

If you’re workin’ on the booms, just trying
To contain this indescribable mess,
You may not fetch a whole lot of respect
But it’s better than holding your breath.

For many years folks paid tribute
To fork-tongued serpents in suits,
Who’ve gotten elected and never expected
It could come back and bite them on the glutes.

CHO:

Can we still have fun on the Bayou,
When we’re tripping on balls of tar?
If you wanna get your kicks on Route 66,
Can you afford a hybrid car?

Let’s put our people back to work
And clean up the shore and the sea,
Let’s save the fish and save the birds
And send the bill to B.P.!

CHO to end

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Toby Grant
1950-2010

A Eulogy

To Toby Grant - An oracle in your time.

You believed in the present moment and enlightenment of all humanity. You provided for all with kindness, unbounded generosity and deep respect.

You walked peacefully in the natural beauty of the place you honored and adored, with your partner in life, Deb, and your dog.

From Connecticut Yankee roots, you journeyed abroad and then inward into Zen monasteries and music. You studied the healing arts, history, linguistics, law and politics at your beloved alma mater, Evergreen and constantly thru our lives with you.

For years you worked out the symbol/concept language, Kolingo, to enable all peoples of the world to communicate together.

A powerful man, you bicycled across the continent for world peace, and your feisty spirit fought on for justice all your life and helped any that you could, with money, words and action.

You were the constant hard-working caretaker of your houses-- the homes of many, culminating with the old Odd Fellows Lodge in Oakridge, 'Rebecca Hall', your last love and creation, which shows well your beautiful work there.

You were a poet and a minstrel, who could play any instrument, and fill a space with your rich, healing intertwining harmonics and rhythms.

All who know you, proclaim you, Toby, as a man of your word, filled with so much love for others which daily you put into action.

You are missed so very dearly by us, your friends and family. May you walk in the natural beauty of the surrounding trees and rivers in Oakridge. We love you forever, Toby.

[Text of Eulogy copied from the Eugene Register-Guard, Fri. June 4th, 2010.
Picture cropped from scan of photo taken ca. 1990]

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"I can't see you--I can't see you--(I've got my eyes closed)"
Bigfoot Dave at the Portland (OR) OryCon Festival 2009
photo by: Angelica

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Health Care Reform- Old Dave R on the Soapbox

President Obama is right when he declares that health care reform has nothing to do with him. He and other government leaders, including Congress, have nothing to worry about in this regard; they are covered with the most complete health coverage plan ever devised.
But what about the rest of us? Take, for example, my friend Dave Marston, who supported his family all his life as a choral and orchestral music director until an incurable brain disease carried him away. He had no medical insurance, because after supporting his own family with their basic needs, he of course had no money left over to support them all on expensive private insurance premiums. Expand this example a thousandfold, and you can grasp, like so many of the most creative and hard-working people of our time, that universal health care is patriotic.
To all those who opposed Obama’s public sector health coverage option, because it competed with private health insurance interests: You should be happy now that the only viable alternative is mandated insurance coverage from private health insurance companies-- a Republican invention, with less real freedom of choice. Continuing with this same logic, does this mean we shouldn’t have public schools in this country because they compete with private schools? Or we shouldn’t have national parks and forests because they compete with private cattlemen or trailer parks? Or, we shouldn’t have a post office because it competes with UPS or FedEx?
This is crazy enough to warrant listening to the words of Winston Churchill, when he said, "Americans will always do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other options."

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More music venues are making themselves available. Give me more, more!
I challenge all those out there who think you can overwork me as a musician-- Hire me and try me!
I need enough seed money to get my upcoming CDs mastered-- and still have time left over for my
part time day job as a drop in room monitor at Lane Independent Living Alliance,
with some wonderful people deemed crazy, with whom I seem to fit right in--
I already know what that says about me...

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C heck out my own latest You Tube music videos.
My own are on the videos page on this website.
These, plus some additional ones I posted featuring other artists,
Plus some stunning selected favorites posted by other people,
are on my ever-growing channel: NewDave999

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Dave Rogers ponders for a moment as he haunts his old haunts in Ashland, Oregon:

[photo by Marvin Ratner]

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David Rogers on guitar at the Eugene Saturday Market
with a very young lady dancer.
[photo by Stephan Livingstone]

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'Celtic and Baroque' Classical Guitar
Recording Sessions are in Progress for an upcoming
CD of solo guitar works. Lots of Irish and Scottish airs..

From the harp strains of O'Carolan, thru Tara's halls did ring,
Comes the elegant and wonderous legacy these regal tunes still bring,
From bonnie Scotland came Oswald's guitar divertimenti,
To the parlors and chambers of Temple of Apollo cognoscenti,
Now lovingly adapted to the guitar of the western shores,
And re-tempered for the present ears of music connoisseurs!

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"This is what you shall do: Love the earth and the sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men-- go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families-- re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body."

--Walt Whitman

"I get weary of people who use pessimism to avoid being responsible for all the problems in our culture. A man who says 'we're on the road to disaster' is seldom trying to wrench the wheel away from the driver. I prefer the troublemaker."

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."