“There is no purity for me, no absolute success or failure, and no room for the masterpiece. When I see artists who have made works that are recognized as masterpieces, I see them having to chase those works for the rest of their careers, and I just don’t want that axe to grind. I would rather be seen as an acceptable failure, as the guy that failed consistently and kept going, kept trying, kept exploring. I want to pivot and move and work on multiple things at once, and with that comes a lot of freedom. I think the whole mystery of making art is about choices that are bold.”
Our life can imitate his art. Most of us will never have a “masterpiece.” Which, as Rashid points out, is probably for the best, as having one traps us in a box constructed by others’ expectations.
But we sure as heck can be the person “that failed consistently and kept going, kept trying, kept exploring.”
It’s not the failure that defines us — unless we let it. It’s the keeping going…
The guy in the photo above might look like a surly biker dude, but really he’s a sweetheart – one of the kindest folks you’ll ever meet. [photo credit: Anna Stockton]
Hi name is Chuck Cleaver. Yeah, I know, it sounds like the stage name of a wrestling “heel” in the WWE. But that’s his real name. And he’s one of the best songwriters in the WWW – the Whole Wide World.
Five Saturdays ago, Chuck and Lisa Walker, his fellow songwriter and co-leader of the band Wussy, played a house concert at our house.
It was amazing. Spectacular, in a low-key way. Spine-tinglingly beautiful. They did a lot of songs from their upcoming album. A lot of those songs are tributes to… remembrances of… mournings for… their dear friend and fellow Wussy bandmate John Erhardt, who passed away a few years ago. John also was Chuck’s bandmate in his pre-Wussy band, The Ass Ponys. All those years spent in a van, traveling from gig to gig, turned them into more brothers than bandmates.
Three Saturdays later, Chuck and Lisa and their bandmates played a sold-out show at a local venue. It was only their second time performing as a full band since John passed away.
The love from the audience — and the band’s appreciation of that love — were palpable. Once again, they played several songs from the new album, the one for John. (He’s featured in the cover artwork, and his beautiful pedal steel work is on a couple of tracks.)
“It’s very definitely a record for John,” Cleaver says. “It’s a mourning record. We had to make it.”
The album had its official release a week ago Friday… and is amazing (as are all the other Wussy releases… as Jason Cohen said in his article linked above “There’s no middle ground with Wussy: They are either one of your very favorite bands or you just haven’t heard them yet.” I’m firmly in the former camp.)
That record-release Friday should’ve been a different type of release as well: a day of joy… celebration.
But on the Tuesday between their sold-out show and the Friday that their new album came out, Randy Cheek — Chuck’s longtime bandmate in the Ass Ponys — passed away.
I know life is a series of peaks and valleys. But my heart aches for Chuck, who was in the valley so long after losing John, and now, on the verge of a peak moment, got gut-punched back down into another valley. It’s not fair. And it sucks.
“Time is an assassin, when it finally tracks you down
You can’t tiptoe around it or conveniently skip town
So try to face it screaming and beating on your chest
So when it drags you to wherever, you know you did your best
Sure as the sun… ”
— “Sure as the Sun” from Wussy’s new album Cincinnati Ohio
I got to know Randy a tad, during my 97X radio days. He was exactly as Chuck described him: sweet, kind, truly hilarious.
It was nice to see Randy, John, Dave and Chuck back on stage together at the Ass Ponys reunion shows back in 2015. (Two nights – you’re damn right I went to both shows.)
(Jason Cohen’s Cincinnati Magazine article about those reunion shows is here.)
I took Chuck’s advice and cranked up this song that Randy wrote.
Playing Ass Ponys and Wussy tunes… it won’t bring John and Randy back, but it keeps them in our hearts. That’ll have to do.
Dear Friends Mysterious doorway Future life For better for worse Life’s blessings In heaven we know Our own glories
Glories of the sacred In the wonder days The wonder gifts The wonder story
In the quiet moments of reflection, let us honor Randall’s memory by embracing the beauty of each fleeting moment, knowing that his spirit resides in the eternal tapestry of existence, forever woven into the fabric of our hearts.
And if you share your bounty with others (both the food-food and the brain-food), you’ll enrich their lives too.
I came across the quote above on Bluesky. I was never very active on Twitter, but now that it’s solely a propaganda tool for a plutocrat, it was time to move onward and upward.
Our current system increasingly produces candidates who represent the extreme views of our electorate. The moderate majority – the backbone of our nation – finds itself unrepresented and increasingly disillusioned. If we continue down this path, we risk falling into an abyss of hyperbolic partisan turmoil from which we may struggle to recover.
Can we please ditch the two party system, truly “drain the swamp” of PAC/lobbyist influence, and introduce ranked-choice voting that rewards moderates vs. extremists?
The Nonpartisan Top Five Open Primary would standardize our primary election process. All candidates, regardless of party affiliation, would appear on a single ballot, and all voters would have the opportunity to participate. This simple change would have profound effects. Voters would no longer be limited to candidates from a single party – if you like a Democratic candidate for one office and a Republican for another, you’d have that choice. The top five candidates from this primary would then move on to the general election.
This system would put an end to the systemic voter suppression that comes from requiring membership in a private organization (a political party) to participate in taxpayer-funded elections. It would return power to the voters in nominating candidates, decreasing the influence of party insiders while still allowing parties to endorse and promote candidates as they see fit.
Importantly, it would increase the diversity of candidates, giving voters more choice and a better chance of finding representatives who truly reflect their values.
The general election would then use Ranked Choice Voting (RCV). This system is simple and intuitive, much like the choices we make every day. Voters can choose to vote for just one candidate or rank as many as they like. This allows people to vote their conscience without fear of “wasting” their vote or inadvertently helping a candidate they oppose. No longer would we be forced to choose the “lesser of two evils” – we could support the candidates we truly believe in.
RCV ensures that the winning candidate has the widest possible support. It has also been shown to reduce negative campaigning, as candidates have an incentive to appeal to a broader base rather than just energizing their core supporters.
Perhaps most importantly, it promotes a more collaborative legislative process. When legislators know they can’t be easily “primaried” by more extreme candidates, they’re free to work across the aisle and find real solutions that benefit all Nevadans.
It shouldn’t be “us” vs. “them” but that’s where we are today. Even if you’re on the “winning” side, you’ll probably wind up with the short end of the stick, unless your name is Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos.
You’ve probably heard a lot about two-party systems this election season — with most of that chatter being about our two-party political system’s failure to benefit everyday Americans while upholding the elite few. You’d probably even agree that ANY two-party system, given enough time, will always result in two powerful “sides” that squelch innovation, pick arbitrary winners and losers and reduce your choices. Two-party systems are good for the parties who operate them and bad for everyone else.
It’s hard to imagine the U.S. as that country.. Especially with the news bubbles that create echo chambers. The promulgation of lies via social media. The name-calling that gets blood boiling. The downright demonization of certain members of society. The pure hatred for — and sometimes inciting violence toward — opponents and their supporters.
Be honest: at the top of the ticket, which candidate do you think better fits the bill of “calm” and “open towards each other”? Which has a better chance of uniting our United States? (It’s U.S. after all, not US vs. THEM). Which one might create calm instead of chaos, not just here, but across the world?
Granted, oil imports are a bigger deal for the UK than for the U.S.A. But do you really want to have to worry about what Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia are up to, and how that will affect oil prices here, when there are clean alternatives?
What about affordability? Here’s Ed again:
Clean renewables are cheaper. No need to “drill, baby, drill” when you can just build more solar arrays and wind turbines, and higher capacity batteries… cheaper, with much less impact to the climate.
And they’re not just cheaper and cleaner, they’re also safer.
[Article that accompanies the two charts above from OurWorldinData.org is here. ]
The faster we go, the better off our world will be. Ed knows that:
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