curses!!

All this talk of Independence Day activities (BBQ, fireworks etc) has got me thinking about my 4th of July Curse, or as I refer to it 'Fuck-god-damn-it-ouch!'

Anyway, on two separate July Fourths, I have painfully shattered my front teeth in weird and unpredictable ways.

1. 7/4/1999- This is when the curse began. Early in the afternoon, after the Alburgh 4th of July parade (I've missed it maybe 4 times in my life) I went to my old friend Kyles house- he was still living with his folks at the time...actually he may not have been there (still in Utah) but I went to see his parents/older brother Jeremy. My friend Pete B. was already there- he had his motorcycle parked in the driveway- and clumsy ass lets never pay attention JB walks too close to it and BURNS THE FUCK OUT OF HIS LEG ON THE TAILPIPE!!! Yowee!! I'd never been burned so bad where I could see the skin turn from black to white to red in about 5 seconds! Well, Kyles mom Kim took care of me and bandaged me up, and I started drinking to dull the pain.
Later on we all decided to go to a shitty Canadian bar called 'the Rocket SuperClub' basically just a place where underage Americans go to get wasted. I was out on the dance floor shaking what my momma gave me, when someone passed me a bottle of Champagne- so I took a big slug 'o the jug, someone bumps in to me- crash bang boom BROKEN TEETH!!! I was in the bathroom spitting up teeth and blood for 20 minutes before I could find a ride back to the U.S.

2. Flash forward to 7/4/2005- I'm a little older, a little wiser. I have a healthy fear of glass bottles- learned my lesson. I had just got back from the Alburgh 4th of July parade (quite a spectacle really) and was at Oakledge park for the Three Tomatoes/Niccos Cucina party (lots of friends of mine worked there at the time- Kyle, Marnie, Frank, Marie, Jess, Josh, Ross etc..) the day was winding down, I was sitting on the beach petting Ivan, my friend Pete R.'s huge Rottweiler and I guess when I stood up it was a little too sudden jerky because Ivan tried to BITE MY FACE OFF!! he just split-second-fast snapped and bit my face. I've never been hit with such force before. My glasses went flying- blood was all over my face and in my eyes from a puncture wound right above my eye, and alas, MY FRONT TOOTH WAS BROKEN AGAIN!! man... It didnt really hurt that much, I suppose (I just looked like an idiot with a broken tooth for a few days) and cute girls in swimsuits were taking care of me...plus I got to miss a day of work...so...

This year I'm going to be a little more cautious... I'm staying away from dogs and glass bottles...fuck it, I may even wear a mouth guard... but I'm still going to the Alburgh 4th of July parade, and still drinking beer at 10am, and still having fun (I hope)

JB

ps. The Cripples fucking rocked Metronome last night...Burlingtons new rock gods?

how sweet it is...

I know erectile dysfunction is no laughing matter, but I think it is hilarious that the right-wing psycho prick asshole freak loser Rush Limbaugh got detained at the airport for having a bottle of viagra that he didn't have the prescription for. I just hope it turns out to have been procured by illegal means- that fuck

on a softer..errr I mean lighter note, Ghana goes up against the near impossible to beat Brazilians today. Good luck, men!

JB

flip/flop

go Ghana! I'm sorry I lost faith little buddies, but I'm back! Send them yankees a-packin' oh wait....sorry...god bless America!

JB

marg king

Pretty fun weekend; Friday was my little brother Cody’s (aka Code-Bob, aka Margarita King) 21st birthday, and needless to say, we tore the OP a new one. I was surprised and glad at how many people went out with us, Tanner, Kyle, Jared, Boz, D-Mo, Eboni, Tatiana and I’m sure I’m missing some. At one point Darren was checking ID’s at the door and no one even cared. Eventually I think we all got shut off- after a tray of Jagermeister shots we left anyway.

Saturday my Mom had a little seafood bbq for Codes bday and Spikes H.S graduation. Eboni came along for the ride. What a great meal of lobster and mussels and clams and bratwurst and potato salad and Sunkist. Eboni and I took beautiful historic Route 7 back to Burlington and had a great discussion about porn and other things. Ahhh Eboni…..

Tonite Gregs thing at the box. Dig it..

JB

I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations

It was Allen Ginsbergs' 80th birthday a few weeks back (June 3rd) and I meant to celebrate it but forgot. So I figure I'll make up for it by posting the first few lines of my favorite Ginsy poem, 'America'

'America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.'

talkin' 'bout flag burnin' blues-

'Other veterans' groups say the amendment would erode the freedom of expression that they fought for, a point echoed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont. "In America you do not stamp out a bad idea by repressing it, you stamp out a bad idea with a better idea," he said. Leahy said veterans' groups should focus on improving health care and other government services owed them.'

It's great to live in such a perfect, peaceful world where our government has nothing more pressing to worry about then whether or not flag burning should be banned or whether homosexuals should be 'allowed' to marry or whether or not Barry Bonds takes 'roids. Ahhhhhh....bliss

fuck,
jb

football

So now that my African and South American choices for World Cup champs have gone down in flames (Costa Rica and Ghana) I'm going to smarten up and root for a European team, namely France. Viva le France! Croissants and wine and Maurice Chevalier and Jerry Lewis and shady business deals with Saddam Hussain and Sartre and 'Ma vie en rose' and Rimbaud. Sounds good to me ;)

JB

Dafnis Prieto

I went and saw Dafnis Prieto and the Absolute Quintet last night at the FlynnSpace as part of the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival 2006. Prieto is an amazingly talented drummer in the Latin jazz/afro-Cuban/straight up jazz kinda way. The rest of the band was pretty tired however, too many circa-late-seventies-Herbie Hancock keyboard solos and circa-early-nineties-Kenny G soprano sax solos for my taste. The violinist and cellist were very good, switching between bowing and pizzicato (which I really like) I only have one question: wouldn’t you think Dafnis Prieto and the Absolute Quintet would have six members? 1+5=6. Who states their name, and then adds themselves to the quintet? I should start calling my solo outfit ‘John Benson Ledoux, Jr. and The Le Duo’ yeah

JB

Pee-Wee gets his dues

Finally, someone is re-airing 'Pee-Wee's Playhouse', perhaps the best kids show from the 80's. Regardless of how much Paul Reubens masturbates, I loved this show and will show it to my kids when and if I have/adopt/abduct them.
22 Emmy(tm) awards? Phil Hartman? Who could ask for anything more?

JB

weekend

I have a niece now, Natalie Meagan Ledoux- born 6.1.06
such a little cutie
I'll put a pic up as soon as I have one

I went and saw Ahmad Jamal and Idris Mohammed Friday night, and I think JT put it best "The man is 76, doesn't look a day over 50, and put on a show that made me feel like I was witnessing a moment from the heyday of modern jazz... wow!" Saturday night I saw Ryan Power at Radio Bean followed by 'Buffalo Springsteen'- they are so good- country rockin'
Today I helped a friend move and then sweaty-rain-wet-exhausted passed out on the couch-woke up- ate some fu da- watched Simpsons- and now off to bed.

and guest

I've come to realize that I am a very fortunate fella. I have great friends and family, moderately good health (I'm not dead) and even though I complain that I am broke a lot, I do O.K financially. Lately the thing I've been most grateful for is Marnie and her awesome 'employee and guest' pass from the Flynn. Free shows! Now I know that most my friends are musicians, and some of them might be saying 'hey, shouldn't you be paying the acts that are performing for you?' I will answer this with a parable, much like Jesus...just kidding. I say HELL NO! Most of the bands I've seen so far I wouldn't normally buy a ticket to, either because they were too expensive or I don't know the band well enough to take the chance on them. But now that I've seen them I probably would pay to see them again and/or buy their cd's.

shows I've seen for free with Marnie:
Son de Madera
Joao Bosco
Gonzalo Rubalcaba

and coming this very Friday: Ahmad Jamal & Idris Mohammed

yep,
JB

palindrome

'go hang a salami i'm a lasagna hog'

Yesterday at a bbq in Franklin VT I had bratwursts cooked in beer and then quickly grilled and they were delicious.

memorial day weekend

So, after being brainwashed by Casey @ Solid State for six weeks, I decided I would get a ticket for the Pants show Saturday night; or more accurately I would allow Marnie to buy me a ticket (thanks Marnie!) Although I was quite young when the Pants ruled the school, I think I may have seen them once at Toast with my buddy Jared and we used to listen to their cover of ‘Golgi Apparatus’ over and over.

So Saturday I told Kyle I’d bring him up to his sister Angela’s graduation party, and then maybe I’ll put in a little family time (my niece should be here any day now!) and then speed back to Burlington for the big show. After that maybe raucous late night after hours rave down drink fest memorial day in style.

jb

Alburg(h)

My hometown has a Wikipedia entry, although I guess no one told them about adding the 'h' back to the end of 'burg' It is basically just a run down of the 2000 census results, but still cool. 0.15% Asian! yeah!

jb

fleet-fingered passion

Wednesday night Kyle and the Night Birds along with Fire the Cannons and the 78's are playing at Nectars

I wont be able to go, but a little blog publicity never hurt, right? Did anyone else hear Marge Simpson mention the blogosphere last night? yeah

JB

rainy saturday dreams

woke up at 4.35am this morning to work the last four hours of my mandatory overtime. It actually flew by and wasn't that bad, and I got home by 11 and went right back to bed. which leads me to a dream I had:

my mom and my brother jacob were UN aid workers delivering food to impoverished areas of russia. they stumbled upon a compound made up of russian/american/vietnamese militants who were deserters from the vietnam war. needless to say they weren't very welcomed and they were killed, I think hung. I was back here in the good 'ol USA and heard about my mom & brothers death through CNN headline news. weird, huh? me and my other brothers and dad were scrambling around trying to decide who was going to call jakes pregnant girlfriend and tell her the news. hopefully this wasn't some kind of weird message from the future. if it is it must be quite veiled, because my mom isn't very likely to ever leave the US, and I don't think jake could find russia on a map, plus he isn't very fond of charity,

ok. have a good saturday. me? I'm going to see the cush at parima. thanks for asking sweetie.

JB

Last night, Kibosh Records was born for real. I just started talking about starting a record label last week, and I never thought anyone would be interested. So I was pleasantly surprised when Gahlord and Mike L and Tanner and Todd and Mike Y and Ben and Boz showed up and were so enthusiastic. We even have a couple of acts that may be interested. Nest Materials last show at half speed anyone?

So the next step is registering the trade name with the State, and the URL with the internet ferry (or whoever is in charge) and checking out a few websites that help distribute music online. Also, I have to figure out where I fit in- I’m really ignorant of business, computers/internet, recording-editing-mixing etc… but I’m more than willing to learn.

Home Items debut tomorrow night…I am excited to finally experience them live.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Fela Kuti lately. Funky Afro-Beat. Dig it.

See ya! JB

cant trust that day

Couple bands Tanner turned me on to this weekend that are sounding really good to me here at work Monday almost lunchtime (now after lunchtime when I fixed the VCO link)

vibracathederal orchestra
and
Konono No.1

see ya!
jB

Can I still get in if I'm sexy?

Great time at the Monkey last night, everyone! I thought it was the best show we've put-on in awhile-playing with Mike and Sara-Paule is always so much fun/so inspiring for me. My favorite part of the night is when we did this little free-freakout thingy-Brian wailing on the shrill trumpet blasts- and as soon as that ended with a crash Mike started this groovy/funky bass line and I was on it in a second-that started another strong piece.

Rainy day Saturday didn't accomplish much- trying to sleep off this cold- tonight off to see Greg Davis and Friends with the Books at Higher Ground. Tomorrow mothers day/laundry/Sopranos. Monday work trying not to get fired for failing to show up for mandatory overtime today.

So I got quite a lot of feedback about the whole record label idea, and I think I'm going to try to go for it, as a hobby. Sure I'll probably never release anything, but I'm excited about it right now and I've got to have something to be excited about! I'm going to call it 'Kibosh Records' and if anyone is interested in helping, or shooting the shit, or just drinking, I'll be at the OP Tuesday 8ish for the first 'staff meeting'


everyone make sure to call your mom tomorrow!

peace, jB