socks

That is funny Abigail! There's also a town in Illinois named Normal. Folks that live nearby say they live just outside of Normal. This just in..."Large green sign seen flying over west central Ohio as gusts of hot air whip up storm in area..." (note:no farm animals or Wayfers were harmed in the production of this photo.) Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

If you go HEREyou can see a map. TWI is shown. Another, a "Christian Academy". Maps. Gotta love maps. Fort Loramie, used to fish there, cool lake. Very cool now. :D--> Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

"You dont need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..." Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

:D--> Each one wind one. Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

:)--> Happy to entertain the possibilities. It's funny because I've owned a guitar since I was about 11, so that's going on 42 years now. Mostly I've always had one, an electric, maybe two counting an acoustic. It wasn't until I experienced the "true love" of the Way that I almost found myself without a guitar, having "donated" mine while there in the 70's. Then when I left the hallowed grounds of the Way in '80 for The Field I was told, uh, you gave that to us, leave it. Which was funny because the giving was primarily to accomodate insurance purposes at the time, no one wanted my beat up old guitar. They needed another guitar like a hole in the head, which actually might serve some purpose back there as it would release some of the hot air. But by then, Ted was gone and nearly all of the humanity had leaked out of Way Prod, being replaced by a Management technique that I swear to this day resembled flipping burgers, sort of a MacWay Productions if you will. :D-->(Hope will get that if she reads this...) But you know, they were right...God did provide, no thanks to their sorry, selfish fat a$$es. But I digress. Uh, what were we talking about? I never have been one to count talent by the number of instruments, but I'm blessed to have what I do. I've always tried to stay out of the current "what's hot" trends and get what suits my wallet and my ear. If you can play, you can play. If you can't, well, blame it on the equipment. :D--> Anyhoo, yeah, maybe we can get this together, might be fun. Pick a song, pick a key, I'll see what I can come up with. Again, it's a great idea. Harmonica is a very soulful instrument.

Stick players, they have soooooo much ego! : ) Well, I play guitar and bass, have a few guitars and a couple basses. (actually the latest addition, a fretless Fender Jazz, is my son's but he's got it at our place now, for "safe"keeping". My daughter has a sweeeet Fender Telecaster and an Epiphone 335 dot. So we got planks to spank all over the place. : ))) My main guitar is a Fernandes Dragonfly LE, sort of a hopped up Stratocaster style guitar if you're familiar with those. I also have an Ibanez RG560, which has been seriously abused but works for certain things. I've got an '84 Takamine archtop electric acoustic and a wonderfully old '57 Gretsch "Anniversary". It's got heavy flat wounds and has that classic "jazz" sound. The others are basically set up for rock/pop. I like to play all styles, blues based but I really enjoy just about everything. I'm familiar with the sound you're describing I think. Sort of thinking out loud - and Ted may have a thought or two as I know he's familiar with this too- -first thing would be to pick a couple songs. -let me know the key you want to do them in. -approximate feel, "slow", "elegant", that kind of thing. I can work up an arrangement and record some basic tracks of guitar and bass, drums if it needs it, and burn those to CD so the intonation will be constant, ie my "Bb" will be your Bb when you listen to it. It will be mixed in stereo, left and right, somewhat "wide". Then you could take that and see what you think. If it's close to what you want you could then take it over to tape or digital recorder and lay the harp over it, mixing it the you want the harp to sound. Bingo. It R Music. : ) I've done this some, long distance, and the results can be good. The basic way I've come up with for this method is to mix the rhythm tracks leaving room for what's going to go on next - if the harp. So, the drums spread wide across the stereo mix and slightly back. Guitar one goes left and a little right, 80/20. Bass goes right and a little left, 80/20. 2nd, 3rd guitar parts get worked in the same way, working in and back. This leaves the "dead center" spot open for a lead instrument. Net result, the harp would go full stereo left and right. You'd just need to get the CD music in to a PC system or recording deck, and take it from there. ...? It's a neat idea for the songs, would be a nice sound with the harp I think. Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

Kit, thanks from me, too. :)--> As I've said before to the fine folks here, it honors the music that people like you heard it. Ted and racoons? Sounds like fun! Sound like you're out by "Falling Rock". :D--> Buckaroo, that's very doable. What kind of tunes are you interested in doing? Couldn't I just tell you the way I feel? I can't keep it bottled up inside. And couldn't we pretend that it's no big deal and there's really nothing left to hide? Todd Rundgren

Aaaah. I'm not sure why this is so much fun. Maybe just thinking how as a kid, life was often one weird stupid escapade after another. One of the first bands I was in got a lead singer that was the older brother of the guitar player. I was about 14 and was starting to do pick up dates too, working whenever I could. This guy was a good singer, sort of a soul singer, r and b kind of style. We played every high school and dive we could get in to, including a summer when we played for a string of Job Corps concerts around Northern California. These were county fair kinds of things, temporary stages put up. The Job Corps had a lot of petty criminals out working as part of their sentence or a way to train for something. They could get pretty rough, chicken wire across the front of the stage kind of things. Our "road manager" was a guy named John who was a great guy, friend of the lead singer and both a few years older than the rest of us, drank beer non stop and had been in the Golden Gloves boxing league all through high school. John could fight so he was a good guy to have at these gigs. Plus, he could buy booze. The lead singer would do this James Brown kind of dance thing in songs, and we'd close with the song Brown song "Please Please Please" and he'd do the J.B. deal with taking off his jacket and throwing it on the stage, down on his knees screaming and John'd come out and put it over his shoulders and walk the singer off dramatically who'd then scream NO! Baby PLEASE!!! and toss the jacket off! and slide back across the stage, over and over, it'd get pretty crazy sometimes, fun, guitars flying. And the lead singer started wearing this blonde wig that he'd tear off at the end of the set as part of his schtick, "Oh baby, please come back to me, I'll change for ya babeeee!" :D--> Sooooooo, anyway one night at one of these Job Corps gigs John the road manager ended up in the backseat of our station wagon with the girlfriend of one of these Job Corps guys, under a blanket with a case of beer. We finish our set, start packing up, and this crowd of guy's show up..."We saw Doris with one of you, where is she?" We exchange some words and it starts to look bad. Real bad. This guy's getting in our singer's face who's still got the wig on, not having torn it off in our closer. And this guy's giving him $hit about his "long hair". Meanwhile the singer's saying "WHERE'S JOHN! GET JOHN!" Cause John's always got a few beers under his belt and can pretty much take anyone out in a few swings. But no John...John's with Doris doing the funky alligator in the backseat of the wagon. Finally, the singer says "Hair? You got a problem with my hair? How's THIS!" and he rips the wig off and throws it down on the ground. This shocks this gang of guys so much they just stand there, jaws dropped. The singer takes his jacket off and says "Let's go, right now!" We're all thinking great, we're about to get our a$$es kicked, but what the heck. A knife comes out and from behind comes...John!shirt hanging off, belt undone. He doesn't ask any questions, runs up and lays the first guy he sees out flat. Blood everywhere as the guy's nose turns into Old Faithful. John mixes it up for a second and these guys back off. We're throwing stuff in the car. A cop finally shows up, we shove John in a car, get our money and rip out of there. With Doris, who we drop off at her place on the way out of town. The "good old days?" :D--> A horse is a horse of course of course and this is the answer that you'll endorse, You've never seen a talking horse? It's the famous Mr. Ed! [This message was edited by socks on January 12, 2004 at 3:36.]

Well, since ya got me started... After I graduated, I got back together in a band with a couple of the guys from the Smoke Experience. We were in to a very artsy kinda thing, hooking up with some peop's out at Cal Berkeley, and consuming massive amounts of druggz on a regular basis. This started out as a fun, creative time and ended up somewhere else. But along the way, they started going to the Mojave Desert to experience the Oneness of the Beauty of the Stuff of the Universe. :D--> The stupid part - we went off road in a 4-wheel drive one trip to find a spot one of the guys had been before and ended up way out in the middle of the desert, no idea where we were. No matter, a couple of the guys had said they'd seen flying saucers on a previous trip, so we needed to be out in nowhere land. So we had no idea where we were when we got up the next morning. But the first night there, we had our camp stove going to make dinner as the sun set and geez-o-pete, the sky I remember was incredible. Not a light anywhere except the stars and our campstove. I don't know if it was for real or the uh, condiments, but we saw some strange lights all night in the sky. Later one of the guys decided to light a propane bottle and make a lighter and we went around and set fire to all these little mesquite bushes that were everywhere. Which was kinda cool looking but it brought out the rattle snakes, and I almost stepped back right on one. The guy yelled "SNAKEEEE!" and I literally jumped a foot in the air, like a cartoon character. So I came *this* close to getting bitten by a rattle snake in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. We all slept in the van that night. More stupidness and weirdness - when we got going the next day, we realized we were lost. We drove around and got more lost. Finally found a little path in the dirt and started heading east. We met a truck along the way, finally! Rescued! We pulled off and were waving at the truck as he drove by, probably figuring we were nutz and he didn't stop! So we kept on going that direction and got to a road that went to a road and to another and finally hit asphalt. Which was nice, so we headed sort of north east, figuring this looked good. But the freeway was west. The Mojave's in Southern California. We ended up in the mountains somewhere, lost again, and it was snowing and now it's Sunday night. We finally started heading north, to Lake Tahoe. And actually drove all the way up to Tahoe, and then back down to the Bay Area, Oakland. If you look on a map, you'll see that makes as much sense as leaving San Francisco and taking Hawaii as a shortcut to Los Angeles. --> At one point I called back to home and my later-to-be mrs. socks and reported in that we'd gotten lost somewhere in the Mojave and were heading home now. That thrilled everybody, although I gotta say she took it in stride even though she was worried. We got home Monday morning. Dazed but happy. Kids. A horse is a horse of course of course and this is the answer that you'll endorse, You've never seen a talking horse? It's the famous Mr. Ed!

These are great stories! I can think of so many acts of random weirdness. Think it was my junior year of high school. I'd transferred to a "Public School" after 10 years, 1 month of Catholic parochial education. Lo 'n' behold came to find that all those years paid off. I'd completed most of the requirements to graduate and only had to take a couple classes both remaining years. So the rest were Art, Music, Drama, Creative Writing, whatever. I had two lunch periods. It was sweet. The band I was in at the time played at one of the school assemblies my Junior year and we played two songs, one was "I Can See For Miles" by the Who and the other, think it was "Fire" by Hendrix. Hold that thought... One of the guys got a bright idea, he had some smoke bombs he'd gotten from somewhere, pretty decent size, in stands. They were "safe" supposedly, wouldn't ignite or flame but would let off huge amounts of colored smoke. Somewhere in our teenaged minds this sounded like a cool idea. During "Miles" we get someone to light them behind our amp line, there'd be smoke, it would be cool. So we did and another legend was born. But instead of the smoke rising triumphantly over the stage and wafting out the back, it rose about 10 feet and proceeded to drop down and fill the stage and the front of the entire auditiorium with smelly smoke. The drummer was doing his Keith Moon thing, knocking over his cymbals as the bass player flailed away, while the other guitarist Pete Townsend'd his Gibson 335 through the front screen of one of his speaker cab's. I had my Sunn amp stack on "11" and ceremoniously dropped my Telecaster on the floor where it squealed heinous harmonic languages as I knelt over it, Jimi-style. And brownish smoke covered the entire thing in a blanket and somebody set off the fire alarm and marched everyone out. To a select group this was awesome-cool, if only for the fact that it ended the assembly, which if I remember right were only otherwise memorable for the guy in the balcony who always did animal sound impressions during announcements. For everyone else it was like, a total drag dude. The girl I was dating at the time told me "Well that wasn't very good, all that smoke!" The reactions ranged from "you guys suck!" to "oh yeah, oh yeah!" A horse is a horse of course of course and this is the answer that you'll endorse, You've never seen a talking horse? It's the famous Mr. Ed!

:o--> [This message was edited by socks on January 11, 2004 at 20:47.]

Blue sets, that's cold, Grizzy. Literally. :D--> Now that I got my smilies back, I just wanted to say in regards to gene pools and the power swimmers that walk among us... We're talking Olympic size pools here. When you say socks you've said a mouthful and I mean that in the best possible context, of earth quakers and ground shakers cause if it's deep blue you want, we got yer deep end of the pool goin' here. This ain't your kiddie wading pool here, you got yer back flipping, back stroking, high diving, record setting, water carving, wave making lock 'em and rock 'em BIG BOYS - dressed, greased and ready to do laps if they aren't already. Load tested for heavy duty foot-pounds, bab-uh so step right up for some high mileage heavy stress tours of duty. Yup. That be da truf. ;)--> Okay, I'll stop.

Uh oh, we're getting off track now Garth! Was it the metaphorical grinding or the part about the hard pounding, Hopefull? : )))) someone's gotta say it, y'know, "well guys that brag about their uh, set, are usually compensating for their small geneticalia". Which begs the question, what about men that brag about the well endowed genetics of other men? Over compensation with a dash of Gift Envy? Or just plain Endowment Worship. I simply ask the question. Sounds like therapy may be in order. But back to the bountiful measure of genetic soup that's been poured in to my cup...oh yeah. Campbell's WISHES...I mean this is what they meant when they said "Hmmm Hmmmm good"...Wolfgang Puck's a potato peeler in the back of this kitchen, kiddo. When you say socks you're saying soup, the thick kind where the fine fragarance of simmering goodness fills the senses and brings 'em in early for dinner. Ain' no leftovers at this table bab-eh. I mean, we are talking second, thirds and clean plates at this restaurant, and the tips are extravagant because the customers always leave with a smile. It's Christmas morning everyday under this tree, gift sets for everyone. I'm hungry for some reason. Anyway, I gotta get back to work, nose to the grindstone. Figuratively speaking of course. Jesus, I'll dance before your throne, bring this heavenly sound to You alone This song within me Lord will bless your Holy Name (boz scaggs)

Well Exerino, boz baby would have! if he could have! (I can't edit from work for some reason, so I gotta go do these quick reply thingies) Oh yeah. My genetic cup runneth over. Prodigous is an understatement. WE got yer set here, bab-eh. Ground shaking? When my set goes off scientists rate it on the Richter Scale. You need EarthQUAKE COVERAGE to cover possible damages. We're talkin' cracks in the sidewalk, pictures falling off the wall, the whole deal. When you've been geneticized by the sockster, you're actually speeding up evolution, new species crop up in record time. Oh yeah. Well, back to the grind. Metaphorically speaking. : ) Jesus, I'll dance before your throne, bring this heavenly sound to You alone This song within me Lord will bless your Holy Name (boz scaggs)

(actually, it's Hillsongs not Boz Scaggs...) He heee! Jesus, I'll dance before your throne, bring this heavenly sound to You alone This song within me Lord will bless your Holy Name (boz scaggs)

Hey dawayback, see what sincerity does? : ))) As long as we're on the topic of prodigous genetic endowment, I feel compelled to say that, well, I'm gifted with a good set of genetics. Serious set going here. Not in a way I can discuss politely, but the ground does shake wherever I share. Really. Honest. Not just saying that. No kiddin'. I wish I could share it with everyone but it wouldn't be right. You'll just have to take my word on my set. ; ) Jesus, I'll dance before your throne, bring this heavenly sound to You alone This song within me Lord will bless your Holy Name (boz scaggs)

SWEET! I'm going to check this out tonight. Thanks Zix and Raph. I'd never seen this!!! baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

Cool site, Raphael. They've got a page for "Memento", a favorite movie I've tried to dissect. That's hard to watch differently, it's backwards to start with! baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

Cool! Me too, Pirate, loved that show. Catch the reruns on cable now and then. Nicole Kidman would be a great Sam. Elizabeth Montgomery, a total babe in the original. Will Ferrel as Darren...hmmm. Dunno. He'll be good but Jim Carey would be perfect. Dick York was a good actor, Carey kind of has the same look and body language. baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

IMF77, I think the first time I heard the comments about Christianity/the Way it was along the lines of how the vast majority of Christian denominations and churches weren't really Christian at all because they typically taught JC was God, had no "accuracy" of the Word and didn't manifest tongues, so there was no proof anyway. From VPW's teaching standpoint, calling the Way a "Christian" ministry grated on him because of people's preconceptions and he didn't like the Way being put in the same breath with them. After all, he'd "chucked the whole thing". It would be a stretch IMO to say that he didn't consider the Way Ministry a Christian group, rather he felt the Way was the only REAL Christian group. His books and classes pretty much use the term with that subtext, remembering that as a genric reference it's what everybody else calls it so it's practical, but the years I was in, 68 - 89, the term was used carefully when he was alive and around. God forbid we grouped ourselves in to the mass of unwashed and unbelieving twads out there. The problem with documentation on how it evolved will be a little difficult but maybe not impossible. So many things were taught so many times, places and ways. Between SNS's, Sunday 10:30 fellowships, Corps nights and meetings, campus visits, meetings in the Way Woods, etc. etc. etc. A lot of the details for this kind of thing may or may not be on tape, archived at the Way Nash or in somebody's basement and in 1,000's of copies of handouts, syllabus notes and handwritten notes. It's a quandry, because the most reliable source for his stuff is printed books and recorded classes and tapes. But this attitude of disdain for organized religion and segregation from it wasn't dreamed up by an errant congregation. He just didn't talk about some of the stuff in public-public but it got out over time, mostly from the Way Corps that he taught it to. baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

Look out, EX10, don't step on it! :D--> Hmm, actually that felt kind of good. Ya Mo Be There, Dot. :)--> Jonny, I read an interesting definition recently for the terms "extrovert" and "introvert". It went, when faced with something going wrong an extrovert will think first "you did it". An introvert will think "I did it". It was saying it didn't have so much to do with how you act towards others but rather how you think of yourself in relation to others. Something I found in those who came to the Way over the years was that in general it was a fairly introspective group. People looking for answers and direction, meaning. There were lots of outgoing people, but people who were willing to sit down and listen to someone else tell them what things meant, people who wanted to learn and put the time in listening and thinking about what they heard. Not every type of person wants or likes to do that, certainly not for extended periods of time. Whether the definition holds water or not, I dunno but I think the idea reflects somewhat on many of us. We accepted the idea that our "believing" action could be the cause of every effect in the world. Everything that happened had a purpose and a cause and we, the people of the Way, were at the center of it. I've thought about that idea as a core idea in a belief system - not that we are part of a greater whole of interconnected parts with relationships, but that we are the cause of good and bad in the worlds in which we live because of how and what we think. That's a basic core teaching of the Way and VP that I've really had to examine. Given the law of believing, if someone acts in "good faith" and it causes you harm, it can be construed that you brought the harm to yourself. After all, "I meant well, I had no harm intended, maybe you're the one with the problem, seeing evil in my good". I do believe that this was a concept that VPW may have held to, that the actions of an individual could be acceptable and good if they "in their hearts" had no evil intent but meant good - even if it was in fact wrong. On that level, it's possible to do as you like as long as you like what you do. On the other hand, if the law of love always does that which is beneficial to the other person, you would never do anything that would potentially cause harm to that other person...even if it was "right", because that would make it "wrong". Love demands that we all serve the good of the other. "Greater love hath no man", etc. Under that scenario, there's no situation which would allow me to coerce or force my own "good" upon another. If a person were too weak to handle something I felt free to do, I would avoid doing it if it risked harming the other person. So, I have to ask myself, at what point did VPW decide that he wasn't responsible for the very likely scenario that his actions with women wouldn't risk hurting them? At what point was even the slightest possibility of hurt to them insignificant enough to act as he did? Closer to home, what would bring me or anyone to that point knowing what "the word" says? baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs) [This message was edited by socks on January 03, 2004 at 2:34.] [This message was edited by socks on January 03, 2004 at 2:36.]

"Sober" by Tool/Maynard James Keenan ------------------------------------ there's a shadow just behind me, shrouding every breath I take, making every promise empty, pointing every finger at me waiting like a stalking butler who upon the finger rests. murder now the path called "must we" just before the sun has come. Jesus, won't you f**king whistle something but the past and done? why can't we not be sober? I just want to start this over. why can't we drink forever? I just want to start things over. I am just a worthless liar. I am just an imbecile. I will only complicate you. trust in me and fall as well. I will find the center in you. I will chew it up and leave, I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down trust me. Mother Mary won't you whisper something but what's past and done trust me. I want what I want ---------------------------------- This song reminds me of the sound of Death speaking through drugs when it's last call at the end of the line. Sorry if it's a downer. In performance it's, well, very weird. But Tool rips the ground up and pounds it back down with this one. Made to be played loud. Very loud. baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

"Shannon" by Henry Gross ------------------------ Another day's at end Mama says she's tired again No one can even begin to tell her I hardly know what to say But maybe it's better that way If poppa were here I'm sure he'd tell her Shannon is gone I heard She's drifting out to sea She always loved to swim away Maybe she'll find an island With a shaded tree Just like the one in our backyard Mama tries hard to pretend That things will get better again Somehow she's keepin' it all inside her But finally the tears fill our eyes And I know that somewhere tonight She knows how much we really miss her Shannon is gone I heard She's drifting out to sea She always loved to swim away Maybe she'll find an island With a shaded tree Just like the one in our back yard Ah.... Just like the one in our back yard Ah.... (Henry was a founding member of Sha Na Na, did rock 'n' roll stuff, toured with the Beach Boys and this song was about Carl Wilson's...dog. So I guess it's a dead dog song. :(--> Beautiful tune in it's way.) We had so many good times and some bad. We shared the happiness and we shared the sad. We suffered all All the miseries. Back when I had you girl, and you had me... (boz scaggs)

P.S. I never hit Trancenet till it was over and a read only site, but when I ran across WayDale it really did start to pull things together for me that I'd suspected might exist but only in theory after leaving. It was like a slow brew process. I know some people think your butt will fall off or something if you visit GS. Really folks, it won't. I've got lots of butt left, trust me. baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)

Indeed, fine people. I wrestled with a number of things after we left, and it didn't really hit me right away. Then it did - Mr. VPW would never be allowed to pastor, teach, or function in a trusted position anywhere else with all of this going on, there'd be inquiry, he'd be confronted, reproved, taught, corrected and if that didn't work whatever else did to protect people. If it were even just your good ol' garden variety friendly corporate takeover, he and all the rest closely associated with him would be sacked and retired out. Out with the old, in with something new or at least different. It doesn't mean anything good or bad ever did or didn't come out of the Way, to me. Good can come out of the worst situations as well as the best. With the Way, the well is tainted, put up a "beware" sign and go somewhere else. This may sound like I'm a creep, but it seems to me that anyone willing to fully accept and pass on all of this abuse under the banner of "we all sin, none are perfect, at least zabba zabba zabba" have low standards. If we're all born in sin we will all likely do some nasty things in our lives if we haven't already. But Paul gives some hefty qualifications for a person who wants to be recognized as a person of service to the church and work for The Pastor, someone who has shown themselves faithful. It's not for people who can't keep their pants zipped or who have serious problems following the teachings of Christ. That's just the way it is I believe and there's no tongue clucking condemnation to anyone who doesn't cut it. If you don't, step down, step out, whatever but you can't be allowed to work in that capacity. When I look back to even the earliest years I was in the Way, I see there were good people throughout, faith, good times, hard work. When you have that kind of environment, good can come out of it. The fact that VP pi$$ed his part away doesn't mean the Party stopped. It was going on around him all the time. baby's calling me home, she keeps on callin' me home.... (boz scaggs)