Japan, Okinawa and EXCITING JapanFest!

The great JapanFest event is coming this Saturday and Sunday, September 18 and September 19. This is a beautiful annual experience here in the Metro Atlanta area. Once again the two-day event will be held at the Gwinnett Center Convention Center located at 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, Georgia 30097. I know that all people, adults and children will get a huge amount of fun out of this colorful, exciting cultural time of celebration! There will be fun crafts for the young people and unusual cultural things for all the adults in attendance. The very diverse elements of all Japanese society will be presented. Things like the classic dances of all parts of Japan, martial arts, bonsai, lovely original classic folk music, anime, and company exhibits will all be a part of the exciting, gorgeous activities. I am especially interested in the work of the people of Okinawa. The work of the members of the Atlanta Okinawa Kenjin-Kai will be presented to all. This is an exciting group that does wonderful things to show the contributions of the Okinawa prefecture to the incredible beauty of the totality of all Japanese culture. Get ready for some truly great times at the 2010 JapanFest. Come on all of you! You will have a marvelous great time this coming Saturday and Sunday at JapanFest at the Gwinnett Center Convention Center located at 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway in Duluth, Georgia 30097.

Jennifer Aniston, John Mayer: 'ATL' Fun!

Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer have been heating up my city, Atlanta. It is so super-rad that the stunning, gorgeous beauty Jennifer Aniston and the marvelous and so "right on" musician John Mayer have been truly helping out Atlanta's celeb social scene the last few days. Indeed, the attractive pop culture lovely, Aniston brings so much real strong class to our busy neck of the woods. She has a massive following especially with her big army of 'Friends' fans.It is "hip" for what you might call a "happening" city like Atlanta to suddenly have two major rocket-power super stars in our midst. The marvelous Jennifer Aniston is here in the big 'A' shooting the new movie 'Wanderlust.' And the feisty, ultra-creative musician John Mayer has had some great concert action going here in the wild world of Atlanta's fantastic South Side. I love it when fascinating people like Jennifer Aniston and John Mayer spice up our busy, bustling, happening city.

Barney Kessel: Guitar Man of Excellence!

Happy Jazz Fan mood. That's me today. Jazz can aid a person's psyche. I wanted some great liquid lines on jazz guitar...So I went looking for the fine music of Barney Kessel this afternoon. I dug listening to the Barney Kessel version of 'Jersey Bounce.' I have known some mighty good people from Jersey. And the sleek jazz guitar of B. Kessel was so delightful today. Hey, everyone! Enjoy jazz guitar. It is a whole lotta fun!

Blind Lemon Jefferson and Muddy Waters!

'Matchbox Blues' and 'Black Snake Moan' by the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson are two of the best wild livin' blues a soul could imagine. When I listened today to these genius renditions of blues giant tunes from the mid to late 1920s it surely helped out my kind of worn Tuesday mood. The strong man from Texas....yeah this Blind Lemon Jefferson....well he was a powerful man with a song. He could make the thing leap right up in your face. Good salty blues is a fantastic piece of our American culture. When you hear men like the fine Muddy Waters with his passion and Blind Lemon Jefferson with his super style then you know we have a good, feisty culture indeed!

Southwest Georgia Labor Day Good Times!

Happy Labor Day! I used to have great times on Labor Day when I was growing up in Cairo deep down in Southwest Georgia. My Daddy and Mama and I would quite often go to one of my uncle's houses. The whole family (on my Daddy's side) would come to the event and bless me there was good food. It'd be so raging hot you could feel the huge squirting sweat coming out all over you and all the flowers in the huge back yard would be potently redolent with the giant Southwest Georgia aromas. One uncle of mine a big, tall guy named T.W. would do all the wild frying of the fish. He got the fish amazingly hot. He said he wanted it "John Brown" crunchy. My Mama liked the natural grits ole' T.W. cooked. He threw a huge heppin' of cheese in the big grits pot and Lord did he cook the daylights out of that grits. It was good time Charlie, that's what this scene was. After awhile when things eased up a little then my Uncle Clower (a huge man with incredible strong handshake) and my Uncle T.W. and Byron (another uncle) and my Daddy would get out some bourbon. Little toddy time then. It was a time to remember. Now those folks and days are gone and my life is so calm....yet, I tell you something...those crackling good times....they provided some mighty fine memories. Mighty fine!

Losing Boredom's Shackles

Boredom is a petty ugly thing. The slime of being bored has stuck in me for a long time but when I was quite young and in the mish-mash of being a student the mood of the bored was a hard essence to shake. One thing helped, however. When I was an adolescent I discovered the engaging and remarkable novels of the wily Norman Mailer. I recall reading the bizarre and super-modern novel, 'The Deer Park' by Mailer. It got me all excited because I had never read a man whose words just leapt off the page. The same mood of raw joy struck when I read 'Portnoy' by Philip Roth. It is absurd how some of my so-called friends put me down for liking Norman Mailer and the intense music of Mahler. I find that when we make a good discovery that is pleasing to us then it is best to just leap on the bull, ride it and try hard to have a nice life. It is obvious to me that kind of thinking makes a lot of sense. I tire of all the sophomoric and vapid prattle that has been poured into my head by all the pseudo-minds that I have come across. So let us have our Norman Mailers and Philip Roths. Let's have a dash of meaning and not a swamp of meaningless intellectual garbage to trudge through.

Thinking on Southern Culture

Morning. Thinking about odd, complex things about Southern culture today. The football season has started again and it reminds me of a lot of stuff. When I was young the sports guys ruled big and us thin thinker types didn't have any chance, especially socially. All folks chased the holy grail of being with the marvelous whoop-ti-do athlete. I recall the disgusting bullying, the fiz ed mean souls who mentally cracked the whip on all of us slight guys. It is sad when a culture beats all this toughening up into you. I am ancient now. But deep down the rage lurks...the only thing that helps is religion. Thank you for good souls like Joel Osteen of Houston. I remember when I was about 13 I learned how to use my vocabulary to slight the ugly male and female sports bullies and to make them on edge. Their rejection of thinkers and unique souls may some day come back to haunt them, especially when they get older and the horrors of disease start hitting hard. I know this set of words is negative but I grow so tired of the disgusting rejections that have hit hard for so many decades. Please, let us have a glimmer of hope.