Cafe Du Monde is the name, world music is the game

Doh! I forgot to mention that the radio show is called, Cafe Du Monde...(Cafe of the world). Plus I get warm coffee fuzzies from remembering sitting at the Cafe du monde in Jackson Square, New Orleans...eating beignets and sipping cafe au lait, and watching the human mannikins and jazz musicians cavort for tourist dollars.

OK. So I suck at the posting thing. The only posts I'm good at are the ones that come in pressure treated wood. I guess its because I'm the one under pressure.

Life is good, but I'm still adjusting to the sudden onslaught of work. For the past 2 months, I've been doing more and more massage. Oh yeah- I got my license, so now I'm a LMT (Licensed Massage Therapist)

So I'm doing about 22-27 hours of medical massage at a local Doctor's office right now, plus about 3-5 hours of other massage on the side. I have been totally exhausted, but am really enjoying it. Especially the clinical side of things, since I've been able to create treatment plans for my patients, and then watch them constantly improve over time. It is very rewarding. :)

But very tiring too.

And in between the work, I started doing a radio show on WMNF 88.5 fm in Tampa. WMNF is a great community volunteer radio station that I've been volunteering at since about 1996. I did substitute dj-ing on the previous world music program, Sound Safari, as well as on the Reggae Show, which was great but I was on maybe once every 2 months or so...

But my new show, of which I've done 6 shows now is every week from 9-10am. If you'd like, you can catch the archived show at any time of the week by going to the station web site (www.wmnf.org) and then going to Tuesday from 9-10 am World music slot. Or just click on "Listen Now".

So between the work and the play, Leo is a tired boy. But happy. Not butt happy, however. :)

Oh, and it didn't work out between that girl and me. Too soon she moved away, but I think its for the best. She had a non-mob offer she couldn't refuse in Philly, and she went for it. Its alright...work seems to balloon to fill all my available time anyhow...much like that great 50's movie, The Blob, only without me growing and eating people, places and things.

-Leo

The Sicks Sense

Ok. So its been a while since my last post. I have excuses, but does anyone want to hear them? I guess life has been working its little magical pot of gold with no leprecaun, over the rainbow, with the lucky charms and this has left little time for cognition, though its starting to happen again...


In the last week, I started dating a wonderful new woman, visited with my sister who is down from Atlanta, hung out with 7 (count 'em) 7 cats, and came down with a the little cold that could and did lay me up sick-a-bed for almost the entire 4th of july week. Its Thursday July 5, and I'm starting to come out of it...


Or to come back into it, because I was out of it for the last few days...or last few daze to be exact...


So some things that I thought about during my sickness are as follows (and yes, this includes thoughts thunk by me whilst in a fever of 101.3 degrees, so they may not be too coherent...)


One thing that kept running through my mind was Paul Simon's lyrics to "Something so Right", when he says,

"You've got the cool water
When the fever runs high
You've got the look of lovelight in your eyes
And I was in crazy motion'
til you calmed me down
It took a little time
But you calmed me down"

Which was exactly what I needed. It was actually the first time in over 10 years that I've been sick and my mom took care of me, putting moist towels on my brow and an icepack on my chest to bring the fever down. It was so comforting...moms rock!

Also-

For a while when I was able to move around but lacked normal sensation in my limbs, I had the idea that I was a little man driving my big body around...similar to the operators of Voltron, defender of the Universe, although I believe he had men and women in every limb so that when his separate parts assembled into one gigantic metal bad-ass mutha, he could kick some Universal ass.

Maybe this is what was revealed to me- that I just need to find the right person(s) to link up with and we'll form the equivalent of Voltron (and I think one of the Transformers (the Constructicons) did this too)...and maybe the Power Rangers? (Not that I am fond of thinking that I would be a Power Ranger, Ford Ranger, or even the Lone Ranger)...There's just too much Anger in a Ranger...(at least after the R, there's Anger).


My Sister, who is a mental health counselor, tells me that the little man in the head theory is known as a homunculus, and was an early explanation for how the mind controls the body (as well as many other interesting notions, including a tie-in to the mandrake in alchemical texts, and a representation of the sensory nervous system personified). The theory was that there was a little man in your head who controlled you and your thoughts...much like the alien pictured in Men In Black, and to some degree, in Being John Malkovich....

I felt alot like that, sort of like I was controlling this fleshy robot from a somewhat removed perspective inside this guy's head.

Now that I am on the road to recovery, however, my homunculus is taking a back seat again. He can be a back seat driver for all that I care, so far his decisions have worked out well...According to my sources, I'm supposed to feed him lavender seeds and earthworms to convince him to stick around, so I better get crackin'!

The Roots

Well, at long last I've decided to throw my hat in the ring of the blogging world. And what better metaphor for the spread of this phenomenon than Bamboo?

Bamboo starts slow, developing its roots underground, slowly gathering strength until the day that it begins pushing its stalks (culms) up through the ground and into the sky. Once its established, bamboo is very pugnacious and resilient to changes in its enviroment, and has the ability to absorb silica from the surrounding earth and incorporate that unyielding mineral into its skin.

I like to think of Bamboo as describing the way I try to live my life. Bamboo bends in a storm, but doesn't break...its tall, but unassuming, and though it blends into the green background, when examined close up, its beautiful and unique and strong....

And Pandas like to eat it for lunch!