Video Clip from The Jam 02-18-2022

Thanks to everyone who came out to The Jam last Friday to hear my set, especially Myles Moscato, who shot this video, and Sean Powers who put on the shadow puppet show!

It’s Time to Party!

The party is the root of all human culture. At the core of politics lies “party affiliation.” A worship service is just a party that’s been sanctified. The party is so central to our culture that pretty much any time two or more people get together, no matter how mundane the circumstances, we call it a “party.” Whether you are having dinner at a restaurant or staying overnight at a hotel, they’ll ask, “How many in your party?” If you run with a bad crowd you could be convicted of being a party to a crime, and there’s so many parties involved in any lawsuit that you’d think it should be a good time, but it isn’t.

A lot more happens at parties than meets the eye. What appears chaotic at a party actually serves important functions essential for social cohesion and the sustainability of community and society. For the past two years, pandemic lockdown measures made partying illegal. By stopping us from coming together in groups, they crippled our ability to respond politically to the suspension of our civil rights and constitutional democracy. Of course, that was the purpose of the lockdown, and the only thing lockdown measures did effectively. A recent study out of John Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics revealed that pandemic lockdown measure did little or no good in preventing the spread of Covid or in saving lives.

By preventing us from getting together to party, however, Public Health authorities began the unraveling of the social bonds that hold our community together. They destroyed a million small businesses, especially bars, nightclubs and party spots. They turned us into a nation of isolated, screen-addicted obsessive-compulsives who view each other as potential disease vectors rather than as potential friends, lovers and comrades. This lockdown has taken an enormous toll on our community, and on the mental health of the people around us. We cannot go on like this. We need to party.

To me, a party really isn’t a party unless there’s live music and dancing. Live music and dancing animate the spirit, and are critical to human health in ways that scientists don’t understand. Rhythmic shaking releases tension stored in the nervous system after a traumatic experience, every mammal on Earth does it. Humans do it when we dance. We’ve all been traumatized by what we’ve just been through, and the healing process requires a good strong dose of PARTY!

Please come on out and shake off some of that tension. Get together with old friends, and make some new friends, lovers and comrades. We’ve never needed it more! Come to The Jam in Arcata on Friday February 18! DJ Tim Stubbs and I will rock the house all night long starting at 9:00pm. I haven’t played in a nightclub since 2019 and I am so ready for this. The Jam is a great venue. They have a dynamite sound system and its going to sound amazing. I hope I see you there.

Cancel Culture Strikes Again

My show scheduled for this Saturday Feb. 12th was canceled due to my activism against vaccine mandates and vaccine passports. So I will not play at Papa & Barkley this Saturday.

Instead, DJ Tim Stubbs and I will blow the roof off of The Jam on Friday Feb 18 starting at 9:00PM. I hope I see you there.

Beyond Words, Saturday Feb 12 @ Papa and Barkley in Eureka

My lifelong dream comes true at the Papa and Barkley Social Club at the South End of Eureka on Broadway on Saturday February 12. I have dreamed, since I was very young, of playing music in a comfortable public space that encouraged people to consume cannabis rather than alcohol.

I love cannabis, and have always preferred cannabis to alcohol. I think alcohol has had a negative influence on our culture, but I strongly believe that if we gather together in an environment that celebrates the symbiosis between music and cannabis, it will transform our culture in profound and positive ways.

This free event, sponsored by Papa and Barkley, called “Puffs for Non-Profits,” benefits the Ink People Center for the Arts. The cannabis dispensary will donate 10% of their total sales for the day to The Ink People Center for the Arts. I cannot say enough about the Ink People. When you find anything really cool going on in Humboldt County that showcases local artists, you can bet the Ink People are behind it. Besides that, the Ink People have helped me tremendously and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. I love them, and I want them to keep doing what they do, so I hope you will come out and enjoy some of Humboldt’s finest with me.

I believe in the power of music to transform culture, and I believe in the power of the music I’m making now more than at any time in my life.

At Papa and Barkley’s Social Club I’ll be throwing down hot didgeridoo dance grooves with DJ Tim Stubbs,

Together we will levitate even the most couch-locked cannabis consumers into soaring rhythmic spasms of ecstasy.

Papa and Barkley has a nice outdoor space, with heaters, awnings, tables with umbrellas and heaters in the center, and plenty of seating.

Of course, they also have a terrific assortment of fine Humboldt County grown cannabis.

They don’t have a stage, but there’s wall to set up in front of, and some space to dance, and that’s all we need really, and we’ve never needed it more.

We need this now more than ever because we stand at a critical juncture in human history. We need a new vision of the world we want to live in, because our old world is gone. It’s been destroyed by the pandemic lockdown. Media hysteria is leading us down a blind alley. We need a new vision of a bright future where freedom, beauty and our boundless love for each other and all of nature shapes the future of humanity. To inspire that new vision, we need art, and that includes music. We need creativity of all kind, but before that, we need to shake off the fear.

We have all been traumatized, shell-shocked, and terrorized by the events of the last two years. We need to shake off that trauma. Natures way to relieve the residual stress, anxiety and tension stored in the nervous system after a traumatic experience, is to dance. Dancing helps your immune system fight off pathogens and coming together in groups helps our bodies maintain good immune defenses. Ecstatic dance feels good. We need to remember what it feels like to feel good, because we need a vision of the future inspired by what makes us feel good, rather than what scares us.

So please, come out to Papa and Barkley in Eureka on Saturday February 12. Get really high on top-flight herb, soak-in some dance beats infused with healing infrasound vibrations and do what feels good. We’ve been denied this basic necessity of life for too long. A lot of us have nearly forgotten how exhilarating a great party can be, and there is a whole lot of young people who have never experienced the magic that happens when live musicians connect with a live audience in a real place in real time. Please come out to help us bring that magic back to life for now and for the future.