Tonight we went to see and hear Caetano Veloso sing at the Jackie Gleason theatre. After the concert we got to meet him. this was a huge event for me personally. I was awestruck. I gave him an autographed copy of Rise and Shine and showed him his name in the liner notes. Showed him how we covered a famous Brasilian song on the album. We spoke very briefly. Laughed some. It was a good feeling. He is much smaller in person than on stage. Older, greyer. Very soft and soft spoken. This was a dream of mine. This year I have had the opportunity to go see Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Boccelli, U2, and Caetano in concert. This has been a very good year.

Listen to the man sing.

The following is from an email by a man named John MaCenulty. It is good. Very good.

There are times when societal actions are extremely clearly wrong, outrages

that reach into us deeply. We feel a sense of hopelessness and despair that

things may be falling apart. A sense of wrong and dread pervades.

And there are times when things come to a focus and really are threatening.

It is not an illusion that will pass in the blink of a magical eye. Some

things are deep and structural, inherent in the way of things. They have been

going on for a long time.

Negative energies flare and wane. We are watching a flaring.

The history of humanity is the story of these risings and fallings. Ever has

it been so.

Yet within the structure of pain and suffering has been an awesome spiritual

beauty that has never been defeated by the awful things that have passed

through us. Hope seems to, indeed, spring eternal.

Beethoven and Mozart wrote in times of war. Enduring beauty was created.

Now I pray again, deeply, for peace, fairness, justice, love in my world,

this beautiful, betrayed, discouraging world.

It is through the very act of prayer that I am fulfilled, not in the

answering of my prayer, in the very act.

When I seek the divine I create the divine. I activate that energy in my

consciousness and it comes into me.

The sadness without prayer is overwhelming.

I focus on the stillness and it comes over me, into me. There is always my

very nature, beautiful beyond all failings, a light within me that will not

darken.

I rise and fall too.

New web site address:

http://Emanations.net/

Copyright © 2002  by John MacEnulty

11/22/2002, St. Louis, MO

Good weekend. On Friday we finally heard from the big time talent show organization. We auditioned for this thing months ago and they refused to give us any info until the official announcement. Well that was Friday night. And we won. So we are very happy. We weren't the only winners but we will receive the award for best unsigned artist of 2002. And we will perform live at the televised awards show. So that is very groovy. Last night went to see Elvis Costello at the Jackie Gleason theatre with Omine. Elvis’ voice is stronger than ever. He just has this amazing voice. Today I received an email that I will be able to go backstage and meet Caetano Veloso and present him with this song I wrote for him called Caetano when he performs here later this month. I am so excited, I can’t believe it. he is one of my biggest influences and inspirations. 

We have been working on getting our radio station up, Transcendent Radio, on our website. www.transcendence.com. A lot of fun. Playing all the music we love as well as a lot of tracks from various albums of our own.

Last Movie: Punch Drunk Love, by PT Anderson. Well Paul is a brilliant filmmaker. This one is small, very singular in scope but still has that other-worldly quirkiness that makes him such a visionary stylist. Adam Sandler finally shows that he is no longer simply a comic actor. He pulls off a fantastic performance.

Current read: set your voice free by roger Love

Current Spin: Josh Groban. Modern pop opera. An absolutely flawless voice.

Rehearsing every night for this play called Decay that I have stumbled into. Having a great time learning the art and craft of acting. The other cast members who are all trained actors in one way or another have been very nice, showing me the ropes and teaching me the technology of it, and the vocabulary. Scripting, blocking, crossing, off book, all this new nomenclature, a lot of fun. Fascinating really. I always took acting for granted till a few weeks ago. Now I am just in awe of people who can do it so well. It is so transparent when they are doing it, you don’t even know that they are acting. I get chills watching everyone rehearse. They must think I'm funny. I clap for everyone when they rehearse a scene, but I just get so impressed. Then I go up and try to do my part, you know, I still have the script in my hand, the rest of them have already memorized their lines. I'm digging it. I love getting to know them, these actor types. Totally different than the musician types I've been hanging out with forever. I mean these are the same people who were in drama class in high school, you know. And we never hung out with them. They were always the biggest geeks, and we were always really hip and cool. We played guitar, surfed, did drugs, smoked, and always dressed cool. And they just didn't. The drama kids were always God I don’t even remember; well for one thing they never dressed cool. They dressed like poor geeks. You know I'm stereotyping here, but for a reason.

Well here it is ten years later, at least for me, and the lines have all blurred. There are still these huge differences. I'm sitting in this den of inequity where we all rehearse every night, this artists’ work space, where I think maybe a thousand people live or something. You're working on something and people just crawl out of corners with cigarettes hanging out of their mouths and no shoes on. It's wild. And then in walk these actors and actresses. And it's just so wild compared to the musicians. They are so prepared. They have all these notes on their script and they are so reserved and then all of a sudden they burst into this scene like no body’s business. And you are like shocked. Also they are so friendly. Compared to musicians. Who are so caught up in themselves and worried about being taken seriously and all of that. Where as the actors are pretty open and friendly people. I mean really, the space will be half filled with musicians who live there and half filled with actors who are working out of there and you can really tell the difference between the two groups. And I can relate because for a long time I was one of those dark and moody serious musician types myself. But I gave that up. God I am so much happier now, having my attention out, rather than in. Well that's a different story, but I'm digging this acting thing. These people are real, which is really funny to say, because they are actors.   

Also Transcendent Radio is here. it is so cool.

Current Read: Tropical Truth, a story of music and revolution in Brasil by Caetano Veloso

Current Spin: Alone Again by Father Bloopy. Sort of an underground t. rex meets dinosaur jr., quirky trippy lo-fi. 

Last Movie: The World at War, the 26 hour documentary about world war II

Show at Senor Frogs last night. As always at this venue, sound sucked. Infinito got into a fight with the soundman because he wouldn’t mic his toms or snare drum and then he conveniently found a way to mic the next band’s. Told him next time we take the guy out. 

I think I am stuck between two identities. Can’t quite get into one completely. One wants to rock, fuck, scream and spit. 

The other wants to be Caetano Veloso or Peter Gabriel and put on a big multi-media show, bossa nova and all. Fans come to the show expecting to hear that type of planet-music style songs from the Rise and Shine album, like we used to do, and we are already on to the new heavier rock tunes from new album we are recording (not even out yet). They don't even know the songs. Getting lots of emails from fans asking why we’re not playing songs they know from our album. Sorry about that guys. Better luck next time is the only one left that still gets played.