The Calendar

In memory of…

Sigrid Hudson Bishop

 “Eternity interrupts. It is as if there is a plane where there is clock time and then eternity puts its hand in for a minute and you have an archetypal experience. You have a feeling of what Jung said was “the infinite” and then very often the watch reacts to that.”



This is a short story about a friend. I find the best friends are not the ones that you make yourself but are the ones that find you. They stand the probability of time. They happen without planning and endure without much effort. She was like that. I first met her online on Facebook. We had common friends of friends. She was also interested in music as well as William Blake and Carl Jung. She showed up at my first speaking event at Whittier College.

Later she told me about a Punk event at UCLA college that I applied to and was accepted at. She was there for me and I shared many stories and my creations with her.

I think I inspired her to go to Pacifica Graduate Institute offering degrees in the clinical psychology, counseling, mythological studies and depth psychology.



At this time last year 2018, she offered me an extra William Blake calendar. I accepted it with honor. Every day I looked at the calendar and thought of her. Happy to have such a friend. Remarkable I am taken back by the last image of the calendar of The Archangel Michael Foretelling the Crucifixion.  She passed away December 2019.



I believe that crucifixion is symbolic of a person’s day of release from their physical body.

As friends, have our souls not spoken to each other?

I think so.


“They looking back, all th’ Eastern side beheld

Of Paradise, so late thir happie seat,

Wav’d over by that flaming Brand, the Gate

With dreadful Faces throng’d and fierie Armes:

Som natural tears they drop’d, but wip’d them soon; [ 645 ]

The World was all before them, where to choose

Thir place of rest, and Providence thir guide:

They hand in hand with wandring steps and slow,

Through Eden took thir solitarie way.



“To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.”


15 years as a cowboy… if they lived.


I love watching Westerns. I have my favorite channels. All the actors that played the cowboy game through the many years is amazing. Yet in truth the American cowboy days were short. Fifteen years after the civil war through the building of the train industry and barbed wire.

The Spaniards and Mexicans were challenged by Native Indians and then the Europeans. Carelessly leaving their horses and cattle to be taken over and bred by these new propagated cowboys. It is a brutal history as well as a beautiful one as in the current film Painted Woman. A woman was a mother, whore or missionary. Nevertheless, the women are robust and hearty characters as in the film True Grit where a young girl outsmarts many a gun shooting cowboy and avenges her father’s death.

A decade and a half are a short time for towns and saloons to be alive for this massive movement of the wild days of traveling and roaming cowboys. Then barbed wire and the movement of cattle by way of the train into mass slaughterhouses. To roam the prairie was gone.

I love these films as I do Noir films. Adventure, mystery the good and the bad guys and always the femme fatale or saloon lady entertainers.



RIP

Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside


Pete Shelly’s voice (RIP) was the unmistakable sound that resonated through the airwaves, leaving an indelible mark on the music scene, especially during those early vinyl days and unforgettable first shows at the Santa Monica Civic.

The Germs, led by the enigmatic Darby Crash, were a vital force on the gritty punk streets, their raw energy capturing the spirit of a generation.

By a strange twist of fate, these iconic figures from that vibrant music era come together now, so many years later, as their legacies intertwine and continue to inspire new artists and fans alike.

They don’t seem like they want us to forget them, instead reminding us of the rebel spirit they embodied and the cultural revolution they sparked…. and how can we possibly forget their contributions to music and societal change?




Saturated English Angelic Youth Gone Wild

The Spiral Scratch (EP) was a favorite of mine. The lyrics of Break Down are phenomenal and so infused in my DNA. Maybe a whole generation in their early 60s are experiencing melancholy right now!



When falling into and mad about the world of Punk Rock, Pete Shelly’s voice framed this new experience with innovative songs and lyrics.

“Ever Fallen In Love….”  

is one of the songs that I fell in love with. I fell in love with the Los Angeles Punk Scene at the same time as the first time I heard the song.

The people, places and record stores everywhere did loudly play the Buzzcocks beyond our fast-thrashing hearts.

You would find us running from the Whisky A Go Go on the Sunset Strip to the infamous record store smelling of vinyl Licorice Pizza and then down to the alley for cut-rate canned beer.

Three points of forward movement forming a hurricane of friends, music, and pogoing. Pete’s voice and music are the fresh anthem of a growing punk scene.

Pete Shelley’s voice and guitar set the stage for a sensitive and poetic revolution of mindset not inspired by many bands to this day.

He is always saturated English angelic youth gone wild.

Pete Shelly’s voice never grows older though his body did age and die.

His music will be at that place where the new-wave-punk-rock-experience is eternal. Unclassified music that is wonderfully bliss!