Berlin is on my mind…

An unknown German Punk with Mom.

On Monday I watched Rachel on MSMBC and the first word out of her mouth was Berlin.

Rachel Maddow looks at a murder in Berlin, Germany that U.S. officials believe was a Russia-sanctioned assassination and notes that Russia’s past reticence to commit killings in Western countries appears to have faded, raising concerns about the recently outed Russian spy living in the United States.”

Then the weekend before I was watching an old TCM film. And a friend on Facebook said she did not have TCM and would love to have it. I then thought to myself I would sure love to go to Berlin, but I just cannot. As I looked up to the TV screen, I heard, from the 1932 film Back Street, Walter Saxel say,

“Would you like me to take you to Berlin?”

I said yes. And realize this synchronicity only rubs me the erroneous way out of anticipation.

Then to really get my goat last night I was watching one show on TV. One of my late-night bedtime rituals. The continuity of watching an episode of the sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Of course, the whole focus tonight was on Berlin.

“Bad Day in Berlin”

“Hogan’s Heroes: Season 4, Episode 11″Hogan’s Heroes” Bad Day in Berlin (TV Episode 1968).”

Again, Berlin is on my mind. I googled and read about it and reflected on its history.

Currently it is for me about the good feeling of accomplishments and the rewards of following a project through to its end. It is what it is but seems my psyche is having fun playing with me through multiple synchronicities. 

Maybe a nice finish with an Oktoberfest beer this weekend.


Brings me to this image that Dad took of a Berlin punk and Mom in the 1980s, they were traveling and visited Berlin.

I asked them to hand out Flipside Fanzines on their many journeys abroad. As a military WWII veteran, he got to travel with the military modestly. So, they did.





Holding Integrity Up


A current adventure with our internet service and adjourning phone line is my issue today.

I’ve been paying the same amount since we set up the service. I then noticed September’s bill increase by about twenty dollars.

I called my service to ask why in August after I got the bill. It was explained to me that the company decided to up an overall five dollar increase to all their customers who use their phone service. This of course increased many other things. The dynamo increase of those pesky taxes too.

So I nicely had the phone taken off our plan. I talked to a nice representative and technician who did the work and told me that September’s bill would decrease, and I would pay less.

I told the representative,

“I only receive robot calls from the same companies and scams. I then must play the nasty game of telling them I am from Mars.”

She laughed at that and understood.

I know the bill is due today and had not received a notice or new bill. I went online to see our bill, and nothing had changed. So, in my little “good grief,” I called the server back once more.

I was told in an argumentative debate that they base their bills on “prorating” the past month.

“The practice of prorating can apply in many areas, from billing for services to paying out dividends or allocating business partnership income. Pro rata is calculated by dividing the instance of an item by the maximum quantity of that item. This ratio can then be applied to any related item to find the same proportion.”

I told this person that is not what I was told. They told me when I cancelled the service that I would not have to pay the full amount and then I would receive a new bill for September.

They did the run around or indirectly blamed me for not listening to them. Yet I felt like they were not listening to me and trying to get me to agree with them even though my guts knew they were bold face liars. 

I think I talked to a supervisor who was the same. So, after some debate she told me she would do me a favor and give me a onetime discount waiver.

“I sure had to work hard for those twenty dollars.”

I paid the whole bill anyway out of that shadowy doubt of guilt.

I called back again to see if in fact I got that waiver and if in fact the phone line was cancelled.

The new representative told me that it was all good and told me how my bill next month included the waiver. This means I got my money back.

I told the conversation I had with another representative who told me that I would have to pay the full amount this month due to the word “prorating.”

She then told me an amazing thing. That they do not do that and that they go by each month. So, I was in fact told a lie. We laughed over it, and I filed a complaint that did go forward to the other representative. I felt good about that.

This new representative had style. She told me to look on my bill on page four and so I did and read this,

“… in accordance with the…. Conditions of Service, …. Services are billed on a monthly basis.”

Yes, no mention of prorating.

I had a wonderful moment.

The moral of this real-life experience is this, if you don’t say something and just let someone else tell you something else for you to believe, believe in yourself first. Don’t be bullied, influenced, or rejected without following through to the wonderful conclusion in believing in yourself.


1972 a very good year…

A nether payment.


A nether payment.

It was not one that I made. It was pending and was sent. I contacted the payee, and they after five days processed the payment. I asked them to send the money back because my bank had a glitch. Now I am waiting to process a single payment.

It has been four days. Two to five days is the given time for either or both major companies to process an electronic payment.

I talked to my oldest son who is a computer engineer. A cowboy coder who works for a major company. He told me that once money is sent to the “Q” then the money must stand in line to be processed. One at a time.

Kind of like standing in line at some crazy carnival. Until they are processed. The processor may be a big, massive computer or maybe not so big.

He said banks and mortgage companies usually don’t have the best processors like big tech companies.

I mailed a physical package on the same day I had the money reversed and the physical package got there already.

I got a call from my friend telling me so.

Yet still my money is lost in the interval.

The processing interval of money.

Chaos…

I am worried, my money may get lost in the electronic netherworld, and may never leave the place beneath the earth.


Red Red Wine- Still Need A Soul.

Punk Rock Colleague & Historian and Professional Consultant

Hudley Flipside


All About a song one to the next …

Early 1980s



I remember this song playing on every Jukebox in town and on MTV.

It was a song that bubbled up from the 1960s.

I enjoy both renderings of the song.

I was driving when this song came on my car radio today.

It brings those long nights back of beer and pizza joints before shows at local clubs in the 1980s.

UB40 was one of those bands that formed and reached fast fame. A fun band capturing a generation !

Red Red Wine is a Neil Diamond song that lingered but was not as popular as the 1980s version but has since emerged as a classic song !

I like when a song emerges eternally through generations!

The broken heart sings over issues like this one, and eternally it will sing about …

“Red, red wine goes to my head
Makes me forget that I still need her so.”

I once thought it was sung as “still need a soul.”


UB40 recorded a cover version in 1983 that went to No. 1 in the UK and was moderately successful in the United States. It was rereleased in 1988 and went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot


“Red Red Wine” is a song originally written, performed and recorded by American singer Neil Diamond in 1967 that appears on his second studio album, Just for You. The lyrics are written from the perspective of a person who finds that drinking red wine is the only way to forget his woes.




The good bridge of balance


I was born with foresight. It was a natural part of my DNA, and it cursed me because no one from my family explained it to me. I found the answers through books, TV and others with this value of seeing life.

A curse because there are things in our lives that hold certain degrees of pain that cling to us. For me it was foresight. Knowing things before they happened. An intuitive knowing that plagued me without being able to put words to what it was.

Then in time I learned to hold on to my foresight. Waiting for found explanation to my confusion. Other friends and family looked at me cross-eyed with wonder or doubt.

Now that I am 65 years old, I see it as a gift of foresight, for that is what it is now, it reveals to me that I was OK.

I can use my active imagination to go back and be the person that listens and tries to understand. Because the youthful me needs to be heard.

It has come around to be a blessing that I will confirm as good. Now is a time to reap what I have sown. Building on this magical nature that many of us share.

It is my Cornish character, maybe. I hope to encourage others here to listen to their foresight. It is so human and feminine. An honorable part of who we are.

To bend back and embrace all the past, present and future.

The good bridge of balance.


A new short film by Hudley Flipside

Praying Mantis in Hollyhock in my garden.


Yippee-ki-yay!

How do I balance out the conflicts in life? China and the USA Military now near Alaska confronting each other, our own x- USA president indicted repeatedly. Then there is an answer…

Nature is consistent like the Bumblebee who visits the same time every year. I hold in my dislike of big punk festivals galore and settle into the world around me.

Up front and personal. A pint of beer at the local pub and a delicious bowl of Grits.

Creativity and my spirituality. What is the difference between discernment, insight, instinct and fantasy or the big one active imagination. I use all of these, but the best is active imagination.


“An active imagination when a person engages with the ideas in their imagination, using it as a mental strategy to communicate with the subconscious mind. In Jungian psychology, it is a method for bridging the conscious and unconscious minds.

Instead of being linked to the Jungian process, the word “active imagination” in modern psychology is most frequently used to describe a propensity to have a very creative and present imagination. By examining the most evident manifestations of the unconscious mind—dreams—a person can learn how to execute this method on themselves.

It is thought to be a crucial aid in the process of individuation. It employs creative imagination as an organ for “perceiving outside your mental boxes.” ~ Analytical psychology


And for me nature always knows when I am doing it… lovely.

The song I created for this is personal but it is from my fantasy and our fantasy is a must if we wonder how the world could be destroyed over computer chips.

We endure the minds of weapons and war!

A catchy tune.


Yippee-ki-yay!



Approved by

White Albino Pigeon …DOVE of Peace



In fact, pigeons live on every continent except Antarctica. However, seeing a white pigeon is rare even as only 1 % are all white. The White Albino Pigeon has special symbolic meaning for people all around the world.


Tonight about 7:30 PM I went out for a short swim to cool off. The sun hot and was up closer to the west.

I saw a new bird high on the telephone wire. One I had not viewed before. The bird was intensely white and had a soft aura about it. I thought it was larger than a dove or pigeon. Yet with a small, charming head and beak.

Slowly this bird came closer and closer as my body was covered in water up to my head. A few times this bird flew over me and around me. It landed on the table’s umbrella. Then flew down on the ground across the pool from me.

Walking around the pool closer to me. It pulled its head down to take a drink of water from the small Jacuzzi. I was standing very calmly in the water and saw that this bird had very black eyes and moved its head round as eyes were blinking. Seemed to me a kind of Morse Code. Staring at me for long moments of time.

Looking this way and that way expecting movement from any variable possible before flight if necessary. Here in the same parallel line, I found a praying mantis exoskeleton floating on the tip of the water.

We spent a good 30 minutes this way and the white bird flew up on a telephone line. I watched and waited until the white albino peace bird was out of sight from my view. An amazing experience, incredibly special and very overwhelming.

I’ve lived here 24 years, and this is the first time this beautiful creature, with golden leg bracelets, ever visited me. A focused bird, unafraid and deliberate. Not showing interest in the ravens’ food or songbirds’ water bath.


“Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung believed in our unconscious communicating with our conscious through symbols. Birds play a huge part in this archetypal symbolism as they represent the space of air, and this is a bridge between the human and spirit world.”

– general in-depth perception… open to interpretation!


The White Birds

I would that we were, my beloved, white birds on the foam of the sea!
We tire of the flame of the meteor, before it can fade and flee;
And the flame of the blue star of twilight, hung low on the rim of the sky,
Has awaked in our hearts, my beloved, a sadness that may not die.

A weariness comes from those dreamers, dew dabbled, the lily and rose;
Ah, dream not of them, my beloved, the flame of the meteor that goes,
Or the flame of the blue star that lingers hung low in the fall of the dew:

For I would we were changed to white birds on the wandering foam:

I and you! I am haunted by numberless islands,

and many a Danaan shore, Where Time would surely forget us,

and Sorrow come near us no more; Soon far from the rose and the lily,

and fret of the flames would we be,

Were we only white birds, my beloved, buoyed out on the foam of the sea!


The “Danaan Shore” refers to Tier-nan-Oge (Gaelic), an imaginary land where mortals live as long as do fairies. Danu was the queen of the fairies that inhabited this land. Yeats interpreted Gonne’s wish to become a seagull as a wish for freedom from sorrow and time.