Radiohead, Großer Sendesaal des SFB, Berlin, Germany July 4, 2000

Radiohead's back on the road, and it's looking like I'm going to have to take a ride if I want to see them. Which I'm not going to do. Part of me thinks that this is the year that I really need to drop everything and go, but I can't. No time.

I have to write. Have books to finish. And it's Thom Yorke and company who are keeping my ass motivated. They stay on top by maintaining a sharp focus, and that's good enough for me.

I read that they're rehearsing 75 songs for their 2012 shows, including a bunch of new stuff written at rehearsals this winter.

I read that before the band wrote "Creep" they, "...rehearsed in some town hall every day, including Christmas Eve. It was insane. There was no concept. We were working on songs some nebulous future reason we had not clearly thought through."

I read something Thom Yorke said that really gets my blood pumping. He said, "I understand why we did all those shows. If we hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are."

I read something Jonny Greenwood said, that I try to remember when my motivation is low. "What's different about us was that right from the beginning our obsession was songs." 

And finally, I read something Ed O'Brien said that I think applies to writing as much as it does to music. "It wasn't a bunch of mates, more like a bunch of co-conspirators. We had this common goal. That's what it was all about, dreaming it up. All this stuff we have now--there was never any doubt it was going to happen. And it did, because the material world caught up."

More than once I've heard that writers can't compare themselves to musicians, that writing is not making music and selling books isn't the same as selling songs and I used to think Bullshit! because creation is creation. Over and over I keep getting sucked back toward musicians as sources of inspiration because they talk about creation, whereas writers talk a lot about writing. Verbs, nouns, techniques.... I went to school to learn all that, I want to hear what successful creators have done to get where they're at. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, I don't know. Maybe it's because writing isn't as immediately exciting as music, and the process doesn't seem like it could possibly be as clever. Either way, I love pulling energy from guys like Radiohead and The Clash because so much is written about the way they CREATED.

Download this show at Sugarmegs. Just do it. Especially since it's all rainy out today. Great sound quality.

Radiohead
Großer Sendesaal des SFB
Berlin, Germany
July 4, 2000
STEREO VERSION

01. Optimistic
02. Morning Bell
03. Karma Police
04. The National Anthem
05. In Limbo
06. No Surprises
07. My Iron Lung
08. Dollars and Cents
09. Bishop's Robes
10. Talk Show Host
11. Kid A
12. You and Whose Army
13. Airbag
14. Lucky
15. How to Disappear Completely
16. Paranoid Android
17. Everything in its Right Place
ENCORE
18. Egyptian Song
19. Exit Music
20. Knives Out
21. Big Ideas (aborted due to tech problems) Nice Dream

Source: Appears SBD based on quality and separation of instruments / audience. If not SBD, then it's an excellent Audience recording. Received CDR as a trade>Converted through Rio Music Manager> FLAC. Best Source known.

This show was before the official release of Kid A.

Wild and Wonderful HELLBENDER: Jenkinsburg Bridge

    When the road turned into gravel, I gunned it. The rafting outfitters maintained it because it led to the Cheat Canyon take-out. After a half-mile, most of this spring’s gravel got washed out, replaced again by pocked bedrock and mud.
    Alex didn’t say anything until I pulled up to the old Jenkinsburg Bridge. This was much higher than the bridge over the Big Sandy. The old steel trestle spanned the V-shaped Cheat Canyon quite dramatically. Big pines buttressed each end and a rocky rapid flowed below. Occasional rock outcroppings punctuated the steep, green slopes.
    "Are we crossing?"
    "That was the plan," I said. "You said you wanted a plan, right?"
    "This one doesn’t look as sturdy." She sank toward the center of the Jeep and got real low in the seat.
    She was right. The planks hadn’t seen anything other than foot traffic in years.
    I said, "You never heard that you shouldn't look down if you're afraid of heights?"
    She just stared silently at the river, some eighty feet below.
    "Alex," I said. "There’s no other way." I let the Jeep creep forward instead of waiting for her approval.
After a pause she tried to negotiate. "Just go slowly, okay?"
    I pushed the clutch in and said, "I was thinking faster is better. That way our momentum is forward instead of... You know." I pointed down to the river.
    "Can I walk?" She asked.
    "Alex..." I said, drifting toward the bridge. The sound of trucks coming down the take-out road made my decision for me.
    "No time." I put the Jeep in gear and let out the clutch. "When I get to the other side I want you to drive up the hill a ways. Then that’ll be it. I promise."

Jason Jack Miller on Going Live (FCTV)

I'm going to be on TV!

Jason Jack Miller and Heidi Ruby Miller are going to be on the premier of a new local talk show in Uniontown, Pennsylvania--GOING LIVE with FCTV. The show will air at 7:00 PM on Friday, April 13, 2012.

Here's a link to the page on the official site:
http://goinglivefctv.com/Going_Live_FCTV/Guests/Entries/2012/4/13_Jason_and_Heidi_Miller.html

On This Day in JASON JACK MILLER History: March, 24, 1995

Jason Jack Miller paddles a raft with one hand, saves a kid from a bear AND shows off a new haircut!

This has been ON THIS DAY IN JASON JACK MILLER HISTORY!

CHEAT SEASON

"Some rivers just scare you," Johnny said. “There's one in West Virginia, the Cheat. I've run more difficult water, but there's something about the Cheat that I'm really afraid of. I can't explain it." (Kane 130)

It must be the water in my blood.

After a long winter, it warms and flows a little faster, remembering its ancient course over jagged sandstone ledges through wild mountain canyons. It manifests itself in my dreams first. A rush. A sensation of falling. Suffocating panic. And I haven't been on the Cheat River in fifteen years.

A wave at Decision Rapid flipping a fifteen foot raft end over end.

Upper Coliseum Rapid being altered by high water during the winter of 1993-1994.

A terrible swim at that very same rapid that I'll only tell you about if you buy me a drink.


A dozen waterfalls plunging down the canyon walls at High Falls Rapid after a heavy rain.

The undercut at Teardrop Rapid.

Big Nasty.

That the water in my blood remembers is no surprise. That I still dream of walking down the sandy path to the put-in... That I still dream of paddling like my life depended on it... That I dream of fighting to surface for air that's always too far away and wake up still holding my breath... That's how I know the river will be in my blood forever.

Kane, Joe. "ROARING THROUGH Earth's Deepest Canyon." National Geographic. Jan 1993: 130. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. .