Goodbye Blogger:Hello Wordpress

So I finally designed and new blogspace. Its brighter. Interactive.Musical.Simple. Readable. I'm diggin it. My new blog address is http://www.johnmorello.com/wordpress. I have all the old ones archived there and all the new stuff...Just waiting for U. And we can't spell fun without "U." Or Umbrella, Gauze, or Tulsa. Anyway see ya there.

The return of Matt & John

Many have asked about me doing stand up again and I repeatedly have said "its not where i'm at right now." However I have the oppurtunity to do a project with my old comedy partner Matt and I wanted to share it with those who visit the blog here at iamdirt. Matt and I have been talkin on the phone for ever about everything so now its your turn to suffer and listen to it if you like. Through the miracle of Skype, Wiretap Pro, and Garage Band...and my trusty mac we are recording these conversations and making them available to you. Why not? The NSA is already listening so why shouldnt you:-) Go to our site and podcast by clicking on the grey banner to the right in the sidebar. check back often. listen. comment. email. call in via skype the next time we record. BTW soon I will be recording a dirt podcast exclusively about "DIRT" issues. New site will be up soon as well as a new blog. I'm switching to wordpress and getting away from Blogger. Also I'm on myspace too...but I never check it really. I just use it to link to my real web site. all for now.

a change is gonna come

sorry I been away. Its been two months. But I have been developing some new stuff that will be pretty cool for all my web visitors. First off there will be an entirely new web site and design coming soon. Ive been working hard on it and I can't wait to unveil it. Also there will be some new video. And a a long promised music orientated podcast. AND the thing I'm really excited about... is that I have been in touch with my old comedy partner from my stand up days and we have decided to work on a little project. We will be doing a blog/radio show/podcast together. A Matt & John reunion. It will be political and current event orientated and feature interviews with authors, artists, and local politicians from Louisville, Kentucky and Western, MA. It should be a lot of fun...It will be totally seperate from my work with "dirt"and will be on a seperate site but I will post links to the page here and on my homepage and of course its rated PG so everyone is invited. Back to the grind of macromedia/adobe applications. BTW I saw Michael Franti & Spearhead a few weeks ago and it was phenomenal. They have a new album titled "Yell Fire" which should be out in 2-3 weeks. Check back soon.

Living With War

It was 1983. I was 14 years old and I begged to go see Neil Young at the Worcester Centrum. He was on tour for an album called "Trans." An experimental electronic folky concept album that angered a lot of his fan base. I loved it. It was a crazy amazing show...but I remember walking out of the show and hearing half the crowd saying how awful the new Neil was. While like another 30 percent were stimulated and another 20 like me LOVED it. This was a trend that continued throughout all of Neil's albums and it is this artistic bravey that has made him second only to Bob Dylan in my book. I have never heard anyone play a guitar like him. I have never heard such raw emotion from anyone but him. A few years ago I went to see him tour for an album called Greendale. A concept album with live actors acting out the songs with community theater style scenery on the stage while the band went nuts. It was powerful and so different than anything I ever saw. After the show 60 percent hated it, 30 percent indifferent, and 10 percent loved it. I was again in the minority. Neil wrote a song called "Bandit" for that album that really got to me emotionally. Anyway, the fact is Neil is again challenging us all by opening himself up to that mysterious thing called inspiration. His album "Prairie Wind" was just out a few months ago but in the meantime he was inspired and recorded an album in like 3 days called "Living With War". I'm sure it will be controversial but you really should listen to it for yourself and go to his site to read the lyrics. Since Neil has helped me so much in life I would like to thank him by taking this space to advertise his new album. It will be downloadable from iTunes next Tuesday and in stores as an old fashioned CD in a couple weeks. But you can listen to the album in its entirety right now. Neil insists that people who are gonna listen to it streamed over the internet do so by listening to it in order and as a whole instead of judging it by one "controversial" song or lyric. So sit back and enjoy. OK. Because blogger screws up my Javascripts I had to do this kind of funky. STEP 1: If you have a "pop up window blocker running disable it. STEP 2: Click on the album cover below or to the right to listen. When you click it will open up THREE windows. One is a giant page size window with a mosaic of the album cover. This will automatically open up a smaller window which is linked to Neil's label and this will begin playing the album. Enjoy...Oh BTW..The third window is the one that covers your heart and mind. You'll have to open that one yourself. Peace.

No wonder

Its no wonder a lot of kids I talk to feel hopeless. Its no wonder so many kids feel disconnected. So many feel angry or disenfranchised from society. When we live in a nation that is constantly telling them that money is all that is important and supreme power is all that matters what do you expect. When every newscast spends all their time talking about celebrity marriages and missing suburban white girls on Spring Break perhaps we can see why the average kid looks at the reality he sees in his life everyday...and then the reality that the media, their bosses, and our leaders push on us...And they know its a lie. We are being lied to daily about alcohol and its devestating effects on our families. We are being lied to about drugs and addiction as the people in power just shove platitudes like "just say no" and scare tactics to "scare us straight." Fear is their motivator. Fear. Fear. Fear. Granted some things are scary. Like the fact that 30% of all the kids that die from inhalants...Are doing it for the FIRST TIME. Thats scary! If I had a 6th grader you bet I would scare the living crap out of him....WITH THAT TRUTH! But the fact is we are getting these mixed messages. How can we say "No" to something if we have nothing else to say "Yes" to in our lives. If we are constantly being told that our lives mean nothing. This earth means nothing. My deeds mean nothing. Than we are bound to feel like Nothing. Like dirt! The fact is we are all being told that our lives mean nothing by this government. If they can send 160,000 kids to die overseas for some political power than to them we mean nothing. If they can cut funding for schools than I guess our education and our brains mean nothing. If they can reduce funding for medicare and medicaid than I guess all of us over 65 or who are disabled mean nothing to them. If they can reduce funding for drug rehabilitation than all of us who have made mistakes mean nothing. If they can allow more heroin to come out of Afghanistan and Mexico than EVER than we mean nothing. And then today I read that the president is easing environmental laws on oil refineries and gas companies so that we can have cheap gas. In other words the businessmen who have recorded RECORD PROFITS over the past 6 years are saying that the only way to lower the price is to not make them pay to clean up their product. What a bunch of horsecrap! The fact is the oil companies will not pay but WE will! Why do we have those environmental restrictions in the first place? Because we need them. One fact to scare the hell out of you! The Glacier National Park in Montana 100 years ago had 150 glaciers...THERE ARE NOW 37! Every scientist worth his salt says this is mainly because of global warming. They say that if current trends are not halted or reversed by 2030 there will 0. Zero. Zippo. Gone. Nada. Suddenly this is not just some crazy conspiracy theory or some angry Kerry Voter or Massacusetts Liberal. Suddenly I have become in your eyes what I always was to begin with...A fellow resident of planet earth. And the thing is I want to enjoy my short time here and leave it a little better for all the school kids I meet and perform for every day. So I beg you and implore you young people to get involved with this. This is real. Dedicate some of your time and amazing talents to draw attention to this and when you become 18 vote your conscience. Vote your hopes. Vote your future. Not just in the big one every four years but the congressional and state stuff every two years. Its not just politics...its our lives. I'm telling you there is so much good stuff you can do to make this world a better place. There are so many things you can do for your friends to make their lives a little happier. There is so much you can do for yourself to make your life a little happier...And I can promise you that weed, alcohol, coke, meth...whatever will not take you on a path where you want to go. I will not use scare tactics with drug information...I will just simply tell you that if you have a vision of where you want to go with your life or even a vague notion of the type of person that you want to someday become, you will not get there any faster or easier...or maybe at all with drugs. I spoke with someone the other day whose words echoed in the caverns of head during my drive home from a gig. A soundman who had worked with countless artists like Bob Dylan, The Band, you name it this guy had seen it and lived it. The real deal. Rock n roll dude...awesome guy. Anyway, He was telling me his teenage daughter asked him about weed and his own history and he told me what he said to her: "I just told her the truth man...I told her that I had smoked it in the past but I found that weed and all the other drugs that were floating around were just not taking me where I wanted to go" Well said. So let us all think of where we wanna go and who are we allowing to drive this cab or bus we find ourselves riding. Grab the wheel. Follow your heart. And I hope to spend some time with you on this cosmic road trip that is so amazingly beautiful but all too brief.

Some comforting words

I used to want to be a preacher when I was a teenager. Since today is Sunday let me pretend and try out my sermon for all y'all. Today amidst all the turmoil surrounding our nation and our world I call upon all of us to be strong. ("Amen brother") Take heart and comfort all ye people in the words that I will share with you below. ("Share it preacher") They are words that comfort me in the morning and soothe me to sleep at night. (insert your own spiritual shout of agreement from here on out) When I hear mumblings on the street and chatter in coffeeshops I think of these words and they bring me peace. They are comforting as scripture and I repeat them to all you who are weary. Rejoice in our struggle and laugh in the face of fear y'all for these words will be a calm in your storm and a cool drink to your dry and thirsty soul. These words come from our founding fathers and mothers and directly from the Constitution of the United States. In the Twenty-Second amendment to this enduring document I have found these words upon which I will cleave to like a rock amidst the sea. For when I read these words I wanna shout. I wanna dance. I wanna give thanks. I wanna fall on my knees. For in the 22nd amendment to the Consitution I read these words: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice" "NO PERSON SHALL BE ELECTED TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT MORE THAN TWICE!" "NO PERSON SHALL BE ELECTED TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT MORE THAN TWICE!" "NO PERSON SHALL BE ELECTED TO THE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT MORE THAN TWICE!" HALLELUJAH! That means in 2 years and 7 months and 7 days (if the crazy cowboy doesnt kill us all first) we shall be free!

Latin saved my soul

When I was 16 or so I was having a hard time in school. I was a kid in transition in many ways and there were very few adults that understood me. My teachers thought I was a disruptive foul mouthed joker. My somewhat catholic upbringing seemed boring as hell (or heaven for that matter) but somehow I went to this church that had drums and guitars. The people at this assembly of god church I was going to had seen a kid in need and reached out to me. I had many intense spiritual experiences which caused me to look deeper at my self and my relationship with god and this world. I had a lot of questions about life and I felt like school was just so damn boring. I eventually quit school and started working in a print shop and a record store. My parents were devastated. And worst of all my church instilled in me something which took a long time to get over. An emotion called fear. Fear was the motivator. Fear of going to hell. Fear of backsliding. Fear of sinning. Fear of sex. Fear of drugs. Fear of rock and roll. Unfortunately these fears began to pervert and eventually destroy my relationship with god as I perceived it. Pardon the mixed metaphor, but like the thorns in the famed garden parable they clouded the once effortless window I once had into the world beyond this physical world of dirt. These fears led me to judge others as harshly as I was judging myself. When you are told over and over again that the flesh is weak and evil and all mankind is born into sin and evil it effects your self image and as any therapist will tell you that will effect your image of others. I was so indoctrinated to not be “of this world” that I had come to feel isolated and denied myself of so many of the things that were quite normal for a teenager to feel. Although this attitude was in some ways responsible for me stopping my use of drugs, and for that I am kind of thankful, it never really lasted and when I got older it lead to more confusion and I did return for a little while to smoking weed. But I didn't want to talk too much about drugs now....I wanted to tell you about Latin. Because it was not jesus and a cross that plucked me from the fires of my hell...It was a savior named Georges and an overhead projector. Georges Desrosiers (French spelling on purpose) was my French teacher in 9th and 10th grade. He was probably the most difficult and demanding teacher at the school...but really the coolest. He would wear concert T-shirts to school and told us all about foreign films he had seen as he taught us not only the French Language but about the country itself. He showed us slides of his many trips there and he did all of this with the strangest sense of humor. He actually laughed with us when we learned the Latin word “Facio”. I would pass him in the hall and say “Hey Georges...Facio.” His reply was of course “Facio too!” But for all the jokes, man he was pretty tough on all of us in terms of work. Students that normally “got by” in other classes with B’s and C’s would find themselves flunking Georges classes. I was one of those students. But the thing was that Georges reached out to me. When all the other teachers would kick me out of class for laughing, disturbing class, and telling obscene jokes...Georges rarely kicked me out of class. He would give me detention and make me do my work. He psychoanalyzed me publicly telling me and the whole class that: “Mr Morello is an infantile megalomaniac. He craves attention. Do you like to see us all suffer Mr. Morello. I can’t tell if you are a sadist or a masochist. Tell me more about this god you believe in Mr. Morello. Are you like most christians Mr. Morello. Do you want to worship god...Or do you want to beeeee Gaawwwwwwd. BUT you Mr. Morello are very funny. You have a natural comic timing. You could be the NEXT LENNY BRUCE! Mr. Morello see me after class!” So after class Georges made a deal with me. He said that I was very funny but I need to do some things. He said that he was glad the court made me go back to school but that I need to actually show up at school every day...not just two times a week to keep "juvie" off my back. He said that he was NOT going to kick me out of class for disturbing the others. He said if you want attention I’ll give it you. I will give you 5-10 minutes at the beginning or end of every class if you would like to tell jokes.Review movies.Do funny scenes from Bill Murray movies. Whatever.The floor would be mine...IF IF IF I would settle down and concentrate in class. Deal? HelI yeah I said. So i began to craft little 5-10 minute sets. I began to memorize cartoons and movies and impersonations. And I accidentally learned Latin in the process. Whoops. I began to care about my grades. I began to go to school EVERY DAY because I wanted to be in Georges class. Once I began to go every day I began to take other classes a little more seriously and by the time my senior year came around Georges asked me about two things. College and the school play. He told me the school play was needing someone funny so he introduced me to the director. I didn't really trust any other teachers and adults that much but Georges said he was cool. So I auditioned and was cast and had a blast. It changed my life. It got me involved in something bigger than myself. It got me meeting other students. It got me talking about my life and stuff with other teachers who treated me with respect and who saw potential in me when I didn't really see it in myself. Mr. Clancy, Mr. Healy, Mr. Robinson, Mr. Morill, Mr. Genese...Man it changed my whole life. I realize now that the main reason I was smoking weed before that was I was bored and unhappy with my reality. So I wanted to do things to alter that reality. Looking back it was those times with Georges in Latin class and after school detention that I began to look at myself differently. I began to feel like I could offer this world something. That I could make a difference and that I did indeed have talents. I began to feel that, unlike what a lot of the judgmental church people told me, laughter and rock and roll was what made life a total blast. I actually ended up going on field trips.... to concerts, man. Georges took like four or five students to go see groups like The Kinks, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, U2, Judas Priest. It was amazing as I began to go to concerts with kids from school and NOT get high. By the end of my senior year I was on my way to college to major in theater and I said goodbye to my school and Latin and Georges. Some years passed. I got into doing stand up across the country. I eventually bought the box set of Lenny Bruce’s stand up material. I got married. I wrote the show dirt and began to perform that around the country. Especially enjoying the shows where I could look out and see those one or two students that reminded me of myself growing up. One night I returned home and the wife and I decided we would go to see this Folk Music singer named Bill Morrissey. We got there and sat in the front row. At the intermission I was frozen in my tracks as I heard a voice from behind. “John.” "Mr Morello!” I turned around and there was Georges. He was a little grayer but looked the same. I gave him a huge hug and introduced him to my wife and chatted about old times. But I took time during our conversation to let him know how much he meant to me and what his life at my school did for me. I told him that he and his Latin class changed my life! We parted agreeing to get together soon... And unfortunately that was the last time I saw him. I learned from his nephew Roger ( the history teacher at my old high school) that Georges had developed stomach cancer and passed away. Unbelievable. He was pretty young too. In his sixties I guess...Too soon. But as with any passing I try not to mourn too much, rather I try to be thankful for the fact that this person was even in my life for the time they were. I think of the difference he made in so many student's lives and I sure hope he passed away with that calm assurance that his life is eternal through all of his students. I think of Latin whenever I look at root words of the English language or I go to mass. I think of Latin whenever I listen to The Kinks or Judas Priest. I think of Latin whenever I watch obscure foreign films like Harold and Maude. I think of Latin when I listen to Lenny Bruce. I think of me whenever I look out at an audience and see one kid sitting in the back with his hood pulled over his eyes. I think of the movie Rushmore in which Max Fischer brags that he saved Latin. But most of all I think of Georges and know that he saved me.

You don't need a weather man...

I was just laughing about stupid stuff from childhood with some friends. We laughed about stuff that scared us when we were kids. Movies. Shows. Books. Music etc...So allow me to share with you. I slept in the same room with my two older brothers so they would naturally always try to scare me or tease me. One night we were all fallin asleep listening to some music and I was singing along and diggin it. I found out we were listening to the Steve Miller Band album "The Joker." Everything was cool until my brothers showed me the album cover. You think "Oh steve miller...thats like mellow. no problems. 70's rock. fly like an eagle...swingtown...The joker...I'm a joker...I'm a smoker...Some people call me Maaaarrrreeeece. No problem. BUT behold the album cover. BLAAAAAAAAAAAH! black sabbath. ozzy. kiss. alice cooper. that stuff never bothered me....but to this day The Joker freaks me out. thank you and good night.

An Empire Burlesque

Driving home listening to Sirius Satellite Radio channel 134. NPR Now. The program called “On The Media” had an interview with a media critic from NYU. He quoted a book by a gentlemen who passed away. His name escapes me but the book was called “Amusing Ourselves To Death.” It piqued my interest because I thought of the Roger Waters album “amused to death.” The book was a commentary on the News. Specifically the media news of the modern era. It seems in history people paid attention to news that was specifically related to their town, their community, their state, or their trade. One recalls the many publications which addressed writers, artists, plumbers and smiths of all backgrounds. But it seems with modern times the news has come to be presented in a manner which the author suggests is not only disjointed, illogical, and unethical...It is presented in a way that does harm and even violence to the listener or watcher. This theory can best be summed up by the phrase “And Now this...” A change of gears so rapid, that there is no earthquake, accident, or tragedy that is able to live on in the minds of the listener any longer than until the phrase “and now this...” has been spoken. It is a desensitizing and self centered callous mindset which is left in its wake. Perhaps it is understandable for in old times a person never HEARD of an earthquake miles away killing 100,000 people because it was not needed to be known for in reality “How did it affect them?” There is an element of human drama perhaps but as far as a genuine interest and affect on their life...Not really. It is stories and presentations like this that breed ignorance rather than knowledge. Confusion over clarity. A smokescreen of pity rather than education. These dissociative facts and images that are reeled off,not only nightly anymore, but in a loop through out the day thanks to Cable TV have created an overall collective mess. The commentator then blew me away when he said that this mess “if it was labeled by the field of aesthetics would be called Dadaism, by philosophy would be called Nihilism, and by psychology would be called Schizophrenia. In the parlance of the theater it would be simply called Vaudeville.”