tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62929033237877910132024-02-20T22:10:51.610-06:00John LudiThe music, videos, and polemic of John Ludi, random scourge. John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-38147459257996124952022-10-26T04:17:00.001-05:002022-10-26T04:17:41.081-05:00Aging Musician Retires, Billions Yawn.<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have decided to celebrate 40+ years in music by retiring from it. The reasons for this are myriad, but it is mostly due to my sense that the time has passed for me to do much good in the world with my work as the future trajectory of our civilization (and our planet) seems fairly obvious...and that my </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US">output</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is VERY out of step with most of the musical trends of the past couple decades or so, to the extent that the idea of developing an audience at this juncture seems improbable.</span></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">I'm grown tired of swimming against the tide, and it would be against my principals to swim WITH it...so it’s time to let it all go.<br /><br />From this point onward I will probably not do much more than post the occasional self-indulgent cover tune on YouTube. It is highly unlikely that I will release more original music.<br /><br />All of that being said, I am planning on getting my current ten albums in front of as many pairs of ears as possible over the next couple of years, <span lang="en-US">thus this email. I am hosting all of these current albums on a file-sharing service called Sync. They are MP3s encoded at 320kbps and each directory includes lyrics, credits and artwork as well. These are all FREE...however, you can always donate at </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnludi" style="color: navy;"><span lang="en-US">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnludi</span></a></u></span></span><span lang="en-US"> if you feel so moved.<br /><br />The albums are listed below, along with my best attempt at a description. I’m extremely eclectic and it’s pretty much impossible to </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US">lock</span></span></span><span lang="en-US"> </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US">my work</span></span></span><span lang="en-US"> into any specific style or genre...each album is very much it’s own thing.<br /><br />Feel free to share these albums (or this message itself)...you can review them, play them on your station, annoy your neighbors, frighten your pets, etc., if they appeal to you. As with any other creative work not in the realm of public domain, please don’t use it in commercials or such things without my express permission. If you think any of my songs/compositions would be perfect for your film project or whatnot, just get in touch with me.<br /><br />Also, </span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US">m</span></span></span><span lang="en-US">y interviews, off-grid living, travel and assorted live/ one-off music videos are on YouTube, if that is of an interest to you.<br /><br />(I also, for the sake of non-grid dependent posterity, am interested in sending out some </span><span lang="en-US"><b>limited</b></span><span lang="en-US"> physical copies of some of my albums (in CD and/or DVD collection form). This would be limited to the continental US due to media mail postal rates. Let me know if this is of an interest to you.)</span><br /><br />Thank you...and best of luck in the times to come...you’ll likely need it.<br /><br /><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>2022 - The Quiet Earth Orchestra - World Without Words 2<br /></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;">(Genres - Ambient, Instrumental Prog, Soundtrack)<br /></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/0f88b0ef0/buemczpt-qz22gsdk-44uirtrb-sttvgv4x">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/0f88b0ef0/buemczpt-qz22gsdk-44uirtrb-sttvgv4x</a></b></div><p></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is an album of Instrumental Progressive and Ambient pieces and is probably the last album I will ever make. I wanted to go out on an up note. It is fairly innocuous and pleasant to listen to, with lots of layered textures that sound rather nice in a pair of headphones.<br /><br /><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>2020 - John Ludi - Mistakes Have Been Made<br /></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;">(Genres - Rock, Indie, Prog)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd4d39720/7tfk5nf8-uktc942a-egzeza2z-wrrs8w3b">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd4d39720/7tfk5nf8-uktc942a-egzeza2z-wrrs8w3b</a></b></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">My final album as a socially-concerned eclectic singer-songwriter-instrumentalist. It’s all over the map musically, but could be considered Progressive in the same sense that Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, David Bowie and Todd Rundgren could be considered Progressive. I consider this the apex of my recording career and the best one to start with.<br /><br /><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>2015 - John Ludi - Obsolescence<br /></b><b style="font-size: 12pt;">(Genres - Rock, Indie)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd86c5fb0/cn5b65xe-5xgsawrm-k9ihes2g-76asmw7b">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cd86c5fb0/cn5b65xe-5xgsawrm-k9ihes2g-76asmw7b</a></b></div><p></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">One of two albums I put out in 2015, it is the “internally-focused” album. It’s an album of songs reflecting on aging, loss, and mortality, for the most part.<br /><br /><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>2015 - John Ludi - Rage<br /></b><b>(Genres - Rock, Indie, Punk)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/419c6df60/ixnrrhhq-kps8djhh-fjpuq45z-bn77ifs3">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/419c6df60/ixnrrhhq-kps8djhh-fjpuq45z-bn77ifs3</a></b></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">One of two albums I put out in 2015, it is the “externally-focused” album. <span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US">A lot of my older “punk” songs from the past were redone, as well as a few new pieces. The topics are generally political, environmental, social...and overall deal with a civilization in a state of collapse.<br /></span></span></span><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b>2008 – The Quiet Earth Orchestra – The Quiet Earth Orchestra<br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b>(Genres - Prog Rock)<br /></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/b5cff4a30/ijg3q7pq-wt2jqeb7-rnqh54ht-rymn476t">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/b5cff4a30/ijg3q7pq-wt2jqeb7-rnqh54ht-rymn476t</a></b></span></span></span></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">This is my homage to 70’s Progressive Rock, and has occasional elements of Yes, King Crimson, and ELP blended together with a darker Gothic musical and lyrical sensibility.<br /><br /><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b>2008 – Soft War – Soft War<br /></b><b>(Genres - Rock, Indie)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/4a539e890/24z6h6py-z3s4zk8b-ye5yx3k6-4e5ws7uu">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/4a539e890/24z6h6py-z3s4zk8b-ye5yx3k6-4e5ws7uu</a></b></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Much more of a Rock/Indie Rock album, but still very eclectic and diverse in its presentation and scope and a rare collaborative effort (I mostly work alone) that I am extremely proud of.</span></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></b></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;">2005 – </b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b>John Ludi</b></span></span></span><b style="font-size: 12pt;"> – Rise Above or Fall Below<br /></b><b>(Genres - Rock, Indie)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/3b1eba2e0/7tacia2p-bx54uzpa-yw62ieaz-82j8wtb8">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/3b1eba2e0/7tacia2p-bx54uzpa-yw62ieaz-82j8wtb8</a></b></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A favorite of many of those who know my work, it is a study in musical eclecticism that is lyrically focused on notions of materialism versus spirituality and transcendence.</span></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><br /></span></span></span></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b>2001 – John Ludi – Hell’s Laughter and Heaven’s Ache<br /></b></span></span></span><b>(Genres - Rock, Indie, “Goth”)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cc1f7b710/x9zf5v45-trnqprra-hsbk9w3a-et7gu35n">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/cc1f7b710/x9zf5v45-trnqprra-hsbk9w3a-et7gu35n</a></b></div><p></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My first release as “John Ludi”, this album is not the best work I’ve ever created in terms of production, but there are a great many songs that I am extremely proud of.</span></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;">1995 - The Quiet Earth Orchestra - World Without Words<br /></b><b>(Genres - Ambient, Soundtrack, Worldbeat)<br /></b><b><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/34dee06f0/imqmbeqr-cx7cm7rm-fmptmcf3-gqzndym4">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/34dee06f0/imqmbeqr-cx7cm7rm-fmptmcf3-gqzndym4</a></b></div><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the few projects from my earlier years that I have decided is worth putting out there, this is an instrumental work that (like WWW2 from 2022) alternates between ambient pieces and percussion-based pieces. Interesting and (mostly) pleasant background music, basically.</span></p><p class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: 12pt;">1982-1989 – John Ludi – 4-Track Wonderland<br /></b><b>(Genres - Rock, </b><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span lang="en-US"><b>Prog, Experimental</b></span></span></span><b>)<br /><a href="https://ln5.sync.com/dl/70a4764a0/fsypqh6e-sdi6g3ia-cewdbu7h-7wipmtut">https://ln5.sync.com/dl/70a4764a0/fsypqh6e-sdi6g3ia-cewdbu7h-7wipmtut</a></b></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Musical baby pictures, basically...but some of them are pretty decent musical baby pictures. If you find my more recent work compelling in any way, this would be a good way to hear how I started out on the path I followed over the past 40+ years.</span></div>John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-62967906550006192012022-04-05T06:14:00.001-05:002022-04-05T06:14:33.285-05:00John of The Mountain Gets Humbled<p> I wrote this as a response to an FB post...figured it was OK enough to make it one of my infrequent blog posts. Hope you're all enjoying The End Times. Tip your wait staff.<br /><br /><br /></p><div class="kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Roughly three years into my yurt-dwelling off-grid adventure in the hills of The Driftless region of Wisconsin, I experienced a medical issue that, while extremely minor in the vast scheme of things, led to one of those humbling “no man is an island” moments that forced me to revisit some of my notions as a “Prepper”.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">I had endured a full winter in the yurt, having slogged through temps of -25F without actually dying (unless I have and this current moment is part of a hell that I probably deserve), and I was feeling pretty full of myself. I was sitting on several years of stored food, seeds, multiple means of treating water, gold and silver, various means of self-protection, cash, and a good basic working knowledge of foraging, gardening, and most of the other ways of keeping oneself healthy and alive during a period of severe systemic interruptions to life as we know (knew) it. It all seemed to be working even better than I had planned.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Until I awoke one morning with a boulder in my eye.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">“Why is it ALWAYS my right eye?”, I thought as some horrible little SOMETHING dragged its nails across my cornea. I sat upright, fully alarmed as I pulled my upper eyelid away from my eye, seeking relief. I have blepharitis in that particular eye, so I’m used to a certain amount of pain and irritation, especially when exposed to dust or mold or too much cold air, but this was something different; this was obviously a foreign body that had inexplicably found its way under my eyelid during the night.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Putting aside the relative improbability of such a thing, I spent the next half hour trying all the various tricks I knew of how to make such things go away...to no avail. An ER visit was in order. Having no insurance at the time I was loath to even think about it, but I was alone and in extreme pain and figured that we were close enough to everything falling apart that my perfect credit history could stand to take the hit if the bill was too high.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So I drove to the local rural hospital and my adventure there could fill several more paragraphs as I apparently drew some existential short straw as the people there seemed to not be programmed to deal with something as prosaic as “ow...I dun got sumthin in muh eye, doc!” (Why they would want me to take a vision test when one of my eyes was inoperable was beyond me...but I figured they needed to feel like they were doing SOMETHING and wanted a least a few reasons to charge me an extraordinary amount of money for close to nothing.)</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">They told me, in essence, that they couldn’t help me...but there was an eye clinic right down the hallway that opened in fifteen minutes, a fact which would have been really useful had they informed me of that when I first showed up.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">($1,100 for all their ineffectual fumblings was the outcome of THAT part of the drama. ‘Murica!!!)</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">As it turned out, it was just a tiny round little white thing of unknown origin that had embedded itself into my upper eyelid. No big deal; the doctor at the clinic had it out in a few seconds...and THAT bill was only $105. Had there been someone else around that could have flipped up my eyelid and swabbed it with a q-tip I’d have saved myself a lot of pain and expense, but I was flying solo at that juncture.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So with all that prepping and all of that planning, my fiercely independent little life was thrown completely off balance by a tiny little piece of nothing roughly a quarter of the size of the head of a pin. It was a comeuppance and a lesson; one of those “for the want of a nail” kind of things...a mosquito in a room full of mosquito-brown tapestries.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">So when I hear these ammosexuals wax heroic about their macho visions of a world where they can flex their flabby muscles and let out an off key wolf howl on top of a mountain while waving their AKs in the air over their pointed little heads, I giggle a fair bit.</div></div><div class="cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql o9v6fnle" style="background-color: #f0f2f5; color: #050505; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Good luck with that, Rambo.</div></div>John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-13357028775881035712021-01-10T12:07:00.001-06:002021-01-10T12:15:10.541-06:00Apocalypse<div style="text-align: left;"><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of my various names for the times were are now knee-deep in has been The Great Revealing. It’s a time where all secrets are freed from their dusty tombs and people show you who they truly are under the pretense and theatrical finery, under the barrier of comforting lies that we tell ourselves about ourselves. The narrative...the cover story...the resume that we push to the world outside ourselves while knowing deep down inside that we are all naked emperors.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">To quote Wikipedia: “An apocalypse, (literally meaning "an uncovering") is a disclosure or revelation of great knowledge. In religious and occult concepts, an apocalypse usually discloses something very important that was hidden or provides what Bart Ehrman has termed, "A vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities".</p><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">Of course, such times are also generally accompanied by a fracturing of all the systems and assumptions that we hold dear. The solid ground we assumed was forever turns out to be as ephemeral as our most fleeting of nocturnal visions and, being creatures that crave certainty and something to believe in, we stagger from theory to theory and from leader to leader, hoping for some solid rock within the raging stream to cling to in our increasing panic.<br /><br />It is said that if you want to see what a person is really like, make them angry. True enough for my liking, but I would extend that to make them sad, or frightened, or just really really tired. We are in those times where almost all are being tested, and a great many are being found wanting.<br /><br />Those tests, sadly, are likely to continue and accelerate.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some people are turning out to not be who we may have thought they were. It’s important to understand that this is who they ALWAYS were, on some level. The friend or family member who has embraced QAnon and issues forth a plethora of rationalizations for the redneck rampage at the capitol always had the embryo of that element slowing growing inside themselves...it only wanted for a trigger. They are the people who are okay with just about any injustice as long as THEIR interests are being served...and that was who they were all along...all along the largely untroubled years with their smiles and embraces and shared meals and pats on the back and consoling words for you when life wasn’t going your way.</span></p><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">Some are calling this an effect of “privilege” and I would say that that is a fair assessment, as they go. Having spent a fair amount of my early childhood years in a mixed-race working poor neighborhood in Detroit and then ascending the standard of living scale into the affluent suburbs, I have come to understand this effect in a way that not too many cranky middle-aged white men do...so injustice has always rankled. Frankly, I built an entire musical career around my sense of indignation at the unfairness and inequities of the world. So it’s sort of where I live.<br /><br />I have encountered a great many people over the years who don’t know what they don’t know regarding these injustices...though many assume that they do (and I’m sure I have this failing myself to a degree, no matter how I try to monitor it)...but there is a willfulness about it these days and it is but one of a great many odious and ugly things flying out of the Pandora’s Box of our rapidly fracturing culture.<br /><br />I have sparred with a fair amount of willfully (and otherwise) obtuse people of late, though I have tried to be increasingly less present in certain venues overall. I encounter the same patterns of thinking almost every time: the false equivalences and “whataboutisms” that saturate any polarized dialog between those of us trying to make a fair and just world for EVERYONE and those who would prefer it go in the opposite direction. If the arguments were not so rote and intellectually unsophisticated and full of snickering sophistry I’d be tempted to budge, as the dim shadow of my old acquiescent self wants to get along with pretty much everyone.<br /><br />But I can’t...especially if the views are those that I find morally repugnant.<br /><br />Like many others over the past four or so years, I have had to let an awful lot of people go. Most of these people I knew were of the ilk that would be willing to shoot me in cold blood if just the right circumstances occurred and just the right fantasies took hold of their fears and uncertainties. There HAVE been a few sad surprises though...and that sadness will likely never go away as I think of the times I spent with one person or another before the dark cloud of our collective consequences finally settled into the lower atmosphere of all of our day to day lives.<br /><br />So I forgive...and I say goodbye (however harshly at times) with love in my heart and the understanding that on a more rarefied level of being, I suspect that this whole worldly experience may be revealed as a vast illusion. I mourn the absence of certain people, but I don’t forget who they have shown themselves to be no matter how strong the lure of happier memories. If the dust settles tomorrow and we enter a calmer time those tendencies will still be there waiting for the next crisis to reveal both the better and lesser angels of their nature.</p><p align="left" class="western" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; direction: ltr; font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0in;">I also continue to take my own “moral inventory” in these turbulent times. My lifelong self-analysis and monitoring of my own pretenses may make me a slightly larger rock in the stream, but that stream is flowing faster and faster and faster. I have struggled with my anger and judgmental character traits all my life, but these times have exacerbated them. The latter tendency I have found to be a useful tool in this rough world, but I have chosen most often to take those judgments and simply walk away and let others, or circumstance in general, mete out the “what goes around comes around” part of the drama. And I continue to hope that the conditions of the world continue to allow me to do that, and not back me into some sort of situational corner where walking away is no longer an option.<br /><br />So this is my way of commiserating with those of you who have lost, and continue to lose, people that they once held dear to this mad world of our collective making. If anything, it has made me value the people in my life who have always held true and strong to their moral compass, no matter which way the wind was blowing.<br /><br />To them I say “I love you”...to the rest I say “goodbye...and may you find your way”.</p></div><p><span style="font-family: "Liberation Serif", "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p>John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-61883659384618265182020-06-07T07:17:00.001-05:002020-06-07T07:17:21.088-05:00When you see a cop...when they see a cop.I'm a member of the second most protected demographic in the United States: a starchy white middle-aged male. I say "second most" because I am not rich. If I put on a MAGA hat I could easily pass for one of Trump's mindless minions (well...if I wasn't in my normal metrosexual/anglophile mode of dress which raises red flags with almost everyone, everywhere).<br /><br />As a member of that protected demographic, it's probably not for me to say anything definitive about how people outside of that demographic might feel in any given situation...but since I grew up in a working poor mixed neighborhood in Detroit, I can use that past and my imagination for a bit of perspective...perhaps.<br /><br />When we lived in Detroit in the 70's it was a given that the police were not our friends and they were generally to be avoided. The riots of 1967 were far from a distant memory and the general feeling was one of fear and mistrust. You only called them if you HAD to. Most of the time you settled things on your own. I carry that with me to this very day, that wariness, despite my protected status. My black friends had (and have) a much heavier burden, which in a lot of ways I didn't understand until we moved from Detroit to Warren, MI.<br /><br />In my mixed neighborhood most of us got along, just a bunch of disadvantaged people coping with an inequitable economic system as best we could. Save one, none of my close friends were white and I didn't understand that that was the exception in this country and not the norm until Warren.<br /><br />Warren is an inner suburb of Detroit and was white and prejudiced as hell...and it probably still is...I don't visit. It was my first introduction to what extreme prejudice meant. Coming fresh out of the city to this awful place was jarring, to say the least. I was an instant pariah. My nickname was n***er-lover. I got into a LOT of fights.<br /><br />I didn't understand the hatred. Most of these kids had never even MET a black person...it was that segregated. It all came from their racist parents, from what I could tell. It was echoed even in my own extended family, most of whom were from a rural part of SE Michigan and likewise had little interaction with people of color. I called a couple of them out on their bigotry and was amazed at how they would try to deny it once it was plopped out on the table in front of them for all to see.<br /><br />Ignorance breeding fear. Irrational and unjustified fear.<br /><br />When I have told various comfortable starchy white people that I'm from Detroit, I have heard a funny little story fairly often...it goes like this:<br /><br />"Oh...you're from Detroit? Karen and I went there once. We took the wrong exit and ended up in a really...um...uh...bad neighborhood."<br /><br />"Really? How was it bad?" I would say, knowing what was about to come.<br /><br />"Well...it was...er...really, you know...urban."<br /><br />"How so?" I would say, with the beginnings of a wry smirk forming across my lips.<br /><br />"Well...Karen and I were the only white people there!"<br /><br />(Ah...there it is...)<br /><br />"Yet you survived!"<br /><br />"Yes...we asked a young man for directions and he was really nice and he told us how to get to Woodward and head North (or whatever)".<br /><br />At that point I just usually sigh and go on talking with them about the usual banal crap that boring suburban white people talk about until I find a way to get away from them gracefully. Lawns and stock portfolios and such.<br /><br />That fear though...<br /><br />I'm sure some reading this will have lived that same story: "wrong" exit...middle of the night...etc. So here's the thing: that fear you felt...and far be it for ME, Protected Man, to say this with any amount of certainty...but that fear you felt is probably not unlike the fear people of color experience ALL THE FUCKING TIME...especially when they are around cops.<br /><br />Chew on that a bit. Digest it a little.<br /><br />When I was a kid I knew that the cops could crack my skull open with total impunity. I saw police brutality firsthand over the years and heard much more from my friends of various shades of non-white. I carry it with me to this day...and as a member of a protected demographic it is but a fraction of that fear that I suspect many...perhaps most...people of color feel around cops.<br /><br />So when I hear that racist dog-whistle of "all lives matter" it makes my blood boil...because I want the people who say that to feel that fear...that sense that the skin they were drafted into could be something that could get them killed by the very people whose credo is "to serve and protect".<br /><br />Think on that, my fellow comfy white people. Think on that a while.<br /><br /><br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-15652558579909640212020-03-28T08:53:00.000-05:002020-03-28T08:53:01.943-05:00Mistakes Have Been Made...BRAND NEW ALBUM BY JOHN LUDI<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
This is my new, and possibly final, album. I consider it the best work I've ever done and if I never make another album I would be happy to say that it all ended on this particular note.</div>
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Though I obviously have my own distinct sound and musical identity, I would say that major inspirations during my recording of this album would be David Bowie's Blackstar, Peter Gabriel's UP and Kate Bush's Ariel...at least in terms of all of those albums being eclectic studies in contrast and juxtaposition. Like those albums, each song has its own set of feelings and meanings and imagery...and I only hope that this album hits anywhere NEAR the level of artistry of those works. My goal is always to take the listener on a journey through dynamic peaks and valleys and leave them feeling well-traveled by the end of the experience. I want the experience to be impacting on deep emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels, and not just be aural wallpaper to serve as a mere backdrop.</div>
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I hope I have accomplished that goal, and I hope that people will take the time to actually LISTEN to this album...but that DOES take a certain level of commitment and an actual interest in music as art. If you have that, you may find this work gratifying. Many have said that it takes a couple listens to “get” what I do...and you may find that to be true as well.</div>
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I have made this album available on YouTube as a full album video with lyrics for free listening, as a free download on Noisetrade (link in notes on YouTube video), and as a paid download on Bandcamp (link in notes on YouTube video as well). I had planned on making some videos for some of these songs and to roll it out in a more commercial way, but given the times it seems wrong to me to do so. Above all else, I would would like my work to be heard and remembered. If something happens to me, I would like to know that people listened to and enjoyed my work on some level.<br /><br /></div>
John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-52696552872742018692019-11-17T07:05:00.001-06:002019-11-17T07:05:59.174-06:00Afterlife by John Ludi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-45286864803281568992019-07-23T12:02:00.001-05:002019-07-23T12:02:00.970-05:00A Nick Cave cover...because I like Nick Cave.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-78056273108835974702019-06-12T17:07:00.002-05:002019-06-12T17:07:46.173-05:00Mistakes Have Been Made, by John Ludi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-68849138157365702072019-01-02T18:28:00.002-06:002019-01-02T18:28:44.650-06:00Everybody Here's Gettin' Stupider, by John Ludi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-71302572542214990172018-11-25T13:47:00.003-06:002018-11-25T17:01:00.276-06:00The Encampment<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are aspects of myself that, while
not exactly a state secret, are things that I don't share all that
often, as the sharing of them would create impressions and
expectations that I really don't want to have attached to myself. So
when I say that I am psychic I want it to be understood that, like
most psychics, I'm not all that good at it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I know things. I feel things. I meet
someone and have flashes of intuition that are later corroborated
when I make gentle inquiries about the individual. I have always done
this, it's been a part of my life since I was a child. The trouble
with it is that it comes unbidden and I have little control over it.
So I have never had any aspirations about starting Ludi's Psychic
Hotline and I can't tell you the winning lottery numbers or whether
or not you're going to end up roasting in a fiery plane crash when
you take your next holiday in Greece. <br />
<br />
Along with my annoying
ability to turn off street lights randomly when I'm depressed or
pissed off, I have the ability to peer into people souls...sometimes.
I can also get impressions of places and the residual moods attached
to them...sometimes. I frequently can tell when I've irked someone
and when they are doing their best to hide it...it's like a little
black shadow that skitters over their face while they try to remain
composed. Every so often I've asked the person if the last thing I
said bothered them and invariably they answer in the affirmative.
I've scored high in various tests...especially when I was
young.<br />
<br />
Crowds are difficult for me: I get dizzy by all the
impressions and emotions being tossed about. They drain me...so I
avoid them. It has made being a rock musician a challenging affair,
and it's one of the reasons I have opted for recording over live
work. Plus I hate games and politics. There is that too.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When I was younger I was kind of an
open psychic wound and impressions would come to me fairly often and
hit me over the head and leave me feeling battered...so I gradually
closed myself off and put up walls that, due to other aspects of my
makeup, were generally only partially effective. But it was
something. It helped. Still does.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So having shut myself off as I have
it's pretty rare for something to really beat me up anymore, which is
why I was so stunned when I recently visited one of my best friends
in Minneapolis to see a concert and hang out in general for a couple
days.<br />
<br />
My friend mentioned that we would be driving past a
place called The Encampment...which is an area that the city (being
more compassionate than most American cities) has allowed a large
assemblage of homeless to live in kind of a tent city. He made mention
of this and I thought “well...that sounds like a sad place” and
thought nothing more of it.<br />
<br />
As we approached the place on my
right, I started feeling the old churning in the pit of my stomach.
I figured it would end there. It didn't. I was hit with a wave of
misery of such overwhelming strength that I had difficulty breathing.
I teared up and it felt like my insides were being pulled out of me.
I have not felt such a depth of despair since when I learned that my
father in law had died unexpectedly. It was indescribable. It was
the soul's equivalent of a heart attack and I'm not exactly sure what
it meant.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My friend told me that they have been
trying to find housing for these poor people before it gets too cold.
I really hope they do. This is a terrible situation for them and
I'm unclear as to whether my impressions were due to the ongoing
tragedy of being forced to live this way by an economic system run by
the calloused and inhumane, or if it was a psychic harbinger of some
massive tragedy to come. In either case, I felt that it was worth
mentioning this event as I feel that it must mean SOMETHING. There
has to be SOME reason why my semi-dormant psychic intuition chose
THIS tragedy over all the others increasingly besetting our
troubled species and planet.<br />
<br />
So I'm putting this out there in
hopes that Universe has a purpose for it, as I'm utterly without a
clue at this juncture. I've not felt so gutted in years and I hope
the city can find help for these folks before it gets deadly
cold...and that's only a matter of weeks. If I could guess the
lottery numbers I'd house them myself. I'd do a lot of things like
that if I had that ability, I suppose.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-71839505287016880522018-10-09T06:38:00.001-05:002018-10-09T06:38:30.024-05:00Motel 8, Ludi & Fitzpatrick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-58679600708757516572018-09-13T06:47:00.001-05:002018-09-13T06:47:31.580-05:00John Ludi's Anti-Tick Regimen. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-8538679722567580262018-08-30T19:32:00.001-05:002018-08-30T19:32:21.911-05:00The Traveler, by John LudiNew song for the next album.<br />
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-68775175742399810702018-07-13T06:48:00.001-05:002018-07-13T06:48:06.659-05:00She Remembers by Ludi and Fitzpatrick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-14841725496957418272018-05-10T16:45:00.003-05:002018-05-10T16:45:49.051-05:00Obligation by Soft War<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="f5ji" data-offset-key="dn83s-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="dn83s-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">This is the second of three songs I'm posting as a tribute to the recently-crossed over John Dennis...a drummer of prodigious talent whose playing has informed much of the work I have done since. A good man and a good friend and an excellent musician.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="74m0p-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">(This was the big blow-up song we would use to end most of our shows. I always loved watching Greg and John at the end of this tune. I wrote the lyrics about secret societies...years before the internet. We were kinda ahead of our time in some ways.)</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="84nik-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Several years ago...sometime around 2011 or so, four members of Soft War decided to rendezvous in Michigan and play four of their old songs...basically to see if they still “had it”. Considering that these four guys had not played together as a unit in almost 25 years, things turned out reasonably well.</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bs9hh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The video quality is what it is, but the audio wasn't too terrible...and despite a few little glitches, it was really gratifying to still be a tight functioning until after almost a quarter century. </span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="8fqbs-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">John Dennis-Drums</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="2170v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Kneil Ivory-Bass</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="a93bu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Greg Kutcher-Guitar, vocals</span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="boips-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">John Ludi-Lead vocals, guitar</span></div>
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John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-48844544452082070862018-05-06T08:36:00.002-05:002018-05-06T08:36:40.163-05:00Musical Update, Spring 2018<br />
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Finally, more music is coming through! I just started a new studio song for the next
album...which is going to be relatively genre-defying...even more so
than usual. I find that as the general trend seems to be towards the
formulaic, my drive is to ignore all formulas. I've never understood
why everyone wants to sound like everyone else...but there are a lot
of things about humans I don't understand.<br /><br />Aside from the odd
open mic and potentially busking, I've pretty much given up on the
notion of live performance (though that may change if I end up
working in Madison or some other larger city with broader tastes than
the place I'm at now), so I'm kind of going back to the pure art of
things in terms of recording. So what I'm coming up with seems to be
a blend of singer-songwriter, jazz, electronica, and things that have
no actual description attached to them. They sound like John
Ludi...who sounds like himself.<br /><br />Still plugging away at the
Ludi & Fitzpatrick material...a full album's worth should be done
in the next few months. Another album consisting of the Calm the
Hell Down material should be happening at some point in the
not-too-distant future as well. <br /><br />My ultimate goal for the
next couple/few years is to put together a career retrospective
representing what will be forty years of recording music...so I'll be
dipping into my archives and bringing out some of my older material.
Once I have a decent package of 12 or so albums, I'll plop them all
on thumb drives and send them out into the world...assuming we still
have a world at that juncture...increasingly hard to tell these
days.<br /><br />On that note, another thing that I've given up on is
that notion that humanity will ever wake up and learn to live within
the gentle constraints of the natural world...we are stampeding in
the opposite direction...so these days my Big Lifelong Mission of
trying to open people's minds to such notions has been largely
discarded. I'm sure I'll continue to write songs about such things,
but they will be directed towards the alien archaeologists who will
translate my words thousands of years from now and say “he seems to
have been a bit of a difficult person, but he had a few insights here
and there...too bad he exploded along with the rest of them”. <br /><br />So
that's where I am with the music right now. Hope you all are well.
<br /><br />Stop building and buying so much stuff...it won't actually
make you any happier...maybe have fewer kids: they face an
increasingly bleak future.
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Etc.</div>
<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-26067159162530314502018-04-04T15:00:00.003-05:002018-04-04T15:00:53.934-05:00Calm the Hell Down #7<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-62558827040980281822017-10-23T18:38:00.001-05:002017-10-23T18:38:46.690-05:0072 Hour Hold, by Ludi & Fitzpatrick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-74212218874440843282017-10-17T18:28:00.002-05:002017-10-17T18:28:47.928-05:00On The Road, Viroqua Harvest Parade 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-18350845383984724012017-10-10T19:34:00.001-05:002017-10-10T19:34:53.404-05:00Calm the Hell Down, #6 by John Ludi<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LDRAErLiiN0" width="480"></iframe>John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-55925024742467238152017-10-07T07:46:00.004-05:002017-10-07T07:46:52.474-05:00Art: for the people...ALL of the people.An interesting, and somewhat saddening, recent work conversation: <div>
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Temping for a little while at a warehouse/shipping branch of a reasonably large company in the area, I found myself engaging in some of my usual favorite opportunities to stand on my soapbox. Most people there, both employees and temps,were REALLY nice and easy to get along with...and I found that refreshing...and they were pretty open too. Working class people tend to have less barriers and hangups overall, I've found over the years. </div>
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One guy does fractal art and has some of his work on display at a local gallery. Three of us were discussing it. The third person is a really pleasant older woman from a poor background. The artist encouraged her to check out his work, and the work of almost 40 other artists, at this gallery. </div>
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"Art galleries" she responded, "aren't those just for rich people? Whenever I see art galleries on TV, it always looks like all the people in them are rich." </div>
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"Actually, far from it", I said. "In fact, most art galleries charge nothing for entry...it's one of the few free things you can do anymore." </div>
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"Oh", she said, brightening up considerably, "I'll go down there one of these days then." </div>
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The whole exchange was something I mulled over for a while. It did not surprise me that that was her impression: frankly, I've NEVER seen a scene taking place in an art gallery where people were not dressed to the nines. But there is a further issue, and that is that so many people on the lower economic echelons of this culture have the notion that art is only for an elite few and that there is some sort of boundary between themselves and it. I find this unsurprising, as so many people in the arts world (but not necessarily the artists themselves) present a veneer of classicism and elitism (and then they wonder why the general public doesn't go to bat for them when budgets get slashed by troglodytes like our current Thug-in-Chief). </div>
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(It also brought to mind some of the MOSTLY unconscious snobbery of some of the Trustafarians living in a certain town not too far from me who seem to regard themselves as "It", and everyone who is not one of them as "The Help"...and then wonder why they are so despised by the non-entitled in this area.) </div>
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Food for thought. Art should be for The People. ALL of the people...even the people who park your cars and clean your houses (if you are one who can afford such luxuries): in that way we are ALL enriched and the arts thrive...as well as the minds that perceive said art. </div>
John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-81858707562844845842017-09-27T16:29:00.002-05:002017-09-27T16:29:13.502-05:00Empty Deserted Streets, Ludi & Fitzpatrick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-17436933318344933372017-09-26T15:26:00.000-05:002017-09-26T15:28:12.948-05:00My Own Personal "Mandela Effect".<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A meme that seems to have taken the paranormal world by storm over the past few years is an intriguing
phenomenon called “The Mandela Effect”. It is so named for
Nelson Mandela and the fact that a substantially large amount of the
population seems to remember this beloved elder statesman dying as
much as two decades before he actually did. The subject matter of
this phenomenon is too broad and extensive for me to do more than
give it a cursory description here, so I strongly suggest you do a
search for it...and keep your mind open as you do. A fair amount of
search results will be of the standard issue debunking type, but a
few will take you down some interesting paths. These mass
“mis-rememberings” range from things as trivial as the spellings
of cereal brands and the titles of children's books to the location
of the heart inside the human body (which many of you probably
remember being slightly under the left lung...as I do...well it no
longer is...and it “never” was...it's in the center of our bodies
now...where it always wasn't).<br />
<br />
The implications of this
phenomenon are something I've played with since I was a young child,
as I was beset by what I came to call “reality shifts” from a
really early age...and my observations of them and the tentative
conclusions reached paralleled nicely with the increasing notion that
physical reality itself may not be the firm and fixed thing that our
culture assumes it is, but a far more fluid substance...if it
actually “exists” in the way we think of as “existing” at
all. It may just be a construct or a projection. (That's how I see
it myself: a large learning tool...a playground/schoolroom/thrill
ride for consciousness.)<br />
<br />
When I was in 1<sup>st</sup> grade I
had an initial taste of the Mandela Effect well before I was equipped
to emotionally deal with it.<br />
<br />
I was a daydreamer...especially
when in an environment that did not challenge my intellect, which
would be an excellent description of the public school system then
and now. Like a lot of scruffy little manlings, I had two or three
outfits that I wore constantly, and that was about it. One of these
outfits incorporated an olive-colored sweater vest that buttoned in
the front with a series of brown mottled buttons, each of which had
their own distinct pattern and four holes for thread.<br />
<br />
Being
bored beyond belief by the curriculum, I had pretty much memorized
the patterns in these buttons as I would play with them constantly,
taking my thumbnail and trying to ram a corner of it into each of the
holes in the button peering up at me from it's position over my
belly. I would say that I knew these buttons like the back of my
hands, but I knew them much more: the back of my hands were not all
that interesting to me at that juncture...but the buttons were my
late 60's fidget spinner.<br />
<br />
One day while readying myself for a
REALLY intense burst of random daydreaming, I looked down and the
four-holed buttons now only had two holes. I was extremely startled
by this. I looked at each button and verified that the patterns in
the mottling of the buttons were the same. I realized that there was
NO chance that my mother would have been able to find buttons with
the EXACT same random color pattern and sew them on this vest while I
wasn't looking, so I did what a lot of young children do when
confronted with something totally contrary to everything they
understand:<br />
<br />
I completely freaked out.<br />
<br />
My freak out was
so extreme that the principal (an avuncular grandfatherish figure
named Mr. Albert) decided to drive me home. Wanting to figure out
what I was ranting about, the principal informed me that his car was
only capable of making left turns, which allowed him to take a long
and circuitous route while asking a barrage of questions.
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I'm not sure what he was able to
conclude (if anything)...memory fades of these years...but my
conclusion was that the reality that I thought was a fixed and solid
thing, wasn't. Thus, at a VERY young age I started questioning the
fundamental basis of physical reality itself. Once I got a few more
years and words under me, I called this a “reality shift”. It
was the first of several, but probably the most impacting...it
changed the course of my life. Later as I discovered science
fiction, Eastern Philosophy, hallucinogens and quantum physics, these
incidents made more sense within my expanding worldview. Now when
things happen of this nature I don't even bat an eye, as I don't
think much of this stuff around us it “real” in the way most
people seem to define it.<br />
<br />
By my teens I was fairly blasé
about my “reality shifts”. For about six years I worked at a
hotel in various capacities. The hotel was right next to the
apartment complex where my small family lived. For a while I worked
an early morning shift and would walk the same path through the same
courtyard every morning. At one point after a summer weekend I saw
that some reveler had smashed a bottle of blackberry brandy into the
ground. It was the same coffee syrup-like swill that I would drink
to clear my throat before a gig with my then band, Soft War, so I
knew it well. The bottle had a dark purplish label...for about two
weeks, at which point it decided that it would be much happier as a
broken GINGER brandy bottle. <br />
<br />
When I first noticed this, I
inspected the area to see if there were any more bottles of this
Elixir of the Gods laying about. Nope. This was the lone one...and
the pattern of breakage was exactly the same. It would have been
practically impossible to fake such a thing without making molds and
spending a fair bit of money in a very narrow time window, just to
startle some young poor teen whose destiny was to fade into
middle-aged obscurity in a glorified tent in a tedious cultural
backwater, having accomplished very little of public importance. The
bottle remained lodged in the lawn until things warmed up and some
groundskeeper decided that it posed a threat to his lawnmower. For
my part, I pondered it with wry amusement, always asking myself if it
had not always been a ginger brandy bottle and I was just simply
mistaken. The brain does things like that.<br />
<br />
It's hard to say
either way. I always had mixed feelings about the topic until the
Mandela Effect started poking it's head into the mainstream culture.
Now I have a lot more validation for these experiences, which is
comforting in a small way...my brain may be in better shape than I
thought it was...but in a MUCH larger way it's pretty
disconcerting...as all of physical reality may not be.<br />
<br />
Food
for thought, basically. If it's just John Ludi misremembering
various trivial things, it's one thing...but if MILLIONS of people
misremember the VERY SAME THINGS in THE VERY SAME WAYS, it points to
something a LOT larger.<br />
<br />
Which, of course, points to the
question at the heart of almost everything: Why?<br />
<br />
And I
definitely have no room on here for THAT. Or a clue.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-70772901712800281472017-09-22T12:23:00.002-05:002017-09-22T12:23:07.097-05:00Shades of Scarlett Conquering (Joni Mitchell cover)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6292903323787791013.post-2577374304838925832017-09-07T16:25:00.001-05:002017-09-07T16:25:54.524-05:00Worker's Plight, Ludi & Fitzpatrick.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />John Ludihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11732400759825359983noreply@blogger.com0