“To that dauntless temper of his mind,
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour
To act in safety.”
Shakespeare’s MacBeth [III.i.58-60]
Cancer: In January, allegedly, January 5, 1914, Pancho Villa made a deal with Mutual Film Corporation to film battles. In exchange for $25K in gold, Villa agreed to capture Ojinaga, and his promise was to do so with mostly daylight battles.
First reality star.
Having been on a reality show, and the news? It’s not that big of a deal. Money’s more important. That money did buy arms and helped overthrow a corrupt dictatorship. Didn’t buy enough good will, though, however, that’s a different question.
Do you want to be a media star? Do you want to be filmed? Do you want to be paid for a “reality” show that might be, or might not be, staged? Or would you rather just cash out? Personally, but I’m not a Cancer, personally?
I think the cash is better than the fame. Historically? Makes you less of a target.
Leo: Alice Cooper (Aquarius) helped shape modern music with his version of terror. He’s credited with mixing metal and horror on stage. I was thinking about a single lyric from a 1972 Alice Cooper hit, “School’s Out.” Lyrics, come on, every one knows this one, “School’s out for summer….” That tune cycled up on an iPod.
Halfway through, there’s my favorite line, “We can’t even think of word that rhymes.” The meter is correct, just not rhyming. You get a chance to fill in the blanks.
How do you want to fill in the blanks, my dear Leo? I’d suggest that the line from that hit, the line I just used? “We can’t even think of word that rhymes?” That’s the perfect kind of lick to stick in there. You’ve got a similar situation, and a chance to make some kind of history. Or hit. That’s a song that just keeps on going and going. Like a Leo. Like that leonine idea. Doesn’t rhyme. Who cares?
Virgo: “Bitchin’ Camaro,” especially the live version on the compilation album, the best of? By the Dead Milkmen, it’s just a classic from a forgotten era in musical history.
That live version, it starts with two minutes of gentle bass and a vocal delivery that sounds like a jazz/spoken word piece. The song ends with typical driven punk 4/4 too fast, “Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro, Hey man, where you headed, Bitchin Camaro, bitchin Camaro, I don’t want unleaded!” It’s a fine example of how this week could turn out, in Virgo land.
First, I start with an obscure musical reference. Although, through the miracle of the inter-web, it’s possible to get that very song sung to you by the original artists. Weird, huh. Anyway, the first half of the song is a sing-song, post/repost, call and response, dry verbal delivery that is a set-up for a minute and half of the punk-style lyrics.
I would call it style rather than actual content because the lyrics are clear. Funny. Ironic, even more ironic when content is compared to delivery. Starts slow, finishes fast. That’s Virgo With a layer of Saturn on top? Just a little bit of humor. Like that song.
- Hello [firstname] [lastname],
Looks like your e-mail address is:[email] –
and Membership is: [memberlevel] –
Any problems or questions, shoot me a note –
Libra: Old bit of cowboy wisdom, “Always saddle your own horse.” Actual source for that quote? I’ll let you do the research on that one.
The idea, as the planets start to stack up in Virgo? You can’t trust anyone. Not for Libra, not now. I mean, you can trust me with the idea that you can’t trust any else, I mean, anyone other than me.
Besides, like I’ve suggested, there’s an easy to way to prevent this trust issue from being really ugly: saddle your own horse. It’s matter of not taking everyone’s word, not being too trusting, and?
Saddle your own horse. It’s something you should do yourself, anyway. If it breaks, or if it’s too tight? Or, worse, too loose? You know who did it. As long as you’re in charge of taking care of this piece of business?
Saddle your own horse.
Scorpio: We all have holes in our education. There’s a portion of pop music, or “alt rock,” as it was called at the time, that’s missing from my education. There’s a portion of the pop-history of popular music that I just didn’t listen to, a time and place where, I was full-time in Austin, so “pop” music wasn’t cool.
What was cool? I can recall a half-dozen local artists and two of them made it to a larger audience. Not bad odds, but the scene is no longer like that, and for all my time spent being too-Austin-cool? There’s a gaping hole in my more traditional pop music education. I realize that, to some, a decade of pop music isn’t a major loss.
It wasn’t, not really, until I was confronted with question, which was answered by an allusion to pop music. Pop from a time when I have no working knowledge of what was cool. It’s like running into a giant question mark. Me? I’m not a Scorpio. I hit that question mark pretty hard. Bumped into it. Looked a little stupid.
I can help ease your pain, and I can save you some embarrassment. I know about the hole in my education. I’m aware that there is a problem. I know my limits. When you’re asked a question, or there’s an answer that makes a reference to something you don’t know? It’s going to happen soon. Just nod. Act as if you understand. You can look up the reference point later.
Sagittarius: I’m a pretty normal guy. Normal desires, normal drives, normal feelings. I’d like to think — by Central Texas, South Texas standards — I’m way normal. I don’t stand out in a crowd. I don’t appear too different from any of my neighbors, in just about every local setting, I’m pretty ordinary.
One of my friends thinks I’ve got a goofy laugh, but then, she’s suggested that it’s a Sagittarius trait, the oddball cackle for laughter. I think I’m normal, but that’s me.
Judging by reactions these days, I think I’m pretty much correct about my “normalness.” The rest of this week? This weekend? Starting next week? Celebrate your Sagittarius “normal-ness.” One of our extraordinary qualities is just that were not so out-of-the-ordinary. At least, we’d like to think so. Being ordinary? In extraordinary times like these? That’s a quality to be devoutly wished for.
Capricorn: Like many people, I’ve got a home network with a server, routers, wires, cables, wireless cables, and other stuff floating around. It’s not a large network, I think I’ve got a total of three machines on it. Pretty minimal. Then, too, I’m a minimalist. “Less is more,” in my mind.
I’ve spent over a decade with no car, no vehicle. I spent over a decade, working on the inter-web, with no desktop computer. Minimalist. But this isn’t about my minimalist ways, either. This is about that stupid computer network. I had a problem. Simple glitch that spiraled into a huge issue. I spent a few moments with rudimentary diagnostics, then I realized that there was a larger problem at hand. What seemed like a simple problem with a machine that wouldn’t login? Soon it became a network-wide “issue,” which got to the point I had to contemplate calling the ISP tech support.
Finally, after messing with wires and boxes and stuff for a while, I hit on another idea. I reset the power. Power-cycled the whole shebang. Two wireless routers, one back-up server, and two external storage things. Turned them all off. Turned off the network connection, too. Unplugged everything, and here?
That’s a rat’s nest of crap with wires and old network boxes, and new stuff, all resting on top of each other. Two dead DSL boxes, an abandoned VOIP box, two transformers that I have no idea what they transform. However, half an hour later, with everything unplugged, then plugged back in, and the proper incantation (spell, chant to Mercury, something) — with my hardware, there’s a set way everything is supposed to be powered up — it worked again. Peace was restored unto the land. Simple solutions. Not difficult. Don’t let tiny, almost insignificant issues turn into larger problems.
Aquarius: There’s a side project I’ve had fun with. It’s not a big deal, not to me, and what’s been so amusing, after two, three years? It’s got traction, and momentum all of its own. I’ve done precious little work to advertise and promote the side-project. It was an experiment gone awry. In a good, way, that “gone awry” statement. Didn’t plan it, didn’t work on it, just had fun and then, over time, I let it grow and did little else to nurture the project.
Time and neglect, the two secret ingredients.
While that’s worked as I’ve become an accidental artist? How’s that going to benefit Aquarius? The same approach.
Time and neglect, the two secret ingredients.
You put the pieces in play. You launch the project. You get the parts all assembled. You get stuff in order and then you let it sit there. Let it run all by itself. Don’t poke, prod, needle, wheedle or whine. Let it alone. Don’t mess with it. Let time, and human curiosity do its job.
Just west of Amarillo (TX), perhaps a hundred meters south of the Interstate, there’s the famous “Cadillac Ranch,” close to dozen Cadillac cars upended in the dirt. Part of the majesty of the art installation, is what’s occurred over time, as graffiti and tumbleweeds add to the sculpture.
Time and neglect, all that’s needed for Aquarius.
Pisces: “Western Swing” is a, it’s like a dietary staple where I’m from. It’s part of the background, Bob Wills and all his variations, offshoots, and the derivative “Americana” moniker.
Variations on themes, the Western Swing influence is evident throughout more modern music. Western Swing was a variation of Big Band and Swing, with a jazz influence layered on top, and then, there’s the “western” portion, and this really can be felt of both sides of the Mississippi River, but out here, we’d like to think it’s a Western influence.
The taxonomy, roots and branches of American music? Diverse. I was thinking about the pedal steel guitar, which, properly, was Hawaiian until Bob Wills brought it into the mix. Persuasive, omnipresent, a backbone to the Western Swing ensemble and eventually, a mainstay instrument in all “western” genre material now, the pedal steel was almost the forgotten instrument at one time.
I’m thinking about the pedal steel guitar and Pisces. You’re a mainstay and yet, right now, it feels like you’re almost passed by. Passed over, ignored. A bystander. Yeah, and Pisces? Like that sidekick on pedal steel guitar? Try having a Western Swing band without you. Doesn’t work. You’re part of the backbone, the problem? You feel unloved. You’re not. Some of us love our Pisces Pedal Steel Guitar. Even if you’re not in the spotlight at the moment.
Aries: I was talking to a girlfriend. “Strawberries are my favorite fruit,” she said. I thought I was her favorite fruit. “No, Kramer, you’re the biggest fruit. Now, if you were covered in strawberries?”
Favorite fruit versus biggest. I wanted to be that girl’s favorite. As it turns out, I need to be covered in strawberries in order to be tasty. However, it is nice to know, I do fit in there with some option, biggest fruit. As an Aries, you can’t be everything to everybody. Oh, to be sure, you’re going t try. And you’re going to fail.
Instead of trying to be everything to everybody, why not just be true to yourself? Much easier. “But I want to be everything to everybody.” No, no you don’t. That’s me, covered in strawberries. Can’t be everything to everybody. Settle for one thing. Biggest fruit? Wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be, howsoever, it’s better than nothing. Or better than being covered in strawberries, no matter what her fantasy was.
Taurus: “Fresh Dead” is the term for bait that was once live, but isn’t. Like the name implies. I was using some “fresh dead” that was mostly shrimp, but a few stray minnows, little croakers, had gotten into the stew. The problem with my fresh dead bait? It was a hot summer’s day on the coast, and I was hooking the bait, and after standing on the dock for an hour or so? I’d hook some of that bait, thread it onto the hook, and then, no sooner than hitting the water, that bait would dissolve. I was casting into a strong offshore breeze, so it felt good. But I was pitching bait out there, and sometimes, the bait didn’t make it.
It was more dead than fresh dead, and starting to rot, be my guess. I was less fishing and more like “feeding the fish,” which, as a fisher person, that’s what we do some times. However, at one point, I was getting better with the little nibbles, and I hauled in a few “spec” — (Speckled) Sea Trout.
The water’s edge, at that dock, was kind of churned up and the dead bait smell, while not too attractive to me, it seemed to work wonders on those fish. Matter of dealing with what you’ve got, and even if it’s started to smell bad by our standards? Doesn’t mean you can’t use that aroma to earn some dinner. Fresh speckled trout?
Gemini: I was with friends, and we were in Austin, for fun and work. I forget what popped up, but we were at a friend’s mother’s house. Following this so far? “Use Mom’s computer, it’s the only one with a working printer.” That was the command. I thought it was a little strange, but then, after wards, I realized it only made sense.
I’m used to doing things on computers, banking, astrology charts, writing, image processing, website development, and so forth. I spend very little time with printed material. In a household with at least two wireless routers, and computers in most rooms, a working printer shouldn’t be odd. But it was. Only yoked to one machine.
Mercury leaves Gemini, and in doing so, creates tension between Uranus then Jupiter, and there’s a bit of Mars and Saturn on top of the blend, as well. While having to print out a document is — to me — to a Gemini — an archaic way of dealing with the situation? If need be, locate the computer that has a printer attached. You’re probably going to need hard evidence, a hard copy, to prove that you are correct.
