[WMGGW] JP Kinkaid: first encore!

I am all the way beyond pleased and all the way into ecstatic to announce that While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the second JP Kinkaid chronicle, is officially scheduled for September 2009. For those who've read the first one, here's a short summary:


While My Guitar Gently Weeps opens with Blacklight guitarist JP Kinkaid at home in San Francisco, and engaged to his long-time lover, Bree Godwin. Blacklight's tour has been rough on JP; a heart attack in Boston and a significant ramp-up of his multiple sclerosis have left him more physically fragile than usual.

With the tour over, JP is relaxing by sitting in as second guitarist for a new CD by his longtime local friends, the Bombardiers. The Bombardiers are breaking in a new frontman, singer-guitarist Vinny Fabiano. Self-absorbed and abrasive, Vinny is new to the Bay Area music scene; all anyone seems to really know about him is that he has some very expensive instruments, and no obvious source of income to pay for them.

A few weeks into the sessions, Vinny is found dead in the Bombardiers' San Francisco rehearsal space, smashed over the head with a custom guitar. The murder leaves the Bombardiers - already in hot water with their record label - without a singer or a regular guitar player. JP, calling in a favour, asks Blacklight's legendary frontman, Malcolm "Mac" Sharpe, to step in and sub for Vinny.

But Vinny's cousin and guitar tech is found murdered in Marin County, and Vinny's most valuable guitar - a $75,000 custom Zemaitis pearl-top - has disappeared.

[politics] Best voting experience I've ever had

Today's voting experience was not what I expected.

I was expecting this vote to be miserable. I felt disenfranchised, bullied out of my own party for daring to question the Will And Wisdom Of The Elder Boyz, and I still do. But I made it work for me. There was something intensely liberating about not being tied to the party anymore. I'd made my own list, tallied it against various organisations' endorsements, and found a certain kinship with the League of Pissed-Off Voters.

I voted against the endorsements in one or two local issues (yes, I know the entire green-minded universe locally endorsed Prop H, and I applaud the basic idea, but the last line is "issue bonds without voter approval" made that one a no). I voted for the high-speed rail initiative. I was allowed a ranked three-choice vote for my local supervisor, and only picked one: Eric Mar. Yay! A genuine, you know, PROGRESSIVE!

Then I got to the bigger votes. I voted for Cindy Sheehan - mentally dedicating Richard Thompson's "Oh Missy, How You Let Me Down" to Nancy Pelosi. I left the presidential vote for last.

Long deep breath, pick up the pen - and wrote in Dennis Kucinich.

It felt right. I had no one on the ballot who represented me or my interests. The Democrats had made it impossible for me to vote for their guy and keep my self-respect. Both parties have screwed me, or tried to: the Republicans stole my election and my country in the last two elections, and the Democrats stole my vote and tried to steal my self-respect in this one.

Byebye, as a concept, finally felt, well, final. I have divorced the Democratic Party for abusive behavior, and will choose my own future dance partners based on whether or not they earn my dance time.

Best. Voting. Experience. EVER.