Okay, here's one to kick off this blog topic. Wasn't sure if I should file this under "sex" or "religion." Both were, apparently, one and the same to this man. But I chose this category, and we'll go from there.

(Paul? Here's where you can put your anthopology knowledge to use!)

By the way, I attended this man's church. I write books about monsters, and this man gives me more than enough fuel to overcome any writer's block... Read on:

Arizona Republic 7/2/88, Phoenix Gazette 7/1/88
Rev. James Anthony Colyn, 39, former pastor of the Glendale (Az.) Bible Baptist Church, received a SENTENCE of seven and a half years in prison. Colyn was described by police as a "sexual predator" who molested a teenage
girl who asked him for counseling because she was being abused by her stepfather.

The five years of rape began when the girl was 13. She attended Glendale Bible Baptist Church and School. Although Colyn resigned after he was arrested members blamed the victim. Although she had a 4.0 grade point average and was nominated class valedictorian, she was denied participation and was segregated from the graduating class.

Colyn PLEADED GUILTY to a charge of attempted molestation as a plea bargain. He moved to Phoenix 12 years ago after resigning as youth pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Albuquerque, N.M. after admitting sexual involvement with a teenage member of that congregation. The Glendale church said they were not aware of that when Colyn was hired.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here is the text of a letter I sent to Tim Sheldon. I think I'll send it to other legislators as well.

For those who don't know, Kitsap County is hoping to build a NASCAR track a mile or two from my house - with PUBLIC and private funds. I am totally against the entire proposal for a long list of reasons. Yes, there is a bit of NIMBY-ism there, but my concerns extend far beyond that:

Hi Tim,

Long time hard core Republican here, and one of your very vocal supporters, though I don’t live in your county. Just close to it. You and Derek Kilmer are my two favorite Democrats.

I’m writing to let you know my opposition to the race track, period. Whether it’s built with public or private funds. There are people like me who choose to live here because we ARE rural and because we DON’T have racetracks and congestion and Gregoire-like taxes to support everything that already should have been supported with better fiscal management.

This is a beautiful, attractive area with plenty of opportunities for our youth – if not in our own communities, then at least within earshot and driving distance. Please work hard to preserve this life. I don’t want to have to move to Idaho, but I will if this continues.

I am a professional, land-owner, father of three young daughters and a lover of Kitsap County. I will no longer love it if it starts to look like Seattle or Tacoma or any other metropolitan area – in any way. I love Dick Hayes and know him well, but he’s one of the drivers of this “metropolis” vision. I’m happy to see him and Bozeman rework downtown Bremerton, but let's leave it there. It doesn’t have to propogate throughout the county and certainly not into my neighborhood.

Yes, there is a little NIMBY-ism going on here as I live very close to the proposed track and right on a perfect traffic “escape route” – Lake Helena. But if it goes in and I move, it, or something similar, would just pop up there. If I want to see a race, I’ll travel. If I want to go to a big-box store, I’ll drive. I enjoy my freedom of movement.

But I also like to come home and not deal with traffic and not see my neighbors and just enjoy my family and my little place on this world.

All the best to you,
Jim W. Coleman

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Into every great blog, a little configuration testing must fall...

Posted by Paul Zimmerman at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Got a question - is the bootlegging of a concert right or is it wrong? To me, and to many musicians, this is a gray area. True, I can see circumstances where bootlegging may hurt revenues the artist is sorely dependent on. Take it from me - a novelist with a strong fan base, but no exposure yet on the national circuit. I have a pony in this race, and I feel that I can weigh in on this.

I have quite a number of friends who bootleg concerts, and have a personal collection of more than 600 recorded shows. To me, it's a way of preserving history. I have Nirvana shows, John Denver shows, etc. These are moments that can never be experienced again. I am grateful to have these shows in my possession, and have something that the general public does not have. Do I share them? Of course I share them. That's what it's all about. Do I sell them? Absolutely not - in any circumstance.

Recently, I attended a concert and discovered that it had been bootlegged. I acquired a copy, and shared it with someone who had attended the concert, but had not been impressed by it. After listening to the bootleg, this person walked away with a whole new perspective of the concert, and appreciated it more. You see, we go in with high expectations - what we want to hear, how we want to hear it, how it should sound, etc. Afterwards, we sometimes are disappointed with the experience. But to give it a little bit of time and to put those initial expectations aside can clear the way for a positive experience. And I've seen it work the other way, too. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, you may like what you are hearing but later, on hearing it again, you can identify inconsistencies and poor performance on the part of the primary musician or the band.

Right or wrong? Weigh in on this, please. I have four published books. I make the complete texts of two of them available on peer-to-peer filesharing networks. To me, it's like putting a book in the library. You make money on it once, but you get wide exposure. With regard to bootlegging, it comes down to the equation of revenue vs. exposure. Some bands condone and even encourage bootlegging, wanting the exposure.

And I think some encourage it because they know there are people like me out there - people who prefer to hear a band play live. It's naked music. Take it from me, a good editor can make a so-so writer look good. A good producer can make a so-so musician sound good. But live performances level the playing field.

I'm currently looking for select bootleg performances - mainly Bob Dylan's "Not Dark Yet," "The Highlands," and "Things have changed." But don't try to sell me them - I have plenty to trade. And yes, it propogates the network and strengthens the solidity of the fan base.

But that's just my opinion.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 6:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

When I first produced the (non official, unsanctioned) music video of the Bob Dylan song, "Not Dark Yet," I did so over many long nights and daylight hours of agony. This was very personal to me and I wanted it to be a fitting tribute to my grandfather, Conrad Joseph Wolf. When I heard that Grandpa had died, we drove many miles to his funeral. I remember every stripe in the road, every mile marker. A year later, we returned to his gravesite (1999) and that's when the driving sequence was filmed. On the way, we listened to "Not Dark Yet." That eventually became my "Grandpa" song. Now, years later, I've done what I have always intended - turned it into a poignant music video. After releasing it, I've been asked many questions about what it means.

Normally, an artist resents this type of question. "What does it mean to YOU?" I want to scream. But now, I realize that those who ask the question realize that it is a deeply personal video to me, and I will get into some of the images here.

The video (which will be posted to this website soon, or is available from me on DVD) starts with a campfire burning. It's obviously been burning for a long time. In the music, Bob says that he's "been here all day." That sets the opening sequence. I think the "too hard to sleep" part speaks for itself. And yes, that's me, after about 10 hours of video production.

The next video sequence is of my dear (girl)friend, Sarajean Taylor. She died of breast cancer shortly after the video was shot. Indeed, time is running away. That, the loss of a dear friend, will definitely make one feel as if the soul has turned into steel and that there are scars. I timed the glance upward precisely on that word. I miss her to this day, and it sets the stage for a song of loss.

Next, I walk to Grandpa's grave. Indeed, there's not "room enough to be anywhere."

I was involved with the Kiwanis Club, an active community service group. I had to leave it because I couldn't deal with some of the people and attitudes. It really soured my vision of humanity and community service, as the next video clip portrays.

My daughter, Marina, is a beautiful thing. But while trying to be a good dad, I've had sources of pain, pictured. This was a particularly devastating accident and my wrist will never be the same. It was a source of pain in trying to bring up something beautiful.

In the next clip, filmed two days before final production, my wife writes a letter, and she writes it so plain. Kind of sets the tone for what we're getting into. I had to scrounge up a pack of cigarettes and a whiskey bottle for this one. As emotional as this experience was, I didn't have to scrounge far. We scripted what she would write, and worked on the timing. It came out perfectly.

Why should I care? I see an old man in a chair. He's dying. The video then goes back into memory but begins to drive to the gravesite. It's like life flashing before your eyes. No, he's not just an old man, he's the great-grandfather of my kids, as the video shows.

"Well I've been to London." Grandpa always loved his old VW Bug, and it's a car I've been desperately trying to acquire. I used it here as cars have been lots of places but the mileage eventually gets them. Grandpa also was a big hunter - the wild pig hung in his livingroom for years and now hangs in my author's studio. Indeed, there was a lot of "following the river" there in his pursuit of game, his pursuit of life.

The next slide shows Grandpa with two of my daughters, and Bob sings of being "down on the bottom of a world full of lies." The kids are innocent but they will grow up to be hurt and will encounter the lies. Grandpa was there once.

"I ain't lookin' for nothin' in anyone's eyes" is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the video. This is a photo of Grandpa during his tour in the Army. It's a haunting photo and comes at the right time in the video.

"Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear" comes very abruptly to a non-transitional switch to the image of my daughters. I struggled with this one. My daughters aren't a burden but, in one sense, they are. It's a tremendous responsibility being a parent. Think of how many times you've heard someone say "how can you bring a child into a world like ours?" and you'll get this part.

Next photos:
Grandpa and Grandma, location and time unknown
Grandpa and Grandma during Christmas with my cousin, Ray Jr.
My mom, with my daughter, Kayla
Grandpa and Grandma on their 50th wedding anniversary
My three daughters on the porch of their single-wide in Rigby, Idaho - the house Grandpa lived in when he died.

"I was born here and I'll die here against my will..." Grandpa wasn't born in Rigby and didn't technically die there (though close by) - but I chose this photo to show his roots. You'll see his old Jeep Willy's. That's me, splitting firewood for Grandma after Connie died. I really liked the "it looks like I'm moving but I'm standing still" part of the video. There's a lot of motion while everything is still - rooted. And then the "Grandpa Tree."

Grandpa fishes, and can't probably remember what it was he came to get away from.

The next scenes are of my Grandparents. I shot that picture in 1977, while in seventh grade. Eventually, everything turns yellow, old. Memories fade, and that's what this shows.

The rest is self-explanatory.

I've been a professional artist for more than two decades and I consider this one of my best creations, though I basically bastardized a good Dylan song and used it for my purposed. If you've seen the video, I hope you enjoyed it.

All the best,
Jim

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 7:18 PM | Permalink

Bob Dylan played Seattle's Key Arena on Friday, October 13, 2006. We jotted down the title of each song in order. Here is the setlist, and three songs that we really wanted to hear but weren't played:

1) Maggie's Farm
2) She belongs to me
3) Lonesome Day
4) Positively Fourth Street
5) It's alright Ma (I'm only bleeding)
6) Just like a woman
7) Highway 61 Revisited
8) When the deal goes down
9) Tangled up in Blue
10) Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
11) Watchin' the River Flow
12) Working Man Blues
13) Summer Days

ENCORES:
14) Thunder on the Mountain
15) All along the watchtower

And now, the three songs he didn't play - songs that we really really wanted to hear:

Not Dark Yet
Things have changed
The Highlands

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Well, as expected, the Roger Waters concert at Seattle's Key Arena on Oct. 12, 2006 did not disappoint! The setlist was incredible, particularly the part of the concert (after a much-needed intermission) where he played the entire "Dark Side of the Moon" release from start to finish. This is the third time I've seen Roger Waters perform live and it was just as good as when I saw him do the "Pros and Cons" and "Radio KAOS" tours. There was one big disappointment, however - his political messages. But, I'd researched his current tour online before attending and I knew when to walk out of the concert to get a beer.

In his song, "Leaving Beirut," Waters made a political statement against the war on terror, against Bush, against Tony Blair, etc. I had already heard the new song (thanks to peer-to-peer networks) and already knew I did not like it. Not just for the political message but also for the song itself - more of a half-assed attempt to get something new on the market and to make a statement.

When the inflatable pig soared over the enthusiastic crowd in a spectacular barrage of dropped confetti, we all were thrilled. But, unexpectedly, the pig was spray-painted with derogatory anti-US messages, including an "Impeach Bush" message painted conveniently over the rear end of the pig.

It struck me as odd that someone who is not a US citizen and has no real ties here (outside of the millions of dollars he sucks out of our economy) could be so blatant about our domestic affairs. Sadly, he's another who doesn't get the fact that the Muslim extremists would just as soon kill us as look at us. And by the length of this posting, you can imagine how offended I was with his political overtones.

But he's not the first to do it. Lots of so-called "celebrities" seem to get so high and mighty that they think they can influence world opinion just by walking in the door. George Carlin is a case in point - once a very funny guy, he's become an angry, bitter old man, a glimmer of his former self. And that's too bad - I was a huge Carlin fan.

George, don't mess with Reagan. Roger, don't muck around in my head or with my patriotism. Just play your music, entertain me and let me go home with warm feelings of the concert. At $125 a ticket, I paid a high price to have an old (but still very good!) rocker try to integrate a political message into what should have been top-notch entertainment.

Outside of that, the concert was great. I'll write more about it later.

Were you there? Did you catch the tour in another location? Share your thoughts.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We saw Bob Dylan live in concert last night (October 13, 2006) at the Key Arena and the show, while good, was markedly different from the performance we saw in 2003. Back then, there was no floor seating - everyone crowed, while standing, on the ground level and it was a lot of push and shove (with the occasional, polite "excuse me" and the sometimes necessary "I SAID EXCUSE ME!!!") to get to the front. But get to the front we did, and it was worth the congestion.

In 2003, Bob had no opening act and played a very long show. Much of the performance featured songs from "Love and Theft" - a CD we'd made the mistake of not listening to prior to attending the concert. This time around, we bought "Modern Times" and listened to it exhaustively ahead of time.

In 2003, Bob played several instruments, going from the keyboard to guitar to harmonica, and so on. He was very energetic, moving around the stage and interacting with the crowd about as much as he usually does - which is very little. It was a fantastic show and I only wish I had found some recorded clips of it. Though we'd never heard "Love and Theft," we liked some of the songs he played so much that we purchased the CD on the way out of the Arena.

In contrast, Bob didn't move around much in the 2006 concert and the setlist was more widely varied. Most of the songs were old classics (including, to my delight, "Tangled up in Blue.") He did play some from "Modern Times" - but that's coming later in my next posting. I'm still reviewing last night's concert in my mind so that my description of it can be accurate and non-biased ... well, as non-biased as I can get, being a solid Dylan fan ...

There are one or two or a couple of pictures coming to my Coleman Experience Photoblog. Take a look.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 10:14 AM | Permalink

Welcome to the new "Untangledup" blog. This blog, launched today, will take a bit to build some content, but I urge you to jump right in and participate when something catches your interest. The blog will focus primarily on music, but also will have other content - some whimsical, some directly relating to my writing. Be sure to visit my other blogs as well: Author Blog and Photoblog.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 9:07 AM | Permalink

Okay, I have to kick off this blog category with something, so I might as well just peel off my clothes and jump into the water: I do not like some religious people. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they are the downfall of our society as a whole.

I am a Christian - and a believer. I am spiritual. I am not religious. I'd rather drink a beer than to get baptized, and a good bratwurst is better than any communion wafer. I don't feel a need to congregate with others on Sunday, nor do I need to wallow in my misery and "fellowship" with those who can't think of anything better to do on a Sunday morning. My beliefs and my spirituality are private things - immediately seen for what they are as I move through society, and evidenced by being a good parent, a stable employee, a volunteer, a productive member of society. To me, sending a "prayer request" chain e-mail is no different than pitching Tupperware. Send me one, and you're on my black list. Call me. Let me know what the problem is and I'll pray and do what I can do to help. But, for God's sake, lay off the pity-party broadcast emails. As much as Hallmark probably hates online greeting cards, I'm sure your Lord might take offense at you trying to hijack the process with your proclamations of need and despair. It's cheaper to send an e-card than to buy a stamp, and it's an easy way out to "evangelize" via email than to do what your good Savior did - putting his feet to the street and spreading his gospel the hard way.

I can spot the difference between a religious person and a deeply spiritual person about twenty yards out - plenty of time to avoid the former and trust the latter.

Here's an excerpt from my book, LEVEL HEADS XE: The Deluxe Edition. It pretty much sums up my take on religion, and those who practice it:

Just as the two flight attendants were preparing to secure the cabin, another man rushed through the door and onto the plane, barely making the flight. His attire made it obvious that he was a priest and he took a seat directly across from Dr. Powers. After settling in, he nodded politely toward the doctor and fastened his seat belt.
Dr. Powers did not return the gesture or acknowledge the man in any way. He was a man of science—a highly distinguished doctor in numerous, diversified fields—and his education and accomplishments precluded him from believing in anything other than his own self. Everything was molecular and molecules were tangible—faith was not. Faith was, rather, a nebulous emotional security blanket for the insecure, the weak and those who lacked any virtues or disciplines of their own.

To Dr. Powers, faith was nothing more than a desperate hope. And as he had nothing to hope for, he needed no faith. All he needed now, as a matter of fact, was a stiff drink.

So do I. I'm going to watch the news. Chances are, I'll see a war that religion started. Or I'll see a story of loved ones split apart by religion. Or a kid who is horribly violated because of religion. Shall I go on?

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 6:21 PM | Permalink