For my interview with Crusher, ediatrix-in-cheif Christine Natanael chose Crusher’s London writer Alissa Ordabai, because Alissa’s also a guitar player and gets all that guitar geek stuff. We get deep into it about female guitarists, the metaphysics of the blues, Camille Paglia and, oh yeah, Devi’s Get Free album.
Here’s a taste: “Taking turns being exhilarating and contemplative, sweetly congenial and moody, with instantly memorable hooks and solos that dig deep as well as wide, the debut album Get Free by the New Jersey outfit Devi is at once a familiar and a unique affair. Led by a woman called Debra, who, apart from having written all the original material on this record, also sings and plays all guitar parts, this trio is a good reminder of the fact that one individual’s focus of vision can rework any classic rock style into a personal form of expression….” Click to read the rest.
Get out your sparkly pasties! Jo Boobs strips to Devi songs Take It Off and All That I Need in her hot new DVD Striptease for Burlesque, Exotic Dance and Every Day. Here’s a peek!
Jo is the headmistress of the New York School of Burlesque and one of my best gal pals. Supportive girlfriends are so important to us hardworking creative types! Jo, me, filmmaker Jill Morley and writer Lily Burana form a little support group we call The P Posse (you’ll have to guess what the “P” stands for!). We get together for dinner and root each other on in our various creative pursuits. It’s been so exciting to see them materialize! Lily’s books (Strip City, TRY, I Love a Man in Uniform), Jill’s films (Stripped: Exposing the Business of Baring It All and her upcoming doc on female boxers, Girl in the Ring), Jo’s school and now her DVDs and her fabulous book The Burlesque Handbook. Woo, go PP!
People have asked me why I called Devi’s album Get Free. Here’s the story.
One birthday a friend handed me a slim book titled Zen Guitar. The author’s name was Philip Toshio Sudo.
“That’s funny,” I thought, “I used to know a Phil Sudo.” I turned the book over and read that Sudo was a musician living in Maui with his wife and children. Couldn’t be the same guy. The Phil Sudo I knew was almost certainly still fidgeting miserably at his desk at American Banker newspaper.
That’s where I’d last seen him, back when I was a punk rock guitar player who freelanced for AB to pay for my East Village rathole. I’d traipse in to see the editor, ignoring the reporters snickering at my thrift-store dress and Doc Martens.
On the way out, I’d always stop to chat with Phil, a fellow downtown guitarist. “I haaaaaaaaaate it here,” Phil would moan, pulling on his tie. “Quit!” I’d insist, “Go on tour. Get out there!” “I caaaaaan’t,” he’d sigh, squirming like a four-year-old. “I need the security.” “No you don’t,” I’d say, “You really don’t.”
We lost touch. Then one day a friend gave me the book Zen Guitar for my birthday. It’s wise and true, and beautifully written by a Philip Toshio Sudo, a musician living in Maui. “Can’t be the same Phil Sudo,” I figure.
The book says:
“What’s important is to play from the heart and soul. If you do that, you’ll have no need to search for a personal style or signature sound; it will develop naturally.”
“The Way of Zen Guitar is to play what you are meant to play, not necessarily what you want to play. Understand the difference.”
“One can play the greatest stages in the world and still be spiritually adrift; talent alone does not bring inner peace. if you work to find peace within yourself, you will have no self doubt about your music, your talent, or anything else.”
“When things fall apart, make art.”
I learn that Buddhists also listen for what my yoga teacher calls the nadam, the streaming sound current of life. Science has proven that all matter vibrates; it sings. The Bible says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Yogis call that word Om. Zen masters call it sekishu no onjo–the sound of one hand clapping.
Zen Guitar says,
“If you get to that source you will know the answer to every question because you will have heard it all.”
After I finish Zen Guitar, I idly scan the acknowledgments. I recognize a couple names. Holy crap, it’s the same Phil Sudo! I find his website and fire off an excited email.
Phil emails the next day. The good news: He’s not in far-off Maui, he’s in NYC! The bad: He’s at Sloan Kettering being treated for stomach cancer. I read his cancer journal. Like Zen Guitar, it’s beautifully written, wise and true. “All weather is good weather,” he notes, when you may be dying. “I can talk the talk,” he adds, referring to his four books on zen, “we shall see how well I walk the walk.”
We plan a visit at his mom’s home, where Phil and his family are staying. The visit is postponed two weeks when Phil is hospitalized again. When I do get to the Upper West Side apartment, I meet his wife, Tracy. She’s beautiful; she looks frightened. Phil is excruciatingly thin. He describes himself in his journal as “a collection of bones held together by a tight wrapping of skin.” Three adorable kids, all under age seven, are charging around the place. This is the definition of “not fair.”
Phil and I sit on two chairs and catch up. I tell him how proud I am that he left American Banker, wrote such fine books, made great music, found true love and had children. I tell him about yoga and he tells me about zen. We marvel that we each found spiritual paths and that we each chose the same sword, a guitar.
Psst…wanna see some cheesecake? That’s what my Dad calls any remotely salacious photo.
Don’t tell my Dad but I’m The Rock and Roll Report’s new Triple R Girl.
According to the Rock and Roll Report, If you think this is a typical “babe of the month” thing you are sadly mistaken. The Triple R Girl celebrates some amazing women who exemplify rock and roll attitude.
As a former nerd, that’s kinda cool.
photos by Bob Schaffer
HeadCount is an amazing grass roots organization that partners with bands like Phish and DMB to register voters. For the last presidential race, HeadCount registered more youth voters than any other drive in history.
HeadCount focuses on six critical issues: Food and Farm Policy, Gulf Coast Recovery, Health Care Reform, Human Rights, Personal Liberty and Sustainability and Conservation. All while rocking the rock.
Check out HeadCount’s intrepid Man on the Lot getting his interviewing groove on to Devi’s “Demon in the Sack” (00:38).
