People love to leave their best impression.  IG, FB, TikTok & X are filled with good fortune.  Good folks on lavish vacations, new cars, remodeled homes, infinity pools, pricey ‘fits’ for every day of the year, perfect bodies, or even just “# blessed I found the love of my life.”  If social media were a gauge for human success, we’d want for nothing.

I try not to use it as a ‘show & tell’ for adults, but sometimes my lack of revealing personal issues lead some to believe I don’t have any.

And that impression couldn’t be farther from reality.  The truth is, the last 6 years have been the most challenging of my life.  I don’t talk about it publicly other than broad-strokes… because it’s ugly.  It has to do with people.  Trust.  Betrayal.  I chalk it up to paying a karma from long ago, and some beliefs that may need an adjustment.

Back in the 80’s there was an SNL skit with Al Franken playing a character named Stuart Smalley… an insecure, effeminate man in pastel blue and purple sweaters looking sheepishly in the mirror, reciting things like ‘I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it people like me!’

It was pretty funny actually, but as I got older I realized it was also a little sad, because it ridiculed and laughed at something most people desperately need… and now more than ever.  Positive reenforcement.  Positive beliefs.  Positive affirmations.

Before I had a hit song on the radio, I was in a state.  My first record had gone straight to the ‘has-bin’ and my deal with Warners was in jeopardy.  I struggled to make rent.

Funny side note… one day Michael Bay, the director was still in college and you know… a rich kid from Brentwood, all that.  Anyway he visited my apartment because our girlfriends were friends, and as he stepped inside he looked all around, up and down along the walls and ceiling in amazement.  I wasn’t sure what he was going to say but finally he opened up his mouth and laughed ‘you live here??’.  Ha!  Funny I was kind of proud of that apartment until that day!

Anyway, a dear friend and sort of guru handed me a copy of the Louise Hay book ‘You Can Heal Your Life’ and said ‘Jude I think you need this’.  I did.

One message from the book was that whatever is wrong with you is due to your very own belief system.  True or false I liked it.  It left me in control, not anyone else.  It also came with a tape of daily meditation/affirmations.  I did it every day.  Until I felt a shift.  And you know, it worked.  Not only then, but every time I’ve had to reinvent or realign myself.

The next record ‘A View From 3rd St.’ wasn’t exactly Dark Side Of The Moon on the richter scale, but it did a few significant things to change the quality of life.  I created my own signature sound… plus ‘Baby, It’s Tonight’ was a huge radio song and earned a good deal of money from airplay.  It also allowed me to keep my record deal.

Coming from a fairly healthy amount of dysfunction… little play on words there… I like what Tony Robbins says about self calibration.  He likens it to a pilot with a navigation system.  The plane drifts and constantly goes off course.  The navigation system adjusts repeatedly and brings the aircraft back to a place where you can literally land it on a dime.

That’s most of our brains, emotions and life.  Constantly going off course and in eternal need of calibration, realignment and self-care.  It’s like our bodies and the gym.  We don’t go to a gym and work out for 6 months, then say ‘ok i’m good!’.  We have to eat right and constantly work our body parts with motion and muscle.  The same is true with ‘E’motions and mental health.

In my  Fresh Coffee YouTube page, I’ve created 10 videos with subliminal affirmations.  This is music you can put on and just go about your business, but the messages are heard through the subconscious.  There will be more in the next year with real voiceovers.  It’s fun to create, and well… I do it because I need it.  Feel free to check them out sometime, or there are many others online.  Consistency is key.

https://www.youtube.com/@freshcoffee6879

I’d open up about the pineal gland and what TV, film, music and graphene oxide, aluminum, fluoride and wi-fi are doing to us, but it would make this post conspiratorial and too long, so will have to save it for another time.  Cheers!
Jude

I just don’t see Kamala in there.  I don’t see democrat puppeteers sticking with her.  This is a formality… a sequence of getting Joe out, having him do the ethical thing by choosing his VP, then causing a reason she can’t continue.  Somehow, some way, they’re going to make Michelle come out of hiding, incensed with anger, proclaiming she didn’t want to do it at first, but now (due to recent events) feels a calling that she must do it.  Must do it for minorities, for black women everywhere.   The nation will go wild and it’s Obama 2.0.   Newsome will be her running mate.

If I’m wrong i’ll eat my post 🙂

Both sides are well aware of the fact that Americans have the attention span of a gnat.  They love to jump on the latest trends as if they’re on the cutting edge of facts.  Remember the viral photo of Zelensky and his wife?  I saw it about 100 times in one day at the beginning of the Ukraine conflict.  Where are they now?  So in 2024 it’s best to catch people pretending they know before too many facts are revealed.

Whatever they do, I pray they don’t resort to the usual ‘lone gunman’.  Everyone’s onto it.

In my high school years, I became friends with an older kid by maybe 2 or 3 years…  his name is Joe Soliz.  He played guitar in a rival band, and we started hanging out together, just jamming and trading licks in the ol’ Quad Cities in Illinois.

A brief time had passed, and the next thing I knew Joe moved to Southern California.

I, on the other hand was experiencing the effects of smoking too much weed, failing high school, no job, no girl… basically feeling like the biggest loser on the planet.  I was overweight, breaking out in my face from so much junk food, and so low in self-esteem I couldn’t take looking at myself in the mirror anymore. A re-invention was needed.  No idea how to do it, but knew something had to give.

I reached out to Joe and asked if I could come visit him for a month to see how I liked it.  He graciously agreed, so I sold my car to buy my very first plane flight to Los Angeles.  Never forget it was a prop plane that brought me those two thousand miles.  A loud flight it was!

When I arrived, he and his roommate had a kind of spare room they’d throw clothes and old towels in, and I got to sleep in there… probably on the floor.  I honestly don’t recall.  What I do recall was the taste of freedom.  The taste of California climate.  The sun, the palm trees, the girls…  I’d walk down the street in the early afternoons, always barefoot, to a place called Licorice Pizza and shuffle through all the new releases and listen to music through my new So Cal set of ears.

The first album I bought was Dixie Dregs ‘What If’.  Steve Morse’s guitar work was just incredible, and still being a fan of the band Kansas, they sounded a bit like an instrumental version.  Next was Karla Bonoff’s first record.

Both of these were playing in-store and I had to buy them immediately after hearing.  I have both copies to this day, and though the Dregs have kind of been abandoned by my musical taste as an older man, I will hold Karla’s record as a lifer.  Whenever it comes back into rotation it’s like hearing it again for the first time.

Anyway, I was enjoying California just for the sheer presence of it.  Loving beyond words a brief month I got to feel like I had no past… no definitions of who I was.  Literally soaking up and sucking up any sunshine and air I could get, I was happy to be alive for the first time in a long time.  As silly as it may sound every living thing… even a palm tree in the middle of a street median… would make me think ‘wow… that’s a California tree… it looks so different and cool’.  I was almost jealous of the tree!  That’s how much I loved it here.  That kind of feeling is absolutely priceless.

My mind started to work overtime as to how I might be able to make a go of it here.  What would I do?  Joe’s roommate played in Vegas on weekends and was always saying the casinos paid really well if you could get a gig.  So I set out to do that.  My days were spent soaking up the California dream, and the nights were spent playing guitar with Joe and talking about how we could get gigs.

One day Joe got a call from a service he belonged to called The Musician’s Contact Service.  It was a way for musicians to meet other musicians and form bands, find players etc.  On this particular evening I could hear Joe pick up the phone.  “Hi, yeah I play guitar.  What’s that?  No, no sorry man I don’t sing… but you know what?  Let me pass the phone over to a friend of mine who’s visiting.  He sings really good and can play too”.

As he passed the phone to me he whispered  ‘Jude this guy says he has a record deal but listen man, most of these people are full of shit so beware’.

I took the phone as a quick-study-street-smart imposter and said “Hi” (almost disbelieving before even giving him a chance)
The guy on the other end of the phone very nicely said “Hey! My name’s Moon and I have an album out on Capitol Records.  I’m looking for guys to be in my band for some upcoming tours.”  “So I hear you can play and sing really well?”

“Yes I can do that”

“Well, what do you sound like… or I mean, can you give me a description of your voice?”

“Hmm… let me put it this way.  I can sing anything Paul McCartney can sing, ok?”

“Haha, wow that’s pretty confident.  I guess I’ll have to hear you now!”

So to make a long story short, he sent a friend down to Anaheim to pick me up, take me to Sun Valley where he was renting a house, I auditioned for him in his living room,  then spent the next 3 years of my life on the road, traveling every city of the US and 2-3 times a year to Europe.

This was a Godsend.  I couldn’t have worked it out better if someone gave me a ‘blueprint your future kit’.  For someone like me, an untrained musician who grew up on radio and rock & roll, to get this kind of experience… let me put it this way.  I’ve heard we have angels in life, and I believe Joe Soliz was one of mine.

My life forever changed.

So the point of this very personal story? Sometimes we need to experience the edge.  We also need to put ourselves in a place where we appreciate every small thing.  Then we have to give our troubles up to God, the Universe, or whoever you happen to pray to or believe in.  We think worrying will help, but it doesn’t.  It only begets more worrying.  Miracles lie in faith, gratitude and appreciation for this life.

So next time you’re in a tight spot, know there’s a way through… and one that’s better than you could ever design yourself.

And thank you Joe Soliz, Moon Martin… and quite a few other angels that have been there along my yellow brick road.

Love, Jude

It’s fun to think outside the box we live in.

You can’t go throwing stones at Flat Earth believers just for thinking differently than you do.  For starters, what you think is ‘proof’ is NASA telling you what is fact.  Are they honest?  I don’t believe so.  To many, NASA is scientific fact, while to others now, a cult.  You can believe what you like.  I don’t find either worthy of shame for believing or not… but I would defend the point that almost all our beliefs have been taught to us, not something we eye-witnessed or experienced first hand.

Also, we’ve been lied to on such a massive scale and for so long that many like myself are re-evaluating all we’ve learned, from The Big Bang theory to Evolution … from gravity to how our bodies work, teachers, news, TV’s in general, priests, pastors, gurus, doctors & scientists…  everything!  It seems there’s agenda lurking behind every fact or opinion out there.  Nearly everyone’s on the take.  You simply have to do your own research and come to your own conclusions, and rely on instinct.

With religion, we have instincts and faith. To go preaching with authority is just so… snake oily?  You don’t know, and it would be better if you started your sermons with that disclaimer.  Faith could then be what it is,  a choice to believe. An opinion, not a fact..

Anyway, this map stirs my imagination.  As a dreamer/songwriter, I love it regardless of whether it’s fact or not.

Convinced there’s much more to Earth than we know… wondering what all these ‘They Live’ characters are doing constantly visiting Antarctica while we aren’t allowed to travel there, building bunkers, buying luxury yachts and even submarines, giant cave cities like the ones we’ve seen in Arkansas… it would make sense that there are secret society elites that know things they aren’t sharing.  Details of what’s coming and where to go to avoid the events.

Perhaps the world isn’t flat, but 100 times the size we’ve been told?

Beyond that, it would lend some logic to their willingness to destroy all that we have.  THEY have somewhere else to go.  WE have to stay here and deal.

Remember those dodge-balls back in the 70’s?  Some of them had a flat point at the top of the sphere, while it didn’t affect the shape or action of the ball.  What if Earth is like this, and the world as we know it is top center, with much land and water beyond the ice walls they call Antarctica, and multi-layered walls at that?

It’s not an original thought.  This has been a topic of discussion with antique maps, some self proclaimed eye-witness explorers, even times when men were tortured and killed for believing the Earth was round!

So maybe we are on a sphere, but the sphere has a flat point.  Maybe we’re not traveling through space at light speed spinning at 1000 mph but there are things spinning around us.  It’s a plausible argument.

And why would they lie?

When you understand the power and control they have over us at this point already, and look down the road a few decades, it becomes more of a real concept to digest.

‘Metropolis’ 1927

In the 1948 George Orwell novel ‘1984’, totalitarianism is the warning.  A lot of people have been comparing what’s happening in our world now to both this book, and another 1931 novel by Aldous Huxley titled ‘Brave New World’.

In 1984, we live in a Godless society.  Life is all for the political party.  It’s always watching, always sending messages.  To achieve it’s total control we are subjected to lives of isolation, solitude and fear of the state.

At one point in the story, the protagonist, Winston, has a pencil and a notepad but has to write so softly as not to alert the sensors that he’s actually having an original thought, or that he even owns a pencil and paper.

This seemed funny to me at the time.  I remember reading it, thinking ‘ok… this is a little farfetched’.

But, just like someone in Italy who once told me back in the 90’s we would soon be doing everything inside our cell phones, with me scratching my head wondering how in the world that could ever come to pass, these out-of-focus notions have a way of un-blurring pixel by pixel with each passing day.  Eventually we have an ‘aha’ moment where we see it.  The problem is, by then it’s too late.

Remember when the internet became a thing you had to have?  AOL and all that…  It took a 14.4 modem, and you had to pay by the minute just like the old-timey phone calls.  I remember in 1996 getting my first AOL bill for 225.00 for the month!  The next month was similar, until I just accepted it as part of life having internet and a new Mac Performa.

But it was the wild west of a digital world.  You were free to say what you wanted, go where you wanted, and with each new week more information was available at our fingertips.  Oh yes, it took some discernment and cross-referencing to find out if what we were reading had any truth to it… but the research was ours to pursue as we chose.

The biggest selling point of the internet- it’s educational and it’s fun!  Look at this hysterical video!  Check out this photo of a guy in Walmart!  Did you know the pyramid of Giza had numbers significant to the universe?  That can’t be a coincidence.  The Incas, Mayans and Egyptians knew something!

The words ‘viral’ and ‘trending’ became part of our culture.  Laughing at others rose to a new level.  Cyber-bullying became a real thing in chat rooms.  Acceptance and humiliation became a carrot & stick of conforming how we thought to the way we publicly shared our views.  ‘Virtue signaling’ became another word for ‘politically correct’.  Translation?  You’re full of shit, but i’m going to ‘like’ this anyway.

Very much like Napster, they use this as a reason they ‘must control’ the environment.

So, ultimately here we are.  We’re afraid to call someone a man or a woman.  We’re afraid to say anything about any government, unless that government has been approved by the totalitarian power as permissible to criticize i.e. Russia, North Korea and Iran.  We don’t want to dress out of step, speak out of step or even think out of step.

We think we’re thinking originally, but in most cases our thoughts align perfectly with the state.  To speak otherwise is a fate most of us could never publicly handle… to be shamed, ridiculed, doxxed, fired and potentially killed for our thought crimes.

So now it’s 2024 and in rolls AI.  Stocks go wild.

And it’s fun!  Look, I can ask it anything and it gives me the answer in milliseconds.  Check out this drawing it created!  Hear this new, never written Beatles song!

And while we’re having fun with AI’s magic tricks, our eyes are not on the ball of what it’s actual mission is. The ubiquitous screen in 1984, sending constant messages to conform and never step out of the state’s groupthink.  Monitoring our keystrokes, our words, or beliefs…

AI is the sensor that will detect a pencil on a notepad suggesting you might be having your own original thought.

AI will hear everything, see everything.  Every apartment or cubicle we’re allowed to live in will have this ‘internet of things’ literally everywhere.  It will meld and sculpt us all into the exact slave it desires, extracting God and spirit from each and every one of us.  All in the name of convenience and fun.

One day we’re having a private conversation in our cars about some conspiracy that’s probably true, and the next minute the car pulls itself over to the side of the road, doors lock, and we wait for a Chinese style government to arrive and take us to a re-education camp for alignment.  3 strikes and we are expunged.

Please think about what you support.  It’s hard.  We have to support our families.  We work for a company that’s owned by a bigger company and so we just can’t go voicing our free opinions.  I get that.  So start with cash.  When a place of business says ‘sorry we don’t accept cash’… let this be the last time you shop there.

Support things that support human life.  Freedom of speech.  Freedom of thought.  We’re literally about to lose it all.  And the irony of it is, so are they. But they don’t care.  I won’t share the “scorpion and frog” joke, but you can look it up if you haven’t heard it before.  Killing themselves doesn’t really figure.  They’re already dead.