The real Christmas Spirit, right here.

Hi,

I've had a couple of really good Christmas Holidays with my extended family, in Las Vegas ... it was an enjoyable time, and I would love to see it continue ... though it won't as times have changed and people have changed and all that.

Personally, myself, Christmas has never really meant a whole lot to me ... probably because I do not have a family of my own, children, or ever been married. Between no language, in the late teens and twenties, made for a not so much fun time and place ... with a family that was super stuck on a mythical upper level literary bullpucky, that hurt the children more than it helped. The whole of it became so dysfunctional, that I have never wanted to have a family.

For that reason, I took on my dreams and inner life, and this has been one of my issues, and only dream ... I want the inner reality to match the outer reality ... and this is rare and a very spiritual path to take on, that many folks around you do not like, or accept easily ... because you are "different". Same issue here sometimes!

But when it comes to carving the turkey, or helping in the kitchen? ... I'm the best there is ... I chef'd a dinner house and another restaurant and managed two others, and if there is one thing I can do is cook better than most people.  Surprisingly enough, my specialty is --- for my surrogate mom --- breakfast in bed ... spoil her rotten ... she is the one woman in my life that deserves it and I will always help her the best I can and know how! The rest of my family ... I can not say half that much except my sister, the artist, in Paris ... Manuela de Sena. You can catch some of her stuff on www.pedrosena.com/manuela.htm

Thx ... and the Happiest of Holidays for everyone ...

jamesg1213


Your sister does some beautiful work Pedro.

Thanks ... she suffers from the try too hard thing ... she has been doing this for 40 years, and has some beautiful work, and the number of pictures is insane. She has done shows in just about every big city in Europe ... and she came to America last year and was hoping to get some work here in the educational side of things ... no go ... she had to go back. Things in Paris are not as good and the government continues to rob people to take care of more people, and her "retirement" is now down to something like $100 dollars a month ... she lives on her own, and sticks to the art work, and in that we're very similar ... yet we're so different ... I'm totally instinctive and not afraid of it, and for her, the process is a time process that lasts days, weeks and such ... the "instinctive" and styles that are not time related ... so you can refine every line (or note ... hehehe!!!) ... is what her work does ... but in the end, it still makes it ... so let that be a lesson to musicians that don't believe that arts have parallels! They do a lot more times, than most will ever understand.
 
She deserves a Christmas once in a while ... she stayed with me for 5 months here last year, and I was telling her that her next painting had to be 4 feet tall and 4 feet wide ... so that no one could say ... she's not an artist ... but the folks here in the West Coast ... looking for "artists", up to and including the University of Oregon in Eugene, are down right sick, materialistic and not about the arts at all!
 
Now you know why I was so glad to leave the academic world ... it's just "The Wall" meat market ... with the money going to everyone else, not the meat!

What a nice chap.

I have a tradition of doing a secret Santa every year for one of my customers. When working with musicians, poor is the norm. I have a couple customers that are millionaires and they never give up an extra nickel no matter how good the work is. The poor folk are grateful for every nickel you can save them, so every year one of my customers that has their back against the wall gets their work done for free. I keep old dead amps around to scavenge parts from so usually it's just my time that I give, but not always.

I'm not rich, but I'm not on the streets. It makes me feel good to help those that need a break and I encourage everyone to give it a try it. It's very different from giving $50 to some organization because you get to see the faces of those you help.

Back to trimming the wee tree.