Reincarnated Blog~

Back from the dead, sort of.  I was never intending to keep this blog down under for good.  It's back in some sort of weekly form again, yet never settled on a day.  It's a test of endurance, for one.  An experiment for my own personal amusement and some others, as well as other purposes, perhaps. 

Facebook, I've had it with it.  I love it as a way to stay in contact with people whose numbers I've lost, etc, and many post some good stuff, but I think the algorithm has me blacklisted, either because I criticized FB before and/or because I experimented with an ad before.  At any rate, my posts never show in feeds anymore.  It's definitely not a good way to get the word out about anything that's important to me or any type of creative work or play.  It's a huge advertising machine that is playing with people's narcissism and a popularity contest-for-profit.  Of course, there's so much potential there and I do love the good things about it, and I understand that things need money to survive, but I am ready for another platform that is more beneficial at least for musicians and the like.  Zuckerberg did state that FB was having problems and he was dedicating this year to fixing Facebook, and I hope he does. 
          So below is my eulogy that I posted on my page that not a single person saw.  I aim to be back to the blog next week.  Just squeezing this in as unexpected events keep transpiring to keep the blog down.  Tomorrow, if I can make it, I will be at a funeral in another state and then at the airport in the next state to pick up a visitor from another country then back to where I left, 6 hours on the road. 

3 days and still reeling about the news of Jarrod Chisum.
He was on the scene with me, and us, through so many pivotal
moments, not the least playing bass with us during my first ever
public performances as a band (though he’d been playing in bands
since he was like 10 years old!) and the first paying gig when I
was 15.  Extreme ups and downs, lots of tragic yet definitely lots
of comic, too- some of the funniest moments ever with him. 
So many stories- really, a legendary character.  I’ll say, we’ll
celebrate your spirit and remember the good times. RIP, Pal. 

RIP Blog

If this is to be considered a weekly blog, just barely getting this out in the nick of time before it turns over to a brand new week on Sunday, midnight tonight.  Yet here it is.  There's still just too many unpredictable interruptions and other deadlines and focuses going on in my world that this blog just gets pushed to the back burner.  I am in the midst of all this.  It seems I can only commit timewise to places where I am booked.  Fuck it. It was a good thing, but not the best run.  RIP Blog.

An Account of Unjustified Treatment by Small Town Police

documenting the bullshit on and off since '11

weekly blog published somewhere between Tues. and Thurs. it seems, if the weary, sleep deprived author isn't falling asleep before typing.

A simplified account:

 This past NYE, wanting to avoid any potential drama or trouble, I stayed in and just watched the tube.  Concerning some past trouble, the last incident occurring many years ago, I've always been very wary about going out anywhere in my home state, especially small town Oklahoma.  Or anywhere for that matter.  If I've had a few, always cabbing or riding with someone else or walking or riding a bike. 
       I was driving one night recently in OKC and as a matter of curiosity and extra caution (paranoia), I bought a breathalyzer at CVS along with double A batteries.  It cost $50.  After a couple of beers, I blew into it and it read 0.00.  It didn't work.  I caught a ride to my friends' house a few blocks away and stayed on their couch that night.
        Several days later, I contacted the manufacturer and they told me I could send it in to test the calibration or get a refund.  What a nuisance.  I hadn't had a drink in days, so I had a glass of red wine with dinner and blew.  It was still bunk.  Feeling stir-crazy, I called my friend and we went to the Fox to watch the OKC Thunder play the L.A. Lakers, joking that we were out for the 10th day of Xmas.  We joined a group at the wooden round table that were celebrating a birthday.  The Fox closed at 11 pm, which was earlier than usual, so we relocated to Lola's Bar, not too far away.
        I got the craving for cigarettes, but they didn't sell them there.  The adjoining hotel was barred off, which used to be open back in the day with a vending machine.  I asked the others if they wanted some and took a couple of orders, telling them I was going to Walgreens, which used to be 24 hours or at least stayed open pretty late.  It is approximately 377 feet away.  I crossed at the intersection, walked up to the door and saw for sure that they were closed, then immediately crossed back at the crosswalk on the other side of the intersection, not a car or pedestrian in sight.  After crossing to the other side, headlights pulled up across the intersection and a police SUV turned right.  As I was walking along the sidewalk, the officer rolled down his window and hollered at me, as he pulled over at the abandoned gas station.  Well, this is from the report I wrote a couple of days later:

                                          POLICE HARASSMENT COMPLAINT           

            On the night of Jan. 3rd, 2018, I went to Lola’s Bar with a birthday group.  The vending machine was closed, so I walked approximately 100 yards to the Walgreen’s.  I crossed 14^th street.  The street was either completely devoid of traffic or nearly so, as it was near midnight.  I saw that Walgreen’s was closed and immediately walked back to where I came from, crossing the street on the other side of the intersection, no cars in sight.  When I had made it to the other side, a police car pulled up to the stoplight and turned on to Bradley St., where I was walking on the sidewalk.  Officer 1 hollered at me from his window as he parked his car.  I was about 100 feet from my destination already. 

            “Where are you going?” he yelled.

            “I’m just walking back where I came from,” I replied.

            He yelled at me to come over to that side of the street.  “What are you doing?”

            I explained that I was just walking to Walgreen’s to get some supplies and was walking back.  He said he could smell alcohol on my breath.  Almost immediately, another police car had pulled up directly behind him and Officer 2 had gotten out of the car.  I agreed that I’d been drinking some but was taking a cab.   He said that he could take me in on a public intox just by the odor.  Officer 2 spoke up for me then and said, “But he is just walking.”  That is when Officer 1 barked out the order, “Book him!” 

            The whole ordeal was less than 5 minutes long.  I was not stumbling through the streets.  I’d even had a taxi cab pick me up earlier before I’d even had a single drink, and I was taking one back home.  There is no proof, no written record, no reason given for stopping me as I was not even jay-walking.  Is it possible the officer had a camera with him and that it can be viewed?  There was little reason to contest it in court because even if it were won, there would still be court costs involved, and the time spent would be a waste.  However, as there was not a single complaint toward me or anyone that I was with the entire night, I believe this is an instance of an officer making an improper arrest, and I can only guess as to his motives. 

            Therefore, I am requesting that I be recompensed for $500 to quietly settle this.  This will cover the $160 fine and my time and trouble.   If this is agreed upon, I thank you very much for listening to an earnest request. 

                                                          Sincerely,

                                                        Brett Horton

Yeah, that's the report.  After 6-8 hours I was turned loose, advised by more than one party just to pay the fine because even if won the fees would stiff me.  I smelled crookedness all around and vowed I would go at this from a different angle, i.e. writing, speaking to the chief of police, which I did.  I went to speak to the captain some days later, and he told me what I already knew by reading up on the Oklahoma statute.  The police can pretty much do what they want.  It's very easy to get arrested walking in a small town, but I wanted to know the reason I was messed with in the first place when just minding my own business and not even given a field sobriety test or issued a written citation stating any probable cause.  It's a free country- the police are free to arrest you.

 - So more on this next time as I need to prepare for an art show for the month of February at Picasso's Cafe in OKC, which is the reason I am even here still lingering in this area after the holidays have dwindled down- the good news is I am free now and plan to stay this way. It was a minor incident that is over in the scheme of all things, but I am studying up on the legislature and other issues and will continue to write the fight. 

         
 

First Notes for 2018.

Waking up in the blustery cold icy feet morning, tired, achy limbs, heavy sagging eyes to go fight the loud honking traffic and be somewhere you don't love when the holiday is gone, writing, Ugh, blog- Happy New Year 2018! There will be warm happy times and beds will be soft and cush and always more laughs.

Here, I am just checking in, getting back in the ring.  I'm not gonna rattle off a laundry list of resolutions.  I know the kinds of things I want to do and just will hope and try to end this year with more $moolah in the bank account than now.  The Workshop of Me's are cranking it out in overtime mode right now.  There's an art show I'm giving for the month of February at Picasso's Cafe in Oklahoma City, which I am now preparing.  I'll send invites out soon.

There's also a new album of songs almost made, a collection of short stories I have to put together and just self-publish for now in private.  I just want to print them on paper and get them off the digital format for now and it's actually cheaper to publish them in a professional paperback form than a typical computer ink cartridge.  I wrote about this once before, how a $20 cartridge was out of ink by the time it was about page 200, but I printed almost 400-pages that cost about a $10 paperback.  That's def one reason to self-publish.  Also, I watched my director's cut and am making a few quick cuts and making another long, raw version, then will make it into a part 1 and 2 with intermission then maybe shave off a good 30 minutes of fat- many versions because I'm just not sure.

So all these 4 personas are currently at work.  Sometime I might drop some of them and just be mainly one for a while.  There are other things that keep getting pushed on the back burner that I want to get cooking more soon.

This blog is just ramblings on the down low for whoever happens to stumble upon it. I don't push it too hard and not even sure how to do that without being a pest and that doesn't work anyway.  Certainly, social media doesn't help get the word out to anyone in regards to this stuff because it seems to float in stagnant water and it asks me for money to boost the post.  Out of curiosity, I checked out a Facebook ad, and I accidentally ran one.  I was charged $20 from Facebook and never even hit a "Run ad" button. Sheeit.  I noticed the blog had hundreds of more readers than normal, supposedly.

I'll post this and read it later.  I also noticed my book here is available on Barnes & Noble now.

Check back soon.

Bottom of the blog plug:

(alternate cover)