Dr. Theresa Bullard
&
Polka Dot Dot Dot
on Alternative Talk 1150AM
From ANDRAS JONES: DR. THERESA BULLARD is one of our best recurring guests. POLKA DOT DOT DOT are one of the best bands we’ve had on the show. And yet, the beauty and power of this musical divination still caught me by surprise. There’s a lot of synchronicity surrounding today’s Pop Oracle divination. The whole thing has a seance quality, which is fitting since its release (and I promise I didn’t plan this) coincides with the death date of two famous Johns who had a profound influence over the show.
The first of these is John Trudell who left us 2 years ago today. John is someone I first became aware of from his late 80’s appearances on Roy of Hollywood’s late night show on KPFK in Los Angeles.John’s insightful poetic revolutionary words were more than words. They wove a web of intelligence that seduced and challenged me. A few years later on February 28, 1997 I was introduced to him by my friend Craig X Rubin and we sat on Craig’s rug, smoking his weed, watching militarily armed robbers engage in a fire fight with LAPD officers. John (who survived the FBI siege of Wounded Knee in the 70’s) suggested that this would be the beginning of an escalation of firepower for police. He was right about that. Then on May 22, 2008 John was a guest on a live Radio8Ball show in Joshua Tree, just weeks before Radio8Ball was removed from KAOS for reasons which still make little sense. That show with John will always feel like the last of something sweet and the beginning of a long and perhaps futile battle against the powers of boredom and hatred.
The second and most famous John to die on this day is John Lennon who was assassinated on December 8, 1980. His death was a shock to the world and it affected me so much my mom kept me home from school, something she never did. Lennon’s affinity for synchronicity would influence my songwriting, which in turn influenced the creation of Radio8Ball. Before I realized how much the show was influenced by my father’s dream seminars I credited its inspiration to John Lennon and John Cage, both of whom used synchronicity to compose their music. Interestingly Cage (another dead John) died on my birthday in 1992.
In honor of all of this let’s take a deeep dive down the synchronistic rabbit hole. Most fans of The Beatles are aware of the “clues” about Paul McCartney’s death that were supposedly hidden in The Beatles’ songs and album covers. One of the most famous of these is the license plate on the Abbey Road album cover that reads LMW 28IF, which is supposed to suggest that McCartney would have been “28 if” he had lived to make Abbey Road. The “Paul Is Dead” theory has been thoroughly debunked but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have synchronistic fun with license plates, which brings us to the license plate in the promo shot for Polka Dot Dot Dot which read “711 HJM”. What are we to make of this? I know what it means to me but what does it mean to you?
Left Alone
Die-dum
Du-duh-Du-duh-Die-dum
Du-duh-Du-duh-Die-dum
Du-duh-Du-duh-Die-dum
Die-dum
Someone says I’m in love with you
That’s great
I guess I could be too
Could be too
Someday I’ll send you a love letter
an antique dictionary
a peacock feather
but I never do
never do
Oh I never do
never do.
Sorry
Three years later
I lose your address anyway
so I stopped feeling guilty
every single day
I decided this dynamic
so that I could feel
like you want me
But here’s my big secret
Oh here’s my big secret
I like you all better as ghosts
so I can feel flattered when you haunt me
I will leave you wanting more
wanting more
When you knock I will just lock the door
lock the door
If you leave your letters on the porch
I will pretend I’m not at home
I will leave you wanting more
wanting more
When you knock I will just lock the door
lock the door
If you leave your cookies on the porch
I will pretend I’m not at home
But here’s my big secret
Oh here’s my big secret
When you ring me up on the phone
I’m so busy being all alone
I want to feel needed
but I need to be left alone
