Oh, this day has begun all right — an All-Music Morning for Wednesday.

#1  “The Girl In Byakkoya,” Susumu Hirasawa,  from the animated film “Paprika.” This is the music that gets you up and moving. Check out the movie, too — anime magical surrealism at its finest. A mad enormously ballooning parade that absorbs everybody, everything — all energy  — as it progresses. Who can stop it? And how?

#2  Delbert McClinton channels his inner-Tony Bennett and sings about “San Miguel”! (Even mentions San Francisco in the first line … (Thanks for the tip, Robert Cooksey.)

[Verse 1]
I didn’t leave my heart in San Francisco
Left it with a pretty señorita in San Miguel
When the sun comes up on Sunday morning
I’ll be strolling down the cobblestone street
To the mission bell

[Chorus]
There’s magic in the air, laughter everywhere
The jacarandas in bloom
We make love in the morning
Siesta in the afternoon
But the night time is the right time
That’s when I fell
It’s easy to fall in love in San Miguel

[Verse 2]
The people on the street, they’re oh so friendly
Seems that they just can’t wait to wish you well
I could hardly speak when she said “que la noche”
Right there, right then I fell under the spell

[Repeat Chorus]

#3  “Loan Me A Dime,” Boz Scaggs (1969), Atlantic.

Down on your knees, brothers and sisters,  in the Muscle Shoals Church of the Blues as God Hammond lifts your beaten-down soul up to a higher place. Embrace the guitar holiest of holies picking & sliding for your soul. Put a little Boz in your heart and be saved for a better day. I wonder if the full 40-minute jam session exists somewhere?

Here’s the full “Boz Scaggs album and  the crew:

Violin: Al Lester
Keyboards: Barry Beckett
Guitar, Producer, Vocals: Boz Scaggs
Bass Guitar: David Hood
Backing Vocals: Donna Thatcher
Slide Guitar: Duane Allman
Guitar: Eddie Hinton
Backing Vocals: Jeannie Greene
Guitar: Jimmy Johnson
Producer: Marlin Greene
Backing Vocals: Mary Holiday
Drums: Roger Hawkins
Writer: Fenton Robinson
Composer: Middlebrook
Composer: Robinson
Producer: Jann Wenner

#4  “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” Alman Brothers, Live at the Filmore East, 1971.

Instrumental electra-slide glide to the holiest of holy places — a Dickey and Duane jam.

Our congregation:

Guitar: Duane Allman
Organ, Piano, Vocals: Gregg Allman
Guitar: Dickey Betts
Bass Guitar: Berry Oakley
Drums, Conga: Jaimoe
Drums, Timpani: Butch Trucks
Guitar, Vocals: Elvin Bishop
Piano: Steve Miller
Percussion: Bobby Caldwell
Composer/Lyricist: Richard Betts

#5  “Into the Mystic,” Van Morrison, live extended version.

Can not let the morning slide away without something from Van Morrison. Happy memories of picnicking at the Hollywood Bowl before catching Van inside.  I hope something here has rocked your gypsy soul today ….

We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won
As we sailed into the mystic

Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic

And when that fog horn blows
I will be coming home, mmm mmm
And when the fog horn blows
I want to hear it
I don’t have to fear it

I wanna rock your gypsy soul
Just like way back in the days of old
Then magnificently we will float
Into the mystic

When that fog horn blows
You know I will be coming…

#6 New York Times Crossword puzzle — under an hour for a Wednesday puzzle! More precisely, it took 52:58, but boy did I have to look up a lot of the answers, with clues like this: “01, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.” which of course is the FIBONACCI SERIES. And the opposite of legato is STACCATO. Did you know the “Six Flags Great Adventure roller coaster with ‘explosive’ speed” is NITRO? Me neither.

#7  ANIME: Mushishi, “The Shadow That Devours the Sun”  (2014)  In this Japanese anime series set in 17-18th Century Japan,  ethereal creatures called Mushi exist beyond the perception of most humans. They can create problems for humans and it is the role of Mushishi Ginko, a rare human who sees the Mushi, to fix those problems.

In this special, aired between seasons 1 & 2, an eclipse of the sun enables powerful Mushi to escape and cast a shadow over the sun. Ginko seeks the aid of a village to force the Mushi back underground and unblock the sun. The story unfolds in a slow, meditative, and not unpleasant way, as ethereal as the Mushi itself.

Here’s the soundtrack for the whole series, if you’re looking for some meditative music:

#8 BIG DIG: Dove headlong into the case of papers, notebooks, old artwork, memorabilia, and whatnot that goes back to the early 1970s. Old running medals, an American flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol building, sheets of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe stamps, Steven Spielberg’s autograph, and a copy of a letter that I wrote to my 90-year-old grandmother on her birthday are things found in the first layer of this archeological excavation.

Oh, and some personal writings that range from pretty awful to hmm. My fantasy is that all the miscellaneous notes, short stories, diary entries, acid trips, and napkin scribbles will amount to a whole book of some sort. A horror story, no doubt …

#9  CREDO: Wrote this on Facebook today.  Please, if you want to take issue, just screw off. I’m over debate and discussion. If you still think Trump is The Man, disown me before I do the same to you.  I won’t stand by and let apologists enable this Mad Man to destroy our country. Enough is enough.

This I believe …

I believe everything Trump does — no matter how utterly inane it seems to us — is calculated. Remember just days ago, when he announced the end of the Coronavirus Task Force? The next day, he fiercely backpedaled — not because he saw value in the experts but because he “didn’t realize how POPULAR it was…”

I do believe that his family is so deeply into the hooks of Russian oligarchs — just look at who buys his condos at enormously inflated prices, who loans him millions. It is not like he is doing their bidding so much as he sees a mutual interest in giving Russian operatives a free run in the US.

When he goes off the charts with something mind-fuckingly stupid, look elsewhere to see what government agency is being degraded or what law is being violated.

Our federal enforcement agencies are being neutralized to keep them off his back. Our intelligence community is being destroyed to enable Russia a free hand to meddle in American life and elections. Our allies are being neutralized to accomplish the same on a global scale.

Even our Post Office is being diminished so that mail-in ballots will be non-entities come November.