Author Archives: Andy

New CD in the Works

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I’m working on another CD, calling it Substantia Nigra, at least for now. A few more tracks to put down and a lot of editing! Parkinson’s disease (PD) has made me into a post production editor as my hands listen less and less to my brain.

I feel so pressed for time given restraints PD places on me—I have a little less time every day. It’s difficult chiseling away, few minutes here and there. I don’t mean to be complaining. I am blessed, don’t get me wrong! My daily commute is just 100 paces to the barn – get the fire going, feed the birds, meditate, and start my day writing or recording or whatever. Time is valuable. That’s all I’m sayin’!

Anyhow, as tunes get close to done I’ll be posting them here on Re verb . I would love to hear what you think.

Free Electronic Press Kits template from ReverbNation.com

Praise for “Renegade Pinky”

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Join us for an evening of beautiful poetry, fine art, and good eats at the 3rd Annual Poets for Parkinson’s. 

http://fundraise.michaeljfox.org/poetsTo reserve your seat simply CLICK HERE and make a $25, or more, donation per person. Your name will be added to our guest list.

Space is limited! DONATE NOW! >>

renegade-pinky“It is the voice in these poems that stays with you. Amused, angry, sad, and persistently ironic. It is a voice I want to hear again.”
~ Robert B. Parker, New York Times Best Selling Author

“How does the brain change suffering into art? As a neuroscientist, I can’t say, but as a reader, I can report that it has happened. Andy Weatherwax, a polymath who has also produced musical and visual art, here brings his intense appreciation of the sensory world to the experience of illness. The result is transformative.”
~ Alice Flaherty, MD, PhD, Director, Movement Disorders, Mass. General Hospital Author of The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain

“These poems reveal a depth of human spirit the reader will find to be a source of healing.  Andy Weatherwax embraces his Parkinson’s disease as a gift that allows him to love in new ways, to see with new vision, and to live with a sacred purpose.  We see in his verse that he refuses to allow the Parkinson’s to define him.  Each poem bears witness to the quality of life one discovers when one moves beyond fear.  Laced with the language of joy, this collection of Andy’s work inspires us to live fully into each moment.  Wisdom begins when we let ourselves be awed by the Creator.  Andy is a wise human being.”
~ Rev. Richard C. Allen, Senior Minister, The Congregational Church in South Glastonbury, CT, United Church of Christ

“An honest, humorous, and at times, even lyrical, expression of the fragility and resilience of human life unfolding against the background of a greater compassion.”
~ Mark T. Unno, PhD Shin Buddhist priest and scholar, Author of Shingon Refractions: Myoe and the Mantra of Light

“The individual poems in Renegade Pinky are extraordinary.  As a collection, the impact is breathtaking.  These poems are informed by pain, uncertainty and loss; but even as we are brought to profound intimacy with these things, we as well accompany a poet possessing great good humor, an ironic take on life and exquisite sensitivity to the revelations of nature, music, love and everyday realities.  Falling into a gutter, giving vent to anger, letting the words of Billie Holiday speak to him, turning the menace of a subway bully into kinship: such things mark Andy Weatherwax’s days, and we emerge from our time with him aspiring to the deeper, broader, more creative and peace-filled ways of being human that infuse his life.  I dare you to read these poems and not be changed.”

~ Alexandrina Sergio
, Author of My Daughter is Drummer in a Rock ‘n Roll Band

Poets for Parkinsons

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Poet, sculptor, and musician Andy Weatherwax of East Hampton will debut his new collection of poems and prose, Renegade Pinky, as part of Poets for Parkinson’s fundraiser for Team Fox—the grassroots community fundraising program at The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Friday May 23, 2014,
6:30 to 8:30pm 
South Church
949 Main Street,
South Glastonbury, CT.

The event will include readings from Renegade Pinky and other works by Weatherwax and the acclaimed poetry group The Meeting House Poets.

Tickets are available: $40 per person

Click here to reserve your seat today >>

Pork Pie Cretin?

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This little ditty is called Pork Pie Cretin and was recorded in 1987 on a 1/4-inch Tascam 4-track. (I maintain no trumpets were harmed in the making of this tune.)


“Pork Pie Cretin” from Trolling for Olives by Wax. Released: 1987.
Wax: All trumpets, guitars, bass, drum and synth programming.

Why Pork Pie Cretin?

There was a hand written sign in the window of a Hispanic deli.  It said We Have Pork Pie Cretins.

I stopped and read the sign again, several times. True, I was a bit hungover having had a couple of Belgian ales the night before. But I was not that foggy. These words made my head hurt.  I thought perhaps I needed to see the trees first. So I broke it down, one word at a time.

Pork. I like pork. Heck, I love pork!  Bacon, baby back ribs, pulled pork! What’s not to love about pork! Same holds true for pie. I love pie, apple, pumpkin,  pecan, coconut cream, you can’t go wrong.

And I’m not averse to savory pies like the comfort food classic chicken pot pie and one of my favorites, shepherd’s pie. I have never had a pork pie nor have I ever heard of such a thing. But, if they are anything like the  Lebanese meat pies my grandmother used to make then I’m sure to love them!

I actually own a pork pie hat, and although I’ve never said ‘goodbye’ to it (or any other hat for that matter) I love Mingus Uh Hum…

Still staring at the sign I realize the offending word, the word that throws you: cretin.

We Have Pork Pie Cretins?
We Have Pork Pie Idiots?
We Have Pork Pie people with a congenital disease due to absence or deficiency of normal thyroid secretion, characterized by physical deformity, dwarfism, and mental retardation, and often by goiter.

For years that sign haunted me. What could they have trying to say?

Some time later I was watching a cooking program on PBS. The chef, a French-Canadian, was making a pork spread containing onions and spices. It was called Cretons. I learned that Cretons are usually served on toast as part of a traditional Quebec breakfast.

Was it a simple typo that made me wonder?