Pheaturing Pete Townshend

 

Man, I'm glad I don't live in Texas. Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Wednesday. Texas is lifting its mask mandate, Gov. Greg Abbott said yesterday, making it the largest state to end an order intended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus that has killed more than 42,000 Texans. The Republican governor has faced sharp criticism from his party over the mandate, which was imposed eight months ago, and other COVID-19 restrictions. It was only ever lightly enforced, even during the worst outbreaks of the pandemic. Texas will also do away with limits on the number of diners that businesses can serve indoors, said Abbott, who made the announcement at a restaurant in Lubbock. He said the new rules would take effect March 10th. “Removing statewide mandates does not end personal responsibility,” said Abbott, speaking from a crowded dining room where many of those surrounding him were not wearing masks. “It’s just that now state mandates are no longer needed,” he said. The decision comes as governors across the U.S. have been easing coronavirus restrictions, despite warnings from health experts that the pandemic is far from over. Like the rest of the country, Texas has seen the number of cases and deaths plunge. Hospitalizations are at the lowest levels since October, and the seven-day rolling average of positive tests has dropped to about 7,600 cases, down from more than 10,000 in mid-February. Only California and New York have reported more COVID-19 deaths than Texas. “The fact that things are headed in the right direction doesn’t mean we have succeeded in eradicating the risk,” said Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of integrative biology and director of the University of Texas COVID-19 Modeling Consortium. She said the recent deadly winter freeze in Texas that left millions of people without power... forcing families to shelter closely with others who still had heat... could amplify transmission of the virus in the weeks ahead, although it remains too early to tell. Masks, she said, are one of the most effective strategies to curb the spread. Abbott imposed the statewide mask mandate in July during a deadly summer surge. But enforcement was spotty at best, and some sheriffs refused to police the restrictions at all. And as the pandemic dragged on, Abbott ruled out a return to tough COVID-19 rules, arguing that lockdowns do not work. Politically, the restrictions elevated tensions between Abbott and his own party, with the head of the Texas GOP at one point leading a protest outside the governor’s mansion. Meanwhile, mayors in Texas’ biggest cities argued that Abbott wasn’t doing enough. Most of the country has lived under mask mandates during the pandemic, with at least 37 states requiring face coverings to some degree. But those orders are increasingly falling by the wayside: North Dakota, Montana and Iowa have also lifted mask orders in recent weeks. Ahead of the repeal in Texas, Democratic lawmakers urged Abbott to reconsider. “Texas will experience more cases, more hospitalizations and more deaths,” state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, a Democrat from the border city of Laredo, told Abbott in a letter Monday. Laredo, whose population is predominately Latino, has endured some of the worst outbreaks of the pandemic, running out of beds in hospital intensive care units as recently as January. The international trade hub has been among Texas’ most aggressive cities in trying to blunt the spread of the virus, taking measures that have included curfews. “Elected by the people, your most fundamental obligation is their health and safety. Please do not abrogate your duty,” Raymond said. 

It’s happened to all of us: you leave the house, all ready to go, head out on your way… then realize you forgot your face mask. Maybe you keep a couple extra in the car. Maybe you get to the store and try to pull up the collar of your shirt, hoping nobody notices. But at a Pick n Pay supermarket in South Africa, one woman went a step further… yanking her underwear off from under her dress and pulling it on over her face. And to make matters worse, it was a thong.  As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, South Africa has been hit particularly hard. Since last year, the African nation has suffered 50,077 deaths and is just beginning to come out of a deadly winter spike. The so-called “South African strain” of COVID-19 is now racing around the globe; this serious virus mutation is reportedly more resistant to vaccination efforts, making it difficult to contain. But now the pandemic in South Africa is trending for a new reason. A viral video shows obtained by Newsflash shows an unnamed woman in Pick n Pay, a South African grocery store, refusing to wear a face covering. As a security guard tries to reason with her beside the checkout line, the woman can be seen reaching up beneath her long paisley dress, pulling off a black thong, and angrily strapping it on over her head as a makeshift mask. After waving her arms around causing a scene, the woman reportedly said, ”Well personally I find it acceptable, it is a mask… And quite frankly I think the bacteria on your knickers is less than on the mask.” I hope that someone explains to this super-spreader that the reason we wear masks is, indeed, so that they will pick up the bacteria. Better in the cloth than in our bodies! It didn’t take long for this ridiculous scene to blow up on social media. It seems that lockdown had produced two kinds of Karens: those who complain about wearing masks… and those willing to stick their dirty G-string on their face in public to prove a point about it. On February 17th, South Africa became the first nation to begin rolling out the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Its use has now been authorized in the U.S. as well.)On February 28th, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that the restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus will be easing. With the rate of new infections dropping, Ramaphosa is eliminating strict limits on alcohol sales for the first time in months, shortening the nightly curfew, and allowing public gatherings of up to 100 people indoors. The mask mandate, however, will remain in place. And underwear does NOT count.

Hilaria Baldwin sure knows how to stay in the news. In December, Twitter came for Alec Baldwin‘s wife… for pretending to be a Spanish woman. I’ll get to that later. And now she’s broken the Internet again, after sharing a pic on social media that apparently includes a new baby! That makes the sixth child for Hilaria and Alec, the seventh including Alec’s 25-year-old daughter Ireland, from his marriage to ex-wife Kim Basinger. But there’s a reason that the growing Baldwin brood is shocking to so many fans. This newborn baby girl has appeared less than six months after Hilaria Baldwin’s last pregnancy. Hilaria Baldwin, born Hillary Hayward-Thomas, is a yoga instructor who married the actor Alec Baldwin in 2011. Over her past decade in the spotlight as a celebrity spouse, she has spoken with a primarily Spanish accent and made many references to her Spanish upbringing. But in December 2020, it was revealed that Hilaria is actually 100% white and grew up in Boston. She was lambasted for cultural appropriation. While presenting as a Spanish woman, Hilaria Baldwin has also crafted a public identity as a fitness guru. Throughout giving birth to five children in succession, she has maintained an enviable postpartum body and frequently poses alongside her young children. One such post... featuring Baldwin in lingerie while holding her youngest son Eduardo... was imitated by Amy Schumer as a fake holiday card last year. Hilaria Baldwin has had five children with her husband Alec: daughter Carmen Gabriela, born in 2013), Rafael Thomas, born in 2015, Leonardo Angel Charles, born in 2016, Romeo Alejandro David, born in 2018, and Eduardo “Edu” Pao Lucas, born in 2020. Or so we thought. Yesterday, the proud mother shared a photo on her Instagram that also featured a newborn, with the simple caption: “7,” followed by a heart emoji. The newest addition to the family was a complete surprise to fans since Hilaria Baldwin gave birth to her fifth child, Eduardo, less than six months ago! Presumably, the Baldwins used a surrogate mother to carry the baby girl whose name has been revealed as Lucia though it’s possible they adopted. So it looks like the details surrounding the youngest Baldwin will remain private, at least for a while. I don’t think anyone else wants to challenge dear old dad on that. 

A man was tragically killed by a rooster with a blade that was tied to its leg during illegal cockfighting in Southern India. Police stated that this brought focus on a practice that continues in some Indian states despite a decade-old ban. The rooster, which had a 3-inch knife tied, fluttered in panic and slashed its owner, 45-year-old Thangulla Satish. The rooster managed to stab the man in the groin. According to Police Inspector B. Jeevan, the incident occurred in Kothanur village of Telangana state. Jeevan stated Satish was injured while he was preparing the rooster for a fight. The officer stated, “Satish was hit by the rooster’s knife in his groin and started bleeding heavily.” Unfortunately, the man died on the way to the hospital. Local authorities filed a case and we’re looking for over a dozen people involved in the cockfight. If proven guilty, the organizers can be jailed for up to two years. Illegal cockfights are usually common in Southern India States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu despite there being a countrywide ban imposed in 1960. Several animal rights activists have been calling to control the illegal practice, which is mainly organized as part of local Hindu festivals usually attended by hundreds of people. The cockfights are often held under the watch of a local politician and involve a large sum of betting money. Last year, a man was killed when a blade that was attached to the bird’s leg hit him in the neck during a cockfight in Andhra Pradesh. Back in 2010, a rooster killed its owner by slashing his jugular vein in West Bengal state. According to the police, the rooster involved in last week’s incident was among many roosters that were prepared for the cockfight wedding festival in Kothanur village. As the practice goes, a knife blade or any other sharp-edged weapon is tied to the leg of a bird to harm its rival. Such fights continue until one contestant is either dead or fleas, declaring the other rooster the winner. Officer Jeevan stated that the rooster involved was brought to the police station before he was taken to a local Poultry Farm.

Yesterday... Dr. Seuss’ birthday and Read Across America Day... Dr. Seuss Enterprises announced that six Dr. Seuss titles would cease publication: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer. The decision is due to imagery that’s been dubbed “hurtful and wrong.” Over the past few years, Dr. Seuss has been widely criticized more and more for the “racial undertones” that have been drawn in his books. Dr. Seuss books have been an iconic staple in children’s literature, but a national educators organization is determined in “cancelling” the author in the name of change. Learning for Justice, a left-wing educators group, has been fighting for the famous cartoonist to not be highly recognized and acclaimed as he normally has throughout history. They claim that Theodor Seuss Geisel’s children’s books have “racial undertones,” and that schools should avoid Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss, a national holiday on March 2nd  honoring Dr. Seuss’ birthday. The group under the Southern Poverty Law Center promotes radical teaching views, believing that racial and social justice should be taught to students as young as five-years-old. Learning for Justice cited a study from St. Catherine University in a magazine article called, “It’s Time to Talk About Dr. Seuss,” that claimed that, “Dr. Seuss’s children’s literature is rife with ‘orientalism, anti-blackness, and white supremacy,'” referring to 50 Dr. Seuss books. The researchers concluded that there was simply not enough diversity, especially since many of the books were written in the 50s. They said, “Of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are 45 of color representing two percent of the total number of human characters,” and of the 45 characters of color, 43 “exhibited behaviors and appearances that align with harmful and stereotypical Orientalist tropes.” The organization also expressed that many of the non-White characters in the books were men who were “subservient” to the other White characters in the books. They wrote, “It’s also important to note that each of the non-white characters is male and that they are all ‘presented in subservient, exotified, or dehumanized roles,’ especially in relation to white characters.” Banning Books? Talk of banning Dr. Seuss books in Loudon County, Virginia brought new attention to allegedly racist aspects of the deceased cartoonist’s work. Gearing up to Read Across America Day, Loudoun County Public Schools announced a plan to diversify reading material and de-emphasize Dr. Seuss books following the study which identified “strong racial undertones” in the work. Contrary to reports, the board released an official statement denying that Dr. Seuss books were ever going to be “banned.” But those rumors had already incited a national discourse over the fate of Dr. Seuss’ legacy. A nationwide celebration of Dr. Seuss takes place annually, on Read Across America Day. The special day was started by the National Educational Association in 1998 to promote children’s literature; the date of March 2nd was chosen specifically to honor with the birthday of Theodor Seuss Geisel, who died in 1991. Often the day is observed at schools by reading classics like The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham, with young kids donning stripey, floppy top hats. Why didn't we do this when I was a kid? And while this year’s Read Across America Day was bound to feel different, with remote schooling due to the coronavirus pandemic, the growing controversy surrounding Dr. Seuss seems to have overshadowed the meaning of the day. Unlike his predecessors, President Joe Biden did not acknowledge Dr. Seuss in his official statement for yesterday's Reading Across America Day. And now Dr. Seuss Enterprises has announced the official cancellation of six Dr. Seuss books containing offensive portrayals of people of color. The Associated Press reports that in And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, an Asian person is pictured “wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks, and eating from a bowl.” The accompanying text reads, “a Chinese man who eats with sticks.” If I Ran the Zoo portrays “two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads.” Some experts have said that the “racist” portions of Dr. Seuss’ work were done while he was still a cartoonist... before writing beloved books like Horton Hears a Who, The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Green Eggs and Ham, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! But Learning for Justice claims that anyone who defends Dr. Seuss is a “racial apologist” making excuses for why “bigotry doesn’t matter.” They believe that teachers should directly discuss Dr. Seuss’ racist past with not only young children but also older students. Since older students were exposed to his books as young readers, they asked teachers to explain racism, how to spot it, and when they could expect it. They said, “You can address these arguments directly, discussing the degree to which cultural norms excuse biased language or actions, how harmful stereotypical representation can be, and whether... and how... a person can make up for hurtful mistakes.” 

Okay, speaking of books, my second book is available on Amazon right now. Check it out...

So, once you are done reading this entry of the blog go and purchase yourself a copy. If I had a TARDIS I would go to France, believe it or not, and watch Samuel Reshevsky, age 8, defeating several chess masters at once in France in 1920. 

It seems he was not simply copying the moves of others. By the point of this photo, he had been playing chess for half his life, and had been identified as a prodigy. He began playing simultaneous games at age six and became a Grand Master despite never really playing professionally. Do you know what makes me smile? When people reenact photos from when they were younger. Like this one...

That's great. Okay, sometimes I like to get on to Twitter and look up a certain word to see what people are talking about. One of those words is "Foghat" and this is one tweet I saw recently...

That's great. Okay, so on Monday's entry I interviewed Michael Nesmith who was in "The Monkees." Well, did you know I was originally in the Monkees before I was replaced by another Brit? No? Well, check this out...

Mind you, the show came out in 1966 and I was born in 1868. Hahahaha. It’s no secret that some of you really struggle with flying. Those who struggle will do pretty much anything to avoid it. But for one passenger who reads the Phile, the best solution for their unavoidable flight was to book an extra seat, to give them a little breathing room. But the Phile reader realized it wasn’t going to be so simple when the flight turned out to be open-seating. Later, they wondered if they were wrong for standing up for themselves. They asked...

"Was I wrong for not letting a woman have the seat next to me on the plane? I recently had to fly across the U.S. to deal with certain company matters. My company apologized profusely to me because I am terrified of flying, but seeing as it would have been a 25 hour drive, I obliged. For the trip, my company paid for my seat, but I decided to also reserve the seat next to mine. Again, this is an anxiety issue. I would have fit just fine into my seat, but if I needed to vomit/started to get panicky, at the very least I wanted to have a buffer between myself and the next person. I had an aisle seat in a three-person row, and people were shuffling around changing their seats before takeoff. I do not know how it works, but apparently, people can occasionally just sit down wherever they want and the flight attendants don’t have to deal with it? The seating arrangement was me... open seat (mine)... a teenage girl I’d place around the 7th grade. Right before we started getting taxied, a middle-aged woman abruptly sat down in the middle seat and fist bumped the teen. Immediately I told her that I had reserved that seat, and she started by being very considerate. She quietly told me she was getting away from a bad situation, and really wanted to sit next to her daughter. During this explanation, she repeatedly pointed out her daughter sitting next to her, as if I would be a monster for depriving her of that seat. I stuck to my guns though and told her that I would get the cabin attendant if she didn’t go back to her seat several rows back in the middle. She called me on my bluff, so I flagged one down. He asked if I really needed the middle seat and I said yes. Then he politely asked the woman to move, which she did, but not before calling me a ‘dickhead.' Since she did this rather loudly, several people were clearly looking at me, and I couldn’t really read what they were thinking. I kind of feel bad about it now, and after arriving safely I wonder if I should have just given up the seat.” Well, you had a right to the seat after paying for it. I understood that by reserved, you paid for the seat. If you did you are not wrong. I don’t get why people don’t check seats before getting on the plane and choose with time how they are going to be seated, they feel entitled to bother everyone. Should you have given her the seat then potentially barfed all over her? No, though it might have been a good lesson for her. You should have told her why you bought the extra seat, because you don’t like flying and might vomit on the person next to you. I bet that would have got her back in her seat quickly! While an explanation might be nice, you are in no way required to give an explanation. All you had to say is I paid for two seats, and I am getting two seats. And who cares what a bunch of strangers on a plane you will never see again think. You’ve done nothing wrong. None of them will give it a second thought the next day. It was undoubtedly frustrating for the mother to not be able to sit with her daughter throughout their flight. But knowing what we know about the your flying conditions, it was probably for the best that the mother didn’t sit next to you. If you have a problem you want my advice on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. 

If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, let's take a live look at Port Jefferson, shall we? 

Looks like a nice day there. Now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York here is...

Top Phive Reactions To It Being March... Again

5. March really has some nerve showing his face here again.

4. Hello, March... I spent the past year staring into a refrigerator.

3. Here we are again in March. Or did we leave?

2. Messaging all my co-workers, "I can't believe it's already March" until I get fired. 

And the number one reaction to it being March again is...

1. A moment of silence for all of our selves from a year ago who knew nothing of toilet paper shortages, drive-by birthdays, and virtual school.

 The most tragic victims of irony are the trees cut down to make copies of The Lorax.

Today's guest is an English guitarist, singer and composer. He is co-founder, leader, principal songwriter, guitarist and secondary lead vocalist of the Who, one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s. His novel Age of Anxiety is the 146th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Please welcome to the Phile the great... Pete Townshend!

Me: Hello, Pete, welcome to the Phile. It's so good to have you here. I had Roger on the Phile before and now you. How are you? 

Pete: I'm good. Thank you. 

Me: So, you novel Age of Anxiety is the 146th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club. Can you tell the readers what it's about? 

Pete: Yes. It tells the story of two generations of Londoners fighting to make their mark in the music and art worlds, and the creative wells they pull from runs dry. 

Me: Has that ever happened to you before. sir? Your creative well running dry? 

Pete: Yeah, you know I had an alcohol problem for a few years and when I stopped drinking in 1982 I spent a few years kind of rampling around trying to figure out what to do and I found a book called The Artist's Way by a woman called Julia Cameron and that greatly helped me. I think that I needed some guidance. 

Me: Do you think creative wells running dry happens to a lot of people? 

Pete: I think yeah, everybody had periods in their life when they kind of go blank. Whether they have a blank page or a blank tape machine or a blank computer and they can't get anything to come. 

Me: Yeah, it happens to me sometimes. Do you think that's terrifying when it happens to you? 

Pete: Well, Elton John has spoken about it, hasn't he? He was on Instagram and he had done an interview with somebody and he mentioned that when he gave up drugs and alcohol he thought he'd never be able to perform again. Of course when you look at the film Rocketman most of the time he was off his head when he's on the stage. That really wasn't my story. But this story, the book is about more than creativity, it's about in a sense more about what creativity can lead to in the working of the brain. And its not a medical book, it's not a self help book, but it is about a young musician who is psychic I suppose is the best word to describe it. He starts to hear what is going on in the minds of his audience and he tries to capture that as music. That's really the central premise of the story. 

Me: Why is this something you wanted to write about? 

Pete: I think I wanted to write mainly about what it is that he hears. If I had any success at all as a musician and songwriter it's because I've been jacked into my audience and the Who's audience. So what I try to do when I'm writing songs, when I'm performing, when I'm touring, when I'm speaking, when I'm doing anything is when I'm on. When I'm "on show" is to try and do what my audience really want me to do. That's why I'm there, I'm a service provider, I'm an entertainer. What actually happens is if I suddenly turn to my audience and I try to find answers to that, I find actually they're so incredibly not self obsessed but they're caught up in a vortex, a fear of society, about money, about the future, about climate change, terrorism, polarization in politics, a deadly virus, all of those things which obsess so many of us today. Remember my audience is an older audience, so I'm not trying to reflect the feelings of Millennials, god knows how they feel, well, we know how they feel. 

Me: Speak for yourself, Pete. Haha. So, that's what Walter, the character in the book is worried about? 

Pete: This guy tries to open himself up to his audience and what he actually hears is fear and anxiety. 

Me: So, there's another guy in the book who gives Walter advice, right? 

Pete: Yeah, a former rock star who tells him, "Waiting is the black art of creativity." 

Me: What do you mean by that? Do you ever give advice to other musicians? 

Pete: One of the things, and I do mentor other musicians and I produce other musicians and if I wasn't so busy with the Who I'd probably end up as a lecturer at a university. I certainly do my time, I love to work with other musicians. One of the songs on the latest Who album is called "I Don't Want to Get Wise," when we get old we end up getting pretty wise. I don't want to do an old-plaining to a young-plaining, what do they call it? Man-splaning? 

Me: Haha. I love old-splaning, Do you think you're old then, sir? 

Pete: Yeah, I'm so old now that I know everything. It's the illusion that we live in. But I think anyway the idea is this older guy has been through a very similar thing, he's been a big artist in a big prog-rock band and he decides he wants to be in a movie and he acts in a movie and he gets to the end of the movie and he realises that he just wants to quit. He does, he quits and he starts to draw. and he draws really strange apocalyptic paintings and if anyone reads the book they'd get more detail obviously. But his agent is a dealer in outsider art, he's the narrator of the whole story, he's called Louie and he is a dealer in paintings of mad, and he is also the godfather of Walter and he puts these two guys together. And then it was up to me to put myself inside the older guy and say what would he say to the younger guy. And I think what I would say many, many times to younger musicians, what do we call it? A black period, a period of being shut down and unable to write or to work and even to contemplate that possibility is just wait. Just wait and be ready because the moment will come, and this is something I do believe. I had to learn to do that. People talk about inspiration as though it's some magic thing that comes out of the sky when we snap our fingers. If I go the right lake, I meditate, I will automatically be inspired. No I won't, I think this is all stuff we don't really understand. 

Me: Can you give me a moment of when the time sort of came to you? 

Pete: Wow. I think it's pretty much every time. 

Me: Really? Every time? 

Pete: Yeah. I think the other thing I would say is that if I've been around for a while as I have what could happen is I could work, I could write. If I was a painter I could paint, if I was an author I could auth... I think what I can't do is guarantee what I'm going to do is going to be any good. What I'm doing is relying on my craftsmanship. I know how to do it. What I do is is I write a lyric, or I play a few chords on the guitar, then I start my recording device, I out it all together and I play it to the singer and he says, "Wow. This is junk." Or I do that and one day he says, "Wow, this is great." I don't necessarily produce good work just because I do it but one of the things that is important is to keep doing it. If I keep throwing the mud at the wall in the end something good does appear. In a sense I'm kind of contradicting myself in the fact of the idea of waiting, What I'm saying is I have to wait for the good stuff. I really do, I have to really keep patient because the good stuff will come. 

Me: So, I think it's cool you have you audience is mind, Pete. Were you always that way? 

Pete: My history was I was working at an art college for four years before the band took off and one of the things that happens when I was at arts college is that I'm taught I need to have a reason to do anything. That reason has to be a profoundly important reason, either for me or for my community or for my client, whoever that client may be. Whether its somebody who wants me to paint their dog, or somebody who wants me to write a commercial for selling cars. I came out of arts school waiting for a commission, waiting for somebody to say, "Hey, Pete, here's what to do." Because I really didn't know what to do. The Who had one hit record with a song called "I Can't Explain" which was really a sort of love song, "I love you but I can't explain that I love you." That was the song, it was kind of a teenage song about the problem the boys have or had in those days is expressing their feelings. So what happened was a bunch of kids came to a show and they said we really love this song, we want you to write more like it. I said, "More songs that can't explain to his girlfriend that he loves her?" They said no, no, no, we just want you to write more songs that we can't explain. We cannot explain what we feel, we don't have the words. So I felt like that I had a brief. So immediately I had an audience, I had a client, I had a brief, and I knew what to do. From that day forward I always had an audience in mind. People that expect me to come up with something which says what they might not be able to say. 

Me: When you hear that song what do you think now? 

Pete: That recording changed my life. I remember hearing it on the radio driving from London back to college one day and thinking, "Wow, I'm a songwriter, I've got a hit." And I think about a year later I stopped going to courses at college and just stuck with the band. 

Me: Did you have an idea you guys were gonna be huge? 

Pete: No, I thought if the band only lasted a couple of years I could always go back to college. In a sense maybe with this novel I am going back to college because I'm hoping this novel would lead to a big music project which would be exciting on a whole number of different levels, maybe leading to an art installation. So that was the kind of thing I want to do at art school so I might just be closing that circle. I have a good feeling. 

Me: I wrote a novel over summer last year, finished another one and am writing another. I now have two books out. Did it challenge you creativity like it did for me? 

Pete: It is a sense but the main reason I wanted to write a novel that was as carefully plotted as this one is I wanted it to have a beginning, a middle and an end and not have people say to me, "So what happens when Tommy gets to the top of the hill? Where does he go then?" Or "what happens at the end of Quadrophenia to Jimmy? Does he die? Does he live?" In this case I wanted people to know what exactly what happens to all of the characters and the only question I want to hear is "when are we going to get a sequel?" The book meant to be rock solid to create a really good platform to what happens next. So writing it I kind if fell in love with all the characters I created. There's one character, a female character, I won't give too much away but the very end of the book I was so enamored with this female character I created I gave the whole book to her, I have her the last word. I think that happens when I'm writing, I heard other writers say this, Is that how you felt? 

Me: Oh, yeah, I love my characters, and love writing them. Was it hard for you to write a novel? 

Pete: No it wasn't hard, it didn't feel new. I was an editor at a publishing house for a long time and I worked with a lot of fiction writers and I understand how fiction works. I've never tried it myself but it came very naturally. I had a wonderful editor. I'm really please at the response to it. 

Me: So, the Who finally had a new record out after 13 years, is. What took you guys so long? 

Pete: What I've been doing for the last 13 years I've been working on this project. The Age of Anxiety is a novel but it also is a series of songs, its a series of soundscapes, electronic music, art installation, it's a whole load of things. The reason the Who didn't make an album for 13 years was because it felt like there was no point. 

Me: What? What do you mean by that? There's always a point for new music, sir. 

Pete: What's the point putting out a record when we had this incredible legacy of 40 or 50 songs and we could only play about 15 of them in two hours. What's the point of adding to the pile of material that people want to hear that we don't have time to play? Also is it possible to top songs like "Pinball Wizard," "Beyond Blue Eyes," "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Baba O'Riley," they're such primal miracles that happened through a whole bunch of different accidents that the challenge then really just kind of dissipated. Then more recently in the last five years we got the the point either if the record sells a hundred million we only make about a hundred bucks so what's the point? I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean. 

Me: Yeah, of course. So, what changed? 

Pete: So, this time what I decided to do was to write songs for Roger, not for the Who, not for a Who album. 

Me: Why would you want to write songs for Roger? Hahaha. 

Pete: He's the guy I go out on the road with. And I got fed up with the fact that he was happy because he was singing, he's such a good singer, and his voice is getting better in my opinion. He's looking after it, he's doing a lot of exercises, he did surgery and stuff to keep his voice in shape. I thought what about me, I'm seeing as a creator and songwriter and I'm not doing new work. So I will insist, I say to Roger, I will tour but only if we have a new album out. He said, "What's the point? We're not going to sell any records. Nobody is going to listen." I just said, "I don't care. I just want to do really good work and have that in my back pocket and when I shake hands with somebody know in my own soul that I can still do this stuff." Of course now we can't tour and I can't shake hands with anybody, but... 

Me: Ha! Good point, So, like I said Roger was here on the Phile talking about his new book and we ended up talking about you. This is what he said when I asked him how you and he are getting along now. "Oh, can't stand each other. We're kind of brothers. Like he says we've been 'married' for 60 years. Not quite like that, but it's more than friendship, it's kind of more than family, there'd a deep, deep empathy. I could only speak for me but I'm sure what I get from Pete is a deep caring about me and I care deeply about him." What do you think of that? 

Pete: I think it's great. When he said we can't stand each other I thought good, he stuck to the script. Then he comes out with all that lovely dove shit. I'm like oh, my God, "darling I love you. I've always loved you. I hate you and I love you." He's right, what's interesting is that it's really deepened in time and it's that think I was saying, I don't want to get wise, I think time has a function which we don't always understand, we come to value people that we care about and we come to care about people that we're with all the time because of they short comings. I'm not perfect and he's not perfect, but one of the things we love about each other is that we are still working together. We are still in debt at woking and each others mysteries and eccentricities and difficulties and strangeness and I think we both are very peculiar people. He's right, I met over at school when I was 15. He was the kind of the school bully and I needed to be in a gang and when he invited me into his band I thought oh, great, I'll be safe in the neighbourhood. 

Me: Hahaha. Pete, this is so cool to have you on the Phile for the last year. I am glad I got to interview two members of the Who. Thank you so much. 

Pete: You'e welcome, and all my love to you and you family. Your father was a gentlemen, Jason. 

Me: Thank you, sir. Take care.

That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Pete Townshend for a cool interview. The Phile will be back on Friday with Samantha Newark from "Jem," if you remember that show. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain!

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...