wiped out. busy week last week. saw bob mould last night, greta show, too much beer. finally got tired of the lame ass crowd of 40 somethings bobbing their heads, and so during the last encore of 3 Husker Du songs I charged the front of the stated and tried to get a little mini pit going. limited success, but a lot of fun.

today walked back to the club to eat breakfast at a nearby place and get the car (remember too much beer? = no driving. mosh pit good - drink driving bad). grabbed coffee for the week on the way. spent a good chunk of the day cleaning and rearranging. place looks *much* better than before. set up airtunes, so I can now sit here in the chair on the laptop, grab tunes off the main hard drive, and throw them to the stereo.

this week also super busy. kids dentist appointments monday, then C has boy scouts in the evening. Tuesday is the 6:30 am conference call, choir practice, then O & I are hosting y Guides here. Then Wednesday up at 3:30 to go to Philly for the rest of the week. In late Friday night, then kids on the weekend.

I’m a lucky, lucky man.

I saw bob mould was in town. i decided to go see him. i was excited.

i was doing chores at home. i had the tournament on. i was in the kitchen. i heard the chords of "See a Little Light" on the TV. I ran in the other room. Bob fucking Mould is doing a commercial for TIAA CREF. The 80s great poet of distortion (along with Greg Sage) is now shilling for a retirement plan.

FFS.

By the way, what are the odds that the two great masters of distortion in that decade were both gay. I’m just saying.

Well, for reasons that I guess are clear enough, it’s 4:30 and I’m not sleeping tonight.

not feeling any particularly strong emotions. not roiling in pain or regret. but sure as hell not sleeping.

Ah, 19 years ago I had my first date with the ex. We went to see Lawrence of Arabia in the large print. Ran into Evan and Ellen there. They did not know we knew each other. It was pretty funny.

This anniversary of the first date is a lot less painful than last years anniversary.

I moved out of the house on September 1, 2006. That night, I watched Lawrence of Arabia in my new apartment. The results were predictable.

I actually got asked to watch Lawrence of Arabia earlier this week by a nice lady. Had to decline.

lurking. living in the web 2.0 sphere. I twitter instead of blogging here. goodreads. ghost and distant echoes of the bad, dark days come smiling over the transom.

on a lighter note, I now consistently win on "hard" in age of mythology.

reading "The Logic of Life" by Tim Horford. very good

want to scare yourself silly? read "The Female Brain"

next week, starting a few hours after easter services end, portland, manzanita, portland, seattle, austin, seattle, portland, seattle,

just for kicks . . .

I bet sasquatch gets most of these. he’s forgotten more movies than i’ve ever seen

1. With a gun barrel between your teeth, you speak only in vowels.
2. Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
3. Ah, shit, let’s drink to something else. Let’s drink to fucking. Yeah, say, "Here’s to your fuck, Frank."
4. Arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand.
5. To smoke, and have coffee - and if you do it together, it’s fantastic.
6. Oh, it’s not the speed really so much, I just wish I hadn’t drunk all that cough syrup this morning.
7. Things sure have changed since we got kicked out of high school.
8. Do not drink too much. Do you hear me? I don’t want you passing out or going to the dark side. No going to the dark side!
9. No. Something given has no basis in value. When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you’re using force. And force my friends is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.
10. Oh, you’re a bad pony. And I’m not gonna bet on you.

one could say a lack of blog posting is a sign of things going pretty well, and things getting done. At least in this case, that is true.

In bay area for the next three days

a lovely day with JMH. A n enormous amount of small and large things taken care of, squared away, undertaken, advanced, or cataloged in the last 2 days. For example - shoes to repair place. Library fines paid. A final CJ debt to a contractor squared away. Sex toys purchased. Chairs ordered. Dishes done. Carpets vacuumed. etc.

Checked out some books. "Are the Rich Necessary" is, I hope, an easy reading companion to the recently completed "The Undercover economist." "Heebee-Geebees at CBGB's" - A history of Jewish Punk. A biography of Sibelius (which I will couple with extensive listening to sibelius).

Recently acquired the new Mike Doughty, including the bonus "Busking" EP. I'm not sure how I feel. I guess I need to give him the same latitude I give . . . Neil Finn? PJ Harvey? But this far, it does not strike me with the same force as any SC stuff, or Haughty Melodic. Also got (but haven't watched) Brendan Canty's "Burn to Shine" (Seattle Edition). The Saturday Knight's 4 song EP was in the used bin for $3.99, so I got "45" on disc.

I'm going to try and figure out my Dental and Vision benefits, and read "Are the Rich Necessary" now.

A dear pal is attending Fats Domino's 80th birthday party tonight in NOLA. Yeah, baby. That is the way to roll.

tonight C was not feeling well enough to go to scouts. I have the unexpected gift of an evening off.

I'm going to pay some bills and do some filing. when I am done, i will feel better. i feel better right now, just thinking about it.

I'm also thinking about vacations. some with kids, some without. it's fun to think about.

fund yet another trove of old photos this morning. Not too many. Some unlikely pairings - my dear sensei Dr. Green***** and wonderful old gf L and I at a photobooth.

A photo of me in cufs, being escorted by 2 cops to the wagon outside the Eugene federal building. This would be spring 1985, part of the SA divestment protest series (and in my case, US tour). I have a shit eating grin on my face. It turns my guts in knots when I see that smug prick in the converse hi-tops. And the next photo, me, the next day, at a sorority formal, in a tux, with one of my sisters sorority sisters. I got released from the can about 4 hours before the dance.

To the extent I have lost any of my willingness to express my certainly about the way the world ought to be, I guess these were valuable learning experiences, but they do not make me happy.

I'm not an ultra huge fan of photos - especially when the need to document in a photo interferes with the moment itself. But I would not remember my smug grin without the photo.

Susan Sontag wrote that a photograph is always real, but never true. This is because (in a pre-photoshop era) the moment does not lie. From at least one vantage point, the eye could see these things, in this light. The weather was like this. The light was like this. I looked like this. That is all fact.

But it is not true, because a photo always lacks context.

in this case, however, the photo is more true than my memories could ever be. Photoshop has nothing on the power of the human mind and memory to edit in the most flattering light.

Also, these are two of the very few photos of me with just a moustache. It is not my best look.

Oh, a photo of me (just moustache) buried on a beach on the marin headlands, with the GG bridge in the background.

A worn and water damaged picture of me with the huge stuffed grizzly used on the set of "Northwest Passage" (subsequently renamed "Twin Peaks"), and an attached news story about the bear. I can tell from the background it's at the old auto dealership across the street from the "Mar-T Diner" in North Bend. A picture of me on the prequel set, I think, the diner where Chris Isaak has some scenes. I'm sitting down under a stuffed fish. Someone (I suspect Whiting) wrote "Large Mouth" under the pic.

True enough.

This cold is kicking my ass. Lung Butter galore, and I haven't been this ripped on Ny-Quil since 7th grade (the first time I got messed up before school . . . but not the last).

I just want to sleep, perchance to dream.

This will be my first weekend "off" - where I do not have a gob of kid duties (my kids or other peoples kids) in 6 weeks. Yum.

I think I'll unpack boxes and re-arrange furniture. Hot, huh?

I need to go get ashes put on my head, cause that's where I'm headed - ashes to ashes, funk to funky, you know major tom's a junkie . . .