take me to the river

i hereby declare a worldwide moratorium on gratuitous singing of 'the gambler'. i requilanre no advice in that regard, especially that generic. but chuck just keeps informing me... although i concede there is somethin to be said for knowin when to hold 'em. like los tigres this inning. yeah. gotta get out to detroit in the next couple weeks here.
speakin of which wound up at the whitecaps last night, and i am apparently bad luck around there; they had their worst outing of the season. which is part of what worries me about maybe going to see mr. zimmerman there next week. its his first show of the tour, way too many opening acts, fifty bucks plus some horrendous charges of some kind no doubt, and he's got a new album out in like a week or two. if anyone has heard it, let me know what you thought. either way, i hear a lot of different things about dylan live. i guess i should just check it out myself, the question is if i'm really fifty dollar curious.
so i went tubing yesterday somewhere up on the muskegon river and damn was it a blast. bunch of beers, laughs, good times. i had not realized how popular of an activity this was, lots of people around, but not too many. everyone's just there to have a good time. i was surprised at how long i was floating along for in a pretty decent current compared with the time it took us to drive to the start from the finish point. the real challenge was trying to have a cigarette. just too easy to get that stuff wet. a little sunburned, my own fault, totally worth it. some scrapes from runnin into a few branches and whatnot, not a big deal. had that great feeling for the rest of the night where you know if you're out on the water all day long you still kinda feel like you're on it later on in the night. great feeling. a lot better than the sunburn at least. what really surprised me the most was how clean the river was. i think it might just be that the current is so swift in that chunk, but either way, it was cool.
the other day i was having a discussion with a friend about "new" genres of music and they seem to have emerged at various points in the modern music industry era through a process where they start out as sort of esoteric often ethnic things and then catch on with white suburban kids interested in "underground music" and after a year or two arrive in the mainstream in appropriately watered-down form. this led me to the question of whether or not we will all be listening to reggaeton before we know it. i dont believe i've heard any, but i've heard about it for more then a year now and if it would have sounded more appealing i probably would have checked it out, but anything that always includes the word dance in its description is probably not gonna be my new favorite. but you never know, so if anyone has any good reggaeton for me to check out, but sure to let me know. or, of course, i can just wait another year, and it will have been sufficiently packaged for one and all. or maybe nothing will ever come of it. we just don't know that, do we dude?
wow. i guess i don't really have a whole lot to say at the moment.

dad gum it

so, like, i had another half a post that got cut off of the last one because fucking blogger sucks shit. and of course i have no clue what all was in the other one. frustrating. more talk about the same stuff i think. some commentary on mead, i believe. and a bunch more on that germanic paganism business. if you're really curious about it, i'm sure you'll be able to fill yourself in on the finer points. oh, and then it got into gnosticism. i'm sure that many of you would have appreciated a little digression on gnosticism, but too bad. if you really wanna know i guess ask me. my question was if anyone knows of any figure in the world of relatively respected academia who publishes much on gnosticism. also, don't believe anything you read about gnosticism in mainstream publication articles on the book of judas.
alright, i think i'm over it now. as you can see, you missed a lot... good news on the front of the finest vee-nahl. made a trip out to the corner record shop after not seeing anything i really got excited about at vertigo. heresy, i know. but the truth is that corner really has a lot better diversity and a lot of stuff that is in better shape. a little more of a collector feel. plus the place doesn't draw the same crowd. i didn't see anyone at corner whose ass i thought deserved kicking. come to think of it i dont think i saw anyone other than the dude working. who was really nice and not pretentious. imagine that. just cause someone forms opinions about music they don't assume that then those should be codified into conventional wisdom. anyway, some good scores, first of all music from big pink, which herm was talking on last time i saw him at vertigo. a canadian stones import with the best "greatest hits"-ish collection (being the stones there will never be a definitive one, fuck forty licks) name ever: sucking in the seventies. the point is, its got beast of burden. but it doesn't have this one song i really want to track down that i don't know the name of. and i can't very well make music noises on the blog here, so be glad you don't have to hear me go 'do do do do do do do' 'bum bum bum bum bum bum' like some other people do. point is, it has mostly spoken word lyrics really low mostly with a little 70s stones falsetto and a kick ass base line. just puttin that out there. also scored maiden's '85 classic "powerslave". that's right, bitches. they had a ton of really good maiden vinyl, piece of mind, number of the beast, killers. will probably have to pick up some more at some point. i was interested to see they had a four record set from rock in rio like 3 years ago. just kinda funny to me that they would still bother to put that out on vinyl, but hey, we'll take it. but probably not buy it for 45 bucks. finally and most importantly an addition to the floyd vinyl: momentary lapse. really dig that one and my cd copy is fucked and get this shit, as far as i know, its actually out of print. i'm sure it'll pick back up or did when floyd was gettin more press a little while ago. so pretty happy with all that.
this stop at the record store was actually accomplished on a whim on the way back from some old school miniature golf. played upper and lower at loeschner's (sp?) and damn was it nostalgic. i really love that place. and i love that it hasn't really changed at all. makes me happy for some reason. they were playin some good tunes down there too, lots of beach boys, another nostalgic experience for sure. interestingly enough, also heard the weight, which is on big pink. but its not the best one, for the record. no pun intended there.
i almost never remember dreams, but i recall a bit of one from the other night. i kept ordering shots of tequila. i was like damn, i hate tequila, i'm wasted, and this is really nasty. then i kept getting more. that's all i recall in particular. then i woke up, all upset that i had to work in the morning. then i remembered it was saturday, not sunday, and i was very very happy about that. point is, happiness is very relative. on that front, i saw this sticker with a pretty sweet obi wan kenobi quote, something like you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly upon our point of view. wondered if anyone could put that in the context of the films for me though, i have no idea when he says it or to who or why. so let me know. i know you know. also in the request section, the name of that motown kinda song or who its by, 'my world is empty without you, babe'...
so step up to the plate folks. help me out here. especially on academics specializing in gnosticism. i know everyone but me is up on that shit. so in exchange, i offer some valuable beer information to one and all. obviously it is hot as hell wherever you are when you are reading this because it is hot everywhere in the country right now. although i've never been a big fan of this brewery, they have my favorite summer beer this year, chicago's goose island brewery "summer ale", i think they call it. it's a kolsch, and damn is it good. very very refreshing. admit it, you're sick of oberon anyway, and you should have been drinking witsun in the first place. this kolsch isn't quite central air, but damn, its close. crazy delicious, as they say. widely available, shouldn't be too tough for most of yall to find. yeah, i said yall. i think that should be accepted as a word. unless someone else can propose a better second person plural for the english language. if they can start to get away with publishing advertisements and so on with PLURALS WITH FUCKING APOSTROPHES then they can start dealing with yall. fuck those fucking extraneous apostrophes. really don't like them at all. so don't do it, please.
heard about this guy at the university of wisconsin... the guy with the 9/11 thing goin on this year. and they're freakin out about it of course, but from the sound of things its not the school itself getting after him, which is cool. not surprising that there is some hubbub. but it really pisses me off as it is coming at a point where the mythos surrounding all the events of 9/11 is starting to be preserved, archived for future generations in the form of feature films. maybe a videogame sometime, pull survivors from the rubble, then take your same character to afghanistan to hunt down and actually catch osama. i'm sure the reality will change a little to make the point a little more clear. i've got my own opinions, but either way, the point is that the reaction you get out of people when you question the legitimacy of the "accepted facts" of 9/11 just makes me even more nervous. i don't think most people will ever find out exactly what happened, but it really doesn't seem like it was looked into enough by anyone worth listening to. more questions than answers, but all they're interested in feeding people is answers. the ones "everyone knows". fucking crock, and you're not even allowed to question it. although this guy at wisconsin i dunno. i hoped it would be someone with a rep who was tenured who was doing this. seems like this guy is just setting himself for a bunch of bullshit academic shit talking. oo, only bid on the job, not track, blah blah, not published in this, must be some whack job. and it seems a little personal. its not like the US gov't is gonna hear about this guy's class and be like, alright, you got us, we did it. they're never gonna admit it. ahh i can't even take it, don't even want to think about it any more. if you haven't seen it, track down 'in plane sight'. good shit.
also, please look into my untimely demise. they probably won't admit to that either.

hezblowah?

i was having a heck of a time with some headlines in the 'ol press yesterday. they're typically bad, but half of it was all perception anyway. so at first someone was telling me about this guy who was from somewhere in west michigan who was in jail in california for killin some girl and apparently had all these pictures of other people he claimed he killed. sounds like he got a few of em. serial killing is making a comeback i guess, some other guy is claiming bunches again too. i guess the eighties are gradually coming back. i was kinda skeptical at first cause i had read a bunch of stuff about henry lee lucas and how he hadn't really killed anyone but his mom (who had it comin). but i guess some of these people were pros. anyway, someone came in with a paper and i noticed the top headline claimed 'model killer will spend life in prison'. the phrase model killer struck me as kind of bizarre, but given the discussion we were having about this guy being a legit pro killer, it made good sense at the time. i noticed later that it was model's, not model, but hey, i had gotten my laugh. in a related article in which i did not misread the headline, this guy's ex wife claimed he was "worse than Lucifer". if you want an explanation on why that's hilarious, fuck you, you don't have a sense of humor. however, the best headline of the issue was related to the constant crisis in the middle east: 'hezbollah deals blow to israel'. i lost it. things are bad enough over there, but now they have to throw coke into the mix? at least now america has a major interest at stake. i mean its not that obvious of a fucked up headline, but its not that not obvious, is it? c'mon, BLOW. they even made that movie a couple years ago. and that recoil article about man addicted to movie 'blow'. people know these things. well, apparently, some people...
also in recent news, they just executed another inmate in south america. this at the same time as the UN has asked the US to halt executions. that's right, the same UN that is asking iran to cut a bunch of shit out. guess who is gonna get the sanctions. and guess who is actually killing people. oh yeah, the UN also wants the US to getrid of its secret bases. i really enjoy how secret bases have been making headlines for a couple months. how fucking secret is it at this point? we know what we're up to. so does everyone else. anyway, this guy they killed claimed to be a follower of asatru, which is some form of reconstructed form of germanic paganism. certain forms of it are supposedly gaining popularity

been a long time...

but did you really want to hear my running commentary on world cup games a couple days late at a time? probably not. on the other hand, this other stuff is just as useless. but hey, it's at least something. i've been lazy in all regards, not just the blog. that's right, exactly like i said i wouldn't be. but i did it. again. can't be helped. what's to be said anyway? it's really hot. wow. how many times must this be repeated? the beer, however, has been good. made a visit to kraftbrau and was quite pleased. also stopped in at the hideout the other day. the esb tasted sooo goood. and a lot like caramel. tough call between the ipa and the esb. been lazy on the brewing too. not all my fault, but got a couple that gotta get in the bottle asap. i've actually been on a big cider kick. might look into brewing up that stuff as well. hopefully it doesn't take as long as the mead. gonna be waitin on that for a while now still. ah well. i heard bell's eccentric cafe has a cyser right now (mead made w/ apples) and i'd love to find a good excuse to head down there. what i really need to do is brew. finished this book on radical brewing by randy mosher, really good stuff. about 30x more types of beers than i had ever imagined. mostly ridiculous stuff produced by historic circumstance. fortunately, we don't HAVE to drink it, but hey, we could. if we felt like it.
went to chicago to see phil and friends last week. say what you will, but it's at least a step up from going to go see jerry garcia band today. that has to be the only band i know of named after someone who was, but is obviously no longer in it. anyway, it was a really cool show, was at the charter one pavillion on northerly island, which really is an island. just has a land bridge to it now. it's where the planetarium is, right near the shedd. has a small public beach, but most of the island is just flat brush stuff like i'm used to seeing in michigan. it was super cool just to walk around on an island feeling so secluded but being so close to all of chicago with some really cool perspective on the skyline. looking out on lake mich from there was neat too because a lot of the boats on the water were coming in or going into the huger marina between the island and the shore. some really ridiculous boats. one pirate one, one bigger than a performance hall with some unidentified flag on it. we suspected lizards. speaking of lizards: all dick devos ads, the motherfucker never blinks. check it out. be aware. lizards, dude.
also went to the taste of grand rapids recently. fortunately, it was not a project to try and decide if grand rapids had a taste, what would it be, and then they make you lick something that supposedly tastes like grand rapids as a whole does. rather, a representation of some pretty decent cuisine. i had a good time, but i had never realized how extensive awards ceremonies for barbeque competitions are. the awards were being handed out from the time i got there until the time i left, over an hour. and now, best briskit... xo asian cuisine had some good stuff, as did judy's dry saloon. i was surprised to see that they allowed nationwide chains to show up, but whatever. there weren't too many, but it just seems odd to promote an event as unique to a city and then allow places that are anywhere with enough population density to support a constant turnover in workstaff.
also discovered a new bob dylan song i really dig. that doesn't happen too often anymore. not because i've heard all of dylan's stuff (that is some accomplishment), but because i feel like i know most of the stuff from the time periodsthf his i've really enjoyed. the tune is bob dylan's 115th dream (not to be confused with his 49th beard). very silly stuff, sort of along the lines of stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again, but a slightly more coherent narrative. even stranger is that the song is on bringing it all back home, which i know i've heard, i just didnt recall this tune in particular. lot of good stuff on that album. anyway, i got a laugh out of it:
I was riding on the MayflowerWhen I thought I spied some landI yelled for Captain ArabI have yuh understandWho came running to the deckSaid, "Boys, forget the whaleLook on over yonderCut the enginesChange the sailHaul on the bowline"We sang that melodyLike all tough sailors doWhen they are far away at sea"I think I'll call it America"I said as we hit landI took a deep breathI fell down, I could not standCaptain Arab he startedWriting up some deedsHe said, "Let's set up a fortAnd start buying the place with beads"Just then this cop comes down the streetCrazy as a loonHe throw us all in jailFor carryin' harpoonsAh me I busted outDon't even ask me howI went to get some helpI walked by a Guernsey cowWho directed me downTo the Bowery slumsWhere people carried signs aroundSaying, "Ban the bums"I jumped right into lineSayin', "I hope that I'm not late"When I realized I hadn't eatenFor five days straightI went into a restaurantLookin' for the cookI told them I was the editorOf a famous etiquette bookThe waitress he was handsomeHe wore a powder blue capeI ordered some suzette, I said"Could you please make that crepe"Just then the whole kitchen explodedFrom boilin' fatFood was flying everywhereAnd I left without my hatNow, I didn't mean to be nosyBut I went into a bankTo get some bail for ArabAnd all the boys back in the tankThey asked me for some collateralAnd I pulled down my pantsThey threw me in the alleyWhen up comes this girl from FranceWho invited me to her houseI went, but she had a friendWho knocked me outAnd robbed my bootsAnd I was on the street againWell, I rapped upon a houseWith the U.S. flag upon displayI said, "Could you help me outI got some friends down the way"The man says, "Get out of hereI'll tear you limb from limb"I said, "You know they refused Jesus, too"He said, "You're not HimGet out of here before I break your bonesI ain't your pop"I decided to have him arrestedAnd I went looking for a copI ran right outsideAnd I hopped inside a cabI went out the other doorThis Englishman said, "Fab"As he saw me leap a hot dog standAnd a chariot that stoodParked across from a buildingAdvertising brotherhoodI ran right through the front doorLike a hobo sailor doesBut it was just a funeral parlorAnd the man asked me who I wasI repeated that my friendsWere all in jail, with a sighHe gave me his cardHe said, "Call me if they die"I shook his hand and said goodbyeRan out to the streetWhen a bowling ball came down the roadAnd knocked me off my feetA pay phone was ringingIt just about blew my mindWhen I picked it up and said helloThis foot came through the lineWell, by this time I was fed upAt tryin' to make a stabAt bringin' back any helpFor my friends and Captain ArabI decided to flip a coinLike either heads or tailsWould let me know if I should goBack to ship or back to jailSo I hocked my sailor suitAnd I got a coin to flipIt came up tailsIt rhymed with sailsSo I made it back to the shipWell, I got back and tookThe parkin' ticket off the mastI was ripping it to shredsWhen this coastguard boat went pastThey asked me my nameAnd I said, "Captain Kidd"They believed me butThey wanted to knowWhat exactly that I didI said for the Pope of ErukeI was employedThey let me go right awayThey were very paranoidWell, the last I heard of ArabHe was stuck on a whaleThat was married to the deputySheriff of the jailBut the funniest thing wasWhen I was leavin' the bayI saw three ships a-sailin'They were all heading my wayI asked the captain what his name wasAnd how come he didn't drive a truckHe said his name was ColumbusI just said, "Good luck."
good luck, indeead, mr. columbus. although i still personally want to know why he didn't drive a truck. could have saved us all an awful lot of trouble. for all the complaints though, i must admis simply it i have no personal worry about hezbollah harming me. the god damned press had a ridiculously dumbed down q and a about the current conflict in the middle east. looked like it was made up for fourth graders. and the problem was not only that it was overly simplistic, but some of the stuff they say is just plain unsupportable by raw data. add it to the long list. of course the press also printed a cartoon implying that bush is getting the last laugh on his axis of evil claim from a couple years back. right. i guess he really knew what he was talking about. boy were we way off when we made fun of him. i know i feel bad. also, can someone please explain to me what the hell is ironic at all about 'that shit' having to stop? not getting it. astounding grasp of literary devices from a man who rarely speaks in complete, much less coherent sentences. dear god: please damn it.
well, nothing earth shaking. i've got a bunch of lame material also saved somewhere on the computer. maybe i'll throw some of that up sometime. well i can't believe you checked back. thanks. joke's on you i guess. oh, also, i've noticed that i am seriously running low on shirts. i am currently accepting suggestions for all types of upper body wear. i eagerly await the advice of my public. indeed. go tigers.

tempus fugit

already six days. ridiculous. also ridiculous: hearing hootie and the blowfish reference not only dylan, but IDIOT WIND. it's not like i don't know it's coming every time that song comes on, but every time i'm still kinda struck. also ridiculous: the amount of hootie on the max. most ridiculous: my relative enjoyment of it. i don't know if nostalgia is a major factor or what, but i really don't mind most of their stuff. it's not that bad compared to some of the selections popular on that station.
anyway, i'm once again at kavahouse. its alright i guess. ran into nick, who snickered in regards to my blogging. but the joke is on him; he's headed downtown to the post office to put his income taxes in. i narrowly avoided morningstar yesterday. i think i made the right decision, bu i don't know how long i'll be able to hold out. 24 hours is a worthwhile consideration. but that place smells sooooo terrible. you can smell it from the outside of the building, and that's just too much for me.
i have decided to take the lsat in september. they offer them in june but i guess i'm still kinda putting it off, june just sounds kinda soon. but setting a firm date about when i will take them should help me to get back to preparing to take the thing. research proves that i could put it off further; most places have an application deadline of around march first, which is way later than i remembered those deadlines being. oh well. it's real nice to get back to thinking about where i might go. the ever-changing list includes, in no order, new mexico, oregon, iowa, minnesota, wisconsin, philadelphia (temple or, in my dreams, u penn, hope to visit megan before to long).
my current place to go, however, is nearby and has two dollar micro bottles this evening.

it was bound to happen eventually...

knowing that the bar had internet wireless was too intruiging of a possibility not to explore for me. i don't know about you, but being the first one to really make use of it is worth a laugh to me. lindy the manager seemed really pleased that i was making use of it. however, definately still not planning on spending a ton of time with it here. but knowing i can is great. its not all that difficult to stay up away from the general fray of the place. it might not be home, but it has often been the next best thing. certainly a different pace from kava house. as could be dedeuced from the derth of production following the post with my goings on about the coffee house, i haven't so much gotten into it just yet. the bar also has the wings. i don't know what the deal is with my recent reawakening mild interest in sports. i guess i'm just at a point where innocent pointless amusement has some place in my life. i have that feeling of killing time right now, and it is probably a product of still not really adjusting to not being in school. there's something tangibly teleological about academia for me. i don't know if that means i should grow up and get over it or try and take advantage of it. the latter sounds like the better option to me at this point. man, my screen looks really awesome in the darkness of this hole. i ought to put this machine to better use; it deserves it. i haven't bothered to take the minute it would take to figure out the linking thing, but my discovery of the wiki gang sign on boingboing.net was both amusing and an excellent use of the technology at my fingertips. live at the scene (or something like that), metal

candy left over from halloween, a unified theory of everything

last night, i decided i was one of those people who had it all figured out. unfortunately when i inquired of myself as to what exactly i knew, i couldnt quite put my finger on it. so i guess i dont really have it all figured out. or maybe i do and i just cant tell you. i thought a lot about mysticism in the late derrida and it made good sense. words necessarily profane the truth. however, as noted at some earlier point, metaphor is a counterpunch in the face of language. so we'll see if we can't work something out one of these days.
well, the times they are a changin' (berghoef, please alert those who keep track of dylan references in major publications). i think it is finally time to declare the coldness over. not that it should always be warm until fall, but the cold proper has gone i believe. i'm sunburned and watching baseball. sunburn courtesy of disc golf at brewer park, good times for one and all. baseball, i've decided, is worth following this year. why not? just somethin to shoot the shit about. my only complaint is that if i'm gonna root for a baseball team, i wanna root for a lousy team. fortunately i've always had the tigers, but they're off to a disappointingly good start. fortunately, in my experience this sort of thing indicates that they will yet again have a terrible year. my national league faves, the brewers, are the other best team in pro baseball right now. what the hell? ah well, baseball it is.
i know its been a big gap between posts again, unfortunately. there are good reasons for these things, as always. but i'd really like to be posting more still, and i really love using my computer/the internet on the occasions in which i do. considering signing up for one of those connect anywhere services, even though i probably would mostly be just using it from my house. but it would be good to know that it would work anywhere and i wouldnt have to worry about lengthy contracts or dealing with transferring service if i move somewhere or whatever. but computers are great, and i just want to be fully integrated. i think it would be a step in the right direction.
despite the lack of internet, all else has been quite well. having as much fun as possible given the circumstances. mr. berghoef was kind enough to make an appearance in gun rue this thursday, universally well received. he was also nice enough to burn me a cd with both the old and new loose fur albums. i've been digging both of them quite a bit, at first i only liked the older one and some of the new one but its growing on me. i think its pretentious to only have two albums and have them sound completely different, but as peter pointed out, both jeff tweedy and jim o'rourke are involved, its bound to be at least a little bit pretentious. knowing that jeff played 'ruling class' in the chapel at calvin this past fall really makes me wish i had been there. that woulda been pretty satisfying, and i think i might feel a little bit better about calvin if i had been there.
i went to go see v for vendetta on friday. honestly, i want to see it again. it left me with a lot of things to think about. in some ways, it felt so right, so easy to agree with, so easy to view favorably. something about it just seeemed overly simplistic. but i did like it. would like a transcription of some scenes where v speaks quickly, some of it winds up tough to catch. but i love the verbosity. some of the other things i was complaining about like the masses of people in masks at the end it turns out weren't in the graphic novel it's based on. the detective also doses up in the graphic novel, as anyone truly familiar with the substance might be able to pick up on when he goes into the speech about how he went to go visit the place where the research was done for the bio-weapons and felt everything was connected. i was also interested to learn that not only was the story pre-9/11, but the adaptation from graphic novel to screenplay was also pre-9/11 and interestingly enough pre-matrix (wachowskis do a better job in v, i'd say, never been too big of a fan of the matrix, but maybe it was just keeanu's delivery). overall a movie worth seeing for most people i think, although i think unfortunately it won't change anyone's mind; if they go in as the sort to enjoy it, they will, if they don't, they won't. interesting stuff, either way.
well, the tigers are losing now. i feel a whole lot better. now it's really spring.

walk of shame, river of excuses

yeah so i've been sort of slacking, although i doubt it matters too much. but i did say i was going to do a good job with this, and so i really feel like i should. unfortunately, my previous boast of free internet is far more mitigated than i imagined it would become. so now i have finally taken that last drastic step for internet: the coffeehouse. for all the shit i talk about these places, they do have their advantages i suppose. i'm at kavahouse though, KAVAHOUSE! somebody i know walked by with her dog a few minutes ago and stopped, looked really confused and mouthed 'what are you doing here?' as if coffeeshop wasn't odd enough for me, it had to be kavahouse and not morningstar. i must admit in some ways i'd be more comfortable at morningstar; i always feel kind of shoddy at kavahouse. but fuck morningstar, seriously. i can't handle their shit, too ridiculous for me. or so i claim anyway. i was hoping brooke would be working so i'd feel a little more at ease (nope) but whoever is working was very nice, so that was more than good enough. at various points in my life have people assumed me to be a frequenter of coffeehouses, especially these two. up until now that was very distant from the truth as the only coffeehouse of note to me in eastown is my new (post-billigans speakeasy where only cool people get in) plan for the old intersection space: knocking out a wall and opening mulligans irish (? i guess they can call it that because of all the drinking?) pub and coffee house (yes, irish coffee only). but this place really is alright, and as i stand a deent chance of developing an internet addiction once i get more and more access, it may become a semiregular spot. odd to think for me. what's with coffeehouses anyway? and what's with me channeling seinfeld? on the walk down here i noticed the witch store (terra stella, not spirit dreams) or whatever had their sign out and although it often has amusing pagan witticisms on it, today's was exceptional: big lettering - GET YOUR ROCKS and then small - 15 % and then big again OFF. not bad. i've always been kind of interested in (everything but somewhere in the top 100 or so) pagan/occult stuff. very interesting twist on religion for someone who grows up crc. lot more power to the people if you know what i mean. anyway, my current position is that those sorts of things are good insofar as they inspire people to adopt different perspectives on their lives' varying situations in whatever way. is it real? what do you mean is it real? i think that if my above condition is satisfied it is real in the sense that it is effacacious (sp?). as to what makes it work, well, that's a tougher question, and if becky asks, the answer is i don't think we weren't meant to know that. if someone else asks, well, my response probably depends on my mood.
in other news, i recently purchased the new david gilmour album. and before anyone scoffs, let me just say that i was as skeptical as anyone when i first heard about it coming out (maybe because i was informed via television commercial - what the hell?) but i heard a couple good things and got the chance to borrow it and then after like three days finally got the chance to just sit down and listen to the thing without any interruptions and i really liked it. so i hereby declare it a pretty decent album. definately mellow, definately not entirely floyd but not entirely unlike floyd either of course. in fact it really isn't too many miles from the post-roger stuff, especially division bell, another album i really enjoy. i also purchased dangerdoom the mouse and the mask, which is a good time. funny stuff, good rhymes. not tooooo heavy on aldult swim samples but not too light either. i could really do without brak. but the beats really are incredible, the best thing i've heard in a while. not that i'm some sort of hip hop expert, but whatever. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhh. i also picked up that joe walsh album with life's been good on vinyl, which is good because they PUT A FUCKIN STUPID NEW JUKEBOX IN AT THE BAR. at least one casualty has resulted: the injuring of a foot (not mine) due to disgusted kicking of said jukebox.
well i've gotten the laptop pretty well figured out, not that there was too much to do. i need some good headphones and a flash drive. good use for my rebate money if and when i see it. got a confirmation email earlier from those folks informing me it would be 8 weeks from date of postage. now, really, is there some sort of class of postage that intentionally takes extra long? like if you just mailed something to someone an equal distance away there's no way it would take that long. the answer of course is that those bastards really really really want there to be some way they can get you to never cash that check, and this is one of the important ways. i'm sure there are all sorts of important processing steps and i don't want to be rushed, but let's face it, you've got to be kind of a tightass if you're ever gonna get your rebate money. you need to follow their convoluted instructions for what to mail and how, and then actually mail it (a difficulty for many people in this country), and then keep an eye out for something encased in trojan junkmail, hoping to be unthinkingly tossed out. so yeah, watch out for those guys. and don't get me started on the couch people.

and all the internet was free

or gratis, if you will. computers sure have gotten a whole lot sweeter in those couple years where i wasn't paying much attention to them since all i had was a glorified juke box and typewriter. ok, and solitaire machine. come to think of it, that's not a bad idea, taking everything off an old computer, maybe throw an even bigger hard drive in it and only have music and the bare necessities on it. it would be like an ipod you couldn't take anywhere. but in a couple of years some of these desktops will start looking retro in a way. floppy disk? what the fuck are you talking about? they're big enough to do cool design stuff with. i know a couple people that have been into ''modding'' their desktops and i, guess if you see it a lot that's kinda cool, but if the purpose of the machine is to serve as a jukebox of sorts you could take that in a cool direction. could build a cabinet for the whole business. anyway, this thing is great. and now i for sure can get net access in home for free any time, so that should help in the regularity of postings. except for tomorrow i'm going to chicago for the weekend and i don't think it would be necessary or even the greatest idea to bring the coumputer along. i'm not travelling on business man. i don't need to 'get something done'. and shit, it was my birthday and everything. the day itself was laid back enough but the rest of the week has been been busy. so busy that i'm writing this now instead of going out to another show, i just can't handle another night out if i'm going to chicago. guess the birthday really did make me old. show last night was amazing though, and this would be good but probably not as good. saw back forty last night, can't remember if i've written about them on here or if i wrote about them in the post that i LOST! still kinda pissed about that... anyway, they bill themselves as down home funkgrass, whatever that means to you, but its a unique sound and they're pretty good. very tight musically, but not afraid to check some stuff out. good time live if you ever get a chance (threw in a cover of that beck song debra: giiiiiiiiiiirl, i wanna get with youuuuuuu whoa and your sisterrrr). anyway, back to the computer. i'm really excited about it still and (or probably partly because) i haven't hardly even gotten to play with the thing at all. still has quite a novelty feel to it. actually thinking about reading a bunch of the owner's manual, mostly out of morbid curiosity. same force that drove me to check out the windows xp tour under the fucking start menu. i couldn't handle it for very long at all though, because it treats you like a 6 year old, like the training modules on the computers at meijer. but who knows, could still learn something useful. we shall see. much more will be gleaned from just screwing around with the thing i would guess. speaking of which, i think i'm gonna do just that for a while...

holyfuckinshiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

as if this one was difficult to see coming.... i did it. broke down and got that laptop. i feel an unparalled sense of the satisfaction of consuming. probably the most money i've blown on one thing all at once in my life this far. and i couldnt be more thrilled. its cute, its badass, its all i wanted in a machine. i'm gonna wander around looking for wireless networks until i get this thing stolen.

haaaaaaaaaahhhh

so it looks like i'm already slacking. that is only sort of true. i had actually written a fairly lengthy entry over the coursee of a couple of days. the other evening i noticed this handwritten piece of loosleaf the other day on the table in my room and made a mental note. good thing its right there, i thought, i'm lucky i didn't lose it before i wanted to post it, i'll put that up tomorrow. tomorrow arrived and the paper naturally had vanished. no sign of it anywhere. turned up the whole goddam room. then the other room. then the car. then the first room again. this kind of shit really really really gets to me. so i've spent a day or two trying to overcome my loss and doing various other very important things, and i guess this will have to do for now.

the loss of this post, of course, does more to make the case for the laptop issue, which is almost enough to make me wonder if i didn't subconsciously lose that paper on purpose... i have the funds for this damn thing. now to overcome the anxiety about getting the "right one" etc... i feel like someone i know trying to buy a couch almost, but nothing that ridiculous.

although i said this blog wasnt gonna be a social thing (and its not) i must say that i have made some good use of hanging-out time with some good folks over the past couple of days. thank you to all of those who bothered to haul their asses to town for breaks or st paddys or random debauchery or whatever. good to see y'all. my one question is when did everyone start drinking bushmills? not that this is a bad thing but i've run into like three people who have had fifths of it within the last week. irish, i guess. also thanks to the jameson folks for some free booze, while we're on the subject.

in other booze news, i'm just about finished with a book about jim morrison. now before all you too cool for school mofos start talking shit, let me just say that i'm not one of those people. you know, the jim morrison people. those who freak out or obsess or have an otherwise unhealthy infatuation with the man. those who know me can attest to this, from probably knowing someone who is actually like this. now, i do like the doors' music, but that's not even really the issue here; the book is about jim morrison primarily and the doors peripherally. so why read a book on jim morrison? because i want to better understand exactly how it is that anyone gets people to freak out like that. so the questions are who exactly was jim morrison and what was it about him that makes us all be able to connect that name with so many other things? the book is somewhat helpful here. its called lizard king the essential jim morrison or something typical like that. its by the same guy who wrote no one here gets out alive, the Book of the Doors in the Rock and Roll Bible. that document is pretty well known and the source of many things commonly known about jim morrison. basically, the content is not much news to anyone with cable tv and a passing interest in the doors (or a problem finding the remote) knows. this other book was published much later, and i wondered what else needed to be said. turns out jim wasw a decently smart guy and a definate performer. definately gets me thinking about the meaning and power of performance. i guess the real dirt the book wanted to spill was that he really did die at least partially from heroin. this isnt a real shocker to me, and i dont see why it even matters much, but there were still lots of interesting things in there.

fixed the comments posting thing for all those out there who dont already have a blog on this system, let me know if there are still any problems. i probably wont know how to fix them if they exist, but i would still like to know.

well i'm still pretty frustrated about not finding that other post, but if it ever turns up i'll probably find some way to work most of that shit in another time. otherwise feel free to start spreding rumors about the unbridled genius of the legendary 'lost posts'.

for all west michigan readers, you are probably familiar by now with the more-infamous-by-the-day mystery development transpiring in grand rapids. yeah, the '10 000 permanent new jobs' one. well, i can't reveal my sources (although i *can* vouch for their reliability and insider status), but the leak has happened. the story will now be broken. grand rapids is to be home to the first SPACE ELEVATOR. yes, space elevator. more details as i remain in contact with my source. i'm totally getting a job there.

YES! In the sandwich!

Mmm-hmm. That's right. Considerations for this blog entry included a transcription of Lilly, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts. It didn't take too long for me to decide that someone out there had definately saved me the trouble; I just had to locate their work... Still no internet, and I really want to figure that whole convoluted plot out.

Which leads me to my mentioned consideration of (read: rapidly developing obsession with) obtaining a laptop. I'm feeling kind of embarressed about getting hung up on something like that, but I'm beginning to get really good at justifying it to myself. I went so far as to google for consumer reports for what's on sale this week. The main discovery was that searching for something as trite as laptop consumer reports makes the whole process a much bigger hassle. Well, I must admit, those sony vaios are fuckin cute and tempting. Perhaps I should just forego the whole process and just get wireless brain installed ( I currently am a wireless brain service provider, call me for going rates).

On the other hand, the Dylan problem made me think about the way we listen to music these days. We're rarely doing NOTHING else; typically, we're driving or casually reading or on the computer or making out or playing with the cat or mixing a drink or whatever, you get the point. Look at ipods (er, rather, try not to stare, they LOVE that shit.), I optimistically interpret them as being engineered to make music compatible with always being able to be doing something else. Point is, it makes it tough to pay close attention to an 8 or whatever minute nearly constant barrage of lyrics. At least not close enough to get all of that shit 100% straight. I like to think the point of a story song that long is in the telling of the story itself, not so much the point of the story.

In addition to the laptop, I'm also still thinking about knowing everything someone or everyone is thinking. I'm pretty sure we've all felt out of the loop about some shit at some point. Well, that wouldn't happen, but remember what its like when you find out later on? Usually a mixed feelings kind of thing. At least half the time you probably didn't want/need to know that shit anyway. Would we still feel the same way about not wanting to knokw things if it was so easy to find out about them? I dunno, it'd be way different in a lot of ways...

Related both to the Zimmerman issue and "way different" is my curent musing on how different my entries will be when I'm typing all of them (I'm handwriting and transferring most of what's in these posts when I get a chance). I'm really interested in comparing them. My theory is that the bullshit quotient will increase tenfold on the typed ones cause typing is way quicker for me. So beware or whatever, cause shit's gonna get bad.

As obvious by volume, this blog thing has been on my mind a decent amount. What may or may not also be obvious is that thus far one of the few defining features of this blog appears to be profanity. Well, for one thing, language in my opinion is one of the few apporriate venues for liberal irony (that is, deliberate oversaturation to make a point). I appreciate the use of these words because their renegade linguistic status lends them a unique versatility. Also, some of it probably has to do with growing up in a micro-milieu where using these words had a sort of badass cache, so to speak. Also, fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

More on all of that later for sure. I fully intend to read this book I have entitled "On Bullshit". I read like the first 25 pages when I got it around Christmas but was in a bad mood ( or at least not of the disposition to put with Anglo-style philisophical writing) and put it down and shortly thereafter misplaced it (hey, its like really small). But I will read it and I'm sure if you're the type to keep checking after a lead in like all this you'll read some bullshit about it, if you will (and you might).

Brief entertainment news section: I watched Steamboy the other night, and it was pretty good. Every thing I like about anime: grandiose, over-the-top, epic, lots of eye-candy, and a hangup on a single thing throughout the flick. If you're not allergic to subtitles, make some time to watch it when you can, definately worth sitting through at least once. I know its conventional wisdom, but with this one I really do wish it had the original japanese score. In other entertainment news, House MD has been renamed CSI: ER (featuring assholes).

That about does it for now i guess. Ideally I would like to start posting every day, but until the internet issue is resolved every other day sounds like a more reasonable goal. So check back when you get a chance and hopefully there will be some form of progress. We shall see. And oh yeah:

The festival was over, the boys were all plannin' for a fall,The cabaret was quiet except for the drillin' in the wall.The curfew had been lifted and the gamblin' wheel shut down,Anyone with any sense had already left town.He was standin' in the doorway lookin' like the Jack of Hearts.He moved across the mirrored room, "Set it up for everyone," he said,Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads. Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin,"Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?"Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts.Backstage the girls were playin' five-card stud by the stairs,Lily had two queens, she was hopin' for a third to match her pair.Outside the streets were fillin' up, the window was open wide,A gentle breeze was blowin', you could feel it from inside.Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts.Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine,He made his usual entrance lookin' so dandy and so fine.With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place,He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste.But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts.Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town,She slipped in through the side door lookin' like a queen without a crown.She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear,"Sorry, darlin', that I'm late," but he didn't seem to hear.He was starin' into space over at the Jack of Hearts."I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinkin' to himself,"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf."But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dimAnd in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him,Starin' at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts.Lily was a princess, she was fair-skinned and precious as a child,She did whatever she had to do, she had that certain flash every time she smiled. She'd come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairsWith men in every walk of life which took her everywhere.But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts.The hangin' judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined,The drillin' in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind.It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ringAnd nothing would ever come between Lily and the king.No, nothin' ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts.Rosemary started drinkin' hard and seein' her reflection in the knife,She was tired of the attention, tired of playin' the role of Big Jim's wife.She had done a lot of bad things, even once tried suicide,Was lookin' to do just one good deed before she died.She was gazin' to the future, riding on the Jack of Hearts.Lily washed her face, took her dress off and buried it away."Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him, "Well, I guess you musthave known it would someday.Be careful not to touch the wall, there's a brand-new coat of paint,I'm glad to see you're still alive, you're lookin' like a saint."Down the hallway footsteps were comin' for the Jack of Hearts.The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair."There's something funny going on," he said, "I can just feel it in the air."He went to get the hangin' judge, but the hangin' judge was drunk,As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk.There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts.Lily's arms were locked around the man that she dearly loved to touch,She forgot all about the man she couldn't stand who hounded her so much."I've missed you so," she said to him, and he felt she was sincere,But just beyond the door he felt jealousy and fear.Just another night in the life of the Jack of Hearts.No one knew the circumstance but they say that it happened pretty quick,The door to the dressing room burst open and a cold revolver clicked.And Big Jim was standin' there, ya couldn't say surprised,Rosemary right beside him, steady in her eyes.She was with Big Jim but she was leanin' to the Jack of Hearts.Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wallAnd cleaned out the bank safe, it's said that they got off with quite a haul.In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the groundFor one more member who had business back in town.But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts.The next day was hangin' day, the sky was overcast and black,Big Jim lay covered up, killed by a penknife in the back.And Rosemary on the gallows, she didn't even blink,The hangin' judge was sober, he hadn't had a drink.The only person on the scene missin' was the Jack of Hearts.The cabaret was empty now, a sign said, "Closed for repair,"Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair.She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw,Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law.But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts.
Copyright © 1974 Ram's Horn Music (thanks bobdylan.com, if you can believe that's a site)

I still can't figure it all out.

Best Blog Ever

Long story short, I was at this thing and ran into this guy and we got to talking and concluded that I didn't have a blog because it would make all other blogs look like worthless pieces of shit. Honestly, I eventually had to admit both that such was not the case, and I didn't have a good reason. Maybe it was because Megan told me to do it like five years ago and this will vindicate that claim bigtime. Oh well, she can be right on this one

THIS BLOG BELIEVES IN NAAASING, LEBOVSKY, NASING

This blog will be what it is, nothing more, nothing less. I hope it will at least amuse the folks that put up with my rants anyway. Now, you don't have to get off your lazy ass and find me at the bar. Names (and a lot of other stuff) may be omitted to avoid the hassle. The idea of having a complete all-access pass to my mind available for any one is incredibly intruiging, but way too intimidating. Does that make me repressed? In a way, yes, but we all have our hangups. Would *you* want anyone in the world you know get to hear EVERY SINGLE THING that goes through your mind, even the person you would claim oyu're the closest to? Much less so people who might want to arrest oyu for what you think. And that's why both stream of consciousness and blogs are never gonna cut it: because nobody puts ALL of it out there, and if they do, then probably they both are drunk and should not.

Just so we're clear, this is also the problem with psychotherapy. History should note that at this time in America it is pretty common to pay somebody (a special somebody who has a piece of paper that I don'y) a decent amount of money (except in the case of insurance, and unfortunately I have to work in the morning, no time to touch on that) to sit and listen to you talk, in an effort, allegedly, to acquire aforementioned all-access pass to the mind. This in any case is never actually accomplished, and yet the practice persists. Why? Perhaps because we're all getting even more opposed to said objective in the first place. Sure, honesty is a great thing and all but c'mon, what would happen if everyone could read each others' minds? Society as we know it could not exist, and chess would be impossible to play. Ups and downs, strikes and gutters.

Back to the blog. This blog, as you have just witnessed, will ramble. This blog will not, however, be an extension of any alleged social life I have or may acquire in the future. That's simply not what it's here for. There's a reason this isn't on myspace. Yeah, I went there.

So what is this thing doing suddenly sucking up server space? Mostly, I have decided that the time has come to stop being so lazy about things, something most of us could stand to do. As the radio station at work constantly reminds me "(Luuuuuuuuuunch combos are the main attraction, with) a little less talk and a lot more action." An illustrative example can also be found in a letter I reeived and have intended to reply to for 3 months now. There was a really odd metaphor amid a diatribe about the very topic of actually getting shit done. Something about attaching the stone of inspiration. Stuck with me.

So what does an enterprise essentially endowed with a healthy amount of self-indulgent narcissism have to do with winning the now-declared WAR ON LAZINESS? (prepare to go down on accessory to laziness charges) It has to do with the justification I have heretofore utilized for not fighting this sinister force of TERRA, specifically, why bother? I currently believe the answer is "why not? why the hell not?" My current state of affairs can always use improvement, and doing nothing is not a good way to ensure that happens.

And so, you might say, I've got new dip, and I'm gettin with it. This blog may, at its best, help to both encourage and document this process, because it is now necessarily tied up with everything. For example, if I have declared this blog to be my first move, it does not bode well for me if I fail to write it as much as I intend to. Toward this end, I have begaun to consider... purchasing a laptop. That, in turn, is also associated with my declared intention to go to law school. At the end of all that lies the mythic beast known in some circles as "the real world". This is the beast I didn't see the point in seeking, since the whole ordeal sounds like a pain in the ass. But on the other hand, sitting around all day leaves one wiht a sore rear as well.

Interestingly, during this rambling I still haven't said much about what this blog will be so much as whit it will not be. Well, it will be some shit I think about sometimes. Sources of inspiration will vary. That's where y'all come in. Help me out. In other words, if you are gonna bother to read my shit in the first place, can't you be bothered to help it along by commenting?

So whatever, welcome to my digital abode. No promises on any content. I don't even have fucking internet access. But so help me I will write the shit out of this blog, and in the end, it probably will make all other blogs look like pieces of shit. Google me, bitch.