grand re-opening

at my new location around the corner. haven't been able to post in a couple days due to being busy and in and out internet. it will be all good when i get the wifi modem that was shipped to my old place unsuccessfully, returned to the ups station waaaay down in south philly where i did not get an opportunity to go at the same time as feeling like going, and then all of a sudden they sent it to some place called round rock, texas, where it had never been before. i don't know why there of all the places, but that's where it is now. so i tried to use my shipping number from my confirmation email to re-route the thing, but no, that wasn't the right number. they wanted a number off one of the little slips they leave when they show up at the most inconvenient time possible and you are of course not there. i thought i had one somewhere, but it was packed up in all my shit. my most recent move has brought one of these to light, and so i should be able to make arrangements sometime soon. until then, the connection is usually decent enough to get by. except right now when i'm trying to do some instant messaging. of course.
anyway, the place is great, plenty of room for myself and los gatos. got a nice set-up in the upstairs in one room, using the smaller one for storage for now, although i don't need it for that, plenty of closet space downstairs. the room i hang out in has all my ikea furniture finally set up, and i must say i dig it, most especially the poang chair i'm presently chilling in. the bookcase type thing is also sweet, i have it aligned horizontally, two rows of four cubes, they fit vinyl perfectly and i have the record and cd players and speakers on top of the shelf. beats the old set up on janky chairs with no backs. it felt really good to break out the records; going a few weeks without got real old real fast. really hit the spot when i got it going again a couple days ago. lots of music i had been missing, kicked things off with lou reed's "transformer"... total fuckin classic. but the room has a great feel to it, all up high and apart from everything, much different than being in the middle of a bunch of rowhouses normally is. i should have taken one of the thursday signs i guess, cause this room is totally worthy of being thursday's east. business hasn't exactly picked up just yet, but i'm sure i'll meet some people around here eventually. no one i go to school with lives in this part of the city, they all live in center city or way out in like mt airy or manayunk or even further. a lot of people drive in; i couldn't imagine doing that from far out because most of them wind up on broad for like at least 15 blocks which probably takes an hour in itself. traffic is always fucked on that street, but hey, it is a main drag in a big city, so as much should be expected. the only person from my school i've met out here is a guy who dropped out of the law program. cool dude, and did live here when he went too. hopefully i fare a little bit better than that; i'm sure the neighborhood wasn't the problem. the neighborhood is really sweet. it was the part of philly i knew best when i came out here, and after checking out a few more neighborhoods in a city comprised of them i really think i still like this one the best. it is appealing in many respects. you can check out the wikipedia entry for it, or not, it is called university city. better than the entry is a article it links to which i'll just throw here. honestly a really informative and fairly accurate piece of journalism, i must say.
i finished my first legal memorandum writing assignment this afternoon. i've had a couple other written assignments but they were in the dreaded group format. yeah, we had a guy who didn't do shit, which is frustrating, but on the other hand it was all stuff one needs to work on in order to obtain an understanding of how to do legal research and writing. i am very satisfied with the general pedagogy of the course, which indeed is named legal research and writing. hopefully my memo doesn't get totally eviscerated. in all honesty i feel like i did a pretty good job, and that generally works out okay. i actually worked on it over a few days and completed it before the deadline was imminent and looming, which i believe is a first for me, coming from the school of classical procrastination. on the other hand, i've never written a legal memorandum before and it has some unique demands in regard to format and even more in regard to citations. the good news is that i really shouldn't feel too bad no matter what happens because this is a new thing i am learning to do, and the professor obviously knows that. also, the more i get the feel of school and my pers, the more i feel like i am right where i've always been academically. i try to remind myself that i am a reasonably intelligent and articulate person with a history of success and that there is no way i could really wind up on the bottom of the pile. not that my classmates aren't smart people; they are, but i think it will be the same old story with a mix of people who work hard and people who are naturally gifted and people who get by. after all, there are lots of lawyers out there, and they cover a broad spectrum of aptitude, intelligence, and ability. i'm not trying to stroke my ego here; you're just witnessing some self-therapy and i apologize. but i really hope to communicate something about the law school experience with this blog which is why i keep writing about it. if people always ask me on the phone how school is going, i take that to mean people have at least some interest in what law school is like. and obviously my experience will be far from monolithic, but it is a narrative for me to go back and look at and you to reflect on as you see fit. a certain perception surrounds the profession and has for centuries upon memory, but everyone in the modern era who has been a lawyer has most likely experienced law school in one way or another, and it is a special environment, just like business school or graduate school. i wonder if there are many people who attend business school just for the interest of learning about business; people who have no interest in climbing some corporate ladder or even calling the shots at a socially just and very likable non-profit. not that i am necessarily attending solely to learn, but it really tops my list. i'll probably be some sort of a lawyer for some period of time, but the details there are very sketchy at this point, and i think that is the way it should be. i've got three years to go, and that is a damn long time. think how your life was three years ago. it might not have been all that different, but if you really think about it many things have changed. you're still you, but experience just builds upon itself inevitably to produce new and different perceptions and opinions. ah, listen to me gettin all philisophical and whatnot. i really don't think a grad program in philosophy would have been for me; there really is a big gap between being interested in the material and being interested in following a program of study with all attendant hassles. i miss the approach, though. my schooling now really operates as a professional program, not as an extended humanities study. there are lots of big meta questions i think about while i sit in class, but i honestly think i would get shut down pretty quickly if i started asking questions about societal relations with the law on a purely theoretical scale. there's probably more room for that sort of thing in upper level classes. i kinda hope so anyway. but enough about law school; you're probably not gonna go. but if you don't know what to do with yourself, take a practice lsat, you can download one at lsac.org, and you'll probably do just fine. good enough to get into a decent law school anyway. it's something to do. or at least it was for me. but enough about all that. there's more to life.
like music. i just finished listening to a godspeed you! black emporer show. i haven't given those guys a shot since senior year of high school when i was like yeah, whatever. now, different story. i can dig it the most. too bad i'm late in the game like always, guess they are on indefinite hiatus, with certain plans to reconvene at some point. i decided to check them out again cause i was dicking around on archive.org downloading shows of bands that are gonna play at that venue i'm excited about (not crane jackson's fountain street theater; that is where i'm performing my dance quintet, you know, my cycle) and after i exhausted the list i just grabbed more because i was getting good speeds. i've got my ticket for tea leaf green tomorrow and i'm pretty excited about that. i saw a show from a couple days ago posted on etree this morning and they did an opening set as coffee bean brown, the name they use when they play acoustic. that would be pretty cool, and not surprising as the venue seems to book concurrent shows at the downstairs and the upstairs. i was surprised to learn that upenn owns the place, or at least i assume so, the name of the place is copyrighted by the trustees of the university of pennsylvania. oh well, they apparently book sweet shit. really diggin' this agent moosehead stuff i've got; they are philly's macpodz. with a better understanding of setlist theory, which is very important. if i could study setlist theory in a professional setting, my life would be complete. also got some lotus, and the recording sucked, gotta try a different show. or the alternate source for that one. but it was listenable despite the recording; i needed a little electronica. sound tribe sector nine and the disco biscuits do it better though. i can't wait for some sick db shit, those guys play philly a lot; they all were upenn students, which cracks me the fuck up. funny how the east and west coasts of the country spawned two bands so similar in idea but so different in practice; really speaks to the effect region can have. the difference actually reminds me of phish and the dead. bands two people unfailingly associate with one another who do something similar but sound nothing alike. if you've missed it before now somehow, check out the ultimate site delineating difference between things that are superficially similar. good times. all that aside, i'm actually diggin some live little feat on vinyl right now. time and a place for everything, you know?
life, in the end, is mostly alright for me these days. i have everything i need to enjoy life except for the glaring hole left by leaving (almost spelled that leavening - watch out folks) my friends and family. i hope to meet somebody, anybody tomorrow at tea leaf green. gotta be some good people in there; i can spot the difference between a hippy wearing the uniform and a decent person, i hope. i've seen enough small-time jam shows in bars to have a pretty good cross-section of people, and many have spoken with me. i hold my usual position of just hearing them out. i can think what i want, but i try not to ever be too sure. we'll call it a post before things get out of hand.

reconnaisance

completed on a day with nothing else i felt like doing, typed on a night where i had nothing else i felt like doing. went for a nice walk today through the neighborhood and a little beyond, including a stroll down the 'avenue of technology', a.k.a. market street. there wasn't much in the way of technology, and the street reminded me of wealthy, zero to shit in like a quarter mile. in fact, my apartment here kind of reminds me of my place on wealthy except the whole apartment is split in half and stacked on top of each other instead of the bathroom being split in half. further info on apartment move-in scores: there is a trash can, which i had thought about needing right before i looked through the place again. hell yes. also, most intriguing is... mystery metal. no, not me (although the re-metaling has begun, more on that later), but this really inexplicable thing in the kitchen of my new place. i've talked to a couple people, racked my own brain, and engaged in some serious peering, but nothing really comes to mind. check it out: about eight inches or so off the floor in my kitchen is the bottom of this compressed metal accordion-rack type thing. it is clearly very old, and it doesn't compress entirely correctly, but it begs the question of what in the hell it could possibly be. my sister and ben will get a good look at it tomorrow when i get to for real move in, so maybe one of them will have an insight that my limited drawing and explanatory skills could not provide. if not, you had better get your ass out here. you've got some 'splainin to do. yeah, that's right, you. tell me what that shit is.
but serious sources indicate some sites of significance in the area. there's the nearby cvs of which i was already aware, but it is still pretty handy. lots of restaurants to check out, usually a few of every kind. few pizza places, few chinese places, few more interesting places, indian, ethiopian, soul food, etc. and some place with a 25 cent wing night with 20 flavors to choose from. soooo hitting that up. surprising and definite lack of mexican restaurants, however. i don't really know what is up with that. there really don't seem to be many hispanics around, not compared to home. nothing is bilingual here either, which i find kind of strange, surprisingly, since it is not like spanish is my first language, or even one i know a damn thing about. still, a noticeable difference from back home. another odd thing is that although being a food establishment is what allows a place to sell beer to-go, but only the pizza places really seem to be the venues offering this option. i'm sure there is some underlying logic there as well.
i found my laundromat, which is further away than i would have expected or hoped, but it really is not that far at the end of the day. i don't think i've ever patronized a laundromat before; i don't know why there isn't any laundry in the basement of my building, but i'm sure there is a good reason for that too. i haven't gone in the laundry place yet, but that day will come. so far, all i know is that it shares space in a mini-mall with a porn shop called risque, which had big sign proclaiming that you should "get your risque gift cards here". it also had a large piece of graffiti alerting everyone that "corporate media lies". great graffiti for the front of a porn shop if you ask me.
more importantly, i think, i located my nearby "beer distributor", which is the place you have to go if you would like to purchase more than twelve beers in a single transaction. however, i hear the price break is not that great. we'll see about that, i'm mostly curious about the selection. all i know for sure is that they offer keystone light half barrels for fifty bucks. not going to be taking advantage of that deal any time soon, but it is somehow comforting just to know it is out there. yet another pizza and sub shop is right next to said beer distributor, and they also offer the four tall boys of beck's for five bucks. and for the first time, i noticed a price scaling that made sense in regards to beer purchase here. six packs of pbr tall boys five dollars. hell yeah. although the house that's the best across from my place does offer two for five forties as well.
also located the nearest grocery store, which i also did not enter just yet. however, the name has me excited enough. the place is seriously called supreme shop 'n' bag. what more do you need to know? my sister does her groceries there, so it can't be too bad. unfortunately i don't think i will have her situation where the guy at the fish and meat counter never lets her pay full price. today, she got charged full price and the guy chased her down like five minutes later (she was still in the store, it isn't that crazy) to give her two bucks cash. she was a little weirded out, but my position is hey, it's two bucks, fuckin take that shit. just like how i save seven dollars if i pay rent before the first of the month. i'll take it. but yeah, SUPREME shop 'N' bag.
most importantly i found my concert venue. there is a place not all that far away called world cafe live, and i had heard the name in some tapes, but looking at the lineup they have posted for they next couple of months is pretty impressive. tea leaf green, jacob fred jazz odyssey, project object, robert fripp, agent moosehead, lotus, and that's just the shit i've already heard of that i would like to check out. i just missed drive by truckers the other month there, unfortunately, and u-melt as well. but it is reasonably priced for most things and really quite nearby. i'm looking forward to checking it out proper; that tlg show is like next week already. i am excited to see those guys, i wrote them off at first but a serious consideration of their sound and ability has me questioning that. anyway, it should be fun, and lord forbid i might actually meet people i don't go to school with. maybe even some, uh, people, you know. i like to have people i know, who have people they know. i don't know if that exactly counts as "social networking", but i like to have that sort of thing together.
speaking of social networking, it is one of the skills some bullshit on npr listed "the millenials" as having. that's right, if you are a "twentysomething", you're a millenial, which means you are high-risk, high-demand, and high-output in the job market. you expect more than you deserve, and it is because you've been coddled your whole life. that's right, everyone who is within a decade of being born with someone else is the same as them. never mind actual age, economic status, ethnic group, whatever, we're all the same. and fortunately for us, some good folks out there have broken it down in an economically useful manner for the good folks who hire people. FUCK YOU WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THE TERM AND DOUBLE FUCK YOU TO WHOEVER PERFORMED THE STUDY. this is a prime example of the perpetuation of selective stereotyping of groups. in a culture of political correctness, this must be done very specifically and with a defined intent - we're not claiming to make assumptions, it's just the numbers... that shit just gets me. really really bad. so thanks for reading this, if you're between 20 and 30. we're the same, so i'm sure it all makes great sense. fuck you npr for airing that. i'll save my npr rant for later.

act right

i promise to try and not make this post suck so bad. sorry about the others. we'll start with a fun story. once upon a time this morning, i had to go to class like always. i walked the two or three blocks or whatever to the trolley stop and there were more people than usual standing around. i figured the trolley would be along soon if that many people had built up. i wasn't too worried; i had decent time in hand, thought i saw a trolley coming when i was crossing to the correct side of the street and figured i would stand around and finish my cigarette and let other people get on even. except that trolley i saw wasn't there. or if it was, it went the other way, or around, or something. but it probably wasn't there at all. so i just kept waiting with the other people, but at this point there were twice as many of us as i had ever seen before, so i was a little suspicious. i became much more suspicious when a group of people doubling my own double number became visible approaching from the west. the good folks confirmed that yes, as a matter of fact, we were fucked; there was a trolley broken down at 61st street (west end of the loop) and thus nothing was going to be coming along any time soon. not surprisingly, this was not a situation i had dealt with before, and i wasn't really sure what to do. at first i thought i would just kinda join in with the knot and assume they all knew what to do in this situation (i imagine this was not the first time septa had let some of these people down and they probably knew a good backup anyway). but the group peeled off in various directions and no vocal indications of what they were planning to do, and my y chromosome firmly prevented me from asking anyone at random. i tried calling my sister a couple of times but she was still kinda getting up when i left and didn't answer her phone at all. so i just kinda kept walking east down baltimore, and tried to think of what i knew, which took a little effort as this was still relatively early for my taste. i knew that there was an eastbound bus that would drop me at a good spot that runs down spruce a few blocks north of where i had walked to on baltimore, and then walnut/chestnut depending on which way it's going, so i thought i would go and try to check that out. stood around at the corner with the stop for a minute with no sign of the bus, so i figured i would start walking east again and just keep looking back for the bus and go to the nearest corner stop whenever i spotted the bus. so i kept walking and i kept looking and the bus kept not being there. finally i got to 40th and had about given up on the bus when i saw it coming a block or two behind me. i had already crossed to the wrong side of the street for the bus and noticed there was no official bus stop sign on the corner i was at any more, and i guessed it turned there so i was going to try to anticipate the turn but the light for spruce was green (go figure) and i couldn't get back across and the bus blew by. so there went that; it looked super full anyway. the only other thing i could think of as a transport option was the market-frankford el. i know nothing about the market-frankford el at all at this point, aside from that i assumed it ran down market and frankford and i knew it stopped at city hall with a free transfer to the broad street line i take to school because i walk past it when i change from trolley to subway. and i knew it had an a train and a b train, but not what that meant. it just made me think of that jazz song 'take the a train'. phish played that one. so anyway, as time until class slipped away and i walked even further with fifty pounds of shit in my bag (which is still a kick-ass bag maybe even better than zip-lock) i figured the worst thing that would happen is i would walk my ass all the way up market to city hall and catch the broad street line. the hope was that i would stumble on this other subway somewhere though. and that is when things started to get together: my earlier misstep of continuing to walk to 40th which caused me to miss the bus led me straight to a subway stop at market and 40th. this seemed like an unbeatably better bet than the lengthy walk with fully loaded saddlebags, so i figured i'd give it a shot. ladies and gentlemen, i shit you not, this was the nicest subway station i have ever encountered, and it was totally a minor stop. it was in good repair, shockingly clean, and, most unbelievably, there was not even a *hint* of piss in the air. i was a little worried that it wasn't a real subway station at that point. but lo and behold, after not even two minutes of waiting, along came the train. it was the b train, but i wasn't too worried, having seen trains of both flavors stopped in the part of city hall station i was trying to get to. i got on and was immediately again overwhelmed by the step up in quality this subway has over the broad street line. not only that, the train also hauled more ass and stopped less. a+ public transit, would ride again. it was like my reward for not freaking out when i found out there weren't gonna be no trolley a-comin' round the bend. so thus ends the suspense, i got to city hall at like 8:42 and some seconds or whatever before my nine o' clock class and was in my seat with like five minutes to spare. kind of anti-climatic, but hopefully not a bad story, albeit perhaps a touch unnecessarily long. they're more fun that way. more fun to write, at least.
so i made it to class on time, and class was class. i'm starting to get more and more used to it, but the feel is definitely not what i was used to, but i guess eventually it will be what i am accustomed to. profs in law school know how to ask questions in a very unique and penetrating way, probably owing to their experience as lawyers. the thing is, typically it seems as though they aren't hunting for a particular answer at all. there are things they want to hear and analysis they want people to utilize, but the idea is not that there is a "right" answer they are trying to tease out of people. you can be wrong or more wrong (not as wrong as you are dude), or right or more right, but the prof is not going to wait for someone to get close and then tell you exactly what they were looking for. i'm still a little intimidated by that since my nature is more to listen to what people have to say and try and distill my own thoughts from there. i just have to be a little more willing to go out on a limb. just not a flimsy one that causes me a nasty fall on the way down. if i'm gonna go down, i'd at least prefer to avoid the intervening branches, you know?
one bright spot is my anticipation of doing decent on my upcoming memo-writing assignment for legal research and writing. the prof seems to think that most people are really confused by the format-heavy habit which legal memos must occupy, but it seems like the most logical thing in the world to me. the only worry is how to fit it within a rather confined space. the organizing acronym is CRuPAC, not to be confused with tupac. however, when i ride on my enemies, it sounds about the same (biatch!!!). the idea is to state your conclusion outright, establish the rule governing the situation, prove that this is the right rule to use, apply the cases facts under above rule, and then restate the conclusion. i kind of don't want to make the analogy, but the whole thing really reminds me of all the policy debate arguments i dealt with back in the day. people always asked me back then if i planned to become a lawyer. i definitely was not planning on it at first, then i considered it, and then i thought certainly not. so, of course, here i am now.
today concluded classes for my week, and it's always nice to feel like i have another one under the belt. it would have felt even better to have this one settled if i could have participated in an exclusive happy hour for my section (the only one with no friday class) and an overlapping happy hour with the irish law organization at the bar and grille on campus. unfortunately, i could not attend because i had to get back to west philly so i could (singing) sign my lease and get my fuckin keeeeeys. so that is now settled; i have a place. i will be able to move all my shit in on saturday, but i can go and hang around in an unfurnished apartment tomorrow if i want i guess. not gonna lie, i did do that for a little while today, just because i could. so my key ring is now more full than it ever has been, and i don't have any car keys any more. nor do i even have my mailbox key. but this place has two separate front doors that need different keys and then the key to my apartment. move in bonuses include a twin size box spring and mattress and half a bottle each of triple-sec and sour mix. like all move in scores (other than that stupid white winter abercrombie jacket karnes and co. found at wealthy that i wore for a winter), i don't really need or want them, but i don't really know what to do with them. i'll probably use the sour mix and triple-sec as excuses to by half gallons of shitty liquor to make long islands with. i'll be able to make like four and then i will be stuck with shitty rum and vodka i don't want to drink but will anyway. and then you'll be subjected to the subsequent post. better that than getting lost on a nearby side street, thanks mulligan's esp. gwen. oh, and there is a thoroughly decent rug and some sort of furniture thing i think might be called an armoir? whatever. the rug is alright, but i don't plan on making much use of that thingy with the drawers which isn't exactly a dresser. the real question is what to do with my vast amount of space. probably accumulate shit i won't want to move when i go.
this already extensive post has been brought to you by yuengling premium beer and wilco, which will be my final extended springboards for rants to fill out what shall become an even longer post. first of all, yuengling premium beer is different from yuengling traditional lager. for some reason the idea persists that lager is a style of beer rather than a family of styles of beers. typically when something is called a lager, it is a pilsner. the interesting thing here is that there is a marked distinction between yuengling lager and yuengling premium beer, which is more of a pilsner, and not as delicious as the "lager" somehow. the premium is more like a budweiser, but still several cuts above that. and at only a dollar more for the four pack of tall boys than beck's, i figured i would give it a shot. alright for a change of pace. i was already wondering before i cracked one what the difference from the lager would be though, and my research revealed what i already said. however, i also discovered that yuengling used to make something called old german, which was their discount line of lager which sounds like it would have been pretty good. twenty years ago, you could get a six pack of it for a buck fifteen. damn. i don't know inflation backwards and forwards, but that seems like a bargain, the best i never had. they don't make it any more anyway, but some place called pittsburgh brewing company has the rights to make it now; i'll have to keep my eye out for that. these guys also make a beer called, no shit, "totally dirt cheap beer". even better in name, there is naturally a "totally dirt cheap light beer" as well. this is true, and you know it is 'cos the wikipedia said so. check it out. told you so.
as mentioned previously, the other fuel source for this incorrigibly long post is wilco, specifically a show from all of four days ago freshly downloaded off of etree. if someone out there has never checked out etree, you need to. you will be shocked at the diversity and quality of the available audio. if you haven't used bittorrent, it isn't difficult, the site will show you all you need to do, but i think everyone out there could find something they'd be really happy with. in fact, if you wouldn't be happy with this wilco show, you're a rat fink. good recording, good setlist, and classic jeff banter. i think he cracked a Yes joke earlier, something about having some people come up and play close to the edge (which is like 20 minutes, see, it's funny). but way better and more typical was his brief bitch session about A.M., talking about how that record gets the shaft. the crowd reacts favorably as if to suggest, yes jeff, you're right, those bastards never give that album the love it deserves. further commentary from jeff indicates he is actually castigating the fans. he says that this lineup of the band is going to re-record the whole record and "you all are gonna eat it up and be like 'this is the best record ever'". you want to be pissed at him, because you know you love a.m., but when you think about it, he's really probably right. we can all aspire as much. good enough for now. at least an improvement. comment, fuckers. and thanks for reading.

westward to wagons...

so it is apparently in the bag, all i have to do is show up with the money and i can become a non-squatting resident of west philadelphia. and i could use a wagon to move my shit. either like a regular wagon or the wagon of cucamonga. or a wagon to be named later. i think i left some part of me that enables excitement back home, i haven't been able to get real geeked up about anything out here, even things i really like. not that i'm not having fun, but only a few things have gotten me super hyped. mostly new potato chips. and a new wilco show on etree. those fuckers are playing detroit. and pittsburgh. and not philly.
not that i'd have money to go. i'm never going to have any money ever again for the rest of my life. i wish there was a biolife in west philly; that would kick more as than i could ever tell you. that was really the lynchpin of my earlier financial success during educational times. i had all i could have wanted, really. fifty extra bucks a week is no joke for a person like myself. fortunately i will have the best house. i know i've mentioned it many times, but i really can't say enough about how the best house is the best fucking house ever. and opening soon i will open the best apartment, conveniently located across the street from the best house. list of inventory and offers coming soon. let's just say that if you want to move to philly, call me. i'll tell you where i live and then you can live there too cause its fucking huge. and it will have cats. and the best house. the best house has a bigger menu than eastown deli ever imagined. breakfast all day. that's right fuckers. and i don't even like breakfast. but they also have like 40 some sandwiches, pizzas, calzones, platters, you fucking name it, it's on senor. no burritos, that's the only glaring omission. but there's el vez for mexican food. i'm gonna rob some shit so i can eat at restaurants all the time. lawyers don't usually get to be restaurant critics. i fucked up. or booze critics. i really fucked up... michael jackson the booze dude died last week. bummer. i drank that expensive booze for him. anyway, restaurant week is coming up here in philly. all the good places make up special menus where shit is cheap and appealing. i can dig that the most. even more than 120 minutes on vh1 classic. but not as much as getting drunk. i still like that one a lot. and nothing here is mutually exclusive.
as you can tell, i don't have shit to say. i'm drinking and reiterating much of what you have already slogged through what i've blogged.
well, i just deleted like five paragraphs that no one needed to see or read. not even a therapist if i had one. at least not that i would tell them. don't trust 'em. i'm gonna stop this non-post before it gets any worse.
but i will warn you about the coors light train. it's comin down your street to wreck your shit. you think it's good arnes but its just gonna straight destroy and leave you with only ONE beer. not compensation enoguh.

went alright....

dude's car got a little dinged up. so i got called on at random for the first time in law school. i guess that is the way it is supposed to go, according to the paper chase and so forth. there is actually a student group dedicated to raising awareness that law school is not like the paper chase. i didn't need them to convince me once i got there; the profs are generally really nice people and they don't tear anyone a new asshole unless somebody really begs for it (they do sometimes). here's the thing: first of all, i got called on as a result of doing the right thing. there is a supplement book we're all supposed to bring to contracts. the prof called on three people before me, and none of them had their book. i was just the next one in line and of course i had the book. but it wasn't like, would you please read this section from the book? it was, what part of this section is corollary to the objective theory of contract formation? and that is where it started. i was responsible for questions for the next twenty five minutes, and it was mostly okay. far from perfect, but not inadequate. which is about the average for anybody when they have to deal with that many questions about a case we had to read a little over a week ago. as if the general situation wasn't enough on its own, i was describing the case, which involved a potential buyer of a parcel of land and the seller, to keep things nice and basic. and while she thankfully didn't note most of what i said on the board, she was also interested in getting the basics down. so while i'm trying to recall and communicate the details she decides to abbreviate on the board "pot. buyer v. seller" and of course i immediately imagined a lawsuit over a skinny or shitty bag and i couldn't laugh or joke or anything, i had to keep answering questions. rough. and yet, somehow, i made it through. it's good to have that first one out of the way.
actually, that really isn't the only thing that happened to me today. i also finally got my refund check from school, which is a first. i've never had loans before, how thrilling. well, i'm glad to have money, even if a bunch of it at once is strange. the odd thing is more that this is the only check i will be getting for a really long time. i wish i got these every two weeks. well, i wish i got these every two weeks and didn't have to repay them. that's another concept that takes a little getting used to. of course this comes with all the attendant fun of new bank account, etc. something to look forward to in the next day or two.
and now, what there is really to look forward to: spending a good chunk of that money to finally rent another apartment. i think i have found the place. out in west philly a couple of blocks from my sister's. nice big space, bi-level apartment (cats are gonna freak with excitement; they haven't had a place with stairs since logan), few closets, room i don't even know what i'll do with, next to a coffee shop (oh wait i don't give a shit about coffee shops, they don't have booze). what is really sweet is that it is at the top of the building. the upper half of the place is actually higher up than everything else in the area; it's the fourth floor in a neighborhood of three floor homes, so the view is totally badass; tons of beautiful old victorian houses in this part of the city. kitty corner from a pretty cool park. and most importantly, across from best house, or as i like to call it, the house that's the best. or the house of best. but house that's the best is great cause i can sing that norman greenbaum song "spirit in the sky" when i die and they lay me to rest, i'm gonna go to the house that's the best. except i'm gonna go while i'm alive to take advantage of the kick ass sandwiches and microbrews and 5 dollar 4 packs of 16 oz. beck's cans. hopefully everything will work out. stay tuned.

the man who stepped into a non-day

i guess that characterization is a bit harsh, but i have that feeling like i really didn't do shit today, which is overall fairly accurate. even now it is late and i sit up typing this mostly because i'm not doing anything else. so be prepared for some shocking news and scintillating insight. first of all, 120 minutes on vh1 classic kicks a bunch of ass. moving on...
i did get up at a reasonable our today and get out of the house, though unfortunately without any places to go look at which may have been my house in the future. not much shakin on the weekends, especially holiday weekends, in that regard. the city is large and has a home for me somewhere, just gotta track it down. but i did get out to go down to a friend's right near love park to hang out and catch authentic futbol as referred to in some earlier post i didn't write drunk, so it was a few back. either way, i watched a lampard-deprived chelsea side lose two-nil at aston villa. they just didn't have the execution one would expect out of the bunch. i was just happy to see some EPL and i wasn't too broken up over the loss, but the guy whose apartment it was and another guy who was hanging out are both chelsea die-hards, so they were kinda disappointed. those fools (chelsea, not the people i know) were in some new gear that was highlighter yellow; a bit of a departure for a team so widely known as 'the blues'. anyway, it turned out that after that match barcalona was playing bilbao on another channel, and that one was even more fun to watch; barca pretty much had the run of things for most of the game, some excellent set pieces from ronaldinho, who really does bear serious resemblance to a horse. not any particular horse, he's just horse-like in appearance. never has the term 'pony-tail' been more apt.
we later got some lunch at five guys burgers and fries, which i guess is a relatively minor chain out of the d.c. area, and those are some good burgers walter. cool little place, more pricey than it should be (to my mind), but overall really quality food and not shockingly expensive. they seriously hook it up on the food front too, i didn't realize when i was ordering that all the burgers are double burgers, and that a 'regular' sized fry is a full 16 oz. cup with about half as much spilling over into the bag containing the food you have ordered. needless to say i did not go away hungry. in other food news, i also recently patronized the establishment pioneering the "yes! in the sandwich!" approach to the french fry/gyro relationship, but have yet to eat said gyro. maybe next time. final food note for this post, i promise: earlier my sister asked me what i wanted done with a cvs bag i had sitting on the table, and i went to go move it and she made some comment about the odd assembly of contents in the bag, which featured mouthwash and dry-roasted peanuts and i made some reply about all the msg from the nuts making the mouthwash super delicious and how i've never been able to find dry roasted peanuts without msg and a discussion of msg ensued. hours later, i opened and began to consume said peanuts, noting that the flavor was not exactly what i was used to. i postulated first that they may be old; i don't know how quickly the university city cvs goes through large jars of dry roasted peanuts. but that wasn't it at all. i checked it out, and these are totally msg free. i am still recovering from this shock to my worldview. if you are trying to avoid msg and love dry roasted peanuts, cvs is the brand for you my friend. actually i would be curious if there was a regional difference on this. this is why i am still awake; these sorts of pressing issues occupy my mind and keep me from rest. how can i sleep during a crisis like this?
so yeah, those have been the highlights. i have big plans for tomorrow like finishing what little reading i have left to do before class on tuesday. hope you all have big labor day schemes smiled upon by gorgeous weather. i think i'll mostly repeat today, listening to new downloads, playing snood and solitaire, dicking around on wikipedia, having lengthy comforting phone conversations, looking for an apartment by hitting the refresh button in the craigslist tab, etc. i need to take a nice weekend away from the strenuous physical labor i engage in for which this holiday was established. you should too.

wind up workin' in a gas station

if you don't know zappa, you don't know phish. if you don't know phish, you don't know shit. lebowski. i know my rights man. i want phil kuntseler. or ron kube. or metal.

truth

for now, this goes out to karnes, until he can send it back my way:
I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I'm drunk and dirty don't ya know, and I'm still, willin'
Out on the road late at night, Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice

I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
and you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin'

I've been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I'm still on my feet and I'm still... willin'
Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I'm still

And I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
and you show me a sign
I'll be willin', to be movin

always willin' to be your attorney when i'm bar approved (not that bar, the other one),
metal

like a child misses its blanket

that's right, i went there. sometimes i get bored, lonely, and really miss the hell out of everyone back home. i'm also beginning to realize i'll have to get used to being broke again. that's alright; i don't miss work. but at the end of the day, what am i doing? spending time i do have and money i don't have on extensive training for some other job with the hope that some other job will be something i can live on that is worth doing. maybe even enjoyable. but i have absolutely no idea what that is. they must tell you after you're done with your first year, because all the upper level students seem to be having a great time, and they don't seem like they're all geared to work at [insert big firm here]. i couldn't even name you a law firm if you asked. probably won't matter for me anyway. still can't really think of anything that gets me real excited. well, nothing people pay for anyway. if anyone comes across a job listing for dicking around, getting fucked up and/or listening to music, please send word posthaste. i'm not afraid to admit that i've been avoiding "the real world" (both the concept and television show) for a long time, and i don't feel like changing that. for all of its bullshit hassles, said world also offers some access to comfortable life otherwise unavailable. what were my values again? i guess no one really sits down and makes a list, but i sure as hell don't know what i expect out of life, leading to profound difficulty in accomplishing it. jesus, what am i, 19? time to quit whining and act right.
there are better things to focus on. i still have two beers in the fridge. and some jalapeno chips my sister got me - isn't she the best? and blogger didn't ask for and reject my password like it has for weeks. i saw a bunch of apartments today. they were all doable with some minor annoyances. no closet in one. few that were bigger than i need with awkward space. gonna go see another one tomorrow too. everyone out here wants first and last months rent with a security deposit, and there is always some application fee, probably a pet fee, it just goes on and on. chi-towners, is it like that there? either way, i've had a tough time shaking the notion that i should have moved to chicago. wait, i was gonna quit whining. turns out drive-by truckers are fantastic, and i missed seeing them in philly by like a month. d'oh. they get "best use of three guitars" award. and i was even a little less late on the uptake with them. maybe in five years i too can be listening to the latest and the greatest. my view on all that right now is that such efforts require listening to vast amounts of absolute excrement and praising it endlessly, while the true gems just get lumped in with all the rest. i think i'll still prefer coming in late in the game rather than convince myself i like something. most of that has to be life contextual anyway. i find it interesting that i moved to a real big city and now a bunch of stuff i'm getting into has a sort of country feel to it. reactionary?
so i wrote the above yesterday and never finished. i went to go hang out with a couple of people from my section at school. they both seemed like good people and my suspicions were confirmed, and that's always a plus. spent most of the evening drinking super classy whiskey. not classy like rich and rare (c'mon, it's in a square bottle! of course it's classy!), but classy like glenphroaig and macallan. yeah. the dude had an amazing apartment in center city, and we all had a good time. went to nodding head for a little while and had the porter, very hoppy, reminds me of founders porter. delicious. then we were heading to another unspecified bar, and we went the wrong way entirely, wandered back around, and then it was almost closing time and they wanted a two dollar cover. we said fuck that and i waited like 20 minutes for my bus to show, but it came. and i rode on it. and some elderly veteran got on and also rode, and enlivened things by speaking at me in a rapid pace and difficult dialect. i think he was giving me a rundown on the various hospitals in the city, and then a lot about war. he looked like he knew what he was talking about. nice guy, but a random encounter nonetheless. had a separate random encounter on the way down to the middle of town as well while on the trolley. there was a young lady talking to the driver for like the first five minutes i was on, then she sat down by me and began a discussion. she was doing her masters in historical preservation at penn, seemed like a nice girl, pretty cute. heart of the conversation (her) "what are you headed to center city for?" "oh, just hangin' out with some buddies, gonna get some drinks and take it easy, how 'bout you?" "i'm headed to an A.A. meeting; they have them on campus but there aren't any tonight and i need to find a new community". so that's cool for her, i'm glad she has a grip on something that was a problem in her life. but i wasn't about to be like, hey, you should uh, ya know, fall off the wagon with us. i've had a couple strange and interesting encounters on public transit already, but what sticks out about this one is that i totally saw this girl today. someone was biking past me coming from the other way while i was walking (checking off block one hundred and thirteen for the day or so, we'll get to that) and this person was like "hello!" in a pleasant and earnest tone one typically reserves for people one is favorably acquainted with. i turned and offered a puzzled but friendly hey! back, and turned soon enough to see that, sure enough, girl from trolley yesterday. my sister and her man both say that's how west philly works (well, i haven't told them about this encounter, but they've mentioned it before). i guess you just see the same people, or at least notice the same people who lend themselves to noticing in some way. for an egregious example, there was this guy walking on penn campus with a HUGE ASS SNAKE wrapped around him and i did a double take, but ben was just like, oh yeah, that guy. yeah, he's around. and a snake is around him. i see...
so today i got up at a reasonable time to go see yet another apartment. it was really nice, actually a bi-level one bedroom, great location, affordable enough. nothing not to like. but for some reason i couldn't get excited about it. i still don't know why, it was perfectly fine in every respect. so i walked all the way back to where i'm staying, probably roughly 37 blocks. i flopped down on the couch, gave my sister the rundown on the place, and she was like, well, sounds perfect. in the end i had to admit she was right, but i sat around like a little bitch for a couple hours until she got me to get up and go with her to what she refers to as "the worst liquor store ever". i went along thinking it couldn't possibly be the worst one ever, but it is actually probably in the running. fuck that place. like many liquor stores, all of the merchandise is behind the counter, so you have to ask for what you would like. my sister: "i would like a fifth of stoli please" clerk: "huh?" sis: "stoli?" clerk "what?" sis: "bottle of stoli..." (there is one on display, it isn't like they don't have it) clerk: "bottle of who?" sis: "stoli..." clerk "stoliCHNAYA!? (with side-to-side head bob)" sis: "yes please" present clerk to clerk in storage area: "bottle of stoli" seriously, what the fuck? after all that, and besides, who ever calls it stolichnaya? or is it just stolichnaya if you're the customer and not the co-worker? are these the rules? the sequence is even better if you are aware that my sister took two years of russian and retained it pretty damn well for not having much practice opportunity, and i would be willing to bet the clerk has roughly two years fewer experience in russian language classes. going out on a limb, here. and before you judge my sister for buying vodka, know that it went to great use. she makes an incredible lemonade beverage which includes freshly squeezed lemon juice, fresh mint, and both regular and vanilla stoli. damn good.
anyway, this trip to the liquor store of doom was enough to get my juices flowing to inspire me to walk all the way back to turn in the rental app at the place i looked at today. i could have taken the trolley most of the way, but i'm running out of septa tokens and i'm cheap. so i walked down there. thought about calling to make sure the landlady was still gonna be there and so forth, but i just had a feeling things would be kosher. i felt she wanted to rent to me specifically. so i just went. nice stroll, really great weather for it. took about an hour or so, rang the doorbell, no response. called her phone, no answer. but then she walked up to the door so that she could tell me she had just rented the place. awesome. so i walked all the way back to west philly again. but then i got to go to a bbq with some nice penn grad students and ben. i think he and i were the only ones not fitting that bill, but no problem, there are some real solid folks in that bunch of whom i am very fond. as are the cats. i worry that they are cheating on me with greta and want her to be their owner. i already had to make sure she didn't walk off with them when she visited them last week.
speaking of the cats, when i came home one of them ran up to greet me and was extremely vocal. after properly greeting him and not seeing the other one i started to wonder, but i just figured he was asleep someplace under something. the one i had seen followed me around meowing incessantly, however, and i could hear the other one meowing as well, but didn't see him; he sounded kinda far off. i did some meowing of my own, expecting kitty #2 to show, but no luck. i heard some weird scratching and a somewhat despairing meow, at which point i decided to investigate. lo and behold there was a closed door in the apartment which he was behind and when i opened it he shot out like a bullet, only to turn around 20 feet later to rub on my leg. oh, los gatos. constant love and amusement.
let's see, in other news... uh... well, you know the other post where i talked about potato chip connoisseurship? i've pursued that. today i had the opportunity to partake of the incredibly intriguing philly cheesesteak chips. they were actually very unique and quite tasty. they didn't really taste like a cheesesteak, but what else could? on the other hand, they didn't not taste of cheesesteak. truly a unique flavor sensation. seek it out. i also had the unexpected and welcome opportunity to check out the 'old bay' flavor this evening, at the courtesy of my sister (see, she is good to me. for real. maybe someday i'll be a lawyer and she'll be an academic and i can show her a good time.) anyway, for those of you who aren't from the east coast (oh yeah, that would be anyone reading this), old bay is the seasoning that they put on everything out here. especially like seasoned fries and seafood. i guess the best way to describe it would be "it's a little bit spicy, but delicious". i don't know what all is in it, but i dig it. you can buy big ass shakers of it like any other spice out here, and i reckon that when i grow up and get a place i will get one of these shakers. but not one of the shakers proper. you know, shakers, like quakers. they have those here. or at least they used to? although after a googling of the issue i would like to check out these shakers too. and while we are on shakers, does anyone know if shakey's pizza from south park bears any relation to reality? for no good reason, i'm gonna skip that google and leave it up to you. and then you should tell me. please?
and now for some sad news that no one reading this cares about. clutch's next tour is all opening for coheed and cambria. what the fuck. that's a statement, not a question. what the fuck. i find it difficult to communicate how lame and off-base this truly is. if the world was not a fallen place clutch would only play tours with two sets and no opener. but to have THEM being the opener? that hasn't happened since the alternating headlining nights with COC if i'm not mistaken. good show though, in GR clutch was headlining. the c! finished summer tour yesterday in new york. i guess i theoretically could have gone. i have no one but myself to blame on that one. i haven't really begun to comprehend how close i am to that place yet. the concept intimidates the shit out of me. i haven't ever been, and i feel like i already know i couldn't handle that shit. i think that if one is unfamiliar with the experience of anxiety and agorophobia one must merely come from the midwest and then hang out in new york for a while. aw hell, i'm ramblin' again.
this one goes out to my mother, she made the sweetest facebook friend request denial ever the other day... well, a while ago. but it needs to be acknowledged in the blogosphere. yeah, i went there. i used that neologism. i do this. i be he. and law school. i do that too. but i don't be them.

beat it on down the line

today has gone well. i feel like i've hit that stride and slight feeling of comfort i was so desperately seeking regarding school. i've got all my classes now, like i mentioned, and torts and contracts are both really promising. the knowledge that not all of law school is as arcane as legal writing (what i thought would be the best) is a true boon. some talk of having some fun this weekend with a couple fellow students as well, perhaps watching some proper football, just on tv, but damn, it's been a while. and also even more talk of real bowling. i could go for some of that. come to think of it, i haven't even had a chance to watch lebowski since i moved. it will be high on the list when i finally nail down a place. i'm going to go look at something in an extremely promising location on friday morning, hopefully that will all be going down smooth. the hunt continues, however...
so i decided to download this show from the last waltz ensemble. as you may assume, they're a band tribute band. the chops are pretty good, especially on the keys, but the vocals are killin me. the harmonizing is good, but they don't do it enough, and the guy who takes the majority of the lead vocals is a little overbearing. that could owe to the recording more than anything though (tribute bands don't always have the wealthiest tapers present with the finest equipment, but the overall sound is good); i'd definitely check it out if they were around. i can never pass up a little night they drove old dixie down... 'til leter's calvary came and blew up the rails again? someone has got to offer the wolf and the don some internet access, they're probably the only people who would laugh at half this shit.
ahhh, back after a beer run. would that it were he who bears the namesake performing the task. this four 16 oz becks for 5 bucks is an inarguably square deal all things considered. i was gonna try the cheesesteak-flavored chips, but they didn't have them. i'll keep my eyes peeled though. for a bunch of these, damn, these guys have everything a potato chip connoisseur could covet. hell yeah, bacon and horseradish.
switched up the music to this uncle tupelo show i finally finished downloading yesterday. i've actually never heard those guys until now, and i really like it. i'm only like fourteen years late or something on this one, which beats my average by a healthy amount. well, whatever, music is at its best when one is in a position to enjoy it for what it is. this show already has me chuckling, jeff isn't even a lead singer yet and he's already running his mouth between songs. i can see why they had a dedicated following though, they would have been pretty bitchin (even more bitchin than the boat that bears the name - ask me about that one sometime) to see. wilco's sound on a.m. isn't too departed from what these guys were up to, and that makes since considering they made up most of uncle tupelo. it somehow seems so different with jeff front and center and he sounds a lot different when he does lead vox on a couple tupelo songs. they're doing new madrid right now, which is one of theirs i know from jeff's solo stuff, i do enjoy the way he does it solo, but this is a cool change of pace. the man knows how to arrange a song in multiple attractive ways (see outtasite or tapes with the shuffle/waltz version of box full of letters). now they're playing a song called 'sandusky' which is way sweeter than that region of ohio. gotta check out son volt now, i think i saw some of their stuff on etree. i'm also working on downloading a drive-by truckers show. anyone know anything about those guys? I've heard some stuff about them, but not any music yet; my curiosity is piqued.
sitting here with a beer is all fine and good, but i really feel like i should go to mulligan's. no luck on an analogue bar here, but i haven't done much in the way of searching just yet, but i have a contingent of 1l (yeah, i don't have to be a freshman or even a 'first year', they call us one ls) students with a similar mission. how hard can it be? plenty of bars line the streets in a city like this. and so help me if i have to go to fifty of em to find the place i'll do it. don't test me. i'll totally do it. good enough for now. "never let it be said that you can't communicate with a man in a rubber pig mask" - les claypool.

the man in me

but oh, what a wonderful feeling. just to know that i've got beer. in the form of a quart bottle of yuengling, which is the perfect size. i need it to contend with the ridiculous login situation this google domination of blogger accounts has caused me. every time i try to log in, it tells me my password is wrong. so everyday i try the one i had previously put in, and it never works. so i try the original. no luck. so basically every time i want to post, i have to go through the whole password reset song and dance, which is lame. but i do it. and i do it for jews, dear reader. everything i do, i do it for jews. and also the school of law, which is demanding some serious reading.
the good news is that not all of the reading is so bad. the criminal law stuff is a little dry and its been back to this asshole named hart who dominated my philosophy of law class in undergrad; the haunting continues. and kant showed up AGAIN. that fucker. but my torts text is really interesting and the prof i have actually worked on the book. normally, i'm opposed to a prof teaching 'their' material, but that really isn't the case in this instance. it's not like wolterstorf having people read 'death of a son' or kelly clark having people read his bullshit and teaching it like the gospel. miraculously, my contracts book is imbued with a sense of humor. it's a nice change of pace. not only that, but the cases i've had are quite interesting. the first one i dealt with involved someone being held responsible (responcable?) for a deal they made when they claimed they were drunk. the implications are dire for someone like this girl and her mother's soul and brother's girlfriend's virginity. the case also included the phrase "high as a georgia pine". i'll have to remember that one. the other one in that book had to do with this ad that i remember in disturbing detail. anyone else recall the pepsi points promotion? there was this ad where it showed all this shit and listed the available items and requisite pepsi points. the idea was all these high school students lives became much cooler via pepsi gear (craved by those of the "pepsi generation"). at the very end the coolest kid flies in a harrier jet to school, and in keeping with the rest of the ad it says 'harrier jet - 7 000 000 pepsi points'. so of course some asshole tried to amass enough points to get said jet. one would have to consume more than 100 pepsis a day for like 100 years to get the points straight up, but there was an option to purchase pepsi points for 10 cents a piece. so of course this douche tried to buy a harrier jet for 700k and 15 pepsi points. of course, the court held that the advertisement did not constitute a legitimate agreement and the 23 million dollar fighter jet couldn't be purchased with pepsi points, and the jackass trying to buy it was not entitled to judgment by a jury of his 'pepsi generation peers'. summary judgment granted to defendant.
some other good news about law school is that the 'not on the rug, man' sticker on my laptop has received widespread recognition and some good quote bantering. a couple of folks have gone so far as to ascribe me dude status, which is a little generous on their behalf. although one guy noted that 'law school is verrrry un-dude'. i guess he is right. but he's a really cool guy himself, turns out motherfucker went to GVSU! Neither one of us could believe there was another gun rue representative out here. He's big on good beers (and once heckled insane theater at founders! those fuckin douches!) and the derb (big surprise, no silver derby website to link to - that'll be the fuckin day). he also worked in the jenison (baby baby ain't no zen, back in jenison) 7-11, which i got a good laugh out of, having consumed innumerable slurpees and cigars while a youngster from said establishment.
so presently i can here my sister's man making use of their newly purchased neti pot and it has been of disputed effectiveness, as is typical. i'm personally not sold on all that, but i would be interested in hearing anyone else's experiences. and yes, i've seen the video that the married to the sea/toothpase for dinner people did. if you haven't, check it out. it's actually fairly funny, unlike most of those vids. at least the comic is still pretty good. hit and miss with the 60's lookin stuff these days, i really prefer the 19th century type engravings they used to rely on. but i guess material runs thin after a while.
yesterday was indeed cheesesteak day, and it was crazy delicious. i ordered one with everything on it for the price, and it was pretty minimal, but no complaints. the lunch truck came recommended from a native, and it did not disappoint. first one i had with ketchup. good addition, really. more later, but time for sleep now. big ups to all those beyonnnnnnnnd the rio grandiooooooooooooo

don't you touch hard liquor, just a cup of cold coffee

gotta get up in the morning and go. to class that is. things get rolling at like 845 so i hope to leave here by like 8ish, should be about a 25 minute commute. my concern is the the transfer from the trolley to the subway. there is a veritable labyrinth of public transport beneath city hall complete with the requisite heat and reek of piss (i challenge someone to find me a piss-free subway station anywhere in the world). it can't be that tricky though, can it? i'm thinking not so much, just like law school in general, lots of people do this all the time. they also get up at reasonable hours in the morning which i still have to accept as reasonable, however. sleeping til noon today probably won't help me go to bed and get a good night's rest or anything but that's just how i roll.
sleeping til noon today came about as a product of yesterday for the most part. dear readers, you missed nothing in my non-post from yesterday. all i know is that i was drunk and having trouble logging into the blog (more on that later) and my intent was to post the lyrics to motley crue's 'kick start my heart' (we'll limit it to
When we started this band
All we needed, needed was a laugh
Years gone by...i'd say we've kicked some ass
(fuck you!)
When i'm enraged
Or hittin' the stage
Adrenalin rushing
Through my veins
And i'd say we're still kickin' all that mother fuckin' ass
(fuck you!))
. i'm not sure why that was, but i know that it was. i've always wondered exactly what the words are at that part, or perhaps it had something to do with the metal stuff on tv. saw some heaven and hell, the project with ronnie james dio, geezer butler and tony iommi (and some random dude on drums). they've still got it, but i wanna know how dio makes it look like he's not 5'4". i was proud of myself for calling that there was definitely some keyboard work going on despite the lack of a keyboardist on the stage. credits confirmed this. as ozzy once referred to his keyboardist: "the man you never see, but he's always there". i guess it's just not metal to have a keyboard player on your stage. not that there aren't exceptions, but that seems to be a theme.
so i just had to reset my alarm clock after plugging it back in, and it was actually really close to midnight, the automatic reset time. nice when the little things fall into place. now for the big thing to work itself out, a place to stay. i'm sure tomorrow a perfect apartment will walk up to me and ask me to rent it. if not, it's back to the persistent craigslist watch. the availability for practical places is pretty concentrated in the university city/west philly area where i am currently staying with my sister. i really like the neighborhood, so we'll see how that commute treats me. i actually ran into a former temple law student while walking around yesterday and had a nice conversation with him in which he noted the commute was totally tolerable from the area. but that's just like, his opinion, man. i'll see soon enough. he told me to live by the art museum, which is of course what i've wanted to do all along; just tough to find a place there both in the price range and not prejudiced against my pretty kitties. those people are probably jealous of the cats' good looks.
tonight was quizzo night for my sister and her people; i went and had a good time. quizzo, for those of you deprived of the experience, is a team trivia bar activity where tables of people get together to play as a team. a dj sort of guy reads off questions and people confer and write their answer down. it goes in rounds of like 7 questions or so covering a lot of different categories. there is also some wheel spinning, bonus question kinda stuff, and some other fun aspects. the best part is that all the competition is in the name of free goods from host bar, most notably beer. this particular place also offers chickens of wine, which i believe are only five dollars during quizzo, and pitchers of yuengling definitely are. these wine chickens are just what they sound like: ceramic chicken carafe-like structures. the crest goes up high to cover the large upper opening, and the wine pours from the chicken's beak. something like this, but even sillier, a little taller and slimmer and cheesier. anyway, it went alright, we didn't win this time (we did last time i played), and only the the stella tap was working so no $5 pitchers of yuengling, but it was still fun. one round is just identifying like 15 pictures of various persons, and this asshole showed up tonight. if current trends continue the phillies stand as good of a chance as the tigers do for the playoffs. even so, it's still tigers for me. AL ball is better, just ask chuck.
just typing 'philly' right now has me thinking cheesesteak, which i have not have since officially moving here. maybe tomorrow will be the day. i passed up purchasing some cheesesteak flavored kettle cooked potato chips today. but their time will come, i'm too curious not to check that out. how bad could they be? they're probably delicious. maybe i should check with this guy. big fan of that one. this food talk is too much, i need to go to bed anyway or i'll eat a bunch of stuff. i have these spicy pistachios... no. goodnight.

who wants to go to d's diner?

i do!! they totally serve their franks on gormet buns. not your average ma and pa for sure. les claypool said it best when he introduced bob wier as eddie van halen. interesting note for anyone who knows who the hell jeff chimenti is: dude totally had his start (with jay lane, ratdog's drummer) with the first-ever lineup of primus. had a case for today that tangentially involved a diner. this guy had his friend start his (the original guy's) car on fire behind a diner. a couple of dudes tried to put it out and the other guys got in a fight with them. the guy who set the car on fire had it repoed a few days earlier and had gotten it back and immediately fell behind in his payments once again. this guy said he wasn't paying because he felt the dealership owed him a second set of hubcaps, and that the other guys set his car on fire and fought him while he was trying to put it out. the jury was not persuaded. there was more to it, but that was really the part i found interesting. that and the fact that the case constantly referred to the diner, which was entirely incidental.
more class today including a lengthy discussion on car burning dude whose appeal on arson and conspiracy to commit arson was denied. whoa, lost a couple hours there. tonight was good, i have a friend here now, which is very comforting. finally
and that is where my post left off when i was trying to write it last night. good news for all my fans out there in the six one six: i am still the pass-out king. i really wished i had had a camera over the last couple of days so you could see the construction preventing me from leaving the law school the other day, or the apartment i have already moved out of, or maybe the wonderful neighborhood around the apartment. and so many other things.
so what i think i was trying to convey about yesterday is that there was a reception and oath ceremony at the national constitution center. it's like the disneyland of the constitution, which given its limited subject material is somewhat smaller but it had its good points. they let us check out the place for a couple hours before the ceremony, and there was some fun interactive stuff like a stand you could go up to and be sworn in as president with like tv feeds showing you in front of all the other political folks alongside the stand, like the broadcast is when that happens. lots of historical stuff, really good focus on issues that you don't hear enough about in high schools like mine like civil rights and labor issues. i was disappointed to see that the national disaster known as prohibition relegated to a couple of items and a small blurb in a nook between two big glass display cases. the funny thing was in all those nooks there was audio you could only hear if you were standing there so i got to hear a temperance song which was a takeoff on "onward christian soldiers". the "freedom rising" dramatic exhibition which we saw at the beginning was super slick and well put together if a little over the top. the theater it was in was called the richard and helen devos theater, which felt like a real taste of home with that name slapped on something.
the ceremony type thing itself was alright, especially owing to the free beer and hot wings. that's right folks, it happened to me. free beer and hot wings. that morning show like all others may continue to suck, but its laudable namesake was gloriously manifested in my life. it was an odd event to be serving wings at, but they were delicious. funny to see all these super dressed up young people try and eat an ultra messy food while standing up with one free hand. but back to the beer. not only was it free, but they had yard's pale ale (which was actually interesting and unique, something i can't usually say for pales. will have to stop in at their place not to far from school) and victory hopdevil, which is readily available back home but just seems even better this close to the brewery. we had a temple law grad who has been a federal judge for like 40 years or something speak and he was really good, shame i can't recollect his name at the moment. all in all, it was an alright thing to do for an evening.
but then it got even better. like i was trying to type last night i believe, i have at least one person i've met who i wouldn't hesitate to refer to as a friend as opposed to an acquaintance. definitely on the same page as i am with a lot of stuff. she and i went down to nodding head brewery in center city rather than go with everyone else to some fancy expensive bullshit in old city, and i must say they have some pretty damn fine and moreover unique brews for a place that doesn't bottle. i had a berliner weiss (good luck finding one of those in gun rue) and a single hop double ipa. apparently i blew it by not moving out here sooner because its the fifth one in a series, they're just going through the big delicious hops and using only one type per batch, this one was brewer's gold and it rocked my socks. i tried a little of her "monkey knife fight" which is like a blonde flavored with lemongrass and ginger. i was a little wary given how far a little ginger can go but it really seemed like the lemongrass got a front seat. totally delicious and refreshing.
all of those good times were necessary to balance out today. not that today was bad, but not quite as much fun and a lot more had to happen. i was going to move on saturday, but when i went home from school on thursday, there were signs on every damn light post proclaiming that the street would be closed from 830 am to 830 pm on saturday august 25, aka the day i was going to move. so we did it today, which was a hassle, but much more so for my sister and the mason, once again much is owed to them. poor ben was sick too, so he really went above and beyond. but i'm getting ahead of myself.
the day begins with me waking up a little hung over and heading straight to lexis and westlaw training. it wasn't so much training (sort of because i wasn't paying attention) as it was a demonstration of some of the really sweet things both databases can do if you know what you're doing and aren't as intuitive as the basics and a time to hand out emblazoned goods. i got a coffee mug, and a laptop bag, and some books, and some handy guides, and all sorts of good shit. the thing that surprised me was that neither one of the reps tried too hard to promote their product at the other's expense. both seem to have a couple of small advantages. after doing research the old fashioned way with those books in the library i really grasp the enormity of what lexis and westlaw do. it is pretty freakin unbelievable. i could feel my life improve as my registration took effect.
then we had a seminar on the book we all had to read on gideon v wainwright, the case granting impoverished defendants the right to counsel. it's a great story and an important precedent, but it turned out i probably didn't need to listen to some of my fellow students ramble on about it. really wasn't that helpful. there were three profs working the thing, and they were all awesome, but it was kind of intimidating. the ones who spent the most time in the courtroom are sharper than razors; they hear something, make an accepting response and then fire back a question that totally reveals the shortcomings of the previous statement while at the same time illuminating a better path. amazing to listen to, really. but better in other contexts.
they gave us lunch which was nice, and i had to go straight home to get everything i had ever unpacked repacked in anticipation of my sister getting there with the uhaul. got everything together and packed into the truck including the kitties, who were really pretty well behaved. made it to her place and hauled most of my shit up to the third floor. fortunately for the actual residents of this apartment, a fellow student of my sister's generously offered to let me keep some shit in her basement. only problem was after we got everything out of the moving truck and onto the porch, the key to the apartment didn't work and this person was in another state. after some finagling and a phone call my sister got the door open and so all ended well, for now at least. i'm glad to have this fallback that got me out of the hood, but i really can't wait to get my own place together and get everything set up. i just feel like i can't hit my stride until that happens; its like i have no base of operations. but i'm getting by for now. a couple of good apartment leads to call on tomorrow. until then, you should probably get some rest too if you've read all this.

child of the city

professor on the toadstool convene your class... things haven't gotten that surreal just yet, but at times they seemed about as cryptic. the good news is this was only before my goodhearted legal research and writing prof photocopied the majority of the book the bookstore STILL doesn't have for me and few others. mostly i'm still trying to convince myself that this is totally doable. and in all honesty i know that must be the case given the host of people who do it every year.
got my first crack at the library today. at first it was really intimidating but once again the stuff from that book made a world of difference. as it turns out, law libraries are fuckin sweet. they have the most logical organization i have ever seen for so much information. the subtleties are few and far between: this huge ass bookcase is taken up by this long series of the same shit which is super navigable with these couple of handy-dandy index volumes. as always the stacks will be another story. i really like that they're referred to almost universally as 'the stacks'. it just sounds industrial, depressing, and odorous, which is precisely the case. oooo, gunshot in the distance. looking forward to that move. i can't say enough about the guy i was going to be renting from, he's been really understanding and helpful. ditto for my sis (and her man). thinking about moving into her neighborhood in university city/west philly, going to try and gauge the commute while i'm holed up at her place. all i know is that i dig her area in many respects on its own and it is reasonably convenient to the host of amazing things center city philly has to offer.
i would like to take an opportunity to send a shout out to the wolf. right now i'm listening to jgb play van morrison's 'and it stoned me'. last time i heard this song with wolf he inquired whether or not this was a traditional song. ik houd van jou wolf. je weet het erg wel. i miss you and gino's. deliver the pie AND the fuckin kidney. good luck haulin' items for the mob, hope those boys can be more copacetic. so i tried spelling that word three times and it rejected all three. so i resorted to another lyrical search for spelling, which yielded one of the ones that didn't work. i figured, of course those fuckin deadheads got it wrong. so i checked the merriam-webster website, and that listed all three i had tried as main and variants. fuck a spell check. should have had more faith in the deadheads. i typed it again just to make sure the spell check didn't mark it. maybe spellcheck is ok after all; it lets 'deadhead' slide and objects to both 'ok' and 'spellcheck' when it's one word. i've discovered that my irrational obsession with linguistic nuances and general wordsmithery (see, i made it up and played it off just like that) will serve me well in law school and what lies beyond. the whole thing is like a giant policy debate topicality argument. dig it.
speaking of what lies beyond, the obligatory student organizations fair was today. it was in a too small a room which was consequently uncomfortably crowded and hot as hell. the interesting thing was the two options for people working the various booths: silent and smiling or smiling and selling. the funny thing was that the demeanor usually comported with the organization. and then there were some that probably didn't feel like wasting their time on me for obvious reasons, i.e. SALSA (south asian law student association... now seriously, what's with the acronym?). i was curious if the beard would prompt any inquiry from the muslim group. not so much. i mostly wondered after stories from fileta (no idea on that spelling, can't think of any published songs with lyrics about him... where's that six time losers archive?) about inquiries into his beard. then again he sort of has that egyptian thing going on. anyway, i got a t-shirt that won't fit unless i go back to the peanut butter sandwich a day diet, a flimsy folder, and a very interesting 'disorientation handbook' from the national lawyers guild. to quote the biggest douche i've met at school so far 'corporate practice is unfulfilling? the iraq war is illegal? these nlg folks sound like a bunch of BLEEDING HEART LIBERALS! does any one want this? because it's going in the trash'. and then he threw it into the trash next to the recycle bin for paper. that kind of says it all. the good news is that this guy sticks out like he never could have at my high school. definitely (HAH! spelled it right!) the exception and not the rule. enough of all that. bedtime...

i had to move

REALLY had to move. sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do. the neighborhood just isn't gonna cut it. so i'm gonna cut the neighborhood from my team. they're all on your team now, that's right, you. enjoy. so is charity. in fact, if facebook had a team-assigning function i'd totally join. one person on anyone's team... the good ones would be long gone.
class is ok. didn't kill me at any rate, and i'll go again in the all-to-near morning time. hit and miss with the two profs so far it seems, not naming names, but they're about polar opposites it seems. the workload is bearable this far. met some dude from grand valley of all places, really cracked us both up. nice to have someone who knows the home front other than my fantastic sister who is really being awesome on the really had to move issue, in fact it couldn't have happened without her for a bunch of reasons and i really owe her one. and that's cool. makes me feel somewhat better about choosing philly because she was a definite factor (still spelled definite wrong the first time, definately first time). also she took me to dinner at a totally badass place tonight.
missing people back home is starting for me, which is not a shock nor totally unwelcome. let's me know that people were worth the time i spent with them, not that there was any doubt. just good to know i wasn't really wasting my time before now. it's just that now i get loans to go to school instead of work, and that's cool.
so now as much as law school is intimidating, crazy, etc. i really need to find a new place. we'll see how all that goes, got a feeler out on a super cool place in south philly. if the north sucks, the south should be the opposite, right? naw, it's pretty straight down there for sure i hear. close to some other law schoolers as well... man, i'm so tired i don't have anything worth writing and i already had to fix a spelling error on like every one of the last dozen words. but tria rocks, know that. beer + cheese = wisconson, but classy-like. mmmmm.

run for the roses

at least it's not a rat race. but i hope it isn't really a horse race. hopefully something more along these lines. all good things in all good time. definitely seems like it will be a long haul. however, the quote of the day from all lengthy orientation proceedings was "law school isn't sadistic anymore". and i honestly believe that is the case. our culture has entered an age where such conduct wouldn't be tolerated. no, the people who inflict pain on law students like so many others in this world are all of us ourselves. rather than contend with an obvious adversary we navigate ourselves through the resultant mixed signals, innuendo, hypocrisy, guilt trips and other manipulations as best we can until we become so anxious the paranoia eventually takes over and we cannot be certain of anything. so law school isn't so much sadistic as it is masochistic these days. i wonder what foucault has to say here. or zizek. and no, i'm not going to figure out how to get his letter things right either. wouldn't be fair after yesterday's post.
confession: the second sentence of this post contains the arch-nemesis of my spelling ability, "definitely". i still can't believe there's no a in that shit. ridiculous. i hereby declare "definately" the proper spelling, and you linguistic fascists had better not tell me i can't do it. here's the real problem with that word: the spelling i used above and always seem to use is so far off that the spellcheck won't even suggest it. i wasn't sure if i would be able to dig it up on a dictionary web site browsing or not, and my internet connection is still sort of touch and go, so i came up with a quick two page solution: googling lyrics for steve miller's "jungle love". it totally worked. just like the three colons that somehow made it into this paragraph.
wanna know what doesn't work? my damn neighborhood. let's just say the location is less than ideal in some respects and some of the itinerant concerns have manifested themselves. actually, let's not just say that. let's be specific. my walk to school this morning included at least a half dozen passed out homeless people. nothing against the homeless, they have it rough enough, but it says something about the area. like the corner store not even having fucking camels. i'm pretty sure they don't even have yuengling. they might, but i must have missed it through the somewhat opaque two inch bulletproof glass separating all merchandise from the narrow viewing area. i was awoken by a whole lot of shouting prominently featuring that old classic "MUTHAFUCKA" and some ruckus in the middle of the night last night. and the walk just is not as short as i thought it was. overall, i would say that security is somewhat of a concern, as is viable entertainment. which presents a rather difficult situation. the logistics of somehow moving are intimidating but not insurmountable. kind of like law school. except that law school thing was sort of supposed to be my immediate insurmountable issue for a while (we all need one to keep going.) such is life.
life living like a fucking refugee still, tom. guffaw that man. and such a lifestyle has limited my music to my computer which has me finally listening to all those longass shows i torrented. some good stuff in there, getting me by for now, but i have a serious vinyl jones going on. *labels post with "scooters vacation"* maybe i'll get hits from people looking for segway tours? we saw one of those going on the other day and damn it looked funny. kinda like this. well, it's more adventures in the brave new world of legal study for me tomorrow, but with only real class and no preliminary stuff. should be alright. but it will be better if i get some sleep.

it's on senor...

i wasn't about to figure out how to get the tilde over the n. and now it's doing something odd with the fonts and i am not going to bother with that either. well, here i am, with something to write about again i guess. law school orientation starts tomorrow, and for some reason i totally feel like high school starts tomorrow, like a nervous child. but how bad can it be, really? as long is there is no around-the-room name/origin/"something interesting about yourself" rigmarole. as you may have inferred from the quotation marks, it's that third one i really take exception to. what they really mean is "please say something very lame and awkward on the spur of the moment that people can use to make a snap judgment about you, confirming any assumptions anyone may already have". maybe i just take it too seriously. i just don't feel like i have that one go-to thing so many people do. "my brother is an olympic swimmer" "i almost died this one time" "i juggle live weasels" (on a side note my impending departure from gun rue left me without time to attend an experimental juggling exhibition with some of the world's most innovative artists in such arenas which was heavily promoted to me by a major fan at kendall). but really, i've got the orientation week schedule, and it looks alright. they get us started with just two classes right away, which seems like a good idea.
but i guess we'll see how all that goes when it does, no sense in speculating anymore now. the prosecution intends to prove that i am a reasonably capable and intelligent individual who can manage this ordeal. in blog news, they made me sign up for a google account, but nothing is different except the way i log in. i'm sure most of you went through this months ago, but it still strikes me as really strange. on the other hand you probably all already had google accounts like real people do. i'll make it there someday, i swear. also, this little bar below my typing space is new. it encourages people to include "labels for this post, e.g. scooters, vacation, fall". so i think i am going to label every post from now on. and the labels will be one or more of those three in some arrangement every time. however, i will make sure to avoid writing about scooters, vacation or fall, the act thereof, the season, or the biblical notion. i am curious if using those labels would dramatically increase traffic, and if so, how many people would be frustrated versus intrigued that the labels they seek to find kindred spirits yield such dissonant results. as is obvious, i am also now attempting to blog again. supposed to have some wireless internet business. and i do, pretty much. but it doesn't work quite as well as the free ones back in g-r-usalem. it will get better when i receive my (cue angelic choir) wiiiiireless modem, wireless modem, wiiiiirellessss modemmmmm. you know, like the hallelujah chorus. yeah. if i knew how to blog right i would link up that
so i have all my shit in my apartment and all that, but i am not really moved in as such. see, my apartment is completely remodeled brand new and a couple of things are getting finished next week, most notably, the carpet will be installed. this means i cannot set up anything in my meager living space that i could not on short notice completely shove into the even more minuscule kitchen area. so while that aspect is frustrating and has me living sort of living like a refugee (sorry tom petty, i really kind of do, for like a couple days, and no, it's not because i was tied up taken away and held for ransom, despite that being the obvious choice. that's just how it is tom.) honestly though the new apartment thing is nice, and certainly a novel experience to me with all my experience with what could be affectionately (and accurately) described as lived-in spaces. bonuses like a small washer/dryer unit in my own little studio are much welcome. more on all this good stuff later, but the hour is getting late and i have something to get up and do in the morning all of a sudden.

lay off the cream soda

fresh off a three set masterpiece from the hippo. good times. in official news, i got into the one school i didn't think i would get into. probably still not gonna go there, but i will give it a second look. illinois institute of technology chicago-kent school of law. very comforting indeed.
in unofficial news, i would like to share with everyone what is really going on with iran. ok, so like two weeks ago the crazy militant faction of iran, the revolutionary guard, grabbed up on fifteent british seamen. the whole time iran was demanding a public apology from the british governmet for illegally entering iranian waters. this never happened. sifting through the news about the recent release of these sailors i discovered a small comment about a possible 'independent action' that may or may not have been taken by the iraqi gubment. no one knows why iran suddenly went soft and let these folks go. ask me about my conspiracy theory: so britain is bailing on iraq. the us wants to maintain a relationship with the brits such that they continue to act as lap dog. the us has the puppet ass iraqi gubment concede contested waters to iran on the down low. britain never has to apologize for entering iranian waters, and they get their sailors. they in turn owe us one. scams, i tell ya. believe that.

satellite of haaaaaaaaah

for once, i cannot honestly say that it's been a bloody stupid day. mostly, it was just plain bizarre. suffice to say that the culmination found me at a party made up of a surprisingly even mixture of minors and people probably 28-32. few others, but mostly, yeah. and with like 25 people. but here's the best part, the thing that brought all these people to this place at this time (other than me, and my business is my own) was punk rawk inextricably intertwined with myspace. strange days have found us.
and the strange thing is that after all that, here i am, middle of the night, doing my thing and playing some lou reed. appropriately enough, i am presently being graced by the strains of 'goodnight ladies'. what more do you need to know? herbie flowers, ladies and gentlemen. that's right, i just linked to a wikipedia article from my blog. i do this! i be he! (unfortunately i couldn't find the i love the 90s clip this is a reference to on youtube, so we've got a ways to go yet) also, the spellcheck flagged wikipedia but not blog, and it also flagged spellcheck, for that matter. wants me to hyphenate it. fuck that, i said. i refuse to support extraneous punctuation, especially hyphens and commas used in pluralizations. that is complete bullshit and they just keep getting away with it more and more. you know them, that is simply how they operate. well, i'm all set, as they say.

we are prepared to make a generous offer to you to act as courier...

for interested parties, scholastic update: offers from my two top schools (20 and 15 grand per year) even things out financially both places. so i've come to quite a stalemate between the two. both have some ups; i think i'd prefer philly (which notably includes my sister) to N.O. but i can't say for sure, having never been to nawlins. but tulane has an exchange program in the netherlands. the civil law stuff is very unique... i dunno, both have llm and sjd programs... good stuff all around.
so, to compound that good news, back to back clutch shows was totally money. maybe four repeated songs, tops. wouldn't have mattered if it was the exact same though, it was just that good. also, anyone who can't handle some good harmonica is a rat fink. and while they still aren't the 'jam band' some accuse them of being, i was pleased with setlisting tactics like stateside debuts and breakouts. i went to detroit with the distinct hope of hearing this song the rapture of riddley walker off of the forthcoming album. i got the tune, but more importantly, i was clued in that this was all a reference to a famous novel. my buddy had a copy from the library and let me check it out, and it was completely amazing. the ambition was to write the whole thing phonetically as the narrator would have been speaking, which was stunningly accomplished. i wanted to go and buy it but i need to read the books i recently purchased before any of that. right now i'm reading an excellent book by the notorious slavoj zizek. i have no idea how to make the proper grammatical markings over those letters. anyway, the book is fairly brief and straightforward, basically about nine eleven. not so much the 'what REALLY happened' events-wise business as what people understood it as and what it meant. the dude is some sort of a lacanian marxist, which is of course way too much of a pigeonhole, but he is pretty with it. with it enough to have some new dip and be getting some whippets, too. (i've got a new hip, and and i'm gettin rickets?) but this guy explains why a lot of the things i thought are true in some sense, and while i knew they were true, i wasn't quite sure how to explain why, and he really hooks it up in that regard. so i need to read that, and then this crazy book that only donny could have picked up at random. some pleadian shit. we'll see about all that. one can never read too many books as far as i am concerned.
in fact, sometimes that shit is really important. like i met this dude with one of those lateralus eyes tatted on his forearm, and he had never heard of alex grey, the dude who had done the artwork for the album. just found it odd that i knew a bunch about this dude who drew some shit that this guy had permanently etched into regularly visible skin who had never heard the name. all that aside, if you haven't heard the name, check into it. i'm still not linkin shit from this blog. but who knows, maybe someday. someday baby... when the wolf and i were tryin to leave detroit we fucked it up, and wound up forced into this tunnel and we thought we were headed to canada. not that that would have been so bad, but it simply wasn't the intent. the great thing was we had been discussing mr. robert zimmerman's 'someday baby' on the drive there only to have some radio station play it on the way back at that moment. i asserted that everything would be okay, since bob clearly had our back (no, not the bob coming back with a snake and some acid, i'm talking about real fuckin bob man). and it did work out almost immediately, road did some shit and we were all set. on a separate note, check out garcia playing someday baby if you ever get a chance, he totally knows what is up. garcia... da dead. daaaaaaaa dead da dead da dead. and here we come to the ultimate clutch album sin: live spacegrass on pure rock. decent cut, but fuck that shit. record company was behind that one. big ups to drt for not fuckin with the shit of the world's finest rock band. clutch at bonnaroo, what's up with that? it's like kok said, what ya gotta do is... but undoubtedly good times and a strong argument in favor of checking that custie ass shit out. hehe, the custiest of all festies. indeed. can't argue with the lineup too much.
outside of that, i still want to know if anyone can break down lilly, rosemary, and the jack of hearts for me. i would love to be asked that by a prof: 'so, can anyone lay out the basic plot of this micro-epic?' i might fail after all.
so yeah, twenty grand man, and they gave the dude a beeper... please don't call during league play, (a member of your bowling team...)
metal

nola, beetches (and also, an diamo!)

and miraculously, despite my attempt at blog therapy to cure chronic laziness, i have now been admitted to law school. there really must always be something about the first one. the original plan was to go to tulane law school beginning in the fall when katrina hit. so, too bad i missed all that, but the good folks down there have seen fit to promptly and favorably respond to my application. i have not made any final decisions as of yet, but it is very comforting to have the one school i've always had on my list admit me. all this being said, i have come to many sudden realizations, one of which is that i had better get back on the blogging thing and get used to it for the sake of communication.
unfortunately this is going to be a somewhat anti-climatic return to the... fuck that, i will not use 'blogosphere'... shit... anyway, i'm fairly tired. but in other good news clutch, friday, orbit room. pretty excited about that. also of note: wine, as it turns out, is totally delicious. i was missing out.
overall, i needed an occasion like this to write anything again, so as to provide some sort of excuse for what i have been up to. but don't be fooled, i was totally just slacking. for real cuttin that shit out, word,
metal