Did you know that I on occasion write reviews for online zines? Currently I contribute (once in a blue moon) to Naughty Secretary Club. I used to write for Delusions of Adequacy until they sent me cds to review which I never did and then didn't send back close to a year. All the links to my delusions review are broken, however, here are some that I have done for NSC...

Ativin, The Mountain Goats, Oneida, Racebannon, American Analog Set, Low, Low + The Dirty Three, and Unwound

I was feeling terribly irritable and restless when I got home from work yesterday. Maybe it was too much sugar and caffeine (conveniently put together in dr.pepper) or too much time in traffic on the way home but my whole body and mind felt like it wasn't put together right. So to remedy this, I did what any normal person would do. I grabbed my roommate and went drinking.

We made it to Lovejoy's around 7:45 - just in time to get our first round during the last, fleeting, golden moments of happy hour. I had the American Beer Month IPA. Joe had Honey Meade (I just wasn't feeling viking enough for meade.) The best part, I find, about going to Lovejoy's early, aside from happy hour prices and lack of crowds, is that there are usually a number of free plays on the jukebox. I played Velvet Underground, Van Halen and Al Green. Joe played Pong, Murder City Devils (doing a misfits cover appropriately enough) and The Pougues.

As we were sitting at our booth, The Enigma came and sat at the booth next to us with a rather large group. For those of you who don't know, The Enigma is the guy from the Jim Rose circus with puzzle tattoos all over his body (including face) and horns embedded in his skull. There's really not a story here, but I just like sitting next to a guy with puzzle tattoos on his face and horns.

As the night wore on, pitchers were bought and drunk (mostly by Joe, as I had to drive us home and I had to maintain a nice, warm buzz, yet not get trashed.) Joe and I discussed (aka argued) a great range of completly fruitless subjects. Here are our main points, I believe...

me--> There is great chance and void right now in independent publishing just waiting for someone to come along and apply punk rock, DIY ideas to books. Someone just needs the break the market.

Joe--> Brothers years Beach Boys' albums are the best and most underrated, particularly Sunflower. Dennis Wilson was the unrealized genius of the band but he wasted his energy on sex, booze and pills.

me--> Yeah, Samuel R. Delany is one of the best writers around.

Joe--> Yeah, Samuel R. Delany is one of the best writers around.

(Disclaimer!!! These are summaries and do not accurately reflect the words spoken.)

So we headed home around 11:45. I had to work this morning. I can't be out all night drinking.

So despite giving serious thought to calling in sick, I did, indeed, make it to work today. Picking from saturday night, we went to Tina and Josh's party but didn't stay too long. I've been feeling a bit under the weather and after a few beers and too much (wonderful) homemade bread I was ready to head home. Then again, maybe it was the round of truly awful and tasteless jokes being made in the drive (I do not exempt myself by any stretch.)

Sunday was a do nothing day. I put up some hastily made shelves in my room as I was getting tired of books being piled everywhere while I search the perfect bookshelves. I have a history of putting together poorly made bookshelves. They ain't pretty but they work (kind of, as long as you don't touch them or look at them the wrong way.) Someone needs to ban me from half-price books. I'm developing a serious addiction. I've bought so many more books than I can read in a year over the past few months.

I skipped out on band practice as I still wasn't feeling well. Bowling was a no-go for the same reason.

Its saturday night. I'm sitting around checking email, blogging and digging my new velvet underground box set. What a good evening. In a bit I'll be going over to Tina and Josh's place for Tina's b-day party. They had halloween party last year at which they served pumpkin bread. Yum.

Went to the We Talked About Murder show last night but left after they played. I couldn't take live music last night. Headed to Plush for drinks. I felt thoroughly out of place but had a decent time anyway. Courtney had her digital camera with her so our sloshed shenanigans will be preserved for all time. Went home and just as I was plying myself with some hangover averting water, strange people showed up at my house with Hope + Holly. So the proverbial party continued for a bit.

Thankfully there was no hangover this morning (at least for me - Joe wasn't as lucky.) The day was spent uneventfully. Hit half price books and then Hoover's for some down-home cooking. Now I'm a full monkey and as everyone knows (at least everyone who eats at Chango's,) a full monkey is a happy monkey.

I played my first solo show as The Wisdom Teeth the other night. There wasn't much of a turn out but I'm thankful to those who did come. Here are some pictures from it (click on wed night.)

As I expected, Swearing at Motorists were great. I really enjoy Dave's songs. They strike the right balance of fun, rock, melody and dynamics. I wish I had more to say but its too early still.

Among the more moronic ideas to come out of congress in recent years, Democratic Senator Joe Biden (of Delaware) wants to make raves a violation of federal drug laws. There has never been a more intrusive or wasteful exercise of government power than the "drug war" but as long as they get to look tough and control peoples' live just a bit more...

In case anyone cares, The Washington Post used a 26 letter word. For some reason I think this is very funny.

The relevant paragrpah goes something like this....

"The new archbishop has also argued for "disestablishment," that is, ending the church's status as the official national church, headed by the British monarch. For this, he has drawn the wrath of antidisestablishmentarians, those who advocate maintaining the official status."

A had freakin' hectic time yesterday after work. Since this show is so last minute, I've been running around trying to get everything together. First I was working on some fold-over cd covers that I had to go to kinko's to print and, of course, the graphics are messed up. So I gave up on that until later.

Then I had to deal with getting a PA together for the show tonight (sacred cup hasn't got anything of the sort.) After a call or two I got something put together. Chris from We Talked About Murder was nice enough to loan me their PA cabinet they use at practice. Bradley, my bandmate in The Soft Set, hooked me up with a PA head and mics. Kudos to these fine fellows.

So I redid the cd covers again and made my way back to kinkos. This time, though, their computer won't open up my file. I think I might have smashed the disc in the park lot in frustration. Maybe I'll try again before then show but I don't know if I need the headache. I'd like to have a few copies tonight but perhaps it isn't in the stars.

I can't decide if I'm going to play acoustic or electric guitar tonight. Acoustic sounds better but I really don't like the idea of being the guy playing acoustic guitar at a coffee house. In addition, I'd have to go buy an acoustic pick-up so I can plug into my amp. I practiced the songs for the first time last night on electric and it might do the trick. I dunno. We'll see.

This kind of thing transcends normal politics and is not out of the ordinary in many parts of the world. I dare someone to say something about how right and wrong are just a matter of opinion regarding shit like this.

There was a woman at the laundromat (sp?) yesterday who brought her own bleach which she used to clean off the table for folding your clothes. She then turned her basket upside down (after bleaching it, too) and claimed her table for the duration of her washing despite the fact that nothing was dry yet (or would be for 30 minutes.) She then snipped at a guy who was trying to sit his laundry bag on it. People are odd.

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I woke up this morning to the first of my snooze alarms in the middle of an odd dream. I was with this girl who I was hanging out with quite a bit last year (whom I saw recently for the first time in 8 months or something) and we had just spent the night together (though that part was inexplicably absent from the dream, dammit.) So we were wondering around a store for some reason and I was wearing a red and blue "six million dollar man" robe that I had when I was a kid and she was in pajamas. I know there was more but dreams fade from memory so fast these days. Anyway, I woke up to my alarm, hit the snooze button and tried like hell to get back into my dream for nine minutes until then next alarm.

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When I'm at work, all I can ever do is think about not being at work. When I'm not at work, I am so lazy that the things I think about doing while I'm at work never get done. I did make flyers for tomorrow's show last night, though. Its pretty late in the game to bother with flyers but, hell, it can't hurt. Besides, the show wasn't actually set until saturday and I was busy recording all weekend. Tonight I'm going to finish up making some fold-over cd covers so I can sell some cdrs at the show.

I'm pretty excited/nervous about playing tomorrow. I've played solo before and its a nerve racking as hell. I'm really bad about forgetting lyrics to songs. With a band I can repeat a verse or garble some noises or something and most people will never notice but solo that's the main thing people are hearing.

One more thing for those interested...

I'll be playing my first show as The Wisdom Teeth solo-style this Wednesday at Sacred Cup coffeehouse here in Austin. Also playing are Western Keys and Swearing at Motorists. I'll be opening things up around 7-ish and everything will be done around 10.

Swearing at Motorists is one of my fave bands around these days (especially live) so even if you think I suck you should come by. Ole' Ben Western Keys ain't none too bad either.

Sacred Cup is located where Gaby 'n Mo's used to be - one block east of I-35 on Manor Rd.

Coming home from bowling last night (107, 122 piss-poor, I know, but I had 4 weeks off) I heard "Behind Blue Eyes" on the radio. They were doing one of those great, sunday night, In The Studio with... shows. It happened to be The Who talking about the making of Who's Next. I can't believe Entwistle has been dead for, like, a month. That's just wrong.

Now to back up a bit...

Saturday night was pretty wild. Somehow I ended up at the Crown and Anchor again. This time with roomies Hope and Joe. We met up with Hope's sister, Jen the Naughty Secretary, and her boy-toy Chris for drinks. So we drank. A good bit, actually.

After last call we headed home only to decide to find a party (it was saturday night, there had to be one somewhere.) We called Michael (cause he often has the low-down on such things) and he swung by and picked our slighty pickled asses up. Upon arriving at said party, I was greeted by some friends I see way to seldom. Mainly Erik whom I used to see several times a week (if not daily) whom I now see once a month if lucky.

Beside the couple of folks I hadn't seen in a while, the party was pretty much a bust. Way too many college kids in tight black pants with sloppy black hair. Do they realize how goofy they look? Its like a fashion parade from four years ago. Oh well, whatever. Sometimes if you wanna go out in Austin you have to make a choice. Anarcho-hippies or mod art-fags. Its a tough choice that no one should be forced to make.

The guy who's house we were at does great stained glass art and glass blowing. Fucking genius stuff. I didn't get a chance to tell him I thought so. Plus he has a hot tub.

We finally left way too late. Joe got tired of waiting around while everyone was bullshitting and walked home. I passed out on the couch listening to Chisel.

Sunday I woke up late and close to dead. I was supposed to meet the soft set guys at the recording space at 11:30am. I got there around 1:45pm. I didn't have much to do that day so I wasn't sweating it. I had some backing vocals to do and a revolver-style guitar solo to play. I love being in a band where solos are allowed after all these years. After a couple of hours pretending to be involved with what everyone else was doing I bailed. Recording can be exceedingly tedious when you're not the person being recorded.

That brings us back to bowling on sunday night. Those present and accounted for were Erin, Courtney and Michael. It was a blog-centric bolwing night. I hadn't been in a while since sunday nights are regular band practice nights with the soft set but since we/they were recording I had the evening free. I had about zero energy to get the ball down the lane and it showed. Erin cleaned up on both games as usual.

On the way home, The Who was playing on the radio.

I spent the day recording a couple of songs with The Soft Set. This is my first experience recording with these boys and it proved to be quite enjoyable. Kirk (the former bass player in the soft set) was nice enough to haul all his recording junk down to a sound stage to capture our beautiful sounds. We played live with scratch vocals. We did "standing around" and "brief glimmer of hope" and also managed to squeeze in a take of "I wanted to say." Tomorrow we overdub vocals and shakers and my crazy guitar.

Plans for this evening are still up in the air. I ain't got shit to do. Went to the crown and anchor last night to have drinks with Hunter before he makes his way to Yemen next week (fucking Yemen?) But we wish him well and a safe trip. Those present last night were... myself, Joe, Jeff (Joe's co-worker at waterloo recs), Dave G., Shamma, Aaron, Victoria and Hunter himself. Good times.

adieu.

I went to My Morning Jacket last night. It was a strange show. First of all, it started at 6pm and Jacket played second so they were on at 7pm. Watching bands when its still light outside is strange. It felt like sxsw or something. Secondly, it was strange because with few exceptions, I was a good five years older than everyone there. Apparently this Ben Kweller fella is big with the 16-20 year old crowd. Who knew?

My Morning Jacket kicked my ass with their Neil Young by way of Flaming Lips reverb-drenched sound. Its been a long time since I saw that much hair on stage at Emo's. I don't think the bubble-gummers knew what to think of them. Some got it, some stood there blankly and yet others thought they were being ironic and funny as hell by whooping and making devil signs. I can't impress on you, the reader, enough how glad I am not to be in college anymore (god forbid high school.) I didn't stay for Kweller.

I know this will make me sound really old but I was damn glad to be home from a show while there is still time in the day. When I was younger I loved staying out watching bands til 2am but then I had to get a real job and get there at 7:30 in the morning. Every morning. I don't think college kids realize how easy they have it. No one makes you sign up or go to that 8am class. Hell, I'd kill to come in at 8am. That extra half hour of sleep would be heavenly. When I was in college I had second year german at 8am for two semesters. I didn't make it in very often yet passed with a C thanks to my great high school german 1 teacher, Frau Spurlen. She was psychotic but, damn, she drilled that shit into me enough to bluff my way through second year college german.

random bits...

I hope its done raining. I'm looking forward to some kickball action tomorrow. Despite being sore for a couple of days post-kickball last week, I need the exercise. Besides, hopefully the cute girl from last week will be there...

I'm obsessed with Nigela Bites on the style network. Its the best cooking show around (and I watch a lot of cooking shows.)

I might go see My Morning Jacket tonight at Emo's. They're opening for Ben Kweller who I have never heard of. Its an early show but I might stay late to see Kodiak if it is the same band from few years ago reformed.

I like to think of the lottery as a stupidity tax.

I went to half-price books at lunch. I got several old Robert Heinlein paperbacks. I'm currently enthralled in Stranger in a Strange Land. It takes me back to 6th grade when I bought "Somewhere in Time" by Iron Maiden with the song, "Stranger in a..." on it. Never let it be said that heavy metal isn't educational. Maiden is the same band that had me reading Rime of the Ancient Mariner in middle school. You could do a lot worse.

In a funny coincidence, I found my import-only cassete single for "Stranger..." the other day. I bought it by saving up my allowlance for who knows how long and trucking it over to the Hasting's in the Temple Mall. It was in the import section where I was buying my music almost exclusively by 8th grade. I don't think it was actually all imports but all the weird metal and punk stuff got stuck in there - maybe more of an independent label section. My biggest finds out of that section were some Misfits tapes and a Diamondhead collection. Both inspired by Metallica's Garage Day's Re-Revisited (come to think of it, I got the original Garage Day Revisted there also - also known as the Creeping Death cassette single.)

As my musical choices swang from metal to punk I was able to keep shopping in the same section. God bless mall music chain stores and the one or two smart employees that always seem to crop up in them. Without them, kids unlucky enough to grow up in small towns wouldn't ever get the chance to buy interesting music. As an interesting side note - Wal-Mart always carried all the Fugazi records. That was so nice of them.

So I went home from work early today, what's it to you? This lack of sunshine has got me so down I can barely crawl out of bed much less make it through a whole day of blah at work. But I'm being productive at home. I'm working on some preliminary layouts for covers for the ep. I think I'm going to put out a small amount as CDRs and sell em waterloo on the cheap. While I'm at it - everyone should take advantage of The Echo Lab in Denton, TX for all your recording needs (check it out, I'm on their client list, I feel special.)

Killing time before I get to go home. Funny how sometimes there isn't enough time and others there is way too much. Rarely is there not enough for me. I feel like I'm living my life waiting for something to happen but I'm too lazy to make it hurry up. I haven't any illusions on that count. Someone once said to me, "Slow and steady wins the race," but I think they were joking about their own reknowned slowness (not sluggishness, there's an important difference.)

I need to go to sacred cup coffee today to see about booking a show next week with myself, Ben (as western keys) and swearing at motorists when they all get back from tour. I've been procrastinating for a week (or more) already. I'm such a lazy fucker.

Sometimes it seems as if my whole life is monday mornings. It could be worse, I suppose. I could be getting blown up on the bus or in the market by some psycho. Instead I can sit at a desk in front of a computer listening to Silkworm and complaining but, really, this suits me just fine.

The weekend was uneventful. Beer at Lovejoy's on friday night. "Road to Perdition", half-price books (got Whittaker Chambers' "Witness", "Stranger in a Strange Land," and "15-minute vegetarian recipes") and lost parties on saturday. Sunday was a non-starter. Band practice. We all wanted to end early and go home for no real reason.

Thanks to Michael for burning the cds.

Its friday at last. Ahhhh. I went to play kickball last night at pease park. Goddamn am I sore today. We lost 21-11 but at least I made a dramatic slide into second (for the record I was out but at least I have a modest battle scar on my arm to prove my manliness.) Fun was had all around, though, and I met some nice folks. Apparently a nice split between people from waterloo recs and some video game programmers. If I have the energy it may become a weekly thing for me (as bowling is an off and on affair depending on band practice.)

On to the weekend. I was going to go to Denton to tonight to visit and see the Shins play but that drive just seemed too long. I need to get up there and buy Kevin's 8track but I guess it'll have to wait. Otherwise, there no plans for the weekend besides seeing Road to Perdition on saturday and soft set practice on sunday (that means no bowling).

I'm sure I'll find some way to waste a couple of days. Perhaps some reading. Right now I splitting my time between a Samuel Delany book and a Stanislaw Lem book. Lem is a recent discovery. He's a polish sci-fi writer. His "big" book is Solaris upon which the 1971 Tarkovsky movie was based and which Steven Soderberg is currently remaking. I haven't read that yet ('cause I haven't found it at the book stores I've look for it at) but I'm working on a short story collection and Solaris if definitly on the horizon (provided I can find a copy.)

I finally went through all the boxes I got from my parents. The big one which I hadn't opened yet (for fear of a hernia while carrying it up the stairs) turns out not to be full of books (as I thought it was) but all sorts of junk. There were books in there but mostly it was a big pile of zines from a few years ago and bags full of cassettes. I had just figured I lost all this stuff in one of my thousand moves in the past couple of years. I haven't seen looked at the stuff in this box since at least 1999.

The best thing I found was a note left for me by a girl I was dating (kinda) before I moved to Austin. She had come by while I was gone after we'd had a phone conversation in which I was being all pissy and weird (as I was and still am apt to do - especially with her since we were only kinda dating meaning she was seeing someone else at the same time.) Anyhow, it was a nice little note inundated with her pervasive optimism that still makes me smile. I'm glad to know that at least at some point I was the recipient of notes like that.

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Have I ever mentioned on here that in addition to do solo stuff as The Wisdom Teeth I also play guitar in a band called The Soft Set. We had band practice last night. I've really gotten so that I loath band practices (in general, not just with the soft set.) They are, however, a unavoidable evil if you plan on playing show ever. This wasn't too bad. It was short and we worked on new songs. I think we're going to do some recording a week from saturday. I wish I could convince them that digital recording is a bad, bad idea even if its free (or close to it.) Bands with guitars and drums and singers should always go to tape. If you got sequencers and a drum machine, digital is fine but somehow it manages to squeeze the life out of standard band performances every time.

I was outside reading during my break when a storm front rolled in. When I stepped outside it was perfectly clear and within a few minutes a huge, dark cloud had moved in overhead. Lightning then thunder that came first from my right then moved around to my left. A cool but strong breeze felt wonderful. Finally slow drops made it through the trees onto my head. Moving under the eves to continue reading, I watched the whole sky turn dark.

ha, I put a footnote on a blog. somehow that cracks me up.

At work I have daily respites from the mudane office life of computers and meetings and training classes, blah blah. Someone, somehwere along the line was thoughtful enough to have included several little courtyards in the design of the building (i'm sure they were originally designed for smokers during the 60's or 70's but they are now split 50-50.) Anyhow, during breaks and lunch I head outside for some sunshine and fresh air (well, close enough considering the interstate is around 150 feet away.)

Sometimes I just sit with my head back and nap for 5 or 10 minutes. Sometimes I just sit and watch the squirells dart around. Mostly I pull up a chair, put my feet up on a bench and read for 15 or 20 minutes in between doses of flourescent light at my desk. I think I'd go crazy without some brief timeouts from the day. Its not like I have a high pressure job or something but I can't for the life of me figure out how people survive office life.

I read all sorts of things while at work (many of which get me quizzical looks from my co-workers.) Currently I'm working my way through a biography of writer John Fante called Full Of Life by Stephen Cooper. You can't imagine how many times in the past two weeks I've explained who he is. Not that I have some elitist view ("oh, you don't know who John Fante is, well..."), just the opposite, but I am by nature a rather shy person and somehow carrying a book around makes everyone feel like they have to say something or comment and then I, in turn, feel like an elitist when I explain why I'm reading whatever it is I'm reading.* Maybe I'd be ok with it if it was ever some cute girl but, alas, it never is. Even better would be a cute girl who already knew who he was and had something interesting to say about him. Girls who are smarter or better read than I am kill me (so long they've never set foot in graduate school - at least in a liberal arts field.)

What's my point you might ask? What is ever the point with these type of things? (these type things being blogs) Well, since you asked, I think the main point is vainty but I can live with that.

*[for the record, John Fante was an author who mainly wrote autobiographical fiction in 1930's Los Angeles all about being a first generation poor Italian immigrant. After publishing three books and several short stories he became a hack script writer in Hollywood. He was out of print for the rest of his life and wasn't re-published until (ug) Charles Bukowski began to champion his works in the late 70's. His best known work is the terrific Ask the Dust but I prefer Wait Until Spring, Bandini about his childhood in and around Denver. How's that for a brief book report?]

I have this problem. You see, I'm fascinated by bands that disappear. I bring this up cause as I was wasting time at work looking around the internet, I got to wondering what was up with East River Pipe. They've put out several good records on Merge but their last, The Gasoline Age, has been a few years back. That record is freakin' great. I can't find anything regarding what's going on with them, though. Merge just reissued an old album but what I wanna know is when the new one is coming my way. The Merge website says nothing new. Hmmm. What's with them Merge artists. Neutral Milk Hotel...

Speaking of Merge bands, the Radar Brothers are playing tonight at the mercury but that's not really important. What IS important is that Monroe Mustang are opening up for them. Monroe Mustang are a great Austin band that plays out about as often as the world cup occurs or halley's comet. The only times I've ever seen 'em was during two consecutive SXSW performances last year and the year before that (2001 & 2000.) A rare week night show attendance is in the works for myself I do believe (hey, you wouldn't go out to shows that start at 11pm and end at 2am all the time if you had to be at work at 7:30 in the morning, either.)

It occurs to me that I mentioned my giving Ben a Wisdom Teeth cd to take on tour with him but haven't mentioned the cd before. The Wisdom Teeth is my new "band" that I finally have gotten around to working on.

This past winter I got down to the business of writing a bunch of songs for an upcoming and unidentified "project." My old band (the olive group) had pretty much broken up or was at least in its death throes and I was trying like hell to figure out what I was going to do. I decided to bypass the whole band bullshit and just start writing and recording and worry about performing at some later date. Well, after writing all winter and spring I felt confident enough (and actually had enough money) to go record some songs. I chose to go to my friend Matt's studio, The Echo Lab, up in Denton. Besides there being a great studio there, my boy Kevin, who had agreed to drum for me on the record, lives up there.

So I went up for the weekend during June and churned out five songs. Kevin drummed and sulked (in the inimitable kevin way.) Surprise multi-instrumentalist Howard killed me with great near-improvised parts on melodica, mandolin and lap steel guitar. Matt engineered and regaled us with stories of being The New Year's sound guy at the recent All Tomorrow's Parties festival in England (I was suitable impressed.) Anyhow, the record turned out a-ok and now I'm waiting til I have some fresh benjamins in my pocket so I can have 50 or so copies made to unleash on every record label I ever thought would be fun to work with. Any questions?

Good lord, I feel like I'm clawing my way through cotton to be awake this morning. Maybe I should start drinking coffee cause dr pepper just isn't doing it today.

I went to emo's on saturday and saw swearing at motorists. They kick my ass every time I see them (him.) Adding to my amazement was the fact the main swearing guy Dave showed up in town on thursday to start his tour solo style, met some guy at a fourth of july party and he was drumming with him by friday for the houston and austin shows. It was great and the fill-in drummer rocked. Too bad he won't be on the rest of the tour. The best part was that it brought me out of the pissy mood I was in all weekend for the 45 mintues they played. Isn't that what great rock and roll is supposed to do? Make you forget everything except a great song with a good beat?

I gave Ben from Post-Parlo Recs/ Western Keys a couple of copies of the Wisdom Teeth record to take on tour with 'em (he's out for few weeks playing solo with swearing at motorists and okkervil river.) He said he'd drop one with the Secretly Canadian / Jajagwar Records guys in Indiana when they stop there. Within a few weeks my unabashed assault on every label I can think of will begin. Better to start with friend handing one off in person.

On sunday I went to the folk's house in Temple to get some of my junk out of their garage which has been sitting there since my house burned down last september. I mostly got boxes of books. Sometimes I swear I'll be cleaning soot off of stuff for the rest of my life. Now I just need to get some book shelves. Piles on the floor and on my dresser just ain't cutting it anymore. Many of these books were ones I bought in college that have been boxed up for a few years. I really was a pretenscious reader back in the day. Way too much Camus and Hesse and Miller. Blah (except for Hesse.)

PS I added a link to Naughty Secretary Club which is an online zine/jewelry shop for which I occasionally write record reviews. My friend Jennifer runs it. Go read some stuff in the zine then buy something stylish in the jewelry shop.

Ah-ha. So it does work! So its a lazy hung over saturday. Just got back from scouring a couple of used bookstores. The only thing I got was some old paperbacks by the british writer Michael Moorcock . Moorcock kicks ass cause he used to perform and write songs with Hawkwind at the high of his career in the 70's. Plus he now lives somewhere near Austin.

I went out to a party last night. When I first moved to Austin I was amazed that parties like this existed. I felt like I was in some movie - you know bands and dj's and people with dyed black hair and tight black pants. I don't make it out to those kinds of things as much as I used to. Of course I was 23 then and I'm 27 now. After the initial fascination wore off I realized I always found myself standing in a corner talking to the same people I'd be hanging out with anyway. So now I ration my party going and have a much better time for it. I see people I haven't seen in months, drink free beer, make fun of peoples' fashions (being the height of style myself, you know.) Last night was good. It ended with a drunken 5 person dance party to Sheila E's "glamorous life."

This sucks. For some reason I haven't been able to post to the blog all day. I keep trying but it gives me error messages. Maybe these will show up later.

Somehow a long post I was just working disappeared. Oh well, no since in repeating myself, it wasn't exactly anything groundbreaking. The important points are these...

1> There are a plethora of shows this saturday. I, myself, will be at emo's early on for western keys, okkervil river and swearing at motorists before heading over to the mercury for those peabodys.

2> I've added a link over on the right to the Future of Music Coalition which is a non-profit dedicated to giving a voice to the independant musician. They can explain it better than I ever could. Go visit 'em and sign the petition.

I did my first ever bit of html stuff this evening in order to get those links on the right side of the page working. I'm damn proud of myself if I might say so. By way of explanation (of the links...)

The Economist is an excellent magazine that I've just recently become addicted to. It covers, well, economics and politics and how they intertwine. I quite enjoy it. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of partisan slant on it either which makes me happy. The online version restricts a bunch of the articles but still has great content.

Andrew Sullivan is a gay,catholic political writer. Despite my being neither gay nor catholic, he's fast becoming one of my fave opinion writers. This site has his blog and links to articles and columns he's written.

Phillip K. Dick is the fantastic science fiction writer upon whose books the movies Minority Report, Total Recall and Blade Runner have been based. He did alot of drugs in the 60's then had a breakdown in the 70's the died in the 80's. His writing consistantly blows my mind and entertains me. This site has articles, a bibliography, interviews and tons of info.

Samuel R. Delany is likewise a great science fiction writer. He's probably my favorite author right now. Read his books. Now.

ok so I totally stole this link from some other blog I found. This is a D+D personality test. Turns out I'm a chaotic good half-elf ranger cleric (follower of solonor thelandria).

What do you know, I think this is going to work (from work.) I was kinda afraid cause we have some weird network security (understandably so, being gov't computers and all.)

So we're having a fourth of july lunch here at work but since its a hot dog lunch I'm going to have to go out due to my recent return to the dark world of vegetarianism. This must be the tenth time I have stopped eating meat but I'm not really having any problems with it so far. The main drawback (and its a pretty big one) is that I really love the the taste of meat (especially bar-b-que.) I think the reason its going so well it that I don't have any illusions that this is a permanent thing. I'm approaching from an almost fasting (or lint if I was catholic) like way. More like I'm doing just so I can know I can (like the alcoholic who quits drinking for a week just to prove they aren't an alocoholic.) And, besides, I tend to eat better (and hopefully lose a bit of weight) when I'm vegetarian but if that was really the issue I'd stop drinking beer and exercise.

Ok, so I have a blog up but don't have much to say for the first day. I'm not quite sure why I've decided to do this. There's something very high school sophmore english about this whole idea. I think maybe it has something to do with killing time while I'm at work (though I set this up at home.) I hope I can get it to work correctly while at work.

Tonight was a pretty average evening. Sat around watching TV til around 10pm when my friend Hunter came by to do some cooking. He lives in a weird little single room at an almost boarding house type place that doesn't have a kitchen. He's leaving to teach English in Yemen for six months in a few weeks. I admire him for doing it but you couldn't pay me enough to travel to the mid-east these days. But then again he's much better prepared than I ever could be having traveled far and wide (years in India and months in Thailand/Indonesia and that's just what I know of off hand.) So talk revolved around that until my roommate put on his promo bootleg of the new Queens of the Stone Age album and from then on it was music talk all night. First albums ever bought were the order of the evening. Mine was Shout at the Devil by Motley Crue. Hunter's was the Ghostbusters soundtrack. I can't remember Joe's right offhand.

so I'm feeling rather computer savvy today. let's see if I can mess this up.