I think perhaps I have been a bit remiss in not updating this thing as much as I should I have. I will try my best to keep it up to date.

Tonight I went to jackalope for Hope's birthday celebration. It was a nice night. I can never tell if I like that place or hate it. They have a pretty cool layout with lots of booths but the clientele can be a bit snotty and sometimes it takes forever to get a drink. That having been said, I had a good time. Talked to lots of friends. Drank a lot of Miller High Life $2 drafts - I'll be feeling that tomorrow. Afterwards there was a party over on the east side that I quite enjoyed. Kinda low-key, I think the main part of the party was earlier.

We had our 5th annual scorpio party last saturday and apparently it was a hit. About halfway through the night I got kinda claustrophobic from all the drunk people in my house and retired to my room to drink screwdrivers with a couple of old friends and consequently missed a large part of the party. I remember some booty shakin

dancing but then the next thing I know everyone was gone.

More on California later. I will finish the story (however uneventful it may have been).

Good god, peoples! I drank so much on wed for my bday night out that I didn't get outta bed until 6pm on thursday! And when I did my hands went numb. I thought I was having a stroke. Thanks everyone who came out. It was tons o' fun and I managed to almost completely forget large parts of the evening. Stayed in last night (fri) for some much needed down time.

OK, so I went to All Tomorrow's Parties in Long Beach, Cali last week. I was tagging along with Those Peabodys as "crew" for the trip. We started out on wed and drove to El Paso for the first show. Andra! was in town visiting so we hooked up with her at the show. It was nice to see a friendly face the first night out of town. The show was ok or whatever and then we ended up staying at Mike and Vanessa's place from whose back porch you can look out over the border into Juarez. That town is huge. We were going to try to head over for a bit but never got a chance due to time constraints. They were super cool and nice and had a puppy pitbull which still scared me a bit. We ate at a place called Lucy's which had great tex-mex breakfast food. Yummy.

Drove to Phoenix. Got super drunk in the van at the show with Andy and Tony who were caravanning to LA with us. They were back on the east coast on some family business and stopped by Austin and then went with us back to their home in LA (where stayed for a couple of nights). Parts I remember from this night - 1) Andy telling the story of how he shit himself in Mexico due to a mean case of Montezuma's Revenge and the lack of proximity of a bathroom 2) Andy convincing his cousin (who we were to crash with) to break a pool cue over his back at the freaky sports bar called Mardi Gras where we went after the show 3) The little speed freak guy who was dancing like a maniac at said bar - I thought he looked like a mini-Buck Dharma from BOC.

Woke up and puked out of the passenger window of the van on the way to and in the parking lot of a gas station. Long drive to LA (or so it seemed). Got to LA. Show was at Mr T's Bowl in the Highland Park neighborhood right near Tony's house. Show was good. Beer was expen$ive. Smuggled beer in our jackets into the bar. Peabodys rocked then Andy and Tony's group, 8-Bit, played. They all dress in silver fire suits to look like robots. They rap over pre-recorded hip-hop beats made from old nintendo sounds. Foul-mouthed robots rule. Party at the house afterwards til morning. Blurry. Mike Rod ran out of moisterizer. Tradgedy ensues.

Next day started ATP. More later. FYI this was written quickly and I'm sure only partly makes sense.

The trip was big fun. Saw lots of bands (though honestly, they're bands that play these things all the time), met tons of people. I'll have more details later.

I have to admit I was rather surprised by the election results. Just goes to show that if you really want to be president, don't let me vote for you. So far in presidential elections that I have actually voted in, I'm 0-2.

We're meeting up tonight for bday drinks (mine was monday but I was outta town). Come out to casino at 8pm or so if you are so inclined.

I keep reading and hearing things saying stuff like "Vote and be ready to march if we need to!" so in other words, democracy is great as long as our side wins. People in this town might be in for a big shock. It's the ultimate case of preaching to the choir and standing around telling each other how right we all are. A completly insular world. Another thing, if everyone does decide that the election was "stolen" and take to the streets with signs, do you really think that anyone will give a shit or that it will effect anything? If people really did "steal" the election, do you think they're going to care what a couple of hundred thousand (all over) stinky kids in the street protesting have to say? Street protests are the ultimate in self-delusion. They've never changed a thing. Not during Vietnam, not when all the anti-abortion people rally and not when the US went into Iraq. You might be able to make a case for civil rights but I don't think that really counts as they also had the federal govt on their side.

rant rant rant.

OK, I'm going to LA tomorrow for a week of rock & roll on a boat - tagging along with Those Peabodys to All Tomorrow's Parties. See you next week sometime.