It looks like in a few weeks I may be unemployed (at least temporarily.) Usually I work until Sept or Oct but this year may be different which would really suck. There are tons of rumors running around the place right now but they don't have to tell us until five days beforehand (what happened to two weeks notice?) So anyway, come mid-July I may be outta here for a while. Or at least until it gets mega-busy and they call us back.

Sounds like a good time to get my satanic t-shirt designs business going.

I was rereading some of the stuff on here and despite my best efforts, this blog has become whiner-central. It's a big part of my personality. I try to hold it in check but sometimes it breaks through - in life and in blog. So sorry. Shit is good these days. It could be better but it could be a hell of a lot worse. I don't want to spend my time whining about life, I want to spend my time loving life and having fun and running around and being retarded.

And for fucks sake, will someone go watch the new Batman movie with me?

OK, so it is officially Hot As Fuck. This means staying indoors. My car has no a/c. So when contemplating a trip somewhere, one really has to think if it's worth the effort. My reluctance to drive in the summer balances out with the higher gas prices to make a nice middle ground. Eh, the heat is only going to get worse. Hello July! Hello August!

"Water, water everywhere / Nor any drop to drink" After going out for drinks with Hope last night I've decided that this should be the official slogan of my love life. Sad, I know, to even think such things but fuck, man, I'm working on it (not referring to her - roommates - even ex-roommates are off limits.)

She's going to Scotland in August and invited me along and I might just do it, work and money permitting. She apparently got some kind of artist grant from the Scottish government and she's using it for airfare. I would love to go. I'm gonna see if I can work it out. She's going to Edinburgh but I really want to hit Glasgow so maybe I can break off for a day or two. I don't know, it's all very sketchy. I was also asked to go on tour with some friends' band but tour in July and August in a van w/no AC isn't any - I've done it before.

Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land. . . . . .

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

heh. full text of press release here. yes, it's a little goofy and on the weirdo side of libertarian but it's funny none the less.

Goddamn, I wrote a lot yesterday. Are you impressed? I'm impressed.

So last night I decided to face my enemy and cook the dinner (potato curry and raita) that I started on friday night but didn't finish due to an unfortunate mishap with a knife (also, all the veggies were on the cusp of being not-so-good.) So I got home from work and set about it. As I was chopping stuff I started calling folks because I realized that I would have a crapload of food and no one to eat it with. Just as the food was getting done (it took a full hour and a half!) people started to get there. We had a nice family dinner with everyone sitting around the living room. I thought it turned out great and everyone seemed to dig it so "yay" me. I was worried because I'd never made any kind of curry before. Dinner was followed by a game of boggle.

I know there is stuff going on this week, I just can't seem to remember what it is...

It was quite a weekend. Friday night I had planned to make a nice, quiet dinner for my friend Angie and myself. I had gone to the store and bought everything I needed to make potato curry and raita. So I was back at home chopping some fresh mint for the raita when, like the genius I am, I managed to chop off a nice chunk of my fingertip. It took me a minute to figure out the hell had happened but sure enough the side of my left middle fingertip was gone and in it's place a neat little divot. I ran it under water while trying to figure out how bad it was and when it kept on bleeding and bleeding, I decided to go to the ER. Luckily I live about a block from a hospital so I wrapped my finger in a paper towel and walked over there.

After I checked in I called Angie to inform her that dinner was off because I'd had a bit of an accident. She, very sweetly, offered to come an sit w/me in the ER. So I sat there and bled. Angie showed and we sat there while I bled more. Utilizing my vague boy scout memories, I applied direct pressure and kept my hand elevated. Finally, after about two and half hours I got in. By then the bleeding had pretty much stopped so all they did was wrap it up in send me home. There was no way to do stitches (how could you stitch up your fingertip?) They recommended a tetanus shot which I declined because, well, I hate getting shots. I feel safe about this, though. I keep my knife very clean.

You never realize how much you use your left middle finger until you can't anymore. Mainly, I'm unable to play guitar until it heals which majorly sucks. Bass and I can manage, but not guitar. Typing - also manageable but a bit difficult.

Saturday was quite memorable, also, although with less blood. My roommate, Kevin, has been out on tour with Spoon being a roadie/equipment guy. Saturday they all got back in town and there was a big homecoming show at Stubb's. So after initially telling me he couldn't get me in, we decided just to try the most direct route and have me sneak in with him by walking behind him with his official badge. It worked fine. Got me to the dressing room for a few free beers. Then I got paranoid about getting thrown out and managed to convince Ben, spoon's manager and my old record label guy, to get me an actual pass for the show.

The show itself was great. I've never been a huge Spoon fan but they've grown on me greatly. I really dig the new record. Before they played, we got to see the Clientele who were just awesome and who also, earlier in the day, broke Kevin's pinky finger while throwing around a nerf football.

So after the show managed once again to get to the little dressing room area which got crowded very quickly. By this time I'd been drinking for 4 or 5 hours so when I was handed a bottle of maker's mark I was quite happy to start guzzling out of it. Not the best idea I ever had. Pretty soon I had to get out of there.

Went over to beerland to see an old friend/bandmate who was in town. Greg was there, too, so we had a brief band reunion except for our pothead-turned-pcp-weirdo drummer. I barely remember being there. Ug. Then over to jackalope to meet up with a bunch of friends. It was there I made a complete fool of myself with a certain girl. I was utterly embarrassed and upset. I turned around and walked straight out of the place without any goodbyes. I totally flipped for a minute there. I drove myself home (there's a good idea!) and sat there steaming for a bit, drinking water to help with the inevitable hangover. Lucky for me, Leroy (our old roommate who just moved back to town) had left his bike at our place and he showed up very shortly after I got home so he was the recipient of all my venting. Poor guy.

So that was the weekend in review. I still feel like a dumbass for friday night (the finger cutting incident) and for saturday night (the me opening my drunk mouth incident.) This is now officially dubbed the dumbass weekend.

Watched the Spurs game with a bunch of folks at a bar last night. It was great - everyone yelling and clapping and jumping up and down when they won. The good times went on a bit too long, though, and I'm afraid I'm totally tuckered out today.

I'm making potato curry for dinner tonight. I've never made it before. Hopefully it will be yummy.

Did I mention I'm tired?

Note to self: If you're gonna go to bars and not drink, don't drink cokes all night because then you won't be able to sleep and you'll have fucked up half-dream/half-hallucinations all night.

When I walked into Trudy's for lunch just a bit ago, "Unfaithful Servant" by the Band was playing. How often does that happen? I love that song. I'm pissed that I can't have it on my ipod at work because when my cds were stolen out of my car last year both cds by the Band that I had were among them. I have them on vinyl but that doesn't really help me at work. I've almost rebought them on cd a couple of times. Maybe now I'll get around to it.

I'm going meet up with Andra at jackalope tonight to watch game 7 of Spurs v. Pistons tonight. I'm prepared to be disappointed, just not expecting it.

"I once had a dream so I packed and split for the city. I soon found out that my lonely life wasn't so pretty." - That's Not Me

Brian Wilson & Tony Asher may very well be the best songwriting team in history. I know everyone's all about Smile these days but, goddamn, Pet Sounds really is perfection. The combination of those melodies and music with those lyrics just kill me every time.

I had no luck at the bookstore during lunch. I'll just have to dive into that pile of abandoned books on my nightstand. I'm also considering rereading all my Neal Stephenson books (especially Cryptonomicon.)

I need distraction (hence the books and basketball.) I've found myself getting all worked up and upset or whatever in situations where I have no real reason or justification. Just fucked up frustration, I guess. I suppose it's classic passive/aggressive shit - I don't do anything (or not enough) and then get pissed/upset/jealous/frustrated when things don't go my way. It just gets old.

I can't believe the Spurs didn't pull out a win. Sheesh. Hell, they probably would've won if Duncan aka Mr Sedative had made 50% of his free throws. Well, there's always Thursday. (ha, as if)

I'm settling in for a nice, chilled out week. I slept a whole eight hours last night. I woke up before my alarm went off. Of course I rolled over and slept until the third snooze but the fact remains I could've gotten up early and eaten breakfast or ((gasp)) taken a shower before work. You know, if I wanted to.

I need something new to read. I mean, I have tons of books that I haven't read but none of them are having much of a pull on me right now. I'm splitting time between the Russian Girl by Kinglsey Amis and Loving by Henry Green. Hmm. I dunno. Neither one is really grabbing me. I'm gonna hit half-price during lunch and see if I can find something interesting.

That's it! I'm pulling a Choo. Hello, wagon!




(at least until this weekend)

I was in a really bad, rundown place yesterday. Feeling absolutely like shit. I hit on the perfect way to make everything better, though. I tuned my guitar down to D, turned the gain all the way up, turned it up loud, and wrote metal songs all afternoon. Sadly they're all but forgotten by today. I was inspired, as I am every other week or so, to start a metal band. I played in one in high school that never got around to playing out or having a name but damn it was fun. I've been trying to my favorite Testament album on cd but I'm not having any luck (yes, I know I could order it online - I just don't like to). I did, however, find the Forced Entry album on vinyl right before sound exchange closed.

show sat @ 7pm

Shadows and Reflections
The Innocent
and Disney Girls
at Mrs. B's two blocks east of I-35 on 6th st.
about 7 to 11 saturday
all free except beer

because I was ill informed, I've been telling folks that we're playing at 8pm. we (disney girls, that is) are playing @ 7PM

xoxo
dave

Hey! Let's start a band, make a record real quick like, and go on tour this fall! For reals!

boredom prevails
three things via receptionista

Three screen names that you have had: lavenga, tholivegrp, the_wisdom_teeth (I used set my emails according to whatever band I was in)

Three things you like about yourself: I look good wearing a tie (but who doesn't), I'm not overly critical of everyone I meet, the more drunk I get - the more suave I feel

Three things you don't like about yourself: the more drunk I get - the more suave I feel, I have no chin except the fake one created by having a beard, I don't take criticism well

Three parts of your heritage: welsh, irish, french

Three things that scare you: girls who talk too fast, highway driving, prison

Three of your everyday essentials: dr pepper, underwear, beer

Three things you are wearing right now: black chucks, baby blue jeans, green t shirt, green hoodie

Three of your favorite songs: ain't no sunshine by bill withers, this will be our year by the zombies, situation vacant by the kinks (obviously these change daily)

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months: playing drums in a band, traveling alone, casual dating

Three things I want in a relationship: fun, serious discussions of serious matters, to make fun of people having serious discussions of serious matters (including ourselves)

Three things you can't do without: guitar, books, drinking buddies

Three places you want to go on vacation: NYC, Scotland, Mexico (non-border town)

Three things you just can't do: sing harmony, get past page 50 in ulysses (thursday is bloomsday!), get a steady girlfriend

Three kids' names: huh? what I want to name my kids? you don't get to hear that until I'm super drunk with you on a second date

Three things you want to do before you die: grow a vegetable garden, play a show @ cbgb's, write a novel

Three Celeb crushes: Kirsten Dunst, Rosario Dawson, Colin Farrell

You know, I tried to get off to an energetic, rocking morning by listening to the new High On Fire when I started work this morning but I just couldn't take it. I can't handle the metal this early in the morning. I've now switched to John Fahey and things have calmed down quite a bit.

I know I'm like a year behind everyone (as usual) but the newest deerhoof album is freakin great.

Shit! Howl's Moving Castle only played once at one theater all weekend. I know that it has to start playing more widely in a week or two. It must be one of those limited opening things.

weekend = eh. The cookout at Andra's was very nice. So was watching the Spurs last night.

Disney Girls are (is?) playing again this coming saturday, june 18. Details are sketchy. Looks like it'll be at Mrs B's (?) over on the east side of 6th street w/Shadows & Reflections (and possibly more.) Early show - we play at 7:30, I think. I'll post more accurate info as I get it.

Goddamn! I can't fucking wait to see Howl's Moving Castle!

It's been kind of an odd week. Work has been crappy (except today seems ok so far.) Most of the rest of the time has been spent sleeping, it seems. I did go out wednesday and since I had already decided to call in sick on thursday, I went a bit overboard. It was a fun night, though. In the early evening I went over to Hope's and we sat in her pool talking shit and drinking cheap beer. Later we got cleaned up and went to the red fez. I stopped going there a while ago due to the fact that it's way expensive and I never really have fun there. This week was cool, though. All the waterloo people were there because they'd just played a softball game vs bookpeople. My old roommate Leroy, who just moved back to town, was there and that was the first I'd seen him.

Thursday started out rough due to the excesses of the night before. It worked out great, though, because I sat in bed all day in my underwear watching movies and reading and napping. I didn't put on any pants until I went to play kickball. Despite a wicked hangover, that's the best sick day I've had in forever. Later that night I hung around downtown watching the basketball game and being tired.

Damn. Trudy's was a good idea as long as the mexi-martini kept me tipsy (about 40 minutes) but now I'm back to reality and I'm post-drink tired. I think the rest of this week may get the treatment from my favorite misheard lyric, "call-in-sick vacations" (sadly the real lyric is "car sick vacations", not nearly as good.)

Ok, the post-lunch world looks much nicer through trudy's-tinted glasses.

Yeah, Jimador; no salt. Thanks. Ahhhh, that's better.

I swear one of these days I'm going to walk out of this shithole and never look back.

Also, last night the odd, greek door guy at the sidebar told me that I look like Mao Tse-Tung in my id photo. Um... ok.

The show last night went surprisingly well. There were some folks there and, besides playing everything super fast, we played pretty well. It was a short set due to the short notice of the show.

The rest of the weekend was nice if a bit blurry. Friday night I met everyone downtown despite having to fight through 10,000 bikers everywhere. After getting all sweaty and nasty standing around in the humidity downtown, Karen, Andra, Andrea, Isaac and I all went swimming at Karen's new apartments. It was pretty much perfect. I loved it. Swimming at night during the crappy summer months is the best.

Saturday, after a long evening at the bar, Choo called me at 4:30am from Seattle (2:30 west coast time.) I was still up but it made for a funny conversation as I was sleepy as hell but still drunk and she was fresh from the bar loud drunk. Haha. It sounds like they're all having tons of fun up there. She kept talking about the bartender that she was trying to get to go to the art show or something but it didn't really make sense. Then something about how walking the to the bar was like GTA? Hell, I don't know.

Ok, hello workweek./

I'm like the television stereotype of a woman who, when they're feeling a bit down, go out and buy lots of shoes except that I, not being a stereotypical television woman but, in fact, a stereotypical real life guy, go out and buy books. To that end, during lunch today I spent some money that I don't really have at Barnes & Noble. I came back to work the proud owner of the new translation of Proust's Swann's Way and a nice copy of Anthony Powell's The Fisher King.

Ahh, there. I feel better already.

some observations.

1) I'm a freakin' moron with no decision making abilities.

2) Jimmy Cliff is amazing.

3) Things need to change.

4) They probably won't.

5) Maybe a drink at lunch will make the day go faster/better. (Is it wrong to drink before noon on a weekday?)

Jeez, I feel like I've been going non-stop forever. I need me some downtime. Maybe tonight I'll get to relax for a bit. Last night was straight from work to band practice. After practice I watched a movie for about a half hour before I was ready to pass out. There's more practices the next few days as we try to get our collective shit together for the show on sunday. It would be nice if we would practice once or twice a week for a few months instead of five times right before the show.

Hey folks, the new-ish band that I'm in is playing at beerland this sunday, june 4. We even have a name now so look out for disney girls at beerland this weekend. More details coming when, and if, I get them.