"what could be greener?"

you know spring is over
when you go outside
and think to yourself
"what could be greener?"

song titles

"have a seat in the catapult"
"the perpetual postponement of the pragmatists' picnic"
"you know what's best for me"
"the tyranny of white space"

"in the android nursery"
"i'm going to sleep at sunset"
"i pray to scary jesus"
"death ray wedding"

"bathing in the hated springs of middle school paranoia"
"the devil fails the tickle test
"(he's) a man made of theories"
"painting with a cleft palette"

"preaching from the hip" or "preach first and ask forgiveness later"
"sunlight smacks the breeze"
"drinking in the river"
"(we are) brothers of the angle"

band names

DC punk band name: "the known unknowns"

band name: "the unlike colors"
debut album: "wash with unlike colors

song title / lyrics

"when the champagne of night comes on (i'll be gone, gone, gone)"

when the tutor paces by the sleepy ol' clock tower
when the whispering stream is stripped of all its melodies
when the cluttered attic rustling collides into a song

when the champagne of night comes on i'll be gone

when the champagne of night comes on
i'll be gone, gone, gone

when an open window pours steam into the vagrant air
when the switchman peeks to see a wound that isn't there
when a shapeless figure curls to breach the sorrow in the calm

when the champagne of night comes on i'll be gone

when the champagne of night comes on
i'll be gone, gone, gone

i've seen your face before, yet haven't found the way
to articulate the things words can't convey
and though the evening shadows may convince me that it's wrong

when the champagne of night comes on i'll be gone

when the champagne of night comes on
i'll be gone, gone, gone

the secret cove

How was yr weekend?

I took e.w. to the secret cove, and we saw a blue heron, and a weird black duck-type-thing that swam under water looking for fish, and then flew away.

Where's the secret cove?

all the way at the end of the lake among all the lilly pads and wilderness, where the brook empties into settling ponds, which in turn form a stream that feeds the lake. we took the canoe and quietly drifted into the majestic ambiance of my youth that is the secret cove.

correspondence

so, i had someone from iran search for "rap names" and get to the song blog. yes, i play a small part in the democratization of a rogue nuke state.

amazing

"bling crosby" was the rap name.

yes!

it wont be long now before we are detained!

thought

"i am weaving a tapestry of her decline from a glossary of cave terms"

(from subsoil karren- unfinished poem. i'll like it better when i read it in a year. right now it's like a mostly-solved rubik's cube that one casts away, disgusted, into the siberia of a dank basement desk drawer)

song titles

"where x = the saddest orphan dream"
"recipes from beyond the grave"
"night terrors is just ggreegg blowing in yr ear"

I had a dream I was driving late at night with my dad. We were going to a hotel, but first we were going to stop at the house (the house where i grew up, not my current home). while we drove, my dad was trying to tie his shoe; the car door was open, and he was half way in and out of the car. the car was moving; but he was still standing, which was somehow fine. it was surreal. anyway, we were heading down the main road in town, looking for the turn onto our street. I saw two armed army officers, in fatigues, holding machine guns, at the side of the road. they were manning a checkpoint or roadblock; but they didn't flinch as we enetered the intersection. it seemd as though they had just opened up, but were still standing around keeping watch. we saw what looked like a street fair or parade taking place on our street, in the process of dispersing. we couldn't get through, and we were still two blocks from my house...

one damn dollar

Pretty uneventful day today. I didn't get much accomplished at work; but there wasn't much to do so I don't feel bad. I booked my travel arrangements to Louisville KY for next week. I'm flying in and out in the same day. It'll be a pain in the ass; but it will also mean that I will not leave my wife alone to but both kids to bed for an extra night. I'm sure as hell not doing it to save money. F that. Today I wa son the phone with the travel department, and I asked the girl to book me for a full-size rental car. She said she could only book an intermediate size, that it was company policy. I told her mid-size cars are too damn small for a tall person. She wouldn't budge. Who cares, I'll upgrade myself anyway. But get this- the difference in price between the midsize and full size car...? One damn dollar. What a joke. So anyway, on the lighter side i'm looking forward to travelling without a suitcase for once. I can skip the baggage carousel for once. I still have to bring two carry-on bags: one for my laptop and another for equipment & presentation materials, etc.

Tonight at my in-law's I was chasing e.w. trying to feed him chicken, while he ran around dragging the vacuum cleaner. After that, we went outside and played catch. This didn't involve a baseball and mits, if that's what you're picturing. it was actually a hackey sack that looks like a football. It wasn't even "catch", really. No one was catching. you could say we were playing "throw". I'm working on his over-hand baseball throw. He can do the two-handed basketball chest pass; but one-handed he's completely lost. The ball seems to go in a completely different direction each time. I'm ashamed to say, I was getting frustrated trying to get him to undstand the concept of throwing over-hand. I didn't realize it until he said "I'm sorry daddy" and tried to give me a hug. One thing about being a father of a toddler, it's hard to catch yourself treating them like an adult- saying usless things like "look at me", "watch daddy", or "pay attention". It's easy to fall into it, once they start talking and listening, etc. I snapped out of it and tried to think creatively. I moved his arm through the motion and said "it's like casting" (as in, a fishing pole). His face lit up. It worked, for a moment at least. He threw it. After that I just tried to do whatever he wanted and have fun with it.

On the car ride home, there was jazz piano music on the radio. I asked e.w., "what kind of music is this?" He said: "piano". "Good", I said. "The instrument is a piano. What kind of music is the piano playing?" He said: "violin". He was guessing randomly. He can name insruments, and also name song genres- but he gets the two mixed up. I assured him: "No, you were right- it's a piano. i't a piano playing jazz music". "Jazz music", he said... You never realize how odd it can be to explain something you take for granted, until you explain it to a child. Anyway, after that, bath and bedtime were the ususal. He sat on my lap and we read "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", a book my father read to me a hundred times. I tucked him in, kissed him goodnight, and set off for an hour's worth of lawn watering waiting for me outside.

While writng this I got up to go feed a.j. a bottle. It was the first time I saw him since this morning (my wife came home and put him to bed while I was bathing e.w.). I wanted to have light on and play/talk with him after feeding him- but that's a night-feeding no-no. Instead, I changed his diaper and put him in the crib, with just a little kiss on the head. Either way I miss him and I want to just play with him. Now that he's 4 months old, he has this blossoming personality and this infectious smile- this obious need of and love for attention. I love it. It's incredible.

coffee

the story is: when i got in the car to go to the bank, i put on the A/C, cuz it's like 90 degrees, and i left. when i got back in the car after the bank, the car was still cool. i looked at my 1/5 full coffee and thought, what the heck- i need post-lunch caffeine. lo and behold, when i sipped the coffee, i was surprised to find it was quite warm- just right as a matter of fact. cool car, hot coffee. the exact opposite of my usual afternoon leftover coffee routine.

eyes hurt

my eyes hurt again today, so right form the start i am wearing my
corny reading glasses here at work. what can you do?

on the way to work today i impatiently skipped through song after song on my iPod, looking for the good warm summer morning driving music. i can't say that i found anything quite right. 1000 songs isn't enough? i think iPod's make you more impatient and picky. back when i had my red hatchback in college, i had this evil CD player with a detachable face; it would only accept certain CD's- the rest it would spit out. so when i got something in there and playing, i stuck with it for days or weeks at a time. i would just suffer through whatever songs were on there, afraid to disturb the player by even skipping tracks. CD's like GBV's "same place the fly got smashed" and "sandbox", and Faith No More's "king for a day, fool for life" and "album of the year" will forever be burned into my memory after listening to them 1000 times each, day after day for longs periods of time, serenading me as drove around rt. 18, 287, etc. gone are those days. gone, gone, gone.

there's only 1 alice

i'm not sure what this site is all about, but the pictures are cool- and there are alot of them. enjoy!

time to fly

So here I am in the airport in Cincinnati. I just had to call my wife and give her the bad news. The plane will be delayed and we’re not going anywhere for a couple of hours. She wasn’t happy, but what can you do. I told her I would get home as soon as I can, and she said just to get home safe. It felt nice to hear that.

I should have known what was in store when we left yesterday; this trip has been jinxed from the start. The day started out hectic. In the morning, things were tense at home- as they often are when I’m going away on a business trip. I am stressed out getting ready to travel and thinking of work stuff; and my wife is stressed out at the thought of handling our household alone for however long I am gone. I got up at 6:00 and made coffee, and my wife fed the baby. Once coffee’d up, I did some little odds and ends, and then set off to get ready. I was just heading into the shower, when all of the sudden my wife came in with e.w.- it was potty training time again. Our plan lately is- as soon as he wakes up, we take him into the bathroom to get on the potty. This worked once before recently, and it was actually him who woke up and said he had to go. So we’re trying to encourage him now. I went ahead and she sat him down and started the pep talk. While I was showering, I could hear her negotiating with him. Since it was the morning, she wasn’t going to use chocolate. Instead she brought out a sheet of brand new stickers: little glow-in-the-dark planets, stars, moons, galaxies. He loved it. He wanted them. She took out a white sheet of paper, with the words “e.w.’s potty sheet”. She explained that he could stick one of the stickers on the sheet if he “made” in the potty. I was getting out of the shower at this point. He seemed to understand my wife’s offer, but it just wasn’t happening. He really wanted a sticker, though. He was talking about the different shapes and naming them. When I turned off the shower water, you could hear the baby had woken up. So my wife went to go tend to him and I took over with e.w.

It looked like it wasn’t going anywhere, but I talked with him a bit more. He was still talking about the stickers. I decided that it would probably be bad, and discouraging, if I took the stickers away and said “no stickers till you poo”, or whatever- so I explained that the little stickers were for “good trying”. This made him happy. He picked a little sticker and we stuck it on the sheet. Then that was that. The rest of the morning consisted of running around changing diapers while packing my bag and what not. While changing e.w. I explained to him that I would be getting on a plane to go on a business trip, but that I would be “back tomorrow”. He hugged me and said something like “I-I-I go to the plane with daddy….on a trip”. I hugged him back and said “aww. Honey, daddy has to go work. You’ll stay here with mommy and take care of your baby brother until I get home.” He seemed to accept this; but was not entirely satisfied. Later on when I kissed everyone goodbye I didn’t talk about flying again, I just let on like it was any other work morning.

the cock & bull

So when my colleague and I arrived at the CVG airport in Kentucky, it was early evening but hot and steamy like a sauna. We took an annoying little van to the AVIS car rental center. At the AVIS desk the man asked me if I wanted a purple PT Cruiser. I said: "Not that I don't want to be adventurous; but I really won't fit in it. I'll take the Impala, please." As we set off for the hotel, it started to rain a little. Half an hour later we arrived in the riverfront area of Covington right across the Ohio river from downtown Cincinnati. All the while we were scoping out the area restaurants. We had been delayed for about an hour back in Newark, due to the approaching storms; so I was hungry after not eating for about 7 hours (that is, if you don't count the racket ball-sized sandwich on the plane). We were not encouraged by what we saw: the hotel straddled a "White Castle". We got into the lobby to check in, and immediately started questioning the staff about nearby restaurants. We asked about Thai restaurants in particular. This is a force of habit of mine when I arrive in a new city; and it usually pans out. But Thai restaurants, in northern Kentucky? There are none, technically. There's one just one in the area, but it's on the Cincinnati side, across the river in Mt. Adams. It wasn't that far, but we didn't want to get involved in getting on the highway and getting lost. Plus, I planned on drinking- so the closer the better. We thought about copping out and walking to the nondescript riverfront bar & grill behind the hotel; but at this point something inside us yearned for something "local". They suggested the nearby "German Village", or MainStrasse Villiage, as it is actually called. They specifically suggested "Dee Felice", a fancy Cajun restaurant & jazz bar. That sounded about right. We hopped right back into the car and headed over. The sun was getting low in the sky, cooling off, with a light breeze; it felt nice to be outside. MainStrasse Village is a broad street 4 blocks long, with a grassy strip in the center with trees, benches, fountains, historic plaques, etc. But please don't picture the Main Street in Santa Monica or something like that, think: New Hope, PA. It'll be a cold day in Hell when they hold a farmer's market here. Restored 19th-century homes, kitschy shops, quirky restaurants, and authentic pubs. Not a Starbucks for light years. The many bikers we saw coming and going are not there for fresh produce; they want beer steins, bangers & mash, and authentic weapons and armor from Gothic Edge. They host things like the "Goettafest & River Raid Renaissance Festival". What more could you ask for? We drove around looking for a parking spot, and eventually found our way over to Dee Felice. We looked inside: nearly empty, white tablecloths, dimly lit. Not bad. We looked across the street. There was a rundown old pub, with many sidewalk tables, filled local-types, all drinking beer out of large mugs. Oh yeah. The Cock & Bull, has en amazing selection of random imported beers on tap. Sweet. I drank a couple of Red Legg Ale's. I took the waitresses recommendation and had the "award winning" fish & chips with cole slaw. It was amazing. As we drank and ate I learned my co-worker is the son of an iconic Polish political dissident writer, a figurehead among the anti-communists before and after the Soviet Union dissolved. Very interesting. After eating, we wandered over to a plaque at the center of the village, with the words "Slave Escape" in large letters. It was a Historical marker Dedicated to the Slave Escape and the Memory of Margaret Garner, inspiration for Beloved. I had no idea I was getting drunk at such an historic location. When I got back to the hotel we lugged in all our bags and went up to our rooms. I was half way through saying "goodnight" to my co-worker as the elevator door closed- a little slow from the travel and the beer. I arrived at my room and collapsed on the bed. I looked over and saw I had a balcony. I went out, to admire the view. Not bad. I looked down and saw the White Castle drive through; the line was 4 or 5 cars long. People lining up, in their not-quite-fancy convertibles, blasting whatever crappy popular music. Eager for the nasty, tiny sandwiches that are many times more inedible than what I had on the plane. Ridiculous.

off to cincinatti

last night we had chinese food at my parents house. they're going down the shore with my brother and his family for the week. we have been asked to feed the cats while they are gone. after dinner i let my wife go our and hang out with her friend camel, and i took the kids home and did the bedtime routine. a.j. fell asleep while we drove, so i took him in the house first, put him down asleep in the car seat in his room with the lights off. thankfully he slept for a couple of hours, so i could get other stuff done. i gave e.w. a bath, read him a book, and put him to bed. we read "the very lonely firefly". the next time we read that i should take him outside to see the fireflies, which are just starting to come out. anyway, then i ended up water the lawn for like 1 1/2 hours, because it's so hot everything dries so fast. and i will be away for 2 days, so it needed a good watering. the sprinkler broke so i gad to do it all by hand. it was sort nice though, a nice clear warm evening. it was dark, but i could see well enough to water. i had my iPod and i listened to the playlist for the mix i made for my friend brian in california. i still have to get that CD in the mail. the list includes several jams by We Are Vikings. the more exploring i do on the internet, looking for interesting unknown bands with good free mp3's, the more i appreciate bands like WAV. but anyway, i head to cincinatti today. flight leaves in the mid afternoon, so hopefully i'll get there with enough time to find an interesting place to have dinner. we'll see. i have the zombies stuck in my head, after listening to the greatest hits album on the way to work this monring.

eyes hurt again

i'm tired because last night i stayed up late again doing pointless stuff on my computer. i reviewed two songs for www.garageband.com, which was a total waste of time. neither song was really interesting, but they were both recorded well. there semms to be a lot fo that out there: mediocre music recorded well. i prefer good music recorded in an ameteur fashion. my eyes hurt today, and so now i am wearing my reading glasses. it's probaby also because i stayed up late at the computer. now they don't hurt so much, but i'll probably loose the glasses for lunch time, and then see how i feel when i get back.

music

this morning when i got in the car, my CD with alasdair roberts was queued up from over the weekend; but i wasn't in the mood for him. i started out listening to irene trudel's 2005 WFMU marathon premium CD, but once on the open highway i put in my friend jon andrew's live cd, and enjoyed solo acoustic indie rock the rest of the ride. it's hard not to sing along cuz i know his songs' harmonies. when i stopped the car i sat for a while to finish off the remainder of the song, and my coffee.

thought

it's weird. it's 9:42 AM, i had a power bar thingy while driving on the way to work, and my two cups of coffee, yet i'm sitting here at my desk and feeling hungry. i want a hamburger. that's what my brain is telling me: hamburger. also, i just had a big sneeze, so maybe i've got a short circuit somewhere.

this weekend

this weekend we spent a lot of time outdoors, trying to enjoy the nice weather. on saturday it started out a little wet and cool after light rain during the night, so i decided not to try to mow the lawn. we went to my in-law's house for a little while in the late morning, but there wasn't much going on there. the highlight of the visit was watching my mother-in-law site and learn how to use the computer/internet with my son e.w. in her lap. i directed them to www.sesamestreet.com, where they played some games. meanwhile, i held the baby and rocked back and forth with him by the high counter in the kitchen, reading the new york times magazine article about hedge funds. i didn't get far.

saturday afternoon/evening my friend from d.c. came to visit, or as e.w. calls him: uncle misha. we had fun playing soccer outside on the lawn, a little wiffle ball batting practice, and a nice warm spring evening backyard deck bbq. very nice.

sunday we saw the in-laws again in the morning for blueberry banana pancakes. e.w. and i played outside for a bit and dipped our feet in the chilly pool. then we went to my parents lake house for their anniversary party. e.w. went down for a nap as soon as we got there, and the my wife and i went down to the beach with the baby to see who was around. i spend quite a while talking to some old folks while holding the baby. we doubled back for e.w. when he woke form his nap, so he could play into he sand and go swimming a little. being back at the lake with e.w. was a lot of fun; he's now the right age for beach fun like sandcastles and shallow-water wading & splashing, etc. it's a just little odd to be there with him in the place i grew up swimming/playing: odd in a good way. i hope we spend a lot of time there this summer.

later in the afternoon, after a shower back at the house, we mingled with the family and ate good food, drank beer, etc. finally as the sun was low in the sky, e.w. and i went down to the dock to fish at the shore with my grandfather. he brought his own poles, tacklebox, and a can of a few fresh worms. the water was literally swarming with blue-gill sunfish. if you just threw a little piece of a twig in the water they all came over to look at it and even nibble. we set up a couple of poles with bobbers and hooks, and e.w. looked on, intently. he rummaged through the tacklebox, playing with the rubber worms, and repeated "i'm helping, i'm helping!". together, e.w., my grandfather, and i casted off the dock and watched as the many small fish nibbled the worms off of our too-large hooks. the sun was warm and the lake was calm, like a gigantic mirror, reflecting the sunset and the ridge. this is where, when, how i learned to fish; and this is what i've dreamed about ever since e.w. was an apple in our eyes. we didn't catch anything before e.w. wandered off with my dad back up to the house to get dessert. i stayed there with grandpa, intent on catching something, anything- the inaugural fish of the summer. i did. i tiny little sunny. then i headed back up. grandpa stayed alone in the chair ont the dock in the glow of an orange sunset and continued fishing. later on after dessert we were about to leave when grandpa announced he had caught a substantially sized bass. e.w. went down to see it, and touch it, and was very excited. i had to run him back up to wash his hands before we left. all the while he talked about the "big fishy" he had seen.

the baby, a.j., slept through the night sunday night for the first time in a while. He drank two bottles with about 10 ounces of milk before he went to bed; which is unusual for him. of course, we also spent an unusual amount of time in nice warm outdoors settings. couple that with his excessive drooling tendencies lately and he was probably pretty dehydrated as well as exhausted. so my hopes are not high that this is the beginning of a new era of all-night sleeping. besides, i didn't manage to get much sleep last night anyway. i drank a cup of coffee at 10:30 p.m. because I was so damn tired- but at that point i still needed to water our near-wilting flowers, take out the garbage, and clean up the kitchen a little. the coffee did the trick but i ended up not really sleeping until 1:00. oh well. more coffee at 6:00 and away we go to another monday!

song / EP title

pack your bags for a space vacation

"see you in the methane sauna"
"frolic in the fields of glass"
"experience a relaxing meteor shower"
"dine in the oort cloud"
"whistling bones in the solar wind"

song titles

"au de hunter's perch"
"flowers bloom in your parlance (but wither at your glance)"
"just a little more forever please"

"one empty chamber"
"everywhere you burn"
"oh, to conjure you"

"inviting the thunder"
"interoffice fear network"
"flight of the goodwill fruitfly"

song titles

"the day i made "bohemian rhapsody' the blueprint for my life"

"giggles the executioner"
"sit and spin sores"
"pinwheel incisions"
"welsch's hematoma"
"black death dum dums"

"i'm the star of the show, officer"
"i fly this ship, your honor"
"the line starts back there, your excellency"

"duvet armistice at 3:00 AM"
"undermined, but i don't mind: undeterred and blind"
"francisco de goya painted the walls in there before he died, now it's the computer room"
"in a final act of defiance, the crew devoured the ship"
"but my hands will be soaking in a bowl of jelly; so i will have to type with my nose."
"tracy's robot teaparty"

lyrics

a goo-goo boo
a boo-hoo-hoo
look at my shoe
my shoe said: "you,
you're a damn fool
talking to a shoe
in a pool of drool"
and i said
SHUT UP SHOE!
SHUT THE F*CK UP

"i'm required by town ordinance to have a sign in my yard that reads: 'beware: sassy man!' "

song titles

"female jogger tragically drowns in a gigantic cosmopolitan"
"my cafeteria advances"
"big bird, what hast thou wrought?"
"the election-cycle decompression room has been closed due to lack of interest. sincerely, the management"

altitude

'this is air traffic controll to flight 6SK... what's your vector?'

'i am approching an altitude of six beers and two shots, do you copy?'

'it looks like you might be headed into a low-pressure system. i suggest you climb to 7 beers, and possibly a shot of jager, then after that it'll be smooth sailing'

'ggggrrrreeeg.. over and out'...

'attention passengers, this is your captain speaking, my altitude is currently 6 beers and counting... I have turned on the 'fasten seatbelt' sign, please return to your seats. air traffic controll has asked us to raise our altitutde to seven beers, so you may experience some turbulance as the co-pilot and I kayak and trade whiskey screams.'

...

'attention passengers and flight attendants, prepare for a smash landing'"

correspondence

after sharing an article on gmail, and discussing how "big brother" will read your email and use it to track & punish political dissidents:
_____________________________________________

dear i.o.d.,

with that in mind, i just wanted you to know, despite my previous "joke" emails- i love bush, and i love jesus. i love tax cuts, and i hate liberal wackos.

god bless america,

c2677
_____________________________________________

Gangbang a rottweiler's shadow!
_____________________________________________

i.o.d.,

i am saddened by your dadaist diversions. i can only interpret this
to mean that you love neither bush nor jesus. sadly, i will have to
refer you to a faith-based counseling program for people with CLITS
(chronic liberal independent thought syndrome). also, you will be
hearing from the IRS. and you just got a parking ticket.

c2677
_____________________________________________

LOL! ...at the acronym

song titles

"Give yourself to Scrod"
"Salmon in a Tux Receives his Lifetime Achievement Award"
"Adventures in Falconry"
"(Don't Wanna Think About) Tomorrow's Claws"

"it's only forever once"
"prelude to the paddywhacker"
"the frank gifford of bass fishing"
"the fall of man (into the ball pit)"

song titles / band name

"Parabola for Breakfast"

"asymptote omelet"
"isosceles traveller"
"collinear crepes"

"rhombus scrapple"
"fresh squeezed transversals"
"adam and eve on a vertex"

"home style postulates"
"polyhedrons over easy"
"adam and eve on a scalene triangle"

"hypotenuse juice"
"poached quadrilaterals"
"i can't believe it's non-Euclidean"

band name: "sight unseen"

weekend

(from correspondence)
how was my weekend? fri- ?? don't remember. i think i had a beer and ate at my in-laws. sat- crowded rainy day mall shopping, went out to dinner at roccos for beer and scallops. sun- e.w.'s gym class & yard work. bbq'd out back a bit.

that and a.j. slept for 8 hours last night form 7 pm to 3 am! and i played the guitar and sang to/for him, really one on one for the first time, and he liked it, and was cooing and stuff. he knows some songs b/c i sing/hum them late at night while feeding him. when he heard them with the guitar it was like he recognized it, and liked it... i dunno, hard to explain but it was great.

lyrics

chorus:

"me? how am I?
without one of these pills
every day I would die-
but other than that I'm fine"

EP concept / titles

"the four horsemen total body care gift pack"

"au de pestilence"
"denarius dietary supplements"
"the crown of the ab archer"
"pride of man wart remover"

band name

band name: "car trouble"
flyers for the band's live shows would include tag lines like: "experiencing car trouble?"

song titles

"reuters breaks my heart again"
"black hole tongue depressor"
"liquid sun"
"drink me, sun"

"in the event of an ostrich, break glass"
"lost in the cleavage of thought" or "beyond the cleavage of thought"
"eating ritz and smoking carlton's at the ritz carlton sort of defeats the purpose"
"emotional bratwurst"

correspondence

song title: "grindcore lazarus"

amazing

i don't even understand what grindcore means

it's for the best

another one: "lung balcony"

Nice

Sounds like something I'd come up with.

I thought of those 2 grouchy old men on the Muppets who sit and heckle from the balcony

Except they're lungs

oh, and i was thinking of a balcony overlooking lungs...

Like, an audience full of lungs? Hundreds of them?

not necessarily... like you're at a party in an apartment building, and it's hot, so your friend says "let's go out on the balcony"... and you go out there, and the balcony is overlooking a vast sea of wet, spongy tissue- rising and falling, reflecting the setting sun.

Do you stay out there? Or go back inside?

oh yeah. you have a cigarette.

What happens if you ash on a lung?

it inhales you and spits you out, like a baby coughing up an arid desert.

i promise i'll love you forever

so i'm getting on the plane coming back from denver on a business trip, and as we're settling in after boarding, the guy behind me is talking on his cell phone, and i hear him say:

"I haven't had a beer in days. if you're out and about, buy me a 12 pack of bud and put it in the fridge- and i promise i'll love you forever..."

i immediately wrote it on the back of a business card that i picked up at "ted's montana grill" in denver.

album insert?

this should be the album insert for nethers:

http://www.hermetics.org/images/gif/GD-all.gif

lyrics

"my sense of duty fits in a thimble
obedience to no one, keeps me nimble
a teflon heart, yeah, nothing sticks,
still, i pledge allegiance just for kicks"

whatever!

lawyer to defendant: 'and here on this piece of paper, is this your handwriting?'

defendant: 'yes'

lawyer: 'please read it to the courrtroom'

defendant: 'kone foto nai'

lawyer: 'is it or is it not true that this is an al queda code phrase for 'tomorrow is zero hour'' ?

defendant: 'no, that is not true'

lawyer: 'well, then please tell us what it means'

defendant: 'i don't know, it's a faustus song'

lawyer: 'and who is faustus? some subversive, anti-establishment, anarchist cult, affiliated with al queda??!?'

defendant: 'no, they're just a rock band on sauce records'

lawyer: 'oh. i see. you know, i ordered 'minor dwarf source- the war concept' form them online a while back'

defense lawyer: 'I OBJECT. the prosecutor is leading the witness'

judge: 'mr. prosecutor, please stick to your line of questioning'

lawyer: 'but your honor, they're starving away our girls'

judge: '....it never comes.'"

band name / album titles

band name: "easy bake oven"

1st album: "delicious cake"

2nd album: "more delicious cake"

song titles

"the Tehran fly fisherman's association"
"you're smile's got eyes"
"i always get that type of girl"
"only fools lie to me"

"the game where the only rule is i love you"
"a sheapeard and his flock of boneheaded goats"
"an ice age is god brushing his teeth"
"itching for salvation, but allergic to god"

"intergalactic todd appreciation zone"
"i saw you kissing a spy satellite at midnight in the yard"
"all gory bats deserve to die fast at the fudge-covered hands of good boys"
"lady wheelbarrow it's now or never: your crabapple kingdom awaits"

"choclatier of mercy"
"I Went Grave-Robbing (And Found Salad in Your Coffin)"
"and i chase you through rose-colored grasses"
"Gallagher performs delicate surgery on a grapefruit"

"blossoms of the divine"
"keep the orchids guessing"
"stir-fried eyes"
"brian cashman lays an egg"

"the passing of the white willow"
"traces of lithium on the sundial"
"a chorus of milk"
"a hint to guenevere"

"the thousand year reign of kitty dukakis"
"runaway wonk underground railroad"
"ponce de leon cuts in line at the water fountain"
"a message in a bottle bursts into flames at probate court"

"searching for an exotic, deadly spider in the produce aisle - and other signs you're cracking up"
"brad, adrift"
"grindcore lazarus"

wine and warm sun

fri: dinner with the in-laws at a nice brick oven pizza place in florham park. e.w. is amused by the process of pizza-making, and at this place he got a special treat. you're able to watch the pizza making process up close. he was able to stand on a chair and watch closely as the guy flattens the dough, spreads the sauce, etc., etc,
puts it in the brick oven. e.w. loved it. he referred to the brick oven as a "house"... hence, "daddy, pizza man puts it in the house".

sat: running errands, bank, coscto. almost bought a gigantic swing set, but resisted. played outside. had a nice dinner. i had a headache all day though.

sun: gym class with e.w. in the a.m., then brunch with my parents and great grandma & grandpa, back from florida. played outside with e.w. later, build his new little soccer net toy, and took him out to play with it. he learned to kick the ball into the goal... and the net says "GGOOOOOOAAAAALLL"... which he liked. then, bbq'd next door, and e.w. and his little girl friend took turns riding our new battery-powered
ATV. they couldn't get enough of it. afterwards, they played with playdough and a large sheet of bubblewrap while we all drank wine and ate in the warm sun.

a gamble

i took a gamble last night and stayed up after the kids went to sleep at 8:00... and did bills and my taxes; instead of going to sleep while i had the chance. it payed off. i did work for 2 hours and got stuff done... and the baby slept until 12:00, so I got 2 hours sleep. then again slept from 1:00 till 4:00, and 5:00 till 6:15. if we can do it like that every night then i'll be pretty good. i need 2 hours of no-kid time every night to get daddy stuff done. even if it means i'm missing out on sleepy time!

a glimpse...

(from correspondence) thank you very very much for coming over on saturday. even though e.w. was pretty exhausted and cranky, i think he nonetheless enjoyed seeing you guys. since my brother's family was all sick, it really was the highlight of his easter weekend as far as visiting-relatives was concerned.

futhermore, of course, i was happy to see you guys too. i wish i could have gone to billy's red room; but as you can imagine, with feedings and what not every two hours at night, that's precious sleep that i can't do without! hopefully, soon, L. and i will be back in the saddle again as far as being able to take night's off to go out while the other stays home and runs the circus. then, we'll be able to meet up more easily when you're in town...

until then, it's me and L. taking turns watching CNN, conan o'brien or infomercials with a hunrgy baby in our arms, etc.

song titles

"it's time to call the rainbows in"
"rusty insides"
"it takes a monster to remember"
"counterfeit angels"

"the taxi of the north"
"do you think it's gonna rain?"
"(the voice of) shattered anne"
"the travelling tongue"

"(she plays) with an uncertain gaze"
"till something aches and nothing makes sense"
"how i remember your coat"
"i took a pen to the gods"

"the kiss of the red umbrella"
"lightning scent" or "a hint of lightning"
"find your inner city"
"plagues of egypt play dough set: locust fun factory"

"i've never been this sorry before"
"i want that big shine"
"everything heaven wanted to be"
"i depend on gin"

"maybe i can change for the better,
but baby, i can't change the weather"

video idea for the carlsonics

we're making a video for "senator trudge and the clap division", i'm talking with a director in L.A.

tell brian and julie, so they can get casted!

sure, dude

i think a video made up entirely of brian, shirtless, drunk in a cliché bare, dirty apartment bedroom (mattress on the floor with like on crumpled sheet; clothes, CD's and tapes everywhere; magazine photos all over the walls), jumping/dancing/flailing to the music would make the most amazing video ever.

whoah!

with julie in the room, dressed as a china doll of sorts, in a traditional qípáo, with face makeup- expressionless and unintimidated by brian, but nonetheless trying to stay out of his way... occasionally tiptoeing form one corner of the room to the other, trying not to get sprayed with beer.

maybe in the end Julie can shea a tear

ah, you know, i thought about making brian entice her to take a sip of his drink or something, like alice-in-wonderland... she slips into a psychedelic trance, just in time for the breakdown/fx solo.

cool! good vibe

in keeping with the trance theme, brian starts out dancing in his room, but then it flashes to him dancing with her in front of various LA landmarks, then at the end brian expires on his bed, in julie's arms, and it fades out with her holding him in an archetypal "pieta" pose, which artsy types will recognize...

Of course! Amazing. That shit made me laugh

i think we're onto something here...

solo project concept

Did I ever tell you my idea for my next musical project?...

I am The Devil

The Devil's first EP will be called "Get a Job"

The Devil: "Get a Job"

so you'll wear a red suit, right?

No live shows.

The Devil's too busy; this is just a side-thing.

i mean, in general, to get into character.

Hmmm

Well, I'm The Devil after all.

But I'm not The Devil, y'know?

So it's hard to answer your question

so, what i'm hearing is that you're wearing red.

STOP PUTTING WORDS IN THE DEVIL'S MOUTH*

* The Devil's mouth is an intricate "tiered-world" consisting of 5
distinct "Doom Planes"-- Fire, Burn, Doom, Scalding, and Chrysanthemum

so, the devil's mouth is red?

NO!

brooding but with cookies

work sucks. the whole project i am working on may get outsourced to a contract research company, because my department can't get it's act together and come up with the resources to do the program- not enough trianed people. so, potentially, all of these preparations i have been doing will amount to nothing, in that i will be all ramped up and trained to do a project that we will farm out. it's not official yet, but the writing is on the wall. my job is not in jepraody, but it may still set me back career-wise because i have to start over in training. my boss is trying to assure me otherwise. in stead i'll just start out doing somehting else in a different area... therefore i intended to be all brooding and pissed-off-looking today, so that no one will bother me... but in stead i just gave everyone in the
immediate vicinity of my cubicle a home-made cookie. a "10 o'clock cookie".

the world is overrated

Weekend plans?

take care of the baby and e.w., day and night; give the wife a rest, if that's possible.

Cool...i should have guessed :)
of course, of course. i was also being a little sarcastic i guess... hopefully we'll do somehting other than just feed, change, burp, and play with the kids in the livingroom all day! like maybe we'll get in the car and go... out... into the world!

Eh, the world is overrated!

good weird

life is F'd up. just the other day i was doing something with e.w., that i did with my dad. i used to play in my mom & dad's closet when he would get ready for work in the morning. i would always open up his shoe shining kit and play with it. my dad showed me how to shine shoes, since i always took it out anyway. once i was good at it he would pay me like a dollar to shine each pair- probably just to make me feel accomplished or whatever.

so the other day while i was getting ready for work, evan wanted to just be near me so there he was int he closet. he usually just "helps" me pick out a belt and stuff. but this day he took out the shoe shining kit. i bent down to make sure he didn't get polish all over himself... and i started showing him how to buff a shoe. he was really into it, and he was buffing my shoe very carefully in no time. he was very proud of himself, and i thanked him and told him he did a great job. it was just weird. good-weird. i liked it.

cookies

(e.w.) there is a brand new copy of the entire universe forming in his head. yesterday i was contemplating the miracle of life while watching him eat a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie with milk. every kid is a brand new world. the joy of cookies and milk is completely re-invented. simple pleasures are so new, novel, unspoiled- it seems to nearly overloading his circuts with joy. watching from the outside, it's impossible for me to trully comprehend, but still a wonder to behold.

stay

this morning i came back inside after starting the car, because i forgot my wallet; and e.w. was eating breakfast and called out my name. he was excited because i had reappeared after kissing him goodbye and leaving for work once just a moment earlier. i went over and gave him another kiss goodbye, and he said "daddy? you want strawberries? chocolate milk?" he was offering me his breakfast, lifting the cereal bowl up to me; he wanted me to stay, and eat with him, instead of leaving to go to work. i'm not sure if i'm explaining it well enough, but really it was very cute and it made me want to eat him up.

patterns in...

listening to my mp3 player on "random" is quite interesting. it's like listening to the disjointed selections of a lazy dj who stole my cd collection and is just picking out things at random. it's surprisingly good, so far. appreciating patterns in randomness. also, since i am at work, i can't sing along. i think i end up appreciating the song more than i would otherwise. normally i compulsively sing along to music when i am listening in my car. when that happens, i often fins myself replaying a track on a cd or tape because i was to busy singing along to enjoy the song, only to involuntarily start singing along again half way through thew song. just now as i write this, two songs from the same album came on. what are the chances of that out of hundreds of songs?

my current disposition

today i have a lot of anger and frustration under the surface. this
morning in the car on the way to work i was yelling at my car stereo
and banging it with my hand. then later on at work i was cursing at
the printer. i want to curse at my computer when it malfiunctions. i
am angry in general- but i have a sunny sweet smile on my face!

last night i had a dream i med david beckham in a resturant, he was with his wife (not the spice girl one, a blonde) and his 1 yr old kid, wearing a sailor suit and his hair in a ponytail. he was living in the US but heading back to europe, to the netherlands. i was advising him on where to look for a job, with a popular multinational company like Phillips. during the conversation, my son played with his son, but my son was bigger and maybe playing a little too rough, rolling, falling and laying on him. later in my dream i witnessed the breakup of a bad band in the middle of a song, in the middle of a set, in a beat, mostly-empty bar.