I just woke up from a dream in which I had gone to the wrong place of employment, wrong city even, and when I went to get back in my car and go to the right place, somebody was trying to break into my car, except it was their truck and I was just confused because it was parked next to my car, and everything was fine, except when I opened my car door, my car was about to be towed by two semi-professionals who were going to two it with a chain around my tow hitch (I don't have one), so I unchained it but when I got in, I couldn't keep my car from rolling backwards and the only way to stop it from rolling backwards was to get it started and get it going forward because the brakes were locked out while the car was off. But I couldn't get it started. I, impossibly, missed a car, fence, dense brush, and one more car while I figured out how to get the car started. I finally got it started and spun to avoid a car, and woke up.

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

I haven't written in this thing for awhile, but I'm definitely feeling it today.

I went to Walmart after work and completely forgot that it's two days 'til christmas. I just wanted a lightbulb, a fuel additive, some rice, and some yogurt. Wowzers, that place was a wreck. There were a lot of people, a ron of boxes everywhere, and about twice as many employees as are usually stocking shelves and 11:oo at night.

That's also when I realized that I think I'm become a bit selfish because I haven't even really attempted to find presents for my mom and dad, at the least, since I'm not going to be with the family this year. I know what I'd like to get my Dad, but I just wrote the gift-giving aspect of Christmas off. I guess that's kinda lame.

I didn't find the yogurt, decided to not get the fuel additive, and bought some tea along with my rice and lightbulb.

I'm working now at this place in Hudson, a company that finishes nuts and bolts. (See it's been so long that I can't even remember if I talked abut that here.) I work an in-between shift, 2-10:30 p.m. It's kinda nice. Get up when I want, go to bed when I want, no worries.

Now I had a reason for mentioning that. It was background to something I was going to say. Oh well.

Oh right, so I'm working in Hudson and living in Kent in the basement room of a family I know from a church here. And I find it weird to use their kitchen to cook in. I'm not sure why, but it just feels awkward. So, I don't. And for a couple months I just ate out all the time. Literally. Which I've never done before in my life, and wow: that's expensive and unhealthy. Geez. So, I finally decided that I've got to find some way to cook at least a few meals in my room. So I bought a rice cooker. Hence the rice at Walmart. And that's that.

I have some records in my car I should go get out because I think they're going to get warped in their current state.

Cold. It's cold outside getting my records. I love records. I have a number of them, although fewer than I used to, necessitated by my inability to stay in one locale recently.

I also just noticed the package my mother sent me!!! It's got food!!! It's good Christmas food!!!
All desserts, no filler! My mother makes an amazing fruitcake which is always the highlight of my Christmas consumption. And I've got my very own. (This is no ordinary cake batter, rum-infested, nut-filled, chalky, dusty, rock hard mockery. This is a sweet, moist full-flavored extravaganza of joy.)

So, thank you Mom!!

I bought a new microphone, the CAD E-100-2. It's the first condenser I've had that I would describe as being dark sounding, despite what the frequency response chart would make you believe. It's dissappointing, frankly. But I'm also trying to figure out if maybe it's just me somehow. We'll see. Nevertheless, can't help but love a new microphone. :)

You Can Make Me Dance

Just heard a song by The Faces I'd never heard before. Great little tune. It's called (get this!): You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything (Even Take the Dog For a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away the Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings). Pretty great title and a great little tune, although it definitely leans towards Stewart's future disco stuff but thankfully is stopped short by some really nice rolling bluesy riffing by Ron Wood.

Hear it here.

See the ever (un)sexy Stewart sing this number here.

Wilco

I finally found a place to listen to Wilco's latest online. It's sweet. Can I just say that the addition of Nels Cline's lap steel makes everything better all the time? Yes, yes, I can, and yes, yes, I have. Because it's true. Foundation of the world true. It's amazing when you can consistently count on someone to always get it right, and that's what you get with Nels' work with Wilco. There will always be bright flaming meteor showers like Hendrix and Clapton and whoever else, but at the end of the night, Nels' bright shining morning star will always be there for you in the same perfect way it was yesterday.

The new album is in many ways Sky Blue Sky, part 2, but not in a rehash kind of way or in a b-sides way, but rather in a that was yesterday, this is today kind of way. Same band, new city, new view. From an analytical standpoint, I think you could say there's something of Summerteeth on here, even some A.M. It's sort of a return to "traditional" Wilco after having wandered through the Yankee-Ghost-Sky arc.

One thing that really amazes me right now is: just what has Tweedy tapped into lyrically?? It's like he's channeling something outside of this world, something...spiritual... It's bizarre. Not bad bizarre, but amazing bizarre. I'm scratching my mind listening to this right now, kind of jaw-dropped at this thread that he seems to have hit upon with these last two albums. Maybe it's just me, but I swear he's talking about stuff that is not only on my mind, but on the mind of a lot of people I know. It's like he's summarizing and then further exploring these ideas I keep running across, running across like the leakage from an underground stream I keep finding. I'm really wondering if I'm the only one that feels this way? Either way, he's writing some great stuff.

The album just finished. Too short! Not a criticism at all, but gosh, I want to hear the tracking tapes!! More, more! No end of track fades! Anyway, good, good stuff. Really good.

Hear it here:

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.artistalbums&artistid=0&albumid=12647299

Quote of the Day

"The vocalist is starting to look more like Dr. House the older he gets. Great song." - Scavneck


Found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgZkm1xWPE

blow up some stars

I've really grown to love Steven Delopoulos' album Straightjacket.

It's a really quixotic art/singer-songwriter affair. The music is largely one-man-and-a-guitar based but adds in all kinds of orchestration. There's even a kind of off-broadway chanted theatrical number. In fact, in many ways, I could see the album being the music to a really, really cool and engaging modern dance concert. The lyrics aren't obscure, but they're not obvious, either. If you don't think about it, you largley get what he's trying to say. If you think about it, it doesn't all make a lot of sense. Impressionistic, then, I guess. But not in a Michael Stipe kind of way. More in a Bob Dylan meets Leo Kottke kind of way, if that makes any sense at all. Poetic, rather than lyrical, but with the quirky honesty of someone who knows what it means to wear out his shoes from walking.

So, I leave you with the official video for the first track from Straightjacket. It's a slightly different mix than the album version and the video's not as good as the song, but that's not really news these days, is it? Enjoy the song.

Winner!!

Apparently Bob Dylan wants to settle in Jersey

This is hilarious and makes Bob Dylan an undisputed winner. I can completely see this. Kinda nice to know that he's not the cheeky punk he once was when it comes to authority.

That reminds me of an interview by some guy on 60 minutes who alternately asks good and stupid questions of Bob. Throughout Dylan shows the patience of a man who is used to suffering fools.

Although I don't know what other people think about this, tonight I'm grateful that Jesus broke his body and shed his blood for me. I'm grateful that I can remember that through the breaking of bread and the drinking of wine (or juice or, water if it's handy). Though it cost him everything, it bought me everything. Forgiveness, restoration, healing, freedom, reconciliation, and the knowledge of being loved, all at the same time. Peace, maybe you could call it.

The Blue Bird of Happiness

I enjoy Pandora radio quite a bit while I'm on the 'net. In both the sense that I listen to Pandora quite a bit when I'm online, and that when I do, I quite enjoy myself. Most of the time. There is always the very quirky inability of their analyzing system to understand what I enjoy about certain bands. For instance, if you're listening to Ric Hordinski, do you really want to hear some typical alt. pop rocker? Does that make any sense at all?

Pandora really tried to sell me on Joshua Radin for awhile. And I'm sorry, but if I can consider Sufjan a one-trick pony ( I really should revise that because, in all honesty, it's not fair), then J. Radin is a pony with three legs. I do like the song "Someone Else's Life", but it seriously smells like what I would expect from Jose Gonzalez covering Elliot Smith.

Speaking of which, they're playing "Rose Parade" just now. Gosh, I enjoy this guy's music, but between Elliot and Thom Yorke, I'm not sure how some of my friends managed to stay alive through the late 90's, let alone upbeat, esp. considering how many also weaned themselves on "Ten", Soundgarden, and Cobain's untimely death.

Speaking of which, a bluebird just landed on the tree outside my window. There used to be a phrase, popular for songsmiths, actually: "the bluebird of happiness". Isn't that odd? Is that some kind of ironic joke? Who comes up with this stuff?

Every once in awhile I listen to some J5 or The Sound Providers or something and I get hippy to make some fresh beats. but I don't have the samples and software and synths to roll it myself, so I got to get some help.

And I found this:

I'm finally here and you're gone

Storyhill - a great duo.

Hello, I hope your porch looks okay

Today was my last day with College Pro Painting. I'm, frankly, relieved. There's nothing like working for salesmen as a painter to wish you were doing work you could be proud of. Ack.

I'm really grateful for the work because it got me back on my feet. But, man... that's no way to paint. I just couldn't do it, so I'm glad I don't have to anymore. I have a huge aversion to doing work I can't be proud of. Especially regarding someone's home. I wish my bosses the best of luck and I really hope they get out of this company. There's just no reason to be involved in something like that. You'd be better off in Amway or Cutco or Quixtar. Then at least you'd be clear with yourself and the customers about the situation. Maybe that's not true, but the point is, sales is sales, painting is painting.

My older brother sent me a link to a company near me that might be hiring, so we'll see what we can manage.

Necessary for Living

I read an article today about a woman who died from drinking too much water in a radio show contest. I'm, of course, saddened by this, but all the more so because I have some experience with drinking too much water.

When I was a freshmen at Kent State, I was a voice major. In an attempt to take care of my voice, I started carrying a gallon of water with me to class and around the dorms. I would drink some between classes and throughout the day. After some time of this, I had started to drink 1.5 to 2 gallons of water per day. Thankfully, I was taking an introductory biology course at the time that covered the urinary system, including electrolyte balance within the body, in which the professor talked about potentially depleting yourself of electrolytes due to excessive water consumption. It crossed my mind to question whether I was drinking too much water, but I figured too much water was many, many gallons. A few days later I was eating some of the cafeterias ridiculously salty french fries. I hate overly salty food. And these fries were perpetually over-salted. On this particular day, however, those fries tasted like a slice of heaven. As I bought and ate a second helping, I mused over what would cause such an intense (pardoning the phrase, please) gut-level attraction to these ridiculously salty fries. And I remembered my professors lecture. It gave me pause, so I started backing off on the amount of water I was consuming. A few months later, I was getting an exam at the doctor and asked him if one could drink too much water. "Oh yes," he said "but you'd have to be drinking quite a lot." I asked what "quite a lot" was. "Oh, if you were drinking, say, 1.5 to 2 gallons a day that would be too much." You can imagine my instant, but internal, response.

"Doh!"

I stopped carrying around the water jug after that.

Jon Stewart: the new Walter Cronkite

I thought this was an interesting article. I'm pretty excited that Jon Stewart is interested in real discussion. I'm pretty excited that anyone in the media is interested in real discussion.

I think I might like to go to the show

There's one band I really want to see right now. U2.
I know that's terribly cliche and obvious and such, but they're onto something special right now. Musically and... spiritually... at their shows. I've been watching some of the coverage from the Europe leg of the tour and there's something happening. I'm not so sure it's the band but more a synergy between the band and the audience right now. The band has stretched out a little and the audiences have followed.

Check this response to the recent Poland show by Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol, the opening act.

Bono's voice is wearing a little from age some nights, but he's got something in it that was missing for awhile. They sound like they mean what they're saying again. It's brilliant.

I'll leave you with this fantastically shot video from u2006.com's youtube channel. Go ahead and search through some of the other video's they've shot from the rest of the tour. Barcelona was really cool, both nights. In Poland, at Chorzow... and without a doubt, the two Zagreb shows which just happened today and yesterday. They'll be up soon, no doubt.

Who's got the herd?

I really love that picture of "The Lee Harvey Oswald Band" rocking Dallas. On some level that's a really sad picture and not funny at all, because in some way it mocks the murder of someone, and murder is tragic, not funny. What makes it hilarious to me is that it turns something sad and awful into something humourous and fun. It works because the expressions and body angles work so well. I love the way Oswald looks like he's screaming into the microphone on a final chord and the way the gunman looks like he's swooping in for one last final lick.

Anyway...

I found a couple articles today that I thought were awesome. This one reflects on a rather interesting way of responding to a potential breakup. Pretty awesome. And here we find out that redheads are statistically more likely to require greater amounts of anesthesia than ordinary mortals.

Milk has apparently taken a hit on the local market. Last week, at Aldi, the grocer of choice for anyone who has need to appreciate the value of a dollar, I paid $1.89 for a gallon of 2% (the balance point of health and flavor). This week, 2% milk was wooing customers for a mere $1.49/gal., a 21% decrease in price over a 7 day period. In these lean-ish economic times (I won't overestimate this recession by full use of the word lean. I knew people who lived through truly lean economic times, aka, The Great Depression), it's always good to celebrate the silver linings.

When I (eventually) build a house for myself and my (eventually) lovely family (aka 20 cats and dogs), I'm using brick siding. I would be happy to never have to scrap another house ever, not to mention the benefits of just never having to paint. Limited stylistic choices, but that's not a problem for such a maven of fashion as myself. I make everything look good, baby... lol

It's 5:46 am and I woke up because I was cold from lack of adequate covers and an open window. Oh the things we do for fresh air.

Then I heard some kids out on the golf course. I wanted to go tell them that at 4am it's probably not a socially wise thing to be chilling at the golf course, making noise, but then I remembered that when I was, you know, under the age of 30, that was pretty much exactly what I thought was a totally great idea. Is anybody really scared of the cops busting you for trespassing on the golf course? So, I hauled my old-man-yelling-get-off-my-lawn ass back into the house. Seriously, I'm, like, 75. Arrrr... pirates.

J Tillman, people. I'm tellin' ya. Crooked Roof is an all-time fave.

Now it's almost six and I have to be up in half an hour to get ready for work, but I want to sleep for a couple hours, now that I've gotten good and tired again. Again, I'm, like, 75.

I've started a couple songs recently that might be worth something. That's cool, I think.

Turns out the people I work for, College Pro Painters, are... perhaps not savory. The local franchise manager is an alright dude, I think, and better than a lot of FMs, but, oi, you know, the parent company pretty much uses college students as fodder. It's what I will call a "capital scheme", by which I do not mean, "great idea, governor", but rather that CPP offers a "franchise opportunity" to folks who then raise their own capital to actually run the business, all the while paying ridiculous fees and purchases to the parent company. So, really it's a funnel scheme. The parent company funnels money from the consumer through the franchisee while guaranteeing an income stream from the franchise fees. I suppose that's the normal franchise thing, but in this case, you gain nothing by associating with the franchise. That is, after all, the point of franchising. That they will benefit you in by name recognition, capital expenses, or business acumen, in a way you could not without that association. In this case, you'd be better off just starting up your own painting business.

The upshot is that I'm not sure how long I want to work for these folks. I don't like working for bloodsuckers. If my local franchise manager wasn't a reasonable guy, I'd have already made like a tree.

How does everybody feel about CAD M179s versus a typical small diaphragm condenser for recording guitars? I've heard good things and I'd like to maybe buy one...someday...

To Recreate Us

The Faces were the best thing Rod Stewart ever did. Why, why, why did he ever think he could be better than that band?!? Not that I don't like "Forever Young" and "Young Turks" and "Downtown Train", but seriously, you can't argue with, say, "If I'm on the Late Side".

Sufjan Stevens is really pretty special. I shied away from him for awhile for various reasons, not the least of which was how much everyone seems to swoon over him, but credit and love is due. A bit of a one trick pony (look who's talking, right? :), but special nonetheless. He makes my stomach do somersaults of longing. Never a bad thing.

Denison Witmer is also something special. Again with the one trick, but he seems more honest and more interested in exploration. I dig his simpleness and his honesty. What can I say... Denison defines "diary songwriter" to me, and that's not a bad thing.

Iron and Wine: another rave fave. I like, but frankly, he scares me. Like a just-getting-over-being-shy, really introverted "Goldfly"-era Guster. The music is either soothing or seething, and I'm not sure how to trust that.

I just now, this instant, found out about Alexi Murdoch, and yes, yes.

I'm pretty happy about Phish getting back together, unlike most other people that like song-based music. They really don't get their due from the regular music folks, but whatever, I guess when you can pull in a city sized amount of people for a two day fest of which you are the only act, I guess you probably don't worry about the naysayers. Still, can they age effectively? Not many bands can. Even U2's latest, which is great, is slighter shades of their former greatness. As long as they don't hire Tchad Blake, we'll probably be okay.

Inquiring minds want to know... will Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore do anything musical together? That would be weird, but possibly also really good.

Scientists are like musicians: some are doing great stuff, some are doing... less than great stuff.



Your ideologies will kill you. Remember that.

The Blue Elephant

I have a friend who I think has some degree of OCD/Schizophrenia. I don't think he realizes it. I just saw him and he's not doing well apparently. Not super bad, not at all, but not good either. There's this dimension to this sort of mental disorder where things that are a normal size take on super-normal proportions. And it's not just a fixation, it's a misunderstanding about reality. It's a belief in some dis-reality. I can see a stuckness in him. I've seen it before, in myself and another friend. A kind of frozen hesitation, a moment where no choice is the right one, where no choice leads away from the problem but only toward another same problem. A moment of bricked-in-ness.

It makes me sad because I can so easily see how he's misunderstanding things, but there's no way to convince him of that. He has to experience his own misunderstanding, I think, to somehow live out, in some fashion, how wrong he is so that he understands by feel until he can understand by concept. It's like staring at a standing pink elephant and being positive that it is a charging blue elephant. You're right that there's an elephant, you're wrong as to it's character and context.

Bad data is worse than no data. Bad data has to be ignored or discarded even though it continues to try to tell you something. Something which you find important and pertinent. Like a GPS system that is always telling you incorrect directions. If you're lost, even if you know they're wrong, it's still tempting to follow them.

Some think very highly of the potential of the human mind. I think it's dangerous to put too much faith in something so limited, something so fragile.

I hope he gets better soon.

I'm feeling really grateful at the moment. I had a really good day on Sunday, I just bought food for the week and there's money for gas, so with the roof over my head, and a job to go to, I'm feeling at peace about the immediate future. I've gotten to hang out with good friends recently, and am going to hang out with some more this evening, once I stop writing this. It's really, really good to see people smile when you show up. The more I live, the less I am caring about success and stuff, and the more I am caring about the very basic things of life. At this point, the necessities of my life feel like food, shelter, clothing, friends, and useful work. If I have those five things, I'm happy. I suppose having music is a hugely important non-necessity to me, and having common transportation (which in this society is a car) helps facilitate the liveliness of my necessities, but I'm not feeling the need to "get somewhere" or "be somebody" anymore. There's a lot of hope placed in various option-packages that can be added or supplanted for the basics. Philosophies, stature, stuff, etc., but as I've lived I've seen how difficult it can be to have the basics, and that makes me all the more grateful for having them now. And I think the real lynch-pin is knowing that you're loved. Loved by God and loved by friends. That's the necessity around which the others swing.

So here's to the basics! If you have these, you're living well. I hope you do, I hope you are. :)

-mike

I got to hang out with Ben and Matt and Dana and Ernie and Corey and Lyndsey (from Idaho! I hope it's spelled with a "y", not an "i", mostly just so I get it right.) It was awesome. We ate Taco Tonto's (thanks to those who made it possible for me to eat!), a real treat, especially when it's one of their world famous potato burritos. Katie's Korner, again, thanks to my beneficiaries.

It was really good to see Ben, whom I haven't seen in a couple years.

Got to see Harbourt Hall. Good to reminisce about some old times, richer times in many ways, poorer in others.

Good to have friends who appreciate you. I had a painful experience yesterday that reminded me of what it feels like to feel unwanted, and to follow that by meeting up/running into a bunch of people who appreciate you was really moving.

Pines from the Provinces

Speaking of Boards of Canada, here's the video to Dayvan Cowboy. It's frankly not the most typical BoC track, but gosh, it's great.



The first part of the video is official footage from Project Excelsior, a parachute-jump test project of the USAF. That is worth consideration in it's own right, but the ability to see the footage makes the video even more worthwhile.

For reasons as to why I consider Radiohead's All I Need to have a Boards of Canada feel, check this.

All I Need is From the Basement

Just watched Radiohead's performance of the majority of In Rainbows at From the Basement. Wow, wow, wow. I'm not a huge Radiohead fan, but I think In Rainbows is really amazing, from every angle. I dig the focus on the songs rather than the textures or sounds. And boy does it sound great. Mmmm.... yum, yum, delicious. I wish I could point you to.... well, let's see... yes, youtube has this. Here's All I Need, probably the most gorgeous track on the album, live From the Basement:



There's a real Boards of Canada sound going on with that bass guitar, although I have to doubt that's anything more than my own perception. Still, there's an odd kinship there at the moment.

I feel as though I should say a little something about From the Basement... They are an amazing program. You can find them here.

Be glad it's not *your* house

Well, I'm concerned this painting job is not going to last very long... The crew I'm with is just doing an awful job. Just truly awful. I'd like to say I'm doing a great job but I'm not sure that's true either. I'm not fast enough to be doing a great job nor am I skilled enough at cutting in around windows and such to be doing a great job. Still, I think I understand the job as a whole better than the other two people. I think the lesson of the experience thus far is: never hire an inexperienced project manager, and never throw all inexperienced people into a crew together. That last one goes without saying, or should. Oh, and it's confirming my belief in good procedures. Gotta have 'em.

I feel really bad for the home owner. I wish there was more I could do, but when you're one person out of three and not the one in charge, it's tough.

Painting Japan

Isn't that a great title? It makes me think of this neat little accordion-style foldout pack of postcards my parents got in Japan that I used to love when I was growing up. I like, I like!

I'm painting for the summer. Yay, painting. Super YAY for having a job! I can feel the greenbacks descending on me like soft summer rain. Oh the glory...of paying bills. Anyway, it's not a bad job. I enjoy heights, and it's nice to make something look nice.

My brother went to Japan this year, which is very cool. I think the two of us picked up a interest in Japanese things from being there when we were kids. Our folks did a nine-month professor exchange with Kansai Gaidai University to teach English to college students. I was two and Geoff was five. I'm sure he remembers way more than me. I remember just a few things, one being the super cool clear plastic umbrella with Formula 1 race cars on it that I had to leave in the umbrella stand at our apartment because there was no more room in the luggage. It was my birthday present when I turned 3. I was devastated. I remember crying. You know, I've never managed to keep an umbrella for any significant length of time, that one being the first. I guess it's fitting, somehow. Anyway...

Geoff went to Japan. And he took pictures. And he wrote all about it on his webpage. And it's very cool. And some of the pictures are just stunning. And I wanted to talk about that. The thing I love about these pictures is that they're both beautiful and normal. They're normal enough that you feel like these are real places and they're beautiful enough to generate a response in me. What binds the whole thing together is that I really feel as if I've been there in a way. Some of the pictures really made me feel transported to these places because they highlight both the normal and the sublime. And that's really unusual. Most "good" photography just looks amazing. But I don't usually feel "good" photography takes me anywhere. The image may be a beautiful rendering of a scene, but that doesn't necessarily describe it to me in a way I can relate to. So I'm really excited about these pictures that capture the stunning in the normal. My personal faves are pictures 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 23. That's just under half the gallery that I think are special. Way to go Geoff!!

And, thanks to the last picture, and the good folks at Rameniac, I found out more information about one of my favorite-ever foods. I humbly thank you, Momofuku Ando, from my heart.

Oh, and apparently James (who have gotten back together! Whooo!) have recorded an album that seems to be equal parts Laid and Seven. Which is exactly how you spell AWESOME.

To you dear reader, the very best of everything.

pax,
mike

Well, I suppose it's time for an update of the ole blog. My last entry tells me I was in Washington, PA. That was some time ago. Only a month by calendar time, but eons ago by personal time.

Since then, I've slept in a cemetery, some parking lots, my car, recorded a wedding, considered moving into a homeless shelter, got the big wake-up call from that experience, been gifted with a room in the house of some really nice people, bought a po box, and gotten some leads on employment. I played disc golf yesterday and am looking forward to eating dinner with some friends tonight. Good days, bad days, all framed by the windows of a 1997 Buick Park Avenue

I helped a friend sort through the boxes of legal files of her deceased husband. That was an interesting experience and one I feel privileged to have had. The viewpoint on people's lives from their guardianships and probate proceedings is a fascinating one. Legal proceedings and financial records are not considered to be full of what most people consider "life", but it lends such an interesting angle to the light displaying someone's life. I got to witness the humanity and helpfulness of a lawyer in a way no one besides his wife has ever known. It was moving. I knew the man shortly before he died and getting to sort through these files helped to bring him alive as a whole person. It's such an interesting record. Full of little things, little insights and clues, little suggestions about the whole. A kind of written silhouette, a prose holographic projection, indistinct but with a suggestive certainty. It was an honor.

I turned 30 on June 20th this year. I think my abiding feeling about the change of numerals is a feeling of a loss of youth. It's sad and disquieting and good and wholing all together. Life hasn't gone to plan and I feel there's many things I've missed, baskets that haven't been filled, but it feels like there is a direct addressing that is happening now that was never there before. A kind of easy-paced continuing. enyh, whatever, but it's weird, the psychological shifting...

Cheers.

Washington

I'm sitting in the Citizen's Library of Washington, Pa. This is important because at this moment I'm staring into the abyss of a completely desecure future. My car is packed with all my stuff and over the last few weeks I've left Oklahoma behind, visited my friends in Ohio, visited Matt in Sharon, visited Ernie here by the Ohio River, and now have no more places to visit, meaning I am now completely a vagrant: homeless, and jobless. And that's a rather unnerving thought. I've not enough money to rent an apartment, so it's me and my car and whatever hollow I can find to spend the night. I imagine I'll probably end up picking up a temporary job in the Pittsburgh/Sharon/Washington area, but it's going to be awhile before I can afford a place to stay. And in this regard, my car full of stuff is more of a liability than an asset. If it was just me and a backpack, I could find all kinds of places to camp out, but that's a lot harder with a '97 Buick Park
Avenue.

But that's what you get when you don't plan ahead. Living in a van, down by the river...

This is probably the reason I was never voted "Most Likely to Succeed."

My city was gone

I'm going back to Ohio. I'm leaving a week from Monday or Tuesday, whichever I can swing. I'm playing the gathering music for Jon Case and Rachel Manthey's wedding. And I'm super looking forward to seeing some friends. I'm completely not looking forward to performing. I'm completely looking forward to the wedding and being a part of it, but I'm not looking forward to the actual putting of the plectrum to the strings and the vibrating of the vocal chords. I wouldn't feel emotionally nervous about playing in front of the President (although I'd be mentally nervous on a grand scale), but if I screw something up here, you know, it's a wedding! It's an actual Thing That Matters. These are my Friends. This a Big Moment.

I just hope my laid back singer-songwriter stylings help chill me out as much as I hope they chill everybody else out. Mike "The Big Chill" Prewett. That should be my record label. Big Chill Records.

Anyway, back to Ohio. And I know that in some way, my city is gone. I haven't even gotten back yet, but there's been a really strong swing away from city life for me. There's a certain lack of groundedness, lack of honesty and integrity about cities. Cities are places where people think they have actually achieved something notable. Big buildings. Big egos in small bars. Big, utopian ideas. Success. Lights. Concrete. Grocery stores. Malls. Culture.

That's not to say that cities are cess pools. Not at all. I enjoy all of these same things (except big egos in small bars, that's always a load of bull.), but I'm feeling very wary of these lies. Of course, cities are also places of respite from the harshness of the world, a dose of tame in the surrounding jungle. And that can lead to a Gentleness and Compassion. And that, that I miss about city life.

So it's going to be very strange for me to spend some time in the city after having spent a year outside of it.

But mostly, I'm looking forward to being with Friends.

Pissing in public

I just responded to a post over at my friend Ben Bunting's blog, and I feel kinda bad about it because it was maybe a little like pissing on somebody else's house, in public. That's just not really cool.

The gist of my point is this: face reality. God himself knows I have an incredibly hard time doing that exact thing, but I guess there are certain situations for which I do that better than others and recently it's been in the area of the philosophy of economics.

There comes a time for all kinds of companies when the reality is they can't keep operating in the way that they have. Sometimes a restructuring of the business can keep the company alive, but often it means shutting the company down for good. And it's sad. People lose their jobs, their identities (to some extent), their dreams, and everything dies. But it's also necessary. You shouldn't try to pretend that something is working, or could work, that isn't or won't. That's even sadder than being forthright about the death of the company. In the end, it will end, and your pretending will have only brought extended sorrow. It also ends up looking a bit like a 50-year old women trying to look 20-year old again. You can't be what you're not, and it's sad when people try.

But all that is a digression. What I really want to say is that I really enjoy reading Ben's blog.
I've been reading his blogging for a few years now and it's really cool to see how he's changed, what he talks about and why. I enjoy his writing style, especially the spastic rambling personal posts, I enjoy the random self-movies, I love the Madden Football coverage, the continuous coffeetable-book offering of photos, the snippets of news, the occasional dietary posts, etc. Of the blogs I've run across, Ben is more diversely himself than most. The long, serious diaristic entries are bookended with random thoughts about food or music or the building he's currently in. And with all the photos and movies and such, there's a very complete, if distant, communication about who Ben Bunting is. From maudlin to mockery.

So, I'm sorry to have kinda pissed on Ben's blog, because, you know, I really like it.

Cheers.

Cynicism

I've had this thought recently:

Cynicism is the language of the hopeless.

Discuss amongst yourself, at your leisure.

Matador Records loses vinyl masters

Well, sadly, I've just found out that Matador Records, an indie label, lost their vinly masters for their entire pre-2006 catalog.

This is sad news. It's sad because I'd be sad if it happened to me. It's sad because I know what it means.

Recordings go through a number of stages: planning (or lack thereof), tracking (recording), mixing (manipulating), and mastering. Mastering is the essential step where the recording is eq'd, compressed, and touched up *for a particular playback medium*. That's the important thing. Mastering is not, at its most basic, the final buff and shine, but rather the last check with the engineer to make sure that the specs are still right. You create a Master. There will be a different master for each playback medium. Vinyl, CD, DVD, SACD, cassette tape, 8-track, etc. Each of these playback media has technical limitations and so the Master must have the best possible sound within the technical limitations.

These are separate from the Mix Tapes or the Tracking Tapes.

Basically, losing the vinyl masters means that in order to cut the albums again on vinyl, a Master engineer will have to be given the Mix Tapes and paid to re-create a vinyl master. The recordings aren't lost, it's more like having a car without an engine. It's a big, expensive hassle.

And a real bummer.

Ruminations and Ruminants

If I was more clever, I'd have made that the title of my blog. Perhaps and album title someday.

Recently, my cousin came up to help us castrate, tag, vaccinate and move cattle to some wheat grazure. It was threatening rain. We failed. It rained.

Last Saturday, a heavy thunderstorm drifted in while we were building a corral (that we realized we should have built before attempting the aforementioned activities with my cousin). I thought it was going to just miss us. It did not. We were out in the pasture and as we headed back into town, what appeared to be rain up ahead turned out instead to be nickel-sized hail. I've never been in hail of any substance before, and I can assure you that the crack of ice-balls whapping up against the windshield and sheet meat is entirely disconcerting. We turned around and high-tailed it out of there. We had to make for the farm, to try and get in the shed, dodging precursor hail the entire time. Our shed is sort of a Quonset hut type structure, large enough for a combine, two tractors, and a two-ton farm truck. We nestled the pickup in between everything and shut the door and Wham-o!, the hail started pelting the metal shed, making an obscene racket. There is something unnerving about being attacked from the sky. It seemed like there was an army of tebuchets in the heavens loading up ice-balls and whistling them out at us. It's probably the first time I've ever had a "nowhere to run" experience. I kept thinking, "I'm glad we're in this pickup." "I'm sure glad to be in this shed." "What would I do if I was a cow right now?"

So that was exciting.

We finally got the corral built today. It's a poor man's corral. It's shoddy. We had to use line posts as corner posts and the barbed wire just bends the posts when you try to tighten it. So everything's kind of just leaning eschew, looking bad. We bought some gate-type panels to use as a pen and runway to the portable loading corral. Tommorrow we have to put posts in to anchor the panels and then we'll be ready to work the cattle. *Unfortunately*, all this has taken so long that the wheat has headed out and we can't put cattle on it now. So the whole point of this is for naught, except we still needed to work them, so it's still useful for that, but all that electric fence is useless now. It'll be handy sometime, no doubt, but not soon.

This morning we found out that my Aunt Margaret died. It was unexpected. The funeral will be here in Alva, so I'll be seeing my cousins this weekend. It's sad. It's sad, no so much for me because she's gone, but just her life in general contained the sadness of a life never fully realized. Not a bad life, nor a bad person, or anything like that, but it was never what it could have been and I would have liked to have seen that change. Of course, for my cousins, their mother is gone and that's hard. I'll miss her, too. But mostly I'll miss what could have been, I think. I'm confident that death has been sweet to my Aunt and that she's better for it, but, you know, we don't live outside of time like she does now. For us, everything goes on incomplete and imperfected and disjointed.

Cheers to you and yours,
prewett

Zap!

I've spent the past few weeks building an electric fence with my dad in order to graze off some wheat we have that is laced with jointed goat grass, a pernicious weed. It's taken *forever*, for various reasons, and we just got it finished today. It works. We know because it's very easy to test: Apply finger. If you yelp, it works. :)

I've been buying a lot of musical equipment so that I can start playing out. In the past, I've always borrowed a PA system, but now I'm going to have my own. Simple, small, it fits me. Just put the finishing order on for some bulk cable to make speaker cables out of. I guess that's not all I need, I still need a power amp or a powered mixer, whichever is cheaper, but I've got the power amp narrowed down to an Alesis RA-100. It's normally used for studio monitors, but I think it'll work just fine for my needs and will be able to serve me double duty. There's a load of them on Ebay. New bookshelf speakers to use as monitors, new headphones, new PA speakers, cables, lots of new toys!! :)

Had some trouble with the bull calf the other day. He's not been cut, so he's starting to feel like a ladies' man. Jumped the fence (since the cows in our herd don't give him the time of day) to make some new friends. I thought he'd been stolen until I found him. So we had to get him back and close him up in our corral (a portable deal). Grounded! No TV, No internet, no phones, nothing for a month, mister!!

Sometime soon, my cousin will come up and we'll cut and tag and brand the calves and put them all on the wheat. I'll be pretty happy when we get this all done, finally. They're all long overdue to become steers, especially that bull calf (my father calls him "the prince"), but since the calves all belong to my uncle, we can't do things on our timetable.

Pizza Hut has cut me back to 3.5 hours now, so I'm thinking it's time to blow this town. lol. California, ho!

Let's get philosophical

Anyone catch the Olivia Newton-John reference?

There's something I think about from time to time. It is this:

It is impossible to completely understand or describe something greater than oneself.

One of the questions that arises from this is, "What is something greater than oneself?"
I have not prepared an answer to this question.

Here's my point:

The most accurate map of the Earth is the Earth itself. That is, there cannot be a map made that more accurately describes the Earth than the object and presence of the Earth itself.

Similarly, the most accurate description of who I am is myself. No words, pictures, or other devices can more accurately describe me than I, myself.

So, in order to completely describe (if not understand) something, you have to be it.

I think this is profoundly important.

Another important thing:

It is not impossible to know (as in, "relate to") something greater than yourself, although it is impossible to completely know something greater than yourself.

I can know the Earth, if only partly. I can know another person, again, partly. I cannot know another person more completely than I know myself.

An interesting question is, "Can one completely know oneself?" I have not prepared an answer to this question.

I think this is also profoundly important.

An example of my point regarding these two ideas:

It is impossible to completely understand or describe or know the Truth. It is not impossible for me to know the Truth, but impossible for me to completely know the Truth. This has profound implications. Even if you know the Truth about a certain thing or situation, you will never uncover the complete Truth about something, yet most people are satisfied at some point that they "understand the Truth." But the difference between an "acceptable" understanding of the Truth and a complete understanding of the Truth can be substantial. For instance, the difference between the acceptable understanding of the truth that my car is not operating correctly and the complete understanding of the truth of what is wrong with my car could be many hundreds of dollars in repair costs and time.

Similarly, and here is where I originated my thoughts today, is the idea that The Bible is not a complete description of God. Only God can be a complete description of God. And while there is evidence that the Bible does describe God and describes him accurately and saliently, it is still a far cry from God Himself. And while it is possible to know God, to know God completely is impossible. These things have profound implications for followers of the Biblical God. Profound implications that I think are far too often ignored.

This applies to all followers of anything. I think humanity has a tendency towards following no one but their individual selves, regardless of what they claim or believe to follow.

Humility is the prize of the wise.

Little baby bovines

Well, we've new calves now. They're a few weeks old at this point, it's been awhile since I've blogged. Three little bulls-to-be. One of them has a white face with black eye-patches. There's another older calf in the field who is growing horns. And I noticed today that the older bull calves are starting to hang out together. When I came and watered the cattle today, the cows and calves moved off and then the bull and the bull calves mosied away. Kinda funny. There's this really funny male/female/family/society relationship to these cattle. It's subtle but downright hilarious once you spot it.

Just today I saw a new-born calf in the neighbor's field. Momma was licking the new calf clean. So small and cute.

One day, I was walking the field and startled this jack rabbit. He rustled and then just sat really still, ears down, watching me. I came over and walked around him, a little bemused that he wasn't running away. It was pretty neat to be able to get such a good view of one. If I'd had an interest in rabbit stew, his survival strategy would not have worked. Luckly for him I just wanted to be friends. Finally, I decided we weren't going to be friends so I mosied on. Funny though.

A few weeks ago, the sky was full of these birds flying north. I think they're Sandhill Cranes. The Great Salt Plain Lake in Cherokee/Jet is an important stop on their migratory route. They have the most peculiar call. It's a kind of cawwing-purr. You can hear it for miles. You'll hear this sound and then see them circling in groups in the sky, riding the thermals, and you'll still hear them after they've disappeared from view. It's neat. They're beautiful birds.

The folks are gone to see Grandma Berta in Grand Rapids this week, so I'm by myself. Yippee!! I'll be doing some recording and getting various things done. I'm looking forward to it.

Spring is here. The weather has been consistently warmer for the past month. I've seen some crocuses in the neighbor's yard a few weeks ago and the trees are starting to think about leafing out. Just a little bit of green on the sky-roots. Grass is coming up in the pasture, enough to add some green to the brown.

Cheers,
mike

Roseu

No cow babies yet. These ladies seem to take their time with the whole pregnancy thing.

Valentine's Day at Pizza Hut was super busy. It was kinda nice, actually. I unfortunately sliced my thumb up doing dishes. I have an amazing ability to cut myself at food service jobs.

I got a scarf in the mail from Abby. That was very nice.

Waiting on a book and a set of screwdrivers to come in the mail so I can take apart my microphones. :)

Pizza and cattle

This job at Pizza Hut is relatively easy. It has reminded me of why I hate working at fast food: having an overwhelming focus on something completely mundane but with all the pressure of something that really matters. If I'm going to have tunnel vision, make it worth my time! :) But anyway, not a bad job. I've had enough real world experience now to recognize that mass food service like this is cake. It's just no big deal. It drives me crazy, but it's no big deal.

I love free food. I scavenge anything that is getting thrown away at the ole Pizza Hut, usually orders somebody screwed up or someone never came and collected (which happens, oddly enough).

Today, I went and checked on our cattle because my father is out of town. I had an interesting experience. I noticed that one of the cows is close to birthing. That's kind of nerve-racking because although cows are quite capable of birthing on their own, there's always a chance of something going wrong in delivery. Always. This is just part of the mammalian life. Giving birth is risky.

There's a young bull calf who has taken a curiosity in me, and I noticed today that the cattle seemed much more casual about my presence than usual today, so I thought today might be a good day to make friends. So I tried. I stood really still and kind of gently talked to the calf and he got kind of interested in me but you could tell he was just really scared. So, I sat down on the ground, figuring that would make me seem less of a threat. It worked. I just sat there, really still, and he started to come closer to me, and finally he got up to me and started sniffing my hands and my face, but he was just petrified. I think at one point, I accidentally twitched one finger and he shot away from me like a rocket. He came back, though. He just kept sniffing. I did my best to not look at him, because I figured that would freak him out. Eventually, he just kind of got unnerved, and left. In retrospect, I think I should have sniffed back. I think that's the thing to do. That seems to be one of the ways animals carry on. They sniff each other. I suppose it's like shaking hands. So, my not sniffing back put him in an awkward position and he didn't know how to take me. I also might bring an apple next time and try to bribe him. lol :)

It was weird being nose to face with even a yearling calf. They're substantially large, more so than you realize until they're in ur grill sniffing ur face! :) But it made me happy. I'd like to befriend the cattle. The older generation will be a much harder sell, but maybe if the younger set takes to me the older set will at least put up with me more. lol

Wedding Gig!

John Case asked me to play music at his wedding. I'm very excited! I'm really excited to see him and Rachel get married, and honored and stoked to be playing in the wedding. I played for another set of friends who got married and it was pretty great. I've already come up with some song ideas, so I'm pretty stoked. :) :) :) :)

It's not Philosopy, stupid...

I have thus far blogged mostly about philosophical things or mundanity on my internet rental space here. I don't know that anybody reads these posts, but who cares. Man has been leaving his mark around him regardless of watching eyes because we're supposed to.

I read this dude's blog about Obama's election and U2 and Eugene Peterson and it got me thinking about my own personal life at this junction.

I came down to Oklahoma to heal from my own mental, emotional, spiritual, and financial baggage and to hopefully work on my relationship with my parents. I can't really say I've done significant, continuous work in any of those areas. In many ways, each of those areas is worse than they were before I came down to Oklahoma. At this moment in time, I feel that I'm going to look back regretfully on my life and choices down here. I've never had the opportunity to say that about any other time in my life. I've always had reason to carry any of my history in two hands, weighing out one side with the other, finding an even balance. The regrets I've had in my life have been more about things I had no control over. That is simply not possible with this epoch in my history. Without ever intending to, I've let each of these areas slip away in my life. I've made obviously bad choices, doing things I knew weren't really good for me, or even right, not to mention rife with all kinds of nasty potential consequences. I think I'm still in denial, actually. There's still a sense inside of me like I'm watching a car-crash in a movie and none of this can possibly be real and I'll wake up soon and it will all be okay.

Here in NW Oklahoma, I've been as isolated as I've ever been. I've made no friends down here. Everything I do is removed from what I'm used to reality being. Reality reveals itself very slowly down here. It's you and the grass and the animals and the dirt, by and large. And they don't tell you the consequences of your mistakes very quickly. It takes time. Everything grows out here. The wind has to blow through it for awhile. In the city, everything happens fast. You get virtually instant feedback. People tell you what you're doing wrong, or right. The shops and businesses and culture are all talking to you very loudly and quickly. If you don't have money, you can't get that new thing you've been seeing and hearing everyone else go on about. If you're hateful towards people, they'll return the favor without hesitation. There's all kinds of people and cultures with expectations they're holding over your head. Here, the cattle and the horses and the pickup trucks and wheat and birds don't have any expectations for you. They don't tell you're doing the right thing or the wrong thing. If you're a nasty human being, they suffer quietly. If you're a wonderful human being, they applaud you slowly or not at all.

There are aspects of that I enjoy. I don't feel any pressure to be something I'm not. Conversely, I don't feel much pressure to be all that I could be, either. No one cares whether my views line up with theirs. Conversely, counsel is dispensed just as sparingly. I don't have to worry about what anybody thinks of me. Conversely, they don't.

What was in these posts by this dude said to me, "Where have you been? I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you." It is difficult to face that mirror. It is embarassing. It is loaded with regret, baggage, and pain. There is hope in it. But the decision has to be made that the hope is worth the pain. And I hate pain. A lot. It's ultimately a decision between selfishness and selfless ness. Again, I hate decisions like that. I don't want to drive the car right now; I want Greyhound to do the driving for me. I will gladly brainstorm for you all day, just don't ask me to move. But when the Lord get ready, you gotta move.

"Beautiful Lord.... Awesome and mighty..." -Leeland

Thoughts from Oklahoma

I've had a very introspective day. I've spent the day working on the house on our farm. 160 acres, a quarter section, that was originally the property of my great-grandfather and the house that sits on that land was built by my great-grandfather and is the birthplace of my grandfather. It's in a state of most disrepair. My job today was to patch up the outside walls so that the weather couldn't come into the house through all the cracks. I didn't end up getting all that done, but I did get the backroom of the house cleaned out. It's been boarded up back there and there was a bunch of interesting old things in there, including a Dr. Pepper bottle that has the old 10-2-4 logo. (Dr. Pepper's recipe used to include prune juice and was originally marketed as a drink to keep you "regular". Read: laxative).

Between working with this old house and being on the farm, my thoughts started meandering toward the lifestyle I currently lead. There's been much talk recently about the price of oil and the cost of gasoline and so forth and so on; the kind of talk I've been hearing (and believing) the large majority of my life. I've also happened to hit an economic low of my own (lower than I've ever previously been, which, if you know me, is saying something). I've been thinking of ways to live that are cheaper than common way. Heating with wood, having only one room in the house that uses electricity, I was even thinking today (because I saw an old breadbox) about the possibility of food storage by vacuum rather than refrigeration. And I started thinking once again about the, as I see it, inevitable end of "modern living". I presume that as oil runs low, machine usage will decrease due to cost and lack of availability of lubricants, and that this will in turn increase the cost of electricity. My thinking hasn't really gone beyond that, because oil and electricity are probably the two aspects of modern living that I rely upon the most. I don't think that there will be any significant change in lifestyle for this country during my lifetime, except perhaps towards the end of my life, but I do think that in the lifetimes beyond my own, reasonably shortly after my own, there will be significant lifestyle changes.

So, I started thinking: what would I miss the most? I can tell you that of the three things about modern life I love the most: cars, stereos, and refrigeration, I'll miss music the most. It's almost impossible for me to imagine a life in which I cannot turn on a device and hear music. The few times I have had to go for any length (like a week) without electronically reproduced music have left me rather depressed. It's the one thing I go out of my way to ensure availability of. If I'm going anywhere for any length of time, a means of listening to music is a must. Ipod, stereo, Discman, computer, Walkman, whatever, I've got one. I don't worry about food or transportation nor money hardly, but music is right at the top of the list. I always have a way to listen to music with the highest quality I can reasonalby muster.

So... here's a list:
Can you imagine lifestyle where the only time you hear music is if someone in your range of hearing is creating it?
Can you imagine lifestyle where there are no electric lights? Once the sun goes down, candles and fire are all you've got.
Can you imagine a lifestyle where there are no cars? Not just because you can't afford one, but because nobody can. You're not jumping a ride with a friend, or taking the bus. It's bicycles, horses, and feet.
Can you imagine a lifestyle without fast food? Without grocery stores? No, you can't get strawberries year-round?

I could go on but I won't. The point is not to scare, nor to educate either, but more to point out that the lifestyle I take for granted, poor as I am, is luxurious in the light of history, and, I think, destined to be short-lived. And when this luxury becomes economically unfeasible, what will it be like? I completely take for granted all kinds of "basic" things that are, in fact, amazing luxuries. (Hot showers... I'll miss them when they're gone, even if I'm in the grave, I'll miss hot showers...)

And I think that's more the point of what I'm saying:

These things that appear to me as "normal" are in fact totally exotic and amazingly luxurious. It's the lack of appreciation for the profound luxuries we have managed for ourselves that astounds me. The lack of people saying: "Yes, these are luxuries." I don't have a problem with luxuries, per se. I love Pizza Hut. I love hot showers. I love, love, love, being able to record and playback music. I love electric lights and the way the dashboard on a car lights up when you turn it on. I don't think they're bad things. I wouldn't even necessarily say it's bad to take down a mountain for its coal so we can have all these things, as long as we're agreed that we're willing to live with the consequences. It's like Halloween when I was a kid: I always ate all my candy quickly. I would run out in two or three weeks. My older brother would always eat his slowly and long about Thanksgiving, he'd still have some. That was okay with me. I enjoyed my candy up front, leaving nothing for the home stretch. That's a perfectly legitimate choice. Use all you've got now, live with the nothing you leave for yourself. But you should realize that is what you're doing, and nod your head in approval and say, "Yep, I'm willing to live with the consequences."

Resources are limited, and it's okay to choose how you want to use them, but acting like they are unlimited is not okay. Somebody's children are going to do without oil, unless you use oil at a lower rate than it renews itself (which it does... takes millions of years, but it does...). And that's okay. There have been people who lived prior to the mass use of oil and there will likely be people who live after the mass use of oil. It's just like passenger pigeons or dodo birds. We don't have them anymore because people used them up at a rate greater than their own renewal rate. That's a resource choice. I don't know how to evaluate whether that was a responsible choice or not, I just now I've never seen a passenger pigeon or a dodo bird. And there are going to be people who never see a car driving down the road, or who never turn on an electric light.

I'm not suggesting that resource management is outside of the realm of morality. I simply don't know how to determine the morality of resource management and so I'm suggesting that at least making responsible choices and accepting the consequences is the only appropriate decision.

I am now going to deflate my discussion and go see if I have any messages on Myspace. And then I'm going to open up the frig and cook some food and go downstairs and work on some recorded music, all the while electric lights blazing like miniature stars.

Postal for Mail

I just mailed something to Finland! It was every bit as exciting and thrilling as I expected. I think I might try to send myself to Finland soon. Heck, it's got to be the cheapest way to travel.

Also, Postal for Mail is my new band. We're going to rock the new-wave/alt-country tip. It's going to be awesome.