I was going to mention earlier that I hadn't -aside from a few snippets of npr radio- heard or read any news for almost 3 weeks. Other than the Lohan thing that is. And I just read about this proposed massive arms giveaway in the Middle East and I'm fucking beside myself. Livid. Why have I learned about bullshit farmer subsidies that Pelosi negotiates, and Paris Hilton getting her inheritance taken away from her but not this? There is something fundamentally wrong with this. I'm going to go vomit and gouge my eyes out with dinner forks.
Good fucking luck.

Tomato tasting.

Salutations!

I am alive and well. I am living in California. I still feel like I'm borrowing someone else's life and might wake up asleep on the Blue Route any minute. I've got some new music and lots of "you know what's different about California from Pennsylvania?" observations comin' at ya! No, I'm not going to subject you to that. But I'll be able to update starting over the weekend, I hope.

a few hours after we moved here, I saw a sign saying that there was a free Mountain Goats in-store at the record shop a block away from my house. So it turns out he's from here and put on a great little show. It was probably the best welcome we could've asked for after a mild breakdown when we thought we were moving into a strip mall. Anyway, as a result I've been listening to lots of him. Anywho, more to come later.

P.S. The drive was fantastic. Pictures to come once I get internet access at home.

In May of 1739, Benjamin Franklin was taking a break from his duties as the writer, editor and publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanack (in addition to author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, environmentalist, and diplomat) and thought he could benefit from a “frothy beverage and titillating company”. He soon found himself at a local pub, where he made notes:

‘Tis only natural that my portly trail leads to a neighborhood saloon whilst I am grant’d reprieve from press and quill. Yonder watering hole is ripe with cronies, and grants me the inebriation that grants, along with divine providence, the inspiration I so dearly need. Forsooth, it seems to invigorate my sense of duty, and provides me with sound nourishment. What can be more natural and easy than this? I might instance the like in many other particulars; but this may be sufficient to prevent our being taken for Conjurers. O the wonderful Knowledge to be found in the Stars! Even the smallest Things are written there, if you had but Skill to read. Thus, I shall stay here, and enjoy more ale before returning to thine own chores at hand with what only the Belgian kins referred to as “a buzz on”. Thus, let these beverages be known as liberty beers, and may they resound throughout this great land”.

So there you have it. Benjamin Franklin invented lunch beers. So stop questioning my patriotism already.

Howdy Gangsters!

more boxes, more phone calls, more remembering address changes I really need to make. Moving is a pain in the ass, and I don't care if you're moving to Shangri-goddamned-La, it's still gonna suck until you're on the road at the very least.
I'm getting close to that point every minute and hopefully by late monday night the packing and cleaning hell will be replaced with a traveling and hotel hell, followed by an unpacking (and maybe more cleaning) hell. It's a charmed life.
I'm pretty set on everything: book tapes, music, bottled water, shaved head for wind resistance... It's gonna be a fun drive. I think this'll be my last non-mobile post in a while, so try to bear with me, but I'll post what I can from the cell phone and have real photos.
I'm still terrified of not being able to find a good pizza place. I've been pounding fatty deli sandwiches and pizza all week and hoping the taste stays with me. It's so crazy to me to think of a place that doesn't have good pizza nearby, but then I thought every town had bagels until I was 19, so who knows.
Wish me luck, and I'm sure I'll be sending pics over here frequently out of sheer boredom, so bare with me.

I know it's not the right spelling.
Here's some songs that make me think of America. Also, when I return this bl0g will be renamed "Americatown". You've been warned.


"In the Ghetto" - Elvis Presley


"A Lucky Loser" - James Carr

oh, and go buy some shitty energy drink for your country.

Russian Space Dogs

okay, so when I say I've been packing all holiday off, I mean that I moved some shit into boxes and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Torrential downpour outside, and we got to check out Ratatouille, which was great. It was funny, hearing Patton Oswalt in an animated-creature tone. Almost enough to make you lose an association with his usual hate-filled existence.

oh, and browsing the web tonight I stumbled across some "Family Ties" fan fiction and sitting around laughing at how pathetic that was, then got halfway through a script without even noticing it.

Thank you, Elmore James, for making America such a keen place.
"Coming Home" - Elmore James

Now I'm watching Gimme shelter and going to bed. good night moon.
Go check out Saber's website. and read about Russian Space Dogs.

shorn and further prepared for the move ahead. This picture looks much grosser than I'd like it to.

it's amazing, how much crap I let go of every time I move. It's like shedding a small mountain of books and CDs. and I still have so many fucking books. Of course I'm sitting down and flipping through most of these as I put them in the chuck pile and finding pretty much every single slip of paper I've lost in the past 2 years. I'm up to my ass in boxes and I've got more work to do.
I can't even think straight because of these attempted attacks in London and Glasgow. What the fuck is going on? But at the same time, I guess we should just be happy that they were stopped.
But still, it's definitely given things even more of an edge.

"Redux" - John Rifle

download some John Rifle here.

the new most disgusting sounding drink ever? Gator Milk.

The Daily Show had a little thing last night where they went through the various operation names we've had in the Iraq war. In case you missed it, read through them here. The fact that we've had an "Operation: Beastmaster" alone should be a pretty clear indication as to how ridiculous this whole thing has gotten.

2X2L Calling....

I saw this walking into work yesterday morning and for some reason it really got to me. I was thinking for awhile that some poor senile person had mistaken the dollar store for an airport terminal, which meant that at that moment they were probably trying to recline a stack of frozen peas inside or something. There was no phone number on the luggage tag, so I just went on with my day and it was gone by the time I left that night. No word on whether a bomb squad took it away.

Was woken up (as I have every day in recent memory) by the hated neighbor, who was constructing some sort of worthless sign or some bullshit. I am not a handy person, per se. But I know the right order in which to do basic construction/carpentry jobs, and I can promise you that that bastard was doing it wrong just so he could make more noise at 7:15 AM. The motherfucker is toying with me, and seeing how I only have three weeks now to toy back, it looks like I should step up my efforts. Time to assert myself. Oh, and this goes for the abortion protesters up the street, as well.

"Why Did I Drink So Much Last Night?" - Fourth of July

"Wildflower" (live) - Sonic Youth

buy shit here.

just a total aside, can we fucking stop sending weapons into already fucking scary situations, please? I mean, how many time has arming someone for fight our enemy come back to bite us in the ass? I can think of five without even stopping as I type this.

Let's think about this. Group A is bombing American troops. Then, two months later, they decide al-Qaeda is a bigger threat to their beliefs, so we give them massive weapons shipments to fight al-Qaeda. How does this possibly work? And let's just say that through the miracle of Allah of whatever these people do what we -the eminent military industrial complex of the world- cant and defeat the international terror ring from withing one country. Who do you think they'd turn their guns on? Drug Dealers? Michael Moore? Hippies? For fuck's sake, to think that some asshole was paid more money than I'll see in the next 5 years to come up with this short-term gagortion of a plan is just fucking ridiculous. We should also start sending them missiles that can almost reach the US. that way we're totally safe. Good going, assholes. Way to outsource.

"Spiel" - Joe Strummer

I know this isn't really a song or anything, but I came across this last night and was just beside myself with the feeling in Joe's voice here -of frustration and exhaustion but also an underlying current of hope. I was talking with a good friend last night (actually, a bunch. Cotton has 4 weeknight beers and the dialing begins) and he asked how I keep a positive outlook on things when things -from my perspective, at least- can appear so bleak. I didn't have an answer then, but I guess it would've been very similar to this clip here. I have hope because I know change is possible.

on an entirely unrelated note, I got a job in CA and am now gonna be moving even earlier, so my posting is probably going to become pretty erratic (as if it weren't already). But I promise I'm going to try to update frequently and I'll totally document the drive out there, which should be fun. Just a heads up.

Spent plenty of time visiting in cemeteries over the weekend. I'm not complaining, it was nice. But while in a Catholic cemetery* I noticed the grave in the picture above. I wish I'd had an actual camera on me instead of my shitty phone, because had I stood back about 75 yards you'd see this giant lot crammed with graves and then in the background this giant empty lot with a solitary grave. I'd always heard this, but still wasn't sure until I was told that it was the grave of someone who had committed suicide. Doesn't that just suck? If I believed in an afterlife, I'd be pissed. I mean, isn't one of the big problems with depression, that people feel helplessly alone? I mean, why not bury a pedophile at Disney World? I've seen the graves of murderers, child molesters, and rapists, and they were all buried with more dignity than this.
Sorry, this just pisses me off. At the same time, though, why bury them there at all? I think I'd rather be thrown on a compost pile than blatantly ostracized like that. Mental note: is that legal?
On a more positive note, there will now be an apt. waiting in Cali, and if I'm lucky a job. Had an interview that went surprisingly well, if for a startlingly similar job to the one I have now. So yeah, that's now very interesting. I'm working on something that might be, though. Stay tuned.

I literally fell into a Zen Guerrilla show one night when the upstairs bathroom at the Khyber was destroyed and I had to use the downstairs one. I was at that perfect window between three beers and forty, and I distinctly remember thinking that the band sounded better than whatever review I had read.They were pretty high-intensity, and the singer was like a towering man-beast, howling like his hair was on fire. In all though, I really enjoyed myself and bought the album the next morning when I'd sobered up. For me, that's a ringing endorsement. I'd say one of my favorite Delaware bands ever.
"Barbed Wire" - Zen Guerrilla
"Staring into Midnite" - Zen Guerrilla
"where's My Halo?" - Zen Guerrilla

Buy Shadows on the Sun here.

Also, the Go! Team signed to Sub Pop! Huzzah! If the album is half as good as the last one, I'm gonna be a happy guy.

"Grip Like a Vice" - The Go! Team

on a side note, to the executives that decided to air Big fish on Father's day: fuck off. I love that movie, and it pulls at my heart strings at ways that I have never felt before. It's a beautiful sentiment and I appreciate your showing it on Father's Day. But keep your shitty promos off the screen and stop marketing in my tender moments. Thankfully, I got to turn it off and wait until I got home to pop in the DVD.

*Also, do we really need to be buried separately? Would you want to spend the afterlife in a church setting?