I Will Feel Less Bad

…on a front as exciting (to me) as the progress Century of Progress is making…

Cousin Mike has been doing killer (is it killa?) reviews for garageband.com. Very soon the first (old) floating Basement song will be out there - before which the downloadable world shall stand agape…

It will be stupefied and amazed.

What am I, Rockiavelli?

I will feel less bad about abandoning the fB book because Cousin Mike took the initiative to get this shit together. He still loves our old band. I wonder what Bill thinks of it all? I e-mailed him awhile ago – but nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch, the null set…

Maybe that speaks volumes.

Progress Two: Sometimes I Am Mel Coolie(sp?)

Practice went great yesterday. I can’t believe it. We haven’t practiced since our last show. Even ANY QUESTIONS which we fucked up mercilessly and left for dead…was pretty tight in spots. I think we came up with a good plan of attack to deal with some of the differences with Larry – so we can finish the record.

Whatever the differences here...I’m willing to try and work stuff out to keep recording at LNL. It has nothing to do with any loyalty or feelings for Larry – because I’m loyal to the guys in my band and trust them first. My thing is: at that studio I no longer have to spend my life packing up, moving & going and keeping track of everything so something can be finished. If we have to push Larry a little bit to get the mixes we want: so be it. I’ll push – I like doing stuff like that anyway.

Chris & Joe are having the best run of basic tracks ever…Why? Because we don’t have to spend three hours setting up before a single note is played…and time spent during that three hours involves beverages that are not tea – and when we finally get started we’re all a little…uh, limber shall we say.

Having said this: I’ve spent a ton of time on the sounds here and Chris is right about the cymbals. We fixed ‘em on STUPID NOW (after sort of arguing with Larry) but DIL still has a similar problem – although it didn’t seem so dramatic at the time. It does now and I hear it more and more (or I hear the cymbals less and less) every time I hear DIL. We can fix this – and because the big crashes are more spread out – we might be able to spike particular portions of the tracks to make these things more, for lack of a better term, dramatic.

It seems like I always lack the “better term.”

Anyway – this is how collaboration is supposed to work. I know that I don’t have as good an ear as Chris does. I need him to keep offering the sonic input. But what I do know is how to finish a project and what it takes to work with and against certain forces to carry something across the finish line. This has less to do with talent and more to do with the ability to be a dick. You know I used to have all this resentment against the ‘you know what’ members…because sometimes they treated me like Beatle Paul or Mel Coolie or something like that…But I have this practical side. The creative, risk taking ed (in the record making process) sort of goes out the door after the writing stage. Um, the risk taking ed comes back when we play live – but in the recording, production, post-production stage (listen to me, what a dick) I am, or can become when need be, the uber-practical suit (without the suit). Devin is always in some sort of creative space – even when he’s changing poopie diapers. Chris & Joe really become more like artists/craftsmen when it comes to dealing with sonic matters. I have to remember this stuff.

Sometimes I am Mel Coolie – I just need to accept that.

This Was the Modern World

Science finds. Industry applies. Man conforms.

This was the official, unofficial, official motto for the World’s Fair of 1933 (in Chicago) celebrating the Century of Progress…1833-1933.

Just because I am willing to poke fun of the WORSHIP of science in all its forms, please do not take this to mean that I am some anti-science, anti-technology boob – one of those “L” word guys. I’m blogging aren’t I? I found the World’s Fair Slogan on the friggin’ internets didn’t I?

While I love the Flanders line: “There are some things we don’t want to know! IMPORTANT THINGS!”

I don’t believe that junk – it just makes me laugh.

…this willingness to make fun of technology doesn’t have anything to do with my church. In fact, my church has a proud (although misunderstood) tradition of embracing the scientific realm – beginning with Albert the Great (not Fat Albert, although he’s cool too) and explained and explored more eloquently by St. Thomas Aquinas. Both thinkers found that reason & science have a defensible autonomy and ultimately faith and reason were compatible.

The name of the band I used to be in was more of an absurdist/passive-aggressive fuck you to technology than anything I think now - or anything I’d do today…and I didn’t believe in shit back then.

I’m not interested in drawing people’s attention to the present dangers of science and technology. Who’s looking at your e-existence? I don’t care about the bio-techno-horrors of our time. Are they cloning super-soldiers from my pubes that fall off in the Y locker room? Hey, it could help the Army develop a better jump shot. All instances when I’ve touched on the topic – in songs (What am I some sort of 19th Century topical song writer?) – in classes I’ve taught – in everywhere, but conversation with friends, where I’ll tell you what I think of embryonic stem cell research…

…but in all public endeavors – I’ve been careful to keep the references to the WORSHIP or the hubristic dangers associated with science and technology in the past…the automobile and what it did to some made-up, shit town in Indiana…the emergence of positivism and science as the prospect of implementing the scientific method in the study of human social interaction…and hopefully as a guide for POLITICS!!!!...and that came (& went, in reasonable minds) in the 19th Century.

I’m interested in exploring these things myself – and presenting, for anyone who cares enough to dial in…here’s how silly these caveman, nitwits looked believing that 1833-1933 represents the greatest techno-betterment of man in his history and the best is yet to come. Weren’t THEY stupid? We can laugh at those dopes.

Anyhow, I’m pissed at hotmail because my their server hasn’t been serving me since last night. I really want to suggest the name Century of Progress to the fellas. I’ve put some thought into this – I love the slogan…we can steal some crap from the World’s Fair posters…the lettering, images – whatever…

...but I can’t do our little e-mail chain. Damn you Al Gore! Lube up your internet! It's moving too slow for my taste.

Butterfingers

Alex and I have been watching select scenes from Spiderman 2. I love the movie – and we have a great time watching parts of it together. It is well cast and well made. But I have one beef:

There’s a scene where Doc Ock is holding Aunt May, they are several stories up.

Spiderman says: “Hand her over!”

Doc Ock flings Aunt May down and his face, in the process of “acting,” produces a pathetic smirk as he says, oh so cutely: “Butterfingers.”

Fucking motherfucking shit. I don’t say that in front of the kid but it is sooooo lame to have the bad guy, in the process of killing (or trying to kill) someone put on the ‘Oooops, let me kill with some quirky style here’

I mean – COME ON!

That is just so played out…and if it was Tim B sleepwalking through a Batman film so he can put another wing on his Bizarro anatomically correct wax museum, fine – I don’t care about that guy and/or most of the stuff he’s been doing.

But Sam R made a good film here – that gave me a window into Spiderman’s soul (ok, now who’s being lame?)…the point here is I am sure that Sam R is cooler than me, he should know this stuff – I expect more from him!

The one-liner splaying half-stylish, half-homicidal bad guy IS SO DAMNED PLAYED OUT I DON’T WANT TO BLEEPING SEE IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...and I know it's only one line from Doc Ock - the rest of the time he plays it pretty straight and he's great - that's what makes this one line so annoying.

…especially juxtaposed against my beloved wise-cracking Spiderman.

You know who can have that part: Mark Hamil (sp). He’s got no career other than being the Joker…unless someone is planning to make Corvette Summer 2: Midlife Crisis. Oooh, someone should make that movie.

…and that may be another reason why no one should trust my opinions on these things.

Any movie makers reading this blog (first, I hope there are some, because those ignorant sons of bitches will never catch all the grammatical, spelling, usage errors – and general lack of creativity that this blog is rife with – see?) – but any movie makers reading this blog – I don’t want to see your wise-cracking cutsie bad guys. We’ve all flushed that toilet, and you know something is hackneyed and tired when I call it hackneyed and tired.

Having said all that – Alex and I are buying the first Spiderman on DVD this weekend – and I can’t wait for the third installment to come out.

Transhistorical Warnings and Those To Whom They Apply...

Took the night off from reading and writing about John Adams to watch John Adams stuff on American Experience. Nothing there that I didn’t already know (and remember, I’m not that smart – so probably not a lot of new stuff there)…

…but in the reenactment parts of Adams waiting for the election results and final counts of the 1796 election – the guy who played Adams was smoking these little brown cigarettes. I didn’t know our second president smoked Mores.

Not Mores – Mores! Moops?

I used to smoke Mores. I was playing video games at my friend’s apt and we smoked a ton of cigarettes while we played. His girlfriend came over later – saw all my More butts in the ashtray and said: “You bastard! What’s her name?!?”

My friend Pete, who apparently was as naïve as me said: “What do you mean?”

She said: “These skinny little brown cigarette butts! Only women smoke Mores!”

I’m still dealing with the fallout of this copyright stuff for the Religion and the Constitution reading packet. I should’ve e-reserved that puppy…but some of these older readings – they just won’t scan…or they look like crap. There’s at least one author who is completely refusing permission – or, permission will be impossible. Have I become the Shawn Fanning of the U? I sure hope not.

The Adams show reminded me of why I’m drawn to him – and the warning for me that comes from the life of John Adams…besides “Don’t retain Washington's cabinet” – or “Lay off the midnight snacks!” A few years after losing the election of 1800 – Adams publishes a bunch of articles blasting Hamilton, other Federalists – and a variety of enemies – Federalists and Dem-Republicans alike! He used these articles to rid himself of bad feelings from the past. While there are some benefits to this…most of them are private – and even the private benefits come at a cost. First of all, people who feel or understand these things – when they see someone blasting away in print (even in e-print) they know: these thoughts about the past have more to do with the author than the past. So – maybe the author himself gets this release – excoriates the demons in a relatively harmless way – writing: fine. But even this private benefit can be stripped away when the writer thinks: ‘Hmmm, in the process of purging the past I may have hurt or misrepresented someone I love.’ And if this author – whether Adams or me – is sensitive enough to still smart from things in the past – they damn well better be sensitive enough to understand – or at least wonder/fret about whether or not they have hurt others in the written exorcism process. If they don’t – they’re a hypocrite or the writer has deluded himself into thinking that he is the only one can be or has ever been hurt.

And that’s pathetic.

Coffee is for Closers

Did I say DENVER and SEATTLE…because I meant PITTSBURG and CAROLINA…

dammit! I can’t even get it right in retrospect. I've got to get my hindsight checked.

Office Max needs to realize that this is America – and in America the work day begins at like 4AM or something like that. Those *bleepin’ communists don’t open up until 9AM. I think we’ve got Che Guevara scheduling hours for the people or some shit like that.

Regarding the title: I refuse to be done in w/ the old “paralysis by analysis” bullshit. Mixing was rough on Thursday – but Devin’ll hear the mixes, put in his 2 cents and then we’ll all know what to do next. Lotsa heads butting up against each other. The number one question everyone had was: “What is the goal here?”

The goal is to finish a mix of two songs: DIL and STUPID NOW…and just put on two additional songs from the Action City archives (maybe the ANY QUESTIONS we did with Alex DF) and maybe even a surprise from our first live show…and put out a free CD single…thus announcing our impending – NOT IMPLODING – album. Regardless of the head-butting at the mixdown – the great thing was hearing the performances again – and really studying them. ChrisB is really playing great – OD is not experiencing any of his problems with the red light (it’s because we are all playing together…Joey hates doing overdubs). I don’t mind doing overdubs – but for the bass player - I can see Joe’s point. The main thing here – Joe doesn’t have to do od’s because he’s kicking the ass of the part when we do the song live in front of the mics. Does that make any sense? Plus his sound just rules. Chris & I were sitting back listening to the bass sound and were like: ‘OK the Old Dog’s on it.’

I don’t give Joey enough credit sometimes. He writes great bass parts – very melodic.

I’ve said this before – ChrisB is playing out of his mind on these basic tracks. I really think it’s because he’s doing this other band with the Squirrel and playing all the time. This is soooo much better than the last time I was in a band with Chris and he and Devin decided to be in another band. They were off doing the most exciting part of being in a band – just getting started – partying a lot at practices – playing the first shows etc…meanwhile I was mixing the 1st ‘you know what’ record – spending hours in Cary, IL – coming back with mixes that everyone hated – passing up shows w/ our band so they could open for the Tossers…it still burns my ass thinking about it. I really felt like a fucking flunky. I should've quit then - saved everyone a bunch of time. Of course if I'd quit at that moment and around those circumstances I would've hurt my friendships with Dev, Chris & Joe (Bill would've been fine with it - I think he was ready to call it a day two weeks into making the record he was so bored by that shit). If I had quit at that time - we'd never be in this band now - and I love being in this band with those guys. We play like there's ten years of bad and good road between us. What? Most importantly, I felt like a flunky because of pride and thinking of myself first. I can't do that. That’s something I need to learn from my church – to live and let die…

…maybe I can just learn it from a James Bond movie. Is it more fun to learn something while shit is blowin' up?

The point is – this time it really helps that Chris is playing so much. That’s what I should care about – all that other shit happened and worked out. There’s all that water around the bridge so it doesn’t matter. What?

Coffee may be for closers, but I need to lay off it this morning. I’m getting worked up about junk that happened a thousand years ago.

Ok Gamblers

In an effort to help my fellow man - I thought that I'd post my picks for the 2006 Superbowl.

DENVER will play SEATTLE.

...everyone feel free to put your money on Carolina and Pittsburg.

Home on a Saturday Morning

Mixing confusion on Thursday night.

Stressful meetings at the U on Friday morning.

I’m taking off work this morning. I’ve got six hours of hhe vacation left and I have to use it before my anniversary (Jan 23).

Came home from work late last night…didn’t get back until 7:30 or so because of the wackiness. Alex & his buddy Zack were getting crazy. Fun Friday night around my place…We were officially the last delivery for Tom & Jerry’s. They were suspending stuff because of the weather. I took Zack home after dinner because I don’t suspend deliveries for anything. Got stuck near Mr. Z’s place but I was rescued by some nice young mullets.

Listening to Bruce Levine interview Neil Cotts - God Bless You 2005 WhiteSox! This is the first year that I do not want the new baseball season to star. I want the ’05 Season to last forever. I guess it can. They played the last John Rooney call on Baseball 365 – I thought it was my cell.

Man, this is what normal people do on Saturday mornings. They putter, listen to the radio and write boring blog entries.

God Bless America!

More Thoughts on Not Much

…I’m not going to say anything directly about the rumblings and maybe even the coming fear on K Street. I actually like lobbyists. “Like” might be too strong of a word. I think lobbyists have some rights with respect to government…after all they paid for it. Yeah sure, the tax payers pay for even more of it - but for the most part, they/we don't give a crap. The tax payers are like the hard working parent that gives their kid some money for college, never asks about the classes - but tells the kid: "You better get A's." This is all so easy for me to say, joke about – whatever – after all I’m safe and worm…er, warm in my little womb here in my own private United States Minor Outlying Islands. We have the K Lot which is part of the greater university parking network…

Yesterday was the first day of classes and I met many of my new students. I’m doing different stuff this semester. I’ve even turned part of my class into a riddle. I do not like the bookstore. For the past few years, I’ve employed e-reserves for several of my classes. This semester I’m giving the kids five open book quizzes.

Riddle: How do you have an open book quiz in a class with no textbook?

Ok, I didn’t say it was a particularly interesting riddle.

I’ve always had these hostile, or at least unfriendly thoughts towards Scottie Mac. It’s another case of the guy that follows the guy…whatever one thinks about the g bushy admin – Ari F was an awesome official mouthpiece. Any interview with him (especially now, or w/in the last two years) has been gold. Not that he’s giving away any big secrets or anything – he just has some funny stories. My favorite was the strike our president threw at the World Series (2001). Mr. F. talked about the Prez and his advisors being down in the Yankee Clubhouse discussing how Mr. Bush should throw out the first pitch. They decided since the Prez has to wear like 60 pounds of Kevlar – he’d throw the first pitch from the front part of the mound. It was all agreed until Derek Jeter, who overheard the conversation said:

“Mr. President, this is Yankee Stadium. If you throw out the first pitch from the front of the mound, they’re gonna boo ya.”

g bushy: “Do ya think?”

Then the Prez got back together with his advisors and they weighed the pros and cons – maybe consulted polling data. They finally re-decided that the president would throw out the first pitch from the rubber – just like the Rocket. This brought out a big cheer from the Yankee Clubhouse. As g bushy was walking out, Derek Jeter offered this last bit of advice to him:

“You know Mr. President, this is Yankee Stadium. If you throw out the first pitch from the rubber, and you bounce it – they’re gonna boo ya.”

Da Panthers

L. Smith and his crew did a good job this year – in spite of the way it ended. Carolina just found a personnel package that exploited a weakness in the Tampa 2…by personnel package I mean Steve Smith. He was the best player on the field yesterday – and I don’t really like Steve Smith – I tend not to like, or care a lot about wide receivers in general. He was truly great.

We had a bunch of people over so it turned out to be a fun day. I was a little bummed because I couldn’t go to the Chili party on Sat night – Kim and I only had one night of babysitting to use this weekend – it was either my birthday or the Chili Solstice. I love Paul and there were going to be people there that I haven’t seen in awhile…and sure, I see my wife everyday…but we don’t get to go on dates every day, every week – whatever…so I made my choice and I stand by it. I love my friends and they have been wonderful to me…but my story is a love story. I love my wife and I’d been looking forward to going on a date w/ her for weeks. End of story.

I’ve got a bunch of practical bullcrap to do today to get ready for the semester – and I have to work at hhe this afternoon. By Thursday I will be in full swing with the next phase of my work on Adams. I’ll have all three classes up ‘n running by then (yeah right) and I can turn some of my attention back to Adams. Enough on the nothing I am working on right now.

Larry’s computer is fixed and we’ll be back on it Thursday. He’s cool. He knows we were unhappy w/ the first round of mixing and has offered us a free session. We’ll do two hours on Thursday at 7pm. It’ll either be STUPID NOW (which needs a new title) or DIL. I know that I was the guy who was saying DIL should be our first single blah, blah, blah…but just looking at everyone’s faces when we listened to the tracks a few weeks ago – especially Devin’s – when STUPID NOW came on, Devin had a look on his face, and then said: “This is the first thing we did in here and it’s still the best thing we’ve done here.” He said it like he was sort of (and this is too strong of a word) disgusted by that. I don’t think it’s that bad that the first thing was the best thing (and by the way – we’re not done yet)…that’s what has happened so far. I can’t be disgusted or even bothered by that. I understand and can accept what has happened so far – and know I still have the future to do something about whatever…

OK – I’ve got to get back to work here – or I’m going to have a future with no lecture notes for the students on my new grading scheme.

The kids would love that.

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to Me

Kim and I are going to go out and whoop it up tonight. Ms. J is lined up to watch our beautiful boy and mom and dad are going to have a time.

Speaking of Alex, we went late to school today. I told him that it was daddy’s birthday and he wants to spend some time with you in the morning if that’s ok w/ you.

Alex: “Sure. Can we watch Dragon Tales?”
Dad: “Yeah.”

We drove to Deb’s and Alex said: “I have a friend at my new school named William Scooby Doo Fingers.”

Should I call the police or something?

Ok. I’m just going to admit this and get it over with…I am not a fan of Green Day – but I love American Idiot. It’s a great record. I’m listening to it right now. There – I said it. I think I’m just highly suggestible – Josh posted something about it awhile back – I’d been listening to parts of it here and there…I finally just bought the record. Is this just because I have issues w/ gbushy? I don’t care.

Cousin Mike gave me a Hank Williams record for my birthday. He rules. I’ve got to get together with William T. Garver and Mike. We keep saying we’re going to do something socially – but that doesn’t seem to work. I did NOT want to resort to this – but I might just have to call for a full-fledged floatingBasement reunion just to get us all in the same damn room.

Worked on the History of Social Thought syllabus…and stuff for the Religion and the Constitution class – didn’t do much with Adams today. He’s dead – he’ll be there when I’m ready to work. I really need to pick up Ferling’s JOHN ADAMS: A LIFE (I use caps because I can’t get my damn blog to do caps). More on this later.

Adams is Next

The meeting w/ Mr. G went well today. I still have no idea if we’re going to launch the class…but the dIs proposal is on the right track.

Before I finish my lit review, and draft of the chapter outline…I’ve got to come up with a good title (not for the dIs, but for the class). I’ve got a feeling that, following the old Martin Diamond rule – my faculty adviser will be impressed and seek “impact” funding for the class only when he is sure I have a snappy title. Martin Diamond was a smart man, excellent writer – and his work always had great titles. I don’t mind following his guidance second hand through Mr. G.

Wrote several letters for students today. No sentence fragments in those – I hope…

No time to listen to the confirmation hearings today. I felt like crying.

Larry’s computer is messed up so no mixdown tonight. There’s a reason why I haven’t mentioned new band names lately…

At some point, when I’ve done a bit more reading – I want to talk about some of the non-canonical gospels. Here’s something that’s more mind-blowing to me than any of the so-called revelations that can be found in Gnostic works or other “secret stories” of Jesus: - there are two Apocalypses of St. Peter. Now that’s working overtime. You write one apocalypse and say: “That’s not good enough – I’d better write a second.” I do not know enough about the early church or the canonization process to say anything all that intelligent about this stuff…I do know that later authors wrote such gospels in the name of a famous person, so St. Peter probably didn’t write these things.

I was drawn to these books by the name - St. Peter (or at least what St. Peter represents in the history of the Church) is a hero to me. I am not a theologian, and I often rely on some pretty shaky knowledge of how “who got to be what” in the Catholic Church – but it interests me that:

A.) St. Peter is the first leader of the Apostolic church on Earth established by Christ

B.) The further one goes in the (canonical) Acts of the Apostles – stories about St. Peter begin to (this is the wrong way of phrasing it) – take a back seat to what’s going on with St. Paul.

C.) A book where the man some believe to be the first Pope speaks (again second-hand) of his understanding of the end of the age – and Christ’s words to St. Peter about redemption is considered by some of the early church fathers to be heretical (I think that was the 2^nd Apocalypse of St. Peter which the Gnostics lugged around with them…) and the 1^st Apocalypse which, for lack of a better term, didn’t bake the final cut of the New Testament.

Maybe this is just a testament to the ignorance of ed…

Add these observations to the list of things I don’t know.

There was some junk about these things on the History Channel or something - which is weird because I was reading about one of the Apocalypses of St. Peter a few days ago? Is this the crushing hand of fate?

Sorry Bruce Springsteen.

I’m going to be spending time (maybe even here) writing about John Adams, his theoretical works and their political consequences so I just wanted to say something about something else…before I commit to uh, whatever…

Maybe that’s the title of the Adams class: “The Theoretical Works of John Adams and their Political Consequences”…

MARTIN DIAMOND – WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME???!!!

The Guy Who Follows the Guy

If I ever hear the term “super duper precedent” applied to a Supreme Court case – or anything…I’m going to freak out.

I triple dog dare the Honorable Senators to confirm Judge Ito, but put him on double secret probation.

Sen. Spector is looking much better than he did during the Roberts confirmation. What am I, the Mr. Beigewell for the Beltway? I think it was the late Sen. D.P. Moynihan who said that politics was show business for ugly people. I tried radio, but I guess I missed my true calling. Apparently, radio requires that you are ugly and talented.

…actually, radio doesn’t REQUIRE one to be ugly – look at Imus. He’s just poured into that hat.

I am not going to listen to the Durbin questions. I’ve met our Senator and respect him for his public service…

A serious point on Durbin: I wanted to show up when he supported the protestors of the Veep’s visit to the NIU Convocation Center. I wanted to ask the Senator if he thought the Convocation Center looked like a big gray hockey puck. Hey, I’m a voter – I deserve an answer to that question!

I love DeKalb – but friggin’ Molly’s disgraced our town when VicePresident Cheney came for the fundraising wing ding. They wanted to welcome the VicePresident to our town – and while I have my beefs with the current administration, the war, the hurricane, leaks and treason…I think that someone like the VicePresident embodies the office – so if you have issues with the man – you must respect the office. Anyway – Molly’s wanted to welcome him, and doing that properly requires that they show respect for the office and put up a sign like: ‘WELCOME MR. VICE PRESIDENT…WELCOME TO THE VICE PRESIDENT’…they could include his last name – but to do what they did…

Their sign said: “WELCOME CHANNEY.” If the VicePresident drove in, you know he’d have gotten out of the car and kicked some ass. Thank goodness he flew in on a jet pack or something.

All the concern the Dems have for this notion that Judge Ito will replace Justice SDO’C is curious…the source of their argument is that the nominee is radically different from the Justice he is replacing. Don’t they claim to be the party of change? The Elephants took the Congress in ’94 as the true party of change…they certainly have shown (in the past five years) the ability to change their views (radically) on deficit spending and BIG GOVERNMENT! Now our president’s men are putting forth judicial nominees that represent (to some) a radical change in things like the Supreme Court…

- Things that make you go: ‘ed doesn’t know what he is talking about.’

Working my ass off on the Adams stuff for my meeting with Glenn tomorrow. Hopefully the Dept will receive the “impacted” funding and I can teach this class. I will be paid to finish the dIs – and really forced to finish the damn thing so I can teach the class properly.

Uh oh, here comes another list from a Republican Senator who reminds us where Judge Ito ruled for the “little guy.”

Who knew the guy presided over so many cases involving midgets…

Not Yet Too Delate for Goodbyes

...sorry Julian Lennon....and everyone else.

Goodbye former majority leader – we hardly knew you all too well. Actually, he may try to run for his Congressional seat after the unpleasantness. Maybe he’ll get a shot to be minority whip…

I do not think the corruption scandals will cost the Republicans either house – especially the House house – of course my political predictions always come with this caveat: NEVER TRUST THE PREDICTIONS OF A STUDENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE! You want to trust the weatherman? Fine. But if you want to put your faith in the predictive abilities of political science – you’d be better off worshiping the mystic fire-farting lizard of Malta…after all, some drunk told me that lizard farted fire for our sins.

Having said all that, do I have a prediction for the Judge Ito hearings? If anyone has a chance to break the 80/20 rule – or not be helped by the 80/20 rule – it might be this guy. This statement must be understood against the backdrop that the bullshit 80/20 rule comes from some legal/mystery/action novel…and while I’m not the only dumbass that refers to it – it is a sign of the dumbing of America that serious people – and me, get part of our language from such sources.

My blogging has been undeterred by the Spyware Strike ad ware – possible virus thing that has attacked my computer. I saw it loading on Sat night and I could not stop it. I don’t think it was the fake Smoking Gun link to the story about Bobby Bowden’s granddaughter…but the Smoking Gun doesn’t deserve any heat from me or anyone else. They have brough so much shame to the few – and laughter to the many…the Smoking Gun is sort of like the f’you Robin Hood of our culture. That’s probably wrong.

Avast does not have the ability do rid the core of the Virtumondo(sp?) thing or whatever that powers the Syware Strike thing. MS beta version – no help either…NoAdware wants me to pay for the version to delete all the infections the free version found. That works out nicely for them doesn’t it…I’m going to go to the computer store underneath my old apt on N. 3^rd St to talk to the fellas in there. At least I will see the people who may or may not rip me off – face to face. That’s something…right?

Stayed up too late reading Adams diary last night. Going back to the diary is supposed to be my break from reading Novangelus, Discourses on Davlia, Thoughts on Government and Defense of the Constitutions…but the diary and character sketches Adams wrote early in his life are what drew me to him in the first place – why not waste more time reading them when I need a lift.

I’m too busy to listen to the hearings today – I may be able to watch the replays on C-Span tonight…I used to watch C-Spans coverage of Senate sub-committee hearings to see if someone I knew was falling asleep or shooting spitballs...I guess there are other reasons to watch it.

Big Slugger Action Hamilton City Drag

Played rock show at Otto’s last night. Some very nice people came out and made us feel great – they appreciated our on-stage “experiments”.

Set:

1. Sound
2. dil
3. Spill
4. Urlacher
5. Hey Lucky (For Medicinal Purposes Only)
6. Done
7. Come ‘n Go
8. Any Questions
9. Stupid Now (which needs a new f’in title)
10. Imported Wine and Soul Food
11. BFI
12. 7 Minutes Over
13. Real Eyes
14. Norwegian Wood
and…against my better judgment an encore
15. She’s a Burner

The first half was rough. Dil was off kilter, I broke two strings on Hey Lucky, communication between us was low – and Chris was sort of having a rough go of it – and for our band, the drums are the Alpha and Omega of our live set. Chris has been playing great for months – especially since he started jamming w/ Alex (my friend, not my kid) and that other guy. He’s been great in the studio, rock solid at Phyllis’ (even though he was w/out a monitor…or a Merrimack)…and just kicking ass in general…the first half of the Saturday show – not so much. But it was ok, because the audience liked it and again – really encouraged us…and that’s what little rock bands like us need – encouragement from family and friends. From Any Questions on made up for the defects of the beginning of the show. It took us 8 songs to get our shit together. That’s understandable. D’s hands probably had baby poop on ‘em…good news – Old Dog did not pick up any strange CDs backstage @ the Otto’s. He was solid. Me, I was me. I shouldn’t have said Hey Lucky was about a retarded dog…2 minutes after saying that – strings started breaking on my guitar…another sign that there is a God and he loves retarded dogs.

I was so glad to actually be at a show with Kimberly Jo. Alex (our kid, not my friend) was hanging out w/ his GPs (not Gram Parson). Alex (my friend, not our kid) was in a great mood – representatives of the hearing aid (and battery industry) were in the house – and they all seemed to be feeling good. I may write some sad songs…but I’m glad our shows seem to (for the most part) take place against a backdrop of people feeling pretty good. I wish I could’ve stayed to hang out with everyone – but after Imported Wine, I was hacking and sweating pretty hard. It was all I could do to load up my gear and get my ass home. Had a perfect end of the evening w/ Kim – we chilled out and had Aldi 4 cheese pizza. Any time you can get four cheeses for less than $2 – that’s pretty damn good.

The Worst Idea I Ever Had

My friend the PD just posted about poetry being made of words not ideas. I think the story he presented tells much about the nature of art and the importance of craftmanship or some shit like that over trying to be an idea factory. This is a good story and I believe much of it...and take a similar approach myself.

I think it's a sound approach to writing - focusing on the actual words - what they do - how they sound, etc...

My main reason for shying away from ideas is: I am a sort of idea factory - FOR THE WORST IDEAS EVER!

Consider: This is the worst idea for an adult film: "The Gang of 14 Factor"

see -
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5080836

Sleep well.

The Hamiltons

Devin couldn't make it to practice. No doubt he's elbow deep in baby poop...but she's so damn cute. Those babies make you love 'em. They're manipulative like that.

We tried to replace Devin with Bobby McFerrin, but the idea worked better on paper.

ChrisB showed us this video where two dorks gave a store clerk a $10 bill as they rapped: "It's all about the Hamiltons."

I said: "Fellas, we are the Hamiltons."

I e-mailed Dev - I'm sure I'm fired when he gets done doing more important things (like planning how to fire me). I think the Hamiltons is a name worth being fired over...

It doesn't get less funny every time I say it - because it wasn't funny from the get go.

It reminds me of one of my favorite Paul Westerberg lines: "Feelin' like 100 bucks"

If we get Bill Garver to rejoin the band his stage name could be Ten Dollar Bill.

The Hamiltons is a better name than my other contributions - although I still am partial to the DeKalb Staleys.

I'm watching this piece on Komkast SportsNet about a vault in the Bears' downtown offices. There's a helmet from Red G., old jerseys, these great photos and huge trunks labled Mr. Halas. I bet the they were full of nickels. The Bears need a museum for all their old shit...except for Halas' nickels. They should just give those to Wilbur Marshall.

This year (last year) I played the TGC gig w/out Dev, the solo gig w/out him and this practice tonight - it's pretty weird. There's something about playing with that guy...

When we started out the 'you know whats' Dev, Bill, this girl and I all lived in the 1 &1/2 bedroom apt on N 3rd St. We'd go out drinking every night. The next day Bill went to work, the girl was still passed out and Dev & I would watch SportsCenter, drink coffee & play guitars. Yeah, he was the first guy I was in a band w/ that actually liked sports. All the other musicians and arty guys I knew wanted to kick my ass and call me sporty because I watched baseball or something like that. It was hard for me to explain that I'd get tired of Dr. Who and Image Union after awhile (and by awhile I mean like 34 seconds). It was great - for years I was the whipping boy of everyone who got red asses from towel slaps and jockstrap wedgies. Um, did that sound bitter? Everyone needs a whipping boy...mine is George Thourouhgood (I won't even spell that bitch's name correctly!)

Oh Devin, so we would play guitars and go late to our half-assed jobs...and we wrote a ton of fucking songs that way - and show them to the band later at practice. That was one thing about 'you know what' - we failed but it was not for lack of trying. We wrote tons of songs...and we had more original material than anyone else I knew...now that's not saying all, most or any of it was all that good - but in those early months back in DeKalb that was exactly what I needed to do. I left a lousy job and played guitars with my friend.

People used to make fun of us for being such eager beavers - even Bill made fun of me for spending all that time playing the guitar - and he was in the band. None of that matters now. I can't wait to play with my old friend on Sat. Hey, we're lucky to still be doing it.

Life is not a bag of shit.

Unsick

I cannot get unsick. I loaded the defective toilet, coughed for 15 minutes…drove to Meynards…got a big ol’ cart, coughed for another 15 minutes…got my money back, walked back to the car, coughed twice – Hey maybe I’m getting better…

Mr. Drury really saved our butts yesterday. Having a plumber you trust living in your neighborhood is definitely a good thing.

I feel better when I think about the gig coming up Sat. Sure, we haven’t practiced in weeks, and Devin might have dried baby poop on his hands…but I’m geeked up for it. I love playing at Otto’s and I’m happy ChrisB got us a show there…with Western Grand. I haven’t seen Jay in forever…and the last time I saw the Squirrel was at the TallGrass Captains show. Everyone came out of the woodwork for that. Where is the woodwork?

Mr. Glenn sent me a note re: possible POLS classes for the Fall of ’06. I’m torn. I think I need to get a real job instead of teaching all these classes part-time. Alex will be in school fulltime next year (more of the good and bad about my boy growing up – I’m glad he’s going to be in school, but I will miss being home with him)…I dunno. I’m going to jump on NIU Human Resources NOW. Hopefully I qualify as human…

*cough cough cough…

Praying to the Porcelain God

My toilet is broken. I think I’m gonna puke.

Dammit.