See, I don’t know if I was born with this affliction
Or if it was born out of necessity
And I don’t wonder if it’s a curse or a blessing anymore
Because reality crashed down on me and
Ripped the Faust face from mine
I get bits and pieces every now and then of how it happened
Which makes me think TV should be banned from the ghetto
Since it be from all the smoke and fog that ate up my life
The real one
The one I wouldn’t recognize now if it knocked on my head three times and shook my hand

Once when I was a kid I stuck my head in a vise
Sandwiched it right between The Brady Bunch and Beaver Cleaver
I kept turnin’ the screws, tryin’ to make ‘em fit
Would’ve been nice if my eyeballs just popped out
And released all the pressure through my sockets
But God’s got a real fucked up sense of humor sometimes
Now I’m walkin’ ’round with two screws stickin’ out the side of my head
A cross between Frankenstein and My Favorite Martian
Trying to use tools that don’t work down here
Guess I’m lucky Earth people got eyes that don’t see

I used to move a lot
Thinkin’ that maybe I was just in the wrong place
But I have moved through classes, races, genders and marital statuses
Through drugs, prisons, gods, sexual identities,
Heavens, hells, worlds, bodies, spirits and minds…
Just your regular old, run of the mill, recycled, reincarnated, reinvented miracle

But still I’m caught
Somewhere between you gotta want it bad enough and payin’ my dues
Somewhere between a will and a way
Somewhere tryin’ to make it happen
But why doesn’t anybody tell you that wills and ways are for the rich who
Buy sell and trade dreams like they playin’ the stock market?
That “hope” is a peso on Wall Street and
Mixed up little black girls from the ghetto
Who are low on confidence
Can’t use self esteem for collateral
‘Specially when it’s been whipped out of you
Just stolen right from under my nose

While I was jumpin’ rope, playin’ kick ball
And thinkin’ I was a kid…
Well everybody else was playin’ pretend
Playin’ like I was a grown up

Once you swallow that American Dream shit, it ain’t goin’ nowhere
Yeah, it can turn into some ole’ Afro-Centric, multi-cultural, humanist type manifestation
But still it’s there
I have fucked my self so many ways tryin’ to get-it and get-rid-of-it
That I have turned into a sub-terranian, dream bingeing and purging, mirage-aholic
And even after I’ve whipped out my fierce, psychoanalytical, constructionist, kung fu moves,
It’s still there
The last surviving remnant of the internalized, sub-atomic explosion of 1989
Just a big… fat… cockroach
Nibblin’ away at my consciousness
And I be damned if I ain’t right back where I started
Tryin’ to live a dream
And bein’ sentenced to life instead

Fini Dolo Featuring Sonja Sohn – Big Dipper To Little Bear

CSO LOTR

Last night, The Baumeisters invited me to watch their girls perform at Ravinia. They, along with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, performed the music from the first Lord Of The Rings movie while the movie played on a huge screen above the stage. It was awesome! I think every movie should be shown this way.

Door County Breakfast

A Game of "500"

South Shore Line

I’ve been traveling to the Michigan side of the lake for work lately. We’ve got a client with a vacation home over there doing some outside upgrades. On the way over there, I travel through all the industrial areas that are and once were. American Bridge Works, US Steel’s massive Gary Works, a huge coal-fired power plant, and “America’s last interurban”, the South Shore Line railroad. Great idea, the interurban, but they started to arrive in America at the same time as gasoline. Frank Sprague developed the electric trolley motor in 1886, right on the heels of Sylvanus Bowser’s gas pump in 1885. I guess we all know which one proved more popular. The South Shore survived mostly because it was able to run freight, had multiple cars rather than just a single car per “train” and it ran right into downtown Chicago. Sorry for the history lesson, but when I’m interested in something I Google. I’m taking medication for it.

The Opulent Eastern Shores of Lake Michigan

In any case, the trip through the industrial to the opulent this past week has had as it’s backdrop both the Ames straw poll for Republican candidates, Rick “Parry’s” entrance into the race and the furor at Fox over Warren Buffet’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times on Sunday the 14th.

Distribution of Wealth - 2007

I watched in wonderment John Stewart’s dissection of Fox News’ coverage of Warren Buffet’s Op-Ed. I can’t top that, it was a marvel to behold. Fox even went so far as to question whether or not Warren Buffet is a socialist. Awesome. Stewart cited several things in his bit, one of which was a graph from Business Insider which I looked up. It has some fun facts about wealth and inequality in America which you should see.

Finally, Senator Tom Coburn (R Okla) said in a town hall meeting on the 18th that, “The government actually is killing the potential for recovery in our country through regulations”, calling the Environmental Protection Agency “Idiot Bureaucrats”. He had previously voted for a resolution blocking the EPA from regulating green house gases.

So I had all of these things in my head as I watched in awe as the CSO, along with several Chicago choirs (including the Baumeister girls’), perform the score to the first Lord of the Rings movie as it played. It was while watching the movie that I saw the Conservative vision for America come into it’s full. Fortunately, Saruman didn’t have to deal with any of those pesky environmental protection regulations. He was free to turn the once green valley below Orthanc into a place “now filled with pits and forges”. He was a Job Creator. Someone who I’m sure Ayn Rand would find “deserving” of love.

A Once Green and Pleasant Land

Let’s look at the contributions Saruman made to the ungrateful people of Middle Earth. As I stated above, he was a job creator. Not only that, he introduced automation and mechanization into a world that was bogged down with the needless frills of “craftsmanship”. Treebeard describes him as having, “a mind of metal and wheels”. He brought this problem solving ability to bear on the question of how best to raise an army. Granted no one likes war, but if one must fight they may as well get the task accomplished as quickly and efficiently as possible. So what if a few trees have to pay the price to fuel the forges of Isengard? That is simply the price one must pay to get the job done and no damn tree hugger is going to stand in the way of progress.

And what of the Shire? Saruman tried to bring a new industrial base to the flagging economy of the Shire, with precious little thanks I might add. He was trying to institute the same changes that fueled Isengard’s rise to power in the small, rural community that was in desperate need of jobs. Just how far the modernization had come was evident from the many factories that must have sprung up. No hard numbers are available, but their growth was described in that, “smoke rose from many points round about”. Thank God that damn Clean Air Act wasn’t in place to stunt their growth!

When “Sharkey” Saruman took charge, the Shire was filled with uneducated hicks who were seemingly stuck in a “First Age” mind-set. Most of the inhabitants of the Shire were grinding out corn *BY HAND*, for Radegast’s sake!! They were completely under utilizing their resources and their efficiency was well below sub-par. Saruman brought modernization and mechanization to the once backward community. Granted a little water may have been fowled, but I can assure you that the Brandywine was *never* in any danger. Such is the price of progress, none of which would have been possible had the restrictive regulations of the Clean Water Act been in effect.

Merely the Price of Progress in the Shire

And what of the benefits this expanded economic base provided to the population apart from the boost to the unemployment figures? Well, some of the older, unsafe hobbit houses had burned to the ground, proving what a danger they were to the community. Saruman developed new housing with a line of beautiful, white houses all along Pool Side. These homes were marvels of engineering in that they were easily produced with inexpensive materials and generated a terrific profit for Isengard Property Ventures and it’s shareholders. A great buy for the newly homeless, former owner of the older, fire prone homes. Of course none of those community benefits would’ve been possible if those intrusive building inspectors had their way. Thankfully, in the streamlined economy of the new Shire, more than ample tax breaks were given to the Isengard Corporation in order to convince them to relocate to the Shire and as a result, funding wasn’t available for those idiot bureaucrats in the Housing Department.

For a while anyway, Middle Earth must’ve been a Conservative politician’s dream. Rather than let them live that dream here in America however, I say we sentence them to life instead.

- G

The stories fly, yeah the fish fry
every time that we’re together
The drinks flow, yeah and the fish grow
These are the memories that live on forever

In this dog eat dog world we all need a place
To escape from the rat race
Here’s my suggestion, it’ll come as no surprise
Just sit back and close your eyes

The stories fly, yeah the fish fry
every time that we’re together
The drinks flow, yeah and the fish grow
These are the memories that live on forever

It’s proven again and again
It’s all in the time that we spend
There lies the value of a friend
My friend

On the road that we travel each and every day
There are those that touch our hearts in a very special way
Though we may not see each other once in a while
Feelings rush back with a wink and a smile

The stories fly, yeah the fish fry
every time that we’re together
The drinks flow, yeah and the kids grow
These are the memories that live on forever
These are the memories that live on forever

Value Of A Friend – Saltwater Flies
(Sorry, no links this time. Small band with no web presence)

Back in the days when I’d spent more time in Iowa than I had anywhere else and work, monthly bills and grocery shopping were all new to me, I used to gather with friends over Thanksgiving. A month later, we would all be back in our hometown for Christmas visiting family and we’d all get to see each other again. Time passes and circumstances change. Some of us wanted to spend more time with parents during holidays and some of us didn’t really have a compelling reason to come back to our hometown since parents moved away. Back in 2006 when things seemed to be changing, Mitch proposed that, “we could simply group ALL the holidays into some convenient weekend, say, oh, I dunno, May 13th and get together then.” The e-mail exchange included things like:

Cool!  Does the Solstice Egg hunt happen at midnight?  Do you actually look for eggs or is it just an excuse to bring a date and make out like a Snipe hunt?  I can’t wait for the Cadbury Creame filled Pumpkins…

I think this all makes room for LOTS of new Holiday Traditions.  I think a solstice Egg & Midnight Snipe Hunt w/Making Out sounds like a fine idea.  (I never really cared for monkey nuts, anyway.)  Changing times call for new paradigms!

I wonder, could we work in some of those pagan fertility rituals?

Eventually, we came up with a list of activities that included; lighting the solstice wreath, carving arbor-day-o-lanterns, setting off the heart-shaped fireworks, singing Columbus Day carols, enjoying a big meal with a Kwanza turkey, singing Happy Boxing Day To You, blowing out the candles on the Easter cake and going on the above mentioned Midnight Solstice Egg hunt. Thus the Alliday was born! We set our sights on May 13th and this year we made it happen with everyone gathering in Austin. I think it was just kismet that the 13th fell on a Friday this year.

Kitty Feeder - Artist's Approximation

Some people have bird feeders in their back yard. My friends have a cat feeder. They’ve “adopted” the neighborhood cats in a fairly serious fashion to where the cats have all been spayed/neutered, have a regular feeding schedule and are welcome to come and hang out as long as they like. My favorite outdoor cat was George. That’s what I named him anyway. Jill insisted on calling him “Stupid” and I was told his name was “Not Joey”. I felt George suited him better.

Kilroy Is Here

We managed to get out and see some of the nearby sights in the Austin area. While the Mansfield Dam seemed a bit inhospitable in the post 9/11 world, the Oasis was just the spot to sit, enjoy a Margarita and look out over the lake. The Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco and the Train Museum at Temple were both fun, although Train Museum curator told us we were a day early for the “Harvey Girls” trunk show and exhibit. I was a bit bummed, I *so* wanted to meet Judy Garland!

Cheeeeese Gromit

The highlight of the road trips however, had to be the Texas Cheese House. Its run by Scott Simon, a guy who sold his corporation and took his cheese making hobby out of his basement and into the streets (much to his wife’s relief I’m sure). Mitch filmed the entire visit on his iPhone which endeared us to Kaeley, the girl behind the counter, right away. We had some lovely Caerphilly and stinky Manchego as samples. They’re quite generous with their samples. I bought a bit of each of the above and proceeded to leave them in Austin when I flew back home.

We're a Pepper!

While traveling the wild and wooly highways of Texas, Mitch decided that we should all have wrestling names. He seemed to come up with this idea as we were eating at Wendy’s when he picked up the “sour cream” container I had for my baked potato and started reading the ingredients. He decided then and there that my wrestling name was going to be “Toxic Waste”. And I suspect that because Kenny is such an intimidating Mo Fo, he earned the moniker “Threat Level”. Jill, who was absent for the trip when we decided on wrestling names, was branded Mnemonic. That left Mitch.

Long Train Runnin'

The rule is that you can’t choose your own wrestling name, so it was left to Kenny and I to decide what Mitch’s name was going to be. Initially we were going with “The Authority” since it was his iPhone that connected fastest to the Maps/GPS feature and lead us where we wanted to go. This however proved to be problematic when it came to the train museum and we ended up in a sketchy neighborhood in Waco without a train track in sight, rather than in amongst the boxcars in Temple. Anyway, when Mitch decided that he’d rather nap on the trip home than interact with Kenny and I whom he hadn’t seen in months, Kenny and I decided to call him “Sleeper Cell”.

So Where Are Those Margaritas?!?

At the end of the day I’d have to call the first annual Alliday a smashing success. I’m not sure the Absinthe toast to friends both present and absent will continue on into future Allidays judging from Kenny’s reaction to both the smell and taste, but my guess is we’ve started a new tradition for future May 13ths.

Allegedly Chex Mix

I hope you all had a fine Monday-Thursday and a Good Friday.  Mine was okay, I spent the evening driving back to Iowa for Easter.  I paid $3.65 for gas outside of Davenport!  So much nicer than the $4.25 I pay in Chicago now.  After I fill up, I wander in to get some Road Chow and decide to pick up some Chex Mix.  I felt a little nostalgic remembering eating Mom’s homemade out of a turquoise over white glass Pyrex type bowl during the holidays.  So I’m all set to dial the memories-way-back-machine to the mid seventies and munch on some garlicy goodness that is supposed to be Chex Mix.  Not gonna happen.  Now, I realize that no store bought product could ever compare to Mom’s homemade and I’m willing to accept that, but this snack was *made* by the folks who bring us Chex cereal and who (ostensibly) brought us the recipe for frickin’ Chex Mix in the first place back in 1952.

Mister Salty loves him some talk-like-a-pirate day celebrations

Mom used to use Mr. Salty pretzel sticks in her mix that would pierce the roof of your mouth if you bit into them wrong.  This package of… snack food I’d picked up from the Davenport Flying J had no such pretzels.  I appreciate the round and window pane shapes that their pretzels came in because of the afore mentioned Scream-4-reenactment-in-your-mouth provided by the stick style pretzels, but the round and window pane shaped things had no salt on them whatsoever.  They were these sad, little, brown shapes that had nothing to recommend them.  The were made of some sort of industrial strength desiccant mixed with Sham Wow shavings and brewed with an imported yeast that releases actual Sahara Desert air when activated.  This combination of ingredients sucks any and all moisture from your being when placed in your mouth and turns you into a dried out husk resembling the Crypt Keeper in a matter of seconds.  Remember the greasy goodness that butter and Worcestershire sauce created when mixed, heated and drizzled over Chex cereal?  There was none of that here.  It was mostly just those pretzel things and the occasional Chex piece.  It’s called Chex Mix for crissakes, where’s my frickin’ Chex bits?!?  No mixed nuts, no garlic, just arid, moisture absorbing brown bits taunting me from the passenger’s seat.  It’s not like I was in Whole Foods buying free range broccoli,  I was in a truck stop buying what I thought was a salty, greasy, carb snack.  Bastards.

The thing I fight most when I start to post is the urge to bitch about, well, everything.  I fear I’m becoming a crotchety old man and lord knows I love a good rant.  Case in point, my treatise on Chex Mix.  So rather than talk about the 400 richest Americans having more wealth than the 150 million(!) poorest Americans and saying, “they only call it class war when we fight back.”  Or going on about the Plastic Island in the Pacific that’s twice the size of Texas (have you ever driven across Texas?  It’s HUGE) that we seem intent on leaving our children, I’ve decided to take Susie up on her request and talk about my great western migration and triumphant return.

I headed West for several reasons.  I felt that I was beginning to become more of a liability than an asset for my then employer and good friend.  I was making good money, but not (in my eyes) contributing much to the bottom line.  How many times have you heard that in your life?  ”I’m making too much money and not doing enough for the company.”  I was also looking for the opportunity to change my social life.  I believe the phrase Jim and John used was “thinking with my dick”.  Be that as it may, let’s just say that between work, home life and general frustration, this was my mid-life crisis solution.  Always opt for experiences over possessions.  You can have stuff or do stuff.  If I would’ve bought an Italian sports car, all I’d be left with now is a beat up sports car that wasn’t worth anything after driving it for five years, huge repair bills and not much else.  Currently, I’ve got stories, friends and a 2004 Toyota to show for my choices.

I came back for several reasons.  When I started work in Denver, I took a sizable pay cut anticipating that I’d be doing an in-at-8-out-at-5 thing where I wouldn’t be the only one who could fix any given problem.  This would free up my evenings and weekends for the “dick thinking” part of my journey.  When I started there were 5 other people in the engineering department besides myself.  When I left there was just me and the guy they hired to manage “all of us”.  Add to that the additional cut in pay I took because the economy took a nose dive, and you have a not so good work experience.

That left my social life. My initial, hoped for, social foray disintegrated rather rapidly and I was left with plan B, not dating a friend and long time confidant but meeting new people.  I’m okay with meeting new people and making friends, but dating them?!?  Honestly, there aren’t that many people who interest me enough to actually ask out and god knows I wouldn’t want to subject someone I don’t know all that well to my lifestyle and world view.  Did you *read* that rant about Chex Mix?  Who wants to hear that everyday?

She, “Good morning honey, I made oatmeal this morning!”

Me, “Oatmeal?  Have you ever been to Cedar Rapids and smelled the Quaker Oats plant there?  My god, its horrific!”

So finding myself in Denver with good friends, but more bills than cash and doing as much work as I had in Chicago due to Denver’s “staff reductions” (which *again* left me as the only guy able to help such and such client) I decided to see if I could persuade my employer of my worth.  I put my resume out and in a short period of time had job offers in Sante Fe and Chicago.  I brought this to my employer’s attention and requested once again that I be given a pay increase.  The response I received was actually pretty funny.  I was told that if  I “get closer to making a decision” I should let them know and they would see what could be done.  Seriously.  The only thing standing between me and accepting one of several job offers was selling my house.  I’d driven to Sante Fe to interview one weekend, I’m pretty sure I was fairly close to “making a decision”.  So my beautiful, sunny two bedroom condo with free pool and clubhouse access in the land of 300+ days of sunshine a year went on the market.

Sarah Vowell, will you marry me?

Now I’m stuffed into a two bedroom apartment (well one bedroom and one “storage room” where all my boxes of stuff that there wasn’t enough room for ended up) with a job on Chicago’s south side.  I love being back with my Chicago friends, I miss my Denver friends and I very much miss the Denver weather.  Looking at the preview of this, it appears that I tend to ramble a bit.  Perhaps another indication that I’m becoming a crotchety old man?  I’m currently trying to get a “Nines” plan together.  My neighbors in Denver know what I’m talking about, but for the rest of you, a monthly evening out for a meal.  I seem to be encountering resistance with this.  I went to see Sarah Vowell speak the other day.  I’m doing my best not to spend all my time working.  I finally feel like I’m returning to a state of “normalcy”.  Look me up if you aren’t too busy with your “normalcy” and we can have lunch.  In the mean time, I’ve got to set up lunch with Susie.  I told her we’d get together about the time I posted my last blog.  I’ve been a bit recalcitrant and need to remedy that.

Mahalo,

- G

“Well, let me tell you something. When you’ve got polar ice caps melting and breaking off into big chunks, and you’ve got Osama still hiding in a cave planning his next attack, and when you’ve got other rogue nations with nuclear arsenals, not to mention some whack job, homegrown, who can cancel you at any second, and when you’ve got… Mad Cow… ‘now’ gets high priority. And when you’re sitting on the balcony on a clear night, sipping scotch with your best friend, ‘now’ is everything.”

“Here’s to now.”

“Here’s to now!”

Alan Shepard and Denny Crane of Boston Legal

The scotch, hot tub and stars before I left were truly worth celebrating. I was going to post the “Official Rules To Cow Poker” with this installment, but a series of unfortunate events occurred and I haven’t been able to get anything “Official”. But in speaking with various people here’s what I’ve decided to do; I’m posting the “General Guidelines for Cow Poker” instead. Here’s the story. Cow Poker is a game you can play whilst driving in your car. Especially useful when driving long distances like through Nebraska or say, Georgia. The basic rules are simple and I’ll go over them right now.

The person (people) on one side of the car count cows on their side of the road. 1 cow = 1 point. The person (people) on the other side of the car count cows on *their* side of the road. The person with the most cows at the end of the trip wins. Simple enough. Both sides also have to keep their eyes on the opposite side of the road as well because of the next two rules.

Does This Count?

If there is a cemetery on the opposite side of the road and the other team calls it (“Cemetery!”), the people on the cemetery side of the car lose all their cows and start from zero again. It must be called however, there is no “automatic” loss. If it isn’t called it doesn’t count.

Ramshackle Barn!

Also, if there’s a “ramshackle barn” on the opposite side of the road and the other team calls it (“Ramshackle Barn!”), the people on the barn side of the car lose *half* their cows. 42 now equals 21, and so forth.

So here’s where the points of contention arise. Say you’re driving and there’s a sign for the cemetery, but the actual cemetery is hidden from view, does that count as a cemetery? What actually constitutes a barn being “ramshackle” as opposed to being firmly shackled and in tact? Do other out buildings count as barns or is a loafing shed *not* a barn? I wanted to clear up these niggling questions, but coordinating time with the creators of Cow Poker has proven to be difficult to say the least. When I spoke to Mitch (not one of the inventors, but an avid player), he said that the entire object of the game is to waste time while driving, so arguing over the rules achieves the same goal as playing the game . Speaking with John (one of the actual inventors of the game), he said that sounded about right, so that’s where we are at this point.

3 POINTS!!

With all that in mind, here are my suggestions. If you’re playing with someone who rode horses as a girl and can tell the difference between a loafing shed and a barn, you should clear that up right up front and avoid hours of arguing on the road. Otherwise just declare a “general ramshackle outbuilding” rule. Invent a few new rules just to keep things interesting. 3 points for a cement deer, 5 points for the Blessed Virgin Mary in a bathtub shrine. 2 points for a “ridin’ cow”. Loose five points for a Cracker Barrel. Try and keep it light though. Do NOT make me stop this car!!

In Between Jobs and Homes

In other news, the move from Denver to Chicago went smoothly enough. The movers decided to show up on the exact and only day I requested that they didn’t. About par for the course. Here’s something to keep in mind. If you ever want to *not* pay for meals for a month or so, move across the country. The people you’re moving away from will all want to take you out “one last time before you go” and the folks in your new city will all want to take you out to “celebrate your arrival.” It’s actually pretty cool.

Ice Cream and Friends

To all my friends who I left in Denver, I miss you all and the great weather I left behind.

Free Meal #14

To all my friends in Chicago, yes, I’m happy to be back home with all of you.

I’m in an apartment that is smaller than the townhouse I had in Denver, so all my stuff doesn’t really have a place to land. I’m guessing the boxes I have will remain as they are until I find a place to live in a more “permanent” way. I finally got my server running again, so I can sync my iPhone again. That was a pain in the butt, but nothing anyone wants to hear about. We’ve got plans to do another Christmas Movie this year, but we’ll see how that shapes up. Hopefully I’m settled in and I’ll be able to post these more often now. I know how you all check your in-boxes everyday hoping to find I’ve made another post. Until the next time, let me know who wins at Cow Poker in your family.

Love ya,
- G

Another chance has been engaged
To throw Thoreau and rearrange
You are following this time
I beg you not beg to rhyme (blow your horn)
Your finest hour (blow your horn)
Your finest hour

Take your instinct by the reins
Your better best to rearrange
What we want and what we need
Has been confused, been confused (blow your horn)
Your finest hour (blow your song)
Your finest hour

Take your instinct by the reins
Better best to rearrange
What we want and what we need
Has been confused, been confused (blow your horn)
Your finest hour (blow your song)
Your finest hour (blow your horn)
Your finest hour (blow your song)
Your finest hour

R.E.M. – Finest Worksong

While this isn’t necessarily my favorite R.E.M. song, it does have one of my favorite phrases of any song I know, from R.E.M. or anyone else. “What we want and what we need has been confused, been confused.” To me, that speaks volumes as to how we as Americans live and how we look at life. It makes me “get it” when I start to think that despite the fact that I have more than most people in the world, I’d like to have *just that much more* to be *really* comfortable. It’s the perspective of all great religions that teach advocacy for the poor from Christianity to Islam to Judaism.

Tonight on Chris Mathews, his “Let Me Finish” editorial was about the recovery and the federal debt. He noted that Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles stated at yesterday’s National Governor’s Association Conference that all the taxes that Americans pay currently only cover the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Everything else the government does like defend the country and fight two wars is borrowed from China or somewhere else. The current fight for the direction that American Politics takes is coming from this fact and whether you’re paying attention or not, this fight is what the next few elections will be about.

The conservatives, driven by the agitated and outraged Tea Party movement, are screaming about taxes being too high and government being too big. The progressives, though not as well covered in the media, argue that we are losing our government to corporations and private, well-funded interests. I spoke in my last post about Bill Maher’s comment how, “Only two percent of the people in a ‘movement’ about taxes, named after a tax revolt, have the slightest idea what’s going on…with taxes.” But this time out, I’d like to give you an example of what small government, driven by the desire for low taxes, looks like and it’s right here in Colorado.

The second largest city in Colorado – Colorado Springs – is currently engaged in what has been called an “experiment” in city services cutbacks. Colorado Springs is quite conservative and home to James Dobson’s “Focus On The Family” religious corporation and the New Life Mega-Church that brought us the anti-gay, homosexual pastor Ted Haggard among others. Their politics tend to run towards Sarah Palin and the Tea Party more than say, David Brooks or Andrew Sullivan.

Without going into details about Douglas Bruce, the Taxpayers Bill Of Rights and other politics, just understand that taxes have been slashed in Colorado Springs. As a result, the city has drastically cut back its services. In an article from the Denver Post last January, it was learned that:

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

This July 4th, a followup article was published that outlined the results of the service cutbacks including the buses stop running at 6:15 p.m. now, and most streetlights stay dark throughout the night. Three city pools have shut down, and turf is withering in more than 100 parks. More alarming perhaps are these realities reported by the Post:

The city fire department is down 20 firefighters this year; the police department has 42 fewer cops on the streets. For both fire and police, there are no classes of recruits in training, which is unusual.

“In the last year and a half, we went from being a proactive, problem-solving to a reactive police department, to where we only go when we are called,” said Pete Tomitsch, president of the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association.

“There is a lot of frustration within the department. There is a whole slew of calls we don’t respond to that a year and a half ago we did.”

If thieves break into a car or home and steal stuff — a felony — the report is usually taken over the phone now.

“Our property-crime detectives have been cut by over half,” he said. “When people call the police, they want somebody to show up on their doorstep, and we can’t do that.”

The Post also reports that some charities have taken over some of the services that were once offered by the city. Pools and community centers are being supported and kept open by donated time and money from civic groups. But the danger in this is eloquently expressed by City Councilwoman Jan Martin, who grew up in Colorado Springs. “These medians and parks that are being adopted are in wealthy neighborhoods,” she said. “We are seeing the creation of a community of haves and have-nots.”

If you’re curious how this might even affect the “haves”, consider this. At Village Green Park, just off Carefree Circle on the city’s east side, weeds flourish, and stenciled onto a bathroom door: Restrooms Closed Due to Budget Restrictions. “If you have kids who are potty trained, that’s a problem,” said Rachel Barker, 33, playing at the swings with her toddler. “There’s probably a lot of kids peeing in the weeds.”

I would urge you to follow and consider what is happening in Colorado Springs since it is a real life example of what the smaller government, lower taxes crowd are pushing for. Well, sort of. On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Senator Jon Kyle of Arizona how Republicans can say that extending unemployment benefits will impact the deficit and must be paid for, yet extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, which will cost $678 billion over the next 10 years, needn’t be paid for. His reply was that, “you do need to offset the cost of increased spending and that’s what Republicans object to, but you should never have to offset the cost of a deliberate decision to reduce tax rates on Americans.” Obviously Senator Kyle doesn’t want to say that he would reduce government services for any of his constituents. Heavens no, that would be unthinkable. But giving the wealthy a tax break of nearly $700 billion dollars, money taken directly out of the federal budget with no corresponding spending cuts, well that’s just fine. Senator Kyle is an idiot.

Bang for your Buck

Getting back to the point at the beginning of this post, I think we can all agree the poor are probably more in need of our help than people who earn over $150,000/year. Not only that, they’re a better investment. According to Moody’s Analytics, for every dollar invested in Unemployment Insurance that the Republicans are so wound up about, the return on investment for our economy is around $1.61 in economic stimulus. For every dollar invested in a tax cut, the ROI to our economy is $1.01. If the Bush tax cuts specifically are made permanent, the ROI is $0.31. Now I’m no economist, but even I can see that extending Unemployment Insurance to people out of work is a better “bang for the buck” than cutting taxes. Especially to for the wealthy.

The choices we all make in our next few elections will determine whether we substitute taxis for patrol cars, whether we make it illegal to feed the homeless or illegal to unsafely operate oil rigs in the gulf. Deficits are certainly a concern and there are difficult decisions ahead. Nearly 84% of the US budget is made up exclusively by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Defense/the War On Terror, Unemployment/Welfare and Interest on the Debt. Everything else in our budget from regulating oil drilling and mining to the Department of Transportation to Health and Human Services takes up just over 16% of our budget. If we gut our federal services and eliminate *ALL* of those other services, we would save all of 16% on our federal spending. Yet conservatives and tea baggers would have you believe that cutting waste and fraud in the system will solve all of our deficit problems to the point we can all pay less in taxes. Social Security alone takes up 21% of the budget. This isn’t an easy task and I don’t envy lawmakers their task. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t care about big government or small government, I care about *effective* government.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue. 

Well maybe I’m the faggot America.
I’m not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia. 

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue. 

Don’t want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It’s calling out to idiot America. 

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn’t meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We’re not the ones who’re meant to follow.
For that’s enough to argue. 
Green Day – American Idiot

I took that picture at the top of the page of the aspen trees in South Park! Pretty cool, huh?

I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve posted, but more on that later. First I’d like to say that when I do post and if I’m not just talking about what I’ve been up to, I try to take something topical and give my opinion (rant) in what I hope will be pithy, insightful, sarcastic and funny. That’s what I *try* to do. Whether I succeed or not is a whole ‘nother thing and not really for me to decide. For example, I debated comparing and contrasting the two Koreas. I was going to give facts about nutritional differences between the two countries, technology advances (or not) between the two, the general perception of their respective leaders and how each country has progressed using their different political philosophies. Here are four pictures I was going to use:

CRT Technology!!

South Korea Tech

“Approximately 7 million South Koreans, or one in seven of the country’s residents, routinely make use of mobile TV services on cell phones, personal media players, handheld computers, vehicle navigation systems, or other portable devices.” 

Guy in Labcoat looks *real* comfortable

Mobile TV Service cell phone

“Pretty soon, phones doubling as TVs will be as ubiquitous as camera phones now,” predicts Song Sang Hoon, the director in charge of mobile TV at South Korea’s Ministry of Information & Communication, which has pushed carriers to offer the service.

Those were just a couple of the fun facts I planned on sharing. But I’m also prone to rant about things I think are ridiculous, idiotic or otherwise stupid. Lately however, the shit’s just coming in so fast I can’t keep up. I’ll start to put words to “paper” and then someone will say something even more stunning and it will stop me in my tracks. So I’m going to end this post with quotes from idiots and not even try to offer comment, I’ll just let you bask in the wonderment. 

Before I go however, I wanted to mention that I’m leaving my home of almost 4 years here in Colorado to return to Chicago. That’s why it’s taken me so long to post, lots of stuff going on in order to first make that decision and then make it happen. The reasons I left for the west included working less, finding a personal life, more leisure, less stress. Yeah, that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. Without getting into all the details, I find I’m doing as much work as I was doing in Chicago but earning less. Although I love my townhouse here with its 2 1/2 baths and sunshine streaming in all over the place, I’m paying more in mortgage than I was in Chicago since I bought at exactly the wrong time . The most successful Match.com date I had was with a woman who lives in Seattle. 

Don’t get me wrong, Colorado is beautiful. I’m steps from endless bike paths that crisscross Denver. The weather here is outstanding and don’t let anyone tell you different. I just find that I’m unable to make any headway towards the goals I’d set for myself and I’m disinclined to wait any longer for things to change. I will surely miss my friends out here who are none to pleased about my leaving. Those of you in Chicago can relate, I’m sure. At the end of the day though, I’ve got to do what works for me. Besides, no one can cut my hair as well as Miss Holly Go Lightly. 

So if you’re in Chicago, I’ll be seeing you soon. If not, I’ll have new contact information to send you when things sort themselves out. But now without further delay, I present, “Fun With Quotes from Politicians and Pundits.” 

“You know, before we all started having health care, in the olden days, our grandparents, they would bring a chicken to the doctor. They would say I’ll paint your house…. I’m not backing down from that system.” – Candidate for Senate Sue Lowden (R) Nevada on alternatives to Health Care Reform 4/19/10 

“I know for a fact, I know somebody in the medical field who has been paid with vegetables.” – State Representative Mike Bell (R) Tennessee on alternatives to Health Care Reform 4/13/10 

“These individuals came all the way from Southeast Texas to protest the excessive spending and growing government intrusion by the 111th Congress and the new Obama administration. These participants, whose tax dollars were used to create and maintain this public transit system, were frustrated and disappointed that our nation’s capital did not make a great effort to simply provide a basic level of transit for them.” – Representative Kevin Brady (R) Texas complaining about the lack of *public* transportation available to participants in a Tea Party Rally protesting government spending 9/16/09 

“Well, I guess they’re afraid of the power of our passion and our numbers and, you know, you might not say Communist, but I watch Glenn Beck and he’s taught me well. Progressive is the new word for Communist, but it’s the same goal as government control of everything and it’s very obvious that Obama is trying to do that. And I don’t want to brag, but I sort of called it before he was elected and when I was on O’Reilly and I said he was a Communist and I got a lot of hate mail, but I got some that said I was a prescient which means “a prophet.” – Victoria Jackson, former SNL cast member and current Tea Party member on why she thinks Obama is a Communist 3/26/2010 

“That’s a conundrum, isn’t it? I don’t know what to say. Maybe I don’t want smaller government. I guess I want smaller government and my Social Security. I didn’t look at it from the perspective of losing things I need. I think I’ve changed my mind.” – Jodine White, 62, Tea Party Member from Rocklin, Calif. after being asked how Tea Party supporters can say “keep your hands off my Medicare and Social Security”, the biggest domestic programs, but want to cut government spending 4/14/2010 

“This is a perfect example of why government should never be involved in the private sector. Government is not the solution. It’s the problem. The more government tries to get in and regulate the free market, the worse things become.” – Randy Brogdon, state senator (R) Oklahoma and current candidate for Governor on why the BP’s Gulf Oil Spill is the government’s fault 6/21/2010 

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private company would be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown.” – Representative Joe Barton (R) Texas and ranking member on the House Energy Committee apologizing to BP after BP was asked to put money aside in an escrow account to pay victims of the Gulf Oil Spill 6/17/2010 

“What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP’, I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business.” – Rand Paul (R) Kentucky, candidate for Senate criticizing President Barack Obama’s handling of the Gulf Oil Spill 5/21/2010 

Finally, skipping Rand Paul’s comments about how private business owners should be allowed to not serve Blacks or Gays or anyone they choose not to serve, and because I want to end on a humorous note:

“Now here’s an amazing statistic. In a recent poll almost ninety percent of Tea Baggers said that they thought taxes had either gone up or stayed the same under Obama. Only two percent thought they went down. But the reality is taxes have gone down; for ninety-five percent of working families, taxes went down. Think about that. Only two percent of the people in a “movement” about taxes, named after a tax revolt, have the slightest idea what’s going on…with taxes. – Bill Maher on why he thinks the Tea Baggers are a cult 2/18/2010

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

Young dreamers explode like popped balloons
Some kind of emotional rodeo
Learning too slow and acting too soon
Time marches away like a lost platoon
We gracefully age as we feel the weight
Of loving too late and leaving too soon

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

Mark Heard – Strong Hand Of Love

Just a quick note on the song lyrics because my Mom asked about them last time I was home. I always open with lyrics that more often than not relate in some way to my post. I usually hear the song on my iPod and think, “that would make a great opening song for my blog.” The artist and song are listed at the bottom of the lyrics and clicking on the artist will take you to the nearest thing I can find to the artist’s website. Sometimes this is just a fan site if the artist hasn’t gotten around to making a website of their own. Clicking on the song name will take you to a version of the song. Sometimes this is YouTube and other times it’s something like LastFM.com. LastFM has a player in the upper right of the page you’re taken to and you can listen to the song there. Last FM limits how many times you can listen though, so if you really like the song you’re either going to have to join LastFM or find the song elsewhere. And now that you have broadband Mom, you can click on the links and actually *hear* the “poetry” I open with.

I’ve been spending way too much time inside lately and not just because it’s been the dead of winter. It’s been so bad I keep hearing Mom in my head saying, “go play outside already!” Back in the Editel days, we had a couple of names for spending too much time on the computer, “Mac’in off” or “rasterbating”. That’s been me the past month or so cleaning up my iTunes music and editing video. More on the video later, but the iTunes has been a chore. I had music on three different computers and a bunch of obscure things so I’ve been clicking around (trying to avoid the pornados) looking for cover art and consolidating. For those who don’t know, a pornado is when you stumble upon a website that throws a bunch of popups at you when you land on their site. Closing one window opens another and another and so on and so on. Usually the windows are ads for porn sites and hence the name, “pornado”. You usually don’t run into them if you don’t stray too far off the mainstream of the ‘net, but as I said, I have a bunch of obscure stuff, so…. That’s my story anyway and I’m sticking to it.

Gregory Blake

In any case, I have several hour-or-more long “mixes” from DJs that I’ve snagged off the web and I was trying to find something to use for cover art for them when I came across the “ezoons” website. Gregory Blake was a DJ from the New England area and I had six of his mixes that I really like. I listen to them when I’m working out and when I drive home or any time I can spend an hour or so listening. He was 8 years younger than me and started out DJ’ing in the Rave scene as near as I can tell. I was sad to learn he passed away around 4 years ago from pulmonary fibrosis and even sadder when I started clicking around the ezoons website. I just kept thinking that if we’d ever met or spent any time in proximity to one another we probably would’ve been good friends. He liked anime, sushi, music, technology, Apple computers, Neil Gaiman… just so many things I’m interested in as well. I’ve gotta say I was pretty bummed that night thinking about a guy I’d never met or knew apart from his music.

While poking around, I also found a website that streams his mixes called “Snooze Radio“. I wrote to the e-dress I found on the site and expressed my feelings, listed the mixes I had and asked if there others available for download. Paul Meyerson, owner/host of the website was very generous and shared three mixes I didn’t have and I was pleased to share two mixes with him that he didn’t have. He also asked if I knew anyone who could design a proper web page for him since the Snooze Radio site is just text. So here’s my plea to all you blog readers out there in cyberspace. Is anyone savvy enough to put together a webpage for the Snooze Radio site? It wouldn’t need to be a terribly complex thing and it isn’t like you need to do an entire site, just a decent front page where Paul can write a little blurb about the site, Gregory and access the mac app he uses on the site called “nicecast” (a streamer based off shoutcast server). If you’d like to help, you can write Paul at the e-dress located on the Snooze Radio website (when writing, remove the “NOSPAM.” part of the e-dress). Even if you’re not a designer, click on the site and check out the music. Great for boppin’ around the house getting things done… like writing a blog post.

Deviants

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve also been editing video. Mitch and his associated bands made an appearance at my Clubhouse on January 31st. They played to an empty house of roaring fans. Actually, we setup 10 mics, 5 cameras and filmed/recorded a set of 6 songs per band (there were two). Hopefully when we’re finished, each band will have a DVD they can hand out to club owners to demo their styles and songs.

The first band to play was Standard Deviations (pictured right). Those are the videos I’m working on first whenever I can spare the time. They do steel guitar jazz type stuff. You wouldn’t think it would work, but I really like the music they do. It isn’t twangy like country and it isn’t squishy like the slack key Hawaiian stuff. Just nice laid back tunes with a more complex chord structure than 1-4-5, tonic/dominant, wake me up when you’re done . I’ll post tunes to YouTube when we get done.

Forward Into The Void!

The second band is Captain Quirk, more of a rock/blues band. This set was a little looser and rushed since it was beginning to get late and I didn’t want to go too far into the evening with the music on a Sunday. I live next to these people afterall . Even so, I think we got some pretty good stuff and again, I’ll post the videos when we get them finished.

Another quick request as long as I’m thinking about it. Does anyone out there know of any good web design software? This is apart from the above request for a web designer. A guy I know (Mitch) want’s to try his hand at building a site on his own (freelance copywriter), so I thought I’d ask (hire him today). Let me know if you’ve got any ideas (or potential clients). Beyond that, I hope you’re all soldiering through the snow and winter. We’re past Fat Tuesday, so spring can’t be too far behind. Let me know what you’ve been up to if you get a chance.

- G

This night is winding down but
Time means nothing,
As always at this hour
Time means nothing,
One final, final round ’cause
Time means nothing,
Say that you’ll stay
Say that you’ll stay  

We’re finally drunk enough that,
We’re finally soaking up,
The hours that everyone else throws away.
And if we have to go now,
I guess there’s always hope,
Tomorrow night will be more of the same.  

This night is winding down but
Time means nothing,
As always at this hour
Time means nothing,
One final, final round ’cause
Time means nothing,
Say that you’ll stay
Say that you’ll stay
Say that you’ll stay.  

We’re all right where we’re supposed to be,
We’re all right where we’re supposed to be,
We’re all right where we’re supposed to be,
(Time means nothing)
We’re all right where we’re supposed to be,
(Time means nothing)  

This door is always open,
This door is always open,
No one has the guts to shut us out.
No one has the guts to shut us out.  

Time means nothing,
Time means nothing,
One final, final round ’cause
Time means nothing,
Say that you’ll stay
Say that you’ll stay
Say that you’ll stay.  

We Are Scientists – After Hours  

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m more than happy to say goodbye and good riddance to 2009. Not one of my favorites by any stretch of the imagination. I realize I haven’t posted for a while and it’s not like I didn’t have opinions on all the things that went on this year, but when everything that inspired me to write started with, “you gotta be fucking kidding me?!?” you know it isn’t going to be much more than venting .  

little babies

Fat Babies

So that having been said, here’s a bit of the year in pictures. Back in the spring, there were a whole passel of prairie dog puppies born in the lot across the street. By fall, they were all fattened up and ready to hibernate for the year.  

WTF?

This year also brought me an application for AARP. Really? Much like the University of Miami mailings that I’ve received at every single address where I’ve lived even though I’ve *never* corresponded with them *ever*, this application came to me unsolicited and unwelcome. I still haven’t figured out what I want to be when I grow up, I can’t be ready to retire yet. But I guess we’re all hurtling through this life at sixty minutes an hour and like Ferris says, “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”  

Just Grazin' Through

Speaking of looking around, I was working at a Client’s house this year in Genesee and a huge herd of Elk just kind of grazed their way through my Client’s back yard. They started up the hill and ate their way into the open space down the mountain. That was pretty amazing to watch. Fortunately, Laura wasn’t there pretending to be a mountain loin or there no doubt would’ve been blood on the slopes.  

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

Labor Day brought Larry’s annual Labor Day party. He’s tried to have it at other times of the year, but what with the name and all it just became too confusing.  

Can you read that? I can't read that.

The party always turns into a jam session after dinner and anyone who wants a chance to play/sing gets one. It’s nice to have musicians and singers attend the party or this part of the evening would turn out less fun than it is .  

Too F*cking Loud!!

Later, Mitch and I stopped by one of our local drinkeries and discovered the wonders of Rye Whiskey. Mitch said it tasted like his Grandma’s Rye bread and I had visions of clandestinely slipping in to a speakeasy in the ’20′s.  

The Girls and Matt

In mid-October I had the pleasure of seeing “Wicked” when Betsy offered me the spare ticket she had. I always love going to plays and I did manage to see a few right after I moved out here. But since then I’ve just gotten busy and haven’t made the time to go, so this was a real treat. Wicked is a great show and I’d recommend it if you get a chance. One of my favorite moments is in the second act. It opens with Elphaba looking down a trap door in the stage and she shouts, “Oh stop your crying. You want to see your Aunt Em? Then get those shoes off your feet! Ugh. What kind of girl takes a dead woman’s shoes? You must’ve been raised in a barn!” She then slams the trap door shut and walks away.  

Snowy Deck

This year the snow started early. This picture is from October 29th when we got about a foot of snow in my neighborhood. Two days later it was in the 60s and most of that snow was gone, but it sure was pretty while it lasted. 

Turkey Day at Our House

Fortunately, the snow held off over Thanksgiving and the trip home and back was reasonably uneventful. I’ve started rounding up audiobooks and getting them into MP3 format for those endless trips across Nebraska. On the way to Iowa we listened to Tom Clancy’s “The Cardinal of the Kremlin” and on the way back parts of a “This American Life” disc set I have. Sarah Vowell is so delightful. If you happen to have some audiobooks you want to share and would like to work out an arrangement for access to the MP3 library drop me a note. I’ll issue you a library card. The books can’t be in Audible Audio format though, those get tied to an account and are DRM protected. 

Maybe, Maybe Not

Most recently, I made a trip to Santa Fe for business. They’re very existential in Santa Fe. Apparently they aren’t 100% sure that the gusty winds that blow across the high prairie there actually exist. There is also quite a number of things named “San” this and

Christianity in the Pre-Thumb Era

Chose Any One of Our Ho, Ho, Hoes

But by far, my favorite sign I saw while I was there was this one. If this isn’t the title of a Christmas Porno waiting to be made, I don’t know what is. BTW, do NOT do an image search on “Christmas Porno”, the results are not as fun as you’d think they are. Now I know that the spa facility was trying to be clever and making a play on the town’s name, but Santa Facials? Really?

So as 2009 gratefully draws to a close, I sincerely wish you and your families the very best in the new year. January 25th will soon be upon us, so in preparation for the next Robbie Burns dinner, “When we’re gaun up a hill o fortune, may we ne’er meet a frien’ comin’ down!”

I look west along the red road of the frail sun
To where it hovers between shelf of cloud and spiky trees,
Receding shore;

The world is full of seasons; of anguish, of laughter
And it comes to mind to write you this:

Nothing is sure
Nothing is pure
And no matter who we think we are
Everybody gets a chance to be nothing

Love’s supposed to heal, but it breaks my heart to feel
The pain in your voice –
But you know, it’s all going somewhere
And I would crush my heart and throw it in the street
If I could pay for your choice

Isn’t that what friends are for?
Isn’t that what friends are for?

We’re the insect life of paradise:
Crawl across leaf or among towering blades of grass
Glimpse only sometimes the amazing breadth of heaven

You’re as loved as you were
Before the strangeness swept through
Our bodies, our houses, our streets –
When we could speak without codes
And light swirled around like
Wind-blown petals,
At our feet

I’ve been scraping little shavings off my ration of light
And I’ve formed it into a ball, and each time I pack a bit more onto it
I make a bowl of my hands and I scoop it from its secret cache
Under a loose board in the floor
And I blow across it and I send it to you
Against those moments when
The darkness blows under your door

Isn’t that what friends are for?
Isn’t that what friends are for?
Isn’t that what friends are for?

Bruce Cockburn – Isn’t That What Friends Are For?

Choo Choo Christmas

I don’t make friends all that easily. But the ones I do make, the true friends, seem to stick with me forever.

You know how you can vividly remember stupid little moments in your life? For example, there are times when I’ll be right back at the Smart Bar in the basement of Cabaret Metro ordering a Bud Dry at the bar while the guy next to me smokes a clove cigarette and smells of patchouli. “Everyday is Halloween” by Ministry is playing and asymmetrical haircuts are not silly, but the order of the day.

Ta Da!!

Back in 1976 or 77, I remember being over at Mitch’s house with Kenny. There was a picture of him playing guitar in white pants that had blue inserts to make them bell bottoms stuck on a cork board and a picture of an astronaut he’d painted hung on the wall. He got a phone call and for some reason asked Kenny to pick it up. Kenny informed us that it was an obscene phone call and I, being the impulsive youth that I was, immediately took the phone from Kenny and asked something stupid like, “would you like to meet somewhere” or “what are you wearing” or some such nonsense. Whereupon the caller immediately hung up on me. And that my friends, was the very first interaction I had with my dear friend Annette.

30+ years have passed since that day and Annette and I became fast friends. Net has been fighting medical battles in the past few years and in mid July passed away. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a high point in my summer.

Whoa! Snowflakes!!

There’s no way to capture more than 30 years of friendship in a simple blog post, so I won’t even try. Every time I’ve thought about what to write, I come up with a new memory. The fourth of July party out at Net’s when we were blasting Yothu Yindi across the fields of Iowa. The Thanksgiving in Austin when we all explored the cave and spotted the hole in the ceiling for the bat poles. Net singing “Butch” in the band Windstar at the Wagon Wheel. Singing Christmas carols at Jervis’ every Christmas eve. Kimber’s evil Jack Russell named Heddy, who likes maybe 4 people in the entire world, immediately crawling up and going to sleep on Net when he first met her. There’s just no place to begin. At the end of the day though, isn’t that the point? I don’t really care about how she died, that’s eclipsed by all the memories I have of her actually living.

Net and the Gregs

All those things you could say about your close friends apply here, she had a huge personality, she was incredibly talented, she was funny…. But so many of the memories I have of her involve my other friends as well. And if I’m going to talk about loss, this is where it applies the most. C. S. Lewis says in his book “The Four Loves”, “In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole (person) into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all (their) facets. Now that Charles is dead, I shall never again see Ronald’s reaction to a specifically Caroline joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him ‘to myself’ now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald.”

With a bow on top

That’s where I’m at now. Not only have I lost my dear friend Annette, but I’ve lost all those things she brought out in all the friends we shared. I don’t think one of us who were home for her service got through that week without wanting to either call her up or go over to her house or ask her about something only to realize that she wasn’t there anymore. Things will be different for us and we’ll continue to feel her absence in little ways. From missing her soprano voice at Christmas or her 12 string accompaniment when the musicians among us get together to simply not having her house to hang out in when we head back to the home town.

I suppose it’s the nature of life to grow then fade and at half a century, I should start to realize this. To quote another poet from Britain “things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”. While I realize that Annette’s passing isn’t as apocalyptic as the second coming, it will still leave a hole in my life that will never be filled. But when my friends and I get together and tell a story about that time when Net came over and… the memories will endure.

Laurie Anderson – White Lily

Yeah, I know. Days have gone by and I haven’t posted in forever. Originally, I had planned on doing a post/rant about the banking crisis. I had tons of references from Wall Street Watch, Rolling Stone, Keith Olberman and a whole host of others. I was going to talk about the Glass Steagall act, the Securities Act and all kinds of things. It was a good topic for a great rant. Thing is, I got so depressed every time I started to put it together thinking about how badly we’ve been raped by the Banking Industry and the politicians who shepherded the deregulation through the system that I just gave up. When you start wondering whether or not it would be worth the risk/time in prison to hunt down and shoot the asshats responsible for that mess, it’s time to give up. And then days went by.

A Snowy Trail Awaits

So leaving that topic and getting back to what this blog was originally intended to do, tell my friends and family what I’ve been up to lately; here’s the news. Back in late March, Mitch and I went hiking one weekend. What with our advanced age and all, we decided that it was probably important to actually get out and move once a week or so. In Denver, the “active” seasons are usually in Summer and Winter since the “shoulder seasons” as I’ve heard them called, are usually muddy and prone to quick weather changes. In Chicago, the best seasons seemed to me to be Spring and Fall since Summer was hot and humid and Winter was too damn cold. Our hike was nice enough, but was indeed a bit muddy and chilly at times. It did demonstrate that Mitch’s hypothesis was correct, we definitely need to get out and move *at least* once a week.

Do they make chains for bike tires?

With that in mind, I went out and purchased a bike the following week. My Fuji bike was stolen out of my garage just a few weeks before I moved out here in 2006 and I’ve been without since then. I picked it up after work one night and it immediately snowed. Of course it did. Eventually I was able to ride to work and I’ve been making the effort to do so whenever possible. It’s a nice ride at about 2 1/2 miles, and the uphill part is in the morning. That makes the ride home after a crappy day a bit easier to take .

For those about to Rock

We went out to see a Primus cover band on April 1st. Mitch had played with the guys in the band on occasion and we wanted to support them. They played the Bluebird here in Denver, nice venue. Following the Primus cover band was an AC/DC cover band called High Voltage. Here’s the thing, they range in age from 12 to 16. The girl bass player is the tallest member. There’s a few YouTube videos off that link. I tell you, you haven’t seen an AC/DC cover band until you’ve seen a 14 year old boy shirtless, wearing shorts and playing his SG while lying on the floor and spinning in circles. ROCK AND ROLL!!!

Captive viewing

Mid April brought Easter at Mitch’s house. A batch of the theatre crowd that Mitch plays with gathered up at 9000 feet for Easter dinner. We watched a few videos from previous Magic Moments shows and I think a bit of the “Concert for George“, though that might have been the DVD we watched at the Derby party. Either way, floppy ears were worn, chocolate was eaten and parachuting bunnies were thrown in the air. I think Austin pulled off the ears the best.

Insert cheers and screams here

Tom Pazen is going to have already read this, but two days later, Thievery Corporation played the Filmore here and they were *awesome*. The two guys on keyboards, conga percussion, tom percussion, bass, guitar, sitar, saxophone, trumpet and six different singers from Tehran, Buenos Aires, Brazil, Guiana, either South Africa or the Caribbean and Frank from Chicago. Great show, two encores. BTW, this should be the last crappy cell phone pic from that gawdawful Nokia. It broke a while back and I replaced it with an iPhone. Next concert I’ll be there with a better cell phone camera and my cyber zippo lighter.

Another mint julep please

Did anyone else watch the Kentucky Derby? Dude, Mine That Bird kicked some serious butt! Blazed from how far back? Last place? Not really a horse racing fan, but watching the Derby with Laura is like watching basketball with Jon Kindred, the enthusiasm is infectious. Besides, we all got to wear the big flowery hat (modeled here by the lovely Annie) and lose the imaginary bets we placed.

So purty and flowery

A few weeks back, I decided to try growing flowers on my deck to try and attract humming birds. I tried putting up humming bird feeders last year, but didn’t seem to have much luck attracting the birds. So it was off to the hardware store for some window boxes and flowers. They seem to still be growing, even though I’ve never had much luck keeping plants alive. The humming bird feeders on the other hand, are pretty much useless. I’ll need to look for something else I guess. If I continue to have luck with the flowers, I’m going to try growing the peter pepper seeds I ordered online.

Intrepid camper

That brings us up to last weekend. We went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park again this year. I missed last year since I was in Texas working on a job I believe. This year was lots of fun even if the weather wasn’t cooperating. Laura’s friend Christy joined us this time out and brought this year’s group to 7 (was that an appropriate use of apostrophes, Laura?). The last day, we were getting ready to take our picture by the Great Sand Dunes sign when an Asian family drove up wanting to do the same thing. It’s been suggested that I might have been speaking the bits and pieces of Japanese I know to a Korean family. Personally I still think they were Japanese, what with the peace signs (which Mitch called gang signs) and the fashion sense, but I could be wrong. On the way home, we played a game where we linked band names by the last letter in the name. Beatles -> Supertramp -> Pretenders -> Steely Dan, etc.. We found that there are a lot of band names that end in D, H, E, S, N, O and M. I realize it’s no “Cow Poker”, but it seemed to pass the time nicely .

Suffer my wrath!!

That pretty much brings us up to date. If you’d like to hear me bitch about all the crappy things going on, you’ll have to give me a call or drop me an e-mail. Apparently, I just get depressed and give up writing when I start to do that . Thursday is Anita the wonderful hairdresser’s birthday, so let’s all wish her well and book an appointment! If you don’t, Kahn the Terminator Cat will melt you where you stand with his deadly stare. Love you Anita, I’m a month behind you. I just have to let a few more days go by.

– G