If you love him let him go

This is the t-shirt I saw a woman in her mid-thirties wearing in the hospital. Everyday on the way in from my car I walk through the hospital and thus see a full spectrum of society. I have seen a lot of stupid shirts ranging from fat albert to #1 grandma in the world and must say the before mentioned shirt takes the cake. Who musters the energy to get up in the morning and put on such a shirt? It sad to imagine things not working out in the future this woman seemed to be the walking billboard to emphasize the point to me this morning. What does the future hold. Nothing. There isn't anything guaranteed to us. Laziness breeds laziness and if you don't do anything you don't do anything. This spiraled thought process shot me back to my drive earlier this morning.

8:45-got out the door and started out on Fullerton to 90/94 when I see a man walking in between lanes of opposing oncoming traffic with a sign that said "single dad homeless please help" Thats usual for this intersection and sensitized as usual I go on my way learning of Bush's current brainwashing at the Navy acadamy on NPR. Still in the back of my head I'm wondering is there a rise in single dad homeless signs around chicago?

9:10-got off the highway at 51st and start my ascent on hydepark. First thing I notice when I'm getting on to MLK drive is a homeless man laying on a park bench. This time the scene catches me a bit off guard as the sun is shining on him and there are those little furry seeds from trees falling every which place like the scene in Big Fish when Ewan McGregor knocks the popcorn out of the air. This guy begins to puzzle me as he is sleeping next to a lake probably because he had to stay up all night for protection.

9:20-walking through the hospital to where the spiraling thought process began,pick up a redeye with front page headline "Sound Garden: chicago is where its at for summer music" I think to my self man they've had better headlines than that, "Smarty On!" , "Sith Is It" , "Barack and Roll" and as soon as that thought process begins it dissipates as I'm at work and my focus moves to the present.



On a sidenote I listened to a song by Chris on "chris notes" and must say its really good alla red house painters. Take a listen if you haven't already.

observations

sitch #1
If someone has their0 zipper down all day at work do you...
A. tell him
B. keep mum
C. hint at being afraid of heights all day and tell him how you long to be a zipper when you grow up.

I chose B because it isn't excactly an old members warehouse walkoff around here. You could walk around in a batman suit and people wouldn't care around here. Most people look down as they walk.

sitch #2
If people around you are talking about role playing games like D+D do you...
A. deny ever playing
B. keep mum
C. claim you're the wizard king with a 72 sided die

I chose B again but I did get into a conversation about an old nitendo game Wizards and Warriors in which a co-worker and I expressed our mutual disgust over the castle wall climbing scene when the spiders keep knocking you down. We showed our mutual admiration for the sliding sword move you can do though.

and finally sitch #3

If you fart in a room and there are no one there to smell it did you really fart at all...

A.Yes of course
B.Only if the smell lingers until the someone comes in the room
C.Oops you crapped your pants

Of course as usual I go with B and usually resort to claiming, "man oh man there must be some rotting food in the fridge."

party hardy marty

Darling is playing at Martyrs' tonight and we go on at 9pm. We're playing with Gary's side band The Part V as well as Bullets in Madison. The show should be top notch. We have darling shirts for sale and misprinted darling shirts for those who have no money on a first come first serve basis. As usual we have free cds as well. I've always wanted to use the line in scrooged as shown in my heading. It is from the end of movie and is when Bill Murray realizes there isn't that much time that we're alotted on this earth and that we wants to be a good hearted soul.

The island in the sun

I went biking the zoo de mac this weekend up in Mackinaw City and 52 miles on a 2 sizes too small 1960's schwinn varsity is pretty strenuous on the body but quite liberating for the mind. The bike I used would creak the whisteling song from Kill Bill for entire stretches. Now you'd think I was losing my mind but there are witnesses and not the kind from A Beautiful Mind. When we got into Mackinaw City we washed the grime from the trail off and were ready to get to Mackinac Island. Interestingly enough we decided to go hiking for a while and then check out the bars. Drinks were quite expensive but this is due to shipping costs from the mainland and it is an inherent law on the island that everything needs to be shipped via horsedrawn carriage. Even if you can carry the case the law is you must let the cyldesdales take it. I have a feeling there may be a cyldesdale king on the center of the island calling all the shots. Well after hopping around a few bars we came to bar that had a live cover band that were pretty terrible. We were about to leave and I thought it may be fun to go on stage and play a darling song. I started The Landing Took My Grip as my friends were leaving and Jason said he could hear something familiar coming from outside. Nick made it in time for the second verse and upon 4 drum beats Jason was told to stay away from the drum set. All and all it was good fun and we even got some cheers minus a few fuck yous. Mind you the place was crawling with jimmy buffet gray hairs decked out in Miller light hats stone wash jeans and blue denim shirts. It really was a haven of late 30's early 40's yuppies looking to fulfill their midlife crisis. Funnier than that they love telling young people that their the kings of drinking. For example I was sitting at the bar and here is the dialogue between a few parrotheads for lack of better names:

parrot #1: I'm 3 down well on my road to getting wasted!
parrot #2: gargle gargle
parrot #3: Looks like this town isn't going to know what hits it
parrot #1: Killed another one better get a few more on deck for the party slaminal.
parrot #2: Right on bro get me another I'm ready drink for real!

Now multiple that times 50 tables per bar and you have yourself the island of mackinac. They do have exports of taffy and fudge as well.

feeling like Nash right about now

So I saw Star Wars Revenge of Sith last night and I was one of two things or both:

1.)desperate for resolution after two shotty attempts
2.)Quite impressed and feeling good about the ending to the prequel.

Now I know the two are correlating right now but I don't want anyone to burst my bubble, it will go right there in my imaginary world of big brother and a fake college roomy-oozy coozy. I do have one solid compliment that no shrink can take away from and that is it made me shriek "A NEW HOPE." I think George Lucas took the team to TGIF and told them to take his cahoneys and their cahoneys and finally slam dunk this thing. Not just a tip dump but a glass shattering shazam dunk. Aside from this being my nerdiest post ever I think I'll continue. I had some theories about why the first two weren't as good. As a side note none of this has been researched and is all mere speculation. I have a little thought in the back of my head tells me that Lucas invited all the same people from the first one back to help with this new one and if Bob Dylan has taught me anything it is that aging sadly takes magic away(60 min interview where he finally takes the media seriously only to tell them he can't write magical lyrics anymore leading me to believe that minds and current culture must work in a synergistic way in order to make a difference on society-no duh). My only point is that with all the amazing advancements in technology we have really gone past believable scenes. Its like staring at the clouds and knowing the shapes aren't real but man they look like it.

We arrived at the theatre and took up a whole row per usual(eat it pip). We even had K2B2 and G3P0 on the end of the row for security. Highlights include General Voss putting his swimming cap on doing a couple of stretches and then diving head first into a bucket of popcorn the size of those wooden buckets in clone wars that Amidala was trapped in.

The Birds

I was filling up my tank with gas this morning when I saw a small black bird pulling a giant bone half its size near a parking spot. It would try and fly away with it but it was just too big. I thought it was amazing and finally realized the indie scene's fascination with birds ie lesser birds of paradise, pelican, firebird band, doves, wrens, and lets not forget THE SPARROW. Birds are in fact a family of warm-blooded egg-laying vertebrates characterized by feathers and forelimbs modified as wings. That definition is cool on its own but what really draws wired rimmed glasses, pins, and tight jeans here? The answer is quite simple. Indie rockers want to fly away but the burdens of society are just too heavy. There is a moment of sink or swim and most people take the tire thrown to them and don't bother using their own arms.

Then I got to thinking what else has gone into this birds day. Do you think it has any plans after breakfast. Fly to the coast check out the seagulls, maybe double back to watertower place for a little pigeon patrol. One day Yishai and I spent a whole day feeding meat cookies to birds in a town called Sirmione I believe. It was quite hypnotic as we had the birds flying around in circles as we threw a cookie to each one. There was something like 50 birds and it felt not to dissimilar to the bird flight patterns at Ashland and Division. So what I'm saying is that my days in Italy are not to different to the black bird I saw at the gas station this morning minus the learning how to draw and speak Italian thing.

The Robot Ate my addiction to the Mountain Goats

Although I vowed this to not be musical review blog I must say that the album Carousel Waltz by The Robot Ate Me has got to be best album I've heard since The Unicorns-Who will cut our hair when we're gone. They even sound like the unicorns at times mixed in with a few flaming lips ghosts swooping around in and out of chorus lines. It takes you down a dark road and along with having your vision impaired you don't even know what direction the music will go in. I heard keyboards, trumpets, a clarinet and echoey voices in a good nonconventional way like califone.

Yesterday I went to pick up my guitar and an old dinosuar was playing this pokadot yellow guitar that looks like it headlined the 1988 def leppard tour. The guy started ripping these disgusting "hammer on and let the cock rock palace listen" solos and I'm sorry Erich your not going to like this but I hope they go the way of the dinosaur. Sometimes I feel like these old guitars once they lose their owners are destined to end up like cartoon hotrods in a junk yard sitting on top of each other begging to be taken out for a cruise like herbie the lovable bug. Its funny how we associate life with organic free materials like cars and guitars. As if they speak our soul without us knowing and really have a life. The best analogy I can make are transformers. When they're alive they're cut loose and in your face with an attitude that screams, "recycle to the extreme mannnnn!" But when they die out like Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie they turn gray just like old cars and guitars do once there past there Prime. Optimus prime that is.

Il Postino

This morning amidst an awesome thunderstorm while most of us were lying in bed getting an ambient overload a postman was struck by a bolt of lightning. He's in stable condition but thats the final nail in the coffin of my complaining about work phase. I mean when there are people out there who not only have to wake up early and get chased by dogs but also get struck by bolts of lightning you should feel a little greedy.

The mountain goats are playing this friday at logie squared theatre I'm going. listen hear
The new album sunset tree sounds a little like weakerthans at parts(did I hear a half stock go up at the grinding company) and a little bit mellower alla Owen at other parts and finally a little angry alla bright eyes at middle parts. The album grew on me as I dismissed it on my first listen as being blase and mainstream. The album is dedicated to abused people which is cool yet depressing as hell. I mean this one song I totally dismissed because it sound too cutsie like the cinnamon song by the long winters(god I hate hate hate that song, get bent you cheezeball) but upon listening to lyrics via calling in the ADD police. I actually quite like the song. Theres a part where he talks about playing his record player when stepdad threw a glass at his mom and him finally knowing what a volume knob was for. God thats some good writing. Well this goes to you kit for giving things a second chance.

Finally I had an realization that terrible repressed childhood memories =creativity/insanity and there is a coefficient that separates the two.

And I've been out to sea for too long

I've receded to cave living again as I was gone from Friday to Saturday at a retreat for work. No trust falls just lots of food and wine. Got back on Saturday and fell asleep at 8pm and there you have a weekend. At the moment I've been silk screening like crazy flyers and posters for Darling. Learning how to silkscreen is fun, here's a few terms: "Flooding the screen" which means you add too much ink, "registering" which means you get a smooth transmission. My these all sound like euphemisms but for what, I leave There is something nice about reclusion and having no compulsion to make an appearance in the blows scene. At the same moment if I start growing a shell on my back someone turn the tank upside down.

On a totally unrelated note the bulls loss although, disgusting and sad, wasn't all in waste as they gave the slogan "through thick and thin" a run for its money. I guess they were a little thick at the end. Kind of like bull's eye barbeque sauce.

Just as I was skipping on easy street the cement gave in.

It's quite interesting/enraging that you can fight a cold off for two weeks with zinc pills, ricolas, etc and blow it all to hell with one night of drinking. Maybe I've got a crappy immune system but it feels like the guys that are working in my nose to get rid of mucus get caught in the mess mid PST song and from there its like the part in the neverending story when the indians horse falls into the quick sand slowly(sad part which I hated when I was younger). The only cure to this is to up the zinc for my snipper and detox which we all know doesn't work. I think I've found the stem of my problem. Its a cyclical beating/healing of my body which never goes to completion on the healing end. Its like plans to build the new death star but some rebel jerk destroy all your plans. Meanwhile the independant contracters(thank you clerks) can't do their job and you have yourself a drowning pony.




In other news PST rocked last night and donned a new era for itself. Viva la Hummingbiird. I was itching for an encore but was left with a little latin love tune.

The end of an era: Pedal Steel is now Hummingbiird and tonight is the last PSTeaser were ever going to get

Its like when you go out to the spring rock park expecting a carnival only there isn't any because of lawsuits. On a much happier note Pedal Steel, I mean Hummingbiird are playing at the Empty Bottle for free tonight. This is Pedal Steel's last show and watch the morphogenesis as they transform into hummingbird. D-ogie-V will begin whisteling and his arms will begin to play so fast it will look like a blur as he elevates returns back down only to elevate again. Dan and Gary will poke at their amps like sap deposits all that while having there arms be a blurry mess. Come out tonight they're playing a free show at the Empty Bottle.