Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 8 - 3/22/76 through 5/2/1976

March 22, 1976
Monday
A very nice day in store again, got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the post office and mailed Two letters this morning. Went down to the post office again this afternoon and mailed letter also to the grocery store. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 23, 1976
Tuesday
A windy Sunny day got up at 6:45 feeling great. Went down to the post office an mailed a letter for Rene came back home, Rene and I walked around the yard for a while. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

March 24, 1976
Wednesday
A beautiful calm sunny day today. Got up at 6:45 felling great. This afternoon Rene and I went up and made Doctor's Appointment then to the Drugstore got my refill of medicine then over to the grocery store for things to eat. Sill stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 25, 1976
Thursday
A very sunny windy hot day. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Didn't do much today except lay around home all day long. Hung out 2 pairs of pants today. Watched some TV that's about all.

March 26, 1976
Friday
Looks like another sunny day. Got up at 6:15 feeling fine. Will leave to go to the grocery store sometime today. Rene and I went to the grocery store and got a few things and came back home and looked around the rest of the day, watched TV last night also.

March 27, 1976
Saturday
A clear sunny day it looks like. Got up at 6:30 feeling fine. Rene and I went to the library then to the store so will stay in and watch TV tonight.

March 28, 1976
Sunday
A sunny cloudy day cool day. Rene and I went to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

March 29, 1976
Monday - Ray Melvin's Birthday
A partly cloudy day got up at 6:00 Feeling great. Today is my 53 Birthday. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went downtown to Dr. Ca??'s and took a treatment. Also Rene and I went to grocery store. Will stay home the rest of the day and watch TV.

March 30, 1976
Tuesday
A clear sunny day got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Me and Rene went down to the library took a book back . Then to the drugstore got medicine refill for Rene. Came back home got the mail, got a shirt from the kids and cards. Stay home tonight and watch TV

March 31, 1976
Wednesday
A clear nice and sunny day again. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Me and Rene will go see Dr. ??? This afternoon then come back home and watch TV tonight. That's all dear diary.

April 1, 1976
Thursday
got up at 6:45 Feeling fine. A nice warm sunny day all day long. Rene and I went down to Dr. CA??'s office then to the hospital after her examination so once again Rene is in the hospital. Will stay in and watch TV tonight all alone.

April 2, 1976
Friday
Another bright beautiful day. I'm going up to the hospital to see Rene. Must got to the store today also. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a dew things to eat. Took nap this afternoon also went up to the hospital and saw Rene. Stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 3, 1976
Saturday
Another beautiful day. Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Have to go to the Bank this morning the to the store today. Also to the hospital to visit Rene then stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 4, 1975
Sunday
Another sunny nice day. Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. Rene is home from the hospital now, got released this morning. We will stay in now and watch TV tonight.

April 5, 1976
Monday
A beautiful day in store. Got up 6:15 feeling great. Have to got to Dr. Ca??'s office at 11:00 Am. Rene going down to the court house and talk to welfare office. Went down to the store this afternoon and got a few things. Will stay home tonight.

April 6, 1976
Tuesday
Got up at 7:00 this morning feeling fine. A sunny day again for us. After dinner Rene and I walked up to the Motor Vehicle Department and got Rene's driver's license then came home. Will stay home now for the rest of the day and watch TV tonight.

April 7, 1976
Wednesday
Got up at 6:45 feeling fine. A sunny partly cloudy day in the 70's. Rene and I went down to the library, took back a book. ??????? Then down to city hall and paid some on the light bill then to the grocery store and got a few things then came back home. Stay in and watch TV, that's all.

April 8, 1976
Thursday
A partly cloudy day got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went down to the ?????'s Garage for a little while. Went down to the post office and mailed letters for Rene (several words here I can't make out??) Will stay in and watch TV tonight.

April 9, 1976
Friday
Got up at 6:30 Feeling fine. Looks like a bright sunny day today. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Watering lawn also. Rene and I will go down to Dr. Ca??'s office (can't make this part out ends in watch TV)

April 10, 1976
Saturday
A beautiful day, got up at 6:45 feeling fine. Went down and mailed a letter. Me and Rene went to the store and got a few things, stayed home and watched TV.

April 11, 1976
Sunday
A beautiful day again. Got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Me and Rene will go to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 12, 1976
Monday
Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. A nice sunny day. Me and Rene went to library. She canceled her appointment with Dr. R??? Then went to the store and got a few things. I went down and mailed a letter for her ???????????? Down town. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

April 13, 1976
Tuesday
Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. A sort of cloudy day. Went down to the daylight shop and had coffee and cheese cake roll. Went and got Rene's Librex (?) refilled and had coffee again. Also went to garage for a while. Will stay home the rest of the day, watch TV.

April 14, 1976
Wednesday
A sunny windy day, got up at 5:30 feeling fine. Rene started back to work yesterday all went fine for her. Went down to the daylight shop and had coffee. Also went back knupp drugstore and had more coffee. Turned out to be a rainy day, stayed in home and watched TV while it rained.

April 15, 1976
Thursday - First day of Passover
A sunny but windy day it looks like. Got up at 5:45 feeling fine, don't know what the day holds yet. Went down town to the floral shop and got cards then had coffee at drugstore. Also went to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Stay home and watch TV.

April 16, 1976
Friday - Good Friday
A sunny but very windy day. Got up at 5:45 feeling fine. We got an Easter Lilly from Harold and Donna Erway (?), was greatly appreciated by Rene and me. Day went pretty smooth. Stayed home and watched TV, that's all.

April 17, 1976
Saturday
A very nice warm day. Got up at 5:30 went down and had coffee and donuts at daylight donuts shop.

April 18, 1976
Sunday - Easter
Sunny and cool got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Me and Rene went to church this morning. Stayed home and watched TV at night.

April 19, 1976
Monday
Got up at 5:30 feeling fine, sunny day it looks like. Went down to the daylight donut shop and had coffee. Went down to the garage for a while, came back home. Rene and I went to grocery store. Stayed home and watched TV.

April 20, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy rainy day today. Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Rene got a ride to work with Pat. Looks like she has to work until 4:00 today. Went down and mailed a letter for Rene and came back and fixed dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 21, 1976
Wednesday
A nice bright sunny day, got up at 6:00 feeling great. Walked Rene to and from work today. Also went down to (Cad of Olds???) Garage for a while. Me and Rene will go to the store this afternoon and get a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV. That's all for today.

April 22, 1976
Thursday
A bright sunny day today got up at 10 till 6:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work this morning. Went down to the garage for a while, came back home and messed around. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 23, 1976
Friday
A bright clear sunny day, got up at 10 till 6:00 feeling fine. Will walk Rene to work again this morning. Went to the grocery store and got a few things, came back home and fixed dinner. Also went to library to back book. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 24, 1976
Saturday
A sunny but cool say, got up at 10 till 6:00 feeling fine. Me and Rene went to town the to grocery store and got a few things to eat. Stayed home and watched TV.

April 25, 1976
Sunday - Daylight saving time begins
A cloudy cool day, got up at 10 till 7:00, feeling fine. Went down to Holiday home for Sunday school. Rene had work to do. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

April 26, 1976
Monday
A cloudy cool day in store, got up at 10 till 7:00 feeling fine. Walked Rene to work this morning. Have to go and see Dr. Ruiz at 3:30 then come back home then me and Rene have to go to the grocery store then will stay home and watch TV.

April 27, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy rainy day it looks like, got up at 20 till 7:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work then came back home. Went to the drug store and got my refill of halidol, then came back home. Will stay home and watch TV the rest of the night.

April 28, 1976
Wednesday
A cloudy drizzley day again. Got up at 20 till 7:00 feeling great. Walked Rene to work, also went to the grocery store, then came back home. Also went to the drug store and had coffee and came back home and fixed dinner. Rene and I went down to the church last night and saw a film, it was good.

April 29, 1976
Thursday
Another cloudy day again. Got up at 20 till 7:00, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work then came back home. Rene and me will go to the grocery store and get a few things to eat, then come back home and stay in and watch TV the rest of the day.

April 30, 1976
Friday
A cloudy rainy day, then turned into sunshine in late afternoon. Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Rene and I went down to court house also to the library, then came back home. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

May 1, 1976
Saturday
A sunny day in store, got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Went down to the grocery store and got a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

May 2, 1976
Sunday
A sunny windy day got up at 6:30, feeling fine. Walked Rene to work. Also went to Sunday school, also went to church this morning. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

Jesus God, can this be real?

Wow. Okay. I'm going to Tahiti, or French Polynesia in 25 days. How the hell do I get to do this? My person of significance is very significant, especially in French Polynesia, where she books many trips a year for people with many dollars. So in part, she won a trip out of a drawing. Travel agents that book the destination were allowed one entry in a drawing for every trip that they would book to French Polynesia during a particular time of year. She booked way more than anyone else during that particular time, so her odds of winning the drawing were much better than anyone else. So she won. That gave airfare to the islands and then some meals and hotel. What it didn't include was taxes and inter-island airfare. That can add up. We are going to be there 7 days and will probably visit up to 5 islands. Luckily since she was supposed to take a fam trip (familiarization trip), which would have been paid for by her tour operator. So she agreed to combine her free trip with her fam trip, thus getting meals and taxes and inter-island air paid for, hopefully (Buck Crosses Fingers).

So wow though. I just got my passport this year, and now I'll have had occasion to use it twice. Unreal. In looking at this year, it doesn't seem to me to be all that wild but, if all goes well with this trip (Buck Crosses Fingers), then in less than one year and 3 months, I will have been for the first time to Hawaii, Tahiti, Iceland, Seattle, Portland and New York. With all trips off the mainland being basically free. WTF? How do I have it so good? Could someone slap the fucking shit out of me the next time I am in a bad mood. Can we do that for me please? Good.

Weekend, Waiting fro Grandpap's

So I've not posted any more of my Grandfather's Pocket Pal because I'm waiting for my slacker mother to photo copy more of it and mail it to me. In her defense she has been busy teaching school children something or other.

My weekend was a fine one. Friday night Amy, Marc, Tiger, Devin, Dylan, Angie and I all went to see Electric 6 at the Key Club. They were really very good as always. Playing many new songs of the new album, except for Pink Flamingos, and that I can hardly forgive... Fun night though, I was actually able to find an outfit that I had never worn before, it was really a fun number.
Amy and I ended up walking around the neighborhood late into the night again, talking through issues vital to the day. It was a fun night.

Saturday we slept late late late. Like 5:30 or something. Ouch. We both woke up not feeling all that perfect but our friend Tiger really wanted us to go to the L.A. Burning Man Decompression, so we sucked it up and through on pretty outfits and headed out the door. We picked up Devin & Dylan and headed cross Hollywood. Upon getting to the festival, which was downtown near 1st and Temple, I was starting to be glad we went. It was really an interesting event, and certainly made me want to attend Burning Man at least sometime in the next few years.

We left the Burning Man event around 11:30, stopping on the way home by Solar City's house. We were dying to hear the final mix of Slut Buffet and he happened to be having a party and said he'd just finished it. His party was very good. Many tidy gay men and a well stocked bar and lots and some good eats. After some drinking and mingling we were invited back into the studio for the unveiling. The studio was full of people for the listening, which was really fun, I was thrilled to know that I really believed in the song, and that the crowd gathered in the room was certainly going to love it. After sometime filled with software difficulties and much funny heckling the mix poured out. Very high energy, very good time. The room bursted into applause in the end. Marc say's we have a hit.

Sunday was another late sleep day. Amy woke up not well. I drove to Noah's Bagels in order to make her feel better, returning home with many delights. We spent the day doing little to nothing. We watched "The Pentagon Papers" and "Chinatown", both of which I really enjoyed. We had dinner at Canter's.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 7 - 3/1/76 through 3/21/76

March 1, 1976
Monday
A cloudy cold day again. Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went down town had coffee at Daylight Shop and went to grocery store and got stuff got dinner. Will stay home the rest of the day now ant watch TV tonight, that's all.

March 2, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy foggy day, up at 7:00 feeling fine. Went downtown to the store and got a few things for the (?????) . Will stay in and watch TV tonight. Temperature most of the day was 30 degrees.

March 3, 1976
Wednesday - Ash Wednesday
Up at 6:00 feeling gine. Partly cloudy day in store for us. Went down to the holiday home and got Rene's small check for her. Will stay home tonight ans watch TV. That's all for the day.

(Buck Note: all this time I was thinking grandma worked at the library, as she did later in her life but that is not so, she wworked in a nursing home at this time, the Hammond Holiday Home to be exact. Of course, I couldn't resist a little map and directions action. This would be the route taken by Grandma to work and by grandpa to walk with her and to go and pick up her check in order to pay bills. )


Start address:
221 W 8th St Larned, KS 67550
End address:
114 W 11th St Larned, KS 67550
Distance:
0.3 mi (about 43 secs)



March 4, 1976
Thursday
A Cloudy cold snowy day. Got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went downtown to the courthouse, took card to them. Also went went to the grocery store and got a few things to eat. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here is the courthouse)

March 5, 1976
Friday
A clear sunny day in progress it looks like. Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. Went downtown to the store and got a few things. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all for today.

March 6, 1976
Saturday
Got up at 7:00 feeling fine. A clear sunny day in store for us. Rene ans I are going downtown and then to the grocery store, Come home and watch TV.

March 7, 1976
A cloudy day in store, went down town and had coffee. Came back home and watch TV. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 8, 1976
Monday
A cloudy foggy day, got up at 7:45, feeling fine. Me and Rene are going downtown this afternoon to the post office, store and bank. We got back home after the things we done so we watch TV tonight.

March 9, 1976
Tuesday
got up at 7:45 feeling great, a clear sunny day in store for us. Went down to the post office mailed letters then went down town and had coffee. Rene and I will go downtown and pay the light bill this afternoon. Will stay Home tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here is the Larned Post Office)

March 10, 1976
Wednesday
Got up at 8:00 Feeling fine, a lovely sunny day in store for us. Went downtown and had coffee. Will have to go to the Store this afternoon. All the Shopping is done for today once again. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all for today.

March 11, 1976
Thursday
A Cloudy day today. Got up at 7:15 Feeling Fine. Went downtown to the Daylight shop and had coffee. Also went downtown this afternoon fir a while but otherwise a quiet day. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 12, 1976
Friday
Got up at 7:30 feeling fine. A rainy windy day in store for us. Went to the store and got a few things for us. Will stay home tonight and watch TV. That's all for today dear diary.

March 13, 1976
Saturday
A Sunny clear day, went downtown and had coffee. Went down to the library and store. Will stay in tonight and watch TV.

(Buck Note: Here's the walk to the Library)

March 14, 1976
Sunday
A sunshiny day. Me and Rene are going to church this morning. Come home fix dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 15, 1976
Monday
A cold cloudy day got up at 7:00 feeling fine. Went down to the post office then on downtown and had coffee at Dutton's Drugstore. Didn't do much this afternoon. So will stay home tonight and watch TV and that's all today.

March 16, 1976
Tuesday
A nice sunny day, got up at 7:00 feeling great. Went down to the store and got a few things to eat, came back home and had dinner. Played cards this afternoon with Rene. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

March 17, 1976
Wednesday - St. Patrick's Day
A nice sunny day in store again. Got up at 6:00 feeling great, don't know what the day holds yet. Rene and me went down to the library, also then to the grocery store and got a few things to eat so will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 18, 1976
Thursday
A very beautiful day. Up at 6:22 feeling great. Rene and I went downtown to the Doctor's office for check up. Then went to the grocery store and got a few things, will stay in tonight and watch TV.

March 19, 1976
Friday
A very nice day again, got up are 6:00. Looks like a great day. Will go down to the post office for Rene and mail letters. Didn't do much this afternoon so well stay in and watch TV tonight.

March 20, 1976
Saturday
A sunny day in store. Went down to the store and got (???) for the weekend. Will go down and mail letters this afternoon. Stay home and watch TV tonight.

March 21, 1976
Sunday
A Beautiful day in store me and Rene are going to church again. Come home fix dinner afternoon. Stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all today.

Alice Olivia Angel

I have a wonderful 1st cousin Travis, who was pretty much my favorite thing in the world growing up. He and his wonderful wife Natalie just had a baby. Much Love. So cute!

Alice Olivia Angel
Born: 10/09/06 at 8:27pm
Weight: 7 lbs and 7.9 oz
Length: 19 3/4"

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 6 - 2/16/76 through 2/29/76

February 16, 1976
Monday - Washington's Birthday
A very nice day in store for us, got up feeling great and so was Rene. Went downtown to Dr. Code and got some stool softeners for Rene. Will stay home the rest of the day and watch TV tonight.

February 17, 1976
Tuesday
A clear sunny day again in store for us. Got up at 7:30, felling great. Went downtown and got a few things from the store. Stayed home and watched TV in the evening, that's all. Also mailed two letters for Rene.

February 18, 1976
Wednesday
Another beautiful day in store again. Got up around 7:30 feeling great and so did Rene. Went downtown and did the grocery shopping. Will stay home tonight and Watch TV, that's about it for another day.

February 19, 1976
Thursday
Up at 7:45 feeling fine. Another clear sunny day this morning. We had a nice Surprise, Ted & Lois came up to see us and we rode around with them for a while. Stayed home in evening and watched TV.

February 20, 1976
Friday
Up early this morning feeling great, another beautiful day in store again. Have lots to do today. Rene has to go to the Doctor today also. Went to the hospital and got the things Rene left then went to the Doctor, store, library. Stay home and watch TV.

February 21, 1976
Saturday
Cold Blizzard today up at 7:00, feeling fine. Don't know what the day holds yet. Went down to the store, stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 22, 1976
Sunday
a beautiful looking day, went downtown had coffee. Got Rene's vitamins refilled. Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 23, 1976
Monday
A Sunny day again. This is Rene's 56th Birthday today. I got up at 6:40 feeling fine. Went down town and had coffee this morning. Next Rene and I are going to post office, library and the grocery store then come back home stay in and watch TV.

February 24, 1976
got up at 8:00 o'clock feeling great. A warm sunny day. Also we had a nice surprise yesterday Sharon and kids came down also Janet and brought gifts for Irene's 56th birthday. Today Rene did some washing and I Hung it out. Also went down to the store. Will stay home tonight and watch TV.

February 25, 1976
Wednesday
A bright Sunny day again. Got up at 7:35 feeling fine. Went downtown had coffee at Duton's Drug. Will not have to go to the store today so will stay home and watch tonight. So ends another day of living at home.

(Buck note: Okay so that's the name of the drugstore I missed early on, sadly I could find no address for it. No Neato map. Got say that's the best sign off yet, I like that one.)

February 26, 1976
Thursday
A nice warm day out. Got up at 7:00 feeling great. Went down town and had coffee then went to the grocery store and got stuff for dinner and supper. Rene and I went down to the post office and mailed letters. Will watch TV tonight, that's all.

February 27, 1976
Friday
Got up at 7:30 feeling great. Another beautiful day again. Went downtown and has coffee, came back home fixed dinner for Rene and me. Went downtown to the Doctor's office with Rene and got some stuff for her. Also went to store. Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

February 28, 1976
Saturday
Got up at 6:00 Feeling fine. Went downtown had coffee and we went to the store twice. Washed out my clothes. Stay home tonight and watch TV.

February 29, 1976
Sunday - Leap Year
a Cloudy cool day, got up at 6:00 feeling fine. Went downtown and had coffee. Stay home and watch TV tonight.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 5 - 2/9/76 through 2/15/76

Talked to mother last night, she was able to fill me in on some of the things I was not understanding. It was most certainly her and Sharon who visited that Sunday at the end of January. Also grandma was in the hospital for a hysterectomy, apparently she had started hemmorging and they had to perform one... I could get more detail I presume.

For perspective I've mapped out the route from their house on 8th to the the hospital, It's important to note that they did not have a car, this would make the trip a tad longer then the 1 minute google maps has estimated.

Here's what the hospital looks like:



Start address:
221 W 8th St. Larned, KS 67550
End address:
923 Carroll Ave. Larned, KS 67550
Distance:
0.4 mi (about 1 min)

February 9, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning and feeling great. Another nice day in store. Will go up to the hospital and visit Rene again. Went down to nursing home got money to pay the light bill also had lunch at (?)peler(?) and will go back & see Rene again then come home.

February 10, 1976
Tuesday
A cloudy looking dat yesterday it got up in the 80's. Up early feeling fine. Will go up and see Rene again today she is getting a lot better. Don't know what the day holds yet. Had a good day went back after supper and visited Rene, That's all.

February 11, 1976
Wednesday
A clear day in store. Got up early feeling great. Went downtown and had coffee in the morning also went to hospital and saw Rene. Will go back this afternoon and evening and take up the gown I washed for her, so comes the end of another (??) day.

February 12, 1976
Thursday, Lincoln's Birthday
Got up around 8:00 o'clock feeling fine. Looks like partly cloudy day in store. Must feed the cats then get around and go see Rene. Did some washing today for Rene and me & went back to the hospital to visit Rene.

February 13, 1976
Friday (Buck note: Friday the 13th)
Up early this morning feeling great. Must go up and see Rene again and I haven't missed a day yet. Hope she gets to come home Sunday. Another clear day in store for us. I'll go back up this afternoon and tonight to visit with Rene then come home and go to bed.

February 14, 1976
Saturday
A cloudy day, up early feeling great. Will go up and see Rene then do shopping this afternoon then back to see Rene again.

February 15, 1976
Sunday
Today Rene comes home from the hospital also a bright clear day in store so far. Will stay home and watch TV tonight. Good to have Rene back home.

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 4 - 2/2/1976 through 2/8/1976

February 2, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning, feeling great. A cloudy cool day early this morning early this morning. Went and took treatment at Dr. Cader. Did the shopping, Rene has to go into hospital today and get ready for her operation the Doctor said she will be alone for a while.

(did i get that last part correct?)

February 3, 1976
Tuesday
Up early and feeling fine. Sort of a cloudy day, temperature 30 degrees . Irene is in the hospital as of yesterday afternoon. Will spend time with her. Went down town, had coffee on my way to visit with Rene.

February 4, 1976
Wednesday
Got up early this morning feeling great, a cloudy day only 10 degrees above. (???) gave me some grapes & (???) last night, brought them home with me to eat, had some for breakfast. Will go back to the hospital and see Rene. Must pay the rent and food bill today. Will go back and visit Rene this afternoon and night.

February 5, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy and Snowy day. Up early and feeling great. Going to the hospital Irene gets operated on around 8:00 o'clock, The Operation went fine, Rene is a little bit slurry yet and in some pain but will be on her feet in the morning. I will go back up this afternoon to her. So ends Thursday.

February 6, 1976
Friday
Up early feeling fine. Will go up and visit with Rene again, she should be in better shape this time. A clear but cold day in store for us. Went down town and had breakfast at Blue Goose. Will go to library today and then back to visit Rene, that's all.

(Buck note: Ha!! That must be the name of the cafe I couldn't figure out early on. Blue Goose Cafe. What was he doing at the library? Was researching book art really something he was into? Is it possible that they actually had a plan that Rene would write a good book and Ray would do the "book art"? What was Grandma's operation? Also props to grampa for cutting back on his TV time.)

February 7, 1976
Saturday
Clear cold day in store, got up early feeling fine. Will go up and visit with Rene most of the day. Paid grocery bill, back up to visit with Rene again.

February 8, 1976
Sunday
A Beautiful sunny day in store, will go up to the hospital and be with Rene most of the day then come back home and watch TV, that's all.

(Buck Note: UG!! Again with the TV, spoke to soon)

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 3 - 1/12/76 through 2/1/1976

January 12, 1976
Monday
Got up early this morning a very nice looking day, sunshine in store. Temperature 30, may get up around 40. Went to the store and got supplies. Will go with Rene and get her glasses today. Got back from eye doctor with Rene. New glasses, will watch TV tonight. That's all.

(buck note: there is a line squeezed in between the two lines about getting back from the eye doctor and the one that starts new glasses. I didn't realize what it said until I was two entries down and I had the clues to figure it out, read below)

Took Rene to the Hospital. Bad day.

January 13, 1976
Tuesday
Got up early this morning what the weather will be I don't know yet. (dunno this one looks like " will help zap & cats (??). Cloudy and 30 Degrees today. I'm going to the I'm going to the hospital to see how Rene makes out. Spent the whole afternoon with Rene in the Hospital she getting long OK. Will stay home tonight and watch TV that's all.

January 14, 1976
Wednesday
A bright sunshiny day have to go to the hospital this morning to see Rene about this and that, will continue later. Rene gets to come home tomorrow. Good Deal. Went downtown had coffee, I'll go back to the hospital this afternoon and visit looks like. Zap gone. Stayed home and watched TV that's all for the day.

January 15, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy looking day but nice. Will have to go to the store then be up to the hospital by 11. Rene ready to come home. Dr. (???) and me are going after Rene at hospital. So ends another good day Rene home now will watch TV tonight.

January 16, 1976
Friday
Got up early this morning a bright sunshine day, Temperature 50 Degrees this afternoon. Went down to hammonds got money for Rene to pay light bill. Went and took medical exam paper to Dr. (???) for welfare (????). Will stay home and watch TV tonight.

January 17, 1976
Saturday
A Bright clear day in store looks like. Temperature at 6:00 34 Degrees. Got up early. Will do shopping this afternoon. Rene & I stay home tonight and watch TV that's all.

January 18, 1976
Sunday
Got up Early this morning, a clear bright day, temperature at 7:00 30 Degrees. Will go to church with Rene then come and fix dinner. Stay home and watch TV that's all.

January 19, 1976
Monday
Got up Early this morning, Temperature at 6:00 30 degrees, Looks like a fair day in store. Rene went back to work again. Went down town and had coffee did the store shopping came home and fixed dinner. Will stay home tonight and watch TV with Rene.

January 20, 1976
Tuesday
Another fine day in store, got up early had breakfast with Rene, she went to work. Will go downtown after a while then come back home and fix dinner. Went down and walked home with Rene. Will stay home tonight and watch TV, that's all.

January 21, 1976
Wednesday
Another fine day in store, got up early have to do some washing and more shopping today. Bet I can handle it though. Got the washing hung outside. What a warm beautiful day. Will stay home tonight and watch TV with Rene, that's all.

January 22, 1976
Thursday
got up early this morning had to eat Breakfast. Looks like another swell day in store will walk to work with Rene. Went downtown and got librex refill and did shopping for supper. Will stay home and watch TV tonight with Rene.

January 23, 1976
Friday
up early and a very nice day in store. Don't know what the day holds yet but will find out. Went down to the library with Rene and researched book art again. Came back home and did my washing. 62 degrees out this afternoon. Watch TV tonight.

January 24, 1976
Saturday
Up and at em Early this morning another warm day in store. Did the shopping at store. Rene had to work From 4 to Midnight. I stayed in watched TV.

January 25, 1976
Sunday
Cloudy Snowy Day. Stayed home and all day as Rene worked last night. Will watch TV tonight, so ends another day.

January 26, 1976
Monday
Up early this morning, feeling great. 11 Degrees above zero. Looks like a clear day in store. Went down town and had Coffee, next go up to (?)tim's(?) and got refill of halidol
Backing bread now. Will go down town do the shopping stay home tonight and watch TV.

January 27, 1976
Tuesday
Up Earl this morning feeling fine. A clear sunny day again it looks like. Went down town had coffee will start dinner then go down and walk home with Rene. Rene has to work all day, will go down later and come home with her, stay home and watch TV.

January 28, 1976
Wednesday
Up and at em early this morning. Feeling Great. Looks like another swell day, supposed to be in the 60's, couldn't ask for more. Went down town had coffee, will go down and see if Rene has to work all day. Rene & I came home for dinner she didn't have to work all day, good deal.

January 29, 1976
Thursday
Up Early this morning feeling fine, looks like another swell day in store. Hope the kids come down sat. Went down town had coffee now watching TV with Rene. Have to do some shopping this afternoon then stay home and watch TV tonight.

January 30, 1976
Friday
Got up early this morning, a beautiful day in store for us. Rene gets her hair fixed today. Has to work tonight from 4 to midnight, will go down and get her check. Went down and got hair cut, will go to work with Rene and that's the way it is for the day.

(Buck note: a day with no mention of TV!!!)

January 31, 1976
Saturday
A very fine sunshiny day in store, must go to the store today and get a few things for the weekend. Went down town and had coffee so much for that.

February 1, 1976
Sunday
A clear day again, kids supposed to come down today, will go to church Rene has to go to work. Will have a grand day with girls & grandma. That's all.

(Buck note: okay mom, who are the kids? you and Sharon? I'm lost.)

Pocket Pal 1976 - Part 2 - 1/5/76 through 1/11/76

January 5, 1976
Monday
Sunny and fair
Went downtown with Rene and paid bills then came back home watched TV.
Then went to bed, had a good time. Also had 2 Doctor's Appointment to end the day.

January 6, 1976
Tuesday
Cloudy and Cold
Walked up to my Dental appointment but the Doctor was gone won't be back for a while so appointment is made for Feb. 19th. Some Day.

(Buck Note: the last line written for this day is written in another person's hand writing, I know at some point Grandma takes over in this journal writing for grandpa, sometimes in his voice and sometimes in here own so I would assume this one line can be attributed to her)

A blizzard in the making

(Buck Note: I'm trying to find a weather archive of the area to find out if the Blizzard referred to was an actual weather occurrence or maybe some other phenomenon entirely, i suspect grandma of being just like that, however given the location and the time of year a blizzard would make pretty perfect sense. Gosh buck... Just read ahead... Reference to actual snow coming right up, I guess by now I should have trusted if Grandpa was going to talk about one thing in the journal it's going to be the weather.)

January 7, 1976
Wednesday
Sunny & Cold 4 Below Zero
Early this morning haven't done much yet. Went to the store and done the shopping, will watch TV tonight and call it a good day after all the snow and cold tempurture.

January 8, 1976
Thursday
Cloudy, Sunshine & Snow and even Zero early this morning. Went downtown for a little while had coffee at (?) Drugstore. Came back home put dinner on watched the waltons in the evening so that's the way the day came to a close.

January 9, 1976
Friday
Looks like a nice day maybe. Zero early this morning. Bright and Sunny day I hope. Will do some washing and get stuff for dinner. Made a Doctor's appointment for Rene at 3:00. Will go with her then come back home and watch TV tonight, that's all.

January 10, 1976
Saturday
Cloudy & Sunny but a nice day. Went downtown did the shopping twice(?) go down and was shop with Rene (? that entire fragment is tough to read). Stay home and watch TV tonight that's all.

January 11, 1976
Sunday
A very nice day sunshine all day around 40 Degrees. Went to church and had a wonderful time stayed home and watched TV rest of the day.

Pocket Pal 1976

After my Grandmother on my Mother's side suffered her recent stroke forcing her into a long term care facility, my mother and her siblings were left the task of sorting through some of her things. Among them was an item of extreme curiosity to this related blogger, my Grandfather Ray Melvin's Journal. I never met my Mom's Pop, I've never heard his voice and I had never until yesterday even seen his hand writing. I've seen a few pictures, but that's the extent of it. The address listed in the journal is 221 w. 8th Street in Larned, KS. 67550. According to my mother he had just been released from the State Hospital there after a spell of manic frenzy which had been preceded by 4 years of talking to no one. I would like to have read the journal from those 4 years.
Since it feels appropriate I will attempt to transcribe the journal here, I will probably need some assistance from my Mother in this respect so some of the postings may appear rather incomplete until I can get transcription assistance.
The above picture is of Grandpa Ray and my now ailing grandmother Irene. The photo was taken in 1972, somewhere in Kansas, quite possibly Larned.


Here is a photo of the first page, a photo of a photo copy. Tee hee!

The next page says Notes at the top, then
"Memories and Diary of Irene and Melvin
in -1976-

If you can read it ????"

Upside down on the same page is written:
Laura Irene
Ray Melvin

Special note, apparently Grandpa referred to Grandma as Rene.

The third page also has a curios note, the heading of the page reads
"Advance Planning for 1977"
under which one of my grandparents wrote:
"For Rene to Write a Good Book?? and be kind"

The Actual Journal action begins on page 4,

January 1, 1976
Thursday, New Years Day
Here it is 1976 spent by watching Guy Lombardo
Got up to tet Rene off to work and food(?) & thats about all. Sunny outside, we go downtown to eat home about 2:00.

January 2, 1976
Friday
Sunny & Cloudy. Cold. Went down town got medicine refills (word i can't read?), also stopped at store got food for dinner & supper, need nap, will watch TV.
(Buck note: is this where the strange notion in my family that Lunch was referred to as Dinner originated from? Mother? I once asked why we used to call the midday meal dinner and everyone denied that we ever did, though I could clearly recall it was standard practice in our early days on the farm. Looks like I've got the smoking article here before me. best fess up now.)

January 3, 1976
Saturday
Sunny & Cold went downtown had coffee at blue goose cafe on way back had a mishap. watched TV then went to bed for the day.
(Buck note: wonder what the mishap was?)

January 4, 1976
Sunday
Sunny & Cold stayed home fixing dinner for Rene and me. Had nap while ago. Will Watch TV tonight. Spend day at home.

(Buck Note: I'll hopefully continue this until the completion, even though the entries are not overtly startling there is a lot here for me to try and get in mind. I know nothing but pretty terrible behavior from this man, yet here he is at the end of his life documenting his coffee, nap and TV routine, though most likely on Doctor's orders. As a younger person I never really cared to know much more about Grandpa Ray than I did, as far as I was concerned it was good riddance and so forth. I guess I've come around to wonder what used to make up the meat that moved the bones of the skeleton in the closet, and how can we all avoid a similar fate.)

Shine on Harvest Moon

Friday was the first date for SG's Dive Bar Tour. The week prior had been completely filled with stress and tension between close folks in life. It was a very difficult week to say the least. We ended up playing 4 or 5 new songs and two old new songs and two current songs. One of our speaker cables refused to do it's job which left our sound much more at the mercy of the house PA than I would prefer. I was having a very difficult time with it in the beginning, but about half way through it occurred to me that there are very few bands that would go so far out of their way to place themselves very near the edge of failure, even when the other side of the line is success. It felt like playing for the first time again, how often do you get to feel like a virgin?

Saturday was a hoe down and hoagie and kim's in Malibu, what a wonder filled day/evening it was. Devin and I woke up a tad late but still arrived early enough to help hoagie set up sound equipment in an empty pool, where our band was to perform and where a revolving throng of mad musical science acts would create waterless waves deep into the night. Many strange and interesting folks attended. I chose to interlope for most of the evening, making wide circles and stealing snatches of conversation, sometimes i'm just like that.

SG played with low end aid from Hoagie Hill, who will incorrectly have people believe he somehow mucked up our sound.. It was actually a great deal of fun and excitement to have Hoagie sitting in. It made the set for me. Really makes me want to have a bass player.

Soon we will get to hear the solar city remix of Slut Buffet.

Running with The Deville

Things are moving... I was going to blog today but instead i'll use a picture to say something vague instead. tee hee!!

Wind Wipp

It's a very important day for one person I know today. A certain Carrie should be experiencing a drastic change in personal freedoms today. Maybe not as dramatic or drastic as she would like, but I bet it's a major appreciation situation none the less. So I'm sending out a good thought and happy wish for my friend today. You are still alive and in possession of all your faculties, may luck shine on your future. You've got so many gifts and talents, its up to you to use them for the advancement of the individual and the community. May you sleep well tonight, full of pizza and freedom. I love you. CALL ME!

We watched the movie Key Largo last night, I liked it. I have a thing for Bogie. The ambient storm noise in the background of most the movie had me thinking about several things.

First off I'm trying to think of less obvious but just as persistent ambient soundscapes. I didn't really come up with any that knocked my socks off. I'll keep working on it.

The second thing it had me thinking about was our old farm house. It is really kind of remarkable when you think about the elements and mans stand against them. My family lived in Western Kansas, three miles from a tiny town with no services and nearly 30 miles from any real civilization. When I think about the winters in Western Kansas it makes me marvel at the thought of the five of us cozy inside a little house, where outside the wind whips snow around, in temperature that could make life very unliveable.
I remember sticking my nose up against the glass of the windows and feeling the cold from the outside. Melting the frost that would form on the otherside with the heat of my breath. The is some feeling of comfort that is achieved in existing in a small friendly ecosystem inside a much larger, unfriendly system.
I dunno... Just things I was thinking about.

Pasture

I've read back a bit in the blog today. Two years ago we jammed on Dichotomy, I remember being very pleased. It developed as a song pretty fast, the recording took longer as did the mix. Devin and I both enjoy it, Amy doesn't. She thinks it's to basic or something.

Yesterday we jammed out a bunch of new songs and one new cover.
We will have a set of songs that have been created after the Free Alongside Ship Album ready for Friday's show. It will be a seat of the pants affair. I am really excited to do that.

Also in the blog I read all about our trip to Hawaii, it's not even been a year. It made me sad to not be in that moment again. Why though after I've done so much? I guess it was just a very special feeling. They all are, I guess I'm glad I jotted it down, even poorly as I did, it made me remember with a clarity of feeling that I maybe couldn't have mustered otherwise. Life can be oh so special if I'm taking the time and effort.

Here's to taking the time and effort.

Wound up Round up

This is not going to be easy, my absence has been great. I've meant to blog many things that I have not blogged.

Upon returning from Iceland I set about trying to put the thing down here, I got over my head. I changed tenses many times. Sometimes I'm present sometimes I'm past. In the end I did a crude spell check and posted part one in the interest of moving on with my blog life. I will set about taking up where I left off sometime soon.
Here is a list of things I meant to blog about but didn't.

Finally playng the Kibitz Room,
Making a Video for The Curse,
My guitar amp is dead, waiting to be replaced and repaired,
Working with Solar City on a Slut Buffet Remix,
Playing the Dragon Fly,
Spending a relaxed evening with Hoagie,
Random Party thinking,
Story Ideas,
Songs,
Life,
My Mental Political State.

Talking to people.

stay tuned

DUh DUh

The Most Memorable Time of My Life Thus Far

Yes, this blog entry about my trip to Iceland is going to wear it's heart on it's sleeve, just as the title suggests, the trip I just took was very seriously the most remarkable thing I've ever been a part of. I honestly can't believe that I'm actually admitting it. I also have to admit that I'm really happy to be able to pin point a particular time in life and smack that cheesy of a title on it.

Tuesday was my last day of work prior to the trip. It was a fairly productive day spent tying up loose ends. After work Tuesday Amy and I gathered the things we needed to pack up, stacked them all in piles near the suitcases and then went to bed. I slept for something like 9 hours and it felt wonderful.

Wednesday morning I went and made spare keys to our apartment while Amy packed the bags. It was stressful making sure all things were in order for the travels. After packing I loaded the car with the bags and my guitar equipment. We then drove to Devin and Dylan's apartment and did the same with their bags and equipment.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Wednesday night from San Francisco at 11:30pm, this afforded us the luxury of not needing to rush right out of town. Our friends were nice enough to plan a little send off lunch at the IHOP on Sunset. Angie, Marc and Robert joined the four of us for some good fellowship prior to our drive. It was really the perfect way to spend the last hour in town. I think it helped us all remember there were many good reasons to come back.

The drive to San Francisco was basically without event of note. Dylan DeeJayed and I drove. We arrived in plenty of time and settled into the airport bar for a bit of drinking. Finally our flight time came up and we boarded without incident.

The only real downer of the trip for me was the flight to Iceland. It was long and uncomfortable. I would fall asleep for a few minutes and then be forced awake a few minutes later because some part of my body was aching due to the ridiculous limitations in motion. This was the first flight I've ever taken where you leave at midnight and soon fly far enough north to be in daylight again. The flight attendants actually require the passengers to close the windows so as to nullify the effect of the premature day.

We arrived at Keflavik Airport at 3pm Iceland Time, for those of us sued to living in California it was actually 8 am. It's a rather disorienting feeling to be plucked out of the Southern California heat in the middle of the night and dropped off halfway around the world in the middle of the afternoon to a chilly rainy Icelandic day.

Clearing customs in Iceland took less time than I imagined. We then gathered the bags and equipment and set out searching for our ride. Being unsure of how to find them we ventured toward the door. We soon realized the people holding the Gay Pride signs were there for us! How fun! Devin and Dylan's good Friend Kolbrun was also there to greet us.

Two rather cheerful lesbians took the band gear and big bags in a van, and a sweet gentleman named Globo gathered us in his car. As the trip would progress so did our fondness for Globo, a very gentle soul who seemed to wish good things for us. He drove us into Reykjavik in predominant silence. I was totally digging the ride. Iceland looked foreign to me on that drive, but not as other-wordly as I had perhaps expected. I was a bundle of butterflies.

Globo informed us that the part of Reykjavik we would be staying in was the oldest part of town. As we turned the corner to go up our little street Globo pointed out the Oldest home in Reykjavik, just a small stoned throw away from our temporary home.

Our lodging was a small guest house duplex. Our side had two twin beds and one pull out couch full size bed. There was no television, no clock, no stove, no wifi and no phone. We did have a sink and a bathroom which was ikea'd to the core, also a microwave. All in all a very cozy home.

Soon we met our new neighbors, a drag troop of sorts from Norway, called Queentastic. The first meeting was a little stiff, but that would change soon enough.

I was at this point beat, starving and in need of a drink, as was the rest of our party. We ventured down to the town square and were pleased to find that the Reykjavik's only Gay Bar/Cafe, "Cafe Cosi", was just less than 100 meters from our new home. Amy and I both got a large Viking Beer, and split a bowl of Lamb soup and a Ham and Cheese Sandwich. This would be the first lamb in a week of eating much lamb. The food was soothing and the beer was wonderful. Over the course of the meal we began orientation ourselves with the conversion of Icelandic currency to American. 1 dollar is roughly 72 Icelandic króna, and most items in Iceland cost in the hundreds of króna, two beers at Cafe Cosi seemed to run about 1300 króna. Our Icelandic friend Kolbrun was kind enough to lend a working cell phone, the simple math would prove shocking, one beer at Cafe Cosi was in fact 9 dollars. Ruh Roh.

After our meal we wandered back up to the duplex, where I lad down for a second. I woke up several hours later. I was apparently rather tired. Apparently I was not the only one who was tired, I would find out later, by means of a video that everyone except Devin had decided to catch some sleep, and Devin had decided to run about the Reykjavik filming himself in the surroundings.

After my nap ended libegangan buzzing around camp. Heimir, the pride director stopped by to give usshirtsrst, greet us and invite us to a celebration at a club called NASA that evening. I liked Heimir right away, he was very open and fun, and he was pretty much directly responsible for my presence in Iceland, that goes a long way towards making me like someone.

As we readied ourselves we would venture out onto the porch we shared with the queens from norway. Their door was open and they were listening to music. It wasn't long before we spilled into theenvironmentent and they into ours. They hchampaignnge and other alcohol, we had 4 kinds of flavored Vodka. The fun the fun.

The Queentastic consisted of two main performers, two dancers and one technical person. The Main two were Ruth & Vigdis, their drag names for a TV show in Norway. Their actual names are much harder to spell and pronounce, so I'll save some effort for the time being. Ruth & Vigdis were terrific. By then end of the trip we were fast and fabulous pals.

Eventually everyone was primped and preened, and more than a little pre-drunk. It was time to head out, Devin having already spent time in Iceland would act in part as a guide. WE were off headed to NASA at his direction, but first he would introduce us towonderfulful aspect of Iceland, the Icelandic Hot Dog, or Pylsur. Devin took us to an out door stand down near the water, apparently it was rather famous for their wonderful dogs, Bill Clinton himself had eaten there. This made me quite happy.
Icelandic Hot Dogs are made with lamb, like many things in Iceland. They are generalpreparedred with diced onions, crunchy dried onions, a special mustard, a special Ketchup and something maybe limayonnaiseise. I assume the Ketchup and Mustard are not actually special in Iceland, but rather they are special to me, because they are different than those same items prepared here.

Having Chomped down a dog we headed then to NASA. Inside we found a live performance going one. It was a dedication to Eurovision*, which I feel not like going into in my own words, so I'll go find a link or a copy paste and stick it around hesomewhereere. There, enjoy America, you thought people loved American Idol... You've no fucking idea about obsession. Pansies.
We drank more expensive beer and mingled about. Here I met Heimir's French Canadian Husband, Jean Francios. He was a bubbly but sincere fellow, who seemed to like our company and enjoy conversing with us about anything ranging from politics to polite society. thoughtght me many things or two about Icelandic Politics and History.

We were rather uncertain as to how our band would be treated in thforeignegn land, being that we were not at all established there really. That first night at NASA we had a couple of clues that it might not be that bad. We had a couple of different people recognize us from pride literature, one of whom went so far as to ask for a picture, so he could say he knew us before we were famous. That kind of talk will get you everywhere with us!

It was now late, we were drunk and jet lagged. We wondered into the recently dark night. The strange daylight hours would prove more than a little confusing for all of us. Amy and I at this point found ourselves once again hungry and ready for a look around at the night. We ended up at a food window, I was worried at first to find the menu all in Icelandic, of course on the other side of the window was the entire menu Englishish. The shop served something called boats. We ordered a Pizza Boat and a Bacon Boat. A boat it turned out was basically a drilled sandwich. At that time of night in that sort of state in a strange land a sandwich can be very exciting and comforting. Not to mention fuckideliciousous.

A short stumble and food glee later and we were home. Sleep came hard and fast.

Devin woke everyone in a panic the next morning. It was the night of our show and we were late for sound check. Ruh Roh. I was practicalimmobileble at this point. The other three got up fast and showered and readied themselves. Tabsencense of a clock at this point really began to bother me. I asked devin to go find out for certain what time it was as I didn't much feel like getting up if I didn't have to. Well.SurpriseiSurpriseise... Devin came back to inform us that it was only 7am. Back to bed we all went.

Later, at the proper time we readied ourselves and set out on foot to find the theater. I was now happy to have had our equipment already delivered to the theater. It was a slighty overcast day, with a times a slight sprinkle still falling. It wasn't cold but not warm either. We had no real idea as to where Loftkastallian, the castle in the sky, our venue for that night's show actually was. Devin being so on top of the game lead us fist to ttouristsit information center, where a woman behind a counter was so kind as to give us a map and mark upon it the route to our destination.

I was feeling excited. We followed her instructions but found nothing. We asked locals. They had no idea. We stopped in a gas station to ask more locals. Finally we asked someone standing in front of a building which just so happened to contain our venue.

The venue was wonderful, it was an old factory of some kind that now had a theater on the second level, hence, the castle in the sky part. The Norway boys were scheduled for sound check first, which was fine by me as I was a bit out of it still. We waited and watched them walk around apparently waiting for someone. Eventually they told they were waiting to run through their act with the sound and had been waiting sometime. At this news Amy and I decided that it would be a while before we could actually soundcheck ourselves so we found the green room, which contained several couches. Before long we were both fast asleep.

I awoke to a dark room. I thought, how sweet, someone came by and turned off the light so we could sleep undisturbed.promptlylty fell back asleep. I was awakened by someone banging through the room with a flash light. That was odd I thought. I could hear devin's voisomewhereere near by, and I could tell he was talking about our band needing a guitar amp, since this directly involved me I jumped to my feet and ran out to join the conversation. I wsurprisedsed to find the rest of the theater dark. I gave the sound tech who was askingbriefeif run down of what I really needed in a guitar amp, I decided to drop my tube amp snobbery and just accept whatever they could get me.

I then learned there was no power in the theater, that owner had not bothered to pay the bill. I heard Heimir on the phone, trying to make it all better. I did find it a bit funny that in a country wiabundantunt natural power we were having this problem of cut oelectricityity.

An hour or so later the light came on.

We watched in astonishment as Queentastic ran through their set. I was happy to know we were playing before them becausecertainlynly didn't want to follow. Even out of costume their performance was exciting.

My amp arrived finally, a VOX Modeling amp with a single 12 inch speaker. I wasn't thrilled with its performance, but I know better than to dwell on a shitty amp, especially when you in Iceland. I fussed till I found a setting that seemed to do the job. We then sound checked. It was a bit hard to hear everything without our standard backline of multiple 15 inch speakers and the usual 1000 watts of power but it would do fine. I could hear the basic elements and Amy's vocals were on top where I like them. We were pleased.

While we sound checked Domino's Pizza arrived, it tasted remarkably the same halfway around the world.

We left the theater and headed home to gather the clothing we'd need for the show. we spent a few minutes fussing hear and there and then headed back to the theater.

The staff had arrived in our absence and had turned the place into a much gayer place to spend time. There was a HUGE rainbow flag blocking out an entire row of windows, this gave the theater a charming colorful glow.

We found the green room, where we were introduced to some kind if a bit standoffish conservative and important looking men. We talked a bit and prattled about getting prepared to play. One well dressed important looking man asked me how we cam to be named shitting glitter, I told him the story about the cat and then explained that when shit happens we try to make it pretty. He enjoyed it that.

Soon we all settled down by the mirror in tdressinging room, applying make up and hair product. Nerves fluttered about the tiny room underneath the theater. We were unsure how people would respond to our music. We were unsure if there would even be people there to respond at all.

A rumbling noise began above our heads. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was a crowd of Icelander's filling the theater above. Turns out the show wcompletelytly sold out... Now I was really nervous.

Waiting on the wing looking at my band mates inforeignegn country was amazing. It felt so good. I have seen this moment in hundreds of tour videos, I have lived it in thousands of casual fantasies, but now I was present, and it was happening to me. Wow.

Turns out the important looking well dressed man was the mayor of Reykjavik. He was there to introduce us to the crowd. I hear him say our name and followed by a roar from the crowd. The curtains part and Devin runs onto the stage before me, Amy and Coco follow behind me.

I'm happy it's dark, I am not ready early in the show to consider the crowd before me. I plug in my guitar and turn on my amp. I really want it to make noise with no problems. It does. I give the new strings a little smack just to be certain, it feel right. Feels like it always does back home.

Mustache Rides starts. I panic a bit about who to come in, soIn i remember. My little into is over when devin comes in. I can relax and just slap out some chords while Amy does what she does. We hit the chorus to some nice applause. At this point I feel in my element. I can see the crowd now. It's amazing. So many people and they are all seated and paying attention. This can't be America. It's not America.

We finish the first song. Amy has a few words to say in Icelandic. The few members of the crowd that didn't love her before love her now. She tells them a story about the next song, RSO. They like the reference to George Michael, apparently the story is known the world over.

The show begins to blur a bit. It's easy to play and move when the crowd wants you to. I am feeling thrilled. Soon we are ready for the last number, a new one, the apple falls. I have a long rest before I come in, giving me time to jump up and down and look at the audience, they really like this song. I've seen that back home to. Something is working on a different level with this tune even above the others, and it seems to effect people half a world away just as much. I love coming in. It feels right. I'm excited to play them the chorus. Moments Moments Moments. This is it. This is a life in process. Here is a High water mark. Our song is ending and I'm playing a part I love. My guitar is repeating what Amy had just said moments before. I'm trying to convey it with all the hear that I can, it's important to me. 4 notes, Perfect Circle. Eye-liner is bleeding into my eyes.

The backstage is buzzing with a few more people. I think we've done well but I need to verify that with anyone who will tell me. I pull Devin aside. He is not sending out the normal Devin signals about tperformancence. I'm a bit disturbed by this. Was it as good as I thought. Then I realize that it was, and that Devin is in a different moment then I've ever seen him in. What must be going through his mind. This was his dream above everyone else. He had the heart and balls to express it three years ago, I thought he was crazy. Amy thought he was crazy. The iceland pricommitteetee probably thought he was crazy. Devin believed and now it was true. This moment has happened. It will continue having happened and happening forever.

Trefrigeratortor is stocked full of a beec called Thule. We begin to drink! Ruth & Vidgis perform. I bounce around backstage aoccasionallyaly peek out to watch. I am dripping with sweat. I decide to step into the cool night air. I step onto a balcony on the second floor to have reality peck me on the cheek. It's almost 11:00 P.M. and the sun is still up in Reykjavik, Iceland. The balcony overlooks the gray of the Bay. Reykjavik Actually means "smokey bay" in Icelandic, it makes a lot of sense. I spent a fine 10 minutes alone on that balcony.

Back inside the show wraps up. Beer is all over. There is a free beer bar in the lobby, in a town where one beer runs about $10 bucks this is a good thing. We set up a table to sell cds. People are buying them faster than we can sign them and make change. This is a good feeling. Several people tell me they love the way I play bass. I thank them and remain confused. One woman even tells me that I play bass like I'm playing guitar. I tell her thanks, all the while thinking that it's because I am playing guitar. All told we sold more cds that night then ever before. More than on our entire west coast tour. I wrote my name and a bunch of silly messages, because people wanted me to. Are those autographed Cds now proudly displayed on desks or shelves or are they tossed on car floors? Do they wonder what Amy means? Do they smoke grass and listen to them in the dark. I can only hope.

I bounce from the backstage to the lobby, drinking like I'm being paid by the beer. There is a nice guy backstage who works for the theater. He seems interested beyond what he can express. Not in a sexual interest, but in a human interest. We talk. He tells me where to go out this night. He can't go because he's just had a son. He is at home with his young wife. He should have left the theater already but he yet he hasn't. He is happy to be around. I like something in him very much, I want him to be happy in his life and to pass that onto his son and hopefully to many others. He follows us out the door at the end of the night. We talk on the way down the stairs, I'm wasted. He tells me we sound funny when we talk. He smiles as we say good bye. A moment in a life.

It's fun to walk home drunk in a country you've just arrived in. It's fun to have just played a rock and roll show in a country you don't live in.

We arrive home to party. We drink and drink, people are near sleep. Icelanders we know stop by, they bring more. The night does not end for a long time. Hiemer and I are the final two souls awake and alive. The sun has come up. We are smoking on the porch. I don't even smoke. Hiemer has seen my copy of Haldor Laxness' Independent People. We are on the porch talking about what the book means. He is telling me how Haldor came to win tNobelbel prize, and what EarneHemingwayway had to do with it. He is trying to tell me something else about art and artists, He is not saying it, but I think I got it anyway.

I don't go to bed much sooner than I have to wake up.

Parade Day! The pride parade in Iceland is something entirely different then the Pride parades we are accostomend to in the states, It's a HUGE event, and the entire city seems to come, bothe young and old. Amazing. During the paradeI had a moment of clarity, I realized that the worse place to have a massive godlike hangover would have to be smack dab in the middle of Reykjavik's Gay Pride Parade. I was honestly dying. Horrid Horrid feelings. Still, I couldn't help but be amazed.

After the parade which wound through the main shopping district amy and I high tailed it back to the apartment to freshen up a bit before the big show, I was feeling better physically, but starting to get rather nervous about the size of the crowd gathering in the square where we were to play. there were an Estimated 40,000 people in attendance. We were slated to perform last. I watched with wonder and horror as the other acts performed.

Soon our time came and up we went. There was apparently some major pressure on us to begin right away because Devin managed to start our first song, Guerrilla before my guitar was even plugged in, thanks for that one Devin. I missed the first 4 bars or so while I frantically plugged in my instrument.

Once I was able to relax and play my song I started taking stock of where I was and what I was doing. Here I was in Iceland, playing a song that I had written the music to in a shitty north hollywood apartment. The song actaully begins with a sample of some strange guitar moan that I made the day I wrote the progression and recorded the instrumental Demo in that apartment in NoHO, and now here it was coming to life again, in front of more people than I ever dreamed would hear something I wrote. Bouncing all over a country I never dreamed I'd visit. Wow.

We finished our two song set with Slut Buffet, a song devin Probably wrote in the very same NoHo Apartment, however that would have been when he lived there not when I did. Strange.

After the show I was relieved and beat. I needed rest. We journeyed back to the apartment and slept until the evening. Waking up late in the day we were just in time to catch a buffet at resuraunt in the square.

There was a dance that evening at a place called NASA. We attended and my my my did it get wild. Good times.

Amy and I left earlier than the others, ended up swilling beer in Cafe Cosi until it closed at 6 am. They gave us paper cups to poor our still full beers into and sent us of into the night, god I love that!

Sleep was nice. Amy and I slept in while Devin and Dylan and Kolbrun made a trek into the country to see kolbrun's house. We woke up late and walked around Reykjavik. We saw the large church that is apparently the tallest structure in the country. It really was a sight to behold. We bought many nick nack's for folks back home, then we went home and napped yet again.

Our last night in Iceland was spent at a fabulous resturaunt, eating one of the best meals I've ever had, paid for by pride. Amazing. So much fun to be sitting in such a place, sourounded by people from all over the european continent, eating food I could never pay for on my own.

Once again we ended the night at cafe cosi. Drinking like we would never be allowed to drink again. And probably we shouldn't be.

The Taxi to take us to the bus to the airport came very early. We were not at all ready to leave but somehow we managed. At the bus terminal we bought tickets to the Blue Lagoon and for the bus that would take us to it and to the airport. The Blue lagoon was amazing. I'll not go into it, read about it in wikipedia or something.

The final suprise came in the airport. As the man at the counter looked puzzled and typed a lot he finally printed and handed me our tickets, he explained he had to bump us to SAGA class as our seats had been filled. SAGA class = 1st class!!



*The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held between active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), in which participating countries each submit a song to be performed on live television; then proceed to cast votes for the other countries' songs, in order to find the most popular song in the competition. Each country participates via one of their national EBU-member television stations, whose task it is to select a singer and a song to go forward to represent the country in the international competition.
The Contest has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956, and is one of the longest-running television programmedmes in the world. It is also the world's biggest song contest in terms of audience figures, which in recent years have been quoted as anything between 100 million and 600 million internationally.[1][2] It has been broadcast around the globe — beyond Europe — to such countries as Australia, Canada, Egypt, Jordan, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand and the USA; even though these countries do not participate.[3] Since the year 2000, the Contest has also been broadcast over the Internet[4]; with more than 74,000 people in almost 140 countries having watched the 2006 edition online.[5]
The Contest is historically known for being mainly a bastion of formulaic, orchestrated pop music. However it has produced a vast, diverse array of songs, including such musical genres as Arab, Balkan, Dance, Folk, Greek, Latin, Metal, Nordic, Pop-rap and Rock.
Over the years, the Song Contest has grown from a mere televisual experiment into an international institution of mammoth proportions. Most countries in Europe have taken part at least once during the Contest's history, and the word "Eurovision" is a household name which is recognised across an entire continent.

Icelandic Superstitions

from Virtually Virtual Iceland

On this the day before my Journey to Iceland begins, I found these interesting or funny and otherwise worth posting.

If somebody throws away a dead mouse, the wind will soon start to blow from that direction.

If something is spilled, a drunken man will soon visit.

If you see nine cows in a shed with a gray bull next to the door,and all of them lie on the same side,you are in luck, because you will be granted one wish.

3rd times harm

Back from San Diego Pride and at this point recovered enough to jot it out.

We left around 9 on Friday night and drove down in 3 separate cars, we glitters understand the importance of conservation. Amy and I had Marc in our car, along with various equipment and a whole bunch of drag. Leaving late in the evening as we did made for a fast easy drive. Dylan and Tiger in his car arrived in SD first, followed shortly by Devin, Bun and David. Dylan and Tiger headed towards Friends of Tiger's where he would be staying and Devin and his gang headed to the hotel that devin had reserved... For last month. He was shocked to find that not only did he not have a reservation for the weekend, but that he had been charged for a weekend for the month before. Scary. In previous years we had been unable to find a room in all of San Diego, panic began to soon set in.
Luckily our car, bringing up the rear, was passing an exit called "hotel circle" just as we got the news from Devin that we had no where to stay for the weekend. We pulled off and the first hotel we checked had a sign stating "no availability", hmm... Luck would have it that the motel six next door did in fact have a room for us, and we settled in quickly.
We spent the rest of the evening like a good family on vacation, swilling a 20 pack of beer and various wine coolers playing music trivia from a book.
Saturday we found ourselves up at the crack of noon ready to get the show on the road. We ate brunch at a place with Mimi in the title. Good Brunch.
Fully filled we made a journey to Balboa park to play for gay. We entered as near our stage as possible. Devin and I still ended up hiking nearly half a mile carrying instruments looking for our stage.
San Diego pride went through a major overhaul prior to this year. A new company took over and the seemed to want to run a gay pride like any standard music festival, which doesn't really work all that well. They went from 2 stages to 10, and separated all the kids from the adults, apparently because "you know how those gay folks are with children". The beer gardens were also kept in major lock down areas, hidden from view of the fine members of the community who of course came out to show their support... The beer gardens while annoying can work to a degree, as long as they all three remain open. This year they did not, one was closed down do to what the fire Marshall called "too much goofing off".
What the fire Marshall refers to as "too much goofing off" had better be nothing short of a 30 man gang bang, because closing the garden the closed ended up forcing lines and one in one out policies at the other two gardens, which really annoyed me later when I wanted a beer.
Anyway...
Having finally found our stage, something called the Buzz Lawn stage, I was less than thrilled. In previous years we had played for kids, teens, what we in the business refer to as "the record buying public", or "our bread and butter". And of course since they had been held in lock down in some secret area this year they were no where to be seen. Instead the audience at our stage seemed to be made up of people who had no idea how large the festival actual was who walked too far in one direction and ended up near passing out from heat stroke in front of our stage. When we accepted the invite to play this year, they stated that they wanted us on the youth stage and the main stage. Of course after we accept we find out we were on the passed out in the grass stage. Fun Fun Fun.
The show itself started very poorly also. Our first number, an updated version of Backdoor Jesus was going along in my mind fine, until almost all sound cut out half way. The sound man not one to lose his cool, sat staring at nothing making no attempts fix anything, since it never occurred to him that maybe the song didn't end abruptly in the middle of a verse. Oh well.
Later I would hear a recording of this song and it's probably just as well that it cut off since you couldn't hear any lead vocal in the audience. To confound the issue even further I was blessed with no monitor on my side of the stage for the first two songs.
So enough bitching, it was annoying and could have been much more fun.
Directly after the show sucking we all adjusted our attitudes and had a great time for the rest of the weekend. We went out on the town and made joy. We met some people, including a drummer who lives in Silver Lake. Could be a good thing.

Preparing to leave for Iceland next week. So very excited.

Like Amy Changes Hair

Time dances on. I can't believe that tomorrow we leave to go play San Diego pride, for the third year in a row. How can it already be three years? I have to remind myself with things like this blog in order to even keep track of accurate passage of times. Telephone poles and picket fences you know.
Further compound the problem by considering that I've been reading about synchronizing delay times in milliseconds to BPM in music*. Once again I found myself using the internet to do a bit of research on a subject that I have wondered about for years, many years, and when I find the answer I sought, it's really not all that hard. Here I am wondering why I never bothered to look this stuff up before. I guess this was my time to learn this.
That kind of thinking can be a good attitude adjustment but is it really helpful? by this kind of thinking I mean this idea of an ordered universe where we as people encounter the knowledge and experience we need when we are ready for it as opposed to just running about henny penny in the world gobbling bit's this means this and this does that at random intervals. Really, it was pretty stupid of me that I've made recordings in the past and just randomly jogged around a wheel or a knob in order to set a delicate time based effect. Why oh why?
Then I'm reminded well if everyone just used a formula for delay and punched in the BPM and then set the milliseconds to the note value things would sound pretty much the same. Theory everywhere. Theory nowhere.

I made progress last night on some guitar parts, Black Magic Marker seems to be coming along swimmingly, or at least it's starting to float. I feel the beginnings of some actual confidence in my work to a click now, it's hard won but isn't that the best way to win?
I worked on Idiot Light a little also, which isn't to say it was work, mainly practice.
I also modified my rhythm approach to a newer tune "cuffo speech", which I think adds a great deal of punky viability. That could be a huge over estimation though. It felt more fun though. I can speak with total authority over how it felt.
I also took the late night sketch demo for a fun song amy and I made called "Justin Case" and figured out what the hell I was playing. Thats always fun. It's funny to record an idea really fast basically as you write and then be able to go back and actually figure out what the hell you were thinking that moment and carry it through. I find me impressing myself again. The 17 year old me with a very confused look on his face with a guitar in his hands can feel a little better about what he might one day be able to do.

*There is a way to use delay to synchronize echoes to your music. What I do is have the echoes play in time with each quarter note, eighth note, sixteenth note, and so on. Start by figuring the Delay Time needed to synchronize the echoes to each quarter note. To do this, just divide 60,000 (the number of milliseconds in one minute) by the current Tempo (measured in beats per minute) of your song. Which for a Tempo of 120 bpm, you get 500 milliseconds. If you set the delay time to 500, the resulting echoes will sound with a quarter note pulse. To figure out the Delay Time for other note values, you need to divide or multiply. Because an eighth note is half the value of a quarter note, you simply divide 500 by two to get 250 milliseconds. A sixteenth note is half the value of an eighth note, so 250 divided by 2 is 125. See how that works? If you want to find out larger note values, just multiply by two. Because a half note is twice as long as a quarter note, you multiply 500 by 2 to get 1000 milliseconds.

Irene

My mom's mother had a massive stroke two weeks ago. It's been very touch and go for her, and very stressful for her children. She was just moved from the hospital to a long term care facility in Lucas, Kansas, where she is almost assured to spend the rest of her life, however long or not that may be. I don't recall much of grandma in my very early life, in fact I think the first memories I have of her a from pictures instead of natural occurring recollection. I remember her arriving and parking with her then (2nd or 3rd) husband Dean near a large tree at our farm house. It seems all my early memories of her are of them parking at that tree and us greeting them.
My first actual honest to god real set in the matter memory of Grandma came a few years later and it's an intense and vivid memory of a trip we took when I was a child. Dean had just passed away, and my mother, and her sister drove all of their children in one car to Pratt, Kansas to attend the funeral. I remember more about that strange trip then I think I remember from anything else that happened in that two year period, and I have no idea why. In thinking back I remember the ridiculous 80's JC penny outfits we bought that we wore on the way down, silly loud colors and really tacky suspenders. Why did devin and I get matching pants? It's a mystery.
We drove my parents olds 98, or was it my Aunts maroon thunderbird? I remember on the way there being passed several times by a purple truck adorned with the name "Plum Crazy", and passing so many custom cutters traveling with combines in convoy.
To my knowledge Dean's was my first funeral. I was very curious about how it would actually feel to be at a real funeral. I heard about them from my cousins and I'd of course seen them on television. I was curious and scared.
Dean was a large man, in my memory he is 6'4". I don't remember a word he ever said to me nor the sound of his voice. I don't think he had much hair and I'm certain he always dressed in brown.
The first memory of my Grandma Irene is this, and I like it very much and I'll not accept any other memory as first. It to me expresses perfectly something about her nature.
Before Dean's service we entered the chapel, it was just my Mother and her Sister Sharon, Devin, Adrienne, Andrea, Travis and I. Maybe the minister was there, he doesn't matter to the memory.
I was a little nervous about the whole new experience that I was in the middle of, but I wasn't that nervous because we had a good camaraderie going on with our cousins, who always seemed to be a bit more bold then I or my siblings. I remember an ugly shade of green used for the carpet of a pretty much un-memorable Midwestern church. Dean had been cremated, and so rather than the large casket at the front of the church there was a table with a brown plastic rectangle sitting upon it. It only now strikes me as funny that the plastic rectangle was brown.

My cousin Andrea and I somehow managed to work up the nerve to go to the front of the chapel near the table holding Dean's cremains, and the urge to pick him up was becoming unbearable. We were that type of children.
Grandma Irene enters my memory in this moment.
Andrea and I are standing there, looking at the box, Grandma, who I am still a little afraid of at this time approaches and picks up the cremains. She then encourages us to pick them up, even shake them. She identifies with our sense of wonder about how heavy it is, and remarks about how a man as large as Dean could have possibly fit inside such a small box. She was not over come with emotion in that moment. She was actually making the entire moment much less mystical and frightening to a child. I'm thankful Irene was the widow of my first funeral as strange as that sounds, but it helped very much to know that she wanted to pick up the box, and that she understood we wanted to also.
As her life has now entered a very different phase I hope for her that she is still able to relate to the world in that special way she demonstrated to me on that day.
I have grown to believe that life and a beautiful dignity exist together, and no matter what society has lead us to think, that dignity cannot to be removed completely, it can be difficult to recognize but it exists weather you can see it or not. I think that my Grandmother always knew that, and that it helped her survive, I know that sense of dignity is still with her now, and that it is still helping.

Rumble Fishing

This heat is really a bad idea. I hear the lizards are thrilled. I on the other hand have been involved in a serious battle of maintaining some will to live a life outside of the only air conditioned room in our apartment.
Friday was a long day at work, preceded by a night of very little sleep and some strange Robert sponsored event at the palms which had me wearing a razor blade around my neck and a white tank top covered in fake blood. The things we get ourselves into. So it was hot Friday, and work was long and tiring. I came home and slept a few hours then loaded up the guitar and drove SG across town for rehearsal. Rehearsing later at night was pretty fun, I for one enjoyed it. That part of my day was very good.
The progress on new songs is pretty dramatic. I'm surprised at the many varied ideas that are coming out and the relative ease with which they are recalled and executed. I guess it goes to show that still there is improvement in the abilities of the musician, in this case musical memory. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite tune at this point, but I would say the outro section of "legalese" is right on top for the moment, probably because it's brand new, and I managed to think of the guitar part the first time I heard it, and then play it the first time I picked up the guitar, that was totally a first. Exciting.
Friday I stayed up perhaps a bit too late after rehearsal, which led to a rather lazy Saturday, spent sleeping next to the air conditioner in a blacked out bedroom. I got up towards the late after noon and prepared to play an out door house party. Note to self: no outdoor house parties on days when hells tempature hath invaded the earth. The setting was the same as last month's out of doors house party. It was not as fun to haul all the required equipment considering the current weather, but I still managed to enjoy getting free run of sound control.
Being that the backyard is small and the neighboring apartment buildings tower directly over the stage it makes for a nice volume controlled intimate setting.
I even have had the bizarre chance to use my small amp, an old peavey solid state amp that has not been played out in significant time. In fact, it was the first guitar amp I ever bought, for something like 200 dollars on the day of my very first show with my very first band singe. I hated it for years, thought it was lifeless and cold. I used it on the recording of the SG rarity, Calendar Girl for just said cold and lifeless reasons. I have found though in these two opportunities to make use of it that I have grown up enough to be far more able to enjoy the sounds it makes and with a better idea of settings which make for that enjoyment.
So the show itself was just horridly sweaty. I was just dripping and shining. The songs themselves seemed at least to me to come off well. We tried out a new version of backdoor jesus which we'll be opening with at san diego pride. We also played the new song spoke of above, "legalese", which while not down perfect came off extremely well, so much in fact that we had people wanting to buy the cd that it's on, except, it's not on a cd. Wait people. Food Drinks Music is underway, but buy Free Alongside Ship for now, because it's so totally awesome and worth it! YAY!
Sunday was absurdly lazy as well. I slept like a dead rockstar until about one in the afternoon, then Amy and I watched Rumblefish in the black dark of the bedroom. I LOVED it. Nothing but total admiration for the performances the photography and the sounds. I have to give a shout out to Hoagie Hill on this one, I would never have thought to put it on netflix had it not been for his commenting when he finished mixing the FAS version of lady slipper that it was now "very rumble fish". So thanks Hoagie, I appreciate it.
Following rumble fish I went and bought horrid bad for a person food, which we ate in a ridiculous manner while sprawled in the dark. Fun times.
I then put in another net flix strange one, "The Missouri Breaks". Amy had texted me to ad it one day, then promptly forgot that she ever told me to do that or why she would ever have told me to. I did find it kind of interesting, but it was no rumble fish. Kudos to Brando for being just that odd.
I finally conquered my fear of extreme heat enough to venture out into the front part of the house, which is basically a big stupid oven. I fought hard to maintain a constant flow of ice water. I set up some basic equipment and proceeded to rehearse and contemplate a new song, which we've been calling "that noir song", however I think I may have convinced Amy to name it "black magic marker". The verse is much slower and spaceful than I am accustomed to playing, so it took me a long while to figure out how to play it to a click, and what tempo to set the click too, this problem was confounded even more by a slightly dramatic change in tempo from verse to chorus. I sweated like billy idol in dancing with myself but I was happy to do it.
We ended the day by having dinner with devin and dylan. It was a warm weekend, but I guess in the end I was glad to be alive and living in it.

Moving on Along

Writing, Jamming and demoing keeps plugging on "Food Drinks Music". All of it is head and shoulders above anything I've ever been a part of, and to think I was nervous about topping "Free Alongside Ship". I guess for superstition sake I will make note here that we are no where near done, not even close and I'm already getting all full of ourselves. Not prudent to go running off at the fingers like that.
Amy and I demoed a new number last night, it's got a bit of a cock rock feel to the intro, but Amy sounds like Pat benatar on the Chorus. It's called "The Red State". I'm really into it. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a little riff last night to bring the guitar back from the chorus to the verse in fun way. I love when that happens, gets me all excited to get to play it.

Last Friday we had a fun rehearsal, more of a community affair, attended by the dancers and Marc. We made a Huge breakthrough on the noir number, the chorus in fact. I was noodling on an idea trying to find a way to spice up the song in the chorus section and give it a "spy hunter" sort of feel when Dylan Shrieked with delight at a particular noodle. Had he not been there to do that I most likely would have moved on to another riff and not persued the thought to completion.

The trip to play in Iceland is coming up now very soon. Titter Titter. I'm reading a book by Iceland's Nobel Prize winning author, Halldor Laxness. The book "Independent People" is set on an old time Sheep Farm, and I can assume is based on one mans struggle for personal independence. I'm not all that far into it, but I am really enjoying it and it feel really nice to be back into reading after these last few months of periodical nothingness.
I've been researching in my spare time about Iceland and it's people. I'm so very intrigued. It seems like such an unlikely place.

mixing signals

The toil of the modern domestic man can get a person down, but not I, no I shine under such adversity. Not really. I just wanted to start dramatic. In fact the toil of modern domestic life has recently in fact had me down. Certain important weekly or daily chores have felt very distasteful for sometime, and rather than attend to them I and my life partner have found many outlandish and remarkable ways to avoid them. It had prior to this weekend grown to a problem of extreme proportions. Our area of cohabitation was in a state of complete disarray. I could list all of the grievances we committed against being good clean humans but that would be far more than I'd like to cop to on the internet. I'll instead move directly into an area which is much more positive and refreshing, the facts of our recovery from the doom of neglect.
Friday we went out to a movie with many people, and while this could be viewed as just another evening of avoidance I would like to point out that I viewed it as a mustering of energy. By partaking in such idle distraction we were able to call it an early evening and hit the bed at an acceptable weekend hour, in order to sleep extremely well over an impressive period of time. By Saturday we finally obtained the necessary burst of energy to go headlong into a psychotic cleansing frenzy. The horror need not be explained in detail. Suffice to say that it was much work, and there is still much to be done, but at least now you can see there is in fact a floor in the bedroom.
On top of all this SG has resumed the excitement of labor on the fabulous collection of songs that will become "Food Drinks Music". Amy had a nice burst of excellence which yielded words and melody for a particular tune of Devin's which has been around forever, one which had been in working referred to as "Back Yard Wildlife", as of this weekend it is now being called "Now Unthinkable". Pure Dead Brilliant. I now need to stick a guitar part or four.
Also accomplished was work on "The Collection", which is rapidly becoming extremely impressive, so much in fact that it kept me wide awake last night running it's chorus through my head. I have a fun odd guitar part on part of the chorus that just delights me, Devin was so helpful as to clarify a few notes of it for me, se we know it must be good.
This week is birthday week in our WeHo universe. Ryan and Marc both progress in age by round yearly numbers. Much celebration must occur.
Much Laundry must occur.
Much writing and rehearsing and Demoing must occur.
This time next month I will be in Iceland. How cool is that?
In December I will be in Tahiti. How cool is that?

2 years old

Oh me! how could I forgett to mention that my blog turned 2 years old!

Someone Painted "April Fools" in Big Black Letters on a "Dead End" Sign

My poor little blog, forgotten and neglected. I've been neglecting many things lately I'm afraid. I lost my cell phone for a few hot weeks, which offered a nice little rest. I had to get a passport which felt nice but expensive. I've been really sleeping too litte.

Since I last checked in SG played in Albuquerque, at gay pride, then the next day at Los Angeles gay pride, with an all night drive in between.

I've been thinking about all kinds of different things, they are all pretty exciting to me.

I'm working on getting in a better mood than I have been, it appears to be working.

I really did mean for this entry to be a little more content oriented but alas it's not in me. I'm going to swim in the Internet.

Happy Birthday Bob

Hey Bob,
Thanks for checking in on Amy from time to time. I imagine your extremely proud that she's got such a great set of pipes. Did you ever imgaine? I'll have one for you tomorrow, and then I'll have one for her. Hope you can make it.
Brandon
P.S.
We never met, You probably wouldn't have liked me at first, but then you didn't like Culture Club until the end.

It grows on you.

Whisky & Beer

Wednesday night we played the Whisky A GoGo for the first time. I remember reading about it in a book about the Doors when I was just some young kid from Kansas. I always hoped I'd get the chance to play there. Now I have.
I wish the Whisky could have managed to stay so cool through the ages, but sadly it has not. I had all but gotten over my urge to play there when this show came up. Still, my notes have now bounced off the same walls as Hendrix and Jim's. Each Beatle even, although only separate. Historically I got a bang out of the fact, presently I wish they would concentrate on making music mean something again, instead of on making money off musicians and their High School friends from the valley.

Chicken Boy & Elvis' Eight Ball

Monday was fun, Marc, Amy and I met up with a group of fine folks from findadeath.com in order to view a seldom remembered piece of LA history, the Chicken Boy.
Chicken Boy was a large Fiberglas statue which sat high above a restaurant downtown, which was also named Chickenboy. I'll not go into extreme detail when I can link you to his website, or that of his mothers.
http://www.chickenboy.com

We heard a nice oral history of how the statue came to be and how it came down, and the struggle to get it back up (none of that is supposed to be punny). We also got to try on a human size version of the head!!

After the Chickenboy the group headed downtown to eat at a place called Cliftons. I can't even begin to explain clifton's cafeteria. I won't, if you have the chance just go. 648 S. Broadway in downtown, L.A.

The rest of the day was just good fun, we kicked it at scotts house and later at new friend Darrell's. At Darrell's I got to snap this picture, that sir, was Elvis' Eight Ball...