It's always best to travel light. The trick is keeping it to the bare necessities. One or two carry-on, uh... items.
Choices are not as easy as they used to be though. Airports really need to get up to date with the three-ounce Jack Daniels.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Pre-9-11 Carry-On Luggage.
It's always best to travel light. The trick is keeping it to the bare necessities. One or two carry-on, uh... items.
Choices are not as easy as they used to be though. Airports really need to get up to date with the three-ounce Jack Daniels.
The ubiquitous 25 things...
Ridiculous nonsensical things. They are a balm to the generally dull and tedious explorations of logic.
Huge monster stores with useless crap NOBODY asked for, but now apparently must have. Now that these stores (and malls) are going broke, it’s supposed to be a disaster. I don’t think so.
I don’t understand why doing nothing is a sin. The idea of the meditating monk seeking spiritual perfection is acceptable, but laying around drunk in the grass is generally looked down on. C’mon, bliss is bliss.
Why is it OK to provoke thoughts of commerce, invention, religion, competition, philosophy, astrology, and all the intellectual pursuits… but not sex. The question mark is embarrassed to be seen next to this question… why?
Trains are cool. When I was little, my Dad would drive us all to the local train station to watch a train arrive. Traveling by train is great fun (never tried the boxcar…) kind of like staying home with nothing to do.
My name. Former marriage partners have kept it as their own – which I find odd, but also a compliment.
Art books. Secondary to actual art, but without walls.
Clean socks can often turn around a feeling of vague discontent.
Searching through hundreds of records at sales and second hand stores. Something unexpected can cause a thrill of opiate proportions.
Hot baths. Didn’t save Sylvia Plath from the oven, but has saved me on numerous occasions.
Getting a guitar in tune is a perfect moment. While it lasts everything sounds wonderful, which somehow creates music. Kind of like skipping a stone on water.
Wearing light colors makes me feel like a golfer, so I avoid them completely.
I don’t like telephone calls. It’s nothing like speaking in the real world, which is hard enough already.
Staying at home all day with nothing planned is a sort of heaven.
Praise from people I love is somehow uncomfortable – but from strangers it’s fine. I have no idea why.
Playing music on the stereo: I am considered a sort of default DJ at home, which is fun and difficult. My bliss may be someone else’s idea of hell.
A bar is a beautiful place. Assuming someone knows how to make a good drink. When in doubt, red, red wine… Mmmm… RED WINE.
Portland, Oregon. This is the best city I have ever lived in or visited. It is smart, lush, kind, old, new, brilliant, beautiful and overflowing with fabulous and amazing beer. Mmmm… BEER.
Cooking at home. This is especially satisfying when there’s not much to work with. Random leftovers combined with whatever is at hand can make for an amazing alchemy of food.
Making fires is extremely satisfying. In a fireplace or a campsite, both require the same basic ingredients: fuel and air. Oh, and a match is also useful. The results are mesmerizing.
Walking is my preferred form of transport, and exercise. A bit of a problem in my neighborhood however, as I usually get as far as the record shop or the wine bar. Oh well…
I really like cleaning things. When finished, things are clean. It may seem like a never-ending chore, but for the moment it is a small victory.
Brown is an awesome and underrated color. It looks great next to orange, on corduroys, in chocolate, in a coffee cup, in the garden after it rains.
I don’t like excessive and useless mail. It’s annoying to get things stuffed in your mailbox that you never asked for or wanted.
I like to ignore ringing phones and knocks on the door. I’m sorry.
Huge monster stores with useless crap NOBODY asked for, but now apparently must have. Now that these stores (and malls) are going broke, it’s supposed to be a disaster. I don’t think so.
I don’t understand why doing nothing is a sin. The idea of the meditating monk seeking spiritual perfection is acceptable, but laying around drunk in the grass is generally looked down on. C’mon, bliss is bliss.
Why is it OK to provoke thoughts of commerce, invention, religion, competition, philosophy, astrology, and all the intellectual pursuits… but not sex. The question mark is embarrassed to be seen next to this question… why?
Trains are cool. When I was little, my Dad would drive us all to the local train station to watch a train arrive. Traveling by train is great fun (never tried the boxcar…) kind of like staying home with nothing to do.
My name. Former marriage partners have kept it as their own – which I find odd, but also a compliment.
Art books. Secondary to actual art, but without walls.
Clean socks can often turn around a feeling of vague discontent.
Searching through hundreds of records at sales and second hand stores. Something unexpected can cause a thrill of opiate proportions.
Hot baths. Didn’t save Sylvia Plath from the oven, but has saved me on numerous occasions.
Getting a guitar in tune is a perfect moment. While it lasts everything sounds wonderful, which somehow creates music. Kind of like skipping a stone on water.
Wearing light colors makes me feel like a golfer, so I avoid them completely.
I don’t like telephone calls. It’s nothing like speaking in the real world, which is hard enough already.
Staying at home all day with nothing planned is a sort of heaven.
Praise from people I love is somehow uncomfortable – but from strangers it’s fine. I have no idea why.
Playing music on the stereo: I am considered a sort of default DJ at home, which is fun and difficult. My bliss may be someone else’s idea of hell.
A bar is a beautiful place. Assuming someone knows how to make a good drink. When in doubt, red, red wine… Mmmm… RED WINE.
Portland, Oregon. This is the best city I have ever lived in or visited. It is smart, lush, kind, old, new, brilliant, beautiful and overflowing with fabulous and amazing beer. Mmmm… BEER.
Cooking at home. This is especially satisfying when there’s not much to work with. Random leftovers combined with whatever is at hand can make for an amazing alchemy of food.
Making fires is extremely satisfying. In a fireplace or a campsite, both require the same basic ingredients: fuel and air. Oh, and a match is also useful. The results are mesmerizing.
Walking is my preferred form of transport, and exercise. A bit of a problem in my neighborhood however, as I usually get as far as the record shop or the wine bar. Oh well…
I really like cleaning things. When finished, things are clean. It may seem like a never-ending chore, but for the moment it is a small victory.
Brown is an awesome and underrated color. It looks great next to orange, on corduroys, in chocolate, in a coffee cup, in the garden after it rains.
I don’t like excessive and useless mail. It’s annoying to get things stuffed in your mailbox that you never asked for or wanted.
I like to ignore ringing phones and knocks on the door. I’m sorry.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Oversimplifications Made Simple - Or, Hold the Turkey and pass the Pork
Between guitar practice, (Dear Prudence... deceptively simple drone fingerpicking in drop D tuning) and painting the bathroom, I've got a minor rant (major rants forthcoming, once I return to standard tuning). Minor is just more emotive... check out any ancient folk ballad, even the jolly ones like "John Barleycorn Must Die"
Anyway, I've been hearing these toxic-asset Republicans complaining about "spending" our "taxes" (aka "Tax and Spend")
Well, I'm not going to get all preachy and liberal, because this is "OVERSIMPLIFICATIONS MADE SIMPLE." Taxes are what we pay to our government to spend. What else are they going to do with it - start a Ponzi Scheme? Buy drugs from Panama? C'mon, this is AMERICA.
The question is obviously: How would we like it to be spent? In 2003 we all decided - at least 90% of the population (Bush's approval rating going into the war) - that we should spend it in IRAQ. So, our government shipped TONS of CASH on PALLETS (aka taxes) over to IRAQ. But wait, that was like losing a quarter in your couch, because we have spent - and continue to spend - somewhere around THREE -TRILLION DOLLARS! (aka taxes) in IRAQ.
Now, our new President is sending BILLIONS (aka taxes) to... where? what? HERE! Crazy, but true. He's proposing spending lots of money (yes, taxes) in OUR OWN COUNTRY, on silly stuff like education, children's health, maintaining highways and bridges, and even on AMERICANS!
But wait, conservative Republicans cannot abide this wasteful frivolity. They won't stand by and let bleeding-wallet liberal- tax and spend socialists spend our money in our own country, on our own people - what are they thinking??
Some Republican Governers (Sarah Palin...) are even refusing to accept money (aka TAXES) to help their own State! You go Republicans. Stand up for what is right. People should not have to tolerate having their own taxes spent in their own country for the good of the people.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Darwin is OLD.
Happy Birthday Darwin! 200, WOW! He wrote this book about monkeys before monkeys were cool. It's like a big shout-out to MONKEYS and how we started stuff. Then we turned into MAN. OK, it was actually APES, but who cares.
This is so cool I can't get over it. But I gotta say, I'm not responsible for crazy humans. Some of them are alright...
Humans made some good stuff - like wine, whiskey and ether. Monkeys would never have come up with stuff that good. You rock (some) HUMANS! Anyway, I think this Darwin dude was pretty smart - he figured out the theory of evolution, which is why I never go to church! Happy Birthday, man!
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