bushwick blues

tomorrow is the anniversary of 9/11. the ten year anniversary i should say. it doesn't feel that long ago, but when i examine the details, it looks like ages ago.

i had just transferred to sam houston state in huntsville, texas, to get my radio/television degree. the morning started the same as usual. i woke up, turned on the television and flipped it to sportscenter. there was some long story on about golf or soccer or something. i had no interest in it. so i started flipping around and to my amazement i see one of the towers in flames. i wake up kassy, who was my girlfriend/roommate at the time and we watch it. at this point, the reports indicate that it was a plane that accidentally flew into the towers. we couldn't believe it. we finished getting ready and walked to class. by the time we walked to class, which was about a fifteen minute walk, another plane had hit the second the tower. someone has wheeled a television into our class and we all sat and watched. needless to say, the class was canceled. but no one went anywhere. we didn't go home. we didn't know what to do. we just sat and watched, slowly realizing this was something bigger than any of us could have imagined.

finally, around noon, we walked home. i called my mom and my dad. i had to make sure everyone was okay. because that day every horrible thought seemed possible. they were fine. so i watched more at home. finally, i couldn't digest another image. kassy, natalie and i went bowling to escape the madness of the day. we bowled for a few hours, trying to get some sense of happiness or normalcy out of that day. finally we went home and i sat and watched more. i called my dad again. as i talked to him, i watched dan rather sign off. he must have been on the air fourteen hours that day. it was after midnight. i hung up with my dad and sat in the dark for a while. i didn't know anyone who died. i just knew most of them were regular people like me with regular families. they couldn't have predicted that day. how horrible. things were going to change going forward. we had the support of the world. we were going to respond and vanquish those that were against us.

it's ten years later. bin laden is dead. we are still in afghanistan. we are still in iraq (that's another story altogether. i'll let history tell that one). we're in midst of a great recession. we have a completely useless governing body. the people of the united states are unprepared for what's coming. how can you prepare for a jobless, inflationary state when you can't afford education, health care or a house? get ready to add food to that list.

how could that one event have thrown us so far off track? or did it have anything to do with it? we were headed towards a recession when bush took office. the dot.com bubble had burst and the housing bubble had not yet been hatched. deregulation was already in full swing. who knows what alternate state was ahead of us. either way, it didn't happen. we must deal with what we're presented with.

tomorrow, and today since i'm writing this, think back to that day and the people that were lost then and going forward in two wars. think about the decisions we've made since that day. vow to yourself that we won't get fooled again. question those in power. a healthy distrust of government/media is what we need. because i have news for you: every time we blame our problems on the poor, every time we blame our problems on gays, every time we blame our problems on illegal aliens, there is a corporation laying off hundreds of thousands of people and using that money to give to your freely elected representatives and senators to court favor and gain more power to cut health care for you and your family, to cut unemployment payments, to offshore their profits and not pay taxes on them, to use forced and exploited labor in other countries, to disable regulation allowing them to pollute more, merge with other companies and grow in power/influence and finally pass legislation to make it all legal.

the poor cannot influence power. only power can influence power.

WILCO - "Born Alone"

Jeff Tweedy performs the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling"

little pad

i've been threatening to do this for some time. so i finally went out back yesterday with my little camera phone and took some pictures of our garden area. the bottom picture shows the many dead bodies of the yellow jackets that tried to take over our backyard this summer. we had a pretty big problem with those guys. this little contraption worked really well though. the next picture up is of one of our morning glories on the back fence. demitria planted those in between the two flower/vegetable boxes and they took off in the last month. it's really cool because they open up in the morning and then close up during the day when it's hot. but now that it's cool all day, that's right all you folks in texas and elsewhere, it's cool all day here already, they stay open all day. the next shot shows the pretty little tomatoes that will be picked in a few more days once they ripen up a bit more. demitria picked eight the other day. and we still have more coming. the top picture shows the entire area. we have two boxes with tomatoes, herbs, jalapenos, strawberries and wild flowers. the bees love it out there. but they don't mess with us the way the yellow jackets did. so that's our backyard that we put together in our denver house. i think when we get our own place, we're going to have an amazing garden because once i pass this test i can't think of anything better to do on the weekends than garden and read economic books. who would have known those would have become the enjoyable moments in my life? crazy, huh?

one sunday morning

could you kill a honey bee?
driving, sometimes
makes me drowsy
and in between
i believe
there are scenes in trees

funeral flowers keep all winter
how natural, is this place
and this piece of prosthetic
pumpkin puppetry
it's all lost on me

i saw a picture of a paramour
dead in a catalog, scratching
mixed screams of heavy confusion
buried in love and redemption
he was never a real authority

whole love

art of almost

wilco is streaming their new album for 24 hours at wilcoworld.net. i'm listening to the first track right now.

caroline says II

last night, i watched lou reed's berlin documentary. that album has always held a special place with me. it's a perverse, macabre dance of stunningly emotionally torturous prog-rock songs. i first heard it after listening to transformer and loving it. the poppy style, the david bowie production, it was great. then came berlin. much like the talked about dividing line in the aforementioned city, this album divided every part of me. i had trouble listening to it in it's entirety. the song cycle follows a drugged up mother who verbally and psychologically abuses her man and he in turn physically abuses her and leaves her. she then turns to more drugs and men of no virtue. then loses her kids and kills herself. that is the album. and when the last note has played, you feel like it just happened right in front of you. i only bought one more lou reed solo album after that.

"sad songs, sad songs...."

popular

i haven't heard this song in probably 6-7 years. i have no idea why superdrag's "sucked out" got stuck in my head today which for some other reason led me to thinking about this song nada surf's "popular". it was a roundabout of one-hit wonders from the 90's. next week i'll be dissecting the primative radio gods, dishwalla and white town. if anyone can name the songs of those one-hit wonders i will personally put a picture of them on my blog and explain why they are a superstar. no cheating though. superstars don't cheat.

do you know the way to san jose?

because i do. i'm in san jose. i'll be here a week for training. awesome? not really. i'm ready to be home. i've been gone for about six weeks of the past seven weeks. the weather is super nice though. i just ate some lame sushi though. and i don't think my a/c works that great. and i just drank some grapefruit water that nearly made my mouth fold in on itself. so pungent. there was also cucumber water, but i chose poorly. i'm not going back down there. the lobby is a like a club. with grapefruit water.

i think i'm going to bed early. i need to post some pictures of our tomato plants. i hate tomatoes but our plants are awesome. we also have these morning glories on the back fence. they open in the morning and into the day, but then close up for the rest of the day. i'm kind of babbling because i'm tired and i just had an hour long conversation at dinner about work after listening to work training all day.

there is no comedy central on this cable. and no russian television like in kansas city.

i just reread this post. it's really just a long whine.

a grand don't come for free

so my buddy from denver is headed to london today to work and hang for about two, maybe three years. i wish him well. i know he'll do great and love it. me, well i'm happy here in denver. but if the opportunity were to arise for me, i can't say i'd say no to living and working in a foreign country for 2-3 years. maybe longer. we'll see. i really like it here in denver. but to live and work in iceland? awesome. france? awesome. myanmar? not awesome. i think i'd pass on that. although i hear they have amazing roasted tree bark. and the government hands out diapers to anyone who wants them. you can't beat that.

tomorrow i'm going to play in a kickball tournament. i haven't played kickball since 6th grade probably. i feel like i am going to rock it. there is no substantial information to stand behind that assessment. just bravado. and little hot sauce.

i love whistling in pop songs.

gimme shelter

apparently there was an earthquake in colorado yesterday or monday night or something. i didn't feel it. i did however feel love in my heart when i heard air supply on the radio yesterday.

in other news, the astros came to town and got swept by the rockies. i didn't get to go to any games unfortunately. but wandy rodriguez might be getting traded to the rockies. i can have more wandy. isn't that all what we want? i can't help but think of a certain beach boys songs:

"wandy, wandy what went wrong? oh so wrong....
we were together for so long"

i wonder if they were really singing about wandy rodriguez. i bet they were.

in other new, fanta has rushed to the top spot in the cola wars......

rocky mountain high

i'm back. back in denver. that was the longest i've ever been away from home. ever. band camp? that's right, i went to band camp. i actually went to band camp for three summers. that was one week. honeymoon? two weeks. trip to europe? two weeks. this time? i was gone three weeks from home and then home for three days and then gone again for two weeks. so a total of five weeks with three days home. brutal. i have so many clothes to wash and mail to sort through. actually the mail didn't take that long. thankfully i don't have a lot of bills. that's a life of used books and clothes that are at least ten years old.

i am ecstatic to be home. being back in texas made feel back at home, but it felt more like my old home. like a school you used to go to or a church. i actually like to compare it to a first wife. i only have a first wife but i've been around enough divorced people to make the comparison. with your first wife you have kids, buy a house and do major things in your life. for whatever reason, it doesn't work out. you move on. you find wife number 2. by that time in your life, you're older and you kind of know yourself better. you pick someone that's more in tune with who you are. that's what texas is for me. i had major achievements there. life-long friends. great family members. but i found a place that i'm more in tune with. a place that's more like me now.

but, what are some things to document about texas/houston? i'm glad you asked:

1. it's unbelievably hot. i have no idea how anybody lives there when you couple that with the humidity. if it weren't for crops, vitamin d and great surf songs, i would say we should consider retiring the sun. enough.

2. there's way too many people in houston. so many cars. going somewhere. i haven't looked recently but i think the population of houston is exactly eight trillion people

3. the people are nice. they talk to you. and when they talk to you they act like they know you. and they're helpful. that's something i miss.

4. lots of restaurants. i mean a lot. i have no idea how there can be so many restaurants. except i guess when you consider number 2 above. i lost my appetite for most of the week because of number 1 above.

5. people in texas have a sense of humor. i get laughs in texas. i get crickets elsewhere. people in texas like to laugh. they have to. they're slowing burning.

when i landed in denver and i saw those mountains, i felt home. no humidity. it was not scolding hot. my home was there waiting for me. so was my cat. i had to run to the store and buy milk and creamer for my coffee in the morning. i love waking up and having coffee at home. i usually go outside and look at our tomatoes and wild flowers. i also read. i don't have to work tomorrow.

i think i'm finally exactly where i'm supposed to be.

all i need

i'm heading home to texas tomorrow. i won't be passing through or stopping in channelview. there is no reason to anymore. that town is a sad relic. it's infested. diseased. and those that choose not to leave will unfortunately forget why they ever wanted to be there in the first place.

who are you? who, who, who, who

this is an excellent article asking who is exactly is barack obama? i have no idea what he stands for or what he wants from our government.

i have predicted this to my wife and now it's time to make the prediction known. my prediction: if rick perry runs for president, he will win the republican nomination and possibly the white house. that first part is the prediction. the second part is something i'm slowly starting to believe. a prediction in progress if you will. new prediction: in the next two weeks, at some point, i will receive a giant sized novelty check. i look forward to it.

still crazy after all these years

i'm back in KC. i have three more days and then i'm headed to houston/galveston. i'm staying at the marriot this week. man, the gym here is incredible. they have dumbbells up to 75lbs. that is awesome. there is also a nautilus machine, which i've never seen at a hotel or even some gyms. plus the hotel is much closer to my client, which means i'm not soaking wet when i get to work in the morning, which was the case for three weeks.

i also have noticed that since i've left home, i'm not sleeping well. to compensate for that, i've been downing caffeine products, which has been causing headaches when i drink too much caffeine in the afternoon. so today, i decided to only have one cup of coffee. that's it. no sodas or anything of the like. i now have a splitting headache and i can't totally see straight.

there is a russian news channel on this cable set and it's actually good.

this is the most boring post of all time.

off the record

the big night was tonight, my morning jacket in KC at the uptown theater. the bottom shot is the theater before the opening band. the opening band was delta spirit. i'd heard of them from hearya. big, big favorite on hearya. they were good. i would check out their album. my morning jacket was awesome though. started out with the victory dance. moved through some of my favorites from the new album, it still moves, z and evil urges. they were totally upbeat and the place was so hot, everybody was dripping with sweat. i don't know how those guys got through the show without passing out. my ears are still buzzing right now. as you can tell from the pics, i was pretty close over on the right side of the stage. i was able to worm my way after delta spirit. they'll be in denver tomorrow night at red rocks. i have friends going so i'll get a review from there too. i'm going home on friday to denver before i have to come back for week. and then i'm done. between the pizza, my morning jacket, pan-fried chicken and nothing else, kansas city is a pretty bland town. i miss my mountains and afternoon showers. rain, i mean. i don't think it rains here. ever. i hope my hearing comes back.

oh right. this morning. i forgot. so at five in the morning today, i hear an alarm so loud i'm sure the hotel is under attack. i literally sat up in bed with my eyes wide open from a dead sleep. the alarm continued and then a voice came on, "this is not a test. move to the nearest stairway and evacuate the building." i grabbed my wallet and put on a shirt and headed out to find the stairway. i went down six flights of stairs and headed out the back. no one was there. everybody was in the lobby. i headed to the lobby and tried to fall back asleep. i stayed down there for about twenty minutes trying to sleep before they told us it was a false alarm and to go back to our rooms. seeing everyone in their pjs was interesting. one dude did not put on a shirt and one old lady had on a robe. that was all. awkward.

sounds of silence

i'm not sure if i'd rather be outside moving piles of rocks than staring at a computer for ten hours a day thinking as hard as i can. it's freaking exhausting. i'm mentally drained every day. actually it's kind of hot now, moving rocks might be tough. what about driving a taxi?

tomorrow is my morning jacket. totally pumped for that. going home friday finally after three weeks. i'm getting a little lonely here. i was told that there would be others from out of town and people went out quite a bit. that was the opposite of true.

i actually took a taxi from the hotel to work this morning because yesterday i walked, like i do everyday here, and i was soaking wet from sweat. is that how you spell sweat? looks weird.

eat the rich

i finally finished the book with the cover/title shown above. good read. the hubris of wall street and the incredible idiocy of the people running these firms is shown in the story. it's not highlighted enough. the read is more of a story of an unforeseen predicament, with men behind the scenes trying desperately to save a system that had inexplicably turned to a swirling tornado of destruction. that's not really how it happened. and you can try to paint hank paulson a savior as much as you want. but he led goldman sachs before joining the treasury and argued for much of the structure that took down the system. anyway, i would totally recommend it. and i hear there was a movie too. missed it. i was probably watching scrubs or the office for the 3,254 time.

don't stop til you get enough

i finally got to get out in kansas city. other than last friday, my pizza night, and not even really then because i only walked like two blocks from the hotel, i haven't really gotten out in kansas city. my dad had told me about this place that he had eaten at like thirty years ago and i looked it up and it's still there. not only is it still there, it's actually won a lot of awards and is super highly regarded as a great place to get pan-friend chicken. so that's what i got. and it was a lot. mashed potatoes and these amazing cinnamon rolls they give you after you eat. it was awesome. that's the extent of my trip so far. my morning jacket is wednesday. i'll have pictures from that too. see that big piece in the back, i'm going to eat that one tomorrow for lunch. and i have two cinnamon rolls too.

"fool me once, strike one, fool me twice.........strike three." from the office. that was just on tv. great.

hunter pence is a philly. we've traded lidge, oswalt and now pence to the phillies. we were snookered on the lidge deal and the oswalt deal. we'll see how this one pans out. bourn, wandy and lee need to go now. and then we need to bring back tony eusabio. that guy could hit.