Casa Mia

A little while ago, Jeannie and I returned from a nice little mini-date; we walked up to Casa Mia, a strange little restaurant near the Towson campus, and had some drinks and cheesecake. Casa Mia is kind of like going to a restaurant in somebody's basement, very Kirksvillian, and there were two middle-aged guys playing some music, one on keyboard and one on electric guitar. The keyboard guy had three huge, expensive keyboards set up (picture a Paul Schaffer type setup) and yet still managed to sound like a Casio keyboard on 'demo' setting. The last song of their set was 'Freebird.' It was that kind of thing. And yet they seemed to fit in well at the place, because the place is strange. Anyway, it was a nice long walk, the cheesecake was good, the drinks healed Jeannie's tense stomach, and it was a fun little date.

On the way back, Jeannie and I decided on names for ourselves if we ever run away and join a hippie commune. She's Sunlight and I'm Wave.

Also, today I cut my fingernails with a scissors for the first time in my life. They were driving me kind of nuts.

Spiffy

Well, it's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you. All of the "out of control"-ness and "Sinister"-ness of the last post are gone, thanks to some snoozing and a message from my buddy Sean at 8 in the morning yesterday.

So, in honor of Seanyboy, aka Spiff, aka "The M&M guy" (does anybody from the Northeast MO State frshman class of '95 remember that?), I present this photo:


I believe it is historically significant for a few reasons: A) I think this was one of the first (if not the first) times that Sean went fly fishing (he's getting his reel all set up in the picture) and 2) This is one of the last pictures in which I have honest-to-goodness, bona fide hair. It got buzzed shortly after this picture was taken. Bonus points for anybody who knows who took it.

Quickie 2: The Revenge

I didn't really sleep last night because of too much on the brain, so I sat up and watched a good percentage of the first season of LOST, thanks to Netflix. I wasn't sure if I would like the show or not, but I've gotten into it.

At the moment, things feel a little bit out of control. But in a very mundane sort of way, kind of like everything that's been so normal for awhile is starting to turn slightly sinister...this all sounds much more dramatic then things really are, I guess...I could probably use some sleep, and I'll be happy when Jeannie gets home. We're gonna hang out together tonight.

Seanyboy, I assure you, Alaska is on my brain. How did you get such cheap flights? Every time I've looked, tickets have been over $500 each. Maybe I'm looking for the wrong time of year, though....who knows.

I guess this one turned out to be not really a quickie. Kind of a medium-ie.

I thought Rich's blog today was funny and interesting. I've wanted to be far fewer things than he has: cartoonist, record producer, actor, bum, B&N slave. I've also always wanted to be a writer although have never been able to write at all. And I guess there's always a part of me that wouln't mind being a rock star. Ah, fuck it.

Quickie

What a beautiful day. Highlight: getting to work a few minutes early to sit on a bench and watch people and cars go by. And listen to tunes.

Tomorrow is damned Monday.

Sunday night, just got home from work, and it wasn't too bad for a Sunday. Jeannie came up to the Noble twice during the course of the day, so that helped a lot. So anyway, I'm home, and I've popped myself some corn, and I'm ready to recap what was a pretty uneventful weekend.

Well, I guess it was kind of eventful, in that on Friday I was looking at prices for flights to various places around the country: St. Louis, California, and Alaska. Would you believe that it is actually cheaper for Jeannie and I to fly round trip to California than it is to St. Louis? So it looks like, rather unexpectedly, Jeannie and I will be attending K-torr's wedding (I hope I'm not spilling any beans) in northern California this July. Sorry Seanyboy, Alaska clocked in as the big airline-price loser, as it would cost Jeannie and I about $1200 for the flight. It will have to wait a little longer...

Other than that, not too much going on. We had the weekend off from babysitting, which was nice, although we didn't do much in the way of celebrating. We did make the aforementioned (and postponed) Thai noodles last night, and damn they were good. Had some leftovers for me dinner tonight.

Hmmmm. Is that it? That could be it. I've been thinking about everybody a lot. Hope everything is well. Poo, I have very little idea of what to write other than I miss everybody and I feel like life is poised on a very strange ledge right now. I feel like something is about to happen, although I have no idea as to what that might be...

Five Fingers

Here I am, Friday morning, and it's my day off, and I've gotten quite a bit accomplished already. And by quite a bit, I mean that I've conquered the large stack of dishes that were in the sink. And I phoned my folks, and I've farted around on the computer, clearing up a bit of space.

Yesterday I uploaded the new song to my Myspace site. I'm resigned to the fact that I've only recorded 1 or 2 songs that I like as much as songs that I like by other people. I think that's ok. I enjoy working on them, even the songs that I'm not crazy about. Maybe the MySpace site is a bit dangerous, because I'll throw stuff up there that normally would have gotten thrown away, or left to die a long and painful death on my hard drive.

Today, in a few minutes, I will be walking up to the Giant G to purchase some fixin's for dinner with the Jeanners tonight. Thai noodle stir fry. It's quite yummy. Then when I get home I'll do a load of laundry or two, maybe read while the laundry is in, then maybe a nap of some sorts.

I had a dream last night that Jeannie was being interviewed by a magazine called "The Five Fingers." When I woke up, I was only halfway awake and I asked her, "How was your interview?" She said, "I didn't have an interview." Then I said, "Oh, then I had a dream that you were being interviewed. By a magazine called the five fingers." I then added, for no apparent reason, "The magazine's called 'The Five Fingers' because they only interview jerkoffs."

I love my wife very much. She's been worried lately that her throat thing was coming back, but she went to the doctor yesterday and they checked her out with a throat camera and said everything looks A-OK. Woo-Hoo!

Logjammer!

A nice active day off. Got to work on music this morning, but not for as long as I'd hoped. The neighbors weren't out for as long as I thought they'd be. Tried to record some vocals for some existing songs, but that didn't work so I ended up recording a whole new short snapshot piece. It's nothing great but it captures a feeling and it has a decent melody line. It'll probably show up on my MySpace site after I get a chance to rewrite some lines and re-record the vocals.

After recording I walked to the grocery store and bought some stuff to make a tasty dinner cause Aimee was coming over to eat with us. A nice chilly day with headphones and the sun poking in and out of the clouds. Came home and did some dishes, and peeled a nice mess of potatoes. I think that in my past life I must have been an army cook, because I love peeling potatoes, and I love frying up large amounts of bacon and eggs. And I like to wear white undershirts and be gruff.

My mental picture for the day is me sitting in the bathtub this morning around noon, eating cold pizza (I made some homemade pizzas last night for me and the Jeanners and maybe [we thought at the time] Aimee) and reading my Kerouac book. I'm really liking the Kerouac book a lot. It's strange, but I've read a lot of his books, some biographies, 2 books of his letters, and now a book of his journals. I sometimes think that I know him a little better than I know a lot of people I 'know', and he's been dead for 40 years.

Work tomorrow, then off again on Friday. No major plans. Maybe (hopefully) some recording?

Logjam

My mind and emotions have been strangely blank for the past few days, and not really in a good way. I've been very bored/unmotivated/unstimulated. I might get a chance tomorrow to work on some music since it's my day off and usually the neighbors are out on Wednesdays. That would be good.

I'm reading an interesting book of Jack Kerouac's journals that I've wanted to read for awhile.

And now, let's talk about logjam. It's a word that I think I mis-overheard today, and I like it, it's a nice, dirty-sounding word. It's also kind of a manly word. I'm going to try and incorporate it, and it's brother logjammer into my life more often.

I've kind of had a feeling of "What the hell am I doing?" the past few days. I think it's probably due to the fact that work's been especially boring and painful lately, and I haven't really been working on any extra-curriculars for awhile.

Rich, is the latest Magnet cd worth buying? I keep seeing it in the store, and I've listened to some samples but it doesn't sound all that interesting. Let me know. I've been guiltily enjoying the Frou Frou cd. Makes me feel like a 14 year old girl when I listen to it.

Suckday.

I absolutely hate working on Sundays. You feel every second go by, and it seems like the only people who are out are annoying people. I hate hate hate working on Sundays. By 8pm on a Sunday night, I'm pretty damned rude to people. Blah.

Anyway, new Dan is going to take a brief vacation while old Dan makes himself a milkshake to drown his workday sorrows.

Busy like the Beaver.

First off, congrats to my friend in Colorado who's gettin' hitched and having a baby...Woo-Hoo!

I gots a lot done today. Woke at 8 and scanned a bunch of pictures to put on my damned MySpace site, but they only let you put 12 pictures on your profile. So I have a bunch left over that will probably make their way to this blog. Mostly pictures of friends and a couple of me and the jeanners...

Cleaned the bathroom and the dishes/kitchen sink area, took our recycling to the dump, did our taxes, did some laundry. It was a beautful sunny day, good for driving. And by the way, Scrubbing Bubbles is good for getting nasty grime out of the cracks between shower tiles. Thanks to Aimee for buying that stuff when we were all living together so I could discover that handy little secret.

Tonight had a meeting with a couple of people from CSC, to discuss what was good and what was bad about the technical aspects of Invalid, and what we can do better in the future. As I drove home, I had a mini-discussion in my head about how, in art, money takes the place of imagination. It seems like as we've started putting more money into shows and fixing technical problems by buying or renting, a lot of ingenuity, imagination, and creative fun goes out the window. As we use more professional actors, technicians, and designers, the more our shows are starting to look like all the other theatre companies out there, the ones we started out trying to avoid...

Don't really feel like going to work tomorrow...

Never Tear Us Apart

Today the new lead singer of INXS came into the music dept. at the B&N. My boss asked me, "isn't that the new lead singer of INXS?" and I didn't have any idea if it was or not so I went up and asked him if he was the new lead singer of INXS. He said, "Some days." We then exchanged pleasantries. Apparently his name is Jason. I didn't have any of my cd's with me, so I couldn't offer him one. He was with an Australian woman whose credit card was declined. I guess the coffers at team INXS are running a bit low these days. But then again, who can tell me the name of the latest INXS album? Exactly.

I'm off tomorrow, which is nice, and I have no plans, which is nice. Maybe do some laundry. Maybe try and fart around on some music if the neighbors aren't around. What I really need to do is give myself a damned haircut. It always made me laugh when I was a kid getting my hair cut and bald guys came into the barber shop looking to get a haircut, but now I understand. Sad.

I had a dream last night that I took a crap in the shower. And it became big news. They wanted to put me on some TV show about it.

My knees have been bothering me, and I must have slept on my neck funny because my neck/back's been hurting, too. I can't believe that I have to live with this body for another 95 years.

Today was Jeannie's last day working at the B&N, which can only mean one thing: she's not cool anymore.

Sumo-time and the livin' is EZ

What a gorgeous day it is/was today. I spent today (a day off) at CSC organizing stuff that was all disorganized from Invalid. So now the space is all ready for us to start working on the summer shows.

After leaving CSC, I went to the bakery (24 hamburger buns [with sesame seeds] for $1.00), and then to Soundgarden, which is my favorite CD store in all the world, and it just happens to be in the city where I live. It's somewhat similar to vintage vinyl but with better prices. I picked up the cd Details, by Frou Frou. It's a bit like a cross between Bjork and Madonna. Guilty lush pop music that would be nice on a sunny cross country drive.

The warm weather makes me think of summers of the past, when Jeannie and I would walk to The Bench (a bench near my grade school) and sit and make out and smoke Camel wides and talk on summer nights, when the weather was perfect and there wasn't anybody else around because it was late. I think life was pretty damned good then, although I'm sure that I was packed with so much insecurity and loneliness that life is almost definitely much better now. Still, when I think of summer and perfect weather, I will think of The Bench.

Richie Rich, pt. 2

I just got off the phone with Rich a few seconds ago. Plans have been made for the debut of the "Great American Outdoor Barbeque" as a possible replacement for the "Down Home Country Breakfast."

This is truly going to be a summer of great opportunities for some good clean fun.

And I love you, Richard.

Richie Rich

I was reading Rich's blog tonight and was struck by a few things. First, I'll pull a quote that jumped out at me:

"The issue really is this...if I'm honest with myself, I'd recognize that I have no real musical talent."

It's a thought that I have running through my head a lot, and then I have an answer to it that always makes me feel better and know that I'm on track: I work on songs because I enjoy doing it. I would love it if other people listen to them and enjoy them, but ultimately, the only reason I do it is because when I'm working on a song I forget about time, I forget to eat, I forget about everything else and I go into some sort of place where nothing else exists except the song. Even on bad songs, that place lasts for awhile, but with bad songs it doesn't stay around very long, it falls apart pretty quickly. The songs that I keep and that I keep listening to are the ones that can put me into a different place and keep me there; either they have a line that resonates every time I hear it, or there's a note that makes my stomach hurt every time I hear it or something like that. So, ultimately, I don't care if I'm any good or if I'm bad because as long as I can listen to them and they do something to me, then I'm happy.

I would guess that most of the people who read this have had their hands in an art form at one time or another, and that everybody has had doubts about whether they're any good. And I say, it doesn't fucking matter. Do you enjoy what you're doing? Then it doesn't matter. Just do it. As long as you enjoy doing it, keep doing it. If you never let anyone else in the world hear something but just keep it on your Ipod and listen to it over and over again, then it's a good thing. If you sell it and millions of people hear it and love it, it's a good thing. If you send it out and people laugh at you, that's cool, too, because you still have fun listening to it on your Ipod. The only things that matter happen in your head and your heart.

It's a strange thing, but I've been thinking lately that a big reason why I make music is that so when I'm dead people can have something else of me left behind other than pictures. I think that's pretty cool. Not that I'm planning on dying. Ever. I'm pretty much like Chuck Norris, in that respect.

Had a fun time tonight with BJ and Pat and Jeannie, playing Apples to Apples. Except we kept calling it by its German name, which I can't spell but sounded like "Apfelm tzu Apfelm."

I'm going to bed early tonight, and I feel kinda sad, but in a good way. I miss my friends, it's nice having BJ in town because it's one less person to miss.

Just a heads up to everyone living in St. Louis, the Metal Hearts will be playing at the Way Out Club on March 11th. They really are very good live, now that I've seen them I can give them a full endorsement. Plus, after the show, you can offer to let them sleep on your floor and collect good karma points. They're very nice people. And then in a few years, you'll be able to tell a "remember when..." story about the Metal Hearts sleeping on your floor. Seriously, do it.

(crickets)

If I haven't written in a few days, it's only because not much has been going on that I think warrents a blog entry. Just been working, hanging with BJ and Pat, going to the gym, hanging with the Jeanners, and farting around with all of this Myspace business (you're right, Drew, it is a bit of a nightmare trying to get signed up and everything set up, but it's kind of fun, too)(it's kind of like a little window into how other people see themselves, kind of like a blog but different, too).

Last night I was laying in bed waiting for Jeannie, so the light was on in the bedroom, and I just layed there for a few minutes staring at the light on the ceiling. As I was laying there, I realized that I haven't felt lonely in a long time. Which is a pretty damned amazing thing, considering how much of my teens and twenties I spent being lonely. I don't miss it.

Rich had a line in his blog today that reminded me of Stevie Earl Jacobs. (sniff)

I might just be entirely naked right now.

It's always a possibility.

Taking a day off from the gym did me good, my knees are feeling much better. So I went back to the gym tonight after work and ran 3 miles on the elliptical machine, which is much nicer on the knees. I did, however, manage to sweat my ballsac clean off.

Fun fact from B&N: I found out today that while I was out of town, somebody brought a bag of (apparently human) poop into the store and then on the sly emptied the poop onto the floor. Apparently this person likes to then hide and watch as people encounter the poop. All the fun stuff happens when I'm not around! I'd better check my bags of poop and make sure they're all still here...

Just in case you haven't noticed, take a minute to check out my coworker Patrick's BLOG. It's full of interesting tidbits from the wonderful worldwide web of ours. Also, if you're extremely bored, you can look at my new, entirely pointless MySpace site.

Some notes about my new, entirely pointless MySpace site:
Yes, I took the picture of me myself. Yes, it paints me as much more artfully dramatic than I really am. Yes, I do think that sort of thing is lame when other people do it. Yes, Jen Schlueter, I am embarassed by this. But obviously not too much. The picture of the Jeanners was taken by Eric Elz a few years ago, though. I love that picture.

Jeannie started her new job today. Apparently she likes it. She's in the other room doing homework, but dammit, SHE'S GETTING PAID. At what point can I officially start calling her my sugar momma?

Note to Rich R.: in 2 months you're not even gonna remember that damned job. Hang in there.

Melody and lyrics are percolating in my head for an old instrumental that's been laying around. I just need a day off of work with no other plans so I can try some recording. Probably won't happen this week, though.

The Beej

A Mr. B.J. Gailey will be arriving in town today. Some of you may remember him from Truman State University, some from B&N, some may just remember him as the creepy guy watching you in the shower. I am anticipating a week filled with some card playing, trash talking, and maybe some geek games.

Went to the gym again this morning, ran another 3 miles. My knees are really starting to hurt. I'm taking tomorrow off from the gym. I am starting to look pretty hot, though.

Jeannie and I must do some laundry soon. Our laundry pile has graduated to a full blown laundry tower. Oh well.

I think I have forgotten to mention in this here blog that Jeannie got the job with one of the architecture firms that she interviewed with, the good one. She'll be working 20 hrs. a week there, and 20 hrs. doing carpentry with her old boss, Eric Hoel. Who has a newborn baby boy, Skyler. So we might actually be able to save some money now and consider buying a house in the future. Woo-Hoo! Also, we got a couple of nice checks in the mail while we were out of town so we'll be able to pay off a big chunk of our credit card debt. Woo-Hoo!

Anyway, I'm sure everyone cares deeply about our financial situation. Yuck. Money is dumb, and it is truly the root of most evil. I think if we're ever not-poor, we'll probably just end up longing for the days when we were poor.

Skipping it All

Tonight I thought about going to see Flora's band after work, and I also thought about going to the gym after work, but in the end coming home and hanging out with the Jeanners won out over everything.

Tonight I bought the new Springsteen live double CD from 1975. I'm a big fan of his old stuff so it's a nice collection of the best songs from his first 3 albums. Haven't really had a chance to listen to much yet, and I'm not expecting to be blown away, but I think it'll be a nice set to have.

I went to the gym last night and ran another 3 miles. My body hurts pretty bad. And I had insomnia last night, and I think it might have been because I was hungry. Woke up around 4 and couldn't get back to sleep so at 5:30 I got up and tried to sleep on the living room floor.

Had some lyrics running through my head as I fell asleep and remembered most of them today, so maybe they're keepers. I haven't actually tried to sing them to the music yet, though.

I was prepared to be in a bad mood at work today but it actually turned out to be not too bad.

Tonight: popcorn and tea.
Tmorrow: gym, grocery store, and work.

Wonder how Rich's day ended up.