Hello all, I hope that you and yours have had a nice holiday season so far. A quick post with a quotation and today's lyric, because I have to go air some grievances and wrestle the head of the household.
"I am not opposed to Christ, if you like. He was a most humane person, and if He were alive today, He would be found in the ranks of the revolutionists, and would play a conspicuous part. There's no doubt about that."
- from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
"I'm gonna fight for what I want to be. I won't make the same mistakes, Because I know how much time that wastes"
So I'm live blogging from Wes' computer. It's been months since this computer has seen that. (hegh!) This is just a quick little update to say that Aspen is going just as well as could be expected, and that photos will be forthcoming quite soon.
"Sister's scared of the mezzanine She says the mise-en-scene comes beneath not between"
- "Humor is Non-sequitur", by Night Rally (from The Elegant Look Of The New)
So KDHL has been doing some really cool shit down in New Orleans about some really bad shit that's going down there. I'm going to cull heavily from the e-mail she just sent out to a bunch of people. From here to the end of this post, it's other people talking.
New Orleans is not in the media enough when really this place is still a mess 2 years later and that's an outrage. HUD plans to demolish 5000 units of public housing in a city that's going through a housing crisis. They'll replace that with only 182 units of affordable housing. There are over 16,000 homeless people in this city, up from 6,000 pre-Katrina. HUD is spending 762 MILLION DOLLARS to demolish instead of rebuild.
But residents are organized and there are people here to help. Already we've delayed the demolition of some buildings at the BW Cooper development, demonstrated outside the HUD office and inside city council meetings and there's a rally planned at the St Bernard Housing Development for Saturday.
So yeah, write a blog, read an article, talk about it at the water cooler...anything to just put it on the radar of people. I'm not saying joining a facebook group will stop a bulldozer but what if we all did what we could? That would rule.
Not much to report...work today, training start tomorrow. Should be very good and should get a chance to hang out with some more people. Had fun hanging and shopping with Dirt yesterday...it was very domestic of us. Can't wait for my associate Mr. Morgan to return from the Left Coast and for Will to start feeling better so Hotel Marion can be returned to full strength once again. Also, for a magic keg of beer to show in kegerator. That would be ideal.
"I'll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity's done to you... You won't have to strain to look into my eyes."
- "Brand New Colony", The Postal Service (from Give Up)
So I arrived safely in Denver amidst a pretty significant snow squall yesterday. Even took the bus successfully to downtown, where I had to schlep my rolling suitcase and three other bags down the snow-covered sidewalks. I really need a "fit everything in there" duffel bag for these 3 week sojourns I seem to have been taking so frequently.
Apparently Aspen has been getting ass tons of snow. (And yes, "ass tons" is a scientific term.) Something ridiculous like six feet in the past week. So the skiing and fun up there should be really good - too bad I don't leave till Friday. This week should be really good, if for no other reason than I'm in Denver rather than Philly. I mean, everyone should <3 Philly and all, but it's definitely nice to get outta Dodge, as I keep saying.
Today has been another post-hardcore/post-punk day. Just listened to The Monroe Doctrine by Farside and am now listening to 13 Songs by Fugazi. After this, I think it's on to The Silhouette by Garrison, or it might be Diary by Sunny Day Real Estate. Ah, those were the days...
"I just feel so old since the sun came up today And the winds of change unearthed my apathy It's all work and no play"
- "Better Than Crying", Farside (from The Monroe Doctrine)
So I leave for Colorado tomorrow. I'll be in not-Philly for 3 weeks. I haven't started packing yet. And somehow, I'm not worried about it. I'm going with the McIntyre approach - I've packed in my head, I just need to put stuff in a suitcase.
(Background: My friend John once scolded our friend/acquaintance McIntyre for not writing his paper yet. McIntyre responded by saying, "I've already written the paper in my head - I just need to print it out." What a McIntyre.)
A few of us went out last night to Bob & Barbara's for drag night. It was pretty great, and a few people who I haven't seen in a while came out, which was great. I feel like whenever I'm about to leave people come out of the woodwork, and then I get a little misty about leaving for so long. But I'll be back soon, y'all.
"You can't swim in a town this shallow You will most assuredly drown tomorrow."
- "Why You'd Want To Live Here", Death Cab For Cutie (from The Photo Album)
So I wanted to start a new thing here, mostly just another ripoff of another old Dirt gag. (Have you seen his other site, btw? He interviewed Ian MacKaye recently. Sick!)
I just wanted to put up some lyrics, every day or every other day. Nothing profound, necessarily, but just something that caught my fancy. So really, the exact thing that Dirt's doing, but without the mystery.
Since I thought of this yesterday, here's yesterday's:
"You’ve got pains Like an addict 10 A.M. automatic"
- "10 AM Automatic", The Black Keys (from the album Rubber Factory)
And today's:
"Most important decisions in life Are made between two people in bed"
- "Must I Paint You A Picture?", Billy Bragg (from the Bragg compilation Must I Paint You A Picture?)
So evidently, it's December. Nature decided to let me know last night by snowing a little as I passed out drove around in Drew's car. Then today it's been a steady downpour of the dreaded wintry mix that descends upon the northeast every winter like the plague. It really is miserable out there, and I'm surprised I left the house at all today.
The gurnal writing is going okay - I missed the other night because I fell asleep, but other than that I've been keeping up with it and not reading back entries. I think this will help me be a little more honest with myself, which apparently I have a problem with. I think I will stop mentioning this soon. Apparently it's helped me get the wheels turning though, and I've made a bunch of posts recently despite being up to my harbls at work. So that seems good or bad (depending on your view of my rambling)!
Just a few more days until I scamper off the great wide West. I just realized that I'm going to be gone for like 3 weeks, and I need to pack, which is always exciting. Also, Steve is going to be unhappy with me again. She's always unhappy about something, though - mostly because she's mad about being a female cat named Steve, I think.
So the rents asked me a little while ago what I wanted for Festivus. This is always hard for me, because I never think about things this way. (I figured out today why this is - my mom is exactly the same way. If she wants something, she just goes out and gets it.) So I thought I would start a sort of ongoing list of thing it would be nice to have for Festivus, if only to help out mom when she's buying all manner of ill shit for her favorite* son.
So here's my Festivus list, which I will amend as necessary in future posts.
- Seeing everyone I love over the next month
- A nice bottle of bourbon or Irish whiskey
- A flask (may purchase on own so I can walk around Aspen, CO in a suit, packing a flask)
- All my friends being happy in whatever they do
- "On The Road" by Jack Kerouac
- The courage to change what I can, the patience to accept what I cannot, and wisdom always to tell the difference
- My books that Lou and Gwen stole / I let them borrow
- Delicious vegetarian food that I eat / make
- A thrift store three piece pinstripe suit, tailored to my freakishly proportioned body
- A pair of jeans
- A record player that works correctly, so I can listen to Otis Redding on vinyl, just like he was intended to be heard
- A voice like Tom Waits'
That's all for now, I think.
*May become second favorite son if older brother ever gets his shit together and stops wearing camouflage Red Sox hats and shaving his chest and arms.
