9/20/03 - 2:19pm (drawbar thief)
Tinkering around this morning and cranked out a little jammy with the Nord Electro 2 and Roland Fantom. Unintentionally went the direction of a heavily MMW sound, but... that's ok.

Also started scratching out ideas for a new Beyonce Knowles remix project. The yin to my blues yang, I guess... but this one could be quite lucrative.

Hurricane came and went despite the news saying it would surely bring about the apocalypse. My house is still standing after being battered by 40mph winds! Actually, my parents had a few old trees come down, and I spent most of yesterday with Andy helping them cut out from underneath. The old neighborhood is alive again after a few years of just being a bedroom community for gov't transients. Lots of young families or recent retirees... all taking care of the place and making an effort to get to know eachother. Nice little Rockwellian thing to see, especially since everyone in my neighborhood seems to think that everyone else is out to destroy them like some bad soap opera plot.

Went to Clarendon Ballroom last night to see how the largely soulless, transparent, yet rich and well dressed young populace of Northern VA live. It's entertaining to watch... for a couple minutes at least. Luckily the person Michelle and I were going to see dogged us out after only 15 minutes for a drunken booty call poorly disguised as "Oh, I'm *so* tired! No, really! I am!"

In the words of Liam Lynch... whateva.

9/16/03 - 1:29am (oh, drama!)
Moto-crewed the Face of America ride from NY to DC this past couple of days (new pix). Great crew, great ride, amazing riders. You want humility? Complain about pettiness in your hyperstimulated comfortable middle class existance while watching a man with no legs and stumps for arms pedal a modified hand-cycle 350 miles... or a blind bicyclist do the entire route on a tandem with detailed route instructions being relayed by a seeing lead rider... or a team comprised of Palestinian, Jordanian, and Israeli riders all helping eachother out. And of course, there was the team of NY residents who attached huge American flags ot the backs of their bikes, despite riding in 35mph headwinds for most of the route. The image of a pack of bicycles flying huge flags either riding into Washington DC at the peak of weekend tourist hours, or just coming down a narrow rural highway surrounded by nothing but sky and corn on a foggy morning before the sun even coms up... amazing.

As usual, our shepherding duties put us in the line of danger many times... way more than the AIDSrides. But for the most part, everything went incredibly smoothly up until the last mile where after the chaos of getting 500 bicyclists down MD-214 from Annapolis all the way to RFK stadium led me and my best moto-crew friend Michelle to let our guards down... which resulted in us crashing into eachother at about 30mph. Grr. We'll heal, as will the motorbikes. At some point.

For some reason, I was compelled to go to Arundel Mills tonight. It's a scary, scary place. Each "neighborhood" has a theme such as "swamp", "bird sanctuary", "train station", etc... surround sound effects (old trains, bird calls, crickets, you name it) and detailed decoration add to the ambience of each area. Nevermind the fact that a real wetlands area, tons of birds, and plenty of historic buildings hearkening back to the WA&B railroad's glory days were all once on the site of what is now the megamall. Just annoys the hell out of me.

So much legitimate history is brushed over as obsolete or worse, "an eyesore", to make way for artificial, poorly built zones of revenue grab that just function to remind us of glory days past. Ever been to the newer generation of outdoor mall designed as a town square? Grrr.

Maybe with my recent selfish break from pursuing the things that matter (you know : money, status, career inertia), I"ll see about getting some graduate work done in preservation and/or planning. Seems to be a strange mix of politics, real estate, and history could really come in handy if I wanna save the stuff that's on its way out.

Well, for now, it's another bottle of Troeg's Doppelbock and some thoghts on how I can rebuild the SV. Two-tone bodywork? Nikko high pipe? Heli-bars? Whee!

One last observation : girls are really f'd up. If you happen to be one and are reading this... well, chances are you've let me in on your personal drama as of late and sought advice. Now, I'm really not trying to be an ass, and I'm not ratting anyone out... but the long and short of it is : start by being honest with yourself and getting an understanding of what you feel. Then be honest with whoever your drama is revolving around and let them know how you feel. Ask them to be honest with you and let YOU know how THEY feel. Once everything is out in the open, either work shit out or cut your losses and move on. Risky, but sure as hell beats keeping everything bottled up inside or worse, jumping to conclusions that you have no real business jumping to and ruining it for both of you.

I know, I know... like I have any room to talk.
9/10/03 - 3:44pm (you meddling kids)
I've always been into abandoned, historic sites... and lamented our society's lack of respect for the past. With a lot more time on my hands the last few days, I spent some time researching all of my favorite local ruins in order to dispel some of the rumors and try to get a better understanding of how these things get to such a sad state.

Used Keyhole's Earthviewer software to get good overhead views of everything. May go into detail and turn this into a whole side project at some point. For now, just some slides.
9/09/03 - 8:26pm (stop, children, what's that sound)
Reorganized and updated the "ears" section of the website. Lots of new live material, and better organization all around. Here's hopin' it may lead to some new gig work...
9/08/03 - 12:19am (are my methods... unsound?)
Hi. I have a few quick questions...

So this $50 reservation for your ridiculous little rennaisance joust theme restaurant is both non-refundable and non-transferrable? (And the only reason I said yes originally is because my friend actually wanted his bachelor party there)

So, you're going to break lease, move out of our house without warning, and into the home of the man whom you had a restraining order against last month?

So while you're not technically firing me, I technically shouldn't come in on Monday. (don't call us, we'll call you)

Ya know what? I don't have time for this. The world's most incredible fireworks display ever begins in 12 hours in Marietta, Ohio, and I've yet to pack up my tent.

The country's best mountain backroads, a fireworks display that required a cigarette after the finale, lanesplitting, curb-hopping, cop-evading, campfire debauchery with old distant friends, $2.75 western omlette and OJ, slicing and dicing in the hills, standin' on the corner wearin' my leatha'... (whateva'!)

Why do people react to the statement, "I was laid off." the same way they would to, "I have two hours to live." Especially when it's exactly the opposite. I have SO MUCH MORE TIME to live now. And you damn well better believe I plan on using it.
9/05/03 - 3:40am (she acts like we've... never met)
That's what I'm talkin' about. The missing ingredients lately are a mix of order, brilliance, and legitimate fun. Tonight : rock and roll of the highest order (we even pulled out a rockin' Dylan & The Band cover), discussing the genius of Henry Darger with Tall Man's organ player while drinking Jim Beam out of a jug, watching a drunk Mike Roy dance with the ladies, standing in awe of Graham Lindsey's earnest authenticity, going over the finer points of being a soulful whiteboy with the legendary Pablo Fiasco while watching painfully sterotypical Baltimore hipster girls put on black nail polish while making sure their 1940s waitress hairstyles are just so. Breathe in. Cough. Breathe out. Word.
9/04/03 - 11:34am (i like it raw)
Angsty couple of weeks. Ehh, angsty year. Binged according to my standard mental-flux binge stages. Toys, clothes, furniture. Took Dukr's BMW Z3 out for a spin Monday and when I started thinking about how I could possibly afford that, I knew it was time to stop.

Played the DC Blues Festival with Clarence Turner. In the 4-unsigned-local-band competition, we were the only ones I noticed who got a significant standing ovation from the crowd... maybe it's also because we were the last... regardless, we played incredibly well considering the poor monitor mix. But Melanie Mason (who I'm not knocking - she's incredibly talented) won the judges hearts. Odd, though, since she played more rock than anything else... Ah well, it was great to have my parents and good friends come support us, and I think the audience clearly showed their appreciation. That was high on my list of hopes to pull me out of the funk, but if nothing else, maybe it'll mean more local work.

OH! A few weeks ago, I had the fortune of checking out Mondo Sushi with Heather before they closed up shop. Actually a cool place. Not nearly as pretentious as the DC joints run by the same folks (Dragonfly, Red, 18th St. Lounge, etc.) but still maintained classic hipster vibe with sexy Asian DJ, saketinis, white plastic mod furniture and all. (extra hipster shout-out to Nate who not only is a sexy Asian in his own right, but also had the requisite Bluetooth camera/phone handy.)

Now, even though I like sushi, I don't eat it that often. I also rarely handle the ordering. When I do, I typically just go for the nigiri. I didn't realize that when ordering maki, 1 order = 6 pieces, and the fine print was, well, fine. But to my defense, Heather ok'd the order, and the server didn't question me until she brought OUT the order.

Regardless of the awkwardness - and bill - and weird looks you get riding Metro at 2am with strange fishy smells coming from your bag - it was worth it just for the experience... and the pictures.



8/25/03 - 2:37am (that the moon?)
Needed some cosmic inspiration, I guess. Spent Saturday on fixing then riding the bicycle for the first time in 2 years. Checked out the disappointing March On Washington 40th anniversary rally (less a celebration of how far we've come and more an activitst-y whine fest), got stung by wasps, missed Howard Dean's speech in VA, then caught an unfortunately disappointing "blues" gig.

Spent today at RW's intending to work on the GPz, but Sears employs the dumbest people that walk the Earth, and I made two separate tool searches out to Montgomery County to no avail despite being told over the phone that the parts were in stock.

Anyway, I remember July 4th 1997 when the Pathfinder robot landed on Mars and beamed back our first truly live images from another planet. I was at a party and turned on CNN with a friend of mine who was also interning at NASA. As the pictures of rocky, red deserts against a dark orange sky came onto the TV... the most enthusiastic response I heard was "What the heck is that?" from some dumb girl. Even after we explained it... people wanted us to turn on the coverage of the DC fireworks instead. FIREWORKS? THIS IS LIVE FEED FROM FRIGGIN' MARS!

Ah well. I got my own live feed from Mars tonight (yeah, I actually took that picture. Not much compared to Hubble, but a lot better than I would have imagined - geeky details below). At one point while out in the dark fields of the USDA, I was surrounded by "cops" who saw me standing there with this thing and assumed the worst. Thanks. I've been in a dark field for two hours. Why not shine another search light on me and just make my whole head explode?

Didn't take much time for them to realize what I was doing, though. Then they all wanted to look. "So is that the moon?" one said as he stared Mars right in the eye. At least his friends all laughed and called him an idiot. I held back seeing as how he had a gun.

Closest it's ever been to a human-populated Earth (that is, if you believe the Earth is older than 3000 years... which I do)

(OK, technically this is an unbelievable picture considering I was using a cheap 9mm Plossl eyepiece through a cheap 2x Barlow lens making it a roughly 260x magnification from the 8" reflector on a simple Dobson mount, while hand-holding the digital camera. Yep. Everyone's been right all along. I'm a big fat dork.)

8/21/03 - 3:53pm (good and evil)
Sat in with Clarence Turner's band last night at Twins. I love that place. I love U St, or at least what it was. It's fast becoming another yuppie safehouse sadly. The great Bill Heid sat in on keys for a few (not only a great player, but has the Guinness record for hitchhiking, and hasn't had a day job in three decades... the man's my new hero). Just an excellent night.

OK, change of thought. Hundreds of motorcyclists are severely injured or die every year thanks to idiot drivers. Admitted, many of the motorcyclists are equally stupid... but in the cases when it's clearly the driver's fault, people often walk out of court with little more than a slap on the hand. Judges sympathize with the "I didn't see him" excuse despite motorcycles carrying all the legal rights and definitions of a vehicle as an SUV or sports car. Try using that excuse in a two-SUV crash. You don't see what you're not looking for... and that's no excuse for manslaughter.

Usually, journalistic coverage of such an event almost always subtly blames the motorcyclist, even if the driver is clearly in the wrong. As if death is an acceptable risk. Now, I'm not saying it's not a risk... but it's a risk you take waking up every morning. That's a slippery slope, I know, but the long and short of it is : when someone else is responsible for anyone's death by negligence... they deserve serious consequences. Sadly, few do.

Well, everyone likes seeing a politician get clipped... and since South Dakota Congressman Bill Janklow murdered a motorcyclist this past week while speeding at 75mph through a stop sign, naturally the journalistic spin immediately held up the (albeit protective gear and helmetless) motorcyclist he killed as an innocent victim of a horrible man with a record of negligent driving.

It's a sad story, but one that happens nearly every day. Hopefully putting this one in the limelight will mean a shift in both journalistic and legal spin in instances like this in the future. Listen to the words of Janklow's lawyer. How can this man sleep at night?

"Even if you run a stop sign and somebody is
killed, there can be mitigating factors that help your defense," Wainscot (attorney for Janklow) said today as he conducted an inch-by-inch search of the crash scene, camera in hand. "My job is to find those factors."

Wainscot said he was also investigating the background of the cyclist, "to see if there might have been alcohol involved." The highway patrol report, released late today, said that neither man involved had been drinking.

8/19/03 - 6:21pm (to be)
What's better than a weekend of nice riding? Good steak dinners. Better than that? Good diner breakfasts. Better than that? Being in the rain on the deck of a tall ship while dancing all night to the afro/cuban/sou/funk beats of Antibalas. Everybody say, "Yeah yeah".

Big gigs coming up. Will probably update the ears page soon (in desperate need). Need to return to a normal, human sleep schedule. Maybe this will help.

Must. stop. spending. money. All new moto gear, clothes, DVDs, music... thinking a really good digial camera is in order. Grr.
8/14/03 - 11:54pm (smithy)
Went hiking today. While I was out, I was thinking about Koyaanisqatsi (only really good -qatsi film in the series, I think)... watched it in college, egged on my ponderings regarding western society's being completely independent of nature, and instead relying solely on technology. For every facet of life. Most folks don't breathe outdoor air for more than a few minutes a day anymore.

Depart from a natural order and make a "better" way. Then watch as things fall apart when great imbalance comes. Guess it's just chaos... but still, it's creepy. More so when you consider some apocalyptic scenario wherein electricity and communication are gone...

You can cram a hell of a lot of people on this planet when you have conveniently prepackaged TV dinners coming out of the agribusiness giants... but what if they ceased to be? Get a gun. For hunting or protection... the rioting would probably get really bad. Know what berries not to eat? Think you can poach off the local farm? Are there any local farms anymore? Try fishing. Oh, wait, the Bay and most of its tributaries are dependent on hatcheries. How far can you get on one tank of gas? Everything I own outside of my tent, shoes, knife, water bottle, and backpack would be pretty much worthless.

I finally get back home, I turn on the TV and see that the most populous section of the English-speaking Western world is without electricity. Perfect.

Used some electricity for the last few nights working on new Mike Roy material. Birds, Baltimore and Pink Sky are getting closer to being finished.

Picking up the pace... going to push my presence more... speaking of apocalyptic losses of dependability... the job's got maybe two or three months left, max. But why worry about that, when Antibalas is playing in Philly on Saturday, and there's a 'maggot par-tay to attend up there Sunday??!!
8/08/03 - 2:56am (tell my wife I love her very much)
There was something I meant to tell you... Ehh, it's gone now. Oh, finally jumped on the Friendster bandwagon. Actually quite interesting, in a Stanley Milgram sort of way.

Guinness. Goat cheese souffle over baby greens with a tarragon cream sauce. Guinness. Swordfish with basil pesto over sundried tomatoes. Double espresso. Brownie a-la-mode with fudge shavings and cream. Nat Sherman New York Cut. Rock. Bob and Krista were sent off to San Francisco in style. Gonna miss 'em. Better yet, gonna give me an excuse to go to California more.

Been busy at work this week. They found 28 new videotapes in the shuttle Columbia wreckage, most from the on-board camcorders. I had to catalog it. An interesting experience... hard to describe really. A lot less soul-heavy now than in February though both for chronological and personal reasons. Man, February just sucked ass (scroll up).

Still, this was the intimate stuff. The astronauts used these largely for personal documentation... this was the stuff they were going to show their families when they got home... the tapes they'd play for their grandkids during the holidays 30 years from now... Willie McCool (and c'mon... isn't that just the perfect name for the fresh-faced perpetually-smiling American shuttle pilot?) demonstrated the "trash compactor" (a giant roll of duct tape, actually), then all the trashball sports they came up with to pass the time. Kalpana Chawla was content to just demonstrate the tens of ways to eat M&Ms in zero gravity. Ilan Ramon took about 10 minutes of footage every time orbit had them over Israel... you can hear him commenting just how insignificant all the turmoil is from that vantage point. My favorite was Willie and Laruel discussing in great detail the sunrise they had seen that morning just before putting on thier flight suits for the descent home.

I was sort of torn about it at first, but they're up for public release anyway. I made copies. Maybe I'll play 'em for my adopted Chinese babies 30 years from now... God only knows what kind of role models they'll have.
7/28/03 - 2:16am (my name is Daddy Whipcream)
Whoo, doggy. The steamroller of fun keeps on rollin' and leaving a trail of flattened-yet-satisfied destruction in its wake.

Hippies groovin' in the mountains... Rock'n'Roll legends hanging out and talking shop... my very own episode of Queer Eye for the Straight guy in a North Carolina mall... more stars in one sky than I've ever seen combined in my life... watching the sun come up with new friends wearing dresses made of Tyvek while listening to a 20-man acoustic jam on some stranger's deck... is there anything better? Not much in the way of pix yet (more coming), but take a listen to the MP3 lovins in here.
7/17/03 - 12:36pm (my very own 8 1/2)
I feel sick. Decided to sleep in as long as I could.

It's rare that I remember dreams, but when I do, they often make me mad to have woken up. I've been working on trying to be a bit more lucid when I can... being aware enough to enjoy the dreams and even take control of them, but not ruin it all and wake up.

Anyway... it must have been a huge combination of things I've seen in life and on TV in the last few weeks (late night ads for 'Fathers Rights' lawers, reports on E! about movie stars "breaking down", spoiled athletes, girls who lose their sanity without warning and without reason, etc.)

It all blended together in my brain, simmered, and probably mixed together with a bit of my own insecurities about the future. How did it come out?

A ten minute long song and dance number taking place on a huge outdoor stage with many hundreds of performers divided into at least 6 different parts. It was mostly the cast of Saturday Night Live leading the parts and doing the more theatrical interpretation of the lyrics, but there were cameos from Mariah Carey, Flavor Flav, John Goodman, Wu-Tang Clan, Kathryn Hepburn, and Liza Minelli... damn, now its getting fuzzy.

They sung their own anthems based around a dfferent theme in that hideously overwrought Andrew Lloyd Weber way which I thought I couldn't stand. Themes included responsibility, wisdom, compassion, sex, fatherhood, success, etc. Naturally, each independent anthem would combine and harmonize with another, and they dynamics would build and build, then they'd all culminate together in a wide-open, ultra-harmonized rendition of that old-timey Mother's Day song ("M is for the million things she gaaaaaave me"), only I *think* it was spelling out "mankind". Regardless, I remember thinking to myself in the dream, "Damn, how did I pull this off?"

I remember there being a video projection going on behind everything which displayed all the lyrics each individual part was singing, and being impressed with not only the complexity of the songs, but the graphic designer's choice of typeface. And that's where I woke up.

I don't know much about musicals, (and I'm not all that interested in learning) so the closest thing I can really parallel it to would be the huge finale of the South Park movie. Only it was a bunch of random psychotic women and prominent figures in pop culture singing about responsibility and honoring the good folks who sort of balance them out in the cosmic karma sense.        Oh, I don't know. Back to sleep.
7/14/03 - 8:00pm (dérh té launndreaugh)
A time warped week of rarely going to work, and plenty of time saddled up. Nothing wrong with that. Have a good idea for a cheesy Harlequin romance novel now, too. "Their lust was forbidden, but on two wheels, they could be one... read all about it in... '6000 RPMs of Passion'"

James River Blues Festival/Contest on Saturday with the Westcotts. Probably got the best ovation of any band there, but they ranked us low. Sticklers for tradition don't like the bootyshakin'. Discovered some amazing roads, though.

Did a live progressive house vinyl/effects/keyboards set with Q last night... I think we're really on to something. No one's doing this from what I can gather, or if they are, they're planning it all out ahead of time. This is live and improvised... Bandwidth-heavy, but if you'd like to hear the hour-long set, feel free.

If you're not familiar with the "Maximize the Mix" reference, do yourself a favor and get to know Ramon and DJ Horace.

Time to clean up this abomination of a bedroom.
7/6/03 - 11:20pm (merry meet!)

More paganistic (possibly druid) overtones to this crazy cosmically humbling weekend as after a great day riding with Dukr all over the local backroads, then back to La Casa for dinner and beverages... I wind up pulling over somewhere deep in the USDA to watch an unbelievable electrical storm pass over. I think part of me really wanted to get hit by lightning, too... but it wasn't meant to be, this time.

I need a new camera...

7/5/03 - 2:28am (I'm going home)
Some things are fleeting, but the fact that you had that perfect moment, that shining example of what you're after... that makes it worth it. Sure, hold on to the things that are dearly important... but don't forget that sometimes just the moment itself is what mattered.

Blah blah blah.

New Westcott EP is online!

Old school house party on the 4th deep in Anacostia. Out on the porch. Everyone in the ghetto stopped by to take a listen. Fire trucks and ambulances on their way to an emergency even made the effort to dance along while they zipped by. Old homeless vets... young thugs trying to look hard. No boundaries. Color, class... just a party.

On the way home, 395 was a parking lot, as was most of 295, and all the exit ramps. Everyone wanted to see the amazing DC fireworks display. The 4th always chokes me up... not necessarily the patriotic reflections... more just the fact that all of humanity seems to ignore the barriers that exist day to day and gets together to have a good time. Admitted, it's kind of silly just getting together passively to look up in the sky and ooh and aah. But it's something, you know.

Went home and watched two different movies that I could relate to on a lot of levels. Falling Down (always a favorite), and Y Tu Mama Tambien. I notice how easy it is to project your current feelings and mindset onto your personal interpretation of a film (or song, or whatever). Last time I watched Falling Down was a completely different experience. As far as Y Tu Mama Tambien... I was sort of let down. So many people like to hold it up as the trendy postmodern example of liberating erotic cinema. It wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe I'm just too progressive in that respect. Definitely wasn't worth the shock and amazement given to it by most folks, though.

Swam buck nekkid at Piney Point tonight with a decent buzz going and a huge old boat burning in the cove. A personally liberating moment if there ever was one. Also strangely primal/pagan with the boat and nudity and such... but whatever. Haven't been totally submersed in natural water in who knows how long...

More ideas brewing about the next chapter. It's gonna be a good one, no doubt... but probably not by most folks' standards? Everyone I know in the good ol' local government contracting workforce is kindly saying, "Fling me a résumé and I'll see what I can do. That's all well and good, but fuck it... I never had that famed "bum around" time that so many college grads and dropouts alike get. A full time job with a 3-letter acronym is nice and pays well and all... but maybe later.

Goin' riding tomorrow with moto crew friends. These have been some good weekends lately. The weeks, not so much. People are awfully disappointing lately... but life itself, better yet my participation/perception of it, is definitely on the up and up.

I forgot to tell the story about the comple brake system failure on the Nissan a few weeks ago. But no bother, the bastards who used the wrong parts put it all back together nicely. Looking back, I could have probably sued their asses out of business... damn if that's just not my style.

7/2/03 - 12:02am (insert page break)
Chickies, motorcycle rides, jazz legends, long drives with the top off, tuna tartare, sake bombs, hafl-eaten ice cream cakes, mellotron-laden ballads. The stuff good weeks are made of. Finally.

Caught Larry Willis at Blues Alley. Impressive show, especially with Slide Hampton sitting in on trombone. Best part was hearing about "Mapleshade". That I didn't know about this earlier makes me question my love of music. Totally minimalistic studio set in a mansion just over in Upper Marlboro. An ex-defense industry genius runs the show, designs the amps and cables himself. No more than 4 microphones in any session. Just incredible. Listening to Wilis' latest CD is a spiritual experience in every sense of the word.

Mike Roy came by with a raging headcold. We figured it was the perfect voice to record a brooding ballad with... also threw in some authentic Mellotron rather than traditional instrumentation. Sort of a jarring sound to some... but thanks to, well, the Beatles, Fiona Apple, and the Flaming Lips, maybe not so much anymore.

Oh, yeah, I'm losing my job. Well, sort of. Actually, my group is getting sold down the river... I'm not sticking around. I need something new. The question is what. Ehh, it'll come.

While this all is good, it doesn't beat a wedding on a gondola in the middle of Venice (at least if you squint your eyes right). Congratulations, Matt & Becky.
6/25/03 - 2:43am (own the intersection)
Finished up the first-ever Tour de Friends this past weekend. Have a nasty, nasty cold now... but it was worth it.

This event is the phoenix of the defunct AIDSrides put on by Pallotta TeamWorks. Long dramatic story there about how Pallotta took too much money away from the charities, blah blah blah... so the folks who worked for the charities decided to drop Pallotta and put the event on themselves. It went amazingly well. Hopefully it will return a significantly larger amount of money back to the charities.

I was in the Moto Safety crew... essentially we were shepherds for the 700 or so bicyclists across 350 miles, riding out early, manning dangerous intersections, scouting up and down the route looking for riders needing help. First out, last in... but it was fun. Combined with the 4-hour blitzkerieg down to Raleigh on Wedesday morning (with a Harley Dyna Wide Glide at that!), and it was about an 850 mile weekend all told. Beautiful riding country. Various motorcycling cultures (Bimmers, Harleys, Jap cruisers, sportbikes) all uniting for the betterment of humanity. *sniff* I'm farklempt. Oh, and the SV is even more fun when loaded down with luggage. Drops into the turns even more eagerly.

OK, so nothing terribly exciting to write. Can't really describe the trip, you just have to be a part of it to understand. So... umm... yeah.
6/16/03 - 2:43am (bigger picture)
Happy father's day-

Mom's doing a lot better now... almost superhuman, actually, post-angioplasty. Today was more just "Family Day" than anything else... all happy we're just alive and togehter. I always forget what a blessing it is to even have a family.

I've been antsy lately... wanting a clearer view of what's ahead... this time last year, I figured I'd be starting my own family soon enough and had a general Roadmap (TM) together... but obviously that didn't happen.

Oh well... always forward, never straight. Juabe got the formal offer from Pixar. Kasima's determined to find a Thai woman. Sara's going to LA for grad school. My division at work might be bought out soon, which would probably mean the end of my position... not that I wake up every day salivating at the chance to go there. Need to find some employment direction, but I think the requisite world travel (or just national) comes first. I think I'm just a few years behind the way things are supposed to be.

But I'll trade sandals and backpacks for Metzelers and Givis. SV's got the toprack and the Mother of All Tankbags (Ortleib : when you absolutely have to smuggle small families in waterproof comfort).

Blah blah blah. Workin' on the new Mike Roy EP finally. Keep in mind these are the very early stages... but here's one approach to the newest of his pop songs. Straightforward, yes, but authentic. And completely digital (only one real instrument in the whole mix - and the mics even went through a vacuum tube-to-A/D converter preamp, digital into the computer at 24/96. Translation : ROCK!)

ADSride / Tour de Friends beckons. Nothing but giant seas of spandex. Wish a brother luck. It'll be about damn time.
6/10/03 - 8:32pm (delicacy)
Mom had a heart attack last night.

I was at work late, dad left a message, but my phone gets bad reception inside. I didn't find out until 3am. His phone was off inside the hospital, and attempts for them to connect me to anyone who knew what was going on would always result in disconnection. Finally got him close to 4am...

This morning I went and saw her... all of her friends had already called, or were going to come by today... my brother and his girlfriend were there... dad was there and obviously appreciated the company. She was in and out of clarity... obviously a bit weak... but gave the most incredible hug I've ever had in my life. It didn't really process, even seeing everyone there.

She said at one point today, she thought saw an elegant old lady poke her head into the room for a few seconds. Sculpted silver hair, yellow shopping bag... "Mom?". Neither the nurse nor dad saw anyone in the hall. Obviously, it could have been the massive painkiller dosage... but still. My family has a long history of haunting eachother in tough times.

On the ride home, it all finally sank in...

The sound of dad's voice in the message. Seeing 20 wires sticking out of her, how her face swelled up from all of the fluids being flushed through her, her capillaries in her eyes had burst from the blood thinners and changes in pressure. It was a very long ride back from Annapolis.


Every moment is precious... and it never hurts to remind the folks who are important to you how you feel about 'em.
6/8/03 - 4:45pm (snippets)
I throw out a military vibe to a lot of people for some reason. Once while in line at the bank, a guy turned to me and said with a weird look on his face, "Devil dog?" At first I ignored him. "Devil dog?" "Huh?" "Devil Dog?!!" "What do you mean?" "Oh, sorry. Thought you were a Marine." "Uhh, no."

In a similar vein, while walking home from work Friday, a bunch of 10 year old boys on bikes rolled up to me and said, "Excuse us, sir... we just wanted to say we're proud to be Americans."

Whaa?

They're at that pre-thug, yet worldly-aware stage of childhood... it was one of those moments where you hear something, but don't believe you just heard it. And what do you say to something like that beyond... "wow... so am I."


Felt the need to go hard and get an overtly-celtic-sounding single malt at Tryst following the Friday 3Fuckers show. Not bad... but had a strange unidentifiable aftertaste. Kasima best summarized it as "Band-aids".

Saturday's various chemical ventures led Kasima and Vance to massive (yet deceptively thick) Hoegaarden glasses while I visited my old friend Sam Smith. Repeatedly. Throw in some Japanese Mild Seven Ones (it *has* to be a healthy cigarette... they sponsor adventure racing tournaments!), and we're getting universal with our undisputable hipness.

The nw Mike Roy EP has begun. Expect a new webpage and progress reports soon. I'm excited. The new songs are awesome, and we're trying to do use some really f'd up recording techniques for it all. But not traditional f'd up techniques. New f'd up techniques. I like typing "f'd up techniques."

Got almost jumped by a very horny 50 year old woman at a Railriders gig Saturday night. That was ... disturbing.

aaand, that's about it.