There is just too much makeup and too many fashions. What makes your life important? What do you fight for? I just like finding people that know it’s not a fight, it’s not a competition. We just touch and go, show and take in, take it in like I know you used to know how when you were just a little man, just a boy, just a girl, just a shining life of infinite potential. Do you remember what that is like? What it’s like to have everything at your fingertips and you can have it all but you can’t ever know that you could have it all when you can, it’s just not built that way. We would fall apart.

Now that I’m older, now that I’ve learned a few things I wish I could fall apart next to you. Because I’m just too solid on my own and I need to give in. i need to surrender to trust and you are me, I trust you.

Tomorrow keeps counting. And the number is getting smaller. Tell me about your days, mine are not much different. We’re coming and going and I see you when the time works out for our favor. I wish I could see you every morning. Every time I wake. Fall down this hole I’ve fallen for you in this hole I’m flying and wanting and waiting.

Damn it I miss you.

Detroit:
December 8, 2008 – January 4, 2009


Old train station.

Burned, charred, bent, dented, dilapidated, gutted, vacant, vacated, stubborn, kind, clueless, and corrupt is Detroit. A city whose pride laid the dust. The weather of December frames this point succinctly. Cold, grey, and blustery it will freeze your vertebrate solid until the ol’ Mercury gets above the ’32 Ford and then it’s just cold and damp.


Someone's burnt house.

Somehow through the walls of discomfort, depression, and foreboding doom the humanitarian side of the human spirit powers on. Every day on our way to work, my boss and I stop at Borders to refuel our coffee coffers. I’ve never seen so many people hold the door for strangers. I have yet to walk through the door without some smiling and patient soul holding the door. Ok, so 50% of the time that person is either my boss or me, but even in that circumstance the receivers of this gesture are invariably grateful. Perhaps I am lucky to have always witnessed this or maybe it is a geographically rooted phenomenon to which I gravitate towards, either way I have made the observation and hence I find myself impressed.

Now understand that once these people get into their American automobiles (and out of the parking lots or garages) all awareness and politeness of and towards other drivers vanishes into the Great Lakes’ oblivion. First of all there is no such thing as a left turn. Only right turns and U-turns are acceptable. Perhaps I misspoke, or miss-wrote as it were: left turns do indeed exist but only to certified idiots, local police officers, and the occasional out-of-town stagehand.

Once you have completed your right turn onto the street you needed to go left on you must navigate across three or four lanes to your nearest u-turn station. When you arrive at the u-turn station you will find two lanes in which you may proceed from. You will also find a Michigander that noticeably could not decide which lane he or she wanted to be in before arriving at the u-turn stoplight.

It should be noted here that it was indeed some impressive forethought on the part of the State to create two lanes for its citizens to share on their sans left turn detour. The problem is that its citizens seem to think “share” means the lanes share the cars. I suspect this is why a 5-lane highway is so difficult for the average Michigander. It’s a little confusing at this point because there’re just too many damn lanes to share one car with.
Imagine that these drivers are very generous and they try to share their vehicle with ALL of the lanes so as to not upset any one lane. This is a difficult feat when your vehicle can only share two at once. You can imagine, I’m sure, probable outcomes of this posture. Well, I’ll tell you which one seems to prevail.

It’s the one where all of the drivers are so confused as to how to share their vehicles with all of the lanes that they just give up on the entire idea. In their quest to simplify it they digress to the paradigm that it’s just one big lane. The dotted lines are there to guide the direction of traffic. But motorists are free to meander left or right as long as they keep going the suggested direction.

Another odd driving law (I only assume it is a law because everyone seems to do it) says it is illegal to read “Exit Only” signs. You may only change out of the lane once it has ceased to be a lane and has become an off-ramp. At this point it is advisable to cross the median and attempt to clear the snow bank and careen back into highway traffic. The highway traffic expects this to happen but they won’t see it coming because they’re most likely typing in the service reports from their last job into the laptop they have setup on their dashboards.

I think the silver lining of Detroit is its music history. I went to Hitsville USA today. It was closed but I took pictures of it.

Hitsville is a little house on Grand Blvd. where all of the early Motown hits were recorded. Normally I prefer not to make lists to make points but, um...

The Funk Brothers, The Temptations, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Martha & the Vandellas, The Four Tops, and The Jackson 5 were all recorded in the studio at Hitsville. Need I say any more? Seriously!

I should also mention before I go that The Henry Ford Museum is in Dearborn, MI. I haven’t been there in probably about 16 years but it’s definitely worth a trip. Just to see the chair Lincoln was shot in or sit in the back of a Rosa Parks bus. Get some insight into the past, get it deep inside your mind and soul, and move on to a brighter future. Let’s get it on.

The skiff, she was hearty
and on that Mastwood was carved
a one-eyed smile.
The most jovial spar of tinder
with a bone in her teeth.
We grasped the breast lines
and to the cockpit we screamed,
“give some berth to the dinghy.”







This is where we played.



Hitsville house.


House for sale



Detroit Tigers old stadium



Donutsville U.S.A


Snow in Dearborn


Detroit Fox


Warmth


tour bus to Louisville

tour bus to Louisville

tour bus to Louisville

While we have them coming down, now here's the time to skittle. Make a break for it in as few moves as you can. Be efficient, be succinct, and learn to be empathetic. If you can be in mamamamamamamama boogie shoes, then you've probably already overcome the empathy hurdle.

Perhaps the world has recently crashed down on you. Perhaps you are currently in peril and are somehow finding time to be reading this. Either way, don't lose your sense of humor. It will be the only thing to save your sanity when there is a danger of falling into panic.

Put good art on the walls of your homes.

The night when on and on in sleepy discomfort.
Never going deep and never remaining lucid.
I had to change pillows.

Enthusiasm and Fugue in D minor

This election has put many people on edge. The country seems so divided. I have seen the littlest thing pull friends apart. I find it fascinating that we are all so passionate about it. It seems to have split us into good and evil, like one of those stories... Star Wars is a good example. I always wondered why so many people would (be on) and (fight for) the “dark” side. There is a mosquito in my room.

But then I think how there was the “rebellion”. Which, of course, is the dark side’s “dark” side. What I’m trying to say is that liberals think of conservatives as evil, and conservatives think of liberals as annoying little twerps. Like, two very young brothers. They’re both idiots for believing their ideas to be truth. How ‘bouts I liken this to the evolution of man from monkeys. Or apes rather.

First of all, I would like to hear a convincing argument about why running on two legs is better. I’m imagining an ape out in the wild, pre-human world, finding grub. Now it’s your turn: imagine he has a friend from the future, a human, let’s say... me. I was really into human evolution so I developed a time machine to study the steps. I called it the enthusiastikronotron.

I went back to the pre-human world and met the ape I mentioned. He didn’t like me at first, but after I gave him some food we became friends, kind of like on Endor. So we’re out there in some grassy desert land, finding grub together. Just two unlikely friends, munching on some old plant that no longer exists... Suddenly the ape hears or smells something, I can’t tell which. He motions towards the grass over yonder. “What?” I ask. The ape looks annoyed like an older brother would. I look again, once more with feeling, and see motion behind the grass. Then I realize that it’s a giant pig - wolf looking thing. Uh-oh.

I’m panicking! Running! I feel like it’s been forever since I started running but I’ve only taken five leaps. Then I see the ape running next to me, he doesn’t look frightened, and he’s looking up at me. Then he accelerates and veers toward a tree and scampers up it like a champ. Uh-oh. I can’t do that. As I scramble at the trunk of the tree the ape is just looking at me. I hear the beast thundering behind me. This is not going well. Then my friendly ape lends a hand down to me and helps me up. What a touching moment. The beast apparently cannot climb the tree and is a little perturbed.

Hours later it is dark, the beast is gone, and my ape friend and I are sitting ‘round the campfire... wait was fire invented yet? Anyhow we were sitting around reminiscing of the epic chase, or at least that’s what I thought of it as. The ape seemed to have a different idea. While recounting his version of events he stood on his hind legs as to mimic me. Then he made a face that changed everything.

His eyes were wide and fear stricken. His oddly shaped mouth was open as if in stunned terror. He stood there, pretending to run like a fool! I could remember how I had felt; it was the most terrifying moment of my life. As I watched the ape display his acting abilities, I realized that he was starting to laugh. Then he went into an uncontrollable fit of laughter and almost fell over. He continued mocking me with his embarrassing imitation of me trying to get up the tree. He laughed some more. I thought of measuring how important this friendship was to me.

It was amazingly important, and here’s why. I realized that in his world, my reaction was one of the dumbest he’d ever seen. In my world, he would be very uneducated on what humans have constructed physically and cognitively. In his world, I am very uneducated about how to survive, and on top of that I don’t have the physical capabilities to do so as efficiently as my friend.

So where does that leave us?

It is important to know that this was an actual event; it was me that started the whole standing thing. See, the ape went on to tell all of his “other” monkey friends about me. I had never felt so out of place. They were ALL laughing at me. An entire community of apes was laughing at me. It upset me so much I left his time and came back to now so I could tell you of my story.

When I first returned to now I was so angry, I thought of my ape friend as “evil”. “How could he have done that to me!” After I was gone he probably thought I was so stupid I went and got myself killed by a bad thing. I’m sure his friends come and go more often than we’re used to, so it was no big sadness. But the story of my idiocy remained. And every time that ape community would come together they would tell stories of the hairless ape that was put together wrong. I was legend.

The apes told stories of me and passed them on to other communities. My story became widely known. As the stories changed, so did I. To them I became so well known that I was revered. Soon after that I was like a God. And they thought of me at night when they laid their heads down to sleep. Sometimes they’d even think of me in the morning when they awoke. An ape artist, thinking I was funny, piled up stones to create the first statue in history, which was of me standing, but it was just a pile of rocks. They would stand just to honor an incredibly inept man that would not have lasted a day alone. I did nothing but make an ape laugh, and it turned me into a God. It was this game of telephone that led them to stand and they evolved into bipeds.

Do you even know what that feels like? It is horribly embarrassing. I made the future out of what we know is the past. And I can’t tell everyone that I’m God! Do you know what they would do to me? I’d be in a mental institution. A person like that b’ dangerous.

So I’m stuck here back where I started: present day: Obama and McCain are battling it out, and therefore the people are acting it out the way they always do. This is the world I created. Shit. What have I done?

Well, I’m sorry! I can’t fix it now. You might be thinking, “Why don’t you just go back in time and tell yourself not to go back in time.” Well I’m sorry to disappoint you some more, but I cannot. I don’t know if the space-time continuum would tear if I saw myself, but it doesn’t matter. See, my enthusiastikronotron only works once. It’s not a real “machine”; it’s part of me. It’s made out of a certain amount of enthusiasm, and that’s what I had. A fcuk load of enthusiasm to time travel. You have to want it so bad that you can’t even think of it anymore you just go about your daily life. You think you forget about it, but you don’t. It stays in you and tells you what to do, and eventually it just works. You don’t even see it coming.

Anyhow, I can’t tell you all of my secrets, but that gets you going in the right direction. But now I have to live with this horrible truth. I made us stand up. We were something totally different before that happened. I’d tell you what we were like, but that’s another story, and somebody already told it... a lot, and in many different ways. They knew what it was like because they were other Gods. They changed other things. Me, I made apes stand up.

So where does that leave us?

It leaves us with an uncertain history. Perhaps as uncertain as our future. Whoever has written the history we know and believe, has us in their power. It is all we believe to be true. We have a good idea where we are, but we have no freaking clue about how... that’s why we need belief. That’s why God’s are so important!

Science is the oldest religion, the study of our physical surroundings, or the search for “fact”. “Fact” is the name of their God. That’s why they purport to know more of what the world is. Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t, but it’s only the physical world... and there is so much more than that.

The world we see from behind our eyes is our own. If there is a right and wrong, what makes yours more important than my own? Our thought patterns are governed by the laws of physics too. Each one of us is simply another expanding universe; each mind is a representation of a completely different world. How fantastic!

I know all of this because I made an ape stand up. And so do you, it’s in your bones. So stand up for your opinions, stand by them until the end! Love your opponents, because they stood up too. When you need a break from fighting, head towards the middle. They will take good care of you.

And for human's sake would you please stop hating and making other people uncomfortable? It’s really disrupting the ease of your course.

Someone needs to say "thank you" before the meat arrives.

The world happens to be an amazing place. I don't always see it this way, so I thought I should put it down here while I'm connected. You are not only a part of this world. It is part of you. I am where I am in life because I wanted it to be this way. I am sorry for not always assisting those I love towards higher ground. But then, they wanted to be where they are. It may sound twisted, but I think it is more true than we realize. We help eachother. I think of us as one word.

Usually we can't know the power we have because we would hardly be able to focus properly to get any experience. Or at least that is the limit of MY brain. A focus on something so intense does not allow me room for much creativity... or does it. What am I doing now?

Yut duhduhduhdut lelelelele bikobikobikobiko alla ahem alla ahem

My neighbors are playing Mexican polka. I can hear it outside my window. I wonder what they are doing now? Writing? Laundry? Sitting? Grilling? Petting their dog? Doing bills? Oh God, bills! Man do I hate bills... and clutter!!!! ugh! I could be cleaning and paying bills! Boy doesn't THAT sound like fun!

Oh me, oh my, I have slipped into... *bum bum bum bum bum bum*(intro drumming) IRRESPONSIBLE MAN!!!!!

Don't worry ladies, it'll all be over in an hour or so... aw yeah.

When a zombie eats your brain, or in some cases your heart, there is a certain amount of pain. It is buffered by what is called the confusion factor. The confusion factor will disrupt the general brain pattern in an attempt to trick the body into feeling less pain. Sometimes the brain is actually confused and does not do this on purpose which is called the by accident factor. The by accident factor is usually associated with a larger amount of pain then normal.

Unfortunately some people like the idea of having their blood sucked. This has, over the centuries, ruined our evolutionary aid. Apparently some people are turned on by vampires and other various pains involved in some weird physical rapture involving other people, ropes, chains, lots of leather, and of course a hamster. Setbacks, setbacks. These perverts have sent our development on a tangent God could never have seen coming. Hence the fallacy that pain is so close to pleasure... its not... you just think it is because you're a descendant of those freaks. This is called the bloodsicle factor. I'm not sure if anyone likes frozen blood but it wouldn't invoke the confusion factor in me if they do.

When I was five years old I stared death in the face for the first time. Well, come to think of it I didn't actually stare it in the face because the head was missing. What happened was this:

I was a happy little tyke with a lollipop and a yellow hat skipping through the meadow. My family lived in the New Hampshire countryside on an old farm. We had five fields. The closest three were just tall grass and my father would mow them as my brother and I in our yellow hats would stand there and watch like little Teamsters. Another field was dotted with tall-bush blueberry plants. And the last field was actually more of an apple orchard. I forget the name of the apples that were grown there but they were so old that no grocery store anywhere sells them. We used them to make applesauce because they were just not good for anything else.

We also had thirteen chickens, a goat, three rabbits, and a dog named trapper. I wont go into the chickens, the goat, or the dog because they are completely irrelevant to the story, much like the fields I described. Anyhow, our rabbits were cute, precious, Easter stealing bunnies. One of them was mine. He was black with black eyes and long floppy black ears. One morning I was walking through the dew covered grass(I didn't really have a lollipop and a yellow hat) and I came upon my rabbit.
Someone had forgotten to close the cage and my rabbit escaped. It didn't get too far though. Well, I should say most of it didn't get too far because I haven't seen the head to this day. The body was just laying there in the fresh morning dew with blood and stuff where the head was supposed to be. I have no idea what would do such a thing. My only answer has always been a human. Every carnivore in the planet would eat as much as it could and leave the rest for scavengers. What would walk away with the head? Who, besides zombies, wants to eat the head anyway? Poor little bunny! Damn by accident factor!

So let's see if the idiots fall for it again.

Having a woman as VP would be much better than two stuffy self-righteous farts of men, however, I don't know anything about this woman. All I heard was that he picked a woman. That's the news???!!!! I could care less, but not by much. I want to know who this person IS. Don't worry, I'll do my research, my point is that the gender of a candidate hardly defines any important issues... oh hang on, i forgot that we're still in the twenty-first century. Remind me whom I mentioned in the first sentence. I just wish the republicans would do something for good once in a while... like untwist their social paradigms. And while we're at it let's have some members of the press play Risk.

It will be very interesting to see what happens in November. If they do it again, if my dear fellow citizens vote for "the monarchy" again I'm going to shit on everything because, you know, if you can't beat 'em...

Parasol, you've found it full.
If the past night didn't say you were wrong
tumble tumble tumble

The last time i went there we died again
It really didn't turn out as well as expected.
But I don't care, it really doesn't matter,
we'll find a way.

I'll find a way in my life.
Eternal is a given.
That's all I need to know.
Nothing can, me, destroy.

It's like being a teenager again,
but soooo much better.
What can you say about my country?
"Everybody say 'Hey clown!'"
"We're gonna burn your flag and piss on your parade."

If the currents don't change soon, this whole eternal thing is not going to be nearly as much fun as it used to. At least I can still piss on your parade.

Ideally we want things to go a certain way. No one else shares that exact way. Enter gestalt. And away we go.

First of all I am not a wine critic, afficianado or snob. I am also not adept at describing wines the way the critics would have you believe is the only way to describe things. They have these special little words that make them sound so distinguished and refined. Well I say "poppycock!" to those boring ol' dust mites!

Over the past year or so I have been documenting my first impressions of each bottle of wine I have opened. I currently have over 60 different bottles recorded. These records have been kept first in a little green notepad written in whatever pen I could find. There were times when I didn't have my notepad and had to enter my ideas onto a napkin or a scrap of paper. I think a couple have gotten lost. In an effort to preserve my records before they are mistaken for trash I am writing them here. Eventually, however, I wish to create a database which one can search for keywords and tags to find the wine they wish to enjoy.

Keep in mind, that I tried to give my most honest impression of the wine. The notes may be confusing at times, hilarious at others, and still serious every once in a great while. They've gotten more entertaining as I have discovered new ways of describing tastes and smells. Don't expect great things from this, I ask that you just enjoy it and appreciate it for what it is. AndknowthatIdidn'teditoutanyofthespellingmistakes. That is all, and without further boring ado, I give you "The Wine Chronicles - part 1"



Shiraz - 2005 - SE Australia - "Ravenswood (Vintners blend)
-cherry aroma
-thick bitter taste
-sharp, cheddary after
-after a few minutes of cheese it


Cabernet Sauvignon - 2003 - Napa, CA - "Barefoot"
-smells of mixed berries
-very nice balance of fruit, berry, acidic, smoke
-sweet on the tongue at first giving way to bitterness. yum.
-Delicious after 5 Min.


Zinfandel - 2005 - Sonoma Co., CA - "Blue Monkey"
-I like the blue cork
-smell-hint of amonia but cedar-like
-taste-very earthy-not delicious-sweet to bitter

Shiraz - 2005 - SE Australia - "Rosemount"
-I had some Benadryl but I still can't smell it.
-smells like rubbing alcohol (L)
-It's rich! (P)
-Purple
-Little Syrupy


Zinfandel - 2004 - Sonoma, CA - "Blackstone"
-cork smells like cinnamon
-cranberry essences
-dry, nice

Pinot Noir - 2005 - France - "Redwood Creek" (redwoods in france?)
-rich depth
-cherrylike, slight apricot
-"I like this a lot"


Cabernet Sauvignon - 2005 - Ripon, CA - "Fish EYE"
-screw cap
-yum
-sweet and sour
-plummy - "a fruity snap" (GC)
-Very drinkable (GC)

Cabernet Sauvignon - 2006 - Chile - "Montes"
-cork smells like cedar forest Yum
*-kind of tastes like one too, blech!
*-the more I drink, the more I like.

Pinot Noir - ???? - France - "47 lbs. Rooster"
-cedar smelling
-cherry and bitter
-it's ok.
it's ok.


Pinot Noir - 2006 - Chile - "Sockeye"
-smooth/bitter/ acidic
-goes well w/ the Muppet Show
-smell reminiscent of sphagnum moss
-definite chilean
-not over powering - good for dinner
Recommended *if in the mood for Chilean


Cabernet Sauvignon - 2004 - Geyserville, CA - "Clos Du Bois"
-Smells sweet and dry - strawberry hint
-1st taste - I think I'm going to like it but it needs to air
-nice plum flavors
-good, but not incredible
-almost recommended but just a tad bland

NERO DI TROIA - 2004 - Puglia, Greece - "Bottaccia"
-wow it's totally good
-it tastes like a good cork smells
-it tastes like a red wine should
Very Recommended


Cabernet Sauvignon - 2005 - Napa, CA - "Cellar No. 8"
-smells like Grape Alcohol
-smooth. goes down Well.
-database conversation
-smoth, silk fruit.
-really good for drinking
-not overpowering
*for drinking without thinking.
..

..
Cabernet Sauvignon - 2005 - SE Australia - "The Little Penguin"
-I can't smell or taste
-but I like it

Tonight we had a fabulous and miraculous escape from the Japanese Mafia. There was lots of running through the streets, mad sprints on our bicycles down alleyways and the jumping of railroad tracks. Suits and ties were flapping in the breeze and there was much yelling in a language I do not understand.