The dude abides

I will deliver, you know I'm a forgiver

2012-01-22T16:55:00.001-07:00

A little acoustic personal jesus.

It has snowed a bunch. 11 inches last night, on top of 12 from Thursday and Friday. The snowboarding is getting realy good.

Let the Stories Be Told

2012-01-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

Also, I LOVE this song...

Go, Johnny, Go

2011-12-11T09:13:00.004-07:00

*tap tap tap* Is this thing on?

How are you all, my neglected readers?

Sorry for that, but Joey has been busy, doing seminars for the fine people of Montana, playing guitar, reading, and snowboarding.

In this new twitter, tweeting, twatting, texting 160 characters at a time era, blogs have gone the way of the Dodo Bird.

That's OK.

I am old school, anyway.

I still jerk off manually.

Get Off My Wave

2011-11-12T22:03:00.001-07:00

Um, yeah.

Does that make me crazy?

2011-10-22T02:51:00.000-06:00

I sure do miss my beautiful wife.

I do.

Let the good times roll

2011-10-07T23:23:00.002-06:00

Friday night in the Boogie Station.

Do me a favor, play this, and scroll down...

My wife is in Los Angeles for 9 weeks getting certified to become a Bikram yoga instructor. That is the kind of yoga where they heat the room to 105 degrees (fahrenheit, for you Canadians).

I miss Wisconsin.

That's where I grew up.

People from Wisconsin have soul.

They really do.

We bring it to Montana.

I live on the crater of the Yellowstone supervolcano.

If you give a shit, look it up and read about it.

The last time it erupted, the dinosaurs died.

I wish they were still around.

What is going to evolve next?

The day of reckoning will come.

It snowed today here, down to 6000 feet, which is fantitstastic.

How could you possibly be pissed off or stressed when you live in a place like this?

Hi there

2011-08-11T01:16:00.002-06:00

In the middle right of this picture, do you see that spot?

That is a bear. A big one.

See him there?

That was as close as I wanted to get.

Big cinnamon grizz.

It crosses all categories and genres...

I hope the Kings of Leon guys get their shit together and make music like this again:

Because that is a big slice of awesome.

I haven't been around much here because I had some knee surgery, and I had some visitors. There was a little kayaking in there. A veritable shit ton of guitar playing. I am also teaching myself the piano, which is fun.

I have a honky-tonk, boogie-woogie kind of natural style, which makes it fun.

Also, I am giving serious consideration to growing a full mustache.

Nothing says, "I'm a man," like a full Tom Selleck cock-duster.

There would be tons of leftover soup.

Doesn't that look like a heart?

I sure wish I could go to the rock show in the big city.

I'd give a toe, or even my right pinkie, to get you up in the Boogie Station with me for a jam session, with a drummer and a bass player.

The sky is really, truly Big here.

You guys would like it.

Workin in a coal mine

2011-07-06T23:34:00.000-06:00

I like the nightife, baby

2011-07-02T15:19:00.001-06:00

Been working on a bunch of Cars songs with the guys. This one is solo. Hope you like.

High and dry

2011-05-21T17:56:00.001-06:00

I was in Maui for a bit, chilling.

Canada tried to invade Montana while I was gone.

It's a shame, really.

When I got back to town, maple syrup and hockey were taking over the town.

^^That there is Clint Eastwood's house.

The whole thing bums me out, something fierce. Mankind never fails to disappoint.

Banyan Tree:

I just wanna be free to ride my machine without being hassled by the man.

The grass is greeen, the rivers are raging, oh and the rapture is nigh.

I bolted toward the Pacific Northwest and Olympic National Park, faded down into Portland.

Dude ran down the beach with a torch every day at sunset.

He would make his way to the top of the cliff, bow to the four directions and throw the torch into the sea.

Then he dove off.

Where do I sign up for this job?

Had a sleeper-cell jam. Matt refused to turn down his bass. You can see the camera shake. I told him it would be washed out, but it sounded pretty fucking good in that room.

Aim low.

That way, you'll never be disappointed.

Boogie wonderland

2011-04-22T01:23:00.001-06:00

I have toys better than the Millenium Falcon.

we were out on a drive in my daddy's car

2011-04-12T00:29:00.001-06:00

This one also makes me laugh.

None of these were more than one or two takes, which is abundantly clear.

Omar rules.

Little darling

2011-04-10T00:25:00.002-06:00

This is my dear friend, Omar.

This is us getting funky.

a perfect day

2011-04-09T01:34:00.004-06:00

Last Wednesday, I was crossing the Continental Divide. I was coming from Butte eaast to Bozangeles.

I was passing a semi, going 80, and the power steering failed.

Mind you, this is a 4.2 liter v-8 sitting on top of the front tires. I was wrestling with the steering wheel for my life, hands ten and two, freaking the fuck out.

Almost scraped the guardrail, but made it home.

My car crossed 100,000 miles during the journey.

Anyway, that was last Wednesday. The dealer has had my car for ten days and counting, which has been irritating. We don't really have much in the way of public transportation in Montucky. Plenty of pubic transportation, if that's your bag.

I pitched a fit and they gave me a free rental, this leather xm radio thing. I insisted on all-wheel drive since it has dumped nearly 3 feet of snow at Big Sky. I wish I could shoot a video for y'all.

I ran into Waterface near the Salton Sea. He was wearing those bugeye goggle sunglasses. I gave him a pomegranite and he fired up a cigarette.

I didn't want to ask anything about where he had been or where he was going, but there was blood on his collar.

He spit on the ground and offered me a smoke.

It curled up over my eyes like a dragon and Matthew Sweet blared from the radio. I wasn't sure what the fuck he was talking about and I was more than a little scared when I realized the blood wasn't his.

He spread his arms and asked me if I had a good thing going.

Mind you, I was wearing an eyepatch so my depth perception was fucked, but but I swear he produced a knife from nowhere, flashed it at my face and put it away before I even realized what happened.

I din't have time to flinch.

He asked me if I could help him dig a hole in the desert.

He pushed a shovel into my chest, we got into his El Camino and rumbled out of there. I kept smoking because I wa scared and didn't know what else to do.

He wasn't talking.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Way down inside, woman you need love

2011-04-03T00:48:00.005-06:00

Headwaters runoff.

We built a beer fort.

Kids were dropping sick lines.

All my friends were there.

Eating ice cream.

^^That's my buddy, Mitch, the best snowboarder at Moonlight Basin.

Dropping sicktacular lines.

My deck right here..................

A few guys threw 80 foot airs.

And just because.

Oh but they're weird and wonderful

2011-04-02T00:15:00.008-06:00

I enjoy spending my Friday nights deciphering Elton John lyrics and wishing people would stop looking askance at me.

Screw you for judging me.

Elton John is the Queen of the universe.

A guy can get sentimental if he needs to...

Seriously.

I need to get a wig.

Hush now baby, baby, don't you cry

2011-03-26T00:52:00.002-06:00

Learned this one tonight:

Turmed out nice, no?

sound nd vision

2011-03-19T23:40:00.002-06:00

With the barkers and the colored balloons

2011-03-17T00:14:00.005-06:00

I gave a seminar today, next town over, Livingston. It's about 30 miles up and over a mountain pass from Bozeman.

It was snowing hard all day long. I worked all damn day.

Spent some time talking about the effect of Japan's catastrophe.

Power point explanation of how money is made, over steak dinner and a cocktail

It was snowing hard enough that we drove 25 miles an hour over the pass.

The whole thing is somewhat repugnant, but, hey, who doesn't like money?

I was wearing my best suit and nice shoes, coughing and wondering why the fuck I am still making money off misery, again. (That's why I quit being a lawyer.)

Repugnant, like I said, but it's free money.

We flipped the short position into a long position on Japan and now will ride the inevitable upside wave.

I straighten my tie and ask myself if I can sleep at night. I won't really know until eye close my I's.

The rules are there, the game is set. If you could move your rook and checkmate, wouldn't you?

That is what I struggle with.

Christ, what a melancholy post.

Did I mention it has been dumping snow all day?

I feel myself coming down with rectal glaucoma.

I just can't see my ass coming into work tomorrow.

My doctor said this can't be cured below about 11,000 feet of elevation.

I gotta take the cure.

(edit: at work, 7:09 a.m., close japan long position, go back to guilt free investing in big oil, coal and sweatshops.)

Welcome to the machine

2011-03-15T18:51:00.002-06:00

Some things make me sick. I have had some real bad luck lately with some people in my life lately.

I wish the world was as pure as a song, as good as lifelong friends, bt it isn't. Not even close.

I try to cocoon myself from it all by living as far from civilization as possible, numb myself to the weekday, careening down a mountain as fast as I can, enjoying a good meal, losing myself in a book or a movie, or by making music with my friends.

On the other hand, I am sitting basically right on top of the world's largest supervolcano, with a 35 by 45 mile caldera that is about 50,000 years overdue for its regularly scheduled eruption.

Yellowstone, like Hawaii, is believed to lie on top of an area called a hotspot where light, hot, molten mantle rock rises towards the surface. While the Yellowstone hotspot is now under the Yellowstone Plateau, it previously helped create the eastern Snake River Plain (to the west of Yellowstone) through a series of huge volcanic eruptions. Although the hotspot's apparent motion is to the east-northeast, the North American Plate is really moving west-southwest over the stationary hotspot deep underneath.

Over the past 17 million years or so, this hotspot has generated a succession of violent eruptions and less violent floods of basaltic lava. Together these eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake River Plain from a once-mountainous region. At least a dozen of these eruptions were so massive that they are classified as supereruptions. Volcanic eruptions sometimes empty their stores of magma so swiftly that they cause the overlying land to collapse into the emptied magma chamber, forming a geographic depression called a caldera. Calderas formed from explosive supereruptions can be as wide and deep as mid- to large-sized lakes and can be responsible for destroying broad swaths of mountain ranges.

The loosely defined term 'supervolcano' has been used to describe volcanic fields that produce exceptionally large volcanic eruptions. Thus defined, the Yellowstone Supervolcano is the volcanic field which produced the latest three supereruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot. The three super eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago, forming the Island Park Caldera, the Henry's Fork Caldera, and Yellowstone calderas, respectively.

The Island Park Caldera supereruption (2.1 million years ago), which produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, was the largest and produced 2,500 times as much ash as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The next biggest supereruption formed the Yellowstone Caldera (640,000 years ago) and produced the Lava Creek Tuff. The Henry's Fork Caldera (1.2 million years ago) produced the smaller Mesa Falls Tuff but is the only caldera from the SRP-Y hotspot that is plainly visible today.

Due to the volcanic and tectonic nature of the region, the Yellowstone Caldera experiences between 1000 and 2000 measurable earthquakes a year, though most are relatively minor, measuring a magnitude of 3 or weaker. Occasionally, numerous earthquakes are detected in a relatively short period of time, an event known as an earthquake swarm. In 1985, more than 3000 earthquakes were measured over several months. More than 70 smaller swarms have been detected between 1983 and 2008. The USGS states that these swarms could be caused more by slips on pre-existing faults than by movements of magma or hydrothermal fluids.[14][15]

In December 2008, continuing into January 2009, more than 500 quakes were detected under the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake over a seven day span, with the largest registering a magnitude of 3.9.[16][17] The most recent swarm started in January 2010. With 1620 small earthquakes between January 17, 2010 and February 1, 2010, this swarm was the second largest ever recorded in the Yellowstone Caldera. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 3.8 on January 21, 2010 at 11:16 PM MST.[15][18] This swarm reached the background levels by 21 February.

Yay!!

2011-03-05T01:19:00.002-07:00

I hope Social Security still exists when I finally go out on tour.

There will be hippies selling veggie burritos and kind buds,

I hate hippies.

I really do.

Go, Amy!

Everybody loves Van Halen. Still holds up.

Party at the Moontower.

Every day I get in the queue

2011-03-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

We watched "Exit Through The Gift Shop." It is a twisted documentary on street art, wherein the subject of the original documentary, Banksy, makes it a documentary about he filmmaker, Thierry, who is very likely batshit crazy. Sort of turning the mirror into the mirror and watching things recede into infinity.

It was excellent, and the artwork was incredible.

Two thumbs up.

My favorite writer stopped writing, and I will miss him.

Here's to you, blpsnstrps.

Been gone so long, I'm glad to be back

2011-02-27T19:25:00.002-07:00

There was a ski race at Big Sky today.

There was a guy with a radar gun, clocking us after the race.

I was clocked at 52.9 miles per hour.

That is pretty goddamn fast for having only gravity to power you.

Have a good day.

I've got a feeling, a feeling deep inside, oh yeah

2011-02-21T00:45:00.005-07:00

This is my buddy, co-worker and lead guitar player, Cairn.

That is a double flip, in case you were wondering. Off a cliff at Big Sky.

How do you like them apples?

I feel like a broken record, but once again, I went snowboarding today.

Apparently, Justin Timberlake was up there. I didn't see him, but a friend of a friend almost had to punch him in the face for ignoring a moment of silence for a lift operator who died in an avalanche.

He was yapping away and the friend of a friend told him, "I don't give a shit who you are, you had better show a little respect for the dead."

I would've just punched him, personally. I hate boybands.

We had a pretty righteous jam on Saturday night. Stanette graced the Boogie Station with a version of "Imagine," by John Lennon. I swear, I love that woman more with each passing day.

Have a great President's Day, y'all. I'll be making turns at a fairly alarming rate of speed through and around trees.

Good night.

How to be a rock star, lesson one:

Had creases as sharp as a kniffe

2011-02-19T17:23:00.003-07:00

So, I went snowboarding today, as per the usual.

I walked into the lodge where I hang out and David Letterman walked right by me.

I lived in LA, and I have seen famous people, but I was not expecting that.

My jaw hit the floor.

He was really low key.

I almost asked him for an internship, but I am pretty sick of being sexually harrassed.

And exploited.

Don't hate me because I am beautiful.

got a sweet black angelgot a pinup girl

2011-02-18T22:48:00.003-07:00

I feel fairly disgusted, and oddly satisfied.

I love being solely responsible for my income.

Since I was about 25, I have worked for me and me alone.

I like helping people; I do.

Especially my friends and family.

I wrote that check to my corporate overlords, if you are wondering.

The memo was priceless. I left a little "fuck you" in the form of a smiley face and I wrote, "Happy Employee."

Golly gee, that really frosted my cookies.

Especially on President's Day Weekend.

Here I am, celebrating Lyndon Baines and Richard Milhaus with a bowl of mac & cheese, a pointy guitar and a snowstorm.

Don't fight it.

I feel like I am standing on the beach raging against the tide while my feet get slowly buried in sand as Elton John plays a poignant ballad.

As I watch my feet disappear beneath the sand a tear slides down my cheek, like the indian from saturday morning cartoons.

Crying about litter and dead bison.

Come on, dude.

I saw a bunch of bighorn sheep today.

Somehow, I still maintain a positive attitude.

Gosh.

You wouldn't recognize my face

2011-02-15T23:20:00.007-07:00

Tryng to ease back into the blog.

I have worked on a bunch of new songs.

I have been bent over and jolly-rogered by the man.

After that vigorous, zesty enterprise, I went snowboarding.

Up the tram, down the bowl.

And, bend me over and call me shirley if I didn't get right back to work for the man until almost ten tonight, sprained bloody ankle and all.

I guess I am getting used to it.

Pretty soon, I'll probably like it.

A lot, especially from a guy like him.

Next thing you know, I'm a manager at Applebee's, pushing the dessert upsell on some kid with zits and a bad haircut.

It's a slippery slope.

I think, though, with enough pluck, hard work and ingenuity, I could probably open a pretty bitchin' waterpark. Maybe some kind of go karts and some carny rides.

It would pretty pretty skecthy, but plenty cheap.

We would make most of our margin on shitty stuffed animals that nobody wanted in the first place.

Maybe a bearded lady.

I gotta work out the kinks, but I think this could be my exit chute from corporate America.

LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!

PALIN 2012!!

This is no social crisis

2011-02-13T07:53:00.003-07:00

This is where I live.

This is what I do.

This is what my life revolves around.

I could give a god's honest fuck who is on american idol today.

I just wanna rock out, shirtless, in my tight white shorts like the greatest frontman of all time.

He was the best.

Even this shall pass away

2011-02-12T01:10:00.002-07:00

Have you guys heard the new Robert Plant?

(Paulette- your Ironweed project is getting burned tommorow, mailed Monday. Would you like this, too?)

I cannot even begin to communicate honestly in this venue.

But I can summarize.

My friend, Quagmire, flew in on Super Bowl Sunday. My dad went to the Super Bowl, offered me a ticket, I said no, had things to tend to here. My friend is flying in.

My dad went, me and Quagmire watched it at my house and had a serious manhug.

Stanette had cooked a really nice meal.

That night, it snowed a SHITLOAD.

We rode on Monday, it was superduperbadass. Knee-high pow, hitting you in the face with every turn. I wiped out getting out of the hot tub, twisted my ankle and skidded into a metal coat rack, upon which we hang the bathrobes, and gouge my ankle.

It looked like a murder scene. For a bit, we thought I may have hit an artery. Quagmire is a doctor, so he grabbed my foot and capped that gusher.

Yikes.

So, I go to work, make some money, talk to my therapist, come home, eat a nice dinner that Stanette made, check my work email...

And lo and behold, there is an email from accounting, telling me I need to write a check for $ 7690 because they fucked up my withholding.

$ 7690.

Could you just bust out a check with no notice for $ 7690?

Needless to say, I did not go to work today.

That is bullshit.

I went snowboarding.

Working for corporate America sucks.

One thing I never asked myself...That is, where am I gonn be tomorrow when this whole damn world keeps on changing?

2011-02-05T01:35:00.004-07:00

Wanna hear what the cool kids are listening to?

They are listening to that^^^

That music makes me wanna take off my shirt and eat fried chicken.

Really greasy fried chicken.

^^the cool kids have been listening to this for years.

On Tuesday, it was -15 F when I went to work.

Today, it was 46.

I love climate change.

Meat is murder.

FREE LINDSAY LOHAN!

Waited my whole life for just one...

2011-01-28T23:23:00.001-07:00

We saw Black Swan tonight.

Not sure if you need to see the movie to find this funny, but I sure laughed.

Take me to the airportAnd put me on a plane

2011-01-27T23:37:00.004-07:00

It's a little fuzzy, but I mean it.

My friend, also named Joe, taught me this song last week.

I have a feeling my wiggity-wife could sing the everloving velveeta out of this song.

But ... whaddaya gonna do?

It's just my white ass, a telecaster and a healthy disrespect for authority.

No Expectations, by the Rolling Stones.

M. Jagger/K. Richards)

Take me to the station
And put me on a train
I've got no expectations
To pass through here again

Once I was a rich man and
Now I am so poor
But never in my sweet short life
Have I felt like this before

You heart is like a diamond
You throw your pearls at swine
And as I watch you leaving me
You pack my peace of mind

*Our love was like the water
That splashes on a stone
Our love is like our music
Its here, and then its gone

So take me to the airport
And put me on a plane
I got no expectations
To pass through here again

*I skipped that verse. You get what you pay for.

Her man's been gone, for nigh on a yearHe was due home yesterday, but he ain't here

2011-01-27T00:00:00.003-07:00

I went to Butte today and did a seminar.

It went well.

20 people showed.

I bought them dinner, drinks and power pointed my way from the great depression until today.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

^^How sweet is that?

Really.

Gimme a piece of that custard pie

2011-01-23T07:35:00.002-07:00

I am jacked like a Cadillac. I have been up since 5:20 a.m.

I know.

I rubbed two whole racks of ribs with cayenne, paprika, cracked pepper, garlic, onion, dry kmustard and coffee. Yes, coffee.

I cut the racks in half and put them in the crock pot with a can of coke and some merlot.

Yes, coke and merlot.

They will slow cook for 8 hours, then I will brush sauce on them and fire them under the broiler at 450 for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Oh, yeah.

Handling raw pork really gets me excited.

Don't move your lips, just shake your hips

2011-01-19T16:25:00.002-07:00

Big Sky reported 11 inches at 6 a.m. and it was still coming down at an inch an hour until noon.

I actually went to work from 7:30 until 9, sweating under my clothes because I was wearing "optimistic long underwear" underneath.

When two people independently stopped by my office and said, "I would have lost a bet today;" and "What the hell are you doing here?" I reconsidered my corporate duty to make money for the shareholders and headed for the hills.

What can I say?

Between the windload, and just generally knowing the mountain like the back of my hand, I was literaly wiping snow from my goggles so I could see as I barreled down the mountain at speed.

I was getting what is known as "Face Shots," which is when the snow from the front of your board or skis hits your face and you cannot see for a second until the next turn.

It was the best day of the season, by consensus of everyone I saw. At noon, all of the locals were lined up around the bar (it is a Wednesday), toasting each other as the snow melted off of our jackets, faces and laughing.

My iPod soundtrack today was courtesy of the Rolling Stones. I listened to Beggar's Banquet and Exile.

Today was a good day, and it reminded me that all can be good in the world.

Do what you love. Do it with friends. Do it as well as you can. If it makes you happy, and it doesn't interfere with anyone else's bliss, then go. Go. Go.

Work is a means to an end for most of us. If you truly love your work, you are a lucky, lucky person.

Last I checked, all of the openings for rock star, stunt driver and professional snowboarder were filled. So, I am just going to keep on doing what I am doing... the best I can to make myself as happy as can be with the time I am given.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my guitar teacher is here, and we're going to go learn some John Lee Hooker songs.

Be well.

Don't stop til you get enough

2011-01-02T23:21:00.002-07:00

Oh, my thighs are a-screaming.

I have been snowboarding my arse off. Oy.

There has been crazy snow, and a lot of seasonal friends who I love. People are getting older and still getting all over it.

I love that.

See you around.

Eight Lords a-leaping

2010-12-23T00:56:00.002-07:00

Everyone is responsible for their own bliss.

You have to make your own smile, every day if you can.

If you think can't, it just means you won't.

Because... you know what?

Nobody else is gonna do it for you.

Here's your bliss, you want fires with that?

I should've been a psychiatrist.

Don't stop til you get enough

2010-12-11T17:48:00.004-07:00

I rode Big Sky today. It was cold in the morning, 19 degrees. Satellite radio was playing a bunch of live Pearl Jam as I drove up the canyon.

I did the full mountain tour today, rode seven different lifts, including the tram, which was just opened for the first time. It was pretty "bony" up there. (Translation from dirtbag, "Rocky.")

The rest of the mountain is in really good shape for so early in the season. It is going to be a good year. I can feel it.

My new helmet has intregrated iPod speakers in it. There is a little clip on the helmet where you can adjust volume or pause without taking your gloves off. I had a mix playlist that went from Michael Jackson to Guns-n-Roses to Daft Punk to the Clash to infinity and beyond. It was great.

Technology is badass.

I ran into a bunch of friends who I hadn't seen since last April, when Big Sky closed.

Sorry, folks, there will be no action photos because I no longer have a pocket camera. I don't want to take the camera I have up there because I'd like to actually continue to use it for more than nine months, which has been the average lifespan of the cameras here at The Dude Abides HQ.

One day, when I am living in the islands, I'll just set up a tripod and photograph the sunset every day, bring my hand to my mouth, kiss my thumb and forefingers, slowly shake my hand back and forth and say, Que bella... que bella.

I am lost and gone forever

2010-12-08T22:46:00.008-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while. Check out this girl:

I like that song, even if it is morbid.

I have a lot to say.

My first anniversary is tomorrow.

Oh, and I love her so!

I know what you are thinking...

Last Friday, we went snowboarding. We have had a shitload of snow. Big Sky has a base of 30-50 inches. Reportedly, Jackson Hole has had 127 inches of snowfall. I don't think that counts on their base, but it is a shitload of snow, regardless.

Poor Bells fell on some rocks and his ass is black and blue. Really.

My friend, who also happens to play bass, as well as drill teeth, shot an 840 pound elk with a 6 x 6 rack last Sunday. Heeeeeeeee-yoooooooooge. Oh yeah, there's gonna be some elk burgers slangin my way

Hey, here is another kickass song.

It breaks my heart that somebody killed him. Breaks my goddamn heart. Thirty years ago today. It was shortly after the live footage in that video, actually.

Phil Spector produced it, and you can see him briefly in the video.

J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon had John Lennon on the watch list, because they feared his outspoken anti-war stance. Apparently, they thought he was going to incite some kind of socialist uprising. Thirty years later, it seems ludicrous, in light of all we accomplished in Viet Nam, stopping the rising red tide of communism from taking a foothold in Southeast Asia.

The Berlin wall may be down, and the U.S.S.R. no longer exists... but check it, China is flat out kicking our ass right now. That ship has sailed and the red tide is going to be crashing on the beaches of California.

But I digress...

I miss you John, and, more imprtantly, I love you, Stanette. You are my best friend in the whole wide world.

Peace.

I love you guys who still read this.

Thanks for giving a shit. Or just being bored, eating twinkies and beating your dick like it owes you money.

The History of One Tough Motherfucker, a poem by Charles Bukowski

2010-11-21T16:12:00.002-07:00

he came to the door one night wet thin beaten and
terrorized

a white cross-eyed tailless cat
I took him in and fed him and he stayed
grew to trust me until a friend drove up the driveway
and ran him over

I took what was left to a vet who said,"not much
chance...give him these pills...his backbone
is crushed, but is was crushed before and somehow
mended, if he lives he'll never walk, look at
these x-rays, he's been shot, look here, the pellets
are still there...also, he once had a tail, somebody
cut it off..."

I took the cat back, it was a hot summer, one of the
hottest in decades, I put him on the bathroom
floor, gave him water and pills, he wouldn't eat, he
wouldn't touch the water, I dipped my finger into it
and wet his mouth and I talked to him, I didn't go any-
where, I put in a lot of bathroom time and talked to
him and gently touched him and he looked back at
me with those pale blue crossed eyes and as the days went
by he made his first move

dragging himself forward by his front legs
(the rear ones wouldn't work)
he made it to the litter box
crawled over and in,
it was like the trumpet of possible victory
blowing in that bathroom and into the city, I
related to that cat-I'd had it bad, not that
bad but bad enough

one morning he got up, stood up, fell back down and
just looked at me.

"you can make it," I said to him.
he kept trying, getting up falling down, finally
he walked a few steps, he was like a drunk, the
rear legs just didn't want to do it and he fell again, rested,
then got up.

you know the rest: now he's better than ever, cross-eyed
almost toothless, but the grace is back, and that look in
his eyes never left...

and now sometimes I'm interviewed, they want to hear about
life and literature and I get drunk and hold up my cross-eyed,
shot, runover de-tailed cat and I say,"look, look
at this!"

but they don't understand, they say something like,"you
say you've been influenced by Celine?"
"no," I hold the cat up,"by what happens, by
things like this, by this, by this!"

I shake the cat, hold him up in
the smoky and drunken light, he's relaxed he knows...
it's then that the interviews end

although I am proud sometimes when I see the pictures
later and there I am and there is the cat and we are photo-
graphed together.

he too knows it's bullshit but that somehow it all helps.

For You Blue

2010-11-05T00:32:00.002-06:00

Twelve bar blues, by some masterful musicians.

I am trying to get to a place where things are more simple.

It snows, I ski.

I'm thirsty, I drink.

I'm hungry, I eat.

I think you know where this goes.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Jefferson Jericho Blues [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

2010-10-31T01:27:00.000-06:00

New Tom Petty.

The Heartbreakers are one hell of a band.

Eddie Vedder & Kings of Leon, Lollapalooza

2010-10-29T00:25:00.002-06:00

We were at this show. Boy howdy.

I wish I was at that one^^

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - American Girl

2010-10-28T23:58:00.000-06:00

Things are getting weird. I am beginning to enjoy work. I bought a keyboard.

^WTF, mate?

We all walk the long road

2010-10-17T12:49:00.002-06:00

The gig went really well. We added a couple of songs to the one I complained about in the last post.

Then we went out and saw a band, slinging the telecaster, stand up bass, piano and drums. They laid down some serious honky tonk, and people were cowboy dancing in an almost violent fashion.

The following pictures and video are of an instrument most of you probably didn't know existed. It's called a harmonium.

Remember when...

2010-10-16T12:22:00.003-06:00

I am about ready to shove an icepick into my ear and pull my brain out with a hook.

We agreed to do a gig for our friend's parents. It is their 50th anniversary. They are doing a special dinner for them in a private dining room at a nice restaurant in town.

They asked us to play a specific song. It is an Alan Jackson song called Remember When. It is a sickening, trailer park love ballad.

I have been sick all week, and have been working my ass off. My Saturday is now consumed with this. It makes me want to buy a shitty pickup truck, get my high school girlfriend pregnant and take her through the drive through at McDonald's on friday night.

Just shoot me.

You'll find an open road and a friend

2010-10-11T00:36:00.000-06:00

Without a care

2010-10-08T00:06:00.000-06:00

I like that.

All of these things you said to me

2010-10-03T23:15:00.002-06:00

I no longer care.

this one is for you stacey

2010-10-03T22:40:00.003-06:00

This is a state park in Montana.

Tell me baby what's my name.

What's my name?

We all walk the long road

2010-08-28T21:43:00.001-06:00

I bought a harmonium on Ebay last weekend.

Wow. It is the coolest instrument.

If you hate something, don't you do it, too

2010-08-21T01:28:00.002-06:00

How dare you?

This is not for you.

It never was for you.

All that's sacred comes from youth

Dedication, naive and true

You got the power

And you got so much to do

I still remember

Why don't you?

I've been tied to the Whipping Post

2010-08-18T07:24:00.002-06:00

We saw Derek trucks and Susan Tedeschi Friday at the Bluesfest in Billings. Maria Muldauer played a side stage (you know her... "Midnight At the Oasis.")

It was fun to see my Billings friends.

Saturday, we came back to the Bozone and went out for a fancy hamburger and drinks at this restaurant that is near us, out in the country between Bozeman and Big Sky.

Sunday, I played music with Bells and fell asleep early.

Monday, it was back to the sausage factory, trying to figure out how to make a living.

Tuesday, I was out of the factory trying to drum up that living.

Today, more of the same.

A Quick One While He's Away by My Morning Jacket with Eddie Vedder

2010-08-15T02:14:00.000-06:00

This is as good as it gets, musically.

Send lawyers, guns and moneyThe shit has hit the fan

2010-08-11T22:54:00.004-06:00

I just watched Gonzo, the Hunter S. Thompson documentary. It was outstanding.

Today was a good day. I swung for the fences.

It feels pretty good when you connect.

In the afternoon, I went to the gym and climbed steps for an hour. I watched the Sopranos for the whole hour. It was the final season. Vito got whacked and Carmela went to Paris.

Then it was back to work for a while. After that, I went to Ashtanga yoga, which absolutely kicked my ass sideways.

I also ate strawberries and blueberries.

Good night.

The conversation is getting dullThere is a constant ringing in my ears

2010-08-08T02:16:00.002-06:00

I have a collaborative art project going with my friend. It is really cool, three sketchbooks deep. Multi_media, no rules, we can draw over, improve or destroy each others' work. It has been going on for nigh on three years. I have never done anything like it.

Stanette and I did yoga this morning. She is deep into it. Torturous, yet cathartic. We had a full date weekend this weekend. A guy and a girl. It's nice to give love and get it back. It is a beautiful thing.

I learned a couple new Stones songs and played disc golf this weekend. I am considering a horseshoe pit.

How was your weekend? How is your life? Are you doing exactly what you want to do?

If not, why not?

Why not?

Do think you deserve to be happy?

Everyone does.

It's so noisy at the fair and all your friends are there

2010-08-07T02:21:00.002-06:00

I have been working my ass off lately. For the last few months, some ten o'clock nights, going to people's houses and trying to shake the money tree.

Meeting millionaires aand convincing them to trust me with their nest egg.

It is simultaneously the most difficult and the most fun job I have ever had.

And I used to deliver pizza for Domino's, back in the 30 minutes or free days. That was difficult and fun.

Waiting for a girl who's got curlers in her hair

2010-07-28T21:41:00.003-06:00

I went deep into the backcountry this weekend with a group of people.

We went to the Beartooths.

They were mostly fathers and sons who had been doing this trip for forty years. The dads all went to high school together 40-some years ago.

They have the trip dialed and a horse and mule carried in food, coolers, cocktails... We did not rough it.

I was the "FNG," or the Fuckin' New Guy.

I got hazed pretty good. I got thrown in the water on the 8th hole of the round of golf we played on Friday. At every chance on the hike in, they put heavy rocks in my backpack.

But don't fret, my unique charm won them over.

Oh, we saw a bear, caught fish, partied, and tumbled big rocks down into the lake from a few hundred feet up.

It was great. Cleansing.

I have been working really hard and hustling lately. This is because I want to make more money and my job is "eat what you kill." I am 100% commission. This is both a blessing and a curse. If I want to snowboard or go in the backcountry, I can... but I don't get paid unless I hustle.

This also makes it impossible to budget, but this was the same when I was a lawyer.

I put the situation in the post below behind me.

It wasn't hard in that setting.

I was thinking about what a friend had saidI was hoping it was a lie

2010-07-21T20:26:00.003-06:00

So, the very first person I met in Bozeman, the guy I bought my house from, the guy who I got a job where he sits 15 feet away from me and makes $ 60,000 a year, on my say-so, absolutely stabbed me in the back today.

He violated my trust, my friendship, and his own word.

It was the dumbest goddamn thing he could have done. An absolute violation. I have in my hand the power to ruin him, to end his career (at the fucking job I got him), and to ruin his reputation in this town.

I am a one hell of a good friend to have. If you are reading this, chances are you already know this.

I cannot believe what this guy did.

I cannot believe it

I cannot.

He knows what he did and I busted him with his fucking hand in the cookie jar.

It was unbelievable.

I have never, ever had anyone do something like this to me.

He is fucking toast.

To the handshake drugs I bought downtown

2010-07-18T21:55:00.002-06:00

We went on a monster hike.

It was not very scenic.

Coming down hurt even more than climbing up.

Four miles in, four miles out. The first mile is mellow, you climb 400 feet.

The next three climb 3000 feet.

Brutal.

Here you go.

Hit that twice. Double track that.

A-yup.

Yet, strangely rewarding.

Montana, my friends, is a beeeeeeeee-yoootiful place.

Havn't seen the sun in weeks. My skin is getting pale.

I hope your weekend came in for a smooth landing.

Sunday melts into Monday and the lingering memory of the weekend sustains your soul.

We sit in our offices, cubicles, desks. We get under that car, change that oil. Fire up the tractor and cut the hay.

Good night, my sweet princes and princesses.

I feel alright

2010-07-15T20:15:00.002-06:00

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kidsIn fact, it's cold as hell

2010-07-15T00:18:00.003-06:00

The insurance adjuster came by the house today. We had a ridiculous hailstorm, golf ball to baseball size was reported. Everyone's car, including Stanette's, looks like a Jiffy Pop.

Her car was totaled. We need a new roof, gutters, a couple windows, some siding, paint, stain on the whole goddamn fence... and on the cedar shakes. The hail beat the stain right off it.

^^Picture from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

On writer's almanac on NPR today, Garrison Keilor recited a Charles Bukowski poem about the middle finger, flipping the bird.

I am just a fun lovin', low level criminal. I drive the getaway car. I get a cut of the take.

My friend, Dave, did this in response to my middle-aged, lawn-mowing angst.

I'm starting to enjoy it, too. I love my weed-wacker. The nineteen year old me would be disgusted with the forty year old me.

^^That's Dave.

The keys light up on my organ. (heh heh heh) Seriously, that has really helped me to learn piano. Best $ 50 I have ever spent. Really.

Heh heh.

My friend Blain was in Billings and he saw a jacked-up Dodge with smokestacks and a bumper sticker that said, "NUGENT-PALIN 2012."

And, why not? The Mayans say we're done in 2012. We may as well go out laughing.

Go ahead, give it to me

2010-07-13T20:27:00.003-06:00

I opened the archives, if you are interested. Over five years and over a thousand posts.

I am going to try to write more now.

I am not sure how to approach it. The automatic feedback loop throws me, plus my job is kind of sensitive, and this blog was discovered and read by me former employer.

That makes me reluctant as to the amount of truth I want to tell. I understand that writing and reading an online blog is a complete exrecise in exhibitionism/voyeurism.

I have gone from a couple hundred daily readers to around 20. Well, hello, XX. Let's see how this goes, and, by all means, if you work for the same company, don't email this to someone else at our company. Dumb ass.

Beans and Cornbread

2010-07-13T07:01:00.002-06:00

These are from Saturday. I spen six hours on the river.

Have a lovely Tuesday.

Used to see him walking down the road on US 41

2010-07-04T10:02:00.002-06:00

The new Tom Petty record Mojo has been getting some seriously heavy rotation lately. Also, a Tom Waits album my friend, Kris, burned for me while I was home. I think it is called "Rain Dogs."

I am going to mow my lawn. I am going to get into a kayak and get on a river. I am going to do a lot of things. I am going to start a band. I am going to carry a torch. I am going to flush it all away. I am going to let the whole thing go up in smoke. I am going to disappear completely. I am going to exist in the shadows. I am going to do the Watusi. I am going to punch a hole in it. I am going to celebrate my independence from England. I am going to fire all of my guns at once and explode into space.

That is all for now, because I really am going to mow my lawn. And every time I do, a little piece of me crawls into a middle-aged suburban hell and dies.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Jefferson Jericho Blues [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

2010-07-02T23:44:00.000-06:00

I wanna be your dog

2010-07-02T23:23:00.004-06:00

I just got back from Wisconsin.

My dad was gravely ill with a really virulent staph infection.

My mom was gone, in Europe. She took a dear friend of the family to Europe for her high school graduation. (Yeah, my mom is the f-ing Bomb dot com.)

Dad is ok.

If I was granted a wish and was given the keys to any band to drive as fast as I want, my first choice would be the rooftop era Beatles with Billy Preston on organ.

Just me with a guitar, counting out one-two-three-four, in front of a microphone.

My second choice would be the Heartbreakers. Good God they are an awe-inspiring machine.

I saw them last Saturday. ZZ Top opened up. What do you think that tour bus is like? Bunch of guys, combing their beards and wondering when they last ate soup.

I also saw Roger Daltrey open for Eric Clapton. My buddy, Tom, scored some seats from these hedge fund guys that were about the 15th row, center. That was superlative.

I have basically quit blogging, but there are a few people who still read this damn thing, and I want you to know that I am still alive and doing the things that make my heart sing.

Goodbye.

The saxophones started blowing me downI was buried in sound

2010-06-21T07:32:00.003-06:00

Did some yardwork yesterday and had a beer with my neighbor, Ben. Stanette is making our flowerbeds look really nice. I do love that girl.

We had dinner last night at Ted's Montana Grill. "Ted" is Ted Turner. It's a chain restaurant, but the bison they served is free-ranging about 15 minutes from my house, on Ted's land. He's a local. At least part-time. According to my buddy, Bells, he is a really good steward of the land, and all the hippy, kind rainbow brother types like the way he manages his acreage and livestock.

Speaking of Bells, he came over Saturday. We re-configured the drum set and got rid of the second kick drum. That's just unecessary. There is more room to maneuver behind the kit. I played guitar and belted out some tunes for about four hours. We ate pulled pork sandwiches with cole slaw and corn on the cob. I slow cooked the pork for 8 hours.

Stanette and I watched a monster thunderstorm sweep through that evening, at dusk. The thunderclaps shook me down to my bowels. The lightning was jumping between clouds. Everytime the sky lit up with a strike, there was a pregnant pause for a few seconds, then a ripping crash would shake the house.

Thunder, lightning... the way you love me is frightening. You better knock, kock on wood.

I should have known

2010-06-18T00:51:00.002-06:00

Just checking in with you.

Hello.

The new Tom Petty record, "Mojo," is really good. It is slow tempo, filthy, swampy, blues. Mike Cambpell, his longtime guitar player is a monster.

I enjoyed the NBA Finals.

The professional side of life is a little like a sinusoidal wave. I am worried, and looking up from the bottom of a hill. Fortunately, I am really good at putting my head down and churning back uphill. Like Sisyphus.

^That right there is some scary verbiage. Too bad I can't apply those smarts to anything else in my life.

That's not true.

Actually, I have been focusing on music of late. Playing it, making it, learning it, singing it. Believe it or not, that takes some wattage. My dimmer switch is dimed.

There is going to be some crazy kayaking. The rivers are at flood stage. Everything is pushing hard.

I'll see you on the other side of the weekend.

That's the only way for me to be exactly what you what you want me to be

2010-06-12T22:35:00.002-06:00

Ooooooh, I forgot how fun it is to get behind the wheel of this thing.

Stanette is doing this yoga thing this weekend.

Me? I had no such plans.

I played guitar with my friend, Kevin. He's really good.

We played Wilco, the Beatles, Pearl Jam, Cheap Trick, Stones.

Then I ate ribs.

(That was the most satisfying sentence I have ever typed.)

After that, we watched The Wolfman. It sucked.

And a good night to you, sir.

I think you're crazy

2010-05-31T21:46:00.001-06:00

Can you believe I am married to her???

Me neither.

Don't let me down

2010-05-29T00:05:00.003-06:00

This is the nicest thing I have ever played on guitar.

Really, it is.

I hope you like it.

Swimming East

2010-05-20T00:36:00.001-06:00

He dives unseen,
knifing neatly
into the murky depths
of the vast, silent lake.

Earlier the water was
a rich aquamarine,
now it is
black
as
ink,
reflecting the starless sky.

As the shore lights fade behind,
and the icy chill
sinks bone deep,
the swimmer slices silently
through the waves.

The steady rhythm
of his strokes provide
immeasurable solace.

In this solitary pursuit,
there is
pure serenity
and
absolute forgetfulness.

Alone,
he is swimming east.

Got brass in pocket

2010-05-16T22:43:00.005-06:00

My mom was in town this weekend.

We had a really nice time, just the three of us.

We drove in to Yellowstone and saw a bunch of critters. Coyotes, elk, bison, eagles, humans.

Thermal features.

My mom had a realization that we were hanging out inside the caldera of the world's biggest supervolcano. She freaked a bit, but then decided, "If it's gonna blow, we might as well be here at the epicenter."

Had lunch at Old Faithful and watched it do what it does every 90 minutes or so.

This afternoon, I sat on the back deck with my mom.

I played some Beatles songs on the guitar; we talked about life and various and sundry other things.

/mom and diary style blogging.

Everybody tries to console the lonely soul.

Double track that.

Haven't seen the sun in weeks.

There is a constant buzzing in my ears.

Turned around upside down and, frankly, weird.

The gravity is driving me to tears.

Kris, I hope you like this.

These are random words strung together in a stream of consciousness writing exercise. Just say the first thing that comes to you mind.

Sex?

Or was it midgets? (And, what's the difference, when you really think about it?)

I have a huge backlog of pictures and video, but I really don't want to share that much of my life with strangers on the internet any more. And non-strange people, for that matter.

Unstrangers. The disenstrangled.

Who blogs anymore anyway?

Don't let me down

2010-05-14T00:50:00.003-06:00

1158 posts over five years.

I'm not really that smooth with math, but I am pretty sure that qualifies as a "shitload."

A shitload of what, exactly, we have yet to determine.

Don't let me down.

I have been working in earnest on that ^^ song. Earnestly.

It sounds pretty good, and it will sound even better with a certain Stanette Militello handling the vocals with me.

It is really fun to play.

Love you, go live your life and love it before it leaves you.

Click the link below. It takes you to a pretty cool post, when the Boogie Station was an apple in my eye.

Nobody ever loved me like she does

2010-05-13T07:07:00.002-06:00

This is the fifth anniversary of me resigning from the then-named Quincey, Becker, Schuessler, Militello & Chase S.C. law firm, this reducing that overly long name by one.

Within a couple weeks, my house was sold, the truck was packed and I was starting a new life in Montana.

It certainly has been a long, fun, and interesting ride.

Maybe I will try to figure out how to open my archives. This blog was way better back then, when I cared about it more.

Silence on the radio

2010-05-11T23:29:00.003-06:00

The homepage on this computer is Yahoo. When I clicked on it just now, the the top headline was "Cracking Four Common Egg Myths."

And they wonder why Google and Apple are beating them up and taking their lunch money...

Walk the hillside in the sweet summer sun.

I'll be just a moonlight mile down the road.

If you are still reading this...

Jo Jo left his home in Tucson, Arizona

2010-05-09T00:54:00.003-06:00

Howdy.

I am having a nice weekend. We saw Rocky Horror Picture Show last night. I pretty much played guitar all day today. I figured out "Bertha" by the Grateful Dead and "I Want You To Want Me," by Cheap Trick.

Fun.

I would like to go see Iron Man tomorrow.

Anyway, hi blog.

How are you?

I am fine.

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

He is risen.

Heh, heh, heh.

My brainSays I'm receiving pain

2010-04-24T00:37:00.002-06:00

I would say that I have lost faith, but I never had it to begin with.

Basically, I am deeper inside my head than that ear worm Kahn put inside Chekov. Except, this time it's much cooler because I live here.

In my head.

Tomorrow I get to do one of my favorite things. Top three, actually. Bells is back in Montana, after a few months in New Mexico.

Matt, who plays bass and guitar, and Kevin, who also plays guitar, are coming over at noon, and we're gonna make some music.

The Lemon Song, Where the Streets Have No Name, Cocaine, Loving Cup, I've Got A Feeling, Imagine, Drive My Car ,and most definitely It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock And Roll.

Yay.

Hope you all are well.

Here are some pretty pictures:

These are from the first time I met Stanette-

(We're married now. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

^^That's me. And KG.

The Faces - I'm Losing You

2010-04-19T23:56:00.000-06:00

There is so much to like about that video. The music. The pants. The hair.

I have no choice, I have no voiceI'm O.K. with my decay, so I rejoice

2010-04-14T23:31:00.003-06:00

Lemme see.

I'm going to write obliquely about nothing, share nothing, say nothing, voice no opinion, show no emotion, not even a flicker of my eyelid.

I have a backlog of pictures, worth many thousands of words, but my fancy new camera is not talking to my computer(s).

I'm not going to let my insides fall to pieces, nor am I going to think I got this whole world figured out.

I want to make a hot tub time machine and clash with the titans of 1986.

Bring Radiohead back in time and just freak everyone out.

Did the cat get your tongue?

Did the string come undone?

I like strong, black, french roast coffee.

Immaculate concepts, immaculate conception, immaculate chili cheese dog. With jalapenos.

Sometimes nobody wants to play.

But those are the times when you use your imagination to dream up new worlds, make your own music and choose your own mystery.

I love you but enough is enough.

I ate lunch with Warren Miller at the Yellowstone Club on Saturday. (This is true.) He was sitting alone at a table and I asked if I could join him. I thanked him for all the joy he has brought me over the years, and I told him I quit my job as a lawyer in Wisconsin after ten years and moved out here to be closer to skiing.

He said, in that singular voice, "Screwed up your life, did I?"

Not exactly, Warren. The summers turned out to be pretty good, too.

Is there anybody out there?

2010-04-10T02:22:00.004-06:00

If you understand torque, and have a firm grasp on thermodynamics, you can do anything.

Does anyone read this?

Because you're missing out if you're not.

After they say no

2010-03-27T00:17:00.003-06:00

I suppose you think that blogging is a dying art.

Oh, Twitter and facebook, fiddle faddle.

Everybody knows where the cool kids hang out.

They are on the one after 909.

This feels a little like batting practice. I can sit here and take cuts at softballs all day, but I think both you and me know the score.

^^Winner, Winner, chicken dinner.

She's in love with the rock and roll world.

I like to hit the OnStar* button and ask existential questions.

Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown, and things seem hard or tough, and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft, and you feel that you've had quite enough!

Just remember that your standing on a planet thats evolving, revolving at nine-hundred miles an hour, it's orbiting at ninety miles a second, so its reckoned, a sun that is the source of all our power, the sun and you and me, and all the stars that we can see are moving at a million miles a day, in an outer spiral arm at forty-thousand miles an hour, of the galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars, it's a hundred thousand lightyears side to side, it bulges in the middle, sixteen-thousand lightyears thick, but out by us its just three-thousand lightyears wide.

We're thirty-thousand lightyears from galatic central point, we go round every two-hundred-million years, and our galaxy is only one of millions of billions in this amazing and expanding universe.

You have been waiting for a post like this.

Achilles last stand.

I should have quit you a long time ago

2010-03-24T23:05:00.003-06:00

I had a migraine yesterday.

It sucked.

Today, I drove back and forth to Butte for work. Crossed the Continental Divide twice.

I learned the Lemon Song.

Good night.

Kalard

2010-03-18T18:59:00.002-06:00

Sizzle...

Oh, the skiing sucked.

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It's a very dangerous thing to do exactly what you want

2010-03-13T00:01:00.003-07:00

If you could blow up the world
With the flick of a switch
Would you do it?

If you could make everybody poor
Just so you could be rich
Would you do it?

If you could watch everybody work
While you just lay on your back
Would you do it?

If you could take all the love
Without giving any back
Would you do it?

And so we cannot know ourselves
Or what we'd really do

With all your power
With all your power
With all your power
What would you do?

If you could make your own money
And then give it to everybody
Would you do it?

If you knew all the answers
And could give to the masses
Would you do it?

Are you crazy?
It's a very dangerous thing to do
Exactly what you want

Because you cannot know yourself,
Or what you'd really do

With all your power
With all your power
With all your power
What would you do?

I'd do that ^^.

Let's have a smile for the old engine driver

2010-03-06T07:08:00.003-07:00

Hi everybody.

I can't give what you need.

I love you but I can't.

I really hope you liked the last five years here.

Say Goodnight, Gracie.

Goodnight, Gracie.

I love that scene. Bill Murray.

^^ That is the full song.

I pray for God's mercyFor soon I'll be deadI hung my head

2010-02-21T21:47:00.003-07:00

I had one heck of a weekend. Boy, golly.

I bought a pretty kick-ass sculpture:

When I was young, I made a milliion dumb decisions. A million.

Sitting under a waterfall, trying to breathe, stuck upside down in a sleeping bag, freaking out.

Here's one for you...

Stuck in Memphis

2010-02-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

Today's work:

Blue car caviar four star daydreamThink I'll buy me a football team

2010-02-14T23:36:00.004-07:00

We were at this show, Josh, Amy, Ecker, Stanette and I. Oh, and 150,000 other people, too.

And, I was not at this show, but check out Doyle Bramhall and Roger Waters:

And then the other side of the story, Davids, both Gilmour and Bowie:

You tell me... which one's Pink?

You can go sleep at home tonight if you can get up and walk away

2010-02-08T17:43:00.009-07:00

I spent my weekend snowboarding. It helped clear my mind.

I have a knee injury that, oddly, hurts all the time except when I am actually snowboarding. It hurts in bed, it hurts when I walk, it hurts when I walk up and down the stairs, it hurts getting into and out of the car, it hurts when I am just standing and playing guitar...

But for some reason (adrenaline?), when I am strapped in and riding through bumps, trees and powder, I don't feel it. The minute I stop and get on the lift, it hurts again. Strange.

I watched the Super Bowl with my dear, darling wife. She cooked up a fabulous meal. I enjoyed the halftime show.

I also spent a lot of time this weekend talking to a few of my friends on the phone, Tom, Tony and Dan. I am blessed with an incredible wife, a really tight family and some, very, very, very good friends.

Thank you to my friends and family who read this, because I know you do. You mean the world to me.

The Who was great at halftime, by the way. I was so excited for their performance that I listened to them all day on my iPod when I was snowboarding and called Tom Doepke about ten times to talk about it.

I would give my right ear, right pinky finger and/or up to two toes to just stand on that stage with a Les Paul and hit a G chord at full volume. Zak Starkey (Ringo's son) and Pino Palladino did an incredible job filling in for the dearly departed Moon and Entwhistle.

The lasers, the fireworks, in the round... shoot, if they promised to sync the fireworks to a big windmill chord, I may even give an entire foot.

Sorry for the maudlin post. I'm half-Irish, and I had a pretty crappy week.

The Drum Battle of The Century

2010-02-07T22:20:00.007-07:00

It makes a lot of sense.

I am about 97% certain Keith Moon has his headphones duct taped to his head in this one.

The last minute of that is some of the best rock and roll I have ever seen.

^And you can't have peanut butter without chocolate.

*Fixed* Thanks Mop!

All that's sacred comes from youth

2010-02-02T23:22:00.002-07:00

I had a rough day.

It made me miss working for a company owned by five people, including myself, instead of a monstrous corporation.

I will look out my window and call that a bargain, the best I ever had.

A year has passed since I wrote my noteI should have known this right from the start

2010-02-01T21:53:00.004-07:00

Stewart Copeland is a really gifted musician.

The transition from xylophone to drums is exquisite in this one:

Get Funky

2010-01-30T20:22:00.000-07:00

Awesome...

Why don't you all fade away?

2010-01-25T23:10:00.007-07:00

A friend told me he had a huge Pearl drum set in storage for five years.

He used to play in a band with his twin brother. Now he is married, with kids.

He calls me and he says to me, he says...

Hey, I have this drum set, it needs a home, and I know you'll take good care of it and give it the love it needs.

I said, yes... why, yes, I would indeed give it the love it needs.

Tuck it in at night and whisper sweet nothings, I will.

I am thinking about installing a koi pond in the boogie station. Some sort of babbling brook yoga center. The kind of place where your chi could have a cup of coffee with your chakras on some hot stones.

Not really. I was kidding. Chakras are bullshit. So are chiropractors. And dinosaurs. Evolution, too.

I had a sound guy come over today. We are going to do a little further soundproofing and set things up to do some recording.

Why not?

Indeed.

John Henry Bonham

2010-01-23T21:28:00.003-07:00

There it is, assembled. It is missing a couple toms, but it is just about there.

Sitting back there is like having your hands on the controls of the Death Star.

We're going to destroy Alderaan.

With a huge laser.

MOTORIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for your wine, California

2010-01-23T00:20:00.005-07:00

The Boogie Station received a gift.

A friend asked if I could hold an eleven piece, double-kick drum Pearl drum set.

That is going to be a beautiful thing.

Here's me, trying to rock one out, with middling success:

This is another, plus a touch of comic relief:

I just found out that there is a taxpayer funded chaplain position for the US House of Representatives ($139,000/yr) and for the US Senate ($ 122,000/yr). Plus each chaplain has a staff...

For some reason, this sparks mild outrage in me.

Church, state, all that.

Why can't they just go to church or tenmple or mosque for "spiritual guidance?"

Because Senators and Congressmen are sooooo spiritual, moral and ethical.

Glad I am paying for that, among manyother things.

Two of us sending postcardsWriting lettersOn my wall

2010-01-20T18:34:00.003-07:00

Married life has been good. We're getting along nicely.

I made the decision to dial back my satellite tv package to a very basic package today. We almost never watch regular television. I have seen exactly one half of one episode of American Idol. I stopped watching 24 six years ago. The Sopranos went off the air three (?) years ago.

Since I moved to Montana in 2005, I pretty much stopped watching sports entirely, except for an occasional World Series, playoff or Super Bowl Game.

The longer you go without watching that stuff, the more superfluous it becomes.

I do watch CNBC for work, but I have a t.v. in my office for that.

Basically, we were using the satellite to watch and record whatever movies were on Cinemax, HBO, Showtime, Encore, Starz and the Movie Channel.

I have Netflix, so it just seemed silly to be paying $ 100 a month for all that.

We listen to NPR. We read a lot. Stanette loves to cook, and, well, the Boogie Station meets most of my entertainment needs.

I wonder what it would be like to scrap the cell phone (we don't have a landline) and the internet as well. We went nine days in St. Lucia without any contact with the outside world, unless you count books.

That was nice, but I wonder what it would be like to go completely dark. It's impractical, because my job requires me to follow financial markets and communicate with people.

I guess, the more I think about it, I would need a phone to talk to my musician and snowboarding friends. Because nobody likes a solo act.

Well, well, you can never tell

2010-01-16T21:30:00.007-07:00

Pretty sweet Shakedown. Stick with it for a while.

P.S. I saw the Grateful Dead with my dad at Alpine Valley. We sat in the sixth row. Bill Walton was a couple seats down. He went backstage between sets.

That was a good day.

P.P.S. In case you were wondering why the paparazzi is following her around, or maybe you forgot...

I rolled out of bed and played some telecaster today.

Tomorrow, I'm going to roll out of bed and go snowboarding.

You are forgiven...

^^Montana, in case you were wondering.

P.P.P.P.S. The following is ten kinds of awesome: