Like A Virgin...

last night flaverpak/american steve/greater than flaverpak/a half ton of fun played a house party. it was the coolest thing ever. we haven't played as a band like that for years and we rocked the basement of said house party in a serious fasion.
at first i was worried because the two bands that played before us were emo-punk bands with a large following in attendence. all younger kids with the hip tats and tweeked hair and so on...and then the old fat guys get up...the bass player (me) is playing all borrowed gear, the drummers are setting up thier sets so they can both reach all of the drums, the gutarist is bitching in the corner about how someone stole his gold medalion and setting up an expensive setup while the lead singer is drinking beer and humming spuratically on a dij. mike (the guitarist) starts playing "god made me funky" by the headhunters and i chime in with the bass. before you know it, both drummers are playing a sick groove that is the funkyest thing i've ever heard. i start singing, we start jamming and before i know it, it's 125* in the basement, it is packed wall to wall floor to ceiling, people are banging on the heating ducts and the cheering between songs is so loud, i have to use the mic to talk to joel who is standing right next to me. we played a while and sweated like mad...really, i wrang my shirt out afterwards and it was like i had just pulled it out of the river. songs played included about half original material and the other half stuff like "the devil went down to georgia," "play that funky music white-boy," "superstition," "wynona's big brown beaver" and many other classics. all in all, the best show i have played in years and there was no publicity, no money and no band name...but we sure kicked the shit out of the people that lucked into that one. and if you don't believe me, ask my wife...she was there!

Therapy

i drove 180 miles today to play in someones kitchen...and it was the best thing i have done in months.

i was going to write more, but at this point in my tired day, this is all need be said for my peace of mind...have no fear, i will relay all of the things that made my thursday a great day when i get up on friday!!!!!!!!!!! goodnight sweet ivar!

Wish

do you ever wish that societal values would simply shift? do you wish that some of the things that make us "successful" or the silly things that mark our "acheivement" could be brushed aside and replaced with a simple "are you happy?" as i grow older and achieve some of the things that are supposed to prove i am successful, i find i really don't want to care...it's not that i don't care, in fact, i have been conditioned to care and therefore, am not able not to care...i am running up on the age-old realization of futility. don't get me wrong, i am not in a position of abject negativity. there are some points, and good points they are, pertaining to how and why we live our lives the way we do. i just think that the emphasis on mobility is silly in the face of what makes us happy. my happy moments get ruined by the nagging conditioning of the idea that i am not moving forward in a proper manner...that i should be doing more with myself and time is running out for me to start doing it. i used to think of myself as a survivor and i still do, but now that realization is soured with impending medeocrity. my difficulty with all of this is not anything that i just mentioned here. i am not really worried at the core of not being happy or not reaching far enough, but i wonder if i should be. you see, it's how i think about this issue and how i run myself around and how i worry about being wrong or misinformed that is the real problem...i think too much, and now i am going outside to beat up raccoons!

side note: my spellchecker is on the fritz and anyone ho knows me knows i can't spell to save my life. please pe kind to my mistakes!

Shortbus

i went to see "long beach shortbus" which is the remaining members of "sublime" and "the long beach dub all-stars." it was a fantastic bit of fun for a monday night. i even hauled mini-me and particle man along with me for the debauch. there was lots of drinking and then with the strip clubs and whatnot...actually, when we got back to my place, p-man and i required more beer and food, so we went to the bar two blocks from my house. he protested at the idea of a strip club, but i assured him there would most likely be no stripping anyway and it is a cool bar. well, i was right--the strippers on duty actually were not in demand on stage and sat at the bar with me and p-man for the duration of the night to bs about texas (p-man's home state) and other such silliness. we got our food and plenty good and fucked up...y'all!

so anyone not hip to the british web-toon designer by the name of weebl, you need to get a clue. he and his partner are the creators of the comic, weebl and bob, and their ongoing mission to seek out and consume new pie! http://www.weebl.jolt.co.uk/

send me tastless jokes please, i am running low at the bar! i will match you one for one in the comments section of this page. i just wish my little brother was smart enough to turn on a computer...he would have the answer!

also...i just had to pause and go hunting for racoons! they are beating my poor mamacat to death and eating all of her food! my loving wife hid my low-power bb-gun repeater which i could have used to scare the hell out of them, so i just had to go into the bush after them bare foot and chested with a stick. the fun part is, if you stay downwind and keep the porch light at your back, they can't see you! they will bumble into arms reach then you can give back what my poor cat has been taking! oh well indeed!

Pictures Of The Bar

faahhhhhh!!!!

My Poor Blog

i have been rather negligent in regards to my blog of late. it seems when i get home from work, i collapse into a heap and want nothing to do with leaning over a keyboard. the realization that i have been fighting for the last couple of days is the idea that i may be ready for day-life {gasp!} and relinquish my hold on the title of "meanest nasty of the night." it is true, i am getting old. my new direction as far as vocation is concerned is rather uncertain, but the two paths that are seeming exceedingly interesting are real estate and police work. wow...how much fun and how divergent from my current "thing." i think i would do well at either...and wile there is no "entry level" for real estate, even entry level as a cop would be short lived...i think i would advance at a reasonable rate! i am applying for the portland police test next month i think, and the real estate is happening as we speak! it is all very fun. but now, as i said, i am tired and bid you all goodnight!

Desperado

for the first time in my career of raising hell in the city of portland, i took a cab home...to my house...this evening. granted, i was without car for the duration of the friday night, but still, i was at the mercy of a hired gun for my safe passage home.

i played my last show with the band otherwise known as jaroh this evening in corvallis. great venue, but corvallis is a ghost town during the summer...po-dunk nothingville because it houses and subsists on oregon state university and all the happy kids are out of town! we played with a band called the dimes who are, in my humble opinion, one of the most polished bands on the west coast! they are one of those bands that you hear in a small club and you say to yourself, "these guys sound like a band off the radio--but good! there is heart there!" they stopped the set to do a group shot of ta-kill-ya (that i bought) even though most of them don't really drink, just to be strong...and then played a killer set! dedication

so i rode with my drummer back into town and had him drop me at my bar...no car, no plan, just my bass on my back and my cap on my head! that, ladies and gentlemen, is an opportunity for adventure.

i drank a couple of souped-up drinks at my bar and directly thereafter, found myself in the back of a jeep, holding my bass between my legs, enroute to the 7-11 for a beer run before they stopped selling. this ride was interesting due to the fact that the guy driving (never got his name) was more twisted than i was by a damned sight...not to mention, he didn't know where he was going.

we got there.

i bought a case of beer and a pepperoni stick and when i got back to the parking lot, realized that half the bar that i just left was on the same plan...drunken family reunion! we got all of the guys that were dancing in the lot to the stereo that was cranked in the jeep back to their seats (herding cats), and then we were back to this house-party that was already in full swing. there was some extremely creative driving, but we were going short distances and never got going fast enough to really hurt any body...in the car.

we got home.

the house we returned to is a roost to a number of 503 (portland area code) rappers. upstairs there is a full recording studio, downstairs there is the pool table and the fridge, i.e. lots of beer. in any room at any time, there will be two to seven guys standing around and rapping...freestyle/beat box/snapping to your mama rhyming. i even got pulled in for a while on acoustic guitar...a session of two guys making beats and six guys trading rhymes while i funked the blues. it is absolutely amazing for anyone who has never heard poets freestyle...storytime in rhythm!

the strange thing was (i guess not so strange for an afterhours musician party), there were no girls. zero. nada. boys night out. the thing i noticed was, there were no problems...zero, nada, ziltch. all of these hard charismatic guys (i mean a ton of personality and ego in the room at once) had no problems with anything! it was a great time of talking shit, talking bullshit and making music. there was zero drama. now i like girls as well as the next guy, but this is solid evidence that you all may be evil! these guys/no problems/no girls? it's merely a hypothesis, but is there a side to party culture we are simply overlooking? it's a thought.

bottom line, i had a fantastic night of meeting folks, playing music and being out in two cities. nothing went bad, i didn't have to drive anywhere and life remains good!

-keep on truckin, space cowboy

Till Then...

i have new things--new stories--new adventures to tell you about, but i am absolutely wrecked right now...at the end of a ten day work-a-thon, i just don't have it in me...but i promise to tell you about things that happened (full contact cage fighting bout that my friend won, debauchery of the stupidest in the bar and cool things with my bike) and things that are going down this weekend (vacation with mini-me to seattle, clutch show and bar-b-q with the band for the 4th and parties that will ensue). i also wonder about jaroh, but this is all stuff that will have to wait, seeing it is 4 am right now and i need to get me some travel sleep! i will also hint at the majesty that is the organization for the "seattle fucking rocks tour: 2004," as dubbed by the short one in her six page pamphlet!

i shall return and will not be stopped!

YO MAMA?
yo mama is so ugly, we put her face in some dough and made us some gorilla cookies!