I need a DVD player ASAP..

This has been out of my life for too long.  I think Sunday I'm going to make it happen.

And if this doesn't help get you over the hump then I don't know what will...Cheers.

Stolen photos..

If facebook's good for one thing it's that you can look at other people's photos and represent them as your own as the need arises.  For instance, when you are in Hawaii with your digital camera yet the cord to connect said camera to your computer is 5000 miles away.  So, here are some pictures of the new place and Halloween I "borrowed" from my new roommate, Jon's buddy (and now my buddy), Louis:

Front stoop.  Gonna do me plenty of sitting here.  Already have, actually.  And, of course, my baby Blue..

I don't think "plastic" and "white picket fence" went together in the 50's or whenever the hell white picket fences were in style, but we've got a classy plastic one close by.  Plus a towering view of the ocean and the island of Moloka'i.  It's more impressive in person.  It always is..

My lair.  I offered the master to Louis to be a nice guy.  He, in turn, offered it back to me.  So, I, in turn, took it.  Swell quarters and my own shitter: I really can't ask for much more.

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In other news I was on Wiki last night looking up random bits of information (if you're ever bored just go to Wiki, pick something to search for, then start reading and click on links that seem interesting within whatever page you're reading.  You can do this for hours.  Well, at least I can..) and ended up learning more about The Black Crowes' The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion, the same album I brought up a week or so ago.  Anyways, did you know this album was the first album in Billboard history to have four (4!!!!) #1 Mainstream Rock hits on it.  Out of ten songs.  Strong?  Nah, quite strong.

And as I do a bit more research now, The Black Crowes are one of two artists to have consecutive #1 songs, and it occurred with two songs from this album.  First "Sting Me," followed immediately by "Remedy."  STP is the other with two songs of of the extra-tasty album Purple, "Vasoline" and "Interstate Love Song," respectively.  Pretty neat, right?

But back to what I found out last night:

The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion was #1 on the Billboard 200 back in '92, and guess what album preceded AND followed it?  A little group known as Kris Kross, with their album Totally Krossed Out.  Yep, "Jump," "Warm It Up," "I Missed The Bus."  This was the first "real" cassette I had ever gotten.  By real, I mean not Raffi or Rick Charette or Disney or that sort of stuff.  It was a Christmas gift from an Aunt.  Auntie got skillz.

I'm pretty hard, right?  Getting a Jermaine Dupri-produced gem ups my "badass quotient" to the n'th degree, if I do say so myself.  

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Back to the pictures, here are a couple from The [Blackout] Express that was Halloween..

Forgotten news & notes..

I mentioned awhile back that I have, in fact, moved into a new place.  El apart-e-ment-o.  It's no third floor penthouse on Wood St. in the Lew but it's not too shabby, all things considered.  Who am I trying to kid...it's pretty dope.  In a perfect world I'd post some pictures of it but as luck would have it I left the cord that connects my camera to my laptop in Maine.  OOPS!  Guess I need to jet back soon, right??

I noticed I was without a cord after I took a few pictures of Reese's Pieces that I put together in the shape of flowers.  Well, I thought they looked flowery.  I used one brown Pieces for the center and then put three orange and three yellow Pieces around the brown Pieces so it looked like a pretty, colorful flower.  I apparently have way too much time on my hands as I wasn't under the influence of any PED's and I still found this enthralling for a good twenty minutes.  Once I made the flower I had to eat the flower whole, though.  All seven Pieces.  I didn't want to pick petals.  I would have much preferred Peanut Butter M&M's but I'm not sure if Peanut Butter M&M's would match up as well as the Pieces did.  It was quite remarkable, actually.  It was like Mr. Reese himself chose the diameter of his Pieces to require six more Pieces to fit exactly around the circumference of one Pieces.  No, wait.  Chances are this is a math equation and chances are good you could do this with about any circular object, no matter the size, you'd just have more negative space in between the circles that would kind of look triangular.  Triangles in between my petals would look shitty, so I'll stick with my Pieces for art and Peanut Butter M&M's for eat.  I just got geometric on your asses, right there.  But, math majors, help me out.  If you have seven circles of equal diameter if you circle six of them around the seventh it should always fit pretty good, because of pi, right?

I just found the answer using cans of chili and soup.  It's a pretty good fit.  You all can thank me later as I know this has crossed all of your minds many times.  You may now continue with your respective days.

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I will try to get pictures up sometime soon, some way, somehow.  This place is pretty dope; I wouldn't bullshit and it's not just because I'd been couch surfing for the two-plus months prior to move-in.  We're on the ground floor with an ocean view right out of our front door.  Plus I can lock my bike up right next to our door.  That was the big selling point for me, really.

But, ya, now I actually have places for folks to crash so Samm-o: whenever you want to find that aloha spirit again you've got an open invitation.

Many mahalos also go out to the few folks who still read this and actually check in fairly frequently to see that I commonly go days without posting and even on the off chance I do post I write about fucking Reese's Pieces flowers.  Seriously, though.  They look just like cute little flowers.  Colorful and daisy-like.  But, anyways: YOU'RE ALL INVITED, TOO!  COME JOIN THE PAHHHHTAYYYY!  Cheers.

The Notepad Abides..

Forgot about this one, but the original incarnation of the yellow notepad came in handy during my trip back to the islands. As I think I mentioned before I got delayed quite a bit and had to get pretty creative to make it back to Maui in just one day so each time I was on the phone with an airline representative (The first three or four times this was with United and then finally with Hawaiian to make sure I'd be able to hop the “shuttle” over...or jettle, maybe? Jet-shuttle, get it? Catchy, methinks..) I needed to remember flight times and flight numbers and various other factoids and the yellow notepad came through in the clutch. As did the houndstooth hip pouch. You haters out there can zip it about my bootleg look because as everyone in line was scrambling though their carry ons in hope of coming up with writing implements and paper I had paper, pencils and pens for miles right close by. I was even kind enough to give out two sheets and let someone borrow a pen, too. Good travel karma, right there. A couple people had the iPhones and blackberrys (that's correct pluralization, right? As it's a proper name, not the delicious fruit. I think I'm correct..) but it looked miserable having to hold the phone, say, “Yep, hold on,” take the phone away from their ears, type a couple of letters or numbers or words or whatever, then say “OK, go,” and do it again and again and again. I plopped that phone on in between my shoulder and ear and just wrote away. No delay, no pause. “Yep, yep, yep.” I kick ass. Do not hate on my travel ability. I hate airline travel but I'm skillfully adapting to it. Any travel with windows up is pretty lame, if you ask me.

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Speaking of old business pertaining to my flight from east to west, while in Chicago awaiting my flight to LAX I had a chance to talk to Clay Matthews' parents for a minute.  Actually, Clay Matthews III's parents, as Clay Matthews' father is Clay Matthews Jr.  Clay Matthews III is a helluva player for the Packers and former USC stud, and his pops was a linebacker in the league for many, many years in the 70's, 80's, & 90's.  Clay Jr.'s brother, Bruce played tackle for nineteen seasons in the league and started close to 300 games in his career.  Never missed a start, either.  First ballot hall of famer, you know, just your average career.  As I look at Clay Jr's wiki page is tells me he played in the 16th most games all time.  Bruce never missed a start in his career and, until BrettFave passes him this season, played in the most games ever by a non kicker/punter.  This family has nothing to sneeze at when it comes to football.  The third Matthews son is a linebacker at Oregon now and they're, oh, #2 in the country right now.  Ho hum.

I knew a a lot more about Bruce than I did about Clay Jr.  I knew Clay Jr. was in the league but I didn't know he had played as long as he did until today.  I guess you learn something new(-ish..) every day.

Speaking of the league: the TV show The League on FX sucks big donkey balls.  I watched the first season and it was kind of funny but the one episode I saw of season 2 was awful.  They had commissioner issues but these issues were decided upon by 5 people.  WHERE THE HELL WAS THE INPUT FROM THE OTHER THREE PEOPLE WHO SUPPOSEDLY PICKED VIA TELEPHONE IN SEASON ONE?!  Trash, if you ask me.  Talk about a plot hole.  Clearly these writers have very little knowledge of the seriousness most long time gamers take their fantasy football.  This shit pisses me off.  If you've only got one good season of ideas don't come back for season 2 and just fill it with fear boners and shit like that.  The fear boner storyline began pretty humorously but lost all steam when the competition for new commissioner came down to a running race watched by the three other people who live close by without any input from the remainder of the league.  Poppycock.  Five-team leagues don't fucking happen.  See?!  I'm swearing over the ridiculousness of this show.  GET IT OFF THE AIR ASAP.  I'd like to burn Craig right now with what he used to do in high school (Hell, may still do, I'll have to ask Nick..) but that's a league-eyes-only matter and not fit for discussion here.  You're lucky I respect the sanctity of our league, Mr. Cormier, Jr.  AS ANY TRUE FANTASY FOOTBALLER WOULD, UNLIKE THE SHMUCKS WHO WRITE FOR THAT BABY TURD EXCUSE FOR A TV SHOW.

But at any rate I was at O'Hare waiting for my connection to LAX having already bumped my LAX-Maui flight to LAX-Honolulu via telephone when I saw this big middle aged dude milling about.  Not out of the ordinary by any stretch at a big airport, I know.  He happened to be standing relatively close to where I was sitting down when the woman he was with turned around and she was wearing a "ROSE BOWL GAME" backpack with "MATTHEWS" embroidered on it.  I had to go over and say hello and demonstrate my knowledge of the Matthews' family.  They were super nice folks.  Still pumped up after Green Bay's dismantling of the BrettFavre disaster a couple of days beforehand.  

They flew economy plus, not first class.  I respected that, too.  

As I was boarding, long after the Matthews' had boarded as they sprung for middle class, a woman came up and asked who it was I was talking to.  I told her and she was super excited because her son played D-line at U Idaho so she knew her son would love to hear about who she was on the plane with.  I envisioned him saying, "Cool, mom..." in a brush off way but knowing deep down he would have liked to have been there.  20-something sons are jerks.  Her son is a high school football coach, so we talked high school fooseball coaching in general for a brief minute, too.  The jet bridge was long, I'm not making it up.  That day was easily more than I had ever spoken in airports in my life, combined, including trips I traveled with other people.  I guess I was in a good mood.  

--

For the past couple of days it's been raining intermittently here.  And by intermittently I mean 90% of the time it is showering, 5% of the time it is raining, and the other 5% the sun is out.  More or less all this means is I get SOAKED on my bike rides.  I need to keep a towel on my bike at all times so when I get to wherever I'm going I can towel off before proceeding inside.  It's not really that bad, I suppose, as it's still 75 out when this is going on.  But I didn't move away from Vacationland to live on a vacation island for it to rain all of the time. This has got to stop ASAP.

People look at me like I'm crazy, too, when I ride around in the rain.  It hardly rains like this here, well, ever, so I'll take 350 days of sunny bike riding and fifteen or so lousy ones all the way to the bank.  All the way to the bank in the rain today, actually, as I need to order checks today.  Life doesn't stop because of showers, unless you're the Wicked Witch of the West.  My clever wit doesn't stop, either.  Cheers.

"What, did you go on vacation...?

"...I figured. You're looking pretty pale."

So began my return to the Hula Grill Wednesday, not much more than twelve hours after my return to the 808 from the friendly, homely confines of the 207. It's a tough life I lead, really. I found the aforementioned comment pretty hysterical as most people returning from vacation stand out because they are, in fact, tan. Maui living is...different. 

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Back home on my way to Albany to catch the Crowes it was intermittently raining cats and dogs so I was forced to use my windshield wipers  from time to time.  I am tremendously OCD when it come to windshield wiper operation.  I believe windshield wiper speed should be adjusted according to the precipitation and if precipitation slows then windshield wiper speed should also slow accordingly.  As a passenger if this does not occur then I get annoyed, exceedingly so if the wipers make that annoying "SQUEEEEEAK" when there's not enough moisture on the windshield to properly lubricate the wipers.  I'm not kidding, I freak out inside when this happens.  It ruins my driving experience.

In my Jeep well back when I didn't have the slow-ish speed that you could adjust.  I just had "OFF," "ON," and "SUPER FAST."  "SUPER FAST" should never be used, except in hurricane- or tornado-like conditions.  

The one, ONE time I used the "SUPER FAST" setting was in my Volvo cruising from Nashville to Manchester, TN to Bonnaroo when we drover through tornado reports.  It was frightening.  I was going 35 on the highway and we could see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT RAINDROP SLATTER, even in "SUPER FAST" mode.  Never do this; it's not much fun.  Nick can attest to this.  He was hating life.  My driving was piss poor at best that morning.  FYI: PED'S increase chances of hangover.

At any rate, this lack of options contributed to my enjoyment of driving as long as I could with raindrops accumulating on the windshield until, just prior to raindrop-out, "SWISH."  This wasn't turning the windshield wipers on but rather just slipping the jab, so to speak, and sparking the single shot wiper.  I'd drive for plenty long just single shotting every 30 seconds or so rather than have my wipers moving two drops a pass.  That's just how I rolled.  This kept me squeak-free for a good six years.  

When I picked up the Volvo and because a two car family I gained not only another car but another speed of windshield wiper freedom, in the form of the "SLOWER ON" speed.  It was handy in that I didn't have to slip the jab quite as much but obviously it was nowhere as handy as the more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do that has been present on most cars built in the last, oh, fifteen years or so.

ASIDE HERE: This is not to say until this time home I've never used this more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do, just that it's never been my daily driver.  Ma's gold Chevrolet Malibu used to have this twisty speed, I just didn't drive it enough to call it my daily-driver and thus develop the idiosyncraties that generally result with someone spending an inordinate amount of time with something.   

SECONDARY ASIDE: This more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do is the doo-dad that twists on your windshield wiper stick that, when clicked to the corresponding angle (usually it goes from "OFF" to this more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do to "ON" to "SUPER FAST" in one direction and then you can slip the jab in the other direction.  So when in the more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do setting you can twist the column and adjust the delay between wipes from just more than your standard "ON" setting to fifteen or so seconds between passes.  Glad we cleared that up..

ANWAYS I drove Ma's Nissan to Albany and this car, being built within the last fifteen or so years, possessed the more modern, multi-speed twister how-do-you-do setting.  We'll call it the "DELAY" setting from here on out.  As the rain changed speed I adjusted the tempo of the delay accordingly.  I'd say over the four hours of on-and-off wet travel I ended up "ON" for less than five minutes.  Between an hour and ninety minutes were spent in the "DELAY" range.  This was changed about every thirty seconds because I NEED MY WIPERS TO BE RESPONDING TO THE EXACT RATE OF RAINDROP FALL.  Then the rest was a jab here and a jab there.

Skip doesn't do any of this.  Hasn't for as long as I can remember.  All I remember is "SQUEEEEAK."  Still hurts my ears.  It drives me up a WALL.  Love you, Skip.  You don't read.  Ma does.  She'll tell you.  I expect a "FUCK YOURSELF" text or voice message within the next twelve hours.  I deserve it.  But, god dammit, dial in your wipers, folks.

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Also the drive I listened to the Crowes' The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.  Their second album.  As it turned out they played quite a bit at the show but it was certainly nice to reconnect with this gem.  Ten high-quality songs.  A lot more blues-rocky than their debut.  I'mma huge fan.  Few folks still live in the 207 but most Bull Moose's stock this used for under $3 ($2.97, but still, under three Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers..).  If you like the Crowes and don't have this album then you're a fool.  If you don't know if you like the Crowes then scoop the for three bucks and you'll see that you like the Crowes.  It's that simple.  I even provided you with a picture of the album cover so you'll know what to look for.  It's delightful.

-Note to KathV & Jenn with two N's: Here is your test: If you have been staying current with your readership of the 'Pad I will find out quite soon.  I obtained a copy of the Crowes show we went to.  Ya.  "She Talks To Angels."  "Hard To Handle." "By Your Side."  SEVENTEEN MINUTES of "Wiser Time." A cover of Velvet Underground's "Oh! Sweet Nuthin'."  All that.  Three hours of memories can be yours if I receive in text message within the next 48 hours: "And the band played on, in golden harmony."

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Cheers.

Gone 'til November..

I'm plum-tuckered out.  Things have been crazy busy this week.  I suppose crazy busy isn't the appropriate adjective; I'm just flat out exhausted from traveling, haven't had a huge amount of time to relax, and don't see that time coming for about a week.  I learned that the midwest was having some of the worst weather they've seen in 50 or so years...as I sitting on my flight out of PWM Tuesday morning heading for Chicago.  SWELL!  Haha.  O'hare grounded all planes for a couple of hours but the folks in Portland were kind enough to let us off the plane while we were grounded.  Back in college I was in Minneapolis heading back to Maine and a snowstorm grounded us for six hours and they kept us on the plane for the first five of those hours.  It was fucking brutal.  I don't swear a lot on here but that's just how brutal it was.  Miserable.  The only time in my life I didn't bat an eye at paying $8 for a beer was when they let us off for a half hour so me and another guy from Bates sprinted to the bar, pounded beers, then ran back to re-board.  Airline travel is miserable.

Anyways I missed my connection for LAX but managed to get on another flight a bit later so I was still set to get to Maui no sweat.  The connecting flight, however, was delayed in Boston for the same reasons we were delayed in Portland so the plan was about 90 minutes late arriving, and concurrently, I missed another connection.  Boo hoo.  So, instead of flying to Maui I took the last flight from LAX to Honolulu, then had to book a separate flight over to Maui.  BUT I MADE IT!  Landed around 9pm, got picked up around 10pm, was in bed around 11pm, then up to move into my new digs for 9am the next morning.  Hindsight says this was poor planning on my part and hindsight is always 20/20.  

New place is swell, though (I wanted to devote an entire post to this and call it "New Place, New Plan (Redux)" but as with the first "New Place, New Plan" only a couple people get the joke so it's not a huge hit humor-wise and I'm on my way to work so if it ever comes it'll have to wait..).  The last couple nights have finally felt like I have a home, whereas my first few months here I felt like a guest in a house and the couple months after that in August and September I felt like a transient.  Having a place to live that you can call your own is nothing to sneeze at.  Remember that, kids.

Time to make the donuts.  Posts won't be coming up for the next couple of days with Halloween making a return to my life.  I'm not super stoked on my costume but I think I'll make an OK Zorro if I can locate a sword and some mustache wax.  Halloween's still weird for me.  It's been all downhill since this:

Cheers (And yes, I will be talking about this costume for the rest of my life.  Old, wrinkly women in the nursing home will be jumping my shrunken, calcium-deficient bones in fifty or sixty years at this picture.  Admit it: It was, in fact, that good..).

Tired, but wiser for the time..

It's been really nice to be back in Maine for the last couple of weeks.  I don't know if I was busy or not.  It felt kind of busy but some of it was just challenges that are presented when I wanted to venture around the Northeast without a car of my own to drive.  So some flexibility and fluidity with scheduling needed to apply.  All in all I think I managed to squeeze in a lot of high-priority events.  Things got off to a proper start with a Flatbread dinner minutes after landing at PWM and continued on a proper path from there, as Wallingford's cider donuts were waiting patiently as I arrived home.  TREMENDOUS.  Made it to Gipper's plenty, and all signs lead to having one last dinner there Monday evening prior to my Tuesday, 6:33am departure from the Portland International Jetport as I resume my island odyssey. 

All things considered it was a fantastic trip home.  I feel like this time around I had plenty more big ticket days than my trip home in July as I was more judicious in my traveling.  Yes, I spent a little under nine hours driving to and from Albany, NY, but saw a killer Black Crowes show with my sistas Jenny and KathV and still made it back to greater L/A Saturday to catch all of Skip's football game and hobnob with Bates' finest for the afternoon.  Sunday brought a hastily-planned Casco Bay lobster boat cruise with my sister where the Pabst's flowed like wine.  A good time was had by all involved.

Concluding this past week, and more or less my trip, I suppose, was the wedding of Liam and Rachel, two very close friends.  The gang was back in full force for three nights of silliness, two Yarmouth, wedding-hoopla'd evenings sandwiching a traditional Auburn evening of Gipper's, Goose, and an afterparty which saw about a dozen pallets go up in the span of an hour and multiple bets on what would soon be drawing the attention of the Auburn Fire Department: structure or forest fire?  As luck would have it nothing but my feets caught fire so everyone went home with smiles on their faces.

After snaking a post-wedding ride back to Auburn and immediately falling asleep at the after party I awoke to a crisp, fall morning and, well, no one else at the house besides the owners.  As luck would have it Ma was already out of bed so my call did not wake her and she was happy to swing by and grab me, but this pickle enticed me to begin heading home on foot.  I was still attired as nicely as my closet allowed for the previous afternoon's wedding (think college professor more than power broker..) so my sweater and corduroy blazer kept me toasty warm even as I was rocking $4 Surfah sandals on my feets (I found these to be more appropriate than either the asic's running shoes I brought home or the 8" Chippewa loggers I had been wearing most days as they're my favorite footwear and I'm going to miss them this winter as it'll be the first winter in seven years we won't see snow together.  I hope I showed them enough love over these last couple weeks..

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K, got that little recap all out of the way.  The Black Crowes show was legit.  Very, very happy I made it back to see them.  I was tempted to squeeze in a round two viewing but when J.Mac came up with Citizen Cope tickets I decided two shows was enough.  There's certainly some temptation to cruise to San Fran for a couple of days in December to catch a show or two during their six night Fillmore stand but that's another story for another day.  The show took place at The Palace, an old, fairly seedy-looking theater whose interior was either very well-restored or has just aged remarkably well.  Going in I had hoped to hear an acoustic version of "Good Friday" and I was lucky enough to have that dream come true.  I felt kind of silly though because it was the third song of the night and I didn't recognize the harmonica opening right away so it took a little while for me to build into things.    Overall I was quite happy with the setlist and the seventeen minute "Wiser Time" in the first set was absolutely killer.  Jenny-babe hooked it up from her Pepsi-folks and we were within ten rows of the stage, which isn't bad starting pay.  Low key, heady crowd down front, too, which was a plus, with the exception of one moron who tried to hop on stage and proceeded to get crosschecked by Chris Robinson and his mic stand.  Silliness all around.  The show continued as planned, as far as I could tell.

Not a video of aforementioned stage-bum-rusher.  Just a video of good music..

The Crowes do a lot of taping of their shows so I broke down today and bought the show from their archive site.  I'm a sucker for tracking down the live shows I've been to so naturally I was going to scoop this as it was readily available.  It's put a nice smile on my face this evening as I've been collecting the items I brought home so they can be repacked sometime on Monday.  It's going to be a little more weird heading out this time around as I don't really have a definitive plan on when I'll be back to the 207 again.  I'm sure I'll be back next summer at least for Em's Run but other than that I've really got no plan.  We shall see, eh?

Is this silly?

Got gifted a Rainwater LP at the Citizen Cope show I went to on Monday.  Hadn't heard anything off of it other than "Keep Askin" and that was at Bonnaroo well back.  Anyways, a lot of the album has static in between songs like you'd normally hear listening to vinyl (hence the "lp" tag on the album, I'd suspect..).  Cracks and pops and whatnot.  Brought me back to all of my parents albums I used to listen to back in the day.  And the time I bought an ODB album on vinyl during the couple years in high school I braided my hair and wore oversized sweat suits.

Anywho...this album is also sold on vinyl.  If I were to listen to the vinyl, in between tracks would I be hearing vinyl static...while hearing vinyl static?  Is that silly to anyone but me?  I'd think this scenario would cause the world to implode upon itself...but I guess not since it hasn't happened yet and I think the album has been out for quite some time.  Ya, Amazon says March.  Something tells me at least one of those suckers has been sold and listened to by now and we're still spinning.  Maybe, as crafty as Clarence Greenwood seems to be (he ties a proficient hair knot..) the "vinyl static" has been removed from the vinyl...but, how would you know?  Right?  Because you'd still be hearing static from the vinyl on the needle.  I need to stop thinking about this; I'm sure no one cares about this but me and I don't care all that much. 

Maybe it's like in Wayne's World when they're all in the studio looking over the set of Wayne's basement and Garth says "We're looking down at Wayne's basement. Only that's not Wayne's basement. Isn't that weird"  Weird, indeed, good sir.  Once again, Wayne's World provides.

Show was solid though, low key vibe.  The stage could have been higher.  I had my boots on and I still struggled to see.  Mother fucking tall people.

Cheers.

Things are shaping up nicely..

It was an excellent idea to come back for this wedding hootenanny a week early.  I've been able to line up plenty of entertainment.

First of all I'm happy to say I've added "hootenanny" to my lexicon.  Rob Zombie's current tour with Alice Cooper is called the "Gruesome Twosome Halloween Hootenanny" tour.  While it's unfortunately I missed their performance last night at the Cumberland County Civic Center recently I've reconnected with Robert and his hellbilly ways through eBay where I was lucky to stumble upon this gem late one night:

I had it shipped home as I didn't have an address on the island at the time of the impulse buy so it was waiting for me Monday evening when I made it back to the 04210.  This could potentially be my favorite eBay purchase ever and I've got a feedback score of 57 with !00% positives so it's not my first eBay rodeo.

I went to this concert back in high school with Nick, Randy, and Luke Robinson.  Ya, a mod squad we were.  Holy smokes.  We sw him at the Central Maine Civic Center pre-city takeover and present Collisee status.  AKA back in the good ol' days.  Saw plenty of freaks last night, so much so that for the opening acts we hung out in a penalty box to protect ourselves from the hundreds (read: less than 1000 in attendance, I'm sure..) of people who wanted to get dead.  This was really about his heyday, though, as Sinister Urge had just been released and a lot of folks were still super high on Hellbilly Deluxe.  I know I thought it was a kickass album, and still do.

But yeah, it was a hell of a show.  I remember we were about the lamest kids there.  Some people rolled in in a hearse.  And fuckers dressed up like kids from Children of the Corn and handed out fliers to get people to go to their fucked up website.  God damn freak shows, I tell ya.  I was considered the "most hard" because I was wearing a Subway polo shirt that I had picked up at Sal's Boutique.  Fairly certain the rest of my party was in A+F as that was the standard getup for high school kids in Auburn in the early 2000's.  Bunch of winners we were, really.  Looking back I can't fathom how I had no problem spending thirty or forty bones on a t shirt when I was making six or seven dollars an hour.  I guess Lester Burnham said it best when he worked all summer to by an 8-track player: "It was great. All I did was party and get laid. I had my whole life ahead of me."  Indeed.

Actually, we weren't the lamest people there.  One of the opening acts played six or seven songs of angry, close-to-speed metal chock full of death, murder, and rape lyrics but in between every song the lead singer would pony up to the mic all heart felt and whine things like, "We will never forget this!!" practically tearing up like a middle school girl writing in her diary about how Jimmy Football Hero touched her hand while he was reaching for the ketchup in the lunch line.  Vagina Face.  Grow up.  Can I get Charles Barkley to throw out an "embarrassing" right here.  "That's EMBURRRRUUUSUUUNG."  Thanks, Chuck.

Anyways long story short it was kick ass.  For whatever reason in those days Rob had a pretty strong affinity for Lewiston and even played a couple of Halloween shows there over the years.  Literally, on Halloween.  Rob Zombie.  Pretty big deal.  In Lewiston.  I didn't go but man I bet it was extra kickass.

Under most conditions I'd be pretty steamed that I missed a show like Zombie and Alice Cooper (rock legend, I'd probably feel like Wayne and Garth did if I had made it down...not worthy..) but I've actually already got a stellar live music lineup dialed in for the weekend.  As soon as I finish this up (the Zombie t-shirt tangent was supposed to be a couple of sentences and a picture.  Go figure..) I'm hopping in the shower ad then heading to Albany to see the Black Crowes.  Stoked.  Love the Crowes and had been planning seeing them while I was back for awhile as a few of you know who read back in the day when I'd actually post on the semi-regular.  Should be kick ass but super rushed as I need to (NEED TO!) hot shot it back to Maine Saturday morning so I can see Skip coach.  Haven't missed a season in my 26 years on this rock so I'm not about to start now.  Go Bobcats.

Then for Monday J.Mac came through and scored tickets for Citizen Cope at Port City Music Hall in Portland.  Small-ass venue so should be a lot different than when I saw him in Tennessee at Bonnaroo a couple minutes back.  GIVE ME ACOUSTIC PABLO PICASSO, DAMMIT.

Then, you know, The Crowes will be in Burlington Tuesday and Wednesday...if inspiration strikes you never know...  We'll see how tonight goes and go from there.  Shit, Burlington's just a rental car away, right?

Wish me luck driving in this weather.  It's raining cats and dogs and blowing goats out.  F this weather; give me the nice fall weather the rest of the way through.  Cheers.

PS.  Hootenanny.  Up until last night I'm pretty sure the last time I've seen or heard hootenanny used was in Disney's animated Robin Hood from back in the day.  I think it's in the "Robin Hood and Little John walkin' through the forest" song right from the beginning.  Robin Hood was the first thing that came to my mind when I heard hootenanny on the Zombie/Cooper commercial at Gipper's so it must be true.Oo-da-lolly, what a weekend.

P.P.S. Zombie is the goddamn man:

Nice double meaning there, right?!  The "god damn" modifies "man" in current American slang-lish to mean "quite good," while at the same time Zombie, in his stage presence, at least, more or less damn's God.  Think about it for only a couple of seconds or you might just have your mind blown before your weekend even begins..

I'm clever this morning; I've got to write more I'm in the zone.  Must be home field advantage.

October is 1/3rd completed...

...and this is my first post of the month.  Also my first post from Maine in a couple of months, too.  Yep, back east coast for a of couple weeks, until the 26th.  Liam is getting hitched and I wasn't going to buy a ticket home for just a long weekend; I wanted to (somewhat..) get my money's worth.  Landed in Portland around 5pm EST on Monday and haven't looked back since.   Very, very happy to be back for some fall season.

I can already tell it's going to be a challenge working back into an EST sleep schedule.  I didn't go to bed Monday night, choosing to rather muscle up on Tuesday and just try to get back on track Tuesday night.  Instead I dozed off on the couch for about four hours early Tuesday evening and now it's nearing 2:30am and I'm again wide awake.  I wouldn't say it's something I'm especially worried about, but I can tell already it's going to be interesting negotiating sleep into my routine for the next few days.  I found last time around two weeks is just long enough to have a miserable first week back then become fairly accustomed to sleeping at normal times again for the second week so upon return to the island another miserable sleep week will be on the horizon.  So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

I knew I would definitely be coming back now for quite some time so the couple of months on-island between my East Coast trips felt very disjointed because I didn't bother to find a permanent home over this period of August - early October.  Two globe-trotting friends were kind enough to let me get back settled by sleeping on their couch.  Both were traveling home for a week each in early August so my first couple of weeks back I had a bed...then sort of milked their hospitality in exchange for monetary compensation, chores, and a gigantic free dinner Hula Grill provided for my employee of the month prize from the summertime.  I'm not going to lie though, there was a little stretch where things where things were fairly snug as both of them and their respective boyfriends were home on the regular...but that's neither here nor there now.  Once again one roommate left for my final ten days as she traveled cross-country from NY to LA with some friends.

To Anna & Steph: you girls are the best and your generosity will not go unnoticed or unrewarded.

This situation was all due to the fact J.Mac had discussed a possible return to the 808 so I felt it would be better to wait on choosing a long-ish term home until his plans were finalized, with eyes on locking down a  nice place for us post-Liam's wedding.  Quite surprisingly this worked out exactly as planned.  Upon my landing at PWM I had a message waiting that my rental application was approved for a nice three bedroom condo in a posh little spot in the Kahana district of Lahaina.  It's a nice corner unit with an ocean view and should provide a significantly upgraded home base for our shenanigans this time around.  J.Mac lined up another friend to make the trip so we'll be one happy family by early November.  Between lots of hours at the office and viewings and applications my final few days on the island were not spent in the sunshine to a great extent and thus I am pretty unimpressed with my current pasty complexion...but in the long run F you for judging me as I'll get back and be well-bronzed again by the end of October as you New England folks will be frosted and nearing snowfall.  Sorry about your luck.

But for the first time in my life I actually took a bit of initiative and didn't procrastinate and for this I am immensely proud of myself.  Too bad that spark wasn't there for my thesis..

--


I'm really joking about the tan and I don't mean to hate about the snow.  I'm going to miss it this year, I can already tell.  I feel almost as though life is too easy out there as I just deal with riding through a rainshower in 80 degree temps every now and again.  The air was crisp exiting the airport terminal and it was a tremendous pleasue to walk around the waterfront for a bit in Portland Moday evening, eat outside at Flatbread and then roll home with the windows down on Rt. 100 rather than the hustle and bustle of I-95.

And as I put my baby out to pasture when I dipped out in July I'll be taking a bit of my island lifestyle around town  as my old two wheeler will be my mode of transportation.  Let's just say it's well below the quality of my Schwinn Cruiser parked on the island.  It's a mountain bike I picked up in middle school saving pennies and Christmas checks which I rode about ten times before I left it for dead in the back of our garage.  The wheels are a hair smaller, the frame is shorter from seat to handles and I just didn't feel like I could get up on it and muscle up hills like you can on a single speed.  I want to go fast, all the time.  I don't care if it's hard.  So many gears make for too many options, so I left it in the high gear and just made it work as best I could.  At least I'll finally get a little bit of return on investment now.  I rode it today down to the bank and the post office and over to Bates and back home again.  It's by no means ideal but it will certainly get the job done in the interim, provided the lightly dry-rotted tires don't crack and pop out on a commute. 

It was nice to see a couple other people on bikes around town today.  It was also nice to ride a bike for more than five minutes without becoming plastered in sweat. 

Another example of why the 207 is the way life should be.  Cheers.

My days always seem to go better..

..when I floss my teeth.  Try it out.

--

Two plus years later, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand is still a tremendous album.  I'm listening to it right now.  "Rich Woman" came into my head tonight at work when I saw some lowlife getting dinner bought by his two good looking female companions, who also happen to be my co-workers.  This scene was predicted by a server, who said it happens quite regularly.

Jealous and/or bitter, you say?  Perhaps, yes.  Sue me.  HAH!

Cheers.