I am beat.
I've been helping Jeb move for the last two days. This in addition to my actually having a job where I honest-to-God-work... My arms and legs are sore as all heck, and my hands are all torn up up from the Grill and from occasional bumps and pinches.

On the other hand, I'm quit content as of now.
Yeah, I know. But, for the first time in a long time I feel good about myself and my life. Now that Cosmo's (and everyone who's attached to it) are out of my life, I feel... GOOD! My days seem organized, and there is an air of virtue surrounding me all the sudden. Linda dn the rest of the Grill employees are all stand-up people. Not perfect, by any means, but moral in a round about sense. No stealing, no bad mouthing, no shady behavior. I can't tell you how wonderful that last part is. I know Linda isn't a saint, none of us are, but I know she's on the level and that makes me so utterly happy.

(sigh) Okay, now... I have to say, Edwards, you were SO right about Bubba Ho Tep! I watched the preview for that the other night and that movie looks amazing! ( http://www.bubbahotep.com/ ) I am so glad to see Bruce Campbell getting back into a role that he knows. This is right up there with his performance as Ash, for sure.
Also, Once upon a time in Mexico actually looks good too! Johnny Deep as a villan is looking really cool. Plus, it has one of my favorite actors - Willem Dafoe - in it. ( http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/onceuponatimeinmexico/ )

Speaking of Sequels, get this... Later this year they will be releasing the Full Throttle follow up. And, no... This is no "Charlie's Angels" bullshit. Most people don't remember FT because it came out before it was fashionable and easy to own a PC. If you happen to be browsing the Lucasarts website, for whatever reason, check out the new FT preview. Amazing!!! I'm so psyched!

Aside from media previews, there is not a lot right now going on. Jeb is moving, Baxter is never in town any more, (Neither is Steve) and I barely get to see Kristy and Tom. And whatever happened to Harr? Is he still dating Gina Z?

I've been focusing on music a lot lately, as you might have guess from earlier entries. Just today, before Jeb made me move all of his stuff by myself while he whipped me for not working hard enough, I made a cool beat\loop in Reason and used a clip of "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin as the basis. I also put together a pretty thugged out beat with a sample of "Head in a Box" by the Breakup. My big piece lately has been a song called myfaithinU where I use a loop from "Legacy" by Pinewood Derby in it. I programmed my own beats, and used a sample of "Paid in Full" by Eric B & Rakim as the base of the rhythm. I scratch a lot in it, and I use a VST sampler for a few drops. I'm really into it.

Finally, I find it funny AND disturbing what the tags are to make words or letters bold in HTML are. Did Phil have a hand in writing the HTML language? (shiver)

OH! OH! Song of the day: "Who's that lady?" by the Isley Brothers
Hear it, Know it, Love it. (Yeah, it's that important...)

Oh, BTW: Does anybody have any books or media on\about Pro Tools?

"Dad, are you licking toads?"
-Bart Simpson
"I'm not NOT licking toads..."
-Homer Simpson

Another week, done and filed away.

It's nice, actually, working at the Corner Grill. My boss is normal, nice, and tough. She swears, she talks about God and forgivness as if the Grill was a big Bible Study, She's tough as nails and takes no shit, and she's smart about her business. No BS'ing behind the employees backs, no mismanagement. She's got the reigns and no one else screws around with them. Plus she feeds me. It's expected of all of us to eat. And no half-off crap either. You eat, and you work. It's a perk and one that works well.

Jeb and I have continued to record music in the spare time. We have REALLY put down some neat stuff. I can't wait to finish these tracks and get them mastered to CD. I'm really excited to be workign with Jeb (as previously stated) because of his talent and patience. We work until we get something done. It's laid back and smooth. Every song has an angle, or a unique rhythm, or a sample NO ONE has ever thought to use before. I'm still into his groove-bassline on the MC Giggles track. (I wonder if the real MC G knows we call him that?)

I had ice cream with Nicole and Trish tonight, then went with Jeb and Kristen for a walk and saw Norm and Reigna out in front of Sam B's. Basically, Norm and Reigna are two of 5 customers I actually liked from Cosmo's. All the other ones irritated me.

I'm tired now. I work at 6:00 AM on Fridays and Tuesdays and I'm still getting into the groove. On the other hand, I like knowing my schedual and I love having Saturdays and Sundays off. No more schedual-requests that get ignored out of spite and laziness. I love the Grill, but I'm sorry Kelly - If Thursdays don't officially start till you see my butt, you'll never see another Thursday ever again.

Rock on kids...

Wow. Wow. Wow.

William Gibson's blog.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp

"Next on Exploitation Theater: Blackula! Followed by Blackenstien... And the BlunchBlack of Blotra Blame..."
- From The Simpsons

It's been an interesting week, to say the least.
I started doing morning prep at the Corner Grill while I'm waiting to hear back from Amtrak, and that's a really interesting job. For as skanky as that place seems, it's very clean and well run. Plus, the woman who runs it is really nice, the people who work there, are slightly "off" but nice none the less, and the coffee flows like water... Coffee is MADE from water... water...
I like it there, that's what I'm trying to say! I'm eating breakfast and lunch regularly now, and I feel good about going to work. This is what I've needed for a long time.

I went and saw LXG the other night. It was a pretty good movie, honestly. I, personally, liked the spin on all the classic literature used to make the film. It was fun, and that's all you need to make a movie worthwhile. I really want to see the movie "This thing of ours" though. (http://thisthingofours.net/index.html) That's my new goal for movie-going. It's the first mafia movie that's come out in a long time that isn't totally moe-moe. And I'm sorry folks, the "Analyze" franchise is not all that great, and although The Godfather had some good quotes, I thought it really was a weak set of films. Too much drama and not enough reality. But then again, I really only like true-story type mafia films and books.

Goodfellas
Gotti
Casino
Hoffa
The Rat Pack
Donnie Brasco

"This thing of ours" looks really real, which I like. Another film I'm really excited about is "Kill Bill". It's about-fuck time Tarantino got back into the groove. "Kill Bill" looks, for lack of better wording "Amazing!". The music in the preview really got to me. I heard it's all done by RZA (of the Wu Tang Clan) who also did the score to the movie "Ghostdog". RZA and Oakenfold are amazing at scoring films. Oaky had a hand in doing "Requiem for a Dream" with the Kronos Quartet. Just a little triva there for you.
And speaking of Tarantino, supposedly he's going to be putting together a new film called "The Vega Brothers". That could very well be the end for me. I may very well never need to see another movie after "Vega Brothers". I mean, fucking Star Wars was really a letdown from all the hype but man oh man... And if a few of you are in the cold on this, allow me to explain as best I can...

Reservoir Dogs - Michael Madson as Mr Blonde (AKA - VIC VEGA!)
Pulp Fiction - John Travolta as Vincent Vega!!!

The rest is up to you to figure out, but there is a lot of rumor-hype surrounding this flick and I'm all about it! Supposedly Tarantino has Travolta and Madson on board for it, plus Sam Jackson, Buscemi and Tim Roth... This, as I said, could very well be the end for me seeing movies. How could you go any higher or further?

Jeb and I had a pretty good day yesterday, as we got together, wired up all the recording equipment in my basement and laid down some really impressive tracks with Acid 4.0 Pro. I build a lot of beats in Reason and assemble them in Acid, along with recording Jeb's bass and my Turntables. The one song that really rocked out was one I started a month ago or so called "MC Giggles". It really has nothing to do with the real MC Giggles, and it never mentions him in the song, but none the less... I assembled some Blondie-esque beats in Reason, expoted all the loops in .wav format, assembled in Acid with a sample from "Ballroom Blitz" by Sweet, the recorded Jeb playing bass in three different layers, then my runtables in three different layers, then added effects. My current setup is pretty weak, but is as follows...

1 AMD Athlon XP 1300 (Running Acid 4.0 Pro, Soundforge 6.0, and Reason 2.0)
1 Oxygen 8 Midi Controller
2 Gemini XL 500 II decks
1 Behringer VMX 300 scratch mixer
1 Yamaha MV802 line mixer
1 Behringer Ultra Di direct-in box

So far, it's been determined that I need new monitors, a nice mic, a new soundcard (Badly), sound padding, and various new cables. The nice thing about using Acid and Soundforge though is that I can apply effects through software and not need a lot of pedels or box gear.
Anyways, I keep listening to this remix I did of the song we recorded and I'm amazed at Jeb's bass playing. That shit he did for The Breakup was no joke! What's more is that he's part of the Saint vs Sinner collective now! I'm really into the end of this song we did (the remix anyways - not the final version) where there is a good long fade-out with just the beats and Jeb's bass solo'ing out. Amazing...

So, anyways... I'm just hanging out wanting to make more music, and thinking about how to deploy what I've done and what Jeb and I are going to do. The music I make, obviously, is techy dance music. Jeb and I aren't far off from that but this is just the first song. I was telling Jeb yesterday how I hope we wind up going down the same path as "They Might Be Giants". No number one hits, but forever immortalized with a cult status unlike almost any others... (minus Violent Femmes, Matthew Sweet and Massive Attack)
I should really consider getting a vinyl pressing done. If Jeb and I can come up with four good tracks (I have one already and then there is the one he and I did yesterday) we could get a 12" pressed and send it out to clubs and DJs round the world. I would feel quite good just sending a copy of our music to Paul Oakenfold or Deep Dish or Carl Cox, let alone actually have them playing it. It's the simple things in life, you know? :-D

Till later, God bless...

(Oh, Baxter and Katie are in the Apalachin hills doing some Habitat for Humanity-stlye charity work with his youth group this week. Throw up a prayer for them to come back safe and un-raped by inbreed mountain folk.)

"Congratulations Peter... You're the Spalding Gray of CRAP..."
- Brian from Family Guy

I'm finally getting myself back into the routine of daily life. I cleaned my room, threw out my TV and VCR, and got all my laundry done in one fell swoop.

On the other hand, I heard two songs tonight that made me think a little about life. My life to be exact... I've been trying to get a grip on my spirituality as of late, but there are also all the little day to day things to fuck me up. For instance, tonight I ran into two different songs that made me think about who I am and where I am in life. First, I was on Launch watching some different music videos (The video for "I love it loud" by the Phunk Junkeez actually has Chris Farely and David Spade as their "Tommy Boy" in it...) and one that caught my attention was "Idiot Boyfriend" by Jimmy Fallon. Although this is an obvious comedy bit, it made me think of all the relationships I've screwed up. And why I screwed up. And how I'm probably going to screw up again. I was laughing at Fallon in all his costumes and how the video was filmed, but the lyric got to me.
The other song, was an older one from back in 1995 called "Blue" by The Jayhawks. Billy asked me if I had ever heard them and I told him of my affection for the album "Tomorrow The Green Grass". That song, unfortunately made me think back a ways to a fairly shitty slice of my life where I was dating this girl I was clearly not in love with but went for the ride because, hey...

Sick...

Now I'm just getting a grip on whats left of my life. Sure, I'm only 28, but I've screwed up quite a bit in 28 years. Sometimes for amusement, sometimes out of pride, and sometimes out of plain stupidity. I was telling my ex a few months back that if there was any justice in the world, I would probably be dead 5 times over. 6 if you throw in last Tuesday... Making it this far makes me believe I'm ment to do something great. Not "save the loquacious spider monkeys, write a book, die with status:HERO" great, but just better than what I've settled on. Catering? Marriage? Kids? Techno music? It's all in front of me, but where do I take it? How do I take there? How much does this shit weigh? Always bend at the knees...

STRONG to all my friends who are "flossin"... Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean...

HOLY FUCKING SHIT!

This has been, without a doubt, the single weirdest fuckin' week of my life. Yes, weirder than when Hannah dumped me off or even weirder than when I spent that night at Kamikazi's drinking with Edwards after I had taken a lot of Nyquil...

Let's back up to Tuesday....

3:00 or so, I go over to the Corner Grill for some lunch. I had a hotdog and some fries, and left right when I got done. This is like 3:35 or so, and as I'm walking out, an Emergency Signal goes off on NPR. I hear about 6 of those stupid things a day, so I said fuck it and walked home. Billy was out back working on cutting up some tree branches when it started to sprinkle. I came down and checked my e-mail and sure enough, there was a weather alert from weather.com... I went upstairs and the rain started REALLY coming down now. It was about 3:45 and Billy and I decided to have a little Port and enjoy the storm. Suddenly, we're in the middle of something really odd. The street was filling up with water and the wind was insane. I ran downstairs and shut down my PC then unplugged it from the wall. I made it back into the living room just in time to see a tree fall on a car. Not a LIMB, a freeking TREEEEEE!!!! It managed to block the whole street, pull down some lines, and smash out the guys windshield and ball out his tires. The rain was crazy too. Terenchal almost... There were tree branches and limbs and whole trees EVERYWHERE... There were two people at the end of my street with a winch trying to pull a TREE out of the way so the cops could get through, then Billy said; "Hey, that tree is on fire..." This is when things got a bit ugly.
The tree was on fire, because a line had frayed. Not snapped or anything, just frayed, I got down on my porch with my camera and tried snapping a shot when -wouldn't you know it?- there was an explosion. The power line came apart and exploded. It exploded once in the tree and once on the ground. The force threw me back into the front door. Somehow, and I'm not sure exactly how, there were two different lines down. One on my sidewalk and one in my front yard. These cables were just snaking around, popping and exploding. There was this horrid buzzing-humming sound, too. I can't get that sound out of my head. It was terrible. I got a few pictures of all this too. Bright white power surging all over my front lawn... 76000 volts is nothing to dick around with people. The one power line dug a crack in the sidewalk a little more than a foot long and a little bit more than an inch deep. My lawn is black. I mean BLACK black... There is pink reflective glass everywhere from where the power lines were superheating everything in sight. Then there was more popping and explosion-style power surges. Our cable line exploded itself out of the wall outside. Our phone line was fried. And, (sigh) my Cable Box exploded and took the TV and VCR with it. The cable line popped itself out of the back of the box, left black marks all over my wall, and then melted. Real nice.

Finally, it all stopped. The rain stopped, the wind stopped, the power gave out... I was shaken. I felt exhausted. Billy and I cut through our back yard and made our way over to his duplex to see if the place and his tenents were alright. Then we walked over to Baxters place to make sure that nothing was wrong there, as he was in Texas the whole time with Katie. Baxter's place was okeeday, but his neighbor had a big tree in the yard, a line down, and his gutter had been ripped off the house.

We started walking back towards downtown when, low and behold, who do I run into?
Yeah, you guessed it... Marshall...
I saw him from 25 or 30 feet off and I waved. We started walking in each others direction and, I swear, this is exactly how the conversation went:
Marshall: Jay Man! How you been man?
Jay: Good, man, Good! How about you?
Marshall: Yeah, man. Hey, did Edwards come back for the 4'th of July?

I didn't know what to do. I just froze. Billy started laughing, because, what else could he do?

Well, we went to Howards and had a drink. THAT'S what else... I talked to my mom a few times inbetween all this crap going on, and I had a dewars ont he rocks to smooth out the shakes. After our drink, Billy and I walked back to Grove Street, but it was all blocked off. Carnage everywhere. So we went up to Pisanellos for a pie, but they were packed. No one else had any power! So we walked over to Myles but they were closed. We finally made our way over to Campus Pollyeyes and that was it. I was done. We had a garlic pizza with mozzarella and pepperoni and just sat in awe of all the shit we had just seen.

After dinner, we made our way back to the house. Everything was a crazy mess. Rounds of copper wire laying everywhere - burned out from the power surges. Leaves and branches and TREEEEES laying about. No cable or phones. Big black patches on the lawn and a hole in the concrete... and that was just OUR yard. The neighborhood was jacked up.

I was exhausted, but I could barely sleep. Every little noise woke me up.

So, basically, I spent the whole day Wednesday cleaning the yard and running errands. I had to take my cable box back to Time Warner, call Verizon, drop off my film, and clean out my room where the cable box was murdered. Thursday was no better. Verizon was out from from 9:30 in the morning until 9:25 or so last night. I just got the phone back on at 9:00 or so. Time Warner was out, replaced the line but still no cable modem. I had to have another tech come out, give me a new modem, and still nothing. Same guy came back this morning and gave me another new modem. This one finally works and I got rid of that damned ugly assed shark-fin cable modem.

I'm tired as all "F". My nerves are, for lack of a better term, shot. So much on my mind, so much to take in, so much to have experienced all within about an hours time...

Life has slowly returned to normal. Cable modem is back, phones are alive, the yard is clean... Most importantly, Billy and I are alive and in two respectively working pieces. God was working overtime on that one, lemmie tell ya what there...

I need a nap. And a massage. And a grilled cheese sandwich...