Thursday, December 19, 2013

All Dio Is Magic




New lamp. Been in this antique store in The Heights for months and months. Had my eye on it. Two weeks ago they cut the price in half. I really stood no chance.

A gigantic, HEAVY, cored piece of quartz- mounted to a marble base. Just...amazing.

Every year, around this time, my folks ask me what I want for Christmas. And I just laugh, and I keep on laughing.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Side Darkness // Side Evil








Your Christmas present came in, Mom.

Expedited shipping, from Europe. Pretty penny, but...whatever. You're worth it.

Friendsgiving.



Our cups run over, collectively.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Too Many Bubbas In This World



"Got him, Coach!"

"GOT HIM, COACH!"


That was the saying, on the baseball team. And on the basketball team. On every high school sports team, in every high school in this country, when my friends and I were in high school.

For the life of me, I can't remember it's origin. I'm not gonna Google it.

A kid would make a good play, or stop, or drive, or score, or whatever- and this would come flying out of his mouth. It was a way of saying, "I just performed well, I listen to rap on the radio, and I can be a little bit 'hood, when my folks aren't around."

Man, it fucking boiled my blood. Still does.


Also, I enjoy taking photos of my floorboards. As I live on them, they just get so dusty. I struggle to keep them clean. But I think they photograph really well. 

Daytrippers.




















Find what you love, and let it kill you.
 
 
-Bukowski

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Failed Career in Marketing




"Since 1981.
Hole's smoking when we're done."



=REBEL FUCKIN' MACHINE=

Friday, November 22, 2013

The Oarsman Stays The Oars.



He brightened the bit with a stick wrapped in emery cloth. Holding the head in the tongs he began to move it slowly back and forth over the fire. Keep her out of the fire and keep her movin. That way she'll draw down even. Now she's gettin yeller. That's fine for some tools but we goin to take a blue temper on her. Now she gets brown. Watch it now. See it there?

He took the axehead from the fire and laid it on the anvil. You got to watch her close and not let the temper run out on the corners first. Shape ye fire for the job always. 

 Is that it? said Ballard. 

That's it. We'll just fit ye a handle now and sharpen her and you'll be on your way. 

Ballard nodded. 

It's like a lot of things, said the smith. Do the least part of it wrong and ye'd just as well to do it all wrong. He was sorting through handles standing in a barrel. Reckon you could do it now from watchin? he said. 

Do what, said Ballard.

That Pewter-Rican Strange




I've always just been slow about growing up. It just takes more time for me.

I'm not proud of this, but what can you do? There's always been food on the table and I've never been forced to defend my life. Summertime, and the livin' is easy, so the tune goes.

Case-in-point: Even until my third year of college, I still very much believed in the exceptionalism of my heroes. Counted among my heroes were BMX riders. I do not apologize for this, but I was twenty-fucking-one.

Landon and I (and I think some other heads- we did have friends) were at a bar downtown. Might have been the bar right next to Creekside, but I can't be sure. So we're drinking, standing around, and in the corner, behind the pool table, is Tony Cardona.

Tony "more-sausage-on-that-pizza and toss me a Mickey's" Cardona. BMX legend. Chicago-gone-PA-gone-Austin transplant with mean transition skills and a rather miniscule fear of death. And a drinking problem, but whatever.

A very decent video had just come out, some of it show-casing Tony's incredible talents on a bike. I had seen it, and it had made me all gooey inside. SO- we're in the bar, he's in the bar, and I'm like,

"Fuck it. I'm gonna go give this dude some propers. Propers when due! I wanna let him know I dig his riding." I was gonna be that asshole, making it weird. I'm always that asshole.

It didn't go the way I envisioned it going in my head. Mostly 'cause, from across the room, I couldn't tell that Tony was so drunk he could barely stand. I moved in, told him he was Tony Cardona (which I'm sure, even in his current state, he knew) and shook his hand. I told him I thought his video part killed and that it was great to meet him in person.

What he replied back to me- I'll never know. Mouth full of marbles, head full of booze. A jumbled fucking mess. He slurred, quite literally, every fucking word.

But he smiled, and seemed happy. He shreds still, and his legend grows.

I learned something that night. Hero-worship is unhealthy. I can picture someone reading this and thinking,

"Yeah...and get better fucking heroes! He rides a goddamn child's toy for a living."

And to that individual, I say,

SHUT UP, YOU DICK!


Good-lookin', Smooth-skatin' Bastards.



Monday, November 18, 2013

Brand-New. Second-Hand.




Maybe a month ago, we're all hanging out at Brian and Mark's apartment complex. Drinking our tallboys, shit-talking, trying to line up our plan of attack for the night.

We get to discussing sweat-breaking, working out. 'Cause we do that from time to time.

There's the stairs right there, so we start hanging off of them, and doing pull-ups. I get to my fourteenth or fifteenth one, and Mark says something like, "Fuck, man. You're just gonna go all night."

He was behind me, so he couldn't see, but I smiled when he said that. I very much felt like a strong dude, like a badass. Like I said, that was maybe a month ago.



This past Saturday, I left work an hour early 'cause I wasn't feeling that well. I think I was having a massive allergy attack. Snot everywhere...it was gross. So I left.

BUT- I didn't go home and rest, like I should have. I went home, popped an allergy pill, ate, drank some water, and ran off to meet Brian and Andrew. They were moving Andrew and his girlfriend into a new apartment, and I told them I wanted to help. 'Cause I did. And I knew it'd be a good time of laughing and beer-drinking too. Which it was.

But it wasn't all radical. Because I threw my back out.

First fucking box off of the truck. Couldn't have weighed thirty pounds. Lift, pivot, and...fuck. Just fucking hurting like I haven't in a while. I know it had nothing to do with the box, or the way I lifted it, and everything to do with a 55-hour workweek that had just seen me burnt up. Plus, all week I hadn't eaten well at all. Wasn't putting back in what was being taken out. Just burnt up.

ANYWAY- the past two days have been a very humbling experience. Other adjectives, too, but mostly humbling. One minute you're active as fuck, stretching every day, reaching past your toes, grinding it out and feeling good. And the next day you can't walk, can't shower, can't hardly look up. I'm at an age now where I know that, with rest, order will be restored. It'll be interesting when I reach that age where rest alone won't do it. I wonder how I will handle it.


What set you claimin'?



"Aight, then, ho. Aight then! Let me see Jesus!"

Thursday, November 14, 2013

One Thing Is For Certain.

Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. I can type at sixty words per minute. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Find a typo, motherfucker. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Yeah, I've been drinking. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. How can you not think about it? Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all. Death comes for us all.

Ugly, and heartless. And nostalgic.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Winona's Ryder



Son of a bitch! I know it's a Monday night, but I haven't been this bored in a very long time.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Eternal Sunshine



"This is it, Joel. It's gonna be done soon.

What do we do?"

"Enjoy it." He answered.







"I do  not consider myself less ignorant than most people. I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books. I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me. My story is not a pleasant one; it is neither sweet nor harmonious, as invented stories are; it has the taste of nonsense and chaos, of madness and dreams- like the lives of all men who stop deceiving themselves."

                                       - Herman Hesse

Monday, November 4, 2013

Paying // Playing. Arcane Myst'ries.



"Another bag of glitter? Bet your ass. It's Renn-Fest, 2013. Don't get cheap on me."

Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Human Stain




So we did the Halloween Pub Crawl. Lots of drinking. After nights like that, I'm always amazed when I wake up with all of the things I started the night with.

Phone. Keys. Wallet. Jacket. Cooler. Cowboy hat. All that shit.

Portyed hard, got it good and turnt. And I held on to all of my stuff. The thing I wanted the most, though, that wasn't mine to begin with- I  lost it. Let me explain:


At the end of the night, I found a parrot on the ground. A pirate's parrot, no doubt. Fake, but it was fucking gorgeous. The plumage, the eyes, the quality of construction- I was in love. Tucked it into my jacket. It barely fit, but it fit. I was too stoked for words. It was going in a bookcase in my bedroom and it was really gonnna tie the room together.

I call it a night, and I start walking. I walk fast- big strides.

Caught up with a crowd. In said crowd were two dudes, and they were jawing. Shit-talking. Well, one was, anyway. He was the aggressor, and he was obviously a prick.

"You just better leave it alone, dog. 'Cause tonight ain't your night. For real, you don't wanna see me go there."

Shit like that. On and on and fucking on. You could tell he was a reader.

I decided I was gonna bump into him. Not dead-on, just give him some shoulder. So I do. Caught him with the shoulder, knocked him off kilter a bit.

 He turned to see whodunnit, and I'm standing there- and he didn't say shit. Not a word. Just turned back around and kept going. Stopped him from bad-mouthing the other guy for about three seconds. But then he was back on him.

So I start walking again, and I'm laughing about it. Walking and giggling. Didn't notice until I was practically home- I had lost the fucking parrot. It could only have happened when I bumped into that dude.

Karma, I guess. Shouldn't have done that, so I didn't get to keep my new pet. If I could go back, I would do it differently. I felt kinda cool for about thirty seconds. The parrot would've lasted a lot longer than that. Definitely wasn't worth losing that bird.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

At Both Ends



Kim baked brownies. My friends sang happy birthday to me. I wished to make it to seventy. Then I tried to blow out the candle- but I didn't get it on the first go.

Guess seventy isn't gonna happen. That's okay. Fifty would be nice.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Through and Through


There's this quote that I really enjoy, from John Waters. I've told most everyone I know, but I wanted to type it out anyway. Set in in visual stone.

He says, "If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em!"






Houston is a cruel and crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It's a shabby sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West- which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.

-HST 


"Contrary to what I'd expected, my father did not gloat and my mother did not yell. They were too worried. Both their boys were way off the playground, and nothing they had done had fixed things. After a while, Dad slapped his knees and said we ought to hit the road. He led the way with my suitcase, while mom trailed a step behind. At the bottom of the front steps, Dad suddenly dropped my luggage, turned around, and grabbed Mom by the arms. Because she was still on the steps, they stood at eye level, looking at each other intently. Then they began to shake their heads and cry. My mother sank into my father and they kissed for what seemed a very long time. I had thought that Millie and Nathan Berg hated each other."



When I read that paragraph for the first time, it jogged a memory. I probably re-read it eight or ten times that night, sometimes reading it and other times not really seeing it because I was focusing on that memory. 

Life has, for me, and so far- been impossibly fair. The mercies heaped upon me and mine- too numerous to mention. I'll try one day. 

  But there has been a time or two when, while performing some action, in some place, I've had some thoughts- and among them:

What's happening right now is very big.
My doing this is going to change things. 
These changes may be for the better, or they may not. 
After this, things will never be able to go back to the way they were.
I have to be okay with that, or I'm not gonna make it.







One viewer- A Mr. Dionne from California, who likely didn't consider himself part of the "lower strata"- fired off an angry, rambling letter, complaining haughtily that 'the most disciplined attention I could give [The Cube] was a belch from the grave of Marcus Aurelius, occasioned, I might add, by the dead weight of its own dust caving in on itself.'

 Two weeks later came Jim's one-sentence response:

           Dear Mr. Dionne:

                    What the fuck are you talking about?

                                                      Yours truly, 

                                                                   JIM HENSON


 

Friday, September 27, 2013

Inferno



Kara is Cory Van Loozen's sister. Krystal bit Kara, back in the day. Only person that dog ever bit. I was maybe 5 or 6 at the time, and instead of being mad at the dog, I was very much wondering what Kara must have done. Like, "I thought you were an okay person, but fuck...Krystal bit you. What aren't you telling us?"





Remember in Death Becomes Her, when Meryl Streep falls down the stairs? She snaps her neck. Of course, she didn't die. So her head was on backwards. She just gripped it firm, gave it a twist, and that bitch was on straight again. Oh, and she had several vertebrae jutting out of her fucking neck. It was pretty gnarly, and I remember, the first time I saw it, I was eating. And then I stopped eating.





The whole just close your eyes thing? Never worked for me. Like, the first time I watched Stephen King's IT. Of course I closed my eyes when the clown went aggro in the storm drain and ripped off Georgie's arm. But that didn't do shit! It was like my eyelids were made of saran wrap. I could feel myself employing the  muscles requisite to close my eyes- but I still saw everything on that fucking TV screen. Kyle and I have talked about this phenomenon. Point is, if there were snakes in her hair, I'd have been turned to stone.





I only played one year of high school basketball. The games were nerve-wracking. I don't think I ever really enjoyed a game, because I was so fucking nervous.

Practices were different. Not nerve-wracking. Intense, though. One drill the coaches made us do was to pile onto a loose ball. Not onto every loose ball, just the ones the coaches decided. The way it would work was, someone would lose control of the ball, it would end up skidding away, and then one of the coaches would lay on his whistle, screaming, "LOOSE BALL, LOOSE BALL! PILE ON THE LOOSE BALL!"

At that, every single player had to throw themselves on top of the ball. Hunt it down, and throw yourself onto it. There were, at any given time, at least twenty-five dudes at practice. Of course, after three players threw themselves onto it, the ball was covered. Shit, after two. Didn't matter. Every single player had to get there and become a part of the pile by legitimately leaving one's feet. It was intense, chaotic, and painful. If you were nearest to the ball when that whistle was blown...shit.

Dragged your feet, pretended you didn't know where it was, pretended you were deaf- you did something to delay your arrival to that fucking piece of sports equipment.  Because if you were on the bottom of that very, very large pile...well. Shitty fucking day.





"Sexy is in the eyes." Rod Stewart said that. There are, honestly, very few statements that I am in such complete and total agreement with. Doesn't have anything to do with this image but whatever fuck you I haven't run into many cloaked figures in my life I'm sorry for saying fuck you it's a defense mechanism.





Back in the day Mr. Jones, my Orchestra teacher, was bitten by a bat. One afternoon me and Kyle and Trent and Kim and Megan and Matt and probably some other tightbros were hanging out in his office and he was dropping some life-wisdoms on us, as he was both wont and apt to do.

I remember he looked at me and said, "Kevin, if you're ever bitten by a rabid bat... just call it a life. Just throw up your hands and walk away. Because the medicines and treatments that I've had to put up with as a result of this thing have been absolute hell. Just pure hell. Don't know that it's been worth it. I have never been so uncomfortable, my body has never been so out of whack and just constantly and physically sick, in all of my life. It's just been too terrible for words."

Prior to that incident, Mr. Jones had been shot in the shoulder by a gang-initiate after pulling over his vehicle in an attempt to render what he thought was some very needed aid.

Years after the bat-bite, Mr. Jones would be in an incredibly serious car accident, getting hit by a woman who ran a stop sign. He was placed in intensive care, and then a body cast. She did not survive.

Yesterday Kim told me that he was recently bitten by a venomous snake.

Christ, Mother Nature, Sacred Spirits, someone- give the cat a break. He is running out of lives.





I have to say,  Judas got a pretty raw deal. Chewed upon, gnashed upon, torn to pieces and eternally and unending-ly consumed, forever and ever, by one of the three mouths of Lucifer himself? Shit.


So...we have free will. But of the things we do, the thoughts we think, the sins committed, the good deeds done, and the life led- the Lord knows all. We are free to choose, but whatever we choose, the Lord knew that it would be so. Omnipotent and omnipresent. God was, is, and remains... very unsurprised.

A question is asked- you contemplate the answer. As is your right. You are free to answer YES or NO, but understand that God knew the way in which you would answer before you were ever born. Before your mother was ever born. Before the mother of your mother's mother was ever born.

In the garden, Christ asked that the cup be passed from him, if it could be. But it couldn't, because that was not the deal! The deal was, he had to die for our sins. But if he had to be betrayed, and he did!, then  someone had to betray him. Just as he needed to die that the covenant be fulfilled and we be forgiven, SOMEBODY HAD TO GIVE HIM UP. 

"Woe to the man who betrays the son of God. It would have been better that he was never born."

Bullshit! Flashy words. Judas could no more refrain from betrayal than Christ could from being crucified. It was foretold that one among them would betray the son of God, so it absolutely had to happen. Had it not, God would have been proven to be fallible, which I can only assume would have led to the speedy (and utter) unraveling of all existence. If not Judas, then someone else. Point is, it had to be someone. 

He didn't, but I could see it being argued- that he jumped on that grenade because it just had to be done. Judas was, cosmically speaking, following orders. I don't know if it's supposed to be called predestination, or not- but then, I don't know what else to call it.

 And yeah, he got paid. And then he killed himself.






Fuuuuuuuck. No comment.






A longer ladder still is to be climbed;
it's not enough to have left them behind;
if you have understood, now profit from it. 

Goddammit! Who Flashed The 'Scared Expression'?!





The subtitles are distracting. But in the other vid, the audio was way the fuck off. And I just don't play that shit.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

When They Rolled Away The Stone



Caught him Live. Cross it off the list. Cross it off the fucking list!

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Dead Sharks.






Hardly ever, maybe three times a week. Constantly, I'd say three times a week.

------------------------


Sylvester got me into Woody Allen movies. Feel like I've been missing out on this whole other world.

Hey. How good is the ending to Midnight in Paris?

I'm gonna tell you. It's like, so good.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pride // Only Lies // Sick 'stache




This morning at work I read that Robert Ellis would be playing tonight at Discovery Green. For free. At 6:30 in the pm. BOOM.

But then the rain comes. It was still raining when I hit my door around 6. Popped a beer, sat on the couch, said, "fuck it."

Naw, though. Changed my mind a minute later.

Because, since moving to Nashville,  Ellis doesn't play here much anymore. Because I can sit alone on my couch feeling sorry for myself (or, you know, just chilling) any fucking day of the week. Because I knew I would regret it if I didn't go.

Finally figured out where Discovery Green is. Stoked on that. Did it my way, too- the stupid,  hard way. I'll never be overweight, I can tell you that much.

Finally got to hear What's in it for me? live. MOST STOKED on that. Left after that one too, 'cause there's no topping it.


Didn't stay for more than ninety minutes. Didn't manage to keep the seat of my pants dry. Didn't manage not to smile like a dork. A lot. Live tunes crush.

You never know. Car wrecks. Brain aneurisms. Floridian fucking sinkholes. We're all headed for the exits. I wanna make sure I handle my shit.




Sunday, September 15, 2013

Dicks!



New member of team Fuchs. Her name is Dixie. That's one too many syllables for my mom, though. So she stands in the backyard yelling something else.








I was unaware. That the Wachutu were biters. 





















This is life-affirming shit. Way to go, mom and dad.


Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Thurston and Coco.



Played it for Kyle on the way to lunch. Think he was digging it. Probably wasn't loud enough. Don't you go making the same mistake, muv.


Can I be a part of you?
How to get there? What to do?

Can I get there from inside?
Of all the ways I could have tried...

Sunday, September 8, 2013

'Fraid to Walk Around at Night?



Picked it up on a whim, wanted to delve into some local sounds. It took a few listens, but it's paying now. Dividends. Acquired tastes.

Shout-outs to Megan and Bill. Missing on yall.

Blowing kush in Flatbush... BROOkLYN!

Thursday, September 5, 2013

BIG SUR



"You go out in joy and in sadness you return, " says Thomas a' Kempis talking about all the fools who go forth for pleasure like high school boys on Saturday night hurrying clacking down the sidewalk to the car adjusting their ties and rubbing their hands with anticipatory zeal, only to end up Sunday morning groaning in bleary beds that Mother has to make anyway...





We all agree it's too big to keep up with, that we're surrounded by life, that we'll never understand it, so we center it all in by swigging Scotch from the bottle and when it's empty I run out of the car and by another one, period. 



Monday, August 26, 2013

No Free Lunches.



WAR IS...beautiful.

Busted.






People make mistakes every day. Every single day. That's not what does it.

People make bigger mistakes, often. Or at least, every once in a while. The fact that they're bigger, that's not what does it, either.


It's getting caught. That's what does it. Making a big(ger) mistake, and getting caught.


A figure of authority is standing over you, looking through you. He's waving a finger back and forth. Saying over and over,  "Busted. Just... busted." Even more- he assures you that, if he really wanted to, he could break you down much worse. He could really fuck shit up for you. And you hate him for a minute, and you hate yourself for a lot longer than that.

Getting caught. That's what does it. 

Afterward, all of your self-confidence runs away from you. Runs screaming away. Like you were the fucking plague. It comes back with time- but definitely not right away. And your calves grow exponentially from all that tip-toeing around.


Thursday, August 22, 2013

Monday, August 19, 2013

Pitchers of Pool-Water




One of my favorite cousins (no hard feelings- I love all of you equally) did this, years back. She and her husband were showing me around the house they had just bought. This, and several other works, were pinned to the wall in one of the bedrooms.

I saw it, and I said, "Woah. That's really good. I really like this one. Can I have it?!"

Like a fucking five-year old. "I like it. Can I have it?!" Rude. And not very cool.


But she is very cool. She said of course I could have it. Then she and her husband let me pass out in that same guest bedroom. Championship people, those two.



Couldn't tell you, even today, why I liked it so much. But I did, and I still do.




Sunday, August 18, 2013

Wild Turkey Weekend




Sick photo-op, dude.

Your girlfriend doesn't even look at this blog. So quit stressing.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

New Gear































They tight, huh?

Well, no. They look rather baggy, actually.