Indeedum . . . you should go see the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. My thoughts on the movie?
1. for a sequel, it's pretty darn good. it still had the epic grandeur, I think it's good for all ages, and easy enough to follow without having read the books or seen the first film
2. for a sequel, it blows Star Wars episode II out of the water
3. for a movie where fans dress up, most girls opt for elves, and look like hippy chicks with pointy ears. most dudes went as wizards, so they look like college kids with a cloak ... (shrugs). I counted at least ten folks with the book in the theater...

As I have also been experiencing some "technical difficulties", (on the software end mostly, not the hardware end so much), I can share this bit with ya'll: http://www.moveon.org/technicaldifficulties

Apparetly I've got a leak somewhere in the lines, or the broadcaster has been alternately tuned. Hard to tell what is going on sometimes through all of it.

I noticed something: if you're courting a cold, so much so that you're taking cough syrup that contains dextromethorphine (sp) it'll pretty well turn the contents of your REM cycle into something different, I mean completely different. So much so that you're glad you wake up and are back in reality... It should be incentive enough to keep one eating healthy, exercising, and doing all the life promoting things we have in our lives.

Office Parties: The office party this year was fun, more so than last years. The good folks on 6 put together a coupla good skits and piped a few Christmas carols on beer bottles. A girl on my floor read a clever poem. There was much spoofing of G W Bush, much beer sloshing and and some lip smacking good food. I met a coupla new folks, was on my best behavior (ie, nobody was introduced to Eastern Asian Body Mimicry), and had fun. Still, there is something strange about the office party: have fun (but not too much), relax (but not too much), and get together with your coworkers. I guess what's wierd for me is the blurry lines of propriety and sobriety. Nobody said or did anything exceptional, in fact all were in check. Raciest thing I saw? the limbo bar . . . but still, the internal monitor was on and working overtime. Not that I was hoping for streakers or pyrotechnics or a projectile emissis, no none of those things would be fitting at the office party. There just seemed to be something amiss . . . perhaps that something must be absent to make the outside world parties more interesting than office parties.

You saw the Perseids, maybe the Leonids, and now just outside of your town this weekend . . . the reliable Geminids!!!

Yesterday (Monday) . . . an overall good day, with a few ups and downs.

The worst part? I burnt the inside of my lip.
The best part? I got said burn learning how to eat fire.

*** WARNING***

Fire-Eating could Kill You!

Fire-Eating is known to be deadly and to be performed only by qualified professional Fire-Eaters and should NEVER be attempted by anyone, other than a professional Fire-Eater, at any time.

Dan showed me how to do it (eat fire), and he told me how to NOT burn my lip, but somehow I ended up doing it anyways. And yeah, surprise, I succesfully learned the trick. But unlike piano or guitar or juggling or whatever, I seriously don't recommend teaching YOURSELF how to do it. Best to have a highly knowledgeable person to train you.
Dan: "As soon as you don't respect the flame, that is when trouble starts."
Now I need to get some supplies of my own, and determine how to incorporate fire eating with/into playing guitar. Hmmm ... any ideas? I know Hendrix had a pretty cool thing but I'm hoping to try something original.

Until then, I'll be singing for my supper, heading to the trailer in mid-West America . . .

Hey kids, long time not post!!! I apologize for the delay, but hopefully the story will be worth the wait. I think so because I was living it!!!

Ok, Friday friday friday . . . right. I remember now. I did the Zythos Happy hour with Rich Engel and Chris Dreher; it was Dreher's send off. Dreher is enigmatic, in his own Dreher way. If you know him at all . . . any road, Zythos was fun. Dirty Martini's are fun. Simon and Garfunkel wrote a cool song long ago:

Cecilia, you're breaking my heart
You're shaking my confidence daily
Oh Cecilia, I'm down on my knees
I'm begging you please to come home
Come on home

Yes, then came Marty's B-Day surprise, and i still don't kow for sure if was surprised or not. I'll just assume he was. Saturday, I went to the Busker thinger, got the scoop on busking in town, a yellow bucket, and a few contacts. I played outside Joe Mama's with a guy named Rocky and with Paul Tabatchnik. It's great doing natural three part vocals, esp. whenit realloy doesn't matter. Somehow it just sounds best then.

Then I went to the Pens game with Colin & Co. Luxury box seats make any game, even a loss, fun. Can't say I've ever been in something quite like that before.
Yeah, then it was too early to go to bed when I came home, too late to call anybody to go out, so I took the guitar and went out to play. I froze, but played an hour and made $9 and 2 snowballs. Bitch-eyed punkheads, hmmmm . . . can't even look ya in the eye. Anyways,like the Beastie boys say: "What comes around, goes around."
Ultimately, my readers, it was well worth the experience and I hope b.E.P. heard my song all night in his sleep. >:) Yeah, hen I finally watched LA Confidential. Good flick.

Right... Sunday saw Luvvy and Hummus (aka Louie and the Humans) play at the Quiet Storm. good show guys.

I went to Bucca di Peppo's last night for Marty's birthday. He's 29 for the second time . . . :D
What a cool restaurant, and especially if you're going with group of people, you can get lots of course style food, variety and it's good food. There are TONs and tons of pictures all over the walls. I mean, like they took a lot of time to hang pictures... they're pretty cool photos of people, mostly Italian and mostly in black and white. It was almost overwhelming to me, but I liked it. i imagine working there can be frustrating, what with peopel loitering in their narrow passages. That's my only beef with the place, is it seems so densely packed with photos and people that it's almost too busy / crowded. I felt all crammed in at Marty's B-day shindig, but maybe that's cuz we went all th way upstairs to the 3rd floor, past the Pope Room, to the backest back most remote room that was stuffed with folks for another big celebration. whooof . . . it mad eme appreciate open space and clear walls. I haven't felt quite like that since walking out of the Vatican museum in Rome. Of course they don't feed you there, and I was wishing, wishing wishing for a blank wall or something nature-like, not a image or somethign but real real nature to sorta defibrillate my alpha waves.

Long and short, you like Italian food, and got a big grouup of folks, try the Bucca di Peppo. It's becoming of the new Station Square.

Hey there's a cool article about philosophy and the Matrix movie on Salon

Oh, yeah . . . I understand Dave wants some earmuffs for Christmas . . . :D

So today, I'm all caught up with my school stuff for now. The paper is done, I presented yesterday, and was warmly recieved by my classmates. I'm thankful for my public speaking experience, ie public speaking as a course, and theater work. Not to detract from the work that some of my classmates did, but I think I'm the only one who consistently made eye contact with my audience, ie, I spoke with them, held my head up, varied the pitch and intonation of my voice, so the sentences are delivered in some more palatable form than a monotone. Speak slowly so you are understood, look your audience in the eye, and you get some good feedback. I guarantee it. :)

Let;s call this portion: TOO CLOSE TO HOME ... OK, so I'm a single guy. I wrote a response to an ad I saw, somebody who sounded smart and interesting, and I figured, I wouldn't hear anything back. That's what happens with say 99% of the ads, right? You find somebody interesting, somebody with whom you may enjoy talking, conversations and the like. Then you try your hardest to be honest, think about what they said in their ad, and how it relates to you and your stuff. You are thoughtful in your words, and not in a patronizing way. Send your response ... and then you don't hear anything. To be expected. To be fair, i think it's more than likely because your response follows three to five hundred others, all inquiring about the latex or leather in said girls wardrobe, or something else that Jane on the street may be grossed out by. She reads these first three to five hundred other repsonses, thinks ALL men are gross and deletes your response along with the others. It happens I s;pose.

So weeks later, I get an impassioned reponse from a girl. She's appreciative of my response, and we IM. This is good right? Over the course of this IM session, things are good. And then it happens. The inevitable card is dropped. You know, the "I have a BF" or "I met somebody" card. But just a few days ago, you wrote saying . . . and it's already too late when you're thinking that. Oh well, OK . . . It's the tasteful exit card. It's the hand with high royal cards and both the left and right bower. It's trump. Hmmm. In my gut, I think there musta been some foresight on her part, something of a "this could be complicated for us both in the future" or something. Her future, which I wish her the best of luck in, may have been too close to home. I can't say for certain, but that's my best guess, seeing how the trump card was out on the table right after I answered the work story bit. Some things are off limits and probably for a good reason, I must concede. I'm appreciative of her response, and the release back into the pond was gentle enough. So I can't complain really. Elliot Smith says: "She'll decide what she wants. I'll probably be the last to know, no one says until it shows..." So for the next race, here's hoping for a show, if not a win or a place.

Email notice I recieved from Busk Pittsburgh:

We are sending out weekly "Busking Opportunities" that you will start receiving this week. It lets you know where the busk-friendly locations are every weekend.

I also want to give you the heads up about "Busk U Oakland" on December 7th from 1 - 4 pm at Joe Mama's in Oakland. This will be an intro to the Busk:Pittsburgh program, and a networking opportunity for performers and business owners who may want buskers.

Oh I completely forgot to mention another cool thing that happened this weekend. I went to my ten year high school reunion. what trip that was!!! you see all of these people you forgot you knew, and some you knew you'd remember. It was nice to see the folks there were doing well. Even though it was busy, I imagined more people would've been there. Highlight of the evening: talking with two HS crushes, both of whom I hardly ever spoke with during school, and finding out what cool people they are. And it has become readily apparent how lucky we are as alumni of my school. who knew?

so I had a nice little surprise waiting for me in the office this morning. it made me smile :)

I got my paper done, and my only regret is not putting more into it. I could've made it a bit better, I think. Oh well, we'll see how the presentation goes tomorrow.

Thanksgiving was not quite perfect but it was surely a good one, and for that I'm still thankful. I hope everyone had a good weekend with family and friends.

Hmmm . . . I have this ongoing learning process that is apparently part of the human being. I see it evidenced before me everyday now, and I am part of it. At least I am participant in that I am learning continuously. I wish I could describe to you what it is that I am learning, loyal reader, but it's kinda like describing what it's like to eat an apple: it seems you only learn about how an apple tastes by eating one.

So now the trick is, how do you return to the orchard when you can't find your way back? I keep finding that I walk by a big cave with strange sounds coming from inside. Sounds like a buncha people talking from here. Yeah, it's pretty easy to find that. Can you take apples back into the cave? I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. I'll try to let you know what happens . . .

In the meantime, both of the blogs that I read regularly are standing vacant. The writers are off on vacation or work related travel, so I do miss reading about what's going on in thier lives.

For those of you who are starting to feel the holiday spirits come on, they're just around the corner. Remember that this is a good time to drink hot tea, as that helps to soothe the spirit, relax the mind and ease the body.

Tomorrow is NOT my ten year high school reunion, it;s next Saturday, Nov. 30, same as my sisters birthday. I have no idea what to expect, but I'll be sure to have something to report come Monday.

Until then, have a good weekend ya'll, I'll be living vicariously through your fun since I'm finishing my paper this weekend.

Anybody see that 1982 Kurt Russel movie, The Thing? it's about the one about the Antarctic expedition that find a spaceship and soon this alien microbe that works as a genetic mockingbird/xerox machine infects and kills all the people and animals there and becomes this hideous anthropomorphic/lycanthropic blendy mixed thing. So now it looks like somebody wants to build thier own version of that, or maybe they want to make some orcs, oh perhaps they'll build a grendel race. I dunno, this just sounds way off base to me.

Ok, so the Leonids were not as spectacular as I had hoped, or perhaps they were, but i just couldn't see them through all of the clouds rolling over. I went to Claysville to my favorite meteor observing spot, at least i havent' been shot there yet, so . . . and watched the clouds roll over the moon. i may have seen some bright bright fireballs, but through the clouds, they were either dim streaks or imagined.

OK, question, does anybody know about the Russian photographer who has the series with this guy wearing crazy traditional Russian MC Hammer pants, dancing on a mountain top? He's like the greatest dancer guy, he's doing crazy flips and turns, like he breakdances, but he's in the air, not on the ground. I know it sounds fantastic, but you should see the photos. It's from the eeearly 20th century if that helps any... I saw him sampled (terminology?) when I visited the Cleveland Museum of Art with Karen. It was a montage/collage sorta piece, but i immediately recognized the mountain dance guy. He's not to be confused with Jesco White, the guy in the Mountain Dancer documentary. That's the guy from WV who appeared on the Roseanne show. Completely different character, but that's a good weeknight rental from Heads Together. Gotta watch the sequel too. :P

I haven't posted lately loyal readers. Mostly been doing school work and work work, so it's been hard to do this. I am exicited to tutor tonight. I want to share with my 6th grader one of my favorite poets: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo. He came from Madagascar and died in 1937. He does some good stuff.

TONIGHT !!! TONIGHT !!! TONIGHT !!!
No, not the Phil Collins song, but the Leonids!!! The meteor shower peaks tonight and should prove to be pretty spectacular. I went out in mid-August to view the Perseids, and it was pretty good, but these are promising to be spectacular. Go check 'em out!!!

A good weekend over all. Saturday, I did some recording with Marty, it was a lot of fun doing harmonies on a song with him. Here's hoping it will all come out alright (marty's doing some fine tuning on the quality and sound levels). maybe there will be a way to link you faithful readers to a space where you can hear what we did. I can't promise a whole lot yet, so please be patient. And let's keep hoping that good ol' Tommy Maddox will stay on the recovery course and maybe help us get back in it . . . our thoughts and prayers are with you Tommy.


In the meantime, and on a completely different tack, anotha poetry by Russel Edson:

a performance at hog theatre

there was once a hog theatre where hogs performaed as men, had men been hogs.

one hog said, i will be a hog in a field, which has found a mouse
which is being eaten by the same hog which is in the field
which has found the mouse, which i am performing as my contribution to the performer's art.

oh, let's just be hogs, cried an old hog.

and so the hogs streamed out of the theatre crying, only hogs, only hogs.

russel edson, 1976
*********************************************
As E. B. White and his mentor Mr. Strunk say, Mr. Edson demonstrates in this poem, beware of 'which' s. Because, simply stated, one which leads to another. And soon you can have a whole coven of 'which's.


Yeah, one final note: we live in an incredibly stupid society. Let me clarify that statement. We have some incredibly stupid perons who have achieved a high level of influence in our society. Here's why universal statements (think back to your logic course), aren't always a great idea. Not all drugs are used for recreation. Some are used to prevent health problems and even prevent death. Becoming a teacher still looks good, but the battlefield extends well beyond the classroom, no doubt.

Ok, so this counds completely stupid . . . fruity fruit flies? who chooses these things to study? I dunno, I mean what's the prupose? The only thing more stupid sounding could be this . . . Oh yeah, my office is right by the women's bathroom . . . and some lady just got CLOCKed in the head by the door, OUCH !!! I hope she's alright . . . :O

Right on with your right on . . . so today is Friday, and I'm a bit closer to the deadline for that paper. But I feel like a long road stretches out ahead of me still.
I tutored last night, and learned again how valuable that service really is, even though those getting the tutoring may be unawares. I mean who can blame them: sixth grade, are you really concerned about career choice or your future? more likely you're concerned with what's for dinner, any good shows on TV, how cool will tomorrow's field trip to the zoo be . . . stuff like that. It just became painfully apparent that these kids need some real help, and given half a chance, well it's better than no chance. Their bad situation isn't my fault, and so I can't feel too bad about where they are. What I can do is continue tutoring, and so I will. OK, I'm stepping off the soap box now . . .

They had free (sorta) breakfast today in the building. A conference on 3rd floor had the full breakfast spread, The food was cold and everybody from the conference was in the conference rooom heavy into their pre-conference chitter-chatter. Occasionally you get a hairy eyeball (not Curt Connolly) from the person who cooordinated the event, suggesting that if your'e not part of the conference then bugger off and leave that food alone. But then the rationale of a hungry man comes through: Hey, everyone form the conference is in THERE, this food is cold and there's lots of it. What does that say about our society when we have excesses and don't share with those who are without? what kind of message are we sending the children (although that argument is one to use cautiosly: nobody wants to be known as the man who hid behind a child... )? And the flow of counters to the question, "What are you doing with that food?" (which never came anyways) continued until, smiling with my filled plate, I got back on the elevator and returned to my office. But nobody said anything to me aobu it. In reality, I doubt if anybody would've said much . . . if anything it would've been, tell the folks on your floor to hurry up and get some before the caterer's cart it all away. That's usually how it goes, once the intended guests/recipients have been fed, it's a free for all for all in the building.

Ok some good stuff today and some bad stuff, all relative to hearing and the ears. Seems you need BOTH (good and bad) to keep you honest (you need both ears to hear real well).

So here's the bad news or the bad scene rather: A knock on the door . . . I'm seated at my desk and can't see who's at the door what with the shelving unit in the way. Bossman is out of town so I don't know who it could be.

Me: "Si' . . . come in . . . " (Door slams shut)
X: "Nice personals ad, Dickhead."
Me: "I guess you were looking in the personals . . . hmmm."
X: "Yeah, the date on it was the best part. You're a jerk."
Me: "Yeah, I guess you were, uhmmm, looking in the personals."
X: " Celebrity I most look like: Jack Skellington? uh-huh! And the best lie ever told was about that National Merit Scholars picture in your yearbook? You suck . . . "

See, there's nothing quite like gnawing on your typing foot in the AM. How do you explain when a vestige of your former life (running a personals ad) comes back to haunt you. What happened was this: I get an email notice that I can place a free personals ad. So I did. Apparently, even without a photo of myself, I put enough recognizable info in it, that if a certain someone finds it (not the beautiful charming and witty stranger girl you hope will email, you but the one you hope WON'T see it, but then they did) then you're in hot water. Well, you look like a jerk because the post date precedes the break date. So it's not hot water, but more like jerk sauce sautee:
"Hi, my name is Matt, I'll be your jerk today. Our soup special is Sloppy Covering-your-tracks Joe, and our dessert is Poor Timing Pudding.
Maybe you'd like a nice agitator for starters?" Needless to say, I got no sympathy for my lack of repsonses to said personals ad.
The only consolation I have is the break preceded this incident. I still feel like a jerk though . . .

. . . and now the good news . . .

I have this kooky dream last night, or this morning rather, because I awoke from it a bit before the alarm. And I awoke with a song in my head. Hmmm... gotta like that. :P Somebody was singing to me in my dream. Well take my word that it was good and no I didn't drive my roommates crazy or bother them by singing in MY sleep. So that event turns into a song, completed, by 8 AM. Granted it doesn'thave all the intricacies of whatever it's final thing may be, but the framework and LYRICS are all set. That's the hardest part for me are the lyrics. So I have a new song.

There you have it: the good the bad, let's just hope there's no ugly . . .

From mike melczak:


a poetry

The Toy Maker

a toy-maker made a toy wife and a toy child. he made a toy house

and some toy years.

he made agetting-old toy, and he made a dying toy.

the toy-maker made a toy heaven and a toy god.

but, best of all, he liked making toy shit.

russel edson, 1976


OK, so who is Russel Edson? Is he for real? yes . . . although I had to ask Mr. Google, because one never knows for sure with melczak, he's crafty like that. I think he likes to keep us on our toes. :)

and thanks to dave burke for some coding tips, now my page looks a bit prettier. it's like wrapping a scarf around the neck of Frankenstien's bride to hide the bolts and stitches (and the page is a she, a girly girl, female... the scarf's NOT there to hide his/her/it's Adam's apple)

For the Sondre Lerche guy . . . go to the KCRW link and give him a listen. also, check back there next week to give Tahiti 80 a listen, there pretty good for a bunch a frogs .... i saw them play Club Cafe last week when my friend Sarah Lentz opened for them. (check out Sarah at www.sarahlentz.com)

OK, I'm gonna try to do some repairs/adjustments to this page, see how it goes.

Class yesterday: I actually learned something! The concept of ideological hegemony is kinda cool. It's one of the one syoou know about, but didn't know you knew about.

Hegemony is a form of social control. It's a form of apparent social consensus created by dominant social groups in order to maintain a status quo, even if that status quo is inequitable.
Ideology is a system of values or beliefs that shape how we interpret the world and our behavior towards other people.

So . . . Ideological hegemony is thus a system of values or beliefs that appear to be shared by consensus with other folks and is maintained by "consensus" even if it's not equal. Now, run with that one for a sec, and see where you go . . . and then come back to me with it. Consider how this works in relations to thing slike prupose of schooling, religion, race, politics and how the media fits in to these things. It's knida sticky/stinky and it may sting. Sounds like something you'd find in the desert? Hmm... you may be in the desert. (not directed at those parties who actually DO live in the desert, just speaking metaphorically about our culture).

In the menatime, or for when you come back, check out Sondre Lerche (pronounced "sondruh lair-kay")... he's a young Norwegian guy who's got some good pop sensibilities. He sounds vocally like Donovan, Jeff Buckley, and then musically like he went to the Beatle academy. Other alums of the Beatle academy include Liz Phair, Eliot Smith, Dave Matthews and Beck. There's a ton more, but these are some fave's of mine, and you'd recognize any alums pretty quickly.

KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic Show

KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic

OK, the last few days have been rather interesting.

I have recently become a free agent, a loose cannon, or whatever you want to call it. There was no bad air, no bad blood, just one of those things where the fire sorta flickers out. There was no invisible hand (for you laissez faire economists), and no, there was no hand that belongs to another woman snuffing out the candle. It just went out.

Right, so this happens Thursday. Friday I go out, and according to some wierd social phenomenon, perhaps pheromones are at play here, or who knows what ... the ladies were Friendly. It;s like they knew that I;m in the window period (one leg slung over the sill if you will) between a broken relationship and being out there on the field. So what gives? why do they pay atteniton when you're in that space that makes you 'hands off'? Why? All I know is it'll be a little while ya know til the renovations are complete, and until then, I'm laying low.

Yeah, so jumping to yesterday (Monday). I wake up from this dream having no idea what to expect of the day to come. In the dream, I'm playing in a play. It's a minor part, I'm in like two brief scenes, maybe I'm Lady MacBeth's milkman or something, but they give me a cool costume, and then AND THEN after all the rehearsals, they cut my scenes on opening day, entirely. "Oh, you watch the show from the wings, Matt. Just stay out of the way. And hang the costume up when you're done wearing it." Sheesh!!! Can you believe it? well it was my dream and some unknown character squashed it. Se if I EVER cast them in a feature length dream of mine again. anyways, I digress. The show goes on, it's marvelous, it's enough to make you weep tears of joy, or at least make you say "Dang!" if you're not under the influence. SO the shows over, I drop off my costume, and leave with Madge and Marty, who were in the show. And on the drive home, I'm feeling dejected and they suggest that i buck up, because it wasn't MY show, it wasn't MY costume and if they didnt' keep me in it, no sweat. It's their show and their loss. Theres' better things to come that i'll have a hand in, including stuff with MAdge and Marty. And I wake up for work.

So at work, i get email saying that as of Saturday, Madge and Marty are still hep to playing an open mic gig at the Rex Theater.
And I should come play some songs too. So I ask if that's still going on, no word in response. nothing till I get home and call madge and she calls back. So while I'm waiting, I sit and play the piano a bit, a knock on the door: It's Jim;s buddy Justin. He;s a cool cat. We chat about politics and education, and Jim comes down and I start some dinner, offer them some, they both decline. Another knock on the door: there's Gabby. she says, hey whatcha makin' Dunegan? Spencer steaks in a pan, rice, spinach. And so I offer her some, she accepts. In the interim, Madge calls, says "We;re on, i'll see you at 7:30. Marty's coiming a bit after." So, hanging out with everyone usptairs later, I haven't really said anything to anybody outside of jim and justin that I'm gonna go to the Rex later. (They do open mic night there Mon - Wed., but I havne't done a open mic since last fall, and an impromptu-song-thinger (that doesn't really count) at Quiet Storm last spring is all i've done as far as playing out since... ) Gabby says, Somebodys knocking on the door, so I go to answer, figuring it must be madge. It's Gabby's friend Autumn with her guitar. I just met autumn like a few days before. Didn't even know she played guitar. She says, yeah, I'm going to open mic later tonight. Huh, how funny cuz so am I? so long story longer, madge and ;marty and autmumn and I go down to play, all get along royally, have a lot of fun, are all well recieved, and are all thinking about getting together to play sometime. Oh yeah, and that Autumn girl can sing and write songs that kinda mess with you, in that who-dares-to-be-so-honest sorta way. But they're good. huh who knew? So hopefully, ther'ell be more good news to follow on that front.

good day . . . it's a bit warmer today. the wind is still blowing high up on the ledge here.
more to come . . .