Thursday, December 12, 2002

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.

Tuesday, December 10, 2002

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.