Josh has a link for this rag, which, funny enough, Kurt introduced me to while visiting in Seattle. Kookiest part? Seeing in print some random 'found' stuff that I remember seeing tacked up on a restroom wall here in Pittsburgh. Yeah, kooky.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh . . . I have returned from my much needed vacation!!!

Seattle was beautiful, and it was great to see Kurt. I had pretty good flights out and back, but I am not an early morning airport person. Especially with security stuff (sigh). Anyways, I had a good trip, got to see Emma Rose and Shawn Kirk as well. They both (and Kurt too) send their love to the Pittsburgh folks.

I had some good Italian food, tried some Ethiopian food for the first time, injera is a strange kinda bread. Sorta like pita/pancake/with-some-kinda-tart-flavor, but believe me it was good food. They give you a platter with all of your food on it, and the injera is like your dish and utensil. Pretty cool new dining experience for me.

I got to see a good bit of the city and University district, but I think my favorite part of the whole trip was hiking in the mountains outside of the city. Talk about nature's majesty! And it was kinda cool to walk on deep snow in June. Kooky!

It was cool to see Kurt and a few of his friends to play out at the Pioneer Square Saloon as well.

I was just a little cranky today to start with, as I think I'm long overdue to get out of town. That's THursday and I can't wait. But anyways here's what pissed me off today:

I finish one batch of journal work, go get some new ones. Figuring I'll get lunch while I'm out, I set my journals down, sit under a tree and eat. I'm minding my own business, figuring that a sunny lunch under a tree will lighten me up a bit. And as I'm finishing, I'm ignoring basically everybody (maybe that's the problem, ignoring folks?) and daydreaming. So these three turd-burglars walk right by a coupla feet away and one of 'em says, "What a great day to find someone having lunch under a tree with their books and kick their ass." Ok, so I ignore them and they walk on by, but what the FUCK? where do people get off? all I can say is those three turd-burglars are punks. And punks are bitches. AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrggggggh . . . .

An excellent weekend:

Friday: send-off dinner at Cafe du Jour on the 1200 block of Carson St. for Carolyn Madden, she's working in Australia now. Then some busking. Want a little outdoorsy patio dining place that's casual, intimate, reasonably inexpensive? Cafe du Jour . . . just one note: it's BYOB.
Saturday: a little gardening, planted some tomatoes my sister gave me, some peppers, some squash, some lemon balm and sage.. the flatleaf parsely my roommate mike planted appears to have come back. amazing. Then Dan Brown and his wife Erin treated me to the beer taster thing at Penn Brewery, it was awesome, thanks guys. Afters, we went for drinks at a coupla bars and then got breakfast.
Sunday: Kennywood Park with Tony and Kathy, courtesy of Roseanne. I hadn't been in three years, so it was way fun to go rollercoastering again. Thanks RO!

It's become apparent that my concert-going is following a certain trend: I go to see the openers more than the featured band.

Case example: last night I went to the Blue Rodeo show at the Rosebud. But I'm infinitiely unfamiliar *before last night* with Blue Rodeo. I'd only heard of them. To be expected, they have an alt country/rock-country sorta sound. They're front man/lead singer is a shot of Dave Burke whiskey, dropped in a pint of Donnie Osmond Lager served up in a frosted beer mug (does frosted beer mug adequately describe Canadian Country/Rock?). But anyways . . . I did hear of Sarah Slean, the opener for Blue Rodeo. In fact she's one of my favorite female vocalists. She's got a beautiful, sweet, sounding voice. Maybe a bit of the Edith Piaf? I dunno ... some kind of classic voice that is beautiful, sweet and so sad sounding sometimes but always witha ring of the old soul. I think Edith Piaf had the old soul sound. I would thoroughly enjoy hearing Sarah and Rufus Wainright doing some kinda duet, on some kinda old Depression Era sounding songs ... oh yeah, they're both Canadian so who knows? It could happen. Anyways, as I understand, Blue Rodeo, who does some cool songs (Railroad is a great one), is a well established band in Toronto. They tend to pick up an artist who is up-and-coming and then let 'em air out and sun on the line. This apparently is what they're doing with Sarah Slean. I like her crazy chord changes and time signatures, too. Definitely into the more complex music structures sometimes. And she must be doing something right, cuz I heard her stuff before Blue Rodeo.

All this talk makes me think about the days of peeling 2-ply paper, settling bags of potato chips and setting the elevator buttons crooked . . . ahh, good times!

Here's another story about a Picasso piece from the NYTimes. It reads like an art history novella or something, but it happened just this week in NYC.

Sarah Lentz did a great job Friday night at the Club Cafe. keep up the good work, Sarah!!!

Tim Colbert's piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about visiting Seattle to see Todd Kriedler directing August Wilson's "How I Learned What I Learned."

I saw the movie Wrong Turn with Marty last night. I don't recommend it to anybody. Especially for those of you who go climbing in WV and stuff.
Marty and I (and the rest of the theater) were thouroughly grossed out. I thought it was gonna be the tight-sweater-girls-in-the-woods slasher movie, and it kinda was cuz there were some cute chicks in the movie ... but it was far, far, far grosser. DeepWoods, WV, Inbred, orc-looking, cannibals lay traps for basically any and everybody. Gave me the serious heebie-jeebies ... I don't recommend it. Only movie I've seen where the whole theater got up to leave before the end.

On the positive tip, Ro gave me a free pass to go see it. Thanks Ro!

O

My friend Sarah Lentz is in from NYC to play a show at Club Cafe tomorrow night. Sarah rocks out on the piano, and has a full band with her. Here's the email with the details:

Hey friends,
So I am set to play Club Cafe with my band tomorrow! (Friday). There have been some discrepancies on time and price, but the dealio is this:
Club Cafe, 56-58 South 12th Street
Friday, May 30th (tomorrow!)
doors at 9:30 pm and show start at 10 pm (but might be doors at 10 and show at 10:30)
Cover $5 (but may be $7)
412-431-4950
www.clubcafelive.com
I think the Tribune Review has a blurb about me in it today. Check it out, and someone save me a copy!
If things do get started a little later I'm sorry! We have to quickly load in right after their early show.
I hope to see all of you there. This is a big first for me playing in my hometown with a back up band. It reminds me of my college senior recital..... ;)

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
I went to see Matrix Reloaded last night with T Carra, and without giving any details away, I can say there's a cliffhanger ... oh yeah and Carrie-Ann Moss (who's a Canuck, who knew?) is still way hot.

hey, check this out: It's totally the kinda funny shit you want to read everyday.
Some fav's? Check in on Your Roommate Day, Car Wash Girlfriend Day, and Save Somebody's Life Day, and who could forget Don’t Put Your Kitten Into A Cardboard Box And Toss The Box Out The Window Of Your Moving Car And Onto The Grassy Median Of A Highway Day!

A Man of Strong Convictions and Talent

An interesting article in the NYTimes about Pablo Picasso, and how the pre-WWII French gave him the shaft. It explains when asked why he never became a French citizen, how Picasso came to say, "I am a Spaniard, and will die a Spaniard." So why stay in France? Politics, for one, a strong belief that Franco sucked and the pre-Franco Spanish govt' sucked, Picasso didn't want to align himself with anyone sympathetic to Hitler.

I'm learning that playing music for an audience is much more than just singing some song lyrics and playing some chords. I mean, yeah, you can do that (and who hasn't done that?) but there is something else that goes into good music. It's ethereal, intangible, perhaps even ineffable, but no it's not inaccessible.

It's definitley related to the Great Unspoken. It remains to be seen how that fits with Cracking the Cosmic Egg.

"A lot of the time I feel kind of limited vocally. I can hear it in my head, but I can't pull it off. I'm restricted because of my range. I just don't have that kind of voice, that kind of range -- you know, like even Emmy has, or like Joni Mitchell. When I first started out those were the voices I wanted to sound like. Eventually, though, you have to come to terms with your limitations, which, in turn, become your trademark." - Lucinda Williams, as she told the Journal of Country Music

So here's a couple minutes worth of cool photos to peep.

Ok, so this is the cool/wierd/thrilling/distinctive thing about the web and especially the blogoshpere: I see a blog name, click on it. links to another, click and BLAMMO you've suddenly found a photo series of one of the most beautiful girls in the world ... as best I can tell, she' s Brazilian.

New York Times has a bit on a girl rap trio and their song Cameltoe

My favorite bit: { Listeners agreed, Star said, but many had one question: "What's a cameltoe?"

A good question, although answering it requires a certain tact. Cameltoe is slang for a fashion faux pas caused by women wearing snug pants; the term suggests a visual analogy. The song is a cautionary tale, intended to help victims — help them, that is, by ridiculing them — into recovery.

The song's lyrics explain the condition more forthrightly: "Girl, that gotta hurt, take some time and adjust/ Can't you see people staring and making a fuss?" }

From Exit Stage Left, This is comforting, like receiving the postcard in the mail that you have to go see the dentist soon:

The Total Information Awareness program now under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will henceforth be named the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

It's not supposed to be used for certain purposes, like dossiers on US citizens, but how long until it does become that? I have as much faith in that as I do in the temporary taxes that come into effect.

From The Ground Zero Folks, RE: PATransit and our pal Ed Rendell:
If you haven't voted yet today, please do...

And the UltraViolet Loop advisory board asks that you please be aware
of tomorrow's important hearing regarding Port Authority transit
decisions.
Thanks to the Save Our Transit crew for the following info...

ATTENTION BUS, TROLLEY& ACCESS RIDERS!
It is time once again for the annual public hearing to pick your
favorite way to:
KILL OUR PUBLIC TRANSIT!

In order to balance their operating budget the Port Authority wants to:
Eliminate all Sunday service, Eliminate all Holiday Service, Reduce
Saturday service to Sunday levels, Eliminate all service after 9PM,
Eliminate entire routes, increase headways for other routes and of
course increase the base fare to $2.00.

On Wednesday, May 21 between the hours of Noon and 8 PM, we get to go
once again to the Convention Center, downtown and tell the Port
Authority just what routes and services we want them to cut for us this
year. Oh yes we also get to give our opinion about the third fare hike
in three years. Isn't this FUN? Too bad that after just a few more
years there won't be anything left to cut.

Actually, it ain't fun. THIS STINKS and if you hate it as much as we do
then go tell 'em so on May 21.

It is Governor Rendell who cut funding for public transit operations
this year back to what it was in 1994. Many in the State General
Assembly then voted for the Governor's public transit cuts. They are
responsible for this! They need to hear from us. We have till June 30.

Contact Gov. Ed Rendell at 225 Main Capitol Bldg., Harrisburg PA 17120
Call 717-787-2500, 412-565-571 or 1-800-932-0784

Call Stephen at 412-361-3022 to find out who your state representative
is.

SAVE OUR TRANSIT
No More Service Cuts! No More Fare Hikes!