Correction: Apparently said sleepyhead foreign dignitary is a member of Congress: Democrat Representative Chuck Rangel. Thanks for the heads up, Joe! (see below)

here's a pretty cool article about an artist named Phillip Guston.

My favorite moment of Bush's State of the Onion address last night? When towards the end, the camera panned over to some foreign dignitary who was faaaast asleep . . . perhaps he's thinking deeply? No, he's dreaming . . . :P

Ok, so you may or may not have heard of the movie Big Fish. If you havent' you should check it out. Given recent events in my life, it held particular relevance for me, being a father/son type movie. Plus, Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jam do the closing credit song, and blammo, it's a doozie. Quite fitting and a good song in and of itself.

I had my first class for the semester two weeks ago and saw this quote in the elementary school classroom where we had our first meeting:

"Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart, and learn to love the questions" - Rainer Maria RIlke

Dang! what a great thought for folks at any age (I'm finding it especially relevant in many realms ... ), and what a great school that must be (the Falk School in Oakland) for kids to be getting Rilke perhaps as early as 1st or even the 6th grade. Wish maybe I had gone there as a kid.

Today is my first day back to work. It's a big step in returning to normal.
So far it's going well, mostly I'm being left alone to do the piles of work that appeared while I was away. For those of you who don't know, my father passed away a week ago today (last Friday). He suffered from colon and liver cancer. He was 70, almost made it to his 71st birthday. It's a bit wierd sorting through all these emotions and stuff, but it's also quite an eye-opener learning experience. My father was a good man, and I'll surely miss him. As one friend aptly put it, "he was very sweet, yet scrappy." I am so very appreciative of all the friends and folks who came to pay their respects, and for those who couldn't make it... thanks for being there if only in your thoughts.

In memory of Dr. Lawrence A. Dunegan

February 23, 1923 - January 9, 2004

Finally got my grade for this past semester, got a 'B' in History of Literary Criticism. Not too shabby, considering that was one of the toughest courses I've had in a while. A lot of people dropped out of the class including the one really smart chick who I thought would've rocked the class, being a philosophy major and all. Yeah, she balked . . . :P

Has anyone else heard about the great thing Bill Gates is doing? He wants to promote the internet (which Al Gore invented ) by having us all email our friends, and we'll all get money. Lots of it. We'll go to McDonald's after we get our money and buy each other lunch!!! Keep an eye out for the email in your inbox, i'll be sending it soon!!!

Ok, this is some wierd Flash-thing that chix might dig, like '80's rocker chicks might enjoy . . .

And this, is perhaps one of the silliest and worst poems ever written (thankfully I didn;t write it):

Oh, the Cause of Gauze

Oh, the Cause of Gauze
The Manuels have fondled many memories from my lap
Though each memory has it's own lap
And swimmers swim laps
Even swimmers have laps however
And while in that condition
Many require a delicate gauze
I desire only this in my decrepitude
That I will have one more opportunity to serve as a gauze for my fellow man
And that in that state of gauze
Can somehow disturb the world less often with my prickly fingers.

- Of Montreal

Fighting off the Bah Humbugs

I'm starting to see a secondary / tertiary aspect of Christmas: giving us something to look forward to in the deep dark of winter. Dude, winter sucks. . . and if not for that holiday, winter would suck completely. Oh, I like doing stuff in the snow like skating and skiing, and what not. And maybe it's just because I haven't done any of that fun stuff yet this year, or maybe because my Jetta-opy (pronounced like "Jalopy" but with a ' T ' instead of an ' L ') wont' turn over if there's a sneeze of moisture in the air (not to mention that you can't take any more than one passenger now, because the rear doors dont' open, and the handles on the front doors need replaced as well, and the exhaust pipe has a gaping hole), or maybe because I'm still in limbo about how this last semester turned out, or maybe it's the "Single-for-the-Holidays" crap, or maybe it's that there's short, cold days, the darkest of which are now and until January. Or maybe I just needed to rant ...

Fighting off the Bah Humbugs

This was a really good weekend, overall.
Friday five of us went to Johnstown, OH to see a Tambura band (Otrov) play. On the way up, our friend Tara (also on the way up a few miles ahead) called to say she just got a flat tire when WHap-wup-wup WHap-wup-wup Whap-wup-wup WHap-wup-wup ... we got a flat tire too! Kooky! So fortunately we had a spare and I changed the tire. The show was a lot of fun with really good music that got better as the evening wore on. Something beautiful about seeing these guys play at the bar (like AT the bar) while passing shots of slivovitz and still playing and singing. Nasdrovya !!!

Saturday afternoon, got the tree up and decorated, then hung out with Jim and Mikey for a spell over at Josh & Jessies... got to see young Jacob B. Josh lent me a cd from these guys. It's a lot like the review says.

Here's one thing on my Christmas list:
Skyray
and another: Ukulele
and another: an evening out with Audrey Tatau

Right . . . is anybody else completely bored with finding tons of "Nas7y Par1s Hilton - longs fer yer junk like a biZnatch " emails in their bulk mail . . . and why am i getting stuff like "Beat your Menopause" ?

I went to dinner with jim and Ro at Tram's last night, and the plan was to get a Christmas tree afterwards, but when we pulled up to the place by Page Dairy mart, the tree folks were getting in thier trucks to go home for the night. DANG!!!
So we'll get a tree Saturday. Ended up going to Dee's later, to meet up with jim and Ro and Rudy. I met a crazy girl who flirted with me somethin' fierce, asked me for my phone number, but I figure I was back-up-plan-man because she let on that she was waiting for another dude to show. And of course he did. Cool enough dude, but it became readily apparent that girl wasn't fair game when she kissed his mouth. Shortly after that they both left and I went back to hang with my pals. It's fun to flirt/be flirted with, ahh someday ... some girl will figure it out.

I am finished for the semester. I submitted my Final Exam paper last night around midnight... it was due by 8:00 AM this morning. Now I have to scare up three letters of reference/recommendation for my application.

In other news, I heard some stuff from a girl band called The Likes . . . me likey The Likes. They have two songs from their EP, and both are pretty solid sounding tunes. You can also chek 'em out on my fave, KCRW (see link to the right ... ).

There's another band you can check out: Bedroom Walls. I really dig their chord progressions.

Speaking of which, in the midst of my Final Exam paper writing, I'd relieve my tired brain from its Herculean duty of making sense out of the absurdly abstract Beginnings, by setting myself at the piano. Something happened there in the afternoon, or perhaps over the past few days, and a song came out . . . it's not quite finished yet, but I like to think of it as a fine point of departure where there's plenty of room for stuff to grow.

Today, the Guardian is running an article they ran from Monday December 10, 1980.

A good weekend overall, Saturday was busy busy busy, what with taking apart my spinnet and rearranging the living room furniture with Jim to make room for my new piano ... ok, so it may be 100 years old, but it's been refurbished in the late '60's or early 70's, and been in my family since then.

the New Years eve invites went out, and the party's on... just gots to get some schtuff together in the mean time.

I found this page looking around on one of my fave's . . . it's a couple of cartoon/animation-style movie clips, that are in French, but are pretty cool. Although Euro hotty cartoon chix from the club (hinting at girl - girl ?) arent' bad at all, I like the video for the song, "Deux Pieds" best: it seems fitting for so many of us guys, at least this one... and the ending is tops.

there's a cool article from the Guardian about Edouard Manet. The famous painting is Bar at the Folies-Bergères, and if you look closely, you'll notice the bottles of Bass Ale on the bar . . . way to go Eddie!


I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

"The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be." - Paul Valery

I took my Praxis exam yesterday(it's akin to the SAT or GRE entrance exams, but for teahcers) and scored passing marks for the first half. I gotta wait three weeks to find out about the third protion and the essay portion. And my car is acting up... i think she's tired or something.

The author doesn't believe he can get started.

A beginning must be thought possible, it must be taken to be possible, before it can be one. - Edward Said

The mind's work, in order to be done, occasionally requires the possibility of freedom, of a new cleanness or prospective achievement, of special and novel appropriation. - Edward Said

She looks at him, as a fallow field does the farmer
Yearning to be plowed and sown.
He looks at her, as a horse does a pasture
Hungry for space, and grass to graze upon.
Will you ever sow your seed?
Will you let this horse run free?

As if theft wasn't enough to compromise the identity crisis many Americans now face, it seems now that if you laugh your face off, drink your face off, have heinously disfiguring acne, or just want to look like somebody else, you can get a face transplant. 'I saw that guy who has Charlie's face on the bus again today. I have to wonder what the psychological impact of that would be for the families of the old face people, and the new recipients... gives a whole new meaning to saving face. It may be a viable option for those in the WPA.

THis weekend was pretty good. Friday I went with friends to check out this Gypsy Band at the Paparazzi ... the band was excellent. I think some, if not all of their memebers are former Tamburzini's (aka Tamburitzans) from Duquesne. The service at Paparazzi was rotten, either that or they thought I was rotten, but I saw lots and lots of folks getting drinks, but they never gave me one. Eventually some waiter guy took away my empty's, took my order, gave drinks to some other folks and then walked away from the bar, never came back . . . so at least the music was really good. Apparently they weren't expecting such a busy night, and were thus understaffed, but I dunno. I wasn't too impressed. Then we went to Smokin' Joes and then to a friend's house. Saturday night, I did some busking, and had one of my most successful evenings ever. It was good to play cuz it had been almost two months since I last played out. Sunday we had some folks over for a big dinner thing. it was pretty cool.

THis band, the Distillers is kinda cool . . . my friend Kristie is a big big big fan of these cats.

THis weekend was pretty good. Friday I went with friends to check out this Gypsy Band at the Paparazzi ... the band was excellent. I think some, if not all of their memebers are former Tamburzini's (aka Tamburitzans) from Duquesne. The service at Paparazzi was rotten, either that or they thought I was rotten, but I saw lots and lots of folks getting drinks, but they never gave me one. Eventually some waiter guy took away my empty's, took my order, gave drinks to some other folks and then walked away from the bar, never came back . . . so at least the music was really good. Apparently they weren't expecting such a busy night, and were thus understaffed, but I dunno. Then we went to Smokin' Joes and then to a friend's house. Saturday night, I did some busking, and had one of my most successful evenings ever. It was good to play cuz it had been almost two months since I last played out. Sunday we had some folks over for a big dinner thing. it was pretty cool.

THis band, the Distillers is kinda cool . . . my friend Kristie is a big big big fan of these cats.

most of you will probably have seen this from Tony, but if not check this out:

Flash slot car racing

Ahhh yes . . . the lovely L.U.P.E.C. (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) gals are still up and running strong . . . here's a bit about founding LUPEC member Jenn Gottschalk, aka Whiskey Daisy, and her response to a new rag on boozing: Modern Drunkard. Funny, cuz I saw Jenn at the Kelly's Bar last Saturday; I think she and her man were pretty engrossed in something, maybe discussing drinks?

President Bush was quoted as saying to British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "The problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur." Blair denied that Bush said it, but the story is plausible because people are always saying similar things about other cultures.