"They Talk"

"...by the way, the last time your mobile didn't switch off, and I sat for about five minutes, listening to how you were walking through the snow. Thup-thup, thup-thup. I almost cried."
-Linor Goralik, "They Talk"

Ruskin

"No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than man could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast; and a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being."

On the Move Always

I am in Chicago. I am reading The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. On my flight to Chicago today, I wished, for the first time in my life, that the flight could be TEN HOURS LONG just so I could finish this book. It is very good.

I ate a High On Fire burger at Kuma's Corner tonight in Chicago with Jason Rudolph & Colin Scott. It had Siracha Hot Chili Sauce, Prosciutto, Roasted Red Pepper, Grilled Pineapple, and Sweet Chili Paste on a burger. It was delicious. Then Colin & I went to drink Viennese coffee at Julius Meinl, then for Italian ice down the street, and then we walked around his neighborhood over to Wrigley Field, and I remembered when my dad took my brother & I there when I was 5. They played the Astros, and we sat behind homeplate, in the section under the upper deck. I remember the elation when I was 5 at seeing the incomporable "Wrigley Field: Home of Chicago Cubs" sign, and I felt that same uplift tonight.

I think I should get a Tumblr, it is easier to update than Blogger.

Meriwether and I have started casually shopping for engagement rings. We went to her mom's farm on Monday and Meriwether brought up just moving up there and living off of the land instead of her going to law school and me working in music. I thought about it all day, and have continued thinking about that all week, and if she really wanted to do that, I'd be okay with it too. I like working in music, it is fun, I like going to shows, I like having a personal relationship with the bands I love, and I like all the people who work with bands, but if my lady wanted to "drop out of life" (sans bong in hand), I think I'd be ready to do that.

Ba-Zing

Might go see Animal Collective tonight...then New York Dolls. The weather forecast for the next 10 days does not dip lower than 96. Most days will be between 99 and 100. Summer!

Lakers crushed last night. Kobe has a funny mean-face. Not nearly as good as Pau's, but I'll take it.

Meriwether's all shook up about David Carradine's death...total bummer, man.

The Cult

I am the thinker, the thinking, the thought. 

I am the seeker, the seeking, the sought. 

I am the dewdrop, the sunshine, the storm. 

I am the phenomenon, the field, the form.

I am the desert, the ocean, the sky. 

I am the Primeval Self in you and I.

Hahaha. Michael Jackson is as crazy as a March hare. This is a vastly amusing painting to me, and the text of the painting is perhaps TWICE as amusing. The funny thing about this Michael Jackson auction brouhaha is that both Mike Kaminsky & Tim League are both totally into it.

It is raining so hard right now.

I watched Barfly last night while Meriwether slept against me...it was a peaceful night.

Listening to: Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound AND Magic Wand - Teenage Love/Black Magic (just discovered this today)

Hitting the Mark

Today marks three months I have been living in Austin (and one year & three months I have been together with Meriwether). I still do not have a kitten. I ate at Lulu B's French-Vietnamese sandwich trailer on South Lamar today, and that makes it a remarkable day. Work can be frustrating, I feel like I've been assigned a task to untie knots that other people have tied, but with both hands tied behind my back. So it goes. Life is good, man. I've been listening to a lot of the new Mastodon record, and a lot of the new Morrissey too. Saw Leonard Cohen a couple weeks back, that was cool. I kept thinking about how much I wanted to see Tom Waits live again the whole time I was watching Leonard. He had four encores, and sang for three hours. It was beautiful. Meriwether came with me. She and her mom also came with me to Morrissey the night of Easter Sunday. "Is there anywhere in the world you'd rather be on Easter Sunday?" Morrissey asked us this question, and the answer was a resounding "Hell no!" So good. Restaurants are good in Austin. I want a kitten.

New Things

Meriwether has been out of town since Thursday, so I have been creating little adventures for myself around town while she's gone. 

I went to a record fair at Gene's Po-Boys in east Austin this morning. I didn't know what to expect. The weather this morning was wacky, cold and windy, and it poured rain for about 10 minutes as a front rolled through, then left us sunny and windy and cold. So I browsed records on Gene's deck, not expecting much, but finding a treasure trove of 70s rock. I couldn't believe my luck, every record was a buck, so I bought 54 records. That was fun.

Went to Bearded Lady's little get-together Saturday afternoon too. Ate some cake & pretzels and petted some nice dogs and looked at posters and their poster art and bought a cool shirt for my brother ("AUSTIN: A city where people live and stuff") and a tote bag for my sister (a T-Rex saying "TINY" a bunch of times, it's cute). Talked to the dudes who run Bearded Lady, aka the artists, and we talked about how stoked we were to make more Emo's art and get a legit webstore up. They're nice and they both have beards.

Watched "Paris, Texas" this weekend, so good, took me two days between all the shows & events I had this weekend, but so good. Same director as "Wings of Desire."

Went to the black church, Goodwill Baptist, across the street yesterday for their African-American History Month celebration, aka: SOUL FOOD FEAST! Check out this menu, and I will apologize in advance vegan friends (aka: the only people I know who read this blog are all vegan):

I had to bail on the service after two hours and fifteen minutes of intense call and response, emotional, Holy Spirit-filled preaching. I'm not a church-going man, and I'm not much of a Christian either, though I was "raised" in the United Methodist Church, but this kind of church is something I can get behind. If you think of the Holy Spirit as your own Soul and Jesus as the Christian reinterpretation of the Mother Earth, it's totally something I can get behind. You must feed your Soul (the Holy Spirit) three times a day, just as you nourish your corporeal body, for our Souls are what separate us from every other animate and inanimate object on Earth. Our Souls are what invented God and it is our Souls that are God. Roll with it. I could get deep into all the quasi-Pagan mumbojumbo I believe in, but I don't think I've got a firm enough grasp on it myself to start type type typing it all down in this blog.

The service was fun, but I had to make a 1pm lunch date with the Editor & Music Editor of the Austinist at Woodland, a dope American restaurant behind my house. So I saved my appetite for the soul food that would be waiting for me after meeting with these folks, I ate a killer slice of pecan pie in the meantime, then got home and the nice folks at Goodwill Baptist had saved both myself and my boy Trey a plate each of dope soul food. Thanks be to them for it!

My mom emailed me this weekend to tell me that some kid I went to high school (and middle school, I guess) with killed himself. That kind of news is always a bit disconcerting, especially when I hadn't seen or even thought about that dude in at least 8 years, and then all of sudden, BAM, his fate questions my own mortality, and I start to look at everything a different shade of color than it was before as my future writes itself out. Rest in peace, man, may you be reincarnated as a peaceful creature on this good Earth. 

Just went through the whole SXSW schedule to see if there's anybody I should break out of my Emo's shell to go see, and I got sick of music just looking at the list of everybody playing. 

Listening to: Sleepy Sun - Embrace