q:
a: not much. i was working most of the time. well, on saturday at least. came in to work at 9 am, left at 6:30. came in at 9 on sunday too, but then realized that my boss was there and left after an hour. you see, i came in for two reasons. the first is that i lost all my money last weekend in las vegas, playing roulette and casino war, and i desperately needed some overtime in order to make rent --

q:
a: yeah, but what can you do? it was a lot of fun at least. i had never been to vegas before. anyway so the second reason was that they're upgrading the dubbing room at work and in order to replace downtime during the week the powers that be decided to have the engineers come in on the weekend and do the real serious plugging and unplugging of all the wires, etc., on the weekend. and they needed someone to let these guys in and lock up when they were done. so i volunteered. i needed the money.

q:
a:ok, so my boss was there, and i can't waste time as efficiently when he's here, and i was tired, and i wanted to have some time off this weekend, so i got the hell out of there and called some friends (woke them up, sorry bout that) and tried to get them to come out to the beach. couldn't get them going, so i went back to the east side of town (20 min drive) to bother them and throw a football at them while they were sleeping in order to wake them up. which pissed my firend matt off because he was dreaming about this tank that he had which had been stolen by a crazed biker gang and he had come to a sit-down meeting to find out where his tank was so he could get it back and just then i throw a football at him and wake him up and he never finds out where his tank was, or gets it back.. this pissed him off for the rest of the day, this missing tank, and had i woken him up 5 minutes later I'm convinced my sunglasses would still be in one piece.

q:
a: yes, my sunglasses.

q:
a: well we eventually got to the beach at 2 or so, after numerous stops (getting food, renting a surfboard, juggling cars, picking people up, etc. just stupid shit). and we get to the beach and. actually what's cool is that i sucessfully stood up on a surfboard for the first time.

q:
a:thanks. i could have done better if the waves were better and i get some more practice, but still, i'm pretty proud of myself. and i'm a much more effective paddler now that I've been using my pull-up bar and excer-

q:
a: oh yeah, sorry. actually, i'm not sure how it happened. matt, still retaining some anger from the tank incident, decided it was time for sand wrastling or something, and started whipping me with my t-shirt. and i get pissed (i wasn't in the mood for sand wrastling. it's a rare mood, often brought on by tank-anger) and somehow my glasses come off and after the wrastling i pull them out of the sand and they're broken. which sucks, because i really liked those sunglasses.

q:
a:well, you know the cover of the 'best of the velvet underground & nico' cd where they're all wearing sunglasses? that has always been my personal benchmark for sunglasses cool. since i got that album, probably. when i buy sunglasses, that's what i want them to look like. i'm not the only one who has this particular sunglasses/album cover relationship, i'll have you know. i'm no freak. and only once had i gotten sunglasses more velvets-cool than these, and that was from a vendor on the streets of rome, and for $5. and that's never going to happen again. but these sunglasses, they were -- well, you know those old-folks, glaucoma wraparound glasses?

q:
a:ok, these were like those, but sort of updated for the millineum. sleeker. with actual frames, while retaining the full-eye protection from harmful uv rays. and they're polarized, so if you tilt your head from left to right certain things, like car windows and other polarized glass, change brightness. which i always liked. sort of monochrome-psychedellic. and so boxy-weird-velvets that i loved them.

q:
a: at the last k-mart before the entrance to joshua tree national park. i realized i had no sunglasses for 2 days caming, and i needed something, so i go in, and there they were. i was in love. but not in love enough to go back there for another pair.

q:
a: i forget. around $12.95. not much.

q:
a: actually, i did, a month and a half ago. it was during the walkmen tour. we stopped at a strip mall, for water and sundries, and walt, the keyboardist, comes out with almost the exact same pair.

q:
a: well, they were like the newer model or something. like i had the 2k1 model, and he scored the 2k2s. i guess he has similar sunglass taste. we also share an appreciation of dub reggae (augustus pablo, king tubby, etc.)

q:
a: actually, they probably do. but i haven't been to a k-mart in la for a long time. there just aren't too many. it's like "strip malls, strip malls everywhere, but no k-mart in sight." and i'm still pretty broke.

q:
a: yeah, but i won't get that check till friday, and I'm worried that my rent check will bounce, so I'm trying to spend as little money as possible. haven't you read my blog at all?

q:
a: that's right, i didn't ok here goes: no money spent friday or saturday, except gas used. then on sunday, $4 for a sausage sandwich, $2 for a pint of apple-cherry-pomagranate juice, $9 for dinner, then $3 for a late night flapjack. and i think i spent another $5 in there somewhere.

q:
a: yeah, but i had worked all weekend, raking in overtime, etc. it's better than the hundreds of dollars i blew in vegas the previous weekend. i'm not worried.

spent $9 on dinner wednesday, but this is acceptable because

a) it was out of $10 that matt owed me from vegas, not figured in to my rent calculations

and

b) it was at phillipes, a 94-year-old lunch-counter-type place downtown that originated the french dip sandwich.

tihis is acceptable, right?

i'm out of gas, and it costs damn near $60 to fill up the machine. fuck. there is a way to make this work.

liz found some of the old-school footprints i have left on the internet. can you? there will be some sort of prize for whomever unearths the most awkward or embarassing record of my early days on the internet (think 92-97) and puts a link to it in the comments section. good luck.

spent $5 on a real milkshake tuesday.

spent $0 wednesday.

i know who starla nutpicker is.

i spent $0 today. probably drove 40 miles. say 15 mpg, so 2.6 gallons at $1.60 is about $4. not bad.

holy fuck. vegas spit me out but good. i lost $200 at the tables, on top of batchelor-type expenses, gas and food. if i don't spend a single penny for 2 weeks i can do it. i can make rent. from here on out (or at least for the next two weeks) this will be a journal of asceticism.

i will keep track of how little i have spent, like in the warhol diaries.

but damn was vegas fun. i will put a picture or two up here within the next few days. i loved every minute of the town until the ATM maching started insulting me cause i was broke, drunk, and stupid.

we spent most of our time, and i spent most of my money, at a two bit no-hotel cheapo leprachaun-themed casino called o'shea's. they had $2 blackjack, $3 roulette, and casino war, possibly the greatest gambling game since $1-a-round rock-paper-scissors.

anyone want to buy some of my stuff? i'm putting my firstborn up on e-bay this evening to pay off my debts. watch for it.

so my car will hit 100,000 miles today. i plan to pull over, light a candle, and have some soda and cake. i'll take a picture, too.

one day till vegas.

still no idea who starla nutpicker is.

also, when i talked to alissa yesterday, we were discussing getting together over thanksgiving when we'll both be back in dc. we said we'd call each other and chat sometime soon, deffinitely before thanksgiving. then she said something like "but I'm not worried, i mean, i read you everyday." and i read her everyday, along with all the other people/places linked to over there on the left. but it just sounded weird when i heard it, vaguely paranormal and futuristic, somewhere between brave new world and a hive mind.

lots of new stuff on here. links to things i like, and comments and all that. i had a productive sunday, if you call staring at a computer screen for a few hours while it's beautiful outside 'productive.'

i think i talked to more out-of-town people i care about this weekend than i have in a long time. liz, alissa, my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and brother. it felt good.

saw the lords of altamont on friday night. they rocked the fuck out of spaceland, and will be playing a free show at the knitting factory LA on wednesday, so anyone in town should try and check them out if you haven't before. also i feel i need to link to the sharp ease because i didn't before and they also rule.

I've been getting e-mails from someone I know from back in DC, who goes by 'starla nutpicker.' she won't tell me who she is, no matter how much i beg. i have some wild guesses, but that's all they are. i need help. if you know starla, please get her to spill the beans.

if you want to see lots of pictures from my tour with the walkmen, then go here. it might take a while to load, though, so be patient. modem users beware.

this weekend is my friend dan's long awaited "batchelor weekend" in vegas. I've been putting off a vegas trip since i've been in LA, mainly because i've been broke, but there's no way i'm not going this weekend. trouble is, I'm still broke. I tried gambling when i was in vancouver, since there was a casino in the hotel. (not that I haven't gambled before. quite to the contrary. I've bet on anything and everything under the sun, from where fellow travellers were staying one night, to how many megabytes are in a terabyte. one of my favorites is dollar-a-round rock/paper/scissors, but i digress.) I played roulette all night, and was up probably $50, but i didn't really understand what that meant, cause it was canadian money, so i stayed there and lost it all ($25C) and went to bed. so wish me luck in vegas, cause if i win big then realistic records can start working on a few projects at once, and if i lose big i'll be another broke asshole in vegas.

(selective boldface back by popular demand.)

I'm going to try and mirror this page at my pacbell webspace just for kicks. if it doesn't work, don't get mad.

choose a song that...

1. reminds you of an ex-lover: pogues "fairytale of new york"
2. reminds you of an ex-friend: dr. octagon 'moosebumps'
3. makes you cry: springsteen "highway patrolman"
4. makes you laugh: the b.o.t.s. 'mc born kicks a dope freestyle for the helium kids on the corner"
5. makes you wanna dance: 'gospel time' beenie man
6. reminds you of the one you want: 'our time' yeah yeah yeahs
7. reminds you of the one you love: n.o.u. 'you're my miss washington d.c.'
8. you wish you wrote: 'time' richard hell and the voidoids
9. you never want to hear again: eminem 'without me'
10. you want to get married to: sam cook 'if you need me'
10.5. you want to get buried to: many rivers to cross, jimmy cliff, the version on disc one of the trojan UK Hits 3-cd box.
11. makes you want to mosh/bang your head: nation of ulysses "nousptda/the shape of jazz to come"
12. sums up your teenage years: 'make it precious' jonathan fire*eater
13. you like to wake up to: jonathan richman/modern lovers 'roadrunner'
14. you like from your parents' collection: 'red headed stranger' willie nelson
15. you love that a friend introduced to you: springsteen nebraska the whole album
16. you love the video even more: highwaymen "highwaymen"
17. reminds of your first crush: 'that song from the robin hood movie' by brian adams. (i know. but i was young)
18. you love from a favorite movie: "better off dead" from the movie of the same name, sung during the prom scene
19. makes you think of the moon: santo & johnny 'sleepwalk'
20. makes you think of stars: 'california stars' billy bragg & wilco
21. makes you think of the sun: 'blue velvet"
22. makes you think of sex: the bassist from radio vago
23. makes you think of being alone: velvets 'stephanie says'
24. you love to hear at clubs: the slickers 'johnny too bad'

ok, now yours.

what up. went to a show on monday at the smell. erase errata w/ the sharp ease and some other bands. fun. thursday already. not sleeping well this week. it's the full moon, which comes up every night big and orange then sits outside my window laughing and keeping me up. at least it's not my upstairs neighbor fighting with her man anymore. it's all on me, and i don't have to lie in bed half or a third asleep wondering where the lines between discretion, exhaustion, worry, and annoyance are and how that ven-ish diagram relates to whether to call the cops to shut them up/check that they're ok and not killing each other or just wait till they shut up/die so i can fucking sleep. that happened last week.

watched the first 75 minuted of CQ last night. I'm glad the copy i saw didn't have more. it looked cool but was pretty fucking boring.

because of the full moon i expect a wild weekend.

i write nothing for a while not because i hate you, but because my life has returned to thesort of boring shit that hapens day to day and there's nothing interesting going on. no fun interludes, just murakami and lunch breaks. shashi im tired of reading about your m and ms. alissa i'm proud of you. i want to go to sleep. goodnight.

so we're going with Realistic Records as the name of the label, cause it sounds like a label that should have been around for a while, and it's also an oblique reference to our first release. we're shooting for having the Recoys LP out by christmas in order to have a reunion show/record release party at the black cat or something when all the massive is in DC.

it took a full week to feel like myself again after getting back to LA. luckily there was a loooong weekend to kick back. standout moments included the liz mcgrath opening/afterparty at la luz, the "prom '82" party sat. night, and sleeping a lot.

what I'm bumping: richard hell & the voidoids "time" & blank generation LP, television "marquee moon", atmosphere godlovesugly, yeah yeah yeahs EP, new blackalicous lp.

also, let me just say for the record that abigail stole my minor threat conspiracy link. and didn't credit it. and she's a librarian, who should know the importance of proper documentation and references. not that I care so much, just i want her to know that i know. also a shoutout to alissa.

so I'm back from the walkmen's west coast tour. so much fun. so pissed that we missed the show in vancouver because of traffic in seattle. i got to see some old friends (kat, nez, shashi, dre, etc). it's tough adjusting to a stationary lifestyle after 10 days of constant travel and rock and roll. I'll try and do a day-by-day of the tour at some point. not quite yet, though.

went to see hot hot heat/radio 4/arlo at the knitting factory last night. hot hot heat was off the hook. it was the first all ages show I'd been to in a while and let me tell you the kids are alright. brought me back to dc and shows in church basements and such. there was even a bit of a pit, which if you've ever heard hot hot heat might surprise you a bit.

now radio 4 just sucks:

a) there are 5 of them, but they're called radio 4. come on.
b) the singer's hat.
c) bongos?
d) they suck.

it's like hot hot heat and radio 4 sat down to divy up the clash and hot hot heat got the interesting parts. oh well. and arlo rocked out, but I had seen them 4 times on the walkmen tour so I went home to get some sleep after a few songs.

so my roommate max and i are starting a record label (we're postumously putting out a proper album by the recoys as our first release) and we need a name. the three contenders as of now are:

1. Blood and Whiskey Records
2. Three In Front Records
3. Realistic Records

which is the best? let me know your pick or any other suggestions by clicking here.