CBS 2 Chicago: Dave Matthews Band Blamed For Human Waste

This is news? I've been blaming Dave Mathews for his fans for a long time.....

arrived in st louis.

am once again a st loser.
please stay tuned.

email if you need legal advice. I'm going to do a weekly advice column here.

ex-methhead shoeless w/ remote-controlled harley-riding parakeet in central california motel parking lot, morning. 

a brief program note
then back to your regularly scheduled nothing

so, yeah. I've been laying low for a while. I've been (more or less) unemployed in LA packing and planning for my move across the country, beginning about June 12th. I'll be back in Washington, DC, until about the end of July, at which point I'll be moving to St. Louis, MO, to start law school at Washington University. I did my undergrad studies there as well. I've been back in DC for the last week and a half for a friend's wedding.

It's become clear to me that one of the factors driving me to write here was a desire to avoid doing actual work at my day job. Without a day job, this incentive has disappeared. Thus, radio silence.

I asume that once I start studying in the fall, this motivation will return. I assume I'll start using this space as a stress ball again.

Over the summer I'll be helping my mother clean out my grandmother's house. My grandmother is at an assisted living center in Rockville, MD, and will never return to the house, so we're selling it to help pay for her care. While this work this summer will be stressfull and intense in its own way, I don't know if it will drive me to write here. It may. We'll see.

I'm planning to move to St. Louis a few weeks before school starts in part to register young voters or volunteer for John Kerry. Missouri is a swing state, and I'd love to help it swing the right way.

In the fall, though, I should be back, and hope to make the title of this site somewhat appropriate. I'll try to offer hasty, half-baked legal advice, perhaps in a weekly feature column. Other than that, the subtitle may change to: "Selling Out: A punk rocker goes to Law School."

For now, waste your time on the internet somewhere else. I may blog my cross-country trip, but it's far more likely that I'll just enjoy it and force you to buy me a beer if you want to hear my stories.

Go wate your time on the internet somewhere else. And if you want me to FedEx you dead cicadas, holler. I'll see what I can do.

split decision
a cheesehead for halloween

those that know me know that there is little i love more in this world than the washington redskins, and there is little i love less in this world than the bush administration. so it broke my heart to see (via CJR's campaign desk) that i must choose between joe gibbs or john kerry this halloween:

The deciding factor in the presidential election, according to Bloomquist, will be the outcome of the Washington Redskins-Green Bay Packers game two days before voters head to the polls. Eighteen straight pre-election Redskins games have predicted the presidency, Bloomquist writes. If the Redskins win, Bush wins. If they lose or tie, look for the moving van that's headed from Washington D.C. to Crawford, Texas.

i pray for a tie.

e-commerce

oh, and the recoys CD is now available from amazon.com

my own private falluja
just tryin' to disengage

so I'm going to st. louis this fall insetad of new york. I'll be studying law for 3 years and doing my best to, you know, keep it real.

I'm trying to get out of los angeles but that eagles song keeps haunting me and hopefully I will be able to leave at some point.

I have OK GO tour pictures.

I have to schedule a going away party.

new york city
angels to apples

odds are i will make my escape from the hotel california before my room service bill gets to the front desk.

new york is the only place big enough in which to hide. i'll be there before the summer is out. until then i'll be studying subway maps.

affordable justice feature: RPS II
alternately, ninja-hunter-bear



it began as an easy way to settle minor disagreements, like who gets to ride shotgun if shotgun is called by more than one person. it grew into a drunken betting pastime. propelled by force of character, the game rock paper scissors has become an international sensation, to be included in this summers centennial olympic games.



and, if you don't mind my saying so, I'm damn good at it. damn good.



last summer, under a bridge in downtown los angeles, dozens of the best RPS-throwers in the western US converged to determine who might be the best in the land. the winner? an unassuming criminal named "Da Burgla." he entered the tournament a man. he left a legend.



two weekends ago, our friends at a-diction held the second los angeles regional rock paper scissors contest in as many years.



money changed hands all night, but the crowds came to witness the crowning of a new champion. this year, that would not be me. i finished third, but another man stepped up to challenge last years champion in the finals:



the challenger had an exciting, crisp style, but the champion would not be shaken easily.



who would prevail? you'll have to check the whole photo album to find out.

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
(Dirty old town, dirty old town...)


happy st. pattys, everyone.

The Irish are backstabbing, gossiping and begrudging, with a tendency to mindless violence. But they're faults that all people have. You can't say the Irish are worse than anyone else. Their faults are few. But the last thing the Irish are is perfectionists. And they're more interested in having a good time than in making millions. Lazy.

Shane MacGowan, from A Drink With Shane MacGowan

i lost my full time job a few weeks ago, and have been scrounging for work and food recently, sitting on my ass to save money and enjoying having the time to cook. so that's where I've been, kind readers. accept my total lack of care with respect to your missing me; the last thing I am is a perfectionist.

i have been keeping it real, however. eventually, I'll put up some pretty pictures of one hell of a party/contest that was held last saturday: RPS II, the second annual LA invitational rock-paper-scissors championship. I finished 3rd and gave out free mohawks -- my persona was "the Barber."

but tonight, anyhow, i raise a pint of black to you. erin go, brah....

you got bored...
honey, that makes two of us.....

i got back from the walkies tour a week ago, but was too exhausted to even think until today. so to everything and everyone that i ignored, sorry. pictures, eventually, on another site.

it's kerry v bush, i guess. no real news there. anyone else find "super tuesday" less than super? hell, i went all the way to new hampshire, but didn't even vote today. back then it mattered, and back then (in the 'before time,' the 'long, long ago') i hadn't seen that urban outfitters t-shirt.

i've gotten into a few journalism schools so far. i might end up in LA, evanston, or college park this fall. no word yet on nyc.

bling.

what's in it for me?
i came here for a good time

i'm in an internet cafe in vancouver. everything is breaking. pete blew up a rental bass rig yesterday and just bought a "My First Peavey" amp from a pawn shop down the street. the screen on my laptop just refuses to turn on. guitar cases are leaking and the sound guy was almost refused at the border and sent away on the first plane to wichita. all of our bad karma has come home to roost, and quick. which is good. it's out of the way now and from here on out our good deeds will smile on us tenfold. knock on wood. see you down the road.

low culture: The Naked and the Dead via wonkette, aka 'DC's gawker,' which, whatever, but i like it (wonkette, i mean) because I'm both a sleazeball and a civics dork.

tomorrow, tomorrow...
it's a whole new season
and not just in the NFL

so i guess there's some catching up to do, and some remainders to throw down, and well, I'll be all over the place for a day or two, so take a second and then dive in. there's no other option.

the panthers covered the spread (more than i can say for janet) and made me richer by $20. thank you stephen davis. i believe that fellow carolinian john edwards will also cover the spread but will also not be able to eek it out in the long run.

as we enter what has been the most exciting and uplifting part of the Washington Redskins' football year, the offseason, I would like to ceremonially link to this picture. joe gibbs joe gibbs joe gibbs. also, joe bugel, Ernie Zampese, earnest byner. go redskins. (Darrell Green).

now that that's out of the way....

as I mentioned earlier, all signs point to a Kerry/Edwards ticket. the deanies can remember the alamo, conveiently located near seattle (or detroit) this year, in 4 to 8 years, if they so choose.

it's too early to really handicap the november vote. but here are some factors to watch as they develop:

in the democrats favor:

kerry's military record v. bush's lack thereof. currently bubbling up in the media, but this'll be in front of people for a long time.

CIA Plame/Novak/Rove/Cheney leak probe concurrent w/ presidential investigation into pre-war intelligence. Even when your dad ran the CIA for a while, and is the highest ranking mason in the country, it's bad form to have two White House v. CIA investigations going on at the same time during an election year. blood will be spilled, and even if it's not W.'s, there will be blood on his hands.

a bush challenge from the right. it looks like judge roy moore, who created a stir by refusing to remove that ten commandments monument from the courthouse in alabama, might make a run for the white house. considering the flack the president has been getting recently from ideological conservatives, rightly flumoxed by poll-driven policy moves (NEA funding, immigrant amnesty), a loack of fiscal discipline, etc., moore could get enough support to be significant in close states.

in bush's favor:

$100,000,000. aka the approx. cash on hand of the bush campaign. that's a lot of cheetos.


el has been doing a rundown of our trip to New Hampshire. it is spectacular.

the posthumous recoys album that was released last year on vinyl has arrived in CD form. it will soon be available via mail-order here.

a new album by my friends the walkmen was released yesterday. it is highly recommended. my jam on the record is "hang on, siobhan." I am actually thanked in the liner notes for my driving and tour managing prowess. you're welcome, boys, and thanks for fulfilling one of my long-time dreams (since I was 10 or so) of being thanked in the liner notes to something. I can now cross that off my list of things to do before i die. next on the list is having sex in outer space, and it is high time i started working on that one.

speaking of travel, I'll be tour managing for the walkies again on this coming west coast tour. come and visit me at the t-shirt booth if you come to any of the shows. I will have a laptop with me this time and will try and be a bit more timely on covering the tour and the election.

it looks like george mcgovern is tired of being kicked around as a code word for a democratic disaster.

congratulations to john kerry and his organization, and congratulations to tom brady and his.

i know I'm not a superdelegate, but....
an affordable endorsement

I think I've seen enough to make a call, to take a stand, and to encourage anyone who reads this to do so as well. As many of you know, I just got back from New Hampshire, where I was exploring and covering the first Primary of this election. I got a chance to see Kerry, Edwards, and Dean in person. After standing back for this long, waiting and watching, I've made my choice, and I just hope it isn't to late.

I'm endorsing Howard Dean.

Of all the candidates, Dean has the best chance to beat George W. Bush in November. He governed in Vermont as a centrist. Kerry's record in the Senate is to the left of Ted Kennedy. Edwards doesn't have much of a record in the Senate, and he's running for President because he didn't think he'd get re-elected to the Senate.

Of all the viable candidates, Dean has the best blend of charisma and substance. Edwards is all style and no substance, entrancing, yes, but empty. Kerry is terribly, unescapably boring. At Dean's town hall, he presented nuanced arguments in an engaging manner. He made sense.

Dean provides a clear vision and direction for a party that has lost its way. Terrorist attacks, gloablization of corporations, trade, and ideas, and the rise of information technology require a reassesment and realignment of the two major political parties. Both are having trouble making the shift. Bush's "compassionate conservative" vision of the new Republican party is, in practice, jumbled and confusing. Most Democrats, on the other hand, have not even tried to recast their party and principles for the new challenges of the new century. Howard Dean's candidacy and platform provides a clear way forward that positions the Democratic party in the mainstream on the important issues of today and tomorrow. Fiscal discipline and equal rights under law for all Americans are not losing issues.

Dean's wife, Judith, is a powerful and inspiring person, a normal woman, independent and sucessful. In contrast, Theresa Heinz Kerry carries with her the air of Washington wealth and power. This is not unusual or fatal on the campaign trail, but there is something so beautifully radical about Judith Dean's commitment to her practice and intention to continue practicing medicine were whe first lady.

There is so much more to say, but I will stop here, and leave the rest for another time. Right now, I need a favor. The Dean campaign is running a bit low on money. And Dean, not John Kerry, and not John Edwards, is our best hope to beat George W. Bush. So we all need to make a choice. Can we afford to give $20, $50, or $100 to help keep this campaign going?

Because I don't think any of us can afford four more years of George W. Bush.