Seeing that movie Almost Famous the other night, I was reminded of when I was little. That scene when he pulls the records out from under the bed reminds me a whole lot of when I was little. My father worked for A & M Records in the 70�s and had millions of records that we would listen to. I remember being captivated as a little kid by album covers such as: Paul Simon � There Goes Rhymin� Simon, Elton John � Captain Fantastic� Cream � Disreali Gears, and Beach Boys � Surfs Up. We were always playing these records in the house, and then a little bit older, maybe 7 or 8 my brother and I got into Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Foghat, and all of that kind of hard rock stuff. I was more interested in being Paul Stanley than GI Joe (which always leaves me with nothing to say when guys I am with talk about Star Wars, or any of those sci fi/action cartoons, and movies. I was never watching those�.) Paul Stanley and Peter Criss and Ace Frehley, and Gene Simmons on the cover of Destroyer. I had no clue what the hell they were singing about. I knew they were cool looking, and they were loud and played rock music. My father took us to see Kiss at the LA Forum on the Love Gun tour with Cheap Trick opening. This would later be released as �Kiss-Alive II� actually. One thing I remember vividly about that show is smelling this smell I had never smelled before. I asked my father what the smell was and he said, �it�s the pot�. I looked on stage and Gene Simmons had this big snake statue with a little �pot� on the top of it, or more likely a candleholder, with smoke coming out of it, I thought this was what he was talking about. We got to see a bunch of other bands and hang backstage which was pretty cool for an 8 year old boy. Unfortunately the bands we met were Styx, and Supertramp�oh and Joe Jackson (which I think is pretty damn rad, as he�s the man�no pun intended). So all this music was around me all the time when I was little. I liked that, growing up like that in retrospect. My parents divorced and my brother and I returned to Massachusetts with my mother. That�s when we discovered the real good stuff we had heard a little of from my dad before moving back here. Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Ramones, etc. I think all music is sort of connected. At least personally for me, I think I could outline who and why and from where I got into certain artists. I know if it weren�t for the Grateful Dead, I wouldn�t have started listening to jazz. I know if it wasn�t for Henry Rollins I wouldn�t be into some of the more underground artists like Birthday Party, Sun Ra, people like that. I actually met Henry a couple of times and had this exact discussion. We talked about how bad jazz is for your wallet. You go and buy a Miles Davis record, and you love the piano work, so what do you do? You go out and buy all the Herbie Hancock records you can, Herbie turns you on to Wayne Shorter, who turns you on to Lee Morgan who turns you on to Jackie Mclean who turns you on to Freddie Hubbard who turns you on to Philly Joe Jones who turns you back to Coltrane, and then you are back at Miles again. So, I�ve just got into all of this different stuff from listening to one or two artists. It�s like a disease that started when I was young. I find myself pretty fucking picky nowadays though. I can�t really listen to the radio ever, or watch MTV (the cable has been shut off for a few weeks now, and I don�t really plan on paying it unless I really need to, which is doubtful right now!). What I hear from time to time that passes as �pop� music is quite shitty. Granted, it�s popular, and that�s the whole point. I just feel bad for kids that are getting this stuff pumped into them every day. Heavy are not Korn, Slipknot and all that garbage. I�d say check out Neurosis, Kyuss, the Melvins�or shit, just buy the first 6 Black Sabbath albums, the first 3 Deep Purple records, and the first 5 Led Zeppelin records and you have enough weight to give Rosie O�Donell a run for the money. The hip hop nowadays is also pretty crappy, asides from Mos Def, Common, De La Soul, Wyclef, Guru, and those people nothing even remotely worthy is coming of that scene. Eminem? Juvenille? That stuff sucks, come on :) I reckon everyone go out and get a copy of Captain Beefheart � Trout Mask Replica and give it a try�with headphones. If you don�t like it the first time, try it again a month later. If not then, another few months, if not then, a year or so. If you still don�t get it�well, I don�t know what�s wrong�. Okay enough being a music snob for the day thanks for the time�

Today was a busy as hell day at work. The shit piled up from yesterday, month end reports that were due yesterday while I was at the record shop chatting with girls trying to make them buy Jimmy Smith CD�s, a brief �lunch�(shit, what did I eat?). I felt very much like I was off the ground today. I never settled into a groove at all. A guy in my department, one of the best workers in there, and practically my assistant, Dave is leaving. This sucks, as I will have to train someone new, during the busiest periods of the year. The one good thing is I heard today that someone in the company is interested in the position already. Someone who would give Heather and I even more things to talk about during the day actually, since most of the conversations the last week were about this person anyway�heh heh heh. So I actually wouldn�t mind this person in the least bit coming up and joining the family. I love vanilla flavored things�. The other dreadful part of the day was sitting in a conference room with one of those big tables negotiating a contract for the bargaining unit at work from 5pm to 8:15pm. Staring at white walls, tons of papers and signatures and legal speak and flat ginger ale and big notebooks filled with statistics and lawyers and managers and union people like myself. It�s not the thing you want to do on an empty stomach right at the end of a normal workday. So I got home pretty late, read my magazines I got in the mail and now I sit here and try not to complain as best as I can. The only thing I can think of complaining about right now is how there�s too much bass on these discs of the Albany Phish show from 9.9.00 that I just burned from mp3 format. A bit of achy muscles also.

Swerving all over the road with lipstick all over my face and a bladder full of urine was one of the worst and best nights of the year this year. I can�t imagine where I�d be right now if I had kept that going. I can�t imagine what I�d be doing right this minute. I put myself into another movie over the course of two weeks. Yeah, I�m a drunk, and I just want to drink and fuck all night. I am the man for the part, really. I am the man. I have plenty of experience with this honey. Comrade. I have the technology to give you what you want and what I want. Unfortunately, my acting career has ended. My time has run out on all of the women like you. The time has come to go home now. It was fun, and it was funner, but I�m an old man now. Sorry, gotta go.

It�s not windy outside right now, but there is a breeze on the back of my neck telling me to go to sleep now.

before & after