this beautiful unraveling

the whole world just keeps spinning past
pop culture jettisoned to outer space
zeitgeists come and go they never last
this generation has eyes but no face

and i'm stuck on the couch in front of the screen
while vh1 already makes fun of last week
living on twizzlers and coffee beans
i'm too scared to know if i'm at my peak

and i'm hoping praying
coping swaying
keeping time with my feet
i'm moping fraying
joking paying
for the memories that still control me

it's all a part of this beautiful unraveling

my folks are engulfed by their own eyeglasses
they live in a desert city of concrete
when rains blow in from low mountain passes
the sage and the cactus smell so sweet

and i don't know where is right for me
i fall in love with every place i go
the desert the mountains the city streets
worm their way into my heart and take hold

and i'm hoping praying
coping swaying
keeping time with my feet
i'm moping fraying
joking paying
for the memories that still control me

it's all a part of this beautiful unraveling

it's all a part of this beautiful unraveling

i kicked magic johnson's ass

for my loyal readers who are also in tim potten's annual march madness pool, you've already heard this bit of trivia. but i'd like to share it again.

in addition to timmy's pool, i also entered the site-wide march madness brackets challenge on cbssportsline.com. cbs somehow managed to talk magic johnson into playing the challenge as well (probably with a little $$). i now share with you mine and magic's rank:

me - 34,749th place
magic - 133,431st place

apparently, magic picks brackets about as well as he commentates.

here's a very funny picture of robbie dudie and me, after several drinks in phoenix, missing our expatriot amigo timmy, laughing so hard we're crying (or was it the other way around).

here's a picture of the new adidas trail shoes i just ordered. adidas have never fit me - this will be my third pair ever in my 30 years on this earth - but these shoes felt fantastic when i tried them on last week. and i saved 20 bucks on rei.com! who knows, i may be on my way to having "more adidas sneakers than a plumber's got pliers." - beastie boys, off of paul's boutique.

all right, peeps. i'll keep it coming, if you keep reading it. (i think this is going to be my new sign-off)

funny observations about my folks

*geno doesn't drive fast or crazy, but often seems to forget that, eventually, he's going to have to stop somewhere up ahead. he'll get to talking, or looking at something, and then, suddenly, my nose is in the windshield.

*nan switches lanes. a lot. driving for her is a race.

*we cleaned up their car yesterday, and we found six pairs of eyeglasses in the center console area. we then drove to best buy, where my father promptly forgot to bring in one of those six pairs of eyeglasses and, as a result, was unable to read any product descriptions.

*my parents moved from one house to another this spring in sun city grand because of the noise at the old house. they buried a figurine of saint joseph in the front yard of the old place, 6 inches from the 'for sale' sign, because they were told that this would bring them good luck in selling it.

*nan knows the general vicinity of every single store on this side of the valley. and this is a biiiig valley.

*their garage has a separate little garage door for the golf cart. geno backs his golf cart into the garage for a clean getaway the next time he heads out to play.

*my parents have matching recliners in the living room.

i love them for these reasons, and many more.

observations from the road

after a 12 hour road trip, i am now safely at my parents home in surprise, arizona (part of the outrageously sprawl-ific greater phoenix metro area). i am here for the week, and i plan on doing the following:

some half-assed golf with dad (half-assed not because i don't enjoy it, but because i suck), tennis with mom, hang out with robbie dudie, learn some new songs for big pants, shop for a laptop computer and some new trail shoes for this summer.

oh, and i'll be doing a whole lot of nothing, too.

and now, some observations from the drive:

*the cisco cutoff into moab is up there with the most beautiful drives i've ever been on (these drives include oak creek canyon, az; yellowstone national park in the summertime; and highway 1 north of san diego, among others). ridiculous red stone walls shoot up from the big and muddy colorado river with a righteous purpose.

*sometimes, clouds in arizona look like they should be on "the simpsons."

*gas station bathroom keys are all unique and often oddly artistic.

*good AM radio is truly rare; it's all sports, left- or right-wing idiots, religious zealots or really, really, really bad and maudlin country music (the one good station i found? through the navajo nation, 600 AM played drum chants and the announcer spoke the amazing and musical navajo language).

*there are mountain towns with more and bigger mountains, but they don't have as much mountain soul as flagstaff, az - i just love that place; when you move there, they give you a dreadlock starter kit in your welcome packet for new residents.

*moab has been aspenized. it's sickening.

all right, folks. it's time for bed. as poot, would say... guten nacht(sp?)!!

drugs, sex, and sloppy joes

though the dining hall was definitely not standing room only, we rocked the house anyway (in spite of the lackluster attendance).

big pants did its first real gig this afternoon, during lunchtime in the college's cafeteria. as people munched on their baked cod and sloppy joes, we played the following setlist:

headhunter(russell's groove)
rodeo clowns/jack johnson
bertha/grateful dead
california stars/wilco
what i got/sublime
ain't no sunshine/bill withers
driver 8/r.e.m.
golden age>black napkins/beck>frank zappa
rescue blues>can't always get.../ryan adams>rolling stones
trouble/the jayhawks
franklin's tower/grateful dead

and, mercifully, we did not suck. i didn't even blow my guitar parts in driver 8 or trouble. i'd love to tell you that we have a cd of this momentous event but, alas, tommy forgot to hit record on the college's sweet digital 8 track. when he realized this after the show, he almost threw himself out of the window. it was a first floor window, but i'm sure it still would have hurt. thankfully, we have a dvd that will be available soon.

i'm thinking about adding it to the library collection.

after finishing our last song, i thanked each remaining audience member individually ("thank you to the 3 girls in the corner, you there eating your food in the back, that guy walking out, lexie, and paul primrose... thanks for coming out!"). we then packed it up and called it a marginal success.

day job lament

i want a hipster photograph of my band in black and white
standing on a corner beneath a yellow sodium streetlight
cigarettes in our fingers and all our jeans just a little too tight
but only one of us smokes, two of us chew and none of us can fight

i want to trash hotel rooms and autograph boobies by the bus
hire and fire publicists who just don't get along with us
drink whiskey, go on letterman, leer and sneer and cuss
the music's tight and the attitude's right, but a day job is still a must

i want to go on tour with all of my heroes
pick and grin and drink backstage after a three hour show
hear my songs come on the radio in the back of a limo
but i'll settle for a weekend gig, free beer and friends on a patio

hey! what the hell?!

of course, the previous sentence should be uttered in a confused, exasperated southern accent, as roberto often does when doing an impression of his north carolina neighbors. and the word hell really should be pronounced "hail."

i drove mista overman to the airport this morning, and even though it's sunny and gorgeous and in the forties here in steamboat, it is a sad day. what are jenn and i going to do without him?

we skied at howelsen hill yesterday afternoon, which is the little 450 foot vertical training hill in town, entirely separate from the larger steambot ski area. howelsen only runs the platter pull during the week and, well...

roberto blew his ass out.

he fell down while the lift was pulling him up the hill, and tore the ass out of his ski pants, down the inseam all the way to his knees.

he looked like mc hammer.

to add insult to injury, the little 9 year old girl coming up behind him had this to say:

looking back at her friends
"hey guys, watch out, an old guy fell up here!"
looking at rob
"watch out, dude."

rob will be pissed at me for including this story in my blog, but it was too good to pass up.

sidney brynn kuhl is going to be the sweetest, tennis playingest, snowboardingest, brightest kid in oakland, california.

congratulations, brandon and erica. jenn and i are so happy for you, and can't wait to meet your new bundle of joy.

hopefully, she'll take after her mother. 

ketching up

hello all!

so, let's see - what has transpired since last week?

roberto arrived last thursday on our bowling league night. my abhorrent game scores that evening (93, 96 &112, respectively) were tempered by the fact that mista overman was present and accounted for in steamboat springs.

beers after work on friday at mahogany ridge, where the locals ski-town happy hour vibe was in abundance. rob was soaking it up - he misses ski town living, and keeps saying he's going to quit school and move back. but if he does that, i'll kick his ass.

snowboarding with fun groups on saturday and sunday including jenn, jamie, brett, hagit, kate, cat, rob and myself. went down chute 2 for the first time, and let me tell you - 95% of steamboat is just a big friendly mountain, kind of like your favorite dumb and lovable dog; but that other 5% that is double black? it's some hairball shit. steeeep!

illinois lost on sunday. no more will be said about this dark day.

it was just rob and me on monday and i actually skied, my second time on skis this season. i'm definitely getting a pair - i'm having as much fun on those as i do on my board.

yesterday we just goofed around, hot tubbed, watched some chappelle's show reruns, played music and went for a drive down to oak creek. i think rob has helped me relax as much as i've helped him.

and here i am, back to the grind. i missed the library, though.

i am the champion, my friends

i just won my first game of Risk this morning. i've never even played the board game version, and this was just my third game of online Risk ever. that's a pretty steep learning curve, wouldn't you say?

i'm a bad ass.

i quickly gained africa and south america, then slowly amassed my armies and more territories, defending my two precious continents while allowing others in the game to beat up on each other. 3 inferior players dispatched themselves real quick, leaving paul, myself, and some dude who called himself da ozzster. though phonetically challenged, he would prove to be a worthy foe.

after systematically dispatching paul's sorry ass (what was that about not holing up in europe, p-diddy?), it was down to me and da ozzster. it was nip & tuck for awhile, but i divided his troops, chipped away at his completed continents, and eventually triumphed.

i'm a bad ass.

ummmm....

i know i should post to my blog, but this big white empty screen is staring me in the face, challenging me to write something funny or original or profound - or all three. and yet, i feel uninspired.

i was thinking about writing a poem, but that part of my brain is empty tonight.

i was planning on reminiscing about my time in jackson with timmy - 'gislands and buds and the beta band and applying salve and neosporin to timmy's third degree ice-burned ass for him - but that topic deserves some embarrasing and incriminating pictures of poot that i don't have here at work.

i was going to share, once again, how excited i am to be in a "band" where we're progressing musically and all taking it seriously, but i think my faithful readership may be getting tired of that.

i thought i might bring up the latest jack johnson album - which jenn surprised me with yesterday night on the day of its release - and how i'm not sure yet whether i really like it; how it sounds like more of the same, while my truly favorite bands tend to really progress or change from project to project (wilco, gomez, ryan adams).

i wanted to profess my undying love for how f%*king cool elvis costello's 3 best songs are - 'watching the detectives,' '(the angels wanna wear) my red shoes,' and 'radio, radio' - but i think i've already mentioned my newfound appreciation for elvis costello recently.

lastly, i was hoping to share my excitement that one mista robert overman is arriving tomorrow night, and i'll be skiing with him for 4 days straight from saturday through tuesday.

but, alas, i don't think i want to talk about any of those things. (here is where you say, "hey, he just did!!" and i tell you that this was my plan all along, and that this style of first person narrative trickery probably has some fancy literary name that is escaping me at the moment)

have a wonderful evening, worldwide readers.