Wha?

This is what I got when I hit the next blog button today. I have no great hopes for their relationship.

Swing of things...

Well, it was a seemingly long but productive road trip. Saw family, made paltry sums of money, mission accomplished. And now we are on to December and the freakin' holidays. I used to love Christmas. When I was young my family was big and we spent every holiday together in a family vacation house at Stinson Beach in California. Then my relatives decided to start dying one by one and now Christmas is just me, Sharon, and the folks. Grateful for what I have, but still, I do miss the BIG Christmas thing. Every year it gets a little weirder and mostly I'm just glad when it's over.

This year, the holidays also mean that Sharon and I are quickly approaching our one year mark in Durham. Damn, it goes by quick. I'm still staring at boxes in the garage and most mornings I wake up and and still think it's a trip that I live here. Mostly though, the year has been great. We've met some great people and I've had time to open up my creative side and get the muse to speak to me again. Life is good.

new stencils...

Going South...

Lake Champlain

Got all the way to Allentown today after sitting in hellish traffic around Albany, NY for about two hours. Had a good day in Vermont yesterday and felt like we taught well. It’s nice to do periodic drive bys on different swing communities and check on the progress. The Vermonters are all really nice and we even had some Canadians drive down from Montreal to take our workshop. Nice.

Monkey in Bed

Now I just want to get home and get busy. I cut a shitload of stencils while I was at Sharon’s family’s house and I can’t wait to get back and start spraying. Got a lot of documentary stuff on the burners too, so I need to get crackin’ and get some tape gathered before we run off to the west coast for Xmas.

Back in the home town tomorrow. Blog at you then.

Road...

As you can see by the photos, the trip from Upstate New York to Vermont is one of the loveliest in the nation. Blah.



Dammit, I'm beginning to hate my suitcase!

Dear Mr. Bush...

This little missive came to me via my friend David Lasagna who is a genius.

"Dear President Bush,

We wish you the happiest of holidays, and we thank you for doing so much
to Educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from you
and understand why you would propose and support a constitutional amendment
banning same sex marriage. As you said, "in the eyes of God marriage is
based between a man and a woman." I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I
can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply
remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination... End of
debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of
God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine
claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't
I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in
Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for
her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
period of menstrual uncleanness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I
tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors.
They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states that he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to
kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than
homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees'
of abomination?

7. Lev.21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a
defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my
vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How
should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different
crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of
two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme
a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town
together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a
private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy
considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and
unchanging.

Not in my own bed...

On the road again. This time we are in Marlborough, New York doing some private lessons and then we are off to Sharon's parent's house for Thanksgiving in Albany. Whoo! The trip thus far has been fine. We bought a bunch of comedy cds for the drive and were entertained on the way by Eddie Izzard and David Cross. Thanks to Ryan for suggesting David Cross! Funny.

Put a shoe up Nike's ass...

Get your pair here.

Getting better...

I have a cold. I was debating on whether to go to improv rehearsal tonight and decided to do it. Very glad that I did because rehearsal ROCKED! We played Park Bench of Truth for forty five minutes and all the scenes after that developed in to really cool little things.

p.s. PT built a magnet car. Chicks are wild for it.

Even better...

Your Girl Parts Are Named: Clamburger

Get your own Sex Name

Four...

You Are the Individualist

4 You are sensitive and intuitive, with others and yourself. You are creative and dreamy... plus dramatic and unpredictable. You're emotionally honest, real, and easily hurt. Totally expressive, others always know exactly how you feel.

What number are you?

Samurai stencils...

Spending the day doing tests for some stencils I'm working on for my improv team.

One down...

Update on my fear factor. We had the first show for our new team tonight. My first Harold. I was scared as all get out, but I went out anyway. Made a major mistake. Thanks to my team, it was funny anyway and I learned a lot. So, onward.

After all that...

...ranting about pop music I did the other day, up popped a band I actually like. The futureheads don't care if you like them or not and they aren't courting fame. Gotta love that. Plus, their record was produced by Andy Gill who used to play guitar for one of my favorite bands, Gang of Four. Check them out.

Want to or Have to...

Here's a question. If you consider yourself a creative person, do you do what you do because you want to or because you have to? Is there an invisible force (muse?) that compels you to drop everything and create? Do friends, bills, and other things that require your attention languish while you are in "the zone"? Have you ever given up eating or sleeping in favor of feeding your creative impulse? I'm interested.

Wow...

That was the worst improv class ever. I could rant about it for at least ten minutes, but I'm not going to.

Durham Art Walk...

On Saturday, we had a lot of options about social activities. There was a Ukulele Meetup, A scavenger Hunt, and The Durham Art Walk. Being that it was crisp and sunny outside and that we are big fans of free cheese and crackers, we opted for the art walk. The Art Walk consisted of twenty eight storefronts and dozens of artists in a loop of about one square mile. There was lots of cool stuff to see and by visiting fifteen or more sites and getting the artists to initial your goody bag, you received a free t-shirt. Mine is green. The coolest thing about the walk, aside from all the art, was that we got to go in a bunch of cool buildings downtown that we have always wanted to go in. We toured some of the new lofts, popped in to restaurants and cafes and saw some really cool studios that are hidden away down there. I was struck by the volume of good art being produced right here in town and also by the growth of the downtown area in general. In the short time that we've been here, there has been a lot of development in the area and most of it, surprisingly, is good. New galleries and small businesses. Great stuff. And not one Starbucks. Go Durham!

Tired but inspired by the Art Walk, I decide to finally start making myself a work space at home. My office is a crappy place to do art projects and I've been meaning to clean up the garage for months anyway, so I made a start. Right now it looks like this:



By the way, I need a real easel and an overhead projector if you have one. Thanks!

Oh, hell no...

Why is it that when I hit the "next blog" button at the top of my screen I always get something like this?

The Eff Bomb...

Not going to use the "F" word in the blog today. Sounds angry and I'm not angry. I just like saying fuck.

Pussy rock n roll...

I hate pop music right now. Which is awkward, because everybody else seems to be fine with it. Blissfully listening to their dangermouse record or whatever. Bah. I miss punk rock like it was in the beginning. Which, I guess, makes me a whiner, but I don't care. It's been a long time since music has excited me as much as the first time I heard the Ramones, The New York Dolls, Iggy and the Stooges, etc. What happened to that energy that seemed to drive the youth culture and annoy the parents? People were doing interesting stuff with rock and the future seemed to be wide open back then. I know it's partially my thirty seven year old perspective on the thing, but fuck, am I that wrong? Is it just me or has rock n roll been completely comatose for the last decade and a half? We need an injection of raw energy again. We need our asses kicked. Will somebody please step up to the plate and make something interesting?!

p.s. don't write me any emails about how great you think Andre 3000 is or how Green Day is still a quality band or how you think the Donnas are great. I'm not listening.

p.s.s. I blame clear channel for much of this. Buying every damned radio station in the country. Kiss my ass, fuckers.

p.s.s.s. Whew. That felt good.

Fuck you fear...

That's right. Fuck you. I'm really tired of being manipulated by petty little idiotic things that scare me and last night was the breaking point.

I've been doing improv for about seven months now. I dig it. It has a lot of ups and downs, but basically it has everything I want in a challenging, educational, ass out experience. It's scary as hell. So, recently I've been cast on what one would call a "house team" at Dirty South Improv, which is a good, nay, a great thing. It also scares the piss out of me. I am, in the group, the new kid on the block. I have less experience on stage than all of my fellow players and that makes it even scarier. But nobody loathes an insecure prick more than me, so I've come to a decision. I'm not going to let fear fuck with me anymore. I'm going to fail in the most spectacular ways that I can imagine and take from that what I can. After all, I make my living asking people to take chances and be risky on the dance floor. To "leave it all on the field", if you will. So, who the hell am I if I'm not walking that walk in every aspect of my life? Nobody. And I'm not going to let myself do it anymore.

Screw you reptilian brain. I'm about to flip some neo-cortex on your ass!

Buck up lefties..

This makes me feel better. Ganked from The Stranger

Gotta Love Craigslist...

This from brain damage.

Photos...

Fall fell...

...We paid in sweat anticipatingthe autumn and while we were gone,fall fell

All summer long we were hoping for just one cool day to take the pressure off. Talking about how nice it would be to have our first Fall on the East Coast. Looking forward to pumpkins and crisp mornings, staring out our front window at the crimson and gold leaves. Alas, Fall seems to have come and gone while we abroad and now it's brown and cold. Crap.

Hilarious South Bashing...

My friend Michael forwarded this to me and it's hilarious. Of course, they're not talking about the triangle area.

For the love of Jet Lag...

Well, it's 6:20 in the morning and I've already been up for two hours. Blech. The trip home yesterday was pretty much as we expected, except for the fact that the longest leg from Madrid to New York was plagued with big, scary turbulence that kept me awake. Actually, the turbulence didn't keep me awake as much as the intermitent screaming from my fellow travellers did. Oh, and my bag went to Ohio instead of Durham. Hooray. On the upside, we made it home alive and that's pretty damned spiffy. The house is still standing and the dogs are happy to be home again. So, all is right with our corner of the world.

Pictures posted soon.

One more time...

Back in Barcelona at our friend Carmen´s house. I must say, having friends in all the foreign countries you travel to beats the living crap out of being a clueless tourist. Tonight we landed and headed straight for our favorite restaurant, Comme Bio. If you are a vegetarian in Barcelona and you have $40 to burn, this is the place for you. All the food is organic and the waitstaff is less angry than most places. Now I´m trying to stay up so that tomorrow I can sleep through all or part of the ordeal that is our flight itinerary. Thanks Delta, you fuckers. Barcelona to Madrid to New York to RDU. Fourteen hours of airline enjoyment. Grrr!

Despite my proclivity for whining about minor inconveniences, this trip has been quite nice. It was very good to get away from the states for a couple weeks and hang out with arty types who are also disposed toward loathing our president. And it´s just plain groovy to immerse yourself in other cultures from time to time anyway. Re-expands the old world view to it's proper proportions and reminds one that, as small as it is, it's still a pretty big and interesting planet out there.

Up, up and away...

Flying back to Barcelona today. Sweden was great in terms of getting to see old friends and the classes were good. Can't seem to get over the darkness and cold though. It's depressing here and it's only going to get worse, so, we are happy to be heading back to the land of sunshine and daylight, if only for a day. Tomorrow we fly home and I can't wait to see the dogs and sleep in my own bed. This trip has been physically exhausting for both of us so it will be perfect to come home and have a nice rest. Jet lag coming back to the states has always been worse for me, so I'm going to need a couple days to get over it, which I plan to spend reading, sleeping and pondering why the fuck W is still our president. See you stateside.

The Land of Darkness...

Had a great time exploring the rest of Barcelona. Especially seeing all of the Antoni Gaudi buildings. Casa Batllo and La Sagrada Familia are simply amazing. Also, the camp we were teaching at was fun. Great people, good bands, and generally just a good time. It was interesting to deal with the language barrier, but I think we did a good job of showing what we wanted and keeping the talking to a minimum. I did discover that my previous discomfort in trying to use my Spanish was unrelated to the Catalan/Spanish differences and more closely related to the fact that I was an American and that we are bombing the living shit out of the rest of the world. More than one Catalonian was surprised that Sharon and I didn´t own any guns and that we didn´t care for George Bush. So, I felt we did our job, in a small way, to strengthen the Amer/Catala relations by setting them straight on the fact that some of us aren´t homicidal fuckheads. Just 51%.

Yesterday we flew to Stockholm and were greeted with the grim realities of Sweden in November. Honestly, I don´t see how these people do it. It gets dark at 3:30 in the afternoon for fuck´s sake! AND it´s butt cold already. Still, Stockholm in any weather is preferable to many other cities we´ve been to and it´s nice to be back here. For the next 2 days we are just going to relax and rest. There´s no great pressure to do anything touristy here because this our 6th time in the city and we´ve seen much of what it has to offer already. Saturday and Sunday we teach and Monday we fly back to Barcelona before heading stateside.

Europe is always a nice place to visit, but I am succumbing to a little homesickness today and feeling a might sorry for myself. Can´t wait to get back and see you all again.

Cheers.