Ten Years

Jeff Buckley drowned ten years ago today. Two friends and I met him in Memphis like two or three weeks before he died. He invited us back to his house and made us tea and played old Genesis on the record player. His rented house was crappy and his living room was a mess - guitars were everywhere, and pieces of paper with words all over them. He told us he was writing his next album, and his band was coming to town soon to record it. My friends fell asleep but he and I stayed up until sunrise talking about women's magazines and politics and who knows what else.

When I got the news about his death, I was in some college town in northern Iowa, training to go teach (er, spread pro-US propaganda) to kids in Taiwan. I went to a bar that night to drink beer and mourn. And nobody knew who he was. It was a sad night. Then the next day when I left whatever college town, I stopped in Iowa City to pick up a friend and drive her back to Chicago. When I got to her brother's place, the door was unlocked. I walked in. Both Aimee and Sean were asleep, and 'Eternal Life', the second-to-last song on Grace, was playing. They woke up and immediately started talking about the drowning and how sad they were. It was nice to share that shock and feeling of loss with somebody else.

the times they are a changing...

i have worked at for a long time.

Soon...i will work here:



god damn!

DoubleA Ringo

What are you doing right now?

You should be listening to Spanish for 100, who're live on KEXP right now. Go, go, go!

Friday night rock star YEAH!

So tonight I'm home. Can't really bring myself to clean the house. So instead I watched two movies.

Me And You And Everyone We Know: Good. Weird! Sweet. Touching. Made me happy and a little uncomfortable sometimes too. Made me feel like a voyeur. Made me try to remember if I've ever had an organic moment of intimacy w/ someone I didn't know well. Um, Miranda July is creepy-skinny.

Bobby. A little too much for me. Yes, Bobby Kennedy was shot and it was really awful and he probably would have been an amazing President. But I just kept thinking that the movie Malcom X was wa-haaaay better. Really the most shocking part was during the credits, when they showed a picture of Jack, Bobby, and Ted Kennedy together. Both of his brothers were murdered. No wonder he's stayed in the Senate for ever and ever.

I don't think Zack really cared for either film.

(Aa is actually being a rock star tonight. I am a lame-ass at home because tomorrow I have a race at 9 am. It's supposed to rain. Fun!)

"If I was young, I'd flee this town, I'd bury my dreams underground".

that's the 1st line of the song Elephant Gun by the band Beirut.

lyrics don't often kick my ass, but that one sure does. not trying to be heavy..i don't necessarily "feel" that sentiment. it's pretty heavy though (not deep perhaps, but thoughtful?) Anyway...that said, the concept of youth vs. dreams vs. running away is kinda a universal thing that we all let ourselves be burden with at one point or another.
all I'm calling out is that he said a hell of a lot with just 13 words.

great song too.

Almost All Good

Last night's taping went super great.
And it's my birthday today.
And I got a promotion today that I've been working towards for close to two years (TWO YEARS PEOPLE).
And tomorrow my sister comes to town.
And this weekend we're going to one of my favorite places in the world for three days.
And on Tuesday we've got the next Salon of Shame in a big pretty new space. My sister will attend and Aa's gonna read.

Also today Aa will hopefully find out about something he's been waiting with bated (or is it baited?) breath for for like a month. If that thing happens, and then if Zack magically figures out how to use the bathroom, then this will be a fucking fantastic day.