not much was done yesterday. i've been listening to the hot snakes cd again, and in the course of looking up some possible tour dates for them, i found this interview over at buddyhead. it's definitely worth a look.

it seems like "pink robot guy" abandoned my desk because of my direct hostility and "mishandling" of the previously mentioned pink robot. he even took down my "where is skull ball?" note in a snitty little fit of defiance. he moved to the desk next to mine, so rest assured that i will post a new note before the end of the day.

today marks the release of a very special comic book. they pulled together some of the greatest talents in the comic field to illustrate and write a book depicting the true heroes of the wtc disaster, the firemen, police officers, and ems responders. it's called heroes and you can pick it up at any comic shop in your area. all proceeds go to the relief fund and the red cross. here's a gallery of some of the featured art. hell…buy two or three copies. give them to friends and family.

i've been debating the chili vs. sesame chicken lunch options today. i'm tellin' you…the chili was fuckin' good. but…i haven't had the sesame chicken in a while. and…we know what happens when you eat chili three days straight. too many beans…

okay…no more body humor.

this weekend i think i'll be rolling out to huber's orchard/winery/family restaurant with sarah. there's talk of picking out a pumpkin. i know my mind is talking to itself about picking up some homemade chicken and dumplins. yes…in kentucky they are called dumplins and not dumplings. get over it.

other than that, i think tomorrow night, matt and i are going to do a coffeeshop tour de force, planning on grabbing at least a cup at every shop with in walking distance. instead of like one of those stupid beer walks, where you end up passed out in the gutter, matt thinks we'll end up grinding our teeth and swinging from trees. sounds like my kinda night.

speaking of matt…it seems like since he moved in with paul, puffin a-go-go has been getting updated less and less frequently. i wonder if matt is infectious and maybe i'm just immune? this definitely looks like a situation that could stand to have a little more research done on it. in other words…hey! paul! update! or we'll take all your star trek games away…

it's official…the black bean chili at rainbow blossom is really good. i stopped in to see if scott was at work, found out he wasn't, and decided to grab a bowl of the "festive" black bean chili. well…let's just say after chowing down on that bowl of chili and a dr. becker (gotta love them blue sky sodas)…i'm feeling pretty good. warm chili in the tummy is never a bad thing.

i saw tara jane o'neil for the third time in a month, last night. she played at artswatch with k (from ida) and lenola (from philly). tara played a great set, as usual. after the show, guy and i headed out to see if his check was waiting on him at his former place of employment. we got out there only to discover that the message he had received about his check waiting on him was an elaborate plot to make guy…go out there for no reason. this roughly translates to "his check wasn't there."

we barely escaped with our lives.

"pink robot guy" update: it seems like pink robot guy has abandoned my desk over the weekend. i don't know if this has anything to do with my posting of a post-it with the words "where is skull ball" over his (skull ball) former location, or not. it was nice to come in to a monitor that hasn't been tweaked by some blind-as-a-bat imbecile with a proclivity for garishly colored robo-toys. let's hope the "pink robot guy" does not return.

and dan…i'll be sure to let you know if we need a covert op to take the intruder out. you could probably utilize the black coveralls.

so i ended up not going to new york, this past weekend. it came down to crunch time and i realized i was totally broke, so going across the country in a van didn't look like the most reasonable thing i could do with myself. i opted to stay home for my long weekend and try to relax.

much relaxing was done.

i can't really recall what i did with most of thursday, but later that night i ended up going out with sarah for coffee. friday i hung out with my friend joe, listening to him tell me all about his girl problems (refreshing when they're not mine), and then listening to the same story every time we ran into someone who knows the involved parties. it's a funny story, so i didn't mind. we hung out with jeremy and ended up meeting up with sarah and a friend of her's. we ate at pita delight and then wandered around the highlands for a while.

saturday…saturday was that day that took forever to get started. i alternately hung out with guy and joe until scott finally got off work and we all hung out, recording songs on the 4-track. guy got tired, we took him home, and then we headed out to some party we caught wind of earlier in the evening. i drank some beer from the kid's fridge and joe and will took turns cannonballing down the guy's steps on a loose mattress. needless to say, we got bored quick and ditched. we took joe back to his car, then scott and i decided to go grab some grub at ramsi's. we hung out there for a little while, then decided to go back to my house, drink whiskey, and play video games.

this plan worked out great. we drank a half bottle of knob creek in about a half hour, and had a blast. that is, of course, until i decided to throw some red strip on top of my ramsi's and whiskey. bad plan. let's just say i wasn't feeling too well, after that.

sunday was spent recovering. eating pizza and watching sunday evening television. yeah…rather uneventful weekend.

kilowatthours played northsix in brooklyn, saturday night. they sent a song out to me, saying "this goes out to brian who's not here because he flaked on us."

as the heading says…there's no better way than to tell the tale as bluntly as possible…

prepare to try to trace a very bizarre chain of events…

i sent this email to "the girl" yesterday:

[girl],

rock,
brian.

she apparently forwarded it to her friend rob. he accidentally hit "reply all" and sent this email to me:

The guy is a fucking lunatic.

It made me feel strange reading that. He's nuts.

this also included the full text (in reply) of the email i sent her.

now…i decided to let them know about their little faux pas (being the nice
guy i am), so i sent her this email in response (including the entire chain
of messages in my reply):

[girl],

have a swell life.
brian.

and this to him:

ahem.

-brian.

no replies from them, as of yet. darn.

that says it all, i guess. remember that pris was an ass-kicking replicant.

other than that? the day gets shittier. more details when i figure out how exactly to post about it…

as beautiful as this early fall day is…as much sleep as i ended up getting, last night (a full nights sleep? unheard of!)…as much orange juice as ive been drinking, this morning…i've got a feeling that i just can't shake. it would help if i could identify that feeling, of course.

as noted, i've chosen orange juice over the tea, this morning. i'm giving the tea a break for right now. i don't want to get burned out on it prematurely. no way, no how.

back to that feeling…it seems like it's just your standard melancholy, but you never know. i'm starting to realize that i'm really happy being alone, right now, but it's a seasonal situation where i really want a "special someone" to share time with. since the departure of "the girl" from my life, i've had little to no prospects. that at once bothers me and doesn't bother me at all. i'm of two minds about this whole deal.

yeah yeah yeah…i'll quit my bitchin'…

so i'm back on the road this weekend. i'm riding out with the kilowatthours to their show in brooklyn. they're playing with rye coalition at northsix on saturday, so anyone that lives in the area should seriously consider checking the show out. doors at 7…kilowatthours at 8. i'll be recording and working merch. stop by and buy something. or a lot of stuff. whatever.

i'll be back sunday, just in time to catch tara jane o'neil at artswatch on monday night. sounds like a good time to me.

well…shit…it's time to pretend like i'm working. ain't that a pisser…

driving into work was one of those early fall moments of peace, i'd say. riding down the tree-lined section of shelbyville road, blasting the of asaph cd…leaves turning brown and falling…an overall good morning.

which brings me to that of asaph cd…i've liked these guys both times i've seen them live, and i had been meaning to pick up the cd for ages, but i never did. i picked it up the other night before the rainer maria show on a lark and…it's amazing. it sounds like…i dunno…"what if the last don caballero cd rocked solid instead of being a bunch of bleepy bloops (not that there's anything wrong with bleepy bloops)." it's great. the only drawback of …what a wonderful day it was is that it's only 4 tracks. consider this an incredibly enthusiastic recommendation.

in my current state of sickliness, i've been trying to find non-soda beverages to drink with total abandon. things that fill the bill of "taste good and aren't totally unhealthy." i was drinking the sun flavor of the snapple elements for a while (ostensibly because it had echinacea in it, which is supposed to promote good health), but last night i discovered the arizona herbals. i've been downing the one labeled "health," but mainly because it tastes good. it also has echinacea in it, but i'm seeing no positive reaction from the 60 ounces of this business i've drank in the last 12 hours. regardless…it's a good, tasty tea. another thumbs up.

jesus…does anyone else have a product i can shill for?

"pink robot guy" update: not only does he continue to sit at my desk (and mess up my monitor settings)…now i am undertaking a massive search for "skull ball." more "pink robot guy" personal items have invaded my desk while "skull ball" has come up missing. i'm assuming some sort of foul play is involved, and i intend on leaving a note. maybe i'll drop the fellow an email or something. maybe it'll say "if skull ball isn't returned to his proper spot on my desk within 24 hours, your little gay robot dies." or something like that…

you know me…always the peacemaker…

what a weekend. friday nigh i went out with a friend to check out training day. the movie was middle of the road, at best. it started out interesting and then got progressively more ridiculous. no problem, i guess. we are talking about hollywood, here. they always know how to screw up a good thing.

saturday i took off up to chicago for mark's wedding. i showed up at the empty bottle just in the nick of time as they said their "i do's" (for the second time) and we raised our glasses for a toast. it was nice to see everyone down from milwaukee (word to the dan). let it be stated here and forevermore: mark and susanne really know how to throw a fucking party. open bar, trans am, and rocket from the frickin' crypt. trans am took the stage and got the party started right. they rocked out a bit of their new stuff (a lot of 80's new wave keyboard business) as well as some classic trans am rock-out style. there was a nice gap between bands where susanne's brother took the stage for another toast. then it was time for rocket from the crypt. the night before they asked mark to pick out their setlist and to play a couple of songs with them, so we were all jazzed to see how it went over. a healthy dose of circa now!, scream, dracula, scream! and group sounds…a healthy dose of rock. they played all the hits (except "on a rope," but it's forgivable…they played "venom venom" from the new record) and then mark took the stage to play guitar for "ditchdigger" and another track from circa now. mark did a great job and speedo advised him to start a band of his own. very funny.

i was thoroughly rocked (and pumped full of beer by john and bob) and a great time was had by all. best of wishes to mark and susanne. hopefully they have a long happy marriage and all that business.

oh yeah…i caught the garter when speedo tossed it. later on i discovered it to be a dirty sock. which is a nice equivalent to my love life, anyway.

this will forever be known as "the post where i say good things about second story man." or something.

last night after work i rode out to the brycc house to attend the rainer maria show. let's face it…i paid $8 at the door to see second story man again. they're really a fun band of good friends and all that business. i've decided that their music is kinda like music written by a group of bipolar 6 year-olds with a.d.d., but never losing that razor sharp edge. they have about a million parts to each song, but they all seem to be able to grab you with a sweet poppy hook all the way through to the end.

rainer maria was okay. i had never heard them or seen them live. they were entertaining.

the novas (a newer band from the area) opened the show and closed their set with a spot on cover of "like a prayer" by madonna. really clever. i was pleased with their set and i plan on keeping my eye on them (not just because one of the girls in the band was kinda cute, mind you. beside that, i think they're all 15).

other than that, it's payday. i'm at work waiting on 2:30 so i can run downstairs to pick up my check. i came in early to check email, but the damn internet was down, so i sat around bullshitting with my various co-workers. the internet finally came up (hence the post), so i was able to get that email thing out of the way for the day.

and now it's time to go get some lunch and pay some bills.

fuck…that only sounds half fun.