sorry for the lack of updates here on my side, I intended to do one last night, but ended up taking about three or four hours sifting through my email from the past three days.

I've got quite a bit to talk about, so I'll probably break it down over a few posts… give you something to come back for…

the cure are truly an awesome band. I am not their biggest fan, I only own a couple of their albums, and those have only been purchased in the past year; but Paul loves them and offered me a chance to go see them with him, so I took it. I had a great time.

there were lots of beautiful women running around, which enhances any concert going experience (for me, at least), and of course, there were also lots of rather repulsive members of both sexes running around as well.

I can't understand how 5'4" 250lb women can believe they look good in tight fitting dresses, or midriff tops and skirts. it is totally beyond me. I personally don't feel that I would look that great running around with my belly and chest exposed, and I'm not even really overweight.

another thing I don't get is spending a bunch of money on a concert for a band that you don't really like, listen to, or even understand; then showing up completely wasted to the point where you spend the majority of the concert either with your head between your knees or slumped over passed out in a chair. I CAN understand getting a little drunk and having a little fun, but if I wanted to get wasted and throw up, I could do that at home and get an equivalent musical experience from my CD player.

it almost ruined the show for me. we had been waiting for the doors to open for two hours or more (we got there a bit early, and had nowhere else to go, being in a strange city…), then finally we get in, find our seats, and wait another hour for the show to start. 20 minutes before the band takes the stage, the stands begin to fill up, and a group of people take the seats in front of ours. they're laughing, drinking their beers, having a good time. they break out a joint and pass it around. the band takes the stage and get started on the first song. I look down and the little eddie vedder lookalike in front of me has his head between his knees, puking his guts out. We're barely three minutes into the first song, and already the stench of puke is wafting up to my nose. I feel sorrier for the people in the next row up, they were in splatter range…

well that's enough for tonight.

in tomorrow's update:
corn fields, car talk, & fear of worldwide devastation

it's been a couple days since my last post, sorry 'bout that. Life has progressed as it always does, and despite what's been going on, I've been pretty much wordless. still am, in fact.

one thing I've realized is that despite the amount of time I spend "online," I am not an internet junky. I don't have to find a new interesting site every day to keep myself happy. I go to the same sites, day after day, check my email like three or four times a day, and that's about the extent of it. this realization has also made me wonder about the point of this weblog thing–to be interesting, I imagined I must throw up some funky, weird links with every post. well, fuck that. I'm not a link collector really, though I've been trying. most of the sites I visit are functional or purely informational sites that either a) most people probably already know about, or b) most people probably wouldn't care about. maybe I'm just lazy.

for the shameless self promotion section of this post, I'll point out that I finally finished the online version of my first poetry book, which you can happily view at coffeemonk.com. enjoy.

don't you hate it when, despite the fact that you've had an enjoyable, relatively uneventful day, you suddenly get totally depressed about something you can' t even pinpoint or put words to? perhaps it's dissatisfaction with my life, my current situation, the fact that I'm still unemployed even though the manager at Kinko's told me she'd call me on Monday (as in, this past Monday). well, moanin and crying isn't going to make it any better. perhaps I'll post something more upbeat tomorrow.
read my poetry. (that was not a request)

western kentucky is truly a remarkable place. the more things change the more they stay the same. you can read my bio on coffeemonk.com to see what I think of the place I hesitantly call home.

really though, my visit was nice. my parents, being from the mountains of Virginia, are easy going, down home folks (yes, I used the word "folks") who are SO normal it's almost scary. my 12 yr old brother, bless his heart, is the product of his environment, as I suppose we all are. he's going through the phase in his life (which I imagine only afflicts "southerners") where the word rebel and the confederate flag hold some special magic. it seems very disturbing to me now, but I recall going through something similar when I was his age, so I guess it will pass once he gets away from the amber waves and into "real life." I HOPE it will pass.

on my way out of town, i heard, for the first time since leaving Princeton, the word "nigger" used in a real conversation. now, my friends and I, far from being racist, are prone to making racial slurs in the name of humor, usually poking fun at people who would really think and speak that way.

don't get me wrong here. Racism is NOT funny–what is funny (in a sick, hopeless sort of way) is that there are people in this world who are ignorant enough to believe they are in some way superior to people with different color skin or different religious beliefs. I could go on on this subject for days, about the ills of the world and the sicknesses that infect our society, but I sincerely doubt anybody wants to read a weblog for that long.

i had a chat with my little brother, hoping to impart to him that thinking, speaking and acting like this was wrong. he is young, and being raised in that town where things like this are not only commonplace, but almost expected. it is one of the sad reasons I don't visit my parents much, and when I do, I usually stay cooped up in their house for the duration.

in other news, as brian pointed out in his log, over there Steal This Blog. brian wasn't sure if their mention of our site was favorable or not, but after reading it, I'd definitely say it was. thanks to Tom for noticing us. I guess I'm the "journal" and brian's the "weblog." so be it. I'm just glad someone was "amused." that's all I can ask.

i need your help: I'll admit it, I'm lazy. If anyone knows of a good place that can process online transactions cheaply (or for free) please . The three-toed sloth that is coffeemonk.com needs this capability. I'm almost finished putting a web-based version of my poetry book online, and would like to be able to sell some physical copies of it as well. oh, and if you're interested in art, literature, music, or film, go check out the site. there's not much on there right now, but we've got big plans.

damn, if any of you are still reading this long ass thing I've written here, thanks for sticking with me. time to hit the sack and hope I get a call in the morning telling me when I can start working. I need a job.

another day comes to a close. there's not enough going on in my life right now to warrant a weblog. oh well.

one thing I have realized in the past month or so is that if I'm going to be in a band, I probably need to learn how to play guitar.

something else I discovered recently–I'd heard it mentioned before, but this article claims to be quoting from "official" reports by organizations like the American Cancer Society–anyway, I learned that beer really is good for you.

brian may be right. perhaps I am a chickenshit. but when you're at a show to listen to one of your favorite bands, romance suddenly gets knocked down the priority list… at least for me. I go to shows to see my favorite artists play my favorite music, to enjoy hearing it live and louder than my dinky stereo at home will go.
then there's the whole thing where ALL my friends were goading me into talking to this girl. their pushing never works, and yet they always do it.
finally, this girl may have looked good enough for me to want to grab her and do the standing wheelbarrow right there in the middle of the show, but she's one of those girls who looks good, knows it, and then tries to prove it. basically, she was acting like she was some hot shit, and that kind of attitude just turns me right off. I don't mind a girl having a little attitude, hell I encourage it, but when she thinks she's just the greatest thing going, she's not.
so, maybe I'm a chicken shit for not walking up to her, bumping the morons she was talking to out of the way, and at least saying hi. maybe so, but I feel justified since she pretty much just annoyed the hell out of me through 90% of the show once my friends shut up and stopped bugging me so I could actually watch her and see if she was worth the trouble. (oh, and the 10% of the show where she wasn't annoying was when she was actually just standing there listening to the music, and not trying to act like a badass)

damn, kinda went off there.

g'night.