hope that i get old before i die…

yeah, so having 6 weeks of recuperation after the accident has gotten me to where i am having to go back to doing things i haven’t done in ages (or so it would seem). i wasn’t seriously injured or anything, i just lost the drive to get up off my ass and do things like i used to do. so i made up for it tonight by going to see some amazingly amazing women play music tonight.

first was theresa andersson. she is a one-woman band and manages to put so many layers on top of each other at one time and keep them all in tune and in time it’s a wonder she doesn’t completely lose her place in the songs. add to this a fantastic voice and command of about five different instruments and the effect is mesmerizing. one thing i very much liked about her performance (besides these things) is that she was more moved by the music than the crowd was. it’s very rare to see a musician spontaneously dancing to their own music and even rarer still that they actually seem to enjoy it.

next was emily wells. she also uses loop effects to essentially be a one-woman band, but she puts a bass and drum set behind her and sets up her own harmonies on voice and violin. then she puts on a hip hop flare by rapping over the top of this multi-layered experience. i have been nothing but impressed with her ingenuity onstage and tonight was no exception.

so last night i was riding home from work, going a slightly different way because i had to go to walgreens and get some things. when i’m roughly 6 blocks from walgreens this lady pulls out right in front of me to turn left and hits me on my motorcycle. she was mostly stopped when i hit but i hit her doing around 20mph give or take. so yeah, the bike is fucked up but not undrivable. she pulled over, came to find out if i was alright, and when i said yeah she got back in her car and drove off. and of course before i could get a look at her license plate or anything important like that. so now i have a couple of sore muscles, my wrist is very bruised but i won’t actually see the bruise for a couple days i think, and the bike is damaged after 2.5 months of ownership. thankfully i have coverage for uninsured drivers but it should not have to come to that if people would just do the right thing in the first place and actually LOOK WHERE THEY’RE GOING!

i’m not really a fan of the band boston, but the song is somehow appropriate considering how much time has elapsed since the last posting. let’s see, since that time i’ve considered writing about some great music i’ve been to, the fact that john mccain totally went away from himself during the campaign, how good it is that obama won (even though i didn’t vote for him), and my new wheels, a 2008 honda shadow spirit. i guess i’ll start with the last and work my way to the first, and if you don’t want to hear about any of it, well, you never read my blog anymore anyway so i’m not worried.

it’s been over a year and a half since the last motorcycle i’ve owned and the transition is, as they say, just like riding a bike. i am no longer stuck in traffic, i get to ride in the carpool lane without a passenger, and i rarely pay for parking anymore. what’s not to like right? i have a lesbian friend who tells me i can pick up a lot of girls with this bike, but so far it’s only worked once. although the girl in question *did* wear a pretty short skirt, and i have never seen so many double takes in my life as i did when she was riding behind me. my bike gets a lot of looks because it’s a very nice silver and has just the right amount of chrome on it to not be audacious and gaudy. but having a bike that gets a lot of looks with a girl on the back showing an inhuman amount of leg seems to really draw people’s attention for some reason

speaking of drawing attention, it’s phenomenal that america has matured enough to elect a non-white man to the presidency. i think a lot of his early success was because of the novelty of voting for a black man (sad to say) but as the campaign wore on, it was obvious that obama is every bit the kind of person that *should* be president in this country and the kind of leader we need after the last 8 disastrous years. i’m not saying obama is the be all, end all of US politics, but he’s already changing the attitudes of this country, and the marginal fringe of society is being pushed back to the margins where they belong…. except for those votes to ban same-sex marriage anyway. so in other words, we’re mature enough to finally see a black man as president but not mature enough to allow gay people the same rights as straight people enjoy. maybe some day we’ll get there….

i’m really not sure what happened to john mccain after the primary season ended. well, i know *of* the reasons why he ran the campaign he did, but it doesn’t make sense when you consider that he spent the vast majority of his career making a point of being different than the rest of the republican party. mistake number one for mccain was getting away from his “maverick” status in order to shore up the republican far-right extremist base, compounded by the fact that he picked one of the worst candidates since dan quayle in sarah palin. the stated reasons for picking palin — to pick up the “hillary vote”, to “be a maverick” — just didn’t ring true once she opened her mouth and proved that she’s basically dumb as dirt when it comes to national (and international) politics.

mistake number two for mccain came with the constant attacks that he put on obama, as if the electorate is going to be completely convinced by all the constant negativity. it’s proven year after year that people HATE negative political ads, so to base your entire campaign on political attacks when you’ve spent your whole career reaching across the aisle to your political opponents just doesn’t make sense.

mistake number three, and this was the biggest one for him, was to continue to surround his campaign with advisors that had so little to criticize obama that they also resorted to constant attacks. when we see palin, rudy giuliani, phil gramm, and the other people close to mccain’s campaign making fun of obama’s history as a community organizer among other things, it really does show how little faith mccain had in his own chances of winning the election. and it’s sad that a man who has built his reputation as someone who always takes the high road on principle now has this shitty campaign as basically the end of his legacy in politics. we finally saw the real mccain in his concession speech, but by then of course it was way too late to do anything about it.

and since i’m too tired to write a review of everybody i’ve gone to see in the last few months, i’m just gonna make links to their respective web pages and you can hear for yourself how awesome and incredible they all are as musicians these are listed in no particular order or preference:

sara haze: http://www.myspace.com/sarahaze oh. my. god. what an amazing voice this girl has. you can tell she puts a lot into her music when you see her play, and she’s opened for some very amazing musicians as well. she will be immensely famous very soon and very well-deserved when it happens.

shane alexander: http://www.myspace.com/shanealexander great songs, great voice and great guitar talent.

amber rubarth: http://www.myspace.com/amberrubarth i LOVE this girl’s music. i’m not sure what to say about her exactly except that she has a way of putting together a song that i haven’t heard from anyone else, and a soothing voice to match it.

what made milwaukee famous: http://www.myspace.com/whatmademilwaukeefamous pure indie rock at its finest. these guys know how to put on a great show and have very well-written songs and lyrics. and now that they have two guitars in the band, they truly rock out at every show.

tiff randol: http://www.myspace.com/tiffanyrandol she has a very soulful approach to her music and a voice to match it. her shows have so much energy it’s hard not to enjoy her music.

amy kuney: http://www.myspace.com/amykuney a very smooth and soothing voice. i know i’ve mentioned her here before, but she definitely deserves another mention. she has a very big heart and is one of the nicest people i have ever met

chris pierce: http://www.myspace.com/chrispierce this man is another one who puts so much soul and energy into his music. seeing him live is like watching a master put on a clinic on how to play music and pull the crowd along with what he’s trying to do.

the elevaters: http://www.myspace.com/elevaters a funk/soul/r&b/hip-hop band that will get you out of your seat and dancing whether you can dance or not. and if you’re not dancing at one of their shows, then you must not have rhythm, because these guys know how to bring the goods to the stage.

ok, that’s enough for me for now. time to go into hibernation again for another 4 months….

two years later and i finally get to experience my first earthquake in LA. i realize this is an area known for its geological instability, but the reality is nothing like the TV/hollywood version (it never is!). of course, it was nowhere near “the big one”, clocking in at around 5.4 on the richter scale. but it still gave everything a good shake for about 20 seconds and the only casualty was that the water dish for my cats spilled some water on the floor. cell phones stopped working for about 30 minutes right afterwards, but they say it’s because everyone suddenly makes a bunch of calls to make sure everyone (and everything) is ok. all in all, it was a good introduction to the phenomenon and i’m glad it wasn’t a bigger earthquake, otherwise i’d be super pissed at my insurance agent for not sending me the earthquake insurance papers two weeks ago like i asked them to…

i find it strangely satisfying for some reason when i look over at the car next to me and see a very cute girl driving a sports car, acting like she’s got so much attitude. then seeing her reach up to pick her nose. AND THEN EAT THE BOOGER! it’s too bad that it’s considered creepy to take pictures of people in their cars when they don’t know you’re watching them.

well, i thought this would be a good time to dust off the cobwebs of this place and get writing again. today’s subject has to do a little bit with quantum physics theory, so i will provide some background on that first for those who are too lazy to look it up, or who can’t understand the reference material. we start with the fact that at the quantum level, the pieces of matter we know and love like protons, electrons, neutrons, and all the rest do not have a well defined area of space and/or time that they exist in. in other words, they are impossible to measure without highly specialized and expensive equipment. werner heisenberg said that not only are they impossible to measure, but that you can’t know one set of parameters without totally messing up some other measurements in the process. for instance, you can possibly measure a particle’s position but you can’t really know its momentum once you measure its position accurately. in physics we call this collapsing the waveform, because most particles act similar to waves at that level, and the equations that describe them closely fit equations for waves. the reason the waveform is collapsed though, is because once you measure a piece of that information you forever change the way that particle/wave is observed and it will never go back to the state you found it in from before you measured it. understand? taking the measurement of quantum particles forever changes the nature of those particles.

so there’s this girl that i’ve known for about a year and a half. we’ve had some good times and some better sex but for the most part we had an understanding that we were mostly friends with benefits and that was the end of things. all that changed about six weeks ago when we took a small road trip together. we found ourselves enjoying each other to the point that i started thinking that we were finally taking that step from friends with benefits to potential girlfriend material. over the course of this year and a half we had our moments where she started to let me in but then would push me away. then she’d let me in again but then push me away. lather, rinse, repeat. this time around, she didn’t push me away when we started getting closer. so i operated under the assumption that we were actually making something work together and it would not be long before we became “official”.

…and that’s where the happiness ends. because last week an old friend from high school came to town. an old friend who happens to be a guy. an old friend she hasn’t seen in over four years. an old friend that she thought about trying to sleep with on several occasions long before i came on the scene. my more astute readers are already knowing where this is heading. yes, she spent a total of three days with this old friend and has decided that he means more to her than anything else in the world, and i should just understand because “we didn’t have a commitment to each other anyway”. needless to say, i’ve spent the last week in a range of emotions that nobody should have to endure in their lifetime. i think i’ve lost several pounds on the “crushing depression” diet. and she knew i had feelings for her but didn’t think i was going to be as good to her as this guy. who she hasn’t seen for four years. who, although they knew each other before, is almost certainly not the same person she knew in high school. and so everything i’ve been working towards this past year and a half is gone in one weekend.

what does this have to do with quantum physics? it is this: my relationship with this girl was measured. the waveform collapsed — big time. and it is now forever different for the future. the fact that she has been one of my best friends i’ve ever had just adds insult to the injury, we can never go back again. she’s set determined to be with this guy now and she’s convinced herself that he cares too. and i can’t talk too much about how fast they’re moving because i was in a long term relationship that moved almost as fast. but most of my time with this girl was actual time spent together, and that means that as long as he’s around i will not be able to be around her. and she wants him to move in with her soon. so in the space of three days, we’ve gone from hanging out almost every day to we may never see each other again. if ever there was a candidate for the phrase “collapsing waveform” outside the realms of physics, i think this definitely qualifies. nothing makes sense right now, and every day is a challenge to make it through till tomorrow. but i have a lot on my plate this week, so i’m hoping it will be enough to help me get over the fact that the potential current love of my life is now no more than the proverbial dust in the wind….

an open letter to the person who stole the stamp off my cable bill this afternoon:

are you *that* poor that you can’t afford to drop 42 cents on your own stamp? hell, even if you bought a stamp at the store down the street you would only be charged 50 cents for it! i’m sure you could’ve stood on the corner outside of that shop and *begged* for that much money within about 5 minutes! it’s not that hard to come up with the money to send a letter these days you know.

yes i realize the post office just raised the rates, which means that stamps will cost you ONE WHOLE PENNY more than they did last week. i’m sure if you walked the five blocks to the nearest post office you’d probably find at least one penny lying on the ground between here and there. the post office is real good about trading in currency for postage, even pennies that you pick up off the street.

you do realize that it’s technically a felony to tamper with someone’s mail? so you could be facing prison time over 42 cents worth of postage. lucky for me that it wasn’t a very important bill, it was just the payment for my cable. if you’re gonna commit a felony though, you should have gone all out and just taken the whole thing. you would have had my checking account information — everything but my social security number, which you probably don’t need to make any online purchases on most websites these days.

anyway, i want to personally thank you for destroying the last vestige of my faith in humanity. or at least my faith that nobody will mess with the mail once it goes into the outgoing mailbox. if you looked at the return address then you know where i live, so come on by sometime so i can properly show my appreciation for your thievery. give me some advance warning and i’ll make sure to put on the steel toed boots before you get here cause i just want to go that extra mile for you to show you what i think of what you did.

sincerely,
moondog

well, my internet buddy callatya has tagged me with reaching into the current book at the top of my reading list, flipping to page 123 and posting the next three sentences after the first five sentences. today’s entry comes courtesy of frank herbert’s God Emperor of Dune and goes a little something like this:

“He did not like this place with its high walls all around from which attack might come. Idaho had sent scouts up there in the night and Moneo knew that some of them still lurked on the heights, but there were also ravines ahead before the marchers reached the river. And there had not been enough guards to station them everywhere.”

if anyone wants to play along, just take the current book you’re reading, open to page 123, read the first five sentences, then post the next three. and drop a line here if you want me to read what you’ve posted

yes, that is a check for a whopping NINE CENTS that i just received from an old 401k account i had from a job i haven’t worked in almost three years. the best part? they took two cents out of it for federal withholding tax! i can’t wait til next year when i get a statement from them for that enormous sum so that i can properly file my taxes

unfortunately, this is going to be an emo post. but i’ve come to a realization lately that what i think of as friends are nothing more than close acquaintances in the big picture of things. maybe it’s the digital age or maybe it’s LA itself, but i find that people who are true friends to me will actually call/text me back if i should call/text them first. the ones who don’t even answer and don’t even acknowledge that i sent them a message should be a hint that they don’t value me in their lives at all. i’d like to chalk it up to LA, because i know that the friends i had in austin would at least give me a yes/no answer to a yes/no question. none of this “i’ll answer you if i feel like it because i’m too busy to text a simple yes or no to your message”

anyway, i was hoping to meet some people out tonight for a night of great music but of course nobody can answer me i really don’t care if they can’t make it or don’t want to go out, but if i ask “hey, want to check out this show tonight?” and get *nothing* back? yeah, that really pisses me off. especially when it happens from people who i *have* spent some time with and who i thought i was close enough to that i can at least get a “hey maybe next time” or something similar. the upshot of the whole ordeal is that even when i ran into some girls i knew were going to be there tonight, i didn’t get much more than a couple sentences from them either, despite the fact that we’ve all hung out together and again, i thought we were closer than we apparently are. somehow i always end up as that person who gets interrupted mid-sentence, or find myself suddenly talking to nobody but me when i thought i was having a conversation with someone. maybe i should just take the hint and find someone who does want to talk to me. well, i ended up leaving early, which i *never* do on a normal night. i’m usually the one who is last to leave, or near the end at least. but something about tonight just put me in a foul mood.

thankfully humanity redeemed itself in the form of tommy’s burgers where i had an actual conversation with some people waiting in line. not only that but found that we even had a shared experience from a dodger’s game in the not-so-distant past. i had more fun waiting in line for a chili burger than i did listening to some awesome musicians, and for some reason, that just doesn’t seem right….