Suicide Notes

I was wondering if people ever post suicide notes via new media, ie facebook, twitter, and I came across this the other day. It's beautiful, maudlin, horrifying, and, if you've spent your whole life cycling in and out of suicidal depression, sort of funny. It's a bunch of suicide notes that I guess ended up at a morgue. Check it out, here.

Coffee Wars: Portland Edition

Spent two nights and full day in Portland. It was a sort of throwback Artist's Date for my wife and I. The goal was to spend an entire uninterrupted day at Powell's Books, and talk to each other without being interrupted by triplets until there was nothing left to talk about and we were just quiet in intervals. We stayed at the Westin which has great beds, the Heavenly Bed(tm) and we saw Kurt Loftstrom, the guitar player in my old band, My Eye, and met his housemate/significant other Ann Grugich and were pretty much blown away and inspired by their work. But this post is about coffee.

Like a said, we stayed at the Westin. Right next door, close enough for a 10% discount, was Public Domain coffee. Sort of a cross between Intelligentsia (without the pretention) and Blue Bottle (without the full on gadgetry). A good, solid third wave coffee place. I toggled back and forth between a short latte in a cappuccino cup, and an espresso machiatto, my drink of choice at Intelligentsia. We visited Stumptown on break from Powell's bookstore. I had a machiatto there, too. Both places were like Intelligentsia in the sense that the coffee was non-offensive, smooth as a shot and could be drunk basically straight, but didn't have a whole lot of character.

I think both places were actually slightly better than Intelligentsia, in that regard.

I bought a pound of the Prometheus blend at Public Domain, and the Hair Bend blend at Stumptown. Right now, I'm making the hair bend at home and it's a dark nut brown, with a frothy crema - extraordinary, when compared to average coffees, actually, and right down the pipe even with the other really good 3rd wavers, ie Blue Bottle, Four Barrel, Vivace, Victrola.

Side note: I'm using a blend of Illy - the old uber-expensive standby - and whole bean from Cost Plus right now - I use a scoop of each in the espresso basket, and that's pretty good. The Stumptown, or Stumptown split with Illy is better.

I have a dream

Merry Christmas

Redd Kross at the Paladium.

Being funny, being themselves. AHHHCK!!! I can't believe I missed them playing. They opened for Faith No More. I feel it like a hole in my gut. They sound great. Check it out.

Dang Gubmint

I do this act for my kids which is always sure to get a big laugh. I act like a gun-totin' tobaccy chewin southerner, and I start talking 'bout how de dang gubmint got it hands in my bidness and ya'll better git off my popperty. And then I play my banjo and pretend my wife is my sister and have my way with her. (That part is after the kids go to sleep.)

Ya'll check THIS out.



So today, I went to one of my very favorite restaurants in LA, Abbott's Pizza Company link. It was a bright sunny day and I wanted to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine and eat my pizza. But, sadly, they had removed the outdoor seating. When I asked the woman behind the counter about it, she informed me that the authorities told them that the seats were a safety hazard and that they had to be removed. (Note the picture above, with outdoor seating still intact, people happily eating pizza in the noontime California sun, not visibly dangerous to anyone.) And then these same authorities came back a week later and told them that they could have their seats back out front if they paid $10,000. Which of course makes them more safe, huh? Like paying the mafia makes your store more safe.

Here's another recent incident, also meal and extortion-related (on a smaller scale).

I stopped at a cafe in Hermosa Beach for breakfast and got out of the car, quarters in hand. Looked down at the sign on the meter. No payment required until 10 a.m. Street cleaning Wednesday. I put my quarters back in my pocket, since it was 8:15 a.m. on Tuesday. When I came back, I had a $35 ticket for street cleaning. Which, I think I mentioned, happens on Wednesday.

I was angry and upset. I ranted for a while and people listened patiently. But in the end, I sent 'em the money. It was easier and I'm sort of a puss. Plus, I figure ... it's for the city. Whatever. I would just prefer that Hermosa Beach Police have a Policeman's Ball or something, rather than handing out spurious tickets to get money from people. I say this because it wasn't the first time it happened in the South Bay.

Third and final story: Over Thanksgiving dinner, my very-conservative mother-in-law said that the government has made it virtually impossible for her to volunteer for Meals-on-Wheels because there are so many regulations and .... well, that sounds like a lawyer problem, with liabilities and so on. But she was blaming the government's vast overcontrolling tentacles. Rush says, and she believes, that Obama has personally made it impossible for her to be nice anymore. I was sort of mocking her with my clever inside voice, but now I'm starting to think, huh, well maybe she's onto something.

I draw 2 conclusions from these 3 incidents.

1) I guess The Gubmint's pretty hard up.

2) The self-perpetuating momentum of our legal system means that we will always have more laws, and less personal responsibility, rather than the other way around.

Which leads me to state, not completely randomly but in a channeling-the-voice-in-the-wilderness way: why can't we have a socially liberal, fiscally conservative solution? Or at least an option? Option for what, you ask? Everything. Isn't that what 'merica's all about? Freedom? Personal responsibility? Eating pizza and a soda and hanging out in the sunshine?

Dang gubmint.

Cross-eyed Tired.

Just dodged a near argument w/the wife. Aweful weary. Flying all day today from the Gulf Coast of Texas-Home to Redondo Beach, CA.

Read: a couple great articles today in Best Non-required Reading of 2010. One was about the influx of capitalism in India. "Capital Gains." The other was about these 'after school club' evangelists that go around converting little kids to Christianity. Ah, the stories we tell ourselves. "Stuff" will make us happy; and, on the other hand, it doesn't matter if we're happy here because heaven awaits. And, somewhere in the middle: me. A little bit happy, a little down a lot of the time. Knowing there's no heaven and that stuff won't fix me. Stuck in this no-man's land. Anyway, this compilation of writing Best Non-required Reading of 2010 was put together by Dave Eggers and a collection of High School students. Buncha good thought provoking writing and observations and assorted content in there. I picked it up because I was in need of some inspiration and it hasn't disappointed. In fact, highly recommended.