Racism

Would you like to know why racism is alive and well in America today?

I think I have the answer.

Sit back and turn on your television to the coverage of Hurrican Katrina.

Have you seen the footage of the "people" looting the stores in New Orleans?

I can empathize with the ones taking food.

I am specifically referring to the ones stealing liquor, jewelry, and clothing.

The ones celebrating like a good LA riot was taking place.

When you see them stealing with wanton disregard of the law, do you feel hatred?

I sure do.

A National Emergency

This editorial hits the nail squarely on the head and drives it home. Our elected fools need to address this burgeoning crisis immediately.

A National Emergency

ARE YOU LISTENING MR. PRESIDENT?

New Carpet

Over the weekend, I had new carpet installed thus ending a nearly year long remodeling process.

Except for the tile floors in the bathrooms, every surface of my fashionable east side condo has now been replaced, resurfaced or repainted in some way.

To review, the following work has been done since last November:

1. Reface, remove and rearrange kitchen cabinets
2. New granite countertops and bar
3. New kitchen appliances
4. New ceilings
5. New Brazilian Hickory hardwood floors in dining room, kitchen and hallway
6. New carpet in living room and both bedrooms

Whew! Can I stop now? Is it safe to put my money back into my wallet?

New carpet pictures are below..

Out with the bad..	... in with the good!

Things Overheard

Tonight was a night of excitement at my favorite grocery store Trader Joe's. It seemed that everyone was on the phone and talking quite loudly to whomever was on the other end. In particular, there was this extremely loud and overweight woman who seemed like she would be more suited to a double-wide in Horn Lake Mississippi than a trendy grocery store in "The OC".

As she roamed from aisle to aisle, she made sure that anyone in her (rather large) vicinity knew that she was in "this stupid store" looking for a "stupid can of soup". And to top it off, she "even has a bladder infection" (she repeated this same speech 3 times in a row).

I suppose it's a good thing I left before she began pawing at her yeast infection and dipping her gout foot in the frozen vegetables.

Burgers, Booze, BBQ and Blues

Monday evening, Jaclyn and I returned from the river city, the queen of the Delta, the big eggplant Memphis Tennessee. Ok, we actually stayed in Southaven Mississippi with my parents but noone really knows where that is and I find it much easier to say Memphis than trying to explain that Southaven is just across the state line.

It was a nice little four-day visit albeit very hot. The events of the plane ride there would make a nice blog entry by itself, but I think I will take this opportunity to document the places we visited and the food we enjoyed.

My parents greeted us at Memphis International Airport (where the big jet engines roar) late Thursday afternoon. After enjoying a delicious meal consisting of pork loins, peas, mashed potatoes and corn bread, we headed down to Hernando to enjoy some bluegrass and gospel music at a small church. How's that for Southern?

After enjoying bacon, biscuits and molasses for breakfast, Friday morning found us headed to the Pink Palace Museum for a little culture. After absorbing as much as we could in a few hours, our growling stomachs got the better of us. Luckily, Central BBQ was just around the corner and we each filled up with a delicious BBQ sandwich.

Friday evening, we met up with my friends Tommy Coleman and Tommy Jones for the world's finest hamburgers at Huey's. What better way to wash down such a culinary delight than with an adult beverage and popcorn at Zinnie's.

After a visit with my sister Susan and family, Jaclyn and I spent time Saturday evening enjoying a glass of wine at Le Chardonnay in midtown. We are both quite found of this dark, intimate lounge. Using our reserve strength, we headed over to Murphy's to visit with Tommy Jones and friends in the sweltering heat.

Sunday afternoon, the whole family gathered at my parents' home for hamburgers and grilled chicken.We also all took turns admiring this huge spider that had built himself a web in the back door to the garage.

Sunday evening, we ventured downtown and enjoyed some delicious cajun cuisine at King's Palace Cafe on world famous Beale Street.

To complete our culinary tour of the mid-south, we had Monday morning breakfast at Cracker Barrel restaurant. Afterwards, we scoured the streets of Southaven in search of Moon Pies so I could bring some back to my co-workers at Tugboat Software.

Even though temperatures hovered in the high 90's, we had a nice visit. It is always nice to get back to the south in the summertime. The heat can be unbearable, but the sounds of tree frogs and crickets in the evening, make it all worthwhile.

Life is a Beautiful Thing

You plant a rose
And if the rose comes up
You're thankful to God
And when it doesn't you cuss him
You raise a child
And when the child grows up
You got to learn to let go
If you can't learn to love him

Now I'm not saying only bad news comes
For the people who want it to
But you gotta play that music for who's listening
You got to have someone you wanna sing it to

Close my eyes, see the glorious sunset
Through the windows of a store and I want it
Anyway, if I ever felt haunted
You were there for me
These angry people who are waiting to judge you
Have their own judgement that they'll have to live up to
Open your mouth
And if nothing will come through
Remember
You're the one that sings
And it's a gift
And life's a beautiful thing
Oh, don't waste it, doll

You build a house and if the house comes up
You gotta work on that house
Want to make it your home
'Cause everything inside that's not something you own
Is what you're taking with you
On the day that you go

And oh, what a beautiful world when we sing
Hear all them bells ringing out in the street
Hammer strikes the metal and it makes me believe
Hear all them bells ringing out in the street
Oh, hammer strikes the metal and it makes me believe
'Cause if I don't believe in love
Then I don't believe in you
And I do

Spend, Spend, Spend

Jaclyn hates it when I say "spend, spend, spend" so I do it as much as I can (of course).

This past weekend I did some spending, spending, spending on new carpet. This hideous gray-blue-dirt colored carpet will be no more in a couple of weeks. It will be replaced with lucious, soft, Stainmaster extra-life carpet. Carpet shopping has to be one of the most overwhelming and tiring shopping experience there is. The vast array of styles and color can be more than the mind can bear in one afternoon. Luckily, we have done this before and knew the basic color and style we wanted before we made the trek to Carpet Emporium. Of the 4 samples we tried at home, the one we thought would not work turned out to look great in all my rooms. Trying to find a single carpet that will match contempory style and color can be quite challenging. I am thrilled there was one that I actually liked and did not feel that I was settling for. Hopefully, I will be singing this same happy tune after it is installed. Nothing can look worse than what is already in here though.

In other purchasing news, I acquired a portable MP3 player. It's about the size of a small pager with 512MB of flash memory. I have already loaded about 5 cd's worth of music onto it. It should prove to be quite handy for the looooong flight to Memphis this Thursday.

Congratulations to my friends John and Judy Green on the birth of their first son. They are "trying out" the name Connor to see how it works. From the pictures that I have seen, he appears to be a cute little baby.. nice and smooth with no worry wrinkles.

Can You Hear Me Now??!

After a three-day hiatus, today I triumphantly returned to 24 Hour Fitness for my usual Thursday workout. I have a good excuse as I was not slacking for those three days just for the sake of slacking. A business partner was in town so I had dinner both Tuesday and Wednesday with him.

Anyhow, back to the title of this post. Today as I was walking into the gym, my eye caught site of this gal pulling into the parking lot with her cell phone glued to her ear. She wasn't anything special to look at so I am not really sure why I noticed her. As I finished some quick stretching, I saw her walk in (still talking on the phone) and down to the locker room area. About 5 mintues into the cardio portion of my workout, she passed by me on her way to the elliptical rider. Again, she was still engrossed in her obviously important cell phone conversation. At this point, I became intrigued. What could possbily be so important? I checked on her as I finished my 20-minute routine and sure enough, she was still on the phone all the while steadily bouncing away at her chosen exercise.

I spent another 20 minutes or so downstairs and then about 5 minutes on my abs before I left. When I walked by this girl, she was still on her phone. According to my estimate, she had been talking for at least 45 minutes. Granted she was sweating away doing her exercise, but why couldn't she get off the phone? What possesses a seemingly normal (albeit short and stubby) human being to act in such an odd way?

When cordless phone were first introduced, did we have this same problem? Did we go out of our way to make calls while sitting on the toilet just so we could say "Hey! Guess where I'm calling from!"?

Jaclyn's theory is that since cell phones are a relativly new technology and the proliferation of them has been so sudden, there have not been rules defined when it comes to manners and cell phone usage. I have seen some restaurants take this problem into their own hands and offer cell-phone-free seating. I have even seen signs informing patrons there is to be no cell phone usage in the dining area. At a pizza place, I saw a sign that read "Please end all cell phone conversations before ordering".

Unless it is something that cannot wait, please think twice before pulling that vexing little gadget out while you are in a public place. The person you annoy just may be me.

Original Ideas

This evening I was digging through some old music projects on my PC and happened across the original demo recording I did for the song 'Downwind Eyes'(posted in my previous blog entry).

Listening to this version, I can easily hear why the music spoke to me in the way that it did. Good songs write themselves. Good songs turn into bad songs when musicians get in the way and try to shape them into something they do not want to be. I believe that was my mistake later on when I tried to take this piece into a band situation in which it did not properly fit.

In my opinion, you can practically hear the humidity dripping from the slide guitar and visualize the heat rising from the highway as it traverses the flat Mississippi landscape. I tried to capture these emotions lyrically, but this intro clip from the original demo speaks much more loudly than my words.

Nobody Wanted to Hire a Guitar Man

For the better part of 18 years I have played in various bands, playing various types of music in various types of venues (how's the for well-rounded?)

From hard-core metal to performance comedy to alt-country, I have written or performed songs that hopefully have appealed to a wide range of audiences.

Here are a few for you listening pleasure.

Dave's Trip I wrote this song in 1992 and recorded it with Planet Klown at Tubbs Recording Studio in Memphis TN. It is about a guy on drugs who feels that he has embodied the Earth; that he himself is the planet and can feel the Earth breathing, thinking and feeling.

Mexico I recorded this song while playing with MonkeyGrass in November of 1997 at Easely Studios in Memphis TN. It was always a crowd-pleaser and I considered it our signature song. It's funny how the subject of this song longs to travel to Mexico and now that I live 1 hour from Mexico, I have never been there.

Downwind Eyes I wrote this song in the spring of 2002 and recorded this with my most recent band Ghost Town. It was a garage recording and this is the only song you will hear me singing on. Based partly on non-fiction, the rest is pure imagination. It's about driving through Mississippi on a hot, humid August day and happening upon a fiery car wreck.

The World Waits for You I did not write this song, but recorded it recently with an internet buddy for a Jay Farrar tribute CD. I felt that it was beautiful in it's simplicity and quite powerful.

Walking in Memphis

In two weeks, I am taking a day off work. What?! A day off work?! Yes. Actually, I am taking three of them. Before you begin to think that I am slacking and implore me to reconsider, allow me to briefly touch on the fact that I have not taken a day off all year. This will be well-deserved three days.

Jaclyn and I will be visiting the Memphis area to see my family and friend. I have not been home since Christmas and my parents were beginning to think I had disowned them. Besides, it was time to go back and it had to be now if we were going to go.

When I first moved to California, going back home was always such a huge event. I had so many friends to see and places to go that it seemed like I was on the run the whole time. On occasion, I would even hook up with my old band and sit in with them during a gig.

Since then, 90% of my friends have either moved away or disappeared and the band is no longer together. However I still get to visit my folks, enjoy the sounds of various nocturnal creatures and eat some good food.

Unfortunately it will be during the middle of August which means two things: heat and humidity (and mosquitoes for Jaclyn). Oh well.. there is nothing that a pitcher of Sam Adams and a burger from Huey's won't fix. Jaclyn does not quite understand my fixation with that place, but to me Huey's says "welcome home".

I should go before I start waxing philosophical about some inane crap that matters to noone but myself. My memories are better kept safe inside my head where they are fully understood and appreciated.

Change change change..

Ok, I changed the layout again. I just had to. The other one was too wide and beginning to scare me.

Has anyone else been watching Rock Star: INXS?