remiss

I am about to embark on an odyssey of attempting to sleep, but I should briefly mention my most recent reading.

1-Stephen King-Pet Sematary. It's known as being a terrifying book, and at parts it certainly lives up to that. But for me it's one of the best examples of King's real genius, which is capturing real, pure human emotion in such a way that the reader leaves the book actually having experienced the emotional depth of the characters. Here, it's more successful than ever, which is particularly astonishing given that the main subjects, grief and dread, are two of the hardest to capture without personally experiencing them. I really think a lot of the power of King's writing gets lost in all the "horror" and the film remakes.

2-JD Salinger-Nine Stories. While I was really not a fan of Catcher in the Rye, I decided to give this collection a shot. Turns out I was correct in doing so. When he gets less long-winded and limits himself to a few dozen pages, Salinger can spin out some truly incredibly snapshots. Not all of the way through yet, but my favorite so far is probably "For Esme--With Love and Squalor."

Slowing down.

I just spent an hour in washington square park hanging out with the squirrels, doing absolutely nothing.

Probably the healthiest and best hour I have had since I came down here.

I finally identified my problem. I have been slipping into the NY state of mind, which really just doesn't fit in my head. I feel under pressure to constantly be doing something. Go. Work. Create Value. What is missing is the ability to just stop and appreciate something. Today I was watching two squirrels. They were just chillin' about a foot away from my right big toe. I suddenly realized that I have no idea what their tails are for. They are about as big as the squirrels themselves but they seem completely impractical.

Along similar lines, I probably need a typewriter. I get too distracted trying to write on the computer. I also really wish I had a room I could just go to and think. Nothing there but books, papers maybe. Definitely no computer. For lack of a better word, a study.

my new favorite band (name)

IWRESTLEDABEARONCE-"Tastes Like Kevin Bacon"
Note the zany colored mic.

insomnia

Woke up in the middle of the night for no clear reason again. Felt like writing something.

I'm pretty excited about Jimmy Fallon taking over Late Night. It's a win-win, really; we don't lose Conan, as he is taking over Leno's old show (major improvement) and we get a new one hosted by Fallon, produced by Lorne Michaels, and with The Roots as the house band. Fuckin' right.

I had a conversation today with Tom in which we decided that it would be necessary to have at least one song with only one phrase for a lyric. Then he said just such a phrase. Am working on that.

Check out the new E6 album, Flashy, if you haven't yet. Some tasty stuff on there.

Yeah I'm young but I feel like I'm old
Yeah I'm older and older each day
And I built walls to keep out the cold
And the feelings that get in the way

Goodnight world.

Beck is a goof.

shit

Sorry, I got distracted.

I have a lot to say but I also have a midterm in an hour in a half so I should probably keep it to a few things:

1. If you haven't yet (you probably haven't) go check out J.D. Souther. If you don't know, he is the singer-songwriter who wrote basically all the Eagles' best songs, plus songs for Linda Ronstadt, etc. He also had a career of his own but preferred to kind of hang back and play small clubs because he is a true, legit dude. Anyway, he went on a 25-year "fishing trip" but is now back with a new album, If The World Was You. And it's crazy good. He's also on an acoustic tour right now. I had the good fortune to get into the over-packed show at Joe's Pub and hang out with J.D. backstage a few days ago. Seriously, what a cool guy. If I was J.D. Souther when I grew up, I'd be happy with my life. Anyway, if you get the chance to see him, do it. And in the meantime, the new album is pretty crazy. Uses a lot of horns and has sort of a jazzy feel mixed in with Southern California Folk-Rock vocals. Really cool.

2. Finally got around to seeing the film Stranger than Paradise. Goddamn, man. What a great movie. Very minimal, but the actors really do a great job of acting like actual people. The budget was probably like $5, but Jim Jarmusch really, really pulls it off with a minimal cast and setting.

3. We haven't found out yet about Peapod, but if they don't put out the record, we'll be getting it professionally made and putting it in stores by early December at the latest. Expect to see us on the shelf pretty soon. I can basically guarantee this will be the only pressing of those songs ever, so if you have faith we are going to make it big and want to be that dick who claims to have known about them before they were huge, well, now you can have evidence! Probably going to be like $6.