Tuesday

At the End of the Rainbow...

...G-d protects property values.

- - - -
[June Ends, Paradigm Shifts]

For Whom Do We Bleed?

This...Unplugged

Ty,

You may or may not be checking your email based upon
your recent conversion to the elitist non-wired movement also known as the Un-plugging Yourself from the Matrix Society (but first or lastly, speaking of 'Wired,' I loved the tutorial on Street Portraits you sent). But in regards to your new transformation, you are preaching to the choir...there's a scene in the movie "I Heart Huckabees" where the guy is like, "...have you ever seen what happens in a meadow at dusk?" and the kid at the table is like, "what happens in a meadow at dusk? WHAT happens in a meadow at dusk?!" and the mom and the guy respond at the same time "Nothing!" "Everything!" It always makes me laugh because it's like the absurd notion that this suburban kid doesn't KNOW what happens in a meadow at dusk, with the birds and the bats coming out diving for insects and the sun setting on the 'magic hour' (which is really more like the magic 38 minutes) and that soft glow right before the night falls.

Anyway I got carried away.

Who are you to pull this kind of irreverent shit on the rest of us Junkies?! You get us hooked on the blogs and then you go AWOL and leave the reservation? You're running scared! What makes you think you can get away from the machine? You're right, you're gonna be huddled in the corner in the fetal position in about 3 days! No, but seriously, I don't have internet at my house, I have no cable TV. I come over here to Oakland for my fix every couple of weeks and plug-in. But the rest of the time I open the window in SF my apartment and sketch or draw or write or read...and people think I'm weird.

If I ever get a job in The Industry I've already come to the dark resolution I'll be shackled to a computer in some dark, tech lab for 4 hours a day downloading and photoshoping the wrinkles out of peoples faces. On that subject: I got a D+ in my Photoshop class. Went to every class. Went to the workshops but I had a fundamental disagreement with our professor about exactly this point. I'm an old school photographer, more Capa then these new school hot shots. I believe in breaking the rules, every chance I get...it's art you idiots, there are no fucking rules-which is why I didn't go to business school...anyways my Prof was always preaching about how the industry dictated everybody PS the shit out of everything and for the first half of the semester she had us touching up Macy's ads - -bullshit! But the rest of my classes were straight A's... (not that the grade matters-it just gives me a little leeway to say
fuck off for that D).

Anyway pull the plug, brother-I love it, but save your notes and photos and we can scan them in (as is-Gonzo style-into the machine) and we'll make a bundle touting yourself as "The New-Tech Blog: Living Off The Grid."


Anyway just thought I'd holla.

Peace,


Cassady

P.S. Obama needs to spend less time looking cool (and man is he cool! BBQ's Basketball, hot wife) and start doing some 'heavy' shit-or is that age of politics a pipe dream....


P.P.S. Just to prove that maybe quitting the Net
IS the right thing to do...at the exact same time that the U.S. is handing over control of Iraq's capitol city, Baghdad, CNN is covering MJ's final day hour by hour....does anyone get the feeling that the camera is pointed at the wrong thing? Like we are getting duped? Like when something REALLY big happens then we blow the shit out of some weirdo "celebrities" life...I mean don't get me wrong, I like music and history (I could probably write a thesis on Bob Dylan's impact on Hip Hop) But shouldn't there be a channel for that, when did that become "news"? Just saying maybe you are Noah and if there's room on the ark, that would be cool...

- CK

Feedback on The Evlove-ment continues to make its way to my little corner of things. Most positive, some glib, some betting against the success of mid-cigarette cessation. It is not, however, my responsibility to give a shit though.

Cass's note is perfect in every regard. From the Fuck You D+ to the notion of jumping the grid as being elitist, Cass is once again on target. And if there's anything I believe in, it's elitism, don't you know? Doing what it takes, brother, to separate from the rest. But rest assured, I am here still with the emailings, the Web logs, the iTunes, and all that silly "virtual" shit. Just turning it down from boil to simmer, perhaps. It takes time to shut these power plants down. There are no master OFF switches. But we are headed in the right direction. This I know.

This is what's left of your internets: [clicky] You really want to be part of that, do you?

It all makes me ask, though:
For whom do we bleed
What are the latest priority fads
Once consumers overtake producers
and mimic creation itself
Where will angels congregate
So here we are at the edge of civilization
(in many ways)
Mind the cycles as you
Mind the warnings

Another friend suggests:
As much as it pains me to suggest this because I would lose interaction with you, try it for 1 day and see how it goes: No internet, no cell phone..land line only, no email unless it's crucial for business. No iPod to tune out the world. Just disconnect and tune in totally to your surroundings and see what it's like. I think for myself, at this point, I'd go through some withdrawal.
It is probably unwise to constantly try to change your basic nature as much as society attempts to make one do just that (all the goddamn time). Maybe we do just need to begin tuning into our surroundings more. Maybe this is the New America. Maybe it's the quitting. Who's to tell. But it feels great.

What's next? Who knows? Sure I have expended tremendous resources reading (successfully) the ripples but maybe I can now begin to make my own. As Rickey P. says, "This is just the way I am.

Danielle [Summer Portrait Series 2009/12]

------------
[SPS09]

B [Summer Portrait Series 2009/11]

------------
[SPS09]

Like This?

"So,,, macrophotography . . . flowers, insects, bubbles, dust in the corner, crinkles at the side of the mouth produced by a smile, a tear, wrinkles, detritus left on a plate after a good meal,,,,all the details that lurk beyond our usual level of observation."

- KHE

Monday

Welcome to the Only Game in Town (on loop)

This is how the world makes you
Yet pulling carts does not grow you
Anyone else or any thing else

G-d does that sound lovely
Living for beautiful
if not perfect
Moments

Connecting dots and drawing conclusions
Inferences based upon sloppy tracks of
Others' disappointed lives of mediocrity

Smart jump from tanks of sharks
and into the perfection of
da_kul_kul_watr

Ryan [Summer Portrait Series 2009/10]

------------
[SPS09]

Woulda Been Called Workshop Worship or Something in Recent Past

[click above and move backwards]




[workshop beta]




Friday

Jeremy [Summer Portrait Series 2009/02]

------------
[SPS09]

Last Post of Abnormally Keen Despair

"Just because I quit the internet doesn't mean I've stopped working."

- ty hardaway

[clicky] <-- click here, Dorothy, Alice, and all the fantasy characters looking for something new.

The Tao Of Cybernating

Listening to sounds outside
Friends meeting for long overdue lunch dates
"Let's do this again, soon!"
Too enthusiastic with half-hug parting
Judging

Hot today hottest thus
Drinking coffee like fiend out of doors
Peeping tattoos of regret
and times past
Stories in the flesh

Little black boys from afar
Sales pitches snubbed hustle
Cashing on liberal guilt
Grateful recipients of scams on loop
A really warm and comforting way to share

Deconstruction : Reconstruction



Click on image.

Deconstruction - Reconstruction (mutating yesterday)


"Build it up, tear it down/
Ride your donkey into town."
- the Kingdom of Leisure, 1996

I disabled my Facebook account this morning (because "all that shit is lame as hell" and you know it) and this was the word verification offered me for the "are you sure?" portion of the going-away game:
I thought that was a perfect pairing of words. Meaningful in so many ways. Mutating yesterday is exactly where I'm at right now. Perfect words of zenful omen. Perfect words to move me forward.

And as perfect segue to the mutating yesterday theme, today's topic is obviously dominated by
thoughts on Michael Jackson's death. Michael! Yes, there is only one Michael. Who do you think you're kidding?

I hadn't planned to write anything on the subject but I was asked by numerous people what I was thinking. So here's some stuff hastily cobbled together like last night's Nightline and 20/20 news programs.

So yeah, it was with fascinating wonderment that I followed the trickle-before-the-flood internet and MSM accounts of Michael's death. Why did I care? It's Michael. I watched some of the hastily assembled network coverage last night as well. Why? It's Michael! Jesus get over your pretensions and hatred of whatever, Michael Jackson was easily one of the most original, fucked-up human beings who ever lived. If you do not agree with that, go away! Talent aside, problems aside. Original. Fucked-up. Period.

Most of my thoughts have already been written, mostly by others.

-------------------------------------------------

Pre-death, yesterday afternoon, I called it, knew it, before TMZ (which continues to have the absolute best coverage), Drudge and all the others and alluded via email, "When Michael dies, coupled with Farrah? Today? Mark it: June 25, 2009 will be one legendary day!"

RP responded:
"The best thing that could possibly happen to Michael Jackson right now is to just quit it and die. We'll forget the last 20 years and call it even. We'll call you King of Pop and let the toddler diddling slip, slip away like letters from old friends falling off our slumbering chest and disappearing under the bed.

We'll let it all go and remember you pre-Captain Eo, pre-Bubbles, pre-Culkin, when you were everything.

But if you come back...

Don't. Just don't come back. There's nothing left for you here."

- Rickey Powell
Salient.

-------------------------------------------------

Last night, I IM'd with a very good friend up north. Here's the log:

Blog: sad
me: not really actually
we couldn't let mj get old
Blog: "I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out."
me: exactly
10:29 PM fuck, JOE started it
man in the mirror
Blog: yep
but you're right - he couldn't get old
it's a good point
me: it would be wrong like an old elvis
or jimi hendrix doing reunion tours
fuck no, don
Blog: yep
10:30 PM me: epic day though
tell you what...
Blog: literally
me: ...they'd better send Obama's ass to camp fucking david
Blog: no shit
me: shit keeps getting topped
mcmahon
ok
farrah
Blog: farah
me: ok, wow
Blog: fawna
it's nuts
me: MICHAEL FUCKING JACKSON
Blog: word!
10:31 PM me: barry obama was all, "call the choppers, we are outta here"
head to the hillz niggas
sad too (you
10:32 PM are right)
i grew up with the motherfucker
my nigga
ABC
TeeVee shows
you OK, don?
10:33 PM don?
DOOOOOOOOOOOON!
OH SHIT, BLOG'S DEAD TOO
exponential deaths
hide the pope
10:35 PM mcmahon
farrah
MJ
blog!
shit, i better fucking head to camp david myself
10:36 PM Blog: blog didn't die
it's just a touch of the aids
10:37 PM me: thank g-d aids is curable nowadays like jock itch
thanks to magic johnson
15 years ago who'd you guess would die first: magic or michael
10:40 PM goodnight
Salient.

-------------------------------------------------

Today, I was directed to this piece:
"I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out."

- Andrew Sullivan, Thinking About Michael
My response: You see, friend, the problem here is without Joe and the abuse we'd never have what we now grieve: the Michael Jackson catalog, legacy, memories, and this epic outpouring.

Everything we are celebrating, grieving, or disavowing is BECAUSE not DESPITE.

Without the story ("The Story") it would be just another celebrity death. Unfortunately, with Michael Jackson you cannot have one (the talent) without the other (the personal story). Same with Elvis. The Legends do not take out the garbage or wash dishes. To be historic, to become historic, is not based upon living a normal, sane, fun life. Michael's life wasn't a game.

At some point he became captain of his ship though. Cry abuse and handled all you want. Sure, it got out of control but I guarantee you, the major direction--obvious child molestation missteps aside--was controlled by Mike. Cry me a river but let's not take away Michael's behind the curtains genius. He wasn't always a puppet.

I'll say it again: Art is pain.

R.I.P.? Sure. Alls I have to say, however, is thank you to Michael, Joe, Quincy, Barry Gordy, Tito, Janet, Latoya, Bubbles, Emmanuel Lewis, Priscilla, Eddie Murphy, Brooke Shields, Jermaine, and all them motherfuckers for making The Michael Story one of the best, most transcending, most dissected, most transcending stories in human history. You think it's deconstructed now? Wait for the reconstruction. See? Mutating yesterday. I told you so.

Had Mike not been chewed up and spat out, Thriller would have never happened. Shit, Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal" would have never happened. And believe me that shit is dope!

And as I told my wife last night, "The child molestation stuff is the only drawback to the whole project. But I guess it does add a memorable chapter." Without the child molestation stories, the legend would have not been as big as it got. Remember that court shit? Helicopters over Neverland. Michael's video retort. Martin Bashir's interview? The shit he wore to court? All part of this story. We cannot have one without the other. Mutating yesterday.

-------------------------------------------------

But, lest we forget Farrah, Ed, Mark Sanford, Kim Jun Il, Fidel Castro, Osama Bin Laden, or your best friend, your mother, your son, or YOU:
"Looking at the front page of the NYTimes, there are about 5 stories about MJ. The revolution in Iran got bumped to a small box in the corner. Plus, who knows how many people were killed in yesterday's bombings in Iraq? Whu? There were bombings in Iraq?

People are born. Some people achieve great things. Most people live mundane lives. But we all die. Achieving greatness is no means of preventing death. I don't know why people forget that when someone like MJ dies."

- B
Salient.

-------------------------------------------------
My last threee things for Big Dave Wave*:

1) Mike's kids are gonna be shit-ass rich now. Catalog selling like mad.

2) Mike's 100 song upon-my-death catalog will be giant and his kids are gonna be shit-ass rich.

3) I want to produce his kids in their band. I know, I want to be Joe/Barry/Quincy to Michael Jackson's kids. Think of the possibilities using their shit ass rich money.

-------------------------------------------------
"We really do live in a world that was too cold for what MJ was on the inside, when you think about it - or at least the MJ from before Dangerous came out."

- Sean Doyle
-------------------------------------------------

Michael
wasis legendary and you know it. And those are my thoughts on, as the Los Angeles Times headlined:

"Michael Jackson Dies"

-------------------------------------------------



* "I realized last night what kind of exponential jump might be good for you, the thing that would distinguish LU from MS and AKD: the funny. Everybody blogs about their life, their kids, their job, the mundane, the sad, the happy. It's the funny that people crave. BN did so well because of it, PB was fun because of it, and I think that's a giant part of you that you could explore and develop. The funny, that's what the world needs more of. "

Thursday

Bodhisattva for Gabriel

"Respect your passion. Respect your concern. Respect your need for reality-based relationships. Now you need to convert us all back to that mindset so we can dance and sing in utopia.

If you're going Buddha on us, stick around as a Bodhisattva to bring the rest of the world along on the journey."

- PBR

Sarah [Summer Portrait Series 2009/01] - BEGIN

------------
[SPS09]

Wednesday

All That I Have Left Perhaps - Ebb to the Flow

Terrible photographs processed so poorly on purpose
A look I tell myself that maybe is just a thing
But deep inside I know it is just not a thing at all
That my eye and brain are just slightly off
Slightly misaligned and slightly off game
Slightly searching slightly jealous slightly waiting

But what is different this time around
Is there is no panic that doom has arrived
That it is all over and is forever lost
I now know when a pause is that
Just a pause
And that is the very best thing ever

The Flowers That Look So Much Like Sherbert

More important than
all the criticism or praise
or necessity or desire
or all the sun or rain there
is clean and dirty
As most binary of dichotomy
And applicable universal
context(s)
From execution to perception
------------------------------

And while we speak of binary
Never is there a good time for
Forcing (pressing or pretending)
Physics and psychics generally rebel
But if left alone
Over time we do not need
the centrifuges
All that is necessary and wanted
Rains like diamonds upon
the shoulders of heroes

My One and Only Uncle I Referenced to Sean-Doyle

My junky uncle. Maybe half-uncle (different father than my dad). I found the picture. But I've already written about him:

JW King - This is my famous only uncle. JW. Joe Willis. Jason. Whatever. I called him, "Uncle." Brilliant man. Very smart and very kind. I owe him my intellectual curiosity. I owe him my cynicism. I fucking LOVED that man to death. Fucking bad genetic luck, though. He had the addiction gene. Got it from his father. Heroin. Crack. You name it. But gentle as a kitten. Died in his early fifties on the couch of my dad's house. My dad who was often hating on his little brother had recently taken him in from homelessness. He didn't want his brother to die on the streets. Massive heart explosion. Died right there on the floor. Fuck! I'm crying right now I miss him so. And yes, all the King's are dead now.

From I've Always Been This Awkward - Six

Tuesday

The Kingdom of Leisure - "Middlespace" The Album - 2009

...all our everything is headphones & cocoa collection

Listen MP3
Side One 20:29
Side Two 20:34
Download M4A
Side One 20:29
Side Two 20:34
Album History

Middlespace Sounds

------------------------
Notice will and testament: It is my desire for Third Man Records to put this release out on vinyl, just so it never went unsaid. I know, fanciful, but I only need one copy, thanks.

Maybe

There is an overwhelming relief and satisfaction that comes when a metaphoric hurdle is successfully jumped. But not unlike having a Significant Birthday, "change" isn't always immediately evident. At some juncture, you simply understand that the levels have changed, the rules are different, and you have fewer unanswered questions. No build-up, no let-down.

Equilibrium.

There is difference. A weight lifted; air again breathable. Senses reset if not sharpened. There is difference.

And since I have already mourned the passing of milestones in time and experience I cannot and will not be responsible for remnants in the wake. You sink - you swim. Momentum nudges us forward without our input.

So I'm claiming that it's nine-tenths figured, without anger, sorrow, or lament. Just clarity, peace, and no pretense of authenticity. Simple and zen. What it is.

Maybe there is satisfaction in our existence when we begin to take all the advice we've given to everybody else.

Monday

Chapters & Themes : Focus & Structure

"I like the chapters idea, going from one theme to another. But: here are my thoughts. Are there significant differences between the different blogs, or are you making these changes in search of something that is missing in this medium that you may not find at all? Is starting a new blog in search of this missing element and greater structure (for I think it is a lack of structure that caused the move from middlespace to AKD) going to make a difference?

What if these moves are too incremental on the same plane (counting by ones) when what you need is more of an exponential jump (counting by 10s) to a different one? Also, and this is more of an obvious point that you already are aware of, and are playing around with, but isn't blogging about quitting the internet like an alcoholic sitting around the bar, sharing a beer with his buddies, telling them how he quit drinking? Not that I think you should actually quit anything. But to me, it's like realizing you're dreaming, and then worrying about who's going to feed your fish when you wake up."

- BDW

Good question.... It's less about quitting than it is about focus and structure. Narrowing and honing. Ungluing. Unstructuring. I really don't care if it makes a difference. I don't care if I ever find what I'm searching for. I just don't want to stop the search. I'm like O.J. searching for the real killers.

Today I Quit The Internet - UPDATE

I called it a day on this the first day of summer 2009. Everyone I know and love and who know and love me told me it was the best decision I've ever made.


-------------------- UPDATE --------------------
Lily says the statement I wrote above is...wait...she's taking computer from me now. Here's Lily:
"What I said was, 'I seriously doubt that everyone you know and love told you that it was the best decision you ever made' in my best imitation of Ty [mope guy] voice."

- Lily

I Quit the Internet

Yep. Ted Kaczynski was right, yo. Unnecessary, capitalist, and vanity technology is lame as fuck. Most of it is anyway. Don't believe me? Turn off the electricity in your house for a couple of days and you'll be all rocking in the fetal position scared of your very own shadow. Seriously, iPhone, Kindle, DVDs, Google, all that shit is lame as hell. And the best part is everyone knows it too. Flat panel TeeVee? Another think sold to you by somebody who sells things. Your life isn't any better because you have a TeeVee to hang on the wall. Shut the hell up I'm about to be a luddite now. No! A neo-luddite! How you like my act now, sukkahz? What are you doing with your bad self? That's what I thought.

My friend Sean-Doyle already said it all:

"There are no more Street Preachers - only bloggers."

What? Blogging is so-dead. So dead it doesn't even stink anymore. Maybe I'll become a street preacher. Maybe I won't. Maybe I'm just done. Dues paid. Arc complete. Maybe. How would I know? But blogging and watching Twitter posts and becoming somebody's 751st Facebook "friend" is stupid, man. When did we get so stupid? We need to be like Obama and stop being so stupid. I told my friend in the Crooklyn that I was gonna quit and he stepped out of a meeting to call and say, "what?!" But I said I think I caught an epiphany and will really do it this time. Take up reading and enjoying other people's music and art. It's summer. I have a bicycle and a banjo.

Don't think I can quit this game; this lame ass game? I can quit anytime I want to (the junky says). But I know me. I'm stubborn as fuck and can do anything I want. I've done it before. I can do it again. It's me, silly. I could make this my very last post if I wanted to. Poof! Later. What happened to Ty?

But....

Cold turkey is never the right way to quit a thing. Only my very own father (Happy Father's Day, pops, wherever you are) could pull that cold blooded shit. He quit like a 20+ year smoking habit mid-cigarette. Said, "I'm done." Looks at everyone else as weak for not being able to quit a cigarette. But the rest of us have to taper and tier down like the mortals we are. I still got stuff to type into Abnormally Keen Despair. I still have a record almost finished. I'm posting it on the internet. I know. Lame, huh?

So let me finish my album. Let me take some pictures. Let me rant and rave somemore if I fuckin' want to. But all the rest? Twitter? Facebook? Geocities? Netscape? Done. Mid-cigarette. All the told-you-soers can eat a can of ass. You know where to find me (write me a letter, I'll write you back). I'll be doing my thing. You kids can have it. It's lame and you use it wrong anyway and I definitely don't want to be mopetarded like y'all.

L8r sk8rz, don't be h8rz. LOL. LFR. FTW.
[joe]

Saturday

Sunday Worship: Home Sweet



Saturday Workshop: Awww, the Kids and Their Words

Saturday Workshop: East Harrisburg Sandwich






Note: Middle image is neither a ghost or a new venture. It's a "sike!" Barnes & Noble found it more business prudent to pull out after their name had been put on their new building but never opened. Changed their mind, no thank you. Sike!

Saturday Workshop: Coming & Going



Not ghosts. I mentioned that I've given up on ghosts because it's like shooting fish in a basket. There is something that comes after ghosts. A spirit reborn. New shit! Above is the good and the bad of new shit. The good? It's new shit. The bad? It's Urban Outfitters in Ithaca which means more homogeneity in our kid's fashion choices and some more hurt on the Ma & Pa shops. But...the good may outweigh the bad at this point.

Henry at the Dump (rushed shot in the rain, horribly exposed/focused, sorry)


But we got all the crap to the public "solid waste facility" (dump) which, fortunately, was open on Saturday. I feel bad that the photo bites. Here's a really good photo: [clicky]

My Friend Lily

I have a lot of art and artist friends. In fact all of 'em are come to think of it. So that's my problem.

I feel as if I know some of my art and artist friends so well I never get the chance to give props or dap. Like my friend Lily. Always there to photograph me in hospitals. Always ready to PA. Always doing her thing (even when it's like a pinball in a pinball machine). I mean, she shot my wedding for g-d sake.

But this picture blew me away. It's...perfect.
[clicky]

See? Of all the pictures she's taken. Of all the brilliant and beautiful and wonderful photos from all over the world (and I'm always preaching, "contrast correction, Lily" like I know something), it took this one for me to go, "Oh my! Kid knows what she's doing."

LilyDC

Friday

Ask Ty...June 19 [The Gravity Question]

It must be Tuesday Friday, Middlespace Cadets, because I'm answering your questions

Q: Dear Ty,
Why are we so convinced that in the future we are going to be able to defy gravity? For example, in Back to the Future II we, as a species, have developed multiple devices that defy gravity. Skateboards, even! We are so efficient at defying gravity that we can provide skateboards at price points accessible to teenagers! Need I remind you that Back to the Future II takes place in 2015, six short years from now.

As far as I know, there is no major effort underway to defy gravity. Bush said let's blow up the Middle East and put a dude on Mars, but I don't remember anything about basketball shoes that let you walk six inches off the ground and allow midgets to dunk. And Obama, well, if you read between the lines you can see that he's as anti-anti-gravity as they come. Gravity-sympathizer.

Anyway, how come in 1985 it made perfect sense that by 2015 we'd no longer need wheels and tires, yet in 2009 no one is even talking about it? If the GOP wants to return to power, anti-gravity is their ticket.

-McFly

Ty: Good question and an even better observation, McFly. Those movies sucked, dude. Really, really terrible shit. Go watch the first BTTF and you'll agree: dogshit, McFly. The first one was novel, but he other(s) were total dogshit. In the summer of '85 I actually worked at the mall where they filmed the outside-the-mall sequences for the first BTTF, Puente Hills Mall. The filming of a "major motion picture" was the talk of the mall. I worked for Davis Lighting. I worked in the back workroom, building, repairing, and wiring all sorts of home and business lighting solutions. I was a wire monkey. It was probably the best job I ever had. Summer gig. Fun as hell. Good people. Loads of fucking around involving tools, electricity, and light bulbs. It was the only job I ever took a pre-job lie detector examination for. And although I must have lied about numerous things, I got the job. I was all, "really?!" when they called with the offer. I mean, 'have you ever taken drugs,' and 'have you ever stolen anything from an employer' are the heart and soul of the American worker, right?

One day, one of my pals who drove the van Davis Lighting between locations was waiting for a UPS and some other delivery truck to leave before he could back in to unload or whatever. I was all, 'Dude, I could fit it in there.' I may have called him "pussy" or something guys do. He was all, "No way...try it." He gave me the keys. I think I scraped the UPS truck pretty badly but no one ever said shit to me because I wasn't supposed to be driving the van and my friend got major shit for letting me. Rules, don, rules! And use your mirrors (I learned that with the A/V van in college).

Just like the armored car driver for the jury trial I just finished (rules mostly, and mirrors probably apply too). He watched his partner get gunned down (killed!) and robbed. He left the truck to check on his partner after crashing his armored truck into the getaway car and watching the crooks run away to carjack a getaway car 'round back. He was able to thwart a clean getaway and provide key witness testimony. But his rules stated that he never leave the truck, to stay with the money. His job was to call 911 and wait...with the money. But he got out to check on his partner's well-being. He got fired. His partner died. Rules, don, rules! And watch the money!

I mean, Jesus, your work partner, your friend--who you worked with exclusively for over a year every goddamn day--takes five of at least a dozen 40 calibre and 9mm rounds fired at him and you're supposed to sit there like a mope? Jay never got his gun out of his holster. Rules vs. honor. You make the call.

Heroes have been shat upon every day of human existence.

But, McFly, to answer your question I offer: In 2015 we'll still need wheels and tires to roll around in our tiny, slow, dumb electric homo cars (all wishing we had Camaros and Chargers and GTIs). Obama may still be president in 2015...all gray and wrinkled and looking like he sees ghosts with blood on their hands in every teleprompter (like W did circa '06). Gravity will have ruined his beautiful mulatto face. In 2015 we will not have conquered gravity like they've been suggesting in "major motion pictures" since time began, but they will still portray the conquer of gravity as something to be enjoyed in the very near future.

What I'm trying to say is...there are rules. And laws like gravity. And there is honor.

Just a guess,

-ty

--------------
Ask Ty... Archive: [clicky]
Keep Produuucing, Ben®

The "Pop" of Robin's Egg Blue

Dumb Luck Banjo Hobo

[apologies but technical difficulties rendered previous comments lost]
Back in the 80's in Boulder there was a bluegrass band called Hot Rize. They were great...internationally known. In the late 80's a United flight skidded off the runway in Denver and did a few cartwheels before bursting into flames. A bunch of people were injured or killed. The banjo player from Hot Rize was on the plane. He had checked his banjo. He escaped the crash uninjured. His banjo had a broken neck. Dumb luck on his part.
Ty, Bruised Orange show in Berkeley (sound check), April 2006 photo by Sistine [clicky]


Ty, Ithaca, NY, June 2009 photo by Ty

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Bonus: 1996 The Zone basement: [clicky]
Special thanks to Ithaca Guitar Works

Poppa's New Bag

[apologies but technical difficulties rendered previous comments lost]



Some "natural progressions" are not so obvious.