| a typical conversation at Papa John's |
[Jan. 22nd, 2008|02:58 am] |
This is just a rough sketch of a conversation we had at Papa John's today. It isn't by any means exact. This is just usually how our conversations go.
CALEB: (singing) "You are beautiful, in every single way. Words won't bring us down."
KEITH: You know Christina Aguilera didn't write that song.
JACOB: Who did?
K: The woman that writes Pink's songs.
J: No, she didn't. That's Christina's song.
K: No, someone else wrote the song.
C: Who wrote what song?
J: The one you were singing.
K: Someone else wrote that song.
C: Who did?
J: The woman that did Pink's songs. She's a famous songwriter.
C: Umm ... Carole King?
J: No. Not Carole King.
K: The woman that wrote it is a lesbian.
C: And it's not Carole King?
J: Carole King is not a lesbian! She had a solo career, or she was in a band. She's a popular songwriter. She used to have dreds like back in 2003 and now her hair is really short.
C: kd lang?
J: No.
K: I think it's that woman that did ... how does that song go? ... "I bet you think this song is about you."
C: OH .... her name starts with C-A-R
J: It's not Carole King! Carole King is not a lesbian!
C: No. Not Carole King! Ummm ... Carley Simon.
K: Oh, that's right.
C: Carley Simon's a lesbian?!
K: Oh, she's a big ol' lesbian.
J: Oh ... Her name was ... Linda ... something.
C: Linda McCartney?
J: Linda McCartney is not a lesbian!
C: Is it that woman from the 4 Non Blondes.
J: I don't know.
C: Her name is Linda. She had dreds and a big hat. She wrote music for Bryan Adams.
J: What is her last name?
C: I don't know. I don't think she had a solo career.
J: Ok.
C: ... Linda Ronstadt?
J: No, she's black. This woman was white.
K: Linda Ronstadt is not black.
C: She's a country singer.
J: Well, who am I thinking of?
K: What is that? Is her name Dutch? Scandinavian?
C: I think it's Norwegian.
K: Who is that?
C: (singing) "I don't know much. But I know I love you." with Aaron Neville.
K: No, she's gay like Larry Bird, that guy from Phoenix.
J: Larry Bird is from Boston.
K: No, he's not.
J: Larry Bird.
K: Yeah.
J: The coach for the Celtics.
C: The Celtics.
J: The Celtics.
K: Larry ... Bird. Uh ... no ... I mean, Charles Barkley.
C: Charles Barkley is gay?
K: Oh, he is so gay! He's so gay, he's a white man.
J: What about that guy ... Magic?
C: Magic Johnson is not gay! He has AIDS!
J: Oh, ok. ... What about that other guy? The Mailman?
K: What is his name?
J: Hey, Justin, what is that basketball player's name for the Utah Jazz?
JUSTIN: Karl Malone. He retired at 43, surpassing Michael Jordan by one year, I think.
J: Ok.
C: It's not Carole King?
J: Carole King is not a lesbian!
C: And it's not Carley Simon?
J: No. I think her name's Linda.
C: Linda McCartney?
J: Linda McCartney is not a lesbian!
C: I think it's the woman from the 4 Non Blondes. All those boys looked pretty gay. I didn't know she was a lesbian. I think you're thinking of her. I don't know her last name, though.
J: Linda ... Linda ... Linda ...
C: Is it Stevie Nicks?
J: Stevie Nicks is not a lesbian. She had sex with that guy in Fleetwood Mac. What's his name?
C: Mic Fleetwood.
J: No, the other one.
C: I don't know his name.
J: Justin, what was the name of the guy in Fleetwood Mac?
C: ... who isn't Mic Fleetwood?
J: He had a girl's name.
JUSTIN: ... Leslie.
JACOB: Leslie Buckingham!
C: Lindsay Buckingham!
J: What was that other girl's name.
K: There was no other girl.
J: Yes, there was.
C: Hutch might know. Let's ask him. ... Hutch, what was the name of the other girl in Fleetwood Mac?
HUTCH: There was no other girl.
J: Yes, there was. She sang backup vocals.
H: Well, everyone sings backup vocals.
J: She sang lead on those two songs.
H: Well.
C: Do you know the 4 Non Blondes?
HUTCH: (singing) wake up in the mornin' and get real high ...
C: Yeah! Do you know the lead singer's name?
H: ...
C: We know her first name is Linda. We just don't know her last name.
H: Linda McCartney.
By the way, her name is Linda Perry. She was the lead singer of the 4 Non Blondes. She is a lesbian, and she wrote "Beautiful" for Christina Aguilera. She also wrote music for Pink, like "Let's Get This Party Started." She did not write anything for Bryan Adams.
Christine McVie was the other girl in Fleetwood Mac. |
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| Franz Schreker |
[Jan. 19th, 2008|04:15 pm] |
If darkness can be resplendent, that is Franz Schreker's music, or at least what I've heard of it. The CD came in the mail today. It's the NOe Tonkuenstler Orchestra of Vienna conducted by Uwe Mund and it contains "Vorspiel zu einer grossen Oper" (Prelude to a grand opera) and "Romantic Suite." The prelude is full of dark colours. I think I hear an alto saxophone in there, but it might be some Middle Eastern or Egyptian instrument of which I am not familiar. It is rich, thick, and robust ... like sucking on dark chocolate. He seems to avoid the ecstatic moment, unlike Mahler and Wagner. The "Romantic Suite" is not a misnomer.
The liner notes say that his music is yet to be published, which is too bad. Audiences should really hear this music, along with his other contemporaries, like Zemlinsky. His music is already experiencing a small revival, perhaps one day the same may happen for Schreker's. |
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| a poem fragment |
[Jan. 19th, 2008|08:31 am] |
I wrote this while at work and deprived of sleep for 24 hours. I didn't get to finish it and don't want to since the inspiration is gone:
An eternal state of affairs
The yellow pages of our lives
Phone numbers and pictures of who to call
when the water is leaking
when the children are hurting
when the house is making strange noises
Answers in a mesh of dead trees and horses
Our temporary coasters for our ice cold beverages
For we do so hate those unattractive rings on rosewood |
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| Two computers, Gas bill |
[Jan. 17th, 2008|09:28 am] |
After work early Tuesday morning, I watched "Empire of the Sun" and "House of 1000 Corpses," which had arrived through Netflix. Loved them both. It was 5:30 AM and I didn't want to sleep, so I decided to rearrange the furniture, which was bothering me anyway. I put Lindsay's furniture in her old room. In front of the couch, I put my coffee table and behind that I put my black trunk, so it's sort of an extended coffee table. I got out the flatscreen monitor I got for Christmas and hooked it up to my PC. Now, I have two computers in my living room. I like it a lot. I can do things at once now. I will be setting up my webcam so I can start posting videos on Youtube.
The song Christian Bale lipsyncs in "Empire of the Sun" is an old Welsh lullaby, and it is very moving and beautiful. I want to learn the Welsh language, or at least learn to read it. It's one of the most beautiful languages I've ever heard. It's like lukewarm water in the mouth.
I went with Ashley to Birmingham on Monday. She had a doctor's appointment. Granny Kay visited me earler and wanted to help me with my bank account, which I thought was in trouble, but it seems to be okay. I will have enough to pay the rent next month, but I'm behind on my bills.
Explain this to me. My gas bill was $80 this month. There are two less people living in this apartment now. And it's been this way for about a month. I haven't turned the heat on, because I wanted the gas bill to be low. In fact, I can't turn the heater on, because it's broken. There's a downdraft that blows the flame out, so the gas can only heat the water. So, how is it that my gas bill is $10 more than it was last month? I smell something fishy. I've deliberately had it dickshrinking cold in the apartment in order to save money. The maintenance guys here have tried to fix the heater twice. They fucked with it and didn't solve the problem at all. Yesterday, when they came to look at, they said they would have to replace it. They're installing the new one today, and they said it would be more energy efficient. Alagasco has some explaining to do. |
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| Obama as President |
[Jan. 10th, 2008|07:42 am] |
Jacob R and I were having a discussion about the upcoming election a few days ago. He thinks that if Barak Obama were elected president, he would be assassinated. "Come on? Do you really think white America would allow a black president?" I said I had never really given it thought. That's because I have thought that white America would never elect a black president. I still believe that the next president will be Republican ... possibly Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is the sure bet for all those evangelical voters. That is how one is elected president nowadays. You have to have the support of one, great, big, enormous club. That club is called the church. And evangelical Christians meet every Sunday and, aside from talking about God, they talk about politics, and whomever the preacher supports, the congregeation supports also. This people are bred to vote for a religious candidate.
Jacob thinks Obama will be elected president. He will choose John Edwards as his vice president. Obama will be assassinated, and then Edwards will be president.
Think about this. What if Edwards were caught in the crossfire? Then Nancy Pelosi would be president.
I remain a supporter of Mike Gravel. The rational one. The honest one. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|11:50 am] |
Since the previous post, I have finished "A Gathering of Old Men." I'm still trying to finish Stuckenschmidt's biography of Schoenberg. I started the book last year at this time, or maybe even before that. I'm over 300 pages into it right now.
When I came home from work last night, Dandy had made a mess in her cage. I had forgotten to take her out before I left for work, so I wasn't mad at her, but it did take me two hours to get the whole thing cleaned up. I had to go to Wal-mart and buy Resolve and air freshner. I had her with me in the car, and I realized that she had rubbed her face all in it, so I had to give her a bath. The mess had gotten in the cage, the carpet, and on the drapes. I think it's that Alpo I've been feeding her.
I'm pretty sure that I have an ulcer. I noticed it four days ago. It wakes me up in the morning, and it really hurts when I eat. It was a lot worse, but I need to do something about. I think it developed due to all the drinking I did this past summer. I mean, for one month I was drunk every day, and that was every day. Then, there was all the stress of the past few months, with work and money worries.
Roberto has a son now. He has named him Mark. He called me when it happened, and said that he wants me to make him a CD of slow classical music.
I have started exercising again, and I'm trying to get below 170 pounds. I'm 175 right now. |
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| Posted earlier |
[Jan. 8th, 2008|11:49 am] |
I posted this on Facebook and Myspace a few days ago:
I figured I would list some of my happiest and most memorable moments of 2007, so everyone else can know how great of a year it was for me and to try to fuel my desire to make 2008 even better.
My favorite moment of 2007 ... hanging out with Lindsay and Abi and the Warlocks! in Birmingham. That moment is in my top five happiest moments ever. I have to thank the two girls for making that happen. I wish the guy from Darker My Love would have hung out with us, too. I even had fun dancing to that Rod Stewart song ("Young Hearts Beat Free Tonight") in the middle of the gridlocked interstate.
I improved on the guitar. Wrote a whole lot of cool songs and learned a lot of cool songs. Still working on the clarinet. Let's make 2008 the year of the clarinet.
I finished all my work toward my degree, but Skip didn't turn in my change of grade form, so I'm not going to graduate until the end of the spring semester. That's cool. I'm working anyway. Next step is to take the GRE and decide where I want to go to grad school.
I haven't listened to a lot of new music, at least not a lot of music released in 2007. Favorite album is Heavy Deavy Skull Lover by the Warlocks. I like the noise, the fuzz, the sweetness, and the sickness. I probably would think Radiohead's "In Rainbows" the best album if I had actually heard it. I wanted to donate $10 to their website to download the music, but I never had $10, and now the thing is about to be released on CD. I never even had money to cut my hair. I haven't had a haircut since May. Everyone talks about how they like my long hair, but I think it's too long. "Cassadaga" by Bright Eyes is also a good album. I liked "Hated On Mostly" by Crime Mob and "Casually Smashed to Pieces" by Six Parts Seven.
I read a few good books and several mediocre ones. Here's my reading list from 2007:
Plays of Maurice MAETERLINCK, Vol. 1 and 2
MAETERLINCK - Hothouses
Harrington STRONG - The Brand of Silence, a Detective Story
F. Scott FITZGERALD - The Last Tycoon
FITZGERALD - The Beautiful and Damned
FITZGERALD - Tender is the Night
Bram STOKER - Dracula
BLACK HAWK - An Autobiography of Black Hawk
Upton SINCLAIR - The Jungle
Nathaniel HAWTHORNE - The Blithedale Romance
HAWTHORNE - House of the Seven Gables
HAWTHORNE - Selected Tales and Sketches
Henrik IBSEN - Peer Gynt
Arnold SCHOENBERG - Style and Idea
SCHOENBERG - Letters
John LYDON - Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs
William FAULKNER - The Town
Edward ALBEE - The American Dream, The Death of Bessie Smith and Fam and Yam
Jessie Redmon FAUSET - Plum Bun
My goal was to read a book a month, but I succeeded in doing more than that. I also tried to read more American authors, since I am usually reading British or German writers. "The Jungle" was my favorite. I should have read the thing as I was supposed to for American History, but I didn't then. As you can see, I read a lot of Fitzgerald. I have actually read all of his books (*Dylan songs wanders through brain*). I only have his short stories to go. I also read a lot of Hawthorne, but I am not close to finishing his work. I have "The Marble Faun," "Fanshawe," something else, and plenty of his short stories to go. "The Town" is the second part of a trilogy by Faulkner. I love Faulkner! Maeterlinck is now one of my favorite playwrights. He sits just beneath Shakespeare and Goethe. Perhaps Schiller sits beneath him. "Dracula" was fun to read, and I liked the use of letters, documents, and journal entries to present the story.
Anyhow, here's my reading list for 2008:
"The Flivver King" SINCLAIR
"Sonata Forms" ROSEN
two Mahler bios MITCHELL
"Salambo" FLAUBERT
"Story of the Eye" BATAILLE
"In a Glass Darkly" LE FANU
"Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" GAINES
"Gathering of Old Men" GAINES
all of FITZGERALD's short stories
"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" BROWN
"Black Elk Speaks" NEIHARDT
"The Jewish War" JOSEPHUS
"Stand on Zanzibar" BRUNNER
"Americanization of Emily" HUIE
"The Mansion" FAULKNER
"The Call of the Wild" LONDON
"Sea-Wolf" LONDON
short stories of LONDON
"Jazz" MORRISON
"Tar Baby" MORRISON
"Power of Sympathy" BROWN
I'm reading "Stand on Zanzibar" and "Gathering of Old Men" now. Friends who are still reading this, please let me see your reading lists.
Other goals of 2008:
-take the GRE and make an excellent grade
-decide where I want to go to grad school and move to that state
-improve on the clarinet, guitar, and piano
-get at least five decent songs onto a CD
-get another job besides Papa John's ... perhaps a job at an independent record label
-stay fit, but I'm still going to smoke
-drink less, and I'm doing sort of okay with that
Friends, tell me what you think. What are your goals for this year? |
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| Merry Christmas |
[Dec. 25th, 2007|09:35 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Notorious B.I.G. | ] |
I slept sporadically today. Got up around 6:30. My mom still does the Santa Claus thing, even though my youngest brother is 15. So, I still get presents from Santa. I got socks, a buncha candy, tea, "Stand on Zanzibar," and a flatscreen TV for my computer, so I can get back on my PC when I return to Tuscaloosa. Last night we opened our presents from each other. I got Beethoven's complete string quartets, a recording of Josquin's "Missa l'homme arme'," and a coloring book with all of these composers in it. I thought that was really neat. Does anyone want to color a picture of Paul Hindemith?
I finished the second series of Maeterlinck's plays that I checked out from the library. I've been working on Wikipedia pages for them, and I spruced up his biography page, so it looks really nice now.
Paul and I will be riding back to Mobile tomorrow. I hope to get my recordings off of Raoul's computer, so I can post them on Myspace. I will probably be driving from Mobile to Tuscaloosa tomorrow. The ride down to Tampa actually went okay. I just didn't drink any caffeine, and I was fine. We stopped a lot, so no wiggin out.
I'm ready to get back to Tuscaloosa so I can make some money and pay my rent next month. |
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| In Tampa |
[Dec. 23rd, 2007|02:13 am] |
I am currently in Tampa for the holidays. I worked 5-9 at Papa John's and I left Tuscaloosa around midnight. I arrived in Mobile at about 3:30. I ate with Paul at the Waffle House just off of the interstate on Dauphin St. I stayed at his house that night.
Before we left Mobile, we visited his gf and her 2-yr-old. A really cool kid. Full of energy. Paul was aggravating him and the kid told him, "You poot," which I guess means 'you suck,' or 'you are like who you are when you poot,' which I guess is bad to him.
We left Mobile around 4 and we got here about 1 or 1:30. Dandy made the ride ok. She rode in her cage and was quiet the entire time.
I will be here until the 26th. |
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| election 2008, I have to say this |
[Dec. 9th, 2007|06:20 am] |
Think about why there is so much hype about Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Why would anyone want to vote for a president simply because he would be the first black president or she the first female president. That is not a reason to vote for someone. But if Barack is chosen to be the Democrat candidate for president by his party, one knows what will follow. All voters will be called upon to be a part of history and elect the first black president. Nevermind that he has only been a senator for three years. Come on, guys. He's too inexperienced. Obama supporters, do you really know where he stands on the issues?
Same goes for Hillary. If she is chosen as the Democrat candidate by her party, all voters will be called upon to elect the first female president. Is it not so obvious that she's SUUUCH a politician. I couldn't trust her, if she were president.
If everyone would just listen to what the other candidates are saying, Mike Gravel is the most honest of them all. His policies and suggestions are the most rational and reasonable, but no one knows about him because the media doesn't give him any time. And no one bothers to really study the candidates. They just, sadly, let the media decide their candidates for them.
It doesn't seem that Mike will get his party's bid. If it goes to Barack or Hillary, then I will probably either vote Republican or Libertarian. The Democratic Party will have disgusted me.
Right now, I'm liking John McCain more than Obama and Clinton. He's one of the few Republicans I actually respect. |
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