raine makes the save

anne wraith, half-day(gay) lemay's wife was having some internet/computer problems and had asked me a give her a hand...not that i know that much but, i said sure..and finally, after months of not getting there, today i finally made my way over there...eager to help out...in the end it turned out telus was the problem and ...oh, i hope it turns iut ok....i did what i could...while i was there raine, their ofspring, a great kid, was skating around on his roller blades and stick handling a puck in the basement. he put on his goalie pads and i shot a few balls at him - cracking him in the head a few times, which he seemed to like a lot...


ok...dinner.

g. xo

flys in the ointment.

today isn't going so well. no death or destruction but some disappointment for sure. i am having to rethink this whole photo project i have been working on as i may have lost my photographer because he's very busy, and i get that (busy is good...), and it seems i may have to go this alone, which isn't a huge deal but it may not look the way i had hoped it would - i don't know enough about using a medium format camera to embark on this - or maybe i could rent one and fake it and see what happens...my head is full right now....

i need a snack.

g. xo

let's move some shit...then get some mexican goodness.

it was a day of getting shit done, just nothing i needed done...storm salon lisa needed some stuff moved out of her place and over to a place in east van...and i do love moving stuff so i was very excited to help out, especially since it was raining out. once we had gotten the stuff over and settled we needed some lunch so it was off to me and julio's on commercial drive for some food and, well, it was after noon so, some drinks...pretty good breakfast burritos there...then it was off to get a coffee and to the home depot, which is wicked on a saturday, to get some parts for her toilet as it was fucked...and i was gonna fix it for her...which i did so she's all set-up now...

i did a drop-by to the island for some coffee and to drop-off some dowling to the pickle and then home to decompress a little before taking mishi's cousin philip to topanga for his first ever burrito...

it was a good dinner and i think he liked the drinks that came along with his burrito..we also made sure he had a piece of the world famous chocolate cake as well...oh, and mishi and peter bought him a topanga t-shirt to take with him back to england...looking good.


ok...i need a nap.

g. xo

mishi needed to touch vanessa's hair tonight...

des couldn't believe it was philip's first burrito...

philip and peter yuk it up.

secret devil sign and finger combo...nice.

mishi...


mishi and the boys outside topanga.

can't get away without a jump shot...

cam does art, we do burgers

cam and jessica, the lovely art duo known as caje creative, had their art show and shine last night - one night only, don't go looking for it - and the garbs and i went by to have a look and lend our support...it was good. jim, mr. braineater to you, cummings was manning the musical controls and cam was handing out drinks as jessica moved about trying to drum up sales...good job kids...(and note to cam who i have cut out of a few photos in the past because i try and do my best to only present the flattering....last night that camera made everyone look bad...while you just looked a little 'cheech' it wasn't good...and i know you're a good lookin' guy so....)
the garbs and i then headed to moderne burger, a place i have not been for a long time, well, nobody really has as it was closed for 15 months getting renovated...and it looks great. i had some personal issues with moderne burger but wanted to let the garbs taste the burgers there and say hello to peter who runs it...his wife, peter's, gave me a very strange look as if shooting daggers at me...oh well...the burgers were good....but they had no dessert there so...
we headed to topanga for cake..two types, cheese and chocolate.... senor corie met us there and had some cake after his fine enchilada....and speaking of enchiladas...mishis' cousin philip is in town from england and we're gonna take him there on the weekend. he's a straight shooter when it comes to eating so it should/could be interesting...
in the world of lawn order...i got a call the other day from a friend of mine who manages a building in kits and she wants me to be the lawn dude there next year - pretty cool...and a client of mine apparently has a specialty landscaping business and has asked me if i'd like to hook-up with him and be his lawn guy as up to now he's never offered lawn cutting...we had a phone conversation the other day and he's thinking it over now so maybe i'll be getting more lawns through him....coolio...
ok...i need a shower....i'm gonna go find the garbs and philip and see what's up....

g. xo

day late and a buck short....

fuck...
i forgot this ....
it was jen with one N's birthday yesterday...and i forgot to let ya all know..i called her and everything yesterday...anyhow...happy birthday jen with one N! 18 never looked so good...

g. xo

roaming the streets, givin' tickets....

they took down all the trees on granville street...what the???

i'm not gonna beat around the bush - i'm tired - and i'm not sure why...maybe it's the weather - although it was nice today...but the darkness and the rain and such...takes it right outta me...i think a trip to arizona may be order just to see the sun and eat a nico's taco. i'm sleeping ok, never through the night but, it's been ok...and i get, what i think, is a decent amount of shut-eye....i know i need some real excercise for sure and now that my back is feeling at least a little better, i'm gonna go to the gym and sweat it out a little...today i went for a long walk and had some good soup and then walked home again...good for some air and such. on the way home i ran into my pal buffy who is a meter maid (?) meter reader, ticket person, ..well, you know...anyhow, she's hilarious. she laughs about the folks that give her the gears about the tickets, loves her job, loves being outside...loves it. i walked with her as she gave out tickets...and i have to say, she was pretty good about giving a few people breaks, not like some of the ticket folks i have had to deal wth in my time. she admits some of the old timer ticket folks are assholes and don't give enough slack...
last night when i was out running errands with mishi and the garbs we ran into the worls famous marv newland...man, i love that guy. he was telling me that he was insulted, not really, that i hadn't come to his place last time he has invited me over...so i told him, and we shook on it, that i would come to his next thing...i'm gonna take the garbs..he hates parties but marv's events are always good...usually.
ok...i need to find something to eat...

have fun...

funny...not funny.

i think i may be the only person i know - because everyone seems to love this stuff - who doesn't find Flight of the Conchords funny....

i'll keep trying.

g. xo

lookin' up and chowing down....double entree style.

why am i so fuckin' full?
oh..maybe it was the double burrito dinner at topanga...just maybe...
holy crap...
that's a lot of food....

in other news...just a small 'how's my back' report...
pretty fuckin' good...am i pain free? nope. is it much better? abso-fuckin'-lutely. my guy, my chiro dude is the man. more on it all a little later but i feel blessed to have met him...it's like a new lease on things...

more later....

g. xo

mishi gets ready to rock her enchilada.

the garbs contemplates his plate of goodness.

firecrackers and front windows

mishi tests out the new steel toed boots of mr. rasta maintainance.

last night 'he who can not be named on the blog' and i went to the giants game with a bunch of minor hockey kids...kinda...craig's kid plays in the north shore hockey league and they get, once a year, discount tickets to the giants game and the proceeds from the 50/50 draw so it's a great fundraiser for their hockey teams...they sell some tickets to guys like us at full price and pocket the difference...works out well for everyone. it was a throwback game as well, where the giants wore replica uniforms of the only vancouver team to ever win the stanley cup, the vancouver millioniares...they looked wicked..and won in convincing fashion as well...marcy and byron were there as well as marcy's work took everyone to the game as part of thier xmas party...
this morning i met-up with floyd in horseshoe bay and we had breakfast at troll's...they used to have great fish and chips there but the last time i had them there with penelope, they sucked...bad. nice to see floyd...he called me the other night and gave me a phone update that was expanded on today somewhat...he's off to hawaii for a little vacation before xmas, bought a new car - a nissan altima - is thinking, not soon, but thinking of moving to naniamo or victoria...all good stuff...
not much else today....i may watch a little flight of the conchords later...suppose to be good - although the clips i have seen have left me kinda cold but, i'll give it a go....

have fun...more as it develops...

g. xo

here are a few pics from the last few days...

the front window at the monte clarke gallery.

mishi having a laugh.

marcy and rose lam - who i have known since around 1974...

firecrackers starting up...

the aftermath.

the boys getting ready to have fun with firecrackers.

like crack.

i just finished watching 'the corner', a six part hbo series based on a book of the same name about the corners in west baltimore where drugs are dealt, and the lives of those who live there. whoa. some depressing shit but hard to stop watching at the same time. it's only six episodes but it packs a lot into those six pieces. if you feel like maybe you've seen too much warm and fuzzy lately...check it out.
and speaking of over the top, it's the last season of ER and they're really taking it seriously...shit be happenin'...every week shit happens...and in Desperate Housewives news...whoa is right....get your fix.

g. xo

nice vacuum buddy....

nice.

you otta be in pictures.

..i guess that refers to 'the movies' but...in this case it refers to photos - large scale photos. and marcy's in 'em.
the monte clarke gallery on granville street is having a show of local photographer karin bubas, and karin used marcy as her subject in a one of her photos. used sounds wierd...marcy's in a couple of her photos in that show - you should go have a look.
i went by last night and had a look...it was good...until all the other people showed-up...nothing against them, nice folks, just kind of a small room for a lot of people to try and mingle in.
g. xo

tossing words around

abuse...? really...because i said the word "bullshit" to one of them? anyhow...the abuse was when i was leaving the game and was talking to the other team, who were also complaining about the game, and we were just chatting and the ref told me to get to the dressing room...and i made a hand gesture...no, not the usual hand gesture...more one of a mouth opening and closing...like, "blah, blah, blah"....anyhow, i guess he didn't like that...
moving on...the new quiet, silent type garn will return to the ice in a couple of weeks...

i love the bombers and am sorry i lost my cool...

g. xo

a bad day mowing....

...is better than a great day fishing...although yesterday it would have been hard to make that one stick in my head. i thought the mowers had been put away for the season but one one my clients gave me a call and said he needed one last cut and i did need to give a lawn up on joyce a cut, not that it needed it in a big fashion but, they wanted it so...i loaded up the car and away i went...i kinda got a late start as i had to do some other shit so i was working with the sun, or lack of it so i had to make it all work like clockwork...uh-oh.
after having lunch with senor tornack, i headed up to joyce street and after a quick cut i was on my way over to 43rd and fraser and keith's place...when i got there i saw that he had left the leaves there for me so it wasn't just cutting it was leaf removal as well...great. i had my blower so it wasn't a huge deal but not what i had had in mind as it added just that much more time...and it was also super-cool to see, as i moved the leaves out of the way, that he had been doing some sort of wood cutting in the front yard and all the sawdust and wood bits..and then there were pieces of carrot...huh? anyhow..i was getting it done but it was wierd...
after i did the weed eating i was away...i was gonna make it...then, i was cutting close to a wierd bit of sidewalk that is uneven and all of a sudden the wheel slipped and i was off the edge and whamo! blade into the cement, and the engine stopped dead. fuck! first time i have ever done this....the garbs did it once, and it can happen...bummer...i was actually quite surprised by my calm demeanor after it happened...i just looked at the mower and the lawn and sun going down and stood, and looked...before long i had everything loaded in the car and was making my way back to the shop to get my other mower with the sun setting fast...and i'm a guy who cannot drive fast..we all know that story....
i made my way back there and pulled out the second mower, which i have had problems with as it's getting old, and once i had the bent blade and possibly thrown out of time mower in the lawn order shed, i made sure the old mower would start and....it wouldn't...sun setting...fuck! my calm nature was starting to disappear. i tried and tried and couldn't get it to go...fuck! i pushed it back to the room quickly and as i was doing so smashed into a pole and smashed my left ring finger in the process and and thought i had broken it...fuck! i pulled out the bent blade mower and threw it into the car and made my way back to champion mower on fraser street - where i should have gone in the first place - duh, and bought a new blade...but not sure if the mower would go because when you hit the cement like that, it can throw the engine out of time...so...i made it back to keith's place, and after a lot of pulls on the old cord it finally started but it was clear the timing was outta whack...but somehow i got it all done...and as i was driving away it was time to turn the lights on....perfect.
i went back to the shop, and before putting away all the gear, dragged out all the stuff i wanted to get rid of...for the scrap metal guys...two mowers, some blades and bags...now the alley scrap metal guys can mow some lawns too...
now i had to mail a couple of packages i had in the car - one of which was my old ibook laptop i sold on ebay for much more than i ever thought i'd get for it and a few little toys i had hanging around that some guy in maryland wanted...why is it that when you send packages now you have to fill out a form that not only says what's inside, i get that, but that you have to write down the address it's going to and the return address - again? it's on the package already...so now it's on their twice....i dunno...
and then it was off to ikea with mishi...and i'll tell ya, going to ikea after 6 pm is the way to go...no traffic, no one else really at ikea...in and out...perfect.
i did need a margarita after all that i'll say truthfully....so i did. have one...ok, maybe more than one...my finger is numb today and a little blue...i'll live.

i'm gonna go see a movie.

g. xo

garbis update...what i know...

the garbs' started feeling even worse after i spoke with mishi this morning and he ended-up going and hanging out at the emerg. at st. paul's. good times. but after a little I.V. action and some morphine, yup, the big guns, he was home again and ready for a snack. they have a few ideas what it may or may have been but aren't sure but they do know it wasn't food poisoning...so burgers are back on the menu...as are some T-3's for the pain for now...rockin' the codeine.

oh, and there's a new garbs nickname..a fancy one.. 'he who can not be named on the blog' came up with it as we drove up arbutus street yesterday. he noticed that if you added one letter, a G to arbutus, you'd get Garbutus. and if you put his nickname and surname together, it sounds fancy, Garbutus Curadeau. and there could be the Garbutus Club. etc...think about it.

ok.

g xo

burger 1 garbs 0

mishi called me this morning and asked how i was - which isn't that unusual except that she was asking because the garbs and i had had exactly the same thing for dinner last night, a burger, and now he's very sick. i feel fine with the slight exception of a cold i have been trying to get rid of, but the poor garbs is hurtin'...i won't go into the details that i know, but poor garbs. and now i'm waiting for the burger to takes its toll on me...but i'm guessing i would know by now if it was gonna...such a good burger too...
take care little fella....


i helped 'he who can not be named on the blog' move a few things outta his place yesterday. he's been 'cleaning house' lately and an ikea computer desky thing and a love seat were yesterday's items leaving the yard. it was suppose to be me helping 'transport' things to a couple of people, but it quickly turned into 'moving'....which i really love. and since we, i, wanted to do it in one load we ended-up using cable and a bungee cord to hold it all in as it hung out the end of the element...it was much more secure than it looked but i'm sure it caused some concern to those driving behind us. the computer desk went to a woman and her husband near granville island who are much less fortunate and have a set of life long problems that make you not mind parking in front of their building on the sidewalk, moving the desk inside, riding the world's slowest elevator, taking it down the hallway and then moving swiftly to get the hell outta there...it's good...a good deed.

the love seat went to a house at 60th and main in the basement suite...where we had to take the door off of the hinges and move it through a area that housed the washer and dryer and another couch while being watched by several people who were in different stages of having their hair cut or 'done' somehow... think they may have been running an underground hair salon...it was all very interesting. he still has a huge tv he needs to get rid of - if anyone wants it....and some nice button up men's shirts size large...and he's a dapper fella so....

went and saw my pal chad yesterday as well at his shop up on fraser street...good guy that chad, and re-met his gal pal who, i think, if she had her way would be driving larry as her daily driver...it was funny as she talked to me and with each story or thing that i was connected to she gradually figured out who i was and that she had met me before....the car was the last thing that made it all make sense to her...very nice woman than jen. maybe it's two n's...i dunno.
then it was burger time, well food time...i hadn't decided on what to have for dinner but in the end, after driving around trying to decide, it was burger time...now, i'm not gonna say where we ended-up because the proof ain't in the pudding yet...and may never be...i feel fine, the garbs, not so much...i feel for him though....relax buddy, sleep, drink some liquids, relax...more tv....

more as it develops.

g. xo

shit tickets

sometimes...it's just too good. and then....maybe it's a trend.

g. xo

megan's home office

megan, unfortunately, got laid-off from her job and needs a place to settle-in and use as a spce to send e.mails, make a few calls, etc - see megan has no internet and such at her place so...and the next closest place for her to be able to relax and get shit done is her sister's place which is over in west van - fuck that. so for the nexy while with the aid of a swipe card and a door key, this is it...good times...
i stayed pretty close to home today but did venture out to retrieve a hammer i had lent to cam and to blow the leaves off of the shum's lawn over in east van, man. one of brent and mina's neighbours loved the blower and was pretty excited when i let him use it to blow the leaves off of his lawn...wicked!
and that's it...back home...the garbs is coming over, we're gonna go get a burger..

g. xo

brent and mina really need to get rid of thier pumpkin...

brent lends a hand while i blow the crap off his lawn.

mr. neighbour guy rockin' the blower.

mr. unpopular.

i have been dealing with an issue in my building, or more specifically, my place for a while now in regards to my dryer...or i haven't been dealing with it - or not at the pace i should be...until today. sure, i made some inquires, asked a few questions, had doug - my caretaker dude, up here or a couple chit chats, looked at options, but today i finally wrote a letter to the strata council that will make me unpopular i'm pretty sure.
it's kinda a long and boring story but, suffice to say, i can't use my dryer as it, as it sends the air along the dryer vent, and as the water condenses, drips water, through a crack in the pipe, onto my neighbour below...nice. and he's a good guy. problem is, they, the council, have decided that anyone in the building that has this problem, has to deal with it themselves and pay for it themselves - the fixing of the vent...hhmmm...i didn't build the vent, i didn't install it, and they knew when the building was built that it was a problem...anyhow. i have consulted a few people and they're on my side and saying that the council cannot decide this on their own and well, they did....
we'll see what happens after the letter is sent asking them to pay for the repairs...could be good.

have fun.

g. xo

crispy noodles and art.....

i just heated-up some of them noodles and sauce from last night in the fryin' pan and they got nice and crispy...wicked! it was as good the second time around. maybe better...that was a good lunch...a little later on i'll be meeting-up with the queen of the universe and marcy for some tan tan noodles...nice...
and hey, speaking of nice..i saw cam andrews today to give him a hammer and he told me about an art show he and his wife, the lovely jess, are having...you should go...i'm gonna.

ok..megan just came over...i gotta go...

g. xo

housewives marathon

i have been taping - if they still call it that (the kids...) - desperate housewives every week as i knew shauna wanted to get caught-up, when she had time, on the whole wisteria lane crowd...but the old pvr was getting full and when it hit 98% full i got on the horn - actually the old internet thingy and e.mailed her, shauna, and told her the time may be now or i'd have to start deleting shows...so last night was spagetti and housewives night...it was good. i'm not a big fan, or thought i wasn't, of the whole wheat pasta but it was really good...i bought a sauce and tricked it out with some chorizo suasage that i cooked first and then threw in the sauce and it was wicked...that and a desert that was made up of capers florentine cookies and udder guys coconut ice cream and you've got yourself some good times...
it was nice to see shauna and stella...i bought stella a small treat as well at capers so she didn't feel left out of the food festivities...
yesterday really signified the end of the lawn order season, at least in regards to actual cutting of grass. i went to the shop and pulled out the rear seats for the element and put one of them in...like snow on the ground, putting in a seat seals the deal. i'm not crazy about having both seats in there as i still like to have room to move stuff, but i kinda like having the one....and really, if i do need the room that baby comes outta there in a minute - literally.
ok...i need to get going..i have a hammer to drop off to cam, some stuff to move for 'he who can not be named on the blog', etc...and sitting here ain't getting it done...

rock on...

g. xo

just in case...

...you were thinking of driving out to bosa today to get some pasta sauce or meat or....it's closed.

so don't drive out there.

g. xo

this way...

this morning fawn called and said she was meeting 'he who can not be named on the blog' on commercial drive for a coffee at 11:45, a call i had been excpeting since we had talked about having coffee some time over the weekend so...i was game for that. i wasn't game today, however, for driving...so i walked over and met-up with her and 'h.w.c.n.b.n.o.t.b.' showed-up fashionably late, which was fine since i had some tidbits he had already heard to pass on to fawn. it was good to have coffee with them, the last time the three of us had coffee together was at soma on main street, before it moved over to ninth ave or eighth where it is now, so it was a while ago. good kids those two.
after we had shot the shit, a lot of it, fawn gave me a ride down to granville island because i wanted to get some soup. i'm kinda on a soup thing right now - it's a great way to get some good stuff inside ya - and as much as i think the stock market (the soup place on the island) makes soups that all kinda taste the same, some are ok...today was brocolli and tomato something. the garbs wasn't feeling well today, and is hopefully feeling better now, so he had chicken noodle.

i walked home from the island, which i kinda like, i like walking over the granville street bridge. it was very mild today so it almost didn't need a jacket...i now, riveting.
after my dinner and desperate housewives - love it! - i walked over to tinseltown and saw mr. madonna's new flick rocknrolla....pretty entertaining, which is how senor tornack has described it so...good times. the scene with gerard butler and thandie newton dancing to the flash and the pan song may be worth the price of admission on its own.
so it wasn't a big day out but it did have a pretty good casual day out...a little coffee talk with the kids, some good soup, a little film action, some walkin'....and now, bed....and chiro bright and early...

go to bed....

i love you.

g. xo

my big gay crush

ok...maybe it wasn't a crush, and it wasn't me who had the crush...but, some used to tell me that ken from deluxe junk liked it when i tended the coffee bar at the block oh so many years ago. many years ago - i was cute then. maybe.
ken was the king or queen, depending in how you look at it, of the vancouver vintage clothing scene. he had no peers in that dept. sure, others sold old clothes, vintage and otherwise but ken was the man.
i first knew ken, or met ken, when i was living on fourth ave. around 1982. i had shopped at his store when he was on fourth before that time but when i moved into that apt. i would frequent the store more often. at night i could see, from my place, into his apartment which was above the store - long before i had binoculars or telescope - and see him walking around doing whatever he did at night. it was across and over a bit so i really couldn't see anything but i thought it was pretty cool that he lived right above where he worked and had the whole top floor.
later deluxe would move to cordova street and i think, for a while, there were two stores...i can't be sure of this...it was a fuzzy time for me.
for a few years, maybe more, west cordova street was a meeting place of sorts. i had befriended the kids at the block clothing store and became the cookie maker for them. marcy worked at the block and across the street at salmagundi, devon was at dream, i think, don bull was above deluxe junk plying his trade, the gangland boys - alan moy, keith porteus, jason grant and michael turner - were upstairs from the block, the pantages boys - tony and john - hung out across the street doing who knows what, keith and scratch records around the corner, and ken at deluxe junk. it was a great time to be down there. ken and i would talk on the street, or over the clothing racks inside the store. ken used to like to talk about his dogs - which he refered to by their gender rather than by name....the male and the bitch. he loved saying "the bitch"...especially when there were straight lookin' folks in the store. ken also had snakes at home - not that i was ever there, but i heard tale of them. ken was an interesting guy. ken also loved to talk to me about tattoos and tattooing as he knew i had tattoos and that i knew a lot about tatooing and he loved his tattoos. loved to show me his work when he had gotten something new.
ken died a short time ago and while i knew about his illness and what he was going though i didn't know what to say. but i do know this, ken was a good guy to me but i know he was a tough cookie on those who worked for him, and that he didn't always have a good editor when he was talking...but that's what made him ken.
today as i was walking home from granville island i walked by deluxe junk and stopped to look in the deluxe junk window. i had seen, from my car as i drove by the other day, that they had put up in one of the windows three boards with pictures of ken and some pictures of things that referred to ken or that were kenesque, and i wanted to see them up close. if you knew him or knew of him you should go by and have a look.
thanks for all the clothes ken.

g. xo

ang gets hammered...

ang messaged me yesterday morning and asked me if she could use the car to run some errands and since i didn't have anything i needed the element for...it was a go. i met her down at artigiano, where i was meeting my pal that i sent the pay-up now or else e.mail to (he came up with 1500 calms pronto once i made it clear through a couple e.mails that i was done...). he's a great guy but i needed to end that thing, now we're just working on the interest portion of that deal gone wrong.
i got ang to drop me off on granville island and while she was there she got herself a new ring made by mishi. it looks really good on her finger...and will leave a good dent if she decides to clock someone.
i had dinner last night with mark, who will, hopefully, be helping me complete a photo project i am trying to get together...mark's had some interesting things happen in his life as if late, not that can be discussed here, and i was interested in being brought up to date..and holy christ! all i can say is , families, yikes. he's a good man that mark...i like to think, or do think, sometimes, that i've got a decent head on my shoulders and am reasonably put together in the brain dept., but that mark can shatter that thought once he starts laying it out. he's a very well read, intelligent sort whose knowledge can only be matched by the likes of 'he who can not be named on the blog.' it's the truth. he's a smart cookie that one. i look forward to making a little art with him at the helm of the camera.
after my dinner with mark i headed off to meet up with 'he who can not be named on the blog' as he's had a bad turn of late and i wanted to see him. so i left the whip, where mark and i had eaten, and headed off to topanga to meet 'h.w.c.n.b.n.o.t.b.'
all week, and maybe last as well, i have been going to bed at truly geezer times. i find around 10 pm i start to lose it and last night wasn't much different...the garbs has begun to make fun of my geezerness...anf then i'm up around 6:30 or 7 every day...and i'm here to tell ya, theres not a lot to do at that time if you've got no job to go to...

ok..i need a shower.

i love you.

g. xo


ang's new ring.

the girls compare hair color.

post 1400....more good stuff....

seems like just yesterday that i was getting my feet wet with this blog, well maybe not yesterday, but not 1399 posts ago. it's all barb bernath's fault - she's the one who suggested i start a blog...and now..1399 posts later, here's post 1400. a milestone? nope, just a number that i kinda like.
i have no doubt i have mellowed in my old age - less ranting and raving (still some but more talking with my hands less kicking things...), less cigarettes -well none, less use, or little use of illegal substances - my head can't take that....where the hell am i going with this...? oh, i'm about to tell you about an album i just heard and now have that is a little mellow, and not unlike some other albums i have in my collection but, this one is a little sweet. there, i just used the word sweet to describe some music.
the watson twins. i'm rockin' out with the watson twins. their new album is called fire songs and includes a cover of a song i have covered my own self, in pepe deluxe, and has also been covered by dinosaur jr,. the cure's 'just like heaven', and it gets a nice fresh hit here. some of you hipster will know the watson twins from the album they did with jenny lewis called 'rabbit fur coat'. jenny lewis is best known for her work in rilo kiley.
anyhow...i like it.

g. xo

side note...

here's a review by the bbc...

last one...i promise

i meant to post this pic but it was on my phone not my camera. so...

there's a coffee shop called caffe vita and they make a mean cupof coffee but they also use images of jesters and such for thier advertising. they made these posters and had them around seattle. they used the same styling as the shepard fairey posters and sued the jester but obama as the jester...or at least it looks like him and came out right at election time...wicked!

g. xo

we could talk about the weather.

there's a stumptown coffee in seattle now...nice.

yesterday, after i had driven around seattle a bit and did a little lookin' around, i decided not to head south and instead head home. i had wanted to drive south to, well i'm not sure...but i had thought it may be interesting to get a feel post election as well but if seattle was any indication, it was business as usual, just more relaxed. so, a stop at trader joe's for some groceries, a little coffee, a dick's burger and it was time to go...
the border was a good time. they had a drug sniffin' pooch out who decided my car smelled liked something and after a ton of question at the main booth - did i have any weapons, defense items, money over 10 grand, was it my car, bear spray, etc..., i was asked to drive over to where the dog and its handler were now...nice.
the woman with the dog asked me if i was sleeping in the back of the car or did i have an animal sleeping back there...nope, just me. i was told to go inside the customs building and have a seat...so i did, i just didn't sit down. i just walked in and hung around, at first...then she spoke...the woman behind the counter.
"can we help you sir"
"no, they're just checking my car"
"did they tell you to come inside and sit down?"
"yes. but do i have to sit down?"
"no...(pause as she looks at the woman next to her...) but we need to know what you're doing in here"
"they're looking in my car"
then she got on thr radio and started asking about me...she seemed very concerned about the guy in the office reading pamplets.
after a short time, but enough time for her to start wondring about me again, she got back on the radio asking about the car containing one caucasian male being searched. nice. they told her to send me out...i overheard this and started to head out just as she was about to tell me to do so.
the pooch found nothing, shocker, and i was free to continue into the land of the free.
and now i'm back and wondering if i shoulda headed south...
next time.

g. xo

a chair libby re-covered...here's a link to an article on her and her work.