rock over London. rock on, Chicago.

two straight pimps, cold hustlin’. Schwarzenegger endorsed the other guy, who I like less the more I actually listen to him.

I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin IV all week. because it’s awesome. and I’ve been eating a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches. because they’re delicious.

Josh correctly pointed out that he was with me that day at the reservoir listening to Elton John. it was actually his idea to skip class and go down there. we only forget the good times, Josh, you son of a bitch.

but I’ve got another song. “meet me in the morning” by Bob Dylan makes me think of State Route 231 near Rensselaer, Indiana. which means nothing but crop fields. this may sound tired, but flat and vast like the ocean, especially from a moving car.
that is a great, great album, Blood on the Tracks. I think I’ll listen to it on the way to work today … 

I think Modelo has one of the most aesthetically pleasing cheap beer cans on the market right now. no, honestly. 

“Slave,” by Elton John. driving on Old State Route 46 towards Lake Monroe at school. in the spring. sunny day. with the windows down, in the temperatures when it still gets cold at night.

I’ve got this show on, it’s called “The First 48.” it’s a documentary show about homicide detectives. murder investigations.
the first case follows a 2-year-old girl in Kansas City who was shot, apparently by her uncle, in a domestic dispute.
the other is about a Memphis double-homicide at a trucker hotel involving a drug deal and a couple of straight-up ghetto prostitutes. the camera caught one of them jamming crack rock up her ass in a empty interrogation room. it was awful, for everyone involved.

I took my niece to daycare this morning. it was kind of exciting, I’m not gonna lie. I offered so my sister-in-law didn’t have to deal with it before work, and she basically left it to me. get her dressed and get her over there.
jesus, I sound like a pederast.
but yeah, she’s really funny. and she’s really nice. and she knows my name, barely. which I find flattering.

“Neighborhood #1″ by Arcade Fire. driving to a concert with Cat this summer. it was sunset and it had just rained, but the clouds had pulled back at the last minute before night, and it was very electric outside. the kind of night you want to be outside, like something is about to happen.

M, what’s up dude it’s N.
I’m in LA right now, but it’s hard for me to say … cause you know my feelings, man, you know what i’m thinking right now.
the midwest?
they got fucking nothing in LA, fuck LA, man, fuck LA.
I’m on Sunset and fucking Santa Monica. I’m passing a fucking Von Dutch store with $800 jeans. fuck that shit, man.
I walked a girl home, she gave me two kisses on the cheek. I was pissed about that, dude. I should at least … I mean, no no no, we won’t talk abut that. you know what I’m talking about, though.
(burps) all i wanna say, is, I wanna I wanna hook up, but get together is a better word … with P’s friend V, shessohot. she’s a fucking red blonde, dude. she’s so, fucking, hot.
i’m on Loring .. I don’t know where Loring’s at.

(burps) P’s passed the fuck out at this girl’s house, and I’m tring to walk home.

(notices traffic) Tom Cruise is in the fuckin’ SUV behind me. fuck Tom Cruise, man. he can suck a fucking dick.
hey, remember my blue jacket? remember it?

I just wanted to call and tell you. I’m proud of you. I hope you’re doing alright. and you might be at home right now, that’s fucked up, man.
but man, I’m not going to last much longer out here. I met some cool women, but it’s not enough to warrant, a fucking stay out here, man. I mean, I’ve got, I’m working as a physical therapy assistant, at this place and they suck. I almost quit today. they can’t compete with that. fuck ‘em, man. I told them, said fuck ‘em, man. I told em fuck ‘em.
so, P’s getting me a job, but it’s not going to pay the bills, right now. it will eventually, but I dont think right now.

(notices a store) Rocket Video? do they fuckin’ hell? they don’t have Rocket … what is this? dude, do they have “Rabid Teenage Grannies”? I don’t think they do. think I made a word up in that sentence, by the way.

anyways, M … you do okay man, call me back this weekend.
I’m really fucking drunk right now but you can tell. you can tell. YOU CAN TELL.
I haven’t talked to anybody in a while. K’s death, it, it still, like, baffles me man. that’s fucked up. I loved that motherfucker, man, and I would have done anything for him, and I hope he knows that. and I hope he knows that somewhere. but yeah, I think you know that, and i think a lot of people know that and I think a lot of people would have said the same.

so take care, man, call me back..  we need to talk.

(M takes an ice cream sandwich break.)

the first hour of today sucked.
I woke up on my own. if that happens, it means I’ve overslept. I very rarely wake up before the alarm, so if I wake up on my own, I probably forgot to set it.
… or plug it in if it doesn’t have enough battery to last the night.
so the clock said to me, “3:30,” and I couldn’t believe I had slept until 3:30 in the afternoon. and then I remembered that Indiana had Connecticut, at home, two hours ago. so I checked the score. we lost. fuck.
and then I got in the shower, and came back upstairs and remembered the movies I had due back, so I figured the hell with it, I would take them back before work. I’m gonna be 15 minutes late. they’ll live.

so, long story short, I put my shoes on, pull a sweater on, put my hat on, make sure I have the god damned movies, and pull the door shut behind me and lock my keys in the apartment.
so by some weird grace, I can remember my landlord’s home phone number. it’s an easy one to remember, once you’ve heard it, so I went across to the street and called him on a payphone. remember, my cell phone was dead.
he didn’t answer. I haven’t seen my landlord in literally six months. and I didn’t remember the phone number at work.

so just then, my downstairs neighbor walked by, and she let me come inside to use a cell phone. I called the landlord again, he didn’t answer. so I weighed my options, and then went back around the house to my door and decided to punch through the glass. so I balled my sweater up on my fist and started punching at the glass, and getting nothing.
I was only hitting it marginally hard and I’m apparrently a weakling, cause it didn’t give. but by punching the motherfucker, all of the lattice work gave out on one cross, and a pane of glass came loose. so the door’s fucked up, and needs fixing pronto, cause now you can simply let yourself into the house. I may be able to fix it, but I think I need a second opinion – or my landlord to just do it for me. which would be the best idea.

and then I got to work late, and that was that. and now I’m at home after work, and my door’s busted and I work again tomorrow, and it’s a weird feeling to be alone.

I just had coffee and doughnuts with the photographer from work. she’s very nice. she’s very religious. she’s kind of intense, but I like her. anyway, she’s not intense like my man here:

that photo was taken by Todd Krainin, who was the photographer at the Imperial Valley Press when I was there. he still is. Todd, who may or may not read this, was kind of a strange dude. just, just a little strange. but he was a nice guy and a hell of a photographer. with a really neat Web site.

also, he has a web log with the newspaper. and if you’re at all interested in this kind of stuff, he’s an OK writer, too. 

one more song.

“when the levee breaks” by Led Zeppelin. makes me think of today, driving home.

here are some songs I know:

“pepper” by Butthole Surfers. when I think of this song, and I’m thinking of it right now cause its playing, I think of the George Washington Parkway just across the river from DC. on that stretch between the 14th and Memorial bridges, by the Lady Bird Johnson memorial. about a decade ago, it came on the radio in December when Mar and I were out on a court-ordered visit. I was in the back seat behind the passenger. Mar was next to me. it was cold. Mike was in the front seat with his girlfriend at the time. I was probably 13.   

I made some tea.
mom got me a teapot for xmas. it came with a dent in it, but it works. she didn’t wrap it. she handed it to me in the plastic bag it came in.
she also gave me some tea bags. the tea bags came in a ziplock bag with a note that read “guaranteed not to make you fall on your face in a parking lot.” also in this bag was one sock. in the sock was wrapped a xmas tree ornament shaped like the state of Indiana. on it reads “Merry Christmas from Valparaiso – 2007″ in cursive.
tea’s nice. my apartment is messy, and there’s nothing on the walls, but tea makes it seem like a home. I need some honey. maybe I’ll get some honey tomorrow.

“going out west” by Tom Waits. I’m not going to lie, I think about the film version of “Fight Club.” at one point, Edward Norton and Brad Pitt walk into this bar as its closing and go into the basement to have a fight club, and this song is on the jukebox in the bar. I also think about driving. like going west. I think of western Kansas at night. I don’t even know if I had this in the car when I drove west, but I was humming it.

earlier this month when I got off of the bus in Portage, it was about 2 degrees out. god damn, was it cold. it was cold, as, balls, with snow everywhere. it was about 11:30 or so, everybody on the bus was asleep; anyone still on the bus after Portage was going to South Bend, I think, and South Bend is a hike.
anyway. the bus station in Portage is behind a bank, across the street from a McDonalds and I got off and didn’t see anyone, and then I heard my mom scream “dude master! dude master!” and she ran directly in front of the bus and give me a hug. Mar was in the car across the street and she’s laughing. my mom calls me “dude master.” I don’t get it. that’s alright.

“she’s a rainbow” by the Rolling Stones makes me think of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I had this in the car … I was about to note that it’s funny that most songs make me think of driving. but I guess that’s not really surprising.
this song is on an album called “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” and beyond this song, which is like getting a solid B on a test, is the best one on it. that album fucking sucks.

“you wear it well” by Rod Stewart. Massachusetts with my dad and cousins and Mar when I was about 10. 

now. what. you’ve got to be kidding me.
ok, while I was sitting here, pontificating on the Stones, a fly lighted right on the edge of the mug of tea I was working on. tried to shoo it away, and the motherfucker goes farther in to the cup. the fly just drowned in my tea. that’s pretty gross. so I got a new cup and put the kettle back on. I want more tea, son.

“the late greats” by Wilco. more songs about the road. after going back to Indianer for Orthodox xmas in January of, of, let’s see … one year ago, I flew back to San Diego. and got the truck out of long-term parking. and drove inland, late at night. and in the mountains on Interstate 8, this song came on.

pot is whistling. I have to get more tea.

“bonzo goes to bitburg,” the Ramones. no road. just think of Josh.

“euro trash girl” by Cracker.
I don’t know much about Cracker other than this song, and it’s enough. this song is a driving song. Neil turned me on to it. when I left for California, he gave me a burned CD, which is … yeah. it’s on the hassock next to me, right now. it reads, in Neil’s handwriting, “Andrew does not Look a thing like Jesus…” his punctuation. he’s referring to Andrew, our friend, who is very religious.
the disc has over 100 songs on it, and at first I didn’t think it would play in the truck. I tried it on Joliet Road before I had even left town, and it didn’t take. but by the time I was on the interstate in Illinois it kicked in. and this Cracker song was on it, and I was listening to this song in Kansas when I stopped in, hold on. I’m looking it up on Mapquest … when I stopped in a town called Moscow for gas. Moscow is a grid of about six streets, a bunch of dilapidated houses and a gas station next to a massive grain elevator. this song was on when I stopped for fuel and sunflower seeds.
looked at the sun setting between the silos. kept going. started “euro trash girl” from the beginning. Neil is now in Huntington Beach. Andrew is going back to Bethlehem.

“the two sides of Monsieur Valentine,” Spoon. driving in the dark in DC. this song begins with “every morning I’ve got a new chance.”
and that’s probably true, but I don’t feel like getting out of bed tomorrow.

I really shouldn’t abuse my AP membership. but here we are. 

things aren’t going very well for the tourism business in Kenya right now.

 Orthodox believer in Moscow. dunk yourself in the water during the Epiphany, wash away your sins. no matter how cold it is.

more Orthodoxy. this time, Skopje, Macedonia.

that looks like a giant, creepy model set. but it’s not. it’s Gaza City. Israel cut off fuel shipments to Gaza’s only electricity plant because militants are launching rocket salvos over the border.

way to go, Israelis. and way to go, Hamas. I think both camps deserve a round of applause.

Palestinian riot police at a solidarity rally. sign on his chest reads “Gaza on my mind.”

Gaza, Gaza, Gaza on my mind.

I just watched “Bio-Dome.” possibly the high-point of the Paulie Shore canon. I don’t think it’s fair to count “Encino Man” as part of it, because while it’s a better movie, Paulie Shore isn’t the star. Mikey from “The Goonies” and Brendan Frasier are the leads. so, you know, it doesn’t count. really, just think about it. it’s gotta be “Bio-Dome.” “In the Army Now” sucked. Andy Dick isn’t funny.

it’s winter outside. but the shitty kind of winter. it was supposed to snow today, but instead it just hovered in the high 30s. and it was gray. Mar called. she and mom went to Chicago today and went ice skating, and she said it was about 10, before the windchill. so I probably shouldn’t complain. still.

I think I need another out. some stuff you don’t write about on here, and I don’t want to start scribing it out by hand. I’ll end up with a pile of notebooks walls-high in here, and inevitably it’ll be used in my prosecution someday. see, this? I’m thinking ahead.

but anyway.

John McCain won South Carolina’s GOP primary. which is fine by me.
god damn, but is it fun to watch that fucking party eat itself. what a great article this is.

to which I say: Tom DeLay is one of the most crooked motherfuckers ever to be elected to Congress, and his ouster was necessary and long overdue. so how anyone could interview him on the subject of The Fate of The Republican Party is beyond me; he has arguably done more to damage it than any one person on the god damned planet. but leave it to Fox News. Tom DeLay. they intereviwed Tom “the Hammer” DeLay about the hells that nominating a candidate who would actually reach across the fucking aisle would unleash. oh, Christ, the horrors!

and out in Nevada, Hillary Clinton won the Democratic caucus. and you might say, “ha, ha, Matt, you dumb asshole, you called Obama and got it wrong!” and you’d be right. but that’s not really true, because Obama actually got more delegates out of it than Clinton did – 13 to 12. Clinton won the popular vote. and every headline I’ve reat about it says “Hillary wins Nevada.” and that’s kind of misleading, I think. isn’t it? yes?

this is gonna kind of be a grab-bag.

I got “Clash of the Titans” on. that’s pretty boss. and in other television related news, I can’t find my remote. and that’s pretty ridiculous, considering the size of my apartment; there’s only so many places it can be.

I have recently rediscovered Arby’s during my lunch break, which is both earth-shattering and incredibly healthy. it effectively cancels out my gym membership.

I think Obama’s gonna win the Nevada primary tomorrow. I kind of want him to, but don’t get me wrong. I want to make it known that I find very little distinction between him and Hillary Clinton, but on a superficial level, she’s a Clinton and political royalty is something I hate worse than Whole Foods. so fuck her. Obama by default.

also, Women have declared victory over MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. that braying jackass said something mildly sexually offensive about Clinton, and NOW got mad about it. I would only assume NOW is backing Clinton because she has a vagina (albeit one that’s full of sand).

“This is a victory for all women. We are pleased that Chris Matthews has shown remorse,” the caucus said in a statement last night.

you hear that, women of Afghanistan? Chris Matthews apologized! halle-fucking-lujah!

I have requested a few days off in the coming weeks. first one is Tuesday, because WWE Smackdown is coming to the UVa arena and I want to at least have the opportunity to go. I can’t think of anyone who would be interested in going to a professional wrestling event with me, but I’ve got a couple of ideas (that means more than one, wink).
second one? State of the Union Address is on the 28th. for the last few years, that has meant me, Fox News and a bottle of Old Grandad. what will this year hold?
and then, there’s Feb. 5th. that’s Super Tuesday. when my boss asked me why I wanted it off, I said, you know, to watch the returns come in (and probably have too much to drink).
and then he called me an enigma.