Pre-flight check

This was sitting in my inbox after I sent a short (and somewhat incoherent message to trav after finishing reading "Ham on Rye" at work this morning.  Something to the effect that C. Bukowski reminded me of Travis a little bit.  Reminded me of myself a little bit, too. He's an influence even if I'm unaware of it.  Just like Hamson.  In many ways it's a lot like music.  For example, the day I realized that there is a huge Clash influence on the Dead Milkmen.  (or there seems to be...) which in effect afforded me an appreciation of The Clash before I started listening to them (beyond the standard London Calling Rock the Cashba Combat Rock crap that everyone seems to think of as Clash.)

******************Trav Wrote******************

yeah...i read "post office" (loaned to me by joey v.) in one day...it was pretty entertaining. "time to write"...there's something to be said for setting the time aside per day to do it...a routine...but then one needs things to write about...

i guess i have those as well...

i need to do it. i know that i do. the world needs to know. about me. whatever.

do you depart this eve? have you already departed? i hope you enjoy your trip...i need to go to the treasure mart tomorrow for betsy's annual creepy gift...i wasn't even thinking about that the last time i was there...i'll affix your name to it as well. hopefully they'll be some girls in bikinis washing motorcycles again this time 'round...never a dull moment at "buck's"...remember joe falling under one of their "spells" last time? something about how she wanted to be a nurse and blah, blah, blah, she was a "good spirit" (like "casper", though per his title he was more "friendly"); and i said something to the effect of "you do realize that before you got here she was washing a motorcycle while wearing a bikini? that should tell you all you need to know..."

i'm so stuck-up.

trav

***************************************************

I had completely forgotten about the bike wash last summer and the girls in bikinis, etc... Too much cycles of consistent patterns make the aberrant events fade into the mundane.  I've been here before.  I've done this before, a million times.  The special events scattered throughout fade due to the layers of weeks piled on top of them... or something.  Whatever.

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about the fact that I've got three days left at the copy shop.  I've been "working" there for close to four years now.  (yeah?  yeah.  time flies.)  It's a bit weird to think back to when I started working there and the progression from paranoia of being fired every day to slipping into a comfort zone of being "the 2nd shift" crew (since when did 2nd shift start at 8:30 AM and then run till 9 PM?) consisting entirely of myself and my thoughts.  I also proved my worth in the "hickory danger smoke pit" when I started diggin up my old adobe software knowledge.  Suddenly I was known as "the computer guy" as well.  (Yeah right.)

There's a part of me that wants to list that job as "Unskilled Labor".  It didn't take much to do it.  Just the patience to take a box of paper and turn it into two identical boxes of paper while you stare at the bulletin board of ideas and thoughts in the back of your mind and plan out the scant few hours in the evening to tackle a project or whatever.  (Watch TV.  Eat popcorn.  Skateboard.)

But as I sit here and write this, I really don't feel sadness at leaving.  It's more just a uncertainty of leaving the established rut for the untested track that leads somewhere else (probably just another dead end so what's the worry?  Not much really.)

Other than that, I've got a few more hours left and then I'm out of this dirty town for a few days to relax and kick it with my adopted niece (and her family).

(Ugh... '85 Metallica?  Terrible!)

Folk Heros

*************************Travis Wrote**********************

hey fellas...may 10, club tav...well, i'll just let my good buddy M.A. tell you... "May 10th club tavern opening slot 1 hour four bucks. Thanks"

everyone'd better be able to do this (that $4 could be my ticket outta this hellhole)...that's why i called and told everyone about it and nobody called me back with any concerns or dissenting opinions; so i said "yes"...as i mentioned in my message; its a Saturday night, so that's all good...and i think the club tavern could be an excellent place for us...good exposure...

i should be to handle the flier issue for the 1st show...should we even hang fliers? opinions?

hit me back, dawgs (respectively)...

t

********************Joe's Reply****************************
Travis et al.

I'm sorry but i can't make it...i've got to watch saturday night live with the girlfriend that i haven't met yet...so find someone else to sing these stupid songs...in all honesty, i think i'm gonna quit this lame ass band anyways and dedicate my life to writing soap operas, and honing my bowling skills...i figure if i can marry some rich, mid 40's cougar, i can get all my soap opera mateial from our daily briefings, and then i can convince her to set up a lane (automatic scoring of course) in the basement...my plan is this...while she is asleep (by nine), i'll be a practicing so that i can one day make it on the pba tour...hopefully (i pray) i'll be good enough in a decade or so to make it on the tv finals...

strike!

(gutter ball)

Travis...nice work man...may 10 hey?...sweet!

we should mos def get an acoustic set on sate st. for that afternoon to advertise...best summer eva!!!

Joe

*********************Travis Replies********************

hey man!!! step off the "cougars"; that's my deal...(big cats are dangerous; but a little...). the bowling (so you wanna bowl, give the ball a roll), however, is all yours and you are to be commended for having a solid plan to get what it is that you want/need out of life...

i wouldn't mind trying curling...or being on Saturday night live...

well played, joe. well played. that lady with the cash and the "stories" is out there somewhere...

i look like hell today.

*****************And I Interjected***************

In the end, you know that only three people are going to show up for this show. Even the entire band won't make it. So yeah. Go for that unknown lady Joey Vochich! Chase that toboggin all the way down the hill even though winter's melted away.

Or we could all go out for some ice blocking? Eh? Am I right? No one does that around here.

A bottle of Southern Comfort, a block of ice, and a fine middle-aged lady with a fat wad of cash.

Sweet indeed.

Tonight had better be the best night ever!!!

********

In other news... nothing. Here's an email from "Freddie"

*****Travis Wrote*****************************************

>
> Re: Hey Freddie, "scat" is jazz for "fun"
>
> i'm starting to like "freddie" actually...kind of has that "jazz" type
> swing to it...
>

> it'll be interesting to hear what names she calls me this
> weekend...bobby? grant? marvin?

>

> jared? (es muy gordo...madre de dios)
>

> i am a little surprised that john called me last night (you don't mind
> if i gnaw on your arm a while, right? just a little gnawin')...he must
> be really desperate...but, yeah...he knows what he's doing...and more
> importantly, i know what he's doing...he's a vampire, though not the
> cool movie sort...

>

> that also means that danny wasn't answering his phone/returning calls
> at all last night...i can understand ignoring john (he was harassing
> them on Saturday), but the greatest guitar/bass combo in the city? he
> needs a "wake-up" call from chester cheetah...the kind you don't answer;
> the kind you just hear...
>

> word.

>

************************************************************

Some of this is in reference to last night and our session at the rehearsal space. Some of this is in reference to the Saturday/Sunday Tension-with-Butter-Knife action in re: band matters. Seems some people think they can get away with trying to wrench power out of the hands of those that matter most. (greatest guitar/bass combo in city???) Those said some people will shortly realize the folly of those decisions should they continue along those darkened paths.

(Oh my GOD!!! is he threatening to break up the band?!?!?!) Eh... no, not yet.

Trav... er Freddie and I did write a most of a new song idea last night with the assistance of a lame keyboard supplied beat. I've been thinking about it today and the notion of keeping that keyboard beat in the song is really growing on me. "Hey! You like electronic drums right? Well check this out!" I get the feeling that I'm going to have a discussion (read, swinging guitar like baseball bat at head) with him about arranging the transitions again. Try and add a few more notes and/or chords before the bridge. A Ramp, if you will. (A ramp to the skies!)

(segue in head)

This will open things up for the possibility of the creation of methane and other organic compounds. If they can combine with water, they may be able to generate essential amino acids for the genesis of life.

I've not been called "Captian Science" in days of old for my accuracy of fact, but rather my usage and insistence in the air of those things.

Chocolate Never Dies

This isn't the most firey of exchanges Travis and I have had, but it's a pretty good exchange for a Friday. Enjoy.

******** Trav Wrote **********
are the "selfish gene" that much better than we are?

they're likely more polished...

i think "snow jousters" would benefit from a generous helping of "damn yankees"...like the whole soundtrack...maybe the band could reunite for recording the soundtrack (i'm entrusting the score to you...though i reserve the right to make hackneyed suggestions that are better ignored...i.e.--"more bassoon!")...

do i hear "high enough '09"...i hope that i'll get the chance to...

i was thinking about that crazy "loop" thing that kovochich and i stumbled upon that one time when him and i were messing around with the keyboard and we were running it through the guitar processor that i use...i'd like to try more "keyboard through guitar processor" stuff...no real concrete ideas, but i would make attempts to work on stuff like that when i would have my "alone sessions" at the old space (which i absolutely need to go vacuum today after work)...looking forward to having sessions like that again at the new space without the feeling that i'm distracting people from braiding hair, working on taxes, or eating their nightly ramen noodles before jamming out on blues guitar (i feel like i'm starting to slip a bit in expanding as a "musician", mostly due to not playing a whole lot on my own time this last month)...although there isn't as much room for me to pass out there...

its "pizza day"...word...

later

trav

******** I Wrote **********

Trav(isto the amazing)

The Selfish Gene (or as I like to call them "Shellfish Jean") is good and not good. Sure as blindfold at a "pinyata" party they're more polished the we, but that's merely a rehearsing issue on or part. (Right?) Their music encompasses a lot of differnt (mostly not my cup-o-tea) styles. Think Bright Eyes meets Wilco and the ghost of Phish in a dark alley to talk about the Grateful Dead's influence on pop music in the late Ninties. There tis'n't much in the way of self-stimulation by the individual members... no one is shootin all over themselves on stage (like Ted Nugent will for the reunion tour. Chomping away at that gum, deflecting bullets with his rock.) But their thing was always having edited video playing behind them... one of their songs makes me think of that Drug Movie about dreams... but that wasn't there last night, and it made me actually pay attention to either "obviously not 21 douche who stood way too close infront of me in the faux-suede jacket who kept making sideways glances at the fem-bots standing next to me" or watching the band. I could have used a few more solo/musical moments without the two part harmonies that just seemed to drone on... "we get it, both you you can sing." Hire an lyrical editor to parse your erato-musing spliff written crap. I'm not a nice person.

Sno-Jousters will definitely need lots of soaring guitar/oboe duets. You can't have lancers on snow machines flying off embankments without music to match the shrill excitement of it all. Maybe that's what we can project behind us when we get a "18+ popular in the local circuit social-scene jam-box, vacant 1,000 yard stare, go-to-college-and-put-your-ass-in-debt" crowd.
You also would have to make one of the main characters pretty much a complete rip-off of Joey Vochich, call him Jay Jay or something, where he's almost fatally irratic in his pursuit of the ideal of love... and jousting.

We will talk more about this later, tomorrow, the the next few weeks... till it just sort of smoulders out.

As for the looping organ stuff, we need to work on that stuff, but that all takes time. I know that yesterday night watching television was more worthwhile (well, the shamrock shake was. It's like I've got a little bit of Uncle O'Grimmacy in me now... and forever. He gets a hold of your gut the way "Jack Frost" (No, not the movie, rather the anthropomorphic term for frostbite) can get a hold of your fingers and toes and take them for the rest of your (un)natural, digitless life.) I still want to work out that Youngian 5/4 idea a little bit more. I was working on that last night but the chord change is pretty much the same as the Moment and that keeps frustrating me. How many other chords can I choose? and I still go for the Am, Fmaj back and forth. It's played out! All of it. Especially me. Totally played out.

Enjoy your pizza. I had a cherry walnut scone for breakfast and a blueberry latte for lunch. For dinner I'm thinking something fruity.

Word (Up)...(terrible remake)

Z

******** Trav Wrote **********

i found the subject line in an old e-mail of mine...pretty good...

"18+ popular inthe local circuit social-scene jam-box, vacant 1,000yard stare, go-to-college-and-put-your-ass-in-debt"crowd.---this was a very good rant...

i laughed out loud at the "jay jay vochich" (jim-jam bonks) characterization...very funny and very essential...he'd have to be the main character...the audience will rise and fall with his (and the jackal's) fortunes...

of course, "jay-jay" would have to remember the time before the "snowpocalypse"...a time before all of the snow and the jousting...but not before love...

all right, stuff to do...

trav

******** I Wrote **********

Trav(ette)

I thought of "Jay Jay" while I was reading, er working, this morning at work. A Knut Hamson story called "the Queen of Sheeba" about a guy who hops on a train to follow a girl he met once four years prior only to spend a week in some far off town pretending to be an antiquitor simply to discover she's married.

...Sitting here wondering if a return of service for a federal subpoena from Deleware should be notarized, living the life!!!...

I keep getting giggling fits whenever I think about "Snowpocalypse". And the obnoxious whine from all the two stroke engines. That will have to pervade every scene, even the flashbacks. Overall, I'm hearing a very simiar audial experience to Nascar Symphony 3000 for this movie... with Shaw and Blades singing beautiful harmonies about running (engins).

...is now the time to give the Atty. G. his dues?...

"but not before love." very nice.

...Tom Morello is using a Whammy there, two octavies up...

Are we going to move that organ tonight instead? I don't really feel like it's anything that should be planned. It'll just have to be a spur of the moment thing for me tomorrow morning in a mad rush to get everything squared away and not be late (all my complaining about certain people who are rediculously late for rehearsal and my own track record make me a very suitable candidate for hypocryte of the year, band related.) Suddenly I'm reminded of all of the organizing and planning I need to get set this evening. Make some (Helen Hunt) Contact with Danny about tomorrow. Orin is set for Sunday. Joey V. is all down for noon. I'm ready for a long day tomorrow. I'm not leaving at six like some people (everything to do with being a pussy...)

Alright, I have to pretend to care about work now.

Bills don't get sent out by themselves (imagine a world where they did... that would be super-fantastic. like Super Chai tea, when regular Chia just ain't enough.)

Z

******** Trav Wrote **********

let me handle contacting "the j"...i'm feeling social and thought about going over there tonight post-vacuuming...if you wanna move the organ, let's do it tomorrow (unless you really want to do it tonight)...i can come over before you head over to the space and help load it if you'd like...but you'll have to call me to let me know...being there 'til after six sounds fine unless danny takes my bass again...otherwise, unless i plunk on the keys, i tend to get bored because there's nothing for me do save bang on the toms...

word...

trav

Re: who brought the "sorry" to the party?

Just a quick note here: this was a series of email exchanges between Travis and myself sparked off by Misty's email. We were generous enough to "CC" all of the other recipients in on our exchange.

misty wrote:

Hey Guys

Just wanted to send the reminder for tomorrow night. You can come anytime after 8pm. (Zach will this give you enough time for your work thing?)

Let me know if you need directions to my place.

Hope to see you all there!

Misty


Travis Wrote back:

word. should i bring anything? you know, like, food-wise?

napkins?

people always need napkins. (and the person who brings them is usually "the hit" of the party). i mean, i likely would be anyway...

will there be intoxicants? not that i need them to have to good time or anything...because i don't...i just need them to have a good time around other people...

thanks for the invite and the hospitality...

travis

Then I wrote:

Der...

should I bring the napkins?

Der...

Travis' reply to me:

your royal hypeness...

are you mocking me and my light-hearted (yet heartfelt) attempt at a little holiday humor while still trying to be helpful?

i call that "multi-tasking"...you should look into it...i already have a little "multi-tasking" you can try at home or even right now...its called "perch and rotate", homes...

let me know if it doesn't take...

and no, you can't (because you're insecure)...i'm already bringing the napkins (and the funk)...

My response to Travis:

Mr. Xxxxxxx,

That's all good and well. The perch and rotate did in fact take quite fittingly... thanks for you helpful (and heartfelt) suggestion.

Now as for what I am to bring then to this gathering, I'm thinking that I'll be bringing along "the class". I wouldn't expect someone such as yourself to even know where to begin to find something so foreign in the wastelands you called home (Mxxxxx County). (And no, working as a taxi service for the Amish does not count.)

But all politeness aside, I strongly suggest that you multi-task your ass back to charm school for a few more weeks so as to learn proper etiquette for attending a dear friend's festive holiday gathering without offending, insulting, and generally reeking of fetid onions and body odor.

See you then.

Zach "Hype"

Travis' latest response:

my dearest mr. "hype" Xxxxxxx

my polite indignation knows no bounds...

thanks, a suggestion is nothing if it doesn't have "heart"...

glad to know you'll be bringing the "class" (all of it 3rd? coach? what are you gonna do? sing "puttin' on the ritz"?). one less thing for me to carry...i'll be bringing the "substance" (and extra napkins) and setting the room on fire with my enthralling (if personally distant) conversational abilities...i may also try to bring some "charm"...that's a huge maybe though...

on the charm subject...i have attended "charm school" via correspondence...i have a certificate coming in the mail...and if i can't attend a holiday gathering with insulting and offending others (see my "awesome" fondue puns on misty's b-day) then what is really the point of getting together at all?

oh yeah...the food...and napkins... and texas.

warmest regards and best wishes travis xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

Then Travis wrote this: (for all the other people who have a bunch of emails in their inbox from Travis and me)

yeah...sorry about that...as you (misty) may very well know, sometimes
the correspondence betwix zach and "yours truly" can take on a life of
its own...i'm sorry you all had to be a part of that ugliness.  don't
fret none, fellow partaygoers, zach and i will "make nice" at the party
like nothing ever happened...(but deep down, we'll all know...)

travis "the secret ingredient" xxxxxxx

Re: a better pen pal...

This is a somewhat mundane exchange but there's some "gem lines" in here. We are discussing plans to get together for a writing session for the band as well as plans for Thanksgiving at the Ranch (and I am also talking about video games.)

----- I Wrote -----

Travis,
I think I was better off not going to see (Scott) Beo-WHA?.. but I saw it anyway. It's alright but not great. I have decided I want to have relations with a tomb-raider-lips demon and then have my spawn terrorize my village/kingdom. (What kind of wicked spawn would my seed produce? That is Question I should not have posited.)

(Quotational overuse alert!)

Tonight, I have erronously made plans to "hang out" with some friends from "High" School. We are "Going" to get "dinner" and then make "mashed potatos & confetti salsa" (not what you hope it is... neither confetti served as "salsa" or salsa used as "confetti")

...so I'm going to head to the gym right-short after work, speed home and obtain my bestickered guitar, return to the ithsmuths for dinner and then perchance meet you at the rehearsal space around eight? I forgot about our deal for this evening as I was hurrying to get to the theater last night after a "Killer" back workout all-the-while conversing with my friend about her visit to "Mad-City" for the holy-day. I think it was the endorphines... I was a little loopy last night... forgot.

You dig?

Z

--- Travis wrote: -----
> zach...
>
>i still have those mother gem jams running thru my
> head...bbb...bbb..bbb...beats!
>
> i'm thinking of e-mailing her, but i have no clue as
> to what i would say...
>
> i don't want to make you rush your plans this
> eve...if you would rather put jamming off or whatnot
> its fine by me...not saying that i wouldn't want to
> work on things; but its really up to you...i don't
> want to be out/up too late in any regard as i/we
> need a fast start tomorrow...(never too late to get
> one).
>
> speaking of which, we should most likely start
> cementing those plans now...takes about two hours to
> get up there...i'd like to be there all day to hang
> with family, sorry if that would bore you...we'll
> have football to entertain us...which starts at
> 11:30, so maybe meet at my place and leave around 9
> or so? ideas? we could meet earlier and have
> breakfast, since the meal will be later in the
> day...i can feel the cement starting to dry...
>
> have to go back to coding, chat more later
> trs13

---- I responded ----

HC-13

If it's up to me, I would rather stay up a little late (as I will be doing so anyway... those MVP awards don't get handed out like divorce certificates or hydrocodone 'scripts...) but if you want to bag it early than that's okay too. (Not really.)

Here's the scoop though. My friend is leaving Joliet and heading this way probably right now. Baring traffic and weather, she should arrive around 6:30 or so. But I think she's not counting on the traffic being as bad as I think it's going to be.

Maybe we can get together early? Say six? Call it after a few hours. I don't know. Oh wait, what did my horrorscope say? Be firm and direct with what you want today/keep a low profile.

I am not opposed to breakfast in the a.m. tomorrow. (I'm never opposed to breakfast, you know that. "It's like we're married. 'What are you doing? You don't like shrimp!'" Especially bacon. Bacon pureed with coffee and ice cream what a delicious breakfast shake that would be. Funnel Cakes? Tomb raider lips intact? Check.)

I'll meet you at the 114 at 6.30. Does that work? It better. I'll head over to the other thing at about eight. From there, I'll hang out till ten, head home and finish off the regular 2007 season. (Since when did Junior Seau play for the 'Skins? Douchebag=Junior Seau!) (11-3, 4500+ yards passing, 1500+ yards rushing. MONSTER OFFENSE!!! My rush defense has held opponents to 600 yards but my pass defense sucks. The fact that I outscore everyone makes that a moot point. But on the flip side, I've got something like 40 interceptions from my corners and safeties. Crazy mad stat party. I really should up the difficulty settings but then it would be a challenge and I'm not really in this for the challenge (if I was, I would be playing NHL '04), I get enough of that in my daily routine (yeah right). It's all about stomping the shit out of someone on the field with ease, to relax.)

But back to breakfast, are there going to be any places open for breakfast? Think about it...

Six thirty? You on? You in? You out? (Turn on, Tune in, Hulk out.) Vintage.

Z-Hype

Re: Take the "unit" out

(((Travis' Initial Message)))

--- Travis wrote:
> sorry i was a bit out of it and texting so much at
> the end of evening...didn't intend to be rude...some
> of it was just that "supernatural" comedown...good
> times.
>
> later
> the "13"
>

(((My Reply)))

Travis,

I had no problems with the way last night wound down. Did you hear how much I was shouting at the Tee Vay? I was enjoying myself watching the Based Balls game. "Boring, Boring! (wind up for pitch) Oh, here comes some action! (after the pitch) Boring." I find it funny so everyone else should too. Besides, I wasn't expecting you to entertain me the way Stas does on a normal Thursday night. That would cross several lines too many. And I'm not talking about state lines either.

I was thinking about the whole Supernatural progression from season one to season three. Was season one as x-files/buffy as the episode we watched last night. Maybe I haven't seen enough of the show to really get a good feel for it all. The intuitive flow of the story. I didn't much like the introduction of the new (potentially re-occuring) character AFTER they brought in the chick with the knife AND the guy in prison from last season's finale. I thought the show was about the brothers... (I mean really, who are they? Ehhh?) ((I forgot to mention the Demon who gave the soul deal from the end of last season))

Danny J's email about the hotmail debacle is top notch funny. Haywired jackhammer of des-something-or-other. I laughed pretty hard at his frustration.

No news on the birthday get-down-from-there from Steve or Leah. Steve suggested it may be just a roommates and significant others gathering (how rude! after all I don't even bother to do for them?) So whatever. Maybe tonight would be a great night to get plastered (to a tour bus) and car surf all the way to Toronto. You can slam dance the whole way there.

I still owe you money for the 7th. I remembered it again this morning as I was walking to work. I have the funds available today. I should just give you the scratch for next 7th as well.

The experiments are going smoothly. Like we thought, straw does indeed burn, but not the way we thought it would.

Nothing else as of yet.

Z-bot

(((Travis' Inevitiable Reply to My Reply)))

Travis wrote----

> last night was a 'lil bit goofier (with the pratfalls and all...)
> then it normally is...sometimes the episodes are a bit darker...
> last season especially...i thought last night was funny in spots...
> and the idea of them being hunted by another "hunter" (though
> a little annoying, i don't doubt they're gonna go places with
> him being a religious man) is intriguing... besides, they killed
> off the seasons 1 and 2 villan last season, so they have a dire
> need for recurring antagonists...as do i.

(((and My Reply to Travis the Second Time)))

T-Dawgg

I did like the religious man "hunter" being used by the dude in jail. The dude in jail isn't on the 'good' side anymore, right? So the go-go-God hunter is being played like a fiddle by a Jamacian Devil.

I did forgot to mention the other character they introduced the end of last season in the woman/demon that gave they younger brother (Sam?) back his soul for the older brother's (Dean?).

There's too goddamn much going on in that show for me to keep track without having watched it as much as other people have...

Did you catch Danny's reference to Alpo as his canned food item he's going to bring to the haunted house tonight? He's got your cans of broth beat... sure it's food but I'd rather just go hungry. With the broth, at least you can crack it open and be fairly certain that it's fit for human consumption.

I think I'm just going to pay the three dollars. If those fuckers want me to do the leg work for their food pantry donation, they've got another think coming. I already gave one of the homeless guys outside the men's shelter a spare square (Not but five minutes after I was thinking about how in college I used to tell people bumming smokes from me on campus that I didn't smoke, as smoke was pouring out my mouth with the words. I would give them one anyway but I couln't help myself.) I did contemplate pulling that routine on the guy but he's not a college student with at least enough rationality to get into a state school.

I was also thinking about Halloween in general, and more specifically, my general disinterest in the whole affair. I think in the end, I'm just not that into it because it wasn't ever a magical night for me as a kid (being raised to believe that it was the Devil's Holiday) and growing up in mostly rural settings didn't afford for a whole lot of loot grabbing. Couple that with all those fucking packets of bullshit sweettarts and you've got some sour grapes for memories. As I've gotten older, I have begun to see it as another escapist endeavor. (Just scan-check the college co-ed costumes downtown to get a sense of what I'm getting at here. There goes a sexy nurse, there goes a sexy playboy bunny, there goes a sexy bee, (since when is a bee ever sexy? Oh yeah. When the european colonists brought over the European Honeybee which gave them a significant crop growing edge over the indigenous peoples they were uprooting for their venture capital projects. Sexy!!!)

Seriously though, I think I have some work I need to get done. Fucking Miami Subpoena came in on the Fax-o-ma-phone. Gotta find a professor...

In deep thought/shit,
(BuzZ)ach

(((and the Final Return!!!)))
>
> you could be right about your roots in halloween...you
> see, halloween was a magical time of year for young
> travis...cool costumes, candy, my mother went all out
> decorating, it was an event...my parents would take me
> into town to trick-or-treat with my cousins...good times.
>
> i feel you on the costume scene, though...why do i think
> i wear a sheet labeled "ghost" with holes cut into it? pure
> parody, and the wankers don't even know it's going about
> right under their merry noses...ooooohhhh a sexy pirate,
> a sexy vampire/nurse, a sexy astronaut...get real and then
> get bent, posers...
>

Re: this is getting annoying...

***** Travis' Message *****

--- Travis wrote:
> does chicken broth count as a "canned food" item?
> if it does, i have my (and a couple fortunate
> friends') tickets into the haunted dealie this
> Friday...
>
> i guess you could say i have the "fright"
> stuff...that's never going to get old...
>

***** MY Reply *****

Travis! (Spoken like your mother would say it.)

I don't think that it doesn't count but you (and your friends) look like a real jerk(s) if you show up with Chicken Broth.

(Shaking head)

(shrugs shoulders)

But who am I to judge? Maybe there's some needy people who visit the food pantry to get broth because they can't keep down solid foods... because they're alcoholics and whatever. I don't know.

(sighs)

I slept like crap last night again. I'm starting to get tired of not sleeping well (get it, tired. Ha!) Even crashed out on the couch with Deano wasn't that good of a nap. Perhaps I just don't have the "night moves" to get things done in the sleep dept. anymore. I'll just resign myself to a waking life and eventually end up in a sleep study at the university, trying to raise enough money for a DVD player. After I buy the swords.

(pauses, stares out the window at the blacktop while a fly lands on his arm.)

I really hate my jobs. All of them. I think I would best be served by hanging up the guitar, the photocopy skills, and the "congratulations, you're being sued" party patrol, and moving to a new city with a graduate program that suits my needs. But it's only Monday. We'll see how I feel after the MC Chris show tonight. "MC Chris is coming to your town tonight."

(thinks through the chorus to the song, mostly the music. the lyrics are just a jumble. Music is almost the same thing as the "Uh-Oh" music from Sea Lab 2021. Huh...)

(Contemplates purchasing a gun this evening, quickly hides that idea.)

I've got some things to do... or something. Lots of backlog Affidavits, Invoices, Document Requests, and I'm just sitting here. Wasting away in margarit... nevermind. Stupid parrotheads!

Z

***** Travis' Response to My Reply *****

> Subject: Flushing Meadows
>
> so you think the broth may be bad form, 'eh...
>
> just curious...i don't want to be "that guy"...it's not like it's
> old broth or anything; i can vagely remember buying it,
> although i'm sort of at a loss as to why i bought it...but i
> digress...somebody out there has got to be on a liquid
> diet or hankerin' to make some chicken soup and perhaps
> my most generous contribution will help turn a fanciful
> afternoon's daydream into a lush, steaming, delicious reality...
>
> which is the only kind of reality i'd waste my time
> showing up for.
>
> i mean, i have both chicken and beef varieties...one
> of the cans of chicken may even be "low fat"...charity
> can be "health-conscious"...
>
> leaving my mark on society, one can at a time...
>
> the "13"

Band Drama!!! and the Fox

Travis.

After spending a nice relaxing dinner (they prepared a delicious salmon chowder that I couldn't resist, and you know how picky I am about eating fish, but alas, I had to eat it because it was superbly delicious) with Sam and Megan and Will and Chris in Oconomowoc followed with heavy lifting (I helped unload their moving truck full of their new kitchen from Ikea) I rolled into downtown Milwaukee (I think I saw "the Fox" but it was kinda foggy and misty and my wipers don't work too well these days so maybe it was just a "harley dude" with a fedora) and kicked it with Joey Vochich (OMG it's Joey Fukin Vochich!) for a few hours talking about stuff (like his surreal week past)

He said that he had already sent an e-mail to Jakey at the Klinic confirming our acceptence of his offer to perform on Friday night as Where the i Divides without an answer from Danny J. and he said that he did so because if Danny makes up some excuse, we're going to play the show without him, performing our acoustic set in a similar fashion to last Tuesday in Greenfield park.

We also discussed the rediculously long message on Danny's answering machine and how it prevented me from leaving him a message on Saturday (due to my refusal to listen to it, YET AGAIN) and he said that he's going to "have words" with him about that along with some other assorted odds and ends that are irking him about Danny's "lack of professionalism". I think our showdown between the two of them may soon be more than just speculation. I can't wait to see them go at it. Bring my popcorn and my beer and get a front row seat. It should be a good one. Joe's got the height advantage but Danny has the military training.

I'll see you later tonight and we'll discuss these things in greater depth and also perhaps a missive about the struggling Milwaukee Brewers and their trouncing given out last eve in Arizona. What a game!!!

Sincerely,

Zach

--- Travis wrote:

> by the way (no, not that awful chili peppers song)

> what's the good word on that prospective klinic

> Friday night deal? are we going to be rocking? i

> hope so...

>