7 March 2001

the palette of water and gray.

Though this may not be a true statement come 6 months from now, i think i can safely say that the drought is over for now. It rained most of last week and today was just sheets and sheets of water falling at a slight angle. The ground has drank its fill and can drink no more as indicated by the gathering pools of water and mud in the yard. The weeds and native grasses (St. Augustine is neither native nor a grass), have started to proliferate like no ones business. And while a touch of green might be welcome in our yard (we let the sun scorch most of it last year as we did not feel like being extorted for water, which was in short demand anyway), the clumps of thistle and ragweed do not for an exciting garden make.

In other news, i have finally taken it upon myself to do the following things:

1) start running/ walking again (people do this shit for fun?!?)
2) start lifting some weights again (see above rhetorical question)
3) start printmaking again (intaglio to be specific)
4) i've finally decided it's time learn how to play the saxophone i bought years ago. (alto, Selmer Bundy II)

It's been with as much, if not more, energy and desire i've wanted to learn an instrument. To be a part of that creative process that uses time and sound to sculpt and paint the most fundamental and deep thoughts of the human experience... to find a voice without words, but with a superior vocabulary... this has been a craving of mine since i was 12. For one reason or another, i never got around to it. I bought a couple of guitars when i moved back from SF, but truth be told, i was so discouraged by the lessons i took, i never picked them up again. Rewind 10 or so years ago. I bought a saxophone on a pseudo whim for $300. Back then, that was a weeks pay (that's what you get when you work for Motorola as a "burger flipper" in a semiconductor fab). I tried to squeeze some sounds out of it, but i never really understood what i was doing.

This time i have someone who is eager to teach and will hopefully flesh out my questions regarding music theory. I'm just now starting on this path, but i tell you... i am genuinely looking forward to this.

28 March 2001

in anticipation of now.

Grrr... i had written something last night that didn't make much sense. I've decided to delete it and see if i can write something more substantive or at least more interesting.

Well, if you've read any of my journals here, especially the entries from this last summer, you know how much i love rain. Rain is life, rain brings change. Well, it's been raining.

and raining

and raining

and raining.

And i love every minute of it.

But i do have to grouse about something. What is it with you idiots in your Peeck-Up Trucks, your domestic cattle herding mini-vans, your littlemidlife crisis Miata (insert Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, etc... here) and driving on Loop 360 ? What part of SPEED LIMIT: 55 did you not quite grasp? Do you think accidents are things that happen only to OTHER people? Do think that you're above being remembered by a white cross on the side of the road to join the others? Was your driving class the only one in Texas that had an instructor who told everyone to speed up and tailgate when roads are slick and your driving down a hill?

Look, if you want to grease yourself on the road, fine. Do it, but don't include me in your plans. If your ambition is to be picked off the road by the Spatula Crew and a garden hose, then knock yourself out, bubba. But get off my ass and go drive like a statistic-waiting-to-happen somewhere else.

And people wonder why i don't ride my motorcycle anymore.

Oh, i've been working on my Sounds section. I hope to have something up by the end of this weekend.

2 March 2001

read my sounds.

Okay. Though the woman who initially inspired me to get off my ass and work on my Sounds section hasn't written me back, i'm still grateful to her for helping me get motivated enough to do what i should have been doing for the last three months.

I'm happy to unveil my Sounds section. I've only reviewed 4 CD's thus far, but i'm hoping to more than double that by the end of this weekend. It'll be slow going and frankly, i don't expect everyone to agree with what i have to say, but i hope you'll enjoy and get something out of it nonetheless.

In other news, i've been approached by a couple of people over the course of the last three or so months who have asked, "How you can put so much personal information in your online journal?" It's given me reason to pause and think about the content that i've created here and if that content is appropriate.

I'll be the first to admit that there is at least one area that was way personal. It didn't examine any thoughts of mine in a literal sense. I simply felt the need to vent some of my feelings via prose (though i admit i'm about as graceful with poetry and prose as a cat with a clothespin on it's tail (ask my sister about that)). I want to create a series of thoughts that make this part of the web a little more interesting than your usual run of the gamut vanity page. I want to offer a little more depth than your typical "My 10 Favorite Fantasies on Tiddyfucking Madonna's Chesticles" list, and i want to do it with a little sense of design, a little more humor and when appropriate, a touch of disdain.

Ultimately i am not trying to divulge anything about me that should be of any interest to anyone. I am simply reflecting with the same honesty and vocabulary that you might find in one of my prints or paintings... as i hope to eventually do via my saxophone or even as i addressed people on television for 6 years. I want to inspire others to be interesting, to be honest, to be thoughtful and to be willing to create something unique and outstanding in their corner of the web.

If someone thinks they're somehow learning something about me in the process, then i say go spend some quality time outdoors. I'm just a fine arts schmuck who loves music, enjoys dancing to house and jungle when he can, who works on computers and can't find a date.

Lo' the mystery is solved once and for all. I'm a dull cracker.