06.01.07 7:20am

I played hooky from work yesterday and went to hear Barack Obama speak. He’s a great public speaker, very commanding and powerful. I liked a lot of what he had to say, but like all politicians I’ll have to wait and see what’s bullshit and what’s genuine. I have to admit, he seemed very genuine and passionate while he was speaking to us. I like his ideas on grass roots involvement in politics. The powers that be have gone on unchecked by the people for too long and we are all suffering the results of that neglect.

The iPod is pumping out Charlotte Gainsbourg’s album 5:55 this morning. It’s great Friday morning music.

1:14pm

Funny thing happened after lunch today. My boss walks in to my office and says,

“What the hell are you listening to?”
“Face Down in Shit.”
“Is that the song or band?”
“The band. The song is called ‘Fucked’.”

He turns and leaves the office with out a word.

It really is the little things in life that make it worth getting out of bed in the morning.

06.03.07 3:16pm

I’m sitting in Bibo Coffee working on the second issue of the Sound & Fury zine. I’m really pissed of at the lack of support the store and the zine have been receiving. I hear all the time, punk rockers and other counter-culture types, speaking out against the corporate stranglehold on the music industry. And yet they don’t support two outlets in their home town to loosen the grip. I had originally planned on the second issue being available May 1st, then due to a complete lack of content other than my own ramblings I set my sights for June 1st. Now with only my submissions and submissions from two other fine individuals (thank you Raj and Clint, you have no idea how much your support means to me) I’m struggling to get it finished and on the shelves sometime in June. The part that really pisses me off is this, if everyone who told me they were going to submit something did, I’d have enough for the next two issues. All I can say is fuck out spoken in-activists. Ideas without action are meaningless.

06.04.07 8:33am

I’ve been in one of those moods where I can’t stop writing. Things are just gushing out of me faster than I can type them up. It’s a good place to be. It really comes in waves with me. I’ll go months without putting a word to paper other than this damn journal, and then just like a busted water pipe, it floods out and wipes everything clean. That’s where I’m at today, caught in the raging current of my own depravity.

Los Angeles by X is playing in my little field office. I’m lost in the stream and the rest of the world doesn’t exist right now.

06.05.07 7:31am

There is a meeting at the Holland Project today with the mayor. With any luck he’s on our side and there will be some sort of resolution to the problems Holland has been having. It such a shame to me that one angry neighbor could shut down such a positive place. At first I had sympathy for the guy. Holland Project moved into his back yard and next thing he knows there are punk rock shows and a bunch of kids running around. But after meeting him and hearing all the awful things he’s said to people, my sympathy for him has faded.

I made more progress on my poetry book (tentatively titled No Apologies) in the last four days than I have in the last six months. That’s how it works with me and writing, the flood gates are either open all the way or they are shut tight. Right now it’s flood of biblical proportions.

Rocking out to The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s, Time Out this morning.

06.06.07 7:35am

The Holland Project meeting with the mayor last night didn’t really seem to accomplish anything. Clint said it best when he said “I think this meeting did more for the mayor than it did for us.” Not to sound jaded, I am excited that the mayor and Reno City Counsel are in Holland’s corner, but yesterday just seemed to raise more questions and not deliver any real answers.

All month I’ve been trying to slug my way through Chuck Palahniuk’s new novel, Rant but it’s not happening. The book has a great idea behind it, but it’s not well executed. I think I’m over ol’ Chuck. I read Charles Bukowski’s, Sifting through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way in its entirety Monday and Tuesday. I started to re-read What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk through the Fire last night and Pulp this morning. I guess I’m in a Bukowski mood.

I went back and read a bunch of my old journal entries from the Twice days. Its funny how not much changes. I’m happy when I’m on the road. I’m neurotic and stricken with insomnia when I’m home. I don’t miss Twice at all but I do miss the road trips. I have to get a band off the ground. NameMeNoone is falling apart, and the project with Tony and Clint is off to a slow crawl. Things aren’t looking too bright. I guess a spoken word tour will have to do.

The new Modest Mouse is on the iPod this morning. I’m not sure if I’m sold on this record yet.

06.07.07 7:29am

I gave the web site a little face lift last night thanks to a new logo design courtesy of my good friend David Howe. I’ve got some more changes in mind for the near future. But this is a good start.

I go in for my third cover-up session with Zach tomorrow. I’m truly amazed with how this tattoo is coming out. Because I was trying to cover a very large, very black piece I didn’t have very high expectations, but the way it’s going it won’t be evident that it’s a cover up unless you saw what was on my arm before.

I’ve got Brian Jonestown Massacre, Strung out in Heaven on the headphones this morning.

06.08.07 7:23am

Earlier this week one of the plumbers on a job site down the road from mine had a sewer line test back fire and he was seriously injured. This is a test that goes on in every house built, everyday. It’s something that has to happen in order to finishing building a house. It sucks to think this guy was out there working, trying to pay the rent and now he may lose an eye.

Work on the poetry book is coming along fast. I haven’t slept a whole night in days and all I do is type.
By the time Ryan can get it on the schedule for Slander House it’s going to be enough for two volumes. That is if I don’t die of exhaustion before then.

Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Singers is on the iPod this morning, and it seems appropriate.

06.11.07 12:05pm

This is day one of my week long vacation. I have today, tomorrow and most of Wednesday to do what ever I want. Wednesday evening Des and I head out to Portland. I am excited. Today I’ve just been doing chores and listening to music. Sly & the Family Stone, The Doors and Talking Heads so far. Not a bad Monday. I’ve been kind of stressing because we didn’t have a house sitter, but I got that handled today. With all the animals we have, it’s impossible to leave town without a house sitter.

I posted some new poems today.

3:13pm

Hanging out at Bibo and getting some writing done. I wonder how long I’ll be on this wave. Writing is such a strange thing for me. I don’t necessarily want to be a writer, I just write. It hits me every so often and I have to do it, like I need my next breath I have to write. And then it’s gone for awhile and I can do other things. Right now I have to write. There is nothing else.

06.13.07 10:26pm-Yreka, CA

Sitting in a hotel room in Yreka CA listening to Leonard Cohen’s Best Of. We’re about half way to Portland now.

We stopped at Burney Falls today. Des loves water falls and had never seen Burney Falls. I really like that place so no argument from me about the stop. I’ve experimenting with aperture and shutter speed settings with the digital camera so the falls were a great chance to play with that.

We have about five hours of driving to get through tomorrow. I’m looking forward to doing some sales tax free CD shopping.

Hard to believe I’ve been married four years as of today. Time flies.

06.14.07 9:29am – North of Medford, OR.

Sitting at a rest stop just north of Medford OR. We got up bright and early today, ate a quick breakfast and hit the road for Portland. It was strange to drive through Ashland and Medford today. The only time I have been in or near either of those towns was to play shows. As I saw the familiar landmarks coming into Ashland I got that pre-show excitement in my gut. That feeling was quickly replaced with an empty, depressed feeling as I realized there would be no shows this trip.

We’ve been listening to the iPod’s Soul & R&B play list on random all AM. Soul is excellent morning music and excellent driving music, and since we are driving in the morning…

Funniest thing I’ve seen today:

A very large, Caucasian woman in her mid to late fifties standing on the sidewalk at the rest stop watching who I assume to be her granddaughter running across the parking lot toward the fast moving traffic of the I-5 North on-ramp. This behemoth of a woman is just standing watching this small child run in to traffic and yelling “OH HELL NO! OH NO SHE DINNIT!”

God bless America.

9:05pm - Portland, OR.

We’re back in the room in Portland listening to Blonde Redhead, 23. We got in town around 2:00pm and have been wandering around downtown ever since.

The remainder of our drive was uneventful. As morning gave way to afternoon our soul soundtrack gave way to the Talking Heads, Radiohead, Magazine etc.

I managed to get a good deal of CD shopping done. The stores here aren’t as good as I imagined, but still better than Reno has to offer. I found a James Chance double CD I’ve been on the hunt for so that alone would have made my trip on the CD end of things.

I sort of blew it on the hotel selection and we are just off the freeway instead of in downtown. It’s about a four block walk to the university, and another six or seven to downtown. Our non-smoking room reeks of cigarettes and my allergies are on high alert. Nothing to do now but make the best of it.

I love Portland so far. What a beautiful city. On the agenda for tomorrow is either the Portland Zoo or the Museum of Art. Whichever we don’t do tomorrow we will do Saturday.

06.15.07 7:56am – Portland, OR.

Insomnia doesn’t take vacations. I couldn’t sleep last night after Des and I came back to the room so I wandered aimlessly around downtown Portland. I saw a lot of interesting things. There are a great many street kids in Portland. I remember seeing a documentary about it awhile back that said something in the neighborhood of one hundred kids come here every month. As I wandered around last night I saw a bunch of the places featured in that documentary as hang-outs for these homeless kids. And sure as shit, there they were. There were tons of homeless, crust-kids begging for change, smoking cigarettes and just hanging out. It was kind of surreal to have seen it on that doc and then see it in real life. From what I understand there is a huge problem here with the street kids and heroin.

I found a great bookstore, Powell Books, which is open late so I went in. Holy shit it was the biggest book store I have ever seen. It’s two Barnes & Nobel’s. New and used books as far as the eye can see. I could have spent an entire day in there unfortunately I only got to spend an hour or so because they closed at 11:00pm. I’m going back before this trip is over.

It’s funny; I have wandered aimlessly all night in many towns, from San Francisco to New York to Vancouver, BC, and many points in between. Portland is one of two (Vancouver being the other) where I felt absolutely safe. I had no anxiety at all about wandering down dark streets or through poorly lit parks. I can remember being in New York and feeling like I was going to get fucked with, nothing ever happened but I felt like danger was just around every corner. In Portland I didn’t have that feeling. Even at 1:00am lost (as I tend to get) in a park with no lights and no idea how to get to where I needed to be.

11:15pm – Portland OR.

Back in the room after a long day. We spent most of today at the Portland Zoo. It’s a really nice zoo, reminded me of the aquarium in Vancouver, BC. Portland in general reminds me of Vancouver. I could see myself living here with no problems. We finished up at the zoo around 5:00pm and have been wandering around the downtown area since.

Tomorrow we are going to take in the art museum and the waterfront. We’re supposed to meet up with my friend Amy and her new beau for diner; however I forgot to call her today. I’ll give her a call in the morning and see where things are at.

06.16.07 4:34pm – Portland, OR.

We’re resting up a bit from a long day of walking all over Portland. Des wanted to do some shopping today but couldn’t find anything she really liked. I found a Bukowski book I’ve never seen before. It’s been heavily used but is still in decent condition, and for $6 who can complain. Tomorrow is our last day here. Monday will be all about the drive.

Devo is on the iPod and I’m going to try for a nap.

10:33pm - Portland, OR.

We just got back from Vancouver, WA. We went up to see my old friend Amy and her boyfriend. The boyfriend didn’t make it out so Amy, Des and I went to the Vancouver Micro-Blues Festival and then to dinner. It was great to see Amy again. I’ve missed her since she moved up here.

Tomorrow is our last day to fill with Oregon and then its home again, home again.

06.17.07 10:12pm – Portland, OR.

We’re back in the room for the last time this trip. Tomorrow we’ll get a quick breakfast here in Portland and then it’s the nine hour drive back home.

Today we went to Multnomah Falls, which is in the Columbia River Gorge, about 30 miles east of Portland. What an amazing place. We hiked up 1500 feet over the course of 1 mile to the top of a phenomenal waterfall. And then of course back down 1500 feet in a mile. The entire area is a dense and absolutely gorgeous forest. I’ll be posting pictures on the soon to be added photos page of the site.

I think I could live here without any problem. For a short time at least, Reno will always be my home, but I’d like to experience living other places too.

06.19.07 8:29am

Back home in Reno, back to work. Blah, blah, blah. I already miss Portland. I had a good time there. We never did make it to the Portland Art Museum. I guess that’ll be on the agenda for our next Portland trip.

I have a talking show seven days from today for Ryan’s return from tour. I have a lot to talk about. I had a set ready for the shows I was supposed to do with Ryan on tour, so I’m good to go for next Tuesday.

I’m listening to Robert Cage Can See What You’re Doing this morning. The blues are a great soundtrack for the first day back at work after vacation.

06.20.07 7:24am

NameMeNoone is going to practice tonight. I honestly can’t remember the last time that happened. I’m not sure I can even remember any of the tunes. I’d sort of given up on that band.

I haven’t been playing guitar at all lately. I bought some sound dampeners for the drum kit so I have been playing those quite a lot (and not pissing off the entire neighborhood). I really need to put together a full time project that will tour and record and the whole nine yards. At this point I don’t care if I’m the drummer or guitar player I just need to be in a band. (Truth be told I need to practice a lot more before I could play drums in a band setting.)

I’m listening to Tomahawk’s new album Anonymous this morning. I’m not sure if I like this record.

There are a handful of artist that I’ve been listening to for so long that I’ll buy anything they put out. Mike Patton (Faith no More, Mr. Bungle), John Stanier (Helmet) and Duane Denison (Jesus Lizard) are all on that list and all in Tomahawk so it was a no brainer to purchase the record. I think it may end up in my “Nice try, but no thank you” pile.

Josh Homme (Kyuss) is on that list too. And so far I’m not 100% on the new Queens of the Stone Age album. There are some really great tunes on there, but I’m sure it works as a whole. It’s one of those records that when a song on it comes up on shuffle I love it, but when I try to sit and listen to the album start to finish, I tune out after about four songs. They do an absolutely fantastic version of one of my favorite songs from the Desert Sessions albums, I Wanna Make it Wit Chu. I really like that song and the Queens version is really good.

06.21.07 7:29am

NameMeNoone practice last night was sort of awkward. We don’t remember most of the songs. They started to come to us slowly as we played around. I think we are going to re-learn the few songs we want to play live and then just write new songs. If I had known we were going to keep playing as a band I’d have played those songs a few time during our six week break. I honestly thought NameMeNoone was over.

I’m working on putting together a new band with Jeff and Josh from Guns Down. We are talking about doing a three piece with Josh and me sharing vocal duty. No idea yet what it will sound like but it should be fun.

According to my calendar today is the first official day of summer. I do enjoy my summers.

I’ve been listening to Call Me Lightning all morning. I never noticed it before but there is an obvious 80’s goth rock influence in their stuff (it’s in the guitars mostly). That is really appealing to me.

06.22.07 8:00am

We are going to have NameMeNoone practice again tonight. I haven’t had time to listen to the CD and reacquaint myself with the songs yet. Hopefully I can remember more than I did last time. I wish I had put the NMNO stuff in my iPod so I could listen to it here at work.

I went over to my folks place for dinner last night. It was nice. I don’t visit them as much as I should. I need to work on that.

I’m listening to Garage a Trois, Outre Mor this morning. Charlie Hunter is the man.

3:04pm

Today is lay-off day at work. Everyone is trying hard to stay under the radar, not make waves. The housing market is in the crapper and people are losing jobs left and right. I reckon I bullshitted my way into this industry, I can bullshit my way into something else. Maybe I’ll go build airplanes or fight forest fires or bind books. Who knows? If I make through today then I’m safe for two weeks. They only lay people off on Fridays that aren’t payday. Next Friday is payday.

I’ve been reading Innocent When You Dream: The Tom Waits Reader all week. It’s a collection of interviews, reviews and articles spanning Tom Waits’ entire, illustrious career. He’s an interesting cat. I’d like to have a root-beer with him some day.

8:22pm

NameMeNoone practice went much better tonight. We made it through all eleven songs we are going to continue to play, eight songs from the demo (that I plan to release in August) and three new tunes. I’m excited about this band again. The songs are really fun to play.

06.23.07 10:59pm

A fire broke out behind our house today. I got some cool pictures. There was a helicopter dumping water on the fire. It was pulling water right out of the Truckee River. I got a few shots of that. I’ll be posting those soon.

The rest of the day we spent with Dave and Chris. Dave is leaving for LA July 1st. Damn I am going to miss that guy. He is one of my closest friends.

I started working on the photos page today. I think that's going to be a slow process.

06.24.07 4:39pm

There was another fire by my house today. This was very, very close. At one point the sheriff was telling us to prepare to evacuate. I posted some pictures of today’s fire. I’m trying figure out a better way manage the photos on my site. The method I’m running with now is very time consuming.

06.25.07 8:44am

I guess I was on the news last night. Channel 2 interviewed me about the fire, but I figured they wouldn’t use it. The reporter didn’t seem to like what I said. I guess I was wrong. I’ve had a couple guys I work with call and say they saw me on the news.

This is already an intense fire season. It looks like it’s going to be a bad year for firefighters.

I feel like shit today. Must be the smoke and everything from this weekend fucking with my allergies.

Listening to Ralph Carney’s, This is Ralph Carney this morning. Good stuff.

06.26.07 11:17am

I have a spoken word show tonight. I never know how to prepare for these shows. I usually just get up there with nothing and make it all up as I go. I have some things I want to talk about tonight, but who knows if I’ll get them out. Last show I had an outline of all this things I wanted to touch on written down on stage with me. I think I talked about one or two of the things I wrote down.

I’ve been listening to Bob Log III all morning. He reminds me of Tom Waits only dirtier if you can imagine.

06.27.07 7:22am

The show last night could have gone better. I was rattled by these two young kids (young like 5). The set I had worked out wasn’t PG by any stretch and I let it get to me. I found myself editing the set on the fly and skipping over a lot of the things I really wanted to talk about. In the end I sort of freestyled a not too interesting political rant that disintegrated into a preachy mess. It was good learning experience and I walked away from knowing a little more about myself then I did walking in.

Ms. Isha was amazing! I think I only really understood about 30% of what she was talking about, but her presentation was so engaging and enthralling that I found myself hanging on her every word. Ryan threw down a good set as always, tour seems to have fired him up.

Ryan and I talked about my book last night. I sent it off to the proofreader for the final once-over yesterday and as soon as I get it back from them, it’s ready to print. I’d like to get it to the printer before Ryan leaves for his next tour in a few weeks.

Listening to Leonard Cohen, More Best Of this morning and making notes for the next show.

06.28.07 8:34am

I haven’t had a full nights sleep this week. It’s starting to get to me. Your body does funny things to you when it’s exhausted.

I sent Romance Novels & Ransom Notes off to the proofreader for the third and final round. As soon as I get it back and make the corrections Ryan will give it to the printers and they will make books. We are looking at an August or September release now. Need to plan a show, make a poster and get some damn sleep.

Listening to Bauhaus BCC sessions this morning. I never get tired of Bauhaus.

06.29.07 7:38am

I went with Dave to see the new Die Hard movie last night. It was a fun ride. Dave is moving to LA on Sunday so I’m trying to spend as much time with him as I can. He’s been a close friend for about 10 years. I’m really going to miss him.

Today is my dad and my nephew’s birthday. I’ll be busy with all kinds of family stuff this weekend.

I’ve got Morphine, Like Swimming on the speakers this morning. If ever there was a band light years ahead of it’s time…