a story about knives

I used to read National Geographic when I was a kid, and there was this entire episode about the atomic bomb, and how they work. I read about how they split the atom, and how it causes a reaction, which causes the explosion (in the simplest of terms).

I was also really into knives, and using my Dad’s sharpening stone because it contained DIAMOND dust. I always thought “let’s collect the diamond dust and mash it into a diamond and be rich, dad!” but he informed me that it doesn’t really work that way.

So I was sharpening my pocketknife one day, and I stopped dead in my tracks. “Not TOO sharp” I thought. Because I could swing it in the air JUST RIGHT and accidentally split an atom, causing not only my destruction but the destruction of the entire world.

That’s when the nuclear war nightmares started. I was a dumb kid.

on the first bus out of town

I know it’s not technically summer, or even spring yet.. but it’s so cold! I wanted to go on Manhattan Beach Memory Adventure this weekend, but not if the wind is blowing me upside down! Ooops.. nevermind.. I just check the weather and it is back to the 70’s this weekend.

Tomorrow I get a new digital camera (if I find one I like). I also pay off the rest of my credit card! (Does dance) .

Back to the Manhattan Beach Memory Adventure.. my Mom and Dad grew up in Manhattan beach, which is just south of here. It is very nice there, and I used to visit my grandparents there all the time. I loved it, and I always wanted to live there on the beach instead of in the forest. Now that I am older and wiser (ha) I can appreciate both. But I wanted to go take some pictures of my parent’s old houses and schools, etc. I don’t know if they’ll ever visit me while I live in Los Angeles, so I figure some great pictures would be nice.

Hmmm.. what else? I listened to SO MUCH PAVEMENT today at work. I also ate at Sharkeys (in Manhattan Beach) for lunch.. delicious fish tacos! I want 700 more! I seriously can’t wait for summer and more beach. Swimming! (Two weekends ago doesn’t count.)

Anything else? Hmm.. anything else? Nope!

that andy rooney…

…always complainin’ bout somethin’!

i never asked for the truth (but you owe that to me)

Oh man… sweet sorrow and stuff! I went record shopping after work, and stopped by my old place o’ employment Second Spin to get some CDs. The manager is leaving, and he’s afraid some hardass is going to come in there. Lndsey is working at a tattoo shop, so she won’t be working there in a few weeks, and I can’t see Joyce sticking around if some asshole manages the store. My friends! My special deals! I hope they both don’t disappear – the trip to Hollywood is a long (but fun) ride.

Here’s what I got!

Pavement – Wowee Zowee Sordid Sentinels Edition – finally!
Gay Dad – Leisure Noise (only 2 dollarz!)
The Pixies at the BBC – Did you know, this is the only Pixies album I’ve EVER owned? For reals.

I almost picked up the John Spencer Blues Explosion album with “Bellbottoms” on it, but I decided to leave that album securely planted in my memories. Of when I was 23. And I lived in Portland.

Soon.. a love letter to Portland.

I’m drinking “Rolling Rock,” only because my Grandpa used to drink it, and I listened to an interview with Robert Pollard and he’s like “sometimes we drink Rolling Rock, and boy.. then we get in trouble” and I was like “OH YEAH! Rolling Rock!” I just like the bottles.

August = the best month of the year! Why? I don’t know.. but I decided it a while ago. It’s so mellow and wonderful, warm and calm. I love August!

Tattle Tale!

I just realized that everytime I go out, and there is a camera, I am wearing the same color shirt. Weird.

“Roger’s Exciting Tattle Tale Room” is awesome. There are a lot of small details that I don’t remember.. but they were awesome?

That’s enough typing for now.

breaking news!

M-16 LOBVES ME!

He can rest easy with the knowledge that I, too, lobve him. I Lobve all of you!

TATTLE TALE TONIGHT!

cold hands touching my face

Second Date? You bet.
Favorite band? The Pixies (mouth agape at this fact).

Cute as a button? Sweet god, yes.

Pre-Date Thingy

Long story short – on the way home from work I got a flat on my Vespa! Poops! Things are iffy if I can ride on it. Called date, we are meeting at 9 at Saints & Sinners, looked it up on yelp and it looks great. I was pretty nervous about what kind of place she was going to pick, but she picked a rock and roll dive bar! YES!

It’s also my friend Avi’s birthday, and they are all going to that place with red glass right by Swingers. The place I make fun of. But she assured me it’s a great place. So we might go to that as well.

What else? Umm.. WHERE IS MY WALLET?

Tomorrow night… oh yeah…. tomorrow night.. here it comes… we are going to a bar called “Roger’s Exciting Tattle Tale Room.” OH MAN YES! THIS PLACE LOOKS AWESOME! Total craphole with non-scenesters singing karaoke and drinking strong drinks till the breaka breaka dawn.

Gotta get ready. Wish me luck? What do I talk about with a teacher? “So what do you teach? Is ballet hard? Do you like Turbonegro? Are you blind?” I guess we’ll see.

THIS WEEKEND = DESTINED TO ROCK!!!

…and I want to shout out our love to the world (hit it)

Netflix is a success! It was great! First.. HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT followed by NEIL DIAMOND PARKING LOT followed by THE DEPARTED followed by BADLANDS.

I was talking to Rad Dog today, futuristic text style, and he asked me about the Bruce Springsteen / Starkweather Murders connection. Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska album and title song are about the Starkweather murders. In fact, a few lines from the song borrow directly from the dramatization of the Starkweather murders, Badlands. The first line in “Nebraska” is:

“I saw her standin’ on her front lawn, just twirlin’ her baton.
Me and her went for a ride sir, and ten innocent people died”

In Badlands, Kit first finds Holly twirling a baton on the front lawn of her house as he is going home from “throwing trash” for the city. Kit (based on Charles Starkweather) says multiple times that what he and Holly is “just having some fun,” which is also reflected in the following Nebraska lyric:

“I cant say that I’m sorry for the things that we done
At least for a little while sir me and her we had us some fun”

“Nebraska” is one of my favorite songs off of its namesake album Nebraska, and I couldn’t help but think of the song in my head as I was watching Badlands. Also, last night I wrote about Darkness on the Edge of Town, which opens with the song “Badlands.” Although the song doesn’t have anything to do with the movie, it still touches on themes of getting out of a situation that has gotten out of control. For instance, the last verse of “Badlands”…

“For the ones who had a notion, a notion deep inside
That it ain’t no sin to be glad you’re alive.
I wanna find one face that ain’t looking through me
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these
Badlands…”

Later Bruce Springsteen songs seem to bring up this sort of visceral imagery, such as “Devils and Dust” (I dreamed of you last night, on a field of blood and stone) and “Empty Sky” (On the planes of Jordan, I cut my bow from the wood. From this tree of evil, from this tree of good). I feel like Bruce Springsteen likes to paint pictures in his songs of stark landscapes and characters with no escape, and then sing about the hope that they have that they can. I would love to see a cut of Badlands using Nebraska as a soundtrack, even though only the title song really uses the story as a theme.

I’ll use this opportunity, if you’ve actually stayed this long with me on this post, to share some of my favorite lyrics from a Bruce Springsteen song. It’s from the album Devils and Dust, and the song is “Long Time Coming.” The song makes me excited about growing old, which is a hard thing to do, friends. This is from the last part of the song:

“Out ‘neath the arms of Cassiopeia,
Where the sword of Orion sweeps.
It’s me and you, Rosie, cracklin’ like crossed wires,
And you breathin’ in your sleep.
You breathin’ in your sleep.

Well there’s just a spark of a campfire left burnin’,
Two kids in a sleeping bag beside.
Reach ‘neath your shirt, put my hand across your belly,
and feel another one kickin’ inside.
And I ain’t gonna fuck it up this time…”

Yeah, yeah. I’m getting soft. But I never claimed to be tough!

In summation, I love Bruce Springsteen, I love Terrance Malick, and I love haunting imagery paired with an awesome soundtrack.

This one was for you, Steven!

Under-appreciated Albums (by me)

This is the very first Bruce Spingsteen album I bought. I still have the record, but I’ve since bought it on CD when I worked at Second Spin.

This is also probably my least listened to Bruce Springsteen album. Why? It takes a little to get into this album. It is about despair and loneliness (topics not foreign to The Boss) and the songs reflect that. There isn’t the same optimism in these songs as in Born to Run, but some of those themes show up in songs such as “The Promised Land” and “Streets of Fire.”

This album has one of my favorite Springsteen openers.. the kick-ass song “Badlands.” Once in Eugene, I went to this crappy sports bar and played pool, and I hated the bar so much. So I went to the jukebox and noticed they had Badlands. It improved my experience there for four minutes and four seconds.

Speaking of, I’m watching the Terrance Malick film “Badlands” as soon as I’m done with this post.

And to my Boss collection: I know I’ve neglected you for about four months. I know you have sat there as Guided by Voices and Robert Pollard records stacked up next to you, eventually towering menacingly over you like some sort of new baby in my awesome family of rock CDs. Well, Boss collection, it’s just you and me for the rest of the week! I’m going to put you on my iPod and listen to you at work – not a hint of Pollard will be heard! Let’s power through that Tracks boxset one more time.

And Uncle Bob… I’ll be back when I finally get that “Hardcore UFO’s” box set next week.

and this, before I go to bed.

Potted meat food product – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

NETFLIX RULEZ!!!!!!!!!

I sign up for Netflix last night, and they inform me that TOMORROW I will be getting HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT IN MY MAILBOX!!!!

Wicked radical.. technology is so great. Seriously. I’m also receiving Badlands and The Departed (which I’ve already seen).

Oh man.. Heavy Metal Parking Lot!

the insurgency began and you missed it

I just watched “The Prestige” again, sooo amazing!

I can’t find my passport anywhere, which is a bad thing. I’m guessing it is in Oregon, but I can’t think where. What a pain! I’ll do some more tearing apart, then apply for a new one I guess. Damnit!

Date on friday. Date. The word is foreign to me. I can’t place it. Date. A date? I’m going on a date? A date. Do I date people now? Do I date ballerinas now? I guess so.

Stacy and Jerad left.. and they bought me a vintage Bruce Springsteen 1984 “Born in the USA” sleeveless tour shirt. It’s so fucking rad, my ears just starting bleeding thinking about how much it will rock to wear that shirt and listen to “Backstreets” really, really loud. JUST THINKING ABOUT IT MADE MY EARS BLEED! Owwwwwwwww.

I’m thinking of getting Netflix because there are all these old De Niro movies that I’m learning about from this De Niro book my mom got me for my birthday. She knows I love Robert De Niro! I suppose I could just go to Cinephile, but wouldn’t it be technologically amazing to have them DELIVERED to me?

I’ve never seen a dalmation on a firetruck… EVER.

OH YEAH. I listened to my REM fanclub single (finally) from Dec. 07, and it had this great artist named “Tin Cup Prophette” and she did a cover on “Tongue,” and I immediately found her website and emailed her about getting her CD. Amazing.

CDZ 4-EVER!

BEACH BOYS LOVE YOU 4-EVER!

Metal chicks 4-EVER! (I’d jump his bones) If you don’t know what I’m talking about, scroll down to the Heavy Metal Parking Lot post and watch that movie 5 times everyday. I do.