myspace

don't hate me,

but I'm moving my blog back

to myspace...

for all it's faults, it serves

the purpose a little better...

I'll leave this up a while though...

might turn it into something different.

shows are still happening...

I've been watching

a few shows lately

that I've enjoyed

why not share?

what is a blog if not the sharing

of interesting things?

on the left side of my screen 

is 'californication'

which is a showtime show

about a smart ass writer

who is screwing his way through

one blunder after another....

waiting later

is 

'weeds'

and thank God that Esteban

has toned his accent down a hair...

I was about to bail

and then there is the new obsession

'rescue me'

just when I think there will be no more

shows worth watching...

and I admit I entered

a vague mourning period

when the sopranos went off

of the air...

and the one and only time

I've ever thought a journey song

was appropriate was at the season 

finale...

I've lost my point

I'm watching david duchovany steal

a dog named cat stevens....

o.k.

back to whatever it is I was doing

pitch dark

the streets of ada are safe 

and quiet...

at least they were at 10:30 p.m.

tonight

I took the old longboard 

out for a skate through town

to get a little exercise

I don't mind exercise if it feels

like goofing off

skateboarding takes me back to 

that feeling of being a kid on a bike

and not thinking about anything

but just looking down at the ground

and up at the buildings

and tonight it was the stars

I tell ya,

flying down a hill in the pitch dark

is a little unnerving 

but I felt 

very much alive 

now I'm back in the basement

trying to decide which way to go...

finish cleaning up the tile job 

I did in the kitchen?

finish painting the cabinets?

burn shit?

shoot shit?

it could go a number of ways

through the power of facebook 

I've recently come in contact with 

a few old friends from my nashville days

there were only a handful of people

that I ran across that I felt where truly 

in it for the music

I was slightly disillusioned by the 

number of people that could care less

about music and made it their business

regardless...

anyway

tonight I toast them...

you know who you are

I'm getting pretty damn 

close to figuring out 

who I am too...

steinbeck

been enjoying reading

john steinbeck lately

started with "tortilla flat"

liked that and 

got "the pearl"...

liked that 

and now I'm about halfway through

"the winter of our discontent"

he cracked me up this evening

commenting on the way women

interact with each other

woman 1: what have you done with your hair? it 

                  looks like a wig.

woman2: it is a wig.

woman 1: well, you could never tell.

his books are so full of 

insight on the human condition

each page

holds a number of truths

I found this quote:

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. 

perty wise fella...

school days

picked up the kids from their 

first day of school

fifth and first grade

mass confusion

kids crying

teacher confirming things through walkie talkies

it was like busting someone

out of a minimum security prison

I was walking down a hallway

and a lady barked at me 

that I was entering a "restricted area"

got to me to thinking about

my own experiences in the fifth grade

we had an "open campus" 

at noon

we would cross a busy highway

to granny stephen's fried chicken

or head up town to this place

that sold fish and ice cream

what a combo...

guess this is turning into

one of those 'when I was a kid' tales

times were different 

I guess

underneath a truck tire

was about the only 'restricted area' 

we had  

my youngest did learn a pretty

cool trick in science today

poking pencils through a bag

filled with water

all home safe and sound

and the quietness of the house

in the afternoon was not lost on me

off again

stillwater, stillwater...

what a great acoustic show

some dude came up and told me

he first saw me play when he was 

six years old

that'll make you feel a little bit older

my kind of gig,

just loud enough to be relaxing

and enough people singing along

to make me feel alright

now it's back to the basement

for one more night 

of puttering around,

sniping camel crickets 

(one down by the way..clean shot

while he was on a dead hop)

tomorrow we load up the van

and tiny tom skinner...

recently back from the dead

and head to one of my favorite

irish pubs in wichita falls

the iron horse

I'm itchin' to play full tilt boogie

and sooo thankful tom will be with us

after that we head down to 

midland, texas to the hog pit

got a fresh battery for my camera

got a new pair of shorts

got a spring in my step

now it's time to clean off 

this amazingly cluttered desk

and start sorting through 

some left foot sally tracks

finishing them up at trent bell's

place at the end of semptember

I've had quite a few days off here

lately and I'm ready to get back to 

work

it's a great thing when you love your job

mr. tinker train

"ever day I work on the illinois river,

I get a half a day off with pay..."

that line has been stuck in my 

head all day long...

thanks turnpike troubadours..

sitting here listening to some of

their mixes I got back from hardy

today

it's a really cool album

about halfway done on

the mixing side of things...

which is easy for me

I just sit and wait

and then listen

let's review:

1. sit

2. wait

3. listen

my kind of gig

and all of the time in between

I get to spend kicking it 

with the kiddos or watching

csi somewhere or other with my wife

although lately

I'm starting to become 

obsessed with "cricket sniping"

I bought a pellet gun

down at k. rhynes surplus

here in ada

(if you haven't been you should)

it's a one shot pump

I just blew one to pieces

a minute ago

nasty little bastards

all is quiet here in the basement

and I really should be recording 

music, but just haven't felt 

the urge

I dug out some old tunes

the other day 

I had recorded here and there

but I have trouble going 

back to something

once I've moved on

that 'fresh' factor

gives me a little bump

I guess I could turn on 

the drum machine

and grab an instrument 

and see what happens

something usually does

o.k.

I've sniped long enough

and I've almost talked myself

into tinkering...

full frontal coverage

it's late...

I know...

finally got the studio

cleaned up and quasi-functional

still haven't been motivated

enough to write any new

songs...

figure they will present

themselves when I got 

something to say

and tonight

I'm just hanging out

spent the evening hanging 

with the kiddos

baking cookies and playing 

video games...

they were trying to teach me

how to play super mario cart

on the wii...

reminded of me of trying 

to teach my dad how to play

donkey kong on my colleco vision

when I was a kid

he would jump that monkey

straight into the lake

every time...

but,

being a gamer,

I got the hang of it and smoked

both of them

I like to stick my hand 

directly in front of their face

when I win

and say:

"face! full frontal coverage."

we talk a lot of shit 

here in this little clan o' mine

I've been veggin' all day

and stockpiling envelopes

to hit the post office with 

in the afternoon tomorrow

onions for all

and for all

a good night

click

dusted off that treadmill

that was purchased about a year ago

and used 

maybe...twice

I'm going to make a permanent place

for it

I've found if you have to work 

to get your work out place ready

then it gives you just one more excuse

in an already flimsy world

I go in cycles all of the time

I'll eat healthy and then move

around a bit, ride a skateboard...

then

out of the blue...

I'll start eating everything in sight

and laying on the couch

and getting into t.v. shows 

that are terrible but they promote

laying on the couch...

I've got my computer hooked up 

to a couple of klipsch speakers

because I blew one of my monitors...

they are off to the right of me 

and it's kind of weirding me out

they are sitting in the spot

where the treadmill is going to go

I am procrastination 

in progress

fully documented

I am also sitting here feeling very thankful

that my friend tom is going to be o.k.

that thought alone

has made me smile more than 

I have in a long while

we take the best for granted sometimes...

and to repeat the words of bob childers

on my voice message when my daughter 

was in the hospital with a tumor....

"miracles happen every day."

click

duck

not really in the mood for sleep

I slept half of the trip home

as my road dogging wife 

wo-manned the wheel

sitting here listening to 

the shut down town cd

spent about two hours 

convinced that the reason 

one of the speakers wasn't working

was because of my "big knob" 

(the part that tells everything where to go)

after that two hours passed

I reached back and wiggled 

a connector and they both popped on

I haven't changed a whole lot 

come to figure

I've still got a drawer full of flat-heads

when I'm trying to find a phillips

but I'm back in the "stereo" business

and I've fried another monitor 

due to excessive volume

my wife's quote:

"well, if you didn't play that damn

age of empires game cranked up

that wouldn't happen."

see?

that's why I can't have nice things

the squirrels and I 

I've cleared a hole 

out of the middle of my space

and I'm about to start swinging outwards

into wherever 

some of you 

oughta duck

the end of everything

got the basement roaring with 

life once again

big fan whirring behind me,

printer going full steam ahead,

shoving cd's into packets...

tracking down addresses

sending files down to houston

trying to burrow my way

down to a clean spot on the desk

just a minute ago

a scene from yesterday popped

into my head

my wife and I were standing on

guadalupe street in austin

we had just crossed the street

from the cactus cafe

over to our car

I could hear this guy coming

before I saw him

he was on a bicycle 

and was shouting at the top of his

lungs:

"this is the end of everything!

this is the end of everything!"

full blown schizo style...

everyone one the sidewalk 

stopped and watched the 

madman as he pedaled by us

proclaiming immenent doom

"this is the end of everything!"

someone has thought that 

very thing since day one...

home again

it's been a crazy few days...

skinner had a heart-attack

while I was out on my acoustic run

and had to be shocked back to life

twice....

but, you can't keep a good man 

down and he's already wanting to 

get out of bed and do something

that really scared me...

I love Tom so much

he's been a teacher and friend

to a ton of us musicians

and taught me more about playing than anyone

but it looks like he's doing fine

blew a smoke ring in dealer death's face

and came back to jam a little longer

the wife and I had good time

running up and down the highway

together over the last few days

playing acoustic gigs along the way

and eating way too much...

sometimes it's necessary for 

husband and wife to hang out 

without the kiddos every once in 

awhile...

to get to know each other again...

and yep,

after 13 years together

I still dig her.

wake up

"wake up, there is a man needing help

unloading his truck."

that's what I was awaken by this 

morning...or afternoon rather

we have a sponsorship with budlight

and they made us some super sweet,

super huge MMB neon signs 

to hang wherever we see fit...

these things are about four feet tall

and quite possibly

bullet proof

loading up the wagon

tomorrow and heading down 

to ft. worth to play at the

eagles next...

a song swap with joey green

if the cat's are a knocking

well, it took some doing 

to get to poplar, bluff

pulled over by the highway patrol

and questioned about an altercation

on the highway...

apparently we moved over into someone

else's lane and they felt obliged to 

call the police on is...

we were questioned and then let go

the car that called it in was sitting behind

us with a 'jesus' license plate on the

front of his car

now I ask, "is this what jesus would do?"

there was some confusion about 

the p.a. at the club and we basically had to build 

one from scratch...

halfway through I was thinking, there

is no way this will work...

but work it did and the show 

came off without a hitch

later in the night I heard a meowing at 

my hotel door and opened it 

and let a little cat in...

he would not stay off of my laptop

but kept cracking me up anyway...

so I let him stay the night with us

he finally conked out on the floor

tonight we return to the outland ballroom

in springfield, missouri

oh my...

oh no...

oh shit

joplin, mo

I slept in the van from

tulsa to joplin, mo

the shortest distance between

two towns

is unconscious

in the seat laying down

woke up in the parking lot

of a motel six

'it's all part...of my rock and roll fantasy'

rolling on into poplar bluff 

tomorrow

sooner or later I'm going to 

HAVE to start learning some 

of the new songs off of 'onion'

some people just can't believe

that I don't know some of the songs

I've written and recorded

it's a strange process

usually I write one and then 

very soon I record a basic rough

of the song

then I send it down to mr. hardy

in houston town and he adds instruments

to it...and programs a drum beat

by the time it's all said and done

I haven't played the song in over 

three or four months...

I still don't know a bunch of my songs

slacker?

perhaps.

put the last touches on the turnpike troubadour

record this week...joe is mixing it 

and I'm anxious to hear how it will turn out

I really love their songs

there is also a cd joe and I did together

for shut down town 

that is coming out in the next week or so

called 'flush'

very proud of that one too...

yes, yes

blast off

leaving the basement in a few

and start heading toward poplar bluff, mo

playing at a place called scooter's two

any time a word ends with the ooo sound

I can help but want to add 

electric boogaloo to the end of it

check it out:

scooter's two: electric boogaloo

I always picture the colon

there in my mind 

if you didn't ever see 

the bad ass break dancing movie

in the 80's then you may not be

down with "electric boogaloo"

your loss...

I've blown out one of my monitors

again in the studio

so I'm listening to everything 

on headphones until I can figure

out how to fix the damn thing

two trips to radio shack

for fuses...slow blow fuses

something else is hosed

I'm listening to boston's

"don't look back"

I just turned and looked

behind me

blast off time

t minues 51 minutes

feng shui

I think this is going to bring it around...