Heavy Metal

2-and-a-half year old Cole throwing the goat.

That's my boy. 

The Room of Spencer

And to think, I just had him clean it the other day.

Notice "makeshift" drummer set in the left corner or the Ron Liberti signed rock poster above the bed. 

What Is This?

Spencer art.

Skateboard tricks. Notice the movement of the arms or the guy second from right with the pink deck who is doing the ollie. Or maybe it's the first guy? Or maybe it's a sequence! 

Assessment

After my brother-in-law came over and assessed the damage, we took a trip to Home Depot for some roofing sealant slash caulk. Sealed the area around the exhaust piping and left the wet insulation to dry. Hope plywood dries out otherwise it'll need to be replaced. At least I didn't fall through the roof when I stood on it.

One More Time... Closer

I see many trips to Home Depot in my future...
and a headache the size of Texas. 

Shit

This is what greeted me this morning in the bathroom my sons use. It used to be a little brown spot. Then we got three solid days of rain.

Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Guess I'll call the landlord.

Oh wait, I am the landlord, I own this place.

Shit. shit, double shit.

I think I'll take aliens up my nose over this type of home improvement.

And it's 38 degrees out. 

The Aliens Are Coming

Or maybe they already came...

Had another mind blowing, yet harrowing, lucid dream last night.

This time I go to some weird compound lured by the guise of it being some family entertainment place a la Chuck E. Cheeses-meets-Seasame Street or something. Only once you get in there the kids are seperated from the adults. I have to go through these myriad of doors but they play it off funhouse funny like the beginning of Get Smart. At the last door I have to do some sort of light-in-the-eyeball ID check.

A mechanical woman's voice calls out your specs: "Greg Barbera, male, [there's some sort of escort waiting for me to enter and he says in unison w/ the voice], age 37."

I turn to him and say, "I've been here before. That's how you know."

He gives me a sheepish grin. I imagine they are going to up the dose on my amnesia meds this time. I now recall why my sinuses always hurt so bad, it's because the method they use to do whatever procedures they want to do involves entering via your nasal cavity. I shudder thinking about the pain of it all.

My recollection is patchy from here.

I know I took some sort of ferry to get to the place. But it was through the artic circle or some shit because all I remember is passing iceburgs and being frigidly cold and wondering where am I going because clearly there is no life here only to be greeted by some Mission District on ice neighborhood/city. Covered in 24hr darkness. Streetlight/car lights bouncing off the slushy, wet mess that seemed to be streets.

Nightmares

Had incredible nightmares last night.

- One involved a elephant running lose in a suburban neighbor and headed right for the backyard cookout I was at. People screaming. Nowhere to turn. "Fate or luck is going to get me out of thsi one," I thought. Dream fades

- Second involves alien abduction. I am sleeping in my son Cole's bed. I sense something. Get up and look out the window. There's bright lights but it's not the street lamp. Too bright. I seek solace in the room. Only now I'm lying w/ Cole and my wife. We are looking at the stars out of a sky light. And then the bright lights come. A ship, which looks like an oil drilling rig laid on its side, hovers over the sky light. "Shit," I mumble. "It's here." And then scramble to get Cole and wife out of the room. I'm behind Cole and standing in the doorway looking back on my wife on the bed. "Get up!" I yell and reach for her hand. And then the window crashes and this mechanical arm comes reaching towards me. "It wants me," I say to the room not sure to whom. "What do you want?" I scream. "Answer these questions," says a voice from nowhere. Dream fades.

- Third one. Three of my best friends and a childhood neighbor break into my house. Armed robbery. They are surprised I am home and I am surprised they are trying to rob me. They are dressed in black like cat burglers yet their faces aren't covered. This is bad they say. They tie me up, slap duck tape across my face and inject me with a needle. To put me to sleep or to kill me I do not know. Dream fades.

Seems like a good time for some Black Flag:

NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

I'm about
To have a nervous breakdown
My head really hurts
If I don't find a way out of here
I'm gonna go berserk 'cuz
I'm crazy and I'm hurt
Head on my shoulders
It's going...berserk
I hear the same old talk talk talk
The same old lines
Don't do me that today, yeah
If you know what's good for you you'll get out of my way 'cuz
I'm crazy and I'm hurt
Head on my shoulders
Going...berserk
I won't apologize
For acting outta line
You see the way I am
You leave any time you can 'cuz
I'm crazy and I'm hurt
Head on my shoulders
Going...berserk
Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
I don't care what you fuckin' do
I don't care what you fuckin' say
I'm so sick of everything
I just want to...die!

Got A New PC

A Dell.

With sound.

And burning/ripping capabilities.

Oh my.

If I Was A Podcaster!

Fortunate Son - CCR (just because my band Chest Pains is partaking in the local Minutemen tribute show at the Local 506 on 12/10 [www.local506.com] and I had to learn it)

The Time Flys - Teenage Is The Stoneage

Bonniwell Music Machine - Two Much (sometimes you just got to raid the vaults)

The Blazers - Nobody Told Me

Souled American - Notes Camp Fire

Blackheart Procession - Release My Heart

Tom Waits - Underground (inspired to play this because I heard it in the suppose-to-be-for-kiddies movie Robots but it really ain't a kid flick)

X - We're Desperate

Los Olividados - Don't Cry

Lyres - Gonna Find A New Love

Blowtops - Black Jebus

Mountain Goats - Alpha Desperation March

Odell Thompson - Georgia Buck

Supersuckers - Pretty Fucked Up

Electrick Frankenstein - It's All Moving Faster

Guided By Voices - Jane of The Waking Universe

Cheap Trick - Stiff Competition

Ween - Gabrielle

Beil Young - Hopeless

Built To Spill - Else

Yo La Tengo - False Ending

Polovo - Feathers Of Forgiveness

When The Shit Hits The Fan

So my shitty sound-less PC died the weekend before thanksgiving.

I got drunk late one night and just listening to music...

Mike Brainard Made A Movie

and he wants you to see it:

go to www.independentfilmforum.com

sign up to see movies

click on "Lookin' For Some Posse"

nuff said, pard'ner

Sex Bomb Baby

http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=flipper

Yeah.

What he said.

And Yet Still More Flipper!

Living For The Depression Lyrics
We're living for life to be the way we feel Not living for life, but the Death appeal Who wants a cancerous boring end when you can die from misery and following the trend? I say "Who cares anyway? Who listens to what I say?" This song rhymes and we play it in time And if you wanna live in Super Market Isles And take your vacation by flying for miles Take a day off and live in the lies While others work and capitalize I say "Who cares anyway? Who listens to what I say?" This song rhymes and we play it in time We're living like cockroaches in this place Sprayed with insecticide that leaves no trace And if we could crawl on you at night You could be sure we'd love to bite I say "Who cares anyway? Who listens to what I say?" This song rhymes and we play it in time I'm not living life to be A really cheap fucker like you Copout

Someone Say Flipper?

The Way Of The World Lyrics
There are eyes that cannot see And fingers that cannot touch That's the way of the world There are dreams left empty and blank And legs that have ceased to walk That's the way of the world There are kisses undelivered Sighs and moans unuttered That's the way of the world There are hearts no longer beating And there are entrails spilled on the floor That's the way of the world

Moonshadow, Moonshadow

We had the moonshadow tonight.

I am an Aquarius, I get the fever sometimes at full moons.

Like real insane, howlin' shit.
Werewolves of London and shit.
Fucking moonshadow.

A shadow cast by the moon?

Do you know I almost went blind tonight from that shit?

[CAN YOU SAY SHIT ONE MORE TIME. GREG?-Ed]

Got the [CHEESEY] telescope out, the one Gramps gave the kids years ago and tried to peeps me some astrology. I'm into horoscopes to some extent (www.freewillastrology.com), so, so, so, so.... so I almost lost mytrain of thought but lookin' into a telescope aiming for moonshadows is almost like bringing a magnifying glass to an eclipse.

[WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS KID SAYIN?]

[HE'S NOT TALKING VAN MORRISON IS HE?]
[NO, MAYBE THE PROMISE RING?]

Who is Ed? And why is he in my head? Get him out. I don't want him there anymore.

[GREG, IT'S ME Ed. I'M JUST WONDERING, WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID?] 

In Through The Out Door

The door to Spencer's room. Replete with the prerequisite punk rock show posters. He's a flyer artist in the making. Most of the white ones are for his band Sharks & Lions. The stickers under his name represent trips to the doctors' office over the years (7 stickers, 5 and a half years; unless he pinched two at one time which wouldn't surprise me).

He's probably behind that door listening to Thin Lizzy's Live And Dangerous, a drum set made out of old powdered Gatorade tins and a couple of shoe boxes for floor toms.

This is the kind of shit that spooks the moms on play dates.

That and the number of empty beer cans on top of my fridge. I store my empties there. When the top fills up they then are placed outside in the recycling bin... speaking of which, it is time to curb those empties.

This Is Cole's Room

My wife felt it ideal to repaint the room from the set-up we had for Spencer which was, uh, I forget but different.

So crazy Martha Stewart girl that she is, she made the curtains, did the "trains, planes, and automobiles" border (she wanted to do the whole room Thomas The Train - I objected), and got the big boy mattress.

Not that the kid ever sleeps in his bed. He's one of those that falls asleep on the floor trying to stay up with his older brother and then gets moved to mom and dad's bed after he passes out.

I object but there's no arguing with a mom. Especially a working mom who finds comfort in sharing a bed with her toddler. If he would just piss in the bed one more time maybe she'll see the light.

And that lamp? Hell yeah, that's some shit I cribbed from my parents and is total real deal '70s shit. Used to be olive green until Mrs. Martha Stewart Barbera got her hands on it and transformed it into some Trading Spaces room essential.

Hello

My name is Cole.

Please to meet you. 

I Mean C'mon!

Look at this kid in action!