my inner morrissey

i had a show last nite. yeah, i know, i didn’t tell lots of people about it. i haven’t felt much like playing, what with all the medical issues and doctor’s appointments and whathave you, so i wasn’t too enthused about the show. but it went well and i’ve found a new venue that i enjoy very much, that has a great staff, and that has the best smelling microphones i’ve ever encountered (trust me, it makes a difference). the venue is the rutledge, on 4th ave in the space formerly occupied by blue sky court. the layout’s the same, but the club’s much cleaner and much nicer now. anyway…

so i’m talking to frank the soundman (you might recognize him if you went to exit/in back in the day), thanking him for being nice and so forth and he says to me, “i’ve only got one comment.” i brace myself for some type of, “your guitar playing/pitch/tone sucks. you should work on that.” instead i got, “you’ve found your inner springsteen. it’s cool. you’ve got that going. you should search for your inner morrissey. that’d be great.”

so i got a compliment AND a suggestion. but he left me in a pickle.

i never listened to the smiths or to morrissey. i’ve heard the occasional song, but i don’t know where to start in looking for my inner morrissey.

can you guys help? what are some key songs &/or albums?

all i want for christmas…

is to see my teeth. i know, it’s not the way the song goes but i could care less.

wanna know why?

MY BRACES WERE REMOVED TODAY!!!!

after 3 years of tmj treatment and 2 years with braces i can now eat all the peanuts, broccoli, bagels, stringy vegetables, rice and tortilla chips i want without having to spend the next 3 hours picking food out of my brackets.

this is me dancing…

the shit part of the deal

as a novice climber, i haven’t yet tackled big wall or alpine climbing. as such, i can’t speak directly to the risks that kelly james, brian hall, and jerry cooke were taking when they began their ascent of mount hood, nor can i speak with any type of authority on the steps they took to minimize those risks. what i can say, without hesitation or doubt, is that they knew this could happen. it’s the shit part of the deal. even as a sport climber, you know that part of the thrill and joy of the sport is that you are pushing yourself to your physical and mental thresholds and that injury or death are very real possibilities.

i climbed yesterday. on the way to king’s bluff, my friend and i were discussing the mt. hood climbers and the recent controversy & uproar over an everest expedition.** i remarked that i thought the search & rescue team missed their window when they didn’t find anyone on saturday. little did i know that while i was roped up and enjoying an afternoon climbing, rescuers were discovering the body of kelly james. had i known, maybe i would’ve passed on climbing yesterday. maybe it would’ve been weird to talk about another climber’s death while i was putting my life, literally, on the line. or maybe i would’ve climbed scared (probably worse than climbing with too much confidence). as it were, i climbed very well; i had one of my best afternoons at the crag. i climbed with confidence, balance and vision.

my thoughts, prayers and condolences are with the friends and family of kelly, brian & jerry this morning.

Godspeed the safe rescue & return of brian and jerry; God’s mercy and grace on kelly james and his family.

(**forty people on a commercial everest expedition, FORTY!!!, passed a dying climber while en route to the highest point in the world. allow me to restate that – passed and left a dying man, not dead – dying,  WHILE ASCENDING to the summit. on the way up, while they still had plenty of oxygen and supplies and could’ve possibly saved his life. if you want to see assholes in action, watch everest: beyond the limits. those are the guys for the job…)

open letter to the ottawa senators

dear ottawa senators hockey team:

thanks for bringing your “a” game to the predators’ barn on thursday nite. being on the wrong end of a 6-0 ass whipping was just what i needed from you guys to hopefully show the people watching across europe and canada that, despite what you might think, we’re not a bunch of hilljacks and our hockey team is a force to be reckoned with.

if you’d make sure to not leave any marks as you drag your asses out of town, we’d appreciate it. we try to keep a clean city down here.

happy holidays-

-newton

ps-

please let me know where i should send donations to send chris neil to skating, hitting & fighting clinics. i couldn’t find a link on your website, but i’m assuming you guys are aware that he has an obvious need and are trying to address it.

genetics is a bitch

i love getting emails from my doctor. especially emails telling me that, despite a mostly healthy vegetarian lifestyle, i have high cholesterol. seriously high cholesterol.

welcome to the world of lipitor, chucky.

the most powerful word in the universe is…

attorney.

you ask one person if you need to contact an attorney to get something started and WHAMMO!!, instant results.

i talked with everyone except the insurance adjuster yesterday and was assured that he would be calling me today.

don’t leave that word laying around for the kiddies to use. someone might shoot their eye out!

a question of patience

okay, so everyone knows about the minor incident with an mta bus on saturday nite. if not, i’ll sum it up for you: a bus hit my car, doing minor damage to the driver’s side, while i was waiting to pull into the library parking garage saturday nite.

first, an update:

saturday nite two of the mta supervisors who came to the scene of the accident told me that i would hear from their safety director on monday, one of them said that he’d spoken with said safety director at home and i’d be getting a call first thing.

so far no call. i’ve left 4 messages for the guy, sent one email and have all but begged for him to return my call, give me their insurance info (the driver told anyone that would listen that the wreck was his fault), and let me go get my car fixed. no call. nothing.

here’s my question:

do i go ahead and start contacting the higher ups at mta? i’ve got phone numbers and email addresses for everyone thanks to their corporate website and i’m quickly losing patience with the situation and with the person i’ve been told to deal with. he’s not on vacation. i asked the receptionist. she said, “he may just be too busy to call you back.” umm, nice try. if i’d run up the ass of one of their buses and they had a bunch of passengers on board, i guarantee you i would’ve already heard from their lawyers, their insurance company’s lawyers and the evening news.

is 3 days a long enough waiting period for me to call turko?