amazing what a long shower can do...

the weather can't seem to make a decision today. it's been sunny, then stormy, then sunny again. all the while, it hasn't made it to 80 degrees. fucking bizarre for the end of July.

i took a really long shower this afternoon. i was trying to work out some pain in my back and just take a good 20 minutes to reflect on my shitty life and what to do next. the back pain has subsided. the shitty life? not so much.

i did get a somewhat hopeful email from my artist friend in Sweden. that brightened my day a bit.

Manchester United won last night on penalty kicks, 5-3. they outplayed Inter Milan for most of the game. i was hoping they would have scored in regulation, but that didn't happen. they next play Real Madrid on Saturday up at The Big House. there is supposed to be more than 100,000 there to see it. i was hoping to be one of those people, but it's hard to get tickets with no money and when they sell out in 30 seconds.

the Yankees won a fucking crazy game last night, 12-11. when i first started watching, they were losing 4-1. that soon became a 10-4 lead. then, the tired relievers came in. 10-4 quickly becomes 10-8. the Yankees get 2 back to make 12-8. the closer had a three run lead in the bottom of the ninth and needed every bit of that lead. when the Rangers best player flied out with the bases loaded and only trailing by 1 run, i realized why my family has a history of ulcers. fucking christ. that victory beer should have been a fifth of something stronger than strong.

Deadliest Catch was pretty good last night. Tyrant was really good last night. a nice little twist at the end that should make for an interesting episode next week.

tonight is another busy night on the television. the Yankees play in Texas, the day before the trade deadline. Big Brother has a new episode. this should be a fun one. SoundClash is also new tonight. i think these bands tonight will be a better mix. Wilfred should be another great episode. and finally, The Bridge is a show that i absolutely refuse to miss.

and then after all that, i'm planning to get on vice.com and watch the new episode of The Jim Norton Show.

talked to my friend in California today. she sounds so much better than she did on the weekend. at least it sounds like she is recovering well from her major concussion.

if i have the energy tonight, i'm hoping to have another writing session. i want to put on some techno music from the 90's on and see what i come up with. ah, the drug days of my 20's.

that's all for today kids. hope this finds everyone well. until we meet again...

peace and chicken grease...

music:

The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
Tricky - Aftermath
Dr. Dog - Shadow People
Jeremy Pinnell - The Way Country Sounds
Rancid - Ruby Soho
The Stone Roses - Love Spreads

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." - Henry Ford

avoiding the air that you wear

i know when i wake up at 8 in the morning and it is already 80 degrees outside, i'm going to be miserable the second i go outside. and since today is also trash day, i get to spend even more time outside. the only good thing about that, as with every trash day it seems, there is a chance it will storm. so i will probably wait for that to happen. not sure the cats will like that, but they don't have a vote on the matter.

today is the World Cup final. i think i'm going to go with Germany even though i would love to see the chaos of Argentina winning in Brazil. that's about as close as you can get to guaranteed violence. but, i only get a victory beer if Germany wins, so... the Netherlands beat Brazil 3-0 yesterday in the third place game. i loved that for the last 10 minutes of the game, anytime Brazil touched the ball, they got booed by their own fans... overall, this has been a pretty damn good World Cup. not sure what it is going to be like in Russia in four years. i know the time difference is going to be kicking my ass.

the Yankees got some great pitching from Shane Greene yesterday and won 3-0. not bad for only your second start in the majors. hopefully, they have found something in this kid. they finish off the first half of the season tonight on ESPN. i doubt i will watch much of it as my Sunday night is already filled as it is. but, the all star break couldn't come at a better time. they need the days off to regroup and get their shit together.

ROH last night was really good. it featured mostly matches that involved wrestlers from New Japan. always fun to see those guys perform.

i believe my viewing schedule tonight goes Big Brother, Ray Donovan, Masters of Sex, Last Week Tonight, and then i'm hoping to catch The Strain on FX. not sure if i'm going to like it or not, but the previews have sucked me in. as usual, another late night.

i found some printable stencils last night that i liked so my artsy fartsy ass will be coming up with some more shit here soon. i'm thinking along the lines of t-shirts, bumper stickers, etc. of course, if i knew how to use computers better... hell, i sit here too long each day as it is.

well, i need to pick up the trash and get the cats fed. and i'd like to get that done before the World Cup Final starts. hopefully mother nature has that rain coming soon.

hope this finds everyone well. hope your weekend was great. or at least better than the fuckers you hate.

be well. be creative. be insert your dirty thought here

peace and chicken grease...

music:

The Allman Brothers Band - Whipping Post
Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
Old Crow Medicine Show - Down Home Girl
Drivin' N' Cryin' - Straight to Hell
Young the Giant - My Body
Deftones - Minerva

"You know you're getting old when all the names in your black book have M.D. after them." - Harrison Ford

the last pleasant day for god knows how long

the comfortable weather here has one more day and then summer returns with the god awful humidity and fucking heat. hopefully i'll just nap all day long with the windows open. now i know that won't happen, but a guy can dream right? oh, i can't. my bad.

i was disappointed with the World Cup games yesterday. the games weren't that exciting until the last 10 minutes or so. i understand that the stakes are higher and teams are playing a little closer to the vest. but who the fuck waits until there's only a few minutes left to throw caution to the wind? oh that's right, France does. Germany beats France 1-0. Brazil beat Colombia 2-1 in a brutal game. way too many fouls for the number of cards given. i give Brazil credit for beating the shit out of James Rodriguez. big ups to him for taking it and still scoring. but the Brazil win comes at a cost. their best defender will miss the semifinal (yellow card accumulation) and their best player (Neymar) will miss the rest of the World Cup with a broken vertebra. ouch. i don't like their chances of winning it all without him. they next play Germany on July 8th.

today Costa Rica takes on the Netherlands and Argentina plays Belgium. i have the Netherlands and Argentina moving on. hopefully the games today are better than yesterday.

our internet was out for nearly 9 hours yesterday. fucking Frontier Communications. and what i really loved was when we finally got through to them, they had no fucking clue what happened, but it was affecting 100,000 customers. it constantly amazes me how INEPT that fucking company is.

thankfully, i had less than 100 emails to go through when i was able to get back on at 10:30 last night.

the Yankees won again yesterday, 6-5. they scored all their runs in the first two innings and then held on for the win. two in a row, holy shit. they play again this afternoon. hopefully they can actually get a winning streak going. they are in the right city for it.

i was a little stunned with the Cubs and A's trade last night. personally, i think the A's got the 2 best pitchers on the market. i have no fucking clue where the Yankees go for pitching help now.

since i couldn't get online last night, i flipped between the Food Network, some pro wrestling, and the 4th of July concert The Roots do in Philly every year. i think i would have been better off just going to bed.

i did put a little extra rum in my Coke last night, so i slept pretty damn good. of course, most of that was in my chair and not in my bed. i feel like i'm in my fucking 60's. death can't be too far away.

that's the only way i drink any soft drinks by the way, with alcohol.

that's pretty much all for me today. hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

take it easy. and then take it again.

music:

Pulp - Common People (Full Length Version)
Banks - Goddess
The Killers - When You Were Young
Thieves Like Us - Drugs In My Body
Kitten - Why I Wait
Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels
The Black Crowes - Oh Josephine

"There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt." - P. T. Barnum

when anger and frustration boils over

i have been a sports fan for nearly my entire life. i have seen bad calls go against the teams i root for since birth it feels like. hell, i watched one ref steal an entire series for the Lakers over Sacramento back in the day. and the NBA will never convince anyone that they didn't steal that series. last night was probably the most upset i have been at officiating in my 38 years on earth. when the Rangers get fucked over on 2 blown calls and both times, the puck ends up in the back of their net, it's infuriating. to have it happen in the Stanley Cup Final and cost them a Game 2 they needed to win... let's just say if this was soccer in South America there would be 4 officials that would be murdered by this morning. the sad thing truly is, the officiating has fucking sucked for the entire NHL playoffs. and that's for all the games, not just the ones the Rangers have lost. now, i do know that most people will say this smells like sour grapes, especially given that the Rangers blew 3 different 2 goal leads last night (lost 5-4 in 2OT). and i admit, it probably is. but to see a league fuck over one of the most loyal fan bases on earth, that haven't had a championship, let alone, ANYTHING to celebrate in 20 fucking years so the Kings could win their second title in 3 years is beyond me. i personally hope that the refs return the favor at MSG for games 3 and 4, but i doubt it. and if the horrific officiating continues, i hope the fans march down to the league office in NYC and burn it to the ground.

as you might expect, i haven't had much sleep.

i did manage to find the Yankees game last night on tv. part of the beauty of having the baseball package is i get the games that the rest of the country doesn't. after watching bits and pieces of them losing 8-4, i wish i wouldn't have been able to watch last night. they play again later in the afternoon. i'm hoping my anger leads me to passing out before the game starts.

on the bright side, team USA looked pretty damn good yesterday in beating Nigeria 2-1. i think they may have found the right guys to be the back 6 for the World Cup. and thank god, Jozy Altidore found the net again. hopefully, just in time for some goals in the group of death. here is his second from yesterday:

hopefully they will be ready for Ghana when the World Cup begins. time for some revenge against that country.

on top of all my anger today. 3 of my right toes are killing me. i don't think they are broken and i don't remember kicking anything yesterday, but it is totally a pain i don't need. especially given the fact that is trying to rain today and my back is currently on strike. if there ever was a time to start a heroin addiction...

hopefully i will be in a much better mood by the time the Sunday night shows start. i believe i will start off with the Showtime shows and then flip over to HBO afterwards. i am looking forward to the double episodes of Veep tonight. i believe that is the season finale of it. i could be wrong with that, i don't have time to keep track.

at some point i will flip over to see what is going on in Game 2 of the NBA finals. would be funny if somehow the air conditioning just happens to go out again tonight.

and if i am somehow still awake come late tonight, i might actually try to unleash some words on the page. no guarantee that will happen though. my production tends to slow down in the summer. i tend to like to pretend i have a life during these months. pretend would be the key word there.

i hope this finds everyone in a MUCH better mood than i am. i'll be on here sometime after my trip to the bank tomorrow.

be well. be angry. be the asshole that can make yourself laugh at the misery of others. and be mindful that someone is laughing at you as well.

adios mis amigos

i tried to get creative and tell a story with the titles of the songs below. not too bad. i might try this more often...

music:

The Airborne Toxic Event - Sometime Around Midnight
My Best Fiend - On the Shores of the Infinite
Shooter Jennings - The Gunslinger
K's Choice - Not an Addict
Barbarian Overlords - The Harvester
Dr. Dog - Shadow People
Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
INXS - Not Enough Time
XTC - Dear God

"I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw that my bath toys were a toaster and a radio." - Joan Rivers

while waiting in line at the post office for 20 minutes...

as much as i like living in a small town, waiting in line at the post office for 20 minutes to pick up a package that couldn't fit in my po box is painful. especially when the jackass in front of the line is one of these assholes that makes a living selling shit off of ebay and is somehow fascinated with stamps that have Charlton Heston on them. worse yet, the fucker didn't know he was dead. this spiraled into a conversation about the postal rules of how long you have to wait to get on a stamp. at this point, i was ready to kill myself. the next lady needed 100 postcards that were already stamped. now, you would think these dumb fucks would have such shit already sorted out for the customer. i mean, 100 is a nice round number. no such luck for me. the clerk counted out 100 by hand. i really wish i was making this shit up. the next two ladies just needed stamps. thankfully, the lady in front of me smelled nice. i tried my best not to be a fucking creep and sniff loudly. of course, her kid comes in to give her the purse she left in the car. there goes that boner. finally, i got up to the clerk. i had a yellow card, which means there's a package in the back. i tell her my po box number and she asks for it again. this is as she is holding the card with the number of the po box on it. if anyone ever questions why i "joke" about murdering everyone in this town, you now know why. of course, that last line will have the cops watching my every move for a few weeks. they have nothing else to do. and sadly, that line isn't satire. the crime rate here is really low. which is good, as i rarely lock anything, especially my truck. please, someone steal that piece of shit.

i watched some of Game 7 last night. i was a little shocked Chicago blew a lead of 2 goals at home. that will eat them all summer. so, the Stanley Cup Final is set between New York and Los Angeles. i guess who handles the plane flights the best will win this series. it will certainly be a bitch if the series goes long, like every series the Kings are in. i love that my Rangers are the underdog. hopefully they can steal Game 1 on Wednesday.

the shows last night were excellent. Total Divas was really good. i love the behind the scenes shit at WrestleMania. Nurse Jackie was a weird one, much like detoxing is. Californication made me laugh, as always. Penny Dreadful was brilliant once again. such a great show. Silicon Valley was great. Veep set up the season finale pretty well last night. Last Week Tonight was great last night. i was a little amazed i got through them all without falling asleep.

tonight, the Yankees play Seattle at home to make up for a rain out earlier in the season. i'll watch a little of that. but, most of tonight will be Monday Night Raw. after that, i need to catch up on Louie. i'm hoping by typing it i will actually remember to do so.

it's been threatening to rain all damn day. i wish it would as my back is killing me. always fun when every part of your back feels like it is going to seize up on you in a flash. then, when the rain moves through, the back feels fine. damn you mother nature.

that's all for me. below you will see my musings on iTunes at 3 in the morning. good times...

be well. be creative. be open to the needs of a horny old poet...

peace and chicken grease...

music:

John Prine - It's a Big Old Goofy World
Pistol Annies - Hell On Heels
Grouplove - Let Me In
Sneaker Pimps - 6 Underground
The Killers - When You Were Young

"Some folk want their luck buttered." - Thomas Hardy