6-30-09 There Goes The Neighborhood (again)

A gentrification meditation. Link

6-29-09 Carry Me Over Mountains

Hmmm. Mountains on the brain. A late-night entry. Link.

6-28-09 Perilous Mountains

Back to Seattle, and a glimpse of the majestic and dangerous Cascades from 30,000 feet above. You've got ice, baby, in your soul. Link.

6-27-09 Rub The Goiter

Boy, this one's gonna be hard to explain.

Okay, so whilst visiting Milwaukee (Waukesha, to be more precise), I shared a night of bar-hopping, bowling, and 99 cent tacos with my sisters Julie and Lisa, my brother-in-law Dennis, and my niece Jenna. At one point during the bowling portion of our evening, Dennis pulled out this mangy rabbit's foot that he rubs for good luck. He's had it so long that the fur is mostly gone, and so it's a grisly sight - mostly bone and tufts of hair on a keychain. I'm not sure who said it first, but someone indicated that it wasn't so much like rubbing a rabbit's foot, so much as it was like rubbing a goiter. Of course, the expression stuck throughout the rest of the evening. (Sadly, there was no photo taken of said goiter.)



The next night, I was showing my mom how I make these little treasures on Garage Band. So I created this song at the dinner table with her sitting by. She actually helped out with some of the lyrics, and that's her laughing at the end. Link

6-26-09 Michael Jackson

It's already been a year. Weird. Sarah and I watched "This Is It" earlier this week. I must admit to feeling nostalgic and sad. For all of the messed up stuff he did, that mofo could still sing and dance, up until the end. link.

6-25-09 Guessing Game

My parents' piano has been through a lot. Note the chipped keys in the picture, chipped by me with a hammer when I was four or five. (Don't ask me how or why I had a hammer then.)

It hasn't seen a lot of use in recent years, but I like to plonk around on it when I'm home. (The hand in the photo actually belongs to my nephew Shane.) It's not the best sounding piano. The action is wonky, and it's only marginally in tune with itself. But the sound of it brings back lots of memories, in the same way that familiar smells do. Because of the nostalgia evoked when playing it, the stuff I play on it these days usually sounds like this.

6-24-09 Back In My Hometown

It's funny - I don't get nostalgic for my hometown very often, but looking for a good photo of the Milwaukee skyline really made want to be there. Not to mention the fact that my family all live there.

Let's see - the first night that I was in town, I stepped in as a sub on my sister's bocce ball team. The league she's in plays on strips of grass between the parking lot of the bar that sponsors it, and the road. Accuracy is important.



anyways, here's the song. Link.