Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Daddy’s having surgery again in Oregon on Tuesday.  Lucie says Daddy is treating it as a no-big-deal thing but she’s worried about him, and so is his business partner Bob Howen.  She says he’s in poor health and seems very depressed.  (Something we all seem to have in common right now!) It’s so weird that this is happening almost exactly one year after the first time he went into the hospital, for the weight-loss surgery.  I hope to God I won’t have to spend Christmas crying in a hospital this year, sitting in a ICU waiting room far away from home.  He’s getting his pannectomy (sp?) to fix the hernia that was left from the last surgery, and they’re also doing some exploring in there to try to find out why he’s not taking in proteins the way he should.  I hope to Jesus it goes well and he gets out of there ASAP!!!

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

There was yet another ghastly tragedy in New York this morning, a plane crash in Queens on the Rockaway peninsula.  It was an American Airlines jet heading out from JFK on its way to the Dominican Republic; they think there was a mechanical failure as opposed to another terror attack.  Seems like one of the engines might have exploded, which made the wing fall off, which made the plane go into a corkscrew and straight into the ground.  255 souls on board and they don’t expect to find any survivors at all.  Jesus…!!  And this is a neighborhood that had already lost something like 75 of its residents from the World Trade Center attacks just two months ago… firemen, policemen and people who worked in the WTC.  And now this.  Poor New York!!!  But, it is a tiny consolation that it’s probably not another terror strike.  Everyone’s so on edge about terrorism and flying in general… it’s always the first thing on people’s minds when they hear any bad news.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Taped Artbeat, it was pretty good.  My own part in it was infinitesimal, just two little blurbs scattered amongst a million other musicians talking and playing.  But I was in pretty good company… Lonnie Brooks, Rick Neilsen, Neko Case & Kelly Hogan, Steve Albini, Robbie Fulks, Andrew Bird, and Jon Langford, among others.  They showed a couple of quick shots of me, Ryan, Jim & Adam "rehearsing" in the California Clipper… they barely showed the guys, and my singing wasn’t very good at all, but oh well.  They got what they paid for, heheh!!

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

I just got off the phone with Jim.  He’s not coming over today, he has to work tonight and feels a bit under the weather so he wants to rest up.  His big news is that he’s breaking up with his girlfriend!?!?!?!  He told me this, and I didn’t know what to say.  I told him… "I am sorry.  I don’t know what to say.  I’m speechless." Fuck a duck…!!!  I wonder what this means as far as the trip to Norway?  Either way, I just looked at ticket prices for Oslo and couldn’t find anything for less than $2500 per person.  Talked to Mike Hoff and he says the club’s budget for this show is around $1000.  Grrrrreat.

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

The anthrax count has remained stable for the past week or so, thank god.  Right now there are 17 known infections: 10 cases of inhalation anthrax (4 dead) and 7 cutaneous.

It was cool recording with Jim yesterday.  He came over while John was home, but then John left to go rehearse so we had a quiet house to do the tracking.  We didn’t have much time so we only worked on 2 songs, "(I Get The) Craziest Feeling" (dobro added) and "Ben Dewberry’s Final Run" (lap steel).  He’s coming over again on Thursday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Well, everything’s much better today.  Jim did indeed go to the passport office today and got that dealt with.  Now he says he does want to do the show.  Said he had a mental block about travelling so far away, but he thought about it and got over the urge to stay home.  Now he’s excited about it, so I’m excited too!

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Talked to Jim finally, he called this afternoon from the Hideout, I guess he’s doing sound there tonight.  He got his pictures taken and says he’s going to the passport office tomorrow morning.  But he’s really dragging his feet over this trip to Norway… says he’s not sure whether he wants to go or not.  What the fuck?!?  I must have sounded kinda pissed on the phone with him, but I don’t know whether he picked up on that.  I pretty much quoted the journal entry from yesterday, saying "what the hell man?  free trip to Norway, hello?" and "dude, if you don’t want to go I’ll find somebody else who will!" I practically hung up on him, saying I’d talk to him tomorrow.  He asked me if we were still on for recording and I said yeah sure.  So we’ll see what he says tomorrow.  The fucker!!

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Sigh… still haven’t heard from Becker.  I’m kinda pissed… dude, I’m offering him a free trip to fucking Norway!!  He’ll probably call tomorrow, in between classes he teaches at the Old Town School.  He did that last week.  If he’s still dragging his feet, I won’t be able to hold off the planning any longer… I’ll have to call Ryan Hembrey and ask him to go with me.  But I suppose it’s for the best.  Ryan really deserves the trip a hell of a lot more than Jim does, if you think about it in the sense of payback for time spent.  He’s given me so much of his time and energy over the past four or five years, I can’t ever repay him even if I took him to the fucking moon.  Whereas Jim is the newcomer, the Johnny-come-lately of the two.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

I’m feeling kinda sad and depressed, mostly about this Norway thing.  Jim never did call to let me know if he took care of his passport — I talked to Rian Murphy today and he bugged me HARD to get that taken care of.  To just find somebody who can go with me… but I already asked Jim and I need to find out before I take away the offer!  Of course I could ask Ryan Hembrey, or just about anybody else, but I want to do the right thing.  I feel pretty despondent about this.  I even left yet another message for him today, asking him to call and let me know if he’d gotten that taken care of, but I never heard back.  He’s probably doing a show, or doing sound at the Hideout or something.  I sure wish he were easier to get ahold of!!

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Waiting for John to get home — we might go hang with Brendan tonight and then go eat at Mexican food at Abril, down at the intersection of Milwaukee/Kedzie/Logan.

I transferred all my word-snippets out of the PalmPilot, and into my secret-stuff file in KeyNote.  I realized that the PP wasn’t a very good place to keep such things, since I never use them.  I’m at my computer a lot more!

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Four people have died, and twelve others are infected with either inhaled or cutaneous anthrax.  They discovered anthrax spores at a postal-equipment repair facility in Indianapolis, and now they’ve also found spores at a post office in Kansas City, MO.  They’ve also found some letters that seem to match the ones sent to Senator Daschle, Tom Brokaw etc… they were postmarked from Indianapolis, before the Sept. 11th attacks.  Don’t know what all this means, but the general consensus seems to be that the anthrax is coming from somewhere in the U.S.  I hope they figure this shit out before it gets to fucking Chicago!!!  If it hasn’t already.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Everybody was expecting something bad to happen right about now (i.e. more terror attacks) but I don’t know, I guess nothing did.  Seemed like a pretty normal Halloween to me, except for all the talk of anthrax etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

I just listened to Margo Guryan for the first time.  She’s wonderful… really reminds me of, I dunno, Francoise Hardy or somebody.  I downloaded some MP3s from Audiogalaxy because somebody had compared me to her in a review of "Wonder Wonder".  They said Margo sounds like she might be my mother.  I guess I can see what they meant… I take it as a compliment because I really like what I’m hearing of her stuff.

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

John took today off sick again today… just like yesterday he wasn’t really sick-sick, but just using up his sick-days and relaxing.  He spent a few hours in the music room and recorded a new song, but seemed disappointed in my reaction when he played it for me later.  (It wasn’t the best song he’s ever done, but I’ve definitely heard worse songs in my life!) He still seemed depressed about it later on, and when I asked him why, he said he was feeling a little down in the dumps.  He feels like he can’t write a good song anymore.  I tried to bolster his ego a little, but the best I could say was, "you and me both!" Because I haven’t even written one song since before we recorded "Wonder Wonder", and Jesus that was almost a year ago.  Holy shit, I gotta write some more songs!!

Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

John took a sick day today, just because he has a lot of them left and only a month to use them.  He spent the morning puttering on the computer next to me, and then went out to run some errands.  He’s going to Guitar Center and then to the grocery store, to buy some fish to eat tonight.

Read the rest of this entry »