HEY did y’all see my buddy Emmett Kelly playing guitar with Beth Orton tonight (=last night) on Letterman?  WOO-HOO!!  I TiVoe’d it.  Leroy Bach played too, he was on bass but Emmett got more face-time I think.  I’m so proud of that kid… I always tell him not to forget I taught him everything he knows.  (“How could I forget?" he sez.  Ha ha.) Oh, while I’m on a roll with the namedropping: I saw Glenn Kotche, my old drummer and now-member of Wilco, he was at Gary’s benefit show the other night with his beautiful wife Miiri.  I also requested that he not forget that I taught HIM everything HE knows too.  And he played right along with a big grin, rattling off all the reasons why that might actually kinda sorta not be a big fat lie… I mean, if it weren’t for me he might not have met a certain someone which led to him meeting another certain someone which catapulted him into joining Wilco etc. etc.  Oh fuck it, I know I’m just a teeny lil’ cog in a very big wheel but you know what?  I love those guys so much, I’m so proud of everything they’re accomplishing, it just thrills me to pieces.  And I like to joke about it, nothin’ wrong with that.  :-)

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For what I’m pretty sure is the first time in the history of this website in all its many iterations, I have gone beyond the allotted bandwidth doled out monthly by my webhost.  They’re not going to turn it off right away but I do have to pay extra, and that sucks.  The big spike seems to have come courtesy of a well-meaning blogger who posted direct links to an old video of mine which a couple of hundred people then downloaded.  Said blogger had no idea that it would screw me over but oh well, I am glad so many people got to enjoy the video.  Still, in retrospect I really wish they’d just asked my permission to host it themselves fer cryin’ out loud.

Please note: I’ve temporarily removed my video and MP3 folders to conserve bandwidth until the end of the month so I won’t have to pay any more than I have to.  Sorry sorry sorry if you’re trying to download something, but I just can’t afford the extra expense right now.  If you gotta have something before then, post a comment and maybe I can e-mail it to you.

Just for the fuck of it I took this IQ test today.  And… ughhh… it’s a number I’m not ashamed of — otherwise I’d be crawling under a rock right now — but I’m still disappointed because it’s 6 points lower than the last time I took an IQ test.  I can’t remember when that was though.  I know I took one in high school and then another one on the internet, probably in the early-to-mid 90s, and got the exact same number as the first time.  So if this really means I’m six points stoopider than I used to be — when I was smoking pot all day long every day!! and drinking a lot more than I do now — then I’m pretty disappointed.  I know, it’s been twenty years since I was in college and had to exercise my brain full-time, but damn.  Though who knows if this is the same type of test with the same numbering system.  Plus, I’m really tired today and just blew though three or four math questions that I couldn’t figure out right away… those number-series problems always make me want to tear my hair out!!  I probably should’ve just taken wild guesses instead of leaving ‘em as "I don’t know".  Meh.

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I’m all verklempt about all the support that’s bubbling up in Chicago, all the benefit shows that are coming together to help Gary Schepers defray his horrendous medical bills.  Here’s a list of shows in the Reader.  Here’s a longer profile in the music section, from a few weeks ago.  Here’s an article in today’s Tribune.  Another one in the Sun-Times.  There are dozens of shows happening and more being planned.  I’ve honestly never seen anything like it, but I’m not at all surprised either.  Because we, the music community here in Chicago, do tend to pull together in good times and bad.  So I’m going to make one last plea to you guys, whoever can come out to one of those shows, please do.  The one I’m playing is on Sunday night at the Hideout starting at 8pm… I’m pretty sure it’ll sell out so get your tickets now if that’s the one you want to see.  Frankly I don’t care which one you see, just get yer ass out there!  If you’re out of town and you can help with money, any amount would be very much appreciated.  Bloodshot has helped set up a trust for that purpose; donations can be made payable to the "Gary Schepers Trust", you can take them to any National City Bank branch or send ‘em via snail-mail at National City Bank, 1520 N. Damen, Chicago, IL 60622.  I never do this, I don’t beg people to come out to my shows, but this is obviously a time to put all modesty aside and ask for y’all’s help.  I know, this is just one guy and maybe you don’t even know him, and yeah maybe there are a lot of people who need help and aren’t getting this kind of exposure from the local media… but still, that’s neither here nor there.  Let’s do this, let’s help get this guy back on his feet.  Okay, rant over.

Went on a pilgrimage to Hot Doug’s this afternoon (=yesterday) with Eric and a couple of his housemates, Donna and AbbyG.  This was only my second trip.  Hot Doug’s is famous for some rather exotic choices in encased meats… Donna got the RABBIT sausage dog, and unfortunately something about the smell of it grossed her out and she couldn’t eat it, but everybody else enjoyed their creations.  I had the "Habanero and Tequila Smoked Chicken Sausage with Sweet Chipotle Mustard and Extra Sharp White Cheddar Cheese", it was absolutely delicious.

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I had a pretty fun weekend.  Sarah comped me a ticket to see Otis Clay open for Marty Stuart last night (=Sunday) at the Old Town… Eric tagged along too, and I finally got to meet Sarah’s friend Mark, he was nice.  The show was soooo goooood.  I knew Otis was going to be awesome but I had no idea about Marty.  I vaguely remembered seeing him talk about older artists on various documentaries, but had never heard his own stuff.  I guess I saw the mullet and didn’t think I needed to… what a mistake that was!  Remind me next time not to judge a mullethead so quickly.  He was totally great.  The real deal, no doubt about it.  An amazing musician (mandolin mostly) and a super-crack band too.  Loved every minute.  There was a group of fucking assholes sitting next to us who couldn’t stop cracking up during the most inappropriate times despite our intense glares, but oh well.  It wasn’t so bad that it ruined the show for me or anything.  You gotta wonder what they were doing there though.  Maybe they were just too drunk to give a shit, who knows.

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I did the stupidest thing today.  I couldn’t find my damn van!!  I went to where I thought it was, it wasn’t there.  I took a look down the other street, my 2nd choice parking spot, and did not see it.  I started freaking out a little and walking in random directions.  I started walking in bigger and bigger circles around where I live trying to find the fucking thing.  Wracking my brain trying to remember where I’d put it.  Could not find it.  Started thinking the worst, either that it had been towed for some wack reason, and then concluded it couldn’t have been towed, it had to have been stolen.  What the hell was I going to do?  My amp is in that van, I have to get it fixed and go on tour with that amp!!  I started crying.  And it was snowing, but the wet kind of snow that’s just gross and cold, SLOPPY snow.  So finally I decide to take one last whole circle around the block by my apartment.  And there it fucking was, right there where I’d put it on the 2nd-choice street.  It was parked a little closer to the far corner than it usually is, and behind another (bigger) van so I hadn’t seen it the first time I peered down the street.  Stupid, stupid me.  FUCKING Friday the 13th.  Yes.  So now I’ve made a little series of signs to put on my stupid fucking door inside my apartment.  With the names of the streets around me, and "North of…", "South of…" "East of…" "West of…" I figure if I go to the effort to tell my future self where the FUCKING van is, my retardo brain will not forget.  Ay yi yi.

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An elderly and apparently homeless woman passes me on the sidewalk today, looks me right in the eye and earnestly mumbles something.  All I caught was: "Maple syrup!  Sweet syrup ONLY." I smile, shrug and keep on going.  WTF?!

The past few days haven’t been nearly as nerve-wracking as Thursday was, thank god.  Luckily I hardly ever have shit days like that.  I got another ticket, yes, and that fucking sucked — the cop must’ve been a real prick because I had the older ticket right on the dashboard where he could easily see it.  So I guess they feel perfectly fine giving you one ticket per day.  I mean jeez, it’s right after Christmas, nobody has any money, show me a little mercy willya?  But whatever, it’s my own damn fault.  I have the sticker now AND got the headlight fixed, so I’m no longer "running from the cops", though I will need to pay the $100 in tickets to keep that secure feeling!  Yeah.  I think it’s been at least three years since I got any tickets — if I do, it’s always about some sticker or another, or possibly parking and overstaying my welcome on the meter, or maybe due to street-cleaning when I never saw the signs.  The last time I got one, I was all… AS GOD IS MY WITNESS, I WILL NEVER LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!!  But it did.  Oh well.  Could be a helluva lot worse I suppose.  Could be raining… ;-)

A few words I’ve looked up recently: soporiphic; aphorism; lubricious; splenetic; fulsome; mien

Words I already knew, but wanted to hear the official definition and/or spelling: livable vs liveable; it’s vs its; apostrophe; hyperbole*; itinerant; prerogative; perquisite; respite; treatise; ostensibly

* When I tagged along with Sheila and Sarah to visit Gary in the hospital, we were joking with him about his hyperbaric chamber treatments, replacing the word "hyperbaric" with "hyperbolic".  It was pretty funny in a very gallows-humor kinda way.

Copied off my funny funny pal Amanda… a blogging meme that’s going around where you post the first line or two from the first post of every month in 2005.  I had to fudge on that a little ‘cuz some of the first posts were actually pictures with no commentary.

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Today was just one of those days.  Nothing really bad happened, but a whole bunch of little things did, and it all added up to one huge pain in the ass.  It’s to the point where I can’t help but laugh.

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This just bugs me.  Not the "coffeeness" part, that’s just a made-up word.  It’s (ha ha) the fact that "it’s" is a contraction of "it is", but they really wanted "its", possessive.  I wouldn’t mind a person doing it, but this is a fucking Starbuck’s ad!  Who copywrites this shit?  Are they trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator?  I thought they were trying to be all bourgeois and shit.  Maybe they’re just trying to pretend that an actual employee wrote that, and baristas are stupid.  Pffft.  Very fucking sorry for the bad language but I mean, please.

Well, maybe this is a toughie because… well, let’s replace "it" with a name.  Susan’s coffeeness.  Its coffeeness.  That is kinda confusing, I guess I never really thought about that before.  I wonder what’s up with that… GOOGLE!!!!

I’ve had the TV on all night watching for news about the coal miners.  I’ve been riding the rollercoaster all night, felt the joy of the families at the apparent "miracle" and now the absolute gut-wrenching heartbreak in this grim resolution.  My heart goes out to all those families.  Oh, I hate it when these things happen, I take it too much to heart to the point where there’s a rock in my stomach and I’m literally crying for them.  It is soooo fucked-up.  It’s going to haunt me for awhile, like when Katrina hit, or the time I got so upset here on my blog, talking about the massacre of the children in Beslan.  Terrible, horrible indescrible awfulness.  Anger and tears.  I have to turn off the TV…

I had dinner last night (=Sunday) with my best pal Sarah Pop-Tart, it was so much fun.  We just yakked and yakked and laughed and laughed, we must have sounded like a couple o’ total dingbats.  I told her about my favorite new toy, OkCupid, and now she’s TOOOOTALLY addicted to it too!  She called me up like ten times today saying "OMIGOD EDITH WTF!?!  THIS IS CRAZY!!  THIS IS SOOOO HILARIOUS!!!" It’s ostensibly a dating site, but if that were all, there’d be no way I’d like it so much.  I can’t even explain it but it’s SO MUCH FUN.  So fascinating.  It’s the coolest site I’ve found in a very very long time, and no they are not paying me to say that.  It’s free free free, and fun fun fun.  (Ad-driven, or you can donate to get rid of the ads.) It just blows my mind, whenever I’m on there I’m just shaking my head and cracking up with laughter.  I never do this but I really want to put the call out, especially all you single guys in the Chicago area from the ages of 35-45 or thereabouts (ha ha!!), please go there right now so the pickin’s won’t be so slim, and we won’t have to go there *just* for the laughs.  ‘Cause it’s a pretty new site but I betcha it’s going to be HUGE.  Huge.  I really mean that.  Go go go!!  Er, wait, I’m not quite done talking.  :-)

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