Okay, I know I’ve been suckin’ with the diary thing. I avoid updating it for some reason, just like I do with my e-mail. Days go by and I don’t even touch it. ::I’m sorry!!:: Just keeping to myself I guess. In the online sense.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with that van. I took it out to Berwyn on Saturday night to participate in a Bob Wills tribute by Jon Langford & the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, at Fitzgerald’s. I gave Jane Baxter-Miller a ride and took Iris on the highway for the first time. The Eisenhower and, on the way back, the Kennedy even! I’m so freaky paranoid about this thing, even though I’m insured out the wazoo. (My car has insurance but my body doesn’t!?!)

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I got my van last night! Whoo-hoo!!! It’s a Plymouth Voyager named Iris, and it’s the most beautiful vehicle I have ever seen. I got it from the Autobarn in Evanston (the guy wants me to "tell all my friends" so there ya go). George did *all* the talking and cut me a really good deal, haggled ‘em down to the last fifty bucks. I’m so excited!!! I drove around a little last night — this is the first car I’ve had in like eight years so it’s an amazing feeling to finally be mobile and be able to go anywhere I want, whenever I want. That is, if I can find a place to park…

I’ve been messing around with my website, as you may have noticed. I got rid of the cascading style sheets… I guess I got too many complaints from folks with 3.0 browsers that couldn’t see my pages right. I surfed around a lot last night picking out new background images… how do you like the notebook paper?

I suck because I should have gone out to see the Mountain Goats with John Davis and Mia Doi Todd at the Empty Bottle last night. Missed it. Oh well. I’m telling myself that by not going out, I’m saving a bunch of money when in actuality I’m just being as lazy as possible.

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Jeezus, it’s gonna take me a month to finish that story, I’m not even halfway through! I spent the day today looking at used vans with Ryan Hembrey and George Langford (the other Jive Council bassist). George knows a lot about cars, and he’s good at haggling, so I’m letting him do all the talking. I guess I’ve decided to ditch the whole idea of trying to a regular job, and concentrate solely on playing out and touring and working on music. I don’t know if or how long I can keep it up, but I figure I’ve got to try doing that sometime, and there’s no time like the present, right?

I talked to Mike Daly on the phone yesterday, that was cool. We shot the shit. He’s back home after touring with Whiskeytown for awhile.

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Hey, guess what, I think I just quit my job.

ANYway, where was I. Nantes. Okay, well, in the morning Ryan went out for a long walk looking for the cathedral. The hotel’s in sort of a stark industrial neighborhood by the river and it was cold and rainy outside so I didn’t really feel like exploring. So I stayed in, lounged around, had some breakfast and watched some French MTV ("M6" they call it). I’d been a dork the night before and forgotten my jacket at the club, so there was a bit of confusion trying to get ahold of somebody over there to see if we could swing by to pick it up. Finally we all checked out of the hotel, loaded our stuff into the van and drove back to the Olympic.

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We got back to Chicago on Sunday, and I was supposed to go back to work today, but I stayed home… there’s a lot of weird shit going on over there right now; it’s turned into a real freakshow over the past few months. I would really like to find another job just as soon as possible. But how can I find one that suits my wayfaring lifestyle? Hmmm. This being-a-24-hour-musician-and-touring-for-a-living stuff is looking more and more tempting by the minute.

So, our trip to France was like the coolest most amazing eye-opening mind-boggling experience ever!! Okay so maybe I’m easily impressed and yes, it was my first trip to Europe but MANOHMANOHMAN I had such a good time. Whoo-hoo!!! How the hell I’m going to type all this, I don’t know.

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From the December 1997 issue of Coed Naked Sex (an Ohio zine). It’s reviewing a show I did at Lounge Ax in Chicago on 6/8/97, where I opened for USA and Smog.

Can’t remember the name of the club!

With: Boxhead Ensemble doing a live soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor

My band: Michael Krassner (guitar); Julie Pomerleau (violin); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jim White (drums)

With: Boxhead Ensemble doing a live soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor

My band: Michael Krassner (guitar); Julie Pomerleau (violin); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jim White (drums)

Photo by Mathieu Drouet

With: Boxhead Ensemble doing a live soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor

My band: Michael Krassner (guitar); Julie Pomerleau (violin); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jim White (drums)

I made #4 in Greg Kot’s list of his favorite 15 local releases of 1997, in the Chicago Tribune…

With: Boxhead Ensemble doing a live soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor

My band: Michael Krassner (guitar); Scott Tuma (guitar); Julie Pomerleau (violin); Ken Vandermark (saxophone); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jim White (drums)

I got to meet Dominique A and Francoiz Breut that night.  Neat-o!

Julie Pomerleau goofing around with a public toilet. We were touring with the Boxhead Ensemble.

My first time in France, and my first show in Europe, at Zoo Bizarre in Bordeaux.

With: Boxhead Ensemble doing a live soundtrack to the film Dutch Harbor

My band: Michael Krassner (guitar); Julie Pomerleau (violin); Ryan Hembrey (bass); Jim White (drums)

I’m waiting for Ryan to come pick me up to go to the airport. Everything’s ready, the cat box is clean, everything’s more or less picked up, the carpet is vacuumed, and I have placed sticky notes on every surface explaining how things work to my housesitting pal. ("jiggle it!" on the toilet, "mi comida es su comida" on the fridge etc.) I didn’t finish getting ready until like 5am this morning… you know what I did all night, instead of packing? I was playing this stupid game on the Internet called HoverRace. It’s really kewl, it’s like a steeplechase thing where you get to race with other players live on the net. You can even chat with the other players while you’re racing. It’s so fun, you should try it!! But it’s real addicting.

Well I better get my ass in gear here. Ryan just called and he’s on his way! So I’m going to France.  Yes.  In my UNDERPANTS.  ;-)