more motor madness

now playing: jann arden, "shooting horses"



feast or famine, man...feast or famine.


i'm not sure just exactly what i've done to myself here, but i just committed over the phone last night to close to a dozen solo acoustic gigs. i was double-recommended for this particular adventure by both mike noecker from shame and by dave cullen - which is something of an honor...it's always good to be highly thought of by ones' peers, i think. the first of them starts the first week of april, and they run into july as it stands right now.

i'm strangely excited by the prospect of doing this again...i mean, it's been quite some time since i've done solo acoustic work with any kind of regularity. the last few times i've done solo gigs were at a labor day party and at my friend roger's surprise birthday party, and not much else since the waning days of the mutual angels era...and for the most part, i can't say that i've missed it.

now, though, faced with the prospect of working in that vein again, i'm actually feeling pretty good about it. the contact guy has been really nice to deal with, and the room has an excellent reputation. it'll be interesting, though, to see how what i do translates now. it feels like a million years ago that i did this on a regular basis.


last night, i sat down and did an ebay search for "vanagon" to get a feel for what was out there and what they were going for - i guess i could say that i was a little encouraged by what i saw, in terms of what some similar to mine were going for...a little encouraged. that'd be about it.

it was my hope that this thing was gonna last long enough for me to put a sticker on it, but i'm starting to have my doubts...now i've got issues with the transmission refusing to shift when it should, and at this point i'm feeling pretty strongly that it'd take a pretty solid offer to get that thing out from under my original idea of driving it to the scrapyard and pulling a sledgehammer from the back and pummelling it until i have no more strength left....then taking a nap and pummelling it some more.

i can't wait to be rid of that treacherous motherfucker.


yesterday, though, i was talking to chris, and she offered to let me borrow her honda civic until the van is operable...the only catch was that the inspection on it ran out in february (she hasn't used it, and it was sitting in the driveway all winter...so it wasn't a negligence issue - she just doesn't drive it). that meant that, of course, the registration had expired as well. so i went online and she gave me her information over the phone to get the registration updated, but i still have to get it in for inspection before some eagle-eyed officer of the law sees me in it and he goes through the famous warner brothers cartoon "dollar signs replacing his pupils" transformation as he's pulling me to the curb. driving it back to reading last night under cover of darkness wasn't so stressful - driving it this morning was a different story. i'm pretty sure that it'll need, at a minimum, rear brakes and some exhaust work to pass inspection - normal wear and tear stuff...but that'd be cheaper than renting another gaudy-assed PT cruiser for a week. i'm not gonna count the teeth on the gift horse - it's a weight off my shoulders not to have to worry so much about the van having to be back up and running right this minute for a change.

that doesn't address the larger problem of finding something reliable and permanent...but i think i'll be ready for that soon.


wendy and i have both been too distracted by other issues this week to interact very much - she's got a huge report due for the state at the end of the month, and there's a meeting scheduled on monday to outline what the plans are for dealing with an upcoming merger of the township where her library is and an adjacent township - apparently, there's a regulation on the books that says that a municipality cannot have two fully functioning libraries - one must become a branch of the other. wendys' library has been there the longest, while the other townships' library is the equivalent of a MASH field hospital at the moment...but i know she's worried about what happens with her job as and after the dust settles. as for me, i've got a pretty important day lined up on sunday, and my perpetual vehicular woes are compounding with every little thing that goes wrong. every time something else breaks, i feel that much more like an asshole for continuing to nurse this piece of shit along. if i had back every cent i'd sunk into it over the past year, it wouldn't be difficult at all to buy something a lot nicer.

in fact, i've pretty much resolved myself to selling it once it's drivable and i can snap some pictures in the daylight to get it up on the 'net. i don't even care anymore about it passing inspection. at this point, getting it ready for a sticker is more effort than i'm willing to put into it.


and the funk that it inspires is creeping into every corner of my brain.

it must die. soon.



seriously, i should be on a cloud right now. i've got the shop to myself for the rest of the week, i just got a nice batch of solo acoustic work that'll last through the spring into the summer, i'm going to get to meet one of my guitar heroes tomorrow night, and then there's this sunday thing...

i should be at the top of my game...but this van shit has become a fucking emotional ball and chain around my neck that refuses to let me take any joy in any of that. it's pretty goddamn sad.


i will try to set that aside for the time being, though.


i'm not sure why, but i'm finding myself strangely affected by the song it might be you by stephen bishop lately...it just makes me sad. that song used to remind me of one of my high school crushes, cheryl worley. she was one of those girls that i used to love to look at - she was sooo pretty, but she was hard to talk to. i don't think it was because she didn't want to talk to me so much as because she just didn't seem to have anything to say...lots of one word answers and such. she was smart, though...just not much of a conversationalist. she had a great smile and the whole shy thing just melted me...but i was so timid that i wasn't able to connect with her - and those kinds of crushes don't have much of a shelf life.

i don't know why that song is making a comeback...but that one and romeo and juliet by dire straits...and infinity by willy porter...there are a few real zingers in my playlist today.


so tired...i can't remember the last time that midnight found me somewhere other than in bed. i'm already feeling as though i could sleep, and it's not even dark outside yet.



well...maybe it's time to call the kids and see what the plan is for this evening...