Zona

Halloween and I'm in the one hundred year-old, haunted, Gadsden Hotel in Douglas, Arizona.

I'm watching Sex And The City on TV while a really shitty band plays heavy metal tunes in the little plaza across the street.

They have wifi so I'm also playing poker online.

I'm all in with Ace 10 off suit.

I lost and finished the tourney in 27th place.

I got an email from JaG telling me she LOVED the card I sent her. That made my day.

I've had a good dinner and I'm very tired.

Make me happy, tell me you like that XXX flickr pic.

Now I'm waiting for the next tourney to start.

There's a book coming out on the Top 100 Canadian albums. It was a poll so it might as well say favorite 100 Canadian albums.

Here's my top ten fave Canadian albums in no particular order.

Nickleback, The State
Matthew Good, Avalanche
Tragically Hip, Fully Completely
Big Sugar, Heated
Supertramp, Even in the Quietest Moments
Jann Arden, Living Under June
Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Matthew Good, White Light Rock and Roll Review
Neil Young, Harvest (the only one I don't actually own)
Joni Mitchell, Hejira

Honorable mention

The Falling Pianos, The Falling Pianos

That was my son's first band. Great band. Too bad it didn't last.

You poor Canadians

I'm home in Tucson where it's nice and warm and sunny and I spent a couple of hours just staring out the front door of my house. You know how nice it is? You know those days when you can't feel the weather? You know, it doesn't feel cold or warm. It doesn't feel at all. That's what late October is like in Tucson. Now go put your jacket on.

Then there's the TV. Canadian TV just SUCKS. Last nite we watched Queer Eye after I caught the rebroadcast of Keith Olbermann. THEN when I got up this morning at 8AM I turned on Bravo and watch Kathy Griffin's two hour comedy set. It was hilarious. No Red Green show, no Corner Gas, no three hours of hockey highlights, no Global. It's just wonderful to be home.

Now a shower and then down to Fourth Avenue and my favorite bookstore to shop for calendars. Antigone Books (google)

Ta.

All packed for home tomorrow

I fly home to the birthplace of my soul. The cradle of my spirit. A famous author said that you can never go home again and I know that to be true. Oh sure, the building is still there. The physical shelter from the wind and the rain where I grew up and dreampt and longed and laughed and cried but so much is either gone or has changed and so many secrets revealed that stayed hidden during my growing.

There is uneasiness with people. Troubling situations that I cannot fix. Decisions that were made and the consequences. The drifting apart that comes with leaving one family to start and cling to another. I have my own closet skeletons that I deal with so when people think I'm the person they know they get frustrated that the young man they remember is not there like before.

My father is gone and my mother does what she can to keep us above water in her eyes as she is sure that we are at the least drifting far away if not drowning. So the place that was once carefree has grown up like all of us. I fear the day my mother leaves us for two reasons.

One is that my mother will be gone and the other is that the house will pass to others and I will have no home to go back to.

One of the local radio stations is doing a top 50 rock albums list.

Here's my top ten in the order I thought of them.

1. Who's Next, The Who
2. Let It Be, The Beatles
3. Back In Black, ACDC
4. Aja, Steely Dan
5. Four, Led Zeppelin
6. Beautiful Midnight, Matthew Good Band
7. Deja Vu, Crosby Stills Nash and Young
8. Metalica, Metalica
9. Hysteria, Def Leppard
10. Ten, Pearl Jam

New iTunes

Have you seen the movie Crash? You know that song with the angelic woman voice? I've got that on repeat now. Missy, you BETTER have that soundtrack. You BETTER have seen that movie. Hell, you ALL better have seen that movie.

The song is called, Sense Of Touch by Mark Isham.

Other songs include my five fave Madonna songs

Live To Tell
Bad Girl
Oh Father
Secret
Frozen

The songs I like off of Elton John's last good album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy

The title track
Tower Of Babel
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Meal Ticket

Norah Jones' Thinking About You, which is a song that reminds us how cool keyboards are.

and some others

Potty talk

I needed a toilet, or TURlet if you're from Brooklyn, so I headed into the washroom, where most toilets, or twahLET if you're from Montreal, happen to be. I was in a major retail store in Bellingham, Washington. So as I'm going in a kid about 20ish is coming out of one of the stalls. Perfect timing thinks I. I go in and close the door. I start to undo my pants when I notice that the kid has urinated with the seat down. You know what that means.

So I go to the other stall. Dry seat. So just as I sit, somebody goes into the other stall, undoes, and sits down.

Surprise.

I don't think it makes any man less of a man if he sits down to pee. I mean hey, It's a nice rest.

I do it almost all the time at home. Of course most of the time it's because I've carried my laptop into the jon, or loo if you're from Liverpool. I'm very courteous that way. I even have a can of air freshener in my bathroom, or water closet if you're from Wales, because I KNOW that sometimes my diet becomes aromatic.

And just to show you that I'm not selfish, I invited my wife, or haurme if you're from Achacachi, to use the air freshener because, as I reminded her that day, she is only human and we all have a variety of aromas

Tucson Tucsday

The almighty ones have authorized me to spend their money to travel to my home from the far off nether regions of the planet where I currently find myself posted.

I travel home on Tuesday and I don't have to be back to work until November 11th. I have one route in my native land already plotted out for photographical exploration and possibly a second.

The first will be the south central mining towns of Globe, Mammoth, Superior, Christmas, Morenci, San Manuel, and others.

The second, still up in the air, will be along the Colorado River thru Parker.

I will also drive to Provo, UT where my sister is not well lately. (she will fully recover so no worries for that) Mom is currently staying with her. I just hope it doesn't snow.

And I may pop out to Los Angeles but that trip looks more and more in doubt as I would rather focus on Arizona.

Happy happy

My son is back from Japan. He had the time of his life. The band played shows and traveled and slept in the van in truck stops and he was on the go all the time. He's ready to go back though.

Taking a poll here

A young lady is out partying, drinking, getting hammered. At 1AM her cell phone rings. It's a male aquaintance in New York. (4AM his time) He tells her he wants her to come to NYC for the weekend. He's bought her a plane ticket. She flies at 6AM.

I say that's a booty call.

She says it isn't.

YOU say?

I need a t shirt that says PLAYA in gold letters maybe.
Gold chain?
Fake Gucci shades?
yeah

In a lapse of reason I told the wife I'd take her, my daughter, and my grandkids to Bellingham. The bad part is there's no bar in the mall. Vacation in a week thank you god, allah, budda. YOU pick one but I can't grow a beard and I aint shaving my head.

I was born into religion
but it was never born into me
It never gave me any answers
never showed me the holy vision
that I wanted desperately to see

I put my faith in people
and they always let me down
I watched too many walk away
before I learned to not care
before I learned not to let it bring me down

It's a cold rainy dreary autumn day and I'm walking through it in a sense. I'm quite tired of trying to stay dry and comfortable all the time. When I drive on the wet roads there are times when I feel the tires start to slide and I let up on the accelerator wondering if I'll reach the point soon. the point when I'll push the pedal to the floor instead. When so much of the world crumbles around you it becomes to feel like your collapse is in the natural progression and you want to close your eyes and wait for the fall.

Maybe there's a pillar beneath my feet that will prevent my downfall but leave me standing here all alone. Maybe the choice to jump into the abyss will me mine alone. Maybe I will fall and be jolted to safety by the waking matress of my bed.

There are lots of maybes right now. Lots of question marks. Those I don't fear those so much. It's the exclaimation marks looming yet unseen that worry me the most. I cast them out long ago and like a boomerang in the clouds I know that one day they will return but I do not know when or from what direction.

Weekend wet willies

My son is in Japan. Arrived fine, had great food.

Vacation coming up this month. yes yes yes.

well since I was awakened from my sofa nap by my grand daughter I will tell you a story.

I was at work and a guy told me he was going to Portland, Oregon to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. No no no says I. Canadian holidays aren't celebrated in the U S of A. You have to celebrate the arrival of Columbus. The man famouse for chopping off the arms of the disobedient locals. All the while telling them that it was for the salvation of their own souls because he also brought priests with them so the young boys wouldn't feel left out.

Ah, the beginning of the Spanish conquest of America. Gunpowder, horses, and sexually transmitted diseases all in exchange for tomatoes, tobacco, and coca leaves.

Religious salvation for pagans who ran half naked through the green calm fields of eternal damnation.

You see? says I. Now THAT'S a HOLIDAY!

My son just yelled out from the kitchen that Monday is Thanksgiving.

I replied that it most certainly is not.

He said that we have to celebrate.

I replied that we most certainly do not.

He then told me that my grandchildren were Canadians.

I replied that as long as they are living in this house they most certainly are not.

You can steal all the holiday ideas you want you Canadian boobs but you can't have the souls of my grandkids!!!

Up to the moment with yours truly

Sitting on the bed while another gray wet day appears in Vancouver. These days are the only days where I long for big picture windows and a fireplace and we'll stop right there kids just because.

My son gets on a plane today for Japan. He and the band leave at noon Vancouver time and arrive at noon Tokyo time. They travel 24 hours in eight and a half.

They're hitting the major cities and if you google the johnsons you'll find the exact schedule.

Dad gave him a goodly chunck of change and told him to have a good time. (see grandfatherly advice in Little Miss Sunshine)

Don't know exactly what I'll do today on my first day off. I just know it's going to start with sugary breakfast cereal and continue with sugary soft drinks and bagged party mix. Maybe sushi.

Oh, I bought my bro-in-law's annual Playboy calendar. I have to review that to make sure all the months are spelled correctly. I think I'm gonna have my own calendar made this year. That is, if I get off my lazy ass. Don't go preordering just yet kids.