In general, one thing I regret most is the fact that I ever got into those musical divisions. I guess when I cared I was on the progressive/Hard Rock/Blues side (the side that lost) but I really should been open to all types of music even back then. Sometimes I read these obscure zine articles where people are comparing the merits of lo-fi post punk to neo alternitive folk country and it's like "Man, get a life."

posted by wil forbis 9/28/2000 08:41:44 AM

Monday, September 25, 2000
Boy, this is a pretty dull looking presidential race. I guess we (Americans) want dull after the past eight years of Clinton, but I now realize I'm going to miss the guy. The Clinton presidecy was like a Steve McQueen car race - one minute he's narrowly missing a nuclear war with Iraq, the next he's blithely dodging an incoming impeachment in the wrong lane of the freeway. Things happened in this presidency I never thought I'd see in my lifetime.

But you look at Bush and Gore and you can hardly tell those guys apart. I guess their blandness has been commented on by a million different observers so there's no point in me beating it to death, but man, they're bland. And really, most of the thrid party candidates are bland as well - Nader lacks any dynamic, Harry Brown seems well aware that he's destined to lose. I guess the two side of the reform party offer mild amusement - Buchanan always has a wildman's pizzazz and that new age guy is good for a kick.

Bah, I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore...
posted by wil forbis 9/25/2000 04:24:10 PM

Saturday, September 23, 2000
I was having tea today, and I started thinking about how I used to drink tea as a kid.I struck me as rather odd that I would be drinking tea then, since I'm pretty sure I wasn't really allowed to drink coffee. I remember that I distictly enjoyed tea, for no reason I could understand at the time, but now I realize it was the caffeine. However, being a kid, I had no real awareness of the feeling of "getting high" of caffeine, probably because I had no expectation to do so. It's funny how as kids we don't have a real awareness of our moods being effected by things we consume. Like, they always say you should avoid giving kids sugar, but I never really recalled realizing that sugar made me feel a certain way while vegetables did not.

I've been thinking about childhood a lot after watching "Welcome to the Dollhouse" recently. That really is a good flick. One thing you can say about Todd Solondz is that he really has and understanding about what it's like to be a kid, ugliness and all. The child characters in his films (he also did the great "Happiness") have a sense of reality you rarely see.

My writing's really been kind of weak recently. Perhaps I need more sugar.



posted by wil forbis 9/23/2000 01:19:23 PM

Wednesday, September 20, 2000
I've kind of been caught up in this Kevin Smith film festival lately. After years of having people tell me to watch "Clerks", I finally rented it. What a piece of crap. The black ink marker that's sitting on my desk right now could act better than anyone in that film, as well as emitting delightfully intoxicating fumes. The dialogue was all right I suppose, but really could've used at least one final pass to sharpen it up.

So that got me thinking about how I'd seen "Dogma" when it came out and thought it was pile of bum vomit as well. So I started thinking maybe this Kevin Smith guy was just some dude blown completely out of proportian by America's adolescent press. Final test was "Mallrats", which I watched last night. Not bad, definately the best of the bunch, but not really all that great either.

All those films seemed really indebted to "Better Off Dead" the John Cusack film of the eighties.

posted by wil forbis 9/20/2000 07:46:57 PM

testing the archive
posted by wil forbis 9/20/2000 06:11:13 PM

Monday, September 18, 2000
I gotta be honest: I smell. I drove up to Reno yesterday, got back late at night and went to bed. I then got up today and forgot to take a shower, and I have to tell you... it's caught up with me. It's hot in California right now, hotter than hell as Gene Simmons might say. I'd forgotten how hot this place gets.

On top of that my ear is stuffed with wax and will probably get infected soon. I tried getting a appointment at a local ear, nose and throat doctor and they said I had to be referred by a GP. So I'd have to schedule and appontment with a regular doctor (which would probably take a week) so I could go in and have him refer me to Ear doctor I needed all along (probably another week.)

This system really is fucked up.
posted by wil forbis 9/18/2000 07:06:26 PM

Saturday, September 16, 2000
Hmmm... I wanted to update Acid Logic today but got caught up in various disasters. Looks like I'll have to shoot for Monday.

I was sitting around my apartment today singing a song entitled "Mustard Man." Perhaps that will be my hit.

I can't think of anything to say. Me eat sushi now.


posted by wil forbis 9/16/2000 07:39:20 PM

Friday, September 15, 2000
Did you know Sugarloaf recorded the song "Green Eyed Lady"?

I wasn't aware of this (until recently.)

I always thought it was Steve Miller.

It's interesting how you can learn so much about rock music, yet there's still always something new to find out. Like a magician's hat, rock music has an inexhaustible supply of trivia.. Who were Sugarloaf? What happened to them? Did they die of drug overdoses? We're they related to Meatloaf?

Lately I've been having conversations with this friend of mine's uncle about the 60's country rock movement. The Byrds, Gram Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers etc... That's a whole other aspect of rock music I knew very little about. David Allen Coe has a song lyric that alludes to these groups to the effect of "I heard the burritos out in California could could fly, higher than the Byrds" (I assume that makes note of the Roger McGuin/Gram Parsons rivalry.)
posted by wil forbis 9/15/2000 08:44:53 AM

Monday, September 11, 2000
Fag Fuckers like me

Well, I've been living in Sacramento less than a week now, and so far I've had complete strangers call me both a "fag" and a "fucker." I was walking down J street late at night this past weekend and and a bunch of guys drove by in a Van and yelled out "Are you a fag?" I was like "Holy shit, what 1980's John Hughes film did you crawl out of?" Then today, I'm walking to work and the hippie bicyclist guy is coming at me and narrowly misses. As he passed, I distinctly heard him say, "fucker." "Not often enough," I replied.

Except, I didn't say that, really. I'm terrible with on-the-spot rebuttles to those sorts of insults. I consider myself a witty guy, but when I have to be witty off the cuff, I really flounder. Some guys called me a fag and I'm like "You go,,, eat dog farts, you fuck... yeah, motherfucker." It ain't exactly Noel Coward or Oscar Levant.

Oh well, time to go watch my 2 inch black and white TV and do pilates.
posted by wil forbis 9/11/2000 06:48:12 PM

Saturday, September 09, 2000
The Quik and The Dead

Still more from the world of strange dreams. A few nights ago I had one of the eeriest of my life. In the dream I walk into my friend Tony's house, and standing there is my old friend Brady. The only problem is Brady was killed in a car accident a year and a half ago. So I'm standing there aghast, and Tony explains that Brady's been brought back to life via some magical incantation or something. Brady himself has this "Don't worry about it, dude" attitude which is probably exactly how he'd behave had he been brought back to life. And it doesn't take long for me to have accepted the whole thing, and seeing Brady is just like seeing someone you haven't seen in a few years.

It's srtange, thta dream logic we have. On one hand, dreams can be very entrenched in the rules of reality, but then something can happen, something that in real life would probably drive us mad, and we accept it willingly. Dreams are funny that way. They are a real eye into our subconcious, that's what they are. Perhaps our dreams are actually broadcast to us from and alien planet where everyone looks like characters from Binky and the Brain. Did you ever think of that? I suggest that you do.

I reminds me of time where's I be walking along and see someone who looked like Brady. And for a split second I'd be like "Hey, it's Brad...." Then the realization would sink in. But there would be that brief moment while the memory synapse was still firing off, where I could believe it.

On even more of a tangent, this reminds me of my last New Years eve. I was in Austin, with my friend Conrad dragging me from party to party, and at the last one I found this book based on Jung's study of symbolism throughout cultures. It had a section on dreams and the recuuring meaning of the classic dreams, the "I lost something dream" or the "I'm naked in public dream" or the "I'm making love with a gorilla named 'Ralph' dream." You know, dreams we've all had.

FInally picked up a copy of D.J. Quik's Rhythmism album. It's essentially a theme album, you know. Like The Who's Quadrophrenia or Pink Floyd's The Wall. Excpet while the theme behind those albums is the alienation of English youth, D.J. Quik's theme is all about pussy. It is. It's really a grand theme and he expolores it from a wide variety of angles.

The thing I've never gotten about guys like Quik, is they'll do a whole album filled with crass reference to sex and violence, but on their liner notes, the first person they thank is God. Quik actually thanks God for allowing him to be a minister of music. It's like, Quik, don't you think God's going to dissapprove of the fact that you have a song entitled "The Pussy Medly?"
posted by wil forbis 9/9/2000 02:14:48 PM

Thursday, September 07, 2000
Wow, what a stange dream I had last night! I dreamt that I was listening to a new album by Ozzie Osborne. And the things is that I sat there and listened to three songs, songs that I'd never heard before. Where do these dream songs come from? Are they just songs we've heard somewhere in our past, or are they entirely made up by our subconcious. I suppose, I'll never hear these songs again, which is too bad because there were good songs, better than anything Ozzie has put out lately.

I remember once hearing some music in a dream that was unlike any form of music I'd ever heard. It was like some new style of music, sort of atonal and ethereal. Haunting, yes it had a haunting quality. It's strange how our subconcious can create these things, whole genres of fully realized music.

Man, have you seen this Chloe Sevigny (sic) chick who's on the new cover for Interview magazine. That is one nice piece of tail. She was in American Psycho and Boys Don't Cry? Well, keep and eye out, cuz she's definately an exotic-looking eyefull.

posted by wil forbis 9/7/2000 07:06:36 PM

Wednesday, September 06, 2000
Ugh... the end to a long day.

I've been thinking lately that it's kind of fun to watch the changes in your body as you grow older. That would seem to be the opposite view held by most of society, but hear me out. For example, I've started to notice a few grey hairs on my head and I enjoy them. It's like I've suddenly become someone different, someone wiser, more experienced. I notice the way people treat me a little differently. People who would look at me as an insolent pup now treat me more like a man.

It'll be fun for a while, but I suppose eventually I'll dye it out with some shampoo or whatever. That's the thing with changes in the body, at first they're interesting, but then they're just a bother.

It's like the time I developed a 9 inch penis at puberty. At first it was fun, but soon became tiresome.
posted by wil forbis 9/6/2000 08:01:32 PM

Monday, September 04, 2000
Ever had that experience where you're lying half asleep and then a really good idea hits you? Maybe something to write, or a song, or whatever your schtick is. And you're lying there, and you really want to sleep, but you know if you don't get up and write this down it'll be lost forever. So you sort of sit there having a little battle of wills inside your head between the part of you that wants to sleep and the part of you that wants to write down this idea. Has that ever happened to you?

It has, huh? Weird, it's never happened to me.
posted by wil forbis 9/4/2000 01:12:44 PM

Man, it's cold today. Colder than a witch's icebox. Or a witch's condo on the North Pole. Or a witch's copy of the book "Relational dataBase Design: Clearly Explained" after the witch had taken that book and dipped it in water and then frozen that water with her magic water freezing ring.

Fuck this, it's too cold to write.

posted by wil forbis 9/4/2000 11:21:18 AM

Saturday, September 02, 2000
It's actually snowing a bit in the mountains above me today. It would be far too much trouble to go up and see it up close, but it's there. All in all, I'm not really a big snow fan. It's fun for a while, but then it's just cold... and wet. It's the opposite of coffee, which I could go for right now. You might saying, "Coffee is still wet, just not cold, so it's not really the opposite." but you're not describing coffee, you're describing a coffee drink. Coffee itself is a bean, motherfucker!

Bah, why am I arguing with you anyway.
posted by wil forbis 9/2/2000 10:15:47 AM

Friday, September 01, 2000
Okay, finally got settled in at the new server and got the web logs going again. Once again I will try and write something once a day or so.

Hmmm, right now, however, I can't really think of anything to say. I'm still in Neveda, in fact I went out for a hike this morning with a friend of mine. The territory around here is very bouldery (meaning it has lots of boulders) with a lot of western tree foliage. We were about 20 minutes out and it starting raining pretty hard, but it was actually sort of enjoyable, like being on another planet. I really need to get back into hiking, as long as I can find the right area.

I find myself more anxious lately, more easily annoyed. I'm getting especially tired of things that beep or make noise, like phones, doorbells, car horns and girls. One day all phones must be destroyed.
posted by wil forbis 9/1/2000 04:55:13 PM