guns of brixton!

well not really brixton, but i am waaaayy closer than any of you are. so me and mattmaust and timtama are in london right now, and boy is it raining. its really nice and not to cold at all. this is really the first time its done anything more than sprinkle since we got here. we're not going to go to berlin or holland anymore, things got to messed up with holiday train schedules and prices, so we're staying london until timmy flies out on new years, then mausty and i am heading over to ireland for the next week. ireland...i am coming home. it should be the best. i miss all my friends who aren't though, and i will share lots of cool stories when i get to you the 7th of january. allright kids, rock n roll

tell me what you are up to!!!! --------------->

tis the season

well kids, tis the season to be with family and friends, or friends of the family, or your friends family. so i am spending christmas time at my girlfriends house with her family and doing all the traditional things with them this year. then on the 27th i am making my much trumpeted trip to europe via england. its going to be a blast. its going to be myself, matt maust and our friend tim harris who graduated last year and now designs fun stuff for focus on the family out in the mountain high town of colorado springs. anyway i probably wont have much time to be updating the site between now and when i get back after the first week in january. so hang around until then to hear all about my great adventure in the old world. merry christmas to one and all from me!

RIP Joe Strumner, you will be missed.
give it up for the clash ------------------>

EH CHRISTMAS PARTY!

its the night before christmas (party) and all through the house not a creature is stirring, not even mattmaust. the beer cans are scattered through the rooms with care, and we're hoping we'll see you all there. its EH CHRISTMAS PARTY, the premier canadian christmas party in the local area. flush with all things canadian, including but not limited to donuts and such beverages as championed by the fellows from strange brew...this party is one not to be missed!! begins at 9:30pm, at the Manor, uptown whittier. email for directions

RSVP------------------>

i get wet

well i finally bit the bullet this weekend and i picked up a copy of andrew w.k.'s album 'i get wet'. the short answer is, i love it. i think this is some really rockin, fun loving music. the guy has really crisp beats, melodies, and rocks the house all night long. i can't stop smiling when i am listening to it. If you ever have the chance to catch the video for 'she is beautiful' you better do it because its hillarious. one of the better music videos i have seen in a while.

i picked up the album at amoemba on the way back from Van Nuys on saturday after looking at the jeepster. the place was a mechanic/garage style setting but the thing was full of bently's and Roll Royces and the works. there were even a couple of ferraris sitting inthe service bay. holy crap! so i checked the thing out, she sounded wonderful when i started her up. the guy, Fadi got there a couple minutes after me and told me that a guy had put a thousand bucks down on it on friday. so if the guy doesn't show up to claim the thing today, he might be interested in talking some more on tuesday. all in all though, the hting wasn't in super good shape and my car is in way better condition. so i think i am going to just say forget it. i have a weird feeling about this guy anyway. so yeah, no jeepster.....yet. im also looking at old broncos too, so if you have a line on a mid '60s to mid '70s small bodied bronco...let me know!!

so what the hell are YOU doing this week?? ---->

here's my fist, where's the fight

alrighty, time to linch the kids that are hogging all the school's bandwidth. seriously, i couldn't even open google.com!! that site is like 10k or something, freaking terrible!!! so yeah at least i can log on to the internet from my office now. i had to walk all the way over to the library to look something up about an hour ago. ok enough complaining.

i might, and i mean a big MIGHT, get rid of my mercedes this weekend. i took it into a mechanic today to get it all ready to go. no more oil leak, no more broken alternator brace. the thing should run like a charm. why get rid of it you ask?? well because i found a dealer up in VanNuys who might trade me for a 1970 Jeepster Commando that he has sitting on his lot. i have been looking for a Commando for so long, but i can never find them anywhere near here, let alone one that someone might trade to me for my car. this thing would be awesome!! go ahead and click on the link to check out what it looks like.

in other news, i am still awesome. in less than a month i will be in europe celebrating the new year. ah yeah.

ok tell me what you think of the jeepster!! ------>

monday gael

it's an irish monday morning here in my office. lots of wonderful irish music, stories and thoughts. im working on a painting that has a lot to do with ireland, familes and christianity, so this is all influential in a wonderful way today.

all in all it was a very fun and outstanding weekend. lots of relaxing and lots of artistic and personal inspiration. I have been reading lots of works from a book i picked up a couple of weeks ago. The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction has a ton of different short stories and exceprts from works by Irish authors all writtten since the early 1960's. lots of good good stuff

on saturday night olsen and i went and saw the final film starring Richard Harris, the late irish actor well known lately for his roles in 'gladiator' and the 'harry potter' movies. 'my kingdom', losely based on shakespear's 'king lear', is based in modern day liverpool and revolves around the downfall of hariss' family and drug kingdom. playing on one screen for one week only in america so as to be eligable for oscar contention, this film is amazing. i believe that it will be playing through this coming thursday and i HIGHLY recommend that you see it. its playing at the cecchi gori art theater on wilshire and tickets can only be purchased at the door. for directions and more information check out this link. tickets are $9 and the do not offer student discount. this however is a nine dollars well spent. to check out the LA Times review of my kingdom.

on sunday, after church, I checked out 'baseball as america' at the natural history museum here in LA. for more information on this awesome display of baseball artifacts check out this link

what did you do this weekend?----->

the prodigal son

yes folks i am back....mostly. i think there are still some pieces of my brain floating around out there somewhere. i still feel like i am living underwater sometimes. being sick is never any fun. but hopefully the fact that i am drinking coffee again is a good sign that i am on the road to full recovery.

music for the morning is my good buddy the boss otherwise known as bruce springsteen and his latest album 'the rising'. for as long as i can remember, i have always had a special place in my heart for the uniquely american music made by this man. the title track from 'the rising' was the first song i heard the morning my mom passed away and it will always be a special one to me. another first time listen for me this week was 'the ghost of tom joad' that i listened to in my roommate mikes' car. another great record from a man i consider to be the voice ofhis generation.

in other news this morning, the weather here is still for sissy's. i have a profound interest in living in a place where my life is impacted, and my daily activities influenced by what the environment is doing. i think living in southern california for this brief ammount of time has taught me enough about mid 70's all year. i am sick of seeing people wear flip flops year round. i want to live somewhere real!!

if you could live anywhere else, where would it be???------>

if i didn't have puke breath....

well i know its been a bit since i have posted anything, but i have been sick as a dog. thanksgiving was great, got to see family, friends, and lost of nice scenery in oregon. beautiful. but several hours after i got back, i got sick as a dog. so for the last two days or so i have been in bed resting up. i finally got to eat some food last night and i kept it down. woohoo. now i have to get back into the swing of things with shool and stuff. so who knows how that is going to go. my head is still all slow from being sick and not having any caffeine for the last couple of days, but hopefully i will have some more interesting stuff to talk about next time.