to have and to have not

well......so many thing seems to be changing so fast. i often find myself quoting an oso bear song not written by myself. "when i was 17 i thought i knew everything"......know we find...we are just find ourselves.....such is life. at 31....i often wonder.....in general....i wonder if ill ever be as certain about the way things are like my grandparents and great grandparents. i wonder if i will live to be 80 and have people around me to take care of me. sometimes i wish i lived in the 1940s....well at least i have the haircut.

i find myself hanging on to lyrics from bands that i wish were still around...."in this ocean im a bag of tea...i make some clouds...but theyre minor league" jawbreaker seems to make more and more sense. simpler times perhaps....perhaps not.


billy bragg......perhaps amazing....perhaps overrated

sometimes....with the changing of the proverbial guard....or changing of the girlfriends...or  the deterioration there of....i think back to my first true love....maybe that in itself is siko......but i always think about how it fell apart so fast......all the others were doomed to begin with..whether it was me...or the other......shit.......how many years has it been and i still think about it

i think about how bad music sucks...and how everyone generations before has done nothing but talk about how bad music sucks...and here i am talking about how new music sucks. i recently found myself inspired by two dudes from portland that stayed the night with us....these dudes were on a four month tour.....granted they were younger and perhaps life didnt seem to get in the way.......there is something romantically irresponsible about leaving everything for the road......something i wonder if ill ever have again myself.
kudos to those two dudes for doing it.

i have become more and more detached from lousville....my hometown.....and i often wonder if i even care. do Midwestern cities just have a certain blandness to them.....if cincinnati is a modest step up....then what do the big cities hold?....more people.....same scene.

i also wonder if i will ever not be so awesome. like....just a normal dude with a house...and kids....working 9 to five.....watching the biggest loser......attending graduations and......what not....... prolly not.

i feel like deep thoughts by jack handy.....seems much like the weather changes here from day to day.....so does your surroundings.








EPISODE 9 INVASION




SO JASON, JANNA, AND GARY CAME UP FOR A WEEKEND....CAME TO AN OSO BEAR SHOW...WE DRANK ON THE BACK PORCH.....LISTENED TO RECORDS...AND THEN DID A JENKINS REPORT. THIS IS THE END RESULT.



a random chat


 Tyler:  srsly though, I fucking hate sitting there all quiet while all I hear is: "BENGALS, REDS SUCK, NOTRE DAME, GOLF, CARSON, UC, UK, HURR DURR"
 me:  i know dude
im well rounded in most topical converstaions
i know enough to get me throught thwem
 Tyler:  lol you should coach me
 me:  haha
i dunno man...its would be like one of those teen movies where im the jock..and your the nerd...and you come to me for help...and i agree to help you if you can convince your sister to let me take her to the prom
but then we end up falling in love with each other
and i get kicked off the team for being gay
you get beat up...i have to defend you...
then at prom..we go together and  become homcoming king and queen.
 Tyler:  lol, I love your brain
and Go Sailor plays when the credits roll
 me:  no but while at prom...there is that one person starts clap;ping and everyone follows

never mind the spell check....this is real

ive realized over the past couple months how distant i have become with just being a guy at a show..and not the one putting the show on....i miss that. seems like if i am not playing a show ...then i am working...or hanging in main strasse....let me tell you right now...there is a world of other things to do besides sit in covington and drink drink drink....you can drink drink drink anywhere else....last night it was Baba Budans to see the dukes play with hopeless jack and the handsome devil. and the harlequins. great time...cheap beer...cheap espresso vodka.... and real rock n roll..... Clifton sometimes i miss you dearly...i wish i could live there and cope with the fact that i am out of touch with today's youth and just be okay with that. seems like a natural progression that you leave Clifton before you are 27 and settle in other parts of the area. i chose the southern shore. and that's made all the difference....(kinda a play on the Robert frost poem if you will)......but oh Clifton.....how inspiring you once were.for a poorly cultured and homogenized suburban kid...you might have just saved me....as soon as one of us could drive....we were in Clifton.....of course don't tell the parents...after all...we were from mason..... ive really been listening to the black diamond heavies and volcano suns alot lately....the more and more i listen to the heavies i realize just what an amazing drummer van campbell is....and more importantly how string they are for a two piece band. sometimes it does dive into more of the bluesy bluesy stuff.....but when they are rocking........they are rocking...listening to numbers 22 driving around windows down..in east covington....haha. vocano suns on the other hand is amazing to me. if not for anything else....that career in rock (1991 or so) was....a was recorded in 91 and sounds a shellac album (almost) from three years back......of course bob weston plays bass on this album....which is the only reason i would have even got into them in the first place.....its seems like in most cases....im pretty happy with pandora...but i hace one complaint.....too much death cab for cutie on the promise ring channel. i mean...photo album is a great album but its just enough for me....seemed to me the photo album was there best album....and coincidentally......number three. think about when out cames the wolves came out......their best as far as....im in a bar and people know time bomb and its a badass song...i cant describe enough how timeless out come the wolves will be for me. then.....hot water musics third album...might have been their best. lets not forget jawbreaker......24 hour revenge theory......third album........steve albini.......and the biggest of all is green day with their third release known as dookie. so there is just too much death cab on the promise ring channel. other than that im good.

subway. eat fresh. this place has completely gone to shit. im sorry....but your footlongs shouldnt cost five dollars....be now in order to afford that to us...you have to make them shittier and cheaper. only get italian bread. effin cucumbers and onion are sliced so thin that you dont taste them you are just reminded of what it was like to have them...they just skimp now....its shitty.....but i will still got there. i made the huge mistake of eating white castles the other night.....and i was sober. just thought id pop in there get some chicken rings...and a couple bacon sliders. went to bed....and woke up hungover. white castles made me hung over. and i was being reminded of them all morning while driving around in a hot car with one window down. listening to 700. that shit is gross man. it had been a long long time since i had whities. cant do it man. id rather eat mcdonalds....because in the end..they are the best....they have to be because there are food nazis ou there that keep them in check....not the govt....but the idea that since they are the biggest....people are gonna talk as much shit about it as they can. sure....they got some shit....chicken nuggets. but things are changing there. smoothies...dude in most cases a smoothie. but seriously i defend mcdonalds its quite obvious that fast food is deadly when consumed at all costs. but dont blame them for feeding people and making them fat. sorry....but i dont want mcdonalds to fucking count my calories...im pretty sure i can do that myself. lemme refresh. yes i know how bad it is for you. its a treat....so treat yourself to mcdonalds....youre gonna love it.

let me say i was in no way paid to write that by anybody. 

sebadoh coming to town. that should be pretty damn awesome. an epic..know all the words band. 
i am really looking forward to that. dudes.....the feywill music fest...was awesome. seriously we had a alt...indie bourbon street for a night. i mean..the begining at least....this could really do alot for the area...and local music. there are so many musically retarded people down here....they need to hear something other than a cover band at the you know where....and thats where we played friday. this show was in some respects was one of those shows where there were alot of people out to see us play...mostly the regulars...(they are slowly getting bigger)..but here was the regulars at the bar and then the people from cincinnati who were there to see bands...the people from cincinnati are easy to point out sometimes...mostly the northsiders... i cant blame them..they got everything we got. why leave? why ride your bike drunk...... right? ha ha sike northsiders....you all are cool. and you might be right. the bars i hang out at in cincinnati seem alot tamer. its weird. maybe im not seeing all the people who come in and out of the bars i just visit. northside tavern....didnt see a ripped hammered dude in there. i dunno. that place is really cool. i cant lie...i like it there and i would actually hang out there alot if i lived close. enough said...but tamer yes. and cmon...they want it that way....i have seen the deepest levels of  drunkeness down here...and ive been on those levels. its nice to relax in cincinnati now. made me miss clifton. feywill music fest. best fest this summer.

im saying yes to spotify. its pretty rad to have while you are just surfing the web and what not. the skatellites are a bad ass band. ha....funny man...ska....when it was good it was freaking awesome...mostly the english bands with Jamaicans in their band....sadly.....ska is like rockabilly...like bluegrass....and like nickel back.....you cant go far out of the style......so it all ends up sounding the same. alot of the hellcat records releases where bad ass two tone ska....hepcat....the slackers..to name a few. i wanna say i was 17 or 18 when it was all getting real big. then of course it died just as fast. oh well....there will always be metroschifter. perhaps the band to me in full force represents what the Louisville sound is. i will never get tired of  their shit. everything is just the same to me as when i first got into them...and i mean....fort saint.......capsule.....4....were all i listened to for a while....me and old scooby boone were both working for my dad as telemarketers....after  work....a doobie.....and some metroschifter....ft saint mostly. but always reverse stick on 4. either way....both awesome albums....the three song split with shipping news is pretty awesome. reminds me a little like nirvana for some reason. never the less....three awesome songs...then carbonistas.. came out..... i dont know if it was the wait....or the fact there was new material. whatever. its so badass.....its all fucked up in dixie and murder are just simple genius...and im laughing while i write this....because i know how people are.....and of course people are like....dude..there are so many better bands than metroschifter....well yeah dude...i dont care if you dont think so. i can argue for them...and it will make a great debate. more than anything metroschifter represents with me and a couple louisville friends what it felt like to live in a city and have a local band so awesome. you know how music recalls memories so well....as my own musical endeavors get older..and i listen to everything i recorded i can remember where i was and how things were going...the way i felt about things at the time.....and you know....feelings. but its cool to have that. i think ive never really looked at my self as someone who is an artist. i know i write and create shit. but...lets be honest here. i what else would i do? i would be lame. at this point i know....i mean we all know. this isnt ever gonna be something that i do fulltime. but living up here ive done it more than i was doing in louisville. anyways music is just more important to me than alot of people even care care that much.....if that makes sense...i mean people listen to music..they listen to mojo or to kiss or b105 whatever...thats completely cool. that tends to the the depth of your musical interests...mine on the other hand.....goes deeper. alot. on the other hand..you might collect snow globes..and know alot about em.....and i dont wanna hear about them. sounds boring. so i see youre side of it to non music listeners....you dont wanna hear some shit about this band outta san bruno who dress up in masks and intentionally record on a four track and have their own garage label that pretty much is over fucking sensitive about the diy punk mentality. sometimes it can be uncomfortable. oh well. we move on and just talk about the new movies out.....i watch alot alot of movies.......i mean...alot...i lik movies for this reason....if its in theater chances are its really good. mainstream or not...sure avatar was douhcey...but you watched it because it was such a hit.  people tend to connect more together through movies...at least in bar banter for that matter. sometimes i get around some people who know and like for the most part all of the bands i like...i love to talk about that music.

im about out of shit to write about right now. i havent been paying attention to this blog as much as i would like to. the podcasts arent happening as much. ive been in a funk. and sleeping way to much. my job is good. i  make alot of money. but the schedule...and the life is really just wearing me down. lemme explain. i can make a 100 tonight cash...and spend it all tonight..and know im gonna go in a make it again. so you have this constant flow of cash...as well as a weekly check...and well i tend to just blow it i would say for the most part. im getting really tired of that. im actually getting really tired of hanging out in the bars all the time...i mean..im like....three to four times a week somewhere on main. i would like to go somewhere for a weekend and just sit....i mean like camping or something. just get out for a weekend..swim in a lake. grill out. and rest from all this madness. if you arent careful this village will eat you up. for the most part. everyone that is a local down here...like lives in the village lets say.......most of them are in the service industry. cash in hand at the end of the night....sleep till three.....off at midnite....boom....head to the bar. i cant imagine living anywhere else though. i try because sometimes i wish i did. downsides....everyone knowing everyone down here and all their bullshit. but everyone down here says that. the thing is. i never leave this place. i need some peace. college football is starting back up. i am excited. go cards....roll tide....go blue.....yeah...go bearcats.......hmm lemme see....i like nebraska in the big ten. that might be dangerous.


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