It feels like a while, even if it wasn't, really - I hopped on a plane on Friday the 15th at 10 PM Pacific time, and returned on another plane just last night at about the same hour, so what's that, a little over a week? Not so long.

But I was without any sort of internet access at all, and what window I did have on the outside world pretty much centered on last week's Red Sox/Yankees series, and holy cow, wasn't that something. Thanks for all the congratulatory emails I got once the Sox won, not that I had anything to do with the outcome - all I did was sit in a room with many members of my family who actually live in New England and flip out as we watched games 4-7 for five thousand straight days, or however long it actually was that the ALCS lasted.

And now, the Sox are up 2-0 in the World Series.

I've been a Sox fan my whole life, so I know better than to get too excited yet. This was the team that was within one strike of winning the Series in 1986.

And as I mentioned last week, all I really wanted was to beat the Yankees.

So.

OK, I really want the World Series, too. I sure hope they get it done. I'd prefer it in four straight wins, too. These seven-game series are too exhausting, though I'm glad to be back on Pacific time, where even the extra-innings games end at a reasonable hour.

Did you see Stephen King in the Fenway crowd on TV? He's writing a book on this year's Sox team. Can't wait to read it.

So. Back. Had a nice vacation in the West Virginia mountains with the family. My cousin's two young boys, ages 5 and 10, were there - felt the tugging of the idea of "Dad-dom" in response to hanging out with them. Apparently, some in my family had the idea that I'm not interested in having children; they didn't hear that one from me. I think I could do the Dad thing. Maybe it'll happen one of these days.

What heightens these feelings in men, since we don't have the "biological clock" issue? Is it just getting older? I'm hitting somewhat of a milestone birthday in a month, 35. Is it being truly aware of one's impending mortality? I know for a fact that this is a new fascination weighing on me, that prior to say, two years ago, I never dwelled upon. Getting really, really ill twice this year with no medical insurance brought the point home more forcefully to me than it ever had, and I suspect I'm changed as a result. I don't know yet how it will affect me in coming weeks, months, years.

Still waiting for that first paycheck for the newish job. Sure can't wait to see it, I can finally set some musical things back in motion when it comes. Pete and Lizzy and I are champing at the bit to play together again. It's gonna be good when we do.

As it should be. As much as I hate and yes, fear the Yankees, I don't want the Red Sox to go to the World Series without beating them. A columnist that I came upon today said that in his view, Red Sox fans wouldn't really mind that much if they lost the World Series, as long as they had beaten the Yankees to get there. And as insane as that sounds, it's true. I'll be on vacation in the mountains next week with family when the ALCS is likely to be decided - at least if the goddamned Yankees find yet another way to win this year, I'll be in good company should I need consoling.

Yesterday I went with my roomies to Game #2 of the WNBA Finals, since our hometown Seattle Storm is right in the thick of it. The series is best 2 of 3, and the Storm lost Game 1 in Connecticut, so it was a must-win. For the first time ever, the Storm sold out Key Arena, and treated us to a fantasticly exciting victory, white-knuckler that it was. I had as much fun watching the women of the WNBA as I've ever had watching the NBA. After the game, we got right in line again for tickets to watch tomorrow night's deciding Game 3, as did many others. Tickets were $15. Try getting into an NBA Finals game for that much. And I'll bet we'll see a better game for our money. Those girls get out there and go for it. And Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson sure are purty (see above).

I saw a sneak preview of the new movie from the South Park creators, Team America: World Police this weekend. Verdict: pretty darned entertaining. Not the home run that the South Park Movie was (that film holds the distinction of having made me laugh hard enough to fear for my own life), but still a good time out. I was hoping for the same sort of non-stop jokey-joke pace that SP: B,L, & UC had, and I didn't get that. What you mostly get is an incredibly sly parody of big-budget jingoistic Bruckheimer action pictures, with some funny songs, and some great sight-gags, all acted by marionettes. The puppet work is exceptional, and sometimes startling, but I think the reason I'm a little lukewarm about the movie is... the puppets. Maybe I'm just a Muppet guy, or something, but after a while I kinda felt tired of them - and in closely parodying the action movie conventions, the movie almost gets too good at it, and forgets that it should be making us laugh more often.

However, there are some truly inspired moments, such as the "America! FUCK YEAH!" theme song, the "puppet sex scene" (truly filthy) and a gross-out gag that... well, I'm going to leave that one alone.

Overall, a fun time at the movies. I have to admire the artistry and the sheer nerve it took to make a movie like this, even as I felt a little let down by it.

Also this weekend, I finished reading the last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. If you're a King fan, and haven't read the Dark Tower books, you aren't really a King fan. And if you aren't a King fan, reading these stories might finally win you over.

The last book, The Dark Tower, is the longest in the series. I can't decide if it's a sad book, or I was just sad as I read it. Because it's the end of the line for us as readers, and also for Roland and his ka-tet. It's hard to fathom that there aren't any more stories about them to follow.

King started the original book of the series, The Gunslinger back in 1970, and it took him until this year to finally publish the conclusion. Back in 1999, when he had his near-fatal rendevous with a blue van on a deserted road in Maine, he had finished only four of the promised seven volumes, and many of us who were enthralled with the saga back then sighed with relief when King pulled through (which sounds shockingly selfish of us DT fans, but it's the truth).

And it was that near-miss that inspired King to get down to business two years later and crank out the last three volumes. And now, they're out there. If you want to, you can find out what happens at the end of the journey. You can find out if Roland makes it to the Tower.

Just don't expect to be ecstatic when you're done. It's a sad book.

There's an epilogue at the end of the story, that before going into it, King addresses the reader and says that a good stopping point has been reached - going any farther might be a disappointment. I read on, of course I did. I can't say as I was disappointed, but I will say that I'm glad that I had read the revised edition of the first book before I re-read all the other volumes, because there things in the first few pages of THAT volume that make dealing with what happens in the last few pages of book 7 a little easier.

Great stuff. But I'm sad that it's over.

Be Careful: the video is not precisely work-safe; might want to wait until you get home to see it (Hat tip to Kevin).

SIGH.

As I type this, they are up 8-1 in the 4th in game 1 vs. the Angels.

SIGH.

Go, Minnesota!

Craig is now living in Los Angeles, and appears often at Improv Olympic West, so LA peeps, take note, and go catch him. He came to LA after doing about as much as can be done in the Chicago Improv Scene, having appeared on the Second City Main Stage.

Craig and I have known each other since we were about 7 years old. He and our buddy Tobe Ramsey (whom you know about if you've heard "You Fell" from Any Raw Flesh? or the Funhouse album we did together) were two of the greatest creative catalysts I ever had in my life. I spent as much time with them as I possibly could (which was difficult because they were bussed in from a neighborhood far from where I lived when we attended elementary school together), and they both had a seemingly inexhaustible supply of imagination and invention.

In celebration of Craig's birthday, I'm posting an MP3 of the very first song I ever co-wrote and recorded, which features Craig on lead vocals (he wrote all the words). The song was done in Tobe's living room one Sunday afternoon, about a week into our senior year of high school, probably September of 1986. Tobe and Craig had done a whole album of funny little songs prior to this called Dance Music For Italian Rabbis, and I'm pretty sure those songs are what made me want to play the guitar. At the time of this recording, I had been playing guitar for about one year. That summer I had worked at Wendy's, and I spent my first paycheck on an Aria Pro II Straycat electric guitar, and the second paycheck on a 12-watt Marshall amp. Both of these lived in the trunk of my silver Chevy Malibu, because I didn't want my Dad to know I had them. I'd sneak them into the house and practice with them as much as I could manage. I was RABID to make a song with Craig and Tobe, and after I came up with the main riff to this one, I finally got my chance. Tobe programmed his drum machine, and laid down a bed synth track on one pass, then we recorded vocals, guitar, and the "lead" synth on pass #2.

When it was done, I thought it was the most amazing thing I had ever heard. Hearing myself playing guitar on tape and having it sound like a "song" blew my mind completely. If you like the music I've done at all, you have this song to thank for me doing it. Recording "It Makes Me Barf" with my best friends gave me the bug, and I haven't lost it yet.

Oh, and as for the "middle class tax cuts"? Yeah, I've paid less in
taxes in the past four years. About $1,000 - $1,500 less (roughly...I
ain't whippin' out my 1040 for a damned newsgroup). But look at the
bigger picture (I know it's hard, but bear with me): In the ensuing
years after the Clinton regime, the dollar has gone to an all-time low
against the Euro, even WITH major member states in the EU breaking
their own 3% defecit rule and rampant unemployment in Germany, a major
exporter. So, if you're getting $1,500 a year, but the imports you
buy (and what *isn't* imported nowadays?) are in fact more expensive
because your dollar is worth less, isn't it a wash...and in fact,
aren't you getting less for your dollar than you were when the tables
were turned and we were getting Euro 1.25 per dollar?

I couldn't watch the debate, and I don't know that I will watch the next ones. I might watch the Cheney/Edwards one. I don't hate President Bush, but he embarrasses me so strongly that I just can't bear to watch him talk. I can't believe this is going to be a close election. I don't understand how anyone could think that having that simpleton holding the highest office in the land is a "safer" option. I just don't get it.