Cafe Nine

Last night I went to Cafe Nine in New Haven. I saw Elison Jackson who put on a great show. They have changed in members since I have last seen them. Sam Perduta can still put a smile on your face.
I also saw Great Ceasar which is a kick ass six piece from Madison CT. I really dug their stuff and hope I can see them again soon.
The third band was Those Darlins. It is a four piece rock step from TN. They blew me away with their steady riffs and the lead singers eye balls. She would stare so hard and with such damnation that I thought my soul might fall out.

Watching Ghosts of Mars with Ice Cube.

It's teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrible!

Jack Cady

Was an American Novelist. I read one of his short stories today in the Best American Short Stories anthology of 1970. You should check him out.

Read dude. Educate yourself, no one else is going to do it for you.

yup

Howdy

good call

Get it done.

The Sirens of Titan

This book is great like the other Vonnegut novels that I have read. You should check it out.

I've also been checking out a health food book by Amy Cotler called The Locavore Way. Some of the distances that our food travels is astounding. There is a farm in my town that looks like Dracula's castle. I think I might check it out and see if I could get a few eggs.

Read.

Chappelle Show

I miss it. I was watching some Charlie Murphy's true hollywood stories tonight. I wish the show would start up again.

Now I am watching "To Catch a Predator." I used to watch it a lot when I lived on New Britain road in a three bedroom apartment by myself. That place was tiny and when you stood to use the bathroom the roof would make you bend backwards.

Still reading Factory Girl's. It makes me want to go try and teach English abroad.

Cabernet Sauvignon is a dry wine. Moscoto is sweet.

Now you know.

Factory Girls

Now I am reading a piece of non fiction about a correspond ant of the wall street journal who was living in Beijing and wrote about all the migrant workers who left the villages where they worked as farmers and came to work in the factories that produce so much of what you and I consume.

It is a brilliant book that follows certain workers lives and the author relates certain instances in her own life and her ancestors from China.

I work in Liquor store now and take empties from people.

How's your day goin?

Nostromo

I am reading a novel by Joseph Conrad called Nostromo. It is about an imagined latin america country where political rivals riot and men are very dramatic. It is long and very descriptive. The political explanations of some peoples characters are also very drawn out. I am excited to finish it.

Also, I am back at the Liquor depot working in can redemption. It is a place to learn humility and a place to gain stress.

Berlin is a quiet place and I am looking to leave it again soon.

Monkey Wrestling

I lived with this dog in Africa for a month. His name was Juju and here he is wrestling a monkey.

I finished Eating Animals. You should get a copy because the author Mr. Foer not only makes a great case for being a vegetarian, but he also shows how disgusting factory farming is in the United States and how deplorable the system is. The whole disgusting machine of our food industry is irresponsible and unsustainable.

Now I am reading The Sky and the Forest by C.S. Forester about a man named "Loa" who is a God to his people and brother to the sun. You should check it out. I bought my copy at a small book shop in Old Saybrook, CT.

He is joining me this weekend and we are taking a sojourn up to Maine to explore the state. I'll tell you all about it when I get back.

what's happening

Satan Sandwich? Satan fries? Nancy Pelosi is getting me hungry.

I'm reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. You should give it a look through if you are thinking about becoming a vegetarian and also if you want to know where the meat you eat comes from.

I just applied at Panera Bread and they had an interesting questionnaire at the end. One of those strongly agree/strongly disagree. I didn't really enjoy doing it. What does asking me if I am adventurous have to do with making people bread and soup?

Oh yeah and Maxtall! I was at the gym and they had a wonderful commercial on about gel inserts that you can place inside of your shoes to make you a few inches taller. Of course then you get the sexy girl at the park, close the business deal, and be able to look eye to eye with your boss. I am thinking about getting some for my friend Jason to make him six nine.

Back Home

So I am back home in Berlin. I spent three months in Western Africa and had a wonderful time traveling with some great people. Some of the people that I met where so gracious and kind that it was hard to leave them. It is a different way of life there, and many people here take a large amount of things for granted.

I hope you are all well. I am just finishing up an autobiography by Johnny Cash entitled "Man in Black." It is very preachy and I didn't know that Cash was such a religious man.

While I was gone I didn't read as much as I should have, but I made an effort. Sometimes when you think about how much time you have to kill on a bus you tell yourself you are going to read and write, but many things creep up on you and it gets difficult to focus. Fatigue and the uncertainty of your destination can cause extreme lethargy.

I hope all of you can get a chance to travel soon, and you should read as much as you can while you do. Now that I am home I am going to try to save up for my next trip, which I don't know the destination yet, and I am going to try to go back to school.

See you when I see you.
Read a book er 2.

mandingo

I just finished the book "Mandingo." It is about the world of slavery in the U.S. before the civil war. It was eye opening and grossed me out a few times.

It is drizzling today in Berlin, Connecticut.

I'm listening to Theophilus London. He is a rapper/artist that seems to be on the rise and is quite talented.

There is wanderlust in the air, and I know I will be traveling again soon.

Miss you all.

Read a book.

Mandingo

I am reading a book called Mandingo. It is about a slave breeding plantation that takes place before the civil war. Whenever I read older books my hands accidentally destroy them. I feel like I am killing it as I am reading it. I shift to much when I read I think.

My mother told me that when she read this book many people wanted it banned because of the explicit descriptions of sex and violence.

I smell like coffee.

So should you.

the rain

I really enjoy watching the rain from my window next to my computer. I don't know why people get depressed from the rain. I rather enjoy watching it.

I was watching Lost in Translation the other day and thinking about all the little undertones that are present in it. Like Bill Murray's character hating saddened by watching himself on Japanese television. Also watching the scene where they go to a karaoke made me think about the one time I went to one of those little rooms and you have private karaoke with your friends.

I enjoy public karaoke. Where the rest of the bar either loves you or hates you.

I want to hit the road again

Sitting around this suburb is driving me crazy. I am reading the Plague by Albert Camus. You should read it as well.

Messy Beast

Life can be uncertain and who really knows what will happen tomorrow. I am laying on a couch and I don't know what will happen tomorrow either.

James Tate

Last night I went to Real Art Ways in Hartford CT to see James Tate read his poetry. He is an older gentleman who walks with a cane and his poetry makes people laugh and then think. Hard. He is a professor at Umass Amherst. Here is one of his poems. My former teacher and friend C.S. Carrier read as well. I hope to read the next time they have a poetry reading there. I'll let you know. Read some James Tate Poetry.

James Tate - Restless Leg Syndrome

After the burial we returned to our units and assumed our poses. Our posture was the new posture and not the old sick posture. When we left our stations it was just to prove we could, not a serious departure or a search for yet another beginning. We were done with all that. We were settled in, as they say, though it might have been otherwise. What a story! After the burial we returned to our units and here is where I am experiencing that lag kicking syndrome thing. My leg, for no apparent reason, flies around the room kicking stuff, well, whatever is in its way, like a screen or a watering can. Those are just two examples and indeed I could give many more. I could construct a catalogue of the things it kicks, perhaps I will do that later. We'll just have to see if it's really wanted. Or I could do a little now and then return to listing later. It kicked the scrimshaw collection, yes it did. It kicked the ocelot, which was rude and uncalled for, and yes hurtful. It kicked the guacamole right out of its bowl, which made for a grubby and potentially dangerous workplace. I was out testing the new speed bump when it kicked the Viscountess, which she probably deserved, and I was happy, needless to say, to not be a witness. The kicking subsided for a while, nobody was keeping track of time at that time so it is impossible to fill out the forms accurately. Suffice it to say we remained at our units on constant alert. And then it kicked over the little cow town we had set up for punching and that sort of thing, a covered wagon filled with cover girls. But now it was kicked over and we had a moment of silence, but it was clear to me that many of our minions were getting tetchy and some of them were getting tetchier. And then it kicked a particularly treasured snuff box which, legend has it, once belonged to somebody named Bob Mackey, so we were understandably saddened and returned to our units rather weary. No one seemed to think I was in the least bit culpable. It was my leg, of course, that was doing the actual kicking, of that I am almost certain. At any rate, we decided to bury it. After the burial we returned to our units and assumed our poses. A little bit of time passed, not much, and then John's leg started acting suspicious. It looked like it wanted to kick the replica of the White House we keep on hand just for situations such as this. And then, sure enough, it did.

hey honey

Anita Thompson - on her husband Hunter S. Thompson's thoughts about freedom

"He spent his life studying freedom, promoting it, and finally writing about it. I believe a large portion of his formative years were spent researching what was necessary to attain freedom. And during that time he had to learn, perhaps the hard way, what to avoid-what is the antifreedom? I think he learned that fear is the antifreedom-because as we gain freedom, which is the opposite of security, we also reap fear. And fear can drive us away from freedom, in a hurry."


A nation governed by fear can never be truly free.

Read a book please.

CT

Maybe I should be a bus driver.

I've been trying to find some jobs in this blasted state. It is extremely difficult. I even tried to do Dunkin Doughnuts. The weird thing was that I applied online and then at the end of the application it told me to print it out and bring it to the store. Why the hell did I go online then? It was because those bastards don't want to pay for the paper applications! They want me to use my own paper!

Yet another reason why I hate Dunkin Doughnuts.

What are you reading?

I am reading a book called Thai Horse. It is about an ex mercenary trying to figure his life out after spending three years in a terrible South American prison. Now the main character is headed for Thailand to try to find an ex commando buddy.

Now I am watching real sports with Bryant Gumbel. There is so much snow on the ground that it looks like numerous forts all around Berlin. I can't see my car if it is parked on the street because the snow is blocking the view.

Joe bought me an MC Hammer cassette tape for fifty two cents today. I thank him for it, but I was surprised about how bad it was. The songs on the tape are very religious and some of the background singers makes you laugh like hell.

Hope to see you soon.

The Garfield Honor

Life is interesting lately. I've been reading a Frank Yerby Novel called the Garfield Honor. It is a romantic western novel about a man from the East trying to find himself on the Texas badlands. It is the third Frank Yerby novel I've read and I think I am going to try to read all thirty three that he wrote in his life.

Frank Yerby is a very interesting author. He was half African American and was the first African American to have a novel bought by a Hollywood studio to be turned into a movie. I really like that the movie when it was made starred Rex Harrison who was the original Dr. Dolittle.

I hope all of you are well. Try reading a book. It's good for you.

A New Life

I just finished the Book A New Life by Bernard Malamud. It is a good novel about a thirty year old ex drunkard from New York City who goes to a small technical school in Cascadia, Washington state and proceeds to start teaching English composition. It is a character study novel about a young man who tries to leave his past and start a new life. At times Malamud goes into extremely philosophical descriptions of the main characters surroundings and it can get a little boring, but it is a great read none the less.

Malamud is best known for his first novel The Natural which was made into a movie with Robert Redford.

I started reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. What are you reading?

Yes Sir

Listen to some Devendra Banhart. He will make you happy.

I got a few beers with Joe Delcegno tonight. He is a great man. I trust him and respect him like a brother.

"I would love to travel again and see you sitting there. Like something to wrap and then give to a stranger. Wait, but then again live as well."

It's cold here.