TOTAL RECAP: I'm moved into my new apartment, which is located exactly where I described it in my last post. I didn't mention that it's also next to a performance square area, where boring live bands play as loud as they can every thursday night (cover bands, bands that have singers who really want to SING, etc.), and where teens hang out after dark and start fights, call each other "MOTHERFUCKER" and "PUSSY" and wear wife-beaters and giant shorts. The Old Farmer's Inn Bar is down the street, too. Do you like human garbage? Leathery faces? I look at that place and imagine what the inside might be like. It's gotta be like the back of the Bang Bang Bar, it just has to be.

But anyway, some things from the past month and a half, when I didn't have internet or cable for a while. I read a lot: comics, Brian Evenson's Baby Leg, Bryan Charles' book about Wowee Zowee, parts of Luc Sante's The Factory of Facts. I'm working my way through Don DeLillo's Americana. Holy shit, can he write. I picked up his Libra and Mao II, probably gonna start them next. I also started Bruce Eaton's book about Radio City, plus Christopher Hitchens' new book (speedy recovery!). I went to Charleston, South Carolina to meet up with my friend Melinda, and we took a car down to Florida. We saw vultures, helicopter bugs, a fully naked older gentleman by the side of the road near the beach. We swam with some fish in the waters off Key West, saw a woman with a confederate flag bikini top, saw chickens and roosters roaming free. I drank at the bar where Hemingway drank. There were two of them, actually, and one of them had old bras hanging from the ceiling. I sat on a stool with Arlo Guthrie's name on it. When we walked around Charleston, I decided I should live there.

Music-wise, I've been buying records left and right and listening to the same 3 or 4 things over and over. The Cap'n Jazz vinyl re-issue is cool for the songs, obviously, and also for Tim Kinsella's liner notes, which are...bleak? I can't tell. But they're worth a read. There's a Chain and The Gang 7" out now that's much better than the full-length, and the full-length isn't even bad. Looks like it's sold out at K (I just barely got a copy, it was a miracle), so check around. Got the Kinks Pye Set, which is on constant rotation. Favorite song right now is "Don't Ever Change". Or "Tired Of Waiting For You", or "Something Better Beginning". I'm stuck on Kinda Kinks, basically. Yesterday I put on my Hank Williams best-of set and put a public access fishing show on mute and it was pretty relaxing. I like "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" and "Jambalaya". Last month, I was driving down Park Ave, listening to the first Meat Puppets album, and I started almost crying. Long story, slipped back into a fog for a minute, but it's a funny picture. Some guy driving down the street on a beautiful day, blaring "Dolphin Field" or "Melons Rising", sniffling. I finally started listening to Smog, too.

Shit, I was planning on writing a lot more, and now I can't remember anything. And this is my last day of vacation so I want to be extra lazy, so fuck this. Go look at my tumblr if you haven't (just put up my 500th post, a picture of a ceramic Santa praying to a ceramic baby Jesus). More songs and funny videos (THIS!) and photos. Oh and some drawings I unearthed. I think I may have done them, but I can't remember. One is of my William "Fridge" Perry action figure. Be sure to watch Louis CK's show, too. The opening credits alone crack me up. I'm working on a podcast for geneva13, which should be done maybe in the next week (please do not hold your breath). Playlist is settled, I'll let you know. RIP Andy Hummel and Harvey Pekar.