meetings with remarkable men

I have renewed faith in the coffeehouse experience. The last two nights when I’ve stolen an hour from the on-call stuff, once each at D’s and at Kéan, have been fruitful. Last night I talked to an artist about his art, how to survive financially, meditative practice, the difficulty of explaining things, and a lot of other topics. We both learned a lot. Tonight, I shot the shit with an airline pilot about travel, cities and their virtues, the madness of money, aviation, and the local criminals. We were joined by another friend of his who did some kind of airport work and I mostly listened as they discussed money, sex, and cars.

I learned a lot and met some interesting people. Yay coffee houses.

Wild and Wooly Semiautomatic Truck Bomb

I went to Kéan today to get more coffee beans. They have the La Lucie, meaning the real La Lucie the way it used to be. Recommend you pick some up if you’re local and like that dark roast Zimbabwean thing.

Neurofeedback today. Brainwaves are getting better (higher beta, lower theta, less gap between).

I thought for two hours that I had lost my “check card” VISA. I hadn’t. It was caught in a snag in a jacket pocket, having fallen out of my wallet.

I read most of the rest of Hardcore Zen today. It’s a damned good book. Thanks, hweimei for the recommendation!

At the angle I can see her, my sleeping cat currently looks like a fuzzy spheroid without features.

Life in These Here Now United States: My First Night in Kansas City

In 1997 I got a contract job working for Sprint in Kansas City. I’d never done out of town contracting, but this was attractive: good money for work I find easy, in an inexpensive town. I set off for a cross-country drive on Interstate 40 at a leisurely pace, stopping for the night in Flagstaff and again in Tucumcari, NM. After a long day of 80 mph in the rain and mud and cowshit up Highway 54, I arrived in the late evening at my destination.

I’d plotted out an inexpensive motel on the north side of town for the night, since I was moving into an apartment the next day. Of course I got lost. Since KC is surrounded by a ring road I went around the city a couple of times, got off on the south side instead of the north, wandered various neighborhoods, got back on the ring road, and finally stopped for gas and directions late at night in a North Kansas City service station.

The night guy at the gas station was probably no more than 25, but was missing several teeth and had a worn look to him. His skin was at once greasy and dry, and he sat like potatoes in a huge black sweatshirt. He had two knives on his belt and stank of cigarettes. He was delighted to meet me, especially when he found out I was from California. After giving me (accurate) directions to the motel, he explained himself.

“I really want to get out to California. I’m about half saved and then I’m gonna go west.”

“What’re you going to do there?”

“I’m a biker. I got to get into one of those biker gangs out West, the Angels. You know the Angels.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“It’s my dream, man. I want to ride with those guys. And I really like the violence. I want to fight, you know, I wanna stomp someone.” He smiled at me with the innocent toothless mouth of an infant.

“Damn. That’s, uh, kinda hardcore.”

“Damn right. I’m Italian, I got Mafia in my blood. I want to get in it. You know, out West it’s for real, those guys. I gotta get there and prove myself.”

“You know,” I said, “California is a lot more expensive than here unless you’re in the middle of nowhere.”

He pointed to his eyes. “I know, and I’m ready. I can take care of myself. I can do a job here and there, you know. I’ll always survive. I just got to get where the action is.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to the guy. “Well, take care of yourself, man. I hope you do okay.”

He flashed that wonderful grin again. “Hey, no worry! I’m headed there and I’m gonna kick some fuckin’ ASS!”

He shook my hand, welcomed me to Kansas City, and sent me cheerfully on my way. Nicest wannabee murderer I ever met.

a darkling plain where dudes are being totally uncool to each other

I think it’s time to get my dietary stuff back in line right now. I had no breakfast, no lunch, and two dinners today. Mind you they were good dinners and a right amount of food but this isn’t going to work.

Saw Stuart play and some friends tonight. Everyone was cool but for some reason I felt totally socially awkward, like I wasn’t wearing pants. Weird. I think it was just me, though.

Then salome_st_john put up the bat signal that she was about to murder her room mate for reals so I galumphed over there and we went to Kappo Honda (dinner #2). I have to say that lotus root tempura and pumpkin croquette are two of Japanese civilization’s great contributions to the world.

I love this rain.

bang bang, i’ve got mine

One of my favorite states of being is the sweaty, slightly congested, and fully satisfied glow after eating a good curry. That’s the state I inhabit now after making a pot of chicken curry and eating a couple of servings of it over basmati rice. The rice cooker makes perfect basmati if I press the “quick cooking” button.

Today I was driving through the Edge of Civilization portion of South County (Foothill Ranch, Portola) which is a set of brand new shiny suburbs and malls. At one point I looked at the car next to me at a stoplight. It was a brand new Mercedes sedan, with one male occupant in his forties. He had perfect hair. He was smoking a cigar, which being a nerd I recognized as a Hoyo de Monterrey Prensado Oscuro. And his car stereo was blaring… …an evangelical sermon. Acres of Diamonds, people, Acres of Diamonds.

I saw a blue Mustang with the plate: MEMERY too.

I had two dinners today

Pasta e fagioli and a romaine salad with blue cheese and walnuts. Then out into the brisk evening (read: too cold for me) to see if friends were about. joyfulagitator was about to kill us all but fortunately others showed and I assume they went off to have Actual Fun. salome_st_john popped up outa nowhere and we went to Kappo Honda and grazed a bit. They’re really good at this pumpkin croquette thing they do. You know. The thing. With a pumpkin croquette.

I got wrong number email today thanking me for linking to http://www.owies.com/ which when you’ll see it I think you’ll agree has some of the worst crafts material ever created. Holy crap that Noah’s Ark thing.

There were a couple of very 1998 looking industrial goth guys at the Harbor/Gisler Chevron station tonight filling up their shitty old pickup. They both had gigantic bottlebrush hair extensions in a ghastly maroon shade, those high boots with lots of buckles, those stripey socks, white faces with lots of eye makeup, the Gothy Man-Skirt. They were seriously mansoning my marilyn. Other stereotypes at the gas station included the Vietnamese girl with the blond-streaked hair and the Scion Tc and the chainsmoking Persian cab driver who was going to blow us all up.

Everyone wants to touch my robot.

Cold bare ruined choirs where once the HONK HONK HONK HONK

Kerry Getz played D’s again tonight. She’s too good for this circuit. This isn’t the best-shot photo in the world but it captures her personality pretty well. She asked me right after that if I was one of the “infamous bloggers” and I didn’t really know what to say.

I let someone check his email with my Powerbook and have a friend for life, I think, because he got one email with a big new job for him to do and one back from the girl he likes.

Talked to Rachel and her friend.. Candy? They’re both college freshmen and full of excitement! which is great to hear.

Managed to avoid being murdalized by drunks or running over any of them as they skittered across 17th St. from the IHOP parking lot to Pierce Street Annex, Bar of the Damned.

Currently I am still in a cooking frenzy. I am simultaneously roasting a corned beast and making fish soup with a crapload of saffron in it.

set sail for pegboy island!

Had a nice dinner tonight with salome_st_john who is my future ex-girlfriend although she doesn’t know it. Ate throbbing meat. Was able to present her with a panda-related gift, which was nice. Yes, eyeteeth, she greeted me hopping and waving her hand as instructed!

I went to D’s for a bit and it felt like the fucking Arctic. I know it was only 52F with a mild wind but I wanted to die. So I went to Tower Records. I’d like to confirm for all of you that the music industry is dead. There was nothing new there that anyone would want to buy. The clerks were playing some generic numetal/emo shit that they obviously liked not much more than I did. Nothing there was worth the $18.99 they charge for CDs. It’s kind of sad. This whole industry is dead but still ambulatory.

The Lido Diner’s hearts of romaine salad is awesome.

A friend of mine is getting married this summer and I got a pre-invitation in the mail which was a fridge magnet. Ever get the feeling that the world is accelerating very, very fast?

Long story short it’s supposed to STAY in third gear unless you shift

My car is down for the count, needs a new transmission. Won’t have it back until next Thursday. Thank goodness that Freddy at Tustin Acura is giving me a loaner car, and that this is all under warranty and won’t cost me more than $50. I wonder what a transmission replacement at the dealer would cost otherwise? Shudder.

Thank you for being a cool guy, Freddy at Tustin Acura.

Ten things I do when I’m alone

1. Belch a lot
2. Talk to myself and the cat interchangeably
3. Listen to incredibly cheesy guilty pleasure music on repeat
4. Eat macaroni & cheese
5. Drink a whole bottle of wine and mumble to myself
6. Chase the cat around the house
7. Invent new recipes in the kitchen and often flush them down the sink
8. Spiral into inexplicable depression and self-hatred for hours
9. Feel an even more inexplicable nostalgia for Kansas City
10. Write and then erase what I wrote

Yours? Horked from klikitak