…I present to you, The Green Giant’s epic “Thor Rolls A Joint”.

I really should sleep more than I do, but I’m not really able to stop these days. Stop what? Just…stop. I may take a day or two off next week from whatever it is that I do, or try, anyway. I can tell you right now that I’ll still end up being awake for too long and not at the right time.

Lots going on around me. Plenty of it not good, but very little of it maliciously so. Overwhelmed, but also kind of OK, and of the mind that This Is Where I’m Supposed To Be. Still wondering where my 72 virgins are (or, hell, one old lady to watch TV with), but I think I know where she isn’t and that’s more than some folks can say, myself usually included.

My album’s coming along slowly but steadily. It’s really shaping up to be more like a demo in my mind, or at least a “get these songs the hell out in front of some people” recording, despite my guitar player’s insistence that what we’ve come up with so far sounds better than a lot of finished product does. That doesn’t bother me at all for some reason. I’ve been a perfectionist for most of my life, and it’s gotten in the way of me accomplishing so much. I come down on myself for not doing things well enough sometimes, but then I see what the rest of the world’s doing, and in some cases, they’re making people very happy by doing things that, to sound immodest for a moment, I could shit out on my lunch break if I wanted to just make music that people would like. What I do musically has become way less about achieving technical genius or becoming immensely popular/successful/rich and more about telling my story, anyway. People tell me it’s a pretty good story so far, so I think I can be proud of doing that. I don’t know if that sounds like me being defeatist or settling or whatnot, but I’m pretty Zen with it.

Plenty I’d like to write about on this and my other sites soon, and I’m getting to it. I’ve got a piece that may show up either here or at antimatteruniverse., if it doesn’t materialize elsewhere. On this note, I hate it when the people who expect you to be reliable are considerably less so than you are and then act like you’re the amateur who doesn’t have their shit together. For all of you who are always like “You should write for a real web site/magazine/etc.!”, after I’m done cutting you into little pieces with a Garden Weasel for being such rude assholes, stick around and I’ll tell you some stories about my dealings with various publications as a freelancer. I barely do it, so my horror stories are nickel-and-dime compared to some of the veterans, but I have a really low bullshit tolerance when it comes to things that I pour my blood and guts into being underappreciated by people who only stand to benefit from my contributions.

That was the second paragraph in a row where I alluded to taking some pride in my work, and acknowledged that I’m not so bad at the things I do. You wanna make something of it? I didn’t think so, motherfucker. Really, I can’t win. I shit on myself and people tell me not to. I say “I rule” and people get out the pins and make the comments about the inflated head. Sorry, folks, but I have too many moral, ethical and medical reasons not to take whatever it is that keeps you all living The Great Blandness. Besides, there was a time before the mid-90’s and a nauseatingly hipsterish revival when there was nothing wrong with a little Swing.

To get back to my writing and away from my ranting, here’s another piece I want to write about the love/hate relationship I have with my iPod Shuffle, and hopefully I’ll get to that soon. I mostly want to write that because I want to see how many Shuffle owners understand what I endure with the little bastard, and feel the same way I do about said endurance of its limitations. It’s sort of a “Hey, do you remember back when we had to deal with this obstacle this way? That was awesome!” piece, but set in the present day. Soon, I hope.

That’s all for now. Take care, and at some point today, after you do something you’re not so bad at, do something nice for yourself. You earned it, even if I did call you a motherfucker two paragraphs ago.

Slayer.

:D

…what with the buzz on Vox gaining volume.

I don’t think Vox is the MySpace killer we’ve all been hoping for, but it’ll help some.

(Kelly, I have yours stashed aside.)

Best serious offer (sex, cash via PayPal, Atari 2600 Subterranea, Atari Jaguar Defender 2000, Firestorm Vol. 1 #2, etc.) gets it.

See what all the fuss is about.

Sorry it took me a while to make the announcement, but, well, Queens blew up. Our winner, who will receive a copy of “Mourning Sun” by Fields Of The Nephilim courtesy of SPV USA, is Richaarde, who, when asked for a new name for Auschwitz concentration camp, responded with “Let’s name it a symbol, and refer to it as “Concentration Camp formerly known as Auschwitz.”" Good job!

We appear to have power at my house. Perhaps not for long, as I’ve heard of people regaining it and losing it, but right now, we’re good to go.

In other news, Extended Stay America in Whitestone is beyond awesome.

I’m going to head down to 31st and Ditmars to hit on some news reporters while they’re still here. Just figured I’d let teh internets know that…

WE’VE GOT BUSH!

As some of you may have heard about, seen, or read in the news, my new neighborhood of Astoria, Queens has been without power since early last week, and there are still no clear answers as to how it happened, why it hasn’t been fixed yet, or when it will be fixed. After days of being invisible, Con Ed CEO Kevin Burke has surfaced, but the news hasn’t gotten any better or any clearer.

Here’s what I, having spent time in the neighborhood during this event, can report to you all.

• Our neighbors, nosy though they may be at times, are really good people.
• A lot of the businesses on Ditmars Blvd., some of which have been there for ages, are in some serious trouble. If you live in an affected area of Queens, support the hell out of the mom-and-pops well after this is over with, because they’re going to need all the help they can get even if they do have insurance and do win lawsuits. Those sorts of claims take a while to go through, and these folks need your help now.

• The Con Ed guys on the street have one of the worst jobs in the world right now. They’re busting their asses in dangerous conditions trying to fix the fuckups of some idiot who’ll never be held accountable, amid the protests of all the locals. Basically, they’re like our armed forces, only in Queens instead of the countries we’ve sent our armed forces to.

• Second to them in the “Thankless Job From Hell” department goes to the NYPD who are assigned to Astoria at the moment. Jack Webb’s “What Is A Cop?” speech always comes to mind at times like these, because they’re the first people we call when the shit hits the fan, and the last people we want to see otherwise. They’re on just about every street corner in western Queens right now, out in the rain, and they’re visibly exhausted. Plus, like the Con Ed folks I just mentioned, I’m sure that more than a few of them get off their shifts and head home to houses that are just as powerless as ours. Even if I find myself getting cranky toward them or vice-versa, my hat goes off to the police in our area.

• The Red Cross have been in our neighborhood since about Thursday, which is cool, because our neighbors are the kind of people who probably donated money to them hand over fist when 9/11 and Katrina happened, only to have that money get wrapped up in all kinds of red tape like it usually does. Lousy that this situation’s happening in the first place, but nice to see that they’re on the scene and taking care of the people who keep their bank accounts and blood banks fat.

• There hasn’t been a single member of FEMA anywhere near Astoria that I’ve seen yet. If they’re around, they’re not advertising. Smart move on their part, because they’d probably be the first ones to get strung up on the corner of Steinway and Ditmars.

And, because I’m sure some of you are curious, here’s a list of things in our general vicinity that do or don’t have power:

Power:

• Commerce Bank on the corner of 31st St. and Ditmars Blvd. is open and fully powered, with no visible signs or sounds of a generator anywhere.

• Eckerd Drugs on the corner of 31st and Ditmars has some power, but don’t try to get a pre-paid phone card or any other gift card that needs to be activated. Those machines are down, not that the incredible helpful employees of Eckerd had bothered to put up a sign telling anyone this as of Friday. They’re too busy critiquing the card-swiping techniques of their customers.

• All parking meters on Ditmars Blvd. are fully functional and collecting parking fees.

• The billboard for the new season of “The Simple Life” at around Astoria Blvd. and 43rd St. is fully illuminated.

• LaGuardia Airport appears to be at full power or close to it. According to most accounts, the feeder cables that got fried, resulting in this blackout, were fried trying to keep the airport at full power.

• And finally, tretching the point a little, but not too much, Shea Stadium’s lights (about 3 miles from Astoria) were still at full power, hours after the Mets game had ended today. I spotted this tonight, as we were driving back to the hotel where we and a lot of other Astorians are staying at the moment. There’s absolutely no reason for them to have those lights on any longer than is absolutely necessary, and it’s kind of a slap in the face to the neighborhood (a lot of whom are Mets fans) to drive by and see them being so careless with energy that we’d kill for.

No power:

• I’d estimate that 90% or higher of all residences between 31st St. and 80th St., from Astoria Blvd. North to at least Ditmars Blvd. are without power. I haven’t been north of Ditmars yet, so I have no idea how those blocks are affected.

• Nearly all of the businesses on Ditmars Blvd. between 31st and Steinway St. have no power unless they’ve brought in generator power as Trade Fair supermarket did. (Thank fucking Christ for that. The place smells bad enough without spoiling food in it…) Shockingly, this even includes our local Starbucks. You may all begin crying tears for the Frappucinos that are left unpoured. I am not sure if Freezepeach, our nearest Internet cafe, is affected or not. They’re on 29th and Ditmars, so they may have dodged a bullet. Hopefully, they’re not, because they’re independently-run, a potential lifeline to a lot of our neighbors, and they do a lot for the community even when we’re not without power.

• Most of the traffic lights in the area described in this report are out or not functioning, prompting police to direct traffic at about 80% of the intersections in the area, more than likely getting overtime while they do it. I don’t begrudge them that as I said above, as it sucks standing around in the rain dealing with angry NYC drivers, but it never should’ve come to that in the first place, and that’s going to be an expensive bill to pay when it comes time to.

There’s a lot more to report on those fronts, both with or without power, but it’s late and I’m going on memory here. That should give you the basic idea of where the priorities of this city are, though.

I don’t know if I’ll give y’all Astoria updates on an ongoing basis, but I wanted to at least provide a snapshot of what things have been like this week. Wish us all luck, and if you’re in Astoria, get in touch, if you need anything or even if you don’t.

When did we move to a Third World country?

As of 10 this morning, we have been without power for about 13 1/2 hours. We are in Manhattan at the moment, where there is power (and the Veselka, where I’m posting this), but we will be heading back to Queens soon to deal with bullshit. Long day ahead. Wish us luck. Will maintain near-radio silence until we get power back.

Being awake at 7:51 AM the next morning, after a day when you barely got any sleep to begin with, listening to a rough mix of a cover song, not even one of your own songs, that you spent several hours on, and knowing it’s not 100% where you need it to be, but that it’s getting there, and being happy with that.