last weekend

Oi. Wahta weekend. the extremes of life. Friday and Sunday late were reserved for desperate military actions, all plumes and feathers and shined boots riding into combat, but blood and flesh and death strewn me off the field. The Worst of me. Entirely preventable - I needn't really give the orders - but i did.

Saturday nite and Sunday morning were better. Family and frenz. There was the party @ Jokers. Shocking drive way north almost to Wisconsin. Lots of married couples w. 2-6 year old kids and such. What did you expect? - the age. Just a blessed time. Especially important for me is that I'm really slipping off the radar screens of my frenz - it was nice to remember me by actually showing up.

And more- Snowden got married, and here he was telling me @ the peekneek. That's how far off I am - not only wasn't I invited - I had no clue what was going on!

Blessed frenz. Just chilling. And to juxtapose it with the firestorm of horror I created and faced the nite before. Good riddance.

And good food. But, since I was still worn out by battle the nite before, I ate nothing except to shut my stomachs yells of pain. No alcohol. Best site? Way high up, a hawk - not an accipiter, but a big huge one (obv. a female) was leisurely gliding west - well, not exactly leisurely fully, since a grackle was making repeated runs at its back and pecking at it, much like a fight was trying to shoot down a larger bomber in WW2 by trying to shot at it from behind.

Then there was Rockkies b-day party @ that crappy bar on Western. Again, good. Again, frenz, chill, these people are understanding and .... THEY LIKE ME and are not out to hurt me. In fact, they want to do just the opposite - they wanna just chill. SO, it was, again, a great time.

Blessed. Except for the war part.

On Lost

Watched it. Nothing mashing, but I wept. It was nothing more than a 'time to say goodbye' episode, 2 1/2h long, and I enjoyed saying my farewells. Badly dissapointing last say five years out of six or so - but it was time to say goodbye.

So I said goodbye. Funny not seeing it w/ Gf - we'd seen so many to-gether. Goodbyes, yes. Not a bad episode. What I reacted to mostly was the characters - they all, sorta, got back to-gether... sorta, I think.... and they were maybe all dead ... or maybe they were alive .... And it was great to see them all again. Where we could find them.

And/In the End/ there was Jack, by far my favourite character from the beginning, leading and doing good (just like I want to do) until well past ten P.M. Central time zone, until those that would survive could fly off, until the dog could reappear in the series again to lay by Jack so he wouldn't be alone (because it was the end), and we waited until Jack was ready. Right where we first found him, in the bamboo stalks.

Ah, we were all ready for it to end. I would have watched Lost for five more decades was that first season so great - but it was only on for the terminal period that ended Sunday. And, I was ready to say goodbye.

I now have absolutely zero TV shows that I watch (News, Sox, etc don't count).

This is The End

Again, soccer season is @ the end. This is the last week - practice to-morrow, two games Tuesday, and a possible friendly Friday. Love coaching - but it's a terrible grind. It was a particularliarly hard year- many reasons made it a topsy turvey year, including the elimination of J-V teams by the Board of Ed, the need to start seven of eleven freshman in thevarsity, and mistakes by me (always present) - and it ends this week.

This is the End

Seemed over the summer that The End had arrived. Didn't know if I'd ever speak to her again, and wondering what she was doing to-niiiiiiiiiiite. We got back to-gether again - sweet, wonderful, sweet, wonderful - but for two weeks. Same deal.

And, needless to say, all my fault. It's nothing I did - just what i don't do. She'll be much the better off w/out me.

And shortness of breath, depression, lying in bed, weepy and sad. Wishing.

But, knowing.

That, most of all, it'll be great for her. No reason to stick around me. I'm mud @ this point. She'll be happy and better off. She already is happy. And better off.

Woman, you a-touched my soul, now. Wreckage, I cling to, the cold North Sea wishing to kill me now that my warship has sunk and I have nothing to protect me. What was imminent, no tilting on windmills or trying to ho back in in rushing sea will work.

This is The End

Plenty of adverts jamming the Doors song hyping the last episodes of Lost. Loved the show - told before, the blowminding first season, so lovely and lovielier yet - and the horror-able disappointment of the next three seasons - except the five minutes at the end of season four that bettered the entire first season - be it only for five minutes - before this season.

It was the firsts season and that five minutes that have sustained my interest in the show, as bad as the other season have been - not bad, just not as good. But, beatufil friend, it has been - and the end has arrived. No putting it off any longer - we have tonite, and then SUnday - and I am accepting and happy. They are fictional characters in a fictional world, but they are also in a away frenz. Frenz will be missed.

And what happens to Jack? I started to really hate his character - but I trust him. We'll see if my trust is warrented....

The Friendliest Trivia in Town

Written by Lazers
edited by Hilts

After a lengthy layoff, J&B was back in trivia mode with a visit to Salerno’s this week. Trivia at Salerno’s is sometimes odd- everyone is too friendly and respectful towards the team. I suppose if J&B started playing there regularly and started crushing these other teams in a way only J&B is capable of doing, the attitude might change. Or if we could only talk The Bar from TC’s Pub to come out for a battle. In the meantime, it’s a little unnerving.

J&B represented by: Chemical Man, Dragon, MG, and Lazers
The Competition: Sharks, Chicago, Auntie Joanie, Big Buff, and Peeps or Bust

First half: Current Sports/TV 96-97/Beatles #1 Hits CD

Two songs on CD that were title tracks to non-animated Beatles movies?
Song dealt with the death of Paul McCartney’s mother (1 word)?
(Note: possible controversy here- looking for Art’s input)
George Harrison wrote this song about the woman both he and Eric Clapton loved?
Song that includes the lyric “they’re gonna crucify me”?

Most if not all of the TV questions centered on shows that ranked very good or very bad by some Family Values panel. That’s already a bad trend, but it was made worse by the fact that several kids were in the restaurant, forcing Benkowski to skirt around certain words in his questions for the bad shows. Example: this ABC sitcom was the 5th worst ranked show by the Family Values panel, with episodes dealing with topics such as “M”, “E” and “O”. Cripes- is this trivia night or Sesame Street?(Note: answer will be below, but I’m assuming the words in question were “masturbation”, “erection” and “orgasm”)

Scores at the half: Chicago 800 J&B 720 Joanie 620 Buff 620 Peeps 560 Sharks 550


Second half: Movie Quotes/2003 Music (incl country)/Bulls & NBA

“Celebrities are above the law”- said by Whoopi Goldberg in this 2000 movie that mixed animation and live action?

“I’m going to punch you in the ovary” (in the 2000s)?
“At my signal, unleash hell” (within the last 20 years)?
“Make my day” (from 1983)?
“I want to be alone” (from 1932)?

Who sang:
“I Love This Bar”?
“In The Club”?
“Forever and Always”?
"Cowboys Like Us”?

Mariah Carey and Busta Rhymes sang this five-word song?
2010 playoffs- 2nd on Bulls in scoring with 18.8 points/game?
1983- John Paxson comes into NBA, drafted by which team?

Benkowski: has noticed some sloppiness regarding the “throw the ball” line- “You don’t want to be the team I call it on!”

J&B is forced to recruit a lady from a neighboring table to engage in a Long Distance Roll the Ball challenge (Ladies Only). Chemical Man does the recruiting. It is unknown whether he uses the lost boy bit, but J&B ends up winning the points.

Scores after two halves: J&B 1520 Chicago 1360 Joanie 1290 Buff 1130 Sharks 990 Peeps 860

For the Final Question, Benkowski follows the methodology from the 2009 Championship- questions will be answered live by each team.

J&B wagers the classic- 1201. Perhaps the team should not have turned in its wager without hearing the categories, since it will be stuck with whatever is left over.

Categories: Celebrity Year of Birth- A, Celebrity Year of Birth- B, Celebrity Real Names, Baseball Year of Birth, In the News, TV Commercials, PGA Player Survey

Yep, putting that wager in before hearing the categories was not a good idea.

Peeps- select TV Commercials:

Though company is not known for tires, it’s commercial states it has “never been a better time to have bad tires”?
“Use equity in your house to finance your dreams”?
“Turn plain old ribs into fall-off-the-bone ribs by going to _________.com”?

Sharks- Baseball Year of Birth:

Jimmy Rollins
David Aardsma
Carlos Marmol

Big Buff- Celebrity Year of Birth A:

Lance Bass
Frankie Valli
Randy Travis

Auntie Joanie- Celebrity Year of Birth B:

Pink
Buddy Holly
Chrissy Hynde

Chicago- Celebrity Real Names:

Margarita Cansino
Bernard Schwartz
Nathan Birnbaum


J&B- In the News:
Within 1, what number in headline- “Man shot x times clings to life”?
“Newborn baby found in diaper box in” what 4 syllable suburb?
The merger of these two airlines will create the largest airline in the world?

Thank God he had an extra category so we weren’t stuck with- PGA Player Survey:

Within 7%, President Obama’s approval rating from PGA players?
Voted most overrated player?
Within 5%, how many PGA players claim they knew about Tiger Woods’ infidelity before the driveway incident?

Lots of music questions out there, Stix…..

exhaustion

Will amidt to exhaustion. Soccer season starts w. playoffs on Monday - which denotes the beginning of the end of the year. W ehave twos ets of playoffs for varsity - City and State. City starts w. three games in pool play - if we finish in top two, we advance to play on Saturday for final 8. That'll be tough for us to advance, but we'll see. State playoffs start last week in May - I think 22 May is our first game. We'll have atough time advancing beyond the frirst game - we know who we play in 2d because the brackets are out, and they are a tuff lot.

My team - the freshman - do not have playoffs. We have three league games left, another game w. a suburban team, and a final game w. a team the varsity has to play after the playoffs as a 'relagation' game (I asked the Freshman coach if her team wanted to play rite after the to-be-scheduled relagtion game and she of course said 'yes'.

So, looking forward to the playoffs - but also it'll be a nice easing of weary bones, come, say, 25 May.

funtimes

two songs ive learned in the last week or so -

which means that I insessently play these songs over and over and over

.....hey, practice.....!

and i know next week two or three others will take these two places

and I will then think:

'but i dont want to play this song no more-

what about these new ones!'

un

(((plans for Pasolini (ne The Pasolini Trio) to cover this song are totally planned -

but will this song remain exaulted in my mind till then?)))

deux

(((yeah, drums galore glorious)))

evol.

The Improbability Pump

blxx

Had the sheer delite last wkd to host Blackie for a few urs. He was in town -first time in 2y he was available to frenz- last wkd abd I managed to miss both events he went to (Early games on Saturday, me totally exhausted - Saturday was infringement on plans w. Gf . I was totally lucky - the way back to Louisville ran sorta near my house before you escape the southern environes of the city proper, so Blaxx stopped by. I had soome fry available, so out came the blackpudding, bacon, sausages, eggs, toast, beans, etc etc etc.

Missed him wholly. Too many frenz are all over the world @ this point, and adult duties have gotten us all. So, to vacate 2h to hang w. Black was incredible. Had missed him a lot- very evident when he was in my presence. He was someone who for years I would sleep on his floors etc...

I had planned to get down there to visit - d'accord, I'm always pushing it back. Since this year I have no summer vacation ('till August - yes, delightfully, I am actually gonna work this whole summer - if I have job, Ill use that time to go to Eire finally - it's been 10 yars since I wqas last in Ireland and 6 since I was last on the Continent - must travel again, it's fun.) I have to do a hit and run over a weekend to Louisville, but it willbe fun.

Again, good to see black.

see fucked

from joker

say it w. a brouge

the last the The Smiths played in concert.

The book i read on them lately, putting in my mind the group into broader histories. Verymuchso there was a sorta countdown towards the end of these groups time - last session, last concert, last music recorded, last attempts to record music... So, 12 December, 1986, the last concert at the Brixton Academy. It was a rescehuled Anti-Apartheid gig - Morrissey was unable to sing or something earlier in the year. Of course, who knew - nobody - that this was it. They would play a few songs live still on tv into Spring 1987 - but as 'Last Show', it was here.

In part to being their last gig the show takes on added importance as a final sorta recking of 'songs played live'. In each songs section of the Smiths book the writer follows each songs concert history (as well as recorded history, TV history, and radio (John Peel type shows) history, etc...), and songs played at this Brixton show have a kinda saintly glow about them as those that survived till The End. I love following each song, and note the songs played a lot, others dropped as soon as they could ("What difference does it Make?"), and some they never played.

And one song lasted until the ultimate concert end.

bombs

Theives

Still reading the Smiths (NOT Morrissey) book and still loving it beyond belief. Again, it is not a proper history of the Smiths, but it basically kinda is. It goes through each recorded song and tell the back story - and there are long passages filling in the bands history. Wonderful.

Again, it was a wonderful time to be a music fan. I've written this before, but when the SMiths were active, I was one of those waiting for each new '45 to be released and to see what new direction everythig will take. I was totally into the cult of the Smiths B sides. Again, it was like the 1960's when the whole wolrd waited for the new songs by the Stones and Beatles.

And now, the background to all those songs - written by an 'insider' - are in book form, by a nice writer, and lovely. Again, wonderful to finally know just how dedicated, great, and productive Johnny Marr was.

Growing up, obviously, it was all Morrissey. He was the centerpiece of the band, and to us the followers (or frenz, as Morrissey used to want us to be called), and so m uch attention was spent on him. But as I get older, wiser, a bitteen more musical, and an appreciation of hard work - it is Johnny Marr who comes to the fore. This is very much a fanbook of the Smiths - but it is written by a musician- and music takes the fore. It was Johnny who tried to make the band work - with Morrissey taking the 'diva' position. Seems the reason for the breakup of the band was that Johnny Marr had to take over more and more of the business of the band because Morrissey did not want this or that person to be involved with the group. Over time it just burnt Marr out - he wanted to make music, but it turned out he had to book shows and produce LPs and all that. Finally, it got to be too much...

The breakup was terrible. Wasnt supposed to happen - Johnny just took off for LA, and the other thought .... after a few months, the huge force that the band had been just ...... dissapated.... I remember the time. I was catching a train out to South Bend to see my friend who was a girl (Orange) and read the NME or MMaker in the downtown bookstores. Horrible. And now, many years later, we find out why - Morrissey was a bit of a bitch about things. Comically so. And goodbye to the band.

But, the beginning of the book was just thrilling. Again, the first meeting between Morrissey and Marr. The early singles. Like the end of the band above, I have written before on the excitement of follwing nthe band while they were active - like the Stones or Beatles circe 1965, each new single or B side or news about the band was excitedly lived through. Everything was happening @ once, and it was so all kool to be an 'insider'. So, to read all that was gratifying - and a bit of a re-living of it all.

And of course the women. "Ask", of course, Red. "Shelia take a Bow", Orange. "Meat is Murder", ep. "The Boy...", Xenos. "Stop me...", Q. Nice smiles, good feelings, and a chill appreciation of days of yestergirls....

And the funny stories. Early on the band - and even my appreciation(remember I was a slave to regular press back then) - seemed to be bit of a gay troupe, with possible child abuse angles. Funny as hell to read Mike Joyce phoning his parents- 'simple Irish folk' - when "Hand in Glove" ( w. the picture of a dudes bum) was to appear. The impossiblility of playing "How soon is Now" by having to rely on a pedal to deliver that diving whooshig sound. Morrisseys constant inability to tell anybody anyhting - by having Marr deliver all the 'bad news' to the other bandmates. ANd all of the background information on the songs, cover stars, etc etc etc...

And, finally, The End again. The days after Marr left the band Morrissey wanted the name to continue - so a line of Marrwannabees came in and out, all unacceptable to MOrrissey - one because he swore a lot.

Like the Beatles, I believe that the Smiths will never play again. MArr had said that he met Morrissey and hung out a bit in years later - so did Mcartney and Lennon - but Marr (a big contributer to the book) said when they hung out, what was missing - the music - meant that their relationship also was missinmg something.