1.10.09

I love the northwest florida daily news. It's based in ft. walton where i was born. i highly recommend it. Almost anything is newsworthy. here are a few recent stories.

‘Richard from the sea' arrested; identity unknown
Comments 36 | Recommend 2
January 7, 2009 - 7:35 AM
Andrew Gant
Daily News

OKALOOSA ISLAND - A man known only as "Richard from the sea" was arrested outside the El Matador condos after deputies couldn't figure out his true identity.

Listed on his arrest report as John Doe, the man is charged with trespassing after a warning and resisting an officer without violence.

El Matador security wanted him to leave, but he refused. When a deputy asked the man's name, he replied it was "Richard," according to his arrest report. When pressed for more details, he said, "My whole name is Richard and that's it."

Later, questioned in the back seat of a patrol car, he said "I'm Richard from the sea and I get all of my information from the sky."

Richard refused to have his photograph taken or any of his fingerprints scanned at booking. He was listed as white, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 185 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. No age was listed.

FORT WALTON BEACH - A neighbor called police when a woman dumped chicken and rice into a dropped shoe, an Okaloosa County sheriff's deputy says.

The 41-year-old woman faces a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief. Jermaine Scott, the deputy who wrote her up, was at the scene investigating a separate dispute between the pair.

He said the defendant was taking a container of chicken and rice to her trash can on Sunset Boulevard when she decided instead to dump it into her neighbor's shoe.

The shoe was near the trash can because moments earlier, the victim had dropped it from a roof, Scott said.

The pair of shoes was valued at $30.

8.1.07

A mind that is stretched to a new idea never returns to it's original dimension.
-oliver wendell holmes

7.29.08

I found out last night that a friend of mine grew up in harlen county, kentucky. my jaw dropped. I learned of Harlen County through the canadian photo magazine "vice" where these canadian photographers went into the hills of kentucky to interview impoverished coal miners, their families, and people in the community. it's fucking crazy how low the standard of living is there, and how the coal companies totally screw these people. The coal miners of harlen county have been going on strike since the 30's. A union organizer, his wife, and his baby girl were assasinated by the coal company. many people were shot and killed by local police.

There was a documentary made in the 70's called "harlen county usa" and it won an academy award. you can rent it from netflix i think. this movie is extremely intense. i watched it last night and once again, i'm shocked to learn of yet another injustice that is within the U.S. here's a little youtube snipet.

5.20.08

trust me: i really don't want to sound like an arty douche, but i'm being real here.
i was thinking the other day that art is the craft of communicating the internal. to make tangible what is intangible. nothing is more frustrating for me than to not be able to articulate something that i am feeling. i'm sure it happens to everyone in some way or another. what is infinitely more frustrating for me is my inability, at times, to even articulate something to myself...to feel a mysterious pull or friction in myself and i can't put my finger on it at all. sometimes i think it's just the frustration of being integrated into a societal structure, being saddled with duties. i just want to run around like an antelope. i'm sure they have shit they have to deal with too. i like to listen to all kinds of music and i love lyrics mostly. i like to hear other people share about their perspective and to relate to it. it's nice to know that all humans are basically the same, and we can share many sentiments with each other.

my songs are usually a way that i blow off steam, and i've done it so long, that it's a permanent coping mechanism for my life. that is why i continue to do it long after it makes no practical sense to keep doing it. my songs tend to have a negative edge to them. I'm often really happy in life, but when i'm happy, i'm off riding my bike or at the beach, i only write when i have something eating at me. when i'm content, i don't want to play guitar.

here are some of my favorite lyrics from other people right now.

"embracing the situation, is our only chance to be free"- jeff tweedy

"when you tell a lie, do you look in the mirror and see it in your eye? who do you fool with the things that you hide? is it for your sake or mine? will you pick another town, pack up and leave when you burn your bridges down until the point where you're sleeping on the ground and the whole world is out of your reach?"- dr. dog

"my old man lived on the run, he's the moon, i'm the sun. we don't belong to love, we both belong to the sky"- dr.dog

"shoulder to shoulder, like two stones in a bag. did you rub one another till' there was nothing but dust?"- mojave 3

4.17.08

well, it's nice to be playing with people again. things are sounding great thanks to alex, david, ryan, and our new friend ryan who will be playing percussion and keys. things are coming along freakishly fast. it's unusual because when i was younger it would literally take months upon months to get a band to the point that it sounded solid, i guess all those years of playing music have paid off. it's very exciting for me to be working on a record with people, and my hope is that we can capture the musical chemistry that is emerging between us. for the first time in years we'll be going into a "real" studio to record drum tracks.

i'm thinking about doing a solo train tour. amtrack sells these amtrak rail passes that basically you can ride anywhere that amtrak goes. so i'll be rolling up in a train to the shows and the promoters can pick me up. i want to play peoples living rooms, or picnics. really i just want to travel around the country and see some old and new faces. laugh, drink, explore.

i heard about a woman the other day who was getting a liver transplant, and they could'nt figure out her DNA. She had 2 distinctly different strands of dna code in her body. what they eventually figured out is that when she was conceived she was going to be a siamese twin. two eggs were fertilized, but as the zygote developed one of the eggs engulfed the other and she was born as a singular person. some of her organs belong to one DNA, and the rest of her organs belong to another.

2.20.08

Well, i have alot of news in this blog post. I'll start with news that is in the forefront of my thoughts. Last week i was diagnosed as a dibetic. I've been super dehydrated and i'd lost 20 pounds in under a week. My vision was blurry and i've been very fatigued. I went through a short period of trying to diagnose myself before i went to the doctor. I thought i had a mold-induced sickness. i thought i may have a parisitic infection or a strange flu. The doctor i saw pretty much knew right away that i was diabetic. For those of you who don't know what dibetes is, it's basically has to do with your pancreas not making enough insulin, which regulates your blood sugar. I may be able to get away with taking an oral medication, or i might have to take shots of insulin. In the long run this will probably make me live longer. I can't drink beer, cokes, or eat sugary or starchy foods. I am comforted by the fact that there are millions of people diagnosed with this disease, and are living long healthy lives. dibetes is extremly treatable.

In other news, the studio is coming along nicely. My isolation room is mostly done. I have some interior work to do on it. Also, i built a mini-kitchen for the studio with a small coffee bar and fridge. I installed some more bookshelves and a coat rack.

Me and alex have been working on some new songs together. we're getting ready for a live on-air performance on KEXP along with and interview. Also, i posted a new demo on the myspace page. hope you enjoy!

12.8.07

I watched a movie called "elegy of a voyage" last night. A character from the movie was a german man, who visited the U.S. and was wrongfully arrested here. He was stripped of his rights and humiliated. After a short period of time, the authorities realized their mistake and released him. He was very angry and after being released from prison returned to germany and became a hermit for like 8 months. He realized in his malaise that the only thing that could restore his life was love. To reach out to people and forgive. He also said he'd like to change god's name to love. which i thought was interesting.

After that i watched a "george harrison" dvd, which has all of his videos from the last 20 years. I did'nt realize he sang the song ".....i got my mind set on you!". Anyway, there is about 1 hour of interview clips with george harrison, where he mostly rambles about love being the greastest thing that we can hope to achieve. And love being the "creative force" which is of god. These were such great things to hear this week, as i was sort of lashing out a bit, on account of my own decisions.