i wish god were alive to see this

Gushing Blood From Wide Open Wounds.

I know I say it all the time , but really , go hiking.

Take a break and go walk around. Breathe deep!

Release enodorphins. Look for hawks.

You'll feel great afterwords. You'll have a natural and powerful appetite.

And then there will be no guilt when you order burritos and tacos and have a picnic on the hood of your car.

Rene , my life long road dog , turned 32 yesterday.

We took him and Ingrid to Sushi and they brought us plate after plate for two hours.

His gifts included but were not limited to three different Siouxsie and the Banshees records. No matter how much of a Mexican man he becomes he will forever be a teen goth fruitloop to me.

I've known him for 18 years now.

Happy birthday pal.

Steady Tip Tippin'

Ford the Baby came by yesterday and laid on my desk. Just laid there , barely moving , tiny as a chic-let.

In other baby news , Dave and Kira Sardy had a boy yesterday. Yeah , I'm covered in baby.

Yeah , We ALL Wanna know..

Where is that gold at anyway?

The Day My Baby Gave Me A Suprize.

Is it a coincidence that the Judge discography release and my sober birthday happened at the same time?

My cop car next to the Scooby weiner wagon.

At Scoobys there are little punker kids serving up veggie dogs and listening to the Circle Jerks. Cute!

And Betsy gave me a suprize cake with five candles , and a cookie shaped like a weiner dog.

I nailed it in one try.

Stopped at the Brite Spot on the way home to visit some bros. I am totally impressed with Petes' new grey beard.

And at 11pm Betsy gave me a much needed haircut.

All cleaned up.

I Am An Worm.

Today I am sober five years. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Name Game.

See the darker kitty? What would you name that kitty if it needed a name?

It's a boy.

Tie A Rope Around That Pigs Belly!

Before the great stomach flu of 2006 poor Betsy used to fill those shorts out. Now,after easily 100 pukes in a 72 hour period she is a lithe panther.

We were bedridden and left with nothing but pedialite popsicles and dvds to see us through. Oh yeah , and a blue hot water bottle. You should all go right out and rent the 'Country Boys' documentary that was recently on PBS and take a trip through the lives of young Cody and Chris. Watch these nervous teens navigate drunken parents,dating and my favorite , hauling the huge screeching hog out from under the trailor. You should not , however , rent 'Hustle and Flow'. What is wrong with people? This movie is pure crap and it seemed to send Betsy into a much more accelerated state of puking.

And now it's all white rice and apple sauce , with a strong yearning for the things we can't have. Like Olives. And hot sauce.

And We'll All Die High Under The Trees.

It's barf city in my house today. The stomach flu. Hot water bottles. Pedialite , ginger ale , pedialite popsicles , and 2 entire crackers.

We just watched 'Ordinary People' and both agreed , Donald Sutherland should have lit that witch Mary Tyler Moore on fire.

She Says Good Morning.

48 hours of mostly puttering around the house and cooking and watching the 'Country Boys' documentary. I have some kind of head cold and am eating whole raw cloves of garlic , convinced it will fix me.

Swollen head and face parts aside , life feels like I always hoped it would right now.

Human Eye.

Erin and Jesse @ Beerland.

Beerland has proven once again to be the only place to go if you want to avoid all the drunken frat boys and coked up record execs on their mad hunt for the next big thing. We got there too late to see the Jeffrey Novak One Man Band , but the Tuff Luvs were real fun and I finally got to see the River City Tanlines who are everything I had hoped after listening to their singles all year. My camera stopped working for me for an hour or so , so use your imagination to visualize those bands.

Then Human Eye played.

Human Eye were more than music. I was so tired from four days of this that I had to force myself to stick around , and wow , Human Eye! So sad! So desperate!

I was delirious. I knew I was seeing something important that demanded my attention , and when I stumbled happily to the bathroom after the set the singer Timmy had his head in the garbage can violently puking I knew I was peaking , and that a better end to my SXSW couldn't have been imagined.

We went to the supreme end of trip dinner at Gueros.

And did the long coffee rot at Jo's.

And not long after that I was sleeping on the plane , headed home.

I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You.

Yesterday I got the hell out of the SXSW baloney and went to Beerland for the Shattered Records party. It was 1pm and everyone but Bryan and I were drunk , as usual. But oh! My favorite bands!

The Final Solutions.

The Carbonas made Bryan feel like he was in a San Jose basement in 1983.

Tokyo Electron we were not prepared for though. Desperation reigns supreme for Tokyo Electron , the best Arizona band ever. It's official.

We went to Joes Coffee , arguably the best coffee stand in America , and got to wind down and take a break , but then this thing walked up to me.

And I was sad for the lonely human race all over again.

SXSW Party Doggs

There were 300 of these 'Sloth Bear' gift bags , and we were still stuffing them at 10:30 am when we arrived to set up for our 14 hour party from hell. I had to put all my old man negativity aside and just dig in and get it done.

Ronnie. I've driven accross the country with Ronnie.

Bryan got tons of copies of 'Fucked Up..' sent for us to give away. Giovanni was psyched to get it. Doesn't he look like Abe Lincoln?

Big dude drinking Sparks no handed is actually Patty from the Dillinger Four , and I love him. "How much art can you take?"

Brace.

OMG Jean Grae.

Lady Soveriegn suprised me by looking about 8 years old and being very close to 3ft tall , but she seemed to be having the most fun.

The President of the Dirtyplayers Union , Frankie Chan.

Jean Grae was the best thing that happened at the party. She is so funny , and so pissed off and gracious and gangster..I definitely peaked during her set , 7 or 8 hours into it all.

And the free ice cream wasn't helping my brain. I hatched a plan to get the last of the friends in safely and sneak away without anyone the wiser to the quiet of my hotel.

Marne! You are 26! Happy birthday!

Yeah , by then I was a blithering idiot running on sugar and coffee , so I snuck away 4 hours early and since the entire place save for Bryan and I was totally trash canned on booze , no one noticed. I hear Wolfmother were actually incredible , but so was my sleep.

CHILLAX.

This was the scene in the 'Party Dog' condo today where we were assembling our gift bags for tomorrows party.Too much stuff! If you rsvp'd , it's probably going to be useless at this point. Anyway , these kinds of parties are bad for your soul and you'd be better off doing what I am doing tonight , which is laying in bed watching Court TV and eating ice cream.

After gift bag assemblage Bryan and I met up with young Andy Clark at the Boiling Pot. You order a BUCKET of crawdaddies , shramps , crabs and potatos and corn on the cob all spicy and they dump the bucket out onto your table , tie bibs around your neck and give you a hammer. It's total wild animal dining.

It was beautiful.

After this intensity I went back to my room and bought some light blue silk shorts from the gift shop so I could go to the gym and have a swim. Laying out by the deserted pool , no one around , I saw out of the corner of my eye a cat scurrying over to check me out. It stopped right next to me and as I rolled my head to greet my new friend and get a good look at it I was face to face with a huge possum.

Ho-lee crap!

Tomorrow is going to be endless.

And I'm Watching The Cruisers Below.

Dallas early am. The stopover , we started the trip today at 1am , made it to Austin just before 8. My old friends Erin and Jesse were in the seat in front of me , and since I never see them it was a nice suprise.

Unable to ever escape rare records that I simply MUST have , Erin sold me a copy of the Spits 12" he just made. He bootlegged his own band!

We were toast off the plane. No sleep , not really. I told Betsy that I planned on doing some 'cardio' in the hotel gym and in a measured and mothering tone she told me "No. You are going to go to sleep."

So I did.

Can't You Hear Me Call?

"I love erybody"

Dinner last night was all green and all healthy. I am trying to quit eating cows.

It's working out so far. Clean plates.

I am leaving for SXSW tonight at 1am. I'm having a party with some of the dudes that is sure to be filled with drunken posers and future failures BUT I do so love South Austin and BBQ and the junk shops and my favorite coffee stand in all of the USA , Joe's.

Holy crap though , Jean Grae is playing our party. And so is the mighty Brother Reade.

A Winter Walk On Heaven Hill.

Better Get Inside The Kingdom , Close The Door.

Veggie 'chicken' taco night and goodtimes over by the banana stand.

"Have I told you how into acrylic nails I am?"

We watched this movie , The Tin Drum , and it wound up being one of those great cold and windy nights outside. Like a winter cabin , with tacos and ice cream.

Oh Baby , You Can Walk You Can Talk Just Like Me.

I was pleasantly suprised to see my friend Aviram Cohen last night. The first and only 'memphis boogie' style singer in the history of Jersey Hardcore (The Bad Form), he showed up unannounced and proceeded to whisper in my ear about the silliness of current youthful fashion.

"I mean , doesn't the phrase 'touch of class' mean anything to these people?"

Amen pal.

He is in town to pick up some Raymond Pettibon drawings. I LIVE here , how come I don't get to pick up any Pettibon drawings??

A Kiss Goodnight.

Anton got 4 years sober. A little over 4 years ago today I came over to his house and flushed all paraphenalia , trashed all the needles and drove him to rehab. Upon our arrival they said his bed would not be ready for 24 hours. What the hell was he going to do for 24 hours! He was strung out and 24 hours might as well have been a month , so I took him to the pharmacy , bought some works , called the dopeman , got him some ballons , stuffed him back into his house and told him not to die. The next morning we repeated the previous exercise , his bed was ready and he has been the real deal ever since.

I am proud of my old friend.

Good morning.

"Stop Squalloring"

This was the model by which all Sundays should be measured. Take a long hike in the morning with Betsy. No shortcuts , the long way around.

Cook breakfast at my house and eat it on the deck. Smoothies! French toast!
Then spend the next four hours crackin' jokes with nowhere to go. She had to leave for a few hours because the drunken teens at American Apparel forgot they were at work and got hammered and forgot how to lock the store or drop the money etc..

We still made it to see the Dave Chappelle movie at 10:30, and I still spent the whole day feeling like I was home.

Duct Tape Soup.

Bombing hills in honor of my brother Pat who is 31 yrs old today.

And God Smiled Down Upon Me.

An obvious nod from the heavens , I am one of three FREE BURRITO winners at Tacos Villa Corona this week. I have been entering this raffle for over 5 years and this win signifies to me that God himself is smiling on my life , approving of it's direction and saying "Hey kid , keep up the good work."

It was , of course , the best burrito I have ever had.

The rest of my life feels the same. Ice cream has never been sweeter. The sun has never felt so good , the hikes have never been more beautiful. The conversation comes with ease and the next right thing to do is just the next right thing to do.Dreams come true to the patient and consistent and sleeping is as good as waking.

I have been set free.

Morning Has Broken.

Thug life.

While turning my sweet 88' Caprice over to the valet at the fancy Spa party yesterday it occured to me later that I should have slipped the dude a dollar and asked him to 'take good care of my baby.'

And yes , I am now totally into getting a good face massage , and my pedicure has turned my formerly lovely feet into beautiful feet.