my farts fuckin' stink

suggested track: "into the unblind" by killswitch engage

it has been awhile. i am not dead, nor am all that busy. i just haven't felt like writing. mostly out of lack of things to say and/or write about. am i going to apologize for it? no.

i'll try and remeber stuff from the past month or so to keep everyone up to date.

rachel and i doing fine. not that anyone is interested. and just in case no one has been able to pick up on it from any previous posts she is my girlfriend. but that is very old news.

i've forgotten all that i was going to write about. curse my feeble mind and even more feeble fingers.

comic books and cd's: yes, my old vices have come back with a vengence. has anyone else noticed how much marvel kicks ass now? now that they got all of the hot shots in comics for the past decade redoing all of their titles. the new x-men: very good. amazing spider-man: very good. the ultimates: simply amazing, except for the fact that they have the gayest name ever. generally the past couple of years i have been stumbling into the comic book store every couple of months, picking up a select few "alternative" or "underground" titles and that was it. but i started talking about comics with one of the owners of this particular shop, and the next thing i know i am up to my ears in nerd talk, and out $150 (over the course of two separate spending sprees). but as rachel tells me, i can't feel guilty about it because it is essential to my art making. they are supplies. or as i like to say it's all research. ahhhh graduate school.

i won't bore anyone with cd's purchases, mostly because i know most of you don't really care or know about any of the stuff i listen to. i did see a hip hop show here a couple of weeks ago. atmosphere was the name. they are friends of my friend jake, and he was onstage making a painting during the entire night's performance (all of the acts). atmosphere was good but played forever. their set was like like an hour and a half. ridiculous. way too much hip hop. all the other acts kept it around a half an hour, which was perfect. atmosphere's dj is a guy named mr. dibbs, who kicks ass. mostly because he spins hardcore, metal, and punk to make his hip hop beats. it was weird, because the entire show was essentailly goofy white boys performing for a largely white audience. some of the performers were black, but they too, were goofy. the exception was a guy named brother ali, i believe. he was a husky albino, whose image was all thug. a husky albino from minnesota, who was acting all thug rapping a lot about how awesome he is at pleasing the ladies, etc. absurd. rachel thought he was disgsuting, both lhis lyrics and physically. i just thought he was lame. jake even agrees with me. he thinks that he is pretty lame, acting all thug. earlier this week i went to milwaukee to see a show with russell. in flames, killswitch engage, dark tranquility, and sentenced. it was pretty good. especially since it was the first time since i've been here that a band i was into was playing, and i could see them (killswitch engage). sentenced was dumb. russell says they are suicide metal. as in all of their songs are about suicide. as russell points out: "they've been singing about suicide for four albums now, yet none them has fucking done it." i paraphrase. they're last song was called "drink to forget". we promptly got beer after their set, and i told russell that was exactly what i intended to do: drink to forget. dark tranquilty was next and they were good. russell loves this band, and this is their first tour of the united states, so russell was psyched. killswitch engage was next and they were fucking awesome. it felt good to see a band i was really into. we only saw half of the in flames set, russell has seen them like 5 times, and he said their set list has changed very little over the years. i wasn't that interested, so we left. they are an okay band, but i had seen who i wanted to see.

i don't know what else. i saw the richter show in chicago a few weeks ago with my friend kris. it was very good. it might be in la now, i'm not sure. if it is tripp, you should see it. he is one of the most important painters of the last 50 years, and this is a pretty big show. i really can't stand most of his abstract work, but it is still worth seeing.

i talked to my mom last week, and we don't know what's up for the holidays. my father doesn't really want to have everyone come into vermont this year, and the thought of having christmas in my mother's apartment in richmond depresses her. depending on how much time and money i have i may go see one of them for thanksgiving since i haven't had a thanksgiving with my family in like 6 years. and the thanksgivings here in wisconsin have been less than spectacular. although last year wasn't bad. it was nice of dusty to invite me along with him and his girlfriend.

and linda i completely understand how you felt upon entering your surprise party. i felt the same way when my friends here threw me mine. it's overwhelming.

that's about all. well, i am extremely frustrated with school at the moment. i have ideas, but i lack the materials to complete them. or should i say start them. i need use of an opaque projector for my paintings. i can't use the one in the painting studio, because it is chained to the wall, and their is always someone in there working. unless i can convince some poor undergrad soul that painting in darkness is a conceptually brilliant idea… kris, those bulbs you gave me didn't work. also those big clunky projectors aren't so hot. i may just try and buy my own. i also need wood to build frames and/stretchers for other works, before i can begin. this is a pain, because i don't have a car and getting someone to take me means scheduling the time, and then getting it done. it just takes a lot longer than it should. in fact all errands i run take a lot longer than they should. which is very annoying. i hate relying on public transportation.

that's all. except for that i will be in chicago this weekend (friday and saturday) to see daniel clowes and chris ware speak. all you nerds may begin drooling.