5 blogs for blogday...

occassional reads that are due notice...

karmagrrrl

killer weblog

EmptyFree

this is all your fault

the rub


Johnny Cash Loves You!

i love the dmv...really...

i know it's a pain in the ass if you have to be there...you have to take at least a half day off from...whatever you do with your life...and you get to deal with surly gov'mint employees...but think about it...if you want to know what the people in your community are really like...and you've got an hour to kill...head down to your local dmv...you'll find...real people...regular everyday citizens...take a look around...take it all in...look at the men...are they a dockers and golf shirt crowd...jeans and t-shirts...or shorts and sandals...on any given day...especially during the summer...every dmv will have at least a handful of teens...what are they wearing...are they there with their parents...are they there with their own children...how many languages are being spoken...are people reading...are they reading books or magazines...

all i'm sayin' is...you could learn a lot about where you live...and the people who live there...

better than the airport...bus...or train station...people there are doing one of three things...passing through...coming in...or leaving...great people watching...sure...but not a great place to get know...where you live...

check it out...

i could...icould...i could...

i could tell you all about the delicious dinner i had with my wife and her parents...i could tell you how i always manage to overeat at the best thai restaurant in town...i could say that afterwards we went to a party with friends...and drank from many...many...bottles of wine...i could write about how i was social...gregarious...friendly...that would be a lie...i could give insight on why i retreat inside my self...i could complain about how...once again...i was the only black man in the room...but i didn't care...i was happy...and surrounded by good people...i could exlain what makes me the guy who just wants to lay music...for everyone to enjoy...i could try to illuminate the joy of expressing myself....with other people's songs...i could tell you the lesson of the evening was to not be the sweaty guy at the party who doesn't wear deodorant...i could tell you that there is always someone who takes a big stynky dump in the bathroom...i could be funny and sad about how a ghost presided over the whole night...i could flashback to the flings...of fucking for 30 days...and then realizing that there is nothing else there...and...i could be happy...that those days are over...i could...

this is the kind of thing that makes me love...and hate...this place...

Dan over at East Colfax has managed to perfectly capture what makes denver such a frustrating...and lovely...conundrum...


Johnny Cash Loves You!

a hero...tells it like it is...

nothing is as effective as defeat

always carry a notebook with you
wherever you go, he said,
and don’t drink too much, drinking dulls
the sensibilities,
attend readings, note breath pause,
and when you read
always understate
underplay, the crowd is smarter than you
might think,
and when you write something
don’t send it out right away,
put it in a drawer for two weeks,
then take it out and look
at it, and revise, revise,

REVISE again and again,
tighten lines like bolts holding the span
of a 5 mile bridge,
and keep a notebook by your bed,
you will get thoughts during the night
and these thoughts will vanish and be wasted
unless you notate them.
and don’t drink, any fool can
drink, we are men of letters.

for a guy who couldn’t write at all
he was about like the rest of them: he could sure
talk about
it.




Johnny Cash Loves You!

reeling in the...archives...

im not much for dwelling on the past...but...how else can you know where youre going...if you don't know where you've been...in that light, irecently explored the origins of...this ol journal...and i realize that i write a lot less about writing than i used to...i think that's due to two causes...

the last year has reaquainted me with my old friend...death...who stopped by...and reminded me that...we are all beholden...to him...even someone as full of life and love as shasty...as if i needed a refresher...

more important...i fell in love with and married a wonderful woman...who shows me...everyday...that there is a world outside of the one inside my head...and sometimes...only sometimes...it's just as fascinating...

both these things...people, really...helped me figure out that it's important...as a writer...as a human being no less...to balance...the internal and the external...by nature, i'm self absorbed...left to my own devices...my waking life would be nothing more than writing...and the transactions neccessary to allow the writing to continue...im growing beyond that...i thinkj...im more involved in the outer world...if even only slighty more...and this journal is a reflection of that change...

does that mean the writing is somehow compromised...i don't think so...not to worry...very soon i'll have something to show for my work...somethings...and new ideas are already taking shape...for the future...

Johnny Cash Loves You!

damn right...

im not sayin i had anything to do with it...

i'm just hapy that one of my favorite momuments...

in my favorite park...

in my favorite neighborhood...

has been restored...

im not the only one either...


one of my other favortive monuments...


the restored MLK monument...

i remember when they dedicated the restoreation...

ashes fluttered down from the sky...

that was the summer the governor declared...that the state was on fire...

i sat in the grass and watched the artist...and the politicians...make with the speechifying...

amid the hullabalu...soot gently fell on the people...

and you could smell the forest fire in the soft wind...

all i could do was chuckle...

my most favorite monument in denver...

the tree my friends and i planted...to remember a great friend...who died a year ago this month...


Johnny Cash Loves You!

best...birthday card...ever...

i'm such a lucky man...here is the card designer...if you're in denver you can get them here...

Johnny Cash Loves You!

BOHICA...

Bend...Over...Here...It...Comes...Again...that's not just some cute phrase i say to my wife...that's marinespeak...translated...it means...were all fucked...get used to it...the firsrt week being any indication...that's just the kind of month august is shaping up to be...a literal pain in my neck has been dogging me for two days...and this morning...i got pulled over by the police...for some bullshit...made me late for work...and now i;ve got a ticket i've got to take the time to fight in court...i've been down this road...when you push...the world justpushes back harder until you get the message...and adjust...i can see i'm gonna have to get back in a yoga class...because life is telling me to be more flexible...

Johnny Cash Loves You!

hello ignorance...it's been a long time...

since we came face to face...has it been only six months since our last confrontation...im not talking about the petty everyday ignorance that pervades american culture...you are the stuff that can't be ignored...like the swastika...that was scrawled on the door of the bathroom stall...when i went to take a crap yesterday morning...oh yeah...you wanna go...let's go...not only am i going to show you how powerless you are...after i get done shedding my light on you...you are going to been seen...and your true size will be exposed...as insignificant...

Johnny Cash Loves You!