happy new year...to all my Wiccan friends,

and a very happy Hallowe'en to all.
Blessed be.

every once in a while...
a little musical gem surfaces and it’s gleam far outshines all others in your mind’s ear. Such it is with Bright Eyes, an ever-evolving entity that revolves around an incredible young talent, Conor Oberst. I was introduced to this talented and insightful twenty-four year old singer/songwriter by my daughter the other night and he’s been haunting me ever since. Not since someone sat me down so many years ago and made me listen to Leonard Cohen for the first time have I been so emotionally thrashed about by simple tunes and simple lyrics that belie the depths of the message they convey. We listened to a broad sampling of his work, but by far the CD that really grabbed me by the gut is "Fevers and Mirrors", which is available on the Saddle Creek label, as are his other astounding efforts. Like Jason Molina’s SONGS: Ohia, Bright Eyes is an ever evolving entity, pulling in talent to orbit around Conor’s creative sun long enough to refine and record, then it dissolves, only to re-form again, a new collection of talent starting the process over. I don’t mean to gush over this young man, but he is really worth seeking out and having a listen to. Please purchase some of his music.
(Equally as talented but in a slightly different direction is another Saddle Creek band, "Sorry about Dresden", of which Conor’s brother Matt is a member, so check them out as well).
Blessed be.

new shit, old shit and some weird shit...
so, last night we tripped to the city of brotherly love, philadelphia, to see marilyn manson...
we got there about an hour early, so we went to the 69th street food court and supped royally on a chicken cheese steak and some pizza cheese fries at benjamin's, the hippest food place around. then we walked back up the street to the tower theatre, where the creatures of the night were congragating for the show; hard core goths, the usual posers and hallowe'en costumes everywhere you looked, it was quite interesting to say the least. of course, you have to get frisked these days and the fellow who was checking me over said, "it's really great to see old guys coming to see manson..." EXCUSE ME?!?!?! i was banging heads with the best of them when most of the people at the place were still being potty trained.. old indeed...
anyway, we made our way inside and hooked up with the bloodhound and mickey and settled in to watch the show, both on and off stage.
we suffered through the opening act, a really suck ass band named S.T.U.N., who might be better described by adding a final "K"... they blew. the lead screecher (i reserve the term "singer" for those who actually do) proceeded to growl and mumble through their set, the only word that i could understand was "fuck", which he took the effort to enunciate clearly and loudly every ten seconds or so. from what little i could make out, he seemed to be trying to get some sort of political statement across, but i have to admit that i was distracted by his constant flailing the mike stand round and round, much to the peril of his band mates. he also trucked around a piece of plywood or, perhaps it was an ironing board, i really couldn't tell, while assailing the audience with a cheap flashlight... all very curious. the highlight of their performance was the end of the last number, when he felt it necessary to throw a full force body block on his drummer, the both of them tumbling to the stage. not a very auspicious start to the evening.
when manson finally came on, the crowd was ready to rock and they really got into every number with full enthusiasm. he did the new shit and he did the old shit, i really don't remember what songs he did in what order, but they were all great, the band was tight and he was his usual rowdy and rancid form. if you've seen him on stage, you know what i mean... it's a wonder the local vice squad hasn't busted him. there were two low points, however... first, the stage smoke was layed on so heavy that you couldn't see too much of anything at times, which is a shame as the sets and antics of his dancers are something not to be missed. the second low point was when some drunken asshole threw a bottle at him and clocked him in the eye. he called for the band to stop playing and threatened not to play another note until the person came up on stage and faced him. seeing that it was not going to happen, he called on the audience to point him out and beat the shit out of him... luckily for the idiot the security people and police ushered him out before he got pounded, even though that would have been too good for him. i'll never understand why jerks like that spend the money to go to a show and pull their shit, usually they just bother the people around them, but this asshole could have caused manson or anyone else on stage serious injury... i hope manson sues him and he spends some time in jail getting fucked up the ass so he learns a lesson...
anyway, that kind of took the edge off the evening and i think manson was pissed enough to call it quits after the last number and didn't come out for an encore, and i don't blame him...
so, that's that...

in a little less than twenty one hours...
I will be fifty years old...
I guess that makes me the sad really old goth...
Forgive me for waxing nostalgic, but I was thinking today of all the things I've experienced in that time, things I've seen, things I've heard. It's pretty amazing, the events that have occured in my life and in the world in that time...
I remember standing in my yard with my parents in the middle of the night to watch one of the first American satellites in the sky overhead. It was called Echo I.
I remember the first human to orbit the earth, Yuri Griguran, a Soviet.
I remember watching the first American to travel in space, Allen Shepard, take off from Cape Canaveral.
I've lived through the asassination of an American president.
I watched the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill on TV.
I've lived through the era of the Viet Nam war.
I saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.
I've seen a total eclipse of the sun.
I've seen a comet.
I've gone from writing on a typewriter to writing on a computer.
I've been in a tornado and several hurricanes.
I saw the Berlin Wall put up and stayed up all night watching it being torn down.
I watched the civil rights marches in Washington.
I almost made it to Woodstock.
I've been priviliged to be an observer of so many events that have shaped our lives that I can't even imagine being able to write them all down.
And, aside from those events, there have been so many personal events that still come to mind now and then...
the smell of our house when my parents turned on the heat for the first time in the fall...
the quiet solitude of the woods behind my house, where, as a young person, I first became aware of the presence of the Goddess and the God in the world around me...
the excitement of a child's Christmas...
the thrill of seeing a flight of geese overhead in the Autumn...
the smell of burning leaves...
walking home from a friend's house during a snowfall, how quiet it was...
first love....
it's amazing how many events make up who we are. I could never list them all without turning myself inside out to do so.
Time is fleeting... the future never seems to get here, the past happens so quickly.
I hope the next fifty years are as interesting...
Blessed be, friends.

comments, anyone..?

congratulations..!
to all our friends in the People's Republic of China for a successful launch of their first manned spacecraft. I hope all goes well and that this will be an avenue of further understanding and cooperation between our countries. While there is some popular opinion that the exploration of near space is a waste of money and time, I think that anything that increases our knowledge of our little planet and the vast universe we inhabit will have untold benefits in years to come. The more we know about what's "out there", the more we learn about ourselves.
Blessed be, friends.

i am not dead...
I've been slaving away on the renovation of the lair's kitchen. All the cabinets have been stripped down to bare wood, which is a nice, rich red oak. I've spent the last few nights sanding and applying a clear acrylic coating. It's slow work, but the results are worth it. When they are done, I'll put on the new hardware, which will probably be green cut glass handles, which will be a nice accent to the green tin ceiling and the slate floor, both of which are yet to happen, but have been picked out. We're also opting for a press tin backsplash behind all the counters, which will match the pattern of the ceiling, but will probably not get painted, as they come a nicely lacquered stainless steel.
I spent the past Sunday cleaning up the flower beds and planting some hardy mums and some more multi-color petunias for some late color.
The leaves are starting to turn and the diminishing light is starting to bring on the usual seasonal melancholy, so stand by for the usual depressing shit you've come to know and love.
The new page design is crawling along, all I need is to finish some photography and send it to the web designer so she can get this thing rolling. It will be something to see when it's done.
So, that's it for now, I think. I'll try to keep you updated on things as time allows.
Blessed be, friends.

this old lair...the next chapter
I've turned to the endless list of inside projects now that the cooler weather is here and started the renovation of our kitchen today. I spent the day on the refinishing of the kitchen cabinets. It's going better than expected, I managed to get three wall cabinets stripped today and the doors and drawer fronts of three base cabinets. If it keeps going this good I should have the balance of the cabinets ready to finish in about a week or so. We were going to paint them, but they are made of solid red oak and have cleaned up so well that we might just put an oil finish on them.
The next step will be replacing the tile floor with wood, maybe bleached bamboo would be nice. After that, painting the walls and putting in a new ceiling. Maybe a copper color tin ceiling along with a stained glass ceiling light fixture.
As far as rebuilding the blog goes, I've bitten the bullet and have been in contact with a web designer from Australia... she specializes in gothic and fantasy themes and if everything works out, it should be something to behold, so stay tuned.
I've been working on recreating the final chapters of my story "Treasure of the Sierra Madre, East", which, you might recall, was left hanging when my other PC imploded. I will repost the entire story at once so you don't have to go digging through the archives for it.
Well, I'm going to kick back, have a brew or two and watch "Seven".
later.
Oh, yeah, I haven't forgotten about Monster Mania. I will be posting a review and a little diary of our experiences as part of the staff.