one last dream

My sister lives in a prosperous, upper-middle class suburb of Des Moines. A neighbor two blocks down locked himself in his house armed with alcohol and a gun yesterday. The street was blocked off for most of the day while the police tried to negotiate with him. The man shot himself dead in his garage, leaving behind a wife and two children.

What an abysmal ending.

---

At midnight I'm going to listen to Aretha Franklin sing "Never Let Me Go".

And I'm going to imagine, through the cold, that I'm slow dancing with a warm and sensuous body, drinking in her smiling eyes, gently venturing across her sacred lips, feeling the faint electric beating of our content mutual heart.

Happy new year.

the men's room

When the movie was over I went into the men's room. One man's assessment of the film was this: "I had to piss so bad I couldn't even concentrate."

Later that evening I channeled that rare, elusive thing called honesty and I told my date that she was a lovely person but that I couldn't see us going anywhere.

She agreed.

---

I still got it bad.

I'm so in love I can't even concentrate.

Hence, I am no good to anyone.

voiceofwitness.org

Using my pathetically limited reach to promote a worthy cause:

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/eeFUa?variant=1B,2A&utm_expid=35112346-2.Ha7NegCKQLO97s8rW-jMoQ.5&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Ffundrazr.com%2Ffind%3Fsearch%3Dvoice%2Bof%2Bwitness

If you're not familiar with Voice Of Witness, it's an NPO founded in part by the wonderful writer Dave Eggers. The oral histories this series has already produced are phenonemally educational. They are trying to raise money to complete their book on life in post-earthquake Haiti.

It really is a wonderful series, so I just thought I'd put this out there. Pass it along if you can.

I emailed her.

Again.

Damn.

Loser.

Soap poisoning

I was watching A Christmas Story with my niece when I realized that Van Morrison's mid-90s look was stolen directly from Ralphie. Rather than spend my time doing anything valuable or constructive, I put together a convincing argument:

"You can take all the tea in China,
put it in a big brown bag for me.
Sail it right 'round all the seven oceans,
drop it straight into the deep blue sea.

She's as sweet as tupelo honey."

-VM

I hope someday she finds the words so that we can truly talk again.

"We've all got to believe in something, and I believe I'm about to drink some peppermint schnapps."

That's what the old gentleman said to me and the two tellers in the grocery store as he approached the counter with his bottle.

Just read a horribly depressing article about a U.S. drone strike that mistakenly killed 14 attendees (and injured many more) at a Yemeni wedding.

Arg...

Just, arg.

And sigh.

I heard the song "Billy Jack" by Curtis Mayfield the last time I was at First Avenue in Minneapolis. So I bought the album There's No Place Like America Today and discovered a really beautiful song called "So In Love".

I also listened to Miles Davis's Sketches From Spain today. It was a good day.

For music, anyway.

---

In other news, I tried to be funny enough to warrant a response. No success. Hope the jokes made her laugh though... her smile is the important thing.

Sigh.

Need a friend to share my musical discoveries with. Someone who appreciates a good, dumb joke.

Great Moments In 20th Century Music

"Who Needs You So Bad" by Gary Walker & The Boogie Kings

Thanks, Treme.

Some guy in Kenya killed himself because Manchester United lost...

What a world.

I dreamed of love's alluring ache,
familiar once but now so faint.

My eyes fell open to the gloomy light
of a lonely pillow in the dark of night.

I thought to myself: how cruel a fate
to dream of love and then awake.