Thousands of Things About Me (A Work in Progress)

The List (Updated 1/3/2010)

2010-01-03T18:32:00.001-05:00

1. As a kid I loved candy cigarettes
2. I switched to real tobacco shortly before turning 13
3. I have been in every US state except Kansas, Alabama, Alaska, and Hawaii
4. I have been in the following Canadian provinces: Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Alberta, and British Columbia
5. I've been in every county in the Republic of Ireland except Waterford and Louth
6. I prefer frozen custard to ice cream
7. My first kiss occurred in a sewer called Snake Tunnel
8. The person I shared that first kiss with was my best friend's girlfriend at the time
9. He witnessed it
10. I made it all the way to college before every drinking a beer
11. I can't say the same for some other things
12. I have never had sushi
13. After seeing "Lost in Translation", I have no desire to go to Japan
14. I have two cats
15. I hate dancing
16. I attended one of the last Grateful Dead concerts before J. Garcia died
17. The first record I ever bought was Michael Jackson's "Thriller" at the age of 7
18. I skipped my senior year government class nearly everyday yet still got an A
19. Thanks to cheap Priceline rates in 4 star digs, I have become a hotel snob
20. Best hotel I ever stayed in: Renaissance Stanford Court, San Francisco
21. Worst hotel: Motel 6, Amarillo, TX
22. When I was young I wanted to grow up to play MLB
23. I was once blackmailed by a Fairfax County Public schools principal
24. I have caught one snake in the wild
25. I have never been hunting
26. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000
27. I should've done it again in '04
28. I had a stroke at the age of 19-it could've been a brilliant career
29. The first time my wife ever saw me she was looking out her bedroom window naked
30. A short story I wrote about meeting her was published in 1995 in a Morrissey-related 'zine in El Paso, TX put together by a girl I met on the internet
31. At the age of 18 I was plotting a move to Sweden
32. It once took me 5 hours to get to work
33. I designed a hiking trail in the Coconino National Forest
34. I passed the physical test to be a forest fire fighter but never took the written exam/class
35. I don't think I could pass the test now
36. I lived in a pink rowhouse in Richmond
37. I purchased a bb gun in the Charlottesville Kmart and went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway and shot cans
38. My friends and I later had a shooting gallery in the hallway of the pink house
39. I used to love MST3K
40. I have only one friend who ever voted for Bush
41. I worked at Friendly's as a cook and assistant manager while in college
42. my first job ever was a stockboy at Marshall's
43. I suffered a leg fracture while moshing at the old 9:30 Club
44. I was thrown against a wall and robbed by a Mexican Federale
45. I was detained by Canadian border authorities a week later
46. My name is on the No Fly List which requires me to get to the airport very early
47. I would like to infiltrate the Masons to see if the hype is true
48. my car is 5 years old and has 117,000 miles on it
49. I love shoveling snow
50. my favorite beer is Guinness
51. I entered Mexico illegally by rowboat across the Rio Grande
52. A homeless guy stole my boombox in Richmond after being invited inside by my roommate
53. Two of my immediate family members have committed suicide
54. "Lost" and "The Amazing Race" are my favorite tv shows
55. I want to move to Santa Fe
56. I have picked up many hitchhikers
57. I hitchhiked only once
58. I am glad I don't have a cellphone
59. I slept through an earthquake
60. Dead rock icons I've had crushes on: Nico, Janis Joplin
61. My first CD was Bob dylans Greatest Hits Volume 2
62. I've never hit a deer, but I've been in the car when one was hit
63. I spent weekends of my junior year in high school at raves in Baltimore warehouses
64. My first rock concert was Lou Reed at Constitution Hall in 92
65. Janae Fallstead pierced my ear with a safety pin when I was 15
66. I am expecting a baby girl in 2 months
67. I used to steal food from buffets and take it to DC and pass it out to the homeless
68. I took my wife on a backpacking trip along the Olympic coast of Washington without a map as the tides rose
69. Besides Virginia, I lived for about 100 days in northern Arizona at Sunset Crater
70. I drove from Virginia to Amarillo Texas in 24 hours without stopping in a Ford escort
71. I saw a UFO above a shopping center in Woodbridge, VA when I was 4 or 5
72. I had a poem published in the Earth First! Journal
73. My first punk concert was Sonic Youth on Browns Island in Richmond, Va
74. I had a Perot sticker on my car in 11th grade because my girlfriend liked him
75. I worked in a bank for 6 months-the worst 6 months of my life
76. I will buy a house in Big Sur if I win the lottery
77. I don't know whatever happened to my strobelight
78. I will travel serious distances for a tasty chili con queso
79. My mom was in the Pentagon on 9-11
80. I've reported someone to CPS for child abuse
81. I had braces in 6th grade
82. My favorite fastfood place is Chipotle
83. I've never been to Electric Ladyland
84. I remember when DC's Chinatown was Chinese, not a mess of Starbucks and Subways with Chinese characters on their awnings
85. I almost got trampled by police horses at an IMF protest
86. I taught in an elementary school for three years in an area that truly qualified as ghetto
87. I cried a little when I'd heard Johnny Cash died, and was pissed that John Ritter got more attention
88. Books that changed my life: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, On The Road, The Stranger
89. I hated everyone on my floor of the dorm freshman year of college
90. Twice in my life girls I didn't know came up and kissed me- once at a Grateful Dead concert and once at King's Dominion
91. On a whim a friend and I once drank a whole bottle of Robitussin
92. It was not a pleasant experience
93. I hate cleaning litterboxes
94. I like cooking, but hate having to clean up
95. I'm so glad that the people of Canada's Atlantic provinces prefer Pepsi
96. In 7th grade I was obsessed with comic books, particularly Batman
97. Garbage Pail Kids were banned at school on my birthday
98. I attended Grateful Dead shows from 92-95, hanging out in the lot when tickets couldn't be had
99. I got married in a rural church at the foot of the Blue Ridge
100. My friends gave us a canoe as a wedding gift
101. Things I've shoplifted: pack of gum, baseball cards, cigarettes
102. I think Alice Cooper's first few albums are amazing
103. I thought Forrest Gump was the lowpoint of American cinematic history
104. My wife had slowly turned me into a Gilmore Girls viewer, but I recovered
105. My first computer was a Mac Quadra 605
106. My favorite sediment layer in the west is Moenkopi sandstone
107. I thought "Saved" was a brilliant movie
108. Ditto for "Off the Map"
109. I hate powerpoint presentations so don't expect a good evaluation if you use it
110. The kids in the ghetto convinced themselves that I was "lightskinned" because they actually really liked me
111. Favorite place for BBQ- Kenny's Smokehouse- Maryland Ave. NE
112. When I was little we went to Ocean City, MD every summer-I'd get to purchase an iron on shirt on the boardwalk. I would usually pick either something with a skull or a Duran Duran one
113. We always cut down our own Christmas tree in my youth
114. My wife and I have an artifical that we paid 17.99 for.
115. I always thought one day Scooby Doo would catch a real ghost
116. I think Toby Keith should enlist in the military and ask to be put on the frontlines so he can "put a boot in your ass that says American made", rather than just singing about it from the safety of Nashville.
117. I hate how baseball is being used to promote mindless nationalism
118.It seems like everything I buy is a piece of crap.
119.I am now typing this from the basement. My computer has been moved to make way for a baby
120. The Man Who Knew Too Much is one of Jimmy Stewart's crowning glories
121. Camel crickets are this area's most repulsive insect
122. I've read every Harry Potter book except the Chamber of Secrets
123. Ben/Henry Gale is a good guy
124. I grow more perturbed everyday that no one has seen fit to release the 2nd season of Twin Peaks on DVD
125. Me and many of my friends had planned to be writers when we grew up, but only one has been truly published it was a historical monograph, I think
126. I have a strong desire to visit Quebec's Gaspe Penninsula
127. I am lucky to have several friends who are excellent artists
128. Ikea sells cool furniture, but I don't like shopping there because I'm not good at putting things together.
129. My weight and blood pressure are both on the decline
130. In elementary school I was addicted to Hardy Boy's books
131. I've violated many rental car contracts by driving off road, and have never been caught
132. I try to intentionally be late for movies these days so I don't have to watch car or Coke commercials
133. I love Kashi
134. Favorite French Fries: Red Robin or Five Guys or the best of all time-Thrashers in Ocean City
135. I hit a woman with my car and sent her to the hospital, but I think she faked her injuries
136. The first time I heard the Velvet Underground was like a revelation-ditto for Bob Dylan, the early Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, and Luna
137. I accidentally started a brush fire that burned several acres before being extinguished by a thunder storm
138.I've been drinking about 12 glasses of water a day
139.I haven't had a hamburger since 8/10/05, perhaps the lnogest streak since I was a vegetarian.
140. I was a vegetarian for nearly two years-when my brother died I started eating fried chicken again since when someone dies your house gets bombarded with buckets of chicken. Maybe it was a way to cope.
141.I've never read the poetry of Delmore Schwartz, although he comes highly recommended by Lou Reed
142. I won a statewide contest for prose writing at 17
143.I had written over 3,000 poems by the age of 23, and maybe 50 since then. Not being miserable cramps creativity
144. I still know all the words to the Muppet Babies theme song
145. I've never thrown up as a result of alcohol
146. In some sense, I think Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" may be the gayest movie ever made, as well as the most unheroic, yet still protagonist role that Jimmy Stewart ever played
147. I only got to see Stereolab in concert once-on the second stage at Lollapalooza 94
148. I wanted to go work at Hearst Castle when I found out employees occasionally get to swim in the pool
149. I still think the most brilliant thing ever to appear on tv was "The Prisoner"
150. I have about 70,000 Delta Skymiles
151. I used to quit jobs without notice just to hang out with a girlfriend or something
152. The perfect appetizer-potato skins or cheese fries
153. I have little to no respect for traffic laws
154. I have seen Tom Paxton in concert 4 years in a row at the Birchmere, but won't this year because I'll have a newborn in November.
155. I prefer the sound of music on records
156. I wish William Burroughs was still alive
157. I've enjoyed Ayn Rand's books, but could never bring myself to agree with much of what she said-I think the only people who do wind up working in the Federal Reserve
158. I have no patience left for those who support fascism
159. I fully believe the disaster in New Orleans would have been dealt with swiftly if the victims were white
160. Favorite Homer Simpson line: "Animals are crapping in our houses and we're cleaning it up. Did we lose a war?"
161. I knew a girl named Jennifer Terrell who was an expert at quoting lines from "Rosemary's Baby"
162. I'm starting to wonder what will become of all my vhs tapes as another technology I was raised on bites the dust
163. In a sane world, the chief justice of the Supreme Court would be someone with significant experience as a judge
164. I support any effort to begin the impeachment proceedings against the reptilian monstrosity and his cabal
165. I doubt I'll make it to Canada next year
166. I was employed for over a year to extoll the virtues of Robert E. Lee
167. I attended one game at Wrigley Field and it was lightly snowing
168. I think Pink Floyd's "Remember A Day" is one of the great sad songs:
"Remember a day before today
A day when you were young.
Free to play alone with time
Evening never came.
Sing a song that can't be sung
Without the morning's kiss
Queen - you shall be it if you wish
Look for your king
Why can't we play today
Why can't we stay that way
Climb your favorite apple tree
Try to catch the sun
Hide from your little brother's gun
Dream yourself away
Why can't we reach the sun
Why can't we blow the years away
Blow away Blow away Remember Remember"
169. One year I dressed as Michael Stipe for halloween
170. My high school European History teacher would years later be chosen Virginia teacher of the year- he deserved it
171. I hate crowds
172. I used to read the comic strip Zippy daily, but have gotten burned out on it
173. I canceled my subscription to the Washington Post because of its pro-war editorial board
174. I've been in Nebraska in a car for an hour, but never set foot in it, just saw the sights on US20 west of Chadron
175. I wish Pete Seeger was healthy enough to tour
176. I've never eaten calamari on the east coast
177. I had one child out of wedlock at 18
178. I don't think Dumbledore's dead
179. I don't think the Nationals will make the playoffs, but it could be close
180. The reason the other blog is called "the New Children Laugh" is that it's a line from a Tim Buckley song
181. My favorite season has always been autumn
182. I read much of Nietzsche's work, but it never radicalized me in any way
183. Charles Bowden is America's greatest living writer
184. I find the Onion more relevant than the NY Times
185. I laugh my ass off at certain parts of "Huckleberry Finn"
186. I think "Hide and Seek" is the worst movie I've seen in 2005- nothing but a rip off of "Secret Window" and "The Shining"
187. "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" may be Dylan's masterpiece, if not that then "Idiot Wind"
188. I've been to the gym 11 times in the last 14 days
189. I've reached the point where I'm so sick of litterboxes I'm ready to give away my cats
190. I had a really cool Tim Leary cd when I was in high school called "You Can Be anything This Time around"-I have no idea what happened to it
191. I wonder what Nik Hablenko is doing tonight
192. Ditto for Shane Runyon and Asia Russell (the only girl I ever loved who went on to be a leading American AIDS activist)
193. I just have this thing about not trusting mormons
194. I'm eagerly awaiting indictments in the Plame affair
195. There was a time when I felt sympathetic toward Robert E Lee, but those days are gone. Still though he's the most likable figure of that time period.
196. I lived for one year at 801 West Franklin St, Richmond, Va, one year at 1600 Grove ave, and one year at 1625 1/2 West Grace St
197. When i lived in those places I was convinced I'd be a major writing talent by now
198. I tried, to no avail, to like Phish
199. I was once way out on the Tohono O O'dam Indian Reservation in southern AZ, and was starving after a day of hiking in Organ Pipe. But the gas station I stopped at had a cheap ass atm that didn't recognize my card, and so I drove all the way to Casa Grande via dirt backroads marked by cattle guards and cholla, grumbling in my tummy.
200. All my favorite singers couldn't sing
201. Like many I had a Def Leppard phase
202. I've read most of DAvid Icke's books, but I'm not sure how much to take seriously
203. Best Bart line "I've got a pain in me gulliver"
204. I attended 3 universities. None had a football team
205. It was a mistake to eat a gram of hash in one sitting
206. I used to buy really cheap cuts of steak in Richmond and fry them up. We called them ghetto cuts
207. I remember the Chilito (Brian Aznar said it was better than an orgasm)
208. I thought "Miller's Crossing" was overrated
209. I recently discovered that Subway does sell sandwiches other than tuna
210. I'd planned to go meet Ken Kesey, but then he died
211. I attended the grand opening of a Walmart when I lived in Luray, VA in 2000
212. I tried to get into the 2002 Bilderberger gathering, but police blocked my way
213. The pants of younger years fit again
214. There is one image that haunts me more than all others- that of my Dad discovering my brother's dead, bloody body
215. My first buffalo burger ever was for breakfast at Wall Drug in May of 96
216. Noam Chomsky seems too conservative sometimes
217. It bothers me that one of my dear friends of ancient days has lost all his idealism
218. I'm itching to go camping right about now
219. my dream vacation: a long western road trip with my in two years toddler introducing her to the Badlands, Yellowstone, etc...
220. I dreamed I swam across Lake Superior the other night
221. I will be in Sun Valley come August
222. I have a dislike of evangelical types of any religion
223. If I could, I would live in fredonia, Az, despite all the mormons
224. I let my lawn die each winter by not raking up the autumn leaves
225. I'm worse than a lad when it comes to snow.
226. The girl who introduced me to taoism and Cat Stevens and the Jefferson Airplane song "Lather" left a comment on this blog.
227. I got to see the Silver Jews in concert in Chicago this year.
228. I found a dead snake in the basement the other day. It's time to move.
229. I'm still trying to get rid of the cats.
230. I don't know if there are thousands of things about me.
231. I'm wishing I'd stayed a park ranger.
232. For some reason I can only get my daughter to fall asleep in the bathroom with the exhaust fan running.
233. The Stone Roses are still worth a listen...
234. I may be the only one on my block who is in this country legally.
235. There's a kind of hush all over the world tonight
236. I'm already imagining my hopeful (in a couple years ) trip to Finnmark(Northern Norway)
237. The place I work at allows us to wear jeans on Friday-apparently someone somewhere thinks it improves morale to permit denim once a week.
238. I once put up the closed sign at the bookstore where I worked so I could sleep behind the counter after having stayed up all night helping a girl who was vomiting malt liquor all over my apartment.
239. I was a little late to discover the greatest of all the Elephant 6 Collective bands, but better late than never.
240. I wouldn't have thunk I'd be studying to be a GIS analyst back when I began this sad blog of hopeless listing of what is gone.
241. Everyone of my college roommates who reproduced in 05 or 06 had a girl, including me.
242. A friend is soon to move to Raleigh, North Carolina where he can think of Sir Walter's illicit encounters with the Virgin Queen in 1588.
243. The woman I crashed into in 2004 won a 12k dollar settlement against me in Fairfax County General District Court because she claimed the accident had left her unable to cook or remember if she'd made the bed.
244. I'm wearing Ryan Ericsson's old black hoody as I write this since he couldn't be with us all for this week's festivities.
245. I was once played for a fool by a half Swedish New Jerseyite named Ingrid (last name withheld to protect her business)
246. I live in a neighborhood that was deemed economically unviable by a major grocery chain
247. The plan is to be in Quebec by late July.
248. I once demanded my friends take me to the hospital so I could ask to have my stomach pumped.
249. I never wrote that second book.
250. I now prefer Coke Zero over Pepsi One
251. I attended 3 of the first 4 HFStivals.
252. This girl passed out cold in our apartment after attending an Orb concert at Twisters on West grace Street, Richmond
253. When I went off to college my mom sent me with a case of snapple, case of arizona ice tea, case of coke, case of oj, case of snickers, and case of slim jims.
254. first backpacking trip-with Ryan and Kevin to White Oak Canyon 10/1/94
255. I have taken my daughter to the zoo twice.
256. When I worked in DC schools when things were at their worst, I would mutter over and over to myself "sick down to my heart well that's just the way it goes", over and over as I drove down Constitution Ave. (the quote was from a Morrissey song)
257. That sort of mentality led to anti-anxiety medication eventually.
258. I'm waiting for the dryer to finish with my clothes right now.
259. I would love to get rid of both my cats.
260. My wife thought I was leading us to our death while backpacking in Washington's Olympic Coast Wilderness because the tides were rising, the sun setting, and I was relying on a map and pictures I'd seen on a website to navigate us to our campsite. Shortly after she pronounced us doomed, we crawled through a sea cave lined with banana slugs and found ourselves on the wide sandy beach I'd promised her we were headed towards.
261. When I was young I'd stand on an old piece of fence in my backyard in Longwood Knolls and iamgine it was a raft I was poleing down the Mississippi.
262. I actually got to see Pete Seeger in concert! It was in October 06. He was 87 and tired, but as passionate as ever about everything that matters and still strumming that banjo like it was 1940 in a longshoreman's hall. I think about myself 57 years from now, and know I'll be nothing compared to what he is.
263. We're going back to San Francisco this June for a week-free first class tickets via the Skymiles. It's somewhat gloomy to visit there, because I know it's where we should live, but circumstances don't permit it yet. It will be sweet though to push my daughter down Columbus Ave in her stroller the fragrance of coffee and pasta lingering on the wind, and then maybe stopping in at City Lights in hope that Ferlinghetti will be around that day then catch the 29 muni over to Haight and buy her a hippy dress then on to Chinatown to poke amongst the weirdness in the markets before wolfing down copious quanities of fried rice in an ancient roach ridden restaurant on Stockton...
264. It's been a while since I thought about the time Kevin K. and I got robbed by a street dealer and a woman complaining about ovarian cysts, but it deserves to be catalogued nonetheless.
265. Wife and daughter are out of town right now giving me the time to compose this when I should be studying for a biogeography exam.
266. I had a great time alone in the Canadian rockies last summer slipping on glaciers and sitting above timberline in hail/lightning storms.
267. I don't know when I'll have the time to get to Denver to see Ryan, but I need to come up with a plan.
268. I heard the Velvet Underground on the radio the other day on a classic rock station-what the hell is going on lumping them in with Fleetwood Mac and Supertramp???
269. Our 2nd baby (my 3rd) is due on November 4, 2007.
270. I attended Cherry Run Elementary in Burke, VA
271. On numerous occasions during my high school daze my mother accused me of being gay.
272. One of my first college experiences was a Phillipino girl sitting on my lap while I ate pizza and drank Zima with a Russian immigrant and Kevin's older brother.
273. I was verbally sexually harrassed by a very slimy looking guy in the village of Ballymote, County Sligo Ireland on a lovely July night when my honeymooning wife and I wandered around the vacant streets in search of a place to get a meal around 10pm after a day climbing cliffs and exploring neolithic tombs.
274. We were saved a by mildly retarded local named Shane who invited us to come by in the morning for a drink.
275. I once owned golf clubs, but sold them for cd money.
276. For entertainment I would hold strobe lights up to my face for five or ten minutes continuously back in the day.
277. I have been devoted to Bob dylan for 16 years and 3 months.
278. Rich and I were driving on Yates Ford Rd once. I reached my arm out the window of the Honda to grab a lone traffic cone. A construction worker appeared out of nowhere and bellowed "You take that cone boy you're going to jail."
279. The one time I went deep sea fishing (in the Gulf of St. Lawrence) I threw up after catching 3 cod.
280. My current favorite poet: Gregory Corso-He once robbed City Lights Bookstore.
281. I turned 30 at Blackwater Falls, WV last year.
282. Other locales I've spent birthdays-Phoenix,AZ, Richmond, Luray, Harpers Ferry, here
283. Someone stole my binoculars from the pickup truck when I lived at Sunset Crater
284. Once out there while driving to Safeway at dusk I nearly hit a cougar crossing US89
285. I have this thing about wanting to go to Patagonia.
286. I visited Wounded Knee in 1996.
287. I threw my gum out the window on US 20 westbound near Chadron, Nebraska-the only DNA evidence existing of my 90 minutes in that state one thundery afternoon of August 97
288. I have two tulips popping up in my front yard. Next year I'll have dozens.
289. I left a fetal pig ear at the scene of a girl named Karen's car accident.
290. I sang Cat Stevens with ryan once as we sat beneath the Occoquan River bridge eating Taco bell on a November night that had begun with bonfires and hayrides.
291. My wife convinced me I was better off peeing right next to the tent at a campground near Jackson Hole no the Snake after informing me there was a black widow hanging over the latrine.
292. Today she baked some delicious cookies.
293. How come everytime I get a Vanilla shake at Mcdonalds there is always a hunk of strawberry shake embedded in the middle? It happened again tonight when sent on an ice cream run to fulfill pregnant cravings.
294. I will turn 31 this Sunday, April 22nd.
295. Most significant birthday ever-1992, after being licensed that afternoon I came home and mom let me drive the Volvo over to Nik's. I took him to the Huntsman Square Giant to buy generic cigarettes from the vending machine, but wouldn't let him smoke in that car.
296. First cigarette ever-1989, May, a Marlboro Red
297. First alcohol ever-January 1992, Chardonnay, a bottle consumed in the snow wandering around Longwood Knolls with Asia, and later up to Cherry Run Elementary for dizzy walks on white soccer fields of frosted night glory. The bottle stolen from my parents. My mom was a real estate agent and people always gave her wine at settlements. She didn't drink it so those bottles collected dust until I came to my 15th year, and began spending every Saturday night consuming all the alcohol in the company of the goth girl I knew would never be mine, even though one champagne night she and I did kiss on the corner of Bestwick and Waterline. It meant nothing to her.
298. We spent Janae's birthday decorating an old washing machine found on the curb.
299. When I lived in the Coconino Nat'l Forest Michelle would drive up every thursday night, and we'd have great three day cabin weekends of high country exploration both on the plateau and the old streets of Flagstaff. At night we'd stay warm by the woodstove playing Yahtzee or reading each other passages from Wendell Berry books. They were among the best days of my life.
300. I have caught several foul balls at minor league games, and was standing next to Jeremiah when he got a ball at a Chicago White Sox game in the vulgarity of US Cellular.
301. I'm hardly ever sick so my sick leave must be used for other purposes. I can't countenance just letting it sit there.
302. I got fingerprinted today for a possible 2nd act in the ghetto-yes, the prodigal son may be returning to Northeast.
303. I'm wondering why Kevin has had to restrict access to his blog.
304. REM's "Good Advices" remains with me always-ditto for "Nightswimming"
305. I have been to graves of the following famous people: Jack Kerouac, Robert E Lee, William Butler Yeats, King Cormac of Munster, Jefferson Davis, James Monroe, the 300 people massacred at Wounded Knee, SD, and I guess that's all that comes to mind.
306. Requisite roadfood for Tom-Ryan roadtrips of yore-Pepsi and Snickers, usually purchased in C-Ville
307. Every year in Richmond we would come home for Thanksgiving by going all the west to Waynesboro then taking Skyline Dr north to Thornton Gap, then east to Warrenton and North to home. There was one sunset when Liz Phair was going on the mixtape that shall not be forgotten.
308. The last good night's sleep I had was on the ground in Jasper, Alberta-it was 2 Celsius on a fine August morn when I awoke for the long drive to Calgary.
309. I always wanted to write a Ray Bradbury caliber short story where melancholia is superbly blended with irony, but it never came about.
310. I saw the first bumper sticker in a long time that cracked me up the other day. It read "I'm driving so fast because I've really got to poop."
311. I toured a 619,000 dollar house today, and realized I'd never have anything that nice.
312. Ocean City's boardwalk rides were the highlight of my early youth summers.
313. Somewhere along the line I stopped giving change to the homeless and started averting my eyes or lying. I'm not really sure why.
314. I can remember the Fall 1985 haunted house put on by the March of Dimes in the abandoned old racetrack hotel in the middle of what was once downtown Burke, VA.
315. Rich and I kept old yogurts in lockers we broke into to see how fast mold would grow.
316. My daughter is now 19 months old and has already memorized at least a dozen books.
317. I think James Dean was a horrible actor
318. I re-landscaped our front yard the other day.
319. I was pumping gas in Emporia, VA along US301 in 90 degree heat looking across the road to a boarded up family restaurant of an age when the backroad was the road, and I realized the south as I wanted to remember it was dead and gone, but then I walked into the station to go to the bathroom, smelled the catfish frying behind the counter and thought maybe all wasn't lost.
320. I'm presently reading "The Subterraneans"
321. My wife went over a week without bathing to begin our 2003 western roadtrip. When she finally showered at a hotel in Olympia, she turned a washcloth black. I myself had bought a shower at the Canyon village in Yellowstone two days prior.
322. My best camping night ever-Manchester Beach, CA August 9, 1997 with Michelle. I think we heard the laughter of ghosts in the salt breeze beneath the scrubby pine where we'd pitched our tent. Mendocino County is the promised land.
323. Don't shop at the Subway restaurant in Carmel Church, VA. The manager is an asshole who will rip a slice of cheese right off a baby's turkey sandwich. It's the Subway in the Pilot truckstop. BEWARE! I know because my daughter was the victim of his penny-pinching attitude just as I used to become infuriated by the Indians who ran the Subway in west Luray who would actually count the olives as they doled them out across my sandwich.
324. I will never be as cool as Everett Reuss.
325. I thought "The Village" was a metaphor for the so called War on Terror.
326. Garnet Rogers didn't remember how to play one of the songs I requested when I saw him at Jammin Java a couple years ago.
327. Everytime I encounter a bear I either don't have the camera, or the picture just doesn't come out right. I've come upon at least a dozen black bears in the last ten years, after going the first 20 years of my life without a single sighting.
328. Adam and I sat in the Harrison laundromat watching two drunks argue (one was in a hospital gown) on a winter night in 95 or 96.
329. Some people in history who have had a profound influence on me: John Wesley Powell and Martin Luther
330. I used to love driving down Hull St in Richmond soaking up the ghetto life.
331. In 7th grade my history teacher waged war on our minds by making us watch Fail Safe
332. I suck at just about everything
333. I'm halfway to the number of the beast
334. What was I really getting out of listening to the Dead Kennedys as a 12 year old?
335. My favorite band name ever: Peter and the Test Tube babies (they had a great punk song called "Banned From the Pub" on some compilation I bought at the now defunct CD store in Annandale in the spring of 92
336. After dropping off some girls I didn't even know at a house in Silver Spring around 430 am I drove around the neighborhood desperately seeking to pee, still tripping after a long night of raving. I finally wound up in a mcdonalds where I sat for hours until it was time to meet Shane for a breakfast at Shoneys before we began our Sunday shift at Marshalls
337. I was turned on to Edgar Allen Poe by my 2nd grade language arts teacher who showed us a filmstrip version of "The Black cat" on halloween 1983.
338. I hit my brother in the head with a hammer once because he had thrown a spring from a broken rocking horse at me
339. As a kid at Christmas time I'd turn off all the lights in living room except the tree lights and lie on my back on the floor, head beneath the tree staring up into the kaleidoscopic twinkle of branches and flashing lights, usually my cat Pocahontas was beside me.
340. My family's trip on California hwy. 1 was delayed near Bodega Bay so a Smuckers jelly commercial could be filmed. The police officer holding up traffic said to us "I better at least get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich out of this."
341. I don't like banana slugs
342. I have learned that it is very hard to find milk in an airport, and impossible on a plane
343. For the 3rd straight summer I am an avid viewer of Hell's Kitchen
344. When I travel by plane I like to read the Economist-I think it was Ryan's dad whom years ago suggested I might like that mag
345. We had to buy a new microwave because the one we had was leaking radiation
346. Did I mention I support life in prison at Gitmo for Dick Cheney with daily waterboarding?
347. Tomorrow the Washington Post will run a correction about an article in their Travel section because I discovered a geographic mistake relating to joshua trees
348. I think the 4th of July should be celebrated by acting on the instructions in the Declaration of Independence
349. I must've been about six when I got my first comic book at the 7-11 on Lee Chapel Rd-it was a Green Lantern. I got it before heading over to my friend David's house to spend the night camping in his yard.
350. Last week I got stung twice on the same arm by two different bees in two different Canadian provinces on the same day.
351. I find myself wishing ZigZag coffeehouse was still around on U Street. Yesterday we drove past the rowhouse basement where it was housed below the traffic back in 93 when the street was still edgy and dark and had at least a hint of mystery and excitement to offer suburban teenagers who had come seeking weird new beverages called cappucino and espresso which were unheard of in our Denny's world of Fairfax.
352. I found a huge deerhunting knife on the trail while backpacking with Kevin, Jeremiah and Brett last month
353. I didn't learn how to really tie my shoes right until 5th grade-years of velcro had handicapped me.
354. My first legal beer was purchased for me by Ryan at 12:01 am on my b-day at the vilalge cafe. It was either a Becks or a Heineken I'm not sure. The goth wiatress gave me a free steakncheese sub because it was my day of glory and the cook had made an extra by msitake.
355. My new worst hotel is the Inn at Nichols Village-first off, it's not an inn, there is no Nichols Village, and the toilet in our room had someone's unflushed BM floating in it. God bless Scranton!
356. For the 3rd summer in a row my guilty pleasure has been "Hell's Kitchen"
357. I thought the "Deathly hallows" had the lamest, most pathetic ending of any book I've read in a long, long time.
358. I remember huge tips for soda and potato skins in the 3rd Street Diner
359. I suck at making a good campfire
360. There was a murder and a wounding in my neighborhood last week.
361. There's nothing quite so depressing as walking the halls of Children's Hospital and seeing all the kids with IV's and tubes and raggedness
362. Many a fine night spent on the porch of 1600 Grove Ave, Richmond, VA listening to the Stone Roses and watching the traffic lights change
363. My wife has refused to give up yet on making me a healthier eater, not recognizing that she he already has in the sense that the only time I ever have red meat is when we go out to eat, and that before she came along I'd never had tofu or beans or much of anything that didn't once stand in a feedlot.
364. I used to write and receive great long letters from friends spread across the country, but email killed letter writing and blogging seems to have snuffed out emailing.
365. I have become almost completely out of touch with all aspects of pop culture, this began years ago, but as the years go by it gets worse (or better from my perspective), but I don't share a common vernacular or media experience with those I work with leaving me sort of on the margins of everything because when they talk of "My Name is Earl" I'm still stuck on "My Name is Luka", and whether the Lemonheads or Suzanne Vega had the better version.
366. This year has been very travel heavy. In the past two months I've only been home for a couple of weeks, but that should change with a new baby coming in the fall.
367. I recommend you read Kerouac's "Tristessa". I'm re-reading it now for the first time since Christmas of 93, and am finding so much to love in the imagery and resigned sadness of the whole thing.
368. A newspaper can be a good prop for the socially inept.
369. "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens is one of my all time favorite songs
370. My recent spur of the moment job quitting will probably be the last for a couple decades with another child due in four weeks, and visions already of the great travels our family will have
371. Ryan and I pulled into this one Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone in Oct of 95 around midnight and there were all these college guys practicing karate while we sipped coffee for a moment, then decided we wouldn't be sleeping there
372. I had a Gumby phase
373. I've been re-reading all Kafka's short stories recently
374. Tell me again why I should vote Democrat after the debate the other night where they all assured me they'd keep troops in Iraq until 2013?
375.I'm itching to be camping
376. My five minute commute to work does not provide me enough time to down my obligatory morning soda
377. Taking out the trash is just something I do
378. I'm planning to write the new book that is much more chronological and cohesive than the 2004 edition.
379. I had an autumn where I sat in the hallway eating lunch while listening to the Cure on a walkman and scribbling hopeless love thoughts for a girl named Karen D_______ in a black speckled composition book
380. I bought the new radiohead album for 1 quid, and I'm listening to it right now as I type
381. My daughter keeps having conversations at night in her crib with a gecko that she says sleeps in the bushes
382. I'm jaded already about another job, but what can I do?
383. Ryan and I watched a pizza man walk through a race riot from high above the Richmond night streets
384. I'm sick of ironing clothes. It's time to suck it up and pay the dry cleaner.
385. My friend Kevin once greatly offended me by saying "What is this Andrew Llyod Webber music?", as I played him Tim Buckley
386. I watched Adam tear off his shirt under a black light and smear yellow highlighter all over his chest and face. Laura Ashley carressed his short black hair and I saw a sinlge neon trip dripping down his cheek, and I thought of him spitting out cookies all over the hallway earlier in the evening for some reason or other. Later we debated the true meaning of "The Rabid Child" in the cubby beneath my loft bed while smoking endless Basic cigarettes
387. I will no longer die without having picked apples.

388. I once had a girlfriend named Carrie who wore way too much perfume. Even the notes she gave me stunk of it.

389. I always wanted to excavate the Fountain Bookstore basement

390. I have stood on the roof of Friendly's

391. Wandering around by myself sunday night in Union Square looking for a bus was fine. Not finding the bus and having to walk back up Powell was not fine.

392. In the last 13 years I've only thrown up 3 times-robitussin, seasickness, and stomach flu

393. I had a thing for a girl rich named "Hatinger". He said she was a witch. Oddly I had met her years earlier, and she was my mom's best friend's god-child

394. Michelle once mailed me a coat and wool socks to help me prepare for final exams

395. I miss going to fake Irish pubs

396. Ryan remembers the Incascape at VCU

397. My neighbors are being haunted by an old lady's ghost. They are hiring a ghostbuster group, and if that doesn't work they're moving out.

398. I can't believe it's been almost a year since my big job quitting with no notice. Still no repercussions. And my spot is still vacant there according to the website.

399. The soundtrack for "Into the Wild" is in heavy rotation around here.

400. I brought this site back because we're all gonna die.

401. I heard "Walk Away Renee" on Saturday for the first time in years. It is still one of the top ten melancholy oldies of all time.

402. My daughter begins preschool in 3 months. She wasn't born when I started this site.

403. New year's Eve and hikes up Bull Run Mountain just go together.

404. The plan is to spend Christmas to New Years in Florida not on Bull Run Mountain

405. I'm taking kayaking lessons next weekend with my wife.

406. One of my favorite roads now is US 64 from Tyrell County, NC through Dare County and its terminus at highway 12 and the Atlantic. If you love swamp country tidewater populated by bears, red wolves, and crumbling down sharecropper shacks being overwhelmed by vines and biting flies, then this is the place for you.

407. I feel like I've done nothing much this summer.

408. I need a real road trip bad, petrol prices be damned.

409. I wasn't very impressed by Yankee Stadium except for the trains coming and going beyond the outfield wall and the old apartment buildings and grit of the Bronx outside.

410. My Lou Reed/William Burroughs vision of New York was shattered when I actually went there and saw how completely Rudy Guiliani had wiped out the street hustle culture and turned Times Square into a place only a corporate comfyness seeking traveler desiring a meal at Red Lobster would ever want to go to.

411. I have seen the working class houses of Jersey and found no comfort there.

412. I did catch a massive manta ray from a pier, but couldn't land him.

413. 16 years ago this month my friend Rich Dodson left for the US Military prep academy at Fort Monmouth. I would drive up there and visit him in October. In a record store in Asbury Park I bought Nico's "Chelsea Girls", still one of my favorite albums even long after I could realistically connect its lyrics to my life in any legitimate way.

414. I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad" right now. I first heard it ten years ago after being introduced to it by my coworker John at harpers Ferry. We'd listen to the Guthrie-esque songs while smoking around the entrance station.

415. Michelle wants me to take her to see "Mama Mia".

416. The worst beer I ever had was a 1 buck Yunegling at Slane, a bar in Greenwich Village. There was a reason for the mid-afternoon discount.

417. It's pretty sad that going to Costco is an outing.

418. I had an awkward conversation with Strom Thurmond in a senate elevator in 1995 about the character of old Charleston. He must have been like 94 then and walked as fast as me.

419. I spend my time in the bathroom pouring over a UK roadmap book, staring at the hillshade and imagining the topography, longing to have the resources to just go spend a couple years exploring little villages with names like Kirkby Cross or Upper Husbands.

420. This number used to elicit a smirk.

421. There are stretches of highway in Cape Hatteras Nat'l Seashore that remind me of pinyon-juniper woodland in Northern Arizona, as well as sections that evoke western Nebraska.

422. Why is it that I have whole semesters of college that are blurry and almost forgotten, but I can vividly remember lectures given by highschool teachers and can even recite my class schedules and teachers from 9th grade on?

423. I often have dreams where I'm yelling at my parents.

424. The Mega Millions lottery will be hopefully financing my English backroad expedition imagined above.

425. 1/1/10: First update of the decade
426. Want to explore every back alley and trail in DC right now
427. I can't get Benjamin Gibbard's voice out of my head. One Fast Move or I'm Gone is one of my favorite albums ever or at least contains 3 of my favorite songs ever.
428. Facebook ruined this blog.
429. My new favorite bar is O'sullivan's in Clarendon
430. With the exception of french fries and volcano burritos I am pretty dead to fast food. I'd rather eat a Clif Bar than a Big Mac and it shows (48 lbs less of me than in May)
431. Perhaps the best part of the xmas season is the annual reunion with the boys of my wandering days
432. This year all a sudden I got back into music really hard and literature and my old old clothes. Midlife crisis or rebirth?
433. I should've photographed the DC storm sewers in Glover Archibold Park where the exit point into the creek is covered with bars designed to keep the gators where they belong-underground.
434. When I listen to Slowdive I realize I will always carry an inexplicable sadness that can be brought to the fore most completely by shoegaze.
435. My brother and our friend Courtney once sat under my deck when I was five or so eating slices of American cheese to see if one of us would be able to poop on the ground. I was the winner until my brother went running up the faded wood steps to the deck to notify my mom. Memories of punishment sitting in a stark white bathtub then going to my grandmother's apartment for dinner-spaghetti with tennis ball sized meatballs and cold glasses of Pepsi.
436. Now that the basement is carpeted the house feels more whole.
437. I once put a cigarette out on Adam's nose or so he told me.

The Life Box Set

2007-05-19T19:14:00.000-04:00

For all intents and purposes my life began in 1991. Below is my imaginary CD box set of the songs that would be included in my documentary movie soundtrack for each year since then. (This doesn't mean the song is from that year, just either that it was a song very important to me then, or one that really evokes that period or a particular moment therein)

Disc 1: 1991
1. What's That I Hear-Phil Ochs
2. Plain Song-The Cure
3. You Just Haven't Earned it Yet baby-The Smiths
4. A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall-Bob Dylan
5. Revolution-The Beatles
6. Something I Can Never Have-NIN
7. Strange-REM
8. The Times They Are A Changing-Bob Dylan
9. Fixin' To Die Rag-Country Joe and the Fish
10. Bus Stop-The Hollies

Disc 2: 1992
1. Getting Better-The Beatles
2. Hanging Upside Down-David Byrne
3. Wined and Dined-Syd Barrett
4. Far Gone and Out-Jesus and Mary Chain
5. Half a World Away-REM
6. Nightswimming-REM
7. Come A Long Way-Michelle Shocked
8. Box of Rain-Grateful Dead
9. White Rabbit-Jefferson Airplane
10. Lucifer Sam-Pink Floyd
11. Bodies-Sex Pistols
12. What's Good-Lou Reed
13. Can't Stand Losing You-The Police
14. Interstellar Overdrive-Mojo Silo's version
15. Rosemary-Grateful Dead
16. I'm Set Free-Velvet Underground
17. They'll Need a Crane-They Might Be Giants
18. Tomorrow-Morrissey
19. Lisa Says-Velvet underground (live version)
20. Something's Gotta Give-The Beastie Boys
21. Good Feeling-Violent Femmes

Disc 3: 1993
1. The stylophone-Two Little Boys
2. Don't Give Up-Peter Gabriel
3. Brown Eyed Girl-Van Morrison
4. Stockton Gala Days-10,000 Maniacs
5. Upside Down-Yo La Tengo
6. Busman's Honeymoon-Pere Ubu
7. Green is the Colour-Pink Floyd
8. Here-Pavement
9. Cajun Song-Gin Blossoms
10. Mushroom Cloud of Hiss-Yo La Tengo
11. Audrey's Eyes-Velocity Girl
12. Little Fluffy Clouds-The Orb
13. Today-Smashing Pumpkins
14. Box Elder-Pavement
15. Echoes-Pink Floyd (all 23 minutes of it)
16. Meth of a Rockette's Kick-Mercury Rev

Disc 4: 1994
1. Sometimes-James
2. Made of Stone-Stone Roses
3. Ping Pong-Stereolab
4. Do You Love Me? Part II-Nick Cave
5. Love Song-Syd Barrett
6. Katy Song-Red House Painters
7. Bang and Blame-REM
8. Sleeping in the Flowers-They Might be Giants
9. Once I was-Tim Buckley
10. The Pressure's On-James
11. New Orleans-Silver Jews
12. Range Life-Pavement
13. Creep-Radiohead
14. Oregon Hill-Cowboy Junkies
15. In The Name of the Father-U2
16. A Letter To Elise-The Cure
17. Why Don't You Find Out For Yourself-Morrissey
18. From a Motel 6-Yo La Tengo
19. Gold Soundz-Pavement
20. California All the Way-Luna
21.Not a Friend-Sebadoh
22. Delia's Gone-Johnny Cash
23. Most Likely You'll Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine-Bob Dylan

More discs later

The 25 Books That Changed My Life (A List)

2007-05-18T20:28:00.000-04:00

Not necessarily in order:
1. On the Road-Jack Kerouac
2. The Town and the City-Jack Kerouac
3. Look Homeward, Angel-Thomas Wolfe
4. The Stranger-Albert Camus

5. The Picture of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde
6. Leaves of Grass-Walt Whitman
7. The Monkey Wrench Gang-Edward Abbey
8. What Are People For?-Wendell Berry
9. Collected Poems (1947-80)-Allen Ginsberg
10. Dubliners-James Joyce
11. Actual Air-David Berman
12. The Sound of Mountain Water-Wallace Stegner
13. 1984-George Orwell
14. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee-Dee Brown
15. Junky-William Burroughs
16. The Doors of Perception-Aldous Huxley
17. The Education of Little Tree-Forrest Carter
18. Deterring Democracy-Noam Chomsky
19. Children of the Matrix-David Icke
20. Taras Bulba-Nikolai Golgol
21. The Grapes of Wrath-John Steinbeck
22. The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test-Tom Wolfe
23. Dandelion Wine-Ray Bradbury
24. The Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger
25. Tao of Pooh-Benjamin Hoff
Feel free to add your own list to the comment page

Tent Rocks, NM (Jan. 05)

2007-04-17T21:02:00.000-04:00

Summer in Oregon

2007-03-25T14:27:00.000-04:00

And like that he was gone.

2006-05-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

Cape D'or

last summer

Big Sur Sunset

2005-09-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

At Pfieffer Beach on 6/26/05.

Chinatown

2005-09-06T21:08:00.000-04:00

Stockton St. (I think) San Francisco

Big Sur

2005-09-06T21:01:00.000-04:00

The view at Julia Pfieffer Burns State Park, June 28,2005.

I should Note...

2005-08-29T16:36:00.000-04:00

The list is constantly added to by editing it. So just because the date is old doesn't mean there isn't new information.