Writing Journal 2...

So, here we have the second of many of my old journals from my ENG098-5 class.

WJ2
Description
2/2/93

Hearing:
1.The computer was makin beeps
2.Someone fiddling around in the room
3.The curtains ruffling
4.A fart
5.My stomach
6.An inhale through the nostril cavity
7.Ones cough
8.Movement

TOUCH:
1.Chalkboard smooth as silk
2.Rough paper
3.Hard leather
4.Soft to the touch suede
5.Gary's jacket
6.carpet
7.Couduroy pants
8.DUH chairs
9.THE rope that hangeth from the screen
10.Heater

SMELL:
1.Beach
2.Carnival
3.Gas station
4.RUG

TASTe:
1.Ice cream parlor
2.Taco Bell
3.HOME EC.
4.Pool
5.Hot dog stand

Okay so as you see, this exercise was given to us to test our senses or some ghea ish like that.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Sonar (Original Mix)" by Electronic Elation from an album I do not know of, I think I got it from BeatBiz.

Writing Journal 1...

So, as I promised I have for you all my writing journals from my college English class. There seems to be some confusion though about how they are dated, I have found my class schedule for this class and it reads that I took "ENG098-05 Developmental Composition" in January 1992 for the 1992-93 school year. Now, on all of my journals I have here in my lap, they are all dated from 1994, but still have ENG98-5 written on theheader of each one, with the exception of one of them reading 1993. That isn't the only discrepancy. The other problem is that they all seem to be going backward chronologically. For example, the cover page for the whole thing has the date of April 26, 1994 which may make sense because the last journal has the same date. Buuuuuuuuuuut... there are two, count'em two writing jouranl 1's (WJ1), one from 1-27-94 and the other from 4-14-94.

I only had this class on T & Th but some of the entries are sometimes four days in a row. Odd? I don't know what was going on in my head back then. Did I have some weird system that only made sense to me to make me seem more "out there?" We may never find out. Well, until they make that time relocation device that would be important enough to use on me for an occasion like this. Like I said before, did I say that? I am going to post these by the date written at the top, not by their WJ#.

Here Goes:
WJ1
ENG98-5
1-27-94
Writing a journal will help me in my punctuation and spelling problems, also it will help me actually writing and not just being breif.
Journal wirting different in a way that in a journal you usually write thing on your mind whereas in other kinds of writing you may not.

WOW!!! funny how I talk about puctuation and the next line is puctuated wrong. What a bunch of BS I spewed just to fill a page. Much like a political speech.

As of the end of this post I am currentlt not listening to anything, I have to leave to go to the Oral Surgeon to get the sockets for my new teeth installed. It should be fun, wish me luck.

A Look Inside From 1994..

So, I will be house sitting for two weeks following the oral surgery of me getting my new sockets installed for my implanted teeth starting July 31st, 2009. I will be writing one journal a day from some old journals I had found from my College days of 1994 at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois.

After HS I had gone to ECC for two years (92-94) to study Art & Photography before making my transfer to Columbia College Chicago (94-95) to continue my Photography & study Music Recording. It was all fun and I still see some people around Chicago that I had classes with and/or worked with in the Photo Lab.
There was a girl named Melissa "Missy" Wroblewski, who had died, that was roomies with my friend Kim in the Columbia dorms. A lot of us Photographists & her friends at school had taken the Amtrak up to Kalamazoo, MI. for her funeral.
Here's a PDF of The Columbia College Chronicle from 1994.

There was a scholarship established in her memory. The Melissa Wroblewski Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship recognizes a graduating senior student of Kalamazoo Central High School who, like Missy, demonstrates an interest and ability in the visual arts, has taken art classes at Kalamazoo Central and plans to pursue a two-or four-year degree in the visual arts.

Death doesn't always have to be sad, something good will always come and follow to make your death positive. No matter what you may think, at the end of each day, living or dead, you have made a difference for the better in somebody's life and will always be remembered, like Missy.
I only hung out with her maybe ten times outside of school, but we would talk in the labs while washing & drying our negatives, prints. She made an impression on me and I will always see her smile and hear her faint laugh.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Shiver Me" by Holopaw from the album "Quit +/Or Fight" 2005.

Today's Time Capsule, Borghesia...

So, do you like Industrial music? I did, some early 80's post-punk too. I still do to this day, so maybe me saying that I did is KNDA misleading and for that I'm sorry. I don't know if you knew this, but I played in an Industrial band for 5 years playing Guitar & Synthesizers.

Here we have Borghesia with the song "Divlja Horda" from the apocalyptic year of 1984. The year 1984 was supposed to be the 20th century's version of the year 2000, minus the planes falling from the sky. Both of which had never come to fruition. That is to say it never bore the fruit of fear that they wanted to instill into the public. It's almost as if the mass media always seems to cry wolf so when the proverbial shit really does hit the fan, we will have been so de-sensitized that we will never know it's happening. Is it happening now?

As of the end of this post I am currenlty listening to "Ladder of Lights" by Cypher 7 from the album "Decoder" 1994

Today's Time Capsule, Bloodcum...

So, as you all may be familiar with Slayer or at least heard the name at some point in your life, I dunno, maybe they have a song on on of those Guitar Games, most of you might have never heard of Bloodcum though.
The reason I bring up Slayer is the fact that Tom Araya's brother John was in this band. Formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California with friend Joey Fuchs who was given the nickname "Hanneman" thus giving some confusion as to Bloodcum being some sick incestuous sibling metal band when in fact it was just little Johnny.

That doesn't go as saying that they aren't any less like Slayer, they are like a more Thrash Slayer than Metal Slayer. The Solos on this album are definitely Slayer induced though, almost as if they had the same guitar and rig set-up. At some parts they sound like D.R.I. in their "Crossover" period.

Speaking of periods, the title track of this album has a rant about a minute in to the song going on about "how would you like it if you were stuck in a jar for the rest of your life in formaldehyde, and a bunch of kids in Biology class were chopping you up, and you're just thinking, "God, what am I doing here?", all because your Mom had to go to the little birth control clinic and yank out and yank you out like a piece of hamburger, 'PLOP' you hit the table and then that's it. You know, in my idea, that sucks."

Pretty political stuff, but I guess that's what true metal is all about. Sure some sub-genres of metal talked about Unicorns & Wizards. During my year of 1987 I started getting into Speed Metal and loved every minute of the raw aggression, power, fantasy, decadence, debauchery what-have-you, all of which lasted until about 1990 when the metal scene KNDA died much like that of how the Vert scene dive bombed in Skateboarding around the same time.

One thing I love about Metal is the excessive use of the Dive-Bomb in songs, and Baby, this album has tons of them, it's almost apocalyptic in frequency of use. Now, I know that it's 1988 and guitar madness was running rampant, but it takes a special talent to come across as such bad asses you wouldn't think about even fighting or even saying happy birthday to. Sort of like a smile and nod. Is this even making sense anymore?
Am I lost in some sort of mental salad of thought, being tossed as I write about and listen to the 21 minute barrage of rapid fire drumming, dive bomb guitars and mortar-like chugging? Maybe, but all of this has got my mind wandering. Great! Now I think I hear the riff from "For Whom The Bell Tolls" by Metallica in the first song on this album. You know, the one in the video above? Happilly Married.

If you even see anything by this band, be it a demo cassette, test pressing, free download, 3rd generation tape copy, the original sealed LP copy or even 2nd hand, buy it. Well, if you're a fan of metal that is, if you're a metal pundit you could prolly get it just to have something to say.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Parasite" by Dom & Roland from the album "Back for the Future" 2002. Drum & Bass for you steppers out there.

Tony Hawk's Hair...

So, Yup. You guessed it. That's me in 1987. Do you like the Red sweatpants that I'm wearing? No? Yeah KNDA thought that too. I did however have a pair of these bad boys from Powell Peralta. The one good thing about those sweatpants is that in 1988, my 8th/Freshman years, I had cut the bottoms off, and my friends and I started wearing the last 8 inches of the leg as hats. Pretty stylish I know, but as teen skaters in the 80's you just didn't care about fashion, it was all about personal expression.

Take for instance this pic of my friends Justin Mueller and Steve Davenport, to the untrained eye we might have and prolly looked all the same to people outside of the know, but to each other it was almost like an almost Heathers-like envy of Amigo bracelets stolen from Pier 1, what skate company you had a Hip Pack from, how much of an ollie hole you had in your pants' cuff or how cool your grip tape art was. Although Airwalk shoes were pretty dominant in this era it was what obscure style of shoes you had that really stuck you out of the crowd with brands such as Vans, British Knights or even Ellesse, which Jesse Neuhaus used to rock or even just some Chuck Taylors with custom sharpie doodles. The old stand by was the Air Jordan, the shoe of shoes for skateboarding.

The shirt hanging on the door in the background is an old G&S shirt I had bought at a local T.J.Maxx. The one my Mommy used to take us to was by the Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee, IL. This store was soooo kewl B in the D because they would carry all these skate brands like G&S, Jimmy'z and Vision Street Wear. It was like a skater's paradise to get all these west coast clothes in the midwest without paying skate shop prices, by the way, when you're 13 your Mommy loves that. I still have that G&S shirt, it's in my closet and it still fits. Don't know if that's good or bad. Is it good that I'm thin at 35 or bad because I was this size in 1987-88?

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "The Robots (die Roboter)" by Bacalao from the "8-bit Operators" compilation. A Tribute to the Music of Kraftwerk. 2007

Style King of the...

So, here I give to you a picture of me at the Senior Breakfast of my graduating year of HS, 1992. Notice the cool Tortoise framed glasses, the Satin star tie and clashing red über plaid shirt.

The shirt, which was taken from a dry cleaners my friend worked at, had been hanging on the rack at the cleanser for about two years. They would hang on to things (no pun) for years, but were not responsible for them after like 6 months. I had many dress shirts acquired this way. Do you like the rubber barbed wire bracelet? It was either that or my Body Glove logo or clear banded Swatch watch.

Ahhh, the hair. I miss those days of self cutting my own hair. I could do anything I wanted with it. You might be able to see how I cut the back of it short KNDA like a bob-cut, not too dykey though, then I would just grab shuffled strands and pin them together up on top of my head so as to keep their long length after the final product had been cut and created, not like LL Cool J's - Cut Creater. I really wish I could find more pictures of my 1990-95 hair cuts. I wore hats most of the time.

I can't remember if, in the picture, it was a piece of toast or cold french. On the plate you can see that I went for the egg souffle thingy of some sort. Salt & Coffee, please. Thank you very much. I will now go back to reading my 1992 Senior Supplement.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Cry Wolf" by Witchfynde from the album "Cloak & Dagger" from 1983.

Blood Ramp...

So, there is this ramp in the middle of BFA (not Egypt), Surprise. Diagonally Plied, Sooooo Fast. Party all night long and slept on the deck in a sleeping bag with a couch cushion as a pillow. I went out there for the 3rd annual OMA BBQ first weekend of November 2008. I stayed at my friends Frog & Joy's house. Joy was back here in Chicago while the Boiz swam, skated, got drunk and ate too much. It was on this trip that my teeth started acting up and I had a nice undiagnosed tooth abscess from my teeth resorbing. Broke a rib at Wrex Cook's Chicken Ramp (bottom picture). Arizona helps you forget a lot of things.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Zap Phaser" by Cyan from the album "Beast From the East" 1998

Cat Like Reflexes...

So, here is a picture that somewhat epitomizes the workday commute for most of us. I know I was feeling this way most days when my overall commute time was anywhere from 3-4 hours.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Pyramid Power" by Shamanic Tribes on Acid from the compilation "Goa 2000: the best of Goa Trance (Disc 2)" 2000. R.I.P. Jake Stephenson.

Cat Monorail...

So, I found this on that funny cat Cheese Burger site. The original was just that fat kitty sitting on a flat screen TV, then someone else used their computor magnificence to make this quirky GIF.

That's all for today, it looks like rain so I gotsta get my shredding in before then. Buh Bye.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Sundance" by Q65 from the album "Singles A's & B's (Disc 1)" 1968

Hipster Bingo...

So, here is a nice game of Hipster Bingo for you and your BROs and ALTbros to play after a nice night of Twittering about how you walked your Fixey the whole stretch of Milwaukee Avenue from Grand Ave. to Belmont Ave. just to be seen in the scene to go get that Old Style 12oz. can on special for $2.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Broken Dreams" by Agent Orange from the album "Virtually Indestructible" 1996

HAKAS Has Begun...

So, thanks to Chicago weather, Hakas Tour has been post-PWND for almost a month now. It seems that the next few months will be on the up side of Sunny Days rather than the up side Rainy. A full cast of Flatbellies, Barneys, Kooks, Mallgrabbers, Mongo Pushers and Data Files. So, enjoy the preview, it's not a trailer, because they were called trailers because they used to play them AFTER the movie was over, like a trailer.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Gary's Breakfast" by Butterglove from the album "The John Morand Session" 1997. Butterglove is some pretty good math rock ish with Pen Rollings on guitar. Perfect for HAKAS Tour.

The History Of Dogs...

So, you're prolly thinking "hey is this post about how Dogs are descended from Wolves?" Well, no. It's not.

This post is about an album that came out in 1991 by Butthole Surfers guitarist, Paul Leary. Ever since around my freshman year in HS, 1988, I have been such a huge fan of the Surfers. I mean I had seen some of there tapes in the "Alternative" section at the local Camelot Music in the St. Charles Mall. You see, back then alternative actually meant something, it was meant for music that was without classification or was not POPular in the mass public's eye, Skinny Puppy, Big Black, Greater Than One, and the Butthole Surfers were just such groups that were meant to be in that section. In 1991 Paul put out this album and I had gone right out and bought it at The Turntable in Schaumburg, IL., which was THE indie record store in the Subbies for those who needed their fix or just plain didn't wanna drive to Chicago to go to Wax Trax!. I still have the receipt taped on the inside of the cover insert. This album was made pretty much using only Guitar MIDI and was one of the main reasons that i wanted to get into Synths and Guitar Synthesis. After my graduation party in 1992 I had about $400.00 (US) that I wanted to go out and spend on a MIDI Guitar kit, my then HS GF had to chime in and say "why would you wanna go and spend all that money on a toy?" As to which I replied "Fine, I'll go out and spend it all on baseball cards."

I would later regret this choice, I had no interest in baseball, actually kind of despised it in HS, I have since become a fan of just the experience of being at the game, who cares what's happening on the court. All my cards are still at my Mommy's house in the basement safe in a box, half of them are unopened. So, maybe in two more years I will go through them and look to see which one of them is worth $5.00 (US).

When I got my guitar for Santa's Birthday 1990, I had gone to Guitar Center in Chicago with my Daddy, back when they were located on Clark Street where The Alley in now Located. The whole way there we were listening to "Rembrandt Pussyhorse" & "Cream Corn From the Socket of Davis" on a Memorex cassette I had made for just such rainy day trips, even though it was December, Chicago still like to rains. I remember that I wanted a Les Paul Standard because that's what Gus Warsaw had and it was also what some guy let me play while me and my friend Brian Miller were at his brother's apartment that summer on Southport & Addison in Chicago. I also remember that visit I had to be the driver while they bought weed from some bruthas in an alley behind the Wild Hare, a Reggae bar. As I walk around Guitar Center I was in awe of the whole upstairs synth section, as I'm having a butterfly attack at all the knobs and sliders producing such warm familiar sounds that my soul had been waiting for, some guy starts to play "Stranger Die Everyday" by the Butthole Surfers. It was then that I knew I had to get a synthesizer or some sort of electronic music equipment.

Putting the synths on hold due to the $$$ on the price tags was hurtful, but always kept me searching for more music that pushed the musical boundaries by using them, I had settled with a nice 1990 Fender Stratocaster. When I had gotten home my Dad had also picked up an Ernie Ball guitar book for beginners. I learned all the basic chords and even Jingle Bells. I then Just started to take what I learned in that book and applied it to every Butthole Surfers song I owned, those being their first two on Alternative Tentacles records on Vinyl, Psychic..., Rembrandt, Cream Corn and Hairway to Steven. Other bands that were there to help me learn songs, riffing and other types of guitar techniques were Didjits, Helios Creed, Dinosaur jr. and Cro-Mags. OOH! lest we not forget the famed Ministry.

I think I got side tracked and just went on a rant about a bunch of ish, but oh well, that's the beauty everything neurological. You kinda get the idea though, eh? Paul Leary's album pretty much rules still after almost 20 years and it seemed like the Surfers were around me the whole time during my guitar search, on the drive there, the guy on the synth, and they helped me learn guitar in a way that I found fun and could understand. I hope you can get your life back now.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Muerto E Ido" by El Ritual from the album of the same name "El Ritual" 1971

Skate Jam & Contest...

So, If you Skate and care about Cancer research you should attend this gathering Saturday the 11th of July 2009. It is also to pay respects to and celebrate the life of fallen neighborhomie, Ruben Osorio. One of the founders of Relate skateboards, based out of Humboldt Park, Chicago.

Ruben suffered an untimely death in 2004 to Lymphatic Cancer. It was then in 2005 that the Relate Skateboard Company was started in honor of Ruben as well as having a skate competition to help give some positive outlet to young Humboldt skaters. The event, which is in its third year, raises awareness and money for cancer research. Being community based, they have held the jam/contest smack dab in the Park of Humboldt itself for the last two years, but just recently the city of Chicago has built some prefab shiz under the I-90 (Kennedy Expressway), so what better place to hold something like this and still maintain some integrity to your roots, even if it is in Logan Square. The skate jam / competition will be held on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at Logan Square Skate Park located at Logan Boulevard and Western Avenue from 11:00 am until 7:00 pm. For the skaters there will be prizes and trophies along with food and water. For more info please contact Rafael Boria @ 773.297.6650 and or email: raboria@aol.com. The Relate Skateboard Company's mission is to engage youth people in an alternative active sport and promoting good health and an alternative to gangs and drugs.

Local shops are all behind this thing for the prizes and product toss, like Uprise skateshop, Wellborn clothing, the Armory and a host of others. So come on down, or out and have a fun time, show support, chill with bros or even stop the Paletero on his dry ice bike cart for your Arroz con Leche paleta. I'm sure they will have music again this year too, rap, reggae, rock, metal, punk it's all good in the hood!

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Cinderfella Dana Dane" by Dana Dane from the "Rap The Beat" compilation, 1988. On cassette mind you, just dusted this pretty little thing off today, found it in a box under my bed.

Old Friend...

So, This post will have some old pictures of my friend Sam. The first one here is of Sam at my Mom's's house in her recliner chair around 1996. Notice Sam is sporting some suede Vans Fairlanes for a session later, or earlier, I don't remember. We had a friend who worked for a Beer distribution company and his job was to set up the displays at the stores. He always had free swag left over promo ish, like this nice Red Dog wall sign for your Basement Bar. Now the one thing that was always said about the logo was the fact that if you took the Cap, or any part of any Red Dog merchandise, it looked as if it were Batman going down on Catwoman or any Woman for that matter. A guy in this blog, whom which I'd found in my quest for this story, has done some very elementary PhotoShop skills to bring this myth to a visionary reality.

Sam was and is a great guy who took his skill from skateboarding to transmissions and now has his own transmission shop simply called "The Tranz Shop" sorry he doesn't have a kewl webfacility for you too waste time at, the one review on the link I gave you pretty much Hit The Nail On The Head, I hate when people say Spot On, I mean come on you're not from britain. He had quite a nice pop on that skateboard of his, he never could Ollie that low.

As you can see he KNDA just sucked it up into his chest to get over these here bread crates, now even though he is coming out of a driveway, the driveway is not that steep. If you went to this spot, if it hasn't been torn down by the city of St. Charles, IL, you would see that the help from the bank is very minimal and that the actual Ollie is huge in and of itself.

This picture is just of an Ollie down the Embarcadero 7, even though it's 6 stairs, there is actually a stretch in one of them making it as long as a 7 stair set. This has to be one of the funnestest summers's I have had. We went to Tahoe and Cali with my parents in 1991, they gambled on Keno and Nickel slots while we skated, climbed mountains, ate Spaghetti-O's and swam in 60* Lake Tahoe.

When we got to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Martinez, CA. they had this old ass Video Days type Cadillac in which we were specifically told "not to drive over the bridge into Benicia," Guess what we did? Yup, we went to Benicia anyway, like any normal teenager doing the opposite of what they're told not to, while they all left for the day to do Adult stuff like drive to the top of Mount Diablo or some ish. We skated the Benicia park for quite some time, met some kid who was originally from around the Chicago area had chatted us up in the Taco Bell next to the park and commented on my Public skateboards sticker, apparently he knew someone sponsored by them. I remember thinking it was kool because the house directly across from it had the address of 666. This is the same park that Natas, Julien & Curtis skate in the post card that Natas sends to Jason Jesse in Streets on Fire.

When we went to SF we went to Chinatown looking for the China Banks, only to realize later that it was an actual bridge that we had been walking under the whole time in our search. Well, at least we think it was the bridge we were walking under since we never did find it. So, we skated down the road passing all the piers until we get to the imfamous Embarcadero where we see the most amazing ahead-of-the-rest skateboarding I have ever seen. Big Dirty aka: James Kelch was there doing big spins that were more along the lines of a backside 180 inward late shove-it, Jovantae Turner was there also skating and doing some crazy ish for being 1991 that it left me being a T-dog.

Now, I had no idea who any of these people were at the time we went there until their careers started to take off and they got more coverage. So when I looked at the photos a few years later, it was only then did I understand who I was standing and skating next to. My Dad took the last photo here of me doing a Noseslide to Fakie on the big ledge that Danny Sargent does a slappy on in the New Deal video 1281, either that or it was in Useless Wooden Toys. My Dad is no Bryce Kanights or Otis "O" Barthoulameu so this is the best photo.

Okay, so that was just a slice of life that I really should do something with. I have much more to write about that trip, but don't wanna waste my whole day, it's beautiful and perfect SF weather outside, how fitting. Maybe I will end up writing my memoirs someday or at least dictate them.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Lessons That Burn" by Evan Johns & His H-Bombs from the album "Bombs Away" 1989. This baby is not on iTunes, this is the actual cassette tape of mine from 20 years ago that I am listening to. I hooked up my tape deck with the encouragement of my GF because she is an analog angel who loves and appreciates tape as much as me. I had gotten caught up in the digital convenience of it all that I let it invade and affect my home life.

Fully Stacked...

So, here is another picture of me having moar ish stacked on top of me. Can't an old Barney just catch some Zzzz's in peace? I guess it beats getting Drawn on with markers or being pissed on. I would much rather you draw me sleeping than draw on me while sleeping, like the Smith brothers used to do when I would fall asleep on the couch in the STC house. Enjoy this little piece of stacking fun. Stuff on my spencer.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Strobe Light" by The B-52's from the album "Live @ Paradiso, Amsterdam" 1979

Ollie North for President...

So, this is me going North in my old living room, Ollie North that is. It used to be a Funeral home up until the 70's, as far as I am aware of. The living room area was big enuff to house a mini ramp, if I so desired, which my old roomy was always asking me to build. Instead I opted to leave it empty so I could run across and slide with the dog and to see my Cat's tummy sway from side to side everyday as she run to me when I came home from work. New puffy fuzzy socks was the way to go if you wanted to get all Risky Business like across the floor, leaving the pants on of course.

I'm not even wearing skate shoes in this picture, and no they aren't Doc's either, They are the Jim Greco "Escobar" model shoe that was made by Van's. I own three pair of these shoes, two pair are the "Pine Needle/Black/Rich Gold" style, one pair of these is beat to shit because I used to wear them alllllll the time. The other pair is the "Garnet/Cordovan/Black/Rich Gold" style. I wear the one pair of Pine Needles if I'm just chillin' about town with no expectation to skate. The others I barely ever wear, maybe if I'm going to something kewl like a Funeral or a Wedding or something I know I have at least two pair of nice shoes to go with some sort of outfit. Look at me... I just said I wear outfits. SUSPECT!!!!!!!

As of the end of this post I am Currently listening to "Star Trek" by Vulcans from the "Trojan Club Reggae Box Set (Disc 2)" 1972