Tales of a Texas Ramblin' Man

How do I explain my life in California...just peachy. Yesterday I went to Mama Buzz, which I do every day, but yesterday they had a barbecue and some bands from Sub-Pop records playing. Then I cleaned the warehouse some. I cleaned the shit out of the kitchen which apparently floored Adam. I don't think most of the warehouse generally cleans any of the common areas. Last night I went to 21 Grand Gallery and saw Jason Webley. It was the coolest show I had been to since Stereo Total. Actually most shows I;ve seen here are awesome. Jason Webely is a gypsy-like accordian/guitar player. He sings like the Pogues. After his first song he handed out balloons to be blown up, and thrown about during the second song. He called his mom and had us all sing her favorite song over the phone. At one point we had to move the chairs, lay down on the floor with our head resting on someone elses stomach. This proved his theory that if a room full of people is laying like that and someone starts laughing then everyone laughs...and everyone did start laughing like they had been smoking weed all night. At the end we all were in a circle rocking back and forth singing his drinking song "When the cup is full, drink up drink up, this may be the last time we see this cup, if God wanted us sober, he'd knock the glass over, so while it is full we drink up" Don't ever miss a chance to see hime perform. I have to stop now, because I am on a borrowed connection...peace out kiddies.

Day four in Oakland, California. I worked a little in the city (San Francisco) the other day, I am hauling a bunch of stuff to the dump from yhe warehouse tomorrow, and a girl just shot me an e-mail about helping her move. I am glad I'll be amking some money doing some work. My bank account is steadily dwindeling. Other than that I am having a great time in California. Adam, Caleb, and the rest of the crew took me in like they'd known me for years. Last night we all went to this place called the Ruby Room for funk night. It was a lot of fun. I fell in love with the bar-back, everyone got schooled on the pool table by some girl, and Amy got so drunk she headbutted Adam (breaking her glasses), and nearly fell in the lake. Today I went to Urban Ore, this really big warehouse of stuff. Kinda like a flea-Market in Berkely (or Emeryville). Then we, Elka and her roomate Carla, went to the Ameoba Record store in Berkely on Telegraph Ave. I had to leave at one point in fear that I might go broke. After that we went to Trader Joe's for groceries. Shit is fairly expensive at Trader Joe's, but it all seems like good stuff. Tonite I should finish out all the dry wall work (tape, float, sand, patch, etc.) on my room, and hopefully by Friday I should have my stuff moved into the loft part. That would be ideal. Friday is Tim Brown's opening (an artist visiting from Seattle). Other than that I plan to go see the MOMA on mother's day in San Fran. So much to do...plenty of time...good weather...and a bunch of new music...things are just about fuckin' great. I just need to ask the girl out from Ruby Room...I freakin' wussed out last night.b

Oakland, California...Here I am in all my worn out glory. I arrived yesterday afternoon around 4:00 pm. My cell phone was nearly dead, and my whole body ached from driving for so long and sleeping on the bench seat of my truck. Blessed Betsy Blue. She made it the whole way to California without any trouble. I don't know what my bank account looks like after all my stops at the gas station, but that is minor. Thanks to Scott Biram, The Weary Boys, Hank Williams, and old Bluegrass numbers for keeping me company on the way here. (Honorable mention goes to The Angry Samoans, Metallica, and Bottle Rocket Love {singing to stay awake}) I sang all the way, smoked about 5000 cigarettes, and had the window all the way down. In other words my vocal cords were worn out, dried up, and smoked. Sounds great eh? Upon my arrival Elka got silly. I accused her of needing to eat (for her blood sugar), but she said she was just excited to see me. She even tried to smoke a cigarette with coffee this morning for old times sake, but couldn't pull it off. Anyway we went to a barbecue last night at Jason and Jolene's house. It was fucking great...ribs, dogs, Country, and the ever essential beer. I then went to the warehouse I am living at, and stayed up 'til the wee morning hours playing songs for my new roomates. We drank beer, talked about the space, talked about art, and I tried to get a feel for everybody. So far I've met Caleb (professional male model), Adam (construction worker, house coordinator, and general eccentric), Amy (Emo looking lesbian?), Sherwood (slightly obtrusive known slacker), and Johnny (who I had to ask his name about twenty times, because I was so delirious). Everyone is great. The jury is out on Sherwood for now, but we'll see. The space is fucking amazing. (It has a freaking forklift for anyone to use for crying in the rain) The roof is at least twenty feet high, there are ten rooms. Each room has either a skylight or a window, a loft space for your bed or desk, and at least on big wall to do work on. Everything is under construction. I hung some sheetrock last night to feel like I was doing something to help, but Adam pays people to do it. If I work again I don't need to give my services away with my no job having ass. The room I am taking is right behind the main gallery wall. It has a cool curved wall in it. The gallery space though under construct looks awesome. We are going to have a carpentry/ welding area (aka The Dirty Room) and a screen printing/ darkroom (aka The Clean Room). We are also going to have a bar with a kegerator (apparently one of the warehouse members is a brew meister, and he is very serious about his beer. He decided we should have beer on tap at all times. (I wonder if I have to get some warehouse insignia tatooed on my ankle like frat dudes get.) We also will have a recording studio. OK so I'll quit ramblin for now. I have a few new songs written, a lot of work to do on my room, a Split Lip Rayfield show to see tonight, and a Scott Hiram Biram show tomorrow. To all the haters out there that were skepticizing me before I was actually gone you should come visit one day when you leave the Showdown. Just kidding, I love my peops in Texas. Ya'll take care now ya hear!