Open mics at the Bremen are frustrating, but fun when they actually get going. I'm trying to decide if I have the patience to wait for the "get-going" moment tonight. Tom is a reedy, pleasantly ferret-faced young fellow who wears an old mechanic jacket and a cap to hide the fact that he is balding. He runs the open mics, and sometimes shows up an ( Read more... )

I got a text message from Abby saying that she couldn't sleep, and that I should come hang out. So I biked down Farwell, and then Prospect, and the statue of Leif Erikson, tethered my bike to a telephone post, and entered her building, which she would later inform me is owned by the Mafia. And I ended up drinking 60% of a glass of wine-rejecting ( Read more... )

December 20, 2003 ( Read more... )

The Renato show was fun, if excessively sweaty, and slightly sloppy on my part. I will have to put something on the bridge of my nose to stop the glasses from slipping down. For our first real show, it seemed to go quite well. The Detholz show was also fun, and the keyboardist and I chatted during their intermission about writing music. Afterwards ( Read more... )

I got off work, and dropped in at Amy's just before her party ended. A friend from work texted, and asked if I wanted to do anything, but despite being right by the bar where she was, I really didn't want to sit inside. INSTEAD, I biked down on the subterannean path which runs underneath North ave. for ten minutes or so. It was very eery-I could ( Read more... )

A few days ago, I was riding down Water st. when I saw that a man had stopped and was blocking a schoolbus full of kids. I kept riding, but thought it odd. About two minutes later, some kids jumped out of the bus through the back entrance and ran off down Water. I stopped and watched. The man whose car was blocking the bus was running around and ( Read more... )

I called work last night to see when I'm working next, and Josh picked up. He told me that he'd just had a run-in with one of the regulars about global warming. Jim, the customer, is a corpulent, well-dressed, and quite jovial Republican who comes in to be witty and lie to people ( Read more... )

One customer: Mr. Lauer is very wealthy. He apparently made $5 million last year, and is the CEO or something of the mortgage firm up the steps from the store. He is about 55, well-dressed, with an impressive brow and stash of white hair. He always orders a caramel latte. He makes small talk with the female members of the staff, but is unaware of ( Read more... )

There is a man in the library who looks like a taller, more WASPy Martin Scorcese ( Read more... )

There's a "chill-down-the-spine" cold, and there's just "pain" cold. It's been in the pain category for a few days in old Milwaukee. I've been going to Fuel to read, despite smelling like an ashtray afterwards. I worked on a Leslie David Everhart composition at his house yesterday-I on the electric organ, he playing the radio. Amy and I decided to ( Read more... )