notes fron Denver and my zine concept band!

Greetings from Denver! Paul and I got in last night, ate some awesome food at Sputnik, picked up some beers we have never tried before and drank them as we watched the sunset into the Rocky Mountains from our hotel room. good times! We picked my sister up at the airport this morning, she was rocking her Dead Milkmen shirt from the last time we flew to a different city to see a band. She was also with me at the last show we went to for old time’s sake where I was elbowed in the head by a skinhead causing me new gnarly facial scar. She promises not to piss off any skinheads at the Warlock Pinchers show tonight

Speaking of bands… I started a band with Steve while he’s in town! We are called The Copy Scams. Steve plays guitar, Marc played bass, Paul played drums, and I sing. It’s a zine themed band and we hope to play a show before the symposium. We have one song down and the skeletons of two more. We’re hoping for a 5 song concept set. The songs are all about zines. The first song is the intro song that is all about excuses for why the zines/band is so late. I also have lyrics about the 24 hour zine challege, and getting caught stealing copies from Kinko’s! Steve and I are talking about making a 4 track recording and only selling them on tape!

Ok, off to try some more yummy vegan food in Denver!

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nuts, valentine’s day, and Chimay

I for this weird nut in my yard. I blame it on the pesky but adorable squirrels that bury all sorts of things that I have no idea where they come from: peanuts, hazelnuts, walnuts, acrons, etc.  But, this has a heart in it so I thought I would post it today.

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Paul got a job at Voodoo Doughnuts. Now he smells like doughnuts after work. It is sort of yummy and sort of unsettling. I have a zine symposium meeting today and an IPRC shift. I also have to pick up about 5,000 copies from the copy shop and get some Chimay. Paul is meeting me at the IPRC after my shift and I think we’ll head to the roof instead of going out with all the Valentine’s crowd. We aren’t big Valentine’s celebrators but I like and excuse to drink fancier beer than usual.

Oh, and I just realized I started this blog 1 year ago on the 9th. I don’t think that really means anything but I do like that I have been documenting things again for myself and that I have been doing it with photos.

Holiday Wrap up

Ok, Holidays are done.

A few days before Christmas Paul and I went up to the Riverhouse. My parents were in town with their new adorable puppy, Maggie. She has this problem with wanting everyone to wake up at the same time and so she runs around and jumps on you when you are sleeping and just waits for you to wake up. it would be more annoying if she wasn’t so damn cute. Both of my aunts brought their dogs and one of the aunts brought her boyfriend. My sister and brother-in-law came with their two dogs. The final count was humans: 9, dogs: 5. Although one of the old dogs was taken away by Santa to doggie heaven on Christmas Eve. That sort of put a damper on things but it was the right decisions. he lived a long and loved life and was a very special furry friend.

We aren’t really a family that buys each other clothes or ties or whatever. Some of the unique gifts I received were: a set of ingredients for brewing a brown ale (my aunt drove all the way from Texas with the yeast in a cooler so it wouldn’t spoil!), that gift also came with a bottle opener that was also a keychain and a 2 gig flash drive!, a stainless steel  soap (even though I like my hands smelling like garlic!) and tickets to Portland Center Stage. My parents gave me some money which is always a good gift but I think it will have to be used for the not so fun-ness of going to the dentist.

We played a multitude of games: Uno, dogs with a laser pointer almost as fun  as cats with a laser pointer) Life (on a computer and not the boardgame) crossword puzzles, Apples to Apples (the best game ever!) and I think I walked in on a failed attempt at my family to play Mille Borne with a french deck left over from my parents when they used to live in Ontario.

A Christmas with our family wouldn’t be complete without two things: Copious amounts of drinking and Chinese food. Last year for Christmas Eve we got Chinese food from the town near the Riverhouse and Paul got sick. This year we had some from a different place the day after Christmas and Paul still got sick. We have had this tradition for as long as I can remember where we each take turns shooting Champagne corks and try to get the farthest distance. The Champagne is for our traditional Christmas morning Mimosas. I held the record at two separate house my grandparents lived in Texas. I was able to make it to the center of the river from the back door but I think my sister’s shot was farther this time. We went through about 7 bottles of Champagne for 11 people. Good times! My dad also made the mistake of taking me to the beer store and telling me I could get a six pack… I grabbed 6 beers that added up to over $40. He should have put a money limit! I did impress wine drinkers who say they don’t like beer with some Belgian Ales and the syrupy black Abyss by Deschutes. yum!

I love my family but after 4 days in a cabin it was time to go home. I had about 80 e-mails waiting to drown me and my housemate’s cat who were not very happy with the food that their person left them with when he left for the Holidays. It was nice to sleep in our own bed.

One of the days we got a zip car to run errands and spend some gift cards. We had ones from Home Depot, Target, Lowes, and Pet Co. The pet go one was sort of due to the passing of a family animal. My mom decided the cats at our house should get treats too. Paul and I wandered around thinking that we could get pets for the cats like parakeets or ferrets but decided on a case of ultra fancy human grade cat food with trout and salmon. It always seemed weird to me that cats like fish. The thought of a cat taking down a fish is just ridiculous!

Paul and I decided to be adults with our gift cards and buy boring adult things like weatherizing stuff: air duct covers, spray foam for cracks, silicone caulking, plexiglass to replace a cracked window pane in the basement and air vent to put in it for our clothes dryer exhaust, stuff like that. If it was up to me alone I would have got a bunch of plants and dirt and garden stuff but, this was about being practical and hopefully saving a bit of money on our heating bill. You see, I have finally come to the conclusion that I will be staying in this house so I better take care of it. For so long it was sort of up in the air if I was going to sell it and more on but things seem to be going well here so I think we’ll stay.

For New Years I made black eyed peas and collard greens,  tradition from my Texas side of the family, but them in Tupperware and we met James and Christina at the Tugboat brewery and headed to their house. I was amazed by the people drinking in public! Dude on the street car with a half empty plastic gallon jug of vodka, girl with the comically large bottle of Champagne, and her friend with a half empty case of Coors light. I felt I should join in and drink some vanilla infused vodka from my flask although I was a bit chicken and didn’t drink any until we were off the train. At James’ and Christina’s house we snacked on food, drank more beer, and listened to records. Then someone has the bright idea to do Screaming Nazi shots (Jagermeister and Rumple Minze), something we used to do about 11 years ago that always seemed to lead to bad things. At the 3rd shot Christina said something hilarious causing James and I I to spew our drinks all over the kitchen. Good times! and also sticky floors in the morning. We were up until 4 listing to Oingo Boingo, which seems to be perfect New Year Music, and Paul kept howling at other people on balconies off the porch to see if he could get them to howl back. Paul and I got home and crashed out again only to wake up later to watch the new Doctor Who!

I guess there were a few things I missed in there. I snowed the other day. We don’t normally get snow but we got 3 inches of fluffy white stuff. The housemates and I made a chickpea stew to eat over barley and watched episodes of Spaced. We also had the one night a year amnesty of smoking in the house. Oh, also Paul and I listen to 1st and 2nd wave ska over the Holidays. I’m not exactly sure how that happened last year but it seemed to make sense. I have been on a Cure kick lately. I blame it on Paul getting me that disintegration album and also reading Roger Odonnell’s memories of making that album. He posted it on his site here as a sort of a celebration for the 20th anniversay of the album. The Cure were my first favorite Band and that album  came out the year I entered Jr. High and pretty much changed my life for ever.

Now it’s back to work life for me. I have 75 copies of my new zine to put together and finally send more out to distros, I have button orders to attend to and about 50 pounds of coffee beans came the other day and I have yet to put them away. But first, the year end meme:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Took a train underwater to France, Went to 5 zine fest and 2 other zine events, started a podcast that I swear we’ll put another one out someday, did everything from pre-press on for my own book all by my self, put out a zine i have been meaning to do for years, sang on a song a let Paul record it, took part in the Anchor Archive zine residency.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t really make resolutions.

3. How will you be spending New Year’s Eve?

I was with Paul and James and Christina eating black eyed peas  and Champagne.
4. Did anyone close to you die?

Yes, a puppy nephew.

5. What countries did you visit?

USA, UK, France, Canada

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

More time and energy to work in my yard and on my house.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

7a driving though the Redwoods with Paul in June with all my books in the car and listing to music and singing along.

7b One of my last days in Halifax Caleb found a car to drive us to the ocean. I drew a labyrinth in the sand and stared out at the sea thinking about how I had been on both sides of that sea this year. It felt like an accomplishment.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year?

Publishing my own book, getting my zine done, doing a lot of traveling by myself, meeting some very special friends.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Not doing enough in my yard and no doing much in Portland.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

I had The Sick.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

plane tickets, publishing my book, and my new computer

12. Where did most of your money go?

travel

13. What song will always remind you of 2009?

The whole Lemuria-Get Better album has been on high rotation. I have also been listening to Cub and love the song Chinchilla. Paul says it reminds him of me but I’m not exactly sure what that means.

14. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Saved money, planned more, ridden my bike, brewed more beer.

15. What do you wish you’d done less of?

worried.

16. What was your favorite TV program?

I watch too much tv on the internet. I think Battlestar Galactica ended this year and that was sad. I also liked Mad Men and Doctor Who.

17. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I try not to hate. There is some weird power in that. I am still annoyed at the people I was annoyed with last year but I don’t want to talk about it.

18. What was the best book you read?

I read three books in the Dies The Fire set. They were alright. I can’t really remember what other books I read and enjoyed. I read a lot of zines.

I19. What was your greatest musical discovery?

New Music discovery? Fifth Hour Hero (thanks Steve!) and also my housemates’ band The Tagalongs!

20. What was your favorite film of this year?

I don’t really like movies. it is hard for them to hold my attention. I prefer tv shows where there is time to develop character. I think I saw Star Trek and Avatar this year and that’s about it.

21. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 32 but I don’t think I did anything that special. Soon after Paul and I took a plane down to Oakland to sticker copies of SSR and drive back up. it was a fun birthday trip.
22. What kept you sane?

Paul and knowing I had a home to come back to wherever I went.

23. Who did you miss?

Friends who live to far away. I hope they all come visit me soon!
24. Who was the best new person you met?

I met a lot and sort of have  have a top 3 even though it seems sort of unfair: Steve, Isy and Caleb.
25. How did you spend Christmas?

With my family at the Riverhouse, see above.

26. What was your favorite month of 2009?

June or October… probably October.

27. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Travel and getting my book printed

28. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier and a bit more hopeful.
b) thinner or fatter? fatter but whatever
c) richer or poorer? about the same

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009: Traveling alone is a worthwhile experience in wits and a total adventure!

Oakland, Santa Rosa, SSR stickering and Mini-stonehenge.

Greetings from Santa Rosa, California!

Yesterday Paul and I flew down to Oakland, got a car and drove to 1984 Printing and spent about 3.5 hours hand stickering 2,000 copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution with ISBN barcodes then carted them over to AK Press. Then we loaded the remaining 1,000 copies in the rental car, picked up a sewing machine at Jess’s parents’ house in Freement and headed north…. where we proceeded to get lost looking for Russian River Brewing.

Now I’m sitting outside a coffee shop while Paul has gone on a bit of a walk while we wait for thew brewery that everyone told us to check out opens so we can fill our growlers (fancy word for beer jug) and get on the road north. We hope to hit up Anderson Valley Brewery and North Coast before we hit Arcata tonight.

I guess this trip was business now turned pleasure! It’s a good thing too because out of the first shipment of SSRs that I got 2 months ago there are less than 50 left!

On the solstice my sister and I went to fake stonehenge. It is really a small scale stonehenge on the Columbia River in washington. We drove out there with her dog Coda and marveled at the silliness… we also realized that we were at the real Stonehenge 14  years earlier with our family. I thought Avesbury was cooler, but no body is going to build a fake Avesbury.

Here are some photos. This is Webly, Coda and I:

Webtar, Coda and I

Mini Stonehenge, or Minihenge as my siser and took to calling it.

A Spaceman who was also visiting Menge. Webly and I hid behind stones to take photos of him.

Moar.

Because the world needs more photos of me with windswept hair...

We stopped at the Maryhill Museum first and let Coda start at Peacocks. They let me get really close and take pictures. i even saw one fly!

More photos of our Fake-Henge adventure can be found here if you are interested.

It is getting closer to the time for us to check out Russian River. Too bad I can’t drink because I have to drive! At least we can fill up growlers and take them with us.

Quick response zine unit, upcoming travel and my birthday!

You would think that I would learn that I can’t do every idea that comes to my head that involves zines, apparently not. Yesterday ath the Square Foot Zine Fest I met a lot of awesome IPRC members that I didn’t know. We played boggle and talked about zines and zine culture and had a nice casual hang out day at the IPRC eating cupcakes and Voodoo doughnuts.

Anyway, a few of us came up with this neat idea to assemble some or or guerrilla stlye quick response zine unit that could be made up of independent publishers in Portland that would gather at things like First Thurdsday or Last Thursday with light weight maybe cardboard structures to sell and trade zines from. I figure there are enough of these people in Portland that even if we only have 5 show up that’s a nice representation of zines and comics. I’m not exactly sure where it is going yet but I think it will be fun. Let me know if you might be interested in being part of it. Even if you don’t make a zine yourself you can still be supportive. more details to come!

I’m also in the early planning stages of a possible zine tour with some folks from the UK who are going to come over here and rock out zine world! More info on that later.

In other news, Paul and I are headed down to Oakland next Monday. We are going to pick up my books at 1984 printing and take 2,000 to AK Press and sticker them with ISBN stickers. Then we are going to put the remaining 1,000 copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2 in a car and drive them back to Portland. Just in time too because I think I’m down to less than 200!

From there the plan is to drive up the coast and stop at the breweries we love, try samples and fill or beer growlers so we can drink when we get to our destination each night.  I’m really excited because we have sort of been planning this trip for a few years. Breweries of Northern California that we are excited to see: Lagunitas, Russian River, Anderson Valley, Northt Coast, Lost Coast,  etc. Then we want to camp in the Redwoods and then head over to Crater Lake. Neither of us have been to the Redwoods or Crater lake so I’m stoked!

When Paul and I first did the math it was cheaper to buy plane tickets, rent a car and pay for gas than paying to have the books stickered… but we didn’t expect the one way driving fees and the plane tickets were already bought. Now we are just lookinmg at it as a trip that will be awesome! It is a few days after my birthday so we’ll just call it my birthday trip!

My 32nd birthday is next Friday! Paul wants to buy me a new knife set so we are going to go knife shopping this week. You know you are an adult when you are stoked about the gift of kitchen knives!

Today I am teaching a workshop about Etsy at the library in St. John’s and then headed to an IPRC shift at 5. It will be a busy day.

Leeds to Sheffield…

Greetings from Sheffield! Robb and I got in yesterday afternoon and Chella from Chart Your Cycle and Adventures in Menstruating met us at the train station.

So, where I last left off was our reading in Leeds. It was really fun and at this old traditional looking pub. They had reserved the back room and people came! and donated money to us! There were a few readers and a few people playing some songs on guitar. It was nice and low key. And also very lady friendly which was a nice change from the dudefest of the power voilence show the night before.

After the reading we went back to our fantastic hosts house (amy) with some other folks and had tea and a yummy pasta meal. We had stopped at a market on the way back fro some veggies and there was this pile of blue banana guards sitting there and a sign near them saying they were free. I was tempted to take one but decided against it. There were some dancy festivities happening that evening but I was tired from the rushing around and sleep dep from the night before. So everyone left and I did some internetting and then crashed out early.

In the morning we went to the Common Place for a benefit breakfast. It was a traditional style English breakfast that I am beginning to actually like! Beans on toast, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms and potatoes. I think I may have to recreate this at home. I do have to work on my fork and knife skills. I’m super impressed with the dexterity of the eating around me. I gave up even looking at knives when I went vegetarian. I think I need to cultive ate this skill.

After that Amy, Robb and I took the bus out to the country side. We sat at the top of a double decker and watched the scenery slide by of rolling green hills of stone wall parceled out fields filled with sheep and little lambs. We ended up in a small town of Ortley and walked around a bit. Wel lost Robb at one point and found a Car boot sale that was closing up. I have avoided buying things because I don’t want to carry anthing but there were plenty of things to tease me there. I did resist!

We got back to Amy’s, got our packed and headed to the train station. The train we got on was totally packed! We ended up standing in the middle area with a few other people. We were only going to Sheffield so I jsut stood and read zines.

Then Chella met us and took us home to her house with her wife Sarah who made us pizza and we I had a few beers. The we walked to a pub and had some more. I had something that was called Hop Head… but it didn’t stand up to my Northwest hopped ales at all. Sarah and Chella taught Robb to swear in French for our trip tomorrow. ya, thanks for that.

We got home and chatted and Chella recorded me telling a menstruation story for a project she is working on. I think I got to bed around 2am. Good times!

I talked with Paul on video chat this morning. It is late at night for him but in the morning he is going to pack a bunch of Etsy orders that he didn’t get out before the postage raising. Oh well. i’m going to have to reevaluate my postage pricing when I get home.

Now we need to catch a train back to London!

dude-pasta sucks but beer that wants you to worship the Goddess rules!

I generally have an aversion to pasta. I think it has to do with living with too many punks, bachelors and dudes who think that they can dump some pasta in a pot filled with water and leave the room while it boils, drain  it and dump half a can of cold Prego on top and call it food.

*Shivers*

I think that food is something that needs love and nurture like everything else in your life. I mean think about it, the food is what sustains you. If you don’t care about what you make and put into you body then what does that say about you?

Today I wanted pasta.I don’t have a preference but Paul likes thin pastas and angel hair so that’s what we had. We had some bottles of pasta sauce but I wanted something different. So this is what I did. I put on the water and added salt to boil.

Funny side note: one time my sister and I were watching a cooking show and they kept talking about putting sea salt in the pasta water because it was supposed to taste like the sea. It has sort of become this joke between my sister and I about how your pasta water needs to taste like the ocean filled with seaweed and fish poop yum!

I sauteed some red onions with garlic in olive oil, red and orange pepper rings, mushrooms, ones fresh roma tomato, some capers, red wine vinegar, and kalamata olives. When the pasta was done I tossed some of the mix on top. It was fantastic!

pasta yum with vegan parm

Also, I haven’t had a beer in three days since I have been sick and the two fancy beers I bought on Sunday have been tauntung me every time I open the fridge!  I decided I would split one with Pal. We went for the Ninkasi Spring Reign.

Ninkasi Spring Reign

I love the stylized poppies on the label! Ninkasi Brewing was named after the Sumarian Goddess of beer, brewing and fermentation. I have read several books about this history of beer and brewing and she comes up often. She even has a song written about her that pretty much explains the process of brewing still. It is appropriate name for a brewery.

good beer is good.

So, you could call this a session beer because it is light .It doesn’t have a characteristly Northwest hoppy nose but what struck me was the malty back bone it had. It was very present and I enjoyed it.  It was enought to remind me that it’s not quite spring yet for the light bodied beers.

and also, when the beer bottle tells you to worship the Goddess how can you complain?

for the goddess Ninkasi

Paul’s at practice right now but it is Full Moon Dance Night even if we live in Portland and can’t see the moon. So, I’m going to go clear the dining room for dancing.

Recipes are tools of the patriarchy….

Today was a beautiful spring like day in Portland. Paul, Dan and I rode down to Southeast for Paul to look a guitars and Dan to look a yet another synth… I swear there are a dozen different ones in our basement! Paul ended up not getting a guitar but we did get food at Los Gorditos. We ordered a vegan burrito and a vegan Nacho with Soyrizo… we devoured the  and had no room for the burritos! Paul declared them the best vegan  nachos in Portland.

We walked around Southeast, stopped at the Bridgeport Ale House on Hawthorne for a pint and checked out records at Jackpot. I’m still on my 90’s punk kick but didn’t really find anything I was looking for. I did pick up the 45 of the The Cure Just Like Heaven. I’m stoked to have it as a 45 with Snow in Summer on the flip side. It was getting cold then so we headed home to North Portland since I didn’t have any gloves.

We got home and I found that my record has a skip… and it is even in the title track! drat! I made some buttons and about to watch some Dollhouse and Battlestar.

I rarely use recipes. If I do look at them it is to use them as guides…. I also don’t do a lot of baking which  I understand is more dependent on recipes. I remember reading years ago how the  first written recipes were made for men at war. The recipes were written down so that men knew how to cook when they were off killing people. I always thought it would be funny to write a cook zine called “recipes are tools of the patriarchy!”  for that reason.

So, here’s some more food pic. If you wanna know how to make something I might be able to give you a bit of instruction. But as my sister learned as well as my friend Jess now, you gotta use your own imagination for the rest.

dinner last night: stuffed pepper, zucchini bites and salad with avo-ranch

Theresa taught me how to make tamales last month and they were awesome with soyrizo in some and chilis and vegan chese in others.

Vegan gluten pot roast with mushroom carrot gravy and roasted veggies

camera phone photo of vegan alfredo made from coconut milk. yum!

asparagus and lentils.

Make your own polenta scramble and put it in a tortilla!

make your own hummus

Today was my first longish bike ride of the year clocking in at 15 miles. I’m sort of tired and my lips are a bit wind burt. Time to watch Dollhouse!

Dinner tonight!

It was a beautiful day in Portland this morning! Paul and I rode downtown to the post office and to meet someone to drop of buttons around 11. We were craving the green sauce at El Grillo so we headed there for a burrito and a Negra Modelo… when we got there we foudn a paper sign for the same place with a new name! The menu was a stripped down menu of El Grillo and Paul and I started blankly at the new owners.

They insited that they still had the same recipes and the rice and beans were vegan. They also said that they were going to have vegan black beans too. which is great because I prefer black beans. But it was still sort of weird that this Portland Institution next to Mary’s club was gone. At leas the salsa verde was still there and that’s what we were craving.

lots o taps

The weather was getting a bit sketchy by then and we headed to the pearl to the Deschutes brewery. They always have some fantastic stuff on tap that is only available at the brewery. Paul had a Belgian and I had the Night Rider stout on Nitro… not only was it on Nitro, it was a coffee stout! I guess it is basically the obsidian stout with coffee! It smelled so good and tasted great. Totally smooth and rich. I took a long time to drink it. Paul drank the Belgian and a beer that was 40% spelt and reminded me of a hefe in the time I took to drink my one beer! We had our ass kicked by the Oregonian crossword but we managed to finish the NYT… with a little help from the internets on my phone.

yummy goodness in proper glassware!

Then we rode home… up the big hill on Interstate. I realized that this was the first time this year that I rode up that hill. I feel really out of shape.

I got to work making buttons, packing orders, writing e-mails and being stoked that 50 people listened to our zine podcast!

Then it was time for some dinner. I made some brown rice with vegetable stock, roasted some yummy Brussel sprouts and cooked a bit of chard in some red wine vinegar and served them up in these cute little tray type plates that I inherited from my grandmother. We have been on a brussel sprout and asparagus kick lately. We also talked about gettign Oreganics to You again. It was a lot of fun to get randon veggies and then figure out what to do with them. Then again, we have a farmer’s market down the street from us in a few months. maybe we should wait and just start doing that again. Anyway, here’s our meal tonight:

sprouts, chard and brown rice

I keep meaning to edit down the images from the meal Jess and I made the other night with the vegan wine pairing. It was pretty great. I keep meaning to document our wine adventures. I’m such a novice when it comes to wine but Jess is really helping me figure some stuff out… it also helps that she’s a beer and wine steward!

Marc and I talked about our podcast tonight and some ideas for future episodes and maped out a bit of what we plan to do at thezine librarian un-conference. I’m really stoked because with the people there we could get 3-4 shows out of all the zine talk that will be happenning! I’m looking forward to getting better at editing too.

I also have some more photos of my yard… and some of the squirrels from my yard! Plus, it is March and I have to gush about the multiple anniversaries Paul and I celebrate this month.

gardening, beer, and karaoke and songs that touch your heart

I slacked on my work yesterday after coming back from the post office but I have and good reason… False Spring! The sun was out and the weather was in the mid 50’s. The irises are starting to shoot up as well as the bulbs. I trimmed up some bushes, transplanted some plants, put some plants in pots to give away, pulled weeds, and even read a zine while sitting in the sun with Marc’s cats, OJ and Jackie. I also smashed a finger, that wasn’t fun.

Toward the end of my day someone came to pick up some custom buttons while my hands were inches deep in the roots of a violet plant. The buttons were for somoeone in a beer competition…. and the person who picked the buttons up bround me a half gallon jug of beer! What a perefect payment and a great way to end my work day! I think the beer was an amber and it was really drinkably smooth with a nice malt base and very balanced.

Then Paul and I made a vegan mushroom alfredo sauce with penne while listening to records starting with Jane’s Addiciton- Nothing’s Shocking. The alfredo sauce is really rich and I made with a coconut milk base. I hadn’t made it for awhile so I’m glad I remembered the recipe. Paul made the garlic bread my favorite way: margarine, Vegenaise, fresh chopped garlic and parsley. Seriously, Vegenaise makes everything yummy! The beer went really well with the meal too. Then we worked on our crosswords puzzles while continuing our late 80’s early 90’s alterna-rock with Jesus and Mary Chain, Love & Rockets and Nine Inch Nails-Pretty hate Machine. ha!

What I really wanted to write about was karaoke. Last night I went to the Alibi with Marc and LillyMonster. I needed to get out of the house and they invited me. Let me make something perfectly clear, I don’t sing karaoke, ever. end of story. See, I have this thing. I will never do karaoke. I know it is all fun and no one cares blah blah blah. But here’s the deal: I have sang in real bands and when you are in a band everyone has a chance of messing up. When you are singing karaoke the one messing up is you. I can’t wrap my brain around that to make it alright.

Last night I got made fun of  for scouring through the song book by band in alphabetical order. Most of  the bands and singers I had never heard of and definitely none that I would want to sing to a room of drunk strangers. Sure, I have a soft spot in my heart for a few things like Meatloaf (yes, Meatloaf) ABBA and Willie Nelson but I jsut couldn’t see myself singing any songs by them in front of people. It made me realize some things.

One, I’m sort of a snob. and two, I have spent many years living in a pop culture vacuum. I stopped listening to FM music radio in 1992 so I don’t know any of the popular songs and even when I did listen to the top-40 radio it was the “modern rock” or “college rock” station. As I put it to them last night I was already too-cool-for-skool by jr. high in the late 80’s and made fun of people who listened to the New Kids on The Block, and Milly Vanilli. I don’t have those strings of nostalgia attached to them that would make me want to share it with others.

The songs that I have those connections to aren’t going to be in that book. I won’t find The Cure-Jumping Someone Ele’s train, Joy Division-Transmisison, Bad Religion-You, Tilt- Suspended, Dead Milkment-born to Love Vocanoes, or Discount-Fixing Rubble Building Us. Those songs just aren’t going to be there. Because of that  I guess I just don’t see the point. I’d rather be good at making zines and solving crossword puzzles. I’ll leave the singing up to people who enjoy it like Paul… except for the one time he coaxed me into singing back up vocals on the very last song here… cause there’s a lot in life you can’t explain.

Ok, off to go polish my workshop notes or the Etsy Workshop I’m teaching at the IPRC tonight.