In a Holding Pattern

GGGGGGgggggggrrrrrrr...........I got so much stuff I could be writing about but I just can't stay focus enough to do it.

On the job front, I quiet the sporting good store so i could focus on getting a "real" job. Or at least one that pays better. Its funny because my last day was Sunday and not two hours after quieting Dick's, I got a call from a guy opening a Corner Bakery in Jackson. I went on an interviewed with the owner Monday and I have a follow up interview tomorrow with one of the company directors. On the other side, I passed my drug test and we are just waiting on my background check with the Cattle Co. I could start training with them next week in Alabama. Now if Bakery gives me a competitive offer in salary and benefits and they also want me to start ASAP. So if both jobs start soon, and have equal(more or less) pay and benefits. Which do I take?

The basic difference seem to come down to where I want to live. The steak house job will require me to move to Hammond, LA. I must admit a bit of excitement about living in Louisiana. Hammond is about half way between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It would be nice to be closer to some good rock shows, but not having to live in those town themselves. And I do have friends in NOLA. But if I took the bakery job, I won't have to move. I won't have to deal with the problems of finding a new place to live and setting up a life. Plus, my family and Amanda is here. It is only a three hour drive, but still.... Leaving would probably mean the end with me and Amanda. But is a relationship with a person, really a relationship if you only see them once ever few weeks? I know her life is complicated, but is that fair to me? Can I put my whole life on hold, for a woman I am very attached to, but rarely see?

I find it strange in this hard economic times that I left one job to weight the options of take two others. Hell with my luck I probably will not get either! So basically I'm in a holding pattern waiting on the big wheels of industry to move into the proper places.

Fun Time, Movie Time w/ Coffee and Cigarettes

Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni


Tom Waits and Iggy Pop


The White Stripes give a brief history of Tesla!

BTW, this is why I'm in love with Meg!

The RZA(aka Bobby Digital), The GZA(aka the Genuis, aka Liquid Swords) , and (thats not good) Bill Murray in Delirium


Cate Blanchett verse Herself!

Sunday Fun Day with The Raconteurs

Don't Know Why! Totally been a Raconteurs Sunday!

The Raconteurs "Steady, As She Goes" by Jim Jarmusch


The Raconteurs "Hands"


The Raconteurs "Level"


The Raconteurs - "Many Shades Of Black (Acoustic)"


The Raconteurs "Old Enough"


Old Enough

Love Songs for...Whatever

There are all types of love songs that talk about all different types of love. They range in style from pop to rock, from funk to punk, from hip-hop to country. Music is that oldest form of expression of love. There are all different types of love to make songs about; from puppy love to obsession; from love at first sight to when love leaves you; from self love to undying love. Love one of the most powerful thing in the world. I'm sure there are hundred if not several thousand songs that express every flavor of love that exist in the human emotional spectrum. I thought I would share just a few of the songs about love that are in my collection. Does your loved one know your favorite song about love? Maybe you should being sharing it with them!


Solomon Burke - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
Nazareth - Love Hurts
Ramones - I Want You Around
Nickle Creek - Lighthouse Tale
Righteous Brothers - You've lost that love'n feeling
BNL - Lovers in a Dangerous Time
Joe Cocker - Have a Little Faith in Me
Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
Justin Timberlake - My Love
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Chuck Prophet - Freckle Song
Letters to Cleo - I Want You to Want Me
The Divinyls - I Touch Myself
The Delgados - All You Need Is Hate
BNL - Jane
Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - My Baby Left Me
Michael Cera and Ellen Page -Anyone Else But You

Crazy Idea for the Day

I want to sue MTV for the rights to the name "Music Television". The way I figure it, its false advertising to say that you are "Music Television" and then not play music on your station. At least back when they had TRL they could point out a regular time that music was played. But now, all they seem to run in Real World-True Life-City of the Hills-Jackass-wannabe- stuff. I want to take Music Television back to the old days. I would start the day with a heavy metal show (ala Head Bangers Ball), then mix up the mid-day stuff between, hip hop (YO! MTV raps), Smooth R&B, some country (real country, not Nashville country). The afternoon show would be the top twenty videos(of the day, or maybe a theme for the day). The at 6pm run music news for an hour. Then at 7pm have a music themed movie (ex. Ray, Walk the Line, La Bamba, Sid and Nancy, Hustle and Flow, Black Snake Moan, Rock n Roll High School, Blues Brothers, Coal Miners Daughter, August Rush, Almost Famous, American Hardcore, End of the Century, etc.), any movie that had music as its central theme. After the movie have Alternative Music show, that would showcase indie rock videos, home made submissions, and live performance from around the nation. And for the late night stuff would be a random selection of videos that are picked from every style of music. You might have a classic Hank Williams follow a Missy Elliot which follows Sonic Youth. And when festival season is around, the whole network would up and move to the festival for the live shows.
The current MTV could become Culture Television or Almost Reality TV or some other crap like that! So if you know a enterprising young lawyer, who wants to help be sue for the name let me know.

Brief History of Valentines Day

So, I wrote a quick little history of Valentine's Day up for the Jackson Free Press. Sense it will be publish tomorrow and I got better plans for my blog for Valentines day I thought I would go ahead and post it today

It is almost impossible to write a definitive history of Valentine’s Day. Valentine's Day origins are lost. What we do know is a strange mix of religious facts and historical legends. A lot of the problem is that the holiday has evolved over the course of almost 2,000 years and there is more than one Saint Valentine. But the Catholic Church recognizes at least seven Saint Valentines.

The first Valentine was a priest in third-century Rome. He would marry young couples, even though the emperor had outlawed marriage for anyone under a specific age. When caught, he was executed by the emperor. Another Valentine was the Bishop of Interamna. He was imprisoned in Roman for helping Christians escape from Roman persecution. The legend goes he fell in love with the daughter of his jailor. His last act was to send her a letter expressing his love, signed "From Your Valentine." There is still another St. Valentine associated with February 14th. According to the Catholic Church, this Valentine was martyred in Africa, but nothing else was known about him. There are even scholars who have stated that this Valentine and one or both of the first two are the same person. It is also important to point out that in the earliest saint biographies, Valentine had nothing to do with romantic love. It wasn’t till the 14th century that writers like Geoffrey Chaucer linked Saint Valentine, springtime and romantic love.

Some have guessed that we celebrate Valentine’s Day in February to mark the date of birth or death of St. Valentine(s). Another theory is that it is a way to Christianize pagan fertility rituals. Lupercalia was observed between Feb. 13 and 15, the start of spring in the Roman calendar, as a way to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility. Houses where ritually sweep out and blessed with a mixture of salt and wheat. But, Lupercalia had no romantic overtones to it, unlike the Festival of Juno Februa, which took place on February 14th. Priest would sacrifice a goat that then would be skinned. The skin was cut into strips that would be dipped in the sacrificial blood and taken into the street to gently slap woman with. To be touched by the strip was seen as a blessing of fertility for both women and crops. Later in the festival, the young women would place their names in an urn and the city bachelors would select a name out to the urn to be paired with for the festival, hopefully to end in marriage. Both rituals were outlawed by the Pope, but still practiced by the masses.

As Chaucer’s ideal of Valentine’s Day romance increased, the exchange of notes/card showed up. The popularity of the Holiday increased. The modern holiday of Valentines Day is celebrated in the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, United Kingdom and Australia .

If you are thinking that I have written this before you are right. You can read the original version here.

The Continuing Adventures in Not-So-Unemployement

Okay, so I have a job!

I am in charge of Team Sports (Baseball, Basketball, Football, Soccer, etc) at Dick's Sporting Goods. Its not a great job and I really don't know what I am doing there. But at least it its a job.

I am still looking for something else. I got a call from The Cattle Company about coming to work for them. I was suppose to go to work at their Hammond, Louisiana store, but a corporate change caused it to be franchised out. Now it is possible that I might still work at the Hammond store, working for the franchisee, or go to work for the corporate store in Tupelo. So that is at least good.

Then in a weird little twist, the new owner/operator of the Basil's in Belhaven (the place I was suppose to take over last fall) talked to me yesterday about coming and helping run the restaurant. Of course we talked about this over a few beers and some shots, so who knows if that might ever really happen.

So, they say its my birthday....

Well, as of this writing, yesterday, February 1st was my birthday.I hate my birthday. Its a strange thing to be 32, alone and unemployed. I can honestly say I never figured my life to be the way it is. I guess when you don't have a goal or a plan you take what you can get. Still, very strange. Some days I love my "care free happy go lucky existence" other days not so much. The last few day have fallen into the not so much category. I guess the question I should be asking is "What do I do about it?" or "What comes next?" Strangely those two question are vastly different from one another. One is an active question the other is passive. I think a lot of my problems in life are that I am to passive, to accepting of the situation. But I don't know how to change it and am I willing to pay the price to change it? I have never really been good at anything. I'm okay at a lot of things. I was an okay student, I'm an okay guitar player, I'm decent at my job (when I have one), I've always thought I was a decent boyfriend (I guess I wouldn't be the best judge of that), I try to be a good friend, but I'm not really great at anything. I seem to always fall in with high quality people, great writer, artist, students, and musicians. People who I seem to have bright, productive future, no matter what they do or at least they have the potential to. They may never be rich or famous but that is a horrible thing to judge greatness by. Still, I know sometime it is easy to get in the way of yourself. Which brings me back to my problem. What is it that separates the "the great" from the hacks like me? Is it talent? Hard Work? Fate? A mix of all three? I think back to younger days, when I was 17, 18, 21, 24 and I can't help but think of all the time and potential that I have wasted in my life. About the things I could have done, About the things I should have done? But the real question is what else would I have done, what else should I have been? I'm not unhappy with my life, just uncertain of it. And more uncertain of what I should do next. I have pretty much accepted that wife and kids and all that lot are not going to happen for me. I don't know what it is about me, but something just scream to women "HE'S A WASTE OF TIME!!!" or "THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HIM!!!". While sad, there is some level of freedom in that. Its just one less thing I have to worry about. But it still leaves me with the fundamental problem. What am I going to do?

Sorry for this stream of conscience rant, but I got a lot on my mind, and my birthday bring out the worse in me about things like this.