You Spin Me 'Round Like a Record, Baby. Too much fun talking to Susan on the phone tonight, so I decided to skip going to Big Booty and talk to Susan some more. She is cooking dinner for me tomorrow night, and I can't wait to see her. It's been two whole weeks. Call the Fire Marshal, baby, cause there's gonna be some big-time fireworks!
Two Kinds of Music in this World: Country and Western. I like country and I like western, but I hate Country-Western. That line is a paraphrase from a Syd Masters and the Swing Riders show. Most people don't realize it, but New Mexico is a hotbed of real Western Music. Most people are familiar with the Swing Riders and the Buckarettes, but there are dozens of great bands here doing awesome work in the genre. My buddy Rick Huff and his partner Mary Ryland have produced an awesome 2 CD set called The Best of New Mexico Western featuring 48 great songs and artists.
Friends and acquaintances like The Buckarettes, Syd Masters, Katie Gill, Steve Kinabrew, Gene Corbin and Bill and Bonnie Hearne are represented, as well as some folks I never heard of before. One artist that made an impression on me was Kip Calahan. She is a working ranch wife down in Animas, NM, as well as being a remarkably talented singer. Today, a guy came in wanting me to sell her CDs in my shop, and I jumped at the chance. I picked up plenty of both her albums, Cowboys, Cowgirls, Roundups and Rodeos and Dust Devil Angel. Both are excellent, with Cowboys being a tad more traditional, while Angel is more modern, elaborately produced and radio friendly. I sell both of these at my shop, along with The Best of New Mexico Western. Drop me an email and I will sell them to you, or stop by the shop.

Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
If you haven't seen this movie, you should. It rules.

You are Kip Dynamite and you love technology.

Take this quiz at Quizilla.
I like Kip, He is the man. But this can't be right, because I hate technology (at least just today- see below). Maybe it's just our shared gangsta stlylin' and nacho craving.

Why do smoke alarms decide to get a low battery at 5 am? Why not 5 pm, when I'm already awake? These are not courteous devices. They are cruel, sadistic little buggers, which I despise with all my body and soul. Beep, wake up, beep, change my battery, beep, hury up, beep, or I'll drive you insane with my beep beeping. Can't figure out which one of the 6 of us is beeping, huh? Beep. Which drawer did you put the batteries in? Beep! Now you got to go to the garage and get the ladder. BEEP. Okay change me, NOW! BEEEP! The new battery is in but I'm still going to beep anyway! Haaahaahaaahaaa! I won't stop beeping until you figure out how to press that little white button in exactly the right way. BEEEEEP. One quick push? No sorry, wrong way. BEEEEEEEP.Two short pushes, wrong again, monkeyboy! One long push? Wait, that's it! You'll be sorry, Dave. Daaaisy, Daaaisy,
Why do my smoke alarms have to be HAL2000 models instead of cheap Radio Shack jobs?
I hate technology.
Just discovered that my favorite all-girl folk band, the Wailin' Jennys, have a music video for Beautiful Dawn out. It features Cara, the cute punky one, who has recently been replaced by a scary looking woman. A great video for a great song, so check it out.

If It Ain't One Thing... it's another. Susan got back Saturday, but I have yet to see her and it's killing me! The reason is that last Thursday, she came down with conjunctivitis, or pink eye. Since it is contagious, she refuses to see me until her pink eye clears. This is very wonderful and considerate of her, and I thank her because, since I still kinda not totally over the weird coughing thing, pink eye would not add to my fun. I have talked to her via phone every day since Saturday, so this really helps, but I'm dying to be with her again. We are making plans for a fondue night at Melting Pot this weekend.
Had a really fun Improv class tonight. Our teacher, Devin is in Chicago this week, so boss man Dan taught the class. At least Dan doesn't yell at me like Devin does. I felt pretty comfortable and confident tonight, and Dan had some good things to say about my progress. I enjoy the short form stuff so much more than the long form, and I just find it easier to do. Oh, and yay! Big Booty, the open improv show, is back at GT this Thursday. I missed it, and plan to be there because I want to get more practice.
Read this book: Fender Bender by Bill Fitzhugh is a very funny and odd semi-mystery that pokes fun at the Nashville country music scene. Lots of characters and multiple stories that make you wonder just how in the hell the author will finally fit them together. He does so in a very clever way. Highly recommended.
I have to have my monologue for acting class ready to perform by this Saturday. Yikes! Thank God I chose to stick with the Joe vs. the Volcano bit I did at my Continuing Ed class last November. At least I already had it committed to memory. Now it's all a matter of practicing it until I'm happy with my performance.
Are you into weirdo British synth-pop? Then check out Black Box Recorder's new album Passionoia. This band has an icy wit and a slightly sinister edge, and this is their danciest record yet. I was hooked on this record the fist time I heard it and it has been a fixture in my car CD player for the last couple weeks. You can download the whole album through various online sources.

My New Hero, Morgan Spurlock. Finally got around to watching Super Size Me, the brilliant documentary film in which Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonalds food for an entire month, and darn near ruins his health. This is one of the greatest documentaries I've ever seen. It is a very smart film in that it makes its point very well, with lots of facts, figures and expert testimony. But it's the gonzo personal element that lifts this film into the stratosphere. Morgan dives into into this "experiment" with Jackass-style glee, but then shows us the painful personal consequences in unflinching detail. The film is obviously anti-corporate, and anti-fast food, but it makes it points in a folksy, low-key way. I haven't eaten at McDonald's in years, but if you have, this film will definately make you stop and think before going to the Golden Arches or any fast food joint. Highly recommended.

Life is Good. Susan left Friday, but not before stopping by to say goodbye. It was one heck of a great goodbye! Friday night/Saturday morning I got up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water and walked smack-dab into the wooden post in the middle of the living room, splitting open the skin on my right eyebrow. Needless to say, I had my mind on "other things." Dad says I'm "twitterpated." I think that word's from "Bambi." I miss Susan like I'd miss my right arm if someone cut it off. However, she's called everyday to keep in touch, and I briefly feel like I'm there with her when we talk. She seems to be having a great time, and is in her usual good spirits. I'm looking forward to when she gets back Easter Sunday.
In Other News...Had the Singles Group over for comedy movie night Saturday, and it was a less than stellar success. The group picked "The In-Laws" with Peter Falk to watch, then several people complained loudly about how bad the film was. One hated it so much she up and left in the middle. A couple of us, myself included, did enjoy it. Oh well, I should have known, maybe comedy is too subjective for a group activity. Or maybe some people just need to lighten the heck up. I bless these folks, see the Christ in them and let them go.
Both the Lobo men and woman got the crap beat out of them at the NCAA basketball tournament. Oh well, maybe next year.
Sunday was the last official day for Rev. Bob Wasner at church. We had a big send-off for him. He is a delightful man who seems to know the most obscure facts imaginable. He really helped pull the church together in a difficult time, and I thank you Bob for being such a wonderful interim minister.
I went on a mad shopping spree Sunday. Intending to buy two pair of jeans, I end up with three pair of pants, and five shirts. Oh well, it made me feel good and I have a new spring wardrobe!
Business is picking up, thank God, and I've sent my 2004 taxes in. Thankfully I didn't owe anything extra. Just have to pony up my first quarter estimated taxes on April 15th.
Got tickets for Susan and I to the World Wellness Weekend featuring a talk from Deepak Chopra. on April 9th. His book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success is one of the books that helped to change my life.

Officially Smitten. I haven't been able to think about anyone or anything else since Wednesday night. Her beautiful eyes keep popping onto the viewscreen in my brain. I keep replaying the images, sounds, and sensations of our evening together Wednesday night over and over in my heart and in my mind. For the first time ever, there are no "warning signals" going off in my brain, no irrational fears, no doubts. It all just feels right, so right. I feel a deep emotional and spiritual connection with her. When I am with her, I am engulfed in intense beauty and light. She brings out a sense of the romantic in me that I have never been able to express before. I called her on the phone last night, and we giggled like children. She is leaving for a week to visit her daughters in Portland and Yosemite, but we will get to see each other briefly this afternoon before she leaves. I will have to busy myself with acting class, improv, the NCAA tournament, work, and church, but I know she will remain in my heart and on my mind. I have never felt this way about anyone before. Is this what falling in love is really like? Thank you God, for drawing Susan into my life.

Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. Seems like we're living in the weather "Twilight Zone." It was 75 degrees on Saturday, and today there is 3 inches of snow on the ground! What the....? Just another late winter, early spring in Albuquerque. Definitely better than the usual wind. The snow was absolutely gorgeous today though. My neighborhood looks like a Christmas card. The weather was very invigorating. I even went out in the backyard and made a foot-tall snowman. However, I am really getting the Spring Fever and the itch to start riding my bike three times a week.
Speaking of the cold, my cold, cough mucky throat thingy is on the way out finally I think. That codine cough syrup is a nightmare, but I've gotten good sleep the last two nights, and I'm not as zombie-tired as I had been.
Having a Wild Weekend. Great weekend of fun, food and classes. Friday out with Susan was an absolute marvel. Great Thai food at Thai Ginger and on a whim we went to Laffs Comedy Club and witnessed an excellent triple bill with a wonderful headliner, Ron Feingold, who did some great A Cappella musical comedy. A real unique act who was so funny he made Susan pee (at least that's what she put on the comment card). Susan has the most delightful, joyful laugh in the world, and watching her laugh was as much fun as watching Ron perform.
On Saturday, I had my new acting class at Albuquerque Little Theatre, which was very fun and I think it's going to cover ground that the other Continuing Ed class didn't. Mostly older people in the class, and very cozy atmosphere. I have to come p with another monologue to do, though. Mybe I'll just go with the old "Joe Vs. The Volcano" bit from the other class. George did hold Improv class on Saturday, but he didn't call until the last mintue. I went, but I'm afraid I'm not learning much new.
Then Saturday night, the Singles group went to Chow's Chinese Bistro for dinner. Not a bad place. The food was very good, but it was a bit pricey, and the service wasn't too sharp. I coughed most of the way through dinner, which wasn't too fun and I started running out of energy. By Sunday, I was on low fuel.

The Old Cold. Think this bugger is finally on the way out. Have a doctor's appointment this morning at 10 am, but the cough didn't keep me up much at all last night. Don't think it is bronchitis, and man, a couple times last night that cough was very "productive." Not only was phlegm coming up, but I thought my liver was going to come up!
Movie Making. They shot another movie in Old Town last night. This one is "The First Snow" starring Guy Pearce. They had the plaza made up like Christmastime. They blocked off the plaza all day, and thusly business sucked.
Busy, busy, busy. Lots going on this weekend. First, tonight is my night out with Susan, which I've been looking forward to all week. Tomorrow, the Unity Singles are having our dinner out at Chow's Chinese Bistro, which looks really yummy. I also have my first acting class at Albuquerque Little Theatre at 10 am tomorrow. There should be an Improv class tomorrow afternoon at Laff's but I haven't heard from George, so maybe he went into official hibernation mode on these classes. Oh yeah, and Devin wants me to attend the Saturday 10;30 Gorilla Tango performance, as sort of "homework" for class. Sunday, I'm ushing at church and we have our planning meeting. Hopefully Sunday afternoon I can squeeze in a bike ride if the weather is still okay.

Blow Up Yer TV! Man, I forgot to mention this! My all-time favorite folk singer, John Prine ,is coming to Albuquerque on July 29th! I already got tickets...they went on sale last Friday! Got seats in the 8th row center! Who wants to go with me?

More Cool Linkology: Since I've been hibernating the last few days, I thought I should throw out some more interesting links:
Hard Case Crime. This is a newish imprint that features both new and old hardboiled detective fiction. Stephen King will contribute a book to the series this summer. LOVE the the old-syle covers! I shall order myself an armload of these books soon.
Hay House Radio. For those of you who can't get enough spiritual empowerment, here's your own radio station!

Soul Coughing. I've been feeling much better the past few days. Most of the nasal congestion has gone, but this dang cough has stayed around. Thing is, it starts showing up about 10 pm when I want to go to sleep. Last night, the bugger refused to let me get hardly any zzzs....hack, hack, hack....relief for about ten to fifteen minutes sleep at a time. Maybe it's morphing into bronchitis, I don't know. Anyway, at 8 am I shall be on the blower to the Doctor's office for an appointment to eradicate this evil scourge. I have a lovely evening out planned tomorrow with Susan, and ain't nothin' gonna stop me from enjoying it, especially some bloody cough.
Despite all the health issues, I've been in a remarkably excellent mood the last few days.
I did really well at Improv class on Tuesday, bringin' it with lots of attention and enthusiasm, plus it was confirmed that this class will end with our group putting on a one-off short-form show of our choosing. Yay!
Getting all my tax info organized to send off to my accountant. I hate tax time, but I'm less stressed than usual. Maybe it's because I probably won't have to shell out any extra bucks to Uncle Sam this year, due to slow business and all my house buying and selling activities.
Sin City. Okay, here's a movie I can't wait to see. This looks like the most faithfully translated comic book to film project of all time. Based on the trailer, the film seems to have retained EVERY aspect of Miller's graphic style, so much so that Robert Rodriguez is giving co-directing credit to Miller. Now, I've never read Miller's neo-noir comic, but I've been a fan all the way back to his Ronin and Dark Knight days, so I know what to expect. If anything the only danger is that the film will be TOO dark. It looks to be Bruce Willis' coolest film since Fifth Element, and how 'bout the makeup job on Mickey Rourke? Holy crap! Opens April 1st.

I've Had Better Weekends. First, there's this sucko cold, which thankfully, I'm almost over with I think. I finally started taking some OTC medicine that seems to work. My nose is no longer stuffed up like a Grand Central Station toilet. Also, my coughing and hacking is reduced greatly. Had to cancel my partiicpation in the Owl Prowl at the Nature Center on Friday AND had to cancel entirely the Singles Group trip to La Posada to see Todd and Kari perform on Saturday. Yesterday, I was all about sinus headaches. And damn, would it please stop raining? Anyway, everyone was either sick, tired or AWOL from church today, so that wasn't much fun. I decided to go see Bride and Prejudice. What a waste of time. If I hadn't taken so much time shopping at Hastings for Mike's birthday gift, I could have caught Hotel Rwanda instead. B & P was a cute idea, poorly executed. It almost seemed improvised at many points. You didn't care about any of the characters and this Martin Hendersonwhathisname was the absolute WORST romantic lead I've EVER seen. This guy was obviously hired for his looks, as he sure as hell couldn't act. This was made by the director of Bend It Like Beckham, and by the looks of things she must have incurred a traumatic brain injury between films, because this film has NONE of the style wit or charm of Beckham. Also, there is one funny character, but he is totally wasted, or most of his good stuff was edited out. Yes, some of the musical bits are fun, but it just became a boring romance, with very improbable shifts in the way the characters felt about one another. Oh well, Aishwarya Rai did look hot . A major disapointment, but at least it didn't rain in the theatre.

Dow I Hab An Awbul Code In By Doze. Yesterday, I felt like I had Malaria. Well, the throbbing sore throat and chest cold has moved north to stuff up my nose. At least my voice normalized some---I varied between sounding like Jabba the Hut and Mr. Haney from Green Acres. Been taking it easy. Last night I lounged around watching Deathmaster, the Robert Quarry hippie vampire movie and episodes of the awesome BBC comedy Manchild. Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep so I put on Speedway with Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra. Drifted off about halfway through. Tonight I watched one of my new Bollywood DVDs, Dhoom, a really fun cops and robbers movie on motorbikes that owes more than a little to The Fast and the Furious, Biker Boyz and The Matrix.Some really amazing stunts here worthy of Hollywood. Great music and dance numbers in this too, with REALLY cute women, and this flick is actually just two hours long...a short subject by Bollywood measures. Yeah you heard right, it's The Fast and the Furious with DANCE NUMBERS! Only in Bollywood. Hey, if they can make musical versions of ET and I Know What You Did Last Summer, why is this a surprise?

Who the Hell's Body Did I Wake Up In Today? Yeesh, I feel less than stellar today. I did the old Vick's Vapor rub trick last night to loosen some chest congestion, and that seemed to work. My throat is not quite as icky and my chest not as tight, but I rarely feel this crappy. Hopefully, I'll feel better by tomorrow. Don't know how long it will last, but I plan on drinking lots of juice and eating lots of hot soup and resting tonight. I really want to take Susan to see Rollin' 5 Deep at Gorilla Tango tomorrow, but I may have to abandon that plan.
Maybe I'll spend tonight catching up on the ultra cheap Retromedia DVDs I bought a couple weeks ago (for 5 bones each). Fred Olen Ray is a super nice guy, the king of crappy low budget exploitation movies, and he even rassles under the name "Freddy Valentine." I've already watched Scream Queen Hollywood Hot Tub Party, and Phantom Empire, and still have Wrestling's Wildest Matches (each match features Freddie), The Faceless Monster (a Barbara Steele horror classic), Scream of the Demon Lover (Italian horror classic), The Giant of Metropolis (classic peplum with Gordon Mitchell), and the hotly anticipated 1970s horror classic Death Master with the great Robert Quarry. My copy is signed by Mr. Quarry , and yes it too was just $5. Okay, so it ain't exactly an Ingmar Bergman fest, but these are just the kind of movies I love to watch when I don't have the energy to think. Fred is supposed to restart his sale soon, so maybe I get some more flicks when that happens. Warning: Fred's site is not for the faint of heart.

Just Stuff...Was lucky enough to go for about an hour bike ride yesterday in absolutely beautiful weather. However, I got two flats, thanks to the damn goatheads on the trail. Turns out my new bike has slime in the tires, but the goatheads punctured the tubes. So today we had the bike guys put in better tubes so it won't happen again. Dead at work, so I spent the day reading more Dyer.
Had the first night of class 4 in Improv tonight, the usual suspects with the addition of Flora and Katherine, who are regular troupe members. Devin was nervous as teacher, but did fine. I think I did okay despite having the crawling cruds today. I'm coughing, feel feverish, but damn it, I still showed up. They made us sign a release form saying that we won't sue if we get injured doing improv. A couple week ago a guy hurt his ankle,,,maybe they're just covering their butts?
Sushi Mania. Susan K and I went out for sushi to Azuma yesterday, and had a great time....we spent 3 hours there downing 3 big rolls, and got to know each other much better. By the way, it's easy to get rolls that don't have raw fish, and I HIGHLY recommend the "Make My Day" roll. Shrimp, cream cheese and mayo on top of an inside out roll with crab, avacado and other goodies inside. Excellent!
Links of the day:
Roll Your Own Sushi ,and this site has some cool sushi videos.