Wednesday, November 25, 2015

WNSC?

** In an unprecedented maneuver, in lieu of a "secret" Thursday Thanksgiving meeting, we're holding a requested Wednesday Night Social Club.  I guess there's a first for everything.

But read on.

 11.4.2015  (first posted this week 2003)

So I had to submit to a urine test the other day. I'd been accused or using performance-enhancing drugs during the last Scrabble tournament I'd won and I had to clear my name. Boy is it a cutthroat world! Anyway, I don't know if you ever had to pee in a cup for anything other than normal reasons (?), but when you're a suspect, they treat you a lot different at the clinic. They're not nice. They're cold, they're quite rude and their stares burn a hole right through you. The clinician I was lucky enough to get was as big as a house and scary looking. He breathed through one nostril and squished his face into a scowl worthy of a Halloween mask. He ordered me to empty my pockets into a clear, lucite box. When I'd finished, he spun me around and fuckin'-A FRISKED me. "Jesus, buddy, watch yr hands," I said. He grunted a shutthefuckup. When his full-cavity search turned up nothing, he slapped a padlock on the lucite box and then handed me the box and thrust a piss cup in my hand. "Go in dere," he said, motioning to a room with a unisex symbol on the door, "and you gots fifteen seconds only. And yr being watched through the cameras and such. Don't do nothin' funny or I'm comin' in." Jesus, I thought, going into the room, no pressure or nothing.

I managed to fill the specimen cup in the alloted time and capped it. I opened the door and handed it over to the Neanderthal. "Here ya go, Piss Man," I said, "now unlock my shit, yo." I thought it was funny to call him Piss Man. And I aced the test. My pee was squeaky clean, yo. Don't need dope to throw my BCHSXYZ into _EN_O___AMP_OR_ to spell BENZOXYCAMPHORS and score 1830 points, yo.

Tonight - The Homestead.

Everyone have a very happy Thanksgiving Holiday!!

bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Kennedy

11.2.2015

Baka guy!

In 1992 we were sitting around watching "120 Minutes" on MTV and Dave Kendall told us of a "hot new all-girl act from Japan" called Shonen Knife.  They had just released their first major-label
record in the US, "Let's Knife."  One of the tracks on the album was, "Antonio Baka Guy," and Dave explained to us that "baka" in Japanese means, "stupid."  Baka Guy = Stupid man.  We loved it.

The "we" I'm referring to is Jimi and me.  Jimi and I had gone to school together in Phoenix and while I moved away to Chicago, he moved to California.  At some point, he decided to move to Chicago and boxed up all his shit and moved there.  He stayed in my apartment for a while, as he tried to find a job and a place of his own to move his boxed-up shit.  It was winter and it was really cold and it's no fun to slog around looking for work and apartments.  Jimi's Chicago experiment did not last long.  He was back in sunny California by Spring.

But in the meantime, we watched MTV and learned exciting new foreign words like, "baka."  We wore that word out.  Replacing a word like, "stupid" demonstrated how frequently the word came up.  Baka snow.  Baka cat.  Baka ice.  Baka broken TV.  Baka this.  Baka that.  I remember ordering a pizza and upon delivery, opening it and it wasn't what we ordered.  We looked at each other and Jimi simply said, of the situation, "Baka."

I try not to say, "stupid" around my kid, as it's not a really nice word and I've proved it can apply to many people, places and situations.  I don't like him saying it either.  But, "baka?"  Some day I'll teach him that.


Tonight - Club Deluxe.

TNSC Founding Member John Metsker's Birthday!  Come on out and help him celebrate. 

Of course Little Minsky's Burlesque will be performing, so bring $5 for the cover charge and enjoy!

bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!

Thursday, November 05, 2015

It's a Jelly (REDUX)

11.1.2015  (first posted this day 2005)

Ya hear that one about varying yr routines so yr enemies don't know where and when to find you? I used to live like that. I used to exit the back door from work, ride a different bike to the bus depot, snag one of many routes that come near my place and then skitch a ride on a garbage truck. Or recycling truck. Or a cardboard-collector truck. See? Varying the mode can be easier than you think. If you say, "I have to skitch to work," I say, "so be it." Yr enemies will know where to look for you. UNLESS you vary the vehicle you skitch from. Skitch off that beer truck. Skitch off that Mission Uniform supply truck. Skitch off that UPS van (always a good skitch, that brown van), skitch off a bicycle, fer chrissakes (I done it.) Yr enemies will miss you if you skitch home off a Safeway Home Delivery van if they're looking for you skitching off a Entemen's bakery truck.

Tonight - Orbit Room

Yes... you read that right.  It's the grand re-opening of the TNSC ground-zero.  It might be packed, but TNSC is always "makin' the scene" (as kids say nowdays.)  If all else fails, it's only a 3 block walk to Elixir.


bye-ee!

whrr ... clik!