Signals

Good-bye January 2012. You are almost done but what a fun month you were.

Well, things with the Welsh Witch didn't work the way i had hoped she would. It was odd. She gives off more mixed signals than a broken satellite. But, whatever. It was still a fun time and we'll just see what happens. If we are just friends then that's great too. I like her. She's nuts. It'll happen or it won't. I keep looking for a normal woman; under tables, in attics, street corners etc.

Nuts. I love women who are nuts! Oh Achilles heal! O pain in my balls!


(earlier on the phone)
Mum: I thought she was cooking you dinner to seduce you
Me: So did i!

Books i read this month

The Night Eternal - Del Toro and Hogan
The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman
Damned - Chuck Palahniuk
1Q84: book one - Murakami

You can tell i was on vacation with the amount i read. i love to read in bars in different cities. You have a few beers, you read and you observe, almost unoticed like you don't exist. You can really get a vibe for a place, at least on that night. Berlin was rocking on Jan 1, after a crazy New Year's Eve

Must sleep. Work manana. The weekend just vanishes. But less work this week.

THE GREAT PURGE OF 2012

15:44

Darth Vader during the great purge of the Jedi.

Sleep is Awesome.

So if you ask me
Where do I go from here
My next destination
Even isn't really that clear
So if you join me
And get on your knees and prey
I'll show you salvation
We'll take the alternative way
Clutching the short straw
-Marillion


Music to purge to;

Live at Lorely (1987, disc2) - Marillion
Ghosts - Frequency Drift
Live at the Lyceum 1980 - Genesis
2 - Black Country Communion
Peter Gabriel 3  - Peter Gabriel


I need to really scour my room. Oh, how our transgressions come home to roost! Books, papers, drums, dreams. hopes... scattered all over the place. Let the Great Purge begin. First i have to scrape wax out of the bidet.  It all went down at 3:00 in the morning and it was not pretty. Marcondes had lit up the entire bathroom with candles (porque?) and i went to put one out that was on a wooden picture frame (great idea!) and the metal cylinder was hot as hell. So i insticntively tossed it into the bidet.  Wooden spoon. Dish detergent. Check, check. Off i go.


17:29

I'll buy an anti-grease spray later, but that pretty much worked.  And my room is Cleaner. Still a great deal to go. This is 2 day job,

Time to groom myself. There should be hot water now. Big date tonight. Must wash between my toes!

18:48

Clean. I smell like flowers.  Now go buy beer to bring and get food for manana. Mail postcards. Head out to the Welsh Witch's at 20:30.

Nerds

We're clutching at straws
I'm still drowning
-Marillion

Sleep. I need ye. Stayin' in. 30 hours of class this week and i surrender. Body tired, mind like moosh.

The Seester sent me some nice pics of the Central European Tour '12. Said better ones are yet to come. What a great trip.

She said she loves the new Frequency Drift album, Ghosts. I thought she'd like it. I gave her and Jan maybe ten albums or so on a pen drive. I recommend it very highly for anyone who likes progressive rock. It's got a lot of other influences too. It's kind of mad and surreal. Yet rocking and heart-wrenchingly beautiful.  And the electric violins are stunning. Great guitar. Great keyboards. Mad. The Seester told me, "it was the right mix of classical and trippy." The band would probably love that sentence in a reviews. That was what made me get the album, a great review. It was ProgArchives.com. That's a good site. Nerds of the world, unite!

Speaking of nerd love, i am going the the Welsh Witch's for dinner tonite. Exciting.

Gaff had been there, and let her live. Four years, he figured. He was wrong. Tyrell had told me Rachael was special: no termination date. I didn’t know how long we had together... who does?
-Decker, Blade Runner

Airbag

It's Jueves. All is well. Teaching a ton. Everything within normal parameters, thankfully. Still breathing. Too tired too be witty. Me sleep now. Very warm weather here. Nuts. Too warm. It's like Spring. Deploy airbag. i need to slow down.



In the neon sign
Scrolling up and down
I am born again

In an interstellar burst
I am back to save the universe

In a deep deep sleep of the innocent
I am born again

In a fast german car
I'm amazed that I survived
An airbag saved my life
-Radiohead

To Do List

DOMINGO


19:35


Posted the Karmic Relief album review today on Amazon, CD Baby and BookFace. Yet another thing to cross off the to do list. But the list is still kind of fucking long....


I played poker

With a doctor

Stand straight up

And call him cheat

Then I walked those 20 paces

I gunned him right down

In the street

Hey Ma

Hey Pa

Look at me standin' tall

Brother

Sister - (Ha! )

Look at them bad guys fall

I'm walkin' and talkin' real slow

Out where the tumbleweed blows

Hey Ma

Hey Pa

Let those wagons roll!

Don't wake me up

I'm dreamin' John Wayne's dream

Under a sky so big

On a prairie green

-Big Country

LUNES


23:23

The Giants are in the Stupor in a reamatch with Pats. How delicious! My mouth is watering. !t tastes like.... Giselle's tears, which in addition to being delicious, may also have Fountain of Youth properties. 

I saw pretty much the whole first half and then slept through the 2nd half and miraculously awoke at about 4:10 to see it tied at 17 with a few seconds to go. I saw the OT, which was short and sweet. The strip and then the FG. Great game! It ended at 4:55. The NFL is killing me softly with its song (killing me softly.)

Fierce the Tempest

Fierce the Tempest

-Frequency Drift

Busy as hell this week. But my 9:00 manana was cancelled and i get paid anyhoo. That buys me some time to finish the details for this intensive course that starts manana at 13:00. I got it thru Carla (of Bender Tuesday fame.) It's just me and it's like 9 to 12 hours over the next 3 weeks. They want to be able to teach some business English. So Carla recommended me and they said 'sure," after we talked. I've done a lot of intensives and love them. So this is a nice opportunity. 


And... the Welsh Witch invited me to dinner at her place on sabado, so that is also something to look forward to She's awesome. 

Judgement day

SABADO

I just finished writing an album review the Adults' new album KARMIC RELIEF (2011.) I'll look it over manana and then post it to list of websites Jimbo sent me. If you haven't heard it, i reccommend it quite highly. Some of the songs were songs i played with Jim and Mark a bunch during my 2010 Summer Tour. Cool to hear how they sorted them out.




DOMINGO

The day of the AFC and NFC Championship games is the best Sunday the NFL has to offer offer. It's Judgement Day. You get two games (in case one sucks as the AFC Championship promises to) You also get a chance at a rematch between two teams who know each other and have met earlier in the season, as have NYG and SF.

I say NE over BAL
NYG over SF

Let the games begin!!!!!

Smash Mouth

Walking home that night
The sack across my back, the sound of sobbing on my shoulder.
When suddenly it stopped,
I opened up the sack, all that I had
A pool of bubbles and tears - JUST A POOL OF TEARS.

All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world.
You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you'll not get them now,
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground.
-Genesis

SABADO


2:14 


Okay. I stayed in tonite. Vicky and i were out way too late last night and i was dead after class. Plus i taught 9 hours on Jueves. Manana is another day. I did some laundry and tidied up a bit. It's Jan. 21. This month is vanishing. Crazy. I guess the first week disappeared because the family was on vacation. 


Looking forward to the Giants game even if it is on at 00:30 Monday morning. But i have no class til 13:00 the next day. All the same, it a trippy thing to stay up so absurdly late to watch such things. 

But the NY Football Giants win Super Bowls when i am out of the country. They beat Buffalo when i was living in Jamaica. They beat New England while i was here in Madrid. That's 2 of their 3 Super Bowls. Also, the Giants are 4-0 in NFC Championship Games, Deafeating Washington in '87, San Fran in '91, Minn in '01 and GB in '08. I'm going to say the Giants win manana too, although i think it's going to be a very close smash mouth game. 


It was warm today. For the middle of winter. Europe has had a very warm winter so far. Usually the weather starts getting Spring-ish in Madrid by March. 


13:31


All hail the weekend and being lazy! I find it comes quite naturally. 

Grace Under Pressue

Rush- Grace Under Pressure (1984)


Still Alive. Taught 9 hours yesterday. A new record. Then the Welsh Witch called as i was getting out of class so we went out for a bite to eat. She's very spontaneous. I like that.

My brain is barely working. So i have to shower and get my white ass to class. A little live Pat Benatar from the early From 1983. I am reading Haruki Murakami's 1Q84 (1984.) It's great. He's one of my favorites. Thank you Dunnish for giving me DANCE, DANCE, DANCE about 15 years ago. I have since read everything by him.

So i'm kind of stuck in the 80's. But my left ear isn't pierced this time around. Time travel anyone?

Andy Warhol Wednesday

Yes, sometimes after Bender Tuedsay everything seems a bit odd on Wednesday. But it all worked out. I think i have to teach 8.5 hours manana! 

Bender Tuesday sound bite;

The White Witch, who is getting over the end of a long relationship. Her mother told her, "Sometimes to get over someone, you need to get under someone!"  Priceless. 

Someone who is the process of moving back to the US showed up last and cause some minor problems, mostly being a drunken idiot. Now i remember why we traded to her New Orleans (which is where she wil live.) Hornets! What an asinine name!

January has peaked and now on the downlside to February. 

Start a new class manana, a friend of Monica's. And manana is Jueves. Weekend, i can see you from around the corner. 

Upset

Gmen started with a nice drive. Now they are starting another nice one. Manning had all day. 

HOU and BALT was pretty much a snore.

Manning pass to Nicks like 66 yards for a TD! Woo hoo! No me creo!  

What a year Eli has had! NYG 10 - GB 3.

Mistake. The Pack gets the ball on their own 40.

HOU and BAL was so defensive. This is going to be a very different kind of game. 

I am going to have to check out the new Napoleon Dynamite. That's looks awesome. I adore that movie. It's random and nerdy..., and hysterical. Epic because it was totally off the radar and was crazily successful.

Giants under review to see if they got a fumble recovery. Looks like they did. The Giants got robbed. Robbed! The one ref overruled the other on the field before they went to replay. 

Frig. The Pac Men are on the march. 

NYG 10 GB 3,  End of 1st Q.

NYG 10 GB 10.

But GB attempts an onside kick and Giants get it back in great field position. 

Tynes for 40 yds.D'oh!. Blocked.These teams are fired up. Slugging it out blow by blow. NFC smash-mouth football.That's a missed gift FG for the Giants. 

1st and 20 after a hold for GB. Damn. Mr. Rodgers scrambled about 11 yards. He's a dangerous bastard. Holy shit! 

Rodgers kept it and ran for another first down. 

4 dropped passes by Pack receivers. 

I Skyped with Annie and Sue today, Sue is well and Annie is adorable and happy. It was fun. 

Eli throws to Ballard for 17yds. Then Eli gets picked deep in Packer territory. 

And for the first time the Giants are on their heels. Kuhn fumbles! Giants recover. Momentum swing!

Nicks inside the GB 10! Bradshaw to the 1. Jacobs gets sent backwards. 3rd and Goal. 2 minute warning, This is big. Bitch slap these yellow helmet guys before the half. Incomplete. Life's a bitch. 

NYG 13 - GB 10

GB has not trailed at half time all year (at least according to Joe Schmuck.)

Rodgers is sacked! NYG ball at their own 30. 

Giants driving. Bradshaw runs for 16 yards and gets out of bounds.  

What the what? 37 yard Hail Mary to Nicks! 

NYG 20 - GB 10. A great opportunity seized by the Giants. 

- - -

GB gets the ball to start the half.  

This has been a great game so far, Rodgers run for 15! Bastard! 

Giants get the ball but punt it away. 8:40 3Q Just eat that clock away boys. In Giant football - time of possession is key. Even though the running game hasn't done much today, you still just try to play the possession game against a dangerous offense. And their defense sucks. 

The GB offense may be adjusting. A nice 11 yard 3rd down pickup. The pack is on the move. NYG 18 yard line. They settled for a FG.

NYG 20 GB 13.

Holding. 1st and 20 for NYG. 3 and out. 

GB fumbles! Giants run it down to the 10 or so, 

Manning to Maningham! TD!

NYG 30 GB 13. The Giants are going to SF! Will the NFL fix both Championships game so the the Super Bowl is the Harbaugh Bowl (Balt. vs. SF)? 

You know i am a conspiracy theorist when it comes to things like this. 

NYG 30 GB 20,

 4:46 4Q

NYG 37 - 20 GB, An ass kicking, 

Or maybe it will be a rematch of '09, NE /NYG?

Teacher Student Privilege

That's a real thing right? Student - teacher confidentiality? Menchu's party was fun. I saw Miguel, Teresa, Elena and Fernando, and maybe got a new student. The food was great and Miguel gave me a ride home about 1:30. Then i watched the end of NO / SF and i was shocked. SF has some D. And NO played a sloppy game. So when the Giants upset GB they will head to SF. NO has trouble playing outside of their Dome, I guess.

Time for Houston / Baltimore. I hope i am wrong and Houston can pull it out. I hate the City of Baltimore. Crackmore, we used to call it when i lived there. C'mon Arian Foster!

21:18

HOU just stuffed Ray Rice on 4th and half a yard. They just stood him up.

HOU 13 BAL 17. Houston has fought to stay in this game. 00:25 3Q

The Punt, Pass and Kick Competition is being awarded in between the change of sides. They still do that? It was a stupid competition 30 years ago and it's still idiotic. And then as a reward they send you to Baltimore! The US city with the the 3rd highest rate of STDs? No way any kid of mine is ever going to play in that dumb ass competition.

Time is running out for the Texans.

Time has run out.

Random Impulses

And i keep crawling back to you

-Tom Petty

Note to self- Greatest innovations of the 21st Century so far

The iPod

the Kindle

Skype

So what's next?

I look forward to time travel, edible clothing, having your Passport microchipped into your ass, completely hypo-allergenic dogs, the NY Mets being sold to Red Bull and re-branded as such and finding out that Glenn Beck is really a robot. 

NFL DIVISIONAL ROUND PICKS

NO over SF

NE over DEN

BALT over HOU

NYG over GB

GB is a great team but it's been a long lay off for Buck Rodgers and i think fate is just going to finally catch them. I could be wrong, so very, very, horribly wrong, but i think the Gmen pull this one out. They really should have won the first meeting last month in New Jersey. 

SF has had a SOFT schedule in a bad division. I think NO will win the Stupor Bowl.

Tea Bag time is over. NE wins this one.

HOU has gone as far as they can with TJ Hooker and QB.

And th.. th...th..that's all folks!

Tonite; Menchu's Bday party.

* * *

20:36

Man, i could just stay in and watch a movie. But she's my student and i said i would go so i'll go. You have to keep promises to the Studentia (the proper plural for students ) 

What a lovely day of sitting on my ass and making pasta and reading (I did manage to do laundry and tidy the room a wee bit during all this.)

Music to compost by;

Exile in Guyville - Liz Phair
Herd of Instinct - Herd of Instinct
Quelqu'un ma dit - Carla Bruni

Ghosts - Frequency Drift

The Live Anthology - Tom Petty

I spoke with Mum today. She said that she and the girls all got sick after they got home. Bummer. Feel better! We had a great time on holiday. It was nice to see my Family Harem again. You get noticed when you travel around with three woman. 

Now i'm free
 free fallin'

-Tom Petty

Must.. go...to ...birthday....party.
21:51

I'm Out Zee Doooooor....

I say  NO 24 - SF 10

The next step

Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking cross the floor
Put one foot in front of the other
And soon you’ll be walking out the door
-Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Animated (ABC) December 13, 1970

On Jueves morning i woke up at 3:30 and could not get back to sleep. So, i stayed up til 7:30, hit the shower and went to work. I probably had less than three hours sleep. 

Then i worked til 17:30. Then i went home with the thought of falling instantly asleep. Didn't happen. Tim had sent me a message earlier he and Laura were going to J&J's. I got there about 20:00. I saw Tweedie, Gøran, Carla. Laura and Tim never showed. I was about to head out and who walks in a 21:30? The Welsh Witch. "Jay, imagine finding you in a bar. How strange? What a coincidence." So we hung out for a few beers and then went to one last place once the Quiz started at J&J's. I really like this gal. Funny. Redhead. So what's the next step?                                                                                       

Nobody likes to risk rejection, but what else is there to do? So,you just have to  take that Lover's Leap. Jump off the cliff. Sometimes you just have to open that door, even though there may be a naked, smoking, assault rifle toting Robert Downey Jr. behind the door.


Wow. I had really better clean my room just in case something happens between us. It looks like something died in here.

Acting Reasonably

It's been a pretty warm winter here. Cold at night of course, but even Germany, Czech Republic and Austria weren't as cold as they normally are. And Madrid is way warmer than those countries normally.

Okay- like 6.5 hours of class today. Then the weekend. Manana i'll see Maria. Saturday help Laura's Tim build a bed or some damn thing. Then Menchu's Birthday Party. Giants game Sunday night. And in between sleep. Sweet sweet sleep.

Things with Iran do not look good. It looks like an Israeli operative took out that Iranian nuclear scientist. Or a US operative, but the Mossad is much better at that shit than the CIA. I don't think Obama, Netanyahu or Ayatollah Ali Khamenei read the blog, but if they do, would it be too much to ask everyone to act reasonably? Is it wrong that i'd like to see my friend's children grow up? Maybe myself even?

It's been a long time...

It's been a long time since i rock n' rolled...
-Led Zeppelin




The crowd at the sold out Vienna Capitals game on Jan 6. They won 3-2 in OT against playoff bound Zaegreb to keep their playoff hopes alive. It was awesome. First time i had seen hockey in 4 years! And the atmosphere was great.


On Tuesday my phone rang. The ID said "Jesus." At first i was confused and then i thought, goddammit! i thought the Messiah and i had agreed we were no longer on speaking terms! (we have started arguing about the Crusades every single time we have ever played poker together.) And then, i realized it was my Spanish student, Jesus (Hey - Zeus.) I immediately dropped the condescending tone and learned that he needed to start half an hour later on Wednesday.

Sorry dude. Wrong Jesus. 


But at the time it was perplexing.

BTO or "Goodbye you ignorant slut"

12:44


So far it looks like the Nitt Witt is still the front runner, but NH and IOWA hardly a nomination make.

Bachmann Turnout Override - She caved in after getting trounced in bible-thumping Iowa. Go back to Minnesota! You're their problem now. Your run lasted until Jan. 5th. What a run! But I have a new product (therapy) for you and your 'straight' husband to shill; Pray Away the Stupid. It will not work, but neither does pray away the gay, and people still pay you thousands of dollars for that. (Kevin had emailed me about this when we all were in Austria, just in case i has missed it!)

You see Michele, if you tell people you're great but you are a biggoted religious fanatic, it won't work. You have to actually be cool, like Bender. Or me.

JUEVES

00:41

Things are getting calmer. Bit by bit. Normalizing is a better word

i get by with a little help from my friends
-The Beatles

The Road to Nowhere (part II)

And your heart beats so slow
Through the rain and fallen snow
Across the fields of mourning
Light's in the distance
-U2

So many classes cancelled this week it's crazy. Spanish people are upset about going back to work after having 2 full weeks off, so they cancel class, That's okay. I don't need to eat. I ate all last week.
The classes from the academy are still there but they don't pay you til Feb 2. I guess it's back to running guns in Uganda (once again!) on the weekends til things turn around.


Other than that, everything is great. 

Try not to scream

I will try not to breathe
I can hold my head still with my hands at my knees
These eyes are the eyes of the old, shivering and bold
-REM


Coming back from vacation is tough. That first Monday can be hell. Today a class cancelled for good (and three more cash ones post-poned til next week) and the washing machine broke and i found out that we are going to have a 4th housemate move in because Marcondes lost his job. Ugh. Triple whammy. Eduardo said the guy lived with him before for 3 years and that he's a nice guy. The problem is 4 and one bathroom is kind of tight. If he works in the morning it won't be bad, i guess. He moved in about 15 minutes after Eduardo told me. Just a bad day. These things happen. Jodiendo Lunes! (fucking Monday.)

každý obrázek

English translation from Czech - Every Picture

Count Chocula's Castle, Praha (Prague)

                                                                                                        

every picture tells a story, don't it?

-Rod Stewart

14:00

Must get out of bed. But being in my own bed is wonderful after hopping from bed to bed for a week. I went to J&J's and saw my other family. I was shot by 23:00, came home, showered and went to bed. Now buy some food, cook it and do some laundry. Then go watch the Giants with The Welsh Witch (she's never watched an NFL game) but she knows rugby.

It's good to be home. Work manana. Ugh. Thus it begins again.






Music to unpack to:

Ghosts - Frequency Drift
Karmic Relief - The Adults
Herd of Instinct - Herd of Instinct
To Shatter all Accord - Discipline

Yesterday was my 5th Spanniversary. Ah, Madrid, you filthy saucy wench. But you are home.

The Original Budweiser (Budvar) from the Czech Republic. It was my favorite of all the great beers i tasted.

Hapsburg Palace, Wien (Vienna)


Beautiful. Gaudy. What a bunch of pompous, inbred, horses' asses.

But their reign came to an end with defeat in WWI, as it did for the German Kaiser at the same time. The Fall of Giants  by Ken Follet is a brilliant novel about the First World War. I reccommend it very highy. AND the Mum bought me a Kindle for Xmas (Mel and Jan a gift card) so no more lugging around 1,000 page hard covers. Woo hoo! I began reading The Golden Compass (book 1 of the His Dark Materials Trilogy  by Phillip Pullman. Say hello to the digital age of reading! You press BUY and it downloads to your fingertips in seconds. It's amazing!

Familie, Architektur und Bier

Victory Column- Berlin (Siegessäule) - Celbrating victories in the Prusso–Danish war in 1864, and Prussian victories in wars against Austria (1866) and France (1870 – 71)which lead to the Unification of Germany. 

The Central European Tour was a great success. Great fun. It was great to see Mum, Mel and Jan. Berlin. Prague and Vienna were all amazing.

I will post pics and tales throughout the week. The weather was great - no snow and just a few drops of rain. It was cold but it wasn't 10F or anything. The architecture was fabulous in all three cities. Overall, Prague was our favorite. The beer was fabulous in all three countries. And seeing the family was fabulous. No one was arrested and there were no international incidents. Now that's really saying something. Because, well..., you know us.

NFL Picks

CIN
NO
NYG
PITT