"if there's not depth of language, if you don't bring some sort of music to your prose, if that isn't something you can put on the table, then please go do something else because it's the only thing that separates literature from any other art form. That's it. That's all we've got left. Hollywood can beat us in the car chases and the explosions and the high drama. All we have is language and the depth of character, the ability to take you through a life, as opposed to suggesting it. "

That was the very cool Dennis Lehane, from an excerpt in this interview.

He wrote Mystic River and Shutter Island, but before that he wrote five Hard Boiled Detective books starring Kenzie and Generro. Here is his reply to wether or not he will write about them again:

"If they knock on the door, I will welcome them in with open arms because they bought my first house. That's true, and I'm very touched by how they went out into the world and became, in a bizarre sense, something beyond me. They spread in a way I never could have. So I'd love to bring them back, but I also said that I would never write about them unless they told me to. I won't plug them into a plot. And I do like the idea of leaving the stage on a high note. I think any series is going to run down, and you don't know where the tipping point is. But any series is going to wear out its welcome.

They haven't knocked. I see them, and whenever I picture them they're in some hotel room in the Caribbean, for some reason, and the phone rings. One of them says, "Don't pick it up. It's him." Because I beat the hell out of them. I beat the living shit out of those characters — psychologically, physically, emotionally. I think if they want to stay away, they deserve to stay away. If they knock on the door really hard some day, I will go right to the typewriter because I'd love to go back for one more, but I won't plug them in and have them take a cruise where the chef gets killed and only Patrick and Angie can solve it. That sort of Hart to Hart shit, I don't want to go near it. "

Its official, on Valentine's day Ashley accepted Rich's proposal.  They are engaged.

Congratulations Rich and Ashley!

The Original Dinosaur jr. Is on tour. TheAustin Date is looking pretty tempting.  The House of Blues in New Orleans was the site of the best Cracker Concert I ever saw.  I ran into Hickman before that show and said in my best Doc Holiday Voice "Why Johny Hickman, the deadliest Pistole this side the mississippi".   Wait, I think I said that meeting him on some other occasion. In front of the the HOB I stood next to him looking at the marquee and said "I hear these Cracker guys suck", or something like that, then asked him about the cane he was using to get around. Ok, this story sucks.

Anyone remember the Freebird in Jax?  It was next to Buckets. Remember Buckets?   Soemthing funny happened there once, but all I can rememeber is foosball. 

Anyhow, here are the dates:

03-30 Austin, TX - Stubb's Bar-B-Q
03-31 Houston, TX - Warehouse Live
04-01 New Orleans, LA - House of Blues
04-02 Tallahassee, FL - The Moon
04-03 Jacksonville, FL - Freebird
04-04 Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues
04-05 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
04-06 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
04-07 Asheville, NC - The Orange Peel
04-08 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
04-09 Nashville, TN - City Hall
04-10 Memphis, TN - Young Avenue Deli
04-11 Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue
04-12 Columbia, MO - The Blue Note
04-13 Lawrence, KS - Liberty Hall
04-14 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
04-16 Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
04-18 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
04-19 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
04-20 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall

Phoenix says she is "reenacting"  the eggplant-tomato confit-goat cheese terrine from Joel.   That is one good dish. Good and tiny.   And also it is a pain to make, according to Phoenix.

  I have heard that terrines in general are the proving grounds on which student chefs are graduated.  But I could be wrong, cause I also kinda heard that first year culinary students only cook eggs.    If you extend that logic, you can arrive by syllogism to the conculsion that I am a first year cook.

I name dropped Joel Antunes while talking to Scott Howard at his restaurant Scott Howard.      Joel one of the few places in Atlanta that I miss.  There are some IDEAS of places that I miss: Like hot summer days at 6FeetUnder, with a bucket of beers and a catfish-fried blues band.  I'm not sure that scene has ever happened, but it could, and while I am in S.F. I can't be sure it isn't.      Or casual dinner with friends on the deck of Fritti.  Its a great deck, good casual grub, in a comfortably refreshing part of town.  No one ever goes there, but I can hardly change that being out here.   

Howard's was really good though.  Since Borys left Mina for East Asia, I will make Scott Howard  my new fancy-dining-establishment dive.  Their Carrot Broth  Soup rounds off my  'top three soups' list, which is now, in no intentional order,  the Tomato Bisque at Jeanty's,  the Water Chesnut at Joel, and Carrot Broth at Scott Howard.     Scott also makes the best short ribs I have ever had. Wowzers.

I was having coffee this morning at Blue Bottle. The guy in line behind me asked if he could have a shot of expresso added to his coffee. The barista said "How about I give you a shot of expresso AND a cup of coffee", leaving the guy to affect his own perversions.   

 I love it.  It was a very Whiskeytown scene. The dude is hired.  

I miss whiskeytown.

Impertinently bold; impudent and saucy.

cheeki·ly adv.
cheeki·ness n.

The Crossfit Seminar was an unmitigated success.

I got to play some hooverball, which is like Volleyball, but with a 20lb medicine ball.       There were some cool presenters : Chuck Liddell''s Trainer, John Hackleman heaped praise on Crossfit. Mike Burgener, the USA Olympic Lifting Coach, lent his authorative voice to the Crossfit Cause.   The southern styled Coach Rippetoe explained that sometimes lifters can't lift the weight because "its too heavy".   He was my favorite.

During the beer and pizza social,  Olympic Slalomist Eva. T., seemed unimpressed with my silver medal.  She immediately questioned the credentials of the course, asking if it was rated by some fancy organization whose acronyms I can’t recall.  Then she hastily retreated to the arms of Crossfit Greg.

Ok, I fixed the slideshow link. Sorry.

I'm off to the Crossfit Workshop for the weekend. In anticipation of the event I got on the zone diet three days ago.     The new-found energy levels allow me to think about food during the time I normally would spend sleeping or napping. I can't tell if I am truly hungry or just obsessing about food blocks.  The real test is tomorrow, which I am betting will include a 'Fran' workout.

This cartoon mania has got everyone rhapsodizing about free speech in America. Monday a British friend of mine started in with the “Americans are supposed to be all about free speech but aren’t" rant, and made a big deal about how people can be silenced by being labeled "Un-American".  My French friend seconded this notion. The two of them have this idea that  "Un-American" is some devastating, debate  killing, slur.    We went on to have a genial conversation and then the Brit says that if I was in England I would be a member of some Racist, Extremist political party. 

Well THERE’S a word that kills debate: Racist.  Or at least it used to.  The Post-Clinton years seem to be blissfully race-lite, Kayne, Katrina, and the disgusting politicking during King's funeral not withstanding.   But I didn't bring this up to my foreign friends.  Instead I went back to their original point that many opinions are stifled by the “military-economic powers”.    The examples they gave included the anti-war voice, and the global-warming voice. (Apparently some people are against the war, and believe the world is getting warmer. Imagine that!)

Now, being a generally amiable fellow who has spent as much time in Atlanta as California, I have had the pleasure of being friends with roughly as many Democrats and Republicans, and I can tell you that both sides make the same claims about the other. Namely, that the other side has cannier politicians, cheats during elections, and only gets elected because they control the media.  So I asked my foreign friends, and a Local San Francisco Liberal (who to her credit rejected this media-supression argument  outright), to give me one example of an oppressed political voice that they DON’T agree with.  

Can you do it?

My point being that EVERYONE thinks their own voice isn’t getting heard.  People believe the world to be a certain way, and when others don’t, they manufacture a conspiracy to explain why it isn’t. 

Interestingly enough, only the San Franciscan, who didn’t even support the  the 'military-industrial-oppression' argument, could come up with an example of a suppressed voice that she didn’t agree with—Vouchers/ Affirmative Action.  I suspect these means tht she has come around on couchers, but doesnn't want to admit it.

The Brit couldn’t get his mind around the question, and when he finally did, lamely suggested  “Global Warming”, as if he didn't believe in it. He does,  but rather than lose the argument  he threw the environment under the bus.  I would have expected this from the Frenchman.

The Frenchman said the reason he couldn’t come up with an example is because the currently administration, which he professes to have at one point supported, is  nowresponsible for the censorship and they are now diametrically opposed to everything he believes in.    Do you get that?  Its complicated, but what it comes down to is that he believes the  reason he can’t think of an example is that there aren’t any.    That’s one cheeky answer: I would have expected it from the Brit.

Swearing at Motorists opened for The Hold Steady and thoroughly impressed me.  They had me even before I heard their lyric about Life being  a Townes Van Zandt Song.  I hollered then, as did a couple to my right, and later the guy Lauren was talking to came up to me and started talking about Townes.    Could it be spreading?

Another weird thing is that while I had noticed the bands lyricism,  my Townes-acolyte -radar didn’t go off.   Well, someone once wrote that Towne’s music doesn’t jump up and down: This Sweating at Motorists guy liked to jump up and down.  And Around. He looked like Eor<sp?> but moved like Tigger.  Maybe that threw me off.

Afterwards, right before the Hold Steady came on, I tried to describe to Kelly what they sounded like (Kelly and Dave are doing great). I mentioned a few likenesses but I forgot to mention that bar-band factor.  

Lauren She didn’t need telling:   During a song she thought was “lagging” she beamed the lead singer with an empty Pabst can.  Hit him right in the head.

He didn’t even flinch.  He was getting groped by drunk fans (Visibl in the pictures linked to in the previous post) and pelted with Polaroid’s all night, but that can came at him like the second bottle of syrup in Super Troopers. 

She’s  got a boyfriend she’s not calling a boyfriend, and is writing a lot these days. We spent an hour at the bar that was formerly Fountainhead writing Haikus.  She schooled me.   Mine aren’t even worth posting here.  

Her favorite, of hers, was :

Walking down Park Ave

Wearing last Year’s Versace

I am a Pariah

 

The gay boys who she later Haikuized, were impressed.

We talked a bit about the benefits of being great at something, as opposed to just being god at a lot of things.   It goes to pride, according to her.  To which I couldn’t respond. If she was talking about the more external ramifications, I would have told her not too worry. She stands out in ways anyone worth a damn  can’t help but notice.  And not just cause she throws beer cans at people. Despite that, obviously.

Rich and Ashley are doing great too. They have a cat.  Rich and I went out to Noche and then Bazaar, where we ran  into Vivian and Ben.   Vivian was with a bunch of girls and every time I sat next to one Vivian  would mention that they are either too young for me, or plain crazy.   Vivian, Vivian, Vivian…..

Hey, Rich finally read the site, on Ashley’s recommendation. He took issue with my most recent jab at him, claiming that he wasn’t giving me shit over the size of my Silver Medal (It’s Demure.  I am a humble guy and wouldn’t feel comfortable with a gaudier medal anyway).  I told him that he probably shouldn’t go back through the archives, if that remark was enough to upset him.

But I’ll say something nice about Rich right now.  Normally when Rich tries to speak on my behalf, I cringe.  Like either he really doesn’t get me, or he’s subtly trying to undermine me.   This weekend he said something on my behalf quite eloquently.   Thanks, Rich. I owe you one.  

It was a great weekend all around.  It would have been better if I could have played a game of scrabble with Dave.  Or Maybe Samurai.   He’s a very busy man (man), and I’m not used to having to plan ahead.  But still, if all my weekends in Atlanta were as fun as this one, I would go back more often.

Phoenix says I can't respond to emails in a blog, or otherwise mix media, but I just got her Christmas card and would like to say thanks.   Hey, when is the wedding?

Lauren went crazy with the camera at the Hold-Steady show.  Then she threw that Can at the lead singer, cause he was "lagging".

Swearing at Motorists opened and was great. 

Check out the photos,  here.