Fathers Day

My dad is a tall, wiry guy...your typical old surveyor, he looks younger than he is. He wanders around his property in what has become his uniform: Billy and the Boingers t-shirt, faded old jeans, flannel jacket and boots, and like Steve Dallas in one of his favorite comics his cigarette is always dangling from his lip. He doesn't talk much and most of what he says leans toward the cynical or sarcastic. He is a master at cooking seafood, makes a killer barbecue sauce, habitually and rhythmically flicks the pages of the books he's always reading. When we were kids, he kept a garage full of snakes, listened to Pink Floyd at top volume through his top-of-the-line headphones, tooled around in his little yellow Honda Civic. I loved riding with him, despite the black vinyl interior and no air conditioning in the South Florida heat; it had a faulty exhaust so you couldn't breathe too deeply while you were cruising, but he kept the music loud and drove fast. He called me Sugarplum and Skunkfur and bought me an iguana when I was ten. He's not into all the mushy stuff, so I'll keep this short and simple:

Happy Fathers Day, you old goat. I love you.

Hey, hey, you don't know what you're missing

Cracker's coming to Bele Chere this year...it's supposed to be a free street festival; they just started charging for the headlining shows a couple years ago, but I don't care, call me a sell-out, I'm going. I'll be the one right up front in the Eurotrash Girl tank top and faded red sneakers trying to calculate the exact level of awesomeness involved in being out in the summer heat screaming along with David Lowery as he spits on his generation...ah, bliss...

In related news, the new CD, Greenland, is excellent. You can order it from www.pitchatent.com.

Check out the band at www.crackersoul.com

Soldier boy

My friend's little brother is headed to Iraq in July.

As I have said before, I'm vehemently anti-war, but at the same time I respect the soldiers and want them all to be able to come home to their families where they belong.

Please, pray or light a candle or do whatever you can to wrap Eric in love and positive energy and keep him safe.

Thank you.