The world is neither ugly nor beautiful, yet its beauty lies in its path of ugliness. Remember when something in the sky struck your fancy. It reminded you of a melon or a airplane, a star in the evening picturing you as a cob of corn or a juicy ripe tomato ready to be plucked and suckled. Remember the smiles of the clouds and the evening star, enjoy the fresh brisk cold of the morning sun that douse the flames of the river shining-like moon. Remember that scene in Contact where Jodie Foster reaches the beach and sees the alien in father form come closer--I remember when I recreated that scene it was in the Upper Peninsula after wading through the Manistique River for hours in the middle of a cloudless night through the meandering river with my sister and cousins, when we finally reached a resting spot, the sandy beach had deer tracks come closer. So the next time you remember to look up at the bloodless moon, enjoy the sheer neutrality of it, recognize not the beauty nor the ugly as adjectives to describe it, but imagine you are there enjoying the same view of the next cave...

Evolution sparks (shouts from Fontella Bass) the night's voices as topics range from barleywine to brandywine...the cinematic orchestra wield great power coming from the bass, bu-bump-bu-bump-bum of the beat tasting piano scratches (is that a rhodes I hear, awww yeah). Its hitting that midnight hour and all the blessed souls are hitting the sack or banging on the ivory to a drum beat off the beaten path a few miles over in nearby Liverpool (england? NO, mark's in spain, no, Mark's in Spain). Brush up and push off, the next few weeks will be trouble for my time, but no worries, troubled times trouble time itself. Just look at that moon offer up something brilliant in the midnight hour. Don't stop bass, don't stop trumpet, drums, xylophone, canberra can't hear you, but the movies can!

One look across I can make out a dim light from the neighbor's window. Signs of life now barricade my window. I no longer have the right to look into nothingness. Damn! Ewww...(female)....Ewwww. TWO is the answer. Ha! Breathe into life that one now all of you naysayers. "Knock you out of the frame like Christmas pictures with your drunk uncle" Say 'fuck Qwel', all the rest of these 'cats spit irrelevant flows, (listen up!), while you're diggin' in the crates, he's dunkin' it down from telephone polls' ain't nothing typical.

Stack of quarters...blowing laundry out of my window someday.

This guy came rapping out of nowhere...can't a young brother cross the street if he's from the streets?

Every Friday buries a Thursday!

Good time talking to Sauce tonight. I felt it was polite to give him 48 hours notice and of course make sure he's still alive and well. Tonight was my last night at work and while I can't really say it was a dream summer job, I wasn't really counting down the days either. But now I am... one, two. Plus, I can now boast that I showed several thousand people to their seats at the dinner table this summer.

Mark, it's crazy getting the first Euro-blog up on here, but we really did it, didn't we guys? P.S. you owe me some $$$, please in American currency only and not in pesetas or dreaded euros.

Well, color me blog...

That´s right, boys. I´ve decided that it´s time to drop a little message. I´ve been absent for some time from the delightful exploits of this electronic messageboard. This summer has been a long journey that has taken me far my computer and thoughts of communication, and has brought me all the way to, as those delightful pop music poets The Sweatshirts call it: Espagne.

That´s right friends. I´m proud to present the first-ever European blog. Knowing my luck, this post will probably disintegrate into cyber-dust as soon as I hit the preview button, but I figured I´d try.

So Spain is hotter than a muthafucka the cat. We´re talking 100+ daily. I´ve dealt with the intense heat in the only way I know how: Over-indulgent consumption of the delightful elixirs known as cerveza and vino. Additionally, on one particularly hot day, after more than a few cervezos, I happened to let slip a slightly ill-thought-out mind bubble about getting a haircut. This seemingly innocent statement quickly led to the rash decision to shave my head. On the bright side, I am indeed much cooler now in the intense heat. I don´t consider the decision a mistake, bearing in mind, of course, that I don´t file looking like a retard under the "mistake" category.

But my days have been filled with explorations of ancient castles and churches and learning spanish and eating hearty country foods. My journeys have taken me to the edge of Portugal and I´m now staying in Madrid. I must admit however, that while my feet have trodden this arduous path across this foreign land, my heart has yearned for the dry, lifeless piece of earth-crust upon which rests the hallowed halls of 965 Lancaster. Soon, I shall return.

In closing, I leave you with a brief list of the more delectable musical treats that have provided the soundtrack for my journey. In no particular order other than alphabetical:

Black Eyes -- S/T
Death Cab For Cutie -- Transatlanticism
Every Time I Die -- Hot Damn
Glassjaw -- Worship and Tribute
Godspeed You! Black Emperor -- Yanqui U.X.O.
Mogwai -- Happy Songs for Happy People
Oxes -- Both albums
Poison the Well -- You Come Before You
Refused -- The Shape of Punk to Come
Shalabi Effect -- The Trial of St. Orange
Statistics -- S/T
Thrice -- The Artist in the Ambulance

Enjoy and peace be with you.

Well as I sit down at good ol' Kimmel computer laboratory I think to myself, "Wow, I haven't blogged in a while, I was thinking about my top five records of the summer and how I would blog about that since it seems to be a nice icebreaker for the warm, humid summer that has passed and the heat still to come." And what do I see, lo! and behold, Al beat me to it. Good man. I'm glad to see he's happier now after dropping that job. Excellent work my friend. Okay so let's crack the knuckles and strip this sucker down and see what we have brewin' on my mind.

1. Songs: Ohia - Didn't it Rain
2. Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
3. The Forms - Icarus
4. Manitoba - Up in Flames
5. Calla - Televise

Honorable Mentions: Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People (thanks for the credit Al, but that was all Bill on that one, he suggested it to me before you guys left Howard's home in Ann Arbor), Radiohead - Hail to the Thief (it would have been in the top five, but technically it cannot because I do not actually own it, I just borrow Mark's), Out Hud - S.T.R.E.E.T D.A.D, !!! - Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard (A True Story), 90 Day Men - To Everybody, Do Make Say Think - & Yet & Yet, Four Tet - Rounds, DMS - DMS

I must give credit where credit is due: If Jon hadn't bought Modest Mouse when he was home and forced me to listen to it in his auto I would never have bought it. Thanks. Also, the same goes for The Forms. But I must give Bill partial credit on that one because he was the one who actually blessed 965 Lancaster with a duplicate copy of the album. Thanks. I also must give partial credit to Jon for the Manitoba purchase since it was in Grand Rapids at Vertigo, which I attribute ownership of everything I purchase there to him since I would have never gone there if not for him and also to his roommate Nick who made the purchase a hit with his praise.

Thank you all, and to all a good night.