IN THE DEEP SHIT OF SUMMER

That summer was unreal: I was eleven or twelve years old and the humidity was unbearable. Everything was slo-mo'd out. I couldn't bear to hear the neighbor kids laffing in the yard.

This past summer, ENB spent a month living/studying in Italy while I stayed back, in the deep shit of a huge project while taking care of the little man.

He was sick but I didn't know how badly. Meanwhile, the project became another full time job. Rarely did I leave the house.

Sometimes this city is such a joke. Any time a lil' storm comes along, power goes out everywhere. People get the crazies. I ran out into a wild gale in my boxer shorts without realizing my balls were exposed via a hole in the fabric. I screamed into the storm & came back inside.

But there were moments of respite & humor.

But I couldn't tell you what was going on for the life of me. What was up, what was down.

And I can't tell you how much I still miss the little man. Sometimes the wound feels so raw.

My good friend Richie & I popped The Whip in Hamtramck this past Wednesday & it was a night of surprises. We had a live guest: Eddie Kirkland, one time member of Otis Redding's band and John Lee Hooker's second guitarist. The man is 87 years old & whipped everybody; we had to unplug his amp at 3:30AM or he would have kept going. Tonight, Eddie & Richie play the last Gories show for a while. Also: RICHIE MADE A MIX FOR THE WHIP. 

Mike had a monster holiday party at the hair place. An unnamed band played a looooong set of Jefferson Airplane songs in a reggae style. Not a lot of fruitful conversation that night but many, many tasty licks.

ENB & I saw LUCKY DRAGONS play last week & it was a highlight of my life (one of many, of course!). There's something about Lucky Dragons. A realistic idealism. Punk rock taken to its logical place. And the jams are amazing.

There's a new show house in Ypsi called Chain House (formerly known as Stupid House). It was me + a bunch of noise doods + fist fights = success!

RECAP

My friend Richie is a beatnik. He plays drums for Danny Kroha, is Dennis Coffey's DJ, and puts out books. He's also an ace DJ and we started a new party called The Whip. The first one was a month ago and I MADE A MIX for it which doubles as a love mix for my best gal.

Two friends were just blessed with warehouses. We found all kinds of stuff inside one of them: live shotgun shells, a box of straight-up turds, a motorbike seat Mike had been looking for, cassettes of cursing lawyers, etc. Haunted space!

Over at the other warehouse, they were in the business of setting chairs on fire. Flames from the final blast licked the camera lens.

This warehouse had an ornate spiral staircase that lead to a tiny, banal office for dwarves -- a small room with tan carpet. Very spooky. The staircase didn't lead up into the room but ended at it. Inside the room, the mouth of the stairs is just a hole in the floor.

My homies in MI AMI made A MIX FOR 20JFG. DMM has this 100% SILK thing going on now too. Busy bodies. They're really changing up their shit right now & it's getting weird. Weird great.

I've been telling people that my new band is a young woman tied to a pole, a free jazz drummer stationed 20 yards away, and me & another person pretending we're not involved but trying to prevent people from "rescuing" her. The cops came to our first show.

ENB & I spent some time in the country last month. I told the father of my best friend's bride-to-be "not to be a pussy." It was a mistake; he was a forgiving host. ENB pumped rounds into the fire pit.

It's almost impossible to flyer in this town. Some dickhead told me that I should rent a "pole-like kiosk" specifically for flyering to be installed directly next to poles. He split when I asked him to pay for it.

Chacho finally came to me in a dream. We acknowledged that it had been some time since we last saw each other & spent the afternoon playing in a yard. We danced, let him shit on someone else's lawn, and played hide & seek in the house. It was the simplest, least weird dream I've ever had.