When you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you

One of the reasons we're messed up is our relationship with cause and effect. We see the world around us as the cause of what happens to us, the way we think and act. Could it be that the cause begins with us and the effect is the world we see around us? In a dream this is so. We never wake up in the morning and say to ourselves "Man, what a dream that had me!". We are the architects of our dreams. And our lives. If you disagree, I will punch you in the nostril.
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Years ago, a man was driving home late at night. It was snowing, the roads were slippery. He lost control of his car and slid into a telephone pole. He died. Was it instant? Did he suffer? Was he afraid or at peace before he faded into the snowy night? It doesn't matter.

He was my uncle Mike. I heard the news from my mother, who delivered it to me around four o'clock in the morning. I fell back asleep somehow. I found out years later that Mike had been under the influence of alcohol when he crashed. Not surprising given his sad history with addiction, but it was particularly sad to hear because it seemed he had cleaned up his act. He had just started a relationship, something he had little experience with in his forty years. Things were looking up.

I must have been around eighteen or nineteen when he died. I suppose I never really knew him. But he was family and I was fond of him. He had his problems, to be sure, but he was always kind. Speaking at his funeral, my aunt held up a can of whipped cream and donned a pair of Groucho glasses and said something about the party not being over. It lightened the mood, but I wondered if the humor was to counter grief or conceal it. It doesn't matter.

Today is Valentine's Day, but it would be insincere of me to say I associate it with my uncle's passing. I don't. In fact, I always seem to forget he died this day. Well, he's in my thoughts presently and I hope, like I always do when I think of him, that his last night on earth was a good one. I hope, before his dream ended, he was floating in the warm buzz of his new relationship.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day, lovers. Don't mean to be a buzz kill. Commence to being romantic. Eros demands it!
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Playing a show next week but I'm not going to plug it that much or at all. It'll be a late set here in the city and I don't expect anyone will want to make the trip, especially on a week night. Still, I'm looking forward to it. I haven't performed in a while.

Just listened to Thom Yorke's The Eraser. I never gravitate to it, but it's a solid record.

Over the last couple of nights I've been watching The Fellowship of The Ring. I plan on watching the entire trilogy. Haven't seen it in a while and the fresh perspective makes me appreciate it even more. There are some corny moments that jar me out of the story -not a big fan of frequent slow motion reaction shots- but that's a piddling complaint, considering the magnitude of the work. Looking forward to The Hobbit.

And you're looking forward to the end of this post, so here you go, you foul pagans.