A Fable About Sorrow

There once was a shark who was tired of swimming.
He swam slower and slower and slower.
Hoping one day he would finally stop altogether.
More often than not he let the current carry him along.
One day, as he inched through the deep he realized he was not alone.
He saw an old sea turtle swimming with him.
The turtle looked at him and grinned.
"Move, son." he said "You have to move."
"Why? There's no point..." the shark replied.
"Oh but there is my son. Glories to see, morsels to eat, places to go, and creatures to meet."

Inciting Incident 3

I ask friends "When did you first feel the need to perform?" Performance artist Heather Perry talks about theater vs. music. You can find info on her current band here: Bring Your Ray Gun.

The Dog Catcher

From Schwa last night. Jamison has been playing with us the past couple weeks which has been really fun. Joe was also in town so we had a full roster with a lot of energy. Playing with Schwa is almost always the high light of my week. I never know who will be there and I never know what we're going to do.

A Disturbing Dream 4

I'm 13. I'm in Jordan's house, my childhood best friend. It's night. His brother Ryan and him are trying to convince me to kill their dad Mark. They keep trying to push an Israeli made Uzi into my hands. Finally I except. They tell me that it is set on semi-automatic and has 30 rounds in the clip.

Mark, their father, comes home shortly after I've agreed to kill him. He comes into the kitchen through the garage. It's dark. No lights are on in the house. I'm crouching in the doorway to the dining room. As he comes into the kitchen he says "Hello?" and Jordan and Ryan both shout "Now! Now!"

I fire six shots into Mark's chest. He falls to the ground and groans. I stand and take a step closer, he's still moving. Panic drowns me. What have I done? What have I done? I fire again. Three shots. Two in the chest one goes wild and grazes his leg. I see blood. He lies still. Blood begins to flow from the leg wound and soak the kitchen tiles. I step closer to look at the body, horrified, but it is in deep shadow. The only thing I can see  in the kitchen is a pool of blood in a shaft of moonlight. I lay the Uzi next to the body. I have a fleeting thought of concocting a tale of suicide but I know that is useless. I'm going to jail.

Ryan and Jordan call to me from the front room. They are sitting on their couching waiting patiently for their mother to come home. Both have peaceful faces. I think there must have been things going on in that house which I had no idea of. The family always seemed nice to me but I get the sense of some underlying wrongness.

Their mother returns and before her sons can offer any explanation Mark walks in flicking on the kitchen light as he leaves it. The kitchen is splattered with blood, so much blood I think he cannot be alive. As we all stare at him in silence he reaches into his shirt and pulls out a large ring of keys. Bullet slugs have fused some of the keys together but it is clear they have stopped all the shots save for the one that grazed his leg. "Boys it's time to clean." We silently trudge into the kitchen and start to clean up the blood. "You're not leaving until all this is clean." he says to me. We begin to clean but whatever we do stains remain. Ryan and Jordan look deflated, defeated. I scrub the sink and think: how did blood get in here? And as I scrub the blood remains. I realize we'll be cleaning this kitchen until Mark is satisfied. On and on and on. How many times have Jordan and Ryan done this? Many times. And now I'm here until he lets me go.

I awoke.

'Brooklyn Castle' A Review

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about a junior high chess team. It follows a number of kids over the course of two seasons of chess. The kids are good-natured, driven, and inspiring. The film emphasises chess as a teaching tool and a life tool. It also highlights the students economic struggles and their tenuous futures. A simple, feel-good film that makes you want to give something back.

See It.

Graffiti 78

I was in the west loop the other day for maybe the first time ever. I saw this and it captured my attention. Love is all around us. Follow the path, any path, and you'll find it. Just don't stand still.

"Can miles truly separate you from friends...if you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?" -Richard Bach

"If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than he was he, and I was I." -Michel de Montaigne

"Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so." -David Grayson

Halloween

Punam and I had shows at The Playground last night. She went as zombie Rosanne. I didn't dress up, I never do. I've only dressed up once in the past fifteen years. I went as Alex from Clockwork Orange when I was a senior in college.

Living in Chicago Halloween loses some it's verve. I wish it was darker, I wish there was a wood to walk in, I wish the graveyards didn't have street lights ringing them. I wish everyone didn't dress trashy, I wish everyone didn't get so drunk, if you're going to dress trashy go after the real pagan roots of the holiday and hook up with a stranger and never reveal who you are, I wish there were more kids trick-or-treating.

Halloween has lost almost all it's appeal for me. I use to love it, now I don't really notice it or care. Next year I want to do something fun. Something scary. Maybe I'll dust off the Ouija board and try to talk to H. H. Holmes.