Qideas on Argyle. Plan to bring one home Saturday the 2nd after lunch with Xtina and before making hot sauce that afternoon. 

Shooter Jennings was in the first scene of The Punisher Season 2

We got 8 inches of snow overnight Friday into Saturday.

I made myself go out and regretted every minute of it. The Red Line had mechanical issues and I had to take the Clark Street bus and walk all the way down Irving Park home. I figured stores wouldn’t be busy and I was very wrong.

Red Line trains were operating only between Belmont and 95th, and Yellow Line service was temporarily suspended. Delays were also expected on the Purple Line, with limited service between South Boulevard and Linden.

It’s back to the grind after a boozy extended weekend vacation and its back to business as usual. It’s bitterly cold out and the commute home was more painful than the commute into the office. Mark joined me for a much needed dinner at Tac Quick. I had a dirty vodka martini, grilled squid, fried tofu and seafood Tom Yum soup. And then I slept very well.

Working very hard on finding the proper laptop to use as I launch the podcast. I shopped online and things have changed a lot since I got the laptop I currently use back in 2011. I emailed a friend before 630 AM and he’s on it. Tonight and tomorrow are my TV nights and the weekend is laundry and groceries. I’m craving Udon noodles. 

A sleepy pic sent from a hotel somewhere in Helsinki Capital of Finland

THIS IS IT!

The History Of One Tough Motherfucker
- Charles Bukowski

he came to the door one night wet thin beaten and
terrorized
a white cross-eyed tailless cat
I took him in and fed him and he stayed
grew to trust me until a friend drove up the driveway
and ran him over
I took what was left to a vet who said,”not much
chance…give him these pills…his backbone
is crushed, but is was crushed before and somehow
mended, if he lives he’ll never walk, look at
these x-rays, he’s been shot, look here, the pellets
are still there…also, he once had a tail, somebody
cut it off…”
I took the cat back, it was a hot summer, one of the
hottest in decades, I put him on the bathroom
floor, gave him water and pills, he wouldn’t eat, he
wouldn’t touch the water, I dipped my finger into it
and wet his mouth and I talked to him, I didn’t go any-
where, I put in a lot of bathroom time and talked to
him and gently touched him and he looked back at
me with those pale blue crossed eyes and as the days went
by he made his first move
dragging himself forward by his front legs
(the rear ones wouldn’t work)
he made it to the litter box
crawled over and in,
it was like the trumpet of possible victory
blowing in that bathroom and into the city, I
related to that cat-I’d had it bad, not that
bad but bad enough
one morning he got up, stood up, fell back down and
just looked at me.
“you can make it,” I said to him.
he kept trying, getting up falling down, finally
he walked a few steps, he was like a drunk, the
rear legs just didn’t want to do it and he fell again, rested,
then got up.
you know the rest: now he’s better than ever, cross-eyed
almost toothless, but the grace is back, and that look in
his eyes never left…
and now sometimes I’m interviewed, they want to hear about
life and literature and I get drunk and hold up my cross-eyed,
shot, runover de-tailed cat and I say,”look, look
at this!”
but they don’t understand, they say something like,”you
say you’ve been influenced by Celine?”
“no,” I hold the cat up,”by what happens, by
things like this, by this, by this!”
I shake the cat, hold him up in
the smoky and drunken light, he’s relaxed he knows…
it’s then that the interviews end
although I am proud sometimes when I see the pictures
later and there I am and there is the cat and we are photo-
graphed together.
he too knows it’s bullshit but that somehow it all helps.

It’s the first day in over 3 weeks I’ve woken up without a cough. I thought it would never end. Now the last guy at the office who hasn’t been sick is. I feel for him. 

Much to do this weekend. I wasn’t expecting the long distance detour that put me off course on New Years. Now I can rebound physically and mentally. 

Whiskey is looking mighty fine. 

New Years Eve I was wondering why these images began to pop up on my feed from Minna a native of Finland now living in Sweden. I had’t taken any of her calls in 2018 because I had absolutely nothing to share that was positive. Besides she’s been married. After a few drinks and as she had been obviously indulging as well and being I had nothing better to do I agreed to take her call which went on for hours into the new year. The news, she’s divorced. 

With Minna 1984 Mt Wood Overlook Wheeling WV in my red leather jacket and pomp hair when I tried to model myself off of one of my favorite bands the Romantics.

Now I’ve got to write this thing in reverse this weekend. I’ve been too sick but to do anything but work and post images and news bits. I spent both days last weekend shopping and doing laundry which took being out in the cold which didn’t really help things much. Try to find a small container of sugar free or fat free hazelnut creamer in this city is pointless. Do people drink that like milk? Then it was back to work and it’s been m’fing COLD with some COLD RAIN. Work is very busy for me right now. I couldn’t be happier but at the days end I’m mentally drained. This may very well be the most challenging office gig I’ve ever had. Mark gets back Sunday so I have a lot to get done before that. 

 Saturday morning: was in bed till 9AM and stripped my bed of blankets and comforter and prepared it for a trip to the laundromat. It felt good to sleep in. I had taken too much Melatonin and it made me itchy. On top of that 150 mg of an OTC but by 11P I realized I needed to take my final Ambien. Then it was off to lala land. 

As I sat there w/ my first cup of coffee I looked up at the wall that needed some touching up. The cracks were bugging me. 2 min into the project I opened a can of worms I wished I had left as is. It was too late. It tuned into a very large project. Now I’m waiting for it to dry so I can put pictures and books back into their place Te clean up was almost as hard as the project itself. Go figure. This house is non stop work and its becoming too much. Its never fucking ending. 

More to come….

Montrose Beach and Montrose Harbor Jan 2019

“Like most others, I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent, and at times a stupid hell-raiser. I was never idle long enough to do much thinking, but I felt somehow that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles – a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other – that kept me going.”

― Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary

My new years resolution for 2019 is to succeed, again and piss off the the haters in the process. 

Thank you to the few who have been there for me. You know who you are because this past year you’ve really gone out of your way. 

And for those who didn’t have the time… enjoy the show. You’re gonna hate it. 

Loading up phase III.

I woke to this yesterday and as sick as I’ve been (physically) I smiled. 3 of my favorite people. Micheal X Christian, Emily Sifirit  and Nick Huffman all cheating on me.

There’s almost nothing that annoys me more than when the morning news people start talking about a rock band and actually say on live TV or radio something that is so completely wrong.

This morning on Ch 32 the weatherman and the hosts were talking about the rumors of Michael Anthony possibly reuniting w/ Van Halen in 2019 and the Meteorologist Mike Caplan commented that he didn’t think it’d happen since Eddie van Halen stated years ago he’d never perform w/ Dave again. Duh, they did an an album and tour, just not with Michael Anthony. Get on the clock man. The reunion w/ DLR was in 2007 and A Different Kind of Truth came out in 2012.

Black Friday 2013  Deena Lynn shared a memory

I have lots to write here and should hammer it out tonight after work. Fighting off a cold that began with a sore throat last Friday and trying to get some much needed rest. Nothing like waking up at 7AM in a nice hotel and not being able to fall back to sleep. Next stop, Indianapolis. 

UPDATE 12/20/2018 837PM

I will get time to update the past weekend and the amazing performances of two of the the very best acts I’ve seen all year. I’ve bee fighting a severe cold all week, struggling to get through work, getting things done after, dealing with my cats demanding cry for attention due to severe and dramatic separation anxiety and to top it off cleaning the fucking haus. I have to pack for Indianapolis tomorrow night and get up at 5AM Saturday, but I WILL update this section and add captions when I get home and before I pack. I’ve had not only the best BBQ in years but also witnessed the most original performance I’ve seen in over a decade and it was a tribute band and I loathe tribute bands

Be back tomorrow. – az

“That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.”

—Charles Bukowski, Women

I got home after a long work day and after trips to target in Evanston and Alta Vista Foods and Walgreens when I walked into the doors of the structure, built in 1898, that houses Casa Diablo and found a box waiting for me sent from Christy Nealon of Denver CO. It was a hot sauce making kit and very thoughtful as well as timely.

Ironically timely because Xtine Brown just sent me her logo concepts for her food line Bell Yard Bakery.

At 8PM I dropped Ambien and at 10PM another to insure I go solid uninterrupted sleep. I locked the cats of of my bedroom and put the heating fan at face level. My sore throat from yesterday is mostly subsided. 

It was cold and 7AM and I was at the laundromat and I figured I’d be home before 9am and I’d have 2 hrs to get a lot done before Emily was scheduled to arrive at 11AM. It was hard to believe I hadn’t seen her since that dreadful Sunday morning in March of 2017 the day after an event that would forever change my life on social media and prove once and for all who my friends really were. Emily is one  of those and I’ve missed her. But as rough as the next 8 months would be for me nothing prepared me for 2018 which would prove to be the roughest year of my life and a struggle from the onset.

Once home I was so bust with stuff around the house by the time she sent me a text at 1050 I had not even put my jeans on yet. I hauled my bags down the stairs, went outside and she was perfectly on time. She has to be in town anyway to measure some people for clothes she was making. We spent the entire drive to Bradly IL catching up. For the first time in over a year I actually had really good things to share with her. It went by quickly and before I knew it we were parking outside of the Looney Bin where we were going for some fine BBQ from Bulls BBQ.

Yesterday marked another year alive on earth and things are going well enough and I’m happy to be working and doing the work that I enjoy. It’s after 7PM the day after as I type this and am still feeling the love as posts are still coming on Facebook and there are well over 100 wishes, many with personal messages that are heartfelt and some very funny. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel great because it does and it’s just what I needed. Especially from those well established in the music business. I needed it more than I could ever say. 

Below are a few of my favorites.