First 3 days in Michigan

Lisa and I arrived at O'Hare airport in Chicago very early Tuesday morning after what could only be described as the most uncomfortable flight I have ever taken. It kind of funny actually, I thought a few days ago that it had been along time since I flew on a "normal" airline. What I actually mean is a non-discount airline.

For the last 5 years I have flown nothing but Southwest and Jet Blue, so I was thinking "Wow, this is United! They'll give us food, and play a movie, and the seats will be lined with Egyptian cotton, and they will give us top shelf alcohol for free, and the clouds surrounding us would be gentle bunches of cotton candy." Boy was I wrong! Take it from me, unless you're going to fly first class, stick with Jet Blue or Southwest. What you loose in food and amenities you gain in leg room and over all comfort. On this United flight I had to sit the entire 4 1/2 hours with my legs in one position and my hands folded in my lap. The arm rests we not even big enough for one person to put their arm on, let alone share it with the person next to you.

We arrived at O'Hare around 5AM, found the rental car place and hit the road for round two of the long trip. The trip from Chicago to our destination (Haslett MI, just outside of Lansing) took us about 4 hours, which was no short of treacherous due to our joint exhaustion; I slept most of the way.

We got to Lisa's dads house around 11:30AM (after moving ahead one hour due to time zones) and immediately went to sleep. We got up around around 5 and went out with her dad for Mexican food and Margaritas. Who knew you could find decent Mexican in the Mid-West; but low and behold, we found some. After that we went home, smoked a joint and passed out again.

No much happened yesterday until the evening. We found out that The Gore Gore Girls were playing in Ann Arbor. The Gore Gore Girls are a throwback kind of a girl punk band that has roots in surf music and old time rock and roll. Lisa's friend Marlene is the lead guitar player. We saw them once before at a Halloween show at the Warfield in SF. The opened for the Cramps; The Eagles of Death Metal played that night as well (this was the infamous night were I caught Josh from Queens of the Stone Age hitting on Lisa back stage... Hey, she's hot!). Anyway, here is a pic of the Girls from their website.

Marlene is the one standing up. Here is a better pic of just her:

Anyway, if you have a chance to check them out on one of their tours, I highly recommend it. They are really tight and have a really catchy and enjoyable sound.

Well, that's all from the Midwest at the moment. We'll be heading to Detroit a little later today to see more of Lisa's family and visit a bit more with the aforementioned Marlene.

Back home (for anyone interested), before I left, Soul Broker finished tracking all but one of the vocal tracks for our upcoming album. I will lay down the vocals for the final track after the first of the year, then we will lay a few backing vocals, a couple of sound effects, and begin mixing. We are looking at being completely done by the end of January for an early March release party; so keep your ears open for that.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

That's right, I said it! Fuck the Christian-Right and they're Merry Christmas Bullshit! There are more than just Christians in this country celebrating holidays right now.

A Plea of Secession

*NUEVA **CALIFORNIA**:*

Dear Red States...

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get Elliot Spitzer.

You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue; you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that California Nueva will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,
anonymous in New California

The Infamous SNL Sketch

I got a fever, and the only perscription is more cowbell!!!

Click on the pic

A Warning to Anyone with Bum Cakes or Mud Flaps

Longer needles needed for fatter buttocks
Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:09 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Fatter rear ends are causing many drug injections to miss their mark, requiring longer needles to reach buttock muscle, researchers said on Monday.

Standard-sized needles failed to reach the buttock muscle in 23 out of 25 women whose rears were examined after what was supposed to be an intramuscular injection of a drug.

Two-thirds of the 50 patients in the study did not receive the full dosage of the drug, which instead lodged in the fat tissue of their buttocks, researchers from The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Dublin said in a presentation to the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Besides patients receiving less than the correct drug dosage, medications that remain lodged in fat can cause infection or irritation, researchers Victoria Chan said.

"There is no question that obesity is the underlying cause. We have identified a new problem related, in part, to the increasing amount of fat in patients' buttocks," Chan said.

"The amount of fat tissue overlying the muscles exceeds the length of the needles commonly used for these injections," she said.

The 25 men and 25 women studied at the Irish hospital ranged in age from 21 to 87.

The buttocks are a good place for intramuscular injections because there are relatively few major blood vessels, nerves and bones that can be damaged by a needle. Plentiful smaller blood vessels found in muscle carry the drug to the rest of the body, while fat tissue contains relatively few blood vessels.

Obesity affects more than 300 million people worldwide and is based on a measure of height versus weight that produces a body mass index above 30. An estimated 65 percent of U.S. adults are overweight or obese.