It just feels good

There's no reason why you have to hit them hard. It just feels good.
-Neil Peart


I have drums! Chema helped me get them this morning with the car. I played for 2 hours with band B last night and the arm felt better when i finished than when i started. Rock and Roll.

I am in the process of trying to extradite my cymbals in Barcelona. Customs is a jodiendo nightmare. Welcome to Spain, where nothing is easy. But i have drums!!!!!

• Time to shower and meet Cara for curry. Then home, clean and head up north to Juan's for a night of pulpo (octopus). Ugh! I think i'm gonna have a sandwhich before i go.
  

fall of the monkey walk

Get your paws off me you damn dirty ape!
-Taylor, Planet of the Apes

Sleep I hear you calling. Oh yeah. Brush teeth. Blog. Set alarm clock.

It was a nice night in, wathcing last night's LOST. That show is freaking great.

Long day - nothing too bad, but 27 itty annoying things, including not even being able to buy a stick of deodorant because the woman didn't have change of a 20E bill! I was sweating like Jabba the Hut. My odor was offensive to myself and others. But it was everything together that finally toppled the monkey walk.

Nothing a night's sleep won't fix.

Strange

He's a freak of nature
but we love him so
He's a freak of nature
but we let him go
-Red Hot Chili Peppers

Time both slouches and sprints. Yesterday recedes yet gains an ever larger share of our consciousness. The future is tomorrow yet always out of arm's reach. Willingly, i shift into unconsciousness.

When Atleti draws in a game they should have won, it always brings out the philosopher in me.
They are not in good shape heading to Portugal in two weeks.

But i did get to see my friend Alastair from Dublin (one of the Martian's friends). He was in town for the Champions League game. We had beers on the terrace and then went to the game.

***

My student, Julio, said "You like soccer? You are very strange."

i've heard it all before.

Beat the drums

Steep the fire
Beat the drums
-Wayward Platypus

• Day melts into night. Night morphs into day like a transvestite sneaking into a ladies restroom
• I teach therefore i am
• I am psyched for baseball
• So if i get the opportunity to score the soundtrack to a porno (as i often tell people i could give a damn about at college reunions) based on The West Wing, would it be the West Wang, or the West Schhwing! Your feedback would be helpful as i ponder things like this late at night.
• The weather was balmy again today. Bushes are flowering. Insane! Marzo should be nice and then Abril will be rainy enough to piss off Noah. Summer will be like Adriana Lima, hotter than Texas asphalt
• Spanish women are beautiful, but there's something about their asses that is truly exceptional
• Please step away from the computer, Senor!
  

happy, happy.....

DOMINGO

• Today i freed up 40 Gigs of space on my computer. Hot damn!
• Now i need to free up at least a gig of space in my tiny room.
• the weather has been sunny and warm. It supposed to be 17 C tomorrow
• i sleep therefore i am

LUNES

Happy happy, joy joy!
-Stimpy, Ren and Stimpy

• Finally some good news on the economy. My former student, Antonio, got a promotion to work on a strategic plan project at Ferrovial, the construction company. Finally, some GOOD NEWS about someone's job.
• I read the entire Herald Tribune on Lunes y Miercoles and it's all bad news. The economy will get worse before it gets better. East Europe is about to crumble and drag the global economy down further than it is.
• I picked up another new student; friday at 5:30. It came thru my friend Cara, who has totally hooked me up with students.
• Watching The West Wing makes me so happy that i am out of marketing that i could cry. I can't believe i used to work in the batshit town.
  

Calle General Ricardo Melody of '09

Sirens on the rooftops wailing, but theres no ship sailing.
Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline failing.
Klu Klux Klan serve hot soul food and the band plays In the Mood
The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand,
Theres a smell of peach blossom and bitter almonde.
-Genesis

• The arm was fine yesterday at practice. Yee hoo!!!! The band sounded good too. We will be all set for the March 14th show. I bought a set of Pearl Forums drums on Friday (wine finish with black trim). They have a really nice deep sound. I'll get them this week. And my cymbals will arrive this week (Thanks Kev and Collin!!!!). The puzzle is all falling together!
• Back to work tomorrow.
  
• Champions league game on Tues.
• This gal Annalisa is very nice. We had a good time on Friday with a big group of friends. We're going to try to go somewhere quiet next time where we can talk. The bars are always so loud
• I am exhausted after playing yesterday. I need to get back my endurance.
• Happy Birthday Seester!!!!!!!!!!
  

Symbols

I'm a problem child
(my mother hates me!)
-AC/DC

Fin de semana! woo hoo! Scouted another club, Caravan, and saw a very good rock/jazz band with Bo, Lee, Louise, Susanna, Monica, Jess and Juan.

Now tis' sleepy time. Much to do tomorrow. Getting all i need to get done this weekend will be problematic, to say the least. I'll give it my best shot!!!

Kevin says my cymbals are in Paris. Stupid lucky cymbals.

My sister is in New Jersey. My cat is in Virginia. My heart is in San Fransico. My ass is in a sling.

Off the mountain

11:42

Some people should die
that's just unconscious knowledge
-Jane's Addiction

I'm going to have to look for a new apartment for next year. Chema is disgusting, lazy and refuses to pull up his pants so that all of us who frequent here are forced to see his ginormous ass crack everyday. It's happened in front of Laura and Bo, and most offensively, me. And i'm not talking a coin slot - I mean you could fit more than one Kennedy silver dollar in that godless thing.

may the road rise to meet you
but not slam you in the nuts
- New Jersey, Irish/American Traditional

i already mentioned how the exit pipe in the bathroom backed-up and flooded twice last week. I left my room to go pee on Sunday and i tripped. The ground had risen to meet me! There was a huge bump in the floor panelling. It was like a speed bump. "Somebody paint that yellow!" I cried to an empty flat.

Then Anita saw it when she came in. At first Chema was ignoring her concern until i chimed in. It obviously warped when it flooded, which was avoidable if Chema had just gotten someone to clean out the pipes when i first mentioned it last March. A fontanero (Plumber) came and ripped it up, so now there's a hole in the floor. Chema says he is coming back...someday.

In other matters, we have very little counter space. It's the stove top and the top of the washing machine, which i pull out from the wall to create counter space. Chema has been leaving all sorts of cutting boards there that he never washes. They are vile. I wash them off before i use them. So i put them on the floor last night when i was making asparagus tri-color pasta. He picked them up off the floor and used them this morning without washing them. It's been three weeks since we mopped that.

To call him stupid is an insult to all of the other stupid people on the planet. If he were a child in ancient Sparta, knowing what i know, I would have thrown him off the mountain myself.

Perhaps it is a matter of what some before me have called, The Gringo's Burden. Perhaps it is my human duty to teach him how not to throw away forks <>. Or perhaps i should just poison him slowly. At this rate, he'll do it himself.

22:22

YEEE HOOOO!!!!!

La Fisio caliente said i can start to play. I have lots of exercises to do too, which is cool, because it will build up some muscle.

Most drummers have arms like tree trunks. I have buffalo wings.

But i am so happy to start playing. Maybe i won't poison Chema after all.

A new look yesterday

why should i care
if i've got to cut my hair
i got to move with the fashion
or be outcast

-The who


Needed a change.

My students all said i looked very young.






I am going to start teaching an old student, Cacao, again. When i saw him today in Torre Picasso he said, "My god! What happened to all your hair?! You look so young!!!"

"Like Benjamin Button?" I asked him

"Yes!!!!" he laughed.

I am psyched to start teaching him again.

Lover's Day

The buildings are lost
In their limitless rise
My feet catch the pulse
And the purposeful stride

I feel the sense of possibilities
I feel the wrench of hard realities
The focus is sharp in the city
-Rush

-Well, since there was no gal who was special to me this Vday, i called on an old saucy lover; CLOUD ATLAS by David Mitchell. It's the second time i'm reading it and it's a masterwork. It is somewhat similar to my own SLEEPING THRU THE APOCALYPSE and i first heard of Mitchell (Not our Mitchell from Fairfield!) after it was done. But his book is truly mad. It's set both in the future and past. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you buy it and don't like it, you can stab me with a fork when i see you this summer. It's not an easy read but it's great.

-I have been stabbed with a fork 4 times (All by Pat Smith, i believe) and it is not pleasant.

-Tired, tired lunes. Class was good today, which is how it is most days. We did an article about travelers not going to Las Vegas. It was really intriguing and everyone had nice contributions to the conversation, which is the whole idea.

Number 47

"You are Number Six."

"I am not a number — I am a free man!"

-The Prisoner (1960's British Television Show)

• I went to a fisio (Physical therapist) and the problem is tendinitis, coupled with hyper-extending the coto (elbow). The therapist was a small young woman who beat the crap out of my arm, trying to loosen the muscles. They used lazer therapy (I don't know how it works) and electricity. They flood your arm with electricity and your fingers bend backwards automatically. You can't control it. It was all quite shocking. Death in th electric chair has to suck.
  
• So i go back on Miercoles. She forbade me to play, which i haven't been. Hopefully in a week or two. The rest of the band are practicing and getting down the structures for our originals. I am confident i can jump right back in. The bigger problem is that it is hard for them to practice without drums. They miss me. It's always nice to hear you are needed.
• "So we'll jam on Sunday, right?" Bo asked on Friday
  
  "The Doc said not to play."
  
  "Can't you just not use that arm?"
  
  I burst out laughing. "No. It's my right arm. I use it for everything! I only really use the left for the snare, to keep the beat. And even if i could, it would probably cause me so much ergonomic trouble that i would hurt something else."
  
  I know he was thinking of Rick Allen from Def Leppard, who only has one arm. But he still has his right arm and has a special kit that triggers the snare from foot pedals.
  
  
• So, i have exercises to do for my arm to make it healthy and keep this from ever happening again.
• Well, yesterday was V-day. Bo, Juan, Alvaro and i went to a singles party run by terminator girl at this little bar uptown. It was fun. I wound up talking to this Italian bird, Annalisa. I had met her once before. I didn't recognize her at first because her hair was straight - which really made her look stunning. Terminator Girl gave us all a little fake plastic diamond to give to the girl we liked the most. We all had numbers on too, so that someone could give the bartender a message to then give to you. I was number 47.
• Our friend Susanna was celebrating her 30 birthday, so we had to leave to go to her party around 1am. So I kissed Annalisa goodbye and gave her the plastic diamond like i was in 5th grade. Before I could ask for her number, she said 'Let me know when the band is playing (everybody there knew Juan).' She gave me her number and I asked if she wanted to go out for something to eat sometime. She said "sure!" So we shall see.
• She thought it was really cool that my name was 'Greco' and that i had ancestry from Venezia and Palermo. People, in general, are always baffled by my surname because it is so European. I always have to explain that we have heaps of people with European blood in the USA.
• Atletico plays Getafe at 9pm tonight at the stadium Yeah!!!!
• It's 12 degrees and sunny
  
  
  

the Two Towers

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land. -Jon Stewart

• I saw a little white pug dog in the Metro. I love those things!!! I started singing 'I will survive' (like in MEN IN BLACK 2) in my little dog voice. The dog's owner looked at me with fear in her eyes and quickly dragged him away. But the dog dug it.
• I got my bank card. The lady was very helpful. "Will it work on the Internet, so i can access my account?" I asked.
  
  "In principle," she said "If not, give us a call." And she wasn't be a wise ass. She was truly trying to be helpful. Ahhh....Spain. Your head is so far up your ass, your toothbrush has poo on it.
• Lovely 12 degree day today. The sun is warm on my face.
• I still need more sleepy time

SABADO

• Chill Bill's is a nice venue for or first gig. It's a small dive bar up by Plaza Castilla. It will do nicely
• It's near two the black Plaza Castilla Towers. When i first got to Madrid and stayed with the French Cannibal Women, our flat was on the west side of the towers. This is just as close but to the east. I love these builings. I also loved the World Trade Center. It was just so ginormous and futuristic. Now I have these towers. They are much smaller, but i love them all the same.
• In the 70's remake of King Kong, he climbs the World Trade Center because it looks like two large stones from his home island.
• You were dying to know that, weren't you?
  

incompetence and indifference

A man who loves whiskey and hates children can't be all bad
-WC Fields

• Today is Fiday the 13th. But here in Spain they believe Martes (Tues) the 13th is bad luck. So i'm an American living in Spain. I guess i add them together and divide by 2 - i think that means that midnight on Thursday the 13th is bad luck for me. But i don't believe in luck. I also don't believe in artifical sweetener, Mormons or making certain knives illegal because of the length of the blade.
  
• Arm strength is returning. I cannot wait to start hitting things.
• I am going drum shopping AGAIN today. I think i can get new ones for the same price as used - so why not.
  
• I am knackered after a long week of work.
  
• I have to go to my bank and get my new debit card. An ATM ate it a month ago and it took this long to replace it. Spain has a historic air to it because progress is retarded by laziness and incompetence.
  
• Band practice tonight at 6, way up north at Juan's. I won't play but just help them map things out. Maybe Sunday i can jam again. Then we go to Chill Bill to see a gig, where we will play in March.
• I need to go back to bed!!!! But the drum store closes at 2 for siesta. The bank closes for good at 2.
• Spain clobbered England in a friendly 2-0. They will be favored to win the World Cup in 2010 in South Africa, Who wants to go? (Seester, i am talking to you!).
• IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is the most horrible movie ever. He gives up his life's dream for a town full of ingrates, his spoiled brother and a dumb ass angel.
• I really need some more sleep. I'm also a lot more irritable when i don't hit things for 5 or 6 hours a week.
  

Incompetence and indifference
-Adrian Belew

Jueves

I'm not afraid of dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens.
-Woody Allen

• Jueves! Praise Jah.
• More later!
  

Even Still

But even whores
Don't kiss with tongues
-Marillion

• this new work schedule is harsh
• Bank of America is evil. I hate them with religious zeal. Where's my f*#king torch and pitchfork? The account will be closed out soon
  
• Incompetence rules all of Spain
• my elbow is weak but may be getting better
• It was 12 degrees today. Chema told me in English; 'winter is finish.' I really didn't understand if he was trying to prognosticate like a 250 pound groundhog or if he was making accusations against the good people of Finland
• Something backed up and flooded the bathroom twice, causing me to go showerless yesterday.
• Today my student, Pilar, said what does 'grungy' mean? It was in the article.
  
• I said "Kind of unkempt and dirty, like me today. My shower was broken."
  
• Chema, at my insistence, poured some Fuerza (Spanish liquid plumber that translates to "the Force - thank you Obi-Wan for cleaning out the pipes!)
• The shower works again. Cause and effect
  

Connected

trying to type less to heal f#@king elbow. Everything is connected to it!!!!!!

Lunes

Back to work! I worked 5.5 hours on Saturday, teaching marketing. Then yesterday i went with Mercedes and Jess to see a Brazilian percussion band play. Lots of drums and very loud! I also had some great red curry at this Indian place i found. Now back to work today. The cycle continues!

Segundo Mano

I know you're hoping to find
Someone who's gonna give you piece of mind
When times go bad
When times go rough
Won't you lay me down in tall grass
And let me do my stuff

I'm just second hand news
I'm just second hand news
-Fleetwood Mac

• I am still looking for a second hand drum kit. So many cub scouts trying to sell me shit. I said to this one guy, "can i take the train way the hell out to where you are?"
  "Yes, but how will you get the kit home?"
  "Well, i can come back for it or can you drive it to my flat for the price of gas?"
  "Well, you can see the photos. You don't need to come out here unless you want it."
  "Well i'd LIKE TO HEAR HOW THEY SOUND! I COULD GIVE A MONKEY'S BALLS HOW THEY LOOK!"
  "What?"
  "I only care how they sound."
  silence
  "Okay, i'll ask my dad if we can drive them back to your flat."
  YOUR DAD???????"
  Somebody. Help me please. It's amateur hour.

Still here, part 2

There's two things you never want to see how they're made; laws and sausages
-Leo McGarry, The West Wing

• Until i met our bassist, I don't think i truly understood what ADD was. Man, the dude is all over the place. He sent us a list of like 170 covers he'd like to do. What?!!!!!
• Cold, rainy, gray. I haven't worn sunglasses in days. Am i still in Spain?
• Two weeks after an ATM ate my Spanish bank card and i still don't have a replacement. Yep, i'm still in Spain.
• Atletico sacked their head coach, Javier Aguirre, yesterday. It's about time. 5 losses and 2 draws since the start of the year. Good riddance. So yeah, i must still be here.

Nomad

Since the preacher's not dead, dead drunk will have to do
-Joni Mitchell

• Great Superbowl. Saw the first half with my friend Sara from Maine. I really hate the Steelers.
• Back to work. Full slate and at least this week i know where i am freaking going when i go all the way up to Tres Cantos. I have been everywhere in this Metro area. I am a nomad, sans camel.
  
• Camels frighten me with those giant chompers.
• Cold and rainy. The futbol game was horrible yesterday. Cold, wet and raw was okay. It was the fact that i showed up despite the weather and that Atleti didn't that pissed me off. They lost to lowly Valloladid, 2-1, and conceded a penalty kick for the third or fourth straight game at home.
• Bo's b-day was great. Cara, Bo, Cynthia and i were out til 5.
• My new students in Tres Cantos don't know Sh*t! We spent all class on a, and, the. And they still didn't get it! A/An are indefinite articles and the is the definitive article!!!!
• Teacher geek out. Time to turn in.