Let there be rock!

Below is this entry is one from friday that never went live til yesterday. Sorry (Thanks Mum!) Human error, i juxtapose.

• This may be my last missive until Sunday. Today i work and then move the kit to Lee's house tonite.
• Tomorrow is the gig after work at Chill Bill
• Friday morn i need to snag the kit, bring it back, and then the Babylon sisters and I head to Rioja. Yeah! I think we will see Pamplona and Zaragoza as well.
• Busy busy busy. We need roadies. And a bassist that practices for gigs. Bo actually gave his bass to Lee on Monday so he wouldn't have to carry it on Thurs. Juan was like 'are you sure you don't want to practice?" Hint. Hint. Some people just don't get it. Doesn't matter. Juan and are on the same page.
  
• Let's go Caps. Great game! Caps in 7 over Pens!
  
  Let there be drums. Let there be guitar. Let there be rock!
  -AC/DC
  

blind date

• Blind date - OY! I am just having one of those weeks where nothing can go right. It would up being at Pilar's house. But she never told me the name of the one i was theere to meet. A lot of her family was there too.
• I thought this gal Sandra was hot and figured she had to be the one. The others looked too old. Nope. It wasn't her. It was Yolanda, who is cool but just not my speed. Nor very attractive. Kind of heavy. Nice lady. gave me a lift to the Metro
• Pilar's flat was gorgeous! Whoa! Big! A gorgeous patio with a freaking wooden bench! I sat in a fricking recliner! It was like i had died and gone to America.
  
• I talked in Spanish all night. It was tough, but it was great practice. It's getting better.
  
• Anyway, i had a really good time. We were talking about ourselves and they couldn't believe how many different jobs i have had. Taxi, building houses, sales, teacher, marketer. I guess i have had a lot. I never even mentioned bartender or night shift at UPS.
  

Ceta Ciega

(Logo Lee did for my Bass Drum. That's my face on her belt! Hystrical!)

Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two.
Throw your pride to one side,
It's the least you can do.
Beatniks and politics, nothing is new.
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view. -Strawberry Alarm Clock

• yesterday was my dear friend, Pat O'Neill's b-day. Have a happy, wherever you are old sport!
• tonight is the night. Must win for the Caps.
• And i have ceta ciega. A blind date with my student Pilar's friend. She said she is beautiful, 45, a painter, 25 year old daughter, never married. But can she cook will she go to a Rush Show? i guess we'll take it one step at a time. So Pilar and other folks will be there too, which is awesome. I hope my Spanish holds up.
• I had a meeting with my bosses for PLT yesterday. Celia and Sol (I miss Lyndsay Buckingham!) The whole meeting was in Spanish. Joder! We planned for the Intensive in Avila in May. I'll be the lead there. And it's all the top dudes and Merck. So if i can put this one in the back of the net, we'll have a lot more work next fall. Maybe even a bit in July.
• I fell alseep miercoles wathcing the Caps. I forgot to set my alarm clock and slept thru class. And my movil phone was in my drum bag, so i didn't hear that alarm either. I woke up to the plumber banging a hammer on concrete. I spoke with Celia and my students and told her i would meet her at 11:30 as we planned. Bad day to sleep through her class! But it's just not a big deal here in Madrid if it happens once or twice a semester. Very different from NY and DC. But I couldn't shower! And i had played drums like a madman the night before. I stunk. I couldn't even take a poo cuz they had to take the door off the bathroom. So i walked like a penguin trying not to poop myself to a bar up the hill, ordered a coffee and went straight to the john. It hadn't been cleaned since Franco, but i didn't care. It was a photo finish. But then there was no toliet paper! The ladies room across from the sink was padlocked. All i could find in my bag was an old test of a student's. "Thank you Paloma!" No, you can't have your test back. Ever.

• So I went to meet my new boss, Sol, unwashed and smelly. Afterwards Celia asked if I had time to grabbed a drink before class. It was good because i got to talk to her about next year. She said she believes she can give me a full schedule, that way if i have to do an intensive she can cover my classes with other students. Celia is stunningly beautiful with straight dark hair. My age. "Don't worry she said to me, I'm good sales person." She said it in English. She has a good level but is very self conscious. She almost always talks to me in Spanish now. She ususally uses the word vendedor. And she is a great sales person. In her cute little accent i swore she said "Don't worry, i'm a good sex person." And she touched my knee. I laughed out loud, blushing red like a candy apple. "Did you say a good sex person?" This woman oozes sexuality out her pores. "I am this too!," She laughed. "But I said 'sales person!'" Kill me now, i thought.
• So in one day i slept through class, didn't shower to meet my new boss, wiped my butt with a student's test and may or may not have propositioned my boss. I would have been fired at least once in the US!
• The important thing is that no bunnies were hurt during the making of this day.
  
• And this is Madrid, so everything was perfectly fine by the time the day ended. I met Juan and Monica and Susanna (The Babylon Sisters) at J and J. Ashley was there too. And Jessica. Thursday in Madrid is like Thursdays at College. Then we saw Tamara sing at the open night at Triskells. Juan was so impressed with her that he suggested asking her and Pete (rythm guitar) to join Summer in Raincoats. I think it's a great idea. We'll have to see after this gig on Thurs.
  
• I think i am going to Rioja with the Babylon Sisters next weekend. That would rule. It's a 3 day weekend.
  
• Wish me luck on my blind date!
  
• note to self for date: Shower. Bring tissues just in case (Monica gave me some after i told her my story last night!) Try not to mention King Crimson or baseball.
  

Well some will sell their dreams for small desires
Or lose the race to rats
Get caught in ticking traps
And start to dream of somewhere
To relax their restless flight
Somewhere out of a memory
of lighted streets on quiet nights...
-Rush

let's go

Lets go Caps!

i am wearing a shirt that says: Washington Capitals: 2000 Southeast Division Champs. Was it that long ago? That Jamey and i would go to 20 games a year?

Annie Greco is two years old. Frippy Greco will be 10 in less than 2 months. Time goes by.

Tomorrow is Pat O'Neill's Birthday. Happy birthday dawg. All my memories are good.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Sue's mom's death. Soon she will be gone longer than Sue knew her. How does time go by so fast?

So kiss your kids. Buy your dad a beer. Pinch your spouse's ass. Cuz life's too short, unless you dig it every day.

So dig it baby.

Dig it.

First Daft

Well, I have completed the first initial draft of Buying New Soul. It clocks in at 85,000 words, which is on the short side. So i may have to beef it up. And i need edit to for typos grammars and continuity. That fun comes tomorrow. Woo hoo!

But a first draft is done. Praise Jah! More like first daft once i start checking it. I make a lot of typing errors. My digits can't keep up with the old noggin.

When you start the first page of a novel, it's very daunting. You know it's going to be a two year project. Oy!

Now comes the rewrites and the marketing. I know a guy.

Now to fall alseep watching hockey. The Caps need a win or they are toasted.

Dancing on the rooftop

< dancing on the rooftop with Monica


Get down get funky! Yesterday was just so fun.

I am barbecuing little foil packets of marinated veggies that Cara brought to the BBQ and we never ate. They smell awesome!

Last class today got canceled. I got the text on the bus. When i got off the driver yelled at me. People get on where i got off, so i really don't know what the fuck he was talking about. Unless it was an express? Maybe that was it. I took the 17:00 112 instead of the 17:15. Anyway, i told him it was an emergency, that i got a call. And he let me off. I walked back to the Metro.

Roofied

<<<On the roof with Miguel

• Back to work! Hooray! Did I say that? I just paid my credit card bill, so yes!
• Just wanted to say hey! (so mum knows i'm alive)
• My friend Lee manages a 4 star hotel downtown off of Gran Via, so he had a party up on the terrace yesterday. It was amazing! Great views of the city. They want our band to play up there in June. That would be kick ass!
• The BBQ on Sabado was a big success. We cooked a lot of meat, played 60's psychedelic music all day long and then watched the Caps lose to the Rangers. Joder - the Caps are trouble.
  

Dark side of the moon bounce

• Jueves. The end to a very slow work week. Full week next week. Euros! Woo hoo!
• Carlos Delgado is on fire! And the Marlins look awesome. What the hell?
• I went to J and J's for happy hour. It was very happy. All the guiris (foreigners) hanging out. I met this cute English chick. She just got here. I am old enough to be her father. Doh!
• I am having a BBQ on Sabado because Chema and Anita are in Italy. Hooray! I can only hope, like so many before them , that they'll be gunned down in the Rome airport. Chema is the laziest man i have ever met. I grow weary of living with such a slob. And i am a slob myself!
  
• "I like socialism," he told me last week. No shit, Sam Spade. Never would have guessed that one. When the penguins taught us the 7 Deadly Sins in grammar school, i thought, sloth, seriously? Now i know.
• I did not put any 'goop' in my hair today and I came home from work and it looked like a Afro. Does this make me an Afro-American?
• Ugh! I'm running out of material after two years! Forgive me.
• I have lived in this flat for over a year. First time i've lived in one place for a year since 2006. No wonder i feel antsy.
• Annie Greco was 2 years old on April 11th. Tempus fugit. Susan is having her party at a coffee house this coming Saturday where they will see a kids band she loves; Rocnocerous. One of their albums is called, and joke you not, 'Dark Side of the Moon Bounce."
  

Sprummer

listening to:

The Name of this Band is the Talking Heads, disc 2 - the Talking Heads
Exit stage right - Chicago March 1, 1981 - Rush
Everything that happens will happen today - Byrne/Eno
Going for the One - Yes
Starless and Bible Black - King Crimson
Godless Black Magic - Wayward Platypus
Professor Satchafunkalis and the Musterion Of Rock - Joe Satriani
Still Becoming Apart - Smashing Pumpkins
Smells like Glue - The Adults

BBQ'ed nice steaks earlier. Yeah!

Since i have had an abbreviated schedule i have cooked and eaten well these past two weeks.

Rainy, but the sun still breaks through. A nicer April than my last two here. I love spring into summer here. Sprummer.

Many memories.

On both sides of the Atlantic. I must be a fortunate man to be able to say such a thing. But can't wait to see you folks in the Northeast! Summer tour dates forthcoming!!!!

predictions:

Caps over Rangers in 6.
It will get warmer on both sides of the Atlantic.
We're going to find out Oprah is really an alien.
Global warming is myth. The next ice age is not.
Skylab falling was really just some lint in God's eye.

Okay. Besos!


We have all been here before
We have all been here before
-Crosby Stills Nash and Young

does it really happen?

Could this be true
Does it ever happen to you
And can you prove
That wheels go 'round in reason
You take a step
In time,
To move together
-Yes

• A lady asked me to help her carry her baby carriage down the stairs in the Metro. There were two babies in it and it was built like a Hummer. Kinda heavy.
• I know why you never see martini glasses in Spain - because they get broken at an alarming rate. After a few BBQ's here this spring I am down to 1. My friend, Brian, broke 3 glasses (only one martini) last Monday. I had him sleep over on the sofa. But he's Irish, so I don't know what his excuse is. But no harm done.
  
• The same Monday BBQ ended with a Summer in Raincoats acoustic jam (Juan on acoustic, Lee singing, me hitting the sofa and things with sticks. My favorite was Knocking on Heaven's Door, but we (me i guess, really) changed the refrain to Knocking Up Kevin's Whore. The entire room was in hysterics. Lee improved the rest.
  
• I walked into the J and J Bar last Tuesday to buy a book and grab a beer. It became like Cheers. Every time the door opened it was someone I knew. We wound up playing scrabble. It's 2 for 1 happy hour. I normally work well through happy hour. I walked out of their five hours later!
• I wrote something like 12,000 words this Semana Santa. That's a quite a clip. Last Semana Santa I wrote less, maybe 9,ooo words.
  
• When I go on writing jags like this my sleep is completely fudged up. I sleep in 4 or 5 hour intervals. I wake up. I can't get back to sleep. I write. I fall asleep 5 hours later. Sleep of the dead. I wake up. I write again. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
  
• So i guess that's how i went a week without blogging. I just get caught up. Which is good. Becase sometimes the last thing you feel like doing is sitting in that chair and writing. But I do enjoy the process much more than when i was a youngin'.
• I saw bunch of special needs adults on the Metro on Sabado. One woman had hair like Heat Miser. They seemed a nice enough group of four. One dude had physical problems and was very hunched over. It's horrible how many people you see like that here. So the guy is hanging all over this woman. It was very loving i recall smiling at them. And then the dude swallows her tongue and they are full tilt sucking face. I almost pooped my pants I was so shocked. I am sure i farted. It was not what I was expecting. I hate when anybody makes out hardcore on the Metro, including me. (See: Fatal Attraction Woman Patricia in November '08).
• So nothing is more normal here. 2+ years later and it still seems as whacked out as ever. It's a lot of laughs. But far from normal.
  

The rainy season

Just finished my taxes. Yeah!

9 C and rainy. And the weather says we may not see sun til next Lunes. That long without sun is unheard of in Madrid. They'll think it's the end of the world.

No classes this morn so i fell aslp last night to the Mets playing their first game in Citi Field. Unfortunately the game ended like the last one at Shea, with a loss.

Good jam last night with the Raincoats.

And I had barbecued pig burgers for dinner. Yeah!

The sea still rolled, no mountain fell
The sun still rose, the moon as well
I was undone, some kind of free
The day you sent your spirit to me
-Big Country

like any other day

wrote all day. I'm at 83k words now. I'm not sure if this first draft will 90k. I may have to fill in some gaps and make it longer later on.

The Mets lost a heartbreaker on Murphy's outfield error. What a pitching duel though. I love 1pm games because they are on at 7 here. The Internet rules.

I barbecued chicken breast for dinner. Easter Day is not a big deal here. And i had some peppers that were hot!

Now i am going to watch The Reader and then go to bed.

Happy Keester!

Easter

Easter here again
A time for the blind to see
Easter, Surely now
can all of your hearts be free
-Marillion

Happy Keister! The pagan holiday co-opted by the Church. The pagans would celebrate surviving winter and the warmer weather. They'd have a big party, barbecue fresh food, drink beer and wine and have sex.

Doesn't sound so bad, does it? So embrace your inner pagan.

As for me, i write, therefore i am. Novel is 80K words and climbing.

Next week is a short work week because of Semana Santa. I teach a lot of IT folk who work 24/7, so some of them had last week off, some have this week off. So no class.

Ugh! I need to get paid for holidays or go somewhere where they have less holidays.
How your perspective changes! I have a feeling there as some big changes for me in the offing. I don't know when, where, what or how. But I can taste it in the wind.

Listening to: Rush Live at Cobo Hall, Detroit '78. They were a ferocious band at this point. Just absolute monsters.

therefore...

Well the Mets couldn't complete the sweep. Bummer. That park in Cincinnati is like a pinball machine they score so many runs.

Watched Darjeerling Limited with Cara. We had both seen it before but laughed our asses off.

Colder and rainy tomorrow is the prediction. So more writing! Yeah! The novel is 77k words and counting.


I write therefore i am
-El Dude

long time

been a long time since i rock n rolled
-Led Zeppelin

Not really! Just since i blogged. Almost a week? I feel i wrote one or two that maybe never posted.

That happens in my brain sometimes too.

Anyhoo, go Mets!

It's Semana Santa. No work today y manana. It's been a mega -lite work week, but i guess i have been busy having bbq's and catching up with old friends.

I actually wish i could get more hours. And vacation pay. And healthcare.

So i am thinking about going to Japan to teach. I don't know when.

Ahhh...Japan. Sushi, hot women, i'm taller than everyone, mediocre baseball. Sounds delightful. Seriously. Maybe sooner than later

i just don't know. I really don't. But now's the time.

Forward!!!!

Just Go

I LOVE YOU MAN is awesome. It's funny, has a myriad of Rush references and fencing!

I feel like they're talking directly to me
-El Dude

Stayed in last night. Sleepy sleepy.

I ran some errands, barbecued hot dogs and onions and now it's on to self maintenance (shower, shave) and cleaning the flat. It's a gorgeous 19C day. Nothing but sun. Jam tonight with band B, soon to be something, i hope.

Go UConn!

Go Mets!

Go to hell Shrubby!

Go fish!

Go west!

(Note to self- The USA is to my west.) I will let u know when i have my US Dates set. It'll be a few weeks for sure. Wheels within wheels, plans within plans. I am trying to get work for a few weeks in the USA this summer.

Have a kick ass weekend!

All fools

hello all you fools!

I love you!

Happy birthday Janet!

Just a quick shout since it's been four days. Damn... time flieth. It is basically Semana Santa again - the week of Easter. I have one class tomorrow and I will work very little next week, so here come the holidays again!

When is it not a holiday in Spain?
-The Seester

It's Keith Urban week on iTunes! It must be the work of Satan. And right before Semana Santa. The devil lives!

Hide in your homes! But you may want to play 666 in Lotto.