Enough already, Jeremiah! We get it. We get it!

I hear you loud and clear, Reverand. Black and white folk are different. You can stop shouting now and go to bed. I don't want to hear that shit anymore. I've heard it since I was born. My friends, black, white, yellow, red and everything in between have heard it all our lives and it's getting a little tiresome.

Oh come ON..haven't we had it up to our tits with the Jeremiah Wrights of the world? Aren't we smarter yet? I mean really....how long is it going to take us to just evolve?

I'm really confused. Apparently I can't just "be".
I can't just be human. According to Reverand Wright, I must be black or white. I must learn, and think and even clap and dance and sing and even praise differently, according to the shotgun references Wright sited last night.

Uh....pardon me if I'm wrong...but didn't that type of thinking get us into all this mess in the first place?



When I say the "Jeremiah Wrights of this world", I mean all the antiquated throw-back old fuckers that are impeding and retarding advances that a new generation of world and American citizens are ready for.

As eloquent and entertaining as he is, Jeremiah Wright still, STILL...feeds some antiquated craw to point out and revel in differences in human beings...instead of celebrating unity.

He means well. He's a good man, basically. Basically. But so is Louis Farrakhan. Louis Farrakhan means well. They can't help themselves. But they are poison. But there is a lesson to be learned from them.

Archie Bunker and George Wallace meant well. They couldn't help themselves. But they were poison. But there is a lesson to be learned from them.

Jeremiah Wright, Archie Bunker, Louis Farrakhan, George Wallace can't help themselves...they are among the icons of an age we've hopefully left behind.

Ok...well it's actually Sunday...but better late than never.



I posted a whiney question on QuestionStream the other day about "is Rock Dead?" or some shit like that. I'm guess I'm feeling whiney because...well...there aren't any Rock heroes anymore.

Not like The Clash at least. And Bowie, and The Beatles, and Hendrix, and Joplin, and Eddie Vedder, and Pete Townsend, and Roger Daltry, and Trent Reznor, and Scott Weiland, and Eddie Van Halen, and Freddie Mercury, and Jim Morrison, and Steven Tyler, and Axyl Rose, and Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page, and Ozzy Osbourne, and Kurt Cobain.

I'm leaving out a few I'm sure. But you get the point. Where is Rock & Roll?

I was going to put together a playlist of just great Rock & Roll, but as I was cruising around...every tune that came to mind was a Clash song. Their album London Calling; in my opinion, is probably THE greatest Rock album ever.



(Okay...so maybe it ties with Ziggy Stardust...but that's another post)

I have to write this post really quick before I forget the details.

I had a really fucked up dream this morning. I've been having really bizarre dreams for the past couple of weeks, actually.

So anyways...When I was like 7 or 8, I got this idea from Weekly Reader. I made a time capsule. I put some plastic army men and a Spyrograph drawing and a Tootsie Roll and my report card and a letter and some other stuff in a jar and I buried it on the bank of the creek behind our house..

So anyways...this is where the dream starts....I was in the back yard of the house that I grew up in. I was going down to the bank to dig up the time capsule that I had buried when I was a kid.

I found the spot where I had buried the time capsule...but as I was about to dig it up, the creek started filling up with muddy water. In the dream, my mom and my cousin Star and all her kids and a bunch of my friends from elementary school were there, standing in the middle of the creek.

I kept trying to dig up the time capsule, but the water kept getting deeper and deeper. Then I noticed these bumps that looked like an alligator's back popping up from the water. Then the alligator's head came up. I was up on the bank, but everyone else was standing in the water. I tried to yell and warn them, but I couldn't get it out.

I couldn't think of the word for "alligator" in the dream. I was trying to yell "There's an alligator in the water", but in the dream, I couldn't remember the word "alligator" and I couldn't yell. I just looked at my mom and my cousin and her kids and my friends out in the creek and said "walrus". I was trying to warn them that there was an alligator in the creek, but all I could do was stand there and say "walrus".

That was the dream.

Here's how my friend Anne interpreted it tonight....

I'm the alligator. I'll probably keep dreaming about water and fire for the next few days since I'm an Aries. I have things to admit and resolve, but I'm also a control freak. I'm the muddy water and the alligator. I have aggressive tendencies like the alligator, but I don't admit or own them. I choose to check and maintain myself as more of a walrus....which looks cuddly, but is just as aggressive and dangerous, but with better PR.

I told a few friends about this dream today and they just giggled.

I stopped by the women's bar down the block from the store on the way home from work tonight for a beer and sat down with my friend Anne, I brought up this dream, and she nailed it.

Anne and I are unlikely buddies. I'd go so far as to say that we are soulmates. Anne is there to unwind and reboot. She's been trying to write a doctorate paper since last summer and working in the Dekalb County Board of Education offices during the day.

I'm there because...well just because it's down the block from my store. I'm usually the only guy in there. I think the owner, Karen, lets me hang out because she keeps telling me and the girls that I'm an honorary lesbian. Go figure.

This photo captures Rex and Gracie to a "T". Rex (on the left) almost always just sorta looks really dumb and funny and laid back. That big furry head and that goofy eternally confused look on his face. Gracie almost always has this solid stance and knowing look about her. They're both smart as they can be though. Rex just doesn't let on.

Rex is actually very expressive and communicative when it counts. Oddly enough, he has me pretty much trained. He has distinct looks and paw actions for different messages...like the "We need to go outside for a minute" is different from the way he says "Uh...hellooo...can we get a little water in the bowls in there" and is very different from the way he says "OH MY GOD...OH MY GOD...OH MY GOD...a CAT/SQUIRREL/METER READER...A CAT/SQUIRREL/METER READER IS IN THE YARD!!!"

I couldn't read him this afternoon though. Rex ran into the office and was gesturing and pawing and looking wild. Rex and I have this thing going where he runs into the room and I just know from the look on his face that he has a "message". I say "Show me, Rex" and he will head off and lead me to the area that needs attention...the front door, the food or water bowl, the back door, etc.

When I said "Show me, Rex" this afternoon, he ran into the kitchen and stood there looking at me and looking into the hall where the pantry closet is. I couldn't figure out what he was trying to tell me. I went back into the office and we repeated this 3 times...with Rex getting more frantic each time.

I finally figured out what he was trying to tell me. Their bag of food is supposed to be next to the washing machine where it has been for years. It got moved into the hall next to the pantry when the kitchen was cleaned and it didn't get moved back. It wasn't dinner time so he wasn't hungry...he was just freaked out that the bag wasn't where it was supposed to be.

I moved his food bag back to beside the washer where it's supposed to be and he looked on with approval and then shook his gigantic furry head and saundered into the dining room, wagging his tail and then laid down, glanced at me one more time and then plopped down, quite satisfied.

Rex loves and demands routine and order.

T

"You become.

It takes a long time.

That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be carefully kept.

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby.

But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand

...The Velveteen Rabbit."