i have not forsaken my promise to update this more often. it is just that things have not been all that exciting lately. i am looking forward to things changing soon, as i will be graduating in a few weeks (PHEW) and need to look for a new job and will have a whole different routine to get used to overall. as of right now, i feel like i'm kinda just passing time.

i guess there isn't much to talk about, really. this past tuesday on hot trash, we had tony erba from 9 shocks terror as a guest. he offered to come on and do an interview with paul mahern, the singer of the zero boys. i was terribly nervous but i don't know why, since i did practically none of the talking. still, it was a bit of a big deal to me. even moreso when i found out some of the things paul talked about in the interview, like the fact that the zero boys had never played cleveland (before last nite), even back in the 70s. and since they have started doing reunion shows, there has only been about 5 or 6 of them. i was at one in chicago a few months ago. so it was kinda like they were this elusive yet influential band, and here we were talking about crapping pants on the airwaves of wcsb. it was pretty cool. i managed to get a single, solitary question in there, which was this: "stevie wonder: yes or no?" i was scared when paul paused, but then he followed up with a "yes or no? absolutely, YES!" and i knew he was totally my dude. the show last nite was excellent. even better than chicago, because we got an encore (including "toys in the attic" by aerosmith AND "night time" by the strangeloves! ha, great). tony introduced beth and i to paul after the show last nite and we got to shake hands and thank him, so that was really cool. he asked about the show and said he was going to look it up on the internet. might we be having a dead boy AND a zero boy in the audience in the future? who knows.

i know that YOU probably don't care to read about this stuff, but since music is one of the only things that matter to me it's kinda what i've got to work with here. i remarked today to my mom how ironic it is that beth and i used to play dj at family parties years ago, never taking that as a serious occupation/hobby outside of our houses. and now look at all the fun we're having. we dj'ed a party and a show all in one day a few weekends ago. got paid for one and made new friends at the other, so it was win/win. we might get to dj a classic car show this summer, which i think would be a lot of fun. i would dress up in my poodle skirt and play monkees records for my own amusement, so why not let someone pay me to do it? it really doesn't get any better than that.

last weekend i went with beth and felipe to buffalo, new york to see one day of bigneck fest. mostly i was dying to see the mistreaters and they did not disappoint. my friend david even dedicated "the other man" to me, which is, like, my most favorite song in the whole world! i was soooo in love with those 20-some minutes that i spent watching that band play. we got to say hi to kickbart and most of the blowtops, which was fun as usual. (creepy)dave rolled around on the floor a lot and tackled people, and at one point the drummer from the mistreaters stopped playing mid-song to jump off the stage, tackle dave, wrestle a little, and get back on stage to finish the song. fantastic.

lately i've also somehow gotten myself into trying to help bands book shows -- which i have nearly no experience with, but i am more than willing to try to learn. so far there are two out-of-country bands (incidentally, both from france) that i would love to see play cleveland and hopefully that will happen. the creteens (garage/punk) will hopefully work something out and i'll get to say hi again to my friend ben who i randomly met while in new york at dot dash last summer. the four slicks (featuring ex-ripoffs) are fun garage/rockabilly stuff and that would be great to help get them over here.

i'm looking forward to shows coming up, and other possible tours. the rat traps and fatals will be here at the end of the month. in may, i'll be sittin' pretty on a greyhouse with a handful of friends-gone-wild to see amazing feats of debauchery in the form of the oblivians, the functional blackouts, holy shit!, the tampoffs, the persuaders, and ohhhhhhhh so much more. i've heard rumors of a possible sneaky pinks tour. the hipshakes, who i have just recently gotten into, say they plan to get the heck outta the united kingdom to show the u.s. a thing or two. I CAN'T WAIT! THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT! I'VE SOLD MY SOUL FOR ROCKNROLL!

is there anything wrong with being this excited over rocknroll? is it dangerous in any way? hazardous to my health? is there any way i can make a living out of rocking the fuck out? because i honestly don't know how to exist any other way and i sure as hell don't want to try.

that might be it. but first, let me confess a few things so i can sleep soundly tonite:

1. i listened to the album "even worse" by weird al in the car on the way home from work the other day. LOUD. i should be more embarassed about this. but i am not. click here to read the lyrics to "you make me," which i find incredibly (regrettably?) amusing.