I found this massage chair cover thing. You wouldn’t believe it. You throw it anywhere. In a car or over a chair or flat on the bed or floor. I have it outside right now on a bench. It has all these various different massages that it does to you and it also heats up. And then there's these speakers on it so you can listen to nature sounds or to this new age music coming right out of it. and the whole time its massaging you and heating you up. Its wild.  

Has anyone noticed this thing with Dish network? Fucking a its crazy. half the channels on dish networks don't work now because Viacom turned them all off all over the country as a way to blackmail them into paying higher premiums for the channels and to force them into taking buying channels they don't want to. Its like the fucking apocalypse or something. and when you go to watch MTV or VH1 or cbs instead of those channels you got these two guys form dish networks sitting at a desk talking to America telling everyone “we are refusing to pay these high prices and we refuse to be extorted like this so were really sorry but that's why you can’t watch your favorite shows right now. and they just sit on there for hours talking and reading people letters and emails and answering them. parents aren't even get any of the kids channels for their children. I swear to God you couldn’t dream this up. its reality TV but for real.

Bloopy is off to France for a week, I feel like a proud father. He's never crossed the Atlantic before. While today was my first day of French class. Although I don't remember a thing from it. they start at 10:00 AM. That's in the fucking morning. I don't even know if I was there. maybe my body was but my mind, no way. I have always heard that French is hard. Well guess what? French is hard. Really hard. They don't pronounce any of their fucking letters. I don't know why they use them if they aren't going to pronounce them.

The most amazing thing happened today. about two weeks ago I purchased a Vox-AC 30 amp off of eBay. I got a decent deal. Like all musicians these days I'm an eBay freak and haven't even been in a music store in years. buy everything online now. and used. The older the better. The cool thing about eBay is that you almost never even talk to the people you buy or sell stuff to. and another cool thing about eBay is that sometimes you do. that's cool too.

I bought the amp from another user in the UK. Over the course of the last two weeks he and I started emailing back and forth about the amp and the biz. You never know who you're talking to. turns out I was buying the amp from a very cool very famous English guitarist in a very cool very famous British band who happens to have about ten of these babies and was getting rid of one. we were trading stories and opinions about gear and all that. I get this email from him a few days ago saying he was a fan of the band’s. He had gone online about a week ago and bought our last two cds. we started talking more and more. he said to give him a ring not too late and we would talk about coming over the England for a few shows. So I gave him a call. Sure enough it was him. and ironically enough his amp arrived today as well.

His band happens to be wildly famous and mine happens to be wildly not so famous. So we started talking about it. Just going back and forth.
“If I were you mate I wouldn’t even worry about the fucking record labels at this point. You just need to get yerselves on the road and stay there. That’s what we did. The labels will come to you. And if they don't then fuck ‘em. You can sell yer records from the road with or without a label you know.”
“Yeah well I guess that's what were going to do now. Just start playing where ever we can play .now.”
“Fishy you can play a few shows with our band if you can get over here...”
”What? Are you fucking serious man? We can play shows with you?”
“Yeah lad. I've listened to the cds. I think its fucking brilliant. What you guys are doing.”
“Thanks for saying that. Half the time I think its brilliant myself and then the other half I think we must blow. Its hard for us right now.”
“Its hard for everyone right now mate. The business is fucking changing so fast, especially in America. You don't have much of a business left over there from what we hear. Touring is the only way a band can make it now.”
”Well its not like you guys are hurting for sales man. I mean what are you guys selling like ten million a year or something.”
”You'd be surprised Fishy. We haven't sold a million of the new one. And by the time they're done raking us over the coals its not a lot of money split between four guys.”
“You think things are better over there. In the UK?”
“For what you do, yeah. You sound like Lou reed and David Bowie mixed together. It’s a cool sound. That sound is still big here. I don't suppose its too big in America anymore...”
“Well i do my own thing man....”
“Don't get me wrong Fishy. You have your own sound as well. That’s what I'm saying. I really like it. I just think you have to get out and play more. I think that if you came over here the people would love ya.”
“You think so? I don't know if people here in the states like Lou anymore. I don't know if they ever did. I don't know if they even know who he is...”
“Yeah its all fucked up in America now. Even for us. Its hard to find an audience for rock bands. America is just so fucking big isn't it? Especially bands that have a more British sound like you all do. it must be hard.”
“Tell me about it. All day long I either hear that we’re great or that we suck. We don't know what to think cause we do what we do. Its what we do. I mean, we don't want to go changing it or messing with it. you know?”
”You can say that again mate. Once a band starts fucking with their sound to try to please the fuckheads in the suits then that's the end of the band. We've seen it a million fucking times. But like I said Fishy, I like it myself what you all do. I just think its brilliant man. I mean that. I don't think you guys will have a problem if you get out more and play. You might not sell a million records, but you’ll find an audience.”
“Man I hope you're right.”
”Hey by the way, how do you like the ac-30? Have you had a chance to drive her yet?”
“Yeah tonight I've been playing it all night.”
”She's a beast aint she? What kind of an axe are you plugging in?”
“Just now an old les Paul, but I'm about to plug in a 72 custom tele.”
“That was my first guitar man. A custom tele and an Ac-30. That’s an amazing sound. You’ll be happy. Let me know how you like her. I would never use anything else. I own about ten of ‘em I think.”
“Yeah you said that in your ad. I wish I could just collect gear and record albums and tour. I hate all the other stuff right now. Its fucking driving me crazy. it makes me not want to make music sometimes.”
”You're not the only one mate. That's why most of us drink our fucking asses off till we’re shit-faced every night, don't we? Its not an easy business once you're in. Welcome to the club. Don't let it get you down though.”

We talked about an hour. I wouldn’t have believed it if someone else would have told it to my face. Honestly. From buying an amp on eBay. You just never know.

Has anyone else noticed that its like a circus in the world now? is it just me? or does it seem like the world got shaken up as if we were in one of those snow globes and some giant alien came along and gave us a good shake; maybe we just don't know it. its like the whole world is crazy all of a sudden. the smiling talking heads on the news report on it heartlessly and emotionless, just trying to act like its business as usual. Priests fucking altar boys, perfect strangers getting married on TV for money, riots going on every other day in some country, people of the same sex are getting married all over the country is weird enough, but then on top of it you have the president trying to create a constitutional amendment to stop it---yeah that's what the constitution was created for pal— Was he AWOL during that class in college also? [one thing you can say for W. never again will people say that democrats and republicans are the same in America. that man is staying strong and committed to the republican platform, and for that you may not agree with him, but you have to respect him], football players signing contracts for 98 million dollars but millions of people not even having jobs. Its just crazy. its like we woke up one day and everything was insane. What next?