“lose the hero, get with the zero.”

okay, let’s run through the stuff i’ve acquired over the last couple of weeks…

• like a pen single – the knife (rabid/brille/mute)
• we share our mothers’ health single – the knife (rabid/brille/mute)
• silent shout single – the knife (rabid/brille/mute)
• sillent shout deluxe edition – the knife (rabid/brille/mute)

i decided to try and buy most of the knife’s output. unfortunately, accurate discographies seem hard to come by, and sometimes the european version of a release has one or two things different than the u.s. release. plus some stuff is only available on vinyl. and some stuff is pretty rare. add all that together, and it’s a mess trying to find and buy the stuff. even online, since when someone says they have something you don’t always know if it’s the european or u.s. version. (some people know the difference, some people don’t.)

• nausea 12″ vinyl – adult. (ersatz audio)

i picked this up on ebay. i don’t even have a record player. mostly i wanted to get a 12″ for the artwork, so i can display it. plus “nausea” is one of my favorite adult. songs.

• lonely hearts – tara mcpherson (dark horse)
• built in Texas – abernethy, et. al. (unt press)
• goodbye to a river – john graves (knopf)

the first is a book of tara mcpherson’s artwork. i really like her style — pop art, fairly minimalist clean lines, limited color complexity, kind of innocent yet also creepy and dark. good stuff. unfortunately, the version i got from amazon looks like they left it laying around at either a mechanic shop or a ink toner manufacturing shop. hopefully i can clean it up.
the second is a book put out by the Texas folklore society. it’s got texts, pictures, and drawings. different sections are written by different people. there are a couple by terry jordan. it covers the different styles of construction in early Texas: houses, barns, windmills, water sources, etc. mostly buildings though. it discusses origins, areas styles were prevalent, variations, etc.
the third is a classic Texas book, but i’ve never owned or read a copy. this is a hardcover version and appears to be the twentieth printing.
i got my new fender dropped off by ups earlier this week. when i pulled off my old fender after the incident, i angled it and pulled it in between the forks. it’s not really meant to be taken off and put on that way, you’re supposed to take the front tire off — but i managed it. so i decided i’d put the new one on the same way. unfortunately, i wasn’t thinking it through and as i was angling it and rocking it i managed to put some pretty nice scrapes about 1″ long on it. *sigh* fortunately, they are on the back side of the fender facing the body and radiator, so it’s not blatantly visible like it would be in some other places. plus i guess i can always do some cover up if i want.
i went to poison girl last friday with a group of people celebrating a co-worker’s birthday. by chance, i happened to run into jason, one of the guys i ride with. i hadn’t seen or talked to him in a number of months. he bought a bigger bike a few months back. we talked for awhile, then i went back to the people i was with. as i was leaving, jason and his friends were sitting at a table near the bar. i stopped and talked to them for awhile. i was squatting since they were sitting, and i was half blocking the foot path so i had to move now and then when people were walking by. all of the sudden i heard a crash and felt something hit me a little. i turned around and there was a bar stool on the floor. along with a young lady in a dress. i looked at the people i was talking to and said “did i cause that?” they said no. she got up and seemed to be okay. i’m not sure if she was sober enough to be embarrassed or not. the poison girl is a cool place, despite the falling girls (or maybe because of it).
last night brad texted me to see if i wanted to meet him at a place in rice village and then ride. i met him and hung out awhile, but we ended up not riding. the funny bit of the story is i was sitting across from a girl about my age and we talked some, she was drinking more than me. i was getting ready to leave and when i got up she said “did i give you my card?” i looked at her and smiled and said “no.” her facial reaction was a bit odd. and she’d been reaching around in her purse, but she started closing it and said “uh…ok.” it was about this point i realized she must not have said what i thought she did. so i said “did you say ‘did i give you my card?'” and she replied, “no, i said *can* i give you my card.” i felt kind of bad after realizing what must have been running through her head and how she probably felt after my response. but it was kind of funny too.