Last night was the first summer alley party at the shop, and it was pretty sweet. It was also the one year anniversary for Skull Alley. We fired up the grill and some beats and let it rip. This one - and another in two weeks - are in honor of David Garrett - the "Daveer". No matter what I say about this guy it won't be enough. This dude showed up years ago and said he'd earn his way onto the crew. He started off cleaning one day a week. He watched and learned. And went to two days, then three, part time, full time. I've gotten to watch as he honed his art skills, constantly improving, never satisfied, always harshly self-critical but in such a way that I was always surprised how quickly he changed it up. If you get a chance to check out his art, do it.

Tomorrow is the first father's day I'll celebrate as a father to be. I have seen my future child's face on a scanner, heard the heart beat, felt the kick. I have never felt such purpose in my entire life. I think back to what a hellion I was, and how innately rebellious. We're in for it.

It's hot. It's summer in Kentucky, but at least there's been rain. We have tomatoes and herbs growing, and the summer sunday night open dinners have been an excellent social experiment. We'll have tomato-centric dishes in a month or so.

Still working on the website. Still upgrading the shop. I need 8 arms like Shiva, but with independent brains like an octopus.

Normal life. It's amazing. I still insist that we live in a golden age.

heading to detroit again this weekend

making some random shirts to give away as usual

looking forward to pressing pause on the economic game and reconnecting to the disembodied future network echo that happens to manifest in the presence of very funky electronic music.

Dealing with a scary economy is still way easier than outfitting a ship and sailing into the unknown, but it's a similar problem of resource management.

I have to plan for the worst case but keep on attempting to expand into something new. I contemplated the online tshirt sales back in the early 90s but didn't have the infrastructure. Now I do but everyone is doing it. I think, though, that I can pull it off. And if it doesn't work, it won't kill me. But we have a LOT of classic designs that I can pull out and put up. We'll see what reality says.

I'm going to try to launch for DEMF this year.

Wish me luck!

So i'm sitting out on the street in a café in Paris, and i've just walked through the biggest church i've ever seen in my life. It was so big that I understand how catholics happened. That's the main thing I take from here- I understand how we, America, came from here and got to start over. In some way we're a continuation of something, mapped onto supposedly empty land. The grid here dates back to Rome. People have built layers and layers on top of one another and seem to have more of an anchor on an older "reality." They don't wear logos on thing, even a small logo feels garish and tacky. I bless my old french teacher in elementary school, mdme Nicole Charon, for her insistence on my accent... I get this feeling of acceptance here which I understand to be no easy thing. An unspoken "you are clearly American but you have actually bothered to learn at least a fair bit of French, so you get the benefit of the doubt." I am 39. I am married. I am going to be father. I have never felt so sure of my purpose in the world. I look forward to all of this. I want to apply the machinelike determination I feel in Detroit to simple things, like getting thin. Café de crème instead of mochas, no more cokes, big breakfasts rather than dinners. I want to see my bride succeed and come into her own. I want to grow Memetech into a real self sufficient enterprise and let my father retire and enjoy life more, to take up the load. Later in the day, we've been to an even bigger church and it was full of tourists but whoa. It's hard to describe it without swearing to emphasize the descriptions.
It's several days and four huge churches later. Went up to the tourist traps, saw the same roma team of pickpocket scout girls. Went up on top of the Arc de Triomphe, saw the world war museum at les invalides. More than ever I am a peace through strength pacifist. I see a sad country, repeatedly laying down her bravest, only now finally with the EU able to breathe a sigh of relief. I keep hunting the fleur de lys everywhere, but have a hint that the royal era is like bring up slavery in the states. It was there and a reality but we'd like to think we've moved past it. I am going to look up books with pictures of fleurs on amazon.fr and do a line tshirts with fleur de lys from paris. My bride is in the room, not feeling well, and I wish I could share this with her but i'd rather share versailles. The style here is quite cool, it's muted bu smart. There's so much that's gilded who cares about a bright shirt? The metro is amazing. If I was a billionaire, I'd buy louisville a subway system as thanks. Recaffeinating and getting ready to dive back into the Louvre. Hope the shop is ok, trying to let go. I want to come back here someday with my kids and Nancy, which means a whole new level of kicking ass at business. There was a guy on the Champs Elysees doing perfect birdcalls at the passing women. Got to get away from the tourist crap and back to the real city- it's amazing enough. Now we're in Reims, next to a roman arch dedicated to Mars- which means they must have won. We picked a random café and it's full of locals betting on standardbreds. There's a channel and kiosks and a human cashier. The dude at the table next to us bet on a horse that broke right after the race started. It's clearly a developed industry here. Now I'm Luxembourg, and I finally understand why it exists... It's got a lot of money, and it is very defensible, forts built by peoples going back more than 2000 years. We spent some time in Trier, and drove over a 2000 year old bridge. It's ridiculous how old everything feels here compared to home. I see why the Europeans feel all wise and knowing- they are constantly reminded of the layers we lack. At javascript:void(0)the same time we benefit from having had a new start. I think Europe under the EU can finally look around at themselves, surrounded by fortifications, and maybe relax and enjoy the peace.

i'm married. i'm going to be a father.

it is the most amazing thing in the world. it happens every day, but some strange gear shifts in your brain when it happens to you.

i am very, very happy.

i also have a cold from hell, but it's mitigated by the circumstances above.

i wrote a whole lot of stuff on the honeymoon, will have to pull it off of the phone and post it.

not only is my lady love a badass in many non-technical respects, but she can hack together a website:

j2nancy.com

Saw "Wicked" last night, and glad to see recognition for our green sisters.

Listening to the new Verve... waiting for the inevitable synth wash tastiness.

It's a cold economy out there, not just a cold temperature.

But I have this particular kind of hopefulness.

I'm getting hitched on the first of Spring.