Sometimes I Think, "I can't do it anymore. Can't live like this, but how to change it?"

That's what I sometimes think.  And what I pretty much all the time think is that this is not going to end well, but it probably will end before too long.   Has too.  No one can go indefinitely like this.

But I have to avoid fatality until everything is clean tidy, organized, and I am sure I will not be one of those pain the neck dead people who left a mess which the state loves making worse.  The state loves to punish the living.  The harder their lives, the sadder the are, the more the State loves turning screws.

Sadistic bastards wherever you go.  But you can be sure, the highest concentration of dedicated sadists outside drug cartels and inner city gangs is government.  I would say that, on sheer volume, government wins the most total number of sadists in one general organization or occupation.

That is why, in local elections, if the brief bio of a candidate indicates, he/she/it/q was a prosecutor I will never give them my vote.  Prison guard, forget it.  I am highly suspicious of even public school teachers who want to be obn city council or otherwise interfere in the lives of others.  I am not one of those who "applauds our teachers for their sacrifice", or who automatically thinks military people or police are wonderful.

I dabbled in military for a bit and I did not find that it made everyone wonderful.  I would gleefully attack those who show no respect for what many in military service go through or have done.  So, there that is.  I have friends who were marines.  And other.   I had a friend who was a cop for awhile but didn't fit too well.  I still dislike that general "calling".  Really screwy laws and if you accidentally show up in wrong place at wrong time, you can be the victim of their gleeful idiocy without deserving it.   They do deal with thousands who ought to be beaten and abused.  Trouble is, those people usually get a pass and the bullying is saved for the less deserving of it.

This who Trump mania stuff has become scary.  People make it up a lot of the time.  They are unapologetic about false quotes, saying, "He is so bad, he could have said it, so it doesn't matter---Trump bad, let's throw piss on people!!!" yay

Granted, I think he is not my idea of anything I want in my life or country, however I still say he's better than Ted Kennedy.   And he is legally president.  I do not approve of the insane resistance that attacks not what he does or doesn't do, but simply piles on with cheap shot ridicule at him and his family.  And those behind the millions of snarky memes circulated daily are not the friends of a free society.  People are being used by them.  It is more power play stuff in the works.

People seriously believe Trump is out to raid their social security.  Nonsense.  Won't happen.  Watch the damned democratic party.  They are thieving, lying, trouble.   They are not your answer.  YOu don';t have to go to the dark side just because you don't like Trump.  And I really don't much like Trump.  And the republican party is clearly not really the answer if you find the Pelosi/Schumer, et al power machine to be disgusting, shady crooked nastiness, which I do.

I find the backlash to Trump to be far more dangerous than he is.   It's like comedic automatons, "Yea, I bet that crocodile would choke on Trump, hahaha."  "Yea, if only the eclips meant Trump would melt in the sun, hahaha"... and on.  IT is insane the stupid stuff like that which people spout from nowhere---looking for peer acceptance.  A little you go girl (hate, hate , hate that phrase) or an attaboy.  They deny it, but peer pressure drives most Alinskyesque, ridicule based propaganda efforts.

Anyway, I don't care, except my youngest relatives will likely live if the koolaid addled world of the future, believing all the nonsense, until it implodes, if it ever does.

As for me, give me liberty or give me death, or both.  But only after the house is cleaned up.

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We Need A New De-Tox Program

It has been going on all my life, and much longer; the cult of personality myth.   For example, many Cubans used to say, "But for one man, Fidel Castro, Cuba would be free!!!"  And others said stuff like that about Hitler, "One man did all this.." blablabla.

That is all inaccurate.  Without Kennedy and a a host of other officials there would be no Fidel.   Ike, you name it.  Without a cooperative army of greedy bastards there would have been no communist Cuba.  It was not Fidel's disdain of capitalism, but his unabridged greed that set Cuba on its path.  You think he wanted to be saddled with rule of law, a constitution?   No, not likely.

People get all focussed on one figure to deify or hate, as the solution to all or the cause of all evil.  It indemnifies them from just handling their own lives, admitting their fears or shortcomings.  It is great for those who like to arrange power plays and the destination of your money is secret deals.  The perpetual distraction.  No one wants truth, they just want the face in front of them that they are told to hate.

The Trump fanaticism has gone off the charts.  I am not a fan of his, but truth is truth, and I still think the democratic party is a jackboot outfit.  Republicans are clearly not a good alternative.  They are like the comical relief.  It is a game.

Anyway, the Trump hysteria and bashing has gone so far it has lost all meaning.  Those in the fray resent it like crazy when I say it is peer approval driven to a large degree.  But it is.  I saw a thing on FaceBook that discussed the sun, the eclipse and blindness.   Someone commented with the question of I wonder how many will end up blinded.  Right on cue we get a typical anti-Trump reply:  "I hope Trump looks at it without any filter."

Really?  WTF?  We're talking eclipse.  Chances are, if you post on social media, sharing the fact that you ran over a bunny rabbit, you'll get a reply from someone who bemoans the fact that you did not run over the president.

It is so absurdly stupid and contrived.  But they get the attaboy or you go girl BS from the "resistance" as if they actually expressed a real thought.

I do believe it has gone to the point of a real sickness.   Many were big on Obama cheap shots, but nothing to this extent.  Not even close.  The NY Times has op eds that have gone into such convoluted comparisons, and analyses of Trump's thoughts, and possible motivations and what ifs< treating them as fact, that I am surprised even those editors wouldn't be embarrassed.   Instead, they double down.

Say it enough and maybe it will be so.  Over and over they claim that Trump defends the kkk and nazis.  Never happened. What did happen is a governor and mayor facilitated a violent confrontation. Trump blamed all the thuggish outfits instead of just the idiotic tiki torch brigade.   Also, many were upset about the monument controversy but not supporting kkk or white supremacists.  Nuance and truth is lost on social media.  Current logic rules include emotional triggers and feeling offended.  Can't actually reason with that because you'll be told your privilege is showing.

I got yer privilege right here, biotch!

 I guess the Donald could have been stupid enough to defend racists groups (but he didn't); anyone dumb enough to engage in a public feud with that classless crude creep, Rosie, is pretty dumb.  Especially because he was just as creepily classless in the back and forth as was she.  Topping or equalling Rosie in the realm of crass, disgusting northeastern culture low life banter is an accomplishment.   Two peas in a pod.

I can right now go on thousands of different FB pages and just say something irrelevant in comments bashing Trump and people will lol or otherwise jump on the Trump-bad-must-bash-blindly-like-zombie bandwagon.  And I can feel OK and accepted, one of the gang.  I belong, at last.

It is so over the top. And it is so much part of the news that whatever is really going on is getting under reported or hidden, if reported at all.

In the mean time we pretend antifa and blm are not hate groups and that Trump is Grand Wizard of the kkk.  And also whatever they call the head nazi.  I don't like TRump, but this stuff is nonsense.  I hate people who have to lie. Or institutions that do this sort of lie.  The old Alinsky ridicule routine.  That's what I hated about dade co public schools and the democratic party--same false narrative tactics, always.  They claim to stand for the "little guy", etc., but they are actually brutal to anyone who does not conform to their templates.  Always been like that.  The party that hates people while pretending to protect them.  Toxic.  And I only wish I knew what was what republican wise.  But they seem to get caught in weird myths and issues which I think should be outside government's purview.

Some Click Bait Makes Me Think Our Extinction Won't Be Due To Weather

It is getting pretty bad when one of the click bait things on the side of the facebook page says, "10 Celebs Who Suck In The Bedroom", or something close to it.  I refused to click.  Besides one mans trash is another's treasure.

How dumb and idiotic is a society where something like that will attract huge numbers of viewers/clickers.  I think they use the word "suck" here as more of an adjective than a verb.  Although, either way, how do the authors of this nonsense know?

Of course there is that optimistic side of me that wants to cheer and exclaim,  "Yay!!!  There are famous hotshot celebrities who are as bad in the bedroom as I am.  Yipee!!".   But what if it is all lies, and no one is as bad as I am?  Now that would suck.  Yet, the famous are the ones being publicly graded and subjected to these unpleasant assertions.  I fly under the radar.

Who told the meme machine who was so bad in bed?   If it was their partners, then I have to wonder if maybe it is the blabber mouths who suck.  How could the others be any good if their riffraff trash dishing partners are hopelessly incapable of rewarding intimacy?  

It is sad on so many levels.  Really bodes poorly for the species.   I can understand stupid wastes of time, but the stuff of this nature indicates people are so unhappy and feel like such failures that they want to feel better by trashing others.  People they don't even know.

How can the same species of creature invent and build and make use of air conditioning and also pedal such moronic tripe?  It boggles the mind.

Hidden Comments since 2016 Finally Appear

Just now I discovered that people have commented on some of these screams in vacuum which I put here.  It used to notify my email, but only sometimes. I never could understand that.  At the very least when I came to this site there would be an indication that comments were awaiting moderation.

I did that due to spammers who would paste a book of nonsense and evil code into a comment.  That way I could prevent it from appearing at all.  Also the impolite stalker lady from Memphis was getting rather nasty, years ago.

No indication of pending comments has been visible anywhere.  So I never went to moderation page. But today I see in email a notice that a comment has been submitted.  Some nonsense from either an illiterate or one whose first language is not English.  It was an irrelevant nonsense comment on something written years ago.

That is what brought me to the moderation page.  Crazy.

Not that there were very many comments.  But there were a few.

One suggested a little fear over Trumps foreign policy prospects.  This was probably right after the election.  No one I consider safe in that realm has achieved great political success.

To me, having Sessions in as AG causes me to worry more about domestic policy.  I tend to hate prosecutors.  And he is one of those who would go after things that are stupid to chase but which whittle away rights.  He strikes me as all wrong on marijuana laws and abortion or other things not legitimately under purview of the feds.  Some things are better at state or even down to the individual citizen to decide.

So, while Trump is criticized for criticizing his own attorney general, I am glad to see it, hoping his next one is less of a zealot.  Obama liked to pick partisan racists.   I would love to see an actually constitutionalist in that role.   But the actual law of the land is so inconvenient to the agenda of most law enforcement.  Bizarre.

Not a Good Idea

There are long stretches of time in which I only speak to those I can't avoid.  Coworkers and such.  I'll catch myself going into too much detail or misreading the comprehension of ideas, etc.  Then I'll feel foolish and shut up.

I look back and realize no one who is not mentally damaged in some way, either just naturally or from some event or something, would have such a disjointed and empty slate.  I am frozen and have been to some degree since age 4.  It just seems to have become stronger as I got older.  I welcome the thaw.  I long for the thaw.  I am scared to death of all of it.  Whatever that means.

I can keep saying it is not over, but it will be any minute so saying that is just another of the lies and tricks I use on myself.  How or why that works, I don't know.  I wish it weren't so hot some places or so full of hateful people or so cold or crowded.    One day I will leave here.  I tend to run from friends and associate with people who see the weakness and think they can have fun shredding me.  Only idiots have such issues, so I blame me more than them.

Decent people don't have to think about friends who kill them, figuratively, and all the other stuff riffraff does.  Some people don't have that thing where they feel like they live underwater in the muck.  

There is no visible reason for any of this.  There was some medical stuff but the symptoms are no longer so intense or debilitating.

Flying to TX for a few days.  Some gig outside Austin, maybe in Georgetown, on Aug. 4.   That will be a good break.  I am scared to even go, but the die is cast.

This, whatever it is, has been going on forever.  Anyone in my world would be sick of witnessing it or hearing about it..   Good thing I have so few people in my world.  But if there are people who will betray trust or see that tender place to pierce with the knife, I will find and welcome them.  And that is no good.

I Finally Distilled the Privilege Movement

You are reinforcing tribalism, insisting upon it, under the banner of vanquishing tribalism.   Privilege stems from that.  What you are calling privilege is always what the majority and/or powerful in all societies take for themselves.  As soon as any group gains the numbers they grant their own special privilege.

Some individuals have evolved past that, but most people have not.  I am talking all ethnicities.  Back in the day your white privilege did squat for you in Harlem.  And to this day, just go to the non-white areas of the city, or anywhere in Memphis, and tell me how that white privilege is working.

Mostly, it doesn't work outside your own territory.  But if you claim your territory is so vast that the sun doesn't set on it, chances are you are wielding your privilege thanks to your superior weapons and understanding of how they work.   When you privilege at gunpoint, it ruffles the feathers of the highly populous under class.  Bad thing to do and they end up with trouble for all.

Now they are creating fantasies about privilege.  Guilt, I think, for many, greed for others.   Pretty much trying to unprivilege at gunpoint and reason it from a hyper-tribal perspective.  And that's the problem; necessity to punish under assumption that this is a uniquely whit phenomenon and sickness.

Every dominate group has done that obnoxious form of discrimination in one form or another forever.  Sometimes it is a leave or die kind of deal.

If you want to blame everyone for their ancestors, no one is left innocent.  Maybe that rainforest group that they ruined just by exposing them to modern humanity, and a machete.

Everyone else is not innocent of whatever it is that is used to lament and bemoan and fabricate privilege.  A little current reality, a lot current fantasy.

The far left tell us that a society in which race and ethnicity are neither considered character virtues, nor sins, somehow doesn't work out.  And how dare you cook Mexican food if you aren't Mexican.  Or sell a Ferrari if you aren't Italian.  Something about hijacking cultures?  It is a different word buZzing about.  The privilege police would know.  

The entire Aztec nation was built on commandeering other tribes and their cultures.  It is where they got most of the cool engineering, and scientifically advanced aspects of their culture.  They were just thugs at the outset, like most.   If culture did not incorporate advances and practices developed by others, we would be more backward than we are.

The problem is that discrimination based on color and such had become very much the exception rather than the norm, and was trending toward even more nondiscriminatory.   People who profit from the abuse (Jesse, Al, et al) felt threatened.  The demagogues who keep in office by scaring groups, keeping them ignorant and in poverty, could not have been pleased.

So now they push segregation claiming pulling people out of a murderous, ignorant, destitute way of life is robbing them of their identity.  So, they convince them that their culture is that of the pimps, drug dealers, and violent criminals.  So, they dress like, talk like, act like gangstas. And they even have their own spelling.  This has nothing to do with an actual culture and is an insult but greed blinds people from seeing it.  The greed to be a victim and free of all bounds.  To a victim, any violence or larceny is just, self defense, survival, war.

If you want a just society, so be it.  But punishing or rewarding based upon condition of birth is as elitist and creepy as monarchy.

The Not So Intelligentsia, but just enough

Before delving into the meat of the current matter, I will mention that I hid from view my post explaining that I am so lame that I let an absurdly critical, self-proclaimed friend, remove any joy or freedom I find in writing.  I used to enjoy it.

I am trying to once again.   Like I am buying that it is an act of friendship to offer such unsolicited views, and then rudely argue them.  All to help me reach my full potential.  No. That is purely insane and bizarre.

But the real deal is that there are so many charismatic people who possess the ability to speak fluently in a way that makes anything, even nonsense,  at least sound valid and profound.  But they are just short of how intelligent they seem to believe themselves to be.

No use arguing it though.  People are so in love with their conclusions that even smart people run a line of distorted facts in their greed to sell their point. Their greed for your acquiescence.

Most of the smartass political rhetoric out there is flawed, skewed and one sided.  People sucker for the either-or choices pushed on them.  Granted, there can be made the argument that these positions and parties snowballed from what people want and gravitated into two basic warring factions.

I believe that argument would be a case of a little truth being used to sell a lie.  People are wanters.  No argument there.

Civic action, mutual protection and common interests of communities are part of how humans survive.  Then it gets taken over by con men and apparent demons of some kind.  Perhaps mutants or a curse from extra terrestrials.

We do not even blink at friggin' family power dynasties in our government.  Does that set off no red flags?  Probably not.  That is because people can only think so many steps back in the cause-and-effect chain.  Often those things are mislabeled.  Try arguing that point with the belligerent.  No thanks.

People are becoming unreasonably unhinged but still following the track laid out by the meme and talking point factories of their choice.  A guy actually said you are more likely to get hit by a republican drunk driver than killed by gang members or terrorists.   Really?  That was in a back and forth about sanctuary cities and not liking party crashers does not mean you hate all Mexicans.  Stuff that only needs explaining because people are so greedy for power.

The next best thing if you can't have real power, is real anger.  Someone or thing to hate.   Because of that greed, people will ignore the ridiculous rhetoric and behavior as long as it supports the ultimate point.  The conclusion that feels good, that frees them to behave as violently as they want, because it is self defense.  They are fighting for their rights.

Just ask them.  Really, you don't need to because they are rather vocal and self serving.   For some reason, in order to refute a contrary point of view, they need to make up dire statistics and stories, circumventing plain logic and truth.   Sometimes the conclusion can be supported reasonably.   Sometimes not.

Smart enough to fight for a cause and enjoy the freedom of victimhood and anger, but not quite smart enough to actually dissect the issue they support/oppose to be sure it is right.  Plus if it is a bandwagon opportunity, most people jump on.  Makes them feel like they can pretend to think without going to any real effort.  They don't even realize it half the time, is what I think.

That is why it is useless, and even dangerous to push the argument with them.

Recently I skimmed an article bemoaning criticisms of higher education by "conservatives".  It went on to the extreme type of ignoramus who would claim, "If it good 'nuff fer ma daddy then it good nuff fer me".  They cut you off.  The article tries to make you think any criticism of their insane policies, all out propaganda assault on students and community, narrow mindedness, and heavy handedness toward the innocent, means you hate knowledge, are republican, and resist all manner of essential elements vital to the very survival of our species.

Sounds like the Dade County public schools of my youth.  The students that get crushed or fall through the cracks in this system.  It is kind of cruel.  And it isn't what you see promoted.  What is promoted is only vote pandering.  Much is nonsense.

The perpetual victim status of all these divisions which have nothing to do with whether you are worth a damn as a human or not, is now ensured to continue indefinitely as we immerse ourselves in the hatred and contemplation of "privilege".   You cannot have the privilege of which we speak without someone being victimized.  Almost everyone has the opportunity to be a victim.  No need to state the obvious, especially because you get labeled as something you are not if you do.  Got to be a universal oppressor somewhere...

And it is true in some ways.  What people refuse to do is to stick to the truth in their stories and examples, even when truth is there.  That extra bit of exaggeration, the little omission.        
See?  Smart enough to catch a understand a bit, but not stalwart enough to stick to truth and try to look back several steps to see what was going on up to now; to double check their story.

We don't have much info indicating humans were ever at peace.  But I hold that we really don't know.  They keep finding older evidence of the species.

But the ones who actually consider themselves "the masses" (ugly term) can actually be convinced that the African continent was in peaceful bliss, that the Aztecs were at one with nature and a big love  fest of a nation before europeans hit the shore.

I am not saying I am a fan of Inquisition period Spain or any of that.  But that does not justify lying about the rest of the world.   That is what made the philosophy espoused in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in our Constitution so important and cutting edge.   And yet people still look for kings and queens and lords and masters; "Camelot", my ass.

Movie Review

I live miles from everywhere.  Up here they do not run cable.  You can get satellite.  So internet connection methods are limited.  Anyway, I am among the unwashed who still use Redbox and watch DVDs on my laptop.

Which is why I rented this incredibly odd movie, "Viking Legacy".  The stole Seinfeld's "show about nothing" idea.  Maybe they took it too far.

The movie is about some scrolls and world peace and sex in the woods, but not really.  Wow, I just realized they should quote me there.  It makes the movie sound far more coherent and interesting than it is.   So many things made no sense.  Like why didn't the bad guys just shoot them with arrows through the thin wall of fire?  No need to elaborate on that.'

The acting did improve as we went along.  People on screen appeared genuinely relieved when their characters got knifed in the heart and what-have-you, welcoming death with unnatural zeal, if you ask me.

There you have it.  So bad, and weirdly paced that  I am almost tempted to recommend it.  Like as a time filler if you're laid up and bored but too doped up to care about plot and such.  

Do you think they teach people how to act that badly?  I almost want to give kudos because the actors are so good at proving they can't act, but they're chic in a Tiny Tim sort of way.

These are Vikings in the old days.  Hanging out somewhere in the land of Christians.  Nuns killing people right and left.  Seriously, bad ass nun.

I realize a murderous nun is no shock to many of those who grew up Catholic and attended parochial school.   She's not a Viking, of course.  She's even meaner.  They baptized one Norseman, our low key hero.

He switched from his gods to hers (the heroine not nun) because he was in heat and on her turf.  That part was true to life.

Really, no offense, but isn't converting to a religion to please a spouse sort of nonsense?   You are doing it for one general reason,. And it has nothing to do with suddenly finding God, it's because that's the surest way to round the bases and come sliding in at home.  

I'm not saying I wouldn't convert under proper motivation.  Even though I really dislike a lot of religions; a bigot and a phobe.  I won't argue it one way or another beyond that, just saying yea I'm phobic.

I went off topic.  This movie is perfect if you need noise going on while you doze off.

They used the word Viking to attract viewers, I guess.  No boats, just some wandering around stabbing and uttering dialog written by someone not privy to the movie's plot.

All the good guys get killed anyway.  Conversion did not help that.  But the nun and the chick whose character may have been central to this riveting story (not sure) ride off on some mission to "the Council" shouting "girl power" or some equivalent, so it seems.  yay

Now This is More Like It

Maybe video will appear, plenty of people were recording us with their phones at the American Legion event.  We were outdoors under a nice big oak on a plywood stage.  Perfect for my cowboy boot flamenco routine.

The whole thing was a pleasant surprise.  Chris has become better and better.  Emily, too.  And I was motivated to ignore my depressing inner dialog mantras for awhile and just see what I could do with the sounds I could add to the mix.

Those who knew me will think of me as a damned harmonica player when I kick.  I only do it because I would fall off the edge if I didn't.  I'd rather be a cutting edge engineer or physicist.  Or some such thing.  A little late.

I have no idea how this works;  Chris and Em are the least experienced of people that I have regularly backed, been part of the band.  Yet, they seem to be the best paying, and in many ways, the most beloved by audiences.   There is an automatic kind of kinship they seem to have with people.

This cool afternoon and evening with the enthusiastic crowd and just the freewheeling nature of this group, I felt like turning out something to help the event hold attention.

But they are heading out in a day.  I think their Texas day jobs are working out well.  They both work for a large contractor.  I think he is doing more hands on superintendent sort of stuff, but not a ton of hours, and she's full time in estimating.  They are still hounding me to move and still scheming feasible plans.

They needn't push.  I plan to visit before the first of the year.  Hopefully I will remain here Christmas.  If I travel I hope for October.  I'll see what's what.  I have some schemes worked out.

Lately I have had more work, mostly fixing the damage and chaos created and left at the place by our esteemed guests.  The resort home at, in, and around which I do various things, but to say I am a handiman or housekeeper or window washer would all be false, and true.   If things remain as is for awhile, I can save enough to replace this car with another Forester of more recent year, and fewer miles.  I narrowly missed one that was really nice and a price I could have paid, but felt it.  Still, way less than I paid the first time.  But that one was nearly new, like this one was.  Now, 272,000 + miles.

I'd probably keep this car as the work car, with tools and mess.  The other would be the road car.  Then one of those lightweight camper trailers which include some comfort but not some other things. I could actually probably hack it.  I am actually keeping an eye out for both the vehicle and the camper.    It fits in to one interesting possibility in Tx.

Then again, I just don't know.  I guess a good idea would be to visit, and see.   Maybe see if I can cope with the heat or not.  I was raised in heat.  Miami.  Geez, they even named the basketball team heat.  What's that tell you?  (that's rhetorical, you needn't respond)

So, I expected the drunk part to screw it all up.  Could have gone either way, but being outside, it worked out.  Also a large contingent of not drunk people were outside.  They liked the music, and they liked avoiding being confined in a building with the perpetually drunk.

The fact that I used to be a drunk person doesn't prevent me from acknowledging the totally obnoxious and annoying nature of most drunks.  There is the variety which is like insistent insanity.  No win.  Win meaning peace. Unmolested personal peace.

I recognized the majority of the non drunk people.  And some on the edge of alcohol doing a real number on them.

So, I have gone to nearly mixing it up with a worthless baby boomer, about my age, one night, to inspired playing with almost millennials and a crowd that could be rowdy without the sort of rude nonsense I witnessed at the Belly up.  Places that run the way that place does rake it in, but they really offer no real customer service, just alcohol and some token food. Maybe good burgers.  Who knows.  No way I wanted to navigate that zoo.

All those people packed standing in the open place in front of the stage.  It is a large area.  The majority of people were packed in that area. All standing.  And pushing against the sitdown people around the edge.  In some universes the fire code would not allow this sort of bulk people packing,    If there had been any sort of fire or panic causing event, requiring evacuation, some people would get hurt.  No doubt.  Creepy baby boomers, I hope.

Never Again

I like Los Lonely Boys, so I went to see them at a local venue that for some reason books a lot of great bands for a night as they travel wherever.  Belly Up Tavern.

Band yes.  That venue, no.  A big mix on age.  The most obnoxious contingent, of course, being drunk baby boomers.  The place is really an insult.

They pack people in, mostly standing and being obnoxious in what would be a dance floor area.  Tall people to the front.  Embarrassing.  

I used to drink, and I guess I forgot about places like that.  They bring in good bands, and have a drunk sort of crowd.  That is life to many.  I almost got in a fight with a guy.  And I was thinking psychotic.  If he had gone for the assault he promised, I had decided how to best disable him, maybe bust ear drums or put out eyes.  I settled for saying keep off of me and f*** off.  He said something else and I said F*** you f***ing moron.  He was a bully.  I know the kind, taller than most, and just big enough to intimidate the uninformed.  But they only push it where resistance is low.  Cowards and creeps.  Baby boomers.  The creepiest generation.  And I had to be born in it.

So the guy eventually disappeared, reappeared, then vanished.  The setup of the venue is one that you can only take advantage of if you know the score.  Wait in line for the doors to open, hoping to get a seat at one of the side semi bleacher sort of seats with bench table.  But chances are the people who bought separate tickets for the happy hour, hours earlier, also had show tickets and scooped up all the tables.  The rest are just serving as shills to bolster the pride in idiocy that characterizes a lot of pop culture, and maybe all culture.

Interestingly the people around us in line were really nice, entertaining people.  They knew more what they were in for and how they liked to approach it.   Really it was a series of unfortunate events that made the event disaster for me.  Not so much for my friend M, but to some extent, that may say it all.  That is good if she had a fine time.  It was mostly payback for helping me do some work at home.

I should be grateful, a year or two ago, I could not have risked being stuck somewhere where I might be triggered for one of the pruritus episodes.  So that part is better.  Been trying to get more exercise.  Work is good for that.   I need to take advantage of the sneaky slippers program offered in my insurance.  Go to the gym on the insurance company because you are a feisty senior.  

I have always hated the age terms.  Even in my 30's I wanted to barf listening to TV news blathering about, "Well, the rain didn't dampen the spirits of these feisty seniors, as they make their way to Montana's Beartooth Pass on skateboards!  Yaz, (name of co-anchor or weather person), it just goes to show age is but a number"

Then co-anchor responds, laughingly, " well, I hope I can just walk when I'm that age.  Already, I'm feeling the aches in my bones, trying to get out of bed in the morning.  My hat's off to these sexy seniors."  Hahaha.  Fun is had by all.  Seriously, I do not have the blueprint of the best alternative, but this cannot be the best way for civilization to evolve.  It just doesn't feel right.

But that is probably the definition of how a depressive or other mental case feels.   But is it a trick because we've evolved from co-anchor banter and good idiotic humor, to panels of self proclaimed experts, mostly spouting the same hysteria and drivel, while screaming over one another, especially the designated devil's advocate or caricature of the opposition.

It is strange how all of it so reminds me of the Dade County public schools, that I attended as a confused and dying youth.   It has not changed.  Schools are the biggest bullies since out of control police.  Maybe worse.  In the name of protecting and preventing bullying, they invariably throw the less malleable, yet not malicious, inmates into the collateral damage gutter and go on.   Not born with extra points for their condition of birth.  And not born with money.  But not destitute enough for the state to take over.  Which does have its advantages.

I have very little to say that would be favorable, even though the actual academics were mostly high quality.  The treatment and pretense was peculiar, and Miami kids had a very large percentage of thugs and jerks.  I wonder of many of the failed on purpose so they'd be bigger than their classmates, facilitating their desire to fight but not get hit.  They could extort lunch money, destroy property of others for no reason, force others to give test answers, etc.

I now go to another drunk venue, the American Legion in Alpine.  The plus side is that we will be outside, it is with Valor and Lace.  Chris and Emily.  Resonator/dobro man is in TX and could not make it back this weekend.  So Chris and Em and Richard all live close in TX now, them permanently, Richard temporarily for close to a year.   So it is outside, haven't seen them for while, and all that.  The sad side is the degree of alcoholism there and the sometimes obnoxious character that assumes.  After last night I guess I will be subdued.  Plus I am playing with a Marine scout sniper.  No one will step too far out of line.