PROPHESY: The Story, The Memory

As I read the article, I realized it wasn't as much embarassing slander as it was an olive branch. After all, I'd only heard from her once in the past decade, when my son died. This wasn't an expose about what a jerk I was by any means. She had wrtten about times we had camped out together with friends, drinking around a fire until the wee hours of the morning. There were words about the times I had lied to her, and about the times when I was most honest. I saw pictures of me waking up in my sleeping bag and being handed a beer, pictures of her underwater in a blue dress, and a brief sub-article about a snowboard company that had made an east-coast and west-coast version of the same board in honor of this article. Regardless of all of the craziness it will inevitably cost, I honored, flattered, and looking forward to the ensuing conversation.

The picture of me in the sleeping bag sparked a memory, as if it had turned into a video right there on the page, with some guy telling me "Schleicher! Schleicher! You gotta get up, bud!" He was smiling as he gently handed me my red solo cup. A fire team was hiking by on their way back from a training exercize, and a quiet fog nestled the New England wildnerness where we were camping out. I remember smiling, content, and the chill wasn't too bad at all.

It was a good day, years ago.

THOUGHTS: A Review, and the Realisation of the Radio

Bart and I watched the second film in the Family Guy Star Wars mockery series, "Something Something Something Dark Side". I was expecting some good jokes, but holy crap.... I was blindsided by vulgar adult humor that I really wasn't expecting yet wasn't put off by either. Yes, I'm sure it could have been offensive to many people, but I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. So, Seth MacFarlane, if you're a reader, kudos to you.

If you're a reader of this blog, you know I've been doing a radio show. Tonight, I finally figured out that this radio is the soundtrack to the curious wanderer, the person that I used to be, that many of you possibly still are. This is music in your headphones while you're riding at Loveland or Whistler or Winter Park. This is what's pouring out of your boom box when you take out after Brown's Canyon or Ruby Horsethief, what's coming out of the radio at your cabin up in Helm Bay, or out of your laptop speakers while you GoogleMap your next roadtrip.

This music is me, it's you, it's part of a story. Just don't be afraid to write it.

CHRONICLES: A Quick Note

For the second time in as many weeks, I've succumbed to this damn flu-like cold. I haven't been sick with a stomach bug, but I've had a fever and a headcold to beat the band. Thursday night, my fever was so high that my upper lip split open. I went to work yesterday anyway, but left after lunch time, my tired, sweaty, frozen body just aching for some rest.

All of this was greatly compounded by a botched install job over in Klawock. We ran out of materials and were rushed to get out of there much earlier than I was planning. So I ordered us to cut corners and get the job done in a manner that I am all but ashamed of. Still, it looks like I will have the opportunity to make things right. It will just cost me a trip to Prince of Wales. I hope to take advantage and do it on a long weekend on the ferry.

Thank goodness that the brunt of this flu is attacking my head and chest and not my guts. I don't think I could handle that at this point.

With any luck, I'll shake this, and all will be right with the immediate world. Here's hoping that's sooner than later.

THOUGHTS/CHRONICLES: A Message of Love Hidden in Vomit

Last night, after the radio broadcast, we picked Malcolm up from the Tuckers. He hasn't been feeling 100% for a little while now, and he pomptly passed out in the car on the way home. After an 8 mile drive, we pulled into the driveway, when suddenly, he woke up, coughed, and hurled. I stopped the car, got him out of his carseat, and just held him close to me. He wasn't done puking. After a few more heaves, he and I were both covered in a white mess, spotted with chunks of beef stroganoff. Now, you need to understand that, normally, puke makes me puke. It's disgusting. I can't even clean up dog poop without making that "throwing up noise" we're all familiar with. The smell alone is enough o drive me away. However, for some reason, there was magic here.

Disgusting, I know.  Stay with me here.

With my free, bare hand, and without hesitation, I carefully wiped the vomit from my son's face. I talked to him softly, chuckled at the ridiculousness of the situation. I gently walked inside, straight to the bathroom. We sat on the toilet, covered in the icky. I talked to him softly as I slowly turned on the bath. Then i threw all of his clothes and the two shirts of mine that were wrecked into the sink and gave my son a bath.

I guess the unlikely moral of this story is this: last night, maybe I didn't "discover" what unconditional love really is, but it definitely reinforced my idea of the things I unknowlingly am capable of overcomming in regards to the little guy in my life.

Amazing.

RADIO: Special Thanks to thesirenssound.com

Tonight, Bart and I have a mess of new and obscure music made possible in part by the good people at www.TheSirensSound.com. It's a great forum for post-rock and the like. Check it out and listen to the great bands they're presenting. Everyone will appreciate you, including your karma...

I opened the night with Ulrich Schnauss and "Goodbye", followed by "A Time To Be So Small" by Interpol, and closed out my set with a long song by Red Sparowes called "Mechanical Sounds Cascaded Through the City Walls and Everyone Revelled in Their Ignorance". No joke. Best title for a song ever.

Bart's first set features some awesome songs, too.  His opening song, "Snow and Light" is by Explosions in the Sky, a band some have called THE post-rock band. Their soundtrack to the football movie "Friday Night Lights" is arguably what made that movie so emotionally pulling. He followed this with a new release from The American Dollar called "Heavy Eyes Ignite". Their new album, "Awake In The City" just came out last month, and we're happy that KRBD is one of the first stations in the US to feature this band. Follow this with "Islands" by The Xx, a band with one of the sexiest female vocals I've ever heard, then "No Strands" by Ratatat, "Cherry Tree" by The National, and he closed out his set with "Like Knives" by City And Colour, a band who's singer has a wonderful, icy voice.

I opened up my second set with "Monuments And Melodies" by Incubus, a special track recorded at Red Rocks Amphitheatre just outside of Denver, Colorado. I followed this up with "He Says He Had He Sun" by Haida and "Weather To Fly" by English alt-rock studs "Elbow". "Friend of the Night" by Mogwai came next, a song from their 2006 album "Mr. Beast", which Allmusic has said was "possibly the most accisble yet sophisticated album Mogwai (have) released." This shot was chased by another track by The National called "England", which closed the set.

Bart's second set was another awesome round of Bartholomew D. Opening with the awesome energy of Lykke Li, we played "I Follow River", followed by Ratatat's groovy "El Pico", a song that it's impossible not to bob your head to. Rounding it out, he played "Hot Like Fire" by The Xx, another new track called "As We Float" by The American Dollar, and "Welcome Ghosts" by Explosions In The Sky.

Our finale was a song called "The Fall" by a band called From Oceans to Autumn. The album is an EP simply called "The Flood/The Fall EP", named after the two tracks on it. This is a very good, heavy sampling of instrumental post-rock. If Caspian were PG and Cloudkicker were R, this would be PG-13... a nice blending of heavy guitar, a faster pace, and a synthetic orchestral overtone. It was an excellent way to close out yet another episode of The BattleWagon Chronicles, hosted so graciously by member-supported KRBD Ketchikan, community radio. If you love this music, or even if you read this blog and don't like the music, call the station at (907) 225-9655 and throw a couple bucks this way. It makes all the difference.

CHRONICLES: "Cars", Food, and Chores

Lyss left town Thursday to go to a raver's reunion back in Denver. That's left Bart and Malcolm and me to fend for ourselves, and while it's probably a horrid thing to say, I've gotten a tremendous amount of stuff done since she's been gone. We ran to the dump this morning, as well as stopped off at the shop to email off some sticker designs to Denver. Then Bart left and went to do stage-work for First City Players, and I stayed home, did dishes, cleaned the front hall, took Mlcolm outside to check out a boat, and caught up with my friend Ryan. The plan for the evening is to get some grub, pick up a grll, maybe do some burgers and what not, and just enjoy a nice Alaskan evening. We got an invite to go to the Monthly Grind out in Saxman. That's a local variety show of sorts, and tonight's is hosted by our friends Jenn and Claire. Claire stopped by on her way in, looking a '60's-era fabulous. However, Bart and I have been looking forward to some down time. Malcolm took a short nap in the car earlier, so we're hopin he passes out early.

We supplimented our movie collection with the first "Cars" movie, a very refreshing change of animated pace. I got a little sick of the second one.

Phew.

All of this stuff going on, and I still feel very empowered knowing that I'm doing a pretty good job being a single dad for a week. In some ways, it's even a little easier than negotiating the typical marriage lines. Of course, in other ways, it's substancially more difficult.

But, we humans keep plugging away, yes?

CHRONICLES: Molars Ain't Molars Until They're Strep...

So Malcolm's alleged "molar" issues aren't those at all. After anoth night full of fits and bad sleeping for everyone (Lyss on the recliner with the boy, me on the couch at the ready), we took him to daycare. Jenn said he had an epic nap, sleeping from 9:30 to 1:30 this afternoon. Cat had said that this wasn't a nap as much as it was a temporary coma. When I picked him up after work, I noticed a rash. When I got home, Lyss insisted that we call the sawbones. After a detailed conversation of me answering yes/no questions, the conclusion was drawn that we take him to the emergency room. After a relatively short time with an awesome, knowledgable doctor with a tie-dye t-shirt and a very cool nurse with SpiderMan stickers, the diagnosis wasn't molars or an ear infection... it was Strep Throat! Apparently, his tonsils are swollen and white, and the rash and fever he's been devoping are side effects of his immune system cleaning house. Poor guy.

The positive note is that I'll get to spend my afternoon with him tomorrow, and I will probably get to watch twenty one hours of geeky movies (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings). Plus, the bittersweet side effect is the fact that the triedand tested theory of daddy being joy and mommy being comfort is starting to evolve... the comfort of daddy is becomming somewhat more prevalent (much to mommy's shagrin).

With a kid, every day is an adventure. My friend Ryan once told me that the Hebrews believe that a man isn't really a man until he's fathered a kid. Any male can do that, but I'm finding that really being involved with the process is as much a testament to that statement as pregnancy is to a degree. Women are typically cited with the brunt of the burdon, but this boy has taught me how much a dad can mean to a kid, and how much a man can grow as a result.