if you had the luck of the Irish, you'd be sorry and wish you were dead

Happy St. Pat's. I celebrate my heritage of rampant-if (mostly) functional-alcoholism and at the same time celebrate the other half of my heritage...alcoholics who also happened to be rich WASPs. god bless the melting pot!!

I happened upon the St. Patrick's Day parade on the parkway on Sunday...who even knew?edward and I left west philly for center city, she bought bourbon, and we started to notice people drunk at far too early an hour & clad in strange irish kitsch garb...then we found the parade and it made sense(?). Most importantly, I got my picture taken with Danny Bonaduce!He was wearing an absurd green velvet blazer and let me tell you, the years have not been kind. I was like "Danny!Breaking Bonaduce was the best!Can I get a picture?" and we embraced. We met up with Caleb, Felix, and Felix's strange friends from SUNY Purchase and Caleb bought me a Private Stock forty(ha...private stock?private stock?one from the archives!)because it was green and it was brought home to me that drinking in the afternoon is just Wrong...in the end we misplaced Felix and his friends(sadly), Caleb got on the bus, and Edward and I stumbled around Chinatown, finally sitting in that strange overpriced bar/chinese restaurant on 11th st a block north of the Wawa. We sat at the bar and drank water and I talked to the other bar patron about Watchmen. I said it was getting bad reviews and was a box office bust and he got very defensive and ran off to find a Philadelphia Weekly because they gave it a good review and I guess that proves something?anyway, what the fuck, he was like...a construction worker or something. then I went home and had a very entertaining drunken phone conversation with my uncle the end.

On Saturday I slept for an absurd amount of time, like 17 hours. I woke up at 8:30 and decided the only thing to do was to go out so I could pretend I was an actual living human being, so I showered and had a glass(two?bah) of wine and Tagz picked me up with Caleb and Caroline. I like Caroline because she is smart and funny. we went downtown, Caroline and I peed in Qdoba at 17th and walnut and we picked up Edward, who was hanging around in drifter-like fashion at the Barnes & Noble on Rittenhouse. Then we were like "hmmm what to do?" and nobody knew, so that was sad and we all felt inept and broken. Caleb called ryan and we made for west philly. we stopped to buy beer then went to a party at like 46th and locust. there were signs on the door proclaiming this place "chernobyl house" so right away, booo. chernobyl, really?survey says odious. sorry I don't know these people, they probably aren't odious, but snap judgments are snap judgments. as soon as I walked up the steps I saw Dylan and he kissed me on the cheek and I threw up a little in my mouth(just kidding!). There were like 97 people on the porch and right away some girl came out fruitlessly yelling at everyone to be quiet and for non-cigarette smokers to go inside. Everyone ignored her(if you don't want the cops to come maybe you should let people smoke in your fucking house?a thought) and then some neighbor lady that looked like Lynne Abraham came and yelled at everyone to be quiet and show some respect. I was like "yes ma'am" but her efforts, too, were fruitless. I went inside, some band was playing and I danced spastically to them for a spell then went back to the porch. There was an old Australian man on the porch and, I mean...it was incongruous, so I asked him what his deal was and did he always hang around with young kids?I wasn't even trying to be rude but he got VERY ANGRY!! and Edward had to distract him with polite conversation. He said he was a student of philosophy and she asked him what philosophers he liked and he said himself, that he had his own philosophy.

The cops did come, and I reflexively started to hide my beer but one of the cops saw me and he was like it's cool, finish your beer, but then fuckin' leave already ok?I babbled something to the officers about how I supported them and they did tough work-the people's work!-and john pawlowski NEVER FORGET and edward and I walked with Beaver to his house. we got cigarettes and 40's and went into beaver's house, where refugees from the other party gradually congregated. I smoked pot and talked nonsense and fell down and made the case to Caroline and some 15 year old that the Democratic Party DOES matter. They were saying "eh nothing changes Republicrats all is rot" but I won the argument by playing the cancer card-"my aunt just got diagnosed with bone cancer and she doesn't have health insurance because her husband lost his job 8 months ago and she couldn't afford the COBRA payments to extend coverage...but now under barry hussein the govt will pay 65% of your COBRA costs and people like my aunt won't be faced with bankruptcy because they were dumb enough to get fucking cancer, so argue with THAT, huh?" so i won! i was so hungry and I went to sleep thinking about the food I would eat in the future. I woke up and I felt like death and we went to the trolley and then I met Danny Bonaduce but you heard that story already.

The rest of spring break(last week) was pretty much a bust as well...spent a couple of nights roaming the city with various people and talking to insane strangers in sad bars, hung out with l-boog, slept a lot, etc. I hoped to go to New York but that didn't pan out which is why the whole misadventure of a weekend described above happened the way it did.

School is going well and thank God, because it makes my life pseudo-respectable, pleases my benefactors, and ensures that I get up and exist in the world every day. t for temple u!next step...flee this unholy pit that's politely referred to as jenkintown...live in the city for awhile and eventually flee Philadelphia altogether, at least temporarily, 'cause there's just the pavement left and vanished years. i want to go to law school and i really should do that elsewhere. get a new life, get a new wife &c. oh but today was beautiful and it is spring!love/hate relationship with philadelphia which i think is pretty common.

the end folks!all in a dream
  • Current Music
    the sunshine bores the daylights out of me

why would we want to come back at all?

ok this song has been going through my head relentlessly all week...seriously, if I am think I'm alone I am likely singing it..so I am posting the lyrics. thanks!

For the life we chose in the evening we rose
Just long enough to be lovers again
And for nothing more, the world was too sore
To live in

Sad old ships
A morning eclipse
I spent my whole life guessing
Then I turned from the sun
And saw everyone
Searching

The hoot owl and his song, will bring you along
Where else on earth would you wanna go?
We can leave all this hate, before it's too late
Why would we wanna come back at all?

Cobwebs on my pillow
I'm found in the willow
I'd spend my whole life sleeping
To be called by noon
Is to be called too soon
Today

The storm is passed
There is peace at last
I'll spend my whole life sleeping
Now there's not a sound
No one to be found
Anywhere

The shepherd and his sheep
Will wind you to sleep
Where else on earth would you wanna go?
To a land of wonder
When you go under
Why would we want to come back at all?

recession wine

hey here is a fun article about how my family's company created the subprime crisis! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/…

Household International, which is my great grandfather's company and the reason i get to go to college and not have a job, was basically evil...they gave loans to "less qualified" applicants and harassed them if they didn't pay back in time(like the mafia). they were the original subprime lender and this made them the largest American finance company. but oh no!about 8 years ago Household got taken to court on predatory lending charges and avoided trial by reaching settlement and paying out 500 million bucks...their reputation was damaged!luckily, banking giant HSBC stepped in to buy them in 2003...thereby lending legitimacy to the practice of subprime lending and triggering an explosion of subprime lending throughout the marketplace...which has now crippled the global economy!

this week hsbc announced that it is closing the Household division as its heavy losses are weighing on the whole bank...thank God HSBC was dumb enough to buy it in the firstplace because otherwise household would have gone bankrupt and I would be screwed. the whole thing is so disgraceful

the moral of this story is that there is no moral

highlight of past week?drunken singalong with jason jonik and adam winokur(HA) last saturday at lauren's...MEN OF INSIGHT, MEN IN GRANITE

twilight on the frozen lake, a north wind about to break

i'm on my way out the door, but everyone needs to know that the federal tax on cigarettes is going to be raised by two dollars as of april 1st. it's even worse for rolling tobacco(which I hate anyway)...the tax on rolling tobacco is going from $1 per pound to $25 per pound, so the small packs will cost $2.50 more and the big tins will be $20 more. the money is going to children's health care so that's cool, but stock up now.

peace & blessings
  • Current Mood
    see you after awhile

with your sheetmetal memories of cannery row

went with [name redacted] last night to open mic night at infusion, ian organizes it...morgan was there for like 90 seconds so it was nice to see her. dhani showed up. he has two goats now, for pets. ritual sacrifice in the offing?who knows!all the performers were funny gray haired mt airy hippies except for this one teenager who was terrible. he was performing solo and he kept trying to play lead lines when he should have just been strumming and i just felt bad. the best musician was this woman who played blues songs and did scat singing...i told lauren as soon as i saw her that i knew i knew her from someplace and finally i realized that she was my anthropology professor for a week and a half last fall before i dropped the class because she was deathly boring. other than that the highlights were the stand up comic who just gets points for being a stand up comic, and this insane old man who gets up and gives long rambling monologues about traffic incidents. apparently at the last open mic night his story was about how he caused an accident and a massive traffic jam on the interstate because he was masturbating behind the wheel late at night, but last night it was just about driving on the interstate late at night in the snow and seeing some deathly ravine or something, and then going back the next day and finding the ravine was gone?spooky!

anyway, the real fun happened after open mic night. we went to get a drink at the new frou-frou brewery/eco friendy pizzaplace on germantown ave and...who knew?after party!the stand up comic was there as was my erstwhile professor and also dan cunitz!heather of crefeld fame as well. dan was the first person we saw, perched at the bar...lauren was like yeaaah i saw him here last week. i talked to him for awhile because dan is good people...i had him close to dishing some crefeld administrative dirt from back in THE DAY but dan is discreet. no matter, his eyes conveyed all the info i needed. then i moved to my professor's table and she was fun!she was slurring her words but only a little. she told me i took the wrong class and that if i were to take one of her classes in the future, it should be the anthropology of food. then she started talking about bagels. anyway, i liked her. her date(?) bummed a cigarette from me and was very pleased that it was a camel. also talked to the stand up comic, i think he was fancifully trying to flirt with lauren...he was just as funny in person!! and it turns out he went to radnor, but he was just barely too young to have known anybody from my family. anyway, it was an interesting enough night and the highlight of my week as I have had a nasty cold in combination with a bunch of work...i'm dead tired at this point. might go with lauren to see r. pfeffer's new apt tomorrow and frolic in the sun in west philly but that is unconfrimed.

my uncle is still here. he has not had the easiest return to philadelphia, the bosom of his family, so i am like his best friend which works out well because the man knows how to have a rollicking 3 hour phone conversation. he is a character on too grand a scale to even attempt to describe on livejournal, but suffice it to say i'm very fond of him...and if you are ever on the hill in the late afternoon/early evening, he is the one sitting outside the coffee company smoking cigarettes and talking to his unleashed dog in spanish, so you ahould say hello. or hola, if you are talking to the dog. SHE DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH
  • Current Music
    beg steal or borrow two nickels or a dime, & call me on the phone

if someone offers me a joke,i just say nothanks.i try totell it like it is,and keep away from pranks

the dawning of a new day in america is taking some time to digest. on hillary...i trust the president-elect's judgment, and i trust he will make the right decision. now then, it is the responsibility of our generation to take these new possibilities to heart and change our view of the world, cleanse ourselves of cynicism, and commit to doing the best that we can in our lives to make the world a better place. do it people!

high on hope,
eamon

don't the sunrise look so pretty, never such a sight

so i'm doing really well this semester. straight a's at the moment. i had a test at 10 the morning after the phillies won the world series...needless to say i was drinking heavily and raising a ruckus on broad street(ran into RACHEL, two kids from temple plus karl, al, gregg, and ZACDEMUNDO) then hanging out/drinking with my cousin till 6:30 at which point i walked from 10th and federal to market east(the city looked like a tornado had been through it) but i got on the train and promptly fell asleep only to awaken in, of all places, fucking lansdale. never needed to spend any more time at that train station but train home came fairly quickly and i made it to take the test with a splitting headache. i was deeply hungover and i was like shit i am totally failing this test right now but it turns out i got an 82!temple is easy yay.

today i had to have a gum graft which was heinous, and they didn't even give me any codeine. oh well. but my mouth is killing me. then i had an appointment with my fantastic gray bearded black man therapist. cognitive therapy, know about it

still infected with HOPE. latest word is hillary for secretary of state and while no one said more profanely horrible things about her during the primary than i, i actually like the idea and hope he picks her. would be a big, bold pick, plus-lincolnesque!team of rivals!

been following the stock market, rooting for my inheritance, and it is insane.

trying to move soon

barack is my copilot, the end
  • Current Mood
    feets don't fail me now

when we breathe, we hope

little to say except that when the phillies win the world series and barack obama is elected president over the course of a week...well that is change i can believe in. i am proud to be an american, and we are all in this together.

so happy just to be alive, underneath this sky of blue
on this new morning with you


there was a band playing in my head, and i felt like getting high

i got a's on my first two midterms, i CAN go to school, ha. when you actually go to class it's kinda fun. so, i plan to continue to do that.

i just woke up really early randomly, i don't have class till 10. so i smoked a joint put on some music and thought about the fact that in the next two weeks the phillies are going to win the world series and barack obama is going to be elected president of the united states

phils winning the world series would fulfill a lifelong dream for me

and i've been in love with barack obama for four years, really believe he could be a truly great and transformational president. also, he has blood on the tracks on his ipod. and DYLAN endorsed him, dylan hates politicians. so anyway, you all know how i will feel when we make bam the man our president.

and it is over, mccain is done. obama has run the best presidential campaign of my lifetime, which due to his race, he basically had to. he has done everything right. david axelrod is some kind of mad genius and obama has superhuman poise. mccain has run a shoddy campaign and the most important decision made, the selection of sarah palin, has been an unmitigated disaster. also he's very old and kind of crazy and everyone knows it, he will lose, the end. that's my briefest of summaries, i am completely obsessed with the election. we will see what happens but it is very exciting

you money changing racket boys sure enough got to fall

wall st is in a state of panic, major banks are failing left and right, it's the craziest time in the american economy since maybe the thirties. the bloom is off the sarah palin rose. mark my words, obama will be back ahead in the polls come the end of this week. if you want to make some money off this election go to intrade right now and buy some shares in obama, he's trading in the mid 40's. buy low sell high!when he wins you'll have doubled your money.

i got a haircut today. and had dinner with my grandmother, the wealthy one i've had a stormy relationship with. it was surprisingly pleasant.

the presence of my uncle-the one who had been living in chile that some of you may have heard me tal about at some point-has been fantastic. someday i will write a novel and you'll understand.

i saw him and my dad get in a fight today cause my dad was acting like an asshole, it was great.

eagles game was heartbreaking. what a pathetic fucking fourth quarter

i saw jenny burd at temple today and that was really weird. she still has no social skills in case you were wondering

also this weekend i helped sort caleb's flipflops that he bought in brazil like three years ago. um yeah

seriously though the shit going on on wall st is very troublesome. but things could get really bad for a lot of people and i don't want to see that happen. especially as my mother is unemployed and jobs are about to be even harder to come by. all because a bunch of investment bankers weren't satisfied with mere obscene wealth-no, they had to acquire grotesquely obscene wealth and damn the consequences. hopefully the employees of lehman bros took a moment to reflect on that as they cleaned out their desks this morning. the urgency of obama's election has never been more profound. take to the streets people