12.01.10

This morning is going to be the most gorgeous morning ever. It will have the perfect balance between balmy and chilly--it is Winter, remember?--and there won't be any snow or crap like that. In the afternoon, however, the sky will turn black as a cumulonimbus cloud full of wind and snow will unleash a bad spell of Winter Hurt on us. I know this because I have to go outside and crawl all around the city in the afternoon.

Today's Horoscope: Working at home can either be a meditative practice in self-abnegation, or a Homer Simpson in his mumu kinda day. I think this accurately describes the first and second half of my day respectively.

I spent one of my breaks at the guitar, and the clenching pressure I put on the pick left me unable to give myself a proper thumbs up, such was the pain. It's still a little sore. I don't know why I ever use those things. I should just grow out my fingernails like some kind of creepy man with long fingernails.

11.30.10

Today might be heavy with rain. Moisture will coat the earth like a blanket of mirrors. The sheen of the frost will scream up to the heavens. Just like a rerun.

Today's Horoscope: The impulse to gun it 90 down the highway in the middle of a torrential rainstorm stems from that same sociopath's instinct to cut in line at McDonald's.

I feel a great pang of sympathy for the countless and brave men and women who work in Pediatrics. This day was an important day for me because I better understood two things I neither like nor truly understand: Pediatric-workplace-culture, and lo-fi indie-disco. The life of a pediatric doctor, nurse, orderly, janitor, bureaucrat is not an enviable one, but my perspective might be skewed since I fucking hate kids. Furthermore, in contrivance to the latter; this is not a trashy hipster blog, and I refuse to devote space to slamming music that I don't like, that's been done, is being done, and will be done well until the internet collapses along with the rest of industrial society.

11.29.10

Today is going to hover around 40 in the greater Chicago area with a better than slight chance of rain in the later afternoon.

Today's Horoscope: Bad tidings for the Moon People according to a recent Neptunian loop. Maybe another great NASA inflicted rape and pillage of the noble people of the Moon.

Going through Before Today by Ariel Pink. I don't get it. Is this supposed to be some kind of fucking joke?

LUNCH EDIT: Although I did not like Before Today I do not think it warranted itself any criticism. In truth, I started to warm up to it near the end, and although I don't jive with those lo-fi disco sounds I can't hate on artists and audiences who do. My bad.

11.28.10

We are very very lucky. Try and enjoy this weather today with a sombre gravity, for that is the only appropriate way to take in this pristine weather with a grade of measured humility. That wordy sentence sho' was wordy!

Today's Horoscope: Think of a number between one and ten. You have cancer.

Album of the Week: This was a difficult week, I cycled through a lot of my old favorites. In lieu of their recent, ass-kicking new album, I am giving this week to Deerhunter's EP, Rainwater Cassette Exchange. This EP is a pleasure and a gas. Five or six tracks of good old timey music. I remember listening to Circulation while at work at the Library, bad circulation, I worked in circulation, get it?

Birds were flipping their shit this morning in Rogers Park. I had a good breakfast. Big ups to Justine and Matt for helping me bring that god damn fucking lazy boy chair to its final resting place. It will never leave the basement.

11.27.10

Today will be a logical continuation of this frigid descent into Frigid Hell.

Today's Horoscope: Frigid Hell is where all the ice-trolls and abominable snowmen congregate to discuss how much fun it is to not be able to feel your fucking fingers.

There are days when I feel popped and sagging, all deflated. Today was definitely one of those days. It's not a bad thing, not always in any case, and especially not today. All the melatonin in the turkey and all the apathy in the world made me just want to go out and buy something stupid. (I didn't)

11.26.10

Since it is Black Friday the sky will be black and hell will rain down upon the world.

Today's Horoscope: One popular theory about the moon is that our Earth was hit by a very large, renegade object and was thus split asunder. This is a good theory.

Europe Central is going well. I only remember the dramatic interplay between Shostakovich and Paulsen, I forgot about this dreamy interlude in the first two hundred pages.

I should probably just finish Imperial if I'm going to devote a whole month to a book.

11.25.10

Today better be nice. The recent spate of wet weather might be construed as proof of God hating Chicago. I am not ready to dismiss this postulate.

Today's Horoscope: If you look closely at the Mayan Calendar you might actually spot yourself seeing people you haven't seen in a long while out in public.
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I'm always behind these things, but I managed to get this onto my Ipod before the long thanksgiving hell-drive towards home (through hell.) I only made it through about 50 minutes today, but I have plans for it and its backlogged brethren for tomorrow.

I will continue another proud holiday tradition of mine and stay inside during Black Friday. The last place I want to be is the mall, and the only condition for me to go there is that it is not crowded. I hope this line of logic guides you to an obvious conclusion.

There's something so new and plastic-smelling about that holiday. Burning fuel to the petroleum palace and Chipotle for dinner. You go home and your headache matches the fumes released in t...never mind.

11.24.10

Continuing yesterday's cold spell will be a batch of scattered light showers later tomorrow. Things will start to freeze, and certain meteorologists better start really committing to quitting their smoking so as to avoid the usual litany of winter ailments.

Today's Horoscope: Sometimes it helps to play the voice of Obi Wan saying "Use the force," when you're merging onto a crowded highway.

The situation on the border of the Koreas is heating up. This is a scary development, and when the radio mentioned Kim Jong Il's asshat son I started pounding the steering wheel and yelling "someone oughta assassinate that asshole!" Because at that point I was pretty sure I knew what this was actually about. Some mishandled, hackneyed transfer of power within the ranks of a bureaucracy more apt to handling the duties of one of those old school computers that used punch-cards than an actual population of human beings.

11.23.10

Today's weather is extremely nice. I'm not technically a "meteorologist" but I do have evidence to establish the theory that the weather itself is just trying to impress my blog. The weather is very vain.

Today's Horoscope: Sometimes it is necessary to point out the existence of large, intricate social designs that are both invisible and possibly entirely imagined. Sure, you might sound crazy.

Anxiously waiting for a phone interview over Skype. I've never been a good Skyper and I don't do it enough to feel comfortable. What my prospective employer out in beautiful Guangxi province does not know is that there is not a pair of nice pants to go with this shirt, for I am wearing my basketball shorts. Furthermore, only a small vantage of my room is clean. My integrity will compensate for all this Hollywood fakery.

11.22.10

Today's report is late thanks to bad weather. That and bad traffic. Bad traffic which is caused by bad drivers. In my universe people have their licenses confiscated like crazy.

Today's Horoscope: Torrents of rain pelt you during an unplanned run to the nearest gas station.

My cursory review of the reviews for MGMT's Congratulations were not all that great. Gave it the full listen I hadn't yet today. I thought it was pretty good, and I wasn't even that big on the last one. Seems like MGMT are passing through an aesthetic phase that really jives with me.

11.21.10

Today is overcast and less than cold, but not quite warm.

Today's Horoscope: Nanobots could, theoretically, be coursing through our water supply. Their function could be to alter human consciousness enough to limit it from grasping the true scope of our reality. Who made these nanobots?

Tooth pain. Totally insane. This retainer is shifting my teeth back to where they should be and it really hurts. Pain is progress, people.

Album of the Week: It's a tie! No. De Stijl by the White Stripes wins follow up to I Am Not Afraid of you And I Will Beat Your Ass by Yo La Tengo.

De Stijl rules, but IANAOYAIWBYA by Yo La Tengo achieves triumph solely for the last track on the album, The Story of Yo La Tango (sic). Awesome song to pump in the car if you have a car and 13 minutes to spare.

11.20.10

Today is going to be nice and sunny.

Today's Horoscope: Things are going to start turning around for you and your army of small problems.

Put my retainer back in--so much pain. Missed the Dirt Merchants last night because I had to stay in and take antibiotics and smell the infected polyp in my nose. Not the best time right now.

11.19.10

Today could not get any nicer. I'd say this weather is a fair compromise between late fall and late summer.

Today's Horoscope: A very happy birthday to Justine. Good luck for all! (And some crap about Venus retrograde motion.)

Holding mouthwash throughout this entire composition. Needless to say there will be no editing done today.

In Infinite Jest there is mention of Mouthwash abuse at Ennet Recovery House. That book taught me many things about all kinds of addictions. Started reading Europe Central again but I left it at home. I forgot that book and a delicious pork-chop sandwich (with fries) leftover from Hog Wild. This is unfortunate.

11.18.10

Today oughta be sunny and a sort of chilly that only comes this time of year. It's nice to see that I still don't understand Global Warming enough to be angry about the cold weather.

Today's Horoscope: Monsters await you behind closed doors. Let them out; check every door. If you don't find any just punch yourself in the face until you pass out. For it is you who are the monster.

Every now and then I go youtubing and see what I can find under these two categories

--Ghosts
--UFOs

And as of yesterday

--Anti-Obama content (home-made Tea Party stuff)

I figured this new category was on level with the other two in terms of predictable amateurish beshitment of what could be a pretty deep topic. Turns out I was right.

Still, I came across an old internet favorite. Always whips those sciency types into a frenzy whenever I bring it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloop

11.17.10

Today is going to be overcast and chilly. Not the good kind of chilli with beans and sauce; the bad kind.

Today's Horoscope: A Horoscopy is where your Urologist probes your prostate for heavenly bodies.

With a little reflection I realized that I did not read Dark Tower 2 and am not reading History Of Western Philosophy by BR. I listened to the Dark Tower 2 and am listening to HOWP. There's some weird dissonance between reading and listening for me, I don't think listening to a full audio book counts in the same way that sitting and reading counts.

Actually, The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave, read by Nick Cave, with music and sound effects provided by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis was really awesome. I don't think I would have made it through TDOBM if I had actually picked up the paste-and-cloth version.

HOWP is really really long. I don't think I took account of this when I put it on the pod. In any case I'm making some pretty righteous progress.

11.16.10

Tomorrow is actually going to be pretty nice out. I looked this up at weather.com. 56 degrees, sunshine, boom.

Tomorrow's Horoscope: Certain pre-Socratic philosophers thought that there were people on the moon. Ancient pre-Socratic moon people with togas and grapes.

Wrapped up Dark Tower Vol. 2 and One Dimensional Man today. Most of the latter flew over my head. Yet, only the climactic parts of the former escaped my understanding. It's an odd thing about those horror novels circa 1980--the language at the end always throws me off, I can't internalize it properly.

Started History of Western Philosophy by B. "Jagerbombs!" Russel. It's all about him taking bong hits and throwing up on girls from the balcony of his frat house. The English are stupid.

11.15.10

Today will be chilly with about 40% chance of rain.

Today's Horoscope: The mercies of the fates command your every movement and their character may be read by astronomical alignment. For this is the basis of your horoscope. Chance of catching the flu: 37.2%

Fall is truly a season of change. The metaphor of a leaf wilting and falling to the ground is one against which any seasoned romantic may warm up. It gets dark early. It is cold. Only when Winter comes do we finally accept.

11.14.10

Today is a bad day to lose your nice blue scarf. I know this from experience. It is winter-jacket cold. Personally I go for multiple layers of heavy clothing beneath the jacket because I really can't stand the cold.

Today's Horoscope: In the astronomical scheme of things our Sun is a relative dwarf. There are stars out there waaaay bigger than the Sun. This is a message to all you serious astrologers; you should consider sun-worship. It's fun, it (could be) kinda trendy in the liberal circles, and you actually get results. Mostly in summer. (If you pray to the Sun for warm weather.) Dig?

Album of the Week: Population Override by Buckethead. In a form of his own, on his own. I think. I believe BH records everything on his own. For the most part the album is a melodic duet between keyboard and guitar. The over-arching theme of the album is the surge of the human population, and its inevitable and sudden decline. Albums like this rarely come around anymore.

In all honesty I haven't had the energy to eat up some new music. I guess I'm coming to grips with the reality of me actually having to go and get it myself. People don't tell me what to listen to anymore.

11.13.10

According to the radio--which I have been listening to--the beginnings of winter are going to sink into Wisconsin and Minnesota in the next 24 hours. What does this mean for us? Why, more summery weather of course! Let the record show that this is an optimistic website! Opah!

Today's Horoscope: It is logical to conclude that many of the stars "real" astrologers observe have been dead for millions of years.

Too much radio. No more NPR. WBEZ gets annoying. After about one collective daily hour of the stuff everyone just starts to sound like a whining bitch.

11.12.10

Today is probably going to be grey. It has been raining in moderate degrees all evening. The Doppler (since I last checked) revealed a light-green blur around the Elgin area.

Today's Horoscope: The memories of JFK that you never had, nor ever will, are going to rip you apart as you try to go to sleep. If you are an Aquarius you can remedy this by picturing yourself on a porch, with a banjo.

Actual conversation circa yesterday morning:

Me: Do you think I'm stupid?
Justine: No I think you're just an asshole.
Me: Why am I an asshole?
Justine: Why are you an asshole?

A good woman makes you think.

11.11.10

Today is going to be very grey? Perhaps some chilliness coming from Canada. So I guess it is also going to be windy. Burn a candle for Fall.

Today's Horoscope: Exploding stars are theorized to send out thin, high-powered beams of radiation. (Gamma radiation? I forget.) And the idea here is that if one hit earth it would theoretically rip us into theoretical bits. Also, we won't know what star it came from because the light travels at the same speed as the death-rays. Just so you know.

Started up on book 2 of The Dark Tower. It seems like it would make a great mini-series with the right budget.

Speaking of good mini-series, The Walking Dead is a good mini-series.

Also, two corrections: The first sentence of 11.10.10 should be grammatically correct. It isn't, and I'm not going to fix it.

Furthermore it was Jason Miller who catapulted himself down those Georgetown steps. Max Von Sydow just wore hisself out.

11.10.10

Today will is going to be overcast without precipitation. What we in the meteorology field call "boring as hell."

Today's Horoscope: You will be pleasantly surprised to be spared a fall down a demon-inside-Max Von Sydow-from-The Exorcist-type staircase. This is because Neptune got hit by an asteroid and shoved off a few precious meters. To you I say congratulations!

Did not plan for today. I begin to see why my employer does not eat. I on the other hand DO eat. Maybe I'll get some Lunchables at CVS. : (

11.09.10

Churning warm sunshine
wrapp'd around in filigrees
--all upon thine extrmeties
bright and gold to make you go blind
won't matter coz' I'll be in-fucking-side

Today's Horoscope: Tracing the stars today I outlined the North American Continent. Now that's positivism!

One of my earliest memories is of my Grandpa's old house. He always kept the TV on mute, presumably because of the commercials. Now that I've been watching more TV than I am used to, I begin to grasp the sublime logic of this.

11.08.10

Today will be balmy and nice...hopefully. The Doppler radar confirms this, which is amazing since I haven't looked at it. (Dangling preposition, sue me.)

Today's Horoscope: Apparently my spiel about retrograde was relevant to the world of Astrology! Bulls-eye! Today is going to be a 2, enjoy that rectal bleeding.

Nice long talk on the phone today with Joe. Apparently Repressive De-Sublimation is a big topic in the book I'm reading. Huh. He talked to me about the repression of Levis and beer just as an unwelcome drop of Sam Adam's winter lager went down the wrong pipe. That this was a really good metaphor occurred to me right after a coughing fit.

11.07.10

It is surprisingly nice out. I'll be outside.

Today's Horoscope: A few nights ago I was watching at the sky and I saw a very distant orange light passing very fast a few degrees east of the zenith. Could've been a plane. Could've been a satellite. I don't know specifically what it was but I know astrologically it spells wacky fortunes for the Libertarian party over the next 6 year political cycle. Obviously.

I remember the prime of summer. All that water in the air. Sunlight passing through hanks of branches. Everybody was pissed.

Album of the Week: Incesticide by Nirvana. In the past week I have listened to this album exactly 0 times. In the past few years I have listened to this album 0 times. It is because I have been busy and stupid that I haven't gotten around to putting it back into "Charlie Circulation." Lot of those tracks have been stuck in my head.

11.06.10

Today will be chilly and full of stormy looking clouds. The stiff breeze at evening will rip the dead leaves off the tree. It will be dark.

Today's Horoscope: Things seem like a 7.6 for you Aquamatarians out there, but that could just be a visual distortion; could be 7.9.

People that like to dress up really freak me out. Costumes are for suckers if you ask me.

Special Election Commentary: When I was in high-school, Super Bowl XXXVIII (Panthers v. Patriots) came around. When talking of the controversy in math class one girl (whose name I forget but who I still have great admiration for) said--when asked--"The game was rigged and the half-time show was lame." She was right.

11.05.10

Sunny and balmy today. It is eighty degrees!

Today's Horoscope: The evergreens in northern Canada are poised to snap and explode in the Winter dark. Grim.

Finished Freedom today. Good stuff. Started up on The One Dimensional Man. Heavy stuff. New Eno album is alllllriiiight.

11.04.10

Cold today. Cloudy too. My favorite place to be is outside; the only condition being that it must be warm.

Today's Horoscope: You might get hit by a semi-truck.

I'm really upset about this cold weather coming in. Today would have been a great day to sit outside and finish up the last half of Franzen's latest novel. Instead I have to accord with the mood of the book and read it in the dark, in the basement.

11.03.10

Overcast today, possible drop in temperature in the evening. (Possible because it also gets dark in the evening, and without that sunlight, ya know.) I give about 60% to the possibility of rain.

Today's Horoscope: Sagittarius mixes it up with Leo: time to pick that Ukulele back up.

Haven't checked the results of the election yet. Still too far off in Charlieland to really care. The little I do know comes from last night when polls were just starting to close. Word was that the Republicans were going to have a good night.

In a completely unrelated story a Snake gave birth to a litter via Immaculate Conception.

11.02.10

Elgin IL is frosty today. Comfortable as a bunched up sock in a nice-fitting shoe. Chicago this morning was dark and chilly. A grim reminder that as the days get shorter and darker so too do they get colder. What garbage!

Today's Horoscope: In the early days of atronomy people would see the planets move back and forth in the sky. They called this "retrograde motion" or something. Let this serve as a reminder that history is fraught with lies and mistakes and should never be taken seriously.

Got to see Graceland cemetery yesterday. It was a pretty grave trip. We unearthed some neat historical information. We wanna go back but nothing is set in stone. Justine kept lookout while I took a piss on Pullman's grave.