Slackjaw's Forum

My friend Paul Ford ( www.ftrain.com ) has picked up writing on his blog again. I call him my friend not because he is, or that I’ve ever met him, talked over the phone, or any of the myriad of other ways we bond with people before declaring them a friend. He did once send me a short email when I explained to him that I was planning on building a WobbleVision off of a schematic that he published, and another short email in which he explained that the guest columnist he had allowed to post on Ftrain, was in fact not a guest writer at all, but himself. He was kind enough that his short email contained no sense of “…you dummy” and instead was quick and courteous. Paul wrote and published a book and stopped regularly updating his site. I remember years ago when Sweetie, who had been decorating cakes for friends, decided that perhaps she should expand her repertoire and take a decorating class. She never really decorated another cake after that…it extinguished whatever small spark had been...

Got stuck in an elevator last night—stuck up high between the 4th and 5th floors with two long carpets and my Carhardt jacket to keep me company. I was taking up the last items from the truck into the rest home. I was already suspicious of the elevator, I had issues with it’s buttons which said G, 1, 2, 3, 4, PH. G obviously stood for Ground, though why ground wasn’t the same as 1 is beyond me—PH, for Pent House; like saying that it’s not just the 6th floor, it’s a little more fancy then that. As it slowly passed each floor a buzzer would sound—not a bell, not a melodious voice saying “three” but the type of buzz you might hear when entering a 7-11. This clearly was a self-important elevator, with twenty four small recessed lights in it’s ceiling because when you’re that important, 18 is just not enough, and self important elevators should be entered with a degree of caution. It also wasn’t an Otis. There are only a handful of elevator companies I can think of…ok, well there’s only one...

I should have made it my resolve, but I knew better than that—knew that I could never keep it up like I should, so I didn’t. Instead it just pops into my head now and again and I think about it and how to avoid it, or embrace it, or get lost in the stories that should be stories, but instead are now just fading memories. I’ve finally got up and running at Myspace.com where I’ve been posting my shows and pictures and putting songs up and that sort of thing. I don’t care for it as much as I do this page, but strangely it’s asked for all the time and already I’ve gotten two gigs in Portland that I would never have gotten with out it. Tomorrow night is my CD release party which I am holding at Northern Pacific Coffee Company out near Pacific Lutheran University. It’s a nice place, with pretty decent food and some nice beers and really, there just aren’t that many places to play in this town, ifyouknowwhatimean. Come by and say hello at Myspace , I will do my best, as always, to keep updat...