It’s not that I’m cold… but I have a hard time giving a damn when someone I know kills themselves.

     Especially when it’s been so long since you’ve heard from them in any capacity but anger, threats and subterfuge.  When the right hand claims love while the left hand is pushing a knife into your back.  When the chameleon always changes its skin to meet its needs.
     When it’s like that for so long, I don’t even remember the good times.  What good is a thoughtful, “Goodbye,” when the person you knew has long since gone anyway?

     And that’s all I have to say about that…

     The rest is simple.  Some of us, regardless of the turmoil, have the tenacity to keep sticking around.  Some of us, for whatever reason, do not.

     Like I said … It’s not that I’m cold… I’m just realistic. 

     Because if I were cold … then I wouldn’t keep thinking, I wish I could go back to the first time I met you, and walk in the opposite direction.

I lost a draft … wishing a friend good luck … That I just talked to yesterday … and like the draft … she’s gone.

She was excited about the car … I asked her how it went … I guess it didn’t …

Yet another … nothing you can do …

     Glenn said I’d have some news to post on February 18th.  I’m not sure what that news will be, so I’m writing this pre-emptive post prior to the 18th to be posted at 1:42AM US/Eastern.  Because there has to be something, as Glenn already said there would be.
     I think it’s his queue for me to, “Get on with it.”

     First, the bad news.

     It’s rained a lot, with some snow and ice, too, for good measure.  That weirdo I never dated eleven years ago keeps trying to make herself an annoyance.  Business has sucked, so Glenn the media-hound & software developer, Dave the post-Production video editor and this offbeat Business/IT/Security Analyst are looking for jobs.  I’ve been about as broke as broke can be.  I’m apparently secreting some rather strong pheremones, which is attracting some rather unwanted attention from both couples and the occasional disturbing guy who just won’t get the Hell away from me and ends up being forcibly ejected from my presence by others who don’t want bloodshed in their establishments.

     Then the good news.

     But … Some friends and I took a snowball fight inside a bar a few weeks ago.  I’ve run into fifty or more people I haven’t seen in at least fifteen years, the majority of whom I didn’t mind running into.  I’ve been spending a lot more time out and around friends after pretty much sitting at home moping for the last year and a half.  I’m apparently secreting some rather strong pheremones, but most of the women they attract are pretty hot, and some of them even buy me beer when I’m broke (*thank you! I love you all!*) .

     And then the ambivalence to bind it all together.

     I’m a big fan the “Meh” response. 

     So, Glenn?  Meh…

     I was sitting around a few weeks ago, and R.B. Morris came in, sat down and said, “Hey, man.”  Typical conversation followed, as per usual.
     “Hey, man, I got something for you,” he said as he turned looking for something. “Hey, here’s my new CD! I just got them today, so don’t say I never gave ya nothin’!” And there it was, his brand new CD, Spies Lies and Burning Eyes.
     “Ummm, okay, so, umm, I should take this thing and rip it to MP3 and post it on the Internet, huh?”
     “You can do whatever you want to with it, man! Just… Hey, wait…”

     And thus, once we got my inner — and outer — smartass out of the way, R.B.’d made a pretty cool decision.
     “Man, ya know what, I just want this out there,” he said. “I want the public hearing it.  I want to focus on the CD Release Party on January 30th at Barley’s, and I want people to get the word out!”
     “But, remember … isn’t track four about me?” I grinned, as a silly reference to a conversation weeks before.
    ”Not you, Mark Steel.  It’s about…” he trails, looking at the next guy coming in the door, and points… “Him!”

     And so, without further adieu… we bring you…

R.B. Morris – Spies Lies and Burning Eyes

     Hope you enjoyed it, and hope to see you at Barley’s Taproom in Knoxville’s Old City on January 30th at 9PM for the Official CD Release Party!

RB MORRIS CD RELEASE SHOW

For his New CD, Spies Lies and Burning Eyes
January 10th, 2010 at Barley’s Taproom
Knoxville, TN

RB Morris, including the old Nashville band featuring Kenny Vaughan, Dave Jacques, and Paul Griffith. Joining along with RB and the Irregulars is Hector Qirko.

Opening the show will be Jake Winstrom (formerly of the Tenderhooks) with his new backing band.

     Now — Spread the word and tell your friends!

     Mark your Calendars, and be there — it’s your penance for listening to, and probably attempting to steal, his music for free over the Internet.

For more info about RB Morris, check out his website at http://www.rbmorris.com/ and his MySpace Music page at http://www.myspace.com/rbmorrismusic.

There is something about staying up all night.  I don’t know if it all the creativity that to keeps you up or the thoughts that run through your head.  In this case I would say it was a little of both.

While I was patiently waiting the 6:30 a.m. tic to toc on the clock, I was diligently working on a piece of design soon to be seen.  The tedious monotony of tutorials and code are such sweet company on an early Monday morning, after all code is poetry.  I also managed to finish building my handout for today’s Introductory Computer Class at the Halls Senior Center.  Not much else was going through my head at the time.

It all changed as I began to cook at the turn of six.  I began to reminisce how my Mammaw and Pappaw must have done the same things day in and day out as they prepared breakfast for all of the boys in the painting crew.  God I miss that breakfast… To this day I can’t make white gravy that is anywhere close to that.  Moreover, the main thing I miss of that is the camaraderie, that my quiet breakfasts, with my wife or couple of friends, just aren’t the same. The atmosphere just can’t be replicated. I have fond memories of eating my portion and part of my uncle’s within a period of two or so hours.  Those were the days… just waking up to food prepared to eat as soon as your feet hit the floor.

That reminder quickly moved to a scene in Sam’s Restaurant and Deli for more breakfast than the average human should eat in one sitting.  Again, it was more the camaraderie than the food although it is excellent as well.  Heck, Mark and I would order one of the specials our friend would most likely order the Western Omelet. We would drink out fair share of coffee and smoke. Yes, I said smoke. You see that was prior to the unrealistic and unforgiving anti-tobacco lobby ruined that pastime for those of us who have no wish to kill the ignorant people we encountered during a day.

So, it is with that I leave you to go puff on bowl of tobacco and reminisce something else positive.  After all around 1964 the surgeon general determined pipe smoker’s outlive non-smokers and are relatively innocent of causing lung cancer.