Greetings from Sunny West Orange, New Jersey! Yes, it IS the home of Thomas A. Edison!
Actually, I got back on Friday night. They don't have much on the internet out that way.

Through much elation concerning food, high regards to a Pecan Pie and only one missed train, Thanksgiving came to a close in good cheer. Kudos to everyone who showed, or didn't show, but was thinking about it somewhere else. Thanksgiving is one of the holidays, in my opinion, isn't very biased on religion or belief.
I've never heard anyone that didn't celebrate Thanksgiving on based on a certain lifestyle or religion. Maybe because it's so generalized? It's not associated with anything? I guess it's more like President's Day but with a lot of family and food.

They've been playing Christmas music non-stop over the past two weeks on the radio.

For that special Bowie fan out there:

I may need to do a stake-out over the weekend.

Blip Festival 2008: The Promo from Richard Alexander Caraballo on Vimeo.

I see murals in the radio static and on your blue jeans.

Day.... 3? Day 3 in the throes of West Texas.

A gallant homecoming if anything. I touched down in DFW Friday night, Brian patiently waiting the 1 1/2 hour lateness of my flight. Delta, why do you shun thee? As he said in his e-mail, and once again in person "word is bond."
We sped through the night to get to Denton, where it was nothing but shots and free Shiner abound at RGRS with the skeleton crew of RGRS.
After that I headed out, thouroghly buzzed and using the train tracks as landmarks to get to Lucky Lou's to meet up with everyone else.
Went to a part that was DJ'd by two guys with laptops sitting next to a bonfire.

I met up with Ian the next day for an impromptu session, getting more ink on my arm. It's pretty much finished all the way to my wrist now, so I'm pretty happy. I took a long walk around Denton. There's a lot that's gone, there's a lot that's stayed the same. Most everyone I knew has either relocated to NYC or Portland, Oregon. There's a handful of diehard's left, the music scene has changed considerably (let's give up Centro-matic for bands like Bat Castle).
It was good though. It made me realize why I left and why I don't think I'm ready, if at all, to come back. My life is so on the razor's edge most of the time, merely a gust of wind and I'm gone somewhere else. I moved to NYC on the whim of Amy telling me how great it was and my new luggage. Now coming back, I know that I'd do it again.
What a great respite it is to come from NYC back to...nowhere. Driving along the highway, it really is a vastness that I haven't thought about in some time. The first sip of Shiner is my petite madeline a la Proust.
On seeing the big picture: True, people do look at the big picture only when they're feeling up or down. I think if you're constantly looking at the big picture it'd be hard to live your, or any life. Always having to see everything. It's unfair to the moment, especially when someone else is down in that valley with you or high on that peak. Time and space don't allow you to really always look at the big picture either. If that were true, than everyone would probably be level headed individuals. But that's not being alive should be about. It's about selfishness, time gained, time lost, happiness, love (what is love?) and everything in between. We are not rational creatures, and if we had everything down to a science, there'd be no room for art.
It's been a good break so far. There's definitely a line drawn in the sand in regards to my life.

Brilliantly restrained.

Topsy-Turvy, right?

Last night I went to the Film Forum to see Mijke de Jong's Stages.

Have you ever seen the appropriate movie or heard the appropriate song to fit whatever's happening at that moment? This is was pretty much it. I equate breaking up to reincarnation; or how just have to handle to the world from another viewpoint. I mean, let's say an animal, dog/cat/hamster or whatever sharing the same apartment with a human or another animal. You experience the same surroundings but through a different view. What's big to someone is small to the other. What's black and white is in color. Right now, I'm having to look at things the big picture.
That's what I feel right now, I'm going to be in the same set of circumstances, yet I'm having to look at it from a different point of view. Stages is very relevant to the situation. It's shades of life with two divorced people sharing a son that can't or won't connect with them. It's really a series of peaks and valleys of two peoples emotional states: you want to love or hate this person, you have a hard time distinguishing that. It's a quiet film, at that. De Jong drops the sound a few times to focus on the visual, which is something I wish American filmmakers would use.

I leave for Texas next week, next Friday to be exact. It couldn't come at a better time.
The guy at the lower left hand corner of this picture looks like Devandra Barnhart.