hello, is it me you're looking for?

Hello my children. It has been too long. First I need to ask you, do you find me sexy? I have had my hair done and, I blush as I say, some other work as well. I don't do this for me, I do it for you, my adoring fans. Gather close and touch my burning hot soul. All night long. That's right Lionel , all mother fucking night long. Sigh. Alas, that's not me captured in that picture. That's the ever striking Lionel Richie, lead singer of the Commodores, the author of the drop dead disco track Machine Gun and a great lover of the ladies . I felt like I had to come out of the gate strong, with a riveting masculine image. BAM. I am back. And as we know, Lionel never left. And so is Critter, Dan Blocker and the whole cast of California Culture miscreants who wonder PCH in search of sunsets, tequila, Steel Dan bootlegs and non habit forming cocaine. Where did I go? That's a good fucking question. I won't bore you with all of it now, it will come out in pieces, a trail of tiny myths. But it is good to be back, that other place can be so sallow and dull, like being the chair prop in a Sartre play. And for the love of god, please watch this video. It will free every part of your big ass, and everything else is sure to follow. Lionel, be my sexy beast tonight!

then i saw a strange and handsome fellow...

when i saw critter's shadow, played long by the low sun long against the hill next to pch, i got that good, warm, cognac stomach feeling--The one you remember as a kid when you finally became conscious christmas morning. I arrived home, and momentarily disappointed not seeing him camoflaged in my brown couch, i set down my bag and began fixing a salad. I knew it was him, there was no way to confuse what i saw there.

it was just a a matter of when.

as i was cutting my celery, a treasured part of my salad, i heard someone humming deep in the canyon. the music ran between the houses, gaining momentum as it richocheted off the unsuspecting houses, relaying words of magik and quark and strangeness and it think i finally smiled since the first fog in june. it was critter telling me he was home for a while, hummign hawking and making light.

dig it

You

an eye opened, long since sleep shut

as the rain fell. It seems like the heavy orange that follows summer like sharks do a cruise ship, got stuck up in my eyes, keeping me from seeing anything other than what i thought i should see. Any average reader, listener or successful citizen of life knows what that is: sun in the morning, cream in coffee, walking people that wave and people pretending. This is really our life. However, today as I squinted through the flapping wiper blades that droned on like the shiny bright dark days of my summer, and out of the corner of my eye, i saw something move in the tree line above PCH. Brown, quick and enormously sized yet small to the eye. I would have never see this thing had it not wanted to be seen. I smiled as I saw him wink as a few tree branches fell back into place.

Critter had come home, i would see him soon.

summer flight

Tell me it is time

time

to move
far
to ride

far

i am hot

for the final summer ride
mount our white steeds

illustrated with teenaged Heavy Metal

and long

and ache our way

back east
to the sweaty palm of the lower east side
and feel the walls shake of foot stomping house
to smell cocaine and swallow cool mimosa

lets roll
one last hurrah
and then hang up our cups
and return to earth

the night
music
heat
opening a yellow cab door
spilling in and out all night like loose jelly bellies
laughing to the edge of every bar
colliding like lips to a glass
and then like a dawn that fits in your wallet

we will unfold across the eastern board
like sand falling from a shoe
and when dusk drops like a light curtain call on edges of miami
we will ride into town
there are few who can make this journey
we will break open the night with the fine edges of our wit and the keen control of our hearts

wouldn't you want to see how close we could get to the sunset and if we could sit at twilight's table
maybe drink from the night's cup as it overflows with the cool darkness that makes the heat of all of your monday stutter, trip and fall in the alleys of your pleasure
throw it around like pollacks paint, dousing anyone who dares stand near




darker still we swim at the fading edge of days last light
reaching at it with the pleasure and abandon of knowing it will never happen
bathing in the folly and futility of your own life as it passes with same speed as this paltry day
it counts as you count
breathes as you do
but when the day comes that worms eat out your eyes
it will laugh and turn its immortal attention to the next you
who

will be
trying to dodge the last day

There is an empty spot where Critter used to sit.

I haven't seen Critter in over a week. For a brief minute, there was that tinge of relief- not needing to share my home, no more crazy long hairs hanging to everything and the absence of his nocturnal prowls.

But after that first rush passes, the novelty of being alone, a new heaviness sets as my world steps further back into that small gray recess.

Miss you Critter.

love is like oxygen

It is tough to talk popular music with Critter. His melodies are a mix of those of the world's with a dash of Paul Bunyon whistling in the background. He rhymes with the wind and hums with the stream. His beats are no smaller or less sure than those from his heart and the tread of his heavy heel.

Me, i can't really say any of that, growing up in LA. But at least I got T-Rex. So i showed him what was cool.

God damn, Jesus, I fucking love you!

It is a grey Sunday in LA and Critter asked me a little bit about Sundays and what they meant to me. I told Critter that as a kid they didn't mean a whole lot other than school was the next day and some of my friends couldn't play until the afternoon because they went to church. naturally, Critter asked me why I didn't go to church and i said, "well critter, my first and only exposure to religion came in the form of a soudtrack to one of the funkiest, most amazing re-intrepretaion of Jesus Christ appropriately entitled "Jesus Christ Superstar." YOu know, when this musical becomes your starting point to religion, there is no reason turn back and go to church. Turn your head and make sure you find Jesus in the day to day boogie of your life. Which is what I have tried to do. Critter was into that and we sat back and wondered at the amazing Jesus Christ.