This current work schedule throws my weekly hike with Dar into some confusion.  But by some smooth stroke of luck, she had to take a half day off from work to get some work done on her car.  She uses a place downtown.  So, at one o'clock I drove over and picked her up.  We went for a walk along the Mission Trail from Mission Park to the Aqueduct, and back.  About seven miles.  It was a great day.  Warm and sunny.  I should have planned more wisely for the duration of the walk.  We were out there about three hours.  And I am currently sporting my first sunburn of the year.  Definitely a sign of the change of the seasons.

One of the problems of writing public journals (especially with the sort of frequency I've been doing of late), is the tendency to quote oneself.  It's fine if it's something I've written which no one has yet read.  True, there's this pesky echo in my head, like an actor delivering a line poorly (“shit, I can do it better than that”).  But the up side, in these instances, is that it makes you look clever (or so you tell yourself).  But when it's something you've placed on the internet, and you know for a fact that many friends and family read those postings, just about everything begins to sound like old material.

Me and Dar were walking along the trail this afternoon across the river from the ruins of the old Hot Wells resort.  She asked what was up with those old buildings.  As I answered, I found myself cringing.  I was hearing (in my mind's ear) my tendency to fall into a rather florid syntax, not to mention all those halting verbal mannerisms, as I launched into several lines lifted directly from a mini documentary I made over a year ago about the place — which I posted on my video blog.

Clearly I was deep into the “stop me if you've heard this before” territory.

So, Dar, and anyone else interested, link here for a tiny 2 minute piece.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

My sister turned me on to The Travis and Jonathan Show a few years back.  Travis Harmon and Jonathan Shockley started on cable access in Nashville.  They now are in LA.  I wasn't a huge fan of their stuff they did back on channel 19 in their home town.  Fun but rather forgettable.  However, they've been doing some pretty wonderfully weird stuff.  A disturbing take on two men's fascination with Brokeback Mountain, that makes the Post Show look like Teletubbies.  They did a strange parody of Werner Hertzog's Grizzly Man, where Jonathan's portrayal of Hertzog is as unfocused and perplexing as Chris Elliot's Marlon Brando “impersonation.”  And then there are the duo's brilliant video podcasts as Jackie and Dunlap in Red State Update.  They play two hardcore southern rednecks, surrounded by mountains of empty beer cans, bourbon bottles, and overflowing ashtrays.

One of the recent postings is a little mockumentary.  It's titled “In The Studio with Rick Rubin and Ray Stevens.”  Travis portrays iconic music producer, Rick Rubin.  The man known for his work with Metallica, Johnny Cash, and Audioslave, is inexplicably working on a fresh interpretation of Ray Stevens classics such as “The Streak” and “Ahab the Arab.”  I think what I most like about this little piece is Jonathan's take on Ray Stevens as a clueless goofball, trying to convince his producer that all music sounds better with a laugh track, even Slayer.

It may well be correct….

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

So, to recap.  Don't let this happen to you.

Use sun-block, a burka, or midnight rambles through the cemetery.  Whatever best fits your lifestyle.