Hey. I'm playing Schubas tonight at 8pm with Brent Pulse. It's just gonna be he and I onstage. I'm gonna be doing keyboards, guitars and singing. We're opening for Tom Schraeder who's got his first night of his month-long residency at Schubas. Yay Tommy!

Also, today is Nikki's birthday. So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY DARLIN!

I went to a Super Bowl party at Josh's house and as usual Josh and Matt got completely loaded off their asses and were getting on my last nerve. It's not so much them watching a football game and getting into it, it's that when they drink they both try to "out-loud" each other. It gets real old real quick.

It's very cold outside and it's usually about this time of year when I ponder "should I move out of Chicago?" I had this thought the other night but as usual, my biggest crutch is that I still can't pick where I'd want to move to. I hate LA and NYC doesn't seem like it would work for me. Me going to a smaller city doesn't even seem to make sense.

I think I'm going to have a giant gear garage sale. At this point I don't need half of this shit and I could get one really nice amp and a really nice guitar. Guitars are one thing I'll still need to have multiples of, but these amps don't need to be here.

My dad and I are going on a joint diet to lose a bunch of weight. I just got a Bally's membership through work for only $20 a month so maybe that'll invigorate me to go through with this. I've gotta dump my YMCA membership that I've been paying for pretty much no reason whatsoever.

I met this girl a while ago, had some dates, things were going good and now I haven't heard back from her in 2 weeks. I don't know what happened but I think it's safe to give up at this point. ...crap.

I'm gonna go to bed now. I've gotta get up early to go to work then leave early to go to Schubas.

Happy monday everybody.

Below is a conversation between myself and a person who's opinion on the music industry I'll hold in the highest regards, one of my best friends, Nikki. I've made these points before verbally, but I'm glad I finally got them out in typed form so you can all read them.

-griff


( David Geffen is writing his resignation letter. )

p. griffin baron
3:35:58 PM

dude
synthdork
3:36:02 PM

sup
p. griffin baron
3:36:06 PM

i have had the most god damn fucked up day of my life.
36:11
i learned some insane information today.
synthdork
3:36:11 PM

oh yeah
36:15
what's that?
p. griffin baron
3:36:31 PM

i was actually adopted.
synthdork
3:36:50 PM

what?
p. griffin baron
3:37:10 PM

my parents tried to have kids for 2 years before they finally gave up and tried adoption.
synthdork
3:37:26 PM

This is one of those pranks i always pull on you
37:31
about kim being pregnant or whatever
p. griffin baron
3:37:33 PM

no.
synthdork
3:37:45 PM

You're dead serious?
p. griffin baron
3:37:54 PM

my mom gave me my dad's name and i found him online.
38:02
this is my real father: http://b9.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/01309/90/12/1309762109_l.jpg
synthdork
3:38:13 PM

HAHAAHHAAHHAHA
38:15
you ass

This weekend:

-Cracklin Moth breaks up (again)
-I had a large sum of money double charged on my debit card, still not fixed after talking to my bank over and over about it.
-I get a letter from the Cook County Revenue saying I owe them tax on my car amounting to about $110.
-After having my car in the shop for a day to fix 3 lights that were coming on, they all came on again a day later.
-After being nice and driving 5 people home, I do a stop at a stop sign where a paddy wagon pulls me over, tells me I didn't do a complete stop, takes my license and gives me a court date on Dec 17th.


I'm in some serious god damn need of fun right now.

Now, I watch my fair share of TV talk shows. I have for years. Now that I own a Tivo, I never miss anything really.

When an actor is out promoting a new film a lot of the time they'll do a "press junket". This is basically where they sit in a room that's got the poster of the film behind them and a camera pointed at them and do satellite segments with tons of different news outlets in a small period of time. Maybe from 10:04-10:11 they'll be talking to Minneapolis and then from 10:13-10:19 they'll talk to Sioux City. The point is, these actors sit there, respond to the same questions over and over and pretty much give identical answers.

That's understandable when you're doing all the stuff in the same day, but let's talk about Jamie Foxx for a second.

Last night he was on Conan O'Brien, which I watched. He was talking about his new movie and how they'd filmed it in Saudi Arabia and how the food over there was crazy "baked tiger paw and boiled camel hump" and that they were staying in this palace that was "850,000 kilometers big". He talked about how you can't give the thumbs up over there because that translates to the middle finger and how you can't show the bottom of your shoes to which he said "yeah, i'm a goofy guy so you know the second i got off the plane i was like this:" and then starts yelling with his thumbs up and his feet in the air. It got a good laugh.

Then tonight I watched my playback of The Daily Show. Jamie Foxx was on. Jon didn't even have to really ask him any questions because Jamie just volunteered all the exact same jokes he did on Conan. "Yeah, so there's all kinds of crazy food like baked tiger paw and boiled camel hump and we stayed in this palace that's like 850,000 kilometers long". He explained the thumbs up thing and of course did the exact same move he did on Conan's couch no less than 24 hours previously.

I guess I just don't get it. If you're going to be on two internationally syndicated television shows that have large markets (and in some cases, a lot of the same market), wouldn't you want to have new material?

That was the most boring interview to watch because you knew it was just canned.

Jamie Foxx, you're not allowed to have Oscars anymore. Enjoy your boiled camel hump.

This will probably only be up for today, but you can see video of me on the WGN morning show at:

http://wgntv.trb.com/

Click on Morning News and then "Cracklin Moth".

You can also go right to the video section here:
http://wgntv.trb.com/wgntv-worldnow-morningnews-horizontal,0,2981843.teaser?coll=wgntv-promo-layout

This was so much fun. If you got this bulletin late and it's not up, we'll have it on YouTube in the next few days.

I'm so deliriously tired today it's not even funny.

My bulletin title pretty much sums it up. I've had more food in "kabob" form in the last 3 days than I've probably ever had in my life.

I'm gonna have a fun week.

Watch me perform live on TV for the first time this Thursday morning on WGN with Cracklin Moth. We're gonna be on the WGN Morning News (Channel 9 in Chicago) from 7-8 am. We'll have a few snippets and then a full song at some point during the hour.

Later that night we're playing a KEXP and Chicago Reader sponsored show at Darkroom with Probably Vampires and Tennis Courts.



That's gonna be a whole boatload of fun.

No more kabobs. No, seriously.

Also....



This is the saddest picture I've seen in a while.

I'm happy I got to at least go there once. I'd have loved to have played there.

I've always found a sleeping city to be one of the most fascinating things in the world.

It's currently 1:59 am on a late thursday night, early friday morning. During the late summer in Chicago, the city feels incredible. I think this must be my favorite time of year. It's not super hot, enough to necessitate driving with the AC on, but cool enough that with the windows down all the way, you can feel the city flow through you. When it gets this late, I'll usually turn my stereo off and just listen to the city. The sounds are so dramatically different than what you're used to hearing a city sound like.

It being late in the summer, school's gotten back into session, college students are packing up their things at home and getting ready to go back to their classes and the city thins out a bit. The streets aren't over-run with cars filled with kids on summer break and old high school friends back together during the break between college semesters, so you finally have a chance to hear the city.

This, I've noticed, has been the only real time I get a chance to do this. It's too cold in the winter months to have your windows down, same with spring and late fall. The summer itself is just when the city is the least interesting to me. Dozens of noises, smells, people to look at. There's too much variety that it doesn't give you the chance to see something unique and really watch it and think about it.

I just got back from a show at a loft space on the west side of Chicago, drove home with the windows down and parked my car. As I got out, I walked through a neighborhood street listening to the hum of air conditioners keeping a bedroom cool where someone's relaxing their head on their favorite pillow, the sound of my own footsteps being the only man made noise around as far as I can see, and the rustle of leaves slowly turning orange, only to start falling in a few weeks.

Looking around, you see the signs of a big city, but no life to be found. Luxury cars just left on the street, parked, and to be used tomorrow. The trust factor is there. No-one is going to mess with this car, I'll just leave it here. For the most part, they're correct. It's just bizarre to think, as I cross the street and walk towards my apartment building, I could easily do something to this car that a person wouldn't see for another 5-6-7 hours. It's not that I'm malicious enough to do something like that, it's just the fact that I could.

It'd be interesting to see how many people walk past my car at night, glance inside to see what I have in there, and then continue on their way.

Walking up to my front gate, the only companion noise I have are my own two shoes clacking against the concrete. Putting my key in my gate, I turn my handle and hear the creaking of my gate's rusty hinge as I open it.

It's amazing how loud this gate is, but at this point, it's just become a mundane sound. It's not bothering anyone. My neighbors, comfortably lying in their beds wont even notice the sound. At this point it's become background noise. Maybe someone will hear it and think "ah, that's the front gate" but it's no cause for alarm. It's the sound of a city.

Walking up the old and creaky staircase of my apartment, I can't help but feel like I'm disturbing my neighbors by making all of this noise. The old wood under my feet shows the creaking of use. These pieces of wood have held up feet for decades. I try walking up the sides of the stairs so as not to walk in the sections that'll creak the most and make a lot of noise. I just hope I'm not waking up my neighbors.

I'm not. It's the sound of a city.