BIKETREK2011- Have Banjo Will Travel: August 2011

so there's a funny thing that i've noticed after being here for a few days...
it's the smell. at first i thought it was a particular neighborhood i landed in last sunday.
then i started to wonder if the smell was on me because i started noticing it almost everywhere i went, even in the fancy nicey nice neighborhoods. i soon realized it wasn't me
because i didn't smell it in side venues, restaurants or houses.

but there's something wrong with the sewer system here in town because at random moments
the sneaking smell coils around you like silent tentacles of some unseen eldritch horror and wiggles it's way into your nose. it's really a strange juxtaposition when yer in a pretty park pickin' banjo and there are folks all over the place running and biking and then... there it is, the stench of Louisville, folding and unfolding it's leather wings and fanning the day- imagine what it would be like if it were as hot as Texas up here!

this detail alone doused any thoughts i had of residing here in the future. this is such a rad place though, and they could use some weirdo banjo in this town fo sho-

here's i nice surprise; at the Zombie Walk the other night i met some folks in a marching band on the street- they had sousaphone, trombone, clarinet, banjo and drum. i played "Ma Yofus" for them and they played "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" for me.

and then there's this:

i met a guy last night who became really offended when my answer to his question about weather or not i liked The Grateful Dead did not turn out to be the answer he wanted me to give.
he took it personal and was so incited that i had to cut him off several times so i could actually answer his question as to why i don't like them. but it really wasn't enough that my taste varied from this guy's, he really really wanted me to LOVE them as much as he did. it was sort of similar to the conversation i had back in Centreville MS with the Methodist preacher the morning after i camped on his lawn. i even explained it with respect to THE DEAD that i just wasn't into their sound. the farmer next to me chimed and said, (after this guy still couldn't accept) "sounds like a closed case." (i really like Farmers.)

i'm not the only person that was waiting for this guy to leave the table, the farmer was pretty much on the same page with me. this guy is one of those socially awkward folks who blurts out really annoying things and little cloaked insults to people and then turns around and apologizes for it and claims that he's just "messin' with ya". he was like a giant gnat, only a giant gnat that talked a constant stream bullshit that had no relevance to anything. he tried real hard to be on every one's good side but it was more like he was pissing on every one's shoe. basically this is a guy with no friends, as a result he annoys people at this restaurant/bar and as a result of that, he has no friends.

hmm, perhaps there will be a comic about this guy. you would think it's not worth the trouble to illustrate, but i find it interesting that people run around like that and who knows, if some other giant gnat or he himself ever sees it, it might cause one shed the wings and grow a brain.
please forgive if this sounds harsh, i don't want to be mean spirited toward this guy, but i am going to flush out how i felt and feel about him, besides i haven't written about any troubles in a while and sometimes that can be boring for people, so now we have conflict here too, hurray!

conflict you say, you want more???

ha! last night, two of the six people that live at the house i'm staying at got into a drunken semi brawl- one guy decided he needed to get into this room and after he pulled the doorknob off he went to the kitchen to get a knife to slide into the door jam and jimmy the lock with- i was amazed that when the girl rushed him and pushed against the box fan and the wall that no one accidentally got stabbed or was stabbed of of sheer blind drunk rage.

the ironic part was that the guy was trying to be the "protector" of the room, which was not really what he was there for (he was there to walk the dogs while this other fellow was out of town) but in the process, the two combatants damaged a lot of stuff that belongs to the guy that pays rent to live in said room.

then two of the four dogs that live there, one of which has already been stressed out, got into a fight too, so then you've got, two or three drunk people trying to pull apart two, pit/boxer mixes all screaming and one nearly crying (over the dogs) and my other host who was sober for the first second time since i met her- she was actually handling things pretty well, she got the people broken up-

all this while i was trying to watch Sector 9. yes, i felt it was best for me to stay out of it.

then the other lease holder comes home and more yelling happens- i'll note that the people that were doing all the yelling were all under 25, just sayin'. well anyway, everything calmed down that was that- fun???

Free concert on the river tonight.

one more note:

a couple of days ago i became reacquainted with the concept that simply the company of a woman with out the conditions of sexual intercourse is a very precious thing.

also, here's some more irony:

i like coming to coffee shops not only for the free interweb but for the social environment, yet, i now spend hours with my head buried in this keyboard not even so much as looking at people-
perhaps i will now take a break and step outside for a bit.

end transmission-