life may bring you bounties of gifts
and smiles that adorn every turn
or smoke may billow through lovelorn
desire bringing nothing but grief
in return - but if you dance in
parades of jugglers charades
all bound by burdens and chains
and you fancy to ride
just for life's playful side
when pains are just vanes for a change
god bless this love burdened trip
of laughs and friends to awake
shake the reins one more time
and chug back some wine 'cause
you're riding upon flanigans wake!
Music
Chet Baker - Antonio Carlos Jobim - Abbey Lincoln - Tupac - Tom Waits - Neil Young - Elis Regina - Miles Davis - John Lennon - The Cure - Johnny Cash - Charlie Parker - John Coltrane - The Rolling Stones - The Ramones - Curtis Mayfield - Doc Watson - Clifford Brown - Thelonius Monk - Astrud Gilberto - Charles Mingus - Neko Case - Bob Dylan - The Psychedelic Furs
I was born in the fifties with a degenerative nervous disorder.
On the day I was born March 15th 1959 Venus
by Frankie Avalon was number one on the Billboard charts. As a
child, I was occasionally restrained in a straitjacket because I
wouldn't calm down. I spent one night in a hospital because I
had jumped down the basement stairs clutching a crucifix to my
chest. I remember when JFK was shot. I sang Beatles songs on the
bus on the way to school. I am haunted by movie and TV theme
songs from the 60's - as well as The
Cube. I was an Army brat - moved every year until I was 14.
I moved by car with my family three times completely across the
US in a '66 Impala. My mom caught me in bed with a girl when I
was eight. I have always gotten into trouble over girls. My dad
came home from Vietnam and we moved to Lake Forest - a suburb of
Chicago. I spent high school there. Then I went to the Air Force
Academy in Colorado to study physics, play football and train to
be a fighter pilot. It really sucked. But I was so 'committed to
excellence' that it took me three years to quit. Upon leaving, I
moved to North Carolina, worked on a Hereford cattle farm and
tended various bars at NC State - and drank a lot. After four
years, I moved to Chicago and managed a men’s clothing store on
Michigan Avenue. I also decorated store windows, staged fashion
shows and lived on the Gold Coast. After two years, I gave it
all up to chase a girl I loved who had moved to Greece. I showed
up by surprise in a village on Crete called Chania. She was in
love with a Greek fisherman named Georgios. So I moved to the
south side of Crete and lived in a cave for five months. I have
always gotten into trouble over girls. When I returned to
Chicago, I decided to go back to school to study ballet and
linguistics - so I moved down to Champaign. After three years of
Sanskrit, a year of Chinese and some dancing - I got bored. So I
started studying philosophy and managed a pizza restaurant on
campus for six years. Then I met a beautiful girl and she got
pregnant. We got married and had three great kids. I returned to
school to study applied mathematics and became a research
programmer. Then I started trying to create software companies
so that I would be rich and live happily ever after. So - for
two years I flew back and forth between Champaign and Austin trying to lay that golden egg. Eventually - I got divorced and moved back to Champaign to be with the kids. I am now living in Chicago creating software, writing plays, poetry and performing stand-up comedy. You may even see me out and about as Jager the Clown - if you are lucky. Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I notice is that my children are not here. And I am not sure how I will even get through the day without them. But I probably will - I lead with my heart.
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