STOP THIEF!

My first day back from vacation and I stopped two thieves.

One was the 'sticker remover' bastard who had 25 books staged in 5 different places in Politics. Apparently he is almost done with stealing the entire lit section as he had all of Vonnegut's books ready to be lifted. Fucker. Pulled his stashes before he could leave and then I creepily stalked him until he left the store. Did he get the hint? Doubt it.

Two was the 'guy i chased'. The fuck walked out the front door with stuff, then proceded to walk towards Kroger, all the while speeding up. Once he started walking faster outside, I cut across the store through the cafe. When he turned the corner between the stores, he took off running, that's when i started running as well. He had a good lead on me and there was no way I was going to catch him, but found an alternate way to stop thieves.

Yell "Drop that shit, punk ass".

I was so happy I almost plotzed. I returned with his booty (3-disc Wizard of Oz & 2-disc Big Lebowski) and felt good for the rest of the day.

Two Or So Things

Dreamt I met the new GM last night (sort of). I actually had a dream that contained one of my first managers at Borders, and he said that Gary [gm6] was alot like him, but thats all I remember. So this could mean various things, Gary is irish or prematurely balding or has a skinny wife or likes D&D or is overweight and doesn't shave. Very cryptic. Let's see how true, or untrue, this is.
Good news is that gm5 no longer has any power over our store, although she's been harder to find than julie ann boler since she left.

The purchase of my iPod has led me to 'exercise' more, if you can call alternately walking and jogging around Lake Lynn exercise. But I have realized that it is tough to jog to songs where my natural jogging speed doesn't match the beats per minute of the song. Like Dance Naked by Mellencamp or Suzie Q Part 2 by CCR, and jogging to live Coltrane is impossible.

Was finally able to get my hands on all the good Van Halen cds (pre-sammy), Flamestrike Boy hooked me up with the Van Halen, as well as much OutKast, Wu-Tang and a pair of bowls. He burned Van, Lyle, Jimi, Floyd & the Dead among others.

My iPod

I've only had my iPod for about 2 weeks and now I've already divided my life into B.i. and A.i. It is a magical device, the mythical philosophers stone. Most mornings I wake up and thank the higher powers that Steve Jobs returned to run Mac. Without him life would suck and I would be on some crappy pc clone praying not to be struck down with the 'blue screen of death', which, rumour has it will be in the next version of the OED.

Bless you Mac

My Greatest Bands of All Time

1. The Beatles - the lads from Liverpool have done more for rock music that any other band. they didnt just open new doors, they built the house. true ground breakers they turned the simple pop song into genius, had 80 bajillion number 1 hits in just three years, then they went out and in less than 2 years produced Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt Peppers (holy fuck that's a good stretch). still bigger than jesus.

2. The Band - 4 canadians and 1 american redefined music right in the middle of the psychadelic era, mixing folk, rock, gospel and blues into a tight package that yearned to explode at the seems. from a hoary r&b dancehall band to dylan's backing band, they transformed themselves through two albums of americana folk tales into one of the most influential bands of all time and put a large pink house in upstate new york on the map.

3. The Replacements - rising from the minneapolis scene, their punk influences and their rollercoaster live shows (blisteringly hot or drunkingly incoherent) set them up for breakthrough with Let It Be. westerberg's songwriting skills blossomed on that album and allowed them to make the jump to warner bros, which tamed them a bit, until they fell apart and became paul's springboard to a solo career. their unwillingness to promote themselves kept them from being larger than life.

4. The Pixies - out of Boston, their influence continues to grow to this day. they have become a modern day velvet underground, exploding a music scene (alternative rock) to the forefront without ever really being part of it, until now. squealing guitars, bizarre lyrics and a female bass player set the standard for the next decade of bands, as has their 'loud-quiet-loud' song style.

5. (tie) R.E.M & The Rolling Stones - bands similar in their overall careers. both have periods where they were the absolute 'Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World' and produced records that are withour peer. rem (83-87), stones (68-72). both returned years later with another classic album after a decline, rem (Automatic For The People); stones (Some Girls). and now, both bands continue to slog along without founding members who have retired. both bands need to stop now, or in the case of the stones 20 years ago.