Dear Friends,
One of the things I hate about my brain is that I am constantly thinking about how many days I have until ______ happens. Why can’t I just live in the moment? It tortures me sometimes, although I am getting better at staying in the ‘now.’
When I write “better” it comes from me realizing that I do this to myself, and it doesn’t do me any good. When I get home in a week, I will start counting the days until I see Rhondi again. I know I shouldn’t focus on it, but I just have to think about it here and there. In the last four years, I have learned to lighten the load by telling myself I am not doing myself any good, but I have yet to just be in the ‘now’ like I want to be.
I am going to focus, though, in this coming week in just enjoying Rhondi and Maine and soaking it up while I can. That’s my goal. My Maine goal.
*****
We had a really nice time at Old Orchard Beach on Tuesday. I was way too tired to get into it yesterday, but it was a nice day. We hit Costco in Danvers, MA after getting on the road and then took a little detour in New Hampshire so Rhondi could try to find some of the cider she loves. It was a fun little drive, for sure, and we saw some places we had never seen.
We stayed on the coast route and went through Ogunquit, too, which is beautiful. It’s such a nice drive…it’s even called “Shore Drive.” Someday I want to spend some significant time down there and when I sell my second best seller, I’m buying a place down there, too.
After driving through all the nice neighborhoods, we made it to Old Orchard Beach which is kind of like the Maine equivalent of Coney Island. There is a fair-style amusement park (we went) and lots of places to eat junk food. We had a blast. By the time we got around to having dinner, it was pissing down rain, but it abated enough for us to walk back to our room and only get a little damp.
Yesterday we started our day by going down to the beach for a little bit more action. It was a nice way to start the day, but hot down there. The humidity was pretty ridiculous. We headed back north about 12:30PM and got back to Rangeley around 4. It was nice and cool in the mountains because of a pretty strong afternoon rain, and we had a beautiful sunset.
Today I will get a few things done, write, read, and just relax as much as possible. Very little agenda for me and I’m glad for it. Soaking it all in…just like wrote that I would.
*****
There are two stories I need to tell when it relates to Logical Nonsense and their record, Expand the Hive. Before I jump into those, though, I need to say that this record is one that I pop in at least once a year and rock the fuck out to when I do. It rules. Go listen to it now if you like the heavy, angry side of power violence/hardcore.
One night, Terry, EJ, and I were down at the practice room doing our Hillbilly thing. This was in 1994 or 1995, probably. I’m not sure exactly when, to be honest, but it had to be kind of early on in the time of the band.
We had made friends with the band across the hall from us. They were called Funnelneck and they were an interesting and cool bunch of dudes. It was a Friday or Saturday night, and they came over to our room and asked if we wanted to join them at a party on the West side. There were two bands I’d never heard playing it, Schlong and Logical Nonsense, so I figured, ‘why not?’
They gave us directions and EJ, Terry, and I finished up our practice and headed out. It was somewhere around 67th Avenue and McDowell, if I remember correctly, but maybe not that far south. It was a house and there were a lot of crusty punk types there.
This was not my usual crowd, but I liked the music, just the same. Schlong was set up and playing when we got there. The music was being played in the kitchen under some old fluorescent lights, so it looked suitably bizarre. They were suitably bizarre, too.
As I’m writing this, though, I’m almost sure that this was a different show, and my brain is just combining them because they were at the same house. Either way…bizarre.
I was definitely there to see Logical Nonsense set up their gear in the kitchen and they looked like a bunch of crazy dudes. All crusty and dreads and ready to fuck shit up. I was a bit intimidated by this, but I played it off as best I could. I was sober at the time and parties like this were difficult for me because in my younger days, I would have been figuring out who had the best drugs and getting some of those to experience it properly.
Boy was I dumb when I was younger.
When the band finally got going, they launched into his heavy, crazy, amazing music with tons of moving parts. I was mesmerized. I was blown away. I left there a huge fan of this wild band from New Mexico. I will argue with anyone that they are the best band to ever come from New Mexico and that is including the Shins.
Logical Nonsense was heavy and serious and played at blazing speeds. They were definitely not fucking around when it came to playing, but after the set, we were talking to them, and they were cool as fuck. I went from being intimidated to having total respect for these guys. The next several Hillbilly practices were definitely spirited after seeing this show.
Expand the Hive is a great representation of what Logical Nonsense did live. It starts off with some crazy distorted vocals giving a speech that aims to scare the shit out of someone and then just blasts the fuck off. All killer and no filler, Expand the Hive is fucking great.
One night, about six or seven years after seeing them live, some friends and I were partying and decided to take some X. Now, I’m not proud of this and would not do it again if given the chance, but in those days, my ex-wife and I were a little curious about it and experimented for a bit. Nothing good came from those experiments, either.
Anyway, though. We decided to do some X over at a townhouse where a friend of my ex’s lived at. Brian and I went to grab some beers and such and went to meet them there. As the drugs started to kick in, I put on Expand the Hive.
It was the first time I had heard the record with an expanded consciousness, and it was fucking crazy. Brian had never heard it before, and it certainly set a mood for the evening. We discussed it afterwards and decided it probably wasn’t the best choice I could have made for such a suggestive drug.
Lesson learned.
*****
See you tomorrow.
AI likes Italian Ice. So do I.
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