Resolutions and Revolutions
Now Playing: Brian Eno--"Mother Whale Eyeless"
First, I'd like to apologize--the actor who played Greg Brady is in fact Barry Williams and not Barry McDonald. God knows where that came from; Angelfire's being dicky and won't let me edit my posts.

The title will actually make some sort of sense for a change. One uneventful holiday just over, and another rears its ugly head. I suspect my own New Year's Eve will be rather low-key, much unlike the past two, an idea which rather appeals to me. I got out of the habit of making New Year's resolutions some time ago, but will venture a few this year. Couldn't hurt.

1. Treat other people better.

2. Get other stories published. I had two last year in The First BHF Book of Horror Stories and might have two this year in the Third. There are two others that I'm planning to send to other venues; I just need to get off my ass and do it.

3. Write other stories; I've fallen into a slump over the past couple of months, I fear.

4. Find a job in which I'm not considered retarded and at which I make more money. It's not as important as happiness, obviously, and I'd probably be relatively happy in this job (I like cooking, I like interacting with customers) if my boss wasn't so shallow and manipulative, but those student loans and prospective travel costs won't pay themselves.

5. Try and learn a different recipe each weekend. I'd planned to do this some time back, and can now fix cookies (doesn't sound like much, but I made the dough from scratch and without a scoop), biscones, olliebollen (after a fashion), quiche provencale, tomato and goat cheese quiche (no fancy name of French or Italian geographical derivation, so far as I know), and pan-fried steak. This weekend (hopefully): sirloin in Basque cheese sauce (chuleton al Idiazabal).

6. Get into a library school program at Michigan (or Wayne State) or somewhere that offers a lot of financial aid. If it all falls through, move somewhere else and pursue the cooking. Anywhere, probably a large city in which I don't need to drive (preferably New York or Chicago, but I wouldn't rule out Detroit or Cleveland). It's been a decent past two years, but wanderlust begins to knock again...

7. Exercise more and eat better. This includes drinking more wine instead of beer. Life is too short, but I may as well give it a go.

8. Read all those doorstop novels--Ulysses, Rememberance of Things Past, The Man Without Qualities, A Dance To The Music of Time... I might as well get them out of the way. I will be at death's door, though, before I attempt Finnegan's Wake.

9. Volunteer more. While I'm here (or anywhere) I should do my best to be a good citizen. Having put up the library at WRAP, I'm hardly there anymore. I still potter around Planned Parenthood, but feel conscious of the need for another vol-venue. Sara suggested Food Gatherers a while back. I seem to remember Arbor Brewing does some sort of volunteer thing. I just need to get off my ass and make arrangements. A lot of getting off my ass needs to be done all round. Speaking of which...

10. Spend less time on the internet. It's only about half an hour to an hour a day, all told, but it still feels like too much, and I don't even have access at home. I suspect part of my slight leeriness about the career path I've chosen (and will embark on with a second choice standing tall in the distance) is due to its present reliance on the internet and computer search engines and data collections. All very well, but what happens when the power runs out?

The Cetan Clawson Revolution: The new CCR were an area band who asked me to come to their Blind Pig show Friday night with flattering aggression. I was rather intrigued, largely because I'd be hearing a group with whom I had no personal connection whatsoever. I'd also get to hear Chrome Mali again (hadn't heard them in a while--band member Frank occasionally visits Chateau Fluffy and knows our much-missed business consultant/one-time manager). I dressed down for the occasion (I'm usually ludicrously overdressed, although a friend flatteringly referred to the results as "casual elegance") and hopped on down only to find that the show had been cancelled (God knows why). After a beer at Babs', I drifted into Ashley's on my way home. Ashley's was my bar of choice for about the first year I lived here, and though it's out of favor with some of the local intelligentsia (probably because of all the Michigan students and the meat-market aura it sometimes exudes), their beer selection really is out of this world (and when I was there, they had the friendliest and most attractive staff in town). Brian still works there and it was good to see him again. I also ran into John Fossum at Borders, where we had a chat--probably the most effervescently pleasant person I know in the Ann Arbor music scene (hell, in Ann Arbor period). All in all, despite the disappointing cancellation, Friday night was a happily low-pressure time, when I could flit hither and thither, etc. I do hope, though, to hear the Cetan Clawsons at some point.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!