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Sun.Oct.31.2004

1:29 am EST        56°F (13°C) in Dearborn, MI

Calendar of Updates

As you can see, Daylight Saving Time officially came to an end one-half hour before I began making this update. I am finishing up a little bit of time at home before heading back out to the road later today.

I have managed to have a reasonably interesting last few days. After arriving near Ann Arbor late Wednesday night, I slept in the truck waiting on my friend Eric to arrive on Thursday morning. I got to meet his girlfriend Angela and her not-quite-four-year-old son Noah for the first time; while Noah was a bit shy at first, as most toddlers tend to be, I managed to get him to warm up to me by the end of the day. (I can be funny like that; ordinarily, most little kids annoy the hell out of me, but it seems that if I personally know the parent(s), I'm real good around kids.) We did lunch and drove around the University of Michigan campus for a while, before I had to go buy a new pair of shoes and head to a 3:00pm appointment. After that, it was off to Briarwood for some more shopping; I picked up a Boston Red Sox cap to celebrate their World Series championship (yes, I'm a total bandwagon fan wink), the DVD versions of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Saved!, and Ryan Cabrera's new CD Take It All Away. (More on that in a bit.) Later, at dinner, I found out for the first time that Angela had moved from girlfriend to fiancée status; I have been invited to be one of Eric's groomsmen at a late-July 2005 wedding in "Da U.P.". After dinner, it was back to the truck until 1:00am, when I met up with my friend Marc for a quick hour of billiards and booze. Not since the Roman sacking of Carthage in the second century B.C. has such destruction as what Marc unleashed on me on the green felt-covered tableau ever been witnessed — in three games, I think I might have sunk four or five balls. smile

I was supposed to meet up with Marc again Friday night for dinner, but an ignition problem cropped up with his car, and he was unable to get the engine to fire. It may have been the exceedingly humid, rainy conditions that caused this; he was able to get the car running this past afternoon, and we ended up pushing our plans back 24 hours. After the thrilling triple-overtime Michigan-Michigan State football game, won 45-37 by the Wolverines even though it probably shouldn't have been given Big Blue's play in the first three quarters, he headed over this way, and then we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant — Armando's, in the Mexicantown area of Detroit. As usual, the food was excellent, though they did take three tries to get Marc's order right — but at least they did knock roughly 25% off the bill for their screw-ups, so it wasn't that bad.

In some ways, I guess I fancy myself a music-industry commentator; I wrote a piece entitled "Is Rock Guitar Really Dead?" for the 1998 edition of my high school's literary magazine. In it, I pointed out that while guitar-based music seemed to be losing its place to bubble-gum pop and so-called "chick rock," most anybody with a long memory could recall other serious slumps in guitar-based music and the eventual recovery within eight to ten years. I mention this because I think that the aforementioned Ryan Cabrera is at the forefront of guitar rock's recovery from the seven-year drubbing it has taken at the hands of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, et al.. Much like early-80s rock fused certain elements of the dying disco era with old-school rock philosophies, I think the next evolution in guitar music will see some elements of the bubble-gum pop craze added to the older influences. The work of the young and exceedingly hot Mr. Cabrera (what I wouldn't give to … wait a minute, this web site isn't rated NC-17 wink) is the first example I have heard of what I think will be representative of the future of guitar music.

I am at it again — writing more essays for the "Being Gay" section of this site, that is. Currently, I am working on one aimed at parents that will help them to deal with the aftermath of their child's coming out, as well as provide the correct guidance on how to teach their children the entire truth about homosexuality. As with the rest of them, it will go up when it's finished.

It looks as though I will be headed to western Michigan to pick up my next load, and then headed for Nebraska thereafter. Sleep is all that remains between me and heading back to the truck; on that note, I think I'll bring this update to an end.