Beautiful. If you haven’t seen this, you will. Genius. And I especially want to share this with my family-men buddies Rick Cuevas, Andrew Lawrence Jackson, and Patrick Coyne, music guys all.

DMK: “Black Celebration”

I’m extremely sad to be passing this along, but I know that Rick Hautala and I have a lot of FB friends in common. I don’t have any information, just Christopher Golden’s post.

This is the hardest post I’ve ever written. I can barely type the words.
A little while ago, I lost one of my best friends in the world. The kind of friend who would stand with you through anything, who would have your back no matter what. I talked to him nearly every day and I can’t quite comprehend that he is no longer in this world. How can it be? How can this man–like a brother to me–with his totally unique voice and his self-deprecating humor…how can he be gone?
I share this not for myself, but because there are many of you out there who will want to know. He was only 64 years old.
The horror community lost a true legend today. My heart is breaking. I just don’t know what to do.
Rick Hautala. 1949-2013

A long-time musical crush.

Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray

I had an excellent (by my standards, anyway) idea for a semi-funny story pop into my head full-blown today, ending and all. That doesn’t happen very often — usually an idea pops up, then I build on it. Sadly, it’s only a little thing, so I won’t be able to clean up on it and retire to a life of leisured swinishness somewhere along Elkhorn Slough, Riviera of the Central Coast.

Clearly, Facebook is a magic god and is demanding sacrifice. Volunteers? I promise it will be painless, and no more embarrassing than necessary.

Wow. That’s weird. I was just talking to Lisa T. about the profile picture and something she said about it disappearing and it just disappeared again while I was answering a private message. Not the profile itself, but the posting of it on the wall and the discussion between Lisa and yours truly.

We had a very nice St. P’s Day, a long seaside walk with the doggles and a pub lunch afterward, watching people swim drunkenly and wear plastic hats. Oh, the Hibernity!

This is my favorite traditional Irish song. We played it (the Van Morrison/Chieftains version) as our first wedding dance. But I’m fond of many versions, most definitely including Bryan’s…

Bryan Ferry – Carrickfergus

Remember, pet it BEFORE you kill it. Otherwise the petting’s sort of wasted. Not to mention more messy.

My alma mater has changed its Facebook name from “Add-Your College” to “Where-Did-You-Go-To College”. (It’s an old Native American name.) Ah, those wonderful days of youth yet green when we used to dunk witches in the quad and persecute the left-handed by making them dance during the intermission of the Cribbage Round-Robin. Merry old school days!

Now, as for the birthday itself: very chill. I say that in the best possible sense. I’ve been working hard lately, so today I did nothing that I didn’t want to do. There was some work involved, in the form of an hour’s worth of book-thinking, but I love doing that, especially when I can combine it with drifting in and out of a nap.

I received several lovely and thoughtful gifts from my family, including a bitchin’ Giants jacket with all the G’s Series-winning years in patches on the arms — now featuring 2012! Most excellent. And Deb and I and the kids went out for dinner, and the kids were their normal fun, funny selves and we had several ridiculous conversations.

I’m a lucky man, lucky in my marriage and family, career and friends. I don’t say this very often because it creeps my wife out, but I honestly feel that if I died tomorrow I wouldn’t have any regrets (except, obviously, the desire to see more of everyone, especially my nearest and dearest.) I’m grateful every day.

AND I have the coolest Giants jacket you ever saw.

Okay, my “like” finger is aching. If I’ve failed to put the imprimatur of my enjoyment on your birthday greeting to me, it’s probably because I’d already liked it and accidentally unliked it.

Thank you all so much for your kind words and all the nifty presents. All of them that moved or made noise I’ve looked at, and I can honestly say I enjoyed every single one of them. Except that industrial thing about “What If There Was No Paint?” mashed up with the Alvin and the Chipmunks speedmetal track. I didn’t get that completely.

Seriously, I’m amazed at how many friends I have. I plan to come stay at each and every one of your places of residence or work until you physically call the authorities to make me go away. It will take years, but I’ll get to everybody, I promise. Just leave the door unlocked.

Yes. That’s how much I love you all.

“The parts of Josh’s story I experienced were all in the 1970s, when we invented irony. By we, I mean the kids that grew up in the years after the great explosion of the counterculture. When I say we invented it, I don’t mean the concept or even the practice, but that it was our generation — disgusted by The Establishment but also annoyed by hippie optimism — that made it the cultural norm. (And now the snotty global language of the internet era. Sorry about that, world.)” — Tad Williams, from the introduction to ALL THE WILD CHILDREN (A NOIR MEMOIR) by Josh Stallings

I’m not “liking” my own words so much as my buddy’s excellent book, published today (now that it’s Friday.) It’s an amazingly honest, funny book about growing up skewed in the 60s and 70s. And I was there. It’s all true. Unlike the autobiography I’M going to write one of these days.

2013 is showing every sign so far of being a really odd year. Come to think of it, there’ve been more than a few of those, lately. It’s a good thing I am nature’s perfect machine for enjoying the weird.

Best Line I Just Stole (from Atheist Pig) — “Ah, that new-pope smell.”

And in an astonishing coup, the College of Cardinals has just chosen Dick Cheney as the next pontiff. He will call himself Pope Vader.

Now that this jam has resurfaced again, this time on a Rihanna cut, I thought it was time to return to the master’s original. One of the great all-time grooves.

Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa

From “He Is Ancient And He Loathes Mankind, Charlie Brown!”

The Dude
By Julien Bazinet

I can’t stay grumpy too long, because I eventually look up and say, “You know, it’s pretty awesome to be alive in the world right now.” Then I drive to the store for ice cream while listening to really loud music on my tiny phone.

Twenty-First Century! Ya gotta recognize!

Bobcat came back. Son Connor took pictures. Unfortunately it was a tough angle, but he got one where it can be seen fairly clearly. It was trying to catch a gopher, but the gopher was too cautious.

If Evil Monster Men come to your door and try to convince you they want to take you away with them to Happy Island, don’t go. Rumor is, the place is ridiculously expensive.

Those who know me already know that I am very into the animals that live around our property (yes, and those who live in our house, too, including children, but that’s mainly a legal issue because I can be sued for trapping or caging them.) Anyway, just had a bobcat walk across the walkway outside my office window, about five feet away, in broad daylight, and then linger for about three minutes near the house. Never seen one that close, or in full sun, or for that long. Wow. I’m happy.

This is my sign-off for the p.m. See you when my side is facing the sun again.

Robyn Hitchcock – Goodnight I say