Entry Three.
Monday 2002.06.17 9:39 PM CST.
Happiness = Coffee + A Skim Leche.

Well, this has been an interesting day.  Last night, I was feeling fairly depressed (I have my bouts of depression from time to time) and I just didn't see any sort of potential excitement or happiness in the world.  However, today, when I woke up and went to my (grrrrr) day job, I actually felt better than during most of the weekend.

Anyway, today I got something in the mail that really cheered me up.  I got five more ties - four J. Garcia and one Miles Davis (I'm an obsessive tie collector) - but that wasn't the big thing.  A HUGE box arrived containing a recent order from James Ether (see Entry One).  Inside that box were three pieces of original artwork, which are now decorating the entryway to my apartment, and three members of the Podunk Jamboree:  Skim "Scoopy" Leche, Dicky Awful (with dark purple hair, by request), and a Beavertail Kid.  Whenever I have a chance, I'll take some pictures of them and pop them up in the Journal.  If you have the chance to purchase a Podunkian or two, I highly recommend it.  They have a very cool, hand-made quality (since they're, um, hand-made), but the construction is very well-done, in my humble opinion.  I'm definitely going to invest in more within the next month.

However, the big news (as far as my music fans are concerned) is that James Ether - the man himself - included a hand-written letter granting me permission to remix his work.  Even though I'd had his blessings via e-mail, it was spectacular to get that letter.  I have all but finished my first remix (the Clockwork Wizards mix of "Butter Cakes") and I plan to at least build a trilogy or remixes of his works.  In the meantime (and I swear I don't mean to sound like a carnival barker here), check out his original music.  At the time of this writing, the site I'd usually link to (http://www.boxcollective.com/paintedwagon/portal.html) is having some issues, so if you're interested, you can hear his work at http://www.mp3.com/james_ether.

OK, so after that, when night crept around, I headed out to a little coffee shoppe, Gypsy Coffee House, that I'd heard of recently but to which I'd never gone.  It was an extremely cool experience, and I got one of the best egg salad sandwiches that I'd eaten in quite some time.  Plus, even though I sat away from everyone else (I was the only person sitting in the non-smoking section), I felt a really swank atmospheric groove thing going on there.  It was nice.

Anyway, as far as my music goes, well, I have been thinking and it might be nice to stick a cover version of some track on the first and/or second album.  Of course, I'll pay to legally license it.  I'm not sure which song to perform, though.  Stay tuned.  Things might be getting a lot more interesting.

-Badger.