It is not every day you get to hear a funk/fusion band, a muezzin and a Mister Softee truck all at once.

The circumstances were...?

The band was playing at a local festival thing in the park across the street, there's a mosque not too far from here, and then the ice cream truck rolled in. When the ice cream truck showed up, it was in time with the band and hitting on the off beats, which added to the surreal feel- it's as if he was jamming along.

The band was solid; they had a sax player in addition to guitar/bass/drums/keys. Their first set was instrumental; for the second they were joined by a female vocalist for classic R&B. I preferred the first set, though credit where it's due, they managed the second without highlighting the fact they were shredding it up as much as they could get away with. Drummer was an older black dude, but his playing would not have been out of place in a heavy band- lots of double kick action, much more rock than jazz.

Unrelated: I was recording for a friend's band last night. They are metal. The singer was scatting over a blast beat section. Seriously. This was fantastic. It actually sounded evil as hell, as if some giant monster was invoking an ancient curse. Also, I had no idea what the lyrics were for large portions of the songs, so I was just making shit up that sounded vaguely like what he ways saying. Lines included the following: "large baby cows bringing saddles are retarded", "stone age woman", "Use Your Illusion, Groove Is In The Heart". No one else knew the lyrics either, so we were cracking up when he was in the booth. What once was heard can never be unheard.

The wonderful and terrible thing about buying old-ass cars is, over the years, discovering what kind of clusterfuckery the previous owner might have built into the thing.

After quite a few months i now finally have brakes that i trust now that i actually have the correct thickness discs and pads on it. One of the downsides to the lego type nature of my favored era volkswagens is that is is totally possible to buy your discs from a base model Golf, your pads from a GTI, bolt the whole thing together, and never know how fucking wrong you are, other than the fact that gee, but i don't seem to remember brand new brakes ever feeling this damn sketchy, or the pedal engaging so fucking low to the floor. Hmm. Must be something else.

Nice now that they are correct again though.

As an aside, lately i have just had circus music running through my head, 24/7.

Also, i have become reasonably certain that the squirrels are getting in via the chimney. I am pretty sure that they leave shitty presents though. Like fucking typhus. Or maybe rabies?

Shot a video today, with a proper director- local indie film guy- and everything. Multiple camerapeople! Also, a girl in a duct tape dress. Given the heat and humidity and lack of ventilation, it was probably not the ideal day to be a rock asswhole and wear leather pants. I did it anyway.

Just found out that one of my old school mates died in a car crash this morning. Hadn't seen him for a year or so and we lost contact for a bit after school but we were really good friends at one point. First drummer I played with and we wrote our first proper song together which funnily enough I was playing the other day and meant to chat to him about having a jam again at some point. Feels so weird. Little clip of something we were gonna work on when we started jamming again for a while a few years back

Sorry to hear that Todge. Death of someone your age or younger is kind of eye opening and rough. *hugs*

Yeah, he was one of the younger ones in our year as well. Just isn't right. Been jamming all the songs we used to play together today, Sex Pistols songs never gave me goosebumps til now haha

On a more positive note, I started my mountain/outdoors inspired sleeve yesterday and I'm so fucking pleased with how it's going so far. Robert W Ashby is a talented man. The clouds will heal a much lighter grey apparently so they won't be so bold. Flowers and shit to follow.

Tom, sorry to hear about your friend. That shit is fucked up. I haven't lost any of my good friends yet, but a couple have come close enough for me to think about it before.

I don't know if i would be more pissed off or sad. Dying young is basically bullshit.

The wilderness tattoo is pretty fantastic though.

Condolences and super rad tattoo, Tom.

I'm getting hypnotized in the morning. Wish me luck, boys.

So, I feel really good? Almost like I am fucking high. I find myself caring about clouds and shit? This is strange.

I didn't really feel any different that day, but when I woke up yesterday I felt really good and whatnot and continued to do so throughout the rest of the day.

That's good news. Glad to hear things are looking up.

oh and also just because we seemed to have almost forgotten:

What was the hypnotist's intention with you?

Radithor is a fine beverage. Let us never forget this.

Laudanum also, is quite nice.

Hypnosis, an interesting angle. Hope it does what you are looking for from it.

I don't suspect that it would work on me. In my yout, i was indeed introduced to some of the sorts of things that make hypnosis work for those folks what it works for, but in my case, it wound up being just about: nothing doing.

The intention is to essentially unbreak my brain. To reverse some of the entirely fucked thought processes/habits I have gathered over the years. I was/remain very skeptical but I think it is maybe helping. I was essentially thinking "this is fucking bullshit" the entire time (including during the relaxed state itself) but I suppose one can't be entirely like that for it to do much of anything for them.

I also haven't smoked weed in a bit over a week. Which is pretty cool.

Hey man, if it works, it works. If it worked for me, i would have someone (attempt to) fix my brain for sure.