american toad

american toad, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

thanksgiving

6 cans of trash, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

waiting for scraps

ole

ole, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

thanksgiving pups

thanksgiving pups, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

have a fabulous thanksgiving this year

what about this guy

dennis & elizabeth kucinich





makes sense to me i must confess

visual excitement

google image search = "fist pump"

rocking tots

recent conversation between me, lande (6.5 year old girl) and ryal (3.5 year old boy):

me: is dan zanes your favorite rockstar?

lande: dan zanes is my favorite - or hannah montana - no dan zanes is my favorite THEN hannah montana THEN hilary duff

me: who's your favorite ryal?

ryal: daddy

***

me: are you gonna be an accountant like your dad when you grow up?

lande: no a rockstar

me: what instrument are you gonna play?

lande: the microphone

road warrior

he took the train
he caught his flight
he hailed a cab
he rode his bike
he walked a mile
a million times
with hope
out there
his love
he'd find

with shoes wore down
he heard it all
the tragic spring
the comic fall
the coldest days
he hummed the song
my love
is right
here all
along

tumor or not tumor?

the vet called with holden & nacho's blood tests & they're both "pretty much perfect" which is great but she's recommending surgery to take off holden's tumors.

she stuck a needle in them to test while we were at the office and said she's 99% positive they're benign.

the tumors have been there for about 4 years now, starting with one - the biggest golf ball looking one - now there are 4, all on holden's ribcage (cheetah chest) and don't get in his way.



they'd have to put him under for the surgery

he's 9 1/2 years old, which is like in his late 60's people years

it would cost $500-600, which really means $750

i don't want these to get to be the size of grapefruit & put stress on his other organs

if i wait much longer he'll be too old for surgery

but they're not cancerous and he's in great health and that's a lot of fucking money

anybody with tips, experience, advice, pointers, a rusty razor, let me know




holden votes "no"

it's snowing!

40 AM

40 am, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

drove back and forth to chapel hill yesterday thrifting along the way. it was great to get back to tar heel country after 5 years. got a tuna sandwich at foster's and it was just as good as i remember. here's a driving & clicking photo from around 730 am coming down off the mountain.

scattering tea leaves

i almost feel like someone died. i got this email last night:

"After ten great years on the road as a touring musician, I have come to the realization that this life is not for me. As a result, I have decided to leave Tea Leaf Green to pursue some of my life's other passions. I wish my brothers in the band only the best. Their future is surely bright. Most of all, I am so grateful to my family, friends, and fans. You've always encouraged my free spirit; thanks for your continued support.

Ben C.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In any band, there exists a dynamic between the collective's goals and those of the individual members. At times, aspirations that were once aligned, diverge. This is one of those times. We support Ben's decision without reservation and wish him only the best. We know he put his heart and soul into thinking this through, just like he did with Tea Leaf Green these past ten years; we admire Ben for staying true to himself.

As one chapter ends, so another begins. In this moment of transition, we've reached out to our good friend, Reed Mathis, who enthusiastically accepted the torch. Please join us in Santa Cruz as we welcome Reed to the band. Let's get this show on the road!

Tea Leaf Green"




he went by many names - milky chambers, the weed, franz hanzerbeak, & more - he was hard to photograph because he moved too constantly, always grooving head bobbing chicken walking plucking his bass hard and when they passed the mic to him he rapped heady funky goodness and the dancefloor was instantly transformed from manic schwirly chaos to a community getting down to ben c. all together now.

and today he's off to pursue other passions and i wish him extremely well but my heart aches with i feel like we let him down, i as a fan let him down, he wasn't happy enough playing for us to keep doing it. i shouldve gone to more shows, shouldve burned cd's for more people, all that stuff a band as talented as tea leaf green deserves but i also feel like could be they're tilting in a different direction from the planet of green love into the rock n roll band and they're playing 100+ shows a year back and forth and back and forth across the US and canada & a lot of those shows are short festival sets and opening for other bands, and hardly ever do they pass the mic to ben c. in a show like that. life on the road for these people is never easy i imagine. i'll always have a biscuit from NYE '05 to remember him by, and the memories, good god the memories, and the live music archive.

can't wait to see the new tea leaf green, hope they come this way soon.

it's a husky world

the la times says disney is fixing the ride "it's a small world" so the boats stop getting stuck in a couple places. they're making the water deeper and the boats more buoyant. when boats stick on the ride now, a disney worker goes back there and asks somebody to get out of the boat & gives them a food ticket for their trouble.

here is a shirt they could give out instead

in related news, a dunkin donuts just opened nearby, with plans for more to spread into the area soon.

happy birthday brother

peanut butter time 3, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

little brother henry turns 2 today! he's a good boy.

wild weekend bits

i met a friend of a friend who rode his bike here to asheville from nashville tennessee last week by himself in 4 days with all his stuff in saddlebags, i think 380some miles.

i went to see porter batiste & stoltz at the garage at biltmore and was impressed with everything, the music, the place, the reconstructed vintage clothes store attached to it, all cool



wheels chipotle got a tarheel tattoo - tar tattooed onto his heel


he said it didn't hurt at all and we agreed that it's magical


i went to see dan zanes rock out this afternoon with some '21st century all ages folk music'


and lande lost a tooth at the orange peel!

vortex

point of the twist

vet checkup today

time for holden & nacho's yearly doctor's visit. rabies shots for everyone! aspirating holden's tumors! should be a blast.

before the music dies

they're showing this tonight at the fine arts theater downtown. and be there i will. it's a documentary on the state of the music biz. music will never die.


beforethemusicdies.com

scented motivational fruit?

care to guess what scented motivational fruit might be?

(click to see what it is)

not very nice

not very nice, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

maybe i was the brat too. here are some pictures of us on that trip to florida mostly riding fake horses.

weekend

saturdays full of potential
sundays full of regret
projects parties list to get done
good friends you never met

fight depression

tooth & nail

trevor garrod @ las tortugas, last sunday morning 10-28

angel from montgomery (john prine)
just like heaven> (the cure)
don't let it down
? 'water, wind and wine' -tg on harp and guitar
16 tons (merle davis)
where the forest was
'i wish i was innocent'
i've got a truck
edge of the world
blackbird on a wire
love reveals
brokedown palace (hunter/garcia)
drink of streams




taped & posted by AG of jambase

can you believe it's november

nacho thinks it's been a loooong week


going to a japanese steak house is like taking a bath in sesame oil

inadvertent hieroglyphics

widespread panic question

Take 5: This is your second show in Asheville this year. Why did you decide to bring this special Halloween show here to town?

John Bell: For Widespread Panic, Halloween is a major holiday, so we like it to be someplace special. Asheville has grown on us over the years. We could tell that’s where the good vibe was going to be. We keep secret what we’re going to do. I don’t even tell the boys what I’m going to wear before the show. It’s the one time we get to play make-believe and do a lot of tunes that we wouldn’t normally play.

lotsa parties

chubby hands seek twigs, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

went to a few looooovely get togethers this weekend full of cute babies, fascinating folks, super music, sweet treats & drinks, and good times all around.

first time playing, totally nailed it

it burns

what's the difference between mental and spiritual?

baseball card

i just found this card i made a few months ago for a boston red sox fan i know but forgot to give it to him. it's the colors of a red sox game. i think it's good luck in times like these.

shantaram

shantaram california, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i just read this book shantaram by gregory david roberts & found it wildly entertaining and informative.

the main character escaped from jail in australia and went to bombay india to live there as a fugitive, where he got into black market crime and set up a free medical clinic to treat his neighbors in the bombay slum. strangely enough the author did just the same thing in real life.

his description of the bombay slum where he lived was eye-opening for me in that it was very orderly and clean and tidy and all the thousands of inhabitants were peaceable and neighborly with each other. some parts of the book were too graphic for me describing the ways he was beaten and tortured in the indian jail, but i just skimmed those paragraphs without forming mental images & just said 'thank god it's not me, thank god it's not me'.

he met some fascinating characters along the way & the book gives great insight into bombay organized crime and indian culture in general. i have no desire to go to india myself at this point, and i appreciate the way this book took me there in a third-party way.

the book is 950 pages and i read it in 3 days, that's how quickly it flows. thanks to the mappy camper for suggesting it, i highly enjoyed reading this.

the polish rifle's bed!

here's the 100% real legit craigslist post for the polish rifle's bed - he's crazy.


Ikea King Size Bed Frame, Black MALM style nice! - $200

---

Reply to: sale-457995469@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-23, 11:27PM PDT


This posting is for a brand new bed frame that can be found here: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S69849241

Posting is for the King size version listed at $229.99. We are asking $200 and will include the bed slats (an extra 50 bucks) in the price.

Bed is brand new, but was mistakenly bought for a Cal King matress and couldn't be used. This unfortunate circumstance was not made clear to me until I actually set it up. By then, I had screwed up the packaging beyond reasonable wear and couldn't return it. So buying this from us will save you $80 bucks and the mandatory 3-mile walk inside the labyrinth that is IKEA, the world's first sweedish furniture mega outlet.

One more thing, we lost the instructions. But don't fear...

The guy in the following picture will come over and set up your bed for an additional charge of 1 case of Pabst Genuine Draft, available at most Ralph's grocery stores for $10.99. Money will not be accepted in lieu of PGD.
http://www.kitshickers.com/images/gallery/season5.tlgfeb06/main/DSCN8167.JPG

Also, you can find out more about PGD here: http://www.epinions.com/content_2264703108

Call pat at 858-337-1536 to set up delivery or just respond to this posting.


here's the link - rifle's bed

be careful

mosquito masks, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

there's drought and wind and fire out in california (see the map) just a few miles from where i lived and where all the vintage vantage t-shirts are warehoused, and it's a terrible mess for thousands of people out there. all the kitshickers are safe and breathing in horrible smoke and ash. pray for the winds to die. in extreme cases, wear mosquito masks. in the words of jerry springer, take care of yourselves...and each other.

my old computer

the purple line down the screen is there all the time

honest

make new friends, keep the old

greenhearts 2, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

one is silver the other is gold.

after a few months the silvers are gold too really.

went to lunch today with jill & stewart & had so much fun catching up on the last 4 years.

guess who got a new bed

new bed, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i hate yerba mate

yerba mate, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

yerba mate is a kind of tea that tastes like ashtray, dirty ashtray. or more like smoked dirt. and if you drink a cup of it at noon on monday, you might find yourself still wide awake monday night clear into tuesday morning, and then everything gets screwy.

i will not forget this next time i think to buy this crap, drawn in by the lemon & the ginger which are great but do not overpower the taste of smoked grass. and not the good smoked grass. i've had circulation problems forever, my hands & feet will go numb in the cold, and i just found out that ginger (like eating 30 ginger chews a day) sets a fire inside & keeps my extremities toasty warm.

happy birthday bobby huntington!

puppy, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

here's hoping your day is full of shrimp & puppy!

princess cheney

princess cheney, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

gnarly2

gnarly2sh, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

a photo of trees reflected on its side, this is soooooo jay archibald

she was pure like snowflakes

library stacks, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

i snapped this at the library last week for part of a 'day in the life of asheville' photo project & then i got home & saw what she was 'reading' & my blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold

(click the photo for a closeup)

blue ridge falling

blue ridge falling, originally uploaded by skippy haha.

betsy originals

the kitshickers' very own b-laZe has a new website with her beautiful art, some of it is for sale.

betsy originals

i have "the Right Way" (under "browns") up in my house now and i love it. i like thinking you'll find fluorescent if you scratch the surface.

he thinks it's not kosher

lockin the taskbar, lock the taskbar

true story

he: you live here alone?

she: no i have roommates...two roommates...guys...they're out of town for the weekend...on tour...they're in a band...called...The Invisible Roommates.

he: oh.

viva la diferencia

asheville





park guell, barcelona, spain