long time no talkie

yeah yeah yeah, so I'm a slacker... I spend more time reading other musician's journals, than contributing to my own... right now I'm watching the michigan state vs. duke bball game... it's pretty crazy MSU went up by ten early, but now it's close again. I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, as I did... if anyone cares... it was pretty standard, but you get to see all the family, and no one misses thanksgiving...

I woke up early on thanksgiving morn'. about 6am. I got up because I've been on this running kick, and even though I take days off now, I still consider myself someone who runs regularly. Anyway, I got up to run a 10k in downtown Detroit. it was tough, I ain't gonna lie. that's the longest I may have ever run. well, maybe 2nd longest ever. so usually I only go about 3 miles, and this was about 6. but I made it in under an hour, which is all I could have hoped for. I was just proud of myself for actually getting up that early to take part. honestly, I thought about running it last year, and I got up, but then I went back to sleep, and I had been regretting it for about a year... so now I'm over it and have to find something new to regret... I'll have to sit on that for a while...

so there hasn't been much going on. all I've been doing is working on setting up shows for spring, and there's not much interesting in the booking process, so maybe I've been bored with that, and maybe that's why it's been weeks since my last post to this wonderful blog. I forgot how great it is...

I've also been jamming a lot no doubt... no diggity, been working on a couple songs one called 'appetizer' and one called 'green light.' they've started off well, but they're both incomplete, so I need to really make sure I finish them... 'cos one time john mayer told me to finish all of my songs, even if they suck... so whatever he says goes I guess...

let's go STATE. U of M got killed today... so I have to root for state now... and western michigan, my broncos got a win the other night... obviously I've been getting my fill of sporting events... I get to go to the lions game on sunday... hooray!

peace in and out

JA

attacked by...

Hey y'all... I never say hello or greet you in any way, I usually just get to the rants... some people might prefer it, but if anyone has seen the different ways that I present myself in the past couple years, you know I mix up my appearance occasionally...

anyway, I was just cruisin ben folds' website, and I like listen to the music from his site, it's pretty soothing, 'cos it's mostly solo stuff... anyway, he sells his merch through a website called "attacked by plastic" I think... or something close to that... and speaking of which, I wanted to share with everyone a bittersweet story...

ever since I started running, I've been feeling great about myself... 10 days strong... 27 miles later... i feel great... but one thing that inclines me to run during daylight (which is before 5pm now) is that there are sooooo many dogs in this neighborhood, and recent experiences have supported these fears. I was attacked briefly by a dog on the corner. there were two of them... they both came at me barking, but didn't really attack. they calmed down after a minute and I petted them and spoke in my extremely high doggy voice... then as I tried to get them to follow me back toward their house (because I learned that if I run, then they attack), then one of them jumped up and bit me very hard on my tricep. for those who are unfamiliar with muscle locations, this is on the upper arm. pretty high for a not-so-big dog. it hurt, but I took it like a man, and told the woman, "tis okay, I'm fine." and once she had them secured, I started my stop watch again and proceeded on the run. the hard part was that this was literally 10 seconds into my usually about 26-27 minute run. so it was haunting me the entire time. I was wearing a rather thick hooded sweatshirt, and after further inspection after my run, the dog did break the skin in two spots on my arm... just a bit of blood and two very small cuts. wow. I couldn't believe it. I also couldn't believe that someone who has dogs that attack on-goers (I've heard stories of many instances) don't keep their pets restrained or with an electric fence...

-the other one happened even later at night. I was just cruising along... and this dog starts barking and coming at me. it's on leash... now this one is even more interesting because it was restrained on the leash, but rather than pull her aggresively barking dog back, she lets the dog reach me, all the while repeating, "he's nice... he's okay... he's nice" as it bites my sweatpants about 4 inches from an important organ, and almost pulls them down to my knees... luckily he didn't get such a good grip...

yeah, he's fucking nice.... shut up... and pull your dog back so I can have children someday...

I can vent, can't I?

said

a certain afforementioned college keeps sending me notices for a parking ticket. this school just so happens to be the institution whose apparel I currently sport, after being forced to purchase clothing because of my lack of belongings at the time. please, save yourself the paper, and stop sending me these notices... they travel all the way across the country, only to be thrown away. At first I felt threatened, but "said" school only threatened to keep me from registering for classes if I don't pay it... well I'm here to say... I am quitting school and not registering for classes... yeah I said it...

running update: 3 miles today; 9th day in a row...it'll be so much harder to keep track of once this month ends, since I started on the 1st...

saw a movie today which will most definitely be a stumper for next tour's 'movie trivia.'

word...

my hangups

so what would be one of the first things for someone who dressed up as ALI G for hallowee to do? did that make sense?

anyway, I decided to invest in a collection of dvds. so far my entire collection includes:

-JOHN MAYER - Any Given Thursday
-The Family Man - (Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni)
*new additions*
-ALI G IN DA HOUSE -
-The entire first season of ALI G SHOW
-Entire first season of Chapelle's Show

so 5 total, but it's about quality... remember that...

so I ran 3 miles today, day 8 in a row. man it's so much easier than the first day...

All right enough about that. So I'm home now, and when I'm home I have time to think. between e-mails I send to colleges and venues, and random people IM-ing me, I tend to let the mind wander. oh, these come between meals I've been cooking for myself since I've been back. I've been cooking meals of chicken breast with vegetables, salads, fresh fruit, and I even bought for the first time some brie. I've had brie (is that spelled right?) on the road or at nice occasions, but never at my residence. I highly suggest it to all... with some wheat crackers...

anyway, so I'm done touring for the calendar year. this is always the hardest sentence to speak. done for the year. it would be one thing if it was late december, but it's early november. it sucks. but I gots-ta set up these shows for spring, 'cos me don't have a booking agent yet. I'm working on it. believe you me.

one thing I've learned since I started doing this is to be patient. patience is such a quality to have. I never used to have any. when I was in college I was about to graduate and still a late 21-year-old. I told myself, "shoot, john mayer didn't blow up til he was like 23. so I figured I had a year or two to get there. but I don't think it's happened yet. don't get me wrong, things aren't going wrong, it's just happening so much slower than I anticipated, and because of this, I've realized that I'm just going to have to wait it out. and I can only hope that it won't take too much longer. you know, sheryl crow had many-a-crisis when she got a late start. she started I think later than me, and by the time she blew up, she was probably late twenties or thirty... she looks good though, damn... but she always had all these regrets about not starting a family, she wanted kids... blah blah blah. Maybe women have different hangups about babies. don't get me wrong, my goal in life is to be able to build and support a family, and have kids (who look like their mother mostly), but my dreams of becoming a young hip, parent may go out the window, or at least the window is open, and there's an outward draft, but they haven't quite flown yet.

so I have my hangups just like anyone else. I'm no sheryl crow, but i might not have a problem being the male version of her. especially if I can keep this boyish figure when I'm that age... shoot, good for her... and if anyone knows her, tell her I'm still available...

dum dum diddy diddy dee...

ja

running update

Yo... just wanted to say that I did go running on nov. 1st, and yesterday, the 2nd, and I plan to go again today... if someone wants to be my running partner, let me know...

I can do this!!!

me is here wif me main man...

I was ALI G for halloween. We went to a party and before we got there I said, "my biggest fear tonight is that there will be someone else dressed as Ali G and that they will look better than me. well my fears came to fruition. However, the bright spot of the night was when I bumped into a guy dressed as Borat from Kazakhstan (spell?). He was freakin hilarious. His look wasn't totally on, but the way he spoke and the things he said were dead on... anyway it was a fun last night in SD.

I've obviously been jumping around with these posts. I'm just glad to not be waiting weeks between them... no one promised any chronological entries in terms of content.

Well today is the day that I said I would start some things. Number one, is scheduling for spring tour... #2 start running. I haven't run consistently in probably over a year. those who see me regularly can attest to this, just by observing my flucutating male figure... after all, I've got a cruise to go onto during x-mas and new year's. so as Ali G would say, "me needs to get back into shape... so me can hang wit' all the bitches..."

so entries will be shorter, because, you know, they take so much time... but I need to go running, and I must start today... I've got these big thick sweatpants, and the weather is right for them... so I need to go prepare myself...

it's like a new year's resolution in november... do any other cultures celebrate a new year in november...? hmm... luckily I also hav a full bag of halloween candy to the tune of sour patch kids sampler pack... 50 packs... I can't wait to eat them... oh but this won't interfere with my new diet which I'm also going to start this week to coincide with my new found desperation exercise.... anyone with dietary tips can forward them to me through e-mail... I may even run on saturdays and sundays, cos after all I'll never miss the entire U-M football game or the entire Lions game...

BOOYA- KASHA!!

Jimmy G