Sunday, January 30, 2005

flashback: seventh grade

[i feel the shivers sliding up the spine again...no sleep, bad vibes, paranoia, and lack of sunshine can do strange things to the mind. for me, i got shot out of the cannon and back to seventh grade…]


FROM: DR.JOHNNY ST. CLAIR, ESQ. SUBJECT: GRADE SCHOOL: NOTES ON A MEETING WITH A SQUEALING SWINE...WILD BACKSTABBING...NO CARE FOR THE CAUSE...SELLING OUT IN ADOLESCENCE...TODAY'S PIG IS TOMORROW'S VICTIM

when i was in seventh grade, i used to leave class early before lunch and meet this girl behind the school building. there was an old stairway out back that led to a basement door that probably hadn’t been used in centuries…the bottom was littered with leaves and old bottles, but we never went down that far. we would just sit on the steps about half way down and stare at each other.

anyway, this one day, ivy darkened the stairwell with his bulbous head. he had an uncanny resemblance to that singer from grim reaper…and if that point-of-reference is too far out for ya, think hideous and swine-like. the girl who sat next to me all the time took off running and left me face to stomach with ivy.

“what’s up,” i said.

“you’re gonna get in trouble,” he replied.

“why?”

“you’re out here too early. you’re gonna get in trouble.”

“where did that girl go?” i inquired

“i don’t know. back in the school,” he said.

“fuck,” was all i could muster.

i sat for a minute or two, contemplating my escape before i turned around again. he was staring down at me over his porcine nose…his nostrils flaring, blackened, huge like fifty cent pieces or something. i squinted at the sow and felt the fear coming on.

“where’s wayward?” he said.

“no one calls him that, ivy,” i said, “he’s the doktor.”

“whatever…what are you doing? you waiting for him?”

“what the fuck do you care for,” i said under my breath. i had decided to turn quickly and shoulder the fuckin’ pig right in his stomach, knock him to the ground, and stomp on his throat as i ran back into the building to try to catch that girl. i turned and scowled in the january sun.

the doktor appeared along side the pigman and ignored its presence.

“st. clair…check it out…i got some of my grandfather’s eye medicine,” he said and unfurled his hand, revealing two joints.

“how do you guys like leaving when the bell rings,” the pigman said with a snort.

the doktor, suddenly aware of what was in his presence, turned to his right and recoiled in horror before he composed himself and tucked the joints securely into his coat pocket. “hey, ivy, p-i-g…s-u-c-k-i-n-g,” the doktor sang and gave her a big ol’ cheesy smile.

“what?” i said.

i knew full well what the pigman was talking about. our teacher used to let us leave five or ten minutes before the end of class so we could get a jump on the lunch line…but some shit must have come down from the principal…two days prior, our teacher told us that the sanctioned early releases would stop, and if we still wanted to leave early, we would do so at our own risk. we still left early, but that’s entirely beside the point…

“yeah…how do you know about that,” the doktor said.

“i think that it’s only fair,” the pigman said.

“what the fuck does that mean,” i wondered.

“it means,” the pigfucker snorted “that if we have to stay in class until the bell rings, then you should too.”

i was completely bewildered. “you told your teacher on our teacher?”

“it’s not about telling…it’s about what’s fair,” the pig said.

“so you fuckin’ told?” i said.

“it’s just about what’s fair. we both go to the same school…” the pig said.

“why would you do that? i mean, why would you sell us out to the man? we’re really all in this together…there’s no fucking unity around here..” i said.

“why should we have to wait while you guys are out on the playground…” the pig began but would soon be interrupted. the doktor, strangely quiet through the traitorous revelation and ensuing conversation, suddenly turned and began to choke the pig, pushing him to the ground, then jumping on its bloated stomach, bouncing around like some kind of obscene monkey on a fat trampoline. he was cussing and mumbling like ralphie in a christmas story.

i let it go on for a moment…because, jesus fuck, was it funny. i lit up a smoke and told the doktor i had beer. he immediately loosened his grip and jumped up.

“how did you sneak beer out of your house?” he wondered, “gimme one.”

i didn’t have any beer, but i knew it would get the doktor’s attention and save him from a murder rap.

“i can’t believe you would do that to a girl, you fucking faggot,” the pigman said.

the doktor and i turned towards the heaping, stinking mass writhing around on the blacktop playground, trying to get some leverage and get back on its feet.

“what did you say?” the doktor inquired.

“fuck you,” it sneered.

“you’re a girl? no way…” you must understand, i was incredulous. while god most certainly has a sense of humor with his creations in the animal kingdom [check the platypus], to create a beast so vile and hideous and name it woman was impossible.

“i am…” it said as it got back up on its pig feet.

“prove it you swine,” the doktor intoned, and ran behind it and hiked its jeans up, grabbing the belt loops of its pants and pulling up with all of his sick and twisted might.

i stood mouth agape, disbelieving what my eyes were telling me. when the pants would rise no further, the doktor rounded the beast and stood next to me. we both starred at the monstrosity. the doktor’s pulling and tugging had produced the most horrible moose-knuckle in the history of recorded time. the pig thing’s camel toe was in plain view for all to see.

“i…i…i’m sorry,” i managed, and tried to comfort the beast in its hour of revelation and humiliation, but all it did was snort and gnash its horrible teeth at me. “well, fuck you too then,” i said and walked away.

“come on, man…you still have that eye medicine?”

“you know, all of this would have been a whole lot cooler if you really had that beer.”

Thursday, January 27, 2005

on the record #4

...and you will know us by the trail of dead – world’s apart

admittedly, i entered the game late on these guys. from what i’ve heard through thoroughly unreliable and completely erratic sources, the self-titled record and madonna are much better than source tags and codes, which is where yours truly jumped on the band wagon. but that record garnered heaps of praise and really shot these fuckers to the semi-big time, so i was understandably siked to catch them on that tour, opening for the queens of the motherfucking stone age. with a name like AYWKUBTTOD [the D is apparently for dookie], i was prepared for a full scale riot and expected the show to be shut down early, leaving the sweating, bleeding mass of concert goers to wander the streets, smash the state, and worship the devil.

never happened.

i bought the record [source tags...] anyway, and quickly discovered that it made a fabulous coaster and/or frisbee for my dog. when i heard they had a new one on the way, i figured, what the fuck, why not download it…i mean buy it, why not buy it. give 'em enough rope...another chance even. yeah, and guess what the fuck...it sucks. i can’t believe the second greatest band name in the world has been wasted on these mediocre, whitebread, chickenshit rich kids from the suburbs. yeah, i'm talkin' to you tough guy. wanna fight? fight me! [makes bruce lee noises and kung-fu sound effects like that dude from police academy]

stay away from this record…the first song sucks so bad that even i was embarrassed for them…and after years of exposure to the doktor, embarrassment doesn't come easily. please stop, please. couldn’t make it through the rest of the record. if anyone does, let me know how it worked out for you.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

in defense of the lower case

just a quick aside to the faithful reader out there [and no, that's not a typo]...

the doktor questioned me about the ubiquitousness of lower case letters...he was all like, he was like, he goes...awwww, fuck it, i don't even remember what he said. the point being is that i use lower case exclusively because i ain't got the fuckin' time to hit a goddamm shift key, ok? it has nothing to do with the relative insignificance of my voice, of these thoughts in the grander scheme of things...ok...and it really doesn't all revolve around the personal pronoun [and ever-so-important] i and how it is always supposed to be capitalized according to some old cunt english teacher you had in grade school...fuck that self-righteous bitch...ok...and it is not consciously the antithesis of the fuck who types in all capitals...ok...and anyway, i've heard that males who type in all caps are over-compensating for a small penis...ok...and so if i'm typing in all lower-case letters, that must mean that...

...i just blew your fucking mind!

Thursday, January 06, 2005

all the way live #5

[warning: the following events are completely fictitious and feature stunts performed either by professionals or under the supervision of a doktor. accordingly, WGBUAOTO and the producers must insist that no one attempt to recreate or re-enact any stunt or activity performed in this story. any similarities between persons living or dead, or to any events outlined in any police blotters, are completely coincidental, accidental, and unfortunate…particularly until the statute of limitations has expired.]

cope was playing a late show on a friday night…and i was lookin’ right cuz my shit is tight, blazin’ blunts to city lights on sunset and crescent heights…bounced to house of blues and i slid in free with tennis shoes, sweatshirt, jeans, and no i.d….

uh, yeah.

anyway, i had four tickets to the show and the doktor and i planned to meet a couple of girls around the bend from the venue. i figured the best way to impress them was to bring some weed and light up during the show. real gangster shit. plus, cope lends himself well to that type of atmosphere, so we might as well turn the evening into a celebration, bitches. the doktor and i drove past the white-dude weed spot, but found the lights out and no answer at the door. time was of the essence, and if the plan was going to come to fruition, we would have to make haste. yes, haste…let’s blame my error in judgment on haste. because when the doktor said he “knew” where to go, i acquiesced.

“where the fuck are we?” i queried.

“we’re here…roll down your window and talk to the man.”

“uh, excuse me sir…”

“what you need? got that w.m.d.”

“we need some weed.”

one of the guys standing behind the street pharmacist grabbed his dick and said, “i got your weed, honky.”

“fuck y-,” the doktor began, but i flung my leg around the console and stomped on the gas pedal. no need for any trouble, i thought, just get the fuck out of here and get to the show without any race riots.

the street merchant yelled from his spot and the doktor stomped on the brakes, locking the engine in a struggle between stop and go, good and evil, life and death. fuck it, i thought, maybe he’s got some weed.

“what you need?”

i flashed an alexander hamilton in all his green glory…the guy snatched the bill and slapped a packed stamp bag in my hand. the doktor raised a middle finger out of his window as he mashed the gas.

“well…what’s it look like?”

“i don’t know…i don’t even know what the fuck ten dollars worth of weed looks like.”

“smell it.”

“how ‘bout you smell my ass. what i really wanna smell is your girl’s pussy…i think she’d like that…”

the doktor took both hands off the wheel at that point and wrested the bag from my hands. we hit a curb before the car bounced back into line, the doktor grabbing the wheel with one hand and popping the stamp bag open with the other.

“this ain’t weed…this ain’t fuckin’ weed.”

“how do you know?”

“i know what it ain’t and this ain’t fuckin’ weed.”

i assumed – once again, a big mistake with the doktor at the wheel – that we would return to the club to pick up the chicks and catch cope’s slow groove. wrong! the doktor wheels the car around and guns the engine, slides down a side street off the main avenue, and turns the lights out. he puts on a pair of those fuckin’ state trooper sunglasses and says, “let’s do this.”

“do what? what the fuck are you talking about?”

“we can’t let those niggas get away with this.”

“oh! easy! jesus christ…what the fuck are you talking about? and take those stupid fuckin’ glasses off.”

“they gotta go.”

“who?”

“tupac and his boys back there.”

“you can’t just go throwing the ‘n-word’ around like that…”

“i’ve got no time to split semantical hairs with you! you know as well as i do that scum like that give black people like my grandma a bad name. and decent, hard-working drug dealers for that matter as well…”

“i didn’t know your grandmother was black.”

he punched me in the chest real, real hard. the car rolled to a stop and we got out.

“we’ll need shotguns for this,” he said as he popped the trunk on the monte carlo.

“shotguns? that’s it…fuck off…i’m staying the car. you go file a complaint with customer service over there and i’ll help the paramedics scrape your retarded ass off the pavement, you stupid motherfucker.”

“what? are you getting soft?”

“fuck off.”

“cuz i’d hate to think you were getting soft. soft bitches call the cops, and man…that’s something i don’t even wanna think about.”

i didn’t either. he was holding a shotgun. “when did you get all gangster rap, yo?”

“what?”

“with the shotguns…”

“this ain’t got a damm thing to do with no rap music…i’m fin to do this.”

“listen to how you’re talking.”

“you listen to how the fuck i’m talkin’. now take the goddamm shotgun…stupid motherfucker.”

and that was that. all i wanted was a little juvenile delinquency and now, i’m about to commit a felony. i knew i should have never given the doktor that rap mix tape. i thought it was my duty or something to prove to him that rap has its merits, even when it’s not the beasties or chuck d. and this is the thanks i get…no good deed goes unpunished. what i hoped to be a mellow evening in the city’s yuppie district turned into an evening with tony montana. we approached the corner.

“oh shit…honky lips is back.”

the doktor walked right up on the dealer’s boy and placed the shotgun under his chin. i hung back since i was working crowd control…i cocked the gun for good measure. that always gets a ma-fuckas attention. i saw the doktor take a roll of bills and a bag of drugs from the dude. it was dark, but i thought i saw something green and leafy. he walked away and never turned his back on them.

i wanted in on the gangster shit, too, though. when some of those guys started mouthing off as we were walking away, i stopped and started walking forward again. i gave them all a real hardcore look like i was about to smack one of them in the fucking mouth. they were threatening my life, the doktor’s life, families, blow your house up, trying to impress upon us just who it was we were fuckin’ with…blah blah fuckin’ blah. the final straw was when they said they had our license plate number and threatened to track us down, maybe even report it to the police. i mean, where does that even come from? these guys are from the other side, man, and they are gonna go running to the cops? you have to be kidding me…there truly is no honor among thieves.

so, i did what any reasonable man would do in such a situation: i busted a shell at the ground and let the pellets hit the crowd. no one likes a snitch.

we went back to the club and bought the whole place a round. i got that whole tony soprano thing goin’, you know…

it’s a celebration!