August 17th, 1943---On the anniversary of its one year of operations in europe the Eighth Airforce launched a 376 B-17 raid on the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt and the Messerschmitt factory at Regensburg. This was the largest and furthest raid into Nazi Germany made by the USSAF to date. The Luftwaffe response was furious and resulted in the loss of 60 B-17's during this raid.

Zipping around the city with the turk, first stop a former traditional diner turned lite Asian food and coffeebar. Place looks the same but somehow newer and brighter..we both get the Iced Vietnamese Coffee to go...really good, will be back. Nice night to be out, weather not to hot, relatively comfortable. More out and about leads to Chinese take out place where we eat and split pupu platter and dumplings, vanilla cokes. Spend time at used book store, they close in sixteen minutes, everything else closes in fifteen minutes. I try to navigate us through the rougher part of town to find open later non-bar hang out I heard about only to find my directions faulty.....we decide to call it a night.

Coffee with bagel and honey, reading about the black gentrification of The Hill in the Times, remarkable photograph of the Roosevelt Theatre, one of The Hill's prime nightsports in it's heyday on page A-11. Like clockwork the two co-workers I always see together wait in line, joke with the help, prep their coffee then happily leave together, they seem pretty much inseparable. The Ramones have been playing all through this, its a good fit.....off to work.

This was a necessary evil in today's fight against hot and sticky weather, I had the Reeses ice cream bar and it was better than I thought it would be. Boy, its still really @#&% hot around here, it would be nice to get a cool front through soon. I think my sweat is sweating.

Today I was called the perenial "bull in a china shop"....I'm just like that sometimes...I just can't help it...sometimes things want me to knock them down...snort..drag hoof..snort...Went to a Philipino restaurant with the turk, our meals were amazingly meat laden with heaping mounds of beef and chicken...I thought food from this part of the world was supposed to light and delicate...wrong...don't tell the big rig truckers..if they get wind of this place they'll be here 24/7. Coffee afterwards at a victorian cafe, we ougled the new strategic Napoleonic wargame by GMT, fooled around with the turk's two player variant for a multi-player ancients game and then did a few rounds of the new Knizia Lord of the Rings game. The Knizia game is very clever and fast, I liked it alot and will probably play it many more times.

I haven't seen a live show in about 5 or so years. There were about seven groups but they were amazing. Ragtime opener-I got rhythm/Fascinating rhythm-The House of the Rising Sun-Channel One Suite. No one plays and shows jazz in this medium better than the Blue Devils.

She parks her bright blue car aggressively in front of me as I walk down the street. The happy blond gets out, walks over to look at someone's garbage that they are about to throw out, looks at the broken multi-color plastic wagon. She turns around at me and says, "au thot I coud fix that for the kidz." Completely happy, completely smiling she walks back and drives away just as aggressively.

I have developed a fine mid-summer cold. I currently have a pounding headache. I am melting in this hot weather. I am not at work and it's driving me crazy. My chin and jaw are red splotched...I still shave like a ten year old.

GEEZEEESFUKKACRISTOS.....why is every time I'm getting kitty litter at the fuckin unifart the entire Asian student snack cravers club shows up before me. Augggghhh....ITS SO SLOW IN LINE....UUGGGHH.....and they're all using their student charge cards...and the sixty something couple behind me are crying about their Klondikes melting...don't look at me just start eatn' those chocolate covered goodies!!....skin head checkout guy senses my whimpering pain and waves me forward because I'm going to pay in CASH, while he waits for the slower charge sales to go through...good man!!!...step-step-step..push door outta here!!!

Today#1: Walk in the Coffee joint for quick buy and go lunch, as I walk in I notice to my left a young brown clad ups driver on break hanging out with the young woman who pushes a baby carriage with plastic babies. No one ever talks or sits with her, never ever, the plastic babies are sometime substituted with small stuffed animals. I get my grande Kenya, turkey sandwich and a cranberry scone and turn to the milk and sugar area. As I pour skim into my coffee I notice unshaven older western dressed gentleman writing large words in a well used standard composition book....pour too much milk....skim milk everwhere....I am a coffee house slob...I can't take myself anywhere....I try to clean up as best I can...as I walk out one of the owners is bringing cases of the famous french soft drink, Orangina.
#2"Whats that up there, with Judy Garland on it?" "Oh, that's Wizard of Oz Monopoly, here I'll get it down for you." "Wow that's really great, I really love Judy Garland, I not gay or anything I just really like Judy Garland." "Don't be embarrassed sir, lots of people like Judy Garland, not just gay people." Ha
#3Out of control out the supadupa market, nectarines look good. I'm driving aggressively, I'm not watching out for the other guy, I almost cause a few wrecks. I need Johnson's Baby Shampoo!!!!! I almost buy Kraft sponge bob square pants macaroni and cheese with powder sea blue cheese but I don't.....lame.

Quick late summer dinner: Homemade meatloaf on Italian roll with Heinz ketchup, cool glass of water and a California nectarine.

Holiday Highlights: Attended small town USA 4th of July parade yesterday, wasn't as small and short as I thought it would be. Rows and rows of various lawn seatery line the street sides, red white and blue balloons all over, this was a bigger thing for the locals than I thought it was going to be, I'm not a local so what do I know? Duck into a parade route bar for a cold one with my compadre, place is completely packed, "Mars Attacks" is on the super station, ha, they disintegrated Congress! Back into the hotness, I have no hat, no sunscreen, I'm really going to burn. Parade starts, VFW vets, fire trucks, boy scouts, christian group, most beautiful baby, Queen of the parade, 1st runner-up, 2nd runner-up, 3rd runner-up etcetc, fire trucks, girl scouts, clowns, classic cars, politicians,
local pizza chain car, local hospital singers, Boss Hogg motorcycle club, christian group, very happy tailwaggin fire station dogs, high school marching band, Uncle Sam, polka band pulled by truck, Civil War reinactors w/cannon, firetruck, firemens' band, drill teams, majorettes, cheerleaders, highschool marching band, christian group w/rock band pulled by truck, clowns on stilts, everybody throwing candy, and a llama, thats right a llama. Nice weather for a parade, not a bad thing to take in this July 4th, 2002. oh, later watched the Boston Pops perform the 1812 Overture through the miracle of television.

HotHotHot...perfect day to work some, buy new shoes and do laundry at the laundromat. Needed new foot coverings badly, bought new white basic NB crosstrainers and a nice pair of NB black walking shoes, eyed up sexy green Diesel (tm) tennis shoes, I think I'll go back and get them soon. Spent some time at Castle Caladan with House Atreides and then with the Baron of House Harkonnen while watching my sock collection roll again and again drying. I think those Harkonnens are up to no good...more later. Late dinner at Super China Buffet, run gauntlet of heat mutants on the walk back...sweat.

Thank heaven for 7-11...To hot to stay inside, decide to take a late night walk toward the campus/business place. Usual bands of bus waiters, street people rocking back and forth and wearing mexican hats, shady agents, etcetc. I pass the Authentic and think about getting a hot dog but the crowd looks too rough and I don't feel like fighting, besides their dogs aren't all that, the fries however are a different story. I decide to stop at the less active 7-11 to scout out some bad food, I decide on two wrapped chicken rolls that have been on the griller for probably too long, a evil looking pastry from the Atlanta Breads display and some Welch's grape juice. I watch the woman in front of me spend $33 on six premade saranwrapped hoagies, a gallon of fruit drink and a large bag of Lays potato chips..wow..I don't feel as bad now. Walking back I pass an abandoned shopping cart that a few hours earlier was the place where Bible thumpers were passing out tracks to salvation, I try to make a connection between them but I can't. Past the action, I decide to plop down and devour my convenience store repast, across from me Galileo and Michelangelo from the museum seem relatively uninterested. Gather mess, march back home, still hot.

Late dinner at Saladins, thought I give turk/mex food a chance. Had a chicken bbq buritto that came with some sort of feta cheese salad. The food was good and the help didn't seem as bothered as the last time I saw them. The only other patron while I was there was an Asian undergrad that was woofing down a large plate that appeared to be a humas/chili/beans dish. Coffee at Startrucks after...walk home I pass determined skateboarders and tribal drumming and dancing on the campus lawn.

Its really hot and people are showing off alot of skin because its the thing to do when its so fucking sweaty-humid hot. So where is this going, well I'll tell you in one word...tattoos. This summer I swear everyone has one somewhere on their skin canvas. Moms, dads, kids, punks, homeless, old people, freaks, professionals, losers, babies, pets, grrrls, fat, skinny, brawny, bald, construction workers, nerds, students...etcetc. The sizes and quality vary wildly from little spot illos to full reproduction of fine art to huge tribal designs..etcetc. Walking art for the 21st century...whats my problem?...I need to get stamped and inked so I can run with the pack....but a part of it all...step up to the plate....perhaps a nice popular corporate logo or some famous holy icon art to watch over me...I'll have to give it some thought....I really need to get with it.....ha....

Sometimes I have to step out of the place, to survey the local settings with an objective or two. Step out toward campus, everyone looks hot and bothered, I too feel melty. Pass what was a former easy going mexican restaurant, now it called SALADINS. Some young Turks bought it, kept half of the menu mexican and added some middle eastern items, I guess you could call it TurkMex cuisine. As I said before this place had a easy rep, now the Turks have a odd habit of hanging out in front looking bothered no matter the temperature. I really think they have something going with this TurkMex attitude thing, I sure it will be a hit with their target demographic. My singular objective had arrived: coconut/pistachio waffle cone at Andrew and Davids, they weren't swamped so it was an easy thing. Crunch the last bit with the m&m at the very bottom, walk back home, no one is eating anything at Saladins, white shirted workers scowl as I walk pass.

Tattoo art today---T-shirtless tanned guy sports Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" on shoulder, an amazing piece.
Lunch today---chicken, kielbasi and peas in that order.

With picks like The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and the terrifying Fing Fang Foom the Retrocrush Top 100 Monsters list is on the right fiendish track. Geezus, Phibes and the Fing Fang Foom kick so much ass, I'm so happy they made the list.